(How is Amarantos governed?)
{Oh my, I've been waiting for this one.(;
Amarantos is governed by both an upper and a lower council, and I really ought to have figured this out before we started everything. The lower council is made up of the 72 most important families in Amarantos; the heads of each family meet once a year to discuss things. Really, though, the lower council is pretty unimportant. They don't get to do much.
The true power lies with the upper council, which is made of the 5 most influential families at the time. This council meets twice a month, and actually creates the laws of Amarantos. The Valdas have a permanent place on that council, considering their history with Amarantos.
The other four families change out depending on power fluxes, but at the moment the Levitts and Caldwiles are both there. As Matthias was disowned, his younger brother Joshua takes the Levitt place. Camelia Caldwile fills in for her husband, as he has been ill of late. Since Gilly is the current Valda heir, she has a place on this council as well, though she detests it. Should she die, her cousin Morana, who is married to Joshua Levitt, would take her place, unless she marries and has a child before that. In that case, her husband would take her place until their child was 16 and could attend council meetings.
Matthias has had to attend the last few council meetings for her, as she's often too ill to leave the house.
In short, Basif was very, very accurate when he said Giltine could be the most powerful woman in Amarantos.}
