Written By Viviana
June 8, 2020, 10:25 a.m.(6/9/1013 AR)
Relationship Note on Tescelina
The Compact didn't deserve you.
I didn't deserve you, Little Dragon.
Your light will shine eternal in my heart.
Love,
V
I didn't deserve you, Little Dragon.
Your light will shine eternal in my heart.
Love,
V
Written By Viviana
April 26, 2020, 8:41 a.m.(3/7/1013 AR)
Relationship Note on Scarlett
I too trust in star iron, and it has yet to let me down.
Maybe you should try some Dust though, it might help you calm down.
Maybe you should try some Dust though, it might help you calm down.
Written By Viviana
March 29, 2020, 8:59 p.m.(1/8/1013 AR)
I've never seen anything lovelier.
Oh, the adventures we have ahead of us, my sweet beauty.
Oh, the adventures we have ahead of us, my sweet beauty.
Written By Viviana
March 24, 2020, 1:12 p.m.(12/25/1012 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
Strange how it is perfectly acceptable for Sir Jeffeth, the Grandmaster of the Knights of Solace to throw 'as a Godsworn' 'you disrespected a Godsworn' 'I'm a Godsworn, I know stuff!' all over in the language of his challenge and subsequent arguments, and it's "just a personal matter".
But the second Arianna puts the word 'Pravus' anywhere in a journal, you and other members of the Faith want to leap up and cry about how suddenly she's making it something bigger.
I am rather disappointed to see influential members of the Faith such as the Grandmaster of the Templars attempting to incite unrest and panic amongst the populace in these trying times by building this matter up into something it isn't, rather than simply going to his fellow Knight Grandmaster and addressing this incredibly distasteful Obeiron business.
I am /so/ surprised that this is the route the leadership of the Faith would opt to take.
I have seen nor heard anyone from Pravus, or anyone even remotely related to Pravus, supporting Princess Arianna. Because this /is/ a personal matter, and we are aware of that. She can handle it herself. You however, seem to be making a point of inflaming the matter until it is a distraction from the Compact's more pressing business.
Pravus has already dealt with an incursion from Skal'daja, we know that needs to be the focus of our attention at this time.
The Carnifex should perhaps turn his gaze that way, rather than focus on petty drama in the Capital.
But the second Arianna puts the word 'Pravus' anywhere in a journal, you and other members of the Faith want to leap up and cry about how suddenly she's making it something bigger.
I am rather disappointed to see influential members of the Faith such as the Grandmaster of the Templars attempting to incite unrest and panic amongst the populace in these trying times by building this matter up into something it isn't, rather than simply going to his fellow Knight Grandmaster and addressing this incredibly distasteful Obeiron business.
I am /so/ surprised that this is the route the leadership of the Faith would opt to take.
I have seen nor heard anyone from Pravus, or anyone even remotely related to Pravus, supporting Princess Arianna. Because this /is/ a personal matter, and we are aware of that. She can handle it herself. You however, seem to be making a point of inflaming the matter until it is a distraction from the Compact's more pressing business.
Pravus has already dealt with an incursion from Skal'daja, we know that needs to be the focus of our attention at this time.
The Carnifex should perhaps turn his gaze that way, rather than focus on petty drama in the Capital.
Written By Viviana
Jan. 26, 2020, 10:05 p.m.(8.67561755952381/24.834583333333335/1012.639634796627 AR)
Pravus will not forget the men and women who gave their lives in the Battle of Pieros, in service to us, to defense of their brothers and sisters, and to freedom.
Neither will the thousands upon thousands of slaves whose newfound freedom was protected by their sacrifice.
We will see the families of the fallen taken care of.
Neither will the thousands upon thousands of slaves whose newfound freedom was protected by their sacrifice.
We will see the families of the fallen taken care of.
Written By Viviana
Jan. 7, 2020, 8:56 p.m.(7/9/1012 AR)
Relationship Note on Niklas
It is rather disappointing to see that a Prince of the Compact has nothing better to do than take jabs at some commoner in the Whites repeatedly.
I can assure the Compact that Pravus will do better.
We will give you leaders that inspire.
I can assure the Compact that Pravus will do better.
We will give you leaders that inspire.
Written By Viviana
Oct. 27, 2019, 11:32 p.m.(2/5/1012 AR)
It has proven to be a delight to have so much more of our family present in the capital. It's almost enough to make this abysmal winter tolerable.
Written By Viviana
Oct. 6, 2019, 7:20 p.m.(12/19/1011 AR)
The call of the seas and the freedom they offer is all the more enticing when one has a caravel to sail upon. Sometimes I wonder why I linger in the capital at all.
Written By Viviana
Sept. 8, 2019, 10:58 p.m.(10/19/1011 AR)
After a recent discussion, I have found myself thinking rather seriously on the matter of a star iron blade.
Assuming one even could gather enough of the stuff in the first place, I wonder how much such a thing would cost.
Assuming one even could gather enough of the stuff in the first place, I wonder how much such a thing would cost.
Written By Viviana
Aug. 25, 2019, 10:19 p.m.(9/19/1011 AR)
I had a conversation some weeks ago about what it means to be a House's Sword. For some reason, it has stuck with me, and served to help reinvigorate my joy for life in a rather unexpected fashion.
I do not simply carry my House's honor. I represent Pravus, I am the face of what it means to be Setarcan, if someone has had the pleasure of my company, I know then that they can wager on what my family, and my people, are like.
These are things I already knew, but somehow, discussing them, has refreshed me.
I am Viviana Pravus, the Sword of Setarco, and life is good.
I do not simply carry my House's honor. I represent Pravus, I am the face of what it means to be Setarcan, if someone has had the pleasure of my company, I know then that they can wager on what my family, and my people, are like.
These are things I already knew, but somehow, discussing them, has refreshed me.
I am Viviana Pravus, the Sword of Setarco, and life is good.
Written By Viviana
July 23, 2019, 9:11 a.m.(7/8/1011 AR)
A new set of jewelry just has a way of making you feel alive, doesn't it?
Written By Viviana
April 3, 2019, 3:58 p.m.(11/10/1010 AR)
Cousin Arianna's victory in the grand melee should be all the proof one needs to see that cunning and the proper connections are all it takes to win the day, even on the battlefield.
Written By Viviana
April 3, 2019, 3:48 p.m.(11/10/1010 AR)
The grand melee was every bit as thrilling as one would expect it to be, and Princess Marian is just as sharp and fierce as I recall her being the last time we crossed blades. Throw in another swordsman at her side, and suffice to say my appearance in the tournament of roses as not fated to last long. Still, it was quite exciting and a good reminder that there is always room to improve.
Written By Viviana
Oct. 14, 2018, 10:56 p.m.(10/13/1009 AR)
And to think, the notion of wagering Twilight's Edge in a bet has never even occurred to me! Apparently I've still a thing or two to learn about scandalous behavior.
I've no personal stake, or even interest, in this feud between the Whisper and House Telmar, but I do find myself with a particular thought occurring to me each time the issue comes to mind.
Perhaps you should live with the consequences, if your House is daft enough to appoint as Sword, the sort of person who would gamble away your heirloom weapon.
But, I must admit I'm not terribly familiar with how this 'responsibility' business works, being a Southerner and all.
I've no personal stake, or even interest, in this feud between the Whisper and House Telmar, but I do find myself with a particular thought occurring to me each time the issue comes to mind.
Perhaps you should live with the consequences, if your House is daft enough to appoint as Sword, the sort of person who would gamble away your heirloom weapon.
But, I must admit I'm not terribly familiar with how this 'responsibility' business works, being a Southerner and all.
Written By Viviana
Oct. 12, 2018, 8:25 a.m.(10/7/1009 AR)
I will be back, oh Arx of my heart! The Sword of Pravus must clash against the unruly Pirate Queens of the South, but do fret not: she shall return! I am truly delighted that the Voice of Ischia decided to extend this invitation.
Written By Viviana
Oct. 11, 2018, 7:01 a.m.(10/5/1009 AR)
I must give it to my cousin: I would miss a few duels to attend her business meetings. So intense!
Written By Viviana
Aug. 1, 2016, 9:07 a.m.(3/6/1004 AR)
I've been asked a few times now to shed some light onto my training regime, so I thought I may as well do so here.
I try to train at least two hours a day, usually in the morning unless I've had a long night, and I do skip it if I'm injured or ill. I put very little stock in sparring, it will help you a lot if you are a novice, but what I would call mindless sparring in which you treat it as if it were a real fight for practice is never going to help you improve beyond a certain point.
I try to split my session into equal halves working on pure physical conditioning, and working on technique. When it comes to conditioning it is important to be sure to exercise your whole body, especially your legs and rear. Many neglect those areas in favor of more strength in their upper body but the power for proper thrusts comes from legs and the speed of your footwork is very often the difference between being struck or not. It is also important to focus on explosive power and endurance over raw strength, practice by doing the same sort of thing you're likely to do in a fight, but harder.
When it comes to technique it is again very important to push yourself. Do not simply do the same thing over and over again, force yourself to have to do something faster or harder or smoother than you have before. Your body learns through reptition so no matter how tiring or boring it is make sure you practice everything until you can do it without thinking. Your body will always react faster than your mind, you need to teach it how to react however.
When you do spar be sure to try to work the new things you have been drilling into the practice session, even if it means you do worse in the spar or are forcing yourself to use it in sub-optimal situations. The point of sparring is not to win, it's to teach your body to do something new in a situation much like real combat.
Also never stop thinking about your art, a duel is almost as much mental as it is physical. You need to find the weakenesses in someone's style and come up with ways to exploit them in the middle of the fight. You can practice this even when you aren't fighting, if you meet someone new imagine them as a warrior, what kind of warrior would they be? How do you think they'd fight? What would be the weaknesses of that style? Don't ever let yourself give into the temptation to be mindless or to use the gaps in combat to simply recover yourself.
As a general guide any time your training becomes a routine or stops being stressful or borders on becoming enjoyable, you're not getting better and are probably getting worse.
I try to train at least two hours a day, usually in the morning unless I've had a long night, and I do skip it if I'm injured or ill. I put very little stock in sparring, it will help you a lot if you are a novice, but what I would call mindless sparring in which you treat it as if it were a real fight for practice is never going to help you improve beyond a certain point.
I try to split my session into equal halves working on pure physical conditioning, and working on technique. When it comes to conditioning it is important to be sure to exercise your whole body, especially your legs and rear. Many neglect those areas in favor of more strength in their upper body but the power for proper thrusts comes from legs and the speed of your footwork is very often the difference between being struck or not. It is also important to focus on explosive power and endurance over raw strength, practice by doing the same sort of thing you're likely to do in a fight, but harder.
When it comes to technique it is again very important to push yourself. Do not simply do the same thing over and over again, force yourself to have to do something faster or harder or smoother than you have before. Your body learns through reptition so no matter how tiring or boring it is make sure you practice everything until you can do it without thinking. Your body will always react faster than your mind, you need to teach it how to react however.
When you do spar be sure to try to work the new things you have been drilling into the practice session, even if it means you do worse in the spar or are forcing yourself to use it in sub-optimal situations. The point of sparring is not to win, it's to teach your body to do something new in a situation much like real combat.
Also never stop thinking about your art, a duel is almost as much mental as it is physical. You need to find the weakenesses in someone's style and come up with ways to exploit them in the middle of the fight. You can practice this even when you aren't fighting, if you meet someone new imagine them as a warrior, what kind of warrior would they be? How do you think they'd fight? What would be the weaknesses of that style? Don't ever let yourself give into the temptation to be mindless or to use the gaps in combat to simply recover yourself.
As a general guide any time your training becomes a routine or stops being stressful or borders on becoming enjoyable, you're not getting better and are probably getting worse.
Written By Viviana
Aug. 1, 2016, 8:55 a.m.(3/6/1004 AR)
Organizing a Decathlon is quite exhausing, I must write a note to never attempt something so silly again. Still at least people seemed to enjoy themselves and it gives them something to talk about.
I was surprised by how well Talen fought, given he'd been lanced off his horse a half hour previous and beaten into unconsciousness the day before that. Still I wouldn't put it past him to fake injuries for the upper hand. In either case it was a close fight, and could have gone either way. In the end I won, which likely makes me the single combat champion of Arx at least for now. I am sure of course there is no less than an army of warriors with long and elaborate reasons for why they could not take part in the contest and would definitely have won if they did.
The problem with being the best at something, or even just one of the best really, is people are always trying to tear you down, it's rather exhausting truth be told. Miss Kima Saik started a rumor that I'd used my house blade in the competition, which was of course nonsense there are hundreds of witnesses to the fact that I was using my personal rubicund weapon in all three bouts. I would generously assume she is hard of sight and perhaps merely saw what she wished to? Although as an aside as a lady of the Lyceum someone should really teach her how to properly slander others, you don't say things that are provable false when they're also easily traced back to you.
Ailith, the palace Seraph later noted that I wore armor of shadowmeld that made me invulnerable. A curious sentiment given not only my wounds but the fact that my shadowmeld, even if it were invulnerable, covers only the back of my torso. Perhaps she too is hard of seeing and thought the rest of my armor also shadowmeld? Although that would not explain how I kept my head invulnerable without a helmet. I suppose she might believe I struck a deal with the Thirteeth to secure an invisible, invulnerable shadowmeld helmet?
These are but two examples, in truth it's a common phenomenon, if you are a woman who is any good at pretty much anything, there will be a whole lot of other women going to often rather insane lengths to try and bring you down. I'm sure men suffer the same from their own rivals, but I think it is perhaps less insane in that case. Women are undoubtedly impressed by champions and the more skilled and accomplished a man, the greater the appeal. But it really does not work that way for men. For sure men are more attracted to women who are more capable, and as their prowess increases so does the attraction, but right at the point their prowess passes the man's that attraction takes a rather sharp plumment off a rather steep cliff. I would say they should learn this for themselves, but that might require taking too much time away from man chasing and complaining to train, and I'm not sure how likely that is.
I think I still prefer being the best though, even if it does bring on such hassles, I'm a proud creature.
I was surprised by how well Talen fought, given he'd been lanced off his horse a half hour previous and beaten into unconsciousness the day before that. Still I wouldn't put it past him to fake injuries for the upper hand. In either case it was a close fight, and could have gone either way. In the end I won, which likely makes me the single combat champion of Arx at least for now. I am sure of course there is no less than an army of warriors with long and elaborate reasons for why they could not take part in the contest and would definitely have won if they did.
The problem with being the best at something, or even just one of the best really, is people are always trying to tear you down, it's rather exhausting truth be told. Miss Kima Saik started a rumor that I'd used my house blade in the competition, which was of course nonsense there are hundreds of witnesses to the fact that I was using my personal rubicund weapon in all three bouts. I would generously assume she is hard of sight and perhaps merely saw what she wished to? Although as an aside as a lady of the Lyceum someone should really teach her how to properly slander others, you don't say things that are provable false when they're also easily traced back to you.
Ailith, the palace Seraph later noted that I wore armor of shadowmeld that made me invulnerable. A curious sentiment given not only my wounds but the fact that my shadowmeld, even if it were invulnerable, covers only the back of my torso. Perhaps she too is hard of seeing and thought the rest of my armor also shadowmeld? Although that would not explain how I kept my head invulnerable without a helmet. I suppose she might believe I struck a deal with the Thirteeth to secure an invisible, invulnerable shadowmeld helmet?
These are but two examples, in truth it's a common phenomenon, if you are a woman who is any good at pretty much anything, there will be a whole lot of other women going to often rather insane lengths to try and bring you down. I'm sure men suffer the same from their own rivals, but I think it is perhaps less insane in that case. Women are undoubtedly impressed by champions and the more skilled and accomplished a man, the greater the appeal. But it really does not work that way for men. For sure men are more attracted to women who are more capable, and as their prowess increases so does the attraction, but right at the point their prowess passes the man's that attraction takes a rather sharp plumment off a rather steep cliff. I would say they should learn this for themselves, but that might require taking too much time away from man chasing and complaining to train, and I'm not sure how likely that is.
I think I still prefer being the best though, even if it does bring on such hassles, I'm a proud creature.
Written By Viviana
Aug. 1, 2016, 8:32 a.m.(3/6/1004 AR)
Relationship Note on Enzo
Master Enzo is a quite talented jeweler who had the idea of creating little figurines of the champions of the Decathlon. It is really quite adorable and while I don't consider myself a particularly maternal person the idea of little children someday re-enacting the battles and events with them is not entirely an unpleasant one.
Written By Viviana
July 31, 2016, 8:03 a.m.(3/3/1004 AR)
The Twelfth Golden Decathlon has come to a close. The final tally was;
Lyceum: 3 Gold, 7 Silver
Valardin: 3 Gold, 1 Silver
Thrax: 3 Gold
Redrain: 1 Gold
Crownsworn: 1 Gold
With Lord Victus Thrax taking overall champion of the event, followed by Talen Artiglio and Alrec Magaldi.
Results by event:
Swimming: Marquis Gustave Blackram in first, Lady Viviana Pravus in second.
Skiff Racing: Lord Victus Thrax in first, Alrec Magaldi in second.
Grand Regatta: Lord Victus Thrax in first, Alrec Magaldi in second.
Sprint: Talen Artiglio in first, Princess Freja Redrain in second.
Discus: Lord Victus Thrax in first, Marquis Gustave Blackram in second.
Wrestling: Alrec Magaldi fighting with the favour of Princess Jaenelle Velenosa in first, Talen Artiglio in second.
Marathon: Marquis Gustave Blackram in first, Princess Freja Redrain in second.
Joust: Prince Edain Valarding jousting with the favour of Princess Alarissa Valardin in first, Talen Artiglio jousting with the favour of Princess Isolde Velenosa in second.
Archery: Gerry Crownsworn in first, Lady Fiora Malvici in second.
Single Combat: Lady Viviana Pravus fighting with the favour of Lady Lydia Redrain in first, Talen Artiglio fighting with the favour of Archduchess Esera Velenosa and Princess Ophelia Velenosa in second.
Please note that the scholars may take some time preparing your journal for others to read.