Kallyr Starbrow: marriage

Sources

Minaryth Blue

1629 -- We kill Dinacoli. Queen Kallyr marries at last. Telmori promise revenge, quarrel with Argrath of Pavis.

Saga

just after Argrath has lit the Flame.

p.25

"His wife was named to be the Feathered Horse Queen."

CHDP

again, just after Argrath has lit the Flame.
"Throughout the rest of that year, and the next, Argrath spent the time in judgement and preparation. No foes dared to attack him then. He travelled across the land to visit the Feathered Horse Queen, who played a game of hide and seek for a few weeks.
In 1629 Prince Argrath married the Feathered Horse Queen, and they became the King and Queen of Dragon Pass."

Kallyr married Argrath

The solution proposed by most Argrathophiles, who think he was such a wonderful guy that she couldn't have considered marrying anyone else. Many of them seem to imagine she then retired, handed him the throne, and settled down to produce kids. The FHQ connection is ignored, as is everything else outside a Barbara Cartland plot-line.
As you can probably guess, I don't think too much of this theory.

Kallyr married Argrath White Bull.

Who was a different person from the Argrath, and is stated as being one of her earliest supporters. This theory implies either a romantic love-match, or a deal that gave her a Praxian ally, or grabbing any alternative to marrying the Argrath, who seems to have been a most unpleasant person. The FHQ connection is, again, ignored.
I like the romance idea, but see no need for the wedding.

Kallyr married Kostajor

One of my earlier theories, since discarded. I now think a romance (or at least, the rumour of a romance) existed and upset Argrath, but don't see a need for her to actually marry Kostajor.

Kallyr married a PC

If it fits your Glorantha, go for it. Just read the rest of this first to make sure it makes sense. But she can always ignore all my careful political reasoning and fall blindly in love, after all.

The trouble with most of these theories is that they're based on pre-conceived twentieth century ideas of the reasons for marriage. Just look at some of the assumptions above.

If two people love each other and want to be together, they get married.

Nope. No need. Remember, Orlanthi have nothing against casual sex. Kallyr can have as many relationships as she wants, at any depth, without needing to marry the guy.

Her husband would effectively become King of Sartar on the spot.

No he wouldn't, any more than the wives of previous Sartarite kings have done. I strongly suspect he would be a sub-husband anyway, but even this kind of thing only affects which clan any children go to, not who rules what.

Her husband would be the father of her children, who would inherit the throne from her.

Lots of problems here. For a start, she's a Vingan who must by now be in her late forties. Children seem unlikely, to put it mildly, even if she had nine months to spare. If she wants children, she can have them by anyone she fancies: no need for marriage. And any such children would probably not inherit the throne in any case: the system doesn't work that way. See below...

Her husband would inherit the throne from her

No. The next Prince will be of the Sartar bloodline, but after that distinction is made it'll be the most competent person to hand and the best warlord, irrespective of relationships. Argrath, once his blood-line is proved, will be the automatic choice. And anyone who she nominates as her heir would have a definite advantage, but she doesn't need to marry them to do it.

Royal marriages are to seal alliances

This could be a possibility. Terasarin married off at least one of his sons on this basis, so it does happen. Normally one would use relatives and friends as pawns for this sort of game rather than the principal, but there's a distinct shortage of relatives around to use.

The Feathered Horse Queen and the King of Dragon Pass

All of this so far has been ignoring the most important factor in the marriages of Princes of Sartar: the Feathered Horse Queen. Marrying the FHQ is the only way to become King of Dragon Pass. I think it's fair to assume that this involves more than just a title: marrying some sort of earth priestess is the definition of kingship in most of Glorantha, and would probably give increased crops in the country at the very least.

Argrath has, as we have seen above, no reason to want to marry Kallyr. What he does want to do is to marry the FHQ, while being Prince of somewhere big enough to give him the KoDP title. And polyandry is not an option, as has been made clear in earlier discussions of FHQ marriages.

Kallyr could probably find uses for being KoDP, but has a problem: it's very difficult to marry someone the same gender as yourself! (In fact I would expect this to be a general problem for all female kings, at any level from the clan upwards. They would have to rely solely on the Orlanth Rex definition of kingship, without any Orendanae influence, or convince someone that they could encompass both roles themselves. I hope to discuss this general problem in more detail elsewhere, but note that CHDP has Kallyr as "warlord and queen", not Prince).

Could Kallyr have been trying to get the FHQ link by means of a proxy? I don't know to what extent proxies are allowed in this sort of situation, but it seems possible. She isn't named as King of Dragon Pass in the lists, but the status would be doubtful in any case. Do we just have one proxy, or a proxy in each direction? Let's see who would fit in each role.

Kallyr's proxy would have to be male, preferably a relative, someone acceptable to the FHQ (so high status), and not yet married elsewhere. Her heir, if any, would be ideal. You know, there's one name that really springs to mind here: Argrath. Who is noted as marrying the FHQ at this point, and then marrying her again a few years later, after Kallyr's death. If this was a proxy wedding, that would explain why he had to go through it all again on his own behalf once he was Prince himself. And it explains a great deal of the confusion in the various accounts. I like this theory.

Who would be the FHQ's proxy (if one is needed?). Much the same conditions apply as above. We don't know much about the male Grazers around at this time other than from the lists of chiefs and of FHQs.

Of the Grazer chiefs listed on KoS p227, the current one was Jandetin the Avenger. This was the same chap who had joined in the Brown Dragon ceremony, and who later "led his men, invisible in daylight, and killed the evil king". After him we have Karndaro the Leaper, "whose steed once carried him from mountain top to mountain top to reach the dwarf city of Nida". Karndaro wouldn't have been chief in 1629 of course, but he would have been around and a fairly prominent person. The last candidate I can find is the son of the previous FHQ, who is never even named.
KoS p228: The next queen was "With Bitter Heart", for she sent her own son to avenge the tribe upon a vile foe. She helped him become warped, in shadow, and and then deserted him when his task was done. She encouraged war bands, and was the first to send vendref clans away, in migration. She fought against her own sister, but was betrayed by the worm within herself. When Jandetin the Avenger danced, she was slain when it came out of her womb. She was alone, without prayer or weeping of the people, yet the Goldeneye came for her."
This son cannot have been Jandetin, since after his "task was done" she was dead and in no position to desert anyone. I've got no idea what "warped, in shadow" means, (though Kygor Litor adoption rites come to mind) nor who the "vile foe" was. I just wonder what he was doing after it was all over, and how popular he was with his tribe.

I can't pick a definite candidate from this lot: and of course, it could easily have been some chap who never gets documented anywhere. Jandetin is my personal favorite, but there isn't really enough evidence to choose.

One final point on all this: Denseros, the perpetrator of CHDP, is said to be one of the vendref. He would tend to see the Grazer side of all this rather than the Sartarite side. Perhaps this, as well as his fear of Argrath, may explain some of his bias.