Urahra

Long-simmering tensions between the Adrians and the Savoyards at long last boiled into outright civil war. While the Dukes' War tore Oren in two, Jace remained locked in the dark, gloomy bowels of the de Bar fortress - Peremont. For three years, he went without seeing the sun or feeling the wind on his face. His only company in this tomb was one Asher Bridgehelm, a Vydrian order soldier who had been detained while trying to defend Vanaheim from Savoyard raiders. As months dragged on into years, Jace feared that he might never escape from his imprisonment. With news of Adria's defeat, Jace resigned himself to what he believed was an inevitable execution.

When all hope seemed lost, Jace's brother, the Lord Steward Publius Bracchus, arrived to pay his ransom. Publius arranged for Jace to receive a pardon. Jace had spent the entirety of the war behind bars and thus never committed a single violent act against the Savoyard forces. In addition, Jace had remained committed to neutrality throughout. As such, Publius argued that the Crown had no reason to punish him. Jace was released at long last and allowed to return home to Vanaheim.

He arrived to find the duchy of Vanaheim devastated by war. Almost every citizen had fled. The walls surrounding the town were crumbling and full of holes. Orcs and frost trolls freely roamed the icy hills. 

Yet the lights still glowed in the windows of the church - and Jace knew he would find his beloved Sister Lorina there. Lorina had remained steadfastly in Vanaheim to aid what few people remained in the war-torn duchy. Jace - emaciated and dirty as he was from years of imprisonment - rushed to meet her in the church. The two of them embraced passionately, sobbing into each other's arms, happy only to be reunited and alive. 

Though they both knew it was wrong and a flagrant violation of Sister Lorina's vows, they consummated their long-standing romantic feelings for one another that night. The war had devastated them both. They saw friends and family mutilated, kidnapped, and killed. Neither of them knew if they'd survive until tomorrow. Who could blame two desperate, exhausted people for grasping at whatever comfort they could take in such a tumultuous time? 

They agreed that they would never tell anyone what happened and take the secret to their graves. Perhaps God would forgive them for a momentary indiscretion, considering all the misfortune had befallen them.

Jace faced an uncertain future. News came to Vanaheim that King Olivier de Savoie had passed away. Lord Chancellor Guy de Bar was set to take the throne and become King Guy de Bar. The Lord Chancellor had extended his mercy to Jace, but there was no guarantee that Jace would keep his lands under the new regime. Vanaheim had been reduced to ruins, its leaders put to the sword. Jace suspected that Percival Staunton, who betrayed Duke Vasili and defected to Savoy, would be given dominion over Vanaheim as its duke. 

What, then, would become of him? What would become of Lorina? The two only had each other in the wake of the war. Trembling, they could do nothing but hold each other's hands as the days ticked by, waiting to see what destiny had in store for them.

News came from the capital city, Felsen, that Lord Chancellor Guy de Bar had ordered Vanaheim be razed to the ground. The Knights of St. Amyas and Guy de Bar would arrive in a few months to oversee the destruction of the duchy. 

Jace asked that certain parts of Vanaheim be spared - such as Lorina's church, his manor, and the town of Kraken's Watch. Guy, to Jace's surprise, agreed to let portions of the duchy remain standing. Guy de Bar also appointed Jace as the temporary steward of the northern lands. Until the duchy was razed, Jace would remain lord over the ruins of Vanaheim.

Publius kept to his word and freed Asher Bridgehelm from Peremont. Asher arrived in Vanaheim some months after Jace - and pledged to help him rebuild Vanaheim. Together, Jace, Lorina, and Asher would try to revitalize the wreck of a duchy.

As they awaited for the Knights of St. Amyas to arrive and raze the city, Lorina also had news for Jace.
 

Lorina lead Jace upstairs. In hushed whispers, she revealed her suspicion that she might be pregnant. Jace couldn't believe what he was hearing. They never considered pregnancy a possibility, since they were both well into middle-age and Lorina was on the cusp of menopause. But Jace recalled, years ago, the conversation they'd had with her elder brother Boris. The Tuvic Carrions, it was rumored, were remarkably fertile. Tuvya, Lorina's father, had the nickname "Tuv the Fertile" and had sired purportedly hundreds of children. Lorina's mother, Mary Therving, gave birth to Lorina at age 40. 

Jace was simultaneously cautious and overjoyed. It seemed like a blessing to have a child with the woman he'd loved for decades. Yet he knew that Lorina would be severely punished by the Church if it was discovered she'd not only violated her vows, but also given birth to a bastard child. 

They concocted a plan. Lorina had a good excuse to temporarily leave Vanaheim since it was about to be razed. Jace would pay for her to leave the duchy and go somewhere to give birth in secret. She would return with the baby in a few months, when the duchy had begun the process of rebuilding. 

Lorina left Vanaheim just as Guy de Bar and the Knights of St. Amyas arrived to raze the duchy. Jace had no choice but to assist in destroying the town he had worked so hard to build.

Once Guy de Bar had burned Vanaheim to the ground, though, he delivered some unexpected news. The Lord Chancellor - soon to be King of Oren - informed Jace that he would be named the new Duke of Vanaheim.

The revelation shocked Jace. He expected that Percival Staunton, who remained a loyalist during the war, would be named the new Duke of Vanaheim. He couldn't fathom why he'd been chosen over Percival. Regardless, he accepted the title with humility and gratitude. It did not strike him as a great prize, to be named liege lord over a ruin. Jace felt as though he had failed the small folk who relied on him as their count. He did not deserve a title so great as Duke. Regardless, he was determined to use his new powers for good.

Jace suddenly found himself as the liege over all of Vanaheim, ruling as the Duke of the North. It was a position he never expected to be in. Jace had never hungered for power. He was not the sort of grasping, ambitious man that sought to claw his way up Oren's political ladder. It seemed to him that he had fallen into power almost accidentally. He had started his life as a peasant working the land. Now, he ruled over it.

Jace was determined to make good use of his new position, though. He had failed his people during the war, yes. But he would rebuild Vanaheim back stronger and better than ever before. He gathered his vassals to outline a plan for the duchy's future.

The Stauntons presented a problem. Percival Staunton had defected to Savoy during the war.  During his imprisonment at Peremont, Jace had seen the letter Percival wrote to King Olivier. Percival pledged his support for the crown... in exchange for the lands which Jace now held. Even Jace expected that Percival would become the new Duke of Vanaheim. Yet he, Jace, had been chosen instead. He worried about the Stauntons' envy, yet emphasized the need for them all to work together. This was not a time for jealousy or petty infighting, but for rebuilding. He hoped that the Stauntons would see sense in what he said.

Jace named the Bridgehelms as dual-mayors of Kraken's Watch and assigned them the task of rebuilding the town. He hoped they could all set aside the conflicts they'd had during the war and find some common ground in improving the duchy.

Yet in this heart, he feared that the Stauntons would not take the slights against them lying down.

Lorina returned to Vanaheim several months later with a newborn baby boy in tow. They decided to name the child Andrik. Jace planned to legitimize baby Andrik and make him heir to the dukedom. If asked, Jace would claim the mother was some anonymous serving girl who'd taken pity on him in Peremont. Plenty of noblemen sired bastard children and legitimized them, so it wouldn't raise suspicions. Jace would also appoint Lorina as his son's governess so that she could remain a presence in the child's life. 

It was just as Lorina had feared, though. Andrik was born with all the features that typified a Tuvic Carrion - black hair, green eyes, pale skin, Karovic bone structure. It wouldn't take a genius to deduce that Jace's son and heir was, very likely, born from the Carrion nun with whom he'd always maintained a close and intimate friendship. They had no choice but to try and make the situation work, though. No matter what, the baby was here and needed their protection as parents.

Lorina, now an Abbess, intended to build a convent in Vanaheim so that she could remain close to Jace, the father of her child.

Meanwhile, the security of the duchy had become a growing problem - with orcs seeing the war-weary Vanaheim as easy pickings for raiders.

Lorina's fears came true when the Bridgehelms immediately deduced that baby Andrik was actually her child with Jace. Asher Bridgehelm had spent nigh-on three years in captivity with Jace, sharing a tiny cell with no privacy for either of them. So Asher knew that Jace never had a liaison with a serving girl in Peremont. But he could see how much Jace and Lorina obviously cared for one another - and that their mutual affection went beyond the bounds of platonic friendship.

Luckily for Jace, the Bridgehelms were too loyal to dare expose the secret. They agreed to keep the truth about the baby's parentage to themselves. 

They all had a bigger problem to worry about, after all: the problem of the Stauntons. 

Percival Staunton and his ilk had always been resistant to authority. Percival's envy and hatred toward Jace had become readily apparent in the years following the year. Percival felt slighted by Guy de Bar. He was the one who'd pledged loyalty to the crown and fought on the side of the Savoyards while Jace was behind bars. Percival felt he deserved dominion over Vanaheim, not Jace. So the Stauntons flouted Jace's authority over them at every turn. The Stauntons refused to attend the yearly vassal meetings at Kraken's Watch. Strange rumors swirled about their fortress on the other side of the river. They refused to share necessary census data with Jace. Jace was left with no knowledge about what his own vassals were doing. 

Jace began to suspect the Stauntons of treachery, though he could not figure out what their plans were. David Bridgehelm, Asher's brother, delivered the news that the Stauntons had been imprisoning and even torturing their citizens. They flouted Oren's laws and all of Jace's proclamations as duke. They even forcefully conscripted Asher Bridgehelm and marched him out on what was assuredly a suicide mission against a dragon - clearly an attempt to get those men loyal to Jace killed in action.

Jace realized he was backed into a corner. Ser Drake Lancefeld, who was supposed to oversee Vanaheim's military forces, had disappeared. Jace wondered if the Stauntons had assassinated Ser Lancefeld. After all, it was Ser Lancefeld who had humiliated them at the first meeting of the ducal council. If the Stauntons attempted a coup now, Jace would not have the power to resist them. It seemed to him like it was only a matter of time before the Stauntons made their play.

And it was.

Jace's suspicions of Staunton treachery were indeed well-founded. One morning, Jace awoke to a messenger pounding on the gates of Kraken's Watch. King Guy de Bar had been assassinated a mere three years into his reign. He had fallen victim to the Polycarp Plot. The Church of the Canon had collaborated with House Chivay, the Stauntons, and the fallen House Horen to stage a coup against Guy de Bar. 

John Frederick Horen - a Horen descendant from abroad - had returned to Oren to orchestrate the coup and return his family to a place of prominence. The Horens had not held the throne of Oren since the fall of King William generations ago. After the successful assassination of Guy de Bar, John Frederick Horen was crowned Holy Orenian Emperor by the church and given the name Emperor John I. 

The Stauntons had been promised control of Vanaheim for assisting in the Polycarp Plot. Jace realized with mounting horror that the Stauntons - backed by the new Emperor - planned to storm his keep and kill him, taking his duchy by force. He would die. His son Andrik, only two years old, would also die. Lorina, as the last living member of the Imperial Tuvic line, would also likely die. 

They had only a narrow window of time before the Stauntons struck. Jace called Lorina to his keep. He knew he had no choice but to run, yet he couldn't possibly leave Lorina behind. He asked her to elope with him.

Jace never wanted power for himself. He sought authority only to benefit the lives of the small folk under his care. Power, he now saw, had only brought him to ruin. He would have been content just to live peacefully together with his child and the woman he loved. 

Maybe, he thought, he could still have that life. Away from Oren, away from the devastation, politics, and bloodshed.

Lorina agreed to go with him. She was sickened that the Church would go against its own teachings to further the bloodshed and chaos brought on by the Duke's War. This was not the Canonism that she believed in - and she would not support it. Lorina had always preached against war and violence, since it had entirely wrecked her life. She had lost countless family members across two civil wars. If the Church happily indulged in bloodshed and regicide, then it was not a church she believed in. Lorina loved God, not the flawed mortal institutions that claimed to worship Him.

Jace said his last goodbyes to the Bridgehelms before he and Lorina took their child and fled from Oren forever.

So, the roleplay continued for a little bit after this, but I opted not to include it since I think this was a good end-point. 

What happened? Well, Jace and Lorina fled initially to the Caliphate. Their friends Tessa, Shiloh, and Neero all lived in the Caliphate. I opted not to include the Caliphate portion because I kinda ended up editing Shiloh, Neero, and Tessa out of the story. I couldn't include everything. There were lots of characters who were close/important to Jace and Lorina that I just didn't have the space to include. These posts are already insane-long. I had to cut it down to the most important stuff and edit out all the slice-of-life RP in between.

However, the Church of the Canon sent inquisitors to hunt Jace and Lorina down. The Inquisitors were hot on their trail and they didn't want to endanger their friends, so they left the Caliphate and went to Urguan.

Apparently, this caused a minor international incident between Oren and Urguan, though, according to the wiki? That's my LOTC claim to fame. Caused a minor international incident one time.

Anyway, the Church of the Canon located them in Urguan, arrested them, and brought them back to Felsen. They were tortured by the Church inquisitors but managed to escape.

Now, what do you do when you're being hunted by Oren and have nowhere to go?

Yeah, they hopped a boat to Aeldin - but not before meeting up with the Bridgehelms and their friend Shiloh one final time.

I like to think that they made it safely to Aeldin and lived happily ever after with their kids. We quit the server after this and decided to take a long break from roleplaying. As you can imagine, this whole situation was incredibly stressful OOC for both of us. 

This RP remains close to my heart because, as I said in the first post, this is the reason why my husband and I got married.  We started talking to each other OOC because we had so much fun roleplaying together. We learned that we actually lived only three hours apart by car, so of course, we had to meet up IRL. The rest, they say, is history. The point where we started dating IRL was shortly after Lorina became a nun. I'm so grateful that the whole thing - every last moment - was preserved and is something I can look back on.

Even though Jace and Lorina had suffered a lot, my husband and I are very happy together. :) We're coming up on eight years together and it's been the best eight years of my life. I also ended up playing a descendant of Jace and Lorina fairly recently! I'm currently on a break from the server, but maybe I will play more Jace & Lorina descendants in the future. 

I just wanted to share these because I was feeling really nostalgic about the RP. I just think their story is a wonderful romantic tragedy, the story of two people who remained loyal to one another even as their world fell apart around them. 

I hope you enjoyed it! 

After the destruction of Athera, humanity transitioned to the new and unspoiled lands of Vailor. The collective trauma of losing Athera ignited a powderkeg of tensions that had lain dormant for decades. 

Xavier de Sola, a member of the de Sola family, was accused of consorting with Frost Witches. He had been contracting the mysterious witches to assassinate members of House Vladov. Xavier de Sola was subsequently brought to the Duchy of Adria to stand trial. Yet before they could reach a verdict, the trial was interrupted by a raid from House de Sola. Several prominent Adrian citizens were slaughtered in the raid, which came to be known as the Massacre of Wett. 

Adria demanded royal justice, but their pleas for restitution and recompense fell on deaf ears. King Olivier de Savoie opted not to intervene in the conflict between House Vladov and House de Sola. The king's inaction pushed Adria into out-and-out rebellion against the Crown.

Initially, Duke Vasili Vanir opted for the Duchy of Vanaheim to remain neutral. Many noble families - both Savoyard and Vladovic - sought refuge from the conflict in Vanaheim. Duke Vasili did not want to endanger the fleeing women and children who'd come to his duchy for sanctuary. 

Soon, though, Duke Vasili would be forced to choose a side. His young relative, Britannus Vanir, was kidnapped by members of the Kingsguard and tortured. The kingsguard intended to punish Britannus for marrying Emilia Vladov, a member of House Vladov. Following the assault on Britannus, Vasili felt he had no choice but to align with Adria. The Dukes' War had now truly begun.

Jace, now Count of Vanhall under Duke Vasili, advocated passionately for Vanaheim's neutrality. Jace had fought in the Schism War and sacrificed a great deal to secure a unified Oren. His brother, Publius Bracchus, served King Olivier de Savoie as Lord Steward. If Vanaheim sided with Adria, the Bracchus clan would be split - brother against brother on different sides of the war. Yet Jace could not sway Duke Vasili away from joining the cause of Adria. 

Regardless of his liege's choice, though, Jace refused to fight in the war. He made a promise to Sister Lorina - who was once upon a time his betrothed, before she joined the clergy - that he would not stoop to kinslaying. Having given the Sister his word, he was loathe to break it.

And he wouldn't. For the entire duration of the war, Jace would not strike out against the Savoyard forces.

Because he was behind bars in the bowels of Peremont, the keep of Lord Chancellor Guy de Bar. Early in the war, cloaked riders intruded upon Vanaheim and snatched Jace from the farms surrounding Vanaheim.

For three long years, Jace rotted in the cold and dark - wondering if he would ever see the sun again... or if this dismal place would be his grave.

The cloaked riders threw the unconscious Jace over the side of a horse. They sped away from Vanaheim under the cover of night. As they sped down the road, the lights of a fortress soon became visible in the distant. This was the fortress known as Peremont, a fortification under the dominion of Lord Guy de Bar. Peremont's gates opened to welcome the kidnappers, who entered and dismounted. They dragged the unconscious Jace down into the dungeons of the fortress - where an unexpected person awaited him...

It was Jace's own brother, Publius, who had arranged for his kidnapping!

The Savoyards would soon descend on Vanaheim. Publius had arranged for Jace's kidnapping so that he would be spared from the oncoming violence - but that was not the only reason for his actions. Publius hoped that Jace could convince Duke Vasili to withdraw support from Adria. 

While they talked in the dungeons, the soldiers of Peremont rallied for battle. Sister Lorina raised the alarm when Jace was kidnapped. Immediately, the Vydrian Order - the martial forces of Vanaheim - set out to free their captured count. 

Publius revealed that Percival Staunton had turned traitor. The Stauntons had opted to remain loyal to the Crown instead of following Vasili into battle for Adria. In exchange, they asked to be given Jace's county should the Savoyards claim victory. In fact, Percival Staunton himself was up on the battlements of Peremont right that moment, preparing to gun down the forces that were mobilizing to rescue Jace.

Without the Stauntons, Vanaheim was in a weakened position. Vasili would be powerless without the backing of his vassals. The Savoyards only required Jace to defect as well. If Jace swore his allegiance to the crown, Vasili would be entirely delegitimized as the Duke of Vanaheim.

Publius did his best to convince Jace. The Lord Steward told Jace that, should he defect, he would be made Duke of Vanaheim upon Adria's capitulation. Unfortunately, it seemed that the Lord Steward did not know his brother's heart half so well as he imagined. Jace refused to betray Vasili. Jace valued his loyalty, his honor, and his integrity more than the promises of titles and wealth.

The sounds of battle had begun to fade - and along with them, Jace's hopes of quick rescue. Publius suggested that Jace be placed on house arrest rather than confined to a dark and dirty cell. The Savoyard soldiers decided to bring the captive Count before the Lord Chancellor. If Publius could not change his brother's mind, perhaps the infamous and terrifying Lord Chancellor could.

Jace soon found himself standing before Lord Chancellor Guy de Bar and his entourage.

No argument, no eloquent words, no promises of power, and no threats of violence would convince Jace Bracchus to break the oaths he swore. The Savoyard's were displeased by Jace's unassailable integrity and honor. When Jace Bracchus gave his word, he gave it with his whole heart. Yet as irritating as the Savoyards found Jace's refusal to capitulate, they also couldn't help but respect it just a little.

Guy de Bar decided he would keep Jace captive a little longer - in hopes that Jace could be traded for Clement de Sola (a prisoner being held captive on the Adrian side of the war). Jace would be given a small, but decent bedroom and a soldier's rations. Jace asked if he might contact his friends back in Vanaheim, to discuss matters pertaining to the county. Guy de Bar allowed it, on the condition that Jace's mail was monitored. 

Jace - perhaps a little too boldly - suggested that Sister Lorina might also come and visit him.

Sergius de Bar - Guy's son - took Jace back down to the dungeons for the night. The Adrian threat had not quite passed. It was possible they would attempt to assault the fortress a second time. On the way down, Sergius spoke with Jace. Jace's commitment to Vanaheim and the Vanirs puzzled the young de Bar.

Was Jace truly not tempted at all by the prospect of dukedom? No matter how many times the Savoyards offered Jace the ducal throne of Vanaheim, he would not take it. Perhaps it was because he didn't believe they'd hold up their end of the bargain - or perhaps it was because of something deeper than that.

Whatever Jace was, he was something different than what they had encountered before.

Despite his resolve to stay loyal to the Vanirs, Jace worried. He was not allowed much contact with the outside world - and he had little knowledge of what was happening in his county. He asked Sergius de Bar, once again, if he might contact Sister Lorina. She was his closest advisor and friend - and, secretly, the woman he loved. The de Bar lordling consented to allow the Sister to visit, so long as she came alone. 

Jace wrote to Lorina - and she soon arrived, bearing good news.

Lorina's visit restored Jace's faith that he might soon be freed - traded to the Adrians in exchange for Clement de Sola. He waited for news of a hostage exchange. 

Yet the news never came.

Lorina still tried to visit him frequently. During one of these visits, Jace was locked in the dungeons due to word that the Adrians would be attempting another rescue mission. 

Lorina's presence inspired hope in Jace, who looked forward to seeing her and hearing news of what was happening in his county. Her readings of scripture reminded him why he had committed to non-violence.

This time, however, Lorina came bearing news most dire.

Jace's captivity continued on, seemingly endless. He occupied his time wandering around Peremont and conversing with the soldiers there. Most of the soldiers were wary of Jace, though they tried to be civil with him. To the Savoyards' credit, Jace was not ill-treated - not by the soldiers and not by the nobles that oversaw them. Still, Jace found few allies among the denizens of Peremont.

His luck was about to take a turn for the worse, though.

One day, as he passed by one of the fort's windows, he noticed someone standing in the yard below. The man waved, trying to get Jace's attention. He pulled back his cloak, revealing a Vydrian order uniform hidden underneath. Asher Bridgehelm was a soldier of Vanaheim, mounting a single-man rescue mission to spring Jace from captivity.

Jace sent the man on his way. He knew it would be suicide for one man to break into Peremont, swarming as it was with enemy soldiers. It wouldn't be long before he saw Asher Bridgehelm again, though.

Just one month later, Jace found Asher locked up inside a cell in Peremont's dungeon.

Asher brought Jace horrible news about Vanaheim's condition. The northern duchy had been battered terribly in the war. The Vydrian Order lay butchered by the Savoyards. Jace's brother, Octavianus, was missing in action - perhaps captured, perhaps killed. No one knew for certain. Jace realized that Lorina, too, had not come to visit him in several months. Worry gripped his breast, but he could not say it aloud.

At that moment, Lord Sergius de Bar came storming down into the dungeon. In a rage, he ordered that Jace be thrown in the cell alongside Asher Bridgehelm. Jace was confused - what had he done? What rule had he broken that so offended the young de Bar? 

Jace had written a letter to Guy de Bar. He'd asked one of the guards at Peremont to deliver it to the Lord Chancellor. In the letter, Jace made an argument for why he ought to be released. The letter ended up in possession of Sergius, who viewed it as a grievous insult. For that, he intended to punish Jace.

Jace's period of relatively comfortable house arrest had ended. Now, it seemed, he would need to make himself at home in the dripping, dark, filthy dungeon of Peremont.

He and Asher were now confined together. With no one else for company, they began to talk and get to know one another.

Months passed in the lightless cell. Jace began to fear that he would never see the sun again, never feel the wind on his face nor smell the salt on the sea breeze. 

Even worse, the soldiers and guards of Peremont began to take their anger out on the prisoners. Jace awoke one day to find that his cellmate, Asher, had been tortured. The Savoyards had taken Asher out of the cell and given him a cruel choice. He could either hang by the neck until dead - or give up one of his hands. Asher, not wanting to die, allowed his hand to be amputated. The guards bound the wound so that Asher would not bleed out and die - but otherwise gave him no medical care whatsoever.

Luckily, the paladin Tessa was also being held captive at Peremont. Under cover of night - while the guards were changing shifts - she snuck down into the dungeons and used her healing magic to treat Asher's hand. She couldn't restore the hand he'd lost, but she cured an infection that has been festering in the amputation wound.

Not all of the guards were cruel, though. Some took pity on Jace and Asher, providing them with food and medical supplies so that they would not die in captivity under Peremont. A few had even taken a liking to the imprisoned pair.

Some of the Knights of St. Amyas even attempted to recruit Jace to their cause - praising his piety and strength of character.

Jace held out hope that he and Asher might see release before the war's end. He listened closely to the voices of the people that passed through Peremont, hoping to catch the sound of Publius's voice. Yet Publius never graced Peremont's halls. Jace began to fear that Publius had forgotten him.

Jace felt himself growing paler, thinner, and sicker as the months dragged into years. The moist, frigid darkness crept into his soul, leeching the hope and optimism slowly out of him. Day blended into night and back into day. Jace could only estimate how much time had passed since he was imprisoned. There was not a single crack in the prison wall through which he could view the sun. He and Asher could do nothing but sleep, eat their meager prison slop, wait, and try to talk of happier things.

Yet the smell of blood and mildew filled their lungs. Jace felt as though this cell would soon become his tomb. In some ways, he felt as though he were already dead. The occasional kind gesture from the guards was not enough to make up for his years of cruel imprisonment.

One morning, Jace woke up to portentous news from Asher.

The Dukes' War had, at long last, reached its conclusion. But Jace's hope for release had grown vanishingly small. He anticipated that what waited him was not, in fact, freedom... but trial and perhaps even execution. It seemed as though the de Bars had no intention of letting him go. Jace had spent the entirety of the war behind bars. He had never harmed a single Savoyard. Even so, he refused to betray Vasili - which made him an enemy combatant. His chances of survival seemed infinitesimal. 

Jace resigned himself to his fate. If he ever saw the sun again, it would be on the way to the gallows. That was, of course, if he didn't waste away inside the cell for the rest of his life, however long that might be. He had grown thin and pallid from years in captivity - his muscles wasting away from lack of use. 

One night, though, as Asher lay asleep -- Jace heard a familiar voice drifting from the upper floors of Peremont.

For the first time in years, Jace felt fresh air upon his sunken cheeks. He nearly collapsed into Publius's arms, so thin and weak were his limbs. Publius drew his weakened brother's arm around his shoulder and they left Peremont together.

Jace pleaded with Publius to try and bargain for Asher's freedom as well. Asher Bridgehelm had been Jace's only company down in that dismal jail cell. He refused to leave Asher to rot and die in that awful place. Publius promised that he'd get Asher free as well.

Together, Jace and Publius returned to Vanaheim. Jace feared that his county had been utterly destroyed by wartime violence. His heart nearly burst when he saw Lorina's church still standing, its warm lighted windows beckoning him through the deepening darkness.

Publius reassured Jace that he would not face any consequences for his actions during the war. In fact, as far as the Crown was concerned, Jace could retain his lordship over Vanaheim. 

There was one person that Jace wanted to see more than anyone else, though.

During his long years in prison, he'd thought of her often. Long ago, in a greener and more peaceful time, Jace had courted a princess. Their courtship failed due to a cruel twist of fate, but Jace had never forgotten his feelings. His love for Lorina Carrion had remained true and strong. He thought of her continuously during his captivity, wondering what had happened to her - if he might ever see her face in the light of day again.

Jace feared what she would think of him, as emaciated and filthy as he was from years of prison. Yet he knew he needed to see her.

In the midst of their reunion, Jace kissed her. Lorina stumbled backward, eyes wide, and touched her hand to her mouth. Her eyes went to Publius, whom she could see standing on the road outside the church. Publius faced off in a different direction, but she had a feeling he'd seen them. Quietly, Jace apologized. He couldn't help himself in the moment. Just as quietly, Lorina told him that he had absolutely nothing to apologize for. 

Timid, Jace turned away and exited the church.

Jace returned to his manor for the night. He bathed and changed into clean clothes for the first time in three years. He sat by his window and looked across the street to the church. As he watched, a small figure in white stepped out of the church's front doors. Lorina saw Jace sitting by the window and waved to him. She gestured to the front door, asking without words if she might visit.

Jace went down to the foyer and opened the door for her. In the front room of the house, he and Lorina stood across from each other, neither one of them knowing what to say. Lorina looked up at Jace's face. Her eyes became misty with tears. Grabbing the nun's veil from her head, she dropped it on the floor and flung herself into Jace's arms. 

It was a mistake - and they were both aware of it. But neither one of them could hold back their feelings anymore. They had been in love with one another for years. 

Their actions would reap consequences, but - for now - they were together after the long and awful war.

Jace Evans retired from his military career with distinction. He fought in the Schism War under King Andrik Vydra and helped reunify Oren under a single crown. Following the war, he served for thirteen faithful years in the 2nd Akovian Regiment under Duke Vasili Vanir. Duke Vasili, recognizing Jace's merit, offered him an esquireship. If Jace could help revitalize the overgrown lands of Karovia - now renamed to Vanhall - then he would be granted the title of Baron.

Jace immediately set to work improving Vanhall by building houses, taverns, and recruiting new residents. What his town lacked, though, was a proper church. The answer to Jace's problem came in the former of Lady Lorina Carrion. Lorina was the famed last princess of Raev, the final remanent of the Carrion Imperial Dynasty. Lorina was working toward joining the Canonist clergy as a nun. Her cousin High Pontiff Daniel I had given her a seemingly impossible task, though. She was to design and build a church. Lorina had grown up in Karovia during the reign of her father, Emperor Tuvya Carrion, and wanted to build her church in her childhood home. Jace was amenable to the arrangement and agreed to help her.

As Jace began the monumental task of building a church with Lorina, he began to fall in love with her. Yet courting and marrying Lorina did not strike him as a realistic or feasible option. Jace held no noble titles - not yet, anyway - and Lorina appeared to be dead set on joining the clergy. Lorina had placed her trust in Jace to help build her church and the last thing he wanted to do was abuse that trust.

Yet, to Jace's surprise, Lorina returned his feelings. She began to change her mind about joining the clergy. Jace was unlike any man who'd courted her before. Her heart was touched by his sincerity, integrity, humility, and kindly spirit. She asked him if he might be willing to marry her matrilineally, give up his surname 'Evans', and become Jace Carrion. Together, they might restore the defunct House of Carrion and rebuild the Imperial Tuvic line.

Jace worried he was not worthy to accept Lorina's proposal, though. He wanted to earn his place among the nobility before making her a marriage offer. They agreed to wait before marrying, but this proved to be a fatal mistake. Lorina delivered the news to her cousin, High Pontiff Daniel I, that she intended to marry rather than join the clergy. At that very moment, Daniel I collapsed, dying in Lorina's arms. He delivered his last wish for her, which was for her to join the clergy. Lorina did not have it in her to deny his last wish, so she reluctantly chose to become a nun.

Lorina's feelings for Jace had not gone away, though. She feared she might die of a broken heart if they were parted, so she asked to stay in Vanhall and minister the church they'd built together. Jace had worries as to whether or not they could maintain a chaste friendship, but he hated the thought of never seeing Lorina again. He granted her leave to stay in Vanhall and promised to build her a vicarage. 

With hope, he thought, their romantic feelings toward one another would fade with time. 

Lorina, now a Sister of the Canonist Faith, settled into the rhythm of life in Vanhall. She and Jace returned to a chaste and platonic (though undoubtedly romantically-charged) friendship. Neither one of them had forgotten their feelings for one another, but they agreed that it was best to set them aside. Lorina seemed to be happy living in the quiet, rural town and maintaining her church. For Jace, Lorina's happiness was his happiness. As long as he could see smiling every day, he could be content. 

Lorina had a large extended family, though. While most of her immediate family had been slaughtered in the Storm King's coup, she had an lengthy list of cousins, second cousins, nieces, and nephews. She had familial ties to almost all of Oren's great houses, from Vanir to Savoie to Vladov and beyond. Lorina's most troublesome relative, however, was Hugues "Hugh" de Montfort.

Hugues was the son of Lorina's cousin, Viktor de Montfort. When Viktor left Oren to seek a cure for his chronically-ill wife, he left Hugues (as well as Hugues' four siblings) under the guardianship of Lorina. Lorina struggled to discipline the Montfort children, though - especially Hugues. Hugues heavily resented Lorina and the two often fought. When Hugh reached age 16, he ran away to Savoie and Lorina could not induce the Savoyards to return him home.

Now that Hugues was the age of majority and Lorina was in the clergy, the two had nothing to do with one another. Or so Lorina thought.

Lorina's troublesome nephew, it seemed, was still up to his antics. Yet now he was the Duke of Adria following the abdication of Franz Vladov. His bratty teenaged shenanigans would now be enacted upon a national stage - and Lorina dreaded what that might mean for her family's reputation. She resolved to keep her distance from Hugues as much as possible.
 

More immediate issues loomed on the horizon, though. The land of Athera came under threat from a plague of continent-sized giant worms. The worms were causing earthquakes, eruptions, tsunamis, and other natural disasters as they burrowed beneath the land. It was soon evident to everyone that humanity could not remain on Athera. As they had done many times before, the Oren fleet assembled to conduct a mass exodus of the citizenry away from Athera.

Many months of sea-travel followed, with the navy sailing toward an uncertain future. At long last, though, Oren's people landed on a new continent - which they dubbed Vailor. Jace and Lorina traveled with the Vanirs on board their battleship. The Vanirs came ashore in the snowy north and set about claiming a duchy-sized parcel of land for themselves on the frozen coast. 

Chaos and confusion reigned in the months after the initial landing, though. The Duchy of Vanaheim, owned by the Vanirs, was split down the middle by a raging river. One side of the river was delegated to Jace, where he would build his town of Port Vydrik. The other half would be given to Percival Staunton.

The Golden Crows - Karl Barbanov's military force - tried to claim the exact same plot of land as the Vanirs. A squabble broke out over livestock and land rights, which King Olivier's chancellor Lord Guy de Bar was called in to resolve. The Golden Crows accused Percival Staunton of stealing their livestock, which Staunton denied.

In addition, there was some confusion over which part of Vanaheim belonged to whom. Percival Staunton believed that he was entitled to build on both sides of the river, despite having been given clear instructions to settle on the east side. The western side of the river belonged to Jace. Percival had already begun building on Jace's side of the river when Jace arrived in Vanaheim. Jace was able to navigate the dispute, but the Stauntons vocally resented being forced to tear down and move their buildings to the other side of the river.

With the land disputes settled, though, Jace could finally begin building on his parcel of land. He soon learned that the Vanirs intended to give him the title of Count.

The Stauntons continued to overstep their bounds and try to build things on Jace's side of the river, however - going so far as to take resources from the Port Vydrik farms.

The new town of Port Vydrik was already flourishing and - as such - it needed spiritual guidance from the clergy. Lorina had kept the architectural design for the church she'd built in Vanhall. She handed the plans over to Jace in hopes they could rebuild it - exactly as before - in the new duchy.

But a new problem reared its ugly head. Sister Lorina was the only clergyperson for miles around. New citizens were pouring into the town of Port Vydrik by the day - and, as such, there was a need for a clergy member who could perform the Canonist sacraments. Couples needed someone to perform the marriage rites. New parents required a priest to baptize their babies. The elderly and dying needed their last rites. The bodies of the deceased needed to be consecrated and buried.

Jace naturally wanted his friend Lorina to be the one overseeing religious matters in the town of Port Vydrik. She was well-versed in the Canon, not to mention someone Jace trusted to advise him on spiritual matters. As a nun, however, Lorina did not have permission to perform sacraments or rites for the church. Jace asked Lorina if she might write to the new High Pontiff Sixtus III and ask for a special dispensation to perform sacraments since Port Vydrik lacked a dedicated priest.

They would both be disappointed, however.
 

The difficulties with the Stauntons also persisted. Percival Staunton appeared to be raising a militia to protect his land holdings - without Jace's consent or knowledge. Jace had installed his friend Octavianus "Scipio" Bracchus as the leader of Vanaheim's military forces. Yet neither Octavianus nor Jace knew about Percival's small, but growing militia. The stubborn yet ambitious Percival did not want to place his men under Octavianus's authority. Percival desired to be a count in his own right and seemed uninterested in bowing to any higher authority than his own. 

Jace, for his part, tried to keep up civil relations with the man.
 

Yet something about Percival Staunton made Jace uneasy. Percival struck him as a grasping sort, desirous of power and willing to use any means to get it. Yet he set aside his doubts and attempted to get along for the sake of Vanaheim. 

Months passed and the people of Oren settled into their new home in Vailor. For a time, peace ruled the land - though it would not last. There had long been tensions brewing between the heartlander Savoyards and the highlander Raevir. The Savoyards and the Raevir had a deep cultural divide between them. The Raevir saw the Savoyards as prissy, stuck-up, and snake-like in their politics - backstabbers and power-grabbers who had unfairly unseated them from Oren's throne. The Savoyards likewise viewed the Raevir as brutish, uncivilized, violent, and crude.

Jace straddled the line between the two groups. He was heartlander by ethnicity and had been adopted into a prominent Savoyard family - the Bracchus clan. Yet he'd found a home and allies among the Raevir. It was the Vanirs who had offered him land and a place among the nobility. And though he could not admit it out loud any longer, he loved the woman who many viewed as a symbol of Raevir culture - Lorina, the last Carrion princess.

Jace would not be able to walk the line between the Raevir and the Savoyards for long, though. Violence between the Savoyard De Solas and the Raevir Vladovs broke out in the capital city of Felsen after a speech given by Publius Bracchus - Jace's brother and King Olivier's Lord Steward.
 

Mere days later, Publius would arrive once more in Vanaheim... this time, with the Savoyard royal family in tow. Violence between the Vladovs and the De Solas had once again broken out in Felsen. It seemed a civil conflict had begun in earnest.

Jace's manor was situated right across the road from Lorina's church. Lorina left the manor - only to find more refugees from the opposite side of the conflict waiting inside her church!
 

Jace scrambled through the evening to make accommodations for the sudden influx of refugees. He feared that with the Savoyards and the Vladovs in such close proximity, violence might break out in Vanaheim. The majority of the refugees were women and children, however - noncombatants with no desire to engage one another in martial conflict. Jace could only do what he thought was correct, which was to keep the noncombatants safe and comfortable while their men fought in the field.

It wasn't long before Duke Vasili took notice of the chaos unfolding in his lands.

Jace argued passionately that Vanaheim should remain a refuge from the fighting. As a 2nd Regiment Soldier, Jace had fought and shed blood for the cause of a united Oren. He could not stand to see Orenian men and women driven from their homes in fear of violence and civil war. Vasili listened to Jace's arguments and agreed. He had fought alongside Jace in the Schism War and saw first-hand the damage a divided Oren could do to itself. He did not want the kingdom plunged back into pointless bloodshed. Vanaheim, by his decree, would remain neutral ground and not play host to Orenians fighting Orenians.

Jace felt no relief, however. He hoped that the Vladovs and the de Solas would burn themselves out - fight until they had their fill of blood, then make peace with one another. In his heart, though, he knew this was only the beginning. Oren's fragile unity was about to be broken.

As conflict escalated, King Olivier made an attempt to quell the fighting by declaring that the duchies were no longer allowed to make war on one another. The Vladovs and the de Solas were free to fight each other if they liked, but no one else could participate. The Duchy of Adria reacted with immediate hostility and soon progressed to open rebellion against the crown. They accused King Olivier de Savoie of being an absent monarch who showered favors upon his relatives while scorning the Raevir. 

Vanaheim attempted to remain neutral as long as possible, but an ill-timed marriage between young Britannus Vanir and Emilia Vladov ignited Savoyard hostilities against the northern duchy. The Savoyards believed that by arranging a marriage between Britannus and Emilia, the Vanirs were casting their lots with Adria. 

Mere days after the wedding between Britannus and Emilia, members of King Olivier de Savoie's kingsguard would kidnap and assault the young groom - forcing Vanaheim to at last choose a side in the war. 

Now that Vanaheim had sworn its allegiance to Adria, Jace and his family members found themselves in a painful and awkward position. Publius, the head of the Bracchus clan, served as the Lord Steward for King Olivier de Savoie. Publius had no intentions of defecting to the rebel cause. Jace and Octavianus, however, had given their fealty to Duke Vasili Vanir. The family lay divided on opposite sides of the war.  Not one of the three brothers knew how to approach the situation. They felt loyalty to one another as kinsmen, yet they had each pledged to fight for different sides of the war.

The situation came to a head when Publius was kidnapped and held for ransom by Duke Hugues Sarkozic. Jace petitioned Duke Hugues for his brother's freedom - and Hugues magnanimously chose to release Publius into Jace's custody without demanding payment.

Jace and Publius returned to Jace's manor house in Vanaheim, where Octavianus was waiting for them. There, the three Bracchus brothers were forced to make a difficult decision. Where, precisely, did their allegiances lie? Would they be willing to fight against one another? Did they owe their loyalty to their liege lords - or to one another?

All three agreed that they had no choice but to remain true to the oaths they had sworn - even if it meant they were isolated from one another on different sides of the war. Regardless of their allegiances, though, they pledged that they would not harm one another if they could avoid it. The three men cared truly for one another and would not let their bond of blood be severed by the war.

Distraught by the circumstances, Jace sought counsel with his friend and advisor Sister Lorina.

Sister Lorina was not especially reassured by Jace's words. She had lived through Storm King Maric's bloody civil war - the war that had destroyed her family, the Carrions, and unseated them from imperial rule - and she was not eager to see Oren split in two once again. She asked Jace that he refrain from fighting if at all possible, to avoid the stain of kinslaying on his soul.

Jace agreed. He no longer wanted to seek glory as a soldier. Instead, he wanted to support the people of Vanaheim through civil efforts - to protect the citizenry, provide for refugees, and keep the peace as much as possible. Lorina nodded along, satisfied, and praised him for refusing to commit an act of kinslaying.

Jace would keep his word. He did not commit a single act of violence during the entirety of the Duke's War. But not because of the choice he made to remain peaceful...

One dark night, while Jace was attending to the fields of Vanaheim, a gang of cloaked riders approached the farm.

The riders knocked Jace unconscious and threw him over the back of a horse. They took off riding in the direction of Peremont, the fortress of King Olivier de Savoie's chancellor, Guy de Bar. And it was in the dark bowels of Peremont that Jace would be imprisoned for the duration of the war...

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.

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.

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

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...

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.

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

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. 

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.

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.
 

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.

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.
 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The man known as Jace Evans appeared in the town of Karovia in the late 1400's. He arrived during the midst of the Schism War. He was but a peasant man of unknown parentage at the time, seeking to find work tilling the fields. Little did he know that upon his arrival in this quiet town, surrounding by green mountains and rushing rivers, he would meet a man that would change his life forever.

"Clearly you are no commoner, Jace Evans," said the stranger Karovian king who dressed peculiarly like a peasant. Those words rang in his head. What could King Andrik possibly have meant? What was the situation that Jace suddenly found himself in?

The peasant farmer settled into his new home. Right away, he set to work laboring in the fields. He began to make friends among the humble people of Karovia.
 

Sophie and Jace soon became fast friends. Sophie told him all about her mission in coming to Karovia. She was seeking out a thieving con-man who'd promised to marry her, but then stolen all her money. She had been told that her would-be fiance was spotted around Karovia. Sophie was a dwarf, though, and a former resident of Aesterwald... a fact which stirred King Andrik's suspicions. The King soon came to Jace with a mission.

Jace did his best to gather information of Sophie, but it did turn out that she was exactly who she claimed to be. Though she was a dwarf and a former citizen of Aesterwald, she was a surfacer who had never lived among her own kind and she had no special attachment to her old home. 

Regardless, he seemed to earn King Andrik's favor by covertly investigating the dwarven woman.

Jace would soon become involved in the war in another capacity, however. Karovia had no formalized military and instead called upon its citizens to defend it during wartime. When a raid of Waldenians and dwarves suddenly descended on the sleepy mountain village, Jace found himself called to defend his new homeland!

While that was Jace's first battle, it would not be his last. He continued to fight on the side of Canonism during the Schism War. King Andrik led his men to victory after victory for the Canonist League, eventually claiming the capital city of Petrus.

Having conquered Petrus, King Andrik declared himself king of Oren and stood proud upon his victories, declaring that humanity was united under the One True Faith once again. 

Jace followed King Andrik to the capital city of Petrus. He decided to join King Andrik's 2nd Akovian Regiment, pledging his life and sword in service to Vydra and Oren. 

While he unfortunately lost touch with his dwarven friend Sophie, he found himself making many new friends and enjoying the brotherly camaraderie of life in the military.

Although Jace would not know it yet, Publius Bracchus would become one of his closest friends.

Jace received word that the Vanirs, the noble family ruling over Karovia, planned to demolish the mountain village and rebuild something new in its place. He rented a modest apartment in the capital city and prepared to move. 

While fetching his things from his old home in Karovia, he had a strange encounter...
 

Jace did not know what to think of this mysterious armored man, in search of a seemingly deceased girl. He made his way back to Petrus with his possessions, dismissing it from his mind.

His adventures with the 2nd Akovian Regiment tested his new martial abilities. He saw strange, magical sites. He stood guard over feasts. He fought enormous and terrifying monsters. King Andrik Vydra praised Jace as an exemplary soldier. 

Jace continued to gain esteem in the eyes of his superiors. Jace's commanding officer, Lt. Reyne, contracted him to draft a code of conduct for the 2nd Akovian Regiment. In the Lieutenant's eyes, Jace was a shining example which he wanted the other men in the Regiment to follow.

Sometime later, he would have a chance encounter with "Lorina" - the mysterious woman mentioned by the strange man in armor back in Karovia. 

Jace discovered that he and Lorina actually lived next door to one another. She was his neighbor! It seemed as though she had a story, though he knew not yet what it could be. 

The mysteries of Lorina only compounded as time went on.

Why, Jace wondered, were assassins targeting an ordinary citizen of Petrus? Lorina struck him as a regular person, just like any other. He could not conceive of why anyone would threaten her life. Jace pledged that he would look out for her, for she was a citizen of Petrus who needed protection and the 2nd Akovian Regiment would never deny help to a Petrusian in need.

Jace's efforts in the 2nd Regiment did not go unnoticed by his superiors. In short order, he was promoted to the rank of Ensign.

Jace's new rank brought with it new duties and responsibilities. His adventures with his brothers-in-arms continued. They explored far-away lands as scouts. They confronted magical mysteries that had no explanation. They fought in battles galore for the glory of Oren. 

In his time as Ensign, Jace learned more about the history of Oren - and in turn, he gained new knowledge about the young lady who had taken up residence in the apartment next door to him. His neighbor was not as simple and innocent as she initially appeared. 

In the age before King Andrik's conquest of Oren, the nation - as Jace learned - had been ruled by a family called the Carrions. The Emperor, Tobias "Tuvya" Carrion, had been deposed in a violent coup by his own grand knight. The entire Carrion family had been either brutally slaughtered or scattered to the four winds. The once-great lineage now lay in fragments. 

It was theorized that only one descendant of Emperor Tuvya had survived the carnage - Jace's neighbor, Lorina Carrion. Many sought to end the Tuvic line for good and so Lorina was continually dogged by assassins.

Threats came upon her life with regularity. King Andrik and Duke Vasili Vanir (who led the 2nd Akovian Regiment) both had an interest in keeping Lorina safe from harm. 

Duke Vasili assigned Jace to act as one of Lorina's personal bodyguards, alongside an elf by the name of Aethos Tyberian. The two of them took their duties seriously.

Lorina, in turn, began taking interest in Jace - since he, too, was a former resident of Karovia.

Though Lorina would not need the 2nd Akovian Regiment's protection for much longer. A cousin of hers, Viktor de Montfort, invited her to take up residence with him in his holdings at Owynswood. Owynswood was some distance away from Petrus. It seemed that Jace and Lorina would no longer be neighbors. 

 In her conversations with Viktor, Lorina mentioned pursuing a career in the clergy as a nun. She seemed determined to pursue the path of faith, for which Jace could not fault her. He was a faithful Canonist man himself, who had shed blood during the Schism War. 

Everything changed when tragedy unexpectedly struck Oren. King Andrik Vydra arranged a diplomatic meeting with the High Elves of Haelun'or in order to broker an agreement between the two nations. The High Elves, however, turned traitor. They separated King Andrik from his retinue of guards and activated a trap door that plunged the King to his death in a pit of acid.

Grief and anger overwhelmed Jace. What fate would befall Oren now that its monarch lay dead?

But then, Jace came across an unexpected discovery in the libraries of the palace.

The fallen king had left detailed instructions inside a personal diary, which was then hidden away within the library. Thrilled by his discovery, Jace rushed to deliver his findings to Duke Vasili.

With the help of Duke Vasili Vanir and his brother Arik Vanir, Jace founded the Sons of Vydra. Their goal was singular - to follow the instructions laid out in Andrik Vydra's diary and to seek revenge for their fallen king. Jace was named the Commissar of the Sons of Vydra.

Together, the Sons of Vydra waged a campaign to seek revenge for their king's slaughter. In short order, Oren's vengeance was brought to bear.

As reward for Jace's labors, the Vanirs awarded him with land holdings inside their duchy of Karovia - the town where Jace lived when he first arrived in Oren. If Jace succeeded in turning the barren land into a thriving community, he would be bestowed the title of Baron and his holdings would be someday passed down to his offspring.

With Andrik's death avenged, Arik Vanir made the choice to disband the Sons of Vydra. They had served their purpose - and it was now time for the soldiers to hang up their swords and focus on maintaining peace in Oren under its new king, Olivier de Savoie.

With the Sons of Vydra officially disbanded, Jace looked forward to settling into retirement and civilian life. He turned his attention toward his new land holdings, which would be dubbed "Vanhall" by the Vanirs who oversaw it. Perhaps, with time, effort, and determination, he could build the barren land into something worth cherishing.

@Wholesome_Thomas

This letter is not published publicly and was sent only to Catherine Bentarus.

OOC:

Seriously, both these characters have been shelved for months at this point. Wtf are y'all even tryna do.