Navier Trovi is the ideal empress. Wise, courageous, and compassionate, her subjects admire and respect her. And although she and her husband, Emperor Sovieshu, do not love each other, they do get along well enough. Together, they work hard in order to keep their beloved Eastern Empire at peace... until the day he takes a concubine.
Determined, innocent, and delicately beautiful, Rashta shakes the Eastern Empire to its core. While initially a runaway slave, she aspires to rise above her rank and escape her past. And Sovieshu will do anything to help her and keep her at his side. This leaves Navier scrambling to keep her place on the throne, even as her marriage crumbles while lies, deceit, and betrayals threaten to do her in.
But then Navier meets the crown prince of the neighboring Western Kingdom, Heinrey. Despite rumors of him being a shameless playboy, he is actually gentlemanly, and really, really likes Navier. When things continue to go wrong for her, she sees her chance to continue being the empress she prepared herself to be with a man loyal to her alone. And so she is divorced by her husband and, you guessed it, remarries another emperor and becomes an empress again.
The Remarried Empress is a Korean light novel, originally published in 2018. It was later adapted to a highly-popular webcomic and an otome game. The series is known for its dramatic moments and interesting characters, as well as the beautiful art in the webcomic.
The webcomic is available to read here
. The game is available on Maybe Interactive Stories app. There are talks of a South Korean live-action adaptation.
This work provides the following tropes:
- Arranged Marriage: Most marriages among nobles and royalty.
- Art Evolution: Early in the webcomic, the characters initially had much sharper features. By the time it reaches the point where it originally started in chapter 80, the characters look quite different and the costumes more elaborate.
- Beleaguered Assistant:
- Poor McKenna gets stuck showing off and delivering messages to Navier whenever Heinrey needs an extra bird.
- Sovieshu's secretaries also fall under this. They have to put up with his increasingly terrible decisions because of Rashta, despite their attempts to advise him otherwise.
- Cassandra Truth:
- Inverted when Navier rebukes Rashta's attempts at befriending her, telling Rashta to befriend Sovieshu's next concubine. Not only does this jab seriously strike Rashta's nerve, but after Navier's departure from the Eastern Empire, Rashta becomes increasingly paranoid about every woman even approaching Sovieshu, not realizing Sovieshu is too busy mourning losing Navier to notice any other women.
- Before leaving for his country, Kapmen impulsively asks Navier to come with him, asking her what is she going to do if Sovieshu decides to divorce her. Navier declines his offer, declaring Sovieshu would never do that. She bitterly remembers Kapmen's words when she later realizes that Sovieshu really intends to proceed with divorce.
- Crossed with Stating the Simple Solution. Marquis Karl attempts multiple times to get Sovieshu to reconsider divorcing Navier and marrying Rashta to secure a rightful heir, knowing the disastrous consequences the actions would bring regardless of his intentions. Marquis Karl suggests Sovieshu waiting a few more years before deciding if Navier is truly infertile and consider other options for a heir if the former turns out to be the case rather than trying to divorce and make Rashta the new empress. At one point, he even suggests Sovieshu just tell Navier the truth about why he is doing everything as Navier would naturally be upset about his actions. But ultimately, Sovieshu refuses to budge and goes through with said plan, only to regret it far too late when Navier marries Heinrey and Rashta ruins the standing of the Eastern Empire as the new empress. Not to mention the baby he divorced Navier for wasn't his after all.
- At least several people in the Eastern court comment on Ergy's questionable reputation, with Marquis Karl and Count Pirnu suggesting his close friendship with Rashta might cause some problems in the long run and advising Sovieshu to politely send him away. Nothing is done about it, even though Ergy had already proven himself to be untrustworthy by helping Navier escape the Eastern Empire with Heinrey, despite Sovieshu's direct orders. Ergy's further deliberate activities are disastrous to both Rashta and Sovieshu.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Lady Alicia. She is only briefly discussed during Nianne's tea party, but both her character and said discussion have long lasting consequences:
- Rashta realizes her position is less safe than she initially assumed and, like Alicia, she could be ousted from the palace after Sovieshu tires of her, which fuels her ensuing attempts at securing her stay in the palace at any cost.
- The reasons for Alicia's banishment are connected to Sovieshu and Navier's infertility problems, which led to their divorce and Sovieshu's marriage with Rashta.
- Alicia is later revealed to be Ergy's Wicked Stepmother and part of his motivation to disrupt the political situation in the Eastern Empire.
- Costume Porn: Particularly in webtoon and the game.
- Death Faked for You: When Glorym gets taken by the Eternal Bandits and one of the members decides to adopt her, they proceed to make it appear Glorym died at their hands so no one would try looking for her, allowing for said bandit and his wife to be able to raise Glorym as the child they've always wanted.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Both out and In-Universe. Having multiple concubines or lovers by both men and women is not seen as unusual in both the Eastern Empire and Western Kingdom, while Princess Soju of the Southern Kingdom comments about how bizarre she finds this practice. Kapmen openly tells Navier that this is unthinkable in his country and the queen would be justified for killing a concubine there.
- Disappointed in You: Though High Priest Vimirey never says it outright, it's clear these are his feelings towards Sovieshu divorcing Navier. Even after being told the story over why Sovieshu is using Rashta, Vimirey only reluctantly agrees to finalize the divorce and is unhappy about how things turned out for Navier, since he has known them as children. He ends up agreeing to officiate Navier and Heinrey's union and sternly shuts down Sovieshu's attempts to ban Navier from getting remarried.
- Establishing Character Moment: At the start of the story, Navier and Heinrey anonymously exchange letters via messenger bird. After arriving to the palace, Heinrey claims he's searching for his mysterious penpal. Rashta comes forward, claiming it was her. Heinrey, fully aware this is not the case, goes along with it, until he starts asking Rashta questions about contents of those letters, revealing the lie. Rashta keeps insisting she's not lying, bursts into tears, accuses Heinrey of being mean, causes a scene during the official dinner with foreign guests and makes Sovieshu side with her against Heinrey. Navier, who up until that point viewed Rashta as just a Naïve Newcomer, realizes Rashta is absolutely willing to lie and manipulate people even in the face of Implausible Deniability just to get her way.
- In a more of a Rewatch Bonus way, the same scene is also one for Heinrey, showing his manipulative tendencies by deliberately making a fool of Rashta, stirring up conflict and milking the fact that he was disrespected. At the time he still was planning a war, so his actions are making sense in that light.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- For all her crimes and shortcomings, Rashta genuinely loves her children. She is excited and happy during her first pregnancy, and is devastated by the trauma of (supposedly) losing Ian and the resulting issues with being a good mother to Glorym.
- Viscount Roteschu Rimwell is a doting father to Lebetti, and despite his complaining about Alan and Ian, a lot of his crimes are motivated by his efforts to secure his family's future, especially since his wife's illness makes him stuck as the main caretaker.
- Ergy is a scheming mole undermining the Eastern Empire, but his friendship with Heinrey seems genuine and his main goal is getting a place where he and his ailing mother can live in peace.
- Foil:
- Navier has several:
- Nianne Tuania. Just like Navier's, Nianne's marriage falls apart because of Rashta. By spreading rumours of Nianne's supposed infidelity, Rashta drives Duke Tuania to divorcing his wife, and just like Navier, Nianne finds herself later with a younger, morally ambiguous lover (albeit she doesn't marry him) and coming to the Western Kingdom. Also, similarly to Sovieshu, Duke Tuania comes to regret his divorce, resents Rashta for causing it, and unsuccessfully tries to get back with his ex-wife.
- Krista Zemensia, who is also a popular, Proper Lady queen from a ducal house who failed to conceive an heir with her husband. Navier's arrival to the Western court causes Krista to lose her spotlight and her fighting to retain her position. However, while Navier was always capable on her own, Krista is a pawn of her family and doesn't quite have Navier's brains, leading her to take drastic measures to keep her place in the Imperial Palace.
- Rashta. While Rashta is an illiterate runaway slave and Navier is an educated lady from a high-ranking aristocratic family, as story goes by, their plots mirror each other. After divorcing Sovieshu, Navier comes to the West where she finds herself in a similar situation. While she doesn't break any marriage, she is viewed with suspicion by the previous queen and her ladies-in-waiting, who see her as usurping Krista's place, even though Heinrey obviously wouldn't marry his widowed sister-in-law. And yes, Krista's family also tries to poison Navier when she is pregnant, just like Kosair tried to poison Rashta.
- Ergy's mother. Just like her, Navier is a queen who was put aside by her husband in order to elevate his concubine. However, Navier manages to get back on her feet, while Ergy's mother suffers from health issues and a mental breakdown.
- Heinrey and Sovieshu. While both are rulers, Sovieshu has been emperor for a few years by the time the story begins while Heinrey become king after the death of his brother. They both have a plan they are trying to accomplish in the story, with Sovieshu trying to use Rashta to secure an heir while Heinrey's trying to make the Western Kingdom an empire and invade the Eastern Empire. At one point in the story, both have to choose between Navier or their plan. Sovieshu chooses to secure Rashta's baby over Navier, but the consequences of his actions while doing so ruin his reputation and empire's power. He also discovers that Glorym was not his child, meaning his whole plan was all for nothing. In contrast, Heinrey chooses Navier's feelings over his invasion plans, though he still ends up weakening the Eastern Empire and their daughter, Lari, is named its next heir due to the circumstances because he had always planned ahead. Finally, both love Navier, but Sovieshu self-sabotages himself by constantly siding with Rashta over Navier and making her believe otherwise, ultimately losing her for good. Meanwhile, Heinrey goes out of his way to show he loves Navier and she does eventually reciprocate his love.
- Heinrey and Ergy as well. Both of them are two-faced schemers who manipulate the people around them in order to further their schemes. Heinrey originally wanted to invade the Eastern Empire, but after falling in love with Navier and marrying her, he decides not to go through with it, instead indirectly pushing his enemies into their downfall. Ergy seems to not have any reason for messing with the Eastern Empire aside from helping Heinrey, but he’s actually the most active contributor towards the empire’s fall from grace, in part because of revenge against the former emperor for sending his concubine, Alicia, to his family and her becoming his Wicked Stepmother. But he’s also motivated by love, though for his and his biological mother’s safety and peace.
- Navier has several:
- Gem-Encrusted: The Western Kingdom is well known for its gem mines, and at one point Heinrey gifts Navier with a gem-encrusted cake.
- Gray-and-Gray Morality: The novels are much more nuanced in their character portrayals than the webtoon and the game, particularly when it comes to Rashta and her descent into villainy.
- Happily Adopted: Glorym ultimately ends up getting adopted by a member of the Eternal Thousand bandits after they intercept Viscountess Verdi's carriage, who immediately took a liking to her due to resembling his wife and having been unable to have children of their own for over a decade.
- High Turnover Rate: Rashta's maids. Not always by her fault, mind you.
- How We Got Here: How the story unfolds, as it flashes back to the events which lead up to Navier's divorce from Sovieshu and remarriage to Heinrey.
- In Medias Res: The story begins with Navier and Sovieshu's divorce.
- Intoxication Ensues: Both Kapmen and Heinrey drink a love potion in different circumstances. Their faces are flushed and their eyes water within seconds, and they ask the people they first saw to leave them so they can return to their senses.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While neither Viscount Roteschu nor Ergy have Rashta's best interests in mind, they both provide her with plenty of helpful and astute insights on politics and high society at times. Not that Rashta takes these points to heart.
- Love Ruins the Realm: The whole plot starts because of it and things go From Bad to Worse concerning Sovieshu on this matter.
- The emperor brings a lowborn woman to the palace, makes her his concubine, gets her pregnant and later divorces his competent stateswoman wife, a daughter of a longstanding ducal house, for her. Said wife immediately remarries the new ruler of the neighboring kingdom, who shortly after declares himself emperor.
- Sovieshu constantly sides with Rashta against nobles that rank higher than her in terms of status, even in moments where Rashta was clearly in the wrong. This not only ruins his relationship with his now ex-wife but also creates resentment in the nobility both at Rashta and Sovieshu.
- Before the divorce, Navier is responsible for trade negotiations between the Eastern Empire and the kingdom of Luipt, represented by Kapmen, who finds Sovieshu's treatment of Navier appalling. However, Sovieshu ends up arguing with Navier right in front of him over her refusal to accept Rashta's baby, resulting in Kapmen punching him. Sovieshu takes advantage of this and his jealousy over their friendship to end trading relations with Luipt... and any trade benefits it would bring to the empire, one of which being hopefully finding the cause of the declining mages. Navier does secure trade negotiations with Luipt as the empress of the Western Empire, which improves its standing.
- After Navier's remarriage to Heinrey, Sovieshu puts them both under house arrest at her family's residence. This results in the Western Kingdom having to issue a demand to release their ruler, straining diplomatic relations between their countries. Then, Sovieshu puts up an absolute fit before a crowd of onlookers in front of the Trovi Manor, accusing Heinrey - a newly made ruler of an increasingly powerful neighboring country - of seducing Navier, insulting him while telling his own ex-wife, whom he just divorced, that he didn't want her to leave him like that. This does not make him look mentally stable, both to said ex-wife and the spectators.
- Rashta, being a former slave, is blackmailed by her former owner, Viscount Roteschu, about already having a child, Ian, with his own son. Since her funds as a concubine are closely monitored, she has to buy his silence by giving him precious jewels she receives from Sovieshu. Both of these sources of income are insufficient and easily traceable, so she ends up borrowing a lot of money from Ergy, a foreign duke with way too much influence over her. Once she becomes an empress, he demands his loans back with interest, making her sign off a strategically important port to him, which later causes a huge scandal and international tensions between the Eastern Empire and Blue Bohean. Furthermore, after her daughter Glorym turns out to be Alan's daughter, she is accused of treason and embezzling the empire's coffers and sentenced to a lifetime imprisonment, where she kills herself soon after.
- All of these events lead to Sovieshu, who unsuccessfully did everything to get back with Navier, finding himself alone with his reputation tarnished and a high probability of being infertile himself. This causes his mental health to rapidly deteriorate, until he becomes practically unable to govern, while his former father-in-law has to take the reins of the empire with Sovieshu as a figurehead. He tries to hand over the throne to his distant nephew, who declines the offer. In the end, he names the daughter of his ex-wife and princess of a foreign nation his successor, which effectively means the end of his dynasty.
- Invoked, discussed and ultimately averted by Heinrey. When McKenna asks him if he is going to go to war for Navier, Heinrey responds that while the war between their countries will eventually happen, his people won't love a queen who in their minds would be associated with war. With that in mind, he concocts a plan where he, exploiting rumours about the Love Triangle between himself, Rashta and Sovieshu, declares a war on the Eastern Empire "for Rashta", which would eventually fulfill three objectives: 1. give him an excuse to go to war, 2. smear Rashta's reputation and 3. get him Navier. Navier proposing to him prevents him from going through with it and he ultimately decides against actually waging war on the Eastern Empire for her sake.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe:
- Glorym. Everyone, including her own mother, initially assumed she is Sovieshu's daughter, but she turns out to be Alan's child. Sovieshu doesn't take it well. It is made even more complicated by Ergy leaving a note saying Sovieshu is really the father. It is actually a distraction ploy to help him escape the Eastern Empire.
- Nianne's son is accused of being the result of a premarital affair with her (now deceased) brother-in-law, which leads to her divorce from Duke Tuania. As it turns out, those accusations were false and she refuses to return to her ex-husband for him not believing her in the first place.
- Plenty of Blondes: For some reason Sovieshu and the Rimwells are the only major characters with dark hair. The rest have varying shades of blonde or white/silver.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: The game strips off a lot from the novels, ending at Navier's divorce/remarriage and leaving or handwaving plenty of loose plot threads.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: All of them. Navier really takes the cake, though.
- Spell My Name With An S: Due to various translations, the spelling of names of most characters varies greatly between the novels, webtoon and the game. So far only "Navier" and "Rashta" remain consistent.
- Spoiler Title: Yes, Navier ends up remarrying after her husband turns out to be a jerk.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The previous empress preparing cookies laced with abortion and infertility inducing drugs for one of the emperor's mistresses and Sovieshu and Navier eating them leads to most of the conflict in the story that followed, including Sovieshu's complicated plan to have a legitimate heir and keep Navier as his empress as well as Alicia being made the scapegoat, getting banished from the palace, and becoming Ergy's Wicked Stepmother.
- Virtual Paper Doll: In the game, Navier and her love interests can get multiple outfits, hairdos and accessories both during gameplay as well as by purchasing them in the "Closet" option for diamonds. Navier's outfits level up her "Charm" percentage, while males' outfits level up their "Hearts" percentage.
