We have had HUGE problems with time in Aquila. The days seem to go on for ever and ever - and they are all action-packed! Eventually, we did a summary of all the things that happened ... and then we agreed to restrospectively s-t-r-e-t-c-h time ... so that what originally appeared as a day in the posts, becomes a full month in recollection. So far, this has seemed to work rather well.

The game itself started (game time) about three months before the Bahlmis coup.

Note that by and large there has been a long quiet, since before Atropos II ascended . Nevertheless, skirmishes between Houses are not necessarily ruled out during that time, as instanced by Dr. Hoberty, whose father was burned alive by Bahlmises, about fifty years ago. The spirit of the thing is that whatever battles between nobles, they are infrequent or sparing of lives: they have posed no real threat to the overall stability of the Duchy.  

Moreover, time is very elastic in and around Ren. One will readily notice that the cleanup after the Bahlmis coup took very little time in real life, should have taken many months of game time to complete . yet because of the compression of details, and the disinterest in writing all the intervening weeks, the posts were minimized, and completed in the span of a couple of real weeks. Conversely, the Anderon party to welcome the Bahlmises back into society after their disgrace, which took place in game time over a single evening, took, if memory serves, well over a month real-time to complete.  

Be aware of the passing of time on Aquila. It is embarassing to talk with a character about what happened "last night," only to have the character look at one strangely, and gently remind, "That was over forty years ago ." Okay, so that's a bit of a far-fetched example. Understand, however, that the GM's manipulate time in Ren with god-like power, authority, and precision. Time stretches and shrinks, retrospectively, so that the game will not only keep moving, but also retain all the little bits of characters and subplots of the individual players.  
 

Nira Anderon

Recently, the story of Nira Anderon has had a huge impact on the game :

Nira is the sister to Lord Delan of Anderon, and was married off to the Duke Atropos II in a savvy (devious?) political move by her father.

However, the doctor at the Ducal Palace (called the Nest), Dr. Festor, for reasons yet unclear, decided that Nira should not give Atropos any children, and so forced her to take pills that would keep her from producing any. When Atropos finally grew too frustrated with her inability to get with child, he cast her out of his household, and annulled his marriage to her.

Nira was to be killed, by order of Delan, but a cousin, Alan Anderon, needed money to support his drug habit, and so sold the former Duchess into slavery. When Delan found this out, he nabbed Alan, and sold him into slavery . but he was too late to locate Nira.

Nira then wandered the wilderness around Aquila for months.

Quite recently, at the reception intended to welcome House Bahlmis back into Aquilan society, Nira Anderon showed up on the front stoop of Anderon House, with her servant. She was pregnant, and from all signs, pregnant with the Duke's own child.

This came as something of a shock to the Duke, who had since betrothed himself to the apparent heiress to House Clover, Lady Lilly, who was herself with his child at that time.

Needless to say, Atropos's very recent marriage, terminated so quickly by a crossbow bolt, leaves some serious question of succession. Is his marriage to Nira really annulled, since the reason given was her apparent infertility, which was actually a hoax? Or will the Church refuse to go back on its decision to annul the first marriage, stand behind its decision to consecrate the second, and thereby tender Lady Lilly's newbown babe the legal heir?