Emperor bunny
Dec. 24th, 2011 03:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI dreamed I was plotting to take over the world. Or possibly the Empire. Or maybe just a Realm. I don't know, the system of government and extent of their holdings was unclear from just having meetings around a hot tub. It had noble families though, and a clearly delineated class system, which I'd trampled all over by having ancestors from every part of it. I don't think we were in Britain, but if we were it was a very different sort of place. Also North America spoke very many different languages because the locals had kicked out the invaders when they started trying it on. They had one Trade tongue but the version taught in European schools was, like, Classical Trade, so you could negotiate about horses perfectly well, but it was a little more difficult to find a telephone.
I'd travelled extensively, spoke all the languages of Europe and some of the further realms, and came home to find my daughter a very properly educated young woman and my much older husband dead. Since my daughter was still not old enough to be legally adult - since she was under thirty or something - I was whatever the equivalent of Regent is for an area less than a kingdom. So I gathered together women from all the other major noble families and together we made plans to take over. I don't know if there was a Big Boss we didn't like or some instability around not having a suitable Big Boss. But I'd decided we could do better.
The ruler was chosen as the perfect embodiment of the Eight Cardinal Virtues. I don't know what those were. But as I explained to my daughter, most people could manage to be at least one of them. And thus far nobles of my acquaintance didn't manage more than five or six. So what we needed to do was get together enough people to have all the virtues covered.
So there were eight noble families intended to champion one virtue above all others. They were meant to do all the virtues, but had particular responsibility for one. So I'd brought together women from all the families. They wouldn't usually be the ones in charge, but they seemed like a good start on working together. Only first the one for Courage ran away, and then the one for Cunning disappeared. None of the others thought I was the embodiment of any virtue. I thought maybe Generosity, being built on generous lines and freely sharing those gifts through most of my varied and interesting career, but they weren't much convinced. The daughter had been raised by religious Sisters and was quite the one for virtue... at least of a passive kind. Not Doing That she had entirely got the hang of. She wasn't quite cut out for cunning, having had quite a lot left out of her education. She'd got piety covered though.
These eight virtues aren't quite the eight virtues of any system I know of. They're useful ones though.
And Cunning had much to do with what we'd call magic. But part of the trick was to make sure nobody knew there was a trick. Magic you could see was very inelegant. Cunning should be subtle, skillful, artful, sly. The nobles thought they'd got a monopoly on it, so they'd got nothing on the classes who knew they'd be for it if they so much as got caught spelling a knot tight. I wasn't about to stand up and say I'd got plenty of Cunning, that seemed to be missing the point.
But when someone set a spell on the exit gate, I knew it.
Another one of my eight was headed out riding on the back of a horse; the bloke with the reins was a relative of both of us, in roundabout ways. They charged past fast, got to the front gate and I flicked a hand and the horse reared back. Off they fell, crash crunch. The horse was okay though. I ran to catch up, but I got overtaken by a woman who was all concern and a man running flat out from far back, probably from the stables, trying to catch the two. The woman got to them first, touched the unconscious lady, and fainted clean away. The man was Spike, with his black leather coat on, and he ran up and grabbed hold of the rider. That was Agravaine from Merlin, so obviously he was a backstabber and up to no good. Those two also went down together. The woman started to wake, and Agravaine managed to get on his feet again, but the lady was unconscious and Spike was very nearly so. There was something nasty wrapped around all four of them, hitting the first two the moment they left the gates, and carried back in with them.
I needed to get them out of sight to deal with it all quick. So I told the mobile to bring the other two and led them all over to the family cemetery. An apparently solid stone tomb opened up with the right actions, and inside there were metal coffins, covered in rather murky water. You wouldn't want to reach around in there. But I did, and found the switch to drain it all and open the lids, which left a clear path down to the refuge below. Everyone bundled in, and I closed up after us. Vanished before anyone else got in sight.
... which suggests we keep the family cemetery right by the front gate. Cheerful!
Under the tomb there were some rather comfortable apartments, albeit rather beige and faded. The light was a different color, older bulbs. There was a fire escape map pinned up, and it led to tunnels and loading bays under the main house. There was also a list to sign people in. It a few lines of names, mostly with start and end dates, and had a fancy seal at the end, but lots of space for names before it. It was all spider webbed to the wall, nobody needed it for ages. I signed in our four, then Agravaine made a sort of apologetic smug face and suggested I should read the terms and conditions first. Those were on the back, and very dusty indeed. They said basically I couldn't harm them now. I had to protect them as guests. Which was alright. It said nothing about not harming them once they were out of there, nor did it say I ever had to let them leave. Agravaine was less smug after that.
Spike was dumped on a sofa, the escaping lady placed more carefully on a bed. She needed urgent attention. Both she and the woman who'd tried to help had a bad luck wrapped around them, one so nasty it could easily be fatal. I couldn't touch them without getting meshed in it myself, but the woman was quite competent to set broken bones, and set about the task carefully before the lady woke up. Agravaine just felt a touch woozy, according to him, but he was all slimed with spell to the right sight. Spike was stirring now though, and I went over to check him closely. Then I smiled and kissed him lightly. Same old Spike.
A very old man shuffled in with a hand held lamp, though the room was already lit. The other four froze. I smiled and explained we had new refugees. The old man peered at them, then introduced himself - as Agravaine. Lord Agravaine Aloysius. The other, younger, Agravaine sputtered and said he couldn't be, he was Agravaine Aloysius... the Eighth. Ah!, says the old man, They kept the name! He was the fourth. But the title? Eighth said, not down their branch, since Fourth had passed it to his brother. Fourth hmphed, then said well, perhaps in practice, he had. Though technically, he'd meant it as a regency. He wasn't quite up to doing both jobs. "Both?" Eighth asked.
But Lord A had turned away, sniffed a little, and sought out Spike. Ah! Blood kin!
... shocking the hell out of Eighth, who'd dismissed him as some bit of rough I'd picked up on my travels.
Spike objected too. Said his mum would never.
No, no, Lord A agreed, not that kind of blood.
Ah, said Spike. They looked at each other and for a moment there was something odd about their face, then it went away again.
Spike looked him up and down.
Lord A said, we are not quite unaging, after all.
Spike said he'd noticed, and scrubbed at his own slightly receding hair awkwardly.
"But here we are, and here we say, until the curse has had its way." Lord A sighed.
Spike nodded.
"Why'd you take it up?" Lord A asked.
"There was a woman." Spike shrugged.
"Say no more." Lord A nodded.
Eighth was thoroughly lost. And not best pleased. This old man was saying what he'd known had been wrong, and what he'd known about his family was his whole reason for being.
So then I woke up, and I think there's a lot of elements to play with. Houses meant to embody different virtues are a great RPG setup, and a nice shortcut to character creation in any form. Trying to take power away from established rulers is a nice clear set of goals. And once the virtues are established then you can have people from all walks of life demonstrating their suitability by persistently virtuous acts. Plus the setting had a lot of elements, magic and alt history and a weird mix of technologies that could go sort of steampunk. And whatever that curse is that stretches your life out in pursuit of a particular task, there's plenty of good possibilities. Even if it is a form of vampirism. Vampires with a purpose could be interesting.
But as dreamed it's sort of about how aristocracy sucks. Which is not exactly a radical message by now. I think everyone has grasped that aristocracy sucks. ... well, no, actually, the persistent popularity of aristo stories in fantasy means maybe they haven't. As long as they're dreaming about being the aristocracy. So I could tell the overthrow of aristocracy and be a little unusual in some fields. But I don't think it's really the key message of our times. Still, replacing a bunch of rich white blokes who think they're all the virtues with a bunch of diverse folks who actually live the virtues, that's always cool. And replacing a single ruler with a team sounds good to me. ... even if replacing the boss with my excellent self dreams better. Power fantasies is fun, but then they're just about replacing a bad boss with a good one, when the system that designates boss be the problem.
er, I'm annoyed my dreams are insufficiently radical. :eyeroll:
dreams make interesting plot seeds, but they never have a full plot.
Still, I quite like the look of what I could grow of this one.
I'd travelled extensively, spoke all the languages of Europe and some of the further realms, and came home to find my daughter a very properly educated young woman and my much older husband dead. Since my daughter was still not old enough to be legally adult - since she was under thirty or something - I was whatever the equivalent of Regent is for an area less than a kingdom. So I gathered together women from all the other major noble families and together we made plans to take over. I don't know if there was a Big Boss we didn't like or some instability around not having a suitable Big Boss. But I'd decided we could do better.
The ruler was chosen as the perfect embodiment of the Eight Cardinal Virtues. I don't know what those were. But as I explained to my daughter, most people could manage to be at least one of them. And thus far nobles of my acquaintance didn't manage more than five or six. So what we needed to do was get together enough people to have all the virtues covered.
So there were eight noble families intended to champion one virtue above all others. They were meant to do all the virtues, but had particular responsibility for one. So I'd brought together women from all the families. They wouldn't usually be the ones in charge, but they seemed like a good start on working together. Only first the one for Courage ran away, and then the one for Cunning disappeared. None of the others thought I was the embodiment of any virtue. I thought maybe Generosity, being built on generous lines and freely sharing those gifts through most of my varied and interesting career, but they weren't much convinced. The daughter had been raised by religious Sisters and was quite the one for virtue... at least of a passive kind. Not Doing That she had entirely got the hang of. She wasn't quite cut out for cunning, having had quite a lot left out of her education. She'd got piety covered though.
These eight virtues aren't quite the eight virtues of any system I know of. They're useful ones though.
And Cunning had much to do with what we'd call magic. But part of the trick was to make sure nobody knew there was a trick. Magic you could see was very inelegant. Cunning should be subtle, skillful, artful, sly. The nobles thought they'd got a monopoly on it, so they'd got nothing on the classes who knew they'd be for it if they so much as got caught spelling a knot tight. I wasn't about to stand up and say I'd got plenty of Cunning, that seemed to be missing the point.
But when someone set a spell on the exit gate, I knew it.
Another one of my eight was headed out riding on the back of a horse; the bloke with the reins was a relative of both of us, in roundabout ways. They charged past fast, got to the front gate and I flicked a hand and the horse reared back. Off they fell, crash crunch. The horse was okay though. I ran to catch up, but I got overtaken by a woman who was all concern and a man running flat out from far back, probably from the stables, trying to catch the two. The woman got to them first, touched the unconscious lady, and fainted clean away. The man was Spike, with his black leather coat on, and he ran up and grabbed hold of the rider. That was Agravaine from Merlin, so obviously he was a backstabber and up to no good. Those two also went down together. The woman started to wake, and Agravaine managed to get on his feet again, but the lady was unconscious and Spike was very nearly so. There was something nasty wrapped around all four of them, hitting the first two the moment they left the gates, and carried back in with them.
I needed to get them out of sight to deal with it all quick. So I told the mobile to bring the other two and led them all over to the family cemetery. An apparently solid stone tomb opened up with the right actions, and inside there were metal coffins, covered in rather murky water. You wouldn't want to reach around in there. But I did, and found the switch to drain it all and open the lids, which left a clear path down to the refuge below. Everyone bundled in, and I closed up after us. Vanished before anyone else got in sight.
... which suggests we keep the family cemetery right by the front gate. Cheerful!
Under the tomb there were some rather comfortable apartments, albeit rather beige and faded. The light was a different color, older bulbs. There was a fire escape map pinned up, and it led to tunnels and loading bays under the main house. There was also a list to sign people in. It a few lines of names, mostly with start and end dates, and had a fancy seal at the end, but lots of space for names before it. It was all spider webbed to the wall, nobody needed it for ages. I signed in our four, then Agravaine made a sort of apologetic smug face and suggested I should read the terms and conditions first. Those were on the back, and very dusty indeed. They said basically I couldn't harm them now. I had to protect them as guests. Which was alright. It said nothing about not harming them once they were out of there, nor did it say I ever had to let them leave. Agravaine was less smug after that.
Spike was dumped on a sofa, the escaping lady placed more carefully on a bed. She needed urgent attention. Both she and the woman who'd tried to help had a bad luck wrapped around them, one so nasty it could easily be fatal. I couldn't touch them without getting meshed in it myself, but the woman was quite competent to set broken bones, and set about the task carefully before the lady woke up. Agravaine just felt a touch woozy, according to him, but he was all slimed with spell to the right sight. Spike was stirring now though, and I went over to check him closely. Then I smiled and kissed him lightly. Same old Spike.
A very old man shuffled in with a hand held lamp, though the room was already lit. The other four froze. I smiled and explained we had new refugees. The old man peered at them, then introduced himself - as Agravaine. Lord Agravaine Aloysius. The other, younger, Agravaine sputtered and said he couldn't be, he was Agravaine Aloysius... the Eighth. Ah!, says the old man, They kept the name! He was the fourth. But the title? Eighth said, not down their branch, since Fourth had passed it to his brother. Fourth hmphed, then said well, perhaps in practice, he had. Though technically, he'd meant it as a regency. He wasn't quite up to doing both jobs. "Both?" Eighth asked.
But Lord A had turned away, sniffed a little, and sought out Spike. Ah! Blood kin!
... shocking the hell out of Eighth, who'd dismissed him as some bit of rough I'd picked up on my travels.
Spike objected too. Said his mum would never.
No, no, Lord A agreed, not that kind of blood.
Ah, said Spike. They looked at each other and for a moment there was something odd about their face, then it went away again.
Spike looked him up and down.
Lord A said, we are not quite unaging, after all.
Spike said he'd noticed, and scrubbed at his own slightly receding hair awkwardly.
"But here we are, and here we say, until the curse has had its way." Lord A sighed.
Spike nodded.
"Why'd you take it up?" Lord A asked.
"There was a woman." Spike shrugged.
"Say no more." Lord A nodded.
Eighth was thoroughly lost. And not best pleased. This old man was saying what he'd known had been wrong, and what he'd known about his family was his whole reason for being.
So then I woke up, and I think there's a lot of elements to play with. Houses meant to embody different virtues are a great RPG setup, and a nice shortcut to character creation in any form. Trying to take power away from established rulers is a nice clear set of goals. And once the virtues are established then you can have people from all walks of life demonstrating their suitability by persistently virtuous acts. Plus the setting had a lot of elements, magic and alt history and a weird mix of technologies that could go sort of steampunk. And whatever that curse is that stretches your life out in pursuit of a particular task, there's plenty of good possibilities. Even if it is a form of vampirism. Vampires with a purpose could be interesting.
But as dreamed it's sort of about how aristocracy sucks. Which is not exactly a radical message by now. I think everyone has grasped that aristocracy sucks. ... well, no, actually, the persistent popularity of aristo stories in fantasy means maybe they haven't. As long as they're dreaming about being the aristocracy. So I could tell the overthrow of aristocracy and be a little unusual in some fields. But I don't think it's really the key message of our times. Still, replacing a bunch of rich white blokes who think they're all the virtues with a bunch of diverse folks who actually live the virtues, that's always cool. And replacing a single ruler with a team sounds good to me. ... even if replacing the boss with my excellent self dreams better. Power fantasies is fun, but then they're just about replacing a bad boss with a good one, when the system that designates boss be the problem.
er, I'm annoyed my dreams are insufficiently radical. :eyeroll:
dreams make interesting plot seeds, but they never have a full plot.
Still, I quite like the look of what I could grow of this one.