Mayoral Elections

Here is how they work.

Mayoral elections happen when a Mayor either dies or resigns. There is no official way to force the Mayor to resign; in practice, if the Mayor's Privy Councillors turn against him and refuse outright to co-operate with him he's left with a choice of either becoming a powerless "lame duck" Mayor or resigning and retaining his dignity.

Not everybody can vote in Horizon. In fact, only the 15 Electors count. Together they are known as the Moot of Years.

There are:

• The Seven Heptarchs, the heads of the seven oldest noble houses of Horizon (excepting the extinct Imperial family, of course). These occupy the Seats of Autumn and Winter. The last Seat of Winter, the Seat of Beginning and Ending, was once occupied by the Emperor: it is now empty.
• The Four Ambassadors of the Four Nations. These occupy the Seats of Summer.
• The Four Goodfellows, representatives of the people. They are supposed to be chosen by popular acclaim, but
• in practice they are the heads of the four largest criminal mobs: after all, if they aren't appeased to an extent there'll be rioting in the streets. These occupy the Seats of Spring.

The Electors meet at dawn on Horizon's Day, the anniversary of the death of the God of Oaths, at the Imperial Palace. Horizon's Day is a day of festivities throughout the city, when all don masks and all doors are open and all wine flows freely and a beggar may dance with a duchess in the filthiest brothel or the finest ballroom in town.

At the same time at which the old Mayor (if he survives) is released into the streets to take part in the festivities of the day, they are given a breakfast-and-champaigne reception, after which they spend a few hours interviewing the candidates. They then have a banquet, choose the new Mayor, drink a toast to his health, don masks and join the Horizon's Day festivities. By tradition, at this point the old mayor has slept with a vast number of prostitutes, gulped down a tremendous amount of drink, taken an awful lot of illegal substances and is now sailing up and down the river on a pleasure-boat full of ne'er-do-wells, screaming obscenities and making speeches loudly denouncing the regime of the old Mayor (because, of course, on Horizon's Day nobody can reveal their own identity) and ridiculing the candidates; as soon as he hears who the new Mayor is, tradition dictates that he must bellow "LONG LIVE [name]!" at the top of his voice and jump in the river.

To be a candidate for Mayor you must:

• Meet the approval of three of the Four Embassies. (Such approval is only denied if an Embassy is convinced a candidate's election will be especially bad for their nation's interests - if the Embassies are too picky, after all, no candidate will be legitimate and Horizon will be Mayorless, and that sort of instability isn't helpful.)
• Gather a thousand signatures in your support, at least 200 of which must be from the common people of the lower city and at least 50 of which must be from people of noble blood.
• Pay a thousand guilders to the Mayor's Office.

A new mayor swears an oath before the Lord Chancellor that:

• He will not break the Last Treaty.
• He will defend the right of Horizon to control entrance into the Untrue Lands.
• He will reside in the Imperial Palace and spend no more than three months in a year outside the City.
• He will uphold the rights of the dogs.
• He will uphold the pact made with the ghouls.
• He will remember the words of the Intercessor and tolerate no cults or avatars.