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rainbowfic2012-11-23 11:42 pm
shadowsong26) wrote in rainbowfic2012-11-23 11:42 pm
Entry tags:
Chocolate Brown, Bone #10
Name: shadowsong26
Story: The Regents
'Verse: Feredar
Colors: Chocolate Brown saturation, Bone #10. cause of death
Supplies and Materials: saturation, graffiti, photography, eraser (Murder AU), stain (“The courts should not do away with terror … but should give it foundation and legality, clearly, honestly and without embellishments.” - Lenin), feathers, modeling clay, charcoal, pastels (my current GRK card N5 "playing hard to get"), chalk (warning--violence), glitter ("There are certain people who are not meant to fit in your life, no matter how much you want them to." – From Dawson’s Creek)
Word Count: 2000
Rating: R
Characters: Sorell, Nida, Levar, Rema, Shemoll, Lomir, Lemir, Keta, Pevell, Pala, Deva, Govell, Mara, Mevur, Pesa, Voda, Podir, Domir, Sola, Kellom
Warnings: Lots of murder, anarchy, disappearances, kidnapping, accidental death of a child, offscreen sexual violence
Notes: Constructive criticism welcome, as always. Skating in juuuuuust under the wire here, heh.
15. semisweet chocolate--King Sorell
King Sorell, the fourth of that name, ruled Feredar from 940 FY until his assassination in 953 FY. Generally thought to be a good king, he maintained peace and stability in his realm, consolidated and streamlined several governmental bureaucracies, and had three daughters and two sons with his wife, Queen Nida. By all accounts, he was a devoted husband and father. However, he was particularly firm in his anti-mage convictions, in no small part due to the deaths of his parents and sibilings. He was poisoned in 953 FY, on his youngest child's first birthday. The perpetrator or perpetrators were never successfully identified.
12. bittersweet chocolate--Dowager Queen Nida
Queen Nida was the natural regent for her eldest son. Born to a relatively minor house, she won Sorell IV's heart and they remained together until his death ten years later. The first months of her regency, she was popular with both the nobility and the common people, in part due to her sympathetic widowhood. However, as she began to loosen restrictions on mages, whispers circulated that she had been involved in her late husband's assassination, though this was never proven. After fourteen months in power, she was stabbed in her sleep by one of her own bodyguards in 954 FY.
18. mocha--Lord Levar
Lord Levar, who almost certainly ordered the Dowager Queen's assassination, was a bastard half-brother of the late King Sorell IV. He seized the four-year-old king and the reins of power over an hour before Queen Nida's death was confirmed. Paranoid and reactionary, he undertook a massive rehaul of the government, undoing many of Sorell IV's reforms and ordering the assassinations of several key members of opposing court factions. After two months of his brutality, the remnants of the court banded together and he was stabbed twenty-seven times, in full view of dozens of witnesses. No one came to his aid.
13. dark chocolate--Lady Rema
Following the death of her younger sister's murderer, Lady Rema quietly stepped in. While she was likely involved with the conspiracy that engineered her predecessor's death, no one cared to attach that crime to her. She undid much of the damage Lord Levar had done, and focused much of her time on overseeing the educations of her young nieces. Cautious and brilliant, devious and passionate, she lasted eighteen months before the same reforms her sister had attempted, done slightly more subtly, proved to be her own undoing. She was strangled--by some accounts drowned--in early 956 FY, just after the new year.
1. Three Musketeers--The Brothers
Three brothers took power after murdering Lady Rema. The eldest, Shemoll, guarded the King and Crown Prince Mellir. The second, Lomir, managed the government. Losher, the youngest, attempted to find the princesses. Either a rival faction had intervened or Lady Rema had knowledge of the plot, and they disappeared before the brothers could secure the King. Lomir's policy tended towards moderation, seeing what damage previous extremism had done. They reigned over a two-year period of relative peace, before they vanished. A skeleton wearing Shemoll's ring was found in 1073 FY, but no evidence of the other regents' fates was ever found.
16. chocolate-covered almonds--First Uncertain Period
After the brothers' disappearance, the fragile peace of the court collapsed into utter chaos. Over a dozen rival factions backed candidates for the regency, four of whom were killed on a single day. Princess Keta, the youngest of the girls--too young to take power herself--reappeared at this time, but wouldn't or couldn't say where her sisters were being held. She buried herself down in the archives, trying to trace who she could contact to pacify the situation, while the backstabbing raged on above her. This period lasted roughly six months, ending with the late November 958 death of Crown Prince Mellir.
6. Hershey’s--Father Pevell
In the shock that followed the Crown Prince's death, an unlikely regent stepped in. Father Pevell was not a noble at all. He had, however, been an assistant in the archives, helping Princess Keta decipher some of the old documents, and aided in the instruction of the young King. As such, he was a calming influence on the court, and trusted dearly by both of the young royals. However, his lack of qualifications or rank outside of his friendship with the children made him increasingly unpopular with the nobility. He was poisoned after seven months, in the summer of 959 FY.
9. See’s Candy--Second Uncertain Period
Without the calming influence of Father Pevell, the young King began becoming more and more agitated. Several regents stepped in for periods of days at best in this period, only for him to slip the leash. When he was located, he would insist on having a say in who his regent was, though claiming to understand he was, at nine, still too young to hold power himself. This effort of his was consistently refused, and he would flee again. His sister, Keta, was suspected of helping him, but nothing was proven. This period of rebellion and uncertaintly lasted four months.
20. chocolate syrup--Lady Pala
Lady Pala was, by all accounts, a vicious woman. She waded into the chaos and snatched Princess Keta, transporting her to a house where she was kept a prisoner in a small tower room. She controlled the king by threatening harm to his sister. Like his father before him, King Kellom's early losses likely fostered an strong desire for family, and this was a more potent threat than harm against his own person. Eventually, he was pushed too far and, it is rumored, was directly involved when Lady Pala fell from a palace window in the early winter of 960 FY.
11. Godiva--Princess Deva
Days after Lady Pala's death, according to a possibly apocryphal tale, the fractured Council arrived in their chamber to find Princess Deva, who never said where she had been for the previous four years, sitting at the head. She had a scar cutting across her right eye. She calmly called the Council to order, and informed them that she would retain control of the government until someone more suitable could be found. Her regency was brief, and mostly comprised of trying to comfort her young siblings and seeking a strong husband, since he would likely be the Council's final choice.
8. Ghirardelli--Prince Govell
The man Princess Deva chose was a minor noble, nearly the age her father would have been. Lord Govell had weathered the past decade with calm and aplomb. While he was unsuccessful at controlling court factions, he did well with the royal family itself. Like Pevell, his brother- and sister-in-law grew to depend on him for emotional solace, and he took an interest in their educations. The only regent who survived until the end of Kellom's minority, he stepped down in 962 FY, when he was found to have cancer, shortly after his wife confirmed her pregnancy. He never re-entered politics.
2. Mars Bar--Lady Mara
After Prince Govell's retirement, his aunt, Lady Mara, took over as regent. Much like her brother, she was conciliatory. She managed to successfully parley an alliance between the two most powerful factions at court, largely by throwing eligible young nobles from each side at each other to force the issue. However, in so doing she aggravated a lesser third party, and was poisoned after just under a year. The only regent widely mourned upon her death, she had a lavish state funeral that all of the royals except Princess Deva, who was recovering from the birth of her daughter, attended.
4. Andes Mints--Third Uncertain Period
After Lady Mara's death, the King, now thirteen, made his first serious attempt to take the reins and rule in his own right. He was stopped by a cabal of three ministers, who attacked him. He killed all three, but was seriously injured, and the court collapsed into chaos. The succession was fragile, and Princess Deva's husband unwell. If the King should die of his injuries, the focus would shift to removing him. He, under advice from his security, fled the palace. He was accosted and stabbed on his way out, and survived, but remained permanently crippled as a result.
17. chocolate milk--Doctor Mevur
While the King and Prince Govell were recovering, the man in charge of the palace infirmary, Mevur, stepped in for his charge. He maintained the last brief moment of stability during the regencies. The political climate was slightly warmer towards the changes Queen Dowager Nida and her sister attempted, and he began laying groundwork. In addition, while he was common-born, like Pevell, he had more luck with the nobles, having two of them serve as regents with him. However, as Mera had done, he aggravated another faction in so doing. He was found strangled in his bath in spring 964 FY.
10. Fannie May--Lady Pesa
After Mevur's assassination, the King made another attempt at seizing power, with slightly more successful results. The council, however, remained fractious, and under the leadership of Lady Pesa, attempted to contain him. Pesa had a daughter, Voda, who was also fourteen, and she began throwing the teenagers together in the hopes that the King would choose Voda as his consort. He seemed to believe it, until Voda, falling deeply in love with her target, lost her nerve and told him the whole plan. The King requested they both leave court, but, broken-hearted, seemed to have temporarily lost interest in politics.
3. Snickers--Fourth Uncertian Period
The last, and most brutal, of the regentless periods came hand-in-hand with the young King's apathy. Princess Deva grew more and more frightened for her sister, husband, and daughter--as well as herself--but was unwilling to leave her brother. She convinced the three of them to leave, finding sanctuary in her mother's family home, while she focused on trying to build her brother back up and learn what had happened to her other sister. By some miracle, the family managed to remain safe through all the chaos, which claimed an estimated two dozen nobles, and an unknown number of palace staff.
14. milk chocolate--General Podir
Six months after Lady Voda's exile, the chaos ended abruptly when the ruthless General Podir took the reins. Not since Pala had there been a regent this brutal. Anyone who had caused the death of a noble at any time since Sorell IV's assassination, was executed in the same way their victim had died. Like Pala, the General's brutality alienated everyone and finally roused the King from his heartbreak. He was found beaten to death in the hottest part of the summer of 965 FY. As with many other dead regents, no serious investigation was made and his murderers remained free.
7. Nestle--Lord Domir
Lord Domir's rise was sudden. He came from nowhere after General Podir's murder, somehow got the young King to back down, and found a middle ground between his predecessor's brutality and the conciliatory policies of regents like Lady Mara and Prince Govell. He forced the council to fall in line, but the King grew more and more agitated and withdrawn, refusing to tell even his sisters what was bothering him. Princess Deva somehow managed to uncover it. She publicly slashed Domir's throat at the palace's midwinter ball of 965 FY, then withdrew permanently from the palace with her husband and daughter.
5. York Peppermint Patty--Princess Sola
While she was never a regent, it is important to note Princess Sola's return. After Lord Domir's murder, the Princess reappeared as suddenly as her older sisters had, four and eight years ago. She was more vocal than they had been, finally revealing how Lord Domir had controlled her brother. He had been holding her captive for the past several years, and had threatened her the way Pala had threatened Keta. She brought her year-old son, presumably Domir's. She remained in seclusion for some time, but returned to court two years later to serve as her brother's chief diplomat.
19. white chocolate--King Kellom
King Kellom II came to the throne at age three, after his father's assassination. By the time he took power, he had lived through thirteen regencies and four periods of chaos between them. He attempted to seize power twice before then. He remained devoted to his sisters, following along with brutal regents who threatened them, and was profoundly grieved to lose people he loved. He delayed his real marriage for years after Voda. He was particularly close to Keta, and remained devoted to his family and his people for the rest of his life, and is considered a successful king.
Story: The Regents
'Verse: Feredar
Colors: Chocolate Brown saturation, Bone #10. cause of death
Supplies and Materials: saturation, graffiti, photography, eraser (Murder AU), stain (“The courts should not do away with terror … but should give it foundation and legality, clearly, honestly and without embellishments.” - Lenin), feathers, modeling clay, charcoal, pastels (my current GRK card N5 "playing hard to get"), chalk (warning--violence), glitter ("There are certain people who are not meant to fit in your life, no matter how much you want them to." – From Dawson’s Creek)
Word Count: 2000
Rating: R
Characters: Sorell, Nida, Levar, Rema, Shemoll, Lomir, Lemir, Keta, Pevell, Pala, Deva, Govell, Mara, Mevur, Pesa, Voda, Podir, Domir, Sola, Kellom
Warnings: Lots of murder, anarchy, disappearances, kidnapping, accidental death of a child, offscreen sexual violence
Notes: Constructive criticism welcome, as always. Skating in juuuuuust under the wire here, heh.
15. semisweet chocolate--King Sorell
King Sorell, the fourth of that name, ruled Feredar from 940 FY until his assassination in 953 FY. Generally thought to be a good king, he maintained peace and stability in his realm, consolidated and streamlined several governmental bureaucracies, and had three daughters and two sons with his wife, Queen Nida. By all accounts, he was a devoted husband and father. However, he was particularly firm in his anti-mage convictions, in no small part due to the deaths of his parents and sibilings. He was poisoned in 953 FY, on his youngest child's first birthday. The perpetrator or perpetrators were never successfully identified.
12. bittersweet chocolate--Dowager Queen Nida
Queen Nida was the natural regent for her eldest son. Born to a relatively minor house, she won Sorell IV's heart and they remained together until his death ten years later. The first months of her regency, she was popular with both the nobility and the common people, in part due to her sympathetic widowhood. However, as she began to loosen restrictions on mages, whispers circulated that she had been involved in her late husband's assassination, though this was never proven. After fourteen months in power, she was stabbed in her sleep by one of her own bodyguards in 954 FY.
18. mocha--Lord Levar
Lord Levar, who almost certainly ordered the Dowager Queen's assassination, was a bastard half-brother of the late King Sorell IV. He seized the four-year-old king and the reins of power over an hour before Queen Nida's death was confirmed. Paranoid and reactionary, he undertook a massive rehaul of the government, undoing many of Sorell IV's reforms and ordering the assassinations of several key members of opposing court factions. After two months of his brutality, the remnants of the court banded together and he was stabbed twenty-seven times, in full view of dozens of witnesses. No one came to his aid.
13. dark chocolate--Lady Rema
Following the death of her younger sister's murderer, Lady Rema quietly stepped in. While she was likely involved with the conspiracy that engineered her predecessor's death, no one cared to attach that crime to her. She undid much of the damage Lord Levar had done, and focused much of her time on overseeing the educations of her young nieces. Cautious and brilliant, devious and passionate, she lasted eighteen months before the same reforms her sister had attempted, done slightly more subtly, proved to be her own undoing. She was strangled--by some accounts drowned--in early 956 FY, just after the new year.
1. Three Musketeers--The Brothers
Three brothers took power after murdering Lady Rema. The eldest, Shemoll, guarded the King and Crown Prince Mellir. The second, Lomir, managed the government. Losher, the youngest, attempted to find the princesses. Either a rival faction had intervened or Lady Rema had knowledge of the plot, and they disappeared before the brothers could secure the King. Lomir's policy tended towards moderation, seeing what damage previous extremism had done. They reigned over a two-year period of relative peace, before they vanished. A skeleton wearing Shemoll's ring was found in 1073 FY, but no evidence of the other regents' fates was ever found.
16. chocolate-covered almonds--First Uncertain Period
After the brothers' disappearance, the fragile peace of the court collapsed into utter chaos. Over a dozen rival factions backed candidates for the regency, four of whom were killed on a single day. Princess Keta, the youngest of the girls--too young to take power herself--reappeared at this time, but wouldn't or couldn't say where her sisters were being held. She buried herself down in the archives, trying to trace who she could contact to pacify the situation, while the backstabbing raged on above her. This period lasted roughly six months, ending with the late November 958 death of Crown Prince Mellir.
6. Hershey’s--Father Pevell
In the shock that followed the Crown Prince's death, an unlikely regent stepped in. Father Pevell was not a noble at all. He had, however, been an assistant in the archives, helping Princess Keta decipher some of the old documents, and aided in the instruction of the young King. As such, he was a calming influence on the court, and trusted dearly by both of the young royals. However, his lack of qualifications or rank outside of his friendship with the children made him increasingly unpopular with the nobility. He was poisoned after seven months, in the summer of 959 FY.
9. See’s Candy--Second Uncertain Period
Without the calming influence of Father Pevell, the young King began becoming more and more agitated. Several regents stepped in for periods of days at best in this period, only for him to slip the leash. When he was located, he would insist on having a say in who his regent was, though claiming to understand he was, at nine, still too young to hold power himself. This effort of his was consistently refused, and he would flee again. His sister, Keta, was suspected of helping him, but nothing was proven. This period of rebellion and uncertaintly lasted four months.
20. chocolate syrup--Lady Pala
Lady Pala was, by all accounts, a vicious woman. She waded into the chaos and snatched Princess Keta, transporting her to a house where she was kept a prisoner in a small tower room. She controlled the king by threatening harm to his sister. Like his father before him, King Kellom's early losses likely fostered an strong desire for family, and this was a more potent threat than harm against his own person. Eventually, he was pushed too far and, it is rumored, was directly involved when Lady Pala fell from a palace window in the early winter of 960 FY.
11. Godiva--Princess Deva
Days after Lady Pala's death, according to a possibly apocryphal tale, the fractured Council arrived in their chamber to find Princess Deva, who never said where she had been for the previous four years, sitting at the head. She had a scar cutting across her right eye. She calmly called the Council to order, and informed them that she would retain control of the government until someone more suitable could be found. Her regency was brief, and mostly comprised of trying to comfort her young siblings and seeking a strong husband, since he would likely be the Council's final choice.
8. Ghirardelli--Prince Govell
The man Princess Deva chose was a minor noble, nearly the age her father would have been. Lord Govell had weathered the past decade with calm and aplomb. While he was unsuccessful at controlling court factions, he did well with the royal family itself. Like Pevell, his brother- and sister-in-law grew to depend on him for emotional solace, and he took an interest in their educations. The only regent who survived until the end of Kellom's minority, he stepped down in 962 FY, when he was found to have cancer, shortly after his wife confirmed her pregnancy. He never re-entered politics.
2. Mars Bar--Lady Mara
After Prince Govell's retirement, his aunt, Lady Mara, took over as regent. Much like her brother, she was conciliatory. She managed to successfully parley an alliance between the two most powerful factions at court, largely by throwing eligible young nobles from each side at each other to force the issue. However, in so doing she aggravated a lesser third party, and was poisoned after just under a year. The only regent widely mourned upon her death, she had a lavish state funeral that all of the royals except Princess Deva, who was recovering from the birth of her daughter, attended.
4. Andes Mints--Third Uncertain Period
After Lady Mara's death, the King, now thirteen, made his first serious attempt to take the reins and rule in his own right. He was stopped by a cabal of three ministers, who attacked him. He killed all three, but was seriously injured, and the court collapsed into chaos. The succession was fragile, and Princess Deva's husband unwell. If the King should die of his injuries, the focus would shift to removing him. He, under advice from his security, fled the palace. He was accosted and stabbed on his way out, and survived, but remained permanently crippled as a result.
17. chocolate milk--Doctor Mevur
While the King and Prince Govell were recovering, the man in charge of the palace infirmary, Mevur, stepped in for his charge. He maintained the last brief moment of stability during the regencies. The political climate was slightly warmer towards the changes Queen Dowager Nida and her sister attempted, and he began laying groundwork. In addition, while he was common-born, like Pevell, he had more luck with the nobles, having two of them serve as regents with him. However, as Mera had done, he aggravated another faction in so doing. He was found strangled in his bath in spring 964 FY.
10. Fannie May--Lady Pesa
After Mevur's assassination, the King made another attempt at seizing power, with slightly more successful results. The council, however, remained fractious, and under the leadership of Lady Pesa, attempted to contain him. Pesa had a daughter, Voda, who was also fourteen, and she began throwing the teenagers together in the hopes that the King would choose Voda as his consort. He seemed to believe it, until Voda, falling deeply in love with her target, lost her nerve and told him the whole plan. The King requested they both leave court, but, broken-hearted, seemed to have temporarily lost interest in politics.
3. Snickers--Fourth Uncertian Period
The last, and most brutal, of the regentless periods came hand-in-hand with the young King's apathy. Princess Deva grew more and more frightened for her sister, husband, and daughter--as well as herself--but was unwilling to leave her brother. She convinced the three of them to leave, finding sanctuary in her mother's family home, while she focused on trying to build her brother back up and learn what had happened to her other sister. By some miracle, the family managed to remain safe through all the chaos, which claimed an estimated two dozen nobles, and an unknown number of palace staff.
14. milk chocolate--General Podir
Six months after Lady Voda's exile, the chaos ended abruptly when the ruthless General Podir took the reins. Not since Pala had there been a regent this brutal. Anyone who had caused the death of a noble at any time since Sorell IV's assassination, was executed in the same way their victim had died. Like Pala, the General's brutality alienated everyone and finally roused the King from his heartbreak. He was found beaten to death in the hottest part of the summer of 965 FY. As with many other dead regents, no serious investigation was made and his murderers remained free.
7. Nestle--Lord Domir
Lord Domir's rise was sudden. He came from nowhere after General Podir's murder, somehow got the young King to back down, and found a middle ground between his predecessor's brutality and the conciliatory policies of regents like Lady Mara and Prince Govell. He forced the council to fall in line, but the King grew more and more agitated and withdrawn, refusing to tell even his sisters what was bothering him. Princess Deva somehow managed to uncover it. She publicly slashed Domir's throat at the palace's midwinter ball of 965 FY, then withdrew permanently from the palace with her husband and daughter.
5. York Peppermint Patty--Princess Sola
While she was never a regent, it is important to note Princess Sola's return. After Lord Domir's murder, the Princess reappeared as suddenly as her older sisters had, four and eight years ago. She was more vocal than they had been, finally revealing how Lord Domir had controlled her brother. He had been holding her captive for the past several years, and had threatened her the way Pala had threatened Keta. She brought her year-old son, presumably Domir's. She remained in seclusion for some time, but returned to court two years later to serve as her brother's chief diplomat.
19. white chocolate--King Kellom
King Kellom II came to the throne at age three, after his father's assassination. By the time he took power, he had lived through thirteen regencies and four periods of chaos between them. He attempted to seize power twice before then. He remained devoted to his sisters, following along with brutal regents who threatened them, and was profoundly grieved to lose people he loved. He delayed his real marriage for years after Voda. He was particularly close to Keta, and remained devoted to his family and his people for the rest of his life, and is considered a successful king.