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  1. #1

    Winning - Birthright!

    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?

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    Member ebatalis's Avatar
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    Emperor-Line of Haelyn-Offspring of Roele?

    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

    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.
    " The Empire will fall...."

  3. #3
    Site Moderator AndrewTall's Avatar
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    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.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by AndrewTall View Post
    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.

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    Site Moderator AndrewTall's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Deathknyte View Post
    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.

    Quote Originally Posted by Deathknyte View Post
    ...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.

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    Winning - Birthright! [9#28170]

    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

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    Member Getters's Avatar
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    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.
    ]Blood is power; there is no way of changing that truth, in any way, shape or form.

Life is and always will be about survival of the fittest - what does not kill you, makes you stronger.

    GM tags
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  8. #8
    Site Moderator Fearless_Leader's Avatar
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    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.

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    Site Moderator Sorontar's Avatar
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    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

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    Senior Member Delazar's Avatar
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    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).

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