Where the king list in Ether 1 showed Shez as a son of Heth, but the detailed record only mentioned him as a descendant, both the king list and this more detailed record agree that Morianton was a descendant of Riplakish. It is not clear if he was a son, but he was certainly related to those who had been driven out of the land when Riplakish was expelled. Morianton gathers “an army of outcasts,” which would suggest that the core group was made up of those who had been expelled. It is unlikely that they could have been an army in and of themselves, but they were likely the leaders of this new group which begins to take over cities, and eventually they anoint a king over the city from which they had been expelled.
Morianton reverses the onerous practices of Riplakish, with the result that “he did gain favor in the eyes of the people, and they did anoint him to be their king.” This is the only suggestion that there might have been some principle such as the voice of the people that we see in later Nephite politics, where the kings ruled by the voice of the people.