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Post by DM Exitium on Dec 13, 2016 21:00:01 GMT
First off, congratulations to DM Ian on his first full episode as a host/guest.
So much good content for Monarchies mentioned in this episode that boiled down to these few major points. Add some more in if you felt like I missed some.
1) The inner workings of a kingdom where you have lords and barons that report to a King. Or do you have kings of multiple regions of your world and have a "King of Kings" kind of like Agamemnon in the Trojan war?
2) How did the monarch get established, or how are they chosen? Divine right? The classical bloodlines of father --> son and keeping the royal bloodline pure? Or do you have an electable monarch? If the monarch is electable, how does that work in this country of your world? I've got a lot of tie-ins to this episode with my homebrewed dwarf culture of my world so I'm super pumped to hear the guys weigh in on this.
3) How does the monarch rule and are they a good king/queen? Lawful good, lawful neutral, or lawful evil, which make the best kings? I liked that the opinion shared in the episode was that some of the best kings and queens are neutral.
4) Monarch titles and names. Think of any king or queen from a popular show, and all of the titles that get attached to that ruler. One potent example comes to mind [insert Youtube montage of Heralds introducing any King/queen in Game of Thrones here]. These titles can help you as DM flesh out that particular King's story or history in your world and helps keep your players immersed in the lore.
Anything else I forgot?
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Post by dmsam on Dec 14, 2016 2:50:46 GMT
There are a few sources of inspiration for kingdoms of your own:
Rome - Rome went through so many types of governing systems that it really deserves further scrutiny. Its transition from a republic to an empire is particularly interesting, and much of it can be attributed to the efficiency of an emperor when decisions must be made quickly.
China - For thousands of years, China has been ruled by an emperor. Deemed "son of heaven" by the people, the emperor was a divine entity, chosen by fate. Of course, the strife between every generation of the royal family as they scrambled for succession was the focus of many romanticized stories. Not only were the princes involved, but also the countless concubines fighting for the seat of the royal mother. If you want an element of political intrigue and royal assassinations, usurping and fracticides,look no further.
Ottoman Empire - Suleiman the Magnificent is one of many sultans to rule the Ottoman Empire. His many achievements and passionate blunders reveal both the strengths and weaknesses of an unopposed despot.
There are many more sources of inspiration in our own history, don't be shy to look.
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dmtreat
Squire
Posts: 48 
Favorite D&D Class: Ranger
Favorite D&D Race: Dwarf
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Post by dmtreat on Dec 14, 2016 19:24:41 GMT
I have an odd setup in my world. Ill try to explain it as best I can, titles might not be Real World accurate, but they are what I use.
Herenway: This is my main country in my world.
Herenway is led by a King and a counsel of advisors called The Withered Court. They rule over 2 Holds within the Kingdom, Elder Hold and Loltran Hold. Mind you this kingdom is
enormous.
Elder Hold is a mainly Hill Dwarf and Human settlement, which is overseen by the biggest city in Elder Hold, Krenalt. Krenalt is Led by a Duke appointed by the Withered Court and the King of Herenway. Elder hold itself is split up into Allotments of Land held by Lords, thusly Lordships. This part works much like England. Those Lords report to The Duke of Krenalt, who reports to The King of Herenway.
Loltran Hold is a mainly Elven Hold. They technically answer to The King of Herenway but no one really tells the elves what to do. They have their own "king" within Forest Walk, their only city. He is led by a Hand of the King, who is at the moment a Druid.
Elves in my world, at least in Loltran Hold, have no established towns other than Forest Walk. The Entire hold is a giant forest, cliche I know but a lot of this is from when I was 14-16, so the elves live within the trees and canopys in homes they create from the branches and boughs of the tree, but they dont stay here for extended periods of time.
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Post by dmsam on Dec 14, 2016 20:39:45 GMT
Something else came up when I was thinking about this. When you make a kingdom, bear in mind the communication and transportation networks available. In a world where near-instantaneous communication is available via magic, the management and efficiency of the kingdom would be significantly better, and the need for local governance would likewise decrease.
Language has traditionally been a difficult thing to implement into RPGS. The pain and inconvenience of characters speaking different languages is often dismissed for being "unfun". Nevertheless, the development of a unified language such as "common" deserves a thought when it comes to world building. Why is it that your people speak a common language? Is it enforced? If so, by who? Did your king or emperor deliberately force his subjects to speak a certain language to reduce communication errors and promote cohesion and nationalism?
Transportation via roads and waterways is likewise important both in times of peace and war. Depending on how developed a kingdom's transportation is, the control a government has over its people also changes. No one will listen to a king several thousand miles away unless his men can enforce his decrees in a timely and accurate fashion.
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Post by DM Exitium on Dec 14, 2016 21:01:04 GMT
.... Transportation via roads and waterways is likewise important both in times of peace and war. Depending on how developed a kingdom's transportation is, the control a government has over its people also changes. No one will listen to a king several thousand miles away unless his men can enforce his decrees in a timely and accurate fashion. Love the transportation and communication ideas. Do you have hedge-wizards that cast "Sending" for a small fee in smaller towns? Are permanent teleportation circles in your world and cities? If yes to both, I would imagine the efficiency and military/magic might of such a country to be unmatched in the world. Personally, I have zero teleportation circles in my world as its an unspoken rule or law that no nation wants the teleportation circle network falling into the hands of the big bad. My players constantly battle me over this, but now they are getting near a high enough level to cast that spell and they want to set up a network of teleportation circles to their allies and bases....mmmm yes players....please do...The big bad cannot wait to teleport right into your home fortress and each of your allies capital cities. |
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Post by DM Exitium on Aug 28, 2017 13:50:36 GMT
*Casts Greater Thread Restoration* and ties into the sequel to this episode, Episode 135; Republics!
So my players just had their epilogue night and the player that was always the least engaged during epic fights, and dramatic dialogue surprised me out of everyone at the table for epilogue....
The dwarf paladin, returned to be king of the Dwarves and denied ascension to Godhood.
He vastly disliked the way the dwarves choose their kings from the ancient Clans. Yes it was a form of "Democracy" where kings were chosen from the Clan elders, but the process was corrupt, only a few clans stood a chance of gaining the King-ship, and in the end it came down more to chance than choice. He decided that since they were using a rough Clan based democratic system prior, that they transition to a Parliamentary Monarchy where a king is still chosen from amongst the 13 Clans, but now all clans will have equal representation rather than just a few, as well as all the Clan representatives who do not win the crown stay in service as a Clan Parliament that works with the King for the betterment of the dwarves, by the dwarves and for the dwarves.
Not only that, the dwarves were more industrious and less magical in my world so he set up a college of Arcane Arts and Artificery to promote more dwarvish wizards in my world.
The other PC's all founded other Colleges and Universities in other races countries, and want the world to stay in communication by having all of these various schools meet for large displays of Magic, discovery, artificery, and of course, Competition.
Think of these meetings as Goblet of Fire, or the Tourney of Harrenhal level events where "anyone who's anyone is going to be there"! As the common-folk NPC's might say!
I let him go first, since he looked excited to epilogue, but given his lack of excitement at the table the past several games I did NOT expect such a vast amount of World Building changes he would suggest, and the rest of the group built off his ideas. I loved it!
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Post by meribson on Aug 28, 2017 20:08:54 GMT
In the main region of my setting, the Green Coast, there aren't any traditional kingdoms. Oh there are city-states ruled by kings, there are regions ruled by gentry, there's even an empire, but no traditional kingdoms.
The last kingdom fell more than one hundred years ago when most of the gentry was assassinated in one night, no one ever took credit. The southern most nobles had a tradition of elevating lowborn to a sort of pseudo-nobility, and when the noble bloodlines died these pseudo-noble houses became the only rulers left. The highest ranking ones at the time were Counts, so as a sort of joke it was determined that the highest rank would be Count and all other, traditionally higher, ranks would be under the Count. Thus the Free Counties were born.
The empire, recently (and finally) given the name Zrukal-az Empire, is a hobgoblin empire. Hobgoblins rule, and all others in the empire are either slaves or living weapons. Trolls, ogres, hill giants, orcs, humans, elves, goblins, etc. and even three dragons. Farthinzal, an adult green, Ziinyorat, an old red, and Amgoshinzak, a young adult silver. Ziin and Amgosh are both males while Farth is female, and all three are used in breeding experiments by the rune-scarred hobgoblin mages. While half-dragons have been made aplenty, and a few early dragonborn, the greatest prize are the hybrids created by breeding Ziin and Farth. Attempts have been made to breed Amgosh and Farth, but thus far nothing has worked.
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