Wild and Wacky Rejected Imperial Laws
By Cronus Veridas
As an Imperial citizen, you likely know that the Empire has long been a government with the prerogative to make laws which generally hold the best interests of all the Empire’s people at heart. But not all attempts at legislation are so clear-eyed, nor are they all so progressive. It is fortunate that these imperatives are all but missing from the Empire’s history, but that is not to say every motion of the Elder Council has been a good one. The following are a few failed pieces of Imperial legislation.
Greeting Act of 3E 6 – Early in Tiber Septim’s reign, not all constituents of the Empire were so impressed with the rule we now hold as legendary, largely due to the fact that a large portion of the young empire was still newly conquered. The Elder Council sought to improve the Empire’s image and boost morale, and the Greeting Act was one of the more outlandish proposals of how to do just that. Under the law, it was initially proposed that all people of the Empire would be required to greet one another, “Salutations in the name of Emperor Tiber Septim, Defender of the Faith of the Eight Divines and the People of the Empire, may his reign last forever.” As the law was debated, the requirements were slackened until the greeting would only be required in the presence of a member of the Elder Council or a General of the Legion, but still the bill was doomed to fail.
Sobriety Act of 3E 70 – Uriel II’s reign was one beset from the start by insurrections and plagues, and it was seriously considered by a good portion of the Elder Council that prohibiting drink would solve these problems. A number of different approaches were suggested to enact the goal of “drying out the Empire”, but all were too impractical, not to mention significant backlash at the idea. The law never saw the light of day. Now, there is something to drink to.
New Succession Act of 3E 142 – Already weary of years of strife and war over the Ruby Throne, it was proposed that a new Emperor should be selected by an exhaustive process of assessment of a candidate’s political and military skill, knowledge of Imperial history, and views on matters of importance to everyday citizens. This bill died quickly with its introducer, who was slain by another member of the Elder Council who had his sights on the throne but did not meet the threshold of the testing.
These are only a few intriguing laws proposed in the Elder Council.
Other Miscellaneous Failed Laws:
A quickly rejected proposal made in the Stormcrown Interregnum would have required the deflowering of any woman under twenty-three to take place in the presence of a priest of Dibella!
One bill well into the Third Era would have subdivided Imperial currency, renaming the Septim the “Pelagius”, reapplying the Septim name to a unit one hundred times the value of a single Septim today, and adding a range of other varying units of money with the names of other prominent Imperial figures!
It was suggested in 414 that the use of Old Cyrodiilic supplant New Cyrodiilic in matters outside of official documents, where it still sees use, but this was rejected based on the inability of a large portion of the Elder Council to speak or write in Old Cyrodiilic!
One anti-Morrowind Councilor proposed that the word “Muatra” be stricken from Imperial speech, but this was denied because it could not be shown conclusively that “Muatra” was obscene!