Banker of Abadar, Anok Tejuht
Commander of the Voices of the Spire, Nakht Shepses.
Council Member, Ahbhn Okhenti
Council Member, Damej Mahfre
Haty-a Oshep Kahmed (governor)
High Priestess of Pharasma, Sebti
Mistress of the Embalmer`s Guild, Bahjut Everhand
Those are the major political figures in the first two books, their descriptions, ideals and desires are listed on pages 62-71 of the Half Dead City.
How you play them, with exception of Shepses and Sabti, is entirely left up to the GM. In my game they played a small role, because players were focused on protecting the gates and/or finding the mask and left the political scenario to Sebti, Shepses and Ptemenib. But all of them appeared at least once in the adventure, i made almost all of them be present on the auction scene, the governor, being a coward, left the town to protect his life and left things to be handled by "those fanatics".
|
With Wati being a holy city of Pharasma, I can totally see the Haty-a following on the footsteps of Sebti shivering in his boots. The Pharasmins probably own the entire necropolis by reason of holy site, and they hold enough sway that shepses can set loose psycopomps without legal ramifications. It's basically the total opposite of bureaucratic Tephu across the river, though even there a sect of Nethys holds the reins of tephus haty-a.
Realize this is thread necro, but I am bringing a different take on how to run the Wati government for any others that view this thread looking for other options besides what has been provided.
The Haty-a is appointed, not elected and does not answer to the commoners. He cannot be bothered with trivialities, the day to day issues that come up, he is more concerned with rubbing elbows with local elites, ensuring the flow of trade, flood and crop rotations are on schedule, and taxes and fees coming in.
The gap is filled by necessity by a frustrated Pharasman church (Sebti & Shepses), and though the Haty-a knows it should really fall to him and his position to run the city, he is content being lazy.
I play it where the Council meets with the Haty-a once a month to suggest and vote on new policies and laws or amend policies and laws that are just not working the way intended. The Council in my view is an unpaid position (they all have other sources of income.) There is room for the Councli to balance and counter one another to ensure no laws or policies unfairly favor one over others, while at the same time room for corruption if a majority is achieved that enhances the wealth of all or most.
===================================================================
When the ruckus occurs, I see the Haty-a railing on to Sebti & Shepses about lost trade, interrupted schedules, lack of confidence by the local elite (all the things that are important to HIM), and demanding that the church, "DO SOMETHING - SOLVE THIS - NOW!" and storming off feeling like he has done his best by demanding action, but not providing leadership, a clear goal or input into exactly what he expects.
This paves the way for the schism between Sebti and Shepses regarding how to best employ the churches "resources."
Honestly, as someone who has started running Mummy's Mask, it sounds like Oshep Kahmed is wary of the constant bickering among the other council members of dynastic disputes, the Mahfres and the Okhentis, and of Sebti leveraging her popularity among the common people against the aristocrats, Everhand's ability to bring the industry of the city to a grinding halt if she wanted, so is trying to stay aloof to preserve the illusion of his authority - nobody can say he's powerless if it never gets questioned, after all. If he does intervene, and a settlement is arranged, it looks as if his intervention helped.
The book does mention that he makes sure the farms surrounding the city remain productive, so it doesn't sound like he's incompetent or lazy - he just has enough sense to know he's an outsider, and that meddling in the domestic partisanship of the city is a quick way to remind people he was imposed, not elected. Not all governors are appointed - El-Shelad gets to elect their Wali. Oshep would prefer not to add annual elections to his other headaches, especially how messy El-Shelad's get.