Zamen/Cintainn Government

[Nik]

So.

I have had a question burbling in my brain for a bit now:

The Cintainn controlled the Zamen Delta for centuries, but we don’t have any detail on how the government was structured other than the Zamen were expected to pay their 7/8ths tax share. The Zamen do not currently have a hierarchical governmental structure. We have Eldests and Ruis, and that’s it.

So my question is: during the Cintainn occupation and control of the Delta, were there Zamen Kal’s and Iri’s and Kal Bren?

If yes, were those representatives chosen from among the Zamen? Or were they assigned?

If no, why not?

Because if the answer is no, I think there is suddenly a much more concrete reason for the rebellions other than “taxes aren’t fair”.

No taxation without representation?

[Staff_Cory]

While it was officially part of the Hegemony the Cintainn expected and enfored the people of the delta to adhere to the organizational, religious, and governmental structures present in the rest of the nation.That is what is primarily meant by the phrase “they were now expected to both adapt to the Cintainn way of life-” from page 1 of the Zamen culture packet.

Larger settlements in the Delta were expected to have Iri, Bren, and a Brenniri that was expected to fulfill all the same duties as those in other parts of the nation including the Brenniri speaking for the settlement in Cinhyfe. Some from the Delta begrudgingly went along with this assimilation and even attempted to use their representation to push the typical isolationist/anti-taxation/anti-environmentalism/pro-free trade agenda that the delta was known for but few made much if any headway through diplomacy. No one from the Delta was ever elected to the Kal Bren.

To the majority of people in the Delta, however, this forced (with Riddari oversight) restructuring of their village/city structures and practices was an infiltration from an outside source telling them what to do and did not play along. Que lots of angry protests and Riddari crackdowns followed, usually, by Iri from settlements north of the Voru making the journey down south to sooth tensions and attempt to show people how the Kal Bren required these things for the good of everyone but especially those in the village/city in question. And thus the cycle continued until the Zamen Revolution.

[Andy]

I’m glad Laura pointed me toward this, I would have totally missed some actual lore otherwise.

[Andy]

I appreciate that the original query was crossposted to Slack, but I would have had no way of knowing it had ever been responded to because the response wasn’t. I know there have been complaints of people feeling alienated about missing player-generated headcanons and prompts on Slack but posting actual canon exclusively to the forums alienates people who don’t use them in a much worse way.

[Staff_Cory]

I understand that we are in the midst of upheaval as the community as a whole grapples with what everyones preferred methods of communication are and how to keep a cohesive and inclusive between games community. That’s why I was even perusing the forums for the first real time in a while last night in the first place. Staff is currently developing a plan to deal with the above outlined issue. We are not yet ready to roll out said plan. However, I think the following bears saying regardless:

The above post was simply me answering a question in the venue that I saw it asked in. I did not see it asked in slack or I would have answered it there. Regardless of whatever solutions staff comes to in regards to working with our playerbase to facilitate the between games community remaining inclusive: I do not intend to cross post every response I ever give to DI related topics in all DI related channels. Official announcements and the like will always be cross posted (unless we eph up) but answering a question being crossposted is unreasonable. This is the same as when I (or likely Monica/Steve/Bestwick/Jamie/Ryan who hang out there more often than me) answer a question posed on slack and are not immediately responsible for quoting that response and crossposting it here or on our facebook. Sometimes a question will be a fundamental game question and will warrant that level of attention but a flavor question slightly expanding on a line that is already in a player facing lore document does not cross that threshold.

Please bear with us as we attempt to find a balance in this messy web of emotions, inclusiveness, and preferred methods of communication. I promise, we are genuinely not attempting to cut people out of anything. <3

[Brit]

I do think it makes sense that the Cintainn players would not even know this, as it is pretty clear in both packets that each culture views the other as either traitors or oppressors. I did a similar thing with culture packets at S&C, they were written from the point of view of that culture and not necessarily accurate.