Karses II, Friend of Caesar, Heir to the Loam Coast, and Descendant of the Divine Clay Elf Bloodline:Condition: Fine
Holdings:
Cash Reserves (Aproximately 4.7% of Imperial Coin in Circulation)
29% of Total Shares in 'Sons of Caesar Trading Company'
45% of Voting Shares in 'Sons of Caesar Trading Company'
Mansion in the Heartland City of Portum
4 Docks in the City of Portum
Luxurious Apartment with the Imperial Palace
Country Home along the Imperial Highway
x19 Shops and Workshops (Scattered Across the Imperial Heartland)
x17 Vineyards and Plantations (Scattered Across the Known World)
x14 Mines (Mainly Precious Metals and Gems, Scattered Across the Known World)
x30 Imperial Merchantmen (Divided into two fleets)
'Wayward Clay' (Personal Flagship made from Enchanted Ceramic. Armed with two ballista and a crew of trained soldiers. Coming of age present from your father)
Traits:
Businesself
Networker
Negotiator
Public Speaker
Wealthy
Well Traveled
Greedy
Ambitious
Empathetic
Self Controlled
Living Legend (Civil Rights Icon, God Incarnate)
Upon returning home you send out three important messages. First you write to Tsunamia's fleet, informing Jericho that his banishment has ended. You are a bit leery about trusting him after hearing Caesar's view on the matter, but you sure as hell are not going to deny a friend until he gives you reason to do so.
The next message is sent to Princess Sliepers of Silvershoes, the mother of Tiiecieus. Sliepers, a friend of yours, used to be her hometown's ambassador to the empire until she left two years ago to rule Silvershoes while her brother the king was busy at war with your father. You politely request that she contact the alleged Wyrven Clans on your behalf, inform them of your ascension, and warn them that you will not tollerate any action taken against the Loam Coast.
The final message goes out to multiple recipients. It is a summons for many key elf rights advocates to attend a conference at your manor discussing the future of the Loam Coast. In the invitation, you hint that you are looking for apointed officials to aid your reign as governor.
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It takes several months for the elf rights advocates to assemble, and the world moves around you as time passes.
Four of Tusnamia's and one of Jericho's ships arrive in Portum one day for repairs, and the crews bring news from the east. Bronzespear is besieged by both land and sea, and its fall is only a matter of time unless something changes for the worse soon. Still, there are some reasons to remain cautious. Princess Kailine reportedly slipped past the siege, and is reportedly on the East Coast of the Southern Continent, trying to whip up a mercenary band from the savages, rebels, and pirates that one may find there. Likewise her cousin fled East of the Imperial Border, and is rumored to be courting the support of some of the dangerous Kahns who like to mettle in Imperial affairs.
Even if the siege spells the end of the monopoly, it could very well create a longer term problem. Prince Terriz Algers seems dead set on annexing Bronzespear for himself. This would leave your investor in control of two wealthy city states, and closely aligned through marriage to an Imperial Governor of dubious loyalty to Caesar. You doubt the Emperor would allow such a powerful alliance to exist unopposed within his own borders for long.
---
Eventually guests start filing in for your meeting. Princess Sliepers makes a personal appearance, and informs you that your message to the Acid Elves has been sent, and that she should know if it has been safely received or not by the time she returns home.
The first order of business, once everybody is gathered, is to consider potential applicants for the judge and admiral positions. You have three local judges, an optional high judge, and the provincial fleet commander spots to fill. The latter seems to be the most difficult, as there are only two interested applicants.
Info-Dump on Positions Available:Local Judge: A local judge is an imperial official tasked with four main duties and usually tied to a single city:
A: Apply and Interpret Imperial Law in his/her Jurisdiction
B: Oversee and rule on all civil cases, all criminal cases where the death penalty is not considered, and all cases of common rape and/or murder that needn't concern the high judge
C: Appoint lesser magistrates to execute duty B if their jurisdiction is too large for a single judge
D: Act with the authority of the governor in situations, usually emergencies, where waiting for the governor to act would be unwise
The Loam Coast has Three Cities that would require a Local Judge
-Traggix used to be the Loam Coast's trade-port before Karses I banned foreign trade. Before Caesar had to destroy its means of production, it was home to the mass Claychantment operations required to produce large amounts of ship building material.
-Stimilif is the largest metropolitan area, and the one harmed most by the war. It used to be where warships were assembled and pirate loot was processed.
-Icarixip is where tools and weapons for soldiers and sailors are fired, and is historically the Loam Coast's most defensible position. It survived the war largely untouched.
High Judge: The office of Governor comes with the following responsibilites that may be defered to a high judge if the officeholder feels unqualified or too busy to execute them his or her self.
A: Hear valid appeals, and if needed reverse the ruling of a local judge.
B: Preside over all criminal cases in which the death penalty is considered, except for common murder and rape.
C: Sign off on execution orders related to common murder and rape.
D: Preside over any civil or criminal case that the local judges feel are vital to the provincial well being.
E: Preside over any civil or criminal case from which the local judge recuses his or herself for conflict of interest.
F: From time to time, deploy magistrates, legal scholars, or unoccupied local judges to roam the countryside and resolve civil disputes in rural areas
Provincial Naval Commander: The provincial naval commander is in charge of all ships assigned by Caesar or Commissioned by the Governor to serve and protect the province under the imperial flag. Unless they have a direct order from Caesar or one of his representatives stating otherwise, visiting Imperial military fleets must defer to the local provincial naval commander. In most cases, this office is also responsible for supervising the war-fleets of any occupied, native, and non-imperial population to ensure they don't grow large enough to pose a threat to provincial stability.
Fugit Figulus is a Clay Elf born and raised in the Imperial Heartland, and like most of your kind living within the empire, a sailor by trade. Fugit is a distinguished captain in the Imperial Navy, and has fought against your father on Caesar's behalf in both of the recent wars between the Loam Coast and the Empire. He admits the reason he wants to relocate to the Loam Coast is because he fell in love with an enemy sailor he was holding prisoner, and wishes to track her down and make her his wife.
His credential's are appealing - he is certified and trained to command fleets, although he has never been given the opportunity to do so in practice.Oovost is a Frost Elf originally from the Everstorm Lands, who fled south to a more hospitable climate and eventually obtained Imperial Citizen. He is uniquely interested in either the naval command or a judgeship, and is somewhat qualified for either. Although he obviously wont admit to treason, it is generally understood that he once lead a small fleet in rebellion against Caesar on behalf of an Eastern Province Governor. Although he is well educated,
he has no special training in Imperial Law, but is a prominent scholar of various elfish legal and religious practices, including those of the Loam Coast. He admits to practicing the divine magic of an eclectic collection of carrying elfish gods.
Avarui Tiber is a mutt of mostly human and clay elf descent who happens to be the wife of your personal captain. To the best of your knowledge, Avarui enjoys living in comfort and throwing the occasional party as a fundraiser for the movement. She claims to have studied Imperial Law so as to homeschool her children on the subject. Although you somewhat doubt her credentials and abilities,
giving her the title of Judge would be a good way to reward Tiber for many years of good work in your service, and to keep him close at hand without having to keep him on as your personal captain.The scholarly Boil is an old friend of yours. As the spare heir to an Acid Elf Wyrven Clan, he was sold by his tribe for some baubles to an Imperial Circus, where he spent much of his life enslaved until you managed to end the practice of keeping Acid Elves as spectacle for display... But a spectacle he truly is: As a war-monarch caste Acid Elf he stands seven and a half feet tall and his dark grey flesh is spotted with patches of putrid green scales that protect his vital bits. Since receiving his freedom, Boil has done little but study and practice law in the hopes of helping other elves, and is
likely the most qualified and worthy candidate looking for a judge's appointment. You must, however, consider the fact that most of your kind does not particularly care for his species, and his appointment could cause tension.Reginae Leo, or Princess Chewy Redmane in her native tounge, was only recently granted imperial citizenship as reward for her father Chief Redmane's help defeating your father. Chewy knows absolutely nothing about imperial law, but can read the imperial language and seems clever enough to pick things up as she goes along.
In private, she offers to try and smooth things out between you and her father if given the job. You can just by the way she looks at you that Chewy finds you attractive, and her connections might just be worth the element of physical danger that comes with a mistress who possess claws like knives and teeth the size of your thumb.
Hareno Exercitus is a mutt of mostly high elf descent, who claims to be experienced with Military Law. He also comes with a signed letter of recommendation from your friend Jericho. Although he would never admit to such treason, Jericho's letter blatantly implies Hareno used to serve as a strategist and commander for his father and uncle against Caesar. Your brother-in-law Senator Brutus Cainus mentions that Hareno was also one of the valiant leaders who organized the Coal Elves of Timber Province against a planned genocide attempted by the governor's son twelve years ago.
On the topic of Coal Elves,
the Dust Crone Pyriusia knows imperial laws on magic and witchcraft in and out, mainly through her many trips to court as a defendant. She is a skilled physician, potion brewer, and alchemist in practice, and has an encyclopedic knowledge of theory behind most magics related to mineral or flame. In recent years she has devoted her time to the treatment of elfish miladies that human leaders of the empire tend to ignore.
She mentions that she has a good idea as to how Claychantment works, and could help you reverse engineer it should its practitioners resist your attempts to spread it beyond the Loam Coast.
Ambiinop, an ancient and respectable Clay Elf who has filled many military and government positions for your father and grandfather, feels more than qualified to hold power in his homeland. He was assigned to your sister Pulchra as a private tutor in the art of war, and traveled with her when she moved to the Heartland to marry Brutus Cainus. Since then Ambiinop has managed to win Imperial Citizenship and has become heavily involved in the elf rights movement through his relationship to Brutus and Pulchra. Ambiinop has some understanding of imperial law, and would be greatly respected by the inhabitants of the Loam Coast, but
in recent years he has developed a serious drinking problem, likely to mask the pain brought about by loosing friends and family on both sides of the war between Caesar and Xamut IV.Labrum Radit is the only human tied to the Elf Rights movement interested in a judgeship. A renowned adventurer, now well into middle age, Labrum's travel logs always depict distant elfish societies in the best possible light, so much so that you have personally sponsored some of his trips and writings in the past. Labrum is really only interested in the Judgeship so that he may have a stable home and job on the Southern Continent, which he may use as a base of operations to explore the vast country of the Acid Elves and beyond.
On one hand, Labrum would likely be traveling often enough to interfere with his duties, but on the other it wouldn't hurt to have somebody with the skills and courage to travel south in your employ.---
Once you hear the pitch of each applicant, you open the floor to public discussion, and all hell promptly breaks loose.
The gathered Elf Rights Advocates are divided down the middle on how the populace of the conquered Loam Coast should be treated.One faction, lead by the High Elf Merchant Jaridgar, a friend and business partner of yours, argues that the Clay Elves were clearly in the wrong with their piracy and trouble-making, and that if a leader tied to the Elf Rights Movement were to show them leniency, it would paint the entire Elf Rights Movement as a threat to the very concept of justice. He argues that the people of the Loam Coast should be taxed heavily for generations until all the damage caused by piracy dating back to your great-grandfather Karses I has been repaid with interest.
The second group, lead by the halfbreed mutt Piger Auribus, a socialite and close friend of your sister's, suggests that treating the Clay Elves harshly would send a bad message to elfish populations the Empire may war with in the future. She fears that those who hear tell of the harsh treatment of the Loam Coast will be inspired to fight the Empire harder, and perhaps even to the last man, knowing that surrender may bring them the same fate.
Those seeking appointment do their best to remain neutral on this matter, with the exception of the two Clay Elves. Fugit Figulus, who has spent much of his adult life fighting your father's pirates, speaks passionately about the wanton death and destruction they spread and your father's complete lack of regard for non-clay elf life. He tells the tragic tale of the time a dying merchant refused his aid because Fugit looked the same as the man's assailants. He admits he used to think his own race was beyond redemption until he heard of your deeds, but now he thinks there is hope. T
hrough harsh, perhaps even cruel, discipline, Fugit feels the inhabitants of the Loam Coast might someday become respectable Imperial Citizens, at which point he could be proud to call himself a Clay Elf.Ambiinop, a former member of your father's court, publicly repents the crimes he was accessory to during that time, but passionately states that the common Clay Elf should not be held accountable for the cruelty of their superiors. He then goes on to add that by naming member of the Divine Bloodline governor, Caesar himself has publicly forgiven the members of the Loam Coast Elite willing to accept his rule.
With the commoners un-responsible, and the highborns already forgiven, Ambiinop wonders rhetorically, who is left to punish?You listen intently to all arguments, before diplomatically drawing the meeting to a close without taking a side. It would seem you have to walk a tightrope moving foward unless you want the coalition you built to explode.
All the delegates in attendance will remain in Portum for the next few days, some of whom are even staying as guests at your mansion.
Now would be a great time to catch up with your Sister Pulchra, her husband Senator Cainus, or Princess Sliepers, your friend and neighbor to the Loam Coast.You could also call in any of the applicants for a private meeting in which you may ask them specific questions.