Is the consort system (the higher ranking ones) a little confusing to anyone else or is that just me?
Like, we know that there are four consorts because they are mentioned in the first game: Consort of Preciousness, Consort of Elegance and Consort of Kindness. Does the Empress count as one of them? Because if we watch the video of the story of Consort Yang and Consort Yang Junior, it is said that they kill Consort of Virtue (and I always assumed Consort Yang Junior became the new Consort of Virtue and Consort Yang felt threatened by her and that’s why she was locked away). So is it four consorts (Elegance, Preciousness, Kindness and Virtue)+Empress or 3 consorts (Elegance, Kindness, Preciousness)+Empress? In this second case, could the Emperor have more than four? That would explain why there was a Consort of Virtue.
And with Li Zhi is even more confusing because we only have Empress Wang and two consorts (Consort Liu of Preciousness who is said to be a former maid to the Empress and Consort Xiao of Elegance). So where is his Consort of Kindness and Consort of Virtue? Since he’s a young ruler, could he assign these roles later on? Especially because in the trailer, when we are talking to Li Tai in jail (my man he did all of it but idc) we are with clothes that are very much like the ones of Consort Xiao, which means at that point we probably eliminated her and became the new Consort of Elegance, becoming Empress Wang’s brand new target. Why didn’t he just gave us one of the available titles (Kindness and Virtue) instead? From what I understood, there seems to be a hierarchy? (Correct me if I’m wrong)
1-Empress
2-Consort of Preciousness (because of the Rear Palace)
3-Elegance (same amount of power but probably more prestigious since our aunt, the former Consort of Elegance became Empress to the former emperor at one point), Kindness and Virtue (because Cairen Yin at the start thinks Consort Yin of Kindness, her cousin, is more powerful than our aunt Consort of Elegance)
So since Empress Wang is well, the Empress, it makes sense she would convince Li Zhi to make her former maid as Consort Liu of Preciousness so she can have control of the Rear Palace through her.
Is it mandatory for the Emperor to have someone to fill these roles at one point? It doesn’t seem to be, since with Li Shimin Consort of Virtue dies, Consort of Kindness dies, Consort of Preciousness dies and our aunt is the only one left as Empress and all the other higher consort titles are available (and Li Shimin didn’t even think about giving one of them to my girly pop Xu Hui, he did NOT deserve her). But then again, Li Shimin was presenting very clear health problems so maybe that’s why the ministers didn’t push it. Since Li Zhi is younger and easier to manipulate, they might do it? What do y’all think?