Furyondan history

 Date unknown, but probably 1997/98:

I have been working on the history of Furyondy since the Vice-Royalty became the kingdom of Furyondy.

Most of my reflection started in recent events linked to Prince Thrommel (also called Prince Avras in FTA). I wondered why Prince Avras was so concealed in the Temple of Elemental Evil. I cannot imagine that evil worshippers could just abduct the Prince of Furyondy, Provost of Veluna, Marshall of the armies and future temporal ruler of a (reunited) Kingdom of Ferrand (Furyondy + Veluna) just for the pleasure to disguise him into a vampire and make a good joke to some adventurers.

There is something more serious behind that act, there is the« Holy Pact». 

The last Vice-Roy of Ferrond, Stinvri, was an ambitious and powerful Magebut he lacked the abilities required to make him a true leader. So he schemed for his son Thrommel.

He founded the Academy of Magi of Falk and developed the so famous Furyondian, and now nearly extinct School of Metamagics, in order to oppose the magic of the Great Kingdom when the time will come, he then set the basis of a secret order of Chivalry called the Order of the Hart and above all he struck the « Holy Pact » with Heironeous.

The exact terms of the Pact are not well known but Stinvri promised that the cult of Heironeous should be placed above all others. In exchange, Heironeous granted some benefits to the kings and their heirs, as long as each king renews the « Holy Pact ».

The « Holy Pact » seems to include :

n The kings have never been sterile, but they can have one and only one son

- No daughters in the history of Furyondian kings and no succession struggles.

n The Prince is « naturally » lawful good.

n The heirs have full HPs, some extraordinary powers (immunity to energy drain, magical aging, magical alignment change) and above all the « heirs » have a spark of divine power that allow them to resurrect in a crypt under the High Temple of Heironeous in (new) Chendl whenever they are killed.

There are two limitations to that resurrection ability :

n The power is not activated if the prince is deliberately killed by good people and he cannot be resurrected. (I even included some kind of divine aura around the corpse as his soul body left his material body and two angels came to guide him to the seven heavens)

n The resurrection often fails (that's the godwill) if the Prince/King already has an heir (even young).

At the light of the « Holy Pact », the Thrommel/ Avras incident makes sense - As the evil forces were unable to permanently slay the Prince, they devised the Vampire masquerade to lure a good character into killing him (You've got to improve the illusion and let it fall when the Prince is killed - Watch the reaction of your players, as they discover what they have just done and the political consequences.

(Side note: Quaffing potions of longevity does not allow kings to leave longer, but it helps them remain strong and healthy until very advanced ages - Haste spells and speed potions have no effects)

Pierre Couture

aka Belvor X

dtz@easynet.fr

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