Heavy Is The Crown

[Teh Frixz]

I just realized how early we are in the setting! I went over that timeline thing and yeah, maybe I'll scale Adeline back to 65-70 years old.


Did Edel see her dad get killed? That could have been the spurring moment for Adeline to get them both on the Rose which at that time yeah, basically impossible to get into.


Where did the soldier come from? Was he a Merc or an actual Soldier? He must have helped raise her for at least a few years to have made an impact.

 

[Silvertongued]

I doubt she would have seen him killed. Hulbrad aren't a very martial house, and there's very little reason for them to bring a child to an active abtlefield, or anywhere where it would be likely for him to get killed. And nah, it's not difficult to get on the Black Rose if you're a Hulbrad. It's their ancestral home after all.


But yeah, I'd see him helping raise her until about... five or six, and then maybe going off on a campaign until... seven or eight, and getting killed then. Wrote a lot of letters. I think he'd have been an actual soldier. Adeline could have been designing defensive fortifications or whatnot when she met him, though that's entirely up to your own prerogative. He could have been her bodyguard, or just someone in the right place at the right time.

 

[Teh Frixz]

Unless explicitly asked to do so by higher ups in House politics or Imperus himself, Adeline would have steered clear of assisting either side in military capacity.


I can see Adeline traveling heavily though, going all over and following the war to log and gain inspiration from the war designs of others. In her travels she encounters a dashing square jawed and steely eyed Batallion commander on three day pass.


Maybe it was an attempt to simply get some before the next big assault but the commander couldn't shake the Hulbrad out of his mind. She follows his unit around, mingling with the other families and whores that follow campaigns just to toy with him.


He gives in, both profess their feelings and a year later, our comes babby Edel. War gets heavier, Adeline and 'insert father name' decide that it is best to remove Edel from such a situation and she takes them both to the Rose. Letters and visits for years then tragedy as his Batallion is wiped out (by who?). Both are inconsolable but survive until around 13-14 when Adeline starts submitting to Sloth vice and starts to subconsciously see her expired love in Edel so she pulls away hard, leaving the Rose for long periods of time, almost a year from 16-17 and misses out on a lot of Edels important teenage moments.


Eventually Edel leaves the Rose of her own volition, keeping in contact with Adeline through sporadic letters, dreams, and appearances but becoming distant until the last few years where Adeline has started an attempt to push back into Edels life in a bigger way but for what purpose is not known.


Adeline had Edel at around age 40 then so the two would now appear to be of similar age?

 

[Silvertongued]

Yeah, that works.


I think Pops would get wiped out by a force using superior tactics, but also because there just wasn't enough information about the situation in order to prevent it. Intel man, it makes or breaks a war.

 

[Teh Frixz]

If that's the reason why he got killed, total guilt trip on both of us

 

[The Fuzz]

War does not determine who is right, only who is left. By that standard, Hulbrad Tristan is pretty damned left.


At the beginning of the war, he was a clerk with no achievements to his name. In the end, he was one of the less than half dozen true warlords still standing.


His men still refer to him as the clerk, and his command post as his office...but they also eat well, have dry boots, healthy horses, well maintained equipment, and good field intel. The truth about Hulbrad Tristan is that in the midst of battle, he is not a blinding tactical genius. He arranges things such that he does not need to be. His logistics skills are supreme, his battle plans simple, flexible, and


brutally effective, and above all else, he has made it this far through knowing when and where to fight, and when to walk away.


The man himself is quiet, detail oriented, and pragmatic beyond belief. He regards every death as a tragedy, and all war as pointless savagery. The only time his men have ever seen him truly angry was when Yrva Jallence refused to yield at the Fall of Blue Trente. The Yrva could not fall back, could NOT order the retreat from a fortress which he had claimed. Tristan's army were forced to slaughter their own number again of starving, cornered House Yrva troops. In cold, desperate fury, Tristan dragged Jallence into the yard and fought him in front of both battered armies. With twin blades, he cut once for each refused chance to surrender, until the Yrva bled out.


Then, as is proper, he sent home all of Jallence's personal panoply, along with the names of each mortal soldier wasted in his last stand, in a neat list, by rank.


That was Tristan at his worst. At his best, he is a quiet presence, randomly inspecting his troops, cracking delayed action one liners (you get it and start laughing after he's already walked away) and maintaining correspondence with the rest of the House from his battered writing desk.


His adjutant, his personal troops, his panoply, and his build, all to follow.

 

[Silvertongued]

....Uncle Tristan? : D

 

[Teh Frixz]

My baby brother?

 

[SephirothSage]

I don't suppose a Non-Hulbradim PC is possible, with the group as it is- or shall we all be Hulbrads?


I'm not too familiar with that particular family, and I'd need to look up their theming beyond 'sloth'.


Also, whatever happened to Fallen, I can't seem to find the thread for it anymore.

 

[Teh Frixz]

I cannot see any non-infernal involved in internal House matters of Importance.


And we are making up the family as we go SS

 

[SephirothSage]

Right.


But a non-Hulbrad Infernal, was what I was suggesting.


That said, you have a point.... Hrm..

 

[Teh Frixz]

Black sheep position is always open

 

[SephirothSage]

Aye, Black Sheep was the plan, but..


I'm not familiar with house Hulbrad beyond that their theme in general is Sloth. So I'm not too sure- and would a Black Sheep of that house being someone who is active, vibrant, and non-slothful, even actually be possible?


Edit: Read up on them in the Darkening Skies PDF.


Perhaps a Hulbrad Spy-type fellow who fills that Black Sheep, outspoken archetype?

 

[Teh Frixz]

The vices of the Houses can be interpreted in many different ways. The slothful of House Hulbrad aren't truly...sloth like. More so riddled with inaction and neutrality. Acting from behind proxies and closed doors, they represent the sin of having the power to do something and refusing to do it.


Many Infernal also may not be as guided by their inherent vice as their kin. The draw is always there. To regain full Infernal glory in the reality, to taste the vice and sin of mortals. To spread the word of your demon patronage!


But you have a choice...


Indulgence isn't a requirement. You have the greatest gift of all, a gift you were born with and had no part in accepting or denying. This doesn't mean that you are stuck this way. Throw off the bonds of your heritage, become somehow lesser or greater in your own way. It's truly up to you.


 
Also @Silvertongued


You best believe that Adeline has expensive chrono captured images of baby Edel in a bound album that she's going to show anyone interested at this House get together

 

[Teh Frixz]

Edel's reaction?

 

[Silvertongued]

Probably polite smiling. She's not a big one for overeaction.


...that said, those photos go mysteriously missing any time Adeline goes looking for them for such a purpose...

 

[Teh Frixz]

And that is how Hulbrad schemes manifest.

 

[Silvertongued]

Would Adeline have any other kids, or would it be just Edel?

 

[Teh Frixz]

More than likely just Edel. I feel like any mystery and excitement Adeline felt at having a child would be lost at the experience of giving birth. I feel like Edel was probably not a difficult birth as things go (Clean conditions, well supplemented pain killers, plenty of attending Invested) but the experience wouldn't be taken well by Adeline or looked back upon with any great joy so she'd not do it again.


If there were other children, they'd be heavily raised by nannys as well which would upset Adeline because of all the effort she put into Edels childhood in comparison. She'd not like to start any jealousy or rivalry among her own spawn.


I do imagine Adeline having siblings herself though, especially if @The Fuzz gets back to us with Tristian being a brother.

 

[The Fuzz]

I'm cool with being a younger brother. I don't see Tristan being older than about thirty-two.

 

[Silvertongued]

...what would your guys folks be like?


'cause I have the weirdest image of ol' Granpa/Granma Hulbrad being relatively similar to slightly petrified Count Orlok, if they're indeed, still alive...

 

[Teh Frixz]

If Adeline is 60-70 something, Tristan a solid 32 and any of our as to yet be named siblings in between that, then yes, a pair of positively ancient Hulbrad grandparents would be nice. Maybe an extremely stereotypical Hulbrad Grandma who spends her time living inside books and scrolls and/or a Hulbrad Grandpa convinced he's dead and cremated an attempting to resided fully inside large Urns.

 

[Teh Frixz]

Also how should the relationship between Tristan and Adeline be?

 

[Silvertongued]

Possibly a little less Uncle-Niece and more... Cousin-Cousin, since he'd be barely a decade older than her....

 

[Teh Frixz]

Adeline would probably be prone to playing the part of surrogate mother to Tristain but with little actual emphasis behind it. Something similar to how she treated teenaged Edel.