The history of Edward Rosethorne of the Pink Tulip

Edward rosethorne of the pink tulip is the current patriarch of the Pink Tulip family, his father was just like him very font of political intrigue and wargaming, which both are very taboo in old shireling culture. Most of the political intrigue was kept within the family itself and seen as a game, while wargames were practiced on the endless fields, using new ideas against the hordes roaming there or what they considered bandits who tried to settle closer to the shire. Which most likely where ancestral tulipians now looking back at it.

Youth

Rosethorne grew up in a very competitive family thanks to all this and quickly had to grow up to maintain a strong position within the family. His exploits both in politics and wargaming eventually was rewarded by his father by being named the heir of the family.
He learned what he could from his father and took his way of living to heart. Once his father died he quickly took up the mantle as patriarch, giving himself no chance to grief the loss of his father, who he loved very much.

He easily maintained his position within the family after his father’s death and even was able to solidify it with new rules and the total reformation of the family rankings which made sure he politically wise could never be kicked off his throne. He eventually found Nora Rathai, a general within his army who stood out with her excellent leadership. His respect for her eventually turned to love and eventually became lovers. She describes him as kind but just, he cares a lot about her but in his own way.

Eventually they got a daughter, which they named Lorraine. Just like any other family member of the PInk tulip, she too had to fight for her position within the family. She struggled a lot more than her father in gaining and maintaining her position, which made Rosethorne use the same tactics his dad used upon him, punishment, trying to push her to her best. Which only created a desire in Lorraine to please her father as best as possible, but her exploits remained small. Rosethorne kept trying his best to make his daughter into something great until the skeleton war broke out.

Skeletonwar

With the skeleton war breaking out, Rosethorne decided it was time to show their wargames to the public and originally took the initiative to beat them back, but with him standing on the backlines planning attacks on his maps, he was easily overshadowed by Reverli of the orange tulip who rallied his men behind her and pushed the skeleton menace back. He quickly took interest in the young lady and decided to work closer together in war, while working together he gained a lot of respect for Reverli and decided to teach her the ways of politics and wargaming after she got crowned to chairman of the shire. While working together to unify the empire he saw her more and more of the model daughter, the image he wanted Lorraine to be.

Rosethorne pushed his own daughter more and more away in favour of helping Reverli consolidating power. But Lorraine eventually got a new chance to prove herself to her father, the unification war broke out and Rosethorne recommended her to become the first general of the tulipian army.
Reverli accepted and gave her the order to take the capitol of the invading forces of Sheol to end the war. Once Rosethorne heard of her victory in sheol he was ecstatic.
While Reverli worked hard to turn the shire into the Tulipian kingdom, Rosethorne returned home and helped his daughter consolidate power as the first general of all tulipian armies. He was very happy to see his daughter finally rise in the ranks, especially at this very fast speed.
Throughout the tulipian expansion and the first world war he was on the side of his daughter, giving her tips and helping her improve her statecraft

After Rosethorne thought his daughter had a good grip on things he decided to juggle between Reverli and Lorraine, helping them both wherever possible.
Lorraine did not like this decrease in attention and became more and more reckless, causing many problems in the early years of the empire like the first world war and the horse crisis. But she took one step too far to impress her father with the great dynamite war, which turned out to be a great loss for the empire. Reverli quickly signed a treaty to stop the onslaught, even though Lorraine was egging her on to keep on fighting with the same dirty tactics.

Tulipian civil war

This, together with once again starting a war without requesting permission from Reverli was all too much for the chairman, as punishment she demobilized the entire army and fired Lorraine.
Rosethorne was extremely disappointed in Lorraine’s reckless actions but did not intervene in the current situation, giving her a chance to redeem herself.
Lorraine's last plan to redeem herself was by refusing to be fired and launching a civil war against Reverli. Rosethorne once again did not intervene, finding it hard to choose between what he sees as his two daughters and let the war happen.
Once the war was lost for Lorraine he helped her escape Illithshire and warned her to never return, disowning her to make sure there was no reason for her to return.


After that he focused back on Reverli and Reverli alone, he quickly got the position as lord commander of all tulipian armies and with this newfound power he began construction on Tulipburg. The largest fortress in the empire. In the first years he took his time with it, perfecting the fortress. Something he could do because the empire seems to go into an age of peace and prosperity after the civil war.
Connections with other nations were peaceful, the settlements prosper and the overall happiness of the citizens went up.

Anti-anthelion war

This all changed with the anti-anthelion war, the empire already knew T.E.D was up to something thanks to his many contacts but could never truly figure out what was going to happen. The days before the anti-anthelion war where very stressful for Rosethorne, fearing a repeat of the unification war he pushed the construction speed to its limits and decided to look into more experimental weapons to make it easier to hold off big horde’s, since he knew T.E.D’s doctrine was simple wave assault. But his preparations were too little too late, that one fateful night Rosethorne went to bed, not knowing the sun would never rise again.

Rosethorne was woken up by his soldiers, explaining the empire was under attack from all sides, the hordes sent in this endless night where uncountable and he had to think quick.
He first secured the Tulipian families and escorted them all from the Tulipshire to his fortress, where it was still quiet. There he discussed the next step with Reverli.
At first they didn’t believe the intel coming from the frontlines, there could never be that many hostiles, but with more and more intel coming in explaining the same situation and explaining the same movements and situations they had to face the fact that the empire was indeed being invaded by what seems the entire population of hell itself.

Panic set in. Reverli was spitballing ideas, trying to shorten frontlines without any real sacrifices, trying to distract the enemy armies with attacks or other conventional counter attacks.
Rosethorne just listened and looked on the map, trying to keep his cool. Eventually the realisation set in, the war was unwinnable. Their panic turned into fear. Their fear turned into hatred. “If there is no way to stop them conquering the empire, then we’ll make sure there is no empire to conquer.” Said Rosethorne bitterly. And with that the Final war doctrine was formed.

Step one of the plan was to save the civilians, they would be escorted from all settlements to Tulipburg. After that the front lines where made as short as possible, making sure the Tulipian strength was fully concentrated, any towns and settlements left behind were ordered to be burned down, wells filled with sand and the crops burned. There would be nothing left for the enemy. With the new frontlines and the supplies in the last remaining strongpoints of the empire, Rosethorne could hold out for a maximum of 2 grim years. Making the war for the empire the most costly of all for the T.E.D forces.

Eventually Reverli found an opening and moved to Pyrren where all top leaders of the T.E.D warmachine would come together, planning to eliminate them all and hopefully stopping the Anti-Anthelion war. Rosethorne worked those days in constant anxiety, fearing his last “daughter” had died without him knowing. But all his worries disappeared quickly when the sun finally reappeared at horizon and a battered and bruised Reverli at the gates of Tulipshire.

Reconstruction of the Empire

But while Reverli took some time off, the work just started for Rosethorne, who was pretty much in charge now of what remains of the empire. He quickly found out that he had a lot less authority over the other houses than Reverli and thanks to that the first couple of months of the rebuilding project were absolute hell for him. He was on many occasions very close to just giving up or using his armies to silence the other houses and push his ideas through.
Eventually Reverli once again stepped on the political stage and picked up where Rosethorne left off. Together they once again worked happily and slowly but surely got the empire out of it’s ruined state.

With some extra freedom he decided to look into the weapons and tactics used in the war. His troops, mostly around heavy fortifications used fireworks to deal heavy damage in a larger area and he wanted to further explore that idea. Together with the S.R.I they invented a very experimental weapon which they named a “lance” a barreled weapon which could shoot projectiles at a very fast and deadly speed. They made only one design to test it with, named the Thorne. The weapon has yet to be used on a very large scale, but has seen some action in the Crimson war and the civil war of Rodashi, showing that if used with the proper tactics a Lancer division could bring some real devastation to the battlefield.

But just when it looks like the empire was getting back on his feet, ready to take on the world once more, it was once again halted. This time from within, it seemed that the other houses have been gathering influence when Reverli and Rosethorne didn’t look and now have the power to demand change in their favour. But it is still two houses versus two houses, causing many political deadlocks and discussions that lead nowhere.
Rosethorne finds the behaviour of the white and red tulip unacceptable and thankless for the sacrifices the Chairman made for the empire. At this point he rather uses his armies to silence them than get into another meaningless discussion with them. But Reverli forbids it, maintaining the values of the empire she built up with her own blood sweat and tears.