The Letanian Ultimatem refers to the final events that led to the downfall of hereditary rule in what would one day become the country of Scurn.
Events
A disenfranchised populace had grown tired of corruption and lack of representation from the two ruling houses of the time, Houses Dnoro and Cromston. Both of these houses were overthrown by angry mobs in a somewhat coordinated coup and put to death. Dnoro was forced to drink wine that had been poisoned with Lodestar of the Vale while each member of Cromston met the executioner's axe. These methods were enacted to be symbolic of their styles of rule; the former used more cutthroat and political savvy to undermine the populace while the latter took a more straightforward, physically violent approach.
Seeing an opportunity to usher in a new system of government he had been envisioning, the philosopher Fiel Torman organized a group of influential people to unite the commoners, which then offered all remaining nobility in the country a chance to escape similar fates and integrate into the newly devised system of government, called the Commonocracy. This offer has since come to be known as the "Letanian Ultimatum". The ultimatum also stipulated that they denounce all titles and sovereignty, but allowed for each to keep a portion of their estates.
Acceptance of the ultimatum by the Vassal Houses enabled Torman to draft a constitution, which consolidated the regions of Letania and Kestrinal into a new nation called Scurn. This took place in 1271.1.
Holdout Enclaves
Not all territories submitted to the Ultimatum. The remote regions of Charth and Mormark, historically considered minor territories of Kestrinal, refused to acknowledge the new government. Their geographical isolation and defensible positions allowed them to resist the revolutionary fervor that swept through the main regions.
Officially, the constitution of Scurn claims sovereignty over these territories as "autonomous historical regions," but in practice, they continue to operate under hereditary rule by Houses Blint and Yearl respectively. The nobles of these enclaves still use their traditional titles and maintain governance structures that predate the Commonocracy.
Most citizens of Scurn proper rarely think about these holdout regions, considering them cultural curiosities rather than true political entities. However, the inhabitants of Charth and Mormark proudly maintain they never accepted the Ultimatum and consider themselves independent sovereign states that merely maintain "diplomatic relations" with Scurn for practical purposes.
This political ambiguity has persisted for centuries, creating a unique situation where ancient noble traditions continue to exist within the technical borders of a nation that was founded on their rejection.