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Feb. 8th, 2021 11:17 pmWhen a roleplaying game goes on long enough, with a GM who is good at building worlds and at encouraging the players to create their own pieces of the world, other stories spin off. This one spun off a game of 13th Age, two or three years ago. I could see it spinning off into the distance when it happened, but just now got around to chasing it down.
For context, I should note that Cal was the character I was playing.
The Kingdoms of the Dwarves and the Elves had been at war with each other, or at peace with each other -- continuing the war by other means, as the saying goes -- for most of the 13 recorded ages. They know each others' habits and foibles, and which loopholes of tradition they can push with each other to steal a treasure or demand its return. They are also two halves of the same established order, and should the Crusader come from the West to scourge the world to bare rock in pursuit of demons, or the Orc Lord come from who-knows-where to scourge it of its valuables in pursuit of greed, they are quick to fight side-by-side to preserve that order.
It is this heritage that birthed and nursed the Dwarven Diplomatic Apparatus. As the chosen of the Gods, the Dwarf King ostensibly rules the Kingdom as surely as his treeroot staff with the Orb Of the Worldforge holds the power of that rule, and as surely as the Circlet of Stars on the head of the Elven Queen holds her power. The Elven Queen serves at the pleasure of the nobles in the Court of Stars, though, and her power is woven and turned and directed by them as visibly as vines and breezes shaping a forest canopy. It might appear that the Dwarf King is free of these entanglements, but tree roots grow vast and powerful in their hidden places under the ground, and so it is with the Diplomatic Apparatus.
( ...and so we have a cut tag... )
For context, I should note that Cal was the character I was playing.
The Kingdoms of the Dwarves and the Elves had been at war with each other, or at peace with each other -- continuing the war by other means, as the saying goes -- for most of the 13 recorded ages. They know each others' habits and foibles, and which loopholes of tradition they can push with each other to steal a treasure or demand its return. They are also two halves of the same established order, and should the Crusader come from the West to scourge the world to bare rock in pursuit of demons, or the Orc Lord come from who-knows-where to scourge it of its valuables in pursuit of greed, they are quick to fight side-by-side to preserve that order.
It is this heritage that birthed and nursed the Dwarven Diplomatic Apparatus. As the chosen of the Gods, the Dwarf King ostensibly rules the Kingdom as surely as his treeroot staff with the Orb Of the Worldforge holds the power of that rule, and as surely as the Circlet of Stars on the head of the Elven Queen holds her power. The Elven Queen serves at the pleasure of the nobles in the Court of Stars, though, and her power is woven and turned and directed by them as visibly as vines and breezes shaping a forest canopy. It might appear that the Dwarf King is free of these entanglements, but tree roots grow vast and powerful in their hidden places under the ground, and so it is with the Diplomatic Apparatus.
( ...and so we have a cut tag... )