Aurelian Solemont

ok so on disco and in comments, we've talked a bit abt the house of the sun ~estate being located out in the countryside, and being somewhat inspired by like the rhine and moesel river regions of germany, but also w some ancient greek influences re helios and the palace of the sun (also like blenheim palace, is the house sun seat the only other place in the ovn known as a palace? is it the palace of the sun? idk alsdkjfkjlsdf), and is covered in vineyards and rose gardens

anyway, i wanted to add a lil detail re that! so [ here's some quotes abt helios' palace, throne, the famed gates of the sun, etc, from ancient greek and roman writers ]:

Ovid, Metamorphoses 2. 1 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) : "Phaethon through his own Aethiopes (Ethiopians) and the lands of India beneath their burning skies, quickly reached his father's rising place. The palace of Sol (the Sun) [Helios] rose high aloft on soaring columns, bright with flashing gold and flaming bronze; the pediments were clothed with sheen of ivory; the double doors dazzled with silver--and the artistry was nobler still. For Mulciber [Hephaistos] had engraved the world's great orb, the seas that ring the world, the sky that hangs above; and in the waves the Sea-gods (Di Caerulei) dwelt, Aegeon, his huge arms entwined around the backs of giant whales, ambiguous Proteus, Triton with his horn; and Doris and her daughters [the Nereides] might be seen, and some were swimming, some on fishes rode, or sat on rocks to dry their sea-green hair. Nor were their looks the same, nor yet diverse, but like as sisters should be. On the land people and cities, woods and beasts were graven, Flumina (Rivers) and Nymphae (Nymphs) and Rural Deities (Numina Ruris), and, set above them, the bright signs of heaven [the Zodiac], in glory shining, six upon each door. Then the son of Clymene [Phaethon], climbing the steep ascent, entered his father's palace, fatherhood uncertain still, and made his way direct into the presence and there stood afar, unable to approached the dazzling light."

so kinda obsessed w these gates don't they sound hella ovn-ian??? columns of gold and bronze, topped w ivory like??? lskjdfajskldf ok!! then you get to huge double doors depicting like all of time and the entire world and noted for its artistry???? and only THEN do you get to the huge-ass stairs which lead up to the palace itself like versailles WISHES lkajsflkjsdfjksdf

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 12. 1 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) : "The twelve circling Horai (Hours), daughters of Khronos (Chronos, Time), tripling round the fiery throne of the untiring Charioteer in a ring, servants of Helios (the Sun) that attend on his shining car."

so this is talking abt the throne and, if you look at hardwick hall, itself never a royal residence for example, you'll see that a lot of the greatest homes in ye olden days boasted thrones and presence chambers from which the lord (or in hardwick hall's case, lady) would hold court amongst their own vassals and lesser lords, and dispence their justice in the name of the ruler etc and i feel like this might be one of those kinds of places?

ok so keep in mind this fiery throne and now compare that toovid's description:

Ovid, Metamorphoses 2. 20 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) : "Phaethon entered his father's palace . . . and made his way direct into the presence and there stood afar, unable to approached the dazzling light. Enrobed in purple vestments Phoebus [Sol-Helios the Day] sat, high on a throne of gleaming emeralds. Attending him on either side stood Dies (Day) [Hemera] and Mensis (Month) and Annus (Year) and Saecula (Century), and Horae (Hours) disposed at equal intervals between. Young Ver (Spring) was there, with coronet of flowers, and naked Aestas (Summer), garlanded with grain; Autumnus (Autumn) was there with trampled vintage stained, and icy Hiems (Winter), rime upon his locks. Enthroned amidst, Sol [Helios] who sees all things."

so i was thinking!! while, as i said, i can def see this fam rocking their own attendants and court and such, im thought 1) what if the fiery and emerald thrones were combined? its all gleaming emerald, ringed by a backdrop of gold, formed into gilded flames, mimicking the rays of the sun. 2) while i imagine there ~are some ~very significant attandants and such present at court, what if we take the description of the times and the seasons in attendance not as literal (as Ovid intended) but as the description of a breathtaking mural depicting all those things behind the gold-and-emerald throne

it also means that, when you happen to invite the kingemperor to stay, he isn't necessarily in a rush to leave (this can be both good and bad!) given he's got a magnificent hall from which to rule, himself, while he's there, but also when ur dealing w an ego like roderick's you'll have to rtread lightly lest he start to feel ~threatened alkdsjfkljdsf but simultaneously ~also suits a place that's secretly been calling the shots in the ovn for quite some time if our hc proves true...orrrrr, since we've said that stained glass is a huge thing in the lands of the sun, maybe its not a mural, but rather a stained glass window? idk lakjdsflkjsdf

phabblebabbles Sep 14, 2025 KATE! I’m obsessed!!! I love the idea of this throne room and imagining a giant stained glass window behind the ‘throne’ seems SO house of the sun to me! quillington Sep 15, 2025 EEP! Rigggght!!! It felt over the top in a particularly ovn-Ian way to me and like the colors abd brightness and stained glass felt ~right abd like it might even weirdly vibe pr well w the German medieval aesthetic too I thought! phabblebabbles Sep 15, 2025 @quillington I agree!!! Also would it be kinda cool if it’s just a LITTLE bit different than the other castles in OVN? (Meaning if we wanted it to have a little bit of a Greek vibe ig?) bc I sort of envisioned it’s NOT like any other place so you do feel transported when visiting??? quillington Sep 15, 2025 @phabblebabbles Yessssssssss I love That and I agree!!!!!! A stand alone and I do think that v much fits a solar house too — smth bright and glorious that stands alone phabblebabbles Sep 15, 2025 @quillington Agreed!!! Kinda had as my HC that the house of sun was maybe more impressive in some ways than the Varmont OVN castle? Maybe not in size but just in the building itself? … which no one mentions, of course 😜

so kate the great said smth v wise: "Random thought from the pointe shoe room today: does the seat of house solemont need a fancy name?" and obv the resounding response was HELL YES!!!!! so, after volunteering Sunnepointe in honor of the location in which this brilliance was conceived (and ofc the heraldic spelling of sun -- sunne), i said id look into various places belonging to solar deities and report back w ideas!!

we also thought that, kind of like blenheim palace (and esp bc the solemonts used to be kings!) it might be like the one place in the ovn known as 'palace' that isn't a residence of the varmonts -- also we'd already decided there was effectively a throne (its literally a throne even if it isn't called that ;D) there from which aurelian presides over the county so like...it all fits! ;D

heliopolis/city of the sun -- so idk if this would be the actual ~seat's name or if maybe its just the name of the biggest city in the solemont's county (which i imagine as being far -- tho within a reasonable day's ride id venture? -- from their glorious country estate personally -- can't expect them to associate w the riffraff on a daily basis!)

aiaia/aeaea/aia -- one of the many isles belonging to helios, one of the greek solar deities, also circe's (helios' daughter's) place

thrinacia/thrinakia/thrinakie/erytheia/the red island -- another island of helios, where his sacred immortal cattle and sheep grazed and of which there were always exact fifty of each bc...why the hell not (do the solemont lands boast brown cows w extraordinary 'golden' coats?)

gates of the sun -- in the extreme east of the world, the glorious ivory, gold, and bejeweled gates through which the sun enteredthe waking world

palace of the sun -- helios' house seems to be literally just be called the palace of the sun, im struggling to find anything more

delos -- birthplace of apollo (and his twin artemis) -- he actually lived on yknow mount olympus but that feels a touch on the nose...

delphi -- apollo's most major sanctuary where he also slew the delphian dragon bc...ofc he did

asgard -- a ~bit on the nose but this is where sol/sunna, norse goddess of the sun, lived when she wasn't roving the skies. obv idk that we wanna name a place asgard but solgard/asunna could both prove lil nods or smth

so other items

white horses (bc they towed the chariot of the sun -- also true of the norse sun goddess), roosters (bc they proclaimed his rising), and wolves (?????? interestingly the norse sun goddess is chased by a giant white wolf across the skies and doomed to be devoured by him at ragnarok) were sacred to helios so i feel like they could be a thing in solemont

heliotropes, black poplars, and frankincense were all sacred to helios; bay laurel, hyacinth, cypress, larkspur/delphinium, iris to apollo; white and blue lotus, jasmine, marigold, hibiscus, and a number of other plants im not including here bc they wouldn't grow in the same climates as the others, to amun-ra; and sunflowers, citrus, and apples to sunna, so i feel like solemont should be teaming w them as well as the traditional roses and grape vines we've already established!

amun-ra would journey through the sky on a barque in the morning and then again through the underworld at night, so i feel like wide, rambling rivers that reflect the sky should def be a big thing and maybe ragattas and boating, in general, a bit deal in solemont? also he just legit lived in the sky like that ~was his palace so like???? no residence name for him -- this is actually a pr common theme for sun gods that they are constantly journeying and don't really have a home etc

the sun, light, fire, gold, sunflowers, summer, "green growing things," horses, chariots, and solstices were all sacred to sunna/sol and sun-colored foods, such as honey, were often eaten on solstices in her honor

so this wasn't super helpful actually, bc it turns out most sun gods just kinda live in the sky (like...made sense once i thought abt it but...can't say id thought abt it before like that lksdjfksjdf) but yeah! here have a thing!

also just to throw together some smashed together ideas inspired by the above etc in no particular order:

sunnepointe palace

solgard palace

asunna palace

aelphi palace

thrinaeae palace

heliaia palace

delacia palace

palace of the sun

emerald palace

ivory palace

palace of fire

whiteflame/whytflame palace

after clouds, sunshine/the sun rises after clouds

after the flood, the sun

the light is my path

thy light is my path

under the auspices of the sun/guided by the sun

the light does not perish

the god is my sun

after darkness, light

truth out of darkness

safe in the splendor (of the sun)

sunlight, my unbroken hope

the sun is my sword

i bear the sun

light in darkness

virtue loves the light

i despise earthly things and contemplate the sun

the suns is my camp, the god is my light and guard

not the cross (or whatever symbol we want here) but its light

the light/sun is my way

the light/sun is my life

hope is sunlight

light and safety

the light of life

the sun after dark

the sun is my light

(the) light/sun, (the) light/sun, (the) light/sun!

mine is the sun

i am the sun

i belong to the light/sun

the light of truth/virtue/hope

light in (the) darkness

midnight’s sun

my crown/glory/splendour is the sun(light)

keeper of the sun

i remember the light

the sun of memory

(as i change,) i remain

long does the sun remember

always the same

i always remember

our light is the truth/the truth is our light/my light is the truth/the light is my truth

how bright my memory

the one who sees

all-seeing

i could go on but yeah!! Also for most of these sun it light are pr interchangeable, also any that are singular (i) are also plural (we) depending on context

also doesn't ~have to be sun-related...anyway did anyone have any ideas? do we like any of these? id love to hear thoughts! lkasdjflksjdf

so like i mentioned, i spent my sunday contemplating what MARIAN might be cooking up in terms of plots so... some ramblings. LORCAN So legit this all started with the thought of @forgottenamira 's creepy witch daughter being betrothed to Peadar, haha! I DO think that as soon as Amira has a daughter, Marian is going to lock in on that possibility! (cue her being annoyed her own siblings haven't done enough for the cause and have an age appropriate daughter who could already be betrothed to Peadar!) Obvs the Solemonts want to have any many Astairan holdings on #Team @forgottenarthur as possible, but I do think given that Lorcan is a "royal" house to Roderick, that's a very important in the battle between these two factions-- plus Marian knows Roderick keeps suggesting @forgottenrian as potential husband for @forgottencassandra... but he wouldn't be a very good option if he found himself without a castle, huh!? Peadar is obvs the biggest issue here given that HE is the heir of Lorcan so... idk is she angling for one of her brothers to maybe marry the widow @forgottenaine since none of them have bothered to have and children of their own lately? there's also laoise lorcan but... marrying her probably isn't getting them the lands of lorcan, is it? MALCONAIRE There is SO MUCH going down at Malconaire rn like... where to even begin?! So we know the fallout from the whole ~malconaire/prince pregnancy rumors is happening so i do think marian's first step in this whole thing is going to be keeping one eye on if any of those ladies start to look like they're actually pregnant! THEN after time has passed and she sees that, clearly, they are NOT... some sort of semi public moment has to happen maybe? sometimes that sort of proves all this is behind them and the rumors about her sons and these women were ridiculous! additionally that happens so marian can publicly continue to be the kind, forgiving, wonderful wife of roderick! but also... whatever she does is NOT enough for anyone to consider that marian might want to associate with the malconaires because.... thanks but no thanks! BUT, regardless, someone still needs to claim malconaire and if Amira might have managed to get Lorcan in the Calainon's hands, then they NEED to have Malconaire! If Team Edmund had Hanthom, Lorcan, AND Malconaire… should they just give up? (Aurelian: NEVER!!)

i kinda wonder if there isnt a world where marian envisions sort of the reserve happening of @forgottencassimir 's crazy idea that HE could possibly take lorcan, haha— if one of her brothers marries aine or smth, could they lay claim to malconaire in some weird twist since peadar is a malconaire cousin? (this is DEF a stretch abd tbh idk if marian knows, or cares, that much about astairan families to even consider this!)

i think now marian is still considering if there's a way @forgottenalbrecht could end up with malconaire— i think she envisons this world where albrecht might roll in with some of that solemont cash and help to revitalize malconaire and, thereby, earn the favor of the people who live there AND hopefully, one of the malconaire daughters, too, just to FULLY legitimize albrecht coming in to rule at malconaire! it feels like maybe its not a secret that cassimir isn't too popular at malconaire? but i feel like its maybe pretty clear that eithne (who marian might have eased up on a bit once she figures out its aria, not eithne, giving arthur random handkerchiefs?) IS very important to malconaire and respected by the people there so if albrecht were to win over her/the rest of the malconaire family (NOT VALENTINA THOUGH!!!) … does that put them one step closer to maybe controlling Malconaire?! STAFFORD so i know i've mentioned this before so i'm not going to go TOO far into it now, but now that amira has threatened @forgotteneilionora into finally agreeing to marry roderick, marian is NOT gonna be pleased! i feel like poppa solemont probably has plans on what to do abt eilia BUT i do think marian's got her own ideas... IF Marian is stuck with another sister-wife, she is going to do EVERYTHING she can to create an alliance between herself and Eilia! While Eilia is NOT an OG OVN-er... she does have OVN in her family line, so... better than Amira, right?! Marian does plan to go to Eilia and try to offer some sort of... alliance? with her that would involve marrying "stopping" aria from having to go to a convent (spoiler alert: she doesn't do that OR she does keep aria out of a convent but aria still ends up in the OVN at house solemont or smth because.... well, i'll get to that in a moment! XD) ultimately, marian wants eilia to basically say 'i'm not going to fight arthur for the empire!' or, ideally, she wants Eilia to agree to back Arthur's claim completely! (little does marian know arthur has done nothing but make eilia mad lately so….) which I don't think Marian would anticipate might completely fall apart if she pulls a bait & switch re: aria… but while Eilia IS a problem, i do think atp Aria is maybe the biggest issue in her mind? so whatever it ultimately ends up being, since i know there was a whole OTHER post re: what happened at the tournament that Marian might've seen between Arthur & Aria!… we know marian is picking up on smth! and she's got her eye on Arthur and Aria now… and we know they might not be acting quite as chill abt this as the two of them imagine they are?! (and like… does it get worse after the tournament since, even tho its not to each other, they both have acknowledged there ARE feelings!) but yeah, there are alarms ringing in Marian's brain about aria and… there might be a slightly more vindictive streak behind Marian when it comes to Aria tbh?

like how DARE she try and entrap marian's precious boy? even if she WASN'T a bastard, aria's the second daughter and should be smart enough to know she's never going to be good enough for an imperial prince, let alone the next Emperor! that girl should have just kept her head down and been glad Roderick didn't execute her and Eilia when he had the chance! it just kinda feels like marian's inherent mother-spidey sense can maybe detect that this thing with Aria is DIFFERENT and that is ringing all the alarm bells and also... tbh she's a threat marian never considered facing. arthur was supposed to have his wife and family and, ofc, love and care for them bc that's what husbands/fathers do but... its an entirely different thing in marian's mind if Arthur and his wife are connected the way he and Aria are!! is it a weakness-- is Aria actually making arthur weaker?! again-- how dare she! if she really cared abt him, Aria would actually just leave on her own-- so, really, marian sending her away is doing everyone a favor! (... Marian logic is def breaking down now!)

and while i think Marian would much rather just drop Aria off at the nearest OVN convent forever, tbh she might be worried that's not enough? lmarian's watching her husband now trying to marry his fourth wife while 2/3 of the others are still alive and married to him!! is something as trivial as Aria having taken her vows and becoming a nun going to stop arthur when he's Emperor from marching over to the OVN, declaring she's no longer a nun or w/e, and then marrying her all the same? ... like there needs to be ANOTHER layer here, in Marian's mind, to make Aria fully unattainable for Arthur. (Amira: have you considered.... poison?! -facepalm- ) and while yeah... aria just having a "tragic" accident WOULD be easier, Marian's not going to be the one to orchestrate that sort of thing (and does that not just do for Arthur what Elaine's death did for Roderick--- would it turn her into some sort of deified person in Arthur's mind? I mean... Marian's past experiences say that is entirely possible!) ALL of that rambling to say, I do think Marian will push for ~something to happen and Aria accidentally ends up married instead of at a convent! Stranger things have happened, right? And now she's off the market and there is no precedent for Emperors to declare marriages null and void so they can marry the wife, is there? so that problem is solved!

LORCAN

ok yesssss so i still gotta find it (i swearrrr i wrote it down somewhere but as yet no luck digging it up le sighhhhh) but i ~think his plans for lorcan were along the same lines! like,that if the surviving lorcans could be got rid of (either by declaration of illegitimacy a la the stafford girls, or by more permanent means...), bc he acknowledges that peadar and padraic have superior claims as it currently stands! then the malconaire girls are it, even by roderick's standards, since that blood at least courses through their veins! ofc, by ovn standards, it'd probs belong to their husband since women can't own stuff etc but...that actually works even ~better for aurelian! marry one of his sons or a grandson to a malconaire, declare the marriage of padraic's parents void (or else an 'illness' takes lorcan by storm and oh noooooo all the lorcans died oops) and reap the rewards! ofc as it currently stands, he'd just be handing ~cassimir lorcan that way which is NOT the goal, so he'd have to get rid of cassimir and/or eithne to achieve this end and, as it happens, @forgottenbrigit and sonya are the only two untainted by scandal and thus would make the best wives for his family's rep etc so!!

iirc, and this is off the top of my head, so may be waaaaaay off base here, but sonya is older than eithne? and she was def also adopted by bran, so an argument could be made that she's (or, yknow, her husband in right of her) the rightful inheritor of malconaire, were smth unfortunate to befall her brother...alternately, were some misfortune to befall eithne, then brigit (or her husband) could be said to be the heiress of malconaire, sooooo...i have a feeling just bc #valentina that @forgottensonya would be the one who'd be more easily persuaded to be interested in wedding a solemont (even tho she's aiming higher so maybe not?) but in terms of getting the ppl on side, it'd probs be brigit bc nothing good has happened to malconaire since valentina took over and her kids unfortunately probs have her taint in the eyes of the ppl whether deservedly or not alas. tbh tho aurelian wouldn't think of the ~peasants and that they might make things...difficult... @forgottenalbrecht would tho, and if he's to be the next dude of solemont blood tossed at those poor girls (rosie: sebastian is more than enough no more need apply that slot is filled thank you etc). but also if smth were to befall cassimir, then eithne becomes a possibility by then, tainted by scandal or no...even aurelian has to acknowledge that eithne's is the best claim and the others arrrrre stretching matters a bit soooooo aksdjfkljsdf

AINE LORCAN

ANYWAYYYY re marrying aine, i do think aurelian would feel that could be a great fit for @forgottenlucian and his burgeoning shipping empire! a calleary of any variety, really, would be great there! tbh, i don't think he knows them well enough to much care which one, so lucian can have his pick as far as aurelian's concerned, but yeah he does NOT want godfrey wholly cornering that market, come the varmont civil war!! also he doesn't want his kid failing bc that'd be embarrassing to house solemont (also shhhhh he ~may care just a ~little bit~ what becomes of his son as a human being but SHHHH you did NOT hear that from me!!!!! ;DDDD)

i do think, if he ever bothered to get to know them, he'd feel aine is the most suitable personality-wise, plus the link to lorcan could potentially be great...if aurelian doesn't set that on fire by declaring them bastards or smth alsdkjfkjsdf but yeah there's also the bar's wife was a calleary of it all so there're royal ovn ties there kind of...if you squint laksdjfkljdsf but yeah @forgottenfinnegan is also of interest bc i ~do think that aurelian has clocked that uhhhhh cormac aint having no kids and so that leaves all the inheriting to finn and so a marriage to one of his daughters or granddaughters might be better than to one of his sons, there (once again the malconaires in the middle of smth smdh) aurelian said aoife/finn notp! lakdjsfkljdsf tho lbr if its finn or sebastian for her, he ~will throw finn under that bus sebastian's gotta make bigger waves w ~his marriage alkdsjflksjdf

MALCONAIRE

so marian publicly exonerating the malconaires in some way ~would go a long way to making aurelian feel it was acceptable for one of his family to wed there! esp if his plan of sending them away does fail (which i suspect it will) so it ~will become obv they aint preggars! so in that eventuality, as i alluded above, i do think he's eying up eithne, brigit, and sonya as potential brides for his boys, then, w that quietly settled, he can move on lorcan, but yeah i do see claiming malconaire via one of the malconaire girls as being step 1 plus, it being so strategic, i think he does see it as the bigger fish to fry even then lorcan, despite its status as a royal seat in roderick's eyes, bc he's thinking abt how things will unfold after roderick kicks the bucket w this

so yeah i think, to this end, he'd actually let amira betroth her witch daughter to peadar and smile through it, knowing he was gonna cut her off at the knees by getting rid of peadar. obv amira isn't having it, either, so taht's a whole ~other thing but yeah lajdsfklsdf aurelian to roderick when amira objects: 'this is why the god created man -- that he might shephard feeble woman when she is too hysterical to realize the good that will come to her from this' roderick nodding sagely...smdh

i think aurelian would be completely cool w the malconaire sacrificial lamb being albrecht! he might ~prefer for it to be ulric, as the second son, but if the queen feels strongly abt it being albrecht, i don't think aurelian would care too much frankly so long as it goes to ~one of his sons...and one who can ~hold it when the varmont civil war breaks out, and i think he feels that albrecht has a fairly good head on his shoulders...overly sentimental which pains daddy dearest but...not ~too foolish, by and large

i feel like part of what aurelian might do to help unseat cassimir ~is foment rebellion from within malconaire bc he has probs? heard from marian that cassimir has noT made a good impression w the emperor and then if roderick perceives he can't even hold his own seat...well...he's not gonna want him in charge since the reason he's in charge ~is to create a quiet, happy populace etc. ofc, roderick'll be STRONGLY tempted to appoint edmund lord of malconaire, so aurelian simply needs to help him resist that urge by ensuring edmund has ~another seat in astaira already, but one that...doesn't really count for much

ORMOND

the fens are burnt to a crisp and leaderless, and ormond is vulnerable as its lord seems to be smth of a liability and he does NOT like the way his granddaughter seems swayed, so getting ormond shoved out a window or some such thing might prove verrrrry beneficial on a lot of levels, plus it might make roderick feel that the matter of edmund holding malconaire has been settled as ormond is (partially) a vassallage there...and if cassimir is still atp holding malconaire and now part of it is leaderless, a suggestion that edmund is the ~obv choice to go in and claim the piece that's breaking off might feel verrrrry natural indeed...and, sure, it's ~not ideal having edmund right there but if they've had years to account for that, well, he's sure they can come up w fortifications and such to make things difficult for him when the time comes!

so yeah i think he'll actually be pushing for edmund to get ormond alksdjflkjdsf amira would be on board (unless she learns aurelian was the one who suggested it!) w that bc she wants him in malconaire and she'd be like 'once he's in ormond its only a short shift to seize malconaire as well' if she leans tho that aurelian's behind it (and he'll take care to disguise hat he is sooo she might never know!), tho, her sus nature will kick in and she'll be like 'if he wants edmund to have that this is probs a trap'

ironically, valentina out here being the person most excited abt helping the solemonts marry into her fam, one way or another...

STAFFORD

so i feel like aurelian used to ship arthur/eilia but since her declaration of bastardy, he doesn't believe her rep could ~possibly recover from that (even though he's probs clocked that the charges were trumped up...he believes firmly that what the truth may be always pales in comparison to what ppl ~believe it to be! and he thinks the commons are too stupid and uneducated to possibly work out what he, as a certified genius, has done...) so yeah i do think as a result he probs now ~may think that rian and cassandra have a certain smth aljsdfkljsdf rian has a claim in his own right to astaira and certainly to the castle, and that'll def be hotly contested when roderick dies and kicks off the war so if cassandra's popping out rian's regal heirs, well, so much the better! and if not cassandra, then one of his daughters or ~other granddaughters but he suspects roderick'll make it impossible for him to marry anyone who isn't cassandra or guin sooooo slkdjfkdsljf

in terms of eilia, aurelian feels roderick has already more or less neutralized her -- the thing he doesn't get is why roderick's still marrying her! i mean, he knows roderick well enough by now, i imagine, to have surmised he'll try to re-instate her but once you make the bastard claim legal, well, now ur just making ~urself look foolish, in aurelian's view tbqh

notwithstanding, i think he does believe getting as many staffords to the solemont side as possible is a great idea and so he'll be fully on board for the aria in the solemont convent scheme -- and these daughters ~still make great wives for his sons (tho not his grandsons! they need princesses w unblemished honor! unlike the stafford girls now courtesy roderick...) once they're reinstated bc that's still royal blood in those veins and surely the rumors won't have spread to the only place that really matters...the ovn <3 but yeah i think atp, esp once they get their hands on aria, he'll be feeling its time for eilia to have a tragic accident alsdjfkldsfj

i ~do think aurelian, being the sus guy he is, will immediately just ~assume once he gets wind of any arthur/aria connection, that she's just tryna bag a future emperor and not that there's anything ~more there (but frankly even if he knew there was...he would not care laskdjfkljsdf #granddadgoals dslfkjasdkjf) so he'll feel itll be super easy to get her to transfer her affection to one of aurelian's sons (or grandsons!) once its made clear to her that its never gonna happen w arthur...idk if marian has a chosen brother picked out for aria? but i think for aurelian it would ideally be one of the older ones, tho i think he still dreams of aurelius/guinevere, but if that can't be, why not aurelius/aria!! if all record of her supposed bastardy can be expunged...if not, she'll have to settle for someone less heir shaped...which might be better on the whole, after all, so there's never a weird choice between solemont or astaira, yknow? guin really was the whole package bc itd be the same country...so yeah if marian is set on albrecht for malconaire (and that's fine w aurelian), then he'd probs be looking at caspain or emeric for aria. idr if his wife is still alive, but if not, ulric, himself, is another option, having already produced the heir and the spare for solemont, he can now go and claim astaira for himself and any ~later kids w aria! lakjdslfjd

tbh...marian is NOT wrong that aria being forcibly promised to a religious order she does not believe in would NOT stop arthur as emperor declaring that nonsense null and void and marrying her, if that's smth aria wanted, too lakjdsflksdfj tbh i don't think aurelian much cares who arthur's second and third wives may be (which is ironic given aurelian's plans for the son of a third wife!!) etc but it ~does serve his purposes for her to marry one of ~his heirs and for arthur to marry elsewhere soooooo he's on board!!!!! and yeah the convent to him is just a pretext for solemont, itself, taking a VERY valuable hostage in aria, essentially, in ~his mind laksjdlfjdjkf

CASSSANDRA

sooooooo, he used to ship eoin/sebastian but since guin nabbed ~that prize, he's now either -- and this depends on @thelongforgottenrealm 's interpretation of like -- are uncle/niece weddings approved in the ovn bc if so he's like can't think of a better man for cassandra than alaric *sob* buuuuuut if that's too far even for the varmonts, then either a foreign prince who can better support arthur's claim, or a well-placed ovn-ian who can also help back that up like aleksander, alistair (aurelian: since guin stole cassandra's man, it only makes sense cass steal hers back! cassandra probs: wait WHAT ;DDDDD), or even cormac (i can't believe that cormac might've been lowkey correct that ~anyone would pair them off...omggggg aurelian what're you DOING man) or rian or cassimir aklsdjfkljsdf obv grandpa just ~gets what cassandra's looking for in a man alkdjflkjsdf ;DDDDD

weeeeeeeirdly, i think for aurelian out of these options either alaric, the foreign prince, rian, or freaking ~cassimir are actually highlights of this list bc he's looking to bag the calleary wealth/ships via lucian (you got this, man! go seduce that woman who def sees herself as married!!!!! lskdjfalskdjf) bc aurelian actually has biggggggg plans for the house of vasilievaaaaaa (tho he could and would just as easily pursue this via @forgottensonya as well!)

now, aurelian is deffffff a dude to keep his options open so he'll ultimately do what works best, etc, BUT i ~do think his ideal would be that house solemont grab their stafford claim via aria (and do away with the three other staffords in...various other ways lkajsdlkjfjsdfj) so cassimir does outrank rian for these purposes, don't worry, marian ;DDDDD (comforting words, ive no doubt! lkajdsfklsf) and he'd prefer to nab the calleary alliance via lucian and one of the calleary ladies (ideally aine) so yeah!!

MALCONAIRE, LORCAN, ASTAIRA, AND ALYTAR

ok so while a lot of ppl are looking at eithne saying she's the key to malconaire and lorcan (and they're not wrong!), aurelian feels that that's just the start! aurelian wants @forgottencassimir as an ally (but also has plans to betray him if he doesn't prove quite as ~cooperative as he's hoping...ill get into that in a bit!)

so aurelian is actually like the ~one person besides cassimir whose actually backing the cassimir/eithne marriage. he then means to help cassimir pursue his claim (in the right of his wife) to lorcan. w that achieved, he's gonna push him to subtly (and this bit must be executed w ~extreme caution) remind everyone that my man roderick murdering his entire maternal line effectively promoted cassimir to the status of prince, and he'll want him to start basically reinvigorating the vasilieva claim, not that he wants him to rule -- he does NOT! -- but ~basically what he's looking for is a bit of a power grab

it hasn't escaped his attention that edmund is starting the varmont civil war w one of the conquered countries (kolchis) unabiguously tied to him, so aurelian wants that for arthur. if aurelian can get cassimir beloved by alytar, or whatever, then that's one more power on side, etc. it ~also matters to him that cassimir -- he will say when the war begins -- is the rightful lord of the riverbend, both as king and lord, and he wants the ppl there to remember that and seek to overthrow edmund so that he'll be fighting both an onslaught from within and without to hold that strategic locale, which will hopefully help arthur sweep astaira for ~himself, too, esp w malconaire allied to ~him and kil-kennar already held by him.

good ways to execute this, he believes, are marriage pacts, either w sonya and/or brigit, esp if eithne has a tragic accident and/or w eithne if ~cassimir's the one to have that accident...

ok, so i mentioned before that he ~does have a backup plan in case cassimir isn't feeling esp loyal, esp bc there ~is well documented tension between cassimir and arthur, and that's the following:

so he does consider cassimir fairly indispensible until such time as all his claims are firmly established, since he's the only male, but once those're firmly established, those claims will be inherited by sonya or a child of cassimir's if that's transpired by then. in the case of a child, for the babe's best upkeep ofc <3 he'd sooooo generously offer to ward the young heir at solemont and raise them himself, probs even if cassimir's alive and well and loyal, and probs arrange a betrothal to one of his granddaughters (the age difference isn't weird whatre you talking abt lakjsdfkljs). wow, such generosity! dklajfkljdsf smdh but ANYWAY!! i was talking abt betrayal laksjdfkljdsf

ok so cassimir def has a target on his back, as things already stand! and obv that's wo the whole malconaire witches thing since obv aurelian doesn't know thats coming (but ~i do MUAHAHAHA ;DDDD) between pissing off roderick w the pot hole situation and then the whole malconaire babygate situation, and finally being like YO IM THE PRINCE YOU FORGOT TO KILL RODERICK THANKS FOR MAKING ME FIRST IN LINE TO THE THRONE THAT FORGOT ABT ME things will get a bit dicey for him lkajldkjfdjksf so it'd really only take a lil push, and there're any of a number that could work! so like i think the v thing that would make him a valuable ally is ~also the v thing that, w a little push, might give cassimir enough rope to hang himself and i defffff think aurelian is aware of this and fully intends to weaponize any part of it that best suits him. i def think he also has noted cassimir's arrogance (takes one to know one ig laksdjflkjsdf) and so he really doesn't think he'll have to ~do much beyond manipulating cassimir into pulling a THE RING IS MINE and rebelling in some form or other, either just by getting too big for his britches or fully by declaring himself king of alytar. now, what he doesn't want is another war ravaging alytar, bc he wants them to save their strength for fighting for arthur, so he'd def try to get him to do that ~in astaira and then seize him and turn him over to roderick, himself, and thus hopefully avoid ~too much recrimination against his party for his ally having gone rogue

now, if cassimir proves a reliable and obedient ally, then he will def give him what he considers to be his best council and want to keep him around, longterm! but yeah if not, then either cassimir's kid or sonya will be the next chip he'll be pushing around that board alsdkjfklsdf

alsoooooo if sonya does manage to entice roderick, and they get hitched, aurelian will be back on that cassimir train soooooo fast but then the competition will be a loT steeper bc then roderick will be the one to be like 'you know what i just remembered my new bride is a princess' and such soooo lasjdfkjdsf mess alskdjfkljsdf

arthur, unaware of all these machinations and just seeing grandpa buddy up w cassimir for no reason: i hate all of this

GUINEVERE, AINE, & LORCAN

aurelian would like to smash guin's engagement for a ~lot of reasons, but not least of all his ongoing wish taht she'll wed his own heir, severin, and give him sons who now have an imperial claim of their own as well as being potential counts of solemont etc (sorry aurelius grandpa ~is looking to displace ur heir presumptive role laksjdkfljs)

in a world where this works out, i deffffff think aurelian is then like YO OUR GIRL NEEDS A HOLDING IN ASTAIRA AS A WEDDING PRESENT and i ~do think he sees that as a good backup for lorcan, if the cassimir thing doesn't take off, since in roderick's eyes, that's a royal residence (nm that in astaira technically every great house is...), plus its close by the stafford palace and everyone knows guin is roderick's fav kid soooooooo i def think he'd be pushing for that to be her wedding gift, esp after he gets rid of the stafford boys (which lbr is smth he lowkey wants ~anyway, if they decide to continue the beef aurelian had w their dad...)

should ~this not work (and i doubt it will since we already chatted abt ~another land guin would receive), his next ploy would be that one of his sons -- imma say lucian bc that's his preference -- weds aine. then he adopts peadar. oh nooooooooes smth happens to finn and eabha oops, cormac predictably dies wo heirs, so everything he's got goes to lucian in right of his wife, aine, annnnnd lorcan is peadar's which really means, at least until he hits his majority, lorcan is lucian's. lucian brings up peadar as a solemont loyalist and arranges his betrothal to one of his solemont cousins or whatever and so it stays in the family when he ~does come of age, etc. if he can't get aine tho its eabha and then we only gotta get rid of finn, so that's smth!! but it means one of the ~other lorcan land grabs will have to work! lkasjdflkjdsf

so like i mentioned, i spent my sunday contemplating what MARIAN might be cooking up in terms of plots so... some ramblings. LORCAN So legit this all started with the thought of @forgottenamira 's creepy witch daughter being betrothed to Peadar, haha! I DO think that as soon as Amira has a daughter, Marian is going to lock in on that possibility! (cue her being annoyed her own siblings haven't done enough for the cause and have an age appropriate daughter who could already be betrothed to Peadar!) Obvs the Solemonts want to have any many Astairan holdings on #Team @forgottenarthur as possible, but I do think given that Lorcan is a "royal" house to Roderick, that's a very important in the battle between these two factions-- plus Marian knows Roderick keeps suggesting @forgottenrian as potential husband for @forgottencassandra... but he wouldn't be a very good option if he found himself without a castle, huh!? Peadar is obvs the biggest issue here given that HE is the heir of Lorcan so... idk is she angling for one of her brothers to maybe marry the widow @forgottenaine since none of them have bothered to have and children of their own lately? there's also laoise lorcan but... marrying her probably isn't getting them the lands of lorcan, is it? MALCONAIRE There is SO MUCH going down at Malconaire rn like... where to even begin?! So we know the fallout from the whole ~malconaire/prince pregnancy rumors is happening so i do think marian's first step in this whole thing is going to be keeping one eye on if any of those ladies start to look like they're actually pregnant! THEN after time has passed and she sees that, clearly, they are NOT... some sort of semi public moment has to happen maybe? sometimes that sort of proves all this is behind them and the rumors about her sons and these women were ridiculous! additionally that happens so marian can publicly continue to be the kind, forgiving, wonderful wife of roderick! but also... whatever she does is NOT enough for anyone to consider that marian might want to associate with the malconaires because.... thanks but no thanks! BUT, regardless, someone still needs to claim malconaire and if Amira might have managed to get Lorcan in the Calainon's hands, then they NEED to have Malconaire! If Team Edmund had Hanthom, Lorcan, AND Malconaire… should they just give up? (Aurelian: NEVER!!)

i kinda wonder if there isnt a world where marian envisions sort of the reserve happening of @forgottencassimir 's crazy idea that HE could possibly take lorcan, haha— if one of her brothers marries aine or smth, could they lay claim to malconaire in some weird twist since peadar is a malconaire cousin? (this is DEF a stretch abd tbh idk if marian knows, or cares, that much about astairan families to even consider this!)

i think now marian is still considering if there's a way @forgottenalbrecht could end up with malconaire— i think she envisons this world where albrecht might roll in with some of that solemont cash and help to revitalize malconaire and, thereby, earn the favor of the people who live there AND hopefully, one of the malconaire daughters, too, just to FULLY legitimize albrecht coming in to rule at malconaire! it feels like maybe its not a secret that cassimir isn't too popular at malconaire? but i feel like its maybe pretty clear that eithne (who marian might have eased up on a bit once she figures out its aria, not eithne, giving arthur random handkerchiefs?) IS very important to malconaire and respected by the people there so if albrecht were to win over her/the rest of the malconaire family (NOT VALENTINA THOUGH!!!) … does that put them one step closer to maybe controlling Malconaire?! STAFFORD so i know i've mentioned this before so i'm not going to go TOO far into it now, but now that amira has threatened @forgotteneilionora into finally agreeing to marry roderick, marian is NOT gonna be pleased! i feel like poppa solemont probably has plans on what to do abt eilia BUT i do think marian's got her own ideas... IF Marian is stuck with another sister-wife, she is going to do EVERYTHING she can to create an alliance between herself and Eilia! While Eilia is NOT an OG OVN-er... she does have OVN in her family line, so... better than Amira, right?! Marian does plan to go to Eilia and try to offer some sort of... alliance? with her that would involve marrying "stopping" aria from having to go to a convent (spoiler alert: she doesn't do that OR she does keep aria out of a convent but aria still ends up in the OVN at house solemont or smth because.... well, i'll get to that in a moment! XD) ultimately, marian wants eilia to basically say 'i'm not going to fight arthur for the empire!' or, ideally, she wants Eilia to agree to back Arthur's claim completely! (little does marian know arthur has done nothing but make eilia mad lately so….) which I don't think Marian would anticipate might completely fall apart if she pulls a bait & switch re: aria… but while Eilia IS a problem, i do think atp Aria is maybe the biggest issue in her mind? so whatever it ultimately ends up being, since i know there was a whole OTHER post re: what happened at the tournament that Marian might've seen between Arthur & Aria!… we know marian is picking up on smth! and she's got her eye on Arthur and Aria now… and we know they might not be acting quite as chill abt this as the two of them imagine they are?! (and like… does it get worse after the tournament since, even tho its not to each other, they both have acknowledged there ARE feelings!) but yeah, there are alarms ringing in Marian's brain about aria and… there might be a slightly more vindictive streak behind Marian when it comes to Aria tbh?

like how DARE she try and entrap marian's precious boy? even if she WASN'T a bastard, aria's the second daughter and should be smart enough to know she's never going to be good enough for an imperial prince, let alone the next Emperor! that girl should have just kept her head down and been glad Roderick didn't execute her and Eilia when he had the chance! it just kinda feels like marian's inherent mother-spidey sense can maybe detect that this thing with Aria is DIFFERENT and that is ringing all the alarm bells and also... tbh she's a threat marian never considered facing. arthur was supposed to have his wife and family and, ofc, love and care for them bc that's what husbands/fathers do but... its an entirely different thing in marian's mind if Arthur and his wife are connected the way he and Aria are!! is it a weakness-- is Aria actually making arthur weaker?! again-- how dare she! if she really cared abt him, Aria would actually just leave on her own-- so, really, marian sending her away is doing everyone a favor! (... Marian logic is def breaking down now!)

and while i think Marian would much rather just drop Aria off at the nearest OVN convent forever, tbh she might be worried that's not enough? lmarian's watching her husband now trying to marry his fourth wife while 2/3 of the others are still alive and married to him!! is something as trivial as Aria having taken her vows and becoming a nun going to stop arthur when he's Emperor from marching over to the OVN, declaring she's no longer a nun or w/e, and then marrying her all the same? ... like there needs to be ANOTHER layer here, in Marian's mind, to make Aria fully unattainable for Arthur. (Amira: have you considered.... poison?! -facepalm- ) and while yeah... aria just having a "tragic" accident WOULD be easier, Marian's not going to be the one to orchestrate that sort of thing (and does that not just do for Arthur what Elaine's death did for Roderick--- would it turn her into some sort of deified person in Arthur's mind? I mean... Marian's past experiences say that is entirely possible!) ALL of that rambling to say, I do think Marian will push for ~something to happen and Aria accidentally ends up married instead of at a convent! Stranger things have happened, right? And now she's off the market and there is no precedent for Emperors to declare marriages null and void so they can marry the wife, is there? so that problem is solved!

LORCAN

ok yesssss so i still gotta find it (i swearrrr i wrote it down somewhere but as yet no luck digging it up le sighhhhh) but i ~think his plans for lorcan were along the same lines! like,that if the surviving lorcans could be got rid of (either by declaration of illegitimacy a la the stafford girls, or by more permanent means...), bc he acknowledges that peadar and padraic have superior claims as it currently stands! then the malconaire girls are it, even by roderick's standards, since that blood at least courses through their veins! ofc, by ovn standards, it'd probs belong to their husband since women can't own stuff etc but...that actually works even ~better for aurelian! marry one of his sons or a grandson to a malconaire, declare the marriage of padraic's parents void (or else an 'illness' takes lorcan by storm and oh noooooo all the lorcans died oops) and reap the rewards! ofc as it currently stands, he'd just be handing ~cassimir lorcan that way which is NOT the goal, so he'd have to get rid of cassimir and/or eithne to achieve this end and, as it happens, @forgottenbrigit and sonya are the only two untainted by scandal and thus would make the best wives for his family's rep etc so!!

iirc, and this is off the top of my head, so may be waaaaaay off base here, but sonya is older than eithne? and she was def also adopted by bran, so an argument could be made that she's (or, yknow, her husband in right of her) the rightful inheritor of malconaire, were smth unfortunate to befall her brother...alternately, were some misfortune to befall eithne, then brigit (or her husband) could be said to be the heiress of malconaire, sooooo...i have a feeling just bc #valentina that @forgottensonya would be the one who'd be more easily persuaded to be interested in wedding a solemont (even tho she's aiming higher so maybe not?) but in terms of getting the ppl on side, it'd probs be brigit bc nothing good has happened to malconaire since valentina took over and her kids unfortunately probs have her taint in the eyes of the ppl whether deservedly or not alas. tbh tho aurelian wouldn't think of the ~peasants and that they might make things...difficult... @forgottenalbrecht would tho, and if he's to be the next dude of solemont blood tossed at those poor girls (rosie: sebastian is more than enough no more need apply that slot is filled thank you etc). but also if smth were to befall cassimir, then eithne becomes a possibility by then, tainted by scandal or no...even aurelian has to acknowledge that eithne's is the best claim and the others arrrrre stretching matters a bit soooooo aksdjfkljsdf

AINE LORCAN

ANYWAYYYY re marrying aine, i do think aurelian would feel that could be a great fit for @forgottenlucian and his burgeoning shipping empire! a calleary of any variety, really, would be great there! tbh, i don't think he knows them well enough to much care which one, so lucian can have his pick as far as aurelian's concerned, but yeah he does NOT want godfrey wholly cornering that market, come the varmont civil war!! also he doesn't want his kid failing bc that'd be embarrassing to house solemont (also shhhhh he ~may care just a ~little bit~ what becomes of his son as a human being but SHHHH you did NOT hear that from me!!!!! ;DDDD)

i do think, if he ever bothered to get to know them, he'd feel aine is the most suitable personality-wise, plus the link to lorcan could potentially be great...if aurelian doesn't set that on fire by declaring them bastards or smth alsdkjfkjsdf but yeah there's also the bar's wife was a calleary of it all so there're royal ovn ties there kind of...if you squint laksdjfkljdsf but yeah @forgottenfinnegan is also of interest bc i ~do think that aurelian has clocked that uhhhhh cormac aint having no kids and so that leaves all the inheriting to finn and so a marriage to one of his daughters or granddaughters might be better than to one of his sons, there (once again the malconaires in the middle of smth smdh) aurelian said aoife/finn notp! lakdjsfkljdsf tho lbr if its finn or sebastian for her, he ~will throw finn under that bus sebastian's gotta make bigger waves w ~his marriage alkdsjflksjdf

MALCONAIRE

so marian publicly exonerating the malconaires in some way ~would go a long way to making aurelian feel it was acceptable for one of his family to wed there! esp if his plan of sending them away does fail (which i suspect it will) so it ~will become obv they aint preggars! so in that eventuality, as i alluded above, i do think he's eying up eithne, brigit, and sonya as potential brides for his boys, then, w that quietly settled, he can move on lorcan, but yeah i do see claiming malconaire via one of the malconaire girls as being step 1 plus, it being so strategic, i think he does see it as the bigger fish to fry even then lorcan, despite its status as a royal seat in roderick's eyes, bc he's thinking abt how things will unfold after roderick kicks the bucket w this

so yeah i think, to this end, he'd actually let amira betroth her witch daughter to peadar and smile through it, knowing he was gonna cut her off at the knees by getting rid of peadar. obv amira isn't having it, either, so taht's a whole ~other thing but yeah lajdsfklsdf aurelian to roderick when amira objects: 'this is why the god created man -- that he might shephard feeble woman when she is too hysterical to realize the good that will come to her from this' roderick nodding sagely...smdh

i think aurelian would be completely cool w the malconaire sacrificial lamb being albrecht! he might ~prefer for it to be ulric, as the second son, but if the queen feels strongly abt it being albrecht, i don't think aurelian would care too much frankly so long as it goes to ~one of his sons...and one who can ~hold it when the varmont civil war breaks out, and i think he feels that albrecht has a fairly good head on his shoulders...overly sentimental which pains daddy dearest but...not ~too foolish, by and large

i feel like part of what aurelian might do to help unseat cassimir ~is foment rebellion from within malconaire bc he has probs? heard from marian that cassimir has noT made a good impression w the emperor and then if roderick perceives he can't even hold his own seat...well...he's not gonna want him in charge since the reason he's in charge ~is to create a quiet, happy populace etc. ofc, roderick'll be STRONGLY tempted to appoint edmund lord of malconaire, so aurelian simply needs to help him resist that urge by ensuring edmund has ~another seat in astaira already, but one that...doesn't really count for much

ORMOND

the fens are burnt to a crisp and leaderless, and ormond is vulnerable as its lord seems to be smth of a liability and he does NOT like the way his granddaughter seems swayed, so getting ormond shoved out a window or some such thing might prove verrrrry beneficial on a lot of levels, plus it might make roderick feel that the matter of edmund holding malconaire has been settled as ormond is (partially) a vassallage there...and if cassimir is still atp holding malconaire and now part of it is leaderless, a suggestion that edmund is the ~obv choice to go in and claim the piece that's breaking off might feel verrrrry natural indeed...and, sure, it's ~not ideal having edmund right there but if they've had years to account for that, well, he's sure they can come up w fortifications and such to make things difficult for him when the time comes!

so yeah i think he'll actually be pushing for edmund to get ormond alksdjflkjdsf amira would be on board (unless she learns aurelian was the one who suggested it!) w that bc she wants him in malconaire and she'd be like 'once he's in ormond its only a short shift to seize malconaire as well' if she leans tho that aurelian's behind it (and he'll take care to disguise hat he is sooo she might never know!), tho, her sus nature will kick in and she'll be like 'if he wants edmund to have that this is probs a trap'

ironically, valentina out here being the person most excited abt helping the solemonts marry into her fam, one way or another...

STAFFORD

so i feel like aurelian used to ship arthur/eilia but since her declaration of bastardy, he doesn't believe her rep could ~possibly recover from that (even though he's probs clocked that the charges were trumped up...he believes firmly that what the truth may be always pales in comparison to what ppl ~believe it to be! and he thinks the commons are too stupid and uneducated to possibly work out what he, as a certified genius, has done...) so yeah i do think as a result he probs now ~may think that rian and cassandra have a certain smth aljsdfkljsdf rian has a claim in his own right to astaira and certainly to the castle, and that'll def be hotly contested when roderick dies and kicks off the war so if cassandra's popping out rian's regal heirs, well, so much the better! and if not cassandra, then one of his daughters or ~other granddaughters but he suspects roderick'll make it impossible for him to marry anyone who isn't cassandra or guin sooooo slkdjfkdsljf

in terms of eilia, aurelian feels roderick has already more or less neutralized her -- the thing he doesn't get is why roderick's still marrying her! i mean, he knows roderick well enough by now, i imagine, to have surmised he'll try to re-instate her but once you make the bastard claim legal, well, now ur just making ~urself look foolish, in aurelian's view tbqh

notwithstanding, i think he does believe getting as many staffords to the solemont side as possible is a great idea and so he'll be fully on board for the aria in the solemont convent scheme -- and these daughters ~still make great wives for his sons (tho not his grandsons! they need princesses w unblemished honor! unlike the stafford girls now courtesy roderick...) once they're reinstated bc that's still royal blood in those veins and surely the rumors won't have spread to the only place that really matters...the ovn <3 but yeah i think atp, esp once they get their hands on aria, he'll be feeling its time for eilia to have a tragic accident alsdjfkldsfj

i ~do think aurelian, being the sus guy he is, will immediately just ~assume once he gets wind of any arthur/aria connection, that she's just tryna bag a future emperor and not that there's anything ~more there (but frankly even if he knew there was...he would not care laskdjfkljsdf #granddadgoals dslfkjasdkjf) so he'll feel itll be super easy to get her to transfer her affection to one of aurelian's sons (or grandsons!) once its made clear to her that its never gonna happen w arthur...idk if marian has a chosen brother picked out for aria? but i think for aurelian it would ideally be one of the older ones, tho i think he still dreams of aurelius/guinevere, but if that can't be, why not aurelius/aria!! if all record of her supposed bastardy can be expunged...if not, she'll have to settle for someone less heir shaped...which might be better on the whole, after all, so there's never a weird choice between solemont or astaira, yknow? guin really was the whole package bc itd be the same country...so yeah if marian is set on albrecht for malconaire (and that's fine w aurelian), then he'd probs be looking at caspain or emeric for aria. idr if his wife is still alive, but if not, ulric, himself, is another option, having already produced the heir and the spare for solemont, he can now go and claim astaira for himself and any ~later kids w aria! lakjdslfjd

tbh...marian is NOT wrong that aria being forcibly promised to a religious order she does not believe in would NOT stop arthur as emperor declaring that nonsense null and void and marrying her, if that's smth aria wanted, too lakjdsflksdfj tbh i don't think aurelian much cares who arthur's second and third wives may be (which is ironic given aurelian's plans for the son of a third wife!!) etc but it ~does serve his purposes for her to marry one of ~his heirs and for arthur to marry elsewhere soooooo he's on board!!!!! and yeah the convent to him is just a pretext for solemont, itself, taking a VERY valuable hostage in aria, essentially, in ~his mind laksjdlfjdjkf

it's unfortunate that sebastian had to go and embroil himself in scandal w a ~middle daughter when eithne was literally right!!!! there!!!!! but alas here we are ldskjfalksdjfjf no but aurelian is def taking the tack that THIS DIDNT HAPPEN (he doesn't care if it really did and aoife actually ~is carrying his great`grandchild bc it aint a good look for the House™ so like...who cares) and he thinks aoife and her sisters should be sent off somewhere far away conveniently for ~at least nine months~ and then return when rumors have settled down/their figures have returned alkdjflkdsjfsdfj childless families are always happy to take in foundlings and part of cassimir's job should be to ensure those children are cared for and no one else ever has to remember they exist, if they ~are real! also that awful valentina woman needs to shut her mouth!!!!! (finally a plan ~everyone can get on board with...)

it feels like aurelian might be on team Finn/Aoife engagement along with @forgottencormac ? (i still love that both of them kind of have NO idea that is actually going on and being discussed, haha!) which basically no one else is on!! especially aoife!

i feel like aoife is maybe going to try to put some distance between herself and the varmonts after all these rumors about herself and sebastian-- tbh i don't know how well that's really going to work bc i do think she finds herself wanting to be around @forgottensebastian more and more SO i don't know if she and aurelian cross paths bc of that??

yeah i def think that'd be potentially acceptable to aurelian!1 its not ~ideal bc house calleary is super rich and well connected w their trade situation, and while cormac might be the lord, i do think its not uhhh the ~most difficult to guess that cormac probs won't be fathering any sons shall we say ldskjfkjldf like the ~future of house calleary (as far as the ovn is concerned bc like...women???? inheriting?????) rests firmly on finn's shoulders so like...do we really want an ~astairan marriage there???? but like...its fine, its whatever lakjsdflkjdjf i don't think he has a problem w it (side note, i ~do think he feels like @forgottenlucian could do worse than marrying a calleary tho to help expand ~his growing trade empire...esp if he, say, marries eabha, and then...so sad...finn doesn't have any heirs -- easy enough to arrange w a few lil drops of poison in his wife's cup...oh no...guess everything of house calleary's is up to lucian as the eldest daughter's husband, now!! laksjdfkjdf SCREAM but yeah if alaric's moving in there, one of the other calleary girls would do even if it means lucian probs won't get the whole shebang...)

i do think that aurelian truly has no problem w @forgottensebastian having a sidepiece -- in fact, he probs lowkey expects that, esp as it takes roderick foreeeeeeeever to choose them all brides that that just...inevitably ~will happen, but yeah for it to be a prominent lady from a recently conquered land tht's experiencing some...upheaval is uhhhhh not good! aurelian: maybe aria would like a companion on her journey to the convent...jk jk! i feel like he does still see the malconaires as valuable for arranging matches etc, esp bc they have suuuuch a valuable plot of land and he's like 'they have all daughters, i have a kazillion sons...interesting...' then cassimir had to interfere smdh no but he does respect keeping it in the family -- he doesn't buy that's a love match on either side for one second! but he thinks it ~is probs a strategic move for both parties since cassimir's standing ~is somewhat shaky and its all that's holding malconaire for any of them, they just need to pop out a son ASAP and malconire is secure for them laskjdfkljdslfj but ~until that time~ well, betrothed isn't married and, even if it is, well if cassimir and eithne can't seem to have any heirs together (and again...the wonders of a drop of poison in a lady's cup...), its all settling on @forgottenbrigit and...hmmm...how interesting...she remains unwed...but maybe not for long *gestures to his brace of single sons* ;DDDDDDD girl can have her pick! i do still think that aurelian feels that, ideally, the eithne/cassimir marriage won't go forward and one of his sons can wed ~her, instead, but brigit's definitely a promising back up (too bad her whole personality is bsically custom made to terrify ovn men tho BAHAHAHAAH)

i ~do think if brigit isn't interested in any of his sons, tho, aurelian thinks maybe sebastian could be a good fit -- he can have multiple wives (since she's ~certainly not suitable to be his chief wife!), surely, he's a son of the emperor, and brigit could be wifey #1 <3 sorry, aoife!! if you'd only been born before brigit, grandpa would ship it! since you weren't tho...he does not! dklsjfakljdsf tbh don't think ~this backup would ever get past roderick tho esp post-scandal but lakjdsflkjdf oh well lakdjsfkljdsf and aurelian probs does recognize that but yeah

should both eithne ~and brigit slip the noose -- i mean...these promising proposals...lkajsdfkljsdf ;DDD -- that's where aoife comes into play, at last. i do think, bc brigit's got such a forceful, inconvenient personality, aurelian feels it would be fairly easy to declare her mad, and unsuitable to wed, and shut her up somewhere and let all good society forget abt her and then aoife becomes next in line!! obv she's already on the hook for sebastian so ~finally a circumstance where that's now not ~quite as problematic but it still isn't ~great bc, again, for aurelian its way better if she marries one of his sons...and surely she can find one in there somewhere who somewhat resembles his nephew in an appealing way, right?? lsdkjafklsdjf being a third daughter, aoife is even less suitable for a prince than a second daughter but esp if the second one was declared legally insane, well, surely we can make due, right?? lskdjafkljdsf

but yeah!! frankly, aurelian is v much hoping it ~doesn't come to the matter of jumping through all these hoops, like hopefully eithne or brigit will bite, and now malconaire is a de facto solemont holding -- and we can finally cut down that weird freaky tree and exterminate the squirrels and birds and things that surely must be living ~inside the house like...these ppl are soooo uncivilized!!!!!! gross!!!!!

so i wanna hear everyone's thoughts!! this is v much just a thought and not smth im tryna push or anything, we def do not have to do any of this for my vision of him to work out!! <3 but id promised to explain my thoughts so...here it is at long last hahahah

ok so i mentioned [ here ] that i thought there was some potential that aurelian was, in fact, a seventh son (like just of the boys, sisters might be older/younger etc idk) rather than an eldest, bc i thought there was a chance that most all of his brothers had died (i feel like the disinherited one may have survived potentially?) and i wanted to get into that. some of them probs met the usual ends of war and illness common to the ~middle ages~ situation in which lfr exists (and esp the ovn feels v warlike etc), but, as i alluded in the linked post, i ~also feel like there may have been an attempted coup against them, [ not unlike there was in later generations against alistair ] bc frankly i do think of the ovn as a terribly cut-throat kinda place alksdjfljksdf

TL;DR: so!!!!!! basically, perhaps the solemonts had rival great house in the ovn and the two were forever taking pot shots at eo until essentially the ~other house tried to exterminate house solemont (at least in the male line) so they could claim it all for themselves, but they missed aurelian bc he was legit a lil kid fostering somewhere else, at the time, and so they weren't too worried abt it, until he ofc came back to make them rue it, and revisited on them what had been done to him

for more details, and notions, read on!

BITTER RIVALS

ok so!! i def feel like this rivalry was a looooong, multi-generational thing, maybe even a multi-centuries thing, and if these are indeed two of the most powerful houses in the ovn, then i def feel like there was a big sorta ~faction element~ happening, too.

([ here's aurelian's timeline ] and the [ ovn kingslist ] btw just bc idk it helps me wrap my mind around stuff and i thought it might help you, too!)

i feel like it all came to a head around the time of aurelian's birth in 1224.

HOUSE VARMONT & QUEEN DISPUTE

why then? we know that both amalric (the king) and athaulf (the crown prince) were single around the same time, since athaulf wed in 1226 and amalric wed his second wife in 1231. this means that one of the most important roles in court politics -- the queen -- is up for grabs and not just the standing one, but the future one too. plus, w athaulf being (before bar's birth) the only varmont heir, its possible that ~either amalric's or athaulf's new bride will be the future queen/mother to the next king. having a single heir, after all, is an extremely dangerous position for ~any dynasty, after all, bc heirs can die and then where are we wo a backup, so it was extremely important that both men wed, and quickly, to produce more heirs just in case.

if we like the write ups i did for aurelian's various siblings, we know that amalric heeded hildegard solemont as a holy woman and advisor, whereas athaulf rejected her, and seems to have cultivated aurelian's enmity, in that aurelian later did away w him, as well as euric to secure roderick as king. killing euric alone would've accomplished that. killing athaulf, too, was a choice and, tbf, it sounds like athaulf was lowkey eating away at the ovn so it ~was probs at least partially strategic but still. killing a prince is one thing, but full-blown regicide? basically, there's a chance he did this impartially and that def still works, but i do ~also think there was (whether caused by this or not) some sort of grudge between aurelian and athaulf, ~as well.

notably, we know that athaulf did love the woman he ultimately wed, the princess of antilla, and this led to him basically letting her country run roughshod over the ovn, politically, once he came to power. we also know that he DESPISED his second wife, millicent (roderick and alaric's mom). we don't really know that much abt amalric's first wife (athaulf's mom) except that she died before he came to the throne, but we do know his second wife was isabeau, princess of faulia (bar's mom) and she was a powerhouse both during her time as queen and even after millicent's reign began (and basically responsible for bar being ~the way he is~ and not ~like the other varmont men~)

so my thought is that, while many candidates were doubtlessly discussed for both varmonts, as the list of ladies were narrowed down to two per each, the solemont faction favored one candidate for each royal, and the other faction sided w the ~other one. im thinking that the solemonts were pro-isabeau for amalric, and against the princess of antilla for athaulf. since we know they succeeded with one push and ~not the other, this both positions the solemonts as aligned ~w the king and, effectively, ~against the crown prince, who is probs ~also angry they made it difficult to marry the woman he loved. it also means they're now invested in ensuring isabeau and ~her line really goes places bc isabeau is team solemont whereas athaulf is anti-solemont. their rival faction, however, equally is in bed w the crown prince and against any heirs that might come from the new bride of the king for the same reasons.

we also know that 1) athaulf was ~unstable, particularly after the death of his first wife, but probs even before it esp given how euric turned out, and that 2) athaulf was a bully at home but a weakling abroad and this feels both like reasons it might've developed that way, too, as well as informing what happens next...

SETTING THE TRAP

ok!! so, its 1231, aurelian is 7, both varmonts are wed, and the stage is set. not only is this fierce rivalry between these two powerful houses blazing, but now they've dragged the two most powerful couples in the land into it, too.

on a side note (of no small significance later) for our guy aurelian, 7 is ~also the age that you become a page, so this would make sense as a time for aurelian to be sent away from home to foster w another house.

so my thought is basically that athaulf and unnamed-house begin to collude. they say that they want to ensure peace for the land, as this rivalry has gone on ~way long enough!! they arrange for a marriage between the head of ~other house~ or his heir, and the eldest daughter of solemont. now, as ive said, possibly some of aurelian's bros are dead, already, given war and disease etc, but there're still plenty of sons out there. notably, tho, i def think this is ~after ascelin and his entire line have been publically disinherited and ostracized from the house of solemont if he ~does survive hahaha

another possibility -- whether in conjuction or instead of -- is that ascelin wed not a serving girl but rather a girl from the ~rival house, and that's why his dad disinherited him etc and the rival house took this as a huge insult etc. also, if this marriage was supported by the king and his dad ~still rejected him and it, that might've angered amalric against them at a time when he was their big ally really so yeah that's a possibility too

anyway!! so the marriage goes through, lowkey strong armed, no doubt, after all peace is everyone's interest, right?

ATTACK

eventually, w the lady now pregnant, suddenly their rival house learns the truth that house solemont had been conspiring to assasinate the crown prince! T R E A S O N ! ! ! they call their banners, assemble them, march, and attack the solemonts, only sending word to the king afterwards. the land is overrun, the lord is killed, his sons mostly killed and those who manage to escape are hunted down and killed as well, the girls are held hostages. only ascelin, away bc of his banishment and unimportant bc he's disinherited anyway, and aurelian away bc he's fostering elsewhere and unimportant bc he's legit a child and couldn't rule for some time, ~anyway, are left.

amalric is LIVID but there's not a lot he can do bc the coup is already pulled, plus they've got their full standing army already mustered ~and athaulf is backing them quite literally to the hilt as well.. bc of the marriage to the eldest daughter, the rival house is now claiming ownership of all in the right of his wife/future child

the sun in its splendor is being put out

they do try to seize aurelian (and he probs woulda lived out a princes in the tower scenario if they'd gotten him), but he'd gotten word ahead and slipped away into the unknown a la henry vii as a boy. feel like he ~may have sought refuge in faulia? bc im ~guessing the solemonts had a good relationship w them there, given they backed isabeau for queen etc.

EXILE

ok so aurelian grows up fully thinking obsessively abt his murdered parents and brothers, his captive sisters, and his denied birthright. he is ~singleminded in his purpose of returning and reclaiming his birthright, and def addressing himself in letters and thing as count solemont, despite his rival having given that title to his heir. He grows up suspicious and watchful, operating in the shaodws, learning how to manipulate and powerful and pull the strings from behind the scenes to get what he wants as well as obsessively studying his enemy etc.

we've talked before abt the solemont lands being lowkey inspired by the rhine and mosel river valleys in germany, and abt how the ovn was originally a place of trade.

so, keeping the rhine in mind, which flows directly to the sea, im thinking ~around the time he was abt 20, he finally gets his chance.

idk if he's in faulia, now, or somewhere else, but he's found someone who's ambitious. if the solemonts do, in fact, control a river that flows directly from somewhere like amsterdam, thats a hugely powerful position, esp in a trade and/or military land and like...the ovn is both???? plus, like, aurelian hasn't been there in at least a decade, true, but he grew up there. he knows even the secret bits, so he finally finds someone whose looking to get better deals w that area for trade, someone who has beef w the rival house, someone who has beef w athaulf, etc, etc. he brings this coalition together...and he attacks.

RETURN

he carried out to the letter all that was done to his own family and, when he's done, he lies out the bodies of his enemies for all to see, he puts paper crowns upon their heads, claiming they made as if to steal the royal powers of the king by usurping him for only a king can appoint new powers.

leaving some men garrisoned at solemont to hold it for him just in case, he marches to the capitol and he bows before amalric but now wo his allied army at his back -- swearing them all to treaties and alliances w the king if they accept him...w the underlying unspoken threat that they will turn deadly enemies if he does ~not, and reminds everyone that he was a child -- if there was indeed a plot against the crown prince's life, he most certainly was not a party to it.

his enemies are wiped out. there will be no riprisals. aurelian is recognized as count solemont and weds leora, etc, beginning his life anew. he devotes much time and effort to clearing his familiy's name of the assassination charge (whether they truly ~were trying it or ~not...)

so yeah that's the idea!!

RIVAL IDENTITIES?

i did have some ideas abt the identities of the rivals!!

potentially, leora was a surviving daughter and they wed to like ~ensure there would be no further enmity there -- as well as to allow aurelian to now claim all that was theirs, just as they'd once done to solemont, and could further create an interesting dynamic amongst the family also [ 'hr pickens, i married ur daughter...' ] vibes (also s/o to a wild cassimir/valentina's dad ;D) lakjsdfkjdsf anyway, might also explain why they've variously been described in comments as merchants and as kings in their bg (not that you cna't be both) but maybe leora's is the merchant bg, or whatever?

alternatively, house grey, as we know them to have been one of the most prestigious houses in the land but, once they lost much of their holdings/standing etc they were bascially devoured by what they had left, unable to sustain it w what little they had left. this would also further inform alistair's desperation to ensure that ~he has an heir, as the grey/solemont wedding(s) probs mean that his closest relative is in fact a solemont and, given that they murdered his entire family except his dad, and stole sm of his lands and rights that he lived in destitution and almost got killed by the late king for what was left, etc, i can't see alistair much wanting that, either

the third possibility is just...we can make up a new house or whatever, maybe a few survivors, maybe none, but yeah!!

also obv someone i didn't think of is def just as possible etc!! def open to any and all thoughts abt this!! <3

ok so obv we haven't yet heard from lizzy, but here's the responses so far:

laurenplayspeople 17h The grey!rival stuff also makes Alistair's interest in Guin when she is a distant solemont very interesting too imo Might help inform even more of his 'she can't love me' stuff. Very R&J vibes 😂 quillington 17h @laurenplayspeople The way I misread R & J as R & L, and was like ‘Rhaegar and Lyanna’ and sat there for way too long tryna figure that out 😂🤦‍♀️💀 no but sgjkjffhjj yessss!!! They (think) they’re cursed if they get together and now potentially their ancestors were killing eo etc abd 😩😩😩😩 alistair: feeels untenable laurenplayspeople 17h @quillington Lmaaaooo. Nope, Shakespeare for me, as always 😂😂😂 But also not me now like: well but who would be the prince of cats in this then? 😭😭😭 I also have very very vague and fleeting thoughts re: if you go with grey vs solemont if there's anything to including something about it in the fairytale book that has Guin's Malconaire connection and the right translation of the Aella prophecy in it??? I'm very very much spitballing here and do not have a coherent concept lmao quillington 16h @laurenplayspeople Is it…Bar?? 😂😂😂 no but it’s not an ~exact copy admittedly but the vibes are there if we go w this!! And Even if we don’t, we could say that they greys were ~allied w the ultimate rival or smth so it’d still work esp since guin is a distant cousin so I think either way we could have this if we want it!! Ooooh reading next paragraph now — just to make sure I’m understanding — so like Aella’s prophecy ~also prophecied the doom of his house? Or the geneology book did? I wasn’t sure 😂 sorry my brain isn’t fully functional at present 😂😂😂 laurenplayspeople 16h @quillington Lmao, honestly, same, even I am like: what am I trying to convey here? (I was parked at the bank and got a work call and my thoughts all immediately got flushed down the drain. 😂) But trying to reconstruct my train of thought, I think I was getting at whether tying the grey vs Solemont thing into the Aella fable and if so, then do we think it would show up in the book of fairytales Guin brings to read for Byrgenwulf that was the Malconaire wedding gift quillington 15h @laurenplayspeople Nooooooooo not work calls — the worst 😭😭😭 Ohhhh gotcha!! Hmmm so I feel like they could maybe ~hear it at byrgenwulf, but I don’t think it’d be in a book of fairy tales? Bc I feel like it’s too recent in history to be a fairytale? Bc those’re usually hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of years old? But maybe the ~roots of the rivalry could be there? Like the opening salvos? If it’s an old rivalry, which is def v possible! In classic fairy tale fashion, it’s probs misremembered and misattributed, and then mythologized on top of that, but yeah! That could be there if we like!! But I doubt a tale in which participants, like Aurelian, are still alive would be in a book of fairytales? Esp if she got it from her grandpa so at newest the book is like ~10 years old, meaning it was written only 40 years after…Tho the story could def be told or sung orally, like set in a poem or a song, or smth like that, and maybe even ~beginning to evolve into a ~bit of a folktale there now, if we like, since it was probs abt ~50 years ago now? Idk…🤔

laurenplayspeople 15h @quillington Yea, it's def something I was just spitballing so I'm sure we can kinda keep prodding at it until something either works or we're like: nvm about all this. 😂 Maybe it's something more like... they both used the Aella story to like try and drum up support or smth for their side? "They hurt my family first ages ago" kind of stuff? laurenplayspeople 15h @quillington Tho ig that would involve tying the solemonts back further to Harburrow in the Aella years phabblebabbles 14h ok i think im gonna mull over this sm more and have other thoughts but my initial thoughts: 1) obsessed that aurelian has been openly a powerhouse for quite some time!!! 2) smth smth in marian's head abt how her father rose above everything to rule house solemont, rise them from the ashes essentially and that somehow points towards how her son is meant to be emperor? gotta work through that whole idea.... 3) for the rival house-- i do like the idea that it could've been house grey BUT I don't think Marian would've trusted a member of house grey to train her sons like Alistair did!! she doesn't necessarily get a choice but she def would not have encouraged arthur to have any sort of relationship w/ him like they kinda of have? Marian would've been too worried abt the opportunities for alistair to get revenge for what her father did to his family... not saying we can't work that in BUT just thoughts! kinda wondering if there is anything to it being an unnamed new family OR the idea that leora's family is the rival family? it could be interesting if there are any rogue members of the rival family floating out smwhere... could they form alliances w/ astairans? or w/ rian to promote his claim for the throne? (since we know riacan showed up and filled the 'house solemont's rival house' void!)

ok, so, given these responses, i think there may be a way to have our cake and eat it, too!

so!! maybe main rival ~is a different house (either leora's or a made up one idk? we can def come back to that!), but house grey ~was (at least occasionally) allied w them. maybe not in ~everything. for example, it wouldn't have any bearing on guin and alistair if his family was directly tied in to tryna exterminate aurelian since like that's not an ancestor that's a distant cousin, right? so like maybe they were tied in to a battle that occurred like ~100 years ago between the solemonts and their rivals, on the rival side, but not to the extermination thing 50 years ago?

so, like, there ~is bad blood there, but in the way that most noble families have clashed in the past, and like alistair's ancestors have probs killed some of guin's ancestors and vice versa. for example, we already ~know there was the aella slaying for sure, tho that is harburrow/malconaire not yet any solemont relation, given that they consider eo cousins etc, but def still civil strife stuff between harburrow and islaun -- tho we should talk abt that too since ik you moved aella to only 200 years ago so that she's more closely related to the current malconaires, so as a result we separated out ewan (aella's lover) from dougal (man turned into wolf and slain by his own brother as a result) since obv the gods were trapped thousands of years ago, so no one was being turned into wolves or foxes 200 years ago etc so what ~did happen to aella? maybe it was a [ beast of gévaudan ] type situation, and she was either killed by the beast or shot by its hunters at night or smth, mistaking a movement for the creature they were hunting? but im getting carried away -- that should probs be its ~own post on guin and alistair's sites shouldn't it hahahaha

but yes!! i can def see islaun and harburrow telling that story tryna move various forces against eo!! oooh, maybe house foxe aligned w the solemonts re the queen situation, and house grey aligned w the ~rival, or smth?

like, maybe house grey backed athaulf's marriage to the princess of antilla? maybe they even intended to be there to help ~guide that situation but then they bit the dust and no one was there to manage that the way they'd planned, so it kinda ran amuck?

anyway, that way, they're tied in, but not in a way that would necessarily???? make @forgottenmarian directly mistrustful of @forgottenalistair re her kids, since they didn't participate in the slaughter of her uncles and grandfather, and since that marriage happened before alistair was born so, even if she does bear a grudge re that, its def not his fault at all, etc? bc i ~do think arthur and sebastian having been trained in strategy is deeply significant to their backstories, and probs their futures, too, etc, so yeah i ~do think its important that that remains in place

also, side note, and should probs be asking abt this on @forgottenroderick 's site, but do we wanna name the princess of antilla? antilla is fantasy!ibera, so i snagged some potential names w that in mind:

amara -- probs related to the visigothic name amalric: unceasing/brave/vigorous ruler, (also would make her daughter amala a namesake for both her granddad and her mom)

eneida -- praise

gisela/gisele -- pledge (out here collecting ballet names ig <3)

iria -- peace

isadora -- gift of the throne

madalena -- of the tower (not me like 'did she have some calainon heritage in this case?' alsdkjfkldsjf)

odete -- wealth, fortune (since we already got an odile... ;D also just now learned that appreantly odete/odette is a ~nickname for odile/oda/odilia/etc...blew my mind)

sens -- saintly, holy

therasia -- summer or to harvest

obv lots of other potentials but yeah here's a selection!

ANYWAY!! love marian's contention that her father rises out of the ashes (like a phoenix!) destines arthur for the throne -- a continuous line of up and up and up!

also love the idea that -- whether within house solemont or without -- there may be some rando surviving rival house claimants looking to stir up trouble against the solemonts!! godfrey: 'yay!'

no but riacan coming in to fill the void alkjsdfkjldskjf aurelian: 'now we have the night to contend w? no matter, the sun shall burn them out' rian: 'stoP! my life is hard enough as it is!' arthur, sweating: 'sure let's kick rian's ass, but...not aLL the staffords are our enemies...right????' the way both his fav non-family ppl are staffords smdh alksjdfkljdsf grandpa is DEEPLY disappointed ldskjfalksdjf but yessss rian feels like a v natural ally for any surviving rival-house peeps, even if the solemont heirs ~are potentially their cousins via leora...

ok so on disco and in comments, we've talked a bit abt the house of the sun ~estate being located out in the countryside, and being somewhat inspired by like the rhine and moesel river regions of germany, but also w some ancient greek influences re helios and the palace of the sun (also like blenheim palace, is the house sun seat the only other place in the ovn known as a palace? is it the palace of the sun? idk alsdkjfkjlsdf), and is covered in vineyards and rose gardens

anyway, i wanted to add a lil detail re that! so [ here's some quotes abt helios' palace, throne, the famed gates of the sun, etc, from ancient greek and roman writers ]:

Ovid, Metamorphoses 2. 1 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) : "Phaethon through his own Aethiopes (Ethiopians) and the lands of India beneath their burning skies, quickly reached his father's rising place. The palace of Sol (the Sun) [Helios] rose high aloft on soaring columns, bright with flashing gold and flaming bronze; the pediments were clothed with sheen of ivory; the double doors dazzled with silver--and the artistry was nobler still. For Mulciber [Hephaistos] had engraved the world's great orb, the seas that ring the world, the sky that hangs above; and in the waves the Sea-gods (Di Caerulei) dwelt, Aegeon, his huge arms entwined around the backs of giant whales, ambiguous Proteus, Triton with his horn; and Doris and her daughters [the Nereides] might be seen, and some were swimming, some on fishes rode, or sat on rocks to dry their sea-green hair. Nor were their looks the same, nor yet diverse, but like as sisters should be. On the land people and cities, woods and beasts were graven, Flumina (Rivers) and Nymphae (Nymphs) and Rural Deities (Numina Ruris), and, set above them, the bright signs of heaven [the Zodiac], in glory shining, six upon each door. Then the son of Clymene [Phaethon], climbing the steep ascent, entered his father's palace, fatherhood uncertain still, and made his way direct into the presence and there stood afar, unable to approached the dazzling light."

so kinda obsessed w these gates don't they sound hella ovn-ian??? columns of gold and bronze, topped w ivory like??? lskjdfajskldf ok!! then you get to huge double doors depicting like all of time and the entire world and noted for its artistry???? and only THEN do you get to the huge-ass stairs which lead up to the palace itself like versailles WISHES lkajsflkjsdfjksdf

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 12. 1 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) : "The twelve circling Horai (Hours), daughters of Khronos (Chronos, Time), tripling round the fiery throne of the untiring Charioteer in a ring, servants of Helios (the Sun) that attend on his shining car."

so this is talking abt the throne and, if you look at hardwick hall, itself never a royal residence for example, you'll see that a lot of the greatest homes in ye olden days boasted thrones and presence chambers from which the lord (or in hardwick hall's case, lady) would hold court amongst their own vassals and lesser lords, and dispence their justice in the name of the ruler etc and i feel like this might be one of those kinds of places?

ok so keep in mind this fiery throne and now compare that toovid's description:

Ovid, Metamorphoses 2. 20 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) : "Phaethon entered his father's palace . . . and made his way direct into the presence and there stood afar, unable to approached the dazzling light. Enrobed in purple vestments Phoebus [Sol-Helios the Day] sat, high on a throne of gleaming emeralds. Attending him on either side stood Dies (Day) [Hemera] and Mensis (Month) and Annus (Year) and Saecula (Century), and Horae (Hours) disposed at equal intervals between. Young Ver (Spring) was there, with coronet of flowers, and naked Aestas (Summer), garlanded with grain; Autumnus (Autumn) was there with trampled vintage stained, and icy Hiems (Winter), rime upon his locks. Enthroned amidst, Sol [Helios] who sees all things."

so i was thinking!! while, as i said, i can def see this fam rocking their own attendants and court and such, im thought 1) what if the fiery and emerald thrones were combined? its all gleaming emerald, ringed by a backdrop of gold, formed into gilded flames, mimicking the rays of the sun. 2) while i imagine there ~are some ~very significant attandants and such present at court, what if we take the description of the times and the seasons in attendance not as literal (as Ovid intended) but as the description of a breathtaking mural depicting all those things behind the gold-and-emerald throne

it also means that, when you happen to invite the kingemperor to stay, he isn't necessarily in a rush to leave (this can be both good and bad!) given he's got a magnificent hall from which to rule, himself, while he's there, but also when ur dealing w an ego like roderick's you'll have to rtread lightly lest he start to feel ~threatened alkdsjfkljdsf but simultaneously ~also suits a place that's secretly been calling the shots in the ovn for quite some time if our hc proves true...orrrrr, since we've said that stained glass is a huge thing in the lands of the sun, maybe its not a mural, but rather a stained glass window? idk lakjdsflkjsdf

phabblebabbles Sep 14, 2025 KATE! I’m obsessed!!! I love the idea of this throne room and imagining a giant stained glass window behind the ‘throne’ seems SO house of the sun to me! quillington Sep 15, 2025 EEP! Rigggght!!! It felt over the top in a particularly ovn-Ian way to me and like the colors abd brightness and stained glass felt ~right abd like it might even weirdly vibe pr well w the German medieval aesthetic too I thought! phabblebabbles Sep 15, 2025 @quillington I agree!!! Also would it be kinda cool if it’s just a LITTLE bit different than the other castles in OVN? (Meaning if we wanted it to have a little bit of a Greek vibe ig?) bc I sort of envisioned it’s NOT like any other place so you do feel transported when visiting??? quillington Sep 15, 2025 @phabblebabbles Yessssssssss I love That and I agree!!!!!! A stand alone and I do think that v much fits a solar house too — smth bright and glorious that stands alone phabblebabbles Sep 15, 2025 @quillington Agreed!!! Kinda had as my HC that the house of sun was maybe more impressive in some ways than the Varmont OVN castle? Maybe not in size but just in the building itself? … which no one mentions, of course 😜

so kate the great said smth v wise: "Random thought from the pointe shoe room today: does the seat of house solemont need a fancy name?" and obv the resounding response was HELL YES!!!!! so, after volunteering Sunnepointe in honor of the location in which this brilliance was conceived (and ofc the heraldic spelling of sun -- sunne), i said id look into various places belonging to solar deities and report back w ideas!!

we also thought that, kind of like blenheim palace (and esp bc the solemonts used to be kings!) it might be like the one place in the ovn known as 'palace' that isn't a residence of the varmonts -- also we'd already decided there was effectively a throne (its literally a throne even if it isn't called that ;D) there from which aurelian presides over the county so like...it all fits! ;D

heliopolis/city of the sun -- so idk if this would be the actual ~seat's name or if maybe its just the name of the biggest city in the solemont's county (which i imagine as being far -- tho within a reasonable day's ride id venture? -- from their glorious country estate personally -- can't expect them to associate w the riffraff on a daily basis!)

aiaia/aeaea/aia -- one of the many isles belonging to helios, one of the greek solar deities, also circe's (helios' daughter's) place

thrinacia/thrinakia/thrinakie/erytheia/the red island -- another island of helios, where his sacred immortal cattle and sheep grazed and of which there were always exact fifty of each bc...why the hell not (do the solemont lands boast brown cows w extraordinary 'golden' coats?)

gates of the sun -- in the extreme east of the world, the glorious ivory, gold, and bejeweled gates through which the sun enteredthe waking world

palace of the sun -- helios' house seems to be literally just be called the palace of the sun, im struggling to find anything more

delos -- birthplace of apollo (and his twin artemis) -- he actually lived on yknow mount olympus but that feels a touch on the nose...

delphi -- apollo's most major sanctuary where he also slew the delphian dragon bc...ofc he did

asgard -- a ~bit on the nose but this is where sol/sunna, norse goddess of the sun, lived when she wasn't roving the skies. obv idk that we wanna name a place asgard but solgard/asunna could both prove lil nods or smth

so other items

white horses (bc they towed the chariot of the sun -- also true of the norse sun goddess), roosters (bc they proclaimed his rising), and wolves (?????? interestingly the norse sun goddess is chased by a giant white wolf across the skies and doomed to be devoured by him at ragnarok) were sacred to helios so i feel like they could be a thing in solemont

heliotropes, black poplars, and frankincense were all sacred to helios; bay laurel, hyacinth, cypress, larkspur/delphinium, iris to apollo; white and blue lotus, jasmine, marigold, hibiscus, and a number of other plants im not including here bc they wouldn't grow in the same climates as the others, to amun-ra; and sunflowers, citrus, and apples to sunna, so i feel like solemont should be teaming w them as well as the traditional roses and grape vines we've already established!

amun-ra would journey through the sky on a barque in the morning and then again through the underworld at night, so i feel like wide, rambling rivers that reflect the sky should def be a big thing and maybe ragattas and boating, in general, a bit deal in solemont? also he just legit lived in the sky like that ~was his palace so like???? no residence name for him -- this is actually a pr common theme for sun gods that they are constantly journeying and don't really have a home etc

the sun, light, fire, gold, sunflowers, summer, "green growing things," horses, chariots, and solstices were all sacred to sunna/sol and sun-colored foods, such as honey, were often eaten on solstices in her honor

so this wasn't super helpful actually, bc it turns out most sun gods just kinda live in the sky (like...made sense once i thought abt it but...can't say id thought abt it before like that lksdjfksjdf) but yeah! here have a thing!

also just to throw together some smashed together ideas inspired by the above etc in no particular order:

sunnepointe palace

solgard palace

asunna palace

aelphi palace

thrinaeae palace

heliaia palace

delacia palace

palace of the sun

emerald palace

ivory palace

palace of fire

whiteflame/whytflame palace