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Hereditary Monarchy

Some countries have a hereditary monarchy alongside their elected institutions. The Crown is a country-level office with its own page, reign history, and, where the constitution assigns powers to it, direct constitutional authority.

The first country to use this system is Avalon, where the Crown holds the power to grant pardons.

The Crown Page

Countries with a monarchy show a Crown panel on the country page and a dedicated monarchy page. The page shows:

  • Whether the throne is occupied or vacant
  • The current monarch's regnal name and dynasty
  • The nomination deadline when the throne is vacant
  • Submitted nominations for the current vacancy
  • Reign history
  • Coat of arms controls for the reigning monarch

Vacancies and Nominations

When a throne is vacant, active parties in that country may nominate one of their own activists.

Eligibility

To submit a nomination:

  • Your party must be active in the country
  • Your party must not already be enthroned
  • The nominee must be an activist in your party
  • The nominee must not be retired
  • Your party must not have already nominated someone in the current vacancy window

Each party can submit one nomination per vacancy. Nominations cannot be withdrawn or changed after submission.

Dynasty Name

When nominating, you choose a dynasty name. If you leave it blank, the nominee's last name is used.

If the nomination wins, the monarch receives a regnal name based on their title, first name, and ordinal, such as King Arthur I or Queen Eleanor II.

Selection

Each monarchy has its own selection method. Avalon currently uses oldest party, which means:

  1. The eligible nomination from the oldest nominating party wins
  2. If there is a tie, the lower party ID wins

If no nominations are submitted before the deadline, the vacancy is extended for another nomination period.

Accession

If your nominee wins, your party is transformed into the reigning Crown for the duration of the reign.

The accession has major consequences:

  • Your party becomes dormant while you hold the throne
  • Your party's Political Power is reset to 0
  • Your party loses all legislature seats
  • Any cabinet positions held by your party's characters are vacated
  • Your party leaves all international blocs
  • The nominated activist leaves the party and becomes the reigning monarch
  • Your active identity switches from your party to the monarchy

While reigning, you can post to the social media feed as the Crown. Crown posts use the monarch's regnal name and link back to the monarchy page.

A Crown Is Not A Campaign Vehicle

Winning the throne is a permanent-looking prestige move, but it removes your party from normal electoral politics while the reign lasts. Do not nominate casually.

Constitutional Powers

The Crown can hold constitutional powers just like a legislature, cabinet position, or the non-partisan bureaucracy.

Powers assigned to the monarchy appear in the constitution under the Crown article. Future constitutional changes can move powers to or away from the monarchy if the country has one.

In Avalon, the Crown initially holds Grant Pardons.

Royal Assent and Veto

In any country with a hereditary monarchy, the reigning monarch can pre-register a veto on any open proposal. The veto sits on top of the normal legislative vote — it does not replace it.

How it works

On the proposal page, a reigning monarch sees a Royal Assent card with two choices:

  • Allow passage (the default) — the bill becomes law if the legislatures pass it
  • Veto if it passes — the bill is blocked at royal assent if the legislatures pass it

The monarch can switch between these two states at any time while the proposal is open. While voting is in progress, no one else can see which option the monarch has chosen — parties continue to vote without knowing whether their bill will receive royal assent.

Resolution at tally time

When the proposal closes, the legislatures' vote is tallied first:

  • If the legislatures reject the bill, the bill fails on its own. Any pre-registered veto is discarded and never recorded — no one ever learns that the monarch had a veto pending.
  • If the legislatures pass the bill and the monarch's choice is "allow passage", the bill becomes law as normal.
  • If the legislatures pass the bill but the monarch has registered a veto, the bill is blocked. The proposal is marked as Vetoed by Monarch, and a Lawbot post on the social feed announces that the monarch refused royal assent.

The veto is therefore only ever made public when it actually changes the outcome.

When the monarch sees the page

While reigning, the normal "Cast Your Vote" card is replaced by the Royal Assent card on each open proposal — monarchs do not vote on legislation, they decide whether to grant or refuse assent.

Constitutional Crisis

When the monarch uses the veto to block a bill that had already passed the legislatures, the country enters a Constitutional Crisis. This is automatic — no one has to do anything for it to begin.

How it triggers

The crisis is triggered at the moment a veto actually changes the outcome of a tally:

  • The legislatures passed the bill.
  • The reigning monarch had registered a veto.
  • The bill is therefore blocked at royal assent.

A pre-registered veto that never came into play — because the legislatures rejected the bill on their own — does not trigger a crisis. The trigger requires the veto to be visibly overruling the legislature, not merely waiting in the wings.

How it appears

A new national mood, 🏛️💥 Constitutional Crisis, attaches to the country and is visible on the country page alongside any other active moods. It lasts 90 days. The countdown is shown in the mood panel.

If the monarch vetoes another otherwise-passing bill before the 90 days are up, the clock resets to a full 90 days from the new veto. The crisis does not stack or compound — there is always at most one Constitutional Crisis attachment on a country at a time.

What it changes

The Constitutional Crisis has no effect on elector opinions or issue salience — it doesn't shift positions or polarise voters. Its effects are surgical, applying only to the rules around abolishing the monarchy:

  • Halved threshold to abolish. Constitutional change packages that contain only an abolish-the-monarchy item have their approval threshold halved in every required legislature. A country whose constitution normally requires (say) 80% to amend itself drops to 40% for the duration of the crisis. If the configured threshold is already at the 50% floor, it drops to 25%.

  • Cooldown bypass on pure abolition. Constitutions normally have a cooldown after each successful amendment — typically a year or two during which no further constitutional change can be opened. While the crisis is active, this cooldown is bypassed for pure abolish-monarchy packages only.

Both of these checks are evaluated live, at the moment a package is opened or its votes are tallied. They don't get locked in at draft time. If the crisis expires before the vote closes, the normal threshold and cooldown rules apply from that point on.

The mixed-package rule

The threshold halving and cooldown bypass only apply when the package contains nothing other than an abolish-the-monarchy item. As soon as you add a custom article, a power move, a repeal, or anything else, the whole package falls back to the configured threshold and the normal cooldown is enforced.

This is deliberate: a Constitutional Crisis is meant to make it specifically easier to remove the monarchy, not to act as a general lever for pushing other constitutional changes through at a discount.

Why it exists

Constitutional Crisis exists to give players a real consequence for using the royal veto. The monarchy is structurally powerful — the threat of veto can shape what bills parties even attempt — but every veto carries a cost. Hold the line too often and you may find that the country has built a republican majority that it could not have assembled in normal political weather.

Abdication

A reigning monarch can abdicate at any time.

When you abdicate:

  • The current reign ends
  • The monarch character retires from public life
  • Your party is restored
  • Your restored party has 0 seats and 0 Political Power
  • A new vacancy opens and nominations begin again

Your party comes back, but it does not regain the offices, seats, or resources it held before accession.

Inactivity

Monarchies are subject to inactivity checks. If a reigning monarch is inactive long enough, warning emails are sent. Continued inactivity can force abdication.

Forced abdication is harsher than voluntary abdication:

  • The reign ends as inactive
  • The monarch character retires
  • The enthroned party is disbanded rather than restored
  • The throne becomes vacant

Log in regularly while reigning to keep the Crown active.

Coat of Arms

The reigning monarch can upload an SVG coat of arms for the Crown. The system supports the same basic SVG safety rules as party logos, with optional colour tinting and display scaling.

Strategy

Pursuing the throne can be worthwhile when:

  • Your party is old enough to have a strong chance under the selection rules
  • You want a prestige role rather than normal electoral competition
  • The monarchy holds important constitutional powers
  • You are ready to give up seats, cabinet roles, bloc memberships, and PP

It is risky when:

  • Your party is currently electorally strong
  • You rely on cabinet positions or bloc leadership
  • You want to keep proposing laws and fighting elections
  • You may not be active enough to avoid forced abdication

Next Steps