hi. um, what?

So. Zanta wasn't queen originally- skifander was under control of the Yajeena high preistess of Eshkigax, and Zanta was in exile.

then Klaus showed up and apparently either bumbled or heroed or kingmakered and then Zanta was queen and told those guys to go pound sand and everybody worships Ashtara now, parties and raucous parties for weeks yada yada yada.

Zeetha gives an extremely pared down version of whatever attempted coup happened after, but "they made trouble for her every way they could. / Eventually there was a big fight, and all the four-armed Yajeena died" isn't all that vague, either. Coup number 2.

We know that Skifander has experienced several recent periods of unrest (dare I say, normal for this setting) but the key point I'd like to draw attention to is:

When?

You see. The comic's timeline is a bit wobberjaawed with the timetravel and record uncertainty and more than two decades of production time. but most things are more or less causally traceable (how this comic has absurdities like 16 year foreshadow/joke payoffs).

so We Know that Klaus was only gone a few years. and while some of that can be fudged since apparently traveling through a dubiously repaired Queen's gate can cause some serious time loss, I'm inclined to trust it at least approximately at about 2 years- maybe a little over.

and that first kingmaker coup is not a good time for babies. Not only is it a tiring job leaving little energy for making them, but Klaus definitely wouldn't want to endanger his kids even if Zanta approved. Not to mention I assume she started his training at some point in that beginning period or he wouldn't be as good as he is, able to train Gil in recognizable skills. And it would take at least 6 months off our timeline to get things settled well enough for any serious and settled hanky-panky, so Zeetha and Gil came after Zanta was queen and well into Klaus' stay in Skifander.

In fact- that Weeks-of-Partying-Ashtara-Style Zeetha mentioned is a very plausible time for Gil and Zeetha to happen!

Zanta being pregnant also gives the Eshigax faction to stew and scheme and figure out ways to influincer her, and failing that to undermine her.

Admittedly, at that time Zanta's position would be very solid. She's proven her strength and cunning and gotten the support of a foreign consort who is himself formidable physically and as a spark. And on top of that, her lineage is well on it's way to being secured, bc Pregnant!

But also because pregnant, the Eshigax priestesses have more time to schmooze and test the waters, find allies and could-be-allies than Zanta did, because she's using all her energy making a people!

So when She has twins???

The opposing faction would already have the groundwork to start pouring whispers and dissent into the court. It's even probably in their wheelhouse- priestesses of a 'not very nice' goddess ought to be masters of dire portent. So the new queen has these ignominious heirs- perhaps they're a curse or will bring calamity or she herself is the threat and this is the warning sign.

But Naturally it will all go away if she resumes worship of Eshigax/hands over the throne again/kills the baby(ies)!

and like. that would take months of brewing and rumor mongering and political showmanship- but they have the advantage of, per the 2020 Q&A "can you tell us something about Skifander? / They don't like twins."

the exact details are currently opaque but I'd like to propose a possibility.

Lets say the ask was to kill both the babies or set aside the throne, lest calamity strike etc etc. Obviously that's a catch 22, Klaus and Zanta would try and nix that- something something the line of inheritance, that would be stupid, and maybe Klaus foot-in-mouth about how Europa would agree that's repugnant-

So- "generous" compromise to only kill the boychild, so the royal line would remain preserved, if not perfectly, and send away the consort- it seems likely his foreign ways are the cause etc etc- figuring that they can overcome Zanta alone and maybe get some personal satisfaction making sure Klaus doesn't come back from this exile.

Which is harder to argue with without outright saying "I'm the queen and I don't want to do that" and if Zanta's been on the throne maybe a year, she doesn't have the security she needs for that! Especially not with the Eshigax actively undermining her and the ramifications of her twins!

So they try to slowplay- the twins grow a bit, about 4-6 months (Gil could hold up his head, it seems...) which puts them about Klaus' 2 year mark and about time for the priestesses to be getting frustrated.

What to do when you are a reasonably evil, powerhungry order of ancient mad assembly technicians and your predictions of doom arent motivating the populace the way you want them to?

Why- cause some doom, obviously!

Obviously I'm halfway to inventing this wholesale, but lets say that the Eshkigax faction kidnapped Gil and Klaus and planned to have "interrupted" their foul influences right before it went end-of-days bad and naturally their evil consumed them!- by throwing them both into a bit of a Lion's Den of Queensgate runoff beasts.

After all- the Yajeena physiology seems to be somehow key to the making of queensgates- they could definitely cause some 'where the walls between dimensions sometimes wear thin"

and Naturally, Zanta would try and get them back! If not for love than for the political look! she needs the disaster the yajeena cooked up to fall on thier heads and not hers.

and That??? That could be a big fight, where Zanta is depicted without Klaus, in a battle more than deadly enough to massacre the all the yaeena on the field, and Klaus fleeing through long-unused tunnels from extra-dimensional horrors.

In Europa, Klaus has just received his Heavenly Mandate and is trying not to have a stress related aneurism taking care of an infant in a wartorn wasteland- he doesn't have the emotional capacity to think about his wife, and her people, and the unknown quantity of nigh-unkillable horrors that leaked through the door he used which may or may not have gotten blasted by the dreen.

and In Skifander, Zanta is experiencing the worst of the best case scenarios.

On the Upshot: the faction trying to unseat her is wiped out! but their schemes worked: her son and consort are gone.

which means anyone who was inclined to believe the Eshkigax faction's claims will definitely assume the future lack of trouble is from the twin and blasphemer being gone. And since that gossip was a concerted effort of influential social leaders? there will be many people incllined to believe that.

but first she has to go after Klaus- find out he's not there.

The trail after Klaus and Gil leads through a cave with concerning lack of the corpses of extradimensional beasties that made the fight above absolutely rancid. (Surely he would have gotten at least one if he had to turn and fight, there would be traces right?? Surely Zanta's zumil did not go quietly and she might never know-) not good thoughts. Especially when she'd also be physically exhausted after that fight.

If the coup and the extradimensional baddie fight didn't piss off Zanta, I can wager she'd get pretty darn cranky on that walk.

and at the end?

a queensgate! A working one! Although since the Dreen Melted the Bjeebus out of the receiving end, probably not going anywhere very specific at just that moment...

So to bring you to the focus of my next speculation:

what if there was another Yajeena there? Probably from the opposing faction that wanted the throne, probably involved with the creating of the operational Gate Klaus fled through (and so familiar with the look of it's correct vs incorrect operation), and naturally fluent in what england calls 'ancient languages' just the same as Zeetha is. Better even, since she's a mid to high level scholar.

Lets say that when the dust cleared the Yajeena weren't all dead. One of the newer ones, past the 4 arm ceremony but not fully read in on the secret ways (of queensgate construction), of a craven and backstabbing disposition might try and bargain for her life by arguing Zanta's babe and husband might be ok and she can lead Zanta to where they would be if they were smart and capable-

Maybe she intended to try and trick Zanta through the mirror, or just use it as a weapon against her, or perhaps she was only making a sincere bid to live past the day- but it seems likely Zanta would assume she was pulling skullduggery regardless.

So Zanta yeeted her at the portal.

Perhaps it was after a heated discussion where our hypothetical Yajeena tried to argue that the two should be fine only very far away- an excuse Zanta would be in poor mood to humor- Or maybe it was semi-accidental in a struggle for that last second attempt to defeat Zanta- It could even be a calculated attempt on this Yajeena's life. After all, if Klaus and Gil were found and continued being visibly in the royal family and the manufactured misfortune the sect of Eshkigax were decrying suddenly ended when all the preistesses died- that would have a certain look that would benefit Zanta.

but with them both gone, and one Yajeena (the only Yajeena to survive this disaster: a sole religious figure is a powerful story-) That Yajeena has everything to gain from denying that the elder priestesses were corrupt; to insist that it truly was the twins and blasphemous consort.

And going though a malfunctional portal... well! based on what Neena said about the Steelgarter family having an uncanny revival 50 years ago, Agatha should be glad it was only 2.5 (since that seems a likely method to become heir, I'm gently assuming she engineered that bit of prosperity somehow)

All of which would handily explain Steelgarter's deal: She hires expeditions to try and find Skifander and bring something back to her to activate a gate she will hopefully get working soon and probably get support from the Other to smite Zanta and become Sacred Priestess on High or whatever theocratic title of Skifander (Power and revenge on Zanta!)