I did give some consideration to how I'd been using titles in the Caphan material. Because much of the storyline was unplanned - the whole thing started in response to a one-line joke in a reply to a story - I've had to play catch up after the fact.

For example, like the Black Panther and the Sub-Mariner over at Marvel, Kiivan's been describes as a Prince even though he's been titular ruling monarch. Likewise I've variously described him as Emir and as Caliph at different times.

My get-out is that we're translating Caphan terms to English, so clearly there'll be some drift in precise meaning. Emir and Caliph have been variously used as well. Caliph seems to most often have referred to a city ruler, but also to infer some kind of religious status too, much as Queen Elizabeth II is also head of the Church of England. Emir generally denotes a ruler of a realm. English doesn't have a specific word for the ruler of a planet.

I don't know if I'll get into this in-story, but my thinking is that Kiivan may be a Prince until his first heir is born, and then become King when his fertility is proven. He's Emir by birthright. He'd need to be made Caliph by proclaimation, customarily after a period of rulership and possibly some testing; but the title is used of him informally already. or perhaps he;s Emir of Caph and Caliph of it's capital Alcaphia.


It's at least in part a chess player trying to clear the board up to put it away. I think this material might be coming towards the end of its interest for some readers, so I want to have one last, thorough pass at it to tie up any loose ends and tell one final storyline about it.

That said, feedback from readers so far have helped shape later portions, and debate around the ethics and politics of the situation have made me aware of points it would be useful to cover. And I am hoping to set up a couple of new situations for ongoing writing by the end of this.

One key conflict, and perhaps the least palatable aspect of Caphan society as we've posited it, comes up good and strong before this issue of Untold Tales is done.