[quote=Castor]Who is Viola? As a Viscountess, where does her influence come from? Is she popular only among nobles or do the general Coven have the same respect for her?[/quote]
[indent]- Viola is the Viscountess of the D'Cerf coven. Her influence and nobility, as with the other nobles, comes from genealogy and hereditary, which is also how she keeps her title. It's very difficult for a noble to lost their status (especially without the Lord and Lady to do so), unless actually removed from the coven. Her ancestors were among the founding members of the coven, having good relations with the D'cerf family, never really having been a part of open conflict. Particularly speaking, her father was a very popular noble in his life, working as an ambassador to other coven, spending most of his time travelling for diplomatic reasons (albeit some of these acts of "diplomacy" were asking for tributes from the coven and etc.). In terms of mere nobility, she herself was never of exceedingly good or ill repute, until recently, what with the power vacuum. Since then, she has become much more prevalent in the D'Cerf coven, known for her obvious "campaigning" and blatant nominations of herself for the throne. As of yet, her motive for wanting the throne is unknown.

Speaking of Viola as a person (and not as a mere noblewoman), she assumes no formal occupation, being both a woman and noble. That said, she is known to be very meticulous and has been known to excel in various forms of art (painting, calligraphy, etc.), when she's not out doing her best to sway the opinions of others in her favor. As a witch, being a noble and thus having a better opportunity at an occult education, she's not to be underestimated. Although hardly ever getting her own hands dirty, rumor has it that her father taught her various spells from foreign coven, when he would return from his journeys; her actual ability has yet to be fully gauged.

Of the nobles, she is the most prideful, but she is in no way the 'nastiest'. She just thinks she's better and can do everything better, but she's actually of the least manipulative (although whether this is because she's nice or just doesn't trust others to do her bidding well enough is unknown). This isn't to say she's a model citizen in the least, though; she has definitely backstabbed more than a couple of individuals, but really a whole lot of them have.

For all you know, the Viscountess maybe the 'friend' in the situation. Who knows? Well, that not true, I have a general idea/authority over that, so I guess you could say that I know :p You surely don't though.[/indent]

[quote=Castor]Also, this is happening in the middle of the night, right? How did they managed to assemble all these nobles given the circumstances? Who are the nobles that are attending this trial? Do they all have the same motives - get rid of D'Cerfs?[/quote]
[indent]- Yes, this is happening in the middle of the night. How they managed to assemble all of these nobles is unknown, although it's obvious that something must be (or must have been) afoot, considering the circumstances. I actually explicitly stated this in the post: [i]"They had been awaiting their arrival. How they had been informed of the situation was unknown."[/i]

And really no one has the particular motive to rid of the D'Cerfs (except maybe the Vilicus), meaning the actual coven, the family ties are too deep. They just want to assume leadership of it. That said, if to get them to the throne, they have to uproot the actual D'Cerf family line (and not the actual coven; that is, the community), then some might. At this point, especially with the growing pressures of the Vilicus and possible war, most are willing whatever means to achieve the end of finally bringing the coven back into stability.[/indent]

[quote=Castor]What if we turned the nobles on each other? ... We can feed the doubt .[/quote]
[indent]- Who knows? Might work. Remember not to metagame all too much though; only use the conclusions that Vincent himself would have reached. Plus, you'll have to somehow get the other's to help you. I don't know what preordained relationships you guys made for your characters, but unless you all trust each other, then things won't be that smooth.[/indent]

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I'll leave the discussion open for the Illusion magic to receive some final input from the players, then I'll do my final judgement. For me, I think you've clarified things sufficiently, but the others may have some concerns still. Thanks for the patience and for being so diligent! It will be rewarded in the end. :)