NovumChase

On his morning walk to Castle Glasgon, a pamphlet is thrust into the hands of Rothwin Aldor by a scurrying child. Discreetly tucked into his layers of finely woven wool, it is received by the elder Aldor with the wry smile of guaranteed gossip. As the papers are unfolded in his office an hour later, the expression draws into one of sure amusement—and then of a pinch of indignation. “Unruly?”

Rothwin Aldor grimaces at Ledicort’s death-notice, filing it dutifully away with other genealogical material. Little by little, the senior generation was ebbing. Of Ledicort, he would write among his journal-entries of 2077: … After the closing of the House of Burgesses (which is called the “Burgherraad”), I spoke with members of the House, and others … but after all this, I was startled to see Ledicort de Senna enter the chamber-room, and I was amazed by his antiquity. I think I have only ever seen one or two men as aged as he, and he was, I regret to report, disoriented and seeming in the twilight of life. It was regrettable, although unsurprising, to see the later notice of his passing. Still, I am sobered by this passage; few men represented so long a leap in family history as did Ledicort de Senna. In all my youth, I sighted Senna children in the schools, and in the training-yards, and in the public places, and I have felt his influence, though indirectly, more than many men of his generation. It is doubtless that my children and grandchildren will be fascinated that I sighted him at all.

Rothwin Aldor frustratedly struggles to set up his Alba Eats account, needing to consult Ithmere for guidance.

Scandalous!

for Imperial Senator of Alba “We shall never be greater than the deeds that we do.” Swithun Aldor • • • Friends and countrymen! Once more, the Empire has set forth a call for a national legislature. Hence, it is once more my honor to submit my candidacy to represent our good Archduchy and our collective interests in Rittersburg, that we may be better heard there and the prosperity of our land and people more staunchly defended. My friends and neighbors will recall that, in the Witenmot of years past, in spite of the heavy pace and dullness of that particular body within the framework of Imperial law, I represented the borough of Leever in St. Godwinsburg as a Folkman in the Imperial Witenmot, where it is known that I opposed a national law for the drinking age and advanced subsidies for the good physicians of our realm. Since then, as a token of faith and service, the good Archduke of Alba has entrusted me with the titular Lordship of Aldor, and with the court station of Master of Pedigrees. It would be my honor to again take up the mantle of Alba before the Emperor in Alba and, in my capacity as a member of the Chamber of Plebeians, defend the interests of the common class. The plans and principles I would take to the Senate would be as follows: • As with my Folkmanship, prevention of the growth of over-government. As the Empire now spans the New World, it would be unbecoming for it to tighten its home grip. It is my belief that government is at its sharpest and most effectual when it is localized. The use of a national Imperial government ought to only be used for a few purposes, which will follow: • The proliferation of education. The recent inauguration of the People’s University of Venerable Dame Catherine and the reforms at the Prince’s Institute demonstrate to even the most disengaged observers that the age of enlightenment has come. The spread thereof through the Imperial heartlands, and the availability of its fruits to the Archduchy of Alba, are at the fore of my mind. • The institution of a more comprehensive Imperial census involving trained enumerators, to ensure that current and future generations might know, in full scope, the populace of our Empire. • Investigation into the plausibility of an Imperial genealogical association, which might formalize the study of family history and enshrine all souls, living and dead, into the sight of History, particularly as pertains to those souls claimed by the late war. • Inquiry into the reconstitution of the Imperial College of Medicine, that it may be rendered more effective, as it formerly was before the recent loosening of the standards of medical practice. • The erection of monuments to memorialize the fallen of the late war, and whose construction might employ and enrich the common masons, craftsmen, and other artisans. My sincere hope is that this program might prove agreeable to the Archduchy of Alba. Inquiries, suggestions, and critiques may be mailed to #6 in the Borough of Leever, St. Godwinsburg. If you are convinced thereof, you are cordially and gratefully invited to vote for Rothwin Aldor in the coming Imperial senatorial elections. • • • In thanks and love for my country, Rothwin Aldor.

✠ Discord & IGN Usernames: novumchase (Discord), NovumChase (IGN) ✠ Full Legal Name: Rothwin Aldor ✠ Age (Must be over 18): 40 ✠ Political Affiliation (If none, then write INDEPENDENT): INDEPENDENT ✠ Running for Which Seat (Senator of X): Senator of Alba ✠ Residence (Must be within constituency): Deveroad VI, Leever, St. Godwinsburg ✠ Provide a brief account (100-300 words) of your standing, trade, or service to your community, by which you claim fitness to represent them in the Senate: I was elected Folkman of Leever, my native ward in St. Godwinsburg, at the age of eighteen years, and therein served in the Imperial Witenmot for the full term of eight years. During that time, and in spite of the dullness and sloth of that body, I opposed at every turn the encroachment of over-government. I gave no consent unto a national law for the national drinking age and advanced subsidies to the good physicians of the Imperial College of Medicine. In the years since, I have received the trust and gracious patronage of the noblest Archduke of Alba as his Master of Pedigrees and have been elevated to the archducal House of Lords, bearing the titular and gentle style of Lord of House Aldor. It would be a singular honor to continue in this course of service in representation of the Archduchy of Alba in Rittersburg. I would add hereunto that I have ever been a steadfast friend to the Prince’s Institution, and am myself both a father and the head of the Aldor kindred: two considerations which, to those who hold those matters dear, may well assure them of my constant care for the maintenance of learning and family life, both in Alba and beyond. My full campaign declaration is entitled The Plebeians’ Friend.

What’s the story behind your username? And is there anywhere specific where you find your character/narrative inspiration? Has been great getting to know you through NGS RP!

Sunbeams, full and bright, stream in on the study of the staid-faced Master of Pedigrees—now orderly and regimented after his health returned to him. They do nothing to cure his frown as he amends his genealogy of the Helvets family in answer to the news. After a moment, though, Rothwin Aldor squints and reëxamines the thoroughly annotated page. “A succession most interesting.”

In a dimly lit study overgrown with heaps of papers and unfinished work, a sigh of relief escapes the Master of Pedigrees as he reviews the latest proclamation. A shaft of sunlight seems to peek in upon the pale face of Rothwin Aldor at that very moment—the pairing was a success. Perhaps soon enough he would summon the will to leave that room into the open air once more, drawn by the nuptial festivities.

The words of the late Sir join a heap of piling correspondence, missives, and mail-ordered books now cluttering the many surfaces of Rothwin Aldor’s bedroom, writing-room, and lounge. Long taken by illness, the scrivener takes many weeks to finally arrive at the letter. As he unfolds it at his desk, his face falls. His travels seeking the Lady Diane, the sick months that followed his return, and the business of his family’s elevation to the Alban gentry had led him to delay—and then further delay—his meetings with the von Augusten. Time, in its mercilessness, had punished that decision. His thoughts on the matter were written down and eventually bound up in a compilation of journal-entries of 2069. For days I was troubled by my inaction on the matter of Konstantin von Augusten, and I was tormented one night by a frightful dream in which I was not permitted to breathe until I met with him—which, of course, he being dead, I could not accomplish. But after a week I came to a conclusion which was helpful to my heart’s ease: that I, by showing any interest whatsoever in the man’s stories, encouraged him to pen his account of that terrible conflict, and in doing so have aided in preserving his historical perspective, invaluable as it is. When all this business of war has passed, I hope that I might someday include it in my own writings, but will be gladdened if any hand, even if it be not my own, makes use of his words.

“Fortuitous and loving,” Rothwin Aldor murmurs, filing away the invitation on a meticulously organized shelf. “Historians will commend this one.”

A year prior, Rothwin Aldor, clad in thick fur travelling garb, lounges on a haphazard wooden stool under an eave, the forests of Valwyck sprawling out before him. A small table bedecked with tools and oddities separates him from a similar man on an equally similar seat—a likeness of Rothwin, but wizening, with dimmed, cloudy eyes and hair that, while just as wavy, is a blond-gray fading into white. “And yet, Father, while it would rend my very heart if the illness does claim her,” he murmurs, his elder nodding in listening all the while, “one must… wonder, at the least, what would become of her if she lives. I fear wyrd will be hard in either case.” Rothswith, now climbing through his sixties, can only scoff in bemusement at the junior Rothwin. “Yes… what a ‘hard wyrd’ for her to live, and for the two of you to be happy.” He barks a laugh. “Do you so swiftly dismiss the gift of life, child?” “Never,” Rothwin answers patiently, bearing only a fraction of his indignation outwardly. “But she is dead to the world, at present. What will be her fate if she wakes? Years will have stolen the fire from her personal relations, from her knowledge of the world. She was such an eager explorer…” “Selfish boy—just as your grandfather was.” The tone of the elder Aldor no longer pretends to be paternal, sharpening into an arrow-like acuity. “Where would we be, if I delivered unto your mother the same impatience you would now espouse? I see it—you wish to move on… inflict your fancies elsewhere. But what would it make you?” Rothwin’s jaw tenses—as does the whole of him. He lounges no longer, instead abandoning the chair to depart bitterly into the ramshackle cabin. No answer awaited him there.

A HISTORIOGRAPHICAL EVALUATION OF THE LIVES AND CHARACTERS OF COMPOSED BY MEANS OF WRITTEN AND SPOKEN ACCOUNTS OF THE LATE PRINCES OF ALSTION •─────────────────•𖥠•─────────────────• •─────────────────•𖥠•─────────────────• W R I T T E N B Y R O T H W I N A L D O R P U B L I S H E D B Y T H E N O R T H E R N G E O G R A P H I C A L S O C I E T Y O N T H E 9 T H O F O W Y N ’ S L I G H T , 2 0 5 9 •─────────────────•𖥠•─────────────────• I WAS BORN IN THE waning days of the lordship of the beloved Archduke Edward I and Archduchess Cecily of Alba—the Princes Edward and Cecily—to whom much praise is lofted. As their rulership was confined to the rosy days of my childhood, and as I witnessed the ascent of Edward II as Archduke in the footsteps of his father, I naturally sought, as I came into the fruits of adulthood, to make an honest evaluation of the predecessor to our good Archduke Edward II. It was happy that, at such time, I sought entrance into the Northern Geographical Society, and it was asked of me that I write, as a demonstration of my commitment to good scholarship, reckonings of a historical person while in the employ of two discrete methods, spoken and written historical research. It was happier still that, soon after, I chanced upon the convivial Henri Charles Halcourt, then heir to the Barony of Artois, whose memory of the Archduke Edward’s reign was the first tool with which I attempted to apprehend the lives of Edward and Cecily. It is here that I begin the history of the Princes; it shall be made up first of a history of the Princes as known through oral history, and then a history of the two as gathered from the writs and works of the time. This work would not have been possible without the enduring scholastic patronage of the esteemed Archduke Edward and Archduchess Jane of Alba and the staff of Castle Glasgon, nor could it have matured without the guidance of Dame Manon von Volkrich, who, as President of the Society, illuminated this work’s path to completion. I must lastly thank my kindred for their enduring support, most particularly my good sister Roswyn Aldor, who, in the hermitage that this work demanded of me, has honorably fulfilled the public duties of our House. THE FIRST ENDEAVOR IN THIS work is to tell a full historical account of the Princes Edward and Cecily through what is spoken of them, as I have ascertained it through oral interviews, conversation, and what I heard of the Princes as I grew. These spoken words include a few well-known factual particulars of the lives of the Princes, qualitative statements about their characters and accomplishments, and meditations on their combined legacy. I shall hence tell, and thereafter evaluate, the history of the Princes as it has come to me through the spoken word. Prince Edward Caius and Princess Cecily Amelia were born in the late days of the 20th century, both bearing the name of Alstion, that most noble Horenic house which emerged from the dissolution of the House of Horen after the War of Two Emperors. Edward was son to Leufroy Guy Alstion, son of Robert Owyn, son of Emil Caius, second son of Charles I, first king of restored Aaun. Cecily was Edward’s third cousin through Charles I’s eldest son James; both Princes were scions of the Alstion legacy but of disparate limbs of the House, which, in their youth, needed to reckon with the dissolution of the Apostolic Kingdom of Aaun, the domain of their fore-elders. These facts are in common fluency and are not, to my knowledge, disputed. When I moved beyond the details of their childhood and set myself to asking rememberers about the Princes’ subsequent rule and accomplishments, I was dealt a dazzling array of grandly given answers. As it is the duty of the historian to read against history—that is, to read the history of each remembered event as if it is a distortion of the truth, and determine the degree of that distortion in order to more fully get to the root of the matter—my wits bade me to skepticism at first. The Lord Henri Halcourt accredited the Princes with “the restoration of the Alstion line and the diasporic people of Aaun.” Could this charmingly simple assertion have been true? Contrary to the skepticism which assailed me, I believe, through investigation, that the Princes are indeed, more or less, the grand figures responsible for the accomplishments widely attributed to them. As I proceeded through oral interview, there was a dearth of negative testimonials, but, more than this, all seemed to share a coherent and continuous view of the course of their reigns, which I will proceed in relating below. After the end of the Apostolic Kingdom of Aaun, it was under the vigorous pursuit of restoration of Edward I that the Duchy of Alba was formed to succeed it. He and the good Cecily Alstion married; Cecily, being of an elder line, represented a uniquely senior claim to the succession of House Alstion, and a coupling of Edward and Cecily together was a match Alstion-blooded enough to earn the undisputed trust and respect of the now-scattered Aaunic people. Intriguingly, the two ruled in tandem and were quickly distinguished in service to the Empire. Edward I was appointed Lord Chamberlain and, some years later, Cecily was named Arbiter Draconis, a steward of Horenic genealogy in direct service to the Emperor. The tandem rule was one element of the Princes’ rule that I had chosen to read against in particular, as some rememberers attributed Alba’s prestige and accomplishments during this period solely to Edward. However, I could not find anything substantial to indicate that this was anything more than a male bias, as none would take the expected step to speak of Cecily as meek or unindustrious. It was in tandem rule that, after decades at the head of the Duchy of Alba—elevated to an Archduchy during their reign—the two, GOD rest their souls, met their untimely deaths at sea during the flight from Aevos. So too did I try to read against their characters, and I had, here, more success. “… he was a man of low tempers, typically well-mannered but nay one of the Aldersberg sort,” replied Henri on matters of Edward’s personage. “He was certainly known for his baldness in later years,” he admitted in good humor, “but a respectable man through and through.” It struck me at once that a man who could be known for something as trivial as his hairless head could not have been some great tyrant—perhaps, indeed, this speaks to the “low tempers” that were said to constitute him. However, I needed to more thoroughly wonder at the truth of Edward’s low tempers as Henri told of the attempted assassinations of the Archduke during his reign. I pondered within how it was that a man regarded as a great restorer and who met with such opposition could have indeed been so personally mild. I am more inclined, instead, to believe that the baldness was an attribute used to make light of a character who was, in fact, a most serious and driven man who, by that nature, made enemies. The character of Cecily was, too, of sincere interest to me. In both quiet murmurings and public proclamations, she has always been given as the equal and coordinate of Edward—in not only title, but in status and influence, too—which is, as readers of history will well understand, an uncommon placement for a woman. Wondering at this placement, there would seem to me two explanations for this: firstly, that her birth in the elder Alstion line made her innate part in restoring the dynasty great by nature; and—or—her temperament was indomitable, and she, using devices of stubbornness and personal character, drove her way to equality with her husband by strength of personage. I am inclined to believe that it was an alliance of these two things which secured her status for her, for many historical persons have had one or the other and been unable to establish similar stations for themselves. The combined legacy of the Princes Edward and Cecily is most often spoken of as a renaissance of the Alstion line and all who belong to it. This is where what is spoken of the past meets with the present, for the Archduchy of Alba, as it stands, is a shining vassal of the Empire of Man indeed—productive, populous, and respected. It is the current standing of the Archduchy, and the ease with which the good heir to the Princes—Archduke Edward II—was accepted by his people, that inclines me to my fair and commendatory assessment of the Princes, even in my attempt to read against all of the praise popularly lofted upon them. THE SECOND ENDEAVOR HERE IS to lay out a discrete history of the Princes by means of written texts pertinent to their lives and deeds, followed by a short analysis. This method of historical compilation proved more immediately fruitful in producing exact details of the Princes’ lives, though a fuller meditation on the differences between the spoken and written histories will be given in the subsequent part. The long history of the House of Alstion has, to my knowledge, been given no better exploration than A Study into the Patriarchs of Horen and Alstion (1859), compiled by Maxim of the Attenlund, William Alstion, and Jurgen Barclay. It was into this most ancient and noble lineage that Prince Edward Caius Alstion was born on the 10th of Godfrey’s Triumph, 1979, and Princess Cecily Amelia Alstion on the 5th of Owyn’s Flame, 1982. This was in the days of Aevos, when Charles II Alstion—father to Cecily and the later King Godwin II, and second cousin once removed to Edward—ruled the Apostolic Kingdom of Aaun from Whitespire. The childhoods of Edward and Cecily were marked by the disastrous Ravenmirian–Aaunic War of 1989–1990, the concluding compact of which, the Treaty of Minas Aranath, immediately saw Charles’s abdication to a pontifical regency and the cessation of much land to the Church of the Canon. The War would later doom Aaun to full destruction, as the Church regency over Godwin II Alstion culminated in his abdication to his brother, Mark Anthony, whereupon disputation of the throne grew too great and the Kingdom fell into disarray and dissolution. The Godwinites were scattered upon every road, and the once-reigning Alstions were left to ponder what to make of the future of the Aaunic diaspora. It was out of this void that Edward and Cecily struck decisively upward. Edward’s return to the Lowlands at the turn of the millenium coincided with the establishment of the Duchy of Alba under the good Edward and Cecily’s domain. They presented an Alba of peace, work, and Aaunic revival, rebuking war and inviting all humans to settle within the Duchy. For their successes, Edward was elevated to Lord Chamberlain in 2025, and then to Archduke, together with Cecily, in 2032. For her own merits, Cecily was appointed the first Arbiter Draconis, a proxy of the Emperor in the Draconis-Atrium, a gathering of Horenic-Imperial blood-descendants. In this upward direction, free of the strife of war and the talons of disorder, the Princes went their way through Aevos and, after half a century of rule, toward the New World. It was in this fateful journey that, sailing aboard the Anna Lorena, they met their deaths as the vessel crashed upon the rocks of Prince’s Rest on the shores of the New World, in 2051. They left behind decades of peaceable and respected rule that brought the Alstion line back to strength and standing and built an Archduchy which stands now at the fore of the Empire of Man. I am able to make one special addition to this section with thanks to the Lord Archduke and Lady Archduchess, and to the staff of Castle Glasgon, who allowed me to review the private correspondences of the late Princes. Within them, I found peers of the realm writing to the Alstion dynasty in peace and hope, anticipating, it seems, the gentle nature of the Princes. “The time is nigh for a greater unity amongst our peoples,” agrees Henrik I, Princeps of Ivöria, in one correspondence. Another writ, this one from the young Tiberias I, then Duke of Burgundy, speaks of a shared interest of the two to “ease tensions between our respective realms”, writing with anticipation of visiting Alba. The correspondences would go, in the view of this author, to support the public image of the Princes as peaceable and sensible rulers. Estimating the characters of the Princes from the written histories must be, by necessity, an act of inference, helped by the materials we can access. We must envision Edward a judicious but ambitious character, a friend to peace but also an avid restorer of Aaun’s legacy. Cecily needs be seen a woman of uncommon drive, whose involvement in the Horenic bloodline must be viewed as a token of a character with no fear of involving herself in the highest powers among Men. I ADMIT THAT, BEFORE I undertook to write the histories of the Princes as they appear in speech and in the written word, I had imagined the differences between the two would be noticeable, but not great. Invariably, the spoken histories would bear upon the Princes’ characters, and the written ones would shed more light upon the exact facts of history. I am, however, astouded at the sheer gulf between the two histories. Not only could virtually no few qualitative statements about the Princes be made from the written histories—aside, of course, from inference—but entire historical events were contained in each history that were wholly absent from the other. The writings of the Princes’ time mention no assassination attempt, and fewer than ever live to recall the war between Ravenmire and Aaun. Both methods, in their own ways, managed to surprise me. I expected to need to peel away decades of bias from spoken history, only to find that it reflected reality with reasonable faith; likewise, I expected written history to provide a fuller picture when, indeed, it has given only a different one, just with more exact details. Let this be a testament, to myself more than anyone, that any history must be written with an apt respect for methodology and the limitations of the tools used to compile that history. The written sources give us a more apparently concrete path to the truth, more easily traced, while the spoken sources give a beautiful impression of the true; the two ways must be metered carefully, for they are complementary and—in many cases, I do not doubt—contradictory. •─────────────────•𖥠•─────────────────• Mister ROTHWIN ALDOR, AUTHOR @NovumChase Master of Pedigrees of Alba, Folkman of Leever, Junior Member of the Northern Geographical Society Her Ladyship, DAME MANON YVAINE VON VOLKRICH, SUPERVISOR @esotericas Dame of Arts, Lady of Deguise, Baroness of Guise and Distrugestadt, President of the Northern Geographical Society P U B L I S H E D U N D E R T H E A U T H O R I T Y O F T H E N G S “ A D T E R R A S N O V A S ” THE VIEWS AND INFORMATION CONTAINED WITHIN THIS DOCUMENT ARE THE SOLE RESPONSIBILITY OF ITS AUTHOR(S). THE NORTHERN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY IS NOT RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE FOR ANY CONTENTS. •─────────────────•𖥠•─────────────────•

Rothwin reads along, nodding his approval; he freezes, though, when he comes to the end of the office-roll. “Am I indeed so wan?” He fixes an unsatisfied eye on the portrait for a while before he can at last return to reading.

Rothwin Aldor’s face twists as a young Devereux brings him the news in St. Godwinsburg. In the late hours of that evening, he gazes vacantly into the stones of his town-home’s rear wall, envisioning the scene; he shakes his head very slowly. “Lorena—,” the young scrivener begins, as if to summon her from the vision and thence to safety—but, upon realizing that he has spoken out loud, he says no more, glancing to the stairs to ensure his muttering went unheard by his siblings. Rothwin heaves a deep sigh, setting back to work on a stack of genealogical treatises.