Mafia: Royal Family

***Mafia: Royal Family*** is the fifteenth season of *The Mafia Series*. In a similar fashion to *Mafia: All-Stars - Two Societies*, it features two groups, or courts: The Queen's Court, hosted by Ella, and The King's Court, hosted by Hoola.

In the second ever Two Societies game, all the players (i.e. most) came to play! Unfortunately, many of the more active townspeople were eliminated at the beginning of the game, causing a slower curve in the middle. With several unique twists along the way, there were several turns along the way in the game. Additionally, with a unique maneuver from the 3rd party, specifically from one maniac, the game had an interesting twist. In the end, however, the mafia claimed victory after outwitting the 3rd party and the townspeople!

This game lasted from June 25, 2021 up to July 13, 2021. As stated above, the game was very active at the start. The majority of the active town-aligned players were eliminated before the merge, causing a slow early-middle portion of the merged game. However, deadlines were still kept all the way through, leading to an efficient, but still record-breakingly-long game.

# ***Roles & Twists***

**Twists**
* **Royalty:** Ella, as the queen, and Hoola, as the king, are in charge of this game. The theme of this game would revolve around royalty, and all the players would be living in a castle.
* **Two Societies:** At the beginning of the game, the king and queen chose which 14 of the 28 players would be in their court in the castle. The two societies were completely separate, meaning that members across societies could not communicate about the game. Each society had a special town and announcements chat. Both sides also had their *own* mafia, and so two players would die every round. Likewise, both societies would vote someone out every day.
After three kills from the mafia and three executions on each side, the remaining eighteen players came together into one society. All members of the mafia and 3rd party would also come together at the merge and combine in their respective teams, and if both players with the mafia role made the merge, they would have to decide which one of them would become the *head* mafia. The head mafia would lock in the kills, while the other mafia would take over if the head mafia died. *Before* the merge, if all possible players to hold the mafia role in one society die, the mafia on the other side will decide the kills on *both* sides.
* **Master Bedroom:** During the action period (night) of both societies, a live challenge would occur. Whoever wins gets to sleep in the master bedroom for the night. The winner *cannot* be killed by the mafia, but they cannot perform actions either! The winner of the challenge can also select someone else to go into the master bedroom.
* **Inner Chambers:** Each servant would have private communication with their queen or king. In the inner chamber, each servant would learn about one upcoming twist in the game. They both learned the *same* twist, and that is the blitz kill.
* **Blitz Kill:** The second kill in the merged court was a blitz kill, meaning that the mafia killed two players in one night.
* **The Treasury:** Each servant that survived to the merge got access to their own treasury. The treasury contained four chest: a gold chest, a silver chest, a platinum chest, and a purple chest. Each chest was randomized to contain: a double vote for the servant, the ability for the servant to remove someone else's vote, the knowledge of someone else's role per the servant's choice, or the ability to restore a dead player to life.

# ***Game Summary***

With the start of a two societies game, the Queen's Court immediately descended into chaos and strategy, while the King's Court was much more calm and collected. As the game proceeded smoothly for the first hour, a twist fell upon the players soon after. The king and queen announced that both courts would have a challenge at the start of every night cycle, and the winner would venture into the master bedroom! Some players were more enthused about this twist than others. Ventus won the first challenge in the Queen's Court but gave his ability to Malik, while Nat won immunity for himself in the King's Court.

The Queen's Court contained much more chaos from the start, having some more dominant players like Nemo, Aster, and Eevee. Many players became suspicious of Eevee when he made a judge claim, while much confusion revolved around Nene claiming to be a monarch that connected with another player from the opposing court. The mafia team decided to kill off **Life** first, worried of his noble abilities in a smaller group of players. Meanwhile, Nathaniel and Harp proceeded through the round unaccused with their psychic and healer roles, respectively, while Phoenix had similar luck claiming apprentice, following Nemo. On the other hand, many players were puzzled that Kam would have been given just a simple commoner role by the Queen herself, but the witch slipped by unharmed.

The King's Court was much quieter during this time, just having typical role claims with Justin, Havoc, and Piper all compiling a chart. However, Havoc the maniac had an all-new strategy in mind for the third party. He intended to use his ability to discover the mafia and then eliminate them from the game, so that he could blackmail the mafia team when he obtained the majority. He first discovered that Neb was the mafia on his side, and he immediately gunned for him first. The mafia decided to kill **Akunor** because of the lack of suspicion that would fall upon him due to being the only sheriff claim in the King's Court. Following the kill, there was very little resistance to Havoc's plan to vote out Havoc, so **Neb** was eliminated was 6 votes to his name, but there were many miscellaneous and self-votes at the trial.

The Queen's Court didn't have as a definite of a name coming up around the town, though Aster and Nemo both pushed to vote out Eevee, deeming him to be suspicious because of claiming judge. Supposed cross-court references showed that Nevaeh, the healer in the King's Court, was also claiming judge, which was true. She had been instructed by Havoc to hide her powerful role and to claim judge instead. Knowing that there could only be one judge present in the game, the court thought that the evidence was stacked against **Eevee**, and he was promptly voted out.

In the second cycle, Nathaniel claimed victory to go to the master bedroom in the Queen's Court, while Emmi won in the King's Court. Both of them were exempt for the night. The bigger players in the Queen's Court were all communication that Ventus was the healer and that he would be healing Harp that night, while Harp would be healing him. Phoenix and his mafia team decided to make a gusty move and kill Harp, the accomplice, knowing that he would be healed. When everything fell out as planned, Harp seemed to be confirmed as he was killed and healed. In the King's Court, players were becoming suspicious of Nat for not using his ability during the first trial, but he said that his mistake of not using it was accidental. Despite the possible vote, Piper decided to kill **Nat** second in the King's Court.

The mafia team in the Queen's Court, with boosted confidence, started to become more aggressive in pushing for votes. They targeted CamBam in the vote, pointing him out to be suspicious with the spy claim (I still don't even remember how that passed?) Meanwhile, several players in that court were also voting for Nene, not believing that he would be connected as a monarch with someone on the other side, despite his evidence of sending a claim list from the King's Court. In a close vote, **CamBam** was blindsided.

Meanwhile, in the King's Court, Havoc was still fishing for information for who the mafia may be on his side. He discovered that Piper was a member of the mafia team, and immediately began to target her. Piper was claiming to be detective, alongside Avtron. Havoc pointed out that there were most likely not two detectives, so one of them had to be lying. Then he placed the vote against Piper, calling her out. Piper was confused by how he could be so certain, and she attempted to grasp at straws and vote for Hunbi, saying that he was suspicious for so constantly and annoyingly targeting Justin. However, that wasn't enough to save her as **Piper** was eliminated.

Moving into the third cycle, and the final cycle of two societies, Havoc won the challenge in the King's Court and expected to see the servant in the Master Bedroom, but he was surprised to learn that there was no such twist. In the Queen's Court, Cherry won and gifted his immunity to Phoenix, who was publicly thankful but privately upset. Being the only primary mafia in the game, Phoenix had to determine the kill on *both* sides, but since he was in the Master Bedroom and unable to perform actions, both kills were randomized. **Ventus** was killed in the Queen's Court, while Nevaeh was killed in the King's Court, but she healed herself and thus saved herself from death.

Next, Havoc was still leading the vote in the King Court when he discovered that Chloe was actually the corrupted servant! She had been rather inactive, and so other players became confused when Havoc threw suspicion onto her, but enough votes fell onto **Chloe** to eliminate her, while Justin only received half as many. The Queen's Court, as usual, contained much more chaos during the vote. To most players, the easy vote seemed to be Nene. But some other players, including the mafia, had concocted the idea that Nemo was suspicious and that he should be voted out. **Nemo** was executed in a 5-4-1 blindside vote. Phoenix also informed Aster that he was following him as opposed to Nemo, in order to avoid gaining suspicion.

When the merge arrived, the group was a bit quieter aside from comparing notes and role claims. Havoc was believed to be knight, as Nemo was believed to be suspicious and he was the only other knight claim. The mafia was also in a good position, despite their small number, as Harp and Nathaniel were both believed to be completely safe. The two maniacs, Havoc and Karte, united with Kam, the witch, and the 3rd party continued their search for the mafia, beginning to inspect the Queen's Court members.

Aster unlocked his servant power and unlocked the ability to bring back a player to life. After some selection, he decided that **Life** would return to the game with his powerful double vote ability. Meanwhile, the mafia decided to kill the only remaining true healer, **Nevaeh**. At the first merged trial, eyes were set on **Hunbi**, an unconfirmed joker. His obsession with voting Justin was rubbing others the wrong way, and he was voted out as he brought nothing to the table.

With players gradually becoming more uninterested in the game itself, the graveyard was progressively becoming more and more active, with Nathaniel, the psychic, getting all the tea. Eevee occasionally was causing chaos by spreading lies about those in the game, and he was even correct when jokingly accusing Kam to be the witch. Suspicion also arose that Nathaniel was corrupted, but no one in the graveyard particularly cared about holding back information. Meanwhile, Nathaniel helped Phoenix and Harp decide that **Life** would be the next to go, again, and this time for good.

In the most interesting move of the game, Havoc and Karte had discovered that Phoenix and Nathaniel were both members of the mafia, and the two decided to blackmail them. Havoc was convinced that Eevee was also an original member of the Queen's Court mafia for reasons unknown, so he stopped searching. The three 3rd party members said to Phoenix and Nathaniel that the mafia must listen to them completely or the 3rd party would drag them, resulting in a villager win. However, unbeknownst to the 3rd party, there was actually an accomplice that would take over in Phoenix's place.

The evil players pushed the vote onto **Avtron**, saying that since they had gotten one detective out, they might as well remove the other. Nene also proved himself during this vote. The next kill was revealed to the mafia to be a *blitz kill*, meaning that they would kill off two players. This was announced to the servants, Aster and Chloe, before the merge, and the information had been revealed. Several players, including Aster and Phoenix, believed that this would occur pre-merge and that four players would die. But it truly didn't happen until the third merged round, in which the mafia killed **Emmi** and Brainz. However, Brainz was the aristocrat, and he was healed by giving his money to the mafia. Nene lost his vote due to losing his monarch pair. The witch, Kam, also poisoned **Aster**, the strategical mastermind for the villagers' team.

The players decided to eliminate Cherry next, deciding to discover whether or not he was truly the jester. He in fact was, and he took **Malik's** card, eliminating him from the game. **Felidues** was killed by the mafia due to his powerful role as noble, despite self-voting several times. Next, **Justin** was blindsided in the vote when the mafia and 3rd party finally took control of the votes, rigging them. It was clear to the graveyard by this time that the villagers stood very little of a chance.

**Cherry** was killed again by the mafia for being a confirmed sheriff. The mafia's plan of taking control of the game and overthrowing the 3rd party now began to take effect. Phoenix killed **Kam**, knowing she couldn't drag anyone. Havoc was disturbed by this kill, but he believed that the blackmail plan would continue smoothly, because neither Havoc nor Karte could die. Phoenix manipulated Karte, during this time, saying that it would be funny to drag Havoc again as the maniac. Karte agreed to the plan, despite knowing that it would self-destruct the team, so Phoenix killed **Karte** next, who dragged **Havoc**, who dragged **Phoenix**.

Even though Phoenix was killed... the game continued. Harp took control of the mafia team, and he and Nathaniel executed **Nene** when they had the majority with their double vote from killing Brainz, as aristocrat. Brainz was unenthused as, though he had survived for a long time, not many talked to him because the mafia and 3rd party were uninterested in talking with anyone outside their team. The mafia team didn't believe that **Lance** deserved to make the end with his constant self-voting, so they killed him in 4th place. Finally, with the absolute majority, the mafia voted out **Brainz**, eliminating him from the game, and only leaving the two remaining mafia members to win: **Harp** and **Nathaniel**!

*In addition, you can view the confessionals of the game submitted by the players here!*

# ***Voting History***

Queen's Court

King's Court

The Royal Family

An underlined vote represents a penalty vote.
A strike-through vote represents a vote blocked by the lawyer.
An *italicized strike-through* vote represents a vote blocked by the monarch.

# ***Awards***

Because this season had more than ten players and three rounds of executions, awards were handed out at the end of the game. They were given to the following recipients.

# ***Trivia***

* With Karte, Havoc, and Phoenix all dying on night nine, this was the second time ever that three players died at the same time, after night two in *Mafia: The Great Beyond*.
	+ Funny enough, Havoc and Phoenix were killed both times.
* Once again, Jameson won the viewing lounge prediction game for this season.