Important Link

[Melissa]

The Overall Board Plots

For centuries Terreille has been peaceful. The balance of power has been held in check. No wars, no battles since the last one between Hayll and Tacea over 1,000 years ago. But not all has been perfect, famines and droughts invaded the land. The power of the Queens is said to be waning, the Realm is dying. A few dare to question the ruling Warlord Princes, wondering if they are the cause of this pain and death even though their Territories seem to be prospering despite the famines and droughts. Four dark Jeweled rulers, Askavi, Hayll, Dhemlan, and Dhun Na Aime, now have sway over the entire Realm, but nothing about them is in accord. Some Territories have held out against the conquering rulers, but they too have found themselves plunged into chaos as their rulers are dying out. Some are still resisting being swept under one of the four powerhouse, but many don’t see them surviving without help.

Askavi is a different territory than it has been in the past. No longer is it a bystander, this Territory quietly slipped into the spotlight of Terreille. Led by the Ebon-Gray Jeweled Warlord Prince Gabriel Montagne, this Warlord Prince took it upon himself 800 years ago to clean the corruption and taint out of the old ruling courts, purging many of the darker bloodlines into non-existences. Then when bloodlines failed to produce strong Queens, he stepped up to rule. People in the Territory and outside whisper that the Queens have been targeted in the last few centuries, but no one can prove this is true. However, there is one flaw in Gabriel Montagne master plan; the land has suffered and is slowly becoming barren much like bloodlines. Gabriel is aware of this and knows that a strong Queen will be needed to heal the land. However, finding one that can be controlled by him has proven to be hard, and when the young Queen, Kylian Halliwell makes herself known, Gabriel is torn between killing her or trying to figure out how to use her and her Red Jewel to heal the land.

Dhun Na Aime, one of the few Territories who still believe in the old ways, is headed by the one of the darkest queen in the entire Realm, Nicholette de Beauvoir, a triple-caste Queen who wears the Black. Backed by her First Circle, this Lady is lifting Dhun Na Aime to a higher level despite the natural disasters that plague the land. Their hope is to return the Realm back to the Darkness, believing the neglect of the old ways is plaguing the Realm. However, there is trouble among her own people. For generations, the Dhun Na Aime has hidden behind their protective fog. Weary of outsiders, the people look upon Nikkolette’s court with fear. How could their Queen allow so many outsiders as part of her court? Fear and outrage laces most people’s thoughts about their Queen, but they fear the her Jewel more and just what she can do with it.

Dhemlan is a wild card among the powerhouses of Terrielle. Ruled by Penelope Wyvar, the Red Jeweled Queen has done her best to bring her Territory out of the blight that is affecting the Realm and into some sense of normality. It is through these actions that Dhemlan has weathered the growing storm fairly well, allowing for it to take under their wing some of the floundering territories around it. In return, all is asked that the territories pay a tribute to their savior and that they submit themselves to the rule of Dhemlan. This has increased Dhelman’s power, but some are wondering if the Territory can support the burden as times are becoming increasingly hard. However, Penelope and her court have not done this alone; Laetitia Navarre, the Red Jeweled Queen that rules over the powerful Amdarah Province, is always there watching the Territory Queen’s every move. Sometimes, she supports the Penelope and sometime she opposes her Queen’s actions, causing a strained, yet fluid flow of power in the Territory.

Hayll is a changed Territory; no longer does the taint remain in the land. The Territory is one of the few prospering ones in Terreille. Led by Damian Troy a Gray Warlord Prince, Hayll has faced its challenges in the past and has seemed to overcome them. A rebuilding of the Territory has created a Golden Age for Hayll. Most Blood have returned to the old ways even though a Warlord Prince sits on the throne. Prince Troy with his First Circle and allies stand as peacemakers, in hoped of preventing yet another war. However, among the light there is always a bit of darkness. The chaos of the realm has allowed the powerful families of the Mafia to become almost unmatched. Still, they have not made a bit the throne; instead they seemed to be content with just putting one of their own on a Province throne. However, are they just buying their time until the most opportune time?

In Reaj, all hope seems to be lost. Conquered by Gabriel Montagne and Askavi, the former Queen of Raej and her court were swept away with her, leaving the Territory without any strong Queens to take her place as ruler. Petty squabbling among the lesser jeweled Queens and the minor and major Aristo houses have caused the territory to be plunged into chaos. Killings and assassinations have become commonplace when one Queen seems to be gathering enough strength to make a bid from the throne. And with Gabriel refusing to back one Queen over another, many are trying to prove to the Warlord Prince of Askavi, that they are the best person for the job. There is a whispering among the taverns that there is someone behind all the chaos in the Territory. Is there someone behind all the killings and petty warfare? No one knows.

As the last Queen of Shalador, Sirona, breathes her last breath, the 13 tribes of Shalador prepare themselves for the war. Sirona had spent her life trying to keep the tribes together, but as she dies leaving behind no living heir, the peace that she had worked so hard shatters. In the mist of the bloodshed, three tribes have taken center stage. The Tribe of Averni is a tribe that is known for producing very strong healers and is known for their compassion and gentleness. However, for long they have felt that they had been abused by the other tribes and now their ruler, Healer Queen Anahuarque, or Ana, strives to carve her tribe a place in history. The Dardani Tribe was once known as the Shield of Shalador. Known for the strong Warlord Princes and males that it produces, this Tribe has always been the protectors of the ruling families. But now with no strong ruler to step up as Sirona leaves this word, they are at a lost and are on the Quest of find the next Queen (hopefully among one their own numbers). The Palenque Tribe are the spiritual leaders of the tribes and yet it always seemed to be taking a back seat to the more physical tribes. This tribe guards the secrets of the Priestess Caste as one of its treasures, and now that things are in the mitts of chaos, this tribe is going to make sure that it is never going to take a back seat again.

Zuulaman like so many other territories, always had a dark jeweled Queen to lead them and it was like this for centuries. They are a religious people though strayed from that a s strain with Chaillot and fights for trade routes and deals pulled their attention away from what they had believe to be important in the past. However, over the last few generations, the Ruling Queens have been reviving their lost religious culture and made it mandatory for the people to go to the festivals that had stopped occurring. It wasn’t long before they started enjoying going to the festivals and proud to be as religious as they once were. With the current Queen stepping down, a new heir was found in a young girl named Naomi Yuriko. Naomi is a young Priestess Queen that had a lot of potential and a dark jewel to go along with it, so the former Queen adopted Naomi as her heir and is in the process of training the young girl. The country is eager to see what the girl could do, since this will be the first double caste Queen that anyone can remember they are anxious for her to make her offering and take her spot as the new Queen. However, not everyone is happy with the shift of power, and others see it as a way to build up their own power base.

[Melissa]

The Plot List - Terreille

Askavi, T
100 Years ago, Askavi was very different from how it is now. Back then the Aristos ruled with an iron fist and a corrupted heart, thinking that the common folk where there to amused them. But there is a Price for everything and the Darkness decided to extract their consequences by bring a Warlord Prince, Gabriel Montagne into the world. Put into slavery at a young age, this Warlord Prince grew up to become a sadistic man that only had one thing on his mind, revenge on those that used the common people like trash. When he escaped from his slave bonds, he formed an army and took Askavi for his own. In the Bloodletting that followed was a slaughter that had never been seen in Askavi before leaving ¾ of the Queens and Warlord Princes dead, all of the Aristo families shattered, and all the Black Widow Covens wiped out. The common people rejoiced and took a deep breath for the first time in many generations.

Gabriel began to quickly assert his rule over all of Askavi, and it was hard one at that. New lawas where made, including installing a law requiring registration for all Queens, Warlord Princes, and any Blood that wore a jeweled darker than a Purple Dusk to register with the ruling Court. The people of Askavi complied with the new laws and began to wonder when a few Queens or Warlord Princes disappeared. The land has also suffered by all the Blood and craft. Torn to begin with by the Warfare that was waged, the land isn’t recovering quite as well as it should and to those on the outside, there seems to be no effort on Gabriel’s part of find a strong Queen to help heal the land. Even so, Gabriel’s effect on the common people still holds and many think of him as their savoir.

However, there is one group that would like to see Gabriel torn from the throne. A small group of survivors of the bloodletting hundred years ago has begun to group up and mobilized in the territory of Rashemen, a territory that has suffered the most since the war. They are looking for a new ruler to not only lead them, but maybe just maybe take the throne of Askavi. There are a few strong voices leading this group, and it is with those voice that they people rally around.


Chaillot


Dena Nehele


Dhemlan


Dhun Na Aime

Nikki was born to the Dhun (the people of Dhun Na Aime). At first her people rejoiced in her birth. However, when it became clear Nikki would challenge many of their long held traditions the people began to turn form her toward Brigitte first and then Orianna. Orianna stoked the ill feelings toward Nikki who she saw as a rival. Orianna even manipulated some men into trying to break Nikki, they failed in what amounted to her virgin night. They also died horribly. Orianna manipulated the backlash over the deaths of the men insisting Nikki was not assaulted but was instead unstable. When Nikki’s relationship with another witch, Emmanuelle, was revealed that was all the people needed to be convinced of Orianna’s story. Eventually Nikki landed in jail. She escaped, left a path of destruction none will soon forget and managed to be the first Dhun in millennia (other than Ethan) to escape the misty lands. It nearly killed her.

She was rescued and nursed back to health by pirates. Eventually she settled into pirate life and came to captain the own ship the Sea Witch. She also met a handsome, swashbuckling warlord prince named Beowolf. It was a relationship fraught with difficulty. Nikki left him and made her way to Challiot to make her offering coming away with the black and burning need to return to Dhun Na Aime to answer the call of the dying land.

Upon her return she resolved to remain in the shadows to better decide who was causing the pain in her homeland and who was trying to help. To her great relief Emmanuelle was trying to help. It came as no surprise that Ethan Baines and Orianna had conspired to supplant Brigitte and then proving to be even more inept and bad for the land than the queen that had jailed Nikki. Then the story took an unexpected twist.

Ethan Baines conspired with Orianna to remove Brigitte form the throne with help from an as yet unknown ally, one that could alter the widow craft held in the mists that protected Dhun Na Aime. Ethan was too clever by half perhaps because he disappeared soon afterward, again without any clue to who was behind it. Shortly thereafter Brian Colchannon disappeared as well. Brian was Emmanuelle’s love and it hurt Nikki to see her former flame in such pain.

While Nikki had intended to keep her presence in Dhun Na Aime secret while she sought out answers, not the least of which was who was able to penetrate the barriers Dhun Na Aime had erected to keep other people out of their lands, now she knew she had to emerge from the mists. Nikki had learned enough to know that Ethan had help from outside Dhun Na Aime. Orianna had betrayed that bit of knowledge by wearing fashions only Nikki, Orianna and Ethan knew came from outside her homeland. Now Niki prepares to confront Orianna and take back the throne that was rightfully hers.



Hayll

Many years ago, the Costi family wanted to regain the power that they once had but had lost many generations ago. With the birth of two very strong Queens, the Costi thought now would be the best time to make their move, and because of this they began seeking outside help. Sure enough, Merry jumped on the opportunity, and only had one tiny request. They were to allow the Queen that they had in mind to rule come and finish up her court training with Merry. After some thought the family agreed, choosing Elly to become that Queen because of her ties with the current ruler of Hayll. Elly did not want to go but packed her bags anyways and headed toward Dena Nehele. However, the Queen never made it to Dena Nehele. Warned in a Web, Elly’s former friend and semi ally Gabriel Montagne, ruler of Askavi, swooped in and saved Elly, hiding the girl away in the Black Valley Mountains. The two become more than just friends, but lovers, during this time.

Meanwhile, the Costi scrambled to give another Offering to Merry, sending Avery there as their backup and began looking for their long lost Daughter. However they couldn’t find her, instead, Elly returned after many years of being hidden away becoming co-ruler with her father. Furious, the Costi brought Avery back from Merry’s grasp and helped instill her as the Province Queen of NAME. Bitter and annoyed at her cousins success where she had been promised. Avery begins to form her court with people that wished that Hayll would go back to the way it was before Damian Troy took the throne.

Pruul


Raej


Shalador


Tacea

Zuulaman

Important Organizations.

Red Velvet Lounge

The Red Velvet Lounge was established as an offshoot of the Scarlet Night. Its mission was to glean information from Dhemlan Aristos whose tongues loosened in the throes of pleasure. It was an idea concocted by Damian, Niko and Leyna. All three take measures to ensure it is very difficult to make the connection between the RVL and the SN, and there is even more secrecy ensuring the connection between Damian and the SN is never found.

Recent events at the Red Velvet Lounge have been tied into a love triangle among its more powerful and promising workers, Logan DeGaul, Kurian Mikhale, and Wysteria Moore, and the one person left out Eden Aurelius. In the beginning it was a happy arrangement Eden and Logan were friends, coworkers and then lovers, and Kurian and Wysteria were also coworkers and then lovers. The beginning of the problems came with Eden’s disappearance.

Logan was deeply distraught. They had just joined the Scarlet Night and she had gone missing on assignment, so it was reasonable to think she had died. Instead she was in deep cover working in Hayll, a mission she did very effectively. Eden was certain that when she was finished and returned to Logan he would be waiting with open arms. Instead she found Wysteria in those arms.

Latent feelings Logan and Wysteria had for eachother came to the fore during Logan’s depression following what he thought was the loss of Eden. Kurian took it hard that Wysteria was moving toward Logan as would be expected. The deep divisions that resulted from these events provided an opportunity to a shadowy outside organization. Somehow the administration got wind of all this and before Eden returned to the Lounge had disguised one of their operatives to look like Eden and penetrate the Lounge to uncover its secrets. There was a battle that destroyed a whole wing of the Lounge resulting in the seeming death of the intruder.

Shortly thereafter the real Eden returned (obviously not the same woman that had attacked the lounge since Eden was far into her pregnancy) and the Lounge still reeling was in even deeper turmoil. In the midst of this the imposter returned. There was another battle worse than the first. Wysteria and Leyna were gravely injured, and everyone was shaken to their core.

In the immediate aftermath, some major changes took place in the Lounge. Leyna turned over the day to day operations of the Lounge to San’na and put Sabelian in charge of the SN operations. Logan, Wysteria, Kurian, or Eden are all more qualified in many ways to lead the SN operations in the Lounge, but all four are still dealing with their shifting relationships, and Leyna wanted someone removed from all of that to lead them. It couldn’t be San’na either. The new mistress of the Lounge blames the SN partly for the loss of some of her friends and the destruction of her home, and because of that she has a new wariness in her dealing with the SN members that work the lounge. She has no idea that her lover, Abel, is about to take Niko’s place as the nominal head of the SN.

Relations are a little better between Logan, Eden, Kurian and Wysteria. Eden actually helped Logan a great deal with healing Wysteria. Kurian had fought alongside Logan in both battles and despite her reservations about the SN business, San’na likes to see everyone getting along in the lounge. Sabellian, Diarmand and Madison are relative newcomers that are fitting in nicely, and things are starting to come to a new sort of normalcy. But many questions remain.

Who was the Ebon Gray jeweled witch that disguised herself as Eden?
Did she work alone or as part of some sinister organization?
Perhaps most important of all what was she after?
How did Leyna get injured?

Having dealt with the administration Devahn might have some answers for them, but she is alittle freaked out over her pregnancy and given her history with the Lounge (a near battle with Logan and the others) Damian is understandably loathe to let Devahn return to the Lounge.

Link to the battle at the Lounge
The battle from Wysteria's perspective



Scarlet Night

The Scarlet Night was formed by Damian’s insight and vision and Nikolai Rhoerik’s acumen. They have been friends for a very long time. In the early days of their friendship they were both quite wild and rebelling against what seemed their fate, Niko to be the good son of a very successful merchant and Damian to be yet another trophy escort to some aristo witch of the 100 families. It is likely they recognized a fellow restless soul in each other, and since have supported each other in breaking the rules that would have held them back. Damian of course went on to become the first Warlord Prince of Hayll, or at least the first in a very long time, and Niko went on to become the toast of Hayll as its most prominent theater operator. Both men have been wildly successful, and that success is due in large part to the Scarlet Night.

Damian dreamed it up and directs it, and Niko runs it. The Scarlet Night is many things, all of which are useful to Damian’s political ambitions and likewise bring in large sums of money for Niko. To most everyone that has heard of it, the night is a loose organization of thugs and assassins, led by some unknown shadowy figure, something like a thieves guild. In other rarefied circles it is a group of very skilled assassins, thieves and spies led by Niko who uses his theater operation as a front for a business steeped in blackmail, intrigue and assassination. To Niko it is a lucrative source of income. Damian was already fabulously wealthy so that mattered little to him.

Most importantly to Niko and Damian the majority of the SN operation, and its offshoot the Red Velvet Lounge, is simply a testing a recruiting ground to find some of the most skilled blood in all the realm. Once found they intend to hone the skills of those select few into a cadre that can stand against and eliminate threats to Damian, threats to Hayll, and threats to the blood in the form of the taint. That group is to be called the devil’s hand, and they believe they finally have enough good people in the organization to establish the group. Once formed, Damian will be able to project his power in earnest throughout the realm.

There is just one small problem. Niko wants to retire to tend to his life’s love, Leyna Adair. It seems that the upcoming meeting at the Lounge to form the group will be his last as head of the SN. The Lounge is the perfect place for the meeting since just about all of the members that will form the devil’s hand came up through the Lounge, a fitting legacy for Niko and Leyna who conceived the Lounge and were both early members of the SN.

By some quirk of the darkness, Niko’s best discovery will not be joining the devil’s hand. Before meeting and falling in love with Damian, Devahn had been rescued from the streets of Draega by Niko. For centuries, he trained her hard in the use of weapons, supplemented her skills as a black widow by hiring the best tutors, and tried to train her to be a courtesan with mixed results. She was also his best actress in his theater company. In his mind she would be the jewel of the devil’s hand. There was one small problem, again. This time it was Damian. He was the reason for Devahn’s only failure on SN business and worse still he and Devahn had fallen in love. The problem was Damian didn’t want his now pregnant wife to work for the Night anymore.

He has good reason to wish it. Devahn and her friend Falayna on assignment in Pruul, encountered a mysterious pair at a lonely salt mine that was supposed to be annexed into Niko’s SN empire. They barely escaped with their lives, forcing Devahn to dig deep into her bag of Black Widow tricks. Devahn had one more assignment to find Ellysetta Costi Troy, Damian’s long lost daughter and bring her back to Hayll. Falayna again joined Devahn on the mission, but Falayna didn’t return. She simply went missing. Damian wont allow Devahn to take anymore missions now, having married her and fathering a child with her. Oddly Devahn’s relationship with Niko while often strained has deepened during her pregnancy. Craft has been all but forbidden to her, so she practiced blades with Niko to stay fit, and brainstormed ideas for their theater. Even so now with the SN facing a new and likely its most dangerous opponent, Devahn and Niko are sidelined and so it is up to the new class of operatives and its new leader Abel to carry on in these hard times.

In addition Rosalyn another very promising operative has also gone missing along with many lower level assassins, spies and thieves. Even more disturbing was the attack on the Lounge and the losses in the THE COVEN, Damian’s core group of black widows. These are hard times indeed for the Scarlet Night, and since it appears the Night is in a war of some sort with an as yet unknown enemy, maybe it is time for the political and mercantile Niko to be replaced by the warrior Abel? Damian trusts Abel completely, is one of Damian’s best friends and has proven his ability as a leader during his time as Damian’s master of the guard.


Administration


The Clocks

Pirates

Nikki had raced all the way across the seas from Dhemlan to Challiot and somewhere along the way she had slipped Beowolf’s dogged search for her. She knew though that this time away from the chase would not last long. In this her jewel betrayed her. He will always know his heading when she was his goal, because somehow their jewels had formed a link. There was also a terrible knowledge in that. He had to know she was Bloody Nick. Every time he grabbed his jewel to home in on her he had found Bloody Nick. He could only be even more angry with her.

It all had repercussions. For one she was determined to make her offering. For another she was decided it was time to dispense with her disguise. It didn’t seem right to hide what she truly was. Her officers had known for some time now, but they had no idea how the crew might respond. There were some uncomfortable moments but the crew saw the benefits of going along with it in the flash of the dark jewels arrayed against them. Only her homeland remained of all her secrets.

One night Nikki was leaning out of the window in her cabin, staring back behind them with her red jewel gripped tightly in her hand and crying. Nikki could feel Beowolf closing on her, but she was confused. She wasn’t receiving anger, but love. She had made a monstrous mess of things again. Beowolf was not chasing her down to kill her. Instead she had the impression he wanted to hold her, but it was too late to turn back now. Dhun Na Aime was calling to her and whatever happened with Beowolf would happen there if he dared follow the pull on his jewel into the land of mists.

Nikki had come ashore on Challiot like a conqueror, tall, red, poised, not afraid at all to set her feet on enemy soil. There was no time for stealth. The rest of the crew followed with the same arrogant swagger. There was the usual resistance to pirates offered by the populace. This time though, the scuffles were very short and very deadly. Nikki’s crew had some very dark jewels and all the pirates, even Lucas now, were deadly combatants having been tested harshly against the sword forms of Zuulman.

The challiot queen she had bargained with not more than a year ago was gone replaced by someone named Kara Cavendish. Nikki cared little for Challiot politics, except to acknowledge that with Madeira gone she had no more obligations to fulfill in challiot.. She had drug her crew here to guard the altar while she made her offering. She entered the chamber alone for the journey that was hers alone. She came away with a black offering and many visions she had to sort through. It seemed Mother Night had big plans for her and her pirating days were at an end for the immediate future.

Exiting Cassandra’s altar she presented herself to her crew in all her dark glory. Even before they were able to get used to her new power she shocked them deeper still by informing them that she came from the misty cursed land they called Cawr. She told them it was actually called Dhun Na Aime and it was land in trouble. Without giving them time to react she informed them that she was returning to her homeland immediately, and would take any that wished to follow her. Long Ben was appointed the new captain of the Sea Witch. With that she assembled those that wished to follow her, placed a web that was proof against the magics in the fog and took them all on fast ride on the black to Dhun Na Aime.

This post has been edited by Devahn on Nov 22 2008, 04:02 PM

[Melissa]

The Plot List - Kaeleer

Arceria

Askavi, K

Centauran

Dharo

Dhemlan, K

Glacia

Little Terreille

Nharkava

Scelt

Shalador

Tacea

Zuulaman

Other Kindred Territories: Not open for Character Play As of Yet (PM Admin with Questions)

Arachna

Fireborn Island

Pandar

Pilan

Sceval

Tigrelan

[Devahn]

Updated.

I will try to get Glacia and Lae's bit in Dhemlan T up beofre thanksgiving.

i will work on Scelt but i need to know more about the black market.