Welcome prospective peasants to another Under The Yoke Devlog.
This week we are taking a peak at the medieval church.
The medieval period is famous for a lot of things, perhaps foremost of which is a sense of religiosity throughout society, from the high born to the peasant the church played a daily role in their lives. To the point where the tolling of a nearby church bell would serve as your clock and even the church calendar would be responsible for your days off (holy days, as covered in our Christmas special devlog).
During this period you must remember that the church wasn’t only a religious institution it was also a political force, it was possible that your dues as a serf was owed to a monastery or an abbey, even if not you owed tithes every year. These taxes and dues would decide the fate of your immortal soul, quite a disincentive to fraud.
This is only the beginning of the prayers for cash, there was a fee for weddings (not always performed in a church or blessed until a crackdown in the later period), a fee for blessings, funerals, baptisms, confirmation, I think you get where we’re going with this.
In your typical medieval village your local priest would have served as a member of the community, growing his own crops alongside the villagers, helping them with problems and in the rare event that it was required, offering literacy to a largely illiterate population, perhaps even taking on a local boy as a page.
This could lead to great things, even for the lowborn entering the church was an opportunity to advance in ways simply impossible in the feudal world. This could also lead to advancements for the rest of their family, hence a worthwhile investment for a medieval family on the rise.
We’re still a little too early on in development to share how this is all going to work in Under The Yoke but I didn’t want to leave you all without a Devlog.
If you’d like to find out how we’re going to implement it used the sign up box below to get the next devlog (and nothing else) straight to your inbox.