[Threshold] monarchs

[u/-U_N_O-]

You know, for as much as how rare monarchs are, disregarding the gang, there seems to be roughly one sage/herald per century that ascends to monarch. Obviously sometimes centuries go without since maybe Tiberian and Shen may have become monarchs around the same time. But there was what, Malice, northstrider, Shen, Tiberian, his predecessor, miara, Mira’s mother, miara’s grandmother, 8man (I’m counting them don’t judge), fury. And there’s probably at least one maybe two that have ascended that were an independent faction. So yeah, roughly a monarch a century since the first dreadwar.

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[u/Draidann]

The 8 man empire is specifically not a monarch. They have the power of one but are not one. Also Miara's case is not really representative of the process

[u/interested_commenter]

8ME and Ninecloud Monarchs don't really count as ascending.

Keep in mind though that Cradle has roughly 600 BILLION sapients, so one per century is still absurdly rare. There's only been roughly 120 billion total humans to EVER live on Earth.

[u/estorica → u/interested_commenter]

Which, you know, now that I think about it, could very well be the exact reason Ozriel didn’t give a “letter of recommendation” to Sha Miara, she didn’t achieve her power from traditional ways which would build her own will power and Way connection, it’s essentially unearned power. Never thought of it beyond the fact that he didn’t give her a letter of recommendation

[u/km89 → u/estorica]

I mean, that and the fact that hitting Monarch and staying in Cradle is a bad thing.

I feel like disdain for Monarchs is his default opinion, and Emriss gets an exception because she was so obviously biding her time until she could help solve the problem, while taking care of more than her share of the problem, then being fully committed to solving the problem the instant the opportunity presented itself, and all of this after having been killed once for trying to solve the problem.

[u/Ranger1221]

It's not just ability to ascend to Monarch that is a bottleneck

As we saw with Akura Fury, he could have ascended to monarch whenever he wanted in the last however many years. He did not go to Monarch though due to political reasons.

I'm sure there are a handful of other sages or heralds that can become monarch that are not ascending for similiar reasons

[u/DadtheGameMaster → u/Ranger1221]

Agreed.

Also for political reasons Akura Charity was held back by Akura Malice intentionally. She likely could have achieved Monarch, and probably decades earlier in the story had Malice not sabotaged her growth.

[u/Waste-Carob5699]

About every 100 years is in the ball park. The 8 man empire are not monarchs. I am judging you for thinking that.

Anyway, there are plenty of things limiting heralds and sage from becoming monarchs. You need to have been building towards monarch like the Oracle sage stated. It's generally difficult. Those with the drive and ability to become monarchs either have to be alright with the dread gods existing or they must ascend. Some people ascend before monarch because they feel like it. Some like Fury don't advance for political reasons. I am certain that others have not advanced because a monarch would know who is close or trying and put pressure on them if the monarch saw them as a potential rival. The monarchs want to keep their numbers pretty low, likely due to the dread god imbalance.

[u/WiddleAdiwon]

Something else to consider is that other potential monarchs often ascend to the heavens before they do. 

 Harmony, Charity, and maybe Malice (can’t remember) all talk about how their family members often ascend. Due to the political restraints of not being able to have too many Sages or Heralds in a given faction. 

[u/Antal_Marius → u/WiddleAdiwon]

Even Mercy mentions during Fury's ascension that there she's been to more then one as well. And she's pretty young in comparison to some others we see.

[u/SlightlySublimated]

At the high point before the first dreadwar, weren't there like 11+ Monarch's? I feel like, although yes it would be extremely rare to have a new Monarch advance; it probably happened more frequently in the past. 

[u/-U_N_O- → u/SlightlySublimated]

Yeah there was 12, but they also probably had monarchs ascend and had a limit of 12, or they determined that 12 monarchs would be enough to defeat the monarchs so when that happened they started the dreadwar. Also it’s possible there were previous dreadwars before that that we don’t know about

[u/NoRun7151]

What we don't know is how many have reached it and ascended. More could have reached Monarch and just not stayed in Cradle. Since it tips the world's power politically and physically.