(no subject)

[sythyry]

Myrihaaveinen [1 Hispis 4261]

Because of my geneology -- specifically descent from Myrihaaveinen -- I am obliged to spend twenty-seven years as the court wizard of Oorah Nirax, the city that zie founded. I have about three centuries to prepare for this obligation. Fortunately, it pays fairly well; the court wizards are notorious for raiding the treasury.

Entirely backwards. Myrihaaveinen did, of course, found Oorah Nirex. As part of the arrangements for Myrihaaveinen leaving the rulership of that city -- after a seven-century dukedom which left everyone but Myrihaaveinen feeling rather excluded from power in their own city -- zie did arrange that zir descendants could be court wizards for twenty-seven years each, or longer if they were actually competant.

The court wizards are, indeed, notorious for raiding the treasury; the first one (Tantarille, of course) embezzled the whole of it. Later ones did not have the opportunity to embezzle much of anything. Their stipend and other monies are fixed by a law inspired by Tantarille. There's even an official court position, the Follower of the Court Wizard, who lurks around after the court wizard and makes sure zie's not stealing anything. They only do this when the court wizard is a descendant of Myrihaaveinen.

Which proved to be a good idea. Tantarille went back to Oorah Nirex, two centuries after embezzling the whole treasury, impersonating Jlenzaraheinen. Jlenzaraheinen was off in the outer reaches of Braxeia at the time, a good thirty thousand miles from Oorah Nirex, conquering up cyarr and doing research on bone-eating butterflies, and so Tantarille got away with the impersonation even. (I presume Tantarille didn't need the money; I presume Tantarille enjoyed the challenge). In any case, the Follower of the Court Wizard caught Tantarille abducting some silver and lead penguin statues from the ducal aviary, and after such made quite sure that Tantarille was never very alone or unobserved.

Tantarille continued impersonating Jlenzaraheinen for the rest of the twenty-seven years. Evidently zie got away with it, if not too much else. Zie wrote Oorah Nirex a letter explaining the deception, probably by way of revenge.

If there was any doubt about the matter, long life does not contribute to moral virtue. It simply gives more patience to the wicked. At best, it distracts them with long-term amusements which might be only minorly wicked.

Comments

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Perhaps when you're older, you should go to Myrihaaveinen and impersonate Tantarille impersonating yourself. Unless zie's already done it by then.

[jareth-atian.livejournal.com]

Interesting!

I was a court wizard once. Unfortunately, I was unable to maintain that position for any significant period of time. After only half a day, I was asked to perform some magic. Ah, well.