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Elections in Balic

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
zkir
Jan 29, 2008 15:59:19 In the Wander's Journal it is mentioned that in Balic templars are elected by people. Is there any material that describes the procedure of these elections?

Was it just a meeting of all citizens or something more like morden system with several election centres and voting papers ?
#2
ishan_wh
Jan 29, 2008 16:29:29 Hey I got this info from the Dark Sun Expanded and Revised Boxed Set Expanded and Revised...

Hope it helps,

BALIC
The sorcerer-king Andropinis once ruled Balic from the airy confines of the White Palace, not far from the dusty shores of the city’s silt harbor. One day in the Year of Friend’s Agitation, he boarded his silt armada and struck out for the far side of the Sea of Silt. It was a trip from which he never returned. The city-state, located southeast of Tyr on the secluded shores of the Forked Tongue Estuary, has a population of approximately 28,000. Balic has suffered on a number of fronts in recent years. In the Year of Dragon’s Agitation, when Tyr had refused to pay the Dragon’s Levy, it fell to Balic to make up the loss by adding an extra thousand slaves to its contribution. The following year, Mountain’s Fury, saw the Peninsula Rampage, a short-lived war in which a small army of giants overran most of the Balican Peninsula. Half of Balic’s army and a quarter of its fields were destroyed in the battle. The city-state was still recovering when Andropinis fell to Rajaat’s revenge a few years later.

Today the city-state has no sorcerer-king to lead it or protect it from the ravages of Athas. Balic has always had a tradition of the illusion of democracy. Andropinis claimed to have been freely elected to his position, the templars were elected to ten year terms by the free citizens, and even the nobles (called patricians) were allowed to participate in the governmental process by selecting members to attend the Chamber of Patricians on a regular basis. Though this democracy wasn’t real, it still taught the people about one possible way a free society could work. When the news spread that Andropinis was gone (he had been imprisoned in the Black by Rajaat), various factions called for a new election. The main contenders for the position of dictator of Balic were Oriol of Magestalos, First Speaker of the Patricians (male human/7th-level psionicist/LN); General Zanthiros of the Balican army (male human/13th-level fighter/LE); and First Templar Asthira (female human/12th-level templar/LE). Before the final votes could be counted, Tabaros, the patriarch of House Wavir, made his move. The merchant house seized the White Palace, the silt harbor, and all of the territory in between and declared Tabaros to be the Trade Lord of Balic. This didn’t sit well with House Wavir’s rivals. Neither House Tomblador nor House Rees wanted to be cut out of this opportunity, so each of these merchant dynasties took over the remaining portions of the city.

Government:
Today Balic is divided into three parts, each controlled by a different trade lord. These parts cooperate on one level but battle for supremacy on all others. The largest block of control falls to Lord Tabaros of House Wavir (male human/20thlevel trader/NG), while Lord Kaladon of House Tomblador (male human/12th-level trader/LE) and Lady Essen of House Rees (female human/15th-level trader, 4th-level psionicist/LN) control equally sized smaller blocks. The same amount of cooperation that allows the three rivals to jointly maintain the major trading village of Altaruk allows them to keep Balic running as a major city-state. As far as outsiders are concerned, the three leaders formed a triune council to rule the city after Andropinis fell. While such a council does exist, and the three rivals meet regularly to keep the city-state strong enough to stand against invaders, they each work behind the scenes to build their own power bases up and knock their rivals down. Each trade lord has a different view of the world and the way Balic should be governed. Wavir, for example, wants to free all slaves, outlaw defilers, welcome preservers into society, and set up a true democratic state. The way to accomplish this, Lord Tabaros believes, is by quick action and harsh measures. Unfortunately, Tabaros is more than 100 years old and may not be able to stay in power much longer. Publicly, the trade lord appears as sharp and healthy as ever, but privately he suffers the weaknesses of age and illness. He had hoped to pass leadership to his son long ago, but his son died when raiders attacked his caravan four years ago. The next likely candidate, Tabaro’s granddaughter Tarinne (female human/7th-level trader, 4th-level fighter/NC), isn’t ready for the responsibilities yet (or so Tabaros believes). Lord Kaladon wants to resume the dictatorship with himself as king of Balic. Lady Essen, meanwhile, believes that the city-state should be nothing more than a glorified merchant village, serving to fill the coffers of House Rees and making it the most powerful merchant house in the entire Tyr Region. Needless to say, none of the sides want to see any other gain a significant advantage. Those templars who agreed to swear allegiance to one of the trade lords have been retained for their bureaucratic skills. However, the merchant houses have their own administrators to fall back on, so any templars who can’t be trusted are eliminated. (A small number of templars still loyal to Andropinis have gone into hiding and continue to work in secret, though they have little power and few hopes of gaining any under the current system.)
The patricians are allowed varying degrees of participation in the government, depending upon which merchant house holds sway over the territory their land occupies. Under Wavir’s control, the patricians are allowed full participation rights. Under House Tomblador, the nobles are treated barely better than slaves, while House Rees gives them the freedom to handle their own affairs-provided they meet the production quotas Lady Essen has established for each noble family.

Conditions in Balic:
Balic is a clean, comfortable metropolis on the shores of a silt bay. It was untouched by the Great Earthquake, but other disasters have left their marks on the place in recent years. For the most part, however, life under the trade lords is considerably better than it was under the cruel and oppressive Andropinis. Even the territory controlled by House Tomblador, whose lord attempts to pattern himself as Balic’s new dictator, is pleasant compared to the atrocities of the previous ruler.
On the surface, the city appears to be one sprawling metropolis, not a divided city. No walls separate one territory from another, no guards wait to collect tolls as citizens move from block to block. To the locals, however, there is a clear delineation between one lord’s domain and the next. Wavir is free and bright, Tomblador oppressive and dark, and Rees is like an extended work camp where everyone labors for the benefit of the trade lord. Though they appear to cooperate for the good of the city, the trade lords wage a secret war against each other that everyone knows about but few people understand. None of the trade lords are willing to let this conflict escalate into a full-scale civil war, but they have come very close to it in recent months. Caravans have been raided or sabotaged, warehouses plundered or burnt to the ground, and important agents have been killed on all sides. How far each is willing to push before a better solution must be found remains to be seen.
To stave off another war with the giants, House Rees has sent representatives into the silt basin to negotiate a lasting peace. No contracts have been agreed upon, but it seems Balic may soon have an agreement with the usually hostile giants. The three contenders for rulership of Balic before the trade lords made their moves are still active in the city-state. Oriol the Patrician has dedicated his noble house to Lord Tabaros, though he is ready to step back to the forefront should the old man grow too sick to rule. General Zanthiros has fled the city with a small but significant portion of the city militia. His band operates as a raiding tribe along the peninsula, waiting for an opportunity to return to Balic to seize power. The templar Asthira, meanwhile, has gone into hiding within the city. From her place in the shadows, she continues to keep in contact with many of the templars who still have roles in the government, as well as with those who have taken to hiding. She hopes to eventually overthrow the trade lords, who she feels illegally took power.
Dark rumors persist that Andropinis is able to contact his loyal templars (such as Asthira) from his prison in the dimension known as the Black. These can be neither confirmed nor denied at this time, but the thought of Andropinis continuing to exert influence over the city has the local Veiled Alliance more than a little concerned. If the rumors are true, is Andropinis working with his exiled templars or with someone currently in power somewhere in the city?
#3
bad_mushroom
Jan 29, 2008 16:37:19 If Balic uses something on the order of Athenian democracy, an assembly of citizens come together (roughly 1/3 of the total population), elect speakers to help administrate the meeting, and then go about voting on laws, electing officials, etc. Some of the major issues in Athens were the ever-tightening definition of a citizen (it wasn't just about being born there or swearing loyalties to the right people...if you owed a debt, you were not considered a citizen and your children inherited your lack of citizenship). Citizens' votes could also be bought and sold.

In a setting like Dark Sun and in a city-state like Balic, I would imagine there are lots of ways templars, nobles, merchants and other rich/powerful folks can manipulate something like an election.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_democracy
#4
Pennarin
Jan 30, 2008 12:59:27 The elective process in HBO's Rome might be a good starting point, in the episodes where the elections run among the populace for who will control the hills.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zkir Jan 29, 2008 15:59:19	In the Wander's Journal it is mentioned that in Balic templars are elected by people. Is there any material that describes the procedure of these elections? Was it just a meeting of all citizens or something more like morden system with several election centres and voting papers ?
#2 ishan_wh Jan 29, 2008 16:29:29	Hey I got this info from the Dark Sun Expanded and Revised Boxed Set Expanded and Revised... Hope it helps, BALIC The sorcerer-king Andropinis once ruled Balic from the airy confines of the White Palace, not far from the dusty shores of the city’s silt harbor. One day in the Year of Friend’s Agitation, he boarded his silt armada and struck out for the far side of the Sea of Silt. It was a trip from which he never returned. The city-state, located southeast of Tyr on the secluded shores of the Forked Tongue Estuary, has a population of approximately 28,000. Balic has suffered on a number of fronts in recent years. In the Year of Dragon’s Agitation, when Tyr had refused to pay the Dragon’s Levy, it fell to Balic to make up the loss by adding an extra thousand slaves to its contribution. The following year, Mountain’s Fury, saw the Peninsula Rampage, a short-lived war in which a small army of giants overran most of the Balican Peninsula. Half of Balic’s army and a quarter of its fields were destroyed in the battle. The city-state was still recovering when Andropinis fell to Rajaat’s revenge a few years later. Today the city-state has no sorcerer-king to lead it or protect it from the ravages of Athas. Balic has always had a tradition of the illusion of democracy. Andropinis claimed to have been freely elected to his position, the templars were elected to ten year terms by the free citizens, and even the nobles (called patricians) were allowed to participate in the governmental process by selecting members to attend the Chamber of Patricians on a regular basis. Though this democracy wasn’t real, it still taught the people about one possible way a free society could work. When the news spread that Andropinis was gone (he had been imprisoned in the Black by Rajaat), various factions called for a new election. The main contenders for the position of dictator of Balic were Oriol of Magestalos, First Speaker of the Patricians (male human/7th-level psionicist/LN); General Zanthiros of the Balican army (male human/13th-level fighter/LE); and First Templar Asthira (female human/12th-level templar/LE). Before the final votes could be counted, Tabaros, the patriarch of House Wavir, made his move. The merchant house seized the White Palace, the silt harbor, and all of the territory in between and declared Tabaros to be the Trade Lord of Balic. This didn’t sit well with House Wavir’s rivals. Neither House Tomblador nor House Rees wanted to be cut out of this opportunity, so each of these merchant dynasties took over the remaining portions of the city. Government: Today Balic is divided into three parts, each controlled by a different trade lord. These parts cooperate on one level but battle for supremacy on all others. The largest block of control falls to Lord Tabaros of House Wavir (male human/20thlevel trader/NG), while Lord Kaladon of House Tomblador (male human/12th-level trader/LE) and Lady Essen of House Rees (female human/15th-level trader, 4th-level psionicist/LN) control equally sized smaller blocks. The same amount of cooperation that allows the three rivals to jointly maintain the major trading village of Altaruk allows them to keep Balic running as a major city-state. As far as outsiders are concerned, the three leaders formed a triune council to rule the city after Andropinis fell. While such a council does exist, and the three rivals meet regularly to keep the city-state strong enough to stand against invaders, they each work behind the scenes to build their own power bases up and knock their rivals down. Each trade lord has a different view of the world and the way Balic should be governed. Wavir, for example, wants to free all slaves, outlaw defilers, welcome preservers into society, and set up a true democratic state. The way to accomplish this, Lord Tabaros believes, is by quick action and harsh measures. Unfortunately, Tabaros is more than 100 years old and may not be able to stay in power much longer. Publicly, the trade lord appears as sharp and healthy as ever, but privately he suffers the weaknesses of age and illness. He had hoped to pass leadership to his son long ago, but his son died when raiders attacked his caravan four years ago. The next likely candidate, Tabaro’s granddaughter Tarinne (female human/7th-level trader, 4th-level fighter/NC), isn’t ready for the responsibilities yet (or so Tabaros believes). Lord Kaladon wants to resume the dictatorship with himself as king of Balic. Lady Essen, meanwhile, believes that the city-state should be nothing more than a glorified merchant village, serving to fill the coffers of House Rees and making it the most powerful merchant house in the entire Tyr Region. Needless to say, none of the sides want to see any other gain a significant advantage. Those templars who agreed to swear allegiance to one of the trade lords have been retained for their bureaucratic skills. However, the merchant houses have their own administrators to fall back on, so any templars who can’t be trusted are eliminated. (A small number of templars still loyal to Andropinis have gone into hiding and continue to work in secret, though they have little power and few hopes of gaining any under the current system.) The patricians are allowed varying degrees of participation in the government, depending upon which merchant house holds sway over the territory their land occupies. Under Wavir’s control, the patricians are allowed full participation rights. Under House Tomblador, the nobles are treated barely better than slaves, while House Rees gives them the freedom to handle their own affairs-provided they meet the production quotas Lady Essen has established for each noble family. Conditions in Balic: Balic is a clean, comfortable metropolis on the shores of a silt bay. It was untouched by the Great Earthquake, but other disasters have left their marks on the place in recent years. For the most part, however, life under the trade lords is considerably better than it was under the cruel and oppressive Andropinis. Even the territory controlled by House Tomblador, whose lord attempts to pattern himself as Balic’s new dictator, is pleasant compared to the atrocities of the previous ruler. On the surface, the city appears to be one sprawling metropolis, not a divided city. No walls separate one territory from another, no guards wait to collect tolls as citizens move from block to block. To the locals, however, there is a clear delineation between one lord’s domain and the next. Wavir is free and bright, Tomblador oppressive and dark, and Rees is like an extended work camp where everyone labors for the benefit of the trade lord. Though they appear to cooperate for the good of the city, the trade lords wage a secret war against each other that everyone knows about but few people understand. None of the trade lords are willing to let this conflict escalate into a full-scale civil war, but they have come very close to it in recent months. Caravans have been raided or sabotaged, warehouses plundered or burnt to the ground, and important agents have been killed on all sides. How far each is willing to push before a better solution must be found remains to be seen. To stave off another war with the giants, House Rees has sent representatives into the silt basin to negotiate a lasting peace. No contracts have been agreed upon, but it seems Balic may soon have an agreement with the usually hostile giants. The three contenders for rulership of Balic before the trade lords made their moves are still active in the city-state. Oriol the Patrician has dedicated his noble house to Lord Tabaros, though he is ready to step back to the forefront should the old man grow too sick to rule. General Zanthiros has fled the city with a small but significant portion of the city militia. His band operates as a raiding tribe along the peninsula, waiting for an opportunity to return to Balic to seize power. The templar Asthira, meanwhile, has gone into hiding within the city. From her place in the shadows, she continues to keep in contact with many of the templars who still have roles in the government, as well as with those who have taken to hiding. She hopes to eventually overthrow the trade lords, who she feels illegally took power. Dark rumors persist that Andropinis is able to contact his loyal templars (such as Asthira) from his prison in the dimension known as the Black. These can be neither confirmed nor denied at this time, but the thought of Andropinis continuing to exert influence over the city has the local Veiled Alliance more than a little concerned. If the rumors are true, is Andropinis working with his exiled templars or with someone currently in power somewhere in the city?
#3 bad_mushroom Jan 29, 2008 16:37:19	If Balic uses something on the order of Athenian democracy, an assembly of citizens come together (roughly 1/3 of the total population), elect speakers to help administrate the meeting, and then go about voting on laws, electing officials, etc. Some of the major issues in Athens were the ever-tightening definition of a citizen (it wasn't just about being born there or swearing loyalties to the right people...if you owed a debt, you were not considered a citizen and your children inherited your lack of citizenship). Citizens' votes could also be bought and sold. In a setting like Dark Sun and in a city-state like Balic, I would imagine there are lots of ways templars, nobles, merchants and other rich/powerful folks can manipulate something like an election. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_democracy
#4 Pennarin Jan 30, 2008 12:59:27	The elective process in HBO's Rome might be a good starting point, in the episodes where the elections run among the populace for who will control the hills.