Does anybody else get unreasonably annoyed at the vast majority of rpg games that are feudal societys on a surface level but are actually capitalist societys under a thin vineer. I was trying to play pillars of eternity but became incredibly annoyed at the frist quest of the game revolving around a mill which is in a lord’s domain but is privately owned and operated and which the townsfolk sell their grain to in exchange for currency (to later buy back with the same currency). I had to put the game down right there.
I think a lot of the time it’s an outgrowth from developers feeling the need to have a commonly circulated currency. Although the answer in my opinion isn’t to faithfully recreate feudalism but to create a unique social formation for the conditions of the world, I’ve always loved the eberron campaign setting for that reason.
Ironically, the Telvanni in Morrowinds are openly based on ancaps and are the most feudalist of any group in eldar scrolls in terms of structure.
The Telvanni do follow the NAP. If you make too much of a nuisance of yourself a wizard will fly along and blow you up. Don’t do anything that will annoy the wizards. There are no other laws.
I always liked that Telvanni architecture didn’t have stairs because everyone who was important could fly and everyone who couldn’t fly wasn’t important. Nothing says “Slave Society” quite as hard as the masters simply levitating out of reach of their slaves.
