Urban Magesture

While the only requirements to stand for election are living within a Ward for 5 years as described by the Nexus Accords, wealth or community acclaim or both are required to with the Ward Election.

To stand for Magesture, a candidate needs to just make their intention public and pay the exorbitant nomination fee which is used to administer the election and the remainder goes to the winning Magisture.

While nomination is self directed, attaining the position requires the majority approval of the Ward residents. This will entail multiple rounds of voting eliminating those who cannot garner sufficient support.

The first duty of the Magesture is to promote the economic growth of the Ward. The second is to represent the Ward in the Pathway Council of their Golden Path Metropolis. And finally, to keep the Peace so trade is not interfered with.

To maintain the prosperity of the Ward, they are responsible for regulating trade, insuring the health of its people, and the upkeep of its infrastructure. As part of this they will maintain a limited bureaucracy to meet these needs. While the heads of the bureaucracy may change when a new Magesture is elected, the bureaucracy rarely changes except in the face of blatant errors.

Speaking on the Ward council the Magesture is responsible for advocating for their Ward's interests.

To keep the peace, they are responsible both the provide a peacekeeping force and standing in judgement over disputes within the Ward. They may contract with an Urban Cohort, provide their own police force, or hire Bullyboys to maintain the peace.

Beyond the immediate power over the Ward, the Magesture has an advantage in business dealings within the Ward. They can act as a Patron of individuals within the Ward and are capable of extracting gifts, bribes, and favors from their Clients.

Their position as Judge over conflicts within the Ward also grants them immense power to favor a preferred petitioner. However, abuse of this power can lead to the end of a Magesture at the end of their turn.

Each Ward has a customized rod that represents the people and industry of the Ward that the Magesture uses as a symbol of authority when judging petitions and when representing the Ward in the council.

The Magesture is typically removed through failing reelection. However if their behavior causes harms to their neighbor Wards or the Golden Path Metropolis overall can be removed by majority vote of the Ward Magestures in the Pathway Senate. And Magestures are inevitably mortal and if they overstep too much, they risk engendering a violent response.

During the Second Nexus Wars, the Golden Path Metropolises were carved into fortified camps controlled by factions of each combatant. These territories would shift over time as castsulae were built, defended, and conquered. However with the unifying peace required for the Nexus Powers to ally against the Dwarven March in the Third Nexus War, the borders of these territories became fixed and were redubbed Wards.

As the Merchen Lords rose in control of the Golden Path Metropolises they began to take control of multiple Wards. This consolidation of power gave them outsized influence over trade in through Nexus. After the failure of the 4th Coalition the Nexus Powers reasserted themselves and suppressed the power of the Merchen Lords. One of the ways they did this create the Magesture role and limit their control to one Ward. This became encoded in the Nexus Accords at the end of the war.

Since then while some Merchen have attempted to expand their direct control to other Wards, they have never been able to overcome this tradition and have settled with indirect control of Magestures through garnering loyalty.

Because of their direct influence on day to day life within a Ward, every resident is familiar with their Magesture and has some level of personal relationship with them. The Magestures constanly have problems to solve and they will hire Compacts to solve them, from the Ward shaping to the daily mundane problems.