All Roads/Politics

Pete: The way the concilium operates is based upon a constitution the mysterium helped put in place when they took the hierarch position away from the silver ladder around 200 years ago

Pete: It's a crude system of proportional representation

Pete: The number of members in an order determines the weight of its vote in such matters.

Pete: When something such as an election comes up each order takes a vote within itself, between its members. The majority vote is determined to be the stance the order will take overall.

Pete: This means that the largest orders, such as the mysterium, tend to get what they want.

Pete: The current situation is such:

Pete: For most of the late 20th century the concilium was under great pressure from a number of Seer cabals that had taken root in the city and used their influence to wage a shadow war of sorts.

Pete: It all came to a head about 5 years ago when the Arrows were instrumental in dismantling this influence and all but driving them out. It's widely accepted now that the city is under Atlantean control.

Pete: Obviously this gained the Arrows a lot of prestige, and their numbers began to swell. 5 years down the line the city is beset by these abyssal incursions, a number of unsettling events that seem to suggest Scelesti are operating on the streets.

Pete: For months no progress seemed to be made investigating or containing them, and people grew agitated. Following their gain in popularity the Arrows were known to be ambitious, and this was the excuse they needed to attempt to enact an election.

Pete: They nominated their own leader, Latimer, for hierarch. He was seconded by the Free Council, who's own general animosity towards the mysterium is widely known.

Pete: Latimer is an intense man and despite his short temper he is quite well respected. It was under his leadership that the arrows were able to get to where they are today.

Pete: The Mysterium candidate is the encumbent Jean-Louise. A short, mousey woman of around 30 or so. She's very underwhelming to look at, but she has a reputation both for her fair hand and low tolerance for nonsense.

Pete: That's a vaguely abridged version of events, and all your character really needs to know unless she really goes digging for info.

Pete: And yeah, the Silver Ladder currently refuse to take a vote of its members to determine its stance on the current issue. There is a specified time-limit within the constitution of three months, and it seems they're holding off for as long as they can for some reason.