Aspexia-Isona thinks this is the committee for declaring vampires can't be counts. She is opposed to this, and so needs to be in it to block it, right?

"Hello everyone! Hi 'spexie! I'm Condesa Halmyris, recently a heir and recently inherited! What a splendidly interesting gathering! Shall we all agree to be civil to one another? The convention itself seems to have become something of a mess, but that's no excuse to have the committees turn foul!"

Aspexia doesn't know this person "Hello, Lucia."

"A pleasure to meet you both. I certainly agree that it's best we conduct this committee civilly — we have nothing to gain from pointless squabbling."

Josep bows, a little, and murmurs, "As you say, my lord."

"Hear, hear." That's Conventionese for 'as you say my lord', pay attention.

"It seems to me that there are several topics we'll need to consider. We need a procedure for ensuring that those who inherit are suited to the task, and perhaps for addressing any such situations that may have been... overlooked. We need to ensure that we don't destabilize our country further through excessive radicalism or idealism, by attempting to displace qualified heirs. We need some sort of formal proposal about the newly-resurrected nobility, many of whom have no clear successor. Ideally, it would be advantageous to have some sort of consistency, rather than every part of the kingdom doing this haphazardly— paying respect, of course, to the longstanding customs and privileges of many of our lands.  And of course, we need to ensure that whatever we propose is sensible— I'm sure we've all seen some of the nonsense in the pamphlets.

I now open the floor for recommendations on which of these topics we discuss first." That is, who here is desperate enough to get out in front?

Oh he's cute. She taps her pen as though she's got lots of thoughts to sift through about all this.

"Perhaps we should begin by establishing the basic rule of inheritance to be followed when no special circumstances obtain? The traditional approach is for the eldest child to inherit, but there are many exceptions to this rule, and perhaps one of those exceptions is a better basis to build upon. Among the common people, the parent will often choose his heir as he sees fit, or split his estate among his children if he desires; among the nobility, there are some estates that pass only to sons and not to daughters, or only to married daughters for lack of a son. Perhaps we might consider the wisdom of these alternatives?"

Let's see how that lands.

"And of course all these standards typically apply only to legitimate or formally legitimized children, but at times exceptions have prevailed."

Lucia frowns. "The tradition in Halmyris is to pick the one that shows the bloodline the best, or otherwise the oldest. I think this kind of thing is suitable for more places. If you have two children, and one is a second circle wizard, or a powerful adventurer, you should pick that one." She frowns. "We should not have estates that pass only to sons." 

Hm. "Condesa, would you say more about the tradition of Halmyris? It seems indeed reasonable that the strongest and wisest should be the one to inherit, but how is that determined?"

Lucía shrugs" Oh, the Montemayors all have a little lightning, but most of us have only as much as one might get from stroking a dry catskin. I hear in the past there was a block of oak one had to pierce, but in the last few generations only one two have had the bloodline. I had thirty cousins, and none of them had it but me."

"Ah, I see. Not a solution that we can use outside of the illustrious bloodlines that carry powers, then. We could leave the choice entirely to the parent, but so many parents are blind to the faults of their favorite child..."

"Perhaps a system like that, with some specific criteria — lawlessness, manifest diabolism, imbecility, that sort of thing — that are considered disqualifying regardless of the parent's decision?"

"I think parents usually know best? Unless they're senile, I mean, but that's a specific thing you can test for, isn't it, and usually fix with magic?"

"You can fix senility with magic? News to me."

"I certainly agree," his father perhaps aside, "and I wouldn't wish to impose any qualifications so extreme that it would eliminate a suitable heir, but I do think there are some defects sufficiently serious that they ought to be disqualifying." Because he needs an excuse for dealing with Galè. "Did you have concerns about the three I proposed?"

"Lawlessness imbecility and diabolism? Is diabolism maybe too specific, surely demoniacs would be bad too - or, i guess they'd be lawless, but if someone were worshiping, uh, divs."

"That seems perfectly reasonable, if there are no objections. Manifest worship of any power of the lower planes, perhaps?" He'll look at Aspexia-Isona. He doesn't want to pick a fight over that clause, if he can help it.

"Manifest worship of any power of the lower planes is absolutely disqualifying," she agrees wholeheartedly. "- I think there are Neutral Good counts who are fine?"

He rather doubts that. No one's ever accomplished anything worth noting and stayed Neutral Good, let alone ruled a county that way.

Is he willing to count on Galè being anarchic* rather than merely lawless, if it means keeping Aspexia-Isona on his side? ...yes, he thinks, everyone who works with him knows his word means about as much as a Galtan's. He can build in some redundant checks later on in the process.

"I suppose that's reasonable. Perhaps we could express it as— anarchic nature, or serious disregard for the laws of Cheliax, so that anyone who's Neutral Good but doesn't flagrantly violate the law should be fine? With exceptions for violations of those laws that only existed due to Asmodeanism, of course."

*Chaotic

Nod nod.

"Reckless disregard for the laws of Cheliax is disqualifying," she agrees.

"I confess I would prefer an explicit rule to guide the choices of a parent. I think perhaps this honorable assembly underestimates the folly of many an aged parent, whose favored child is plainly incompetent and unfit for the title they wish to bear."

"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."

"I have no objections to allowing families to retain their traditions, but is there a reason you wouldn't simply designate Irene as your heir until such time as you have your own offspring?"

"My family tradition is to pass it to legitimate cousins above natural siblings, but I don't think this is a tremendously important issue. If the family line is extinct, the lordship passing to its overlord for judgement seems wholly reasonable."

"I'm just saying, when we write the law, we shouldn't step on existing traditions. Provide an exception in the law for such things."

"I have no objections to such an exception."

Josep has meanwhile been drafting a phrasing for the Hellcoast exception that looks sufficiently innocuous to get past the convention at large, when they bring it there. He doesn't like bastards inheriting, but sometimes they're all that's left of a family. And more importantly, you can't make a deal without paying anything.

"How does this look?"

Owing to ancient customs and tradition, in the Archduchy of the Hellcoast, a claimant to a title may appeal to his overlord and the public opinion to overturn the choice of the previous holder of the title. Such an appeal should be made to a commission appointed by the liege lord, consisting of the lord himself or his representative, and two known and respectable persons from the region, one appointed by each claimant. The commission is then directed to take into account the character, lawfulness, experience, and general fitness of the two candidates, as well as their age, intelligence, sex, and whether they are childless.

"I'm not sure you need to list 'sex' on there. If someone wants to find in favor of the boys every time he can call it a matter of general fitness. And the odds that they're as childless as they might look, maybe."

He crosses out "sex" without arguing about it. They can and will in fact just find in favor of the boys. 

"Hm. You are correct that many men have natural children which should indeed be counted as their progeny when the future of their title is considered. But in my experience, such children are, if not publicly acknowledged, publicly known to be the children of their fathers."

"That's my experience, but different fathers may behave differently."

"Reasonable. What would you recommend as the phrasing, then?"

"Age, intelligence, and prospects for a clear succession going forward," she suggests.

Nod.

"My protest against this method is registered for the record." She doesn't think she can change things but she's not Asmodean.

"Is there a reason we're only doing one archduchy at a time?"

"—well, we want to be sure that the final proposal is one that satisfies all of us. If we're divided, it'll almost certainly be harder for it to pass the convention floor. Delegate Roig knows more than I do about the Hellcoast, so if there are any features of the Hellcoast that need to be given special consideration, I'm willing to listen to him. But if there isn't anything like that for the other archduchies, we don't need to write special rules for each one."

Lucia looks serious. "I should say that there is. I am from Longmarch, and if we have written his rule down, we should write mine!"

"I'm not sure that a procedure based on your sorcerous bloodline would necessarily be suitable for the whole archduchy. We could perhaps note an exception for your county? I expect Delegate Roig would similarly be willing to narrow his proposal. —Though of course, we wouldn't want to appear biased; if we're putting historical exceptions for specific counties into writing, I'd want to ensure we aren't omitting any obvious ones merely because they don't have a representative in this room. It might be simpler to just rely on the procedures we're setting out elsewhere to ensure that your county's traditional method of succession is followed, but I trust your judgment about that versus a county-specific clause."

(That is to say, can we please just get all of us everything we want and not overcomplicate things.)

"Oh, I don't mean our bloodline rules specifically. I am no great legal mind, but it would seem to me that:"

Owing to ancient customs and tradition, in the Archduchy of Longmarch, traditional rules of inheritance for each House is not to be challenged other than in of a full court of all nobles, and in Longmarch the age of inheritance is to be determined by the customs of the ruling House. 

Lucía smiles.  "It might also be the ancient tradition that inheritance is purely a matter of first to be born, with no consideration as to sex, but let's see what we formulate for Cheliax itself before we decide."

Aspexia-Isona will back Lucia up in terms of her body language without saying anything in particular.

He can take a hint. "That seems perfectly reasonable, Condesa. One small addendum — I expect the full convention will have some concerns about the implementation of the 'full court of nobles.' Would it be acceptable to rephrase to 'a full court consisting of a representative of every noble of Count rank or greater'? And did you wish the 'full court of nobles' to refer to nobles in Longmarch, or in all Cheliax? I of course defer to your judgment in both matters."

Lucía bobs her head. "That addendum would suit me, and, yes, I should think all of Cheliax. Traditions are important, in Longmarch."

"I don't think such a council is likely to ever convene again, at least not for a local matter - or they'll decide it should happen again every ten years and it'll become routine, just spaced out."

Lucía shrugs. "Perhaps right now, with the rules today. I would like a senate resembling the full court, to become a regular advisory body to the Queen, every year or two. But this is not the committee for that!"

"Alright. We're getting close to our allotted time, and I know some of you are on other committees, so I'm going to note down what we have so far and we can work out any other details next time we meet. Does that sound good to everyone?"

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. 

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

In the event that a noble should die without a designated and suitable heir, or that a noble should be found to be in violation of the disqualifying criteria previously outlined, the title shall instead pass first to the legitimate children of the decedent (in the former case) or of the last titleholder before the one so disqualified (in the latter case), then to their natural children, then to the cousins in order of degree of kinship, starting in all cases from the eldest. If the family line is extinct, the heir shall instead be designated by the liege-lord of said person. In respect to the various ancient traditions of our noble houses, dating back to the time of Aroden, which are too diverse to enumerate here, those houses which find this method unsatisfactory may now reaffirm their own traditional methods of succession by consent of all qualified titleholders of that house, which shall supersede the procedures outlined herein save in the matter of disqualifying criteria, to which they may add but not subtract.

Owing to ancient customs and tradition, in the Archduchy of the Hellcoast, a claimant to a title may appeal to his overlord and the public opinion to overturn the choice of the previous holder of the title. Such an appeal should be made to a commission appointed by the liege lord, consisting of the lord himself or his representative, and two known and respectable persons from the region, one appointed by each claimant. The commission is then directed to take into account the character, lawfulness, experience, and general fitness of the two candidates, as well as their age, intelligence, and prospects for a clear succession going forward.

Owing to ancient customs and tradition, in the Archduchy of Longmarch, traditional rules of inheritance for each House is not to be challenged other than in a full court consisting of a representative of every noble of Count rank or greater, and in Longmarch the age of inheritance is to be determined by the customs of the ruling House. 

"I put the part about reaffirming traditional methods of succession so that you don't have a thousand commoners trying to dig up some law that hasn't been used in eight hundred years and say it qualifies them to rule, but I'm willing to rephrase it if you have another suggestion." If they pass a document that's obviously going to start a civil war in every county the convention will probably vote it down. Also, he doesn't want to suddenly find himself fighting a war with Galè's kids.

Yeah Josep can live with this. The problem is going to be getting it past the convention as a whole without them calling bullshit. But that's a problem for tomorrow.

"I have no objections."

"Looks all right to me."

"Me too!"

"Yes."

The sortition and the religious delegates don't seem to have any objections either, so:

"Then I declare this committee meeting adjourned. Thank you to everyone for the hard work today." It's not a very Chelish phrase, but he has some sense of the new party line.