Creative Exercise: The Sovereign Dominion of Eyros

[Abisashi]

Clarification

Hmm...given the high turnover rate of emperors, does that mean that Tellas is known to all former and current emperors, or does she (oh, no gender pronouns, so she might be a he, I have no idea) magically contact current emperors and then later wipe their minds so that only the current emperor knows, or maybe we change it so nobody knows...or maybe this will be clarified later?

Well, I assumed the current emperor introduces Tellas (Let's say Tellas at least pretends to be a she; her actual gender is unknown.) to the next emperor, so they know she's legit. I don't know about memory erasure though; Tellan may have this power, given her proposed modus operandi.

I'm trying to make Tellas super-shadowy; no-one knows what the Imperial Oath does, exactly, except possibly Alivia and Tellas; the oath may require that they lie about it even to the emperor. The details should probably be left unspecified for DMs to decide, though if someone has a totally awesome conspiracy idea, that'd work too.

edit: clarified Tellan's apparent gender to female.

edit: I need to go to bed; fixed Tellas's name from Tellan

 

[Rystil Arden]

Well, I assumed the current emperor introduces Tellan (Let's say Tellan at least pretends to be a she; her actual gender is unknown.) to the next emperor, so they know she's legit. I don't know about memory erasure though; Tellan may have this power, given her proposed modus operandi.

I'm trying to make Tellan super-shadowy; no-one knows what the Imperial Oath does, exactly, except possibly Alivia and Tellan; the oath may require that they lie about it even to the emperor.

edit: clarified Tellan's apparent gender to female.

OK, that seems reasonable to me. Its just with that many people knowing the secret, you'd think it would get out. Maybe they are geased by Tellas?

 

[Abisashi]

Conversation

OK, that seems reasonable to me. Its just with that many people knowing the secret, you'd think it would get out. Maybe they are geased by Tellas?

Can't a gease be detected? Well, if so, not hers Tellas lets their be a high-level caster without the normal ramifications, because she is bound by her oath and the emperor's orders (when they don't contradict that oath.)

The effect is still there, though, and can be broken/reversed once found.

Oh, and I fixed the name in my earier post.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Oh, and a minor note: since the magic of the Masks is supposed to always make them have the outlook of a child, and at the least we know Alivia does and she swore the same oath as Tellas, it would imply that Tellas also has the mind of a child (doesn't preclude 20+ Int, so a very smart child, leading to Tellas treating her/his job as a complicated game). Of course, it doesn't have to contradict the post, since it just means Kalis formerly dal-Malarn is wrong about that one part of his surprisingly accurate theories. Oh, and I concur that we seem to have created a precedent of single-named Masks, makes sense for slaves.

 

[Abisashi]

Conversation

Oh, and a minor note: since the magic of the Masks is supposed to always make them have the outlook of a child, and at the least we know Alivia does and she swore the same oath as Tellas, it would imply that Tellas also has the mind of a child (doesn't preclude 20+ Int, so a very smart child, leading to Tellas treating her/his job as a complicated game)...

I was trying to dodge the childish outlook with the imperial oath, but Tellas treating everything as a complicated game is totally awesome, and I think works even better for what I'm trying to accomplish; good idea.

Looking back at my first post, kalis shouldn't have been hit so hard for that article about the Vale of Ur (disowned and such), given his good record - but maybe his fall came after the emperor was informed of the content of his earlier paper that mentioned the possiblity of someone like Tellas, and he told Tellas to bring Kalis down. Or perhaps he's written other things people didn't like. Kalis was never big on official approval.

 

[Rystil Arden]

I was trying to dodge the childish outlook with the imperial oath, but Tellas treating everything as a complicated game is totally awesome, and I think works even better for what I'm trying to accomplish; good idea.

Looking back at my first post, kalis shouldn't have been hit so hard for that article about the Vale of Ur (disowned and such), given his good record - but maybe his fall came after the emperor was informed of the content of his earlier paper that mentioned the possiblity of someone like Tellas, and he told Tellas to bring Kalis down. Or perhaps he's written other things people didn't like. Kalis was never big on official approval.

That makes sense, perhaps he was too dangerous to the nation's secrets to allow him continued access to the scholarly resources of House Malarn, lest he dig too deeply for his own good.

 

[Abisashi]

That makes sense, perhaps he was too dangerous to the nation's secrets to allow him continued access to the scholarly resources of House Malarn, lest he dig too deeply for his own good.

I like that; conspiracy is always cool.


Mouseferatu, this thread was a great idea (even though I should have gone to sleep hours ago and it's keeping me up.)

 

[Rystil Arden]

I like that; conspiracy is always cool.


Mouseferatu, this thread was a great idea (even though I should have gone to sleep hours ago and it's keeping me up.)

I agree, best thread ever! On the topic of Kalis, I can definitely see the PCs becoming embroiled in his Sisyphean (like Sisyphus pushing his boulder up the hill) quest to regain his status because the more he gets PCs to investigate into proving his theories correct, the more necessary it becomes to keep him in disgrace.

 

[Abisashi]

Summarization

I agree, best thread ever! On the topic of Kalis, I can definitely see the PCs becoming embroiled in his Sisyphean (like Sisyphus pushing his boulder up the hill) quest to regain his status because the more he gets PCs to investigate into proving his theories correct, the more necessary it becomes to keep him in disgrace.

For Mouseferatu's sake, here's a quick blurb for him in the NPC section.

Until recently, Kalis Dal-Malorn was a prominent historian, noted for his thorough research, keen insight, and lack of respect for authority, tradition, or his own safety; he lost all of the several duels he was challenged to, as his time in the military was spent as an advisor and quartermaster. Kalis was disowned by pillar Malarn and lost most of his credibility after publishing a paper suggesting that the Vale of Ur really did contain something valuable - valuable to The Twelve. Many took his guess-work and reliance upon questionable sources as an excuse to cast him down. Though the revolutionary nature of many of his findings meant that few were totally correct, his keen and dilligent mind meant that few were far off. Kalis is currently trying to regain his status as a historian, and will go to considerable lengths to demonstrate that he was correct (hiring adventurers to investigate, for example.)


And for Tellas:

Two people know of Tellas: herself and the current emperor; thus has it always been, according to Tellas. Tellas appears to be a female mask bound by the Imperial Oath (like Alivia and Jal-qwuin). Tellas manipulates events behind the scenes to the benefit of the emperor. A few years ago the historian Kalis Dal-Malarn suggested the existance of someone like Tellas, though few took him seriously, and he got many of the details wrong (for instance, he believed Tellas was not childlike as the other masks were.) Even so, this proposal may have had a hand in his downfall. In truth, Tellas has the outlook of a child, just like the other masks, but where most of them are docile, she is very exuberant and cunning. Tellas regards everything as a grand, complicated game.

 

[Abisashi]

Standardization

In Jal-qwuin's entry, their are two spellings - that one and Jal-guin. I prefer Jal-qwuin, but either way we should choose one.