Mortal female rulers with divine husbands

[Sir_Godspeed]

The archetype of the male mortal ruler with a divine wife is everywhere in Glorantha, most commonly in the form of marriage to Earth Sovereignty Goddesses, but also some other types. Often, this takes the form of a male ruler marrying a priestly representative of said goddess, but sometimes it's a literal marriage to a goddess (not that there's necessarily much of a difference in some cases).

My question here is about the other way around: female rulers with divine husbands, and the product of children from there. 

There are a few examples of this, not all of which are marriages:

- Norinel marrying Kimantor (The Only Old One) in the Darkness. Although it's possible that both of these were effectively demigods already.

- The Amazons on Trowjang being collectively married to Tolat and begetting children by him once a year (probably not ALL of them getting pregnant every year, but you know what I mean). 

- Darkness Vingkotling female leaders (and possibly other groups) marrying Star Captains or other descending gods come to protect the mortals.

- Hon-Eel winning a contest against a Pentan priestess to carry the children of a Sun God (Kargzant? I forget). This one is particularly notable to me because it is framed like an epic quest where Hon-Eel is the active participator, as opposed to Norinel who is more of a static obstacle in her own story where Kimantor wins her heart, at least initially. 

- There might be more. Marriages to Turos? Pelandan queens marrying Ket-Turos (the city-guardian aspect of Turos)? I'm not sure. 

 

If people are aware of others, I'd love to hear. Especially ones where the female ruler is an active story participant as opposed to a bargaining chip or what have you. 

 

Here's an idea I had, a story-seed that people could plop wherever it fits (such as in the Janubian valley or in Ralios): 

Once, the city of Tagulstar was a small community, bereft of the large agricultural areas it now proudly possesses. For nearly three hundred years, the Yeresmid dynasty in one form or another has ruled the city through a special covenant with their patron deity, Urakar of the Glittering Wall. The story goes that the dynasty's progenitor, Queen Yeresmel, inspired by a dream, traveled to the mountain, and pleaded for her people. Three times he rejected her, finding the approach of a mortal bothersome, and tossed her away with frozen winds, only for the woman to stubbornly make her way back up.

Each time she traveled higher and higher to catch up to the Lord of the Glittering Wall, and each time establishing a shrine and hallowing it with strenuous rites before his disapproving, and uninterested gaze. Each night she slept on the mountain, something would assault her, whether a ferocious beast, a thundering avalanche, freezing gales, or a howling spirit. Each time she bested them with defiance, cunning or might of arms.

After the third time Yeresmel was wind-swept off the mountain by the Lord's terrible breath, she ventured back up with grim determination, and Yeresmel reached the very pinnacle of the mountain. There, above all the world, the unrelenting queen let loose her desperate fury, so tired of the divine's callousness, and broke out in a harrowing tirade. She pointed at her people's plight, her own ordeals, her piety, and tossed the last sacrifice she had brought into the snow with a furious growl. If such was the aloofness of gods, what good where they, then?

Seeing the queen's stubborn resolve and her passionate fury in the defense of her people, the Glacier King's interest was piqued, and he came forth from his privacy within the frozen peak. For nine days she stayed as his guest, being waited upon by his servants, and engaging in conversation and courtship of a strange kind. Once she finally descended from the mountain she was bedecked in the most exquisite finery, was escorted by a guard of snowy-white retainers, and was with child, a blessed union borne out of not only respect, but finally genuine love, for the Glacier King's frozen heart had been melted by the queen's red-hot resolve, it is said. 

When Yeresmel's child was born, there fell a rain of hail in summer, and the people knew that Lord Urakar had come down from the mountain to see his paramour and their child. What promises they made no one knows, but when the hailstorm ended, they shepherds in the foothills above the plain saw first a trickle, then a steady stream of water from the glacier. Urakar's gift spread through the lowest lands, making its course known to the people so that they could evacuate, and where before there had once been dry, dusty flats, there would now be well-watered fields for grazing and crops. 

For their initiation, every heir of the Yeresmids must ascend the mountain, and after nine days they will come down. Some times the heir has been rejected, and they have been tossed unceremoniously in the river (although never killed, for they are still the Glacier King's blood relatives) and the task has fallen to a younger sibling, but most times they have thankfully descended with gifts and renewed oaths, and the title of Scions of the Glittering Wall, favored of the Glacier King. 

While Queen Yeresmel chose to be buried in the mound of her forebears, it is said that summer hailstorms frequent it more often than anywhere else, and the snow stays on it for longer than anywhere else in the lowlands, for Lord Urakar holds his love dear, and frequently visits her there in the mansions of the blessed dead. 

I don't know if this was up to snuff, and I'm still new to writing for Glorantha, and also to writing stories based around getting children as rewards, but I hope it was amusing, if nothing else. And don't forget the main question above.

[dumuzid]

4 minutes ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

Norinel marrying Kimantor (The Only Old One) in the Darkness. Although it's possible that both of these were effectively demigods already.

I think this was a case of Norinel 'marrying up' in the sense you're talking about.  Norinel's now worshiped as Mother of the City at Nochet, but the myth that describes this marriage describes her at the time as what we'd recognize as the Queen of Nochet--more the face and voice of the city than its commander at first, the daughter/mother in the maiden-mother-crone progression, directed by her grandmothers to the 'one-night marriage' with Kimantor in order to give her children and secure new protectors for post-Vingkotling Esrolia.  She's apotheosized now, but at the time she was a mortal heroine in a position analogous to Queen Samastina's in the late Third Age.  Her mothers and grandmothers were women of Nochet--heroines of the Darkness, sure, but not demigods as such.

[Sir_Godspeed]

3 minutes ago, dumuzid said:

I think this was a case of Norinel 'marrying up' in the sense you're talking about.  Norinel's now worshiped as Mother of the City at Nochet, but the myth that describes this marriage describes her at the time as what we'd recognize as the Queen of Nochet--more the face and voice of the city than its commander at first, the daughter/mother in the maiden-mother-crone progression, directed by her grandmothers to the 'one-night marriage' with Kimantor in order to give her children and secure new protectors for post-Vingkotling Esrolia.  She's apotheosized now, but at the time she was a mortal heroine in a position analogous to Queen Samastina's in the late Third Age.  Her mothers and grandmothers were women of Nochet--heroines of the Darkness, sure, but not demigods as such.

Yeah, that was my general impression, but I wasn't entirely sure.

[Joerg]

You might want to add the immortal emperors of the Lunar Empire and Kralorela. I am not aware of Godunya having much of a harem, but we know that at least one earlier emperor was married. Maintaining a harem might be a traditional duty of Kralori emperors even though they are bhodisatva-like dragons.

The Red Emperor has spread his divinity left and right, and his offspring pervades the upper crust of the Empire. I wonder whether Tarsh is going to become a satrapy once Phargentes II becomes emperor and re-takes his father's kingdom. Other than not being adjacent to the other satrapies, that barbarian kingdom isn't that different from Sylila. The rest of Saird may well be divided up between the then two barbarian satrapies. At least until the end of Argrath's LBQ and the subsequent deeper quest.