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Following on from Southwark Babble Post II: Geography and Politics, this post in on the major characters/people of the Story Arc.
Southwark Babble Post: Part the Third
I'm going to this one before running through the events leading to and during the Civil War, mostly so I can describe those without stopping to explain who's who every five minutes -_-; A lot of those events will be talked about in this post, though, because most of these people are intimately connected with them.
I'm going to divide this out into sections based on the social position of the character. Uh. The last section (commoner lords) holds only one character, since this story is very politics- and lord-heavy (if it helps, that one character is also the main character).
Index as follows:
* Royalty
- King Adrian
- Prince Madadrian
- Prince Arien
* House Lords
- Lord Anson (Rose & Gold)
- Lord Esher (Red & Gold)
- Lord Tobrick (Red & Green)
- Lord Elena (Red & White)
- Lord Scheiss (Black & White)
- Lord Desrith (Red & Gold)
*Lords of the Blue & Gold /Blue & Silver
- Lord Mikhel (Blue & Gold)
- Lord Telison (Blue & Silver)
- Lord Melishel (Blue & Gold)
*Elven Lords
- Lord Mechan (Central Line)
- Lord Bracith (Eastern Line)
- Lord Callind (Western Line)
- Lord Mahan (Illusionists)
*Foreign Characters
- Admiral Rurian of the Empire
- Ambassador Dachard of Sunland
*Commoner Lords
- Lord Aem (Black & White, Black & Green)
Royalty
King Adrian of Southwark:
The human King of Southwark, who has nursed a low-level anti-elven sentiment for most of his life. When the curse hits his family, killing his wife outright and visibly cursing his son (caused premature outer ageing, though Madadrian's internal functions still match his actual age), Adrian declares war on the Southwark Elven Court in a fit of rage and grief. He leads the sack of Riverton, and makes the complete and utter genocide of all elves within Southwark's borders the mission of his rule henceforth.
It is important to note, though, that the curse wasn't actually limited to his wife and son. A growing suspicion over the eight years of the War was that the curse had actually affected the King, too, mostly his judgement, his sanity and his internal health, and Adrian's death just prior to the story would seem to back that up. His physician found evidence of severe internal corruption post-mortem.
During the War, Adrian vastly destabilised the existing political system in order to accomplish his genocide of the elves. He focused a significant portion of the tithe system into bulking up Lordships he perceived as standing most firmly against the elves, creating the dangerous amount of power enjoyed by the Sunland Coast Alliance during his reign, and repeatedly almost causing internal rebellions within human Southwark. His increasingly visible insanity and volatility towards the end of his reign didn't help any. In the last four years of his reign, his rule and the political system of governance was only salvaged by a rearranging of alliances among the Lords and the judicious intervention of the Lords of the B&G and the B&S. Which, in turn, led to its own problems when Madadrian subsequently ascended the throne.
Prince (later King) Madadrian of Southwark:
The cursed son of King Adrian, Madadrian was exiled shortly after the beginning of the War to the position of Trade Consul in the Trade Islands. Madadrian has been the Southwark figure closest to the Imperial influence on the Kingdom, due to both his position as Trade Consul and his later kidnapping and rescue at Imperial hands. The Prince gained the nicknames of 'Grey Prince' due to his curse and 'Merchant Prince' due to his education and political leanings in exile. Within Southwark's political system, he's most closely associated with the West Coast Trade Alliance, which forms the bulk of his power base immediately following his ascension to the throne.
By the time Madadrian takes the throne its power has already been severely undercut by Adrian's reign, leaving Madadrian's ability to effect changes drastically reduced. His connections (willing or otherwise) to the Empire and the fact that his views on the Civil War itself are largely unknown make him a worryingly unknown factor in the political landscape, and lead to the very, very uneasy first few months of his reign.
Prince Arien of Southwark:
The remaining head of the Southwark Elven Royal Family and the leader of its Court in Exile. Holds the title of Prince because there can be no King until the Throne at Riverton is retaken. Arien holds power both for reasons of his heritage and for reasons of merit: as the military leader of the Elven forces and one of the most powerful Illusionists remaining to them, he has successfully held back the genocidal forces sent against his people, and also managed to launch the first and only almost successful counterstrike against the human Kingship: the Nightmare Push in the second year of the War. For this, among other reasons, he gained the nickname 'Nightmare Prince' from the humans, and 'Summer Prince' from his own people.
Arien is militarily vicious, paying atrocity with atrocity because he has few other choices, depending heavily on illusion and asymmetric tactics to counter the fact that he's at a significant numbers disadvantage. He was present at and survived the slaughter at Riverton almost purely due to his illusion abilities, and nurses a massive hatred for the instigators of that slaughter.
Despite that, his primary goal is to ensure the survival of his people, and he has repeatedly forgone opportunities for vengeance because taking them would put his people at risk. Arien is honourable and a man of his word, and is more aware than almost anyone else in Southwark of the Imperial and Sunland influences in operation on the Civil War, leading him to occupy a very complicated political and personal position regarding the events of the War. When Aem approaches him on behalf of the putative Northern Alliance, Arien's decision drastically changes the course of the War and Southwark's position with the foreign powers, the Empire in particular.
House Lords of Note:
Lord Anson of the Rose & Gold:
Anson is the primary antagonist of the elves for most of the Civil War. Historically, the Sunland Coast has always nursed an apathy towards the elven colony in Southwark, and the Rose & Gold bordering on the elven territory and the actual Sunland border both exaccerbated his particular hatred very, very strongly. Anson is almost singlehandedly responsible for most of the atrocities committed during the War (he's responsible for the Northern Bonfires, the means of disposing of elven prisoners of war, civilian and military alike, by publically burning them alive), and is widely considered to be the single most horrific figure of the War, even counting Arien the Nightmare Prince.
Politically speaking, he's the largest antagonist within Southwark itself, almost more so than King Adrian himself, since Adrian's mental instability prevents him from being a systemised threat. As a result of this, Anson and the Sunland Coast Alliance become the focal enemies of the Northern Alliance under Aem.
Lord Esher of the Red & Gold:
The second strongest antagonist for the early stages of the War, ally and personal friend of Lord Anson, Esher was the most violently hated and feared figure on the Line after Anson and Arien. His death early in the third year of the War proved a significant turning point in the changing political landscape surrounding it.
Lord Tobrick of the Red & Green:
The most visible Lord of the Central Plains power block early in the War, Tobrick was the first of the Border Lords to surreptitiously begin to undermine the genocidal aspects of the War. He allowed elven Illusionists and agents to pass untouched through his lands, allowed elven civilians to flee his eastern neighbours through his lines, and also attempted to funnel supplies north into elven hands through his lands. He was also the Lord under greatest threat from Arien, since his lands were the easiest path around the Plateau to attack the Capital. It was only after Arien's last great push, in the second year of the War, that Tobrick began to undercut the genocide. He was the second major element of the Border Alliance that sprang up under Aem's influence, and a massive part of the Illusion War and the restructuring of the Central Plains alliances during the last years of Adrian's reign.
Lord Elena of the Red & White (the Plateau):
Possibly the single most important of the Border Lords, definitely the most powerful, Elena was also the single most feared General on the human side of the War outside of Aem himself. It was her forces, along with those of the Black & White, who chased the elves out of the coastal lands around Riverton after the initial slaughter (which was led by Blue & White forces out of the Capital, not her forces), driving them north behind the Line. It was also the Plateau which formed the main geographical bulwark on the western end of the Line, preventing Arien from striking down the coast at the Capital itself, and locking down the entire western end of the Line. Elena's decision to join the Border Alliance under Aem was possibly the single most important event of the War and the subsequent political rearrangement of the Kingdom.
In the latter phases of the War, the last four years of Adrian's reign, Elena and the Plateau Lords become the lynchpin of the Northern Alliance and the Illusion War that Aem carries out against the Capital. Elena herself becomes Arien's main link into human Southwark for the periods when Aem is at the Capital, and she is also Aem's major political backer at Court. The Plateau Lords were always one of the most potentially dangerous political entities in Southwark. Under Elena and the Northern Alliance, for the first time in many centuries, the Plateau begins to exercise that power.
Lord Scheiss of the Black & White:
Technically the Lord of the B&W and the coastal lands between the Plateau and the sea, Scheiss occupies an increasingly complicated political position in the War. Originally, her family were Bandit Lords on the western slopes of the Plateau, who were given a small amount of land by the Elven Court at Riverton in an effort to bribe them to stop raiding westwards. When Adrian declared war on the elves and destroyed Riverton, the elven lands south of the line fell into Black & White hands, and Scheiss became essentially the fifth Border Lord. However, since her lands fell largely under the protection of Elena and the Red & White, the military arm of the B&W became the first really mobile unit of the war, running along the entire length of the Line from west coast to east.
Then one of her commoner commanders, Aem, started to show an incredible level of tactical ability in opposing Arien's illusions. The B&W started to become known as the 'Illusion Breakers', and units under Aem started being called to hotspots all along the Line. Although Scheiss remained legally more powerful, it rapidly became apparent that Aem was the true military commander of the B&W. Things came to a head in the second year of the War, when the Black & White and the Red & Gold finally drove a spike through Arien's advance, and when Aem had finally been given enough rope to hang himself. When he began to show post-battle mercy to elven captives on a grand scale, Scheiss finally had it in her power to legally get rid of him for treason, and regain full control of the Black & White.
Instead, Scheiss put the full weight of her legal power behind her commoner commander, creating the bizarre situation of a Lord and a Commander wearing the same colours, and functioned primarily as Aem's second in command for the rest of the War and the emerging political situation in the Capital. Prior to his being made a Lord in his own right, she was the main legal reason he had any authority at all, and subsequent to his Lordship (due to the bizarre circumstances) she allowed him to remain functioning as the military leader of the Black & White despite his wearing different colours.
Along with Tobrick, Desrith of the Red & Gold, and later Elena, Scheiss forms the backbone of the Border Lords and the Northern Alliance that drastically changes the field in the latter years of the War.
Lord Desrith of the Red & Gold:
The successor to Lord Esher who took Lordship in the third year of the War, Desrith is the field commander who helped Aem drive the Line through the southeastern extension of Arien's forces in the second year of the war (dubbed the 'Nightmare War' for being the single most intense phase of the entire eight-year war), essentially defeating Arien's only potentially successful southern advance.
For the second and third years of the War, and the first few months of her Lordship, Desrith was the major wild card on the Line. She was technically a Lord of the Sunland Alliance, and her predeccessor had been strongly attached to the Rose & Gold, but Desrith herself had formed a strong allegiance to the Black & White and Aem personally over the course of the 'Nightmare War'. When it came down to it, Desrith abandoned her Sunland Coast allegiance and became the third member of the Border Alliance, after Scheiss and Tobrick. In the last years of Adrian's reign, she ran the Eastern end of the Illusion War on behalf of the Northern Alliance, and was the first active line against the Rose & Gold in the first year of Madadrian's reign.
Lords of the Blue & Gold and the Blue & Silver:
Mikhel, The Lord of the Blue & Gold:
The Administrator in Chief of the Kingdom and head of the Royal Council in the later years of Adrian's reign. Mikhel was previously a relatively minor lord of the Blue & Gold, only rising to Lord in the last four years of Adrian's reign. Mostly because the past three Lords had fallen prey to Adrian's increasingly volatile temper, usually for having tried to oppose the growing power of the Sunland Coast faction. Mikhel managed to hold onto the title (and his head) by being polite, unobtrusive, and by surreptitiously joining the Northern Alliance as soon as it was remotely feasible, using Aem to route proposals through the Council of Lords and make things marginally more favourable (and stable) by the time they reached the Royal Council.
The entirity of Mikhel's goal is to keep Southwark as stable and viable a kingdom as possible, particularly in light of an increasing awareness of the foreign threats of Sunland and the Empire. In the last years of Adrian's reign, Mikhel was essentially running the Kingdom almost singlehandedly between his office and Aem's, working to broker lesser alliances within the Lords to stabilise the economy and trying to steer the greater alliances within the Lords Council to stabilise the political field. At the beginning of Madadrian's reign, Mikhel stands uneasily between the Northern Alliance and the new King, wondering which way he should jump to keep the Kingdom as stable as possible.
Telison, The Lord of the Blue & Silver:
Telison is the Kingdom's Postmaster and Spymaster General. Since the beginning of the Civil War, most of her attention has been focused less on the Capital, and more on the developing situations along the Border Line, in the Trade Islands, and along the major faction lines of the Kingdom. The Blue & Silver are incredibly active along the Line for most of the War, being the primary line of communication. Telison is the first person to be aware of the formation of the Northern Alliance under Aem (indeed, she was partially responsible for it, having informed Elena of it in the putative stages). She is also the person who partially arranges for Aem to be brought to the Capital in the fourth year of the War, and along with Mikhel facilitates in large part his rise to power.
This is not, however, from any genuine attachment to Aem or the Alliance itself. Telison simply determined that Adrian's rule, and the Civil War itself, were critically weakening Southwark at a time when it could ill afford it, and she saw Aem and the Northern Alliance as a means to lessen the damage and restabilise the kingdom. When Adrian died and Madadrian ascended the throne, shifting the balance of power more towards the south and the West Coast Trade Alliance, Telison's influence became as uneasily poised as Mikhel's.
Telison is also one of the few humans in Southwark with a line north into Arien's Court, and indeed one of the few remaining human Lords to have actually met Arien in person and survived. This makes her one of the few people outside of Aem himself who has worked with and survived all three royal figures in Southwark, at least so far.
Melishel, a lord of the Blue & Gold:
One of the few surviving members of Madadrian's retinue in the Trade Consulate, Melishel is also Mikhel's daughter, which makes her position somewhat complicated as Madadrian ascends the throne.
Melishel was Madadrian's chief advisor while he was in exile in the Trade Islands, the head Lord of the B&G in the Islands. During this exile, she maintained a correspondance with her father, which allowed Madadrian to stay broadly updated on political and economic developments on the mainland. This correspondance became stilted during Mikhel's increasing involvement with the Northern Alliance, since Mikhel could not afford to allow Aem's manoeuverings to come to the wrong attention, leading both Melishel and Madadrian to become concerned that the Royal Court was being increasingly destabilised back home.
When Madadrian was recalled to the mainland to ascend the throne after his father's death, Melishel was with him. Thus she was also captured by 'Sunland pirates' along with him, and was one of the few of his retinue to surive to be 'rescued' by the Imperial Navy. When they make landfall in the Capital, her relationship with her father suffers strain due to both her captivity and the political complications of her loyalty to Madadrian when the Prince may be compromised by the Empire and just fundamentally opposed to the alliance Mikhel has spent the past four years building. Melishel is reinstated in the mainland Royal Council as Madadrian becomes King, and works with the Prince to try and feel out the real political situation they now find themselves in.
Elven Lords:
Mechan, Commander of the Central Line:
Essentially Arien's military second in command, Mechan is the head commander of the section of the Line stretching from the lands of the Red & Gold across the Red & Green to just shy of the Plateau and the Red & White. Because this was the section of the Line considered most permeable for the massive southward push during the Nightmare War retaliation, Mechan was the second field commander during the Nightmare War and therefore directly opposed to Aem and Desrith. It was her forces who took the brunt of the casualties when the Red & Gold and the Black & White sundered elven forces from the far eastern end of the Line, leaving a significant civilian population stranded behind enemy lines and in lands that rapidly became the purview of the Rose & Gold.
What this essentially means is that Mechan was the main elven Lord aside from Arien himself who saw the most vicious, violent and sustained action during the War, and also the commander who saw the most atrocities done to her troops and the civilians they protected. For the first two years of the War, only the far eastern forces under Bracith saw worse, being directly opposed to the Rose & Gold, and Bracith and everything east of him were wiped out during the late second year of the War and the backlash against the Nightmare War. Mechan was the Commander aside from Arien who faced Aem across the line most often, and the surviving Commander who had seen the most Bonfires raised on the bones of people she was responsible for.
However, she was also the Commander whose troops were the first Aem showed mercy to once he'd gathered enough power to risk it. She was the first Commander to see the hard effects of Aem's putative Northern Alliance, and eventually the deciding voice in Arien's Court on whether or not to accept Aem's offer of alliance in the late third year of the War. In the final years of Adrian's reign, she ran the Illusion War against the Red & Gold and the Red & Green, and the very real War against the Rose & Gold.
Bracith, Commander of the Eastern Line:
Commander of the elven forces caught on the southern extension of the mountains, caught between the Sunland border, the Rose & Gold to the east and the Red & Gold to the south and west. Aside from the initial slaughter at Riverton and the loss of the Western Coast in the opening phases of the War, the loss of Bracith and the Eastern Line was the single most traumatic event of the War for the elven forces.
The Eastern Line was always the most vulnerable position for the Elven Province, extending southward as it did into territory occupied by the Sunland Coast Alliance. And Bracith made one key error that doubled the blow: he didn't start to move his civilian population northward into more secure territory until the second year of the War, counting on Arien's Nightmare Push to keep him safe long enough to secure his people behind its advance. That meant that when the B&W and the R&G drove their forces between Bracith's and Mechan's, not only was his troop complement and lands lost, but so were the better part of the civilian population he was protecting. Caught behind enemy lines and with hunting parties of the Rose & Gold moving northward to catch them between hammer and anvil ... those that could try to run ran, and the military forces left alive under Bracith began to pre-emptively kill their own civilians in a slow north-western retreat, trying to give as many people as possible a clean death instead of what would happen to them as prisoners of the Rose & Gold.
Bracith himself survived the initial collapse of the Nightmare Push, and even the first two months of the Rose & Gold's northerly advance. He was finally captured along with the last of his military forces guarding the retreat of the few remaining civilian groups, and was brutally tortured and executed by Anson and the Rose & Gold. His loss and its results simultaneously damned Arien's southern advance, and quite possibly saved Southwark as an independant kingdom.
Callind, Commander of the Western Line:
Originally a land-holding Lord of the Elven Court, holding lands between the high nothern mountains and the coastal plain down to Riverton, Callind came to prominence when she stopped the northern march of the Red & White and the Black & White immediately following the slaughter of Riverton in the opening phases of the War. While the Western Line was never again the most active front of the War, Callind continued to be among the most important elven commanders for the sole reason that she was the reason it was never the most active. After the initial northward retreat of Arien and the remaining royal family, Callind effectively sealed the western coastal approaches into the New North, and did so in the face of the Red & White. Her and Elena essentially held the Western Line immovable between them for the first four years of the War, until the Northern Alliance complicated things.
Callind is also, as one of the remaining original land-holding Lords, a major part of the civilian government of the Elven Court in Exile. She's Arien's main link to the northernmost Lords where the bulk of his civilian population has been relocated, and also his link to the northern coastlines that provide his only potential access to the outside world and the Empire, should that ever be required. She holds a position not unlike the southern Lord of the Blue & Gold in Adrian's Court, being essentially in charge of marshalling logistical and political needs to present to Arien when he's in home court rather than the front lines, and just basically in charge when he is on the front lines. While Arien has a lot more autonomy of decision than the southern King (that happens when you're the Prince in Exile fighting for survival), most longterm decisions for the Court in Exile go through Callind sooner or later.
In the later phases of the War, the last four years of Adrian's reign, Callind and Elena between them manufacture the Western Illusion War in support of Aem's campaign.
Mahan, Illusionist Commander:
Brother of Mechan and the most active Illusionist on the Central Line after Arien, Mahan is the Illusionist Commander of Arien's forces, a position similar to the Lord of the Blue & Silver in the southern forces. Mahan was originally posted to the Eastern Line under Bracith, forming the second front during the Nightmare Push in the second year of the War (which gained its name primarily from the use of horrific illusions to soften enemy forces ahead of the advance ... and from the horrific retaliations on the parts of the human forces). Only barely surviving the breaking of the line, Mahan was among the survivors who fled through the lands of the Red & Green to try and rejoin the Central Line through Tobrick's lines. It was in the process of this that he first encountered Lord Aem personally.
Having rejoined his sister and Arien on the Central Line, Mahan became the most active infiltrator south of the line, repeatedly going into southern territories under the guise of illusion. He was the agent who assassinated Lord Esher of the Red & Gold in the early third year of the War. And he was the agent sent to politely ask Lord Aem to a meeting with Prince Arien later than year, essentially setting up the Northern Alliance between Arien and Aem. During the last years of the War, Mahan essentially functioned as Telison's opposite number, running information, communications and spies north and south of the Line, and also as Arien's second Illusionist for the Illusion War.
Foreigners of Note:
General Rurian of the Empire:
Admiral Rurian of the Empire, first cousin to the Empress, was the Naval Commander who 'rescued' Prince Madadrian from the hands of Sunland pirates in the Island Seas just prior to his ascension of the throne. Rurian delivered Madadrian and the remains of his retinue safely to the Capital by sea, and afterwards functioned as Imperial Ambassador at the re-established mainland Imperial Embassy (which had been formally and politely encouraged to move to the Trade Islands under Adrian's reign, before the King's hatred for elves had been at its height). Rurian represents the Empire's interests in Southwark during Madadrian's early reign, a position complicated by his perceived control of Madadrian as a puppet king for the Empire and by his own knowledge of the Empire's hand in the events of the Civil War. When Arien is brought to the Capital as a prisoner in the early months of Madadrian's reign, Rurian's position, knowledge and honour are all strongly called into question.
Ambassador Dachard of Sunland:
The other major foreign representative in Southwark, Dachard was a strong supporter and proponent of the Sunland Coast Alliance during the Civil War, with a particular relationship with Lord Anson of the Rose & Gold.
As the War and Adrian's madness peaked increasingly higher over the eight years of its run, Dachard attempted to cement Sunland influence on the Council of Lords and Southwark Court, only to be thwarted by Mikhel and Aem's Northern Alliance in the last four years of Adrian's reign. Following the slow and persistance weakening of the Sunland Alliance (at Aem's direction, but few knew that), then Adrian's death, Madadrian's capture and corruption by the Empire, and what Sunland saw as the installation of an Imperial puppet as King, Dachard worked in collaboration with Lord Anson and the remaining Sunland Alliance to capture Prince Arien and bring him to the Capital in chains, in order to restart the major violence of the War whether the King wanted to or not. Unfortunately, Dachard didn't quite understand the position Aem held in Court or his eventual aims, leading to Arien being handed directly into the hands of Dachard's single greatest unspoken enemy at Court.
Between Dachard and Rurian, and their empires behind them, the Southwark Royal Court in the early months of Madadrian's reign became a much more explicitly international battlefield than at any previous point in the War, or indeed the country's history.
Commoner Lords:
Lord Aem of the Black & White and the Black & Green:
The Lord Aem, as you've probably gathered by now, is probably the single most important political figure in Southwark during the period of the Civil War and its immediate aftermath. Nicknamed the Lord Badger, he was originally a commoner soldier in the Black & White under Lord Scheiss. Aem came to rapid prominence in the first year of the War as a field commander who could take Elven Illusionists into account, and during the Nightmare Push of the Second Year became perhaps the single most important commander on the human side of the line when he and Lord Desrith of the Red & Gold successfully repelled Arien's southward push and broke through his lines between the Central and Eastern Lines.
It was what he did then that changed the map, though. In the aftermath of the Nightmare Push, which had shattered Arien's advance and pushed the elves temporarily into retreat, Aem spent the third year of the War carefully attempting to minimise both military atrocities on behalf of the human forces and to allow elven civilians caught behind human lines to survive. To do this he formed a rudimentary alliance between the Black & White and the Red & Green, and then with the Red & Gold as Desrith became Lord. It was as a result of this that Arien sent an Illusionist to approach Aem and ask for a meeting, which then formed the basis of the Northern Alliance between the Elven Province and the Border Lords. Once the Red & White under Elena joined this alliance, Aem turned his attentions south to the mess of the rapidly destabilising Royal Court under Adrian. He initiated the Illusion War against Arien with the Border Lords' cooperation (a largely faked series of push-and-pull offenses orchestrated between Arien and Aem) to create the illusion of an ongoing war, while Aem himself moved to Court to attempt to undercut the Civil War at the source.
Once at Court, for the last four years of Adrian's reign, Aem somewhat ironically became the King's most trusted subject, being elevated to an independant Lord (colours Black & Green) with lands to be taken from the Elven Province once Arien was defeated (Aem's idea). With the help of Mikhel, Aem set out to rearrange the major power blocks of the Council of Lords to slowly rob the Sunland Alliance and other anti-elven agitators of power, while simultaneously trying to stabilise the rest of the kingdom around them. He leveraged the mad King's favour into personal power to manage this, playing the part of the Hero of the Line and the Scourge of the Elves. In essence, Aem orchestrated a silent coup of the throne, without ever taking the throne itself or losing the appearance of utter loyalty both to Adrian and the anti-elven faction.
All of which became extremely complicated when Madadrian took the throne after Adrian's sudden death, casting the future of the War, the Northern Alliance and Southwark's independance as a kingdom all into doubt as he brought the Empire and the West Coast Trade Alliance into prominence. Aem spent the first few months of Madadrian's reign attempting to figure out where the hell the new king stood with regard to Arien and the War, before Sunland brought Arien before them in chains and threw just about everything up in the air.
Through all this, Aem's stated goals are to fulfill the oath he took when he joined the military just before the War: to protect the Kingdom of Southwark and its people. It's just that Aem views 'the people of Southwark' as including those of the Elven Province, and he also views the burning alive of children for the sake of a mad king's genocide to run against the 'protect the kingdom and the people' part. He never actually intended to more or less take over the country, it was just that in order to stop the Bonfires and the War, he had to keep climbing higher and higher in an effort to stop it at the source. By the time Madadrian comes to the throne and Arien is brought to the Capital as a prisoner, it is conceivably within Aem's power to simply get rid of both Princes and take Southwark for his own. Unfortunately, by that stage he's also realised that his real enemies don't lie within Southwark's borders at all, and probably never did.
Now all he has to do is salvage Southwark's independance as the threat of foreign invasion from one or both empires becomes very, very real.
And phew. That's most of the major cast laid out, and now that I look at it most of the major events, too. I'll do out a more formal event timeline anyway, though. If for no other reason than hammering out the exact timeline -_-;
TBC in Part Four: The Civil War Timeline Part I
I'm going to this one before running through the events leading to and during the Civil War, mostly so I can describe those without stopping to explain who's who every five minutes -_-; A lot of those events will be talked about in this post, though, because most of these people are intimately connected with them.
I'm going to divide this out into sections based on the social position of the character. Uh. The last section (commoner lords) holds only one character, since this story is very politics- and lord-heavy (if it helps, that one character is also the main character).
Index as follows:
* Royalty
- King Adrian
- Prince Madadrian
- Prince Arien
* House Lords
- Lord Anson (Rose & Gold)
- Lord Esher (Red & Gold)
- Lord Tobrick (Red & Green)
- Lord Elena (Red & White)
- Lord Scheiss (Black & White)
- Lord Desrith (Red & Gold)
*Lords of the Blue & Gold /Blue & Silver
- Lord Mikhel (Blue & Gold)
- Lord Telison (Blue & Silver)
- Lord Melishel (Blue & Gold)
*Elven Lords
- Lord Mechan (Central Line)
- Lord Bracith (Eastern Line)
- Lord Callind (Western Line)
- Lord Mahan (Illusionists)
*Foreign Characters
- Admiral Rurian of the Empire
- Ambassador Dachard of Sunland
*Commoner Lords
- Lord Aem (Black & White, Black & Green)
Royalty
King Adrian of Southwark:
The human King of Southwark, who has nursed a low-level anti-elven sentiment for most of his life. When the curse hits his family, killing his wife outright and visibly cursing his son (caused premature outer ageing, though Madadrian's internal functions still match his actual age), Adrian declares war on the Southwark Elven Court in a fit of rage and grief. He leads the sack of Riverton, and makes the complete and utter genocide of all elves within Southwark's borders the mission of his rule henceforth.
It is important to note, though, that the curse wasn't actually limited to his wife and son. A growing suspicion over the eight years of the War was that the curse had actually affected the King, too, mostly his judgement, his sanity and his internal health, and Adrian's death just prior to the story would seem to back that up. His physician found evidence of severe internal corruption post-mortem.
During the War, Adrian vastly destabilised the existing political system in order to accomplish his genocide of the elves. He focused a significant portion of the tithe system into bulking up Lordships he perceived as standing most firmly against the elves, creating the dangerous amount of power enjoyed by the Sunland Coast Alliance during his reign, and repeatedly almost causing internal rebellions within human Southwark. His increasingly visible insanity and volatility towards the end of his reign didn't help any. In the last four years of his reign, his rule and the political system of governance was only salvaged by a rearranging of alliances among the Lords and the judicious intervention of the Lords of the B&G and the B&S. Which, in turn, led to its own problems when Madadrian subsequently ascended the throne.
Prince (later King) Madadrian of Southwark:
The cursed son of King Adrian, Madadrian was exiled shortly after the beginning of the War to the position of Trade Consul in the Trade Islands. Madadrian has been the Southwark figure closest to the Imperial influence on the Kingdom, due to both his position as Trade Consul and his later kidnapping and rescue at Imperial hands. The Prince gained the nicknames of 'Grey Prince' due to his curse and 'Merchant Prince' due to his education and political leanings in exile. Within Southwark's political system, he's most closely associated with the West Coast Trade Alliance, which forms the bulk of his power base immediately following his ascension to the throne.
By the time Madadrian takes the throne its power has already been severely undercut by Adrian's reign, leaving Madadrian's ability to effect changes drastically reduced. His connections (willing or otherwise) to the Empire and the fact that his views on the Civil War itself are largely unknown make him a worryingly unknown factor in the political landscape, and lead to the very, very uneasy first few months of his reign.
Prince Arien of Southwark:
The remaining head of the Southwark Elven Royal Family and the leader of its Court in Exile. Holds the title of Prince because there can be no King until the Throne at Riverton is retaken. Arien holds power both for reasons of his heritage and for reasons of merit: as the military leader of the Elven forces and one of the most powerful Illusionists remaining to them, he has successfully held back the genocidal forces sent against his people, and also managed to launch the first and only almost successful counterstrike against the human Kingship: the Nightmare Push in the second year of the War. For this, among other reasons, he gained the nickname 'Nightmare Prince' from the humans, and 'Summer Prince' from his own people.
Arien is militarily vicious, paying atrocity with atrocity because he has few other choices, depending heavily on illusion and asymmetric tactics to counter the fact that he's at a significant numbers disadvantage. He was present at and survived the slaughter at Riverton almost purely due to his illusion abilities, and nurses a massive hatred for the instigators of that slaughter.
Despite that, his primary goal is to ensure the survival of his people, and he has repeatedly forgone opportunities for vengeance because taking them would put his people at risk. Arien is honourable and a man of his word, and is more aware than almost anyone else in Southwark of the Imperial and Sunland influences in operation on the Civil War, leading him to occupy a very complicated political and personal position regarding the events of the War. When Aem approaches him on behalf of the putative Northern Alliance, Arien's decision drastically changes the course of the War and Southwark's position with the foreign powers, the Empire in particular.
House Lords of Note:
Lord Anson of the Rose & Gold:
Anson is the primary antagonist of the elves for most of the Civil War. Historically, the Sunland Coast has always nursed an apathy towards the elven colony in Southwark, and the Rose & Gold bordering on the elven territory and the actual Sunland border both exaccerbated his particular hatred very, very strongly. Anson is almost singlehandedly responsible for most of the atrocities committed during the War (he's responsible for the Northern Bonfires, the means of disposing of elven prisoners of war, civilian and military alike, by publically burning them alive), and is widely considered to be the single most horrific figure of the War, even counting Arien the Nightmare Prince.
Politically speaking, he's the largest antagonist within Southwark itself, almost more so than King Adrian himself, since Adrian's mental instability prevents him from being a systemised threat. As a result of this, Anson and the Sunland Coast Alliance become the focal enemies of the Northern Alliance under Aem.
Lord Esher of the Red & Gold:
The second strongest antagonist for the early stages of the War, ally and personal friend of Lord Anson, Esher was the most violently hated and feared figure on the Line after Anson and Arien. His death early in the third year of the War proved a significant turning point in the changing political landscape surrounding it.
Lord Tobrick of the Red & Green:
The most visible Lord of the Central Plains power block early in the War, Tobrick was the first of the Border Lords to surreptitiously begin to undermine the genocidal aspects of the War. He allowed elven Illusionists and agents to pass untouched through his lands, allowed elven civilians to flee his eastern neighbours through his lines, and also attempted to funnel supplies north into elven hands through his lands. He was also the Lord under greatest threat from Arien, since his lands were the easiest path around the Plateau to attack the Capital. It was only after Arien's last great push, in the second year of the War, that Tobrick began to undercut the genocide. He was the second major element of the Border Alliance that sprang up under Aem's influence, and a massive part of the Illusion War and the restructuring of the Central Plains alliances during the last years of Adrian's reign.
Lord Elena of the Red & White (the Plateau):
Possibly the single most important of the Border Lords, definitely the most powerful, Elena was also the single most feared General on the human side of the War outside of Aem himself. It was her forces, along with those of the Black & White, who chased the elves out of the coastal lands around Riverton after the initial slaughter (which was led by Blue & White forces out of the Capital, not her forces), driving them north behind the Line. It was also the Plateau which formed the main geographical bulwark on the western end of the Line, preventing Arien from striking down the coast at the Capital itself, and locking down the entire western end of the Line. Elena's decision to join the Border Alliance under Aem was possibly the single most important event of the War and the subsequent political rearrangement of the Kingdom.
In the latter phases of the War, the last four years of Adrian's reign, Elena and the Plateau Lords become the lynchpin of the Northern Alliance and the Illusion War that Aem carries out against the Capital. Elena herself becomes Arien's main link into human Southwark for the periods when Aem is at the Capital, and she is also Aem's major political backer at Court. The Plateau Lords were always one of the most potentially dangerous political entities in Southwark. Under Elena and the Northern Alliance, for the first time in many centuries, the Plateau begins to exercise that power.
Lord Scheiss of the Black & White:
Technically the Lord of the B&W and the coastal lands between the Plateau and the sea, Scheiss occupies an increasingly complicated political position in the War. Originally, her family were Bandit Lords on the western slopes of the Plateau, who were given a small amount of land by the Elven Court at Riverton in an effort to bribe them to stop raiding westwards. When Adrian declared war on the elves and destroyed Riverton, the elven lands south of the line fell into Black & White hands, and Scheiss became essentially the fifth Border Lord. However, since her lands fell largely under the protection of Elena and the Red & White, the military arm of the B&W became the first really mobile unit of the war, running along the entire length of the Line from west coast to east.
Then one of her commoner commanders, Aem, started to show an incredible level of tactical ability in opposing Arien's illusions. The B&W started to become known as the 'Illusion Breakers', and units under Aem started being called to hotspots all along the Line. Although Scheiss remained legally more powerful, it rapidly became apparent that Aem was the true military commander of the B&W. Things came to a head in the second year of the War, when the Black & White and the Red & Gold finally drove a spike through Arien's advance, and when Aem had finally been given enough rope to hang himself. When he began to show post-battle mercy to elven captives on a grand scale, Scheiss finally had it in her power to legally get rid of him for treason, and regain full control of the Black & White.
Instead, Scheiss put the full weight of her legal power behind her commoner commander, creating the bizarre situation of a Lord and a Commander wearing the same colours, and functioned primarily as Aem's second in command for the rest of the War and the emerging political situation in the Capital. Prior to his being made a Lord in his own right, she was the main legal reason he had any authority at all, and subsequent to his Lordship (due to the bizarre circumstances) she allowed him to remain functioning as the military leader of the Black & White despite his wearing different colours.
Along with Tobrick, Desrith of the Red & Gold, and later Elena, Scheiss forms the backbone of the Border Lords and the Northern Alliance that drastically changes the field in the latter years of the War.
Lord Desrith of the Red & Gold:
The successor to Lord Esher who took Lordship in the third year of the War, Desrith is the field commander who helped Aem drive the Line through the southeastern extension of Arien's forces in the second year of the war (dubbed the 'Nightmare War' for being the single most intense phase of the entire eight-year war), essentially defeating Arien's only potentially successful southern advance.
For the second and third years of the War, and the first few months of her Lordship, Desrith was the major wild card on the Line. She was technically a Lord of the Sunland Alliance, and her predeccessor had been strongly attached to the Rose & Gold, but Desrith herself had formed a strong allegiance to the Black & White and Aem personally over the course of the 'Nightmare War'. When it came down to it, Desrith abandoned her Sunland Coast allegiance and became the third member of the Border Alliance, after Scheiss and Tobrick. In the last years of Adrian's reign, she ran the Eastern end of the Illusion War on behalf of the Northern Alliance, and was the first active line against the Rose & Gold in the first year of Madadrian's reign.
Lords of the Blue & Gold and the Blue & Silver:
Mikhel, The Lord of the Blue & Gold:
The Administrator in Chief of the Kingdom and head of the Royal Council in the later years of Adrian's reign. Mikhel was previously a relatively minor lord of the Blue & Gold, only rising to Lord in the last four years of Adrian's reign. Mostly because the past three Lords had fallen prey to Adrian's increasingly volatile temper, usually for having tried to oppose the growing power of the Sunland Coast faction. Mikhel managed to hold onto the title (and his head) by being polite, unobtrusive, and by surreptitiously joining the Northern Alliance as soon as it was remotely feasible, using Aem to route proposals through the Council of Lords and make things marginally more favourable (and stable) by the time they reached the Royal Council.
The entirity of Mikhel's goal is to keep Southwark as stable and viable a kingdom as possible, particularly in light of an increasing awareness of the foreign threats of Sunland and the Empire. In the last years of Adrian's reign, Mikhel was essentially running the Kingdom almost singlehandedly between his office and Aem's, working to broker lesser alliances within the Lords to stabilise the economy and trying to steer the greater alliances within the Lords Council to stabilise the political field. At the beginning of Madadrian's reign, Mikhel stands uneasily between the Northern Alliance and the new King, wondering which way he should jump to keep the Kingdom as stable as possible.
Telison, The Lord of the Blue & Silver:
Telison is the Kingdom's Postmaster and Spymaster General. Since the beginning of the Civil War, most of her attention has been focused less on the Capital, and more on the developing situations along the Border Line, in the Trade Islands, and along the major faction lines of the Kingdom. The Blue & Silver are incredibly active along the Line for most of the War, being the primary line of communication. Telison is the first person to be aware of the formation of the Northern Alliance under Aem (indeed, she was partially responsible for it, having informed Elena of it in the putative stages). She is also the person who partially arranges for Aem to be brought to the Capital in the fourth year of the War, and along with Mikhel facilitates in large part his rise to power.
This is not, however, from any genuine attachment to Aem or the Alliance itself. Telison simply determined that Adrian's rule, and the Civil War itself, were critically weakening Southwark at a time when it could ill afford it, and she saw Aem and the Northern Alliance as a means to lessen the damage and restabilise the kingdom. When Adrian died and Madadrian ascended the throne, shifting the balance of power more towards the south and the West Coast Trade Alliance, Telison's influence became as uneasily poised as Mikhel's.
Telison is also one of the few humans in Southwark with a line north into Arien's Court, and indeed one of the few remaining human Lords to have actually met Arien in person and survived. This makes her one of the few people outside of Aem himself who has worked with and survived all three royal figures in Southwark, at least so far.
Melishel, a lord of the Blue & Gold:
One of the few surviving members of Madadrian's retinue in the Trade Consulate, Melishel is also Mikhel's daughter, which makes her position somewhat complicated as Madadrian ascends the throne.
Melishel was Madadrian's chief advisor while he was in exile in the Trade Islands, the head Lord of the B&G in the Islands. During this exile, she maintained a correspondance with her father, which allowed Madadrian to stay broadly updated on political and economic developments on the mainland. This correspondance became stilted during Mikhel's increasing involvement with the Northern Alliance, since Mikhel could not afford to allow Aem's manoeuverings to come to the wrong attention, leading both Melishel and Madadrian to become concerned that the Royal Court was being increasingly destabilised back home.
When Madadrian was recalled to the mainland to ascend the throne after his father's death, Melishel was with him. Thus she was also captured by 'Sunland pirates' along with him, and was one of the few of his retinue to surive to be 'rescued' by the Imperial Navy. When they make landfall in the Capital, her relationship with her father suffers strain due to both her captivity and the political complications of her loyalty to Madadrian when the Prince may be compromised by the Empire and just fundamentally opposed to the alliance Mikhel has spent the past four years building. Melishel is reinstated in the mainland Royal Council as Madadrian becomes King, and works with the Prince to try and feel out the real political situation they now find themselves in.
Elven Lords:
Mechan, Commander of the Central Line:
Essentially Arien's military second in command, Mechan is the head commander of the section of the Line stretching from the lands of the Red & Gold across the Red & Green to just shy of the Plateau and the Red & White. Because this was the section of the Line considered most permeable for the massive southward push during the Nightmare War retaliation, Mechan was the second field commander during the Nightmare War and therefore directly opposed to Aem and Desrith. It was her forces who took the brunt of the casualties when the Red & Gold and the Black & White sundered elven forces from the far eastern end of the Line, leaving a significant civilian population stranded behind enemy lines and in lands that rapidly became the purview of the Rose & Gold.
What this essentially means is that Mechan was the main elven Lord aside from Arien himself who saw the most vicious, violent and sustained action during the War, and also the commander who saw the most atrocities done to her troops and the civilians they protected. For the first two years of the War, only the far eastern forces under Bracith saw worse, being directly opposed to the Rose & Gold, and Bracith and everything east of him were wiped out during the late second year of the War and the backlash against the Nightmare War. Mechan was the Commander aside from Arien who faced Aem across the line most often, and the surviving Commander who had seen the most Bonfires raised on the bones of people she was responsible for.
However, she was also the Commander whose troops were the first Aem showed mercy to once he'd gathered enough power to risk it. She was the first Commander to see the hard effects of Aem's putative Northern Alliance, and eventually the deciding voice in Arien's Court on whether or not to accept Aem's offer of alliance in the late third year of the War. In the final years of Adrian's reign, she ran the Illusion War against the Red & Gold and the Red & Green, and the very real War against the Rose & Gold.
Bracith, Commander of the Eastern Line:
Commander of the elven forces caught on the southern extension of the mountains, caught between the Sunland border, the Rose & Gold to the east and the Red & Gold to the south and west. Aside from the initial slaughter at Riverton and the loss of the Western Coast in the opening phases of the War, the loss of Bracith and the Eastern Line was the single most traumatic event of the War for the elven forces.
The Eastern Line was always the most vulnerable position for the Elven Province, extending southward as it did into territory occupied by the Sunland Coast Alliance. And Bracith made one key error that doubled the blow: he didn't start to move his civilian population northward into more secure territory until the second year of the War, counting on Arien's Nightmare Push to keep him safe long enough to secure his people behind its advance. That meant that when the B&W and the R&G drove their forces between Bracith's and Mechan's, not only was his troop complement and lands lost, but so were the better part of the civilian population he was protecting. Caught behind enemy lines and with hunting parties of the Rose & Gold moving northward to catch them between hammer and anvil ... those that could try to run ran, and the military forces left alive under Bracith began to pre-emptively kill their own civilians in a slow north-western retreat, trying to give as many people as possible a clean death instead of what would happen to them as prisoners of the Rose & Gold.
Bracith himself survived the initial collapse of the Nightmare Push, and even the first two months of the Rose & Gold's northerly advance. He was finally captured along with the last of his military forces guarding the retreat of the few remaining civilian groups, and was brutally tortured and executed by Anson and the Rose & Gold. His loss and its results simultaneously damned Arien's southern advance, and quite possibly saved Southwark as an independant kingdom.
Callind, Commander of the Western Line:
Originally a land-holding Lord of the Elven Court, holding lands between the high nothern mountains and the coastal plain down to Riverton, Callind came to prominence when she stopped the northern march of the Red & White and the Black & White immediately following the slaughter of Riverton in the opening phases of the War. While the Western Line was never again the most active front of the War, Callind continued to be among the most important elven commanders for the sole reason that she was the reason it was never the most active. After the initial northward retreat of Arien and the remaining royal family, Callind effectively sealed the western coastal approaches into the New North, and did so in the face of the Red & White. Her and Elena essentially held the Western Line immovable between them for the first four years of the War, until the Northern Alliance complicated things.
Callind is also, as one of the remaining original land-holding Lords, a major part of the civilian government of the Elven Court in Exile. She's Arien's main link to the northernmost Lords where the bulk of his civilian population has been relocated, and also his link to the northern coastlines that provide his only potential access to the outside world and the Empire, should that ever be required. She holds a position not unlike the southern Lord of the Blue & Gold in Adrian's Court, being essentially in charge of marshalling logistical and political needs to present to Arien when he's in home court rather than the front lines, and just basically in charge when he is on the front lines. While Arien has a lot more autonomy of decision than the southern King (that happens when you're the Prince in Exile fighting for survival), most longterm decisions for the Court in Exile go through Callind sooner or later.
In the later phases of the War, the last four years of Adrian's reign, Callind and Elena between them manufacture the Western Illusion War in support of Aem's campaign.
Mahan, Illusionist Commander:
Brother of Mechan and the most active Illusionist on the Central Line after Arien, Mahan is the Illusionist Commander of Arien's forces, a position similar to the Lord of the Blue & Silver in the southern forces. Mahan was originally posted to the Eastern Line under Bracith, forming the second front during the Nightmare Push in the second year of the War (which gained its name primarily from the use of horrific illusions to soften enemy forces ahead of the advance ... and from the horrific retaliations on the parts of the human forces). Only barely surviving the breaking of the line, Mahan was among the survivors who fled through the lands of the Red & Green to try and rejoin the Central Line through Tobrick's lines. It was in the process of this that he first encountered Lord Aem personally.
Having rejoined his sister and Arien on the Central Line, Mahan became the most active infiltrator south of the line, repeatedly going into southern territories under the guise of illusion. He was the agent who assassinated Lord Esher of the Red & Gold in the early third year of the War. And he was the agent sent to politely ask Lord Aem to a meeting with Prince Arien later than year, essentially setting up the Northern Alliance between Arien and Aem. During the last years of the War, Mahan essentially functioned as Telison's opposite number, running information, communications and spies north and south of the Line, and also as Arien's second Illusionist for the Illusion War.
Foreigners of Note:
General Rurian of the Empire:
Admiral Rurian of the Empire, first cousin to the Empress, was the Naval Commander who 'rescued' Prince Madadrian from the hands of Sunland pirates in the Island Seas just prior to his ascension of the throne. Rurian delivered Madadrian and the remains of his retinue safely to the Capital by sea, and afterwards functioned as Imperial Ambassador at the re-established mainland Imperial Embassy (which had been formally and politely encouraged to move to the Trade Islands under Adrian's reign, before the King's hatred for elves had been at its height). Rurian represents the Empire's interests in Southwark during Madadrian's early reign, a position complicated by his perceived control of Madadrian as a puppet king for the Empire and by his own knowledge of the Empire's hand in the events of the Civil War. When Arien is brought to the Capital as a prisoner in the early months of Madadrian's reign, Rurian's position, knowledge and honour are all strongly called into question.
Ambassador Dachard of Sunland:
The other major foreign representative in Southwark, Dachard was a strong supporter and proponent of the Sunland Coast Alliance during the Civil War, with a particular relationship with Lord Anson of the Rose & Gold.
As the War and Adrian's madness peaked increasingly higher over the eight years of its run, Dachard attempted to cement Sunland influence on the Council of Lords and Southwark Court, only to be thwarted by Mikhel and Aem's Northern Alliance in the last four years of Adrian's reign. Following the slow and persistance weakening of the Sunland Alliance (at Aem's direction, but few knew that), then Adrian's death, Madadrian's capture and corruption by the Empire, and what Sunland saw as the installation of an Imperial puppet as King, Dachard worked in collaboration with Lord Anson and the remaining Sunland Alliance to capture Prince Arien and bring him to the Capital in chains, in order to restart the major violence of the War whether the King wanted to or not. Unfortunately, Dachard didn't quite understand the position Aem held in Court or his eventual aims, leading to Arien being handed directly into the hands of Dachard's single greatest unspoken enemy at Court.
Between Dachard and Rurian, and their empires behind them, the Southwark Royal Court in the early months of Madadrian's reign became a much more explicitly international battlefield than at any previous point in the War, or indeed the country's history.
Commoner Lords:
Lord Aem of the Black & White and the Black & Green:
The Lord Aem, as you've probably gathered by now, is probably the single most important political figure in Southwark during the period of the Civil War and its immediate aftermath. Nicknamed the Lord Badger, he was originally a commoner soldier in the Black & White under Lord Scheiss. Aem came to rapid prominence in the first year of the War as a field commander who could take Elven Illusionists into account, and during the Nightmare Push of the Second Year became perhaps the single most important commander on the human side of the line when he and Lord Desrith of the Red & Gold successfully repelled Arien's southward push and broke through his lines between the Central and Eastern Lines.
It was what he did then that changed the map, though. In the aftermath of the Nightmare Push, which had shattered Arien's advance and pushed the elves temporarily into retreat, Aem spent the third year of the War carefully attempting to minimise both military atrocities on behalf of the human forces and to allow elven civilians caught behind human lines to survive. To do this he formed a rudimentary alliance between the Black & White and the Red & Green, and then with the Red & Gold as Desrith became Lord. It was as a result of this that Arien sent an Illusionist to approach Aem and ask for a meeting, which then formed the basis of the Northern Alliance between the Elven Province and the Border Lords. Once the Red & White under Elena joined this alliance, Aem turned his attentions south to the mess of the rapidly destabilising Royal Court under Adrian. He initiated the Illusion War against Arien with the Border Lords' cooperation (a largely faked series of push-and-pull offenses orchestrated between Arien and Aem) to create the illusion of an ongoing war, while Aem himself moved to Court to attempt to undercut the Civil War at the source.
Once at Court, for the last four years of Adrian's reign, Aem somewhat ironically became the King's most trusted subject, being elevated to an independant Lord (colours Black & Green) with lands to be taken from the Elven Province once Arien was defeated (Aem's idea). With the help of Mikhel, Aem set out to rearrange the major power blocks of the Council of Lords to slowly rob the Sunland Alliance and other anti-elven agitators of power, while simultaneously trying to stabilise the rest of the kingdom around them. He leveraged the mad King's favour into personal power to manage this, playing the part of the Hero of the Line and the Scourge of the Elves. In essence, Aem orchestrated a silent coup of the throne, without ever taking the throne itself or losing the appearance of utter loyalty both to Adrian and the anti-elven faction.
All of which became extremely complicated when Madadrian took the throne after Adrian's sudden death, casting the future of the War, the Northern Alliance and Southwark's independance as a kingdom all into doubt as he brought the Empire and the West Coast Trade Alliance into prominence. Aem spent the first few months of Madadrian's reign attempting to figure out where the hell the new king stood with regard to Arien and the War, before Sunland brought Arien before them in chains and threw just about everything up in the air.
Through all this, Aem's stated goals are to fulfill the oath he took when he joined the military just before the War: to protect the Kingdom of Southwark and its people. It's just that Aem views 'the people of Southwark' as including those of the Elven Province, and he also views the burning alive of children for the sake of a mad king's genocide to run against the 'protect the kingdom and the people' part. He never actually intended to more or less take over the country, it was just that in order to stop the Bonfires and the War, he had to keep climbing higher and higher in an effort to stop it at the source. By the time Madadrian comes to the throne and Arien is brought to the Capital as a prisoner, it is conceivably within Aem's power to simply get rid of both Princes and take Southwark for his own. Unfortunately, by that stage he's also realised that his real enemies don't lie within Southwark's borders at all, and probably never did.
Now all he has to do is salvage Southwark's independance as the threat of foreign invasion from one or both empires becomes very, very real.
And phew. That's most of the major cast laid out, and now that I look at it most of the major events, too. I'll do out a more formal event timeline anyway, though. If for no other reason than hammering out the exact timeline -_-;
TBC in Part Four: The Civil War Timeline Part I
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