Character Addenum: Vex BincalWell, honestly, I expected Vex to perish this way. From the very moment I created her for this RP, she was bound to tick off a much more powerful foe and suffer the consequence of her actions. I even made mention of this particular trait on her Char Sheet:
With an appreciation for brutality and a boiling ambition, Bincal is a powder keg for the Cheydinhal region. Perhaps overconfident of her position, she's likely to press issues too hard and overstep her authority.
So her fate was written on the wall from the very beginning. What I didn't know was how soon her fate would come. And that's something you can never know when you embark on an RP. Of course, there are ways I could have delayed her inevitable demise to continue her story, but I always felt being honest and true with my characters was more important than forcing them to serve the story. If anything, the story should serve the characters. And so this is true with Bincal. Despite the consequences I foresaw for her actions, there was little I could have done to stop her from stabbing Cassamir's right-hand man. Because if she didn't do it, and do it right then, she wouldn't have been Vex Bincal, would she?
In any case, I enjoyed playing out her story throughout the entirety of her stay in the RP. But as with any character, there were a few mysteries surrounding her that were never answered in the RP proper. So, below, I have endeavored to answer some of these lingering loose ends.
What exactly happened to Maximus? Maximus was killed in a lightning strike while drilling his troops outside during a thunderstorm. However, Vex's duplicity was well known throughout Cheydinhal County, so the rumors of Vex murdering him for her own personal gain were widely spread and believed by many, including the Count Motierre himself.
Why the fixation on Cheydinhal? Vex Bincal had started life very poor, and it was a matter of her aggressive nature to claw desperately up the social ladder and fight viciously to hold onto any ground she had gained to escape poverty. Her focus on becoming Countess was hence primarily driven by her desire for more wealth, power, and influence. Why Cheydinhal specifically, though? Well, it was hardly a coincidence that it was close by. Vex's pursuit of that city in particular was driven by a tale that she had once heard from Maximus; that his ancestors had once been the ruling family in Cheydinhal before they were disgraced and lost their county seat. Maximus told Vex that his family had then dedicated themselves to serving in the legions, hoping one day to restore family honor to their name and regain their seat as the ruling family of Cheydinhal. Untrue, the story was a parable invented by Maximus to teach Vex about honor, although this original intent was lost on her, and she bitterly strove after his death to restore his family's honor by capturing the city in his name.
Why is Malk always silent?Malk was one of two bodyguards (and a maid) who were arrayed to be executed after they failed to notice an assassin sneak his way past and into Vex's bedchambers. The bodyguards had been chatting it up with the maid at the time of the infiltration. In order to spare his position, and his life, Malk slit his own throat with a dagger, severing his vocal chords forever, so that he would never suffer the distraction of talking while on duty again. Vex Bincal was very impressed by this and decided to spare his life and keep him on as a bodyguard.
Where is the Amulet of Kings?In a battle near Fort Urasek, during the fall of the empire, Maximus' century was caught in an ambush and suffered heavy casualties. Vex Bincal, the century's primary healer, worked tirelessly to heal soldiers who had fallen. So fixated on this purpose, she was oblivious to her own personal injuries, including a dreadful cut to her left briast. Left unattended, it became infected and had to be amputated following the battle. For a time, ashamed of her injury, she used a shaped wooden piece as a replacement. Quite some time later, when she acquired the Amulet from a Camonna Tong dealer, she replaced this piece with the Amulet of Kings, wrapped in silk and kept close via her chest wrap. A powerful piece of illusion magic disguises it, and a knowledgeable mage should be able to detect it with little problem.
Who did Vex Bincal really support?In short, herself. In a broader sense, Flavius Latartus, whom she thought could properly use the Amulet of Kings to bring back the Empire. While in one sense she supported the return to stability because it would cement her position as Countess, she was primarily driven to help the Empire out of some lingering sense of duty to Maximus, whom she loved. When Cassamir attempted to kidnap them, and they were later rescued by Motierre, Vex was infuriated, not primarily because she was kidnapped, but because she felt Cassamir had humiliated her in front of her worst enemy, Andre Motierre.
When Cassamir's diplomat approached with overtures of peace, she saw this as an excellent opportunity to play double-agent, and was immediately receptive to the ambassador. She had hoped that, though the proposed surrender of Cheydinhal, that she could get Cassamir to leave Cheydinhal untouched. Later, when she discovered that Flavius' army approached, she hoped to deceive Cassamir by following his forces from Cheydinhal under the pretense of an alliance and, once he was engaged in battle against Flavius, she could suddenly become turncoat and have her troops slam into the rear of his battle lines. However, Vex found herself repeatedly offended by Cassamir's ambassador; so when Fadrill ended up breaking into her war room, she was infuriated enough to attempt to kill him, even if that had a high probability of ruining her previous plans.