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A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover

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@Azel We should probably pin the Curia organization chart as a threadmark, but I do think it could be better looking... I've been considering transferring it into a spreadsheet just so I know what I'm looking at, tbh.
 
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Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Apr 8, 2021 at 3:59 AM, finished with 83 posts and 30 votes.
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Interlude MLIV: New Steps in the Dance
  • Threadmarks
    • New Steps in the Dance ​

    Seventh Day of the Fifth Month 294 AC

    "Well, at least you are wearing a dress," Lady Elysa Velaryon nee Celtigar looked her daughter up and down, giving the wine-red dress a sniff of what might charitably be called approval. For her part, she might as well have been carved from a block of Lyseni marble, all pale silk and frothing white lace of the kind you practically needed a cleaning cantrip to keep in decent condition.

    She had taken to that magic well, at least, Valaena thought less charitably perhaps than filial piety might have required. There was apparently something about being at court, amid the glittering lights and soft spoken words, that made her mother forget that she was more than a highborn daughter of House Velaryon, that she was a dragonrider, a warrior, and a battle mage besides. Thus her answering whisper owed perhaps something to frustration. "I'm not, the armor is glamored."

    "What would His Majesty say?" Lady Elysa hissed, looking sideways at the place where the Imperator was speaking with Valaena's father about his new duties as Steward of the Imperial Lands. A great honor, yes, and one many of the Lords of Westeros and Essos both might have coveted, not to mention the legions of bureaucrats just waiting for their day in the sun.

    "'Good job on being prepared for trouble', probably," the girl shrugged, though the gesture itself was more polished than it may once have been. She was not in her own way without knowledge of the court. "I can't actually see through his wards, but I know for a fact that his cloak can shed arrows like rain on the mountainside. I know the princess routinely wears her armor at all hours of the day and night, including those she spends sleeping... well, other than those she spends as a dragon, curled up on a rock by the harbor."

    "That's..." Valaena's lady mother very deliberately breathed in and regained mastery of herself. "That can't be comfortable dear."

    Feeling a touch guilty in that way that only a parent can make one feel, the young dragonrider replied. "Well, I would not call it light as silk, but it certainly moves like it and better than any dress you have to be laced into, that is for certain."

    "Hmph," the lady sniffed. "Essosi nonsense. Of course it is more comfortable than that." She had made no great secret that she saw the manner of those magisters and their kin who had flocked to the Deep long before the conquest of Westeros as crude and grasping, from the way they festooned themselves with unsubtle magics to the threads of gold and silver and other more precious metals they wove into their garb.

    Not that Valaena disagreed about many of the particulars her lady mother referred to, but she rather liked the more restrained Northern fashions of Braavos and Lorath, for all that they too at times had dresses you had to be laced into. When you were not cheating with magic, at least. "Essos stretches from the Shivering Sea to... well, here, and from the Narrow to the Jade Sea, mother. If you are going to cast aspersions upon the dress and manner of our fellow citizens, its best to be precise lest, like an arrow shot without care, you should hit someone you did not mean to. No less than three Companions are Braavosi... well, alright, one of them could not give less of a damn about clothes if she tried, but still you don't want to accidentally insult the Empress-To-Be, do you?"

    "I dread asking, but who is it that does not care about clothes?"

    Guessing her mother's thoughts, Valaena giggled. "Relax, no one is walking around naked. Barefoot I will grant, but you won't have much of a chance to deal with Wisdom Vee at most court events. Although, now that she is officially the First Flesh-Smith, I guess there might be some that try to come to her to make them a better body or give their lapdog dove's wings or something."

    "Ah magic, what wonders you make," Lady Elysa's tone was rather more wry than in genuine complaint. "Now I might not be able to put faces to people."

    "You don't really need flesh-smithing for that, not unless you want wings or gills or the like, just a good magic ribbon. It's as easy as..." Valaena cut herself off as she saw the Princess arrive with the silver box that was the Imperator's second honor. "Oh look mother, they are bringing out the dragon egg. It's in our House colors. I helped pick it out."

    For a long moment the chamber was silent as the Imperator and the Princess waited for Valaena's father to catch his breath before the gift, not that her mother looked any less wide-eyed. "You make it sound so easy," she finally said in a faint tone as His Majesty graciously turned her father's effusive thanks into compliments of his skillful handling of the Lords of the Narrow Sea. "Like picking out a ring or chain of office, or a sword with the right gem in its pummel. Next thing you will tell me, he is going to hatch it on the spot."

    "Not quite on the spot," the young sorceress replied tactfully. Not that she thought either the Imperator or his sister would object to blood sacrifice in a private meeting like that, but her father likely would and there were some things her mother did not need to know yet.

    Which posts do you wish to fill in next?

    [] Write in

    OOC: We have not heard much from Valaena recently, so I figured why not take the chance to show her PoV on some of the culture clashes of the court and flesh things out a bit with her family as well.
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Ministers of Taxation, Trade and Public Works

    Those three have some decent overlap in what would make people useful for them, so I think they would be best handled together.

    Afterwards, I'd say:
    [] Ministers of Diplomacy, Justice and Information
    [] Ministers of Administration, Education and Magic
    [] Minister of War and the 4 remaining Marshall posts
     
    DragonParadox said:
    New Steps in the Dance ​

    Seventh Day of the Fifth Month 294 AC

    "Well, at least you are wearing a dress," Lady Elysa Velaryon nee Celtigar looked her daughter up and down, giving the wine-red dress a sniff of what might charitably be called approval. For her part, she might as well have been carved from a block of Lyseni marble, all pale silk and frothing white lace of the kind you practically needed a cleaning cantrip to keep in decent condition.

    She had taken to that magic well, at least, Valaena thought less charitably perhaps than filial piety might have required. There was apparently something about being at court, amid the glittering lights and soft spoken words, that made her mother forget that she was more than a highborn daughter of House Velaryon, that she was a dragonrider, a warrior, and a battle mage besides. Thus her answering whisper owed perhaps something to frustration. "I'm not, the armor is glamored."

    "What would His Majesty say?" Lady Elysa hissed, looking sideways at the place where the Imperator was speaking with Valaena's father about his new duties as Steward of the Imperial Lands. A great honor, yes, and one many of the Lords of Westeros and Essos both might have coveted, not to mention the legions of bureaucrats just waiting for their day in the sun.

    "'Good job on being prepared for trouble', probably," the girl shrugged, though the gesture itself was more polished than it may once have been. She was not in her own way without knowledge of the court. "I can't actually see through his wards, but I know for a fact that his cloak can shed arrows like rain on the mountainside. I know the princess routinely wears her armor at all hours of the day and night, including those she spends sleeping... well, other than those she spends as a dragon, curled up on a rock by the harbor."

    "That's..." Valaena's lady mother very deliberately breathed in and regained mastery of herself. "That can't be comfortable dear."

    Feeling a touch guilty in that way that only a parent can make one feel, the young dragonrider replied. "Well, I would not call it light as silk, but it certainly moves like it and better than any dress you have to be laced into, that is for certain."

    "Hmph," the lady sniffed. "Essosi nonsense. Of course it is more comfortable than that." She had made no great secret that she saw the manner of those magisters and their kin who had flocked to the Deep long before the conquest of Westeros as crude and grasping, from the way they festooned themselves with unsubtle magics to the threads of gold and silver and other more precious metals they wove into their garb.

    Not that Valaena disagreed about many of the particulars her lady mother referred to, but she rather liked the more restrained Northern fashions of Braavos and Lorath, for all that they too at times had dresses you had to be laced into. When you were not cheating with magic, at least. "Essos stretches from the Shivering Sea to... well, here, and from the Narrow to the Jade Sea, mother. If you are going to cast aspersions upon the dress and manner of our fellow citizens, its best to be precise lest, like an arrow shot without care, you should hit someone you did not mean to. No less than three Companions are Braavosi... well, alright, one of them could not give less of a damn about clothes if she tried, but still you don't want to accidentally insult the Empress-To-Be, do you?"

    "I dread asking, but who is it that does not care about clothes?"

    Guessing her mother's thoughts, Valaena giggled. "Relax, no one is walking around naked. Barefoot I will grant, but you won't have much of a chance to deal with Wisdom Vee at most court events. Although, now that she is officially the First Flesh-Smith, I guess there might be some that try to come to her to make them a better body or give their lapdog dove's wings or something."

    "Ah magic, what wonders you make," Lady Elysa's tone was rather more wry than in genuine complaint. "Now I might not be able to put faces to people."

    "You don't really need flesh-smithing for that, not unless you want wings or gills or the like, just a good magic ribbon. It's as easy as..." Valaena cut herself off as she saw the Princess arrive with the silver box that was the Imperator's second honor. "Oh look mother, they are bringing out the dragon egg. It's in our House colors. I helped pick it out."

    For a long moment the chamber was silent as the Imperator and the Princess waited for Valaena's father to catch his breath before the gift, not that her mother looked any less wide-eyed. "You make it sound so easy," she finally said in a faint tone as His Majesty graciously turned her father's effusive thanks into compliments of his skillful handling of the Lords of the Narrow Sea. "Like picking out a ring or chain of office, or a sword with the right gem in its pummel. Next thing you will tell me, he is going to hatch it on the spot."

    "Not quite on the spot," the young sorceress replied tactfully. Not that she thought either the Imperator or his sister would object to blood sacrifice in a private meeting like that, but her father likely would and there were some things her mother did not need to know yet.

    Which posts do you wish to fill in next?

    [] Write in

    OOC: We have not heard much from Valaena recently, so I figured why not take the chance to show her PoV on some of the culture clashes of the court and flesh things out a bit with her family as well.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Made a few additional edits to the chapter, DP.

    Nice Valaena POV, dude. If she can wrangle a Valyrian Dragon, she can wrangle her mom! 🤓

    BTW, did she get enough combat action during the conquest to push her to the next level? I think you said she was only one or two fights away from a level up?
     
    Goldfish said:
    Made a few additional edits to the chapter, DP.

    Nice Valaena POV, dude. If she can wrangle a Valyrian Dragon, she can wrangle her mom! 🤓

    BTW, did she get enough combat action during the conquest to push her to the next level? I think you said she was only one or two fights away from a level up?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    She did not really see any combat, more keeping foolish lords from pocking Amrelath too hard, so no level yet.
     
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