Deezola, Sovereignty, and the Moons

[Tatterdemalion Fox]

I’m spinning this off from the increasingly contentious “Lunar Way Observations” thread, because I think there’s something here that deserves its own increasingly contentious thread.

So. Queen Deezola. Ruler of lands on the Arcos river, priestess of (depending who and when you ask) Arachne Solara, “the local Earth goddess,” or Dendara. Keeper of Vows, Avenger of Wrongs, the Unshakable One.

In the previous thread, an interesting hypothesis was brought up: that it’s possible Deezola was not actually a ruling queen, but just a powerful earth priestess leasing out her lands. And after looking over the sources I have available to me (Cults of Prax, the Sourcebook, and The Lunar Way, most notably) — I think that this theory is plausible but unsatisfying. It’s in line with the idea that (outside of Esrolia), women only possess soft power, having management over land that must be leased out to male kings, as well as being a necessary component for the legitimacy of a man’s rule.

However, I feel that this interpretation sacrifices complexity for the satisfying simplicity of asserting the dominance of male leadership; this is close enough to Dara Happa to be blinding. Speaking of Dara Happa, put on your trollglasses and look north instead.

Rinliddi extends to the foothills of the Blue Moon Plateau, the wreck of Queen Ceruilla. Prior to the release of TLW, Deezola was understood to have associations with Lesilla, one of the more interesting myths of female leadership (for all that it ends tragically). A queen before Time mirroring a queen after Time, both of them in dire straits.

(Note, too, that Deezola attempted to teach Teelo Estara about statecraft and rule, and it was miraculous that she instead found herself educated by the goddess— a fragment of contemporary myth that loses much of its impact if she was speaking as “just” an earth priestess.)

My own conception of the Seven Mothers is that Deezola (likely the ruler of lands north of Torang at this time, if not the city itself) provided shelter for both Irrippi Ontor and Yanafal Tarnils as part of her modest household/court, and was likely convinced by Irrippi that calling forth the missing goddess would be crucial in the delicate game of playing the Carmanians and the Pentans against each other to maintain her tenuous position. Political expediency and a very reasonable desire for power, given her position.

I’m not a RuneQuest gal; the mechanical details of how many Rune spells Deezola might have isn’t as important to me as a coherent narrative understanding of the Queen by Arcos and how her legacy is understood in the modern Lunar Empire, particularly by “Lunar nobles, poets, and healers.”

So, what do you all think? When you rotate a 3D image of Deezola in your imaginations, what narrative features stand out? Is there room for a minor queen to hold political power between Carmania and Pent, between the Blue Moon and the Tripolis?

[theconfusingeel]

Only gods that have leadership as a important aspect of their myth gain ruleship magic, Yelm as emperor, Orlanth as king of the gods, Pamalt as leader of his pantheon. Just because a god ruled over a place doesn't mean they automatically gain rulership magic, that's why Deezola doesn't get any.
Plus, because she was a mortal, her magic must have come from some cult she practiced or a heroquest of hers, historical events don't translate into mythology.

Edited May 24 by theconfusingeel

[radmonger]

48 minutes ago, Tatterdemalion Fox said:

I’m not a RuneQuest gal; the mechanical details of how many Rune spells Deezola might have isn’t as important to me as a coherent narrative understanding of the Queen by Arcos and how her legacy is understood in the modern Lunar Empire, particularly by “Lunar nobles, poets, and healers.”

Part of this is that there is I think a difference in presentation between RQ and HQ/HW. The latter focused on what the gods can do, and so, by implication, what a devotee or hero emulating  that god can.

The former is on what cults actually teach. Which means specific, mechanically-defined spells that can be learnt during downtime by a member at a temple to that god. Where there is a obviously intended to be an inexact but real relation between temple size and number of spells available that way. It doesn't cover heroquest powers that could be gained by doing dangerous things in play, or unique spells that can only be learnt at one specific temple.

Most of the cults in the Lunar Way book have enough spells for a small temple. Hence, a large or great temple, if it existed, would have more.

So the question becomes:

• does such a temple exist somewhere?
• could such a temple be built?
• if so, who would want to, and where would they get the power and resources?

Which, for a cult of rulership, becomes circular. if someone ruled in that name, they would have that power and resources. And so they would build such a temple.

So do they?

For most of the empire, rulership and sovereignty belongs to Yelm. Dendara is his wife, and Deezola is Lunarized Dendara. As such, she does not rule or command; she supports, protects and heals. The temples that exist will be funded and patronized by noble wives who want magic to protect their loved ones.

There is a strong argument that this is the case because the Lunar Empire was put back wrong after Sheng's conquest. The Yelmic ruling class he introduced was never wholesale replaced, merely suborned.

What isn't clear is if you go to the far north and west of the empire, far away from Dragon pass, that still holds.

 

 

.

 

 

Edited May 24 by radmonger

[Tatterdemalion Fox]

38 minutes ago, theconfusingeel said:

Only gods that have leadership as an important aspect of their myth gain ruleship magic, Yelm as emperor, Orlanth as king of the gods, Pamalt as leader of his pantheon. Just because a god ruled over a place doesn't mean they automatically gain rulership magic, that's why Deezola doesn't get any.

You may note that what I have written above doesn’t actually talk about “rulership magic,” and that I specifically pointed out I’m not talking about the mechanical details of RQRiG here. But this is an interesting tip of the hand nonetheless. Are you arguing that Deezola did not have leadership as an important aspect of her myth? If not, what are the important aspects of her myth?

40 minutes ago, theconfusingeel said:

Plus, because she was a mortal, her magic must have come from some cult she practiced or a heroquest of hers, historical events don't translate into mythology.

Are you arguing that the only magic that Lunar New Gods can pass on to their worshippers is the magic which they learned in their mortal life? That there is nothing transformative in their moment of apotheosis, that they had not already imprinted themselves on the fabric of existence outside of Time? That would be an inherent diminishment of the Lunar Pantheon, if so.

30 minutes ago, radmonger said:

Part of this is that there is I think a difference in presentation between RQ and HQ/HW. The latter focused on what the gods can do, and so, by implication, what a devotee or hero emulating  that god can.

Correct. That’s the lens I’m looking through here, and one of the reasons I spun this off as a new thread was to widen the scope from arguments about what specific RQ spells Deezola’s cult should or shouldn’t teach to the underlying ideas about Deezola, who she was, and what her legacy is.

42 minutes ago, radmonger said:

For most of the empire, rulership and sovereignty belongs to Yelm. Dendara is his wife, and Deezola is Lunarized Dendara. As such, she does not rule or command; she supports, protects and heals. The temples that exist will be funded and patronized by noble wives who want magic to protect their loved ones.

Good analysis, but I’m not entirely convinced that Deezola is only Dendara in red-and-black paint, any more than Yanafal can be said to entirely just be Bendy Sword Humakt, or Etyries as Girlboss Issaries.

45 minutes ago, radmonger said:

There is a strong argument that this is the case because the Lunar Empire was put back wrong after Sheng's conquest. The Yelmic ruling class he introduced was never wholesale replaced, merely suborned.

What isn't clear is if you go to the far north and west of the empire, far away from Dragon pass, that still holds.

How do they remember Deezola in Torang, we might very well ask.

[theconfusingeel]

1 minute ago, Tatterdemalion Fox said:

1.You may note that what I have written above doesn’t actually talk about “rulership magic,” and that I specifically pointed out I’m not talking about the mechanical details of RQRiG here. But this is an interesting tip of the hand nonetheless. Are you arguing that Deezola did not have leadership as an important aspect of her myth? If not, what are the important aspects of her myth?

2.Are you arguing that the only magic that Lunar New Gods can pass on to their worshippers is the magic which they learned in their mortal life? That there is nothing transformative in their moment of apotheosis, that they had not already imprinted themselves on the fabric of existence outside of Time? That would be an inherent diminishment of the Lunar Pantheon, if so.

 

1. I was going off the other thread. The important aspect as jeff said seems to be her being revived by arachne solara and her being a incarnation of Gerra.
I think another analogy is that many gods run, but they don't get running magic. Only gods that accomplished some impressive feat of running fast would provide that kind of magic.
2. Yeah. You become a god by heroquesting,that's the apotheosis. She became a god after the 7 mothers quest was completed, she changed the world by creating the red goddess. The moment she died and left the mortal world wasn't mythologically special, she was already a god.

[Tatterdemalion Fox]

1 minute ago, theconfusingeel said:

I was going off the other thread.

Perilous. 

4 minutes ago, theconfusingeel said:

You become a god by heroquesting,that's the apotheosis. She became a god after the 7 mothers quest was completed, she changed the world by creating the red goddess. The moment she died and left the mortal world wasn't mythologically special, she was already a god.

May I ask where you picked this interpretation up? While I don’t in the abstract disagree with the idea that HeroQuesting was the means of the apotheosis of the Lunar New Gods, I do not think I have ever seen an assertion that the birth of the Red Goddess turned the Seven Mothers into gods immediately. If I crack open TLW, it even says that they “found their own way to divinity” and that they all left the earth and joined the goddess in immortality within thirty years of the goddess’s own ascension into the Middle Airs. This would also make the deaths and resurrection of multiple members of the Sev-Ems during the First Battle of Chaos even more wildly remarkable, have major implications to the period in which the Red Goddess was struggling to establish a safe place for her and her people, and so on. YGWV, but I’m not sure you’ve thought through the implications here.

[theconfusingeel]

54 minutes ago, Tatterdemalion Fox said:

Perilous. 

May I ask where you picked this interpretation up? While I don’t in the abstract disagree with the idea that HeroQuesting was the means of the apotheosis of the Lunar New Gods, I do not think I have ever seen an assertion that the birth of the Red Goddess turned the Seven Mothers into gods immediately. If I crack open TLW, it even says that they “found their own way to divinity” and that they all left the earth and joined the goddess in immortality within thirty years of the goddess’s own ascension into the Middle Airs. This would also make the deaths and resurrection of multiple members of the Sev-Ems during the First Battle of Chaos even more wildly remarkable, have major implications to the period in which the Red Goddess was struggling to establish a safe place for her and her people, and so on. YGWV, but I’m not sure you’ve thought through the implications here.

From reading about heroquesting. If you heroquest enough you gain a hero soul, which is a permanent presance in the otherworld. That's how people gain cults and become gods.
Also note that many heroes are reborn even after they gain a hero soul,Sheng seleris' star(the sign of his divinity) rose while he was still alive, he died and then was revived by argarth. Arkat, Jar-eel ad others have probably done the same.

[Jeff]

6 minutes ago, theconfusingeel said:

Only gods that have leadership as a important aspect of their myth gain ruleship magic, Yelm as emperor, Orlanth as king of the gods, Pamalt as leader of his pantheon. Just because a god ruled over a place doesn't mean they automatically gain rulership magic, that's why Deezola doesn't get any.
Plus, because she was a mortal, her magic must have come from some cult she practiced or a heroquest of hers, historical events don't translate into mythology.

Just to go a little further. Deezola was the queen of Althil, a principality along the Acos River which most folk have never even heard of.  Althil shows up from time to time in history, usually whenever Dara Happa is incapable of ruling over the lower Acos River. Deezola was a Dendara initiate, which must have been an interesting arrangement with the Yelm cult. Perhaps she was figuratively married to Yelm. Regardless, being a ruler was not her heroquest.

Her heroquest was being tortured and dismember, but before dying meeting with the Spider Woman and then binding herself back together. That's the source of Regrow Limb, her great personal magic. Not rulership magic - heck, she doesn't even end up as the ruler of the Red Goddess' domains. The Red Goddess appoints one her children to do that.

[scott-martin]

IMG the modern empire is uncomfortable with the foundations of female authority except in jealously constrained special circumstances so this thread is like a fuse winding through the labyrinth to set off the bomb. After all, the modern empire can miss the historical complexities inherent in its own system and is frequently wrong. 

[SCENE MISSING FOR NOW]

Nowadays my old sentimental reading of the Momnificent Sev-Em taking their archetypal roles at something like face value has receded in favor of a more dynamic depth psychology approach where their symbolic value is not in who they started out as but in their journey to becoming someone more authentic. Deezola starts as a "queen," whatever that means, feathered or otherwise. She only becomes important when she sacrifices all that identity apparatus in order to face existential crisis head on . . . children and orphans think of her as the nice lady with the crown, the rest of us understand that just as the king must die in the NavErian system (so controversial across the continental earth complex) even the queen needs to learn that she too is very mortal. The wheel turns from privilege to martyrdom. This is her liberation, her glory and her transcendent experience.

Of course this is not one of the things the modern empire has much interest in pondering right now. They're busy. That might change! The loose yarn I would pull on is this weird detail from back in Cults of Prax, I don't recall anyone ever digging into what exactly "Contain" is all about or why it is considered one of her attributes. And what gets "bound" by the Binder Within, who does the bondage, what does that entail. This is probably where her real power is, once the crown, wherever it comes from with its funky rune, comes off.

[Tatterdemalion Fox]

42 minutes ago, theconfusingeel said:

From reading about heroquesting. If you heroquest enough you gain a hero soul, which is a permanent presance in the otherworld. That's how people gain cults and become gods.
Also note that many heroes are reborn even after they gain a hero soul,Sheng seleris' star(the sign of his divinity) rose while he was still alive, he died and then was revived by argarth. Arkat, Jar-eel ad others have probably done the same.

I think it is a mistake to equate the New Lunar Gods with even Superheroes. There is a difference in degree, even if not in kind.

31 minutes ago, Jeff said:

Deezola was the queen of Althil, a principality along the Acos River which most folk have never even heard of.

Ah, there it is, missed the specific name in her TLW write-up. Sure, I’ll incorporate this into my belief system, as the saying goes.

32 minutes ago, Jeff said:

heck, she doesn't even end up as the ruler of the Red Goddess' domains. The Red Goddess appoints one her children to do that.

Well, naturally. We can’t very well expect administration to be carried out from the Red Moon herself. The commute alone would be untenable. Better to leave that to the Absentia, with his crown and his tests and his palace at the liminal point, not to mention his very recognizable style of leadership.

(This is only half a joke.)

24 minutes ago, scott-martin said:

Deezola starts as a "queen," whatever that means, feathered or otherwise. She only becomes important when she sacrifices all that identity apparatus in order to face existential crisis head on . . . children and orphans think of her as the nice lady with the crown, the rest of us understand that just as the king must die in the NavErian system (so controversial across the continental earth complex) even the queen needs to learn that she too is very mortal. The wheel turns from privilege to martyrdom. This is her liberation, her glory and her transcendent experience.

Gorgeous. The best interpretation I’ve seen yet. Worth posting for.

26 minutes ago, scott-martin said:

And what gets "bound" by the Binder Within, who does the bondage, what does that entail. This is probably where her real power is, once the crown, wherever it comes from with its funky rune, comes off.

In my experience, the real power in the scene lies with the bound, though the power transfer is always negotiated; that’s the game of it.

(I once heard “Hedkoranth!” yelped on the other side of a doorway while walking through Mernita, but I must surely have been mistaken as to whose Voice it was.)

[theconfusingeel]

8 minutes ago, Tatterdemalion Fox said:

I think it is a mistake to equate the New Lunar Gods with even Superheroes. There is a difference in degree, even if not in kind.

 

Is it necesarilly?
They're both on the intersection between divine and mortal, I don't see why the seven mothers can't fit in the same framework as Arkat, even if they don't hold the same degree of power

[Rodney Dangerduck]

1 hour ago, Jeff said:

That's the source of Regrow Limb, her great personal magic.

If Regrow Limb were "great" and "personal" then yes, Deezola would have something special.

Many other cults, including not-healing-focused cults like Issaries, Yinkin, and Maran Gor, have access to Regrow Limb.  It is far from personal.

Nor is Regrow Limb "great".  Heal Body fixes the entire body, and regrows the limb instantly.  Heal Body cost one more rune point, sure, but is a great spell.

Note that Babeester Gor, not my idea of a healing cult, has both Regrow Limb and Heal Body.

 

 

[French Desperate WindChild]

my view is (note that is not my conception of what would be the world 😛 )

 

when Deezola was queen ? before the red goddess, when the femine ideal was the good wife Dendara.

So she obtained, as any queen in a masculine conception of power, a "delegation" to manage visible activities but not "true" and "important" role

She is the one who managed the house. "Yes define the  menu, the table, the flowers, the draperies; it is important to show our guest how rich, powerful and well mannered we are. But once I will have to negociate the expected treaty, let us work among men, that's not a woman's business"

She is the one in charge to show the "welcome", benevolent part of the power. "Yes, get involved in the orpheans, and others charitable activities. It is important to show our people how good, protective and involved in their live we are. But let me decide what will be the taxes next year and how may peasants will accompany me to our war against our ennemies"

And of course if she was mother, she had to take care of the children. "Give me robust babies, educate them. But it's time now to let our older boy learn to be a man. Let me him, he is 8 years old now, if you continue to give him too much attention, he will become weak as a woman"

 

Now that doesn't mean she was not ambitious (being the "best queen", having more resources and/or wealth jewels, or even having more powers, participating to the king decision) but somewhere it would be a fight against the "system". But what is the quest for the red goddess if not a fight against the system ?!

4 hours ago, Tatterdemalion Fox said:

My own conception of the Seven Mothers is that Deezola (likely the ruler of lands north of Torang at this time, if not the city itself) provided shelter for both Irrippi Ontor and Yanafal Tarnils as part of her modest household/court

that's exactly the role (or competence ? I m note sure if competence have the same senses than in French) a queen may have. Welcoming guests (and sometimes even if the king disagree "I have to let her do some things, it is important to her to feel "powerful" after all")

And maybe she saw in these guys the opportunity to change her own life, to get more. That may explain why she had to suffer, because the firs reasons of her quest was her selfish wishes.

 

After there was the red goddess, the red empire. However... Except (semi) goddessess and weird / feared positions... there are not so many  women who rules something in the lunar empire I think. How many empress ? sartraps ?

No as a woman, go in Esrolia, or even better in Trowjang. At least there, you will not be disappointed by your lover performance... 🙂 

 

[Richard S.]

Deezola does have one very important power of sovereignty - her cult has complete independence from Yelm's, which is no small feat among Pelorian earth goddesses.

Edit: I guess it's not total independence, considering that the cult technically does report to the high priest of Yelm. But it's pretty damn close.

Edited May 24 by Richard S.

[Jeff]

47 minutes ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:

If Regrow Limb were "great" and "personal" then yes, Deezola would have something special.

Many other cults, including not-healing-focused cults like Issaries, Yinkin, and Maran Gor, have access to Regrow Limb.  It is far from personal.

Nor is Regrow Limb "great".  Heal Body fixes the entire body, and regrows the limb instantly.  Heal Body cost one more rune point, sure, but is a great spell.

Note that Babeester Gor, not my idea of a healing cult, has both Regrow Limb and Heal Body.

 

 

Whatever. Deezola provides it. You could have gotten it from the Grain Goddess or Dendara, but that wouldn't lead you towards the Red Goddess. 

[Eff]

5 hours ago, Tatterdemalion Fox said:

I’m not a RuneQuest gal; the mechanical details of how many Rune spells Deezola might have isn’t as important to me as a coherent narrative understanding of the Queen by Arcos and how her legacy is understood in the modern Lunar Empire, particularly by “Lunar nobles, poets, and healers.”

So, what do you all think? When you rotate a 3D image of Deezola in your imaginations, what narrative features stand out? Is there room for a minor queen to hold political power between Carmania and Pent, between the Blue Moon and the Tripolis?

Let's spin Queen Deezola around in my mind, along seven axes, and see what comes out...

I think that on the actual important question, yes, of course there's room for a woman to hold power in her own right in Peloria even before the Lunars. All one has to do is look at the Glorious Reascent of Yelm and the Fortunate Succession and consider that, within those texts, the Dara Happan view of history is one that is clearly shown again and again to be selective, self-contradictory, and full of hints as to what was "really going on". The vicious sarcasm concerning Dendara on the Gods Wall is very apparent even before you start nosing around the more obscure sources. Then there's all those maps in the Fortunate Succession which make it clear that, within those texts, "Dara Happa" refers to a fairly small area of Peloria which has been able to historically dominate Peloria at times and at other times has been one of many small states or a subjugated client of a larger, more powerful one. All of which is to say, a contemporary Plentonius in an alternate early 14th century ST would be sweating furiously as he attempted to find a way to explain away Deezola's historical presence, but he would have been doing the same for other historical women of authority.

So let's turn up the speed on the gyroscope. Spinning wildly, some narrative features that fall out of Deezola's pockets become readily apparent to me- All of the boys are either exiles or criminals or both, Teelo N. is a street urchin, and Jakaleel is another outsider. So when it comes to providing physical spaces, and the majority of capital outlays, that has to be on Queen D. She's obviously very committed from the getgo, because she's the knowing conspirator with the most to lose at the beginning. So in my mind, her motivation has to be very strong indeed. Add this to the fact that it's her, Teelo, and maybe Danfive as actual natives of Rinliddi, and her as the only representative of a politically enfranchised class, and the motivation that emerges for me is pride, in the intermingled sense of personal and group-collective that plays a clear role in protonationalist political causes. That is, Deezola begins with the desire to see her domain free from Carmanian rule and from regular raids from Velthil, which leads her to hear out the crackpot sage and the hobo hazar, and then accept the woman with slate-blue skin and clear signs of tusks...

And then that leads her to the decision to sacrifice a child from the streets, because the cause is worth it. What's one urchin, more or less? One crook from the hills who'd be left out for the vroks to feed on otherwise? And so then we come to Teelo Estara's lessons, and what Deezola has to learn from her. About rulership and statecraft. And this could be remnant Lesilla and Cerullia memories, and it could simply be the kind of lessons a street girl might have for a queen who thought she was expendable. Certainly, if you trust that dangerous Life of Sedenya, Deezola had learned her lesson by the First Battle of Chaos, and gave her life alongside the common and ordinary faithful, and was returned to it.

So what did Deezola learn from all this and teach to her disciples? I have a pretty good idea of what kind of magic is offered IMD, of course, but that's not really what this thread is about, now is it?

[radmonger]

1 hour ago, Eff said:

o what did Deezola learn from all this and teach to her disciples? I have a pretty good idea of what kind of magic is offered IMD, of course, but that's not really what this thread is about, now is it?

The magic she has available to teach may not be the magic the Empire wants taught.

Sheng may be locked down in the darkest Lunar hell, but in a lot of ways, from there, he truly rules the empire. He defines what they fear, and so what they are prepared to do to avoid that fear. The slave farms, the Corn Games, the Reaching Moon Temples, the Moon constantly glowing as if it were a New Sun. The Bat as a weapon. These are all his doing.

Only a second Deezola, a new hero of Dendara,can do what must be done. To descend into that deepest and most secret Lunar Hell, and free the Empire from its fear.

They will need a team; 7 members are traditional. There are stories of a barbarian warlord in the far south who may prove a useful asset...

[Mao]

13 hours ago, scott-martin said:

 

 Deezola starts as a "queen," whatever that means, feathered or otherwise. She only becomes important when she sacrifices all that identity apparatus in order to face existential crisis head on . . . children and orphans think of her as the nice lady with the crown, the rest of us understand that just as the king must die in the NavErian system (so controversial across the continental earth complex) even the queen needs to learn that she too is very mortal. The wheel turns from privilege to martyrdom. This is her liberation, her glory and her transcendent experience.

 

Oooh I really like that. Having read Campbell I (think I know, do tell me if I'm wrong! I'm basically a baby when it comes to the inner workings of the fandom) think I know where Greg got the 'sacrificial king' stuff from since Campbell was HUGE into it in Masks of God. So it's really neat to think of Deezola as a spin on that, where the more standard mode of king sacrifice seems to be in place in some of the deeper parts of the Earth Goddess mytho-complex. At least it seemed fairly standard last I checked but it's been a while.

Anyway my point is I think that's a neat idea and thank you for sharing 🙂

[scott-martin]

5 hours ago, Mao said:

I know where Greg got the 'sacrificial king' stuff from

Love it. To paraphrase the great Iggy Pop, "take a ride and see what's yours." Seriously. You have the earth book and you have the moon book now. You've seen the bright and hollow sky. The fun part for all of us is what you do with it as we figure out the routes all the mothers and all their cults take us through the "city" and its backside.

For me the tantra of Deezola followed to her classical early-wane core starts with an accidental encounter I had in the park with the underground chanteuse Kiki and her slightly demented piano player. Like just about any aspiring noble or poet I was getting back from Coney Island a little early on a long holiday weekend away from the office and the evening opened up with possibilities. They played a very minor Elton John track like it was the keys to the kingdom and then they gave it a gender flip at the end like one does at these events. That's where Deezola can start. Raise a "queen" and she were she takes it in a world steeped with frazerian metaphors.

Anyway this is just the version for nobles and poets, still a little sentimental!

 

[soltakss]

On 5/24/2024 at 5:01 PM, Tatterdemalion Fox said:

In the previous thread, an interesting hypothesis was brought up: that it’s possible Deezola was not actually a ruling queen, but just a powerful earth priestess leasing out her lands. And after looking over the sources I have available to me (Cults of Prax, the Sourcebook, and The Lunar Way, most notably) — I think that this theory is plausible but unsatisfying. It’s in line with the idea that (outside of Esrolia), women only possess soft power, having management over land that must be leased out to male kings, as well as being a necessary component for the legitimacy of a man’s rule.

In Earth lands, the Queen could also be the High Priestess of Earth Cults, in the same way that the King in Orlanthi areas is High Priest of Orlanth Rex.