Historically Speaking Part 2: Living to serve
Last week I promised to share my research and inspiration. Continuing in that promise I will try to answer all of your questions regarding servants in Naquin. What servants come to your mind when you think of a castle? Perhaps you thought of a cook or baker, maybe stablehands or scribes came to your mind or perhaps a Lady-in-waiting.
In Ballads of the Unseen: Song of Awakening (SoA) Miharena introduces herself simply as a servant to the Lady Elena. Miharena is a conglomeration of a few different servants combined into one person. Most of her responsibilities can be encompassed in the term Lady-in-Waiting. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary a Lady-in-Waiting is defined as "a lady of a queen's or a princess's household appointed to wait on her" Truthfully in our world the term was not used until 1860. Also Lady Elena is not a princess nor a queen however she does have Miharena to satisfy her every need. Many times it is seen in literature and movies that nobles seldom dress themselves instead their servants dress them. Typically this is shown to be the ladies-in-waiting.
Another aspect of Miharena's servitude is as a friend. Very often noble children would be lonely so a playmate would be sought who was roughly the same age. Later however if the noble did any wrong it was their friend who was punished. In our history we had Whipping boys which according to Merriam Webster is "a boy formerly educated with a prince and punished in his stead." this may seem to be a cruel idea but the background has some merit. Part of the idea was the noble would not want to see their friend punished and would therefore try to be on their best behavior. I'm not saying it always worked but many kings from our world have richly rewarded their whipping boys once they are kings. In Earth's history there is no mention of the practce being used on females however in my mind I saw no reason why the same logic could not apply. While little of Miharena's childhood is mentioned in SoA she does mention that since she was only a month older than Lady Elena she was chosen as friend and playmate.
Thirdly Miharena is a guardian or "someone or something that watches or protects something" according to Merriam-Webster she ha been taught how to defend her lady with daggers. Daggers are easily conceled and less conspicuous in the hands of a woman.
As a servant raised alongside Lady Elena she is loyal to Elena and does not want to see her disgraced... a problem which leads to more trouble.