Provincial Government info from the old site

Coordination and information for the various volunteers of BDI.
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Stygian
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Provincial Government info from the old site

Post by Stygian »

I thought this was already up on the Wiki, but if it is, I can't find it. This info ought to be helpful in lieu of upcoming plotting:

Provincial Government

Arangoth was originally a confederacy of Grand Duchies before Tagran became the first king of Arangoth. Sithirel, or Dukes, have been the traditional rulers of the various Arangothian provinces for centuries. AngelSin and BlkDragon did not follow this tradition, preferring to rule directly from Castle Black. After their abdication, The Raven took over as Regent, though he too soon disappeared. A Regency Council rose to take on the mantle of government in the year 469, until it was disbanded late in the year 473. King Arlok has restored the traditional forms of government and appointed a new Sithire to govern the South on his behalf.

When Queen Alysia (called AngelSin) and her consort, King BlkDragon, established their new capital in Drache in the year 465, they ruled it directly from Castle Black for a small number of years. They governed more and more of Arangoth, as word of Dorn's Blood returning to Arangoth spread throughout the shattered kingdom and fiefs flocked to her banner. But the King and Queen never lost their humility, and familiarity with their people, best illustrated in their steadfast devotion to the King's Inn in ever-growing Drache.

They were succeeded, after leaving for mysterious reasons, by their counsellor, the arch-mage known as The Raven. Though wise and powerful, the Regent was also reclusive and by all accounts spent most of his time in the towers of Castle Black. The time came when he inexplicably disappeared altogether, leaving the running of the country to its bureaucrats and local lords. It was later revealed that he was combatting unseen threats to Arangoth, though he has not explained the nature of the matters that keep him occupied even to the present day.

When Drache was faced with myriad disasters in the year 469, several prominent nobles rose up to fill the vacuum. Lady Lorla Daranek called together a Council to take the reigns of the Regency in Evening Star (December) of 469. They named an empty seat for The Raven, should he choose to return and began to tackle Drache’s problems. Their chosen symbol was a fatted goose and sheaf of wheat in an unbroken circle, for plenty and concord.

Simultaneously, Arlok ul-Dorn, the Prince of Old Arangoth, awakened from an enchanted sleep of fifty years in Outer Arangoth and returned home. After a series of misunderstandings and tests, he was declared King in Northern Arangoth, the northern Diet never having been keen on The Raven, a foreigner, and preferring the King to the Council. Soon it came to light that still-missing Queen Alysia had abdicated some years ago, and the Council negotiated Arlok's becoming King of all Arangoth in 470. The Council remained in provincial control of the southern provinces.

After a powerful controversy begat a political uprising in Drache, the Council was disbanded in 473 and one of its last members, Lord Marcion Aldenbar, named Lord Chancellor. He was also directed by His Majesty to find a new Sithire, or Duke, to rule the South, in a more traditional form of Arangothian government.
Stygian
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Posts: 31
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2012 2:29 pm
Preferred Title: The Archivist
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Re: Provincial Government info from the old site

Post by Stygian »

From Council to Sithire

In response to the disasters affecting Drache and the disappearance of the Raven, Lady Lorla Daranek called together a Council of prominent Nobles on her own initiative. She and her fellows took the reigns of the Regency in Evening Star (December) of 469. Councilors included its founder Lady Daranek, Lady Katerine DeDannan, Lady Shannon Devereux, Lord Sarnem Vansippa, Lord Marcion Tagran Aldenbar, Professor Maximilien Reizeau, Korthai Captain Harlst Mhern-Lathvek, and the renowned Father Kylus Dragonsbane. Later, Magistrate and Aranian Lady Jetteah ul-Morden Asprolta was also co-opted. They named an empty seat for The Raven, should he choose to return and began to tackle Drache’s problems. Their chosen symbol was a fatted goose and sheaf of wheat in an unbroken circle. King Arlok, recognized only in the north, sent them congratulations and ‘appointed’ them in charge of Transdariania, but relations were still tense.

Over the next few years, the Council started out with strength and drive to save the south from famine, overpopulation and destruction. They replaced the burnt granaries, bought foreign grain, and conducted a census of Transdariania. The census allowed them to begin a grain dole to feed the starving masses and later, to change the tax structure. The grain dole was eventually rendered needless once the Council had distributed free family-sized tillages to willing farmers. With Transdariania repopulated after the Silver Flame exodus, the south became self-sufficient once more. The Council also revised the law code, expanded the Royal Guard into the Wharf District, and put other local matters in order.

Over the years their numbers dwindled. Tespin Devereux was murdered, Vansippa died of illness, DeDannan resigned, and Daranek, Dragonsbane, and Asprolta retired to the new title of Vorfon Aptentrod (or Lord Overseer), with a pension and the ability to step in and fill vacant Council positions should the need arise.

Although they were opposed to King Arlok's rise in the north at first, violence never broke out between the Conciliar South (Transdariania and Arania) and the Royalist North (Inner Arangoth, Ruthmarna, Eastern Arangoth, and Sresar Vale). Sresar Vale initially supported the Council, but when an Aranian Councilor is appointed with no Sresarian counterpart, they instead swore fealty to Arlok. When evidence finally came to light that Queen Alysia had abdicated rather than left temporarily, the Council began negotiations to re-unite the nation. Of course, they were successful and arranged for provincial control over the South, jurisdiction over maritime matters, checks upon Royal Power, and the provision that the King reside in Castle Black at least four months of the year.

Unfortunately, Drache's continued problems began to take their toll upon the Council's prestige. A plague in the Old City forced the Council to take the draconian policy of quarantining the sick inhabitants from the richer portions of the city. A fire, and later the Mist War prompted Councilor Reizeau to enact high taxes and tariffs to aid with rebuilding, to the outrage of the merchant community. The Council was often accused of being slow to act, and somewhat ponderous. Each member had an equal say and an equal vote, and long debates often arose over simple decisions.

The final blow came in 473 when a petitioner approached the Council with an appeal for citizenship. Aridia Vlorress claimed to be a 'Fallen Angel,' just as the former Queen, but had achieved that state after being 'cured' of vampirism. Drache's anti-vampire sentiment, especially among the Royal Guard, Wharfer population, and Chancellory, ensured that 'The Vlorress Affair' would be explosive, but the now three-member Council voted two to one in favour. Mhern-Lathvek retired soon after to Mhernettla and the governing of the Korthai there.

The Chancellery was outraged, and the Lord Chancellor, Thomas L'Char Bourne, retired rather than grant citizenship to an admitted vampire. Instead of turning his title and authority over to the King or Regent, as the laws demanded, however, he empowered a council of his own Magistrates to succeed him. They shared his beliefs and refused to give Vlorress the oath of citizenship. Meeting secretly, the Magistrates' anti-Council sentiment ran high and soon the city was quivering with tension.

Unsure of their support among the usually neutral Royal Guard, Aldenbar rode north to report to Arlok and gain his support against possible treason, sparking fears among the Magistrates he might return with an army. Reizeau, meanwhile, met secretly with Lady Lorla Daranek, the council's founder, who had returned to the city. To his misfortune, he had also ignored Aldenbar's warnings and sent a stiff letter to the Magistrates regarding a presumption of theirs in dealing with foreign correspondance.

The treasonous elements within the Guard and Chancellery chose that night to strike. In what would become known as the 'Night of the Hunted Goose,' the Guard's Wharf-Commander, Tarn Harscorn and the Magistrate Lytia Seward arrested Reizeau in the middle of the Black Dragon Inn on trumped up charges of using the New City Guard to extort merchants. The scene became chaotic, with present Guards and Magistrates on either side of the conflict arriving and arguing. Before his arrest was executed, Reizeau had only the time to declare Daranek, by virtue of her title of Lady Overseer, a full Councilor and in charge of the city. He was then struck unconscious and secreted away to the Wharf by Harscorn, who in the process disobeyed a command from Guard Captain Von Stahl himself.

Harscorn had been newly transferred from the Border Watch, and had brought with him a number of fellow Watchmen; men loyal to him. It was this corps that aided him in fleeing with Reizeau to the Wharf, despite the efforts of his own Captain and the New City guard to stop him. There, the Wharf Guards rose up against the Council and even their Captain, shutting and garrisoning the Iron Gate. The mutineers even stole into the New City to burn the Guard's armoury in retaliation for aerial surveillance of the Wharf.

The rebels legitimacy was stripped away, however, when Magistrate Ketara Lyon's investigation of the charges against Reizeau revealed them as patently false. What is more, Seward's surrendered documents implicated the scheming merchant prince, Resque Maessen, in the extortion plot. Maessen had secretly organized a number of Drache's merchants to support the Chancellery, but they were outraged that Seward's files threatened them and expected them to give false testimony to support her charges. Alienated by Seward's rash behaviour, the coalition of merchants distanced themselves from her actions.

But the Iron Gate was still closed, and for a few tense days it looked like open war might break out at any moment within the city. To make things worse, a pair of vampires began a murdering spree, even while the Guards were occupied with the traitors within their own ranks. And to add further to the confusion, The Raven briefly returned to Drache and issued a plea for peace from Castle Black.

Into the standoff, Aldenbar returned to the city secretly and began inviting people to meet with him at the opulent House of the Silver Swan. He had been appointed as the new Lord Chancellor by the King, and was granted Royal Authority to disband the Council as unable to function, cancel the tax scheme, and appoint a new Sithire (Duke) to govern the South. With these powers, he secured the cooperation of the Guard, Resque's merchant alliance, Lady Councilor Daranek, The Raven, and the remaining Magistrates, who were also alarmed by Seward's treason.
Seeing their support crumble, Seward, Harscorn, and his corps of loyal Watch rangers fled the city and entered into exile. Reizeau was freed, but seeing the Council disbanded and Aldenbar in full authority, declared himself betrayed and bitterly exiled himself to Ethcabar, then to Myst.
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