#WordWeavers Apr. 11 - How much power does your MC have?
I have two MCs, one a noblewoman, the other a refugee. The noblewoman has built up political and economic power, but it's power that's derived from her father's lineage, her husband's lordship and, in later books, being her sons' mother. So she's very powerful but that power is limited by being a woman in a patriarchal structure. To overcome these limitations she also finds ways to build up her influence by building well-placed alliances, too.
The refugee peasant starts out heavily disempowered and is left for dead along with her family after violence and pillage. They and the other refugees organize and slowly gain more power at the noblewoman's demesne where they are the lowest of the low, so the source of their power is their mutual connection and community and later, an alliance with the noblewoman who needs them for her own ends. I guess what I want to do with this WIP is show different kinds of power and oppression in the ancient world, especially of women.
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