Best Feudal/Fantasy Government?

[Zardnaar]

Best for a game is probably not good for the common folk, since the best they can hope for is stability, which isn't good for adventurers. "No, you can't go into that cave without permission from the local lord, and paying a 20% tithe to the local church..."

Pathfinder's Andoran practices 'Common Rule', or an attempt at democracy.

I specifically excluded democracy and thread title basically excludes any modern forms of government as well.

 

[Zardnaar]

Democracy with silly costumes.

Democracy is specifically excluded.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Democracy with silly costumes.

kind of, but it's fantasy. it's more fun with monarchs.

Also, elective monarchy is not a super rare governmental model.

Elective monarchy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

adding a parliament and/or constitution isn't a great leap. In fact, Scandinavian kingdoms had elective bodies that also voted on laws for hundreds of years before Christianisation, as just one example.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Anarchy, obviously

 

[Yora]

Democracy is specifically excluded.

Elective parliamentary monarchy is democracy with silly costumes.
At least the monarchies of Europe claim to also be democratic.

 

[Dioltach]

This is starting to veer in the direction of real-world politics.

 

[aco175]

The Reluctant King series has the main character become king when he catches the head of the last king and each king serves for 5 years before being beheaded. The book says that there is never a shortage of people wanting to catch the head and be the new king, even for just 5 years. Might make for a good campaign.

 

[Ixal]

The Reluctant King series has the main character become king when he catches the head of the last king and each king serves for 5 years before being beheaded. The book says that there is never a shortage of people wanting to catch the head and be the new king, even for just 5 years. Might make for a good campaign.

View attachment 265569

That sounds like a very bad form of government as most people would likely purse a hedonistic lifestyle for 5 years instead of doing any work.

 

[GreyLord]

Think Byzantium is one of the few that lasted 1000+years. No elf required.

Longest lasting Christian nation with the same form of government iirc.

Venice and San Marino are contenders as well.

According to the Byzantium's, they are the old Roman Empire (and truthfully, they basically were. The Roman Empire was split into 4 parts eventually, with 2-4 emperors over it. By the time Rome fell it was seen more as the ghetto part of the Empire to the point that even the Capital had been changed from Rome to Constantinople).

In that light, if Rome was founded in 753 BC, and Constantinople fell in 1204 (yes, it didn't officially fall until 1453, but the "Roman" part of it fell in 1204 to the 4th Crusade) that means it lasted almost 2000 years as the Roman Empire/State.

Though Europe called it Byzantine, the Byzantines called themselves Romans.

 

[dragoner]

I would go for the Veche: Veche - Wikipedia