Hi!

I have a question:

What kind of government is in Morrowind?

-By one side, we have a Theaocracy, with the god-man Vivec

-By the other side, we have a monarchy with helseth

-And what about vedram Den?

The Great Houses do play a role as well.

I forgot the specifics though.

Dren is just the Duke of Vvardenfell. He probably doesn't play too big a role on Morrowind's national scale.

Dagoth Murdock:

I get the idea that you assume that there can only be one sort of person or group of people who have all the power. This isn't always the case. As Morrowind never surrendered to the Empire, the situation in Morrowind is complicated. It involves the Great Houses, the Temple, the Tribunes and the King of Morrowind.

The King is a foreign concept, put in place to accommodate the Emperor but until Helseth it's also mostly been a figurehead position. With the Triunes staying out of public life for the last decade, the Great Houses have would effectively been running the country.

This also means that it is not possible to classify Morrowinds government with one word.

The governmental situation in Morrowind is what one might call a stable anarchy. You have a number of big players that influence the final picture, but no ultimate head of state. You've got the Great Houses, whose primary power is land ownership, along with their unique contributions to Morrowind's socio-economic health (Hlallu business interests, Redoran military prowess,etc.). You've got the Tribunal Temple, which also owns land while having great influence in the realm of ideas and daily conduct. Then there are the Tribunes themselves, which appear to be linked to, but somewhat separate from, the Temple hierarchy. Indeed, within the Temple, there are several branches (priests, armingers, ordinators) which do not always get along.

Then, of course, there are the Imperial influences: legion units, the Cult, the East Empire company, and the Monarchy, which is sort of a halfway point between Imperial politics and Dunmer politics.

Don't forget the tribes, which, despite their lack of influence in national politics, dominate their territories and must always be taken into consideration when considering matters of trade and war. And, with no explicit head of state, every individual has a variety of options as to how he sees to his own security.

The structure of power is always the result of push and pull between many players, big and small; but it is only in a place like Morrowind where this fact is plainly visible to the average person.

So Basically in short.

-The Duke is the "legal owner" who keeps people in check, but is Terrible* at his job.

-The Five Great Houses are trying to keep there own territorys in balance.

-The Imperials are just hiding behind the Duke.

My fellow compadre above is correct. It is pretty much a stable anarchy in a sense.

You forgot Helseth.

Doesn't everyone?

Yeah, lol. He just sits on his butt all day. He does nothing special.

Besides poisoning persons of royalty and assassinating bastards.

And shankin' foo's.



Indeed they do. I damn near did until I read the thread again.

I think he is quite awesome. A Game At Dinner is one of my favourite books in game next to the historical and mythological ones.

Helseth MAY be able to change things, but he's currently a wildcard, like everyone else. The kings before him were little more than figureheads: just another player in the anarchic tapestry.

As has been stated in this thread, Morrowind does not really have a government that can be described in a single word. It can, however, be described, which is what I'll really try to do with this post.

In the beginning there were the Chimer, and they followed the Prophet Veloth, so the assumption would be there was a theocratic autocracy. After Veloth's death, however, the Chimer splintered into a variety of different political units which were finally united under the banner of Indoril Nerevar who, with his with Almalexia and his companions Dagoth Ur, Sotha Sil, Vivec, bound the leadership of these units, including the different Great Houses and Ashlander tribes, into aptly named First Grand Council which, in my mind, is an oligarchy of sorts though perhaps Nerevar's role as Horator/military leader of the Chimer would make it more of a dictatorship.

After Nerevar's death at Red Mountain, however, there was a shift as the Ashlanders were muscled out of the Grand Council, which lead to greater political power for the Great Houses. This was, of course, another oligarchy of sorts , but again another force really prevented a true oligarchy as concurrent to the departure of the Ashlanders from the Grand Council the Tribunal assumed their roles as God-Kings of Morrowind and created the Temple, an institution which really enhanced their power, greatly tempered that of the Great Houses, and centralized all authority of the country in their hands, creating a sort of theocracy ruled by a triumvirate of autocrats.

This system, with the God-Kings controlling the Temple which controlled the Great Houses and the people, remained in position virtually unchanged until the Third Empire of Men (the Septims Empire), which forced a change in the system by emposing a King upon Morrowind. Originally the King's only real purpose was to act as the Emperor's represenative within the province and as a sort of check against both the Great Houses and the Temple, a task which I feel they would have utterly failed at had it not been for the reawakening of Dagoth Ur and beginning of the decline of the power of both the Tribunal and their instrument the Temple, which left a hole in Morrowind's longtime political that the monarchy was only too perfect to fill, though I really don't believe that either Barzeniah or Athyn really tried to expand their power significantly, which lead to a period where the Temple was weak and the Great Houses ran relatively wild creating for the first time a real oligarchy as the members of the Grand Council began to assert more authority with less supervision.

This oligarchy, however, was utterly doomed with the rise of Helseth who, recongnizing the monarchy's position to fill the Temples declining role in Morrowind's political system, began to expand his power by leaps and bounds by politically outmanuevering the Great Houses and assuming the authority that had been abandoned by disappearing God-Kings and, eventually, the Nerevaraine. This centralization of power from Nobles and the Temple reminds me somewhat of the actions of the Kings of Wester Europe during the 1500 and 1600's, which would make modern Morrowind a proto-Absolute Monarchy.

I like this post even if I disagree with it somewhat.

A Game At Dinner is historical heh.

lol Stable Anarchy. lol

That actually answered my two-year question. Thanks!


But in terms of image, I think the Neravarine pwns everyone else. He united Morrowind once again, didn't he?

Not really. He removed the ALMVIVSI's powers, smote Alamanexia, and found Sotha Sil dead, which in turn caused house Indoril to have almost no grounds for power, since they were the Tribunal house or at least a huge part of it. Redoran is in the somewhat same boat, big on Tribunal conservatism, but they got nailed with the unlucky stick with the constant invasions on their lands. And since the Tribunal is disolved, many of the head haunchos of Indoril are completely distraught or committed suicide. Currently, only three houses have power, Telvanni, Dren and Hlaalu, and Helseth is making strides to become leader. Currently, Indoril is being picked away by the big 3, and Helseth is trying to dissolve the house system. So, if anything, the Nerevarine was an instrument and bringer of change, and kinda destroyed a few houses. But he did allow Helseth to get his hands on trying to unite MW into a single ruler, so I guess that counts.

Now, for my speculation, I have a feeling that if Helseth keeps up his stride, he may make Morrowind more of an oligarchy or something, with himself as the biggest authority figure. Two houses of falling completely apart, so he's taking this opportunity to make himself a bigger figure. With the alliance he struck with Hlaalu and Dren, he has expanded his influence into them, so manipulating them won't be so difficult. Telvanni I find a little tricky. With them, he could either form them as Morrowind's version of the Mages Guild, breaking the armistice sure, but I bet he can do it. Or, he'll just leave them alone, if they leave him alone. Eventually, he will cause the houses to submit to his rule with his usual method of getting things done.

The Nerevarine disemboweled Morrowind. He went Trinimac on it.

I have some questions about the council system.

As far as I understand, each House has its own Council (though are the council's we see in Morrowind only a regional council, or the entire House council? If the second, why is there no representation from other regions of Morrowind province?) The way I understood it was that the councils in Morrowind were only regional councils, which formed part of a whole, but correct me if I am wrong.

Does each region of Morrowind have its own overarching council? E.g. in game, Ebonheart seems to be Vvardenfell's Regional Council seat, with reps from each house, the Duke, and some other interest groups.

Is the Grand Council the 'governing body', so to speak, of Morrowind? That is, it has representatives from each district council, the King, and so on?

I believe the Redoran council had entirely moved to Vvardenfell which would suggest the Hlaalu and Telvanni councils are also in Vvardenfell in their entirety. I can't say for certain though....
Morrowind is divided into six districts, each presumably with its own duke
The Grand Council probably doesn't do much... Helseth makes most of the decisions but the Council may have done so before a powerful king came to the throne

I doubt anyone will forget Helseth's role in politics anymore... With the Civil War and all that jazz

Yeah, I'd imagine that Helseth's power has blossomed between Morrowind and Oblivion and probably also gobbled up some of the power that Redoran and Indoril left behind when they got castrated (for different reasons).

It's not a stable anarchy. It's simply a situation where everyone is trying to have their cake and eat it. That they want the cake, says it's not an anarchy. The cake being a metaphor for "political power" btw.

But if the cake fell off the table, the Hlaalu Dunmer would be the guys with the most cake, followed by the Temple.

there is quite a bit of information in part 4 of http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/realbarenziah.shtml#4 in which she arrives in Morrowind and begins sorting out what her role is.

The Government of Morrowind is a Feudal State in its earliest form.

You have the Monarchy which does not have very much power outside of its immediate sphere, and barely (if at all) outranks the Houses in raw power but has the Imperial authority to keep things placated.

The Great Houses are clans/confederations which represent the nobility of the realm in whose hands ultimately control Morrowind.

Lastly you have the Tribunal Temple which represents the power of Church. It doesn't have raw power necessarily (not that Ordinators were only in Temple controlled areas which were few and far between.... Vivec, Necrom,etc) but it has the loyalty and obedience of the common people and the fear of the nobility which make it a very fine pillar to their civilization.

Muthsera,

The governmental structure of Morrowind is fascinating. Many different factions claim jurisdiction over layer upon layer of Morrowindian existence, resulting in a quagmire of hierarchies that few can navigate with confidence. The School of Julianos has been attempting to send additional Scholars to assist the citizens of Morrowind through this period of theological and governmental uncertainty that has resulted in the wake of the Nerevarine Prophecies and the downfall of the Tribunal. A glimpse of the School's efforts can be seen http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?s=&showtopic=745922&view=findpost&p=10802314.

Morrowind is an Imperial province, which means that Imperial law governs...usually. The Empire divides its jurisdiction of Morrowind into six Imperial districts. (http://www.imperial-library.info/savant/index.shtml) Vvardenfell is but one district. Each district is headed by a duke. The current Duke of Vvardenfell district is http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind%3a%44uke_Vedam_Dren. The identities of the other five Morrowindian dukes are unknown.

Each of the Imperial Dukes answer to the "King of Morrowind", an Imperial title created as a by-product of the negotiations between Tiber Septim and Vivec.

To make matters more confusing, Morriwnd is divided into many other districts that do not relate to the Empire, such as the "Temple District", "Hlaalu District", etc. Whomever the namesake of the district is seems to be the local ruler of that district. For example, in the "Redoran District" of Vvardenfell, House Redoran enforces its own laws as well as the Imperial law, but it does not enforce Telvanni law. Likewise, in the "Telvanni District", House Telvanni enforces Telvanni and Imperial law, but it does not enforce Redoran law.

Each House is run by a House Council. The House Council appoints the local magistrates who judge cases and determine sentences, while local guards enforce both House and Imperial law. (http://www.imperial-library.info/savant/index.shtml).

Once upon a time, the Houses met together in sort of a "United Nations" of Great Houses known as the Grand Council to "speak for the law and the land of Morrowind". However, Helseth, the King of Morrowind, reformed the Grand Council, which seems to be a concession to the Great Houses in return for "abolishing slavery", which he, technically, did not have the power to do. (Arguments in favor of Helseth's power that claim that allowing slavery is no longer enforceable since both parties to the negotiation are dead [i.e., Vivec (supposedly) and Tiber Septim] fail miserably considering that, should said argument be adopted, then Helseth position, which is also a by-product of those same negotiations, would be rendered inert and powerless.)

Adding to the fact that the Temple is no longer a governing force, Morrowind is ruled by the King and his Dukes on matters of Imperial law, locally by the Great Houses in the manner stated above, and as a nation of Dunmer by the Grand Council.

I hope that this short essay concerning the law of Morrowind has helped. I have avoided discussing the rights to appeal and resulting venue issues due to not wanting to stray into overreaching the answer. May JHUNAL bless you on your endeavors, for I remain...


Yours in the Scrolls,


___The Word Merchant of Julianos

Surely Tiber Septim isn't really dead?
Fantastic essay though, are you secretly a dev?

No, though I appreciate the compliment. I just regurgitate what I have read upon command or request.


___TWM