Vote tally:
##### 3.21
[X] A monster is what he is. He had started out a student of the imperial academy, where the spirits were bound and the secret names of the world were compiled, strengthened. Learned. At the age of thirteen he had murdered a city of fifty-thousand people by doing the impossible. Even rumor only hints at how, but the plague that struck down the city at just the right time, and the credit that Father took for it, was but the beginning of a reputation of blood and mystical might that stretched beyond the borders of knowledge into legend. Even the priests hate him, and yet the Empire has grown strong under his rule, despite his apathy for the systems that are said to keep it going. The Emperor walks every day in fear of the man, and even as old as he is, none dare cross him. But then again, none dare love him either.
[X] Imperial Province (Irit): The land of rivers and of the lake from which the first Emperor was said to have emerged ten-thousand years ago. If one believes the imperial myths and ignores all of the problems with the myths, the Empire has existed for that long, a chain unbroken truly, or at most only in letter but not in spirit. She was a shrine priestess on the holy island in the center of that holiest of lakes, and yet pregnancy is the one thing they could not accept, and far she fled, taking the teachings and secrets with her.
No. of votes: 8
beowolf,
Gamerlord,
Estro,
Skelm,
Kerfirou,
mori,
Terrabrand,
Diomedon
[X] A monster is what he is. He had started out a student of the imperial academy, where the spirits were bound and the secret names of the world were compiled, strengthened. Learned. At the age of thirteen he had murdered a city of fifty-thousand people by doing the impossible. Even rumor only hints at how, but the plague that struck down the city at just the right time, and the credit that Father took for it, was but the beginning of a reputation of blood and mystical might that stretched beyond the borders of knowledge into legend. Even the priests hate him, and yet the Empire has grown strong under his rule, despite his apathy for the systems that are said to keep it going. The Emperor walks every day in fear of the man, and even as old as he is, none dare cross him. But then again, none dare love him either.
[X] Imperial Province (Yeadalt): The strangest of all of the provinces, home to the greatest number of non-official languages and even cultural groups, it is here that heresies and cults form like mushrooms. They form, they spread, they are harvested or destroyed. It is a province in which the ruling elite, of the Csiritan stock, is far outnumbered by those whose ways are not those of the empire. It is also home to some of the strangest tales, the strangest ways to do magic and live, in all of the twelve provinces, or so rumor goes. Besides the cults, the religions, and the many peoples, here flourish too criminal groups, who band together against all outsiders and cause banditry and chaos.
No. of votes: 6
Aabcehmu,
StarkDemise,
PlatypusofFail,
Orisha91,
Hobbes,
Bommelom
[x] The son of a minor scholar of great distinction who passed the difficult exams of Highest Merit, his penmanship was always flawless. He wrote with distinction on all of the topics of the world, and if that is all Father had done, then perhaps the world would be a different place. But he entered into the bureaucracy in his twenties like a knife through a dying man, and when he ousted the Third River school, publically humiliating their policy and leading to the suicide of Go-Asho, he was on his way up. The master of these strange rituals, his penmanship is as perfect and cold as the northern frosts. Every inch of the realm is encompassed in his words, every goat counted. Everyone knows that there is nothing that does not fall under his sway, and yet the army chafes at his actions. For all know that he resents those who go to war. "It is the silver gong for a reason, and not the gold" went one of his most famous axioms. Under him therealm has turned inward, and he has polished it as a collector might polish an antique sword, or as his father's father might have polished his words until there was nothing spare.
[x] Imperial Province (Hari-Os): This long thin strip of a province is one of great wealth and power, though his Mother knew little enough of its power. Laying their on the coast, the vast cities competed with the Southlands and fought off the Sea-raiders, and traded and fought off the Water-People, whose acts had gone far beyond merely working with spirits into...into areas where no human should go, according to many religions. Wealth and power congregated into one area, and his Mother had been born in poverty and squalor. At least the Southlands weren't so different from her home, in the ways that mattered?
No. of votes: 4
Crowhunter,
masterofmadness,
Happerry,
NuclearConsensus
[X] The son of a minor scholar of great distinction who passed the difficult exams of Highest Merit, his penmanship was always flawless. He wrote with distinction on all of the topics of the world, and if that is all Father had done, then perhaps the world would be a different place. But he entered into the bureaucracy in his twenties like a knife through a dying man, and when he ousted the Third River school, publically humiliating their policy and leading to the suicide of Go-Asho, he was on his way up. The master of these strange rituals, his penmanship is as perfect and cold as the northern frosts. Every inch of the realm is encompassed in his words, every goat counted. Everyone knows that there is nothing that does not fall under his sway, and yet the army chafes at his actions. For all know that he resents those who go to war. "It is the silver gong for a reason, and not the gold" went one of his most famous axioms. Under him the realm has turned inward, and he has polished it as a collector might polish an antique sword, or as his father's father might have polished his words until there was nothing spare.
[X] Imperial Province (Yeadalt): The strangest of all of the provinces, home to the greatest number of non-official languages and even cultural groups, it is here that heresies and cults form like mushrooms. They form, they spread, they are harvested or destroyed. It is a province in which the ruling elite, of the Csiritan stock, is far outnumbered by those whose ways are not those of the empire. It is also home to some of the strangest tales, the strangest ways to do magic and live, in all of the twelve provinces, or so rumor goes. Besides the cults, the religions, and the many peoples, here flourish too criminal groups, who band together against all outsiders and cause banditry and chaos.
No. of votes: 4
Random Member,
veekie,
Nevill,
Ridiculously Average Guy
[X] What do you call a man who has every talent and no talent? Who can sing and dance, can write a perfect verse of poetry and ride hunting through the woods in the same breath. Who dabbled at everything and excelled at many things? The first Emperor that Father met called him 'favorite' and 'lover' and cherished him close, and when his son rose to power, he was but a tool of Fathers. Father who was everywhere, talking endlessly, fighting endlessly, dueling any who stood in his way or beating them through bureaucratic tricks. There was nothing he couldn't do, except love a bastard. His power is vast and yet as fragile as the first snow, pure and clean in appearance, and yet soon sullied. Many thought he would be a passing man, like many other men and women who had traded love for influence, and yet even now, more than half a century after he had taken power, he held it still. It couldn't be by his looks, and so it must be by his excellence. Yet why would such a man, who had so long declaimed the power of the flesh, had gotten married only by politics and nothing more, now call his son back?
[X] Imperial Province (Irit): The land of rivers and of the lake from which the first Emperor was said to have emerged ten-thousand years ago. If one believes the imperial myths and ignores all of the problems with the myths, the Empire has existed for that long, a chain unbroken truly, or at most only in letter but not in spirit. She was a shrine priestess on the holy island in the center of that holiest of lakes, and yet pregnancy is the one thing they could not accept, and far she fled, taking the teachings and secrets with her.[/li]
No. of votes: 1
Tanor
[X] What do you call a man who has every talent and no talent? Who can sing and dance, can write a perfect verse of poetry and ride hunting through the woods in the same breath. Who dabbled at everything and excelled at many things? The first Emperor that Father met called him 'favorite' and 'lover' and cherished him close, and when his son rose to power, he was but a tool of Fathers. Father who was everywhere, talking endlessly, fighting endlessly, dueling any who stood in his way or beating them through bureaucratic tricks. There was nothing he couldn't do, except love a bastard. His power is vast and yet as fragile as the first snow, pure and clean in appearance, and yet soon sullied. Many thought he would be a passing man, like many other men and women who had traded love for influence, and yet even now, more than half a century after he had taken power, he held it still. It couldn't be by his looks, and so it must be by his excellence. Yet why would such a man, who had so long declaimed the power of the flesh, had gotten married only by politics and nothing more, now call his son back?
[X] Imperial Province (Yeadalt): The strangest of all of the provinces, home to the greatest number of non-official languages and even cultural groups, it is here that heresies and cults form like mushrooms. They form, they spread, they are harvested or destroyed. It is a province in which the ruling elite, of the Csiritan stock, is far outnumbered by those whose ways are not those of the empire. It is also home to some of the strangest tales, the strangest ways to do magic and live, in all of the twelve provinces, or so rumor goes. Besides the cults, the religions, and the many peoples, here flourish too criminal groups, who band together against all outsiders and cause banditry and chaos.
No. of votes: 2
Zulfurium,
Gingganz
[x] Into the vipers' pit went the second and third sons of the hereditary governor of Hari-Bueli (Near Bueli). Only one of them emerged from court politics victorious, to go back to his father with the concessions he had wanted. The other, Father, stayed on and began to note the rivalries and tensions, to manipulate events from the bottom and the top. The right word to the right courtesan and a man could be humiliated, and his downfall, his failure, turned into opportunity. Every knife was his, every whisper was his as well, and he knew the names of the spirits that rested in the eaves of windows, he knew the names of everyone who could give him aid. He rose, and rose, yet did so in the shadows. When he unveiled himself, his enemies fled or bled and died, and the Emperor was his tool. The great massacre of Sarzi was his doing, and the Emperor in his wrath at finding traitors in his midst, turned over everything, one way or another, to one man. Father.
[x] Imperial Province (Irit): The land of rivers and of the lake from which the first Emperor was said to have emerged ten-thousand years ago. If one believes the imperial myths and ignores all of the problems with the myths, the Empire has existed for that long, a chain unbroken truly, or at most only in letter but not in spirit. She was a shrine priestess on the holy island in the center of that holiest of lakes, and yet pregnancy is the one thing they could not accept, and far she fled, taking the teachings and secrets with her.
No. of votes: 1
Bakkasama
[X] Into the vipers' pit went the second and third sons of the hereditary governor of Hari-Bueli (Near Bueli). Only one of them emerged from court politics victorious, to go back to his father with the concessions he had wanted. The other, Father, stayed on and began to note the rivalries and tensions, to manipulate events from the bottom and the top. The right word to the right courtesan and a man could be humiliated, and his downfall, his failure, turned into opportunity. Every knife was his, every whisper was his as well, and he knew the names of the spirits that rested in the eaves of windows, he knew the names of everyone who could give him aid. He rose, and rose, yet did so in the shadows. When he unveiled himself, his enemies fled or bled and died, and the Emperor was his tool. The great massacre of Sarzi was his doing, and the Emperor in his wrath at finding traitors in his midst, turned over everything, one way or another, to one man. Father.
[X] Southlands (Oasis): Mother was a woman of the proud tribes and fragmenting empires of the deserts and the lands beyond the deserts, who practiced the dangerous art of making spirits into tattoos. There was an entire line of Emperors who married into the holy imperial line after having conquered half of the Empire and splintering the rest, who have this blood, and this combination of antagonism and assimilation continues to this day.
No. of votes: 1
dpara
[x] Scholar
No. of votes: 1
notanautomaton
[X] The son of a minor scholar of great distinction who passed the difficult exams of Highest Merit, his penmanship was always flawless. He wrote with distinction on all of the topics of the world, and if that is all Father had done, then perhaps the world would be a different place. But he entered into the bureaucracy in his twenties like a knife through a dying man, and when he ousted the Third River school, publically humiliating their policy and leading to the suicide of Go-Asho, he was on his way up. The master of these strange rituals, his penmanship is as perfect and cold as the northern frosts. Every inch of the realm is encompassed in his words, every goat counted. Everyone knows that there is nothing that does not fall under his sway, and yet the army chafes at his actions. For all know that he resents those who go to war. "It is the silver gong for a reason, and not the gold" went one of his most famous axioms. Under him the realm has turned inward, and he has polished it as a collector might polish an antique sword, or as his father's father might have polished his words until there was nothing spare.
[X] Imperial Province (Irit): The land of rivers and of the lake from which the first Emperor was said to have emerged ten-thousand years ago. If one believes the imperial myths and ignores all of the problems with the myths, the Empire has existed for that long, a chain unbroken truly, or at most only in letter but not in spirit. She was a shrine priestess on the holy island in the center of that holiest of lakes, and yet pregnancy is the one thing they could not accept, and far she fled, taking the teachings and secrets with her.
No. of votes: 7
Kingofbooks,
Evilness42,
George,
lkmcclenahan,
Broken25,
Tsume817,
PayKey
[X] Imperial Province (Yeadalt): The strangest of all of the provinces, home to the greatest number of non-official languages and even cultural groups, it is here that heresies and cults form like mushrooms. They form, they spread, they are harvested or destroyed. It is a province in which the ruling elite, of the Csiritan stock, is far outnumbered by those whose ways are not those of the empire. It is also home to some of the strangest tales, the strangest ways to do magic and live, in all of the twelve provinces, or so rumor goes. Besides the cults, the religions, and the many peoples, here flourish too criminal groups, who band together against all outsiders and cause banditry and chaos.
[x] The son of a minor scholar of great distinction who passed the difficult exams of Highest Merit, his penmanship was always flawless. He wrote with distinction on all of the topics of the world, and if that is all Father had done, then perhaps the world would be a different place. But he entered into the bureaucracy in his twenties like a knife through a dying man, and when he ousted the Third River school, publically humiliating their policy and leading to the suicide of Go-Asho, he was on his way up. The master of these strange rituals, his penmanship is as perfect and cold as the northern frosts. Every inch of the realm is encompassed in his words, every goat counted. Everyone knows that there is nothing that does not fall under his sway, and yet the army chafes at his actions. For all know that he resents those who go to war. "It is the silver gong for a reason, and not the gold" went one of his most famous axioms. Under him therealm has turned inward, and he has polished it as a collector might polish an antique sword, or as his father's father might have polished his words until there was nothing spare.
No. of votes: 1
wingstrike96
[X] The son of a Eunuch on Last Night[2], he only escaped his unknown father's fate by cunning, being sent as the assistant to an ill-fated attempt to conquer the Western Marshes of Bueli. There were many rumors as to what happened there, but the end result was that the upstart general in charge of the army died, his forces routed, and Father rallied the remnants and succeeded in forcing a peace, at the tender age of seventeen. The boy general rose and rose, victory following victory, swelling the Empire and protecting its borders. Every year, it seemed, the silver gong rang out thirteen times, and every year Father returned to bow ten times to the Emperor and give great gifts, expressing his humility and submission, all the while smirking as his power grew. Even now, over a decade after he last took the field, he holds sway over the armies, and yet there is rot within the ranks, and many speak of the cruelty and ambitions which drive him always to make an enemy of others. The bureaucracy and the hereditary governors hate him, and yet his power has waxed even into his waning years.
[X] Southlands (Oasis): Mother was a woman of the proud tribes and fragmenting empires of the deserts and the lands beyond the deserts, who practiced the dangerous art of making spirits into tattoos. There was an entire line of Emperors who married into the holy imperial line after having conquered half of the Empire and splintering the rest, who have this blood, and this combination of antagonism and assimilation continues to this day.
No. of votes: 1
Leingod
[X] The son of a Eunuch on Last Night[2], he only escaped his unknown father's fate by cunning, being sent as the assistant to an ill-fated attempt to conquer the Western Marshes of Bueli. There were many rumors as to what happened there, but the end result was that the upstart general in charge of the army died, his forces routed, and Father rallied the remnants and succeeded in forcing a peace, at the tender age of seventeen. The boy general rose and rose, victory following victory, swelling the Empire and protecting its borders. Every year, it seemed, the silver gong rang out thirteen times, and every year Father returned to bow ten times to the Emperor and give great gifts, expressing his humility and submission, all the while smirking as his power grew. Even now, over a decade after he last took the field, he holds sway over the armies, and yet there is rot within the ranks, and many speak of the cruelty and ambitions which drive him always to make an enemy of others. The bureaucracy and the hereditary governors hate him, and yet his power has waxed even into his waning years.
[X] Anlan: The only Kingdom of the West, beyond the long plains who has the right to trade back and forth with Csirit, Mother was the daughter of a merchant, and nothing more. Yet from them she inherited the strange looks which might have stirred some passion for the exotic from his Father. But not too exotic, it seemed.
No. of votes: 2
Pyro Hawk,
Arcus2611
[X] Imperial Province (Yeadalt): The strangest of all of the provinces, home to the greatest number of non-official languages and even cultural groups, it is here that heresies and cults form like mushrooms. They form, they spread, they are harvested or destroyed. It is a province in which the ruling elite, of the Csiritan stock, is far outnumbered by those whose ways are not those of the empire. It is also home to some of the strangest tales, the strangest ways to do magic and live, in all of the twelve provinces, or so rumor goes. Besides the cults, the religions, and the many peoples, here flourish too criminal groups, who band together against all outsiders and cause banditry and chaos.
[X] A monster is what he is. He had started out a student of the imperial academy, where the spirits were bound and the secret names of the world were compiled, strengthened. Learned. At the age of thirteen he had murdered a city of fifty-thousand people by doing the impossible. Even rumor only hints at how, but the plague that struck down the city at just the right time, and the credit that Father took for it, was but the beginning of a reputation of blood and mystical might that stretched beyond the borders of knowledge into legend. Even the priests hate him, and yet the Empire has grown strong under his rule, despite his apathy for the systems that are said to keep it going. The Emperor walks every day in fear of the man, and even as old as he is, none dare cross him. But then again, none dare love him either.
No. of votes: 1
Sivantic
[X] The son of a minor scholar of great distinction who passed the difficult exams of Highest Merit, his penmanship was always flawless. He wrote with distinction on all of the topics of the world, and if that is all Father had done, then perhaps the world would be a different place. But he entered into the bureaucracy in his twenties like a knife through a dying man, and when he ousted the Third River school, publically humiliating their policy and leading to the suicide of Go-Asho, he was on his way up. The master of these strange rituals, his penmanship is as perfect and cold as the northern frosts. Every inch of the realm is encompassed in his words, every goat counted. Everyone knows that there is nothing that does not fall under his sway, and yet the army chafes at his actions. For all know that he resents those who go to war. "It is the silver gong for a reason, and not the gold" went one of his most famous axioms. Under him the realm has turned inward, and he has polished it as a collector might polish an antique sword, or as his father's father might have polished his words until there was nothing spare.
[X] Southlands (Oasis): Mother was a woman of the proud tribes and fragmenting empires of the deserts and the lands beyond the deserts, who practiced the dangerous art of making spirits into tattoos. There was an entire line of Emperors who married into the holy imperial line after having conquered half of the Empire and splintering the rest, who have this blood, and this combination of antagonism and assimilation continues to this day.
No. of votes: 2
Daecl,
XkaliburRage
[X] A monster is what he is. He had started out a student of the imperial academy, where the spirits were bound and the secret names of the world were compiled, strengthened. Learned. At the age of thirteen he had murdered a city of fifty-thousand people by doing the impossible. Even rumor only hints at how, but the plague that struck down the city at just the right time, and the credit that Father took for it, was but the beginning of a reputation of blood and mystical might that stretched beyond the borders of knowledge into legend. Even the priests hate him, and yet the Empire has grown strong under his rule, despite his apathy for the systems that are said to keep it going. The Emperor walks every day in fear of the man, and even as old as he is, none dare cross him. But then again, none dare love him either.
No. of votes: 1
Derekc2
