The Peasantry
The peasants were an important part of Aky-Ut’s beginning, they were the soldiers, the ones who worked the fields and the ones that were thanked for doing all of that. As Aky-Ut grew, its influence in the sphere of the great lake grew as well reaching its highest in 320 A.F.H. The gradual growing influence and the rise in status of Aky-Ut from a minor town to a major player in the trading and services for those near the lake Xezer brought an urbanisation trend within the Republic. Thus, many peasants, unwilling to work for almost no payment, decided to go to the city and to pick up a craft.
The number of craftsmen increased exponentially between 320 A.F.H. and 420 A.F.H. While in 320 A.F.H. one could estimate that the peasantry made up 80 percent of the population of Aky-Ut, in 420 A.F.H. it was barely 30 percent.
Many have speculated that, apart from the payment turning out to be almost non-existent, some of the other reasons of this sudden decrease were:
- a focus on trade through which the money and resources necessary for the Republic were acquired, the peasants’ work being neglected and not required anymore
- an isolation and neglect of the peasant population by the Merchants due to their naval focus
- the factionalism within the Republic which led to further neglect of the peasant situation.
In 492 A.F.H., Vsevolod II adopted the Regulation of Equal Income Distribution, in which it was mentioned that the income of the Republic would be divided equally among the Estates, including the Peasantry, which became an Estate through this act. In 502 A.F.H., following the Liberation Revolution, the Regulation was deemed illegitimate by Rudias I Madiotev and the Merchant Families, annulling the status of the Peasantry as an Estate.
However, the population among the peasantry and the willingness of the other Estates to interact with the peasantry increased gradually with the rise in power of the rival Republic of Nyvaz, between 620-680 A.F.H., and the diminishing in trade hegemony of the Republic over lake Xezer.
The Craftsmen and The Guilds
The Craftsmen were the individuals who specialised themselves in the art of making popular and useful goods for those within Aky-Ut and for those abroad, the latter being sold through their relationship with the Merchants. To be a craftsman, you needed to have been born in a family with a craftsman tradition as every craftsman family had their way of making the sought-after goods. In addition, every family of craftsman were in a Guild which represented the Good that they made and every Guild had a Council of Craftsmen and a Diplomat who helped them initiate contact with the Merchants. Thus, the Good travelled from the Council to the Merchants through the Diplomat. To create a Guild, one had to seek and bootlick two of the three ruling Merchant Families. However, a new Guild hadn’t been created at that point (690 A.F.H.) since the Reorganization Act in 600 A.F.H. as the Guilds had been forcefully united by the act on the basis of the Goods that they produced. Thus, there was only 1 Guild per individual Good, with the largest of Guilds being: The Guild of Clothing, The Guild of Smithing and the Guild of Construction. For those confused when it comes to the existence of the last Guild, the Craftsmen were not limited to crafting or making the Good in their workshop, as, under the Dictionarum (officially recognised in 300 A.F.H.), a GOOD also meant Service.
Moreover, the Craftsmen had an unusual independence in relation to the Republic, even more than the Merchants, as they or a family member could become the “merchant” and sell their Goods individually without handing it to their Guild and without paying extra taxes. Although it was outlawed by the King through the Decree of Loyalty in 600 A.F.H., such individual sales still happened and where much more prevalent as one went further from the centre of Aky-Ut. As tensions between Aky-Ut and Nyvaz rose, the craftsmen and the Guilds were one of the least affected since most of their income could be earned mainland. Furthermore, the 1 Guild/Good rule gave hegemony over Goods to the Guilds and their members, which made financial recovery easier through methods such as bumping up the price.
Finally, the Guilds were considered an Estate within the Republic and its representatives congregated annually to cooperate on the prices of Goods and on the issues which were impacting the Republic. Due to the aforementioned documents, the opinion of the Guilds had gained much influence within the Republic and tension between the Guilds and the Merchant Ruling Families grew.
The Journalist
For as far as information spread within Aky-Ut, there have always been those that desired to spread the news. In the Dictionarum, the Journalist is defined as "the person whose job is to write and report to the people the news of laws, regulations and celebrations."
By 430 A.F.H., many Journalists could be found in a mutually serving contractual relationship with Bookmakers, whom would help the former with the spread of news. In 460 A.F.H., Vsevolod II enacted the Act of Truth through which the King's personal group of Journalists and Bookmakers would be created. This gave the opportunity to many Journalists and Bookmakers to make their own little groups. So were created some of the groups that managed to hold themselves together until 690 A.F.H. Apart from the King's Personal Group, some notable groups were: "The Republican News", "Morning Bath" and "Daily Arisis News."
The Republican News was a group with many booths throughout the Republic that spread news about the Republic and its citizens as well as about foreign public figures. It was the main go-to newspaper for everyone and their cheap price made it very affordable. In 690 A.F.H. there were about 400 Journalists and 400 Bookmakers working for The Republican News. However, it had some problems due to the content, it received frequent visits from the Merchant Armies, upset that rumours of them had spread.
Morning Bath was a smaller group of 200 Journalists and 200 Bookmakers bringing news about the weather, jokes, the cooking recipes, how-tos and many more. Their booths were far from the centre and mostly found in the outskirts of Aky-Ut. It was popular among the Peasantry due to its not-very-informative nature. Its newspapers were cheap and they had no political issues. Moreover, every weekly paper came with a special page dedicated to children bedtime stories.
Daily Arisis News was the official group of the Duchy of Arisis with an unknown number of Journalists and Bookmakers, yet big enough to be the main source of Arisis News for all within Aky-Ut and Arisis.
How News is gathered by the Journalist and their Equipment
The following is a semi-satirical article titled “How to be a Journalist by Rostam Dolton” that appeared on the 7th of Kyranade (the 4th Month of the Year, translated to the Teary month) 590 A.F.H. in Morning Bath, on a Pala (the equivalent of Monday in Aky-Utian, translated as First):
“First, one must get a number of papers that when stacked together appear to be thicker than the ego of the Merchants… Scratch that, it might be too heavy to carry. Try taking as many as you think are needed and some spare ones. You must also get a wooden pencil with enough coal to last you a while, try to apply water as much as possible on the tip of the coal.
Next, depending on where you go, you must take a bucket with you, you never know what kind of content may spew forth if you hear the Empty’s Acts. Furthermore, make sure that you have some sort of bag, preferable custom made by a Craftsman, they are always more reliable than whatever knock-off those Merchants prefer to give you. Finally, be dressed for the occasion, blend in with the crowd, the one talking might change their wording if they saw you as a journalist.
Concerning the taking of information, if you can write fast, then write it all. But if you are of the slower kind, notes on the discussed topics would be perfect. Let the Bookmaker decipher that. (Edit from the Bookmaker of this article: don’t be like this douchebag) Continuing, it is very important to place the paper on which one has written in the bag as immediately as possible so as not to lose it. Finally, have fun, because you are not the one that will have the job of phrasing it all nicely, the Bookmaker will.”
As mentioned in the article, Bookmakers took the Journalist’s information and transformed it into an article while the Journalists went and gathered more information for the days to come. For groups such as Morning Bath, the Bookmakers convened on the placement of the articles and on the number of articles beforehand, leaving any non-urgent material for the later days. Payment was then split after the daily sales. To reduce costs, some Journalists and Bookmakers lived together. They would sometimes even marry, though few cases of that happening have been recorded.
The Bookmaker
If one is to gather the News, there must be a less agitated version that puts the News together carefully. That was the Bookmaker, a maker of Newspapers and their articles, a maker of Books and a translator with the help of a Scholar. The Bookmaker was their version of our printer and they were very proud of their work. Bookmakers often received commissions from Scholars, Diplomats, Merchants and the upper ranks of the Navy and Military. Many of those commissions were related to books, either translating them, making a copy of them, writing summaries of them or, sometimes, even making fan fiction.
Thus, in a way, Bookmakers were the first to make Pornographic material. Anyway. They usually had their own workshops filled with their projects, commissions and papers and they usually were always seen working. Due to the constant effort and use of their vision, a lot of the Bookmakers wore glasses. If working in a group, the Bookmakers would rent or make a special workshop where they would all get together and work on the projects. The projects were assigned beforehand during a meeting between all of the group’s Bookmakers.
Anyone could start their Bookmaking career just as with Journalism but due to the hard work of the Jobs and the daily stress, only the most dedicated remained within them.
The Diplomats
The job of a Diplomat was simple, be the middle man of an individual or a group of individuals, though it often got more complicated. The Diplomats were not an Estate within the Republic of Aky-Ut, they were mostly dependent individuals who served others in exchange for payment and favours. While groups of diplomats may have existed, they were very rare. Dependent on whom, you ask? Dependent on the individuals or groups of individuals that they served for diplomats were usually tied contractually to either one of the Merchant Families, the Republic itself, the King or a Craftsmen Guild.
However, some independent diplomats that worked for whoever paid them did exist and, as the tensions between Aky-Ut and Nyvaz grew, more and more went independent due to the new work opportunities that arose.
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