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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Willie the Duck" data-source="post: 9457545" data-attributes="member: 6799660">Political marriages (or alliances of any type, really) are large groups of individual parties and interest agreeing to solidify some form of status quo. There are any number of things-people-really-would-have-wanted-instead that are still out there in the form of resentments, backup plans, or now-unresolved-other-issues. If you want to avoid the overdone plots like bride-is-kidnapped or assassin-at-the-wedding, you could have the main plot go off without a hitch, but have adventure-worthy happenings going on in the hither and yon. <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Perhaps the bride has a cousin and the groom has an uncle, and those two are at war or in competition for something. Suddenly becoming allies and having to play nice was not part of their plans. The party can be involved in smoothing over that tension or preventing whatever escalation those two attempt before, during, or after the wedding.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Perhaps someone else had staked marrying into one of the families as their own avenue of ascent or solution to a given problem. Maybe they try to prevent the marriage. Or they don't, but it means that potential-breakaway territory X which could have been kept through the political marriage this replaces is indeed going to break away -- unless some enterprising meddlers can swoop in and find a solution.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Perhaps this has repercussions downstream within the marrying families. Firstborn son Abe never showed much interest in marriage and was always threatening to join the priesthood and leave heir status to his younger brother Ben. Now Abe is marrying for political reasons (and maybe suddenly looking and acting more a leader), and all of Ben's assumptions and plans are in jeopardy. Will there be pouting and tantrums or treachery and bloodshed? Maybe an aunt or sibling to </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Perhaps a third party, or some underling of Queen Kalumum's saw benefit in her success. Perhaps they had plans to usurp her power as she obtained the tablets, or they were just profiting over here in the West while Kalumum was focused on Eshkital in the East. They see the heroes plans as interfering with theirs, and set out to stop them from succeeding. They could show up as rebels or third parties who clearly have no love for Kalumum, and so why wouldn't they be allowed to stay? Now the suspicious party has to both figure out how to prove they have ill intent, but also prevent whatever they have planned.</li> </ul></blockquote>

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