Government of the Thousand Cities

The Thousand Cities, the Polises of Amarisar, were governed by a rudimentary form of representative democracy for most of antiquity. Voting rights were restricted to adult males, and a system of weighted representation was used based on the tithes collected by polis officials. Though exact specifics of the political system varied from city to city and region to region, most cities functioned on a distributed hierarchy of elected officials, with voting occurring every few years for important positions, and central governance being conducted through goods and currency raised via taxation and trade tariffs. From the time of the fall of Zhoongen, the system of the Amari republic developed by about the year 300 B.F.B. in a primitive form, fully being implemented in the time of the Age of Strife. Following in the wake of the Zhoongen Levars system, the first documented democracy in the world, the people of the Azh vale maintained a complex political organization from before the fall of Borizu that was to survive for over a millenia. Participation in the system was not universal: only adult males either landed or taxes could vote, the Voiced, what could be considered citizens. At various points in history actual voters only made up one in ten inhabitants of Amarisar, and sometimes as low as one in twenty- of those voters, most only cast a single ballot, whereas the wealthy and landowners wielded political influence commensurate with their contributions to the coffers of the state.

History and Development
The origin of the weighted voting system of the Thousand Cities can be traced back to the process of electing market officials in the precursor state of Zhoongen, and the lots used to elect captains of the Sacred Guard that the Priest-Kings of the Zho cities utilized as their primary enforcers and defenders. Both institutions lasted longer than the political reign of the Priest-Kings themselves, and as such became intrinsic parts of Amari society when city-states began to form anew around 300 B.F.B. The system of market income as a determiner of voting power was abandoned in the face of the necessity to include non-merchant voters gradually in the century that followed; for nearly two centuries the system of voting governance existed alongside more traditional despots and kings, but eventually the method of lots and voting began to be seen as more favorable. By the time of Ahriman the Magnificent and the formation of Mara, casting lots by weight was regarded by philosophers and most citizens as the purest form of allowing the will of the ancestors to be seen for who should lead a polis, while taking in to account the glory of those who still walked the earth. During the Age of Strife this was reinforced by the success of the Four Magi in destroying several lesser kingdoms that relied on different forms of government, and by the time of the Sack of Borizu almost no historical records of governance can be found referring to other forms of election for officials.

Participation and Exclusion
Despite the egalitarian inspirations of the system, participation in the voting process was far from a universal right. Criminals with debts to pay, slaves, women, and those who did not pay either taxes, tariffs or own land, were excluded from voting. Elections were uncommon, and conducted in general terms once every two or three years depending on the polis; elections for Firstmen were times of feasting in the community, and often contests of strength or rhetoric were held during which nominees could demonstrate their fitness for the position. After such contests, the Ardents of a given polis distributed bone or clay chits, upon which voters would inscribe the name or names of their chosen nominee; only a single name was inscribed on each chit, but it was permitted to put different names on different chits- in this manner a single voter might cast lots for both his preferred candidate and secondary candidate, up to the number of chits he received. It was the duty of the Ardents and the local bell-tower to calculate both the amount of chits each voter was issued with, and the final drawing of the lot. In contrast to similar representative systems, not all chits were counted- only a single chit was pulled at random, with the name alone being read and announced as the victor in the election. The exact ratios of income to chits issued were established during the time of Ahriman in his Laws.

Government Bodies
Firstmen were the most commonly elected official, representing either small outlying villages not technically polises, or districts of a city. Anywhere from four to several dozen Firstmen might represent a polis, and compose the council that ruled a polis under the Citylord. They voted in a similar manner as the general election for one of their number to be Tolsar- Tolsars served for a longer term, roughly a decade or fifteen years, being the ultimate authority over a polis, and the most common authority in the Thousand Cities. Above them were only the Luminarchs, the Brightprinces that ruled a Majpolis, a comparably recent position developed over the course of the Age of Strife to coordinate the military and economic resources of often up to a hundred polises. They too were elected by their peers, for life unless recalled by their peers.