Ragnar sat on the high seat of Nottingham's Great Hall.
He had removed the dragon-carved cushions of the late King Burgred and replaced them with a stack of ledgers to improve his posture.
Kneeling before him were the surviving Thanes of the Midlands—the "Middle Management" of the now-defunct Kingdom of Mercia.
Having lost their King to a wrist-caster bolt and their armies to a barrage of Torsion Spikes, these men were left with zero leverage to defend against Ragnar's hostile takeover.
Seeing as how their castles were within the "effective liquidation range" of the Industrial Corps, they knew their quarterly earnings were about to hit zero.
These relatively pragmatic men had traveled to Nottingham to officially sign the transfer of assets to the Directorate.
Ragnar, who had a faint smudge of ink on his cheek, was tapping a charcoal pencil against his armored knee while listening to the terms of surrender the Thanes presented.
