Pamation nato ron ang sugilanon sa usa ka kapuluanon
The 2nd War in Kryta
Separatists don’t really care about Kryta. They’re all about Ascalon. Only reason they popped up in Caudecus Manor story is because that was a party celebrating the peace treaty which they wanted to mess up.
As for the rest, some kind of unrest is clear, but now that Caudecus has made himself an open book for being White Mantle, and there’s been years of WM distaste, I doubt there will be as huge of a civil unrest/war as originally theorized when Out of the Shadows was first teased to us.
If Caudecus is to be believed, Lazarus are throwing his believers after the Elder Dragons, so we’re likely to see a White Mantle + Pact unsteady alliance going on, rather than them dealing with Krytan affairs.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
I have a related question that I meant to post but seems to fit in here.
What’s the effect right now on politics in DR? Since the NPC commentary there is frozen in time as of game launch, it’s hard to know whether the Ministry is reeling, what in-fighting is going on, what the Crown is doing, etc.
I have a slow-motion RP going with a villain who is a high placed Minister with a pro-humans-anti-charr Ascalonian agenda. He’s distanced enough from Caudecus not to go down with him … but I would like to stay as canon as possible and it’s difficult when the game isn’t telling us all these ramifications. I have another NPC who is an aide to a Minister that sides with the Crown’s right to rule.
How are Ministers affected in terms of their influence, their holdings, and the like? What kind of jockeying is going on for the Legate position? How much credence is being given to the posters — is anyone asserting that there’s no proof Caudecus wrote those flyers, that it’s a huge smear campaign?
And will we get civil war in the streets of the Reach? Or is that too upsetting to the game’s starting experience?
One thing is, that we don’t know the exact powers of the ministry, compared to the crown. We know that the ministry acts as an inhibitor to the king or queen of Kryta.
Apparently the ministry has legislative powers, but what else can the ministers do?
Can the queen unilaterally declare war or make peace, or can the ministry veto her?
All in all, the authority of the Krytan crown has been greatly diminished over time.
Let’s have a short look at the Kingdom’s history:
Kryta as a Kindom was founded by prince Mazdak, who left the kingdom of Orr to found his own realm.
Lion’s Arch was one of the first settlements of the petty kingdom.
The early Krytan history includes wars against the centaurs as well as being conquered by Elona in 300 AE,
which at the time was a unified kingdom, ruled by the Primeval Dynasty.
After gaining its independence in 358 AE, Kryta restored the orrian dynasty founded by Doric.
Between this time and the time of the original Guild Wars, there is an unbroken line of Rulers from the house of Doric, but we have to assume that the unfortunate events during the reign of Oswald Thorn, culminating in the death of his son and his own demise in 825 AE, lead to the succession of an unnamed relative.
If I was a krytan historian I may be able to name all these Kings and Queens and their notable accomplishments, but sadly, I am not, so we have to use what is available.
In the year 1072 the Charr invaded Kryta, prompting king Jadon to abandon the Throne, which breaks 714 years of stable dynastic succession.
During this time the White Mantle ruled Kryta while Princess Salma gathered the shining Blade to reclaim the throne and restore rightful rulership.
She succeeded with the help of certain adventurers assuming the title Queen of Kryta in 1079, after seven grueling years of White Mantle rule.
The following 140 years were certainly interesting, but contained stable successions of krytan mornarchs all from the House of Doric.
In 1219 AE Zhaitan awoke and caused the rising of Orr.
The resulting tsunami ravaged the coast and caused the abandonment of Lion’s Arch.
Being crowned in the same year, king Baede of Kryta had to reorganize his kingdom after losing its ancient capital.
It was he, who established the Ministry, so we can assume that all the kings of kryta were absolute rulers before this point, but the sudden loss of his demesne and administrative bodies forced him to cede authority to the Ministers.
The new capital, Divinity’s Reach was established on the forified plateau south of lake Doric, which already contained a Mausoleum and may have been inhabited before that point. The last years of his reign were marked by a regency, where the Ministers ruled in place of the old king, possibly further eroding royal privileges.
Baede passed away in 1256, leaving the crown to his son Edair.
The following years are quiet as far as the throne of Kryta is concerned, until 1310 AE, when the king died, leaving behind his young daughter Jennah, who, while a competent Mesmer, had been deemed to young to rule by the Ministry, prompting a six year long regency, eroding the crown’s privileges until there are barely any left and the queen is subject to her own laws.
At this point, the royal privileges can go nowhere but up and while the Ministry has grown into a festering and corrupt den of vipers,
there have been few kings or queens of Kryta, since the time of Salma, who could rule with such grace and dignity as queen Jennah.
When Caudecus falls, I guess the Ministers will lose some privileges in favour of restoring the crown’s authority over Kryta. I can see the Ministry Guard being merged into the Seraphs to avoid such wasteful fragmentation of krytan manpower and to prevent powerhungry ministers from trying to ursurp the crown for themselves.
While (mostly) not contradicted by any official sources, you did use quite a lot of inference to paint a worst-case picture, so for contrast’s sake here’s the optimistic interpretation:
The earliest lore we have on the Ministry says that it started off as representatives of the refugee community. King Baede’s ministers, particularly the ones who held the distinction in Lion’s Arch, may have been no more than an informal recognition of advisers and deputies. Over time, when it was seen that having communities pick the person who handled their affairs was a good thing, the title may have gotten some weight, and through that weight amassed into the formal body we know as the Ministry today. In the process, they incorporated the existing structure of the nobility, with the title Minister extending to the noble who owned the land when the citizens decided they were best suited to handle taxes, militias, and the like.
Since they were popular and effective, it also made a certain kind of sense to defer to them when the monarch was indisposed- the two instances we’ve had mention of were King Baede’s waning years, when he was ill and bedridden, and Queen Jennah’s childhood, when her father died while she was still young. During these times, Krytans became used to their authority, and by the power of status quo they amassed a degree of informal power- for instance, since they were already drafting laws for the monarch to consider, it made sense for them to keep doing that, even though there’s no evidence that a monarch isn’t allowed to make their own laws.
Now, Jennah is a devoted egalitarian. She wants the people to have a say in their government, and she wants to be a kind and compassionate queen. She’s also a savvy political mind, and knows that the average citizen, uninformed about the particulars of law and suckered in by decades of Caudecus’ propaganda, doesn’t understand that the Ministry has no more authority than she gives it. They’d be upset if she did away with them, and that would lead to unrest that isn’t (yet) worth the trouble.
But where does that leave the Ministry? They only have whatever authority the Queen decides to let them have, and we see in several cases that any disputes between a minister and the Queen automatically go in the Queen’s favor. That’s the entire reason Caudecus has had to be so sneaky. They also are made up mostly (depending on who you ask, perhaps entirely) of nobility. If they attack the Queen’s right to rule, they undermine their own. The only thing protecting them right now, the only ‘power’ they have, is their popularity… and now their leader has come out as a traitor, a member of an evil cult that Krytan children are scared into good behavior with. That popularity may run out very quickly if they don’t distance themselves and make it clear they’re on the Queen’s side… which means submitting even more firmly to her authority.
R.I.P., Old Man of Auld Red Wharf. Gone but never forgotten.
I have always believed that the Ministry was a sort of “House of Lords”. Kas’s family has been in the Ministry because they were noble, but lost that when her family lost its noble stature.
The Ministry, however, is not run by ALL nobility. Father, I seem to recall somthing being said about it being the “Ministry Council” that actually has rule. These are a select few who head the Ministry and attend to the day to day running of the country under the king or queens general approval. The Ministry Council, I believe, is probably appointed by the Monach. At this time, of course, Jennah has only been queen for about 12 years, and so most of the Ministry Council would have been the remains of the regency set in place while she was young.
As has been said, most Krytans do not know of all the corruption and back room dealings that go on, and most probably have a generally good opinion of the Ministry Council. As a result, the Queen has to be very careful in that Den of Vipers and can’t just wipe them out as she might want. Additionally, there are some on the Ministry Council who are not corrupt and work very closely with her.
My guess would be, since Caudecus has now gone wholy over to the WM it will be viewed as him “abandoning his post”, leaving a new opening on the Ministry Council. Also, all his lands and wealth would revert to the crown.
In LW S2, Countess Anise told Kas to come see the queen after this was “all over” to see what could be done about re establishing her family name.
So who knows…perhaps Kas will become the new Minister of Beetlestone, and the new head of the Ministry Council, all by appointment from the Queen.
Just a thought….
Gany