Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll
2015-06-27, 10:29 PM
Hello all,
So in my world, there is a gnomish Magocracy city-state called Das Hoofdstad. My issue is simple: I know the city is ruled by 8 guild-like Sorcerer Houses (well, probably more wizards than Sorcerors but still), one for each School of Magic. The Houses act both as schools of magic, focusing on their own school of magic, but they're also supposed to form not only the government but the bureaucracy as well. My question is this: how would they divide up the tasks of ruling a city-state? How would that change when Das Hoofdstad conquers a large swath of territory?
Here's a little more background, for coming up with ideas:
Das Hoofdstad is set in the expansive swamp-lands of the delta of a major river, populated by gnomes (in this campaign, gnomes are all inherently magical) and also a significant minority of humans. It was once the capital of a continent-spanning empire of a vast people descended in equal parts from humans and gnomes, but the empire fell. The city-state is built upon the ruins of the capital of the empire. It extends it's control along all the delta, and a good bit of swamp-land west of the delta, mostly gnomes.
The 8 Houses theme themselves on the first 7 metals to be discovered, plus Arsenic to make up the number: Copper, Tin, Gold, Silver, Iron, Lead, and Mercury. These are, respectively, the Evocation, Conjuration, Illusion, Enchantment, Divination, Abjuration, Necromancy, and Transmutation.
In the second playable age of my campaign setting (I have two "ages" so that I can play in either 4th edition or 3.5/5th edition and to explain the difference in how magic feels in each edition), the age that represents the "Higher" levels of magic in 3.5 and 5th editions compared to 4th, Das Hoofdstad has expanded almost 10x it's original size, taking over feuding-Italian-principalities-equivalent, independent-swiss-kingdoms-equivalent, medieval-tolerant-spain-equivalent, Persian-Pirate-sicily-like-island, and parts of super-noble-knights-France-equivalent and rural-peaceful-farming-land. They have also fought a war of epic proportions with medieval-united-Scandinavia-but-with-more-ambition that left the unconquered part of peaceful-farming-land more like WW1-no-mans-land.
So in my world, there is a gnomish Magocracy city-state called Das Hoofdstad. My issue is simple: I know the city is ruled by 8 guild-like Sorcerer Houses (well, probably more wizards than Sorcerors but still), one for each School of Magic. The Houses act both as schools of magic, focusing on their own school of magic, but they're also supposed to form not only the government but the bureaucracy as well. My question is this: how would they divide up the tasks of ruling a city-state? How would that change when Das Hoofdstad conquers a large swath of territory?
Here's a little more background, for coming up with ideas:
Das Hoofdstad is set in the expansive swamp-lands of the delta of a major river, populated by gnomes (in this campaign, gnomes are all inherently magical) and also a significant minority of humans. It was once the capital of a continent-spanning empire of a vast people descended in equal parts from humans and gnomes, but the empire fell. The city-state is built upon the ruins of the capital of the empire. It extends it's control along all the delta, and a good bit of swamp-land west of the delta, mostly gnomes.
The 8 Houses theme themselves on the first 7 metals to be discovered, plus Arsenic to make up the number: Copper, Tin, Gold, Silver, Iron, Lead, and Mercury. These are, respectively, the Evocation, Conjuration, Illusion, Enchantment, Divination, Abjuration, Necromancy, and Transmutation.
In the second playable age of my campaign setting (I have two "ages" so that I can play in either 4th edition or 3.5/5th edition and to explain the difference in how magic feels in each edition), the age that represents the "Higher" levels of magic in 3.5 and 5th editions compared to 4th, Das Hoofdstad has expanded almost 10x it's original size, taking over feuding-Italian-principalities-equivalent, independent-swiss-kingdoms-equivalent, medieval-tolerant-spain-equivalent, Persian-Pirate-sicily-like-island, and parts of super-noble-knights-France-equivalent and rural-peaceful-farming-land. They have also fought a war of epic proportions with medieval-united-Scandinavia-but-with-more-ambition that left the unconquered part of peaceful-farming-land more like WW1-no-mans-land.