King Rilimbrar Heltharn has his daughter, Princess Sambryl, wed her second cousin Imphras IV, though the marriage is never consummated. Imphras IV, although still considered a traitor and confined to the royal tower at Filur, becomes Crown Prince. Rilimbrar does this to get his daughter on the throne (since Impilturian law forbids a Princess to take the throne if there is a living male heir).
King Rilimbrar then appoints the twelve living male heirs of the fourth and sixth sons of Imphras II as a ruling council, effective upon his death and revocable only after Sambryl was no longer queen, and invests the Lords of Imphras II with the collective authority to oversee the realm in the name of the crown. The aging king then decrees that the Lords could select replacements from the citizenry of Impiltur with the approval of the monarch.
King Rilimbrar also reconstitutes the Most Holy Order of the Sacred Shrike to serve as the elite army of the Council of Lords. Rilimbrar selects three of the Lords to serve as the ruling Triumvirate of the order, one each from the three churches of the Triad (Tyr, Ilmater, and Torm). »