> Bryan mentions 18 members of the Ring. This
>strikes me as way too many for effective leadership.
>I expect that the majority of members are mostly
>ritual, and they only turn up once or twice a year.
>Then there are a few members doing most of the actual
>work of advising the Prince of Sartar, and being
>available close to full-time. Effectively, I would
>expect this to be like having your cabinet, and then
>having an small inner cabinet of the real heavy
>hitters.
Conversely 18 is rather small for the governing body of a tribe given that there is no outer ring as there is in a clan. Perhaps this is because neither the tribal king nor the ring actually govern. They resolve disputes between clans and present a united front in dealing with outsiders. The advisors are just that - they advise on their areas of responsibilty. The chiefs of the clans directly involved in the issue will also be consulted and they may refer to the clan ring or bring in their own lawspeakers.
However while all this is going on the actual government is going on at clan level. In a way it's similar to the US federal/state system but with less power in the hands of the tribal (federal) government.
The princes of Sartar have even less power, just powerful magic which allows them to make deals and pursuade tribes and clans to accept agreements and deals.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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