I'm not going to do anything Babyloinan/Macedonian, but I like the idea.
It sounds like what happened was that there were all kinds of bad omens near the end of Alexander's life. The Babylonian section of the empire freaked, and decided to enact the ritual, dressing up the criminal in kingly robes and letting him 'rule' for a time prescribed by the astrologers. Another part of this was that the criminal wasn't allowed to talk.
Alexander returned, found this random guy dressed up as king, who wouldn't talk. The Greeks all freaked out about this terrible omen and killed the guy. The Babylonians assumed this meant that Alexander understood and honored the custom.
I think I'm not actually going to let my criminal guy reign at all, but will have to do all the ceremonial and/or religious tasks. I'm thinking of making the actual king young & mostly under his advisor's thumbs. The criminal guy will go from doing his best to trigger any kind of terrible omen for his own survival to helping the king man up and take control of his kingdom.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2009-10-09 03:31 pm (UTC)It sounds like what happened was that there were all kinds of bad omens near the end of Alexander's life. The Babylonian section of the empire freaked, and decided to enact the ritual, dressing up the criminal in kingly robes and letting him 'rule' for a time prescribed by the astrologers. Another part of this was that the criminal wasn't allowed to talk.
Alexander returned, found this random guy dressed up as king, who wouldn't talk. The Greeks all freaked out about this terrible omen and killed the guy. The Babylonians assumed this meant that Alexander understood and honored the custom.
I think I'm not actually going to let my criminal guy reign at all, but will have to do all the ceremonial and/or religious tasks. I'm thinking of making the actual king young & mostly under his advisor's thumbs. The criminal guy will go from doing his best to trigger any kind of terrible omen for his own survival to helping the king man up and take control of his kingdom.