House Rannal

House Rannal is the Royal House of Hadash, the current head of which is King Misic Rannal I.

History
House Rannal has ruled the Realm of Hadash since 547, after coming out on top of a period of civil strife brought on by the boundless greed of the last royal house, Anast, now consigned to the annals of history. The conflict did not quite turn to all-out war, though there were a number of skirmishes, and the Plains Kingdoms took advantage of the unrest to raid the western reaches of Hadash. In the wake of the conflict, with either the support of or certainly no opposition from other Hadashi houses, House Rannal seized control of the Hadashi capital, Jewel, and Sedjet and Ilbris Nomes from House Anast.

King Misic's father, Kabzel, brought Hadash into the empire in 602 and the Hadashi are still viewed as relative newcomers on the stage of imperial politics. The move was broadly welcomed in Hadash, which sees it primarily as a means to open up new mercantile opportunities. Some wondered if the Hadashi monarch should really owe fealty to a foreign ruler, but the general view has been that that is a problem for House Rannal, not Hadash as a whole and that if push comes to shove, the realm could in fact depart the empire again - as with much of the empire, short of invasion, there is not much that could be done about it if a major portion decided to secede.

Misic has ruled since 620. He has proven to be a dangerously incompetent ruler, a miser, a poor leader, perpetually paranoid, and bereft of any empathy. His only redeeming quality was that his father favoured Misic and wanted him to take the throne. Views are mixed on whether this was a case of Kabzel being blind to his son's many flaws or desperately hoping that they would resolve in time. Whatever the case may be, Misic has got worse has time has gone on. He has been largely inert. One of his earliest directives was to have all royal soldiers, often used for frontier security, be kept within House Rannal's lands, despite that the royal holdings themselves are in the heart of Hadash and do not need large garrisons, and that Hadashi convention is that the royal house should defend its frontiers. When Min Nome was attacked, he did nothing whatsoever, and forbade family members from taking soldiers to the aid of House Anadun.

In 631, he made a public proclamation denouncing the Realm of Dyria for purportedly placing spies in his palace, something which nobody else in Hadash has been able to make heads nor tails of. The Dyrian Crown issued a formal protest in Sanctuary and the Imperial Crown sought to mediate. Misic does not ever leave his palace and so imperial diplomats travelled to Jewel, where the king derided them as snivelling fools and ordered their execution - other Rannals swiftly intervened to usher the diplomats from the palace and to safety. Misic knows that his order was not adhered to and rants occasionally about his own family.

He has developed a fixation on the Cornucopian Realms and has denounced them, repeatedly and loudly, but the Cornucopiean merchants rarely come beyond House Heshbeh's home in Pearlsedge and, so far, the Crown of Hadash and the Pearlsedgers have been able to keep the king's rants from the ears of the merchants.

Holdings
The main holding of House Rannal is the city of Jewel, on the banks of the Emerald River. It is a city of wondrous architecture and vibrantly colourful stonework. The royal palace, with its array of grand buildings and lush gardens, is a particular marvel.

Besides Jewel, House Rannal also holds a contiguous series of four nomes - the standard Hadashi administrative subdivision - including Sedjet Nome, Zubis Nome, Tanat Nome and Ilbris Nome. Even by the remarkable standards of the land along the Emerald River, the domain of House Rannal is exceedingly fertile.

Current Events
King Misic is widely regarded as paranoid and frighteningly incompetent. While he has been worked around so far by House Rannal and the Crown of Hadash, none believe that the current situation can persist much longer, especially in the wake of the Dyrian incident. It is steadily eroding the perceived power of the Crown, with a few incidents where people have dismissed the Crown's agents, claiming that they do not speak for the king anyway. If the traditional authority is eroded - and it already was in the wake of the downfall of House Anast - then the Crown must rely on its ability to use force, and it has little enough of that, unless they attempt to overrule Misic's orders that the army be retained entirely on House Rannal's land. Many worry that if Misic continues apace, Hadash shall see a repeat of the conflict that led to the downfall of House Anast, or worse, with a possibility of the realm falling apart entirely.

Views on what to do about it are mixed. It is broadly acknowledged even within House Rannal that Misic is a problem, but he succeeded legitimately, and an individual placed in power by a palace coup may not have that legitimacy. None have yet openly stood against Misic. There is no doubt that he has aggravated every Hadashi noble house, and they are considering internally what to do. House Rannal has taken readily to the imperial custom of nobility spending a good deal of time at court in Sanctuary, and some wonder if they should seek assistance from elsewhere in the empire in dealing with the problem.