#acidalia

How does The High Queen feel about monarchy in general? High Queens are often educated, benevolent, and well aware of the power they hold. It’s not too far-fetched to think that someone in this position might understand the issues inherent to absolute monarchies, especially if she has family members or peers who take advantage of their statuses and abuse their power. If The High Queen knows that autocratic monarchies are not ideal forms of government, how does she cope with the cognitive dissonance of acting as a monarch while knowing that it’s a bad system? Does she try to justify it in her own head, claiming that alternative forms of government like democracy are just too inefficient? Does she say that she’s a good ruler, and that’s all that matters? Does the thought of her children inheriting her power disturb her?

What does she feel about governing in the first place? Does she enjoy it, or does she view it as her duty—something she was born to do, even if she hates it? Does she take pleasure in commanding people around her, or does she secretly wish she could have a different life? Does she envy commoners for their perceived lack of responsibilities, or does she pity them because they don’t have wealth and power like her? Many High Queens have a certain humility to them—they don’t look down on the lower classes or make their power obvious, but it seems like everyone recognizes them as being noble anyway, no matter how little they actually try to cultivate that image. Is the High Queen really humble, or is she playing a game of humility, knowing that to be humble is to be popular and sympathetic? How does she maintain her image as a beautiful, ethereal royal without coming across as a snob?

How does she maintain her pristine image? Beauty takes time, effort, and work, and so does cultivating a perfect reputation. What maddeningly expensive and time-sucking routines does she have to complete in order to appear so perfect? What tricks does she use to ensure she’s never anything but gorgeous and graceful? In modern settings, I kind of love the idea of a woman who’s constantly surrounding herself with beautiful people, manipulating camera angles, and hiring entire teams to help her keep up appearances—not because she’s vain, but because she’s a role model for so many people, and she understands that image matters. If you want to be seen as a dainty, effervescent, delicate beauty, you have to put in an enormous amount of work and time so everything you do flatters you and contributes to that image. 

How does she cope with potentially having to break her own moral code? No matter how competent you are as a leader, you’ll probably have to face a problem where there are no good solutions at some point—especially if you’re ruling an entire country during a time of conflict. What does she do when every option is bad, and every decision she can make will wind up hurting someone? And autocracies are corrupt almost by nature, because if you want to stay on the throne, you have to convince your keys to power that you’re worth keeping there. In an absolute monarchy, the keys aren’t voting blocs, they’re important men and women who can stage rebellions against rulers they don’t like. How does The High Queen deal with having to pay off and favor influential people, sometimes at the expense of her own citizens? If she refuses to pay the keys, they’ll rebel, but every cent she gives them could have been spent on the innocent commoners she’s supposed to be protecting. 

How has her position affected her relationships with her family and loved ones? She probably has siblings and cousins who rank lower than her at court; are they envious of her? Is she envious of them? Does she even get along with anyone in her family on a personal level, or does the jealousy and awkwardness of having siblings and cousins that outrank one another mean that having positive relationships in the family is next to impossible? Does she have to watch her children develop rivalries over who will inherit the throne, and does it worry her when they squabble, because brotherly disagreements can spiral into all-out wars? Does she have to tell her younger children that they will simply never achieve the rank their eldest sibling will one day inherit? Does she see anything wrong with this? If she does, does she do anything to change it?