States on Ajthat are by majority kingdoms. To question what is the use to them of [having] various states when [they] would can [be able to] live in one equally well, they usually answer something about the human soul that gravitate toward diversity, need for the change, of migratory birds and other poetry stuff. We conclude they like it thus, where we are warrantedly wrong. One detail escaped us, or maybe just the essence. It will probably be that we are so right, we have no idea about what.
But why kingdoms? There are, also, princedoms and dukedoms, even two republics. By later exploration we concluded there are no real differences - all of kings, princes, dukes and presidents are elective offices. The election is two-way - various councils choose kings, and kings choose the states. The councils are similar to sabors of old times, parliaments and skupshteens, and the method of election is similar to the one what [it] was [like] a thousand years ago on majority of human worlds.
As a rule, the kings are not royal descendants. They originate from a few lykeions. It is hard to get into a lykeion vasileion; royal descendants have the advantage just in case they have inherited those attributes [unclear which ones] from there parents which are required for the assessment examination.
When a state seeks a king (it remains to be examined once as of "when" and "why" - are they impeached, are there attempts to retake the throne, is anyone overseeing the kings), they seek candidates from the lykeion of their choice. More prominent states receive more offers - lykeions only hang these announcement to their message boards, and influence their graduates [finnishees] in no way. Various occurs: kings without lands, kings changing states for the third or fourth time, swapping kings among states and inversely, countries without kings, prosperous states going down because they have limited the king's powers and now have no success finding a new one, kings by trade, working as advisors, or have some other good office, and it does not cross their mind [at all] to take the throne somewhere. Few cases were noted where some kings had two thrones at the same time, among which one incredible case when the employer states were in some sort of dispute, and the king eventually sided with the winning [state]. [It] remained unclear whether the king knew how to pick the side which will pass better, or the side which managed to attract the king passed better.
Theoretical reasoning: the dynasties were good only for providing the princes an aristocratic education and growing them on the court, training them for their hard job from early [age]. They were bad for all other reasons. The lykeion vasileion has all the good sides of such an environment, and provides the spirit of competition, unavoidable for rulers.
The number of male and female attendees is uniform; during the history some student love affairs managed to breed complete dynasties, which then in no case have ever ruled the same state in two consecutive generations. The kings, in their turn, don't rule quite alone, but they compose (impose?) governments and take advisors for themselves. The ministers and advisors move with the king sometimes when he changes country, or swim over to other kings. There are cases when smarter ministers manage to replace a king they are not satisfied with; more often it's the other way around. There are no skholas for ministers; this sort of staff is populated by lesser students of the lykeion vasileion, or more prominent sage from within the state. Some king may make an offer to an impeached minister from other's government, or a government may canvas a foreign king.
Above all there is still the crown council, which is sitting in more or less of a slumber, and wakes up when it takes replacing a king. Through this slumber, many say, the council is awake watching for whoever may be dragged onto the throne, if need arises.
There happens to be a lot of funny troubles on tournaments, when competitors from opposing skholas meet. These feuds between lykeions are long passed to following generations, and would be said that [they] are carefully cultivated. They comprise an important branch of the local folklore, along with rich heraldry. Though, this word should be taken with reserve, since there were no mounted animals (though in some dialects mints from 'horse' and 'donkey' are mentioned), and therefore there were no horsemen or shields. The heraldry relates to personal insignia of kings themselves, which can be, thanks to some technical trick, seen bobbing above their heads. This probably stands for the kalpak, mentioned in Earth's histories as "klown", "vientze", "kvoun" and such. Typically it consists of a few clear symvols (see recordings). The most frequent symbol is a tree with various fruit, which in turn bear their own symvolic meanings, or a ring of objects orbiting around a point somewhere above monarch's head. The list of symvols shown does nto change, except in case of important events in king's biography; king changing country changes his decoration, but always takes a couple of kharakteristic signs from his previous office, or in case of annexation of a smaller dukedom or princedom adds their marks into his "overhead cloud".