Difference between revisions of "Category:City-State of Balic"

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Government of Balic

The Archons of Balic

Eponymous Archon, the Supreme Archon: Tabaros Wavir (posthumous honor), former Lord of House Wavir

Archon Basileus, the Sacred King: Lathos Kanthost, high priest of the Temple of Talathothanay

Polemarch, the War Archon: Narmikos, a former army chiliarch and militia general

Navarch, the Supreme Admiral: Phaaf Glien, former Nibenese templar, a general and admiral of the Free Army

Thesmothetai, the Six Chief Judges: ...

The Arch-Grammeteis, The Secretary-General of the Courts: ...

Elections

The next state election, for the ten archons, and other senior state magistrates, is scheduled to be at the very end of the Year of Ral's Vengeance, Free Year 20 in the Tyrian calendar, in the short month of Zenalia. The local or demarchic elections, and re-election of the ten generals and ten admirals, are scheduled for four months away, in Zenalia of Free Year 19.

Templars of Balic

Introduction

...Before Marda could explain further, a pair of Balican templars stepped onto the quay, leaving an escort of six half-giants behind at the ratany hedge. The sailors fell immediately silent, each man fixing his eyes on his work.

When the templars reached the group, one of them pointed at Agis. "You. How long have you been in Balic?" She was a hard-eyed woman with sour, harsh looking features.

-The Obsidian Oracle, III, 51

During the thousand year reign of King Androponis (which is another way of saying he had reigned for as far back as anyone could remember), it was his Order of Templars who effectively ran the normal operations of local and state government. The templars were sworn to Androponis personally as their king, and derived their inviolability and magical spells from Androponis' office of Sacred King of the city-state, which is held for life. To hold almost any official office in the city-state, either civic or religious, one had to be a templar. Holding a near monopoly on public office, through these offices the templars held a near dictatorial sway over the city and its citizens, freedmen, slaves, and even the nobility. Identified by their cream-colored off-white togas, a token of their supposed sacrosanct persons, they were the masters of Balic until the unexpected disappearance of their long-lived king and Dictator Androponis in the Year of Friend's Agitation, the 10th Year of Tyrian Freedom. With the sudden absence of their sorcerer-king and master, the templars lost all their spell powers, as well as the awesome authority and privilege granted them by Androponis for so many centuries. Their fall was swift and bloody, but after nearly a month by which time the most hated or most vulnerable of their membership were killed or driven into hiding or to exile, the Mercantile Triumvirate offered the Order of Templars a deal. In return for their assistance in keeping the machinery of government working, the Triumvirate offered the templars a junior partnership in the new order, and protection from the vengeance and malice of the people. This arrangement lasted some nine years, until the current day, although each year saw the continued weakening of the templars as more and more of the offices of state were held by those who had never worn the cream-colored togas of their Order. With the coming of Xal'gren and the return of the so-called Free Dictatorship, the templars have been brought to their weakest point ever, for their central temple, the Synedrion, has been raided by the new Dictator himself, and its hierophant jailed. Yet, even so, the templars have not completely faded from the city of Balic. Families still send their children to the secret initiation rites outside the city, some templars still hold offices of power, and certain rumors abound that a secret cabal of underground loyalist templars still obey the will of Androponis, and work to bring about his return.

In legend, the templars were the loyal knights of Androponis' army when he seized the city in the remote past. Even with the recent fall of the templars from power, there are modern templar families that claim descent from these ancient knights. Although the templarate often passes from parent to child, it is not required that a parent have been a templar, as many templars underwent initiation from outside these families. Most templars however did come from such backgrounds, if for no other reason than templar families, as members of the knightly class, enjoyed the privilege of being able to learn to read and write, an important requirement for joining the templarate. There were also other requirements, such as pure Balican citizenship, the absence of the stain of wizardry, and the peculiar requirement that a candidate for initiation be free of the crime of bloodshed of a Balican citizen before the sacred rites of initiation were conducted. For those who wished to join the ranks of the templarate, they had first to gain candidacy in a tightly controlled and elaborate process, and only then were they offered to partake in the Lesser Mysteries, held annually in secret and forbidden areas outside the city. Upon completion of the Lesser Mysteries, the citizen then became a junior member of the Order of Templars, and was thereby now eligible to hold many offices both in and out of the city.

The most junior members of the templarate most often received directly appointed positions from templar magistrates. Many became military officers in the ten standing legions (effectively dual-classing), and many became petty managers of waste removal, road repair, city wall maintenance, royal farm field overseers, and agents of disease control in the city. Many junior templars however started their careers as subordinate officers in the naucraries, a naucrary being the lowest level of royal administration throughout the city, acting officially as in charge of ensuring the city's naval fleet was maintained and manned when necessary, but in practice served as bastions of royal authority in the city demes, executing his law, collecting his taxes, and searching for treason.

Civic Organization of the Templars

The naucraries abounded throughout the city with their own territories, splitting certain demes and merging others. Each naucrary was led by an appointed naucraros, assisted by a lieutenant and his subaltern officers. For foot-soldiers, they could call upon the militia, for which they were responsible for organizing, training and activating. Indeed, the physical naucraries doubled as the local armories, for which the deme militias could gather their armor and arms. In times of emergency or war, and if given proper approval, a naucrary could activate his entire militia, sending them to either man the ships of the naval fleet, to fill the ranks of the militia army, or both. Naucraroi could summon sometimes in excess over a thousand from the militia to serve in whatever capacity was required by the king, and although officially led by a pentakosiarch or chiliarch elected by the people (commanders of 500 or 1000), the naucraros stayed near to the commander as a political officer and enforcer of the Dictator's will.

The naucraries were themselves controlled by the trittiarchies, of which there were twelve in the city-state. Led by a trittiarch, the trittiarchies had more templars, resources and authority, and ambitious templars often sought to leave the naucraries to serve their king at this higher echelon. They too were responsible for organizing the city-state's militia and fleet, although at a more senior level. The trittiarchs themselves were appointed however by the tribal kings, or basileus. These officials were very senior templars, as there were only four of them. Elected by the people for ten year terms, they were very powerful, as they appointed both the trittiarchs and naucraroi, although the trittiarchs were confirmed by the king directly. The tribal kings had their seats at the four basilicas, great temples dedicated to the Order of the Templars, which were also homes to important templar libraries, armories and personal quarters.

The tribal kings themselves answered to the most senior magistrate in the city, the Eponymous Archon, who presided over the entire templar administration from his offices at the White Palace, the home of the king himself. The Eponymous Archon, himself elected every ten years by the people, effectively answered only to the Dictator himself.

Religious Organization of the Templars

Almost all the temples in the city, dedicated to ancient and half-forgotten gods and heroes of the city, were administered by priests and priestly families who were necessarily initiated members of the templarate. Still evoking the devotion or at least the respect of many Balicans, the templars used to provide healing and other magical services to the citizens from these temples, for a price. The four civic basilicas and their tribal basileus oversaw the running of these temples, as well as most all religious activities in the city, but they themselves answered to the Synedrion, the greatest temple dedicated to the Order of the Templars in the city, which served as their headquarters and place for internal justice and leadership.

The word Synedrion could refer to both the building and its ruling council, sometimes called the Nameless Council, who had abandoned their birth names in favor of sacred names such as Torch Bearer, Messenger, and Sacred Keeper. Composed of senior templars, they were all appointed for life in these sacred magistracies, and oversaw the entire Balican Mysteries, being the cult of the templars dedicated to the city and its king. Shrouded in mystery on pain of death and worse, the Balican Mysteries were overseen by the most senior templar in the whole city, called the Hierophant. Like his fellow councilors, the Hierophant no longer used his given name, having officially abandoned it in the Silt Sea. Commanding awesome respect, the Hierophant was one of the most feared officials in the city. The Synedrion regulated membership in the Order of Templars, deciding who might receive initiation into the Lesser Mysteries, and deciding who might advance as more senior templars by receiving initiation into the Greater Mysteries. As overseers of all things religious in the city-state, the Synedrion also was responsible for rooting out illegal sorcery, dispatching agents to seek out wizards throughout the Balican empire.

The Balican Mysteries

Presided over by the Hierophant and led by the delegated Sacred King or Archon Basileus of the City, the Mysteries were held on an annual basis by the templars, during which the majority of their numbers would leave the city to undertake the sacred rituals of their order. Held under great secrecy, none save templars or confirmed candidates for the templary could attend. Even amongst the templars, speaking of the rituals to outsiders was strictly forbidden on pain of death.

Although performed in various processions conducted primarily outside the city, it is known that the templar cult centers around the great and ancient Temple of Euchthonius, a legendary early king of the city from before the time of Androponis' rule who was supposed to have been born of the land itself. A haunted and forbidden place to outsiders, the temple is surrounded by templar burial grounds, some of which are quite ancient. Surrounded by an old and dark forest, much of the grounds around the temple are surrounded by thousands of the bones and shells of aprigs, domesticated creatures which are sacrificed by the participants.

Every four years, the ceremonies are especially elaborate, and involve the procession of a sacred statue of Androponis to the coast, the moving of sacred, forbidden and otherwise taboo relics.

Even in the fall of the Order of the Templars, traditionalists still conduct these ancient rituals, and initiate new members into the Order. The aura surrounding the Balican Mysteries is strong and dark enough that its ceremonies have not yet been accosted by even the most vengeful citizens and freedmen of the city. The Temple of Euchthonius remain unmolested, perhaps if for no other reason than the undead spirits which are widely believed to guard that place are far too fearful for even the most daring of thieves and adventurers.

Current Situation of the Templars

Soon after becoming Dictator, Xal'gren raided by force the Synedrion itself, and arrested and jailed the current Hierophant, sealing him in the Kioleian Pits, the site of the old lead mines just outside the city. Still playing at political power and allied to House Tomblador which opposed Xal'gren and his army, the surviving templar leadership was deemed too dangerous by the new Dictator and his followers. After seizing the Synedrion, they sold much of its treasures to fund their cause.

The Wavir half of the city has persecuted in the courts most of the worst of the templars from the time of Androponis who survived the purge nine years ago. Some templar families with more honorable reputations with the people have maintained various responsibilities and offices, with some serving either the state and/or House Wavir in positions not too dissimilar from the ones they held under Androponis. A few officials with less savory reputations still operate in Wavir territory, usually being too essential for the running of the city or otherwise too devious to be summarily removed from power, although even for these remaining templars their old authority still wanes. At best, the more respectable templars work to convince their fellow citizens of the honorable nature that the Order of Templars could have.

House Rees has made numerous arrangements with templars throughout its territories in the city. The worst were killed, prosecuted and stripped of power, or exiled. Some were offered positions in House Rees itself or allowed to retain some of their authority, subordinate to House Rees. This situation remains essentially the same to this day within the Rees demes.

After the Mercantile victory in the Year of Friend's Agitation, House Tomblador did the opposite of House Wavir, and kept on some of the worst of the templars, making a pact with them in order to keep tight control of their demes. Now that House Tomblador has fallen and fled Balic, House Wavir and the Free Army has come into the old Tomblador parts of the city, and have removed and/or arrested many of the evil templars that helped Tomblador run their parts of the city. Still early on in his government, Xal'gren and his followers as well as House Wavir are still dismantling the network of templar power that still runs in this part of the city.

Almost ten years since the disappearance of Androponis, under the current government, not a single civic office requires a candidate to be a member of the Order of Templars, and only a handful of old templar religious sites are still run by members of the templarate. Likewise, save for a few isolated pockets in the city, templars no longer have a stranglehold on the elections, and for the most part, the only templars who now win office in the elections do so because they are genuinely elected by the popular assemblies.

Karanaustian Social Ranks

The Eupatridae, The Nobility

"...A gallery of marble benches ran down both sides of the huge chamber, partially concealed by two lines of marble pillars that supported the ceiling. Several hundred men and women waited patiently in the tiers, all dressed in white togas hemmed with silver and gold. They were of many races: human, mul, dwarf, half-elf, and even tarek. They all remained absolutely silent, sitting so motionless that not even the rustle of their silken robes disturbed the eerie quiet."

The eupatridae or the "well-fathered" are the official nobility of Balic. Inheriting their status from either the ancient past of the city or from later creation, collectively the nobility of Balic were and are among the most powerful institutions in the city-state.

The eupatridae of Balic are typically members of great landholding families, and enjoy the benefits of owning enormous agricultural estates that almost totally dominate the rural lands outside the metropolis and client-towns and villages. To be considered in good standing, eupatridae are required to maintain their immediate families in the so-called pentakosiomedimnoi or "500 bushel class" of agricultural production, or are no longer recognized as true nobility. During the reign of Androponis, this recognition was demonstrated by each noble house's membership in the Chamber of Patricians, an advisory council meeting at the White Palace that at least notionally assisted the king in his rule of the city. As long as a family was invited to a seat in Chamber, they were considered to be eupatridae. If they were not granted a seat, it was usually because their lands and resources had dwindled to such a small size that the king no longer found them a rich and powerful enough family to tax and dominate, and therefore their status in the nobility faltered and if not corrected, would quickly fade entirely.

Until recently, the eupatridae were immune to most prosecution in the normal courts, and could only be tried at the Talathopagus, a law court comprised entirely of ex-archons. Thus, only the most powerful templars could judge the nobility. During the reign of Androponis, nobles could also make direct appeals to the king, although this was usually an appeal of last resort, for the king was rarely merciful to his nobles. The nobility were also allowed the privilege to learn to read and to write, a right which is so deeply ingrained that it is still jealously guarded despite rising pressure from social and legal reforms. Furthermore, nobles enjoy exclusive access to several important priesthoods in the city, and although these are often hereditary and require initiation into the templary, they are nonetheless often prestigious and coveted positions.

The Chamber of Patricians: The Eupatridae in the Reign of Androponis

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