Middle-Earth: Kaen, Lord of Light
Chapter 31 31: Founding a Kingdom
By the Campfire
Kaen Eowenríel sat by the fire, his gaze sweeping across his loyal followers gathered before him.
He opened his mouth and spoke:
"Right now, we have over five thousand people in Azure Spring Town and another five thousand here. Our total population has exceeded ten thousand."
"In the future, we will have ten times, even a hundred times more people and land. So it's time we begin building the foundation of a true kingdom."
Everyone fell silent, fully aware that what was coming next would determine the direction of their future.
Kaen organized his thoughts and said:
"Our kingdom will bear my name—Eowenría. We will separate the military and civil affairs to establish a proper system of governance."
"As King, I shall serve as both the highest administrative and military authority."
"Under the civil administration, there will be five departments:
The Department of Administration, the Department of Justice, the Department of Oversight, the Department of Foreign Affairs, and the Treasury Department."
"The Department of Administration—responsible for policy execution, population census, and official appointments and transfers.
The Department of Justice—handles the revision and enforcement of laws and the prosecution of crimes.
The Department of Oversight—maintains discipline among officials, rectifies governance, and oversees promotions.
The Department of Foreign Affairs—manages diplomacy, international relations, and foreign emissaries.
The Treasury—controls national wealth, taxes from trade and agriculture, and land resources."
"Currently, we lack experienced administrators, so I hereby appoint:
Old Jack as Minister of Administration,
Araphor as Minister of Justice,
Will as Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Hubert as Minister of Oversight.
As for the Treasury, I will handle it myself for now, until I find someone suitable to take over."
The men whose names were called rose at once and bowed solemnly to Kaen:
"We shall not fail Your Majesty's trust!"
Kaen gave a nod of approval and continued:
"As for the military, we will divide it by troop type—light cavalry, heavy cavalry, spearmen, heavy infantry, archers and crossbowmen, rangers, and so on."
"Each type of soldier will have its own commander. For now, we lack the capacity to form heavy cavalry units, and even our crossbowmen are still only equipped with bows. But in the future, we'll grow into it."
"I appoint:
Cathril as the commander of the light cavalry. She will assemble fifty riders.
Lairon as the commander of the rangers. He will lead eighty Dúnedain Rangers.
Zakri as the commander of the archers. He will train a hundred bowmen.
Mundar as the commander of the spearmen. He will lead and train three hundred spearmen.
Caden as the commander of the heavy infantry. He will lead and train fifty heavily armored spear-fighters."
"Select soldiers from the existing ranks according to the needs of your units. I will ensure you are provided with the rest through recruitment."
"All commanders and soldiers must obey the king—or the general commander appointed by the king."
The five stood tall and proud, replying in unison:
"We shall not fail Your Majesty's trust!"
Kaen then turned to Ameliah and said:
"I've brought thirty young women. I need you to recruit those interested in medicine and begin training them."
"I plan to build a hospital—one part for civilian healers, another for military medics. You will serve as its head."
Ameliah stood up and responded firmly,
"I will do everything in my power to fulfill this task."
Kaen looked toward Joanna.
"Since you're an architect, can you draw up a city planning design? We'll be building a new city here soon."
Joanna nodded.
"That's no problem. I'll just need a few days. Just give me the requirements, Your Majesty."
Kaen said, "Good. I also want you to train a team of construction professionals. Eventually, we'll establish a Department of Infrastructure—with you as its head."
And just like that, the skeletal structure of the kingdom was laid out. Of course, there were still plenty of gaps that would have to be filled in the future.
With his triple-speed buff for territorial development and hero growth, Kaen could teach these people anything—no matter how slow they were, they'd learn faster than any ordinary person.
…..
As the morning sun rose, a new and vibrant nation began to emerge from the Troll-woods.
Inside the temporary military camp, the newly appointed commanders were hard at work training their troops.
Thanks to the generous treatment and benefits, recruitment went incredibly smoothly. Even at dawn, a stream of eager young men arrived to sign up.
But while recruitment wasn't an issue, the new hero-units like Caden still hadn't transitioned from mere warriors to competent commanders.
Their training methods were rough and full of fluff—impressive on the surface, but lacking depth.
Kaen, drawing from his previous life's military experience, compiled a training manual covering physical conditioning, daily routines, camp discipline, and more, then handed it to the commanders.
With the aid of the triple-speed learning buff, the commanders quickly absorbed the content and began applying it.
The recruits were soon training in perfect formation, and the echo of their synchronized shouts rang out across the forest's edge—so loud and disciplined that even the beasts within the trees kept their distance from the new nation's borders.
….
As for internal affairs…
Old Jack and the others were navigating uncharted waters, fumbling through unfamiliar terrain. But Kaen devoted much of his time each day to discussing with them—how to form policies, collect taxes, draft laws, and so on.
Eventually, they formed some basic concepts for each domain.
These would be called the Foundational National Policies.
Such as: The people are the heart of the nation, The law is sacred and must never be violated, Every citizen has the right and duty to defend their homeland…
They were like a novelist's outline: once set in place, all future legislation, policies, and administrative procedures would adhere to these guiding principles.
…..
But one issue solved always gave rise to another.
Language.
In Middle-earth, the most commonly spoken languages were Elvish dialects—Sindarin, Quenya, Wood-elvish, and so on.
Due to regional differences, everyone had learned different scripts and pronunciations.
Araphor and the Dúnedain, for example, used Sindarin, while Old Jack and his group were familiar with Quenya.
When the time came to choose an official language, disagreement erupted. Each group wanted to use their own mother tongue.
Kaen realized that what his fledgling kingdom truly needed—was its own language.
And so, after some thought…
He decided to transplant his previous life's language wholesale into this world—as the official language of Eowenría.
No sooner said than done.
Kaen gathered all the internal officials and began teaching them Anglian—starting from alphabets and basic phonetics and moving to vocabulary and grammar.
This utterly foreign language was treated like a sacred treasure. The officials looked at Kaen with awe and reverence.
To them, their king had done something truly miraculous: he had created an entirely new language.
The flowing Latin letters were neat, elegant, and full of mystery. Kaen gave it the name Anglian.
But privately, his officials began calling it Eowenrían.
Even Gandalf was deeply impressed. He followed along each day, learning Anglian diligently and boasting that he'd now mastered yet another tongue.
….
The building materials sent by the merchant guilds had already piled up into small mountains.
With the arrival of Joanna's first architectural blueprint, the kingdom's craftsmen sprang into action.
Thousands of strong young men began felling trees, gathering stones, building roads, and digging foundations.
In Middle-earth, most buildings were constructed with stacked stone or timber—slow and inefficient.
To speed up the process, Kaen personally experimented and introduced the art of brick firing. With mortar and bricks layered alternately, the pace of construction increased dramatically.
Everyone was desperate to complete their homes before the harsh winter arrived.
…..
Unbeknownst to them, autumn on the Western Continent had come to a quiet end.
Dark clouds now loomed over the sky. The air turned colder by the day.
With no sunlight to deter them, the stone trolls lurking within the forest were beginning to stir.
Kaen knew he had to act before they made their move.