So, as you know, I have been experiencing some really bad food poisoning or a stomach bug or something. In my absence from here, I thought I would spend some time planning ‘The Queen of Freaks’.
Rant
I’ve obviously been feeling really, really bad as of late because I went from having a quarter of a million reads on my story on Episode to not even breaking 20 reads on my new chapter of ‘When I’m Gone’ on Tapas. It’s been a really hard adjustment for me and I really hate the fact that Episode forced me to start from scratch. Had I still been able to use Episode, I would have at least been able to encourage some of my readers to read my story in prose form, but it just feels like I’ve lost support and it feels like no one cares about what I write anymore. It’s really a struggle because I just feel like no one would want to read my story if I didn’t make a big deal about the fact that no one wanted to read it and I genuinely think it’s better than the stuff I used to write, so I don’t get why it’s not even getting constructive criticism.
Although I’ve had a real blow to my confidence as of late when it comes to the whole writing thing, I think I need to persevere through that lump in my throat and that tight, stressed feeling in my chest and see what I can make.
So, I thought, why not work with you guys? Why not try to make my worldbuilding excellent? Test it with all of you and have you ask me questions (if you want to) in order to get rid of as many plot holes and issues as possible?
So, while I’m in between the other 400 things I need to do and the sickness, I thought I would post my notes on ‘The Queen of Freaks’ and ask you all (very humbly) for your opinion, thoughts and notes!
I’m going to start now, so please bear with me while I write!
So, I was watching a few different YouTube videos (links at the bottom of this post) and it really got me thinking about how the monarchy works in my story.
Absolute Primogeniture with a Slight Meritocractic Twist – The rule of the Empire passes down from the monarch (known as the monarch within the British Empire and the emperor/empress in the rest of the empire) to the eldest legal heir. This is because King Harold the Liberator (the first king in this dynasty) ruled with the help of his daughter and didn’t want one of her brothers to overtake her in the line of succession. The meritocratic side of things comes from the fact that the monarch’s children must complete a year in the army and graduate from a prestigious university in order to be legally placed in the line of succession. Otherwise, it skips over them. This can also happen if they refuse to have children.
The Heir Plays a Huge Role – As a result of the fact that Harold ruled alongside Sophia (his daughter), the heir plays a huge role in how the kingdom is run. They take control of royal events within the Palace, the distribution of the budget for the Royal Family and the distribution of faerie (slave) labour throughout the kingdom. Plus, they have absolute jurisdiction over the Great Library, where the kingdom’s biggest secrets are kept.
The System of Patronage is Faerie Labour – So the thing that the King gives out and takes away from people is faerie labour. The heir decides who is given which faeries with which magical powers and how long they can keep them for. People maintain favour with the monarch because they want faerie labour.
They Rely on Faerie Labour – The Queen of Freaks is set a few centuries in the future where the Earth has been damaged by human actions (global warming). So, they rely on faeries to keep the world inhabitable and the land fertile. Without faeries, the human race would go extinct, so they need to keep their thumb on the whole ‘faerie problem’. So, the fact that faeries are, legally-speaking, state property and can only be distributed by the heir puts the royal family in an advantageous position.
The Keys to Power
So the Kingdom is divided into multiple sections that all have power and help to maintain the monarch’s position at the top.
The Royal Advisors – A group of the monarch’s most trusted people who specialise in certain industries that help in the running of the state. These are: education, diplomacy (running ambassadors and embassies), military, law, ecclesiastical, infrastructure, agriculture & food production, media (propaganda and censorship), energy, banking & monetary affairs, textile production, law enforcement… I am looking for other things a state needs to run. I’m hoping for between 12 and 20 advisors, so please suggest!
The Royal Family – Members of the royal family help to maintain traditions. They are the trend-setters and they help to keep the law and order. Many go on to become powerful figures within the army or other important state sectors. They marry advantageously to maintain alliances and keep up an air of superiority and glamorousness to make the other humans envy them.
The Church – The current state religion is a form of Christianity (although other religions are tolerated). This denomination teaches the divine right of the monarch based on the fact that King Harold I (The Liberator – a name given to him by the Church) was “innovative” in using faerie magic as a way to “save humanity” from the effects of global warming.
Law and Order
Law and order is maintained via the two branches of the police: The British Police Force and the ACSA (Association for the Control of Supernatural Abilities).
The British Police Force deal with the regular law and order of the country, namely concerning humans.
The ACSA is the group that deals with discovering, capturing, moving and punishing faeries throughout the kingdom. They go on regular patrols in which they look for other people who display supernatural abilities. They are better funded and have better resources than their human counterpart and they focus most of their resources and patrols upon the poorer areas of the Kingdom.
What do you think of this so far? Please feel free to ask questions and make suggestions!
As Harold I himself was a working class man before he seized control Napoleon-style, I thought that the monarchy would be pretty lax about people moving up and down the social ladder. I took inspiration from the Roman model where people could go from slave to very high up within one lifetime! (Or Raubahn from FFXIV )
I thought this would be a good idea because it would prevent the advisors and nobles from getting too complacent. If they slip up, they may be replaced by someone of a lower station who has been loyal to the royal family.
The main concern for the royal family is ensuring that the marriage is in some way advantageous. They’re very good at spinning loads of different marriages to become advantageous, though! For example, a working-class person marrying into the family would be spun by the media to be beneficial because it gives working-class people hope that they can marry into the royal family if they are loyal and hardworking enough.
However, it is a no-no to marry a faerie (which is the secondary plot of The Queen of Freaks, as the second protagonist, Princess Anabelle, falls in love with a faerie). In fact, it’s actually completely illegal! The human can be thrown into prison and the faerie will either be punished with hard labour or death depending on their magic’s “usefulness”.
Also, the royal family still has a really prejudiced outlook on the LGBTQ+ community. If you come out, you will most likely lose your position in the line of succession because you’re seen as someone who will not have kids and therefore cannot “further the line”. This can sometimes be avoided if the royal has children and gets married and then comes out as gay or trans or ace afterwards, but more often than not, you will be “retired” to the countryside with a few faeries and a small budget.
This is always a fun twist. Usually people just accept that eldest male heir is the natural way of it when it isn’t. There’s nothing natural about that
Ooooh, and I know this will come up
So the named heir plays this large a role, do the other heirs have other privileges? It’s hinted in the story that Evanna’s life was actually quite constrictive, so how does that work?
Oof slavery, dark
ShArEhOlDeRs. It’s not that simple, I know, lol. I think you’ve covered everything I’d be able to give you in terms of the things a state or society needs in order to run. Maybe besides iImMiGrAtIoN
Kinda like how here in the UK we all wanna f*** the queen
Introduced wonderfully through miscarriages of justice early in the story, just like the real-life police
I think it’s a wonderfully built world in that it takes things from ours and rolls with it, this is definitely what I could imagine the world looking like if Faeries did end up being rule in future!
Yes! I kinda followed the K-Pop idol route there. Aside from the heir (who is expected to be involved in the direct running of the kingdom), all other princes and princesses are usually whisked from place to place or activity to activity. Photo ops, skills that they need to learn to do well, hand-shaking, etc.
Evanna often fluctuates from extreme restrictive control of her schedule to complete boredom based on the seasons and how much is going on within the British Empire. Her diet is controlled and her clothes are chosen for her. She’s educated, too, of course!
One of the main things that the royals need to do is give off the impression that they are available. They can’t publicly date. They go from being “officially single” to having a “good match” made for them. Everything she says in front of others is being scrutinised to make sure that she’s not messing up in some way.
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