Overview:
Alright, time for part three of this series (later than I'd anticipated, but here nonetheless!) This is the series on my blog where we take a look at different ideas and concepts surrounding the government types presented in the Dungeon Master's Guide for D&D 5e.
Today, we return to page 18 of the DMG to talk about confederacies:
"Each individual city or town within the confederacy governs itself, but all contribute to a league or federation that promotes (at least in theory) the common good of all member states."
Now that we have our baseline, let's see what kinds of NPCs we can cook up!
Who Are the Important People?
When I think about confederacies, I think about two different historical places: Ancient Greece, and the southern United States during the Civil War. Both of them are different, but both of them match the description that the DMG puts forward here.
City-states were very popular in Ancient Greece, and those city-states were independent bodies with their own forms of government. Take Sparta and Athens. Both were part of the larger "Grecian Empire" but they were also different from one another in culture and ideals about government. They even went to war against each other. During the American Civil War, several southern states had attempted to secede from the country and create a confederacy. This new government had the mindset of states' rights and state laws to be more important than federal laws. The individual states would have more power than the country that governed them as a whole. Both of these embody a confederacy.
Knowing that, if you plan to use a confederacy in your setting, ask yourself what each of the city-states involved are like. How are they governed? Is there a federal leader? How are leaders chosen? That will help you determine who your important people are out of the list of ideas I'm about to put forth:
- The Monarch / President. This is the leader of the kingdom itself. In the Civil War example, this was Jefferson Davis. This leadership position can be within a family and inherited, as the title of "king" or "queen" would be, or it can involve some kind of election or test of strength. In the latter instance, you're bringing in facets of a republic or democracy. A reminder that this person would not really be in charge of things, but we'll elaborate more on that and what it means later.
- Local Leaders / Governors. These are the true governing powerhouses, and they can take any form you want them to. They could be an elected body. They could be a general or local adventuring hero. They could be some kind of king or scholar. The beauty of having a confederacy is that you can create vibrant local cultures within a single empire. Your players don't have to travel the world to see different cultures; there can be many right here.
- Voters. If you're implementing a non-hereditary system, and you plan on there being some kind of "voting system" then it's important to know who's allowed to vote and why. If you're running a political campaign, especially one surrounding an election, it's important to know who your voters are.
Function / Motivation
As per always, the primary function of any government is to govern. They're the ones that create systems of laws that allow society to exist in an orderly way.
Confederacies are interesting because there's not really a sense of "national pride" or togetherness. The people living in these city-states are far more likely to identify with the city-state that they're from, rather than their nation. Greeks were not "Greeks," they were Athenians, Spartans, Corinthians, or Thebans, etc.
Some city-states in your confederacy may have a rivalry, or an alliance (or they may be in need of an alliance.) There's a very fun and interesting plot right there: uniting a confederacy that has been at war with itself for a long time, in an effort to face a larger threat. A governor may be motivated to prove that their city-state is the best, and requires the party's help. There may be an upcoming election, and the party is hired to ensure nothing goes wrong. A governor has just died with no eligible heir, and there's a power vacuum. How is the next governor chosen if there is no voting system in place?
What's the motivation for a federal leader? Perhaps they want to keep peace between their city-states. Perhaps they don't really care at all, and they enjoy being a figurehead or mediator for conflicts. Ultimately, that is what the federal leader would be responsible for, if each city-state is governing itself apart from them. Otherwise, there's not really a reason for one of these to exist. In fact, you don't really need one. The "federal government" in this case, could just be all of the governors working together on a larger council that meets every so often. If that's the case, how are conflicts between city-states solved? It may benefit the DM to put in some kind of "mediator" role, even if that person is not necessarily a government leader. Think something like a Chief Justice or Judge.
If there is a voting system, what motivates voters to vote? Well, voting could be mandatory. It could also depend on the candidates; popular and likable candidates are more likely to cause better voter turn-out. If both or all candidates are unlikable, fewer people turn out to vote because they feel as though they're voting for what they believe to be the lesser of two evils.
Why Should I Include This?
A confederacy can be many things, but the best thing that I think it can be is culturally diverse. If you want to write a campaign, but don't want to go through the trouble of making (for example) five different kingdoms for your party to explore, that's fine. Create a confederacy, and make five major city-states. Give each city-state a capital, and maybe a couple villages. You can have five vastly different cultures, but all condensed into one major area. Making a local government, in my personal opinion and experience, is a little easier than making a federal one.
The state of the confederacy can also lead to a multitude of different plotlines:
- Two city-states are about to go to war. Your adventuring party can take one of two routes, depending on how the DM wants to write the story. They can actively try to stop the war, or they can pick a side of the war and help them win, like in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey.
- All of the city-states despise each other, and a new king of the country has come into power. He hires the party to help him unite the city-states. This could be for his own personal gain, or because the country is facing a large threat like an invading nation or monsters.
- Two city-states are trying to form an alliance, but they're at an impasse. Maybe an arranged marriage can help, but who and how willing would those participants be? Maybe the party helps decide or acts as bodyguards. This could lead to a similar plot to my Matchmaker Campaign.
- A city-state is being framed by a local pirate captain (here's Em, resurfacing her pirate obsession) for breaking a trade agreement with another city-state. Can the party save the agreement and catch the pirate in the process?
- As I mentioned before: a governor has died, and has no heir. The party can help ensure the validity of the election, or they could be hired by the monarch to help choose a new governor from certain candidates.
All of these could be filled with action and intrigue for a great D&D campaign.
What's Coming Next?
There's another one in the books! In our next post in this series, we'll be discussing the intricacies of democracies! See you all then!
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