snip
This is mostly a +1 to another suggestion, and it caught a +1 of its own. We shall go with this.
---
You consider Vishnu's offer for a moment. A long moment. Then you hand him back the knife. "I don't think I need to live that sort of life. The price is too high."
Vishnu looks at you. There is something different in his three eyes. In the dark desert night you can't tell if it is disappointment or respect. "Very well. I shall clear these events from the memories of your comrades."
---
You explain to Apollo that Necromancy will allow you to make magical advancements to assist your people. The old man nods. "That is a possibility. It is more likely it will earn you their ire, and give them a reason to cut your reign short. Necromancy is hated. The desire to overcome death is inherently selfish, so it is generally selfish people who master the art. History has taught the mortals of the world that those who possess supernatural control over life and death should be feared, persecuted, or at best mistrusted."
He drums his fingers on his desk. "My master, for example, preys primarily on the troublemaking savages of the world and provides both trade and education opportunities to people on both sides of the great desert. Unless one is a serious student of some serious philosophy or theology that teaches the desecration of bodies and souls is always an unforgiveable evil, logic should dictate that Texulchimum is a positive force in the world. But there are people, on both sides of the desert, who would, if the desert wasn't here to stop them, march their armies to the nameless city to destroy us. Just because my master is a lich and a necromancer, and just because liches and necromancers have spent most of history doing wicked things."
Apollo frowns. "Even if you survived every internal and external attempt to remove a necromancer monarch from the throne, the time you would waste in struggle, and the damage to your kingdom that struggle would cause, would be immense. It will leave you asking yourself if the peace you could have had would have been more valuable than the power necromancy has afforded you."
When you explain that you think Work Ethic is a monarch's greatest virtue, you catch a grin from your interviewer. "That is a good answer. Considering your circumstances, for you, it is even a great answer. We could use necromancy to extend your life by a century, and New Mahallo in all its underdeveloped and unprotected glory would never run out of jobs for you."
He is less enthused about your answer regarding your brothers. "Five of your brothers hold claim to your throne. At least one is responsible for killing your sister. You didn't grow up with them. You don't know them. Anybody you could ask would be biased one way or another. It seems probable you will have to serve as King Penteram's defacto vassal for at least some time. You may get to learn about him and his family before you get the chance to flip the scales of power and that relationship, and may find him worth keeping. But to trust the others, strangers who literally benefit more from you dying than flourishing, with power, freedom, and dare I say even life, strikes me as naïve."
Apollo only chuckles when you mention your desire to add your brother's holdings to your own. "It is funny, isn't it? You strike me as wise enough to understand that power is mere responsibility. Yet you crave more power anyway. I was the same way when I was in politics. Perhaps it is an unavoidable quirk of the human condition."
After concluding the interview, Apollo looks you up and down. "As expected. You impressed me, but not quite enough to overcome the many obstacles between yourself and my tutelage... yet. Learn some other magics, and either lose your kingdom or reach the point where you are comfortable leaving someone else in charge for at least a decade or two. The necromancer's life is a marathon, not a sprint, and I'm not going anywhere anytime soon.
---
A grim convoy from New Mahallo arrives bearing hundreds of orc blooded and Mahallo corpses. Apparently the people of the Bloodstone Plateau launched a large and well organized raid against your lands, while most of your own raiders were away pillaging the elves. Although the attackers were unable to breach the city walls of Bride Price, they spent several months roaming up and down the river, ruining the harvest and slaughtering the innocents of your Kingdom's largest farms. Your own raiders eventually returned to slow down the pillaging, but the half breeds were clever and refused to bring the majority of their force to bear against yours for a definitive battle. It was only the arrival of reinforcements from The Titian Canyons personally led by King Penteram that compelled the raiders to leave before they could be surrounded.
Your mother is still calculating the damages and causalities, but the fact that the Mahallo are willing to sell their own dead to a lich to fund the recovery leads you to believe the situation back home is dire.
The convoy also brings news from further afield. The great crusade against Eunuch League has begun. The Imperials arrived by sea with a host outnumbering the armies of your brothers four to one. Prince Felix, through spies, scrying magic, or just plain general's intuition predicted the time and place of their arrival, and launched a surprise attack against the crusaders as they were wading to shore. The League troops inflicted heavy causalities on the invaders, and retreated in an organized fashion before too many soldiers could get ashore and overwhelm them. Felix is said to have killed twenty two men himself, including several enemy officers and bishops.
It is said that even in the wake of Felix's attack, the league is still heavily outnumbered. The Imperial forces, however, are frightened of the Eunuch and his traps so their advance is slow and cautious. The war could still go either way.
---
You and your siblings lounge in your bedroom discussing the future. Before you sit documents detailing all the ways your future might play out up until you turn 17 and can return to rule New Mahallo. There are several options for apprenticeship and concentrated education availed for you.
Options for Education -Study with Matriarch Mire: Of all the vampire broods created by necromancers and evil spirts over the years, the Bleachedkin are the only one to make any real headway in imperial society. Although less powerful than some of the more infamous strains of vampireism, the Bleachedkin lack many weaknesses common to vampire kind, and are difficult to detect with the sort of divine magic employed by Imperial Clergy. The other significant factor in their survival is that their matriarch will network with young human royals who might otherwise hunt them by teaching etiquette, hexes, and illusions at Texulchimum's court.
Study the Dragon Gods: Dragons are extinct in Imperial Lands, and nearly extinguished from the world entirely, but their gods are still very much influential in the exotic lands south of the desert. Texulchimum's court chaplain Ra teaches both the spiritual of their faith, and the destructive elemental divine magic wielded by their clerics. Although dragon faiths are not well tolerated among Imperial Humans, the Mahallo are unlikely to care, and you could always use your education as a springboard to learn elementals as an arcane magic disassociated from any religion.
Apprentice at the Department of Mines and Development: Based on your background wandering the desert, Vishnu has offered you a position under himself. During the cool season, you will travel to various sites where you will be taught the art of prospecting. When it is too hot to leave the city, you will study the basics of engineering, artifice, and the properties of magical materials to assist in maintaining and expanding the Nameless City's infrastructure. The DoMD doesn't offer its apprentices a full necromancer's training, but you may get to pick up a few useful tricks for the job such as commanding mindless undead created by others and reducing your physiological needs.
Study with the Assassin's Guild: In lieu of paying rent or taxes to the Lich, the assassin's guild will tutor his noble wards in their craft if asked. You can expect to learn combat, acrobatics, stealth, and the proper use and maintenance of magical items. Students who do well may even get invited to take a few trips to exotic locations to assist with an actual job. A guild education would also provide both connections and training that could protect you from assassination attempts.
Study Biomagic with the Vermant: Although the Vermant are somewhat protective of their secrets, the actions of you and Penette have opened some doors. The Vermant train their biomages in elements of druidism, the divine magic of pre-imperial religions, and simple arcane techniques to manipulate plant and beast alike. You will also get opportunities to improve your skills in mundane animal handling and husbandry. Penette will likely choose this course when she is old enough in a year, giving you a useful study partner.
Study Maldruidism: Druidism specifically in the service of evil spirits is the darkest magic that is offered to most youth at Texulchimum's court. Apollo has personally offered to tutor you in the subject, strongly implying that it is your best choice if you want a foundation upon which to build the skills of a proper necromancer. A druid's power depends on the spirits he is working with, but the evil ones are pretty consistent in offering means of inflicting pain, death, and fear. This would also be the easiest magical education to continue once you leave the Nameless City to take your throne, as the Mahallo are of course known for their talented druids.
Apprentice at the Customs Office: Texulchimum inspects and taxes all goods that move through his city. Customs agents are trained to understand the market value of all common trade goods, negotiate, and read people. Minor magic to help detect lies, see through illusions, and disarm curses are also taught here. Texulchimum permits a certain level of corruption from his customs officers, particularly when it comes to noble youth dealing with merchants from their own nation. You can expect to amass a decent personal wealth by the time you complete this apprenticeship.
Andre paces nervously as you look over the options. Having fallen behind in his reading and math, he is also just preparing to pick and begin his advanced his advanced studies. He clears his throat and speaks. "Brother... I would follow you to the ends of the earth, and thus I plan to study whatever you do. But I worry. Everybody knows I'm a moron. I know I'll do poorly in almost anything that you would pick, unless you go out of your way and slow yourself down to help me. I don't want to be a burden. I'd be happy to get out of your way and return to Bride Price next season. If I can't be of direct use to you now, I would like to hone my martial skills with the Mahallo raiders, so I might better serve you in the future."
You consider your options. Andre probably would be a subpar student in any magical or academic discipline. There are some options suitable for him; He might fare well with the assassins, and Pennete could aid with the tutoring if he were to practice biomagic. Otherwise, you are sure you could prop him up at the expense of your own progress. On the other hand, he really would make a great champion, and training with the raiders would help him reach that level. It also might be useful to have someone as loyal to you as Andre at court in Bride Price.
What do you do with Andre?Anders, your other brother, speaks next. "If Andre is requesting his leave, I too would like to go. Your father lifted me from a childhood of poverty, and I would like to honor him by becoming an Imperial Cleric as he was, and as much magic as there is to learn here in the nameless city, teachers of the Imperial Faith are few and far between."
He then pauses for a moment, as if weighing his next words carefully. "I will turn 17 in only a couple of years. With your blessing I could serve with or even replace our mother as regent. I know your relationship with the Imperial Church is... complicated at best. But I'm no hardline radical, right? The Church is currently fighting your father's other sons, and if the Eunuch League is defeated, you might receive their lands if the Bishops find you to be an acceptable monarch. And what better way to look acceptable to the church than by leaving a holy man in charge of your regency?"
The proposition is an interesting one. On one hand, everything your brother says is true, and you have no reason to doubt his devotion to your father's memory. Unlike Andre, he is old enough to remember the bad times before your parents met. On the other hand, you are not nearly as close to Anders as you are to Andre or Pennete. Bookish, quiet, quick tempered, and five years your elder, Anders has spent more time haunting the library than socializing with his housemates. Most of the children in the manor, yourself included, believe that he has managed to teach himself some magic, but if that is true, he keeps the nature of his power close to the chest; Existing mages are generally not allowed to join the Imperial Clergy, so you doubt he holds every letter of imperial dogma to be the undisputed truth.
Your weaker bond with Anders leads to questions of loyalty. From a purely political perspective, he is as much a blood relation to you as he is your baby brother Prince Alan and the boy's meddling family from The Titan Canyons. If you allow him to get involved in the regency, there is no guarantee he doesn't become King Penteram's asset as opposed to your own. If you keep him around, and transition into more academic pursuits, you might grow closer to Anders and gain a tutor.
Do you allow Anders to leave? If so, does he have your blessing to help run New Mahallo once he comes of age?Regardless of what happens to your brothers, you also need to rethink how you spend your free time going into your teenage years. With a focus course of study, you will have less of it, but as an older child, you will have more options as to how you spend it.
Possible Free Time Activities: (Pick up to three. Picking fewer than three will yield a greater impact on your skills/contacts from each of your selections)Organize Hunts in the Desert with your Peers: The children of the manor are getting old enough to take impressive trophies and add martial skills to their desert survival toolkit.
Contribute to the Dire Kangaroo Rat Business: Hone your husbandry skills, while making money and bonding with the Vermant.
Study in Texulchimum's Grand Library: You can pick this multiple times, choosing different topics.
Socialize with Exotic Peoples: As you grow older, the non-humans of the nameless city will start to take you seriously as a contact, ally, and business partner.
Socialize with Imperials: You could receive a lot of land without lifting a finger should the crusaders win. On an unrelated note, lots of Imperials are seeking your friendship.
Seek Romantic Attention: Practice courtship once you get a bit older. If you don't specify a type, I will assume Arawn is hetrosexual and into humans involved in his educational/free time activities.
Work at the Market: As you approach the age at which adults take you seriously, you can help Shaul and the other Mahallo merchants conduct busniess, earning something for your self as well.
Attend Texulchimum's Audience Chamber: The Lich and his prominent underlings are beginning to trust you. You can practice administrative tasks, and share your views on matters of his realm.
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Topic: (SG) Petty Kingdom of New Mahallo: Reign of King Arawn (Read 20735 times)