Been thinking about the narrative choice to send Sir Julien chasing after Occtis for two reasons.
First, the overture plot:
It’s clear that House Royce is in trouble. Aranessa was kept waiting at the Halovars, she outright told Hal that her house’s power is waning and she didn’t have the pull to save Thjazi. The Royce resupply wagons/carriages are not only being stopped, but their intel is also bad - something’s gone wrong with the rear guard and information is only arriving piecemeal. (Side note: sure hope Alogar’s okay in the middle of all of this since it seems like he is connected to House Davinos/Royce via Julien.)
Aranessa’s decision to try and collect Occtis is overtly tied to the trouble that the Royce family is experiencing in her conversation with Raimond and Julien. The conversation about the issues with the wagons leads directly into the conversation about Occtis and feeling like it would be prudent to get a hold of him before the Tachonis do (both for Occtis’s own well being and, due to the context of the conversation, possibly as political leverage or a bargaining chip).
Then there’s the mention of the gala and the need to keep up appearances. I’m sure everything will go so, so good at the gala and will be totally fine and not at all be a launching point for Julien to suddenly have motivation to be involved with the rest of the PC’s for a full campaign for any reason.
It’s amazing how well the Tachonis have been set up as this massive, looming threat, how quickly we understand that House Royce is in a precarious position that could falter at any moment, and how we the audience are as deeply invested in Aranessa’s wellbeing as Julien is. Also A+ work to introduce both Aranessa and a sweet, awkward young wizard whom the PCs and the audience are very much invested in and then immediately put that woman and that wizard in extreme danger. 10/10 no notes.
Second, Julien’s personal character arc:
This mission comes up right after Julien’s fraught conversation with his father. Julien is portrayed as aimless and bitter. He brought the rebel in twelve years ago, brought the house name back up, but has been frozen ever since. Thjazi is still loved by his father and Aranessa. His father is still actively comparing Julien to Thjazi. The glory Julien gained feels hollow, and he still mourns the ‘golden path’ he thinks he should have had without Thjazi’s interference. Julien feels like the world owes him and is bitter about having to work for what he thinks should have been his all along, bitter about Thjazi not being roundly despised like Julien feels he should be, bitter about basically everything.
And now he’s being sent to collect some kid from House Tachonis - an heir, not even a vassal, of the most powerful house on the block, one even the Halovars don’t feel they can cross - who has apparently thrown all of his own ‘golden path’ away for Thjazi. A kid who has, according to the rumors (which we the audience know to be true) defied his family the same way Julien’s father did out of friendship for a man that helped him once.
Occtis hasn’t even thought through the full ramifications of what he’s done! When Thimble asks if it would be stupid for him to come with her to the Crow Keepers, wondering how ‘in’ he still is with his family, Occtis’s response is a somewhat panicked ‘oh I haven’t even thought about that’ but then he immediately affirms that he will come anyway and that they’ll just have to hope that disguise self will be enough.
Occtis is, for all purposes, the anti-Julien. Young, hopeful, and almost painfully unconcerned with the consequences of what he sees as doing the right thing. Contrast that with Juilen’s bitter focus on survival above all else. Occtis isn't lamenting about losing a golden path. Occtis doesn’t seem to even like being part of his grand house. He’s not offended by everyone he respects talking down about the Tachonis. I don’t think he sees the path as being all that golden at all.
They're such interesting narrative foils and I'm so curious to see how the two of them interacting will go.
