HeavenShallBurn said:
Precisely he was king because he was BETTER. His deeds were exploits of legend and he was descended of gods his arete was enormous and it would have been impossible for him to do anything but lead because others would know his greatness and naturally seek to follow him.
Yes but during most of the past the ability of religion to enforce itself at a distance was very limited. Basically it gained this power under two conditions when a single religion had sole hold of a region and the secular governments were weaker than the church, or when the State used the church as a tool to drive home its own aims. For most of history in most parts of the World the power of religion was rather limited and small in scope for all its ability to affect belief and perception.
Essentially the problem here is you are applying the real world to a place with a very different dynamic. The levels are what make the difference, personal power in the real world is much more limited in nature due primarily to the massive increase in combat ability and toughness of high level characters. Second your examples are all from after the development of the Nation-State, a fairly recent development and firmly post-renaissance. Without the nation-state their is no State to have a duty to, duty belongs to individuals, their is no organized mechanism of government separate from the individuals who carry it out. Take a good long look at the concept of arete it's not "me,me,me" nor "money.money, money" those are both strawmen thrown up to hinder actual discussion of the topic. Arete is the concept of worth through act and respect for greatness and it drove societies for far longer than Country or Church have even existed as motivations. Basically you're looking at the entire political spectrum of D&D campaign worlds from a very modern perspective with developments not necessarily present. For Eberron they would be cogent, for parts of the Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk they would be cogent but they are not necessarily the baseline. And when you throw the massive discrepencies in power between low and high levels they only emphasize this. Without the mechanism of the nation-state high level characters would form the nucleus of authority because their arete would draw them into leadership one way or another.
I dispute your arguments. The personally powerful, can exhert no authority further than their own finger tips. It takes some form of recognition by a higher authority, to actually convince another to concur, and transfer allegiance. Personally powerful characters can be pariahs, exiled, and excommunicated.
You argument on Gilgamesh is circular: You say "He was King because he was powerful. He was powerful, therefore he was King" It neither proves nor disproves your theory.
You refer to historical-mythological figures like Gilagamesh, yet disregard the examples I have given of other historical figures. What you are refering to may be valid in a simple society of barbarians and uncouthed louts, yet would not be accepted a civilised nation of reasonable men.
Consider the fate of the Greek Hercules (not the tv show). Where was his Kingdom? The strongest man on Earth. By your reckoning, such a man should've owned the world, in a manner akin to Gilgamesh.
I chose my examples from post-renaissance merely for their easy recognition from modern literature. Once you have established the Right of Kings to rule through Divinity (all of Europe through the middle ages, in what is generally regarded as the "temporal flavour" of DnD), then you have a firm reason to assume usurping power will not be regarded as trivial.
Do you not find it interesting that all the great civilisations of eras past, had families inheriting leadership based on some form of "Divine Right"? That includes Babylon, and Maya which is far, far prior to "post renaissance". That they obviously felt the need to secure their positions of power with such intricacies?
In a DnD world, such rulers would take note of rising adventurers, and use them as well. Gaining their influence and friendship. Ensuring their aid when a crisis may arrive.
