Affiliation: Heir of Thring
Family: Ducal family of Thring
Home: Castle Tarengael (16.16)
Relatives: Lady of Thring (mother), Duke of Thring (father), Sir Boros (uncle), half-brother (with Lady Natala, disputed)
When Princess Elandra, the heir to The Duchy of Thring, was born The Green Lady gave her a gift: she cries nothing but gems. When she skinned her knee she cried quartz, when her sister died she cried topaz and when her father screamed at her that he’d skin her new kitten if she stopped crying because he needed more gems to fund the ongoing repairs of Castle Tarengael she wept fat rubies.
Princess Elandra has heard every tragedy from Thring to the ends of the earth and while once she cried when breakfast was much past due, or when brooks went dry, or brandyfruit were overripe or when the sheep got something in their eye, now she weeps no more. She’s heard of lovers lost to the Courting Death (32.12) and princesses fed to geese and even saw the death of her youngest niece, but she has no more tears.
So her father, the Duke of Thring, has decreed that when each day passes and the night closes in suitors may approach and tell her tales of woe and bitter sadness in hopes that they will be able to make her cry again. Her father has promised that whoever is able to make her cry will marry poor Elandra and be the next Duke of the Thring provided that, of course, he let him have enough gems to hire a mercenary army to drive the Lords Sanguine from Gore once and for all.
Connection:
- A man whose nine sisters were strung up in trees so that mushrooms would grow on them hopes to make Elandra cry (34.10).
Subhexes:
- Suitors have gathered from across the land to try to win the princess’s hand by making her cry.
Hooks:
- Wait a second, Princess Elandra is the daughter of a Duke not a King, why’s she a princess?
- Why did the Green Lady hand out that gift? Does she usually give this kind of gifts?
- Is there anyone in all of these lands who’s a worse father than the Duke of Thring?
- What did the Duke spend all of the gems on besides tower repair?
- What’s brandyfruit?
- Who’s flocking to Castle Tarengael to tell tear-jerking stories?
Two Suitors of Princess Elandra
Hex 16.16.10
Connects to: 07.18, 09.09, 10.09, 16.16.02, 16.16.08 and 50.20.
One suitor to the fair princess (16.16.08) is Sir Mimslet, a brutish Thringish knight of harlequin chequer. More suited to ribald jokes than sorrowful tales, the knight has little inspiration and is waiting at court until he can bribe or cajole someone into suggesting a story. The daughter of Ser Gareth Lemarr is cutting her hair in the Glade of Womanhood (07.18) at this very moment because she knows a story that will bring tears to Elandra and hopes that if she shares it with Sir Mimslet while disguised as a boy he will accept her as his squire.
The woman Lemarr will tell not a fable to Sir Mimslet, but the truth. Six years ago, the daughter of the Duke of Thring played with a daughter of the knight Ser Lemarr. The girlchild Lemarr had been left as a hostage to ensure peace between Gore and Thring. The two children grew close, and the Gorean girl soothed Elandra whenever the hardness of the world wet the princess’ eyes.
The Duke could not have this, and one night seized Lemarr’s child and delivered her up to her father. Ser Lemarr was ill-pleased and the custom of hostage-keeping between the nations ended. More importantly to the Duke, sapphires of the finest water tumbled from Elandra’s eyes for weeks on end.
The Gorean girl becomes a woman today, and in the Glade of Womanhood will become a man. Disguising her voice and figure, she will come to the court, tell the story to Sir Mimslet, and hope to make Elandra cry tears of recognition.
Sir Mimslet is not the only one to try to win princess’s hand by making her cry. The Sparrow Knight is a rogue who fights in moon elephant leather and keeps a feather token around his neck. His notoriety comes from losing the Battle of the Hand (16.16.02), and yet surviving – indeed, floating gently to earth just as Sir Waine once did.
The connection runs deeper than this: he claims to know Sir Waine’s secrets and the source of the feather token. More traditional knights consider the Sparrow Knight’s irreverent style an insult to Sir Waine, but the knight contends that Sir Waine was a radical in his day, creating the customs that are now considered timeless.
The Sparrow Knight claims to have answered the mystery of the Haunted Statue (10.09) – a tale of woe so acute that the princess will have no choice but to fall to weeping (09.09).
Hooks:
- Is the woman Lemarr’s only motive love, or is she cognisant of the Duke’s plan to invade Gore?
- What is the woman Lemarr’s first name?
- Where do the feather tokens come from? Is the Sparrow Knight truly associated with Sir Waine?
- Does the Sparrow Knight truly have an explanation for the Haunted Statue?