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Meeting Before The Ball In Rebma

Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2014 9:53 pm
by Rasanam
Running this meeting in-character will be utterly impractical due to the number of PCs involved. So I'm opening this OOC thread to deal with it instead.

The topic at hand is the matter of balance between the courts, specifically that Rebma does not (currently) have any amberites.

Ashara would be invited to attend this meeting.

My suggested means of dealing with this is the creation of an official position of Steward of <Court> (so, in this case, Steward of Rebma) that has all of the political rights, privileges, and responsibilities of a full amberite. Plus the right to have an actual amberite stand as their champion in case of a challenge.

The interesting part would be the question of how such a Steward is appointed; I'd suggest it requires the agreement of all available Rulers - or Dworkin.

Re: Meeting Before The Ball In Rebma

Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2014 10:07 am
by ShadowOfPreservation
I'm in complete agreement with the suggestion. A position of Steward seems the best solution and would prefer it be chosen by mutual agreement of all available Rulers, more because it makes each Court invested in the well being of Rebma than due to any lack of faith in Dworkin's ability to appoint a ruler.

Re: Meeting Before The Ball In Rebma

Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2014 1:09 pm
by Joshua
Ashara is the current steward. changing that to a royal appointment would allow her additional powers and stability.

Re: Meeting Before The Ball In Rebma

Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2014 9:07 pm
by Rasanam
One thing I'd like to add: We can - and probably should - declare that, whatever decision is reached, will be proclaimed IC towards the end of the ball, at which point the ball can be started up without having to resolve this first.

Also, Josh: what does Ashara think of this notion, and/or, does she have any particular issues she wants to raise with the assembled amberites while there's a meeting going?

Re: Meeting Before The Ball In Rebma

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2014 8:45 am
by Benabik
Ashara appears to not have a description. I kinda need to know Benabik's assessment of her to decide what he thinks of the proposal.

Re: Meeting Before The Ball In Rebma

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2014 11:31 am
by Rasanam
Hm. I've been going at least partly off the line from this thread:
Because Rebma doesn't currently have an Amberite leader, it has a steward. Since there has only been a steward for a few years (the city is 3 - 4 years old), there has not been time for that position to become corrupt.
And from that assuming that Ashara is both competent and loyal to Rebma.

But you're right, she ought to have a description, and that could indeed modify what Rasanam might propose.

Re: Meeting Before The Ball In Rebma

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2014 6:14 pm
by misfit
Not to quibble, but here goes anyway. I'm having a little trouble with the phrase "all available Rulers". First, with Trump they are always "available". Second, there are only two rulers at the moment, so that means that Harrune and Morgana would be the ones making all of the appointments. That doesn't seem fair and balanced, especially since I am the only PC. Perhaps a two thirds (three quarters?) majority of the Amberites? That would also make the appointment carry more weight I would think it if had the support of more of the Amberites. Other than those picky details it sounds good to me.

Re: Meeting Before The Ball In Rebma

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2014 6:55 pm
by Rasanam
Hm. Good points; requiring a majority vote by 2/3 or 3/4 of the amberites sounds good to me.

However, here are some counter-quibbles!

Part of my notion is that Steward of <Court> is a position that, in most courts, won't be filled - so at the moment, there's just one appointment, and the precedent that stewards of other courts could be appointed. (It'd be kinda redundant to have a Steward of Tir'na Nog'th, for example, unless Harrune was expecting to be away for a long time - and in that case, Harrune could appoint his own Steward - and would likely appoint one who was already an amberite of his court.)

Second, Trump isn't perfect - It can be blocked by the recipient, and by sufficiently extreme environmental effects (such as the sheer distance between Amber and Chaos). While this hasn't been much explored IC yet, it's still unreasonable to assume that trump implies the rulers will always be available.

Re: Meeting Before The Ball In Rebma

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2014 7:48 pm
by Wyvern
Actually, I'll suggest an alternative mechanism for appointing a Steward: that the only official rule is that a Steward may not appoint another Steward - including their own successor. (They can, of course, recommend a successor to the actual Amberites, and in practice such recommendations would probably bear a fair degree of weight.)

So, in theory, Alys could up and declare that, say, Rogbar is now the Steward of Tir'na. In practice, if she did (which she wouldn't), pretty much every other Amberite would challenge her over the appointment, and that would end poorly for her.

On the other hand, if Harrune declared that Cassandra is to be Steward of Tir'na... Okay, I think Ossian might challenge that, but that'd probably be it.

And ideally we'd set the precedent of appointing a Steward via a majority vote of available Amberites (with maybe a few votes abstaining but none against). But, unlike a real-world government, we don't really need to bulletproof the actions of Amberites against future generations - and any rules we set would only be held by the existing Amberites deciding to challenge people breaking them, anyway.

Re: Meeting Before The Ball In Rebma

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2014 10:46 pm
by Joshua
Ashara has a description.