Setting:

Verris is a kingdom built on divine blood, precise cruelty, and centuries of total power. It is a land where every smile is calculated, every ritual a reenactment of conquest, and power is passed not through merit, but through immaculate lineage.

Nobles trace their bloodlines back to gods; or claim to. Children are born into strategy, not family. Even the lowborn speak of legacy as if it’s a weapon they might one day wield.

The land itself reflects this arrogance: ancient cities carved into cliff faces, obsidian palaces with ceilings painted with gold-flecked murals of conquest, forests where old gods still stir. Magic is extremely rare, tied to blood, tied to ritual. It is feared, but also worshipped. Most citizens would rather die with grace than live without honor. Loyalty is kept by political leashes, subversion is common, and assassination is considered an art.

The Rosche dynasty has ruled Verris for five generations. Their reign secured by a combination of holy law and bloody politics. But there are fractures beneath the marble. Whispers of curses, of beasts, of unwanted heirs that don’t die quietly.

Leon: The cursed firstborn. Raised in a cage of prophecy and poison, Leon is both the consequence and rebellion of his bloodline. He was meant to vanish, quietly, behind a prettier heir; his curse making him the shame of the family. But he did not die, and he refused to hide himself away from the public eye. Arrogant, obsessive, and monstrously cunning, he has turned the fear of his curse into power and courtly humiliation into spectacle. He is not here to be loved, he is here to be remembered and feared.

Elkan: The second son. Everything Leon was not: tame, beautiful, and clean of curses. Raised to inherit the throne not by birthright, but out of his parents shame of Leon's curse. Elkan is not weak, he simply doesn't align with the cutthroat nature of Verrisi politics. His power lies in being beloved and underestimated. He wears his crown-in-waiting like a shackle and a shield, and one day, he may have to choose whether he wants to truly rule… or survive Leon's wrath.

King Maeric: A sovereign born of cold precision. His faith in Verrisi supremacy is absolute, and his loyalty is to legacy; not to people. He sees weakness as a rot and sentiment as a disease. Maeric does not hate Leon; he simply saw him as broken potential to be discarded. As trash, a fly in the ointment. The throne must endure, and if that means rewriting bloodlines, so be it.

Queen Iya: Once a priestess, now a queen who speaks rarely and strikes surgically. Iya is ambition wrapped in silence, with eyes that see prophecy not as fate, but as leverage. She is the architect of Verris’s survival behind the scenes, even if that means sacrificing her son, her soul, or the truth. She did not weep when Leon transformed; she calculated the cost of having a monster on the throne. Some say she made the curse, others say she buried the real one.