#hypermenestra

hennike lore in my head:

marie-antoinette ass character. marie-antoinette-esque. marie-antoinette core. etc

didn't have a filter in the most innocent way possible, didn't fit in with the subtlety of veretian court politics which is part of why laurent is drawn to damen's tendency to say whatever the fuck he was thinking most of the time.

auguste had to do a lot of the heavy lifting raising laurent partly bc she was sick a lot and couldn't always get out of bed and partly bc she saw auguste was so good at her and aleron's job she sometimes decided he could handle the whole thing. was young when she was married off so she tended to be a little self-centred; she didn't have time to grow out of being a child before having children herself.

despite this she did the best she could and tried to bond with them especially academically and creatively, and tried her best to include kemptian culture in both of their educations. speaking of;

she tried to raise her kids bilingual but it didn't last long bc aleron didn't like that as he is basically a cartoon villain. she put up with a lot of shit from aleron in general bc marriage love duty which resulted in auguste putting up with a lot of shit from Everyone Ever All The Time bc kingdom love duty which lead to laurent putting up with the regent's shit and being ridiculed in his own court for so many years. bc family love trauma status.

maybe if she still had the tendency to always say whatever the fuck crossed her mind by the time she realized she was being poisoned then things would've been different.

hypermenestra lore in my head:

this is a messy one okay basically choices were made and they were not the best ones.

first thing about hypermenestra is that was sooo loving so adoring so protective of kastor to the point of being overbearing. permissive. keep that in mind.

didn't mind whether kastor was going to be king or not but after a few years she got used to the idea so damen was a huge shock to her. she tried not to let it show too much bc egeria was her friend and whatnot but kastor could tell. being only child for the majority of his childhood usually coddled and not having much demanded from him given they were still lowkey hoping from an heir from egeria but still being told it was likely he was going to be king was a DISASTROUS choice on both theomedes and hypermenestra's part and on top of that hypermenestra was a piss poor liar. kastor Noticed.

she was not cold towards damen but she was not motherly either bc she didn't see it as her responsibility (which. was she wrong).

she could see kastor being a little bummed at the whole situation and tried to cheer him up by telling him he would've done a better job than damen at ruling anyway, this one time she went as far as ignoring damen being in the same room as her bc kastor was in a mood. often called kastor her 'little king' once or twice letting a 'my true king' slip which. had its consequences.

must stress this is not bc she was resentful of anyone, she just didn't want kastor to be sad or frustrated or any negative emotion ever and she didn't know how to deal with it. she was in absolute agony every time she saw kastor have the slightest fucking frown it was honestly incredible to see.

overall had no intention of creating a coup but ultimately theomedes loved her so much and was so permissive with her that she loved kastor so much she was so permissive with him that kastor decided he could do whatever he wanted. ironically, damen never got that permission, and when he realized in slavery that he had been taking something that wasn't his, he accepted it gracefully and with dignity, and decided to give it back with ease.

+ egeria lore bc i started thinking abt my one true rightful queen of akielos:

did not want children for a long time. she fully understood the responsibility that having a child meant and fully believed she was not ready. used a lot of contraceptive methods for a few years and it really messed up with her system, unfortunately.

probably would've made the best mother of the lot. ironic isn't it.

had an incredible vision. could see shit coming from miles away which gave her a tendency to jump to conclusions too quickly and accept no other information + be a bit too much with criticism. this got an unflattering reputation for a few years, added to the fact that she was also very private very cold very tactical for an akielon, and thus very lonely.

it's not that she didn't care for people and she wasn't cold, or harsh, just stoic. she wasn't exactly an approachable person. in fact, the only time she was seen with true softness on her face was the first and only time she held damen in her arms.

got along better with hypermenestra than theomedes. she thought theomedes was a little thick and lacked insightfulness and she knew theomedes thought she was basically insane. mostly their marriage was one of mutual tolerance. hypermenestra on the other hand was very eloquent even though she tended to agree with everything egeria said in the end. couldn't keep a damn opinion but at least she understood egeria when she talked.

kastor though, big fan. egeria loved that child’s wisdom, was more of an aunt figure to him at the time. she got kinda sad when kastor stopped talking to her after she got pregnant, but she understood it.