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= The Government = Though the governance of the entire kingdom rests in Atathorn, that government has been made largely ineffective by the Alliances. Before the modern era, the government was a feudal model -- that is, the balance of power was between a rich King and his close family and friends, and poorer but more numerous and, in aggregate, more militarily powerful minor lords. The entire concept of an Alliance was to wed the newfound wealth of the merchants with the governmental power of the minor lords, and they did this quite effectively. Now, most of the old government model is subverted towards Alliance goals, and the only bulwark of power left is the Royal Family. However, they're out of touch with the modern world, and, while rich, generally not very effective. Still, the government wields a fair amount of power, mostly in areas where it doesn't compete with Alliance interests. == The Royal Family == The rulers of Branmir are anachronisms in the present day. The most blue-blooded of the blue-bloods, the Royal family have insulated themselves from the ever-increasing changes of the modern world, and to step into the halls of the Royal Palace is to go back in time to a place where nobility is inherited, not bought, and wealth comes from land, not trade. The current King, Ropert V, is a vital man in his 60's. He's not unintelligent, but whenever he ventures too far from the royal sanctum, culture shock hits him hard, and, as a result, he tends to keep himself isolated. Ropert certainly understands that tradesmen have bought their way into the nobility -- his family has used economic pressures to keep the lower nobles in line for generations -- but he doesn't grasp the true extent of the Alliance's control over Atathorn's (and Branmir's in general) economic world. Ropert's ultimate problem is that he keeps trying to get his kingdom back under control the old-fashioned way -- by playing the nobles off against each other, buying up their debt with his family's personal wealth, and appealing to their senses of honor and feudal obligation. But in the modern era, most of the power that was with the old nobility has been consolidated into a much smaller group of high-ranked Alliance members. These progressives have little sense of feudal obligation or duty, are too wealthy to be manipulated economically by the Royals, and don't care to play games with other nobles over old forms of wealth like territory. As such, the only people that Ropert manages to manipulate are petty nobles who are too unimportant to be snatched up by the Alliances. Ropert's wife, Sira, a woman five years younger than he, is even farther removed from the modern world than he. Never one to engage in the world, she concerns herself solely with the affairs of the house and the petty intrigues of her close-nit set of old-fashioned women, and her occaisional council to Ropert only encourages him to withdraw from the modern world. Princess Elin, Ropert's younger sister, on the other hand, has a much firmer grasp on the realities of Atathorn. Her husband is a nephew of Alamar Roget of the Roget Alliance, a man firmly under her control. Elin has, in past years, been a strong advocate of change in the Royal family, an attempt to break the Alliance stranglehold on the politics of Branmir, but she's been frustrated by her brother's inability to see past tradition. Recently, she's been playing with the idea not of breaking or blocking the Alliances, but in trying to seize significant power within the Roget Alliance, essentially abandoning her brother as a lost cause. Thus far, a sense of family loyalty has prevented her from continuing too far down this path. Both Ropert and Elin have several adult children -- on Ropert's side there's his older daughter Saphia, the Crown Prince (also Ropert, to be called Ropert VI if he assumes the throne), and the younger daughter Pola. Elin has two sons, Wran and Usker. The Crown Prince is capable, but he idolizes his father to an extent that he's blind to the King's failings. Saphia and Usker are both useless twits. Pola is relatively smart, and has made some efforts to see the modern world, but at her relatively young age (early 20's), is so far uninterested in trying to turn around her family's decline -- she's mostly interested in wine, handsome young men, and the marvels of modern magic. Wran, Elin's older son, a man in his late 30's, is probably the Royal most likely to reverse the fortunes of his family. He's a sharp, capable sort who realizes that if his own children (in their teens) are to stand any chance of benefitting from their high birth, the government of Branmir will have to turn around sharply. Of everyone in the Royal family, Wran is the person most likely to try something untraditional and daring to check the power of the Alliances. === The Royal Guard === The Royal Guard are the personal bodyguards of the Royal Family. They guard the Royal Palace and occaisionally do police-work around events that the Royal Family attends. The Royal Guard wear painfully anachronistic metal armor that's been backed up by powerful, if rather obsolete, spells (Obsolesence 3, but high-end spells. Big mana guzzlers with great effects). They carry halberds with deadly enchantments on them (again, Obsolesence 3, high-end spells), and back those up with short swords for close-in work, with the same spells on them. Each Royal Guard carries a 50 point power token as an amulet under their armor, and they are given free license to use their mana as they see appropriate, thanks to the overwhelming wealth of the Royal Family, and the relatively small size of the Guard. Royal Guard are also extremely well-trained in traditional (non-magical) combat, and are broadly speaking disciplined and loyal. Ordinary people give these single-minded agents a wide berth. == The City Watch == The beleagured civil police force of Atathorn finds itself, in the modern day, only the third largest police force in Atathorn -- both the [[#Gold_Guards|Gold Guards]] and the [[#The_Roget_Eagles|Roget Eagles]] are larger in manpower, and the [[#The_Spiders|Spiders]] aren't much smaller. Further, all three Alliance enforcer organizations are far better funded than the City Watch. In an era of shrinking government budgets, the Watch has to choose their battles. The most important thing to understand about the Watch is their mandate: they <b>keep the peace</b>. That's all. Notably, they do not "solve crimes." Their purpose is not to track down criminals or identify suspects; rather, they are charged with keeping the streets from becoming warrens of crime. If a crime happens in view of a Watchman, they'll tend to give chase. If a crime notably disturbs the public peace (like a brutal murder or a fight in the streets), they'll ask around and post pictures of the suspects. But if your home is burgled, or your child kidnapped, and you go to the Watch, they'll simply tell you that they don't have the budget, expertise, or manpower to track down the culprit and bring him to justice. In the modern day, even this moderate goal of keeping the peace is beyond the Watch. They've withdrawn all but the most token patrols from areas that are heavily patrolled by the Alliance guards, and similarly they keep out of the worst areas of the [[Magipunk:Setting:Atathorn#The_Slums|Slums]]. The Watch restricts itself mainly to [[Magipunk:Setting:Atathorn#Uptown|Uptown]] (which is a low-crime area to begin with, and the patrols there are primarily a political manuever), and the more sedate areas of the [[Magipunk:Setting:Atathorn#The_Slums|Slums]] and [[Magipunk:Setting:Atathorn#Dockside|Dockside]], where they can make a real difference. The Watch is not so much corrupt as it is absolutely open about being buyable. The wages earned by officers of the Watch are tiny in comparison to what Alliance enforcers earn, and it's not just expected but frankly necessary for the Watch to earn additional moneys on the side by taking bribes. Ironically, though, for all the corruption that the Watch displays, they're somewhat better liked by the people than the Alliance enforcers, who are less open to bribery, but more inclined towards random brutality. That's not to say that the members of the Watch are angels, and there have certainly been many cases of the Watch abusing their powers, ranging from bullying to outright attacks, but the very ineffectiveness of the Watch tends to reduce some of the tensions between it and the common people. Officers of the Watch are technically given spears and tabards, both with magical spells on them, but they're so ridiculously obsolete (Obsolesence 4-6) that most Watchmen don't bother to use them or, in the case of the heavy spears, even carry them. The Watch follows a policy of looking the other way when a Watchman relieves a criminal of any armor or weapons that that criminal may be carrying, so in actual fact, most Watchmen have far more useful equipment in various non-standard configurations. The Watch being poor as it is, the men aren't reliably issued power tokens at all -- they have to individually request them from extremely limited stores, and so most Watchmen are extremely stingy with actually activating their gear, as it's likely to be on their own dime.
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