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08-31-2003, 06:41 AM #1
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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
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