Velvet Court

Enter the Velvet Court: the thieves’ guild of Ril Dyara, a power as old and as puissant as any crown, a name whispered in the ears of the dead and the dying.

Little is known about this ancient conspiracy, even among those aware of its existence — and most, even among the nobility, are not, dismissing the old legends of them as tall tales and ghost stories. All that is certain is that they operate out of the City of Triumph and have wielded wealth and murder to influence Ril Dyaran history for centuries. The first recorded appearance of the Court dates back to some five hundred years before the present day, when the Princess Rylin, eldest daughter of Queen Rynna Long-Veil, was murdered at a ball held at the manse of one Count Danjo Maharis, an ascendant noble of the time. Maharis was accused of plotting the murder and executed, leading to the fall of his House, and it was not until many years (and assassinations) later that the murder weapon — a dagger with a velvet-bound hilt of jade, symbolizing green death for blue blood — became recognized for what it is.

Any and all royal attempts to ferret out and unmask the Court have ended in abject failure at best, and public humiliation at worst. Time has made them into what they wish to be seen as: a myth, a boogeyman, something intangible for nobles and smallfolk alike to blame night-terrors on. They have survived the wearing of the years, the rise and fall of a hundred monarchs, and each other. They cannot be stopped. For true power is power unseen — and by the time one sees them, it is already far too late.

As the story of In Sunder begins, the Velvet Court is making the latest move in its centuries-old game of chess. They backed Yagon Three-Eye, and the war-mongers before him, only to watch as each came to an ignoble end.

It is time for a new gambit...

(Image source: Nikolina Petolas)