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--- zeitgeist:places:risur [2022/04/13 21:13] – [Fey Titans, Archfey, and the Unseen Court] neyrick
+++ zeitgeist:places:risur [2025/05/21 21:07] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1
@@ Line 212: / Line 212: @@
 not always follow their own rules.
+<WRAP relinfobox>
+<WRAP relinfoboxtitle>Sword of the Black Needles</WRAP>
+Five centuries ago, as Lanjyr was reeling\\
+from the fall-out from the Great Malice,\\
+the Voice of Rot rose up against Risur and \\
+cast a smoky pall across the sun. The king \\
+at the time, Dukain, was a mighty but aged \\
+wizard who wielded magic through his sword. \\
+He traveled to a mountain ridge overlooking \\
+the High Bayou, known as the Black Needles, \\
+and there he battled the fey titan, which had\\
+taken the form of a towering anaconda of \\
+smoke and peat.
+The king battled the titan high into the \\
+Black Needles, and after three days neither\\
+side could force the other to surrender.\\
+Realizing he could not defeat the titan \\
+and thus was unworthy of his crown, Dukain\\
+cast aside his sword and abandoned the\\
+battle. The titan, in its fey logic, saw\\
+that it and the king were equally matched,\\
+so when Dukain ceased to fight, so did the\\
+titan. Dukain yielded his crown to his\\
+chosen successor, the titan returned to its\\
+slumber, and Risur was saved.
+Scholars fear that should the lost Sword\\
+of the Black Needles ever be recovered,\\
+it would signal a resumption of battle \\
+for the fey titan, and once again threaten\\
+the existence of Risur</WRAP>
 ==== Fey Titans, Archfey, and the Unseen Court ====
@@ Line 247: / Line 279: @@
 except with more giving men donkey heads and tricking people into
 falling in love by sniffing poison flowers.
+===== Monarchy and Government =====
+Risur’s current monarch, King Aodhan, rules from
+Torfield Palace in Slate. Now in his seventies, Aodhan was only thirty when the previous king chose
+him as his successor. Aodhan had distinguished
+himself in the Third Yerasol War against Danor,
+performing feats of strength and heroism most today assume are just tall tales.\\
+Aodhan has always been fascinated by Danor’s
+technology, ever since he lured its first steam-
+powered warship into a kraken’s reef lair, waited
+for the crew to abandon ship, then beat back the
+kraken and single-handedly piloted the vessel—still
+bearing scars of the kraken’s tendrils—to the harbor of Flint. (Or at least, that’s one story of how
+it happened.) Once he took the crown, Aodhan
+pushed for industrial investment to keep up with
+Danor, but regional governors forced him to keep
+foreign technologies out of Slate. Flint became the
+next most obvious choice.\\
+King Aodhan’s aged wife died four years ago.
+Though heredity and marriage has little impact
+on national succession, many wonder whether the
+king will seek a new bride so late in life. Despite his
+great strength in his youth, the king grows weaker
+each year.\\
+Many suspect he will name his younger sister
+Duchess Ethelyn of Shale as his replacement, and
+indeed she has distinguished herself as a leader in
+the Fourth Yerasol War that ended seven years ago,
+even though her city nearly fell to Danor. She is rumored to have close ties to the Unseen Court, and
+acts as Risur’s ambassador to its nearest neighboring nation. However, her coronation would be the
+first in Risur’s history that transferred the crown
+between two blood relatives.
+==== Politics ====
+Twenty-three governors direct the affairs of Risur’s
+various provinces. Most of these are of noble lineage, descended from one of the nation’s previous
+kings. Noble governance tends to follow family
+lines, unlike the crown. Each governor sends several representatives to the national Parliament,
+which handles the details of implementing the
+king’s decrees and can with a supermajority overrule them. Various officers of the court and of
+Parliament direct specific sub-bureaucracies and
+agencies to handle affairs involving the nation’s
+commerce, culture, defense, and so on.\\
+Perhaps the most prominent noble these days is
+the headline-catching Catherine Romana, a descendant of a previous queen and ally of Duchess Ethelyn.
+She stridently opposes Danoran-inspired industries,
+and prefers to counter that new technology with
+arcane innovations. She is rumored to be planning
+a major announcement later this year, and has been
+seen in the company of brilliant researchers from
+Pardwight and Mitchell University.\\
+One famous exception to the power of the nobil-
+ity is Roland Stanfield, the deva governor of Flint.
+Five hundred years ago he witnessed the fall of the
+eladrin goddess Srasama, and in various reincar-
+nations he has called Risur his home ever since.
+Forbidden by the rites of rulership from pursuing
+the crown because he is no longer precisely ‘mortal,’
+Stanfield was long content to govern Flint and its
+relatively insignificant province of farmers, miners,
+and fishermen. When King Aodhan decreed Flint
+would become the seat of Risur’s industry, however,
+the old deva eagerly took to the challenge, claiming
+he was excited to try something new after so long.
+==== Royal Homeland Constabulary (Gendarmerie de Défense Royale) ====
+With the recent influx of foreign technologies and
+therefore foreign influence, thirty years ago King
+Aodhan ordered the formation of a new government agency to protect the traditional identity of
+the Risuri homeland. Within a decade this mission
+had morphed into investigating significant threats
+to the nation, particularly those involving technology. Today the Royal Homeland Constabulary uses
+a combination of investigators, spies, and warriors
+to root out, undermine, capture, and if necessary
+kill any groups who endanger Risur.\\
+Though most activity occurs in Flint, officially
+the Constabulary’s central chamber is based out
+of Slate and headed by Viscount Inspector Nigel
+Price-Hill, who was a commander in the Fourth
+Yerasol War. His Lordship’s greatest success as
+director was presiding over the apprehension of a
+group of Drakran necromancers attempting to animate undead dragons in the Anthras Mountains.\\
+Regardless of where they are based, agents of
+the Royal Homeland Constabulary have broad jurisdiction throughout the nation, and enjoy mild
+immunity while overseas when acting in an official,acknowledged capacity.
+===== History and Place in the World =====
+Risur paved the way to nationhood, and many
+others followed the same path. By placating the
+dominant fey titans of Lanjyr they turned the continent into a land for mortals. The Risuri people
+have always respected the spirits and the fey they
+share the land with, but they believe the era of
+those beings has rightfully passed.\\
+While the northern nations waged holy wars between the Clergy and the Seedism faith of Elfaivar, Risur was preoccupied defending its borders from
+the sub-men of what is modern Ber. The dragons
+who terrorized the lands south of the Anthras
+Mountains feared the progress of civilization, and
+would often gather armies of savages to raid or as-
+sault Risur. It is believed that two centuries ago
+King Boyle slew the last great dragon of Ber, after
+which attacks from the south finally faded.\\
+No sooner had Risur found safety to its south
+than did Danor arise in power to the north. Risur
+and Danor have warred for nearly two hundred
+years, mostly using the islands of the Yerasol Ar-
+chipelago as a proxy battle ground, in a series of
+four Yerasol Wars. Occasional waves of conquest
+have lapped over each nation’s shores, and today the
+two countries have more in common than either
+likes to acknowledge. The current king assumed
+the throne at the end of the Third Yerasol War,
+four decades ago, and he presided over the fourth,
+in which Risur lost much land against the threat of
+Danor’s superior technology.\\
+Leaders of Risur’s merchant guilds, its military,
+and its noble families are grateful for the stabil-
+ity, but fear a resumption of hostilities. They have
+taken advantage of the new international cordial-
+ity in order to catch up with Danor’s technological
+revolution. Whether the next threat comes from
+Danor or another foe, Risur is arming.