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

Claiming the throne

When the throne is vacant, each active party may nominate one of its own activists (a current, non-retired activist; your party can't already be enthroned). Nominations can't be withdrawn. You also choose a dynasty name, and a winning nominee takes 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. If nobody nominates before the deadline, the window is extended.

Accession has a heavy cost

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

  • its 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.

Don't nominate casually

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

Reigning

A monarch can post to the social feed as the Crown, upload a coat of arms, and study polls, electors and demographics (but can't commission polls). Monarchs spend no PP.

Royal assent and veto

The monarch can pre-register a veto on any open proposal: Allow passage (the default) or Veto if it passes, switchable while voting is open. The choice stays hidden, so parties vote without knowing it.

At the count, the legislature's vote (and any elected office veto) is judged first. If the bill fails there, any pending royal veto is discarded and never revealed. If it passes and the monarch allowed it, it becomes law. If it passes and the monarch vetoed it, it's blocked and marked Vetoed by Monarch. So a veto only becomes public when it actually changes the outcome.

Constitutional crisis

Vetoing a bill the legislature had passed triggers a Constitutional Crisis for 90 days (each further veto resets the clock). It doesn't shift voter opinion; its effect is aimed squarely at the Crown: a package that does nothing but abolish the monarchy needs only half the usual threshold and skips the constitutional-change cooldown. The replacements that abolition adds automatically (a new head of government, a new cabinet-appointing body, a new holder for each Crown power) don't count against this, but any other change in the package removes both benefits. Lean on the veto too often and the country may assemble a republican majority it couldn't have mustered in calmer weather.

Calling a convention

The monarch can call a Constitutional Convention for free, whether or not the Crown is head of government. For a year, changes are cheaper and have no cooldown, so parties (abolishing the monarchy among them) can rewrite the constitution quickly, though it doesn't lower the threshold the way a crisis does.

Leaving the throne

A monarch can abdicate at any time: the reign ends, the monarch retires, and your party is restored, but with 0 seats and 0 PP. Reigning monarchs also face inactivity checks. If a monarch goes inactive after warnings, abdication is forced, and a forced abdication disbands the party rather than restoring it. Take an action regularly while you reign; logging in alone doesn't count.

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