BM - Court without a King

[Deeza]

Court Without a King

History of the BM Monarchy. Needs dates adding.

One of the constitutional peculiarities of Black Marsh which most frequently puzzles visitors to the province is that unlike many other provinces of the Empire, it has no overall head of state. Although many other provinces are divided into regional petty kingdoms, even in chaotic High Rock a defined aristocracy exists. In Black Marsh such arrangements are absent, and yet the administration of much of the province still goes by the name of Royal Court! The explanation for this oddity reveals much about the Marsh's troubled history.

Part of the reason for the absence of an Argonian aristocracy must be the tribal nature of the People of the Root, which typically emphasises the good of the tribe over individual needs. Therefore, the many classes of Chieftain found in the marsh represent specific skilled occupations (such as the War-Chief, a leader only in times of war), and are respected no more or less than any other accomplished artisan or mage in the tribe. The one oddity in this culture is that of the Priest-King, but this strange figure deserves to be discussed further elsewhere, and was certainly never a head of state in any conventional sense.

Thus it was that the Priest-King of Lilmoth at the time of the conquest found himself puzzled by recieving messengers addressing him as "His Royal Highness, King of Argonia". It turned out that ascribing the Priest-King with temporal (as opposed to spiritual) authority was part of the plan of Tiber Septim's Argonian collaborators, who formed themselves into a Royal Court centred around this figure as a way of asserting the Marsh's administrative autonomy. Yet in the time it took to broker this deal, large areas of western Black Marsh were effectively annexed by Imperial generals, land seizures which the Royal Court was forced to retrospectively approve.

Yet despite the unpromising beginning, this arrangement prospered at first. As large areas of Black Marsh were cleared to make way for plantations, those who had collaborated during the invasion became the Royal Court, centred around the traditional home of the Priest-Kings in Lilmoth, which was transformed from a marshy series of ruins to a floating baroque city. The Imperial nobles grew rich, and so did the Royal Court, and in exchange for retaining his ancient role, the Priest-King kept quiet.

But all was not well in the Province. The increasing presence of Imperial Cult missionaries and an open policy of colonisation and forced conversion led to the last Priest-King's famous rebellion against his own Court and their Imperial masters. Following the failure of this uprising, it was seen fit to install tighter controls on the Province. The last Priest-King was executed, and the Imperial Prince Magnus Septim, brother to the infamous Wolf Queen, was crowned as King of Lilmoth, with a thoroughly purged Royal Court retained only as advisors.

Yet Magnus was to be not only the first, but the last Imperial King of Black Marsh. The War of the Red Diamond which engulfed the Empire mere years later swept into Black Marsh, as Magnus found himself fighting a bitter and bloody war with his own family. The native Argonians found themselves sucked into a conflict whose causes they neither understood nor cared about. However, it did not take much consideration for the Royal Court to decide that their position would be better off under Magnus than under his sister, and so Black Marsh's people enthusiastically entered the war on behalf of its new ruler.

As the civil wars raged on, Magnus' legions became severely depleted, and he came to rely increasingly for his troops upon the native levies and mercenaries he recruited in the Marsh. The Royal Court excelled at organising this reptilian army and at managing its logistics and supply lines, to the evident gratitude of Magnus. Although it is recorded that they fought poorly in winter months and in the final Skyrim Campaign due to the cold weather making them sluggish, nevertheless Argonian troops proved important in several critical battles, significantly increasing the stature and respect afforded to beast peoples around the Empire.

Following the Seige of Solitude and the death of the by-then insane Empress Potema, Magnus unexpectedly found himself crowned Emperor of All Tamriel, which necessitated the immediate relocation of his power base to the Imperial City in Cyrodiil. Assured of the trustworthiness of the Royal Court, upon leaving he delegated large areas of responsibility to the Court, creating the new rank of Archein to denote native administrative officials in the service of the Empire. After Magnus' departure, the highest remaining Imperial rank in Black Marsh was that of Provincial Governor, as the former Governorship of Stormhold was promoted to cover that of the entire Marsh.

This hands-off arrangement has endured ever since. With the authority of the governors waning and becoming ever more reliant on the Archeins, the Royal Court has increasingly asserted itself as the most powerful ruling body of Black Marsh, Court without a King to lead them.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Faction-specific. Again, good for Castles and UC dwellings.