Sanctuary Concubines
| This article is 100% rumour, 80% true, 60% relevant, 40% accurate, 20% dependable and 0% guaranteed. |
A Brief History
No other ruler in or around the Western Kingdoms sees the necessity to publicly maintain a wife and seven consorts simultaneously. The practice dates to the time of the Ilsigi people comprised the ruling caste when it was seen as a matter of prestige and a display of power and virility befitting a city's patriarch. Indeed, many histories on the city pinpoint that the definitive sign of a crumbling dynasty was the dismissal, or out-right insurrection, of the members of the royal seraglio. It was later adopted and enshrined in law as a right of the Governor by the reconquering Rankenes, who were very much taken with the customs of their trading partners in the Lunar Empire at the time. In this more cynical and suspicious age it is widely seen as an anachronistic and frivolous sham.
Why does he want them?
When the young, unmarried Kadakithis arrived and was invested in his office, the obscure clause granting him this felicity caught his attention and he embarked on a search of the surviving palace archives, uncovering a number of lost treatises on the subject. But far from it being vicarious interest of a dissipated young noble, as even his own advisers had reasoned, he shortly re-opened the official post and invited eligible women from the city and beyond to apply.
The responses were initially tepid, but once it became apparent that the new Governor was seriously entertaining a return to an old Sanctuary tradition, it both raised his esteem among the locals and the interest in his offer. The applicants were carefully vetted, and those who fitted the Prince's criteria (and security concerns) met him for personal interviews. If his only aim was to obtain a rapid introduction to his new city and a procession of attractive women to ease his loneliness after leaving Ranke, the plan was a wild success.
Their Infamous Skills
However, it soon became apparent that he had more than simple companionship on his mind.
While certain physical qualities were part of the selection process, Kadakithis had gleaned from the aspirations of past rulers that, by the proper selection of concubines, a patriarch could create a circle of advisers that were solely his. Arriving in Sanctuary he had been presented with a council of entrenched city "elders" and the staff largely assigned to him by his brother, Duke Abakithis. Each of them certainly had their own agenda, and they were assuredly beholden to someone other than the young Prince. Any information that he received from them could be considered suspect, and if it was correct, it was known that he knew it by someone else.
To that end Kadakithis selected women who were not just appropriately ornamental but also happened to be able administrators, diplomats, scholars, mages, artists, and observers of society. He also selected them on the basis that they had no strong political influences controlling them, and as few other ties to the powers of the world as possible. Carefully balancing the personalities and aptitudes of the first three he selected, he has since made selections to compliment and broaden the skills and experience that he could draw on.
Loyal to the Prince
They act as his eyes and ears, his social secretariat and ambassadorial corps. If the Prince is required to be two places at once, and he is occasionally required to be everywhere to tend to his survival, his concubine is his de facto observer and witness. While they do not speak for him, they are definitely known to listen on his behalf and are the ultimate authority to "put in a good word with the Governor".
Thus Kadakithis' ladies have no small power in Sanctuary, especially in the noble society or any business enterprise that needs to stay in the Governor's good graces, but this power is only by proxy from the Governor himself and would not be retained if they were to change allegiance. Indeed, Lirian lives under a perpetual stay of execution for treason, which Kadakithis granted on the basis that she rejoin his court and put her talents to work for him.
As their station and quite lavish lifestyles are dependant on his approval and continued reign, good judgement and enlightened self-interest mean that they recognise that his well-being is their own. They also try to limit their competition and feuding to jockeying for his attention and the occasional poisoning of one another in a good-natured fashion. Since one of the stipulations of a becoming a concubine is that it invalidates any direct relative (specifically offspring) from holding office in the city, there have been none of the lineage power struggles seen in some similar situations.
Longevity and Floral Tributes
Despite the best efforts of all involved - territorial struggles, the hectic pace of life in the Palace, and the constant surprises that living in Sanctuary brings - Kadakithis has been forced over the years to recruit new staff from time to time.
During the course of his reign as Governor 18 courtesans have been retired from active duty. Several have made good on the connections that they established during their time in the palace and married into minor noble families in Ranke. Sadly, others have been let go and forced, sometimes literally, to find similar work in other cultures with similar mores. The rest, something like half the number so far, have overplayed their influence, made too many enemies of influential people, or simply forgotten their table manners (or Alchemy) at an inopportune moment.
There are also dark rumours about the one previous Elven concubine who met such an unhappy end that she is never referred to by name.
But Kittykat remains dotingly fond of all of his special girls, and is genuinely contrite if he feels he has been neglecting any for an extended period. To that end he even tours the public gardens known as Kitty's Orchard to walk along the avenues, lined with varieties of roses whose names commemorate a number of his former favourites.
One for Every Day of the Week
Sophie-Claire - Originally from Borderlay Sophie-Clair has been Kadakithis' primary trade negotiator and political advisor for almost twenty years. Her unmatched tenure has been cemented by the personal relationships that she has cultivated with nobility among all of Sanctuary's neighbours in the Western Kingdom. She has a matronly demeanour and is better respected (and feared) by the Palace staff and minor officials than the Prince's wife, despite best Daphne's efforts.
Aside from an exacting knowledge of treaties and trade agreements Sanctuary holds with other nations and city-states, a wide understanding of the shifting political landscape, she has amassed many languages in her 37 years.
Thalia - A fleshy and jovial young Rankene woman hailing from declining house, Thalia is responsible for overseeing the Prince's interests regarding travel, trade, and tariffs across the Sanctuary docks, including that has recently come to be referred to as "enforced economic migration". Although she has only been in the role for five years, she started started at the tender age of seventeen by engineering her predecessors unexpected tour of a number of the more benighted slave-pens of Arabie, and had adapted well to rigours of the position.
She is well liked, partially because of her enthusiasm, best demonstrated by the lavish parties she enjoys throwing using the resources that she can muster from her sphere of influence, and partially because people are fearful of what being disliked by her could entail.
Cassia - Young Cassia (21) has only been part of the seraglio for a short while, drawn from her home in the Lunar Empire around the time of the WK806 Winter Games, but she has quickly tapped into relatively unrealised potential of patronage and "packaging" of the pool of artistic talent that Sanctuary has apparently been concealing for years.
Her speciality is in the finding of promising artists for capable patrons and trying to ensure that the tensions between various painting or sculpting schools remain at the level of name-calling, and the occasional knife fight, and do not degenerate further.
Gula - The angular Ilsigi, Gula (25) ultimately holds the reins of the many of the caravans and markets that redistribute goods that come into the city. By guiding respected local businessmen as to the Princes' wishes, promoting levies or informal "special taxes", and enforcing or waiving of audits and cargo inspections she has spent the two and half years establishing a tight grip on the smaller independent traders and merchants operating in Sanctuary, while all the time gathering extra revenue for the Prince (and herself). The grip is leavened by the periodic relaxation of certain tariffs and she delights in fuelling competition in a city where it is already second nature. She is notoriously the most ambitious of the current crop of concubines, and until recent upheavals would have been the one most favoured to next have a rose as a namesake.
Lirain - Lirain (30) was the sole survivor of a Rankene conspiracy that attempted to embarrass and discredit Kadakithis some seven years ago, as a group of nobles from the capital attempted to undermine his half-brother Abakithis. Kittykat was apparently so taken with Lirain's beauty, and the comprehensive information about her co-conspirators, that he offered her the choice between the becoming a concubine and the grisly fate reserved for the others. To this day she monitors the political situation in Ranke and with each report extends the duration of her reprieve another little longer.
She is tolerably happy with her existence in the palace, aware that she still a great many with long memories to outlive back in Ranke.
Taya - Taya's talents in scandal, gossip, and intrigue were honed among the disaffected Rankene nobility variously compelled to establish themselves in Sanctuary due to hardship, ill-luck, or craven desperation. Despite the Prince's rising light, they are still a venal, vicious bunch and Taya gleefully epitomised these qualities. Purposely attracting the Princes eye from a deplorably young age, she had to wait until the age of 16 before she joined the other concubines and spent the ensuing 6 years ruining lives and reputations when ever boredom seized her, which was frequently.
She was said to be a half-share owner of the Lily Garden, and that she has come to know more about the intimate and personal lives of people in Sanctuary than Eshi and Ils combined. It is thus unsurprising that in Spring 808, she was killed in the 'Seraglio Rampage' by an unknown demon.
Clarissa - Only the second Elf to join the the Prince's court in this capacity, three years ago she was as shrouded in mystery as the first. Originally thought to be the tattooed gesture of goodwill from an Azurian potentate, it became more clear that she merely hailed from the den of magicians and mercenaries down the coast when she was required to make reparations on the behalf of visitors from the region. The rest of the time she has vacillated between strangling assassins, instructing dancing girls, entertaining various ambassadors, bothering the S'danzo community, managing Gladiators, and was finally sent by the Prince to be liaison and body-guard to his favourite niece, Duchess Meredith, Despite a wide variety of scurrilous rumours being generated she seems to have settled into this role, though the constant travel between Sanctuary and Ranke has left her hard-pressed to secure further prominence in Sanctuary or the palace; and has possibily led to her widely-reported bursts of violence and instability.
