Qualinost has the Speaker of the Suns
Silvanost has the Speaker of the Stars
The Minotaurs have an Emperor
The dwarves a High Thane
but what of the other nations?
Arandur
Arandur
Arandur
The DLCS has a cursory glance at each area's govt, and AoM has more detail.
Originally posted by Arandur
I think that 350 years is quite a long time in the Grand scheme of things. If in our own History let us say that Constantinople or Venice were destroyed we would rebuild, restore or replace in less than 350 years. And in our history we don't have wizards or magic or any of the nifty high fantasy ways of communicating...
Arandur
You make it sound as though the city of Istar was the only casualty. We're talking about an entire nation wiped out, not just one big city. In your analogy, it's not just Constantinople that gets wiped off the face of the earth, it's all of the Byzantine Empire. Not just Venice destroyed, but all of Italy.
To use an USA analogy (where mainland USA = Ansalon), it would be equivalent to losing the entire northeast. We're talking about the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, etc. That would be a loss that would take centuries to recover from.
Originally posted by iltharanos
You make it sound as though the city of Istar was the only casualty. We're talking about an entire nation wiped out, not just one big city. In your analogy, it's not just Constantinople that gets wiped off the face of the earth, it's all of the Byzantine Empire. Not just Venice destroyed, but all of Italy.
To use an USA analogy (where mainland USA = Ansalon), it would be equivalent to losing the entire northeast. We're talking about the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, etc. That would be a loss that would take centuries to recover from.
No you wouldnt. In a few years everything would have been cleared of debris and new cities would have been built. If the USA's democracy were destroyed, all the states would probably choose to stand apart from the others for some time, rebuilding itself. then some might join and create a new USA, but some would not join. maybe there would be 2 USA's at the same time.
I see most of the human cities as towns alied with eachother by an unspoken contract. they dont feel the need to be better organized. Each city with each rules. No fronteers between towns. They dont need better government. They can survive by themselves and if necessary, the solamnic's will come to their aid.
And remember. when comparing krynn to Earth, we have satelites, telephones, airplanes, and all these stuff. After the cataclysm no one trusted the wizards. And they usually wouldnt waste their powers unless being extremely well payed.
First of all, Ansalon is roughly the size of Europe, if I recall correctly. Besides that, the separate countries there more accurately portray the differences, whereas America is - well, two or three (depending on if you count Mexico ;) )
First of all, you have to put yourself in, say, the middle ages. Just before the renaissance would work. My mind isn't working well, so I can't recall who had dominance, but any nation works (except Britain. Damn island). Say, for instance, that Spain is suddenly gone. Just... gone. Portugal is still there, but it's now an island. Italy is there, but a new sea has been created that runs roughly between Germany, France, and Italy (Remember, ofcourse, the Germany isn't even Germany yet). There's a gaping hole in the world as they know it (And you need to note, as far as these people are concerned, there is no Asia or Africa). So a big hunk of the world just got obliterated, and everyone's out blaming each other for causing it. Besides that, it's not like the other nations were untouched. They basically got hit with a meteor. Not to mention earthquakes, fire raining down, etc, etc. It was a dismal, dismal time. Even 100 years afterwards, famine was still wracking the land.
350 years later, it'd be about 1650, our time. Only there'd be no rennaissance, because people are a little too concerned with survival to care about cultural and scientific revolutions. They're too busy warring and whatnot. But the foundations of stability would, at that point, be forming or already formed.
So I think 350 years is okay, even possibly generous.
As for the main question - Well, Solamnia seems to work like sort of a Republic, when it's regarded as Solamnia. But it's really more of a confederation. Just a bunch of city states that are banding together for protection under the Knighthood. Sancrist is included in that, I think - They're like a colony, if I remember rightly. Naturally, there are some cities that are larger and more important than others, and so the Lord of the city could, theoretically, be regarded in a King-like quality. In this case, I'm talking about Palanthas.
But as a rule, the people of Ansalon are pretty divided. All the time. They seem frequently bound into groups based on geography and similar culture - The Solamnics, the Dwarves, the Plainsmen. The people under the HighSeekers (much of Abanasinia, isn't it?). I don't know what Ergoth's arrangement is like, but I could see a central ruler forming there. The Elves have Houses or Guilds, the Minotaurs... well, I don't know much about them, but there -are- two nations. Only the Gnomes are really united, as far as I can see. Sort of. They seem kinda Communist. ;)
And that's my wild, tangent, non-sensical ramble for today. Sorry if none of that made much sense.
In my games thats the case, and Lord Amothus is advised by a representitives of powerful noble houses, merchants, the knighthood and a representitive of the temple of Paladine.
Originally posted by SweetMeats
I've always assumed that the Amothus family of Palanthus ran Solamnia aided by a council of advisors.
In my games thats the case, and Lord Amothus is advised by a representitives of powerful noble houses, merchants, the knighthood and a representitive of the temple of Paladine.
The Amothus line rules Palanthas, yes.....but.....
According to Stan!'s "Palanthas" the city of Palanthas is separately ruled from Solamnia
Age of Mortals fixes that.
Originally posted by lost_boy_84
No you wouldnt. In a few years everything would have been cleared of debris and new cities would have been built. If the USA's democracy were destroyed, all the states would probably choose to stand apart from the others for some time, rebuilding itself. then some might join and create a new USA, but some would not join. maybe there would be 2 USA's at the same time.
I see most of the human cities as towns alied with eachother by an unspoken contract. they dont feel the need to be better organized. Each city with each rules. No fronteers between towns. They dont need better government. They can survive by themselves and if necessary, the solamnic's will come to their aid.
And remember. when comparing krynn to Earth, we have satelites, telephones, airplanes, and all these stuff. After the cataclysm no one trusted the wizards. And they usually wouldnt waste their powers unless being extremely well payed.
The USA analogy was only to put into mind a modern day equivalent to Istar, in terms of political, cultural, and military power.
The Byzantine Empire analogy I used previously emphasizes my point. Like the Udjat said, 350 years would likely be a generous time period for a recovery from a meteor strike to the planet. If you consider that in our own history after the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 400s AD, the four or five centuries that followed were termed the Dark Ages. Most of Europe lost knowledge of the learning of the Greeks and Romans, farming collapsed, populations dwindled, the extensive road network of the Roman Empire collapsed and along with it a majority of trade. Instead of a continent-spanning empire, what was left were several dozen small successor states. The only real unifying force left was the Church.
If several centuries of darkness happened merely because of the collapse of the Roman Empire, how much more for the utter destruction of the land and nation of Istar and other lands? Not only is Istar the nation completely lost and replaced by a violent sea, Ergoth gets cut in half due to flooding waters, the major seaport Tarsis gets landlocked and the plains around it turn into desert. You've got volcanic activity in both major mountain ranges, the Kharolis and Khalkist mountains. Ash and dust rain down everywhere. On top of that, no more true clerics. Disease runs rampant. Climate changes dramatically in many parts of the continent, so likely crops that used to grow there are no longer viable.
Given all of these factors, I'm surprised the people of Ansalon recovered as well as they did after a mere three and a half centuries.
Addressing the actual topic of this post ... wasn't Palanthas actually the capital city of Solamnia in the 4th Age post-War of the Lance?
During the middle ages, we would take a long time rebuilding if Portugal were to be wiped out of the face of the world or if in the end of the sea exploration, when Portugal lost part of it's power to other countries, some of the europien countries disappeared. But now? no way
When comparing to krynn we can't think of the world as it is. We have to think of the middle ages.
Now with the return of Gods and magic, if nothing big were to happen on krynn, it'd take a lot less to rebuild if only the big powers wanted to.
You're missing my point. My USA analogy was made merely to give a modern frame of reference to those who otherwise lacked such a conceptual framework for the importance of Istar in Ansalonian society. If you will look closely at my first post you will note that I equated the whole of the USA with the continent of Ansalon, and the northeast of the USA with Istar the nation.
From your posts it seems you have taken my analogy to equate all of the USA with Istar and the rest of the Earth as the rest of Krynn. That is not what I indicated in my previous posts. Thus it also does not follow that the loss of the USA would take the modern world centuries to recover from. The USA analogy merely compared Istar the nation with the northeast USA, which traditionally has been a commercial and political power in comparison to the rest of the USA.
The point of my posts was that Krynn would take at a minimum several centuries to recover from a meteoric impact, a viewpoint we both hold.