Sep 13, 2017 4:24 pm
Summer has just started settling over the massive sprawl of the megacity Feyshear. All throughout the city, tensions have started to climb as the queen, Jessalynne Ebonstone, has started to significantly show her age. Despite having ruled the city since the tender age of 17, she has persisted in her role as monarch. She is reaching the end of her 100th year on the throne, with a city-wide celebration being planned from the peaks of the Skyview Mountains to the Southern Wall. Rumors and gossip run like wildfire through the crowded streets. Some positing that black magic has kept their sovereign alive this long, others arguing that she is of Elvish descent and will live another two hundred years easily.
The cause of much of this tension is that Queen Jessalynne, the 68th monarch in the Ebonstone line, has never taken a consort or married. Has not produced any offspring or heirs. Her siblings have long since died off, as well as some of their offspring. Jessalynne has made no public statement of who her heir is and there are none alive now that remember the last time a regnal period was drawing to a close without an heir identified. Not even the ancient elves that reside in the hills and forest preserves have a living memory of such a time. The peerage is teeming with intrigue with many of those in ducal positions or higher actively warring with one another over how the city will contend with the loss of the Ebonstone line. There are further rumors that certain ancient families have taken to hiring rabble to execute likely contenders to the throne from their rivals' families.
Among the Guilds, life is the same as always: craft and sell, barter and build. The one bit of intrigue happening here is that the Sparksteel Guild is starting to falter on producing strong enough wizards of their own to run all of the trains on the Adamantine Rail. For the first time in history, they are seeking magic users from elsewhere in the city to train to run one of the prestigious trains to relieve some of the burden.
All of the political intrigue is lost on most of the common-folk. While it makes for expansive conversation fodder, and indeed it has done so with nearly every eatery featuring some collection of people loudly proclaiming their thoughts on the monarchy, they face different struggles. The few massive farmsteads in the world are struggling to produce enough food to supply every hungry mouth in the city. Recent spates of bad weather, mixed with raids by the nefarious goblinoids that inhabit the caves and hills around the shore have cut supplies of grain and meat slim in some areas. While food riots haven't started yet, there are several slum communities where people are going three and four days without food as a regular matter of course.
Within the streets of Feyshear, roving gangs harry and harass well-to-do citizens. Their control can stretch over a few blocks in some cases to as much as an entire duchy in others. One of the most well-known of these groups is The Black Hand. A ruthless gang of children and early adolescents, they are well known for cons and general thievery. Several of these gangs harbor deep hatred for not only the Green Legion, but for the other gangs as well. It is not an uncommon sight to watch dozens of men and women clashing in street fights, only to end with no territory gained or lost on either side, but a pile of dead bodies left in the streets.
Finally, a significant increase of activity has happened in Greenfall Woods. More Fey have come through the gate now than any other time in recorded history. Some think it's because of the ending of Queen Jessalynne's reign. Others say something is happening in the Feywild that is causing them to have to depart. No one can get a straight answer out of the capricious creatures.
On this day, you all find yourselves in The Grand Bazaar, near the very middle of the city. Your reasons for being there are your own. You could be shopping, possibly performing, maybe seeking to convert some of the huddled masses. However, as the day has wound on, and the sun has crept higher and higher into the sky, you have all settled into one of the large central squares at your own separate tables, to enjoy a quick lunch in the pleasant weather. This particular square is about six hundred feet to a side and features all manner of food carts along the perimeter, with scattered tables and chairs and benches throughout the middle where people are enjoying their food.
The cause of much of this tension is that Queen Jessalynne, the 68th monarch in the Ebonstone line, has never taken a consort or married. Has not produced any offspring or heirs. Her siblings have long since died off, as well as some of their offspring. Jessalynne has made no public statement of who her heir is and there are none alive now that remember the last time a regnal period was drawing to a close without an heir identified. Not even the ancient elves that reside in the hills and forest preserves have a living memory of such a time. The peerage is teeming with intrigue with many of those in ducal positions or higher actively warring with one another over how the city will contend with the loss of the Ebonstone line. There are further rumors that certain ancient families have taken to hiring rabble to execute likely contenders to the throne from their rivals' families.
Among the Guilds, life is the same as always: craft and sell, barter and build. The one bit of intrigue happening here is that the Sparksteel Guild is starting to falter on producing strong enough wizards of their own to run all of the trains on the Adamantine Rail. For the first time in history, they are seeking magic users from elsewhere in the city to train to run one of the prestigious trains to relieve some of the burden.
All of the political intrigue is lost on most of the common-folk. While it makes for expansive conversation fodder, and indeed it has done so with nearly every eatery featuring some collection of people loudly proclaiming their thoughts on the monarchy, they face different struggles. The few massive farmsteads in the world are struggling to produce enough food to supply every hungry mouth in the city. Recent spates of bad weather, mixed with raids by the nefarious goblinoids that inhabit the caves and hills around the shore have cut supplies of grain and meat slim in some areas. While food riots haven't started yet, there are several slum communities where people are going three and four days without food as a regular matter of course.
Within the streets of Feyshear, roving gangs harry and harass well-to-do citizens. Their control can stretch over a few blocks in some cases to as much as an entire duchy in others. One of the most well-known of these groups is The Black Hand. A ruthless gang of children and early adolescents, they are well known for cons and general thievery. Several of these gangs harbor deep hatred for not only the Green Legion, but for the other gangs as well. It is not an uncommon sight to watch dozens of men and women clashing in street fights, only to end with no territory gained or lost on either side, but a pile of dead bodies left in the streets.
Finally, a significant increase of activity has happened in Greenfall Woods. More Fey have come through the gate now than any other time in recorded history. Some think it's because of the ending of Queen Jessalynne's reign. Others say something is happening in the Feywild that is causing them to have to depart. No one can get a straight answer out of the capricious creatures.
On this day, you all find yourselves in The Grand Bazaar, near the very middle of the city. Your reasons for being there are your own. You could be shopping, possibly performing, maybe seeking to convert some of the huddled masses. However, as the day has wound on, and the sun has crept higher and higher into the sky, you have all settled into one of the large central squares at your own separate tables, to enjoy a quick lunch in the pleasant weather. This particular square is about six hundred feet to a side and features all manner of food carts along the perimeter, with scattered tables and chairs and benches throughout the middle where people are enjoying their food.
