All Little Lesson Again — Electors of the Confederation

In the Confederation is a select group of individuals called Electors. These Electors are the men or in some cases the women who vote and put into power the High Lord of the Confederation. Dukes from Duchies or Princes from prominent Principalities are eligible to be Electors and they need to be able to project power and be quite prestigious. Due to the often volatile nature between the states of the Confederation and those who run them, a Duke or Prince can lose his Electorship far easier than ever gaining it. Presently, the states of the Confederation have stabilized; smaller states were eaten and made larger states even larger. Though eager for more land still, the enlarged states had grown big enough to be content with their current size.

Ostgrenze used to be an Elector but lost their Electorship when it transitioned into a Kingdom. It was one of the conditions to allow Ostgrenze to become a Kingdom. The King of Ostgrenze at the time found it weird but he wasn’t about to let that get in the way of making his realm better. The Electorship was then passed to the Principality of Zentraland. But the Prince of Zentraland adopted a strict neutral foreign policy and no longer involved itself with the affairs of the rest of the Confederation, content to remain safe and uninvolved within its borders.

So it was then passed to the the Duchy of Venicia but was relinquished from them when the people of Venicia overthrow their monarch and became a Republic. King Franz Karl’s greatgrandfather would later forcibly vassalize Venicia and mercilessly executing anyone with so-called republican ideas. Franz Karl’s father would outright annex Venicia as a part of Sudreich.

The Electorship was then handed to the Duchy of Milan but lost it to the Duchy of Toscana when Duchess Eliza’s father annex their southern region. Karl then took the opportunity to chip off a few more bits of Milan's territory to give Sudreich a direct border to Zentraland's southern border.Eliza however had no time for such politics and wanted to focus inward so she gave up being an Electress and handed the Electorship to Duchy of Wurten currently under Duke Erwin.

The other Electors are Prince Ruppertch of Bayern, Prince Albert of Sachen, Grand Duke Dolphus of Nornover, Duke Wilhelm Friedreich of Linberburg who is a heirless relative of yours, Duke Erik of Lenmeckburg and Grand Duke Jan of Bohi.

The Grand Duchy of Bohi is a large state, rivaling Sudreich in size. A mountain shaped like a letter C served as the natural boundary between it and the other states to its north, south and west though it’s province of Silasie was outside the mountain range and it’s most northern area serves as a small border with them.

Duke Jan during his days as a much younger man was optimistic, bright and tried to see the good in others. However he is today regarded as a straight forward, intimidating and perhaps even an abrasive Lord who has no use for nonsense and was suspicious and distrustful of other nobles and monarchs. It made him less approachable by other Lords. Like Franz Karl, he inherited his father's position as Grand Duke of Bohi young.

The first that happened was a four way civil war between him and three other pretenders. Once that civil war was won, Bohi's eastern regions were being constantly raided by the Barbarians. And if that wasn't bad enough, apparently his father had accumulated a large amount debt from the neighboring states including Ostgrenze and Sudreich. This debt only worsened due to the civil war.

Grand Duke Jan's father was all play and no work.

Failure to repay these debts would give Bohi’s neighbors the pretext to invade. The threat by itself of being invaded due to the mismanagement of the previous Grand Duke had caused an unrest in the realm of Bohi. If Bohi was invaded by their neighbors in the Confederation, they would be severely weakened and the barbarians in the East, ever waiting for a dead body to eat, will past up such an opportunity.

But wouldn’t you know it? Here comes Franz Karl to the rescue.

A younger Franz Karl and an equally younger Jan met during Franz Karl’s first wedding. Franz Karl by then had already earned a reputation of cruelty against the barbarians to the East and was elected as High-Lord. But Jan found him friendly enough at the time and did not want to make an enemy of a man who skinned his enemies. From that moment on, Franz Karl decided to make practice out of Jan.

Franz Karl offered Jan to pay all his debts. Bohi had also owed Sudreich. Not only were the debts to Sudreich nulled but Franz Karl paid the debts Bohi owed to Ostgrenze, Linberburg, Sachen and Bayern. All Jan had to do was pay him back years down the line. Franz Karl would played Jan for a puppet being pulled by its strings, exploiting Bohi's weaknesses and Jan's own personal weakness in finance. Falsely accusing his trusted councilors and advisers of treason and planting evidence against them. Paying mercenaries and spies to go around Bohi, not to attack or kill but to spread dissent among the common folk and the ranks of the nobles. This made collecting taxes difficult and small revolts would spring up every now and then.

And Franz Karl would always be there to help out. Putting down the revolts and executing the leaders. This drastically reduced the number of nobles and made men of eligible age to fight few for a time. The commoners' population grew back in time and were placated by the food Franz Karl would bring it. It endeared them to the King of Sudreich. The nobles were replaced by noblemen whom Franz Karl had recommended for their skill and loyalty. Loyalty of course to Franz Karl, not to Jan.

And all this with Jan being none the wiser to his 'friend's' true intent and actions; seeing Franz Karl as his only true and trusted friend. All others have betrayed him. From Franz Karl's perspective, it made Jan and the people of Bohi malleable to his whims. Franz Karl then added to his list of accomplishments in Bohi when he seduced Jan's wife Irina and impregnated her with the couple's second daughter.

Jan has black hair though it is graying in his 50s. Irina had black hair too. They had no sons, only three daughters. Their eldest and youngest had their black hair but their second had Franz Karl’s blonde. Under Karl's suggestion, Jan’s eldest daughter married Franz Karl’s third son.

Now Jan finds himself with the Angel of **** sitting by his bed. Two weeks ago, he started feeling weak. Soon he developed a high fever and his physical condition just keep worsening. Eventually he was bedridden, the strength in his arms and legs gone. His metabolism slowed down dramatically. Even his breathing had decreased.

Irina and their youngest daughter Sonya stand by his side. Their eldest daughter Laura was with her husband and children on the road to Frankia for the wedding of King Francois's son and Arch Duke Franz Jacques's daughter. Irina holds his weak hand, her eyes red and puffy from tears. Despite having been seduced by Franz Karl and becoming a lover of his, she still loved her ever oblivious husband Jan. Their second daughter (Franz Karl's daughter) was married to the son of one of the Lord's Franz Karl had installed in Bohi. Then there is Sonya. His youngest daughter. Still unmarried with no betrothal.

Soon Jan breathed his last breath and dies.