In the beginning, Luminiege was a much beloved country. The King, a good natured man by the name of Christopher Irvine, had led the country through prosperity. Though it was a cold land, at times a harsh land, he had many allies willing to help with the giving of crops and general relations. It was believed that King Irvine was the most beloved man in all the realms. Yet, every king has enemies. His were right under his nose.
None of the families in the court of Irvine The Brave were more trusted, nor more feared, than the House of Bennett. The head of house was a former commander turned lord by the name of Sir William Bennett. William was married to Catherine, a beautiful lady of the court who was rumored to be a follower of the old religion and thus a witch. Together they had three children, two of which didn’t survive past child birth. The third survived, a baby boy whom they named Stuart. William was proud to finally have a son, an heir. You see, though he seemed a loyal member of the court, below his mask he seethed with silent rage. The king was younger than he, less experience in matters of state and warfare. So while he played the part of a loyalist, he secretly gathered troops to destroy the kingdom. Finally, after he had enough troops, the war began.
The kingdom of Luminiege did not forsee a war this size ever starting. King Irvine was unable to defend against the mercenaries that William provided. Tempered steel met with tempered steel, brother against brother fought to destroy one another. The war lasted years, children growing up in the bloody shadow of war. Time saw Stuart grow into a young man much like his father, strong and a powerful warrior. From his mother he learned the frailities of women’s work: how to see and to cook, the way to behave in front of guests and to act around ladies of the court. From what he saw around him through the battles he learned how to excel in combat and to trust no one.
When the old house failed to combat the forces led by Lord William, King Irvine had no choice but to surrender. He had hoped that the old friend of his would spare his life. Such was not the case. King Irvine was used as the example amongst the former loyalists to the old bloodline of royals. Luminiege received more snow than it ever had that day. The weather was harsh as the feelings of the new regime as the wind blew that fateful morning. An executioner, his heavy axe in hand, stood waiting as two castle guards escorted Irvine from his dungeon cell to the center of the courtyard. Lord William, only still a lord due to the fact that he had not been coronated yet, stood up high with his wife and son at his side. Catherine was mortified, never before had she seen a public execution. Stuart watched with glee, his eyes raptly at attention as he looked on. Irvine was forced to kneel, his kind eyes meeting with William’s cold gaze in a last attempt to plead for his life. William looked away, barking the order for the execution to take place. The axe swung down, Irvine’s head rolling clean from his shoulders as Catherine hid her face in her husband’s chest. Stuart looked on, never once blinking. It was his first taste of blood and he rather enjoyed it.
Life in Luminiege changed after that. William lost most of the allies that Irvine had held and even the weather changed for the harsher. The few crops that had grown stopped because the ground was ever frosted, no man was able to grow anything. However, there was still vegetation inside the castle Bennett. Gossip on the subject of Queen Catherine’s garden grew as large as the beautiful garden itself. Some said it was that Catherine had been born with witches blood in her veins and she worked dark, but beautiful, magic. Others said bodies belonging to enemies of the crown were buried in the garden. Stuart knew the truth. The castle, fierce in all its glory after being rebuilt due to damage during the war, stood on the most fertile soil in the land. King Irvine may have been kind but he was not stupid, he had allowed himself the better things of the kingdom. As for the fact that flowers grew there, even the harshest climates can yield the most beautiful roses.
Time passed and so did thoughts in the mind of the young Prince Stuart. He grew to resent his father, watching the older man run the kingdom in much the same manner as Irvine had. Peasants were not to be helped, they were to be goverened. So when his father grew sick from the climate, Stuart saw his chance. Hiding under the guise of being the perfect son, Stuart brought his father supper every night. No one suspected anything as William grew sicker, no one suspected that he was poisoning his father with hemlock and wormwood and other herbs that his mother used for polsitces. Stuart was at his father’s side when he passed, being named the next king with the man’s dying breaths. Catherine grew very sick with grief in the following months, too sick to instruct her son on how to be a proper king. When Catherine had finally reached her breaking point and hung herself in her tower, Stuart was only briefly grief ridden.
A king could not look weak in front of his people. Stuart knew this. He had people to govern, a kingdom to run. He would be a powerful and strict king of a failing kingdom, the tyrant of a land of frost who sat upon a throne of stone.
Thu Feb 07, 2013 4:36 pm