The Porcelain Queen and The Grey King
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Overview
The Porcelain Queen and The Grey King are the co-rulers of The Lower Bone Court, one of the Concordant Courts of Arcadia. Together, they explore a Bleak inflection of the Strange Essences of Location and Substance, seeking meaning through impermanence, misplacement, and persistence. Their rulership is mutual rather than shared; neither philosophy can act without the other. Their fabled relationship is that of twins.
Porcelain Queen Overview
Rhiannon (Feytongue \riænən\ for great queen), the Porcelain Queen, is the Fey God of the Offlings and was the ruler of The Lower Court prior to The Concordance. Her original Court explored the Strange Essence of Location, seeking meaning through things lost, the tension caused by things not where they are meant to be. She was obsessed with lost things: objects, memories, people.
Among mortals, Rhiannon is known only as a fable of Strange horror. If people are ever unsettled by children in masks or creepy dolls, it is probably because they heard stories of Rhiannon, true or otherwise.
Grey King Overview
Arawn (Feytongue \ˈɑraʊn\ for exalted one), the Grey King, is the Fey God of Greyfolk and was the ruler of The Bone Court prior to The Concordance. His original Court explored the Strange Essence of Substance, seeking meaning through persistence without hope. He was obsessed with the forces of erosion and decay.
Among mortals, Arawn is generally regarded as a sort of grim reaper mythical figure. Many associate him incorrectly with the Gods of Autumn. The only accurate information comes from his Orisons, though rarely given.
History
Origin and Ascension
Rhiannon
Nothing is known of Rhiannon from before her time in Arcadia, other than myth and rumor. Most myths assert that she was an orphan in Pelithos and made her way to Arcadia, even as a child, through her incredible power of dream. Once in Arcadia, she became known as "The Urchin", a creature that seemed content to lurk on the edges of Arcadian civilization, homeless and alone, with purposes unknown.
Eventually she began to attract other Fey who lost their way, either literally or allegorically, and they adopted her philosophical views. After the War of Erasure created the Bright and Bleak inflections, Rhiannon ascended to the Bleak throne of Location, c. NIR 1400. Her followers changed into the Offlings.
Arawn
Arawn was an Elf in Pelithos, believed to have originated in the Zero Year. He led many lives, as a king, warrior, scholar, father, and more. Most of his lives ended in tragedy. Arawn became a philosopher known to criticize Elven longevity as a curse. He migrated to Arcadia looking for peace, and found instead that it brought substance to his bleak philosophy.
After the War of Erasure created the Bright and Bleak inflections, Arawn ascended to the Bleak throne of Substance, c. NIR 1380. His relentlessly pessimistic philosophy attracted followers who became the Greyfolk.
The Concordance
Rhiannon and Arawn were not original collaborators in the Concordance, but were forced into fusion by its metaphysical side effects. When Bright Courts merged through philosophical union, the inverse law compelled Bleak Courts into complementary fusion. Thus, The Lower Court and The Bone Court collapsed into a single Concordant Court: The Lower Bone Court.
Following fusion, the two retained distinct identities but lost unilateral control. Their cooperation came quite naturally, almost immediately finding philosophical complements in each other.
Description
Rhiannon
The Porcelain Queen appears as an Elven child, roughly seven years of age. She wears an anachronistic, fancy, worn, dirty dress and her skin is covered in smudges of dirt. Her hair is in a fancy, braided bun, but is matted and stiff with dirt. She wears a porcelain doll mask that completely covers her face. The mask is starkly white, glaringly in contrast with her dirty clothes and skin. The porcelain mask is pristine, except for one crack on the forehead.
In her rarely seen surreal form, called Gleoite (Feytongue \ˈɡlɔɪtə\ for cute, adorable), she is a towering, terrifying doll-creature. Her limbs are long and bend at impossible angles, covered in porcelain with joins of frayed twine. Its hair is wiry and patchy, cut into a short bob with a bow. It wears a faded and tattered pink dress from a bygone era. It moves with incredible speed and unnatural agility.
Arawn
The Grey King appears as a tall, gaunt, desiccated man, stooped over, but still immense and towering. His body is wrapped in layers upon layers of robes, resembling burial shrouds and funerary vestments. His hands tremble constantly. His skin and clothing is completely without color, all in shades of grey. His thin hair is long and wispy.
In his surreal form, called The Bone Wind (Commontongue), The Grey King becomes a massive, inhuman skull of grey-brown bone. The skull is missing its jaw and its eyes glow with pale grey light. Surrounding the skull is a slowly churning cloud of crematory ash and bone fragments. The slow moving storm gives a grinding sound.
Personality
The Porcelain Queen is curious, attentive, and sincere. She innocently asks questions without understanding their sensitivity. She delights in caregiving rituals: feeding pets, mending broken toys, arranging dolls just so. Her Bleak nature is revealed by her need to lose, break, or abandon the things she cares for, hurting every time.
The Grey King is melancholic, patient, and exhausted beyond despair. He remembers everything, but it brings him only sorrow. He speaks slowly, often losing his train of thought midway through a sentence, less from confusion than from lack of purpose.
The two cling to each other desperately, never far from each other and often holding hands. The Queen clings to him as a constant presence and the King looks upon her with his last shadows of joy. Neither can exist without the other.
Strange Philosophy
Things have meaning because they end.
The Lower Bone Court espouse the teachings of The Porcelain Queen and The Grey King, which are that meaning arises from impermanence. The Court believes that Arcadians lost meaning when they lost the ability to die, it is their deepest flaw. They are obsessed with Mortals, in particular their birthing and funerary rituals. They idealize impermanence as a virtue.
Orisons
Most Orisons of The Porcelain Queen and The Grey King are Bogles and Bodachs, numerous within the Court. Mortals who form pacts with these monarchs often include:
- The bereaved
- Elders who are near death (albeit briefly)
- Undertakers, menders, and caretakers of abandoned things
Notable Orisons
- Adeline Fendred (c. 2195), aging beauty of Acrolon in the Dawn Age, made a pact with the monarchs to avoid aging. She lived for several more decades with untarnished beauty, then vanished from the world. People say that she visits dreamers on occasion, apparently in great distress, though they can't remember why.