The Sovereign Chronicles of Little India
Contained herein is a full history of Little India.
Contents
- 1 Ancient History
- 2 Donna I to Darius XIII
- 3 The Great Schism
- 4 Alaric X and The Summer of 16,509
- 5 Donna XIII to Nithrin III
- 6 Interregnum
- 7 Papal Rule
- 8 Thoronin II to Christian XIX Has Elith
- 9 The Second Great Schism
- 10 The Fifth High Kingdom
- 11 Donna XXIII to Landadhradon IV
- 12 Recent Developments
Ancient History
Founded more than 40,000 years ago, The High Kingdom and Holy Empire of Little India was built to the designs of the Lord Ithilanor, first High King, and Saviour of the Little Indian people.
After living as slaves to the Diboran Visigothic Princes for millennia beyond count, the people now known as the Little Indians looked to an inspiring young immortal Prince: Ithilanor. The scion and last living member of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Vís, Ithilanor pleaded with the Chief Prince of Dibora to free his people from slavery.
Lord Metacé, Sovereign Prince of Dibora, denied Ithilanor the right to lead his people to freedom. The Little Indians were at the time building a new palace for Metacé, along with a Pantheon and a parade ground with giant statues of the thirteen Princes.
Despite the oppression and the refusal of freedom, the people continued to work, but built in secret a fleet of white ships. Chief of these ships was the ship of Ithilanor, with a swan-head prow and a sail woven with silver thread.
The Beginning of Freedom
Again, Ithilanor pleaded with Metacé for freedom, and again it was denied. Ithilanor is reputed to have then cursed Metacé and all of Dibora. Leading the people away in the boats in the middle of the night, Ithilanor and his fleet of a thousand white ships were blown by gentle winds for thousands of miles to the East. After exactly sixty five days at sea, the White Fleet sailed through the Yaranin, the towering cliffs that guarded the entrance into the Great Bay. Ahead was a perfectly flat island, surrounded by a continent, surrounded by sea and encircling cliffs. This island is where the people settled. Two Kingdoms were founded, being placed in a Confederational system with a High King.
Donna I to Darius XIII
Donna I ruled from 5 LI to 17 LI. After Ithilanor's assassination in 5 LI by Diboran raiders, Donna ruled in Ihayel. Instituting many new laws and freedoms for the people, Donna ruled for twelve years until she committed suicide following the death of her husband.
Over eight thousand years - to 8,000 LI - the High Kings and Queens of the People of the Light ruled from the White Tower in Ihayel. Over that eight thousand year period, Little India remianed mostly the same. Three new Kingdoms joined the Dominion - Veruna, Tulpas and Parrlay. Thet accepted Christian XII as their High King, and the borders of Little India were extended to encompass the new territory.
The Great Schism
In the year of 8,294 LI, the two twin sons of High Queen Marisca II contested the Throne. Marisca died in chidbirth, as did the child, and her sons were only nineteen years of age.
At their birth, the boys had each been created a Duke, both holding an equal rank. Talathion was created Duke of Lorestirion in Veruna, and Iauron Duke of Bethlestin in Parrlay. It was never known which of the two boys had been born first, as the High Queen ordered for that information to be left unrecorded, and never to be spoken of. It gradually slipped out of the memories of even those present at the birth which boy was born first.
It was thought that Marisca would name which of Her sonds would be Her heir. No such utterance came. Her Will was never found, but it has been speculated that She intended for her sons to be joint rulers of Little India, with the first daughter to be born to either of the boys to inherit the Throne.
Highly competitive as children, the two boys forced the House of Representatives, the Senate and the High Council of Kings to choose which of them would rule as High King. As expected, each boy had their suporters. Unable to reach a solution, the Senate were powerless to stop what followed: Talathion and Iaruon withdrew to their separate Dukedoms, and each ruled as High King of Little India. The country was divided. Talathion held the South-Eastern portion of the country, with Iauron holding the North-West.
An open homosexual, Iauron had no option but to take a wife in order to preserve his claim to the High Kingship. The marriage went without issue, and when Iauron was assassinated in the summer of 8,300, His Wife assumed the crown of Iauron's holding of Little India. She remarried, and gave birth to a single child, a boy, as did the wife of Talathion.
For 463 years, the two contesting Sovereign Courts fought over Ihayel, with the once proud city being reduced to a battle ground.
In the year 8,757, the daughter of Talathion's descendent and the son of the descendent of Iauron's wife wed in the city of Ihayel, and were crowned joint Sovereigns. This ended the period known as the Great Little Indian Schism, during which 306 Papal emissaries were sent to try and resolve the breakup.
Alaric X and The Summer of 16,509
The nephew of High King Christian XII, Alaric was crowned in Ihayel in 16,507.
In 16,509, High King Alaric X died suddenly, and the throne should rightly have been inherited by his Daughter, who would have become Donna XXIII. However, Donna was married to one of the members of the House of Nobles - the upper house of the Ihayel legislature. Shunning his wife, the rightful heir to the throne, he usurped the High Crown, and was throned as High King Darius XVIII, in the summer of 16,509. It has been specualted upon by some Sovereign Historians that Darius murdered his father-in-law, in order for him to usurp the throne. This theory is unproven and not endorsed by the Sovereign Family.
Darius XVIII
Darius was crowned in the summer of 16,509. Insisting upon his immediate coronation, he imprisoned his wife, and claimed her insanity.
On Lithe 1 of 16,509, Darius announced to the people his intentions to abolish the Constitution, dissolve all Little Indian legislature - The House of Representatives and the Senate in Little India as a whole and the House of Commons and the House of Nobles in Ihayel - with the exception of the High Council of Kings. He said that he was to guide Little India through:
"...a difficult time. I will be your rock, I will guide you to peace and fruition. But before we can be victorious, there must be a constitutional revision. I will assume autocratic rule, and until such time as we can restore to a democratic society, I will hold your sovereignty in trust, for safekeeping."
Making his speech to a congregation outside the sovereign palace in Ihayel, Darius was received harshly, and withdrew immediately to his apartments.
Conspiracy in the Land of Stars
Disillusioned with Darius' plans for the future of Little India, several politicians, the Kings of Imrathon and Eleni and the Queen of Protea, along with the Lord Chancellor and the Prime Minister, plotted to remove Darius and restore his wife, the rightful High Queen Donna XXIII, to the Throne.
Lithe 16,509 - the Glorious Revolution
The Prime Minister and Chancellor decided that to ensure the freedom of the people, Darius must be removed from power as soon as possible, and agreed with the Kings and Queen that Overlithe was a perfect time to do so.
On the night of Overlithe 16,509, a party of politicians, two Kings and a Queen, marched from the gates of Ihayel to the Sovereign Palace in the topmost level of the city. To Darius they produced a petition for his removal, signed by every Senator, Represenative and Member of Parliament, including three of the five rulers of the Little Indian kingdoms. Darius was arrested, and taken to an undisclosed location.
The Republic of Little India
After Darius' removal from the Throne, the Kings and Queen of Little India were double crossed by the Chancellor and Prime Minister, who abolished the monarchy entirely, and transformed Little India from hextarchy into one single country, with a democatically elected legislature, and a President. The first President of Little India - although not elected to that specific post - was the Chancellor, who set about the immediate execution of Darius, claiming him to be a:
"...danger to the Little Indian people. Former High King Darius XVIII will be executed tomorrow. In conjunction with this, the hextarchy will be abolished, and Little India will be united as one country, under one flag and one President. All men and women shall be stripped of all titles and titular offices, starting with the Kings and Queens of the six Kingdoms."
The Chancellor took up residence in the Sovereign Palace, promptly renaming it the Presidential Palace, and disbanded the Black Guard, calling them "a painful reminder of the inefficiency of the old system."
A New High Kingdom
Following the institution of the Little Indian Republic, the UN sent a peace keeping force to Ihayel, where the pressurised Republican and Royalist supporters were on the brink of starting a civil war.
Staying only three days, the UN left when the people rose up in arms against the "Presidential Palace."
Including the disbanded Black Guards and the White Guards, some politicians and about three quarters of the population of Ihayel, a great force marched up the hill, growing in numbers as it rose up each level.
At the 12th level, the Presidential Palace was laid siege, and eventually the "President" was forced to show himself to stop the mob that had arisen from entering the Palace.
He seceded, and was carried off by the White Guard to imprisonment.
The Black Guard scoured the Palace for the rightful High Queen. Donna was found tied up in a small chamber at the base of the White Tower. Immediately freed, Donna was crowned by Cardinal Galsirinon in the Palace Chapel within ten minutes of her release. Using the authority of her office, Donna ordered the imprisonment of all the conspirators, and the restoration of the sextarchy, the High Kingship and the Constitution.
The Black Guard were all reinstated, and the Presidential Palace restored to it's former stauts of Sovereign Palace.
Donna XIII to Nithrin III
After the overthrow of the Republic and the re-institution of the Monarchy, Donna XIII ruled for forty-seven years. The crown was inherited by her son Christian, who took the regnal name of Nithrin III.
During Nithrin's twenty year rule, there were innumerable questions about the succession. He had no children, his first cousins lived in Rome as servants of the Pope, no cousins, siblings and no nieces or nephews. This meant that upon his death there would be an enormous crisis as to who should inherit the Crown. His first cousins refused to return from Rome, and there were no others allowed to inherit the throne under Little Indian Sovereign House Law.
Interregnum
With no heir upon Nithrin's death, an interregnum was the only option. The Chancellors ruled as de fact Presidents, whilst the High Throne remained empty. Under Little Indian law, only a descendant of Ithilanor may inherit the throne, which made the Kings of the Little Indian kingdoms illgible for the Throne.
Papal Rule
After an interregnum lasting twenty three years, the Pope decided to act as High King in order to provide peace and stability for the people. For three hundred years, the Popes ruled as High Kings of Little India, until the descendents of Nithrin's first cousins in Rome returned to Little India to take up the Throne. Eagerly accepted by the Little Indian people, they replaced the Pope as High King within three days of their arrival.
Thoronin II to Christian XIX Has Elith
Thoronin II replaced the Pope as the High King of Little India, and took up the High Throne in the Sovereign Palace in Ihayel.
Another three generations of His family ruled after Him, until Christian XIX Has Elith.
Christian died after 12 years on the throne, and should have been succeeded by His daughter, Silina I. But on the year of His death, there came forward a distant relative that claimed to be the great-great-grandson of High King Nithrin III, the last Sovereign before the Great Interegnum and Papal Rule. His claims were legitimate, as it was found in the Basilica records that upon His deathbed, Nithrin married his lifelong partner, and immediately consummated the marriage. There was issue, but not before Nithrin died. Three generations of Nithrin's children lived in exile in Avernien, the Little Indian Protectorate, unti lsuch time as they saw fit to return to claim their rightful inheritance.
The Second Great Schism
Following the shock arrival of, as High Queen Silina described,
"...he who pretends to my Throne, that Faithless Scourge of Solemnity from Avernien..."
the country was again split in two. Following a direct line from North to South, all the Eastern supporters held Ihayel, and all the Western supporters held the Grand Duvhy of Vís, which was the subject of fierce battle between the two factions. In place of two rival claimants to the Throne, this apartheid was between the Monarchy and the Republic. In the West, where Silina had withdrew, the monarchy was abolished in favour of the fully elective Most Serene Republic of Western Little India and all the Lands of The House of Vís. The East maintained Darius XXIX as High King.
In the first years of the Schism, the Pope backed the High Kingdom and the legitimate claim of Darius as Sovereign.
The Fifth High Kingdom
After 197 years, the Pope issued a decree from Rome declaring that the fighting between the two halves of Little India had gone far enough, and that the High Kingdom and Most Serene Republic were to re-unite in the name of God, as the Fifth High Kingdom of Little India.
The two factions reunited under High Queen Donna XXIII.
Donna XXIII to Landadhradon IV
Recent Developments
Home Developments
Andar 1, 40,049 [49/1000] A statement has been released from the Palace today, stating that Donna, the youngest child and only daughter of the High King and Lady Representative of Noroharn, is to be initiated as Crown Princess.
Due to take place in the Pantheon next year, the investiture will include the Princess' ordination as Chief Priestess of the Rolls, making Her the most senior religious figure in the land after the High King.
At 29, this position is one that Donna has worked for all of Her life. And it has not been forthcoming. Having sat on the High COuncil of Kings since the age of 9, Her Highness is said to be "overjoyed" at the appointment, and "thrilled" that She can now occupy the Crown Prince's Throne beside Her Father in Council meetings. It is unknown whether Caunidhrenen or Landathradon will sit in Her place as representative for Aladhron.
The investiture will also include a Parade and a festival, and the High King is said to be thinking of making the day a national holiday.
Pana 6, 40,049 [49/1000]
The Palace has announced today that Princes Caunidhrenen and Landathradon - both joint second-in-line to the High Throne - will sit together in the High Council of Kings as representatives for Aladhron. The Council has welcomed their Royal Highnesses in Their first session today.
