Someone is a bit confused about Misplaced which is the first book in the short Valley of Fire series. Eric is not a lost prince. He's possibly a lost member of the extended Imperial Household.
Chase was the lost prince.
Not Eric.
Is there a difference? Of course. Or I wouldn't be Writing this obviously.
Mariella believes Eric to be a very strong duke, perhaps an Arch-Duke. These were mentioned in passing in the Wolfhounds series. Her family is an arch-duke House. Marrying in another Arch-Duke House would be good for the blood, as well as possible alliances.
This will be discussed in the next book. The King may suspect Eric is more, that he may in fact be an Imperial. In either case this is a win for him, a big win, as it would mean closer ties to Solaria either way. A lot of the royal politics in this series are based on the historical politics of Europe back in the days of tall ships. Inter-marrying his arch-duke house to an imperial house would be a huge boon to the future of his house and kingdom. Because of genetics and again, trade and alliances.
But it's only a win with the imperial house re-established. Without it, it would have had to be kept secret -if- they could even have figured it out. If it was realized he might be an imperial, a very large and nasty war would have quickly occurred wipimg out Iraklis.
Now I can understand if people don't wish to read about these kinds of things. But it is most definitely not the same story.
Actually, I can understand their confusion, since it’s pretty obvious that Eric *is* pretty strong, but the bits and pieces of backstory you’ve given us makes it pretty clear that his parents weren’t high on the succession list pre-coup even if his father might have been an imperial.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, you’ve already shown that other imperials do exist, but Chase is the “lost prince” at the center of the story dealing with restoring his house to power.
Is Eric an imperial? Honestly, I waffled back on forth through most of the book. I’m guessing “yes”, just because it would offer more story options later on, but I can see problems in the future if he is unequivocally an imperial male but outside the imperium.
Though I’m also wondering what - other than access to the tomb - distinguishes a strong archduke from an untrained or slacker imperial?