Trauerqual

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 7 Born as the fifth prince, in his youth Trauerqual was raised to become a vassal to whichever of his brothers would eventually succeed the king, rather than participate in the competition for succession himself.

After his father's death, a civil war broke out over the succession between the first and third princes.

The third prince managed to defeat and kill his elder brother, but was soon after killed by an assassin sent by the first prince shortly before their final battle. With the two contenders for the throne gone, a new conflict broke out between the fourth and fifth princes, with most of the former first princes allies siding with the fourth and the former faction of the third going over to the fifth prince.

In this second part of the civil war Trauerqual's faction came out on top, in no small part thanks to the alliance with Klassenberg. Following his victory, Trauerqual was coronated to be the new Zent.

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 7 Despite his complete victory and him being the only prince left alive once the fighting stopped, his ascension to the throne was still not unopposed. Due to him failing to fulfil the qualification set down in the bible and thus failing to gain the god's divine mandate, many in the sovereign temple initially opposed his coronation, but ultimately relented due to there simply being no other suited candidate to hold the position.

The civil war the transcription of the Grutrissheit owned by Trauerqual's father, which was supposed to be passed to the next king was lost. Usually in such a case it is the new Zent's duty to make a new transctiption from the one made by the first king, but since it's location it currently unknown, King Trauerqual has so far been unable to fulfill this duty.

Furthermore with the candidates raised to potentially become king and the previous king all being dead, it is likely that many secrets passed down from the king orally have been lost.

This alongside the bitterness over an unqualified royal becoming king is what gave rise to the movement of the biblical fanatisism.

Following his victory and coronation the new king enacted a brutal and far-reaching purge throughout the entire country, executing anyone who had supported the first or fourth princes or had a claim to the throne, as well as others seen as disloyal. This purge was not limited to just members of the losing faction, but also affected the winning duchies and those that remained neutral throughout the conflict.

This purge even claimed the lives of people who were not implicated in any act of disloyalty, but just had the misfortune to have a family relation with one of the nobles labelled as a traitor, even if they were part of a duchy that had supported the king during the war. One such example was the second wife of Aub Ahrensbach who was executed due to being the little sister of Aub Werkerstock, despite being innocent herself and her husband fighting alongside the prince in the war.

To make matters worse for many duchies, the Sovereignty tried to fill the gaps in their noble ranks by calling nobles from the duchies to the Sovereignty, leaving many duchies drained of even more manpower and mana than the purge itself already did. This can be felt particularly strong in the various temples, since they lost personnel three times: Once from the purge, once from the sovereign temple calling the best and mana-richest priests to the heart of the country and finally from the duchies recalling those they sent to the temple to noble society.

Originally the king planned to have Anastasius fill the role of overseer at the Royal Academy in the terms following his graduation, but due to being given lordship over lands, Anastasius became very occupied with filling the land and it's magic tools with mana. After much debate the king decides that this was too important to interrupt and thus reluctantly chooses his third son, the just recently baptised Hildebrand to oversee the next term at the academy. While it is unprecedented for a child to take up official duties before their debut at archduke's conference following their baptism, the current situation left the king with no other viable choice than to rely on the young boy.


 * Cambridge Online Dictionary