With Godunya's mind on... elevated matters, I think it's a cert that assorted others are 'positioning themselves', if not for outright sedition, then certainly for getting their grubby hands on the levers of effective power, that have lately been left under-used by Godunya's marvellously radiant ones... This may take the form less of armies rampaging from one end of Kralorela to the other, as of controlling access to Godunya, operating cartels of supposedly minor officials, blackmail, palm-greasing, and general sneakiness.
> In my short piece on the Mandarins of Kralorela I suggest that - based on
> the attitudes of RW Chinese Mandarins - it's the unpromising or badly
> connected candidates that are given the worst tasks, such as command rank
> in the armies and navies*. From there, such unconventional types who are
> ambitious yet misguided could certainly become warlords in the provinces:
> as Mandarins receive a portion of the people's worship, theirs could also
> be channelled from the troops they command, making them independently
> powerful.
True, though use going this route to personal power may be more of the 'power comes along the length of a crossbow' school of thought, anyway...
> Meanwhile, Godunya is distracted with such rarified pursuits as
> his whoppper bridges...
Distracted? Not at all, O Sage from Southerly Province: he has his Eye on the Prize! (Though another, of course, on the Way.)
> Note, I think the army and navy has a command structure, but Mandarins are
> always slotted in at the top. A non-Mandarin general who gains too much
> independent power would be branded a rebel, perhaps romanticised by the
> populace as a Bandit King.
I think the hierarchies of the mandarins/exarchs and the military proper doubtless interact in highly 'interesting' ways. There's a natural tension between wanting to have a bureucrat-cum-sage in charge, as he'll file all the right paperwork with AEA7D&W, conduct his forces in the most elevated, traditional and correct, and that beneficial to the overall spiritual uplift of the nation, manner. OTOH, the career soldier can occassionally get the troops to do as he wishes, and occassionally win battles, too... (By base and mystically unsound methods sometimes, alas.) Accordingly there's doubtless therefore some sideways movement, between the two catgories...
Cheers,
Alex.
End of The Glorantha Digest V7 #606
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