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Can a female be called an emperor or should she always be refered as empress? All dictionaries make the distinction, but Wizards of the coasts decided to name a female character The Wandering Emperor, and I'd don't understand is it a mistake or is there an explanation that I don't know

Affaltar
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  • There has been a tendency in recent times to drop the use of special feminine forms - authoress and poetess are completely obsolete, and actress and heroine seem to be falling out of use. Presumably this company decided to follow the trend. There is only one emperor left in real life (the Emperor of Japan), so most empresses are fictional or historical. – Kate Bunting Jan 28 '22 at 09:44
  • @KateBunting - the wife of the Emperor of Japan is known as Empress Masako; I think we might be on shaky ground if we started calling princesses or countesses in their own right 'prince', or 'count'. As for marchionesses, let's not go there! – Michael Harvey Jan 28 '22 at 10:58
  • @MichaelHarvey - I wasn't advocating the practice, just trying to suggest why these people might have chosen to do so. – Kate Bunting Jan 28 '22 at 11:14
  • @KateBunting -i think a reasonable answer might be that in the real world, royal titles are decided by tradition or law and not the 'rules' or usages of English (old or new) but on the other hand the creator of a work of fiction or game can call characters whatever they like. – Michael Harvey Jan 28 '22 at 11:33
  • But Wizards are a very PC company lately, trying to go away from the norms of the ancient times and make their characters very inclusive. Also they already have 3 empresses and 1 emperor in the game, so I'm just curious is there a way it could be done as a correct usage or did they just do it wrong because they can – Affaltar Jan 29 '22 at 12:45
  • It's a game. They can do what they like. It could be deliberate, or it could be simply a mistake. The people who create games are not always the greatest scholars, nor are they always native English speakers. In the 'real' world (the one outside of video games), the tradition of calling a female police officer a 'policewoman' may be fading away; that of calling a female empire ruler an 'empress' is more persistent. – Michael Harvey Feb 01 '22 at 12:42

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