Queen_Dopplepopolis said:
Well... my character *used* to belong to a crew of pyrates, but that's (at least for the moment) in the past.
That's probably self explanatory.
She has royal blood, but I don't know if that means that she belongs to any organization/if any organization revolves around the royal bloodline...
This, however, probably requires some background.
In the first generations after the giant hordes were defeated and driven beyond the Iron Range by the First Alliance, the Dwarves were given dominion over great mountain strongholds, Man was given dominion over the plains and valleys, and the Elves (the Tuatha) were given over the great untamed forests of Taloran. Men and Elves remained close during these first year on Taloran; the sons of Men wed the daughters of the Tuatha, and together these people fluorished, favored by the 9.
Meanwhile, the gods had become fearful, for they knew that the great Rift in the Veil of Worlds had not been closed, only hidden from the eyes of Yanarel, the slaver god that had created the True Race to serve in bondage for eternity. The 9, in their zeal to make a home on Taloran for their adopted children, had left the lands near the Veil Rift unpopulated, and so they worried that Yanarel's servants would cross the veil, and find his now-freed slaves, and his traitorous servants.
Atenarel, the sun god, came down from the Godsmount to walk among mortals, declaring himself the most-beloved of fallen Azarel. Men and Elves believed, and so when Atenarel called the wisest and bravest of both races to him, they came. Atenarel offered the most faithful among them a new home in the green, fertile lands of Aluzhara, the Holy Land where the 9 had first led mortals to this world. In exchange for this new land, Atenarel's chosen would ward the earth against Yanarel's ravenous kin, which Atenarel warned could wander out of the Mirrorwastes.
Atenarel judged the Tuatha the most worthy, the most faithful, and bade them return to the lands upon which no mortal had dwelt since the days of the First Alliance. With Istarel's blessing (the nature goddess), the Tuatha harvested great swaths of the forests they had once warded, and constructed enormous arks to carry them to their new homes. When they landed in the Holy Land, the Tuatha burned these ships in a last sacrifice to Atenarel, thanking the Firelord for choosing them to ward the earth.
It is said that the Tuatha found dark, terrible things already infesting the Holy Lands, but the Tuatha were strong, and because they had been judged worthy, they became the lords of Aluzhara.
Not long after the green lands had been conquered, the Ogre Lord Gharis, driven by some remnant of Yanarel's power, swept into the lands of the Tuatha's closest brothers. When the 9 called upon the faithful to push back this invasion, the Tuatha responded. For the second time, they built great ships to carry their warriors across the seas, though this time they would not burn them.
However, though the Tuatha had kept faith with Atenarel, Atenarel failed to keep his covenent with them. Atenarel had promised them an eternally fertile land, yet, even as thir sons died at the gods' behest, the rains stopped, the sun scorched the earth, and the green, fertile land became a sea of blowing sand.
As the Tuathan kings pressed the war against the Gharissids, a Prophet rose in the desert, an Amir of one of the warrior tribes left to ward the mirror waste. Tethyrel, the Riverlord, had visited this Amir in a dream, and revealed great truths that would shape the fate of the Tuatha forever. Atenarel had falsely claimed to be most beloved of Azarel; Tehtyrel had been Her consort. Still, unwilling to create strife among the nine, he had not challenged his brother's claim.
Tethyrel could not undo the damage done by Atenarel's broken covenent, his uncaring curse, but he would ensure that the lands around his domains would remain green and fertile for all time. Where Atenarel would no longer reward the faithful, Tethyrel would.
And so the Prophet, the Rainbringer, spread the truth among the forgotten, the abandoned people of Aluzhara. The Rainbringer's tidings reached the warriors fighting the war against Gharis, and some, even there, came to believe.
The tribes declared the Rainbringer
Padishah, the Amir of Amirs, and in his honor they made Khaldis, on the River Khybren, his capital.
It is in this time, too, that Man, at Atenarel's direction, broke faith with their brethren, and turned their swords upon them. Tethyrel, though, stuck down the faithless Emperor of Men, leaving the betrayors forever divided.
As the legions of the old King returned to Medinarus, the Rainbringer appeared to them and shared the Truth, and even as they stepped from the water to the land, each warrior pledged himself to Tethyrel, and the Rainbringer, his Prophet. And so, once again, the Tuatha were united, and they prospered.
But the Prophet was mortal, and he could not live forever. When he joined great Azarel on the Shadow Isle, his sons determined that the eldest of them should claim Tethyrel's throne at Khaldis, as
Shahzada, a Prince of the Prophet's Blood.
The first Shahzada turned his attention to the North, then, and determined to win the Holy City of Celusar, in the shadow of the godsmount, to honor Tethyrel, who had raised his tribe over all others in Aluzhara.
But this unity could not last forever. The Shahzada had many sons, and though these sons were able to accept the rule of the second Shahzada, their sons proved less cooperative. The Holy War continued, but the lands of the Prophet were splintered. One son declared himself Shahzada from the Scanlonwen, another from Medinarus, and yet another from Khaldis on the River.
Since that time, the deserts have swallowed Khaldis, and the humans have retaken nearly all of the Scanlonwen, and Celusar, the jewel of the world. The Shahzada of Medinarus, then, stands ready to reunite the tribes under a single rule, and once more pay proper homage to the Riverlord.
A member of the royal family of Medinarus, then, is a member of the most blessed bloodline in all the world; an undisputed heir to Ahmed Rainbringer, a Sultan (or Sultana) of the Tuathan people.
* * *
In practical terms, as a woman, the title Sultana means very little in terms of temporal power. The Tethyric faith (and thus Tuathan society) is strongly patriarchal; a Sultana can expect to be offered to an important Amir or Sharif in order to cement alliances or gain access to favorable trading routes. Even then, the Sultana cannot expect to be alone among the wives of the Amir or Sharif, for harems of wives are far from uncommon.
It is easy, then, to see why even a Princess would be less than thrilled to live out her life in the palace.
Despite your blessed bloodline, you're just so much property with which your father may buy and sell alliances.