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Howdy, New Readers! Thanks for reading Exiern!
Written by Scott T. Hicken with art by Antipus, the comic updates Thursdays. Please check out the Archive to enjoy the earlier adventures of Typh and Peonie!
Exiern contains mature themes and is best for readers 18+.
The king’s already shown he doesn’t mind if Peonie doesn’t want to inherit the kingdom as long as there’s someone else in the family line to take her place (royalty’s a lot more relaxed than our Earth by the looks of it.) Extending that observation, I think he doesn’t have a problem with Phi, if he did, well he could have banished him or worse long before now.
I think the king just likes to amuse himself by trolling people when the opportunity presents itself and if there’s one thing Phi seems to do over and over again …
I think the good king knows full well what’s going on, and wouldn’t mind an unexpected royal heir, but he wants Phi to be a man and take responsibility.
Royalty isn’t more relaxed, it is just that the king has a long term plan that will make Peonie change her mind about ruling because she feels a responsibility to care for her people.
I agree the King likely knows, or at least has a very good idea, what’s going on, and is at least currently okay with it. But my bet is there’s at least one more, and likely two or more, layers to this plot that we don’t know about yet.
Sometimes a proper grip on power is recognizing what can easily fall out of your grasp if you let it and accepting the differences needed to keep that grasp. Manufactured orders keeps Phi under his thumb in a way that waiting for him to desert would not.
Besides, as manipulative as Urtica is, I suspect he chose and groomed Phi to be Peonie’s regular lover before either of them hit puberty. He hasn’t stopped it, he just flexes his authority in obviously-not-but-seemingly-coincidental-ways possibly for his own amusement but more certainly to make sure Phi doesn’t lose his fear of what could happen to him.
That is one devious man.
@Christopher , no not entirely invented, after all, Typh was officially P’s bodyguard and she quite publicly quit.
On the other hand, the idea of making p’s boyfriend the bodyguard, might have just acured to him on the spot.
I followed a kind link recently and I don’t think it was *completely* clear Urtica knew of this, but it’s not at all surprising.
Also… Father of the year, am I right?
Heck, it makes sense though. Maybe he’d still prefer to have a son before he dies, but failing that, it’s only to his benefit that his daughter (should she be queen) have heirs too.
It’s funny how much trouble royals seem to have with producing heirs. Whereas farming families like my grandparents pop out half a dozen and aren’t even exceptional.
In real life, pretty sure it’s all the royal inbreeding.
@Guesticus: IN RL Europe it was true. There just weren’t enough of them to avoid it so long as they all insisted on taking only other Royals as mates.
In Exiern I don’t think we have any evidence one way or the other, though King Urtica is likely both too well educated and too wise to allow such a thing among his kin.
Rolan7, you actually don’t want to have too many heirs in the royal family as it leads to nasty situations. Current model is for an heir and a spare (in other words, 3 aee kore than enough) since women can take the throne, gender is no longer an issue. In earlier time sons of nobels had 3 paths to power, heir, military or church. Since you would not want sons completing against each other more than 3 sons was seen as problematic, while daughters could be used to secure allies.
On the farm you needed as many working hands as were possible and given infant mortality rates a baby per year was the mark for which you aimed. Unfortunately, this tended to wear on you wife which lead to men remarrying often and the older man with a younger woman pattern.
One reason I’m familiar with the downside to too many heirs was the issue of dividing up the estate plays into my family history. I’m from the line of a second son chased off the land and exiled by a brother whom chose to keep the whole estate rather than share the lesser portion that my ancestor should have received.
Called it.
(I’ll be the first to admit it wasn’t exactly hard to predict, though.)
Heh heh “Bad Squishes!” indeed, and in bed too 😛
Is it just me, or does Kingie look like he is supressing the urge to make a fist in panel three? o_O
I predict something bad will happen.
The king’s already shown he doesn’t mind if Peonie doesn’t want to inherit the kingdom as long as there’s someone else in the family line to take her place (royalty’s a lot more relaxed than our Earth by the looks of it.) Extending that observation, I think he doesn’t have a problem with Phi, if he did, well he could have banished him or worse long before now.
I think the king just likes to amuse himself by trolling people when the opportunity presents itself and if there’s one thing Phi seems to do over and over again …
I think the good king knows full well what’s going on, and wouldn’t mind an unexpected royal heir, but he wants Phi to be a man and take responsibility.
Royalty isn’t more relaxed, it is just that the king has a long term plan that will make Peonie change her mind about ruling because she feels a responsibility to care for her people.
Poor guy, the king looking for a way to have him legally killed, lol.
also i forgot
Haha bad squishes
I agree the King likely knows, or at least has a very good idea, what’s going on, and is at least currently okay with it. But my bet is there’s at least one more, and likely two or more, layers to this plot that we don’t know about yet.
Urtica: ‘Note to self – must send request for Captain Phi to see me in Peonie’s room….’
So, the story of Bodyguard. Just inverted?
He is doing this on purpose.
Sometimes a proper grip on power is recognizing what can easily fall out of your grasp if you let it and accepting the differences needed to keep that grasp. Manufactured orders keeps Phi under his thumb in a way that waiting for him to desert would not.
Besides, as manipulative as Urtica is, I suspect he chose and groomed Phi to be Peonie’s regular lover before either of them hit puberty. He hasn’t stopped it, he just flexes his authority in obviously-not-but-seemingly-coincidental-ways possibly for his own amusement but more certainly to make sure Phi doesn’t lose his fear of what could happen to him.
He’s totally playing with Phi isn’t he?
The king is trolling Phi. Also he knew full well what would happen when he let go of the book. Bad squishes indeed.
Yeah, the bad squishes was to keep Princess P-cups occupied, and in place
That is one devious man.
@Christopher , no not entirely invented, after all, Typh was officially P’s bodyguard and she quite publicly quit.
On the other hand, the idea of making p’s boyfriend the bodyguard, might have just acured to him on the spot.
I followed a kind link recently and I don’t think it was *completely* clear Urtica knew of this, but it’s not at all surprising.
Also… Father of the year, am I right?
Heck, it makes sense though. Maybe he’d still prefer to have a son before he dies, but failing that, it’s only to his benefit that his daughter (should she be queen) have heirs too.
It’s funny how much trouble royals seem to have with producing heirs. Whereas farming families like my grandparents pop out half a dozen and aren’t even exceptional.
In real life, pretty sure it’s all the royal inbreeding.
Will people (read: idiots) put a lid on this ‘royals are inbred’ rubbish
@Guesticus: IN RL Europe it was true. There just weren’t enough of them to avoid it so long as they all insisted on taking only other Royals as mates.
In Exiern I don’t think we have any evidence one way or the other, though King Urtica is likely both too well educated and too wise to allow such a thing among his kin.
Not to mention Egypt and Persia, but I was thinking more of the Karlings yeah.
Rolan7, you actually don’t want to have too many heirs in the royal family as it leads to nasty situations. Current model is for an heir and a spare (in other words, 3 aee kore than enough) since women can take the throne, gender is no longer an issue. In earlier time sons of nobels had 3 paths to power, heir, military or church. Since you would not want sons completing against each other more than 3 sons was seen as problematic, while daughters could be used to secure allies.
On the farm you needed as many working hands as were possible and given infant mortality rates a baby per year was the mark for which you aimed. Unfortunately, this tended to wear on you wife which lead to men remarrying often and the older man with a younger woman pattern.
One reason I’m familiar with the downside to too many heirs was the issue of dividing up the estate plays into my family history. I’m from the line of a second son chased off the land and exiled by a brother whom chose to keep the whole estate rather than share the lesser portion that my ancestor should have received.
Ok, I’ll guard that body very carefully…