Sword of Dawn, Hammer of Twilight (Setting, RP, etc)

[Pale Wolf]

Cyrille chuckles and finally gets him to the table. "Well, we'll have to correct that, won't we?"

She takes something light and relatively easy. "My burning question is whether our host has any idea what he's doing. Spitting in the face of powerful supernatural forces is rarely wise."

[Sailor Sedai (Ellf)]

"Ah, but that's why we're all here, is it not?" His staff shrank as he put it on his back and sat down. Upon sitting, Raisho took something that smelled good to him, and ate it with all the sophistication of an upperclass person. An amazing feat, considering his disability. He also finished quickly, but neatly. "Some of us are amused that someone would dare try something of this nature, and I guarantee someone here is out to stop it."

[Musouka]

Saitou approaches the pair's table with with a smile and a wave. "Good day to your dear friends! Is the food any good?" He asks. "Nothing extra in it? Mind if I join you?"

[Pale Wolf]

Cyrille looks up, nodding. "It's fairly good, and I personally have no complaints if you wish to join." She glances at Raisho.

"And I would certainly agree. The timing, and doing it at all... Well, he's apparently spitting in the face of something very, very dangerous. On one end, he's taking quite the risk, but on the other, he also needs to assert his confidence in the face of such forces." She takes a bite and chews it calmly.

[Musouka]

"When do you think the smiting will start? Think he'll actually try to pull the sword out?" Saitou wondered out loud before taking a bite out of a chicken leg.

[Shadell]

Tavi casually slid into an unoccupied seat next to Cyrille.

"I hope you don't mind." he addressed Raisho, sounding like he really couldn't care less if Raisho minded or not. "And..." he turned to address Cyrille as he grabbed several items off of a tray.

"Regardless of how things turn out it should be an interesting show. "Besides. It might make a good excuse to let us over at the university study the sword." Tavi's eyes glimmered with curiosity. "Why; it'd be even more interesting then my current projects."

[Pale Wolf]

Cyrille chuckles. "I don't think Darion is foolish enough to try and pull the sword out, given how it's killed everyone to touch it. To be honest, I'm almost surprised he hasn't tried to arrange the scenery to hide it. Good luck getting a hold of the sword, too."

[Sailor Sedai (Ellf)]

"Still, here is where all the kings of the past have had their coronation. With or without the consent of the prior king, Lord Darion intends on solidifying his power base." Raisho nodded. "He'll be unable to take the blade, but that doesn't mean he won't be able to rule the kingdom. Just because he can't be crowned as king, doesn't prevent him from calling himself something else."

[Shadell]

Tavi shook his head. "If he does that; then he's more of a fool then I thought. With the sword here he'd have to be a complete idiot to hold the coronation. It's practically announcing to everyone that he's not the real king; and it would be fairly simple to just hide the blade under an illusion if he couldn't move it." The mage casually grabbed a few items off the table and begin to eat; displaying surprising manners for one so rude.

"Unless... This whole event is just to see whose on his side and whose against him." Tavi added as an afterthought.

[Dorin]

Finally, the expected moment everyone anticipated. A gong sounded throughout the hall, drowning out all conversation. A second, third, then fourth pulse following each previous tone just as the vibrations were dieing down. Horns sounded, drums thumped, and the whole of the building was filled with the sounds of Darion's impending arrival. The whole ceremony of his entrance would take several minutes, as a parade of folk preceeded him, all well timed and corrdinated. The music dominated all other sound, forcing silence out of respect from the attendees, and then crushing that same silence as the full focus of attention.

A long series of jingling began, and from the doors entered a line of beautiful maidens, not a one could be older than her sixteenth summer; their bodies in the lock between child and maturity. They were barely dressed, with silk coverings about their breasts and just enough about their hips to shield their modesty. Gold chains were wrapped their forms, as if a second form of dress. A third layer, and the source of the whispering bells, were thin gold disks drapped about their bodies; they could avoid no sound, as they chimed with each step. Two lines of twelves girls each entered, and in time just in the entry began to sway their hips, adding to the ringing sounds.

As that line cleared, the girls parted to either side, continuing in place to dance, not in a hypnotising manner but simply swaying side to side enough to continue generating their sounds. Another set of women, four in all, dressed in the same silk outfit, passed through, tossing flower petals to the floor. Roses, and a other colors, filling the entry with the cast away plant matter. And finally, dressed in robes that would befit only a king, Darion.

He strode through the parted way, across the floor with such an aloof air he might as well have been alone striding through a garden or the forest. He noticed nothing, ignored everything. A clear presentation of affairs, everyone here was beneath his notice until such time as he deigned to acknowledge their feeble existances.

Without pause he roamed his way to the one place, by unwritten law, restricted to all people but the right and proper king. Not even a presiding Queen, or minister with seals of office and rod of authority had rights to sit on this throne. Within the Citadel of the Dragon, it was the same. Those who precided in place of the king took a special curial chair to the lower right of his royal magesty, even if the king himself was absent. Yet, no chair was brought forth for Darion, nor was he so inclined for one.

He climbed the short steps of the dais, three up, and with a rustle of clothing all sound stopped as he whipped about. Servants in his little parade all dropping to their knees with heads bowed. Not even the Arch-Canon of Sol-Sunna, who was in apperance, commanded such deference. Not even the late kings ever used such pagentry and overt raising of themselves over all they surveyed. The king was a symbol of stability, leadership, justice, mercy; and most of all, he was King of the People, Custodian of the Land. A very important distinction to tradition, the king was not meant to be above anyone, not a first among equals, or any such none sense. He was the purveyor of peace and protection, traditions which Darion clearly meant to spit against.

His body arched and lowered into the seat of the throne. Which itself was carved into the very trunk and meat of the livin tree itself. A symbol of the king being swathed in earthly authority, that even the trees themselves welcomed his arrival. Whether or not such magic was truly bonded to the house of Kathadan or just supersticious legend mattered not to most folk, it simply was.

Now, a man with no such blessings or signs of divine providence was putting himself in the place of power. Laughing in the face of four thousand years of legacy.

A hush passed through the crowd, silence crashing in a wave back over the hall. No one could quite associate this scene with reality. Not even a pretender king would have the audacity to do this...would he?

Yet, this fool clearly was.

[Sailor Sedai (Ellf)]

Raisho tore off his sunglasses and gazed with his blind eyes upon the throne as Lord Darion sat. The audacity of the man amused him. How dare someone such as he do such a thing? He had no right. The young monk smirked, knowing what chaos this would bring to the very room they were in.

"This... was not completely unexpected."

[Shadell]

"I wonder what security they have around here." Tavi mused after the spectacle seemed to be over for the moment, "Or are the maidens really transformed soldiers?" Despite the joke in his tone, Tavi's words held a serious meaning. "Regardless, if he's doing something this audacious, I can only imagine that either he's about to be assassinated or that he's tacitly planning the removal of those who show themselves to be too open in their opposition of his actions." Tavi shrugged.

"Regardless, it's not like it will effect me any." His words were oddly bitter.

[camk4evr]

Rikolet watched the spectacle and had to prevent herself from shaking her head. "Well... that was tacky," she muttered, in elvish, to herself.

[Dorin]

Darion's eyes swept the crowd, as if seeking something. He finally spoke to the gathering, raising his hand. "Friends, we gather on this day to mark two momentous occasions. The first, the memorial of that tragic day ten years past, in which our lord passed from the mortal world to battle evil alongside his ancestors and the gods. The wound is still fresh on the hearts of us who can remember, the scar will not fade. We must remember, always, the contributions of the great Kathadan family and the legacy upon which it was built. The very fabric of our society is built upon the work of those great men and women, let us never forget their contributions.

"Yet, ten years we have had no king. Ten years have I sat upon the honor-seat of the Steward and cultivated this land, while foreign lords scoff us for lacking the prestige of a royal court. The time has come to let go the past and move into the future. With the strong and willing support of you all, the path is set, now we need only tread it.

"A king is lord and master of nothing without a people to guide and support. The yolk of leadership means nothing with no kingdom to plow. It has long been the tradition that the people of Keldar are the people, not the land. A geographic place is nothing without the people to be the mortar and foundation stone. I ask you, aid me, together we shall walk into the future!"

There was a loud chorus of applause immediatly behind the proclamation.

[Sailor Sedai (Ellf)]

Raisho joined the applause after replacing his sunglasses. "If nothing else... Lord Darion is a good public speaker."