The Oracle Queen (F for dominant M) (closed)

[Chantarelle]

Please read my ON’s/OFF’s before proceeding

To my betrothed and future King,

Considering we are not meant to meet and are forbidden to speak until the day of our matrimony as per order of Ellesmere’s Supreme Counsel which I am subject to obey I have taken great risk and penned this letter clandestinely in order to make myself known to you in my own words since there is for me no telling what the venomous and haggard men of the cloth and state have told you of the Ellesmerian Queen.

Firstly, I am loved by my people who if they knew how I was being treated would not hesitate to rise up in loyal defense of my honor. I dare say the only reason I do not tempt a message to my army is that I do not wish to see further blood spilled and the war between our two kingdoms has already caused the deaths of too many men. I would rather accept my fate at the altar and align our kingdoms with fresh sights set on sustaining peace. This said, the feigning of a marriage I submit to for the benefit of all and yet it is in your full right to know that I will not, indeed am not capable of submitting my body or soul to a man, king or otherwise since despite the gossip that circulates through your kingdom that my title of Oracle is nothing more than a fraud perpetrated on the gullible I assure you my hallowness is based on no lie. Concern yourself not with appearances for I will be at your side showing a face of unity in court and in public for the benefit of the masses but at no other time will I wish to be troubled. To be clear and unmistaken I am not yours for I belong to God and to my people alone.

Furthermore, Gaillard Palace, being as it is newly restored and nestled between our two kingdoms will be used accordingly for the purpose of mutual rule and from day one I assure you it shall be a beacon of hope in the eyes of her citizenry and in pursuit of this goal I give my commitment and my handmaiden as discreet gifted womb to replace my own to be made full when the time comes.

Your Promised Queen,
Emrafah Hyzenthlay of Ellesmere

The Story and Cast (characters I will be playing)...

Queen Emrafah Hyzenthlay (Main Character)

Notes on Emrafah

Emrafah plays the sage-like and wise Queen but she relies heavily on Tomas and Hildie for her emotional support as she trusts no one else. They are her circle. She sees Tomas as a father figure and Hildie as something akin to a daughter strangely enough and she sees them both as her companions sent by God to comfort her on her journey to fulfill her purpose which is solely to bless her people. To accomplish this goal she has come to believe deceptively through Tomas and his “book of Yohm” that she must live a life of purity, that she will never fall in love or know a man and will never bear children of her own is a fate she accepts. She’s had to toss out all thoughts of romanticism prone to youthful, silly women and reject daily natural inclinations towards fleshly things. She’s gotten good at maintaining the mental fortitude she needs in order to be who she needs to be but she is not perfect. She struggles with bitterness, depression and anger and as we find her in the beginning she is under a lot of stress.

Spiritual Advisor to the Queen, Father Tomas Marley (Betrayer)

Notes on Tomas

The Princess Emrafah began having visions of her parents death years before it actually occurred. They got so bad that she eventually stopped eating and was sent to a priest, an older man named Tomas Marley. While with him in his small parish the princess warned Father Tomas of an inferno that would soon engulf his church going so far as to finger the man who would cause it and Tomas, being a man of reason took this warning with a grain of salt but nonetheless kept a close eye on the man in question who often joined the little flock in gathering for worship. It did come about one night that while heading back to his room after tending to the Princess and one of her nightmares a glowing arose, spotted out of the corner of the priests eye, a torch moving outside along the church’s outer wall and if not for some quick and decisive action on Tomas’ part Emrafah’s vision would have found its fulfillment. Confirmation of her gift aside it should be noted that immediately upon setting eyes on her Tomas secretly fell in love with the Princess and began teaching her from the apocryphal “book of Yohm”, a tome of scriptures, a lie forged by Tomas’ his own hand all in a scheme to convince Emrafah that she was touched by God, that she was in fact not cursed but blessed and that in order to keep Gods gift she would have to adhere to a life of celibacy and abstinence and in this way Tomas, who could not have her made absolute sure that neither could anyone else.

Handmaid to the Queen, Hildegard “Hildie” Rhinehart (Offered Womb)

Notes on Hildie

Hildegard is the daughter of a noble who had for years been an informant for Emrafah’s father charged with spying on the happenings within the Northern Kingdoms court (not YC’s kingdom which is to the west) where forever an eminent revolution was whispered about, a revolution that when did finally come began with the execution of all loyal nobility to the former ruling crown. It was only the trusting relationship her father had developed with the King of Ellesmere that he, Hildie and her brother escaped the slaughter by ship to start a new life as a reward for their brave service. As official and very special guests to the king and Queen of Ellesmere a feast was prepared to welcome back the Northern three and it was at this banquet that Hildie’s brother poisoned both Monarchs with tainted wine and watched in rapt silence as they drank deep. His later proud confession would reveal that while in the North he had dedicated his life’s purpose to the Red Guilds’s revolution and to the “One” it paved the way for (this person or “Northern threat” could be plotted out and used later in our story). Swiftly, the Council of Twelve took action and promptly sentenced Hildie’s brother to death by public execution for the high crime of treason and if it were not for Emrafah, the heir apparent, stepping in on their behalf Hildie and her father would have suffered the same fate. It came to be instead that Hildie became Emrafah’s handmaiden on that very day as she could feel the girls allegiance to her having spared both hers and her fathers life.

Spokesperson for and Member of the Council of Twelve, Cardinal Albert Crawley (A Villian)

Notes on the Council of Twelve

Emrafah’s father assembled the Council of Twelve to be the “people’s voice” but increasingly over time it has inevitably become corrupt acting progressively and plainly in the sole interest of the nobility and itself. After her coronation, Emrafah who was not blind set to work on making changes to how things were done in Ellesmere. First, she abolished the practice of slavery that had flourished under her fathers rule. Second, she concentrated on education reform and expanded her army made up of newly recruited free men which made a  phenomenal difference in morale and victories in the ongoing war (referring to the seven year war between our characters kingdoms) but did nothing to allay the Councils concern about the new Queens growing popularity. They had thought a young Queen would be easy to control but once she began travelling through the kingdom, “blessing” the peasantry with her ever present and pesky priest by her side that is when they knew they had to act.

Captain of the Royal Guard, Edric DelVaney (Crawley’s Puppet)

Notes on Edric

The war with the West continued to rage as it had for years, these new waged laborer’s that replaced the slave class brought resentment to the nobility and to the Council itself and it was also heard by a “spy” within the Queens circle and confirmed by Emrafah herself that she had no intention of marrying or bearing an heir and this fact alone would not be tolerated. It was a simple thing to turn the Captain of the Royal Guard with this information. The coup happened one night suddenly and forcefully. It took the Queen by complete surprise and she quickly found herself locked up in her summer palace (Chartaris) far away from the public eye. It was there she was kept until she finally agreed to an arranged marriage which would officially end the long, stubborn war after many weeks of contemplation and dark nights of the soul.

The boy, Walter Ralph (Crawley’s Aide/Scribe)

Notes on the boy

The boy has an overall good soul, a young man who has the potential for uprightness if only he could live his life beyond Crawley’s shadow as his proximity to such evil will eventually, it is feared, destroy him.

Commander General Aldred Fletcher (Useful Asshole)

Notes on Fletcher

Fletcher was 17 when he fled to Ellesmere from the North and he quickly got into trouble, ultimately landing himself in the Ellesmerian Kings army as a conscripted soldier which as it turned out, suited him nicely. He gradually climbed the ranks, feeding off the violence and bloodshed as if it were milk and honey. He served the crown as Commander General five years prior to the Great seven-year War, never having lost a battle, a feat that carried with it great notoriety as well as some resentment here and there. Stories of the Commander General now have been circulating for years amongst the young men in Erywon (country wherein Ellesmere is its capitol) traveling as far as Walters hometown of Adyna as well as making the rounds in the courts of Gaillard where the unsurprisingly naive maidens of nobility would twist these tales of heroics and feats of masculinity (stories to inspire boys to become men) into sexy gossip to fantasize and swoon over.