Red Silken Cords
a Scarlet Dynasty Game
563 RY, The Second Age

It has been a quiet century of consolidation for the Scarlet Empire.

With the Confederation of Rivers and the shogunate remnant Lookshy blocking further expansion east, the ambitions of the Great Houses turn south and west for further conquest. Perhaps too much so. The Prasadi dominions are so far away from the Blessed Isle that the effort to pay tribute is almost not worth the effort. Reports of the indigenization of the legionaries there greatly trouble the realm's generals, but the situation continues to develop.

While the Great Houses wrangle with their distant legions, trouble brews at home. Revolts on the Blessed Isle are rare: the combined efforts of the magistrates and the All-Seeing Eye - the Realm's secret police - ensure that violent dissent is smothered in the crib. That is, of course, unless they're being used as pawns in dynastic bickering. Or masterminded by a particularly clever anathema. Or both. Or neither. Stranger things have - and will - happen.

The fact that by law and by custom that Dragonblooded are favored over all others is greatly resented by patricians and the rest of the mortals. Justice, as it were, is determined by the blood, and then by the bribe. The Immaculate Order preaches against this, sermonizing an idealized vision of Exalted rule, but that is cold comfort to those who have been abused by the Dynasty.

What can they do? They are only human.

But none of these things are your worry or concern. While your brothers and sisters find glory on the frontiers of the Realm, join the Wyld Hunt in both pilgrimage and duty, or roam the satrapies as one of the Scarlet Empress's magistrates, that is not your place in life. You must defend them - and your House - in the arena of politics. Someone has to supervise the administration of the satrapies. Someone has to collate the intelligence of suspected Anathema sightings, gather the lost eggs of the Threshold, act as lawyers and judges.

And yes, someone has to throw the parties, too.

That person is you. It is a (mostly) thankless job. The chosen of the dragons value highly battle experience and valor. Even the most decadent of the Great Houses privilege those scions who show a eagerness to fight. The Exalted of the Ten Thousand Dragons were created by Gaia to be the greatest fighting force that Creation has ever known. But you and people like you are the reason that the Realm is an empire, and not just an army with a state.

You attend one of the Realm's many secondary schools, of which teach the necessary etiquette and forms to even be considered by the Four Great Academies. The more purely bred have already Exalted. The others - well, they're praying. The pressure is almost too much to handle. There is a reason that most Dynasts do not have fond memories of their childhood. Waking every morning, feeling a failure, desperately hoping for the blessing of the Dragons, dreading every birthday that comes without it...

You live in the estate of your house, of your family, in a massive intergenerational household centuries old. Some of you even have great-great-grandparents who are still alive. It is crowded and noisy with cousins and many kinds of relatives. Although some enjoy that immensely, most can't wait to leave. Having one's conjugal exploits being commented on by one's exalted ancestors should only be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The single life is austere and private, however, bereft of the luxuries many Dynasts are accustomed to. The Scarlet Empress wants her descendants to marry and reproduce. To fulfill your obligation to the Empire, you need at least two of your own. Regardless of sexuality or interest. Everyone. Only those who embrace a higher calling and join the orders are spared this fate, or those singularly exceptional enough to escape this expectation.

Whether or not you have them with your spouse is a matter of personal taste.

But you are young. These things are so far distant in your future that they are hardly worth considering. You worry about your marks, the opinions of your classmates, the approval of your parents, and the first shy, furtive attempts at love. This is the beginning of your story. Whether you know it or not, you'll forge bonds here that will last you the rest of your life, and have unimaginable consequence for the Realm at large. In two hundred years, much can change.

Even for the Exalted.