On Thu, 28 Aug 2003, cybersavant wrote:



> Hello.** I have a problem with the HPS- Under the Clans it

> specifically says that the Jarvyll Clan has NEVER had a female Jarl,

> yet in the Regents timeline list, there are TWO females listed as

> being from the Jarvyll clan- Aldis II and Gudrid.

>

> Is this a typo or were they not elected from the Jarls?



The last line on Page 19 says kings and queens are "usually" chosen from

among the jarls, so they need not necessarily have been jarls themselves.



This conclusion is supported by several other observations. Page 26 says,

"the jarls... rule one province each; the remainder fall under the control

of the regent," and generally describes the position of regent as entirely

separate from (and often at odds with) the jarls; so does page 18. Page

21 says the book assumes the regent PC will want to be one of the jarls,

but that needn`t be the case. Page 5, in recounting the tale of choosing

the second regent, says "others argued for... electing a jarl as the new

king", but also "council to decide a worthy successor;" I would argue that

being a jarl is one way to demonstrate worthiness, but not the only one.

Also, one of the candidates for regent of nearby Halskapa, Sketa of

Aandvjor, is not herself a jarl. All this is really just icing on the

cake, since I think the "usually" is a very solid proof of "not always".



Now, since only the jarls of the six settled tribes actually have a vote

on the council, it might be easier to become king if already in possession

of a jarldom as a powerbase. The more important question is how the jarls

of the other clans would perceive a non-jarl king; they might be pleased

to have someone who was not so long and bitter a rival or not so obviously

committed to the primacy and power of their own individual clan, or they

might be displeased to have someone who had not proven their abilities to

rule or likely to be more-or-less openly under the thumb of another jarl.

I suspect non-jarl kings are frequent compromise candidates, when each of

the jarls has made too many enemies to be able to muster the four votes

needed to win the election; jarls of nomadic clans might serve a similar

function, but they might not be able to be counted on to show up to do the

job often enough.





Ryan Caveney