If any of you are following my Sweets people comic, you'll probably know that in that world monarchies still rule, considering it's about the royal family. As a bit of backstory (that absolutely no one asked for but I'm going to provide anyway), I'll be sharing some information on Appel's, the current King of the Sweet Kingdom's father, Afal (welsh for "Apple).

Now, as some of y'all might know, in the old days (and now) Royalty, especially kings, had a lot of concubines and mistresses. As a result of that, I'm sure more than a few illegitimate children were conceived and kept hidden since they wouldn't be acceptable to take the throne as a legitimate heir due to their bastard births.

Afal is one of these children. His mother was a low ranking lady sent to the current King as a "gift", which led to her becoming one of his many concubines. In this world, Royal harems were acceptable for western  royalty as well, so it wasn't unusual for a King to officially have over thirty mistresses in his life. Of course, being a concubine to the King doesn't mean very much when your as low on the totem pole as Appel's father's mother was. Basically instead of having any influence or status, she was just one of the many women who were used to "entertain" the current King. This resulted in Afal being born. Since he was born form a low ranking concubine, and one of the many illegitimate children of the King, no one ever spared him a glance, seeing him as useless. That is until all of the King's legitimate children and wife were assassinated. After the death of the direct descendants, all hell broke loose among the concubines and half children, since now one of them was getting the throne. Deaths were caused from left to right, "accidents" that killed others in line for the throne. Concubines killed other children to ensure their's would succeed the crown, siblings killed their half siblings, blood was spilt and war was fought over the right to rule until eventually all that was left was Afal. All the rest, the elder borns, had killed each other off, leaving the overlooked son of a low ranked mistress as the only one alive. With that, a thirteen year old boy became king.

Due to this incident, it was concluded that a minimum of ten children were needed. An heir and spares in case of any unforeseen events. In light of this, Afal was strongly advised to form a royal harem, only this time they were not just concubines, but also considered (technically) official wives as well.

Of course only one woman could be Queen- the rest would just be called wives as formalities. After much debating and sorting through marriage proposals, eventually an official wife was picked- Brusinka Pye. (Brusinka means "Cranberry" in Czech. She's based off of a Cranberry pie. She's a rather ambitious person. Her family gave her two options when she was accepted as his bride- become queen and provide an heir to help their kingdom become more powerful, or don't bother coming back at all)

It was rather a miracle that she was able to become queen- influence wise, she was not the best candidate by any means. She was the third princess of an extremely small kingdom that was somewhat rural, and hadn't done anything noticeable in all it's years of existence, but a sudden boom in economics in her kingdom resulted to her being vaulted into first place. So she was chosen as the official wife and queen, despite there being better candidates. Brusinka herself knew that her becoming queen was a thing of pure luck, and hanging by a thread considering many other women were better suited for her role, so she immediately tried her best to consummate the marriage and provide an heir to secure her place. However, there was a problem no one expected- Brusinka couldn't get pregnant.

Much to everyone's horror and shock, it was impossible for her to be able to produce offspring, according to the best physicians in the entire country. With this knew knowledge Afal was urged by his advisors and nobles to divorce her and take a new bride, one that could get pregnant. Brusinka thought it was the end for her, when to everyone's surprise, Afal refused. So Brusinka was kept as his wife and queen to the bafflement of the court and Brusinka herself. In light of this new information, Afal was told more strongly than ever to take another wife. So he did. Presenting, Suklaa Mansikkajuustoa Torttu (it means Chocolate Strawberry Cheese Tart in Finnish. She's based off of a chocolate strawberry cheese tart. She may look cute and act sweet, but don't be fooled. She's calculating, manipulative, and more ambitious than Caesar.)

Before Brusinka's sudden boost, Suklaa was the best option to be queen. She's the daughter of a wealthy Duke who had been known to have close relations with the Royal family for many years. So when she was suddenly ousted from her position as queen, she wasn't too happy, and when Brusinka was announced as unable to have a child, she saw this as her opportunity to gain the throne she had lost. As soon as she became his second wife, Suklaa immediately claimed she was pregnant, which were proven to be true. And since she would be giving birth to a child first, despite not being the queen, her child was the sole heir to the throne.

Everyone expected her child was guaranteed to be the future ruler and treated her as if she were queen herself in hopes of gaining her favor for advantage, much to her delight. Everything went according to her plan, right up until she was about to give birth- when Brusinka suddenly became pregnant. In outraged shock Suklaa went into labor, but it was too late. She might have given birth first but Brusinka's child would be the crown heir. If she had given birth before Brusinka announced her pregnancy than her child might have stood a chance but now it was over. After all, anyone would choose the child of an official wife over that of a practical concubine. So Suklaa was forced to give up hopes that her child would effortlessly get the throne.

Last of all for this chapter is Violetti Vaahtokarkki (it means Purple marshmallow in Finnish and she's based off of a purple marshmallow twist. Unlike Brusinka and Suklaa, Violetti isn't ambitious or holds any hope for power. Overall she's a calm refined person. Also, fun fact: the first marshmallows were created by the Egyptians as offerings to their gods. That's were I got her skin color from in homage to marshmallows origins.

Violetti was chosen as Afal's third wife. She's the niece of a small kingdom's queen so not the most influential, but not low ranking either. Unlike the other two she has a rather demure, unthreatening nature. She's satisfied with her place and doesn't have any ambitions desires.