roderick just out there continuously networking for this fam one way or another lakjsflkjdsfj (mostly by marriage and conquest unfortunately alkjdsflksdjf)
omg sophisticated 8yo taking artless 5yo under his sage wing!!!! ok but that's so cute honestly <3
ok so thinking abt this all a bit more, i also feel like 5yo tristan was a really weird mix of things given his upbringing so far!
he believed in witchcraft, could do a lil palm reading and casting stones etc, he knew a lil abt healing, he could pickpocket and sleight of hand w the best of them and had def fed himself a good bit via these abilities, already (why am i now like "is there an au where adult!tristan in his angry young man(tm) era once pulled the *heath ledger voice* 'do you wanna see a magic trick? im gonna make this pencil disappear' bit lakjflkjdsfkjdsf if he'd grown up entirely in kolchis and remained under godfrey's tutelage" WAY more sarcastic re: delivery etc and not the clown makeup or any of ~that stuff but just yeah pointing at his witchy past w misdirection when ppl try to use it to undercut him etc aljdskflkjsd ANYWAY!!)
but he was ~also already a v advanced reader and had been taught philosophy and kolchean legends and astronomy and history and all that stuff from before he could talk bc godfrey had high hopes for him at first (and still did atp!) so he probs came off, in roderick's eyes, as half-savage, half-sage, and def bizarre given his age ngl, but ~bc of that age, he also probs wrote it off as his unsophisticated kolchean ways which could be polished away, and all largely a joke ngl lakjsfkljdslkjf
RODERICK ON TRISTAN/XENOPHOBIA
bc of this, roderick probs ~did tell alaric that they had to give tristan a good example to help him wash away his barbaric ways etc, but being family was worthy of this saving grace they could provide etc instead of just being instantly despised like roderick'd usually do aldjkflkjdsfkj that being said i don't think he would've expected alaric to hang out w him, unless he wanted to, or anything like that...just to model good, upstanding varmont behavior for him when they ~were together, sort of thing!
i do think tristan caught on pr quick that he was v different from everyone else here and that roderick was def experiencing some xenophobia (not that he knew what ~that was, but just that he saw him as weird/off-putting/even a lil unnerving at times, etc) and, w godfrey's help, tried his best to sort of play along and suppress his ~otherness in order to appear (and ultimately ~become bc again he's so young atp!) more and more varmont over the years, but i def think that was a ~journey over the course of years, helped along by having a varmont education, being surrounded by varmonts, godfrey ultimately dropping him, etc!
TRISTAN & ALARIC GIVING E/O A CHILDHOOD! (and more xenophic fun!)
omg tristan giving alaric a childhood!!!! and honestly vice versa!!! the thing abt tristan is that he really does/did buy into the whole varmont thing bc that mission statement of finding ppl in bad conditions and giving them a chance at a better life???? they actually DID that for him!!!!! for the first time in his life, he was safe (since he's been lovingly microdosed on poison his whole life lkajdfskjasdljfsdf #thankssis kaljsfkljsdf), he wasn't hungry, there was someone there for him to play with, he was probs actually taught things more suitable to his age hahahaha he didn't have to steal and then run from the cops just to eat, he was consistently warm and dry like!!!! and not just that!! he was now living in the grandest palaces in the world, and ultimately even offered the chance to help do for others what had been done for him!!!!!1 like!!!!! this is wonderful!!!!!
and sure he's probs mistrusted etc to this day by lotsa varmont troops bc his sister and grandmother are both reputed to be witches, and im sure he has to deal w that on the daily, but ~that prejudice is a lot easier than some of the other stuff he's had to deal w, and most won't dare say it outright since roderick'd have their tongues for it given that's his son's and wife's ancestors etc they're impugning!!!! and therefore a reflection upon the crown, and roderick, himself!!!! but im sure there's still hella passive-aggressive stuff he's gotta shrug off etc.
but anyway!!!! my point is that tristan has spent most of his life genuinely hugely grateful to the varmonts!!!1 and legit believing they're the good guys!!!! the only problem is that most of the ppl roderick conquereed don't end up becoming the 5yo sibling to one of his queens, and even if they do, they weren't generally plucked from the slums to do it, and just...generally are NOT having a great time of it!!!! his experience is more the exception than the rule he truly believed it to be for so long (smth he only started to learn too late)!!!
ANYWAY ANYWAY my point is that, if you still think, given all that, that alaric would still take tristan under his wing, i knowwwww he was sooo grateful for it!!!!! and honestly thought alaric was all that and a bag of chips!!! even just going into it, little less after he got to know him and discovered he's ~also a genuinely good person too!!!! and actually has a weird amount in common w him -- coming from a family, to borrow a phrase, burdened w glorious purpose, raised by a much older sibling w greater powers at their throat till the conquests/roderick's reign began! and esp if alaric was ~also reinforcing this tristan was like 'its so cool that i get to know this guy! w o w!! i bet other ppl would envy us getting to interact w the actual emperor!' lakjdsfklsjdf other ppl: 'yes but only bc direct contact makes assassination easier to pull off!'
TRISTAN EDMUND IS THE ONE
so re: tristan vs edmund! i feel like it was a gradual thing at first, bc i think the instant amira was pregnant he was like '...wait' hahaha so i do think he was a big more distracted from that time on, but yeah once edmund got a lil older and was showing actual aptitude he was just like 'lol byeee!' to tristan but i do feel like this was still when edmund was super young like...basically i think it was his personality really showing itself that did it for godfrey so that's when edmund's what? like...3-6 basically???
certainly by the time edmund was 7, godfrey was done cold turkey w tristan as his ~chosen one~ which actually does make tristan a lil ~older than i was og ~thinking now that im doing the actual math hahaha but still works! and possibly even better, bc 12-16 isn't a great time to be abandoned, either! but it ~is a great time to hurl yourself into roderick's varmont youth program (SCREAM) when you find you don't have a purpose in life suddenly! alkjdfjsflkasfj sooo yeah! but yeah i do think it was pr abrupt once godfrey made the decision ngl!
i think it'll be really interesting for these two, too, if/when alaric and tristan end up on opp sides!!! esp bc, outside of eoin ofc <3 i think if you asked tristan abt his bffs, if we do go w this backstory, i think its super likely that alaric is right in there w him as bestie material in tristan's eyes!! and like he would, i think, take that all a lil harder bc like...edmund is just as much alaric's nephew as arthur is! (more so...as it turns out ;DDDD no but obv no one knows that! hahaha) but i do think he'll get that its more abt marian and the bond he has w him and arthur and arthur being an older son etc!! and tristan, himself, struggled to take a side bc he didn't want this to happen, but still! he loves his nephew and, for all their many flaws, he loves his siblings too, and yeah!
esp bc, while godfrey has hanthom and that's def a v lucrative/seaworthy hahaha feif, ive no doubt that roderick has alaric set up w theeeee biggest duchy, as his own brother, that isn't going directly to one of roderick's kids, so alaric throwing in somewhere is def gonna be a blow to the other factions!
lbr alaric has a better chance to persuading roderick to choose an heir than anyone else in the world...but sadly it still won't happen tbqh lakjdsfkljdsjf
in fact, @forgottenroderick @forgottenmarian ive been meaning to put this down somewhere but like...its coming up organically here, so here it shall be! (but don't worry i plan to copy & paste this and make a new thing on roderick's site, so we can really dig into all this if we like!)
ok so roderick is def gonna make sure that ~roderick has the best of everything like!!!! this is def a given lakjdsfkljdf but he also knows that rewarding his most faithful servants is a good idea, so that's def a thing, but he ~also knows he doesn't ever wanna invite anyone getting too big for their britches and tryna grab smth out from under him/his fam, and (atm anyway!) even ~he knows he can't hold the whole world by himself wo v powerful allies to back him up. he also believes that family is the thing he can trust most, w those related most closely being worthy of more trust than those ~less related etc!
this must also be balanced w due respect etc towards the crown and such!!
so! when roderick's handing out goodies to the playable characters, what's the priority? ive got some kinda ~tiers, and within these tiers, he tries to keep things pr even, but in a longterm kind of scale/w a sense of ~earning things getting you more etc. so, if you really exert yourself for roderick you'll get rewarded for it!
for example: uncles of heirs is a tier and, if godfrey really acquits himself well and gets smth big out of it, roderick will then put an uncle of arthur's or guin's in a position where he can really acquit himself and thus potentially earn as much as godfrey did! if he doesn't, that's on him, bc roderick gave him equal opportunity! that kind of thing ;D
empress -- now...the empress is dead! buT she just can't stop winning! and dead or alive, she's still the richest woman in the varmont empire! one of the big things roderick likes to do, right, is play his wives off against e/o by making ~them compete to be his next empress like he does w his heir, its unlikely this award will ever be given, but he's ensured this pot is pr large so the prize is def worth having! and boy is it! the empress, alone, is free to rule over her own holdings like any male lord might! i know, jaw-dropper! now, atm, these holdings are in trust and probs stewarded by either alaric or bart (or perhaps even working together bc it is...a lot and they're both busy, as is!), w that regent splitting the revenues w roderick and w guin, as heirs to the late empress, but all to be reworked, should a new empress ever be named. the empress, as part of roderick's winnings, is always awarded a new holding in every single nation. roderick feels it would be a slight against his own glory, were his empress not to be the second most powerful person in the world and the .richest woman alive!....and she is! well, rich..not...alive... ;D anyway ngl this is also a way of helping assuage his guilt over her death, so that's fun too!
alaric -- sorry to roderick's many (living) wives and children, alaric's in a league of his own!! he's the man who has believed in roderick longest, had his back throughout it all, his most trusted compatriot and warrior and bff! after roderick himself, alaric gets the best of everything! roderick knows alaric can and will hold it, and enrich himself and the empire w whatever he gets bc he's proved it! AND he knows that alaric will do all that w roderick's best interests at heart, too! alaric, alone, out of all the tiers can count on getting a new holding in every single country, regardless of how he acquits himself atp! his loyalty is proven!
ot3: succession -- those heirs out here to scooooore!!! they're gonna get the next best stuff!!!! this is their training-to-rule opportunity, really, so use it wisely bc duly pleasing roderick is as close to that as youre ever gonna get!! nd roderick really ~does actually want them to have a holding in every single country but they're now at the age where they have to earn it!! he will be embarrassed if they fail to do this and they will have to suffer the consequences! now, the boys are most likely gonna earn this through conquest: guin will have to do it by negotiating extraordinary trade deals and diplomatic affairs and strategic marriages and such, both within the empire and outside of it. t he boys can do this as well but they MUST do the other as well and guin CANNOT.
queens: that's right, ladies! sleeping w roderick has its privileges, and you get to hold land in ur own name! obv you don't get to do much ~w that or abt it w/o permissions etc, but you get the revenues from it and that prestige too! also a lot of their households will probs be ppl'd by ppl from their various holdings (aka implied allies) etc!! and they can do more or less as they like, so long as they meet w their council of (male!) advisors before doing anything too big, the heads of which are their respective firstborn sons. alaric, bart, and eoin, and any other extraneous male varmont relations there may be also sit each council, and the respective queen's own male relatives may do as well, (as appointed by the presiding son in question,) all presided over by edmund or arthur, respectively, which is honestly probs another big opportunity for them each to learn abt such things so that's smth! in marian's case, sebastian would also be part of this council. before edmund and arthur were born, arthur or bart or perhaps even roderick, himself, was probs the presiding member.
sebastian: same as ot3: scs, but w less pressure and less opulent potential winnings, bc roderick doesn't mind as much if he doesn't have a holding in every country, etc! he also doesn't have access to affairs ~outside the empire, but may negotiate to his heart's content ~within it as long as he doesn't in any way embarrass roderick ofc!
cassandra: so this one's a lil uhhh weird...she can't do anything to earn anything except by pleasaing/displeasing her father or her mother or full bros doing the same! she also doesn't even get to attend the sessions where her lands etc are dealt with! the deal here is basically that these holdings are effectively her dowry. whoever marries her automatically becomes one of THE most powerful men in the world, becoming archduke and count and lord and everything else w a holding in each of roderick's many domains bc, after guin and roderick's wives, cassandra is the wealthiest and most powerful. (powerless) woman in the world via everything she's got. now, its not nearly as nice as what sebastian's got, bc roderick is here to make sure that his own blood is still more powerful than whoever just ~marries in~ etc, but!!! this is an insane level of wealth and power notwithstanding!!! rn, tho, this one's largely seen to by arthur w sebastian's help, since they both got a lot of holdings of their own to attend to. (also arthur defff checks in w his mom abt what she wants done here but that's just out of love/respect and isn't official bc marian is, ofc, a woman alksdjfkljdsf ironically tho i doubt it occurs to him much to check in w cassandra re: what ~she might want even tho these are literally ~her holdings lakjsdfkljsdf)
the church: yeah his one god getting a temple in every single land! and its gonna be bigg and granddd and flashyyyy, and this guy don't have to earn it! its not on the ~choicest pc of land but its still rad af and lotsa ppl would kill for it but they won't get the chance! the god gets his piece no matter what <3 i would guess that royce is running these, largely, but this lowkey falls under the jurisdiction of the entire privy council to deal w should anything come up and roderick is actively involved w designing each temple etc too
so the immediate imperial family now taken care of, roderick starts to think of satellite family. their tiers are still extravagant, but all ~the best has already been divvied up in the above tiers! now, best can mean amany things, and it incorporates both wealth/power AND strategic significance. so yeah! these guys are less trusted and can't rebel as easily, is basically the thought here!
bartholomew: once roderick's immediate family is all taken care, the very next guy roderick's thinking of is his uncle! he loves this guy, and trusts him as much as he trusts anyone, and before there were kids and multiple wives, bart got WAY choicer pieces!!!! so in the early conquests he realllly made out, still!!! he will still be more wealthy/powerful, id imagine, than cassandra's husband, id wager, but he's now much lower on the pecking order than he used to be, as each successive wife and child pops him into a lower bracket than he was, early on. bartholomew, like everyone else, has to earn these but it seems like he's extremely competent so ive no doubt that happens!
eoin/any other extraneous male varmonts: he's only a nephew, sure, but this dude's still a varmont! his ~sons will be varmonts! and that means smth!! so eoin, on his own, probs less wealthy than cassandra's future hubby, since he wasn't alive and accumulating wealth ~that long before roderick started having kids etc, but once he inherits from his dad and unites everything they both have, well, that varmont name still looking pr great!
brothers-in-laws: w all roderick's blood relatives taken care of, its time to start looking in on those in-laws! they def gotta earn this stuff, and a lot of this will depend on politics re: the related queen/heir etc bc if roderick's mad at amira, well, tristan's (look i brought it around to him again in his own post! ;D but...just as an example bahahah) not being put in a position to earn another holding! ~marian's brother is! and so forth lakjdsfalkjsdf this will ultimately also encompass families who intermarry w roderick's kids, etc. (bc in roderick's mind this is def happening someday! too bad only roderick stands in the way... ;D alkjsdflkjdsf) fathers of wives get better pieces than her brothers, older brothers get better pieces than younger ones, etc. cassandra's husband's family would get lesser pieces than the families of the queens, or of the princes' wives, since his social standing would be lesser. guin's hsuabdn's family would get more than sebastian's and it'd be a whole thing abt whether he gets more than arthur or edmund's bride's families but probs he would?
council members: here's where your alistair greys and your alexander royces come in! they too have to earn it -- in war, yes, but largely w good politicking! roderick likes that thing you did? you get a holding! you get a holding! you displeased him? no holding for you! etc
other loyal lords: earned by extraordinary deeds and pleasing roderick! roderick keeps lands to himself in this strata and a lesser one so he can hand them out as rewards to those who earn them.
anyone else: roderick gets the significance of rewarding extraordinary effort! so he ~will raise you from nothing into a lord (w a lesser holding ngl but still!), if you're somehow epic enough as an ally to him/he happens to notice you for whatever eason and is randomly feeling generous/wanting to make the point of his generosity felt to his underlings! this category of man, who owes everything to roderick, he knows will fight the hardest and prove the most loyal. he exploits that