Vow to the Bell

The Vow of the Bell is the ceremony and celebration that marks a new term's start of Manedir's Council. During this ceremony, very different groups of people will be sworn in to the legislative boidy of a city or a nation. While the majority is from old families or wealthy merchants, part of them are voted in from lesser stands and they will be moving into the Sunblessed District. To honor their achievement and their move into the more noble areas, many people gather for the ceremony and have a big celebration afterwards.

Purpose

The ceremony has two purposes: To officially mark the beginning of a new term and to have the new Scholar of Manedir speak an oath of duty and loyalty. To ensure this oath being kept the ceremony is held below the Handelsgut Bell.

Of course the inofficial purpose of having a grand celebration is already excuse enough for most people in town.

Frequency and Preconditions

The Vow of the bell takes place every five years on the first day of the harvest season. At this point all votes for the council seats have to be counted and both the church and the regent have to officially accept this vote. The official result has to have been announced three days before the ceremony.

Location Participants

The main ceremony is held before diplomats and the regent's family on a large, fenced off area at the Handelsgut Plaza. Around this area, typically a large portion of the town's inhabitants gather, even though there never was an explicit invitation. The plaza and surrounding streets are often packed and generously frequented by merchants and food vendors.

Structure

The main event contains a pledge of loyalty to the regent and the Traktat Of Maned

Everybody has to loudly repeat a vow to govern to their best of their abilities, to improve the lives within the nation and to do as they see best to protect the wealth and vitality of its citizens. This vow will be spoken by each person individually and sequantially, while the Handelsgut bell will ring three times.

Further Details

The current council was sworn in after the incident of the bell where the sound of the bell sounded strangely dissonant.

There have once been different interpretation of a result, which were ultimately settled by the current Liridian - effectively the council got an additional 5 members than before. To this day there are disputes, if these were only temporary seats or if they could be inherited or sold. Every five years the Liridian has to rule about this issue again while the Council never agrees to a new law deciding for the upcoming term.