cthia wrote:The title, above, is for those who are left in the dark. Recall when I stated that the Andermani is one of those beehive governments in the Pawn to Queen 7 ... Checkmate? thread. Remove the "Queen" and it falls apart. The symbolism of the Emperor carries too much power. The Andermani government is lost without him. It is a chicken without its head. Internal strife is to be expected. What is more, you can't just bestow the title of Emperor on just anyone. He is like a God.
ThinksMarkedly wrote:Well, unlike in that thread, here we're talking about the first emperor. There was no established, long-standing tradition of passing the crown to the heir because it was the first time. As noted by the critics, empires usually fall apart after the death of their founding emperor. And another came to mind: Alexander the Great. Also Gengis Khan.
But unlike that thread too, here we have no evidence of foul play. Gustav Anderman was going to die at some time or another. He may have planned what his succession would be and this may greatly mitigate the issues we're going to seen.
PS: do Andermani emperors wear crowns? What's their symbol? In Grayson, it's the Sword.
The timing is all wrong for the Andermani succession fight that I think would be really interesting; the one mentioned in chapter 10 of
Honor Among Enemies:
Then there'd been Gustav VI. His subjects had been willing to put up with him even when he started talking to his prize rose bush, but things had gotten a bit out of hand when he tried to make it chancellor. That had been too much even for the Andermani, and he'd been quietly deposed. Removing him had created problems of its own, since the Imperial Charter specified that the Crown passed through the male line. Gustav VI had been a childless only son, but he'd had half a dozen male cousins, and a nasty dynastic war had been in the making until the oldest of his three sisters put an end to the foolishness by embracing a legal fiction. She'd had herself declared a man by the Imperial Council, taken the crown (and control of the IAN Home Fleet) as "Gustav VII," and invited any of her male relatives who felt so inclined to take his best shot. None had accepted her challenge, and she'd gone on to hold the throne as "His Imperial Majesty, Gustav VII" for another thirty-eight T-years. She'd also turned out to be one of the best rulers the Empire had ever had, which was saying quite a lot.
It is not clear whether "crown" mentioned here is real or symbolic. Also mentioned is that there an Imperial Charter specifying succession (created before or after the point of this story?).
Genghis Khan's empire did not immediately fall apart: from the online Britannica;
The third son of Genghis, Ögödei succeeded his father in 1229. He was the first ruler of the Mongols to call himself khagan (“great khan”); his father used only the title khan. He made his headquarters on the Orhon River in central Mongolia, where he built the capital city of Karakorum on the site laid out by his father. Like his father, he carried out several simultaneous campaigns, using generals in the field who acted independently but who were subject to his orders. The orders were transmitted by a messenger system that covered almost all of Asia.
In the East, Ögödei launched an attack on the Jin (Juchen) dynasty of North China. The Song dynasty in South China wished to regain territory lost to the Jin and therefore allied itself with the Mongols, helping Ögödei take the Jin capital at Kaifeng in 1234.
Ögödei’s Chinese adviser, Yelü Chucai, convinced him to reverse previous Mongol policy. Instead of leveling North China and all its inhabitants in the usual Mongol manner, he preserved the country in order to utilize the wealth and skills of its inhabitants. That decision not only saved Chinese culture in North China but it also gave the Mongols access to the Chinese weapons that later enabled them to conquer the technologically superior Song. Knowledge of governmental techniques gained from the people of North China made it possible for the Mongols to be rulers as well as conquerors of China.
In the western part of his empire, Ögödei sent Mongol armies into Iran, Iraq, and Russia. With the sacking of Kiev in 1240, the Mongols finally crushed Russian resistance. In the next year Mongol forces defeated a joint army of German and Polish troops and then marched through Hungary and reached the Adriatic Sea. Thereafter for more than 200 years Russia remained tributary to the Mongols of the Golden Horde.
Ögödei died during a drinking bout, and his troops called off their intended invasion of western Europe. His widow, Töregene, ruled as regent until 1246 when she handed over the throne to Güyük, her eldest son by Ögödei. Ögödei is described in contemporary sources as a stern, energetic man given to drinking and lasciviousness.