#qataqenthe

[suth-sardian]

the one with the perfectly steady hands: Qataqenthe

[ykoriana-imperatrix]

SDC Month - June 2022 - Thursday #2

Four is the actual loneliest number, not one.

IV. Nayakarade

The sadness in Ykoriana's eyes is palpable, and as always, Nayakarade yearns to comfort her, but does not. It would do her no good to live her life hungering for affection, she tells herself, though these are empty words. This is not favouritism, but a matter of protecting the child with the shadow of death hanging over him — surely her daughter will understand, one day? Still, it is impossible to ignore the dreadful realisation that she has become her own mother.

Notes

Nayakarade becomes our second canon character to feature this month. It will probably not come as a surprise that I have very detailed headcanons regarding her relationship with her daughter Ykoriana, which ended up inspiring this particular fic. I see them as being very similar in personality, which led to frequent conflicts between the two, despite them still having a close bond. More relevantly for this fic, the fact that Ykoriana would have perceived Nayakarade as favouring Tyatxungo over her would have significant impact in their relationship. The truth of this would be more complicated — while I do imagine Nayakarade favouring Tyatxungo to some degree, she would have mostly done so due to the need to protect him, since a main line son, unlike a daughter, would always be faced with the possibility of death were he to lose the election. This would be something Nayakarade still felt extremely conflicted about, even if she tried to rationalise it in various ways. The subject of favouritism would also affect her on a personal level — this being the last topic I wanted to explore here. To summarise a complex series of headcanons, I see her mother Qataqenthe as having strongly favoured Nuhuron, her son, over Nayakarade, which would have affected their relationship immensely and left Nayakarade with strong underlying feelings of inadequacy, inferiority and resentment. So, in a sense, there would be no more bitter realisation than the one that she had followed on her mother's footsteps, and, even if unintentionally, placed her own daughter in her role as the least-favoured child.

[suth-sardian]

the one with hands as soft as marigolds: Shuye

[suth-sardian]

omg have i been pronouncing Tyatxungo wrong this entire time????? is it pronounced Tyatzungo instead of Tyatshungo???????

[ykoriana-imperatrix]

Honestly, what is up with so many GEs having kids in the second or even first year of their reign? Seriously, out of the nine GEs in the Masks family tree, five of those have this situation going! You could even count it as six because if Uronqaya hadn’t died when he did, Qataqenthe (and her likely twin, but that’s not a story for this post) would have been born in the second year of his reign!

Even with the drive to have heirs as soon as possible, this happening for two-thirds of them seems a bit unlikely, especially taking into account the Masks’ fertility issues...

[ykoriana-imperatrix]

Random facts about the SDC intercalated day years!

(in honour of today’s date!)

four of the known God Emperors* (Nuhqanya, Qusata, Nuhuron, Kumatuya) had their accession fall on intercalated new octad days (or at the very least during years containing them)

Nurpayahras, the oldest living (at the time of canon) character from the family trees, had lived through 10 INOD years by 15 Kumatuya

Qataqenthe is the only character we know of whose year of birth and year of death both fell on INOD years

interestingly, quite a few characters connected to our protagonist Carnelian (Ebeny, Azurea, Grane, Keal and Tain) were born during INOD years

*Molochite’s case being debatable due to a possible inconsistency

[ykoriana-imperatrix]

SDC Four-Sentence Fics, Day 23

Huh.

XXIII. Qataqenthe

Some realisations come too late. Faced with Shuye in her robe of spiralling green, the obsidian annulus staring at her like an accusing eye, she sees not the rival of the past few decades but the beloved sister of her childhood. It is too much to bear, grief sending her to her knees in a dizzying wave. Trembling, she knows then that the rest of her life will be spent on a vain attempt to forget this truth.

Notes

Qataqenthe becomes the ninth canon character to be featured on this project... and my apologies for how tragic this ficlet turned out to be. In canon, we know next to nothing about Qataqenthe or Shuye, yet in fanon, they would have been close as children (and yes, sisters is not literal, it refers to them being raised as such), only for a (practically one-sided) rivalry to develop later in life. Qataqenthe would (canonically) be the senior wife and Empress to Qusata, yet @suth-sardian and I see Shuye as being not only closer to Qusata but more well-liked overall (a situation not without parallels to that of their great-grandsons Molochite and Osidian). Add to that the idea of Qusata favouring Shuye’s daughter Nurpayahras over Qataqenthe’s son Nuhuron... and well, there would have no shortage of motives for resentment. For this, I started thinking about what Qataqenthe’s reaction to Shuye’s death might have been, and considered that deep down, the closeness of their childhood might still be present. But as that famous quote states, there are no sadder words in any language than too late.