GLRP:EMs:Royal Spies & Guard:2011:Ouroboros:Rulers of the Pyramid
Title: Rulers of the Pyramid
Author: Baron von Leith
The Pharaoh of Zealan
was an absolute monarch.
His wife was the
Majestic Adoratrice of
Apathas. She was the
highest ranking sorceress
of the land; her role was
to see that the magical
forces of Zealan were
controlled and balanced.
The Pharaoh had many
wives and concubines. He
could choose one of his
sons, from any of them,
as his heir. The
Adoratrice was to be
faithful to the Pharaoh,
except for certain
religious ceremonies or if
one of the gods should
honor her with his
presence. She would adopt
a powerful young
sorceress as her heiress,
usually one of her own
daughters. Pharaoh and
Adoratrice usually had a
business, rather than
romantic, relationship.
Sometimes it was that of
business rivals. When
pharaoh was away at the
head of his army, the
adoratrice was regent and
thus head of both
branches of government,
temporal and magical.
Some pharaohs, even with dozens of wives, had no sons. Some adoratrices had no magically talented daughters and would balk at taking the daughter of a lesser wife or court rival as her apprentice. The nobles, an affable and patient class, would quietly jockey for position at these times. Any man a widowed adoratrice married would become pharaoh. Any pharaoh could order his wife, technically his subject, to adopt a particular girl.
The check to that, of course, was that a young sorceress could quite credibly die during training.
Many pharaohs and their adoratrices did love each other. A story the ancient peoples told of Zealan�s Great Lake, what we now call Gravewater Lake, is that an early pharaoh, Zv had it constructed for the delight of his wife, Shq.
This was dismissed as a
myth, until recently when
ancient tablets were
discovered that give
instructions for merging
various small bodies of
water, that pharaoh�s
wife, �might enjoy
sailing and fishing upon
these waters and take
delight in them all her
days.�
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