The situation in Zarahemla is actually just as Moroni has feared. The kingmen are in possession of the government, and it is they who are withholding the support for the very same reasons they had not wanted to support the Nephite cause in the first place. They are in sufficient power that they are able to displace the rightful ruler, Pahoran, who has fled to Gideon. The retreat of Pahoran to Gideon may be related to the faithfulness of that city’s people. We remember that when Alma begins his reforming journeys around the land of Zarahemla that Gideon is one of the few places where he commends the people (Alma 7:3-6). The people of Gideon are also paired with the faithful Ammonites in rejecting the message of Korihor (Alma 30:21).
The people who have taken over the government are they who had assumed that the arrival of the Lamanites would overthrow the Nephite political order and establish a more Lamanite version. In that more Lamanite version, these people presumed that they might rise to an elite status, even if it were of a dependent city to the Lamanite king. In the modern world we might not understand this mentality on the part of the kingmen. Why would they prefer to be conquered rather than free? The answer lies in two characteristics of Mesoamerican warfare. The first is that the conquered city is allowed to continue to function, and is not destroyed if a surrender is negotiated (Hassig 1988, p. 112). The second is that typical policy is to allow some retention of the local elite to rule the city. An interesting example of how the conquering process may have worked is found in the glyphic evidence of Siyaj K’ak’ (fire born) of Tikal. Siyaj K’ak’ appears to have been a Teotihuacan general who assumes control in Tikal and the surrounding area. In spite of his political dominance, he never assumes the throne, but eventually establishes the son of a local Lady to the throne, thus providing a local elite connection to the continuance of the throne (see Simon Martin and Nikolai Grube. Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens. Thames and Hudson, 2000, pp. 29-30).
In practice, this incipient Nephite elite-become “Lamanite” could expect to retain their city and actually have the opportunity of being exalted in power, something that they could not do under the Nephite egalitarian political ideal.