Titles of the Themiclesian monarch

There are several titles of the Themiclesian monarch (號). Some of these titles may be combined, but others are specific to given functions and not properly used with others. The titles of the Monarchy of Themiclesia are not regulated by written law but governed by traditional usage.

Emperor

The title Emperor (皇啻, hwang-tai) was introduced to Themiclesia by Emperor Wŏn of Chŏllo, who fled to Themiclesia in the 6th century, ousted by Jin nomads from his home state. There, as a pretender in exile from Meng, he was enthroned as a figurehead by a group of courtiers who disliked the existing ruler. There is a minor orthographic difference between the Menghean writing of this title and the Themiclesian one, the latter augmenting the second character with a symbol for "mouth". This is, in all probability, on account of the non-local meaning of this word.

In the 6th through 12th centuries, the term "emperor" was formally written as "the lord emperor" (皇啻尹), possibly because the term "emperor" had no meaning in Shinasthana (it being a Menghean invention postdating the settlement of Themiclesia). The compound title "elder prince emperor" (大兄王皇啻) is also seen frequently. Starting around 1120, the variations on the title were systematically dropped in current and recopied texts. It has been noted that Menghean things were fashionable at the Themiclesian court during this time, likely owing to the Menghean Sunghwa dynasty's immense cultural prestige, and so dropping the suffixes made the title sound more Menghean.

Elder Prince

Elder Prince (大兄伯 or 大兄王, lats-qmrangh-brak or lats-qmrangh-ghwang) is the customary title conferred to the pre-eminent prince by the princely assembly of medieval Themiclesia.

Deprecated titles

Ordinal name

Early rulers of most Themiclesian states had names based on ten ordinals called Heavenly Stems, sometimes with one or two additional words. In Shinasthana, the Heavenly Stems are: kerap, qrut, prang, neting, met, keq, kerang, sin, num, qwiq. It is usually assumed the ordinal name was a reign name or posthumous/cultic name, as personal names must have otherwise existed; however, since rulers' personal names do not systematically survive, most of them are known to scholarship by their ordinal names.

In Tsinh, the behaviour of ordinal names is not conclusively described. From comparative evidence, it is known that a phrase like nis-neting "Ting II" (二丁) really stood for nis-tsa-neting "Ancestor Ting II" (二且丁). While all rulers had an ordinal name, not every ruler (even with the monicker "ancestor" accounted for) with the same ordinal increments the number when next used. Additionally, rulers' spouses are also sometimes given ordinal names, which are not those of their regnant husbands and are interpreted as pertaining to themselves; at other times, the spouse was recorded only as the ruler's spouse, with no independent title, ordinal or otherwise.

Fraternal name

During the same period in which the ordinal names were in use, one of three possible "fraternal names" were also applied to rulers, and these were "elder brother" (大兄), "middle brother" (中兄), and "younger brother" (小兄). The fraternal name is intimiately connected with ceremonial generations of cultic relevance, with the first two member of a cultic generation almost invariably called "elder brother" and "middle brother". Since the character of the cultic generation remains uncertain, the meaning of the fraternal name is likewise difficult to establish.

Not all rulers had fraternal titles. Starting from about 1 CE, that is the end of the Archaic Period, the orderly use of the fraternal name based on cultic generations ceased, with the title of "elder brother" being no longer used in this sense but in the public title "elder brother prince" (大兄王) and "younger brother" altogether vanishing.

See also

• Monarchy of Themiclesia