ClocktowerEchos

Kingmakers - The Throne Alone (GoT/ASOIF-like) (Noble Politics)

@TheRedWatcher I like the idea but I would rather the Frozen Tears be firmly in one place. As much as this is based on feudal politics, I still have PTSD back when I was trying to wrap my head around the weirdness that was the King of England holding land inside France but as a vassal of the French King despite also being completely independent.

I do have another proposal though, what if instead of being geographically split between Frostmark and Mistland, you're politically split? Like what if you're married to a Mistland princess and thus are bound by alliance to the Mistland but BC's House still rules over you as liege lords meaning you owe loyalty to two different people who might one day want two different things sort of like Brandenburg-Prussia.

Kingmakers - The Throne Alone (GoT/ASOIF-like) (Noble Politics)

@ShadowSunRisen Prior to Adandum's invasion and the establishment of House Loyce and the kingdom, there were a hundred different First Tribes in the area. The King in the Mist could have been one who managed to rule all of the Misty Steps from a castle in the highest habitable plateau since its on the Steps where the mist is the heaviest.

The contacts sounds good actually now that I think about it some more. Maybe not all direct criminals and cuthroats but like maybe some beggars, poachers and rogue knights you don't officially associate yourself with. Maybe there's even a scout from the Steppe Nomads who sometimes contacts you with things. The bandit brotherhood idea is also good, maybe they're a mix of actual bandits and deserters from the royal army and refugees from other places trying to hide from the Mad King and in exchange for protecting and hunting the most vicious of criminals and ruthless of brigand gangs you let them off with light bandrity as a sort of "payment" for their service.

And yes, a character sheet is required.

Kingmakers - The Throne Alone (GoT/ASOIF-like) (Noble Politics)

<Snipped quote by ClocktowerEchos>

I like the angle of most of the family torn apart by the mad king and no one daring to claim the mantle of Mistland. There could be a ton of curse superstition about the title which would give anyone holding it a mysterious aura. A cursed prince who uses that legend to his advantage to intimidate others is fun. I'd like to be a count in Mistland conspiring for the archduchy then.

I was also thinking of having my character be a sort of thief lord. Isn't shy about using brigands and has extensive connections in the underworld. Obviously, it's more of an open secret thing and he'd deny any associations he has with criminal guilds. Has the situation in the kingdom fallen enough for that to be appropriate? Would definitely make shady dealings easier.

@ShadowSunRisen

Not super big on the title itself having that connotation since really it would have been the Great House itself, "cursed" bloodlines are already present. Could be that there are old stories about how the old tribes had a "King in the Mist" or that the Mist itself would choose a ruler and the mysterious aura comes from the fact that Mist Kings traditionally didn't venture out of their homeland a lot so their mystery comes form the fact that people just don't know a lot about them compared to say the Wardens of the West or even the Kings of the Wildwood.

The mafia-styled crime lord also is iffy since that would basically make you untouchable as in no one would want to be near you since Dukes and even Counts definitely aren't supposed to be crime lords. A lot of criminals and criminal gangs either died or were shattered by the Mad King since during his rampant mass executions, he killed a good number of them unintentionally just through the sheer volume of people he killed. Really the biggest "crime" that went on was rebellion and treason against the Mad King.

Brigands and bandit gangs however under your control would be understandable and easy to justify, you just need soldiers so you hired them. And you conveniently overlook their pass records, after all a lot of the legal records of the Mistlands went up in flames along side the Archduke.

Kingmakers - The Throne Alone (GoT/ASOIF-like) (Noble Politics)

@ShadowSunRisen Ideally they would be an Archduke since the Mistland still lacks one. The North overall isn't that wealthy and most of your family could have gotten the axe from the Mad King leaving only the prince behind so right there is the hard times and falling from grace. Still if you really want to pull a Littlefinger go ahead.

I would say try not to go too magical with the supernatural or at least have an OOC explanation of what's really going on (like how the "dragons" in the Dragon's Graveyard are actually dinosaur bones).

An idea I just had before posting this is that it could be the Mistland right now has no Archduke actually, the Great House having had the gall to try and say no only to get killed by the Mad King for it. The first step to power for your character could be trying to become Archduke of the Mistland.

Kingmakers - The Throne Alone (GoT/ASOIF-like) (Noble Politics)

@BCTheEntity It looks wonderful! While I admit it could probably use with more spacing just for readability, the information itself looks solid. Kneel before the throne and rise Archduke of the Frostmark and Lord of Kivhar.

As for everyone else here waiting, its been a rough week for me. Mostly because after I got fucking KO'd by my booster shot I ended up having to do final projects basically last minute which is not fun, do not recommend. My last actual final is Thursday and my true final presentation is on Monday, but I should (hopefully) have the time to come back to this. Maybe even put up a proper OOC.

Kingmakers - The Throne Alone (GoT/ASOIF-like) (Noble Politics)

@Pagemaster Works well for his personality I'd say although it'd be for the old king, neither of the claimants technically have their own courts or councils yet.

@POOHEAD189 Yeah, go ahead! While you don't have to do this, I had the thought of what their relationship would be like with Karl especially if they're still fit and full of body and as much of a warrior if not more than Karl was before he got slambo'd. He certainly seems like the envious type.

Kingmakers - The Throne Alone (GoT/ASOIF-like) (Noble Politics)

More thicc lore because I'm loosing control of my life and making pudding at 3am send help

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Noble Ranks

Structure of Nobility

Adanion follows a nobility ranking structure brought over from over the mountains by the Lowyst and Adandum and are as follows:

The King of Adanion -> The High Lords -> The Archdukes -> The Dukes -> The Counts -> The Viscounts & Knights -> The Smallfolk

The King of Adnaion has always been a member of House Loyce and typically a direct descendant. Most often this is between the King and their eldest child as the crown passes via absolute cognatic primogeniture. There have been time when a sibling or an aunt or uncle takes the throne instead of a child, once there was even a case where a father passed the crown to his son who in turn passed it to his mother, a scandal that was.

The High Lords are those Great Houses given control over the regions of Adanion: the Crownmark, the Arbormark, the Frostmark, the Mistlands, the Stormlands, the Western Marches and the Wildwood. To be a high lord is to rule over the other Archdukes and Dukes of a region. Those Great Houses bestowed with the honor and responsibility are granted the titles of "High Lords/Ladies of X" (IE High Lords of the Arbormark). The title of High Lord of the Crownmark has always been that of House Loyce's and only the Western Marches breaks protocol as instead of a High Lord of the West March, there is the "Warden of the West".

Archdukes are powerful Great Houses who are under the High Lords of their region. Many can trace a lineage back to either a tribal king of the Old Land or to one of the original followers of Adandum Lowyst or his daughter Omera Lowyst. Below them are the Dukes who are majority not Great Houses, although some have become Great Houses through power or favor. There is no law saying that a Great House cannot rule another Great House, only that a Duke is to obey their Archdukes.

Counts, Viscounts and Knights make up the rung of lesser nobility or the "Minor Houses" and are by far the most numerous compared to the other ranks above them. They administer smaller counties, provinces, shires and areas for their Dukes. Viscounts and Knights are not always considered nobility as they are simply titles granted in recognition of great civil or administrative achievement and great acts of martial skill or valor respectively; two sides of the same coin. Viscounts and Knights often do not have any land for themselves aside from their own homes, although Landed Viscounts and Knights can rival the power of Counts. Unlike most titles, each new generation of Viscounts and Knights must have their titles "reaffirmed" or hope to be promoted to Counts. In this, Knights are typically more often reaffirmed than Viscounts.

Court Council

The king does not rule alone and sits atop a large bureaucracy of scribes, ministers and inspectors. The most important are the Council Court, a powerful body made of advisors and delegates. Being granted a position is seen as a great honor, and being forced off is also seen as a great insult in most cases. While nobles of Great Houses are the most often picked if for no other reason than politics, sometimes lesser nobles or even talented smallfolk have been elevated to the council, much to the chagrin of the Great Houses.

Positions

• Crownkeeper - Chief Advisor and Hand of the King. They speak with the authority of the crown and acts as their proxy in everything from council meetings to overseeing major developments. They are also chief law keeper, enforcing and enshrine old laws or new decrees. Its name comes from the tradition of the Lowyst where when the king was on campaign away from home, he would leave his crown behind with a trusted second to ensure the stability of the realm while he was away.
• Master Minister - The Minister of the Interior who deals with the administration of the kingdom. They keep track of the vassals and their feudal obligations, ensure that the court scribes aren't messing up and the finances of the realm is stable. The nature and power of this position has often lead many Master Ministers to subdivided their duties with a trusted friend or family member.
• Grand Marshal - The military advisor to the throne who trains soldiers, selects candidates for the Crownguard, keeping track of censuses for levying peasants and inspecting defenses of the realm. Most often a Warden of the West is Grand Marshal, given the environment that the western lords are in.
• Master Archivist - The Royal Archives is a place where all the knowledge known to Adanion is kept, collected and recorded, including secrets and whispers on the wind. While the Master Achivist was once a lowly position of library custodian, overtime they became spymasters and keepers of clandestine information who operated networks of agents across the kingdom. The best Master Archivists were the ones that people didn't even realize had such a network.
• Royal Cleric - A religious advisor and spiritual guide for the king and the court as well as liaison for the Church. Their duty is simple, to tend to the good morals and faith of the court to ensure wise and just rulership of the realm. How often this actually happens is up for debate as many kings find the most devout and zealous clerics to be a nuisance while the Church refuses to simply let anyone take up the cloth in the court.

Kingmakers - The Throne Alone (GoT/ASOIF-like) (Noble Politics)

@Kalleth Unfortunately, I am going to have to shoot down your banking house idea. Moneylending in the way of proper banking is the trade of the merchants, not the nobility. However, one possible work around is that you aren't bankers but just a very rich Great House who lends money to other Houses. You could control the only passage, road, route or bridge along a very important stretch of road and use its toils to fund your efforts like House Frey and the Twins. Either way, I much prefer if you kept to a single area because I can already foresee that its going to be a massive headache for everyone involved to remember what lands and where House Zielennemer are if they're all over the place with no proper holding.

You could even say that you're an "illegitimate" Great House like House Marietta since you effectively bought your way into Great House status, lending gold to the other houses and eventually the King and when the King couldn't pay back the loan, you graciously offered a way to cut or even erase the debt and all it would take is a the king's signature and a royal decree. I am going to ask you to change your titles though since there's a draft of the ranks above or on the previous page, I'll make a proper thing soon.

@BCTheEntity There are already some boreal forests in the Frostmark and parts of the Mistlands. While I'm not going to add a new forest, maybe its something your House actually did. They decided to plant trees and saplings in the Frostmark but to everyone mockery and laughter because "who farms a tree?" Ultimately though, you got the last laugh as through this massive effort you now have a private forest for your House's use only and unlike so many other forests, you can say that you have exclusive use of it because you were the ones who planted them so long ago. Basically a long term investment that continues to pay dividends and maybe even a house specialty, having the best knowledge of woodcutting, tree farming and dendrology in the realm with you now laughing at the fools who try to copy you but fail.

Kingmakers - The Throne Alone (GoT/ASOIF-like) (Noble Politics)

@Pagemaster Alrighty, following in the style of this RP, as you are one of the oldest and first players, I pronounce House Muller-Hohenstein, Archdukes of Steinland, as High Lords of the Stormlands! May the Twin Heavens guide your rule.

Kingmakers - The Throne Alone (GoT/ASOIF-like) (Noble Politics)

Alright, big news, there is now a map! Told you it's be of questionable quality
There's no easy way around it, but this might require some of you to change or alter your domains as well as adding where exactly your domain is on the map. I'll try to come up with a map that properly details the boundries of each domain.
Quick Guide: White = Natural Terrain, Blue = Body of Water, Green = Region

Regions aren't the same as Archduchies. There can be multiple Great House and Archduchies in one region but only one can hold the title of ownership of the entire region. The house who controls the whole region is given the title of "High Lord of X" (IE: High Lords of the Arbormark), the only place this is different is in Westmarch whose rulers have the title of "Wardens of the West".

Labelled Map

Raw Map

Lore

Mistlands - The northern most region of Adanion, it is a hilly tundra where few animals venture and only the heartiest of roots and oats can grow in the poor cold soil. What little farm land there is can be found in pockets of ground where the frost can melt or on the lower levels of the Misty Cliffs. The Cliffs however are much more bountiful than the eastern Mountains, providing ore, minerals and stone allowing for the construction of much tougher castles than their poor economics would otherwise allow. There are more castle along the border of Westmarch, officially there to protect the lands from the occasional nomad warband that wanders northwards.

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Frostmark - The coldest land bordered by the Great Bastion Mountains and sharing the vital Cradlespring Lake that feeds the most important river in Adanion with the Mistlands. It is a boreal tundra with interspersed boreal bogs, sharing in the poverty with the Mistlands, its economy relying on the trade of furs, hides, pelts and ice to other noble families who are willing to pay great sums for it during the summer months. Its people survive on fish and snowberries they plant around their fields of tough roots and oats to ward off herbivores who find its strong scent overwhelming.

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Crownmark - The most centrally located region and the seat of power in Adanion, sitting between the Splitstream and the Farwater rivers. It is a trade hub of the kingdom and where much of its wealth is funneled into. It has fertile land for vegetables, grain and fruits that are turned in famous wines and vintages while its ability to access all the raw resources of the kingdom grants it the largest population of tradesmen and craftsmen in the realm, even if most of its production is split between military equipment for Westmarch and jewelry for the Great Houses. Uniquely its roads and bridges are paved and well kept, an obvious sign of the capital's wealth.

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Westmarch - The largest of all the regions and important in the defense of the realm. Houses of Westmarch are typically called "Marcher Lords" or "Marquis" instead of simply "Lords" as they are charged with defending against the many nomadic tribes who raid and assail the kingdom. Every settlement has fortifications and defense for this reason, from the largest of towns to the smallest of hamlets, its martially minded people can live great distances from each other. While okay for farming, its vast empty spaces are more commonly used for herding animals, while it manages trade with some of the more hospitable nomads or even the rare and exotic merchants from the distant rajas, kingdoms and empires beyond the Timeless Steppes.

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Arbormark - Despite its name, the majority of its forest are actually the overflow of the forests and jungles of the Wildwood. Instead, Arbormark is known its farmlands that are even more bountiful than Crownmark and the banks of the Farwater River which they use to grow sweetreeds and collect clay for bricks and pottery. Arbormark nobles have long standing feuds with nobles of the Wildwood, some stretching back before Adandum's conquest, usually over control and ownership (and taxation rights) of the Archgates.

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Stormlands - Named for the seaborn storms that routinely wash over the land or even flood it, the Stormlands can flip between a beautifully sunny coast to a terrifying thunderous storm in minutes. It is the second wealthiest region (and also thus the most heavily taxed) in Adanion due to a combination of good soil with plentiful rain (or too much rain), the minerals and ores of the Dragon's Graveyard and the ports that connect the kingdom to the world beyond the Starry Sea. Unique among the kingdom, its said that almost everyone from beggar to noble in the Stormland knows how to swim and they field specialized "Marine-at-Arms" to protect the ships and trade ports.

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Wildwood - The region that held out against House Loyce the longest due to its easily defendable terrain; the Archgates are a defender's dream and the waters around it are treacherous at the best of times. Due to the pocket of mountain it exists in, its radically different than the rest of the kingdom. Hotter and wetter due to trapped moisture, the entire region is covered in dense forests and jungle. Some of the villages are built on stilts or even in treetops to get off the wet, marshy and often dangerous ground. Many believe the Wildwood to be too different than the rest of the kingdom for its people and nobles to be considered Adanion, a claim the Wildwoods disputes through loyalty to House Loyce time and time again. Trade with the outside world however is much more limited than in the Stormlands, largely because the same dangerous waters that defend its coast makes trading difficult especially with the much calmer (and richer) Stormlands close by.

Misty Cliffs - Sheet rocky cliffs with natural terraces and plateaus going up like giant stairs. Popular legend states that once they were stairs leading up to the palace of ancient giants. Its slightly warmer than the Bastion Mountains with waterfalls and rivers commonly rushing over ledges to make a beautiful sight. Its currently unknown how many "levels" there are, the most populated levels are the first three with the highest inhabited level being the 5th while explorers have found ways up to the 22nd level but the cliffs stretch above the clouds.

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Timeless Steppes - A seemingly endless grassland steppe dominated by nomadic tribes and their herds who have changed little since the time of Adandum's Conquest. Named so as its said a non-nomad who ventures into it will quickly loose any sense of time or direction as they get lost in the seemingly infinite flat steppes.

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Dragon's Graveyard - A smaller yet even more brutal range of mountains than the Great Bastions. According to myth, once dragons lived in the mountains, hoarding vast riches until they offended an old god of stone who in revenge raised the mountains into sharp points to tear the dragon's wings and gore them midflight while dragging their treasure hoards into the earth. A fanciful tale for sure but it has been used to explain the mineral wealth in them as well as the giant, mysterious "magical" bones that are routinely dug up. (Actually just dinosaur bones.)

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The Starry Sea - A vast blue sea, named so as during the clearest nights one can see the entire heaven of stars reflected upon its surface. Sometimes, stars will even fall from the sky into the sea and its said that those who find the fallen stars will be granted their greatest wish.

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Bastion Mountains - Vast, impassible mountain ranges that completely cut off Adanion from the other side. Few Adanions even realize there are other kingdoms beyond the mountains but even those who do can't agree on which Adandum was exiled from. The Lesser Bastion Mountain is also called the "Mountain Arm" as it splits off dramatically from the rest of the range.

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The Archgates - A trio of huge natural rock formations that leave massive openings in the mountains that are easily defended and heavily fortified. Some of the most defensible castles are built into the Archgate and are fought over fiercely by both Arbormark and the Wildwood as they are the only reliable routes out of the Wildwood. They are also the reason why the Wildwood was the last region added to the kingdom, unable to be bested in combat, House Loyce would eventually bring it into the kingdom through marriage instead.

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Cradlespring Lake - Perhaps the most important waterway in Adanion, its entirely encapsulated by the impassable mountains. Fed through underground springs and mountain streams, it feeds the Farwater and Twinsplit Rivers. Nearby hotsprings have made for excellent winter lodgings and even saunas. Just like with the Archgates and Arbormark and the Wildwood, both Frostmark and the Mistlands contest the few bridges over the Farwater River that divides their territory.