Written By Ember
Feb. 2, 2021, 11:37 a.m.(11/12/1014 AR)
Marquessa Llewella Melaeris's sister is Lady Trueth Redreef. She married out of House Melaeris and into House Redreef by marrying my cousin, Lord Roland Redreef, brother of Edward, now the Baron of House Stormbreak. Lord Roland died a soldier's death, but not before ensuring his legacy would continue on, through his son with Lady Trueth, Lord Darian.
With the noble family of House Melaeris presumed to have been lost in this disaster, the legacy that little Lord Darian carries on his shoulders only grows. It is not enough for him to carry on the reputation of his father, or to be among the first born of his generation of Redreef nobles. He carries within him the blood of House Melaeris, already a valuable thing, now outright precious.
There were never thralls in Astarrea. The Marquessa inherited her title without having to win it in a war, as I did mine. I have long looked to Astarrea and seen it as an example of what the Isles could be, if only the traditions that have outlived their time would be finally allowed to rest. Astarrea could have been the template for us all in the Isles to follow. Now, it is a legend that we owe it to those lost to preserve. Nature is capricious and random, but this need not have been in vain.
I will pray for Lady Trueth and for Lord Darian and for those of Astarrea who had the luck to be away from their home or their birthplace. I ask that others join me in doing so.
Marquessa Llewella was a talented artist. In the main hall of the Redreef Estate is a painting that she gifted me. The sculptures by my cousin Lady Sedna are on display in the same hall. Any who come to see those sculptures that have raised so much conversation lately, please also spare a moment to take in the Marquessa's painting, and reflect.
With the noble family of House Melaeris presumed to have been lost in this disaster, the legacy that little Lord Darian carries on his shoulders only grows. It is not enough for him to carry on the reputation of his father, or to be among the first born of his generation of Redreef nobles. He carries within him the blood of House Melaeris, already a valuable thing, now outright precious.
There were never thralls in Astarrea. The Marquessa inherited her title without having to win it in a war, as I did mine. I have long looked to Astarrea and seen it as an example of what the Isles could be, if only the traditions that have outlived their time would be finally allowed to rest. Astarrea could have been the template for us all in the Isles to follow. Now, it is a legend that we owe it to those lost to preserve. Nature is capricious and random, but this need not have been in vain.
I will pray for Lady Trueth and for Lord Darian and for those of Astarrea who had the luck to be away from their home or their birthplace. I ask that others join me in doing so.
Marquessa Llewella was a talented artist. In the main hall of the Redreef Estate is a painting that she gifted me. The sculptures by my cousin Lady Sedna are on display in the same hall. Any who come to see those sculptures that have raised so much conversation lately, please also spare a moment to take in the Marquessa's painting, and reflect.
Written By Ember
Jan. 16, 2021, 12:20 p.m.(10/6/1014 AR)
Today, I set sail, hunting Skal'dajans alongside my fellow Islanders.
In the event that I do not return, Lady Marina shall be the Baroness of Redreef Shores, and I trust her to tend to my outstanding affairs as she deems necessary.
I shall return, though. No Skal'dajan is strong enough to kill me.
In the event that I do not return, Lady Marina shall be the Baroness of Redreef Shores, and I trust her to tend to my outstanding affairs as she deems necessary.
I shall return, though. No Skal'dajan is strong enough to kill me.
Written By Ember
Jan. 13, 2021, 5:58 a.m.(9/28/1014 AR)
Relationship Note on Natasha
I will note to whatever scholars, peers, or citizens who happen to read this that Princess Natasha Thrax has a natural aptitude for certain methods of combat. She requires refinement and conditioning, but this will come with practice. To say more regarding "certain methods" would be to do Her Highness a grave disservice, as at this stage in the development of her skill, it will suit her far better for any potential opponents to not realize what is coming.
Written By Ember
Dec. 19, 2020, 7:17 a.m.(8/6/1014 AR)
Relationship Note on Sedna
To my cousin, Lady Sedna,
You may take as much issue with my late father as you choose. However, it will be a bit of a one-sided argument, as he is rather too dead to respond in the Whites.
I resolved to never be weak again, but that was not a resolution to abandon femininity, and I would be happy to have numerous lovers write to you and explain that to you in excruciating, horrible detail.
Besides which, even within the realm of warfare, there is an important truth that many traditionalists of the Isles either fail to understand, or understand and wish was not true. The strongest and most capable men in the armies of Sungreet and the various Houses full of little dogs nuzzling at Ivan Helianthus's heels are neither as fearsome, as dangerous, or as terrifying to behold as any provoked mother.
You may take as much issue with my late father as you choose. However, it will be a bit of a one-sided argument, as he is rather too dead to respond in the Whites.
I resolved to never be weak again, but that was not a resolution to abandon femininity, and I would be happy to have numerous lovers write to you and explain that to you in excruciating, horrible detail.
Besides which, even within the realm of warfare, there is an important truth that many traditionalists of the Isles either fail to understand, or understand and wish was not true. The strongest and most capable men in the armies of Sungreet and the various Houses full of little dogs nuzzling at Ivan Helianthus's heels are neither as fearsome, as dangerous, or as terrifying to behold as any provoked mother.
Written By Ember
Dec. 18, 2020, 9:31 a.m.(8/4/1014 AR)
To Lady Medeia Eswynd and Messere Venturo Thayne, there is no more to be said publicly than to affirm the gratitude, support, and lasting friendship of Redreef Shores.
Perhaps the traditionalists' attack on the Carnival is one of the factors that has led my mind to drift backward of late and recall something I had almost forgotten.
In the weeks before my sister and I launched our campaign to claim the title that was my birthright, and with it the future of our domain, we spent some time discreetly recruiting soldiers in the granite mountains of Darkwater Isle.
Lady Marina was off with the sailors, playing to her strengths, and I stopped and shared a bottle with a blind old man with a bearded, bandaged face. The sun had fallen behind the mountains and the man was very drunk, but for a moment he seemed to speak in my dead father's voice.
"How could you disobey," my father's voice seemed to say, "the man who brought you up according to a fantasy? Your softness, your fragility... Your feminine grace and delicacy... They'll be the death of me."
I resolved in that moment, passing that bottle back and forth with that old drunk, that I would never allow myself to be weak again.
Perhaps the traditionalists' attack on the Carnival is one of the factors that has led my mind to drift backward of late and recall something I had almost forgotten.
In the weeks before my sister and I launched our campaign to claim the title that was my birthright, and with it the future of our domain, we spent some time discreetly recruiting soldiers in the granite mountains of Darkwater Isle.
Lady Marina was off with the sailors, playing to her strengths, and I stopped and shared a bottle with a blind old man with a bearded, bandaged face. The sun had fallen behind the mountains and the man was very drunk, but for a moment he seemed to speak in my dead father's voice.
"How could you disobey," my father's voice seemed to say, "the man who brought you up according to a fantasy? Your softness, your fragility... Your feminine grace and delicacy... They'll be the death of me."
I resolved in that moment, passing that bottle back and forth with that old drunk, that I would never allow myself to be weak again.
Written By Ember
Dec. 16, 2020, 9:26 a.m.(7/28/1014 AR)
When our weaponeers, our alchemists, and our mistresses of war put themselves to the task of finding ways to set enemy forces alight and reduce them to cinder within their plate and their leathers, I wonder if they realized that the most brutal and efficient means of burning someone to death was all along found in the liquor of the Undying Empire.
I will not let this drink defeat me, though I may sacrifice my sense of taste in the process.
I will not let this drink defeat me, though I may sacrifice my sense of taste in the process.
Written By Ember
Dec. 10, 2020, 9:46 a.m.(7/16/1014 AR)
I am the Bloody Baroness. If history remembers me, the scholars of the future will not say my name without that title. My life's work will be to ensure that even if I am only a footnote and a title, Redreef Shores will endure. That the Isles will endure, free of the cancers that bloat and distend their belly.
Perhaps I am too honest with myself. Perhaps I should lie to myself, like everyone else. One's world becomes too easy to cave in. Shadows are not as clean in their blackness as they appear. Too many mirrors show only false reflections. But too many people are awake now. The first time one truly sees oneself naked... The only sane response is to weep, and then to carry on, and not to deny, not to lie and pretend to forget. Life is designed only for the cold who pretend that they are warm.
I am an architect who will be remembered as a butcher.
Perhaps I am too honest with myself. Perhaps I should lie to myself, like everyone else. One's world becomes too easy to cave in. Shadows are not as clean in their blackness as they appear. Too many mirrors show only false reflections. But too many people are awake now. The first time one truly sees oneself naked... The only sane response is to weep, and then to carry on, and not to deny, not to lie and pretend to forget. Life is designed only for the cold who pretend that they are warm.
I am an architect who will be remembered as a butcher.
Written By Ember
Dec. 4, 2020, 7:37 a.m.(7/4/1014 AR)
Relationship Note on Miraj
There are many things in life for which I am quietly grateful. I elect not to remain quiet regarding my gratitude for my protege, Miraj Roumier: courtier, artisan, stylist, and proprietor of the Mirror, Mirror salon in the Pravus Ward.
If I harbor any doubts regarding my patronage of Messere Roumier, it is only an occasional pang of guilt, that the people of the Compact and my peers in the nobility will gaze upon her grace and beauty and wonder what it is that she could possibly gain from anything less than a Queen. Her loyalty is a blessing of a magnitude beyond words.
If I harbor any doubts regarding my patronage of Messere Roumier, it is only an occasional pang of guilt, that the people of the Compact and my peers in the nobility will gaze upon her grace and beauty and wonder what it is that she could possibly gain from anything less than a Queen. Her loyalty is a blessing of a magnitude beyond words.
Written By Ember
Dec. 2, 2020, 10:53 a.m.(6/28/1014 AR)
I do not enjoy writing about my feelings, and yet my ladies-in-waiting insist that doing so may unburden me of their weight. I do so only to quiet their incessant "helpful" reminders, lest I grow irritated and unburden myself of my ladies-in-waiting. This year's group is particularly good and so I do not want to lose them prematurely.
In every arena of my life I stare down seas blanketed by the thickest of fog. What appears to be smooth sailing, I am told is perilous with jagged rocks. What appears to be certain doom, I am told is the way forward. Another voice speaks, to tell me that both ways are folly, and that the map I have trusted my entire life is written wrong, and has been misleading myself and others since the moments of our births.
Beyond this, there are the matters of the heart. Those who are most dear to me are those who are beyond my reach. Those for whom I would cast aside noble imperatives and consider the scandal of a marriage based on...
I have written too much and do not care to write anymore. My ladies-in-waiting will have to make do with the ink that is here, and no more.
In every arena of my life I stare down seas blanketed by the thickest of fog. What appears to be smooth sailing, I am told is perilous with jagged rocks. What appears to be certain doom, I am told is the way forward. Another voice speaks, to tell me that both ways are folly, and that the map I have trusted my entire life is written wrong, and has been misleading myself and others since the moments of our births.
Beyond this, there are the matters of the heart. Those who are most dear to me are those who are beyond my reach. Those for whom I would cast aside noble imperatives and consider the scandal of a marriage based on...
I have written too much and do not care to write anymore. My ladies-in-waiting will have to make do with the ink that is here, and no more.
Written By Ember
Nov. 14, 2020, 9:04 a.m.(5/19/1014 AR)
Dominus-regent Aureth bears a terrible weight. May the Pantheon show him favor. With regard to the late Dominus Orazio, there is nothing I can express that has not been said better in the words and the Whites of my peers and his. I am not terribly apt at eulogizing the dead, and so avenging them must suffice.
We as a Compact have been preparing for war, but war has already arrived. The assassination of the Dominus, the desecration of the Great Cathedral, and the attacks upon various Wards have shown that our enemy is ready, and the only thing that has kept them from attacking further has been their own decision to not do so. The life of one of my own family, Lady Trueth, was nearly ended amid mobs crying for the blood of Kennex and Redreef and Seryn. To say that this is now personal to me is a grave understatement.
To those who seek to rely upon diplomacy and to make out enemies "see our point of view," if you put it to them nicely, state your case, and bow to them on the way out, nothing will ever be done, for you have no knife between your teeth.
It is in these past few days that I have seen who my allies are; who among my peers has the guts to see this through, and who may well not; and who will support me in taking what measures must be taken.
We as a Compact have been preparing for war, but war has already arrived. The assassination of the Dominus, the desecration of the Great Cathedral, and the attacks upon various Wards have shown that our enemy is ready, and the only thing that has kept them from attacking further has been their own decision to not do so. The life of one of my own family, Lady Trueth, was nearly ended amid mobs crying for the blood of Kennex and Redreef and Seryn. To say that this is now personal to me is a grave understatement.
To those who seek to rely upon diplomacy and to make out enemies "see our point of view," if you put it to them nicely, state your case, and bow to them on the way out, nothing will ever be done, for you have no knife between your teeth.
It is in these past few days that I have seen who my allies are; who among my peers has the guts to see this through, and who may well not; and who will support me in taking what measures must be taken.
Written By Ember
Nov. 11, 2020, 11:35 a.m.(5/13/1014 AR)
Relationship Note on Shyanne
Lady Shyanne Eswynd has been made a foster of House Redreef. Marquessa Norah Eswynd and Lord Haakon Eswynd have proven themselves to be allies and friends of Redreef Shores, and so in a moment of need, House Redreef is honored to step forward and offer its assistance. I have every faith that Lady Shyanne's skills and knowledge will flourish within our House, and that the ties between Redreef Shores and Eswynd Rock will only grow stronger from this point.
Written By Ember
Nov. 1, 2020, 3:01 p.m.(4/22/1014 AR)
The Eclipse of Mirrors is past. Moonlight has been drained of its crimson. Masks have been removed.
The future of Redreef Shores is decided. I have set the course for my Barony, as is my right. I will ensure the safety and prosperity of my subjects and my family. It is written and thus sworn.
The future of Redreef Shores is decided. I have set the course for my Barony, as is my right. I will ensure the safety and prosperity of my subjects and my family. It is written and thus sworn.
Written By Ember
Oct. 26, 2020, 7:35 a.m.(4/9/1014 AR)
House Redreef is honored to count House Blackshore as its fellow vassal of our liege, House Darkwater. There was a time when House Blackshore was, if one will indulge the metaphor, stranded in open water, with no land in sight. Blackshore found the strength and the conviction to swim, rather than to sink and drown, or give themselves over as food for sharks. With struggle comes perspective. With victory snatched from halfway down the gullet of defeat comes courage. The men and women of House Blackshore's noble family possess both vision and pragmatism. I could not ask for more in allies. The Mourning Isles will not be the same, only a few short years from now. For the Isles to count House Blackshore among their midwives in birthing this new existence is something that every Islander will be grateful for, centuries from now, when all of this is merely history.
Written By Ember
Oct. 15, 2020, 9:55 a.m.(3/15/1014 AR)
Relationship Note on Victus
If the Highlord of House Thrax seeks hobbies, I can think of few more proper and becoming than sport. Fishing is indeed a fine contest, to match one's wits against the water, but there is little more satisfying than directly competing against one's fellow men and women. Weightlifting, swimming, rowing, wrestling, discus, javelin, boxing...
Of course, this assumes that the majority of challengers will not simply allow a Highlord to win. I imagine truly honest competition is more difficult to find, at such a level of political power.
Of course, this assumes that the majority of challengers will not simply allow a Highlord to win. I imagine truly honest competition is more difficult to find, at such a level of political power.
Written By Ember
Oct. 2, 2020, 7:03 a.m.(2/17/1014 AR)
Relationship Note on Victus
There is indeed an almost sexual thrill to the knowledge that a brutal fight lies ahead. I could not have put it into words more finely than Prince Victus's own.
Written By Ember
Sept. 24, 2020, 7:53 a.m.(2/1/1014 AR)
Last night, at Thrall's Lament, I and a number of my peers acted to stop a dust smuggler from moving his narcotics through the Thrax Ward.
I do not know who in the City reads my whites. I can only imagine that whoever worked with the wretch that was captured may have heard who was responsible for his apprehension. If that hunch is correct, and you reading this are part of that chain, then I say to you directly:
Congratulations. You have earned the attention of the Bloody Baroness. Ensure that your children's last memories of you are fond ones.
I do not know who in the City reads my whites. I can only imagine that whoever worked with the wretch that was captured may have heard who was responsible for his apprehension. If that hunch is correct, and you reading this are part of that chain, then I say to you directly:
Congratulations. You have earned the attention of the Bloody Baroness. Ensure that your children's last memories of you are fond ones.
Written By Ember
Sept. 23, 2020, 10:44 a.m.(1/27/1014 AR)
I had my ladies put out the word that I was interested in learning more about a topic that struck an idle fancy, solely based upon name.
I should know better than to indulge idle fancies. Such is Arx. Turning over a stone is only rarely perilous, but it is never once merely one stone turning over.
I should know better than to indulge idle fancies. Such is Arx. Turning over a stone is only rarely perilous, but it is never once merely one stone turning over.
Written By Ember
Sept. 9, 2020, 2:02 p.m.(12/28/1013 AR)
In my dreams I stand with my spine erect. I breathe evenly or perhaps I do not breathe at all. If I do or do not, it escapes my notice. I stare ahead. My expression is neutral. I am completely still, like an unmuddied lake.
It is then that I am struck across the face with a horsewhip.
There is pain in feeling my face split but I do not allow pain to do anything more than hurt. I do not even blink at the first strike. Nor do I for the second, or the third. I am calm. There is a terrible dignity to it all.
This is what I dream of. Perhaps someone, many generations hence, will want to know.
It is then that I am struck across the face with a horsewhip.
There is pain in feeling my face split but I do not allow pain to do anything more than hurt. I do not even blink at the first strike. Nor do I for the second, or the third. I am calm. There is a terrible dignity to it all.
This is what I dream of. Perhaps someone, many generations hence, will want to know.
Written By Ember
Aug. 16, 2020, 8:32 a.m.(11/7/1013 AR)
Relationship Note on Talia
Today, Talia Baseborn will debut her heirloom dresses honoring the Mourning Isles, and among them will be a dress for House Redreef.
I look forward to seeing what aspects of my Barony's history and culture will be reflected in the design of the dress. My ladies-in-waiting seem to be unable to hold any other topic in their minds.
Even as I write this, they whisper a debate among themselves, attempting to decide what gown from my wardrobe I would look best in at the debut. I'll let them debate a while longer, but I've already chosen.
I look forward to seeing what aspects of my Barony's history and culture will be reflected in the design of the dress. My ladies-in-waiting seem to be unable to hold any other topic in their minds.
Even as I write this, they whisper a debate among themselves, attempting to decide what gown from my wardrobe I would look best in at the debut. I'll let them debate a while longer, but I've already chosen.
Written By Ember
Aug. 15, 2020, 5:12 p.m.(11/6/1013 AR)
I hope my political rivals over the matter of thralldom do not believe that, because Redreef Shores has outlawed thralldom, we have become in some way pacifist.
I took part in a raid of a pirate base among such allies as the Kennex brothers, Lord Ian and Lord Wash, Lady Emily Deepwood, Jarla Krarstin Tidelord, and Lords Branimir and Haakon Eswynd. No mercy was shown to any fool who put themselves before our blades. We return to our homes richer for it.
The waters surrounding Redreef Shores have been full of dolphins lately. Even returning home from this raid, they danced through the water alongside my boat. I have put out word to keep the fishermen away from them. I have taken a liking to these animals.
I took part in a raid of a pirate base among such allies as the Kennex brothers, Lord Ian and Lord Wash, Lady Emily Deepwood, Jarla Krarstin Tidelord, and Lords Branimir and Haakon Eswynd. No mercy was shown to any fool who put themselves before our blades. We return to our homes richer for it.
The waters surrounding Redreef Shores have been full of dolphins lately. Even returning home from this raid, they danced through the water alongside my boat. I have put out word to keep the fishermen away from them. I have taken a liking to these animals.
Please note that the scholars may take some time preparing your journal for others to read.