The Queens Across the Sea: On the Intricacies of Rivaini Politics and Succession

### Introduction

In Orlais, if you don’t like someone you single them out, remove them from their friend circle and commission a bard to ruin their reputation. In Antiva you hire an assassin to kill all your elder siblings so that you can inherit only to have your younger sibling hire one to kill you. Rivain doesn’t exactly conform to these systems. It is true that, at first glance, the Rivaini political system might seem like that of Ferelden or the Anderfels, a noble is a noble right?. But the truth is that Rivain exists as a strange melting pot of political norms, only managing to work because of a very precise balance of stubborness, progressive thinking and spirituality.

### The Hierarchy

At the top of the Rivaini political hierarchy is the monarch. Traditionally this spot is held by a queen, however after the exalted march against the qunari, heralded by King Rialto, the laws have relaxed. The monarch in Rivain does not share power through marriage and must remain single for life. The royal heirs are traditionally produced through the ruler venturing out and getting pregnant from either a simple commoner or another nations nobility.

It is widely regarded that the monarch therefore remains the sole parent of the heir, the child does not have any claim to titles held by the child's father and the father has no tie to the child. While they are on their journey, the ruler appoint an interim ruler from a cadet branch of the Trastamara dynasty.

The succession of the throne is centered around an enatic-cognatic system in which a male heir can inherit the throne but only if there are no eligible female heirs. If a queen has a male firstborn and later gives birth to a female child, the second child will inherit. The male heir will in that case form a cadet branch of the trastamara family. The members of the cadet branches become nobles, however the nobles of Rivain are quite different from the nobles of Orlais or Ferelden. The nobles hold no lands and have no ruling authority. Instead they are trained to serve as military commanders, admirals and generals. The members that lack the proficiency for command instead become diplomats or scholars.

There have also been those that chose to forsake their cadet branch and venture out into the world as adventurers.

Unlike the monarch, the members of the cadet branches are encouraged to marry. However they are forbidden from marrying into each other to avoid a consolidation of power as well as incest.

Hailing from the first human residents of Rivain, the elders of Rivain are mystical mage women who all have the talent for forgotten schools of magic such as clairvoyance and even future-sight. The elders serve as the rulers and spiritual guides of most settlements across Rivain. The Rivaini are quite stubborn when it comes to their worship of the elders and the only major settlement that lacks one is the capital of Dairsmuid. If an elder dies before one of their daughters having developed their powers, the husband of the elders serves as mayor until a daughter comes of age. If an elder dies without any female heirs, the other elders gather in an elder moot where they elect a new elder from amongst themselves.

The origins of both the royal family and the elders are shrouded in myth and legend. The abilities of the elders are said to pass genetically but there are those who instead point to the elders simply teaching their children a secret specialization of magic. Many researchers from the circle of magi have set out to learn the elders’ secrets, however many of these researchers have met strange unfortunate ends before they’ve been able to figure out anything concrete.

The silver hair of the royal family is also a point of speculation to many. Since every known members of both the Trastamara family and its cadet branches have the same white-silver hair it is safe to assume that the particular very rare gene isn’t only dominant but indomitable.

Some say that the family is related to the ancient elves somehow, others say that some forbidden magic has tainted their visage for all to see. Even some point to the silver hair of the qunari and mean that the royal family share some common ancestor with the oxmen.

The only known other trait of the royal family is their apparent resistance to disease. In a study done by Jimothy Calvados (a scholar of the Calvados cadet branch) he was immune to any sickness that he attempted to fall victim to. He ventured into sickhouses, plague ridden slums, he even ventured down into the deep roads of orzammar without contracting the taint.

The major cadet branches are as follow:

-De Borgoña: Mostly in charge of the naval defense of Rivain.

-De Calvados: many of the Calvados branch have a scholarly disposition and multiple papers of note in the academic world have been published by Calvados members.

-De Resolí: Most foreign and domestic diplomats of Rivain come from De Resoli.

-De Chinchón: Many children of the Chinchón family are trained from birth in combat and to lead troops on land.

-by Mantis Toboggan, scholar esquire