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Below is various information that applies to the High Council of Britannia.
It is a mixture of in and out of character information to help bring clarity to
items that it touches on.
Council Meeting Q&A
What is the current procedure for a meeting?
The Chancellor calls the meeting to order.
Councilors with items on the agenda are invited to speak.
Councilors with urgent items after the agenda was published
are invited to speak.
Ambassadors, town council representatives, or local government
officials, V.I.P.s or other dignitaries with items on the agenda are
invited to speak.
Citizens with items on the agenda are invited to speak.
Any other items on the agenda are addressed.
Time permitting, anyone in the chamber with an item to bring
forth after the agenda was published shall be given time to address
the assembly.
The Chancellor adjourns the meeting.
What is the time and location of the High Council meetings?
All meetings are currently held in the High
Council Civic Center in Compassion Grove, near Yew, upon the Trammelian
facet. They are held each Monday at 8:00 PM (Central Time).
Private Sessions of the High Council may be called in emergency situations,
but may not supercede public meetings of the High Council; private meetings
are typically closed to the public.
What is my conduct and behavior expected to be?
All persons attending meetings of the High Council are expected to conduct
themselves in a respectful manner for the duration of the meeting. If you
have a question or comment on the topic being discussed, please raise your hand
(emote *raises hand*), and you will be called upon by either the Chancellor, or the
speaker who currently holds the floor.
If your question or comment does not releate to the topic at hand, it is asked
that you please wait until the appropriate juncture of the meeting to bring
it forth. If such is truly of an extremely urgent nature, please raise your
hand, and speak when the Chancellor calls upon you.
It is understood, and expected, that some topics may invite impassioned responses,
however, personal attacks against any who attend the meetings are frowned upon.
Please be courteous and respectful to all who attend, even if they are your
sworn enemy.
What happens if I misbehave?
The Chancellor of Virtue is the moderator of High Council meetings, and is
responsible for maintaining order and progression. If you are asked by
the Chancellor to cease a particular behavior or line of conversation, please do
so with haste. While you may receive a warning or two, depending upon the
nature of the conduct, you may be asked to leave the meeting without prior warning.
If you are asked to leave the meeting by the Chancellor, please do so, or guards
may be called to escort you from the chamber.
I am an enemy of Britannia, a criminal, or a general doomsbringer. I just
want to watch. Why are your guards harrassing me?
Because you are an enemy of Britannia, a criminal, or a general doomsbringer. Just
as you would not invite us into your chambers for a cup of tea (unless, of course, it was
poisoned), we aren't going to invite you into ours. Hire a spy, disguise yourself
in a manner that does not make you easily detected, or use whatever other means you wish
to infiltrate the meeting. Just don't expect to be welcomed with open arms if you're
an enemy. In fact, the following is official policy:
Formally declared enemies of Britannia shall hereto forth be denied entry into any
High Council meeting unless special advanced provision is otherwise obtained.
Persons who belong to enemy organizations may be slain on sight upon crossing the
threshold of the building in which any meeting is taking place. While a declaration
of war is in effect, this ordinance shall be enforced regardless of the intent of
the declared enemy persons. Passing the threshold of the structure shall be
determined a direct attack.
Enemy groups who wish to sue for peace may send a neutral representative with
an official proposal, or may contact the Grand Marshall or Chancellor of Virtue to
arrange safe passage to and from the meeting under a flag of parlay.
Disguises Q&A
I'm wearing a Hooded Shroud of Shadows. How can you see my face?
The Hooded Shroud of Shadows and the Robe of Umbra have been recognized by many
roleplayers as a method of disguising one's self, as in, wearing a hood that covers
one's face from observation. During meetings of the High Council, those who
enter the chambers may be asked to reveal themselves if they are wearing such a cloak;
failure to reveal one's self may result in being barred from the meeting. Once
guards are convinced you are not a threat, you may continue to wear the robe without
pressure to reveal yourself, however, you may be required to undergo a search,
and provide a name prior to entrance.
The justification for this is that, while someone walking around out of doors
in a hood may draw no suspicion and attract no attention, someone entering a chamber
hidden from view is generally up to no good, or hiding for a reason. The High
Council chambers are filled with important delegates of foreign and domestic state,
and it would not be proper for guards to just let any suspicious fellow in.
Attack Q&A
I am an enemy, and I want to attack the High Council chambers, the High
Court, or other building in use by the High Council. What is required of me?
You should contact the Chancellor of Virtue to add your attack to the agenda. This
does not mean that the spontenaity of your attack will be lost, as the Chancellor will
not make this information public, nor pass it on to other Councilors.
Why should I warn you?
Don't consider it a warning. Consider it a courtesy extended from one roleplay
group to another. Meetings of the High Council are held on a weekly basis, and
people are expected to make plans to attend. By allowing forwarning of your attack,
it allows the Chancellor to press through the more important matters and ensure that the
meeting was not a waste of time. Once important matters are gotten through, the
Chancellor shall create a bogus topic, and send you signal to begin your attack.
I'm evil. Why should I care about your meeting?
We're good. Why should we care about your attack? To put it bluntly, it's not
so much of a matter of fiction, but a matter of not allowing a regularly scheduled event
to fall into useless chaos without ever accomplishing anything. Imagine if during
the first fifteen minutes of the Majestic Oaks Auction, a huge raid occurred, and the
owners of the auction house did nothing to stop it. There wouldn't be an auction
for long.
But that's my goal. I want to destroy the High Council.
Yes, and certainly, fictionally, it could be worked out that the Council chambers were
taken over by evil and good would have to fight to claim it back. That would,
however, be part of a greater plotline that made sense. Simply allowing you to
roll over the High Council every meeting would quickly create a situation where no one
would want to attend, and that would destroy a piece of work that literally dozens of people
have put hundreds and thousands of combined hours of work into. Suffice to say,
the roleplay aspects are all malleable (as they should be), but just like you're unlikely
to let forces of Britannia destroy your guild and guildhouse, so to is it unlikely the
High Council would just disappear into the night.
All right, I get the picture. What if I want to attack multiple times in
one evening?
What's the point? If your first attack fails, attacking again isn't likely to
garner success. If your first attack succeeds, there won't be anyone to attack.
Let's limit it to one attack per customer, please. *smiles*
Is "PREPARE FOR ATTACK!" sent via ICQ acceptable notice of an impending
attack?
No. Please give at least a half-hour warning before the meeting starts.
I told you I wanted to attack tonight, and it's been an hour-and-a-half. You
still haven't told me it's okay to attack.
This is why we really recommend attacking the Britannian Armed Forces on nights or times
that they're not at a High Council meeting. Unfortunately, for the very same reasons
that we request advance notice, we can't provide a definitive time you can attack. If
you wish to attack, please be patient — word will come when it's okay.
Time Reference Q&A
What is the calendar that you reference for in-game time-frames?
The calendar the High Council uses is based on the original 1 month (RL) is equal
to 1 year (Britannian). The further basis of this is that first month of
Ultima Online's release is the year 300, and that Mondain the Sorcerer was defeated
by the Stranger in the year 24.
I have seen several references to three months, six months, et cetera. How does
this fit in to the calendar?
Given that each month of real-life time is considered to be one Britannian year,
one week of real-life time may be considered to be approximately three months. Thus,
when referencing an event that must occur every three months, this means that it occurs
weekly in real-life. An application that must be open for nine months prior to
an election means that the application will be open for three real-life weeks.
Okay, so if a meeting takes two hours, how much Britannian time has passed, and does
this mean that a two hour meeting of the High Council actually takes many days in
Britannian time?
Technically a two-hour meeting held in-game actually takes a full day of Britannian time (since
Britannian time is compressed by a factor of 12, you can take any real-life measurement
and multiply it by 12 for an approximate equivelant in Britannian time; thusly, two hours of
real-life time would be 24-hours of Britannian time). If you've ever attended a meeting
of the High Council, you're likely to agree with that approximation. *grin*
However, in general, most people stop at the measurement of time down to a week's passage.
You'll often notice people refer to upcoming events by their real-life dates, and refer to it
as being evening in Britannia when it's evening in real life, winter when it's winter, and
7:00 when it's 7:00. This is because it's very hard to track Britannian time down
to the minute when the seasons don't change, night and day come and go by area server,
and trying to tell someone to come to an event on Sunday, September 18th, 379 at 2:30 in the
afternoon while it's the middle of March would only lead to confusion.
In short, in-character and in-game documents that reference things such as months
and years will tend to be in the above mentioned formats, however, events on a specific
date and/or time will be referenced by their real-world dates so that people actually
know when and where to show up. It might break fiction, but it's a lot less
painful than holding an event no one shows up to.
Out of Character Q&A
Just what exactly is the High Council?
The Council is a governing body of 11 Councilors, a Chancellor, a Grand Marshall, and a
triumverate of High Justicars (among other officers), who serve as a daily operational government
overseeing the affairs of Britannia, and reporting as an advisory council to the Ruling Council.
Is this High Council anything like the one on Lake Superior?
Yes. The Great Lakes Council is based off of the original Lake Superior Council. The
original founder of the GL Council obtained permission to adapt their work to a Great Lakes
version. While many aspects of the Council have changed over the years, much of the
founding work still resides in the spirit of today's Council.
Who can participate in the High Council?
Anyone who so desires! The character you choose must meet the Eligibility for Service
requirements (found in Article IV of the Charter) if you wish to run for office in the High
Council, however, you can also participate as an enemy of the Council, a citizen of Britannia,
a dignitary from a foreign land (such as Malas), or however else you see fit.
Why was the Council created?
There are many reasons that the Council was created, the foremost being the simplest: There
was a need for it. The Council provides everyone with an outlet for "political
roleplay" that was previously unavailable. Additionally, the Council helps the
roleplayer with his immersion into the realm of Britannia... no longer do the
citizens have to wonder, "Hey, who is running this kingdom anyway?"
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