The Kingdom of Falmuth ｢ファルムス王国, farumusu ōkoku｣ was a nation located west of the Armed Nation of Dwargon known as the "gateway to the western nations" until the founding of the Jura-Tempest Federation. It was dissolved after it started and subsequently lost a war against Tempest to maintain their trade monopoly.
Background[]
Falmuth was an immensely powerful and wealthy nation, with its status as a national superpower only being matched by the Kingdom of Englassia in the entirety of the Western Nations. As one of if not the biggest sponsors of the Council of the West, it held as many as 5 seats inside the organization at a given time. The population of the country was 40 million, with a quarter of that figure being members of the Free Guild.
Although it had a warm climate and a sufficient level of agriculture, its primary source of income for hundreds of years came from its position as a large trade center. Its livelihood, which depended on this source, was threatened by the rise of the Jura-Tempest Federation. Motivated to protect its interests and beliefs–only further motivated by the greed of King Edmaris and his ministers–it voluntarily aided the Western Holy Church in a Holy War against Tempest with the hope of claiming its resources, triggering a series of events that led to the kingdom's downfall and rebirth as the Kingdom of Farmenas.
Government[]
Falmuth was a monarchy that had a feudal system in place, granting members of nobility their own territory to govern. Under the reign of the despotic Edmaris, the individual whose opinion held the most sway with him among the members of the royal court was the prominent Archbishop Reyhiem of the local branch of the Western Holy Church. The power of the royal family was not all-reaching, as the royal court was often the scene of heated arguments and bargaining.
Economy[]
Due to its unique geological location, Falmuth was the only country that could construct a safe passageway further east to Dwargon and the Eastern Empire. North of Falmuth was nothing but a seabeast filled ocean and south was the Great Jura Forest, a place filled with all manner of monsters. It was due to this unique position that Falmuth was able to rise to the level of a western superpower, as the finest goods–and more importantly Healing Potions–came not from western smiths and artisans, but from Dwarven and Eastern craftsmen. Falmuth constructed roads to Dwargon that were largely free of monster activity, charging hefty tolls and tariffs to use it and making an unfathomable amount of money in the process. Even their own merchants frequently bought Dwargon's products and resold them at an astronomically high rate. During the nation's peak it was considered the richest nation in the entire west, raking in over 5 Million Dwarven Gold Coins a year in taxes alone.
However, this immense wealth was held almost entirely by the nobility and a select few merchants. The nation had almost no concept of wealth distribution and its reliance on imports meant there were very few local jobs in-demand. While the lower-classes were far from being completely poor, they still had an underwhelming level of living compared to what would be expected from a nation of such large wealth. Even the nobility were not wholly safe from the penny-pinching nature of the Minister of Finance, with the man cutting corners on tax funding at every possible opportunity.
Notable Locations[]
Marris[]
Marris was the capital of Falmuth, where most of the country's wealth was concentrated, being home to 3 million people alone. The royal castle was surrounded by the splendid mansions and gardens of the aristocracy, and gave the city an air of wealth. It was home to the headquarters of the Falmuth branch of the Western Holy Church, which was a noticeably large building that reflected the importance the country placed on the religion.
Migam Earldom[]
Migam Earldom
A frontier province to the south comprised of all the land that bordered on the Great Jura Forest and managed by Earl Nidol Migam. The Migam Earldom served as the nation's first line of defense against wild Magic beasts and other Monsters that would occasionally come out of the forest. Due to this, it held a very large adventurer population and even housed the country's local headquarters of the Free Guild managed by Guildmaster Franz. Though monsters over the Rank of C almost never entered the territory, that was still only an almost never, with a "significant portion" of the nation's taxes being given to the Earl to help with defending the border.
After the disappearance of Storm Dragon Veldora, the Minister of Finance ignored the pleas of Earl Migam and decided to axe the territory's funding entirely. It was due to this crisis that Earl Migam was forced to employ local prisoners and form the Frontier Expedition Force to respond to the perceived Orc Lord threat. And due to the Earl spending most of the tax funding on his own interests in complacency, drastic measures had to be taken. The existing infrastructure was too weak to defend the territory and handle the looming threat at the same time, and using the local Free Guild similarly required money that he just didn't have. For better or for worse, it could be said that Earl Migam's negligence and the foolish greed of the Minister of Finance were the first dominos in the nation's downfall, as without them Youm would have never met Rimuru Tempest and given them the means to turn Falmuth into Farmenas.
Muller March[]
A territory that belongs to Marquis Muller, a relative of Drum Blumund. The territory is rather large and is on the border between Falmuth and Blumund, also being quite close to the Jura Forest.
Military Strength[]
Falmuth was a vast nation. With the resources it had at hand, it could mobilize a maximum of a 100,000 soldiers. The elites among them included:
- Falmuth Royal Guard: 100 Members. The strongest force in Falmuth consisting of over a hundred A-minus knights dedicated to protecting the royal family.
- Falmuth Royal Knight Corps: 5,000 members. The all-powerful army led by Folgen. Serving the king directly, it was a pack of elites, allowed to move freely under the king's orders. Each one of them ranked at least a B in battle, and they boasted a reputation as the most powerful group of fighters among the Western Nations.
- Falmuth Sorcerer Alliance: 1,000 members. A group of royal magic academy graduates led by Razen. Each one of them was an expert in magic, handpicked for their unique gifts in battle-oriented spells.
- Falmuth Noble Knight Federation: 5,000 members. An elite corps composed of specially selected soldiers, including some of the younger nobles, who served the upper levels of nobility directly. They were a force to have been reckoned with, even if they were primarily career soldiers with only sparse experience in actual combat.
- Falmuth Mercenary Brigades: 6,000 members. This group was normally charged with keeping the peace inside and outside Falmuth with a small number of its members, but they could have been conscripted for emergencies and have their full strength taken advantage of. Their ranks contained a wealth of ambitious young men and women eager to prove themselves in battle and earn a spot in the ordained knight rolls.
- Otherworlders: Falmuth would perform summoning rituals regularly to summon Otherworlders and bind them as living weapons for the country. These were some examples of summoned otherworlders in Falmuth: Folgen, Shogo Taguchi, Kyoya Tachibana, Kirara Mizutani.
Trivia[]
- Falmuth's national tax income, when converted into USD, nets a number of approximately 55,000,000,000$, with that number jumping to 79,000,000,000$ if adjusted for inflation in March 2024.
Gallery[]
