An Elder's Revolution - The Art of Sect Politics

Political power in the sect mainly originated from three sources: The sect patriarch, the nine halls and the council of elders.

The sect patriarch acted mainly as a figurehead of the sect, which even by itself was quite a big deal as society at large put great value on tradition and social norms. The role also came with the position of highest judge in the sect though, as well as being the one to handle official relations with other sects.

The nine halls were significant because they handled pretty much all aspects of day-to-day life in the sect. Each was headed by an Elder and every member that wasn’t given specific other duties by the sect would work for one of the halls. The sect’s economy, its security, its intel and many more things were all handled by different halls.

The halls also had quite a lot of freedom when it came to how they handled their own members and the resources available to them. On top of that, the halls could all pick and train their own disciples from the pool of outer disciples. The exception being the training hall which was exclusively responsible for training those disciples not selected by another hall.

The council of elders finally was the collective assembly of all elders and the patriarch. To become an elder and thereby a member was straightforward: One simply needed to reach the realm of Dao Contemplation.

The council made decisions through vote with every elder having exactly one vote to give. The patriarch’s vote possessed tie-breaking power. On paper, this meant that every elder in the council held the same amount of power over its decisions. In reality, this was of course not the case.

Besides things like bribes, debts, threats and the binding power of social norms, this system was also limited by the enforceability of the council’s decisions. In theory, they were absolute and overruled any other authority within the sect. In practice, if a bunch of weaker elders were to start making decisions against the councils most powerful members, if these were to simply start ignoring the decisions there was very little the former could do about it.

This situation had of course rarely ever occurred in the sect’s entire history. The mere fact that it could was enough to deter such actions. On top of that, the council had been held firmly in the grasp of the pillar families for millennia with almost no interruption.

Per tradition, council meetings were held in the patriarch’s palace on the sect’s highest peak at sunrise, roughly twice a year.

As Liu Wei made his way up the mountain towards said palace with his assistant Qingge trailing behind him, he found himself lost in thought about the upcoming meeting. He had hatched out quite a bold plan for what he wanted to do. He was doubtful of many things, but he was quite sure that none of the other elders would have been able to foresee it.

Despite that, nothing was ever certain in politics, so he didn’t allow himself to feel secure quite yet. For all that change in character would take them by surprise, everyone present at the meeting had hundreds of years’ worth of political experience, some much more than even he had.

Arriving at the imposing building, Liu Wei was greeted by a host of mortal servants already waiting for him at the main entrance, their sole purpose to lead him in before hurriedly scurrying off again.

Upon entering the room in which council meetings were held, Liu Wei let his gaze wander between those who were attendant. On the side of the pillar families, everyone beside Jiang Peng and the patriarch was already present. The latter would only make his entrance when the meeting officially began and for the former it was very much in character to arrive late.

Jiang Peng, patriarch of the Peng family was the head of the manufacturing hall and notorious for being the least diplomatic person imaginable. Or, as Liu Wei would personally put it: A hot-headed idiot.

He would start fights whenever he got the opportunity to do so. A couple years back, he had physically attacked another Elder Lan Shi during a council meeting. And, given how he was also not particularly strong for the patriarch of a pillar family, he had been beaten into a pulp by her.

Besides the elders from the pillar families, Ma Rong and his former disciple Guang Lai were also present, as were Xue Yan and the staunchly neutral librarian Shirong Yuan.

This left the elders Meng Hui and Lan Shi, both members of Ma Rong’s reform faction.

Meng Hui was the polar opposite of Jiang Peng, as non-confrontational as one could imagine a centuries old cultivator to be. He was head of the training hall, which held basically no power compared to the other halls, and the only reason he had even managed to climb to the third rank of Dao Comprehension was constant support from Ma Rong.

Lan Shi however was of a different kind. She had clawed her way up to the fourth rank of Dao Comprehension pretty much by her own, driven less by ambition and more by a deep resentment towards the pillar families.

While both of them were of the same mind when it came to treating those without a backing fairly, Liu Wei truly respected only Lan Shi.

After individually greeting the present elders, Liu Wei sat down on one of the empty chairs situated between the two factions. There was no need to give up to everyone present with whom he would align himself in the future. Qingge positioned herself a little distance behind him on his left, as had the other elders’ assistants. They would only step forward to partake in the meeting when asked to do so.

The remaining three elders arrived over the next few minutes, bringing the total head count to fourteen elders and fourteen assistants. The only one still missing was now the patriarch. Some of the elders just waited in silence, but many of them still conversed in a hushed tone. They were likely making some last second changes to the agreements they had met before the meeting.

All voices died out when the door opened once again and the patriarch finally entered. His steps were slow and deliberate as he strode through the room, all of the elders rising to their feet on respect.

As the Patriarch Long Zhao arrived at his slightly elevated chair, he turned around to face the elders and addressed them in a solemn voice:

“I am pleased to see that everyone has made it here today. As acting patriarch of the Lunar Peaks Sect, I hereby declare that the meeting of the council of elders has officially begun.”

At this, he sat down on his chair, the elders following suit. It was all quite the spectacle to behold and would probably be genuinely impressive to an outsider looking at it. Alas, all present knew full well, that it was nothing but a righteous play, designed to hide the much less righteous politics that would follow. Such were politics.

“Before we move to discuss the main topic of the day, the fortunate matter of Elder Liu Wei’s recent breakthrough, I suggest we deal with some official sect business first. Does everyone agree?”

Long Zhao’s suggestion was met with approval from all sides. Pushing the main topic of discussion back was a common thing to do, as these tended to be the most controversial and could not only take a long time to discuss, but also to leave behind several people in a sour mood that wasn’t conductive to further discussions.

“Very well. First off, I have something that I would like to address. The Parting Clouds Sect and the Serene Plains Sect have recently approached our sect with a proposition. They want to jointly host a tournament for the younger generations and have asked for our approval.”

These were two of the four powerful sects in the region alongside the Lunar Peaks Sect and the Roaring Thunder Sect.

“Why would they even need to ask our approval for this?” Jiang Peng asked.

“My guess is that they want to avoid ostracizing us by acting together without informing us considering both of them already have an ongoing feud against the Roaring Thunder Sect.” Meixiu Xia offered.

“Well, I don’t see a problem with it. I have confidence in my hall’s disciples. Let us show them the supremacy of our sect.” Sun Liang chimed in.

This was met with agreement from several elders.

“If we agree on that, how should we decide which disciples to send?”

“Let’s have each hall choose a couple of their disciples.”

“I disagree. We should send only the disciples most fit to represent the sect.”

“How about hosting an internal competition to determine those worthy of participating?”

“I like that idea. It will motivate our disciples to train even harder.”

“But what about the cost of such a thing? Other sects hosting a tournament is one thing but…”

“…we also have to consider the age advantage when talking about…”

“…our hall would be very much fit to host…”

As the debate went back and forth on even the most minute allocations or responsibility, Elder Liu Wei remained strategically silent. It would ensure that his words had more weight behind them later on and with his focus turned away from political power and gaining wealth, he found that he had no real agency in this debate. Not before settling his plans for the meeting today.

Over the next few hours, dozens of issues were brought up and debated, gradually turning from more relevant to less and less important things. Dispute over the mining rights to a newly discovered vein of spirit ore, increasing beast migrations from the grand forest to the north, a diplomatic incident with a merchant family in one of the nearby cities… Many of these things could easily be solved outside of a council meeting but was brought up to gain political leverage in one way or the other.

Only when the sun had long passed its zenith did discussions die down. Everyone had achieved their minor goals and was ready to move on.

“Now that we have had time to discuss the more mundane matters, I believe we should move on to the main topic of todays meeting.” The patriarch’s words rang heavy.

“Elder Liu Wei’s breakthrough.”

It was only now, that the real council would begin.