Winning - Birthright!

[Muaadeeb]

Has anyone ever actually been crowned emperor of the Anuirean Empire in a birthright game (Table Top or PBEM)?

If yes, - how did it happen?

If not, do you think it is even possible?

[ebatalis]

Well we have approached the subject two times. On a later date of our date of our campaign around 1540 HC a boy that was from an Aerwenian lineage claimed the lineage of Roele, the claim was not well supported and several houses went out of their way to outlaw the young upstart and in that course of small scale civil war errupted. It was the hand of Gavin Tael and the power of the Sword Mage that took the boys life while the then aging Prince Darien Avan was not really supporting him and his adversary the Archduke of Boeruine was marshalling allies on the other side. In between three different fronts it was hard for the young upstart to solidify any claim and before it got large scale his ambition despite the help he may had did not came to pass. You may now have several other questions about the course of action the church, the guilds, the gods may have taken but I will tire you, I assure you though it was a good effort :p

Now, in the year 1578 HC we are nowdays there is a man that his lineage was questioned from the very beggining that may prove that is the very offspring of Haelyn and a young countess of Taeghian origing. This man is a player character and it is in his knowledge part of his lineage and his destiny, there are a few men who aid him but in the current state of events things have turned strange and the power players have changed as I have mentioned in another article of discussion in the forums, the chamberlain has lost its powers, the knights of the Iron Throne along with the Imperial Legion have been disbanded etc. Well the fact is that three groups fight over the campaign at the moment and we have a full of suspense resolution as it may come to it. The Player Character has in its hands the choice to come front and claim his lineage at some point or in an unfavored turn of events die and once again after one thousand years the Anuireans will pass from one era to another.

[AndrewTall]

I presume that you mean "crowned and recognised as emperor by all Anuire" - which could be a very different thing to simply being crowned!

I would say it is quite possible, if for example Avan and Boeruine sealed a peace treaty with a marriage of heirs then their child would be in with a good shot - probably after marrying a scion of the other dukedoms.

Alternatively could a puppet emperor be raised, much like Japan with an Emperor but where the power was held by the Shogun - and fought over by the great houses?

It depends a lot by the national narrative in force. If all the major houses see the empire as a real thing, or at least as a useful fiction to inspire the peasants or oppose the clergy, then it becomes much more possible for it to exist. If the dukes see the empire as a relic of a bygone age never to return then it gets much harder for the empire to be reborn.

I do think that it would probably require the Gorgon's absence - he'd work to undermine any emperor through dozens of schemes in addition to the risk of outright war, even supporters of any would-be emperor would become his prime targets.

In practice of course the game was originally designed with "yes" as the answer - the idea being that a PC could become emperor through heroism, diplomacy, and military skill - likely after defeating the Gorgon or through similar "proof of greatness", as El-Arrasi found to his cost though, being celebrated as father-of-the-nation or emperor can be a fleeting thing.

[Deathknyte]

I presume that you mean "crowned and recognised as emperor by all Anuire" - which could be a very different thing to simply being crowned!

I would say it is quite possible, if for example Avan and Boeruine sealed a peace treaty with a marriage of heirs then their child would be in with a good shot - probably after marrying a scion of the other dukedoms.


At the end of the book War this very scenario was set up. The unborn daughter of the Duchess of Boeruine was to wed the newly crowned Duke of Avan. This takes place a few years after the death of MR and the start of the breakup of the empire.

No idea if they wed or not though, I am not aware of any other books being written after that one.

For the main post, yes, I do believe it can be done. It would take a coalition of domains working together to accomplish it in my opinion though. No one man can possibly reunite the empire by himself at this date. There are too many regents who hate each other too much to allow themselves to be talked into joining with one power or another. That is why there are three main factions trying for the Iron Throne now and Diemed trying to form a fourth faction.

[AndrewTall]

At the end of the book War this very scenario was set up. The unborn daughter of the Duchess of Boeruine was to wed the newly crowned Duke of Avan. This takes place a few years after the death of MR and the start of the breakup of the empire.

I was thinking of that when I wrote, given bloodlines inbreeding amongst the upper nobility would be rife and most "named" people in the boxed set are probably related to some degree or other so union via matrimony and betrothal should be quite possible.


...There are too many regents who hate each other too much to allow themselves to be talked into joining with one power or another ...

never under-estimate the power of ambition, fear or greed - if serving an emperor gave them a path to more power, for example by eliminating rivals or protecting them against a threat - the nobles could very quickly turn towards the idea of a reunited Anuire.

[Birthright-L]

I`ve never had players get so far as to "win" the setting. I
generally focus on a much more adventure level of play in which the
domain rules to influence events. That doesn`t really lend itself to
playing out an "end game" that really is IMO beyond the scope of the
existing domain rules. That is, where the adventure level might deal
with "groups" of single digits and then 10`s of creatures or so,
domain rules deal with hundreds and thousands, "winning" BR would
require a system that deals with thousands, tens of thousands, maybe
even hundreds of thousands in order to be a workable system to
address the "empire" level of play. It could be done, just as one
could play out the adventure level of play instead of a domain level,
but it seems a but it seems like a very tough thing to portray given
the existing rules.

However, I have kind of a follow-up to the question about the
idea. If a player becomes emperor in a meaningful way (other than
just claiming the title, that is) would the campaign setting be
"over" or would it continue from there? Would there be an "empire"
level of play?

Gary

[Getters]

Both my self and Arakhor have talks endless over such a subject how do you do it any way you can.

one way that seem to work ish( and i mean ish in the fact the player thought it easy to agree then fight the scores of battle mages backing the emperor)

the Chamberlain present a young boy raise in the imperial city who had the blood of Roele. Now in this the Chamberlain was the head of a very powerfully Imperial faction of Mage's most of witch scad the willy out of most of the lords and dukes and could quite easily destroy large parts of Anuire if they combined there might.

now the collage did not all was work together and all most never agree but the willing of the dukes to play along as long as the boy allow them there little power play meant the empire felt more of a empire than a group of nations with simpler goals of reunifying Anuire.

it work for a bit till most of the lords dislike the restraint they had been given and work round the Imperial faction in fact the bring out of the emperor likely did more to solidify the empire together as each grouping of allies try to maintain power and keep the mages off balance. the Imperial temple rebuilt with the sole goal of rival the Imperial collage for the right to protect the emperor.

all in all it last 8 turns in truth i did not expect the boy and the dukes to agree to any thing but thay did work it out.

[Fearless_Leader]

The only time I've ever seen it happen in a PBEM is as a result of a DM-inspired plot; i.e., an NPC takes the Iron Throne at the culmination of a story, plot, or scenario. Typically, this NPC is Michael Mhoried or someone related to Liliene Swordwraith. Usually when that happens, the DM then declares the game over.

I've never actually seen a player in a PBEM take the Iron Throne without the DM effectively putting him there. Attaining it on one's own initiative and cunning is much more difficult, and I've never seen that happen. Anyone that begins to approach that goal will trigger a balancing alliance against him from the other PCs in the game, and overcoming such an alliance entails war, unless the balancing faction backs down of its own accord (highly unlikely).

In a PBEM I once ran (10 years ago now...), Avanil and Boeruine formed an alliance by marriage, and thus came very close to that goal. Both realms pledged that whichever marriage produced a male heir first would be their designated candidate for succession. Naturally, the race was on to produce that heir, and Avanil was actively trying to poison Boeruine's wife in order to delay her pregnancy.

As for face-to-face games.... I've been DMing such games for my gaming group for a long, long time now, so lots of scenarios have played out over the years. Here's a few:

1 - The child scenario, mentioned in an above post. We can call this the "Anakin Skywalker" scenario. The first time it played out was back in 1999/2000, when I ran a long-term BR campaign for the first time. The campaign was at the adventure level, centered around Tuornen. Basically, there was a child of the Roele dynasty living in the modern era (as the result of some plots and interventions by the gods in the days immediately prior to Deismaar, as insurance against the day when Azrai would return... the details aren't really important). The major plotline followed by the PCs culminated in this child's discovery. This was intended as the first part of multi-campaign arc concerning the return of the Shadow and so forth. Unfortunately, the group broke up when everyone went off to college or the military, so it never progressed beyond that point.

2 - The hidden bloodline. Another game I ran, around 2001-2002, followed a group at the regent level. One PC was the Baron of Roesone, the others were his advisers. Over the course of the game, it was discovered that the Baron carried the Roele bloodline. Although it was an extremely fun game, nothing came of this Imperial plotline as the school year ended, summer began, and we eventually started a different campaign.

3 - Anakin Skywalker, redux. The last time I ran a regent game, back in 2005-2006, the campaign followed the PCs in Tuarhievel. It emerged Tara, the Black Princess, was sheltering a child of the Roele line (again, due to the influence of gods from Plot 1). The game's central drama played out as (1) Prince Avan died during a war with Boeruine; (2) Boeruine seized the Iron Throne after allying with Ghoere; (3) the PCs organized a countering alliance centered around Tuarhievel and Mhoried, who were dissatisfied with the idea of a Boeruine on the throne. Lots of big battles and war followed, aided by Ghoere switching sides again, concluding with the child seated on the Throne. The new emperor was basically a puppet, as Ghoere now commanded enormous influence, and Avanil and Boeruine were greatly weakened. At the end of the game, it was revealed that the Gorgon had been aware of the child for some time, and basically encouraged his discovery such that he could be invested and then bloodthefted. The campaign's final session centered on stopping this plot.

[Sorontar]

From memory, in the tabletop campaign I played, Avanil and Boeruine had been joined after war through marriage. They were then defeated by the Gorgon soon after. Teodor Profiev battled the Gorgon on the battlefield. In fact the Dark Rider had been powering Teodor for a long time in order for the spirit of Azrai to eventually take on a physical form. The Gorgon was defeated but from left-field came a young Khinasi claimaint to the throne who stabbed Teodor with a magical item, killing him. She then could claim the throne... the campaign stopped at that stage.

So the enemy to the PCs was the Gorgon and his forces, though we knew something strange was happening with the Dark Rider and never fully trusted Teodor. The Khinasi princess had been part of a back story for our Khinasi PC. She turned up occassionally, but most of the party knew little of who she was. My character, Brokk Beokson, was a Rjurik druid so he never supported the rise of another Anuirean Empire. He just wanted a degree of stability with no one dominating force.

Sorontar

[Delazar]

In the campaign we played a decade ago, Anuire was unified under the rule of Agelmore Avan (renamed Agelmore Avan Roele I).

He was the grandson of Darien Avan (who died when Agelmore's mother poisoned him). He was the NPC the heroes were supposed to antagonize to get the empire for themselves, but during the campaign they decided he had the better claim and they began to admire him so much they went to look for the Sword of Roele, found it, and gave it to him!

In the campaign we just finished, one of the previous PC is "The Hand" of the Emperor (an exalted chamberlain, but all the GRRM fans know what I mean), and has manipulated the present PCs into unifying the Rjurik Highlands (though in 10 years they only managed to carve a kingdom out of the Giantdowns).

[Birthright-L]

I`ve had a theme for a BR campaign in the back of my mind for many
years now. The idea is that Cerilia is invaded by a massive army
from across the sea, led by an awnshegh (an expatriated Cerilian or
the descendent of one) whose totemic form is a Tyrannosaur. He is at
the head of a horde of sentient monsters (mostly reptile/dinosaur
based) from the other side of Aebrynis bent on pillage and
plunder. It`s not a war of conquest, but one of extermination. At
the beginning of the campaign, one of the five regions of Anuire
(probably not one of the colder ones...) has been attacked and before
the rest of Anuire can really respond is nearly wiped out. The
Brecht, Anuireans or Khinasi become the "New Masetians" of the
setting, or near enough that the campaign world is changed forever.

I mention this "Invasion!" campaign idea in this thread because one
of the themes of the campaign is that no one nation is able to deal
with the size and power of this invading army. Not even one _region_
of Cerilia can do it. In order to have a fighting chance they will
have to unite as a single force. Maybe not a single army (Deismaar
style) but at least under some sort of coordination. That could be a
ruler, a military council, or whatever the players might come up
with, but it would have to span the continent for humanity (and
demi-humanity) to survive.

I`ve put a little thought (and a few notes) into this, and so far I
imagine this whole thing as a BR supplement, or even a series of
them: "Invasion!" in which PCs must try to unite a single Cerilian
people against the attack (and fail) followed by "Conquest!" which
focuses on the attempt (and possible failure) to unite all of
Cerilia, and maybe even "Land of Ashes!" which is about the
devastation and eventual rebirth of Cerilian civilization, possibly
due to the invading army moving on or as part of one of those
classic, "a small band of rebels penetrate the unstoppable empire on
a desperate mission to strike at the one weakness of the enemy" sorts
of things.

It`s not quite "winning Birthright" in the sense that I think the
original poster meant, but it would represent an "end game" of the
campaign in at least one sense.

Of course, it would be a MASSIVE amount of work to put together, and
I`m still futzing around with "Legendary Beings 3" so I don`t see
this project happening in the near future....

Gary

[Delazar]

I came to a similar idea when I was thinking "why would a Vos accept a Khinasi Emperor? what could unite them all in one Empire?". And indeed some external threat seemed the right way to go.

Though my two main ideas for an opponent for Cerilia were:

1) An army from the Shadow World, or maybe even the Cold Rider coming to Cerilia, and uniting all the awnshegh.

2) An Empire from the Far East, based on China/Japan, with blood-abilities based on the 5 oriental elements (Exalted ftw!)

[Muaadeeb]

I like your guys's ideas on alternate threat to add the unique elements to birthright. Perhaps instead of a tyrannosaurus a Vecilaraptor (sp!).

I like the idea of the barbarian horde from and Anduria - but that would require huge amount of work creating or managing an alternate continent.

It is definitely one way to get the current BR realms united. No one likes the Gorgon but he has yet to start a, "kill them all" approach. With an invading force you just never know.

[Sorontar]

From memory, the Gorgon didn't need a "kill em all method" for our adventure campaign. The Gorgon worked in secret with the woman who eventually became queen of Avanil and Boeruine. She killed the king and then the Gorgon used new shadow gate technology/magic to invade Avanil and killed her. That was when the endplay with Teodor came in. So it was more like a blitzkrieg against an unsuspecting combined Avanil/Boeruine army. Once he came, he was in control and there was none to challenge him.

Most of the campaign was trying to understand what was happening between Avanil and Boeruine and what the Gorgon was researching.

Sorontar

[ebatalis]

Reading all people replies here I can find some very interesting ideas and some I find out of world ones to be honest. To be exact I do love the fact of a conspiring Raesene and I dislike the fact of T-Rex or any sort. I would like to not that Raesene was left to conspire and take over the Empire he was shunned thus making that even a new campaign making the "winning" part obsolete since a new all campaign of a dark and unforgiving Cerilia shine with Raesene as its new emperor. Then we have to keep in mind, Magian, the White Witch, the Raven and the Serpent, if the world is live and moving is Anuire is sucking deep what would the rest of the world do? Stand still? Then what about the Shadow World and the Cold Rider, what if he was partly trying to achieve Godhood over Arborea and into Aebrynis? What if he/she/it harvested the bloodlines of Azrai in order to combine them into a new status? What the blood of darkness do onto that? How does the actual deities help?

A very important fact in the way "we" handle BR is that we never reset. What is done is done, thus leading us in a vast change of NPCs, domains, alliances etc, thus making the winning part also obsolete. Its a world spining into life for us and never ending.


PS: No flame into different inspiration of people here by the way since every idea on the table served and played is leaving its own taste in its players so I cant judge what I have not tasted. The story scale part is my personal opinion and favor

[Magian]

After reading through the last post, I think it would be interesting to explore a campaign where the Awnies were dominant. A sort of classical Star Wars setting where the dark side holds a vast empire and the "points of light" are scattered and confused elements that haven't yet formed any viable resistance. A likely goal for those players to form some form of resistance and later into a "rebel alliance."

What I like about this kind of campaign is that you can start it before the dark side becomes dominant by using the point where the printed material begins. First the fall into darkness from the corruption of the powerful and greedy rulers that serve only to divide from one another due to well earned mistrust of one another. Second the divide and conquer wars by the dark powers. Third the realization of what has just happened and the attempt to survive it to live and fight another day while the empires attempt fortifying their empires. Fourth reread the first paragraph. Any players who could hack it through the lose phase of the game and stick it out would probably be rewarded with a very dynamic and challenging campaign that will be the measuring stick they use for all other games.

OK maybe it wouldn't be that awesome, but when players are so immune to loss in games they lose their appreciation for the powers of the villains to the point that even with the Gorgon looming and about to bear down upon them, their eyes are looking to the Khinasi lands to colonize. I think a campaign that illustrates that teamwork IS essential takes us back to the elements of what the game that seems to have been lost on some players and it would enrich the experience for everyone. Not to mention the fact that after the fall, they must earn everything they get from that point on.

This to me seems like an ideal campaign arch that would allow for even the smallest domain to feel like they won the game.

[ebatalis]

Amen!!!Magian +1000!!!!:D

[lmnoq]

My current game started at the regent level with one PC as the Black Baron of Roesone and the other PCs as his vassals. The regent PC would go to war with Diemed and unite Roesone, Medoere, and Diemed into an area we referred to as the Kingdom of the Southlands. The Black Baron PC would turn evil over the course of the game and fake his death by creating a clone and placing the clone on the throne of the Southlands.

The clone would be displaced and another PC would take his place as the next King of the Southlands. But this PC was evil too. In the PSo Medoere it mentions a magic sword that could rally forces against the Duke of Diemed. So the PC’s stole that sword and replaced it with a fake. So when the First “evil” King of the Southlands was replaced by the “people’s champion” PC it was a pretty seamless transition of power.

The Southlands was now a threat to Avanil and Ghoere. In my game the Sword Mage was the virtual ruler of Ghoere and Baron Tael was a mere puppet. The PC would defeat and utterly destroy the Sword Mage in a battle in the swamp of Spiritsend. Without a clear regent of Ghoere; everyone invaded. The Southlands, Eliene, Osoerede, and Avanil claimed sections of Ghoere for themselves.

The Second PC to be King of the Southlands would pass that title on to yet a third PC would the Second King was murdered by a dragon. Now it was during the reign of the Third King of the Southlands that yet another PC would start a religious civil war. The cleric PC had started his own religion; calling it the Church of All. For the PC this was a mockery of Christianity. So the Church of All went about trying to remove all other religious organizations from the territory that formed the Southlands. The Imperial Chamberlain was consulted and the Church of All was deemed unlawful in the eyes of the Empire.

Now the Third King of the Southlands had been crowned the Duke of Diemed by the Imperial Chamberlain but the title of King was not upheld by the Empire. So the Third King had a choice to make of going against the Empire or trying to form his own. The PC’s choose to form their own dynasty. But the Cleric PC knew he had a problem: the Iron Throne. As DM I told him only an artifact level item could destroy the Iron Throne.

In a side adventure for the PC’s, the witch Baba Yaga had been introduced and had become a reoccurring character. One of the PC’s wanted a change from D&D so when he died one time and said, “oh well I am dead guess it’s time to stop playing D&D.” I told that character he would get a chance to prove himself in another setting if he would do favors for Baga Yaga. So that is how Baga Yaga resurrected one of the fallen PC’s and turned him into her sex slave for a while. So any ways, once that joke stopped being funny; I gave that PC a chance to have some fun. So I sent that PC to a modern future and he set up in the jungles of Vietnam and built up like a warlord in Apocalypse Now. This PC’s most loyal henchmen would learn his master was still alive and come and save the PC from the future and bring him back to the D&D world.
So anyway; the PC that went to Vietnam ended up intercepting a Chinese nuclear device being delivered to the North Vietnamese. So anyway; in the list of loot from the future the PC had a nuclear bomb.

So the Cleric PC learns of this when that other PC returns to the D&D world. Negotiations begin and the treasury of the church is opened up. The Cleric PC secures the nuclear device and the other PC gets enough gold to form a mercenary army and begin to capture islands in the Straits of Aerele.

The Cleric PC bombs the Iron Throne and eradicates the population of the Imperial City. So currently in my game the combined Imperial Temples of Haelyn have declared a Holy War on the Church of All. The Cleric PC did achieve part of his goal by destroying the Imperial Chamberlain. Now it is really up to the PC’s to form their own destinies; fore without the Iron Throne there can never be that Empire again and a new empires can emerge. The PC’s are free to found their own Birthrights and not seek to fight over what one thinks should be their Birthright

TL;DR – I went the other way and the PC’s destroyed the Iron Throne so no more Empire

[Muaadeeb]

Wow. I so totally did not see that comming. First time I ever heard of a nuke the IC strategy.

[Kell]

The closest I ever came to "winning" was playing an Elf Monarch of Lluabraight. His name was Caelcormac and he was a Fighter/Wizard.

I constantly used my first Realm Spell to Ward all my borders and conducted diplomacy and adventure for many of my turns. Eventually Caelcormac was not only married to Isaelie, but had secured the friendship and alliance of Tuarhieval and Dhoesone as well.

Using Warding Caelcormac broke the enemy and was able to re-take both Rhuiddar and Caer Cwnnar very quickly early in the game.

The first major military campaign was with elves from both The Sielwode and Tuarhievel in a major strike against the Goblins of Urga-Zai which was very successful because it was coordinated with not only the realm of Danigau but also the dwarves of Khurin-Azur.

The DM decided to foil my plans and launched an invasion by the Gorgon of the Giant Downs to split me from Tuarhievel...but this worked in my favor because as quickly as the goblins fell, I brazenly invaded the Gorgon's Crown in Anathar in alliance with the Khurin-Azar dwarves. The Gorgon swung back on me with his massive army; just as Dhoesone and Tuarhievel counter-invaded the Giant Downs.

I was chased out of the Gorgon's Crown, but the Giant Downs were quickly relieved as the Gorgon crossed into Caer Dwyth. I lost several units in the battle, but my subsequent Warding spell locked the Gorgon's army in Caer Dwyth and then I started hammering them with spells that destroyed them. It cost me nearly all my regency, but it was worth it: Dhoesone and Tuarhievel claimed most of the Giant Downs, I had taken nearly all of Urga-Zai (the forests anyway), Khurin-Azur had taken land as had Danigau and the Gorgon had netted nothing as far as growth.

My next campaign mopped up what was left of the Giant Downs in the north for Lluabraight.

Later campaigns resulted in a continuous "Elven Empire" spreading from Lluabraight to the Sielwode. The "Empire" contained Lluabraight, Dhoesone, Tuarhievel, the Sielwode and the conquered lands of Urga-Zai, parts of Markazor and parts of Thurazor. Allies were Mhoried, Khurin-Azur and Baruk-Azhik with Danigau as a trusted human realm (though not a full ally). Caelcormac also forced vassalage on the realms of Hjolvar and Kvigmar in return for protection from advances by Danigau (which was the reason Danigau backed out of an alliance).

That was as far as we really got, though I was planning a war against the White Witch we didn't get that far. I had also promised Mhoried aid in claiming the Throne of Anuire; but we didn't even get near that because the plan was to defeat the Gorgon before even trying to turn into Anuire.

That game alone took years of real time...I'm not sure how anyone would actually become the Emperor of Anuire without it taking forever! lol

My favorite game ever played: I was the Regent of Talanie though. A paladin of Haelyn, he managed the conquest of most of the Five Peaks and all of Thurazor on a Holy Crusade which either converted the goblins (very rarely) or converted their souls by the sword when they were ritually executed to "cleanse" them. Most fled underground or into Markazor after fleeing through Cariele and northern Mhoried...but that only served to strengthen the Gorgon.

The biggest sticking point of this game was constantly dealing with Boeruine. He never outright invaded, but constantly I had to spend lots of my regency to keep him from taking more and more control of the law holdings of southern Talinie. I also expanded far too quickly and was stuck with a bunch of provinces that basically had no population (a bunch of level 0 provinces). At the end of that game I was allied with Dhoesone and Mhoried with a more than angry Boeruine to my south. I was also having a hard time with constant raids from beneath the Five Peaks by Orogs and Goblins which I couldn't "fix" because my human troops couldn't go underground to fight. Even though Talinie had a history of hiring Dwarf Mercenaries, I couldn't afford enough to start a campaign under ground. I was lucky I controlled all the temple holdings as well as collecting taxes because it took all that money to make anything possible.

[nickgreyden]

Friends and I ran a campaign where our stated goal at the outset was conquest. Through a lot of evil acts, an NPC fathered three sons with high blood scores. An NPC party member with a decently high bloodscore (and legit ruler of the realm now owned by NPC daddy) was also in the party as well as a high-ish level guy that was brought in to help run the province in the Giantdowns but was a spy from the outside (also was a party member).

Short version is the dad was really good at machinations but fairly terrible at running a realm (which is why he needed a lot of help). Eldest son and heir was a warrior who, while not the brightest candle in the keep, was very powerful and well liked. He spent time securing alliances with the province. The spare was a hopeless drunkard and womanizer to the outside world, but was actually a super spy who protected his brother and birthright. With the heir and the spare secured, the youngest was sent to the newly created church of Haylan to become a priest and had little regard for politics but was well liked by the common people for whom he had affection as he knew all too well how it feels to be forgotten by those in charge. The spy was a woodsman, initially doing his job, but became fast friends with the heir.. as was the heirs abilities at diplomacy. The adapted son was a baby when dad violently took over the provience and tried to kill him. Mom saved him and is now an "adoptive son"

When daddy's evil deeds were discovered, it was decided he couldn't be allowed to stay in power. When those deeds crossed certain lines, it was time to attack. Daddy was killed, an protectived dragon was discovered in the castle bowels linked to the adaptive son was became an ally. Previously a wary non-interferance pact was agreed to with the southern elves of Tuarhievel and a trade pact was signed with Dhoesone. The elves of Lluabright, however, were a bunch of douche canoes. The heir claimed his birthright, the spare let the party know what he was, the forgotten backed his brothers to be the voice of the people, the adopted delved deeper into his sorcerous heritage, and the spy shore up any gaps that needed filling.

They quickly took over the Giantdowns having already laid alliance groundwork with the watch and others within the domain. They beefed up their military while drawing in settlers. Defeated horsehead bad guy and reclaimed those lands. They were happy to sit on their laurels and mind their own business but events with the Baron and Rjurik pirates forced their hand and it wound up very badly for the attacking forces which kind of earned the heir and his group a reputation. The short short version is it didn't take long for them to gain control of the north through force and diplomacy with very few ruffled feathers (or at least none that spoke openly about it). Though they technically were part of the Anuriean Empire (but were given leeway in several forms such as no taxes thanks to their fathers previous deals and machinations), most saw them as Rjurik. A few gifts to and well meaning aid asked from the elves of Tuarhievel as well as keeping their word and leaving them be helped strengthen the peace between nations into an alliance.

So, with confidence, the elves invaded the Gorgon's land to take back Sideath. It didn't go well. When the party heard they were livid... not that they had attacked, but that they didn't ask for assistance. So invade the party did... eventually defeating the gorgon (though they lost grandpa dragon and lots of good men) and they took the land, giving Sideath back to the elves (something they were not expecting and pretty much solidified their alliance into a friendship).

The defeat of the Gorgon got the party thinking. They did some diplomacy with the the Baron and with the duke. Made friends with the leader of Markazor and inadvertently happened upon and killed Manslayer while he was vulnerable before they knew who he was (surprising both the PC's and DM). And so, two springs after, they marched their troops south right to the capital and into the main hall, threw the gorgon's head at the chamberlain's feet, and claimed the throne: by right of conquest doing what Anurie could not do before by taming all of the north, by right of justice doing what no one had been able to do by bring the Gorgon to justice for treason, and by right of power, holding in unison the the largest coalesce army in the kingdoms. The chamberlin weighed the options and just gave the throne to him. With the backing of the three people with the best claim, there wasn't much anyone could do about it.

Of course, then there was more campagining. My avatar is where we last left off...

[huehar]

In our recent campaign we found out that the Gorgon's goal is to take revenge on Haelyn - trough a possible new emperor. In our campaign Gorgon has divine ranks (so never be in his way) and he choose to not be a god, but stay here instead. So we do not want him to have as enemy (despite of we are around 20th level, we play this for years) so we dicided to hindrance to crown any emperor. We reached that there is a loose alliance between anurean states (including humanoid states) and Boeruine gave up to be an emperor. Our problem is Darien Avan now, who is hardheaded so he would destroy whole Anuire just to be emperor. I think we have to kill him at the end. Another problem that the Gorgon picked up on us, especially our Roesone baron (who is a vain, shortminded fighter, haha) and he "supports" us - unasked. Our DM is a genious who playes mind-games and politics on higher levels so we have difficult case. By him villains our not simply bad but complex (just hesitate when you want to kill them). :-) So, shortly, we do not have emperor, we do not want to have but everything is futural.