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Roger should have inherited the crown of Tortall.
All this hinges on one thing: that we accept the information Ms. Pierce provides in interviews.
We have three important bits of info.
Roger was 15 when Jon was born.
Roald was 31 when Jon was born.
Ergo, Roald was about 16 when Roger was born.
Roger's father pretty much had to be a Conté. Let us assume, and it is an assumption, that Roger was not a bastard.
Further, judging by the text, people in Tortall - the nobles, anyway, and especially the men - do not marry young.
Therefore, Roger's father had to be older than Roald.
Here is where the third bit comes in:
When talking about succession after Jon, we are told explicitly that the crown would pass from Jon, to Roald, to Lianokami, and only after that would it go to Liam.
Now, we have to make one assumption here: that while Jon and Thayet pushed through laws that enabled the crown to pass to women, they did not fundamentally alter the pattern of Tortallan succession. To do so would have been a much greater change, and one much less likely to pass. Also, given that this happens before the princes and princesses are born, there is no way to know how many children Jon would have, and certainly Lianokami wasn't born yet, so therefore there was no reason to alter the succession to favor Jon's first grandchild over his second child.
Walk that back a bit, and put the two bits together: Roger's father would have been Jasson's heir before Roald. Tortallan succession would privilege Roger - the child of Jasson's heir - over Roald - Jasson's younger son.
Therefore, Roger was the legitimate heir of the Tortallan crown.
There are, of course, ways around this. But that requires work.
All this hinges on one thing: that we accept the information Ms. Pierce provides in interviews.
We have three important bits of info.
Roger was 15 when Jon was born.
Roald was 31 when Jon was born.
Ergo, Roald was about 16 when Roger was born.
Roger's father pretty much had to be a Conté. Let us assume, and it is an assumption, that Roger was not a bastard.
Further, judging by the text, people in Tortall - the nobles, anyway, and especially the men - do not marry young.
Therefore, Roger's father had to be older than Roald.
Here is where the third bit comes in:
When talking about succession after Jon, we are told explicitly that the crown would pass from Jon, to Roald, to Lianokami, and only after that would it go to Liam.
Now, we have to make one assumption here: that while Jon and Thayet pushed through laws that enabled the crown to pass to women, they did not fundamentally alter the pattern of Tortallan succession. To do so would have been a much greater change, and one much less likely to pass. Also, given that this happens before the princes and princesses are born, there is no way to know how many children Jon would have, and certainly Lianokami wasn't born yet, so therefore there was no reason to alter the succession to favor Jon's first grandchild over his second child.
Walk that back a bit, and put the two bits together: Roger's father would have been Jasson's heir before Roald. Tortallan succession would privilege Roger - the child of Jasson's heir - over Roald - Jasson's younger son.
Therefore, Roger was the legitimate heir of the Tortallan crown.
There are, of course, ways around this. But that requires work.
