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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 and reign history, and — where the constitution assigns powers to it — real constitutional authority. The first country to use it is Avalon, where the Crown holds the power to grant pardons.

Claiming the throne

When a throne is vacant, active parties can nominate one of their own activists (the nominee must be a current, non-retired activist, and your party can't already be enthroned). Each party gets one nomination per vacancy, and nominations can't be withdrawn. You also choose a dynasty name; if the nominee wins they take a regnal name like King Arthur I or Queen Eleanor II.

Each monarchy has its own selection rule — Avalon uses oldest party (the longest-established nominating party wins, ties broken by lower party ID). If no one nominates before the deadline, the window extends.

Accession has a heavy cost

If your nominee wins, your party becomes the reigning Crown and goes dormant for the whole reign:

  • your party's PP resets to 0 and it loses all its seats;
  • its cabinet posts and international bloc memberships are vacated;
  • the nominee leaves the party to reign as monarch;
  • your active identity switches from the party to the Crown.

Don't nominate casually

Winning the throne is a prestige move, but it pulls your party out of normal electoral politics for as long as you reign. Pursue it when your party is old enough to have a real chance, you value a prestige role over electoral competition, or the Crown holds powers you want — not when you're electorally strong and active in cabinet or blocs.

Reigning

While reigning you can post to the social feed as the Crown, and you gain a read-only Insights menu to study polls, elector profiles, and demographics — though you can't commission polls yourself. You can also upload an SVG coat of arms.

Royal assent and veto

In any country with a monarchy, the reigning monarch can pre-register a veto on any open proposal. On each proposal the monarch chooses Allow passage (the default) or Veto if it passes, and can switch between them while voting is open. The choice stays hidden — parties vote without knowing it.

At tally time the legislature's vote is counted first. If the bill fails on its own, any pending veto is discarded and never revealed. If the bill passes and the monarch allowed it, it becomes law. If the bill passes but the monarch vetoed it, it's blocked at royal assent, marked Vetoed by Monarch, and a LawBot post announces it. So a veto only ever becomes public when it actually changes the outcome — and monarchs don't vote on legislation, they grant or refuse assent.

Constitutional crisis

Blocking a bill that the legislature had passed automatically triggers a Constitutional Crisis national mood on the country, lasting 90 days (a further such veto resets the clock). It doesn't shift voter opinions; its effect is surgical and aimed squarely at the monarchy:

  • the threshold to pass a pure abolish-the-monarchy change is halved, and
  • the usual constitutional-change cooldown is bypassed for such a package.

Add anything else to that package — any other power move, amendment, or repeal — and it loses both benefits. In short, a crisis makes it specifically easier to remove the Crown, which is the real cost of using the veto: lean on it too often and the country may assemble a republican majority it couldn't have mustered in calmer weather.

Leaving the throne

A monarch can abdicate at any time: the reign ends, the monarch character retires, and your party is restored — but with 0 seats and 0 PP, regaining none of what it gave up. Monarchies also have inactivity checks; if a reigning monarch goes inactive after warnings, abdication is forced — and a forced abdication disbands the enthroned party rather than restoring it. Log in regularly while you reign.

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