The social hierarchies that are plainly visible in smaller human settlements form one of the most vital and competitive aspects of city-life in the four great City States of Avalon. All have active Baronial Councils, formed under the guidance of their respective royal lines (known as the Crown). Thakria's monarchy is the royal house of Emperor Periam, Mercinae under King Thandrades, Silverfalls under Count Athelstone and Parrius under Lady Augustine. In reality these royal patrons of the cities act as no more than grandiose figureheads and all real power is delegated to the Prince or First Mariner (in Parrius). See HELP GOVERNMENT for info on civic structure and constitution.
Barons are members of your city whose social status is such that they have been elected, or bestowed, with great power over the city. They tend to be elected by universal active suffage of all citizens and all major cities have at least five members of the baronial council. Through the Barons comes the Prince; the Prince appoints the Prime Minister and Prince/Prime Minister are responsible for choosing the heads of the various ministries. See HELP MINISTRIES for info. The Barons are the foundation of all power in the City-State with only the Cardinal and his/her myrmidons not subject, ultimately, to their oath of allegiance or possible Order of Veto.
The powers of the elected council centre on the key choice of citizen to present to the monarch for crowning as Prince and thus being entrusted with leadership of the city and choice of the ministers (or selection of Prime Minister to handle the task on behalf of the Crown). Members of the council are also encouraged to let citizens know whether they are performing well or falling short of expectation using the FAVOUR and DISFAVOUR commands; both having a direct effect on the citizen's rank (and thus stature and nobility title - see HELP NOBILITY).
The choosing of the Prince is undertaken by swearing the oath of allegience by typing OATH followed by the Prince's name; or to retract an oath UNOATH followed by the name of the previously sworn-in leader. It is possible to OATH NOBODY and thereby abstain from the selection of the foremost citizen but this is ill advised since it is for the very purpose of undertaking difficult decisions a baronial election is fought and won. The Prince often chooses a First or Prime Minister to delegate the task of day-to-day authority and appointment and generally the baronial council have no role in this process. There are exceptional occasions when the Prime Minister is at odds with the council and the baronial council may VETO to declare a veto on the Crown's chosen Prime Minister (or UNVETO to remove an objection). See HELP VETO for info.
The 18th section in Avalon's help system is entirely devoted to Cities and Government (see HELP 18) with HELP GOVERNMENT providing an overview on the structure of the civil government and ministries and HELP REPRESENATION introducing the concept of citizenship representation, elections and divine patronage. It is compulsory reading for anybody with ambition in Avalon.
