Hello
While playing Oblivion I started to wonder: why are they even counties in Cyrodiil; what are their purpose?
In medieval Europe the reason for the feudal system was the lack of a working monetary system, the lord could not raise any army since he had nothing to pay them with, the solution was to give what had, land, to his servants, which became the nobility and in return the would raise armies for him. The monetary system appears to be working fine in Cyrodiil so my question is what does the emperor gain from the different counts/countesses in return for giving them land?

/The Mage

I believe that is the area of jurisdiction for the counts and countesses, and probably also for census purposes.

The Emperor gives the counts land to preside over, and the Counts take care of local affairs so the Emperor can deal with other things than local governing.

yes that is indeed correct, like my rerserve, the government just gave us 150 acres of farmers land last month! in the past 5 years we have had the biggest reserve in canada, in Oblivion there is County Anvil, County Kvatch, County Skingrad and so on!

Yes it is understanable that the emperor appoints someone to govern the regions as it would be to hard to control it all from the imperial city.
But why give land to these families and not simply appoint governors as that would give much more control to the Emperor?

Good question. The Colovian Estates do seem to have a history of being ruled by counts and lesser lords, but most cities in the Niben region weren't even there before Oblivion. So I don't think it can be answered. You'd have to ask the devs what ideas they had about Cyrodiil when they made it.

Cyrodill seems to be divided up by what used to be different kingdoms. For example i remember reading that two cities/counties/kingdoms of Colovia (Kvatch and Skingrad I believe) warred with each other at least once. This may be a way to incorporate the kingdoms into the Empire while at the same time allowing the families to keep their status. This happened a lot in medieval Europe.

Reoite

In some cases, it might have been a display of political back-scratching. (You did this, I ensure you retire easy by giving you a comfy desk job)

I disagree with your hypothesis. While there may not have been a standard currency after the fall of the Roman empire, there certainly was coinage, made of gold, silver, and possibly copper. The reason you gave knights land was not just because you needed to pay them, but because:

1) If you give a horseman gold, what stops him from riding off after you pay him? But if you give him an estate, he is literally bound to the land. Even if he doesn't like you, he will fight anyone who invades his land, which is technically your land.

2) Gold is temporary, and will be spent quickly on horses, weapons, food, etc. Land can grow crops year after year, providing a stable income. Also, it is much harder to look after 100 peasants than 10 knights who each look after 10 peasants.

Cyrodiil is easily big enough that it would need to be decentralised into admistrative regions.

Each 'county' is the size of a european country.

Yes there was coinage but it wasnt as widly available since the European mines ran which made money unavailable for the lower classes. for more info regarding feudalism please visit:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/205583/feudalism
The idea of feudalism ,even if we disregard its origin, is of mutual dependancy do you not wonder why the feudal system almost ceased to exist as soon as the kings themself could sustain their own armies and no longer where depandant on the nobles?
My question isn't regarding it's origins but what are the benifits to the emperor himself and how does this make it an better alternative to give counts the land rather than to appoint governors?
Also there it seems like the emperor indeed appoints the counts as an in game rumor states something like this "How did a Dark Elf become Count Cheydinhal? King Helseth and Barenziah have considerable influence, and Helseth and Indarys are cronies. Get it?" Helseth hasnt been the king of Morrowind for that long so the count of Cheydinhal must have been appointed by the emperor.

Regards
The Mage

We need to stop comparing Cyrodiilic politics with feudalism. Feudalism was many different things. We need to work out which type of feudalism actually exists in Cyrodiil before we can work out the purpose of counties.

In China didn't they have both an imperial government and beaurocracy together with a feudal system?

Which dynasty are you talking about?
And as stated above my question is what does the Emperor gain from appointing counts rather than appointing governors?

Cyrodiil has spent about as much time as a collection of city states, Colovian, Nibenese, and Ayleid, as a united Empire.

don't forget Dwemer artifacts! once you reach a level you can get Dwemer/Dwarven weapons!

.... What?

You haven't fully considered the effects of level scaling on the feudal relationship, have you?

Nah, I've actually been to Cyrodiil. It's a remarkably homogeneous land, with no trace of political or cultural history whatsoever. Sure sounds interesting in the brochures, though. :shifty:

http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=803153&hl=

Top notch. That's some of the best ES lore I've read in a while (and I mean that as compliment). It's great to see Oblivion cynicism transformed into something positive. But I'm new around here, so I have a lot of snarky Oblivion comments built up

Clearly not as much as I should have...
I actually thought he was in the wrong thread. Oopsies on my part...

I found it quite diverse, if not quite as diverse as Morrowind. It's the little things that are harder to see.

Like pixels. Oblivion had a heck of a lot more of them, even though they were smaller. And the incredible mosaic of color and texture that resulted was far and away greater than anything ever seen in Vvardenfell.

Believe it or not, I'm talking about the terrain and the cities.

It's less pronounced or obvious than Morrowind's political factions, and geography, but there are differences for those who look closely enough.

It's just that none of them are important.

I do agree that the landscape was diverse in a more subtle, realistic way, but in a way that's irrelevant to lore. In Cyrodiil, vision came second to gameplay and a vague expectation that there should be a certain number of towns, counts, castles, and types of horses.

None of Oblivion's factions have political goals.