Recruiting: high scale Pathfinder, Taldor, aka Byzantium focused

Started by Kolbrandr, June 02, 2013, 03:46:12 AM

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Kolbrandr

Any house references in there are to houses I'm idly working on besides.

Other notes: So Taldor basically has entirely unfair inheritance laws as far as noblewomen near routinely getting comparatively jack, and certainly not able to be in line for the throne. This is not to say for instance that a royal or senatorial caste family doesn't end up managed by a widow in extremis if that sort of situation goes down, and certainly there are houses that manage to be run by women, but the only way they probably ended up that way is if there were absolutely no male heirs to contest such a thing. Now, certainly people are actively trying to reform that (including the Crown Princess herself), but that is the deal. Right down to the lowest level of society, Taldor has a sexist streak. The big notable exceptions are the army and navy, where there are entirely female officers. Taldor is bemusingly egalitarian vis a vis that anyone can die for it regardless of race, gender or creed (well, except for Sarenae, who is of course a banned deity in the nation).

House Varian are basically this: "Fidelity Fiduciary Bank" + this: Gordon Gekko 'Greed is Good' Trade like a Pro


Kolbrandr

As another note, while I'll put this all together in a single campaign document ultimately, so, Taldor's noble caste has a dizzyingly insane variety of idiosyncratic titles akin to those the Byzantine Empire would rack up. The important thing of course is to be of Royal (or on the lesser level, Senatorial) caste, but within that you have Dukes, Grand Dukes, Marquises, Marchessas, Exarchs, Counts, Viscounts, Grand Domestics and so forth in a big complicated web.

Muse

  This is good stuff, Kol. 

  Do you like my concept of playing a young noble?

  Would you prefer he be basically a good guy? Or more of a glorious bastard?

  Would it be too much drama if the noble I played--if a good guy--were a secret follower of Saranrae?
 
  Just a thought, but I always did like her! 
A link for all of us who ever had a shouting match with our muse: http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

How to set this Muse ablaze (O/Os)

When the little angel won't appear no matter how many plum blossoms you swirl:  https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=135346.msg16474321#msg16474321 (Major update 5/10/2023)

Kolbrandr

If everyone end up as bastard coated bastards I will perhaps cry, but honestly you don't have to be good, no. I do expect some people won't be. Follow your heart there. A young noble having to take the reins of his family after life as a wastrel Henry V styles is just fine really. You can indeed also be a secret Sarenae worshipper but expect troubles galore if that gets out.

RubySlippers

Nice thing about religions they are one way for women to gain power in many societies.  ;D

No my character will be from the merchant class the fifth child and only daughter with four brothers ahead of her to get a share of the family business so joined a faith and worked her way up that way.


Kolbrandr

Okay, so I'm working on a much longer sample noble house writeup that while you do not in any way have to put together something that lengthy, it will be a bit of a guidepost for what I would be looking for in trying for something like an indepth house of high station, an especially potent thieves' guild, some sort of high muck a muck religious grouping/cult/what have you, or anything otherwise on that scale where I would go "level 14 for you!".

Basically something akin, if not necessarily as deep.

Ebb

Bookmarked; this looks very interesting.

My initial thought for a character is the headmaster of the Academy for the Enlightened Arts and Sciences, a prestigious school specializing in the advanced education of impressionable sons and daughters of nobility. Preparing master orators and debaters for the Senate for hundreds of years, making sure that Taldan culture is preserved for the next thousand, and adding to the greater glory of the Empire.

Beneath this facade the character is an active spymaster, gathering and trading in information on the various noble houses. He's a broker of secrets, loyal to the Grand Prince but with a careful eye on up and coming rivals, in case the opportunity to change horses should prove profitable.

I'm thinking that if we use the gestalt system he'd be a Bard/Oracle. If not, probably just a Bard.


kckolbe

Ons/Offs  A/A  Oath of the Drake
(From the Penis Game) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Penis
I love a wet nymph.  "Letting some guy have [her] just to have another woman is a losing trade"

Buffy: The Vampire Slayer(IC#2)
Intro Thread

Muse

Kol, do you want me to write my own minor house?  Or would it be more fun to blend into one of yours?
A link for all of us who ever had a shouting match with our muse: http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

How to set this Muse ablaze (O/Os)

When the little angel won't appear no matter how many plum blossoms you swirl:  https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=135346.msg16474321#msg16474321 (Major update 5/10/2023)

Kolbrandr

More levels for writing your own.. *cough, crass bribe*

That said, as I put family entries up, if you want to instead go "I want to be part of that!", that's fine too. You can also create a more significant house besides, though that would require more work and all.

Xerial

Bastards are bad?

...'cause I was thinking of making the half-orc bastard of one of the highers up folk in a prominent house. He would have been shuffled out of the city quietly to be raised in ignorance of his lineage, only to discover it and return after some time as a wandering scholar/adventurer. Having been politely given an audience with someone thoroughly unimportant in any manner but in title and told in no uncertain terms to sod off, he fell in with, and eventually took command of, a group of malcontents similarly ousted by their Houses. The group seeks to destabilize the structure of the city and raise hell... not because it is the right thing to do, or because of any desire to see things burn. They do so because they want what is theirs, or a not entirely small fortune. They are not a guild in the traditional sense, but a loosely organized group of anarchists and thieves with a bone to pick with the noble houses.

I'll be fleshing it out more... quite a bit more hopefully, but that's the general concept.

Kolbrandr

QuoteBastards are bad?

I refer to it in the sense of a Scrubs reference vis a vis human nature.

Xerial

Aaaah. Well I know this guy's not exactly going to be good... but he's not evil, either. He's selfish, goal driven, and Machiavellian (in the common parlance), but not evil.

Kolbrandr

That's potentially all fine really, I just idly refer to some outcome where everyone is some sort of towering edifice of bastardry. Though, I mean hey, the Borgias works just fine as a tv series about the adventures of the most awful family in Italy ;p

Meliai

Okay, so unfortunately my original idea presented some problems and I wasn't happy with any of the fixes I could come up with, so I'm working on other things.

Aaaaaaaand the other two ideas I've come up with, a scoundrels guild of sorts and an information broker with a spy network have now both sort of been spoken for soooo I'm hitting the books again. I will not wait 5 hours to post my character concept this time :P
    {{A/As updated 5/8}}           

kckolbe

If it helps, Meliai, I am still working on mine as well.  I am currently leaning towards a deep-pocketed type with designs against House Varian, but still working on classes.
Ons/Offs  A/A  Oath of the Drake
(From the Penis Game) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Penis
I love a wet nymph.  "Letting some guy have [her] just to have another woman is a losing trade"

Buffy: The Vampire Slayer(IC#2)
Intro Thread

Kolbrandr

I would point out they are both different flavours of  :P

Xerial

No love for the rich bankers, is there? I was thinking Varian was the house that shoved my half-orc to the curb.

kckolbe

Ons/Offs  A/A  Oath of the Drake
(From the Penis Game) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Penis
I love a wet nymph.  "Letting some guy have [her] just to have another woman is a losing trade"

Buffy: The Vampire Slayer(IC#2)
Intro Thread

Kolbrandr

Quote from: Xerial on June 02, 2013, 08:23:17 PM
No love for the rich bankers, is there? I was thinking Varian was the house that shoved my half-orc to the curb.

Ahaha, did I succeed in my goal to make them hateable that well? Man, I should add a younger member of the house and have him played by the dude who plays Joffrey.

edit: I'm going to post more noble families you know! One of them will be slave traders! Conserve your hate! I'm going to entirely write up one of the intended benign/decent ones now though instead of what I was doing, just for some variety.

Kolbrandr

Quote from: kckolbe on June 02, 2013, 08:24:41 PM
How do you mean?

Oh, just that the underlying shticks for the more clandestine working organizations seem very different so far.

Xerial

Quote from: Kolbrandr on June 02, 2013, 08:35:29 PM
Oh, just that the underlying shticks for the more clandestine working organizations seem very different so far.

Aye... it looks like we've got a traditional spy ring and something akin to a resistance cell (with robberies being part of their game). There's nothing saying a more traditional thieves' guild wouldn't fit in well. The interplay between the three factions would actually be good fodder for story.

kckolbe

My character can be the Judean People's Front if you will take the People's Front of Judea.
Ons/Offs  A/A  Oath of the Drake
(From the Penis Game) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Penis
I love a wet nymph.  "Letting some guy have [her] just to have another woman is a losing trade"

Buffy: The Vampire Slayer(IC#2)
Intro Thread

Xerial


Meliai

Unfortunately the theives guild didn't really get much development on my end since I finished reading the thread and found your post :P

My information broker was meant to be more of a good-intentioned puppet master type: she was going to be a Cleric of Desna/rogue or bard or sorceress with a network of spies made up mostly of street urchins, pickpockets, slaves, serving girls and the like. Folks who rarely even register on nobles' radar. She pulls strings behind the scenes, passing secret messages for groups she supports, selectively uncovering the information her girls bring her, manipulating Harrow readings to push people towards actions she thinks will benefit the 'little people' basically. She might make a good foil for Ebb's spymaster ooooooor he might immediately crush her under his heal by dint of vastly more powerful backers :P

In any case I'm going to keep looking, not like there's a rush or anything.
    {{A/As updated 5/8}}