| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
Orlovsky is the single most powerful house, (even more powerful than Surtova) but it cannot move on its own, for if it were to, the other houses would have a knee-jerk reaction to defend the throne (out of fear that "the throne" would be the winning coalition, and each house wants to be on the winning side). That being said, Orlovsky is trying to shore up alliances with other houses. It is on favorable terms with Medvyed (for historical reasons), and has been giving copious aid&support to the floundering Garess, and so long as Garess is firmly latched to Orlovsky's teat, their loyality will remain unquestioned.
Surtova is the next most powerful house, and currently controls the throne. They maintain a firm grip over their northern (ancestral) holdings, but the grip over their southern holdings is weak (recently taken from Rogavaria). Many of the farmers within the old Rogavarian lands sell their goods at the PCs' capital rather than New Stetven (because it's closer, and their loyalties are weak). I have represented this mechanically as the PCs' Kingdom receiving bonus farm hexes without having to add to their Command DC. If Surtova ever notices that the PCs have been (ignorantly) stealing from them, there will be hell to pay.
To help keep a lid on Orlovsky's power, the throne has announced increased tax rates on all of the goods that historically come out of Orlovsky's lands (without explicitly referencing the house). The taxes have started to take a bite, and in a few years, Surtova may surprass Orlovsky in power.
Next in power is Lebeda, the rising star of the Brevic houses. Historically, it has been one of the weaker houses, existing mostly on the periphery, having only their robust cultural identity to fall back on. This cultural pride is so strong that even during the centuries where the craftsmanship of Brevoy was dominated by the Dwarves of house Garess, when all of the other Brevic houses shut down their competing industries, the fiercely proud Lebedans instead took to a "buy local" mindset, insisting that they would only buy Lebedan-produced goods, even if they were more expensive and of inferior quality. This uniquely positioned them for their meteoric rise, as Garess's downfall has been their great gain: with the flow of dwarven-crafted goods dried up, the artisans, jewelers and blacksmiths of Lebeda have eagerly filled the void, virtually redrawing the tradelines of Brevoy in the last couple decades.
As a GM, I needed a culture to model them off of (since culture is so key to them), so whenever an issue of food/dress/custom comes up in-game, I model them roughly off of the Rajisthan region of India (albiet Eastern-Europe-ified).
Defining the middle of the power-spectrum is House Medvyed. They are the hearty and durabe "heartland" of Brevoy. They enjoy a historical friendshp with their northern neighbor (Orlovsky). Much of Medvyed is rural or backcountry, and pockets of Erasil worship can be found there. All of my PCs are "from" Medvyed one way or another. The Ruler is the son of the vassal knight of Lord Medvyed. Our Treasurer is from the Mivon branch of House Medvyed (remember that the Brevic houses have corresponding houses in Mivon, depending on who fled when). And our High Priest is technically Surtovan, but has renounced her heritage and choses to identify with the common people, having grown up in rural Medvyed.
I haven't done much with Lodvoka yet in my campaign. They are the historically weakest house in Brevoy (however Garess has since sunk below them). They control the north, and are therefore allied with Surtova. They very loosely control some land north of the Lake of Mists and Veils (stuff I've pulled from the Crown of the World article in JR#3). Later in the campaign, I will reveal how Choral the Conquerer came to these lands first to do his final staging and preparations for the invasion of Brevoy, and how they, in great fear, betrayed the country of Brevoy to him, revealing all of Brevoy's defenses and weaknesses. In return, Choral gave them some reward of great power that I'll make important to the campaign once the PCs get to high enough level. Revealing this fact will essentially turn Lodvoka into a pariah state basically kick it out of Brevoy, leaving Surtova exposed with no real allies.
Finally, at the bottom of the totem pole is weak, pathetic Garess. They used to be so powerful, so dominant, virtually controlling trade across the country. Now, they are nothing. They were completely reliant on being the middlemen to the great and impressive trade with the dwarves. Their land looks like dried up earth.
GM note: the PCs visit the capital of Garess quite often, and in order to hit that "was once rich and is now impoverished" tone, I end up describing it a lot like Markarth from Skyrim. Lots of carved stone awesomeworks, but everyong living it is skinny.
---
The PCs have been dutifully holding Lebedan-cultural festivals in their capital every year since the country's inception. This has earned tremendous brownie points. Historically, it has been in form of gifts (read: GM-hand-picked magic-items from 3PP books.) However, just recently, Lady Lebeda proposed to the Ruler of the PC Kingdom that he should foster her son (and heir to the house) as a squire. (A la Theo Greyjoy from Game of Thrones.) "One rising star recognizes another." They see the growing factionalism in Brevoy, and want to create a southern-alliance to counterbalance against the Lodvoka-Surtova alliance as well as the Orlovsky-Medvyed-Garess alliance.
Orlovsky keeps their fingers in every pie, and was the first to recognize the PCs' Kingdom as a Noble House of Brevoy. They also provided far-and-away the most funds for when the PCs were first starting out.
---
Last night, the heroes finally opened the sealed gate that leads down to the long-last Garess dwarves, slew the evil inside (using a heavily modified Clash of the Kingslayers as an outline), and reopened trade with the outside world.
The political upheavel will be glorious.
Wow, I didn't intend for my quick notes to turn into such a wall of text. Hrm. I should rewrite that when I have time.
For now, hope it was interesting or useful to someone.
EDIT: while writing this, I was ninja'd by Redcelt. My mind boggles at the coincidence of timing!!
|
Wow, I didn't intend for my quick notes to turn into such a wall of text. Hrm. I should rewrite that when I have time.
For now, hope it was interesting or useful to someone.
EDIT: while writing this, I was ninja'd by Redcelt. My mind boggles at the coincidence of timing!!
You and Red crack me up. Good stuff!
EDIT: while writing this, I was ninja'd by Redcelt. My mind boggles at the coincidence of timing!!
"When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground." ;)
|
LOL, weird timing indeed. I had promised PJ and LeeHanna I would finish my notes up a few weeks ago, and got OBE along the way. I had some free time yesterday at work, so I thought I would finish it up and post when I got home. Could be I was inspired by finishing the 5th book of GoT yesterday too... :)
Love the ideas for the Lobodka family btw!
|
|
LOL, weird timing indeed. I had promised PJ and LeeHanna I would finish my notes up a few weeks ago, and got OBE along the way. I had some free time yesterday at work, so I thought I would finish it up and post when I got home. Could be I was inspired by finishing the 5th book of GoT yesterday too... :)
Love the ideas for the Lobodka family btw!
Yeah we're still waiting Red. :)
|
|
This, too, is terrific. I'm lazy and/or uncreative, so I really appreciate the political framework to hang some Brevic action on. Of course, I don't plan to run in Golarion, so I will be changing names and places, but this is still the kind of thing I need and want.
I'm either lazy or uncreative also because I seem to be stealing everyone's good ideas. Thanks everyone!