Tlonuqbar wrote...
Indeed, if neither a married king or queen is considered a 'king-consort' or 'queen-consort' then both are co-equals in power, like William and Mary of England or Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain.
It's not that simple.
The reason William and Mary were co-rulers is because they were both in the line of (protesant) succession. Mary, being the eldest daughter of the deposed James II and William, being James' nephew (eldest son of James' eldest sister) and closest possible successor outside of James own children. Because they were married, the Act of Succession provided for them to rule jointly, and upon one's death - the other would rule alone and be succeeded by their children or by Anne, Mary's younger sister, if they had no children (which they didn't). This would not have been the case if both had not been high up in the line of succession.
As for Ferdinand and Isabella - Spain did not exist the time they succeeded to their thrones. Isabella was Queen of Castile (Ferdinand was King-Consort) while Ferdinand was King of Aragon (Isabella being his Queen-Consort). Spain evolved out of a union of those 2 countries, which is why they ended up ruling jointly, because it was a union of thrones as much as persons.
Basically, in Dragon Age, no matter who the ruler of Ferelden is, it isn't you, regardless of your relationship to the ruler. A good example would be Princess Diana, who went back to being Diana Spencer after her marriage to Prince Charles dissolved.
Another way of looking at it is, would you still be King, Queen, Princess, or Prince regardless of who you were married to or married at all? (exempting the Edward VIII "marrying a commoner" debacle and similar situations). If you retain your title regardless of spouse, you are not a consort. Divorcing Alastair or Anora would definitely strip you of your title, ergo...consort.
By that definition, Anora was never more than Queen-Consort, being the wife of King Cailan, King Maric's lawful (and only known) son. Technically, her claim to the throne should have lapsed immediately upon Cailan's death and probably would have if there had been an available lawful successor of Theirin blood. Legally, If Alistair succeeds to the throne based on his bloodline, then his wife should hold the position of Queen-consort under the same terms Anora did with Cailan (i.e. married to the King with as much/little a role in governing as the King wishes her to have) and her title lapsing if Alistair died or divorced her.
However, the question is never adequately answered on what role the Landsmeet has in choosing monarchs. We know they are instrumental in resolving disputed successions (e.g. we know that they chose Arland over Sophia Dryden in the past) but they game is vague about how sovereignty is conferred. For instance, does Alistair owe his claim to succession by blood, or by
(s)election by the Landsmeet. If it's the latter, than it could be argued that his spouse was also elected by the Landsmeet and hence has as much right to the throne as Alistair.
This is even more the case with Anora, who has
no blood claim at all to the throne and whose right to sit upon it relies
solely on her being the choice of the Landsmeet. However, again, if the male human noble takes the throne with her, then it can be argued that his claim is as valid as hers depending on whether they were specfifically elected joint monarchs. And even if they weren't, the question arises about whether Anora would have even been chosen at all without the support of the Warden and thus owes her throne to that support.
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