You Win or You Die - An ASoIaF AU (Casual-Advanced RP)

[Toska]

OOC
IC not started

"A cold Iron Throne,
Holds a boy barely grown,
A crown laced in lies,
You win or you die."

In the land of Westeros the Mad King Aerys Targaryen was relieved of his rule by his Small Counsel and by his son, King Rhaegar Targaryen. Through this action the Seven Kingdoms were able to avoid Robert's Rebellion and the events that followed it. Westeros existed in relative peace through Rhaegar's reign and through that of his son, Aegon VI Targaryen.

However, several generations have now passed and a king barely into manhood sits on the Iron throne. Inflamed by lust, and against the advise of his Counsel and his Hand, he steals the wife of a young Dornish Lord for himself. Now the Seven Kingdoms teeter once more on the brink of war as the Dornish Lord marshals forces to reclaim his bride, and schemers in the Seven Kingdoms try to use the situation to their advantage.

**********


Maester Tywin's Rookery - Storm's End - The Stormlands

Dark wings, Dark Words. In the past month Maester Tywin had received more ravens then he had in his entire time working for Lord Edric Baratheon of Storm's End, and with each one his heart dropped a little more into his stomach. The first raven had come from The Citadel at Oldtown, bearing the long awaited news that winter had finally come to an end. This news had been fowled before it could even reach Lord Edric's ears when a second raven had arrived in his rookery, this one came from Kings Landing. King Aenys II Targaryen had not survived to see the Spring.

Maester Tywin had met the new King, Daeron II Targaryen, once when his father had come to Storm's End. At the time he had just turned thirteen, and his behavior had not impressed the Maester or The Lord of Storm's End. Just three years later and the pretentious, entitled boy sat on the Iron Throne as the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. Tywin said nothing, it wasn't his place, but he could see this going very, very badly.

As it turned out, he had been right to worry. King Daeron's first act had been to make a tour of his Kingdom and receive his oaths of fealty in person form his Lords. For whatever reason he had decided to start in Dorne, and had arrived in time to attend the wedding of the young Heir of House Uller to Nymella of House Wyl of the Boneway. Some rumors claimed that Nymella had fallen madly for the young King, others claimed that the King had been inflamed with lust by Nymella's beauty and decided to exercise his Kings Right.

Either way he had seen the results personally. The King and his Kingsguard had come rushing down the Boneway, the stolen bride in tow. They had stopped at Storm's End only long enough to command Lord Edric to call his banners and hold the Boneway against any Dornish that would dare pursue him.

They hadn't weeks had passed, and ravens had come and gone. Most were from Lord Edric's bannermen, a few were from the King demanding Lord Edric's oath of fealty and trying to direct his forces. Today though a raven had come from the south. It brought with it two letters, identical in content. One was stamped with the seal of House Uller. The second was stamped with the seal of House Martell and bearing the signature of Prince Symon Martell's heir, a close friend of Gerold Uller. Both letters were addressed to Lord Edric personally, and both appealed to The Storm Lord to either join them in seeking justice or to grant them passage through the Stormlands unhindered. In return they promised to leave the people of the Stormlands unharassed.

Maester Tywin could only mutter darkly to himself as he descended the stairs of the rookery. Defying the Iron Throne would surely garner consequences that these young lords hadn't considered, but a war with Dorne would take a terrible toll on the Stormlands if the other Great Houses didn't answer their call... and why should they, the Dragon King had incited this rebellion before even securing oaths of fealty from the Great Houses.

He could only hope that wiser men than him would steer the seven kingdoms toward a safe future.

**********

General Information

-This will be an Individual RP. Players will be playing single characters, not factions or nations. However if you are confident in your abilities you can play up to three characters, provided each character is accepted on individual merit.

-This is an Advanced RP, I expect creativity and effort. Spelling and grammar are important, but you will not be penalized unless it makes your writing overly difficult to read.

-Politeness OOC is a must. You don't have to be friends with anyone, but don't be and ass. (You can be as much of an as IC as you feel is appropriate for the story)

-There will be no official character sheet. To submit a character you will write an introductory post that introduces the character. We are maxing out at six players (excluding myself) or ten characters, if we hit that number then players will be chosen on the merit of their introductions.
- You are free to include a traditional character sheet if you so choose.

-We will start IC once we have four accepted characters.

-If you have any questions I would love to hear them, especially if they help to refine the mythos we will be working in. Please ask them in the OOC so other players can see my answers and give their positions.

[Toska]

I'm going to go ahead and bump this.

[Toska]

The plot will depend heavily on what directions the players want to take it. Mostly who they choose to play, whether it be The Dornish or Kingslanders or some mix of the two.

The backbone is meant to be the story of a rebellion of the Dornish and their allies, based loosely on the mythos of the Trojan war.

To get me started, were you more interested in an individual RP or a nation RP and who were you interested in playing?

[Lord Magroth]

So, high/low-fantasy?

[Toska]

That is a difficult question to answer straight up. It takes place in a completely different world where magic is possible, so based on the technical definition it would be high fantasy. However I am a fan of how it is expressed in this passage "If high fantasy is The Lord of the Rings, low fantasy is Conan. High fantasy is ‘shiny’ and over-the-top and often though not always optimistic; low fantasy is about low tech settings where life is short." from this article. Based on this definition it would be low-fantasy. I would like to do a game where the focus is realistic people in difficult situations, a dark-fatasy if you will.

I may be in the minority, but for some reason I like stories where good men die the same as bad men and life breaks heros.

[Toska]

Between what I have seen here and at the other threads I feel safe making an PIC w/ more in depth info. Would those of you who are interested prefer it on the Casual or Advanced thread? (I lean toward Advanced)

[Rtron]

I may be in the minority, but for some reason I like stories where good men die the same as bad men and life breaks heros.

If you're in the minority, I'm in the minority with you!

I personally do not care which section it is in. I'll follow this to either.

[Toska]

I have created our OOC and posted it at the top of the thread.

[Toska]

Bumping this. We need four accepted characters before we begin.

[Toska]

I'm going to bump this one last time. We should be starting the IC soon, and I want to give anyone else who is interested a chance to get in at the beginning. After the IC starts the RP will stay open to characters who show merit, but these interest checks will be retired and we will rely on word of mouth.