Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spikes

[LaZodiac]

Sort of. So Emperor comes from Imperator which was very gendered. And to my knowledge it’s shifting use throughout Europe remained gendered while there were emperors in actual power. With figures like Maria Theresa explicitly not getting the male Emperor title, because of her gender and that leading to a whole bag of problems.

But in China and Japan, my understanding is their term for Emperor was also gendered, but that did not stop females from taking the male gendered title for themselves. There were several explicitly female “emperors.” Or more accurately Huangdi. That western authors just call emperors.

Please correct me if I made a mistake there.

The information I've read is that the Chinese and Japanese titles were non gendered, but otherwise this all tracks. Imperator may be gendered, but the actual word Emperor just means "a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm" and the fact that we've mostly had male Emperors is not because "it is gendered" but because "that's just what history is like yo". The female Emperors (and Kings) put paid to the idea as well. It's an argument with no point because it's already decided. One; these terms aren't gendered. Two; no one cares, just call the character what she is called. Call her The Wanderer if you want to be disrespectful.