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Alexandrian City Council

Alexandria's City Council is actually made up of multiple departments and branches, all of which operate out of City Hall. However, most people when referencing the Council are speaking of the Thirteen Consuls who represent these departments and the city by extension.

Politics

The Alexandrian Council includes the Judicial, Legal and Commerce departments, as well as a number of the significant guilds operating out of Alexshire. Each of those departments has a departmental head (such as the Marshal of the Justice Department or the Chief Magistrate of the Legal Department) to whom they take their concerns. In turn, the departmental heads report to one of the Thirteen Consuls, who meet daily to discuss (or, more frequently, argue over) issues that affect the city and the shire. Their decisions then trickle down back through the ranks to be enforced.

Relations

Within the Council, there are numerous rivalries — between Consuls who dislike one another; between guilds who each want a better lot for their members; between departments who argue that others have greater and undeserved influence. Because of these rivalries, there is a great deal of bureaucracy and underhanded trickery, with votes purchased as easily as a melon from a market stall, so it can take weeks for a matter to even reach the Consuls' table, let alone for a decision to be made.

Yet, the Council manages to function despite all this, and Alexshire has prospered on under this (largely) democratic flag. As Elysia's unofficial capital and the heart of the portal nexus, the Council's focus has always been on trade, tourism and aesthetics, so they maintain good relations with as many organisations — both within Alexshire and without — as they can manage.

The Thirteen also meet regularly with other major political powers, from Elysian city-states to foreign nationals (such as representatives of the Naharar). Maintaining a strong trade network is especially vital.

Territories

The Alexandrian Council is based in City Hall. Though the official title is that of City Council, their jurisdiction and influence spreads over the whole of the shire, encompassing all settlements therein.

Organisation

History

Back when Alexandria was barely a square mile and still confined within its wall, the settlement was governed by the elders. However, some of those were so long-lived that leadership stagnated and the scale of power tipped toward tyranny. As the town suffered one disaster after another and rebuilt time and again, so too were the leaders replaced and the style of government evolved.

The first real council, made up of representatives from each of the guilds that called Alexshire their home, was a complete and utter failure, its members too concerned with their own affairs to make decisions for the good of the city. With no one to oversee meetings, votes were cast for purely selfish reasons and in-fighting became extravagant and violent.

Eventually, someone had the idea to elect people who could represent the citizens and their interests — guilds included — with objectivity. This style of government ran through exactly five versions before settling on the Thirteen Consuls, and out of their hefty workload came departmental heads to whom they could delegate some of their mundane decision-making.

Joining

To get a position on the council, one must work their way up through the ranks of their particular department or organisation. (For instance, to become a Marshal, one must first be a City Guardsman.) Once a department head or guild master, one can then be elected as a Consul. Ties between a Consul and their original department or guild are officially severed, though it is quite common for a Consul to keep and profit from those ties unofficially.