the Comyn Council

General

The Comyn Council is the body where (and through which) the Comyn exercise their power.

The Comyn Council is made up of members of those Comyn families, or Domains, which have pledged their allegiance to the Comyn and the Council. Each of the Seven Domains must be represented and led in the Council by a Lord or Regent. In addition to these seven lords (who, except in the Aillard and Elhalyn Domains, are required to be men), each member of a Comyn family must be recognized by the Council before he (or she) can be allowed to sit on the Council. However, it should be noted that this rule does not apply to all the Domains; the Aldaran Domain is excluded from the Comyn and has been considered a "rogue" Domain since the Ages of Chaos.

The Comyn council usually convenes in Comyn Castle, and specifically in the Crystal Chamber.

Powers

The powers of the Comyn Council are diverse and numerous. It rules Darkover and takes an interest in nearly everything which happens there. It is important to note that the personal life of a Comyn is considered a matter of public interest to the Council; one of its powers is the recognition of marriages, births and the like among the Comyn. The following is a partial list of the powers possessed by the Comyn Council during the time of Regis Hastur:

• Governmental Authority:
  • Treaties made with the Terran Empire (at the beginning of The Heritage of Hastur, the Terran Legate did not acknowledge the power of the Council in the Hellers, where he traded with the Aldaran. However, after the Sharra awakening, this situation changed and the jurisdiction of the Council was extended to include all of the Domains and everything concerning relations with the Terran Empire.)
  • Importation of goods to Darkover (The Heritage of Hastur)
  • Control over the exercise of laran: for example, the Comyn Council forbade the construction of matrices capable of producing electricity (op. cit.).
• Basic Administration:
  • Appointments within the City Guard: the Council seems to be responsible for promotions and appointments in the Guard (op. cit.).
• "Administration" of Comyn families:
  • Recognition of marriages: the Council decides whether the marriage of a Comyn is legal, and whether the children born to such a union can automatically claim Comyn rank (op. cit.).
  • Recognition of individuals: the Council decides whether the distant or illegitimate kinsman of a Comyn family can be accepted as Comyn. This acceptance is generally based on the possession of laran (op. cit.).
  • Travels away from Darkover: it was the decision of the Comyn Council to send Kennard Alton to study on Terra (op. cit.).

copyright 96-99 Fabrice Rossi (rossi@fr.darkover.org) Translated by Michael J. Haas, from comyn-council.fr.html

source file (Last modification: Wed Apr 21 17:21:45 1999)