Difference between revisions of "Dominion Era/Tretallë (Government)/D'Cilaneti Tivirë Di'Tretallë/Lineality"

Revision as of 23:22, 22 June 2015

Dominion Era Tretallë
Bone Elves
Istfet, The Strangers, Invaders, Deathriders
Imperial Standard of the Tretalleri Dominion
Land of Origin
Continent of Origin	Termalttë
Homeland	Teýrivellë
Capital	Ifatallë Cselvë
Racial Lore
Language	Tretalleri
Characteristics	Tretallë (Characteristics)
Culture	Tretallë (Culture)
History	Dominion Era
Government	Tretallë (Government)
Military	Tretallë (Military)
Stats	Tretallë (Stats)
Racial Relations
Allies	None
Enemies	Elledynnë
Neutrals	None

Foremost of the requirements to accede to the Ivory Throne of the Dominion, is, as with any other monarchy, that of lineage. It is necessary, as far as public opinion and the law are concerned, that a prospective heir to the Throne of one of the most influential and powerful empires of the time, be of the right descent in order to properly manage the governance of the Dominion's many realms.

Lineality in the Early Dominion

During the first three thousand years of the Dominion, full inheritance of the Throne was possible, and the requirements for such were relatively simple. As descent in Tretalleri society is matrilineal, the Throne can pass from mother to eldest child with no restrictions. However, the waters were rather muddied by the fact that the Imperator could be male as well.

If a male weds during his reign, and has child by his consort, this child cannot accede to the Throne. This is true save for in three very specific circumstances. The first of these circumstances is far less desirable than the other, for it requires that the Imperator's consort be his eldest sister. While the Faith of the Nine does not have doctrine specifically condemning the act of incest, it is certainly frowned upon as improper due to established wisdom that incest can bear severely malformed children.

The second circumstance is more amicable to all parties involved. If an Imperator finds himself with a male consort, who is brother-spouses with the Imperator's eldest sister, any child that the consort bears with the Imperator's sister is considered the Imperator's child as well, but more importantly, the child is the Imperator's sister's child. The third is very similar, albeit it results in a more tenuous claim to the throne.

In the third scenario, the Imperator has entered into a polygamous marriage, with a female principal spouse, that once again involves his eldest sister. The tenuousness of the child's claim to the throne in this scenario stems from a legal doctrine called "The Right to Clanhood" that allows a female spouse(or primary spouse in a polygamous marriage) to declare the desire to be shorn from her House and Clan in order to establish her own. In this scenario, all other female sister-spouses in the marriage must either consent to the establishment of a new House and Clan and sever ties to their old ones as well, or to exit the marriage but remain in the relationship as paramours. Because the Imperator's eldest sister may at any time be ejected from the marriage or cut her ties to the old House and Clan, the claim to the throne of a child produced in this arrangement is transient at worst, and thus, far less legitimate than the first two circumstances.

Outside of these situations, the only way that a male Imperator may pass the Throne to someone else is by giving it to his eldest nephew or niece by his eldest sister—his closest living relative traced by line of descent that is not of his own generation.

The Wars of Ascension

The Law of Lineality

Fortunately for the Dominion, there were three important factors about Zovynnë that established him as the best outcome that the Wars of Ascension could have had. For one, Zovynnë was the sole nephew of Filiren's consort Korenn a'Devytorë—who was a man 150 years younger than the late Imperator— as well as son to then-Lady Superior of House Devytorë as his great-grandmother had stepped down decades before and his grandmother had died in the war. These connections cemented Zovynnë's claim to the Throne as the most legitimate. More than that, however, is the second factor that contributed to his success: he was well-loved by the people.

The Torch-Bearers

As the years passed, it became more and more apparent that the Law of Lineality was insufficient to solve all of the problems of descent. Historians note that in particular, the provision allowing for the Throne to be passed down from mothers to daughters proved to be the . The creation of the Twin Courts solved the problem of the vacuum of power and enabled the throne to remain vacant for longer periods of time while the Houses competed among themselves to fulfil the Law of Lineality. Prior to the creation of the Oath upon the Shard, on three occasions in the long history of the Dominion, female Imperators and their daughters attempted to abolish the system in order to establish a dynastic rule in the Dominion.

Three times the empire was wrought in the flames of civil war, and three times, the Imperators were torn down. In the following years, the people of the Dominion, headed by their leaders in the Twin Courts, decided to abolish the provision in the Law allowing for the Throne to be passed down to daughters, and ejected women from eligibility for the Throne in exchange for establishing them as the permanent seats on the Court of Crows.