Elizia Gildenroza was a noble born as an heir to the throne of Lux. Even though she was the heir to a prestigious lineage, her parents treated her no differently compared to her other siblings. Arguably she was treated far worse, always under constant scrutiny. She was their first born, first in to the fires of their special training. From a young age Elizia was trained primarily as an assassin, a seducer, a spy. Her parents saw great potential in her and pushed her harder than any of her siblings. The Gildenrozas were always a determined house, always stubborn to a fault. Failure was not allowed in their home, and would bring great disrespect to any who failed. Swift and heafty punishment would occur to any of their children who failed. This would force their children to seek greater and greater heights. Their failures would create their strengths, their faults would be used to forge strong chains to lift them up.
The Family Gildenroza
Each child would obtain specialized training. Elizia’s specialty was Intrigue, but much more was expected from her as the heir. Her brother Lucius, on the other hand, was trained as one of the Knights of the Gildenroza family. All females of the Gildenroza family would be taught ball-room dancing, as it was necessary for formal events. The males would recieve lighter training, so that they could dance properly with partners. The teacher was a harsh Stufurtian Instructor, a rather old man, hardened by his time in the army. Often they would be beaten by him for their failures, even for minor imperfections. Such was the way of the instructor, and the parents did not mind. As long as their roses soared and succeeded, they did not care what it took. Elizia almost never struggled with dance, or not really most of anything when she was younger. This wasn’t the case for her siblings, who would fall, break, bend, and clumsily coordinate when dancing. Their failures would net them beatings, pushing them to strive to beat Elizia. Elizia being the eldest would stick up to her siblings sometimes, irrationally going against the grain, to resist their parents, but this would often net her beatings as well.
The Gildenrozas did not shy away from punishment or beatings as a form of encouragement when learning. Some would see this as barbaric, but not the Gildenrozas, they simply treated it as a method of teaching. They played their children against eachother, forming contests of skill, as well as will. The ones who scored the most in tests and tasks, would gain merit and prize. While the ones who fell behind would be punished. Elizia being the oldest, found it rather easy to out-compete her siblings. This would swiftly change as the others began to grow older, their age differences meaning less and less. She would have to quickly learn to properly compete, and train her best to win. Some of her siblings were very smart, cunning, and equal rivals to Elizia. Some would say they could be greater than her, but she didn’t believe such a thing. But, she did not always remain at the top of the pack, constantly switching places with Lucius, and Marcin.
Each of them would train day and night, each on their own separate regiments. They would have unique instructors for the each of them. They would of course share classes, ones they would all have to do, basic writing, reading, science, math. The Gildenroza estate felt almost like a school for the gifted, all of them having specialized classes just for each of them. There would be no rest for the Gildenroza children, the parents would make sure of that. It was too important to impress the Queen and her advisors. The Gildenrozas must make their mark on Annetz, or fall to disgrace. One day a Gildenroza would be on the council, and would bring great respect to the family.
Elizia's Training
Elizia soon started being trained in dance, combat, and more intrigue, a whole wheelhouse of skills. Specifically designed for the heir to the family, she must be capable of everything. She was given the toughest roster, and thrown first into any trials created. She would have to train over 14 hours a day, having classes from dawn until dusk. The other girls were merely trained in dance and intrigue, few if any actually trained in combat. But Elizia must, because if the future head of the family couldn’t fight, then what honor did the family have. She was going to represent Gildenroza, so she must be perfect. She was trained in combat, quickly, and intensely. She favored the bow, as it was a ranged weapon, one she didn’t need to rely on strength for. But she was forced to choose a melee weapon to represent her dueling style. She favored a strange weapon, one that most humans didn’t use, the Elven Duel Glaive. A two sided weapon with two blades that danced around a pole. It would give her effective reach and flair in use. Representing her character best.
She took to both with great stride, but clearly favored the bow with it’s range. Her melee combat trials with her brothers often would leave her exhausted, and on the losing end. She didn’t have the means or strength to beat the boys. She would adapt, she had to. She would undercut, backstab, jab, and tire them out as much as she could. She would play defensive, waiting for them to strike, letting her gain the upper hand on them. Her entire strategy to winning a battle of strength was to turn it into psychological warfare. If she had to win, she would win on her terms, not her brothers.
Elizia was always a fierce competitor. She would always try to dominate her fellow siblings in anything she participated in. Even if it was considered punching down, she didn’t care. They might be years younger than her, but she had a house to lead, she had to be seen as glorious, elegant, she was the best they had. She knew the high hopes her parents had for her, and she had to prove herself capable of those heights. And, prove herself she would, she would constantly push for their approval, cherishing and relishing in any merits she gained. She was endlessly stubborin in her pursuit, she would grow upset and distraught whenever she lost a merit to another sibling. But this was often the case between all in the Gildenroza family. They would fight, they would bicker, there even would be mini civil wars between the siblings. It was not uncommon for the house to be on fire between the siblings, sometimes quite literally.
Rivalries between the siblings would form, groups, little gangs. The girls would sometimes team up against the boys. Rifts between the girls being exploited by the boys, forcing the girls to fail, and vice versa. Constant undercutting, back-biting, and backstabbing would occur within the halls of the Gildenroza estate. And it was encouraged, it was what the parents always wanted. Strong children who had intrigue beyond their years, capable of spinning and fabricating any plot. They wanted a dynasty of children trained to be the most capable at lying, the best at burying the truth. They should be the best at lying to all of those around them, while fabricating reality. For if they could fabricate their reality, whose to say it wasn’t real, except them? So, they would lie, they would cheat, steal, complain and groan to their instructors and parents. All in attempts to sunder their siblings, and beat them in small games. Even small games lead to great victories as every Gildenroza swiftly learned.
Elizia swiftly began to gain an independence streak. She was one of the few children who didn’t respect her father. Constantly clashing with him in a battle of wits, and will just like her siblings. She would manipulate him often, and force him to bash her other siblings. She would still work hard, to gain her parents approval, but despised their controlling nature. She would use it against them quite often in fact. Her mother was not much better, in comparison to her father. She would just echo what her father said. This forced her to be more rebellious, she would lie, steal, cheat her parents. She wouldn’t get caught most of the time, throwing the blame on her other siblings and dispersing them as accidents, failures, faults. She would drink their parents alcohol, hum tunes in the deep of night, playing instruments to wake her father, She would steal money from him, thieving coin off him. All while making it look like the others were doing it.
The Intrigue Of The Family Gildenroza
Often this would work, elaborate fabricated lies were created, plots about wine being drank by a servant. Drugging their instructors to make it look like they were doing alcohol, and drugs while working. Stealing from their pantries to make it look like the maids were eating their food, or simply robbing their parents to raise general suspicion. The house was constantly filled with an air of suspicion and mystery. As allegedly every kid, every servant had at one point stolen alcohol from the cellars, and stolen money from the fathers purse. Everyone and everything was to blame, Elizia being smart would never exclude herself from such accusations, she would sit amongst them, waiting as the eyes of her father prowled over them to guess who had done it. Often he was wrong, she was a magnificent liar, a true manipulator, just like he wanted. The house of lies would continue to grow as he grew older and more and more children were born. It would be a mess, chaotic, destruction would occur. It was hard to control, their parents struggled to hold it together, but managed to. As they gained experience handling the children, they continued to expand this school-like system encompassing more children birthed in the Gildenroza family.
As the system expanded to encompass more and more children, a Rose Cypher was created. A cypher made specifically for the kids to secretly talk amongst themselves. It would let them pass notes between each other, and would allow them to hide them from their parents. Simple messages were sent at first, but the Rose cypher quickly grew. Longer, more complex messages were sent, if not entire letters. It grew to be an important cypher when that generation grew up and left the house, and became an integral part of the family Gildenroza. It is now commonly used when sending important letters to foreign dignitaries, and even to the queen.
The women were often the best at fabrications and lies. They would use crying, beguiling, and pity to swindle their way around the instructors. Not every instructor was harsh, at times they felt sad for the children. But they should not be sad, as the children would prey on them, twisting their arms for merits, and abusing them to give others demerits. The siblings through all of this didn’t really hate each other. They tended to honestly like each other. They actually made a pact amongst eachother called the Crimson Pact. Each of them promised to never spill the blood of another, as it would be uncouth, and would cause massive problems in the house if any of them did end up dead. All Gildenrozas were forced into it, a promise they were bound to.
Elizia was actually one of the few who didn’t like most of her siblings. She was a bit of a loner, she only liked less than she could count up to using only one hand. She was fiercely competitive being the best liar in the room. This annoyed most of her siblings. It often would take many of them together to actually bring her down in one of her bold faced lies. She clearly had a silver tongue and would use it whenever she needed.
Throughout all the bickering and lying, Elizia would be percieved as the most innocent of the bunch. Innocent she was not however. She often truly did what was reported by her siblings about her, but again she could always perfectly lie her way out of it. Being the eldest did have it’s advantages. She was seen as more mature, slightly above the others. Her parents seemed to trust her, and she had constantly reinforced this. She would play it up every time she could, reinforcing to the best of her ability. She would use this to her advantage, her grades in combat would never meet those of the men. She was indeed the best female fighter in the family, but what merit did that garner? None, it gave her nothing. It didn’t matter, if she wasn’t first, she was nothing at all. If she wasn’t first her family would not care, nobody would recognize her, and she wouldn’t recieve her sweet roses.
Don’t think this trial by fire, and this combat seeped into their politics with the other noble families during hospitable meetings and receptions. This was not tolerated by the parents. Their children would not be seen as sadistic demons, or evil gremlins. They would be prim, proper, and respected by all. They were trained to behave, and to practice their subterfuge far quieter when around the company of others. Most children just wouldn’t do it, they wouldn’t bother messing with their siblings, or bringing about failures. They didn’t dare to garner the eye of their parents, and to lose their rose merits. But some, would in fact try. Lucius was among one of the few who would try. Elizia would as well but far less than his boldness. Lucius would constantly use this tactic of manipulating his brothers and maidens from other families to cause uproar, causing them to lose merit.
Elizia and Lucius were like two peas in a pod. They worked together constantly, being first and second born. They were constantly in talks with each other, planning, plotting. They were respectively seen as the head of the male and female parts of the estate, besides of course their parents. They would plot together, scheming ways to keep the other children down. They would constantly work together on these plots, using their age against their siblings. They made pacts to not target each other, as they would be targeted by the other children quite often. Their plots would remain hidden from their parents, and even siblings. Few knew they actually colluded with each other, they were good at feigning hatred of each other.
But why would the siblings fight this much? Well, their accomplishments that they achieved would merit them rose-like gifts. Often called Gilden-Roses. That was the trap, the honey for the children. In a family Gildenroza, the children were their roses. Taught to bloom, quite literally by being given pendants of roses. These simple pendants would mark each individuals honor and merit. They would act as almost medals to the children at home. To others they look merely like decorations. Gilden-Roses came in many a different color, bronze, silver, and gold. Gold being the highest tier, where golden roses were gained by achieving the most. This birthed the idea of what is now known within the family as “The Rosening”, or sometimes referred to as “The Blooming”.
A short explanation of the Gilden-Roses system. There are 3 tiers of standard roses, as well asspecial event roses. Bronze roses were handed out during any training session, for high marks, as well as high praise. They may also be handed out for exemplary behavior. They could also even be handed for excessive success in a subject, in any particular field. These were handed out for almost anything the children did.
Awards
Bronze (Given for any achievement, that results in victory).
Silver (Given when a Gildenroza obtains 10 bronze roses).
Gold (Given when a Gildenroza obtains 10 silver roses).
Event Roses (Given for successful completion of an event, and proper etiquette).
Seasonal Roses (Given for successful completion of a seasonal event).
Graduation Roses (Given for successful completion of Graduation Tasks).
Rose Examples
An example of a Bronze rose of which Elizia would have obtained, would be when she trained with Hrellzen, The master bowsman hired by the Gildenroza family. She was practicing one day with him, and was told to raw fire, with no adjustments. She quickly made 3 bulls-eyes in a row, from a distance of over 100m. This instantly and sufficiently impressed the trainer, rewarding her a bronze rose.
Silver and Gold roses were never rewarded, they had to be earned by obtaining 10 of the previous tier. Upon obtaining 10 of a previous tier, they were combined. It was seen as a massive dishonor to lose a gold rose, or even a silver. Bronze roses were lost all the time, but there was pressure to make sure you never lost a silver or Bronze. So, children would often create buffers of bronze roses, so they couldn’t be removed. This didn’t necessarily work, due to the fact if a terrible enough infraction occurred, silver, or even gold could be directly removed.
An example of an Event rose that Elizia had obtained, would be during the Moon Gala, which the queen had held. It was a typical event the queen held every 6 years. The Sun gala was held every third year, and they would cycle out. She had danced at the gala when she was merely 13. She successfully danced with a member of the house Honorfall, as well as managing to take center-stage in the dance. She always had to be the star of attention, wherever she was. She would wear flagrant red dresses, that would glitter. Golden earrings, and jewelry to boot. During the event she also properly demonstrated proper etiquette while making talk with the Honorfalls. This netted her the Moon Rose, one of the easier roses to obtain, almost every Gildenroza obtained an event rose, it was honestly a great dishonor to miss one.
Seasonal roses occured during certain events during season periods. An example of one would be the Winter Bash. The family would head north to participate in a large mock snowball war. The kids needed training fighting actual opponents, and for most of their years they were too young to fight proper enemies, so they fought eachother. Each player was awarded a Winter-Rose, whenever they knocked down 10 or more opponents. As there is no technical death during this ‘trial by combat’, this rose was also rather easy to obtain.
But again, just as roses may be earned, they may be lost. Demerits occured quite often in House Gildenroza. Every single child of the gildenroza’s family has lost roses, without exception. Either due to actual infighting caused by other children, or merely for their failures.
For example, a rose that Elizia had lost, would have been when she was ratted out by 3 of her other fellow siblings, when she had stolen a bit of cash from her father. She tried lying, to swindle her way out of it, but they pressed. This caused her to lose a silver rose, a terrible dishonor. Not just bronze roses can be lost, gold and silver can be lost if a child does something horrible. Being their only form of accomplishment in the family, having grown up to only know the rose system, it was destructive to lose a rose of such caliber. But of course, Elizia would get her revenge.
The Rosening
The Rosening(Blooming) was an event when a Gildenroza came of age that would begin a journey and set of trials far greater than anything they had faced before. Elizia being the eldest, was the first pushed into The Blooming. She would have no idea what faced her, and what was in store. She knew that failure would force her to retry it a week later, until she succeeded at a particular trial. The Blooming would be a test of all their skills against incredible opponents, real world ones. Tasks the children really shouldn’t do, but they had to if they were to succeed in this world. Elizia of course was handed the most tasks, having to be trained in everything as the heir.
Her first task was the simplest, that being dancing. She was great at this, it wasn’t a complex task for her. She took to it with ease, and had practiced all of her life, dancing with her mother, their instructor, and even the queen herself. So, she simply went to it, she danced, danced like she had never danced before. Her fleet footed dexterous nature made her pass with ease. There was nothing much to this she thought, it would be easy. She was honored with the Pink Rose, the rose of Dance & Etiquette.
Her second task, was far harder. She was to get a noble from the family Nevvon to spill a secret of which he was hiding. She knew this would be far harder, and it would take some time. But, like any other Gildenroza she got to work. She swiftly infiltrated his circle of friends, garnering interest, and becoming helpful to him and his. She began to poach him for his secrets, slowly but surely she got the information she needed. She revealed it to her father, completing the task. She was honored with the Black Rose, the rose of Intrigue.
Her third task was far easier. She merely had to sneak into the queen’s palace, and hang around for roughly 30 minutes. This wouldn’t be that hard, as not many people visited or went into the queen’s palace. So, she snuck in. She was rather skilled in hiding, she would fit into very small places, and could move around without making noise. She did almost get caught however, when the queen made made a quick turn and went through a hallway she didn’t expect. But she stayed still, right out of the vision of the queen, sneaking into the corner to hide. Upon successful completion, she was honored with the Shade rose, the rose of Stealth.
Her fourth task, an odd one, at least to her. Was to take 1 copper piece and turn it into a platinum piece before the end of the day. 10 copper, to a silver, 10 silver to a gold, 10 gold to a platinum. This would prove to actually be a difficult task. She would fail it twice, which to her was horrendous. She would have to retake the exam a third time, when she finally managed to swindle someone out of enough money to get a good early head-start. Doing so she could quickly pawn off bigger goods, to quickly and rapidly gain money. She pawned off candies at first to kids, as well as flowers and roses to women. Quickly moving up to trade goods, which she would run too and fro trying to sell with her charm. She made the money earning a total of a platinum and 10 silver. She was honored with the Platinum rose, the Rose of Bartering.
Her fifth task, was merely convincing a noble to accept a trade deal, However the noble was from the house Honorfall, and to her surprise was a pretty stubborn fool. Toblerone was his name, her goal was to make the trade-deal as equitable as possible as it was terribly against their families interests. If she failed, she would have to wait for another opportunity to turn a trade deal and try again. However, lucky for her, he enjoyed her charm, and let her go after just a couple hours of bickering. She was honored with the Market Rose
Her sixth task was the hardest of them all. This was the task she was dreading, combat. Combat had never been truly her strong suit. She wasn’t bad at it, but she was clearly a leader from afar, not close up. This was constantly echoed through her high performances in archery, but her middle of the pack performances in close quarters combat. But, she knew it had to be done, there was no purpose complaining about the task. The task was to slay a Troll…. A frightful beast, big, tall, snarly. It would be an incredibly hard task, as the Troll would have brute force, as well as a large reach range. She was barred from using fire-arrows as elemental arrows were banned under the competitions rules as making it too easy for her. So, she had to figure out another way to deal with the Troll. She tried attacking it head on, failing multiple times. She peppered it with arrows, battering it down, but it regenerated too quickly for her to kill. She would spend weeks, and weeks on this. Her failure she felt was infinite during this time. She thought she would never be the heir if it would take this long to do this simple task. But, she finally cracked it, by using a rock-slide to crush it killing it. It couldn’t regenerate if it died instantly, sometimes combat needs strategy is what she learned that day. She gained her Martial Rose that day.
Campaign Life
Upon successful completion of all her tasks, she graduated from Gildenroza training. A celebration was held with the whole family. She was walked down a room, filled with all her siblings, clapping, cheering, celebrating her. Her father was at the end holding something in a box. He opened it obtaining the Legendary Golden Rose pin. She put it in her hair, and would wear it with honor. This celebration swiftly ended and was told to start working for her dues, and to find a post that she could weasel her way around. She quickly found a prospective post, in the new world. The queen recently had begun colonizing, and the govenors would need heroic people to aid them in the line of duty. She took a post under a Govenor Adams. This would be a low level job, but she saw great potential to climb. She got to work. She was sent on her first assignment. She had to fight the Shade Elfs in an attempt to prove her worth. It went horribly however, as the commanding governor was a complete moron. She disobeyed his orders, psuhing forward and killing the elves as the others retreated as cowards.
She found an artifact on the dead bodies of the fallen. Clearly a great general died from one of her arrows. It was a Jade Bow, and it hummed for her to take it. She grabbed it and it sung in her hands, she could feel it’s power, it’s beckon, it’s call. She was a skilled archer, she saw no reason not to take this, without thought she put it on her back. The bow dissapeared shifting out of reality. The bow gave her immense power.
The govenor believed she wouldn’t be capable of following his orders, so he almost threw her in for treason for disobeying orders, but relented by just firing her. She was offered to leave, and she took it. This post was just a stepping stone for her, it didn’t look good to get fired from her first actual job, but she knew she could work elsewhere. She got lucky, and saw one of the Advisors of the queen, Hessel… She spoke to him. She knew him and the queen harbored great ancient powers, hidden far below the depths. She asked to work for him, promising to do whatever the queen needed. Hessel accepted, binding her soul to the queen, granting her eternal life like her, but forced to work favors for the queen. But was interrupted, before the deal could be finalized, by a fellow govenor. The Govenor managed to convince her to join him, she took the job as a cover for her more auspicious queen job.
From there on out she was allowed her free reign, her much needed independence from her mother and father. This would let her soar, she proceeded to do many a mission for the Gildenroza family, as well as the queen while under his employ. She rapidly expanded their influences abroad. She would continue working under him for quite some time, building up prospects and connections, in this new world.
She changed in unexpected ways. She scavenged ruins, finding artifacts, which she enjoyed. She did these alone, being allowed to enjoy her time to herself. She got to do this when delving deeper into the ruins, which would fill her with joy. She quickly developed an interest for exploring these old ancient ruins, and of course obtaining powerful artifacts helped.
Time passed, and the first governor died. She slowly began to develop feelings for her new boss, and so did he for her. Initially she would reject his proposals, not thinking it a proper time for such things, or merely not being interested. She refused the first time as it was amidst the heat of battle, but he wouldn’t let that stop him. He made a brooch, and a ring for her. He would pester, poke, prod, never tiring. Eventually she would accept, and had a massive royal wedding in a cathedral he built in her honor. The wedding would bring utter joy, as nobility from across the lands including the queen would attend.
She would spend every second with her husband, using her bows magical powers to be in multiple places at once. She would build a trade empire for the Gildenrozas. She would slowly watch him age, as time passed. She wouldn’t, being tied to the queen, and her ancient soul. She knew what must be done, if he were to ever get too old. She knew she must ask for the favor again…