Codex Crimson Coast¶
Dramatis Personae:¶
Dramatis Personae
Vitae - Parlor artist.
Olive - Maiden in Waiting, heiress to the Kratos name.
Elyr Ipsion - Firstborn of Ulyr Ipsion, heir to the Ipsion name.
Ulyr Ipsion - High Lord of the North Tower
Tritia - Midwife of House Ipsion, mistress of Ulyr Ipsion
Peros Kratos - Olive's father, a senile old man.
Liliac - Servant of House Kratos
Watchman Immunes - Public investigator of the Gray City
Forcestis - Mercenary.
Rharvik Mitter - Patriarch of House Mitter
Lelia Mitter - Current wife of Rharvik Mitter
Minor Characters
A guard
A cook
Three servants of Ipsion
The noble guests of Ipsion
A child of the baker
A priest
The Chorus, and also the Crowd
Introductory Chorus:¶
The musical direction is for an ten person chorus. The introduction sets as the stage a place called the Gray City, located on the border between three nations. It is here that a story of tragedy and truth is about to unfold. The chorus bids the audience to listen to the story of Olive and Vitae.
[Reasoning Check (): 219, Difficulty: 100]
A ten person chorus is no longer common, and marks plays older than half a century. Even when it was used, it was an infrequent choice.
It's obvious from the description that the Gray City and its environs is an entirely fictional setting.
[Reasoning Check (): 212, Difficulty: 150]
In Iridine musical tradition, the number ten is an imbalanced number. Ten is used in conjunction with situations that are inherently unstable.
[Reasoning Check (): 239, Difficulty: 200]
Most choral introductions describe the play in genres. While "tragedy" is expected as a genre, to speak of a story of "truth" is highly unusual.
[Empathy Check (): 237, Difficulty: 150]
Male names tend to take priority in formal introductions. It's unusual for a female name to be mentioned first.
First Part:¶
Vitae is an artist who makes a living doing scenic pictures of the pearly white coast near the Gray City, which consists of sheer, beautiful cliffs. These renditions are meant primarily as cheap tokens and souvenirs for the many pilgrims and travellers which frequent that city. By and large, he is a simple parlor artist.
In truth, his real profession is hiding true works of art behind these pictures and helping smuggle them across the border. His contact is a man named Forcestis, a hardened mercenary who is noted for smoking a pipe.
Vitae falls in love with a woman, who belongs to a once-notable family of artisans. This is Olive Kratos, and her family has fallen far since her father was involved in a scandal. She refuses to elope with him, insisting that his attentions are insincere. After all, a parlor artist who mass produces the same scene, all signed with the hackneyed title 'Crimson Coast', could not possibly be capable of real expression. She believes his affection for her is simply an opportunistic ruse, like the rest of his work.
In short, Vitae is neither a true craftsman, or a man capable of supporting the family she is struggling to protect.
[Empathy Check (): 229, Difficulty: 100]
Vitae here is shown as a simple, none-too-bright man trying to make a living with his talents. He has skill, but not the vision and creativity to direct it.
[Empathy Check (): 178, Difficulty: 100]
Forcestis is cool, calm, and business-like. There is an edge to his words, hinting that there is another side to him that he keeps supressed.
[Empathy Check (): 260, Difficulty: 100]
Olive comes off as being a strong woman who has learned to hide her strength.
[Reasoning Check (): 190, Difficulty: 150]
Olive gives a major soliliquy in one of the first few scenes in which she is introduced. Olive's speech apparently refers to the fact that she must sell herself and her family name in order to protect her family name. She believes that such a path would uphold their reputation, but degrade the legacy of her forebears.
[Reasoning Check (): 165, Difficulty: 150]
Olive's speech is not so one-dimensional as it first appears. Her remarks about the circumstances of her birth seem to be much more than a reference to the current state of her family. There are hints that they also refer to the accident of her gender.
[Empathy Check (): 200, Difficulty: 150]
Olive's soliliquy during one of the initial acts contains a good deal of suppressed frustration. Comments about a release are, on the surface, a reference to the financial bindings of her family. The choice of words, though, hint at both a sexual and expressive release that is denied to her. It is notable that stage directions describe the 'perfect stiffness' of her dress and the tidiness of her hair.
Second Part:¶
Olive is being courted by a man of noble blood. Elyr Ipsion is a boor. He is clearly after her out of lust and the desire to possess one of the most attractive maidens of Gray City. However, it is widely recognized that Ipsion wealth can save the Kratos family.
On the side, Olive is comissioning the help of Watchman Immunes, who is investigating the scandal that involved her father. Immunes is an intelligent, logical man whose fatal flaw as an investigator is his lack of empathy with how most ordinary men think.
Also occurring throughout the play are games of stones between Ulyr, head of House Ipsion, and Rharvik, head of House Mitter. The two men and their houses are clearly rivals. During the first of these games, Ulyr bemoans the fall of one of his House's client families, Kratos.
Desperate for Olive's affection, Vitae tries his hand at true art. His works are technically perfect. But since he never attempted to express anything of his own, they lack heart. Much of the action of the play are his attempts to woo Olive and evade Elyr. Each time he makes an attempt, she ridicules his latest piece of art.
Despite this, he slowly starts to win her over. His art also begins to improve. The night before her proposed marriage with Elyr Ipsion, they are to meet one last time on the cliff that he has painted so frequently.
Vitae hopes to win her over with a masterwork of art as proof of his sincerity. As he leaves his workshop, he despairs over his latest work, which is, on the surface, no different than his usual paintings of the ocean. Forcestis enters. The mercenary brings with him another stolen piece of artwork. What he brings is a true masterpiece, and even Vitae can see it as such. The emotion and sincerity of the painting brings him to tears as he observes it alone. His weeping is both due to the power of the painting and his belief that he can never acheive that power on his own. In desperation, he leaves his own work behind and takes this smuggled masterpiece in its stead.
Forcestis steps out of the shadows and smokes nonchalantly on a pipe. He doesn't appear bothered that Vitae ran off with valuable goods. He looks at the painting Vitae left behind. The stage directions have him pausing in silence for several long minutes, the scene focused only on Forcestis and the simple painting of the ocean. Forcestis snuffs out his pipe, empties the ashes, wipes his eyes with his head faced away from the audience, and leaves.
[Empathy Check (): 285, Difficulty: 150]
Despite his status, Vitae is a man who clearly has ambitions. He sees art as a vehicle by which he can acheive wealth and fame, which is clear in his choice of profession. It is only through his courting of Olive that he begins to lose this perception, and his true talent emerges.
Vitae's fascination of Olive lays far beyond her physical beauty, or even her eloquence. He refers to her as a pearl freed from its shell. His love is laden with envy.
[Reasoning Check (): 251, Difficulty: 100]
Forcestis appears to be the most relaxed character of the play. Not driven by the forces which press the other characters, he wanders through it, seemingly timeless in his nonchalance.
Third Part:¶
In a dramatic scene, Olive forcibly rejects Elyr's affections. In this, she is aided by her loyal friend Liliac, who helps her escape. The wedding the next day is off. Elyr is the only one left, disconsolate, at the Kratos residence when Watchman Immunes arrives. Not perceiving Elyr's emotions or showing a hint of understanding at what just transpired, Immunes begins his report. Here, it the scandal of House Kratos is revealed. Peros Kratos was at the height of his career, and was engaged in several high-profile and lucrative commissions. In the months preceding the deadline, he boasted readily of the progress and quality of his work. When the deadline arrived, not only was he unable to finish the commissions, but he did not even have a work in progress to show for it.
Peros claimed that all his work was stolen, but no one believed him. Immunes discovered evidence to support Peros' claim. Elyr receives Immunes' report and dismisses the watchman. At the end of the scene, he still raves about Olive's betrayal and leaves the Kratos manor.
The climactic encounter takes place on the cliff. Olive insists on speaking to Vitae about the news of her broken engagement, but Vitae believes that she's simply trying to reject him one more time. He interrupts her and insists on showing her his latest work of art before she continues. When he reveals the piece, Olive is speechless. It soon becomes clear that her reaction is horror, not amazement. The piece is the one stolen from her father shortly before the scandal occurred.
Feeling utterly betrayed, thinking that Vitae was party to the group that ruined her family (and, unwittingly, he was), she turns from him and casts herself off the cliff. Vitae is left alone atop the cliff. The play affords him no more lines.
It was revealed that Watchman Immunes was found murdered shortly after. One of the final scenes is Forcestis meeting with Ulyr Ipsion, Elyr's father, receiving payment and reporting on profits. That scene ends with a game between Ulyr and Rharvik. They appear to be discussing in amiable terms the upcoming marriage between Elyr and a member of House Mitter. Throughout, the game of stones continues furiously.
[Empathy Check (): 251, Difficulty: 150]
It is clear that Elyr's desire for Olive is irrational and passionate. The choice of words in his approaches to her indicate a strong lust. However, they also indicate an mental lust. He wants her not only because of her body but also because of her status as one of the most enigmatic and desireable maidens of Gray Sands. He desires her because she is desired, in the circular logic that fuels obsession.
[Reasoning Check (): 167, Difficulty: 100]
Tritia is officially the midwife of House Ipsion, but she has far more authority than is normal.
[Empathy Check (): 167, Difficulty: 100]
Tritia's familiarity with Ulyr hints at an affair.
[Reasoning Check (): 139, Difficulty: 100]
The game played by Rharvik and Ulyr is unusual since it is not a traditional Iridine game. The game chosen for this play appears to be a varient common in Aestiva, where taken pieces can be used as one's own pieces. This variant takes a long time to play, and is potentially endless if no conclusion is reached. It makes a good game for a long discussion.
[Reasoning Check (): 236, Difficulty: 150]
The discussion between Rharvik and Ulyr is filled with innuendo. Their maneuvering on the board has been carefully staged to match the 'real' affairs which they discuss between them. There is no distinction between business and family issues.
[Reasoning Check (): 265, Difficulty: 185]
The status of Tritia as Ulyr's mistress stands at a stark contrast to his words concerning the importance of family and dignity. Many elements in the games between Rharvik and Ulyr are unnecessary to the greater story. The author appears to be driving home a social critique on hypocrisy.
Though much of the rest of the story is clearly set in a fictional setting, the struggles of House Ipsion and House Mitter are all too close to Iridine's patriciate to be a coincidence.
[Empathy Check (): 182, Difficulty: 150]
Rharvik and Ulyr's little game is a mirror of their own personal and professional rivaly. Indeed, there does not seem to be a distinction between the two. The way they speak of family members mirrors the movement of pieces around the game board.