Many
Dark mages have been allowed to work their nefarious plots through
Esteille completely unchallenged thanks to the protection of the senate and of their
noble name. However, after a new spat of disappearances, the Esteillois are finally crying "Enough!".
The facts about the disappearances
Nathanaël and Marie Sanges, two siblings in their teens from the West Gate district of Esteille, were reported as missing yesterday morning after having left their family without news for 24 hours. Everyone has been shocked by their sudden disappearance and cannot understand what happened. In their neighbourhood, the young teenagers were known as being quiet, polite, and liking to stay out of any local drama—certainly not the type to run away without warning. So who is responsible?
The theories: of course Dark magic is involved!
The army immediately moved in to investigate, yet in the absence of any leads for the investigators to follow, rumours of nefarious magic are spreading widely—a fact not helped by the Ritual Hunters’ involvement. Disappearances of young people in Esteille have been far too frequent in the past decades, but lately seem to have really picked up in numbers until they now practically occur monthly. Coincidence? No, say the Estellois! This is very clearly the work of a Dark mage collecting some materials for their next evil
ritual in time with the
lunar phases! And speaking of Dark mages and rituals, we know just the one individual to blame…
Lord Royenne, a highly suspicious man
Many rumours have long been whispered about Lord Royenne, and there is never any smoke without fire—and it must be quite an inferno to make plumes of that size! From human sacrifices to sex ritual organised with his friends and the victims of his kidnappings, the sordid and salacious details abound. Yet, none of these rumours are truly shocking when one remembers that Lord Royenne first came to the public attention during the
last war when he served as a lord colonel under the then
Lord General Cenlys and was said to be his closest friend. Now that Cenlys has outed himself as a
Dark Lord and fled, Lord Royenne supposedly came back to being an outstanding citizen, but we know the truth.
The Royennes have always been evil, and Lord Royenne's flirt with the Dark should have been expected. It was after all only last century that House Royenne was the leader of the Dark party, and the family easily survived the purge when the Dark was finally outlawed. Even now, Lord Royenne is the current leader of the "traditionalist" party, which we have been forbidden by the senate from calling "the new Dark party". Their immense wealth has always allowed the Royennes to merrily meddle with politics, either helped with real charisma and talents or, when those happened to be missing, with bribes and blackmail.
The public’s indignant reactions
“I know who’s behind all those kidnapping—and you know too! Everyone does! The only question is why nothing is being done about it?” said the kidnapped children's father. “Royenne might makes the smallest of effort to be circumspect and not shout his love of the Dark Lord to the roofs, but that does not mean he's discreet. Everyone knows they're friend, so why is he still allowed to go free and kill our children? What are the senate and the king doing?“
Madame Narie, the mayor of the West Gate district, agrees. “Lord Royenne likes to appear respectable in the senate and at court, always smiling condescendingly to everyone, shoving his money in our face and generously making 'donation' to the king.
"However, it doesn't take a genius to see that he has not an ounce of sincerity in his whole body and considers himself superior to us all. I wouldn't be surprised if he indeed were to grab young people off the street for his nefarious rituals, nor than nobody in the government dares interfere. He's holding too many puppets' strings in the shadows for most of our politicians to survive the confrontation. No, if anything, we need a royal intervention, and myself and all my electors agree that it cannot come too soon!“
Call to action: arrest the man!
Well, you have heard it from the source! The people have spoken and they demand Lord Royenne's immediate arrestation, or at the very least his removal from the senate. The only question is how will the senate react in front of such insistence, and will
His Majesty finally intervene to stop the senators' interference with the investigation into Lord Royenne?
Another lovely setup this looks like this could've fit in proclamation as well too bad you can't double dip in categories I know quite a few people struggled with prompts this year. Getting a cross between Marquis de Sade and Jack the Ripper vibe here. It's not a character page so much as the latest scoop sold by a kid on the street corner!
Thanks :D That Marquis de Sade / Jack the Ripper is certainly what the journalist wants you to think :p Now, is this the truth? ...