The Court of Dusk
The Court of Dusk is the ruling faction of Sil-Elaine, perpetuating a system of oligarchic nobility that favors the Dranoch above all others. Within this system, there are no Houses, and only six Lords — Gratiana of Veranor, Rathian of the Barge, Earandil of Feloran, Elenwe of Ard Mora, Morrigan of the Ashen Mooring, and Anton of Morian. As the six realms of Sil-Elaine, it is indisputable that the Court of Dusk holds a hegemonic grip.
Yet within their order lies a foundation built on cruelty and exploitation; and within that cruelty is an ever growing movement to cast them down.
Governance
The Court of Dusk is a system of nobility, but one that cannot even remotely be compared to the sprawling multi-level noble bureaucracy of a Kingdom like Lorien. Instead, there are only six nobles in the entire Realm: the Courtiers themselves, who occupy the title of Lord of each of the six regions. Generally they live and rule directly from their own domain, though they often converge to Veranor to hold wider meetings or approach one another from a distance as a projection of blood vapor, a Dranoch Huntsman ability.
The six Courtiers of Dusk rule everything with absolute authority. With their progeny - Dranoch Cardinals - fulfilling their will by compulsion if necessary, the system of government in Sil-Elaine is efficient in that it requires very little politics. The Courtiers roughly all have the same goal; to survive and continue to evolve, using the Sil'norai as livestock to achieve that end, where they believe there is an evolution even beyond Huntsman.
And so, the nearly peerless power structure they've built has largely been to fulfill that purpose: to rebuild the population of Sil-Elaine albeit slowly, as a considerable sector of the population is consumed each year. In order to continue this malignant cycle, the Dranoch have gained a monopoly on the vast majority of institutions including that of the military and the armed guard, keeping the Sil'norai disarmed and largely vulnerable to the will of their masters.
There is no official leader of the Court of Dusk, as it is an equal council of six. However, Gratiana is widely accepted as their leader and tends to act as one particularly when deliberations have moved towards the decisioning process. There is a surprising level of coordination within the Court, and decisions appear to come easily, but some Cardinals have claimed that behind the scenes there is scheming: for one Courtier to gain a better realm, for a Courtier to be allowed to make their own decisions, or even for a Courtier to dispose of another so that they may drink of the soul of their kin, certain - supposedly - to bring them evolution.
Race: Sil'norai (Dranoch Huntsman)
Date of Birth: 59th of Glade, Year 3877
Title: Courtier of Dusk, Lady of Veranor
Details: Gratiana is the last surviving member of the royal line of Silor, and as the Lady of Veranor acts as the leader of the Court of Dusk, the chair of their council and - by extension - she acts as an authoritative figure to all Dranoch, a parent or grandparent to the whole of their species, like the rest of the Court. Her relationship to the Dranoch is above that of even the others, however: Gratiana was the first Dranoch, with Valteran already tied to the woman from before, a master Vitalis mage. Through her blood, all Dranoch were created, including the other Courtiers of Dusk. Out of reach, then, even by the standards set by other Courtiers, the Lady of Veranor has retained her position despite internal conspiracy and even the gradual decline of Dranoch hegemony since the insurgence of the Black Remedy twenty years ago.
Gratiana was - within the Elainian dynasty - the eleventh child, the seventh daughter and near to last to inherit. Despite the clearly unlikely outcome, the young girl - and eventually woman - always sought to surpass her elder siblings in statecraft and other such political skills. And in the eye of many, at least on a purely objective level, Gratiana was perhaps the best among all her siblings; courteous, confident and well-spoken, brilliant and capable of turning even betrayal and deceit to her advantage. Yet so far in the line, she did not acquire much of the attention she so craved... not the affirmation of a mother and father who claimed to love her, nor from the Sil'norai nobility that wished to retain their own familial wealth and nothing else.
Desperate to put her talents to use, Gratiana joined the court as an adviser to her elder brother, Prince Lordrin, the heir to the throne. From within his fledgling circle of connections she began to build the infrastructure of a larger weave of sycophants, those who deserved far more than what they were given by circumstance.
The rest is largely history - Gratiana forged a group within the Noble circles of the then-Kingdom, and during the Sundering she and the surviving Courtiers conspired to control the land and consorted with Dark Gods to that end. This is well known. But after?
Gratiana has been, since her emergence as the Lady of Veranor, a callous ruler - one with little empathy for the livestock that she desperately keeps locked within her realm. She is a formal and calculating presence, with a clearly pragmatic personality that would lend no credence to overtly positive or negative behaviors. She is intelligent and this is made clear within a glance, the woman carried with utmost security in her own knowledge of the people around her.
Ultimately, Gratiana views herself still as a Sil'norai and as their leader, and believes that her dictatorial control is necessary for their survival. She believes the Dranoch have kept the Sil'norai alive despite living amidst the epicenter of the Sundering, a feat the Clockwork Empire did not accomplish. As such, she maintains no moral quandaries.
Note: It is possible to become a Courtier of Dusk, but one must first become a Dranoch Huntsman and engage in a moderated questline.
