"Well brother, if there is a God," said the usurper with a small, rueful smile, "Perhaps He'll have us share quarters in Hell. He'd consider that justice, I'm sure. Otherwise, though, this is goodbye." 

When he was done cutting the King's throat, the usurper rose from his haunches, cleaning his dagger as he stepped back from the corpse, careful to avoid the spreading pool of royal blood creeping over the pale marble.

"Where's my nephew?" asked the usurper, his eyes still fixed on the dead king sprawled before him, "And where is that snake, Salazar?" 

"The boy wasn't in his chambers," said a short, thickset man in the gold-and-white uniform of the Darkwatch, "My men are turning the palace over. We'll find him."

"And the wizard?"

[center][img]https://urbanpap.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Tuor-and-Gondolin-The-Fall-of-Gondolin-Lord-of-the-Rings.jpg[/img][/center]

Welcome to the city of [b]Azon,[/b] capital and jewel of the mountainous Kingdom of [b]Pharazon[/b]: most ancient and honorable of the [b]Five Kingdoms[/b] of [b]Geryon[/b].

It has been over 300 years since the defeat of [b]Daigon[/b], the Dark Lord, a sorcerer of terrible power who, from the cursed lands of [b]Nagath[/b], launched an invasion of the Five Kingdoms of unprecedented scale and fury. Daigon and his legions of twisted soldier-fanatics were beaten back, barely, by the Kingdoms, under the leadership of King Odrossyan II of Pharazon and the [b]Synod[/b], a network of powerful wizards, who aided in combatting Daigon and his many fell lieutenants. 

In the intervening centuries, the Five Kingdoms-- [b]Pharazon, Phars, Caphad, Essur, and Glome[/b]-- have squabbled for dominance and have seen off invasions and raids from the desert peoples to the south, occasional incursions of mutants and monsters from Daigon's former kingdom of [b]Nagath[/b] to the east, and the ferocious Ashlanders to the north. 

Only once, however, have they faced a threat akin to Daigon: more than a century after the Dark Lord's defeat a rebellion broke out in the heartland of Pharazon, led by the [b]Wretched Prince[/b], a disinherited heir to the throne, who nearly toppled the kingdom by rallying a coalition of the dispossessed in the name of the Dark Lord.

The revolt was broken, along with Pharazon's preeminence among the Five Kingdoms. In the wake of the Wretched Prince's revolt, the [b]Darkwatch[/b], an inquisitorial order of battlemages was founded to root out followers of Daigon from Pharazon. Over time, the mages of the Darkwatch, loyal to the throne of Pharazon, have come to view the Synod- with its many foreign entanglements- with suspicion. Often members of the Synod have been banned from the Kingdom and suffered occasional bouts of persecution in Pharazon.

Based out of the mysterious mountain fastness known as the [b]House of Wisdom[/b], the Synod, some members of which are old enough to have participated in the fight against Daigon, have retained a place of respect and influence in some kingdoms beyond Pharazon, often mediating disputes and acting as courtiers, spymasters, and viziers, especially in Glome and Caphad. 

In recent years, however, the Synod has made a notable return to influence in Pharazon, much to the chagrin of the Darkwatch. [b]Odrossyan VI[/b] has reigned for ten years, after overcoming his older brother [b]Valens[/b] in a succession dispute that would have turned into a civil war, if not for the machinations of Odrossyan's future vizier [b]Salazar[/b], a mage of the Synod. 

Odrossyan's rule has been controversial and tumultuous, and has recently come to a bloody end. Valens, long in exile, has returned and with the connivance of the Darkwatch killed his brother and the king's chief supporters. Publicly, Salazar and the Synod are blamed for the murder, and Valens has promised to uproot the spies and agents of the House of Wisdom from Pharazon.  

The King's heir, with the help of the wizard Salazar, just barely escaped his uncle's assassins, and now flees into the mountains with a small band of supporters....

[center]***[/center]

Welcome to the Crownless King.

Writers are invited to submit up to two character applications- you will play principally as the companions of the heir to Pharazon's throne, though I will consider applications for third-parties, more distant allies, and even enemies. 

I dont require a specific format for the CS, but invite you to write a brief scene that gives a sense of your characters' personality, looks, and motivation. You can use a traditional character sheet format if you like, but please do include a brief IC scene- it can serve as your first IC post if you wish.

Collaborative worldbuilding will also be a major part of this RP. The [b]details given above are meant to be fleshed out by the players[/b] both in the course of the IC and OOCly. I intentionally gave more 'big picture' background than info surrounding the recent coup and the conflict between the late king and his brother Valens. I would like players to flesh out recent history in their own characters backstories. 

Some details to get us started are included under the hider below, but these are meant to be explored and deepened not just by me but by all the writers in the RP. In fact, if there is some aspect of the world you'd like to flesh out with an OOC description, you can submit that here and I'll include in in the OP. 

[hider=The World of Geryon]
[h3]The Five Kingdoms[/h3]

The Five Kingdoms are bound together formally by what is known as the [b]Tattered Treaty[/b], so-named because it was signed during the [b]Nagathi War[/b] by monarchs of four of the five kingdoms on a tattered bit of parchment deep in the wilds of the Dreadwood, following the defeat of their combined armies at the hands of Daigon's forces on the shores of Lake Doldrums. The monarchs pledged eternal cooperation and vigilance against the forces of darkness should they succeed in their war against Daigon. The King of Essur, not present at the battle, became a signatory later in the war.

Nominally, the terms of the treaty are held to today, committing the Five Kingdoms to cooperate militarily against external threats and never to raise arms against each other. In practice, the Five Kingdoms have warred regularly, with shifting alliances always ensuring that no one kingdom ever became over-mighty... resulting a de facto stalemate of several centuries. 

[b]Pharazon[/b]: A feudal monarchy occupying a series of fertile valleys between the peaks of the Broken Crown Mountains. Traditionally, Pharazon was the most powerful of the Five Kingdoms and played the greatest role in the defeat of Daigon, though it retains a mere shadow now of its old primacy. Pharazon's capital is [b]Azon[/b], a great city of shining white stone in the wide, fertile, highly defensible Odrossyan Vale.

[b]Phars[/b]

[b]Caphad[/b]

[b]Essur[/b]

[b]Glome[/b]

[h3]Foreign Lands[/h3]

[b]Nagath[/b]

[b]Ashlands[/b]

[b]Avanagashan Desert[/b]

[h3]Factions of Note[/h3]

[b]The Synod[/b]

[b]The Darkwatch:[/b] An inquisitorial order founded in the wake of the Wretched Prince's revolt in order to root our Daigon's lingering influence from Pharazon, as well as to root out forbidden magic and unnatural threats to the Kingdom. Led by Lictors, highly trained and usually magically-capable spellswords, the Darkwatch commands an elite detachment of troops, known as Ordinators, to carry out its mission. Additionally, Lictors possess the authority to command royal troops, city guardsmen, and even the lesser nobility in times of crisis. 

The Darkwatch traditionally answers to the Crown of Pharazon, with the Archlictor sitting on the King's Privy Council. As it has grown in power, the Darkwatch has become an increasingly independent faction with its own interests and objectives, most notably in its hostility to the wizards of the Synod. Currently, the Darkwatch is led by Qux the Many Eyed who has for years been a rival of the royal vizier, Salazar. Qux was one of the principle forces that brought Valens back into power.
[/hider]

Discord: https://discord.gg/WhnvBxCRbz