Ralgon Nobility
The Nobility of the Ralgon Empire differ from province to province, according to local laws, customs, and traditions. Each province has its own unique way of appointing or electing members of its aristocratic classes as well as their rulers, and for a time even had widely disparate titles for these people. Since the Great Reformation that took place post-Unification, however, these customs have been, for the most part, streamlined over the years. Notably, the naming standards and conventions of the Empire's upper-tier nobility have been fully standardized and brought into line with much of the rest of Micras.
Presently, there are several standardized tiers to the Ralgon Empire's nobility. At the top of the social pyramid sits the King and the Imperial Family, who each have unique political and clerical powers within the nation. In addition to the King, the extended Royal family (consisting of the King's increasingly distaff relations) holds significant power in the country, and even rule half of Stormhold directly, having slowly usurped power over the years. Third on this social pyramid are the Grand Dukes, who collectively hold about as much power nationally as the Imperial Household (and are perpetually at odds with them). Fourth on the social stratum are active members of the Senate, as well as the Lords of Ralgon (themselves powerful provincial nobles).
Lesser nobles who (for the most part) answer to their own provincial governments fall on the lowest portions of the aristocratic pecking order within the Ralgon Empire. They are relatively common but proportionally powerless) in Nixtorm and eastern Stormhold. On the contrary, these lower-ranking, non-royal nobles are relatively scarce in Drag'nor and virtually nonexistent in western Stormhold, and thus influence great autonomy outside of restrictions placed upon them by their superiors.
The Imperial and Royal Family
Contrary to popular belief, these two terms are separate, and never interchangeable. Also contrary to popular belief, there is an extreme amount of overlap between the two. All Imperial Family members are also members of the Royal Family, but not the other way around. The Imperial Family only consists of the King, his spouse(s), all of his direct descendants, the King's brothers and sisters, and all of their children (but not their grandchildren). The extended Royal Family, on the other hand, contains all relatives of the current King by blood (never by marriage alone). Honorary membership in the Imperial Family is sometimes given to specific individuals for life, based on service or a very close bond of friendship with the King. This membership never outlasts the life of the individual, and most of the privileges attendant to this honor do not outlast the King himself. The extended Royal Family, in an effort to prevent power from diluting, has not given out such honors in centuries.
The Imperial Family
The current Imperial Family consists of the following notable individuals: King Nobunag'an Ral IV, the Crown Prince Draeg'ar Ral (one of his younger sons), Prince Masamune Ral (a grandson), Prince Julius Ral (a grandson), Prince Shiro Ral, and seven other Princes and Princesses eligible for the succession. Other individuals include the King's two living wives: Queen Consort Ra'ni, the Queen Consort Sar'ai, as well as four children and fifteen grandchildren who have been deemed by the King to be ineligible for the succession. All of the King's current great-grandchildren are currently too young to be considered for the succession, or are deemed unfit to rule.
The Royal Family
The Royal Family consists of the various distaff blood relatives of the current King. For centuries, anyone with strong proof of ties to the Royal Family could claim membership, and induction into the family was never made through adoption. As the original boundaries of Stormhold grew, so did the King's number of direct relatives, and so the Royal Family entered into every possible level of politics in the western portions of Stormhold, until they had entirely usurped that entire half of the province. By the time King Nobunag'an came into power, the royal family outnumbered the rest of the entire nation's pool of actual titular nobles, and royal status came to mean a lot less for extremely distaff relations.
Therefore, the royal household cooperated with the King and the Imperial Senate to pass laws restricting membership in the Royal Household to those persons within four generations removed from the Throne. That is, anyone who was the great-grandchild of any ruling King of the Ralgons could hold a royal title, but not their children unless the line of succession moved closer to them. Additionally, the giving of any noble titles was to cease for any individuals less than three generations removed. The Province of Stormhold took additional steps to attempt to prevent royals from inheriting old noble titles given on basis of royalty, but such measures were only effective in the Eastern Stormhold.
To placate the disaffected people of Stormhold, King Nobunag'an IV passed a nationwide edict very early in his reign that serves to prevent titles from being inherited from parent to successor without provincial approval. Additionally, the inheritance of princely titles were abolished in all individuals who are not themselves the child of a reigning King, or a direct descendant of a currently reigning monarch.
While this has served to largely decimate the ranks of the Ralgon Empire's titular nobility writ large (especially among the Barons and Counts), it also served to curb the Royal Household's power and re-concentrate its remnants back into the hands of a manageable few individuals. This new "Royal Clan" has been largely responsible for directly influencing the King's decisions in his old age, including the determination of many of those individuals who are deemed unfit to participate in the succession upon the King's planned abdication. Their actions have served to create a level of distrust and instability between the Imperial Household and the Royal House that have resulted in the rise of a bloc of younger succession-eligible princes that resist their power. This new voting bloc of six different Princes may serve to result in a succession that bypasses the current Crown Prince Draeg'ar Ral, thus triggering further tensions and instability within the Imperial Court.
The Imperial Conclave
If the King should die or abdicate, an Imperial Conclave shall immediately convene in the capital city of Stormhold and begin the vote in secret. This Conclave will always consist of 50 total individuals: the 24 members of the Imperial Senate (Plus the Prime Minister), the 5 Grand Dukes (including the Crown Prince), the 15 Lords of the Ralgon Empire, and five individuals (usually succession-eligible) appointed by the King before his death/abdication. Upon convening, the Conclave will elect a new King based on a series of ballots. One rounds of voting shall be immediately cast upon the Conclave's initiation. Eligible candidates are immediately expunged from the roster if their names are not listed. Ballots are then continually cast twice a day, during which the candidates with no votes and the one with the least amount of votes are expunged from the list, until only one candidate remains. This individual is then immediately crowned the King of Dragos and Emperor of the Ralgons while the Conclave is still assembled.
Voting for a new monarch tends to be a tricky business for the Conclave, especially owing to the presence of six election-eligible individuals within the Conclave. Most of the time, these same individuals will have already grouped into allied factions that continually support their favorite candidate up until the moment the first ballots are cast. In most cases, these alliances fall apart due to the influence the Crown Prince typically wields among the Grand Dukes and many appointed Senators (owing to his own status as a Grand Duke). However, it is not unheard of for the Crown Prince to lose the vote if he is uncharismatic, or if a rival prince has set up an exceptionally strong voting bloc among the popularly elected Senators as well as his fellow eligible princes.
Upon the election and coronation of the new King, the Imperial Family's composition immediately changes. The new King's mother remains part of the Imperial Family, while the former King's other spouse(s) will only remain should the new King decide as such. The new King's cousins automatically lose their place in the succession, and the line starts over again, beginning with the new King's father (if his father was not the previous King). In the event of an abdication, the former King is removed from the succession along with any marriage-only relatives, thus ensuring that the line of succession remains based solely on blood ties (outside of the very rare adoption into the Imperial Family).
The Grand Dukes
The nobility in the Holy Ralgon Empire differ from province to province, each with their own means of selecting high nobility from amongst their own people. The four Grand Dukes of the Holy Ralgon Empire are no different. Each of these people occupy a place at the highest echelons of Imperial society, and serve as the heads of state in their respective provinces, according to their own laws and traditions. Individually, the Grand Dukes act as representatives of the three provinces of the Empire and of the royal household (including Western Stormhold) within the Imperial Court, as well as in the Imperial Conclave during royal elections.
The Grand Dukes are also required to approve laws passed by the Imperial Senate, and act as a de facto second arm of the Ralgon Empire's legislature, despite being so few in number. Their collective approval is also required to approve treaties and declarations of war against other nations. The Grand Dukes are also partly responsible for electing the new King of the Ralgons from among his (or her) heirs upon their death as a part of the Imperial Conclave (see above). Finally, they are capable of vetoing a decree or edict issued by the King with a unanimous vote -- the only group of people in the entire nation capable of doing so. The latter action almost never happens though, thanks to Nixtorm's unique method for choosing its own Grand Duke (see below).
Grand Duke of Scarterra
The Province of Scarterra, formerly a mixed republic ruled by wealthy merchants and nobles, elected their head of state for centuries before they joined with Stormhold and Nixtorm to form a new unified nation. They continue their ancient traditions by using their National Assembly (consisting of these same people) to elect their Grand Duke to a fixed 12-year term. (Grand Dukes replacing predecessors who died mid-term still serve exactly 12 years.) Their Grand Duke has zero authority over the National Assembly. Instead, they are empowered to act freely when dealing with wider national affairs. Although the Grand Duke of Scarterra is by far the weakest in the Empire within their own borders, this position still coveted for the sheer amount of popular influence and political prestige the office brings. Current and former Grand Dukes frequently go on to become very wealthy and establish noble houses of their own.
Because of the frequent senility or illness that Nixtorm's Grand Duke almost invariably experiences (see below), and the complicated political divisions within Stormhold, the Grand Duke of Scarterra is usually the most influential provincial head of state within the Ralgon Empire. Consequentially, they have a substantial ability to influence measures being passed by the Imperial Senate, which is also located in the Grand Duke's own city of Drag'nor. This means, however, they tend to be far removed from royal proceedings in the city of Stormhold, which Nixtorm's regional government has more sway over due to their proximity to the eastern portion of that province.
Grand Duke of Nixtorm
The office of the Grand Duke of Nixtorm cycles between the noble households of that ancient province, as it has since time immemorial. The Grand Duke of Nixtorm serves as the head of state of the Province of Nixtorm, and heads their ruling body, which is known as the Council of Six. This Council represents the Lords of Nixtorm, as well as their Great Houses. When the Grand Duke dies, a new Grand Duke is promptly elected by the Council. The Great House the new Grand Duke is elected from rotates in a fixed order between Nixtorm's six Great Houses, regardless of how long they serve. Although the Grand Duke enjoys a lifetime appointment, this appointment does not tend to last more than a few short years: The members of the Council of Six almost always looks for the oldest possible person to appoint because the vote is always contentious. Consequently, the office of Grand Duke rapidly change hands because a terminally ill or very elderly Grand Duke is always appointed, thanks to the efforts of the collective to keep turning the perpetual cycle in an effort to get to a House that is amenable to the most favorable to most of the Council members' own interests.
Domestically, the Grand Duke always joins the Council of Six as its presiding officer, and their affirmative vote is almost always required for any measure originated within the Council to pass. This office is usually seen as a nobleman's crowning (and final) achievement in life, as Grand Dukes within Nixtorm also hold local (and substantial) religious power thanks to the requirement that a Grand Duke be a current or former member of the Draconic clergy. The unfortunate part of being the Grand Duke of Nixtorm is almost the unsaid and unwritten rule that the newly elected Grand Duke is going to die soon anyway due to terminal illness or extreme age. In fact, a Grand Duke who is not senile/terminally ill, and instead fully fit to rule is a nearly unheard of phenomenon within Nixtorm. Due to the Grand Duke's near-perpetual infirmities, the Council of Six usually exerts its influence over the surrounding areas (Eastern Stormhold and the Imperial Court included) in their place.
Grand Dukes of Stormhold
The Grand Duke of East Stormhold is appointed directly by the King every time a new Lord Mayor of Glacier City is popularly elected, or once every five years. They hold joint power within this part of the Stormhold province in fact, even if not in name. Everything that the Grand Duke does in East Stormhold goes through the Lord Mayor of Glacier City, and the same is true the other way around, thanks to the sheer size of both the city itself and its national influence. The Grand Duke of (Eastern) Stormhold is based in the provincial capital of Mashiro, where they rule the city directly. Although they're technically the "Grand Duke of Stormhold," they only hold true political power in the eastern part of the province due to complicated political issues that have basically divided the Province of Stormhold cleanly into two separate entities. No Grand Duke can hold the office after their five-year term is over, and thus usually go on to either hold high office in the clergy or the nobility in the eastern part of Stormhold.
The other Grand Duke is usually also the Crown Prince. Although the Crown Prince is not supposed to hold political power within the provinces themselves, he does so anyway through the power of this title. The royal household has taken advantage of its power over the western areas of the Province of Stormhold to elect their own Grand Duke to represent the Royal House (essentially, themselves) in the Imperial Court directly. Using this power, they also tend to sway the King's decision on his choice of a Crown Prince, which in turn tends to hold an influence on the Imperial Conclave's decision of a new King when the time comes. At times, it becomes a struggle of the King versus the Royal House to determine which of their supported candidates will win, and the strongest-willed decision-maker usually wins the war, with the winning candidate almost always assuming the other title within a couple of short years. The current Royal Grand Duke is also the Crown Prince Draeg'ar Ral V, and he was appointed by the King against the royal clan's collective initial will.
