Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Ghazkull]

OOC-Thread



All five of you sat around the table meant for six, furtive looks occasionally going where the Archmage should have sat, a place which was now empty. Dark stains still at his part of the tabletop, blood which even your magic was unable to remove.

You all were uncomfortable, for this room was guarded withs ome of the strongest wards known to man (or you) and really only one of you five could have entered the room to kill him. The heavy oak chairs, usually so well-worn and comfortable felt strange, unhospitable and that damn stain was grating on everyones nerves.

As the uncomfortable silence stretched, you realized that he was dead. Really dead. The Old Man had been there longer than any of you can remember, longer than anyone can remember. He had ruled the Magelands since its inception. First alone from this here tower, then eventually with your help.

And with the realization of his Death, came the realization that the Magelands now relied upon you. Whatever that meant.

Situated at the very edge of civilized lands on the very northern Part of Thus, the Magelands remote position, its unfriendly environment and the nature of its people made it a land nobody else wanted. To the North lived the Highlanders, herding their flocks, occassionally raiding and every now and then trading ore, pelts, wool and strange things for food, tools and weapons.
To the South lay Vyatka and Orel, Two Kingdoms who were more interested in their little border conflicts to care much about invading you. After all previous attempts had dissuaded them quite thoroughly. The Old Man had made sure of that. To the East was a whole lot of northing. Tundra...endlessly stretching to lands rumoured to be in the East: The Dwarf Lands, the Dragontower and the Thousand Kingdoms and mythical Far Moss. Only very occasionally did caravans arrive, having travelled through the vast Northern Tundras...but usually further south since no one wanted to trade with you.

Indeed the Magelands were not particularly interesting. Of note was the Port City of Cold Harbor...about as inviting as one might expect, the small town around the Archmages Tower, which had remained unnamed since it was right next to the Archmages Tower, North Road, the town which well was recieving most trade from the Highlanders and Wrath, a city controlling the agricultural lands taken from Vyatka in their last attempt to take some bits out of the Magelands. It had a different name once, named after some noble duke. In true vengeful fashion the Old Man had made sure that his bloodline, his memory and his very name were forgotten. The only thing that wasn't forgotten was that someone had pissed off the Old Man royally and had been the reason why Wrath was named Wrath.

So all in all, two arguably cities, two towns and a whole lot of villages, steddings and little farming communities eking out a living in the middle of nowhere. Behold your domain ye mighty...the Old Man had really never been one for good governance...

Spoiler:  The current Pentarchy (click to show/hide)

Alaric Lausrene(Irony Owl)
Field of Study: Flesh Magic

William Khatt (Supernerd)
Field of Study: Golemancy

Ayala Quill (flazeo25)
Field of Study: Hemomancy

Darius Telvin (Glass)
Field of Study: Divination

Darius Telvin (micelus)
Field of Study: Bureaucramancy

[flazeo25]

Ayala flickered her gaze up at now empty chair, she was so used to looking at whenever she could manage to actually paying attention and embarrass the others when her mentor was still among the living. "Uwaaa... He went and left us here, what will do now that mentor gone?" she said while holding back her watery eyes. "How can we move on now that we don't have him to protect us?" she let loose one last sentence before falling silent.

[IronyOwl]

Alaric rubbed the bridge of his nose again. He thought he was ready for anything, but there were some kings you truly thought were going to rule forever. He wasn't even sure where to start fixing the Old Man's messes, and now there was someone able and willing to bury the greatest mage in the world helping him do it.

He cleared his throat. "Yes, well. As his loyal vassals, it falls to us to carry on in his absence, does it not?" He flashed his third best smile at three loyal vassals and a treacherous murderer. Hm, maybe this was more familiar ground than he thought.

"It seems to me that our first priority is the proper management of our glorious realm... such as it is. The old man was never terribly concerned with his holdings, but they're our holdings now. Perhaps we should divide them between us? Lords of the Realm and all. Four... settlements of note isn't much between five rulers, but it's not like they're all that much to look at anyway. We'll need to aggressively develop our lands if we want to be taken seriously, from within or without. The best way to do that will no doubt be for each of us to take personal responsibility for a well-defined area, and improve and settle it as we see fit."

[Supernerd]

William Khatt grit his teeth and slammed him right palm down on the desk! The man was usually so carefree and aloof, sharply contrasting his current state of being; he was positively livid and for good reason! He had been living the good life all these years, and it was all thanks to the Archmage. He shouted while facing down at the table! "How... How dare you do this to master!"

He raised his left hand into a shaking fist. He had never felt so angry before. Not only because someone here just tore his carefree life apart, but also because he was so powerless to prevent it! He had all the time in the world to study, yet despite having been here the longest he was no more capable than anyone else at this table. If only he had been paying more attention, perhaps he could have stopped this!

"Mark my words, I am going to find a spell that will reveal which one of you is responsible for this... And when I do... When I do, I promise you, there will be a reckoning!"

[micelus]

Alaric rubbed the bridge of his nose again. He thought he was ready for anything, but there were some kings you truly thought were going to rule forever. He wasn't even sure where to start fixing the Old Man's messes, and now there was someone able and willing to bury the greatest mage in the world helping him do it.

He cleared his throat. "Yes, well. As his loyal vassals, it falls to us to carry on in his absence, does it not?" He flashed his third best smile at three loyal vassals and a treacherous murderer. Hm, maybe this was more familiar ground than he thought.

"It seems to me that our first priority is the proper management of our glorious realm... such as it is. The old man was never terribly concerned with his holdings, but they're our holdings now. Perhaps we should divide them between us? Lords of the Realm and all. Four... settlements of note isn't much between five rulers, but it's not like they're all that much to look at anyway. We'll need to aggressively develop our lands if we want to be taken seriously, from within or without. The best way to do that will no doubt be for each of us to take personal responsibility for a well-defined area, and improve and settle it as we see fit."

Darius Telvin (no relation) shook his head. "And establish squabbling fiefs? I'd rather not be a petty lordling, Al. No, the Magelands are small enough that it is possible to govern in a centralised manner. Well, it might be difficult labour-wise and economically...if we weren't magicians."

William Khatt grit his teeth and slammed him right palm down on the desk! The man was usually so carefree and aloof, sharply contrasting his current state of being; he was positively livid and for good reason! He had been living the good life all these years, and it was all thanks to the Archmage. He shouted while facing down at the table! "How... How dare you do this to master!"

He raised his left hand into a shaking fist. He had never felt so angry before. Not only because someone here just tore his carefree life apart, but also because he was so powerless to prevent it! He had all the time in the world to study, yet despite having been here the longest he was no more capable than anyone else at this table. If only he had been paying more attention, perhaps he could have stopped this!

"Mark my words, I am going to find a spell that will reveal which one of you is responsible for this... And when I do... When I do, I promise you, there will be a reckoning!"

Darius Telvin (no relation) rolled his eyes. "Kitty, it was the barwench, with the cucumber, in the master's bed."

[IronyOwl]

Alaric rubbed the bridge of his nose again. He thought he was ready for anything, but there were some kings you truly thought were going to rule forever. He wasn't even sure where to start fixing the Old Man's messes, and now there was someone able and willing to bury the greatest mage in the world helping him do it.

He cleared his throat. "Yes, well. As his loyal vassals, it falls to us to carry on in his absence, does it not?" He flashed his third best smile at three loyal vassals and a treacherous murderer. Hm, maybe this was more familiar ground than he thought.

"It seems to me that our first priority is the proper management of our glorious realm... such as it is. The old man was never terribly concerned with his holdings, but they're our holdings now. Perhaps we should divide them between us? Lords of the Realm and all. Four... settlements of note isn't much between five rulers, but it's not like they're all that much to look at anyway. We'll need to aggressively develop our lands if we want to be taken seriously, from within or without. The best way to do that will no doubt be for each of us to take personal responsibility for a well-defined area, and improve and settle it as we see fit."

Darius Telvin (no relation) shook his head. "And establish squabbling fiefs? I'd rather not be a petty lordling, Al. No, the Magelands are small enough that it is possible to govern in a centralised manner. Well, it might be difficult labour-wise and economically...if we weren't magicians."

"Nonono, cooperative fiefs! You'd only need to be a petty lordling until you'd worked your way up into a better lordling.

And of course it's possible to govern in a centralized manner, but do we really want to spend time doing that instead of expanding and appointing new vassals?"

[flazeo25]

Ayala gazes up from crying earlier to see the ruckus caused between Darius and Al, she notes that their squabbling over management issues before speaking up. I... I think we shouldn't split the land mentor left us. Why should we tear apart lands he owns, our homes; if we must... sigh... manage them how about we appoint ourselfs as temporary governors instead or appoint others in our place while we try to uncover mentor murdeerr or focus on bringing up the magic knowledge to others like mentor would of wanted.

[micelus]

Darius Telvin (no relation) shook his head. "The Magelands are barely a blip on the map. Were it not for the fact that we are here, we may as well call this place the Sheeplands or the Steppelands. There isn't much need for sending ourselves out to the....nowhere of the lands. Hells, we probably wouldn't be welcome. No, I think its best to keep current headmans - or village elders or whatever every little hamlet chooses to respect - and simply formally recognise their positions. Then make sure that they know of our authority and that they know to obey. Much easier to keep people in line when they know the man or woman in charge of them. And if for whatever reason these local leaders get uppity, all we must do is ensure their resignation and that someone more pliable from the community is chosen."

[Glass]

Darius (the original) speaks up, apparently just realizing that he'd been looking at a future where he'd already spoken rather than reality.

"Telvin and I actually have discussed this previously; it was known to me that the Archmage was not immortal, and it would eventually fall to us to enact proper governance within this domain. To this effect, we wrote up some plans..." He roots around in his pockets for a moment, before realizing that he hasn't taken them from Telvin yet and pulls the scroll out of his pocket, unfurling it and placing it out upon the table. "Knowledge is power, and a power we are presently lacking. The first problems that must be addressed are those of identifying our resources - both material and in terms of populace - and the development of a network with which we are to actually govern the Magelands. Step one to that is, as Telvin has stated, recognizing the position of local headsmen, elders, and the like, and receiving from them preliminary censuses of their populaces and professions. At the same time, more direct agents should be hired and trained to enact a more in-depth census, as well as an analysis of the untapped resources we may be able to exploit. I also believe that we would be well-served to begin identifying those with potential for the arcane arts; we are few, and developing a solid magical base can only help us. Imagine, if you would, establishing ourselves as a center of the study of magic, where any who wish may come and study..."
Darius drifts off, seemingly lost in a possible future. He does that sometimes. The scroll the plan is written on is still stretched out on the table; Telvin could likely expound further upon it.

[micelus]

Darius (the better looking one) coughed.

"As my associate Telvin was just saying, establishing a centre of magic is probably the more obvious thing to do. Right now, we're sitting on a pile of sheep, peasants and nightsoil as far as the eye can see. What makes this country special is purely our presence. Depressing, isn't it? Now, we could pour all our resources into this magician business, but we're landowners of sorts. Well, unless we're all willing to give control over to another ruler. Could get a pretty penny that way and focus on building up an academy...perhaps somewhere sunnier with restaurants. Just because the Master was a lonely old bastard who liked keeping the company of peasants doesn't mean we have to."

"But I believe most of us actually want this land. In which case, we have work to do. As I previously mentioned, I don't like the idea of divvying up this land. Turning one big shit-stain into five smaller shit-stains doesn't help us much. Instead, we ought formalise our relationship with the village elders and headsmen of the various hamlets and villages and the town below. Give them fancy titles with rights and responsibilities. Namely, we promise to consult them on relevant plans and policies that impact their local areas, protect them from outside threats, grant title holders the right to court mediation and mediate between issues between titleholders within the Magelands.  In return, they will offer a customary 35% of all gross production of their local areas, house/feed central government officials assigned to their local areas, and supply levies in times of war."

"Furthemore, the plan Telvin and I have written stipulates the creation of a parle deu merits, as more refined folks call it. It would be a 50-person body of appointed officials taken from throughout the country. Each member would represent their local area and be appointed by however each area wishes to select their representative. These persons will be brought to the capital, housed as central government officials and given a fancy title. Their duty will be to advise us on issues that come up and suggest courses of action."

"To help facilitate movement of news, suggestions, accounts and government communications, I also propose a basic postal line along the width of the country. Now, a formal road with regular post stops would take a great deal of infrastructure and resources...which is where the golems and blood magic come in! If someone can create some golems to stand guard over a few camps and cook basic meals, and someone can pump a few horses and couriers with enough hyper-endurance blood, we should be able to make do without significant investments. Until a later point, anyway. Now, the downside to this 'cheap' method is that it'll be only a rudimentary courier line...but a rudimentary line is far better than no line."

"Finally, there is a proposal in the plan to move our operations to Wrath or Cold Harbor. Quite simply, this place is shit. There's nothing here now that the Master is gone. As powerful as he was, he didn't leave much after him. A few doped-up fools with power and a tower...that exists. We can better keep an eye on either city with our direct presence, rather than relying on irregular missives or rumours from either city. I never understood the wizard obsession with towers myself."

[IronyOwl]

Alaric rubbed his temples. "What is it with you people and giving peasants rights...?"

"Look, the advantage of divvying up lands is that it gives us each a coherent area to work with, which gives us anything at all to work with. We all seem to be in agreement that there's very little here, so I'd like to make a priority of fixing that. Establishing formal elders and councils and posts strikes me as dressing up a chicken in fancy robes rather than mutating it to know the speech of men. Speaking of which, I do believe we should be appointing officials rather than letting illiterate pigs mud wrestle each other for the position. Unless that's how we want them appointed, which gets us back to my division of duties business."

He briefly trails off, wondering how hard it'd be to make a pig smart enough to handle finances or represent a village. Hard to say for the former, probably already excessive for the latter.

"Anyway, I'd like to start experimenting with new and glorious forms of life well suited to our current surroundings. I approve of acquiring new apprentices, but I don't think we'll be able to get any really good ones until we've built up a bit. Wealth begets wealth and all. I'd rather hang around the tower and its facilities than manage a slightly less dingy settlement personally, but that's another point for divvying or delegating responsibilities."

[micelus]

Darius Telvin (no relations) sighed, laughed and raised his hands.

"Al, I like you. I knew you were going to say something like this. Peasants are peasants, we know that. But its cheaper and far less trouble if we don't put up a foreign kiss-up in charge of the villages and towns. If we can convince them that we care about them and respect their rights, we can get more out of them than if they think we don't care about them. Also, its a common truth that making use of existing power structures leads to smoother control than tearing it out. I mean, sure, we could force our way into prodding people to do what we want...but that's expensive and not worth any of our time. Well, currently. That may change in the future."

"I honestly think you're better off just focusing on your science of the flesh. Leave the administration to us bean-counters and we'll make sure you'll get what you need to do what you want."

[Glass]

"Besides, we can expect the village leaders to at least know the basics of their local area, which should be fine for the short term. We can phase them out over time with trained ones."
It seems Darius was paying at least some attention.

[Supernerd]

William Khatt narrowed his eyes. It was almost as though Darius and Darius didn't even care about the murder that just took place. Though the fact remained that the lands would need to be divided.

"I'm against leaving any single one of us completely in charge of any part of the territory. Wouldn't want anyone to dispose of any evidence now would we?"

"I am also opposed to any radical changes at this time. Master has been running this place pretty much single-handed! Our primary concern should be to identify the problems that will emerge as a result of his absence, and do what is in our capability to find an alternative solution. Our number one priority should be to collect information!"

[micelus]

"Oh Kit, if you want to go and figure out who did the deed that's fine and all, but there's a country to run. The master, as spectacular as he was, didn't so much rule as much as he did make sure everyone understood that he had the right to rule. In any case, Darius and I aren't suggesting that any single person rules, merely that we rule in a centralised manner rather than spinning everything off into fiefs."