The Temptation of Founding an Independent Nation

"In the Hillsbrad Foothills, you are merely a Lord of Lordaeron and a Baron of Alterac. Your fief is less than ten miles from east to west and no more than twenty miles from north to south. You have fewer than thirty thousand subjects."

Orendo retorted, "There are more than forty thousand."

Nielas Aran: "..."

"Ahem." He coughed and continued his pitch.

"His Majesty Landen Wrynn promised me that, as long as you are willing to go south and become a member of the Stormwind Kingdom, the day you arrive in Stormwind City will be the day you become a Marquis of the kingdom!"

"The king has also promised that your fief will be no less than a hundred miles long and no less than two hundred miles wide. If you are willing to develop your own lands, the king is willing to grant you unlimited rights of expansion! The king is also willing to allocate one hundred thousand of his direct subjects to you, while the other Stormwind nobles are willing to collectively give you another hundred thousand people!"

"You need not do anything for any of this. As long as you become a member of the Stormwind Kingdom, all of it can be given to you unconditionally. If you contribute to the kingdom, then apart from the king's throne itself, we are willing to give you anything!"

In the small reception room on the third floor, Nielas Aran had cast aside his usual carefree manner. He carried a steadiness that did not match his age.

It was the bearing cultivated by a thousand years of noble upbringing—the bearing of a great noble.

"Lordaeron and Alterac are far too old-fashioned. The relationships among the ruling classes of the northern kingdoms are too complicated. Only the Stormwind Kingdom in the south is suited to a newly risen noble like you. Orendo, trust me. You will not remain a mere Lord forever. Go south. As long as you are willing, you will soon become a Duke! Even becoming a Grand Duke is not impossible! There are fewer than fifteen Grand Dukes in the entire human world!"

The human world of Azeroth used a noble-ranking system established by Emperor Thoradin after he studied the elven kingdoms.

Over the millennia, the several kingdoms that emerged after the empire's fragmentation had continued to follow that system.

Under that system, the highest-ranked figure was naturally Emperor Thoradin—the only emperor in human history on Azeroth.

Below him came the kings, and below the kings were Grand Dukes, who were comparable to the kings of minor nations.

Below the Grand Dukes came the five ranks of Duke, Marquis, Count, Lord, and Baron. Outside those ranks, the lowest level of nobility was knighthood.

The founders of the current kingdoms had all once been Grand Dukes of the Arathor Empire.

The nobles of the human kingdoms mutually recognized one another's status. For instance, a Grand Duke of the Stormwind Kingdom could enjoy the privileges of a Grand Duke even in Lordaeron. Naturally, he could only enjoy the privileges granted to foreign Grand Dukes.

The Stormwind Kingdom and Landen Wrynn were actually willing to offer a rank as high as Grand Duke in order to win him over.

To be honest, Orendo was tempted.

He had arrived in Azeroth more than a year ago. After spending a year living as a human noble and mage, Orendo had become familiar with many of the rules governing the human ruling class.

If he could become a Grand Duke, then he could legitimately establish his own nation in the human world, just as several human Grand Dukes had founded the Seven Kingdoms thousands of years ago. The kings would have no choice but to acknowledge it—as long as he founded an independent country rather than usurped a throne.

To rise from a minor rural noble to the highest echelon of the human world's ruling class in one leap—even if it was only a title—would drive most humans mad with desire.

Of course, these noble ranks, noble systems, and unspoken rules of the ruling class only held influence within the human world. Beyond it, aside from elves, gnomes, and dwarves making a token show of respect, no other faction could be bothered to give a damn about so-called human Grand Dukes.

If this were not a world of the extraordinary, and if he did not know that this was Azeroth, a land plagued by countless disasters, Orendo might have accepted Nielas Aran's offer at once.

Because he knew these things, Orendo understood that before world-ending catastrophes and true power, any noble title was nothing but an illusion!

The Undead Scourge alone had nearly wiped out the human powers of the north, leaving only one lone survivor in the south.

More than ninety percent of the human nobility, whether Grand Dukes, Dukes, or Counts, had perished together beneath the Scourge's iron hooves amid the chaos of that era.

After the Undead Scourge, disasters continued to plague the Stormwind Kingdom, and the standing of its nobles fell again and again. Numerous rebellions even broke out. By the time Varian returned and took full control, the so-called human nobles had largely withdrawn from the stage of world history.

Orendo also realized something: the Stormwind Kingdom was willing to pay such a great price to recruit him not because he was Landen Wrynn's illegitimate son or anything like that.

It was simply because he possessed enough value to be worth recruiting!

Was he worth it?

Orendo believed he was!

Not because he was arrogant, nor because he knew he had the Eye of Truth and Aegwynn, the greatest backer imaginable.

Rather, even setting those things aside, his performance in Dalaran over the past year alone was enough for kings to court him like this!

Three Kirin Tor High Wisdom Ribbon honors in a year; an unending stream of academic papers that influenced the mage community; one ingenious idea after another; admission to the Kirin Tor High Spell Research Institute at fourteen; the qualifications to build his own mage tower at Violet Academy at fourteen; an excellent relationship with Quel'Thalas; even gnomes willing to speak up and fight for him to receive the Kirin Tor High Wisdom Ribbon honor...

Any mage who possessed even one of those achievements would already be a genius among geniuses. With so many gathered in one person, "genius" was no longer enough to describe him.

Even Antonidas, who had shaken all of Dalaran and drawn the attention of kings more than twenty years ago, had not been as outstanding as Orendo Seferosa at the age of fourteen.

Antonidas had been born and raised in Dalaran, and he had rejected recruitment from every kingdom. Orendo Seferosa, meanwhile, was a native of the Hillsbrad Foothills and a member of the noble class!

Compared with Antonidas, he was clearly easier to recruit and more worth recruiting.

After thinking it through, Orendo smiled at Nielas Aran. The latter still wore a serious, expressionless face.

"Is what you said true? The Stormwind Kingdom is willing to recruit me on such terms?" the young Lord asked noncommittally.

Aran did not directly answer his question. Instead, he said, "About three months ago, do you remember? I returned to Stormwind City. When I went back, my father and Landen Wrynn asked me about you. You have no idea—your reputation has already reached even the distant south."

"I vouched to my father and my king that you would only be more exceptional than the rumors claimed, never less. So the Chief Court Archmage advised the king to recruit you. And this price was a proposal I made to His Majesty Landen Wrynn."

At that, Nielas Aran shrugged. "The wise king agreed. And that is why we are having this conversation now."