part eight, page thirty-three

… wait, Ayana and Alric?

I’m sorry, but… how does that make sense?

That marriage is going to incense purists in both nations, because any child of that union is, if I understand how these things typically work, going to be heir to both.

Indeed, even people in both Gundring and the Caliphate who are broadly in favor of an alliance are going to be somewhat perturbed by the idea of political union with a faraway nation that is composed of a different ethnic group that worships differently than they do.

The logical marriage alliance here isn’t Ayana and Alric. It’s Ayana and Wulf. That ties the kingdoms together while minimizing the risk of political union (or the difficulties in deciding you don’t want a political union and maybe one of your kids going “no, fuck you, I want the whole bag of marbles, civil war time”) while still being high-ranking enough on both sides that nobody gets slighted.

I don’t see anything Alric brings to the table that Wulf doesn’t bring with greater advantages and fewer drawbacks. The only disadvantage I can see is that Wulf and Alja are very much in love, but, well, welcome to international diplomacy, suck it up.

Although I suppose there’s the possibility Alric and Ayana never intend to ever get married. That historical aside uses an awful lot of weasel words on the subject. They can only play that game for so long, tho, people are going to expect heirs. Presumably non-bastard heirs.

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What does Alric being bi have to do with him fathering heirs? Plenty of gay men have had children, in many cases multiple children. The presence of offspring doesn’t dispositively prove a single thing about your sexual orientation.

Splitting the polities is a possibility, but it depends on the kid(s) who could potentially be heirs to both deciding to not assert their rights, which triggers a political crisis.

Also, if Ayana pops out only children who don’t look even a little bit Gundring, that is going to cause a shit-ton of trouble for Alric at home. Plenty of people will be incensed that the “Rashadi whore” has “given our good and trusting King horns.” It doesn’t matter if Alric and Ayana are in on the scam, lots of other people (in many cases very patriotic and well-meaning ones) will not be.

Basically, Alric/Ayana seems to have a whole lot of potentially explosive complications to it that Wulf/Ayana does not.

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I’m guessing the reason this is ending with a Alric/Ayana “betrothal” is because that is the fun, narratively-satisfying ending. This isn’t A SONG OF FIRE AND ICE.

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Two additional points:
– Gundring’s Kingship appears to be at least partially elected. That removes some issues of inheritance on Gundring’s side. Alric probably could step down in favor of Wulf in order to facilitate this alliance, which would resolve the other inheritance issues.
– Depending on the terms of the alliance, it’s possible that Alric and Rayana aren’t obliged to have children. By a similar token, Rayana may be able to choose someone else to father her heirs—that may even be the case anyway, as reigning Calipha.

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