Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="jdavis" data-source="post: 816268" data-attributes="member: 8704">1. Division of power should be awkward and have many overlaps, Lady Kelvin's main power should be her political skill in getting what she wants out of the council. The nobles latch on to their privledge to be on the council but really don't know what they are doing half the time, Lady Kelvin's power comes from who she is personally not legally, her presence gets what she wants not some written balance of power. Lady Kelvin does have the power to call up the muster and basically controls the Outland Rangers by putting their advisory seat behind hers and making it subservient to her, this was probably her doing as the Outland Rangers have much power outside the wall to the North and this would balance problems from nobles. She is probably very good at maintaining a appearance of strength which not every lord or lady kelvin before her had. There is no set divisions or written constitutional agreement. the noble lords make the decisions and the Lord or Lady Kelvin position is traditionally First Lord of the council.2. Both although their advise is worthless. They feel they make the laws but they are being manipulated. It takes a long time to get anything done but Lady Kelvin always gets her way in the end. The council has all legislative power all the first Lord or Lady has is the power to veto and the power to call up the Muster which is the same as calling a military emergency and taking full control. Manipulation of the many diverse forces on the council is her greatest tool.3. All are Noble, there are hereditary positions that go back to the original tribes and there are the guild positions which are filled by the Nobles with the most power in those areas. The only way a seat can be made vacant is through death or if the holder relinquishes it, the position on the council is for life. The only exceptions is the Generals seat and it is awarded by vote of the council and can be taken away by vote of the council and the two advisory seats. It takes skilled manuvering to get a seat on the council and even the hereditary seats can be relinquished and claimed by another so no seat is truly safe. Many councilmembers have relinquished their seats due to loss of face or power or being outmanuvered or just plain threat of physical murder or injury. The council makes the Thieves Guild look respectable.4. They have the powers garanteed them which include inclusion into the council by members of the nobility. I wouldn't want to see them split the city up into different armed camps of overlapping control, as that kind of chaos would not be allowed by the military. Other than that they have the power that wealth and clout brings. Outside the city they have much more power but that was balanced a couple of hundred years ago with the creation of the Outland Rangers group which maintains the same laws of the city outside the wall. It's all part of 300 years of whittling away at the nobles powerbase by the Kelvin family, nobody realized just what maintaining the same laws outside the wall meant, they just thought it would help with raids and poachers. It actually extended the rule of the City State into the surrounding countryside and changed their private estates from little independent kingdoms to part of the city as a whole. That kind of manipulation is the basis of the Kelvin families rule in Mor's End. In medieval times the nobles didn't have to worry about rampaging orcs or goblin raids. Even the calm north is dangerous to a certain extent. City life is much safer, that is the basis for the city aristocracy. The estates are retreats and showplaces but they are not true homes to the nobles anymore. Most nobles allow servants to run the estates and stay in town where it is safe. Retiring to your estate is something a noble does when they have been seriously outmanuvered or shamed in town, it is a kind form of banishment. Older nobles may also move to the estates to live out their last days away from the political chaos of the city. You can throw a big party or festival at your estate you can vaction at your estate but you really don't want to live there long term. This is also why there can be nobles with very little actual land (the Palmora's would actually control some land, their piece of the lake shore where they process silk fish at.)My two cents worth is getting up towards a dollars worth, I got a paper due in 12 hours so I'll cut this short. (will add a write up on the failing house Haljan of Thomas Haljan; Captain of the Guard tomorrow).</blockquote>

Verification