Venerated
History
The Venerated has its origins in the oldest days of the Venian monarchy. According to tradition, Carus, the first king of Venia, appointed thirty men to a council that would serve him as advisers. The Ancient Thirty, as they are called in later Venian histories, are descended from these men. Later kings added to the Venerated's ranks, resulting in one hundred and forty five by the time of the royal family's extinction. The Ancient Thirty still remain the most prestigious families in Venian society, and those that remain in the present are among the Commonwealth's wealthiest citizens. The core of the current nobility formed around the first Venerated. After the fall of the monarchy, the body persisted and became Venia's sole rulers for a time. Two political events irrevocably altered the Venerated's role and composition.
The first is known as the Law of the People (or the Law of the Proles among wealthy circles). Passed one hundred years after the end of the royal line, the reform created the Convocation and allowed men of non-noble birth to be involved in the political process. For the first time in Venian history, the proles were permitted to elect their own representatives and vote in Venian elections. Furthermore, the small Venian courts expanded to accommodate their legal disputes. Each male citizen outside of the nobility, from successful independent merchants down to the urban poor, were placed into the two assemblies that made up the Convocation: the Lists and the Tribes. While the Lists divided people up into classes based on wealth, the Tribes divided people by geographic location. In theory, every Venian citizen could travel to the capital city and vote, but this process largely favored the wealthy landowners and merchants (who more than anyone else had the means to travel without interrupting their livelihoods). The Convocation's inception meant that the Venerated were no longer the sole wielder of political power in the Venian state, although it still held a disproportionate amount of influence thereafter.
The second major reform in Venia is officially known as the Law of Hartesius, but is colloquially called the Law of Women. Although Venian culture has long been more respectful and inclusive of woman than most cultures in the world, they up until the passage of the Law of Hartesius been barred from participating in political life. The Law of Women passed nearly one hundred and fifty years after the introduction of the Law of the Proles. The new law was the life's work of an unlikely duo: Hartesius of the Varginus and Nerus of the Raminus (a noble and prole), supported by their wives, daughters, and numerous political constituents. It allowed all female relatives of male citizens equal political representation in the Convocation and allowed female members to be inducted into the Venerated (provided they meet all the necessary requirements). Shorty after the law passed, Hartesius died, and his seat in the Venerated went to Hartesia, his eldest daughter and sole heir.
Unfortunately, the appointment of the first women did not go according her grand design. She was constantly blocked by her male colleagues at every turn, the ideas she wanted to share were shot down almost without fail. Most of her enemies were men who had sons younger than their eldest daughters or were younger than their sisters themselves, since they felt threatened by her newfound position. If the eldest child became was the heir, what happened to the sons were denied their hitherto inheritances?
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