Taking a page of what I have so far, this is Isobel's page from the current Source Book. I'm certainly open to any criticism that may improve this piece.
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Isobel The Defender (later The Conqueror)
Role: Isobel was a duchess in the South of the Al-Hau mountain range. She had already served as captain of the Holy Guard and was well known as not only the best fighter, but the best commander in the Ecclesia. After retiring from the Holy Guard after two terms as captain, she had barely gotten resettled in the management of her fief in the foothills when the reach of the One Empire's third crusade reached their borders. As the Ecclesia in Al-Hau lost their mountain range to the west, Tsenara arrives on Isobel's door step. After careful negotiation with the high priestess, Tsenara devotes her greatly improved powers, aged twenty-two at this point, to the defense of Isobel's lands which are now the front-lines of the battle, in exchange for an arranged marriage with Isobel.
After breaking the waves of the third crusade in a close battle, a distant invasion by the Tsuta Empire of the One Empire gave them a more permanent reprieve. Isobel sets out with a detachment of her most experienced troops to retake Nor for her new consort, and to keep the attention of the One Empire divided. Almost three weeks into the campaign, the couple had their first and last tryst for the next thirty years. Four months after liberating the majority of the kingdom of Nor, including the new capital city of Eory which is the coastal city in which Tsenara was born, their daughter Moia is born. Moia has the wings of an Angreal but her wings are colored blue with white tips. A mere two days after birth, Moia is kidnapped by members of the One Church clergy that had remained behind under the pretenses of tending to their congregation.
The kidnapping of Moia began a new chapter in Isobel's life, and is the tipping point at which she changed from being known as The Defender, and became The Conqueror. In a few short months she had mobilized not only her own remaining forces, but dissidents from across the region to prepare an all out assault on the One Empire.
After almost a decade of hard campaigning, the capital of the One Empire falls. The next five years are spent routing the remainder of the imperial loyalists into Tsuta where they are accepted as refugees. Her military career ends with herself as Empress of the newly formed Nor Empire, centuries later renamed the Isobel Empire to legitimize a tenuous succession, with Tsenara as her consort.
Age at Death: 68
Reign: 35 years
Description: Isobel is a strong woman, both mind and body, heavily muscled and intense. Her hair is raven black and usually kept in either a single ponytail while prepared for battle, or in carefully arranged dreads for formal events. Her usual dress is a rather plain halter top with loose breaches, for formal matters she usually wears a burgundy version of the Angreal officer's uniform, an open backed shirt with elaborate, but usable, sleeves and loose straight breaches gathered into leather boots. In battle, her armor is the standard Angreal heavy armor with strong forward facing plates, and leg armor mostly provided by plates hanging from the belt.
Isobel and Tsenara have a famously tempestuous relationship. Isobel is not a lesbian, however she agreed to the arranged marriage for political expediency. Tsenara on the other hand holds a very strong unrequited love for Isobel which rules her love life for the entirety of their reign. Immortalized in poetry, stage and song for the rest of their history is a famed event where Isobel supposedly slashes her own eyes, blinding herself, in penitence for her philandering with men about court. Her bastard sons inherit the empire from her, but over the coming centuries, the lost blue winged bloodline is a constant fear of those seeking unquestioned rule.
15.6.09
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In the section where you say she is not only the best fight, but best commander in all Ecclesia I think it should read best Tactical Commander in all Ecclesia due to the fact she is more of a front line lead the troops sort of woman from the sounds of it vice arm-chairing quarterback strategic type of commander. Both could be best but the tactical bring out a lot more to it I think.
ReplyDeleteI may have missed some pieces as well, but who are the one church and how do they fit into the overall scheme of it and why would they take Moia?
Yeah, I think you have the right of it and I'll work that in to the original. The concept was always that she be something of an Alexander the Great, but starts out without his drive to expand.
ReplyDeleteThe One Church is part of the larger organization of the One Empire, cheesy name I know but it's the most descriptive I could come up with. The One Empire was built off a philosophy that the world should be united under one religion, one empire, and one ruler. As to why they would take Moia is almost a book on it's own. You see, there are two competing viewpoints within the One clergy, on the one hand there are those with a reductive view, the role of the church clearly being to simplify and purge the many conquered faiths down into a single cohesive religion. On the other the expansive view which believes the role of the church to take and nurture the many belief systems and religious texts under a single umbrella. More or less that every flavor of faith should be respected but taught to respect each other as different ways of viewing the same fundamental philosophy.
The clergy in Nor were members of the latter and in fact home to one of the most extensive libraries of religious texts in the empire. Within those were a wide variety of prophecies and so forth, and of course a recurring theme were messianic prophecies. Meaning that while not fitting perfectly, Moia was far too close to the messiah to be comfortable, especially in the hands of a warlord from a competing religion and an atheist remnant of a race the humans fought right up to their extinction. But also being religious, killing a possible messiah was not exactly within the options to be considered. So they kidnapped her and took her to a place they had kept hidden even from the leaders of the main church.
Strange to think, this one act may have been what permanently cemented their descendants final extinction a thousand years later.
hmm, well more than a thousand years now that I think about it... in fact, with the inexactness of the time line I don't know how long it was precisely. Hopefully I'll be able to fix that while writing the source book.
ReplyDeleteah ok, that sheds a TON more light on it for me...that makes a lot of sense basically two factions within the same church under one leadership however with opposing views in a sense...I like it...lots of drama to be had there...good story content...
ReplyDelete