Succession of the Crucian Monarchy

The Succession of the Crucian Monarchy
The banner of House Crux

The terms of the Imperial election have been largely unaltered across the Empire’s ten Emperox, save a few notable exceptions. Every 100 years, each House provides a candidate, chosen by their own means from amongst their own ranks, and each House in turn votes for the candidate of their choice, eventually electing who will become the next Emperox. Though it has never happened, in the event of a stalemate or tie the High Church is given the power of the Imperial Throne, watching over its indecisive children.

In House Crux, the choice of candidate is no short or easy thing, planned far in advance of each election. Within less than a year of an Imperial Coronation, House Crux has already selected a family to rear and put forth a candidate for the next cycle, one hundred years devoted to a singular moment.

The Preeminent Family and the Electors

After each Imperial Coronation, the Electors of House Crux assemble to select a new Preeminent Family, the family that will be responsible for producing the leaders of the House until the next election and for grooming the next Crucian Imperial candidate. The Electors are the Furst, Herzog, and Graf of House Crux, the mightiest and most powerful Primeborn. More rarely, Markgraf and Frieherr may also temporarily be chosen as Electors by the higher Primeborn, depending on many factors such as service medals, personal wealth, family relations to more powerful entities, and other distinguishments. Even more rarely, other Crucian nobles have been chosen to be Electors by the Council of the Prince.

Historical note: Historians believe many of the early Crucian Princes were male. Some time either before or at the time of the Scream, the term “Prince,” became synonymous with “leader,” for House Crux, indicating both power and subservience to the Emperox, and lost all connotation of gender. Historical records refer to the Mother of Mercy before her coronation as Prince Helena, even though she may have held a different title at the time.

When the Electors meet, they cast their votes, the result often tightly linked to the result of the most recent Imperial election. Failure is a sign of weakness, and success is to be rewarded. If the current Preeminent Family failed to have their candidate elected Emperox, the Electors will most often cast a vote of No Confidence, meaning a new Preeminent Family must be chosen. If the current Preeminent Family succeeded, their candidate elected Emperox by the Imperial Houses, the Electors will most often cast a vote With Support, meaning that the Preeminent Family retains its role of leadership and power. Rarely, a family may be allowed a second chance if they fail to produce an elected Emperox. Never in the history of Crux has a family that produced an Emperox been met with a vote of No Confidence, and the vote in the case of an elected Emperox is largely considered ceremonial.

As an example, historical records, such as they are, indicate that the Preeminent Family at the time of Emperox Diomikato’s election faced a vote of No Confidence, their family replaced with that of the Mother of Mercy, Prince Helena. When Prince Helena became Emperox Crux Helena, the Electors voted With Support, the Emperox’s family retaining their position and responsibility for producing the next Crucian candidate, Prince Alexandron. When Prince Alexandron was elected Emperox Crux Alexandron, the Firekeeper, the Electors again voted With Support for the Preeminent Family. Through the turmoil of the Scream and the First Imperial Civil War that followed, records lose track of what became of that Preeminent Family, save the Firekeeper's son, Prince Crux Luca. What documents and data remains suggest that the Preeminent Family died or disappeared during the chaos, and Prince Luca ultimately served as the Crucian leader through several long periods of strife (The First and Second Imperial Civil Wars).

The Preeminent Family, chosen by the Electors, are the de facto “royal family,” of House Crux. Many of those who have come before and who have vied for the position have claimed lineage to the line of Helena and Alexandron, either directly or indirectly, and powerful families will often seek to marry into the families of those who claim even a sliver of connection to that line. Though the Preeminent Family's chosen candidate for the next Imperial election is the official leader of House Crux, the Family itself maintains a huge amount of indirect power. That said, the pressure of one hundred years of work for a single deciding moment is not one easily undertaken. The chosen candidate of the Preeminent Family must be taught and raised like a blade honed a thousand times, and even the blood of Helena and Alexandron is not enough at times to prove a Family's worth and power.

Rarely, the Preeminent Family, seeing that a chosen candidate is not performing to the best of their or their family’s abilities, will elect to put forward another candidate to replace the current one. This will also occur if the Preeminent Family’s candidate dies or otherwise becomes unfit for the task. Often the newly chosen Prince will be a close relative, a brother, sister, son, mother, or other immediate family member. In rare cases where the immediate family of a Prince and the Prince themselves are killed or found unfit (which has never happened), the lineage will be followed out to what family members remain, who will choose a Prince from amongst themselves. If no such family were to remain, the Electors would be gathered to choose a new Preeminent Family.

The Council

The Prince’s Council is chosen by the current Prince from amongst the three Crucian Pillars. Administrators are chosen from amongst the Primeborn, legal representatives from the Department of the Judiciary, and defense ministers from the House Guard. The titles most often represented include Furst, Herzog, Graf, Oberster Richter, Oberster Scharfrichter, Arch-Anwalt, Strategos, and Tourmarches, though this is by no means hard and fast. At times, a noble may have several titles to their name, such as a Herzog Tourmarches, and they may speak on matters of both administration and defense, but they only have one vote to cast. While there is no requirement of which titles be represented, it is mandatory that each of the Pillars have at least one representative on the Council.

As leader of the House, the current Prince holds veto power over decisions made by the Council, and their vote is valued at a percentage of the total membership of the Council, the value of several Council members combined. In the absence of their leader, the Council is the de facto rulership of House Crux, and is able to make many decisions on their own. However, when their Prince returns, they reserve the right to overrule or veto decisions made in their absence.

The Crucian Pillars

Mentioned above, the Three Crucian Pillars are the primary divisions of House Crux, serving the will of the Prince and their Council in their respective roles and structures. 

• Administration: The role of the Primeborn, administrators of House Crux are responsible for infrastructure, sustenance, taxation, trade, politics, and the management of family properties and assets. Vassal nobles, lesser Crucian nobles, contracted free-people, and serfs will often handle the more mundane aspects, but the Primeborn represent the top-level management. In many cases, lesser Primeborn may also work under or alongside more powerful Primeborn in cases where a single administrator would be inadequate.
• Legal: The role of the members of the Department of the Judiciary, and by extension the Judicial Enforcement Services, the legal pillar is responsible for all legal matters: establishing law, upholding it, practicing it, policing it, investigation, surveillance, security, prisons, adjudication and more. Both Crux’s role as the House of Imperial Law and Crux and Hiera’s own separate laws are managed by the legal pillar.
• Defense: The role of the House Guard, the pillar of defense is responsible for the protection of Crucian assets both on Hiera and throughout the Empire. The House Guard may interact with the legal pillar in situations of riot or civil unrest, and also manages training, deployment, equipment and logistics for forces both planetside and in the depths of space.

The Rituals

House Crux has long had close relations with the High Church. As an extension of this, the procedures discussed above come with a great deal of ritual and ceremony designed to strengthen the bonds between those undertaking the procedures and God.

The Accord of Kin

The vote to dismiss or support a Preeminent Family by the Electors is begun with prayer by the High Priest of Hiera. An ancient invocation is read, the same invocation that has been read since at least the Scream, and voting commences in silence. Votes are written physically on paper to ensure no electronic tampering, recorded into a single tome by a Monk, and cast into a great brazier at the center of the chambers of the Prince’s Council. 

Once the votes have been tallied, the High Priest of Hiera announces the result. If the previous Preeminent Family is removed from their position, the High Priest will recite a prayer for the family, beseeching God to burn away the Vice in their hearts and bolster their Virtues. The previous Preeminent Family then leaves in silence. If a new Preeminent Family is being selected, the High Priest of Hiera will announce their name, recite a prayer of rejoicing, and the Preeminent Family will be summoned if not already present.

Once a new Preeminent Family arrives, they will be granted a personal Abbott, unofficially the Abbot-Preeminent, and a Lector, to educate the family and the family’s children in the ways and teachings of the High Church. It is assumed the new Preeminent Family will accept, but should they refuse the position they are to be cast out of the Council chambers and their name struck from those that the Electors will vote on in future generations. A series of recitations and verbal agreements follow, and the representatives of the new Preeminent Family must submerge their heads in a frigid pool of water beneath the Council chambers. Often, a hole must be cut in the ice over the pool for this portion of the ritual. Once complete, a feast and day of rejoicing is held.

The Annunciation of the Prince

The Preeminent Family is expected to select the one who will be Prince from amongst their members within their first year of service to the House. Once a name has been chosen, the Preeminent Family, the Electors and the Council of the previous Prince will meet at The Church of the Mother of Mercy for a service conducted by the High Priest of Hiera. The members of the existing Council and the Electors will stand as a representative of the Preeminent Family enters through the furthest door. The High Priest of Hiera will call out for the representative to name the new Prince of House Crux. The representative is to reply with the full name of the chosen Prince, and the new Prince will process in to great fanfare. The service will then continue as normal, until the very end when the High Priest of Hiera strikes a great staff upon the floor before the altar three times. At the third strike, the Council of the previous Prince are to leave in silence, for it is not known if they will sit again on the Council of the new Prince, or if their time of service is at an end.

The Consultation of Flame

A much more private affair, the Consultation of Flame is less directly holy and more focused on an understanding of the past. The Flame of Hiera in the Oberlandesgericht in Ven City is historically believed by many to have ties to the Mother of Mercy and the Firekeeper, House Crux's two Emperox. Somewhat superstitiously, it has become common practice since the Scream for Princes to commune, alone, with the flame atop the highest tower. To weather the cold of Hiera and the intense heat of the flame at once is to temper a Prince's mind and soul, their thoughts meant to linger on the Princes and Emperoxs that came before them.

Some members of House Crux put faith in an old myth or prophecy associated with the Flame and the Consultation. These legends claim that the Prince who is able to immerse themselves in the Flame unscathed will be the third Emperox of House Crux. Thankfully, this belief is somewhat rare, though its existence has led to one Prince burning themselves quite severely in an attempt to fulfill this superstitious myth.

Hektor, following his Annunciation, claimed to have been able to immerse himself in the flames with little more than singing to the edges of his attire. Because the Princes undertake this ritual alone, there was no way to corroborate his claim short of digging through his mind with a Psychic. While some believed Hektor's claim, and were certain he would be crowned Emperox because of it, others vehemently denied the very idea. Most, however, did not acknowledge the matter, preferring to let Hektor's words and actions speak for themselves.