QueenMyriada QueenMyriadaIt was different before the Rending. Responsibilities were spread amongst noble families and their allies, according to tradition. The subsequent gathering up of power and authority to the DeepCourt proper was speeded by the VaultedWar, in which the final peace was only reached after the abrogation of a number of noble prerogatives related to personal troops.
Some of these nobles migrated beyond the rule of the DeepCourt, preferring exile to loss of privilege. The sea outside the DeepCourt's range is a curious place.
Since the realignment of power in the hands of the DeepCourt, QueenMyriada has been ruler visible and evident, with QueenHydra being a close but generally quiet companion at Court, and KingProteus mostly among his people, leading from within, and ensuring that they continue to recover from the Rending.
QueenMyriada has no obvious successor to her role, having the unique combination of charisma, poise, judgment, guile, leadership and luck.
It is said she may be choosing a consort. Perhaps more than one. Though the noble families no longer control the governing of the Mer directly, they have great influence.
She does well by those under the wave. Drylanders say she is beautiful in their eyes.
-- by PythiaTwentyThree
Commentary, deepening, ripples, countercurrents and convective flow:
It should be little surprise that the nobility that fled the DeepCourt are predominantly Mer and a few particularly conservative, xenophobic Myriapodia families. It's a common refrain amongst people who have so much time on their hands that actual politics cannot expend it that the exiles will be back one day to shatter the DeepCourt. It's really such stuff and nonsense that only landers will listen to seriously. People of the sea have different needs than people of the land - we have quite the surplus of vast, deep and unsettled water.
No, the real threat to the primacy of QueenMyriada in the DeepCourt are the families who stayed. Families whose lines of succession she single-handedly controls, I might add; titles and duties are hers to give and withdraw, and a family may find their favorites overlooked and Myriada's approval given to another.
The rumors that Myriada seeks an official consort (or two or three) have caused much stir in the DeepCourt. The nobility is spreading its most colorful fins as broadly as they can. Gifts and cotillions abound. It's quite bald-faced on the nobility's part, but more effective than a tax on Myriada's.
The living QueenMyriada is far more beautiful than the figurehead pieces I have seen carved of her on ships, even upon airships, but it is clear she is their original.
It's said that QueenMyriada's long and successful tenure has been materially assisted behind the scenes by QueenHydra and the Myriapodia, who are better favored in the DeepCourt than they were in the historic ordering below the waves.
-- LilyQuillpot
CourtCategoryPeople CourtEntry