Meta Month, Day Eight: Virgin Priestesses

[mark_asphodel]

OK.  Since socraticwaffles went there with the "Can women who aren't virgins ride flying unicorns?" query, I'm totally asking this one.

That whole sacrifice-four-priestesses to Medeus thing at the end of FE3... did Gharnef just need four female clerics of royal/noble blood, or did he need magical virgins of holy blood?
It's not a totally voyeuristic question.  Nyna was married, after all, and despite the problems in her marriage to Hardin I'd have expected the marriage at least would be consummated (royal marriages often having a fair amount of ceremony to validate this, at least in our world).  The bedroom is as good a place as any for Hardin to have that "She's just not into you, sucker" moment, too...

Maria does not appear to have been molested, or otherwise ill-treated, during her captivity in the War of Darkness.  Any abuse she might have suffered would be during this period (War of Heroes), and all we're told of is spiritual abuse-- the "soul shattering" part.

Lena and Elice, though, kind of have boyfriends.  I take Lena's recruitment conversation with Julian to mean that she is under some vow of chastity of some kind, and she hadn't broken it yet for him or anyone else.  Dunno about Elice... I don't recall even a mention of chastity vows in her case, but she seems to have no problems getting married.  Then again, I kind of suspect postwar Elice is allowed to do whatever the hell she wants.  Who's going to stop her-- her adoring little brother?  Riiiight.

Still no indication that Elice was really friendly with Merric... or anyone else... before then, though it does put the brakes on speculation that she was "Gharnef's Sex Slave" or however you want to put it.  And yes, that speculation is out there-- how'd you think the line "She's only alive 'cause Gharnef wanted her" is going to be interpreted by a fair number of people?  Double meanings in FE are not unheard of, after all.

So, does resurrecting a dragon require the life force of magical noblewomen?  Or the life force of magical noble virgins?  I dunno, man, but it bugs me whenever I try to write something that deals with Nyna and Hardin.

Comments

[xirysa.livejournal.com]

Going with noble women, yeah--there really doesn't seem to be anything that says they must be virgins. (Though if the are, I suppose that's just a plus? Somehow.)

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess that, like virgins-and-unicorns, the idea of virgin sacrifices is just pretty entrenched in popular culture and it's easy to assume that the virginity thing is part of the sacrifice requirements. Maybe it is a plus, I dunno.