Each of the candidates listed below has been officially approved as the next potential ruler of Seahaven. While the next monarch will rule for life, with their heir succeeding the throne after, the rather free-thinking city has opened the running up to both popular election followed by a meeting of the council. Presented here are the candidates, as much as gossip knows about any of them. Think carefully. Choose wisely. The person chosen will affect the course of Seahaven’s future.

Count Beckett ap Raenold, Head of House Abduros

Count Beckett ap Raenold, Head of House Abduros

WHO LIKES THEM?:

Proper nobles may fancy this candidate, as would some agriculture types and those interested in a proper succession, even if that definition has not exactly been called into question yet. Down-to-earth types and the scholarly may dismiss him as too refined to be anything but bad for the throne.

Overview: A sophisticated noble with grand dreams of a city returned to former glory.

Platform: Education, Scholarly pursuit of medicine, retaking the borderlands.

Advantages: A strong, natural candidate. While many candidates run on unique positions, Count Beckett is one of few ‘proper nobles’ for such a claim, being of a well known House, though not exceptionally powerful. He is a relatively smooth talker, persuasive, and has a core of loyal followers that form his support, and coin to expend in the acquiring of more support, or -other- ways to handle rivals.

Disadvantages: His strong views on some matters have led some to dynamic opposition of him, and he garners more support among the sophisticated than he does the masses.

HOW THE GAME WILL CHANGE:

-Beckett has a mildly expansionist policy, with possible intent to attack either the Sayaki, the demons of Talavaria to the north, or Balinand/Tarkas.

Fleet Rear Admiral Darius Merick]

Fleet Rear Admiral Darius Merick

Militants of all types, sailors, and officers in the military are likely to favor this man. Those who like peace and internal affairs first will probably not like this chap.

Overview: A young firebrand, committed to the eastwards expansion of Heassian power and the greater restoration of its military and merchant fleets.

Platform: Commerce, colonization, and adventurous risk. Believes in Seahaven as an ascendant power, whose best days are still ahead of her.

Advantages: Passionately optimistic, with a gift for oratory, Darius has a close alliance with the noted treasure hunter Desmond Valeth. Valeth has recently returned from the very edge of the dark seas surrounding the dead Dominion, and claims to have retrieved from there an artifact capable of killing the Kraken. Whatever this is, the Council has thus far denied him and Darius permission to use it, a wish they have honored out of their mutual sense of duty. Darius’ oceangoing past and promise of freeing up the seas has made him very popular with the sailors and soldiers of the southern coast, and he claims many several high-ranking sympathizers within the Royal Guard. A very distant but common-born relation to the Azure Wolf, this tenuous link to the man who essentially ran Seahaven for a generation has bolstered his claim.

Disadvantages: False rumors have long persisted that Darius and Desmond, friends since early childhood, are in fact homosexual lovers, and bawdy tavern songs to this extent have surfaced more than once. In a kingdom so recently shown the drawbacks of an heirless monarch, these rumors do not sit well with the populace or the nobility. Also counting against Darius is the fact that he is of the lowest admiral rank, but this is somewhat counterbalanced by the fact that he seems to be among the only remaining naval officers of that tier that consider their rank anything more than a defunct title.

HOW THE GAME WILL CHANGE:

-Darius is EXTREMELY imperialistic, with all intents of restoring the Seahaven navy to something better than its last golden age, conquering Balinand and subduing everything eastwards, up to if not into the Darkness. With the famous treasure hunter Desmond Valeth at his side, he may have the means to conquer some of Heas worst fears up until now.

Lord Commander Flaern ap Arian, of the King’s Rangers

Lord Commander Flaern ap Arian, of the King’s Rangers

WHO LIKES THEM?:

Expansionists, demon hunters, soldiers in general: agriculture and traveling merchant types may favor this candidate, though sophisticated nobility may perhaps find him too base for their preferences.

Overview: A skilled ranger commander with adventurous, martial views who leads from the frontlines, so to speak.

Platform: Boosting Seahaven’s confidence and power by rebuilding an army, re-taking Aruta. A fair deal for all, whether it be a noble’s expectations or a farmer’s needs. Regional supremacy.

Advantages: A frontline leadership, he’s well known among soldiers, especially in his current position of power in the Rangers(Cloaks.) His leadership through example in such combats has earned him a reputation as a skilled swordsman and tactician, and he is something of a teacher as well. Somewhat charismatic, he easily bonds with those of commoner or merchant status, as well as nobles willing to give him the time of day.

Disadvantages: He’s a wolfkin, to some degree of rumored / common knowledge. (He doesn’t hide it, but he’s not the talk of the town, either.) High nobles like dukes and grand duchesses may feel he is of low birth despite his claims and position, and refuse to have much to do with him. His frontline leadership is not without risk, either, in the eyes of some who would prefer a king that sits idle and safe and stays quiet for a bit.

HOW THE GAME WILL CHANGE:

-Flaern has an expansionist policy, with every intent to drive the demons from the Aruta Highlands capital of Talavaria, once and for all. He has slightly different views on society and minority groups like the Wolfkin that may cause policy shift within Seahaven, whether for or against currently favored standards.

Grand Dutchess Stellvia ferch Syleen, Head of House Amati

Grand Dutchess Stellvia ferch Syleen, Head of House Amati

The Tranquil Tide, the scholarly, and the sophisticated but intelligently so probably like this pick, as do many common agriculture and produce people. Soldiers, adventurers and criminals at heart probably do not.

Overview: An even-tempered, middle-aged noblewoman, interested in the improvement of life for Seahaven and its subjects.

Platform: Altruism, public works, creation of a standing militia to counterbalance the Sayaki forces and guard all the outlying towns of Heas. “Never shall there be another Talavaria,” she is fond of saying, in reference the fallen metropolis of northern Heas. She has also proposed the establishment of an Order of Magi in service to the crown.

Advantages: Stellvia has the rare political gift of being hated by none. If the vote is split between polarizing candidates, she may well win as a sort of least-objectionable alternative. She is very popular with both the lords and farmers of greater Heas, despite being a relative unknown in Seahaven. This may well prove to be a difference-maker, as it is easy to forget from inside the halls of power that Seahaven is only one part of Heas, and that there are many lords who rarely step foot within its confines. She has several sympathizers within the Tranquil Tide, due to her charitable streak.

Disadvantages: Rumors persist that Stellvia is a channeler, and it is true that she looks much younger than her age, something magecraft is rumored to accomplish. Though not a disadvantage per se, this complicates matters, as many fear such power, and it would almost certainly lead to a further souring of reputations with Balinand, possibly making her a candidate for assassination by Seekers, if ever the rumors bore out true. Also, she is an older woman, and while age is an accomplishment in men it is a liability in women, for Stellvia is an older woman, at forty, and has never borne an heir. She would be pressured to marry quickly and birth many. Stellvia is also cursed with a rare violent temper — despite being generally easygoing, with a warm exterior, rumors persist that she once beat a servant with her cane to within an inch of his life.

HOW THE GAME WILL CHANGE:

Stellvia is extremely intelligent, and would probably improve Seahaven life immensely in some regards. She is a Channeler and will try to make it openly beneficial to the kingdom by establishing a Magi Order of some sort, and is also content not fighting people around Seahaven’s territory.

Sir Lenesson Crelsea, Armiger of the High Fane

Sir Lenesson Crelsea, Armiger of the High Fane

Religious nuts, merchants, commoners of all walks of life. Some nobility, though likely not the highest tiers, due to the religious fervor involved. Heretics and those who like keeping the Gods out of their politics probably aren’t going to like this fellow much at all.

Overview: A devout foreigner to whom are accredited numerous miracles.

Platform: Purification by fire and sword of the demonspawn, Vek, and blasphemers that have infiltrated Seahaven and its environs in ever-increasing numbers. Closer diplomatic ties with the South, in order to create a united front against the Darkness. Reawakening of religious faith.

Advantages: In the Duchy of Almande, an independent human city-state in the greater landmass of Sron, there was a famous Temple of All the Gods, also known as the High Fane. The champion and protector of this temple was chosen from the local knighthood, to whom was handed the banner of the Fane and the title of Armiger. These knights were selected for their piety and stalwart virtue, as well as their strength at arms, and to them historically are attributed many miracles, and the High Fane was a place of pilgrimage from the world over. Some six years past the first Darkfall, Lenneson arrived in Seahaven with a small contingent of Almandish folk, bearing the Armiger’s regalia. He declared he had been sent to the place in the world where he would be most needed, and told of a harrowing trek across the Isles to Heas, in which most of his followers perished. He claims that Almande still feels the light of the suns, a country protected by the blessing of Elbahn. His tales are more the stuff of legend than anything else, tall tales, but Lenneson has remained a figure emblazoned on the popular imagination. One event is widely accepted as fact: Sent to reclaim Talavaria, he and his men somehow managed two weeks’ march in a single day, under cover of night, something none of those involved are coherently able to explain. Lenneson and his contingent have in recent months returned, and he will not speak of his experience, saying only that his resources were insufficient to the task. He has decided instead to “purify that kingdom which is left to us, before we struggle for more.”

Disadvantages: Lenneson is not the Armiger of the High Fane. Marooned on an uninhabited atoll, he is a former mercenary. The true Armiger’s ship broke up against the rocks of this island just after the Cataclysm, and the sailors settled there on the island for a time, creating temporary log houses and welcoming Lenneson into their fold, while they worked at reconstructing the ship, which was more debris than anything else. Eventually, after suffering extreme losses when the Kraken itself came upon the island, they were able to escape. As he drove off the Kraken with the Armiger’s lance, the men of Almande declared Lenneson the new Armiger. Lenneson has gone to great lengths to hide that he is not a knight, even though the true story would still impress. He is incredibly insecure about being the champion of a place he has never visited. It is only a matter of time before one of his followers breaks the oath of silence on the issue Lenneson exacted. Moreover, he is not noble, nor is he a native.

HOW THE GAME WILL CHANGE:

Seahaven will become a zealous, one-church state worshiping all Six. Lenneson will probably begin an Inquisition to root out heresy and Vek, and Rhonastre will almost certainly become an enemy.