I've always wondered why royalty in fantasy series are willing to kill each other for the throne. Being part of the royal familyretty much sucks (no freedom, constant threat of assassination, put on display their entire lives, little to no privacy), and being king is just worse in all categories. Then you add on top of that the responsibility and the pressure and all the ceremonies (because in a total monarcy the king is both head of state and government). And for all that trouble you really don't get that much in return. A totalitarian monarcy doesn't have that much more freedom to do whatever than any government. The King is still very much subject to public opinion and exists for the people; if they make decisions that the majority of people are against or create a bad situation then they are subject to the people's wrath and will be removed forcibly (which is what has happened historically). Then you're constantly stuck in politics and have to deal with all the different factions and nobles curryingand literally every problem (social, physical, or otherwise) plaguing your country. Ever see the U.S. Presidents before and after? I imagine the stress of being king is 100x worse. Really being a prince or princess (actually prince because the time period with a powerful monarcy is usually also wrought with social inequality) is as good as it gets (until your family sells you off for a political marriage to finalize alliances and amass power), you get the idolization and still have he freedom to play around, but every series acts like that one guy that doesn't want the throne is some kind of rare random mutation. Meanwhile it's perfectly sane for everyone to kill for that type of terrible position. Long rant, but that's all to say that this type of premise and setting looks to be at least refreshing.