View from Benacia/Issue 73: Kaiser Names Heir to Throne
This imported article was originally posted at http://viewfrombenacia.blogspot.com/2005/03/issue-73-kaiser-names-heir-to-throne.html at 03/26/05.
Let the citizens rejoice!
There has been much speculation, anxiety, and (dare we say it) angst over the identity of the next person to take up the Golden Mango Throne. Ever since Kaiser Mors IV Nerrolar made his Speech from the Throne over two weeks ago, in which His Majesty announced his intent to leave the throne around the end of March, there has been speculation over who he would pick. Much popular rumor put it that Erik Mortis Brookshire would regain the throne, having held it prior to Mors.
Indeed, the Duke of Brookshire was offered the Throne on Wednesday. But in an impassioned, speech, Erik refused it, citing what he perceived as poor treatment during his time on the Throne:
"Why would I wanna rule if that's all I have to look forward to? People using me as their scape goat. I don't even know why people do it. Is it cause I founded Shireroth and have held the Kaisership more than anyone? People feel they have to attack me and my legitimacy to boost their own? And so.. yeah.. I'm sick of it.. plane sick of it... Find someone else to treat like shit.. Not that you will...This will proly be shruged off and used as some example of how I am such an evil person...etc..
Sometimes I wonder why I even stay in Shireroth, If it were not for the fact I am loyal to Shireroth to the core ....yeah anyhoo
In Short.. find someone else to be Kaiser, cause I refuse..."
Many expressed thier sadness and their sympathy, but this did not prompt the Duke to change his mind. As a result, a new heir had to be found.
This was announced tonight in Imperial Decree #160, which proclaimed Baron Ari Rahikkala of Straylight to be the Heir to the Throne:
"We, Mors IV Nerrolar, having enjoyed in an evil scheming sort of way the fashion in which our subjects anxiously await news, feel that we have had our fun and should delay no longer. Our faithful subject Erik Mortis Brookshire having refused our offer of the Imperial station, it is now time for us to choose our heir, who shall have the Crown upon his head and the Throne beneath his posterior when we are gone.
Therefore, we do proclaim ARI RAHIKKALA, Baron of Straylight, to be Heir to the Throne of Shireroth."
The result received surprise from many. Ari has been Kaiser once previously (as "Ari 0", but not in a very long time. The reception was generally positive, however, and Shirerithians look forward with anticipation to a "strange" reign.
Meanwhile, Kaiser Mors responded to questions about the date of his abdication with vagueness, repeating earlier statements locating it around the end of the month:
"The ambiguity is mostly due to what I'm doing in Brookshire (see the "Benacian tale" posts for an inkling), which I wish to play to the end before leaving the throne." Terry Schiavo Debate Spills Into Off-Topic
A posting about the well-publicized legal brouhaha surrounding the right-to-die case of Terry Schiavo has brought the emotional issue to a head even here, in the shadowy world of micronations. An increasingly fierce debate over it prompted the Kaiser to suggest that everyone "COOL OFF", and he noted that further incivility would cause the closure of the thread.
Interestingly enough, when our correspondents asked for the Kaiser's personal view on the matter, he had two of them executed and the third one castrated, after which he informed them politely, "I prefer to keep my views on such a sensitive issue to myself."
