The peace that formerly reigned in Terra Nova has eroded, now little more than a memory. War ravages the continent. Disputes divide kingdoms; ideals divide families. The quest for power consumes absolutely and indiscriminately. None are immune to its allure.
Who will rise and who will fall? Only time—and ambition—will tell.
UPDATES
05.26.2023
2 month character creation hold for all existing members begins 6/5/2023. Ended 8/5/2023.
10.29.2023
Change in how times flows. Was 4 IC seasons, now only 2 IC seasons per 1 OOC year.
5 whole years of Heir Apparent goodness! When I started the site, I knew I was hunkering down for the long haul, but I never could have predicted the numerous twists and turns this roleplay site has seen. Hundreds of plots, characters, and members have come and gone, all leaving marks on the site. I am so very thankful for those who have invested. Because you keep coming back, keep getting on, and keep writing, Heir Apparent has the legacy it does today. Three cheers to us!
Keelan had continually came up short when trying to obtain information about Bedlam, he had found out more about Cam Pyetr though but Keelan had a mess regardless. Fucking Gunne, fucking Adder and his traitor talk so far it had only seemed to cause Keelan's family to dwindle. It hadn't stopped Keelan from resolving that issue as the mysterious Morrigan had things being set into motion as he waited for his assistant Rhedara. He wasn't a hundred percent sure his plan to pull the little girl further into his clutches had come to fruition yet but if Raff had been smart he'd done as ordered...Keelan played with he rings he had sent Bulger to retrieve.
All the while Keelan was balancing his main goal in with the mess of Gunne and his 'family', finding a powerful wife. It wasn't about love it was all one hundred percent black and white about power. He already had the vision hell he dreamed about it. He wanted the world, perhaps not the Crown but the bank. A knock at the door had gathered his thoughts back to reality, he scooped the rings, "come in," he grunted out as he pulled the slide drawer beside him open and dropped the rings in.
Post by Rhedara Shannon on Aug 7, 2023 20:49:55 GMT -5
It’d been a rough night for Rhedara. Raff’s letter to her still had her reeling and emotional even though she’d managed to get a little sleep. Ger slumber had been shallow and filled with sadness and a sense of betrayal. She was tired and desperately wanted to eat something heavy and sweet and listen to a bard sing a sad tale. Ugh. Feeling the way she did…well it sucked. However, life went on, and part of life was showing up to work on time while not looking like a summoned creature. She’d forced herself out of bed, splashed the frigid water in her wash basin on her eyes to reduce any puffiness in her eyes—although she wasn’t sure how successful this attempt was—and then proceeded made herself presentable for her job.
The distraction of work would help.
She left her home and managed to arrive at her usual time—a blessing, she thought as she offered friendly smiles and ‘good mornings’ to the other employees as she passed them on her way to Keelan’s office. When she got there, she knocked on the office door and opened it at Keelan’s invitation.
She strode into the office and tried not to let her inner pain show as she offered her employer a smile and a curtsy, “Good day, My Lord.”
Post by Keelan Morrigan on Aug 10, 2023 8:15:06 GMT -5
"It's another day, yes," he very gloomy with the up turn that Keelan was in a particularly good mood, minus the smile or the emotion of "chipper", Rhedara had her own corner of the office so Keelan didn't move from behind his desk but he did watch her as she settled.
"You don't have to do that curtsey stuff with me Miss Shannon, lord or mister Morrigan is fine by me," he corrected her, gently, well as gently as Keelan could, "We have two things to celebrate today, first check that envelope on your desk...."
Post by Rhedara Shannon on Aug 10, 2023 9:15:13 GMT -5
Keelan was a difficult man to read, but Rhedara had spent enough time with him that she could usually gauge his moods. He seemed rather cheerful today…or cheerful for him, at least. The last time she’d seen him this happy was when she’d assisted him in sabotaging the Vitlock brothers. Had he done something similar with someone else and she’d not known about it? It was possible. She wasn’t sure how much of his business dealings she was privy to, although she suspected she was aware of most of what he did.
His direction to cease with the curtseying would have been met with an embarrassed blush if she were feeling entirely herself. Since she wasn’t, she only smiled and nodded her head, “Alright.” She walked to her designated space in his office and would sit at her desk, seeing the envelope before her boss pointed it out to her. She picked it up and read it.
Wait. Was she reading it right? She read it again, saw the words “Vitlock brothers” and “business and all assets owned by the Morrigan company” and finally that that newly acquired business would be managed by…her. No, she’d not misread it. A mixture of excitement and nervousness danced in her chest as she looked up from the letter to look at Keelan, “I’m managing the Vitlock brother’s business?” She didn’t bother to ask if he was really willing to trust her with that. He’d already designated her as such, and her employer really wasn’t a man to do anything careless when it came to business, and she would do what it took to not disappoint him. This really was something to celebrate. Her love life had thrown itself on a pyre, but at least her job was looking up, “I won’t let you down,” her smile was genuine, the first genuine smile she’d had that day, “What’s the other thing we’re celebrating—assuming that this,” she waved the letter in the air, “Wasn’t one of those things,” she’d be celebrating later, that was for sure.
Post by Keelan Morrigan on Aug 14, 2023 8:35:16 GMT -5
Keelan was thrilled, though his face didn't say as much, but the eyes. They were pleased even genuinely happy for Rhedara as bad of a man as Keelan Morrigan was or how he carried himself those employed by him Keelan kept happy and healthy, his tight grasp over them while circumstance proved strong in connection.
"No that was one of them," Keelan stood and went to his locked booze cabinet and took from it a very rare bottle of barrel bourbon plus two glasses, "Consider this a bonus for how well you handled yourself with the Vitlock case, I will take my standard twenty five percent from the business and the rest is yours," he poured them both a glass of the bourbon, "This bottle of bourbon was a gift from the great great great grandfather of King Urion Ellis, given to my Father's great great great Grandfather I found it when I claimed the things left to me by my Father...it will be most certainly divine," he held up his glass, "To the Shannon Trading Company," she could change the name of course, it was just a proxy for now, and after they toasted Keelan took the simplest sip before continuing, "now the second thing while still quiet far off to celebrate is my future marriage...Miss Shannon how would you like to help me find a wife?"
Post by Rhedara Shannon on Aug 15, 2023 7:28:05 GMT -5
“This is a generous bonus,” She really would not have expected to be in a position like this in a million years given how her year had been going up until then as far as jobs went. She remembered how she thought the world was ending because she’d been kicked out of the military, something that she had seen as her dream job, her ticket toward having enough money that she’d not have to worry about feeding herself. Now she was going to oversee a sister company of a Morrigan—and at eighteen too! She had to resist the urge to do a happy shoulder wiggle. She needed to behave with a little decorum, right? Life was looking up. Maybe she ought to thank Abbott after all…
Nah, she’d thank her employer. If it weren’t for Keelan, she would have eventually been kicked to the streets.
A glass of the nicest bourbon Rhedara would probably ever drink was poured out. She’d still not quite grown a taste for hard liquor, but who would pass up an opportunity to drink something that was gifted from a non Rainecourt monarch? She held her glass up when he held his own up, “To profitable business,” she added before drinking it. Thankfully, she’d built up a bit of a tolerance to hard liquor since Keelan had first hired her, so she did not cough, but her eyes watered a bit. Progress was good. And the bourbon was good, as Keelan said it would surely be. It was smooth, and she thought she might have tasted something nutty compared to some other whiskeys she’d had, but she was no connoisseur of any spirits, let alone bourbon “That is good,” she said, “King Urion had good taste.”
The next bit of business was a bit of a shock, although it shouldn’t have been. Nobles, she remembered, were a bit strange when it came to matrimony. Briefly, the flash of a memory from the last time she’d seen—she squished it down. This was a good day, and she’d not ruin it by thinking about him, “A wife, my lord?” She raised her eyebrows curiously, “Of course I’ll help, although I don’t know what help I’ll be,” she’d never helped anyone look for a spouse, and her own love life had plummeted into the ground. However, Rhedara was not one to shirk on any task or responsibility that was given to her. She’d give it her all and then some once she figured out exactly what she was expected to do.
Post by Keelan Morrigan on Aug 19, 2023 10:33:21 GMT -5
Keelan wasn't phased by liquor or any booze, it might have to do with drinking since he was eleven at dinner parties that gave him such a tolerance, he quietly reflected as he watched and listened to Rhedara. She always asked the right questions so he sat a bundle of lovely red envelopes sealed by the Morrigan Family wax crest, "I have picked those of most interest from noble families, make sure they get these first and foremost, then we let the games begin!" there was a moment of rare excitement that left Keelan before it of course faded behind those blue eyes.
He sipped again from his glass swirling the amber liquid inside, "Also, one last piece of business...my sister, Edith Byron, she was arrested not long ago and she has been moved to a place that not even I can reach to learn about, Bedlam? Do you know it?"
Post by Rhedara Shannon on Aug 24, 2023 22:10:46 GMT -5
Rhedara looked at the red envelopes with interest. Now those were fancy! How expensive had the acquisition of so many envelopes that were dyed red been? The nobility would never fail to amaze her, she decided, “I’ll see to it personally, my lord,” it would be a long task, she knew, delivering all the letters. How would each household respond, she wondered?
But her new task was not the end of the discussion, “Bedlam?” She was silent as she searched her memory for any mention of that place, but nothing came, “I don’t know anything of it…is it a prison?” It had to be if his sister had been taken there after being arrested, “Do you want me to see about scheduling a visitation with her?” It was the only thing she could think he would want as far as a prisoner in a probably prison would be.
Post by Keelan Morrigan on Aug 28, 2023 20:22:41 GMT -5
"No," he didn't bother to think about it there was no way he could go around or be seen having any public relations with his sister for the time being, "Some places believe it or not I don't even have the pull, if it was military I could perhaps get something but no luck. I do have a name we both can investigate, Cam Pyetr, supposedly he's the chode who runs Bedlam."
Post by Rhedara Shannon on Sept 9, 2023 8:16:42 GMT -5
Bedlam seemed like a place Rhedara did not want to be stuck at if even someone like Keelan was unable to have any influence over it. The name of the man who ran what could only be a prison was unfamiliar to Rhedara…not that that was any surprise. Rhedara was still trying to at least be familiar with the names of anyone worth knowing, but since she grew up as a commoner, she was starting more or less from the ground up.
“Is that all we know about him? That he runs Bedlam? What do you need me to do?”
Post by Keelan Morrigan on Sept 15, 2023 7:51:28 GMT -5
"Nothing for now," Keelan replied in a actual protective manner, "With your record in the military this Cam would be a hard on for you, the one contact I have said his place is a place for wayward Witches...I don't want you getting tangled up with him. You handle my letters, I'm thinking I will have a meeting with our good doctor first, find out just what kind of man we are dealing with first."
Post by Rhedara Shannon on Sept 21, 2023 13:56:52 GMT -5
This Cam person and Bedlam…if her track record with the military would cause her problems when talking to this Cam were any indication, this prison was a lot more of an issue than she’d initially thought it would be. What in the name of the goddess was this place, and why wasn’t it talked about more? Surely Keelan’s sister wasn’t the only witch to be snatched off the streets and placed there. Did they silence the families of those taken? Why was there so much silence about it? “Are they hiding something horrible in there?” She asked before she could stop herself. She didn’t think he knew much more than what he’d revealed to her, “If it’s a place where they put witches in, why isn’t it more well-known?”
Then the fact that he wanted her to stay away from the whole thing for her own protection sank in. He was protecting her? Even with all she knew, she hadn’t quite expected him to do this. He’d had her plant evidence for him, after all. Her chest squeezed as she felt more of a sense of belonging—something she desperately needed at that moment, “I’ll stay away from it, my lord, until you tell me otherwise,” if the proprietor of the prison didn’t already know about her and her lack of self-control, “And I’ll see to it these letters are delivered. Do you want me to wait for them to reply to the messages?”
Post by Keelan Morrigan on Sept 22, 2023 14:05:27 GMT -5
Keelan appreciated Rhedara and her still working through the problem with him, he had asked himself those very same questions. While he was keeping her safe from the entire problem at the moment Keelan didn't mind to let her think about it and have the insight of a fresh mind later on. If Keelan cared for Rhedara he never would say but his actions yelled loudly enough for him.
Still he had his part to do, but the conversation had changed, "Yes, please wait for their responses...but let me ask you something...am I being to brash in my approach to marriage?"
Post by Rhedara Shannon on Oct 7, 2023 19:22:04 GMT -5
Rhedara nodded, her upcoming task clear to her. From the stack on her desk, she knew that it would be an all day sort of job, if not a few days depending on how long the nobles decided to make her commoner self wait. At least she didn’t have to look into that prison at the moment. If that guy who ran it had ever heard of her, he might decide to just toss her in it, and that was the last thing Rhedara needed in her life just then…or ever for that matter. Prison was for the birds.
She’d been prepared to go about business as usual, and to also plan out her upcoming route, when Keelan asked her his question. It was a good question, and one that Rhedara had actually thought about herself. Still, she took a moment to decide how to answer. Growing up, she’d idolized the nobility, wishing her mother hadn’t forsaken her own noble status for her father’s commoner one. However, the older she got, and the more she interacted with the nobility, the more confused she became. They were a strange lot, so fancy and proper, but they all played their own nasty little games with each other…games she was beginning to understand and be a part of. Marriage was no different…the nobles were so…passionless when it came to marriage. A season ago, she’d been horrified at the prospect, but with her recent heartbreak…she’d wondered if that was the best way to go about it.
It hurt less that way.
“Some might think you brash,” she said thoughtfully, “But I do not. How is anyone to know you’re looking if you’re being too subtle? Boldness is an—” she hesitated, nearly saying that boldness was an attractive quality, but decided that would be wildly inappropriate to say to her boss even though she was helping him in his efforts to marry himself off, “is a memorable quality, and I think that a lot of women look for that in a man,” another pause, “Women like a man who knows what he wants.”
Post by Keelan Morrigan on Oct 7, 2023 19:59:25 GMT -5
A short pause, he liked the pause, it was a tall tale sign that one perhaps wanted to say more maybe she wasn't telling all of her truths.
He stood and shoved his hands into his pockets, Keelan knew of the break up and had been the catalyst for it after all he slowly approached Rhedara never the drop of his stone like expression but oh wee were those blue eyes locked on hers. With each step to ward her he asked, "Is," closer, "that," standing beside her, "what," he was leaning down close to her ear now , "Women like? A brash and know what he wants man?" he twisted just enough that his lips practically could touch her ear, "what if he really doesn't know what he wants? What if this is a facade for finding a loop hole into marriage because he's afraid to love?"