How New Kingdoms are Establish in the Custod World

The political and religious systems in the Custod world are highly interconnected. In their current history, there has been little good that comes from deviating from this path. The stories we have often do not go into the nitty gritty of how new kingdoms are established in such a system, so today, we’re going to cover the basics of how a new kingdom is formed in the Custod world.

Let’s start by covering the basic outline of the political system. In the Custod world, there are three main elements in the ruling system, the Potentate family, the Custod family, and the order of the Keepers.

The Potentates are those who inherited the ruling right, the eldest holding the title of high king or queen. The high king/queen is charged with overseeing the order of Potentates and keeps that in order. He does not have the right to involve himself with laws regarding a single nation but helps keep the ruling order. There are a rare handful of things a king or queen of the sovereign nation cannot do on their own and all of them involve keeping the family line intact, such as replacing the grand duke/duchess.

But if the high king has the direct right to rule, when are new kingdoms needed to be established? Most commonly, it is because the high king and queen are just two people and cannot handle the needs of people across the world in their unique situations.

When the need to have more direct rulers is perceived by the king and queen, they form a committee to help them draw out the borders of the new kingdom, choose the best capital and establish a plan for how to transition power to the new ruler. (Note: the high king and queen must be in power. A new kingdom cannot be formed when the high thrones are only partially filled or when a regent ruler is in power.) A similar process is used when handling if a kingdom could or should be merged.

The Custods, as the protectors, have very little role in establishing a new kingdom, other than sending a Custod representative to be on the committee to help with any tension that may arise.

The Keeper, as the religious stewards and keepers of the records, have only slightly more involved in the process of creating a new nation. They are highly involved in keeping the record of the committee’s meetings and of course, the solution and plans explained. The keeper representative is allowed to have a voice in the meetings but does more of the record keeping. They also are the ones who will keep stewardship over those records and give or deny access to those who may search for it, so many Custods and Potentates will choose to keep their own records as well, allowing the royal family that will take over to have access to the records no matter the Keeper’s procedures.

The Court: The royal family then picks ten to sixteen members of the court to join the committee. The number must be even however, as tradition dictates that at least half of the committee will go on to help rule the new nation as part of their first court.

Ratification

Once a final decision is made, the high king and queen will then select a worthy heir to start the ruling family of that nation, most commonly from their own children who are not their firstborn but cousins, nieces, nephews, and grandchildren are sometimes selected as well.

An approval process involving the head Custod and head Keeper reviewing the plans and chosen rulers begins at this stage. Once the high king, head Custod, and head Keeper have all signed the document, it is brought to the people who may be living in that land to ratify.

However, most of all in the early days, there weren’t enough organized people in the regions to ratify the process with a final vote. It was not uncommon for the populace to be too small for this to be used. (Most of all when each new ruler and proposed air to the throne needs to be ratified by the people’s representatives each time this title changes.)

History of the Process

This process was quite common from the year 1-1500, but slow down significantly after that. In an attempt to help kingdoms, work together and keep their ruling line in proper order, a yearly summit is held in the summer at the high capitol in Emilimoh to reconnect in person. (For more on this see “Summer Summits blog post.)

Did that read too much like a history lesson? Well, it’s exactly what a young ruler like Prince Javanus or Prince Gavril, future head Custod like Damian Custod the second or Cedrick, or rising Keeper would read as they study to fill their important rules.

But what do you think? It’s quite a different system than those we see today. Let me know in the comments, and if you enjoyed this subscribe for more or check out my social media