The Patrician’s Circle

Brainstorm

• TPC original brainstorm

  • Going from basically running a gang to taking on a global conspiracy
  • Need to recruit gang members and canonise them
  • A rival gang is helping a Circle front business
  • Edward creates elite wing to do more sneaky political subterfuge stuff
  • The gang expands until going against the thing that made dad get blacklisted
  • Someone/something allows Edward to ascend into that level where big, conspiratorial decisions can be made
  • As ever, the question is how to thread the growth in power thing with the revenge thing and/or the fighting the circle thing
  • Second act Edward stripped of all power

• Spend a lil bit with John, and Edward helping with scheming

• • Edward offhandedly mentions he’s expanding somewhere/doing something that we later find out The Circle explicitly told him not to do
  • Unlike previous incarnations, maybe John is a lot more jolly and fun

• • • However show a flashback of someone talking to John before his death that actually he’s an asshole

• Graded expansion of Edward’s power

• • City, region, nation, continent

• Maybe a trial of some kind for Edward’s crimes
• Gabriel, at his most unethical point

• • In a church, reminiscing
  • Priest there knows who he is
  • Is chastised for what he’s done

• Someone/something gives Edward the low-down on how to be a high level schemer after he hits a brick wall

• • Taking on a consortium of some kind, like the hanseatic league?
  • First rule: Know EVERYTHING about everyone you’re seeking to butt heads with

• “There is no chain that binds stronger than the crown that rests upon a monarch’s head.”

• • ALT: “There is no prison cell stronger than the crown that rests upon a monarch’s head.”

• The Patrician’s Circle gets more desperate as Edward continues racking up power?

• • A race of some kind to get a different pope elected?

• “Chase not the signifiers of power; gain power eternal.”

• • Motto of The Circle

• Assassination attempt on Edward

• • Think it’s from The Patrician’s Circle but actually it’s from a disillusioned citizen under his thumb

• Introductory overarching antagonist/problem Edward has to solve that ties in in some way with The Patrician’s Circle

• • Antagonist is big bad until they get fucking demolished by The Circle?

• • • Maybe Edward only survives by the skin of his teeth

• • Some representation on the circle present initially (kinda like the suited representation of The Shadows from Signs and Portents)

• Lord Baron
• Edward confronts Judas

• • The woman who betrayed his father?
  • Now old and sad

• “It’s called The Patrician’s Circle” “Are they Venetian?”
• Edward joins a revolution against a city government but betrays them to curry favour with said government
• Make this a story of change, like Babylon 5

• • Edward starts out as a cheerful, if naive, rogue, and his path turns him into a cold, calculating schemer
  • Gabriel starts as a devout Christian with a firm sense of right and wrong to indulging the worst excesses of money, lust, and power
  • John starts as a gregarious and charismatic lad you could have a beer with, but over the course of the story is found to be a tightly-wound manipulator who blows his top when things don’t go his way about the only thing he cares about: gaining more power and prestige

• • • Factors into his punishment by The Circle (rumours spread about him, on the run, all assets seized)

• • The Patrician starts as a perfect, cold, calculating robot…until he meets Edward

• A section of the story where an antagonist to Edward disappears, he’s acting coy about it, and it’s implied that Edward killed them
• The big arc

• • The first rumblings of the conspiracy are a wave of arrests, and one of Edward’s lot get swept up
  • Stoke popular discontent with the monarchs and replace them with Circle-favoured candidates?
  • Edward hears that one of the monarchs knows somewhat about the existence of the circle

• • • VERY cagey about giving Edward the time of day, thinks he’s a Circle agent, only relents after …
    • Belgian king or equivalent

• • People think there’s just a natural ebb and flow of kingdoms/empires rising and falling but really it’s the influence of The Circle

• Christopher Columbus disappeared and wound up dead
• The lord is incapacitated/dead and his domain is secretly being run by his court
• Edward goes to his father’s estate office and it seems to have been left in a hurry/ransacked
• Have where John’s money went be the big carrot for the audience until the last third or so
• Fair stuff

• • (Gabriel) “It’s a holiday, Edward. I can’t make you do anything, lest I be hauled into the stocks for all to see.”

• The fair was being held in that town due to a dispute between two barons, (one of whom is the puppet baron being weekend-at-bernie’s’d) which Edward will interact with later
• Villegard and the lord’s staff made a deal where Villegard doesn’t get arrested.

• • (Upon Edward finding out, from steward) “So, how much do you want?” “I don’t want money”

• “Edward! You have more money now than you possibly could have gotten from your father’s estate. Hell, you have more money than you could need in a thousand lifetimes. What more could you want?” “Your head.”
• A character is a poet by trade, maybe the hunter?
• Either make the lord just a generic lord or a duke
• Edward uses his gang to escape the king’s wrath
• A scene which is a homage to that bit in Breaking Bad where Walt finally sees all the money he has (Gliding Over All)

• • But this time it’s Edward realising the avenues this opens up

• Don’t forget about Lord Baron
• While escaping England, Edward’s ship sinks and he is captured by someone?

• • “You know the riots in London and the murder of the King’s Steward?” “You were in the riots?” “I orchestrated them”

• Edward and co really don’t know high society rules

• Explain later in a flashback that John got burned for trying to expand beyond London

• “So why’d you take me in in the first place, Gabriel?” “For the Bartum name? I would be willing to take you in for ten lifetimes.” “What, for a spice merchant?” “You clearly don’t understand how powerful your father was.”

  • Starts with a conversation about Gabriel’s relationship with John

• Use Edward’s father not being murdered as part of the proof that The Circle don’t kill anyone

  • As part of The Patrician’s angry monologue to Edward

• In London, Gabriel talks about wanting to spend the night with another man, Edward nods his head and says go for it

• Eda returns with knowledge

  • John hella dead
  • Finds only a note that says “London, The Patricians’ Circle”…somehow

• “You’re not secretly a lord, are you?” “Absolutely not. I simply have had a lot of business in London over the years.”

• “(Town Lord) had been throwing lavish parties, sleeping around with townsfolk, and getting in brawls near pubs.” “Sounds like a great guy, honestly.” “Sure, if he wasn’t bleeding the treasury dry and harassing locals. Where have you been living the past few years?” “Not important.” “When he died, we made an agreement that we would at least give this town as many years as we can of proper service before we are caught.” “And you’re not worried about being executed?” “Of course, but we owe the townsfolk a good life. If only for a moment.”

• Maybe replace the beginning section where Edward is in a dead end town with something more focused on the core plot of revenge for what happened to him and his father

  • Could even have him as a begger or vagrant of some kind
  • Settle on the real point of this section, it should probably not be about an ancilliary conflict that is unrelated to the core plot

Characters

• Edward

  • Cheeky petty crim to high level schemer
  • Wants to exact revenge on those who wronged him and his father

• John

  • Jolly stiff upper lip brit
  • Wanted recognition beyond England

• Gabriel

  • Reserved lumberjack
  • Wants the simple life, but swayed by those above himself (God with spirituality, Edward with money and power)

• Eda

  • Cheeky thief, foil to Edward
  • Wants mischief and fun with friends

• Town Steward

  • Dry, poor public speaker, but wants what’s best for the town and its people

Outline

• Teatime at the farmhouse

• John is burned and the whole kingdom comes down on him

  • John is blindsided by his right hand woman
  • John and Edward escape the city

-   Edward is waiting forlornly for John, Edward tells Gabriel he wants to leave but that's a no go, Guild leader arrives and informs Gabriel that he wants his son to replace him, Edward implores that he contact his father but no, he'll be fine because the lord hand picked him, Edward still worried

    -   "This is not a request."
    -   "Why on God's green Earth should I not contact my father?" "I don't need help, and you are still in hiding."

-   At the fair, Edward is offhandedly told by the snide prick of a guild leader's son that daddy is going to petition the lord, and he's damn sure that daddy's gonna win out, Edward leaves and goes to Gabriel relaying what he was told and how confident the son seemed, but Gabriel is not convinced and warns him not to get involved

    -   The lord's steward, filling in for the lord (who hasn't attended the fair the last few years) makes a pretty awful speech, with people saying the martial was boring but at least he could put a speech together

-   Edward isn't given audience with the lord directly, but gets to talk to the lord steward, who gives him assurances that him and gabriel will remain safe in their jobs, he returns back to Gabriel who is upset when he finds out Edward did what he said not to do

    -   Starts with Edward reacting to his horse's whinny outside
    -   Edward notes that he liked the steward's speech (he doesn't mean it but he gotta schmooze, y'know?)
    -   The martial ducks in quickly to inform the steward that there are some peasant complaints in Brightham that they need to attend to (shows that they're the ones keeping the domain together)

-   

-   ? Edward and Gabriel are chucked out

-   

-   ? Edward strikes up a deal with the lord's men that he won't reveal their secret if they agree to participate in his plan\...

-   ? The plan to take over the town and oust the guild

-   ? Edward sends a letter via the lord's men to his father

• Edward takes on Judas, but the Circle reveals itself and squashes Judas like a bug

  • Someone is looking for Edward by name, oh fuck, but it’s the will reader informing him that dad’s dead and he got no money but a letter to go on with his life
  • Judas is taken by the guards and executed, in almost the same circumstances as John’s ousting years ago

• Edward is beaten by The Circle and is exiled from England

  • Edward expands, his influence covering much of England
  • Edward finds out that his father’s money went to Lord Baron, a person who’s headquarters are completely abandoned, but he finds out about the Circle that …
  • Edward learns more about the Circle and what it is
  • Edward discovers the Circle’s connection to the king of England
  • Edward escapes to Belgium

• ? Edward exacts a retaliatory blow on the Patricians’ Circle (more specific pls)

  • Edward is taught that the Circle stretches far wider than England

  • Edward finds out that mentor was former Circle member

  • Edward finds out about the role of the Circle in his father’s downfall

  • Edward disrupts the Circle’s attempt to …

    • For petty reasons, of course, to stake his claim that he’s here and he can’t be simply blacklisted

• Edward is captured and almost executed

  • The members of the Circle discuss Edward and how ethical it is to execute him, ultimately agreeing to kill

• ? Edward burns Europe to the ground and assassinates the Patricians

• EPILOGUE: Teatime at the farmhouse…again