Lily Ripper 07

Appendix B: Ellections

The Foundation of Annalow, what the church calls "The Devine Treaty" covered many things. Perhaps in her wisdom, the Living Goddess is told to have writen the treaty between Mume and Ixxar to stabalize the city of Annalow after it's inisial invasion 2000 years ago. You can enter the Ixxar Grand Hall and find an old old stone carving of the treaty to one side.

One of the major things covered in the treaty was the manor in which the city would be governed. It says that governing outside of the church** for the maintenance and peace of the City of Annalow shall be decided by a council which a significant populous of race shall be represented. That means each race, as long as enough of them inhabbit Annalow, will have a council Member to represent them. In the begining, there were only five chairs; One for Mume, One for Effee, One for Marf, and two for Ixxar as each set of twins act as one unit and claim only one vote.

(Margins: **The claim of the Church of the Living Goddess is all space encapsoled by any church in any location starting from the top of the sky to the bottom of the world. Now that we know the world is round, that means somewhere in the Charletine Ocean there's a bit of water the Living Goddess owns.)

Later, after the friendship between the Mume and Borc grew, perhaps 900 years ago, enough Borc had moved into the city to be counted as a significant number, and so we have the 5 races we know now.

The interesting part is that each races was aloud to decide how chairs of the city council would be filled. All five races how their own methods that are very different from one another. Every five years, the elections are held in the winter months so that on the first of First Spring, the new council may enter the City Hall in a ceremony preceding a festival. I've been privy to each race's unique method.

Borc: Most entertaining to watch. Indeed, any Annalow citezen can pay to watch the turnaments. Borcs get in free and much gold is exchanged in consesion stands for meat and ale.

Each attendant places his or her name into a couldron, and they are randomly pulled out to decide who fights who.

At the colosium, Borc will wrestle one on one in elimination until there is one winner at the end. After each battle, they're alowed 1 full days rest before they must wrestle again. The battle continues until a. The loser taps for submition, b. the losers bone breaks, c. The loser's knees or elbows bend in the wrong dirrection. In rare cases of death, both combatant lose.

After the fight, the wining attendant get's their name back to be put back in after they've rested. The entire turnament takes about three weeks and never more than the last winter month.

I've seen exactly 3 matches. They're quite fun.

Effee: Effees, though slave races, are not exempt from the treaty, but are still a slave race. They are picked, suposedly by Mandra herself, to be places on the council. Speaking as an woeffee, I can say we've never had a problem for this for two reasons. 1. We understand the Church wishes to be represented on the city council, being that they're such a large draw of business and culture of the city. 2. More importantly, even if the council-effee is a plant by the church, they have still always ruled in favor of Effee safty and lessened the abuse to all slaves over the centuries.

Council seats held by Effees are for life. They begin as aprentice of the council-effee, of which are choosen by the council effee from the stock of slaves the church holds. Then, the legend is, after 10 years of working for the council-effee, they aproach Mandra and one of the slaves is taken as successor. When the council-effee names that successor, the council recognizes that in the event of the current Effee's death, the successor will take over.

One would think there would be a year when the council Effee would die with no successor over the last 2000 years, but it has never happened. In fact, every council-effee in the written history of Annalow has worked under the council-effee before they die between 20 and 25 years.

Marf: They are mysterious to me, the Marf. Their political system is a strange mess of written word and printings. From what I understand, there are 7 guilds under the city that produce 1 Canidate each who hold 7 rallies in a great hall explaining their goals for the future of building under Annalow and how the Marf are protected by laws. Then there's one day and night as all canidates gather and debate. During this time only Marf and honored guests may join the debates.

I must say, I could not keep up with the complexities of every subject they talk about, but the bulk of it was use of rescources and something about further excavations. The rest just seemed like random bableing, but everyone except myself and other visitors apparently knew what was going on.

After that, the Marf are given 1 day to produce a list of their favorite canidates in order from first to seventh. Ballots are tallied...then...something happens...and a winner emerges. In the begining, I'm told, there were only 3 guilds, but now there are seven and all of them have had equal time on the city council.

Mume: Of all the short lived traditions the Mumes have held, thrown away, reclaimed, and altered, this is the one that has maintained it's shape religiously over the last 2000 years. It's a kind of popularity contest, I think, but it has some benifits and even my Ixxar masters have uttered some apraisal to it's simplicity.

First, one stone bead is made for every mume by the Marfs funded by the city itself. The beads aren't anything special, except that they all weigh the exact same amount and are engraved with a eye of Mandra at the top. Then they are offered at the begining of the winter months. Anyone may show up and claim 1 bead from City hall during the first week of First Winter. Five White Maidens watch over the beads to make sure no one takes more than one. Even child Mumes are allowed a bead, but must come themselves to claim it, and without the help of any others. "Old enough to walk? Old enough to vote." As the saying goes.

For the next three months, it is up to each candidate to convince the Mumes in anyway they can to donate their beads at the end of winter. Some spread the word of how awesome they are. Some go and buy drinks for whole pubs. Some go door to door. Some get their families to vote for them. It goes on and on.

One hand of days from the start of spring is voting day for the Mumes. Exactly five days. On that day, from sun rise to sun set, the canidates (that is anyone who wishes to become elected before voting day) may stand in City hall and collect beads. White Maidens, again, are stationed to make sure Mumes only drop one bead. At the end, the beads are weighed and the winner is held. If there is a tie, the remaining candidates have to drink lots and lots of wine. The last one to pass out wins***.

(Margins: I want to stipulate that this is a written rule that's 2000 years old! The founders of the city decided this!)

After that, all mumes get together and have a huge party to celebrate the new (or same) council member, usually also drinking until they pass out.

On the ties, there is a legend from long ago that speaks of a tie breaker lasting until sunset the next hand of days. At the end, the winner died of too much drink so all Mumes decided that the loser won anyway. She turned out to be one of the best council-,u,es the city had ever seen and was reelected four more times.

Ixxar: Everyone in Annalow knows the Ixxar have a semi-secret society called "The Stasis." My former masters had no problem with me revealing it's existence. Everyone also knows that the Stasis decides what pair of Ixxar twins get the seats on city council. What they don't know is I'm not sure the Ixxar even know who's going to be elected for the Council chair.

At the beginning of the year, on First Spring, The Ixxar write a carefully worded letter signed with their full name and title and submit it to the Statis for analysis. Then members chossen by the Stasis run word for word, letter for letter, through a system of algorithms that process via elaborate arythmatic fifteen scores for each letter. The scores are compared by the stasis and, without knowledge of who's score is who's, they gather and debate the meanings of the scores and decide on 1 letter.

The entire process take exactly 11 Months. 10 of that is the arithmetic processed on the letters. On Third Winter, the candidate for council prepares to take office, is given the details of the seat as well as any remarkable plots and such, and until a few yers ago, inherited myself as servant and body guard.