Khagan Declares State of EmergencyJuly 4366Following months of unrest which have seen thousands of lower class "petitioners" protesting the influence of their more prosperous compatriots and an Orderist plot which the Khagan and his Mnistrs claim to have been aimed at overthrowing the Khagan, the Khagan has declared a
state of emergency over the whole country. Enabled by the recent
Emergency Law passed by a panicky Kurultai, the Khagan has received a fistful of new powers over security matters. The Kurultai basically gave the executive branch a blank check and did not even add any limitations to the scope and length of the emergency. Analysts view the much lauded "Grand Compromise" as all but dead with the Kurultai surrendering its authority to the Khagan out of fear of destruction by protesters. Security forces have been beefed up and as many as 25,000 men deployed across the Khanate, a number which may eventually rise to more than 100,000.
Thus, according to several Majatran political analysts, ends the Khaganate's 5 experimentation with "semi-democratic rule" The dangerous class divisions and greed doomed the experiment and the power appears set to re-accumulate in the sovereign's arms , this time with less restrictions than ever. The Jelbek state has become centralised in a way unimaginable just a generation ago. As such, the Khagan with his new and mostly unaccountable powers, will be little short of an absolute monarch. His many predecessors while despots, never had a centralised bureaucracy to exercise such despotism in a truly efficient manner. The development has been a mostly positive one for the average Jelbek with the tax burden lighter, greater legal certainty and a slimmer if distant bureaucracy.
Khagan Rejects Criticism Over Consanguineous MarriageManil Khagan has decried "hysterical intolerance" in response to the widespread foreign criticism of his decision to betroth his younger daughter Princess Mrjmai to her first cousin Prince Manil. The Khagan issued a press statement basically restating the case for such a marriage. Divisions at the court however cannot be addressed so easily. The future bridegroom's mother Princess Subin of Indrala has kept up the pressure on her brother-in-law to change his mind on the matter and drop the marriage plan. The Khagan is reported to have insisted on the marriage viewing it as preventing the creation of rival branches in so young a dynasty. Princess Subin's husband Prince Jebr is said to be quietly opposed but in full realisation of that this would be the price for the throne.