#I spent over a week agonizing over the scheme of the Phoenix end choice lmao pour one out lads

[house-of-mirrors]

Before City in Silver, I had decided the third act of Orsinio's character arc would involve the Great Game, and the Scheme of the Phoenix was a nice surprise and fitting opportunity to explore his morally grey facets. The liberation ending once again has me thinking about his relationship with the nocturnal powers, as well as the parallels between his character arc and the Halved.

The King Who Wars

Orsinio is temperamental and quick to react. He can be short-sighted and make choices to benefit his immediate loved ones or goals above a greater good. His revolutionary tendencies come from not only a desire for a better world, but wanting to see punishment for the wrongdoings of the kings. Direct action.

The King Who Speaks

Horatio was levelheaded and cool, never revealing his hand. In great game negotiations, he was a pragmatic and expert diplomat. Patient and calculating, meticulously compiling paper trails, able to diffuse situations with words alone. Setting up schemes and watching a gradual yet inexorable result.

The Halved

Only one is still here to carry on the work. Orsinio used to wonder what his brother would have done, but he's long made peace with the fact he's on his own. Stepping out of Horatio's shadow. Calling the shots. Orsinio is all raw emotions. The knife is in his hand, not an agent's. Horatio never got his hands dirty.

The Tower

Now Orsinio is confronted with a choice that places the weight of the world in his hands. Knowledge is a heavy burden. He can walk away and let the intrigues play out of their own accord, or he can take an active role.

The White

Still he hesitates. Beating the high powers at their own game will have disastrous consequences, but wouldn't it be cathartic? The tension in the world is going to reach a boiling point with or without his intervention on the board, and here's an opportunity to show the Old Man in Vienna he's a rival to be reckoned with.

The liberationist nemesis player's philosophy. "I draw the line at assassinating someone's loved one for personal gain, but inciting global chaos is fine."

The Black

Nor is Orsinio alone. He is not acquainted with the Anchoress. The Black has No avatar in Parabola, unlike the Beleaguered King or Red-Handed Queen. Orsinio steps up to the role on the chessboard. He's acting on behalf of not only himself. (And who's to say his interests are always completely his own?) No knight for no king.

Cry 'havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war

The wrench in the system. The well placed bomb. The world turned on its head by a storyteller. Liberation.

Sequestered in his office, papers scattered on his desk. His briefcase may as well contain a ticking time bomb. Orsinio senses No One behind him, placing a firm grasp on his shoulder, covering his eyes, whispering in his mind, Do it.

Alea iacta est.

Orsinio doesn't move his hand to tip the scales.