When 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not
Posts:
1,115
Group:
Admin
Member
#1
Joined:
June 19, 2008
Age:
23
Points:
1203
For millennia in Askavi, the power between the masculine and the feminine powers have been shifting. Never into a proper balance. No, not at all. Two thousand years ago, the males seized power for their own and a court was formed under the rule of a Green-Jewelled Warlord Prince named Dolvar Ashlan. While not completely wreaking havoc on the Territory, it ruled with an iron fist and dealt with females attempting to gain power in an often brutal manner.
It stayed this way under Prince Ashlan for one thousand years. By the end of those years, most Queens feared attempting to gain any kind of control for themselves, lest they become noticed by the ruling males. In the later years of Ashlan’s rule, things started getting out of control completely, as Prince Ashlan himself became increasingly paranoid that someone would try and take his power from him. Queens and other dark-jeweled females whom he saw as threats were killed or broken. It was a terrifying time in the Territory.
Not all males were in agreement with this new, male-dominated central power in Askavi, however. Kerivar Wrenn, for one, was a warrior whose niece, a Green-Jeweled Healer Queen named Ksenian, seemed to have a calming effect on all of those around her. Particularly the males who called him their leader. Kerivar nurtured the young Queen and guided her natural abilities.
To all outward appearances, Ksenian Wrenn’s rise to power was smooth and graceful. She was a dual-casted Queen, quite powerful enough to take the Territory seat as her own. But in reality, she spent the first three quarters of her thousand year rule struggling against the still-powerful male court. Only in the last two-hundred fifty years of her reign did she make much headway against the males and in restoring balance to the Territory.
To all outward appearances during that time, Askavi was properly ruled by a Queen in control of her people; in reality, vestiges of that old court and promoters of male power were still lurking, waiting for the Lady to make a mistake that they could use to undermine her. Rumors were muttered that the Lady wasn’t as independent as she seemed, and that she was weak – too weak to rule a Territory. After all – a woman certainly wouldn’t have it in her to be cutthroat if needed, a frequent though unfortunate necessity for rulers.
Underneath all of these rumors lay the Male Council. A subtle opposition to the Queen, the Male Council was a jointure of the most powerful men in the Territory. They declared that they were a balance to the feminine rule rather than in conflict. Behind closed doors, however, the Council was about nothing less than domination. They were simply biding their time to place their chosen ruler on the throne.
The time did eventually come. The Queen died while tending to her Uncle Kerivar, after unsuccessfully attempting the Khaldaron Run. At least, that was what those in Askavi were told. The real truth was that Ksenian Wrenn’s demise was caused by Jaspar Everett, an ambitious Warlord Prince with an equally ambitious family. After making his Offering and coming away with the Gray, rendering him one of the most powerful men in the Territory, Prince Everett stepped up to take the throne.
He has ruled for the last one hundred years, encouraging Eyrien law and male rule. Over this time, there have been minor rebellions. Insurgencies desirous of a Queen on the throne once more. All have been quashed by the Warlord Prince and his camp, although the rebels still remain. The root of the Old Ways remains in Askavi, despite Everett’s destruction of the flower.