Confirmation of the Anointed Successor

The Confirmation of the Anointed Successor was a special ceremony in the city of Katrapetch on Magicians' End in which the Staff of the Raja was used to validate an official heir to the current Raja. The ceremony was enacted regularly during the many centuries when Katrapetch was ruled by the Rajas, but almost two thousand years have passed since it was last performed.
The specific illustration at the head of the page shows the first ceremony conducted with a redesigned Staff of the Raja, between the Raja Sukhwinder Shah and his son Gundabah Shah in 328 APC. This notable reconfirmation was a part of a city wide festival to celebrate 10,000 years since the foundation of Katrapetch.

History

The story of how Yanavik Jecinth, the Senior Magician of Katrapetch came to construct the Staff of the Raja for his master, the third Raja of Katrapetch in 9571 BPC is told in full under the article about Dravindra Rholab to which the interested reader is refered. Here, we will simply note that the rules of succession incorporated into the Staff of the Raja became an established part of the constitution of the city immediately, and that the associated ceremony described in this article was performed many hundreds of times in the fifteen thousand years that the Rajas and the Court Circle of Katrapetch ruled the city.
Until 328 APC, a somewhat simpler staff was used, but the design was embelished for the 10,000th anniversary of the foundation of the city. The fundamentals of the ceremony, however, remained unchanged until the role of Raja and the Court Circle of Katrapetch were both abolished by the Limit Protectorate in 5155 APC.

Components and tools

The ceremony relied on the Staff of the Raja and the Succession Ruby which was set into the apex of the staff. These were both enchanted items, given special powers to validate the rules of succession for the Rajas of Katrapetch. The rules themselves, which are set out under the article about Rajas were famously extremely patriarchal and at different times this was more or less controversial but they were always honoured so long as the Court Circle of Katrapetch operated.

Participants

There were only three key participants in the ceremony, but it was also considered important that it be witnessed by as many as possible from the Court Circle and sometimes by carefully selected influential citizens from the wider life of the city beyond the Royal Palace.
The Senior Magician of Katrapetch acted as an enabler, activating the key spells that awakened the Succession Ruby at the top of the Staff of the Raja. The current Raja had to be present and had to hold the Staff. The candiate to be heir (presumptive or apparent) was obliged to grasp the rod directly afterwards whilst the Raja still held it. In the event that inheritance was being transmitted through a female relative, she was the one who must take hold of the staff, whilst her male partner (the heir the succession rules acknowledged) held her hand at one remove.
If the prospective candidate was the true current heir to the throne of the city, the Succession Ruby would glow brightly, confirming their right to become the next Raja but if the ruby remained dark, it was to be presumed that they were not the legal heir. Such occurences were rare and were always considered unfortunate at the least and sometimes disasterous.

Observance

The Court Circle of Katrapetch was very keen to ensure the smooth succession of Rajas and needed to know who was next in line to ascend to the throne at all times, so that a dying Raja was immediately replaced by his heir as soon as the death was announced, although the formal accession ceremony would usually not be carried out until after the funeral.
The Confirmation of the Anointed Successor would therefore take place as soon as possible after the death of a Raja so that there was an immediate known successor to the "just promoted" successor. A repeat of the more private version of this same ceremony was then carried out in public after the Staff of the Raja was formally passed to its new holder.
Being confirmed as the current successor, did not of course mean that this was always true for any individual. Following the birth of a son, for example, the previous heir with a lesser claim would have expected to have that claim revoked, as soon as the boy was able to take part in a new ceremony to amend the succession rights.
Changes to the succession rights could theoretically happen at any time due to births, marriages and deaths but were only changed in practice if the new heir was properly validated in a properly observed Confirmation of the Anointed Successor ceremony. It was up to the Raja and the prospective heir to arrange this with the senior magician of Katrapetch.
The Staff of the Raja had no power to seek out heirs. All it could do was to confirm or reject a candidate brought before it at the formal ceremony.

Primary Related Location

Katrapetch

Important Locations

• Royal Palace of Katrapetch

Related Organizations

• The Court Circle of Katrapetch

Notable Ceremonies

Over the centuries a number of remarkable examples of the confirmation ceremony made a mark on the history of the time.

The first ever ceremony was a legendary validation failure, stage managed by the Raja, Dravindra Rholab but reflective of the truth. The story is told in the detailed article about his life

A ceremony in 8141 BPC was the first to reveal unexpectedly that the son of the Rani was not the son of the Raja, an event that surprised everyone. Revelations of this nature were rare and in this case only occured because the eldest son of the Rani who had been previously confirmed, died before he could take the throne and it was the second son who turned out to be illigitimate.

A transmission ceremony in 1387 BPC, where the partner of the only daughter of the Raja was the potential candidate, failed because the Staff of the Raja did not consider him worthy. Inheritance through the partners of women required that they wholeheartedly agreed with the succession. In this case in turned out that the daughter hated her husband. This was sufficient to void the inheritance and the daughter was later granted a divorce.

The 10,000th anniversary of the foundation of the city in 328 APC provoked a redesign of the Staff of the Raja and the first ceremony with the new staff was a theatrical reconfirmation as shown in the illustration at the head of the article

Confirmation of the Anointed Successor by DMFW with Midjourney