I caught a little bit of a snippet a few months ago about whether the king is still the chieftain of his clan, or whether he has to renounce that position because he has too much to do at the tribal level and conflicting interests might interfere. I think it is essential to figure out this in order to determine what the king's household is like. As I missed the last exchange about this question I'll just plug away with my version and you can correct me if it sounds dodgy...
Obviously it will depend a lot on the exact traditions of making a king in each tribe. Generally I think the kingship requires some feat or claim to past heritage that goes beyond the competition for the clan chieftainship. Thus for instance, the Sambari king almost always comes from one of the three leading clans. This is partly due to blood claim, and tradition, and partly becasue candidates from these clans have the most support. In practice, the succession is usually determined before the death of the old king. Disputes will mostly arise if that choice is untenable to many of the other clans or factions in the tribe, or if no clear choice has been indicated.
The king will usually be the chieftain of one of the clans. This means that he will have the automatic support of a large chunk of the tribe. Without this support, no king will be have the backing of force required by any Orlanthi leader. Remember Orlanthi justice is meted out on the end of a pointy stick. The bigger the stick, the greater the justice. At the tribal stronghold, the king's clan will probably hold it's chief seat of power as well. The clan's traditional lands will probably be led by the Ernalda priestesses and/or one of the king's most loyal clan thanes. Most of his housecarls will follow him along with many other clanspeople to the tribal hold.
I always thought that around five to ten housecarls would be a suitable number for a chieftain of an average to good size clan. The leading clans from which the king comes probably have more.
The king would have the additional benefit of the tribal housecarls. I agree with Martin that these would mostly be Humakti. They have divorced themselves from the clan and family bonds to pursue the professional life of a warrior. They would swear loyalty to the new king, and probably act as his enforcers on all matters. They would also free him to some extent from dependence on his clan, by providing an alternate source of loyal warriors. Of course a king who completely alienates his home clan will be toeing a very dodgy line and will probably not last long if he keeps it up. Of course the Humakti would probably have to know tribal law quite well at this level and might refuse to obey a king if he becomes too extreme. That's what you need those flexible clan warriors for.
The clan housecarls are probably almost entirely Orlanthi and Elmali. Humakti are just too weird (though it's quite possible that some could stay ain a chieftain's service). My idea of Humakti from the Sartarite tribes (except maybe the Lismelder) is that they are people disturbed by some inner disquiet or trouble in their past (such as feuding that they wanted no part of), and so seek to divorce themselves from their kin who probably don't measure up to their own personal standards of honour. This is a very big step to take for people of Orlanthi background. I don't think that Humakti would fit in very well to life on the small scale of one clan. Travelling, joining mercenary bands and so on are the usual routes. After they have proven themselves they can easily look to a tribal king for support. I imagine most would stay within their home tribe, but there seems no obvious reason some couldn't join with other kings, as great Scandinavian warriors often did (and they match the Humakti for morbidity of spirit).
I think Martin's figure of five extra tribal housecarls per thousand tribespeople seems reasonable. One problem though, is that the extra ( I think very harsh) taxes levied by the Lunar conquerors must reduce the king's ability to maintain high quality guards full-time. I certainly don't think that many more fully trained warriors could be supported out of the king's pocket.
Pax
Saravan.
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