The Ballad of Jace Evans, Pt. 2 - [OOC, image heavy]

[Urahra 5359]

 

OOC:

 

Continued from Part 1.

 

Recap:

 

Our story begins in the throes of the Schism War - a titanic struggle between the Canonist League and the Mardonic League. On the side of Canonism fought the nations of Akovia, Adria, and Savoy. On the side of the Mardonic League were the forces of Storm King Maric, Aesterwald, Urguan, the Elves, and the War Uzg. 

 

Into this fateful conflict arrived Jace Evans ( @Ludulo) , a migrant farm laborer wandering in search of work. He arrived, unsuspecting, in Karovia - the capital of Akovia under King Andrik Vydra. Jace wanted only the simple life of a farmer, but soon found himself conscripted into the war effort alongside the soldiers of the Canonist League. He fought alongside Andrik Vydra to conquer Oren's fallen capital of Petrus and secure a future for the Reformed Kingdom of Oren.

 

Having cut his teeth as a soldier, Jace joined the 2nd Akovian Regiment and moved to the city of Petrus. His devotion and intelligence impressed his superiors and he began quickly rising through the ranks. However, his ascent came to an abrupt halt when King Andrik fell to an assassination plot by the High Elves of Haelun'or. Infuriated by the King's cruel and senseless death, Jace worked with Duke Vasili Vanir to found the Sons of Vydra, a military organization devoted to avenging the King. 

 

Once King Andrik's death was avenged and the High Elves were made to pay for their treachery, Jace - now in his 40's - retired from military life. He was offered an esquireship by Duke Vasili Vanir. The lands of Karovia, now under control of the Vanirs, had become abandoned and overgrown following the Schism War. If Jace could build a township atop the ruins and draw in new residents, he would be raised from his commoner status to the nobility and be endowed with the title of Baron. He looked forward to a peaceful retirement serving the new King of Oren, Olivier de Savoie.

 

Along the way, he had many chance encounters with an intriguing young lady by the name of Lorina Carrion. She was the last surviving descendant of Emperor Tuvya Carrion, who was deposed violently by Storm King Maric of the Mardonic League. With Storm King Maric defeated, Lorina sought to join the clergy as a nun. 

 

Lorina and Jace had many things in common. For one, they both loved the green hills, quiet streams, dark forests, and steep cliffs of Karovia. Karovia was where Jace found his calling in life, fighting for Canonism and the will of King Andrik. Lorina, for her part, had spent much of her childhood and adolescence living in Karovia with the Vanirs, who watched over her. Jace and Lorina's mutual connection to the land brought them both back to those gentle hills and forests, where they would soon begin to care for one another as much as they cared for Karovia.

 

Warning: romance RP imminent. No kissing emotes or FTBs, just romantic dialogue. If that icks you out, though, you've been warned.

 

You may notice that there's blacked-out sections in the screenshots. I edited out OOC messages, DMs, server notices, "your friend has come online" notices, and other non-roleplay things for ease of reading.

 

 

EPISODE 5: 

Vanhall

 

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The Vanirs had awarded Jace with an esquireship over part of their land holdings. The forest had once been the rural town of Karovia, where Jace had found his calling as a soldier of Andrik Vydra. Returning to Karovia - now named Vanhall - felt like returning home after many years away at war. Jace was determined to turn the fallow fields into a profitable settlement. Building a successful township began, of course, with familiarizing himself with his nearest neighbors. 

 

The town of Praedium stood upon the high ridge overlooking Vanhall. From Vanhall's lakeside shore, Jace could see the hamlet. One resident of Praedium was Percival Staunton, who had ambitions to create a military order located in the town. Jace and his longtime friend Publius took a tour of Percival's fortress.

 

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Jace also briefly reconnected with his old friend Sofie the dwarf. She had gone into the beer brewing business and promised to provide shipments of Skycastle Lager for any tavern that Jace opened in the town of Vanhall. Jace told her of his plans for building up the land.

 

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New citizens began finding their way to Vanhall one by one as Jace began constructing new homes and businesses.

 

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EPISODE 6: 

The Lady Carrion

 

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Jace's town had everything it needed to become a successful settlement - a well-stocked tavern, houses a plenty, fertile fields and beautiful scenery. However, it lacked a proper church and a rector to run it. Jace was at a loss for how to fix this problem and considered contacting the Canonist Church to see if they'd assign him a parish priest. However, his town lacked a proper house of worship and didn't have the skills to design one himself. No priest would rector a town without a church. His construction endeavors had been limited to humble cottages, nothing so grand as a cathedral.

 

The solution to his problem appeared unexpectedly. Lorina Carrion, who had been his next-door neighbor in Petrus, reappeared one day in Vanhall. She and Jace had not been in touch for many years. Lorina had been living with her distant relatives, the Montfort family, in the town of Owynswood. To earn her keep among the Montforts, she had been nannying her young nieces and nephews - Hugues, Lilianne, Eric, and Adeline. Lorina hadn't given up on her dream of joining the clergy, but she found herself at an impasse...

 

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Lorina appreciated the advice Jace gave her on how to handle her nephew, Hugues de Montfort. She began making more frequent visits to the growing town of Vanhall.

 

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On one such occasion, Lorina told him a little bit about her personal history and family - specifically her father, Tuvya Carrion.

 

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As Jace learned more about Lorina's history, her ambitions, and her stalwart character, he began to admire her more and more as a person. 

 

One day, Lorina arrived in the town of Vanhall with plans to build a grand cathedral. She informed Jace that Duke Vasili had granted her a parcel of land, upon which she intended to build a church. Jace saw this as the ideal solution to his problem. His town would have a church  - and he would help Lorina complete her final task toward become a nun. 

 

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Lorina had begun to view Jace as both as a friend, an advisor and a confidante, so she often told him about the problems she faced with her family. Jace was surprised to learn that many members of Lorina's family disapproved of her choice to join the clergy. Rather than becoming a nun, they wanted Lorina to find a husband to marry her matrilineally. They wished for her to bestow her family name upon her husband and restart the now-defunct House of Carrion.

 

Lorina, however, believed that she was too old to accomplish such a thing. She was thirty-five years old and a widow already. Not to mention, she had physical disfigurements that - in her opinion - made her unappealing as a potential bride. Lorina had facial scars, not to mention crippled hands which many found them disturbing in appearance. Jace did not know what had happened to give her such horrible disfigurements and he felt too impolite to ask - though he would soon learn the truth.

 

Meanwhile, it seemed that there had been disturbance up in Praedium on the ridge. The lord of Praedium was found to be conspiring against Oren. He was placed on trial, found guilty, and was banished with his titles stripped from him. Praedium was incorporated into the duchy of Vanaheim under the control of Duke Vasili Vanir. Vasili granted the lands of Praedium to Percival Staunton, who renamed the town Eastbourne.

 

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Jace contracted workers to build the chapel that Lorina had designed. The building proceeded smoothly and, before the two of them knew it, Vanhall had a church.

 

Jace found himself conflicted, however. The more he learned about Lorina, the more he began to develop romantic feelings for her. He was not bothered by her age, nor her disfigurements. She and Jace were similar in age - only five years apart - and he viewed her scars as a sign of her strength and determination. Her gentle kindness touched his heart in a way no other woman had before. However,

 

Jace knew that Lorina was resolved to join the clergy - so he made no attempt to dissuade her from her ambitions. He did not feel worthy of courting her anyway. Lorina was the daughter of one Emperor (Tuvya)  and the sister to two others (Boris I and Alexander I). Though the House of Carrion had been all but eradicated, Jace respected Lorina's lineage and felt blessed to have a woman of her status even acknowledge him. He was content enough to be able to help her along the path to her dream - and simply to admire her from afar.
 

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With the church completed, Jace feared that Lorina would move on from Vanhall. He expected her to take up residence in Adria, nearer to her relatives. He was delighted to find that may not be the case. It seemed as though Lorina wanted to stay in Vanhall and minister at the church she and Jace had built together.

 

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EPISODE 7: 

Lorina's Proposal

 

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Building the Vanhall church with Lorina brought Jace in frequent contact with her family members, who often came to visit her in the small town. Lorina counted many illustrious personages among her relatives. One of her more prominent relatives was Karl Barbanov, the Duke of Haense and ruler of Siegrad. Jace had met Duke Karl during his military service. Karl was one of Lorina's (many) nephews - the son of her older brother Alexander I - and sometimes came to Vanhall to visit his aunt. Jace and Karl built a friendly rapport and often consulted one another on military matters.

 

It was through Karl that Jace learned of potential treachery from the Stauntons.
 

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Karl mentioned, perhaps off-handedly, that he thought Jace and Lorina would make a good pair if they decided to marry. The comment left Jace ruffled. He couldn't deny his attraction to Lorina and his ardent desire for her company, but he did not want to get in the way of her ambitions. He knew that petty, overly-ambitious men often chased after Lorina, desirous of her august lineage and prominent name. He did not want to be seen as another insincere suitor trying to take advantage of her. So he resisted the urge to act on his feelings. Instead, he focused on building up relationships within his town and with his neighbors.

 

It was during this time that he began a collaboration with Octavianus "Scipio" Bracchus - the brother of his longtime friend Publius. Octavianus wished to take over Publius's esquireship and assist Jace in building Vanhall. After speaking with him, Jace determined that Octavianus would be ideal to oversee Vanhall's defense forces.

 

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Indeed, Vanhall needed a defense force, Jace reckoned, because he was growing concerned about the presence of the Stauntons living up on the ridge. The Stauntons had been making aggressive gestures toward Duke Karl Barbanov, even going so far as to attempt to poison him. In addition, Percival Staunton had parked a large sailing ship in the middle of Vanhall's lake - without consulting Jace. The ship had an enormous bulk that disrupted fishing in the lake and prevented the fishermen in Vanhall from meeting their quotas. It also prevented smaller ships from using the channel to the sea.

 

Jace soon determined that something must be done about the Stauntons. He resolved to travel up the ridge and discuss the situation with Percival Staunton himself. The opportunity came when he caught Percival - who was by all accounts an eccentric fellow - bathing his livestock in the Vanhall lake.

 

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Jace decided to try and have a civil, rational discussion with his neighbor with an eye toward improved relations. Percival invited Jace to come and survey the town of Eastbourne atop the ridge.

 

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Percival's daughter, Bellamy, joined the two as they walked around the town of Eastbourne. Percival, sensing an opportunity to forge an alliance, started not-so-subtly trying to arrange a match between Jace and his daughter.

 

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Luckily, a message from Lorina rescued Jace from the awkward encounter. As Jace returned to Vanhall to meet Lorina, though, his mind turned to thoughts of marriage and courtship. Once he became a Baron, he would likely need to find a wife and produce children so that his land holdings could be passed down after his death. Yet he felt stiff and awkward around younger women like Miss Bellamy and found himself wishing for a more mature beauty. Thoughts of Lorina drifted across his mind. In another life, he imagined, perhaps the two of them could have made a nice pair - just like Karl had suggested. 

 

Jace arrived in Vanhall to find Lorina distraught and in mourning. Tearfully, Lorina explained that her father - Tuvya Carrion - had passed away. Grief had shaken Lorina to her core. She was devastated to think that she was the only Carrion left alive. She professed to having developed feelings for Jace - and considered asking him to marry her matrilineally. Yet she was torn. Her initiation into the clergy was almost complete and she worried that she was in too deep to change course now.

 

Jace promised that he would remain her friend - and that she would always have a place with him in Vanhall, no matter what she decided to do. His reassurances calmed the grieving Lorina and, with his support, she decided to continue down the path to becoming a nun.

 

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However, Lorina's doubts about joining the clergy did not entirely disappear. To her amazement, her older brother Boris - also a former Emperor - unexpectedly returned to Oren. Lorina believed he was dead, but it turned out that he was actually stranded on a deserted island for the last several decades. Boris arrived in Vanhall searching for his younger sister.

 

To Lorina's shock, Boris strongly discouraged her from joining the clergy and insisted that she find someone to marry her matrilineally.

 

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Lorina struggled to make a decision regarding her future. 

 

On the one hand, she'd been working toward joining the clergy for many years. Her cousin High Pontiff Daniel I had assigned her several difficult tasks - from passing an exam, to writing a thesis, to building a church. Lorina had overcome all the challenges put in front of her. She stood on the cusp of accomplishing her goal and joining the clergy as she'd dreamed of doing. 

 

On the other hand, many people - both inside her family and outside of it - were pressuring her to find a husband and restore the Imperial Carrion line. As the last surviving fertile Carrion woman, she had a duty to extend her lineage into the future. Lorina was a devoted daughter and sister who loved her family with intensity. She feared disappointing them. Her feelings toward Jace had also grown far past amiable friendship. She knew him to be a hardworking, honest, kind-hearted, and faithful man. In addition, Lorina not only loved Jace, but also Vanhall. The land had a special place in her heart and she wanted a part in restoring it to glory.

 

Was it possible Jace was willing to marry her and abandon his own family name - becoming Jace Carrion? She began to seriously consider the possibility.

 

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Jace emphasized to Lorina that he wanted her happiness more than anything. He wanted her to be sure about her decision to abandon the clergy and marry him. Lorina, for her part, still felt divided. She knew that she would be happy if she and Jace married, but she feared disappointing her cousin, the High Pontiff. She felt the need to consult with her male relatives - and also with High Pontiff Daniel I - before she made a firm decision one way or the other. 

 

Jace, for his part, also worried that he was unworthy of marrying Lorina. He lacked a noble title and he was unconnected to any of Oren's prominent families. He wanted to make Lorina's family a decent marriage offer, so he decided to wait to make a proposal until after he became a baron.

 

The two of them agreed to a tentative engagement, pending Jace's ascension to the nobility and the approval of Lorina's family. In the meantime, though, the two of them began courting in earnest.

 

 

 

EPISODE 8: 

Disappointment

 

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As Jace and Lorina courted one another, their feelings for each other began to deepen. Jace fell deeper and deeper in love with the Carrion princess - and she with him. Previously, Lorina had been tormented by indecision and fear of her family's disapproval. Yet the more time she spent with Jace, the more she was sure of her choice. She loved him and wanted to be his wife. They'd build up Vanhall together as Baron and Baroness - and carry the name of Carrion into the future.

 

Yet Jace still feared that Lorina's male relatives would reject his marriage offer. He sought out his two friends, Duke Karl Barbanov and Duke Vasili Vanir, for advice.

 

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Rumors had begun that the continent of Athera would soon face an existential and apocalyptic crisis, so the people of Athera began scouting across the seas for a new home. Vasili assured Jace that he would be made a baron once the Vanir fleet traveled to the new destination abroad. Vasili's answer satisfied Jace and he looked forward to proposing to Lorina as soon as he became a baron.

 

Jace's friend and collaborator, Octavianus Bracchus, also asked Jace if he would like to be adopted into the Bracchus clan. The Bracchus family had been steadily gaining influence in Oren - and a connection to House Bracchus would enable Jace to climb Oren's political ladder with greater effectiveness. Jace jumped at the offer.

 

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Jace gleefully delivered the news to Lorina about his adoption - and the two decided that, upon their marriage, they'd share the joint name Carrion-Bracchus. 

 

Everything appeared to be proceeding apace and going swimmingly - until an abrupt tragedy struck.

 

While Jace had been readying himself to make an appropriate marriage offer to Lorina's family, Lorina had been seeking guidance and advice from her relatives. Among all her relatives, Lorina loved her cousin Daniel I - the High Pontiff - most of all. It was his approval that she wanted more than anyone's - and she greatly feared disappointing him. With her father dead, Lorina regarded Daniel I as her surrogate parent. It was only with Daniel I's blessing and consent that she would allow herself to marry Jace.

 

A letter arrived from the Holy Lands, inviting Lorina to an audience with the High Pontiff. Daniel I was ready at last to accept Lorina into the clergy. He praised Lorina's successes. He loved the church she and Jace had built in Vanhall. He had enjoyed reading her thesis. She passed her written exam with a perfect score. All that was left was for Lorina to take her vows and don the habit.

 

Tearfully, Lorina told the High Pontiff that she had decided not to join the church after all. She had fallen in love with Jace and wanted to marry him instead. The shock and disappointment troubled the aged Daniel I's fragile heart. He suffered a sudden heart attack and died in Lorina's arms, but not before delivering his dying wish - that she take her vows and become a nun.

 

Lorina, who had loved Daniel I as a father, could not bring herself to deny his dying wish.

 

Broken-hearted and in tears, she came to Vanhall to deliver the news to Jace.

 

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Jace promised Lorina that, as long as she was happy, he would accept and support her happiness.

 

In truth, though, neither of them were happy. With joy and excitement, they'd planned to marry. Their plans now lay in ruins. Lorina begged Jace to let her remain in Vanhall and preach at the church they built together. She couldn't bear the thought of being apart from him and feared she might die from a broken heart if she couldn't see him anymore.

 

Jace worried that living in Vanhall would be too much temptation for Lorina and that she might do something to break her vows, but she promised him that would not be the case. They could remain respectful and chaste friends, just as they had been before they started courting. Jace, somewhat reluctantly, consented to let her stay. He would build her a vicarage in Vanhall and they would remain friends building up the community side by side.

 

In their hearts, they likely both knew this situation was untenable and would end in disaster. Yet the two loved each other too much to be parted.

 

 

Part 3

 

[monkeypoacher 6993]

((Sort of a weird tangent but this took me back to the setting of the schism war, which was when I started out as a serious roleplayer. Was a blast to read this, and I can't help but wonder how many other stories were just out of emote distance back then. Really nice work as always, and I hope you write more of these!))

[Urahra 5359]

1 hour ago, monkeypoacher said:

((Sort of a weird tangent but this took me back to the setting of the schism war, which was when I started out as a serious roleplayer. Was a blast to read this, and I can't help but wonder how many other stories were just out of emote distance back then. Really nice work as always, and I hope you write more of these!))

 

OOC:

 

If you were in Oren during this time, tell me what your character's name was. I might just have screenshots of you.

 

When I say this is a tiny, tiny fraction of the screenshots I have, I'm being very real lmao. There's almost 7000 of them, so I got screencaps of a LOT of characters.

[ErikAzog 3313]

OOC: do you have any screenshots of the vladovs?

[Urahra 5359]

42 minutes ago, ErikAzog said:

OOC: do you have any screenshots of the vladovs?

 

OOC: 

 

Tons of 'em.

 

If you want a specific character, though, just DM me and I'll take a look. Though I'm kinda busy with school rn so it may take some time.