Election Time: "For Kaba Rezoldik—Spear and Shield!"
Spearman voting, also known as hastatic voting, is the name of a voting method used in the Dendan Confederation (D.C.) and neighbouring countries to elect the King-President, who is the chief of State and head of the executive branch of the Confederate government, and many other positions such as the province governors or the burgmasters. (...)
The system was first attested under its primitive form during the last two centuries of the Age of Darkness (7th-8th centuries TCE), when warriors of central Denda assembled to elect their new leader by raising their spears and shields.
Spearman voting is effectively a variant of score voting (also known as range voting) on a 0-3 scale: to support a candidate, a warrior could raise either his spear or his shield; both, to express maximum support; or none. Raising one's shield was counted as one voice (or point); one's spear, two voices; raising both, three voices. The candidate who got the most voices won.
The voting system was revived under its current form in the aftermath of the 2316 Brush Revolution. Nowadays, Dendan voters are simply required to tick one or two boxes (or none) for each candidate on the paper ballot, the boxes being labeled with stylized spears and shields as a reminder of the original system.
A prominent historian and political scientist has described spearman voting as "an unmistakable component of Denda's national identity and character". In Western Tawan, " He only raised his shield for it!" means "He half-heartedly supported it." Conversely, "You got my spear and my shield!" means "I fully support you!" The spearman hand gesture, the index finger pointing 45° upwards, like a spear, and the thumb and middle finger joined to form the shield has become a widespread symbol of victory in the D.C. and elsewhere.
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This electoral poster (see above) was released for the 2480 TCE gubernatorial elections in the Pine Forest Province, D.C. The candidate shown here, Kaba Rezoldik (an appropriate name: "kaba" means "spear"), was widely derided by the local press, who called him a "buffoon" or a "lunatic with delusions of grandeur". His program mainly consisted in provincial tax rebates for sunroot producers (a virtually unknown crop in the region; it should, however, be noted that Rezoldik's aunt was the only known sunroot producer in the province) and the introduction into the schools' curriculum of a "new, more rational and scientific swimming method, carefully modelled on amphibian motion" of which Rezoldik himself was the author. Kaba Rezoldik finished 11th out of 12 in the gubernatorial race, with an average score of 0.19.
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Art by me. Used Ibis Paint X for Android smartphones.
The system was first attested under its primitive form during the last two centuries of the Age of Darkness (7th-8th centuries TCE), when warriors of central Denda assembled to elect their new leader by raising their spears and shields.
Spearman voting is effectively a variant of score voting (also known as range voting) on a 0-3 scale: to support a candidate, a warrior could raise either his spear or his shield; both, to express maximum support; or none. Raising one's shield was counted as one voice (or point); one's spear, two voices; raising both, three voices. The candidate who got the most voices won.
The voting system was revived under its current form in the aftermath of the 2316 Brush Revolution. Nowadays, Dendan voters are simply required to tick one or two boxes (or none) for each candidate on the paper ballot, the boxes being labeled with stylized spears and shields as a reminder of the original system.
A prominent historian and political scientist has described spearman voting as "an unmistakable component of Denda's national identity and character". In Western Tawan, " He only raised his shield for it!" means "He half-heartedly supported it." Conversely, "You got my spear and my shield!" means "I fully support you!" The spearman hand gesture, the index finger pointing 45° upwards, like a spear, and the thumb and middle finger joined to form the shield has become a widespread symbol of victory in the D.C. and elsewhere.
———
This electoral poster (see above) was released for the 2480 TCE gubernatorial elections in the Pine Forest Province, D.C. The candidate shown here, Kaba Rezoldik (an appropriate name: "kaba" means "spear"), was widely derided by the local press, who called him a "buffoon" or a "lunatic with delusions of grandeur". His program mainly consisted in provincial tax rebates for sunroot producers (a virtually unknown crop in the region; it should, however, be noted that Rezoldik's aunt was the only known sunroot producer in the province) and the introduction into the schools' curriculum of a "new, more rational and scientific swimming method, carefully modelled on amphibian motion" of which Rezoldik himself was the author. Kaba Rezoldik finished 11th out of 12 in the gubernatorial race, with an average score of 0.19.
———
Art by me. Used Ibis Paint X for Android smartphones.
Category All / All
Species Maned Wolf
Gender Male
Size 2193 x 1600px
Listed in Folders
Thank you! Lore is something I put a lot of effort on.
Lovely bit of worldbuilding! It all seemed perfectly plausible to me and I'm resisting the urge to look up the Dendan Confederation in Wikipedia. If I did and it wasn't there I'd feel extremely silly.
Thank you! I will certainly notify you when Welfapedia (the local equivalent of Wikipedia) finally launches, haha!
Thanks! I kinda wish this election system existed. It's more fine grained than just "yes" or "no".
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