One of the questions I get asked a lot, either in private messages or in team-speak discussions, is the relationship between Wessex and Hyperion and how a new group would fit into the Kingdom of Hyperion.
This image may help to better explain the relationship.
This document came from the original Darkfall. Each of these Duchies (or their equivalent) were large guilds that officially joined The Kingdom of Hyperion.
Smaller entities that joined Hyperion typically joined as either fiefdoms or, in the case of the smaller guilds, one of the Duchies. In Wessex the leader of these small guilds became Thanes.