Cracker

After some thoughtful recollection with family, Simon prepares to organize a funeral in Marble Hall for his sister in law. (4 PM EST, Sat)

This is that good ****... what the craft is about.... +1, great job as always Urara!

Long before St. Daniel the Great established the modern faith under the universal rite of Canonism, he was a boy at the tallest peak of Mt. Augustus’ spire, watching in some abject horror as his uncle Tuvya of Rosebud and his stalwart band of Franciscan loyalists held off the world. It was a formative moment in the High Pontiff’s life. He spent his childhood a ward to the martyr-king Francis on his great carrack Arjen’s Hand, an idyllic life at the high-seas, going from port to port to bolster favor in the long quest in reclaiming Svjetlast. When his wardfather finally claimed that relic from the depths of the stone city of Khavaz, he turned back to Oren to claim his birthright and restore order and dignity to his father’s name. All was a dream to the young bastard, who thought he was reading the pages of a fantasy tale to see his uncle ascend so. And that dream died on the bloody steps of Vekaro Keep, as the Decterum marched in and slew everything of the old world that he knew. Spirited away by a defector Drake Lancefeld, he found only melancholy in watching his last uncle hold steadfast against the hordes of Urguan, Malinor, and the Aeldinic invaders. It was down to some wire – neither side giving budge in the breach, but Tuvya’s men were outnumbered four to one, the attrition favoring the aggressors. Had that spire fell that day, an entire bloodline exalted would have been extinguished for their defiance against the Franciscan Massacre. That included that young boy, Siguine Barrow who would later take the cloth and codify a church, who was spared a grisly end when he saw the purple and black standard rose tall from the urban sprawl of Vekaro and pillage Wulfgar’s own siege lines, ending the gridlock for enough time for Tuvya to manage his counter assault. The forces thinned, the battle turned – and in some clever twist of fate, the relief of the Tribe of Azog played a pivotal and unmistakable role in the shaping of human ethos and faith.

The Baron Carrington had an inelegant clamber in his strut that told all of his natural birth. It was only magnified aside his haughty lady wife, a grandchild to the pedigree of two distinct imperial lineages. With Carrington’s gait, the Archchancellor would see two heavy feet trained to plod along thistle, field and fallow along the marble opulence of Novellen Palace. It made it so easy to hate the man. Unlike the other great titans among his cabinet such as Armas, deNurem, and Adler, Samuel Woods was a man in the unsavory business of money in the time of ultimate altruism. The society which built the great Helena experiment demanded a sort of selflessness that was entirely antithetical to the practice of mercantilism. Masters of war, culture, and law prevailed in that baroque era, and it was simple to conflate his talent for commerce for an ungodly avarice, his folksy character for wretched bawdiness, and his proximity to the country’s most dignified elite for ignoble opportunism. So simple, that sometimes the Archchancellor worried Lord Carrington himself believed it all. The old Rhenyari knew Green was the sort of man that gave Helena everything she ever wanted. He desired one day he could give the same to his country, and he very well could in a matter of time, but at what cost? The wager was left for the minister to determine on the road he chose – a gamble that even the sorcerer could not gleam the odds.

Flight of the Nordlings, 30th of Horen’s Calling, 1765 As a token of the Archchancellor’s appreciation of General deNurem’s fine command of the tense situation, Simon Basrid commissioned a painting in Pertinaxi anachronism called Flight of the Nordlings to be hung in his office which depicted Cedric’s surrender to the imperial hosts. While a popular painting among court, it was said His Imperial Majesty was not fond of the art piece whatsoever, believing it lent the Nordling chief a dignity undeserved. Simon himself understood full well where that critique emerged from – had Peter III had to personally confront another Nordling host on imperial soil, the aged sorcerer knew full and well there would have been no surrender.

I will agree that any firearm RP would need an intense moderation or even soft techlock process to trial. I’m not interested in seeing the existing bandit communities being tied with firearms – but my standing issue is that players are actively banned for tastefully roleplaying these things within their own communities. Part of what makes LotC great is its lack of standard. Unlike the countless pretenders – we don’t have any meaningful server canon to base off of. If we were a Lord of the Rings server, a Game of Thrones server, a Berserk server, or a Warhammer Fantasy server, we would have died out ages ago, as our mechanics aren’t interesting enough to justify being trapped within an IP. Our success comes from our open creative platform. A player on LotC can take anything from the world they find fascinating, and flesh out their own vision of it on the server, to test it and see if its creatively successful. Up until maybe 2014, this was an immensely liberal standard. I remember roleplay a 12th century knight and 14th century Slavic boyar against the Warhammer 40k-esque Teutonic Order, complete with death spires, power armor, chainsaws, and weapons of mass destruction. As much as those conflicts were OOCly aligned as well as RPly – I’d never had wanted those players banned for attempting a standard different from my own. If you disagreed with a standard, you came up with a roleplay reason why to distance yourself from it, not demand bans and staff investigation. It was immensely more fun, nuanced, and original than the Dreadlander conflicts I roleplayed post tech-lock, where the same cycle of medieval bandits/pagans invade in coalition with the same reference images for years on end. I want to capture that spirit of innovation again, and I would want to see it done thoughtfully and tastefully, and above all else, not punishable by staff mandate, because I think anything less is insulting to what LotC is fundamentally about.

The creative atmosphere is inherently hampered by restricting blunderbusses, flintlocks, and so forth – all staples in both the late medieval period as well as many fantasy environments such as Warhammer, Final Fantasy, and so forth. I do not ever care or intend to force firearm roleplay on those unwilling – but to ban pistol duels, consensual firearm salutes, cannon roleplay, is inherently restricting and unfair. These weapons should exist for flavor purposes and allow people to cultivate the fantasy environment they seek. No one has a creative monopoly on LotC’s “theme” and its ridiculous to assume otherwise. If someone does not like the environment that firearm RP produces – you can easily go to a settlement or nation where that is not the case. Our sandbox allows for multiple types of RP to flourish in an interconnected way. Given that there is no mechanical difference from being apprehended with a crossbow and a flintlock, there should be no reason to ban one but condone the other.

The Archchancellor finds himself troubled without the company of Vitaly Valic, his seasoned host at the spins table. The dice hall was Simon Basrid’s portal to the commons as well as his solace away from government. Without it, the duress of statecraft weighed just that much heavier – only magnified without Vitaly’s spirited companionship. In eulogy to the fallen soldier, Simon publicly published his letter of recommendation to the officer corps which quickly found circulation among the Helena elite and the greater empire. "To His Excellency, the Secretary of War, Alren DeNurem Blessings of the eternal heavens upon you and yours. Enclosed you will find my personal recommendation to the potential character of the character Mr. Vitaly Vilac. The well-known enterpriser already maintains a non-commissioned rank - but his logistical talent, diligence, education, and distant connection to a prominent Orenian family give me some confidence in his talent as a cadet. I have reviewed his person, and he has sworn to me that he would serve this distinction in order to empower the institution of the Imperial State Army, willing to abide thoroughly by its existing hierarchies, and elevate his condition to befit the noble temperament of an imperial officer. His path, as I forsee, is as a literate aide and disciplinary officer to institute more formalized regimental training in scavenging, amphibious combat and general drill in the 1st Regiment, before committing to a provincial regiment operation to bolster our presence in the provinces. That said - he is your man if granted that commission, and you will guide and rear him as you see fit. His Excellency, Simon Basrid KCS" Given the young man did not possess an immediate next of kin, the Archchancellor took it upon himself to prepare a funeral for one of the lone causalities of the Battle of Boom Hill, a token of his favor to the orphan of Belvitz’ brood.

Some of the best video content I’ve seen come out of LotC. Fantastic work! We could get some easy traction promoting this on YouTube.

THE ARCHCHANCELLOR IN BLACK 1762 The air in Haense felt more dry than usual: a soft wind blowing through the black robes of Simon Basrid. As the white snow was now covered by a mosaic of footsteps, the funeral procession was about to begin. The weeping of bystanders and the grim aesthetic that enveloped New Reza swept over Simon who found the scene eerily familiar. The seventh Nordling War had brought a grotesque cost to the families of the Empire, with women and children facing the grim reality of fatherless households and devastated families. One always hopes that the end of a war means the end of suffering, until tragedies happen like the one processed before his own eyes. A great deal was lost with the death of Queen-Mother Maya Valeria, for her presence and life added a tremendous value to both the courts of Haense and Helena. She reared the young king and was a personal friend to the old emperor, a potential bridge between two monarchs, generations, and peoples. With her morbid loss, the harmony between all those pairs was challenged. And with that in mind, it only adds to the tragedy within a tragedy, when the passing of the beloved is intertwined with the morass of politics. Such is the fate of an imperial functionary who bears that mission to keep the Empire secure. It was biting that the timing of his missive circulation coincided with the funeral rites - and he knew that faux pas was his own mistake to blame. Yet, there was no time for wanton pity or reaching explanations. With a low rumbling grief in heart, the Archchancellor who avowed his Helena red for mourning black that day spoke before the assembled Duma. “Your Royal Majesty - We, the Ministry, apologize on behalf of the Imperial Crown for its injuries to your estate and person. There is no ignoring that the shock that took our monarch upon hearing of the violent passing of the Queen-Mother led him to perform wanton acts below his station. And as the Captain of his Ministry - it falls upon me, to spare the dignity of monarchy, to answer for these. The context to these acts do not excuse their tone or presence. But I will articulate them in short, in hopes it may provide some understanding. Our Imperial Majesty found a personal friend and confidante in the Queen-Mother. One that he hoped would help him understand a realm that in truth, every denizen in Helena could know better. Haense - this northern country. The queen mother and His Imperial Majesty had met after the terrible assault on the young king, together in mourning. For all the toil His Imperial Majesty sought to defend this land from Nordling aggressors, balking for weregild - he felt remiss in his duty when its own monarch nearly lost his life. When the Queen-Mother’s life was extinguished by rotten assailants of the same stripe, his temper scorched and he turned to ire, resulting in a destruction of palatial property and wounded spirits by low and unbecoming words. As the head of his government - I, and my ministry, are responsible for all intrusions of law inflicted in that moment. The monarchs of our realm, His Majesty and His Imperial Majesty, are the fountain of law, government and order in this realm. In that nature, they are not held to the criminal code of our law. But we do not believe in tyranny - and a body must answer to inflictions of pain and harm dealt by the imperial state. That falls to their government - headed, in this instance, by my person. Therefore, I will seek redress with every faculty of my being. And if that is not found to be satisfactory, I, and my ministry, shall be held accountable in a court of law.” With that, he abandoned the stand to return to his delegation. A room of weary and concerned eyes looked at him, and he looked back at them. He hoped that they had the profound understanding he had, that a crisis and tragedy like this should not deserve a second chapter, and that he would do whatever he could within his mortal power to see to that.

Great for gambling in a crowded setting. +1, thanks Llir!

To the Most Loyal Crown of Hanseti-Ruska, Blessings to you and yours in this difficult time. We do not endeavor to strain you with legalese in this period of mourning, but Your most recent publication compels the Basrid Ministry to respond, and within this response, denote various discrepancies of law pervading your missive. A senators’ authority and assignment rests within the electorate. Senators are not beholden to the executive body of a province, but to the electorate. Any agent that holds executive prerogative has no power to recall the representatives that his electorate has chosen. (See: ORC 604.032) No power within the Holy Orenian Empire may compel an enlisted or commissioned soldier of the Imperial State Army to desert his post. (See: ORC 403) The clergy and the bourgeoisie, including those of Haeseni birth, are afforded the rights of travel throughout the Imperial State, and may not be compelled otherwise by provincial legislation. This includes civil servants in the employ of the Imperial State. (See: ORC 704.04, 706.02) The Secretary of War is the chief of the Empire’s militaries and security. No other authority may compel soldiers to abstain in any form of training or military operations otherwise (See: WO para. 1, sen. 2.) This is especially true when the Empire continues to be in a state of war against the rump state of Rubern. Absent a pretext of criminality, no imperial subject may be deprived of the property of which he is the legal owner. Therefore, the Crown of Haense may not seize the corporations of persons without such pretext. (See: ORC, Ad. 2, Gen. Principles of Law) Recognizing the lack of legal ground of the clauses pertinent found in the proclamation Zwem unein fitsk, they exist null and void from their promulgation. Understandably, your Kingdom grieves and we grieve with you. The death of the Queen-Mother is now the third act of assassination inflicted on the royal family in recent memory. These events stirred great turmoil in the heart of our imperial sovereign and have led us to the circumstance before us. We would see that turmoil undone in time and intend a process of healing, rather than that of escalation. The nature of shock at the death of a royal person led the imperial crown to behave in a manner contrary to the Exordium, and the realm, as noted in that, has been pained as a result. The ministry, as it is accountable for, will attend to any offenses inflicted by the Imperial State, with the Archchancellor's own person dispatched to treat in Reza within one month’s time. Any offenses and injuries to person or property inflicted by the crown are to be made redress by the ministry, who is made responsible to all actions of the imperial state. As a result, the Archchancellor and his government will seek due atonement and redress for the injuries of state inflicted or face the criminalities of such charges. HIS IMPERIAL EXCELLENCY, SIMON BASRID KCS

T H E G O L D E N L I B E R T Y B A L L A N D T H E S I L V E R J U B I L E E A N N O D O M I N I MDCCLXII To the subjects of the Holy Orenian Empire With the coming of spring, and our illustrious Emperor’s 25th anniversary of coming to the throne, a G R A N D ball, accompanied by empire-wide celebrations shall be held in two Saint’s days, at the Novellen Palace. The jubilee shall celebrate our emperor’s humble origins in the old city of Ves. All attendees are encouraged to don in colors of the old Republic in their attire, such as gold, white, green and red. Formal apparel pertaining to republican attire, the now defunct patriarch houses of yore, or any other garments familiar to Ves are also acceptable. The theme of the ball is liberty. A colored sketch of Edward Morris and Alfred Myre (middle, right) is provided as reference of the clothing of the Republic. A competition between those ladies who have dressed up for the occasion shall be held, with the winner being awarded a garter, in the spirit of the Lodge of St. Catherine’s Garter, as well as a hand-crafted crown of flowers, enchanted so as to not perish. Prior to the ball proper, a fencing duel shall be held for those gentlemen who should deem themselves worthy. The Republicans insisted that status as patrician reflected a family’s dedication to the Golden Charter and the State; therefore, the duel shall be restricted only to those rendering service to the Empire, i.e. civil servants, ISA officers, or senators. The winner shall earn a purse of 2,500 minas and earn the life styling, “Captain and Defender of Liberty of the Old Republic.” The Serene Assembly was the legislature of the Republic, holding preeminence over both the executive as well as the judiciary. At the time of its fall, the body boasted nearly eighteen seats, seven of which were occupied by patrician status. At the end of every term, the citizens convened in Varoche Palace. There they gathered for the practice of lottery: the “purchase” of one of the remaining eleven seats based on chance. Put in simple terms, the chance for one seat cost one-hundred minas, two seats two-hundred; men of wealth would compete fiercely against one another, laying down thousands of minas per lottery in order to be guaranteed the best chance at they and their supporters sitting on the session of the following four years. It is said that the lotteries of the Republic’s final years were valued up to 40,000 minas. In obedience to the Golden Charter, a lottery shall be held among all ball-goers to determine who shall sit on the eleven seats of the Silver Assembly of Ves. The “Captain and Defender of Liberty of the Old Republic” shall preside over this playful affair. His Imperial Majesty invites all of his subjects to such an affair. Come on, come all, and rejoice! HIS IMPERIAL EXCELLENCY, SIMON BASRID KCS (( This event shall take place at April 5th, Sunday, 6 PM EST at the Novellen Palace, Helena, Oren.))

The Archchancellor sends for the Secretary of Foreign Affairs in response to this news. Within a few days, it is known throughout Novellen and the greater world Godfrey Briarwood’s mission northwards. @KBR

A P P O I N T M E N T O F A N E W G O V E R N O R G E N E R A L 1761 Issued and confirmed on the 17th of Sun’s Smile, 1761 ARTICLE I - The appointment of SIR HENRY FREDERICK HELVETS to the position of GOVERNOR GENERAL of \the province of Kaedrin. ARTICLE II - The powers and duties granted to HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY'S REPRESENTATIVE during his tenure as GOVERNOR GENERAL of Kaedrin shall be that of ROYAL PREROGATIVE in the lands he shall maintain, exercising duties of TAXATION, LAW, DUTIES OF THE MILITARY and SENATORIAL APPOINTMENTS. Signed, HIS IMPERIAL EXCELLENCY, Sir Simon Basrid KCS, Imperial Archchancellor