#marian varmont

[forgottenarthur]

The Badge of Queen Marian

The Queenly Arms of her Royal Majesty, Marian of the House of [Marian], Queen of [Varmont]

Or (yellow/gold): generosity and elevation of the mind

Gules (red): warrior or martyr; military strength and magnanimity

Argent (white/silver): peace and sincerity

Pupure (purple): royal majesty, sovereignty, and justice

Rose: hope & joy, denotes distinction, 7th son ~red rose—above + Grace/beauty, martyrdom

Sun: glory & splendor, fountain of life, intelligence/enlightenment

Crown: heaven; victory, sovereignty, empire; success

The royal badge of the Queen Consort

Marian's own elaborated crest:

Both the couple and their legitimate children are entitled to the use of any of the below crests.

Note to Lizzy: any of the below could also work for Cassandra's own badge, if you don't think she has one of her own? (IRL she probs wouldn't have one of her own bc she isn't a ruler/doesn't command armies or households, but lbr this is a fantasy world! We make the rules! And she's an imperial princess soooo)

The combined arms of the Queen with her husband, the Emperor.

Mantled display:

An alternate (though the more technical one would be the above given its dexter/sinister divide etc, this device is still one that could also be used esp for Arthur/Sebastian/Cassandra, given 1) that it plays w the charges and 2) its use of the imperial crown since Marian is technically only a queen and not an empress -- me @ roderick: come on, man -- but I can also make one w the royal crown instead! I just forgot to do it earlier alksdjfkljdsf):

The elaborated arms of Emperor Roderick I and his Queen Marian.

(it was really fun to play w the eleborations -- the screen on the website for making these is v sq so its kinda hard to do that ~and do the arms but its so funnnn now i wanna do the elaborations for everyone alskdjfkjsdf anyway i feel like once i do amira's crest and one for the late empress [everyone, if you have any ideas for that throw them my way!!], i should do another roderick!varmont-wide one which includes everyone's elaborated crests!)

[forgottenalaric]

Sanctuary | Alaric & Marian

The riots had ended hours ago, but there would be restricted comings and goings from the palace until Roderick deemed it safe.

Alaric had seen the angry mobs -- had witnessed the fury with which they threw themselves upon the gates. There was such desperation: they all likely knew they were going to their deaths that day and hardly cared as long as they had a single chance to bring Roderick Varmont to his knees.

Alaric might have been more sympathetic to their cause if his thoughts had not been so wholely occupied in making certain the the occupants of the castle remained unharmed. They were his family and he would lay down his life for them, just as quickly as the Astairans meant to lay down their lives for their queen and country.

For the night, the Imperial Family had been moved to a more secure part of the palace which was still rather luxurious, but certainly not as spacious or extensive as their normal quarters. Alaric, himself, had been helping to man the posts as they increased the amount of guards stationed at every door.

When he found he could spare a moment, he made his way to the part of the castle where Marian and her children's temporary quarters were. He had not seen her since the riots started and he wondered how much, if anything, she had heard.

"Are you alright?" He asked, when he was admitted.

"I don't know what you have been told but, the danger has passed," He reassured, "These protections have been put into place out of an abundance of caution. You have no cause to worry."

[forgottenedmund]

ooc | Edmund & Marian

hii!!!

Edmund has only heard wonderful things about Marian from his mom, haha. That being said, I feel like, as Edmund got older, he would have realized that like 95% of those things are definitely just because Marian is a rival to Amira and her kids are rivals to Edmund. And I'm not sure he'd let his mom completely shape his opinion about Marian. But I do think a lot of how he feels about her, would be dependent on how Marian treats him??? Any thoughts??? Or would she just ignore him because he's Amira's son?

[forgottenronan]

OOC | Ronan & Marian

hi, sooooo gotta apologize in advance for him bc ronan wants all of marian's kids dead bc he believes that as long as any of roderick's progeny survive, so does his evil empire so yeahhh! i think he does view roderick's wives as roderick's victims, but i think he worries they might have to die, too, bc sometone might someday try to raise the varmont flag again in their names, but i do think he's v on the fence abt this. w marian's kids, he does feel that evil flows in their veins, courtesy roderick, so that he can justify to himself a lil more easily, but i think he does struggle w the idea of killing ronan's wives. he sees them as helpless victims who've been de facto kidnapped and forced into all this by the power imbalance that roderick has over them and he finds that absolutely horrifying and believes they deserve freedom and an opportunity to heal etc etc but yeah if killing them is what he decides it takes to stop the varmont empire from ever rising again, he'd do that, too, but he'd def try to make it as quick and painless as possible.

fortunately, roderick is paranoid af and also v used to assassination attempts so he's got all sorts of security set up, but yeahhh here we are and im really sorry about ronan honestly -- and, in this case, so is ronan, frankly </3

[forgotteneilionora]

OOC | Eilionora & Marian

forgottenarias said:  @giadesstrin I was legit contemplating if Marian would like Aria or not but i’m guessing now she does? or at least is cordial enough that she can be like “hey another one of my kids is on death’s door HELP PLEASEEEE” giadesstrin said:  @forgottenarias dgjjfdgh omgggggg I didn’t really think abt that relationship I love that!!!! I’m screaming now too bc like…She’s honestly in such a weird position re: her bc like on one hand her hubby wants to marry her sister???? On another her son is interested in her??? And on yet ANOTHER she’s a professed enemy of her house who helped save her son like??!?!! Poor Marian honestly what a position to be in sgjkfsfhj how is anyone supposed to deal w ALL of that good AND bad shkkgdfh forgottenarias said:  @giadesstrin I need to do an OOC for Marian & Eilia but I def think Marian doesn’t want Roderick to marry her 1) because there doesn’t need to be any other contenders in this heir to the throne race and 2) as much as she still loves him, being married to Roderick is definitely not all it is cracked up to be! Part of marian wants to protect her from him! forgottenarias said:  @giadesstrin and with Aria I think that Marian def wouldn’t like her if there was event the slightest implication of even a potential of some sort of romantic relationship w/ Arthur bc NO ONE is ever going to be good enough for her first born! Sorry ladies! You clearly just want him for his money/power! But Aria being proactive in this above instance and not really wanting anything in return is not a thing she’s used to so she’s not sure WHAT to think rn! Plus she fixed her precious child!!! 

sdfasdf ok so i thought id go ahead and make an ooc for them, and i included the bit abt aria bc i do think that that has the potential to impact eilia/aria things as well!

ok so!! i honestly think that eilia at first thought that it was just really weird that roderick had all these wives and she was like WHY WOULD THEY PUT UP W THAT but uhhhh recently she's been like 'oh. ig maybe they didn't get much of a choice' bc that's certainly been ~her experience re: dating roderick hahaha and eilia def has more agency than they did, being -- though deposed -- a queen so now honestly i think she just feels sooooo horrible for them and is lowkey looking at them -- these two V DIFFERENT yet both v clearly unhappy women -- like 'there but by the grace of the guardians go i' basically laskdjfkdlsf and honestly i think atp she's really come around in the way she looks at them both!! esp marian (bc i def think amira gives off resting bitch face but as a full blown personality disorder even if ur tryna approach her whole deal optimistically alskdjflksjdfajdf)!!!!!

i ~do think if she knows that a lot of the varmont kids have a good relationship w the malconaires that would def be a boost in their favor bc eilia trusts them etc but i ~do think eilia is still feeling far from trusting of the varmonts, themselves, even if she does know that!! just...'at least they're not as horrible as i thought' rather than 'they're good ppl after all' basically hahaha and i do think that, given that its looking more or more like she might be wife #4, eilia has been thinking abt what roderick might look like as a dad since she's now afraid he might be the father of ~her children, and she's like YIKES

so, all in all, she's feeling much more sympathetic towards both marian and her family (minus roderick, STILL decidedly NOT a fan of his)!! and esp w marian on the cusp of this w her sister, i can see where they could maybe start having more ~honest conversations, perhaps? bc i do feel that eilia has played this entire thing by being observant and polite -- stalwart where she needs (ie when it comes to her country and astairans and keeping them safe etc) to be but other than that mostly closed off emotionally and courteous, but basically just tryna give them NOTHING bc she figures they'll use anything at all against her they can

but yeah its been a looooong journey getting there i feel hahahaha and even now she'd def be tentative and clam up at the slightest sign of trouble ngl

[lizzysrps]

THE IMPERIAL ROYAL HOUSE OF VARMONT

[forgottenroderick]

OOC | Varmont-ians & Religious Culture

(and to be clear, i mean, like, peeps from the varmont empire -- esp the og nation -- not just the fam...)

so we know a good bit about the astairan religion, and so i wanted to hammer out some details abt its counterpart, roderick's god! so far, we know a few things

they have one god

the phoenix symbol is linked to their religion

they do NOT like witches!!!!

they consider the guardians to be demons

so!! obv there are multiple real-world monotheistic faiths, [ zoroastrianism, atenism, judaism, islam, christianity, and numerous others ], from which we can take inspiration

we also know that ppl from the og varmont country have a wide variety of naming bg's

roderick (anglicized visigothic) famed ruler

alaric (anglicized visigothic) ruler of all

guinevere (anglicized welsh) white phantom

edmund (old english) rich protection/protector

arthur (anglicized welsh or anglicized latin) bear king or honorable/respectful

sebastian (latinized germanic) venerable/exulted

cassandra (greek) excelling/shining one

bartholomew (greek-ized aramaic) son of the furrowed

marian (anglicized egyptian) sea of bitterness/rebelliousness/wished for child/beloved/star of the sea

alistair (scottish) defender of man/protector

there's also eoin (irish-ized hebrew) god is gracious and ciara (old irish) black lady who have irish names, but i consider these outliers and attribute this to their calleary mama <3

now, why am i jabbering abt names in a post that purports to be abt religion? well, i thought it might help sprinkle in some fun elements to the religion itself if we can kinda pinpoint sort of a cultural element for og!varmont the way we did for astaira

so, why ~these names for these ppl? now, obv there are doylist reasons for this haha but i was thinking it could be fun to run w it and add a layer of in-world reasons esp w the rise of nationalism in og!varmont that came w roderick

so!! the things that came up the most?

visigoths x2

welsh x2

greek x2

english x1 (but almost allll of the names are anglicized -- for obv reasons, we're english speakers hahah -- but still!)

latin x2

germanic x1

scottish x1

now!! its also interesting to note that germanic and visigothic language have the same root, and that welsh, irish, and scottish all have the same root, so by ~that estimation, names of those origins both show up x3 respectively. another interesting fact, english is comprised of ~both of those roots w a dash of french thrown in for spice ;D (thanks, Wm the Conqueror!)

HOWEVER!! it should also be stated that the names of the royal family (those ~born varmont, anyway) should bear the most weight bc those are most likely to be traditional names to the og culture, so the egyptian and scottish names are probs the least relevant to this process but def still worth considering imo! HOWEVER!! its also worth noting that both roderick and alaric were born to a second wife, so its ~also highly possible that their names are derived from the tradition of whatever ~her culture was so yeah!! bc of these sorts of considerations, bartholomew, guin, arthur, and edmund are likely to have the most 'traditional' names as they were all named w the notion that depending on how things shake out they might rule someday, whereas even tho roderick, for example, was born a second son his dad def wasn't viewing him as a potential future king, and therefore its unlikely he viewed alaric that way, either, whereas we all know its equally possible w our ot3: succession kids laksdjfakljsd

ANYWAY, i feel like, altogether, including each one, this tapestry of names is actually telling us a bit of a backstory -- i.e., that the og!varmont nation (OVN for short from now on!) was an international hub, and im thinking that might tie into maybe roderick's father and grandfather and great-grandfather doing lots of trading w other nearby nations, until whatever OVN's ~pure culture felt kinda lost to "revivalists" such as roderick who felt they had to unearth it from the mire of homogenization, leading to the rise of nationalism and acts such as digging into the ancient past to try to discover whatever may have once been unique abt OVN, and as such roderick making huge national statements like IMMA TAKE MORE WIVES NOW and not receiving backlash bc that's what the ancient kings of OVN did, a fact stated in his bio!

this nationalistic and xenophobic rising tide paired w conquest of course then ironically hurls off the shackles of alien cultures (thus alienating the new culture OVN had since been building) only to then do the same to other cultures by obliterating them in the tide that is this frankenstein'd version of whatever the lost ancient culture might've been bc i love it when roderick is always and inevitably hypocritical without realizing it <3

ANYWAY!! all this international trade and such means you'd have an influx of foreign alliances and marriages and, ofc, names, so yeah!!

so, question 1: would it be helpful to sort of figure out culture(s) to model OVN on? and, if so, do any of these appeal?

now let's circle back to religion!

so when you get roderick's reactive party rising to power, you start seeing a couple of things. now, ngl, i kinda feel like maybe roderick actually follows his mama's religion, which may or may not be/have been the same as OVN's, if we wanna explore any potential religious backlash from within OVN, or anything like that? but irregardless of how it came about, roderick has in fact established his religion as the official state religion of his new empire, and failed to believe accordingly meets with a fiery (aka in his eyes, cleansing!) death

sooooo im having some frankly insane ideas abt Roderick’s belief system thanks to the Phoenix iconography (like…boiled down roderick might legit worship death effectively -- the only god that comes when you call, the god of all, the god of equality?!!?!! Though in a slightly more life/death ying/yang creation through destruction kinda way, motto ‘in my end is my beginning’ sorta way idk Sfjkhffg HELPPP!) and before I get too carried away bc idk if we need a death cult emperor 😂😭 ummmm I wondered if you guys had any thoughts abt the varmont faith/the one god/etc adhkkjgdgh

some other thoughts i had — Phoenix flames, sun, light, fire — dichotomy of light/dark, good/evil — so roderick's view, then, Astaira and the staffords literally take the night as their standard (three stars in the night sky) and worship demons, conquest cleanses etc...idk!! what do you guys think? the sun and moon are the eyes of god

i also had some notions pulled from mostly atenism, orphism, and zoroastrianism re: its cosmology, that maybe there once were three gods: the light god, his goddess wife, and the dark god, but the dark god attempted to kill the great god, stabbing him through the eye (the moon eye) but the pregnantn goddess sacrificed herself and her divinity to bring back her husband who cast down the dark god, stripping him of his divinity, and now he's basically ~satan, but he couldn't bear to never see his wife again so he used the divinity he'd seized from his dark brother to #reincarnation and his reborn wife, tho no longer a goddess (since, to bring back both wife and unborn child he had to split the divinity so yeah #onegod), bore their mortal child whom roderick considers to be his ancestor, so basically the varmonts are possibly descended from the god and goddess, reincarnation is maybe a thing, there's one god of light and one demon of the dark, and death might be good maybe? laksjfkljsfk

(i was thinking a belief in reincarnation maybe bc of the phoenix symbology -- representing resurrection, rebirth, life in death, etc, and the dark god bc they obv believe in demons of some kind, and not!god evil gods w demonic servants appear in many monotheistic belief systems, judaism, islam, christianity, and zoroastrianism to name a few)

question 2: is this absolutely unhinged inanity, or does it have potential? i myself keep going back and forth alksdjfakljsf

also last but not least...@thelongforgottenrealm did you have any notions abt this?

[forgottencormac]

OOC | Cormac & Marian

auntie!!! lkajsdfkjldsf so cormac has some maternal cousins (ciara and eoin) who're varmont on their dad's side, and somehow that's resulted in cormac getting it into his head that he's de facto family to the ~rest of the varmonts who are, in fact, not related to him at alllll lkasjdfkjldsf but anyway he def thinks of marian as effectively his aunt????? and so he wants to, like, have tea parties and such w her (esp since he tried once w amira and it went like [ this ] jk jk -- sort of) and he'd have to literally hold a seance to do that w the empress, so marian it is!!!! i also feel like cormac has big mama's boy energy ngl and so he def loves mother figures of all sorts and he's decided that marian is kinda one to him since she's the third wife of his maternal cousin's paternal cousin aklsjdfkljdsfkj

[forgottenciara]

ooc | Ciara & Marian

These two ladies would definitely know each other!

As far as what their relationship would be like, though, I think it would probably depend on Marian? Ciara's mom was pregnant with her at the same time Marian was pregnant with Arthur (#awkward) and then she died when Ciara was born, leaving Ciara w/o a mom. I'm not sure if you think Marian's guilt over the affair would have caused her to kind of be a motherly figure towards Ciara? Or if it would have caused her to just ignore her, to help put the whole thing out of mind? Or if her denial just made her indifferent haha??

I do think that Ciara/Arthur/Guin were probs a little trio when they were growing up, since the three of them were all born in the same year and I think they hung out a lot until Arthur and Guin got old enough where Roderick started trying to pit them against each other. That being said, Ciara & Arthur have certainly remained close and while she's probably #teamguin tbh with the whole ~succession~ thing, she also believes that a case could be made for all of them and any of them could do it .... roderick just needs to make up his mind! She's also been pretty neutral about her opinion, though, in public b/c it is a touchy subject and, being a woman, her opinion is probably more harmful than anything as far as roderick is concern lmao

Whatever their relationship, since Ciara is pretty happily engaged to Amira's brother, idk if that would impact things, too???

[forgottenrian]

OOC | Rían & Marian

so as i mentioned [ here ], i feel like rian's name could def come up in disucssions of a potential groom for cassandra, but im guessing, given what we've discussed, she wouldn't be on board?

either way, rian is def gonna be v respectful towards roderick's queens and all their children! he does wanna potentially marry guin and no lie he'd probs in that scenario make a bid to become emperor as her husband hahaha but he's not married to that plan (or guin HA! ;D) but he'd contemplate it. untile then, he's here to make all the queens and princes and princesses more comfortable and happy and curry whatever favor he can alskjdfkjsdafjk

i feel like he's...not as great at networking as he could be hahahaha like he def pulls a mr darcy at social gatherings by standing scowling in the darkest quietest corner he can find alksjdfkljdsf but it doesn't stop him from trying bc one thing he v much is, is ambitious!!!! so he'd love to cultivate marian as an ally if he could!! 'if you shoot me down as cassandra's groom, pls recommend me for guinevere!' BAHAHAHA

[forgottenarthur]

Marian/Arthur - “ you’ve been so quiet. what’s on your mind? ”

The prince started. In truth, he'd not known someone was there, so lost in his thoughts he'd been. Sitting in the broad windowseat, long legs outstretched with Aria's book in his lap, he'd been reading for hours when movement outside the window had caught his eye. Aria's scarlet cloak wafted in the breeze, a stark contrast to the snow-struck world ringing round her. She'd stopped in her course, noting a stablehand, and the ring of her familiar laughter had wafted, too, all the way to Arthur, his book forgotten in his lap, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched, entranced, as crimson heat overtook her cheeks, green-dark eyes shining bright.

Surprise bloomed in his chest -- a princess, even reduced now to a lady as she was, but still a princess raised -- stopping for a casual chat with a hand and, not only that, she grew entirely absorbed in it. Her face was angelic in happiness, her forest-dark gaze star-bright and dancing all about her as if the whole of cosmos bent closer when she smiled. How could she be so joyful in such circumstances? Everything she'd once known lost to her!

Unconsciously, Arthur leaned closer, as if he could prize the secret from the smiling curve of her lips or the flush of her rosy cheeks. He didn't think he'd ever been so pleased in his whole life as she was now to stop and chat with a servant in the blistering cold, yet another bell-soft peal of laughter seemed to make all the ice sparkle.

Sighing, he leaned back against the cushions pillowing his back, his eyes roving now over this icy landscape: her native home. How it would change from here on out, Arthur already knew. He'd watched his father conquer other worlds long before he'd ever set foot in hers, and whatever sweet wildness was here to be found: that, he'd stamp out and ring all in stone and iron to suppress it and, strangely, something in Arthur's chest ached now to think of that brutally civilizing force, to think of the way her eyes danced now like starlight, and to think they might be suppressed only into tame, flickering candlelight.

Was this how he, too, would someday be? If he lived, he would be emperor, and if he was emperor, would he too smother the stars beneath the tread of his imperial heel? Was it always destined to be so? Was that the only way, the only path to survival? For him, he knew it was empire or death: his only salvation. But was he doomed to uproot every flowering plant in his path? Would she ever smile like this again?

Arthur jolted at the familiar sound of his mother's voice in that moment and, quickly, sat up, swinging his legs around to sit in a less relaxed way, the window and Aria in her scarlet cloak now to his back.

"Mother--" he took a moment, processed what she had said. Arthur licked his lips, unconsciously glancing down. He saw the long-forgotten book in his lap and he slammed its cover closed.

Glancing up again, he spotted his mother following where his gaze had earlier strayed. Arthur pressed his eyes shut, knowing she could not fail to note Aria, robed as she was in crimson against a backdrop all of white, and rubbed the back of his neck.

"The Lady Aria is quite a beauty, isn't she?"

Arthur shook his head. She was, but he didn't wish to be having this conversation. "It's awfully cold out--" he began, not quite sure where he was going, but wishing to dislodge the line of thought he feared was forming in his mother's mind.

"And you...worry she will catch a chill?"

"What? No, I--" Arthur shrugged, helpless. "It's not like that, Mother."

"Hmm..." Marian slowly seated herself beside her son. "What is it like, Arthur?"

"I--" he shook his head again; rubbed the back of his neck again. "Will I be emperor, Mother?"

Her face shone with astonishment, settling into certainty. This was not the question she'd been expecting, but she had never shown even a hint of doubt that that was to be his future. "Of course."

Arthur fell silent a moment. He wished he could be so sure. He thought death a more likely outcome, in truth. "This is a beautiful place," he said, gesturing around them.

"It is."

"She's talking to a stablehand, you know."

"The princ--Lady Aria?"

He nodded. "They talk to stablehands here. Princesses. Talk to stablehands."

Marian's brows furrowed.

"It's a very natural conversation, too. Friendly."

"Arthur...Are you...jealous?"

"Mother!" he reddened. "Focus! What this means is...it's normal. Maybe she's not a princess, anymore, but she was one, once, and it was ordinary to them, then, that a princess ought to speak on friendly terms to a stablehand."

"What are you driving at?"

Sighing, he rubbed his arm. "I don't know, I--I don't know."

"Is that the type of Emperor you wish to be?"

"What?"

"One who speaks on friendly terms to a stablehand?"

Arthur frowned. "Is that...possible?"

"When you're emperor, Arthur, anything will be possible."

"Anything?" Unconsciously, Arthur glanced towards the window behind him. Aria was laughing again, and taking her leave. He glanced down at the book in his lap. "Anything..."

But he couldn't be so sure.

[forgottenamira]

OOC | Amira & Edmund

hiya, it's ya mama!! ummm idk how to tell you this but...godfrey's the fun parent klajdsflkjsf amira is too busy tryna one-up varys at court and being all 'you embarrassed me today' when edmund fails as a motivational tactic lkasjflkjdf (and we've already discussed the kind of dad ~roderick is akljsdfkjsf) BUT don't let her fool you!! where roderick is all fire, amira is all ice and if you touch her kid you WILL quietly and painfully die -- not that she'd ever tell edmund that beyond smth along the lines of 'no one else matters, only us' bc her parenting is a++++

ANYWAY!! edmund is 100% the product of her ambition like...lol she don't give a flying fuck abt roderick! as far as she is concerned, roderick is a tool in multiple senses! ;D honestly, edmund ~is the person she cares most abt (sorry, bros!), but like...he's #2 in her life bc the thing she cares abt most isn't a person at all -- it is ultimately revenge/power (they're the same thing to her -- miss thing is a slytherin ;DDD) <333333 she's def got a 'the world is at your feet or its at your throat' mentality so she ~does 100% see gaining revenge/power as protecting edmund in her own weird way bc she's been at the world's mercy before and she'd do absolutely anything to make sure that edmund never is -- like, making him emperor is, in her eyes, the only way to keep what happened to ~her and to godfrey from happening to her baby, but that is still 100% more important than his happiness!!! and she would 100% acknowledge this openly there is no dancing around it alkjsfkljsdf like, she doesn't really believe in gods as such (just that there ~are super powerful beings out there that it pleases men to call gods), but if she did, that whole 'god doesn't want you to be happy, he wants you to be strong' quote is 10000000% amira's whole mentality so that's fun!!!

anyway, she's def raised edmund as mommy's lil warlord <3 he must be strong if he wishes to survive what's to come!!! (she also thinks roderick is actually weak af and that's why things have gone as abysmally as they have) also lowkey think amira might've poisoned guin's mom bc she was worried she would have a son </3 and amira can compete with marian for roderick's affections, but not w his og empress, so she didn't think edmund would stand a chance of ruling if the og wife ever had a son. like...amira's been looking towards this war since the first day she clapped eyes on roderick and said 'imma seduce that man' alskdjfkldf also tbh i don't think it actually ~was black magic that produced edmund but i think ~amira thinks it was alksjdfaljksdf so!! that's fun ksjdfaklsjfaksdf amira: you know what really spices things up in the bedroom? black magic babies!

ANYYYYYYWAY, she had edmund specifically and intentionally to create the next emperor and then stupid marian beat her to the punch (i.e., hearing about marian's pregnancy is when amira turned to black magic to ensure she'd conceive) but then amira really fucked up and started to actually care about edmund!!!! #whoops so she was like 'no more babies! i will not become weaker!' and that's why edmund has no full siblings aldksjfskldjf

so, re: amira's opinions abt the future!! she isn't really worried about guin becoming empress bc she honestly can't see roderick w all ~his hangups ultimately wanting guin to rule, what w being a woman, and besides -- and much more importantly bc amira doesn't give af what roderick wants tbqh -- guin obv doesn't wanT the throne so she aint gonna fight for it after roderick dies (in fact, bc of this amira is 100% fine w roderick picking guin -- she'll just oops! tragically die of grief after losing roderick, just like her mama did, and then BOOM edmund for emperor aljsflkjsf), but arthur ~will fight for the throne. sebastian's hardest to nail down, but he ~is male, so ppl of the varmont empire might still amass behind him, so amira means to axe him too someday, just for good measure

i do think once or twice, she has tried to kill arthur and sebastian when amira thought roderick was on the brink of making a decision she didn't like (yeah? that one really really srs childhood illness arthur had? poisoned by his stepmama, but tragically -- tho he nearly died -- he pulled through after all :/) but i do think she was only halfhearted even then bc i think she believes that the competition makes edmund stronger so his bros get to live a lil longer ig alsdjflksdf but she probs has been poisoning marian for awhile, just enough to keep her from conceiving again lkajsdfkljsdf bc amira realized too late that poisoning wife #1 actually made guin's position stronger w roderick and she def doesn't want that for arthur and seb, so marian gets to live lkajsdlfkjdjf

[forgottencassandra]

Trapped | Cassandra & Marian

"The riots ended days ago, are we truly still not allowed to leave the palace?" Cassandra groaned, crossing her arms as she took a seat upon her mother's bed.

This was not unfamiliar: they had been in dangerous places before and her father was quick to enact a lockdown (especially when it came to his wives and daughters) if he sensed that anything was amiss. But this had seemed particuarly long to Cassandra, who had never had friends who lived outside of the castle walls before.

She'd had plans to meet Rose this afternoon (or rather, she'd had plans to meet her the day the riots occurred and, after accepting that she would not be going anywhere on that day, had decided each day after that this would be the day that she would have a chance to leave ... only to find herself once again disappointed).

They had not had time to properly talk about all that had transpired at the ball and Cassandra was eager for her company. Rose had taken to writing Cassandra a letter, but she found that she was too distracted to give it the proper attention it deserved and believed that saying everything in person would far better convey everything than writing it down, anyway. Not to mention, Cassandra hardly had the discipline to scribble down more than a few lines unless she happened to be waxing eloquently in her journal when describing her own romantic encounters.

"Arthur is convinced it will still be a few more days yet ... " Cassandra felt especially crestfallen to hear that - if Arthur felt that she could not leave (even with his own protection) than it might truly be days until her father allowed it. "Oh, how shall we ever bare it?"

[forgottentristan]

OOC | Tristan & Marian

ok so like tristan's big wish? to be a true knight! however, he's also a calainon and you only need to take one look at his siblings to know he's gonna have a tough road to hoe hahaha he's also young enough that, like...he's only six years older than arthur, yknow? he def isn't part of the varmont family (except as edmund's maternal uncle), but also he was raised amongst them, so he's in this really weird position where he's sort of on the outskirts of ~everyone's lives that he knows/cares about, and i def think that he's been struggling to find his place in the world his whole life and just wants to be a good person but he feels kinda lost and, like, the most guidance he'd had came from freaking ~godfrey, who loves him but also lowkey abandoned him for edmund when edmund was born and left him feeling purposeless???? and the other person is amira who...lbr is noT a warm person lakjsdfkljsdfjk by any stretch!!!!

so yeah!! i def feel like amira was telling tristan from day one that marian was ~the enemy~ but also i feel like marian was probably frankly kinder to him than amira and yeah!! i feel like there's probs a lot of weirdness coming out of all of this but my general point is, i think despite everything, that he does care a lot abt marian!!! but also knows that, w lines being drawn between arthur and edmund, that things are gonna be horrible and messy

i do think edmund's main wish is that things can be settled without a war!!!! but i also think that as each year goes by, he's probs more and more aware that that's just a pipedream! SOB

[forgottenvalentina]

OOC | Valentina & Marian

fun fact! Valentina lowkey wants to ~be you lkajsdfkljdkjsf like...she's actually ~not the biggest fan of roderick, for himself, but just...having a son who might legit get to rule the world someday?????? that's all valentina wants!!!! why can't she have it SOB since cassimir seems intent upon breaking his poor mother's heart whose done nothing that isn't for his benefit, bowing and scraping and sacrificing for him to do this one (1) lil thing for her but instead he's gotten caught up in the spells of a literal witch!!!!!!! but it doesn't even ~matter if arthur gets bewitched bc, in valentina's book, he has the strongest claim of all those kid, being the firstborn male!!! no others need apply!!!! lkajsfkljdskjf

anyway, valentina is nothing but kind to marian (or as kind as valentina can be which is to say kinda sacchrine alksjdfkljsdf) bc she wants to be her sister someday when her daughter marries marian's son!!!! since (tho she doesn't know it yet, she'll know it soon!) cassimir has given up on her his dream of him being emperor!!!!!! or...when sonya becomes marian's sister-wife lasdjfkjdsf SCREAM

now, there is one lil wrench in this situation bc, while she was a fan of @forgottensebastian and was even gonna let him court her stepdaughter if he ~really wanted to! (how generous of her!!!!) lasdf lkajsdfjsdf[ v recently that has changed ] alksdjfkljdsf and she's now afraid of him which makes her villainize him in her mind so now she's got some cognitive dissonance bc she's tryna convince herself that roderick/arthur are ideal husbands bc she does legit want her daughter to be happy (but deep down she knowsss roderick's bad news! she literally had to stop him from burning her stepdaughter alive without trial!), but also that sebastian is a villain and like???? tis a loT and she's tryna figure out now where marian fits into all of this so like...idekkkk how that's gonna look exactly but honestly best of luck to the both of these two w all that lakdsjfkljdsf

but yeah i think mostly she's stil saccharine/sucking up but now she's more jumpy/watchful sldkafjksdljf bc lowkey she knows that sebastian's onto her but she's still tryna convince herself she's a good person so its time for some fun w projecting onto ther person who made her feel bad shenanigans alsdkjfkldsjfkjdsf

[forgotteneabha]

OOC | Eabha & Marian

eabha does NOT trust varmonts, and i feel like she is lowkey like 'the nice ones are just putting on an act' and so she's even sus of poor marian ngl alkjsdfjdsf esp w not one, not two, but all three of her children constantly lurking around malconaire, i tink eabha lowkey thinks they're up to smth!!!!! and this is some sort of spy operation alksjdfkljdfkj

tbh the fact that arthur stops hanging around there sm when eithne breaks up w him will def put some holes in that pet theory, but she just doesn't trust the ppl who ripped her away from her home and took it for themselves!!!!

anyway ngl i doubt these two have many opportunities to interact? but i imagine eabha's pr cold if/when they ever do ngl -- she don't trust like that, alas, not after losing her home </3

me: chill out, eabha, marian's innocent of roderick's many crimes, babe

eabha: eyes emojis