If Eris is magically assures some other guy would make a much better ruler than him, Suriel or some other power he actually believes in says no, would he give it up? If yes, what would he choose to be and do?
this literally made me go 🤩 because i was torn so many ways over it. i interpret eris as a character whose ruthlessness and ambition is rooted in his drive to protect his own, as well as the bitter spite over the fact that the people he suffers to protect hate him—have to hate him for him to protect them. if he isn’t in beron’s favor, he doesn’t have the standing to keep them safe. if he isn’t in power once beron is gone, the unrest amongst the political factions could see them all killed. not to borgias my vanserras yet again, but i think their lives are very much dependent on beron, then eris staying in power.
SO i feel like ……. eris loves autumn. he does. he loves the magic of his land so much, and it loves him so much. he wants to do right by it. he wants to heal it of the rot beron has let fester and overtake. he wants to bring his people towards bounty and harvest. but not at the expense of his family. his being heir is a shackle as much as it is a boon—more. this situation would cause such intense cognitive dissonance because—
—wouldn’t it be so nice? to be free? to let someone else carry the weight? to be assured that they would do so with ease? to know his court and his people were in good hands? a childhood dream, caught on the edges of sleep, because he could never let himself think it outright. but it is never to be. he is bird and cage. he has to be in power, he has to have control, no matter that someone else would be better equipped. he’ll simply try harder, work faster, be stronger; he’ll simply become what he must to have it all. he’ll make sure everything falls into place the way it needs to. (and wouldn’t it be so tragic if that was what made him the worse choice for a ruler in the end?)
bonus: i do often think about what life would be like for eris after becoming high lord. i feel like once he achieved relative peace in autumn, he would be in agony. a constant buzzing under his skin. insatiable restlessness. his shoulder, always looked over; his back, always watched—for nothing. any threats to him are paltry by then compared to what he knew before. he’s always moving, always seeking, but there isn’t anything to look for, so there isn’t anything to look towards. centuries spent paranoid and vigilant and wary—and he just can’t turn it off; he doesn’t know how. peace is a curse to someone who has known only war and shaped himself around it. who is he without the burden, the fight, the rage? no, the rage is still there. eating him alive. so i like to think a situation like this, if it happened, would be much the same. and i think it would be very, very important for eris to have someone to help him survive it. otherwise i don’t think it’s very likely he’ll be able to.