This thread needs more love, lol. I guess this is a heavy subject for many though.

Either way, I have plans for my county to pursue a technocratic government early on, which means a government ruled by the most skilled citizens. As it can be combined with the feudal model by simply establishing a "master council" it can be pursued independently on any level of the hierarchy; though I personally have the pleasure of being pledged to a duke who plans a similar government structure.

I believe this structure is beneficial in that it provides a sense of democracy without requiring additional game mechanics or undermining the nobility.

I will be putting together a Republic for my County, similar to how Mayors and Barons have majority vote within the council of their settlements they will have similar points towards voting as well. Then those elected within my governing body will have a few points more (I allow any citizen of my County to be elected and hold these positions) and myself and my Count will have a few points more over those. However I also have smaller bodies of citizens that represent their settlement ranging from Hamlets to Cities who wish to speak on behalf a group that does not wish to have their voice affiliated with any of my advisors who would normally speak for them. These bodies can range in size, I have no max or minimum at the moment, and they work almost like unions.

These are all just ideas until I have the people and the mechanics to back it up!

I am very interested on how government will evolve from its origin point. I think it will be difficult to divest ourselves of our modern ideas about politics and governance and take up the strange realities of medieval monarchies. Additionally, the limitations inherent in the simulation will require further deviations from historical norms. Each Kingdom and Duchy and County will tackle these problems in their own unique ways and I expect we will see some very innovative solutions come to the fore.

In respect to our modern sensibilities about government: I have seen several groups attempting to bring democracy to their corner of Elyria. So, here we'll have an established medieval order giving massive power and influence to a tiny portion of the population, and along comes a noble promising majoritarianism to her people. How will that transition occur when the proverbial boots hit the ground? Will it actually occur? What happens when the noble decides against her people's will? There haven't been many successful populist revolutions here on Earth. Could it happen in Elyria?

I'm also interested to know how comprehensive the legal engine will be. Could one engineer a republic by contract? And how will the limitations of the engine shape the product?

And lastly, it would be a lot of fun to use this game to testbed some of the fringe ideas among the various forms of government. Perhaps a demarchy, with a randomly selected aristocrat to write laws and pass judgements for the month. Heck, I toyed with creating a fanatical distributist environmentalist government of luddite druids who demanded everyone live in the smallest settlement possible. I'm sure there will be all kinds of fascinating and strange governments across each server.

It's gonna be awesome.

Im excited to fiddle with government. Im thinking of getting to a mix of Fascism and Republic, as hard as that may be. A strong fisted rule emphasizing military strength and the advance of the best working and most loyal, and the ability for lower level officials for each town to air its grievances to so I can get feed back while they can feel safe from reprisal. Im still working on it.

I'll probably follow within my county a oligarchy/timocracy combination at the start and evolve when necessary.

I'd argue that due to the game's mechanics describing kingdoms as absolute monarchies while technically correct falls short of the feudal realities.

I agree that the first major new governance type will be that of the constitutional monarchy, as dukes etc, seek to limit the powers that kings have. In fact, I'd say that most (if not all) of the current player kingdoms have elements of a constitutional monarchy about them. (As an aside Achlys you're wrong about Enlgand (or more correctly the United Kingdom) not having a constitution. We don't have a written 'codified' constitution but we do have a constitution made up of several sources (statute law, common law, parliamentary conventions, and works of authority.))

Once the game enters expo I expect a lot of small kratocracies to form and disintegrate as charismatic warlords come and go and as various charismatic warlords live and die and the more organised states crush them if they become too dangerous.

I truly doubt that democracy will ever work on a large scale in this game, no more than a city state level at best - but I can see oligarchic or plutocratic republics emerging, especially after a succession crisis of some sort.

For the non-standard governments, I really want to see a Heinleinian Stratocracy appear in game (and may start to trend my own duchy towards that style of rule). I'd also like to see some theocracies and kritarchies pop up here and there

Minarchism: Minimal statism. Government limited to protecting basic rights of life, liberty and property. A Night watchman state. Limited to court, police and military. Small, local (county or city) level jurisdiction except for High crimes against the state, like treason.

A close second would be a Beerocracy. Any government run by brewers would have to rock. It has the added benefit of making the Brewers lvl package valuable again.

Let me start my contributions to this thread by saying that the only online role-playing game I've ever played is The Elder Scrolls Online for PS4; within my 105 days of gameplay time I ran an endgame content guild with around 300 steady players. I say this to say: I'm likely ignorant on the subjects I speak of concerning this game, but, I feel that I may have a little bit of perspective.

In my experience 70-90 percent of the members within a defined governed group don't really care about the actual governance of the group, so long as the rules and laws don't affect them in any adverse way. I don't see a real functioning democracy working (at least in my perception) due to not enough citizens putting in the time or effort to care about it. In my guild, I considered what I built to be a democratic monarchy; I ruled with a gloved iron hand. I had a few advisers that helped me keep a finger on the pulse of the guild and we made sure that everything we did was for the benefit of all members. The benefit of this is everyone was always satisfied with our rulings, the sad part was I was often dissatisfied with how things were going and myself, as the guildmaster, had to often be persuasive and charismatic in the conveyance of my ideas in order to have them carried out with happiness.

Considering my ignorance: I think, at least at first, that an absolute monarchy would work best. After some time the monarch would be able to learn more about the people they govern and their willingness to follow the governance and style of the sovereign. This might also be affected by the frequency of the players being online and active in the actual functions of the governing system. I suppose it is possible for sovereigns already in place to attempt to design their system before launch, but I think that there is more uncertainty lying with the players than with the mechanics of the game.

"the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is neither democratic nor a republic, and hardly that of the people, it’s simply an authoritarian, communist state."

Wrong, Korea is an authoritarian capitalistic state. Communism is common ownership and lack of social classes, money etc. I would actually go as far as to say Korea is an absolute monarchy. I don't know where you're getting the communism from?

A good example could be the republic of America which is not as much of a republic as it's a plutocracy.

"All kingdoms start as an absolute monarchy. The king or queen (hereinafter “the sovereign”), having backed the game, possesses absolute power."

I would actually somewhat disagree, I think the monarchy is not something we have a term for, but if we were to classify it we would classify it as something like "Divine mandated monarchy". The king won't be able to just revoke (or gift titles) as far as we know, the same way a king from an absolute monarchy would. Not to mention that if the king doesn't have enough reputation etc. he won't be able to use the ring, "but if you were to put one of these rings on, it doesn’t automatically make you the king. The ring knows that you haven’t earned the respect and loyalty of the population yet so it doesn’t grant you the ability to be the king." though it may be a bit old, but I haven't heard them change this yet.

I do hope to see some mixed governments, so maybe the citizens will elect the king's council, so a blend between democracy/aristocracy and monarchy. I don't see real democracy being a thing, as getting every single person to vote on every single subject might be quite a handful, though I imagine when people say "democracies" they're thinking of representative democracies, which could be really cool too, or maybe a republic, like the senate in star wars.

I would like to rule over my Barony with a combination of either of the following:

1) Geniocracy & Nomocracy

               OR  

2) Technocracy & Nomocracy

Selection: Baron Appointment With Popular Vote (People can vote member out of council if doing a bad job)

I'll be busy trying to setup a committee to run the everyday functions around the place while I'm in power, however, I'm hoping this is how it'll continue onward. Won't know until we try, right?

Posted By Achlys at 9:28 PM - Thu Jan 26 2017

Reflection

This is a lot of great feedback! I really like the ideas being tossed about... from fascist republics to Heinleinian states. That we’re thinking about this now will only make our lives, and the lives of the players who join after exposition, much easier.

Replies

Lunaus

Interesting thought on the Republic. I like that you’re going to incorporate some body of representation. What will you do if political parties form that are contrary to your desires as a Countess? Also, and on a side note, I really like your county page in the forums. It’s a beautiful presentation.

I'm not always going to agree with people and people won't always agree with me. The game is about fostering a community and I can't do that if I try to force my wishes and desires on everyone and they don't like it. So, if we disagree on something and cannot come up with a compromise it'll be put to a vote, I may not like it and in all honesty I have power over implementing the idea or not but I need people to inhabit my County and they need just as much influence on its growth as I do.

But that isn't to say I'm going to let players turn my County on its head and cause havoc with their changes, I'll still reserve the right to say NO to anything too outlandish that wouldn't help anyone in the long run.

Also thank you for the compliment!