Silverspire Politics

Unlike most kingdoms across the Imperium, which are ruled directly by their respective dragon overlord and are often subdivided along racial boundaries, Argostan delegates rule of his empire to various noble lords and ladies. These nobles constantly squabble and jockey for position and power amongst themselves, as humans especially want to do. By succession, marriage, treaty, assassination, and open conflict they compete to gain more wealth and lands. Generally Argostan not only permits this behavior, but actively encourages it as he finds it thoroughly entertaining. He even allows his children to participate in these escapades, though he strongly prefers they keep themselves away from any serious harm. The primary thing the silver dragon lord does not abide is wanton violence toward the common folk, cruelty is never an acceptable consequence for the squabbles of the nobility. While borders are in a constant state of flux, the overall number of states within the Empire and the capital seats are generally quite consistent. The largest cities may have multiple noble families residing within them, while the more remote seats likely just have their one ruling family. While rulership of a state or lesser fief is most typically passed down to the current ruler’s oldest child, they are free to designate another heir for whatever reason they choose. On very rare occasions the peasants of a fief or even state may rise up and overthrow their lord, establishing a replacement in their stead. This replacement may be one of their own, or might be a noble from another family or region, leading aspiring minor lords and second children to orchestrate coups for their own benefit. The other most significant political powers in the Empire are the Church and dragon riders. Each fief has its own congregation of the state religion which, along with edicts from the fief’s lord, directly influence the actions and opinions of the commoners. Lords who choose to go against their local church leaders often have a difficult time managing their serfs and rarely stay in power for very long. Likewise having a dragon and its rider native to one’s land can be a major boon or bane to rulership. Dragon riders are immediate heroes and celebrities across the Empire, and having one’s support can go a long way toward bolstering a ruler’s opinion with their subjects. However having a dragon rider speak out against, and especially fight against a noble can put them in a precarious situation with their own people. Understanding the roles of faith and celebrity are key components to a lord or lady winning or losing the grand game. The following pages are a brief overview of the major states of the Silverspire Empire as well as their current nobility and political situations. As information of a political nature is highly source dependent and susceptible to propaganda efforts for or against the people it addresses, great pains have been taken to gather the following information from multiple, impartial yet knowledgeable sources and to relay it without bias or ulterior motive. If anything contained herein proves to be libelous, it was decidedly unintentional. So then, here are the kingdoms of the Silverspire Empire.