In the Caliphate of Azithan, known to some neighbors as skeletors ...
There are no hereditary peerages. Only lifetime appointments.
But that's only mostly true. Sure, just because a parent of yours was a Duke doesn't given you a Duchy.
How do you get into the House of Lords? Here are some, what are others?
-- Have a crapload of money and want in. That probably involves a tithe.
-- Retire from one of the guilds as a grandmaster.
-- Raise the dead without Faithful behind you.
-- Retire as a general.
How else?
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-Someone else with a crapload of money tithes you in.
ReplyDelete- A group of someones in the House do the thing that gets you in (vote?).
In combination, you might not have hereditary titles in form, but certainly something similar in effect - dynastic families, maybe?
Once every twelve years someone popular and peasanty is given a title and a nice house in the capital. This was originally intended as a way to keep the rabble happy and make it easier to believe that anyone could live the good life someday. Mostly though it's just used as a reward for some lowly pleb who has helped out the House of Lords in some big way.
ReplyDeleteLordships may be granted as rewards to adventurers who do something important like saving a city or killing a dragon. It's cheaper than giving them an actual reward and they never hang around or attend the House anyway.
Levi Kornelsen Yep! Those things would get you in, and there are absolutely dynastic families. Because power doesn't let go of power.
ReplyDeleteBrian Ashford Both of those are fantastic. For the peasant, its probably something nonesensical like a knighthood. Which is pretty great, but not entirely a real thing. And they get a house in the capital and servants - lifeless and faithful! -- but somehow, always lose it. Thus proving that the rich are rich because of virtue and not because they rig the system.
We're evil when we get our minds together. The advenurers, absolutely.
How many people are in the house of lords? An interesting question! I don't know actually know. The actual House of Lords has 807 (and the HoC has 660).
ReplyDeleteSo ... maybe less than that? Or maybe there's no limit, and the High Priest can assign baronies as is the will of The Prophet.
I really adore both of your contributions. Levi is always inspirational, Brian always makes things darker than I naturally go.
ReplyDeleteIf there are absentee Lords, can they have proxies take their place?
ReplyDeleteIf there are proxy Lords... How much does it cost to rent votes by way of them?
Happy to help!
ReplyDeleteLevi Kornelsen In the year of the Prophet 73, the High Priest interpreted the Holy Rumblings of the Most Ancient Skull Thus: Votes from the House of Lords must be cast by the Lord. If they are not, the proxy goes to The Most Holy Priest.
ReplyDeleteSo, be there or the priest'll vote for you.
That's potentially a fun incentive for the church to award token titles to people who won't show..... And in turn an incentive for fringe Lords to try and drag those same folks into the house.
ReplyDeleteThen there's the question of what the House of Lords actually _does., right. The House of Commons has most of the political power, and the HoL primary grants or withholds consent. And call for a vote of no confidence.
ReplyDeleteSo, it is great to be in the HoL, but often better to tend to your lands than to actually vote.
I wonder if in the Caliphate the job of the House of Commons would be done by the House of Lords and the job of the House of Lords would be done by the Church.
ReplyDeleteThe House of Commons is made up of Priests. So ... there's that. The HoL is made up of nobility, who originally ruled before the church because raising the dead is impressive as hell.
ReplyDeleteWho sets budgets?
ReplyDeleteLike, a three-stage process could be:
- House of commons passes "Things to do" with tax money.
-House of Lords assigns funds to each thing.
- If Lifeless required, church sets rental price for tasks.
Which makes the Lords quite powerful, but entirely inside the framing of the church (and the church can just skip tax funding if needed, too).
Levi Kornelsen Yeah, and the great part of that is, since the Church owns the lifeless, they get the rents from them. So, if the HoL doesn't want to allow the budget, then the HoC just uses the slush fund from lifeless.
ReplyDeleteThe more I think about it, the more I adore the Lords owning most of the land. The Church owns the principle method of industry (lifeless), and leases them out to the land owners (Nobles) to make crops, to the merhcnants and trade guilds for industrial purposes, etc.
[ Also, just to be clear: There is bodily autonomy in the Caliphate. The church owns the caliphate, not the people. I'm not designing any reality where that's not true. ]
ReplyDelete