Written By Jaenelle
April 12, 2020, 6:48 p.m.(2/8/1013 AR)
Thankfully my father shared some of his Northern experiences with me before he died or I might never have been able to win first place in an ice skating competition. The trophy will sit on the shelf where all of Talen's awards sit in my room.
Written By Cyril
April 12, 2020, 6:47 p.m.(2/8/1013 AR)
Princess Arianna Pravus, dead. People like her don't stay dead long.
Written By Philippe
April 12, 2020, 6:46 p.m.(2/8/1013 AR)
The work of building Chevalle continues through the winter months. I have put the men to work preparing for the coming spring. What drills can be done in the winter weather progress, while others turn their attention to tending to fortifications, keeping the roads clear, and taking stock of our warehouses. The lodge will see to it that we are ready for the spring planting season, but I would have my soldiers prepared for anything with the coming of the first thaw. Who knows what intrigues Eurus may plan? Even if they are a continent and an ocean away, Chevalle must be prepared to lend its strength to the Compact in any way that it may require. So we will work, and work hard, and reap the benefits of our labors when the first flowers bloom.
Written By Bianca
April 12, 2020, 6:44 p.m.(2/8/1013 AR)
Regardless of anything else, the events at the Bard's College concert hall and my cousin's performance will stay with me for a long time.
It was something that could only be truly and fully experienced firsthand, and I feel eternally grateful for the opportunity.
It was something that could only be truly and fully experienced firsthand, and I feel eternally grateful for the opportunity.
Written By Corban
April 12, 2020, 6:39 p.m.(2/8/1013 AR)
Relationship Note on Sorrel
There are fewer greater supporters of Freedom than Princess Sorrel Thrax. A with her voice, she has freed many minds and souls to achieve their great potential.
I am proud to be her friend and have assisted with her performance.
I am proud to be her friend and have assisted with her performance.
Written By Corrigan
April 12, 2020, 6:38 p.m.(2/8/1013 AR)
Relationship Note on Tanith
Do not fear, Cousin. I promise not to let your nuptials affect our dynamic whatsoever.
Written By Lucene
April 12, 2020, 6:28 p.m.(2/8/1013 AR)
Everybody who knows me are well aware that I was always daddy's little girl. I have never met a person I admired more than my father - he may no longer be with us, but he still is the one and only person I have tried so desperately to make proud, no matter the cost to myself or my own identity. I don't regret a single second of it, either.
Lately, however, I have been trying to get closer to my late mother, Lady Kordelia Gilden. I've realised that I have many questions that I wish I had asked her before she passed, and so many things I wish I could have told her. All I have left of her are the Whites she left behind - in one of them, she described how she adored wandering through the estate gardens at twilight.
I'm not in Caith at the moment, so I can't recreate the scene perfectly, but I did spare a moment to wander through the Velenosa Grounds in the late hours of the evening, with nothing but the moonlight to illuminate my path.
At first, I must admit I was awfully bored. Everything was too quiet and too lonely. It was unsettling in a way I've never experienced before, but then.. then I started to get used to it, and my thoughts started to wander. I never liked being alone with my thoughts, though, and this was a great example of why.
Unlike my mother, I didn't have worries about being outlived, or running out of time - I reckon those are fears a lot of people have, the former especially true for mothers.
Instead, I worried about the opposite. I had terrible thoughts about /outliving/ my loved ones, watching them wither and die like the flowers in winter. I worried about having too much time on my hands. Too many minutes of my life to fill, and running out of things to fill them with.
I decided to go back to work.
Lately, however, I have been trying to get closer to my late mother, Lady Kordelia Gilden. I've realised that I have many questions that I wish I had asked her before she passed, and so many things I wish I could have told her. All I have left of her are the Whites she left behind - in one of them, she described how she adored wandering through the estate gardens at twilight.
I'm not in Caith at the moment, so I can't recreate the scene perfectly, but I did spare a moment to wander through the Velenosa Grounds in the late hours of the evening, with nothing but the moonlight to illuminate my path.
At first, I must admit I was awfully bored. Everything was too quiet and too lonely. It was unsettling in a way I've never experienced before, but then.. then I started to get used to it, and my thoughts started to wander. I never liked being alone with my thoughts, though, and this was a great example of why.
Unlike my mother, I didn't have worries about being outlived, or running out of time - I reckon those are fears a lot of people have, the former especially true for mothers.
Instead, I worried about the opposite. I had terrible thoughts about /outliving/ my loved ones, watching them wither and die like the flowers in winter. I worried about having too much time on my hands. Too many minutes of my life to fill, and running out of things to fill them with.
I decided to go back to work.
Written By Revell
April 12, 2020, 5:59 p.m.(2/8/1013 AR)
So, something happened to me.
I considered making an account of it in a black journal entry - I haven't really done any of those yet - as it's a rather private and personal thing. And honestly? I don't think anyone would care or even benefit from reading this several years from now.
But, my heart skipped a beat.
While bedridden, someone said something to me that caused my chest to tighten and my stomach to turn. It made me incredibly nauseous and I thought I was about to let go of my lunch. (Lottie's pastries deserve a better fate than that) But then, as the initial shock of what had been said passed, there was this.. warm, fussy feeling spreading throughout my body. It felt like a rapidly developing fever, or sliding into a hot bath right after rolling around in the snow.
I think I liked it? I'm not sure, and a part of me hopes it doesn't happen again.
I considered making an account of it in a black journal entry - I haven't really done any of those yet - as it's a rather private and personal thing. And honestly? I don't think anyone would care or even benefit from reading this several years from now.
But, my heart skipped a beat.
While bedridden, someone said something to me that caused my chest to tighten and my stomach to turn. It made me incredibly nauseous and I thought I was about to let go of my lunch. (Lottie's pastries deserve a better fate than that) But then, as the initial shock of what had been said passed, there was this.. warm, fussy feeling spreading throughout my body. It felt like a rapidly developing fever, or sliding into a hot bath right after rolling around in the snow.
I think I liked it? I'm not sure, and a part of me hopes it doesn't happen again.
Written By Vanora
April 12, 2020, 5:05 p.m.(2/8/1013 AR)
Relationship Note on Arianna
Oh cousin.
My feelings are complicated, but that is how things ever were with us isn't it. No lesson without the blood and tears to go with it. No love without the same.
I do not know what else to say. Save to echo what others have.
May the embrace of Death be a gentle one. May you be remembered.
My feelings are complicated, but that is how things ever were with us isn't it. No lesson without the blood and tears to go with it. No love without the same.
I do not know what else to say. Save to echo what others have.
May the embrace of Death be a gentle one. May you be remembered.
Written By Domonico
April 12, 2020, 4:37 p.m.(2/8/1013 AR)
I will have to be heading back to Caer Morien before too long. It is clear that Malvici has unfinished business on the Cytos Isles.
Written By Domonico
April 12, 2020, 4:33 p.m.(2/8/1013 AR)
Relationship Note on Arianna
Stands to reason that it would take over a dozen to bring Arianna Pravus down.
Well fought Arianna. Well fought.
Well fought Arianna. Well fought.
Written By Elgana
April 12, 2020, 3:39 p.m.(2/8/1013 AR)
I was promised a puppy. Well, sort of promised a puppy.
Gods and spirits, it has been years since I had a puppy! I sent Simon back home to Farhaven once I realized that city life did not suit him nearly as much as rolling through the hills chasing butterflies would. Mother writes to me often to tell me how much he's enjoying his life as a spoiled and utterly pampered prince amongst dogs in the kennels at Farhaven. Of course, I visit him when I have a chance to return home. How could I not hug my puppy? Though he has long outgrown his puppyhood, he will always be my puppy.
I wonder if Mister would enjoy having a sibling. Not that anything ever disturbs that snoozebeast's naps in front of the fire. It would be an adjustment, but one I would gladly make.
Gods and spirits, it has been years since I had a puppy! I sent Simon back home to Farhaven once I realized that city life did not suit him nearly as much as rolling through the hills chasing butterflies would. Mother writes to me often to tell me how much he's enjoying his life as a spoiled and utterly pampered prince amongst dogs in the kennels at Farhaven. Of course, I visit him when I have a chance to return home. How could I not hug my puppy? Though he has long outgrown his puppyhood, he will always be my puppy.
I wonder if Mister would enjoy having a sibling. Not that anything ever disturbs that snoozebeast's naps in front of the fire. It would be an adjustment, but one I would gladly make.
Written By Raymesin
April 12, 2020, 3:33 p.m.(2/8/1013 AR)
People keep congratulating me on getting married - and trying to find out just how it was possible. They can keep asking, Scholar, I'm not entirely sure myself.
Some things have changed in my life. Some things haven't changed. But it still feels right, like I didn't so much fall for a woman as have events in my life conspire to push me over, hold me down and stake me out for when she needed something to trip over.
Seems there's a lot of people puzzled about who I've chosen to marry, like 'barmaid' is some sort of an insult. But she's funny, she's cute, she's clever, she's strong enough to toss drunks - and other undesireables - out the door, and she knows ways to deal with people that don't involve scowling at them, growling at them, or stabbing them. And, most important, she trusts me and I trust her.
I figure that's the most important thing in any marriage, even if I haven't been at this marriage game long. Trust. Without trust, you've just got chains.
Some things have changed in my life. Some things haven't changed. But it still feels right, like I didn't so much fall for a woman as have events in my life conspire to push me over, hold me down and stake me out for when she needed something to trip over.
Seems there's a lot of people puzzled about who I've chosen to marry, like 'barmaid' is some sort of an insult. But she's funny, she's cute, she's clever, she's strong enough to toss drunks - and other undesireables - out the door, and she knows ways to deal with people that don't involve scowling at them, growling at them, or stabbing them. And, most important, she trusts me and I trust her.
I figure that's the most important thing in any marriage, even if I haven't been at this marriage game long. Trust. Without trust, you've just got chains.
Written By Monique
April 12, 2020, 3:07 p.m.(2/8/1013 AR)
Relationship Note on Arianna
This was not the plan. I will miss you. Rest assured, I know the good you've done and I will continue to be inspired by it.
Written By Shard
April 12, 2020, 1:59 p.m.(2/7/1013 AR)
You know, I wasn't going to say anything. People are mourning, the only times Arianna and I ever interacted were almost entirely arguments and those pretty scattered and far apart. I didn't know her. I wasn't really any part of her life. It didn't seem right to put anything out there. It's why I never wrote anything openly about Aislin Ashford when she went, because we didn't meet each other often and, while she did a lot of good for me, while I still owe her a debt because I could never pay that back even if she'd never expect it, never ask for it, while I admired her--I couldn't call us friends. Our paths didn't cross enough and her real friends and family didn't deserve me pretending like we were. So it didn't make any sense to say anything about Princess Arianna Pravus, because about all I could say would be that, if she had to go, taking a bunch of slaving murderers with her is a pretty good way to go out.
But it would be great, it would be really swell, if House Pravus could go one single, infinitesimal second without patting each other on the back and crowing about how they're the greatest supporters of freedom and the most ardent opponents of slavery out there, maybe the best there ever were, because slavers were in their way when they went into the Chain with the goal of growing their domain as part of their bid to become a Great House. What they did was admirable, it involved a lot of loss, and it deserves praise. There are a lot of former slaves that owe Pravus their freedom and their new lives, thousands of them.
But they don't speak of the allies that helped them. They don't speak of Grimhall, they don't speak of Stormbreak. They don't speak of the Faith, the other Great Houses, individuals, entire armies, often the whole Compact that have been fighting and sacrificing against slavery since at least the days of Queen Triscali the Black Rose, let alone all the others who have been involved in it just in my own lifetime. How many missions did Princess Reese Grayson lead into the Gray Forest? How many sacrificed their lives defending Farhaven? How many dead fighting slavers who attacked the Lodge of Petrichor, where Duke Harald Grimhall himself fell? How many died defending /Setarco/?
And how many are gathering, planning, and marching to meet the Skal'dajan fleet that's been set against House Pravus? How many have answered the crusade, how many have flocked to the banners of Houses great and small? How many are prepared to die for the sake of freedom?
Maybe it's not the best look for Pravus to use the death of a family member they're still mourning who only died /a few days ago/ in order to take political potshots at people and organizations who criticized her for things that had nothing to do with fighting for freedom or opposing slavery and everything to do with her mocking a dead and beloved member of the Faith; an action that, at the time, Pravus insisted was Arianna's and Arianna's alone and they couldn't be held accountable for it, and yet immediately chose to throw the entire weight of their House's influence against the Nightingale of the Bard's College, a commoner, who dared to suggest it wasn't a good thing to do.
Maybe. I don't know. It seems in poor taste. But really, who's going to bother reading the Whites of a prodigal commoner at any time, let alone with so many more important things going on in Arvum?
But it would be great, it would be really swell, if House Pravus could go one single, infinitesimal second without patting each other on the back and crowing about how they're the greatest supporters of freedom and the most ardent opponents of slavery out there, maybe the best there ever were, because slavers were in their way when they went into the Chain with the goal of growing their domain as part of their bid to become a Great House. What they did was admirable, it involved a lot of loss, and it deserves praise. There are a lot of former slaves that owe Pravus their freedom and their new lives, thousands of them.
But they don't speak of the allies that helped them. They don't speak of Grimhall, they don't speak of Stormbreak. They don't speak of the Faith, the other Great Houses, individuals, entire armies, often the whole Compact that have been fighting and sacrificing against slavery since at least the days of Queen Triscali the Black Rose, let alone all the others who have been involved in it just in my own lifetime. How many missions did Princess Reese Grayson lead into the Gray Forest? How many sacrificed their lives defending Farhaven? How many dead fighting slavers who attacked the Lodge of Petrichor, where Duke Harald Grimhall himself fell? How many died defending /Setarco/?
And how many are gathering, planning, and marching to meet the Skal'dajan fleet that's been set against House Pravus? How many have answered the crusade, how many have flocked to the banners of Houses great and small? How many are prepared to die for the sake of freedom?
Maybe it's not the best look for Pravus to use the death of a family member they're still mourning who only died /a few days ago/ in order to take political potshots at people and organizations who criticized her for things that had nothing to do with fighting for freedom or opposing slavery and everything to do with her mocking a dead and beloved member of the Faith; an action that, at the time, Pravus insisted was Arianna's and Arianna's alone and they couldn't be held accountable for it, and yet immediately chose to throw the entire weight of their House's influence against the Nightingale of the Bard's College, a commoner, who dared to suggest it wasn't a good thing to do.
Maybe. I don't know. It seems in poor taste. But really, who's going to bother reading the Whites of a prodigal commoner at any time, let alone with so many more important things going on in Arvum?
Written By Lucene
April 12, 2020, 1:29 p.m.(2/7/1013 AR)
As much as I like to moan about being worked to the bone, I must admit that it is something I actually enjoy. Be it writing my signature for the thousandth time, getting down in the dirt to help create new fields among refugees or imparting knowledge to my shiny new army recruits.
Still, I have taken the advice of those around me and hired an assistant to give me a helping hand. He's good at what he does, but Scholar, he makes /me/ look absolutely lovely in comparison! And here I thought I had a foul mouth and no filter.
With his help, I hope I can finally find the time to leave the safety of my study once more. I miss drinking at the Black Fox and getting into vicious fights at the Training Center.
Still, I have taken the advice of those around me and hired an assistant to give me a helping hand. He's good at what he does, but Scholar, he makes /me/ look absolutely lovely in comparison! And here I thought I had a foul mouth and no filter.
With his help, I hope I can finally find the time to leave the safety of my study once more. I miss drinking at the Black Fox and getting into vicious fights at the Training Center.
Written By Catalana
April 12, 2020, 12:51 p.m.(2/7/1013 AR)
The other day I was alerted to a broken foot in the Kay. Naturally, I was concerned. Scared. Alarmed. Our home had been broken into.
However, after hearing some shouting, I realized it's Porter's room and that it was just Rorik stealing his pants.
Scholars, I do hope at some point the Kennexs will grow up, be quiet, well groomed and own their own pants. But I believe that to be an utter and absolute fantasy I will never see.
However, after hearing some shouting, I realized it's Porter's room and that it was just Rorik stealing his pants.
Scholars, I do hope at some point the Kennexs will grow up, be quiet, well groomed and own their own pants. But I believe that to be an utter and absolute fantasy I will never see.
Written By Rosalind
April 12, 2020, 11:32 a.m.(2/7/1013 AR)
There was ICE SKATING at the Hart! It was so fun to watch..At least the little I did watch. Then I had to run, because...things to do! I promised to get some research done. Don't ask.
Written By Rosalind
April 12, 2020, 11:29 a.m.(2/7/1013 AR)
I watched a musical this week. It was creepy! Know what else was scary. Aella's stink eye. That she gave both me AND Cadern. Gods and Spirits! It was like being five again and I blurted out something I shouldn't have and Aella told me I can't say that out allowed. Only this time I thought I was saving someone. Ooops.
Written By Rosalind
April 12, 2020, 11:27 a.m.(2/7/1013 AR)
Another Redrain Dinner! OHMYGOSH! That cold shot thing! I managed 3. 3! Then I think stumbled home. Quite the feat. Good thing home isn't too far. I should explain to Aella a few things. Nah. I don't think I will..
Please note that the scholars may take some time preparing your journal for others to read.