Of Cassius and Corelia

War.

The world is steeped in it, sustained by it.

In the recent history of Caledon, there is no place left for peace.

Armies march.

Soldiers bleed.

Generals command.

That is the way of things—and nothing seems likely to change it.

Amidst this ever-burning tension, two generals serve with unshakable loyalty. Their sovereign? Queen Alanna Vila, the iron-willed ruler of Martae. From her marble throne in Tischân, she rules—sometimes with wisdom that echoes through the ages, other times with a temper fit to rival the fury of the Khuldârim.

Her realm is vast, her armies sworn to her cause without question. Yet all her grand ambitions would amount to little more than parchment and dreams if not for her two most trusted generals:

Cassius, the Bastard of Rivershade, and Corelia, second daughter to Baron Vulgrim of Halshing.

Two names etched into the memory of every battlefield across Martae.

Two hearts that beat with fire—and clash like steel.

Their origins couldn’t be more different, their methods even more so. And yet, together, they are the left hand of the queen.

If Lord Corvis, First Steward, is her voice and right hand, then Cassius and Corelia are her sword arm—divided, yet unstoppable.

If Cassius is like fire, then Corelia is like water. Brash, unforgiving, always ready to ignite a war before the ink of diplomacy dries, while the other is patient, precise and willing to wait until she has all the information necessary to strike where it hurts.

When both stand over the same war map, it rarely ends without a fight.

More than once, a flying chair or shattered goblet has forced the queen’s guards to intervene before strategy turned to slaughter.

And yet, for all their volatile rivalry, Queen Alanna tolerates them—for the simple reason that she cannot afford not to.

They are more valuable than any battalion.

More dangerous than any blade.

And—strangely—more entangled with each other than either would ever it.

Underneath their dueling instincts, something else has bloomed with time. Something neither wants to name.

Love, perhaps—though rarely soft.

More like fire that smolders after the storm.

A sun that rises, blazing, after the thunder.

And sometimes, that sun can be heard by the night guards standing too close to their shared command tent.

No one truly knows how either of them earned their place beside the queen.

But all agree—they earned every step of it.

Cassius, born of scandal and raised in shadows, rose through the ranks on nothing but steel and skill.

The Bastard of Rivershade, they call him—those who hate him.

The Hero of Midnight Tower, his men say. The commander who cut through a hundred foes with a blade in hand and only a dozen soldiers at his back.

The one who broke the siege of Tischân by feigning retreat, only to crush his pursuers in a flanking counterattack that saved the city—and the royal bloodline.

Gratitude or strategy, no one knows why the queen made him general that day. But none have questioned it since.

Corelia’s rise is shrouded in even more mystery.

The daughter of the crown’s greatest rival, some whisper she was given command merely to spite her father, Baron Vulgrim.

The truth is far more complicated.

She left Halshing. Walked away from her family, her name, and the luxury of legacy.

In the fire of countless battles she was forged and rose through the ranks. It was her brilliance that secured the border kingdom of Tuval by single-handedly capturing the king and his son.

Behind closed doors, many whisper that she had lured them into a cage with the promise of a lustful night they would never forget.

A temptress that has no clue of war, but knows the way around a mans body.

Those who whisper such things are, quite frankly, idiots. But the real story is known only by Corelia herself, a story she never shares, not even with her rival lover.

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This is the story of Cassius and Cornelia, my two beloved rivals who have more in common than they’d like to it.

Should the chance ever rise, I would love to Rp with these two as Muse A and B with whoever is willing.

I’m looking forward to it!