either by fate or intervention, ingrid and her aunt grew close. the queen of switzerland had a contentious relationship with her brother, the duke. how could she not? decades separated by a border and years of frederick blaming emilia for abandoning their people in their hour of need. and for what? something as mundane as love? 

the battle had continued with their children, but max and elyse had been such an easy pair. quick allies in the nursery. as quickly as emilia and wilhelmina, duchess of prussia, had worked to solidify that bond, ingrid became another battlefield.

the duke’s death was a tipping point for all involved. elyse was thrust into the role of grand duchess, her glorious and prophesied ascension made true. she set off on a path and dragged the rest with her.

the kaliningrad affair, and the subsequent independence of prussia, threw everything for the family up in the air. elyse was clearly a strong but chaotic leader. emilia, for all of her support of pro-prussian policies, found elyse unmanageable and too much like her father for her tastes. so the queen played one of her cards, gifting ingrid with her own prussian title, one that emilia had held since birth, the countess of dresden. 

elyse, still struggling to consolidate power and wrangle her nobility was furious. giving ingrid power of her capital, handed her sister power that elyse wasn’t ready to give. it’s meant that elyse has had to play nice with a sister she doesn’t really know, and ingrid finally has a chance to speak. everyone’s very curious to see what she’ll have to say.

the second child of king katlego of botswana was named kaone, meaning pioneering spirit. it was just unfortunate that the child wasn’t the queen’s. that’s where all the problems start for young kaone. kaone was a mistress’ child. the king’s marriage wasn’t terrible by any means but it lacked devotion, the king’s affairs were an open secret — especially to everyone at the botswanan court. 

king katlego legitimized kaone upon birth and the queen accepted the child into their family. the queen wasn’t of best health and another pregnancy had sounded like a nightmare — so she accepted the child into the zulu family. queen ira was not a perfect step-mother but she wasn’t a malevolent one. but... it is because of queen ira that kaone had no mother — at queen ira’s request the mistress was paid to disappear from their lives. she ceased to exist.

it was the rest of the court that posed as a problem. many people believed that the king should have not given a bastard child a title, let alone treat the child like he treated his first born daughter, minenhle. many members of the court were quite vocal about their views.

minenhle and kaone grew up attached at the hip. minenhle was a bit older but she adored having a younger sibling. growing up, she did not notice the different attitudes they were treated with. she just knew that kaone was a half-sibling, their mothers were different. to a child it wasn’t an issue, it was just part of the reality they lived in. 

then they grew up. minenhle was no longer blind nor was she uninformed. they were still siblings but a bit of guilt brewed inside of minnie whenever she noticed how mistreated kaone was. 

it made the decision easy though:

minnie decided to marry into another royal family and left the botswanan crown to kaone. in one day, kaone’s whole life was turned upside down. suddenly kaone was invited everywhere, doors were opened to kaone, people had respect for kaone. kaone loved every second of the new life.

ambition sparked inside of kaone and she began to dream of big changes in botswana. her drive was enviable and absolutely nothing could get in kaone’s way... nothing but a teeny tiny whimsical minenhle.

see, minenhle divorced the nigerian crown prince and returned home. king katlego returned the title of the crown heir to minenhle. kaone’s opinion was not asked. it was minenhle’s birthright as the oldest child and as the only truly legitimate child.

minenhle, however, started spending more and more time in south africa, helping out their cousin who was trying to be a leader. their hopeless cousin was an embarrassment, a sad excuse for a crown princess. even minenhle believed so even if she didn’t outright say it. one evening, at the dinner table, kaone dared to give birth to an idea:

“ shouldn’t minnie be the crown princess of south africa anyways ? the south african throne should have gone to father in the first place. ”

the dining room fell silent, everyone shared looks. kaone knew she had been right. king katlego was the oldest child of the late king of south africa. it was a crime that he had been forced to take responsibility for botswana instead of his home country. the bitterness had had good thirty years to brew in his chest and king katlego had managed to infect his children with his envy. the botswanans had a birthright to the south african throne, it was a simple fact and kaone had wanted to remind the family of it. the botswanans wanted it. they deserved it... and now minenhle had a chance to sabotage the crown princess of south africa who nearly blindly relied on minenhle. 

kaone had grown up believing that the throne had been brutally robbed from her father. it was one reason why she believes minnie should stage a coup. the other reason ? if minnie leaves botswana... it falls back into kaone’s hands. 

TL;DR:

the legitimized child of the king of botswana

always overlooked and mistreated by the members of the high society

loved by their family though

was briefly made into the crown prince/ss of botswana but lost the title

wants to become the crown prince/ss of botswana

is manipulating their older sister into staging a coup in south africa

FAMILY HISTORY:

basically kaone’s grandfather, the late king of south africa, had FOUR sons. 

he manipulated them into positions of power in botswana, zimbabwe and mozambique

the oldest, kaone’s father, wanted to stay in south africa but ended up in botswana

this was the beginning of a family feud because the youngest son got the south african throne and the other sons did not think it was fair

now the late king’s grandchildren are continuing the old old old fight

CONNECTIONS:

sister: minenhle zulu @mincnhlc

cousins: reginald zulu @rcginald ( prince of zimbabwe ), gia zulu @giazulu ( crown princess of south africa )

enemies: asali mwezi @asvli ( crown princess of tanzania ), jelani mwezi @jclvni ( prince of tanzania )

LINKS:

anastazya’s birth had been appropriately celebrated, for she would be the first future queen regnant of polish history ! nastka grew up fiercely loyal and wildly imaginative — she believes it to be her duty to ensure that poland will not be grouped with the many ancient monarchies of the world, shackled by tradition and unable to move forwards. she befriends monarchs and paupers, a gregarious monument of her parents’ affection, she finds herself the most comfortable in the middle of large gatherings and decidedly the centre of attention.

the crown princess did not necessarily believe in hoarding power the way most royals do, the way they venture past their borders to stockpile land and riches to fulfil some unattainable goal. so when her best friend, the duchess of prussia; elyse zollern, came to her with a proposition, nastka could not find it in her heart to refuse despite all the conflict in her mind. it goes against her principles, but there was no possible way to turn against her friend. the king, her father, jumped upon the opportunity to expand his influence, a perfect move that will undermine the german king !

prussian independence had turned the duchess into ‘sovereign princess’, and poland as their main benefactor. the world’s eyes are now upon them, for what will they do next? 

eastern europe is currently engaged in a quiet, subtle, and yet terribly intense power struggle — there are gaps in places where western european nations used to fill before they became far to preoccupied with their own squabbles. poland had sat back and watched, their spies whispering one thing and immediately contradicting it by the time the next messages were delivered; they might not know too much — but anastazya knew that poland’s power and influence was something that could be of interest to her easter european neighbours.

anastazya has always been politically savvy and sharp, she knew that poland could not reap any rewards if they merely continue to spectate, especially with instability and uncertainty pushing from all of their borders. 

it is high time for poland to show her strength. 

connections.

SIBLINGS: 2 younger sisters, 1 younger brother ( and / or utp ) 

PARTNER: utp ( if any ) !

COUSINS: @catherinestuart, @effiestuart, @georgestuart

CLOSE FRIEND: @elysefz

RIVAL: @aurcls

more links.

family history & siblings wc

the king and his first wife, kham laksanara — they had a very tumultuous on and off relationship. he strongly vocalized his distaste for her, but she refused to divorce him. on one of the periods where kham was back in the king's favor, she got pregnant, and that kept her around in thailand during the pregnancy up until it was revealed that the child was a girl and not an heir. the king used this as an opportunity to banish her and her daughter. which was followed by an unbanishment and then another banishment. this happened multiple times over the course of their marriage. the banishments were never fully "official" after the first, this became their idea of an on-and-off relationship.

however, the marriage between the late king of thailand and his first concubine, yok rattanawadee was a love match  ―  that is to say, the king loved himself, and she knew how to feed that love:  be a refuge when another wife was causing him stress, always find new ways to keep him entertained, and never discuss how the number of daughters kept growing. she was the wife who lasted the longest, maintaining her position as preferred concubine even while women of higher rank were set aside. the only wife that seems to stand in her way and unable to fully cast aside is kham. kham is just as relevant, if not even more to the thai public. her daughters are exceptional and yok can’t bare to see it.

after the death of the late king the crown was passed to his younger brother. the late king only had daughters and no “rightful” heir to the throne. their uncle, though not as vile as their father, but nearly just as devious and conniving — will not relinquish his power and control.

the competition between the two wives has spiralled. while working together to ensure their brother-in-law is relieved of his duties as king, yok believes her oldest, wora deserves to be crowned queen. the only factors in her way are kham and nisa — who technically have a right to the throne over herself and wora. however, birthright’s are insignificant and no match to her ambition. her reasons to have wora placed on the throne are much more selfish, a more personal gain. kham fears thailand will be lead to a darker path if wora becomes queen. her daughter nisa must become the head of the royal family. 

— RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NISA & WORA: the relationship between their mothers reflects onto them. they’re very strained and were constantly pitted against each other while growing up. they’ve never had moments of vulnerability or affection. their conversations often unpleasant and met with spite and resentment. 

...

* MORE ABOUT NISA

nisa has been raised in a more forgiving environment than wora. although she chases the same goal as her sister — the difference being, nisa’s mother didn’t have to curate her whole life around winning the throne. nisa’s own ambition, willingness and loyalty to her family and country has got her this far. she’s not soft, she’s stern and is willing to take shortcuts to blindside wora and her uncle. her downfall is her coldness. she’s straight to the point and doesn’t have the natural ability to please or entertain people like wora. she depends on mai for the public’s support, she depends on mai for the approval ratings.

OTHER:

academic background upt just as long as it’s in thailand, keep in mind she’s always been interested and centred around politics!

CONNECTIONS:

full sister: mai ​

half-sisters: wora, far, emon, @arayamahidol​

engaged/married: UPT!​

MAI SIRIPON MAHIDOL ( ‘95 )

...

* MORE ABOUT WORA

wora has consistently done everything her mother has asked of her. their point of views are very much aligned and she sees proper reasoning to her mother’s choices. the only people she cares for are her ( full ) sisters and her mother. she cares very much for her political connections and is hoping to get her sisters betrothed to gain more allies. she’s witty, intelligent and very easy to get along with. she uses her charm to her benefit to befriend others with ease for her own self-interest. she knows her public approval is greater than nisa’s due to her perfecting this facade and she does a good job of maintaining it.

her selfishness is what’s gotten her this far. sharing a similar goal with her husband, daisuke. both wanting complete control over their respective countries. it’s not so much that there is love between them, but a mutual understanding. 

OTHER:

academic background upt just as long as it’s in thailand, keep in mind she’s always been interested and centred around politics!

CONNECTIONS:

married to: crown prince of nigeria ( wc )​

sister-in-law: @iretiolowu​

full sisters: far ( wc ), emon ( wc )

half-sisters: nisa, @maimahidol​, @arayamahidol​

[ ! ] gifs will be provided!  

— RELATIONSHIP WITH CROWN PRINCE OF NIGERIA: using each other for their own personal gain to accumulate power in their respective countries.  she acts as the perfect partner to him,  she can’t afford to lose her most powerful ally.

...

FAR SUVANANT MAHIDOL ( ‘95 )

EMON SAIRUNGMANEE MAHIDOL ( ‘99 )

EVERYONE SEES WHAT YOU APPEAR TO BE,

a camera flashes to capture the beautiful, kind, warm smile on yasmin’s face. it paints the picture of her portrait, these words – only you’ll find that she is the one holding the paintbrush, piling on thick strokes of pigment over a putrid canvas. from afar, one can see a piece of work so radiant, so true, but it is only when you come close that you realize, SOMETHING is rotten in the state of morocco ...

she has always been driven, and nothing short of machiavellian. a proud moroccan, yasmin’s duty to her country is paramount. and to do what’s best, to her at least, requires a total control. her drive and weaseling around the court allowed her to form the iron grip among the nobles. usurping ? no, absolutely not. her father sits perfectly fine at the throne. no one says you can’t play behind the scenes, after all, everything is fair when it comes to her country. 

FEW EXPERIENCE WHAT YOU REALLY ARE.

from her first impression of reginald zulu, she sees through him like glass. his intentions are clear like his conscience. yasmin makes an executive decision. she is not the girl he falls in love with. she can not be. reginald zulu, who’s altruism should be the death of him ! it was ridiculous. it was simple: girls like her don’t get with guys like him. love only leads to hurt. 

nevertheless he persists, like an unrelenting fly. he gets warned. he gets turned down once, twice, three times before he can make a fracture in her exterior. he grows on her. maybe she’s wrong, she is not so vile that there exist no future between her and reggie. love is not a complete waste of time, right ? so slowly, she bares her teeth. 

and it’s nice. having someone is nice. reggie doesn’t judge, he listens. he entertains her thoughts, gives her new perspectives. she feels accepted. and within their time, the fractures become cracks and spread – and she can feel it seeping into her. that feeling. how undeserving she is of it, how reggie knows too much ... and when she feels she has become too vulnerable, reggie is on the other side of a stony text. 

––– TLDR

the crown princess is known for being kind and beautiful, but anyone close to her can see through the façade. dated reginald zulu, the crown prince of zimbabwe. got close, she breaks up with him because she didn’t like depending on him and bc ... self-sabotaging tendencies (?), and now they’re here. 

lots of things are utp ! family life, most of her personality, and i’m up for changing things up if needed !! and, in addition to this connection, there’s much potential for political plots for morocco :)

wanted connection for @highsocietyhq​

if interested you can contact me @rcginald ( or @nataliademarquis )

helpful links: pinterest, reggie’s intro

other possible connections: college buddy w/ @fannicroy, close (scheming) friend w/ @catherinestuart, old friends w/ @jinlixun

about mai.

of the late king rama xi’s thirteen daughters, mai may be the most famous.

her selling point? her mere existence.

she had influence in the palm of her hand. and like anyone with a hand of influence, mai knew how to play her cards  ( and she did so very well  )  her reputation may be the most polished of her sisters; a pristine image that the thai media ate up greedily. if mai was candidly photographed drinking coconut water, there’d be a coconut water shortage within a week. if mai dressed a certain way, the general public would fawn, they’d sway, and in due time, they’d be dressing in the same way. and you get the picture.

if nisa was the most respected; wora, the most profilic; araya, the most adventurous; priya, the most scandalous; then mai was the most loved.

their love for her knew no bounds. ( it almost bordered an obsession )

and that did not end with her relationships.

exhibit a : jin zhaohui. it had been meant to be a short affair, a curious meeting between two highly profiled royals with too much time on their hands. there was mutual interest, enough to catch a flame, but lesser so to keep it lit. that is, until the thai public caught wind of their romance. and soon, their love   –   if you could call such a short thing, ‘puppy love’, if anything, that   –   was the talk of the principal. ( think: zanessa level ) there wasn’t a place they’d go, a thing they’d do, that wouldn’t be found out. and a love like that, was not something young zhaohui; a boy of adventure, of free wings, of little commitment, signed up for. he never meant to stay, but in those moments, a part of him thought he could stay for her. and in that same breath, mai knew she had him under her spell.

exhibit b : nisa mahidol. the bond between sisters is a tricky thing. there were thirteen of them, but only nisa was blood. it isn’t much, but for mai, nisa is her one and only. what mai does, it uplifts nisa, in the best way possible. in the competition for the crown, where neither of them were eligible, it was a fight for power: who had the most, that is. and in their court, it was obvious who the general public favored.

established connections.

━     araya mahidol (@arayamahidol), half-sister ━     nisa mahidol (adopt coming soon), sister ━     jin zhaohui (@jinzhaohui), ex-boyfriend ━     half-sisters that mai doesn’t like :  wora (adopt coming soon), far (wc), emon (wc)

brief points.

personality is utp!

she knows how to please the public / manipulate the media to keep her and nisa in the public’s good graces.

a lot of the things she uses / does gets copied by the public: if she buys/wears/eats something, it’ll sell out. she’s a sponsorship’s hot item.

not necessarily political, but she’s not dim to it. aligns herself to her sister, nisa’s, politics.

she broke up with zhaohui 2 years ago because zhaohui couldn’t stay committed.

plot idea to join program: to gain support for nisa, includes a tasty proposition for zhaohui 😋 yummy

once, natasja and aleksander were pitted against each other by their own father.

natasja, the youngest, always the “perfect” child. she always did as she was asked and projected the calm demeanor that every nation seeks in a future ruler.

aleksander, the eldest, the rebel who never did what he was meant to. he lived his life to have a good time: because one day, he knew he would be forced to settle down and lead his country.

natasja always imagined  her brother as a free spirit, a bird that was set free who left natasja behind in the cage. she always felt that she was unable to live for herself, that she was forced to keep the country afloat on her own. with a reckless father on top of that, natasja knew she’d been handed the shorter straw for all of her life.

but underneath all the resentment and the anger that years of competition put them through, they were still all the other had. he held her hand at her mother’s funeral, braided her hair when she didn’t trust the staff to do it correctly and promised her the world would still love her when she came out to him. underneath everything, she knows that there is not another soul on earth that will understand what it is like to be king magnus’ kid, and that they’ll always have that undercurrent of understanding. even if that isn’t enough to make them like their sibling most days, they still love each other. 

they grow up, and aleksander is never attached to another royal. natasja, meanwhile, is engaged every other year - in a fruitless attempt by their father to secure her a title elsewhere. the one she wants, though, is right in the heart of reykjavik. natasja doesn’t want to be the spare, married off to a random country to be their consort - she wants to be queen. of her home, iceland, which she loves more than anything else. and there’s only one person standing in the way of that: her older brother.

petro soltesky comes in here - natasja’s engagement to her brother’s best friend had been a shock to her, but the way aleksander reacted had been even worse. they had gone to school together, and natasja figured it would be an agreeable match because, at the very least, she knew petro! but aleks had blocked her out, making these underhanded statements of how she’d hurt him. she didn’t understand, until she finally cornered him and he spilled everything.

aleks and petro had been close, in school, but it had been more for aleks. she hadn’t been able to recognize it, then, because she’d never seen her brother in love before. in fact, she hadn’t thought he was capable. he’d been in plenty of trysts with people in reykjavik, but never anything more serious than a few nights. the engagement is broken off without an explanation just two weeks later, when natasja declines personally, going over her father’s head. 

after he finished his degree, aleks started spiraling. it seemed they couldn’t get him to stop, to pin himself down in one place and quit drinking himself to sleep every night. the family would, at times, not hear from him for weeks - while he was on a bender in tokyo, or vegas, or ibiza. natasja would run into him in a foreign city and barely recognize her own brother for a second - and any attempt to slow him down wouldn’t work. 

in his mid-20s, everyone started to really get worried. natasja came home for jónsmessa to find her brother scared and finally asking for help. the family helped, and found a facility to help aleks get better. it was in a small village in northern iceland, in one of their cousin’s duchies - most importantly, it was safe, and out of the public eye. no one needed to know the details of his recovery unless he wanted them to know. 

he got out five months later, a completely changed man. whereas before, aleks was a disaster that the people of iceland didn’t trust with ruling their country - now, he was a contender. he never lost that playful, rebellious spirit, but rehab had taught him how to handle his impulsivity in a productive way. 

he reconnects with petro, after this, and their relationship changes. he’s no longer the juvenile young man he once was, instead he’d grown up. maybe that helps the spark between them, because they end up engaged just a few years later. and he seems happy, genuinely happy, for one of the first times in his life.

the cycle begins again, and things start to go wrong. 

their father remarries without inviting either of them, and suddenly they have power-hungry in-laws that they have to handle. aleks takes to their new stepmother and sister from an opportunistic angle, while natasja chooses rage. their approaches are both beneficial in helping aleks’ interests - he stays on the right side of the world. 

he and natasja grow farther apart than ever before, as the subject of their half sister’s reveal is contentious in the family. natasja refuses to back down, completely rejecting their addition to the family. aleks keeps them close, in the way you keep your enemies close, but natasja sees that as accepting their addition to the family. she resents him for it, and they do not speak for months. 

king magnus’ cancer diagnosis shocks everyone, delivered just weeks after aleks’ thirty-fourth birthday. their family is in shambles, and natasja shuts out all of her emotions in favor of treating his treatment like a business deal. it’s easier for her to handle the emotion it brings out if she doesn’t acknowledge it. 

aleksander, on the other hand, bonds with his father for the first real time in his life, using the time they have left to mend old bruises and build bridges, even if he’ll never forgive him for the way they were treated in childhood. the siblings fight about this again, and they fight about it at the kistulagning before the funeral. 

they don’t stop fighting at the coronation, or when they’re both questioned about the death of their stepmother, or anytime after. the two are at-odds, now, and natasja has cemented her need to overthrow her brother. 

historically, in iceland, a secondary heir can challenge the elder sibling in order to force a vote for who should retain the title - the dukes and duchesses make the decision. while aleksander begins to establish himself as the rightful king of iceland, his younger sister has begun to undermine him. his insecurity is winning half the battle - old doubts have begun to creep up from the darker parts of his past, and aleks has to make a decision - will he fight to hold the throne, or will he allow the voice inside his head to win the battle?