Episode: Stability
Posted by Story on 02/21/17
Thraxian Succession
Prince Donrai Thrax is not someone that you'd expect to be mourned throughout the Compact, and he's not. But he was the last highlord of an era, and he represented stability (admittedly terrifying stability) from an unpredictable and warlike great house. His death, in the mind of most of the Compact, couldn't have come at a worse time, with Arx facing an external threat, and each of the other four great houses having lost their own high lords at least once in recent years. Still, with Donrai dead, most in other four regions were hoping that finally that kindly Prince Dagon Thrax, knightly grandson who had been openly critical of thralldom and harsher Thraxian traditions, was going to finally usher the Mourning Isles into a new era of peace with the Compact. Not so much. Lord Victus Thrax fought a duel with him and claimed the seat and rule of the Mourning Isles. Dagon, to his credit, renounced his claim and recognized the rightness of the duel, and supporters of Victus swiftly move to (surprisingly bloodlessly) firmly take control of the Mourning Isles, making Lord Victus Thrax the undisputed Prince Victus Thrax, Prince of Maelstrom.
The rest of the Compact, to put it mildly, are horrified. Essentially every lord with an illegitimate child is intensely troubled by the danger of a baseborn child usurping a rightful heir to begin with, and trying to sell that custom as part of Thrax culture isn't exactly reassuring to the lords terrified currently by a lack of stability in the Compact. Secondly, Victus is a warlord, and they were watching that Assembly of Peers. He was already seated at the council, the other high lords were treating him as one of their own, so they assume their leaders will do nothing to rein him in, and Victus, unlike Donrai, made no objections when his vassals spoke out of turn and were threatening and combative to other peers at the Assembly. This makes many of them believe he has far less control over his vassals than Donrai did. Most at this point would not be placated without anything that looks like real reforms, such as the abolition of thralldom or male-only primogeniture.
For Thrax itself, Victus' rule is secure and uncontested. Outside of the Mourning Isles, it's anything but. Vassals of the other great houses will not respect their high lords treating with Victus as their equal in the current state of affairs, and it's worse than most might think. For many of them, the threat of House Thrax under a warlord that is less concerned with reining in his vassals is a larger threat than 80,000 shavs bearing down on Arx. For many of them, shavs, regardless of number, have never broken through Arx's walls and sacked the city. House Thrax most certainly has, and the Crownbreaker Wars weren't that long ago.
Prince Donrai Thrax is not someone that you'd expect to be mourned throughout the Compact, and he's not. But he was the last highlord of an era, and he represented stability (admittedly terrifying stability) from an unpredictable and warlike great house. His death, in the mind of most of the Compact, couldn't have come at a worse time, with Arx facing an external threat, and each of the other four great houses having lost their own high lords at least once in recent years. Still, with Donrai dead, most in other four regions were hoping that finally that kindly Prince Dagon Thrax, knightly grandson who had been openly critical of thralldom and harsher Thraxian traditions, was going to finally usher the Mourning Isles into a new era of peace with the Compact. Not so much. Lord Victus Thrax fought a duel with him and claimed the seat and rule of the Mourning Isles. Dagon, to his credit, renounced his claim and recognized the rightness of the duel, and supporters of Victus swiftly move to (surprisingly bloodlessly) firmly take control of the Mourning Isles, making Lord Victus Thrax the undisputed Prince Victus Thrax, Prince of Maelstrom.
The rest of the Compact, to put it mildly, are horrified. Essentially every lord with an illegitimate child is intensely troubled by the danger of a baseborn child usurping a rightful heir to begin with, and trying to sell that custom as part of Thrax culture isn't exactly reassuring to the lords terrified currently by a lack of stability in the Compact. Secondly, Victus is a warlord, and they were watching that Assembly of Peers. He was already seated at the council, the other high lords were treating him as one of their own, so they assume their leaders will do nothing to rein him in, and Victus, unlike Donrai, made no objections when his vassals spoke out of turn and were threatening and combative to other peers at the Assembly. This makes many of them believe he has far less control over his vassals than Donrai did. Most at this point would not be placated without anything that looks like real reforms, such as the abolition of thralldom or male-only primogeniture.
For Thrax itself, Victus' rule is secure and uncontested. Outside of the Mourning Isles, it's anything but. Vassals of the other great houses will not respect their high lords treating with Victus as their equal in the current state of affairs, and it's worse than most might think. For many of them, the threat of House Thrax under a warlord that is less concerned with reining in his vassals is a larger threat than 80,000 shavs bearing down on Arx. For many of them, shavs, regardless of number, have never broken through Arx's walls and sacked the city. House Thrax most certainly has, and the Crownbreaker Wars weren't that long ago.