NationStates Jolt Archive

"By decree of His Grace, George ap Gwydion, Grand Duke Worthingham, a cotillion shall be held for his niece, the Countess Elizabeth ni Gwydion, at which it is hoped young men with honorable intentions shall make themselves known, as is custom among the sidhe."

*Bump* C'mon

OOC: The sidhe? As in the WOD rpg "Changeling"?

hmmm. .. .kinda like a cinderalla ball type thingy. Oh well, I'm bored


OOC: There is no nobility in Blargistania because of the socialist state, but there are many young men who would be willing to try to attend.

IC: The government of Blargistania would be most honored to send a young man as a representative of our government in his prospective courtship with the countess. We will dispatch Edward Black, a fine and upstanding citizen, to meet with her grace the contess during the cotillion.



Edward Black, Ed as he preferred to be called, straightened from his work bench. The ceremonial sword was a masterpiece, a true craft. It was to be his masterwork, the completeion of his internship at the gallery and the beginning of his lifelong work as a craftsman. Ed held the sword out to admire it, 48 inches of million-folded fether steel, a new material that was light, but still held the strength of steel, a gold crossed thatched hilt with a small beaten pewter and platinum finger guard. It was to be a gift at a commencment cerenmony for the new building in Oshena, the center for further research in the fields of disease. It would make a fantastic gift to the head designer for the building was a boon to the small city. As Ed continued to admire his work, a knock sounded at the door. He went to go answer it and was suprised to see, instead of his mentor, three suited men.

"Edward Black?"

"Yes"

"We have something that may interest you. As you may have heard over the comm channels, the Duchess of Worthingham is having a cotillion to meet fine young men so that she may choose a potential intimacy. Your name came to mind when they mentioned fine upstanding young men. We would like you to go to this cotillion as a representative of our government as well as for any personal interests you may find along the way. Would you be interested?"

Ed thought for a moment, he would be leaving behind his city, his friends, his town, he would go off to meet a girl he had never seen before, he might even stay there forever. But, he thought, it could be worth it.

"Alright" he said "I'll go, when do I leave?"

"Tomorrow morning at 7, we will have a car to pick you up. Good luck."

OOC: Yes

Alex stood quietly at the doors to the Duchal Palace. The young pookaess bapped her tail up and down idly on the ground as she waited, her tufted ears twitching. She was dressed nicely enough, in a dress of verdent green with gold lining, cut low. She was an attractive woman certainly, curvey, buxom, raven haired, with an earthly appeal that her lords and ladies lacked, even if few ever glanced her way when in the presence of the etherial and majestic beauty of the noble sidhe. She was also horribly bored. Escorting guests to their chambers was not her idea of a good time. Why couldn't some menial do it? She was supposed to stand high among the respectable servants of His Grace. Of course, one of the men was supposed to be coming in a car. It had been years since she'd seen a car. One of her friends had explained how it worked but frankly it remained a total novelty to her. Thinking on this, her gaze focused back onto the road.

OOC: are these cat-like people?

IC:
Ed looked out of the car as it slid away from his home. He wondered what it would be like to see a new place because, to tell the truth, he had never left his home city. Ed stared at the passing country side as the car whizzed along. He contemplated his new mission. He was an ambassador of the state, but one that was supposed to be going along with the intent of finding a potential bride. Ed knew that marriages could increase relations between states tenfold, but he had never heard of Worthingham before. Oh well, he sighed, I guess its time to learn. Ed pulled out the tapes that had been provided on the customs and culter of Worthingham. He popped a tape in and sat back

"Table manners are an important thing in all cultures, the ones that pretain to Worthingham are unique in th fact that they. . ."

God, thought Ed, this is going to be a long ride.

OOC: Well, most of Rotovia's nobels are a little too nobel for your nation. No offence but we are very protective of our former aristiocracy. So let's see who I can think of that would suit.

IC:

"Sir Andrea Charters is currently unmarried and of one of Rotovia's finer nobel families. The Charters family bear a close bond to Rotovia's Royal Family the Baccheus (aka Jazzeute)House. He is the third sone of Lord Marcus Charters, tenth in line to the former throne."

Minister for Aristicratic Affairs: Lord Thomas Thebes

OOC: Alex is more like a wallaby girl than a cat girl

As she waited for the guests, Countess Elizabeth was in her room, fuming quietly. The expression on her elegant face was tight and glamour radiated forbiddingly around her near perfect form. The grandeur of a sidhe's appearance could be as intimidating as it often was inviting. She spoke quietly to the servants attending her. "He wants me to marry from another nation. If there were other sidhe in this world...other refugees from Fallen Arcadia among the nation states, then I would be exuberant at the chance for an alliance. Even the elven nations here, I would enjoy for they are much like us but...humans." The servants were too well trained to contradict their lady. However, they knew as well as she did that Worthingham needed alliances. It was new to this world and small and the age of her race and the power it had once held and still considered its birthright meant less than she wished here. She must wed.

*Bump*

*Bump*

The sleek black car pulled to a stop and Ed looked up from where he had been dozing. The videos had been anything but exciting but he had sat through them, trying to learn the various methods by which the citizens of Worthingham lived. Well then Ed thought, time to go see what this princess looks like Ed hopped out of the car and meandered up the path. The government had provided him with some semi-formal clothing. Comfortable, yet formal looking. Ed straightened out his jacket and faced the steps. He looked up towards the top and saw a shaply figure waiting. But something was wrong she has a tail! Ed shook himself for a moment. He knew that other forms of sentience existed other than humans, he had even had a few contacts. But he could not be expected to marry someone of a different species than himself. Ed resolved himself to be polite and well-mannered, but secretly he was thinking this is going to be the wierdest experience of my life, maybe I can get around the marrying procedure and just extend our government formalities and offers of friendship Ed walked up the stairs. . .

Alex curtsies as Ed walked up the steps. "Good midnight, m'lord. You must be one of the millions of guests we're expecting for Her Excellency. It is going to be the largest cotillion in the history of the universe, at least according to the official record of the eighth scribe of the Manchester Dynasty. Do you have any luggage or servants in attendance, m'lord?" She grinned lightly, pacing a little.

Ed kept his face under strict control.

"I only packed very lightly, a few travelling bags that I can carry myself. I don't want to trouble you to carry my bags. Ah, before I continue with small talk, I wish to extend my official greetings on behalf of the government of Blargistania. We would like to offer our hand in friendship and comradrie to the people of Worthingham. Please take this small token as an inital indication of our friendship."

Sean opened the small suitcase he had been carrying. Within its velvet lined interior, a set of three small stones shone outward.

"These are a set of the siren stones, found only in Blargistania. They can be used to produce energy in small amounts and have also graced many fine ladies necks, increasing vitality and lifespan of the bearer. This set was mined within the Semptast region of Blargistania, an area known to produce the finest grade of siren stone we have found yet."

Alex takes the stones briefly, looking at them before handing them back with a light blush on her soft face. "People don't give presents to me. Shouldn't youpresent those to Her Excellency when you meet her? I mean, I could pass them on because the Countess and I are bestest buddies in the whole wide world but her smile would be wider if you gave them to her yourself and you know the world just stops when sidhe ladies smile. Sure you don't want me to take your bags? Well, alright, but you're the most eccentric Duke I've ever met." At that, Alex turns, holding the door for him. "Your kingdom awaits, m'lord."

We would send a courtier, but then there is the inter-species relations thing. Genetic blocks and non-compatable chromosome structures and what not. But please, continue.

http://www.5amfunnies.com/sakkra/Character/gorrmB.JPG

Emperor Gorrm

OOC: Callisdrun does not really have a nobility or aristocracy. Things have been fairly democratic for a long time. Also, you might find Callisdrunians a bit strange. Due to weather and geography, there is extreme cold and very little sunlight in Callisdrun, they have a lower body temperature than normal, and have sensitive eyes, and do not tolerate heat very well. A significant portion of Callisdrun's population also have... eccentric... dietary needs...

IC: Callisdrun does not have any nobility to send, aside from the royal family. We shall send a member of the royal family to extend our nation's friendship to Worthingham.

OOC: Got room for another player? Berezyi has a very definite nobility, mostly centered around the Imperial Family and those houses attached to them by marriage.

Sergey Nicholaevich Ramzin's footfalls would've echoed hollowly on the stone floor of the Czar's Spring Palace were it not for the plush blue carpeting that covered the floor of the hall leading to his father's office. Like just about everything else in this place, the hall was lavish, some would say gaudy. The walls were hung with tapestries and paintings, though between the decorations one could see the stone and mortar of the building. Electric lighting was also a new addition, and in some of the servants quarters it was still being installed. The "palace" had originally been a fortress, many centuries ago, and had only recently been converted into a residence due to the fact that Nicholai Ivanovich Ramzin had a taste for military architechture. Personally, Sergey hated it, preferring the Imperial Family's Summer Palace, a structure that had been built with living rather than defense in mind.

In fact, he had been at the Summer Palace only a day before, then his father had summoned him here. The Imperial Family had four palaces spread around the country, and the Czar spent each season in a different one, hence their names. The rest of the Imperial Family was not so rigid, and they lived wherever they liked the best. Nicholai was the only one who moved regularly, changing residences every season as religiously as he went to church every Sunday.

Sergey cleared his mind and prepared himself for the meeting as he reached the last door at the end of the hall, a thick polished oak piece that managed to look grand and intimidating despite being no bigger than any other door in hall. Perhaps it was the man behind it that made it seem that way, he mused for a moment. He straightened his short brown hair, passed a hand over his blue eyes, and rubbed his clean-shaven chin to make sure he hadn't missed a spot. Then he knocked.

"Enter," a deep voice on the other side called.

Sergey pushed the door open and stepped inside, bowing. "I am here, Father, as you commanded."

Nicholai Ivanovitch Ramzin, Czar of the Empire of Berezyi, looked up as his son entered the room. Though each palace had a throne room where the Czar handled formal affairs, this opulent office was where he actually went about the business of ruling the nation. The carpet in here was the same deep blue as that in the hall outside, and the furnishings were made of teak and cherry wood, all imported. Lining the walls here were large oil paintings of Nicholai's six children, four sons and two daughters. Glancing at them, Sergey spotted his own portrait, the middle picture on the left wall. To the right of his was his older brother Gubin, the Crown Prince, to the left was his sister Svetlana. Dominating the back wall was a giant portrait of Nicholai himself, hanging between two floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and hanging over the door was a portrait of Tania Borodanova Romanov, Sergey's mother.

For many people, all this grandeur would make the actual man seem insignificant, but the Czar had managed to dodge that. In his late fifties, with hair just starting to turn grey and piercing eyes that had always been that color, Nicholai conveyed an air of dignity and eminence, though that was not what he was trying to project at the moment. Smiling broadly, the Czar stood up from behind his desk and came around it to embrace his son.

"Sergey, Sergey," his tone bore none of the booming authority it did when he made speeches or dealt with lesser nobles, for his secondborn son it was full of fatherly love. "Sergey, it has been too long since I last saw you."

"And you, father," Sergey replied, returning the hug.

"Why did you not send word that you had arrived?" Nicholai asked, stepping back to hold his son at arm's length as he looked him over. "I was hoping to greet you with suitable celebration."

"I thought it more expedient that I simply make haste here," Sergey answered truthfully. "Your summons hinted that the matter was urgent."

"Oh, it is not so urgent that we cannot have a little party," Nicholai answered as he turned to head back to his desk. "Though it might have quite the impact on your future, my son." He sat down again and waved Sergey to one of the plushly cushioned chairs in front of the desk. As Sergey seated himself, Nicholai reached into one of the desk drawers and came up with two crystal goblets and a bottle of vodka. He filled both glasses himself, then slid one across to his son, which was accepted gratefully.

"At any rate," Nicholai began after they had toasted each other's health and drained their glasses. "I called you here because of an announcement made by a country called Worthingham. It seems that a noble lady of that nation is seeking a husband, and a party is being held with that intention."

Sergey raised a brow. "You wish me to go offer my carcass then, father?"

Nicholai laughed loudly. "Exactly so, my son. I wish you to see what benefits our country could reap from an alliance with this Worthingham, and also to meet the bachelorette of course." He refilled his goblet and held the bottle out to Sergey.

"I see," Sergey nodded slowly, allowing his father to refill his glass. "When do I depart?"

"As soon as you are ready," Nicholai answered. "I will send word to them that you are coming. Everything we know about the country has been prepared for you to review."

"Very well then, I will do my best, father," Sergey answered.

"I don't doubt it, my son," Nicholai smiled again, then raised his goblet. "To Berezyi's future, and perhaps to your own as well."

"Indeed father, to both." They toasted the sentiment.

*************************************************************

From his Majesty Czar Nicholai Ivanovich Ramzin to Worthingham, warmest greetings,

I have heard of your search for a man of worthy pedigree for your Countess. Berezyi is always eager to make new friends and strong allies, and so I send my second son, Sergey Nicholaevich, to meet her. I hope that no matter how the meeting resolves this will be the start of great relations between our countries.

Ed blushed, slightly.

"Sorry, I was unaware of what particular role you played in this sort of event."

Ed began to relax as he settled into the easy ways of small talk. No, he was not a duke as it was implied. Blargistania had no nobility structure. He was simply a craftsman, working on ceremonial pieces for notable citizens or during ceremonial events. His government had selected him because they believed him to be a worthy individual and because an alliance with worthingham was a desired thing. He would give the stones to the lady himself when they met. Yes, he was pretty independent and strong enough to carry his own bags.

Ed walked along the palice breezeway with Alex, beginning to feel comfortable in her presence.