The Masters of the House

The masters of the house are monsters, but like Resident Evil and unlike D20 modern, they should be identifiably human.  No trolls, ogres, or goblins should be needed, and any such fantasy races would only disrupt the universe by asking unpleasant questions like “where did that come from?”

So instead, let’s answer that question directly.  I need a lord in 19^th century tradition, which as I understand derives his name from the name of the land.  Directly implicating any lord of the old century is beyond my desire, so a fictional lord and land within Britain should work best.  Recalling that the region calls for rocky cliffs hiding an underground smugglers harbor, I begin brainstorming:

Huntshire             Filnswip     Cauttorbury        Mansatch            Kountsworth       Finnapton

This seems to be getting worse as I go, but Huntshire was at least good.  It also occurs to me that Regal and Loyalist names might more effectively hide criminal and seditious behavior:

Georgeland         Regesburgh         Larksley

I don’t know.  Maybe my creative juices are just tapped tonight, but I don’t think they are getting any better than Huntshire.  I’ll give the name a quick Googling to avoid unintentional copying:

There are actually several in the United States.

But I think we have the  Lord.  I will make him a low level Lord, thus creating a need to rise through classes, and a desire to do it by any means necessary, leading to a Lawful Evil alignment and guide.  This will be the Baron of Huntshire (Larksley).  The Random Name Generator gives Harlow Garrett, which would give the Peerage name of Baron Garrett of Larksley (that works better actually).

Okay, now to place Larksley on the map somewhere.  We want it to be in Britain, but in a place that includes several hills and rough terrain, and thus encourages smugglers.  I actually pictured Dover when I made all of that up, but maybe Dover is too tourist-friendly for smugglers enclaves.  Smugglers anywhere in the UK would not be hard up to find cliffs to support the activity, or townsfolk bullied or bought into supporting the gangs.  It may require the creation of a fictional gang and/or port town, but I could probably put this county anywhere where the borders of England’s provinces are less clearly defined.

I think I may be neglecting the most important point though.  That it could be anywhere!  All of Britain can be the home of this mansion, just as all of the mid-western United States could house the Arklay Mountains and Raccoon City.  It would be rather foolish to lose that equation.  Baron Garrett of Larksley doesn’t need a home near any particular city or town, because, for fictional purposes, he could be anywhere within a day’s hearse ride of London! 

Okay, so I put a lot of energy into defining where he is, but I don’t need it.  The fiction could stand with Baron Larksley’s manor just being “there,” which frees me up to build the setting on the road to this manor.  For simplicity, the manor is built over an inlet, not directly on the coast.  This makes it ideal for smuggling, obvious to those in the know, but hard to resist officially.

And that’s how Baron Larksley imports his dangerous cargo.  More tomorrow!

“Peerage” Wikipedia, Last updated 21 February 2012, Accessed 03 March 2012, Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peerage.

“Territorial Designation” Wikipedia, Last updated 16 February 2012, Accessed 03 March 2012, Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_designation.

“Smuggling” Wikipedia, Last updated 26 February 2012, Accessed 03 March 2012, Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smuggling.

Smuggler’s Britain, Last updated 8 December 2010, Accessed 03 March 2012, Available at http://www.smuggling.co.uk/