Señor Blue’s gauntlet.

What I might or mightn’t have had in mind then doesn’t have much bearing on what we might have in mind now that we know a little more about the particulars of the situation. —What I’d thought at the time was that Mr. Blue’s power was self-evident, but that his social skills and general lack of polish (even for the Savacions) was problematic, and that Nechanorré, having put so much effort in securing Blue as an apprentice in the first place, was determined to see the boy become a mage in good standing in the House, so therefore he was more than willing to do what he had to to ensure a gauntlet that would be accepted by most without probing Blue’s weak spots unduly. —He was an eminence grise, and the Coronal of the Shield of the Order; I think perhaps he publicly supported Boccaccio in the First Sword business (or publicly made it clear Boccaccio would have his support, if it came to that) in return for a clean if unorthodox solo gauntlet, and that would help explain Boccaccio’s zeal in pursuing the Isrillionites when the diabolism became known: disassociating himself from his former supporter. Or maybe Nechanorré promised Pantera and Hugh that he’d keep Blue on a short leash and not let Blue’s freakish power harm their students’ entries into the House (or, for that matter, their students’ physical selves) in return for not raising a fuss about certain irregularities when it came to how Blue was tested. Or some combination of the two, or more besides. —I could see the old fox playing Pantera and Boccaccio against each other, promising Boccaccio support if Boccaccio supported Blue; promising Pantera a push to get Iphigenia gauntleted right away with Blue, if she promised to support Blue; that sort of thing. Was Hugh with Porphyrus and Phrancor? I don’t remember. I don’t think he would have seen much of a percentage in working the Roses, but there’s fishiness enough in what happened, so maybe Nechanorré also helped Nix Nivea in return for securing Blue’s place?

The Irregular Gauntlet of 418?
Nechanorré, having put so much effort in securing Blue as an apprentice in the first place, was determined to see the boy become a mage in good standing in the House, so therefore he was more than willing to do what he had to to ensure a gauntlet that would be accepted by most without probing Blue’s weak spots unduly.

Aye-up. That's what I was thinking as well. That, and also about the fact that the sort of "hazing" which I've been imagining the "last man back" traditionally gets subjected to at your usual Savacion gauntlet...well... Um. Let's just say that I don't think that it would combine very well with Blue's particular way of coping with stress. And while Blue was indeed ideally suited to the "blowing things up impressively" aspect of the Savacion gauntlet, I have a really hard time imagining him managing the "find your way back here" part. Not without serious help, anyway.

At any rate, since there is in fact no historical record of massive mage deaths associated with the gauntlet of 418, I think it is safe to assume that something was arranged so as to ensure that none of Blue's weak spots were, uh, unduly probed.

I do like the idea that Nechanorre had cut a deal with Boccaccio in particular. I agree that it would add quite a bit of oomph to Boccaccio's later passion for dissin' on the Isrillionites.

I could see the old fox playing Pantera and Boccaccio against each other, promising Boccaccio support if Boccaccio supported Blue; promising Pantera a push to get Iphigenia gauntleted right away with Blue, if she promised to support Blue; that sort of thing.

Yeah, I can see him doing that too. That works quite well.

Was Hugh with Porphyrus and Phrancor? I don’t remember.

I don't know if the Arcadians' political allegiance was ever established at all. If it was, I don't remember it either.

It would seem fairly in-character for them to have been political neutrals, but given the weirdnesses of Savacion in-fighting in this period, I could happily believe them as having been supporters of any of the faction leaders, really.

Hmmmm. Well, let's see. Right now, we've got Ferricors listed as declared mage in 415. There's really no reason he couldn't be two years older than that, so if we wanted just to remove the Arcadians as a factor altogether, we could go that route, change his vital stats, and say that he was with the gauntlet of 413. Or, we could leave the 418 gauntlet as it is, and assume that the Arcadians were perfectly hip with the irregularities of the gauntlet of 418. For one thing, if the Tenellus incident is anything to go on, it doesn't seem that Hugh is all that much of a stickler anyway ("Oh, look! It's the rogue! Best just be on my way now...") For another thing, regardless of his political feelings about the whole First Sword business, I really can't see him having wanted to quibble with an arrangement that had already been agreed upon by Pantera, Boccaccio, and Nechanorre.

As for the Roses...hmmmm. Yes. Interesting timing, that, isn't it?

The irregularities of 418 could help to explain why it wasn't until Genae showed up for the rogue hunt in 422 that the House got all pissy about him. Possibly the 418 gauntlet was a quietish affair anyway, with not all that many disinterested parties present. I can think of a number of reasons why such an arrangement might have been in Pantera's best interests as well as Nechanorre's.

Another possibility occurs...
Yet another possibility here is that there was a gauntlet held, say, early in 418, which was to be for Ferricors, Iphigenia, and the no-show Genae Rosae; and that Nechanorre threw his support behind Boccaccio in exchange for a second one later in the year just for Blue alone.

We could even make the previous gauntlet a 417 gauntlet, if that makes it seem more plausible. It would just involve pushing Iphigenia's graduation date back a year.

I like the very irregular gauntlet option best
That is, the one with Mr. Blue present along with all of the others, but with an agreement that things are going to be arranged to protect Mr. Blue. I really like the image of Ferricors and Iphigenia looking at Mr. Blue, looking at each other, and silently agreeing that they just aren't going to try to mess with them.

Plus, I love the idea that Nix used the dubious circumstances of the arrangement of the gauntlet (and the rumors of Mr. Blue's derangement and wild power) to completely upset Genae Rosae into backing out on the gauntlet and that the other mages just assumed that Rosa Rosae's apprentice had refused to show up because of the un-kosher circumstances.

Admittedly, my biggest stake in this is Ferricors, which isn't that big of a stake, so others probably deserve a bigger say in this.

Yeah, Special Arrangements are spooky enough as is
Plus, I love the idea that Nix used the dubious circumstances of the arrangement of the gauntlet (and the rumors of Mr. Blue's derangement and wild power) to completely upset Genae Rosae into backing out on the gauntlet and that the other mages just assumed that Rosa Rosae's apprentice had refused to show up because of the un-kosher circumstances.

That idea tickles me, too. (I always do so love it when the "common wisdom" turns out to be wrong!)

Whether Nix also tried to spook him with tales of Mister Blue's wild power or tales of a gender-enforcement conspiracy or whatever, I'd bet that it was the rumours of "special arrangements" between the Coronal of Isrillion and the Bigwigs of Leo Compulsus that really put him off. Because you know, from the point of view of a rather urbane and aristocratic Derlethian, that just doesn't sound like it can bode any good no matter why it's happening, does it?

Besides. Who can be bothered to attend a Savacion gauntlet these days? It's all just so horribly passe, don't you know.

He wasn't as mad back in 418

I have a really hard time imagining him managing the "find your way back here" part. Not without serious help, anyway.

Keep in mind that Mr. Blue was gradually declining, mentally; plus he suffered a severe push into madness (okay, further into madness) when Nechanorre died. In my mind, Mr. Blue was somewhat less mad and somewhat more capable in 418 than he was when we first saw him played in 421.

So yeah, I think he would have been pretty insane in 418. And I think the other apprenti might have rationally decided that it wasn't worth it to try pushing him; I'm sure that there were incidents before that point in which people learned that it was dangerous to make Blue feel endangered. But nonetheless, I don't find it entirely unbelievable that he could have found his way back.

Well, maybe.

I'm not sure if this aspect of Mr. Blue's character (that he declined, rather than always being that mad) was clear to anyone but me. But if you think about it, it makes sense; if Mr. Blue had been as mad and destructive throughout his apprenticeship as he was when we saw him in the game, from 421 on, it would have been a miracle if any of the covenant's buildings were left standing.

Good point.
Good point. Probably back in 418, he could have made his way back, especially if he'd decided it was The Thing He Was Doing Right Now--you know, if he fixated on it as a goal--which it seems perfectly likely to me he would have done.

I'm not sure if this aspect of Mr. Blue's character (that he declined, rather than always being that mad) was clear to anyone but me...

Yeah, it was. I seem to remember in coming up a lot in in-character discussions of Blue in the Isrillion game. "He's getting worse, isn't he" was, as I recall, a rather common and gloomy refrain among some of the PCs.

Yes, of course!

Yeah, it was. I seem to remember in coming up a lot in in-character discussions of Blue in the Isrillion game. "He's getting worse, isn't he" was, as I recall, a rather common and gloomy refrain among some of the PCs.

I don't know how I forgot that - "he's getting worse, isn't he" practically became Mr. Blue's middle name for a while.

One further point.
If and as Blue gets even worse, he’s going to approach that nebulous line in Elias’s head between I don’t have to do anything and I really ought to do something, and the something that Elias would do looks a lot more like putting Blue out of his misery than anything else. Elias does consider this as something of a sacred duty—given the caveat that even sacred duties get neglected in favor of research or parens-defiling or brooding picturesquely over the latest slight. He’s distractable.

If and when that line is finally crossed, though, it should make life rather interesting in Isrillion, perhaps even the eastern end of the An valley, for a number of values of “interesting.” Do we think it might be sooner? Or later? How much more worse is worse?

Blue's Plotline
An excellent question. The "gloom" in that constant refrain of "he's getting worse, isn't he" was, of course, due to just that nagging suspicion: that eventually, Something Would Have To Be Done, and that that 'something' would need to entail Blue's death.

I guess with Nechanore gone, it is Elias's particular responsibility, isn't it. Ouch. Oh, ouch.

In 421, I seem to recall that Tydfal was still in a rather desperate state of denial about Blue's worsening mental state, even going so far as occasionally to try to explain to others that really, he wasn't that bad, no, really, he wasn't. That very desperation, though, tells me that it probably wouldn't take all that much more in the way of threats to life and limb of the covenant members for him to start thinking seriously about the virtues of euthanasia. How much more worse is worse? I really don't know. Given both Elias's tendency to secrecy and Tydfal's preference for 'don't ask, don't tell,' though, I can easily imagine an implicit understanding of "you're going to take care of it, and you're not going to tell me a damned thing about it" arising between the two of them, in time.

Sooner or later? Again, I don't know. I would prefer for it not to have come to a head before the 424 conjugation, as I'm having a difficult enough time imagining what all that was like without having to add such a significant new plot element into the mix, but other than that, I've no ideas.

I'd like to hear Barry's input on this one.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't come to a head until well after 424
When the game ended, Mr. Blue was working himself up towards raping one of the servant girls. I imagine that happens in 423 or 424, but I doubt anyone would be willing to kill him over the rape of a servant girl, even in the unlikely event that she'd dare report it.

I think that Tydfal would have been wise to arrange to have Mr. Blue taken on a road trip for the month of conjugation. But it could be that, by some miracle, Mr. Blue stayed calmly in his room throughout conjugation.

Then there comes a period of extreme non-sociability, in which Mr. Blue becomes interested primarily in learning to use his power to control dust, creating 3d patterns of swirling dust and imagining himself being swallowed by them. It's at this point that Mr. Blue surprises everyone by gaining a lot of control of his powers. Unfortunately, this is easily mistaken for him being less mad, which he wasn't - in fact, his paranoia and delusional tendencies were only increasing. Still, I think his dust period would have been enough to get him through 426 without incident.

In early 427, Mr. Blue witnesses a mad dog being put to death in sight of his tower window. Mr. Blue angrily murders whoever it was who killed the dog, with all the thought and effort of someone swatting a mosquito. That's probably when things go downhill rapidly, especially if the person killed was someone important.

More on Blue's Storyline
(I started a new thread, because the squish factor was getting pretty bad here on my smallish monitor)

I seem to remember that the serving girl Blue was working up an obsession with was Ash. She's an orphan, she already sidelines as the covenant trollope, and the only person who gives half a damn about her is Flip, who holds nearly as low status as she does and doesn't like her consorting with the magi anyway.

In other words, even if Blue roughed her up something bad, nothing would come of it, because nobody would care. And she'd see no point in reporting it to anyone anyway, because really -- what's there to report?

Yeah, I know. Ick. But that's what you get in a misogynist society.

I like the idea of Blue having been sent away for a little "Dissipation holiday" over the week of the conjugation. I suspect that everyone at Isrillion, Mister Blue himself very much included, would likely rally behind that idea. Marienberg, perhaps?

And the mad dog story is truly beautiful. As well as very, very sad.

Blue in Marienburg, or Blue in Faerieland
I dunno about sending him to Marienburg. Is there really anyone who wants to spend that much time in close contact with him? Or try to deal with him dealing with a city? Has he even ever been anywhere with that many people before?

On the other hand, we were pulling in a lot of faerie power from the Jasperdale, maybe we could get them to grab him from his tower again? The faerie side of the universe seems like about the only place where he can't do much harm.

On the other hand, we could get him to hang out and throw giant rocks at the Manereans... (and yes, Asonder definitely suggested it, if not while Mr. Blue was around).

Talk about tragically creepy majesty.

It strikes me that a possibly happy ending would be for Blue to seep further and further into the local regio until one day he just doesn’t come back, and he ends up with Aquilonia as a local minor fæ deity: the Blue Knight, maybe, of Tupelo’s court.

Blue in Faeryland
I think that all of the characters would far prefer that as a fate for Blue as well, if only they'd think of it. None of them really likes the idea of having him killed, and Tydfal remembers that Blue was somewhat agonizingly nostalgic about the time that he *did* spend in regio.

Asonder's chummy with the local fae, isn't he? I wonder if the Isrillion magi could just offer Blue to them. They are mountain fae, after all --it's possible that Tupelo's court could actually *use* a Wild Being Who Throws Big Rocks...

(I like the developing idea as well that this is just what we DO with Those Too Dangerous To Live Among Us at Isrillion. Other covenants exile people like that, or kill them. But at Isrillion? Nah. We just translate 'em into the fae realms.)

Asonder: send Blue to Tupelo
Asonder would definitely think of it when someone suggested sending Mr. Blue away for conjugation. "Let us send him to the mistress of the hunt, or to Tupelo," and "Do we really have to ask for him back? I do not think the mistress of the hunt would want to keep him, but Tupelo might."

Just One Swords PoV
Wilken, aka Asonder's Family Sword is pro-Mr. Blue's death (he's also for Elias finding a fatal mishap), suggesting it with annoying regularity. He is also vehemently against Mr. Blue going into and becoming part of the fae realm.

Not that Asonder will pay this any mind. The murderous messages are fairly non-stop. However Asonder is wasting time no matter what he is doing, when he should be out reunifying his families lands.

Wilkin the kill crazed sword
I think Wilkin will finally get a chance to get his hopes up when Asonder goes off apprentice hunting up the valley. Asonder definitely wants a noble Andar for an apprentice, and he definitely wants his apprentice to be oriented toward unifying the Andar. Hearing from Giles about Calvus and Nimus Animae is definitely going to spur him on towards this goal. He'd always thought of meddling that overtly in non-magical politics as being one of those stupid things the order forbade him from doing, but since that doesn't seem to be the case any more, he's all for going out and creating a valley Andar kingdom to counter-balance Ventria.

Like I said elsewhere, Asonder has a lot more patience than he used to, and is willing to wait fifteen years to train up an apprentice first. Why Asonder thinks it will be more permissable for his apprentice to become the power behind the throne than for himself to be it, I don't know. Maybe he just thinks that he has spent too many years not thinking politically, and never focused enough of his magical training on the right skills for the job; maybe he recognizes that it really isn't okay, and doesn't want to risk his neck on it just yet. I don't think he really knows either.

So why is Wilkin so opposed to dumping Blue into the Fae realms?

Google Trivia of the Day
This thread is currently the sixth thing to pop up if you do a Google search on keywords "Boccaccio" and "misogynist."

Well, it amused me.

The things you can learn from referrer logs...