The King is Dead, Long Live the King! [REBOOT]

[Ryuzaki]

The king is dead, long live the king!

@Flynn

There once was a grand Kingdom by the name of Emperiat. This land was ruled by the beloved king Andèris. He ruled with justice and cared for his subjects. While he was beloved by most, every powerful man has enemies. King Andèris was no different in that and at one point, he was no more. Stabbed in the back by his most trusted adviser, who betrayed his friend and liege for some petty baubles and trinkets.
Luck would have it that the king had a healthy son by the name of Elendin and he was quickly appointed as successor. What many failed to realize was that an eleven year old is not really fit to rule a kingdom. Thus an old tradition was brought back from the books. The grand provinces would each send an adviser who would help and train this new king into managing the great kingdom of Emperiat.

But who was to say these advisers were trustworthy?

---

Welcome to The king is dead, long live the king!
This RP will be a nation RP by sort, but with the focus on one character instead of the nation as a whole. You players will be taking the role of the adviser and are send as an ambassador by a province that you yourself create. When creating your nation/province you must think of plenty of things. But we'll get to that later.

What makes this RP special (in my opinion) is that a lot of the RP will be done by PM's (me as third wheel watching those PM's of course). To an extend at least. You see... The court of a grand king isn't nice, and every adviser wants to influence the king into favoring his/her province. There will be alliances, rivalries, backstabbing, bribes, plots and much more behind the back of the wee king. Of course there will also be external threats and stuff that will be happening to the land, and the advise that the players give to the king, one way or another, will influence what happens to the grand Kingdom of Emperiat. Maybe your province breaks the chains and becomes an independent state? It's all up to you!

To elaborate on the 'a lot of the RP will be done by PM's'. I want to make you feel like you don't know everything. When player A and player B make a 'secret' alliance to... say... impose heavy laws on the province of player C, but that meeting was just posted in the IC thread... Yeah, not so secret anymore then. And yes, you can 'play' that player C doesn't know it, but he still has it in the back of his head. Like I said: Give you the feeling that you don't know everything. Of course, when Player A and Player B send a PM to each other, I will receive a copy of this PM as to make sure it is done neat and nicely (as far as that goes with intrigue).

Of course there will be two character sheets. One for your personal character and one for the nation/province you create. Here is a simple template of what that might look like. If you want to spice your character/nation up some more with some extra bits and bops, be my guest.

Character Sheet

Name:
Age:
Appearance:
Known for:
Dirty little secret: (Doesn't have to be public)
Skills: (smooth talker or stealthy assassin?)
Motto:

Nation Sheet

Name of the Province:
Name of your liege:
Position: (I will be making a map in the near future)
Specialty: (What is your province good at? Does it deliver the strongest soldiers? Or is it the home to the best scholars? Maybe it is the supplier of food for the entire kingdom? Who knows!?)
History: (A short history of the province and it's relation to the previous king)

Oh, one last thing. Character can die. Now this does not mean you're out per se. Your province will send a new ambassador, but you'll have to restart all your little alliances and stuff like that. This doesn't mean that you can go on a freakin murder spree. If you're going to do that, I'm gonna send the guards to get your ass.

PS: The only race is human. Maybe far away on this world there are other races, but where you will be, there are only humans.

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Now, for some ground rules. I'm not a strict GM, but there are a couple of things that still need to be said:

- Since this is a Casual RP, I expect at least a couple (2-3) paragraphs per post. In PM posts this is different of course.

- If you send a PM post to somebody, do add me as receiver too. I need to keep a check on things after all.

- Most important: Have fun.

- If you have questions or don't feel comfortable with something, let me know. I'm a benevolent GM after all.

- First PM me your nation and character. After my clearance you can throw it in the Character tab.

[Ryuzaki]

Edited out a section as it did not reflect my views. This was taken directly from the original OP by Flynn.

[The Narrator]

Saran of Jalehm

Name: Saran of Jalehm
Age: 32
Appearance: A pale man, with a blonde beard woven into a braid and a shaven head. He is quite muscular and tall.
Known for: The Victory in the battle of Suns Peak and his work as the High Inquisitor of Kumur
Dirty little secret: While the High Inquisitor Saran had his own brother executed for heresy of the highest order.
Skills: A more than capable fighter, Saran is quite good with the bow, his fists and a spear. He is also a persuasive talker and especially the peasants fall victim to his authority when preaching.
Motto: "To the Lord of the heavens even the highest king looks like the lowest peasant."

Kumur

Name of the Province: Kumur
Name of your liege: His Holiness Regent Alfalfa Zun
Position: North East, in the mountainous Region
Specialty: Kumur is known for many things. For one its fierce soldiers, its rich culture and the fine craftsmanship. But the whole kingdom came to know its faith. All over Emperiat are temples for Zunit, the sky dwelling God worshiped in Kumur. While worship is different in every region, all followers respect the authority of the Kumur monks.
History: Kumur is a harsh land and well protected by the natural barriers of its mountains. Countless times foreign forces tried to conquer the region but they all failed. Until one King of Emperiat tried something different. He promised the leading caste of monks sovereignty to practice and spread their religion in all of his lands. All the monks had to do was submit them under his rule.
Kumur became a part of Emperiat, while the Church of Zunit is a independent entity within the kingdom, controlled from the top of the mountain Suns Peak.

[Ryuzaki]

Bump

[Kaalee]

Dominique Babineaux

Name: Dominique Babineaux
Age:26
Appearance:

A picture if that helps you

Dominique is a plain woman, with blond hair that curls uncontrollably, eyes that are a bit too narrow and a bit to far apart that causes a nose to be a bit wide for the rest of her face. Her lips are thin, but she likes the shape of her face. She's of average height and curves where she feels she needs to curve.
Known for: Her acclaimed garden, in which it's said every type of flower can be found, unless of course it's down her sister's throat.
Dirty little secret: She killed her father, by poisoning his soup every night, her uncle, by injecting a deadly concoction of herbs into his bloodstream, and her sister by shoving flowers down her throat until she suffocated.
Skills: Botany, she can identify any flower all it's properties.
Motto: Every flower must grow through the dirt

Linacre

Name of the Province: Linacre
Name of your liege: Damien de la Roche
Position: It's in the middle of the country, but very far north.
Specialty: They are a swampy land, with many lakes and rivers and provide water/ice to many of the other kingdoms, in addition to dominating the seafood market.
History: Linacre was always a quiet country, they weren't powerful, but they had friends enough to keep them protected. Until about thirty years ago when Jean-Paul Babineaux went to the capitol to 'make his country great' and while he did for a little bit, he went a bit too far, tried to assassinate the wrong person at the wrong time using the wrong instrument. He was almost sentenced to death, but was saved by his brother at the last moment. He was exiled to his home country and Linacre fell from grace. It's now barely making it by, though tensions decreased with other nations when Jean-Paul Babineaux and his brother were both found dead in their homes within days of each other.

[Ryuzaki]

Dominique Babineaux

Name: Dominique Babineaux
Age:26
Appearance:

A picture if that helps you

Dominique is a plain woman, with blond hair that curls uncontrollably, eyes that are a bit too narrow and a bit to far apart that causes a nose to be a bit wide for the rest of her face. Her lips are thin, but she likes the shape of her face. She's of average height and curves where she feels she needs to curve.
Known for: Her acclaimed garden, in which it's said every type of flower can be found, unless of course it's down her sister's throat.
Dirty little secret: She killed her father, by poisoning his soup every night, her uncle, by injecting a deadly concoction of herbs into his bloodstream, and her sister by shoving flowers down her throat until she suffocated.
Skills: Botany, she can identify any flower all it's properties.
Motto: Every flower must grow through the dirt

Linacre

Name of the Province: Linacre
Name of your liege: Damien de la Roche
Position: It's in the middle of the country, but very far north.
Specialty: They are a swampy land, with many lakes and rivers and provide water/ice to many of the other kingdoms, in addition to dominating the seafood market.
History: Linacre was always a quiet country, they weren't powerful, but they had friends enough to keep them protected. Until about thirty years ago when Jean-Paul Babineaux went to the capitol to 'make his country great' and while he did for a little bit, he went a bit too far, tried to assassinate the wrong person at the wrong time using the wrong instrument. He was almost sentenced to death, but was saved by his brother at the last moment. He was exiled to his home country and Linacre fell from grace. It's now barely making it by, though tensions decreased with other nations when Jean-Paul Babineaux and his brother were both found dead in their homes within days of each other.

@Kaalee

Looks good. I like the assassination bit in your character.

[Illogical Jim]

Espadaja

Name of the Province: The Duchy of Espadaja

Name of your liege: Duke Rodrigo III Jimenez

Position: The broad southern marches, at the frontier

Specialty: Espadaja is, first and foremost, an agrarian province. Its rich volcanic soil is perfect for wheat and other cereal crops, and much of the wine and grain consumed throughout Emperiat is produced there. Though perhaps less powerful militarily than some of the more central provinces, Espadajans are the heirs of a long and proud martial tradition, and the warriors among them well remember it.

History: Espadaja, as a single political entity, does not preexist its status as an Emperian province. For centuries it was split among half a dozen warring petty kingdoms and lordships, uniting only long enough to fight off incursions from the larger kingdoms to the north and south. About a century ago a lord named Jimeno married a princess of Emperiat, entering into league with her royal brother. The the power of Emperiat at his back, Jimeno brought the rest of the Espadajan lords under his thumb and, in order to safeguard his conquests, swore homage to the Emperian King.

Sir Roland Vieuxome

Name: Sir Roland “the Broken Blade” Vieuxome

Age: 48

Appearance: Roland is a broad man of middling height already entered into the autumn of his life. His shoulder-length tawny hair, however, is only here and there laced with gray. His face betrays yet the handsomeness of his youth, though it is marred by a diagonal scar running across his left cheek. His eyes are brown, and frequently wander in search of danger.

Known for: Participation in a number of noteworthy battles and victory in at least a dozen tournaments. His nickname refers to his presence at the Battle of Badajeux, whereat he broke his sword in half in personal combat with a rebellious count, whom he proceeded to slay (along with much of the man's personal guard) with what remained attached to the grip.

Dirty little secret: Once slept with the wife of his present overlord, Rodrigo Jimenez. This tryst led to the birth of Aurelio Jimenez, the present heir to the Duchy of Espadaja.

Skills: Roland has an excellent grasp of military strategy and tactics. Once a peerless swordsman, there are still few that would dare to face him in a fair fight. His bellicose personality leaves him ill suited to diplomacy, however, and he is largely out of his depth when dealing with courtly intrigue.

Motto: “Steel is surer than gold.”

[Zendrelax]

Baron Ros Argall of Mortawel

Name: Baron Ros Argall of Mortawel

Age: 37

Appearance: It may be that he was not born into the position, but Ros does not look like a Baron. His dark eyes and face are soft, his mouth near-constantly upturned in an easy smile, his red hair loosely hanging down just past his shoulders. His body, while always arranged into a perfect posture, is smaller than what one might expect, with Ros being smaller than average. And while he does not neglect his physique, he lines it in thick fabrics and soft silks to make himself look ever more gentle and non-threatening.

Known for: Being elevated from his Lowborn birth to his current rank. During his tenure as the Captain of the Guard for Duke Leolin II of Bryn a Mor—the father of the current Duke—he uncovered an elaborate plot to murder the entire family of the Duke. Acting quickly, he rushed the entirety of the Duke’s family to safety—including Arwel, who has since inherited his father’s throneto become Duke himself—apprehended every person involved with the plot within several miles of Caerbryn, and got them to divulge the identities of those ultimately behind the plot, who resided beyond the borders of Bryn a Mor. Out of thanks, the Duke granted Ros the Braony of Mortawel. While not the most prosperous in Emperiat, or even in Bryn a Mor, Mortawel is composed of a bay along a prominent shipping lane, making it both a common place to resupply and to shelter from the Summer Storms, making it a fairly valuable piece of land.

Dirty little secret:

Is very secret

It is no secret that Ros holds no great zeal for the religion of Emperiat. However, something that he keeps close to his chest is that he worships the gods of Bryn a Mor, from before its conquest by Emperiat, with great fervor. And plans to see the practice spread.

Skills: While Ros has some skill with a blade, his greatest assets are his patience, his persistence, and his silver tongue. Ros plays the long game, and can convince people that his desired outcome is in their best interest as well.

Motto: “I don’t have enough prestige for the Landed-folk, nor enough piety for the priest-folk, but everyone wants my gold.”

Bryn a Mor

Name of the Province: Bryn a Mor.

Name of your liege: Duke Arwel Caerbryn

Age: 28

Ruled for: Six Years

Position: Stretching out into the Western Sea.

Specialty: Buried deep beneath Bryn a Mor’s great rolling hills is a vast mineral wealth. Most of Emperiat’s iron, much of its gold and marble, and a decent amount of its other mined and quarried materials come from Bryn a Mor.

Weaknesses: For all the value that Bryn a Mor’s hills might have, it leaves its people very little arable land. Villages get along fine, but larger settlements must import food to keep everyone properly fed.

History: Of Emperiat’s provinces, Bryn a Mor—which literally means “Hill and Sea” in the native tongue of its people, the Bryny (called Morians by the reast of the world)—is one of the most recently incorporated. Bryn a Mor’s hills, which it is in part named for, provided an incredible defense against invasion. But that did not last forever, and the Emperiat’s King Biel IV led the force that overcame these much vaunted natural defenses, earning him the epithet “the Conqueror.” While it has been several generations since the last person to have seen Biel’s Conquest died, the people of Bryn a Mor have a rich cultural tradition that has strongly resisted both dilution by and incorporation into Emperiat’s broader culture.

It was early in the reign of the now-late king Andèris that the old ruling family of Bryn a Mor, which had initially been given stewardship of the province my Biel the Conqueror himself, died out. Andèris made the decision give the province of Bryn a Mor to not only a native noble house, but the last living relatives of the last rulers of an independent Bryn a Mor—the House Caerbryn. This made the now-late king exceedingly popular among the Morian general populace and nobility, which in turn led to Bryn a Mor actively supporting King Andèris throughout his reign. Duke Arwel Caerbryn is the third generation of his house to rule over Bryn a Mor.

[Ryuzaki]

The OoC is up Here. All of you are set to put your CS in the CS page.@Zendrelax@Illogical Jim@Kaalee@The Narrator

[Ryuzaki]

Looking for a few more...