Sounds like we have some serious melodrama mixed in with the tragedy here. Amazing how often they play well together, though. :-)
The Gunther being a good fighter idea sounds plausible. That would certainly make him an asset to the clan, though some talent at husbandry would round things out nicely. He's beginning to sound not that smart, though. Nice guy, lets his woman think for him, kinda thing? Next thing he knows, he's been talked into backing Erissa up on this frame, and he's stuck.
I say, go for it! The double cousin (if he or she exists) will still be known as a cousin on Gunther's side - it's hard to hide a pregnancy, and husbandless pregnancies aren't the stigma in Heortling society that they are in Dara Happa. Given that, I'm not sure how much juice you can get out of it. Possibly another person wanting vengeance, this time from Miriel, if he/she ever finds out that Miriel is out to kill the father? Though I'd have to argue that this person's connection with Bert would have been damn tenuous.
However, knowing that the father is an outlaw, the mother is hardly going to brag about paternity. She will (if still alive) know that Bert had sex with her. Which brings up another point: she therefore probably knows that Bert didn't rape Erissa. How would that have been kept quiet all these years? Why would she keep her mouth shut when it meant the ruin of Bert's life? That's a complication for which one would certainly need a convincing explanation.
Poor Miriel. She'll have no illusions left about her parents when you're done with the backstory!
Alison
Powered by hypermail