## Statistics Title: High Seat (Governor) Galactic Age: 681,000+ Subjective Age: ~14,500 Homeworld: [[Yawning Maw]] Home Sector: [[The Sectors#Sundered Harmony (6)|Sundered Harmony]] Affinity Groups - [[Past Projects/The Plague Lords/Affinity Groups/Politicos]] - Get Wine Drunk & Scream (Politics) - "Ormais should rule House Orman and conquer the galaxy." - [[Past Projects/The Plague Lords/Affinity Groups/War Dogs]] - The Sundering of Harmony (Thrilled) - Curing the Plague (Pro-Empire) You are ruler of [[House Ormais]], (House words: "It Bleeds") one of the two most powerful cadet houses of [[House Orman]] (alongside [[House Oro]], house words: "All Mastered"). Though you've only officially ruled for a few millennia, you've been de facto head-of-house ever since the start of [[The Sundering of Harmony]]. You've been immensely successful as a general, and (alongside [[High Seat Oro]], who you've never met in person) are one of the two people generally considered synonymous with House Orman's victory over an entire sector. For almost ten myriads (a hundred thousand years), you've been at war. For most, that would leave behind a rabid, broken monster. In your case, it's honed a master beyond the point of human comprehension. You want to expand the Sundering to the entire galaxy. There are those who would think this was an evil goal, but they miss the reality of the situation. The galaxy *as it currently stands* is absurdly evil. The Empress is a monster beyond monsters, and Her Voidstalker Corps is nothing more or less than an engine for committing mundicide. Sure, the Sundering has killed a lot of soldiers, politicians, and power brokers, but the actual *people* of the Sector? Their lives are, on average, vastly improved by Orman's touch. The House only cares about those who threaten them, and the average planet doesn't actually have any desire to engage in extra-terrestrial warfare. It's only this constant back-and-forth, these endless civil wars between the "great powers" which produce true horror. If you could just bring House Orman's philosophy to the entire Celestial Empire, then perhaps the Voidstalker Corps would stop blowing up so many planets for rebellion. True, there's nothing anyone can do about the Empress, but one problem at a time. You've come to the [[Plague Council]] because the current head of House Orman announced to all of the immediate family that they would abide by the ruling of a Myriadic Council. While you do regard Sapient Plagues as one of the galaxy's most terrible monsters, what matters most to you right now is that the Council hold your claim as paramount, and award you the seat you've earned over a hundred thousand years of conquest. With that seat, you'll be able to spread House Orman's truths as far as humanity can reach. ## Goals 1. Convince the Myriadic Council to recognize House Ormais' ascendancy, and your rule over Great House Orman. 2. Bring chaos and mayhem down on the galaxy at large, while ensuring your people grow and thrive. 3. Sway public opinion against the Plague Lords and toward the Celestial Empire ## Character Notes - This character is the most violent in play, but out of a sense of purpose, not a love of doing harm. This is someone who has found that they can do good for their people, and that doing that good feels righteous. However, the potential ascension to the leadership of House Orman will force a reckoning; can a blunt instrument become something more while retaining their true self? - This character is one of two candidates to rule House Orman. They represent the greatest lesson of their house; the galaxy is a violent and lawless place, and every attempt to make it otherwise is just an attempt to pick the winners and losers while hiding the violence behind systems. They'll have to figure out if that worldview still works for them on this new, grander stage. - At more than 14k years of subjective age spread out over nearly seven hundred thousand galactic years, this is one of the older characters (though far from the oldest) in play. Many of the historical events guiding this session's undercurrents happened in their lifetime, and nearly all of the characters they meet were born more than a hundred thousand years after them. How do they relate to people who barely even feel real? - For a hundred thousand years, this character has been a general in the war machine of House Orman. To many, this character is synonymous with [[The Sundering of Harmony]]. While it's true that Ormais has been wildly successful, and largely content, at war, it's also true that Ormais has only ever personally taken the field in fair fights. Their success has come as much because of their genius as a leader of soldiers as any personal knack for violence, which makes them just as much a politician as a warrior -even if they wouldn't agree. They'll spend a lot of time trapped between their external and internal personae, and have to decide which truly fits. ## Connections 1. [[Engineer Crispi]] 1. "An uncommonly clear-sighted and entertaining individual." 2. You love war like a pinecone loves a forest fire. For the first several millennia of your life, you found the world lifeless and dull. Those early years on [[Halcyon]] were agonizing, interminable. It wasn't until the first time you led troops that color entered your universe. Ever since then, you've had a knack for spotting others like yourself, those whose greatest talents can only be discovered in the mad crush of conflict. Crispi is the platonic exemplar of that type. As far as you know, they've spent the last million years winning impossible battles, blowing through massive fortunes, and then entering stasis to await the next impossible battle. To you, that life story is basically catnip. It's even better, since Crispi has fought for you half a dozen times, and against in you twice as many. You're fairly sure you could take Crispi in a straight fight, so long as you had your warship, but the fact that a soldier-of-fortune has repeatedly met you in direct combat without flinching is enough to merit a statue put up in a city of their choice. Do you want Crispi as your closest advisor, or do you prefer a galaxy with such a wonderful, terrible weapon able to wreak holy havoc as a free agent? 2. [[Governor Vitoli]] 1. "Strange, possibly mad, but marvelously useful." 2. Few in the galaxy can say that they have left you speechless. Even fewer that they survived the experience. Vitoli is one of them. Though ridiculously young for someone on the verge of being named Sage, you've watched their pronouncements of doom come true time and time again. No matter how odd or esoteric their murmurings, proper analysis has led you to victory after victory. Sure, Vitoli goes on about some big mystery or another, and you're pretty sure that "mystery" just means "whatever I happen to be thinking about at the moment," but so long as their every word is made of overwhelming strategic advantage. Who cares? You've had Vitoli in your company for subjective centuries, more than half of their life, why did you make room for someone so odd decades before you had any reason to believe in their sagacity? 3. [[Singer Tarsus]] 1. "Wrong in nearly every specific, but a genius on the largest scales." 2. You love chaotic violence, they love violence in the service of hierarchy. As much as you both enjoy bloodshed on cataclysmic scales, you don't care much for the whole "nation building" bit afterward, which is Tarsus' obsession. You've known them for around 5000 galactic years now, around 350 subjective years for you. Over the course of that acquaintanceship, you've spent a great deal of time arguing about whether violence has a purpose, or whether violence *is* a purpose. Has this led to friendship, rivalry, or something more complicated? 4. [[Historian Sibilia]] 1. "An encyclopedic knowledge of the galaxy's darkest corners combined with absolutely no facility for deception? Delightful." 2. Sibilia is incredible. They have a marvelous knack for gathering information, and they seem to love nothing more than sharing it freely. You've met them several times over the millennia, and each time they were worth a starship's weight in gold. They've helped you spot Leviathan cultists, discover conspiracies among your senior Admirals, and even -on one memorable occasion- they revealed an attempt to frame you for treason against the [[Celestial Empire]] itself. They've never asked for payment, and they seem utterly disinterested in using their knowledge to power or gain, but at the same time they've never seemed to mind *you* using that knowledge. Normally, you'd think of someone like this as an asset or an employee, why do you instead view Historian Sibilia as a peer? ## Mechanics **Asset:** [[Dragon's Hoard]] You are a member of a Great House. Thousands of worlds across the galaxy owe fealty to you and your house, with trillions of people living and dying at your whim. Your wealth is incomprehensible, even by the standards of the galactic elite, and you arrive at game in possession of a piece of extremely valuable equipment. As well, you are recognized as a [[Governor]] with all attendant benefits, including the right to vote on Myriadic Councils. - Your home, the warship [[Yawning Maw]], is a stellar-class capital ship. While it can't square up with an entire Voidstalker fleet directly, it can do pretty much anything short of that. Most importantly, possessing a ship of this caliber means that even those powers you can't defeat are forced to take you seriously in battle. So long as you possess this item, you and any number of other characters you select may participate in any kind of [[Combat|Combat]]. **Lien:** [[Yoked to Tradition]] Great Houses don't bother with nonsense fantasies like "personal lives" or "individual identities." You exist to be a member of your House, and to serve that House's ambitions. While the high seat commands a great deal of power, not even they are above the dictates of the family at large. Your entire life is a balancing act, devoted to keeping as much of the family happy as possible without making anyone angry enough to be rid of you. Any time you have the opportunity to do something for the good of the house, regardless of the personal cost, you must do that thing. The only exception is when attempting a coup against another member of your own house, in which case you may inflict as much harm as necessary to secure your desired position. If you are publicly proven to have worked against your house's best interests, you will be summarily executed.