Lily Court

Lily Court is the main royal family and unofficially the fifth tribe of Navavia. The founders were Emperor Yungyan and Empress Amiuko, two of the main forces in the First Merfolk War.

Lily Court
The titles of the members of the royal family are similar to those of the other tribes. They are referred to as Emperor, Empress, Imperial Prince and Imperial Princess. If the current monarch couple consists of two people of the same gender, the child of the former monarch keeps Emperor/Empress and the other one is either Archduke or Archduchess. All of the other tribes are below them and have to bend to their will, but Lily Court does not traditionally have the right to decide major cultural things, only when it comes to political things, trades or wars etc. They reside in Lily Pond Palace.

Royal Marriage
Members of Lily Court choose their partner through Courting Trips and Courting Parties. These are held at random intervals until they chose someone they find suitable as partner. To these Courting Events, the monarchs are able to invite certain people they want their children to consider but overall, everyone is allowed to join these courting events and try their luck. The parents don't much say in their children's' decisions.

Succession
The eldest child of the clan automatically becomes the heir, whether it's a girl or a boy. Every other child is allowed and encouraged to leave Lily Pond Palace and live their own life how they want to, but are also allowed to invite their partner to live with them in the Palace. If the eldest child for some reason cannot become the next monarch, the next oldest child who still lives in the Palace becomes the heir. If there is no child in the Palace other than the original heir, an uncle or an aunt to the heir can be chosen to be the next monarch. If there are no uncles and aunts available, the oldest child living outside of the Palace will be ordered to return to the Palace with their family and take on the responsibility.

History
During the First Merfolk War, people realized that all of the tribes weren't properly able to work together and that they needed one united royal family or something similar who would tell them what to do if another emergency occurred. So when the war ended, two of the strongest forces during the war, a former Anemone called Yungyan and a former Orchid called Amiuko, were made Emperor and Empress of first generation Lily Court. The two of them, a couple, created the rules and values how they imagined a perfect royal family to be: righteous, pure, focused, independent, loyal.

When they started living in Lily Pond Palace, they soon found a strange gemstone (now called Essence Crystal/Essencit). They found that it had immense powers and allowed people to cultivate an unknown substance referred to as Essence. They transferred parts of its power to four other gemstones so that the four other tribes could use the powers as well, the original Essence Crystal restored its full power shortly after.

Many decades later, their bloodline started becoming impure. It started when a remarkable ancestress of them, Empress Ainyar, was tricked by a man who wanted to have the Essence Crystal's power for himself, so he tricked Empress Ainyar into believing he wanted to marry her, letting her into the palace and he was almost able to steal the crystal, but Empress Ainyar realized just in time and stopped him. She later left with the Essence Crystal, becoming the only Elf who was ever able to return to the Mortal Realm.

When she left, all of the other gemstones lost their powers as well, they were only able to cultivate Essence when used together, in the same time and place. But people decided to just not use them anymore since it would be too much trouble to always meet and cultivate the gemstones.

However, one Orchid called Yandan refused to be ordinary, so she made the heir to the throne of Lily Court fall in love with her and had three children, so she wouldn't be suspected, only to kill him and all of the other members of Lily Court after, except her three children. Her first order as lone Empress of Lily Court and Navavia, was for all of the tribes to hand in their gemstones. At first they didn't care since they couldn't cultivate them anymore in the first place, but Empress Yandan soon started a reign of terror, making everyone bend to her will. The only ones safe from her tyranny were the other royal families, as long as they let her take over and didn't say anything about her ways.

Values
The members of Lily Court value righteousness, purity, focus and independence.

Relationships
Members of the family are only ever allowed to have one partner their whole life, so they are often urged to not rush into relationships.

Abilities
After the people learned to cultivate the Essence Crystal, the people of Lily Court were able to bend Essence and are in charge of things such as weather, climate, temperature, flora and fauna, health etc. They also have an excellent sense of Perception.