The Power and the Glory 3/9 [Gramis, House Solidor]
Canon Status: Up to FFXII-era, Archadia.
Genre: General, Intrigue.
Rating: PG.
Characters: Gramis, House Solidor, OCs.
Pairing: None in this section.
Warnings: Politics (much more dangerous than mere sex).
Notes: The characters you think you recognize are not the canon characters, but merely OCs by the same name. I do it to annoy.
Summary: The life and times of House Solidor. Zulia Dwardo Solidor was from the first a source of anxiety.
Other Parts: Gramis | Strella | Zulia | Ceraano | Gramis | Viali
Zulia Dwardo Solidor was from the first a source of anxiety. With his birth, Gramis had an heir, and he worried that Zulia would be as ill-suited for the role as his own brother had been. With his birth, Strella was a mother, fully sundered from the life she had known before her marriage and required to behave in a wholly different manner. With his birth, the Emperor had a grandson, an alternative heir.
Gramis was still a young man; even his father was scarcely past middle age. If they both survived as long as their predecessors, defying the wishes of their peers in favor of a vigorous old age, no one alive would see the end of the Solidor Emperors. With Zulia, Gramis's death would not suffice to change that. He was a threat merely by existing.
Zulia's first wet-nurse was discovered smearing her breasts with poison; no fewer than three guards were caught forcing the door of the day-nursery; one of the pair of Judges overseeing the infant's security was found by the other sabotaging the efficacy of the patrols in that wing of the palace. Gramis began to grow vexed.
Interrogation produced the names of those who had orchestrated the attempts. Gramis failed to be surprised by them: Bergan, Lunoridas, Bocinger. All had been problematic in the past, but he would not have them so in the future.
Given a free hand by his father, he took what revenge he deemed appropriate. For his wife's contentment and his own pride, he was merciful with House Lunoridas: it would take a century, but they would, in time, regain the wealth lost to Imperial taxation and become once more the second house of Archadia. House Bergan lost most of its political appointees, whether implicated or not, and the ensuing rage of the comparatively innocent split the family in two, neither half capable of much action. As for House Bocinger, for its constant attempts at the Imperium it was reduced by taxation and dismissal to the lowest of the Gentry, without a single office or command position to its name. The Senator of that House was implicated in that plot and so many others that his seat was taken from his family for ninety years and nine by the vote of the Senate. They did not appreciate behavior that could incite such a response from the ever-merciful Gramis Solidor.
Zulia's childhood was much more peaceful thereafter. Having seen how Gramis reacted to threats to his kin, nobody wanted theirs to be the next House suffering from Imperial wrath.
Despite everything, Gramis did not love his son, nor Zulia his father. They did not hate one another: at worst, they were indifferent; at best, they wished not to be. Nevertheless, the fact remained that there was little affection between them and, worse, no understanding.
In infancy, Zulia was much as all babies everywhere. He took after his mother (fortunately, said malicious and unfounded gossip), being fair and round-faced. Gramis was fond of him then, when he could spare a thought from the Empire, and Strella doted on him in her spare hours.
The difficulty arose later, when Zulia demonstrated in his adolescence that he had inherited much of his mother's temperament as well as her looks. Gramis had a very firm idea of what an Imperial heir should be, and Zulia was most emphatically not it. Like Strella, he was good-natured, though unlike Strella he was sober and serious; like her, too, he had a great facility in recalling information and a great difficulty in putting it to use.
When he came of age, Gramis employed him in the capacity of organizer of information, to which work he was admirably suited. But what, Gramis asked himself, would become of Zulia when he had to act on this information on his own? It would not do to wrap him in velvet. He would have to be given a chance to succeed, or fail, at politics while there was still an alternative.
This suited Zulia admirably. Since his adolescence, he had been chafing at the tight rein kept on him, growing angrier as the passing years indicated that his father did not trust his judgment. He was not quite the fool Gramis thought him, though their methods were different enough to make each seem a fool to the other.
He won friends through his polite attention and allies through his sober sense. He could carry in mind information from across Ivalice, piecing it together into a single image. He was conventional, he was stable, and he gained influence on those grounds. More than a few of his peers had seen too many attempted coups to have felt comfortable with a more impetuous man.
For himself, he wanted only to maintain his dignity, his family's, and his country's, so long as they were in his care. Dignity was Zulia's foremost concern, not the new, haughty quality but the older, more somber one, which chiefly consisted of maintaining a good reputation through deeds worthy of his name. In many ways, Zulia was old before he was a man.
Of course, he was enough his father's son to have very clear plans as to the course Archadia would follow under his rule. He planned to open her society to the best of the newly-conquered peoples, erasing once and for all the division between Empire and colony. The ceaseless expansion would stop, and the resources needed for war would be free to turn inward, to Archadia herself. He would make Archadia the noble lady in the court of nations he had always known her to be.
His position was its own weakness. The generals did not wish their armies to disband, losing power thereby, and the Senate, though inclined to his course, would not support a self-governing Solidor. Zulia gained few allies by his ideals. Yet a few did fall in with him, for the most part sons of old Gentry who preferred Zulia to Gramis, whose rule they were coming to know.
He was their hope, who was their greatest fear. On the one hand, he was a Solidor, ruthless, intelligent, and independent as all his family; on the other, he was the conservative son of a progressive man whom many of them hated for his progression. If anyone were to remove Gramis without a costly civil war, it would be Zulia. Many men of his age, long resigned to the Imperial system which was the only one they had ever known, preferred the stability he promised to the uncertainty of reviving the long-dead Republic of Archadia. They had never lived under such a system and therefore feared it.
Zulia did not reject the friendships these men offered, for he could ill afford to turn them away, but he refrained from speaking a word against his father. Though the two men did not and would never like one another, they met, when Zulia had proved himself competent to the task before him, on terms of mutual respect: Zulia recognized Gramis's unswerving devotion to the good of the realm, while Gramis at last acknowledged that he had an heir worthy of the name. Besides, Zulia held for his father a strange devotion, the more powerful for never being expressed.
He would have loved his father, if he could. But Zulia knew always that he was in Gramis's eyes an heir, not a child. Perhaps because Gramis was not naturally demonstrative in his affections, perhaps because he had never been close to his own father, perhaps because Zulia's childhood had come when Gramis was most occupied with consolidating power; whatever the reason, they never met on a closer footing than as colleagues. Zulia's love for the man who could have been his hero was stillborn, made bitter and harsh with suppression. Respect could cover that lack of affection, but it could not replace it.
Besides, Zulia knew he was not Gramis's favorite son. That was his brother.
Genre: General, Intrigue.
Rating: PG.
Characters: Gramis, House Solidor, OCs.
Pairing: None in this section.
Warnings: Politics (much more dangerous than mere sex).
Notes: The characters you think you recognize are not the canon characters, but merely OCs by the same name. I do it to annoy.
Summary: The life and times of House Solidor. Zulia Dwardo Solidor was from the first a source of anxiety.
Other Parts: Gramis | Strella | Zulia | Ceraano | Gramis | Viali
Zulia Dwardo Solidor was from the first a source of anxiety. With his birth, Gramis had an heir, and he worried that Zulia would be as ill-suited for the role as his own brother had been. With his birth, Strella was a mother, fully sundered from the life she had known before her marriage and required to behave in a wholly different manner. With his birth, the Emperor had a grandson, an alternative heir.
Gramis was still a young man; even his father was scarcely past middle age. If they both survived as long as their predecessors, defying the wishes of their peers in favor of a vigorous old age, no one alive would see the end of the Solidor Emperors. With Zulia, Gramis's death would not suffice to change that. He was a threat merely by existing.
Zulia's first wet-nurse was discovered smearing her breasts with poison; no fewer than three guards were caught forcing the door of the day-nursery; one of the pair of Judges overseeing the infant's security was found by the other sabotaging the efficacy of the patrols in that wing of the palace. Gramis began to grow vexed.
Interrogation produced the names of those who had orchestrated the attempts. Gramis failed to be surprised by them: Bergan, Lunoridas, Bocinger. All had been problematic in the past, but he would not have them so in the future.
Given a free hand by his father, he took what revenge he deemed appropriate. For his wife's contentment and his own pride, he was merciful with House Lunoridas: it would take a century, but they would, in time, regain the wealth lost to Imperial taxation and become once more the second house of Archadia. House Bergan lost most of its political appointees, whether implicated or not, and the ensuing rage of the comparatively innocent split the family in two, neither half capable of much action. As for House Bocinger, for its constant attempts at the Imperium it was reduced by taxation and dismissal to the lowest of the Gentry, without a single office or command position to its name. The Senator of that House was implicated in that plot and so many others that his seat was taken from his family for ninety years and nine by the vote of the Senate. They did not appreciate behavior that could incite such a response from the ever-merciful Gramis Solidor.
Zulia's childhood was much more peaceful thereafter. Having seen how Gramis reacted to threats to his kin, nobody wanted theirs to be the next House suffering from Imperial wrath.
Despite everything, Gramis did not love his son, nor Zulia his father. They did not hate one another: at worst, they were indifferent; at best, they wished not to be. Nevertheless, the fact remained that there was little affection between them and, worse, no understanding.
In infancy, Zulia was much as all babies everywhere. He took after his mother (fortunately, said malicious and unfounded gossip), being fair and round-faced. Gramis was fond of him then, when he could spare a thought from the Empire, and Strella doted on him in her spare hours.
The difficulty arose later, when Zulia demonstrated in his adolescence that he had inherited much of his mother's temperament as well as her looks. Gramis had a very firm idea of what an Imperial heir should be, and Zulia was most emphatically not it. Like Strella, he was good-natured, though unlike Strella he was sober and serious; like her, too, he had a great facility in recalling information and a great difficulty in putting it to use.
When he came of age, Gramis employed him in the capacity of organizer of information, to which work he was admirably suited. But what, Gramis asked himself, would become of Zulia when he had to act on this information on his own? It would not do to wrap him in velvet. He would have to be given a chance to succeed, or fail, at politics while there was still an alternative.
This suited Zulia admirably. Since his adolescence, he had been chafing at the tight rein kept on him, growing angrier as the passing years indicated that his father did not trust his judgment. He was not quite the fool Gramis thought him, though their methods were different enough to make each seem a fool to the other.
He won friends through his polite attention and allies through his sober sense. He could carry in mind information from across Ivalice, piecing it together into a single image. He was conventional, he was stable, and he gained influence on those grounds. More than a few of his peers had seen too many attempted coups to have felt comfortable with a more impetuous man.
For himself, he wanted only to maintain his dignity, his family's, and his country's, so long as they were in his care. Dignity was Zulia's foremost concern, not the new, haughty quality but the older, more somber one, which chiefly consisted of maintaining a good reputation through deeds worthy of his name. In many ways, Zulia was old before he was a man.
Of course, he was enough his father's son to have very clear plans as to the course Archadia would follow under his rule. He planned to open her society to the best of the newly-conquered peoples, erasing once and for all the division between Empire and colony. The ceaseless expansion would stop, and the resources needed for war would be free to turn inward, to Archadia herself. He would make Archadia the noble lady in the court of nations he had always known her to be.
His position was its own weakness. The generals did not wish their armies to disband, losing power thereby, and the Senate, though inclined to his course, would not support a self-governing Solidor. Zulia gained few allies by his ideals. Yet a few did fall in with him, for the most part sons of old Gentry who preferred Zulia to Gramis, whose rule they were coming to know.
He was their hope, who was their greatest fear. On the one hand, he was a Solidor, ruthless, intelligent, and independent as all his family; on the other, he was the conservative son of a progressive man whom many of them hated for his progression. If anyone were to remove Gramis without a costly civil war, it would be Zulia. Many men of his age, long resigned to the Imperial system which was the only one they had ever known, preferred the stability he promised to the uncertainty of reviving the long-dead Republic of Archadia. They had never lived under such a system and therefore feared it.
Zulia did not reject the friendships these men offered, for he could ill afford to turn them away, but he refrained from speaking a word against his father. Though the two men did not and would never like one another, they met, when Zulia had proved himself competent to the task before him, on terms of mutual respect: Zulia recognized Gramis's unswerving devotion to the good of the realm, while Gramis at last acknowledged that he had an heir worthy of the name. Besides, Zulia held for his father a strange devotion, the more powerful for never being expressed.
He would have loved his father, if he could. But Zulia knew always that he was in Gramis's eyes an heir, not a child. Perhaps because Gramis was not naturally demonstrative in his affections, perhaps because he had never been close to his own father, perhaps because Zulia's childhood had come when Gramis was most occupied with consolidating power; whatever the reason, they never met on a closer footing than as colleagues. Zulia's love for the man who could have been his hero was stillborn, made bitter and harsh with suppression. Respect could cover that lack of affection, but it could not replace it.
Besides, Zulia knew he was not Gramis's favorite son. That was his brother.