Imperial Decree 202

Issued by Kaiser Yarad I

Imperial Decree #202: Abdication and Heir

Two months ago yesterday, the gods gifted me with a great boon. I became the Kaiser of Shireroth. This is an honour that I had never received before, and before recently had not hoped to receive. I attribute my accession to the throne to meeting the wonderful and interesting Scott of Hyperborea in the past year and also attribute my new-found interest in Shireroth to him and his reign as Kaiser.

As Kaiser, I hoped to do a number of things. I hoped to keep up with the cultural and religious renaissance that Los III's time in the throne had given us, to bring the website up to the present time, and to advance the Diplomatic Corps. I achieved very little of all this, in my opinion. Instead, I did something which I had not planned to: I reformed the feudal system. And I feel that it is a very good and potentially very effective reform, and thank everyone who had an input in it.

There were a number of things that discouraged me. Mainly, being Kaiser is far more draining than being even a very dedicated ordinary citizen. As well as the duties and work associated with the post, one must endure tremendous guilt and feelings of responsibility when things go wrong, even if they're not specifically because of you, and especially if they are. Both Osmore and Joseph leaving within a week of each other (or so it seemed) just took a lot of the wind out of my sails. I recovered, but I began to give thought to the end of my rule.

When I gained the throne, I gave a longish speech about "facing a storm", asking whether we Shirerithians would face the challenges that lay ahead of us. To be honest, with a more capable leader, and more challenges to face, we could've done very well in this task. We did well enough for having a Kaiser with less time than he thought he'd have and a quiet few weeks. Thank you all for a worthwhile and enjoyable experience. Maybe I'll be back here in the coming months and/or years, ya never know. Thanks to everyone who sent in admissions of interest for the Kaisership, I hope you will make these plans and ideas known to my successor.

And this leads on to the part you've all been waiting for. As my successor, I name Duke James of Naudia'Diva, to rule in the wisdom of the gods and the acclaim of the Shirerithian people for as long as they all shall see fit. Hail Kaiser.