Thanks for the info.
So clearly serfdom was not law when the game takes place… But did become so later…
The Swedes were never conquered by the Roman empire, Two Roman legions once made landfall but they were slaughtered. After that the Romans never tried it again, the romans paid reparations for the war and got a few prisoners back, and a promice not to come down there and burn down rome. The romans didn’t really know what swallowed up their legions so they decided not to try their luck. The Feudal system came out of the Roman empire and the Catholic church. However since Northern scandinavia and Sweden in particular wasn’t conquered and converted but rather converted by missionaries and the conversion of existing rich and powerful families. It had long been a tradition that any land owner had votes to vote on a Jarl to defend the territory. Larger land owners carried more influence and votes. People with no land were pretty much serfs due to their lack of property and dependency. But a lto of people own their own farms, others rented in exchange for work and services or whatever was agreed upon. The imporant part here is that landownership was widespread long before the Viking ages and it was the accepted way of things. It would have been hard to forcefully seize all that land from people who had often owned if for generations. The old pre christian scandinavian model was more like the ancient greek version of a democracy where the rich guy with a lot of land had more votes but anyone with land got a say and a vote. Votes were often about who would be the Jarl that leads the defence against foreign agressors like the Roman empire that saught to enslave everyone they came across. Or votes on laws, or other large scale actions requiering a communal vote etz. Christianity when it was brought to Sweden brought in some Feudal thinking, but people were stil allowed to own land.
Some people did rent their land though. But everyone had to pay a tax.
The royal crown wasn’t heriditory until 1523 which also coincided with Sweden becoming a Protestant country.
Over all, christiany and roman culture that seeped in with it took away peoples freedoms over time. The Catholic church really did their best to wash away any old culture, traditions and texts, aswell as the old free ways of life.
Free farmholders were free, land could be bought or sold, others rented from large farmholders or the nobility or possibly crown or even the church.
So, things didn’t look the same all across Europe over time.
Henry isn’t a nobody he’s taken on as a squire which would then lead him to become a knight, which would mean he could own land and buildings.
If there is land and I guess people requiring a lord. Those who had land were loath to give it up. according to game lore in this area of europe the King owned all land and the Nobility rented it, and then rented it to others or put others to work to pay for the priviledge of living there. With the king gone, I wouldn’t expect new land to be made available any time soon. Maybe if you got adopted by a landholder who then died and you were the only heir to the family then the lease to the king would stay in the family and with you. Somethign like that I guess… Just guessing here.
Two roman legions invaded Sweeden…
right… and they where killed by dragons…
The only way I could see this being a viable feature is if in a future DLC, or sequel if the story still follows Henry and he gets promoted to a Knight by Sir Radzig.
I wish the base game had better ways to spend money though. You eventually get to a point where you have tons of money and not a whole lot you need to buy other than stuff to maintain gear, and buy general services like beds and bathhouses.
Okay, so without throwing any spoilers for the game. When you progress through the story, you will see why owning an estate or even rebuilding Skalitz would be a good viable option for expansion or even a DLC