*Excerpted, like most essays given here, from Oriel Goatleap's Eldhan Liraredi.
(Translation from the Aril carried out extremely carefully, but this does not mean there are not errors).
Many would claim that Rowan is ruled by a triumvirate, as they are the most immediately noticeable powers in the city and seem to wield the most force. These are the Councilmaster (who may be either male or female), the Captain of the Guards (usually a woman), and the master torturer (usually a man).
However, as with many other common conceptions about Rowan, this has lies, or at least misunderstandings, tied with the truth. These people often do not 'rule' Rowan, at least in the sense that other races understand it. They do not wield the power of a king, or even of a Leader among the humans or elves. They can give commands, and they will be obeyed- most of the time. They also often work against each other, so that a particular command may go through torturous months of work to be fulfilled, or never arrive at completion at all. They take the field, perform tasks themselves, and, at times, work diplomatically with each other to balance the powers from getting out of control. Being one of the 'Triumvirate of Rowan' is a constant balancing act. One can never safely rest on his laurels.
And there are other forces in Rowan to contend with...
Let us pass on to a brief description of the powers and duties of each of the three leaders, and then what other forces they must keep in balance.
CAPTAIN OF THE GUARDS
The Captain of the City Guards has traditionally been a woman since the time of Jaelish the Traitor, who, it was believed, deliberately fouled up the task in the service of his Councilmaster, who declared herself Queen. Notable recent Captains have been the Lady Gyra Summereyes, the Lady Vindia Leaflaughter, and the current one, the Lady Tandra.
The Captain of the City Guards is the leader of the only independent organized military force in the city. All Elwens are taught from a young age to wield weapons, of course; and for Rowanians, dwelling in the midst of danger, this has been more a matter of course than for most. And there are other organizations, such as the Council and the Prison Guards.
They, however, may serve many masters, going where they are assigned or as their loyalty leads them. The City Guards are expected to remain faithful to the Captain alone.
The Captain keeps order in the city among her often volatile people, and acts especially quickly in the events of riots, or large fights where magic may be used. She is perhaps the only person who knows that she will have to harm her own people when they are not actually on trial for a crime (and therefore deserving of punishment). She may have to order her Guards to threaten, beat, or even kill people whose only crime was getting a bit out of control. However, without such checks, Rowan would be a madhouse. The emotions of our dosa run too high to be left to chance.
COUNCILMASTER
The Councilmaster rules the Council (see below), the most powerful person among the twenty-one members. His duties are many and various, but include:
-Casting the deciding vote when the Council is tied, ten to ten.
-Making general speeches when the city requires them.
-Leading the judging of cases involving the death sentence.
-At least speaking up in the debate about new laws.
-Insuring that petitioners are treated fairly, and criminals are not assaulted.
-Acting as a diplomat to other cities or groups who may wish to trade with Rowan.
-Keeping an eye on the major movements in the Tableland or Arcadia that might affect Rowan (such as the growth in power of Rowan's enemies).
-Insuring that knowledge which others might use for blackmail is suppressed.
-Maintaining the hallowed secrets of Rowan.
-Holding the lesser groups, such as the Temple of Suulta and the bored youngsters who find excitement in breaking the dueling laws, in balance when they are not actually erupting in violence.
-Executing those condemned to death.
The Councilmaster was not, once, always mantled with so many duties. Some of them were handled by the master torturer or Captain of the Guards, and there were others that simply did not exist when Rowan was more withdrawn from the world.
But, with the rise of the Lady Eleriad Deerfriend, the other two members of the triumvirate willingly let a great amount of their power pass into her hands. When she died, many ineffective Councilmasters came and went, just when the city needed a strong hand on the plow, a strong foot on the fulcrum. No one could last long under the demands of the position.
Then came Herran Turnlong. Though tricked and forced into the position by the master torturer of the time, he proved what Rowan needed, bearing up under the pressure and not breaking. Even when he abdicated the position for some three hundred years, in the end he returned to the Councilmastery when his city needed him.
Some, who still remember the days of the Lady with nostalgia, insist that the Lord Turnlong cannot match her. That may be true. But he is admirably suited for this new world.
MASTER TORTURER
The justice mastery has been a masculine position for centuries, at least as long as the Captaincy of the Guards has been a feminine one. It was probably instituted to counter the persistent tradition of women succeeding to the Captaincy, but legend insists that women did not prove aggressive enough, that they lacked the stomach to torture as the laws demanded. It can provide no names, but many of the torturers would swear the tale true. All of the master torturers of modern times have been male, from the self-sacrificing Isson Lafoxbane to the cold bastard known as Quirrin Shennalor. Since Shennalor's time, however, the position has waned in power.
The master torturer traditionally commands Rowan's spies, assassins, secret police, psychic assaulters, and patrol leaders as well as torturers. Just as the Captain's task is to deal with open violence, and the Councilmaster's is to try to prevent violence from erupting, so the master torturer deals often with the aftermath of violence. If a citizen of Rowan has been tortured to death in a distant city, he will dispatch a spy to try to learn the truth of the matter. If it turns out to be true, he then will often dispatch an assassin.
In wartime, where the Councilmaster and the Captain of the Guards lead the troops on the field, the master torturer leads the saboteurs. His psychic assaulters hit the minds of their enemies, causing them to commit suicide, to feel as if they are being raped, to turn on their own comrades. His assassins use poisons on the opposite side's supplies. His scouts bring back information he can then twist to deadly uses.
In criminal cases, the master torturer is responsible for making criminals who are known to be guilty, but refuse to confess the details of their crimes, suffer. In practice, this has often been used to make those who have left great pain behind them suffer as well. Any number of widely-hated criminals have 'died under the lash,' and not been mourned.
Psychic assaulter training also goes on in the master torturer's domain, the Prison. Psychic assaulters are found young (their gifts often manifest around three or four years of age) and taken to the Prison, where they are steadily tortured, raped mentally and physically, and reformed around a core of loyalty to Rowan. No psychic assaulter but one is ever known to have betrayed Rowan and lived.
There have been many recent master torturers whose only recommendation was their loyalty to Rowan, not their diplomatic or political or torturing skills. With the Lord Turnlong's undisputed reign over the hearts of his people, and his own dislike of torture, the power of the justice master is steadily and surely waning.
OTHER FORCES IN ROWAN
The 'Triumvirate' is perhaps composed of the most visible people in Rowan, but they are not alone. There are other forces they must pay attention to, and often keep in balance:
The Council. The Council is composed of twenty men and women who have been Chosen from among what the Council considered suitable candidates and have passed the Tests (one of pain, for instance, and one to sound out the ultimate depths of the heart). They can be thrown out at any time by the vote of the assembled people of Rowan. Council members thus spend almost as much time trying to insure their popularity as actually making new laws and debating criminal cases. Procedure-making is done by voting, with the Councilmaster casting the deciding vote in the event of a tie (see above).
The High Blood Families. The high blood families (see The Great Lines of Rowan) are another force to be kept in check and balance. Ruled by their own sense of duty and honor most of the time, they are responsible for the farms around Rowan, most of which they own, and insuring that food from them flows into Rowan at harvest time, to the granaries and storage for use in times of need. They also (mostly) judge criminal cases that the farmers cannot settle for themselves. Only rarely do cases from the villages come to the Council itself.
The Speakers. The Speakers of the villages are responsible for insuring that those who live outside Rowan, yet still are Rowanian citizens, obey the laws and do not trouble too much either those of other villages, nor the city. This does not mean they are encouraged to restrict migration to Rowan; Rowan has a largely 'open Gate' policy as regards its own people. But if a troublemaker arises in a particular village, the Speaker is expected to deal with the problem as soon as possible.
Individuals. An individual, an ar, is the ultimate unit of government in Rowan. Most Elwens, as it goes, should obey the laws, or else should act as their systems of honor and duty tell them. If those systems run counter to the laws, the lawbreaker is often offered the chance to explain. The Council, the high blood families, and the Triumvirate all lean most often on the innate sense of order and desire for peace in most of Rowan's people.
