Foxes and Wolves OOC Thread - O&A! Updated 07/04

[Snowflake]

Vampirewolf, I think we can start RP-ing first if that's okay with you Would you like to have the first post?

[Vampirewolf2212]

Sure and I don't mind. I'll try and get one in today and if not today then it'll be up tomorrow.

[kathrynpeterss]

Name: Elissa Radack (this can be changed according to the King's last name)

Spoiler

Gender: Female
Age: 15
Rank: Princess
Affliation: Grey Wolf
Appearances: Elissa has dirty blonde hair which is typically up in some sort of ponytail or braid. She has stormy grey eyes and tan skin. She has the lithe, muscular body of a dancer, with long limbs. As Elissa is still relatively young, she stands at only 5'1. But don't let her height fool you, as her years of dance lessons have strengthened her.

Personality: When you first meet Elissa, she can seem reserved and shy. But as you get to know her, she comes out of her shell and confide in you. She is still composed and polite even when she is comfortable, as a result of the years of teaching the Queen gave her in such matters. You can usually find Elissa in a library, absorbed in a book of any genre. She is very naive, obsessed with finding her own fairy tail love story with a Prince to sweep her off of her feet. She is a very kind and giving soul, and will not hesitate to stand up for someone getting pushed around, or starving.
History: Elissa was born and raised within the Royal family. She was pushed into the dance lessons by her mother, and has been involved with dance for her whole life. She loves Snowflake like a sister, despite them sharing no blood. Elissa is slow to trust as a result of her being taken by people who wished to harm the crown 3 years ago. She was luckily rescued, and her kidnappers executed, but she still suffered torture and fear.
Sexuality: Straight
Other:

[Snowflake]

Accepted She's beautiful

[Scapegrace]

Presenting a potential third Kingdom, in the event anyone gives a toss:-

Spoiler

The Golden Seahorses
Southern Allies of the Red Foxes



A trading nation to the south that draws its power from wealth, and its wealth from the sea, the inhabitants of Larisa, also known as the Golden Seahorses, are a prosperous folk whose attentions rarely turn northward. However, with the ongoing succession crisis for House Ignis and the kingdom of the Red Foxes, the seafarers' hands have been forced; long have they owed a debt to the line of Varek, so long that they incorporate his colour on their arms. It was Varek the Just, as he is known in the southlands, who gave the little fishing village of Foronikon to (as he was later styled) King Coram I of House Galiot, and Foronikon is now the vast and sprawling harbour-capital of the south just as Coram VI Galiot is truly a king and an envy of kings. Lacking a typical nobility outside the royal House, the upper ranks of Larisan society are the heads of the Livery Companies - trade organizations that have become sufficiently wealthy or prestigious to earn a coat of arms and enrolment on the Charter of Cloth-of-Gold.

Larisan foreign policy is largely based around patience and fortitude; their defence plans formulated around ships and mercenaries, when war is found to be unavoidable or an enemy unwilling to be bribed. The Larisan army, when massed, is a smallish but extremely vibrant affair, looking for all the world like a carnival parade, albeit a very heavily-armed one. Larisan mercenaries (and the small standing army it possesses) are exceptionally well-equipped and tend to be at the bleeding edge of military technology; tactically, however, the land forces are at the mercy of individual commanders, and the phrase coined by one successful opponent is that they are "lions lead by beef cattle". Generally, they are built around defence and wearing down the enemy, in the manner of our lifetime's Petrine infantry - though this can be a problem, given the wide variety of languages, creeds, weapons, and ideologies in the ranks of a Larisan force.

Finally, a note on the coat of arms. Seahorses represent the power of the sea, as does the red trident - and red is used to remind the observer of the origins of the Larisan crown in the grace of Varek. The sable field represents constancy, patience, a willingness to play the long game of politics. Lastly, the roundels or forming a bend have the specific heraldic name bezants, and represent the immense wealth of the Larisan trade hegemony.

King:-
Coram VI Galiot (signup forthcoming)
Queen
Princes (Only 2)
Princesses (Only 3)
Advisors
Others

I shall prepare a signup for the King of Larisa after receiving word that you accept the signup, or (if this is unfeasible) a burgher or mercenary captain of some description. In addition, since I've been having problems with the PM system on this site, I shall post a spoilered copy of this message in the OOC thread. Hopefully it is of interest to you. =]

[Scapegrace]

Right then. Here's a signup for my position in the Golden Seahorses. Hopefully it is something to which everyone is amenable. =]

---

Name: Jacquotte "Lucky Jack" Galiot

Spoiler

Gender: Female. Extremely so, if you get my meaning.

Age: 29

Rank: Princess... sort of. Heir apparent to the dogeship of Larisa, anyway, which is technically a dukedom in the reckoning of such things.

House: Galiot

Affiliation: Red Foxes (though admittedly they come a pretty distant second to the Golden Seahorses)

Appearances: As might be expected of a sort-of-technically-princess from an immensely wealthy nation, Jacquotte is a strikingly beautiful woman, though not perhaps in the diaphanous sense common to noblewomen who faint theatrically at the sight of someone on less than three hundred gold astys a year. Her face is thin and high-cheekboned, her skin clear and pale (by Larisan standards), and waves of jet-black hair roll down her back like a gathering storm and frame her piercing chocolate-brown eyes. Most men's eyes - and those of more than a few ladies - are drawn to her rather heaving bosom, on the other hand, which is just the way she likes it; distraction is as fine a weapon as a word or dagger in the right place, in her view, and can lead to both. Rather than the ducal hat she is permitted to wear by Larisan custom, she has adopted the wide-brimmed hat common to commanders in the field, whether at land or at sea.

Tall and sturdy of build, she wears well-tailored but practical clothing by habit, her sole extravagance in this regard being the ornate gold brocade on her white cavalry jacket. This is not optional; rather, it is the uniform of the mercenary company of which she is (nominally) the commander in chief. This is not to say that she is a bad swordfighter, quite the reverse; merely that she has no patience for the administrative duties of running the company and instead prefers to act as a leader in the field. She has a long reach with her arming-sword and fights elegantly and swiftly with the sword and buckler of her rodeleras - front-line dismounted troops that seek to disrupt enemy pike formations with sword and buckler, as opposed to the somewhat more common doppelsoldneren, who fight with frankly enormous greatswords. However, she also rides in cavalry charges, as evidenced both by the good white leather britches and sturdy boots she wears and her ease at fighting with a lance or a traditional Larisan heavy cavalryman's curved rhomphaia hand-and-a-half sword, one of which may be found on or about her person pretty much at all times.

Personality: A rather gung-ho sort, with a ready smile for anyone who catches her eye and a cutting remark for anyone who makes her wish they hadn't, Jacquotte's a hero in the ancient mould, a hot-headed champion and figurehead of the front lines rather than a stateswoman or tactician. What she isn't is patient, to the quiet exasperation of her father Doge Coram VI, preferring (to use a quote from our world) a good plan now over a perfect plan next week. This is why she's in command of a mercenary company; as well as letting her win glory and fame on the field of battle, her father thought that forcing her to handle finances and payroll in something she enjoyed would help to temper her intellect and grow her as a person. In retrospect, he might as well have attempted to put out a house fire with a bucket of petrol, but it's done now and he might as well make the best of it. She does bring in booty and glory, and the land army is growing in importance and renown due to her victories across the continents... and that will doubtless be of use, when the cold war in the North boils over and the Golden Seahorses (and their coin, referred to in by Northern militarists as Saint Brendan's Fleet after the design on the reverse of a gold asty) are dragged kicking and screaming into a protracted land campaign.

History: Raised in the opulent Palazzo di San Brandano as the first born of Coram VI, the young Jacquotte reveled in the splendour of court. A childhood spent largely in a city - especially a metropolis like Foronikon - gives a different perspective, and while her head was filled with sea tables and the mathematics of sailing and bookkeeping by... well-meaning tutors, her heart was home to dreams of adventure. Therefore, at a loss with what else to do with her, the Doge granted her a position as a land leader and Capitano of a Company of Adventure - one of the professional semi-autonomous small army groups that worked as mercenaries across continents for a hundred clients on a thousand battlefields. Hers was known as the White Company, or the Hawks of the Wood after their predilection for ambuscades in forest battles; while not undistinguished, they were not exactly household names in the manner of the Flaming Swords of Praga or the infamous Macellatori of Villandrando. Whether spent with the famous crossbow-wielding siegemasters of Staglia, the swordmasters of the Fratellanza di San Marco from Francoforte, or the hammer-wielding Ussari Alati, those ferocious light horsemen from the wild frontier town of Varsavia, she seemed innately able to pick up fighting movements and the arts of combat. Kinaesthesia, we would call it in our world; in the days of the Kingdoms, those romantic years where swordsmen were dashing and knights were charging, she was merely prodigious, a polyglot of the field of battle, near-invincible in single combat with a blade and almost as keen a shot. This is not to say that she won battles on her own; indeed, she subscribed to the notion that if one subtracted one's casualties from the enemies and the outcome was a positive number, it was a glorious victory. She was not a tactical master, not a planner nor (really) all that suited for command. She was, however, a leader of warriors... and remains so, to this day. The Golden Seahorses may yet have need of her.

Sexuality: Bisexual

Other: A good version of the design on her brocaded jacket (if not the cut, which is rather more stylized than she wears or likes) may be found here. Ignore the sword, it's wrong; she wields either a rhomphaia (when mounted) or a straight sword and buckler. Also ignore the hair colour, exposed legs, and impractical high-heeled boots. The battlefield is not the place for the last two, and if your hair looks salon-perfect after a three-month campaign then you haven't been fighting enough. =]

[Dragonslayer]

Name: Bjorn Sverdravn

Spoiler

Gender: Heir Apparent to the the Dukedom of Tyrshor.
Age: 18
Rank: Knight
Affliation: Grey Wolves
Appearances: He is moderately tall, only about 6 foot but he carries himself to look taller. Though not a bulky person, he has a decent amount of muscle, more than enough to fight most men. He has an ancient hairstyle, with shaven sides and a long top that he ties back into a single large braid. He wears a set of leather armor with his families sigil on it, a Falcon, and a thick bear skin cloak tied worn around his shoulder. On his side is a broadsword engraved with runes that according to both tradition and legend, aide the user.
Personality: Bjorn is incredibly smart, to the shock of all those around him, however he is most definitely lacking in common sense. This is partially because he is constantly trying to prove himself making him sometimes do stupid stuff. He has no idea what the world is like outside his own ivory tower and will soon find out. Otherwise he's a sweet guy but tends to accidentally figure out what bothers people and press it seemingly obliviously. He is extremely skilled in swordplay, though he's never actually had a chance to test it in battle much to his disappointment.
History: Being the eldest son of a moderately powerful lord he was expected to lead. From a young age he was tought how to fight and what a wise lord should dod in every situation. During the beginning of this period of civil strife his father, being the lord of one of northernmost territories, immediately sided with the Grey Wolves, earning himself a position close to the newly proclaimed king. Though Bjorn expected be either off with the armies or at home ready to defend from a possible naval attack, his father instead sent him off to the Northern capitol. Officially as an envoy of his fathers lands, unofficially to become closer to both the King and his daughters and potentially bring the two houses closer.
Sexuality: Straight
Other: He keeps a pet raven of his own, named Dirk

[Snowflake]

Accepted, all of you You may start posting. And by the way, everyone is where at Frostrell or Foxenhall in order to prepare for the meeting about the impending war.

[Snowflake]

Bump

[Vampirewolf2212]

Hey I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, RL suddenly crashed around me and I haven't had the chance to get online until now. I'm going through a few rough times and I apologize if I have held anyone up because of this but I will try to post in when I can.