Ancyia, Queen of Ways (An-see-yah)

NSFW - non explicit bisexuality

The Merchant's Daughter

Ancyia Waesphine, the youngest daughter of Raeyes and Ayla Waesphine, was born and raised in the elven city of Galse Dorei a member of the city's middle class which consisted primarily of skilled craters and local merchants. She was beautiful and physically delicate, being significantly shorter and slighter than most female elves. She had vibrant red hair, translucent skin, a well curved feminine body, large doe-like eyes and full lips. Though outwardly appearing frail, her beauty masked a woman with relentless determination, shrewdness, and an uncanny ability to judge character, traits that served her well in building and running a far reaching trading empire, an empire that gave her her name the "Queen of Ways".
Ancyia's parents were first generation merchants, starting a bare bones tavern below their tiny home in a rough quarter of town when they came to Galse Dorei from the contryside shortly after their marriage. Ancyia's father brewed beer and distilled Loarafine, a rough alchoholic beverage, while his wife tended bar and served patrons.
Eventually, through hard work and re-investing their profits back into their business, they parleyed their small start into a respectable business and then a small local business empire. They owned a number of businesses in the city which by the time Ancyia was of marriageable age included a brewery, a bakery, a mill, four taverns, and a hostelry. Ancyia, her four brothers and two sisters all helped run these family businesses. Their parents opened these new businesses when each child reached adulthood and had acquired sufficient skills to run the business, having learned these from their parents. Each child paid their parents a percentage of the profit from the operation of the business, and when Raeyes and Ayla had doubled their initial investment, they gifted the businesses to the responsible child as a means of getting them independent and financially stable.

A Budding Empire

Ancyia ran and eventually owned one of the town's most popular taverns. She innovated advances including food service and regularly scheduled entertainment as a means of attracting regular well-paying customers and upselling them from the base business of selling beer. Ancyia was a gifted singer and dancer in her own right, and took a workday night shift entertaining every week at her tavern.

by Robert J Bradshaw

Accustomed to a life of hard work, and shrewd in the ways of business, Ancyia was able to double her parents money within five years. From there, she spread out quickly and expanded her tavern, purchasing the property next door, and converting the tavern into a hostelry. At the same time, she began to sell trinkets and necessary items for travelers, focusing on trade goods that originated in the local area, particularly small items that she commissioned from local artists carved from the teeth and bones of animals and fish from the Lagonie Beck, the local navigable river. Anciya's eldest brother's wife was a sorceress with the rare ability to enchant items with a light spell if they originated from once living things. She and Ancyia set up a partnership to create and sell small carved ivory "night lights".

These turned out to be wildly popular among those local city inhabitants who did not have magic, and Ancyia and her sister-in-law made a lot of money selling them. Travelers brought them home and took the glowing statuettes with them as they traveled around Dryadae. Not one to let a oppportunity for profit slip away, Ancyia began to accrue inventory and after two years was able to leave her business in the capable hands of her manager and travel to other major cities. She loaded her trade wagon with new goods, and traveled across the land, building her wealth and investing her profits into more wagons, horses, and personnel including guards to protect from bandits, and trade goods to sell. After her first trip, Ancyia returned to Galse Dorei and her siblings with five wagons, and big plans to expand the family businesses.
Her family was perfectly willing to invest money in the opportunity, and Ancyia began to build a widespread trade empire - something she pursued with relentless energy - but was continually frustrated by the poor condition of roads, the tolls and taxes levied on travelers across the lands of the elven noble houses, and the continual threat of bandits who made the roads through wooded terrain perilous. She developed a secondary transport to market using donkey drawn river boats, but found that the river towns were already well serviced with existing merchants, and that the nobles were already entrenched in extorting money from river traffic in the form of tolls. She knew that she would be unable to build the trading empire she envisioned without more investment in better roads and more control of the noble houses.
In short, she needed a more effective central government in Dryadae.

Being challenged by your circumstances is inevitable. Being defeated by them is optional.

— Ancyia, Queen of Ways

Stymied by a Divided Council

Never one to allow a problem she wanted solved to sit unaddressed for long, Ancyia considered her options. She could attempt to ally herself with some of the strategically placed noble houses, but she soon realized that while she could negotiate with 2 or perhaps three of these, there were more nobles whose lands she wished to have her trade caravans pass through than she would be able to effectively manage. Her best option was to negotiate with Hyladilith and Saimon in the central government and allow them to manage the noble houses and roads.
In BH 9500, Ancyia traveled to Fellalond and arranged to meet with the Counsel of Consorts consisting of Saimon, Hyadilith, and Murdu. Her proposition was simple, she presented the opportunity of large potential tax revenues that could be made available from the merchants if trade could be increased, a proposition that required greater security and shelter along trade routes, more navigable roads, and lower tolls. She laid out the most likely profitable routes and helped the council see a path to imposing and collecting a reasonable tax that would not cripple the budding trade they wanted to encourage.
Her proposal caught the attention of the counsel for it's thoroughness, potential profitability, and obvious benefits to the govenment and the elven people. Others had, of course, come to them requesting assistance with roads and trade, but their proposals were beneficial to the individual merchants and few others. Ancyia had a vision for the entire nation, and included regions beyond the elven kingdom, even extending proposed trade routes across the continent into the trade roads of the Dwarven Kingdom. Saimon, by now no stranger to utilizing every opportunity that came his way to advance the health and welfare of the elven people through establishing an effective government, immediately decided they should build the infrastructure Ancyia proposed. Hyadilith though was adamently against the idea. She recognized the opportunity for profit in the proposal, but looked to secure this opportunity and future profit from it for the nobility to who formed her power base. Murdu recognized that his military would be impacted more or less depending on the degree to which the nobility was involved or if the central government were to take responsibility of working the trade routes. He waffled back and forth on the matter, evaluating both the increase in influence and power that was inherent in the proposal for him, and the increased workload for the military that would become his responsibility to oversee.
The council remained divided, unable to move as long as Saimon and Hyadilith were unable to come to accommodation with each other's interests. Murdu refused to intervene, and Ancyia faced the likely failure of her plans as the council remained deadlocked. Ancyia recognized that her initial thought to negotiate with the central government had been naive. The political landscape could not be overcome by the national government acting alone. She would need to formulate a different strategy to acheive her aims.
It was not clear to Anciya at first how to approach the problem. It was possible to simply throw the weight of the merchant class behind the central government in opposition to the nobility, but it was unlikely that that would be a successful strategy in the long term, as resentful nobles meant an unstability and war. At best, rebellion of the nobles against Lameravis's court would shift the business framework to a wartime footing, something that favored the creation, transport and sale of goods and services she had no skill with. At worst, and probably the most likely outcome, a society at war would destroy her business and dreams of a trading empire. Ancyia knew she could descope her aims and bargain with the local nobles who were her immediate problem and defer the problem of growth to later. That was the path of least resistance, but it would ultimately lead to limiting her business opportunties and growth. The nobility already had a stranglehold on businesses, taxing and tolling their goods and profits to the point where, in some areas, merchants simply didn't bother to trade - there was more profit to be made elsewhere.
Ancyia believed there had to be some compromise she could find - some way to convince Hyadilith into enlisting the nobles to comply with a master plan - to fix the roads, establish safe passage, and moderate taxes and tolls.
So, she devised one.

Manipulating a Godess

I find that if I'm willing to just shut up and listen, people will tell me what I have to do to solve a problem with practically no prodding at all.

— Ancyia, Queen of Ways

Ancyia spent time investigating Hyadilith's background, and listening and observing her at court. She found much to admire in the beautiful and graceful female consort. Her committment to those she represented was consistent and pragmatic, and though she obviously was not above profiting personally from her position in the upper echelons of the government, she still used her position to forward the interests of her power base. She was also willing to compromise with those with whom she did not always share common objectives. She would agree to further the interests of the general population and the nation as a whole as long as these did not interfere with the power of the nobility. She was congenial and not inclined to take intractable positions as a general rule. She was typically accommondating to Saimon's wishes except where those created difficulty for the nobility.
Ancyia recognized that part of the problem that drove Hyadilith's obstruction of Ancyia's vision for open trade routes was the perception of her recent loss, perhaps even defeat, that came with the elevation of Murdu to the position of consort. The creation of a centralized military force under Murdu struck at Hyadilith's monopoly on military power, and lessened the dependence of the government on the noble houses. Hyadilith was not going to accept another loss to Saimon real or perceived, without gaining something for herself and her power base.
Hyadilith had lived her entire life in the lap of luxury - secure and safe from the perils that faced the common person. She had always been guarded, had never known want, and had very little appreciation of how difficult life was for commoners. Arguments that roads were not safe meant nothing to her. Discussions of bringing trade goods to new markets had little impact. Improvements to quality of life for the common man were beyond her comprehension. Hyadilith was not ill intended, she simply had always had every luxury she wanted. She never walked on a road or a horse, and rarely even rode in a carriage. This, Ancyia determined, was an important way to attack the problem. Hyadilith needed a financial and power win for the nobility, and to understand the the benefits to be had so she could convince her power base of the benefits.
Phase One of Ancyia's plan was to ensure that Hyadilith was familiar with the proposal she had made, the dangers and problems for people that would be solved, and the purported benefits to be had. Ancyia worked through Hyadilith's ladies in waiting even down to the servants and maids who tended the consort, and spent time educating them to understand her proposal and the impacts it would make on their lives and the lives of their families. They would be certain to share with Hyadilith their enthusiasm for the project. Meanwhile, as Ancyia was subverting Hyadilith's retainers, she put Phase Two of her plan into motion.
Hyadilith was a beautiful woman, and she enjoyed the constant praise of her beauty that she received. Her clothes were always of the finest and she patronized the most avant guarde clothing designers and hair stylists in the elven kingdom. She also tended her skin carefully, buying the most expensive and effective beauty treatments available to keep any hints of her actual age from showing. Ancyia visited all Hydilith's favorite beauty providers, and bribed them all to move to a small town, Rahlian, three days journey from Fellalond for a period of eight months. Ancyia had carefully selected Rahlian which had a native hot spring which locals said had health and beauty benefits to those who bathed in it or took the waters. However, it was located in the domain of a miserly nobleman, at the end of roads that were poorly maintained. There were frequent stops to pay high tolls, and the road passed through two dangerous forested areas. The bribery cost Ancyia a fortune, but she succeeded in removing the entire beauty industry from Fellalond. She then instigated a conversation between a courtier and Saimon within Hyadilith's hearing on when Lameravis would return from his current trip, inferring that it might be soon. Hyadilith, too vain to do without her beauty services, decided to visit Rahlian for several weeks before Lameravis returned.

by Ralf Juergen Kraft

Hyadilith's trip to Rahlian was a complete failure and as utterly miserable as Ancyia could possibly have wished. It rained the entire trip, her carriage lost a wheel on the rutted and pot-holed road. A bridge on the route was washed out due to high water and the trip took a whole day of re-routing to find an adequate crossing. Hyadilith's train was held up by bandits in the forrest, and one of her guards was killed. The two inns they stayed at were filthy excuses for lodging with terrible food and fleas in the bedding. One night they were forced to camp out in the woods. Hyadilith was extremely uncomfortable, exhausted, suffered terrible migraines, and became enraged at the dangers and inconveniences she experienced as she travelled.
Ancyia was secretly estatic. She had full support for her proposal within three days of Hyadilith's return to Fellalond.

A Legacy of Finding a Way

The Dradae Trade Law passed in 9504 and was the most comprehensive and well thought out set of laws that had ever been formulated regarding trade for any nation up to that point, and it served as the model for most Arrhynsian trade legislation for the next thousand years. The Dryadae Trade Law of 9504 established roles and responsibilities for the central government and nobility with regard to roads - the nobility being responsible for building and maintaining them according to explicit standards set forth in the law, and in establishing standard toll rates based on the mileage maintained by the Lord of the land. Every Lord was required to provide at least one trade marketplace per 10,000 acres of land in his or her domain along a major road, and was allowed a sales tax of no more than 6% of each sale conducted within their domain. The central government was responsible for security of the roads and was also permitted a tax of 6% of each sale.
Under this favorable system, and enticed by the opportunity to gain profit from the merchant classes and their trade, the nobles moved rapidly to make their realms attractive to traders. The roads in Draedae quickly improved, the networks of connected and improved roads grew larger, and towns and hostelries sprung up all over the country. Trade became the life blood of the economy, and it grew exponentially bringing increased wealth and prosperity to people of all classes from poor to rich as people became entrepeneurs, creating new goods or bringing traditional local crafts to sell at new markets across the country. Ancyia herself took every advantage of the opportunities she had worked so hard to acheive, and her trading empire grew at a tremendous rate, expanding and bringing her vast wealth as she put into execution projects that she had been working on for years in anticipation of these exact circumstances. But there was difficulty. Each of the noble's realms had their own currency, and that currency was not well controlled, well supplied, consistent in value, or readily available. Crafters needed and would only accept the currency of their local lords which was what they needed to buy their raw materials to create goods for merchants to trade. Buyers had only the local currency of their lords to offer. Thus, the merchants were constantly having to carry and exchange currency and act as a bank - something that carried a great risk as they became rich targets for robbers and thieves.
Ancyia saw the problem, and devised a way to solve it.
The Banking and Trade Act of 9521 established a national currency for Dryadae based on a gold standard with a standard purity and weight for a national currency which constituted legal tender throughout the country for all debts both public and private - legally, now all transactions could be conducted using the Dryadae National Treasury currency. It also contained basic banking laws, establishing fiscal responsibility for banks holding private and public money, set minimum reserve standards, required adequate disclosure of terms of service, and established a maximum interest that could be charged for loans, preventing usury. It established the Dryadae National Treasury bank headed by Saimon which issued loans, borrowed money, issued currency, and held gold reserves to back the currency and support the banking system. While the central currency and banking system was not exclusive - noble houses continued to have their own local banks and currency, it was universal, and even those local banks became arms of the national banking system. It eventually became simpler, faster, more convenient, and ultimately more profitable to use the central Drydae currency for all trade matters. After several generations of elves local noble owned currencies fell into disuse and eventually disappeared, though noble owned banks persisted even to modern times.
These two laws provided a common win condition for all three parties - the central government, the nobility, and the merchants. Hydilith was an enthusiastic endorser of these laws as they clearly provided a profitable future for the nobility by encouraging trade and guarenteeing a good income based on actual costs to the nobility for supporting the trade that merchants desired. Foisting the costs of security on the central government appeared to be a good idea to the nobility, though there was a decided growth in power of the central government, as Drydae military forces were now required to increase in size and spread across the land, policing the roads and ensuring they were safe for travel.

Seducing Lameravis

At this point, Ancyia had made herself indispensible to the Council of Consorts. Saimon was extremely pleased with her aggressive and clever problem solving, and her ambitions were well aligned to his vision for the elven nation. He wished to hand her responsibility for the Dryadae National Treasury, but was constrained because she did not have sufficient social status to be acceptable to the people and nobles as important enough to hold this office without significant objections. He decided to attempt to convince Lameravis to consider bringing Ancyia into his bed and elevating her to consort, an idea he discussed with Hyadilith and Murdu. Murdu was indifferent, but Hyadilith struggled between wanting to preserve her unique status as the only female consort, and her (by now) well developed liking for Ancyia, but in the end, decided to support the move. Ancyia herself was ambivalent having never met the ancient god, and doubtful of her possible attraction to the notorious hedonist, but she was willing to fall into the plans that other consorts had for her, seeing that her position as consort would be very well aligned to her business interests. Hyadilith took personal responsibility to teach Ancyia to sing the female elves and raise and channel power from them. This was less successful than anyone had hoped - Ancyia could feel the magic being raised, but her call was not compelling to the other women, and her control of the magic was poor. Hyadilith had almost given up and was ready to tell Saimon that Ancyia's command of magic was unworkable for her to become a consort when Ancyia, listening to the singing began to dance to it.
And in a moment, everything changed. Ancyia's movements were mesmerizing, her body compelled all around her to watch her least nuanced motion. The magic of the women rose, the magic of men responded.
Lameravis returned from his travels with several new bed partners in tow. They never stood a chance. Ancyia met the handsome god, and the attraction between them was powerfull and immediate. Lameravis was a highly charasmatic individual. He was stunning physically, charming, and generally had a genuine, if fleeting, interest in the beautiful people he met, though he was courteous to almost everyone. Ancyia was lovely, and she immediately caught his eye. After Lameravis talked to Saimon, he viewed Ancyia with more than casual interest. Selecting a bed partner was a casual, virtually thoughtless process for him. Considering a person as a permantent consort in his kingdom was something entirely different, and Ancyia was unknowingly under very close scrutiny by the ancient god.
Ancyia was completely smitten with Lameravis. He was charming and showed a flattering interest in her, and it was extremely difficult for her not to fall in love with him immediately. She was too smart to fawn over him, observing the interactions and behaviors of his consorts and comparing it to the more casual interactions he had with his temporary sexual partners. She ruthlessly exploited these people though, engaging them in conversation to extract techniques and practices that Lameravis preferred, a conversation that his consorts never discussed. She took note of the history of Lameravis with his consorts, and quickly realized that Lameravis had always been the initiator and pursuer with all those relationships. She decided to wait, and carefully considered how to exploit any opportunity she might get to bed the god - something that she believed would be offered eventually.
Lameravis for his part took his time approaching Ancyia. It was not his nature to deny himself any beauty or pleasure he desired, but he was interested in Ancyia for her mind and ambition as well as physical pleasure. He spent time with all his consorts and his current temporary bed partners until finally, one evening, after months of waiting, he invited Ancyia to one of the regular court pleasure parties as his particular guest.
The public sex between them that night was the topic of considerable gossip for several years.
Two weeks later, they emerged from his bedroom.
A week after that, Ancyia was permanently installed as Lameravis's fourth consort and elevated to the position of demi-god.

A Mysterious Death

In many respects, the death of Ancyia can be questioned as to if it was part of the Betrayal - even as was true of Hyadilith's death. For those who hated Larisa, that absence of information was enough to incriminate her.
By all accounts, Ancyia's death happened at least three years prior to the death of Saimon, and the rapid series of murderous events that destroyed the elven pantheon. In fact, there is no direct evidence that her death was in any way involved in the Betrayal. What was clear is that Ancyia went to inspect some portion of her far flung trading empire and never returned. As powerful and resourceful as she was, it is perfectly reasonable to believe that she may have died at the hand of a random archer, or caught a deadly disease while traveling the roads she helped create on the way to a town she helped to establish. The only thing that ties her death to the Betrayal at all, is the total lack of information surrounding it. There was no destroyed wagons, no murdered guards, no broken body, no terrified witnesses, no evidence of any kind of what happened to the Queen of Ways. She simply - disappeared.
What an odd way to die.