Thinky Thoughts
More on Princess Aksinya and her adventures with 'Prince' Shaan.
So, I need to figure out what these two actually get up to. What are the stakes in their adventures? And more importantly, why the hell is Aksinya's family willing/all fired up to get her out of the palace?
It's got something to do with the spirits, I think. The fact that she's actually really pretty good at what she does with the family magics, to the point where she could perhaps make bargains of her own with some of the older, deeper, creepier ancestral monsters- how do you prevent your sub-chiefs from clamoring for war you don't want, if your daughter could actually raise up a kraken? How do you excuse not using a member of the royal family to the fullest extent of their potential abilities?
Marry her off to a foreign barbarian and ritually/magically cut ties with her from the family magic, of course. She'll still be able to scry a bit, sure- make water-drops dance along her fingers like a pickpocket with a coin. But she won't be able to summon the sea-wolf, or the thunder-cliff horses, nor guide great fleets through ice or traverse the deep-sea waters and ask questions of the ancient things there.
There will be no blood-dark water-priestess at the head of a relentless army, bringing the sea and its creatures to salt the earth wherever she goes.
Huh- so that makes Aksinya our resident Prophesized Evil McGuffin, it would seem. And her fiance may think this is a nasty trick that got played on her people, to fob off an assassin-baiting, god-troubling mage-hobbled witch on them- but she also likes Aksinya, a lot. Certainly Shaan doesn't want to take the expedient route and kill her or hand her over- not only would that be an idiot's move for someone who doesn't want a conquering army devouring her folk, but it would be absolutely dishonorable not to protect her friend and partner. There were words spoken. She made a promise.
So it's the open road for them.
So, I need to figure out what these two actually get up to. What are the stakes in their adventures? And more importantly, why the hell is Aksinya's family willing/all fired up to get her out of the palace?
It's got something to do with the spirits, I think. The fact that she's actually really pretty good at what she does with the family magics, to the point where she could perhaps make bargains of her own with some of the older, deeper, creepier ancestral monsters- how do you prevent your sub-chiefs from clamoring for war you don't want, if your daughter could actually raise up a kraken? How do you excuse not using a member of the royal family to the fullest extent of their potential abilities?
Marry her off to a foreign barbarian and ritually/magically cut ties with her from the family magic, of course. She'll still be able to scry a bit, sure- make water-drops dance along her fingers like a pickpocket with a coin. But she won't be able to summon the sea-wolf, or the thunder-cliff horses, nor guide great fleets through ice or traverse the deep-sea waters and ask questions of the ancient things there.
There will be no blood-dark water-priestess at the head of a relentless army, bringing the sea and its creatures to salt the earth wherever she goes.
Huh- so that makes Aksinya our resident Prophesized Evil McGuffin, it would seem. And her fiance may think this is a nasty trick that got played on her people, to fob off an assassin-baiting, god-troubling mage-hobbled witch on them- but she also likes Aksinya, a lot. Certainly Shaan doesn't want to take the expedient route and kill her or hand her over- not only would that be an idiot's move for someone who doesn't want a conquering army devouring her folk, but it would be absolutely dishonorable not to protect her friend and partner. There were words spoken. She made a promise.
So it's the open road for them.