Information about ancient politics?

[kikyo]

Okay so I am trying to figure out key points that a king would talk about involving politics.
I know military strategies is a good one.
Is agriculture a point in politics?

 

[Russ]

Okay so I am trying to figure out key points that a king would talk about involving politics.
I know military strategies is a good one.
Is agriculture a point in politics?

Agriculture would be huge. Labour, diplomacy, taxes, economics, gossip...tons of topics to chose from,

 

[skip.knox]

To whom is the king talking? The conversation will differ depending on whether it's his marshal, chancellor, powerful duke, wife, childhood buddy, ambassador, court mage, etc. Figure out the situation and you'll be well on your way to choosing the subject matter. He can talk about anything - he's the king!

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

From the viewpoint of the king's underlings, anything the king talks about is political.

 

[elemtilas]

Okay so I am trying to figure out key points that a king would talk about involving politics.
I know military strategies is a good one.
Is agriculture a point in politics?

One perennial talking point is the rising / presumptive power demanded by the Nobles, the Middle Class, the Church, the Rabble (aka the People), the Parliament, etc. Anything that diminishes the authority of the monarch is a touchy & obviously political subject.

Another is the claims made by rivals, be those rivals pretenders to the throne, foreign monarchs with claims on one's own throne, republicans, communists & anarchists of various sorts.

As you get late in the game, one of the last things a monarch talks about is the nature and power of the monarchy itself. Take a look into the (relatively new) play King Charles III (yes thát King Charles III (assuming he takes "Charles" as his regnal name!)). It very much touches on some of the things a modern monarch will be talking about involving politics.

 

[CupofJoe]

As you get late in the game, one of the last things a monarch talks about is the nature and power of the monarchy itself. Take a look into the (relatively new) play King Charles III (yes thát King Charles III (assuming he takes "Charles" as his regnal name!)). It very much touches on some of the things a modern monarch will be talking about involving politics.

Spoiler

And that doesn't end well for him as he is edged/forced out by his son "King William V" for trying to get involved in politics

 

[elemtilas]

Spoiler

And that doesn't end well for him as he is edged/forced out by his son "King William V" for trying to get involved in politics

Right you are!

Spoiler

And that's just what I (personally) would rather see a monarch do, get involved just a little more. It's one thing to be above politics; but to be outside renders a monarch useless. As I recall, the bill brought for Charles to grant his assent to was not a good law. I think he was well within rights to guard his people against that. That's a proper duty of the monarch, in modern times, to descend from above politics when it is clear that a grave harm could be done to the People.

 

[CSEllis]

Read the news.

No seriously.

Although we are very different people with different perspectives and upbringings from the ancients, we do have ultimately the same concerns. (Food, shelter, security, etc)

It's not terribly exciting at times, but if you look at the concerns of say "local political party X" or Donald Trump or whatever, you can extrapolate their concerns into your writing.

So - the possible ties with Russia thing is as old as politics itself (are people in my government traitors/working for a foreign power? Time to investigate!)
- Our people don't feel that our country is as good as it was (my peasants don't feel like things are as good as they once were! How do I fix this?!)
- Corporations hold too much power (The guilds hold too much power!)
- Our NATO allies don't pay enough to support their military (The Delian League (see Classical Athens) isn't giving us enough cash to defend them from those filthy Spartans!).
- There is too much unemployment in our state (The crops have failed, what do we do to feed our people until spring?)

Without intending to get into the politics of the real world, we can see that our concerns aren't all that different from concerns of the time, with a bit of creativity I bet you could convert any number of incidents, administrations or events to a fantasy setting (phwoar, fantasy Cuban Missile crisis or Able Archer would be fun )

 

[CupofJoe]

... fantasy Cuban Missile crisis ...)

Don't Mind Me... Just taking a few notes....
Does anyone know how to spell "Khrushchev" in Elvish?

 

[CSEllis]

Don't Mind Me... Just taking a few notes....
Does anyone know how to spell "Khrushchev" in Elvish?

I understand the word "Khrushch" (it looks better in cyrillic) is Russian for something like beetle...

Trying to keep world ending magic under wraps could make for some good storytelling - and all important in the modern world.