1835 - The Fate of the Crown
Crown Prince Ferran's procession towards the capital drew much attention, including that of Regent Joan. As the Crown Prince came within a day's ride of the city, Joan left the city with a small retinue to intercept his path. No one witnessed the meeting between the two out of sight of the city, but the procession disappeared for a few days, rumours spreading that the Regent had kidnapped the Crown Prince. These were dispelled shortly after when the procession came within sight of the city once more and marched through the north gate with Joan and his men accompanying them. A crowd gathered, following them to the palace, where the Regent escorted the Crown Prince into the palace. Those gathered outside the palace waited impatiently as minutes stretched into hours. Eventually as the sun began to set, Joan and Ferran exited the palace to address the crowd.
Ferran stepped forward first, his face flushed and covered in sweat despite the cool evening air. He fidgeted a bit before speaking, and when he finally did his voice cracked and he had to stop to regain his composure. Much like his father, Ferran was not accustomed or comfortable with addressing a large group of people. The situation, however necessitated it. The people needed to know the truth. What was the fate of their Emperor?
After another lengthy moment of silence, Ferran cleared his throat and addressed the crowd again. "People of Hispania, I have come before you today first because of a tragedy and then because of rumours regarding my father. The loss of my beloved mother and the circumstances of her death are a tough burden to bear, but the rumours surrounding my father necessitate my return to court. Many of you believe my father, the Emperor, to be dead, partially due to the word's of my late mother."
Ferran paused a moment, licking his lips nervously. He glanced at Joan, who nodded for him to continue. "I'm afraid that my mother was mistaken, and it pains me that such a fallacy led to her death. My father is alive, if not well. The Emperor lives."
Murmurs spread throughout the crowd as the people took in this announcement. The Crown Prince had confirmed what they had all doubted, that the Emperor yet lived. It seemed a miracle that the man somehow remained in a coma all these years.
Ferran nervously played with the hem of his shirt. He glanced again at Joan, who was watching the crowd's reaction with great interest. The Crown Prince took in a deep breath, shaking visibly, as he said, "However, I must also tell you...."
Joan's gaze snapped to the Crown Prince and he sidled over and grabbed him by the arm. A slight tug pulled Ferran back a step or two, allowing the Regent to step out in front of him. With smug calmness, Joan said, "I'm afraid that will be all. This whole affair has taken a great toll on His Highness, and he has suffered enough for today." The Regent strutted forward, a figure of power and overwhelming strength in his military attire, a cold glare directed at the crowd. "Because of your petty rumours and lies, the Crown Prince has not only lost his mother, but was forced to witness his father's condition yet again. Let His Highness grieve in peace instead of using him as an intermediary to answer your questions. Perhaps now you all will know better than to doubt the Crown."
Dramatically turning on his heels, Joan locked his arm in Ferran's and escorted the Crown Prince back into the palace, practically dragging him along at one point. Ferran's head remained turned down, refusing to look at anyone as he was led away. Members of the Guàrdia Real ushered the crowd away from the palace, forcing them disperse. They had received their answer, even if it was not the one they may have expected. Yet no one felt satisfied with the answer, as though something was out of place. Was the Crown Prince's reaction one of genuine distress at his mother's death and father's condition, or was he worried about something else entirely? What had he been trying to say before Joan interrupted? Perhaps the Crown Prince's word was not enough. Answers would need to be found by someone else, or else action would have to be taken.
((Due to the closeness of the vote, I decided to leave the outcome somewhat ambiguous. At first sight, it appears that the status quo is maintained, but there may be more beneath the surface. Fire mentioned a few days ago that this whole conflict would be good IC material, and I agree. I avoided it during the gap years because I needed to keep things fairly linear to speed things along, but that's not necessary anymore. Now that I'm moving onto the conversion, I think we'll have a little IC event so everyone has something to do. Basically you can create characters or use your existing ones and write up IC reacting to recent events. From there you can choose to do what you want, perhaps trying to figure out what is really going on. You could even try to stir up some chaos or maintain order. The scope will have to be somewhat limited though, since it cannot impact the conversion, so no revolutions, mass rebellions, full-scale civil wars, etc. Ideally, any conflict should be contained within Valencia and the surrounding area. So if you want to IC anything, go ahead. If it will have any impact on the main event or is related to the royal family or anything major, I'll have to do a RNG roll. So if you wanted to speak to the Crown Prince or even assassinate someone, I'd have to do a roll for you. I know this is pretty loose in definition, but I wanted to give you guys something to do since I expect conversion to take some time due to my limited knowledge of Vicky 2 modding and other distractions (so many good video games in March...). If you have any questions or perhaps suggestions for how to best handle this, speak up. Admittedly, I'm not entirely sure if this is the best way to do things, but we shall see.))