Orveiss's page

Orveiss ("Bluerose") is the son of Queen Yolande of Celene and her former Royal Consort, Prince Triserron, who was so tragically cut down in the prime of his life. On the winter day of his birth, an icy blue rose bloomed in the Palace Gardens, and it was this flower after which he was named. From childhood Orveiss was educated in the knowledge of magic and combat by the sages and knights of Celene as befits a royal prince, though he is never expected to inherit as he has both an elder brother and sister. At a very young age, he struck his elven tutors as moody and lonely; his relationship with his mother and the rest of the royal family was always strained and he never interacted much with them. It is as if he has a true calling in his soul that he has not yet found, they said, that occasionally fills him with morbid melancholy and listless reverie.

At the outbreak of the Hateful Wars, when his father died, his mother brought Orveiss to Courwood where the armies assembled, but left him behind while she and the rest of the family went to battle, he being still too young to participate. For twelve years they fought the humanoids in the Lortmils, and Orveiss heard tale after tale of his siblings covering themselves in glory, one dead goblin at a time. When the war was over, however, Yolande never sent for him to return to Enstad. It was whispered by courtiers and gossips that she shunned him because of his uncanny resemblance to her dead lover, and that she couldn't bear to have him near her as a reminder -- but in any case he remained there as a ward of his second cousin Felf, the duchess of Courwood, and instead grew up with her and her family at Courwood Keep.

In those subsequent years, there was an early incident where he and the duchess's eleventeenaged daughter Isabella, who Orveiss spent a lot of time with though she was almost thirty years older than him, slipped their escort and snuck into the Suss Forest to "explore." They were gone for three days on a grand adventure, mostly just kissing and playing hide-and-seek (or other games like "Healer" and "Necromancer") and running about stupidly, and they were almost killed by giant spiders. They had caught Isabella and paralyzed her with their poison, and both she and Orveiss would have surely died if they hadn't been rescued by an elven ranger who heard their screams and rushed to save them. When they returned shamefaced to the Keep they were forbidden to see any more of each other, and Orveiss was kept under much closer guard, basically locked in a tower and visited only by his tutors. Isabella was married off to an ancient elf noble who lived in the capital.

This imprisonment rankled the duchess's younger brother, a famous fighter-wizard named Melf, or Prince Brightflame, who would sometimes stop by the Keep to visit his family. A prince should not be locked in a tower, he insisted, and elves will be elves after all; what harm had come to either of them? When the Greyhawk Wars broke out, on a whim Brightflame convinced his cousin the Queen to allow him to take Orveiss with him to act as his squire, and the duchess was forced to allow it. He was apparently impressed with the youth's quick wit, and thought Orveiss a passable fighter. He showed a special aptitude for the arcane arts, however, and soon his uncle decided he would do better as his apprentice instead.

For two years Orveiss traveled with Brightflame and his many followers and henchmen, including many Knights of Luna. The young elf generally stayed out of battle, keeping watch while Brightflame slept and studied his spells, and ran errands for him about the camp. There were a couple of skirmishes where Orveiss was forced to protect himself, including one memorable occasion where a zombie straggler got past the pickets and into the camp, but was somehow turned by the young squire (using a simple scroll of chill touch that Brightflame had given him in case of emergency). On the whole, Orveiss learned a great deal about fighting and wizarding, though toward the end he desperately wanted to go home, missing the many comforts of life at court. When the minions of Iuz were finally defeated in 584, Orveiss was returned to Courwood and Brightflame returned to Greyhawk to sign the famous treaty.

The damage had been done, however. Because of his experience, Orveiss found he was no longer content to live a peaceful life of safety and petty court politics. He heard whispers from the nobles that his mother's non-interventionist policies were ruining the kingdom, and made friends with many elves with ties to the Knights of Luna, who try to counteract these policies whenever possible, to get information about the lands outside of Celene and to improve they grey elves' image with the younger races. Orveiss has also taken a keen interest in the history of famous magical blades, and he recently came across the story of Prince Thrommel, the crown prince of Furyondy, who disappeared at the Battle of Emrity Meadows, but left no trace of his famous sword Fragarach. Burning with curiosity, Orveiss has decided to travel to the area and search for clues of the legendary weapon's wherabouts. He will take an escort of two Knights of Luna with him, to act as an honor guard and make sure he does not get into trouble. This falls out well for the Knights, as they have recently been charged with finding two elven nobles from Celene, Countess Tillahi and her consort Sir Juffer, who have gone missing in the same region. A man named Black Jay who lives in the village of Hommlet has more information.

There's only one problem with the plan: Orveiss hasn't actually told the Faerie Queen what he's doing. (Or the duchess, though since he came back from war she now considers him an elf grown and matured to adulthood, and has given him free reign of the castle and city.) It is certain, say Orveiss's new friends, that she will value the intelligence he brings back, though she could never have authorized it, and it is always better to ask forgiveness than permission. She may admire her younger son showing initiative. That's what Orveiss hopes, anyway. So he will be careful to keep his identity secret and his activities private once he arrives in Hommlet, posing as a history scholar from Castle Greyhawk who is investigating the battlefield. He will also try to avoid Burne the mage-lord, for he worries the arcanist will quickly catch on that the elf-prince is not what he seems to be. But in the worst case, as he is still a young elf, he feels sure that any embarrassment he causes for his family because of this expedition can be written off as the follies of an inexperienced youth, should it come to that.

What could possibly go wrong?

Orveiss is a young elf, probably only 80 or 90, with white hair and piercing blue eyes. He wears very expensive clothing, and most of his equipment is well-made. He is quite fit, carrying a large sword on his hip and a longbow on his shoulder. His voice is quiet and heavily accented in Elvish, and he is somewhat haughty with strangers. An amulet around his neck depicts a blue rose on a snowy white background, along with two Elvish runes, ᛟᛁ.

He is a bit rash and hot-headed, and though he is very clever he tends to act before thinking. He enjoys good food and wine and good company, particularly elven women, and he can talk for hours about military history. Politically, he is very disappointed with his mother's policy of strict non-involvement in other countries, and along with his uncle and several friends of theirs in the Knights of Luna have encouraged actions that aid and assist the rest of the world. Orveiss knows he will likely get in trouble for this, but he truly believes it is the right thing to do.