Why Egyptian Pharaohs? They are no longer in influence ever since Caesar days.
I would think they would find someone from the Japanese Monarchy since they would the oldest still in power.
Lol, I worked with
@anon_user and
@AKuz on narrowing down a 'royal' line and the Japanese Monarchy was actually what I had in the first draft -- hence, Riko.
My thinking was the Bajorans are operating on a concept that caste is passed from the earliest progenitor of that caste to the last descendant, and is divinely ordained. So their Divine XenoSorters are looking for monarchies that derived their authority from divine descent, revelation, or appointment, as this matches their experience with the prophets. They'll look at if this authority seemed to come spontaneously or with the blessings of the gods, or if these Divine Rulers were lower castes posing as their higher caste better. Once they find a 'root' bloodline, they'll follow it forward. Apparently to Bajorans most Europeans monarchies aside from the Romanovs are disqualified. Hence why 'oldest Dynasty' we could find -- the closer to the source, the less likely the Bajorans are to disagree.
Aside from the Japanese, we looked at making Riko a descendant of the Incan Empire, as they spring from a mythical figure and derived legitimacy from the Gods, and also Genghis Khan. I decided though that the Bajorans thought Genghis was a warrior who posed as a ruler, hence why his empire quickly shattered.
However, I felt there were some cultural sensitivities around using Imperial Japanese family, since they're around and all. In addition I really wanted Riko to be unaware of her heritage, so that would suggest either:
A ) in 300 years the Japanese Monarchy has faded so much it's not longer extant; its descendants either don't know or view the relation as a curious footnote
B ) The visible members all died in the Eugenics Wars/World War III/The Post-Atomic Horror
The Egyptians worked well in the end because they're suitably ancient and thus prime 'root' ruler caste; they derived their authority from the gods; and due to the muddy history of the era it's harder for the Bajorans to find a specific thing to object to. Also, it's just funny -- "you're the last of the Egyptian Pharohs" to someone with a Japanese-South African name in the middle of a desert in Chile. And unlikely to offend anyone, unless we've got some serious Ancient Egyptian Monarchy Restoration people around here.
I had another alternate or complimentary concept of how the Bajorans would have identified ruling clans -- in addition to some bloodline and historical examination, they'd look strongly at alien families who were in power or just coming to power when the Bajorans themselves instituted the caste system, viewing that as the Divine will of the prophets extending across space. Or maybe tied to an orb appearance. I thought that was getting a little too into the weeds on Bajoran history speculation to put in though.
