A Grand Hunt
Posted by Pax on 12/25/19
It's been some time since the former Admiral of Setarco, Alrec Magaldi, passed away. Yet clearly he has not been forgotten by the house he once served, nor have they been idle. Word spreads throughout Setarco of a memorial long in the making -- a whale hunt of a scale not previously seen in Arvum.
And oh, what a sight it is to see when the entire Black Fleet sets sail from Setarco in a single flotilla, one to rival the fleets mustered during the Gyre War. An exact count is difficult to make, but some observers claim the Black Fleet was as large as that of House Thrax, or perhaps larger. What is certain is that it is almost overwhelming to see an entire field of masts reaching into the sky, as though they were a vast and strange forest atop the ocean.
It's said that the entire business was organized by Sir Ari Corsetina, a loyal vassal of Pravus and the man leading the whale hunt. Indeed, the rumor is that the reason Sir Ari was knighted by (currently-)Duchess Belladonna was because of his effort to organize this tribute to the fallen Alrec. But if they let Ari lead the show, Pravus themselves are certainly a presence as well, with Lady Celeste and Lord Sebastian both in attendance.
In the end, the whale hunt is smashing success -- at least, from the viewpoint of Pravus. It's certainly popular with the commoners, both in their domain and elsewhere. That Pravus is willing to put on such a show of honoring a fallen commoner who served them... well, it gives many hope that they, too, could rise in the esteem of leaders like House Pravus.
The nobles of other domains, of course, have slightly different opinions; seeing the full might of the Black Fleet is more than a little sobering. A good few nobles try to decry the hunt as a showy saber-rattling act of aggression, the hunt itself as wasteful excess. But the voices of the commoners are louder by far this time, and the objections of the peerage are largely lost in the noise.
And oh, what a sight it is to see when the entire Black Fleet sets sail from Setarco in a single flotilla, one to rival the fleets mustered during the Gyre War. An exact count is difficult to make, but some observers claim the Black Fleet was as large as that of House Thrax, or perhaps larger. What is certain is that it is almost overwhelming to see an entire field of masts reaching into the sky, as though they were a vast and strange forest atop the ocean.
It's said that the entire business was organized by Sir Ari Corsetina, a loyal vassal of Pravus and the man leading the whale hunt. Indeed, the rumor is that the reason Sir Ari was knighted by (currently-)Duchess Belladonna was because of his effort to organize this tribute to the fallen Alrec. But if they let Ari lead the show, Pravus themselves are certainly a presence as well, with Lady Celeste and Lord Sebastian both in attendance.
In the end, the whale hunt is smashing success -- at least, from the viewpoint of Pravus. It's certainly popular with the commoners, both in their domain and elsewhere. That Pravus is willing to put on such a show of honoring a fallen commoner who served them... well, it gives many hope that they, too, could rise in the esteem of leaders like House Pravus.
The nobles of other domains, of course, have slightly different opinions; seeing the full might of the Black Fleet is more than a little sobering. A good few nobles try to decry the hunt as a showy saber-rattling act of aggression, the hunt itself as wasteful excess. But the voices of the commoners are louder by far this time, and the objections of the peerage are largely lost in the noise.