Court of Blades
Court of Blades is a game of politics, magic, romance, and peril. It takes place in a world populated by scheming nobles, unscrupulous court magicians, and dashing duelists.
In Court of Blades, you take on the roles of retainers to a newly risen House of the Esultare in the great city of Ilrien. The Esultare, composed of the six Houses Major, are considered the most powerful families in the Principalities, but amongst them they have their own pecking order. The First Prince sits atop this hierarchy, with each citizen of Ilrien aware of every House’s position within that order.
You have already risen so high. But to secure your place and ensure the House you serve ascends to the highest seat of power in the world, you must learn the secrets of your rival Houses, advance your own House’s agenda, and risk your lives in a renaissance world of duplicity and magic. You are a retainer in a coterie. Powerful, and yet the bottom of the greater family order. Your job is to support the family until it is elected First House. Your private goal is to become a titled part of the family through service, securing your legacy—or perhaps only leaving the world better, or worse, than it was before you.
Can your characters play the Great Game and win it all, or will they fall prey to the machinations of their rivals? Or worse yet, their own human failings.
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Inspired by infamous warring families like history's Medicis and Pazzis, Shakespeare's Montagues and Capulets, or Game of Thrones' Starks and Lannisters,