Hawkwood-Corrino-United Monotheist-Tritheist Hegemony

The office of Emperor of the Republic in the Imperial Republic from Year 23,813, when the first elected Emperor (from the planet Hibernia) died in office, to Year 42,607, when the Kingdom of Albion became part of the Republic, unleashing the Logan dynasty and the dual monarchy, was for over 18,000 years dominated by four groups: House Corrino, House Hawkwood, the United Monotheist Church, and the Tritheist Church.

All but two elected Emperors during this period of 18,794 years were hereditary nobles from the ranks of either the Corrino or Hawkwood families or ecclesiastic leaders from either the United Monotheists or the Tritheists. All of them, of course, were humans.

The elected Emperors of the Republic from outside these four dominant groups were mainly from the races of the Star Elves and Asguardian Dwarfs. The Elf Eldric Vangardos served as Emperor of the Republic from Year 28,888 to Year 30,024 and the Dwarf Vahiks Nauhaus served as Emperor from Year 31,999 to his death in Year 33,044 (Star Elves and Asguardian Dwarfs have very long lifespans).

Vahiks Nauhaus was autocratic in his rule as he brought criminal charges against his political opponents in the Imperial Parliament and the Law on Rescinding Parliamentary Privledges was frequently used during his reign. He also filled the Parliament with his political cronies by granting hereditary seats and noble status. As a result, the political reform laws passed in Year 33,044 under his immediate successor as Emperor, Bishop Haas Deveronia of the United Monotheist Church, limited the authority of elected Emperors.

Unwritten, uncodified political convention during the Hawkwood-Corrino-United Monotheist-Tritheist Hegemony that if a religious leader from the United Monotheist or Tritheist Church served as Emperor, then representatives of other religious groups (including the Neopagan Movement and sometimes predominately non-human or minor faiths) would be represented in the Council of Ministers.

Often, when a new Emperor was being voted upon within Parliament, members of the Council of Twelve or groups of 25 or more Regular Council members would nominate two or three or even four or five members of the same family or church, so there could be any many as 20 candidates for Emperor, mostly from the Corrino and Hawkwood families and from the ecclesiastical leadership of the United Monotheists and the Tritheists. This often forced a second runoff ballot between the two two vote-obtaining candidates on the first ballot, sometimes the second ballot pitted two Hawkwoods or two Corrinos against each other. More rarely, two Tritheist bishops or to United Monotheist bishops would be pitted against each other on the second, runoff ballot