Raja

The Raja was the title of the hereditary rulers of Katrapetch for many thousands of years until the line of Rajas was removed from power forever in the sixth millenium APC by the Limit Protectorate. Tradition within the city dictated that the leader was always male. The wife of the Raja had the honorary title of Rani of Katrapetch.

Requirements

The rules of succession for Rajas were codified early, under the third Raja, setting critical precidents which were then applied (at least in theory if possibly not always in practice) a further four hundred and eight times before the violent death of the four hundred and eleventh and final Raja in 5155 APC. It is important to be aware of the central role that the Staff of the Raja played in supporting these rules which would not have been possible or practical without it. The mechanisms and customs associated with the staff are described within the article dedicated to this arcane instrument of royalty and here we will just set out the rules themselves without further comment on the practical matters of their implementation. To begin with the Katrapetch royal succession protocols were similar to those that have operated in many traditional monarchies with the right to claim the title passing first to the eldest male offspring of the current Raja. However one somewhat unusual difference at Katrapetch was that this applied even to a child born out of wedlock if ratified by the Staff of the Raja. An heir below the age of thirty would still become Raja but a regency government operated in these circumstances until they came of age. In the absence of a male heir, rule would pass not to any female child but to the accepted male partner of such a child if and only if they existed. The Staff of the Raja made this determination. If there were no male children and no male partners of female children of the current Raja, a third level rule passed legal inheritence, first to younger brothers of the Raja and in their absence to the male partners of any sisters via the same mechanism applying to offspring. Beyond that, the rules would move out to include cousins, but always following the same peculiar pattern of first considering males in a direct line of descent and then secondly the male partners of females. Whenever the succession rules operated via the proxy of a royal wife, the dynastic name would change to take the husband's surname, accounting for the many different surnames used by Rajas over the centuries. These succession rules enforced a particularly rigorous (many would say extreme) patriarchal pattern on the line of descent of Rajas.

Appointment

Technically, the next Raja automatically inherited the throne immediately after the death of his predecessor, authority "skipping from heartbeat to heartbeat, from death into life" as the poets phrased it. An official ceremony would always follow after the funeral of the previous ruler had been conducted and at this point the Staff of the Raja would be given to its new owner.

Accoutrements & Equipment

The Staff of the Raja (shown in the image at the head of the article) was a golden mace decorated with sparkling rubies, including the magnificent and fabled gemstone known as the Succession Ruby. It was made for Dravindra Rholab by his senior magician, Yanavik Jecinth early in the history of the city and was traditionally carried by all the subsequent Rajas of Katrapetch on important ceremonial occasions. The Staff was imbued with a very specific arcane function associated with the rights of succession.

History

The first three Rajas belong less to history than to legend within the culture of the city and it is hard to be sure at this distance in time, how far the significance of their reigns was altered by later story tellers to fit a prefered narrative. Gundabah Sarill, the warrior who declared himself ruler over what must have been an existing town and took the title of the first Raja is credited with military acumen and stabilising the phryne trade. His bureaucracy became the nascent Court Circle of Katrapetch. Leaving no heir, he was followed by Lortheran Gold whose contribution was to establish the line of senior magicians of Katrapetch and the arcane advisors to the Court Circle. Although the line of Rajas was already theoretically hereditary, Lortheran Gold left no living children and once again there was confusion and a struggle for control. Dravindra Rholab the third Raja, is credited with solving this problem when he comissioned the creation of the Staff of the Raja to address personal and civic concerns with succession, a famous story which is well known to all citizens and is recounted in the detailed article about his life. Of the many later Rajas, some of the most noteworthy are listed at the bottom of this article in chronological order, with a brief outline of their significance.

Cultural Significance

During the many millennia that the practices of the Court Circle of Katrapetch governed the city, it was profoundly patriarchal, at least at the highest royal level, if not necessarily always throughout wider society. The inflexible rules of succession, expressed through the Staff of the Raja preserved this conservative tradition much longer than in other places. Whilst the city's customs might not have been so very different from similar societies in the Old and New Kingdoms of those early days, in later centuries and millennia, they were often perceived as stultifying, illiberal, old fashioned and sexist by outsiders, and even by many within the city itself. There were times and places when the long line of Rajas was seen as something of a joke, but on the whole citizens supported the tradition of hereditary rule and the stability it was said to embody by those who defended it.

Type

Royalty, Hereditary

Status

Under the Limit Protectorate , the Court Circle of Katrapetch was dissolved and the hereditary title of Raja abolished.

Source of Authority

The right to bear the Staff of the Raja was determined by succession rules encoded into the instrument itself

Length of Term

Life

First Holder

Gundabah Sarill

Past Holders

Related Locations

Royal Palace of Katrapetch

Related Organizations

The Court Circle of Katrapetch

The interval between the rise of the first Raja in 9642 BPC and the fall of the last one in 5155 APC is almost 14,800 years, so that the persitance of this form of the Katrapetch monarchy was of an exceptionally long duration, even by the standards of the deep history of Magicians' End. Readers more familiar with Earth Zero temporal units may need reminding that years on Magicians' End are almost exactly two thirds of the length they are accustomed to, and they should scale down their perception of this great time interval accordingly. It remains impressive enough by any measure. Please read the article about Timekeeping in Magicians' End to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the local calendar. Within this interval there have been exactly 411 Rajas. It lies far beyond the scope of this article to provide a full rosta of all their names and reigns, but character articles for some of the more interesting Rajas are linked below in chronological order of their rule.

Reign	Name	Image	Remarks
9642 to 9611 BPC	Gundabah Sarill	Raja Gundabah Sarill by DMFW with Leonardo AI	The first Raja who founded the Court Circle of Katrapetch.
9611 to 9586 BPC	Lortheran Gold	Raja Lortheran Gold by DMFW with Leonardo AI	The second Raja, he was responsible for employing the first Senior Magician of Katrapetch, Mataphar Nomaz.
9586 to 9557 BPC	Dravindra Rholab	Raja Dravindra Rholab by DMFW with Leonardo AI	The third Raja who comissioned the creation of both the Staff of the Raja and the Crown of the Rani, an interesting story with long term consequences, told in detail in his biography and in the articles about the iconic symbols of state themselves.
9557 to 9476 BPC	Rahul Rholab	Rahul Rholab Portrait by DMFW with Midjourney	The fourth Raja, son of Dravindra Rholab and Aadhila Rholab. He ascended the throne at the age of twelve. Until he was thirty in 9539 BPC, Katrapetch functioned under a regency government in which his mother played a significant role. Rahul ordered the construction of the first levels of the Old City Walls, initially as part of a change to taxation rules.
9023 to 8958 BPC	Jalaluddin Ashraf	Jalaluddin Ashraf Portrait by DMFW with Midjourney	A wily and strong leader who helped bring about the downfall of the Empire of Bradalkut in 9016 BPC. As Raja of the newly resurgent city which had regained its independence, he started a second phase of building on the Old City Walls, which greatly improved their defensive strength.
7083 to 7031 BPC	Lakshay Mehta	Raja Lakshay Mehta by DMFW with Midjourney	The Raja who began the construction of the Royal Palace of Katrapetch. The main building was completed in 7040 BPC when the Raja and the Court Circle of Katrapetch took up residence there.
6994 to 6958 BPC	Rakesh Gupta	Raja Rakesh Gupta by DMFW with Midjourney	The scholarly Raja who instructed his librarian Albarech Gundhri to work on assembling and cataloging a great collection of scrolls and books in the undercroft vaults below the Royal Palace of Katrapetch. Although it had certainly reached the city much earlier, the infamous Crimson Codex found its way into the deep archives of the city at this time, only to be discovered many thousands of years later by Clarise Vabatan in 3061 APC.
6438 to 6376 BPC	Samir Vidhura	Raja Samir Vidhura by DMFW with Midjourney	Samir Vidhura was the Raja reponsible for founding the Katrapetch Royal Judicial Service in 6422 BPC which introduced much needed legal reforms, giving the judiciary a measure of independence from the Raja and from the aristocratic families who had squabbled over their rights to justice hitherto.
4505 to 4469 BPC	Manish Rathore	Raja Manish Rathore by DMFW with Night Cafe	Manish Rathore was the Raja during the Northern Punjuki Campaign of the Old Pale Empire. He was compelled to surrender the city to the invading armies from Myruthea after the famous Battle of Katrapetch in 4485 BPC, but he retained control over the civic administration after swearing fealty to the Emperor, and the traditions of the Court Circle of Katrapetch continued largely unchanged in later centuries, although they were technically subject to the authority of the Empire civil service until the Fall of the Old Pale Empire.
131 to 188 APC	Bhairon Shah	Raja Bhairon Shah by DMFW with Midjourney	Bhairon Shah was Raja of Katrapetch when it was the capital of the largest of the Flame Kingdoms, at a time when the terrible after effects of the Planar Conformation were still being felt over all the world. The Flame Kingdoms and Katrapetch in particular were at the heart of the fightback against the Dark Domains and in this age, Katrapetch had a good claim to be the greatest city on Magicians' End.
305 to 347 APC	Sukhwinder Shah		Sukhwinder Shah was the Raja of Katrapetch late in the era of the Flame Kingdoms, when the city celebrated the 10,000th year since it was founded. He was responsible for remodeling the Staff of the Raja to enrich the weight and ornamentation of gold in the shaft.
347 to 388 APC	Gundabah Shah		The son of Sukhwinder Shah, he was named after the legendary first Raja and became the first heir to be retested by the newly remodelled Staff of the Raja. He is also known for ordering the clearance of slums that had grown up to the west of the Royal Palace and the Phryne Market and planting in their place a great public park which he named both for himself and the founder of the city. Gundabah Park remains a popular area of extensive greenery in the heart of Katrapetch enjoyed by all.
2084 to 2118 APC	Samiraj Azamdar	Samiraj Azamdar Portrait by DMFW with Leonardo AI	Best known to history as the Raja who sent the poet Aruvan Jafraan into exile in Highloft and was thus partially and indirectly responsible for the creation of "The Bloom and the Fall", a famous work of poetry from the age of the Four Aerial Courts.
2998 to 3069 APC	Bhupinder Rajput	Bhupinder Rajput by DMFW with Art Breeder	The Raja leading Katrapetch when the Moderators' Council fell in 3004 APC. He was the ruler of the city at the time Clarise Vabatan joined the Court Circle of Katrapetch in 3060 APC.
3069 to 3131 APC	Amarshiva Rajput	Amarshiva Rajput Portrait by DMFW with Leonardo AI	Amarshiva Rajput played an important role in the early progress of the infamous mage Clarise Vabatan. His first wife was the Rani Mehera Rajput but he later went on to marry Clarise who became Rani in 3084 APC. The Diary of Clarise Vabatan tells us much more about his life and times.
3131 to 3133 APC	Aadi Rajput	Aadi Rajput portrait by DMFW with Leonardo AI	Aadi Rajput was the son of Amarshiva Rajput and Galetta Solar who held the throne only briefly after the death of his father.
3133 to 3139 APC	Kieran Bolgurin	Kieran Bolgurin (2) by DMFW with Art Breeder	Kieran Bolgurin rose to become the Raja through his marriage with Taalika Rajput, the sister of the previous Raja. He was already old when he gained the Staff of the Raja and his reign lasted only a few short years before his death.
3139 to 3164 APC	Himmat Bolgurin	Himmit Bolgurin by DMFW with Night Cafe	Himmat played an important role in the history of Katrapetch helping to stabilise the monarchy in turbulent times.
5117 to 5155 APC	Madho Sah	Raja Madho Sah by DMFW with Midjourney	The last Raja of Katrapetch, executed by the Limit Protectorate on the first day of 5155 APC when the Staff of the Raja was broken, the Court Circle of Katrapetch abolished and the long line of Rajas came to a final end.