Editing Underground Polis (section)

=== Government ===

Artheia is ruled by a triumvirate of elected officials titled Dictators: the Prince, the Mayor and the Marshal. The Prince represents the City in general and its nobility in particular in foreign matters, and also commands the Foreign Legions. The Mayor represents the trade guilds and merchant leagues and thus, at least in theory, the common citizens; he has the final say in matters concerning trade and domestic issues. The Marshal is tasked with defending and keeping order in the City, and commands the Home Legions; he also has ultimate authority in matters concerning the same.

The Dictators are elected by the Elector Council, a body consisting of all the nobles holding estates within the City itself, the heads of all the officially recognized guilds and merchant leagues based within the City, and the generals of all the Legions. Technically, each Dictator is elected for a term of no more than seven years at a time, but while the office of Mayor does usually pass around as intended, it is exceedingly rare for the current Prince or Marshal not to get re-elected, owing half to political corruption and half to a long string of genuinely competent individuals holding the offices.

Theoretically, all three are supposed to have equal authority, but in practice the Prince generally trumps the Mayor, who in turn trumps the Marshal. Fortunately for democracy, the threat or occasionally outright act of open rebellion has been shown time and again to trump all three. In any case, the Dictators actually delegate most matters and everyday decisions to the Senate, ninety civic officers elected by public vote among the citizens (a citizen being any free person who owns property within the City walls) who take care of running the City through a veritable horde of secretaries, assistants and junior officials.