Side Quest, Episode 2: Lordlings and Leopards

[Brave Sir Robin]

One of the most fun parts of the side-quest was getting to involve some of the world lore, including a lot of the history of the classical world, that we finally fleshed out and dug into during these episodes (not to mention some detail on other bits and pieces too).

I loved the comedy built from the character interactions, I was giggling so much at Bertie and Edward, with Tjelvar desperately trying to keep things on track.

Questions? Comments?

[Doktor Payne]

I saw you playing with the historical stuff there! I loved it. There was perhaps a little squee at the mention of Richard Plantagenet, especially his time in the south of France. The in-game history is fun to explore too. My pathfinder game shares a lot of historical cues with the Rustyverse including the Greek emphasis (and the whole Romani ite Domum bit), so while I hadn't specifically set my game in this universe there is significant crossover.

Poor Ben. You may be able to move six whole squares per turn in combat - but now a turn takes a whole week! That's less than a square per day and much slower than Zolf.

I am loving the change of pace and the different narrative feel of the sidequest anyway. Can't wait for the next episode!

[Brave Sir Robin]

I tried to squeeze in a joke about him gaining battles in vain, but sadly it was not to be.

[Doktor Payne]

May 11, 2016 7:49:31 GMT Brave Sir Robin said:

I tried to squeeze in a joke about him gaining battles in vain, but sadly it was not to be.

He's certainly a candidate for being the subject of the rhyme! His son was an Edward too (Edward IV).

[Brave Sir Robin]

It was interesting doing some research about all this stuff for these episodes. History is far, far from my forte. Reading about the Duchy of York and how it had been assigned and unassigned over and over. And then just being like; ok in Rusty Quill world it's just been the Plantagenets all along. So Edward is a direct descendant of Richard.

[Doktor Payne]

Indeed, I've made it a policy not to question the historicity too much because otherwise I'd never be able to enjoy it properly! You guys are telling a story not relating history, and have a different kind of nerdery which is of a higher quality than my historical geekism.

Besides - there's magic in the world. That changes absolutely everything.

[Brave Sir Robin]

Yeah, there's plenty of hand-waved stuff, but we're trying to build a consistent past at least. So if you do want to chat about the ideas we have for how things have played out we'll be happy to talk through it.

[Doktor Payne]

I am probably well placed to justify inconsistencies at the very least!

The ancestry of Alex's character Edward is a good case in point for this.

Richard Plantagenet was succeeded by his son Edward, who merged all of his many titles* (including the Dukedom of York) into the crown when he usurped Henry VI during the wars of the roses and became Edward IV.

The title was passed to Edwards second son also called Richard, but more commonly known as one of the "Princes in the Tower". In historical terms, young Duke Richard was probably killed by his uncle Richard III - providing an excuse for Henry Tudor to overthrow him and neatly end the Wars of the Roses.

But what if one or both of the young Princes in the Tower secretly survived? It allows for a direct connection to Richard Plantagenet without muddling the historical waters.

The title largely lapses, and has multiple re-creations throughout the next couple centuries - almost always given to Royal sons.

My preferred time scale for RustyQuill (as nebulous as Alex prefers to keep it) is the early 19th century because of reasons. With that in mind there hasn't been a duke of York for about 100 years - but to fudge history a little it is not impossible that a Hanoverian monarch with a soft spot for the Plantagenet line found and restored young Duke Richards descendants (perhaps Alex's Edward's grandfather). It would be far less of a political gamble than you'd think, as the Plantagenets at this point wouldn't have any power or influence beyond the shiniest of names.

One of the unwritten rules of being a Hanoverian King is "You Do NOT Get On With Your Son" (seriously, the dynasty was at each other's throats the whole time). It would be a perfect slap in the face to some snotty nosed Prince for one of "his" titles to be given away to some virtual peasant.

Of course all of this would need adjusted to fit whatever character features Alex wanted to include, but it has the direct descent from Richard Plantagenet, the 3rd Duke, plus allows him to be a son of the current Duke. It also means he has more noble blood in his little finger than Bertie has in his entire body.



*Richard was a ridiculously powerful man, the focus of several great factions who were against Henry VI, who was losing ground disastrously in France. He gained lands, titles and wealth all over the place and became the definition of "Over-mighty subject".

[Brave Sir Robin]

So I think we're farther from real history than you implicitly assume in the summary above. Which I was certainly doing for a while too. I love thinking about this stuff, and GMing in this world was a lot of fun, because I got to think about a lot of this stuff, and fold it into the game a little.

In this world, The British Empire never took off in the same way - the Meritocrats ruled the world, not the European powers. And naturally human power coalesces around the cities that Meritocrats call home. Which does not include London. The Meritocrats keep a pretty tight lid on wars waged with magic, meaning war is much less deadly, because healing is still allowed, and a lot of the wars in france would simply never have happened, with a Meritocrat in Paris. Healing magic means more children survive to adulthood too. I don't think the princes in the tower need to have survived secretly, Henry Tudor can overthrow Richard III for experimenting with dark magic or similar. And can be a conciliatory force, elevating the plantagenets back to his right hand, through the restoration of the duchy of york, which remains unbroken from that point.

I also think the meritocrats just let the british monarchy die out - the hanoverians never took over.

[Doktor Payne]

I like it. It's consistent and offers plenty of other interesting tangents history could take. It's going to get really interesting when we start seeing some Meritocrat plot. Hamid's draconic 'situation' ought to be in play by the time we get some real juicy dragon based adventure.

In the meantime I can probably rest easy of the fears I was starting to have that my pathfinder game was set in pretty much the same universe.

I also really like that this sidequest is giving you myriad opportunities to play around in the RQ world (both in-game and on the production). You were right when you've been saying "just wait and see what happens, it's really exciting" recently.