It had been ten hours since the clans began elections, and the word progress seemed to be nowhere near sight. The clan leaders kept squabbling amongst themselves... Each one of them wanted to inherit the throne for themselves….
Ohthere, from the clan of Ohthere (clan heads usually took on their clan name as their first name) groaned out alout and Lady Adalrod slept like a log. However no dwarf paid heed to them. The other dwarves were exhausted as well. They all had hurried over to the Stone City Kureoso for the election of a new king at the drop of a hat notice.
“The Bautischler clan’s contribution cannot be forgotten! Remember, it was us who built the houses you live in!”
“ARR, but it was our CLAN, Frithuwold that made sure you all could live, while you made houses and cropped food! We were the ones who battled and risked our lives! Even now warriors of Frithuwold are at Northern City defending the city from hordes and legions of monsters.” Damas of Frithuwold said.
This seemed endless. Ohthere sorely missed the previous king now. The previous king was from Ohthere clan and he always knew what had to be done.
“The Bautischler clan gave you the finest homes to live in and that is how you will thank us?” Bautischler clan leader shouted out while banging the table with his fist.
“Over my dead body will you be king!” The old lady dwarf of Odomir snapped back. “The lay dwarves, with no ounce of royalty or nobility should never have been allowed a seat on this sacred table. See what this does? You give them a room to sleep in and they demand your house! THIS IS WHY I TOLD THE BLOODY OHTH….”
“ENOUGH OLD LADY!” roared Thurismund. The entire chambers shook with the force of his voice. He had interevened before Ohthere pummeled his fist into the old woman’s face. He knew that restraining Ohthere was futile and hence went to shut the old lady with his loud voice.
"Ordono the wise of the tri-clan alliance and Bethlan the great of Odomir, could both of you set aside your differences and view the bigger picture? It is my humble request to you?'” spoke the clan head and priest of Gotwald.
“And who are you to speak?” asked Ordono of Bautischler without paying heed to whom he was speaking to. “Priests and their voices should be left at the temples.”
That was all that was needed to be said to send Gotwald into rage. “HERESEY! YOU HERETIC! THE GODS WILL PUNISH YOU!”
The outburst was a surprise to others. Gotwald was usually quiet spoken. His rage however was welcomed. Ordono of Bautischler coiled back in fear. Priests held very little political power but they had a strong political influence. The common people worshipped the Gods and the priests were the voices of the Gods. Even if the Bautischler represented the common dwarves compared to Gotwald he held very little influence over them. In terms of gaming stats, his charisma was dismayly low. He would be unable to exert his leadership on the masses like Gotwald.
The others could empathize with Gotwald’s outburst. It wasn’t unwarranted, they all had spent three weeks (VR time) getting to the Stone City and thereafter immediately rushed into the elections. Everyone was exhausted; physically and mentally. Furthermore, they were locked in with other opinionated clan leaders whom they disliked till the end of the elections. Given the situation, if a dwarf clan head runs his mouth without giving due respect, Gotwald’s reaction was more than justified.
Each clan head was powerful enough to disrupt the way of the dwarves. To upset the balance could greatly affect the stronghold the dwarves had established across the four kingdoms. Furthermore, if a clan was isolated, it would transalate to immenent doom. Hence, dwarves avoided getting on the badside of each other with petty words.
That being said, they were an honest and irritable bunch and the clan heads were at their limits. If they didn’t elect someone today, it would roll over to the next day. This is where the real political game would begin. Each day spent battling for authority had a price attached to it. Clan heads were unable to monitor the affairs of the outside world. They could only entrust their juniors to manage without them to the best of their abilities. So with each ticking day, it became riskier and riskier for a clan to stay inside the stone room. Like in a game of chicken, the idea was to wear out the other candidates till one of them blinked away.
Coenwulf, the least patient of the dwarves began showing growing signs of restlessness. He was one of the youngest clan heads and it was evident from his continuous grumbling. Dwarves would steel away their emotions when playing politics. However, those less experienced would be unable to subdue their irritation. Paying attention to basic signs of restlessness could have a big advantage later on. Clan heads could use that single piece of information first approach the most desperate to leave to form an alliance or something along those lines. Coenwulf’s impatience had him written off as the next king. A king must be able to play politics otherwise he would be nothing more than a mere puppet.
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Coenwulf didn’t care what the other’s thought of his impatience. He had just sat here for hours and hours at a stretch listening to each dwarf announce their candidature. Then speak about their clan’s glorious history followed by their greastest achievements. As a dwarf who loved the way of the hammer in battle, these political discussions were meaningless. In that sense he preferred the other dwarf clan who were incharge for defense and offense like Ohthere. Those with a military background always tended to be more direct and to the point. However, they also happened to be the least interested in the affairs of state governing. For something like that existed all the other clans…..but Coenwulf was unsure how much longer could he stand being in the same stone chambers with these bungling infernos that were still to finish talking about the past!
“As the second representative of the tri-clan alliance, I too support Ordono of Bautischler….” The Mittsu-clan alliance was three smaller clans that merged to create one large clan (probably the largest in terms of the number of dwarves they represented). They did so in order to gain a seat at the round table. The Bautischler, Ackerman, and Schäfer represented the common production class dwarves; those with no voices in their own government. The original round table had five clans with Adalrod, Odomir and Holosint being the oldest and considered as good as royalty. However, with growing size and opinons, clans branched and branched…till 8 more were added…
Frithuwold tried really hard to conceal his anger, “We are deviating Mittsu alliance. We are not yet discussing the elections. We need to first make a decision on the immediate things at hand. If I may get back to the question, which I had posed earlier... Are we going to reach out to the Air Kingdom for the war in Northern City of not? My clan is already spread thin across the four kingdoms since we lost many in Skyholm. I am not sure how much longer we may be able to hold on to Northern Mountain City. The kobolds are persistent as leeches. As we speak this very moment they are wearing out my troops and weakening the city’s defenses. As I said before, I am not interested in being king, I am more interested in keeping our brethren safe. My clan members present there are the last stand against Kobold’s armies right now. If we don’t make a decision now, Northern Mountain City, may fall in less than a weeks time.”
The mood became heavy. Everyone knew that they were reeling under severe manpower crunch after the loss of 1500 or so in Skyholm and another 7000 in Northern Mountain City’s failed campaigns against the kobolds. Losing a little under ten thousand soldiers might not seem like much to a player. However, the dwarves had to look at the larger picture. They had their armies spread across the Versailles Continent. To move them across such vast distances would have a two fold impact. Firstly, they would never be able to reach the cities on time to provide support and secondly they would stand to weaken defenses of cities that lay in greater peril.
Furthermore, it wasn’t just the loss of man power, but the lowered morale the entire army of the dwarf suffered from the complete destruction of their famed fort and most precious above ground city.
“Doesn’t Thurismund defend our cities as well? Can they not lend your men a hand in Northern City?” Bethlan of Odomir asked.
“Odomir, you might not be aware but Thurismund are involved with Coenwulf’s campaign in the south and lending an arm to Ohthere in the north.” Huogobert answered Odomir’s question. So far the Huogobert, Huoging, Hogo clans had remained silent. However Huogobert decided they had been silent for too long. It was unclear from their poker faces whether they were interested in the position of the king or not. The three sister clans had been wise enough to reserve their energies till the others wore themselves out.