The Empty Throne Question

The Empty Throne Question haunts Caerdun like a chair kept dusted for a dead man. Is the realm waiting for a rightful ruler, or has it become something older and colder: a kingdom of offices, roads, ledgers, beacons, and emergency duties? Noble houses speak of blood. Soldiers speak of command. Towns speak of grain arriving before winter and walls repaired before the next raid. Priests argue over whether stewardship is humility or disguised ambition. No answer satisfies everyone, because the empty throne is not merely a vacancy. It is a mirror in which Caerdun sees the terrible possibility that survival has already remade it.