Politics I

She lets her head fall onto the desk, semi-defeated. She makes a sound, which is somewhere between why-is-this-world-so-cruel and please-kill-me. She raises her head a few inches, stops, and then flops back onto the desk, sighing. Her knight averts his eyes at her melodramatic actions, and stares at the murals on the ceiling.

It’s a somewhat common show, now. She in her family study reading over the papers and ruling her lands like a proper Empress. It’s been almost two years since her father died and over four since her mother died, and she still misses those carefree days.

Since her mother died, she has to take over her territories as her sole heir. A small child in charge of a Principality bigger than smaller Kingdoms has never happened in the history of this world, yet it did happen to her. Her heir training tripled as she suddenly took on the easier half of her mother’s duties, aided by the fact that her mother won the war before she died.

Things were just settling to some semblance of normality when her father dies taking over an adjacent Archduchy. This, with her also being her father’s sole heir, means that she now has an Empire, Archduchy, and Principality to rule all by her lonesome, with her not yet reaching double digits, to boot.

For months, there was a chance of war — many would like to take territory while they thought she was young and weak and foolish. But she made several bloody displays of force, and left her army ready for battle against any foolish enough to battle her. And it worked. Once her neighbors saw that she was not a pushover, they put aside their covetous plans in favor of sensible alliances.

This was the start of her true troubles, politics.

Politics, the bread and butter of royals and nobles alike, is the cruelest, most psychopathic concept she has ever come into contact with. She does it daily, and by now, she is very good at it. Ever since her parents died and she proved herself fit to rule, she has had a great, thorough introduction to it.

The reasons why are simple. She is Empress Black on her father’s side and Archduchess Candri on her mother’s side, with several other lands and titles — a duchy, two margraves, four counties, three viscounties, and several baronies. She is the sole heir to these lands. They are all powerful, prosperous lands, and she the lone, female, young heir.

The opening moves are simple. Many simply wish to reaffirm alliances, as well as renew loyalty pledges and non-aggression pacts. This takes over a year to simply keep the deals the same as they are, or slightly modify them. She also takes in servants — usually minor nobility such as barons — and assistants. And to rule over her territories, she needs many assistants.

Choosing who to pick as an assistant is difficult. They must be of suitably high noble rank and have a proper affiliation towards her lands and families. They must be loyal to her alone, and have the training given to manage large territories. Due to this, all of her several assistants — mostly male — are counts and marquises.

Next are her ladies-in-waiting and knights. As an Empress and an Archduchess, she must have noble ladies-in-waiting to serve her. Her ladies-in-waiting are all high-class, well-trained noble daughters offered in favor of an alliance. They run many of the day-to-day workings of her smaller territories in her name, with several taking over administrative duties in her smaller territories. Most of them are the daughters of marquises and dukes.

In addition, as she has several separated territories, she has to hold a small army for each one. So she sends capable leaders to each territory to train up each army, which varies in size for each territory. Each leader is a knight — a collection of landless barons and the spare sons of counts and viscounts. Each would lead dozens, if not hundreds of men in her name, in a hierarchy under the leader of the knights.

The current leader of her knights is the second son of Duke Taywell, a traditionally allied, semi-subordinate house. The marquis is her confidante, and a very capable man. He is second-in-command in her main army, and is in charge of most of its day-to-day needs. In addition, he helps with her paperwork.

Paperwork is the bane of her existence, second only to politics. As she gets older, she gets more marriageable. This is due to her territories becoming more stable and prosperous, and her becoming more beautiful. Thus, the number of sons offered to her, even if only in a possible future harem, grows. She is also offered brides for a lover, if she wants them.

For potential husbands, at least, the number stays manageably small, as few possess the qualifications to be her Consort. He must be the son of at least a King in social standing in her age range, be talented, and be capable of helping to manage her vast territories. There are only dozens of possible suitors for her to go through instead of hundreds, thankfully.

The offers of women she rejects, unless they are talented women that she takes to be one of her ladies-in-training or a personal servant. Once she manages to go through and permanently reject all other offers, she sets her sights on potential consorts.

These are slightly harder to reject, being much more powerful, but she manages anyways. She gets rid of several for not being royal enough for her standing. This leaves her with less than fifty suitors, which she can then personally meet and go through with. She does the one thing that she can to weed them out quickly — she holds a ball.

Related posts:

Agriculture is the most important sector for the existence of human beings. It’s also the backbone of economy of most of the developing countries. Plant disease has been a major factor influencing…

Have you ever spent hours doing nothing, watching TV, or playing video games and thought to yourself: if only I could write with the same level of commitment and discipline? Is there a way to make…

Great ideas are like a perpetuum mobile, generating new thoughts, ideas and energy. And as it happens, in the nothingness on a Planck scale level, it’s the energy that turns nothingness into being…