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Background: Noble
There is a seat others watch, and it bears your name. Perhaps your claim came by birth, election, promise, victory on a field, or merit alone. The seat waits ahead while you are preparing for it, and people measure every step you take toward it. You know the factions and their old precedents, their alliances and rivalries, and that the difference between them often matters less than who survives to write it down. You learned that ceremony is a language, hospitality a negotiation, and a smile may carry farther than a command.
The war games are never merely games. They are lessons: which piece may be risked, which must be protected, and how to keep defeat from becoming destruction. Never mistake the board for the game. Your pieces will have families, your opponents will have heirs, and some pieces will change color for the right price. One day, you will make the call. Your predecessors made such calls. So did theirs. The echoes of their commands have followed you and now lurk in the shadows. Whether you inherit that power, seize it, refuse it, or lose it, it has already shaped the way others see you. You have not once felt entirely safe.
Crown, throne, seat, baton, council, the right to speak first: whatever your people call it, you bear a recognized claim to authority. Your name is not only a key. It is a blade hanging over your head.
Define the reach of your station with the GM: who recognizes it, what community or institution it touches, and what duties accompany it. Where your authority is recognized, you can usually secure an audience and hospitality appropriate to your station, and the attention of subjects or allies. Every request tests a loyalty, spends a favor, or creates an obligation.
The price is that you are always watched. Responsibilities and old grudges sharpen the blade. Every public promise may be treated as policy. Every insult may become a grievance. Blood spilled may become war. Everything you do is read as a move: who you court, who you insult, whose table you sit at, whose funeral you attend. One misjudgment, and the people you love may pay before you do. A crown is not a gift. It is a golden cage with your name already written on it.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Ability scores | STR, INT, CHA |
| Skills | History, Persuasion |
| Tool | Gaming Set |
| Origin feat | Skilled |