Political Structure of My Longest-Running Campaign (Patreon)

Way back, before I was a professional game designer, I had a long-running fantasy ttRPG homebrew campaign, the Sovereign Kingdoms. It had as much stolen material as new ideas, since I wasn't worried about things like publishing rights, or anything more than providing entertainment for my players. (Which there were many of -- the Sovereign Kingdoms actually had many different games set in it -- the Heroes of King's Ford, the Squires of King's Ford, Czardia, the Court of Aquilanne, Knight's Watch, my wife even ran a campaign in it called The Emerald Sea.) 

Given how long ago I began setting up that campaign, it's no shock to me that there are lots of things I did then that make me cringe now. But some of the setup still has promise in my opinion, and very little of it is neatly typed up. (I did my campaign notes by pencil in 3-ring binders at the time). In particular, there's a lot about the core political situation I think still has a lot of promise.

So, here's a quick rundown. This article is not covered by the OGL.

The main powers of the Sovereign Kingdoms were broken into the High Court, the Royal Courts, Religion, and the Guild League. While these were not necessarily equal, none of them could afford to ignore any of the others.

The High Court was the authority of the High King of Danthia, to which all other royals in the Sovereign Kingdoms swore personal fealty. Official a "first among equals," the High King was an emperor in all but name, with Danthia having conquered, cowed, or saved and subdued all the other 19 kingdoms of the "Sovereign Kingdoms." However, Danthia was in the far east of the Sovereign Kingdoms, and while the armies of the High King could defeat any one of the kingdoms, they were insufficient to defeat all of them at once. In most cases people only dealt with the High Court in the form of High Knights (such as the Knights of Sun and Sword, who answered directly to the High King), tax collectors, and High Magistrates who might be sent to investigate or oversee matters of interest to the High King.

The High King had the right to depose any other kingdom's monarch, but not to dictate who succeeded them (though wearing fealty to the High King was a requirement to be crowned). Mostly, the High King kept conflicts between other kingdoms from getting out of hand by threatening to back one side or the other, or raise an army from surrounding kingdoms to knock down everyone, if people didn't behave themselves. The High King could also create High Orders of Knights, though did so only rarely.

The Royal Courts were the royalty of each of the Twenty Kingdoms (including Danthia, as the High King was both ruler of the Sovereign Kingdoms as a whole, and of Danthia directly.) The Royal Courts were each arranged as their local custom dictated, so one might be ruled by a King, another by a Czar, and a third even by a pair of Co-Consuls. The High Order of Heralds (part of the High Court) set rules of precedence, so there was a list that noted the MacRory of Clan MarcRory was on par with other Kings, while a Highmoorlands Chieftain was on par with a Danthian Magnus, a Czardian Knyaz, a Tyrsian Duke, and a Aquilan Earl.

Royal Courts has the right to create royal orders of knights, who were granted certain rights in all the Kingdoms. Also, any noble who passed certain criteria had the right to be a knight noblesse, which was essentially just a knight without a specific order.

Religion was a major force within the Sovereign Kingdoms, but which religion varied some depending on where you were. For most of the kingdoms, the Apostolic Church (very much inspired by fantasy Catholicism, though with hefty liberties and a literal force for good imposing some improvements from on high) was the major religion, with its Regus being on-par with a King, Arch-Prelates on part with Dukes, and so on. Since the Regus dwelled in Danthia and was a strong ally of the High King, the Apostolic Church had broad powers and immunities throughout the Sovereign Kingdoms. However, Gnosticism (and older, pre-Apostolic religion) and Druidism were also both acknowledged as true religious callings, and in some kingdoms has local authority on-par with Apostolicism.

Both Apostolicism and Gnosticism had the right to have armed knights, known as kirks, though the total number they could have (and the number allowed within a specific kingdom without prior permission) were limited. The three great orders of religion kirks were the Hospitlars, Justicars, and Templars.

The Guild League was the ruling body that controlled all guilds, who had significant power overseeing their various crafts. Only groups that created something were allowed to have guilds, so there was no sailor's guild or porter's guild. Those professions that were determined by the Guild League to be labor rather than crafting could from trade houses, be granted orders by the High King or a Royal Court, or form associations, but lacked the reach, power, and protection of true guilds.

The three most powerful guilds were the Bardic Guild (who had bardic Immunity and bardic magic), the Charcoal Burner's Guild (who had a monopoly on the creation of most alchemical items, were the only group able to act as an international bank, and were secretly psychic), and the Smith's Guild (which encompassed as forms of smithing, and no one wanted to tick off, not even the other major guilds). The Bardic Guild and Charcoal Burner's Guild were famously rivals, but would join forces to protect the independence the Guilds had won from imperial, royal, and noble whims and edicts. 

There were minor political forces as well, of course, ranging from the archmages (one specific tradition of magic built around twelve supernatural positions of power, held by the 12 archmages), associations (the Association of Sailors had vast power in all port towns), secret societies (the Lady's Sewing Circle in Unlea was one of the most powerful groups of assassins), cults, and so on.

But the core of High Court, Royal Court, Religions, and Guild League gave me plenty to build on as I fleshed out each of the kingdoms and various adventuring areas.