The Baronial Moot
The Baronial Moot was the decision making body for the city of Quarowl in the realm of Magicians' End between 1868 APC and 3618 APC. It took power in the Long Famine, following the failure of the line of monarchy established by the Puzzle Lords Directorate, which had ruled in the city since its foundation in 1453 APC.
The Moot was a flexible form of oligarchy, which underwent a number of important transformations during the many centuries when it held power, but it always retained the character of an aristocratic and autocratic leadership, until its final failure, which was a kind of prelude to the Second Popular Ascendancy, when it was succeeded by a turbulent period of democratic experiments.
Structure
The Baronial Moot was a forum for the rich merchant leaders of the city to settle their differences and determine a collective policy, guided by their own self interest and the interest of the Arch Baron who led it. The Moot was traditionally convened at the Great Assembly Hall of Quarowl, meeting for four sessions of two weeks each throughout the year. Each session fell fully within the month it was named after. The Chiroth session ran from the 1st to the 14th and the Glim session also met in the first two weeks of that month. The Tivith and Tuzlle sessions ran throughout the last two weeks of their respective months.
The Arch Baron or an appointed deputy, chaired the communal sessions and held a powerful casting block vote, equal to five ordinary votes.
The Accounting Department was an important sub commitee of the Moot. Every baron was obliged to submit financial records before the start of each session. These were audited during the session. The first act of the following session was the evaluation of the relative wealth of the Barons and the acknowledgement and formal acclamation of a new Arch Baron if there had been a change at the top of the plutocracy.
Naturally, the politics of the real world often influenced the practice of this theoretical constitution, even when the Moot was operating at the height of its powers. Corruption in the auditing of accounts was often alleged but seldom proven. Subterfuge and creative accounting led to unorthodox transfers of power. Still, for the most part, the rules the Barons agreed on preserved the peace, and even when the system broke down on three notable occasions described in the history section of this article, the symbolic role of the Moot and the Arch Baron provided a sense of continuity which enabled the victors to maintain political control over the city.
Culture
The primary focus of the Moot was always on trade and the creation of wealth with only a minimal concern for security and military backing. Representation within the Moot was determined by the riches of the members and the Arch Baron was nearly always the richest man in the city (and officially he was the wealthiest, even when that wasn't quite true).
Rule by the wealthy is hardly an unusual political structure but the Moot was exceptional in the naked transparency with which it linked money to power and rather than attempting to disguise or mitigate the relationship, formalised and glorified it. The monitoring and auditing of accounts became an official index of authority and fed directly into city politics. Usually, the transfer of power between Arch Barons reflected a simple change in their relative riches and was achieved peacefully. There were however, some notable occasions when the "ideals" of the Moot were compromised by the grubby reality of a more complex world and on three notable occasions, detailed in the history section of this article, coups of a more orthodox and brutal kind resulted in radical changes within the Moot and the involuntary replacement of the previous Arch Baron.
Public Agenda
The motto of the Baronial Moot was "Trust, Trade and Tradition" and it worked openly for the mutual self interest of the merchant princes and barons who were sufficiently wealthy to command representation.
History
The formation of the Baronial Moot had been planned in secret for many years as the merchant princes of Quarowl looked for a way forward during the dark days at the onset of the Age of the Long Famine.
It had been apparent for a long time before it happened that the death of Sad King Berthold could cause a constitutional crisis in Quarowl, with no direct heir or obvious indirect successor. To avoid uncertainty and possible conflict, the leaders of the city made their plans and struck their deals well in advance of the fateful day when the old king finally died. Even before the funeral, there was a swift declaration that the Baronial Moot would take charge of public administration, and careful preparation beforehand ensured a seemless and peaceful transition of power to the new regime. Heredity having manifestly failed the city, under the new constitution the Arch Baron was to be a title bestowed by the Baronial Moot on one of their members without reference to the familar constraints of artistocracy.
The Moot did not always run along exactly the same lines, it changed over several centuries and it was subjected to some violent shocks before the end. Most historians consider that the Moot was at its height in the first three hundred years of the third millenium, during the time of the Four Aerial Courts when Quarowl was one of the four great city states which collectively dominated world politics. Although Quarowl itself would become more important as the home of the Moderators' Council, perhaps a little paradoxically, the Moot, which concerned itself solely with the government of the city, became less significant on the international stage as the Council took those powers for itself.
The Moot started on an irreversable long term decline after Zemdath the Terrible seized power in 3004 APC at the start of that age known as the Time of Terrors. He declared himself to be the Arch Baron through right of force rather than the more traditional right of riches and this set a bad precident for the future stability of the government and leadership of the city. It was perhaps unsurprising that Zemdath was himself replaced in an act of violence, when he was assassinated by the leader of his own bodyguard, the Strongest Talon of the Quarowl High Guard, Greld Ikri in 3027 APC.
In 3387 APC, the uprising known as the Ruffling of the Feathers came close to overthrowing the authority of the Moot and although it was eventually put down, with order restored, there was a permanent weakening of trust and confidence. By 3618 APC, a succession of bad decisions had eroded the power of the Arch Baron and the Moot was discredited to the point where it ceded power to the first of a number of unstable democratic experiments that followed.
Trust, Trade and Tradition
8th Mald, 1868 APC - 11th Doloph, 3618 APC
Type
Government, Leadership
Leader Title
Government System
Plutocracy
Power Structure
Feudal state
Economic System
Market economy
Subsidiary Organizations
Location
Related Ranks & Titles
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