The Politics of Marriage Among the Horse People and the Kings and Queens

Keeping the Balance of Power in the Nine Nations

The Tree Clans figured correctly in their assessment of the humans that they needed a structure in which the balance of power was strictly kept. Some of the Nations were large and aggressive and those were patronized by the stronger Tree Clans. Because the Queens held the power of the family, the ties between mother and daughter were broken by the mother being fathered by a Tree and the daughter by an Animal. This kept them from uniting in a shared experience which is the basis of friendship and understanding. They were more or less attached as family members are due to personality and situation, yet their powers were often vastly different. On the "Magic" pages you can read about the differences in powers of the queens and on the "Religion" pages more about their differing duties.

This diagram shows the Tree and Animal patron clans and the families of the Nine Nations. Each nineteen years, a princess would go into the Wood to be s for a year or more where she also bore a child and learned more about how to control her powers. A princess who had a Tree father was mated to an Animal groom who would father her daughter. Thus the generations switched patrons back and forth. Animal Queens also brought to their thrones a change of college and a change of kings. The Colleges were of the same patronage as the queens and the kings were opposite. Thus a Tree Queen married an Animal King.

At any one time neighboring Nations had different courts in session for most of any queen's tenure. This was to prevent something like all Veldonaccii kings across five Nations. The effort to prevent this kind of thing was as follows. A Tree King was selected from the noble class, usually from a different Nation. The Animal King was selected from a lower class or was foreign born. This prevented an elite from forming in the ruling families. It also promoted international relationships and antagonized the Queens who had to marry these men who were not of their own kind. As in the upper classes of Earth, sometimes there was love, more often their was tolerance or hostility. This was encouraged in order that the king and queen might not collude on any one venture. They also kept separate courts.

The King's Court was in charge of the body of law attached to personal violation, either of person or of honor, even of mind. They also heard and decided half-breed cases and dealt with threats to the Nation on a physical level. These courts were very like the ancient common law courts: held in the open air, attended by great crowds of eolas, lawyers, nobles and commoners, often very hot in debate, having the nature of a clan gathering, a fair, and a formal battle of wits. Often, when these courts were in session, they were timed with championships in gaming, sports of war, and debates, poetry contests and musical events. If a King was not chosen before a Princess went on her initiation, King Contests were held that were attended by anyone who could come.

The Queen's Court could not be more different and was different depending on the family and Nation. Yet they would be familiar to us as a small court of royalty filled with nobles petitioning for favors from the Queen, and foreign emissaries. The Queen's Court decided issues of legacy, taxation, ownership of goods, marriage, divorce, child support and parentage and also dealt with all foreigners who were not at war with the Nation. The courts were very individual and had little of the "open" feeling of the King's Courts. Animal Queens tended to be more involved with their people, for they blessed the flocks and arranged for roads to be built and engineering projects to go forward. They also supported the sciences and many of the arts. Tree Queens tended to be more involved in international relationships and in legal battles with other families. They were very close to their eolas who ran the Colleges of Law, Religion, History and the "druid" arts that we know from our own history. They supported the arts as well, but tended to devote monies toward mercantile advancement and investment in lands and herds for the family.

This changing of courts every 18-20 years went on for almost two hundred years before the Zelosian Invasion put an end to the Horse People. Two incidents created the dreaded situations that the Trees had tried to avoid. A king did not give up power and the Veldonaccii Alliance formed which the Zelosians had to fight, and a Queen did not turn over her throne to her daughter and created a power bloc that the Zelosians had to destroy.