Editing Magipunk:Organizations (section)

== The Royal Family ==

The rulers of Branmir are anachronisms in the present day.  The most blue-blooded of the blue-bloods, the Royal family have insulated themselves from the ever-increasing changes of the modern world, and to step into the halls of the Royal Palace is to go back in time to a place where nobility is inherited, not bought, and wealth comes from land, not trade.

The current King, Ropert V, is a vital man in his 60's.  He's not unintelligent, but whenever he ventures too far from the royal sanctum, culture shock hits him hard, and, as a result, he tends to keep himself isolated.  Ropert certainly understands that tradesmen have bought their way into the nobility -- his family has used economic pressures to keep the lower nobles in line for generations -- but he doesn't grasp the true extent of the Alliance's control over Atathorn's (and Branmir's in general) economic world.

Ropert's ultimate problem is that he keeps trying to get his kingdom back under control the old-fashioned way -- by playing the nobles off against each other, buying up their debt with his family's personal wealth, and appealing to their senses of honor and feudal obligation.  But in the modern era, most of the power that was with the old nobility has been consolidated into a much smaller group of high-ranked Alliance members.  These progressives have little sense of feudal obligation or duty, are too wealthy to be manipulated economically by the Royals, and don't care to play games with other nobles over old forms of wealth like territory.  As such, the only people that Ropert manages to manipulate are petty nobles who are too unimportant to be snatched up by the Alliances.

Ropert's wife, Sira, a woman five years younger than he, is even farther removed from the modern world than he.  Never one to engage in the world, she concerns herself solely with the affairs of the house and the petty intrigues of her close-nit set of old-fashioned women, and her occaisional council to Ropert only encourages him to withdraw from the modern world.

Princess Elin, Ropert's younger sister, on the other hand, has a much firmer grasp on the realities of Atathorn.  Her husband is a nephew of Alamar Roget of the Roget Alliance, a man firmly under her control.  Elin has, in past years, been a strong advocate of change in the Royal family, an attempt to break the Alliance stranglehold on the politics of Branmir, but she's been frustrated by her brother's inability to see past tradition.  Recently, she's been playing with the idea not of breaking or blocking the Alliances, but in trying to seize significant power within the Roget Alliance, essentially abandoning her brother as a lost cause.  Thus far, a sense of family loyalty has prevented her from continuing too far down this path.

Both Ropert and Elin have several adult children -- on Ropert's side there's his older daughter Saphia, the Crown Prince (also Ropert, to be called Ropert VI if he assumes the throne), and the younger daughter Pola.  Elin has two sons, Wran and Usker.  The Crown Prince is capable, but he idolizes his father to an extent that he's blind to the King's failings.  Saphia and Usker are both useless twits.  Pola is relatively smart, and has made some efforts to see the modern world, but at her relatively young age (early 20's), is so far uninterested in trying to turn around her family's decline -- she's mostly interested in wine, handsome young men, and the marvels of modern magic.  Wran, Elin's older son, a man in his late 30's, is probably the Royal most likely to reverse the fortunes of his family.  He's a sharp, capable sort who realizes that if his own children (in their teens) are to stand any chance of benefitting from their high birth, the government of Branmir will have to turn around sharply.  Of everyone in the Royal family, Wran is the person most likely to try something untraditional and daring to check the power of the Alliances.

=== The Royal Guard ===

The Royal Guard are the personal bodyguards of the Royal Family.  They guard the Royal Palace and occaisionally do police-work around events that the Royal Family attends.

The Royal Guard wear painfully anachronistic metal armor that's been backed up by powerful, if rather obsolete, spells (Obsolesence 3, but high-end spells.  Big mana guzzlers with great effects).  They carry halberds with deadly enchantments on them (again, Obsolesence 3, high-end spells), and back those up with short swords for close-in work, with the same spells on them.  Each Royal Guard carries a 50 point power token as an amulet under their armor, and they are given free license to use their mana as they see appropriate, thanks to the overwhelming wealth of the Royal Family, and the relatively small size of the Guard.

Royal Guard are also extremely well-trained in traditional (non-magical) combat, and are broadly speaking disciplined and loyal.  Ordinary people give these single-minded agents a wide berth.