Talk:List of kingdoms in Twelve Kingdoms

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[edit] King, emperor, queen, empress?

How should we refer to the position of Youko or Shushou? Queen or Empress is our first thought in English for a female ruler, but some might argue they have connotations of low power, or weakness, especially since they're more commonly used as the title of the consort of the real ruler. The Japanese term used is '-ou', ruler, which is gender neutral; it becomes 'queen' if the character for woman is added, but I'm told the author doesn't add it. I'd be somewhat inclined to refer to Youko as the king of Kei, with 'queen' held for someone like Shoukei's mother, wife of someone who became king. I think the Tokyopop translation went this route, calling Youko the Glory-King of Kei. (Of course, that was inappropriately translating the name of the kingdom of Kei; the straightforward translation of Kei-ou would be Kei King, or King Key, or Royal Kei.) -- Mindstalk (talk) 20:48, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

That's a difficult subject. I for one find calling a female ruler a king rather disgusting. I prefer Emperor and Empress over King and Queen. However, I think you're right that Empress sounds like it may not be the ruler but just the wife of the ruler. Maybe we could go the same route as the author and just call them <country>-ou (Keiou, Enou, etc.)? There's already so many foreign terms used (like Taiho and all the names of the Taiho) that I don't think one more would hurt. --Eruhildo (talk) 03:35, 9 April 2008 (UTC)