The next queen of Irrisen?


Reign of Winter


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I am currently DM'ing the Reign of Winter AP and the succession to the throne is unclear to me:
The fifteenth daughter of Baba Yaga, who would become queen after Elvanna, is currently in Irrisen, rigth? Elvanna's description mentioned, that all the queens are groomed for their reign, and I assume in Irrisen. But the next queen is never mentioned - and it certainly is something very important. It would be dangerous for the heir to be in Irrisen, but it surely is the best place to learn about it and become connected.
Or does Baba Yaga bring them from somewhere else to Irrisen? In that case from where? From several different worlds (the nature of those worlds could be quite important) or from some special place?
The crown gives the queens a youthful appearance, but doesn't stop them from aging and they rule for 100 years. Also, when they come to power they have to be powerful witches and have adult children to replace the ones, that Baba Yaga takes with her, so she has a solid base for her rule. So does Baba Yaga give birth every 100 or so years in the middle of each reign and bring the child to Irrisen to be raised somewhere? Or to some different place? Does she have a frozen repertoire of pre-groomed (for a out of date situation), upcoming witch-queens plus entourage? How does it work?

Is there somewhere official/semi-official information on this? Otherwise, how did you handle it?


I believe she selects an heir from among the Jadwiga-class citizens of Irrisen, from one of the noble families descended from the original queen(s).

RoW however gives the players the chance to select their own heir. A prospective qualified heir can be picked up by the party in Rasputin Must Die!, or they can find/select one on their own from elsewhere if they find someone they like better, and one of the rewards Baba Yaga offers the party for rescuing her is the opportunity to select the next leader.


Orthos wrote:
I believe she selects an heir from among the Jadwiga-class citizens of Irrisen, from one of the noble families descended from the original queen(s).

All the queens have been sisters and Baba Yaga's daughters. That much is clear.

And I'm not talking about the actual next ruler, possibly influenced by the PC, I am talking about the next heir in line, if everything would go the usual way.


Being young again is just a single spell away (Three-Fold Aspect, among others). Baba Yaga takes lovers and has children every cycle.

It's left up to the DM to decide who the new queen is, if winds up being an unknown. The new queen could well be squirreled away in one of the Hut's countless demiplanes.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Everything I've read across the AP, the Irrisen source book and the campaign setting book seems to imply that Baba Yaga just turns up with a woman from somewhere (bear in mind that she roams the entire multiverse)and proclaims her queen.

Each queen is her daughter; not grand-daughter, descendent etc., her actual child.


Darrell Impey UK wrote:

Everything I've read across the AP, the Irrisen source book and the campaign setting book seems to imply that Baba Yaga just turns up with a woman from somewhere (bear in mind that she roams the entire multiverse)and proclaims her queen.

Each queen is her daughter; not grand-daughter, descendent etc., her actual child.

With the exception of the Rasputin Must Die! option.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Fair point, I had forgotten about her. That said,

details of end of AP:
whilst BY is willing to have her proclaimed queen at he end of the 'Path, she is apparently also willing to proclaim one of the PCs monarch too
.

Mind you, this still amounts to just appearing with someone and proclaiming them queen too. :)


That option also illustrates one of the reasons, why it is important, where the queens come from. If they and several adult children of them come from strange worlds, that would have great influence on them and thereby whole Irrisen - they are the rulers and can change or introduce all kinds of things. But from what I have read, all the queens seem like what you would expect, if they had lived in Irrisen all their life.

Well, apparently there are no official statements about it. But I am interested in hearing how you would or even better how you did define this - aside from simply saying, they come from a mysterious, unknown place.


This is something that has bothered me, too. I sure would love to hear what Paizo says about this, since it is, to me, such a huge, important question.

Sovereign Court Developer

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We've never stated where Baba Yaga brings her daughters from, but they are not in Irrisen. As others have said, Baba Yaga travels throughout the Great Beyond, and she is immortal, so she could (and does) have multiple daughters spread out over countless worlds and planes. She "grooms" selected daughters to rule Irrisen, bringing one to Irrisen every 100 years to take the throne.

We haven't gone into any more detail than that - so if you need more information, feel free to create whatever you like for your campaign!


The other question is whether or not a male PC could use a boon to become the next ruler of Irrisen. The Continuing the Campaign text seems to clearly imply that the concept of the boon is that a female PC might try to become Irrisen's next new queen, and if that's the boon asked for then Dear Grandmother does agree to it and installs them as the new ruler (in which case, would Baba Yaga return for them in a hundred years, since the new ruler presumably isn't part of her bloodline?).

Her relationship with any male children (e.g. Rasputin) she had might shed some light on the matter. It would certainly be an even more drastic change to the status quo than a new queen, and given that Baba Yaga is noted as disappointed that fewer rebellions and attempts to change the status quo have sprung up since she founded Irrisen (she's actually very bored with Irrisen by the time RoW is happening), she might find the change intriguing, something that could trigger "New and Exciting" things in her little power-experiment.

So might having no new monarch at all. The sudden power vacuum would create quite a squabble for the top job.

Sovereign Court

I'll take the job!

It is an issue to me with Paizo not advancing the time line post AP. I'd like to see who Canom

Spoiler:
Even though it is the most remote option, I'd likely go with Anastasia. But I'm a Romanov fan at heart.


Ksenia Skartsen wrote:

I'll take the job!

It is an issue to me with Paizo not advancing the time line post AP. I'd like to see who Canom
** spoiler omitted **

I've decided that unless a

player:
asks to become queen of Irrisen

I'd appoint
queen of Irrisen:
Anastasia, regardless of player's desires. BUT if they ask Anastasia to be crowned, she would be friendly towards them and ask them to help her control Irrisen.
If they don't mention the next queen, Anastasia is picked up by Baba Yaga and crowned, knowing the player's saved her life, she's neutral towards them, but could easily become a potential foe or ally. In this case the player's would have to build up a relationship with her.

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