Choices, Consequences and Chaos. Part 1: Political Power

A prince kills his brother after his betrothed is murdered. An empress conquers half a continent after her husband is assassinated by a rival kingdom. A village burns a woman after she poisons half the village children.

What do all these events have in common? Consequences born from others’ choices.

Often, we focus on the end result of major events without pausing to ask what caused them. Who cast the first stone? Who made the decision that changed everything? Why did they make that choice and not another? Sometimes, all it takes is one person, an impulsive reaction, a quiet act of rebellion, or a desperate move to survive, to create ripples powerful enough to reshape the world. Other times, it can be a calculated decision, a sinister plot, someone’s hatred or love for another that can turn the tide of fate.

The same is true in fiction. In my novel, Morgana is cursed by the gods for breaking one of the world’s primordial laws. This one choice had dire consequences that rippled out across the world. At the start of book one, Morgana has already been punished and is now living with the burden of her choice.  

But this is not the end, only the beginning. Throughout the novel series we will watch as not just Morgana’s but other characters choices moving forward cause ripple effects and create new consequences and what I like to call chaos.

This is one of my favourite aspects of world building. How cause and effect shape not just plot, but cultures, laws, and empires. That’s why this June, I’ll be diving into a 3-part blog series exploring Choices, Consequences, and Chaos.

Each post will explore different levels of magnitude. From small choices like pranking a friend, up to world changing choices that led to the destruction of monarchies. Over this series, we shall also get behind-the-scenes lore, and maybe even a character reveal or two…

Part 1: Political Power

The Red Queen’s Demand. The Outlaw’s Refusal.

This week let us delve into something we can recognise in our own world. Political choices. Politics plays a huge part in both reality and fantasy worlds. It has a wide range of influence on world building, from laws and keeping the people in check, up to going to war and discrimination of other races. People’s lives can vary greatly depending on the politics of their nation. This week’s example will be part of the erased history of a certain nation in my novel series. The choices made by two people, drastically changed the fates of many people in this nation.

Let us journey to the matriarchal nation called Volmaria. Queen Maria the Third is the reigning queen of Volmaria at the time the first book takes place. This nation under the tyrannical rule of their queen has strict laws that discriminate between the genders of people. Women in high society have been given all the power, and the imbalance has caused many men to be forced into political marriages over the last two decades.

But how did Volmaria get to be so unstable, and under the rule of what other nations refer to as The Red Queen?

When Queen Maria was first crowned, she wished to marry someone from the most powerful family. One of the four duchesses of Volmaria had a son who was talented and held much influence even at a young age for his knowledge and skills. Queen Maria was obsessed and wished to marry him for both political power and for what she deemed was love.

However, the son did not wish to marry her and feared that the queen’s obsession, which she defended as affection, was anything but love. Despite the duchess’s son refusing, there was nothing he could do to stop the Queen’s plans.

With Volmaria still following the old practice of arranging political marriages for the sons, he was trapped. The son pleaded that soul-binding (this world’s magical marriage system) is a sacred blessing from the gods, meant to be shared between two consenting lovers. Forcing someone to soul-bind with is corrupt and can be punishable in the eyes of the gods. The queen dismissed such claims, not believing the gods would interfere, or that the binding is sacred, but simply a tool for power.

The duchess agreed to marry her son to the queen once he was old enough for the soul-binding ritual.

It is due to the Queen’s demand that a second choice was made. The son of the duchess decided to run away from home. He fled the nation, rather living as an outlaw than become a puppet of the state. Two choices made and the consequences that followed sent a nation down a path of corruption. Driven by anger toward the duchess’s son, and fear of losing control, Queen Maria ordered the public execution of his entire family for treason. Every blood relative, no matter how distant or removed from the main family line, was publicly beheaded.

What was supposed to be a simple marriage to bond two strong families turned into a bitter power obsession. Queen Maria, not wanting any other families to defy her, turned many noble houses into her puppets. Forcing many prominent houses into political marriages to ensure their loyalty and power would remain under the crown. Anyone that defied her met a swift end, either assassinated or publicly executed. The decade that followed saw streets run red. Queen Maria also banned anyone from mentioning the noble family that started this bloodshed in her eyes. All mention of the duchess and her son were erased from history, anyone that spoke their names would be beheaded.

Queen Maria’s belief in soul-bonds twisted from seeing them as a blessing from the gods, to viewing them as weapons to control the fate of others.

Her obsession with total control, and her warped view of the world, led many across the continent to nickname her The Red Queen. Yet even her citizens turn a blind eye now to the bloodshed and tyrannical methods, choosing to perform to her whims. To maintain favour in the Queen’s eyes rather than expose how vile and corrupt her soul truly is.

Volmaria, though a small nation, holds a powerful military, and its central position on the continent makes it a key connection point for many trade routes. So, despite how other nations believe Volmaria is backwards in many political points and views, they still do trade and have peace treaties in place with this corrupt nation. Money and power, as the queen believed, have a way of turning people’s eyes away from the way she runs her nation.

But what happened to the duchess’s son? The boy that fled a corrupt queen and abandoned his noble birth and duties, what happened to him?

Guilt and madness.

Due to his choice, his family has been erased from history, and he can never return to Volmaria. After discovering the outcome of his choice, he went mad. How could he not descend into madness, knowing he was one of the reasons Volmaria's fate shifted so drastically? His family and countless others now stain his hands as well the soil of Volmaria.

Politics is messy and complicated. Choices of those in power, and the choices of those defying the control can effect not just change their own fates, but the fates of people they do not even know.

This chapter of history takes place before the events of book one, yet still holds influence as the story progresses. Volmaria in book one is still a powerful nation, and the adventuring guild takes commissions from this nation occasionally. If you are curious about Volmaria, the queen, or the mad outlaw, you will need to wait for book one.

These are the stories I love to write. Not just of magic and monsters, but of decisions made in fear, in anger, in desperation. Fantasy, to me, is about both the wonder of monsters and magic, and the quiet, human moments that reveal who we really are.

The queen thought she was preserving power. The boy thought he was saving himself. Neither meant to start a chain of events that would reshape a kingdom.

But that’s the thing about consequence. It doesn’t care about intent, or whether the choice was right or wrong.

Next week, I’ll take you deeper into my world, where we’ll look at the catastrophic consequences of a choice made by a king… and how his love for one woman sent the world into chaos.

Till next time, my adventurers!