I am afraid that this series is going to be a four-part essay rather than a trilogy. I hate leaving that boundary behind. When I outlined this post I thought: “This post may be rather long but I am going to try to cover both the Imperial Harem and the Ethnos Arkadios as symbols and expressions of the new regime and as measure of its effect upon American culture. The Ethnos Arkadios would have to be discussed to some extent if this was in any way to be a complete and serious proposal. I have discussed it in many places fleetingly and so will rely on those discussions to justify the brief discussion I will give in the latter half of this post.” However, it soon seemed clear that I would be grossly unjust to anyone interested in either topic if I tried to squish them into a single post.
There are many reasons why one might fail to discuss or avoid discussing the formation and modus vivendi of an Imperial Harem. However, I have chosen to discuss it. There is an element of truth to the idea that all these discussions come to me much more easily than they might have come to one of the Upper Nobles of Poland or a Spanish Hapsburg in the days of the Holy Roman Emperor. The extreme divergence of my ideas from the flow of politics in my lifetime makes it easier to be honest because I take no risk of endangering a clear and well-marked path to a future in which these ideas or embodied and made politic. There is no high probability route and so therefore if one is inclined to honesty and clarity one might as well be clear and honest as one blazes a path through the pickets of improbability.
Polygamy is a very complex subject. Royal Polygamy remains a very broad and complex subject in itself when one excludes other form of polygamy from the discussion. This is not really a discussion of polygamy but only refers to the broad subject occasionally to make clear the discussion of the proposed Imperial Harem itself. The Imperial Harem as it would exist is part of the essence of the Imperial House and its role. This institution communicates and shows forth many aspects what the transition to and transformation into Empire would be all about. One thing that this proposal will not decide is whether the proposed Harem would be small, medium-sized, large, grand or epic. Almost certainly it would not be epic. However, to the Western world today even a small harem would seem very large because people are lunatics as regards sexual behavior in many societies and in our society lunacy is really doing well. An Empress is the wife of a polygamous sovereign in the West but she is not part of the Seraglio or Harem or City of Women. She is outside and above but not entirely cut-off from it. A small Imperial Harem would mean that the Emperor should have but might not have an Empress, must have a Mistress of Ceremonies and then no fewer than five other consorts. Thus seven would be few not many. A medium size Harem would be between seven harem consorts (nine or ten total) and fifteen harem consorts (sixteen or seventeen total). A large size harem would be between sixteen harem consorts (seventeen or eighteen total) and twenty-five harem consorts ( you should know about the other two by now). A grand size harem would be between twenty-six and two hundred harem consorts. An Epic size harem would be any number above two hundred harem consorts.
I. Issues Related to the Empress
While the Empress is not part of the harem she is not unrelated to it. When an Emperor is elected who is under twenty-seven and has never been married to a fully legitimate wife then he would have to promise to marry such a consort in the next seven years. When he is over twenty-seven this must be done within the next four years. Failure to comply with that promise shall create automatic procedure for Forced Abdication. However, once an Emperor or Heir or the man who became the Emperor has been married in a public ceremony recognized by the laws of a state, which has the status of a putative marriage in the Catholic Church at the time this proposal is being written and then had an established household with that putative wife for four years then all his obligations to marry are discharged under the constitution and laws. If his marriage is annulled or if his former wife dies he may be urged and exhorted to marry another to become Empress but he has no obligation whatever to do so. The Empress who divorces or is divorced from an Emperor loses that title and all its privileges and powers and receives other lesser ones instantly. However, she does not vitiate or call into question the legitimacy of offspring nor the rightness and certitude of acts issued under her Imperial Royal Title. One divorced who would have been Empress receives the titles of a divorced former Empress with a minimal reduction.
When a man is elected Emperor who has been married for less than five years and has no established mistress licensed by the Office of Placements, Liaisons and Alliances then he shall reign monogamous for one year and at the end of that year he will take a Mistress of Ceremonies and her Maid but no other consort. At the end of his second year he shall establish a harem proper. If he is married for more than five years in a fully monogamous relationship it shall be as above except that the intervals shall be halved to six months and one year respectively. In both cases these movements into polygamy are not optional but required.
II. Issues Related to the Condition of the Emperor
The Constitution and laws may exclude an epic or a grand harem but nothing smaller. However, it is not in the spirit of this regime to do so but would rather be against its spirit and structural theme. However, not all Emperors are in every way equal. No man made Emperor who is older than thirty-five at the time of becoming Emperor may ever have an epic harem. No Emperor who is older than forty at the time of becoming Emperor may ever have a grand harem. Nor may any Emperor that did not score at least average in his field of Heirs on the physical parts of the evaluation and the Trials and Ordeals. The Founder would be theoretically exempt from these laws but they would be guidelines for him as well.
An Emperor who is found to become entirely sexually impotent or primarily homosexual (in the sane and not lunatic sense of having ejaculatory events with other men rather than women) for a period longer than a year before he turns sixty-two will trigger grounds for Automatic Forced Abdication. Disability from wounds received in battle will be a defense but will reduce his term to ten years from the date of the disability. Disability from injuries received in other service will be the same but for a period of seven years. Should such an excused Emperor rcover very well in the period dictated it will become permanent reinstatement. But he must prove his recovery over a period of a year.
No other sexual conditions or diseases will have the effect above. Medical and health security are a priority but failure of such measures has no constitutional effect. The Imperial Harem is primarily a sexual institution.
III. Function and Structure of the Harem
The Imperial Harem will function in a variety of important roles. Clearly its size and scale will determine the limits of what functions it can fulfill. However, the most important function is to have sexual relations with the Emperor.
A. Secondary and Derived Functions of the Imperial Harem
It needs (more in our age than in any other perhaps) to be said that as a matter of state the Imperial Harem is gathered to copulate and have coitus with the Emperor. This would be an affair of state in which the realm had an interest. However, such privacy and intimacy in regards to these matters as is possible will be preserved.
1.Securing the Emperor’s Network of Relationships
This function has two very different aspects. The first could be called the Old Girlfriends and Fascinations aspect of the Harem membership. There is a strong interest of the state in gathering the women in an Emperor’s life whom he would like to have in his harem into his harem. Taking vows and entering a well-established religious community and becoming the wife and remaining the wife of a man in a fully legitimate marriage are presumed defenses and excuses against the duty of entering the Imperial Harem. Otherwise when her old boyfriend or long-time flirtation becomes an Emperor any woman who is not royal or upper nobility is bound by liege duty if a citizen-subject to report this to the Imperial House. The Emperor will then decide to take her into the harem or not. All certified mistresses of a new Emperor enter it automatically. The second aspect could be called the Sexual Senate. In an epic Harem Jurisdictions would literally send a consort to represent them in the Imperial Harem. In smaller harems the women do what they can from the inside out to function as representatives of the network of places, groups and institutions of which they are a part.
2. Modeling Responsibility
Though the world and most of its components are so very insane that it makes discussing this unappealing, the responsibility aspect must be discussed. A Royal Harem of any kind (that is a true Harem and not a dark and twisted cover for something else) exemplifies responsibility. All parties pay a price for it and all share its rewards.
3. Status Symbol
An Imperial Harem rightly constituted and manged is a sign of wealth and power which also affirms the value of people and circulates wealth in a progressive way. In a larger harem the lives of the junior consorts are in many ways as pleasant (except for some sexual frustration in the broader sense and the narrower) as human life ever actually gets. Smaller harems and senior consorts have a more normal life but are still pampered. The Emperor is a sign that it is possible for a man to achieve in this fallen world a level of selfish sexual happiness which will always be very rare and still function in a balanced way. So he is also pampered in that one way especially.
4. Community
Th Imperial Harem is a community for the women and their children. For the Emperor it also is a community meant to be in balance with the Imperial Family proper. More or less he should love and cultivate affections with the Imperial Family. However with adults in the Imperial Family it is supposed to be in many ways a collection of ambitious scheming political operatives skilled in violence and sexual intrigue who are devoted to the realm and a religious ideal and subordinate to the Emperor. The Founding Family would not be likely to be the best community but the best Family could never be all a man needs. The Harem Community (including children who are not sexual objects or consorts of any kind for the Emperor) is a balancing resource and presence.
5. Work Force
The Harem will have access to such careers and interests as they have prior to entry but also to the work that needs to be done in the House and even the rest of the Direct Imperial Government. That would be administered with many benefits and much flexibility. However, while it will be easy to criticize and ignore the Harem will develop expertise and flexible skilled labor contributions over time that can be of great value.
6. Progenitors of the Imperial Natural Lines
The Imperial Harem can allow the Emperor to fulfill the deep male desire to increase his genetic impact and spread that heritage. The Harem over will also create a web of familial ties between the families of a large and diverse Empire. That role is very important to creating a royal and royalist consensus.
B. Structure of the Imperial Harem and Titles of its Members
1.The Mistress of Ceremonies is a Sort of Governor-General and Court of Appeals for the Harem Community. Except that it is an every real sense a dictatorship of the Emperor. However, if the right is done in the interregnum the man who is Emperor will only use his rule by whim and less than flattering rights sparingly. But the ordinary course of governance above the consort is to the Harem Council then to the Mistress of Ceremonies and then to the Emperor.
Almost every other title in the Harem may not exist and there are some that could exist in an epic Harem especially which are not listed here. However, the Mistress of Ceremonies is fixed and constitutional and described elsewhere. She is also less under any dictatorial sway.
2. The Basic Structure.
The basic structure is that there are Mistresses who have at least two Maids (unless the Harem is a small Harem where maids do not exist). A Maid is an essential but not inevitable part of the structure. She is not a servant or menial but a bound and subordinate companion who is also a consort to the Emperor under complex rules. Mistresses are the Higher ranking consorts regardless of outside title. In a larger Harem there will be a division in which the Higher Mistresses or few and are called Established Mistresses and have their own palaces or Chateaux under the umbrella of the Imperial House. The lower part of the basic structure is that there are Concubines who almost always have only one Maid. The first title however which is added to the essential if size justifies is to appoint from one to three High Concubines who have their own Villas but also live part of each week in the adjacent quarters to the Emperor. Such Concubines have three Maids each. The rule is that all Mistresses outrank all Concubines and all Concubines outrank all Maids. But if they exist High Concubine are different and keep a complex form of control over the detail of the Emperor’s personal space and schedule.
3. Most Favored Status
A system of rewards and perqs is set up based on who has most often had relations with the Emperor and most recently, who has borne the most and most recent children,who has been invited to a large meal in the presence most often. There are large issues of protocol and structure which are not addressed here. I hope to return to those if and when needed.
4. Property
A Harem Consrot loses to the Emperor a great deal of her personal freedom. However, while there will be a tax to Harem Community, the Emperor and the House they will not be enormous and the Writ of Covenant will be real right. It ends on a dark note to say that an Emperor would more easily get away with killing a Harem Consort in a fit of rage than robbing or defrauding her. In fact, strange as it may seem that is exactly the way the law would be.
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