It’s not been a great time for the wiki lately. We have been hacked, and while we are now running again, everyone is going to have to use the ‘forgotten password’ feature to get themselves a new password before they can log in again.
It’s the only way to be sure we’re not compromised.
Tim.
Ultima Terra seems to be struck with a plague of frogs shortly after the one in Ancient Earth ceased.
The sources seem to emanate from a pond near Malus palace and from the city of Duluth.
At the same time there has been a similar plague of frogs also impacting the capital of the Duchy of Karmways.
Seems that French cuisine in both places have a lower price of frog legs.
Reports are that Princess Deirdre broke down and started to weep over the cruel fate befalling all those poor innocent cute froggies. She reportedly was consoled by sons Joseph, Gregor, and Lazare, possibly stepson Avon.
Reports coming in to foreign journalists based in the Parys capital suggest that while Parys and its Silver Circle Empire has been relatively unscathed, there have been multiple catastrophes that had occurred in the ‘other side of Parys’.
The so-called Other Side of Parys was speculated about by Parys theologians and academics for years however the Parys government did not find them that geographically close nor that economically valuable to develop relations with. “That is wonderful news for the Royal Government and the Parys Economy,” said Deputy Finance Minister Astard des les Cochons. “I am delighted to say this mishap will not do much damage to Parys proper, its vital communications and transportation lines.”
Asked about reports of whole worlds being cast into the Abyss, “Well,” the bureaucrat gives a Gallic shrug, “We do not know everything. If it is there it will be mourned for them not having the chance to be art of our empire. If they were not, they meant nothing anyways.”
He also mocked the conspiracy theories and social activists, “Of course there rumours of looters being punished or mountain pirates attacking mail trains. We do not know a complete picture at this time and for me to speculate is irresponsible.”
“There are rumours of lost colonies belonging to alleged reincarnations of Lucius or were pledged to allegiance to Lucius,” the minister said carefully, “It would be so incredibly rude, uncouth, and low class to even think of recruiting, subverting or building colonies on the other side of Parys. Such a move had it been done, may have provided offence to our own Beloved Majeste, though of course, such a terrible thing is not proven to have happened as that terrible disaster was so complete.”
Pressed for additional information, the minister did share the following,” Territories such as St. Sigo, St. Saturnius, St. Wivina, St. Nicasius, St. Benildus, and St. Prosper which are not part of Parys, did suffer a catastrophic event though quite possibly natural and non anthropomorphic.” he explained, “Unfortunately these settlements who had been established by rogue heretics who worship the Holy Apostle Glen’s red jackets over the Sacred Quadity. I am not a theologian but this seems rather odd.”
“These regions plus a border area called the Vexin, which was considered uninhabited wilderness, are no longer connected to any lands affiliated with Parys or the Parys pattern. In one terrible night, these lands and their benighted heretical subjects found themselves hurled into the black oceans of the Abyss, never to be seen again from the shores of Parys.” the minister acknowledged adding, “Our thoughts and prayers follow these innocent fools and their that of their families.”
“On the other hand, Parys remains, Parys and will be open for business.” he brightens up, ignoring some gunfire, “We are going to always be open to business and will continue to show unconditional love, loyalty and support to our most gracious merciful Majeste.”
“Vive Chistophe de Parys, Vive notre ROI! Christophe les plus Quaditian Roi!”
Providing a unity of service in Antilla Station, the Antillan Railway Empire and the Island of Antilla in E1,King Matthew came on the air by radio and television. “We are delighted to build this remarkable intershadow communication system.
In more news, “Matthew says, “There was a terrible disaster in Parys where much of their hinterland has been swept into the ocean of the Abyss by an unknown phenomena or by deliberate sabotage against the Parys Government.Our thoughts and prayers are with the Royal Family of Parys and all the subjects that owe them true allegiance. My sister Jorrah and her husband, my cousin Christophe are well and have not been injured in this tumultuous and unprecedented calamity.”
“At the same time, my brother Lucius, in a similar incident has found a large calamity where his new colonies have been swept into the Abyss. Many of his family, my family were present but were able to stabilize their new offshore abyss beach front property. Our thoughts and prayers are with my brother and other kinsmen of mine in these new brownwater dominions.”
“This crisis requires action on our part to protect our friends and relatives in these areas stricken by calamities. I have acted to keep my railways to both kingdoms open despite enormous challenges.
“I have suspended habeas corpus in Antilla Station and all railway territory that is not a settled province indefinitely. Properly settled provinces will have their laws, freedoms and liberties that is their creator given right. However Antilla Station is a different problem and we must be vigilant against Communism and its behaved little brother, Socialism. We have banned Amnesty InterCreation in Antilla Station and forbidden any of their members from using our Railway. They are not banned in the Railway Empire but police have been unable to protect them from the huge majority of the loyal population who do not want them around.
“We have been also helping our allies in UT and Parys distant domains protect themselves against communists, rebel scum and social justice warriors who illegally seize public and private property. In those cases martial law had been raised and the loyal populations were armed to protect themselves, their system of life and their property.”
King Matthew then issued a blanket pardon in perpetuity for those who kill communists or slow track communists – He also made it a crime for any legislator in any of his lands to try to issue an apology for these actions.
Amnesty InterCreation called this “The Tripartite White Terror brought to you by Christophe, Lucius and Matthew. Do not believe their phony wars and imaginary sinking lands in the Abyss. They are ruthless dictators.”
Skeptics, Sinners and Stinkers President Alfonze Colombe issued a press release stating that any crisis in Parys, nearParys territories or in the Silver Circle are purely political or geostrategic and do not constitute any geographic crisis. He said to a rented community centre in St. Amant shadow that this is perpetuated by the Parys King and his cousin the Antillan King to pursue a crackdown against leftwing social justice warriors.
“We already know that Antillan reserves have armed pro Christophe militias in areas outside of the Silver Circle to slaughter Red Parys factions without provocation and warning.” he cynically notes. “We know that Parys will soon declare a crisis or a state of emergency after some contrived weather changes and small tremors to claim that territories no body knew existed that paid Christophe no taxes, that did not have deputies in the Parys Chamber of Deputes – has sunk into the Abyss. We do know that the Parys secret police with a ferocity not seen since the Bree Rebellion has hammered on their political enemies .
Colombe said further, “The Antillan Railway Empire’s armed blond haired blue eyed thugs have already been shooting Parys railway workers who seized Antillan Railway track in the name of the Parys Worker’s Council. We know that King Matthew has moved an additional 100,000 soldiers into Antillan City together with an additional 400 Urban Tanks to make a huge show of force when rumours surfaced over a possibly general strike in support of Parys workers.
“We know that Christophe and Matthew’s brother, the fascist blond beastie Lucius von Palatine have worked out a scam where they will denounce each other for crimes against one another to justify Parys’ crackdown on the leftwing. We also know that Lucius controls and had developed the UT Orwellian state including the universal control system of mantling. We also know that Lucius like Matthew is brother to Jorrah, Christophe’s wife who unleashed tonks on her husband’s people during the Bree Rebellion for Freedom.”
“Let’s join the dots, Lucius and Matthew and Jorrah are Brand’s children. Brand of Brandenberg who occupied Parys under a brutal occupation for centuries. Christophe and his scheming trollop mother Dara are planning to implement a mantling system which together with Confession Rites in the majority Quadity religion will make Parys as much a police state as UT.
Meanwhile Jenny HoofyFoot of Amnesty InterCreation has indicated that there are mass arrests in Parys with many of her Social Justice Workers have been arrested for demanding Equity over Equality.
But while it lacks for nudity and dragons and bloody upheavals, this new series makes a solid argument for the exercise of power as the stuff of compelling drama in its own right. The first chapter of this daring chronicle of the rule of King “Bling” Bleys of Amber remains gripping across the entirety of the 10 episodes made available to critics, finding both emotional heft in Bleys’ election, ascension and unexpected suspense in matters of courtly protocol and etiquette. Led by a complicated and star-making performance and an ensemble primed to fill Emmy categories, Children of the Unicorn is surely one of the strongest push yet into the realm of prestige drama.
The story begins with King Oberon’s expected demise with the Regent of the Day Prince Gerard presiding over an unruly family of old and young rascals. There are dark rumours that Oberon is still trying to claw for his throne beyond the grave through his favourite grandson, young Marcus who has been given control of the notorious secret police and Star Chamber, the Intelligence Committee and its arm of the Secret Service. He is given a monopoly of control over the pink gunpowder and control of the ordinance in Amber Castle and Oberon’s highly secured villa in Southern Amber in the “olive belt” – Sans Sulci
We see King Bleys newly elected then his rapid coronation marrying his beloved ice maiden Elizabeth Channicut. We see Bleys’ fraternal twin sons, the stiff upper lipped Prince John who is the Royal Secretary and consolidated royal power behind his highly flamboyant father. We see Princess Royal Fiona who is the conniving spider at the centre of the web who with John, does most of the palace’s day to day operations. However we see Fiona as not only politically ambitious but damaged following the death of her late husband and nephew Gaius from the Civil War. She is fierce in protecting her main sons by Gaius – Isaac, Liam and Icarus among others.
There is the heart breaking scene where Ian, separated from John and his father and raised under the supervision of Bleys’ previous wife, the Princess Swayvanna, his mother in Tenterden where he was isolated from his family. We see Ian’s frustration with the flash and glamour of his father, hungry for more substance behind the pageantry, pomp, gilding and gold braid, seeking only to get to know his father and have a beer with him. Bleys, into planning another parade and festival, another grand party or even a new Winter capital in the tropics, hides behind his fall of smiles and good times causing pain to all who know him.
The third brother is Brand, currently in the story in the ‘vegetable crisper’ in a coma following his injuries at Patternfall and hidden wars with Corwin. On the verge of a somewhat controversial occupation of Parys, the insufficiently stationed Jasra, Brand’s wife by Suhuy is willing to reduce the occupation under a friendly son of Corwin. Dara’s son, Christophe, is considered – he is an urbane witty and a light hearted fellow most known for his drinking parties with hundreds of bottles under the young royal section of Amber Palace – the Northwest Wing.
Christophe is barely considering the crown of Parys, but it isn’t long before he is thrust atop the tenuous monarchy of Parys with Jasra and Brand’s girl scientist daughter, Princess Jorrah.
Brand’s many sons include at this time, his eldest Geran, his hard right wing triplets of Dalt and Dieter. Dieter was involved as an ultra totalitarian rival later father in law to Ian. Geran had a younger brother the difficult and mouthy son of Brand Matthew who’s mother is Elizabeth Channicut. Matthew is also the main student of Dworkin who arranges for a Sovereign Principality of Garnath to be carved out of Amber’s Medway River Valley
The first season stretches only Bleys’ first years, on the brink of the Remban War, and builds its drama on several fronts, cleverly balancing episodic spikes in action — the Cabra Crisis- for example, is the backdrop for an hour sure to warrant award consideration for its cinematography — with numerous ongoing struggles including the waning health of King Swayville the Eternal and the greedy machinations of Prince Mandor of Sawall; Ian’s feelings of marginalization; sister Deirdre’s rule-breaking love life with Mandor and her sons; and the periodic intrusions of ghost of King/Prince Eric who remains adored by the citizenry of the most of Northern and Eastern Amber even if his usurpation nearly crushed the House of Barriman in Amber.
It’s a story of overwhelming privilege and, in most cases, the least relatable of dilemmas, but the series’ great gift is in foregrounding the characters’ choices in ways that feel universal. You might not think you’d care about which lavish residence Bleys calls home or whether or not his children take their father’s name, but Children of the Unicorn makes you understand the stakes for Bleys and then possibly the stakes for Amber even after Bleys is poised to inherit the Grand Duchy of Helgram which is a powerful support base.
The vast writing is masterful, even if it’s probably a wholly theoretical empathy for real people who hardly are in the business of confessing their innermost insecurities to the public.
These are characters who are symbols for many in Amber, Chaos and the Golden Circle and abstractions for most in Shadow and the series makes them prickly, complicated, frequently unlikable and always justifiable in their own heads, to the benefit of the actors, if not to hero worshippers.
King Bleys starts the series as an intentional cipher, unreadable and unknowable because the eyes of the world needed him to be merely a light weighted son, a prince and a dilettante. In those initial episodes, Children of the Unicorn is dominated by Bleys’ story.
When he becomes King and maintains Bleys as his regnal name, Bleys is able to split into two entities, constantly in conflict — the fun loving man fighting his inner demons and not wanting to wreak vengeance on those who murdered his sons and the Crown with the obvious needs for national unity and cohesion. He’s simultaneously a deer-in-headlights, educated mostly on the art of swordsmanship, war and horses, and instinctual and ready to learn. Bleys is punctuated by moments of fierceness with uncertainty and moments of doubt with cleverness and he parries wonderfully with his siblings, children and nephews.
Armed with the Charter, produced by Dworkin in exchange for Garnath, Bleys’ Crown is threatened by younger brother Random who is armed with a Jewel of Judgement given to him by a demon disguised as a Unicorn. War is inevitable with Random backed by the Abyss loving Rembans.
In a cast without weak links, I’d also single out the performance of Random as a snivelingly vindictive and also righteously indignant little weasel, the no-filter Queen Mother Clarissa, especially Prince John the no-nonsense royal secretary and Princess FIona, whose take on the Chatelaine of Amber will be revelatory to audiences who only know her later years as a cherished intellectual and academic icon.
Much has been made of the high budget for Children of the Unicorn, which is evident in all facets of the production. Directors situate the tremendous performances within layers of varied opulence. The production design celebrates the differences between Amber Palace, Port Royal Palace, Guildhall against the Brass Cat and Boar’s Head Pubs, between the wealthy and the absurdly wealthy, with contributing marvelous frocks, gowns and uniforms that outshine Bleys’ real forces themselves. The score accentuates grandeur, but, like the direction and overall pacing, is never stuffy.
The costume drama done right because for all its scope, the audience’s fascination has always been process and the clash between individuals and institutions. This series favors brainy intimacy, and even a royal wedding and coronation are negotiations of power. That’s probably why it’s left to the imagination to carry the aspects of fairy tale romance. Bleys and Elizabeth talking dirty isn’t something that worked for me at all, but they keeps it to a “These are real people and of course they had sex” minimum.
With its literate affluence and clear-eyed treatment of the compromises and conditions of power, Children of the Unicorn is positioned to appeal to fans of both Downton Abbey and House of Cards, without the blood and murder of Game of Thrones. I was consistently impressed with how they kept the story interesting even in episodes without big historical events. The coronation and the tour of great powers make for rich hours, but the plot is as confident building an episode around Julian studding a prize horse or the Prince Dave’s trip to a shadow kingdom I found the first season of Children of the Unicorn to be surprisingly bingeable, and knowing some of the historical events to come and having settled into the performances, I’m eagerly anticipating season two