Orlanthi (Sartar) "officials"

[hkokko]

What 'officials' would an Orlanthi town or clan have major or minor. Do the ring members have titles, what about other advisors etc to chieftain. Would the 'officials' only exist in cities or would smaller villages have them as well. Lawtalker, godtalker, weaponmaster? 

[Joerg]

Only two offices are well established in Pavis, the only sartarite-founded city we have official details on - the mayor and the constable.

The smaller Sartarite "cities" (other than Boldhome and Alda-chur) come in two main varieties - the four cities founded by Sartar plus Pavis founded by Dorasar and Alone founded by Terasarin following the same model, and overgrown clan settlements like Runegate or Clearwine which hold tribal (or former tribal, in case of the Runegate Triaty) institutions. Alda-chur is similar, but is the center of a tribal confederation (the Far Walkers) rather than a tribe.

Sartar-founded city rings have a fixed number of seats for the tribal kings or their urban deputies, and a number of seats to be appointed by the mayor (if the same form of democracy as in an Orlanthi clan is used) and/or by the major power groups in the city (besides the tribes, e.g. guilds and temples). In practice, the mayor might have a choice between representants of certain power groups, but not a free choice whom to call to serve in the city ring.

The Tarshite cities that preceded the Lunar take-over are Dunstop, Bagnot, Goldedge and Wintertop.

Goldedge is a Sun Dome Temple in a walled city, with the temple probably managing the administration of the city. Similar arrangements are likely in other Templar cities elsewhere.

Dunstop, Bagnot and Wintertop are probably similar to Alda-chur in organisation - the seat of a leader of a confederation, who may appoint some of his followers to manage the day-to-day affairs of administration. The appointees are likely to act like an unelected chieftain with a clan ring of appointees of the most influential groups or supergroups of the city. The tribes of the confederation might see less direct influence on the cities than in the Sartar-founded model. The tribe of the current head of the confederation will most likely be over-represented, while other tribes will have to compete for the seats left over for them. Fazzur's Orindori tribe appears to be influential in Bagnot and Dunstop (Fazzur's son Annstad takes his epithet name from that city). Wintertop fort will have Shaker Temple influence and some tribal representation from the Exile tribes.

 

The mayor or chief administrator is likely to have a staff of assistants, like the constable who is charged with keeping the peace in the city.

Clans don't need a constable, neither do tribal seats - in both cases there are no needs to have more than the personal guard retinue of the chieftain or the tribal king to keep an eye on those few people not a permanent part of the community. In a city, this is no longer true - there are bound to be permanent residents who are neither personal followers of the head person nor visitors, so the peace through avoidance of kinstrife no longer works. Visitors aren't guests, either, so they are not bound to the reciprocal laws of hospitality in the same way as a guest of a clan or a tribal king.

Other than the constable, there may be posts like the treasurer or the record-keeper of the city. These positions needn't be members of the city ring, but might be traditionally such. This could vary from city to city, even between the cities founded by Sartar.

 

City lawspeaking is bound to be different from clan lawspeaking. City laws may often address an individual rather than the individual's clan, simply because these individuals are likely to be very far from the community that they came from. Citizens will usually have an organisation similar to a clan behind them - this could be a temple or a guild. These often are support structures rather than the individual's responsible lawspeaking entity, though. They will support a member, and might collect contributions to a legal fine on behalf of the convicted, but that support can be retracted more easily than with a clan member. A clan member that loses the support of the clan is exiled. An urban citizen whose support group chooses not to stand up for a fine incurred by that individual is not automatically an outlaw, he will be in dire economic straits, though.

 

City lawspeaking is bound to have something like low justice - causes brought to the constable, or in bigger issues before the mayor, who will then pronounce a verdict, usually after hearing the accused and the accuser (or their lawspeakers, if they field any). The constable can be accuser and judge/arbiter in one person for minor and well established misdemeanors.

Witnesses aren't eye-witnesses but rather lobbyists for one of the parties before the judge.

[David Scott]

13 hours ago, hkokko said:

What 'officials' would an Orlanthi town or clan have major or minor. Do the ring members have titles, what about other advisors etc to chieftain. Would the 'officials' only exist in cities or would smaller villages have them as well. Lawtalker, godtalker, weaponmaster? 

This covered in the Report on the Orlanthi in the Sartar book page 213, where the three kinds of councils and their positions are detailed. Tribal councils are detailed further on.

Jonstown is detailed in the Sartar Companion as is a useful example of an Orlanthi city, and Runegate is detailed further on.

If You have the original KoDP in the manual, it mentions two other kinds of ring - Ernaldan and Elmali. There are references to these elsewhere.

[Tindalos]

32 minutes ago, David Scott said:

If You have the original KoDP in the manual, it mentions two other kinds of ring - Ernaldan and Elmali. There are references to these elsewhere.

 

The Ernaldan Ring was described in Barbarian Adventures, as the Earth Ring, on page 15. The same page features the Hill Ring, an even more traditional ring than the Traditionalist Ring.

The Anatyr Ring, also known as the Elmali Ring, was in Masters of Luck and Death, page 9.

 

 

Edited April 6, 2017 by Tindalos

[Darius West]

I wrote this item on "Sherruffs" some time ago as a reference to Apple Lane, which lists such a national office of rank for the Kingdom of Sartar.  It is an attempt to make old RQ2 material more lore friendly with later developments.

Sherruffs.pdf