Da Rules:

Cearnach wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 20, 2021 2:11 am

The Court of Love: a Tribunal chaired by Eleanor of Aquitaine, featuring Ermengarde, Queen of Scotland, and Marie de France.

This is a hybrid Roll- and Role-play Event, in which women and scholars can broach subjects in order to elucidate the nature of love and debate them with these great ladies.

When you begin, make a separate thread for your disputation in the Westminster Hall area.

The debate turns on rolls of any of these skills:
Compose
Courtesy
Folklore
Intrigue
Orate
Religion (Roman Catholicism)
Romance
Singing
Stewardship

Note that your argument should reflect the skill that you are using.

Each attempt consists of at least 4 rolls.

1. A successful skill roll with one of the above skills to broach the subject. Please make sure your opening statement is open enough to entertain comment. Successfully broached subjects earn 10 points.

2-4. Each of the Great Ladies will comment on your subject, and you will be invited to reply to their comment. This will take the form of contested rolls. Success with Queen Ermengarde's intervention will net 15 glory. Success with Marie de France's intervention will earn 20 glory. Success with Eleanor of Aquitaine's intervention will earn 30 glory.


Optional 5-?: In addition, a PC may intervene once during the event on another PC's argument. The victor of that exchange will earn 15 glory.

First post incoming.

Andre makes his way before the tribunal, bowing as eloquently as his jiggling bulk will allow.

"Ladies judges," he says, "in the first part, my gratitude for your indulgence in this and for the opportunity to learn from your eminences about that most sublime subject of love. For, as might be imagined," and he pats his generous stomach, "it is not something with which I have had the benefit of as much experience as many might claim, nor even the experience which they themselves actually possess, the report of events all too often exceeding the truth of them in such matters.

"No," he continues, "it is certain that men such as myself are not held gifted in such arts as are of love. But such men as I do know the stories that are told of old, and keep them and pass them on, and love does factor greatly into them. For instance, we are told in the stories that come down from Gildas Sapiens via Caradoc that the Once and Future King, who ruled the Britons in times of old, did quest in support of his beloved wife, feeling the call of his heart to her even as later stories bear her out as they do. But here, perhaps, again, report exceeds the action, and the older sources do not attest that Gwenhwyfar was all unfaithful to so great a man and king as Arthur, one of the worthiest and most worshipful of men.

"Indeed, even Galfridus Monemutensis makes such reports, that Arthur was so called by concern for his beloved wife that he left off campaign to return to his home and her deliverance, even if it cost him his life in the process. So even such men as I can see that love is a mighty force in the human heart, as should be, and therefore all the more fit for consideration in high places."

~~~~~
Roll the First
Folklore 15, passes at 9, https://orokos.com/roll/913436
Topic is broached.
+10 Glory; will adjust totals after event completion

Queen Ermengarde considers this for a time.

"You raise the example of King Arthur to justify your assertion that love is a prime motivator for heroes in the great stories. I wonder, sir, whether you have given consideration to legends attaching themselves to Sir Gawain, whose temptation toward carnal knowledge of his host's wife--carnal knowledge that he at first resisted, but came to seek--led to his compromising his virtue and failing to honor his word to the Green Knight. From this we understand that unchaste love between man and woman may cut in both directions--a motivator to heroic deeds, certainly, but also a corrupter to ignoble ends. How are we to make sense of this paradox?"

Romance, tn 12: 1d20 8

Andre smiles and nods his head to the Queen.

"Her Majesty is correct to note the stories of Gawain, a son of Orkney and Arthur's sister-son--a relationship that puts him in particular privilege in Arthur's court, of course," he says, "and so one that may make of him a particular model. And," he adds, conceding a point in high debate fashion, "Her Majesty is correct to note that Gawain does err in his conduct with the Lord and Lady Bertilak--though how could it be that he would do well to compound his error by committing another, making adulterers of both spouses by having such knowledge of both, and in violation of other parts of Scripture, besides, for which the penance is quite steep, indeed? But it is the case that Gawain atones for his error, the girdle he gains in token of his endeavors becoming a symbol of penitence for him.

"But perhaps his encounter with the Dame Ragnell offers more guidance, for in it, Gawain turns to the court of ladies for guidance in response to his error--and what man does not err? and if not so greatly as Gawain, there are few who have been so mighty, either--even as this court turns to their eminences in doing so? So it is that there is advice for us in the tales passed down, both in things to avoid and things to favor. Wisdom is in discerning which is which, but even Scripture speaks of evil men and follies of others; that it does so does not mean the Word is bad to hear or follow. Nor yet, then, could be the stories of Britain's own worthy, or those attending upon him, being as all things are models to follow for our instruction."

~~~~~
Roll the Second
Orate 15, passes at 14, https://orokos.com/roll/913518
Not sure how this comes out contested, but I did pass the roll...

Marie de France considers this for a moment. "I wonder if the noble scholar will be so kind as to delineate for the court what distinguishes an example of love that instructs us in the way to go from an example meant only to show us an incorrect path? "By their works shall ye know them," I have heard it said, and yet I would feel the ground much more secure with delineated categories of such works, yes?"

Romance, tn 15: 1d20 2

Andre smiles and bows again. "Milady flatters," he says, and launches into his reply.

"Nor is she wrong to look for more certainty. Indeed, it is in pursuit of such things that kings in generation after generation promulgate their codes of laws, although they look repeatedly to the laws of Edward for inspiration who follow his time and include them within their own dicta by reference. And it might be that recourse to the laws of Edward might be a guide to such things, but though the highest laws, given by Our Lord, are to love God and love our neighbors, the laws of the kings under heaven are typically more concerned with making things right than with ensuring that they do not go wrongly. Such is a fitting response to our fallen world, which we must all work to reclaim.

"So we must, as milady says, turn to the stories of old and our new and emergent understandings of the same for guidance in such matters. And in them, we might see that some fare well and some fare poorly, inviting us to consider that those who fare well offer examples to follow and that those who fare poorly offer examples to flee. To return to the Arthurian example, with which my teacher's teacher had much to do and which pervades the lands near my home, the king's advisor Merlin falls in his old age into some affection for Nimue, and yet he fares poorly with it, being imprisoned by her. Yet there are other stories, less recorded, perhaps, that tell of Peredur and his beloved Blodengwyn, for whom he does many deeds and with whom he spends many happy years in peace and glory after. The one would seem to be an adverse example, the other one to follow, and careful study and record of the tales might well provide more examples, and perhaps a fuller rubric, as well."

~~~~~
+15 Glory from Ermengarde
Roll the Third
Folklore 15, CRITICAL SUCCESS at 15, https://orokos.com/roll/913621
+20 Glory. additional +10 for the Critical Success, plus experience check. Total Glory thus far: 45

"And well we know of lovers imprisoned by those who professed love and loved them not." The old queen speaks, leaning forward in her seat. "The learned Marcher speaks well of events constructed by authors, whose desire to provide instruction and entertainment makes them more facile to be parsed. And yet they are not of much value if we cannot apply their lessons to reality. So I invite the noble scholar, Andre l'Ecrivain, to read my history and find therein a goodly lesson."

Intrigue check, tn 22: 1d20+2 12

Andre bows his head to the older woman.

Maiden, matron, and crone, he thinks, but I dare not tread heavily, whatever my bulk.

He finds himself lapsing into silence, as if he had poured out all his words and learning in his previous replies. After a time, he bows his head.

"I must confess, great lady, that I am not a student apt enough to merit your tutelage. Forgive me my failing, and thank you for the benefit of your wisdom."

He bows again.

~~~~~
Roll the Fourth
Intrigue 15, failed at 17, https://orokos.com/roll/913739

This disputation is now open for interventions!!

Giles reminds me that I totally forgot the first round. +10 additional glory=55 total.