Six Tables
The Six Tables was a society of noble peers, which existed as a confederal political entity in northwestern Messenia from 1229 to 1692, and then as a constituent of Odann to 1780.
History
Origins
The Tables began as something avowedly affiliated with the nadmen, an aristocracy that formed in Ternia under the Secote Dominion. The nadmen took up military and juridical roles to mediate the Secote elite which diverged into the officeholding cinnfine, and the ainmfine forced into herding and farming. By the collapse of the Secote Empire they became the real petty kings of Ternia, able to rally the ainmfine, free townspeople, the older Sabamic landowners among the céili, and the Cairan argan behind their military protection and social charisma. During the First Aittecht the nadmen began adopting symbols from ancient Dael culture and were no longer content to follow the customs of Secote kunentsyism, instead reviving ancient Dael councils known as slogads to form alliances and reach agreements independent of the cinnfine.
The Convocation of Gárran na Ríthe in 1229 was such a slogad, which founded the Six Tables as a permanent order of nadmen and other dignitaries. Since the Nihilist Wars naidm alliances tended towards becoming lasting treaties while rallying more and more participants, and Gárran brought this process to its culmination. The Montalbian Empire in Sabamia, which pushed to Cairn at its height, and Sabhian naval expeditions launched from Tassedar, were the two major threats that united many great lords of the region. The Convocation was presided over and consecrated by the Argan of Odann, and offered the Argan itself as an arbitrative authority, though it did not yet attain the power Odannach clergy later became known for. The Tables were not a distinctly Cairan order, but created their own non-sectarian rituals and regulations in slogads based on the independent symbols of Daelic heritage, and a sense of selship and chivalric honour. For example, all dignitaries gained the old Daelic title of 'king' or rí, and for centuries there was a sense of dignified equality among the notables of Ternia; to the extent their lands were collectively referred to as a 'Kingdom' (rígdacht) it designated 'kings' in the plural. The Tables thus effectively provided diplomatic protocols for the nadmen's petty kingdoms, while earning the support of Arlaturi members in Kunia. The cultural enthusiasm for Daelic revival, the membership's inertial prestige, and realistic opportunism led to the admission of rulers from as far as Mattänge. Theinar as far as modern Helminthasse were not initiated into the Tables, but became regular partners and eventually officially recognised 'friends' as part of collusion against Sabhian raids.
Gárran also did not directly overthrow the cinnfine and their commanderies that still claimed rights to ožidomy from various parts of the country. Rather, these rulers' authority lost currency more gradually, and attempts to extract tribute by force were checked by the technologically equal (and culturally still quite Secote) nadmen. By the early 14th century the anachronistic wandering courts of the cinnfine would lay down their Secote pretenses, either submitting to the Tables to remain among the elite or joining the ainmfine, and finally ending the Secote era. In addition, kunentsydoms themselves survived in the title of ceanois, which was alloted to those with nominal precedence in particular areas such as the Principality of Marduine.
Federal era
Though Secote symbolism was abolished in the 13th century, the nadmen retained many kunentsyist characteristics acting as itinerant military elites, mediating between self-governing towns, villages, and manors. Allegiances were fluid, and the ceremonial princes competed with elected war-leaders or slogadaigh. From the 14th century there was some consolidation and centralisation of power, with petty kings working alongside the argan to institute Cairan law through edictal means similar to what had been practiced in the Montalbian Empire. At the same time dignitaries from the towns, ports, and trades, through monetary and artisanal patronage of the argan, earned independent titles and recognition as saoir. Complex conflicts and intrigues drove further attempts at increasing power which challenged the Tables.
Warfare happened alongside renegotiation at slogads in restructuring the Tables. Attempts to create a 'High King', 'High Lord', 'president', or 'imperator' to unite and moderate the Tables under a permanent office were not as successful as the creation of distinct kingdoms such as Asinia, Brealia, Laora, Lachania, and Odann. The title of rí regained importance by being attached to specific dominions, while primogeniture became established to secure succession. The argan and its ideas informed by Orange Revivalism did succeed in increasing their involvement in law and politics, though still in bitter competition with most princes. Similarly, the saor cities, trading leagues, and freeholders of the coast would have to constantly guard their autonomy against the new kings of Laora and the other coastal realms, though their freedoms were in themselves considerable. The only region that mostly escaped this tide of lordship was the Arlaturi and Siur affiliates in Transaphrasia, in part through accepting influence from the Palthic Empire instead. Nevertheless, the slogads and the Tables' elite culture remained (if not became even more) important in structuring princely relations.
Odannach ascendancy
Odann's prestigious association with the eponymous Argan joined with its conquest of Laora in 1498 (and the resolution of the Dael Schism) as well as the subjugation of Brealia and Lachania to make it the single most powerful Tabular domain in the 16th century. The Clairháins leveraged many paths to power, including Tabular institutions, but also the Argan of Odann and the new influential standards of Siur law propagated in the wake of the Endurbygging. The Argan bestowed the title of Defender of the Faith on the Clairháins in 1559 after the pacification of the Séaraiseacht, while the Ædsthirð ruled in favour of their actions in court as they did with many of their other ambitions. The three-pronged strategy of arganic, Tabular, and dynastic appeals worked in alternation as their respective constituencies gained and lost favour at the court in Ráth.
In 1585, the Crowning Convocation decided to give the agreeable Liam VI and future Clairháin monarchs the title of 'King among Kings', finally realising plans for a meaningful 'High Kingship'. Given Liam's less aggressive confederal policy, this was likely a concession meant to work out a fairer union in the face of Savamese and Siur powers. This was still challenged by the Wolves' Circle led by Stranda and Fiobhan lords, but it was crushed by Adhamh II in the Fiobhan War by 1606. Adhamh then made extensive use of his royal title to both extract compliance from naidm and saor dignitaries in the name of Tabular obligations, and appoint Clairháin dynasts and allies to intervene in the outlying principalities. This was further justified with the confrontation against Siurskeyti in the War of Liberty and Quènie in the Quènien-Odannach War. Nevertheless, the Tables' initiates put up effective resistance. Royal authority was somewhat retrenched after the 1632 Agreement of Sléain and the establishment of the Council of Nobility, and throughout the Median Wars it was by consensus through the Council and the coordination of their own estates that the nobles fought a war for a united cause.
While the Six Tables did not enable absolutism, the importance of the institution itself took a substantial hit. Sectarian royal policies in Mattänge had led to the Kunic War, ending in the secession of Tvåriken in the 1692 Peace of Degersholm. To ensure that Siurskeyti and Odann both could not intervene in the new country as a buffer zone, it was recognised that the Tables could not compel political interventions in their name, and the King among Kings would not enjoy powers from the office itself. This sweeping concession was agreed to because of the Council's effectiveness in coordinating nobles, and a desire by even the Tables' proponents to steer it away from political contention. The Six Tables thus ceased to exist as a political formation.
Late period
As an institution within a Ternic personal union centred on Odann, the Six Tables were not immediately reduced to mere ceremony. The rights of the nadmen and saoir against the Defender and the Argan were still based in Tabular codes, and the vast majority of lordships, townships, and other constituents of the kingdom were those registered among the Tables. Actually respecting these rights, however, moved into the purview of laws external to Tabular conduct itself, and in theoretical terms their continued existence became a generosity of the crown as an independent authority. The ennoblement of merchants and soldiers also challenged the Tables' claim to importance.
During the Reform wars noble squabbling in the Nocturnal Factions was blamed by the Argan and popular fanaticism for holding Odann back from a victory over the Reformers, although the initiative and prerogatives of lords and estates still formed the backbone of the war effort. The Six Tables were targeted as a noble anachronism in the Second Aittecht, and reforms definitively placing Orange Orthodoxy first in the Odannach state aimed to totally abolish it. In 1780 Liam VIII pushed through such a programme, the Encameration, though by 1790 the renegotiation of the personal union led to the secession of Brolangouan, Nation 60, and Nation 59 in the Compromising Convocation (albeit as allies, with still-strong elite and personal ties, until the Fourth Reform War).
The slogads and other important rituals of the Tables had long ceased, and for all its past importance there was initially little reaction to their unceremonious abolition. It was only later in the 19th century that Odann conferred the Grand Order of the Convocation upon all the great dynasties among the Tables before 1790 and the Grand Order of Kings upon Odannach nobles, both privileged with access to exclusive gatherings and games periodically held in Gárran. On the other hand, the Tables' versatile character has expedited both close relations between Odann and other Daeltacht countries in later times through customary ties, as well as causing divisions within the Odannach rump state resulting in the secession of Laora and Fiobha after the Long War.