can we PLEASE bring back the damen is infertile agenda. man is shooting blanks, pouring decaf, his orchard is bearing ZERO fruit. those vaskian clanswomen went home with empty giftbags. you're telling me in the 12+ years damen's been exclusively topping mostly women, none of them got pregnant? you're telling me jokaste wouldn't have tried to baby trap that man? she literally tried to do that in canon when it wasn't even his.
there's no stigma against bastards in akielos either—kastor was literally theomedes's heir until damen was born. and i doubt 9 year old kastor or his mother were irulan-style poisoning egeria. honestly, it makes more sense that one of damen's previous female lovers would have tried to leverage her pregnancy to get all the same privileges hypermenestra had as the king's mistress.
In retrospect I can’t believe it was ever a question in my mind that Laurent might not know who Damen is, HIS HATE IS SO PALPABLE FROM THE FIRST MOMENT THEY MEET, and it’s easy from Damen’s POV to dismiss it as just Laurent being Evil and Veretian (in itself, a sign of Damen’s own prejudices) and that he’s just enjoying the power to hurt his enemy without consequence (except there ARE consequences we learn later) but compared to literally EVERY other Veretian that Damen meets, Laurent’s hate is at a whoooooole other level, IT’S SO DAMN PAINFULLY OBVIOUS THAT HE KNEW AND HE WAS HOLDING BACK FROM KILLING DAMEN BY THE SKIN OF HIS TEETH, HE WOULD HAVE HAD DAMEN KILLED THAT FIRST NIGHT IF NOT FOR THE REGENT, JUST GOD IT’S SO MUCH BETTER ON A REREAD
Since I’m on vacation, I’ve had plenty of time to think, and I couldn’t help but analyze a pretty symbolic situation in Captive Prince—one of those "destined" things in that world. Kastor was born 2 or 3 years before Auguste. I’m sure Theomedes loved him (especially since he was the son he had with his true love), but the pressure from the Kyroi forced him to marry and spend several years trying to produce an heir. This was necessary because Akielos is a group of independent states united under one king, and Damen tells us how his father was the only one who managed to unite them all with the sword, a "proud and warlike" man.When Kastor was 9, Damianos was born. For nine years, Kastor was raised as the future king, with all the effort and expectations that entailed. But then Damen came along, and in Kastor's own words, "everyone forgot about him, even his own father," leaving him marked by insecurity, rejection, and resentment.Imagine what Theomedes must have felt, with all his pride, hearing how Auguste, the legitimate son of King Aleron, was loved, adored, accepted, and practically a living legend—while his own firstborn didn’t represent the same stability or unity for Akielos. Ouch. During the battle of Marlas, Damen and Theomedes didn’t fight directly on the battlefield, but Kastor likely did. This didn’t help the father-son dynamic, as Damen describes how Auguste, the general of the Veretians, tore through Akielon ranks, killing many. So Damen decided to step in and deal with Auguste himself, killing him. For his father, this must have been like renewing the pride of Akielos and his own name. Indirectly, Theomedes extinguished the light and pride of Vere to strengthen the light and pride of Akielos.It’s likely that Theomedes loved Kastor, but he also probably felt frustrated that his son wasn’t fully recognized as legitimate. This must have been a blow to his personal and political pride, especially in a culture like Akielos, where strength and legitimacy were everything. At the same time, Theomedes was surely aware of Auguste’s success and popularity in Vere, which would have only deepened his discontent. Watching his political rival have a legitimate, beloved son must have been a constant reminder of Kastor’s limitations in comparison.Auguste, born into an environment where his legitimacy and position were never questioned, became a national symbol of pride—something Kastor could never achieve due to the circumstances of his birth and the lack of acceptance from the council and the people. The contrast between Auguste and Kastor could be seen as a microcosm of the rivalry between Akielos and Vere. While Vere had Auguste, their golden prince, a symbol of unity and honor, Akielos had Kastor, who embodied internal divisions and political tensions.It’s incredibly ironic and tragic how things played out. Kastor and Auguste were symbols of pride and conflict: Kastor represented Akielos’s insecurities, while Auguste was the epitome of Vere’s pride. Both were measures of success for their fathers, Theomedes and Aleron, as kings.The irony is that Damen, the son who met all of Theomedes’ expectations, was the one who ultimately killed Auguste. Instead of Kastor eliminating the shadow of Auguste, it was his younger brother—who probably didn’t even share the same personal grudge—who carried out the most significant act for Akielos in the battle of Marlas. Damen, the golden prince of Akielos, destroyed Vere’s golden pride, Auguste. This act not only ended the war but also symbolized how the resentment and rivalry between brothers, Kastor and Damen, were channeled on the battlefield in indirect ways.Furthermore, this event reinforces the idea that, even though Kastor hated Damen, he never would have been capable of that act. Damen was Akielos’s golden prince, the complete opposite of Kastor. In the end, Damen cemented the pride and strength of his nation while extinguishing Vere’s brightest light.
I don’t think there’s a single soul who likes Theomedes…
•I know there’s not much new to say about King Theomedes of Akielos—we barely have any info to begin with—but I still felt like sharing my thoughts. Feel free to comment, I LOVE reading people’s takes!
•P.S.: I had to write the full analysis in a separate file because it got too long and I couldn’t share it properly here!
Laurent's brother haunts all the narrative of the Capri trilogy and still we know almost close to nothing about him, except for all that glorification due to his position as Crown Prince, which puts him on an altar even Laurent has difficulty to take him off of it. Not only because the characters are always comparing the two of them (even Damen, who barely knew Auguste at all), but also because Laurent canonically adores and worships his older brother, putting him even higher (and here my intention is not to discredit Auguste. I'm sure he was hardworking and dedicated, but come on, guys, he was also human.)
Which takes us to the subject I've been very curious to discuss and see the fandom's POV about: The Parentification of Auguste. An inevitable event in almost all older siblings life (and I say this as an older sister who had to help raise her little one.)
Now, we know (or at least we assume to) the basics about Vere's Royal Family dynamics thanks to the hints in each book. From my interpretation (and you can correct me here) Aleron favoured Auguste, which lead us to conclude Hennike was closer to Laurent. We all know "Auguste was the protector and would do anything for his younger brother''. This adoration is mutual to both brothers. Now let's talk about Auguste's early years.
Let's talk about a lonely Prince. One who indeed got his parents attention growing up, but only briefly and ended up delegated to his nurses as soon as more pressing matters appeared. His parents were King and Queen, after all. There was always something to do; and we know how noble children used to be educated. Let's think about an Auguste who was close to his father yes, but in a King and his Heir way, which to me looks like a professional/academic way. I'm sure they had their moments of course, all families do. But do you think someone truly knew Auguste before Laurent was born? Not Auguste De Vere, the Golden Heir to the Throne, just Auguste? I don't think so. Auguste was a Prince. His life was full of formalities and appearances, he was a symbol. There was always expectations on him. Until Laurent came along.
To me, Laurent's birth gave Auguste something he'd never had before. An equal . Auguste was a Prince. He had every luxury his heart could desire. People adored him. Were ready to die for him if necessary. But Laurent was neither servant or sovereign. For the first time in his life he was in a position that required nothing more than his very true self. He didn't need to be Crown Prince Auguste, to Laurent he was simply Gus. So I think he fell in love the moment his eyes laid on newborn Laurent and never stoped loving him ever since.
Nobody can convince me Auguste, who knew exactly how the experience of growing up alone even thought living in such an attentive place was, would ever let his sweet, dear baby brother go through the same. With Aleron always on a tight schedule being King and Hennike intercalating in between being bedbound due to sickness and doing her Queen duties, I don't doubt Laurent's nurses and tutors answered to Crown Prince Auguste most often than not. I can clearly see him teaching Laurent, telling him stories and listening to his; patiently dealing with tantrums or calming him after a scare. I can see Auguste putting his baby brother to bed (and allowing Laurent to sleep on his bed most nights). I can see an Auguste worried sick as he and Paschal care for a sick little Laurent and Auguste vehemently refusing to leave his side even though he risks getting whatever bug Laurent has or letting him win their secret little games.
For the first 12 years of Laurent's life, there is not a day Auguste is not present. He is there every step of the way. So much that it wouldn't surprise me if a baby Laurent had first called Auguste papa instead of Aleron because in his infant mind he had beautiful yellow hair just like mama so therefore that must be papa .
Laurent was the best gift Auguste ever received and his most prized possession, I'm sure of it.
Laurent did not just lost a brother at that camp in Marlas. He lost his father figure. The only one who cared and loved him without titles and expectations and just for who he truly was.
Damen x Laurent | Laurent & Auguste | Damen & Auguste
Ten years after being crowned King, Laurent of Vere rules steadily with his lover, King Damianos of Akielos. Their joined kingdoms know prosperity, freedom and wealth untold. To celebrate this decade of peace between their peoples, a decennalia has been organised: ten days of festivities, sports, feasts and merriment at Marlas. Auguste, of course, remembers Marlas. [2.2k words]
warnings: uh, death i guess? but not really. blood too. some minor sex mentions. The Regent gets mentioned so mentions of abuse, have been reliably informed by beloved beta reader @olenvasynyt that this is whump
a/n: @werehorsebite said, Auguste Lives AU to me and here we are, so, this is for you <3 also whoops here's some capri on your acotar dashes
Prefer Ao3? | Auguste | Laurent | Damen
Auguste remembers much of Marlas in moments. Bits. Mostly, the pain, then the numbness. The face of the man who had dealt that killing blow: that Prince of Akielos, in his glory, in his fury, in his skirts and his terrific youth. He remembers, in those last few moments, thinking about Laurent, and how he wished he were not so near the front. He remembers hoping his father would not go mad with grief.
There was a sense of floating then, as though taken upstream somewhere. He figured the afterlife felt only like this, but he soon realised that part of him was still alive. Someone had found him clinging on still—some part of his soul perhaps, wanting to know what would happen next.
He remembers waking. The ache in his side which still pesters even now, the skin tight and puckered. He remembers the shame—such shame—and fear for Delfeur, for his father, for Laurent. Poor, sweet Laurent who was too good to be thrust into court at the tender age of thirteen. Still a boy.
Someone, a voice beyond that in his head, tells him not to move, that death may take him yet. Water still. That floating beneath him. Drink, a woman says. So he does. Eat, a man says. So he does. He is so numb. He’s so gripped by the feeling that he can barely breathe.
A longing for Arles took him then. What if the Akielons push forth? Overwhelm them? What if they decide Delfeur is not enough?
You are distressed, says a woman. Why aren’t you? His mouth does not move. You need rest, she says. And something that she shoves in his mouth brings it.
The days are endless in this way, until one, where he keeps his eyes open long enough to see.
You are Patran? he asks the man washing his side, pulling away foul-smelling, yellow-stained rags.
The man nods. And you are Veretian.
He speaks Veretian very well. And he does not know who I am, it would seem.
Why? he croaks. Energy fades from his body so quickly.
You needed help, he says. There is nothing more to it.
The war…
The man, a healer to be sure, frowns. I do not wish to upset you.
Tell me, Auguste urges. Tell me.
Akielos holds Delfeur. Your Prince is dead. They say the King is too.
But Laurent is too young, he mumbles weakly.
Just rest, soldier.
He rests.
Days. Weeks. Months. How long does it take? Once, he manages to push himself upright. This is significant and noticeable progress, but more notable is his state of undress and the woman, alone in the room with him. He tenses harshly when she approaches him. Relax, she says—voice soothing, maternal, in a way he has never heard before—but he cannot. She calls for someone else. Aeron. The one who told him about Delfeur.
The King, he hisses out, yelping when the healer pulls away to change the dressing. That numbness has become stinging, constant, terrible pain and a stale taste in his mouth.
They say he lifted his helmet when his son was killed, he tells him, struck by some madness. A horrible pang wracks through Auguste’s whole body. An archer shot him through the throat.
He does not wish to cry, but he feels the need as though he were a child.
Am I in Patras? he asks.
You’re safe, the healer says.
Am I in Patras?
Yes.
Where?
In the far east.
Where did you find me? What were Patran healers doing in Delfeur?
They could not mean to betray the treaty. A plot. No, impossible. If Patras had allied with Akielos, flanked them from the east… it’s unthinkable.
We were not in Delpha. The woman, in Patran. We found you among bodies being sold for medical practice in Bazal, barely alive, by some grace of the gods. This is ridiculous, Aeron. No gratitude.
Auguste swallows. My apologies, I meant no disrespect, he says, coughing through roughened Patran. I simply—a very sharp stabbing pain strikes him, almost worse than… Damianos.
The day he stands by himself is the day he realises he is missing half the fingers of his sword hand. The healer only winces. They were infected, he tells him. There was nothing to be done. Nothing to be done. Some sense of intense mourning comes over him at the thought, then shame again, that it is not for his father.
The day he relives himself alone is the day he realises how thin and frail he has truly become.
The day he washes alone, entirely unattended for perhaps the first time in his life, Auguste realises he must find someway out of this place. He must go home.
He must return to Laurent. He has no one now.
He will do what must be done and play King.
The first attempt fails. He is too weak to even know what folly it is. He barely makes it out of the front door before he collapses.
The muscles in your legs have atrophied, the woman tells him, mixing her languages where Veretian fails her. Believe me when I tell you I have no wish to keep you here longer than necessary.
He is instructed to do certain exercises to help him build strength. After a while, he starts to enjoy them. It feels like drills—not, of course, that he could hold a sword, or that they would willingly give him one. He begins to be able to eat by himself without throwing it back up, then he is begrudgingly invited to the dinner table. Against his will, he becomes fond of Aeron’s ruggedness, his hands, the way he laughs and the set of his voice when he speaks pretty Veretian. His wife, Meia, grows on him as much as he grows on her.
Auguste runs a mile.
Two.
He coughs up blood on the third. Bedrest again. Meia says, I told you so.
He pushes his body. Eats more. Demands to be allowed to hunt. Meia thanks him for the first time when he brings back two fat rabbits, then scolds him for taking a fall and spraining his ankle.
He doesn’t care. He needs his strength. He needs to go home. Laurent is waiting. Damianos lingers. News from Vere is sparse; no one seems to know exactly what is going on.
The night they hear his uncle has been named Regent is the night Aeron asks him to stay. It’s the night he lets Aeron kiss him for the first time.
The night after is when he first feels the touch of a woman. He does not flinch after the initial graze of nails. It is much the same incredible feel as the touch of a man after a while.
Auguste starts to listen to that voice in his head that wants him to stay. The one that reminds him his uncle has always been an honourable man. That he would protect Laurent from the worst of it. He would teach him shrewdness when necessary—for Laurent had always been smart—but give him the grace to let him keep his kindness. That voice tells him he likes it here, and that he likes Aeron and Meia very much too.
Days. Weeks. Months.
The Akielons do not move to take more than Delfeur. They say things have stabilised.
They say Laurent has become a severe young man. It will take Auguste months to reach Arles through foreign terrain from here. They say Laurent has reformed the Prince’s Guard. Auguste has learnt which mushrooms are safe to eat and which ones to put in tea and how to make Aeron sigh against his mouth, how to make Meia twitch, what makes him twitch.
They say Laurent is cold and beautiful and lazy. Auguste teaches Aeron how to gut a rabbit.
They say Damianos of Akielos has been killed and his father is dead and that Kastor is King. Auguste eases his training regime.
They say Laurent has a slave for his pleasure now, but that doesn’t seem like him.
They say Laurent has committed treason, but he knows that he would never.
They say Laurent is in league with Akielos to assassinate their uncle, but he knows that cannot be.
But they say Damianos is alive and has called himself King.
But they say they are at war again.
They say Damianos was Laurent’s slave and that Laurent freed him.
They say they are lovers.
They say the Regent has been overthrown and that it was no accident.
They say Laurent has been crowned King of Vere at Marlas.
They say Laurent and Damianos rule together now.
They say they have united the kingdoms.
They say they are lovers.
They say he calls him Damen.
Meia finds him in the dead of night with his hands around the reins of a soon-to-be-stolen horse. She is wearing Aeron’s shirt. Auguste had made sweet love to them only hours before.
You’ll break his heart, she says. If you go, he won’t forgive you.
I know.
Will it change anything if you return now?
Will it?
I have to see him, he tells her.
Come back to bed, she says. Please.
He’ll be forever grateful that Meia never told Aeron.
They hear more snippets. Trade deals. Open borders. They say they are lovers, they say they are lovers. The truth is that it was the Regent who had committed treason all along. He was in league with Kastor and Kastor had been killed by Laurent at Damianos’ request. Laurent is a good king, they say, and that their kingdom is flourishing. They say his uncle took boys as young as nine.
Since those first few months, the first time he truly misses being Auguste of Vere is when he dispatches bandits streaking across their land as they flee to the border. He is still so uncoordinated with his right hand, but his strikes are true enough to frighten away the ones that dare oppose him. Aeron patches him up. And he kisses every new bruise. He tells him that he loves him.
He almost tells him that he is Crown Prince Auguste of Vere and not just some unlucky soldier with his name. Meia figured it out so long ago, but not sweet, sweet Aeron.
Something within him says him perhaps there is no Auguste of Vere anymore. Maybe he did die at Marlas, a twenty-five-year-old warrior-prince. Maybe he is just Auguste—who cannot tan like a Patran but speaks the language well enough. Auguste, the old Veretian soldier, a forty-something, who fought at Marlas and is named for the King’s dead brother, who was killed by the King’s lover.
Because they are lovers. Of that, there is no doubt anymore.
He spends much of his time ruminating on it. On Laurent. On his uncle.
His uncle and Laurent and boys of nine.
He mentions going to Marlas one evening. For closure, he says. Because he ought to see it.
Because the preparations for a decennalia have already started. He can make it in time and see his sweet, frigid, treasonous, royal brother. Still a boy.
Still a boy.
Thirteen-years-old.
Thirty now.
Seventeen years of separation and still a boy.
Laurent would always have made a better king. Smart but compassionate. Strong but worldly. It is no wonder to Auguste that Vere is blooming with him at the helm. Perhaps this is why his compulsion to go had never pushed him far enough.
Laurent is trusting too. He always was. A kind boy.
He is trusting even of Akielos.
Even of Damianos of Akielos, who he allowed to rearm himself, who he treated honourably. Who had killed him so decisively at Marlas.
Auguste promises them that he will return and he means it. He has no desire to be King or Crown Prince. He wants to grow old with them in Patras. He just… he needs to see his brother first.
To make sure he’s okay. To know that the boy he remembers is still him.
That they are still brothers.
He arrives in Marlas the day before the decennalia is due to begin.
The place where he duelled Damianos has been marked with the starburst banner, once his, now Laurent’s. Crowds both Veretian and Akielon come to see it, for different reasons to be sure, but respectful all the same.
No one recognises him, and why would they? He is an aging man, barely Veretian to look at, who wears Patran clothes and speaks his native tongue with the stiltedness of a poor student. And Auguste of Vere is dead. They hardly grieve for him anymore.
He is in the crowd when they open the ceremony. He sees his brother resplendent in king’s finery as though he had never been expected to be anything less—older, certainly, but still Laurent, with his slightness, his fairness, his sharp movement. Auguste is there to watch him sit beside Damianos of Akielos, a king too, in complete equity.
He is there to see the matching golden cuffs of a slave—outlawed now for ten years—around each of their wrists.
The way they look at each other, even in front of a crowd, is so blatant, and the way it does not shock them as it would have done twenty years ago is more blatant still.
Auguste had thought this would be enough; somehow just seeing it would satisfy him and he would be able to go home.
He had been wrong.
That compulsion finally rears its head.
Auguste must speak with his brother. He must speak with Laurent. To him, even now, still that sweet boy he left at Marlas.
Laurent: Jord, tell the cook to stop feeding me dinosaur-shaped chicken!
Jord: But you love your dinosaur chicken.
Laurent: Yeah... when I was eight! We are men now!
Damen and Auguste: *fighting with their dinosaur-shaped food* raw raw raw
Laurent: ...
Finished reading the Captive Prince series for the first time last week, and I genuinely love how Damen ends up sent to Vere because he genuinely couldn't see Kastor's treachery until it was too late, he refused to believe Kastor would harm him or commit treason, even when others warned him. And even by the end of the last book, he struggles to reconcile this with who his brother was, even after everything Kastor has done to him and their father.
And yet. Damen's first assumption on hearing Auguste described is that Laurent must have hated him. The golden prince, the heir, surpassing Laurent in strength and skill, etc. Laurent must hate him, because what brother wouldn't hate someone like that? Like, Damen, how is that your first assumption and yet you were so blind to your own brother's hatred until he betrayed you?
"The child was never yours, but he is safe. In another life, he would have been a king
I remember the way you looked at me, the day we met. Perhaps that, too, in another life."
Jokaste falling in love with Damen's straightofrward and simple ways.
His attention heavy on her and her enjoying the thrill of it.
Courting with innocence and simplicity , so different from the games played in courts and politics.
And then the same straightforward way of her lover forced her to save him with self-violation.
How much self control do you need to force yourself to sleep with your lover's brother who plans to kill him?
Jokaste seeing Theomedes die at Kastor's hand, seeing Damen get depressed and then taking it all in and controlling every emotion, slowly, deliberately going into Kastor's bed.
Because even if everything is falling apart, she must suffer this if there's any hope for Damen to survive.
I wonder if she felt horrified when Kastor's child started growing within her. A reminder of what she had done, what she had to do.
She speaks accentless Veretian and she knew about court gossip about Laurent's frigidness.
I wonder if she studied Laurent with the same obsession with which Laurent studied Damen. Finding everything about Laurent so she can be sure Damen will live.
How much on chance she left that Laurent would not kill him?
When did she realize that Laurent is too much like her and predicted, accurately --hopefully?-- that they'll fall in love.
and After all that, when her plans worked, what she has left with is
Do you ever think about Laurent riding his mare? When Auguste gave it to him, and he was so proud of his very fast pony. Finally riding like his brother did.
And when he was alone he'd tend to it, make sure everything's right with it. He'd learned all there was about it; to feed and nurture it propperly, taking responsibility seriously, like his brother did.
He'd have been so happy when his father, a man of strength, probably saw his determination and desire to thrive, he probably thought he made him proud, like his brother did.
He probably spent hours grooming it and talking to it, a confidant that could not use his words against him, as a child both Prince and prisoner in a hostile court. He maybe spent hours mindlessly brushing its mane thinking about the fact that the "protection" his Uncle gave him felt nothing like Auguste's. He'd maybe wash and brush and clean the stall just to ponder that his "attentions" never reassured him, not like his brother did.
Do you ever think about him as a teenager riding when he needed to think, like Jord said, as he watched the young prince ride away more and more often as his birthdays passed, coincidentally getting longer as his reputation was destroyed by the Regent? Laurent probably imagined Auguste riding alongside him in his own, much slower, pony. He'd close his eyes as the sun, yellow and warm like his brother's hair hit his face, it warmed his skin and settled his panicked bones, like his brother did.
Do you ever think of him riding the mare in a hunt, hitting its side hard to ride her at full speed, like he raced with his brother? Do you think for a moment Torveld, in his periphery, head obscured by the radiant yellow of the sun, looked a bit like Auguste? He probably, for a brief moment remembered, the races and laughs, and pats on the head. Until the smell of the mare's blood filled his nose. Do you think it brought memories of Marlas? He'd struck down a mark no matter the cost, like his brother did.
After performing a feat of victory in the hunt, do you think he thought of Auguste as he commanded the servant to cut down the mare, and watched it die by the sword, like his brother did?
Parallelism between Jord/Orland/Aimeric and Laurent/Auguste/Damen
I was thinking about Jord the other day and realized that there's a certain similarity between his situation and Laurent's in Ravenel that helps make more sense of Laurent's reaction when Jord shows up to beg for Aimeric.
On the one hand, we have Jord, who loves Aimeric and tries to protect him, even after learning that he killed his old and dear friend Orlant.
On the other hand, there is Laurent, who has fallen in love with Damen despite knowing that he killed his beloved brother Auguste.
At this point, Laurent is ashamed and angry with himself for falling in love with his brother's killer. He probably feels that by letting Damen kiss him (and enjoying it, despite the tension) he is betraying Auguste's memory. And then Jord shows up, expressing concern for the well-being of his friend's killer. And all the hatred Laurent feels towards himself (along with his fear that Damen's feelings are not real, but a trick to get what he wants from him) is redirected towards his former captain. Evidence:
1.
2.
Furthermore, it is interesting how Jord's plea resembles Laurent's in KR. And how the motivations Jord attributed to Aimeric are, in fact, true for Damen.
P.S.: It's a shame Orlant never got to see Akielos. He would have loved it. 😢💔
thinking about that one scene at the marlas ruins where damen's trying to tell laurent how great a warrior auguste was, and instead laurent's like: ACTUALLY we're going to talk about that time we had missionary sex with the lights on
here's a germ of an oddball story idea for Captive prince, spawned by the Wikipedia article about "interregnum." Among all the discussions of tsars and kings and emperors and queens and princes, including historical and fictional, there is a section on chess!
what if it were CHESS that determined the next ruler of each country? citing Wikipedia: "FIDE, the world governing body of international chess competition, has had two Interregnum periods of having no chess champions, both during the 1940s." (the preceding men's champion died of natural causes and the preceding women's champion was killed during World War II.)
so – – of the top of my head, Theomedes won the championships that gave him sovereignty one at a time over Akielos, Delpha, etc (as cited somewhere in the books I think) rather than warfare. And he continued to win whenever challenged. Damen of course trained with the best chess masters in expectation of winning after his father's death in the future. Aleron had likewise gained the Kingship of Vere, and of course Auguste had been winning all the lesser chess titles in expectation of following his father.
meanwhile, Kastor had been learning chess since he was old enough to understand the rules, and his father had abandoned his training after Damen came along. But he continued training in secret. And then one day he challenged Damen but managed to drug him before the match and so Kastor won.
meanwhile part two, in Vere, Aleron died probably by some evil plot and ditto Auguste before he could prove his championship, and then the Regent either faked his own championship or simply decided that that was a stupid way to become king and took over by force…
so eventually Laurent has to beat the Regent in chess publicly before the Regent kills him, and he has to try to beat Damen, possibly in private, because it was something to do with Auguste losing to Damen in a chess match that led to his death... but, twist, Laurent actually wins that private match? I mean, it's Laurent. And chess.
That is all. I doubt I'm going to write that.
Tip: Roger Zelazny wrote a short story, "unicorn variations", about chess where some human had to play chess against the unicorn in charge of the world to save humanity (?), And Zelazny wrote sometime after it won awards that he had scoured the details of chess games from many championships until he found one that had sort of a "tricky" and unexpected move that allowed the underdog to beat the current champion. And he worked that into the story. 
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