Honourable Prince of Red Crest

"The crown is now yours, my son, and so are the island's responsibilities"

— Tesel, last Queen of Merthiorn

The title of Honourable Prince of Red Crest is a relatively new one and has only been used once in history. Whether it will continue existing some years from now is a matter of debate.

The "Independence" of Red Crest

Up until 2985 E.Alz, the island of Red Crest was a colony under the Kingdom of Merthiorn, and by that point, it had been that way for a couple of centuries. The Queen of Merthiorn had complete control on whom was appointed as viceroy to control the island, and this position used to go to one of their children, usually a boy or a second-born child, as the Queen of Merthiorn had the liberty to choose her own heir, and it was an unwritten and untold tradition to select a female-born child. The Kingdom sucked resources and labour from Red Crest, but otherwise, the treatment of it was not too different from Merthiorn's mainland, and the culture of Red Crest's people had been mostly left untouched, and so the general population of Red Crest was content enough not to fight for independence.
In 2976, it was the turn of Virgilim, son of Queen Tesel to be named Viceroy of Red Crest for his 14th birthday. As it was customary, he got some older members of the royal family to watch over his actions and act as counsellors, but the prince showed a lot of restraint and decency on his decisions, which looked quite unusual for a high-society teenager. At that time, Merthiorn's population and growth were getting a bit too difficult to control from a distance, while at the same time, the mainland was going through its own administrative nightmares, by virtue of having its capital on extremely difficult terrain and surrounded by mountains that separated them from the rest of the settlements.
And so, for his 23rd birthday, and knowing how closely Virgilim used to follow any of her "recommendations", Tesel decided to "gift" his son the command of the entire island. She decreed the independency of Red Crest, making it a principality under the command of The Honourable Prince of Red Crest, His Honour Prince Virgilim, a title crafted by the prince himself.

The Prince's Duties

The Honourable Prince's new duties weren't incredibly different from the ones of the Viceroy besides the obvious rise in power.
However, in a short amount of time, Prince Virgilim started adding "items" to the list, imposing additional "tasks" on his own role. Most prominently, he declared the Honourable Prince of Red Crest to be in charge of keeping the decency and morals of Red Crest's people and providing cultural values to his people. The Prince also self-imposed the duty of ensuring the active participation of each citizen on adding to the wealth of the nation, which, in practice, meant ramping up taxes at an alarming scale.
To act in these self-imposed duties, Virgilim started changing, slowly but steadily, dozens of things that directly impacted Red Crest's culture, making it a lot more conservative, prudish and, in a word, distrustful. The principality became famous for its heavy regulations and taxes, and the skittish way in which everyone approached anything that they considered could get them into trouble.

What came after the fall

As soon as the High Rust caused the fall of the Kingdom of Merthiorn and the death of Virgilim's mother and family (with him surviving miraculously) things started going bad for the Honourable Prince of Red Crest. The "puppet state" status of Red Crest didn't prepare Virgilim for governing alone, and the crisis caused by the High Rust stirred the social climate too much.
An increasingly big group of people, perhaps led by the infamous Circlecrats, started demanding the loosening of the tight moral and economical regulations on the island. While Virgilim is still the Honourable Prince, and his island is still a bad place for business, some think that the title may be soon to stop existing.

Virgilim by Naelin

Type

Civic, Political

Status

Disputed, sometimes with pitchforks

Creation

1/3/2985 E.Alz, by declaration of Queen Tesel of Merthiorn

Form of Address

His Honour

Source of Authority

Mommy

Length of Term

Lifetime Or Else

First Holder

Virgilim

Current Holders

• Virgilim

Related Locations

• Red Crest Islands

Related Organizations

• Principality of Red Crest