>Pascal Milhau:
>> a) May an heortling tribal king be a clan chief at
>>the same time?
>In my Dundealos campaign, the tribal king is also clan
>chieftain. This has created certain problems, which
>have made me conclude that this was perhaps not a very
>good decision on my part. Being both a king and a clan
>chieftain are very much like having two full time
>jobs. In addition, there may be a conflict of
>interests. Ideally, the chieftains loyalty should be
>to his clan, and his clan only.
A tribal king will nearly always be a clan chieftain, for the simple reason that only a noble is going to have the wealth, the prestige and the supporters necessary to become AND remain tribal king. There will always be a conflict between the interest of the tribe and the interest of the king's clan.
However, this conflict is common not just to Orlanthi politics, but to our own. For instance, an American president is both chief executive of the federal government and leader of his political party. Is their tension between these roles? Of course.
Same thing is true with the Orlanthi. Indeed, a common theme throughout all Orlanthi culture is the conflict between your relationship with your kin and your relationship with everyone else. Even great Orlanth was torn between his kinship obligations and his obligations to his friends, supporters, the rest of the world, etc.
Jeff
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