Election of Doge Mirkandar I

Mirkandar is Minalan. When the Spellmonger went undercover in Farise as a Practical Adept, he chose the name of an obscure Later Magocracy reformer, Mirkandar of Sivony, and stylised himself "the Magnificent" to plant Imperial associations in Farisian ears. The election that closes Practical Adept is the moment that cover identity becomes a sovereign office.

The Sivony association

The historical Mirkandar was an obscure civil-service mage of the Later Magocracy, born in the then-humble farm village of Sivony some forty years after the Inundation of Perwyn. He spent two decades as a reformer and policy-drafter, eventually serving on the privy council of the prevailing Archmage. Planus dryly noted that his private life was a shambles -- eleven children by four wives (two simultaneously), four duels over infidelity, an affair with an Archmage's wife and another with a priestess, constantly in debt -- but the public reputation was that of a serious reformer with a credibly Imperial pedigree. Minalan picked the name precisely because it would attract eyes among the magical houses of Farise without giving him away.

The Congress of Electors

Three years after the Castali withdrawal, Farise was leaderless. The fractured ruling council, anchored by the Alshari rebel Count Cingaran and challenged by the Rat-backed Captain Rellin Pratt, could not agree on a Doge. Pressure to elect one "the old way" mounted, and Cingaran's attempt to ban the proceeding only stiffened the magi's resolve.

At the Winter Solstice the magi and nobility of the Citadel duly elected a Congress of Electors, three hundred forty-four members in total, two-thirds of them magi by tradition. About a score of foreign-born candidates were named and accepted to round out the body, including both Mirkandar and Pratt. As Mavone reported back to the cabal:

The magi and nobility of the Citadel had duly elected a Congress of Electors during the Winter Solstice, without serious objection from Cingaran's forces.

— Mavone, Practical Adept

Adept Nandus served as President of the Electors. Each member was assigned to two committees, and Mirkandar drew the two that mattered most for what came next: the Qualifications Committee and the Finance Committee.

The committee work that shaped the new government

The Qualifications Committee was tasked with drafting the criteria a candidate must meet to stand for the office of Doge. The Finance Committee was tasked with drafting the proposal that would fund the new government -- taxation, budget, oversight. Both became, in effect, the legislative skeleton of post-election Farise.

Mirkandar quietly subcontracted the drafting work to Heeth the Arcanist at the Starlight installation between sessions. Heeth produced a forty-page brief on the original Magocracy methods of electing an Archmage or Doge with historical commentary on each, which Mirkandar carried back to the committee table. Lady Tirkia, co-chair of the Budget Committee and seated alongside him on Qualifications, found his proposal so much more complete than anyone else's that she submitted it on the committee's behalf when Adept Nandus pulled the schedule forward:

Adept Nandus is pushing to move the date up dramatically. And . . . well, he's demanded the qualification criteria from our committee. Since you had the most complete proposal, I . . . I submitted what you presented.

— Lady Tirkia to Mirkandar, Practical Adept

Heeth's Finance proposal followed the same path, becoming the working text the Congress moved on. Both documents survived the election as the founding fiscal and qualification framework of the new Commonwealth.

The Rite of Challenge on the Citadel rooftop

By Farisian tradition the Doge is elected under the open sky. The Electors donned their yellow baldrics and climbed six flights of stairs to the roof of the Citadel for the vote. Pratt presented himself as the magi's candidate, with Lord Haramine and Captain Pallus as his seconds.

Mirkandar then revealed his identity, invoked the Rite of Challenge (the old Imperial trial-by-combat used by Farise to settle disputed elections), and named Sandoval and Noutha as his seconds. The rest of his cabal materialised in through the Magolith's Waypoint — Mavone, Lorcus, Atopol, Ruderal, Parru, Lemari, Jordi, Jannik, Durgan Jole, Iyugi, plus Azar "as a friend, not in any official capacity." Minalan summoned Twilight to one hand and unstowed Avalanche with the other, the Magolith pulsing warningly over his shoulder.

Pratt drew his scimitar, calculated, and yielded without crossing swords:

If you are serious in this contest, I will yield . . . and accept you as the new Doge of Farise.

— Captain Rellin Pratt, Practical Adept

He saluted Minalan with the scimitar -- a gesture Minalan thought gracious -- and stood aside. Mirkandar offered the same challenge to any other contender; none came forward. Adept Nandus put the motion to a voice vote.

The vote, and the chosen name

Mancour declines to give an exact count. Minalan's own narration is deliberately vague:

I won't bother to mention the exact numbers of the vote — it was not unanimous. But more than two hundred of my fellow Electors assented, and from that moment on I became the sovereign Doge of Farise.

— Minalan, Practical Adept

When Adept Nandus began to record the new Doge's name as Count Minalan the Spellmonger, Minalan stopped him:

In Farise my name is Mirkandar the Magnificent. That is the name under which I shall serve.

— Practical Adept

To signal the city, Minalan magically lit the smudgepot on the Citadel rooftop, by Farisian custom releasing the cloud of green smoke that announced a new Doge.

A sovereignty separate from any other crown

The legal trick of holding Farise as Mirkandar and the Magelaw as Minalan keeps the two titles from combining under the kingdom of Castalshar. As Doge of Farise, Mirkandar answers to no king:

Minalan is the sworn vassal of Rard. Mirkandar is the Sovereign Doge of Farise. See how that works?

— Minalan to Alya, Practical Adept

The same afternoon, still on the rooftop, the new Doge issued his Prime Edicts: Farise declared an Imperial Commonwealth, slavery and piracy abolished, a free-port Great Market, a Council of State of five officers, the Magical Academy and University reopened, foreign agents to register or be tried as spies, a one-year emergency decree until a written Constitution. Lady Tirkia was named acting Minister of State, Adept Nandus acting Prime Minister, Sandoval interim Minister of Arms, Lorcus Commonwealth Field Marshal in command of the Iron Wheel mercenary company, Mavone handed the intelligence portfolio, Jannik appointed Herald of the Doge, and Durgan Jole named Warden of the Straights.

The boy Minalan once watched Farise fall as a young warmage walked off that rooftop as its sovereign.