Themiclesian royal family

The Themiclesian royal family (公家, kong-kra) consists of the male-line descendants of Themiclesian monarchs that do not have independent households. Those that are part of independent households are classified under the royal clans (公族, kong-tsok).

Definitions

Strictly speaking, the category which best encompasses the word "royal family" in the Casaterran sense is kong-kra. Yet due to stronger familial ties in Themiclesian culture, the kong-kra effectively functions as a unit of the kong-tsok, the extended clan of royal descent. The distinction of various kra (households) was once geographic, since each branch household was likely to be assigned to a new seat, and even remoter in history they could also have been assigned to specific productive tasks, such as horse-keeping or farming. There is also the term kong-stjit (公室), which is accepted to be synonymous with gwênh-kwal (縣官). This word is roughly comparable to the body politic of the crown in Casaterran political philosophy, using the royal house as a metaphor of public institutions. Compare the phrase kong-stjit-kugh (公室告), "suit at royal house", meaning offences in which public authority comes to bear; cp. Casaterran public law, versus private law.

Titles

By birth, all members of the royal family use the title tsje′ (子), followed by their personal names. For example, the older son of the current emperor is tsje′ sng′rja′ (子楚). In the context of the entire royal family, to specify that his lineage by the emperor, the term têk (帝) is prefixed. Note that this character, though written the same way as têgh "emperor", is a separate and likely-unrelated word. In the event Sng′rja′ becomes emperor and has no male heir, his daughter would still be called têk-tsje′. Then, his brother Rjem's children would be krebh-tsje′ (介子), though Rjem himself remains têk-tsje′, since his father was the reigning monarch; when the throne pass to his brother Rjem, Sng′rja's daughters would then be called krebh-tsje′ in the context of the entire royal family, since they are no longer in the line of the reigning monarch. The provenance of this system is ancient and has largely stayed unchanged throughout Themiclesian dynasties. In the Gojun dynasty, a similar system was found, where the analogue of têk signified a higher priority to the throne, while all tsje′ had a right to succeed.

Once a member of the royal family is ordered by Parliament to begin his own household, they become a têk-tsje′ relative to their own household. At this point, a name would be assigned to the new household, prefixed before tsje′. Thus, if Rjem were to become head of his own household, he might be called e.g. stjang-tsje′-rjem (商子林). Stjang is, in this example, the name of his household. If here were to interact with Sng′rja's line, he would either identify himself as krebh-tsje′-rjem, since relative to Sng′rja's more senior line his is a collateral one. Note that he becomes krebh-tsje′ as soon as he leaves the royal house. But if he were interacting with a less senior line, he would introduce himself as stjang-tsje′-rjem, using the title of his household. The House of Stjang would remain a member of the royal clans, or in Casaterran terms, a cadet branch to Sng′rja's house.

Amongst siblings, Sng′rja′ currently would be called dadh-tsje′ (大子), lit. "elder son". Rjem would be trjung-tsje′ (中子), lit. "middle son". If the emperor were to have more children, they would all be st′jaw′-tsje′ (小子), lit. "young son". Speaking to the emperor or empress, Sng′rja′ and Rjem would call themselves dadh-tsje′-sng′rja′ and trjung-tsje′-rjem respectively.