Changeling notes; The Three Crowns Chronicle

The first story, Nightmare Awakens, is now over. The following notes are provided by CJ for John and Q as they prepare to take over the mantle of Storytellers. The date of the last story was 6th August 1999. Ian returns to the Court at Bury on 7th August, which is a Sunday, and exactly one week after the story began in Woolpit.

Weasel, Clavius and Bill have been undone; it will take considerable amounts of glamour to restore them. The nightmare mists will fortunately cause the police to forget Chad's escape, what Ian looked like and that Math was linked to them. The crashed helicopter will require considerably more explanation, and the police will probably explain it as having somehow accidentally taken off while they were rushing an injured person to casualty, but details will be vague and somehow they will try and lose the problem in paperwork. The one upshot is the insurance won't pay up, and that West Suffolk will now lack a police helicopter. The Countess will be happy to assist in creating a story to explain the 'copter crash if needed, and plenty of Kithain will testify as witnesses. Chad is still wanted technically, but may benefit from the Nightmare Mists someone else's problem field. I leave Q to sort out how he wants to handle this.

The Nightmare Court still exists, and the six remaining members of the Redcap corby from the MGR have retreated out to the Castle. The Nightmare chimera are gone, sucked back through the rift as it closed. The Lost Village remains unexplored and has a substantial number of Kithain corrupted by nightmare, who will eventually recover from the blow to their plans and begin to a) seek the book and pen and b) build up ready for the now inevitable war with Bury. The Countess and her forces are more than a match for West Suffolk alone; eventually the whole Dukedom of Anglia (the Duke resides at Norwich, with castles at Thetford, Castle Acre, Castle Rising, Framlingham and Orford) may have to be levied, whic h is tricky considering the Civil War in Roses.

Furthermore there is another problem, known only to Ian; I think Q you can safely ignore this as it is not apparent unless the party finds some reason to wander around Livermere. I am slowly writing up all the W.Suffolk court NPC's, and am happy to hand them over for photocopying. I will also write up the Cheltenham, Barnet and Kensal Green Kithain at some point, in case you wish to use them.

Civil war in Roses

After 1997 I have decided that Edgar Whitestone, tiring of the Regency, created a parliament which met on Friday nights after midnight in the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge. Under the Chapel is a huge library where M.R.James was long curator; the Barnet M.R. James trod opens here, as does a trod to one of the Oxford colleges. The latter only at sunset on Friday, and Dawn on Saturday, and the trod is haunted by chimerical monks and long gone Dons, or so they say. Tory Kithain MP's used to use it to attend session from the West of the Kingdom.

The Parliament was elected using one Kithain one vote, voters registered at Freeholds, and results collected and counted by enchanted mortals picked from the streets! (They each received some suitable gift for their services....) Each constituency is equal to a County, except London which returned five MP's - North, South, East, West and City. Note West Suffolk and East Suffolk are both separate constituencies, as is the rotten borough (well County) of Rutland, which gained several new Kithain at court every year to try and swing the vote there. The Parliament's function was not to create laws, take taxes, administer defence or organise an army - those all remain functions of the local nobles, in particular the Counts and Dukes (four Dukedoms in Roses - Anglia, London, Midlands (Cambridge, Edgar himself), and West Shires (Stratford-on-Avon possibly? - need to consult map!). Instead, the main aim of the assembly was to elect a new King or Queen following the failure of the traditional system. The Whigs would like to see that expanded, but little has been achieved. Elections were held annually on Midsummer's Night; results were announced by midnight the next night usually. MP's held office for a year.

Before the first election two parties were created. The Whigs chose orange as their colour. They are reformists and believe Commoners can and should be ennobled, mortal rights respected and ravaging outlawed, but are willing to accept vulgar (modern not crass!) entertainments, not just archaisms. They believe that the ancient ballot of Kings is outdated, and generally favour Edgar Whitestone remaining as Regent, wishing to expand the role of the Parliament to replace or supplement the Kingly authority. Several House Liam Sidhe are prominent in this party.

The Tories believe in the natural right of the Sidhe to lead, the v value of Kithain life being more than mortal life, and that one of seven of their own candidates should be King. The party is hopelessly split into at least seven factions, of which that of Berwyn Lindell, Baron of Oxford, was the largest.

The Parliament was instituted on Midsummer's 1997; the first election saw London Whig, the Eastern Counties Whig, excepting Norfolk (Tory). Beyond Cambridge, Rutland, Northants however, the Sidhe gained dominance, and all the west counties were Tory. Result was a Tory landslide, but the party could not agree on anyway forward - because of divisions within their own ranks the Whigs could outvote each proposed King. Baron Clavius was Whig MP for West Suffolk. The winter recess begins in October 15th and lasts till Midsummer next.

1998 saw a second Tory Victory, and Berwyn almost managed to make a case, with 45% of M.P's backing his claim to the throne, including some rightist Whigs. A new Radical Party emerged, preaching adapting to modern technological Britain and finding glamour in new sources - raves, shopping malls, the pop charts. To achieve this the radicals flirt with banality, and seriously suggest ravaging should be considered. Unseelie and some would say unstable, they receive only one seat, Rutland, after a mass immigration of potential voters. The anti-Radical backlash united the Tories, but not quite enough for Berwyn to be elected King. The MP for West Suffolk was Bill (the Boggan - don't look now, he's actually really a Nocker -it will all be explained later in the Chronicle!)Reeve, who was a Whig.

1999's elections reversed the previous years, with a marginal Whig majority, Norfolk going Whig as did several other counties. The people of the Kingdom decided to give the reformers a chance; well most of them did. Rutland went Whig, but East London somehow went Radical. The election led to Bill being re-elected in West Suffolk; he has missed one sitting, through being undone, and if he missed two more a by-election would be called In fact the session of 30th/31st July saw Edgar as Regent presented with a bill for massively extending the powers of the house, including the right to create laws, raise a 'standing army' of some 30 Kithain, disenfeoff rebellious nobles, giving the right to trial by jury by ones peers, and the codification of Kithain common law beyond the Escheats, including material derived from consensus and material established by precedent, and a larger parliament with smaller population related constituencies - goodbye Rutland!

A crisis ensued; the House had no power to pass bills other than for the election of a King, that being the purpose for which it was called. Now it wanted to be like the British (democratic) Parliament and govern in it's own right; it suited Edgar, to whom a constitutional Regency was better than a absolute Regency, but it meant a change in the nature of the institution. The Radical candidate, Bakunin Blackflag (E. London) refused to accept any body could legislate over Kithain, and for the first time ever the Tories found themselves in agreement - this was a direct attack on the power of the Nobility, even if that nobility was tainted with commoners. Nobody wanted to be King under limits set by commoners, or indeed other nobles.

The Tory M.P for Borders, Sir Randolph de Sudeley, proposed that the session ended while MP's consulted their constituencies. The Whigs tried to continue the session, but Bakunin bellowed too loudly for any progress to be made, and eventually a recess was called till the night of Thursday, 5th August. While other Tory leaders panicked about what to do, Berwyn acted - he managed to rally several waverers to his cause, and then on Thursday called for the Bill to put aside until a final Kingship election was held; he then stood and asked the House to make him King. Two Whig MP's voted for him, for reasons that are unclear. Five Tories still refused to support him however; that was enough to mean that his bid failed, as he failed once more to reach 50%. (Bakunin, who usually abstains, voted against him - W.Suffolk's MP (Bill) failed to show, so it was bloody close.)

While the Tories of all factions began to panic once more about the hated Bill about to be passed, or at least debated, Berwyn once again seized the initiative. Bowing deeply to the Duke of Cotswolds (Warwickshire MP), he asked that he and the Countess of Woodstock might excuse him from vassal service for a season - until Halloween. The Duke, who opposed Berwyn's Kingship bid on the grounds of his own (to him) better claim agreed graciously, and began to wonder how easy it would be to undue the new legislation when the Tories were in majority again.

Berwyn then announced he was leaving Parliament, and considered himself rightful King of Roses. Almost all the Tories stood up and followed him out; at dawn on Friday he raised his standard at Oxford and Civil War broke out. The Duke of COTSWOLDS is angered at his vassals' vassals cheek, and has chosen to declare himself neutral, and has not resigned his seat. Bakunin Blackflag has declared the East End of London an autonomous district, and has stated that Sidhe are not welcome there on pain of death, excepting for some reason House Scathach and Liam, and that the same applies to troops of King or Parliament. North London (Evelyn of Highgate, Sluagh, formerly Whig) has declared that her district are following Bakunin's lead; West London remains Tory, South London remains Whig.

Both sides are marshalling troops and planning strategy; none is sure how the war will be fought, but it is likely to remain gentlemanly and honourable, with many battles circumvented by Champions taking to the field for their side and duelling. The inevitable decisive conflict will occur between Luton and Aylesbury, but not till August 21st. (CJ will deal with that and it's outcome).

Hope you can find some inspiration in the political situation.

Cheers,
CJ '99

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