I wouldn't dream of changing it. My revered mother, gods keep her, first failed to change it and then went to the judgment of Ba'uk trying to circumvent it - even though it was her own creation. Who am I, humbled by her shadow, to try the same?

Èdnam

The succession decree of Toshlik was a decree promulgated on 76 Cloud 29:31 by Toshlik, Grand Princess of Ǣdyihòzh:, as a means to regulate the succession of her position, intended to provide both clarity and justification in the aftermath of Toshlik's own somewhat disputed succession.

The scope of the Decree deals with matters ordinarily the province of tradition and custom - frequently recorded piecemeal, but never codified in written form - and in any case supersedes them. As a result, the text does not reference specific works, standing on its own as a sui generis work within Ǣdyihòzhis law.

There is a brief introduction to the Decree, which notes in passing the “disagreement” around the succession dispute and expresses a wish to clarify points not covered by tradition. The Decree then proceeds to the meat of the rules.

The first rule defines the succession as proceeding from Kæltam, the first Grand Princess. The subsequent rules, despite being a creation of the decree, are presented as having operated from Kæltam onward and are written so that the succession would have occurred as it did in either case.

The second rule establishes that a female of the line of Kæltam is succeeded by her daughters in order of proximity to their third full cycle - the standard age of majority. It makes no distinction between whether one is over or under this age, which is in accordance with tradition, but adds the proviso that out of two daughters equally close to majority, the elder will be ranked above the younger, which is not. (The wording of this assumes that the two daughters are not hatched from the same clutch, which is a rare occurrence in its own right, but even in such a case it is usually noted which order the eggs hatch in.)

The third rule makes clear that, while the ranking of daughters may change during a mother's life, it becomes fixed upon her death, “lest chaos be sown”: the implication is that otherwise a daughter who had already inherited could be suddenly dispossessed by the age of a younger sister. It also mentions that the order of succession cannot be altered by the mother; it is believed that Toshlik added this provision to prevent whim from unexpectedly changing the results of the rules, but is a significant departure from common practice, which allow mothers to specify an heir regardless of their age.

The fourth rule spells out how daughters are treated when they predecease their mother: those who die without daughters effectively cease to exist for succession purposes, but those who leave daughters behind are treated as if they had lived until their mother's death - acting as placeholders, in effect, to preserve their daughters' place in the inheritance.

The fifth rule deals with the extinction of one's line; if someone leaves no descendants, her inheritance passes to the next heir of her mother.

The above rules, strictly speaking, govern any inheritance of property or rights by members of the royal line, which was intended, as it placated Toshlik's sisters. The sixth rule, however, specifically mentions the office of Grand Princess and its governance by the same rules, but adds that, in the event that Kæltam's heirs are all extinguished, the Council of Magnates will choose one of their own number to fill the role, from whom it will be inherited by the same rules as it was from Kæltam herself.

The closing statement invokes the Great Matriarch as protector and executor of the Decree.

Although most of the Decree is simply a statement of how inheritance should work, allowing no exceptions or expiration, it invokes the disapproval of the Great Matriarch for anyone who attempts to go against its provisions. This is fairly standard for certain classes of Ǣdyihòzhis legal documents; the Great Matriarch being the aspect of the Sixfold Eminence presiding over government, authority, and legitimate rulership, Her involvement was a signal that disobedience to a law fell into a category of crime of the same territory as our high crimes and misdemeanors or treason, and subject to appropriately severe punishment.

Ever since it was promulgated, this has raised the issue of the legal status of the Rebel Royals, who are still eligible to succeed under the rules laid out by the Decree, but who reject both the Decree itself and most of those immediately in line for the Grand Princessship, and could therefore be considered to be disqualified by their stance.

Neither Toshlik, nor Èdnam after her, have seen fit to press the issue; the Rebel Royals appear to have some sympathy but little concrete support among the population, and have offended their hosts in exile sufficiently that an outside movement to replace the current heirs seems unlikely.

The line of succession had not, in the early years of Ǣdyihòzh, been extensively clarified. It was assumed to follow Ǣdyihòzhis custom, in which the daughter closest to the age of majority - either younger or older - was held to succeed. This was usually, though not always, the youngest daughter, but in the majority of cases it was a clear enough rule; for two daughters to be exactly the same distance from majority on their mother's death was an exceedingly rare circumstance.

Nonetheless, a situation that was close enough for the political purposes of various players occurred when it came time for the third Grand Princess to succeed.

By early 76 Cloud, it was evident that the second Grand Princess, Ōzhdinem, was in failing health and would not last much longer. For the various power blocs in the city, a certain macabre sense of anticipation developed over the exact timing, coming as it did approximately midway between the ages of majority of Ōzhdinem's two youngest daughters: Toshlik, the elder, and Ayhyam, the younger. Toshlik was a serious, studious girl who identified with the city's magnates and wealthy merchant princesses, a believer in traditional power bases, while her sister Ayhyam, while young, was beloved by the wider merchant class for her sweet nature and her interest in their prosperity.

Ōzhdinem's final illness came at such a time that the prolonging of her life for even a short while might make Ayhyam her heir over Toshlik. When a small crowd aligned with Ayhyam attempted to enter the Principal Palace to “protect” the ailing monarch, Toshlik instructed the guards to turn them away, and stationed others around her mother's chambers. When Ōzhdinem died, Toshlik was still the heir by less than two vigils' time, and only she and the guards were present; Ayhyam was evidently informed of her mother's death after the fact.

There is no evidence that Toshlik hastened her mother's death, but the circumstances, and the politically charged nature of the succession, meant that accusations were being leveled almost before the proclamation of Ōzhdinem's death was finished being read to the public. The next few vigils were tense as the crowds outside the Palace grew larger and more vocal; there were isolated scuffles with the guards, and there seemed to be a very real threat of a riot. The situation was ultimately defused when Ayhyam personally emerged from the Palace to speak to the crowd, proclaiming her belief that her sister had acted in good faith and that Toshlik was the rightful Grand Princess, and encouraging her audience to accept this fact.

While the situation had been more of a political confrontation than a legal one - there had been no law to contest, and tradition had been deemed satisfied - it left a lasting impression on Toshlik. Insecure over the perception of her succession, one of her first priorities after being invested with the Horn of Peirèm was to establish the particulars of succession as Grand Princess in law. To that end, she issued the Succession Decree in late 76 Cloud, signed by herself and by all members of the Council of Magnates.

Although the substance of the Decree was based strongly on traditional practice, the ambiguities in the latter were greatly narrowed by several additions and modifications. While innocent in and of themselves, it was not lost on observers that they were phrased in such a way that, if applied retroactively, would have put Toshlik's own succession beyond legal doubt.

While the perception of being self-serving remained for some time afterwards, Ayhyam's acceptance of Toshlik's rule had neatly punctured the focus of popular opposition, and for the most part there was grudging acceptance, though the provision against allowing the Grand Princess to change the order of succession to her own liking was considered in some quarters to be curiously untraditional. The most offended parties, however, were other members of the royal family whose position far down the line of succession, while always likely to remain so, had now been set in stone. Toshlik and her sisters had several cousins who had already been alienated from Toshlik's mother because of her actions during the Yearning Death of 73 Cloud, and these protested loudly at the terms of the Decree, but were ultimately in no position to contest it.

While the decree may possibly have been considered to reinforce Toshlik's desire to legitimize her own rule, it proved problematic for her on the matter of her own successor. Toshlik bore three daughters, Hakhṑrik, Èdnam, and Ōzhdinem. Of all of them, Hakhṑrik, the eldest, was most like her in personality and political sympathies, and Toshlik clearly preferred her over her two younger daughters. Èdnam did not get along with her mother, and aligned herself with her aunt Ayhyam, with whose family she spent as much time as she could claw away, while Ōzhdinem was more tractable than either of her sisters, but was considered a weak heir, more interested in art and calligraphy than statecraft. Regardless, in time Èdnam became Toshlik's heir after Hakhṑrik, and Ōzhdinem appeared set to have the same status in turn.

Beginning in early 82 Cloud, therefore, Toshlik began a quiet campaign to convince the Council of Magnates to agree to amend the Succession Decree to allow the Grand Princess to choose a favored heir over the set line of succession. But when the Council refused to support the move - which they feared would reintroduce instability to the succession - Toshlik attempted to conceive another daughter. Her death in egglaying, and the survival of only one son from the clutch, allowed Èdnam to become Grand Princess.

In addition, the Decree drove a further wedge between the descendants of the Grand Princess Ōzhdinem and those of her older sisters, Ōritam and Ōkhyèvik, and was one of the contributing factors in the flight and exile of the Rebel Royals, who state that the actions of Ōzhdinem and Toshlik were offenses against tradition and the Siathar and that they forfeited their inheritance. The Rebel Royals continue to maintain that they are the only rightful heirs to the Horn of Peirèm; their candidate for Grand Princess is Ayhyam the Exile (not to be confused with Ayhyam, Toshlik's sister).