HBW/Eirus/Concalian-Empire/Concalian-Culture.html

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 title: Concalian Culture
 description: 
 published: true
-date: 2024-04-30T18:10:27.079Z
+date: 2024-04-30T18:01:12.645Z
 tags: game-master, concalia, concalian culture, concalian empire, concalian
 editor: ckeditor
 dateCreated: 2023-01-06T16:53:59.820Z
@@ -28,21 +28,17 @@ dateCreated: 2023-01-06T16:53:59.820Z
   </li>
 </ul>
 <h1>Governance</h1>
-<p>The Concalian Empire was governed by a pseudo-democratic system, divided among three main bodies: the Centuriate Assembly, the Senate, and the Magistrates. An additional influential force was the Clergy, which, though officially advisory, wielded considerable soft power due to the empire’s deep religiosity and the populace’s reverence for divine will.</p>
+<p>The Concalian empire acted as pseudo-democratic society, with governance and lawmaking being divided among three bodies – the Centuriate Assembly, the Senate, and the Magistrates. The Clergy in addition had an advisory role to all three bodies, bringing whose role was to convey the will of the gods. The Clergy thus acted as a 4th pillar of governance, holding a lot of soft power due to the empire's deeply religious nature, and the difficulties the other three bodies could experience if the citizenry viewed their decrees as going against the will of the gods.</p>
 <p>&nbsp;</p>
 <h2>The Centuriate Assembly</h2>
-<p>The Centuriate Assembly functioned as a democratic forum for those who had served, or were currently serving, in military or civil capacities. It convened biannually in the capital to vote on legislation proposed by the Senate and to elect Magistrates from candidate lists also provided by the Senate. The laws it enacted formed the bedrock of Concalian legal code, only amendable by another Assembly vote.</p>
+<p>The Centuriate Assembly acted as a forum in which anyone that held a military or public service position, be that they held it currently, or had in the past. Their function was to vote on laws, laid forth by the Senate. They also voted for candidates for the different Magister positions, with the list of candidates also being laid forth by the Senate. Laws enacted by the Centuriate Assembly acted as as the foundation of Concalian law, that could only be repealed through another vote by the Centuriate Assembly.</p>
-<p>Voting within the Assembly was stratified by military rank and public service role, with each rank or role being allocated a set number of votes. Participants belonging to the same rank or role would be divided into a number of groups equal to the number of votes their rank or role held, where each group had to come to an agreement on how their vote would be cast. This structure inherently favored higher ranks and those able to influence through persuasion or wealth, particularly as the sum of votes held by officers and equivalent civil positions outnumbered those held by lower ranks. Magistrates and Senators were barred from voting in the Assembly, preserving a degree of separation between legislative and executive powers.</p>
+<p>The Centuriate Assembly met twice a year in the capitol to discuss and vote on propositions, a process that could last anywhere from days to weeks. Each military rank, and each type of public servant, would have a set number of votes. Participants belonging to the same military rank, or type of public service, would therefore be divided into a number of groups equal to the votes their position had, where each group had to come to an agreement on how their vote would be cast. This system therefore strongly favored those with a strong persuasive character, not to mention favoring those with the resources to actually travel to and attend the Assembly. The allocation of votes given to each military rank and type of public service were also put up in such a way that the sum of votes given to those of officer rank up (and equivalent for public servant positions) was always greater than the sum of votes given to those with lower ranks. Magisters could not vote in the Centuriate Assembly.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
 <h2>The Magistrates</h2>
 <p>The Magistrates were the elected government officials of Concalia. It was their job to run and govern some portion of the Concalian Empire. They held some authority in determining taxes, make laws, and enact policies for their domain, but could never make a decree that went against a law voted in by the Centuriate Assembly. Most magistrates served 2-year terms, with roughly a quarter of the positions being up for election each time the Centuriate Assembly convened. &nbsp;The highest position were held by the empire's two Consuls, who acted as the overall leaders of the Empire, and jointly governed the capital. The two consuls held equal power, with both importantly having the power to veto any decree made by &nbsp;the other. The Conculs were also responsible for appointing new members to the Senate.</p>
 <p>Below the Conculs were the Preators, who each governed one of the empire's provinces. Preators were simultaneously the only members of Concalian Society allowed to lead military campaigns, with the only exceptions being if the Preator died or was incapacitated in the middle of a campaign. Preators therefore acted as both governors and army generals. Newly annexed would either be incorporated into the Preator's existing domain, or make made into a new province who through political machinations would typically have someone handpicked by the conquering preator to govern it. This would typically be a family member. The higher political positions thus tended to be quite dominated by a few very powerful extended families.</p>
 <p>Magistrate positions below Preator were not typically voted on by the Centuriate Assembly, instead being appointed by the governing Preator or Consul directly. However, the Centuriate Assembly, as the highest legislative body, did have the authority to overturn any selection if such a decree passed their vote.</p>
 <p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p>Magistrates, elected to govern various domains within the Empire, were responsible for local administration, taxation, and law enforcement, albeit within the constraints of Assembly-approved laws. The highest-ranking Magistrates, the two Consuls, jointly governed the capital and held equal authority, each with the power to veto the other’s decisions. Consuls were also tasked with appointing Senators.</p>
-<p>Below the Consuls were the Preators, who governed provinces and were the only officials permitted to lead military campaigns, unless incapacitated. New territories were often governed by appointees, typically relatives of the conquering Preator, highlighting the system’s vulnerability to nepotism and familial dominance.</p>
-<p>Lower magistrate positions, not directly elected by the Assembly, were appointed by Consuls or Preators, though the Assembly retained the right to reject these appointments.</p>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
 <h2>The Senate</h2>
 <p>The Senate's function was to draft legislations, and candidate lists for magistrate positions which, the Centuriate Assembly would vote on. Senate members were appointed by the Consuls. The Senate had no fixed rule for how many members it would have, though the norm was to keep the number close to 100. They served for life, unless they became so disliked that the rest of the Senate brought forth a decree for vote at the Centuriate Assembly to deprive them of their position, and said decree passed. The Senate acted as a forum where they, and people they invited in, would discuss the state and future course of the empire, and put forth decrees regarding these for the Centuriate Assembly to decide on the course of action through vote. The argument for the Senate's existence was that the regular citizen would not have the capacity or time needed to form an informed proposition about the empire's future trajectory.</p>
 <p>Senators were often former high-ranking magistrates, and the cyclical nature of consuls selecting senators, and the Senate picking candidates for the Consul position, meant there were often a lot of collusion between senators and magistrates. While the Senate held no direct law-making power, the soft power they held in being able to decide what the Centuriate Assembly would vote on meant they could indefinitely block legislature they did not approve of. The only thing effectively preventing the Senate from stacking the odds when it came to magistrate candidates, or refusing to put forth certain legislations for voting at the Centuriate Assembly, would be the public's opinion and reaction to said actions. More than once in the empire's history was the entire Senate lynched by the citizenry due to being perceived as so corrupt that the general public deemed them enemies of the Empire. This effectively meant that if certain people became too popular, the Senate may be indirectly forced to include them on the list of magistrate candidates to avoid public outcry. The similar situation would apply for popularly wanted legislation.</p>