Role of the Chamberlain

[craig@finance.econ.usyd.]

At 03:07 PM 27/5/98 +0100, you wrote:
>> At this point I'm not sure what to do. The non-blooded guy wants to
>> eventually have a bloodline - but his is also the power gamer in my group
>> and allways trys to be the autocrat. Maybe the role is suited to him. At
>> the same time I have a far more easygoing player who has been dying for the
>> chance to try a role of group leader. Its a toss up.
>
>Well it would make for a great plot if the unblooded one got the
>bloodline, but if I understand your characteristic of him correctly,
>he is something like Darien Avan, on a smaller scale. In this case,
>it would be difficult for him to become Emperor because of the
>Chamberlain (whatever his name is). IIRC the chamberlain wants an
>Emperor who is able to heal the wounds of the land and care for the
>citizens rather than his own ambition. This is why neither Avar nor
>Boeruine have become Emperor yet.
>
>(Pardon my rambling...)
>
>So if he is like them, he would at the very least have to do some
>serious roleplaying to convince the chamberlain that he is the
>rightful Emperor, since noone becomes Emperor without the Chamberlain
>saying so. The other player sounds more likely to be able to do this.
>Personally, I would give it to the easygoing player.

One of my players argued the same thing, however, I would argue that the
chamberlain only has the power to reject a candidate now because of the
fact that the other regents cannot agree on who should be Emperor. If
however a candidate, through either diplomacy (boring) or conquest was able
to gain the support of the majority of regenst then that person would be
appointed Emperor even if the Chamberlain objected. All they would need to
do is declare themselves Emperor and then appoint a new Chamberlain. Who
could object?

By the way as an aside the plan for my PC, who is the ruler of Diemed, is
to woe Prince Avan's daughter (according to the Sword and Crown adventure
shes evil but so is my PC so thats no problem) then offer to recognise
Avan's claim to the throne in return for being named his heir. This would
allow us to isolate the imperial city, maybe even assualt and capture it,
forcing any potention enemies to either fight their way through our
combined armies to aid the city or run the blockade of our combined navies.
Either way it would be difficult. With the Imperial City in our hands and
the Chamberlain removed victory is inevitable.

Craig

[Ryan B. Caveney]

On Thu, 28 May 1998 craig@finance.econ.usyd.edu.au wrote:

> One of my players argued the same thing, however, I would argue that the
> chamberlain only has the power to reject a candidate now because of the
> fact that the other regents cannot agree on who should be Emperor.

The Chamberlain's backing wins you a lot of points in the race,
but it is by no means the whole shebang -- Michael Roele spent the first
four years or so of his reign fighting a civil war over his accession.
In the present lack of any central governing authority, the Chamberlain
has no direct power over anybody, except the people in the Imperial City
itself. He has a great deal of prestige and moral authority, however: his
backing would not get you to the throne, but it might help you acquire
enough allies to take and keep it.

> however a candidate, through either diplomacy (boring) or conquest was

Boring?? Essential! Otherwise you have to personally fight and
beat every single country in Anuire. Even "nice guys" like the Mhor will
not allow anyone they don't like to take the throne.

> able to gain the support of the majority of regenst then that person
> would be appointed Emperor even if the Chamberlain objected. All they
> would need to do is declare themselves Emperor and then appoint a new
> Chamberlain. Who could object?

Everyone. Sure, you could appoint a new Chamberlain. You could
hold a coronation ceremony. But until you actually get invested with all
the provinces of Anuire or vassalage agreements from their present owners,
there simply is no empire to be emperor of. The whole reason the
Chamberlain is important at present is that he holds the high moral
ground: he is viewed as someone who is above politics because he doesn't
want the job for himself, but is instead only serving the people of Anuire
by trying to help them find a good and just somebody else to rule them
someday. If you shove Dosiere out of the way and replace him with a
flunky, that flunky will be universally recognized as such, and you will
lose yourself more friends than you make.

> Either way it would be difficult. With the Imperial City in our hands and
> the Chamberlain removed victory is inevitable.

I don't think so! Boeruine and Ghoere could certainly get along
long enough to combine their forces for the sole purpose of preventing
anyone else from gaining the throne. And even if you beat them and manage
to make yourself ruler of Anuire, officially proclaiming yourself emperor
is going to make the Gorgon REALLY mad, and make Rhoubhe quite eager to
kill you, too (he needs chaos in Anuire to survive there). Heck, seeing
the return of centralized power in Anuire could easily cause the
squabbling nations who got tromped on by the last unified Anuire (read:
almost everybody in Cerilia!) to get together long enough to break you
apart again. Even if they didn't succeed, you might well end up
accidentally unifying other regions: successive wars against
increasingly-foreign foes is precisely how Bismarck unified Germany, and
you can bet Erik Danig knows that might well work in Brechtur, too.
It almost did for el-Arrasi a thousand years before.

- --Ryan