THE END OF AN ERA
The Royal Palmyrian Commonwealth barely survived an internal security crisis.
It had been grappling with a brutal insurgency for 14 years starting since 2010—but it was the last five years, 2019 to 2024, that brought the monarchy to the brink of collapse and the Crown perilously close to ruin.
The 2019 assassination of Lakan Alexander II, a young and promising monarch who ascended to the throne in 2016 after his father's abdication due to terminal lung cancer and then proceeded to lay bare the rot of corruption and put it to the torch, only for him to be consumed by the very fire he had ignited as he set the rot ablaze.
The contagion of COVID-19 in 2020, exacerbating the fragility that followed Alexander II's assassination.
The Mindanao-Sulu and Cagayan-Cordillera Crises from 2021 to 2024 tested the Royal Commonwealth's internal security apparatus to its limits, the crises respectively ended by ceasefires in May and April of 2024 after a fierce military campaign to vanquish the insurgent offensives and contain them into isolated pockets of resistance.
The economic downturn and stagnation that accompanied the internal security crisis of the past 14 years tested the nation's socioeconomic willpower to its limits.
The Succession Dispute between Jilliane, the second of Alexander I's five children, and her brother Alexander II's widow, the former Lakambini Elizabeth, who rose to the throne by virtue of Alexander II's last will designating her as his successor, cast upon the nation the shadow of a coup d'etat and civil war stemming from rumors of the military backing Jilliane, a Navy officer and one of their own, as the rightful successor and not her sister-in-law the then-incumbent Lakambini.
The Heartbreak Crisis, a crisis that saw criminal and terrorist elements directly attack a monarchy weakened by national and familial strife, and the Crown's dirty laundry bared for all to see.
However, in its darkest hour came allies from other realms, and from within the ranks of its scions came Gerard, the Avenger Prince; Jilliane, the Princess - and now Queen - of Steel, and the most unlikely of all: Elizabeth, now the Lakambini Emeritus, dubbed by the media as the Iron Widow. The monarchy provided a stalwart anchor for their people, their charge, during a period of national tribulation - and the people returned the favor with steadfast loyalty to the crown. The Crown emerged battered and shaken, but nonetheless triumphant and victorious.
The 5-year-long succession dispute between Elizabeth and Jilliane was resolved with the Succession Accords, effectively ratified and validated as the resolution to the Succession Crisis that has plagued the Palmyrian monarchy over the last five years. Jilliane is to rise to the throne on January 1, 2025, with a coronation scheduled on the 25th. Nathan and Julia, as Elizabeth's twins and the late Alexander II's posthumous issue with her, shall respectively become first and second in line to the throne; from then on, succession through absolute primogeniture, as has been royal succession tradition since Maximillian the Refounder, shall proceed as normal.
The Crown has won the war within.
And through it all, stood Alexander I. As the Royal Commonwealth's first post-reunion Monarch, he helped heal the wounds of Disunion, wounds that he himself saw being dealt and bled, wounds that he himself bears. Even as simmering post-Reunion teething woes evolved into over insurgency, he remained steadfast in his duty, until an aggressively-metastasizing lung cancer forced him to abdicate in favor of his son, Alexander II. Even as his son was assassinated out of vengeance by hostile entities for the shocking corruption revelations enacted under his reign, he remained a steadfast father figure for his remaining scions, leading from his sickbed as a guiding patriarch and former monarch.
But all the things of this world must come to an end.
January 2025 shall be a month of beginnings, as befitting of its namesake: Janus, the Roman god of gates, passages, endings, and beginnings. Alexander I bid farewell to this world just after the strike of midnight on New Year's Day after an 8-year long battle with an aggressive lung cancer, leaving his children and grandchildren to navigate the complex dynamicity of this world without their beloved patriarch. With Jilliane's ascension on the same day, to be followed with a coronation on the 25th, new doors open for the Palmyrian monarchy as old ones close.
It had been grappling with a brutal insurgency for 14 years starting since 2010—but it was the last five years, 2019 to 2024, that brought the monarchy to the brink of collapse and the Crown perilously close to ruin.
The 2019 assassination of Lakan Alexander II, a young and promising monarch who ascended to the throne in 2016 after his father's abdication due to terminal lung cancer and then proceeded to lay bare the rot of corruption and put it to the torch, only for him to be consumed by the very fire he had ignited as he set the rot ablaze.
The contagion of COVID-19 in 2020, exacerbating the fragility that followed Alexander II's assassination.
The Mindanao-Sulu and Cagayan-Cordillera Crises from 2021 to 2024 tested the Royal Commonwealth's internal security apparatus to its limits, the crises respectively ended by ceasefires in May and April of 2024 after a fierce military campaign to vanquish the insurgent offensives and contain them into isolated pockets of resistance.
The economic downturn and stagnation that accompanied the internal security crisis of the past 14 years tested the nation's socioeconomic willpower to its limits.
The Succession Dispute between Jilliane, the second of Alexander I's five children, and her brother Alexander II's widow, the former Lakambini Elizabeth, who rose to the throne by virtue of Alexander II's last will designating her as his successor, cast upon the nation the shadow of a coup d'etat and civil war stemming from rumors of the military backing Jilliane, a Navy officer and one of their own, as the rightful successor and not her sister-in-law the then-incumbent Lakambini.
The Heartbreak Crisis, a crisis that saw criminal and terrorist elements directly attack a monarchy weakened by national and familial strife, and the Crown's dirty laundry bared for all to see.
However, in its darkest hour came allies from other realms, and from within the ranks of its scions came Gerard, the Avenger Prince; Jilliane, the Princess - and now Queen - of Steel, and the most unlikely of all: Elizabeth, now the Lakambini Emeritus, dubbed by the media as the Iron Widow. The monarchy provided a stalwart anchor for their people, their charge, during a period of national tribulation - and the people returned the favor with steadfast loyalty to the crown. The Crown emerged battered and shaken, but nonetheless triumphant and victorious.
The 5-year-long succession dispute between Elizabeth and Jilliane was resolved with the Succession Accords, effectively ratified and validated as the resolution to the Succession Crisis that has plagued the Palmyrian monarchy over the last five years. Jilliane is to rise to the throne on January 1, 2025, with a coronation scheduled on the 25th. Nathan and Julia, as Elizabeth's twins and the late Alexander II's posthumous issue with her, shall respectively become first and second in line to the throne; from then on, succession through absolute primogeniture, as has been royal succession tradition since Maximillian the Refounder, shall proceed as normal.
The Crown has won the war within.
And through it all, stood Alexander I. As the Royal Commonwealth's first post-reunion Monarch, he helped heal the wounds of Disunion, wounds that he himself saw being dealt and bled, wounds that he himself bears. Even as simmering post-Reunion teething woes evolved into over insurgency, he remained steadfast in his duty, until an aggressively-metastasizing lung cancer forced him to abdicate in favor of his son, Alexander II. Even as his son was assassinated out of vengeance by hostile entities for the shocking corruption revelations enacted under his reign, he remained a steadfast father figure for his remaining scions, leading from his sickbed as a guiding patriarch and former monarch.
But all the things of this world must come to an end.
January 2025 shall be a month of beginnings, as befitting of its namesake: Janus, the Roman god of gates, passages, endings, and beginnings. Alexander I bid farewell to this world just after the strike of midnight on New Year's Day after an 8-year long battle with an aggressive lung cancer, leaving his children and grandchildren to navigate the complex dynamicity of this world without their beloved patriarch. With Jilliane's ascension on the same day, to be followed with a coronation on the 25th, new doors open for the Palmyrian monarchy as old ones close.
ALEXANDER I: MAY HE REST IN PEACE
Patriarch. Veteran. Monarch.
Born Alexander John Maximillian Theodore on 22 March 1959 to Prince Eleazar and Emilia Lualhati, Alexander I was the youngest of four: Desmond (1955-1982), Alexandra (1957-1983), and his older twin Franklin (1959-1984). Raised in a household and country fraught by the Disunion Era, Alexander would eventually follow his siblings into military service, graduating at the middle of the Second Pan-Archipelagic War (1979-1984) as an Army officer in 1981.
He saw his brother Desmond felled in 1982, unceremoniously blasted into bits as a fighter pilot, and his sister Alexandra join Davy Jones in 1983, with the sinking of the Alexandria-class aircraft carrier RCN Tuguegarao (CV-008, comm. 1967). In the very last years of the war, he saw his own brother, Franklin, with whom he studied in military academy and shared his life as a twin brother, die in his very arms, anecdotally with a smile on his face.
Alexander I stood as the last royal family member since then, and his progeny stand as the last and only surviving line of the Palmyrian royal family.
On 2000, Palmyrion reunited under the banner of the Royal Commonwealth. King Osborne, already at an advanced age, offered to give the reins of the throne to Eleazar, his only son; Eleazar, already suffering from a drinking and smoking binge from the misery inflicted by the loss of his children, refused, insisting that whoever must rule the country next as sovereign should be someone younger and healthier than he was. He looked to his youngest and only surviving child Alexander, a 41-year-old officer who had seen it all: genocides, mass killings, war crimes, someone who understands war and division and has seen its horrors first-hand. He had seen much, he had been given much, and thus much was expected of him.
Lakan Alexander I ascended to the throne on 2000, inheriting a nation healing from the wounds of decades-long division and repression. Taking to his work as sovereign, he spearheaded the socioeconomic recovery of the nation, though perhaps it came at the great mistake of overlooking the budding issues of gentrification and development aggression.
As the first embers of the Internal Security Crisis coalesced into fires, his monarchy saw the revision of the nation's development model, to include greater emphasis on community development, a vision inherited by his son Alexander II, who proceeded to lay bare the rot of corruption and set it to the torch - only for him, and his nation, to be consumed in the fire he wished to use to torch the rot of corruption, and as his last will's wish be succeeded by his wife Elizabeth as regent.
From then, his illness worsened, amplified by the anguish of monumental loss - but by hope and Providence nonetheless remained the family's patriarch and the country's father, leading from his sickbed as a symbol of familial union, soldiering through his illness to provide the family and the nation with a patriarchal figure of solidarity it can count upon as it endured the internal security crises of the past 15 years, never surrendering his post until the nation settled its internal security crises and his time to give his last and all arrived.
On January 1, 2025, he left this world just after the strike of midnight, his heart filled with hope and optimism for the future.
He saw his brother Desmond felled in 1982, unceremoniously blasted into bits as a fighter pilot, and his sister Alexandra join Davy Jones in 1983, with the sinking of the Alexandria-class aircraft carrier RCN Tuguegarao (CV-008, comm. 1967). In the very last years of the war, he saw his own brother, Franklin, with whom he studied in military academy and shared his life as a twin brother, die in his very arms, anecdotally with a smile on his face.
Alexander I stood as the last royal family member since then, and his progeny stand as the last and only surviving line of the Palmyrian royal family.
On 2000, Palmyrion reunited under the banner of the Royal Commonwealth. King Osborne, already at an advanced age, offered to give the reins of the throne to Eleazar, his only son; Eleazar, already suffering from a drinking and smoking binge from the misery inflicted by the loss of his children, refused, insisting that whoever must rule the country next as sovereign should be someone younger and healthier than he was. He looked to his youngest and only surviving child Alexander, a 41-year-old officer who had seen it all: genocides, mass killings, war crimes, someone who understands war and division and has seen its horrors first-hand. He had seen much, he had been given much, and thus much was expected of him.
Lakan Alexander I ascended to the throne on 2000, inheriting a nation healing from the wounds of decades-long division and repression. Taking to his work as sovereign, he spearheaded the socioeconomic recovery of the nation, though perhaps it came at the great mistake of overlooking the budding issues of gentrification and development aggression.
As the first embers of the Internal Security Crisis coalesced into fires, his monarchy saw the revision of the nation's development model, to include greater emphasis on community development, a vision inherited by his son Alexander II, who proceeded to lay bare the rot of corruption and set it to the torch - only for him, and his nation, to be consumed in the fire he wished to use to torch the rot of corruption, and as his last will's wish be succeeded by his wife Elizabeth as regent.
From then, his illness worsened, amplified by the anguish of monumental loss - but by hope and Providence nonetheless remained the family's patriarch and the country's father, leading from his sickbed as a symbol of familial union, soldiering through his illness to provide the family and the nation with a patriarchal figure of solidarity it can count upon as it endured the internal security crises of the past 15 years, never surrendering his post until the nation settled its internal security crises and his time to give his last and all arrived.
On January 1, 2025, he left this world just after the strike of midnight, his heart filled with hope and optimism for the future.
MAY PROVIDENCE REST THE KING.
JILLIANE: MAY SHE REIGN IN GLORY
War Hero. Matriarch. Monarch.
Born Jilliane Meredith on 21 January 1994 to Alexander I and Agatha, Consort Emeritus, she was raised with no expectation of the crown from a young age, but despite being the spare nonetheless showed determination and grit befitting the immediate heir, her older brother Alexander II.
Shaped in the rough and tumble corridors of the Commonwealth Military High School and Royal Commonwealth Military Academy (RCMA) Cavite, she was born of an ironclad and energetic willpower and courage that matched her older brother's. While her older brother Alexander II entered civilian university with the Crown destined for him, she entered military academy with a headstrong, illustrious career in the Navy destined for her. Even as she was almost killed in 2016 by a bombing attack on her destroyer by Islamist rebels fighting under the flag of the Islamic State of Sulu and Mindanao, she retained her stalwart, unyielding attitude to her military career, now serving with her older brother as her Commander-in-Chief.
However, fate had other plans for her and her brother.
In 2019, the June 29 attacks, colloquially known as 6/29, were coordinated multi-religious attacks carried out by the National Redemption Front against the Royal Palmyrian Commonwealth on the 29th of June 2019. Three attacks were carried out within the span of June 29, 2019, two of them centered around the 2019 Pride March in the Commonwealth Park in Alexandria. Later in the evening, the 27-year old sovereign descended to the Royal Grandstand at the Outer Citadel to issue a statement condemning the attacks, saying that "the perpetrators shall be met with the full force of the state" and that "the Royal Commonwealth remains committed to assuring and defending the liberty and security of its citizens" - but mid-speech, the Lakan Emeritus was shot in the head, presumably by a sniper. His speech was cut short, and his short 3-year reign was ended then and there. The next morning, his successor was declared, according to the last will and testament of the late Lakan: his wife, Elizabeth. The news was received with much furor: the shock and awe of the public and the objection of most politicians about the unconventional succession of Elizabeth to the throne.
Since 2019, Jilliane and Elizabeth have been quarreling over succession to the throne, though the rest of the Royal Family have been leaving the two to settle it themselves; anything short of a violent transfer of power or, worse, plunging the Royal Commonwealth into a civil war when they just got out of a major counter-secession war was acceptable in the eyes of the Family. And, internally, they had some reason to worry about the prospect of a succession civil war: the military touted Princess Jilliane as the rightful successor, and a worthy one at that, nevermind her sister-in-law Elizabeth being the sitting Sovereign-Regent and Commander-in-Chief of the military.
Seven, going eight, years of steadfast service in the Navy as an officer, powering through the scars of a near-death experience; seven, going eight, years of steadfast experience, having served in the naval line of fire during the Mindanao-Sulu Crisis, leading with excellence. She was ready to step up to the throne when her brother Alexander II was killed, and would eagerly have done so if it weren't for Elizabeth being designated as his successor - but, in early 2024, in the closing months of the twin secession uprisings that threatened the stability of the nation, Elizabeth resolved to give the throne to Jill.
Nobody knows why Elizabeth decided to give up the throne to Jilliane; whether out of sheer exhaustion, or out of moral conviction about the nature of her succession to power, one can only speculate, though these were the two most speculated reasons. Nonetheless, the Succession Accords has been received in positive light, as an act of righting wrongs.
The Succession Accords, after finally passing judicial review by the Supreme Court on the 4th of October, stipulated that Elizabeth step down and take the role and title of Lakambini Emeritus, and Jilliane become the Sovereign and Lakambini; the succession would take effect upon January 1, 2025, with a coronation scheduled on the 25th. Nathaniel and Julia, as Elizabeth's twins and the late Alexander II's posthumous issue with her, shall respectively become first and second in line to the throne; from then on, succession through absolute primogeniture, as has been royal succession tradition since Maximillian the Refounder, shall proceed as normal.
With recognition by the Royal House, endorsement by the Agency for the Royal Household, and approvals from the Cabinet, the Assembly, and the Supreme Court secured, and public support garnered, the Succession Accords are effectively ratified and validated as the resolution to the Succession Crisis that has plagued the Palmyrian monarchy over the last five years.
Jilliane stands to inherit a monarchy and nation wounded by internal strife: a nation optimistic but uncertain about what the future held in store, and a Crown battered but resolute.
Shaped in the rough and tumble corridors of the Commonwealth Military High School and Royal Commonwealth Military Academy (RCMA) Cavite, she was born of an ironclad and energetic willpower and courage that matched her older brother's. While her older brother Alexander II entered civilian university with the Crown destined for him, she entered military academy with a headstrong, illustrious career in the Navy destined for her. Even as she was almost killed in 2016 by a bombing attack on her destroyer by Islamist rebels fighting under the flag of the Islamic State of Sulu and Mindanao, she retained her stalwart, unyielding attitude to her military career, now serving with her older brother as her Commander-in-Chief.
However, fate had other plans for her and her brother.
In 2019, the June 29 attacks, colloquially known as 6/29, were coordinated multi-religious attacks carried out by the National Redemption Front against the Royal Palmyrian Commonwealth on the 29th of June 2019. Three attacks were carried out within the span of June 29, 2019, two of them centered around the 2019 Pride March in the Commonwealth Park in Alexandria. Later in the evening, the 27-year old sovereign descended to the Royal Grandstand at the Outer Citadel to issue a statement condemning the attacks, saying that "the perpetrators shall be met with the full force of the state" and that "the Royal Commonwealth remains committed to assuring and defending the liberty and security of its citizens" - but mid-speech, the Lakan Emeritus was shot in the head, presumably by a sniper. His speech was cut short, and his short 3-year reign was ended then and there. The next morning, his successor was declared, according to the last will and testament of the late Lakan: his wife, Elizabeth. The news was received with much furor: the shock and awe of the public and the objection of most politicians about the unconventional succession of Elizabeth to the throne.
Since 2019, Jilliane and Elizabeth have been quarreling over succession to the throne, though the rest of the Royal Family have been leaving the two to settle it themselves; anything short of a violent transfer of power or, worse, plunging the Royal Commonwealth into a civil war when they just got out of a major counter-secession war was acceptable in the eyes of the Family. And, internally, they had some reason to worry about the prospect of a succession civil war: the military touted Princess Jilliane as the rightful successor, and a worthy one at that, nevermind her sister-in-law Elizabeth being the sitting Sovereign-Regent and Commander-in-Chief of the military.
Seven, going eight, years of steadfast service in the Navy as an officer, powering through the scars of a near-death experience; seven, going eight, years of steadfast experience, having served in the naval line of fire during the Mindanao-Sulu Crisis, leading with excellence. She was ready to step up to the throne when her brother Alexander II was killed, and would eagerly have done so if it weren't for Elizabeth being designated as his successor - but, in early 2024, in the closing months of the twin secession uprisings that threatened the stability of the nation, Elizabeth resolved to give the throne to Jill.
Nobody knows why Elizabeth decided to give up the throne to Jilliane; whether out of sheer exhaustion, or out of moral conviction about the nature of her succession to power, one can only speculate, though these were the two most speculated reasons. Nonetheless, the Succession Accords has been received in positive light, as an act of righting wrongs.
The Succession Accords, after finally passing judicial review by the Supreme Court on the 4th of October, stipulated that Elizabeth step down and take the role and title of Lakambini Emeritus, and Jilliane become the Sovereign and Lakambini; the succession would take effect upon January 1, 2025, with a coronation scheduled on the 25th. Nathaniel and Julia, as Elizabeth's twins and the late Alexander II's posthumous issue with her, shall respectively become first and second in line to the throne; from then on, succession through absolute primogeniture, as has been royal succession tradition since Maximillian the Refounder, shall proceed as normal.
With recognition by the Royal House, endorsement by the Agency for the Royal Household, and approvals from the Cabinet, the Assembly, and the Supreme Court secured, and public support garnered, the Succession Accords are effectively ratified and validated as the resolution to the Succession Crisis that has plagued the Palmyrian monarchy over the last five years.
Jilliane stands to inherit a monarchy and nation wounded by internal strife: a nation optimistic but uncertain about what the future held in store, and a Crown battered but resolute.
MAY PROVIDENCE BLESS THE QUEEN!
A NEW ERA: A CROSSROADS IN HISTORY
The Palmyrian monarchy, and with it the nation it has been charged with nurturing, stands at a crossroads of history.
Its future stands fragile, shaken to the core, its future uncertain. History is full of examples of great monarchies brought down through their failure to separate personal indulgences and controversies from royal and patriotic duty, stricken down by their failure to distance their royal courts from the cutthroat nature of politics. History is full of examples of great nations brought down by internal rot consuming its foundations where external threats failed to bring down its walls.
The Palmyrian Monarchy cannot afford to make the same mistake again.
The Palmyrian nation cannot afford to make the same mistake again.
Jilliane's leadership shall be guided by one simple, yet powerful maxim:
Its future stands fragile, shaken to the core, its future uncertain. History is full of examples of great monarchies brought down through their failure to separate personal indulgences and controversies from royal and patriotic duty, stricken down by their failure to distance their royal courts from the cutthroat nature of politics. History is full of examples of great nations brought down by internal rot consuming its foundations where external threats failed to bring down its walls.
The Palmyrian Monarchy cannot afford to make the same mistake again.
The Palmyrian nation cannot afford to make the same mistake again.
Jilliane's leadership shall be guided by one simple, yet powerful maxim:
THE CROWN MUST WIN.
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
- I am the OP. My word is law.
- This RP is set in January 2025
- MT only.
- No war and violence, please.
- Keep it PG-13.
GUEST LIST
- The Novayan Commonwealth
- The Empire of HimDyr
- The Stratusian People's Republic
- Commonwealth of Cortanovia
- The Grand Republic Of Pshenyarichka
- Armed Republic of Gonswanza
ACCOMMODATIONS AND SECURITY
Security during the event shall be provided for by the Royal Safeguard Corps, the Palmyrian National Police, and the Armed Forces of Palmyrion. Guests can stay at the Royal Citadel for a maximum of one week, or any of the luxury hotels in Metropolitan Alexandria.
Those who will be staying at the Royal Citadel shall be provided with food, lodging, and other amenities for their stay at no cost to them, courtesy of the Palmyrian Royal Family. Guests shall be informed of house rules and Royal Protocols.
Those who forego the Royal Citadel's accommodation and thus decide to stay in a hotel shall have their expenses covered for by the Royal Family, though this coverage will last only three days.
Those who will be staying at the Royal Citadel shall be provided with food, lodging, and other amenities for their stay at no cost to them, courtesy of the Palmyrian Royal Family. Guests shall be informed of house rules and Royal Protocols.
Those who forego the Royal Citadel's accommodation and thus decide to stay in a hotel shall have their expenses covered for by the Royal Family, though this coverage will last only three days.
APPLICATION
- Code: Select all
[b]Nation Name:[/b]
[b]Guest List:[/b][list]
[*]Guest 1
[*]Guest 2
[*]Guest N
[*]Size of security detail, if any[/list]
[b]Attending:[/b] (Tick mark [/])
[Tab=25][ ] Alexander I's lying-in-state (4-9 January 2025)[/Tab]
[Tab=50]If so, which date?[/Tab]
[Tab=25][ ] Alexander I's funeral and cremation (11 January 2025)[/Tab]
[Tab=25][ ] Jilliane's Coronation (25 January 2025)[/Tab]
[b]Accommodation:[/b] (i.e. will you be staying at the Royal Citadel, or will you be staying at some Marriott/Hyatt/Hilton/whatever luxury branded hotel chain)
[b]What month and year is this RP set in?[/b] (screening if y'all read the rules)
