Princess Candice Scares Me

For the record, I do not mean by the title of this post that Candice Night the real person scares me. I very much enjoy her music, and she seems like a nice lady.

What I mean is that Princess Candice - the character she plays - is terrifying because she is by far the most powerful character we see in MagiQuest, and her powers could have some pretty devastating uses if the magi were to get on her bad side

Now, I know what you're probably thinking. Something along the lines of, "You're crazy, Annacat! Singing and creating stars is a nice, harmless power. Sweet, even."

But is it? What are the full implications of Princess Candice's gift? And if she is so powerful, why is she a princess rather than a queen, and why does she not actually appear to rule anything?

All will be explained in due time...

Let's start with the political stuff first and work our way backwards. Candice is the granddaughter of the Quest Master, who is still living and not a king - which may seem odd when you consider royal successions in the real world. Candice is a princess, but she spends her time singing and healing rather than governing.

There's a reason for all that, and it goes back to an event in the history of the realms, a period known as the Great Compromise. This event was what brought together the clans to form the realms as we know them today. The clans were able to learn to live peacefully together through compromise - each clan gave up something and gained something new. You can read more about how the Great Compromise and how it affected all the clans in my report about a visit to Downers Grove if you are so inclined, but for now I want to focus on the one relevant to this discussion: the Majestic clan.

In the Great Compromise, the Majestic magi lost their ability to rule and gained compassion. Since Candice is a member of the Majestic clan, under the Great Compromise she is not able to rule over other magi despite her hereditary title. (The Quest Master, being of the same clan, can't be the ruling king for the same reason.) Candice uses her powers to be of service to the realms in other ways, and the actual governance appears to be primarily by the Council of Master Magi.

So, speaking of powers, what can Candice actually do? She is a healer, we learn during our quests. She brews potions to treat sick residents of the realms, and bestows the Healing Rune to teach the magi how to help through healing too.

There's something else Candice can do, though. She can literally create stars.

Sounds nice, right?

Well, according to Wikipedia: "A star is type of astronomical object consisting of a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its own gravity... For at least a portion of its life, a star shines due to thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium in its core, releasing energy that traverses the star's interior and then radiates into outer space. Almost all naturally occurring elements heavier than helium are created by stellar nucleosynthesis during the star's lifetime, and for some stars by supernova nucleosynthesis when it explodes. Near the end of its life, a star can also contain degenerate matter... A star's life begins with the gravitational collapse of a gaseous nebula of material composed primarily of hydrogen, along with helium and trace amounts of heavier elements. When the stellar core is sufficiently dense, hydrogen becomes steadily converted into helium through nuclear fusion, releasing energy in the process. The remainder of the star's interior carries energy away from the core through a combination of radiative and convective heat transfer processes."

Yep, you read that right - Candice can literally create thermonuclear reactions with her voice and her enchanting jewels.

Not so scary when she's creating pretty lights in the sky. But what if that happened in the middle of a realm, or inside someone's body? Even if she is just creating stars out in space, there would be serious astronomical implications for manipulating the universe in that way.

We can only hope Princess Candice remains on our side!

~Annacat