The Prime Sanguinate

Among their many titles, the Sanguinate Kings and Queens of the Kingdom of the Golden Reef wear the title of Prime Sanguinate. While this title may seem lesser than the title of Monarch, it is the title of Prime Sanguinate on which their system of monarchy and nobility is based, not only legitimizing their rule but granting them an implicit right to command all sanguinates in Sof Sator.

Projected Purity

Whether by truth or deceit, the Prime Sanguinate becomes the leader of a group of sanguinates when they convince those sanguinates that, or all members of said group, their blood is the purest or is strongest. This is only possible because of how anthrals become sanguinates in the first place; it can only happen through inheritance from the past generation. Where even one parent is a sanguinate, the child will always be a sanguinate.
The Prime Sanguinate is, therefore, descended from a pair of sanguinates, who themselves were descended from pairs of sanguinates, and so on. In reality, this purity of descent serves no literal function in the biology of a sanguinate. There is no such thing as a "pure" or "impure" sanguinate, and even the Prime Sanguinate themself is never effectively different than those beneath them in any way that makes any corporeal, physical difference. However, the authority that comes with this role is very real. Whether this is by instinct, upbringing, or something universal to the psychology of sapioformes (after all, inherited power is not unique to sanguinates, or even to anthrals) is debatable.
Regardless, groups of sanguinates have always tended to be organized by some kind of Prime Sanguinate.

Duties

In many ways, the primary function of the Prime Sanguinate has always been to control and direct the appetites of the sanguinates beneath them. The greatest threat to sanguinates, besides aggression from outside groups, is the lethal swing between famine and overconsumption. Whether by nature or learned behavior, sanguinates are motivated by voracious appetites which they seem unwilling (not unable) to control; it is the dual responsibility of the Prime Sanguinate to satisfy this need and to ensure it does not overflow when it is met. It is not coincidence that most sanguinates die to either starvation of in-fighting, as readily available supplies of food are commonly over-consumed, leaving sanguinate groups hungry.
Without a Prime Sanguinate to control a group, rationing their food and directing their hunts for new food, sanguinate groups tend to collapse. Their destiny is to fight over what remains of food supplies, exhaust those, lose significant numbers to starvation and infighting, and ultimately disperse. Outside of the presence of a Prime Sanguinate, it is the fate of sanguinates to wander alone, either to live in a state of meek malnourishment or to live a short life as a predator of anthrals and then to be slain as a monster by hunters of sanguinates.
The method of control exercised by Prime Sanguinates varies by the size of the group. In antiquity, Prime Sanguinates exercised various means of violent control or legalistic control either by contract or by tiers of indenture. The two most successful large-scale systems were those that placed the Prime Sanguinate as the owner of sanguinate slaves (found in coastal enclaves in western Sof Sator prior to 690 CR) and the family-leadership structure that eventually became the noble-birth structure employed by the Prime Sanguinates of the Golden Reef.

History

In Antiquity

The Prime Sanguinates of the past were diverse, and headed groups of sanguinates that ranged from small gatherings of a dozen or so to large societies of hundreds or thousands. Very rarely did sanguinate populations reach the level of tens of thousands prior to 690 CR, as the sanguinate appetites become more difficult to satisfy and to control as their numbers increase; to this end, population control has always been a primary tool of the Prime Sanguinates of large groups, necessitating forms of control that permit for such an exercise of power.
In these times most Prime Sanguinates controlled groups that numbered in mere dozens. There were several hundred such groups at any given time, generally structured with a Prime Sanguinate serving as the role of family elder and passing on the title to the next-nearest descendant upon their death. The most successful Prime Sanguinates were found on Sof Sator's western coast.
Here, a system of economic contracts called the Crimson Primacy allowed a small number of Prime Sanguinates to collaborate in the formation of enclaves that behaved, from outside perspectives, as pirates and raiders, and were treated by surrounding states as lawless marauders.
The largest group of sanguinates -- the Montag Thalassocracy -- placed a single Prime Sanguinate as the owner of a large population of sanguinate slaves, held in thrall by a small number of free sanguinate slavemasters. Unintuitively, this society incorporated non-sanguinate anthrals as free citizens that mostly did not interact with the sanguinates; the two populations were kept separate, with the free anthrals benefitting from the labor of the sanguinates in exchange for a daily blood tax. This society seemed to regard its sanguinate colonies as a kind of conservation sanctuary, though the sanguinates inside of them did not agree.

In Modernity

Beginning is 670 CR, the collapse of Montag gave way to a period of anti-sanguinate violence that ended in the destruction of the Crimson Primacy and saw most independent sanguinate groups hunted and dispersed. Out of this period rose the naval fleet of Admiral Al'uy, made up of the remnants of the Primacy and crewed by survivors of many different sanguinate groups. Upon conquering the Golden Reef and declaring himself King, Al'uy went a step further and commanded that there be only one Prime Sanguinate of all Sof Sator.
This became Al'uy's claim to ultimate authority. As the only Prime Sanguinate, all other sanguinates in Sof Sator were to be judged by how closely they were related to him. Thus, his immediate relations were granted more implicit power and command of their fellow sanguinates. By seeming coincidence, most of Al'uy's lieutenants (and a few rivals) were suddenly able to produce genealogical records tying them directly to Al'uy, perhaps only a few generations removed; it seems likely these records were fabricated when constructing the government of the Golden Reef. Regardless of the veracity of familial claims, this became the basis of sanguinate nobility, which has endured in the Golden Reef since then. Despite coups, muders, and noble in-fighting, the King or Queen is always the Prime Sanguinate, connected in some way to the nobility and, therefore, to Al'uy himself.
As there is, in recent history, no substantial population of sanguinates outside of the Golden Reef, this is the only Prime Sanguinate in Sof Sator and the implicit superior of all sanguinates, whether they are in the Golden Reef or not.

Equates to

Matriarch, Patriarch, Elder, Progenitor

Source of Authority

Age & Purity of Bloodline

Related Organizations

• Sanguinate Kings and Queens
• Kingdom of the Golden Reef