Chateau du Vassy
Eastern countryside of the Genoise Kingdom
Eastern countryside of the Genoise Kingdom
Chateau du Vassy was a grand palace nestled in a valley next to a lake. Detailed with its baroque architecture, albeit more restrain in its opulence than the Palais-Royale in the capital city, it was a jewel in the lush Genoise countryside. The new summer residence of the aging Queen, for those spell when she sought some refuge from the the Royal Court and the city, it’s greatest beauty lay in its gardens, carefully sculpted into tropical wonderlands that surrounded the chateau dotted with grand statues of Queen Louise and her husband, the Prince Consort, with Valwa peacocks (the uniquely colored breed favored by the royals for their green bodies and gold-yellow tail feathers) meandered about.
It was at this beautiful retreat, where the smell of mango clung to the air that Queen Louise had decided to meet with Emir Raaid el-Sulaiman of Vitnaria, their neighbor to the east.
“I am told,” Queen Louise said, reclining in her throne which sat before one of the estate’s long reflecting pools, a massive parisol erected over head to keep her and her husband out of the sun, “the Emir intends on arriving on a arriving on a horse.” Queen Louise flicked her fan with a chuckle. At 79, Queen Louise was the oldest living monarch on the continent. She was a small, thin dark skinned woman, with, her hair, more gray than black now, pulled into a bun atop her head. The Queen wore a modest full length green dress with a high collar embroidered with golden peacock feathers.
“Like a knight,” Prince Antoine, the queen’s husband of over fifty years said with a roll of his aged eyes. Prince Antoine was tall, naturally give he was from Derita. He was a stern and intelligent man, who had only grown more serious with each decade, in contrast to his fun loving wife who matched his intellect and yet found delight in just about anything. The Prince Consort wore a green and gold embroidered princely jacket with a stiff high collar, and green trousers. The look was imperious and formal, but also long out of fashion, having been popular and he and the Queen had been young. “The children are so Romantic these days.”
The Prince’s words were said without appreciation. To the Queen and Prince Consort the term ‘children’ apply to anyone who had spent less than half a century on this world.
They thus were in stark contrast to the rest of the royal entourage who had gathers around for the state visit. While the Queen and Prince Consort of course took pride of place on the movable dais on which sat their thrones, swing to them was that of Princess Helena and her husband, Prince Angemar.
Princess Helena was the granddaughter of the Queen of Genes (her mother, the Crown Princess had elected to stay back in the capital). The favorite of her grandfather, Helena had a reputation for her own great intelligence, though also for being terribly boring. A woman of 28 and mother of two, Helena adored the more tedious of academics, agriculture and natural science. She had spent the better part of a year in the far western continent sailing up and down the coast cataloguing numerous newly discovered animals and plants.
The princess, plain looking with deep brown skin and her black hair set in braids that went down her back, wore beautiful green and gold dress with a thin emerald tiara on her head and a Leriyan sari falling down her back. Ever since her younger sister, Natalie had become the Crown Princess of Leriya, aspects of that nation’s fashion had become increasingly popular in Genes amongst women, in particular the sari.
Princess Helena sat in a simpler throne in the sun, her hand rest on the arm of her beloved husband, Prince Angemar. Five years her junior, Prince Angemar was the complete opposite of his wife. Handsome, muscular and as dumb as a bag of rocks, he’d had won over the princess and the court and country by a mixture of his charisma and looks. All save the Prince Consort, who dubbed his grandson-in-law the “Golden Retriever”, a nickname Angemar wasn’t aware was supposed to be an insult.
Angemar may have been nothing more than a pretty face, but he had a good heart. Loyal and supportive, 95% of the time he had no clue was going on, but he was always there for Helena, balancing her out. Angemar, an ethnic Lajaz wore an iboris, which covered his hair, head and framed his handsome face as said in his faith. But while his beliefs said to cover his hair and head, it said nothing of the rest of his body, which was on display, the prince wore only a lose pair of green and gold fi ipari trousers that matched his wife’s dress, leaving the rest of his toned physique for all to see.
Two wings of younger royals flanked the core four, to the Queen’s right, sat three of her grandnieces, Lady Theodosia de Valwa and her sister Lady Augusta and their cousin Lady Clementine de Valwa. Theodosia, the eldest at 32 was an easy six feet tall, her hair braided along her scalp before untwisting into a puffy afro. Augusta, three years younger was even taller, a muscular mountain of a woman, who just as likely to gossip over tea as to bench press a horse. Theodosia and Augusta came from the Valwa-Wessex line, descendants of the youngest son of King Frederick who were all famously tall. Their aunts had included the grandmother of the current Celestial Emperor and the late Queen Mother of Beliany who’d shared their height.
This was in sharp contrast to Lady Clementine, who, like the Queen and princess, and indeed most Valwa women, was a petite flower of a girl barely eighteen. Clementine had her hair braided into a high bun, decorated with flowers. All three of the Valwa cousins wore of course green and gold dresses and saris, Augusta boldly wearing a heavily embroidered top that showed off her own physique with a flowing green skirt. Theodosia and Clementine’s dresses too had stiff empire bodices with designs of flowers or feathers, with loose falling skirts.
To the Prince Consort’s left meanwhile, sat his grandsons and one of grandnephews. Prince Frederick, 26, the younger brother of Princess Helena reclined lazily in his seat. A confirmed bachelor, he mimicked his grandfather in dress, though with a far more modern cut and flare to suit. Tailored made luxury suits were amongst Genes’ chiefs exports and the prince only thought it fitting he be a consumer of that market. Frederick, while not quite as smart as his sister, had attended one of the best universities and was an astute political observer. Next to him say his baby brother, Prince Gitte and their cousin, Lord Frederick ‘Rigo’.
Prince Gitte was the youngest of his siblings at twenty-one, the same age as his friend and cousin. As Frederick was an annoyingly common name amongst the Valwa, the lord, as not to be confused with the prince went by the more distinct Rigo. He was the older brother of Lady Clementine. Gitte and Rigo were amongst the foremost of the so called Valwa princelings, the seemingly ever growing number of royal young men crowding the royal court. The Valwa were by far the largest dynasty on the continent, though this left the Queen and Prince Consort feeling as if the palace grew more and more crowded by the day.
Gitte and Frederick followed in Prince Angemar’s fashion, Gitte wearing gold fi ipari trousers with a green sash over his bare chest, gold arm bands patterned with emerald peacocks on his biceps, while Rigo, as handsome as his sister was beautiful, wore green trousers and a gold sash and gold arm bands patterned with jade leaves.
“I imagine,” Queen Louise said, continuing her and husband’s conversation, “it says a great deal about the state of the world when the children look at it through such chivalric lenses Besides, I am looking forward to meet our neighbor.” Indeed, through diplomacy or dynasty or a combination of both Queen Louise had made alliances with all of Genes’ neighboring states and she intended to see Vitnaria join that list of allies. “I’m told he comes bearing gifts.”
The Emir nodded, after glancing again at the two sisters, he brought his attention back to Princess Helena and said “You are partially correct, they serve both a traditional role, and as implements of self defense and attack in turn, although the weapons you see here are fairly far removed from those original implements, and their curve has nothing to do with harvesting grain, instead, it is meant for use from horseback, to provide a more efficient cut when in the saddle. They produce devastating wounds when a successful strike is delivered against a target, it is not uncommon for a single well placed strike from these swords to be fatal.”