They say that Songborne is 'high above and far from mercy'.
Here, power isn't held, it is performed.
Every glance, every word, every silence - calculated.
The Imperial Court is a crucible of ambition, where high born families duel not only with swords, but with glances, gossip, and the cruel precision of a well-placed phrase.
The highborn families live and die by the whims of the Emperor. To win his favour is to command the tides of fate: to receive lands, titles, and decrees that bend the law itself. To lose his attention, or worse, his trust, is to be left adrift in a sea of predators, unmoored and already sinking. The outcome could be deadly.
Every audience with the Emperor is a performance. Every law he passes is a verdict on the future of your family.
And every High Born at court is watching, waiting, weighing who might rise and who must fall.
Rhetoric is a blade sharpened daily. Social encounters are battles in miniature, fought over goblets of wine and beneath chandeliers of starlight. A clever jest can destroy a career. A well-placed insult, delivered with exquisite grace, can undo a rival in moments.
When humiliation becomes too great to bear, when words cut too deep, custom demands satisfaction. Duels are rare, but sacred. They are sanctioned by the court and the Church alike, performed with elegance and finality. A duel may end in death, exile, or disgrace, but it always ends with an answer to the insult. In Skyborne, some wounds must be avenged in blood.
Over all this presides the Church of Zera, cloaked in purity and divine law. Her morality shapes the outer life of the court: marriages arranged to please doctrine, sins confessed in whispers, public virtue performed like theatre. But beneath the white robes and hymns lies another kind of power, calculating, watchful, and merciless. The Church can excommunicate, denounce, or disappear those who step too far from her teachings, yet they are not above playing the same games as the High Born families.
The truth is plain to those who dare to see: Skyborne is a place of masks and mirrors. Beneath every gesture lies a hidden meaning. Behind every compliment, a blade. Political assassinations are not spoken of, but they are understood to happen from time to time. A fall from a balcony. A sickness no surgeon could cure. A letter that should never have been opened.
This is where your story begins. Welcome to the great game of the Imperial Court.