The Council of Eight
The Council of Eight is the body which by long tradition has governed the city of Zalgurim since shortly after the Planar Conformation during the Fall of the Old Pale Empire. Although there have been a number of interruptions to this style of leadership in the intervening years, the city has always reverted back to some variation of the Council of Eight eventually and it is how it is administered even now, when it is a part of the Trans-Oceanic Empire.
Structure
The name of the council refers not to the number of its members, which varies and is usually between two and three hundred, but to the number of votes allocated to key representatives known as Adjudicators. Voting rights for the eight votes assigned to the Adjudicators are typically divided between the eight most powerful families within the city with the Adjudicator casting their votes on behalf of his or her grouping. An intricate structure of sub-committees composed of cross party members, ensures that debate is always lively.
The Magister Primus, elected from among Adjudicators for a ten-year term, acts as a figurehead and arbiter in disputes and has a casting vote at meetings if a vote is split. They are the de-facto leader of the Council.
History
The Council of Eight was established in haste, meeting for the first time on the 1st day of the fifth year after the Planar Conformation. It was initially made up of a subset of the members of the former city council who had operated under the direct authority of the Imperial bureaucracy of the last Emperor of the Old Pale Empire, but it represented a desire for more locally accountable power in the crisis caused by the chaos coming from the Dark Domains. Law and order was beginning to break down throughout the Empire and the Council of Eight, whilst still professing loyalty to Emperor Leonard V, assumed control of local security and strengthened the city defences.
When the end of the Empire came more swiftly than any had feared, the Council of Eight helped Zalgurim to avoid some of the worst consequences of the Breach Wars. Whilst the early actions of the Council were undoubtedly successful, they were later criticised as being too slow and mired in their own internal squabbles during the ages of the Flame and Water Kingdoms, failing to stimulate the local economy and leaving Zalgurim struggling to recover anything like its former power and influence.
It was only towards the end of the age of the Four Aerial Courts in the 3rd millennium APC that the Council of Eight regained the respect it had once had, as prosperity returned to Zalgurim.
In the Time of Terrors, the mage Jermon Verelfeth seized control of the city and the Council became a proscribed organisation. A group of rebels and former council members, attempted to regain their power in the disastrous coup known as the Revolt of the Eight in 3125 APC. Many of them were executed in the same year. Yet within three years, Jermon Verelfeth had died and the Council took back control of the city in the immediate aftermath.
Founding Date
5 APC
Type
Geopolitical, City council
Alternative Names
The Big Heads (derogatory)
Leader Title
Location
Related Ranks & Titles
Notable Members
Comments