Gender-neutral royal titles?

[elemtilas]

Mostly it's because one of my close friends is writing a similarly non-patriarchal world, and she uses generic terms like "Monarch" and "Heir", so I kind of want to veer away from that. Especially since we discuss our stories with each other fairly often.

Just so long as you also veer away from horrific perversions of English like "princex"! YUK!

I too would expect that the native language(s) of the peoples in this world would have normal titles for its rulers that recognise the local society's slant on gender. I'd suggest, if it's not now too late!, just making and using such words. So long as it is somehow made clear that, functionally, a jarda and a warkun are the same as a monarch as far as role and dignity go but are distinct as far as gender are concerned, then why not just refer to "the jarda of Arcutre" or "warkun Zibilus"?

"I love you. I would rather be in exile with you, than Queen without you."
~ Líadan

I wonder how many Liadans there are out there in the Land of Story...

I have some parts of a story whose main character is Liadan. I've a cousin who wrote a beautiful story (Birds of Ale'a) whose main character is Liadan. And now I come across this story with a character called Liadan! Pretty nifty, that!

 

[Yzjdriel]

"Your Majesty" seems entirely gender agnostic, though I would venture to guess that everyone would know the sex and gender of their Sovereign.

Alternatively, you can just refuse to give a care and go the route of the Dragons in The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, and just call the monarch "King" regardless of gender.

 

[SMAndy85]

There's an anime I watch, called Fate: Stay Night. The title isn't great, but it's got a decent referece for this. If you know it, but haven't seen it and want to, stop reading now because SPOILERS!

One of the main characters, referred to by the name "Saber" is a female knight in appearance, and is totally kickass. Later on, you discover that she's actually King Arthur. She is called King because the legend states "Whomsoever draws the sword from the stone shall become King." and they took it literally.

In history, I always think that titles for the female part (duchess, princess etc) is just the male version with an alteration. If you google "Define Prince" it comes back with "the son of a monarch". Who is to say you couldn't just change that to the "child of a monarch" and leave it there?

Equally, the synonyms has "dynast" as an option. That sounds very gender neutral! Perhaps you could get some ideas for other titles the same way.