Imperial Succession

Dungeons & Dragons The Royal Library
21

And as interesting as real-world lines of succession worked, keep in mind that, arguably, the BR setting doesn’t have the same frame of reference.

  1. It’s hard to have a “legitimate” succession claim when the Imperial line had been a largely unbroken progression to begin with and therefore what counts as “legitimate” has never actually been established in a legalistic sense in the setting. So, basically, the argument isn’t really about which claim is legal - it’s about which one should be made legal by establishing precedent.

For instance, what happens when Avan decides to throw their lot in with Boeruine so long as Boeruine’s eldest daughter is married to the eldest Avan son? Now that they’ve “let Boeruine win” the succession fight, that has established a precedent. So, when all the Boeruine sons strangely die afterwards (or are perhaps never born to begin with), Avan suddenly stands to inherit the Iron Throne due to the eldest daughter being married to an Avan heir. All because Boeruine got what he wanted.

  1. It’s even harder to have a “legitimate” succession discussion when it’s entirely possible that, at any point, the bloodline jumped to an unrelated person upon someone’s death. I mean, are we arguing that the Duke of Boeruine is actually the direct lineal descendant of the first Duke (he might actually be, I don’t know)? Or is he the “bloodline descendant”, which, in this setting and under these magical rules, is specifically possible to be completely separate but also equally legitimate?

– Lord Crimson

22

One option that I’ve considered using in the past with regard to who can (legitimately) claim the title of Archduke is that the title only follows those of direct descent from the founder of the line.

In this respect you end up with Avanil, Boeruine, Alamie, Diemed, and Mhoried.

In Aerenwe, Osoerde, Elinie, Ghieste, Bhalaene, and Taeghas/Brosengae one can claim descent, but not direct. For example, while Liliene Swordwraith might be related to the Aeren line or even the Imperial line, she is not a direct descendant of the Aeren and therefore cannot title herself Archduchess.

Cariele presents an interesting case in this instance. Entier Gladanil clearly is not directly descended from the original Carel line. The question for the DM here is Eluvie Cariele a direct descendant or does she come from an indirect line.