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 title

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 origin and meaning of the sacrametal 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, the last phase of the Archaic Period, the orderly use of the fraternal name based on cultic generations ceased. The title of "elder brother" was no longer used in cultic context but in the public title "elder brother prince" (大兄王), while "younger brother" altogether vanished.

Character words

There are a number of words that appear repeatedly in ordinal and fraternal titles given to rulers and which have attracted comment.

• 文 (men) appears in both ordinal and fraternal titles.  The character men shows a person frontally, bearing a marking on an enlarged chest, usually a heart or hatching; it seems this is connected with some sort of tattooing or body-painting, which in turn establishes a connection with mythological beasts, which are also depicted as having markings of this sort. In later Menghean culture, men means (concretely) writing or (conceptually) the opposite of military; however, this meaning is not reflected in archaic Themiclesian usage, where men seems best interpreted to suggest worship or glory.
  • As an adjective outside of titles, men also appears in terms like 文人 men-ning "deified ancestors", 文辟 men-pik "deified lord/husband", 文尹 men-qur "deified lady/wife"; when men is used in this way, the common indication is that the person described has died. As such, it has been suggested that the word men is applied to rulers' ordinal and fraternal titles automatically, but this does not explain those rulers who did not receive the monicker.
  • The first occurrence of men dates to the middle part of the Late Archaic, where a change in succession laws has occrred and father-son successions become dominant. The canonization of this succession law is accompanied by a change in ordinal and fraternal titles, in particular the character words applied to them. In the Early to Middle Archaic, most ordinal titles bear only a number or a neutral term (usually thought of as place names) and frateral titles completely unadorned; by the Late Archaic, terms of praise or eulogization become common and customary. men appears under this context and may represent an effort by successors to enhance the memory of their forefathers.
• 武 (maq) appears in both ordinal and fraternal titles. Unlike the difficulty of men, the meaning of maq is not disputed—the character shows a weapon above a footprint and uncontroversially means "fighting, war". This term appears consecutively during the Transitional Period and usually with an additional word before maq.

See also

• Monarchy of Themiclesia