Captain general

Captain generals, later viceroys were high-ranking military-civilian officials of the Hadašhim Empire from the final Expansion Era through the Pentarchy and the Deluge of Hadašham.

Origins
Captain generals were appointed officers first nominated during the regency of Inara Gorasili in 608. Gorasili as empress-regent almost suffered a civilian coup organised by his first suffet, while she was still bed-ridden after giving birth to emperor Marasa II. This made her distrustful towards civilian administrators who gave the backbone of the empire ever since the foundation. Full-scale bloodshed would not have been tolerated by large portions of the population, and the insecure public mood prevalent from the last years of her late husband prevailed. So she had to find another way to circumwent the powerful bureaucrats in the capital what she did by delegating much of the power to provincial levels.

A dual administration was established where military and civilian officers ruled in unison, with the former having the last say in debated matters. Military rule was disliked but it guaranted some stability until Marasa II became an adult. Soldiers were also detached from the strict hierarchy of the armed forces and they started to be just as corrupt and abusive as the civilian governors were. Campaigns to purge the administration from corrupt or disloyal elements turned into rapid regime changes as those at the helm nominated their clientel for the vacated positions. Rich people fled the authority of the cities for the countryside where they were able buy protection under the umbrella of the military governors what led to the ruralisation of the nobility.

Inara was still vary of too much centralisation so she decided to create five military districts along preestablished lines, with captain generals controlling them. These were centered at Zobar Hakk in the Ore Mountains, Lurrak in Panidutne, Ahar-Arath in Ahargan, Nakad-Birith in the Freelands, and Tir-Našadar in Hadašham proper. Although not entirely succesful, the captain generals managed to cut back the most egregious practices among their subordinates while they afforded themselves the same clientel-building as lower-level governors did.

Marasa II quickly recognised the built-in risk of the system and appointed a vice captain-general for every existing officer. Both vices and captain-generals were rotated during his reign in a regular manner, detaching the titleholders from their powerbase thus crippling their ability to gather resources comparable to the throne. His son was able to continue the practice during his rule, but the period saw a marked increase in the power of the captain generals, who were called viceroys in official documents from 676 onwards. After his death the viceroys effectively decided that they do not wish the firstborn son on the throne but a younger offspring who was made into a figurehead emperor. From that point, from the crowning of Harko the Powerless in 679 was the Pentarchy dated in the Hadašhim historygraphic tradition.

During the Pentarchy
From 679 viceroys were emperors of their local region all but in name. Families passed down the title among adopted, married-in or descending members, while the emperor became a figurehead. Power struggle for the still useful Church of the Thousand and for control of the imperial administration led to a low-intensity civil war where military clashes were nigh-unknown. Rival factions employed instead mutineers, revolters, assasins and other indirect methods to achieve their aim. Emperors were exempted from murders, but several orhana kulum weren't that lucky as they were the prime targets. Widescale disillusionment spread among the population as the viceroys were seen the source of everything ill the state, not without reason.

Though the first viceroyalty to fell was the Ore Mountains crumbling beneath an invasion in 757, the first viceroy to be disestablished was Hadašham proper in 730. Officeholders in Tir-Našadar could never achieve the same power as their peers elsewhere due to the strong institutional traditions and middle classes in the region. When a suitor from the Freelands was appointed and wished to rule according to the tyranny in the neighbouring territory he was promptly defenestrated by an angry mob, while his retinue was butchered by the šurghans garrisoned in the city. In the aftermath the Court of the Freelands demanded compensation while the aging emperor made a surprising act of defiance and appointed a royal prince to the office in the star city. Due to the immense, well-organised nature of the local resistance, other pentarchs didn't even dare to attack of otherwise remove the cadet branch from Hadašham proper. This was a focal point in the survival of imperial power, and also in the survival of the imperial family, as the Harkonid branch became the main line in the 9th century.

Deluge
Three viceroyalties were lost in a period of forty-seven years. Hadašham was never well established, the ruling families of the Ore Mountains and Ahargan were massacred in foreign invasions. Only the Freelands remained relative intact, but they were also pressed between the hostile Hadašham proper and Aharganite Kingdom. Panidutne and the Westernlands seemed like a lost cause as territory after territory crumbled beneath the onslaught of Westerners, Lifili and Southern marauders. Suprisingly, it was the west that survived although in form of another polity, and the Freelands that fell during the Third Aharganite War of 893-898. This effectively ended the era of viceroys as the rump empire was united in a single hand, while neither Ahargan, nor the Western Realm considered themselves part of it, although the latter claimed legitimacy as a successor state of the old empire.

Legacy
Captain generals were an innovation of need, as many more reform of the imperial history. Empress-regent Inara was neither particularly talented, nor trained for the task she was overwhelmed by. She created a source of mortal dangers to avert a more impending one, but the rulers after her had the oppurtunity to bring captain generals under their control which they failed to do. The experiences of the widescale underground chaos during the Pentarchy, and that of the imperial Deluge made Hadašham yearn for strong central authority that imposes law and order in every corner of the state. Such wishes impacted the thinking of politicians even more than century after the last viceroy has died.