Martial title

Overview

The majority of Imperial titles are concerned with matters of politics, economics, religion or strategy. In all these cases it makes no sense for Imperial citizens to choose between candidates based on a character's capacity to fight or their ability to take part in battles or skirmishes. It is common for a character's physical abilities to reflect the player's capabilities and our conduct rules explicitly prohibit discriminating against other participants on the basis of an out-of-character attribute, such as the ability to fight. This means that in the majority of cases, players who are seeking Imperial titles should avoid referencing their ability to fight when promoting their own position, or when denigrating their opponents. How well you can fight, or whether you take the battlefield is not relevant to most Imperial titles, even those connected to matters of strategy and war such as general or strategos.

Martial titles are a specific exception to this rule. These titles have responsibilities that explicitly require them to take part in battle - and thus a character's fighting skills are directly relevant to their ability to do the job. Players are not required to pick the candidate who is the best fighter for a martial title, but candidates can promote themselves on that basis and characters are welcome to take it into account.

Defining Martial Titles

Martial Titles

Knight-protector

Champion of Ambition

Champion of Courage

Champion of Loyalty

Champion of Pride

Champion of Prosperity

Champion of Vigilance

Champion of Wisdom

This position is a martial title.

• All martial titles are indicated with the icon shown right
• You can take fighting ability into account when considering candidates for a martial title
• You must not make reference to a character's fighting abilities when campaigning for or electing any other title

Ideally, a martial title will have an indicative name, such as champion or knight-protector, but to avoid any possible doubt, all martial titles are clearly marked as such, by the presence of the martial title icon on the wiki page for that title. Because of the expectation that title-holders will risk their lives in pursuit of their responsibilities, the civil service maintains a clear list of all current martial titles.

While you can take fighting ability into account when considering candidates, or campaigning, for a martial title, this does not mean you can ignore our other rules governing behaviour at Empire.

Any Imperial title which is not marked as a martial title, is not a martial title. This list includes all Imperial generals, as well as the Throne and all prominent positions in the Military Council, Senate, Synod, Conclave and Bourse. It also includes the Field Marshal - while characters can legitimately expect the Field Marshal to take the battlefield, their fighting abilities are not a pertinent criteria when leading Imperial forces on the battlefield.

Other Titles

• By definition every other title in the game is not a martial title
• You cannot use a person's fighting ability or willingness to take the battlefield when judging suitability for a non-martial title

All martial titles will be clearly designated; by definition every other title in the game is not a martial title. This includes titles associated with the Military Council such as general and strategos. In the Empire these titles have responsibilities which are strategic or logistical in nature, there is no expectation that the title-holder will fight or take the battlefield. It is not acceptable to reference fighting ability or the capacity to take the battlefield when campaigning for or electing any title in the game - unless it is explicitly a martial title.

Creating Martial Titles

• New martial titles are subject to scrutiny to ensure that the name and nature of the title warrants that designation
• National positions that are martial titles can be elected by contest of arms

Martial titles follow many of the regular rules for new Imperial titles, with one exception. Due to the martial nature of the title, it is considered acceptable to use a contest of arms such as a tourney as the method of election if it is a national position. This is not a legal requirement for a martial title, the champions of virtue are elected by vote of the relevant assembly of the Imperial Synod for example. But a position like knight-protector can be elected by tourney precisely because it is a martial title. It is not possible to use a contest of arms to elect an Imperial position due to the practical limitations of arranging such a contest.

The overwhelming majority of Imperial positions are not martial titles, so it is crucial that anyone proposing a new Imperial title be explicit that the position is a martial title if that is their goal. If the wording of the motion or announcement does not explicitly designate a new position as an martial title, then it will not be a martial title. If the position is defined in a way that make clear that fighting ability is essential to discharge the titles responsibilities, then the civil service may submit an administrative motion to the Imperial Senate to ask if they intended the position to be a martial title.

Imperial titles cannot be martial titles unless their responsibilities substantially encompass the need to partake in battle. Many Imperial titles, particularly sinecures include an obligation to deal with any threat to the position, but this is not sufficient to make them martial titles. The expectation in these cases is that the title holder is responsible for arranging for the defence of the assets associated with the position, nobody in the Empire believes that that responsibility is best discharged by personally defending them. The constitutional court will carefully scrutinize any new martial title, looking at the name and nature of the title, and especially it's responsibilities. If it is not clear that the title needs to be a martial title, then that designation will be removed in scrutiny.

Game Design

• Accessibility presents many challenges, not all of them physical in nature
• Martial titles exist to improve access to the game for players whose strengths lie in combat and battle rather than the politics and social interactions with dominate the rest of the game

Festival LRP reflects some of the wider disablism of our society. This is particularly true of Empire LRP because core elements of the game design are intended to test the skills of the player, not the character. Because of that it is essential to ensure that the wide majority of Imperial titles are explicit that they do not allow participants to take into account a participants mobility and ability to fight when considering who to elect for a position, since none of these abilities are relevant to the position.

Skirmishes and battles are a crucial part of the game, however. The intention of Empire's game design is that all the different parts are interrelated. The decisions taken in the Senate, Synod, Conclave and Bourse explicitly affect the skirmishes and battles players go on. Likewise, characters' success on those fights affects the politics of the game. We don't want a game in which the people who like fights are in one field and the people who like politics are in another. We don't expect everyone to be equally interested in participating in all the different parts of Empire, but we do want all parts of the game to be relevant to everyone who plays Empire. And we want participants who are trying to secure an important Imperial title that explicitly involves fighting to be able to campaign for the position on the basis of their strengths and abilities for the position the same as for any other title.

There is no single solution that solves accessibility challenges in LRP - we want to widen access for as many different Empire players as possible by employing different solutions in different situations. Martial titles exist to ensure that players who enjoy fighting more than political manoeuvring have a way to access the game. We hope they will remove the need to discuss when it is, and when it is not, appropriate to discuss a character's fighting ability when assessing their capability for a role. This is a contentious issue and one that is difficult to resolve effectively when in-character.

The existence of the martial title designation should also help to reinforce the fact that fighting skills are not relevant for any official position in the game which isn't designated as a martial title. We do want players to support a character to be the Champion of Courage because they are a courageous warrior who will lead the charge in battle, but we don't want players to make the same assumptions about generals, the new strategos positions, or similar.