This is a story about a hard-headed misfit of a peasant girl named Iris Henner. Living in a house with fourteen others (brothers, sisters, cousin, sister-in-law and brother-in-law) its hard to keep the finances steady especially since Iris' two brothers Jacsen and Anar are always sick. Their health concerns are the center of the of the Henner's problems. Their medicine and the ingredients to make the medicine become more and more expensive as the king's policies create more and more inflation.
Despite the various jobs the Henner family do, it isn't enough to pay for the medicine. Lucky for Iris, she has powerful friends. When Iris becomes a maid for the princess, they become fiercely good friends. Princess Lyress sympathizes with Iris' family and their financial trouble. However, she isn't permitted to over pay her maid, therefore Lyress can't bring the Henners out of economic trouble. She realizes that the only people who can successfully buy the over priced ingredients for the medicine are the Nobility. Ideas start floating around in Lyress' mind, "What if I could make her a noble?" seemed to be the easiest conclusion. But in this society women didn't make money, not even the merchant's wives. What ever money a woman had she was born into. The only people who did make money were men. And as a nobleman there were two choices to making money, Law or Knighthood.
Since Iris wasn't born into nobility, there is no way for Lyress to transform her into a noble woman. However, when noblemen train for their shield in Knighthood, they dont need the money of their families like noblewomen did. They have a chance to earn their income. Being a knight and serving the king is the best career a man can have. Though the level of nobility that they are born into affects how much their paid, unlike a career in the Law, a knight could climb the class ladder and get paid more.
So Lyress and Iris come up with a convincing alias for Iris and thus becomes Ered (Iris' father's name) of the House on Henne. Though at first no one in the capital city of Mirasa has heard of the House of Henne, Lyress is able to convince everyone that there is a noble family of that name. Thus no one, yet, questions it and accepts Ered as a nobleman.
The rest of the story shows Iris' struggle to becoming a Knight. Not only does she have to be extra careful not to reveal her sex, but she also has to work twice as hard to keep up with the guys. Not to mention in her academics as well. Along the way she falls for her knight master Sir Wrider of the House of Ent, a red haired, green-eyed enigma in Iris' world. As a trainee knight she cant earn the money yet and so the Henners still suffer.
With all the pressures upon her shoulders, Iris has to be strong. If this works out and she does earn her shield she can bring her family out of the financial hole, and she could make them happy, something she deeply wants to see. No one would ever have to know her sex. With her short hair, unplucked eyebrows, and bound breasts(Iris actually is thrilled that they're small) Iris can keep her ploy a secret.
Despite this radical role change, the one thing besides her family's happiness that she wants is to have a family of her own. A husband and children. But this dream was shattered when at fourteen Iris was raped, and her reputation became "Soiled." She figures that since marriage was out of the question for her future, becoming a knight and hiding her true sex seemed to be a better alternative, especially since it could for fill her other dream.
All in all, what I plan to do with this story is to show a few things
1. A better role model for teen girls/young women
Meryer's Twilight was a riveting series, but her heroine is a terrible role model for women of any age. Bella Swan is manipulative, selfish, and sometimes down right cold. Colder than Edward Cullen's living-dead body. Iris, though no where near percet, is a better role model in that she tries to be unselfish and is honest. Her honesty (though she masquerades as a guy) is her noble quality. She is genuine in how she feels. She doesn't build up walls or lie to make herself comfortable. She is authentic and doesn't fake anything she feels.
2. To show the dynamics of genders
Obviously this is a (wo)man vs society story. Though this society restricts women more so than in our present culture, there are still things I see that show inequality today. I incorporate those things in this story. But also I that not every man is an egotistical jerk of a human being. Though there are fair share of jerks, the guy friends Iris makes as a trainee knight prove that there are two sides to every story. Iris is the only pioneer for a woman knight, and so she is the only person in this story to see "Man's World," and "Woman's World." She lives in both, and so she sees both points of view. This story is not to bash guys, it's not to give women the liscence to over power men, it just shows the truth of it all. Unlike some of Tamora Pierce's heroines, Iris really does want to be a traditional, nurturing, child-bearing woman. Like every girl she dreams of a wedding. She envies her sisters (especially Rose, the oldest who has a husband) because all of them have the opportunity of getting married, where as Iris doesn't because she is considered "Soiled." "Soiled" meaning that she is a damaged good, and in this culture it is rare that she'd be considered for a marriage offer.
Also, unlike Twilight, I portray guys as actual guys. I felt that the Twilight series was not an accurate representation of men. The only ones that were even close were Jasper and Emmett, and you rarely saw much of them. Now that doesn't mean I ignore that guys have emotions. Its just that I show the differances men and women have in showing them.
3. What true Love is.
" Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but( rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8Love never ends." ~ 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8
This is the definition of love. In this story I show what love truly is between a man and a woman, or to a person's family, or to a person's friends. Though there is no religion in this story, I do try to show the way true love was intended by God. Also I show that love doesn't have to be physical for guys and girls. That respect both ways really does kindle love rather than hot passion. Iris grows to admire and respect Wrider, so much so that he inspires her to be better. And this is visa versa too. Wrider has alot of respect for Iris, rather than condemning her for mascaraing as a boy and a noble (yes he does find out she's a girl) he admires that she is doing such a dangerous and risky thing all for the sake of her family. Sure he does get mad at first, who wouldn't? But once he knows why she did all of it, he (though he never verbalizes it until later) has immense respect for her. He wonders if he were her, would he do such a risky thing for his father(his only family)? We never know the answer to that one, but Iris knows that he would and that's more than likely true.
Soooo yeah thats the ugh...commentary(??) of The Maiden Knight of Etny. Currently im only on chapter 4 in this story but hopefully I'll write at a faster pace.
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