The Speranza Proposition

Here's the hot gossip from the Inner Court of Forterezza Speranza!

NAMES

* Paterfamilias: Colpo-di-Canon (Duco Lombardo Speranza)
* Matriarch: Auto-da-Fe (Sira Cristina Speranza)
* Ur-Magus: Boccalupo (Two)
* Praetor: Forza-del-Destino (f)
* Proctor: Habeas-Corpus (m)

Minor Speranza family members:

Siro Ottorino di Speranza

Fra. Benevole di Speranza and Sora Citadina di Speranza (clerical advisors)

### The Desh Side

Maharaj Ramakrishna Chandrapurti Blessed-Of-Nesh, Glorious Mortal Representative of the Deva

Resplendent Chief Consort Narmadhi Chandrapurti

Radiant Second Consort Niranthari Chandrapurti

Honourable Viceroy Chandresh Varmaa

Bedhi, Guru of the Sovereign's Magusguard

Kukri, Chief of the Kutayuddha (the more lethal counterpart to Nithin's role as Censor - she appears to be in charge of keeping the Desh inside their citadel)

Just a ton of eunuchs, courtesans and Desh courtiers

## The Courtly Proposition

Maharaj Ramakrishna is a charismatic younger Desh man.

His appearance is resplendant. He is taller than any human or elf. He has the immaculate chiselled physque of a bodybuilder who has never seen active combat. His hair is braided to his waist, and he has long, slender tusks tipped with gold. His eyes are black with purple sclera, and gleam with cheeky intelligence. The Maharaj wears ornate silks, but shows off his bare chest: he has deep blue-black skin with tiny golden freckles that call to mind the night sky, dotted with stars. It's a family trait of his dynasty. Both his dynastic name and the gven name of his Viceroy reference the moon - and his court heraldry also references different phases of the moon. This is a whole moon, from a very old time long before it shattered and Selene, the moon goddess, went mad and became Lene the werewolf goddess.

Maharaj Ramakrishna is intelligent, casual and pragmatic. He's perfectly happy to be addressed as "Lord Rama" by his guests, for example.

His late father, Chandragupta Maharaj-dhi-Raja (loosely translated as king of other kings) was the ruling sovereign when the Ladinh fleets arrived and caused great catalysm for the Desh homeland. Under Chandragupta's reign, the moon tore itself to piecces, the humans arrived and everything went to shit.

Chandragupta would have been quite young himself when this happened - Desh live longer than humans but 200-odd years have still elapsed. Lord Rama is tired of his late father's isolationist ways and has been interested in finding a way to protect the remaining Desh from the effects of the terrible plague that nearly wiped out his species, and that appears to have come along with the elven colonists. Not a lot is known about the plague, other than that elves and goblins seem more likely to be carriers than humans, and that sanitation and physical barriers help to prevent its spread. This is the main reason why elves and goblins are kept out of Cups District and the Outer Court.

Lord Rama was excited to find out through his House Speranza contacts that another population of Desh might still be alive and well in the Heath, to the Northwest of Ladinh. These Desh would have very different cultural and religious views. They split off from the rest of the Empire after the Desh and Trasgu peoples formed an alliance and amalgamated their religious pantheons, the Deva and Asra. That would have been shortly after the Y'd catalysm of 2000 BB (before Breach). So it's been a while.

However, if contact could be re-established with a population that may also be more resistent to the plague, it could ensure the survivial of the Desh species, along with what's left of their culture, magic and accumulated knowledge.

Lord Rama is also interested in repairing relations with the Ningalu. The Desh aren't fond of water or the open ocean, and around 450BB they'd formed deals with Ningalu (and a few humans) to help them transport trade goods overseas.

House Speranza are descended from some seafarers who did a little trading with the shrinking Desh Empire in the Third Age (the last century or so) and that's both why they acted to help rescue the Inner Court, and why the Inner Court is ok with using humans as intermediaries.

## On Dragons

The reason why both House Speranza and the Desh Empire are so worried about Vestfal is all to do with dragons.

Before the Y'd cataclysm - say around 2500 BB - the Desh went to war against the Giants, who decided to migrate all over their southern lands. The Desh mobilised powered airships to take down the Giants. This attracted the attention of the Dragons, who otherwise tend to just hang out in their homeland, the volcanic archipelago of Spitzbergen (a cold, shitty but mineral rich place). Dragons and Desh had a huge aerial war, which was bad for everyone. Eventually the Desh and Dragons made a Great Armistice. One condition of that Armistice was, no powered flight in the Desh Empire. Ever. On pain of calamity for the entire Empire. On the Dragon's side, they were bound to stay out of Desh airspace, and keep trade routes safe on the ocean, on pain of Spitzbergen's main volcano erupting.

Trouble is, Vestfal are definitely prototyping powered flight to get across the mountains. And if ANY powered flying vessel shows up in Ladinh airspace, it could violate the Armistice. One scenario, angry dragons decide to retaliate against whoever happens to be around. Worse scenario, the magic behind the Armistice kicks in and something even more cataclysmic happens to Ladinh. Either way, shit's bad.

So, what's to do? Every contract has a receipt, a record, and every contract can be either overwritten or mutually dissolved. If House Speranza and the various interests of Ladinh can find out more about that contract, or get to the source and reverse it - apocalypse averted. There are potential loopholes; for example, just because the Desh signed the armistice doesn't mean the Goblins, Elves or Humans are bound. Other races could create a magical counter-offer. It's also entirely possible to go talk to some dragons and renegotiate the Armistice.

The reason that House Speranza - or more specifically, a bunch of gung-ho mages from House Speranza - made a beeline for the Heath was because they believe there are clues to the Armistice hidden in the jungle there. This is based on some leads from Cartel del Flor (bad shit has happened in their settlement near Kingdom Plantae and it appears to resemble powerful contract magic). The Speranzan mages had gone hunting either for a weapon to use against Vestfal or a key to the Armistice. Carabosse's attempted murder was a stupid misunderstanding about del Flor: the Cartel was panicking about problems in its jungle settlement and casting blame around its own ranks, so the Speranzan mages thought they were doing the Cartel a favour by taking the mage out. Carabosse breaking ranks to go take on Speranza singlehandedly didn't really help clear up the misunderstanding, but it's all been sorted out now thanks to Pomeranius once again saving the hot-headed mage from themselves, and stepping in to mediate the whole drama.

The Speranzan mages made it through the big magic wall succesfully. They were NOT expecting, however, to break into the Heath and be greeted by a hail of missiles and spellfire from jungle-dwelling Desh.

Dedalera can back up the news from Kingdom Plantae - the del Flor settlement la Paz, which sits between Ereb and Kingdom Plantae, has definitely "gone dark" and the jungle's conscousness is also confused and worried about what might be going on. Ereb itself is a very old kingdom where two different human communities, the Erebi and the Q'in have coexisted alongside Yazid dwarves and Kubernetes sailors for millennia. There's always the concern that Vestfal might have struck a deal with them.

Elek's Roma-descended relatives live in an area adjoining the Heath, roughly to the southeast, and have access to a large network of limestone caverns. Given the Desh propensity to build underground, there may well be secrets in the area that the Grey Elves can help discover.