[Lord Carnifex]

Originally Posted by Sindri

The Kafes system of the Ottoman empire in which surplus claimants to the throne were stored in a secure location instead of being left free to start civil wars or being killed off and thus endangering the line is quite fascinating to me. However, historically some problems emerged due to ill-preparedness for ruling or psychological problems due to confinement. Is there a way to reduce these problems?

Another attempted solution is to try to give possible heirs something to do that doesn't involve amassing independent military or temporal power. Master of the Royal Seraglio. Chairman of the baths. Majordomo of the palace (with control over the palace staff and logistics but no control over governmental figures). Lord Mayor. A figurehead position where they have to wrangle a staff but where they have only ceremonial duties and no power to speak of.

The basic idea is to give them experience in administration and leadership, but without building a power base.

Putting younger sons into the Church is sort of the same idea, except that serving as a Bishop or Abbot actually is frequently a position that carries a certain amount of soft power.