Editing Flying Circus: River Valley Federation: The Pilots: Charlotte von Ribbeck: Notes and Story Record

=Character Creation Notes=

===SETTING===

People: Edelfrei, and Charlotte can recite stories of her lineage allegedly going back centuries. This might seem gauche in the post-industrial, post-apocalypse but her family is proud that it has survived and proud of its traditions. It is a lineage and one that must continue to be spoken of.

Estate: the town of Ribbeck can be found in East Himmelgard. It is situated in the Euler valley and lies on the banks of the Elba river. During the war, Ribbeck was a logistics hub and staging area - with men and materiel coming in from the formerly industrialised (and now shattered) Daimler Coast before waging war West and South into the Albartos and Vosin valleys. Terrible bombing gave Ribbeck a new central lake, and it still bears many other scars. But there were still a great many mechanics and technicians who survived the war and today - while Ribbeck is still rebuilding - it has the nucleus of a thriving aerospace industry.

Already cosmopolitan as a trading hub sat between the Daimler coast and the Gotha Plataeu, toady Ribbeck is more cosmopolitan than it ever has been: with a large amount of refugees fleeing the poisoned sea coming inland to the settlements therein. This has lead to a thriving Bohemian scene of arts, music and theatre; as people with very little - and very little in common - begin to create a new, shared culture to bring some joy to their lives.

===CHARACTER===

Expectations: man or woman, the archetypical scion found in many a storybook is defined as honourable and concerned with their family and their people: possessed of noble and worthwhile character in practice as in name. In truth, this mythologising was an attempt by the noble families of the pre-war nations to maintain the allure of value and the spectre of self-worth in a world that was rapidly leaving them behind. In this post-war Hellscape, many nobles are attempting to reassert their old importance: utilising this mythology, the scraps of power they still possess and many people's desire to return to a better time to their advantage.

Charlotte, for her part, believes in the ideal: of acting the part, and looking the part. She does not always succeed.

History: born post-war, Charlotte was taught to fly by her grandfather - one of the last of the ancient Gilder-Knights - and grew up on many a fantastic story. And it would not be incorrect to say she flies for the adventure of it all: too restless, and too determined to prove her worth to stay cooped up in Ribbeck. Her parents are torn between hoping Charlotte raises the status of her family and hoping it's all just a phase.

As for the von Ribbecks themselves, they are a house of fraught history; caught between the Daimler coast and the prosperous Gotha Plateau, the von Ribbecks have never been a large house - and have always fought for every scrap of relevancy and reputation they have ever owned. In that sense, nothing has changed for them.

They survived by exploiting the Ribbeck lands as a convenient half-way point between major polities, growing successful on trade and protecting their investment by making it too costly to dislodge them. Legendarily, Wilhelm von Ribbeck II slew a dragon and the dragon with its chest pierced by a lance has been the Ribbeck's coat of arms ever since.

Rule and Rulers: the burghers of Ribbeck possess considerable influence. Be they people of local import, or former military officers, they are the 'go-between' distancing the people of Ribbeck from the von Ribbecks themselves. It's obvious that they seek to depose the Ribbecks. It is equally obvious that not all of them wish to do so for altruistic reasons. It is presently an uneasy peace, but the politics are fraught...