Fall of an empire

The precious king was such a historic, legendary figure, none could even compare themselves to him. Plus, they're worried how pissed he'll be if he turns out to not be dead, and comes back to find someone else claiming his title

A tactic agreement to oppose any one who declares them self king. The dukes like their independence

'Tis safer to go uncrowned.

That art looks like fucking dogshit, m8. Who would go make that after watching the original?

These sound good to me (not OP). I like that it probably means they still theoretically defer to a nonexistent king - who they might pretend or who might even be still alive like in .

Good avenue for a group of enterprising PCs to exploit politics and get ahead.

Technology, culture, and infrastructure have declined so much that nobody can hold that much territory as a single unified state anymore. It's all the dukes can do to keep their own duchies from falling apart.

In my setting it's because the royal lines had the ability to command and ride dragons. Since they died out, anyone with the gall to call themself "king" would pretty quickly lose all credibility.

Would imo be more credible than unless some of the dukes actually have morals/respect for the royalty that goes beyond their desire for power.
Plus it's basically what happened in Rome. Both are cool ideas if developped though.

This is an excellent idea for a campaign start. Definitely stealing it.

This is a good answer.
Another would be a situation like Liechtenstein where there was a contract between noble families dictating the exact line of succession to be followed. If tradition is established, it makes sense that the myriad dukes would cling to their title as a source of legitimacy. Moving to "king" could obliterate it and make succession to their own sons difficult or subject to other pretenders getting foreigners involved, and nobody wants that.

To become king you had to complete a ritual or trial that has become impossible now, i.e. slay a monster that's long been extinct.

There is a powerful, invincible overlord that killed the old king and now he obliterates anyone egomaniacal enough to think themselves king before his might.

The other Dukes would band together and flatten him, effectively destabilizing the empire.

The shit-eating grin on the first of these independent dukes who declares himself a "Grand Duke", can you imagine?

>Somebody made this
CHILDHOOD EN-

Wait, it came out this year.

Well that would be tantamount to declaring war on all the other dukes.
Not to mention highly presumptuous and rather rude.

Edgelords.

Waging war among dukes is the easiest reason I can think of.
Of course one or more will try to legitimize himself but he won't be known in other duchies as king.

This

The local guard commander would go spare

The legal ramifications of the title mean that it's inferior to the new powers they added to their Dukedome.

Basically you can claim it, but to lay an effective claim to it, you'd have to take on the baggage that comes with it as well and that's plain not worth it.

Basically what happened in Japan - The rights and functions and the potential sources of income open to the Daimoyo-title kept up with the times&circumstances while the Emperor-title lagged behind.

The important capital city gets invaded. There are traditions/religious ideas about coronation that pertains to the throne, or palace itself

They formed the Lycian League.

The real politic answer is no one has the clout and anyone declaring themselves king would get assfucked by the others

So there's an unsettling pseudo peace where the dukes bicker and skirmish a lot, but no one commits to war because.of MAD

Until the PCs fuck it up

Shit's become a stalemate that hasn't been broken in all that time, and none of the dukes would call themselves kings of their own lands because that would paint a target on their back.

For four hundred years, the land of Angevir lay without a king. For four hundred years, dukes squabbled over the petty leavings of the old glory, scraps from the Empire that made all lands as one. No one knows why the Emperor vanished. No one knows where he went. They knew only the warning found scrawled on his chamber walls, written in blood and bile:

Fear the crown.

The Crownsguard marched, to seek the truth of what befell their charge. And upon the third hill east of Angevir, they, too, vanished.

Chaos followed, a chaos in which no duke prevailed, without the Crownsguard to declare and tip the balance. Lives were lost in a chaos spanning decades, and by the end the borders had shifted little. So the churchmen and the dukes convened at the Cathedral of Heaven's Wheel, where they declared the creation of a League. No duke would war against another, and no duke would ever declare himself a king.

But that was an older time, reflected duke Valostin, as he held the imperial crown between his hands. No, he corrected himself: King Valostin. The discovery of rich gold and the development of potent magic had made his duchy the first among equals some hundred years ago. He looked about his chamber, its mirrors limned with silver, its chalices carnelian, chalcedony. After one hundred years of leadership, was it not time to simply declare the truth that had become self-evident? Valostin was no duke: He was a king.

He allowed himself a moment's exultation. There was much work to do to unite the Empire once again. So many fools believed that donning a crown -- the Imperial crown, no less, and what a tale its recovery had been! -- would bring doom to men. Others of the dukes had united at arms to bring him low, and that challenge loomed. War was returning, not proxy war or trade war, but war at arms, and it was a trade men had near forgot.

(1/2)

"And a king you are," said a voice.

Valostin wheeled. How could anyone make it past here? He had the finest guards, the finest steward.

"And you are the finest king," said the stranger, his face hidden behind a polished mask. "A fine king, indeed. You will serve well, as did the last..."

The next day, the king was gone, and behind were the worlds, scrawled in blood:

Fear the crown.

(2/2)

The empire had very strict rules about what constitutes a land-owning noble, and the dukes are still ruling under that system because it legitimizes them. To call yourself a King, you need to have a kingdom sized chunk of land. None of the duchies have gained that much land and held it long enough to be coronated.

The last king was an asshole. The empire fell because he completely lost his legitimacy. Since that day the king title is not used anymore because it evokes only disgust. Over time it became a point of pride in their culture:"the nobility of this country is free of kings". Although when you look better the web that holds these dukes together comes to a central pillar. It's a dynasty that received the title of "Grand Duke" centuries ago after they conquered everyone else. They legitimize their position by saying that they are "the protectors of the nobility". This symbolic empowerment of the dukes gives them less power than a "true king" would have. For example they can't execute a peasant without the express permission of their duke.

The king is also a religious figure, putting on the crown when you're not approved-by-the-gods king material makes you catch on fire in a very terminal fashion, and every duke who's tried it has found this out personally.
Several dukes hold pretty large amounts of land, but the empire's still vaguely united under the old religion, with notrome where the crown rests frantically playing dukes off each other and fixing the results with the crown, because they don't want a new king either

They are all autistic. There is no other reason for it.

People will always strive for power. So it makes no sense that Dukes wouldn't strive for more.

Also, being a bunch of independent provinces is very problematic for all of the dukes involved. Neighbor kingdom would take advantage of the situation and expand their territory conquering the singular dukes. Because power is good.

So yeah, your retarded OP.

Either the church is against someone without divine might using that title or all the dukes would band together to destroy the one calling himself king

The crown was so romanticized and beloved that even centuries later no one dares to claim it.

There is historical precedents for nobosy in a fallen kingdom or empire really managing to claim it.
Like most people wouldn't say the Roman Empire had a real succesor.

Almost all dukes claim that their dukedom is the succesor state of the empire but none of them is close to have enough power and territory for their claim being taken seriously.
Technically more than half of them have the title of emperor but they rarely use it except for a few die hard new emperor wannabes because the number of weak claims make that title meaningless.

Same reason why Phillip didn't declare himself King of Greece? Titles signifies power, and that is both a good and bad thing.

If you call yourself a King, you paint a big target on your back for anyone who has ambitions of conquest. You are now contending the position and title of King. Every other 'King' must now contend with you to reclaim this land. Your lands, people, and most important, hereditary position is now at stake.

But if you just call yourself duke, you signal to other powers that you are a non-contender. You are not in conflict with the political machinations of others. Whilst this isn't foolproof, and you can still lose everything. At least that's one more worry you can tick off your list.

tl;dr signals to others that you are not a threat to their ambitions

What do you mean? Every single piece of land that belonged to the Romans quickly fell into other people's hands.

Every neighbor benefits for conquering nobody's land. Your people get richer, there is more food, and the military of independent petty kingdoms is small enough that it would be easy.

The only reason for neighbor land that are more consolidated to avoid attacking is because they all have their hands full against another enemy.

War and conquer will always occur.

What happens if there's an election instead? Do the gods care or not?

My man, no way that would ever be the case

The country in its entirety is of cultural significance to the title of 'King', so to become King you must conquer each of the Duchy - which is a feat no one region has the power to do. The Duchy cooperates with itself in spirit of the nation, trading freely and having good relationships with each other, allowing the country as a whole to function equal to one nation but with a decentralised government.

Basically, 'What if every state of the United States had their own President, but the entirety was still called America'

Look, if any one of them decided to declare themselves king, then every single one of them would declare themselves king, and what difference would it make?

Also, what would happen after? Do they all just rule separate kingdoms? Do they challenge each other to a battle of the wits to see who actually is the king? Nah, the killing and warring would begin again. I don't know about you but having people pay taxes and grow crops sure as hell beats a lack of peasantry for ten, twenty years and fallow fields and starvation. Fuck that shit. Better to be a duke and fuck over anyone who calls themselves king with the rest of the dukes.

There are instances where even the big countries did not call themselves kings, like Lithuania (Grand duchy).

And duchies can be quite big.

this was sort of the reason why the first emperor of Rome had the title "Augustus." As a republic, they historically didn't like kings, so they made up a title rather than use the latin word "Rex" which they knew people would take offense to.

That was awesome user. My thanks

Probably not, so long as the elected official doesn't claim to have any kind of divine favor, and isn't in the position for life or can at least be impeached if he fucks up.

Titles have meanings and aren't arbitrary.
Thus it is fully possible that no one yet have managed to gather the requirements to be crowned as king. However IRL King is a rather vague/generic term and it would perhaps be better if you to have another title such as Emperor or King of Kings being the one that no one currently holds.
If you want to make a post Fall of Rome-setting then I'd encourage you to base it on the name of the founder of the empire. Many of the non-english european languages word for emperor (such as Kejsare, Kaiser, Tzar) are derived from Caesar which was a name that was adopted from Julius Caesar (through Augustus) to serve as the title for "Crown-Prince"/sub-emperor of the Roman Empire. The title that was given to the reigning monarch was Augustus, which means the Revered, which was given by the senate to Julius Caesar's adopted son to signalize his position as the"First Citizen" after he founded the empire.

While I'm at it Duke is derived from the roman term Dux (it means leader) which at the time of the Dominate was the highest ranking military commander in a province.

These are all good,
and I have an alternate idea for this one.

The last empire's King is still seen as a literal god-king who's power and prosperity extended into centuries. Depending on your setting, he may have actually lived for all those years, or it was simply his family. There is a theocratic element to the word "king" across the lands.

To call oneself "king" is blasphemous, let alone for someone who is not directly part of the royal family. No one in their right mind would accept some crazy person calling themselves "king" just because they have some land and power, when the word "king" means so much more. This is an element -on top of- the quoted above- the need to remove other duchies before one can become a king, for instance.