[Red Valor] Notes on NPCs, both from my recent campaign and from the setting in general

[Elven Doritos]

These are all copied out of notebooks and shorthand, so excuse their disjointed and confusing nature. Ask questions if they arise. Certain omissions of unfinished or secret material exist throughout.

1. Maximelius Detrivan, Commissioner of Rhodon

"Yes, I hear rumors of this Maximelius, terrible rumblings from across the Empire. I do not envy this man who is proclaimed a liberator in the West,  an autocrat in the South, a master in the East, and a servant in the North. It is rare that one man can lead so many lives; rarer still that he leads them all in earnest."
-Maximelius Detrivan, mocking criticisms of his policies

"I am in awe of Maximelius the Tactician and a student to Maximelius the Commander. For Maximelius the Humanitarian, I lack comparable faith and enthusiasm."
-Kolann Deovus

Maximelius Levulius Detrivan
Title: Commissioner of Rhodon, among others
Political Affiliation: Expansionist (Maximist)
Nationality: Kettan
Ethnicity: Rannish
Base of Operations: Soben's Citadel

Arguably the world's foremost military tactician and certainly its most feared commander, Maximelius is responsible for breaking centuries of stagnation in the Kettan Military and for restoring the national pride of Kettan citizens.  After humiliating internal crises led to the vast reduction of the standing Kettan army, the Emperors of the early 1200s often considered abolishing the professional army altogether with an intent to rely on militias and mercenaries in the event of war. Maximelius and his mentor, Decimus Lurenius Calpurnius, lobbied for the expansion of Kettan forces at a time when it was considered unpopular, hoping that a restored military would intimidate former Kettan provinces into resigning their sovereignty. Emperor Kirenius sent the matter to the Imperial Senate in Rudregon for resolution.

After delivering a calculating but nonetheless impressive speech before the Senate, Maximelius and Decimus were each granted provisional legions, with the express command that they only be used in retaliatory or humanitarian circumstances. Stationed  along the border with Baltia, it was assumed that Maximelius would be given no opportunity for military intervention while Decimus, whose cross-border machinations in Incorra were yielding promising results, would garner all of the glory for the increased prominence of the military.

A series of disputes between the Emperor and a Baltian prince, Calaphian of Evria, brought Kettan-Baltian relations to the peak of instability, prompting Maximelius to launch an invasion under the auspice of preempting Baltian aggression. Although this pretext was widely regarded as fictitious in both nations, Maximelius nonetheless received the blessings of both the Emperor and the Senate as his invasion proved to be successful. Decimus was not so fortunate, and soon faded into obscurity as Incorra, his lucrative target, signed a formal defense pact with the Senate. His commission was retired and Maximelius was named Commissioner of Rhodon, undisputed master of all the Kettan armed forces.

As the tumult of the Baltian invasion passed, the ardors of expansion and occupation taxed the patience of the Maximist legions. During the years of Gregorium, reconciliation was the official policy of the Emperor, while in practice the Occupied Territory was ruled by Maximist puppets. Gregorium purportedly considered retiring Maximelius' commission and appointing a less domineering commander, but feared popular reprisal if any perceived injustice was levied against the Commissioner.

In the days that led up to Gregorium's assassination, rumors circulated in both Maximist camps and in the halls of Imperial Palace that Gregorium intended to undermine the Maximist rulers of the Occupied Territory and restore former Baltian lords to their provinces. Instead, as Kolann Deovus supplanted the slain emperor and consolidated considerable power, an arrangement was struck: Maximelius, operating out of the peninsular stronghold known as Soben's Citadel, would be given direct authority to appoint officials in the Occupied Territory and any other conquered provinces in the east, while Kolann would be given absolute authority throughout the remainder of the empire. The agreement was mutually beneficial, though not without its difficulties: conservative Optimates in the Senate were aghast when Maximelius petitioned for the indefinite extension of the praetorship of Septimus Vorilius, a political moderate who had become an unwilling proxy for Maximist interests in the mainland. By refusing to reintegrate Angarr Province into the traditional Imperial government, Maximelius is perceived to be defying the authority of the Emperor, the Senate, and the "northern Empire" as a whole.

Additional reading: http://thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?77589.post

[Elven Doritos]

2. Propraetor Septimus Vorilius
"But Dominus, I am innocent!"
"I have no use for such protestations."
-Excerpt from The Trial of Acedius, a satire of Vorilius

Septimus Vorilius
Title: Propraetor of Angarr Province
Political Affiliation: Indifferent
Nationality: Kettan
Ethnicity: Rannish
Base of Operations: Angarr City


"A gawkish man with golden skin, steely gray hair cut in the traditional military fashion, and a hooked nose, Septimus is at all times garbed in the black tunic and orange sash that signify his office of governance. Three lictors, his personal bodyguards and standard-bearers, accompany him throughout the city. He limps as he walks, suggesting some ancient injury, but otherwise exemplifies the Kettan ideal of vitality."

   Vorilius was a loyal ally of Maximelius Detrivan in the Senate and helped promote his rise to the office of Commissioner of Rhodon. When Angarr allegedly housed Baltian refugees in 1229, Maximelius ordered the province seized and its namesake city plundered. Taking the initiative to execute the Baron of Angarr, Maximelius petitioned for direct command of the province, hoping to implement his experimental brand of martial law and strengthen his foothold in the southeast.

   Even staunch expansionists within the Senate balked at the Commissioner's audacity, but the august body nonetheless feared violent retribution, if not outright civil war, if they refused his demands. A praetorian delegation was elected to negotiate terms with Maximelius, who entertained their offers in the interest of preserving state order. Maximelius accepted the Senate's condition of a military withdrawal from Angarr on the terms that one of the praetors- Septimus Vorilius- be held personally responsible for the security of the province.

   Vorilius nominally commands the Angarr Legion XVII, an inexperienced unit that has missed most major theatres of combat. In reality, command of the unit falls to his chief of staff, Legate Titus Dolerum. Friction between Vorilius and Dolerum has magnified recently as Dolerum believes the praetor is ordering the legion into carrying out frivolous tasks along the countryside, and rumors that Dolerum intends to overthrow Vorilius are popular gossip within the city.

   The praetor has three sons and two daughters: Septimus Vorilius, Nerius Vorilius, Kaerius Vorilius, Septima the Elder, and Septima the Younger. His wife, Aria of Rudregon, is the grand-niece of the assassinated Emperor Gregorium. Vorilius is a collector of strange creatures, alive and dead, and employs a full-time taxonomist and animal-keeper. The heads of a dire owl, a tiger, and - most impressively - a basilisk line his office walls.

   Vorilius is often cranky before lunch and rarely approves expenditures while sober.

[Elven Doritos]

Kolann Deovus

"Dignity, piety, and purity are indispensable to effect a thriving people, a righteous ruler, and an ordered state.  We shall lift this Empire from the foundations of our ancestors, an august body in absolute union;  we thusly defy the expectation of history."
-Kolann Deovus, upon his coronation as Emperor of Ketta

"I have yet to decide if that creature is a rat, a dog, or some mad god's cruel breed of both."
-Maximelius Detrivan, on Kolann Deovus

Title: Emperor of Ketta (among others)
Political Affiliation: Expansionist (Kolannist-Maximist)
Nationality: Kettan
Ethnicity: Callistonian (nominally, secretly Baltian)
Base of Operations: Rhodon City


Just read this: http://thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?77589.post
And this: http://thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?77269.post

[Cheomesh]

As I said in the IRC, it looks good.  I like the use of quotes, it tells me more than a wall of text.  I should take a page from that book.

M.