━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━ "quod gladico logicae regnat" ━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━ 〚 ✧┇ ═══════════════════ - ‹ •◦ ✧ ◦• › - ═══════════════════ ┇✧ 〛 〚 ✧┇ ═══════════════════ - ‹ •◦ ✧ ◦• › - ═══════════════════ ┇✧ 〛 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION - II. THE STEEL COUNCIL III. THE IRON GUILD - IV. THE TRIALS V. COURT HISTORY ━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━ INTRODUCTION ※ The Argent Court is a criminal society written and wrought for the elite, the driven, the cutthroat—a place of prestige for the savants and prodigies of the Undercity to prove that they are indeed the best of the best. Founded in 309 A.C. by the aristocrat-born and criminal-raised Cecil Riv’ensteel, the Argent Court is, in his eyes, an experiment. Will the beleaguered geniuses and hidden masters of New Crookback rise to the occasion and not only claim a throne, but fight for it, or will they keep their heads low? And if these titles are indeed taken, who will rise up beneath their heels to topple them? The Argent Council comprises two inner circles, the Steel Council and the Iron Guild. The Steel Council is the seat of the Masters, those who have proven that they are worthy of a title to recognize their prowess. Beneath them lies the Iron Guild, a ring of skilled, hungry Acolytes who will learn how to rise and topple their superior or fall from the throne themselves. To dictate these changes, a system of Trials has been put in place, and they will be carefully monitored by the Silver King. The rarified members of this Court will be lauded for their accomplishments and their tenacity with opportunities to explore the greater world at the guide of the Silver King, and the reputation gained for their position will surely afford them greater opportunity elsewhere in the Crown City. Power is never to be taken for granted, and the logic of the sword will dictate if you stand or if you fall. Which will you choose? ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━ THE STEEL COUNCIL ※ THE SILVER KING Leader of the Argent Court. The Silver King is immune to ousting. Wears the Crown of Nails. The Silver King will always be Cecil Riv’ensteel. [ @sonofthestars ] THE LORD OF BLADES The Master Combatant; the Undercity’s strongest warrior. Wears a steel broach with the insignia of a sword. The current Lord of Blades is Cecil Riv’ensteel. [ @sonofthestars ] THE PRINCE OF THIEVES The Master Thief; the Undercity’s most skillful burglar and pickpocketer. Wears a steel broach with the insignia of a key. The current Prince of Thieves is no one. THE DUKE OF WHISPERS The Master Spy; the Undercity’s most skillful infiltrator and informat. Will always go under a pseudonym and is known only to the Silver King. Wears no identifier. The Duke of Whispers’ identity will never be revealed. There is no current Duke of Whispers. THE BARON OF WITCHES The Master Alchemist; the Undercity’s most inventive and effective maker of alchemical and medical substances. Wears a steel broach with the insignia of a rubyflower. The current Baron of Witches is no one. THE KNIGHT OF EMBERS The Master Blacksmith; the Undercity’s best metalworker and crafter of finery. Wears a steel broach with the insignia of a hammer. The current Knight of Embers is no one. ━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━ THE IRON GUILD ※ ACOLYTE OF THE BLADE A skilled warrior who works under the Lord of Blades. Wears an iron ring on the left pointer finger. The current Acolytes of the Blade are no one. ACOLYTE OF THE THIEF A skilled thief who works under the Prince of Thieves. Wears an iron ring on the left middle finger. The current Acolytes of the Thief are no one. ACOLYTE OF THE WHISPER A skilled spy who works under the Duke of Whispers. Acolytes of the Whisper wear no identifying mark, and use pseudonyms to protect their identity. The current Acolytes of the Whisper are no one. ACOLYTE OF THE WITCH A skilled alchemist who works under the Baron of Witches. Wears an iron ring on the right middle finger. The current Acolytes of the Witch are no one. ACOLYTE OF THE EMBER A skilled metallurgist who works under the Knight of Embers. Wears an iron ring on the right pointer finger. The current Acolytes of the Ember are no one. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━ THE TRIALS ※ The Trials are a system of tests that allow for the ascension of members from one rank to the next. There are two levels of Trials: The Ferr-Iron Trials, which induct non-court members into the Iron Guild, and the Steel Trials, which induct Iron Acolytes into the Steel Council. When someone passes a Trial, that same Trial cannot be attempted by anyone else for a week. When someone fails a trial, they must wait a week before trying again, but anyone else can immediately attempt that same Trial if they wish. The Ferr-Iron Trials do not follow these rules under most circumstances. When a Steel Councilman is challenged by an Iron Acolyte in the Steel Trials, and the Acolyte succeeds, that Acolyte will ascend to the Steel Council and the Councilman will be cast out of the Court, leaving room for a new Acolyte. If an Acolyte remains an Acolyte for two weeks without attempting the Steel Trials, they will be given a warning. If by the end of another week they still have not attempted the Steel Trials, they will be removed from the Iron Guild. Steel Councilmen are expected to interact with their Iron Acolytes regularly, as well as consistently practice and advertise their specific skill set. ━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━ THE FERR-IRON TRIALS ※ THE TRIAL OF BLADES Seek an opponent of the Lord’s choosing, defeat them, take their weapon, and present it to the Lord of Blades. THE TRIAL OF THIEVES Steal an item of high worth within a set time limit and present it to the Prince of Thieves. THE TRIAL OF WHISPERS Collect a secret from a specified group and relay it to the Duke of Whispers. THE TRIAL OF WITCHES Create an alchemical mixture that solves a specific problem as instructed by the Baron of Witches. THE TRIAL OF EMBERS Forge a weapon or object of high quality as dictated by the Knight of Embers. ━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━ THE STEEL TRIALS ※ THE TRIAL OF LORDS Beat the current Lord in single combat. THE TRIAL OF PRINCES Challenge the current Prince to a contest of thievery; the best spoils crown the victor. THE TRIAL OF DUKES Challenge the current Duke to a contest of subterfuge; the most incriminating secret garnered from a specified group crowns the victor. This Trial is overseen by the Silver King to protect the Duke’s identity. THE TRIAL OF BARONS Challenge the current Baron to a contest of alchemy; the first to incapacitate the other by alchemical means is the victor. THE TRIAL OF KNIGHTS Challenge the current Knight to a contest of metalworking; the item produced of highest quality crowns the victor. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
OOC INFORMATION: This group is meant to facilitate criminal roleplay in a competitive, noble-esque court system. This type of roleplay is not for everyone, and that is okay. As time goes by and I receive feedback, the rules and strictures of this group may change. Currently, I have plans to incorporate members of the Steel Court into World Progression Orders, which should act as an extra incentive to reach for. More information about that will be released as I learn more. As always, OOC conduct will be carefully monitored. There is no three-strikes system; if you break conduct, you will be kicked out. All Roleplay rules fall under this stricture, with the addition of this rule: Within unofficial discords, no trash-talk or ‘toxicity’ will be tolerated, and doing so will get you kicked out. If you have questions, concerns, or suggestions, my discord is #starson4044. Recruitment for this group is done entirely In Character and through specific requests on the Roleplay Community Discord or the Massivecraft Forums. ━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━ Below, I will post a spreadsheet that tracks the shifts in position within each group as they come. This is a WIP.
