Kaithe Dame

Downfall.

Got an idea for a twist on conventional fantasy writing that takes a tavern maid, typically a background character of no significance other than as eye candy for the reader / audience, and puts her at the forefront of politics in a late Roman Republic-style level of corruption and nepotism in a Venetian-style government where wealth and affluence determine whether you’re eligible to hold office. The joke being, of course, the subversion of typical fantasy worldbuilding and putting a D-list background character as the biggest threat to world peace through her own wits and clever decision-making.

(The worldbuilding presented here is postulations and ideas at best on my end, and are open to change as my partner and GM sees fit, and only serve as what I think would be most befitting for the themes of the story.)

In a characteristically ‘idealist’ fantasy setting with contemporary twelfth century technology available to them, the world has entered a period of relative peace, one threat after another in the form of orcs, demons, elves, undead, monsters - the list goes on - having been driven out by armies of professional knights and men-at-arms and clergymen and paladins, organized by a newly arisen fellowship of heroes who sought to end the age of strife and anarchy that had set in after vicious infighting took the attentions of the feudal human lords, elven princes and dwarven cadres away from their borders and allowed a spillage of invasive plagues to run rampant. With death looming over them as crop failures swept the land with new armies kept mobilized and hands were taken off the fields, the world seemed at a loss on how to mount a coordinated resistance without compromising their own ambitions.

Such fears were ended with the arrival of the fellowship; a number of inspiring heroines from across the world who, recognized by the world’s religions as saints sent down to guide them, their might and leadership capable enough to retake farmsteads, then villages, and finally cities until the last vile ilk had been thrown out of their borders and the last realm restored to order.

Promising to establish permanent peace across the world and give sweeping reforms to the treatment of serfs and peasants and lift them above crippling poverty that their lords had put them under, it seemed the world was on the track to becoming a truly utopian, idealist-fantasy world.

Decades later, and the fellowship very well wishes that all they’d had to do was fight marauding orcs.

Emperors and kings and dukes and barons care very little for a group of zealots claiming to be given a mission by God telling them the tax plans they ought to implement. Despite their best efforts, and their reputation amongst the masses for saving them, most condescendingly thank the fellowship for their advice and ideas on how to improve on their governance before politely asking them to leave, and years of crushing failure and only succeeding in saving them from invasion after invasion year after year makes them desperate, especially as tensions rise as grandstanding politics take root and old alliances and marriages fall out, the carefully laid out negotiations years ago giving way to old grudges and greedy lords salivating at the ripe opportunity for the wealth of other nations, many having not even managed to fully recover from the devastation wrought years ago.

At the center of this is the city-state Republic of (Insert here), famed for its blatant displays of corruption, its open fraternization with the occult, and the excessive oppression of its people. At the bottom of the trough is an up-and-coming politician, an entrepreneur bar maid who promises revolutionary reforms, an end to the degradation of her homeland and the end of the double-dealing and fraud their government casually indulges in. Seeing hope in this firestarter woman, the Fellowship backs her, giving their full support to her cause as the only way to stall for peace through the influential city-state at the center of the world, hoping it can stand as a beacon of change and prove to the world that their methods can work.

(This is, of course, a ploy. Making the right promises and playing to their sentimental side and fulfilling on just the right oaths and commitments so that the commoners lover her, and the Fellowship is kept on her side. She’s the Palpatine / Julius Caesar of Lord of the Rings meets Song of Ice and Fire. Promising welfare and support of the masses in exchange for populist support, only to take full power at the end, all the while subverting the Fellowship to support her authoritarian takeover of her home, and, eventually, the world, realizing that if the petty lords won’t better themselves, then she’ll force them to.)(If you aren’t keen on large-scale worldbuilding, duplicity, evil main characters, a large concentration on economics, warfare, commerce, diplomacy, and other topics relating to statecraft and nation-management, this roleplay isn’t for you. It’s expected to be extremely slow, and ‘realistic’ in the depiction of the rise to power in a Venetian-style Republic. The heroes are essentially used as mercenaries. A mob. Burning down rival family’s warehouses, trade outposts, stealing ships, running certain franchises out of business- anything to garner wealth and power for their host whom they believe is priming to save the world right alongside them.)

Dialectics: The Noblebright and the Grimdark.

Bump.

Backwater.

Bump.

Dialectics: The Noblebright and the Grimdark.

There is a pestilence in this city.

When I look into the eyes of our citizens, I see hate and fear.

As if we are to blame.

As if we were not the ones that had saved what little lives they had left.

Tribune 'Father' Clide, shortly before a mob tore him to pieces.

In this noblebright universe, things aren't very noble and they aren't very bright. Before an immeasurable horde of undead tore the world apart, notions of chivalry and the obligations of a feudal lord were held sacrosanct; a peasant's lot in life was meant to be simple, but prosperous. Now? A man will spend weeks in a mine so that their daughters and wives may not have to sell themselves on the street for bread.

At the center of it all, the once proud jewel of an ancient republic stands tall amongst the filth, depopulated and economically exhausted from having blunted the full wrath of the apocalypse, its once vast empire crumbling to pieces as separatist movements once thought unthinkable have taken root. At the center of it all is a great schism between plebian elected officials and their reactionary counterparts, the old sword aristocracy who had been the ones to fend off the scourge and paid the price of it in wealth and friends and serfs alike; they bulk at what needs to be done to save their plagued homeland.

At the head of the reformers is Ilya, a staunch Republican who espouses the need to return to democratic roots, the redistribution of land, the reopening of schools and the grain dole and all other sorts of things that have galvanized the public's support behind her.

In her, a Fellowship of heroines that had lead the charge against the undead threat see hope in saving the dream they had of a utopian world, one free of the lethargy and apathy of the upper classes. They throw their lot behind her, promising to serve at her beck and all; whatever may be necessary to see her policies take effect.

Unfortunately for them, Ilya has only vile intentions.

I'm an advanced-novella RPer with writing samples in my profile (and expecting the same) searching for a GM. IRL gender is irrelevant. Despite my exposition above, I'm locked and married to very little; namely a distraught, forsaken empire being in peril. The idea behind this RP is meant to be to explore the idea of a NOBLEBRIGHT setting that's fallen apart at the seams through the eyes of a [[Senator]] woman with lofty ambitions hijacking a populist movement for her own ends, only ever intending on seizing power for herself. Fortunately for her, her political movement is aided by the arrival of a legendary group of heroines that had defeated the evil of ages past and has pledged their service to her, essentially naming Ilya as their 'QUEST GIVER' NPC who will hopefully lead them to building a new, free-loving empire.

Unfortunately, the quests Ilya sends them on are only to serve her interests, and she has no intention of sharing power with anybody -- and wishes to see nothing more than them on their knees forever.

Kinks: Evil bitches being conniving, femdom and lesbianism, internalized homophobia, slowburn seduction, gaslighting, politics and taxes, D/s couples, collars, domesticization, warriors being turned into harlots, spankings, orgasm denial and control, genuine charisma and atmosphere-building. Most other vanilla and mild kinks.

Kinks: Everything extreme. I don't have any desire to see non-con as a fetish (only as an element of worldbuilding just like poverty and disease and slavery), or tentacles or animals or hyper anything or porn logic or porn dialogue, futas, etc.

Silly, satirical takes on medieval fantasy tropes with powerful writing and worldbuilding.

Bump.

Backwater.

No. I don't care about the gender of my GM, nor will Sylvan care about such things in the RP.

Pulling a U-Turn here from my usual prompts where I play a female lead. With my primary RP being put on hiatus and leaving my current favorite character out to dry for the time being, I'm keen on putting him to use in another person's GMed setting.

For folk that would be interested in a taste of Sylvan in a RP as well as seeing a writing sample-

docs.google.com/document/d/1IIYxzKIXk…

Sylvan, also known as the fellow whom my account name is based off of due to how sweet on him I am. As much as I'm not a big fan of giving away my character's most dirty of secrets and wishes outside of a story, I'm quite comfortable rambling about Sylvan as a concept. Whilst Sylvan Varain - the man whom exists within the universe of Mortal Son - is an incredibly rigidly defined individual with specific goals and interests, Sylvan will be much more 'open to interpretation' as it was in his most contextual of wants.

Disclosure aside, Sylvan is an orderly, talkative fellow who does his best work under pressure. Though within the story I'd like to write about he's raised to the aristocracy as some form of lesser noble, he cares little for the glory of war and the prospect of lordly duties and comes off as being more interested in propping up his government with merchants and moneylenders than his fellow nobiles and gentry. For all intents and purposes, making money and spending money on public works and infrastructure seem to be all that occupies his mind, wheeling and dealing with even as unscrupulous individuals as smugglers to expand the economy, engaging in pirating and raiding on respectable (slave) ships to free those aboard whilst plundering the wealth to be shared.

Enjoying the presence of cats and people of both sexes, his mouth is rarely closed, and as much as he is a smart-ass, he does have a clever, imaginative mind that allows him to think often outside the box and employ unique strategies to get his way; combined with his otherwise charming personality and pleasant demeanor, he makes for a steady administrator and statesman. This applies just as well to the battlefield; though he isn't keen on the prospect of the expenses involved raising armies, they have their uses, and he hardly expects his increasingly disenfranchised and ousted nobles to take the change in policy quietly.

Essentially, he's a smart, handsome boy who likes men and women who can hold conversations with him, and happens to be a 'hands-on' ruler.

As for the plot and themes of the story; my wish is that Sylvan be someone of unsubstantial importance to politics, a freedman most likely, a former slave, whom will, within the story, be granted power (through some convention or another) and will gradually, through shrewd decision-making and context, rise to power as his allies and personal growth expand. I'd, at the very least, expect large amounts of attention and time being spent on topics such as economics, trade, domestic and foreign policy, commerce, inflation, warfare and logistics, and all sorts of other things involving the responsibilities of a head of government.

I've no negotiable interest in Alternative Earth, Historical, or Sci-Fi settings. The most advanced technology I can conceivable be interested in is whatever was the most innovative invention at the start of the seventeenth century.

Silly, satirical takes on medieval fantasy tropes with powerful writing and worldbuilding.

Bump.

One's soul ought to be an eternal concern.

Bump.

Silly, satirical takes on medieval fantasy tropes with powerful writing and worldbuilding.

Bump.

The Heroines' Downfall.

Bump.