Hiveworks Comics
Chapter 8 - Page 2
Posted July 8, 2017 at 3:55 pm

This likely won't make it into the comic, so I'll write a little about the Rogue Lark/Idle King cards!

These two cards relate to King Ivorin and Sayerin Lark, whose disasterous marriage was the catalyst for the current Paravinian ranking system discussed in the previous chapter. King Ivorin was the last King in Paravine's history, and was generally idle, lazy, and unfit for rule. Things were not great under his rule. The dude basically just wanted to read poetry and play about, and spent more time pursuing his pleasures than anything else.

The breaking point was when he spent two years abroad trying to woo Sayerin Lark, the second son of the Oroline Lark clan leader, even though he was 'already' married. He made polyamorous marriage legal and tricked Sayerin Lark into coming back to Paravine with him despite the Lark clan leader's disapproval, nearly igniting a lot of anger between the two factions. Paravinians were angry that the King was so preoccupied with his lover over the good of all Paravine, and Oroline folks were angry that he had taken Sayerin Lark without the blessing of their leader. It's rumoured that Sayerin Lark agreed to marry him mainly to prevent a fullscale war.

Sayerin Lark was far more level-headed and smart about affairs of state than Ivorin was, and constantly begged him to get his shit together. History remembers him very differently depending on whether or not you ask an Oroline or a Paravinian. Eventually the Burning Revolution took place to depose Ivorin and put a system in place by which people unfit for rulership would be forever barred from positions of power.

So the Paravinian system started off as a good idea (people not fit for rulership shouldn't be given power simply due to birthright) but it also has the effect of only valuing certain skills and personality types. Unranked nobles are seen as too close to Ivorin in nature; those with rank have resisted his bad example. However, he also popularized polygamous marraige, which is the only thing of his that Paravine kept around after he was deposed (since unranked nobles outnumber ranked ones).

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