I typed this on Echidnut's Royal Election video. I figured that I should put it on here, since it is Re:Zero related.
Crusch: Despite many qualms about her mental and physical health, she has seemed to recover and is unanimously elected by the Sage Council as the next ruler of Lugnica. Her first act is to denounce the Dragon, which is where Crusch suddenly gets a hard lesson that Volcanica is not only a figure of political and hard power, but a major cultural one, too, one which can not be simply cast off in the name of secular matters. Miklotov McMahon immediately convinces Crusch to reverse her stance and her extreme naively slowly reveals itself, to which her only reason of running for office vanishes. The Sage Council rules in the background while Crusch acts as a strong willed figurehead, barking off populist slogans(it’s not like she planned on invading Vollachia or anything, and I doubt any of her backers, which seem to be entirely composed of old military officers and veterans of the civil war, want anything to do with the bureaucracy of the country) Crusch ends up being a less than notable ruler, appearing more to the people as the powerless head of a junta than a monarch of Lugnica. Chances are, she probably abdicates the throne in her forties or fifties, finally realizing that the people don't give two shits about her pseudo-nationalistic vision. Her rule is lost to the sands of time, only to be remembered as the footnotes in the biographies of much better people.
Anastasia: She gets elected and nobody even bothers to bring up the fact that she is a Kararagian citizen. As she promised, she quickly works to expand the Hoshin Company across Lugnica and monopolizes some of the larger industries. Most of the country essentially becomes crown property. It all looks good on paper at first as the government’s income increases exponentially, and for the first few years, possibly even a decade, Anastasia's mercantile policies help the country economically diversify like never before. There are a few issues though, first and foremost the situation that Anastasia (and if not her, her company-ran government) reintroduces the institution of SLAVERY, which is illegal in Lugnica but is very much a fact of life in Kararagi. Second of all, the fact that being from Kararagi, Anastasia has no problem with working with Demi-humans, and of course Lugnican humans would have an issue with that. Kararagian slaves and Demi-humans would flood the workforce, and since it’s always cheaper to import slaves rather than to hire locals and pay them wages, most of the Lugnicans living under the feudal system would be out of work, or forced into the cities, where the very nature of urban life pits them against equally poor Demi-humans. With the status of Demi-humans elevating and Human presence becoming ever more redundant, whether Anastasia intended for it or not, anger would begin to grow amongst all ranks of Human society. In the end, Humans would rise up against the perceived demi-human dominated government, essentially starting a second Demi-Human war. Much as in the first war, it sparks in a small region at first, but becomes more widespread as the dominoes of racial mistrust begin to fall. Anastasia, who is mostly concerned about finances, would have no idea how to deal with the rebellion. Depending on how she executes the war, she either ends up dead or fleeing from Lugnica with her tail beneath her legs. If she sends the Royal Army, they mutiny almost immediately and the Sage Council and the Army will most likely coup her and purge all the Demi-humans in government before slaughtering all the Kararagians back across the border. they also might just jail her or kill her, depending if Bordeaux is still alive. If she sends the Fang of Iron (including loyal militias), she can probably justify her actions by telling the public she’s putting down a minor rebellion by using her professional private soldiers, instead of sending conscripted humans to slaughter other humans. Depending on the performance of her forces and the length of the war, she either succeeds in suppressing the uprising and reverses the policies causing the issues she knows are causing civil strife, or she doubles down on her policies of importing more Kararagians and whittling down the Human powerbase to make sure that in years time, human resistance will be severely weakened past the point of viable revolt. If she loses and the humans crush her army, then the Sage Council and the Lugnican government force her out of power and she runs back with her army to regroup in Kararagi. Reinhard politely warns her to stop before he has to flatten half the continent. Humans retake power and purge Demi-humans all over again. Anastasia, no matter what she does, eventually destroys Lugnica and sets the country back a hundred years, whether it be the fundamental issues with monopolizing the country or starting a second Demi-human war. By the end of her reign, people will mockingly be calling Lugnica the “biggest city in Kararagi.” At her death, Humans celebrate and Demi-humans mourn. For better or for worse, the world is now a much different place.
Emilia: Emilia, against everybody’s expectations, gets elected. After doing her best to inform her citizens that she is in fact, not Satella, she sets out to do accomplish her first major goal: to free the elves. Volcanica probably helps her free the elves from the ice, because why not. From there, Emilia passes vague reforms "to make the world a better place for all," which nobody follows or cares to adhere to because Emilia is too naïve and weak willed to punish anybody for being racist, and also because policing the feelings of 50 million people in a medieval society is damn near impossible. The Sage Council pretty much does all the work again, because if they didn't, strong men would take advantage of Emilia's weakness. Over time, maybe over the course of decades, with a Demi-human face (not to mention an extremely cute and innocent one at that) appearing to run the show, people become more tolerant of Demi-humans. Probably not the more animal-like Demi-humans like Ricardo, but the more “human” Demis, like elves, half-elves, and giants. However, in a scenario where Subaru becomes the new sage, he becomes a walking living Jesus figure in Emilia’s Lugnica, which lends major popularity and legitimacy points to her governance. Emilia serves a long and relatively uneventful reign, never really offending anybody or needing to show force while having very, very powerful almost religious figures like Reinhard and Sage Subaru publicly backing her. Even when things get bad, like a famine hitting out of nowhere or a natural disaster, she does her best to personally help, diverting massive amounts of government funds to recovery, even if it ends up to the detriment of her government, but it's all good PR nonetheless. She dies after an over century-long reign of peace, and lots of people, even in other countries, do mourn her and memorialize her as the queen who tried her best. Lugnica probably advances naturally, albeit very slowly to the early-modern age in this scenario. There have been many struggles, but things seem like they're starting to look up.
Priscilla: Despite being Vollachian, she gets elected. Priscilla becomes an absolute monarch, to which she finds out, much like in the our world, the only people she can really boss around in a medieval society are the nobles around her as well as her servants, obviously (dictators you and I know, like Hitler and Stalin, aren't really possible without modern communication) Since she was and remains totally sheltered from the working society, she never interacts with the common people for the first decade or two of ruling. Everything in the kingdom becomes personally owned by her, but since she can’t really use it, everybody just continues on with life, in her majesties name and on her majesties country. Once again, the Sage Council runs most of everything while servants pamper Priscilla, although she does make some policy decisions and begin some initiatives, likes the construction of roads for example, all of which end up successful and exceed expectations. Her good luck naturally contributes to the success of the kingdom; with many, many good harvests and improving relations with other nations among other things due to her ironically enough laisse-a-faire ruling style, the people of Lugnica end up loving her. Never interacting with the public, an air of mystery raises around her, with most of the rumors spread making her look benevolent and majestic. Lugnica maintains a cultural golden age, with many plays and songs being written about Priscilla, among many other things. Theatre, learning, and the arts explode as Lugnica enters an almost renaissance-like period. Entering her later years, she finally reveals herself to the awestruck people of Lugnica and tours the countryside. Unfortunately, constant success has led to a culture of high expectations and complacency, and for that Lugnica has somewhat stagnated technologically, The moment Priscilla dies, possibly as a virgin even at old age just to maintain reputation, almost everybody in Lugnica mourns her while worrying about the future. Everything goes to hell immediately afterwards as disasters that normally would've happened return to ruin the gratified lives of the Lugnican people. People starve and die, civil strife grows, racism becomes and issue again, etc. etc. etc. In comparison to the way things were before, many people believe the Kingdom has entered a dark age. They haven't really; things are just going back to normal.
Felt: Felt becomes queen to everybody’s shock and horror. Luckily, Reinhard convinces her to let Miklotov run the country (because who else but the Sage Council), and not to destroy everything, otherwise Old Man Rom might lose his veteran’s benefits. Felt obliges. Her Lugnica family heritage is eventually revealed, and in time people start to forget about the time when the Lugnica’s stopped ruling for a few years and everybody thought that the world was about to end. Ultimate status quo option, surprisingly. Society continues as normal, except people are more secure in mind with the knowledge that their country has the same old leadership that everybody liked back again. Her humble origins help her gain popularity with the lower class, but only the urban poor. The feudal peasants don't care, as they only see her as the queen rather than a fellow countryman. Felt doesn't do much for the urban poor in the end outside of symbolic gesture, and they do feel slightly betrayed in the end, although was is very much expected by them that she would grow up to be Regina rather than rough and tumble as a natural result of living the rest of her years as royalty. Felt dies in her late sixties, having done very little to advance the country, but that's ok because she fulfilled her role as a Lugnica royal. Unlike the rest of the candidates, Felt is the most likely to have kids to succeed her, Society doesn't undergo any major changes in her reign, but the nation does advance slowly under the reign of her descendants. Things aren't terrible, but things aren't going great, either, it seems like nothing's really changed. Maybe that's for future people to decide.
I'd want to live in Emilia's society, personally. Sounds like the world with the most potential.
