Terran always seemed to me a realm set up to sort of 'get by' while the 'moot was the 'real' organization. Short of rebellion, there is no way for any one person in Terran to get anything done. The Chief Magistrate is a vote-counter.
I've never seen a Republic work in BM without a strong central government, and both Kale and Hireshmont have (on purpose?) seen to it that that never occurs.
That's perfectly fine IC, but as a player in the realm it's made it a bit dull because all the real decisions get made by the 'moot and there is no feudal hierarchy at all. There is no reason to give a !@#$ what happens in the region next door, or who the up and coming knights are. It's just election after election and the only person who ever gets any criticism is poor Kale because his is the only job with regularly quantifiable results, even if those results (at least in this most recent case) have more to do with 'realm with no cohesion can't move as one army' and less to do with poor generalship. There isn't really even any politicking because at this point all the little mini-groups in Terran just loathe each other.
But this has been apparent forever. Terran needed to be recycled into a new realm a long time ago, but because it would have threatened the 'moot, that didn't happen. What authority does exist is typically bent toward defending the status quo and/or electing someone who won't rock the boat too much with respect to SA or the 'moot.
I find this view to be quite intriguing, really, because as far as I can remember, there's nothing the 'moot elders can agree to without support from the various senates. The Treaty limits every realm's sovereignty, but it also can't dictate anything to them...
Using elections to hop around from vacant lordship to lordship to avoid being banned under the "new lord" protections. Wasn't there an entire thread about this?
Wtf, why does this protection even exist?
