A true Holy Roman Empire

      “It was not holy nor Roman nor an empire”

This was how the French writer Voltaire described the Holy Roman Empire of the German  people 

And to an extent he was right after all this empire despite the name was not very romanized and by the time of Voltaire’s time that being the 1700s it was religiously divided with Catholics in the south and Protestant in the north. By what if all that wasn’t true? 

What if there was a German empire that was Holy and Roman? 

   Enter the mighty kingdom of Nohr 

   So where is Nohr exactly and when did it exist? Will in truth it doesn’t. Nohr is a fictional kingdom of the game Fire Emblem fates, but wait you might ask how does this Nohr relate to the real life Holy Roman Empire? Will my friend though the name Nohr comes from the French word noir the actual ancestral tongue of the Nohrians is Germanic, we learn this from a conversation between the two characters Camilla and Odin. It’s from this same conversation that we learn that Camilla’s armor is called grossartig mond or great moon in German. Another character from Nohr you might find interesting is Siegbert he’s the son of prince Xander making him an heir to the throne of Nohr, but what important hear is that he happens to share a name with at least three Frankish kings. 

                     Siegbert I of Austrasia 

Saint Siegbert III 

 Siegbert IV son of Xander 

The same Franks who would establish the Holy Roman Empire under the famous King Charlemagne in the year 800, but it was never romanized leading to people considering it to not be a Roman Empire, but Nohr changed this. It answers the question what if this German empire really was a Holy Roman Empire! 

                

                         Part I: It is Holy 

“We of the royal family are descendants of the ancient gods, the first Dragons.” -King Garon of Nohr 

 

This quote highlights the main reason Nohr is a Holy kingdom because it’s royal family rule by unquestionable divine right. A claim that even their enemies recognize “ the blood of the dusk Dragon runs in the Nohrian royal family” - Ryoma high prince of Hoshido. Never has any nation defended the claim of its enemy before, but there is is a reason for that.  For anyone who possesses dragons blood can mold the very  earth itself. 

    While on the subject of holy earlier I said that the HRE was not considered holy because of the religious divide that existed in the empire’s later history no record exists of such a religious divide in the kingdom of Nohr as the people of the kingdom are bound by covenant to the goddess Noira or the dusk dragon as she is also known. 

                           Part II: It is Roman 

   

On the surface Nohr’s Romanization is obvious with many of its nobles having Roman names like Camilla, Leo, Xander, Silas and many others which I will not mention here but others have. 

           https://youtu.be/6HMEObtn0aA  

But where most fictional empires are content to just inherit the Roman esthetic with legionnaires marching around a scarlet banner Nohr inherits the spirit of old Rome and no better was this spirit shown then in the second Punic War… What is a Punic? I suppose I should explain that before continuing. Long ago before the Romans had conquered the known world they had a great rival in the form of the Vile demon worshiping Empire of Carthage 

 

      Images of Carthaginian child sacrifice 

the Romans called the people who lived there punicus and in the year 218 B. C. a great and terrible man would arise from among those corrupt people and his name was Hannibal and his would bring great terror to the people of Rome and her allies for 17 years. Such a great thread he was that he would defeat the Romans not once not twice but three time. Now at this time as well a coward named Fabius would be a elected console of Rome and he refused the face Hannibal in battle instead choosing to shadow him but this was not well liked by anyone save perhaps Hannibal for it allowed him to continue his campaign of terror against the Romans but this would change when the heroic generals Cornelius scipio finally defeated Hannibal at the battle of Zama. 

 Ok now that you know a little bit about the Punicus you might think what does all this have to do with the Roman spirit I mentioned earlier well it has to do with the console Fabius. You see the reason his strategy was hated by the Romans was because quite frankly they saw it as cowardly and dishonorable. For the Romans the only way to defeat an enemy was in a set piece battle, and this same view is shared by the Nohrians and most famously by Crown prince Xander of Nohr.

 

Xander! If you knew him as well as I do you would name him along side the Greats such as Marcus atilius regulus a brave Roman who was taken captive during the first Punic War and was told by the evil Carthaginians he could choose to betray the people of Rome or be tortured to death, he chose death. 

                  Marcus atilius regulus

 

Or Stilicho a half barbarian general in the Roman army who spends his life protecting an empire who hated him. 

                 Stilicho betrayed by the Romans 

        

                  Part III: It is an Empire 

Now at first glance the kingdom of Nohr doesn’t seem like much like as an empire, with much of its territory being divided between 12 great lords called patriarchs Nohr has more in common with the German Holy Roman Empire than classical Rome but unlike the German emperors who were elected by a counsel of lords making the power of the emperor subject to the self serving nobles of the empire, or even the classical Roman emperors whose reigns were often cut short by ambitious generals seeking power over the greatest empire ever built. 

 

 Nohr’s king’s have the pleasure of ruling a king with a robust succession system, let me explain as I said before the king of Nohr can trace their history back to their own goddesses Nohra this also them to rule with an unquestionable divine right and like more traditional monarches the throne passed from father to son but quite unexpectedly Nohrian have an egalitarian side for if the king should die his power would be transferred to his queen or should the king’s oldest child is a daughter the throne would go to her. 

Now don’t miss understand the reason the Nohrian system works like this is to ensure the kingdom’s heartland would remain strong and to prevent a civil war or a succession crisis like what happened to the war of Spanish succession or the Roman’s many conflicts over the title of emperor of Rome. 

                  

                          The conclusion 

Well my friend I trust you know understand that despite being Germanic the kingdom of Nohr is indeed a 

       HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE!