Emperor is the ruler of an empire in the known world.
Traditions
Emperors traditionally inherit the title through male-preference primogeniture.[1] The Old Empire of Ghis[2] was possibly ruled by a council of eight, which had eight regional governors underneath an emperor.[3][N 1] The mythical Great Empire of the Dawn, as well as its successor, the Golden Empire of Yi Ti, is ruled by a God-emperor.[1]
The emperors of Yi Ti may have multiple wives, including the last indigo emperor Choq Choq, who had a hundred wives and a thousand concubines.[1]
History
Westeros never had an empire, being instead ruled by a multitude of kings during the Age of the Hundred Kingdoms until it consolidated into seven major kingdoms.[4] Essos, however, was the home to several empires, such as the Old Empire of Ghis and the Great Empire of the Dawn, a legendary realm which preceded the Golden Empire of Yi Ti.[1]
The Valyrian Freehold was a great territory that spanned much of the continent of Essos,[2] but it was never a kingdom nor an empire, or at least it had neither a king nor an emperor.[5] However, Aurion, one of the few dragonlords who survived the Doom of Valyria, declared himself Emperor of Valyria, a self-proclaimed title.[6]
Recent events
The azure emperors are the current ruling dynasty of the Yi Ti Empire, but their rule is being defied by general Pol Qo, who has named himself first of the orange emperors, and by a sorcerer lord who claims to be the sixty ninth of the yellow emperors, a dynasty fallen for a thousand years.[7]
A Dance with Dragons
Five thousand years after the fall of the Old Empire of Ghis,[8] Hizdahr zo Loraq's list of titles includes those of "Scion of Old Ghis" and "Octarch of the Old Empire".[3]
Quotes
The proudest city in all the world was gone in an instant, its fabled empire vanished in a day, the Lands of the Long Summer scorched and drowned and blighted. An empire built on blood and fire. The Valyrians reaped the seed they had sown.[9]}
—thoughts of Tyrion Lannister
At the Citadel of Oldtown and other centers of learning in the west, maesters regard these tales of the Great Empire and its fall as legend, not history, yet none doubt that the YiTish civilization is ancient, mayhap even contemporary with the realms of the Fisher Queens beside the Silver Sea.[1]
—writings of Yandel
Notes
- ↑ Hizdahr zo Loraq's list of titles includes "Octarch of the Old Empire", which may imply that the empire was ruled by a council of eight, but it is unclear if Hizdahr's title has any basis in the Old Empire's practices.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 The World of Ice & Fire, The Bones and Beyond: Yi Ti.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The World of Ice & Fire, Ancient History: The Rise of Valyria.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 59, The Discarded Knight.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Reign of the Dragons: The Conquest.
- ↑ So Spake Martin: SF, Targaryens, Valyria, Sansa, Martells, and More (June 26, 2001)
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, Ancient History: The Doom of Valyria.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, Yi Ti.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 23, Daenerys II.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 33, Tyrion VIII.