Fly By Night

Note – The Fractured Realm

Parliament

Responsible for setting up the Committee of Kingmakers, established to decide who is truly destined to wear the crown. But as the decades have passed and no decision has been reached, a fractured realm has been born. The Capital follows Parliament still, but every other fragment flies a flag to a different possible king or queen.

The Guilds

With the Realm shattered and no one king or queen to look to, the various guilds of skilled working men have grown stronger. They maintain an uneasy, though jealous, alliance with one another – and so keep a kind of common order throughout the Realm.

· The Company of Locksmiths – a guild of key- and lock-makers, led in Mandelion by Aramai Goshawk. No door can be locked against a skilled Locksmith. And their power grows in the light of this knowledge.

· The Company of Stationers – a guild of printers and bookbinders, led in Mandelion by Mabwick Toke. Masters of the printed word and all printing presses. If a text does not bear the Stationers’ seal, it is heresy and must be burned.

· The Company of Watermen – a guild of boatmen, policing the river and those that would travel upon it.

Duke of Mandelion, Vocado Avourlace

Rules in name in Mandelion, and petitions for the Twin Queens to be returned to the throne. Lady Tamarind is his sister.

The Birdcatchers

Once custodians of all sacred texts, until they found the White Heart of the Consequence… then followed the Bad Time. But now all the Birdcatchers have been killed and the Stationers have burned their books.

The Beloved

From Goodman Palpitattle, He Who Keeps Flies out of Jams and Butterchurns, to Goodlady Prill, Protector of Pigs, these are the gods that the people of the Realm make their berry and bread offerings to. Days and hours are sacred to the different Beloved – babies are named according to the Beloved they are born under and people favour the Goodman or Goodlady of their choosing.