Alvise Ettienne was once a wealthy and respected silk merchant and a noble of the City of Shuttered Windows. All of that began to change when the old Doge died and an election was announced. He gathered with the other electors in the Old Council Tower (29.14.06) and during the lengthy proceedings of the ducal election, he felt greatly honored when he was chosen as one of the Forty.
A message was duly sent to the Brothers of the Grove (33.16) so that the augurs could determine which Twelve of the Forty would proceed to the next stage of the election. Due to a cow-related mishap, Alvise was declared the twelfth Elector to proceed to the next stage of the elections, but so were two others, which necessitated legal and bodily combination so that the election could proceed as the God of the City had obviously decreed.
At first the priests of the Temple Indivisible were somewhat perplexed as to how this feat could be accomplished. Happily, Severard of the Seven Circles (13.08) had arrived at the election festivities as an uninvited guest with the Lady (40.06) herself on his arm. And so, while the priests of the Temple staved off the effects of blood loss, the Lady removed the heads of Georj Casteneu and Irabelle Vantisse and grafted them to Alvise’s shoulders. In order to compensate for the increased blood flow that the additional heads required, Severard increased the size of Alvise’s body, while keeping his head at its old size.
Alvise Ettienne, Georj Casteneu and Irabella Vantisse were declared one person indivisible and the election was allowed to proceed, much to the relief of the assembled electors who had been stuck in the Old Council Tower the whole time, and despite some unfortunate screaming the new being cast its vote and the election proceeded. At this time the households of the three were merged, which resulted in some complicated domestic arrangements, especially after Dovan Vantisse was presented with the headless body of his wife and took some extreme measures in response.
Several years later, after a sharp discussion with an incompetent gardener, Alvise Ettienne was surprised to discover that a residue of the Lady’s magic remained and that if a freshly severed head was pressed to his body it would graft itself to his flesh and survive. Thereafter Alvise expanded his collection of heads, which caused something of a scandal in Shuttered. He exercised his prerogatives as a noble of the City but was eventually forced out.
He took his family with him, which now included nine sons named Alvise who soon grew to match the size of their father, and settled on the western edge of the Freeholds, where he built a wooden keep as tall as it is ugly that is now known as Ettin Castle. He raises goats and extracts tolls from travellers and is always on the lookout for a promising new head, but is careful not to so antagonize his neighbors that they would ally against him, for he was a noble of the City and is a politician still. In any case, whenever he kills someone Irabella natters on about it in his ear for days and Georj’s rambling monologues get stranger and louder.
At Ettin Castle (13.06), the Alvises have learned several things about the enchantment that affects them. Heads that are added retain their original memories and skills, which the other heads can access. However, being introduced suddenly to an ettin’s body is not pleasant and drives many heads to madness. The primary head is able to keep the others in line most of the time if it has a strong will, but if it is weak-willed or not careful in the choosing of its heads then the new heads can do anything from screaming warnings to those the ettin is trying to ambush, to begging for death during combat, to even wrestling with the primary head for control of the body.
The elder Alvise had already commissioned a crown and plans to proclaim himself King of the Giants when the time is ripe. There are just a few more preparations left…
Connections:
- The ettins take giant bee mead from the nearby halflings (11.08), often without payment.
- Alvise Ettienne, the nephew of the Alvise Ettienne who became an ettin, manages the family’s old silk business in the City (29.14.46).
Hooks:
- What “extreme measures” did Dovan Vantisse take?
- How much power do Irabella and Georj have over the body that they share with Alvise (and various new heads).
- What about the nine younger Alvises? What heads have they collected? What are their relationships like with their new heads? Do any of them have children of their own? Did any of them try to graft a chicken head to their elbow? What happened?
- Except for the ettins, who else lives at Ettin Castle? Are any of the family members of the three heads still about?
- Who did Alvise commission a crown from? That sounds like a hard job.
- What preparations is Alvise making before he crowns himself king and tries to carve out a kingdom?