Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

House/Faction/PC: Oliver Venora, House Venora, 3rd line.

Wealth: Wealth of the Bellesoir barony in relation to Venoras overall: Very Wealthy
Military Might: Might of the Bellesoir Barony in relation to Venoras overall: Poor
Allies:
Neutral:
Enemies:

Non-Noble House Updates: In Zi'da 717, Oliver threw a charity gala to raise money for orphanages around Rynmere. They raised nearly 13,000gn for orphanages. Aside from that, Oliver is looking to marry Charlotte Warrick and build an alliance there, even though the houses already have a strong affiliation. Also, in Cylus 718, he will be petitioning his parents to abdicate to make him Baron of Bellesoir.

Probably should include the gala in the Gazette.

House/Faction/PC: No house, no faction.

Wealth: N/A
Military Might: N/A
Allies: None yet.
Neutral:
Enemies: None yet though I'm looking forward to make some.

Non-Noble House Updates: New actor in the theatre. She apparently has bounty hunters after her tail for I can only assume is murdering her former master. Woo. Other than that, hope to get into contact with a few nobles to start some nobility network.

House/Faction/PC: Doran

Wealth: N/A
Military Might: N/A
Allies: Vuda/Etzos
Neutral: N/A
Enemies: Xiur

Non-Noble House Updates: On the 45th of Zi'da Doran was appointed ambassador of Etzos. He was tasked with returning to Rynmere. The City of Stones is in need of naval power. Talking to the noble families and procuring technology and equipment and persuading shipwrights to travel to Etzos will be one of Doran's goals for Cylus. He also has a few more personal, secret goals.

House/Faction/PC: Rat

Wealth: N/A
Military Might: N/A
Allies: N/A
Neutral: N/A
Enemies:N/A

Non-Noble House Updates: In Zi'da 717, Rat was involved in the prevention of the assassination of Isadora Venora, an actor at the Rynmere theatre. While he did not catch the assassin, he was tasked by Jane Andaris, owner of the theatre, to help find whoever hired the almost-assassin. Following the conclusion of this personal plot, Rat will have earned his freedom, confronted the person he thought hired the atacker, and began his employment as a free-man and a stagehand at the Rynmere theatre. In Cylus, Rat will be exploring his first true-taste of freedom, as well as begin the lengthy journey of discovering who he was in his past life (see Starter Quest).

House/Faction/PC: Hart, the bastard half-Venora. *_*

Wealth: --
Military Might: --
Allies: --
Neutral: --
Enemies: Everyone?

Non-Noble House Updates: Not much to update (so of course I ended up writing a novel). But, assuming the new mods might not know the old stuff, I'll try to be concise:

In Saun of 717 a subsection of the RCA (just called the Alliance) coopted Hart to murder the king of Rynmere at his wedding. The RCA hate the nobles, true dat, but the Alliance particularly hated them. And so they sent Hart, a half-Venora, to murder the king and cast everything into chaos, hopefully leaving the throne vacated without a regent or an heir.

I think the thought was that if Cassander was killed during the wedding, preferably before the vows were completed so that he died unmarried, there would have been no one to take the throne. The noble houses being what they are, may have resorted to infighting, perhaps causing enough civil upheaval to get rid of the nobles or at least to weaken the nobility once and for all.

Of course, that didn't happen. The thread's still in progress but has stalled a couple of times. I don't think it's that much of a spoiler to say that the king is still alive, haha, which means Hart failed. OOCly, I went into the plot knowing Hart would not be able to kill the king.

However, not knowing the results of the thread I don't know where Hart is right now. Dead? Probably not-- I used him for the global event. Rotting in jail? More probably.

Uh, as for political impact, well... technically Hart is not a noble. I mean, he's half-Venoran, sharing a father with Tristan, but he's never met any of the Venoran half of his family besides Tristan and Atolini. Still, I think the Alliance ended up choosing him because he sort of... complicates things, politically. He looks a lot like Tristan, so after the assassination attempt I believe there was some confusion as to who was trying to kill the king. You know, like rumors that Tristan tried to do it or have it done, etc. That itself could have the potential to weaken the Venora name. I think Jade mentioned these rumors quite briefly in a post she made earlier this season.

So that, coupled with the other shenanigans the Venoras had been getting into up until the "Rynmere resurgence of late 717," means the Venoras are probably in a bit of a dip when it comes to reputation and standing with the other noble houses. Plus with Tristan being the Duke of Oakleigh, and his subjects maybe not liking him all that much yet, and speculation that he was the one who made a bid at the king, uh... maybe the relations with Oakleigh will have suffered too, though I'm not certain about that.

But --and I want to be clear that this part is pure speculation-- I'm just putting it out there that the people of Oakleigh might like Tristan more if they thought he tried to have the king killed. I suspect that at least a portion of the Eastern Settlement (some of the merchant houses, for example) don't much like the Rynmere nobility meddling in their affairs, so. Pluses and minuses all around.

Phew.

Feel free to PM if anything I said confused anyone or if you want any elaboration.

Also, if it's not too much of a burden, I'd like to see the Eastern Settlement (if not the individual regions, then the Settlement as a whole) added to the State of Affairs. Especially since more and more players are settling in over there with plots and stuff. And because, like, I feel like there could be some really cool conflict between Rynmere and the Settlements if someone wanted to go that route.

I mean, I'm just saying that when the Qe'Dreki fled Rynmere after the civil war they sought a haven in the Settlements. So, ya know.

House/Faction/PC: Burhan/Valeria Burhan

Wealth:
Military Might:
Allies: Gawyne, Venora
Neutral:
Enemies: Celeste Andaris? If she decides to revenge herself on Valeria, her whole house could be affected.

Non-Noble House Updates: What's going on with House Burhan as a whole is pretty much a mystery to Valeria because she's never really been involved in the political side of things. That being said, she might single-handedly be forging some important ties and making some serious enemies. She's managed to be the source of quite a few rumours so that she's had to return home.

House/Faction/PC: Andaris / Celeste Andaris
Pre-This Stuffies

• Saun 716:
  • Celeste is engaged to Alistair Venora. This is arranged by her brother Peake who, after arranging it attacks her, rapes her and tries to drown her here.(AF and not a pleasant read, though Peake's writing is awesome). This happens after years of her being "groomed" by first her father and then her brother. In this thread, she believes completely that she is in love with him.
  • Celeste and Alistair are due to be married, but it is cancelled
• Cylus 717:
  • Xander goes to the Masquerade Ball and is in the room when Fridgar throws a door at the king. During that, and because of his part in it, he is invited to a dinner with the king - the idea at the time was that he and Celeste would go as a newly engaged couple (see below) - this was a promised moderated thread, but didn't happen.
  • Having been publically dumped by Alistair (agreed ooc due to change of his player's plans), Celeste goes to Krome to meet Xander Krome. She believes that she is going there to sweeten trade relationships between the two houses. When she gets there, Celeste finds that she's engaged to Xander - she is to stay there with him for winter here.
  • Two nights later, they have a formal dinner with his parents here where Xander tells her that he's hiring her a servant just for her (this becomes important later) and his father (the Baron) calls her a whore, but seems rather interested in her. Xander stands up for her and gets her out of there. Xander takes her to her room and bids her goodnight. Jersey Krome (his father, the Baron) meets him in the corridor and beats Xander
• Ashan 717:
  • The morning after hearing the fight between Xander and his father, Celeste goes to his room and helps him with the bruises. They begin to actually like each other here and they decide to go for a walk together in the snow to the town of Krome. As they leave, Xander sees his father watching Celeste and she recognises it, too here.
  • Whilst in the town, Xander is in a shop and Celeste is waiting outside for him when she is attacked here - this is the first of a series of attacks that was going to be part of a moderated plot. I don't know exactly what it was, but it never happened.
  • They send a letter to Cassander, Emerson Sands and all the Ducal Council stating that they will be asking guests to give money instead of gifts and instead of the money they would have spent on new clothes at their wedding, there will be no food provided - instead, they will donate all monies and monetary gifts to 14 charities - two from each duchy. They urge Cassander and Emerson to do the same. The response was due to be followed up by mods and we were promised we'd get a response.
  • Then, as part of the seasonal calendar, there was a fever outbreak in Krome. Xander and Celeste go to help out in a food kitchen, bringing along food here. Celeste sees a little girl who is orphaned and for whatever reason the little girl will speak to her. Celeste adopts this child as her own (Ala'ni). She was due to be part of the attacks plot, but I don't know what.
  • Celeste then goes to the soup kitchen every other trial.
  • Celeste and Xander have an engagement party. She is stabbed by Rafael Warrick straight after here.
  • Celeste then gets the fever which has been plaguing Krome. She nearly dies and Xander stays with her. here. The doctor tells Xander that Celeste has been hit particularly hard and is weakened. The reality is that she is being poisoned, slowly, by her servant / handmaiden, Gwen. This storyline has left her with compromised lungs. It gets to the point that she's dying and Xander gets into bed with her and tells her not to die. After three nights of him being with her constantly (so Gwen not being able to poison her with the "medicine") - Celeste starts to recover.
  • Andraska visits her in Krome and she tells him it was Rafael who stabbed her whilst she is recovering here
  • Then, Gwen, her handmaiden, tries to kill her. Celeste fights back and screams for Xander. He bursts in and saves her here. He also pockets the poison she was fed. This was supposed to be followed up by a moderated thread - this never happened.
  • Then Celeste gets made Baroness by her grandfather. However, the main thrust of this thread is that Xander comes home to find that his father has read the letter to Celeste from her grandfather and when he (Xander's father) went to deliver it, he tried to rape Celeste. Celeste fights him and one of Xander's guards pulls Jersey Krome off her. Xander gets home, the guard is there, at the door and Celeste is in her room - bruised from the assault. Xander swears vengeance and Celeste finally tells him about what her brother did. They discuss how they will make it so that Xander can kill his father and they hatch a plot. They leave for Astedia that night.
  • Xander tries to kill his father (this was a moderated thread with Bumblebee) - his father turns out to have a "ring of reversal".
  • Xander comes to the Inn where Celeste is being his alibi here. They discuss it and come up with a plot. Xander will take the evidence of the attempted rape and will speak to Andraska about it. This was supposed to be a moderated plot, but never happened. The plot was that the King was going to get involved and cover up what Jersey had done since an uprising between Andaris / Krome would be a bad thing and also, since he didn't want the bad publicity.
  • Jersey Krome holds himself up and starts torturing the servants to find out who tried to kill him - as per the Rynmere Gazette here. That also identifies rumours abot Celeste's relationship with Andraska.
• Ymiden, 717
  • At the end of Ymiden, Celeste finds out that she's pregnant.
• Saun 717:
  • Got married 1st Saun - as per the details of the letter we sent. Were due to have a moderated plot with Pythera Venora afterwards and a follow up with the king.
  • Went to the king's wedding and then to the trial.
• Vhalar 717
  • Had moderated thread with Djinn where Thomas (Celeste's grandfather) meets Xander and they discuss them becoming Duke / Duchess. That's completed.
  • Celeste visits an orphanage and donates gifts and money. here as well as dealing with the question of anti-nobility sentiment a little. It's all part of the anti-mage agenda.
• Zi'da 717:
  • Celeste meets with Tristan Venora to arrange trade and political alliance.
  • They both attend the Venora charity gala and donate 2,000gn between them.
  • They are currently in a thread with Djinn who is moderating Xander, Celeste and Andraska meeting the Ducal council and getting initiated in there.

Wealth: Andaris is a very wealthy house - Celeste has secured trade agreements with Tristan and Andraska and focused the Barony on the production of paper, books, medicine and luxury goods.
Military Might: The military might of Andaris is something that I've never been clear about - would appreciate some modly input?
Allies: Andraska Venora, Tristan Venora, Velaine Krome.
Neutral:
Enemies:

Non-Noble House Updates:
Celeste is due to give birth (and is going to!) on the 1st Cylus.

So: things that are really outstanding for this pc and things that I'd like to have some plot closure on:
1. Why all the attacks on Celeste plot? Three now... there was a reason. I dunno!
2. What's happening with Xander's father!?
3. We were due to meet the king a number of times - I'd kind of like to know where our relationship with him is.

Thanks!

House/Faction/PC: Nathaniel Endor of House Endor

Wealth: Very Wealthy
Military Might: Average
Allies: House Krome, House Gawyne
Neutral: House Venora, House Andaris, House Warrick
Enemies: House Burhan (I suspect this is become of House Endor's loyalty to the crown and Burhan's ties to the rebellion. Venora might be viewed the same way; however, the gala may have changed their views a bit?)
Timeline:

• Vhalar 717:
  • Caius and Nathaniel reunite for some pleasantries. They discuss some mining things which become important in Zi'da.
  • Velaine and Nathaniel meet. Their parents, mostly the mothers, had previously planned a potential betrothal. Velaine and Nathaniel join in the negotiations and agree to be wed. An alliance is made contingent on the marriage.
  • A portion of the Endor mines has become plagued by a mysterious hallucinogenic worm. Nathaniel begins investigation as multiple Andaris criminals have died.
  Zi'da 717:
  • Nathaniel meets with Professor Maynard Straylor as part of his investigation into the Endor Worms. (Active)
  • Alongside many other nobles, Nathaniel shmoozes with the high class at the Venoran gala. He encounters Valeria Burhan, Caius Gawyne, Darcyanna Venora, and Oliver Venora.
  • While at the gala, Nathaniel gifts Caius 1500 GN to start his own business. In return, Nathaniel received a prestigious mining architect from House Gawyne.
  • Nathaniel makes a donation on behalf of Velaine and himself for 1000 GN.
  • Fun things happen along the way at the Soiree.
  • A slave instigates a coup at the mines. Nathaniel helps put down the fight and proceeds to interrogate one of the offenders. (Active; may effect how his relationship with House Andaris and House Warrick in the future.)
  • Placeholders are actively being placed for other plots to include: Another donation by Nate to the miner's widow, more fun things with Velaine, and potential negotiations with House Venora (need to ask Andraska).

Non-Noble House Updates: Maybe there is a little backlash from Andaris commoners if the miners deaths were to get out. Given that they are men that have been sent to complete manual labor for their crimes, they would potentially question the system. Not many of those transferred to Endor were given life sentences and were expected to return home. Otherwise, just keeping our nose down, supplying the iron, and having a bit of fun on the side.

House/Faction/PC: House Krome/Velaine Krome

Wealth: Recovering, maybe? After the rebellion apparently Krome went broke and went into debt - though I am not sure how big. The house is forced to buy food stuffs from Venoras too since relationship isn't all that good with the Warricks? However, with Velaine's betrothal with Nathaniel Endor, House Endor to help pay off Krome's debts and provide the nel for buying food.
Military Might: Krome is a militaristic house, so even the people of the land are mostly trained in combat. They also have the Riders of Krome who are loyal to the duchy.
Allies:

• Andaris - Xander's marriage to Celeste seals these two houses alliances for now. Relationships are good.
• Endor - Alliances are solidified through the betrothal of Velaine and Nathaniel.
• Venora - Probably? Since the house is the one to provide Krome with food allow them to borrow money?

Neutral: ??
Enemies: ??

Non-Noble House Updates: Krome's land has been plagued with illegal fighting pits for a couple of seasons now. Velaine had started investigations since Vhalar, with the end game of obliterating all of them. These investigations probably attracted the attention of the slavers in charge of the pits, so Velaine basically ran to Endor to escape the heat for a little while. Will probably come back soon to finish things though. Hopefully it can be wrapped up in Cylus?

She plans to use this mission as a way to show off her capabilities to the duke, her people, and her father's advisors, to convince them to retire Jersey Krome early. Especially considering that he had gone a bit mad after the attempt on his life. She has also been making sure that his paranoia never truly fades away, thus not allowing him to get better (will work on that solos). If her parents were out of the way, she'll be first-in-line and aiming for the ducal seat.

Oh! This noble lady also happens to be a mage, but she's trying to lay low for now. Sort of. Want that anti-mage plots!