Marriage of Kaiseress Noor and King Noah of Elwynn

The marriage of Kaiseress Noor of Shireroth and King Noah of Elwynn is a union between these two individuals, that over the years has been controversial for various reasons. It was regarded as annulled (or illegitimate marriage) by Shirerithian law from 1656 to 1722, but always as a legitimate marriage in Francia, Arbor, Çakaristan, and Stormark.

Facts

These are the undisputed facts:

• On 20 Laemill 1633 a wedding occurred between Kaiseress Noor of Shireroth, then known as Grand Duchess Noor of Goldshire, and King Noah, at Cashma House (in Lake Cashma) outside Vesüha, Lakkvia, Craitland. A marriage contract was signed by the parties and witnesses. This was King Noah's first marriage and Kaiseress Noor's second marriage. Noor had previously been married to the late Prince-Emperor Nathaniel of Natopia and Elwynn, with whom she had four children, Adam, Aldin, Arn and Rostam (all born in 1630). Prior to the wedding, the King of Elwynn had already married, in his words, the Goddess Elwynn in a widely publicised ceremony in which he also consummated that marriage before the audience. The marital contract between Noor and Noah acknowledged Noah's "sacred marriage" with Goddess Elwynn.
• During the wedding, the parties and their witnesses signed a marital contract, in which it was stipulated that legal matters of the marriage were to be governed by Storish law.
• In 1635, Noor was proclaimed Queen of Goldshire. She gave birth to Noah's son Vilhjalm the same year.
• In 1638, Noor gave birth to Noah's daughter Esther.
• In 1644, Noor was elected Kaiseress of Shireroth.
• In 1648, a dynastic order of succession was created whereby the kaisership would be inherited by her legitimate heirs (Imperial Decree 914), unless removed as dead by imperial decree. The order of succession was therefore at that point in time, 1. Adam, 2. Vidar, 3. Vilhjálm, 4. Esther. Immediately after the issuance of the decree, Adam was declared to be removed (as if dead) in the order of succession (Imperial Decree 915). Adam disputed this.
• In 1651, Noor was killed by her eldest son Adam. Had not Adam been killed at the same time by his twin brother Aldin, there would have been a dispute of succession between Adam and Adam's son Vidar. However, no dispute came into fruition as Kaiser Ayreon IV, a minor, ascended the throne.
• In 1656, the Elwynnese Senate adopted a bill that dissolved and annulled the marriage between Noah and Noor. Among the grounds was found that Noah was already married to a woman (which Noah had claimed was a goddess, but subsequent research had found was a physical person) and because of demonic influence over the decision of the purported parties. Noah's children with Noor, Vilhjalm and Esther, were therefore deemed illegitimate.
• In 1666, Imperial Decree 1022 confirmed that "The unions between Lady Esther Maryam Amirdokhtar, Emira of Sathrati, and Prince Hallbjörn Haraldsson, and between Kaiseress Noor and King Noah were illegitimate due to daemonic taint. Offspring of those purported unions are not members of the House", and that no future marriages within the Line of Ayreon-Kalirion may be entered to without the consent of the Kaiser. Without the Kaiser's consent, a person would be excluded from the line of legitimate descendants of the founders of the house, and, if in the order of succession of to the Kaisership, be removed from that line, too.
• 1668. Imperial Decree 1136 dissolved Elwynn and the other imperial states and replaced the law there with imperial law. Harmonization of laws across Shireroth with precedence to Shirerithian law.
• Imperial Decree 1180, in 1670, confirmed the monogamous nature of marriage and reformed the marriage law in Shireroth. There were now three classes of unions, 1. marriage (equal and monogamous), 2. concubinage (unequal union, where one party must be a noble), 3. courtesanship (also unequal).
• On or around 11.II.1681, the Frankish court known as the Froyalan Tribunal declared the annulment of the marriage between Noah and Noor to be illegal, and declared Vilhjalm and Esther to be legitimate children of that union.
• In 1722, Shireroth reversed the annulment.

Prior controversy:

The governments of Shireroth, Elwynn, Natopia, Ransenar and Talenore – all whose laws would be affected if the annulment of Noah and Noor's marriage would be declared illegal – held, until 1722, that the annulment remained in effect, despite the ruling of the Frankish court, due to the following findings:

• The marriage between Noah and Noor was illegal at the time of the signing of the marital contract due to the marriage of Noah with "Goddess Elwynn" (a woman purporting to be the Goddess Elwynn). That marriage was consummated and therefore legal. Noah's legal wife remains that as of yet nameless woman. Bigamy was illegal under Shirerithian law at the time of the wedding and remained such for the duration of Noor's life (and subsequently), as such, the marriage never had legal standing.
• The Elwynnese Senate, as the final court of justice of the imperial state of the Elwynnese Republic, the legal successor to the monarchical Elwynnese Union, was competent to declare the marriage between Noor and Noah to have been illegal. This bill received the support of Prince Aldin, Noor's eldest living child. Further, the bill was based on a petition by Noor's son Vilhjalm to declare the marriage annulled.
• A number of Imperial Decrees confirmed the illegal nature of the marriage between Noah and Noor.
• The imperial states of Shireroth were dissolved and replaced by imperial law in 1668.
• Elwynn, Ransenar and Talenore, as successor states to Shireroth from the Kalirion Fracture, inherited the laws of Shireroth upon their independence. As such, the illegal nature of the marriage between Noor and Noah has been upheld in these countries.
• The Frankish Empire, established in 1672 as West Amokolia, has no jurisdiction to rule on imperial Shirerithian law.
• The Froyalan Tribunal has no competence as an ad-hoc court of justice under the Constitution of the Frankish Empire to rule on events outside the scope of the territory of the Frankish Empire.
• While the marital contract between Noor and Noah stipulated that the marriage could be dissolved only by Storish law, this implied that a divorce would be settled by Storish courts. The question of annulment is not a divorce, as a divorce is the dissolution of a legal marriage. Noah's and Noor's was an illegal marriage. Further, Storish law has no legal standing in Shireroth, Elwynn, Ransenar, Talenore or Natopia.
• Further: If Storish law governs the marriage between Noah and Noor, how is a Frankish court then competent to rule on the legality of the annulment?

Storish and Frankish views

• It was not Vilhjalm who sought the petition to annul Noah's and Noor's marriage; it was an imposter known as Travis Barrett who impersonated Vilhjalm in order to make that petition. Further, Barret's petition was made under duress.
• The Froyalan Tribunal is competent to declare the annulment of the marriage as illegal as it is an ad-hoc court established to seek out and prosecute and right the wrongs from the crime against humanity that the Froyalanish genocide is.
• Storish law governed the marriage between Noah and Noor, and the annulment was based on Elwynnese and imperial law. The annulment is therefore illegal as it has no basis in Storish law.

1722 controversy

• Because the Decree of 1722 appeared to be worded in such a way as to presume to revoke the act of annulment passed by the Elwynnese Senate in 1656, it was rejected by the Benacian Union on behalf of Elluenuueq and Ransenar.