The death of an Emperator (intrigue/nation/diplomacy roleplay)

[frapet]

Welcome to a roleplay of Kings and Queens, emissaries and diplomats, wars and destruction, and one Emperator.

Welcome to the world of Erde. A medieval period fantasy world in which magic exist but is shunned and even persecuted, where monsters exist but are so rarely seen they have gone to myth. A world of an uneasy peace between the realms of Men. A hostile ceasefire between Men and Dwarf and an open guerrilla between the Elves and anyone else. Raids from the Northern Satyr while the last of the woodland Satyr are being hunted down. A world of the Anderian League, who’s Emperator just died…

I plan on making this a roleplay in which each of the players is a representative of one of the provinces within the Anderian League. They all have been called to the Capitol in the wake of the Emperators death by decree of the twelve-year-old successor to be. In the meanwhile his uncle, the former Emperator’s brother is taking the Kings place as head of the ruling council of three (The Leader of the Church, The Protector of the realm and thus now Regent) until the boy comes of age.

For that reason I will leave big parts of the ‘lore’ unfilled so that every player can freely create his own region. After some show of interest I’ll get a character and nation sheet up.
For now: Some ‘fictions’ about our world.

Magic

Magic exists, though for the general populace it is shrouded in mystery and therefore mistrusted, persecuted and (By the church) actively purged. Not everyone can practice magic for it is dependent on genetics. Rumors say that these mages are of elven (or Elder) blood, while others say they are possessed by demons. General conception is that it is an affliction as mages see things others do not. Ranging from odd colours in the air, to creatures of folklore.
Magic is not something innate however, it can only be triggered by what scolars refer to as ‘the scripture’. The scripture is a set of symbols (sigils) in endless variations that have the ability to create energy from the elemental conduit. These conduits are Silver for water, Jade for air, bronze for the earth, Gold for fire, and most controversial; Blood for life. What this means is that most mages are smiths or carvers of these substances and create sigils to harness the power of certain elements. All of them have tattooed themselves in order to channel the magics from the sigil. Using this kind of magic consumes the sigils made out of the elemental conduits transferring it shortly into the tattoos of the mages, than releasing it to do its desired effect. Because of all this magic is costly, rare and very hard to master. Only a handful of them exist.

Religion in the League

In the Anderian League the primary religion is that of Chamonism, or the Church of the Sacred Chalice. The belief is that the One True Creator was murdered by his helpers: the Daemons in a war that ensued after the creation of the Elves. Humans believe they are the chosen race of the One True Creator and that when the Daemons made the Elves they upset the balance of the world. A war ensued between the True Creator and the Deamons who created the Elves which resulted in a war that wrecked the world into the state of today. Let the horrible monsters of folkore loose and eventually ended with the killing of the True Creator. The religion says that he sacrificed himself in order to end the war that would destroy the world. Instructing his most loyal Daemon; Chamon use his blood to bind the world, for with his death all would end. Chamon saw his master make the ultimate sacrifice and caught his blood, some say in a chalice, others say with his hands folded open and planted his blood at the core of the Erde. Believers think that by living a pure life, as the True Creator intended, their blood gets added to that of the One True Creator, eventually bringing him back to live. With this they are strongly racist and view any other sentient race as abominations (though they believe that non-humans can atone by aiding human society). They have a strong influx of blood rituals that are surprisingly effective in healing and strengthening their followers and a vivid hate for magic of any kind (though scholars think their own rituals are actually part of the taboo blood magic). They bury their dead without a coffin, only in a white cloth with the wrists cut to let the blood seep to the True Creator. Nowadays different sects have risen, proclaiming the main Church to tolerant of the abomination races and speaking of corruption by Dwarven money. The priests from this religion have always come from only a select group of families who are said to poses ‘pure blood’ and can perform the rites. Due to their obsession with pure blood these families have married into eachothers lines for years now.

Elves

The true Elves of this world are very rare and mostly city based. Most of the elder blood however has mingled with humans, breeding the often discriminated halfbloods. True Elves all have the genetics for magic, and amongst the halfbloods there is an above average number as well. Due to the lack of magical training in this world many of those who have the ‘gift’ fall into substance abuse to cope with the different sight and their place in society. Elves are often hard to distinguish from humans, they have only slightly more pointy ears and are often taller but all within human range. The real distinstinctive factor is that Elven males have no nipples and females lack bodily hair apart from their head. Rumours speak of hidden Elven cities but only ruins have been encountered.

Satyr

Speaking of those ruins, often they are now inhabited by the Satyr. Half goat, half, humans say, elf creatures that come in two variants. There are the woodland Satyr that life in small nomadic communities. Most practice different forms of shamanism and have a tense relationship with humans. While some trade pelts and other woodland products most often they raid trade routes. They lack real metalworkers of their own and have a high reference for nature.
In the far north there are the tundra satyr. They live in a warlike tribal society that has a high reference for silver. Every few decades they declare a high warlord and seek to plunder the northern realms. Reports are there is another on the rise right now.

Dwarves

Dwarves are the most recent victim of human expansion. Living in major holds in and surrounding mountains they had monopolized the trade in basically all things mined. Cracking down hard with embargos on those who dared break their monopoly. From that position they became influential bankers and traders, with neigh every big city having a Dwarven district where most trade took place. Due to this reason they are often resented by the inhabitants of the cities. A good 70 years back the Dwarven monopoly was broken by the occupation of the mining hold ‘Gan Arzon’. It was captured by the primary rival of the Anderian League: The Roccan Empire. Due to the trickery involved (an epidemic was purposefully spread within the hold, so say the Dwarves) trade with the Dwarves has been strenuous at best, though recently things are slowly coming around. What does not help is that the economic misery of the cities often is vented on the Dwarven district and populace. The Dwarves were the first to discover the use of magic through ‘Sigils’ and tattooing

Geography discription

The Anderian League has the Roccan Empire to its west. It is an Empire build on an even more dogmatic stream of the Chamonistic religion. They actively seek to destroy all non-human sentient and magical ‘beasts’. The head of the Church is the head of State, and it’s army is comprised of religious zealots that have almost ‘inhuman’ strength. Though both nations are of similar religion the schism has been used in the past to warrant small border wars over disputed lands.
on its Northwest lies the Ice Sea with the Satyr ruled Tundra beyond from which raids are often staged.
Closer to the Northeast lies a mountainous region with the small Kingdom of Luan, A nation that affiliates strongly with Wind-magic and whose royal family is deemed sacred. They field some of the best archers but have never showed any expansionistic tendencies, making sure their mountain passes stay protected from invaders and wildlife. Prime threat for them are the Nomadic Tengi people that roam the steppes to the east of the Anderian League. A people that have often waged war with the League and Luan. They have somehow managed to domesticate a breed of giant black wolves upon which they ride to war and hunts.The Tengi also stage raids on the City States that lie to the south of the Anderian League that control the most ports on the Grey Sea. They often hire mercenary armies to keep the Tengi away, or fight wars between each other or even with the Roccan Empire and the League.
Dwarven Holds dot the landscape and they heavily fortify the surrounding hills so that their above grounds holdings are safe. Since the fall of Gan Arzon the Dwarves have enstated strict border checks for any people or goods to enter their Holds giving them a sense of hostility that hasn’t been felt since the great wars of 150 years ago.

The Anderian League

The Anderian League:
Because the composition is made up by you guys I’ll leave it largely blank, but (subject to change through your ideas as well) I think it would be good to say that the League has been in existence for about 200 years. First forming a trade agreement and commitment to keep the roads safe. Maybe even to combat an external threat like the Satyr, Tengi, or a Kingdom that is now a part of the league (might be your realm?). In the Years after its formation the Role of Imperator slowly cemented as a more ruling and centralized function, rather than a head of the army (which I would imagine it to be at first). In those same years the League slowly grew by conquest, marriages, intrigue, diplomacy etc. The country is ruled by the Council of Three, as previously described, They take care of day to day rule. For some things the Council of Three has to confer with the General Council, an assembly of two Ambassadors of each realm. Their function is minimal as the Ruling council takes up 3 seats and the Capitol takes up another 3, together with 1 vote from the Emperator. Skewing almost all votes in favour of the Council of Three. Requests to individual realms that go above the standing agreements of taxes, levies etc. are often handled through the same ambassadors, but generally they only carry messages in this. In the wake of his father’s death the new Boy-Emperor has called the Assembly of Iron, a council to which each Realm may send a representative that will have a function in a temporarily enlarged Council of Three. This is a rare happening that is a relic from the early days of the League. After those days it has only been invoked twice:
-During the ‘Year of disaster’ when the League was simultaneously met by one of the largest Satyr invasions to date, A Tengi Horde harassing their eastern border and the Kingdom of Luan seized the chance to take back a province they had lost.
-after the death of Emperor Carren van Dyk. Who died childless (after which the Vandenbrechts got to power).

As for our major players:

The Emperator-in-wait: Alexander Vandenbrecht.
A boy of twelve. Already the strong noble features of the line of Emperators can be seen on his face. A face that looks good on coins. He also rumoured to be an excellent duellist for his age and quite a headstrong boy.
Regent of the League: Derk Vandenbrecht, brother of the former Emperator, Uncle to the one in wait.
Derk was always close to his brother and served as one of his closest advisers for many years. He served as protector of the realm in his prime. That time has given him the reputation of a ruthless pragmatist who gets a job done no matter the costs. Others depict him as ruthless and cruel, but few doubt his efficiency of dealing with the revolts of his time and the threats of the Satyr or Tengi. Since his time as protector he has grown fat and complacent, but many say he still has his edge when it comes to politics.

Head of the Church: Aranyr the Third.
Named after Aranyr the first, his predecessor that converted much of the Anderanian League to Chamonism a good 4 generations ago through the use of the church militia: The Brothers of the Pure Blood. He is a dogmatist, that some say is a pawn of the Roccan Empire. Those who met him however would hardly describe him as anyone’s pawn. He is unbendable in his faith, Loathes non-humans and ever preaches war against the non-believers. Now he is pressing for an expansion of the Brothers of the Pure Blood. They have always been recruited only from the select few families that usually deliver priests but Aranyr wants to expand this small temple guard.

The Protector of the Realm: Adelmar Thrant
Hailing from the family that often provide the commander of the city watch of the capitol Adelmar has moved from that position to that of Protector after the Red insurrection (a revolt by a chamonistic sect that laid waste to several non-human districts and made for the capitol thereafter). He is often acclaimed as an honourable man who, while leading being the supreme stratagist of the League has a preference for non-violent solutions. A virtue to many that some have used to stress a rumor that he is more into the love of other men rather than women.

More characters will be introduced as the game progresses, most importantly YOURS!
But before we get to that, lets check if there is some interest. I hope that if you have read this far you are actually interested and if so, let me know. If not let me know as well!
Post a comment below.

[frapet]

I'll bump it once! And if you'd also be so kind as to what is putting you off about this roleplay? It is a learning process for me as well, so feel free to give some criticism!

(is it too much info?)

[Raunchel]

I wouldn't know why people aren't interested. It looks very interesting to me, and if you would still want to run it, I would certainly make a character to join in.

[frapet]

@Raunchel Cool thanks, lets see if we get more people to join!