"Thou shalt give unto thine glorious liege the taxes that he requires."
"Thou shalt labour all but feast days, and no more than a tenth-share shall you keep for kith and kin."
"Rejoice! For a knight of Bretonnia provides your shield."
- —Excerpt from the Peasant's Duty of Bretonnia[2a]
A peasant is one of the lowborn commoners who make up the preponderance of the Human population of the Empire of Man and Bretonnia in the Old World and Grand Cathay in the Far East.[3]
Role[]
While the nobles rule and the burghers trade, the peasants of the Old World toil. Some serve as the wealthier market farmers who own their own land, but most are subsistence tenant farmers, labourers, herdsman and hunters. In times of war, many fight and die for the Empire and Bretonnia, with the latter often taking to the battlefield in large mobs.[1a][3]
Some peasants seek a better life by leaving the land for one of the major cities of the Old World, but many find themselves simply joining the ranks of urban beggars on the verge of starvation.[1a]
A way out from the toil and poverty of the peasantry is found in military service, with many peasants joining the professional ranks of the Old World's armies as state troops, men-at-arms, or sailors of the Imperial Navy and Bretonnian Navy. By joining the military, these peasants gain full time employment and a boost in their social status in exchange for the dangers of active military service.[1a]
However, the majority of the peasantry of the Old World spend their whole lives in the village or town they were born in, surrounded by varying levels of hostile country and only occasionally getting news of the outside world.[1a]
While they are provincial and superstitious, the peasants remain the beating heart of the lands of the Empire and Bretonnia.[1a]