The Everyday Politics of Ansalon

Bertrem's Note

"Politics," a more than usually cynical mage once observed, "is the last refuge of the scoundrel." This may, sadly, be true more often than not, but it does not make the political structures of our world less important. Indeed, for the common folk of Ansalon, how the great institutions such as the Knights of Solamnia, the Knights of Neraka, and so forth rule themselves is far less important than who is elected mayor of their village.

In the annals of Krynn, this is a curiously underexplored topic—perhaps because there are so many different means of governance in our world. In most cases these are the result of long, patient experiment, trial and error, and necessity when faced with a lack of rule from above. The essay below does no more than touch upon some of these systems, but I trust it will enlighten readers and possibly stimulate some villages and settlements to reform their political thinking.

Though the coming of the great dragons has plunged Krynn into a new tyranny, the everyday structures of political life continue to function much as they have, in some cases for centuries. The dragons have made life far more hitter and difficult for many, yet people often attempt to ignore their influence as much as possible and to respond to purely local authority. How successful this has been, as we see below, varies widely from place to place.