Inheritance Rules in the Mordrin Line (aka, random Kanosian world-building notes)

Way back in 2004, I attempted to write a fantasy novel for NaNoWriMo. The Sum of Things stalled out around 20,000 words -- which is sadly typical of my life -- but it's still alive in the back of my mind and I go poke at the rough draft or my background files every now and then.

Here is some world-building on the royal family of Kanos, which I feel like posting partly as a public kick in the pants to myself, and partly just because I think it's pretty nifty and want to show it off. *wry*

Background: Kanos is a semi-feudal multi-ethnic empire ruled by queens who are always descended from Deyrilea Nishal Mordrin (one of the empire's two founders; the other, Daluran Silverblade, abdicated and his requirements for a successor were deliberately impossible to fulfill) but who must be elected and confirmed by the Assembly of Nobles. Their direct power is also extremely restricted by the time of "The Sum of Things," but this doesn't mean Kanos has become a functional democracy; it just means the empire is a disorganized mess. The current queen -- Ranna, one of my two main characters -- had no interest in the position, but since she wound up with the title, she's trying her best to actually fix some of the problems with her country... whether her country particularly wants to be fixed or not.

( Inheritance Rules in the Mordrin Line )

tiny precious flowers, take two

See, I told you the jalapeño would start blooming this weekend! :-D


(The forecast lied to me about clear skies, btw -- Friday afternoon Ithaca was graced by a thunderstorm and a solid 45 minutes of heavy-to-torrential rain. Nonetheless I did give both peppers a bit of Miracle Gro on Thursday evening. I may try some more next week.)

I bet this never happens to people who write LotR fic...

After long and serious thought, I have settled upon an idea for my NFE fic. I have my main character, I have my time period, I have my general plot.

But.

I am still in the middle of some canon research, because Lewis's statements on the subject in question are brief and scattered through several books in the series.

They also make no sense.

Ye gods, why was Lewis such a lousy, inconsistent, illogical, slapdash, incompetent world-builder? WHY?! Do you have any idea the kind of weird anti-scientific (and anti-common-sense!) contortions I will have to do to force his casual pronouncements into anything that even vaguely resembles a functional system? DO YOU???

I could just scream.

But no. I will persevere. Because the end product will be worth it, and also by this point I need to find some kind of handwave just for the sake of my own sanity -- the inconsistencies are starting to keep me up at night, they are that irritating.

*retroactively slaps Lewis upside the head*

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ETA: If you want some specifics about the issue that is driving me nuts, go read this comment here. Basically Lewis + astronomy = EPIC FAIL, but I need to systematize his idiocy because of Reasons even though it's not directly the subject of my fic. Argh.