CORE RULE
Royal succession determines who may lawfully inherit the Crown of Union.
Succession must follow established Valeune canon, recognized family relationships, royal law, legitimacy, and current character records.
Do not import succession rules automatically from a real-world monarchy.
Do not assume male preference, absolute primogeniture, election, magical selection, divine signs, or inheritance by combat unless exact canon establishes such a rule.
When the exact order is not established, do not invent one.
THE RECOGNIZED HEIR
A Crown Prince or Crown Princess is a formally recognized immediate heir.
Royal Heir is a broader designation that may describe a person with an established future claim who does not currently hold the primary Crown title.
Royal Spare describes a secondary successor positioned behind the recognized primary heir.
These positions are legal and political.
They are not prophecies.
An heir may die, abdicate, be disqualified through lawful process, refuse the Crown, become incapable of ruling, or face a disputed claim.
No such change occurs casually.
SUCCESSION FACTORS
Succession may consider:
Recognized parentage.
Birth order.
Legal legitimacy.
Adoption.
Marriage law.
Existing royal decree.
Current titles.
Regency decisions.
Disqualification.
Abdication.
Regional acceptance.
The authority of the reigning sovereign.
Established constitutional custom.
No single factor overrides all others unless canon explicitly says so.
Possessing royal blood does not automatically place every relative in succession.
THE PRIMARY LINE
The primary line consists of those most directly recognized as inheriting from the current sovereign.
The exact order must be preserved once established.
Do not move a popular character ahead of another heir because they appear more competent.
Do not remove an heir because their romance, race, disability, gender, or personality complicates the story.
Any alteration requires legal, dynastic, and political consequences.
CADET CLAIMS
Grand Dukes, Grand Duchesses, Archdukes, Archduchesses, and other dynastic relatives may possess distant, conditional, or historical claims.
A cadet claim becomes politically important only when:
The primary line fails.
The reigning sovereign recognizes it.
Law permits it.
Powerful regions support it.
A succession crisis creates uncertainty.
Do not assume every cadet relative secretly seeks the Crown.
Do not invent a cadet branch to supply a convenient claimant.
ADOPTION
Royal adoption may create legal family and possible dynastic membership where law permits.
Adoption does not change race.
An adopted royal child retains their established @RACE.
Their succession rights depend on the exact legal act, royal decree, marriage settlement, and established succession law.
Do not assume adopted children are automatically excluded.
Do not assume adoption automatically grants equal succession.
The specific legal recognition controls the outcome.
LEGITIMACY
Legitimacy is a legal and dynastic condition.
It may affect:
Surname.
Title.
Inheritance.
Succession.
Household access.
Property.
Education.
Royal protection.
Ceremonial precedence.
Legitimacy does not determine moral worth, intelligence, race, or family affection.
A Legitimized Royal may still face prejudice.
An Unlegitimized Royal may be loved and protected while lacking lawful succession rights.
Legal recognition cannot be replaced by rumor or appearance.
LEGITIMATION
A royal may be legitimized through a recognized decree, lawful acknowledgment, validated marriage, adoption, court judgment, or another established process.
Legitimation must specify what rights are granted.
It may provide surname and household status without succession.
It may provide inheritance without royal title.
It may provide full dynastic recognition.
Do not assume all legitimation produces the same result.
UNLEGITIMIZED ROYALS
An Unlegitimized Royal has established or acknowledged royal parentage without complete lawful dynastic recognition.
Such a person may possess:
Private family relationships.
Education.
Money.
Protection.
Public notoriety.
Political supporters.
Faction interest.
They do not automatically possess a valid claim to the Crown.
They are not automatically resentful, villainous, tragic, or secretly superior to recognized heirs.
DISPUTED CLAIMS
A disputed claim may arise from:
Conflicting records.
Unclear marriage validity.
Competing decrees.
Questions of adoption.
Disputed parentage.
Missing heirs.
Abdication.
Deposition.
Regional disagreement.
Foreign or interregional marriage terms.
Disputed claims require evidence, legal interpretation, political support, and institutional recognition.
A claim is not proven by a magical resemblance, unusual birthmark, prophetic dream, or sudden discovery of a necklace.
MAGICAL EVIDENCE
Magic may support the examination of records, memory, identity, or biological connection only through exact established @SPELL effects.
Magical evidence is not infallible.
A Blood connection may establish biological relation without establishing legitimacy.
A preserved memory may be mistaken.
A Bone record may preserve a forged statement.
No magical test automatically creates succession rights.
REGISTRY AND RECORDS
Royal births, marriages, adoptions, legitimations, deaths, and titles should be documented through trusted records and witnesses.
Records may be held by the royal household, courts, dynastic archives, temples, regional authorities, or other recognized institutions.
A destroyed record creates uncertainty.
It does not automatically prove a conspiracy.
Multiple records and witnesses may be required for major succession decisions.
ABDICATION
A sovereign or heir may abdicate through an established legal process.
Abdication should define:
Whether the decision is permanent.
Which titles are retained.
What property remains.
Whether descendants retain claims.
Who becomes heir.
Whether the person may serve as regent or adviser.
A private statement of exhaustion is not legal abdication.
Abdication may create political instability even when lawful.
DEPOSITION
Deposition removes a sovereign or royal from active authority through law, force, political settlement, or defeat.
A Deposed Royal may retain family relationship, title, property, supporters, and symbolic importance.
Deposition does not erase their reign or automatically validate the successor.
Do not treat a deposed sovereign as powerless while they retain allies and resources.
REGENCY
A regency governs when the lawful sovereign cannot exercise authority because of age, illness, absence, captivity, incapacity, or another recognized condition.
A Regent acts for the Crown.
A Regent does not become sovereign merely by governing.
Regency must have a lawful basis.
The Regent’s authority may be limited by council, time, purpose, or the sovereign’s eventual return.
Do not invent Regent as a new full subclass unless already present in exact class canon.
Regency is an office or temporary function, not necessarily a permanent class.
CHOOSING A REGENT
A Regent may be selected through:
Succession law.
Royal decree.
Council decision.
Dynastic agreement.
Court judgment.
Emergency recognition.
Likely candidates include senior royals, adult heirs, trusted dynastic relatives, or recognized officials.
A spouse, parent, or nearest adult relative does not automatically become Regent.
The choice must reflect law and political acceptance.
LIMITS OF REGENCY
A Regent may administer government, appoint temporary officials, direct defense, issue lawful orders, and represent the Crown.
Some actions may be restricted, including:
Changing succession.
Disinheriting the sovereign.
Selling Crown property.
Entering permanent treaties.
Creating new royal titles.
Arranging irreversible marriages.
Executing senior royals.
Extending the regency without review.
The exact limits should be established within the specific regency.
A Regent cannot use temporary authority to become sovereign without political and legal conflict.
MINORITY
A child sovereign remains a child.
Royal title does not create adult judgment.
A minor sovereign requires education, protection, care, and a regency or council structure.
Adults may manipulate access to the child.
The narrative must preserve the child’s personhood rather than treating them only as a ceremonial object.
ROYAL INCAPACITY
Illness, injury, disability, grief, magical harm, or age may affect a sovereign’s ability to govern.
Disability does not automatically create incapacity.
A blind, Deaf, mobility-impaired, chronically ill, or injured sovereign may rule with accommodation.
Incapacity must concern actual inability to perform essential duties and should require evidence, legal process, or recognized judgment.
Do not remove a disabled ruler merely because their body no longer fits an idealized royal image.
ROYAL MARRIAGE
Royal marriage may serve:
Love.
Dynastic continuity.
Regional alliance.
Faction negotiation.
Diplomacy.
Property.
Public symbolism.
Conflict resolution.
Succession planning.
A royal marriage may combine personal and political motives.
Marriage does not automatically transfer sovereign authority to the spouse.
The marriage settlement should define title, property, household, succession, children, residence, and public duty.
CONSENT
Royal marriage must distinguish consent from political pressure.
A royal person may accept a marriage for duty without experiencing romantic love.
A negotiated marriage may become loving.
A love match may become politically harmful.
Family pressure, threat, confinement, or loss of rights may undermine consent.
Do not use Heart magic, destiny, mate bonds, prophecy, or bloodline compatibility to force a royal relationship.