OOC: EwtF

[Pamela]

@ Nathan- re: de Casteelle vs Tarnos: Phew, am I ever on the right side of this schism...

@ Moral: no hard feelings meant! I'm lenjoying the dialogue between these two.

[Nathan of the FoS]

FoS Politics Continued!

Speaking very generally, allegiances within the Fraternity tend to run along the following lines:

FoS members in Dementlieu and Borca are generally supportive of de Casteelle; the Fraternity is stably established in both domains, and members from these domains tend to be more "establishment" types--straight wizards or illusionists, perhaps with some expert levels. There is no single strong central organization here, since both Dominic d'Honaire and Ivana Boritsi would be strongly opposed to such a development; since there is not good academic support, Fraternity members in these places tend to be noblemen or gentlemen of significant independent means. (Examples: Raphael Buchvold, Paul Dirac, Pierre Lacomte)

The Brautslava Institute is the mainstay of the Fraternity in Darkon; its members also run strongly to "establishment" types. It's big enough that it essentially recapitulates the Fraternity in minature; Count von Lovenhorst has many proteges here, but so do de Casteelle and Scott, and, of course, its Director, Eonarda Roeccha, is a long-time associate of the Shadowcloak's. (Examples: Eonarda Roeccha, Magnus Wolfsbane)

The Radiant Tower is another major power center for the Fraternity; if Drakov cared about politicking among "his" mages, or had the slightest inkling how many of them have such a significant outside allegiance, he would probably order the place razed immediately. Until very recently the Tower did not have any real representation among the Fathers--illusion gets very little state funding, and few from the Tower are eligible for the upper ranks. The election of Mikkelson to the Umbra was in large part due to the Fraternity members of the Radiant Tower throwing their support to him. The (relatively few) Fraternity members of Nova Vaasa and Invidia tend to affiliate themselves with the Tower. The Tower mages hope to control Mikkelson to represent their interests; whether or not he'll co-operate is another question entirely, of course. (Examples: Auguste Dupin, Marcos Vedarrak, Valry Rivtoff, Ibelis natha Quiret?, Marko Kaspan?)

Richemulot, until its late difficulties, was mainly in the camp of von Lovenhorst, due largely to the recruiting efforts of Viktor Hazan and Erik van Rijn. Paridon is also mostly pro-von Lovenhorst, for the same reason. Because of the presence of the University of Richemulot and the general relatively high level of education in Paridon and Nosus the members from these domains tend to be more academic and middle class than those from Borcan and Dementlieu. (Examples: Hazan, Alfred Larner, Gertrude Kingsley)

Malcolm Scott has no geographically-unified base of support; he manages to perform the trick of befriending all sides of Fraternity politics, and communicates regularly by correspondence with any number of proteges. The few members of Mordent are mostly his recruits. (Examples: Simon Torrens?)

Lamordian brothers are mostly associated either with Scott or von Lovenhorst; the latter because he lives there, the former by serendipity, as his most influential associate (Hans Loder) lives there. (Example: Hans Loder, Lars Lorenz, Karla von Lovenhorst)

People recruited from well off the beaten track--places with little communication with the Core, or places like Tepest, Hazlan, and Valachan, where the Fraternity is almost non-existent as a formal organization--and recruits with unusual backgrounds and/or skills tend to have been hand-selected by Tarnos Shadowcloak or one of his proteges. Many are wanderers who look down on "researchers" who never leave one library except to visit another. (Examples: Eonarda Roeccha, Natho Dossevsky, Ibelis natha Quiret?, Marko Kaspan?, Simon Torrens?)

[Moral Machivelli]

@llana- me too

@Nathen- Yay. Internal affairs. (I'm not sure who's most thretaning at this rate. Van Rijin, or the Umbra)

[Nathan of the FoS]

@Nathen- Yay. Internal affairs. (I'm not sure who's most thretaning at this rate. Van Rijin, or the Umbra)

That's always the question, innit?

[Nathan of the FoS]

Interpersonal relations at the highest levels:

De Casteelle and the Shadowcloak hate each other, as mentioned above.

Von Lovenhorst and the Shadowcloak have many of the same philosophical differences that de Casteelle and the Shadowcloak have; the trend toward an institutional Fraternity is largely based on von Lovenhorst's work and philosophies, as put forward in the Oathes and Compacts. However, they seem to have little or no personal antipathy; obviously they worked together very effectively to keep the Fraternity viable after Azalin Rex exiled the Fraternity from Darkon and tried to destroy it. If they agree on something, it will go through.

De Casteelle and von Lovenhorst work well together and seem to have many similar ideas about how to manage the Fraternity and its affairs; of course, they also have their differences. Von Lovenhorst was once unquestionably the most important leader of the Fraternity to rank and file members, but be Casteelle's influence grew rapidly in the years in which von Lovenhorst was absent. Von Lovenhorst's return seems to have weakened de Casteelle's position somewhat, but matters between them are now more nearly equal.

Scott appears to get along well with all the other Umbra, and is largely a mystery to low-level members of the Fraternity. An invitation to Scott Manor is, however, usually considered a sign that a brother has Arrived.

Mikkelson seems to regard the older Umbra as behind the times, and has called each of them out individually in his rise to the top. Ironically (or, perhaps, by excellent strategic planning) the fact that he was no-one's protege ended up working to his advantage. In the last election to the rank of Umbra it was widely believed that it was a three-horse race between Eonarda Roeccha, Pierre Lacomte, and Hans Loder, with Roeccha expected to win out--but each of them was widely known to owe his advancement to one of the sitting Fathers of the Fraternity. It seems in the end the Fathers elected Mikkelson as a compromise candidate who would be an independent actor, thereby maintaining the current balance of power. His election was also a sop to the Radiant Tower, who wanted someone from outside the "Port-a-Lucine-Brautslava Axis" to represent the newer branches of the Fraternity.

[Pamela]

Eek! Rolled 13, but don't think it will be enough! (Sorry I have no idea what all my modifiers/bonuses/whatever are...

[Moral Machivelli]

Nathen-Hmm. I'm suprised. Do we roll the will saves, or do you want to? (I rolled, anyway. Got 16. Broke even! Buchvold's will save is 7. Is that acceptable (Wanted to know before posting)

[Nathan of the FoS]

Nathen-Hmm. I'm suprised.

Well, that's the point.

Do we roll the will saves, or do you want to? (I rolled, anyway. Got 16. Broke even! Buchvold's will save is 7. Is that acceptable (Wanted to know before posting)

We're on the honor system. If it needs to be secret I'll roll it, otherwise I'll just let you guys know. Buchvold and Llana are both free to act. Dang wizards/sorcerers and their pesky good Will saves.

Llana, Gertrude's Will save modifier is +11; I'll send you her character sheet soon.

[Moral Machivelli]

Llana- Err, Buchvold attacked the guy who cast the hold person spell(Presumably Mikkleson, if it is, the missiles should shed enough light to reveal the fact). All the missiles went to him. What's this about attacking the guests in the ballroom?

[Pamela]

The guy who cast the spells emerged from the ballroom with the guys with swords. These guys are:

1) Invaders (ie van Rijn supporters) who've walked out of a ballroom that had been filled with Brothers minutes before. None of these Brothers ran out of the doorway, cried out for help or a warning, and there are no fireworks coming from that room. Ergo, those inside the Maision are all fighting really quietly, and/or are dead.

Gertrude doubts- or really, REALLY hopes, that this isn't the case. So that leaves:

2) Brothers who have a personal reason to attack Gertrude or Buchvold.

3) Brothers who've been received an intruder alert, and are attacking something behind the two. They wouldn't see anything, since their backs are to whatever might be there, which means we were unluckily in the way of a spell directed at them.

Hope this makes sense!

[Moral Machivelli]

It does. But they're no longer in the ballroom, that's what I was curious about.

[Pamela]

Just went to check my post again. The error was my wording- I meant those who'd come from inside the house eg the armed guys and Mister Hold-It, not those inside eg Crow, the Countess.

I'll go fix that now.

[Moral Machivelli]

Hmm. Interesting wording Nathen. As written, either A) The gang are looking for traitors, or B) the gang are traitors attacking Mikkleson, Mikkleson spoted us, and tried to stop himself being flanked. It could be either.

[Pamela]

"It was the Borcan, not me!"

As an aside, Nathan, alhoon had posted that Serd had gone inside already and removed his invisibility. I wrote him present in my post, but..?

[Moral Machivelli]

Hay, he only fired a warning shot. Or five. Honest. Not that he'd want to hit Mikkleson or anything

Anyway, since Mikkleson cast first, it was tecnicly provoked. Also, I've a fealing that the father won't survive to press charges (Call it intuition )