Emperor

An Emperor or Empress is the leader of a state called Empire. There are different concepts and names of what an Emperor is and how they are expected to rule. In our world there are for example the concept of the Caesar (also Kaiser and Tsar) as inheritor to the Roman Empire or the King of Kings or the Son of Heaven etc. .This article is about the differents sorts of Emperors in Maran.

Neina
Neina is how the Emperor is called in the Diadenr language. The first Neina was Diador the Great who unified all classic Taranic Kingdoms to one Empire. The concept of the Neina is similar to the "King of Kings", one King who rules supreme over a group of smaller rulers. The concept of the Neina brought a change in how the Taran viewed their rulers. In the world before Neina Diador Haishem rulers were only legitimised by their genealogy and had no titles besides their dynastic names.

Aiashim Kirek Tarawna
When the Taran migrated eastwards and founded the Wasler-States their concept of a ruler also changed. The word Kir is a loanword coming from the Sedaras word Kerunen. Kir or Kirek was a smaller King more alike to a chieftain than a Neina. When the Taran Empire was united the concept of the Aiashim Kirek was born, the highest King of all. While a Neina had conquered and subdued all other Kings, the Aiashim Kirek was just one of many rulers, who happened to be the highest, showing the feudal nature of the Taran Empire as opposed to the much more centralised Diadenr Empire.

The Four Emperors
As the Sylikaidian Empire rose also the theory of the four Emperors was born. Alandir Karheten was not crowned A-Kir (or Jayshm Kirech as it would be in Sylikaidian), but Nekut Neina Emperor of the West. His belief was that four Emperors should rule over all four corners of the world. The Taran Emperor would be the Sakut Neina and later the King of Gumlug became the Gumlug Neina, the Emperor of the North. The title Emperor of the South or Renug Neina was never given to anyone. Many proposed the Third Empire of Massela or the Molei Union or even the Lang'Wiang Empire as the great Empire in the south, but most rejected these, because they thought all four Emperors had to be taranic.

Dadar or Ceriadadar
The Ceriadadar is the Emperor under the Sun, the lord of the Ceriadis, the Empire under the Sun. The name is akin to Cerdadar "Lord, the Sun" the name of the Sungod of Ceriadis. The Ceriadians believed that their Emperor was directly legitimised by the Sun. The Ceriadadar was elected by a council of the four leaders of Derial, Erelas, Larein and Jerim. Before the first Dynasty the Ceriadadar was more or less a moderator between the four states, but later became the supreme ruler of the Empire under the Sun.

Hainko Umikau
The Hainko Umikau is the Mother of all houses. In the matriarchical society of the Laak people the belief of Laako Umi, the House of Laak is prevalent. This hierarchy puts the Hainko Umikai, the mother of all Houses at the top and gives her a similar position as an Emperor in other cultures.

Neekûnan obgta tekshu t' Arán ûm rát'
The Neekûnan obgta tekshu t' Arán ûm rát' or often just Neekûnan, the Heir of the Black Stone, is the Emperor of Massela. The referenced Black Stone is the Tekshu of the first masselanian Emperor Áreecha Wiela, as the legend goes those who possess the Black Stone also possess a part of the power of Áreecha Wiela and are thus legitimated to rule over Massela.