Gold and Treachery - A Trade Magnate Quest

[X] House Senwet
We won't be rich, but we'll never be poor! And the thought of buying out our enemies through our inexorable income stream amuses me.

[X] House Sarraqu
Good sec
 
@Azel hey, if you don't mind me asking, how often do you intend to release new chapters?. I ask in the sense of is there even a schedule?
edit: clarified.
For now I'm aiming for once a day / once every other day, but that will likely drop a bit once the turns get bigger and more complicated.

There is no fixed schedule though.
 
[X] House Sarraqu

A pirate's life for me.
Well, at least the advantages of it, no sense in risking your own people by actually commiting piracy yourself.
 
Vote closed
Scheduled vote count started by Azel on Jan 24, 2021 at 2:44 PM, finished with 36 posts and 26 votes.
 
Prologue - Character Generation
Scheduled vote count started by Azel on Jan 24, 2021 at 2:44 PM, finished with 36 posts and 26 votes.

Few of the common men who made up Alumahi could trace their lineage more then a generation or two. Most of the trade houses managed a century or two, maybe three or four for a house of particular importance or repute. House Lipern though? That was a name that had reverberated through the ages, all manners of titles adorning it and adding to its glory. Praetor might have been the oldest, bestowed upon your distanct ancestor by the king of Metua when it was still one of many such. Praeses was one that the Liperns bore often, administrating lands on the shores of the Blue Sea for what had become an empire, always serving faithfully and with distinction.

When you were young, you soaked up these stories like a sponge. The deeds of the great men who shaped the world into what it was were far more entertaining than the yarns spun by mere storytellers. They had a weight to them that fascinated you. What, you idly pondered after each lesson, was it like to live among these people that seemed so much larger then your own life? What was is like to sail with Irenaus Lipern against Augustus Tullus to avenge your slain father? What must Panike have been like in those early days, filled by heroes and scholars seeking to forge a new empire that was worthy of its name?

But the last was a question leading to painful answers. Answers that your Deucallian tutors preferred not to give you, instead leaving your father to fill in the gaps. The name of your family was a curse with few equals in Panike, ever since the Doux Auxeis 'proved' that Doux Lipern has been behind the plot to see Basileus Linus the Golden murdered. Today, the charge sounds almost comical. Barely a new Basileus rises in Panike today that is not rumoured to have done so over the dead body of his predecessor and that is if they not openly killed them on the field of battle.

Then though, it meant something. The Imperium Panike was young back then, still filled with the ideals and dreams it had been founded on. The alleged betrayal of the Liperns thus caused scorn of a magnitude that few ever had to bear. It was your families name that they cited as the first sign of the decay. Your ancestors role in building the great city and the realm had all but been forgotten, eclipsed wholly by the made up tales of how it was them who sowed the seeds of its long and slow fall. As a child, you had dreamed of one day visiting Panike to trace the steps of your kin. As you grew older, that dream faded, until only bitterness remained. For better or for worse, Alumahi was your home, not Panike.

Your path was solely your own and unlikely to ever intersect with the ones treaded by those long dead lords and heroes. You were only the son of a third son after all, not even standing to inherit anything more then a modest stipend to set you on a decent path in life. The Liperns took care of their own, doubly so after your parents passed from slow fewer and Andros, the old patriarch of the house, had all but adopted you.


Your childhood you had spent learning about…

[] [Childhood] The Arts of War
Your tutors were often exasperated by your insistence on covering topics such as Irenaus Liperns famous campaign through the White Sea or the decades that Cifos Lipern spent carefully bleeding out the steppe hordes to secure Panikes northern borders, but Andros was supportive of your interests and even arranged for a tutor in sword-fighting.

[] [Childhood] Oration
Your tutors had you study the art of oration, tricking you more then once into studying harder by assigning you to work on famous speeches of Emperors and Basileis of the past. It was in no small part your skilled and deliberate tongue that impressed Andros and had him often remark that he expected you to make it far in life.

[] [Childhood] The Classics
The house of Lipern always expected excellence from its children and you were no exception, being raised on the ideas and arguments of the greatest thinkers of the past millennia. Even as a small boy, you could already debate in all branches of philosophy, impressing many with the breadth of knowledge you already possessed.


As the years passed, so did many of your kin. Sickness, age and even plain accidents thinned the ranks of your aunts and uncles and their children. A few others left Alumahi to chase their own dreams. One of your cousins even renouncing your name entirely as he embraced the philosophy of Mathaqaf and went to the east, seeking to join a Madrasa. A minor scandal at the time, since the Ealim are still viewed with distrust in the city, even though it has been many years since they tried to take it with force.


When the time had come for you to learn a trade, you…

[] [Youth] Attended a Scribes School
Having learned your letters and numbers at a young age and with the wealth of the Liperns behind you, there was nothing barring your way from attending one of the best schools for scribes in Alumahi. Learning accounting and how to manage a household might not be prestigious, but it was one of the most sought after skills in the city and so you studied diligently.

[] [Youth] Worked for the Sibu
While nominally the Persum rules over Alumahi, everyone knows that the Council of the Sibu, the leaders of the great houses, is the true power in the city. Thanks to Andros pulling a few strings, you had the chance to see this for yourself in the years that you worked as a minor filing clerk in the Sibus offices. You have seen the difference between the grand speeches held for the people and the laws drafted in closed rooms and had more then a few brushes with the backroom dealings that Alumahi is famous for.

[] [Youth] Travelled the Seas
With no inheritance to keep you in the city and some of your kin having done the same, you managed to talk Andros into letting you see a bit of the world yourself, travelling both on the trade ships of house Lipern and others to the harbours of the White and Blue seas. When you came back, you can not rightfully claim that you learned any one particular skill, but you were much richer in life experience then any other man your age.

[] [Youth] Learned Natural Philosophy
Not many had access to the same tutors as you did and even fewer had kin that could trade favours with the Praeceptors of the Kassarium. Your were admitted much earlier to its halls then others and made sure that Andros did not regret having you enrolled, studying hard under the best engineers, shipwrights and natural philosophers that Alumahi had.


Not all was well though. Having grown up with few close friends and a dwindling number of kin, you picked up the habit of…

[] [Vice] Gambling
Having a stipend all your life left you with more coin than you strictly needed and one day, a pouch of silver on your belt, you decided to see a gambling den for yourself after hearing so much about these places. You instantly became enamoured with the clinking of dice and the deep strategies found in the card games that the Ealim were bringing from the east. Winning or loosing did not matter much to you, just the thrill of the game.

[] [Vice] Drinking
Many goods come and go through Alumahi, among them many kinds of alocohol. Demadi beer and Deucallian wine make for good provisions on long sea voyages and most sailors and rowers prefer it to water even when they are not at sea. Your family hardly kept such things away from you, but as you grow older, you began to notice that drinking a cup or two more then was strictly polite could help to unwind after a stressful day. Maybe it did not always stop at one or two cups more, but you were always up bright and early the next day anyway, so where was the harm?

[] [Vice] Whoring
With your parents a distant memory and your adoptive father Andros having to act distant for the sake of decorum, you have long been starved for affection. As you later found out though, you can buy even some companionship and closeness. It might not have been real, but for that moment, it was real enough for you to forget your worries.

[] [Vice] Vainglory
Having been brought up on stories of your families glory left an impression on you. The name Lipern was one of the greatest in Panike and while you know that this lays in the past, you still always had a hard time to accept that. Even as you had grown into a man, you still sometimes retreated to your rooms when the world became too much to bear, living a day or two in the great past of your house, and you are always quick to regale others with those tales that are so dear to your heart.

[] [Vice] Feasting
You always had a fondness for good food, be it the honeyed sweets of the north or the hearty and spicy meats from the east. Bead might nourish the body, but a lavish meal could also nourish the soul, so the Metuans had believed and you could not agree more. Sure, you have put on a few pounds from it and your taste has not always been easy on your purse, but there were so much worse things you could have done against your sorrows then eating a third helping of glazed beef.

Authors Note: Vices are not debilitating, but represent a way for your characters to cope with stress and personal hardship. There are some repercussions in specific situations, such as a gambler being more likely to accept an ill advised bet or a vainglorious characters having trouble to back down when his station is challenged, but picking drinking as your vice won't mean you spend half you days black-out drunk.


The years passed and finally, it was time for you to leave the household to strike out on your own and though you had somewhat dreaded that day for many years, when it actually came, it was a welcome change. Not long before, Andros had passed away in his sleep, leaving the name and fortune of house to his grandson and your cousin Minuwrios. With him, the last living kin you had in the city, you had never gotten along all that way.

Lazy and wasteful were the terms that the servants called him behind his back, and he was aware of those whispers. He was also aware of how much the old patriarch had doted on you and what that might have meant for the inheritance he had expected for his whole life. As the years went on, he became distrustful of you and outright hostile after Andros' death, even though the seal of the house passed on to him. So when your studies were completed, you left the mansion of your family, expecting never to return.

That was three years ago and now you had to return. Minuwrios was dead and there was plenty of gossip about how and why he passed. Some said he drank himself to death out of financial worries. Others claimed poison, but to be fair, they claimed poison when a Deucallian noble was found with a blade still sticking from his chest. A few even whispered that a cousin had slain him for the inheritance, blissfully unaware to whom they were retelling that particular theory. You could not rightfully claim that you mourned the man that your cousin had become, but you did still feel a twinge of sadness at having lost the boy you knew in your youth and maybe the last kin in the world at that.

You were now house Lipern. A history of fifteen centuries and it was you alone who could carry it on.
 
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[X] [Childhood] The Classics
[X] [Youth] Learned Natural Philosophy
[X] [Vice] Vainglory

Total neeeerd build :V
 
[X] [Childhood] Oratory
[X] [Youth] Learned Natural Philosophy
[X] [Vice] Gambling

We will not become Basileus alone. The interesting path here is that in time, we might come to apply natural philosophy to the rules of the cards and the dice. An understanding of the odds is going to serve us well, I suspect, in the future.
 
This is actually really even. Philosophy is at a slight lead but the Sibu are a close second. Oratory seems to be the leader and vices are mixed.
 
[X] [Childhood] The Classics
[X] [Youth] Learned Natural Philosophy
[X] [Vice] Vainglory
 
[X] [Childhood] The Classics
[X] [Youth] Learned Natural Philosophy
[X] [Vice] Vainglory
 
He was also ware of how much the old patriarch had doted on you and what that might have meant for the inheritance he had expected for his whole life. As the years went one, he became distrustful of you and outright hostile after Andros death, even though the seal of the house passed on to him.
"aware", "went on", "Andros' " (with an apostrophe).

[x] [Childhood] The Arts of War
[x] [Youth] Travelled the Seas
[x] [Vice] Vainglory
 
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