Hello everyone!
Welcome to the first post summarising the Winds of Fortune for Event 1, the Winter Solstice, of the 2024 season of Profound Decision’s LARP, Empire!
The first two of these winds were actually posted by PD a while ago, but I wanted to wait until there were some more to add to the post.
A Crown in Winter
This Wind outlines the practical details for the coronation.
The Empire has a new Empress! Her name is Vesna Borkovna Prochnost, she is Varushkan and before her election was the Senator for Ossium.
She was elected just before time out at the last event, which helpfully gets around the possibility of her election being vetoed by the Synod since it has to happen at the same event as the election.
The coronation and the celebrations of it will take place on the Saturday of E1, with a tour of the nations beginning in Highguard at 13:30 and proceed to Urizen, the Brass Coast, Dawn, Wintermark, The Imperial Orcs, Navarr, the League, and the Marches before concluding in Varushka.
After the tour the coronation itself will take place close to the centre of Anvil.
Then at 15:15 each nation will be invited to give a formal presentation to welcome their new Empress in the manner that matches with their hearth magic. The order will go the Brass Coast followed by Dawn, Highguard, the Imperial Orcs, the League, the Marches, Navarr, Urizen, Varushka, and concluding with Wintermark. Anyone who wishes to be included in this should speak to their egregore.
At this point there will be a dedication to prosperity, she will be crowned with the Imperial Crown, and she will then have the opportunity to speak to the assembled citizens and guests.
The ceremony will be closed with a performance of the Imperial Anthem.
Foreign dignitaries will then have a chance to speak with the Throne and may give her items, which are hers and for which she has the right to choose how they are disposed of (previous Thrones gave them to Synod to divvy out, while others auctioned them through the Bourse).
Empress Vesna has yet to decide on a specific form of address, so until she does so, “their Imperial Majesty” is the correct term of address.
REMEMBER Empress Vesna is a player character, not an NPC so please treat her accordingly.
A Sparrow in Spring
This Wind of Fortune details the opportunities arising from the coronation.
At the last coronation, Empress Lisabetta gave a speech which prioritised the prevention of Imperial losses, and in combination with the celebrations, this gave the Imperial Armies steady conquest ability, which allowed them to push back against the barbarians with minimal loss of Imperial life.
If Empress Vesna gives a speech with an underlying theme, then the Empire might gain a similar opportunity.
That is if the celebrations that follow it will be enough to catch people’s attention. The senate will need to choose someone in a motion and ensure that they have sufficient funds in their inventory at the end of the game to fund the celebrations. There are three levels of celebration and they will each bring an increase in morale to the Empire and likely also some economic opportunities.
Grand Celebrations – 80 thrones
Breath-taking Celebrations – 250 thrones
Wondrous Celebrations – 500 thrones (This was the level achieved by the previous player Empress)
In drier news there are also several appointments that need to be ratified. The first of course is the Imperial Throne itself, which we must assume will be one of the first things the Empress does, but there is also a new Captain of the Throne Guard needed and a new Queen’s Rose needed. The Captain of the Throne Guard’s role is fairly obvious, but the Queen’s Rose is a position that encourages postive interactions between Dawn and the other nations. There is also the Keeper of the Imperial Menagerie, however that position has tenure and there is an incumbent.
There is also the opportunity for Empress Vesna to try and become the Monarch of Dawn, this would have to be done through a tourney with the Nobles of Dawn participating. Empress Lisabetta chose to do this when she came to power, but there are no updates on whether the new Empress wishes to follow in her predecessor’s footsteps.
Begins Where it Ends
Moving on from coronation news, this Wind is about the news from the Magica Realms. Updating us on what the Plenipotentiaries of the Archmages have achieved in the months since the last summit.
Plenipotentiaries are a special power held by the Archmages of each realm to communicate with one of the Eternals of their realm, if sent such a message the Eternal must reply, though not always as the Archmage would hope.
Summer – Cathan Canae
Cathan Canae wishes to have a formal parley with the Archmage of Summer, she will be sending one of her most trusted heralds to speak at the Hall of Worlds on Saturday afternoon, though the actual timing is still to be decided.
Apparently, Cathan Canae is fine with land being given to allies who have fought alongside you, it’s when people trade land to enemies to stop wars that she gets angry, so she has nothing more to say about the Great Forest Orcs being given their lands in the Barrens back.
Instead of that, the herald wishes to speak to several generals about their experiences in command of armies in Ossium, Semersuaq and Zenith. Specifically, Asenath of Felix’s Watch, Nicassia of Phoenix Reach, and Iron Osric, or their proxies, are invited to this meeting. They will have the opportunity to persuade the Herald that they should be the one to gain a boon from this herald, the power to call the Fist of the Black Glacier into the mortal realm. It is possible that no one will win this boon and the steps to win it may appear complicated. But it’s a pretty great boon!
In regards to the Cold Sun, she states that she has already helped by sending soldiers and fortresses. But she has been impressed by the Wintermark battles against them, and so has asked that a citizen from Hahnmark and Kallavasea each be sent also to this parley to gain a boon for their warband.
Day – Zakalwe
Zakalwe has declined the offer of a parley but does not wish to stop working together at this time. In fact, he has sent word to his “polemarch” in Skallahn to aid in a skirmish against the Jotun (more details in the Jotun Wind of War and the skirmishes attached to it). He also hopes that the Archmage can arrange a meeting between Agon and the Imperial Seer to discuss the event and the challenges of fighting the Jotun more generally.
Autumn – Ephisis
The City of Gold And lead is not interested in using their power to damage the Grendel’s economy. They do, however, offer an opportunity; if the Senate makes it illegal to raid or plunder the Grendel, then they will use their influence to make the Grendel do the same. It won’t stop any raids currently going on, but it will at least stop any from occurring in the future.
This would make it illegal for an army to take the Daring Raid or Plunder orders, it would make privateering in the Bay of Catazar, and it would mean there are no opportunities to steal Grendel resources, or destroy elements of their economic infrastructure such as mithril mines. If a resource was conquered the conqueror would be able to use it, but they would not be able to damage or destroy it.
If they wish to speak more of war, the Archmage is recommended to speak to Estavus instead about having weapons made. If they specifically mention in their missive that they have asked the City of Gold and Lead to serve as intermediaries, then the herald is confident that between them the two cities could provide access to significant amounts of enchanted weapons and armour for those directly fighting the Empire’s enemies, boons to aid their warriors on the battlefield, and potentially valuable adjuncts to their war machine. The herald refuses to answer whether or not the Grendel have received a similar offer.
There is also the matter of Ogila’s Tower.
The City of Gold and Leads hold the keys and plans to the tower and have offered them for sale for 5 thrones. This would make it into a mundane personal resource, it would represent a Business with two upgrades and two diversfications. Each season the owner would receive 9 Crowns and 4 ingots of random mine materials. It would follow all the rules for a personal resource, including the ability to be exchanged with someone else. If however someone wanted to get the most out of the site, they would need to get a commission to create a ministry from the Imperial Senate or some other means, and then give 24 mithril and 9 crowns to make an enchanted pair of doors, which would take 3 months to make.
Once complete it would create a new Imperial title; Merchant of the Street of Runes, a title that could be either an Imperial or Wintermark position. It cannot be appointed through the conclave. The Merchant would then have the responsibility to liase with the Braided Rope Coster and various other merchants from the City of Gold and Lead who would be willing to trade magical items. The Merchant would also be given a piece of magical parchment with which they can list any items they desperately want for the next summit.
The Empire has until the end of the Winter Solstice event to get this sorted out.
Winter – Surut
Surut has agreed to a parley with the Winter Archmage at 11:30 on Friday evening.
The Archmage should bring 3 people to the Hall of Worlds where they will be brought to Surut’s encampment in the Winter Realm.
The Eternal will not be removing his patronage from either the Druj or the Grendel, even if the Empire threatens to put him under Enmity.
Night – Sadogua
For the first time in memory, Sadogua has refused a Parley. This is apparently because a coven in Varushka have “stolen” a region of his territory in the Night Realm, somewhere called the Whistling Strand. This has not just angered him, but also hurt his feelings since he has always been very helpful to the Empire. Since he is probably the Eternal that has been the most consistent with his help to the Empire, he has a point!
Sadogua has come up with 3 ways that the Empire could begin to make up for the rudeness of this action, the first is to give him the Island of the Lyceum (currently under the control of the Grendel but there should be a chance to send ritualists there at the next summit), the second is to make him the permanent patron of the Icy Crag of the Eternal Sun, this would involve removing Jaheris from the post currently. And finally, he says the Empire could make him an Exemplar of Prosperity since he is obviously such a good example of the virtue. There are other things that could be done, but this is what he has come up with.
This is only to make up for the hurt feelings, though, once something along these lines has been achieved, he will then open up negotiations for a formal recompense for his loss of land. And it will be a lot more than it might have been if he were given the chance to sell it properly.
Until there is a clear sign of contrition, he will offer no more aid to the Empire or its magicians, all previous arrangements are on pause, and there will be no opportunities for boons to be given or extended. He will continue to answer his mail and will speak to his friends, but that is all.
Night – The Azoth
The Azoth is another night eternal, and while not the target of this season’s plenipotentiary, they have reached out and asked for a parley with the Night Archmage. This parley will take place at midnight on the Friday of the Winter Solstice, and a herald will be sent to meet the invited individuals at the Hall of Worlds.
In exchange for a declaration of Amity by the end of the season, they are willing to adapt the ritual, Conclave of Trees and Shadow, so that the spirits called to take up residence in the trees and fight like a military unit are better suited to the task of fighting the Cold Sun’s heralds.
For the next year, anyone casting the ritual must add a portion of forest material and call on the Azoth during the casting, this will give the new military unit a 5 rank bonus towards fighting the Cold Sun.
They have also asked for the parley in order to meet the Grandmaster of the Rod and Shield, the Imperial Warmage, and the Imperial Warcaster and offer them some boons. To make these boons the Imperials will have to bring resources to make them, and one of them will need forty-five measures of ambergelt, ten measures of dragonbone and five measures of weltsilver, as well as fifteen Mana crystals. So it will probably be a good idea to bring plenty of stuff with you.
Spring – Irrah Harrah
The Spring Eternal has accepted a parley and will meet the Spring Archmage at 11pm on the Saturday of the Winter Solstice.
They may bring two others with them, but they must not have a title or be Varushkan. If they are, then there will be no parley.
The only thing under discussion will be the Empire’s actions in the Barrens, whilst they asked for the Eternal’s help for their own people in Madruga.
Dreaming in Strands
This Wind of Fortune is an appraisal of the Spider’s Dream Tollbridge, based on a request from the Senate at last event.
It was badly damaged before the Summer Solstice event last year as Steven of Sarcombe attacked it. Since then it has been slowing the transport of armies, preventing trade, and more recently, preventing refugees from Mardruga from being able to flee.
It would require one commission slot to fix the bridge, but if anyone wanted to add new bells and whistles then this could be rolled into the same commission, which would be very efficient. This first task of just fixing the bridge is necessary to do any of the further more complicated things.
Fix the bridge (Required for everything else too) – 30 mithril, 10 white granite, and 120 crowns
Fortify the bridge – 20 white granite and 60 crowns
Create a Ministry in Trivento – 15 weirwood and 45 crowns
Build a new wharf – 30 white granite and 90 crowns
There is also a new option to make the armies which cross the bridge also pay a toll, as they have not before now. This would cost the Treasury 5 thrones each time an army crossed the bridge.
However all of this might all be hypothetical as there is an invasion going on next door to the bridge. While the land the bridge is on is still in Imperial control it would be very easy for the Grendel to attack and take some or all of the resources used for the building work. One option may be to have an army defending the region.
And that’s that for today.
I hope you found this interesting and if you did, please like the post, subscribe to the website and maybe put some money in the coffee fund?
Hope to see you all soon at E1!
K