Sualny

A palace in Luziyca built as a residence for a local lord in the 9th century.

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Sualny (related to Later Sepcan so'al, 'to share [loot]', rendered sŭvalnostĭ in Literary Vitrian) was the quasi-feudal system present in the social organization of the Neo-Sepcan Empire. The term originally refers to the division of plunder among Neo-Sepcan armies after campaigns (specifically, among the commanders), but academically is used only to designate the division of resources from land to people among Neo-Sepcan nobles. Scholars usually agree that it only came into existence after the rise of the Pantocracy, the undisputed dominance of West Borea by the Empire after its conquest of the Lysandrene Empire.

Under sualny, land, possessions, valuables, and people could be directly put under the ownership of singular men, becoming private property, usually by decree of the Emperor who conferred the ability and permit to do so upon an individual as a reward. The ownership of people was the main difference of sualny from other feudal or semi-feudal systems; they were not restricted to chattel and encompassed inhabitants of large areas. There was no contract or obligation-based relationship between the lord and the subject, who was in terms of western concepts entirely enslaved, though their actual lives were not very different from typical serfs. Within one lord's property he held supreme power - which even the Emperor could not easily revoke, both formally and effectively. All sualnic property was alienable, but tradition dictates that transactions generally require careful consideration.

The ability for a lord to possess what was basically an exclusive private sphere emerges from a belief in a 'hierarchy' of ownership abilities in early neo-Sepcan political philosophy. Desirable, usually heroic conduct, accorded individuals a 'right' to ownership, in which case the Emperor's role was solely to act as a surrogate for divine justice in rewarding said individuals their deserved property. Ownership of a share was thus direct, and removal of rights to such property was a matter of the same divine justice; direct revocation was considered unacceptable. With the conversion of the empire to Tastanism the righteous character involved evolved to measure piety, and with the gradual fragmentation of the Empire a belief emerged that individuals could dictate the transcendental justice involved themselves, removing the need for intervention by the Emperor; while this drove the conflict of the late Pantocracy and post-Pantocratic strife, in continuity with previous interpretations such character was also considered to be strongly heritable, with lineage a preferable criterion, which contributed to the entrenchment of nobility in post-Pantocratic West Borea.

Demesnes under the sualny system were rather large in terms of both land area and total property worth compared to other systems; this was due to first the massive abundance of conquered land and populations after the fall of the Lysandrene Empire, and later due to the extensive development of frontier fiefs by their lords. By the late Pantocracy most were ruled as effectively independent states, and possessed comprehensive internal administrative systems. Lords also often devolved similar forms of ownership powers to their own subjects, to both convenience administration as well as to create impression of near-imperial authority. While constantly eroded by and struggling against centralizing, bureaucratic tedencies in the later Vitrian kingdoms, sualny survived in various forms well into the 19th century. By then, a combination of greater drives towards absolutism or egalitarianism, and outcompetition by managerial industrial enterprises, led to the dissolution of sualnic estates as a significant economic component.

Many scholars, such as Anatol Kovetec and Kazys Vaižgantas, hold that the greater relevance of sualny lied with its role in driving the breakup of the Neo-Sepcan Empire, and implicitly statehood of post-Pantocratic West Borean polities. Sualny was also a lasting influence on other forms of strong local governance such as tvrdjavas.