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edenfallingWay back in 2004, I attempted to write a fantasy novel for NaNoWriMo. The Sum of Things stalled out around 20,000 words -- which is sadly typical of my life -- but it's still alive in the back of my mind and I go poke at the rough draft or my background files every now and then.
Here is some world-building on the royal family of Kanos, which I feel like posting partly as a public kick in the pants to myself, and partly just because I think it's pretty nifty and want to show it off. *wry*
Background: Kanos is a semi-feudal multi-ethnic empire ruled by queens who are always descended from Deyrilea Nishal Mordrin (one of the empire's two founders; the other, Daluran Silverblade, abdicated and his requirements for a successor were deliberately impossible to fulfill) but who must be elected and confirmed by the Assembly of Nobles. Their direct power is also extremely restricted by the time of "The Sum of Things," but this doesn't mean Kanos has become a functional democracy; it just means the empire is a disorganized mess. The current queen -- Ranna, one of my two main characters -- had no interest in the position, but since she wound up with the title, she's trying her best to actually fix some of the problems with her country... whether her country particularly wants to be fixed or not.
Inheritance Rules in the Mordrin Line
Sunday, 7/29/07
And again, it's been awhile. *sigh* Anyway, in and around doing other things, I've been trying to clarify the succession of the queens. Their descent is traced through the female line, which is why all the queens have hyphenated family names. None of them are just So-and-so Mordrin; they're all Somebody Something-Mordrin, like Ithova Altus-Mordrin (aka Ranna), Shae Mondegrin-Mordrin, Durthae Agir-Mordrin, or Tharriel Renaeus-Mordrin.
The queen's children all carry the Mordrin name, but the sons don't pass it on. The daughters do, but only to their daughters, and the hyphenation changes to reflect the more common patrilineal tracing of descent. The question is how long they're entitled to pass on the name. I think three generations is the limit -- the queen's daughters, granddaughters, and great-granddaughters are Mordrins -- unless, for some reason, a fourth-generation descendant is elected to the throne, in which case she'd take back the Mordrin name. The name can't be passed on forever or there'd be far too many people with claims on the throne. Usually only those who carry the name are eligible for election, but if for some reason there aren't any close relatives of the old queen, or if they're all unsuitable (either incompetent or strong-willed and likely to oppose the Inner Council), a fourth- or fifth-generation Mordrin may be put forward as a candidate.
There was a civil war over that. The queen before Tharriel was a fourth-generation Mordrin, chosen over a first-generation Mordrin (in other words, over the daughter of a previous queen), and the first-generation Mordrin challenged the election. That was when the name rules became law instead of custom. The queen was Jenika Itharos, who became Jenika Itharos-Mordrin; her challenger was Orheicha ben Daced-Mordrin. In a gesture of conciliation, Jenika named Orheicha's daughter, Tharriel Renaeus-Mordrin, as her heir-presumptive. Unsatisfied, Orheicha escalated the fight from words to civil war, and was eventually captured and executed. This is a further reason Kanos is in internal disarray at the time of "The Sum of Things," and one reason people are concerned about Orifan and Dorin Rhae -- many southerners considered Orheicha one of their own and are still angry about her betrayal and 'murder.'
Durthae Agir-Mordrin was Tharriel's daughter and heir presumptive. Ranna is a great-granddaughter of Luniel Sagar-Mordrin, the queen before Jenika Itharos-Mordrin. (Orheicha was the daughter of Luniel's predecessor.) Shae is a granddaughter of Jenika Itharos-Mordrin, so her claim on the throne is both better and worse than Ranna's -- her ancestor was in a less direct line of descent, but there are fewer generations between Shae and the throne than between Ranna and the throne. Also, Luniel was only queen for two years before dying in childbirth; many people overlook her line, especially since Ranna's grandmother, Talaba Pandang-Mordrin, was born two years before Luniel took the throne, when Luniel was an ordinary third-generation Mordrin. Many people argue that Talaba was therefore fourth-generation, not first-generation, which would make Ranna's claim illegitimate. (People can be snobbish about that sort of thing.) Shae's mother, on the other hand, was born during Jenika's twenty-year rule, so there's no question about the legitimacy of her descent... so long as you accept Jenika's own legitimacy.
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Wednesday, 11/14/07
Orheicha had one other daughter, Isana Renaeus-Mordrin, who is still alive and has two daughters of her own. Shaniel Nomay-Mordrin is in her mid-twenties, married, and has a four-year-old daughter, Orika Halis. Delikaya Nomay-Mordrin is in her early twenties, married, and has an infant son. Jenika had only one daughter, Shae's mother (whom I have not yet named), who's dead. Luniel had two other daughters, both older than Talaba. Zabrie Pandang-Mordrin died childless. Falippa Pandang-Mordrin had three sons and no daughters, and prefers to stay in Mandaking and manage the estate she inherited from her father.
With Durthae dead and Falippa and Isana old, Shaniel, Delikaya, and Shae were the obvious candidates for the throne. Ranna considered herself too young to be a viable option, especially since her grandmother's status was questionable. Unfortunately for her, the other three had stronger disqualifications.
Delikaya married out of Kanos, to the king of Tobal's second son; since Tobal is effectively a tributary state of Dorin Rhae, giving Tobal's royal family any potential claim on the throne of Kanos would be unacceptable. Shaniel's husband is a convert to Orison, a variant of Rosaism that embraces some tenets of Novi Samhiva and whose adherents are therefore suspected of traitorous sympathy for Halo. Shae is known to be a devious, stubborn politician, who suspected the Inner Council's involvement in Durthae's mysterious death. (She's correct, incidentally.) So both Nomay-Mordrin sisters were politically awkward choices, and Shae, though the logical choice, was personally unacceptable to Olek Hartanos, the leader of the strongest faction in the Inner Council.
That left Falippa, Isana, and Ranna as the only options, with Orika Halis as a last-chance substitute. (Nobody wanted a lengthy regency for Orika, especially since she'd still have the awkward family connections that made Shaniel a bad choice, and she's fourth-generation anyway... unless you accept Orheicha's claim to the throne, which usually means denying Jenika's.) Isana was in mourning for her sister and told the Council that she wished to join a contemplative religious order. Falippa told the Council that if they were considering her a first-generation Mordrin, then her great-niece Ithova had just as legitimate a claim and was likely to live significantly longer, so why were they bothering her?
Effectively, the choice came down to Shae or Ranna. Olek cut a deal with Shae wherein she withdrew from the election in return for a seat on the Inner Council. Shae, who had actually met Ranna a few times -- unlike Olek, who had only seen her at court functions -- agreed. She considered a Council seat more useful than the throne and figured that Olek wouldn't get anything remotely resembling the passive puppet ruler he expected, which amused her.
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Tuesday, 2/12/08
Orheicha ben Daced-Mordrin was the daughter of Duri ben Pertu-Mordrin, the queen before Luniel Sagar-Mordrin. Duri was the daughter of a southerner and married a southerner, which made Allandians and Corthians distrust Orheicha -- she wasn't one of them. Orheicha's civil war is usually taken as proof that she wanted to destroy the country, especially because she twice retreated into Dorin Rhae and reportedly cut a deal with the Dorinian emperor to trade half the silver production of Rhi ben Eidin in return for his military aid.
Of course, Orheicha was married to Isanor Renaeus, Lord of Ikanos -- Ikanos being the old city-state of Kanos, and the symbolic birthplace of the nation -- which makes the suggestion that she wasn't connected to Alland a bit untenable... but politics is a strange world. And to be fair, Orheicha was blunt, rash, and insensible to the need to explain herself rather than assuming that she knew best and that everyone ought to immediately agree with her and follow her instructions. She could have done a lot more to defuse the situation than she did.
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Thursday, 5/15/08
I want to make a family tree for the Mordrin family -- at least the branches that remained within the line of succession. This is what I know:
Deyrilea Nishal Mordrin was the queen of old Kanos; she married Karril Ferinar, who was probably the second or third son of the duke of Komans, in Auvern. The early years of the empire were chaotic and contentious, but the queens and the Assembly were apparently up to the challenge. Fairly quickly, Kanos absorbed Corthia, Damiland, and Orifan through wars, marriages, and economic influence. About 70 years after the Concords of Lus, Aurilia III and her daughter, Amithae II solidified the borders, established the provinces, and began regular imperial patrols and unified taxation.
I suspect that needs revision. Assuming an average reign of 15 years (based on the 24-year average reign of the kings and queen of England, and then deducting for assassination, childbirth complications, civil wars, lack of modern medicine, etc.), Deyrilea reigns until the 15th year post-founding, followed by approximately 4 more queens, until Aurilia takes the throne. Therefore, ditch the III -- especially since the queens now seem to go by surname rather than dynastic count. So she'd be Aurilia Sautheng-Mordrin, and her daughter is Amithae Napis-Mordrin.
Originally the queens inherited by primogeniture or the imperial choice of a successor, but Amithae's grandniece, Jerika, was forced to concede the rights of inheritance and choice to end a civil war with the lords of Romil, Chaumen, Therry, and Idalgir -- four of the original nations in the Kanosian Alliance. The pattern of name inheritance that characterizes the Mordrin family was already established at that point -- it's a throwback to an old Auvernish custom, from before the great invasions, which began as an attempt to trace several sacred bloodlines that provided priestesses for a religion later subsumed by Rosaism. It was later used as a way to trace social status among noblewomen who married rich commoners -- their children were considered demi-nobility. The descendents of the queens considered themselves demi-royalty, and so co-opted the custom.
The queens had also previously established the precedent for choosing relatives out of the direct line of inheritance. Deyrilea left the throne to her daughter, Karina Ferinar-Mordrin, and Karina likewise left the throne to her daughter... but chose her second daughter (Rushika) rather than the eldest (Duriel). And Rushika Sendak-Mordrin skipped over her own children in favor of Duriel's daughter, Mabriel Scalt-Mordrin. Mabriel chose her eldest daughter, Ceidden ben Galed-Mordrin, who chose her third daughter, Aurilia Sautheng-Mordrin, who chose her eldest daughter, Amithae Napis-Mordrin.
Mabriel married the ruler of part of Orifan, on the understanding that her daughter would inherit both kingdoms. Then she used that new alliance to conquer the other parts. Ceidden seems to have married into the aristocracy of Corthia, probably following her mother's strategy. I'm not sure what geographic region the surname 'Napis' comes from -- it could be Corthian, again, or it could be Allandish.
Jerika is Amithae's grandniece, which suggests that either Amithae chose one of her own nieces, who then chose her daughter, or that Amithae chose her daughter, who then chose her cousin, who then chose her daughter. I'm inclined to go with the second option, if only because it allows for a bit more time between the height of the early empire and the beginning of Kanos's internal decay. There really needs to have been a 'golden age' of sorts, to set up the institutions that give Ranna what power she has during the potentially final collapse, about 250 years after the Concords of Lus.
Also note that the lord of Romil who rebelled against Jerika was technically her relative, since all queens of Kanos descend from Mabriel Scalt-Mordrin, the daughter of Duriel Sendak-Mordrin and the lord of Romil. Mabriel is a choke-point on the family tree, just like Deyrilea; all succeeding queens trace their descent from her.
Jerika is probably another choke-point, since one of the points in her deal was that the rebelling lords confirm her eldest daughter (Sanae) as her successor, but I don't think there are any more after her; the Assembly and the Inner Council began jumping all over the line of descent, starting by choosing one of Sanae's nieces.
Here is some world-building on the royal family of Kanos, which I feel like posting partly as a public kick in the pants to myself, and partly just because I think it's pretty nifty and want to show it off. *wry*
Background: Kanos is a semi-feudal multi-ethnic empire ruled by queens who are always descended from Deyrilea Nishal Mordrin (one of the empire's two founders; the other, Daluran Silverblade, abdicated and his requirements for a successor were deliberately impossible to fulfill) but who must be elected and confirmed by the Assembly of Nobles. Their direct power is also extremely restricted by the time of "The Sum of Things," but this doesn't mean Kanos has become a functional democracy; it just means the empire is a disorganized mess. The current queen -- Ranna, one of my two main characters -- had no interest in the position, but since she wound up with the title, she's trying her best to actually fix some of the problems with her country... whether her country particularly wants to be fixed or not.
Inheritance Rules in the Mordrin Line
Sunday, 7/29/07
And again, it's been awhile. *sigh* Anyway, in and around doing other things, I've been trying to clarify the succession of the queens. Their descent is traced through the female line, which is why all the queens have hyphenated family names. None of them are just So-and-so Mordrin; they're all Somebody Something-Mordrin, like Ithova Altus-Mordrin (aka Ranna), Shae Mondegrin-Mordrin, Durthae Agir-Mordrin, or Tharriel Renaeus-Mordrin.
The queen's children all carry the Mordrin name, but the sons don't pass it on. The daughters do, but only to their daughters, and the hyphenation changes to reflect the more common patrilineal tracing of descent. The question is how long they're entitled to pass on the name. I think three generations is the limit -- the queen's daughters, granddaughters, and great-granddaughters are Mordrins -- unless, for some reason, a fourth-generation descendant is elected to the throne, in which case she'd take back the Mordrin name. The name can't be passed on forever or there'd be far too many people with claims on the throne. Usually only those who carry the name are eligible for election, but if for some reason there aren't any close relatives of the old queen, or if they're all unsuitable (either incompetent or strong-willed and likely to oppose the Inner Council), a fourth- or fifth-generation Mordrin may be put forward as a candidate.
There was a civil war over that. The queen before Tharriel was a fourth-generation Mordrin, chosen over a first-generation Mordrin (in other words, over the daughter of a previous queen), and the first-generation Mordrin challenged the election. That was when the name rules became law instead of custom. The queen was Jenika Itharos, who became Jenika Itharos-Mordrin; her challenger was Orheicha ben Daced-Mordrin. In a gesture of conciliation, Jenika named Orheicha's daughter, Tharriel Renaeus-Mordrin, as her heir-presumptive. Unsatisfied, Orheicha escalated the fight from words to civil war, and was eventually captured and executed. This is a further reason Kanos is in internal disarray at the time of "The Sum of Things," and one reason people are concerned about Orifan and Dorin Rhae -- many southerners considered Orheicha one of their own and are still angry about her betrayal and 'murder.'
Durthae Agir-Mordrin was Tharriel's daughter and heir presumptive. Ranna is a great-granddaughter of Luniel Sagar-Mordrin, the queen before Jenika Itharos-Mordrin. (Orheicha was the daughter of Luniel's predecessor.) Shae is a granddaughter of Jenika Itharos-Mordrin, so her claim on the throne is both better and worse than Ranna's -- her ancestor was in a less direct line of descent, but there are fewer generations between Shae and the throne than between Ranna and the throne. Also, Luniel was only queen for two years before dying in childbirth; many people overlook her line, especially since Ranna's grandmother, Talaba Pandang-Mordrin, was born two years before Luniel took the throne, when Luniel was an ordinary third-generation Mordrin. Many people argue that Talaba was therefore fourth-generation, not first-generation, which would make Ranna's claim illegitimate. (People can be snobbish about that sort of thing.) Shae's mother, on the other hand, was born during Jenika's twenty-year rule, so there's no question about the legitimacy of her descent... so long as you accept Jenika's own legitimacy.
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Wednesday, 11/14/07
Orheicha had one other daughter, Isana Renaeus-Mordrin, who is still alive and has two daughters of her own. Shaniel Nomay-Mordrin is in her mid-twenties, married, and has a four-year-old daughter, Orika Halis. Delikaya Nomay-Mordrin is in her early twenties, married, and has an infant son. Jenika had only one daughter, Shae's mother (whom I have not yet named), who's dead. Luniel had two other daughters, both older than Talaba. Zabrie Pandang-Mordrin died childless. Falippa Pandang-Mordrin had three sons and no daughters, and prefers to stay in Mandaking and manage the estate she inherited from her father.
With Durthae dead and Falippa and Isana old, Shaniel, Delikaya, and Shae were the obvious candidates for the throne. Ranna considered herself too young to be a viable option, especially since her grandmother's status was questionable. Unfortunately for her, the other three had stronger disqualifications.
Delikaya married out of Kanos, to the king of Tobal's second son; since Tobal is effectively a tributary state of Dorin Rhae, giving Tobal's royal family any potential claim on the throne of Kanos would be unacceptable. Shaniel's husband is a convert to Orison, a variant of Rosaism that embraces some tenets of Novi Samhiva and whose adherents are therefore suspected of traitorous sympathy for Halo. Shae is known to be a devious, stubborn politician, who suspected the Inner Council's involvement in Durthae's mysterious death. (She's correct, incidentally.) So both Nomay-Mordrin sisters were politically awkward choices, and Shae, though the logical choice, was personally unacceptable to Olek Hartanos, the leader of the strongest faction in the Inner Council.
That left Falippa, Isana, and Ranna as the only options, with Orika Halis as a last-chance substitute. (Nobody wanted a lengthy regency for Orika, especially since she'd still have the awkward family connections that made Shaniel a bad choice, and she's fourth-generation anyway... unless you accept Orheicha's claim to the throne, which usually means denying Jenika's.) Isana was in mourning for her sister and told the Council that she wished to join a contemplative religious order. Falippa told the Council that if they were considering her a first-generation Mordrin, then her great-niece Ithova had just as legitimate a claim and was likely to live significantly longer, so why were they bothering her?
Effectively, the choice came down to Shae or Ranna. Olek cut a deal with Shae wherein she withdrew from the election in return for a seat on the Inner Council. Shae, who had actually met Ranna a few times -- unlike Olek, who had only seen her at court functions -- agreed. She considered a Council seat more useful than the throne and figured that Olek wouldn't get anything remotely resembling the passive puppet ruler he expected, which amused her.
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Tuesday, 2/12/08
Orheicha ben Daced-Mordrin was the daughter of Duri ben Pertu-Mordrin, the queen before Luniel Sagar-Mordrin. Duri was the daughter of a southerner and married a southerner, which made Allandians and Corthians distrust Orheicha -- she wasn't one of them. Orheicha's civil war is usually taken as proof that she wanted to destroy the country, especially because she twice retreated into Dorin Rhae and reportedly cut a deal with the Dorinian emperor to trade half the silver production of Rhi ben Eidin in return for his military aid.
Of course, Orheicha was married to Isanor Renaeus, Lord of Ikanos -- Ikanos being the old city-state of Kanos, and the symbolic birthplace of the nation -- which makes the suggestion that she wasn't connected to Alland a bit untenable... but politics is a strange world. And to be fair, Orheicha was blunt, rash, and insensible to the need to explain herself rather than assuming that she knew best and that everyone ought to immediately agree with her and follow her instructions. She could have done a lot more to defuse the situation than she did.
---------------
Thursday, 5/15/08
I want to make a family tree for the Mordrin family -- at least the branches that remained within the line of succession. This is what I know:
Deyrilea Nishal Mordrin was the queen of old Kanos; she married Karril Ferinar, who was probably the second or third son of the duke of Komans, in Auvern. The early years of the empire were chaotic and contentious, but the queens and the Assembly were apparently up to the challenge. Fairly quickly, Kanos absorbed Corthia, Damiland, and Orifan through wars, marriages, and economic influence. About 70 years after the Concords of Lus, Aurilia III and her daughter, Amithae II solidified the borders, established the provinces, and began regular imperial patrols and unified taxation.
I suspect that needs revision. Assuming an average reign of 15 years (based on the 24-year average reign of the kings and queen of England, and then deducting for assassination, childbirth complications, civil wars, lack of modern medicine, etc.), Deyrilea reigns until the 15th year post-founding, followed by approximately 4 more queens, until Aurilia takes the throne. Therefore, ditch the III -- especially since the queens now seem to go by surname rather than dynastic count. So she'd be Aurilia Sautheng-Mordrin, and her daughter is Amithae Napis-Mordrin.
Originally the queens inherited by primogeniture or the imperial choice of a successor, but Amithae's grandniece, Jerika, was forced to concede the rights of inheritance and choice to end a civil war with the lords of Romil, Chaumen, Therry, and Idalgir -- four of the original nations in the Kanosian Alliance. The pattern of name inheritance that characterizes the Mordrin family was already established at that point -- it's a throwback to an old Auvernish custom, from before the great invasions, which began as an attempt to trace several sacred bloodlines that provided priestesses for a religion later subsumed by Rosaism. It was later used as a way to trace social status among noblewomen who married rich commoners -- their children were considered demi-nobility. The descendents of the queens considered themselves demi-royalty, and so co-opted the custom.
The queens had also previously established the precedent for choosing relatives out of the direct line of inheritance. Deyrilea left the throne to her daughter, Karina Ferinar-Mordrin, and Karina likewise left the throne to her daughter... but chose her second daughter (Rushika) rather than the eldest (Duriel). And Rushika Sendak-Mordrin skipped over her own children in favor of Duriel's daughter, Mabriel Scalt-Mordrin. Mabriel chose her eldest daughter, Ceidden ben Galed-Mordrin, who chose her third daughter, Aurilia Sautheng-Mordrin, who chose her eldest daughter, Amithae Napis-Mordrin.
Mabriel married the ruler of part of Orifan, on the understanding that her daughter would inherit both kingdoms. Then she used that new alliance to conquer the other parts. Ceidden seems to have married into the aristocracy of Corthia, probably following her mother's strategy. I'm not sure what geographic region the surname 'Napis' comes from -- it could be Corthian, again, or it could be Allandish.
Jerika is Amithae's grandniece, which suggests that either Amithae chose one of her own nieces, who then chose her daughter, or that Amithae chose her daughter, who then chose her cousin, who then chose her daughter. I'm inclined to go with the second option, if only because it allows for a bit more time between the height of the early empire and the beginning of Kanos's internal decay. There really needs to have been a 'golden age' of sorts, to set up the institutions that give Ranna what power she has during the potentially final collapse, about 250 years after the Concords of Lus.
Also note that the lord of Romil who rebelled against Jerika was technically her relative, since all queens of Kanos descend from Mabriel Scalt-Mordrin, the daughter of Duriel Sendak-Mordrin and the lord of Romil. Mabriel is a choke-point on the family tree, just like Deyrilea; all succeeding queens trace their descent from her.
Jerika is probably another choke-point, since one of the points in her deal was that the rebelling lords confirm her eldest daughter (Sanae) as her successor, but I don't think there are any more after her; the Assembly and the Inner Council began jumping all over the line of descent, starting by choosing one of Sanae's nieces.
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Date: 2013-08-03 04:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-03 11:47 pm (UTC)As for why Kanos is always ruled by a queen rather than a king, well, as established by the Concords of Lus, Kanos was meant to be a duarchy, not a monarchy. This was partly a recognition of the way Deyrilea and Daluran had been sharing power between themselves, and partly a backdoor attempt by the signatories of the Concords to ensure the empire would fall apart in a couple generations and they would regain their independence, since even if Deyrilea and Daluran got along, at some point their successors would almost certainly argue and try to shove each other out of power. Daluran abdicated without provision for a successor specifically to prevent such a source of civil conflict; the queens thus became monarchs by default. They are always queens and never kings because that was the wording in the Concords of Lus: that Deyrilea's line would be queens and Daluran's line would be kings.