I've been reading lost omen : impossible lands, and the blood lord AP the last few weeks. I really like the country, I see interesting plot threads abound in it, and the AP is so far (midway throught the 5th module) one of the best AP I've read full stop, I really want to run it (or play it) someday. However, there is one crucial lore point that so far have been eluding me, which is "how are laws made in Geb", as well as "what does the blood lords do exactly"?
I know the country is ruled by the ghost king Geb, who is uninterested in actually rulling and thus delegate most of his power to his blood lords, who are a group of roughtly 60 people get to "rule" geb in his stead. But how do they do that? They don't seem to be any assembly or council where blood lord gather to decide on legislation. The title of blood lord don't seems to come with any "area of responsibility" (like economy, city planning and such), so it's not as if each blood lord had a say on specific part of society (in which case blood lords would be analogous to ministers). It also doesn't come with an "estate" that blood lord can rule as they see fit, so it's not analogous to feudal lords either.
The description of what they actually do in the lost omen book was rather vague, and from what I'm seing in the AP, being a "blood lord" just mean "being important", there seems to be no responsibility involved, nor any actual power except for the fact that killing you is now "more of a crime".
So I'd like to know if anyone can give me more detail about how things actually work here. Are the blood lords basically "courtier" without any actual power except for their position that allow them to try to influence the king? Do they have any hard power at all? If so, how do they use it?
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I also adore Geb, possibly being my favourite location on golarion. I don’t really have any direct answers for you but only my own theories because one thing I’ve noticed is that not only has the details of Geb’s governance been vague but almost intentionally so. While Geb is a very old idea in the lore, its recent iteration is very very new and fleshing out a new setting’s culture, theme, and “how to run an adventure here” came before “how do we make its government seem realistic”. I think at the end of the day most writers don’t really want to get into the nitty gritty of actually ruling an undead necropolis. That won’t stop me from making wild theories though.
I know there isn’t any named court of note in Geb but I believe the Cinerarium is where most government business is held. The building is described as having a “High Court” which might also imply the existance of a “Low Court” along with several administrator offices. This is where the bone and sinew of the running of Geb happens I imagine. Lots of lower administrators, bureaucrats, and politians who sort out the regular claims and permits. Many groups of whom then have to answer to several Blood Lords who claim responsibility over their offices.
As for passing laws we also have very little to go off of but I would love to make a guess. When someone of note has something they want to make a law it first gets submitted through channels in the Cinerarium’s halls. Then it makes its way up to a Blood Lord that gets their hands on it. By the time the Blood Lord looks at it the proposed law has already been through several reviews, rejections, and approvals (which may take years in an undead society). The Blood Lord, then and there, can veto or pass the bill off for further approval which emphasizes the need to have good connections with them. If a Blood Lord doesn’t like you they may be able to end any influence you have on the courts of Geb before it even passes their desk. However, if they do like your law I would imagine their approval would then need to be “peer” reviewed by several other Blood Lords though not necessarily a majority. This is most likely to stop any shenanigans of one Blood Lord passing a law that greatly benefits only them and encourages alliances between Blood Lords to get s&+$ done. At this point the law can also be intercepted and contested by other Blood Lords who do not want it to pass. This makes it difficult as- say you wanted to get a group of Blood Lords to pass a law who you all know are supportive of your cause. You don’t know if only one of them has an ally with interest against your bill who can then contest it and wrap it up in debates and legal paperwork for a few decades.
However, if your proposed law gets significant backing and doesn’t get contested it can be passed to the King for final approval. Usually this is just a royal notary who can represent Geb and sign for him. However, at this point the law can also be rejected for any reason by Geb to restart at any point in the process. Most commonly is for not enough support behind the law from fellow Blood Lords which causes the law to have to circulate and get more support which means more people can hear about it which means more can oppose it until they get a piece of the pie. Not to mention a certain powerful political Blood Lord with the ear of the king who could sway him to veto and pass bills as he pleased.
This legal system is notoriously easy to corrupt with laws getting held back decades until each Blood Lord involved is sure it benefits THEM in some way. Perfect for an undying country where nothing changes and cements the Blood Lord’s ego and influence as something of import. The rare case where a law could pass with unanimous approval would be quite the adventure.
As for where the power of the Blood Lords truly lies (beyond laws that is) I believe that its with their connections to the factions. There doesn’t seem to be any singular “head” behind any faction (which is good as I believe that any faction head would rival the Blood Lords in power) so I believe that the Blood Lords’ true power comes in their ability to manipulate and wield the powers of factions.
For example, an ancient Blood Lord with deep routes in the Export Guild notices that the Starstone Isles have recently undergone a food shortage due to rapidly changing environmental decay and while they are due to bounce back they are in desperate need to stockpile their reserves while they wait a few years for a good harvest. This Blood Lord notifies some connections he has in the Tax Collector’s guild to fund this project and a friend he has in the Celebrants to paint this venture as “diplomatic overtures to the struggling nation”. Single handedly this Blood Lord has secured a line of profit to his own coffers (and country’s) and has potentially set up way for Gebian produce to reach Avistan something it currently struggles to do.
Anyway this is all theory and fan-made but pretty cool if we find out it works something like this. Currently “Being important” and “Harder to Kill” are just the facets of being a Bloodlords that apply to being a PC in a combat centric game.
Would love to hear your thoughts.
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I feel like Geb is a country more rules by "perpetual bureaucracy" than legislature. Like we long understand what the rules are, but sometimes how they apply in specific circumstances is ambiguous or at least debatable. That's when one of the Factions decides governed by their own internal politics.
I think the bureaucracy created by the Guilds great and small is sufficiently robust that there rarely actually needs to be any new laws.
I haven't read the Blood Lords AP, but as I understand Geb's laws are a social fiction to convince the free Quick public they are entitled to protections from the ruling Dead, when the truth is the undead largely do what they want and to who they want within manageable reason. Whatever Geb has as law enforcement wouldn't tolerate a ghoul devouring large numbers of the Quick, the free living, but would turn a blind eye to a missing Quick here and there as long as it's done discreetly and doesn't cause a riot. The Quick are in turn reassured that a difference exists between them and the chattel that Geb keeps to feed the hungry dead, that the leopards won't eat their faces if they don't make too much noise and stay loyal and obedient, when the distinction between them and the food is entirely arbitrary and the Dead don't acknowledge it except publicly - the Blood Lords really only care about maintaining stability and their own power, and doing it without causing an...indiscretion.
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Alright, so I finished reading the AP, and I've checked both the wiki and your answers, the PF1 lore I got of how things worked when arazni was still the queen especially painted a pretty clear picture.
As AceofMaxen said, I assume that the only one with actual legislative power is geb himself, as well as arazni when she was here (and like StarlingSweeter said, geb also probably have a some underlings with the accreditation to pass laws in his stead for all matters that are "beneath him"). No mention is made of blood lords actually passing the laws themselves, and while some individuals with specific functions may be able to do it, like the chancellor, it seems to not be something that blood lords in general can do. I think that the only "official" function of the blood lord is to be geb council, and to be the people most likely to be chosen whenever geb want to delegate some of his authority. The only actual power they seems to possess is a judiciary power, as blood lords appear to be able to adjudicate whenever they want (altho those that seems to bend the law too blatantly or often may loose influence or even their title).
But as for executive power, I think that is indeed rely on the factions, with whom they have a "symbiotic" relationship. Because blood lords have no official roles, and no official power when geb isn't directly directing them, factions seems important to blood lords because it give them some executive powers. Unlike blood lords, factions do seems to have actual lawfull authority in their area of choice, and thus blood lord aligned with them can make use of that authority, as well as the wealth and manpower the faction possess. Meanwhile, factions need blood lords because a faction with no patronnage from blood lord simply have no way or reaching the king, and thus no way to aquire mandate and authority, or, if they already have some, no way to protect it. In a way, blood lords are lobbyist, except that in a country were a single individual can give or revoke tremendous power to any organisation at will, having someone able to influence him is that much more important.
In a "meta" way, what I saw of the PF1 lore make me think that geb organisation was made to be reminnicent of something like the versaille court, with a bunch of courtier fighting for the attention and favor of an absolute monarch, with their petty infighting having rippling effect over the whole country. Not only does the terminology used to describe them pretty on point (outright calling them a high court), but the whole deal with Arazni, which was then heavily implied to treat the court as her harem, with the most influencial blood lords at any point being the ones who had her favor, was precisely how things worked in this kind of court, with the "king's favorite" being considered one of the most influencial and envied post of the nation.
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Geb is, like most medieval countries, very much the "ancien regime"
There's competing claims for who is in charge where and when, with Blood Lords, Urgathoan clerics, Gebbite courtiers, town councils, parliaments, local grandees, etc., all arguing for their particular privileges and permissions. I would imagine it's a hyper litigious country, with courts populated by lich judges who patiently consider suits brought [living] generations ago by solicitors who have long-since become literal blood sucking lawyers, or decide inheritance cases for mummies, long-since entombed.
Think about the "Waiting Room" in BeetleJuice. That's Geb.
Because of all these overlapping claims and general state of continual legal dispute, most individuals with power and wealth are hedonistic and withdrawn from the perpetual chaos and ennui. We can see the bored out of her mind Arazni "ruling" with utter disinterest, and heck, the country's namesake got so bored that he essentially withdrew from his own throne for centuries.
This legal chaos is what makes the various factions so important, and what allows for our motivated PCs to rise so quickly to power.