Imperial Bloodline
The Imperial Bloodlines are semi-fictional constructs relating to the Crown of Shireroth, serving as both a convenient shorthand for the true identity of a kaiser, and as a fictional blood connection to all the other Kaisers.
Each bloodline represents a lineage of Kaisers, the vast majority of them supposedly descended from Raynor I, the mythical founder of Shireroth.
Origins and Use of the Bloodlines
According to the in-character history of Shireroth, the founder of Shireroth and the first Kaiser, Raynor I, sired a daughter and two sons. At the time of Raynor I's death, Shireroth operated under the principle of agnatic succession, and as such, the elder son inherited the throne, assuming the regnal name Brrapa I. However, the succession was not barred to the male descendants of Raynor I's other children since, after the death of Brrapa's son, Erik I, the crown passed to a descendant of Raynor I's daughter.
Each of Raynor's children was the progenitor or -trix of one of the bloodlines, and these in turn split into cadet branches. It seems likely that all of the descendants of Raynor I must belong to a bloodline, documented or not, and would thus theoretically be eligible for the crown. This helps to explain the present real-life use of bloodlines: because of the processes by which the Crown is passed on, a relatively large number of individuals have managed to be kaiser at one time or another, most of whom have done so several times. Given that most Shirithians like to at least pretend like their institutions are real, this brings up the interesting problem of individuals becoming kaiser, reigning for a few months, leaving, then coming back later, a most un-monarchical sort of behavior. The rationalization for this, in the context of the fictional background, is that it is not that an individual is coming back as kaiser multiples times under different names — it is simply that the Kaisers in question are members of the same lineage. As a result, each Kaiser becomes either a member of a pre-existing Bloodline, or begins a new one, and future Kaiserial incarnations of that individual are generally of the same lineage. Therefore, most bloodlines in current use can be identified with a single person, or with a specific set of people.
Individuals who are new to being Kaiser are either given a place in an older bloodline, or found a new one. It is traditional for each bloodline to have a set of regnal names unique to it; for instance, the Line of Raynor uses only one name; all reigning members are called Raynor (e.g. Raynor I, Raynor VI, Raynor X).
Major bloodlines
The following is a list of all the major bloodlines of Shireroth, past and present. Several of the bloodlines are fictional, and most of them have some fictional members, having existed prior to the actual founding of Shireroth. It should also be kept in mind that these are not the only bloodlines; they are only major by virtue of having produced Kaisers, but there are supposedly many minor bloodlines, each descended from Raynor I, which are not named in any chronicle.
The organization of the bullets on the list reflects the descent of each bloodline.
- Line of Raynor
- Line of Ly'Technomaezj (heir unknown, possibly extinct)
- Line of Ly'Technomaezj-Metzler (w/ Metzler) (heir unknown, possibly extinct)
- Line of Ballard (extinct)
- Line of Machiavelli (extinct)
- Line of Steffki
- Line of Alexander (heir unknown, possibly extinct)
- Line of Everstone (heir unknown, possibly extinct)
- Line of Kalir
- Line of Ayreon-Kalirion
- Line of Doran (heir unknown, possibly extinct)
- Line of Wythe
- Line of Verion
- Line of Ly'Technomaezj (heir unknown, possibly extinct)
- Line of Metzler (heir unknown, possibly extinct)
- Line of Grifos
- Line of Haiken (heir unknown, possibly extinct)
- Line of Fenrir (extinct)
- Line of Ly'Technomaezj-Metzler (w/ Ly'Technomaezj) (heir unknown, possibly extinct)
- Line of Mortis
Sanglorian bloodlines
The following is a list of sanglorian bloodlines — those established by kaisers with no ties to Raynor and his kin.
- House of Ašura (safir)
- House of Miłarna (ditto)
- House of Ettlingar Freyu (outlandish Storish daemons, banished from Shireroth in 1651)
- House of Myksos (technically not an imperial blooodline, but a family with much influence in Kildare and with an imperial connection)