Dawa Aul Election

The Dawa Aul Election is a Dwarvish ritual where the leader of the nation (the Dawa Aul) is chosen from the High Dwarves of the nation's settlements.

Although archaic, this ancient election ritual that dates back to the beginning of our world's known civilization has shaped the foundation of how governments work even seven thousand years later today.

— Unknown historian

History

As the Empire of Dwarovar grew in size, so did its administrative need. During this time in our world there was no concept of a nation, each Dwarvish Hold (settlement) was governmed by a separate High Dwarf. Whenever major issues arose these leaders discussed with each other, but it became difficult to manage once the number of holds grew to double digits.
None of the High Dwarves were willing to give up their rule, but over an unknown amount of time a consensus was born. Each High Dwarf would keep their authority over their hold, but they would elect one amongst themselves to tackle issues that involve multiple holds or global issues.
This very notion of settlements having their own authority and a nation being a federation of them - that originated thousands of years ago - still dominates most nations today.

Execution

All the High Dwarves would gather in a neutral place and vote one after another in a specific order on who should become the Dawa Aul. The order in which they did has been lost in history, but it was one after another. The participants could vote on themselves, but once someone gained a second vote, the rulers who didn't like them would start voting for others just so they don't gain the title.
If there were no ties then the winner of the election was crowned Dawa Aul, otherwise the next step of the election would take process.
The second step of the election process is the Lord's vote.
The Lords that swore a Dwarvish Oath to one of the running candidates automatically count as having voted for them, but those who have taken an oath to others could now vote for anyone out of the second step's participants. This usually involved every single Lord of settlements where their High Dwarf didn't advance to the second step, and those who rebelled against their own High Dwarf and swore loyalty to another way back when the candidate first became the leader of the settlement.
Each Lord's vote was counted as one, and the one with the most votes would be crowned Dawa Aul.
Sometime later in history a miraculous tie has occured following the Lord's vote. An addendum was added to the process where the tied candidates would settle who becomes Dawa Aul in a game of Tankard Basher - to avoid a full scale internal war.

Components and tools

The order of voting has been since changed to voting stones where each High Dwarf would select someone other than themselves from a sack of stones with the names of the settlements of them. This change of tradition has spread in order to avoid the Lord's election - which usually brought a lot of instability and in rare cases even civil wars to the nation.
The Dawa Aul is given a symbolic crown once elected.

Participants

The election process has changed a lot over the years, for example the progressive Elkinhold abolished the High Dwarf rule, so any Ruler of any species could participate. Also while originally every settlement was involved, this has also been rewritten so that only the major ones participate. The participants used to gather in a neutral place, but nowadays that's been changed to meeting up in the capital. The Lords are also not invited to the gatherings like they originally were, but instead hold their own separate voting process from within their settlements.

Primary Related Location

Krenhold

Related Organizations

• Damvahold
• Elkinhold
• Empire of Dwarovar
• Gau Dwarovar
• Mantarhold