Recent History
Prince Leon Alexandre grew up under the long shadow of Cardinal D'Argeneau. His mother and regent had taken the cardinal as her confidant and advisor, and soon he was practically controlling Montaigne. When Leon attained his majority in 1630, he took the crown, thanked the cardinal for his good work, and to everyone's amazement, retained him as an advisor.
He had, after all, done a rather good job of managing the country.
But there was inevitably conflict between the two. The Dowager Queen had wanted to enjoy her wealthy and position unencumbered by political duties, but King Leon wanted to be king in fact as well as in name. The cardinal, used to his "advice" being the law, began to chafe when it was suddenly only advice again. Things only got worse as Leon, both brilliant and pious, began to question the cardinal on certain doctrinal matters as he entered his thirties. The king was earnestly trying to reconcile his belief in a loving Theus with the First Prophet's assertion that all sorcerers were condemned to the Abyss. Cardinal D'Argeneau heard dangerously heretical undertones in the questions, as well as threats to his authority. The relationship between the two men soured, and as Leon reached 40, the cardinal withdrew from the palace to the Chateau du Theus.
In 1666, not long after the king had turned fifty, he issued a royal proclamation concerning sorcery. In it, he declared what everyone knew - that the du Montaigne royal family were Portiers. He confirmed the sinful nature of the practice of sorcery, but averred that merely having sorcerous blood was not a sin. Henceforth, sorcerors would be welcome at his court, so long as they abstained from the use of their powers.
The declaration was a statement of conscience for the king that he could no longer forebear from making. He knew, politically, that it was not a good idea. It would antagonize the church. Many of his sorcerous nobles would continue to use their Porte in secret. But he felt that it was more important to allow repentant sorcerors some public approval, to encourage more to lay aside the practice of their Art.
He greatly underestimated the Vaticine Church's reaction. This was due in no small part to the newness of Castille's young King Sandoval. He had not been on the throne long enough for Leon to gauge his reactions, and the young man heavily encouraged the Hierophant to respond militarily to Leon's proclamation. The Hierophant made one token effort to resolve the issue without violence, ordering Leon to recant the heretical ideas he had put forth and make public penance. King Leon answered that, while he still considered himself a good Vaticine, he did not have anything burdening his conscience for which he should do penance. The Hierophant immediately declared Leon a heretic and sent the Inquisition to march on Charouse.
It was soon clear that the Hierophant had made a bad mistake. Charouse was not taken, saved at the last moment by a corporal's blinding flash of inspiration. A young man named Montague took charge of his unit when the lieutenant was killed, and ordered the men to stagger their musket fire, subjecting the oncoming Inquisitors to a sustained, withering barrage of musket balls.
Leon, of course, had to reply in kind, lest the whole world think that they could invade Montaigne and get away with it. He put the young corporal in charge of his army and promptly regretted it. As a commoner, he had not studied the rules of war. He was effective - damnably effective. But wars in Theah were supposed to be, as much as possible, the affair of gentlemen, fought according to rules, like a duel. Rather than a duelist, Montague was a rough back-alley brawler, using weapons and tactics that scandalized both sides with their uncouth savagery. Also, he was winning.
The Hierophant swallowed his pride and came to Charouse, to attempt to negotiate a peace. Leon was willing to hear him out; reinstatement into the church and a portion of the lands that he had taken seemed to him to be gentle terms. But during the negotiations, the Hierophant was killed in his room. The Lightning Guard swore that they heard screams and, when they burst in, the man was already dead - apparently killed by his Castillian bodyguards. In the ensuing fight, the bodyguards died, never to be questioned on the matter. Leon believes the account of his personal guards, but the rest of Theah finds it hard to accept.
Hostilities had been suspended while negotiations were underway, and King Sandoval had used the time to bolster his defenses. When the fighting returned, Castille was in a much better position to defend herself, and the war has been dragging on since then.
NPCs
King Leon Alexandre du Montaigne
Two problems loom largest in Leon's mind. The first is the war with the church and with Castille. So long as Montague is making progress - which he is, but slowly - his nobles are eager to see it continue. Also, Montague is eager to see it continue, and Leon is growing afraid of what may happen if he were to bring the general home. He is beloved by his troops; if he commanded them to march on Charouse, they just might do it... His wife Queen Morella has suggested sending Montague to fight in Ussura. It might solve his problem, but at the cost of antagonizing the Gaius for no apparent reason. And that might end up an even bigger problem.
The second problem is, of course, his nine daughters. Morella again has an answer that Leon isn't sure he likes. In Vodacce, rulership proceeds down the female line. Why couldn't one of his daughters inherit the throne? She, of course, proposes her own daughter Dominique. His first five girls have common blood; the next three are cousins to King Sandoval, who is proving to be an enemy. Besides, Dominique is free of sorcery. Naming her as his heir might patch things up with the church. Leon fears that if he names one daughter as an heir, the other eight will try to assert claims as well, and his kingdom may be torn apart. Unless he named one of the unmarried girls his heir and matched her up with, regrettably, Montague... She could rule by virtue of her royal blood, and his military prowess would secure her throne. But the thought of the bloodstained ruffian as King of Montaigne is a hard pill for Leon to swallow.
Queen Morella Caligara du Montaigne
Morella did not, when she married Leon twenty years ago, intend to remain his co-regent. She intended to become a dowager queen, like Leon's mother, after the untimely death of her husband. But to her astonishment, his strands proved nearly impossible to manipulate. Many were Court cards. By the time she'd borne Dominique, and begun to contemplate a more traditional method of regicide, she decided that she actually rather liked the man. He was so clearly brilliantly intelligent that she could perceive it even through her Vodacce prejudices.
So rather than eliminate him, she decided to try and work with or through him. To preserve their marriage, he had developed a charming blind spot with regards to her Sorte. She never directly mentioned why she gave the advice she did, and he never directly asked her. This worked to her advantage when her motives were somewhat murky.
Morella is an agent for Sophia's Daughters. She is attempting to get her own daughter on the Montaigne throne as a first step in starting another female dynasty. She has manipulated the strands of Leon's other daughters: he's had a falling out with Nicolette; Lydia has had that awful accident in the Lockhorn forest; Ysabette has run away; Miriam is about to horribly embarrass herself with Joris Brak. King Sandoval's growing paranoia may take care of Chérie, married to a Castillian don. Rosamonde is just a matter of time - sea travel is so perilous. Anne and Evelyne remain the only possible problems.
The strands tell her that Montague is a threat to her plans. Ussura, she thinks, will take care of him, and Ketheryn - another Daughters agent - will surely moderate her husband's response to "a border skirmish."
Cardinal Maurice D'Argeneau
The cardinal is afraid.
He is an old man, well into his eighties. His reflexes are not so good; his hearing is going. But he is beset on all sides with conspiracy and madness, and doesn't know which way to turn.
His own king killed the Hierophant, unless King Sandoval did. Either way, he's afraid of a tit-for-tat attack against himself if he sets foot in Vaticine City. He barely leaves the Chateau du Theus, in case it was Leon who ordered it. He could be next. He knows Cardinal Verdugo is up to something, something to increase his power. He'd like to burn the king of Montaigne as a heretic, D'Argeneau is sure. Not that he likes Leon, but it just wouldn't be right for that to happen to a king of Montaigne, even if he is a sorceror.
And the Vodacce Five. They started the rumor that he was getting too old for his job. His eyes and ears are going, not his mind. There really are plots and wheels within wheels; he's sure of it. Cardinal Durkheim really didn't need to stick her pert Eisen nose into his business.
But she did, and now he's starting to doubt his sanity. He bids her good night in the chapel... and then sees her disappearing down the hall by his chambers. She goes out to meet with the king... but then he glimpses her in the cathedral gardens. His guards never see these fleeting appearances.
General Montague
Montague is a brutal man; but then, war is a brutal business. He served under officers who wanted to pretend that this wasn't the case, that there were "rules" to be observed. Funny how most of the "rules" seemed to preserve the lives and lands of other men like the officers. Funny how it didn't seem to matter much if following the "rules" put the fighting men at more risk.
Montague has one rule: Win. It's the only rule that really matters.
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