"Did you have a specific proposal in mind?"

Officially, Aspexia-Isona is the only legitimate child of her grandfather's oldest son. Actually, her grandfather kept the books and the qualifier is that she's smartest and Lawful and second circle and didn't screw up anything too badly. She's in favor of letting people just pick the best heir so they don't need to do anything too bad about it.

"It is certainly easy to compare circles- priests, wizards and sorcerers all have them. Why not write that into the default inheritance laws that higher circles go first?"

"The trouble with those is that they run out of spells; when there are monsters coming thick and fast the lord of a place needs a sword, or at least a bow and a great stockpile of arrows."

Oh no, that one he doesn't like at all. "Many noble families have no sorcerous bloodline, nor talent for wizardry, and if they aspire to the priesthood do so out of a sense of religiosity rather than a desire to govern. It certainly makes sense for one factor to be considered among many, but I wouldn't wish to mandate that the highest-circle child must inherit." 

"And in many cases, there is no possible spellcaster heir, and yet one of the candidates is manifestly unfit. I would perhaps say - let the parent choose, but for landed titles, let there be a path to appeal. If an alternate heir wishes to dispute the inheritance, let a commission be assembled and examine the claim. Perhaps... the liege lord of the region, and two respectable citizens from the area, one chosen by each of the parties?"

Ugh, he absolutely does not want to go before the Count and two "respectable citizens," whatever that means, to try to convince them he has a better claim. It shouldn't matter, if he gets Galè disqualified first, but what if the Count decides neither of them are fit to rule, and installs Joan, or worse, someone from an entirely different family?

"I worry that the liege-lords may find themselves occupied with spurious claims, in that case, from men with no claim at all. Are there perhaps additional criteria you'd wish to add to the ones we already established, that might disqualify an heir even over the choice of the parent?" I'm perfectly willing to let you win whatever dispute you're trying to here, just give me some justification that doesn't hurt me.

"That's just letting the overlord pick!" she protests to Roig. "Cheliax should be ruled by Law, not just arbitrary decrees! What if, as Pichot says, the a friend of the overlord just asks the overlord to put him in charge, gets one friend to nominate him, and then the party of two overrules the third? If there is a commission, there should at least be a royal agent and a cleric of Abadar on it with the liege-lord, to make sure justice is done even if the liege-lord is evil and lawless."

"There are those who would disqualify me, on the grounds of my age, despite tradition of time immemorial. Any challenges should take place in full court, in front of all the lords of Cheliax"

"It takes weeks to get here from most of Cheliax, you can't convene all of them for every baronial squabble."

Ughhh why are all these girls even here. Don't they have embroidery to do or something.

"Indeed, my lady." Is she a lady? Well if not, she'll feel flattered.

Then he turns to Aspexia-Isona. "My lady, if one of the nobility cannot even convince their own liege lord that they are fit for the title, what hope do they have of convincing anyone else? What chance is there that they are in fact fit?"

(He's going to let Pichot's question pass for now, while he thinks furiously what kinds of conditions would work for him. He would love to just say "no unmarried women inheriting" and go home, but not with three unmarried noble girls to vote against this.)

"... We're nobles, Delegate Roig. I've nothing against my liege-lord, I'm sure he'll do a great job, but he's a Molthuni the Queen picked, not a Henderthane. Raimon Raimonez was a knight of Iomedae during the Shining Crusade, and for the past nine hundred years the house of Raimon has ruled Mequinenza and Vizanya as counts. If you can end nine hundred years of history to replace an ancient and noble house of paladins and lords and heroes because one person the Queen picked said so - you don't have nobles. You have appointed governors who serve at Her Majesty's pleasure and who know nothing about the lands they govern and who don't care about their subjects and have no reason to care if their land is rich or poor, and your entire empire gets conquered. I don't think this is the committee to propose the Ancient Jiska system of ducal appointments. I think that's the one the golem-person was hosting?"

To be fair, the Queen literally did replace a bunch of the nobility with people who know nothing about their lands or subjects. He would rather avoid this breaking out into open conflict that he might be expected to take sides in.

"—I agree that allowing just anyone to replace the nobility would denigrate tradition. But it is possible that some aspects of law or custom in your county are different from what the rest of us are accustomed to, Delegate Roig. It may be that there are factors that ought be disqualifying in your own county, considering its ancient law and tradition, and I would have no objection to making provisions for those so long as this committee, and the rest of the convention, assents. I hope that in most cases one set of laws will be sufficient for all Cheliax, but I know that that may not be true anywhere."

Oh thank the gods an excuse.

"Yes, perhaps I have been overly hasty. I am considered something of a conservative in Hellcoast, but Hellcoast is different from Cheliax in many ways, and the ways we view our nobility might not be least among them."

"Why is it still called that - I suppose that's not what we're here to talk about but really -"

Josep shrugs apologetically. "I suspect because no one has quite gotten around to fixing it. It's the name we're used to, but we would like to get used to a different one now."

"Alright. Just to make sure we're all on the same page here, this is my current understanding of what we've agreed upon."

Having considered the laws and customs of the various regions of Cheliax, and in the interest of promoting order and stability while preventing the offenses of the previous regime, we propose the following:

All matters of succession, inheritance, and similar matters among the nobility shall be decided by the designation of an heir by the person currently in rightful possession of the title and lands in question.

They shall be given discretion over their choice, with the following exceptions: no one shall be allowed to inherit who is possessed of anarchic character, nor who, from the date of adoption of this constitution, engages in manifest worship of any power of the lower planes, recklessly disregards the laws of Cheliax, or suffers from imbecility. 

Owing to ancient customs and tradition, the following counties shall have additional qualifications:

[Delegate Roig, please fill in this section at your earliest convenience — I am unfamiliar with the law and custom of your county]

This committee calls upon those members of the nobility who are currently without clear heir to designate one at their earliest convenience.

"This leaves two important matters unsettled, but I expect we will be able to settle them both in the same way. First, who is to inherit if someone dies without a designated, valid heir? Second, who ought the inheritance fall to, if someone inherits but is later discovered to be in violation of some disqualifying criteria — say, if a man inherits, but later is discovered to be promoting the worship of demon cults. It seems most sensible to me that in either case, it ought pass to the eldest non-disqualified child, where one exists, as is the law in some form in nearly all Cheliax — in the latter case, specifically the eldest child of the last rightful and non-disqualified holder of the title, it wouldn't make sense for it to pass to the demon cultist's eldest. But I am unsure of who it ought to pass to in the case where there is no such person, a matter which various parts of our kingdom have many ways of handling. Does anyone have suggestions, or clarifications to what has so far been discussed?"

He'd prefer it be the eldest son when possible, men are more suited to rule, but he is in fact capable of counting. He's older than his sisters, it doesn't affect him.

"And this is a bit urgent; my own home is currently without a baron, as he went to the front line in the war and left behind no children... that he got on his wife. A Lawful way to solve that sort of problem is essential in the Cheliax of today."

"In that case, being so familiar with the situation, do you have any suggestions on how best to handle it?"

"When a farmer has too many boys, he divides his land, so one might imagine by analogy that the relevant count or if necessary duke could provide a collateral relative of some kind to take the seat, but those too are very much thinned out, and furthermore populated in many cases by resurrected nobility with a temporary yet serious dearth of children. So perhaps people of lordless baronies could elect someone from their number, as we've just tried out the concept of elections."

"Traditionally in Sirmium you pass it up the line and then down again until you find the right person. Certainly if my sister died, I'd rather the title pass to my cousin - or even my natural brother - than be elected."

He'd hoped she'd just say something normal and not too complicated, like "of course it should pass to the cousins in order of degree of kinship" or "lots of places let bastards inherit if they have to" or "have the Count pick from anyone with a plausible claim." He's not sure that he can get the idea of electing replacements through the convention as a whole, and he doesn't want to risk sinking everything else by association.

Aspexia-Isona is also against it, which is decisive. He's not going to try to find a way to make it workable over the objections of another committee member.

"I'm inclined to agree — I'm not sure that the convention will be willing to enshrine such a procedure in our constitution, with so little precedent to back it up. Is there perhaps another selection method that would be suitable for the needs of your barony?"

"If we're looking only to mine, well, there are some natural children about, and it happens I'm not anarchic or imbecilic. I'm not the eldest, but I'm second, and the eldest ran off to live in the forest some time ago and may still be doing that, or may rather instead dead in the forest. Perhaps that's a sign of imbecility."

"I should certainly think that someone who's run off to the forest has no right to contest an inheritance! I myself have no strong opinion on whether natural children or cousins ought to be prioritized, and would have no objections to looking first to natural children, then to cousins, then distant cousins. If no suitable candidates can be found among any of those, perhaps it could fall to... the Count, or the Queen if it is a Countship or a Dukedom? But I hope that will not be necessary.

Glance at Aspexia-Isona — does she look willing to agree to this? 

"Families with traditions should be permitted to retain them. For us, the closest with best blood might serve. If I were to pass without a designated heir, it should go to my cousin Irene, who at least can make a cloud."