I miss writing. Alot. Journaling is all well and good, but there's something about creative writing. I get excited about it! So, here's to a year of doing what excites me. It's time for a change.
The tribe discovered young Urza in a small cavern to the south of their traditional hunting grounds. Many tribesmen believed the child was touched by the spirits because she showed no fear when the band found her lair. The elder ignored these whispers and welcomed her to the tribe. The red-haired Urza grew into a lean, soft-spoken woman with a penchant for ranging ahead of the group to see what dangers lay ahead. This habit earned her the nickname "longfoot." Armed with her trusty ashwood spear, Urza was excited by the prospect of hunting the great mammoths, though her gender and physique ensured she wouldn't be overly involved. Now, in the wake of a brutal snowstorm, the tribeswoman simply hopes to survive long enough to explore the territory she finds herself in.
The tribe discovered young Urza in a small cavern to the south of their traditional hunting grounds. Many tribesmen believed the child was touched by the spirits because she showed no fear when the band stumbled upon her lair. The elder ignored these whispers and welcomed her to the tribe. The red-haired Urza grew into a lean, soft-spoken woman with a penchant for ranging ahead of the group to see what dangers lay in store. This habit earned her the nickname "longfoot." Armed with her trusty ashwood spear, Urza was excited by the prospect of hunting the great mammoths, though her gender and physique ensured she wouldn't be too involved. Now, in the wake of a brutal snowstorm, the horrified tribeswoman simply hopes to survive long enough to explore the unknown territory she finds herself in.
Occupation/Title: Lady Regent of the Heartlands, High Lady, and the Lady in Green
If someone asked a Heartlander peasant to describe what the average noblewoman looks like, most would mention Lady Regent Gwendolen Vandemar-Maddox. The mistress of Castle Greenstone is the embodiment of the typical rich and well-fed highborne. Like a princess out of a bedtime story, her honey-colored hair falls gaily about her shoulders whenever it's not gathered up in an ornate hairstyle. While Gwen's skin might not be as tanned as a serf's leathery hide, her love of horseback riding and gardening has darkened her complexion. The regent's eyes are a dazzling shade of blue and always seem to shine with merriment and warmth. Her voice, a lilting contralto, also brims with joyful enthusiasm. Or at least it used to.
The birth of her son, Baradin, has caused the once svelte Heartlander to gain weight. Coupled with her love of sweets and alcohol, Gwendolen's once curvaceous figure is starting to run to fat, and her domain's prosperity allows her to indulge quite frequently. Regardless, the high lady is considered by many to be lovely...and exceedingly wealthy. Her heart-shaped face is still beautiful, though the loss of her husband has forced her to mature a great deal in a small amount of time. The bags under her eyes are a testament to the many nights she has spent struggling with the burdens of her new title. Regrettably, the last ten years have worked an unpleasant alchemy on the leader of the Heartlands. Her once plump figure has bloated into something truly immense, though this hasn't deterred the most intrepid suitors from pursuing her. Gwen now looks almost matronly as she waddles through the halls of Castle Greenstone, her doughy features red and dripping with sweat. In truth, the Lady-Regent of the Heartlands prefers to travel on a palanquin borne aloft by servants than her own two feet nowadays.
At any rate, Gwen can usually be seen wearing long-sleeved silk gowns or beautifully embroidered tunics and tight-fitting breeches. Her clothes are almost always dyed in various shades of green, a preference that earned her the moniker "The Lady in Green." Occasionally, she will add a red sash, representing House Vandemar's colors of red and green, or black gloves, a nod to the green and black heraldry of House Maddox, to her ensemble. Unknown to most, the high lady also keeps a small dagger in a leather sheathe strapped to her shoulder. Finally, the highborne has surprisingly large feet and wears unobtrusive slippers or boots to hide them.
The Lady in Green is a generous and giving person. According to her mother, Lady Ingrid Traven-Vandemar, this has always been the case, though that's not entirely accurate. During her eight years of marriage to High Lord Maddox, Gwendolen was intentionally shaped and molded into a champion of the commonfolk. A heroine for all the disillusioned serfs to view as their mouthpiece in the glittering, dangerous world of the nobility. In their eyes, she could do no wrong, and this allowed Jastor to focus on the major issues facing his domain.
As the years passed, however, Gwen had an unexpected revelation. She relished the feelings of pride and self-satisfaction that only the lavish praise of others could provide. Now, Gwendolen would give away her favorite dress if she thought it might help a peasant family survive for a few weeks. It's not uncommon to walk into a Heartlander tavern and see carved wooden statues of the regent grinning benevolently at the assembled patrons. Many serfs are even willing to die for Gwen, a fact that would undoubtedly make Lord Jastor Maddox smile. His plan worked.
Of course, nobody is completely selfless.
Gwen is incredibly protective of her immediate family, especially her mother and her beloved son. If anything happened to Ingrid or Baradin, she wouldn't hesitate to bring the full force of the Heartland's military down on the culprits. Overall, however, the high lady is a kind, if somewhat unworldly, aristocrat who prefers to spend her days amongst the commoners and noblewomen of her domain. Whether she's handing out bread to the beggars in the Whitecreek market or hosting yet another banquet, the highborne always throws herself into her appointed tasks with abandon. While she is also interested in ensuring the continued prosperity and safety of the Heartlands, the Lady in Green isn't afraid to delegate the less enjoyable tasks to others. More often than not, her Circle of Thorns, a council comprised of the leaders of the five Heartlander noble houses, is given these additional responsibilities. They are more than happy to help. After all, the more power Gwen gives away the more formidable the nobles become. Since assuming the position of regent several years ago, the Circle's members have widened their spheres of influence considerably. Some are even rumored to have designs on the Rose Throne.
Gwen is well-aware of this, but she simply doesn't care.
An unfortunate truth about the Regent of the Heartlands is that she's lazy and tends to focus almost entirely on the present. Is Lord Andras Howe, her most vocal detractor in the Circle of Thorns, banging on her bedchamber door with an army at his heels? No? Then Gwendolen will worry about curbing his attempts to gain support for his ascent to the Rose Throne after she finishes breakfast. Power has always come easily to Gwendolen, who was born into the two wealthiest houses in the Heartlands before she became high lady. Now, despite her youth and uncertain grip on the Rose Throne, she expects to be obeyed no matter what. This has left her with a notable lack of ambition. Why would she want to be queen when she can continue being the Regent of the Heartlands for the next eight years? Once her son turns thirteen and becomes High Lord of Castle Greenstone, she'll still be his mother. His wealthy and influential mother.
Recently, Gwendolen's personality has undergone something of a shift since the Crisis of the Crown. Her warm, charming demeanor has been replaced by outright paranoia and mistrust directed at anyone from outside the Heartlands. Her son, Baradin, is kept under heavy guard at all times in order to keep him safe from potential threats. There are whispers that the high lady herself sleeps with four members of House Maddox's elite Panther Warriors watching over her bedchamber. Furthermore, many of the servants she once treated fairly well have been reprimanded and flogged for minor mistakes almost constantly. The air in Castle Greenstone is oddly tense as of late since it doesn't take much to rouse the Lady in Green's ire. There are even rumors concerning Lady Gwen and Lord Andras Howe, her greatest rvial, banding together in the name of protecting the Heartlands from the king's predations. This shift in power has caused most of the other powerful highborne families to fall into line. Several of the Lady in Green's closest friends have also noticed she's drinking more and seems to suffer from constant headaches.
Gwendolen was born to Lord Massen and Lady Ingrid Traven-Vandemar on a stormy summer evening in 939 AC. She was their only child, which meant she never had to compete for her parents' love and affection. Gwen was pampered and treated like royalty as soon as she was old enough to spell her name. And her parents could afford to give her whatever she wanted. Thanks to the numerous iron mines found throughout their lands, House Vandemar was impossibly wealthy and provided Brythunnia with some of the finest ore outside of the Dragon Mountains. In addition, Lady Ingrid's birth house, the ancient and renowned House Traven, kept the kingdom supplied with fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the year. They also owned the legendary Goldenbough Winery. Thanks to these profitable sources of income, the Vandemar Estate, which was built in a valley just outside Hawkfield, was a breath-taking and carefree place for a child to call home. Whether it was new toys or eager playmates, young Gwendolen wanted for nothing. Some servants living in the Vandemar Estate claimed the child was being spoiled, though they didn't dare say this within earshot of their noble masters.
Once Gwen's thirteenth name day arrived, she began her training in the womanly arts of needlework, managing household finances, planning feasts, supervising servants and gardening. The young aristocrat also showed a keen interest in horseback riding, though this probably had something to do with Geralt Kohl, a handsome stableboy from the Crownlands. Regrettably, Geralt was dismissed from the Vandemars' service in the winter of 952 AC...after he was caught in a hayloft with Gwendolen. Despite this incident, offers of marriage quickly poured in from the other Heartlander houses as soon as Gwen turned thirteen. The wealth and influence of House Vandemar was well-known, but the promise of also joining House Traven's ranks was too good to pass up. However, no matter how enticing or flattering the offers were, Lady Ingrid and Lord Massen made sure Gwendolen's suitors left dejected and empty-handed. They were waiting for an offer from the only house they deemed worthy of their daughter. House Maddox of Whitecreek, the ruling family of the Heartlands.
Not two weeks after Gwendolen's seventeenth name day, a courier from Whitecreek arrived. He was wearing the black and green tabard of House Maddox. The offer had finally arrived.
High Lord Jastor Maddox, a twenty-seven year old noble who'd ascended to the throne in 947 AC after his older brother died in a "hunting accident," wanted Gwendolen Vandemar as his wife. She became the High Lady of the Heartlands less than a month later. The combined influence of the Vandemar, Maddox, and Traven families all but guaranteed that House Fisk and House Howe would fall into line. And they did...initially.
After Gwendolen and Jastor's opulent wedding ceremony, the nobles began complaining about two major obstacles facing the Heartlands. First, they wanted the High Lord to send an armed force to deal with the bandit chieftain calling himself Roland the Red. Roland had been riling up the various bandit clans in the Heartlands for years now, and attacks on merchant caravans were getting worse with each passing week. It needed to stop. Also, Gwendolen needed to produce a male heir to claim the Rose Throne in case anything happened to Jastor. Normally, Jastor's younger brother, Fergus, would be considered the heir to the Heartlands, but he was filled with insatiable wanderlust. He hasn't been seen in Castle Greenstone for many years. There was even a rumor making the rounds in Whitecreek's market that the younger Maddox had become the leader of the Stone Hearts, a ruthless and well-known band of sellswords. Needless to say, the matter of succession would become complicated if Jastor died without an heir.
After three years of promising his nobles all would be well, Jastor was relieved when Gwen found herself with child in 959 AC. He was less pleased by sightings of Rivanian soldiers in the Southern Marches. When the Northern War began in earnest, however, the Rose Throne's campaign against Roland the Red reached its climax. King Aedin's call to arms earned him a small contingent of House Vandemar's finest troops and nothing more from the Heartlands. High Lord Maddox's forces were too busy laying siege to the bandit stronghold of Fort Palatheon in the northern hills. While the citadel eventually fell, Roland the Red escaped and Jastor's army sustained heavy losses. Many devout Heartlanders claimed this was a sign of Mitras' displeasure with the high lord's decision to send so few men to assist the king. Whether this was the case or not, the bandit clans were scattered to the four winds, and the High Lord of the Heartlands returned to Castle Greenstone to tend to his pregnant wife.
In the first few days of 960 AC, Gwen gave birth to Baradin Maddox-Vandemar. The Heartlands finally had an heir. In spite of the wounds inflicted by Roland the Red and the Northern War, the Heartlanders rejoiced at the news. If the gossip in Castle Greenstone's servants' quarters was anything to go by, the high lord and high lady immediately started doing everything they could to have another child. The moans of pleasure alone could probably be heard in the streets of Whitecreek.
Shortly after Baradin's birth, however, Jastor began to lose weight while also suffering from sharp, unexpected chest pains. As he grew thinner and thinner, the Circle of Thorns, as well as other members of the Heartlander court, began to suspect the high lord was afflicted with the withering. The withering was a long-term illness that drained its victims of all vitality before killing them. It was rumored to be incurable. At the high lady's insistence, doctors were summoned from all corners of the land to see if something could be done. Sadly, none of their poultices and herbal remedies could halt the illness' progress. Knowing that his time among the living was limited, Jastor spent hours in Castle Greenstone's beautiful library with his wife, discussing what was going to happen once the he passed into holy Vanerheim. He tried to teach his wife what she would need to know to be a competent regent until Baradin came of age. Of course, there was so much to teach and not nearly enough time. A few days after Baradin's fifth name day, High Lord Jastor of the House Maddox died in his bed with Gwendolen tearfully holding his hand.
Unfortunately, time waits for no man, and this is especially true for those saddled with the burden of leadership. Terrified whispers spread across the Heartlands that Roland the Red had re-emerged and was rallying highwaymen, thugs, and unemployed sellswords to his banner. Merchants clamored for more patrols along the major trade routes in the region while the noble houses urged Gwendolen to take another husband. In addition, the consequences of Lord Jastor's unwillingness to send more soldiers to fight in the Northern Wars have yet to play out. All signs pointed to the golden age of the Heartlands ending in the near future. And it has.
Now, ten years after the scandalous incident known as the Crisis of the Crown, the High Lady of Castle Greenstone has done something amazingly divisive. With several Heartlander lords, including Lord Andras Howe, urging her on, Gwen has fortified the border the Heartlands share with the Crownlands. She's also publicly declared her intent to seek compensation for what an agent of the crown, Claret of Lundine, did to her son. A meeting is being held at the Singing Stones, four menhirs situated on the northernmost edge of the Heartlands, to determine exactly what the future of Brythunnia will be. Of course, the Lady in Green hasn't told anyone the only reason she knows Claret was a servant of the crown was because a mysterious stranger showed her a lockbox containing a sealed letter. A letter sealed with King Edward's signet ring. The peasants are terrified of the impending conflict between the two realms, though there are those who believe this has been a long time coming. Civil war seems inevitable.
-House Colors are Green and Red -House Words are 'Our Power Blooms Forever' -Currently led by Lord Massen Vandemar and Lady Ingrid Traven-Vandemar -House Relationships: Maddox (Excellent), Howe (Poor), Traven (Excellent) and Fisk (Average)
-House Colors are Green and Black -House Words are 'We Fear No Evil' -Currently led by Lord Sebastian Maddox and Lady Caledra Traven-Maddox -House Relationships: Vandemar (Excellent), Howe (Average), Traven (Above Average) and Fisk (Average)
-House Colors are Green and Orange -House Words are 'The Pack Never Falters' -Currently led by Lord Andras Howe -House Relationships: Vandemar (Poor), Maddox (Average), Traven (Above Average) and Fisk (Excellent)
-House Colors are Green and White -House Words are 'We Serve The Rose' -Currently led by Lord Walcott Fisk and Lady Alma Howe-Fisk -House Relationships: Vandemar (Average), Maddox (Average), Traven (Average) and Howe (Excellent)
-House Colors are Green and Yellow -House Words are 'Rising Like The Sun' -Currently led by Lord Olliander "The Paunch" Traven and Lady Bethany Maddox-Traven -House Relationships: Vandemar (Excellent), Maddox (Above Average), Fisk (Average) and Howe (Above Average)
-There are obviously some aspects of this image that don't work for Gwen. Firstly, her eyes are blue not green. Also, she's substantially heavier than the woman pictured below. The weight gain has mostly been concentrated in her stomach and rump. Lastly, her skin is a few shades darker than the person in the image.
Another bump and an update. I'll be posting my character, the lovely High Lady Gwendolen Vandemar-Maddox, over the next few days. If anybody knows someone who might be interested in an RP like this, please let them know about it. We've got a murderer to find!
Bump to anyone's that wants to get involved with an exciting medieval fantasy RP with a mystery element mixed in! We're looking for lords, ladies, and commoners alike. Who killed Count Henry? It's up to you to find out.
