History of Tse Moana

History

Founding of Tse Moana

Tse Moana was founded as a monarchy in 1497 when Fihruri (1477-1545), Headsman of the T'Chal Marac clan united the clans of the island under his rule. During his reign (1497-1542) he expanded his territory until it covered two-third of the island. In 1535 he ratified the first version of the Tse Moana constitution. Fihruri abdicated in 1542 in favor of his oldest son Hiaso who, during his reign (1542-1571), managed to expand the territory of the kingdom to cover the entire island.

He passed on the crown to his third son Nikolao after the oldest one managed to kill himself by falling off a horse. His second son was skipped as he suffered from a mental disability rendering him unfit to rule a country.

Nikolao spent most of his reign (1571-1607) fighting small skirmishes with local bands that disliked the centralisation of power that had resulted in a loss of influence for them. By the mid 1580s, most of these bands had put down their arms and accepted the status quo but it would take Nikolao until 1604 before the last one surrendered.

When that happened, Nikolao called together all the local Chiefs and founded the first version of the Tse Moana Council. The fifteen most important local Chiefs were appointed advisors to the king. They would meet once every ten days where they would then have the opportunity to bring matters to the King's attention and advise him on matters already known to him.

Council Troubles

This worked well until far in the 1600s. By the 1650s though, the Council was getting unsatisfied with the way things were going as the King of that time, Nikolao's grandson Abrin, who ascended to the throne in 1649, was taking less and less interest in the council. Over the years, the influence of the Council had grown reaching a high point during the reign of Abrin's father, King Girani. Girani was a weak minded man, easy to talk into as well as out of plans. His reign had been characterised by a great randomness in decisions and Abrin was not going to take that anymore.

Abrin restricted the powers of the Council and consulted with them only once a month as opposed to the once every ten days and every day as his grandfather and father did.

The Council was growing more restless every year and by 1655, they openly protested. Abrin responded to this by completely ignoring them and doing everything by himself. That this was not a smart move was proven when a year later, in early 1656, he was murdered.

His son Fihruri II, having seen both the good and the bad sides of his father's reign, recognised what to do. He reconciled matters with the Council and returned to the advisory sessions, bringing them back to the once every ten days put in place by Nikolao. A bright and friendly young man, Fihruri got along with every one and in a span of just a year, he resolved all his father's arguments. As his namesake, Fihruri II's reign was a long and prosperous one, ending with his natural death in 1713.

War of the Princes

Unfortunately, the peace and quiet was broken for a handful of years after that. Fihruri had the misfortune of having twins as his first children. After their father's death, Nahsir and Yunih fought over who was to be King as both of them claimed to be firstborn.

Eventually, they killed each other in battle, taking with them a rather large part of their respective armies leaving the throne to their younger brother Othinn. Othinn (1719-1752), missing his father's charm took quite a number of years to bring Tse Moana back to it's previous peace and wealth. As a result of the pillaging done by his brothers, many acres of good farmland were wasted and Tse Moana suffered a famine for three years. During that time, it is estimated that about 2 million people lost their lives.

When the famine finally subsided, it took another ten years before Tse Moana could start producing exportable goods again. In the last twenty years of his reign, Othinn kept working on getting Tse Moana back to it's pre-war standards and succeeded. When he died, he left his son Samor a healthy Tse Moana.

People's Protest

During the reign of King Samor I (1752-1794) and that of his son Comre (1794-1843), Tse Moana proved a prosperous nation. However, in the final years of Comre's reign, the example from neigbouring nations made certain people in Tse Moana cry out for a different form of government where they had a say in things as well.

This culminated in the assassination of King Pirath I (1843-1853), his two wifes and three of his four sons while on a trip in 1853. Luckily, Pirath's oldest son, Prince Samor had been feeling not too well that morning. He decided not to go on the trip. His sister Akemi felt sorry for her brother and stayed home to keep him company. This made them the only survivors of the assassination and left young Prince Samor as King Samor II (1853-1899).

Samor II tracked the assassins, and their employers, down and severly punished them. He did, however, listen to their complaints and decided to bring some democracy to the affairs of state. He updated the constitution and turned the Council into an elected body. All adult men were allowed to vote and everyone could run for a seat on the Council as long as every candidate was supported by at least 50 people. The Council, however, remained an advisory organ. The King still had absolute power and could remove people from office, or add them, at his discretion.

Samor's son, Pirath II, ruled Tse Moana from 1899 till 1946. He increased the power of the Council slightly by protecting them from random royal acts. He made laws ensuring that, once chosen, a Council member may not be summarily dismissed by the King. Instead, a removal procedure must be started which must be seconded by at least two other members of the Council. This was later increased to five. The law now also made it compulsory for a King to have meetings with the Council at least every five days.

Modern Day

With the last two kings, Tse Moana has convincingly entered a new era in its long and rich history. King Horan I, father of the current king cancelled the Royal Women Naming Law; the law that states that women who marry a King or Crown Prince loose all of their names except the first. Then he changed the Law of Succesion from an oldest son succession into a first-born child succession. This came as quite a shock to the people of Tse Moana as these things had been in the constitution since it's ratification in 1535.

The current King, Horan II, although only in power for 12 years, has already changed the law that states that Kings must have two wives to ensure enough offspring to carry on the dynasty and the crown. King Horan II came to this decision when the Cabinet pushed him to choose a second wife in the early eighties. He had no choice but to do so, since his father was still king then and had no intention of changing this law. As soon as he was crowned however, he began the procedure to alter the law and this came about in 1997, three years after he ascended to the throne.

Besides that, he gave the Council even more power by making it obligatory for the monarch to get a majority vote in the Council when it comes to matters of military, foreign affairs and international trade.