pandoraboxlife

[pandoraboxlife]

Contor is called the Charmed Lands by the globe.

It's not hard to see why.

With beautiful scenery and unique architecture, its picture perfect views made the entire continent memorable. The animal life is sweet, the plants are medicinal, objectively speaking, it's charming. That's not even mentioning the people.

It's like walking into a magazine, everyone is fashionable, everyone is charming, easy on the eyes.

But it does have its flaws.

It's exclusive to the point of suspicion, only people born there or selected by trusted individuals are let in. Kinda like a cult.

There is a ruling class, high ups on the food chains are exempt from certain practices and laws. Some would call it an oligarchy (which I firmly believe to be true), while others call it "church run" which is fair.

Bullying, cheating, and the rampant use of illegal drugs are prominent among even the lowest ranks.

[pandoraboxlife]

He's not that interesting of a character.

I've met him a grand total of one time and that was the most basic of famous person to normal person interaction.

Aka, I saw him on a stage on the main square to send a lackluster message to the populace.

Why did Echo think this was important for me to find out, not a clue. But if I can yap about the Amos Family I will.

[pandoraboxlife]

In other news, Contor seems to be on fire....

[pandoraboxlife]

Let's ask the philosophical questions here.

Like why do Fridays have to be reserved for a fashion show everywhere and anywhere? On anyone? Anything?

I swear even beetles are more confident on Fridays!

But I'd take watching a beetle walking the runway rather than witnessing Azreal Nestor flirt with my older brother! Like just pay your tab and leave! You already have like four other boyfriends you do not need my brother!

Shoo! And take your fancy silk shirts somewhere else!

[pandoraboxlife]

Silvia blew up the slip and slide.

I no longer wish to be here.

[pandoraboxlife]

Ideally, when the temples make a match between two individuals, it usually ends in a happy betrothal and successful marriage. This ideal, is only reached like half the time though.

Most of the family heads nowadays are in a successful relationship with those that the previous Temple of Amor set up several generations ago. Some families hit the jackpot when it came to the matchmaker game. Nolan and Azura Brooks are a prime example of this.

They have a near perfect relationship with one another and all three of their children are in stable, albeit infamous, marriages. Heir Caden Brooks and his wife Amelia have been married for quite a while and have four children together. Their oldest daughter Visha is married to Heir Irbin Moss and they have two kids. Even their youngest, Florence, has been married to the wealthy Bryant Family and has four kids with her husband Oswald.

Their bloodline is secure, family wealthy, and are living their best lives with people they genuinely seem to love.

Amos on the other hand.....yeah. I don't want to dig too deep on that one.

Some say it's a curse placed on them for not taking care of the Temple of Amor as well as they should've. Others say it's a blessing from the god Amor (yeah right but okay).

Either way, Lord and Lady Amos are the only living pair of the family to have a stable relationship with one another and not have cheated on one another.

Their eldest has twelve children from three different women, but this is nothing compared to their youngest's twenty children and of four women, two of which are married. The middle child, strangely turned out to be the best, despite still having two brides and ten children.

Needless to say the only "blessing" they got from this was the near endless amount of political unions they can make from marrying off the ludacris amount of children their sons fathered.

Not all hope is lost though. Sebastian Amos, third in line for the head of house, has been in a steady relationship with his betrothed, Maviette Dazarali, for four years now, despite the age difference. (Still an issue for me but they both seem happy, not like I can go against the words of Amor)

That being said, Major and Minor Families are having the same issues as the Amos Family, though to a lesser extent.

I've mentioned the piece of work known as Seth Zhao before, right? The nineteen year old with a betrothed who he cheats on all the time. Honestly it wouldn't be so bad in my eyes had he'd been more tactful about it. He's young, goodlooking, and famous so of course he's going to sleep around a bit.

But seriously, he could not do it when his fiancee is standing right next to him. Maybe not so publicly with her cousin no less?

Messiah, my sweet angel, if you see this, please, drop his ass.

Did I make this post just to complain about Seth? Yes, yes I did.

[pandoraboxlife]

I don't like talking about religion for a variety of reasons. The questions that usually come up in said conversations are hard for me to answer in any way. But mostly because religion in Contor is a lot more complicated than a simple belief system. Especially in recent years...

Though I'm not exactly directly involved in it currently (and hopefully never will be), the four temples of the gods are attempting to reestablish the Temple of Amor. Which is good, our gods are few in number but strong in character and power. Having one specific god not represented in temples or worshipful ways could affect the livelihoods of us common folk.

Amor is the most widespread of the gods, having given blessings to three fifths of the population here on Contor. Which usually is just to make people conventionally attractive. But for the Amos and Cresswells Families and all those under them, missing a proper way to worship their god has been.... difficult to say the least.

Now, with the new Temple of Amor being built and manned by members of the Divine Families, Amor's blessings may finally envelop our lands once more.

But, as many of us can agree, the thought of a new Temple of Amor....is frightening. It brings up horrible memories for those involved with the schemes of the Corrupt Church hidden behind the last Temple of Amor. So there is no doubt that people will be looking at this Temple far more closely than most. As they should.

This also brings up many questions for me personally.

Who will be chosen as the next Seer of Amor, or Prophet, or even...

That question can wait for another time, actually, we don't even need to fill that particular position as it's only there in formalities. They aren't blessed by the gods or really that important in the long run. A temple can easily run without them so long as the nuns and priest(ess)s are competent.

But what of the families that will be designated to run it? The divine families have better things to worry about and, to add to that, they aren't really allowed to be in control of the temples. (Separation of church and state, ya know) So only one family is chosen to look after it, usually a minor one or even a nameless one that was chosen specifically for the job.

The Veil Family have been doing a great job with the Temple of Walush. The Downs Family have managed Ucripty's Temple for generations. So who will be chosen by Amor to watch over their temple and any others that follow after it?

Considering that this affects everyone blessed by the god, I can't help but wonder what it'll be like for me. I can't remember a time when Amor's power graced our lands, given I was still a toddler when it all went down. So this will likely be new for me.

That being said, I don't feel good about adding more people in charge. The temples can override the Divine Families but only if their gods deem it necessary. And we all saw how that went down....

[pandoraboxlife]

I do love gossip, don't you?

The Zhao Family is a Major Family working under the Nestor Family. They usually take care of the coastlines in the Nestor Region of Contor. But, they were a dying family.

The late Patriarch of the family had only one son, Anteros Zhao, and when he died and his son became the Lord, he had no wife. So he fumbled and ended up with a Minor Family's daughter Akriti Winters, now known as Lady Akriti Zhao. It was a bump up in the social latter for the Winters but one that was almost immediately lost.

As in just a few years of marriage, two sons in, Lady Zhao was found rolling around in bed with the infamous Eryx Amos. A scandal more ruinous than the Sickalon incident. After all, the Amos Family is ruled over by the deity Amor, and is a rival to the Nestor Family and their god Hivo.

However it only got worse, as it was revealed that Eryx's habits hit once again. Lady Zhao was pregnant with a set of twins, that most certainly didn't come from her husband.

Now, considering that the Zhao Family is still very much a Major Family today, (this happened nearly twenty years ago) one must ask how they fixed it.

The simple answer, they didn't. No, the Nestor Family, the Amos Family, and the Zhao Family all chose to ignore it.

The Amos Family have long since given up on their youngest son's behavior at this point. So them ignoring it wasn't a surprise.

Nestor didn't want to be involved with it, seeing as it didn't really affect the money or citizenship all that much.

And Lord Zhao turned a blind eye to it, seeing as they already have an heir and a spare.

The twins were taken in by the Amos Family, as it was their son that caused them to be brought into this world. Lady Zhao went and had two more sons with her husband, then proceeded to give birth to quintuplets which were obviously fathered by Eryx again. After that she was sent back to her family and only stayed Lady Zhao in name.

This would've been the end to this messy tale had Seth Zhao not turned out the way he was.

As the saying goes, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree in this case. Seth Zhao, the third son of the Zhao Family and is betrothed with Messiah Quade. However, Messiah Quade is best known for having been shipped off to America to study abroad, only returning about five years ago. Seth Zhao was here in Contor this whole time and has been stirring up a romance with Soraya Quade, Messiah's very own cousin.

Though, I can't help but wonder if this rumor has any ground to stand on. Soraya has always been a little bit of a liar and a flirt. So for all I know this was all made up by her.

I'm willing to have some room for speculation, after all, Seth has said nothing on the matter.

But I must also take into account that Seth is also a rock star and is known for sleeping with his groupies. (Yuck) Which we have proof of, so he's still cheating either way.

Simple advice for him, get your act together or else the Quade's will find someone else to marry their youngest daughter too. There is a line of bachelors out there just waiting for the betrothal to get removed!

[pandoraboxlife]

I think my country's political system is probably the most strange and ineffective out there.

The Ten Divine Families are simply the most rich and powerful families in the country and they each rule over certain parts of Contor. A feudal system, an oligarchy.

From my understanding this is how it works.

On decisions affecting the entirety of Contor all ten heads of the Divine Families must make a vote, if it ends in a draw, the families in the area that is most affected by this change will be welcomed into the vote. This could take weeks if the vote continues to land in a draw and they have to pull in more and more family heads into the discussion. There have been times where every family head of every Divine, Major, and Minor family have been in attendance for a voting.

If it came down to it, a nameless one would be brought in as a tie breaker. Which usually ends in the nameless one earning a family name and becoming a minor family under an appointed major family.

However, in smaller issues the may only affect a region, only a major family, sometimes a divine family given the specifics of the area, are brought in to vote. That being said, it mostly falls to the major family and the minor families under it to make a decision on the area. If it's only a town issue, the closest minor family will be the ones to handle it.

The power pyramid goes a little like this.

The Four Churches sit at the top, they can override any decisions made by the Divine Families due to their Prophets and Seers.

The Ten Divine Family, it's said that they're chosen by one of the five gods, two families for each. But I'm inclined to believe it's nepotism more than anything.

Major Families work under a Divine Family, each Divine family had upwards of three Major families under the mat at any given time and this can change based on the actions of the Major Family's members (See how the Zhao's nearly fell from grace).

Minor Families work under Major Families, they handle small issues. Every small town has at least one of them nearby. They can rise into a Major Family if they prove themselves useful enough.

Under them are the nameless, yes they do actually have names. It's just that none of the churches or the divine families recognize them as important figures. 90% of Contor's population is nameless. Only a handful of families have fallen down to the ranks of nameless usually because they messed up so bad that even the gods struck them down (most recently, having been involved in The Church of Amor).

It is shocking to say that it functions just fine. Most areas in Contor are self sufficient so there's hardly any need for governance. The most action any of the upper class families get are from ceremonies that require their presence.

But they have been exceedingly.....busy these past few years, for obvious reasons.

[pandoraboxlife]

Three Bigs Clash

How three of the ten big families got involved in a fistfight.

Dean Sutton (male, 67 years old) is a well known artist here in Contor and is better known in the political sphere as the head of house for the Sutton Family. While he's had his fair share of rumors and drama surrounding him and his family. The rumor that he's found himself in is one few could imagine going so badly.

Though, calling it a "rumor" would be slightly incorrect. Seeing as most rumors do not have a mountain of evidence, a police report and video proof of it actually occurring. And most rumors don't involve more than one of the ten "Divine Families of Contor" getting involved.

Let's put this as plainly as possible before things get too complicated.

Dean Sutton enters into a bar and has a number of drinks. In comes Heir Irbin Moss (male, 47) with his wife, Visha Moss (female, 47) . The pair take a seat next to Lord Sutton and Irbin strikes up conversation. One heated argument later, the pair are rolling on the ground throwing punches and hurling insults.

It was a fight nobody saw coming for a variety of reasons. Dean Sutton was hardly a violent man, even when faced with an unfaithful wife he never so much as raised his voice. To see him throw the first punch made more than a few confused.

Though the fact that the punch was thrown at Irbin Moss was .... less surprising to say the least. He's never been one to "play nice" with both words and fists. Often breaking rules in honor duels all the way back when he attended Celestial. However, much to everyone's awe and delight, he could do nothing against the older man's assault.

The ensuing social and legal battle occurred. However, things got messy when Heir Moss called in the Nestor's Family personal lawyer to represent him. An audacious move on his part, but one that triggered this rather minor dispute between minor houses into a wider, more hostile domain. Which was made all the worse when Lord Sutton called on the Brooks Family Lawyer to defend him.

Now, how did this involve the Dazarali Family?

Business dealings, of course, and of course marriages. Both the Sutton and Moss Families were connected to the Dazarali's. More closely, Dean Sutton's wife was once considered a daughter of the Dazarali household, even if she never carried the name. The Moss Family has a more loose connection, being under the control of the Nestor Family, the Nestor family being close allies with the Dazarali Family.

Bring into the field the well known grudge of the Dazarali Lord against Lord Brooks....ya, the Dazarali's sided with the Nestor's and now Lord Sutton's honor hangs in the balance.

Needless to say, what should've been handled civilly in court has now exploded into a scandal like no other. Rocking the counties under the control of the Brooks Family.

More on this to come,

Pandora

[pandoraboxlife]

Welcome to my blog where I vent about the people I share the continent of Contor with and how they aren't what they seem.