Levi Kornelsen
First Post
is 1844, in Europe.
The Holy Empire of Germania has long since shattered into some forty or more independent states. These states maintain a loose federation of mutual defense. Though their populations move towards a unified Germany, most states of the country are ruled by authorian Monarchs. These Monarchs retain their power by the force of their militaries, their secret police, their censorship, and by the structures of those select few taken into their inner councils. King R______ the second of Ruritania is such a King.
The king's regime is both opposed and supported, at turns, by the factions of his own kingdom. His own guard regiments maintain proud traditions leading them to disparate acts - some sadistic and brutal, some harboring those he himself would see hunted and destroyed. The nobles of the court speak forth for the king's policies, but among their ranks, among the eldest and most true of the lineages, there hide those who channel the bleak authority and hideous majesty of the first founders of the land itself. The church searches itself for heretics, whose works abound, but whose faces are hidden. The skilled workers, who benefit from the regime's economy, are host to those who bind the remnants of souls into gadgetry of their devising. The common peasants sit beneath the notice of all, and their elders spin stories that teach powerful skills to those who would listen.
Somewhere in the night, bribes have been passed from noble hands to cruel ones. Prostitutes gather around a single door, through which hunted fugitives pass, grateful of the falsity. Illicit tomes, banned on pain of death, are carried down a winding stair. Sacrimental wine is passed from the hands of heretic to necromancer to wise woman. Stolen candles are lit, faces revealed; eyes that speak of knowledge learned at too high a price, of depths both painful and pleasurable.
Thoughts are spoken in the dark, murmured over. Talk of desperate skirmishes, of flights of rapture, of revolution and negotiation. Bombs and guns, arrests and tortures, are listed; there are bitter recriminations, naming artifacts and speaking of the getting and keeping of blasphemous works.
Two words are used most often. Freedom. Sorcery.
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This is the game I'm both writing, and preparing to run.
Yes, the players are the magicians, if you're wondering.
What would make this a game that you would want to *play*?
The Holy Empire of Germania has long since shattered into some forty or more independent states. These states maintain a loose federation of mutual defense. Though their populations move towards a unified Germany, most states of the country are ruled by authorian Monarchs. These Monarchs retain their power by the force of their militaries, their secret police, their censorship, and by the structures of those select few taken into their inner councils. King R______ the second of Ruritania is such a King.
The king's regime is both opposed and supported, at turns, by the factions of his own kingdom. His own guard regiments maintain proud traditions leading them to disparate acts - some sadistic and brutal, some harboring those he himself would see hunted and destroyed. The nobles of the court speak forth for the king's policies, but among their ranks, among the eldest and most true of the lineages, there hide those who channel the bleak authority and hideous majesty of the first founders of the land itself. The church searches itself for heretics, whose works abound, but whose faces are hidden. The skilled workers, who benefit from the regime's economy, are host to those who bind the remnants of souls into gadgetry of their devising. The common peasants sit beneath the notice of all, and their elders spin stories that teach powerful skills to those who would listen.
Somewhere in the night, bribes have been passed from noble hands to cruel ones. Prostitutes gather around a single door, through which hunted fugitives pass, grateful of the falsity. Illicit tomes, banned on pain of death, are carried down a winding stair. Sacrimental wine is passed from the hands of heretic to necromancer to wise woman. Stolen candles are lit, faces revealed; eyes that speak of knowledge learned at too high a price, of depths both painful and pleasurable.
Thoughts are spoken in the dark, murmured over. Talk of desperate skirmishes, of flights of rapture, of revolution and negotiation. Bombs and guns, arrests and tortures, are listed; there are bitter recriminations, naming artifacts and speaking of the getting and keeping of blasphemous works.
Two words are used most often. Freedom. Sorcery.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the game I'm both writing, and preparing to run.
Yes, the players are the magicians, if you're wondering.
What would make this a game that you would want to *play*?
. The end of the 'Holy Roman Empire' was declared a generation ago. It's the 'Biedermeier' era. After Napoleon's defeat, democratic ideas float around, but are suppressed. As a result, ordinary people stay at home, enjoy the peace, and the amenities of middle-class life are glorified. At the horizon, the European Revolution of 1848 looms.
