Digitally transforming your plague-ravaged estate: A guide for the future-facing lord

As representatives of the royal house, feudal landholders have a key role to play in determining how our kingdom responds to the Black Death (‘plague’). But progress-oriented lords aren’t just driving change. As the pandemic unfolds, they’re finding themselves subject to it as well.

Let’s face it. Serfs, wives and children are dropping like flies. As a result, even the simplest manorial tasks are becoming increasingly inefficient to complete. That’s why savvy landholders are investing in labour-saving innovations like scythes. 

“This technology doesn’t just empower your remaining serfs to reap double the grain in half the time,” explains Morgaine Buxton, an industry insider. “With an intuitive standing design and comfortable wooden handle, the ergonomic scythe ensures their ongoing fealty, too.” And according to Buxton, this fealty will give your estate a major competitive advantage in the post-pandemic space.

“Serfs are dying very rapidly,” she explains. “And as that death toll rises, pretty soon they’re going to be in high demand. So if you don’t have that buy-in from your indentured workforce, then at the end of the day you’re just not going to be successful.”

Food for thought, indeed. But if there’s a silver lining to all this carnage, it might be the rage for innovation that’s emerging among today’s lords.

In pre-plague times, experimentation was a dicey game. Disrupt working models to which the king and other end users were accustomed, and you risked incurring the possibility of excommunication — or worse. The Black Death, however­, is changing the game.

“We’re certainly seeing more and more estates making the transition from Roman to Arabic numerals,” confirms Tybalt Rigge, an emerging player in the prayertech space. “We’re also seeing a widespread adoption of mechanical clocks, which is obviously heartening. But what we’re noticing here is that those lords who are able to really drive meaningful change, they actually have one thing in common. And that’s C-suite endorsement.” 

Most feudal disruptors can agree that when it comes to transformation, it pays to keep the king on side. But adjusting your messaging to avoid angering royal stakeholders isn’t always easy — or intuitive. 

One day, the monarch is hosting splendid jousting tournaments as if he hasn’t a care in the world. The next, he’s dismantling his court to guard against the deadly contagion. When it comes to divinely appointed rulers, it’s natural to feel as if change is the only constant.

“The king’s attitude to this pandemic is definitely shifting dramatically,” confirms an archdeacon who prefers to remain anonymous. “And if you don’t have a pulse on that, you’re flying blind.”

Luckily, there’s a simple way to pre-empt the sovereign’s orders. Since the pandemic broke out, we’ve seen a 40 percent increase in royal proclamations. And while some are feeling like it’s end of days, smart lords are leveraging this data to discover what the king needs — and using that insight to buck the trend.

“We aren’t measuring ourselves by the traditional metrics of royal visits or land grants anymore,” says Gawain Castillon, Earl of Suffolk. “We’re more interested in doing whatever it takes to foster that relationship with the king in the short term, so that in the longer term, we can actually avoid execution altogether.”

As a third of our kingdom transitions to the afterlife, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that technological transformation is no longer an option for today’s lord: it’s a necessity. But needless to say, change shouldn’t be thoughtless. To foster a culture of test-and-learn across your estate, regularly review the progress of each innovation and let the data drive your next move. From there, it’s easy to store your insights with simple, secure file-sharing technologies like wooden chests.

In closing, we asked our agrarian thought leaders if they had any further advice for future-facing landholders. 

“Obviously there’s a lot we still don’t know about plague,” says Rigge. “But the clergy have been pretty clear that maintaining constant contact with the Lord is absolutely critical. So, yeah, please just continue to pray and, you know, encourage your serfs to do the same.”

“Absolutely,” agrees Buxton. “And hopefully it goes without saying that, if you’re vomiting blood or experiencing death, just play it safe, you know. Stay at home.”

Any questions or comments? Enquire via pigeon and we’ll make every effort to respond within the next few decades.