> I agree with Peter here. The Mayor represents the city residents on the
> city ring.
Hm. That's what I meant. So, I agree with Peter too !
> Nonetheless, when push comes to shove, the real power is always ultimately with
> tribes.
Yup.
> >>From my own experience of RW City politics, such violent means of
> >>controlling dignitaries is very unusual (but not unheard of).
> >We are not talking about the French, we are talking about the Orlanthi
> >who have their own culture and their own methods of social control.
> >Secondly these 'dignitaries' would do the same to their own enemies,
> >so they can't complain.
>
> I definitely agree with Peter here as well. I'm going to make a bold
> assertion here, but I suspect that I have the most experience with urban
> politics of anyone on the list
That's bold. I actually have experience of *City State* politics.
> Believe me, Orlanthi politics can get very violent.
Yup. As in : send in the Humakti, and the Babeester Gori ...
As in : let's hire an assassin.
But : in a small city like Boldhome, anyone who wants to be involved politically can be. Bumping people off (except for bloody foreigners) doesn't really work (except in extreme cases, or where criminal Rings are involved) because whoever it was, someone is probably there, who'll demand wergeld, or blood, in return, or will carry out some other violent or non-violent (but financially disastrous) form of reprisal. And almost no-one can afford to pay Wergeld. There is a Balance of Fear, Prejudice, Trust, and Society that exists in an Orlanthi city. Citizens need to keep their idiosyncrasies in check, whether they're ordinary people or VIPs, or they'll be rejected into the poverty heap. Unless they can be accepted as marginals; every society has 'em. Not necessarily the best goal in life ...
> >>Probably, there are independant City militias which are independant
> >>of the Tribes. Basically, police forces.
> >Again this is too modern. The city militias would be furnished
> >by the tribal kings and be factionalized.
>
> I suspect that many artisans are well-armed and form yet another potential
> war-band that can either support the tribal kings or oppose them.
Yes.
You know, i wrote "City militiaS", because my opinion was that the
Orlanthi
don't have a single centralized structure of political control.
> The key
> to understanding Orlanthi politics and government is that most arrangements
> are ad hoc mixtures of tradition and convenience - with political
> arrangements tending to accurately reflect the relative power of various
> kinship groups and interests.
I concur.
> When the balance of power changes (say the
> Ernulfing bloodline pisses off several traditional allies), so do the
> "institutions". As a result, they can be great coalition builders but are
> terrible institutional administrators.
Yeah : institutional administration interferes with business ...
cheers,
Julian
Powered by hypermail