OVERVIEW
The Crown refers to the monarch of a city or town, e..g. Thandrades King of Mercinae. This is a ceremonial position. The city-states are constitutional monarchies and the monarch is represented by the Prince or Princess, who is a player, and is chosen by the elected baronial council. The Prince chooses a Prime Minister (optionally) or does the business of day-to-day leadership himself. The Prince or Prime Minister are de facto leaders of the city and bestow ministerial, ambassadorial and supreme command of the city army. Ministers, Ambassador, Field Marshall and Prime Minister do the business of government. Prince defines it. All positions of authority derive from the Prince/Prime Minister except the Cardinal, whose mandate is divine, and the Barons, whose mandate is won by election (suffrage is universal).
HELP GOVERNMENT has an overview of the whole city-state government, noble and civic, but in short: crowning of a new Prince or Princess is an automatic process once the elected baronial council make their choice by oath. The Prince is de facto leader of the city with the Prime Minister his/her chosen representative in matters civil and ministerial. The Cardinal ranks alongside the Prince in prestige and has full access to the ministerial powers but cannot bestow or implement policy. Cardinal is not subject to baronial veto or citizen election and carries divine mandate: the Prince is leader and voice of the people, Cardinal the voice of the Gods, Prime Minister the right-hand of the Prince and ministers its busy fingers. The Field Marshall is Prince appointed, his/her left-hand balled into a fist.
PRIME MINISTER APPOINTMENT
Depending on the fashion of governance in a particular city, the Prince may devolve a large proportion of his/her pratical powers on the Prime Minister including - most importantly - the appointment/removal of the various Ministers. See HELP MINISTERS for a run-down of the ministries and summary of the areas of city governance covered by each.
Syntax: CROWN <prospective prime minister>.
To choose a Prime Minister, the Prince/Princess takes the prospective noble citizen to be presented to the city's monarch. Sometimes a ceremony is involved where the Barons are also present to lend their support to the Prince's choice. The actual elevation of the citizen to Prime Minister power and privileges is done via the CROWN command. Prince types CROWN followed by the Prime Minister's name and this, accompanied by the automatic assent of the monarch, bestows the rank and - initially - all the powers and commands and privileges due to the First Minister of the Crown.
= Five Member Elected Baronial Council
= | | | | |
= Prince or Princess
= |
= Prime Minister ----- Field Marshall
= |
= Chancellor ---- State Minister ---- Justice Minister ---- Ambassador
= |
= Public Relations ---- Trade Minister
= |
= Librarian ---- Questmaster
The Prime Minister is perhaps the singlemost important appointment of the Prince or Princess and is sometimes viewed as the second-in-command or justly deputed embodiment of Prince/Princess' will (in addition to the Prime Minister's own contribution). The Prime Minister derives a mandate from the baronial council by dint of their Order of Veto, available to all Barons, a majority of which is able to deprive the Prime Minister of all powers; a unanimous number of which will reverse the Prince's appointment before the Crown and strip the Prime Minister of his/her position. See HELP VETO for more info on this most extraordinary of baronial orders.
Ceremonial appointment of the Prime Minister: The P..M.. is given his/her position before the city's monarch (e..g. Thandrades, King of Mercinae) from the Prince/Princess using the CROWN command. See HELP CROWNING for specifics. This presentation and ratification of the Crown is sometimes accompanied by a ceremonial meeting of the collected Barons though it is the prerogative of the Prince which citizens attend the CROWN honouring of a new Prime Minister. Prime Minister, unless deprived by Order of Veto, gains almost all of the ministerial commands and powers and privileges though the individual Ministers are the authority figure insofar as each ministry's specific area of responsibility. Field Marshall and military affairs remain separate and vary city to city insofar as their relationship with the Ministries and the Barons.
Syntax: BESTOW <citizen> <ministry/position>.
The Prime Minister is able to use BESTOW to appoint individual Ministers (apart from the Field Marshall) among other city leadership commands. See HELP PRIVILEGE for a command list covering most of the Prime Minister powers though it should be remembered: noble titles remain solely in the hands of the Prince (representing the Crown) and the aristocratic admissions to the "Second Estate" is for the Prince alone.
Syntax: SINCE CALLING.
Members of the high command can use SINCE CALLING to keep up with the calling channel for City, Guild and City Barony and/or City Military providing the ranks/positions are held. This is very important because it means all decision-making citizens get to keep up to date with latest citizen thinking, morale, divergences, etc.
BARONIAL CHECKS AND BALANCES
The Barons represent the "Third" Estate in this constitutional monarchy and since the baronial council is elected by universal suffrage and baronial authority gives power to decide who is Prince and to disempower the Prime Minister by veto, ultimately the people rule themselves with representatives empowered to govern so long as public opinion does not turn against them. The "First" Estate led by the Cardinal and peopled by those with temple myrmidon privileges is part of city life and leadership, not subject to public election but instead representing the Gods with a divine mandate. Prince and Cardinal and Prime Minister are de facto highest rank citizens, personalities more than actual powers tending to define their relative roles.
Syntax: VETO/UNVETO <prime minister>.
The Prime Minister must maintain support from the Crown and the Nobility and this is one of the key-notes of his or her mandate for such widespread powers. The Crown's support is obvious from the outset: the Prince has made the appointment. The Nobility's support (through the Barons) is presumed unless an Order of Veto is declared (see HELP VETO) and if ever a majority of Order of Veto declarations is reached, the Prime Minister's rank is instantly deprived of all practical power and privileges. This is an extraordinary occurrence and typically reaches resolution with a tackling of the reasons behind the Order of Veto and its eventual removal. The removal of an Order of Veto causes an automatic assessment of Prime Minister support, restoring all powers and privileges if the number of vetoes dips below the baronial majority.
Should there ever be a unanimous declaration across all Barons, thus all Barons have issued an Order of Veto against the standing Prime Minister, then the Crown's support is removed. This strips the Prime Minister of the rank itself and ensures a new Crown appointment must be made.
See HELP GOVERNMENT and HELP MINISTRIES for overview of the city-state's highest rank citizens, their powers and the responsibilities of command to drive forward city policy and look after its well-being and the needs of its citizens. Type CITYHELP for an index of syntax and usage of the actual commands available to those in positions of authority.
