[right][sub][sub][h1][b][color=001202]𝕸 π–š 𝖗 π–š 𝖛 𝖛 π–Š 𝖙 𝖔 π–Œ 𝖑 π–š[/color] [color=695001]𝕸 π–š 𝖗 π–š 𝖛 𝖛 π–Š 𝖙 𝖔 π–Œ 𝖑 π–š[/color] [/b][/h1][/sub][/sub][/right][color=dimgray]__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________[/color] [table][row][sup][h1][color=2c2c2c][b]β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…[/b][right][b]β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…[/b][/right][/color][/h1][/sup][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/UbpiuZY.png[/img][color=dimgray]_______________________________________________________________________________________________[/color][/center][/row][ROW][CELL][center][sub][sup][sub][h1][b][color=001202] 𝖕 𝖗 𝖔 𝖋 π–Ž 𝖑 π–Š[/color] [color=695001]𝖕 𝖗 𝖔 𝖋 π–Ž 𝖑 π–Š[/color] [/b][/h1][/sub][/sup][/sub][sup][color=dimgray]_________________________________________________________[/color][/sup][/center][COLOR=f3ebdc][indent][justify]Few young kin ever leave the glinting and gilded walls of the Imperial Harem; fewer do so with the life they had entered with. For within such walls of whispered pleasures and foretold blessings of coin beyond one's most greedy imagination was a structure of power much too similar to the lands beyond its confines. Wherein lay a pyramid based upon the birth and favor of a mother in a sea of scheming concubines all to eager to please. And for Asli Muruvvetoglu, the 10th son born from Sultan Hurjanic III Muruvvetoglu’s escapades to a mother who had lost favor from such a man years prior to his conception, it was a battle futile from the beginning. Yet, in a complex of people vying for the top, of mothers who wrought their hands through dirt for their son to be the heir, and of sabotage of brother against brother, his quaint family carved their own safe place within the walls. One safe from the prying eyes that scanned for but any sign of cracking, and the ears of those who would use any and all against you. It was the home for which the first decade of his life was spent, spent with a mother who had only lived for their survival, with a brother too entrenched in the life of fighting for his spot in the sun, with a twin sister who was but the opposite of him, but as a unit they stood. His mother had been the one who taught him to revel in the moment, to enjoy the sun as it shone onto your face from within the courtyard and the breeze that passed through the gates of the harem. It was his brother, who, though divided in age by a decade, he had played petty schemes upon his half-siblings with, who taught him to find such joy in the sword. Asli had been clever, rowdy, with a wit and tongue that even struck his brother down some days. However, the Sultan had begun to rot. A quiet rot, akin to a curse struck down upon him from the Gods, and the man who had known as his β€œfather” began to falter. For the eldest sons of the sultan in a kingdom where an heir is never declared, blood shall soon fall at their feet. And Asli’s brother Mahzon didn’t allow such to be his kin’s, for when Asli was but only twelve, his father had succumbed to the sickness that reigned over his final years like a miasma, and he was subsequently shipped along with his mother and twin to lands in which she hailed. The Osterland was where he had grown into a man, for to Asli, it was a land far, far from those he had been born. One of green fields and rocky cliff faces as opposed to the sandstone walls and chalky dirt of the Capitallands of the Muravvettan Sultanate. He grew up under years of tutelage from the frontier guards, picking fights and joining their training when not herded to his mother’s side. Wielding the sword the same way in which his Mahzon had taught him, he still kept that temperament of years past. He had been loud, he had been boisterous, he had learned to care not for the words which others spout about him, yet he still held to watch what was said in the presence of prying ears. As for but even the young had understood the conditions of the harem, and those had yet to leave him. He could almost be called a snake, like his brother had taught him; he could slither his way into relationships with silky words and plush promises. If the harem taught one thing, it was how to manage people, how to keep up appearances. And when he had come of age, the academy was but the only option he had before him. For in a land he could call his own, yet so drastically different from where he was born, there were but few roads paved in stone. [/justify][/INDENT][/COLOR][/CELL][CELL][center][sub][sup][sub][h1][b][color=001202] 𝖕 𝖔 𝖗 𝖙 𝖗 𝖆 π–Ž 𝖙[/color] [color=695001]𝖕 𝖔 𝖗 𝖙 𝖗 𝖆 π–Ž 𝖙[/color] [/b][/h1][/sub][/sup][/sub][sup][color=dimgray]_________________________________________________________[/color][/sup][img]https://i.imgur.com/HpXKQks.png[/img] [sup][color=dimgray]_________________________________________________________[/color][/sup] [color=gray][ 𝑨 𝒔 𝒍 π’Š 𝑴 𝒖 𝒓 𝒖 𝒗 𝒗 𝒆 𝒕 𝒐 π’ˆ 𝒍 𝒖 ][/color] [/center][/cELL][/ROW][/TABLE] [center][color=dimgray]_______________________________________________________________________________________________[/color][/center][table][row][sup][h1][color=2c2c2c][b]β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…[/b][right][b]β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…[/b][/right][/color][/h1][/sup][center] [color=2c2c2c].[/color] [img]https://i.imgur.com/BJFwNW1.png[/img][/center][/row][ROW][CELL][center][sub][sup][sub][h1][b][color=001202] 𝖕 𝖗 𝖔 𝖋 π–Ž 𝖑 π–Š[/color] [color=695001]𝖕 𝖗 𝖔 𝖋 π–Ž 𝖑 π–Š[/color] [/b][/h1][/sub][/sup][/sub][sup][color=dimgray]_________________________________________________________[/color][/sup][/center][COLOR=f3ebdc][indent][justify] Melancholia was what they called it, a disruption of the temperaments. For but his whole life, Asli had known his mother, Liesl, as a kind woman. The type to be able to hold a stranger near and dear to heart, to bend over backwards for those that she loves, yet throughout his life, there had always been a miasma cloud of locked away hurt and tears that fell in the witching hour of the night that followed his mother. She was a woman that rarely spoke upon her past, rarely mentioned the early years in which she had lived within the harem or how she had even become a concubine of the sultan in the first place, yet even on her darkest days when the plague of the mind had struck her bedridden, she would push beyond it for her children. Liesl would tell them tales of the journeys she had ventured to calm Asli and Hace from a fright that left them sleepless, and worked her best to make sure their upbringing was the best that they could’ve received. A selfless woman to her core, wherein the little hate she held in her heart only seemed to be centered upon herself. She lived for her children, for in this world where the clouds always seemed to block the sky, they were the few joys that broke through the coverage. [/justify][/INDENT][/COLOR][/CELL][CELL][center][sub][sup][sub][h1][b][color=001202] 𝖕 𝖔 𝖗 𝖙 𝖗 𝖆 π–Ž 𝖙[/color] [color=695001]𝖕 𝖔 𝖗 𝖙 𝖗 𝖆 π–Ž 𝖙[/color] [/b][/h1][/sub][/sup][/sub][sup][color=dimgray]_________________________________________________________[/color][/sup][img]https://i.imgur.com/XyeQJqv.png[/img] [sup][color=dimgray]_________________________________________________________[/color][/sup] [color=gray][ 𝑳 π’Š 𝒆 𝒔 𝒍 𝒗 𝒐 𝒏 𝑯 𝒂 𝒖 π’ˆ 𝒉 𝒕 𝒆 𝒓 ][/color] [/center] [/cELL][/ROW][/TABLE] [center][color=dimgray]_______________________________________________________________________________________________[/color][/center][table][row][sup][h1][color=2c2c2c][b]β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…[/b][right][b]β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…[/b][/right][/color][/h1][/sup][center] [color=2c2c2c].[/color] [img]https://i.imgur.com/lj5xr25.png[/img][/center][/row][ROW][CELL][center][sub][sup][sub][h1][b][color=001202] 𝖕 𝖗 𝖔 𝖋 π–Ž 𝖑 π–Š[/color] [color=695001]𝖕 𝖗 𝖔 𝖋 π–Ž 𝖑 π–Š[/color] [/b][/h1][/sub][/sup][/sub][sup][color=dimgray]_________________________________________________________[/color][/sup][/center][COLOR=f3ebdc][indent][justify] In the days of yore, when both were but only boys and stood upon the same mosaic floors, there was not but a single day Asli hadn’t been by his brother’s side. Mahzon had been many things: a protector on the darkest of nights, a mentor in the times beyond mandatory instruction, and a man who cared for him more than the paltry number of times their father had even been in his presence. Though Mahzon had always been an ambitious man, he had been one of the oldest sons in the harem and fought to keep himself in the eye of a father who cared not for him. He toiled in the background of the imperial court for years to learn to rule, to lead, yet in the days of his father’s moments upon this plane, he made the decision to send his family away. To send the ones in which he held most dear over any crown away, he protected not only them but himself. It had been a long, forlorn time since Asli had last seen his brother, since he had last received a letter from him. A Sultan has still yet to be crowned, and as but barely any whispers from Orient cross into Laachtalia, he can only wonder about the status of his dear brother. [/justify][/INDENT][/COLOR][/CELL][CELL][center][sub][sup][sub][h1][b][color=001202] 𝖕 𝖔 𝖗 𝖙 𝖗 𝖆 π–Ž 𝖙[/color] [color=695001]𝖕 𝖔 𝖗 𝖙 𝖗 𝖆 π–Ž 𝖙[/color] [/b][/h1][/sub][/sup][/sub][sup][color=dimgray]_________________________________________________________[/color][/sup][img]https://i.imgur.com/PouITh5.png[/img] [sup][color=dimgray]_________________________________________________________[/color][/sup] [color=gray][ 𝑴 𝒂 𝒉 𝒛 𝒐 𝒏 𝑻 𝒆 𝒗 𝒓 𝒂 𝒕 𝑴 𝒖 𝒓 𝒖 𝒗 𝒗 𝒆 𝒕 𝒐 π’ˆ 𝒍 𝒖 ][/color] [/center][/cELL][/ROW][/TABLE] [center][color=dimgray]_______________________________________________________________________________________________[/color][/center][table][row][sup][h1][color=2c2c2c][b]β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…[/b][right][b]β–…β–…β–…β–…β–…[/b][/right][/color][/h1][/sup][center] [color=2c2c2c].[/color] [img]https://i.imgur.com/6INcJY9.png[/img][/center][/row][ROW][CELL][center][sub][sup][sub][h1][b][color=001202] 𝖕 𝖗 𝖔 𝖋 π–Ž 𝖑 π–Š[/color] [color=f1d090]𝖕 𝖗 𝖔 𝖋 π–Ž 𝖑 π–Š[/color] [/b][/h1][/sub][/sup][/sub][sup][color=dimgray]_________________________________________________________[/color][/sup][/center][COLOR=f3ebdc][indent][justify] Hace was never a very loud girl, even from birth when she came from the womb with Asli crying til his lungs ran dry, she held still, silent in the chaos that surrounded her. And yet despite differing from her brother in ways obvious to any who lays an eye upon the two, the bond the two hold only grows stronger. She was one of the few who could keep her brother in check in his great expansion of freedom upon the Osterland frontier, with a quiet voice but a strong will. In ways she was akin to a reflection of the stories they heard of their mother; she was that girl who sought to learn everything new, whose eyes snuck looks beyond the confines of the boat and upon the open seas as they departed the Sultanate, who explored the backwoods of her uncle’s holdings as Asli regalded her with stories of history from long ago, and who dug her head into the breadth of books held in the library. [/justify][/INDENT][/COLOR][/CELL][CELL][center][sub][sup][sub][h1][b][color=001202] 𝖕 𝖔 𝖗 𝖙 𝖗 𝖆 π–Ž 𝖙[/color] [color=695001]𝖕 𝖔 𝖗 𝖙 𝖗 𝖆 π–Ž 𝖙[/color] [/b][/h1][/sub][/sup][/sub][sup][color=dimgray]_________________________________________________________[/color][/sup][img]https://i.imgur.com/MLbgfjw.png[/img] [sup][color=dimgray]_________________________________________________________[/color][/sup] [color=gray][ 𝑯 𝒂 𝒄 𝒆 𝑴 𝒖 𝒓 𝒖 𝒗 𝒗 𝒆 𝒕 𝒐 π’ˆ 𝒍 𝒖 ][/color][/center][/cELL][/ROW][/TABLE] [center][color=dimgray]_______________________________________________________________________________________________[/color][/center]