Princess World: Frontier Kingdoms - Sourcebook #1
Frontier Society
Factions, Parties & Tournaments
by BJK White
v0.3
Sourcing The Source..........................................3
Factions & The Frontier....................................4
[O] The Circle (T6)....................................................................5
[MASK] Silver Masks (T5)........................................................9
[NOT] Noble Traders (T4)......................................................12
[KDEF] Kingdom Defenders (T4)..........................................15
[SCI] Scientific Promotion Society (T4)................................18
[????] Nowhere (T4).................................................................21
[RARC] Royal Architects (T4)................................................24
[HUG] Hunter Guild (T3).......................................................26
[WALL] Strongwall Group (T3).............................................29
[EXU] Exploration Unlimited (T2)........................................32
[LAND] Brave New Lands (T3)..............................................35
[UNL] Universal Librarians (T3)............................................38
[SCAR] Scarred Hearts (T3)...................................................41
[STAR] Wandering Stars (T3).................................................45
[SPEC] Speculation Wildhearts (T3).....................................49
[ATT] Afternoon Tea Time (T3)............................................52
[PORT] Teleportation Administration (T2)..........................55
[GUCO] Guidance Collective (T2)........................................58
[WILD] Wild Lands Protection Committee (T2).................62
[SLI] Starlight Investigations (T1)..........................................65
[LUX] Luxury Seekers (T1).....................................................68
[SUN] Sparkle Union (T1)......................................................71
[NIMO] Nice Monsters (T0)...................................................74
Faction Representatives...................................76
Examples Of Faction Representatives.............77
[EXU] Tracy Healthpack, Princess of Games........................78
[NOT] Allegoria Rainfall, Princess of Accumulation..........80
[SPEC] Patricia Gloomspring, Princess of Clouds...............82
[GUCO] Granny Poppy, Princess of Knitting.......................84
[ATT] Vienna Espresso, Princess of Coffee...........................86
[WILD] Beech Ashfir, Princess of Trees................................88
[KDEF] Button Justice, Princess of Optimism......................91
[SCAR] Reunion Finch, Princess of Necessity......................93
[SLI] Francesca Duck, Princess of Doors..............................97
[STAR] Sallyforth Holdmeback, Princess of Impulse..........99
[LUX] Puffenstuff "Puff " Fluffhuffnuff, Princess of Softness
..................................................................................................102
[UNL] Dioretta Byzant, Princess of Coins..........................104
[LAND] Synthia Humbrage, Princess of Balance...............106
[HUG] Portia Jandal-Harrington, Princess of Badminton109
[SUN] Clarity Shoal, Princess of Piranhas..........................111
[MASK] Bell Steelbrace, Princess of Blades........................113
[????] Shadow Lack, Princess of Change..............................115
[WALL] Constance Cat-Battingsway, Princess of Worries 117
[SCI] Rebecca "Becks" Disputation, Princess of Magnitude
..................................................................................................120
[RARC] Brick Prettify, Princess of Support........................122
[O] Alarum Pirouette, Princess of Calm.............................124
Attending Parties...........................................126
Invitations...............................................................................126
Party Goals..............................................................................126
Spending Political Capital.....................................................128
Important People....................................................................129
Rivals.......................................................................................129
Shocking Secrets & Juicy Gossip..........................................129
Jolly Competitions..................................................................129
Wonderful Food And Marvellous Tea.................................130
Mingling Is Important...........................................................130
Entertainments.......................................................................130
Party's Over.............................................................................131
Hosting A Party.............................................132
So Many Clocks......................................................................132
Invitations...............................................................................134
Events & Contests...................................................................135
Guest Arrival...........................................................................135
Playing Host............................................................................136
Good Impressions..................................................................137
Don't Forget The Colour.......................................................137
Party Favours..........................................................................137
Big Picture Clocks & The Wider World.......138
Tick Tick Tick.........................................................................138
Support & Opposition...........................................................139
Creating New Big Picture Clocks.........................................140
Player Princess & New Big Picture Clocks..........................140
Destroying Big Picture Clocks..............................................140
Random Faction Goals (1d20 + 1d4)...................................141
Tax/Funding Benefits (1d6 + 1d6)........................................141
Taxes........................................................................................142
Tour..........................................................................................142
Funding...................................................................................142
Revoke.....................................................................................142
Expedition...............................................................................143
Hunt/Excursion......................................................................143
Block........................................................................................143
Study........................................................................................144
Petition....................................................................................144
Power Grab.............................................................................145
New Frontier Kingdom..........................................................145
Optional Variant: Intricate Politics......................................146
Tournaments..................................................147
Structure..................................................................................147
Opposing Princesses..............................................................147
Tier VS Tier.............................................................................148
Aspect VS Aspect...................................................................148
NPC VS NPC..........................................................................148
Prep Points In Tournaments.................................................148
XP In Tournaments................................................................148
Princess Weapons In Tournaments......................................148
Magic Shields In Tournaments.............................................149 Tournaments & Heart Scars..................................................152
Tournament Fights.................................................................150 Tournament Rewards.............................................................152
Positioning In Tournaments.................................................151
Time Limits And Technicalities............................................152 Example: Attending A Party.........................153
 Sourcing The Source
This is a sourcebook for Princess World: Frontier Kingdoms, focused on the social side of
frontier life. Included are rules and advice about attending parties, hosting parties, and
participating in princess fighting tournaments. There's also an in-depth look at big picture
clocks, including a table of faction goals, and a lot of information about the various princess
factions, with a frontier focus, along with some hints and tips on what sponsored kingdoms
of each faction might look like. Finally there's an extended example of play, with the
princesses of the ShadowMint kingdom attending a party, meeting their neighbours and
would-be rivals, participating in a cow race, eating an immense quantity of sausages, and
attempting to manipulate everyone into loving them.

~3~
 Factions & The Frontier
The first sourcebook for Academy Adventures had a little background information on the
various factions in Princess World, and some of that information will be reprinted here.
However, that was all from a very academy-centric perspective. There are differences, out on
the frontier, in how the various factions are perceived, how they act, what they want, and
what they'll do to get it. Choosing your patron faction is an important decision, one that will
colour almost everything going forward. It's good to have a bit of an idea of where each
faction is coming from, before such a decision is made.
As always, all of this comes under the umbrella of the Golden Rule: If you don't like it, trash
it. This is how the factions work in the games I run. How they operate in your game is
entirely up to you. You could modify them, take what you like and toss the rest in the bin,
add new factions, or scrap the whole lot and make your own fiddly intricate terrible
incredible system of princess politics.
Note that it's probably a bad idea to include every single faction in your game. I mean
maybe you can make it work! But in my experience it's best to start with between three and
five, including the player princesses' patron, and add more as you need them. Remember that
the frontier is huge and ever-expanding, and within a certain region only so many factions
will have interests. If the player princesses want to Reach Out to other factions then that's
fine too, but how involved that faction becomes is down to the fiction.
With each faction there will be a broad overview, then some words on the faction as it
relates to the frontier, examples of the types of questions to ask princesses who are interested
in being sponsored by that faction, some ideas for what direction each kingdom focus might
take with this particular faction, and a section on how other kingdoms might view that
faction, out there on the frontier.
So, let's explore these wonderful(?) princess factions.

~4~
[O] The Circle (T6)
Technically they control everything. Technically they have total authority over the known
kingdoms. Technically they're absolutely neutral and unbiased.
Technically, all of this is true.
The Circle rule from the First Palace, found in the very centre of the inner kingdoms. It's
not generally known what one must do to join The Circle. Come to that, it's not generally
known how to even get an appointment to see them. Sometimes one of their representatives
will show up at a party (standing in a corner, not saying much, watching), or attend a faction
meeting (sitting alone, taking a worrying amount of notes), or arrive at a kingdom (after a
very polite formal request to be there; no response necessary).
Frontier princesses will naturally be aware of The Circle. I mean, who hasn't heard of The
Circle? They're in charge, right? And they keep all the kingdoms together, and make really
important decisions about, well, just everything, I guess. Don't they have something to do
with border shields? Like border shields only work because of them? I'm sure I heard that
somewhere.
They're really important, anyway.
Everyone knows that.

At The Frontier
It is very rare that The Circle sponsors a frontier kingdom. There's not much need, really.
They already have so much power, in such a central and stable location. Of course the
borders must be expanded, of course the wild lands must be tamed, of course all of that
frontier kingdom frippery is frightfully important, but as a faction The Circle is just a little
bit above all of that. After all, what have they to prove?
It's highly likely that most frontier kingdom princesses will never have contact with a
representative of The Circle. At least, not while they're a frontier princess. Once their first
kingdom is stabilised and they move on to bigger and brighter things, well, in that case it's
possible that they might attend a party that also happens to have a Circle representative
attending. While they're out on the border, fighting with their whole heart to build their
kingdom into something strong and lasting and meaningful? Of course it all feels very
important when you're in the middle of things, but it's just not likely that any of that will
ever even be noticed by The Circle. Not unless something goes very badly wrong. So wrong
that it might possibly touch the inner kingdoms. In that case, well. You just might earn the

~5~
attention of The Circle, little one. You might end up getting a lesson in what responsibility
truly means, in this Princess World.
There are much higher than normal expectations for a Circle kingdom. Appearance is vitally
important, but there also has to be a solid core behind that. Beauty and functionality and
perfection in all things, as impossible as that might be for a frontier kingdom. When making
long term project clocks some additional segments or Treasure cost or requirements might
be added by the GM, to represent the higher expectation of quality and craft and aesthetic
standards. The decisions and actions of the player princesses might be under close scrutiny,
or they might be too far removed from the inner kingdoms for anything but an occasional
inspection—but they better pass those inspections with flying colours. As for boons and
improvements, they might have freedom of choice (in which case they'd better make some
excellent decisions) or there might be pressure to choose particular improvements, boons,
and subject groups that align with The Circle's desires. Going against these wishes could be
possible, but even a small rebellion would almost certainly come with consequences.
All in all, the thing to keep in mind is that this isn't just another frontier kingdom. This is a
kingdom of The Circle, and The Circle has high standards and expectations indeed.

Important Questions With Meaningful Answers

If the player princesses really really want to have a Circle-sponsored kingdom, a few factors
should be considered. First, and most importantly, WHY is The Circle sponsoring a frontier
kingdom? What's so incredibly important that they're lowering themselves to such a base
activity? Is there something in the area? Are the other nearby kingdoms at each others
throats, requiring the direct intervention of Circle representatives? In that case, do you
actually carry as much weight as you expected, out there at the frontier? It is, after all, such a
long way from the inner kingdoms. The rules you're used to may not apply. The authority
you thought you carried might just be ignored.
Another question that should be answered is, why are YOU princesses being trusted with
this? Are you just really good at playing the princess game, politically savvy but maybe
without much experience out in the real world? Have you inherited power and responsibility,
without any idea of what that actually means? Are you, for whatever reason, problem
princesses, unsuited to the inner kingdoms, being removed as a nuisance and thrown to the
wolves of the frontier?
One thing to consider, as a Circle kingdom, is that you'll often be caught between your
sponsor's wishes and the hard reality of frontier life. The Circle is a Tier 6 faction, and as
such your tiny little low-Tier kingdom is unlikely to be able to influence them at all.

~6~
Something else to keep in mind is that as far as parties and such go, near the borders, The
Circle often won't have any representation at all. Aside from you princesses, of course. So
you might end up feeling very isolated and alone, unless you can make nice with some of the
other kingdoms and factions that actually do have power in the area. And if you start
making friends and learning a little of life outside the First Palace and the inner kingdoms,
well, it might be that the ideals of The Circle, those ideals you grew up with, those ideals
that are part of your very core, it might be that some of those ideals begin to show ... cracks.
Or maybe there's some greater plan in effect.
Maybe this is all for a reason.
But in that case it would have to be a really, really good reason.
Right?

Focus On Focus
Monster Hunters: There's probably some significant threat in the area. Something so
dangerous that it might affect the inner kingdoms, or the stability of the known lands as a
whole. As well as the main threat it's likely that there are lots of lesser threats to be taken
care of, too. Perhaps an extended expedition into the wild lands is necessary, with dangerous
monsters and high-tier elementals and areas of hazardously unstable wild magic serving as
obstacles along the way to the true destination.
Treasure Guardians: The Circle isn't particularly interested in accumulating Treasure.
Goodness knows they've got enough of the stuff cluttering up the place as it is. However,
they might be interested in unique objects, or a Circle princess might have a personal
collection she wishes to add to—and items of the type she collects have been spotted in this
area.
Magic Researchers: There could be a potentially dangerous (or useful) phenomenon in the
area that needs studying. Maybe it's nothing to worry about. But maybe it's something that
threatens the stability of the known lands, to the point where the inner kingdoms might be
affected.
Wild Claimers: Perhaps The Circle simply needs a presence in this area, to act as a sort of
neutral ground and arbiter for other kingdoms nearby. In this case it's likely to be a
particularly wild area, far distant from the inner kingdoms, with the neighbouring kingdoms
bickering and clashing. It'll be up to the player princesses to identify problems and sort them
out, while finding out just how isolated the frontier can be.

~7~
Social Climbers: Similar to the Wild Claimers focus, but with more of an emphasis on
making nice with other kingdoms and factions. Maybe it's an area where The Circle is
almost disregarded, so remote that the inner kingdoms feel like another planet. This could
be a great opportunity for a fish-out-of-water situation, with the fancy inner kingdom player
princesses plunged into this rough and wild frontier environment.

Regarding Other Kingdoms

The Circle don't much interfere with frontier business. If they do then there's probably
something very important happening out there. Something that might possibly even affect
the inner kingdoms. As a Tier 6 faction The Circle can usually just bulldoze over any faction
or kingdom to get what they want ... unless they face some sort of solidarity. Maybe what
The Circle wants isn't good for any of the kingdoms in the area. Maybe it goes against some
or all of the other factions with interests in that area. Maybe The Circle doesn't actually
understand what's going on out there at all, and their powerful but clumsy meddling is
going to make things very bad for everyone ... unless a plucky group of frontier princesses
somehow manage to get them to understand how wrong they are about this.
And The Circle do not like to be wrong.
Not one little bit.

~8~
[MASK] Silver Masks (T5)
Some princesses fight as a matter of necessity. Some fight for fun or profit.
Then there are some who, well, they just really really fight.
Mostly those princesses end up joining the Silver Masks.
Not much is known about what happens next.
What is known, is this:
When you have a mega elemental battering at your border shields.
When a dozen monster lairs appear overnight in your town square.
When there's a massive surge building deep in the wild lands and there's seemingly no way
to get through the dangerous surrounding area to subdue it before it erupts.
That's when, if you're lucky, the Silver Masks show up.
They call themselves the Silver Masks because they wear masks that are silver. No facial
features as such, just two angular slits presumably to see out of, but who really knows. They
also wear shimmering white cloaks and wield unusually focused and pure magic.
They don't talk much, do the Silver Masks. They're not really ones for socialising or playing
politics or attending parties, or doing much of anything that princesses normally enjoy.
But oh gosh can they fight.
Frontier princesses are probably a little scared of the Silver Masks, because everyone is, a bit.
Other factions tend not to have any official position on them, except for a general sentiment
of, "Glad they're on our side."
Which probably everyone can agree with.

At The Frontier
The Silver Masks have a lot of interest in the wild lands. That's where all the really big
monsters are, after all. They don't sponsor many kingdoms, preferring to stay mobile and
flexible with a small number of firmly established bases, so when they do sponsor a kingdom
it's always for a good reason. Maybe it's in an area close to a chaos nexus, and they want to
keep an eye on it. Maybe they need a new forward base, a place for Silver Masks to camp, to
recover and resupply and to gather information before venturing out into the wild lands
once more. Maybe they need a place to train new recruits, or to test new magic technology.
Silver Mask kingdoms tend to be unobtrusive and efficient. Just Build Up and Compact
Kingdom are appropriate boons, and Improved Border Defences and Castle improvements
would be common.

~9~
Important Questions With Meaningful Answers
If the player princesses are interested in a Silver Masks-sponsored kingdom, ask questions
like, what big threats are in this area? Why do the Silver Masks want a kingdom here? Why
did they choose you to establish it? Are you all members of the Silver Masks, or is it more of
a sub-contracting situation? How scary is your faction rep? Is there a sense that there's
something strange going on here? Do you get the feeling they're not telling you something?

Focus On Focus
Monster Hunters: The most likely focus of a Silver Masks-sponsored kingdom. It's
probably an area with a lot of dangerous monsters and elementals, possibly with a chaos
nexus somewhere nearby. The neighbouring kingdoms might be grateful for the presence of
the Silver Masks, or they might be resentful, wanting to believe that they can deal with this
on their own. Remember that the player princesses don't need to be actual full Silver Masks
themselves. They could take more of a supporting role, building their kingdom into a place
from which veteran princesses can launch their expeditions.
Treasure Guardians: Silver Masks, as a faction, aren't particularly interested in Treasure
except as a means to an end. However, for exactly this reason they might run into cashflow
problems. Maybe the player princesses are expected to build their kingdom into a nice little
earner, to pay for Silver Mask activities elsewhere. Alternately, it could be an area with a lot
of potentially useful (or dangerous) magical items.
Magic Researchers: This could be an area with useful magic items out there in the wild
lands. The player princesses would be expected to claim them, study them, and submit
reports on their combat applicability. There could also be magical phenomena in the area
that might be dangerous or useful. With a Magic Researcher focus the player princesses are
probably not the fightiest of Silver Masks, if they're Silver Masks at all. They could be the
useful and supportive nerds that more powerful but less thoughtful princesses need to give
them the information and support required to deal with high-tier threats.
Wild Claimers: The Silver Masks don't have a lot of kingdoms, and often make their camps
in frontier kingdoms sponsored by other factions. However, they do need some permanent
bases, especially out near the borders. The player princesses might be expected to build their
kingdom into a resupply base, or a place of healing and recovery, or a coordination and
intelligence-gathering point, or maybe just a place for Silver Masks to relax and train
between missions. It could also be a kind of academy for newer Silver Masks, a place to
come and learn about the threats they'll be facing. After all, every vaguely terrifying

~10~
unstoppable force of a veteran Silver Mask was once just another princess who was really
into beating up monsters.
Social Climbers: The Silver Masks don't have much time for social niceties or princess
politics, but maybe that's the point. Maybe some within the faction realise the need to reach
out to other factions and kingdoms, or to establish a presence near the border so that
frontier kingdoms that need the help of the Silver Masks have a physical point of contact. In
this case the player princesses might be building their kingdom into a place for kingdoms or
factions to come to, if they have a problem that the Silver Masks could help with.

Regarding Other Kingdoms

The Silver Masks are a powerful but vague presence on the frontier. Some kingdoms will
never need their help. Others will not be so lucky. The Silver Masks mostly deal with the
sorts of threats that other princesses can't handle, and given that most princesses are actually
pretty great at dealing with monsters and elementals, that's saying something. With that
said they're usually happy (or at least grimly satisfied) to deal with any sort of threat as long
as it's worthy of their attention. If a kingdom, for example, has a couple of Tier 4 elementals
hanging around that the player princesses just aren't confident facing, then it couldn't hurt
to call in the Silver Masks. (Although the Hunter Guild or even your neighbouring
kingdoms might be a better first call to make.)
If the princesses of a kingdom need the help of the Silver Masks, they're probably going to
have to use a Reach Out action or two to get in contact. After that it's down to your
individual circumstances, but keep in mind that the Silver Masks are serious professionals. If
you're dealing with them you'd better be sure that you're not wasting their time.

~11~
[NOT] Noble Traders (T4)
Princess World economics are a strange and involved business, given that the kingdoms run
on a currency that is literally solidified luck. Still, where there's trade you will find traders,
and where there are deals to be made there you will find dealers. The Noble Traders are an
old, powerful faction, the first to discover the trick to creating fortunes, the first to develop
the gold, silver, copper standard still used today, the first to realise that even a market based
around killing monsters and selling the perfectly cooked chicken drumsticks they drop was
still ripe for exploitation.
Noble Traders is a large faction with a wide variety of roles available. Tough princesses to
guard their caravans, scouty princesses to map out new trade routes, socially skilled
princesses to attend very important parties, and of course financially savvy princesses to take
care of the actual trading.
Politically, Noble Traders are powerful but cautious. They're not likely to commit to action
before a thorough cost/benefit analysis. If something isn't likely to make a profit, they're not
interested. If something will disrupt trade, they're against it. They can also a bit short-
sighted; this year's profits are more important than whatever future consequences might be
suffered.

At The Frontier
The Noble Traders will go wherever there's profit to be made, and frontiers are always ripe
with opportunities. Of course, some areas are more profitable than others, and if a kingdom
is operating at a loss then good ol' NOT have been known to cut and run. If the player
princesses have been sponsored by the Noble Traders then they're probably under a lot of
scrutiny, mostly of a financial nature. If their kingdom is bringing in Treasure and
progressing nicely, then great! Keep doing what you're doing, we all love you back here at
HQ!
However. If the kingdom is not doing so well. If the flow of Treasure is light. If prospects are
looking a little grim. Well then. We know it's tough out there, kid, but these numbers don't
lie. You got two choices, pull it together and get your kingdom back into the black or, well,
we've had offers, is all I'm saying. We have alternative paths we could explore. Ones that
maybe don't involve so many problems and expenses.
Of course, there are measures that can be taken before just giving up on an unprofitable
kingdom. Maybe a consultant is brought in, to oversee the player princesses' finances and
actions, and to potentially curtail their spending. Maybe there's talk of one or more of the

~12~
princesses being 'reassigned', with effort required to keep them in the kingdom. Maybe
they're even given a cash injection, with the understanding that their next report better
include some pretty specific details as to how that cash injection was used to reverse the
kingdom's financial situation.
Noble Trader kingdoms tend to be bustling places filled with subjects and the flow of
commerce. There's probably a Township or at least a Village, with an impressive Castle and
a large secure Vault. As for boons, Trade Freedom and XP For GP would both be valued in
Noble Trader kingdoms.

Important Questions With Meaningful Answers

If the player princesses are interested in a Noble Traders-sponsored kingdom, ask questions
like, what's profitable about this area? What deals were made to get this placement? How
can you exploit the area and your neighbours? What valuable resources are there in this
region? Are you into the whole Noble Traders deal, or is this just a means to an end for you?
What kind of goals does your patron faction have for your kingdom? What kind of pressure
is there on you, to achieve these goals?

Focus On Focus
Monster Hunters: The Noble Traders are not interested in hunting monsters or
elementals ... unless there's a profit to be made. Maybe the area is one with a lot of treasure
goblins or living chests or monsters with valuable loot. Alternately, it could be that
elementals or monsters are causing trouble to trade routes or operations that the Noble
Traders are involved with. The player princesses might be troubleshooters who are expected
to deal with these profit-disrupting threats.
Treasure Guardians: By far the most likely focus for a Noble Trader-sponsored kingdom.
It's almost certainly an area with potential for profit, but what form this takes can vary
greatly. Maybe there are a lot of treasure palaces in this area, or the wild lands is packed with
treasure to be looted or resources to be exploited, or maybe there's an opportunity to create
trade routes or make profitable deals with the other kingdoms in the area.
Magic Researchers: Again, some kind of money has to be involved here. Maybe the Noble
Traders have a deal with the Scientific Promotion Society or the Universal Librarians, being
paid to investigate the area. Maybe there's some kind of potentially profitable magical
phenomenon in the area. Maybe the player princesses are expected to figure out new ways to
exploit monsters for their drops, and submit reports on their findings.

~13~
Wild Claimers: The Noble Traders sponsor a lot of kingdoms, most of them with a specific
(profit-related) purpose. If the player princesses are focused on making a strong and stable
kingdom then maybe the Noble Traders just want a presence in the area, a bustling market
town or a thriving bazaar or a secure vault to hold valuables claimed from the wild lands.
Social Climbers: Once again, if a Noble Trader-sponsored kingdom is making nice with
other kingdoms and factions there's probably profit involved somewhere. Maybe the player
princesses are expected to secure trade deals with other kingdoms, or maybe the trade deals
already in place are shaky. Maybe the Noble Traders need a party kingdom in the area, a
place to hold social events such as trade symposiums or auctions.

Regarding Other Kingdoms

The Noble Traders can be a helpful (if expensive) ally and a really sticky enemy. They're
great at making deals, coordinating negotiations, smoothing troubled relationships, and
acting as intermediaries, and they almost always have what you need, but oh boy are you
gonna pay for it. It's rare to come away smiling from a deal with the Noble Traders, but on
the other hand if you've got the Treasure then they do represent a quick and straightforward
way to get what you need.
On the other side of things, if your kingdom is standing between the Noble Traders and any
kind of profit, don't expect any lenience. They'll usually start with a soft sell, a smiling
approach from a friendly representative, but they can get very hard very quickly if they sense
that you're going to be, what's the word ... expensive.
With all of that said, it's not like the Noble Traders are an organised crime outfit or
anything like that. They can just get a bit profit-fixated and greedy at times. They're also a
big, powerful, established faction who are used to getting their own way. But at the end of
the day they're still princesses, and their goals aren't often actually bad. Sometimes they
might need a bit of a reminder, perhaps, that profit isn't everything. That other things are
important too. You may have to shout pretty loudly and repeat yourself a few times in order
to get that message through, but eventually they'll probably get it. As long as it doesn't cost
too much.

~14~
[KDEF] Kingdom Defenders (T4)
It's surely true that the known kingdoms need a bit of defending, from time to time. Or all
the time forever, to be brutally honest. Yes, this is true. Nobody's arguing that it's not. True,
that is.
But. Do you think that maybe. Just maybe. These girls take it all just the teeniest bit too
seriously?
Well, in any case they certainly live up to their name. The Kingdom Defenders defend the
kingdoms. They defend them from monsters, they defend them from bandits and thieves
and other antisocial elements, they defend them from questionable dietary choices and
especially too much sugarand now listen, you really shouldn't be drinking tea after sunset,
you'll be up all night. Here, let me make you a nice warm mug of milk instead, did you brush
your teeth yet? Well you'll just have to brush them again then, won't you.
The two precepts of this faction are 'protect the weak' and 'punish the guilty' and oh gosh
do they stick to them. Really though, they're very polite and respectful, diligent and
hardworking, handy in a fight and just generally useful to have around, in a crisis situation.
They're very earnest, is the thing. Very idealistic, even moreso than princesses usually are,
and princesses are, generally speaking, pretty darn idealistic. They're sort of the police of the
known kingdoms, the peacekeepers, the guardsthe defenders, in fact. They do a good job.
An important job. If there's corruption in the kingdoms or rebel princesses up to no good or
just anything clearly and obviously bad going on, well, the Kingdom Defenders are your
girls. It's just subtlety and complication that they have trouble with. When things aren't so
clear-cut. When it's not so simple as all that.
Frontier princesses will likely have a cautious view of the Kingdom Defenders. They're the
boring stick-in-the-mud types who march around telling people off and giving unsolicited
advice, the overprotective big sisters of the known lands. They do often know what's best.
It's just that they could stand to be a little less righteous and pushy about it.
At least their uniforms are terrific. Very stylish but also practical. A+ work there.

At The Frontier
The Kingdom Defenders are mostly focused on the central kingdoms, but they do have a
presence out near the borders. After all, that's where a lot of rebel princesses make their
homes, stabilising patches of the wild lands to create their hideouts. The Kingdom
Defenders aren't so much concerned with monsters and elementals out in the wild lands—
that's more the domain of the Monster Hunters or the Silver Masks. If a monster lair pops

~15~
up in a controlled lands kingdom, well then, that's a different story, but frontier kingdoms
dealing with wild lands nonsense is just par for the course, not really within the Kingdom
Defenders' jurisdiction.
However, a squad of KDEF princesses sometimes pursue a rebel princess or a rogue fairy or
even renegade subjects into frontier kingdom territory, even into the wild lands. They might
ask for permission to pass through the player princesses' territory, or even request to set up
camp within their kingdom. They could also be investigating corruption in frontier
kingdoms. If the player princesses aren't playing by the rules then they could get a visit from
some smartly-uniformed KDEFs with orderly notebooks and pointed questions.
As for KDEF-sponsored frontier kingdoms, they're mostly like little sheriff 's offices.
Beacons of righteous order out on the border. They probably have a good solid Castle and
decent Border Defences, and often have the Calm & Orderly boon.

Important Questions With Meaningful Answers

If the player princesses are interested in a Kingdom Defenders-sponsored kingdom, ask
questions like, what's the situation out here? Why do the Kingdom Defenders think they
need a presence in this area? Is there corruption or wrongdoings? Are there rebel princesses
or rogue fairies or badly behaved subjects around? Is it a notoriously 'bad' part of the known
lands? What is expected of the player princesses? Do they agree with KDEF's strict
righteousness? What are their ideals and expectations for their kingdom? What goals do the
Kingdom Defenders have for the kingdom? What kind of effect do they expect it to have on
the area?

Focus On Focus
Monster Hunters: KDEF are mostly concerned with invading monsters. If they're just out
in the wild lands minding their own business then that's fine, leave them to the Monster
Hunters or the Silver Masks. If there are monsters or elementals causing trouble to
kingdoms, though, that's when the Kingdom Defenders get serious. Player princesses might
be expected to investigate disturbances in nearby kingdoms, and those investigations might
lead them past the borders to the source of the troubles, in the wild lands.
Treasure Guardians: The Kingdom Defenders, like any faction, do need money. They're not
much interested in looting, but needs must. Maybe KDEF have a big project that needs
some extra Treasure to get going, or maybe they've imposed some hefty taxes on their
frontier kingdoms and the player princesses are forced to go treasure hunting to pay them.

~16~
Alternately, it could be that there this area is notorious for being a hiding place for stolen
items. The player princesses could be tasked with finding and recovering these items.
Magic Researchers: KDEF isn't particularly interested in magical phenomena or
researching magical items. There are other factions who deal with that sort of thing.
However, if there's something that affects the security of the kingdoms, something that
threatens borders or stability, then KDEF would definitely be interested in getting to the
bottom of that. It could also be that the other factions are messing with things that they
maybe shouldn't, and the player princesses are expected to conduct their own independent
studies to make sure that things are safe and by the book.
Wild Claimers: KDEF do certainly like to have a presence out near the borders. The player
princesses might be expected to build their kingdom into a place of security and stability; a
model kingdom for others to look up to as an example of a frontier kingdom done right.
KDEF might also want a kingdom for a specific purpose, a nice safe place for subjects to
live, or a training ground for young recruits, or a resupply point for investigative teams
operating around the border.
Social Climbers: KDEF princesses like a good party as much as anyone, and maintaining
good relations with other kingdoms and factions is important. The player princesses might
be expected both to build good connections with their neighbours and local factions, and
also to help everyone get along and act correctly, like noble princesses should. Maybe it's an
area with feuding or clashing kingdoms, and the KDEF kingdom is intended to be a point
of stability and order amongst that.

Regarding Other Kingdoms

The Kingdom Defenders have good intentions, but their straightforward righteous
approach can sometimes cause problems. Especially out on the frontier, when often things
aren't as clear as all that. Sometimes the last thing anyone needs is for a bunch of
straightlaced idealistic KDEF princesses to come stomping in. On the other hand, if you're
dealing with rebel princesses or corruption or other nasty business then the Kingdom
Defenders might be exactly what you need. Put it like this: If you have a simple problem
with a straightforward solution then KDEF are your girls. If things are a bit messy and
complicated then KDEF's involvement will likely do more harm than good.

~17~
[SCI] Scientific Promotion Society (T4)
Princess World is a place with a lot of mysteries. Magic is weird stuff, and the way it
manifests often flies in the face of common sense. Why do monsters explode into candy
when they're destroyed? What kind of sense does that make? But there are answers to be
found even in nonsense, or at least that's what the Scientific Promotion Society would like
to think.
This is a formal group of thinkers and tinkerers united in their passion for gaining
knowledge. Always striving to understand this bizarre world and wrestle its mysteries into
submission. And okay, so their methods aren't 100% what you might technically call 'safe'
and they do cause a worrying number of explosions, but their hearts are in the right place
and they do come up with some spectacularly useful stuff from time to time. They wield
quite a bit of political power, mostly because they're so handy to have around when
something goes weird, which it does pretty often in Princess World, it's the Scientific
Promotion Society that might just come up with some answers.

At The Frontier
The Scientific Promotion Society has a strong presence on the border, because that's where
exciting things tend to first get discovered. Also it's often good to have some distance from
the stable inner kingdoms when you're testing experimental new magic, in case of cascading
reality destabilisations and so forth. Nice to have a bit of a buffer between ground zero and
anything really important.
Scientific Promotion Society kingdoms tend to vary wildly, with no real coherent style or
architectural technique beyond sturdy walls and flimsy roofs. They do often have a Library
or Workshop, or both, and the Chaos Engine and On The Edge boons tend to show up
more often in SCI kingdoms than in those of other factions.

Important Questions With Meaningful Answers

If the player princesses are interested in being sponsored by the Scientific Promotion
Society, ask questions like, what interesting discoveries were recently made in this area?
What kind of magical phenomena are occurring in the nearby wild lands? Are there any
other factions competing to investigate, exploit, or otherwise muscle in on those
phenomena? Is there anything unusual about the local flora, fauna, monsters, elementals?
What about rocks, are the rocks weird here? Are clouds usually that fluffy? Should we build
an enormous ladder to get up to those clouds and do some testing?

~18~
Focus On Focus
Monster Hunters: SCI isn't much interested in monster hunting for its own sake, but
they're extremely interested in capturing and studying rare species and unusual variants.
Maybe the chaotic magic of this region results in a greater than normal variety of monsters,
or interesting variance within one species, or maybe the behaviour of monsters in this area is
unusual. Elementals are always a popular research subject too, especially studies focused on
dealing with the explosion of wild magic that occurs whenever an elemental is destroyed.
Treasure Guardians: Although the Scientific Promotion Society isn't overly concerned with
money, securing funding for new projects is always nice. Additionally, relics looted from the
wild lands can often be studied before they're sold off for research bucks.
Magic Researchers: Perhaps the most common focus for SCI-sponsored kingdoms. There's
always plenty to research out there on the frontier, from monsters to elementals to magical
phenomena to experimental magical devices. It's probably just a coincidence that they sent
this thing to the furthest possible point away from the inner kingdoms, right?
Wild Claimers: The Scientific Promotion Society is always active on the frontier, which
means having reliable kingdoms to serve as solid bases is very welcome. The princesses
might be aiming to build their kingdom into a place where groups of SCI princesses can
stage their expeditions into the wild lands, trying to make a nice place for researcher and
librarian and bookshop owner subjects to live and work, or just establishing a solid scientific
presence out there at the frontier.
Social Climbers: SCI might have a somewhat nerdish reputation but they're still princesses,
and most princesses are well into parties. Besides which, socially-skilled princesses are a vital
component of a faction that causes so many delightful explosions. Being able to smooth
things over with neighbouring kingdoms is highly valuable.

Regarding Other Kingdoms

Having a SCI kingdom nearby is always a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand they're
extremely helpful if there's anything weird going on that requires investigation, and near the
wild lands there's always something weird going on. On the other hand, the explosions. Oh,
the explosions.
Another problem that often comes up, with a neighbouring SCI kingdom, is that they're
interested in absolutely everything and often have the political clout to get in there first. You
want to go grab the loot from a nearby wild land dungeon, but you get an official letter
telling you to stay clear until the local science princesses have had a good look. There's an

~19~
absolutely appalling infestation of sick flies right near your border that you're aching to deal
with, but your hands are tied until your SCI neighbours have finished poking and prodding
and writing their reports.
Of course, there's not so much enforcement, out on the frontier. And it's just a letter. Maybe
you could ignore it and do your princess biz anyway? After all, what's the worst that could
happen?

~20~
[????] Nowhere (T4)
Doesn't exist. Best not to ask questions.
Move on, little princess.
Good girl.

At The Frontier
Nowhere is a real mystery, and as such can be a terrible headache to deal with. They don't
exist. Except clearly they DO exist, because SOMEBODY is poking around your kingdom
and asking questions about that extraordinarily interesting relic you just retrieved from the
wild lands, and then the next day the relic is just gone and there's no trace of anyone ever
even being there and nobody to complain to, because of course Nowhere does not exist.
You see? Absolute, terrible headache.
Nowhere has a presence at the frontier, because Nowhere has a presence everywhere. And
yet at the same time there's no trace of Nowhere at the frontier because, again, of course,
Nowhere does not exist. Sometimes there'll be a certain kingdom, nominally aligned with,
oh, the Luxury Seekers or the Sparkle Union or maybe Exploration Unlimited, one of the
weaker factions, you know the kind. Just another forgettable low-T kingdom. And yet
somehow the princesses of that kingdom always seem to be in the right place at the wrong
time, always seem to know more than they should, always seem to just sort of get their way.
There's something going on, that much is obvious, but it can't be Nowhere, can it?
Because of course, as ever, forever and always, Nowhere does not exist.

Important Questions With Meaningful Answers

If the player princesses are interested in being sponsored by Nowhere, ask questions like,
why does this mysterious faction of spies and spec-ops princess want a presence in this area?
What's the cover here, what faction are you posing as? Do you player princesses realise that
Nowhere is sponsoring your kingdom, or is it a secret even to you? Are you sleeper agents
waiting to be activated, or do you have a specific mission? Are you more spies, or more spec-
ops? Action or espionage? How much is shared with you, or are you on a strict need-to-
know basis? Can you trust the orders you receive? Can you trust anyone?

~21~
Focus On Focus
Monster Hunters: Nowhere kingdoms often have mysterious motivations, but they can
certainly deal with a troublesome monster or elemental when it's needed. Even (it is
whispered) rebel princesses or rogue fairies. Depending on the kingdom's circumstances, it
might be that the player princesses are expected to make surgical strikes on very specific
targets; just take out THIS elemental, and don't touch anything else. Oh, and make it seem
like you stumbled into the wrong area and were forced to fight the elemental. Take some
injuries. Don't make it look too easy. Make it look real.
Treasure Guardians: Again, precision is the name of the game here. There might be a
dungeon packed with loot, but Nowhere are after one thing in particular. All that other
tempting Treasure is not to be touched. Then again, you're way out here in the wild lands
with very little oversight, who's going to know if you take a few extra sacks of fortunes?
Building a frontier kingdom is expensive, after all...
Magic Researchers: Nowhere researchers might be interested in wild lands phenomenon,
but they might be more interested in what the neighbouring kingdoms are up to. Reports
could be written and submitted on the activities of other factions and kingdoms in the area.
Wild Claimers: Sometimes Nowhere need to establish an ostensibly normal, nice,
forgettable little frontier kingdom. The player princesses might be sleeper agents, of a kind,
with no instructions from their patron faction beyond 'don't attract attention'. Of course, if
something happens nearby that requires the attention of Nowhere then everything could
change. Sleepers are there to be activated, after all.
Social Climbers: Especially if the cover faction is the Luxury Seekers or Afternoon Tea
Time then, certainly, a Nowhere kingdom could be throwing and attending parties. After all,
parties are a prime source of gossip and information. Who really knows what's going on
beneath the surface. More tea?

Regarding Other Kingdoms

Nowhere is defined by mystery and absence, rumour and hearsay. They tend to deal with
things that nobody else wants to deal with, or that nobody else is equipped to deal with, or
that nobody else can appear to be dealing with. If your kingdom stumbles upon something
dangerous, or your princesses begin poking around with things they probably shouldn't, or if
you're dealing with rebel princesses or rogue fairies, then it's possible that Nowhere might
involve themselves. If they do they'll be subtle about it, and leave no trace of their passing.
You might not ever even realise they were there at all.

~22~
Also, being that their whole deal is that they don't exist, even identifying a Nowhere
kingdom is tricky biz. Maybe that Luxury Seeker kingdom is exactly what it seems, just
another kingdom of easygoing princesses getting by with the least possible effort. Probably it
is, actually. I mean what are the chances that it's a cover for Nowhere? Nowhere doesn't
exist. Everyone knows that. They were surprisingly competent against that one elemental,
but even a lazy princess is still a princess.
It's probably nothing.
Probably.

~23~
[RARC] Royal Architects (T4)
The whole place would fall apart without them. They're responsible for the design,
construction and maintenance of structures in the known kingdoms. Maintenance being a
key responsibility there, considering the unstable nature of Princess World. The inner
kingdoms are usually pretty safe, but the further from the First Palace you get, the closer to
the wild lands, well. Things happen. Buildings ... misbehave.
Anyway, the Royal Architects are an old and respected faction. Whether it's designing new
buildings, incorporating new magical research into designs, surveying potential frontier
kingdom sites, or any of a hundred other exciting roles, the Royal Architects are always on
the lookout for promising new candidates. They built the First Palace and Princess
Academy, you know. You attended the academy, didn't you? Yes, marvellous engineering.
Remarkably solid stability work. Just avoid the southeast wall on odd Sundays. Hmm? Why?
Oh, no reason. No reason at all.

At The Frontier
The Royal Architects don't often sponsor frontier kingdoms themselves, preferring to
provide support to the kingdoms of other factions. It's useful to have a presence out near the
border, though, for various reasons. Stockpiles of materials, logistics centres, training camps,
material gathering, even research. And of course it's always good for RARC princesses to get
hands-on with some wild lands taming. Stabilisation is the foundation of Princess World
architecture, after all, and there's nowhere that needs more stability than out at the border.
RARC kingdoms are often notable for the quality and strength of their Border Shields, their
impressive Castles, and they almost always have a Workshop. As for boons, Unusually Stable
and Calm & Orderly are common in Royal Architect kingdoms.

Important Questions With Meaningful Answers

If the player princesses are interested in being sponsored by the Royal Architects, ask
questions like, what makes this area particularly attractive from an architectural point of
view? Is there anything specific the architects want built here? What resources can be
gathered? What kind of buildings can be captured in the nearby wild lands? How can you
support your neighbouring kingdoms? Do they even want your support? How do their
kingdoms look, are they doing things properly or is it all a bit of a shambles?

~24~
Focus On Focus
Monster Hunters: The Royal Architects are not generally very interested in monsters or
elementals, seeing them largely as nuisances and obstacles. With this focus the player
princesses would likely be dealing with threats as a means to an end; remove these monsters
so that the area can be developed. If the kingdom has this focus then it's likely the area has
an unusual number of monsters and elementals, standing in the way of architectural
progress.
Treasure Guardians: Maybe the player princesses are expected to build great things on a
shoestring budget, and so need to head into the wild lands to get enough loot to fund their
projects. Maybe there are good building materials in this area, or even whole buildings that
can be captured, dragged back to the kingdom, and made ready for transport to other
kingdoms.
Magic Researchers: For RARC most magical research is focused on building and stability.
Techniques for capturing buildings out in the wild lands would be a priority, as would
storage magic, efficient border shield reinforcing, better stabilisation techniques, and so on.
Wild Claimers: This is a common focus for RARC kingdoms; do things properly and build
it to last. There's not a lot more to be said, if the player princesses are interested in doing a
proper job of building their frontier kingdom into something strong and stable then this
could be the focus for them.
Social Climbers: RARC have a reputation for strong stable support, and have a lot of
dealings with other factions. Maybe the player princesses are expected to act as liaisons, or
even social workers of a kind, finding out the best way to support their neighbours and then
acting on that information.

Regarding Other Kingdoms

The Royal Architects enjoy a lot of popularity with other factions. They're mostly concerned
with building things and making things more stable and just doing a proper job. Maybe the
worst complaint about them is that they can get a bit snippy about princesses who take
shortcuts or do a sloppy job or don't follow best practices, but really they've got everyone's
best interests at heart and they just want everyone to live safely and happily. They're a hard
faction to dislike, are the Royal Architects. The competent hardworking knowledgeable
aunts of Princess World.

~25~
[HUG] Hunter Guild (T3)
There are dangers in Princess World, there's no doubt about that. Elementals prowl the wild
lands, slimes and bad rats and large bees are common even in the tamest of kingdoms, and
monster lairs can pop up just about anywhere, like particularly malignant toadstools.
Perhaps fortunate, then, that the Hunter Guild exists. Princesses united in a collective desire
to go out and kill monsters, and then come back and talk loudly about going out and killing
monsters. There's really not a lot more to them than that, they just really really really like
hunting monsters. Oh, and gadgets and magic and weapons that might help them hunt
monsters, they have a secondary interest in those things. They work closely with Exploration
Unlimited, who are more excited about finding new places than killing the things that live
there, and the Scientific Promotion Society, who appreciate that the hunters keep the places
they're studying safe but perhaps wish they weren't quite so noisy. All in all the old saying
holds true, "If you've got monsters and you don't want monsters, Hunter Guild."

At The Frontier
Naturally, the Hunter Guild has a keen interest in the wild lands, what with all the fun
monsters and elementals around to hunt. This can cause friction with other factions, as the
Hunter Guild are notorious for snapping up new frontier kingdom sites before anyone else
can get a look in. Their initial stabilising work and basic border shields tend to be rather
rushed and makeshift, which often leads to problems down the line.
Hunter Guild frontier kingdoms tend to be fairly rough, with much less of a focus on
building and much more of a focus on just going out and killing stuff. They have the highest
failure rate among the factions, and will often abandon a kingdom whose shields are failing
rather than attempt to save it. Indeed, many frontier kingdoms from other factions are built
on the ruins of a failed Hunter Guild attempt.

Important Questions With Meaningful Answers

If the player princesses are keen on being sponsored by the Hunter Guild, ask questions like,
what kind of monsters are in this area? What legendary beast stalks the nearby wild lands?
How about elementals, anything going on there? Does the terrain present any interesting
challenges? Are you all keen on the hunting side of things, or were you brought in as a
stabilising influence—perhaps not even a Hunter Guild princess at all? If so, what are your
priorities here, and how do they differ to those of the Hunter Guild?

~26~
Focus On Focus
Monster Hunters: Naturally, the vast majority of Hunter Guild kingdoms have this focus.
There doesn't really need to be any particular reason for a HUG kingdom to be Monster
Hunters, although maybe there's something special out in the nearby wild lands.
Treasure Guardians: Hunter Guild kingdoms tend to naturally come across a bunch of loot
during their monster slaughtering, as well as copious monster drops. They might like to set
up some sort of trade deal with nearby kingdoms, exchanging monster drops for other
things. Their hunts will probably take them into some interesting areas, too, with all sorts of
valuables.
Magic Researchers: Not such a common focus for HUG, but occasionally they'll want a
kingdom whose primary purpose is to test out experimental new weapons or traps or other
gadgets that might help with the effective hunting and efficient slaying of monsters and
elementals. The focus here might also be on documenting their hunts, writing reports about
the monsters they're tracking and killing, or even writing articles or stories about their
exploits.
Wild Claimers: Seeing as most Hunter Guild frontier kingdoms aren't so focused on the
building side of things, and seeing as a lot of their kingdoms just sort of fall to pieces while
their princesses are distracted by expeditionary activities, sometimes HUG assigns a group
of princesses to knuckle down and just really focus on making a good solid kingdom, a base
for the area, somewhere with a great big lodge to come back to and good food and comfy
beds and nice bathrooms and all those other little comforts that princesses enjoy so well.
The Hunter Guild might also have subjects who need to be housed, in which case a properly
stable and secure kingdom is always a plus.
Social Climbers: The Hunter Guild is not a particularly social faction, but they do often
need to negotiate for the right to hunt in a certain area, or to mount an expedition from
another kingdom's land. On the other side of things, other factions often approach the
Hunter Guild to tell them about some troublesome elemental or monster infestation that
they'd rather like taken care of. The player princesses might be expected to go to other
kingdoms and find out what kind of monster problems they have, or host parties where non-
fighty princesses with monster problems can meet fighty princesses just itching for a good
hunt.

Regarding Other Kingdoms

Hunter Guild kingdoms are ubiquitous on the border, so there's usually a HUG kingdom
pretty close, maybe even more than one. It might be in a state of appalling destabilisation

~27~
and approaching catastrophic shield failure, or it might be one of the rare stable HUG
kingdoms. Either way its princesses are likely to be more concerned with going out and
killing monsters than anything else. If the player princesses are also out there killing
monsters then this might create conflict, especially if they take down a special prey that the
HUG princesses have been hunting for weeks. On the other hand, if the player princesses
have big dangerous threats that they're not interested in dealing with themselves, getting in
touch with a nearby Hunter Guild kingdom can be a simple answer to that kind of problem.

~28~
[WALL] Strongwall Group (T3)
Princess World, or at least the tame controlled bit of it, is a relatively small place. Frontier
kingdoms push back the borders and explorers challenge the dangers of the wild lands but
is that really the best course of action? Should we not, the Strongwall Group argues, be
consolidating what we already have? Maybe sort out all these problems we have with the
kingdoms we've claimed before making a mad grab for more? Should we really be stretching
ourselves even thinner?
They might have a point, actually.
But they also have absolutely no sense of humour.
In any case the Strongwall Group very seriously advocates for stronger borders, a slowing or
even halting of expansion, tighter regulations on the founding of new frontier kingdoms,
and stricter governance of existing kingdoms.

At The Frontier
These girls can be a real nuisance. They do occasionally sponsor their own frontier
kingdoms, because you have to, really, to keep your foot in the door of princess politics, but
given that their whole deal is to slow or even stop expansion, well, you can see where that
could cause problems for frontier princesses.
Their presence is not often directly felt, unless a protest turns up at the player princesses'
doorstep, but the Strongwall Group is constantly pushing for stricter regulation on frontier
kingdoms, the banning of certain practices, higher taxes, more rules, and harsher
enforcement of the rules that already exist.
As for Strongwall Group frontier kingdoms, they tend to be absolutely by the book and the
very definition of conservative growth. WALL kingdoms often take a very long time indeed
to be declared fully stabilised and established, mostly because of the faction's insistence on
doing everything exactly correctly and following every little rule and waiting for official
judgements before proceeding, because we wouldn't want to step over any lines, would we?
That would be terrible.

Important Questions With Meaningful Answers

If the player princesses are set on being sponsored by the Strongwall Group, ask questions
like, how bureaucratic is this going to get? Why have the Strongwall Group relented and
sponsored a kingdom in this area? Did something force their hand? Are they trying to prove
something? Are you princesses all for the strict rules and regulations of WALL, or are you
little rebels going to try to skirt the red tape and actually get this kingdom built? Are you

~29~
even part of the Strongwall Group or something like contractors, brought in because their
last dozen kingdoms are all stuck in stalemate and they'd actually like to get a kingdom
established?

Focus On Focus
Monster Hunters: Not a terribly likely focus for a WALL kingdom to have, given their
reluctance to even enter the wild lands. Maybe in this area the monsters and elementals are
particularly attracted to border shields and a constant threat in the very nearby wild lands.
Maybe the player princesses are a bit rebellious, going against their patron's wishes in order
to go out and explore those tempting exciting wild lands. Maybe things keep happening that
just simply FORCE them to go just a teensy bit further, every time, because really the best
defence is a good offence, isn't it?
Treasure Guardians: Again, this goes against the core of the faction, but the player
princesses might enjoy that conflict. Just be prepared to have an answer when your patron
asks where all that Treasure is coming from.
Magic Researchers: Now we're getting into more likely territory, for a WALL kingdom's
focus. The Strongwall Group are often at the forefront of border shield and stabilisation
research and development. It's highly likely the player princesses will be expected to research
those topics, as well as other kingdom-related things such as improvements, subject health
and happiness, and possibly monster and elemental repelling magic.
Wild Claimers: By far the most likely focus for a WALL-sponsored kingdom. Build your
kingdom by the book in strict compliance with all regulations, make it stable, make it safe,
and for the love of goodness don't go cutting any corners or taking any shortcuts. However,
the player princesses might find it rather difficult to follow the impossible standards set by
their patron faction, not to mention have trouble even keeping track of the hundreds of
regulations they're expected to follow. Maybe corners must be cut and regulations ignored
(or creatively interpreted) in order to actually get anything done.
Social Climbers: The Strongwall Group aren't particularly popular with other factions,
having a bit of an interfering stick in the mud busybody reputation, but their advances in
border shield and stabilisation magic do tend to be excellently helpful. Their lack of a
physical presence out on the border might mean that they'd like the player princesses to
attempt to spread the word of WALL, try to get other kingdoms to start doing things
properly, which could mean strategic parties and well-worded letters.

~30~
Regarding Other Kingdoms
Having a Strongwall Group kingdom nearby could cause headaches for a frontier kingdom.
Their presence would likely be one of low but constant pressure; often just popping over to
check your shields and such, making sure you know about the latest regulations and
recommendations, tutting a bit over the state of your kingdom. On the other hand, if you
actually are having trouble with your shields and the stability of your kingdom, well,
Strongwall Group princesses do actually have a lot of technical knowledge and competence
in those areas. They could be a big help, if you can put up with their intensely smug I-told-
you-so-ing.

~31~
[EXU] Exploration Unlimited (T2)
For every faction an equal and opposite faction, or something like that. Where on one side
you've got Strongwall advocating for stronger borders, slow expansion, solidify what we've
got and for goodness sake let's be careful about all this business, on the other you've got
Exploration Unlimited being all like, hey guys, I found these weird pink orbs! Let's whack
them with sticks!
The thing is, the wild lands are dangerous, nobody disputes this. They're filled with
elementals and monsters and weirdness and EXCITEMENT. Who knows what's out there?
Not me! So let's go find out! Exploration Unlimited is a faction filled with princesses
gripped with the spirit of adventure, curious and bold souls never happier than when they're
tromping through places no princess has gone before.
It can't be denied that the explorers of this faction have found a lot of interesting things and
contributed a lot towards the advancement of the known kingdoms as a whole. It also can't
be denied that at least seventy percent of catastrophic wild surges are the direct result of
Exploration Unlimited affiliates poking their noses where they really don't belong. Still,
they've established themselves as a rising political power, skilled at raising capital both
political and material to get new expeditions off the ground. After all, everyone knows the
wild lands is absolutely overflowing with treasure. Exploration Unlimited certainly isn't one
of the poorer factions.

At The Frontier
There are more than a few frontier kingdoms sponsored by Exploration Unlimited; all the
better to stage an expedition out into the wild lands! They're unusual among factions in that
actually establishing a stable kingdom isn't remotely a priority for them. After all, once
you've established a kingdom you're likely to lose that wild lands border, as another frontier
kingdom is going to be built further out. For this reason it's common for EXU to auction off
their established kingdoms to other factions and use the funds to sponsor new kingdoms on
other borders.
Exploration Unlimited frontier kingdoms don't tend to fail as much as Hunter Guild
kingdoms, for one simple reason; money. HUG is focused on the hunting and killing of
monsters—which can get pretty expensive sometimes, and often has a poor return on
investment. EXU, on the other hand, are all about pushing further and deeper into the wild
lands, flipping every rock, pushing every button, whacking every weird pink orb.
Consequently they get into a lot of trouble out there, but they also uncover a whole heck of a

~32~
lot of useful and valuable loot. This helps pay for any improvements or upgrades or repairs
their kingdoms need, often installed by contractors while the EXU princesses are off on
another adventure.

Important Questions With Meaningful Answers

If the player princesses are interested in being sponsored by Exploration Unlimited, ask
questions like, what do you hope to find, out in the wild lands? Is the kingdom just a means
to an end or are you also interested in the building side of things? What rumours have you
heard of legendary treasures or exciting mysteries in this area? What threats exist in this
area? What might be stopping you from going out and exploring? Do you have any goals,
beyond exploration and discovery? In what way do you feel unprepared for the frontier?

Focus On Focus
Monster Hunters: Although EXU are more about discovering new monsters than actually
killing them, sometimes it's just easier to take care of threats yourself rather than call in the
Hunter Guild or whatever. Maybe this area is a particularly dangerous one, with a lot of
nuisance monsters and elementals blocking you from exploring. Maybe you just keep
triggering traps and alerting guardians.
Treasure Guardians: By far the most common focus for an Exploration Unlimited kingdom.
Explore new places, find new and exciting ways to get into trouble, recover massive piles of
loot. Then do it again!
Magic Researchers: Not such a priority for Exploration Unlimited, although the focus here
could be on documenting your exploration, or even writing stories based on your exploits.
EXU princesses do also tend to turn up a lot of odd magic relics. Sometimes it's nice to
actually spend some time figuring out what they do, rather than just tossing them in the
vault and getting out there again.
Wild Claimers: Exploration Unlimited is all about the border, so establishing solid
kingdoms isn't much of a priority for them. Still, every faction needs kingdoms. Maybe
there's a reason EXU needs a solid presence in this area. The usual trio of resupply, recovery,
and subject storage could apply, as well as the possibility of setting up a teleportation hub or
some kind of repository for all the loot EXU princesses bring back. Maybe a museum or
zoo?
Social Climbers: Before Exploration Unlimited became a formalised faction they were just
loose groups of exploration-hungry Sparkle Union or factionless princesses petitioning for
money and support in order to launch their expeditions. As such there's a solid social

~33~
tradition in the faction that continues to this day. If the player princesses choose this focus
then maybe they're trying to convince the other kingdoms to let them explore in their
nearby wild lands, or raising capital for some kind of massive expedition, extraordinary in its
scope and ambition.

Regarding Other Kingdoms

Exploration Unlimited are a bit of a mixed bag. They generally pretty happy go lucky types,
easy to get along with and happy to help with any little problems you might have, as long as
they're not too technical. If you're not obstructing their exploration then you're okay by
them. On the other hand they're constantly blundering around in the wild lands with little
concern for consequences, which can raise Chaos in the area and cause all kinds of trouble
with elementals and so on. They do tend to have a lot of Treasure lying around, so if they do
cause problems for you it might be a good idea to Reach Out and mention the costs you've
incurred due to their activities. EXU princesses can be a bit oblivious about that sort of
thing, but once it's brought to their attention they're usually happy to compensate the
wronged party, whether that's with Treasure or just helping out for a bit.

~34~
[LAND] Brave New Lands (T3)
Sitting squarely between Strongwall and Exploration Unlimited is Brave New Lands, a
distressingly moderate faction focused on expanding borders (cautiously), securing land
(carefully), and developing kingdoms (conservatively). They're not very exciting but they are
extremely organised, and they commission a lot of valuable studies into dull-sounding but
important things like border shield effectiveness and stabilisation degradation.
Many frontier princesses think of Brave New Lands as a boring faction for old people. They
are not incorrect in this perception. Which is not to say that the faction is free of messy
drama or shocking secrets. These are still princesses we're talking about. Brave New Lands
has been known to suppress or even alter study results if they reveal things that might be
overly disruptive, or if they might embolden the more radical factions. There are whispers
that they have gone to extreme measures to preserve their ideals of safe comfortable
mediocrity. True commitment to centrist values can have its own grimly bureaucratic dark
side.
Still, it's not like their intentions are bad. They just want everyone to get along, in a very nice
but somewhat bland way. Let's all smile because everything is lovely, yes? We are, in the end,
all princesses, aren't we? More tea?

At The Frontier
Brave New Lands sponsors its fair share of kingdoms, usually very organised places that rival
the Strongwall Group in their adherence to rules and regulations. Although LAND and
WALL wouldn't ever be considered friendly to one another, really they share a lot of
common ground. They both do a lot of good work in developing new border and
stabilisation magic, they both love rules and regulations, they both revel in deep dark
bureaucracy.
In terms of differences, WALL's core belief is that the controlled lands have already spread
too far too fast, without enough attention paid to safety or stability. LAND's core belief is
that expanding the borders is vital for the future of the controlled lands, but that this
expansion should be measured and cautious, not a wild free-for-all largely unregulated
landgrab like it is now. WALL mostly operates in political circles, proposing changes to
regulations and attempting to enforce those regulations. LAND are more of a presence at
the frontier, creating frontier kingdoms in order to practically demonstrate the correct way to
do things, and also establish a presence at the border to act as a moderating presence and

~35~
keep an eye on things out there. They often act as arbitrators between other factions and
settle disputes as a neutral party. After all, stability is their goal.
If ever Brave New Lands and the Strongwall Group were able to meet halfway and achieve
some kind of concordance they'd be a real force to be reckoned with. Perhaps fortunately
their almost-but-not-quite similarities seem to be preventing that from ever happening;
they're so similar that they can't stand each other.
The frontier kingdoms sponsored by Brave New Lands tend to resemble those of the
Strongwall Group or the Kingdom Defenders, neat and tidy places with low Wild and
managed Chaos, good borders, strong castles, maybe a teensy bit on the boring side, at least
by appearance. Beneath the surface, well, who knows what deep mysteries the blandly nice
mask hides. Who can say how far these princesses have gone, in order to maintain niceness
and stability in the area.

Important Questions With Meaningful Answers

If the player princesses are interested in being sponsored by Brave New Lands, ask questions
like, why is a moderating presence needed in this area? What factions are butting heads? In
what ways are your neighbours not doing things properly? Is anyone being a bully or mean
about things? What is the biggest threat to this area's stability? What is the right thing to
do here?

Focus On Focus
Monster Hunters: Brave New Lands certainly engage in a spot of monster hunting from
time to time. Removing monsters and elementals efficiently is a key part of kingdom
expansion, after all. The focus here would be on doing things as neatly and cleanly as
possible, with a minimal raising of Chaos in the area.
Treasure Guardians: Treasure is very nice to have. It opens many doors and makes
everything run smoothly. Again, the priority would likely be orderly and regulated looting,
well-organised operations with thoroughly researched plans.
Magic Researchers: It's likely that the focus is on borders and stability, but LAND are
interested in the improvement of just about everything. Can it be made safer? Has it been
investigated thoroughly enough? How many committees have there been? Would more
meetings help?
Wild Claimers: The building of a stable and orderly kingdom is a priority for all Brave New
Lands kingdoms. If this focus is taken, that ideal might be taken to a ... well, not an extreme,
sort of the opposite of that, really. An intensely middle of the road, strictly ordered,

~36~
incredibly researched and organised, technically perfect frontier kingdom, with a genuinely
excellent plan to follow that will surely result in a superb kingdom. Of course, the frontier
doesn't much care about your intentions, and the princesses will face a lot of things that
threaten their perfect sacred plan.
Social Climbers: Brave New Lands know how to play the princess games, and they enjoy a
reputation as scrupulously fair arbitrators. Most LAND princesses would be horrified even
at the suggestion of corruption or bias. Of course they often take a while to deliberate, and
they do tend towards decisions that nicely maintain the status quo, but all in all, generally
speaking, every group involved in a Brave New Lands arbitration tends to walk away feeling
like they got a fair deal. If the player princesses choose this focus then they'll likely be
involved in a lot of inter-kingdom and inter-faction disputes, judges of a kind, presented
with situations they must investigate in order to come up with a solution that everyone can
be happy with.

Regarding Other Kingdoms

Having a Brave New Lands kingdom around isn't usually a bad thing. They do things
carefully and tend not to tread on anyone's toes, asking permission rather than forgiveness.
They're also useful in the event of a dispute with another kingdom, especially if you're
morally in the right. You can generally rely on LAND to investigate thoroughly and get
every side of the story before making a decision, so fairness, at least, is assured. Whether
their judgement comes in time to make a difference, however, is a different story.

~37~
[UNL] Universal Librarians (T3)
In the wild lands there are echoes and reflections and memories of the past, made real by the
whims of ethereal winds, existing perhaps for a week, a day, an hour, and then collapsing,
reclaimed by the ever-shifting magic of the world. Anything could appear, out there beyond
the borders. Buildings from a hundred years ago, a thousand, documents thought destroyed,
history thought lost. Places from other realities, from dreams, from nightmares. Always
temporary, never stable. Tantalising glimpses of what once was or what could have been,
dangled temptingly before being jerked away.
Enter the librarians.
Universal librarians locate these lost places, force their way inside, and they tear scraps of
knowledge from the uncaring entropy of chaos. They are experts in bypassing the dangers
and obstacles of the wild lands, work closely with the Teleportation Administration and
Speculation Wildhearts to find and gain passage to rogue libraries, and wield quite a lot of
political heft thanks to their status as record keepers and knowledge guardians, their
undeniable power as princesses, and all the juicy secrets they tend to find as part of the job.
Of course, they can't share most of these secrets. Being a universal librarian carries with it
certain responsibilities, and the proper care for and archival of information is a priority for
them.
'Rogue library' is catch-all term for any building that shows up in the wild lands with
potentially precious knowledge inside. They're hardly ever a complete building, almost
always made up of dozens of different places; the entrance might be a library from a
thousand years ago, leading to a ballroom from a decade past, leading to a bathroom lost last
week. Rogue libraries shift and change, always on the cusp of destabilising back into raw
magic, or shifting somewhere else in the wild lands. They're almost always filled with
monsters and elementals and other dangers of the wild lands. Some librarians believe that
rogue libraries possess a form of sentience, reacting to the intrusion of outsiders and
jealously guarding their secrets.
Universal librarians take great risks in recovering knowledge, and are entrusted with
tremendous responsibility. It takes a special sort of princess to earn a recommendation and
join their ranks.

~38~
At The Frontier
The Universal Librarians do not sponsor a lot of kingdoms. They don't have much interest
in that side of things. They mostly operate out of the Stacks, a large, old kingdom near the
First Palace.
Sometimes, though, establishing a new kingdom is necessary. In the cases when UNL do
sponsor a kingdom, it's common for the managing princesses to not actually be part of the
faction themselves. Librarians are a rare breed, after all, and usually don't have the time or
inclination to manage the day to day affairs of a frontier kingdom, let alone do all that work
building it up and improving the shields and expanding the borders and so on. Often
princesses are recruited from other factions, or directly from the academy, to build a UNL
frontier kingdom into something specific; an archive, a school, a staging ground, a research
post, a travel hub. Indeed, the princesses of the kingdom might never even meet a librarian,
beyond their faction representative.
As such, UNL kingdoms tend to vary greatly. They're usually established for a reason, but
beyond that the princesses put in charge of the kingdom have a pretty free reign. Just deliver
results, is all, and for goodness sake, if a rogue library shows up nearby? Don't go charging in
yourselves. Keep everyone else away, is your role in that situation, until the professionals can
go in and do their job.

Important Questions With Meaningful Answers

If the player princesses want to be sponsored by the Universal Librarians, ask questions like,
where have you all come from? Did you know each other before you were brought in to
manage this kingdom? Are any of you librarians already? Do any of you want to be
librarians? Are there a lot of rogue libraries in this area? What's the purpose of this
kingdom? What is its value to the librarians?

Focus On Focus
Monster Hunters: It could be that this area commonly sees rogue libraries pop up, but it
might also be home to a lot of dangerous monsters or elementals. That being the case, the
player princesses might be expected to keep monster populations down and elementals
controlled, so that when the librarians come in all they have to worry about is the library
itself.
Treasure Guardians: It's possible that some or all of the player princesses are librarians
themselves, most likely newly accepted and still in training. They might be monitoring this
area for rogue libraries and then going in themselves, perhaps on scouting missions to begin

~39~
with, then as support for veteran librarians, and eventually progressing to full-fledged
information retrievals. Alternately, it could be an area filled with all sorts of magical goodies.
The librarians would naturally be interested in the proper storage and cataloguing of these
items.
Magic Researchers: This is a common focus for UNL kingdoms. After all, the librarians are
all about the proper archival of information. Retrieving relics from the wild lands and
writing thorough reports on them would be a fine focus for the kingdom. Whether the
items themselves are sent through for storage or kept for their useful applications, well,
that's up to the player princesses to decide.
Wild Claimers: Universal Librarian-sponsored kingdoms almost always have a specific
reason for their existence. The player princesses likely have a directive to follow, the thing
that this kingdom should eventually become, with the freedom to develop it as they please.
Just as long as steady progress is being made, the librarians will be happy.
Social Climbers: The Universal Librarians aren't the most social of factions, but every
princess enjoys a good party. Maybe the player princesses are part of an effort to deepen
connections, or maybe their kingdom is expected to act as a go-between for the librarians
and other factions.

Regarding Other Kingdoms

Universal Librarian-sponsored kingdoms make for good neighbours, generally speaking. As
long as you don't mess around with any rogue libraries in the area, of course.
If a rogue library does show up near your kingdom, the best course of action is to inform the
librarians and then stay well away. Rogue libraries aren't anything to be messed with. I mean
yes, they're usually packed with relics as well as all that information, but they're even more
unstable than treasure palaces and full of extremely fiddly traps and mindmelting hazards.
Even the calmer sort of library can be a nightmare of non-euclidean architecture and non-
linear time. The worst examples, well, let's just say that you'd be lucky to escape with heart
and mind unscarred.
If you do happen to stumble upon a rogue library, and decide that it's worth the risk to loot
it for relics and information and so forth, probably your first priority—assuming you make it
out alive and with your sanity intact and not, for example, whisked away to the depths of the
wild lands with no idea where you are or how you might possibly get back to the controlled
lands—will be to cover your tracks and get your story straight. Because when the librarians
turn up—and they will turn up—they're going to have some pretty pointed questions.

~40~
[SCAR] Scarred Hearts (T3)
Not generally a faction that princesses choose to join. But it's a tough world out there. It can
chew you up and spit you out, no matter the purity of your ideals or the strength of your
convictions or the faith you have in your friends. It's true that a princess's greatest strength is
her heart, but strength comes at a price. The heart of a princess is a heavy thing, and scars so
easily. Sometimes all that weight and all those scars, they just ... it's just a bit much, you
know? Too much for one person to take. Even if they are a princess.
Of course it's a noble and honourable thing, to join Scarred Hearts. It means you've done
things. It means you've ... seen things. It means ... it means you need others around you, who
understand. Because nobody else does. Not really. Not unless they've been there. Been
through what you've been through. And it's not like Scarred Heart princesses are broken, far
from it. They're just a bit. Damaged. Hardened, maybe. Not quite lost, just appreciative of
being found.
In any case, the princesses of Scarred Hearts command respect and have full license to be
just as sarcastic and cynical as they please. Politically they're not one of the stronger factions,
mostly because they can't be bothered with all that fiddly nonsense, but collectively they
represent a considerable amount of power. Anything that pushes them into wielding that
power had better watch out. If one thing is true of Scarred Hearts, it is this: they do not
mess around.
Frontier princesses will likely regard Scarred Hearts with a degree of awe, and perhaps a
little fear. Is that their destiny? To be used up and burnt out, to retire so young and with so
much potential left unseen? On the other hand that one with the eyepatch looks amazingly
fierce and at least everyone respects them, and they've done stuff. They've served the known
kingdoms and earned their rest, and is that really such a bad fate?
I guess time will tell.

At The Frontier
The Scarred Hearts rarely sponsor frontier kingdoms and don't often travel out that way.
Even so, their presence is felt. Frontier princesses are at greater risk than anyone of pushing
themselves too far and taking on too much Weight and ending up with heart scars. Of
course it's not the end of the world, to get a scar, or even to be forced into retirement, but
even so. It's not something that any princess wants to happen, to themselves or to their
friends or even to their rivals.

~41~
The frontier is also where most of the Scarred Hearts earned their scars. You can understand
their reluctance to go back. So, they mostly operate in the controlled lands, pursuing their
indulgences, helping out when it feels appropriate, supporting one another. Of all the
factions they have the most freedom, because who's going to refuse a Scarred Heart an
invitation to a party? Who's going to tell a princess carrying that sort of weight that they're
not allowed to do something? The Scarred Hearts are aware of this freedom and tend not to
abuse it. They're very aware of the danger of pushing something too far. Still, they're not the
sort of princesses who particularly care what other people think. If a Scarred Heart decides
something should be done, well, there's not a lot that can stand in her way. And if a bunch of
Scarred Hearts all get together and collectively decide, yep, this has gone too far, we've got to
get involved in this, well, in that situation it's probably best for everyone else to just stand
back and make them some tea.
Scarred Hearts is unique among the factions in that they're actively trying to reduce
membership. No princess bearing heart scars wants anyone else to suffer that same fate. You
can understand their reluctance to sponsor new frontier kingdoms. Sometimes necessity
forces their collective hand, but they will always proceed with caution. Scarred Hearts
frontier kingdoms will likely be focused on helping neighbouring kingdoms, lessening their
workloads and reducing their weight.
Note that despite their good intentions, Scarred Hearts princesses (and those of their
sponsored kingdoms) are seen as a bit intimidating. Their blunt no-time-for-nonsense
attitude doesn't often help with this. It might take some time for other princesses to realise
that your actions are for their benefit. You're doing this to help them, to reduce their Weight,
even if the way you do things isn't the smoothest or the most obviously 'good'. Scarred
Hearts often can't be bothered with things like explanations or politeness or small talk or
justification or even introductions. They often just bully their way into a situation, fix what
needs fixing, do what needs doing, say what needs saying, then bully their way back out
again. As you might expect, this approach can cause misunderstandings.
Regarding the player princesses, they're almost definitely not part of Scarred Hearts
themselves, because it's a faction filled, by definition, with princesses forced into retirement.
Even so, they're likely to share some of the qualities of SCAR. A certain cynicism, a certain
disdain for princess society, a certain world-weariness, but also with an underlying hope, the
core conviction that things should be better. It could be that the player princesses were part of
a failed frontier kingdom, or otherwise have seen the ugly side of princess politics and the
games factions play. They might even begin play with a heart scar or two themselves.

~42~
Important Questions With Meaningful Answers
If the player princesses are interested in being sponsored by the Scarred Hearts, ask
questions like, what's the situation in this area? Is it a particularly stressful part of the
border? How are your neighbours doing? What kind of pressure are the princesses under?
How can you help them? Is there something else the Scarred Hearts want investigated or
dealt with in this area? How about you princesses, you're not Scarred Hearts yourselves so
why were you chosen? What support are you being given, to manage YOUR Weight?

Focus On Focus
Monster Hunters: If the area has a lot of stressful monster activity around, the player
princesses might be focused on dealing with them so that other kingdoms don't have to.
Perhaps their neighbours are researchers or builders, not particularly fighty. Maybe their
neighbours are TOO fighty, monster hunters or treasure guardians, but in way over their
heads or pushing themselves too hard. Someone needs to do something.
Treasure Guardians: Scarred Hearts aren't particularly interested in Treasure. Sort of a been
there, done that situation. They don't have many big projects and mostly just spend time
indulging in hobbies and helping out other factions and kingdoms when they feel like it;
relatively inexpensive activities, all around. Still, maybe this area has some particularly nasty
dungeons or monster lairs or treasure palaces or other areas that are full of loot and danger.
Maybe the neighbouring kingdoms are pushing themselves far too hard to get this loot.
Maybe it needs to be removed as a temptation.
Magic Researchers: Maybe there's something of particular interest to the Scarred Hearts in
this area. Maybe it's a part of the frontier that's notorious for scarring princesses and forcing
them into retirement. Maybe there's been a big spike in new members of the Scarred Hearts,
coming from this region. Maybe they want to do some serious investigation of this
phenomenon, to figure out if it's just a coincidence or if there's something else going on
around here.
Wild Claimers: The Scarred Hearts will never sponsor a frontier kingdom just for the sake
of having a kingdom. There's always a good reason; a specific need. Maybe they want to
create a sort of refuge, out near the border, a place for princesses from other kingdoms to
come and take a break. The player princesses might be expected to make their kingdom just
really nice and welcoming and comfortable. It could also be that members of Scarred Hearts
have subjects they need to take care of, and would like a nice comfy subject-focused
kingdom for them.

~43~
Social Climbers: Similar to Wild Claimers but with a more personal touch. In this case the
player princesses might be expected to seek out the princesses of nearby kingdoms, find out
what's troubling them, and maybe try to do something about it. Sorting out issues between
their neighbours (and any factions with a presence in the area) could be a good direction,
too. All in all, it's likely that the player princesses will act as a sensible, stabilising force in the
area, cutting through nonsense and petty feuding to help everyone to get along and reduce
Weight all around.

Regarding Other Kingdoms

While the Scarred Hearts do have a reputation of being a bit grumpy and sardonic and
scary, with the bad habit of just turning up wherever they want and expecting a seat at the
table (and almost always getting it), under all that cynicism and sarcasm they're still noble
princesses with good intentions. They don't want anyone to end up like them. They know
how hard it is, to live with a scarred heart. They also hold the unique position of being
respected by other factions and by princess society in general, and yet slightly apart from it,
unbeholden to its rules. This gives Scarred Hearts a certain power, a certain influence, and
for a lot of them, a certain responsibility.
Frontier princesses will likely think of Scarred Hearts as a fate to be avoided, with individual
members (or princesses of SCAR kingdoms) as a slightly scary presence, sort of a living
warning. Having a Scarred Hearts-sponsored kingdom nearby might be seen as a unnerving
thing, too close for comfort, too much of a reminder of their potential fate as frontier
princesses. Their blunt approach to problem-solving and lack of social niceties can cause
misunderstandings, too. Still, at the end of the day the Scarred Hearts are trying to help.
Effectively, in most cases. Their methods may be questionable and their attitudes crude, by
princess standards, but they get results. Scarred Hearts kingdoms often turn out to be the
best neighbours you could ask for.
Unless you're not behaving, of course. Unless you're causing stress and hardship and Weight
for other princesses. In that case you're the problem. And all that slightly scary bluntness
and world-weary sarcasm and no-nonsense action could be directed straight at you.

~44~
[STAR] Wandering Stars (T3)
There are many princesses who wander, but only one group has earned the title of
Wandering Stars. Those who travel the wild lands in their moving castles, settling
temporarily in the most chaotic regions, the most unstable places, to battle stupidly
enormous elementals and fight to stabilise raw magic before, well, before bad things happen.
Wandering Stars are a special breed, a breed apart, often antisocial, usually a bit odd, almost
always a problem at parties, but undeniably powerful and perhaps necessary for the
continued survival of Princess World. At least a Princess World as we'd recognise it today.
The existence of Wandering Stars can be a bit of a sore spot with the more conservative. It
might be a nicer world, some say, if we didn't have to deal with their kind. To which the
reply might come, indeed it might, but then again it might not be a world at all. It might be
a giant chocolate orange. To which the reply might come again, what? To which the final
reply may very well be, exactly.
Moving castles, incidentally, can take a hugely diverse variety of forms. Some of them fly,
some of them walk, some of them teleport, some of them just sort of slide over the ground.
Some look traditionally castle-ish, others more resemble vehicles or creatures, still others can
look like crystalline structures or gingerbread houses or giant snails or just about anything,
really. They're all strongly shielded and usually have all the comforts of home within; after
all, a Wandering Star's moving castle is their life.
Although actively wandering Wandering Stars tend to be a wild and crazy bunch of
risktakers and daredevils, after a while most of the survivors settle down and take a step back
from active duty. Retired Wandering Stars carry with them a certain weight, a certain quality
of danger, a certain look in their eyes that says, you have no idea where I've been and what
I've done. As such they hold a bit of sway in the noble kingdoms, despite their disinclination
to participate in all that diplomacy nonsense, and their faction is small but significant.
Everyone sort of accepts that Wandering Stars are necessary, even if nobody wants to admit
it. They tend to get on well with Scarred Hearts, sharing a similar worldview and a certain
distance from princess society and the other factions. Most retired Wandering Stars have a
heart scar or two. In terms of differences between the two factions, STAR princesses tend to
be more upbeat and over the top and wild, while SCAR princesses tend to be more
downbeat and understated and calm.

~45~
At The Frontier
Given that the Wandering Stars operate almost exclusively within the wild lands, they do
tend to be a presence at the frontier. They take their moving castles into the worst areas of
instability, crash right in there, and start dealing with elementals. This is usually welcome, as
despite their reckless and wild attitudes Wandering Stars are, at their hearts, professionals.
They're just as skilled at calming wild surges as they are at destroying elementals, and will
often complete their tasks without much of a raising of Chaos at all. Indeed, sometimes
they'll leave things even tidier than when they arrived.
The Wandering Stars do not often sponsor frontier kingdoms. It's just not their area of
interest. However, like any faction they do need solid and stable kingdoms from which to
coordinate and launch their operations. Repair facilities for their moving castles, staging
grounds, R&R kingdoms for when a Wandering Star needs a break, places for their subjects
to live, and so forth.

Important Questions With Meaningful Answers

If the player princesses are interested in being sponsored by the Wandering Stars, ask
questions like, why do the Stars need a kingdom here? What is its purpose? Do they
conduct a lot of operations in the nearby wild lands, or is this a relatively calm part of the
border? Is there a team of Wandering Stars who will be attached to the kingdom? How can
you support them? Do they have any special requirements?

Focus On Focus
Monster Hunters: Wandering Stars deal mostly with enormous troublesome elementals, so
the player princesses might be tasked with taking care of smaller threats to clear the stage
for the more powerful Stars to do their thing. They might also be support, acting as the eyes
and ears of the Stars, or even serving as their handlers. Giving them the information they
need to get the job done.
Treasure Guardians: Wandering Stars don't collect a lot of loot on their expeditions. It's
certainly not the focus, and elementals don't turn into anything valuable. Just massive
explosions of wild energy. The player princesses might be asked to collect Treasure or just
create a profitable kingdom, in order to fund repairs and other projects necessary for the
continued operation of the faction.
Magic Researchers: There's no such thing as a standard moving castle. They're all unique,
crafted and maintained both by the Wandering Stars who will use them and teams of
support princesses. If the focus of a STAR kingdom is research, maybe the player princesses

~46~
are specialists in investigating problems with individual moving castles, and fixing those
problems. Or maybe they're focused more on anti-elemental magic, ways to more effectively
destroy elementals and calm the resulting surges of wild energy.
Wild Claimers: If the player princesses are in charge of a STAR-sponsored kingdom, it
almost certainly has a reason for being. The Wandering Stars would likely give the player
princesses a general overview of what they need, then leave them to build the kingdom
towards that goal as they please.
Social Climbers: Wandering Stars come and go as they please, not really worrying about
whose toes they might be treading on. Sometimes they're informed about elemental activity
in a region, but most often they just go where the elementals are. The player princesses
might be a kind of damage control team, chasing the Wandering Stars and trying to smooth
things over with the kingdoms and factions they've disturbed with their presence. It could be
that they're building a sort of 'complaint box' of a kingdom, a place for princesses from other
kingdoms to come and vent about the problems Wandering Stars have caused—of course
there's usually a reasonable explanation, and it's up to the player princesses to make sure the
explanation is accepted.

Regarding Other Kingdoms

Wandering Stars have a specific priority; go where elementals are causing trouble, deal with
them, onto the next. If a kingdom has a problem with elementals then a team of Wandering
Stars turning up in their moving castle is likely a relief. If a kingdom has other things going
on, and perhaps didn't even know about this allegedly critical elemental presence in the area,
then the arrival of the Wandering Stars might not be so welcome.
As for Wandering Star kingdoms, they're generally just as focused as the Wandering Star
teams themselves. It's not like they'll ignore other kingdoms, it's just that they've got their
own things going on. There's sometimes a certain appearance of arrogance from Wandering
Stars and their supporters; we're doing this really important thing, so you can just get on
with your everyday nonsense and let us get on with the business of saving the world. As you
might expect, this can rub people the wrong way. Additionally, the ideal outcome of a
Wandering Stars operation is almost always for nothing to happen. If they do their jobs
right then nearby kingdoms won't be affected at all. They not much concerned with
explaining themselves, either. To the nearby kingdoms it's like they did nothing at all, just
showed up, maybe made some demands, put up restrictions on movement or certain
activities, then simply left, probably without even saying goodbye. Of course it's more
complicated than that, and it's almost always the case that without Wandering Star

~47~
intervention things could have gotten very sticky indeed, but by appearance alone, yes, it can
seem like the Wandering Stars don't actually do anything. They often operate in the deep
wild lands, after all, far from the borders of even frontier kingdoms, and they're not the types
to brag.

~48~
[SPEC] Speculation Wildhearts (T3)
They're watching. Always watching. Mostly the wild lands. Keeping track of activity near
the borders. Important work. Somebody has to do it. Elementals always gathering. Need to
monitor, track, alert. Never know where a wild surge might happen. Never know where a
monster lair might pop up. So they keep an eye on the frontier kingdoms, too, and the inner
kingdoms, and of course they watch the academy because that place certainly isn't lacking
for incident. Actually, kind of seems like they're pretty much watching everything. Huh.
Speculation Wildhearts are not one of the more well-known factions, although it's not as if
they keep their existence hidden. They're a faction like any other, they recruit (discretely),
they organise (secretly), they get funding or make money somehow, I mean they must be
getting it from somewhere because they're certainly never short of cash.
And they know things.
Maybe more than any other faction.
Maybe even more than The Circle.
They know things.

At The Frontier
Speculation Wildhearts is a faction concerned almost exclusively with information. They
observe. They record. They do not directly intervene in events. Maybe they pass along some
important information to another faction, or to a kingdom, or even to an individual princess.
But to actually act? That's not their place. Not their style.
On the border, their presence will very rarely be noticed. Even if they have a frontier
kingdom nearby. It's likely the princesses of that kingdom will be polite but reserved, neither
offering help nor expecting it. They keep to themselves. They get on with things, quietly and
calmly. They're always sort of there, though. At a distance. Observing.

Important Questions With Meaningful Answers

If the player princesses are interested in being sponsored by Speculation Wildhearts, ask
questions like, what kind of information needs to be gathered here? What is being observed?
Why is it important? Is there anything suspicious about the nearby wild lands? What about
nearby kingdoms? Is there a faction you're paying special attention to? How did you become
involved with SPEC? Is there an element of subterfuge here? What is the deeper reason for
your kingdom's existence, if any?

~49~
Focus On Focus
Monster Hunters: Given that Speculation Wildhearts don't like to directly intervene, any
monster hunting activities would be strictly practical. Maybe the 'hunt' doesn't involve the
vanquishing of the monster or elemental at all, but rather just observation and notetaking.
Perhaps there are other kingdoms nearby with princesses keen on killing monsters, and it's
your job to discretely observe and record their actions.
Treasure Guardians: Although Treasure doesn't hold much interest for Speculation
Wildhearts, the wild lands is filled with new things and interesting relics. Maybe the player
princesses are meant to be exploring the wild lands and simply observing and reporting their
findings, rather than actually looting. Of course, any Treasure picked up along the way will
be useful for building the kingdom, but it's not the point of the exercise. It could also be that
the player princesses are tasked with observing the actions of other princesses out in the wild
lands; where they go, how they act, what they take.
Magic Researchers: Speculation Wildhearts use a lot of scrying magic, not just to observe
from a distance but also to determine the history of objects, places and people. Who has
been in contact with this relic? When? Can we determine why? Often SPEC observe and
record just as a matter of course; someone has to do it. Sometimes they have a specific
reason for their investigations. Perhaps there's something in this area that has attracted their
attention. Something dangerous, or useful, or unique. It could be that the player princesses
are tasked with investigating every aspect of this thing, whether it's an object, a place, a
phenomenon, a kingdom, or a person.
Wild Claimers: Maybe this kingdom was commissioned for a reason. Maybe there's
something that Speculation Wildhearts needs, in this specific area or just as a generally
useful resource. Perhaps a travel hub, or an archive, or an observation post. In any case the
player princesses will likely be given a goal, a purpose for this kingdom, and then left to
quietly get on with things. Of course, their patron faction is always watching. But unless
they step out of line they'll probably never even notice the observation.
Social Climbers: Parties are a prime source of information in this Princess World. Socially
minded SPEC princesses are a vital part of the faction, and events such as parties seen as a
resource to be harvested. Building good relations is also an important part of information
gathering. You get more from your friends than your enemies.

Regarding Other Kingdoms

Speculation Wildhearts is regarded with a certain amount of caution by other factions. It's a
bit unnerving to deal with them. They always give the impression that they know a lot more

~50~
than they show, which of course is usually very true. It can be very useful, though, to have
contacts in SPEC. If you need information then they're your girls. Sometimes they're happy
to share. Other times they'll need convincing. Sometimes the information they give carries
no price at all. Other times it comes with strings attached.
If there's a Speculation Wildhearts kingdom nearby, you'll likely have few interactions with
them beyond the most basic of social niceties. There's often a certain coldness, with SPEC
princesses. Non-interventional neutrality can be a tricky thing to maintain, and keeping a
professional distance between themselves and others is a basic precaution. On the other
hand they ARE still princesses and as such have a basic need to mingle with other
princesses. Beneath the mask they might be craving a good party or some basic gossip, or
just the opportunity to get out there and actually DO something for once.

~51~
[ATT] Afternoon Tea Time (T3)
Parties are an important part of princess life, everyone knows and accepts this. The Scientific
Promotion Society can point to a number of studies showing that the regular mingling of
latent magic is essential for good etheric circulation. When a princess goes too long without
a party she gets pent up and odd. Plus they're just fun opportunities to enjoy wonderful food
and share marvellous gossip and further fabulous machinations.
In any case, Afternoon Tea Time is a faction dedicated to the organisation and execution of
truly splendid parties. Of course, not every party is overseen by ATT. But almost all the truly
impressive ones are. For example, they're the only ones trusted to pull off the grand triennial
ball, a spectacularly over the top display of noble celebration and grossly incandescent
indulgence.
Afternoon Tea Time is a relatively young faction, but one that has swiftly grown in stature.
Everyone just loves a party, is the thing. Politically they wield a subtle and indirect kind of
power. They don't have the authority of the Kingdom Defenders or the knowledge of the
Scientific Promotion Society or the focus of the Strongwall Group, nor do they have the
financial weight of the Noble Traders or the intelligence of Speculation Wildhearts.
But the right party at the right time can change the world.

At The Frontier
Parties are a part of princess society at every level, that's just a fact of life in this Princess
World. The border is no exception, with frontier princesses expected to put on the
occasional party, and to attend parties hosted by others. For a kingdom sponsored by
Afternoon Tea Time there's an additional expectation that the parties must be especially
impressive and inventive. Although ATT have a reputation for extravagance and frippery, at
their core they hold a deep respect, even reference, for the importance of parties to princess
society. Perhaps particularly at the frontier. Organising a party is stressful, of course, and
even attending a party can sometimes seem like a pointless distraction from all the other
important things you're supposed to be getting on with. But without parties princess society
would simply collapse. The factions, arguably already overspecialised in many cases, would
become more and more focused on their core tenets and less and less accepting of dissenting
views. Kingdoms would grow distant from one another, more parochial and selfish.
Princesses would become insular and tense and odd. The centre could not hold. Everything
would fall apart.

~52~
Sometimes an Afternoon Tea Time princess might seem a bit fluffy, but at her core is this
solid belief; parties make the world work. Frontier ATT princesses in particular tend to be a
special breed, adept at keeping multiple plates spinning and bringing everything together,
managing all the everyday catastrophes and challenges of a frontier kingdom and still
making sure there are enough sausage rolls and miniature cupcakes for everyone.

Important Questions With Meaningful Answers

If the player princesses are interested in being sponsored by Afternoon Tea Time, ask
questions like, what's your favourite type of party? Why are parties important to you? How
do the other kingdoms in this area feel about socialising? Were you assigned to this frontier
kingdom because of your party skills or something else? What are you scared of, out here on
the border? What are you excited about?

Focus On Focus
Monster Hunters: Not a common focus for ATT kingdoms, but maybe all the monsters
around here turn into useful party things when destroyed—or maybe your neighbours are
also sponsored by ATT or otherwise not really equipped to deal with threats, and you're the
fighty princesses brought in to sort out all the monster and elemental trouble in the area.
Treasure Guardians: Parties are expensive, there's no denying that. Expeditions into the
wild lands could provide the Treasure necessary to put on some truly spectacular social
events—and who knows, maybe you'll even find some fun and useful relics out there too.
This odd little statue that predicts injuries with startling accuracy makes for an ideal ice
breaker!
Magic Researchers: Parties are a chance for princesses to show off, whether through
contests, magical fireworks displays, food, decorations, just so many things. Research into
this area is serious business for ATT. The player princesses might have a particular area of
interest they're expected to research, or they might be free to explore any aspect of parties. It
might also be that the player princesses are sent to parties hosted by other kingdoms and
factions, expected to take thorough notes and pinch any good ideas they come across.
Wild Claimers: Afternoon Tea Time is very keen on establishing new kingdoms; parties
require space, after all, and in the controlled lands space is always a limited resource. The
player princesses might be expected to develop their kingdom into an ideal place to host
parties, or maybe they're more on the support and logistics side of things, working to build
their kingdom into a place that bakes delicious treats or crafts exquisite decorations.

~53~
Social Climbers: Always a popular focus for ATT kingdoms. Attending parties, hosting
parties, just generally being friendly with other kingdoms and factions, it can be a jolly sort
of life, being a princess. Of course, it's not all tiny cupcakes and spectacular fireworks. Maybe
this area is notoriously joyless, filled with serious factions and grumpy princesses. Maybe
they all need cheering up. And what's the best way to cheer up a princess? You guessed it, a
great big lovely party!

Regarding Other Kingdoms

Afternoon Tea Time enjoy a lot of popularity within princess circles. They put on amazing
parties and are generally dedicated to making sure everyone enjoys themselves and leaves
happy. On the other hand there is a slight touch of the frivolous to their activities. Not every
problem in this Princess World can be solved with a party. Would that it could!
If there's an ATT kingdom nearby, expect a lot of social visits and invitations, whether to
parties or other events. This could be a welcome relief from the daily grind of frontier
existence, or it could be an unwelcome distraction, just one more thing to add to this massive
pile of things you have to deal with.
Of course, if you're in a position where you're expected to put on a party or social event, then
Afternoon Tea Time princesses are always helpful to have around. They are sometimes a bit
overbearing and have the tendency to take control of things, but at heart they just want to
make sure the party is as good as it can be and that everyone attending has a lovely time.

~54~
[PORT] Teleportation Administration (T2)
Just nuts about teleports. I mean they are passionate about portals. The portal network is one
of the great prides of the known kingdoms. How they manage to keep it running and stable
in this wacky world of chaos and wild magic is anyone's guess. But they do, for the most
part. In terms of political power they're an old, strong faction, but pretty relaxed about
things. There's nothing much they want, no special agendas to advance, they're perfectly
content just maintaining the portal networks, hooking in new kingdoms, and going out to
investigate and repair old teleportation circles. Just about the only thing they'd change is a
relaxation on teleportation research restrictions. It's not like it was back in the old days, if
only the experiments in long range non-anchored teleportation could continue oh sure,
there were problems. Complications. But nothing that couldn't be sorted out with enough
tea and volunteers. And then once that vital breakthrough is reached the very world itself
will be ours! Nowhere will be unreachable! The depths of the wild lands can be penetrated!
The most ancient of mysteries can be solved! We have the power! We have the 'ports!
HAHAHAHAHA!
Ahem.

At The Frontier
Teleportation circles are extremely important to frontier kingdoms. Without them you'd be
even more cut off and isolated than you already are. That's not even thinking about what a
headache it is to travel without teleporting—forget about the need for transport, even
travelling a short distance probably involves passing through at least a dozen different
kingdoms. All those greetings and permissions and farewells! All that formality! All those
mandatory cups of tea!
So it's a good thing the Teleportation Administration exists, and manages to maintain the
portal network with hardly any problems really, considering how complicated and
unpredictable teleportation magic tends to be.
PORT does not sponsor many frontier kingdoms, but on occasion they have need of a new
anchor for the network, or a kingdom dedicated to producing a certain resource, or just a
nicely distant place to test out new portal tech.
Although many frontier kingdoms share a border with an established kingdom, sometimes
they're built further out in the wild lands with no physical connection to the controlled
kingdoms. This is especially common with Teleportation Administration frontier kingdoms;

~55~
they'll push as deep into the wild lands as they dare, stabilise an area, then build out from
that, relying on teleportation circles to maintain contact with the controlled lands.

Important Questions With Meaningful Answers

If the player princesses are interested in being sponsored by the Teleportation
Administration, ask questions like, is there any special reason they need a new kingdom?
What's your association with PORT? Have you been brought in to manage the kingdom, or
are you just as nuts about teleports as most of the faction? How's the local situation,
regarding teleports? Does this region have any interesting quirks that might affect
teleportation? What about your neighbours, how are their teleportation circles looking? Are
there any old teleport circles in the nearby wild lands?

Focus On Focus
Monster Hunters: The Teleportation Administration generally regards monsters and
elementals as a nuisance, an obstacle to be dealt with in order for the important business of
teleportation research, development, deployment and maintenance can continue. Maybe
there used to be outposts, out beyond the border, little isolated pockets of stabilisation with
teleportation circles, intended to aid with deep expeditions into the wild lands. These
outposts might have been overrun by monsters and elementals, and it's up to the player
princesses to investigate, deal with any threats in the area, and restore the outposts to
working order.
Treasure Guardians: Teleportation circles take a lot of resources to build and maintain, so
Treasure is always welcome. The player princesses might be supported in their looting by
experimental teleportation magic, zapped right into the juiciest treasure vaults then zapped
right back to their kingdom. Or at least that's the ideal. Reality might not hold up to
expectation.
Magic Researchers: Teleportation is an exciting field of study with many practical
applications. It can also be tremendously risky. Still, price of progress and all that. The player
princesses might be given experimental new teleportation tech to use and write reports on,
or there could some interesting phenomena, structures, or relics in the area with potential
teleportation applications.
Wild Claimers: Often the Teleportation Administration will build a frontier kingdom far
from the current border, as deep in the wild lands as they can safely get. The player
princesses would be isolated and cut off from many of the usual resources that frontier
kingdoms enjoy; neighbours, an established controlled lands kingdom, even food and tea

~56~
and other necessary resources might be a struggle to obtain. They'd have their teleportation
circle, of course, but with so much wild land between them and civilisation it wouldn't be
reliable, and using a teleportation circle takes a lot of magic. In short, if the player princesses
want to play a more 'survivalist' campaign then this focus could be for them.
Social Climbers: PORT aren't a particularly social faction, but they are interested in how
everyone's using their teleportation circles and what sort of state they're in. The player
princesses could be like a maintenance crew, building relations by going around other
kingdoms and inspecting their teleportation circles, identifying and fixing problems, giving
advice on improvements and upgrades, and so on. Or maybe they've been assigned to an area
where teleportation circles are scarce, either due to a lack of resources or a lack of interest.
They could be assigned to spread the good word of teleportation, attempting to convince
other princesses to let them install teleportation circles in their kingdoms.

Regarding Other Kingdoms

Most kingdoms have a teleportation circle. They can be a bit temperamental and unreliable
but gosh darn it, you can't beat them for convenience. As such the Teleportation
Administration is regarded well by other factions; life would be a lot harder without them.
Of course, most princesses only really think about their circle when it's not working
properly. It's possible for princesses to repair their circle without the help of PORT, but
sometimes you need to call in the professionals.
Having a Teleportation Administration kingdom nearby can be helpful, because if
something DOES go wrong with your teleportation circle then at least you've got skilled
help handy. On the other hand there are quite a few stories about the results of PORT
kingdoms performing unregulated teleportation experimentation. Entire regions have gone
missing. For this reason most frontier princesses choose to expand away from their PORT
neighbours and try not to share any actual borders with them. Just to be on the safe side.
It's also possible that princesses travelling deep into the wild lands might stumble across a
PORT outpost, or even a whole kingdom. What kind of state the outpost or kingdom is in
can vary wildly, from being long abandoned and overrun by monsters, to being a thriving
micro-society out there amidst the chaos and unpredictability of the wild lands.

~57~
[GUCO] Guidance Collective (T2)
Made up of both princesses and fairies, the collective aims mostly to make sure nobody's
exploiting or mistreating fairies, and also to correct rogue fairies who are messing up
anyone's business. Given that most princesses have a deep and untouchable respect for
fairies, and given also that most fairies would sooner give up their wings than mess up a
princess's business, the collective doesn't actually have a lot to do.
So they mostly just go around making sure everyone's getting along, and being very pleased
when that's the case. On the odd occasion it turns out that they actually have something to
do, however minor, they tend to get a bit overzealous about it. A contingent of
representatives will descend in really quite over the top numbers with corrective pamphlets
and stern lectures, prepared to apply maximum raised eyebrow in order to right perceived
wrongs.
Frontier princesses will likely think of the collective as a well-meaning but, let's face it,
slightly fluffy group of mostly older princesses, of the type who constantly fret about people
maybe possibly offending other people, and what if someone gets upset? I wouldn't like that
at all. Oh dear.
It's true that the Guidance Collective is not the most influential or the most powerful or,
let's face it, the most necessary of all factions.
But.
On the rare occasion that an individual or group genuinely is mistreating or exploiting
fairies? Or that a fairy has actually gone bad? Well, let's just say that the Guidance
Collective isn't all bake sales and crochet contests. Those older princesses might seem a bit
soppy and wet, but they're still princesses. They've been doing this for a long time and they're
extremely sure of their beliefs. When something genuinely gives them a reason to put down
their knitting and set aside their crosswords and go out 'correcting', that can be pretty
terrifying in its own way.

At The Frontier
The Guidance Collective keep themselves busy out on the border. Kingdoms to inspect,
princesses to inflict their good advice upon, parties to occupy. They're generally seen as a bit
interfering and a little annoying, but mostly harmless. Also, have you tried these scones they
left? They're outstanding!
Aside from being a common occurrence at social occasions (regardless of whether or not
they've got any faction business in the area), GUCO representatives most often have cause

~58~
to visit the frontier whenever fairies are either being mistreated or being naughty. If a
kingdom has the Fairy Circles boon then the princesses of that kingdom should probably
expect someone from GUCO to pop around sometime, just for a nice cup of tea and a chat.
And if everything's fine? Then lovely! Good luck with your kingdom, dears. Do call us if we
can do anything to help.
But. If everything's not fine. If the fairies aren't behaving. If the princesses are exploiting the
fairies. Then you've got a problem.
The Guidance Collective is also terribly concerned about rebel princesses, those poor lost
souls. If a kingdom has rebel princesses in the nearby wild lands then GUCO will likely turn
up. What kind of effect they have on the situation depends on the circumstances. Maybe
they'll cause some misunderstanding and cause everything to blow up. Maybe they'll fuss
and fret ineffectively. Or maybe, I don't know, maybe they'll get through to the rebels?
Convince them to give princess society another chance? It's also possible, of course, that one
of the rebels will be so rude that she'll push the Guidance Collective representative into
actual anger. In which case everyone should just look out. The power and fury of a
disappointed GUCO princess can be unnerving to behold.
The Guidance Collective mostly sponsors frontier kingdoms in areas with high fairy activity.
Fairies are monsters, after all, and live in the wild lands as much as anywhere. Although
fairies have a natural propensity towards niceness, wild lands fairies can be a little ... feral.
Other monsters often bully fairies terribly, and that can cause them to get a bit, well, let's
call it 'defensive'. It doesn't usually take much for princesses to get through to these fairies, a
little kindness and a pinch of patience go a long way, but often frontier princesses are too
busy or too distracted or just too exhausted to deal with sad fairies, on top of everything else.
Having a GUCO kingdom nearby to deal with any fairy business is often a relief.
In general, the Guidance Collective want everyone to be lovely and follow the rules and be
happy and treat fairies and each other and themselves with respect. They're very idealistic.
When something hurts their ideals, that's when they get serious.

Important Questions With Meaningful Answers

If the player princesses are keen on being sponsored by the Guidance Collective, ask
questions like, is anyone being naughty around here? Are there any fairies around? Are the
fairies behaving? Is anyone being horrid? Is there any bullying going on? How about the
wild lands, how's the fairy situation out there? Are monsters being awful? What can you do
to help?

~59~
Focus On Focus
Monster Hunters: The Guidance Collective is not a faction that chooses violence or
fighting as a first response, but some monsters just cannot be reasoned with. Especially if
this is an area where monsters are bullying fairies. GUCO princesses have no mercy for
anything that's mean to a fairy.
Treasure Guardians: Treasure is lovely, of course, but it's often in dangerous places, and you
know, some of those relics can be terribly dangerous. Perhaps it's best if we just take care of
them, before anyone else gets hurt.
Magic Researchers: GUCO are mostly concerned with fairies and people being nice to each
other, so most of their research will likely be about positive lovely things, like how to make
sandwiches more delicious and how to add different colours to a sparkly aura. They could
also study things like the connection between fairies and princesses, new techniques for
repairing fairy gems and restoring fairies, and maybe even ways to create a nice monster
from the candy a nasty monster drops. Could a Bad Rat become ... a Good Rat? Remember
also that GUCO kingdoms almost always have fairies around. I think we can all agree that a
bunch of little scientist fairies with lab coats and teeny-weeny clipboards is an adorable
concept.
Wild Claimers: Building a nice stable lovely kingdom would be wonderful, don't you agree?
Perhaps we could make it a sanctuary for all these poor lost rebel princesses! Oh, I know
they have a bit of a reputation but I really believe they just need a nice cup of tea and a
kindly ear and a little sympathy, and maybe a biscuit or two. The player princesses could also
be building a fairy paradise, or a lovely little kingdom for happy subjects, or maybe some sort
of hotel for tired princesses? Anything goes, really, as long as it's terribly terribly nice.
Social Climbers: GUCO are famously gregarious, enjoying it immensely when everyone's
behaving nicely and getting along swimmingly. Raising relations with other factions and
kingdoms just feels like a natural focus for a Guidance Collective kingdom. Of course, there
might be something of a gap between this ideal and the reality of frontier life. It might also
be that this area is notorious for poor behaviour. The GUCO girls might be sent in to turn
everyone's frowns upside down and encourage them back onto the path of being lovely to
each other—and to themselves.

Regarding Other Kingdoms

The Guidance Collective is a hard faction to dislike. They really do just want everyone to be
nice. Most of them believe that everyone IS nice, deep down, regardless of their actions or
attitude. They're not a particularly powerful faction, and their focus is fairly specific—fairies,

~60~
basically—so most of the other factions are happy to step aside and let GUCO do whatever
they're doing.
If princesses are misbehaving or being mean to each other or (goodness no) mistreating
fairies, it's possible that a Guidance Collective representative might come along to try to sort
them out. How this plays can vary considerably. Maybe it's a really nice old grandmotherly
princess who nobody wants to disappoint. Maybe it's a strict blunt princess sick of people
not acting right, who everyone is a bit terrified of. Maybe it's a big sister type, gently
encouraging and supportive. Or maybe it's a whole ridiculously big contingent of Guidance
Collective princesses, descending on your kingdom like a horde of tutting zombies.
Guidance Collective kingdoms make for good neighbours, generally speaking. They're
happy to help, often popping around with some baking or crocheted hats for everyone,
because it's been getting a bit chilly lately, wouldn't want anyone to catch a cold, that would
be awful! On the other side of things, GUCO kingdoms can sometimes be a bit floppy and
useless when it comes to dealing with things that aren't nice, like monsters and elementals
and complex princess politics, so they might need a bit of help in that area.

~61~
[WILD] Wild Lands Protection Committee (T2)
Basically a bunch of absolute nutters who think we should stop killing elementals and
maybe even give monsters a break, because of some nonsense about the release of raw magic
and the natural cycle of the planet, and probably they'll start babbling about lifestreams and
gaia energy if you give them half a chance.
The Wild Lands Protection Committee began as a series of loosely organised protests, and
gradually just sort of evolved into a faction. They're relatively new but oddly popular, harder
to squash than a giant spider. Demonstrations have been popping up with distressing
regularity lately, often in Princess Academy, sometimes in the inner kingdoms, sometimes
even at the border itself. The basis of WILD's theory is that since elementals are made of
compressed raw magic, and since killing an elemental releases all of that energy at once, and
since the release of a bunch of raw magic all at the same time leads to wild surges and a
general increase of chaos, maybe there's a better way to do things? Maybe one that involves
NOT killing elementals?
So you see? Absolute bunch of nutters. What's that? Another wild surge? Destroyed a
frontier kingdom, you say. Ghastly business. Should get the Hunter Guild on to it. Or the
Silver Masks, they'd soon sort them out. 'Stop killing elementals', I don't know. Where
would that lead us, hmm?

At The Frontier
Elemental activity is overwhelmingly concentrated in the wild lands, but the Wild Lands
Protection Committee can show up just about anywhere. Lately they've been focusing more
on sponsoring frontier kingdoms of their own—staying close to the battlefront, as it were—
and have been surprisingly successful in this area. Punching above their weight, certainly.
Almost as if they had help from somewhere. Hmm.
In any case, WILD are committed to reducing wild surges, primarily through the reduction
of elemental destruction. They've had limited success with attempts to guide elementals
away from the borders, although these initial victories often come back on them, the
elementals returning later even bigger than before, or even joining with other elementals
deep in the wild lands to create critically dangerous mega-elementals. Another tactic has
been to try to get dragons to attack elementals; dragons consume magic, and so if a dragon is
around when an elemental is destroyed the destructive potential of the wild burst is greatly
reduced. Dragons are fickle, though, and not naturally cooperative—rebellious by their very

~62~
nature, in fact, compulsively conniving and often defiant just for defiance's sake. So that's a
bit of an uphill struggle.

Important Questions With Meaningful Answers

If the player princesses are interested in being sponsored by the Wild Lands Protection
Committee, ask questions like, how committed are you to protecting the wild lands? How
did you learn about WILD? Have you been politically active, participating in
demonstrations? Are you actually a member of the faction, or an outsider brought in for your
skills? What's this area like, especially out in the wild lands? How about your neighbours, are
they sympathetic, hostile, neutral? Do you have any ideas about how wild surges might be
dealt with? Aside from protecting the wild lands, does this kingdom have a purpose? What
are your patron faction's expectations?

Focus On Focus
Monster Hunters: This might not seem like a particularly likely focus, for a faction
dedicated to protecting the wild lands, but to be fair destroying monsters doesn't have quite
the dramatic effect as destroying elementals. Maybe the player princesses are tasked with
guiding elementals into a specific area and need to deal with the monster threats there, or
otherwise need to clear out other monsters in order for some plan to work.
Treasure Guardians: WILD isn't exactly hurting for money; there are a lot of eccentrically
wealthy princesses who like to be seen to be doing something, and lately it's become quite
the trend to donate to this kooky bunch of nutters. Or at least that's the official explanation.
Still, as long as you can do it without disturbing things too much, and certainly without
destroying any elementals, it's always nice to get a bit of Treasure into the ol' vault.
Magic Researchers: There are a lot of areas WILD is interested in, as far as research goes.
Mostly figuring out how to reduce Chaos and lessen the frequency and intensity of wild
surges, dealing with the aftermath of wild surges, along with new and exciting ways of
encouraging elementals away from kingdom borders.
Wild Claimers: Building a solid and stable kingdom that exists in harmony with the wild
lands without ever having to destroy an elemental is the ideal, but frontier reality is a big
weird spanner ready to hurl itself into those idealistic gears. The player princesses might
have some hard choices to make, if they want their kingdom to survive. Can you create a
frontier kingdom without destroying elementals and disturbing the wild lands? Isn't the very
existence of a Wild Lands Protection Committee kingdom a contradiction in terms?

~63~
Social Climbers: WILD certainly don't shy away from social events. They're constantly out
there trying to change minds and secure funding, as well as organising parties to raise
awareness and protest the status quo. Rallies and demonstrations and protest events are also
common. As for the player princesses, maybe this is a notoriously rough and chaotic area,
full of expansionist factions and foolhardy princesses obliviously stomping all over the wild
lands. Somebody has to convince them to change their ways before a real catastrophe occurs.
Maybe that someone ... is you?

Regarding Other Kingdoms

WILD are regarded as a bit of a nuisance by most factions, although they do sometimes
enjoy support from the likes of the Stonewall Group and Brave New Lands. For a frontier
kingdom dealing with too many problems already, having a group of Wild Lands Protection
Committee princesses come in and start tutting and handing out pamphlets can be a bit
much.
On the other hand, they do actually have a point. Wild surges are dangerously common on
the border, mostly caused by uncontained elemental destruction, along with princesses being
too noisy and incautious in the wild lands. WILD princesses are trained in the reduction of
elemental explosions and in Calming The Wilds, and can be very helpful in reducing Chaos
if it's getting out of hand.

~64~
[SLI] Starlight Investigations (T1)
Recently, it seems that the known kingdoms have just been overflowing with mysteries and
strange occurrences and questions decidedly lacking in answers. Of course there's always the
Scientific Promotion Society, but they're more about experiments and research than actual
boots-on-the-ground clue-finding door-knocking witness-questioning detective work.
Enter Starlight Investigations, a relatively new faction absolutely fixated on the solving of
mysteries. Previously it was more of a club for like-minded princesses who enjoyed detective
stories, but gradually it became more and more formal and more and more popular until The
Circle decided to officially make them a faction. Not that SLI are much interested in that
sort of thing. Too busy solving The Case of the Quantum Cupcake or The Strangeness in
the Salad Kingdom or The Inexplicable Windows of Triple Dairy, The Cowbell Princess.
Frontier princesses might enjoy Starlight Investigations' periodical magazine, collections of
reports about mysteries both solved and ongoing. The Starlight Journal also includes a
variety of fun puzzles and mystery-solving tips, and has become popular among a wide range
of princesses. Or maybe they were members of the Junior Starlights at Princess Academy, an
increasingly popular club for hopeful young mystery-solvers.
There has been some opposition to Starlight Investigations, mostly from Brave New Lands.
With bundles of commissioned studies in hand they point out that there seems to be a
direct correlation between the size and popularity of Starlight Investigations and the
number of mysteries popping up around the kingdoms. Might it be possible, they speculate,
that these princesses are actually creating these mysteries? Perhaps not consciously, but could
their inherent magic be somehow causing convoluted plots and quirky suspects and tangled
enigmas to just sort of manifest around them, wherever they go?
Nonsense, say the princesses of Starlight Investigations. Now if you'll excuse me I have to
interview a blind girl about what she saw on the night of the Locked Room Pancake Theft.
Wait a minute! If she's blind she couldn't have seen anything! Princess Watson, come along!
I've a theory I must put to the test!

At The Frontier
Starlight Investigations go wherever there are mysteries to be solved, and you'd better
believe the border is packed full of mysteries. As a faction they have a lot of fans, but they're
still very new and relatively small. They're not able to sponsor many frontier kingdoms, so
there's an extra layer of pressure; mess this up and you'll be letting down a lot of people.

~65~
Still, being so new and small means that just as every failure is heavier, so too is every success
more meaningful. There's a sense of excitement in an SLI frontier kingdom, and not just
because of all the mysteries that keep popping up everywhere. Frontier princesses in a
Starlight Investigations-sponsored kingdom are likely to have much more contact with their
patron faction. This can be both good and bad; there's more support, but also much closer
oversight. Every mistake or setback is going to come under intense scrutiny, not least
because SLI princesses just love analysing things.

Important Questions With Meaningful Answers

If the player princesses are interested in being sponsored by Starlight Investigations, ask
questions like, what kind of mysteries are in this region? What strange sightings have there
been, in the kingdoms and the nearby wild lands? What (or who) recently went missing,
under suspicious circumstances? Do you trust any of your neighbours? What is your
relationship with SLI? Were you a member of the Junior Starlights? Aside from mysteries,
what are the expectations for your kingdom? How important is it that you succeed here?
What are the consequences of failure?

Focus On Focus
Monster Hunters: Starlight Investigations aren't a particularly fighty faction, so if they're
dealing with monsters or elementals it's probably because they're obstacles or nuisances.
Maybe there's been a sighting of a legendary monster or something strange out in the wild
lands, and the princesses have to deal with other threats in order to get to the bottom of
things.
Treasure Guardians: SLI princesses love puzzles, so maybe there are a lot of puzzley
dungeons or trapped (but loot-filled) areas in the nearby wild lands. Also, with Starlight
Investigations being such a new and small faction, they could probably do with a little extra
cash.
Magic Researchers: Most likely mystery-solving rather than magical research. The
princesses might be investigating various mysteries in the area. Maybe an enormous bird-
like creature has been spotted out in the wild lands. Maybe one of the princesses from a
neighbouring kingdom can't find her favourite lucky duck charm. Maybe people keep
spotting a mysterious duck, always at a distance, always just staring, always vanishing before
anyone can get close. There could be a larger mystery to solve too, something that links all
the little mysteries together, like, why does everything around here involve so many ducks?

~66~
Wild Claimers: Given that Starlight Investigations isn't able to sponsor many new
kingdoms, every kingdom they sponsor is special. The player princesses have a job to do, and
that's building this little chunk of stabilised chaos into something worthy. Of course, while
they're busily growing the kingdom there'll be plenty of mysteries to solve too. That's just
life for a SLI princess.
Social Climbers: Starlight Investigations are keen to impress, to prove themselves worthy of
standing beside all those bigger older more important factions. And of course, most
investigations involve a lot of talking to people. Maybe the player princesses have a dual
mission in this area; solve these mysteries and make a good impression. This could cause
conflict, especially if the culprits turn out to be princesses from a neighbouring kingdom or
affiliated with a previously friendly faction. Will the player princesses risk damaging
relations in order to solve this mystery? Stay tuned to find out!

Regarding Other Kingdoms

Starlight Investigations isn't taken very seriously by the other factions. Quite aside from
being so new and small, their activities are often thought of as just, well, a bit silly. The
mysteries they solve usually aren't anything of importance, and the theory that Starlight
Investigations princesses are subconsciously creating these mysteries does seem plausible.
Still, SLI didn't get where they are today by just messing around. Princess World is a place
filled with the unexplained, and there is definitely a place for boots-on-the-ground door-
knocking witness-questioning direct action mystery solving. Starlight Investigations may be
mavericks, but they get results.
With that said, having a Starlight Investigations kingdom nearby could be a cause of worry.
You're sure you didn't have so many missing items and footprints in the rose garden and
shadowy figures and inexplicable ducks before they arrived. Still, they were helpful with the
whole Stolen Teapot situation, and they seem nice enough. It's mostly their theme music
playing whenever they show up that's the real bother. That sort of thing wears thin very
quickly, I must say.

~67~
[LUX] Luxury Seekers (T1)
There are such comforts to be found when you're a magical princess. So many wonderful
things to eat, so many delightful teas to sample, so many luxuriant naps to be taken. The
Luxury Seekers are the ones to say, yes, maybe we are all living on a gossamer-thin illusion
of stability suspended over a yawing pit of chaos, but that doesn't mean we can't have some
fun, enjoy some creature comforts, indulge in a little creative hedonism, does it? Indeed, if
things really are so bad as all that it's practically our duty to enjoy ourselves while we can.
And if it all turns out for the best, hurrah! We had a marvellous time and enjoyed some
really very lovely cake. More tea?
Frontier princesses are likely to have a rather weary view of the Luxury Seekers. They don't
ever seem to do anything much, or hold any strong opinions, or if they do believe something
then it's not like they're out there transforming thought into action. With that said, for a
certain type of princess the Luxury Seekers really is the best place for them. Keeps them
away from anything important, at least. And really, they're harmless enough and they seem
happy. Most of the time they just sit around talking about maybe putting on a party, if
anyone's interested in organising, no? No one? Oh well, maybe next week. More tea?
In terms of power, the Luxury Seekers have very little. Just not a lot of fun, all that fiddly
politics nonsense. And it's not as if anyone expects anything from us. Not as if anyone really
pays us much attention at all. We're a bunch of lazy hedonists more interested in fluffier
pillows than imposing our will upon this odd little world. That's what everything thinks,
isn't it? Yes, it is. Good. Close the curtains, would you? Give that charm on the cake table a
bit of a polish too. Wouldn't want anyone listening in on this, would we.
More tea?

At The Frontier
The Luxury Seekers have a surprisingly substantial presence at the frontier, because
apparently kingdoms are something we need and we all voted on it and goodness knows
how it passed, but it did, so here we are then, more tea?
Anyway, it's likely that the frontier princesses are either unlucky Luxury Seekers who drew
the short straws and now have to actually go and DO something, as appalling an idea as that
is, or they've been recruited from other factions or as academy graduates to build a kingdom
on the behalf of the Luxury Seekers. Either way, do not expect a lot of support from your
sponsor.

~68~
Unless, of course, you have a very important and secret mission to carry out on behalf of the
Luxury Seekers. In that case, well, it definitely won't look like you're getting any support. But
it's amazing how things just keep working out in your favour, isn't it.
More tea?

Important Questions With Meaningful Answers

If the player princesses are keen on being sponsored by the Luxury Seekers, ask questions
like, do we have to? Can't someone else do it? Why does it have to be us? Well what's the
point of this kingdom, then? What's so important that it actually has to be, ugh, done? Oh,
it's to do with that thing, is it? Well, how secret is this mission? What support can we
expect? What happens if we fail? More importantly, what happens if we succeed?

Focus On Focus
Monster Hunters: Must we deal with these monsters? Can't someone else do it? Oh, fine
then. I suppose those big fluffy white ones are the most convenient source of marshmallows
out here.
Treasure Guardians: Money makes the world go round, so I suppose it's in our best interests
to collect as much of it as we can. Also, I heard a rumour that this area has some
astoundingly comfortable pillows to be found out in the wild lands. If only I could be
bothered going and investigating for myself.
Magic Researchers: I suppose there are advances to be made in the fields of comfort magic
and naptime dweomers. It is a bit tiresome, doing all that research, but at least you can
perform a lot of it from a chaise lounge.
Wild Claimers: If we must build a kingdom then I suppose we'd better, well, build a
kingdom. All that hard work though, surely there must be an easier way? I'm positive there
are some corners that can be cut. Let's just get this done with the least possible effort and all
have a lovely biscuit.
Social Climbers: There's often decent treats at social events, and the company can be
diverting. Never enough places to sit though, don't you find? Someone should really do
something. Oh, not me, of course. Someone else.

Regarding Other Kingdoms

Luxury Seekers are regarded as completely harmless and utterly useless by the other factions.
They're just ignored, most of the time, given token invitations to obligatory parties and so
on, but not really treated as anything to be relied upon or threatened by. They probably have
the closest ties to ATT, who often send along new hors d’oeuvres or cocktails for taste

~69~
testing. They tend to have solid opinions on eateries and bakeries and such, too. Some of the
most famous critics in Princess World are Luxury Seekers. Similarly, their love of comfort
means that if you've got, for example, a new bed or comfy chair or experimental cushion that
needs an expert opinion, well, the Luxury Seekers could be of some help there.
But for anything remotely practical, no, don't even bother.

~70~
[SUN] Sparkle Union (T1)
Sometimes a princess just doesn't get along with any of the traditional paths. Sometimes
they don't want to. Sometimes a freshly graduated princess just wants to get out there and
cut loose, see what kind of trouble a powerful young princess can get into (and hopefully out
of ), just have some adventures free from the constraints and the protection of the academy.
Often they join the Sparkle Union, a loose organisation of like-minded princesses, and
either set off alone or form a small group to just go out and do their own thing. Travelling
the lands, either in the noble kingdoms or further out, maybe even in the wild lands.
Fighting monsters, finding treasure, dabbling in independent research, pursuing hobbies and
interests, maybe helping out in the kingdoms they pass through, maybe getting caught in the
middle of some inter-faction nonsense, maybe just getting an invitation to a random tea
party.
Princesses who walk the sparkle road don't have the structure of other paths, but they have
more freedom than anyone. They answer to no faction, are responsible only for themselves
and their companions. As such it's seen as a strange direction for a princess to go in; after all,
what is a princess without responsibility? As part of a team or just on her own, that's a
question a sparkle princess must find the answer to herself.

At The Frontier
There are Sparkle Union kingdoms, certainly, but they're few and far between. It's a matter
of gathering the necessary resources, of course, but also a sizeable task to get all the famously
independent and often very stubborn little subgroups and individuals within the union
focused on something as big and solid as a frontier kingdom. More often it's the case that a
small group of princesses gain enough power and resources and motivation to make a
kingdom on their own, proudly independent and defiantly separate from all of that faction
nonsense. It's not done for princesses to create a kingdom without the blessing of a faction,
so the Sparkle Union puts its stamp on these efforts and then stands well back and lets the
princesses succeed or fail on their own efforts.
No matter how a Sparkle Union kingdom is founded, it's likely to generate a bit of buzz
among independent princesses. You might not get a lot of official support or resources, but
don't be surprised if you get a visit from a small group or a princess on her own, just popping
in for a cup of tea and chat, seeing how you're getting along, maybe offering their advice or
help for one thing or another. Of course, not all Sparkle Union princesses are so altruistic,
and their true motivations may not always be clear. Some come dangerously close to rebel

~71~
thinking. So just keep an eye on any visitors you get. Freedom, after all, is a double edged
sword.

Important Questions With Meaningful Answers

If the player princesses are interested in creating a Sparkle Union-sponsored kingdom, or
something even more independent, ask questions like, where did the idea for this kingdom
come from? What kind of resources, if any, do you have to work with? What makes you
think this can work? What massive obstacles are standing in your path? What factions aren't
exactly thrilled at the prospect of a new independent kingdom? Why were you able to claim
this spot, with all the competition from those big powerful factions? What's the region like,
is it remote, dangerous, notably unstable? Who else has an interest in this area?

Focus On Focus
Monster Hunters: It's likely that the region is more dangerous than most, or otherwise has
something unattractive or difficult about it. You might have a lot of monsters and elementals
to deal with before you can even get started on building up your kingdom. Alternately,
maybe you're a bunch of fighty princesses who are mostly making this kingdom as a base for
your monster hunting activities.
Treasure Guardians: The Sparkle Union is notably lacking in resources, so you princesses
will largely be expected to fund your own activities and improvements. Going out and
looting the wild lands seems like a great way to get things moving. It might also be that your
kingdom was created as a revenue collecting venture, and you're expected to contribute a
steady flow of treasure to fund other Sparkle Union activities. Whether that's by looting,
trading, making things to sell, gathering valuable resources, or some other wacky scheme is
up to you princesses to figure out.
Magic Researchers: SUN isn't known for its magical or scientific advances, but a lot of
princesses exploring more esoteric areas of research have walked the sparkle road. Often
their field of interest is too niche or weird or, heaven help us, dangerous for even the
Scientific Promotion Society to touch. It could be that you established this kingdom to
begin or continue this research, maybe because there's something relevant in the area, maybe
just because it's the only spot you could get.
Wild Claimers: Sparkle Union princesses do have need of kingdoms that are just friendly
places where they're guaranteed to find a cup of tea and a bath and a comfortable bed.
Maybe the princesses have been tasked with making a kind of traveller's inn, or have just
taken the task upon themselves. They might also have other ideas, a bakery kingdom, some

~72~
kind of shop, maybe even the dream of a bustling town full of subjects who want a more
egalitarian place to live.
Social Climbers: Dealing with factions is just a part of life, and although the Sparkle Union
tend to stay neutral in most matters even neutrality requires a lot of chatting and
negotiations and tea. It could also be that the princesses want to create a party kingdom of
their own, a place to host social events for whatever reason, or even no reason at all.
Sometimes, even in this Princess World, a party is just a party.

Regarding Other Kingdoms

Because of the Sparkle Union's independence and diversity you never really know what
you're going to get with them. SUN princesses tend to be a bit on the radical side, often
with wildly nonconformist ideas, but then again you'll often meet a Sparkle Union princess
who's just really into butterflies or something and doesn't care about anything else, especially
not all that faction nonsense. Having a Sparkle Union kingdom nearby can sometimes lead
to uncomfortable situations, where they need a resource, and your faction has that resource,
and you could ask for it on their behalf but they really have nothing to offer you except their
friendship, and that's nice and all but what would be nicer is something to help sort out the
border shields and deal with these giant carrots hopping all over the place. There's often an
imbalance in the relationship, between a Sparkle Union kingdom and one sponsored by a
bigger faction. Of course, SUN princesses are also often far too stubborn and proud to even
ask for help, which can lead to you just watching their kingdom slowly fail, like a sad
restaurant that never seems to have any customers.
On the other hand, Sparkle Union princesses do have a reputation for helpfulness and a
kind of give-it-a-go attitude. They might not be any good at whatever you need doing, but
by gosh they'll give it their best shot. They tend to be very loyal to their friends, too.
Independent princesses have to stick together, after all.

~73~
[NIMO] Nice Monsters (T0)
NOT ALL MONSTER BAD
SOME MONSTER NICE
PLEASE BELIEVE
PLEASE
Such are the words found on mysterious pamphlets, often written in crayon or some kind of
goopy paint, or sometimes just mud. At least you'd hope it's mud. Somehow the Nice
Monsters are an actual official faction? I guess? I have no idea who approved that but it
sounds like the sort of decision made at the tipsier sort of princess party, if you ask me.
Then again, it does sort of make sense for there to be a faction supporting the existence of
nice monsters. After all, fairies are monsters, and you don't see anyone complaining about
them. And there are plenty of princesses who have a monster-related speciality. Slime
Princesses, Goblin Princesses, Dragon Princesses, they'd probably be interested in a faction
like this, maybe.
Still, if this is a real actual faction then they're extraordinarily discrete. I've never seen one of
their representatives at a party or anything like that, and I don't know if they have even a
single sponsored kingdom. Maybe they're very new? Just starting out? Maybe they just suffer
from a lack of organisation. I don't know.
Those pamphlets do just keep turning up, though, don't they.

At The Frontier
Nice Monsters don't have much of a presence anywhere, and the frontier is no exception. If
there is a NIMO kingdom around then it's likely to be viewed as a slightly repulsive novelty.
What kind of princesses live there? Are they even princesses at all? Is it full of monsters and
if so, are they REALLY all that nice? The level of horrified curiosity with which a Nice
Monsters kingdom would be viewed cannot be overstated.

Important Questions With Meaningful Answers

If the player princesses are just crazy enough to want a Nice Monsters-sponsored kingdom,
ask questions like, are you mad? Why? For the love of goodness, WHY? Are you all just
really into monsters? Do you all have monsterish specialities? Are you secretly monsters
yourselves? Monster princesses? Because I've never heard of that before, have you? What is
going on here?

~74~
Focus On Focus
Monster Hunters: Monsters hunting monsters, I mean it does actually make a lot of sense.
Nice monsters, if they do indeed exist, would have a real public image problem thanks to all
the nasty monsters around the place. Attempting to convert monsters to niceness, and
dealing with them if negotiations fail, could be a good focus for a NIMO kingdom.
Treasure Guardians: Everyone needs treasure, and nice monsters are no exception. Those
pamphlets don't just print themselves, you know.
Magic Researchers: Why not? I mean if there's one thing to be said about nice monsters, it's
that there are absolute bucketloads of questions surrounding their existence. (Although to be
fair a large number of those questions are just 'WHY?' in increasingly large letters.)
Wild Claimers: Nice Monsters, as a faction, have no power and no influence and basically
just nothing. So even establishing one kingdom would be quite the feat for them. Maybe it's
actually their first kingdom ever. The problems and pressures and logistics of building a
frontier kingdom from essentially nothing would probably be quite enough for a group of
frontier princesses, without having to worry about anything else. So yes, Wild Claimers does
seem like a sensible sort of focus for a NIMO kingdom.
Social Climbers: I don't know. Is anyone going to accept an invitation to a Nice Monsters
party? Is anyone going to welcome them at their social event? This focus would be an uphill
battle for sure. On the other hand, if we're talking about public relations, oh boy could this
faction use some friends.

Regarding Other Kingdoms

Nice Monsters, as a faction, are a joke. That's how everyone sees them, if they acknowledge
their existence at all. They're pretty pitiful, and not even in an endearing way. Still, on the
other side of things, they seem harmless. Even if they did get in your way or try to interfere
with something, you get the feeling that you could just kick them aside without any effort at
all.

~75~
 Faction Representatives
Almost every frontier kingdom has a patron faction, and the first (often only) point of
contact between the faction and the kingdom is a representative. It's the representative's role
to keep an eye on the frontier princesses, read the reports they submit, hear out their
complaints, and figure out whether the support they're requesting is justified and available.
Some representatives take a hands-on approach, popping in for a visit every now and then,
sometimes scheduled, sometimes a surprise. Others will keep their distance, reading reports
sent by the frontier princesses and communicating mostly through letters. Sometimes a
representative will pitch in and lend a hand with whatever the frontier princesses are dealing
with; others will deliberately refrain from intervening. It's up to the individual really, and
representatives are as diverse and varied a lot as any in this Princess World.
Representatives are almost always handling multiple kingdoms at once, often in completely
different parts of the border and at varying stages of progression/collapse. Aside from
dealing with frontier kingdoms representatives also act as the face of their faction at parties,
take part in inter-faction negotiations, visit Princess Academy to help with lessons and scout
potential talent, keep up with any interesting studies or reports that have been released, and
more often than not deal with an unholy amount of paperwork. Many of the problems of
frontier kingdoms also apply to faction representatives; there's too much to do, not enough
space in their schedule, all their kingdoms keep breaking and everyone expects too much.
Almost all representatives are acting in good faith and are genuinely invested in your
kingdom's success. It's just that they've got so much else on their plates that your kingdom's
problems—though of course very immediate and stressful to you princesses there on the
ground—might seem, relatively speaking, like pretty small potatoes compared to everything
else the rep has going on with all the other frontier kingdoms they're responsible for. Not to
mention whatever personal problems or princess politics or faction nonsense they're
contending with back at base, so to speak.
In any case presented here are some examples of faction representatives, each with their own
history, feelings about other factions, likes and dislikes, and approach to their work. As
always the golden rule applies; take what you like, ignore the rest. Go ahead and change
these princesses to better fit your campaign's setting or circumstances, swap factions, pinch
the bits you like best from each, whatever you want really. Your game, your reps.

~76~
 Examples Of Faction Representatives
[EXU] Tracy Healthpack, Princess of Games....................................................................................78

[NOT] Allegoria Rainfall, Princess of Accumulation........................................................................80

[SPEC] Patricia Gloomspring, Princess of Clouds............................................................................82

[GUCO] Granny Poppy, Princess of Knitting...................................................................................84

[ATT] Vienna Espresso, Princess of Coffee......................................................................................86

[WILD] Beech Ashfir, Princess of Trees...........................................................................................88

[KDEF] Button Justice, Princess of Optimism..................................................................................91

[SCAR] Reunion Finch, Princess of Necessity..................................................................................93

[SLI] Francesca Duck, Princess of Doors..........................................................................................97

[STAR] Sallyforth Holdmeback, Princess of Impulse.......................................................................99

[LUX] Puffenstuff "Puff " Fluffhuffnuff, Princess of Softness.........................................................102

[UNL] Dioretta Byzant, Princess of Coins......................................................................................104

[LAND] Synthia Humbrage, Princess of Balance...........................................................................106

[HUG] Portia Jandal-Harrington, Princess of Badminton.............................................................109

[SUN] Clarity Shoal, Princess of Piranhas......................................................................................111

[MASK] Bell Steelbrace, Princess of Blades....................................................................................113

[????] Shadow Lack, Princess of Change..........................................................................................115

[WALL] Constance Cat-Battingsway, Princess of Worries............................................................117

[SCI] Rebecca "Becks" Disputation, Princess of Magnitude...........................................................120

[RARC] Brick Prettify, Princess of Support....................................................................................122

[O] Alarum Pirouette, Princess of Calm..........................................................................................124

~77~
[EXU] Tracy Healthpack, Princess of Games
Faction Representative for Exploration Unlimited
Tracy is a shortish princess with wavy blue and green hair. She favours bright colours and
comfy clothing, and wears a backpack and various pouches. She's always accompanied by her
best friend, a fairy named Pixel. Tracy is the bold headstrong one; Pixel is the cautious
sensible one. Tracy's princess weapon is a chunky pixellated sword. She's very into fighting
and will take any opportunity to rumble with monsters, unless Pixel is successful in
cautioning her otherwise. During a fight Pixel offers support mostly by distracting monsters.
Tracy had a great time at the academy, treating the whole thing like one big game. She loves
anything gameish, and has the innate ability to rate things and even people with game stats.
Often the wrong game stats (she's a bit obsessed with hit points), but on the whole pretty
accurate. Academically she was fairly average; just not really that interested in that sort of
thing, unless she could somehow make reports and research into a game. It was the field
work where Tracy really excelled, not just with her own fighting skills but also in a
leadership role, figuring out how other princesses could best utilise their specialities and
strengths to overcome fighty challenges. She also loves any kind of puzzle and working out
how to overcome obstacles. Her enthusiasm is contagious, and the little jingles that play
when she enjoys even a minor success are quite charming.
After graduating Tracy wasn't sure what she wanted to do next, except more fighting and
puzzle-solving and exploring, and if opening a bunch of treasure chests could be involved
then that would be perfect. Perhaps naturally she gravitated towards Exploration Unlimited,
joining an expedition into the wild lands. It wasn't entirely successful—as usual they bit off
more than they could chew and ended up being chased into a frontier kingdom by a mega-
elemental. Tracy and the others on the expedition joined the frontier princesses in fighting
off the mega-elemental, and Tracy was impressed by the coordination and dedication of the
frontier princesses.
It might be nice, Tracy thought, to have something to fight for. Something solid to build and
protect.
So began Tracy's life as a frontier princess. After her third successfully established kingdom
she was offered a position as a representative. Exploration Unlimited has the most failed
kingdoms of any faction, but Tracy's focus on solid progression and winning serves her well
as a faction rep. Since becoming a rep she's gained a reputation as a reliable troubleshooter,
often getting called in to help out particularly troubled kingdoms that aren't technically her

~78~
responsibility. Because of this she's a bit stretched and often can't give the kingdoms that are
her actual responsibility the attention they deserve. EXU's terminal shortage of faction reps
doesn't exactly help.
Still, if you manage to actually get hold of Tracy she'll doubtless have some good suggestions
on how to level up, and she's always extremely delighted to join in on any
fighty/explory/puzzle-solvish affairs you might have going. Tracy's visits will be brief, but for
the time you have her she will be 100% dedicated to doing whatever she can to help you
grow your kingdom.
Regarding the other factions, Tracy doesn't have much time for Brave New Lands or the
Strongwall Group or the Wild Lands Protection Committee; from her perspective they just
stand in the way of princesses getting out there and having fun. On the other hand she has a
lot of respect for the Silver Masks, Scarred Hearts, and in particular the Wandering Stars.
She also tends to get along well with Hunter Guild princesses, and she's been called in by
the Universal Librarians to help with particularly tricky rogue libraries. Thanks to Pixel she's
also close to the Guidance Collective.
Tracy likes mimics, quick simple explanations, games, puzzles, fighting, monsters, anything
that can be gameified, statistics, good solid rules especially if they can be used to her
advantage, numbers going up, cute sound effects, bouncy music, opportunities to jump on a
monster's head, treasure chests, power ups, good sportsmanship, clever traps, when a baddy
becomes a goody, special moves, and group attacks.
Tracy dislikes mimics (it's a love-hate relationship), anything that stops princesses from
getting things done, cheating, toxicity, bad winners, sore losers, unskippable cutscenes (aka
people going on about boring things), being nagged, too many rules and regulations, not
enough rules and regulations, and being stuck indoors unless it's some sort of explorable
dungeon situation.

~79~
[NOT] Allegoria Rainfall, Princess of Accumulation
Faction Representative for the Noble Traders
Allegoria is a tall fat princess with an imperious attitude and a somewhat imposing presence.
She favours dark colours and impressively intricate outfits, suits and dresses both, or even
armour if it's appropriate to the occasion. Allegoria's princess weapon is a staff even taller
than she is, as intricate as her clothing. Allegoria does not get the chance to fight often, so
when she finds herself in a combat situation she does not hold back; she'll immediately take
a commanding role and relish the opportunity to unleash hell upon whatever dares oppose
her.
Allegoria had a splendid time at the academy, attending parties, forming groups to complete
assignments, and perhaps most of all accumulating fortunes. She worked several part time
jobs and took full advantage of any looting opportunities during field work. Her time at the
academy led to several policy changes for the institute, mostly regarding trade between
academy princesses and in particular the sale of assignment items. Allegoria didn't mind
these changes at all. Restrictions on trade, she has always thought, just mean less
competition for those canny enough to find a loophole.
After graduating Allegoria easily found a place with the Noble Traders, at first in their
acquisitions section but then moving to planning, and from there to frontier affairs, which is
where she settled. The frontier, to Allegoria, presented the most exciting and profitable
opportunities. She excelled, in particular, in negotiating with other factions for looting and
trade rights, and this excellence led to her becoming a representative. Managing frontier
kingdoms presents Allegoria with unique challenges and plentiful opportunities to exploit
the wild lands for every bit of treasure they can give, and she greatly enjoys competing for
space and resources with whatever other factions might have an interest in the area.
Allegoria lives for princess politics but also knows how to separate the professional from the
personal. She has friends in most of the factions, and contacts in all of them, and although
some of the tactics she employs might be seen as underhanded she is, at heart, a good sport
who respects the game. If she's outplayed she won't throw a tantrum or plot revenge; she'll
take the loss and offer a sincere congratulations to whoever bettered her, this time. Of course
she'll also remember how they bested her, and keep a careful eye on them in the future.
Regarding the other factions, Allegoria enjoys dealing with the Universal Librarians, the
Royal Architects, Speculation Wildhearts, and the Strongwall Group. She sees these factions
in particular as worthy opponents who take the game seriously and play it well. She also

~80~
enjoys the challenge of the Scarred Hearts and the Wandering Stars; factions that might, on
appearance, seem unconcerned about politics, but which nevertheless have weight and sway.
On the other hand she doesn't have a lot of time for the likes of the Luxury Seekers or
Exploration Unlimited, factions that are, in Allegoria's mind, disrespectfully flippant in their
approach to politics. The Hunter Guild and the Kingdom Defenders are both strong,
politically speaking, but far too unsophisticated in their approach, in Allegoria's opinion.
She also has a secret soft spot for the Wild Lands Protection Committee, a faction that she's
clashed with and won against many times over her career; she respects their passion and
their tendency to do a lot with a little. In her heart of hearts Allegoria can't resist an
underdog, even if she's the one crushing their dreams.
Allegoria takes a hands-off approach to the kingdoms she manages, demanding regular
reports and updates about their situation rather than going and seeing for herself. She's
brutally efficient regarding cost/benefit analysis, and although she doesn't insist that
kingdoms follow her guidance she has no patience for those who ignore her advice and then
get into trouble because of it. Neither does she appreciate being left out of the loop.
Allegoria won't hesitate in recommending a kingdom be abandoned if it's more trouble than
it's worth (which is to say, unprofitable) but she'll never pull the rug out from under a
kingdom without fair warning. She'll deliver an ultimatum (possibly even in person),
demand that the princesses turn things around, give them a firm deadline, and if they fail
this final chance then that's it; game over.
Allegoria likes profits, negotiating, winning, fair fights, unfair fights in her favour, warm
weather, sandy beaches, money, strong black coffee in a big mug, donuts (plural), treasure
palaces, and any sense of progression.
Allegoria dislikes cold weather, storms, inefficiency, fluffy thinking, weak opponents,
unexpected setbacks, tiny food such as mini muffins, rogue libraries (so much trouble for so
little loot), and anyone who doesn't take things seriously.

~81~
[SPEC] Patricia Gloomspring, Princess of Clouds
Faction Representative for Speculation Wildhearts
Patricia is a tall but stooped princess, pale of face and with big staring eyes. She enjoys old-
fashioned gothic dresses and droopy wide-brimmed hats. Her princess weapon is a lacy
black umbrella, with which she can summon gusts of wind and even fly a bit. Patricia views
fighting as an unpleasant necessity, although she does take some grim satisfaction in besting
her enemies.
Patricia had a fine time at the academy, quickly finding a place as the creepy girl standing in
a corner under a literal black cloud. She has a particular gift for divination, and was often
approached by princesses wanting predictions or help tracking down whatever weird thing
they were supposed to be gathering. Her gloomy pessimistic perspective was also valued, in a
place where optimistic brightness was more the norm.
After graduating Patricia was recruited by the Noble Traders for their analysis and
prediction division, but she found the work unsatisfying. She tried being a frontier princess
for a while, for various factions, but after her third failed kingdom began to wonder if it was
maybe the wrong direction. At something of a loss of what to do next, Patricia went back to
the academy to teach. She was a variably popular teacher, her pessimistic-realistic-unfiltered
approach appealing to certain young princesses who were perhaps not so impressed with the
let's-all-smile-because-everything-is-lovely mood of the inner kingdoms. It was while
Patricia was teaching that she was approached by Speculation Wildhearts, offering her a
position as a faction representative overseeing several frontier kingdoms. Patricia pointed out
that her own experience as a frontier princess was just a string of failures, but apparently this
was exactly why Speculation Wildhearts was trying to scout her. The kingdoms they wanted
her for were all failing anyway, and their previous faction reps hadn't been successful in
turning them around.
Only one of the three kingdoms Patricia was initially assigned succeeded, but given that they
were all complete write-offs this was deemed a spectacular success. Patricia's success rate
steadily improved throughout her career, and as things stand approximately half of the
kingdoms she takes on succeed. These days she doesn't just get the hopeless cases, but most
of the kingdoms she represents do have a touch of the tragic and the doomed about them.
Regarding the other factions, Patricia has contacts in the Noble Traders and regards that
faction with a degree of nostalgia. She's had positive dealings with the Teleportation
Administration, the Scientific Promotion Society, and the Royal Architects. On the other

~82~
hand more than a few of her kingdoms failed due to the actions of Exploration Unlimited,
and she holds this faction in low regard. She's also a little uncomfortable about Afternoon
Tea Time and the Guidance Collective. Just not her sort of people, generally speaking.
Patricia takes a distant but proactive approach to the kingdoms that are her responsibility.
She won't often make an appearance in any given kingdom, but her ability to foresee
potential problems and anticipate needs is uncanny. Sometimes her frontier princesses will
receive the support they need before they even officially request it. Patricia has a soft spot for
those who feel out of place or in over their heads or lacking in direction, and she has been
known to take a more personal approach with such princesses; usually through letters, but
sometimes with an actual visit.
Patricia likes rainy days, corpses and other evidence of death, strong tea (no milk, no sugar),
very small chocolate cakes (uniced), lace, complicated traps, tragedy, taxidermy, unusual
challenges, bittersweetness, things that are out of place, juxtaposition, rats, and solving
problems before they actually become problems.
Patricia dislikes brightness, emotional displays, carbonated beverages, bubbles generally,
balloons, animals (except rats), unearned happy endings, undue positivity, optimism,
surprises, and anyone who assumes everything will just naturally work out for the best.

~83~
[GUCO] Granny Poppy, Princess of Knitting
Faction Representative for the Guidance Collective
Granny is a small and aged princess who walks with the aid of her princess weapon, a
wooden cane. She enjoys bright colours, and always incorporates at least one handknitted
shawl or scarf into her outfit. She has a blunt no-nonsense way of speaking and does not
appreciate being interrupted one little bit. As mentioned her princess weapon is a wooden
cane, unspectacular in appearance, although any princess who has witnessed Granny Poppy
get to whacking will give it the respect it deserves. Granny tends to keep out of fighting—
can't be having with that sort of nonsense, not at her age—but when sufficiently riled she is
a tiny terrifying force of nature.
Granny has been around forever, or at least that's how it feels. She's something of a presence
at the Academy and shows up at a lot of parties, regardless of whether or not she was
invited, so most princesses have a Granny Poppy story. It's only recently that she's started
taking on frontier kingdoms, and although she takes the responsibility seriously she also
treats it as something of a hobby. Back in her day, you see, the wild lands were WILD and
the frontier was a FRONTIER and monsters were MONSTERS. You children don't know
how easy you have it, what with these newfangled teleportation circles and whatnot.
And so on.
Regarding the other factions, Granny gets along well enough with most of them, as long as
they give her the respect she feels she's due. She looks favourably on the older and more
established factions, the Royal Architects, the Silver Masks, the Scientific Promotion
Society, the Universal Librarians. Princesses from more recently established factions such as
the Luxury Seekers or the Wild Lands Protection Committee or Starlight Investigations
have to work a lot harder to earn her respect.
Granny is not the most actively helpful faction rep, and can often seem more like just one
more thing to deal with than any kind of support—constantly popping in for a cup of tea
and getting riled at the lack of respect you young princesses show her. Her advice is almost
always tragically outdated, and requests for help might have to be submitted multiple times
before she actually gets around to putting them through. On the other hand, it's said that
whenever a princess in one of Granny Poppy's kingdoms is truly in trouble, in her darkest
hour, lost without hope, she'll hear a familiar voice saying something like "Now what's all
this fuss and bother?" before Granny comes hobbling to the rescue.

~84~
Granny likes respect, fairies, properly made tea and cakes, familiar things, established
traditions, solid craftsmanship, flowers, handcrafts, manners, yoghurt, and polite princesses
who know their place.
Granny dislikes lemons, unfamiliar things, pointlessly confusing jibber-jabber, newfangled
mumbo-jumbo, rudeness, uncouth behaviour, overly casual attitudes, spicy food, overly sweet
sweets, stickiness, untidiness, unwashed faces, and princesses who talk back to her.

~85~
[ATT] Vienna Espresso, Princess of Coffee
Faction Representative for Afternoon Tea Time
Vienna is a skinny princess with short wild black hair and a jittery disposition. She dresses
like she just threw on whatever clothes she first saw on any given morning, but favours black,
brown, and cream. She talks very quickly and interrupts herself often, distracted by
something that just popped into her head or that she just noticed. Her princess weapon is a
coffee cup that can grow to magnificent proportions; she has the ability to summon and
recall it from a distance, and often just drops it on a monster's head as an effective combat
tactic. She's never really enjoyed fighting and will take a back line approach to any scraps she
finds herself a part of, often advocating for retreat or alternative solutions.
Vienna had a tough time at the academy, finding it difficult to make friends and complete
assignments. Focusing is tough for her, and she's constantly distracted. It's perhaps fortunate
that an Afternoon Tea Time representative—Tulip Couer, the Arrangement Princess—
noticed Vienna and took a personal interest in her, offering advice and guidance and
eventually suggesting she join Afternoon Tea Time in the catering division. Because if
there's one thing Vienna Espresso can do, it's make an absolutely astonishing cup of coffee.
Vienna was happy enough in ATT's catering corps, but her distracted nature and errant
thoughts kept coming back to a single (and slightly disturbing) concept; is coffee all there is,
to life? Eventually this led her to exploring new avenues within Afternoon Tea Time.
Remembering how her friend and mentor Tulip Couer had helped her, Vienna wondered if
maybe she could be the same for other princesses. At first she mainly represented ATT at
Princess Academy, looking out for those princesses at the fringes, the ones that didn't quite
fit in, and she found she had a talent for helping them find their purpose and their place. It
was when a pair of princesses that she'd helped accepted a position in a frontier kingdom
that Vienna shifted her own focus; she wanted to keep looking after these wayward
princesses, and so took on their kingdom as its representative. It can't be said that Vienna
Espresso is perfectly suited to being a frontier kingdom representative, but you cannot deny
her heart. She does her very best for the princesses that are her responsibility, and has gone
to extreme lengths to support and protect them.
Vienna's track record isn't the best, with only slightly more successful kingdoms than those
that have failed, but if you look closer you might notice something unusual; not a single
princess in any of Vienna's kingdoms has ever retired due to heart scarring, and even the
ones from failed kingdoms were supported into fitting positions, sometimes with another

~86~
frontier kingdom, sometimes elsewhere. It's clear that Vienna, despite her distractable and
unfocused nature, has a core ideal deep in her heart; the princess is more important than the
kingdom.
Regarding the other factions, Vienna does not in particular understand the whole princess
politics thing. She takes everyone at face value and is incapable of judging someone based on
their faction or associates. With that said she's had good experiences with the Hunter Guild
and the Scientific Promotion Society, and has gotten along fine with Exploration Unlimited
and the Universal Librarians, and has contacts within all of these factions.
Vienna takes a personal approach to the princesses that are her responsibility. She'll attempt
to help with any problems the kingdom is facing, of course, but her priority is always the
princesses themselves. Are they doing okay? Are they pushing themselves too hard? Do they
maybe just need a nice café au lait and a biscuit and a sit down for a bit? If one of Vienna's
frontier princesses is close to scarring then she'll quietly pull strings in the background to
find another place for them—just as a backup option, an 'out' to be used if necessary—and
strongly encourage them to stop pushing themself so hard, before that choice is made for
them. As far as actual threats to the kingdom go Vienna is a big fan of delegation, and will
often suggest getting in touch with a faction more suited to a problem rather than dealing
with it personally.
Vienna likes coffee, biscuits, cafés, buffets, butterflies, magazines, parties, sandwiches, cereal,
people looking out for each other, being helpful, feeling useful, and whatever
interesting/colourful thing just crossed her field of vision.
Vienna dislikes sitting still, obstructive people, overly complicated meals, arguments,
conflict, fighting, formality, paperwork, perfection as an ideal, uncooperative unreasonable
people, and letting anyone down.

~87~
[WILD] Beech Ashfir, Princess of Trees
Faction Representative for the Wild Lands Protection Committee
Beech is a tall and skinny princess, with dark skin and huge amazing hair. She favours loose
flowing outfits in natural colours, and her princess weapon is a pair of gardening gloves.
Beech is a pacifist but understands that in this Princess World sometimes you need to deal
with a monster or two, so her general technique is to grab hold of a monster and fling it
away, with an earnest "Sorry!" She's also very big on negotiation, and will attempt to talk to
any threats in an effort to avoid physical confrontation. The results of these negotiations
vary wildly.
Beech had an okay time at the academy, just your standard princess standardly princessing,
until the day a Wild Lands Protection Committee protest turned up on the academy
grounds and blew her young mind wide open. She'd never enjoyed fighting and couldn't
understand the generally accepted view that monsters were bad and dangerous so beating
them up was absolutely fine and should actually be viewed as a perk of princessing, getting
to have fun fights with these enjoyably boopable monsters. Enjoy the food they turn into
when you poof them! Start a slime gummy collection! Go on, it's fun! No, Beech was never
on board with that, never comfortable with the status quo, so being presented an alternative
—that maybe we could talk to monsters? Get along with them? Maybe there's more to
elementals than we think? Maybe, maybe?—was just the focus she needed.
Beech started joining protests even as a student, sneaking out to help make placards and
plan demonstrations, and then after graduation she found a place in the faction as a recruiter
and trainer. It has always been an uphill battle, and in truth WILD as a faction and Beech as
an individual have both suffered far more failures than successes, but it's a cause she truly
believes in. With the Wild Lands Protection Committee's recent shift in focus to frontier
kingdoms—getting out there on the front lines, so to speak—Beech was one of the first
volunteers to be a representative, working closely with frontier princesses to not only help
them establish their kingdoms, but to do so in way that respected the wild lands.
Again, results varied. Most of WILD's early frontier kingdoms were abject failures, some not
even lasting a week. The problem was an inherent contradiction; a frontier kingdom was an
encroachment upon the wild lands, an artificial invasion that involved drawing a border
around a bit of nature and saying, this is a thing now, this is a kingdom. And of course that
was something the wild lands would push back against, with its inherently chaotic magic
smashing against the kingdom's border shields, with monsters, with elementals, with wild

~88~
surges. This was the problem for WILD reps like Beech. If the frontier princesses didn't
actively deal with these threats then of course their kingdoms were soon overwhelmed. But
to actively deal with the threats often meant compromising their ideals; killing monsters,
destroying elementals, exploiting the wild lands.
Beech's way of dealing with this contradiction was to approach it the way she approached
many things; negotiation and compromise. Perhaps some monsters couldn't be talked to,
perhaps some elementals could not be drawn away from the borders. If all other paths were
exhausted then whatever remained, however distasteful, was the course that must be taken.
The role of a WILD frontier princess, Beech decided, was in part that of a judge. Choices
must be made. Compromises must be found. Because if we don't make those choices then
another faction is going to come along and just kill all these monsters and destroy all these
elementals and this wonderfully diverse and strange bit of the wild lands will be forever lost.
And okay, fine, often the kingdoms they create are also wonderfully diverse and strange, but
there's a difference between the naturally strange and the artificially strange, and yes okay
sometimes it's hard to define but it's there and it's important.
It's a challenging sort of life, being a Wild Lands Protection Committee princess.
In any case Beech's approach—find a compromise you can live with, pick your battles, be
flexible with your priorities, always remember the bigger picture—is relatively effective, and
she enjoys an above average success rate among WILD reps. She's very supportive of her
frontier princesses and takes a hands-on approach, visiting often and lending a hand, in
particular helping them sort out any knotty ethical quandaries they might have. As a faction
the Wild Lands Protection Committee doesn't have the resources to sponsor many
kingdoms, so each one is seen as a precious and beautiful plant that must be carefully
nurtured. Because of this Beech often feels pressure from above to do things The Right Way,
but she's come to understand that part of her role as a representative is to act as a sort of
filter—shield, even—between the high-minded idealistic demands of her superiors and the
unforgiving reality of frontier life.
Regarding the other factions, Beech has little time for the exploitative practices of the Noble
Traders and the destructive antics of Exploration Unlimited and the Hunter Guild. She has
a wary respect for the Universal Librarians and the Wandering Stars, although she also has a
lot of opinions about the way they do things and how they might adjust their perspectives
towards the wild lands. In the past she's formed temporary pragmatic alliances with the
Guidance Collective, Brave New Lands, and even the Stonewall Group in order to

~89~
effectively push back against other factions. Beech has a solid understanding of princess
politics, and although she doesn't enjoy the game she's able to play it.
Beech likes gardening, nature, the strange charm of the wild lands, creative solutions to
difficult problems, peppermint tea, reasonable people, reasonable monsters, fruit, organising
events, sketching, and revolution.
Beech dislikes most cooked food, overly artificial things, dairy generally and milk
specifically, needless destruction, fighting, exploitation, senseless waste, unreasonable people,
personal attacks, and the stubbornly ingrained nature of status quo thinking in this Princess
World.

~90~
[KDEF] Button Justice, Princess of Optimism
Faction Representative for the Kingdom Defenders
Button is a shortish princess with curly hair and bright eyes. She almost always wears her
KDEF uniform, blue and white and generally regarded as rather smart, although she takes
full advantage of the many variations available; the formal version, casual version, and battle
version are her three most commonly used. Her princess weapon is a pretty basic sort of
sword, and although she practices often she's never really gotten the hang of fighting.
Button had an okay time at the academy, struggling a bit with the academic side but
enjoying field work and getting to meet all sorts of princesses. She never really had any
dreams for the future, so when a Kingdom Defenders recruiter visited the academy and
suggested she join up, Button took a 'why not?' attitude and went with it.
So far she's enjoyed her time with the Kingdom Defenders, despite struggling with a lot of
the physical parts of the job. Even basic training was a challenge, but she got through thanks
to a never-give-up attitude and faith in her friends. Button is the Optimism Princess, and
many times it's been nothing but her unshakeable belief that things will turn out for the best
that's gotten her through tough times.
Button's career within KDEF has been one of continually searching for her place. She's been
on patrols, she's stood guard at official events, she's taken part in monster lair clearing
operations, and she's battled paperwork and inter-faction policy on the back lines. None of it
was bad, exactly, but neither did any of it feel particularly right. Perhaps that's why she
signed up to be a faction rep on the frontier; maybe this will work out?
Anyway, Button is brand new at this, learning as she goes and hopeful (optimistic, even) that
she can help you frontier princesses successfully establish your kingdom. She doesn't have a
particularly good grasp on the actual duties of a faction rep, but she'll certainly do her very
best! It might end up being the frontier princesses helping Button more than the other way
around, pushing her towards whatever faction reppish thing they need and maybe even
explaining her job to her.
In any case Button is very keen to support the kingdoms that are her responsibility. She only
has a few kingdoms—maybe even only yours, to start with—so she's got plenty of time to
really focus on your problems and your needs and just do whatever she can to help. Expect a
lot of visits and letters and painfully earnest attempts to, oh, just be good, you know? Button
just really wants to be good.

~91~
Regarding the other factions, Button doesn't have any strong feelings one way or the other.
They're all basically nice, aren't they? I'm sure we can get along with them, anyway. I mean
we're all princesses, right? Right?
Button likes basically all kinds of food (she's not fussy), cute animals, shiny things, helping,
parties, bright colours, meeting new people, friendship, rainbows, basic chores that are hard
to mess up such as sweeping, doing her best, picking herself up when she falls, never giving
up, and the very rare occasions when she feels like she did something right and was actually
helpful.
Button dislikes not knowing what to do, being a burden, trying to help but making things
worse, insects (except spiders), monsters, fighting, kitchens (still traumatised by academy
baking assignments), being yelled at, having to run, and feeling like she's let everyone down.

~92~
[SCAR] Reunion Finch, Princess of Necessity
Faction Representative for the Scarred Hearts
Reunion is a chubby princess with a friendly face and huge wild hair. She has an eyepatch
over her left eye and is missing her right arm. She favours piratey clothing, including a
tricorn hat and absolutely splendid boots. Her princess weapon is a cutlass, which she wields
with her missing right arm. She doesn't know how it works either. She can't otherwise use
her missing arm. Only when fighting. In any case she's an enthusiastic and spirited battler,
aggressively punishing any mistakes on the part of her opponent and exploiting any edge to
get the upper hand. None of Reunion's heart scars had anything to do with fighting, or with
the loss of her eye, or her arm, or any of the other injuries she's suffered during her intensely
dramatic life. All of her heart scars were gained in situations far more difficult and
complicated than fighting. She doesn't talk about them, and although she maintains a fairly
happy-go-lucky attitude she doesn't appreciate thoughtless questions.
Reunion had a good time at the academy, pretty normal really, nothing noteworthy apart
from her greater-than-usual enthusiasm and talent for fighting. After graduating she had
several offers from factions wanting her for frontier kingdoms, but Reunion joined an
Exploration Unlimited expedition instead, pushing deep into the wild lands in search of
treasure and glory. This was the first of many such expeditions for Reunion, during which
she lost her eye but none of her enthusiasm. On the eleventh such expedition (could have
been the twelfth, actually) (possibly even the thirteenth; she wasn't exactly keeping count)
Reunion and her companions were caught in the midst of a massive wild surge and scattered
throughout the wild lands. She ended up on a dessert island in the middle of a violent sea.
That's not a typo, by the way, it was a candyland biome and the island was literally a giant
trifle. At least Reunion wasn't wanting for food, although to this day she can't face custard
without feeling queasy. She survived alone for nearly a year and learned, definitively, that
nothing found on a dessert island can possibly be made into any kind of raft, before she was
found by a group of Wandering Stars and welcomed aboard their moving castle. Reunion
greatly enjoyed this new chapter of her life, even after her right arm was eaten by a giant
shark elemental. (It was not, it should be made clear, an elemental that resembled a giant
shark. It was an elemental formed of dozens and dozens of giant sharks.) It was only after
returning to the controlled lands, enjoying a short vacation while the moving castle was
repaired and upgraded, that Reunion's life took a turn for the dark. Details about this time
are largely classified, but seem to have involved a group of rebels hiding near the kingdom
where the castle was being fixed up. Reunion spent some considerable time being detained

~93~
first by the Kingdom Defenders then later by Speculation Wildhearts, and might even have
been questioned by Nowhere, although of course Nowhere doesn't exist. She had a brief
sojourn with the Silver Masks before being moved to the First Kingdom, where she lived,
for a time, at the pleasure of The Circle.
Reunion was never a prisoner, let's be clear about that. She was just answering questions.
Helping princesses with their enquiries. She was not a prisoner, no, but neither did she have
much freedom. It's not clear if her heart was scarred by this experience, or whether she
gained her scars previously, due to the events that led to these questions and enquiries.
What's clear is that the Reunion who left the First Kingdom was not the same princess as
the one who had joyfully embarked upon all those expeditions with Exploration Unlimited,
or lived the Wandering Star life battling huge elementals and suppressing massive wild
surges.
She didn't fit those lives any more.
She didn't really feel like she fit anywhere.
So she joined up with the faction for princesses who didn't fit. The only faction that is never
looking for new members. Reunion Finch became a Scarred Heart.
Reunion was welcomed, in that understated and careful Scarred Heart way, and after
spending some time settling in and exchanging war stories she began searching for a new
role. Her only request, as far as placement went, was that she be put as far from the inner
kingdoms as possible. So she became a faction representative, looking after frontier
princesses and doing her best to help them live their best lives. She doesn't regret any of the
choices that led her here, but she also doesn't want anyone to join her.
Reunion is an odd sort of faction rep because she doesn't actually care about successfully
founding kingdoms. So what if one falls, is her attitude. There'll be other kingdoms. The
only irreplaceable thing in this world is people. Princesses have a reputation for being tough,
strong hearted, able to deal with anything. Reunion knows that to a certain degree this is
true. But she also knows the price that sometimes has to be paid, for enduring anything. You
have to live with the scars. So that's Reunion's priority. Get her princesses through this, and
stand between them and anything that'll do permanent damage.
In any case Reunion takes a pretty direct approach to repping, not being much concerned
about things like reports or whatever. How are you guys doing, is the question she wants an
honest answer to. Forget the kingdom for a second. Forget what the factions want. Let's talk
about what you need, and let's talk about what you maybe can't handle. Let's figure out a
way through this that works for you. Reunion is a good judge of what princesses are capable

~94~
of taking on, and has a lot of experience figuring out a princess's weaknesses. Everyone's
different, is what she's learned. Everyone's got stuff they can do with no trouble, and
everyone's got stuff they can't do. Not without damaging themselves. She'll leave princesses
alone to deal with the stuff they can handle, but she'll go as far as physically stopping any
princess who's pushing herself too far in the wrong direction. Reunion knows how
princesses can get, how determined, how never-give-up, how nothing-can-stop-me. She
knows exactly where that kind of relentless self belief can lead. She'll happily be the bad guy
if it means stopping a princess from damaging herself. She'll be whatever she needs to be.
In terms of support for the kingdom, Reunion will do the basics, eventually, once she gets
around to it. She's just not much interested in that side of things. Doesn't really think of it
as important. Things work out with kingdoms, she figures, just as long as the princesses are
taking care of themselves. Maybe it won't be as fast as they want, but they can live with that.
Regarding the other factions, Reunion can't forget how she was treated by the Kingdom
Defenders, or Speculation Wildhearts, or the Silver Masks, and most particularly The
Circle. The closer a faction is to the inner kingdoms the less she likes them. On the other
hand she's got a lot of time for the Hunter Guild, Exploration Unlimited, Starlight
Investigations, the Wandering Stars, and the Universal Librarians. She also has more
experience than most (ie any experience) with Nowhere, although she doesn't talk about that
openly. She's seen beneath the surface of this Princess World. She knows what makes all of
this work. She might not like it, but as the Necessity Princess she certainly understands.
Reunion also has some experience with rebel princesses, and a lot of sympathy for them. Her
approach to rebels is to look the other way and let them get on with whatever they're doing;
in her personal experience, trying to actually help never works out. So she won't interfere
with rebels, and she'll also strongly caution against getting involved with them beyond
absolute necessity. Just give them space, she'll advise. If some stuff goes missing, so what, just
get in touch with me if it was important, I'll organise replacement gear. As long as they're
not messing with you, and they probably won't, just let it slide.
Reunion likes adventure, fighting, the sound of wind through trees, monsters, maps, meat,
beaches, freedom, self-care, gazing up at the sky on starry nights, realistic goals, jokes about
her single eye or arm, laziness, subversive attitudes, getting enough sleep, and going through
doors labelled 'NO ENTRY'.
Reunion dislikes inflexibility, waiting, queues, paperwork, sitting around, sweets, tiny paper
umbrellas, captivity, jokes about heart scars, restrictions, thoughtless determination, and

~95~
things that have clearly been designed for people with two hands with absolutely no thought
given to how a one-handed person might deal with it.

~96~
[SLI] Francesca Duck, Princess of Doors
Faction Representative for Starlight Investigations
Francesca is a skinny princess in a bulky coat, with wavy auburn hair and square glasses. Her
princess weapon is a sack full of doorknobs; every single one of the knobs has its own pet
name and origin story. She has the rough voice of a lifetime smoker, although lately she's
been trying to kick the habit. In a combat situation she'll tend to fade into the shadows
(when Francesca is around there are always shadows to fade into) then strike at an
opportune moment. She doesn't go looking for fights but she won't hesitate to stand up for
herself, or others, if things go in that direction.
Francesca had a complicated time at the academy, having to deal with constant mysteries
along with her assignments and so forth. That's been her whole life, really. No matter where
she goes or what she does there's going to be a conspicuously valuable item going missing,
or someone is going to turn out to be somebody else's missing aunt but for whatever reason
they're hiding this from everyone, or somebody's precious cookies are going to get eaten and
there are at least five different people with the motivation and means to have committed the
crime—it's exhausting, honestly, but Francesca has never been the sort to let a mystery go
unsolved. In truth she's never happier than when she's deep in a case, following leads,
questioning witnesses, and investigating clues. Anyway, in between all of that nonsense she
managed to graduate, although almost immediately afterwards she got swept up in a
conspiracy that ranged across a dozen kingdoms and eventually led to the shutting down of
a fairy gem smuggling operation. After that Francesca had her pick of offers from multiple
factions—the Guidance Collective, Speculation Wildhearts, even an invitation to join
Nowhere, although of course Nowhere doesn't exist.
In the end, though, Francesca Duck followed her heart and her gut, and went with the
newly established Starlight Investigations. It wasn't even officially a faction at that point, but
thanks to the hard work and sheer grit of Francesca and princesses like her they were
eventually recognised by The Circle and granted the right to sponsor frontier kingdoms.
Francesca was there on the ground for several of those first kingdoms, experiencing both
success and failure (all those mysteries popping up everywhere really made frontier
princessing an especial hardship) before being called back to head office in the Noir
Kingdom and given the role of faction rep.
Francesca has seen it all before, in her long and storied career. There's not a lot that can
phase her, and less that she considers a challenge. These days most of the mysteries that pop

~97~
up around her are of the cosier variety, often involving cats for some reason, but they still
take up a lot of her time. Her experience and seniority also means that she's often handling
a dozen frontier kingdoms at once. She prefers not to spend too much time on the ground,
favouring spoken communication through long-distance means. She also doesn't really have
a lot of time for reports, although she will sometimes settle down with a fresh pack of
cigarettes and a good big mug of strong black coffee and get stuck in to the mountain of
paperwork on her desk.
Still, despite not having a lot of time for any individual kingdom, and being notoriously
difficult to actually get a hold of, Francesca is an experienced and competent princess with a
sharp mind and often startling insight. She has an uncanny knack of getting straight to the
heart of a kingdom's problems. Her advice is specific and incisive, her support efficient and
extremely targeted. She's never going to just throw treasure at a problem, but you might find
that a useful report or relic or even a helpful person turns up after getting in touch with
Francesca.
Regarding the other factions, Francesca knows exactly how Starlight Investigations is
viewed by most of them—a young upstart, a bunch of flippant little princesses wasting their
time playing at being detective—but she knows the truth of the world. It's a darker place
than most princesses will ever acknowledge, all of us clinging to a fragile raft floating atop a
depthless ocean of the unknown. It's this sort of cynical and noirish attitude that makes it
difficult for Francesca to actually communicate with others, but she tends to get along okay
with Speculation Wildhearts and Nowhere (although of course Nowhere doesn't exist), and
she has contacts in most of the other factions—people she's helped in the past, or those she's
worked with on more involved cases.
Francesca likes strong coffee, cigarettes, shadows, alleys, rooftops, clandestine meetings,
actual conspiracies, mavericks, long narrow corridors, moonlit but cloudy nights, grim truths,
and the satisfying—if transitory—sense of fulfilment that comes from closing a case.
Francesca dislikes sweets, sandwiches, unreasonable people, milk, playing things by the book,
wilful idiots, bright days, obstructive authority figures, undue sarcasm, naïve optimism, and
when bright sunny princesses succeed against unthinkable odds thanks to unfailing
determination and the power of friendship.

~98~
[STAR] Sallyforth Holdmeback, Princess of Impulse
Faction Representative for the Wandering Stars
Sallyforth is a fat broad princess with dark hair, thick eyebrows, and a truly magnificent
mustache. She favours sturdy clothing with lots of pouches and pockets to hold handy
things, and always has a variety of scouting equipment such as binoculars and telescopes
hung about her person. Her princess weapon is a walking axe, and she won't hesitate to
employ it. Sallyforth has always enjoyed fighting and, in her life as a faction rep, doesn't get
enough of it. She'll leap at any opportunity for a good solid brawl.
Sallyforth had a rollicking time at the academy, getting into all sorts of japes and mishaps
and hilarious misunderstandings. She laughed her way through and graduated entirely on
the sheer quantity of her field work; Sallyforth was famous among her teachers for only ever
completing assignments by accident. She'd just grab any likely-looking princesses who
happened to be around, head out to wherever, and bring back sackfuls of monster drops and
gatherables and whatever else she found that looked interesting. Occasionally the things she
brought back coincided with an assignment, and so eventually she earned enough merits to
graduate.
After the academy Sallyforth gravitated naturally towards Exploration Unlimited, signing
up for one of their expeditions. It only took two days for her to become lost in the wild
lands, chasing a living chest into a chaos nexus, actually managing to tackle the living chest
amidst all the chaos nexus weirdness, finding a mysterious whistle among the loot and,
naturally, blowing it immediately, which summoned a tornado thing that warped her far
from the border.
Sallyforth spent a few years wandering the wild lands, not exactly searching for a way back
but always with the vague goal to maybe meet up with another princess at some point,
because she missed chatting and such. It was while she was battling a sports-themed mega-
elemental that she encountered a group of Wandering Stars, and after they'd joined forces to
take down the elemental and calm the resulting wild surge—and after a very long very
bubbly bath—Sallyforth accepted an offer to join up with them. She greatly enjoyed this
new chapter of her life—all that wandering was fun, of course, but it lacked purpose. Being
with the Wandering Stars was a wonderful life for Sallyforth, working to calm the wilds and
battle elementals and solve problems before they affected the controlled lands. Every sunrise
promised adventure, every sunset came with the satisfaction of having made a difference.

~99~
Sallyforth stayed with that group for almost a decade, only returning to the controlled lands
after a particularly epic confrontation with multiple mega-elementals in the depths of a
chaos nexus, during which their trusty reliable moving castle was sadly destroyed—
sacrificed, in fact, to prevent a massive build-up of chaotic magic that would undoubtedly
have destroyed several dozen border kingdoms. Sallyforth herself was severely injured during
the incident, and spent several weeks recovering in a nearby Hunter Guild-sponsored
frontier kingdom. It was during this time of forced inaction that she took an interest in the
kingdom and its princesses, their daily activities to maintain and grow their kingdom, the
seriousness of the responsibility they'd been given, the unpredictable and challenging life
they were leading. Even before she fully recovered Sallyforth was getting stuck in and
lending a hand to the frontier princesses, and ended up staying with them until the kingdom
was fully established. After that she found herself at a bit of a loose end—satisfied with the
work she'd done, fulfilled and happy that she'd helped out, but also with a sort of 'that's it?'
feeling, a sense that despite having helped to establish a kingdom there was far more work to
be done.
To cut an increasingly lengthy story short, Sallyforth met up with her Wandering Star
companions and declined their offer to reform their group with a new castle; she needed
more now. She was accepted as a faction representative without any trouble, and so here she
is, veritably bursting with wild lands experience but relatively innocent about controlled
lands goings-on.
Sallyforth is extremely enthusiastic about helping you frontier princesses out, often to a
disruptive degree. You'd mistake her for a frontier princess herself at times, seeing her right
there on the front lines battling it out with whatever she perceives as a threat to her precious
little kingdoms. In terms of competency Sallyforth is an accomplished fighter and explorer
with just oodles of lived experience, but she has absolutely no interest in anything theoretical
no matter how relevant or useful it might be. She doesn't trust books, or in fact anything
that someone hasn't experienced for themselves. Her instant dismissal of anything that isn't
hands-on work can become a problem, especially in cases that require a little more delicacy
than just stomping in expecting a situation that can be solved by thwacking a few dozen
monsters and maybe pushing some big heavy blocks onto switches.
As far as backline support goes, Sallyforth just doesn't have any interest in that sort of thing.
It'll take some heavy pushing from the frontier princesses to even get her moving in the
right direction, with constant reminders needed to actually get results. It might, in the end,
be easier to just ask Sallyforth to fetch whatever you need herself, especially if it's out in the

~100~
wild lands. She'll happily go and tear a monster lair to pieces and bring back a sackful of
loot, if you make it clear that this would be helpful. Of course she'd then be puzzled as to
why you're not coming along, because who'd ever want to miss out on such a splendid
opportunity for lusty japes and a spot of jolly cooperative monster-whacking? Sounds like a
rowdy afternoon's fun to me, come on girls, time waits for no princess, those monsters aren't
going to boop themselves!
Dealing with Sallyforth can be a little exhausting at times, it must be said.
Regarding the other factions, Sallyforth barely even recognises them as existing. She knows
that there are 'things' called 'factions' and that she's a member of the Wandering Stars but
beyond that she just has no interest whatsoever. She'll take whatever situation and whoever's
talking to her at absolute face value, but the sheer depth of her cluelessness can get a bit
wearying at times. Still, once you've managed to get it in her head that your kingdom needs
something, and once you've got Sallyforth pointed in the right direction, she'll happily
argue, shout, or even fight for whatever it is you need.
Sallyforth likes chatting, laughing, fairies, any sort of competition, ice, shady spots,
adventure, shouting, simple situations, exploration, good sturdy food that lines your stomach
(in particular porridge), block puzzles, monsters (mostly fighting them but she does also
have an appreciation for their ecologies and behaviour and so on), pickles, outings,
interesting flora, good sturdy animals/monsters/princesses that she could potentially ride
around on, and she's never happier than when she's got a solid goal and a clear path to
accomplishing it.
Sallyforth dislikes games, flimsy things that break as soon as you whack something with
them, abstract representations or reductions of actual things, sweet drinks, being stuck
inside, impractical hats, anything fiddly or complicated, clever people with their words and
their books, and she hates feeling like she's being laughed at or looked down on.

~101~
[LUX] Puffenstuff "Puff" Fluffhuffnuff, Princess of Softness
Faction Representative for the Luxury Seekers
Puff is a big cuddly princess with enormously long curly pink hair, sleepy eyes, and a slow
smile that lights up the room. She favours beautiful and flowing (but very, very comfortable)
dresses, usually in soft colours such as pale blue or mint green. Her princess weapon is a
pillow, with a soporific effect upon those with which it is whacked. There's quite a bit of
splashback, so you'll often see both Puff and her opponent sound asleep as the rest of the
fight goes on around them. Puff doesn't much mind fighting, because usually it's just her
giving one monster a whack and then waking up after a lovely nap to find that everything
worked out just fine.
Puff had a lovely time at the academy, not doing much in the way of assignments and being
largely carried through field work by her less sleepy friends, but making up for whatever
weaknesses she might have had by baking everyone just lovely snacks, making sure everyone
was getting enough sleep and that their beds were comfy enough, and—perhaps most
importantly of all—making an absolutely stellar cup of tea. Not just your standard black
either, Puff has a startlingly complete knowledge of tea and an uncanny sense of which to
brew for any given occasion. After graduating Puff drifted along to a frontier kingdom
sponsored by the Hunter Guild, of all factions, and got along just fine in a support role. It
actually worked out reasonably well, with Puff making tea and snacks for the other
princesses, upgrading their bedding situation, and keeping an eye on the castle while they
went out and did whatever needed to be done to grow the kingdom. It can't be said that
Puff 's contribution was vital, but the comfort she provided wasn't nothing.
It just so happened that a rather senior member of the Luxury Seekers was in attendance at
the party celebrating the successful founding of Puff 's kingdom, and they chanced to sample
a cup of her macadamia chai masala. After making a few vague enquiries about Puff 's future
plans, and after Puff gave a few vague answers, it just happened that she drifted into the
Luxury Seekers as a faction representative.
Puff isn't entirely sure what it is, exactly, that a faction representative is supposed to do, as
there's no formal training program in LUX and nobody really bothered to explain anything
to her. So she mostly just keeps on doing what she's always done; bake goodies to share,
make sure everyone's getting enough good quality sleep, and be available for a nice cup of
tea and a chat whenever a princess has the weight of the world on her shoulders. It's hard to
judge whether or not this approach is effective, given the appalling failure rate of LUX

~102~
kingdoms generally, but the princesses of the kingdoms Puff is responsible for seem to
appreciate her comforting approach.
As far as providing support goes, Puff will always listen very sympathetically to your
concerns and needs, and she'll certainly agree that something should be done, but that's
about as far as she'll go. Again, nobody in LUX really seems to actually know how to provide
the resources you requested, I mean we probably HAVE the things lying around somewhere
but it's a matter of finding them and then finding whoever's technically responsible for them
and then there's probably a lot of paperwork to fill out and honestly, really honestly, I'm
ready for a nap just thinking about it. So you can probably see the problem.
Regarding the other factions, Puff isn't much interested in all of that complicated politics
business. Can't we all just have a few biscuits and a nice cup of tea, and maybe a slice of cake,
and it would in all honesty be a crime to let these splendid profiteroles go to waste, and I'm
sure there were some sandwiches around here earlier—do you know what, let's make this a
proper afternoon tea and then perhaps take a nap and then I'm absolutely positive
everything will seem brighter and more manageable.
In honesty Puff 's complete disengagement from princess politics and focus on cushions and
cakes is quite effective in a lot of situations. Sort of a breath of fresh air, so to speak. Rather
disarming. It's hard to go against such a princess as Puff, is the thing. Hard to say no to her.
Not least because this lime macha tea she made is out of this world, have you tried it? Is
there any more? In any case Puff gets on fairly well with all the other factions just because
she doesn't really think in terms of 'factions' and 'sides' and just wants everyone to be
comfortable and happy. There are times when a princess or faction takes advantage of Puff 's
cuddliness, times when she loses out on something or comes off worse off in a negotiation,
but she never takes it personally and do you know, I think probably that kingdom was going
to collapse anyway, never mind, maybe next time we'll get it, more tea?
Puff likes comfort, pillows, blankets, cushions, lovely couches, snacks, tea, beds, long grass,
clouds, soft cute animals, hammocks, baking, rainbows, smiles, blue skies, and when
everything works out fine without anyone really even having to do anything.
Puff dislikes hard edges, cold winds, grey skies, scratchy blankets, inadequate pillows, storms,
arguments, improperly made tea, interrupted naps, burnt biscuits, and anyone who asks too
many questions.

~103~
[UNL] Dioretta Byzant, Princess of Coins
Faction Representative for the Universal Librarians
Dioretta is a tall and extremely neat princess with square glasses and long black hair in a
tight sensible braid. She favours a black suit and tie, or if the occasion is right an elegant
formal dress. Her princess weapon is a qiang spear decorated with ribbons and coin charms,
and she wields it with perfect form. She does not in particular enjoy fighting, but when she
has decided that combat is the most effective option she battles with focus and
determination, with an eye towards finishing things swiftly and decisively.
Dioretta did not always have her current speciality. She began as the Appropriate Princess,
with a focus on proper behaviour and sensible decisions. In a world as unpredictable and
diverse as this one, having this speciality often led to Dioretta feeling helpless and alienated.
Despite this she did fine at the academy, finding a small tight group of comrades who shared
her proper ideals and acted as prefects for the school, despite no such formal position
existing. After graduation Dioretta found herself lacking direction. She took a position in a
Sparkle Union frontier kingdom that failed largely due to lack of support, then moved back
to the academy in a teaching role. This didn't suit her at all, and when an offer came from
the Universal Librarians she accepted it readily. The position was in their archive division,
part of the team responsible for assessing mundane assets. Not relics, not information;
everything else. To her own surprise Dioretta found herself greatly enjoying this work, in
particular the variety of coins that constantly came in. Changing speciality was a natural
process; Dioretta's interest in proper behaviour faded as her passion for coins grew. She no
longer felt comfortable as the Appropriate Princess, but she still went to the trouble of
arranging a party to announce her new speciality. It was at this party that she was
approached by a senior librarian, wondering if she'd consider a role as a faction
representative. Perhaps taken by the spirit of change Dioretta accepted, with the proviso that
she remained responsible for the archive's coin collection.
Dioretta finds work as a faction representative engaging and rewarding. She enjoys the
feeling of responsibility and power, in particular reading reports and assessing a kingdom's
progress and needs. Her approach is rather hands-off, preferring to handle things from the
comfort of her office (close to her beloved coins) rather than visiting kingdoms in person.
The only thing that will always drag her out to the frontier is a party. She'll also conduct
inspections on a semi-regular basis, but tries to keep these brief and focused, and will usually
arrange inspections of multiple kingdoms on the same day; knock them all out at once, is the
idea. If one of her kingdoms has problems she expects to be informed about it ASAP, and

~104~
will then work from afar to provide support—balanced, of course, against all of the other
kingdoms she's supporting, with all of their problems. Dioretta prides herself on offering an
efficiently calculated amount of support, exactly enough to help the kingdom overcome
whatever problem they're facing.
Regarding the other factions, Dioretta still harbours ill-feelings towards the Sparkle Union
for what she sees as them abandoning her first kingdom. Aside from that she tries to keep
things professional, and has put in the work to establish contacts with all of the major
factions; any that are tier 3 or higher. She tends to regard the lower-tier factions as lacking
in use and is a bit dismissive of them.
Dioretta enjoys filing, reports, simple food prepared well, parties, onigiri, accounting,
practical formality, beautiful dresses and an excuse to wear one, and she still always
appreciates it when people behave properly.
Dioretta dislikes messiness, scruffy people, timewasters, uncooked fruit, loose cannons,
unnecessary flashiness, inefficient behaviour, quiche, poorly made tea, and she has a
particular disdain for those who shirk their responsibilities.

~105~
[LAND] Synthia Humbrage, Princess of Balance
Faction Representative for Brave New Lands
Synthia is a straight-backed and neatly dressed princess with a sensible bob haircut and
large round glasses. She has been described, not inaccurately, as 'rather owlish.' Her princess
weapon is a fountain pen, simple in its elegance and elegant in its simplicity, although she
dislikes fighting and avoids it if at all possible. With that said she's an experienced and
powerful princess in her own right, and can certainly hold her own in a combat situation.
Synthia strikes many as being humourless and as dry as a salted cracker, but she herself
would take offence at such accusations. Just half a year ago one of Synthia's co-workers (to
protect their reputation they shall go unnamed) presented a report that included some, quite
frankly, shockingly loose policy interpretations, and Synthia spared no wryness in pointing
this out. The minutes of that meeting note that Princess Anastasia Glump smiled for an
unheard of two-point-seven seconds at Synthia's remarks, and Princess Peculiar Buttons
(who was chairing) 'smirked.' I think these facts speak for themselves; to describe Princess
Synthia Humbrage as 'humourless' would be grossly inaccurate.
In any case she's a faction princess through and through, recruited direct from the academy
on the strength of her report on slime differentiation (azure and duck egg colour variants).
She was at first assigned to one of Brave New Lands' many review-and-editing squads, but
her unusually strong interpersonal skills (and, perhaps, her sense of humour) meant that it
wasn't long before she found herself on the representative track. At first she took a position
in the inner kingdoms, mainly representing Brave New Lands at parties and so on, but after
her stellar performance and quick thinking during what is officially recorded as "The
Pristine Kingdom Grand Annual Ball Pudding Incident (IV)" she was strongly urged to
consider the frontier.
And so here she is, seven successfully established kingdoms under her belt and eyes that
have seen it all behind those large round glasses. Synthia is not used to failure, either on her
part or on the part of those she works with, and considers strict adherence to faction policy
the core of success. With that said she doesn't believe BNL is flawless; she herself has made
dozens of suggestions regarding policy refinement, many of which have been put to
committee. One in particular—pertaining to the maximum acceptable ratio of pudding to
magic within a defined area—just recently passed its third reading, and (all going well)
should actually be implemented within a year or two, three at the most.

~106~
Regarding the other factions, she doesn't have a lot of time for Exploration Unlimited or the
Hunter Guild or similar rough and rowdy ill-disciplined sorts, neither does she rate Luxury
Seekers or Afternoon Tea Time particularly highly; parties and treats have their place, but to
make them your entire focus? No, that's not tolerable to one such as Synthia Humbrage,
Princess of Balance. She tends to get along fine with most Royal Architect and Universal
Librarian and even Silver Mask princesses; serious professionals with a focused attitude. She
also admires Wandering Stars, despite their devil-may-care attitude and lax approach to
manners. She appreciates the work they do and, with her experience on the frontier,
understands how necessary it is. Synthia has had a number of run-ins with Stonewall Group
princesses, largely negative, and as such has a fairly negative view of that faction. Similarly,
two of the frontier kingdoms under her watch had trouble from Sparkle Union kingdoms,
and although she acknowledges the independence and diversity of SUN kingdoms and does
not put the entire faction to blame for the actions of just two of its kingdoms, she still has a
bit of prejudice against them. Several of the frontier princesses she represented ended up
with Scarred Hearts, so she has a personal connection to that faction, and perhaps a more
balanced view of them than most. She is not intimidated by SCAR princesses, and has a
certain amount of empathy for them.
Speaking of balance, Synthia greatly appreciates symmetry and order, but also appreciates
balance in all its forms; the balance of the chaotic wild lands against the civilised controlled
lands, the balance of the various factions and their often conflicting ideals, the balance of
give-and-take that exists in most relationships. She's very good at negotiating compromises
and often finds a way for both parties to be satisfied with the outcome, if not completely
happy. Many of her frontier kingdoms (and even their neighbours) benefited from her fair-
minded judgement, and although her success has led to more responsibility being heaped
upon her—she's currently representing over a dozen kingdoms—she's more than happy to
get stuck into an individual kingdom's problems and do what she can to help out. That is, if
the frontier princesses responsible for the kingdom really can't handle it themselves. Synthia
is never pleased to be called out to something beneath her notice, and won't hesitate to
employ maximum wryness in demonstrating her displeasure to those who wasted her
valuable time.
Synthia enjoys autumn, sour sweets, trains, long corridors, sunsets, calm people,
professionalism, good solid policy, rules, cold drinks that have become just a little warm, hot
drinks that have become just a little cool, and she's always had a soft spot for slimes.

~107~
Synthia dislikes noisiness and mess, overly spiced food, bland flavours, hot days, cold days,
rule-breaking, thoughtlessness, inefficiency, excessive emotion, toffee, pears, and she has a
particular ire for arrogant fools who think they know better.

~108~
[HUG] Portia Jandal-Harrington, Princess of Badminton
Faction Representative for the Hunter Guild
Portia is a short and broad princess with long braided twintails and a raucous laugh. She
favours bold—fierce, even—makeup, especially around the eyes, and enjoys finding a balance
between practicality and flair with her outfits. Her princess weapon is a badminton racket,
and she has a ready supply of shuttlecocks with various elemental affinities and gadgety
quirks. She enjoys a good scrap as much as any princess, and won't hesitate to get stuck in if
there's any kind of conflict. Indeed, she might be the one leading the charge.
Portia's path to becoming a faction rep was long and rife with setbacks. She was always very
keen on monster hunts and fighting during her academy days, and after graduating she
became a frontier princess for a Hunter Guild kingdom. Unfortunately it bordered a
particularly unstable part of the wild lands, and soon after its founding a chaos nexus
appeared nearby. The Hunter Guild decided to abandon the kingdom and Portia was
reassigned to another frontier kingdom—just days before its border shields collapsed due to
lack of maintenance. Portia's third and fourth frontier kingdoms suffered similar fates, and
she began to think of herself as a sort of bad luck charm. She herself never suffered any
particular misfortune as kingdom after kingdom collapsed beneath her, it was just
everything around her that constantly fell to pieces.
It was while Portia was between kingdoms, waiting for her next assignment and wondering
if maybe the frontier wasn't actually the place for her after all, that she ran into a friend from
her academy days; Teacup Willoughby, the Frog Princess. Teacup was with Exploration
Unlimited, and had a similar story to Portia; failed kingdom after failed kingdom. The
difference between them was that Teacup was now a faction representative, using her
knowledge and experience of all those failures to help other frontier princesses.
After meeting Teacup, Portia raised the idea of becoming a faction representative with her
superiors, and soon enough she was overseeing a handful of frontier kingdoms. Thanks to
her own experiences she was an expert at spotting disasters before they happened, and was
proactive in supporting the frontier princesses who were her responsibility. Thanks to
Portia's support all three of those initial kingdoms were successful, and she hasn't had a
failure since.
Regarding the other factions, Portia is on friendly terms with Exploration Unlimited and
Wandering Stars, and has had positive interactions in the past with the Sparkle Union and
the Noble Traders. She doesn't have any particular prejudices against the other factions,

~109~
although she dislikes dealing with the Teleportation Administration in the case of
teleportation circle failure; too much fiddliness and technical mumbo-jumbo for her liking.
Portia takes a very hands-on approach with the kingdoms she's responsible for, often
popping in for a cup of tea and a chat, and maybe a stroll around to see what's happening.
She's always enthusiastic about any progress being made, loves nothing more than when her
frontier princesses are proud of their kingdoms, and she takes any potential threats very
seriously indeed. Portia isn't one to wait for permission before doing something, so if she
determines that a threat can be dealt with while she's there visiting, well, why delay? Grab
your gear and let's go, girls!
Portia enjoys barbecues, large meals, enthusiastic positive people, sports of all kinds, hikes,
fighting, hunting, beautiful views, and the outdoors generally.
Portia dislikes fiddly things, negative attitudes, small portions, complicated problems, faction
politics, teleportation circles, being cooped up inside, people who act like they're better than
other people, and failure.

~110~
[SUN] Clarity Shoal, Princess of Piranhas
Faction Representative for the Sparkle Union
Clarity is a shortish sort of princess with a blankish sort of face, with red hair done in short
pigtails. She favours a lady explorer sort of look; rugged but handsome clothing, pith helmet,
goggles hanging around her neck. Her princess weapon is a fish net, which can expand to
magnificent proportions. Clarity has never enjoyed fighting, but she's an experienced
princess who's practical about these things. If there are fish or fish-type monsters around
she'll likely be focused on catching them and keeping them safe.
Clarity had an okay time at the academy, never quite finding her place but not having
anything in particular to complain about. After graduation her lack of direction continued,
so she signed up for an expedition with Exploration Unlimited, in the hopes of seeing some
interesting or cute fish, or fish-type monsters. She wasn't fussy. The expedition was a
complete wash in terms of fishspotting, but it led to Clarity making friends with Cartaliza
Lazurite, the Shark Princess, who had a dream; the Aquarium Kingdom. None of the
factions were interested in the concept, so Clarity and Cartaliza ended up founding it
themselves as a Sparkle Union kingdom. It took time and effort but the two of them were
eventually successful. Their efforts were noticed by SUN, who offered them both positions
as faction reps. Cartaliza chose to stay in the newly founded kingdom as a caretaker, but
Clarity accepted the job offer.
It's been a bit of a rocky road for Clarity, as a representative for a faction that is tragically
under-resourced. She's grown used to being presented with lists of needs and wants that she
has no actual means of helping with, and with being looked down upon and bullied by the
bigger more powerful factions. With that said she's quite a good little networker with a
number of useful contacts, and she's always happy to reach out on your behalf. It never hurts
to ask, is something of a motto for her. Clarity is always very happy when she can actually
help with something, and over the years she's learned a number of tricks and shortcuts and
stopgap solutions and so forth, to the sorts of problems that frontier kingdoms commonly
face. Even if she can't provide any resources she'll often pitch in and lend a hand. She's got
your backs, and even if she can't do all that much to help she'll always do what she can. At
the very least she provides good moral support, and she's adept at telling princesses that she
can't fulfil their requests in a way that leaves them feeling sort of good about the whole
situation—a kind of you can do it, we're Sparkle Union princesses and we accomplish
impossible things with no resources all the time, we have no roses OR bread but solidarity
forever sort of mood.

~111~
On those rare occasions that Clarity visits a kingdom and finds that they're doing fine on
their own with no actual demands—an 'independent kingdom' living up to its name, so to
speak—she'll be well pleased, and this will be reflected in her assessment of the kingdom.
Regarding the other factions, Clarity doesn't have a lot of love for princess politics but, by
necessity, has learned to play them. Mostly she's skilled at placating other factions, knowing
full well that her own faction has little power or influence. She tends to get along with the
looser factions—Exploration Unlimited, Luxury Seekers, Hunter Guild—but dreads having
to deal with the likes of the Noble Traders or the Universal Librarians, those big powerful
no-nonsense factions skilled at negotiation and used to getting what they want.
Clarity likes fish, solidarity, freedom, animals generally, kindness, nature, basic food, hopes
and dreams, clear explanations, and she loves to see princesses ACTUALLY doing it for
themselves.
Clarity dislikes excess formality, bullies, manipulative behaviour, unreasonable demands,
feeling helpless, and she has absolutely no tolerance for cruelty, especially to animals.

~112~
[MASK] Bell Steelbrace, Princess of Blades
Faction Representative for the Silver Masks
Bell is a short broad princess with tightly braided silver hair. She wears sleek armour, always
polished to a shining gleam, and the traditional silver mask of her faction. She has multiple
princess weapons; a collection of swords and daggers. Bell usually begins a battle by
summoning her weapons en masse, sending them stabbing into enemies or the surrounding
terrain. She's then free to use whatever weapon is closest at hand as she tears through
whatever opposes her. Bell is an exceptionally skilled fighter, but takes no particular pleasure
in battle beyond the opportunity to challenge herself and improve her skills.
Bell had a tough time at the academy. She grew up in a kingdom on a rough part of the
border and gained her princess abilities later than most. She was both older and less
magically powerful than most of her classmates, and although she wasn't bullied or excluded
she always felt different; she always felt like an imposter. In an attempt to overcome these
feelings Bell threw herself into training. Most princesses treated fighting monsters as either
a necessary chore or a fun hobby, but Bell was different. She took fighting very seriously
indeed, and focused her efforts on physical training to compensate for her difficulties in
controlling magic. Bell gained a reputation as a strong fighter and a reliable ally, if a little
hard to approach and distant in her manner. On the day of her graduation she was
approached by a member of the Silver Masks, and invited to join the faction as a trainee.
What followed is not clear. The Silver Masks do not share their secrets with outsiders. It's
not for anyone else to know. Several years after her graduation, however, Bell became a
faction representative for the Silver Masks. She approached this new challenge the same way
she approached everything; an opportunity to prove herself. Not to anyone else. Not even to
her faction. There has only ever been one person whose opinion Bell values, and she truly
hates to let herself down.
Regarding the other factions, Bell is somewhat aloof but professional enough. She has a
harder time maintaining this professionalism with the looser factions such as the Luxury
Seekers or Exploration Unlimited, and tends to get on better with serious factions like the
Kingdom Defenders and Brave New Lands. In honesty this is a weak point for Bell; she
doesn't have any contacts, and in her heart sees all other factions as 'lesser.' She'd never
suggest asking another faction for help, despite the fact that the Silver Masks, as a faction,
are focused solely on fighting.

~113~
Bell distances herself somewhat from her kingdoms. She wants them to succeed, of course,
but she wants the princesses of each kingdom to earn that success. In her view the primary
duty of a representative is to ensure a frontier kingdom's princesses are acting with nobility
and doing things the right way. She'll visit to conduct regular inspections, strict and with
high expectations. If there's a problem that the princesses in one of her kingdoms cannot
handle by themselves then she might step in, but only after they've given it their best effort.
Bell has absolutely no time for those who cry for help without first trying to fix things
themselves.
Bell likes efficiency, opportunities to prove herself, hot chocolate, weapons, impressive feats
of martial prowess, responsibility, honesty, cinnamon, fairness, giving others the chance to
show their strength, horses, succeeding, and brave displays of determination.
Bell dislikes quitters, weakness, failure, overly chatty people, white chocolate, insects,
cowardice, coriander, fakes and liars, manipulative people, failing to meet her own high
expectations, and those who abuse their status or position.

~114~
[????] Shadow Lack, Princess of Change
Faction Representative for Nowhere
Shadow is neither short nor tall, but you couldn't call her average. She wears a shapeless
dark grey overcoat and gloves and a wide-brimmed hat that hides her face. She has blonde
hair, is a brunette, and her short blue-and-teal hair is about all you can see of her actual body.
All else is hidden. She speaks in a low voice and hates to repeats herself. Her princess
weapon is a discrete hand crossbow with a variety of bolts; sleep, paralysis, confusion, poison,
elemental, and so on. Whatever the situation, Shadow most likely has a suitable bolt at hand.
In the rare cases when Shadow is caught up in a fight she'll end it swiftly and decisively.
Shadow's time at the academy is classified, released on a need to know basis. You don't need
to know.
Although she gives the impression of being disaffected, apathetic even, Shadow cares deeply
about the kingdoms that are her responsibility, and the princesses under her watch. Her first
priority is the mission but she'll never put her princesses in danger unless there's a good
reason. She probably won't actually share that reason with you, but it'll be there. She's not
much one for explaining herself and she doesn't have any time for those who can't keep up
or figure things out for themselves, and she holds a special disdain for princesses who don't
listen. Follow your orders, she says. Stick to arrangements. Trust me.
Shadow will be maintaining a cover identity in any dealings with other kingdoms or
factions, because Nowhere does not exist. She favours Speculation Wildhearts or the
Teleportation Administration as cover factions, as she's knowledgeable about both
surveillance and teleportation. Being the mission-focused professional that she is, Shadow
does not allow her personal feelings to interfere with her dealings with others. With that
said she'll avoid interactions with Exploration Unlimited or the Luxury Seekers or the
Guidance Collective if possible. Bad experiences. She doesn't want to talk about it.
Shadow takes her role as a representative seriously. She knows that whatever mission her
kingdom has, whatever reason there is for its existence, is vital to the continued safety of the
controlled lands. She'll arrange for specific and safe methods of contact between herself and
her princesses, whether that's an actual meeting between them, some sort of drop site, or
coded messages hidden within seemingly innocuous letters. If the princesses under her
watch try to bypass these methods, or mess them up, Shadow will not be happy.
Because of the clandestine nature of Nowhere, requested support might arrive in roundabout
or unusual ways. Often Shadow will have to route the resources through other factions, or

~115~
arrange for them to just sort of show up in the nearby wild lands so that the princesses can
just coincidentally stumble upon them. It might take time, and the princesses might not get
exactly what they wanted, but Shadow will always do her best to support the mission, the
kingdom, and her princesses. If the princesses are having trouble with something—powerful
elementals that they can't really deal with on their own, for example—then Shadow will
likely use her cover identity to request help from another faction; she favours the Silver
Masks for elemental and monster threats (if it's anything less than a Silver Mask-level threat
then she expects her princesses to be able to deal with it themselves).
Shadow likes lanterns, sweet milky tea, information, clear objectives, logic puzzles, moonless
nights, decisive blows that take down a target cleanly, overcast skies, moths, and serious
professional princesses who take this thing seriously.
Shadow dislikes distractions, sunny days, lack of focus, secrets that she doesn't know,
surprises, mistrust, jelly, brightly lit places, and filing systems that clearly haven't been
properly thought out.

~116~
[WALL] Constance Cat-Battingsway, Princess of Worries
Faction Representative for the Stonewall Group
Constance is a fat and troubled-looking princess, always seeming like she's just on the verge
of bursting into tears, although in fact she is one of the most emotionally stable princesses
you're ever likely to meet. She likes earthy autumnal colours and has a cute-but-melancholy
sort of mori kei forest witch style. Her princess weapon is a scarf, which she uses as a focus
for her unusually powerful elemental magic. Physical fighting isn't Constance's forte at all,
but dealing with monsters has never been a particular problem for her. She has a defensive
style, keeping her distance and blocking attacks until she's able to identify her foe's weak
point, at which point she'll attempt a single precise attack to decisively end things.
Constance had a miserable time at the academy, having the misfortune to be there at the
same time as a bunch of girls who entirely failed to live up the noble ideals expected of
princesses. As one of nature's victims Constance was the target of rampant bullying, and her
naturally introverted personality led to her withdrawing and becoming extremely defensive.
Some of those bullying princesses became rebels; the rest are now in high ranking positions
within the inner kingdoms. So it goes. In any case Constance found a small group of allies,
other princesses who were targeted for bullying, and although they never actually fought
back they at least found some comfort—pleasure, even—in shared misery. It was around this
time that the Stonewall Group began their famous 'Slow Down! Actually, Stop!' campaign
against the founding of new frontier kingdoms, which caught the attention of Constance's
friend group. In between complaining to each other about how bad the bullying was at the
academy, and getting more and more excited about how much they all agreed with each
other, they often talked about the ideas brought up by the Stonewall Group. Wasn't
everyone just far too enthusiastic about everything? Wasn't the general princess attitude of
never-give-up determination a bit too toxicly positive? Would it kill people to actually
THINK about things before they just went charging in and did them?
After graduating Constance and her friends joined up with the Stonewall Group, as it
seemed a natural progression, all of them finding places in the faction's enormous
complaints department. Not dealing with complaints, no, MAKING complaints about what
other people were doing. Constance enjoyed her time there and did well in the role, standing
out enough to find herself recommended to be part of a frontier kingdom sponsored by the
Strongwall Group.

~117~
Her initial reaction was one of puzzlement, which was the general sentiment among many
in the faction. Isn't this exactly the sort of thing we're supposed to be against? Consolidate
what we already have before expanding, sort out our existing problems before we go looking
for more?
Yes, was the answer, but just look at the state of the frontier. All these kingdoms being
founded willy-nilly, failing more often than not because there's no regulation, no
enforcement of rules—they're not doing it properly, and they need someone to show them
how it's done.
So it was that Constance became part of the Strongwall Group's first frontier kingdom in
years, and years is what it took for it to finally be declared 'established', what with all the
strict rules and regulations they had to follow, not to mention the constant inspections and
publicity parties. It was (eventually) a success, though, and paved the way for further
Strongwall Group 'perfect example' kingdoms to be founded all along the borders. And who
better to serve as a point of contact between these kingdoms and the faction, than those
brave (but cautious) pioneering princesses who were part of the first?
And so Constance became a faction representative, and to her great surprise discovered that
she was actually good at it. Her natural inclination towards introspection and thought-
before-action as well as her long experience actually establishing a frontier kingdom—in
particular the frustrations she and the others felt at having to deal with so many carefully
considered and frightfully proper (but also needlessly complicated and pedantically specific)
regulations—meant she was perfectly placed to find a balance between the two; staying true
to the spirit of the law, while exploiting the loopholes and exceptions that meant something
could actually get done for once.
Constance is still a true believer in Stonewall's core ideal of doing things properly and never
rushing anything, but she understands that frontier reality means that sometimes you need
to get a bit creative and a little flexible. She's an expert in negotiating the convoluted maze
that is faction bureaucracy, and is willing to look the other way if her princesses aren't doing
things exactly by the book—but on the other hand she can't forgive failure as a result of
bypassing the rules. If the princesses under her watch are ignoring Stonewall
recommendations or even, heaven forfend, actually skirting regulations then their results had
better be solid. There's a precise time and an exact place to bend the rules, in Constance's
opinion, so your judgement and timing had better be spot on.
Regarding the other factions, Constance doesn't think much of any of them but will
grudgingly admit that the Universal Librarians do tend to be quite careful most of the time.

~118~
She also respects Speculation Wildhearts for their observe-analyse-inform style and policy
of non-intervention. Constance hasn't exactly enjoyed her dealings with the Teleportation
Administration but she is quietly impressed by the intricacy—elegance, even—of their
paperwork. She also appreciates Brave New Lands for their comfortably bland centrism. On
the other side of things, and like many in the Stonewall Group, Constance holds a special
distaste for Exploration Unlimited and their poke-with-a-stick-first deal-with-
consequences-never attitude.
Constance takes an involved and careful approach to the kingdoms that are her
responsibility. She's not much for helping out in person, although of course frequent
inspections are a big part of being a rep for Stonewall. She expects regular detailed reports,
but also understands that out on the frontier sometimes other things demand your attention,
and so is forgiving of lateness as long as the report does eventually come and is appropriately
exhaustive. Constance values being kept in the loop so if, for example, a report is going to be
late she would certainly appreciate an explanatory note. In terms of support Stonewall is not
the speediest of factions, but Constance knows a trick or two to get things moving. If she
agrees that there's something you really need then she'll make sure you get it, as soon as
possible (although with that said don't hold your breath; it's still Stonewall). Constance also
maintains contacts with other factions, and will occasionally bypass Stonewall's bureaucracy
by dealing directly with them. That's only in cases when you frontier princesses absolutely
need something immediately, though. Don't expect it every time.
Constance likes pragmatic negativity, meals where you can clearly see all the ingredients,
weak tea with plenty of milk, paperwork, realistic expectations, good quality stationery,
complex (but workable) systems, hearing about terrible things, reports, results, and princesses
who know exactly when and how to follow the rules.
Constance dislikes bullying, pointless meetings, interpersonal conflict, when things just work
out constantly for someone naturally, mindless positivity, inner kingdom princesses, rebel
princesses, too much talking, unstructured social events, pies, and princesses who have no
understanding or respect for the importance of rules.

~119~
[SCI] Rebecca "Becks" Disputation, Princess of Magnitude
Faction Representative for the Scientific Promotion Society
Becks is a tall thin princess with wild magenta hair done up in a messy bun. She favours a
white lab coat over an explorer's outfit, with big stompy boots. Her princess weapon is a
very complicated slide rule. No, even more complicated than you're picturing. Becks
understands it perfectly, but it baffles even her fellow SCI princesses. She's not much for
actual biff-bash-bosh fighting herself, but is happy to act in a support role. Becks will
provide detailed analysis on the strengths and weaknesses of whatever the fighting
princesses are up against (along with all manner of other fascinating facts, extremely variable
in their relevance), and is probably also working on some manner of backup plan; an
efficient application of directed magic that will either counter the threat or render it
irrelevant. Of course it might take so long for her to theorise that the fight's over before she
can apply her plan, but that's just Becks' style.
Regarding her speciality, Becks has always been fascinated by the way things fit together, the
way they relate, the relative importance of one thing over another, and satisfyingly precise
ratios. In practical terms she's often able to leverage the magnitude (that is, the difference to
a power of ten) between two things to spectacular effect.
Becks is one of those princesses who just fell naturally into the Scientific Promotion Society.
She had a lovely time at the academy, enjoying all aspects of school life; lessons, research,
field work, and mingling with such a jolly varied diversity of princesses. It was maybe
because of her intensely analytical mind and boundless curiosity, along with her naturally
gregarious personality and chattiness, that she often found herself in leadership roles. Becks
found that she had both a talent and a love for taking a group of ragtag mismatched
princesses and turning them into a team, figuring out how to use one princess's strengths to
cover for another's weaknesses and so forth. She secured a spot for herself in a SCI research
group even before graduating, and was quickly promoted to head of her team, and then into
a supervision role. Becks found the work at SCI challenging and rewarding, but occasionally
found herself longing for something more. Her fellow Scientific Promotion Society
princesses were good company, of course, but she missed the messy diversity of her academy
days. Becoming a faction representative was considered a significant demotion, especially
given that Becks was on an upwards trajectory within the faction, but once Becks makes a
decision, that's it. Nothing will stop her, nobody can change her mind.

~120~
So she became a faction rep, took on a couple of frontier kingdoms, and found that this
particular challenge suited her perfectly. Guiding the kingdoms under her responsibility was
the hardest challenge of her life, and learning how to step back and let the frontier
princesses do things themselves was maybe the most difficult thing Becks ever had to do,
and since becoming a faction representative she's had to constantly fend off job offers from
every division SCI has, but she's happy with her life as a rep.
Regarding the other factions, Becks has bumped up against the Noble Traders and Universal
Librarians more than once. Becks isn't one to hold grudges, but in her analysis these factions
have caused trouble for her kingdoms in the past and are likely to do so again in the future.
She's also had some problems with Brave New Lands and the Strongwall Group, nothing
huge, but dealing with their stubbornness isn't something she enjoys. On the other side of
things she's had good experiences with the Sparkle Union (splendid diversity), Afternoon
Tea Time (such diverting parties), and the Guidance Collective (lovely people, just lovely).
She has friends and contacts in the Teleportation Administration, and knows how to get
things moving with this faction.
Becks takes a hands-on approach to her kingdoms but deliberately and consciously holds
herself back from solving problems herself. She's learned to enjoy giving frontier princesses
just enough information for them to figure things out themselves, then watching them solve
problems in their own unique ways. At any given moment Becks is likely representing a
dozen or more frontier kingdoms at once, so she doesn't have all that much time for each
one. If a kingdom she's responsible for really does have a problem, though, she's happy to
put her full attention upon it. Of course, her attention will only last for exactly the necessary
amount of time to get the frontier princesses pointed in the right direction, at which point
she'll give one of her famously warm and encouraging farewells and leave them to it.
Becks enjoys puzzles, flexibility, chatting, diversity, new things, people doing their best
especially in difficult circumstances, any sort of tea as long as it's in a good big stable mug,
impressive sweets such as parfaits and complicated cakes, clocks, pajamas, and creative
solutions to fiddly problems.
Becks dislikes rigidity, negativity, pettiness, sloppy thinking, ostriches, sticky hands,
impulsive behaviour, coffee, fish as a food, and defeatist attitudes.

~121~
[RARC] Brick Prettify, Princess of Support
Faction Representative for the Royal Architects
Brick is a big strong princess with curly red hair, usually done up in a sensible ponytail under
her construction helmet. She usually wears practical blue overalls unless it's a formal event,
in which case she'll bring out her fancy blue overalls. Her princess weapon is a hammer, with
which she can swiftly create magical constructions. She dislikes confrontation, but also isn't
one to run from a fight. Brick understands that conflict is inevitable, but will always seek to
avoid it when she can. She's naturally a shy, sensitive, gentle person, but certain things—
bullying in particular, seeing people getting picked on—can certainly cause her to stand up
for what's right. She also won't hesitate to call out bad behaviour, especially in her friends
and those she's responsible for. Brick Prettify has a certain expectation for how princesses
should act, and anyone not reaching that standard will gain her disapproval.
Brick had a happy time at the academy, privately thinking of herself as a big strong tree that
smaller princesses could shelter under, or even sit on its branches, like little birds. She was
always given to these private flights of fancy; Brick has a poetic soul, even if she's too shy to
share this publicly. In any case she had a great time building things, and helping other
princesses build things, and calmly (but decisively) shutting down any bullying or bad
behaviour she saw.
After graduating Brick joined a group of her friends at the frontier, founding a kingdom for
Afternoon Tea Time. She never really felt like she fit in very well—the other princesses were
all chatty party types, so she just stayed in the background fixing things, and pulling them
out of trouble when they got in over their heads with monsters or anything. She couldn't
help much with all the parties they were expected to put on and attend, so she never really
felt like she was that big a part of the whole thing. After the kingdom was successfully
established there was, of course, a huge celebratory party, at which the other princesses
surprised Brick by making her the guest of honour, each of them giving a speech about how
the kingdom would have failed without her supportive and reliable presence.
For the shy and sensitive Brick this was overwhelming, and after she and the other
princesses had a big happy emotional cry and hug, she decided that this was her role in life;
to support and protect other princesses, to be the one who was there to pick them up when
they fell. At first she became a faction rep for Afternoon Tea Time, but it wasn't quite a
perfect fit for her. She felt that she could be doing more elsewhere. One of her former-

~122~
frontier friends recommended the Royal Architects and arranged a meeting, and it was here
that Brick truly found her place and her people.
Since then Brick has been responsible for a string of successful kingdoms, and couldn't be
happier with her role. She loves being a faction rep, and in particular enjoys seeing kingdoms
grow from humble beginnings to become the thriving successes of their princesses' dreams.
She tries to keep her distance from her kingdoms, giving the princesses space to work things
out on their own, but really she's itching for any sort of invitation or request for help, to go
visit and get immediately stuck into some good solid work. If one of her kingdoms is having
trouble with another kingdom she sees her role as that of a shield, and she'll gladly stand
between her princesses and anyone picking on them. She's not the world's most skilled
negotiator, but her straightforward approach and focus on reaching a reasonable compromise
that everyone can be satisfied with (combined with her physical presence and innate gentle
calm) tends to get good results most of the time.
Brick understands that princess politics exists but has made the firm decision to stand apart
from those sorts of games. She'll take everyone at face value and trust people to keep to their
word, but if betrayed or manipulated then that's it; you get exactly one chance with the
Support Princess, and if you've lost Brick's trust then it will be a long and lonely road to
regain it.
Regarding the other factions, she tends to get along well with most princesses. She has the
natural magnetism of the huge and sensitive, and people tend to both trust her and be
disciplined to disappoint her. Still, she's had some troubles with Speculation Wildhearts, the
Scarred Hearts, the Wandering Stars, and the Noble Traders in the past. Nothing major.
Nothing she'd hold against princesses from those factions. Still, though. Things happened.
Brick likes small things, construction, poetry, dry stone walling, joinery, pineapples, spit
roasted meat, unusual (but practical) architecture, teamwork, the power of friendship, and
when one princess covers for another princess's weaknesses.
Brick dislikes bullies, trickery, fancy words hiding ill intentions, bad faith, intolerance, big
things picking on little things, soup, disappointment, shoddy craftsmanship, and people
making things complicated when really they're simple.

~123~
[O] Alarum Pirouette, Princess of Calm
Faction Representative for The Circle
Alarum is a fat and elegant princess, her long black hair a contrast to her pale skin and
simple white clothing. Nothing about her is rushed; everything she does is so deliberate.
She's a good listener, absorbing what others say with an air of patient understanding. She
uses words sparingly, and with precision. Her princess weapon is a trio of chakram, which
appear in a constant graceful orbit around her. She never touches them, but has superb
mental control over their movements. In battle she barely moves at all, allowing her chakram
to orbit her body in a defensive pattern, sending them out in long beautiful arcs to deal with
any threats.
Alarum had an easy time at the academy, breezing through assignments with a minimum of
fuss, standing at the centre of a large group of friends without actually appearing to do
anything. By the end of her time at the academy she even had her own fan club. There was
always something magnetic about Alarum. Even in her younger years she had a timeless
maturity about her.
After graduation Alarum found a place in Afternoon Tea Time, surprising many who knew
her; she'd never expressed any particular interest in that faction specifically or in parties
generally. She was initially placed in an event planning team in a junior role, but swiftly rose
through the ranks thanks to a combination of quiet competence and earnest responsibility.
Whenever she messed up she took full ownership of the situation, and then proceeded to
make whatever changes were necessary to avoid such unpleasantness ever again. Alarum is
not perfect, but it's said that she has never made the same mistake twice.
After almost a decade with ATT Alarum was put in charge of the Grand Triennial Ball, one
of the most prestigious parties in all of Princess World. It was a particularly challenging year
for the ball, one in which an unusually high number of frontier kingdoms had fallen and the
chaotic energies of the wild lands seemed to be infecting even the most inner of kingdoms.
Still, Alarum oversaw a spectacularly wonderful GTB, after which she announced—in her
characteristic understated manner—that she would be leaving Afternoon Tea Time.
Nothing more to be learned, she said. No more mistakes to be made.
And then, without fuss, Alarum vanished. No records exist of her whereabouts or activities,
in the years after her departure from ATT. She didn't take a position with any official
faction. She may not have been in the controlled lands at all. Two years later she reappeared

~124~
without fanfare, applying for a humble teaching role at Princess Academy. She never got
that job. She was accepted into The Circle first.
And so now here she is, representing that most mysterious and powerful of factions. There
aren't many frontier kingdoms sponsored by The Circle, but Alarum is responsible for all of
them. No kingdom under her watch has ever failed. She's never terribly involved, but taking
this to mean she isn't aware of everything you do would be, as Alarum might put it, a
mistake you would not want to repeat. She's slow to offer support, even if requested,
preferring instead to look closely at the current state of the kingdom; an audit, if you will, of
their resources, strengths, weaknesses, and challenges. She's more likely to make a suggestion
regarding your next move, or give some specific advice about your current situation, rather
than offer any external resources. With that said anything Alarum says is worth listening to.
She doesn't speak without reason, and puts a lot of thought into the guidance she gives her
kingdoms. Alarum regards perfection as a crutch, but her standards are high. She's forgiving
of genuine mistakes, but looks unfavourably upon damage caused by laziness or reckless
behaviour. If a choice was involved you had better have made the right one. She has
absolutely no tolerance for corruption or ill-intentioned manipulation or subterfuge. Act in
good faith or suffer severe consequences.
Regarding the other factions, Alarum's reputation means that whatever she wants she's
likely to get. Afternoon Tea Time in particular, what with her history with that faction, will
go to great lengths to fulfil whatever request she might make of them. The thing is, though,
that Alarum isn't likely to make any requests of any factions, especially not on behalf of any
of her frontier kingdoms. Why would she? The kingdoms for which she is responsible are
those of The Circle. They stand alone, tall and proud, serving as a shining example to all
other kingdoms. They must excel by their own efforts.
Alarum enjoys afternoon tea, peace and quiet, soft music, coconuts, thick carpets, baths, new
experiences, people doing what they're supposed to be doing with a minimum of fuss and
bother, gentle breezes, trees, umbrellas, and any scrap of knowledge about this world before
it was Princess.
Alarum dislikes recklessness, tackiness, crowns, lantanas, noise, chaos, any manner of
extreme, cymbals, durians, papercuts, and for some reason she has a particular distaste for
bad rats.

~125~
 Attending Parties
Sometimes princesses will be called away from their kingdom to attend a party. These
almost always come with opportunities to improve the kingdom through impressing
Important People, winning Jolly Competitions, uncovering Shocking Secrets and hearing
Juicy Gossip. Of course, rival princesses will be there competing for the same favours.
Perfect for social adventures and 'fun' interactions. Parties and other social events also
present opportunities to gain, lose, and spend Standing.

Invitations
Getting an invite might just come naturally, or it might require effort on the part of the
princesses. Spending free time actions Reaching Out by writing letters or visiting social
connections can be a good way to get an invitation. When choosing the aspect for the Reach
Out action there's often some flexibility. Chatty is almost always appropriate for this kind of
friendly social action, but Foxy and Graceful have their place too. Sensible princesses are
good at formality, but then again some groups don't place much value on formality. Other
aspects can be appropriate too, depending on who you're dealing with. If you're angling for
an invite to a Scientific Promotion Society presentation then Tinker could be a potent
aspect; demonstrating your princess's keen insight into the technical gubbins of their latest
projects. If you're interested in attending a neighbouring Hunter Guild-sponsored
kingdom's party then Tough or Sporty could be more appropriate than Chatty or Sensible.

Party Goals
Parties are a time for princess politics. Before the party, have everyone come up with
something they want to happen and something they don't want to happen. Assign a clock to
each of these things, and decide on some mechanical consequences. For example, one
princess might want something as straightforward as 'financial support', a four segment
clock which will award the kingdom two Treasure if completed. Another might want a new
research expedition into the nearby wild lands to go ahead, a six segment clock which will
give 1 Treasure and 2 Standing to the kingdom, and also increase relations with the
Scientific Promotion Society. These goals might give a mixture of good and bad, too. Maybe
a hunting expedition into the nearby wild lands will increase Chaos by 4 if it goes ahead, but
also improve relations with the Hunter Guild. That proposed Frontier Kingdom Tax will
reduce Treasure by 1 per session, but give 2 kingdom XP in return. See the Big Picture
Clocks & The Wider World section (pg 138) for more on this topic.

~126~
As for things that the princesses don't want, rival kingdoms competing for the same goals is
always a good source of tension. Maybe the next kingdom over wants that extra funding too,
or they're keen to host that expedition. Princesses might also be opposed to unfriendly
factions gaining power in their kingdom's local area, or to a particular faction deciding to
come give them a thorough inspection. These negative clocks could also be more personal
things; maybe a princess doesn't want her rival to reveal an embarrassing secret, or she's
hopeful that she'll get through the party without having a panic attack.
The GM should decide which factions and kingdoms will be represented at the party, and
what their stance is on each goal. During the party the player princesses can attempt to sway
representatives and other Important People towards or against goals. After the party, the
GM rolls each relevant faction's Tier to see how much each clock shifts:

Fumble: 1 tick added or removed, but the opposite of what was intended.

1-3: 1 tick added or removed.

4/5: 2 ticks added or removed.

6: 3 ticks added or removed.

Crit: 5 ticks added or removed.

These goal clocks can sometimes persist after the party, if they weren't completely filled.
Princesses can continue to try to influence them, and factions will continue their attempts to
fill or empty the clocks during the aftermath phase of future sessions. If a clock is
completely emptied then at the GM's discretion it could be removed entirely. Alternately,
two competing clocks could be created, and the first to be filled removes the other as a
possibility. For example, both the Universal Librarians and Exploration Unlimited want
rights to explore a wild land structure near the kingdom. Whichever one fills their goal clock
first wins the rights.

~127~
Spending Political Capital
Parties are a special time in which the past actions and reputation of a kingdom can be
cashed in. During a party, instead of spending two Weight to push themselves for extra dice
or increased effect, princesses may instead spend one Standing. They may also use social
actions with faction representatives to exchange Standing for Treasure. Pay one Standing
and roll an appropriate aspect against the faction's Tier, with effect modified by your
kingdom's relations with that faction. Before the roll is made, additional Standing may be
paid to increase effect by +1/Standing. Add Treasure to your kingdom's vault based on the
result:

Fumble: No Treasure

1-3: One Treasure

4/5: Two Treasure

6: Three Treasure

Crit: Five Treasure

The maximum Treasure that can be gained by exchanging Standing is equal to the faction's
Tier plus one. (So a Tier 2 faction will give a maximum of three Treasure.)
Princesses don't need to mark off prep points for this Treasure. It's not that the faction reps
are literally handing over bulging sacks of fortunes. The Treasure gained is mostly in the
form of promised support or supplied resources.
Standing may only be exchanged for Treasure once per faction per party.
Example: Stella approaches her patron faction's representative in the hope of receiving some
additional funding. Her kingdom's Tier is 0 and her patron faction's Tier is 3, but relations with
them are at +2, giving the roll limited effect. She pays one Standing to make the roll, and an
additional Standing to increase the action's effect to standard. Rolling Chatty gets her a 3 and a 4.
Her kingdom receives two Treasure. Not as much as she'd hoped for, so Stella looks around the party
for other faction reps who might like to sponsor a keen young inventor...

~128~
Important People
There will probably be a couple of named people attending the party who the princesses
know to be Very Important. They might be faction representatives, famous princesses, or
possibly even particularly notable subjects. Talking to them could result in increased
Standing, Treasure, or other benefits to their kingdom. Of course, there will be others
competing for the Important People's attention, and failing a roll while they're watching
could have disastrous consequences for the princesses and their kingdom...

Rivals
Of course SHE'S there. The Tier of their kingdom or faction will be important here, as it
will affect interactions and contests.

Shocking Secrets & Juicy Gossip

Parties are the perfect place to uncover secrets and gossip that could inspire new adventures,
opportunities, or just revelations about the wider world the princesses live in. If a princess
decides to be curious during a party, they should roll something like Nosy or Chatty or Foxy.
Let the princesses fill in the details of secrets too. Ask leading questions like, "What is
Princess Beka's secret fear?" or "Why isn't Princess Debbie attending tonight?" or "What's
up with the Blueberry Kingdom's border shields?"

Jolly Competitions
What a marvellous opportunity for princesses to show off. Competitions can be a good way
to use escalation as a means of getting not just a success, but a STUNNING success.
The event will be set (running, singing, baking etc) but the approach the princess takes can
be flexible (just because it's a running race doesn't mean she has to roll Sporty). Each
competing princess must decide how far they will escalate their action roll. Trying to figure
out how much a rival princess plans to escalate her action is a splendid opportunity for
investigation during the party. Once the competition starts every princess rolls their action,
and the princess who achieves the highest level of effect wins. (Of course, they might also
suffer consequences in the case of a partial success or lower from a risky or desperate
position.)
In the case of a tied level of effect the higher degree of escalation wins.
If both princesses used the same degree of escalation then the participant who rolled the
most dice wins.

~129~
If they rolled equal numbers of dice then the next-highest facing is used, down the line until
somebody wins.
If it's STILL a tie then there's nothing for it but to declare joint winners; the princesses
were exactly equally matched.
Alternately, competitions could be handled using a progress clock; first to complete their
clock wins.
Winning a competition might come with a prize worth Treasure, or it might award
Standing, or it could even be for a magical item.
Participating in a competition is a good opportunity to test one's skills and it's usually a
learning experience, so any princess participating in a competition may mark one XP in a
trait of their choice, or in Heart.
Example: It's a cooking competition, and Stella is determined to beat her rival, Beka. Being Nosy
reveals that Beka plans to escalate to d10. Not to be outdone, Stella decides to escalate to d12. She
also uses a flashback to say that she spent the previous evening studying cooking techniques,
allowing her to use Bookworm for the cooking action. Will it be enough to defeat Beka? It's down to
the dice...

Wonderful Food And Marvellous Tea

Parties are an opportunity to take a break and enjoy a few small comforts. Remember to
remove Weight and mark XP for eating or drinking something new and delicious, if you
manage to find the time to do so.

Mingling Is Important
Any princess who attends a party may remove one Weight. Of course, parties can also be
very stressful. Many a princess has taken a heart scar at a difficult social event. Often the
cost outweighs the benefit.

Entertainments
Parties often have little entertainments, short plays or songs or dances or demonstrations of
a princess's speciality or fireworks or something else diverting and non-consequential.
Viewing these entertainments takes an action, and generally reduces Weight by one. It's nice
to just sit back and watch, from time to time.

~130~
Party's Over
The length of a party is represented by a progress clock, usually between four to eight
segments. In each segment every attending princess can take one action; talk to someone
(and possibly improve relations or push them towards supporting some clock or another),
eat something delicious, take part in a competition, watch an entertainment, sneak into the
back rooms to have a little poke around, and so on. Helping someone with their action roll
counts as your action, too. Never enough time to do everything, is there, princess?

~131~
 Hosting A Party
Maybe the princesses are set to receive some important visitors, or their patron faction wants
to come and see how things are going, or they've risen a Tier and are expected to put on
their own celebratory event, or maybe they've just got a bunch of Treasure burning a hole in
their vault. In any case there are times when a frontier kingdom has to somehow cobble
together tea and cakes and fairy lights in between dealing with rampaging elementals and
failing shields and dangerously snarky rivals and every flower in the kingdom suddenly
exploding in a shower of tomato soup whenever anyone gets close. Here's how they might
pull it off.

So Many Clocks
When a kingdom is putting together a party start three long term project clocks, each with
four segments; Planning, Refreshments, and Decorations. The Refreshments and
Decorations clocks both carry an additional cost of one Treasure. Filling these clocks require
actions on the part of princesses, usually in their precious free time. For Planning, perhaps a
Sensible or Bossy princess would be helpful. For Refreshments, Chatty or Earthy might be
suitable. For Decorations, Artsy or Stylish seem like good fits. Of course, princesses might
have their own ideas about how to fill those clocks. Subjects might be useful to get them
filled too.
All three party preparation projects must be completed in order to throw a party. If any of
the clocks aren't filled by the time the party begins, it's considered a failure. The
consequences of this are up to the GM but might include a loss of Standing and reduced
relations with the attendants, as well as Weight for the princesses who let everyone down.
If all three party preparation clocks are filled then the princesses have managed to put
together a basic party. The party will last for the length of one action and has a quality of
zero, but it at least meets the minimum standards.
If the princesses want to throw a better party then they're going to have to put in more
work. When a party preparation clock is completed go ahead and start another four segment
clock of the same type, carrying a cost of one Treasure in the case of Refreshments and
Decorations. Each additional Refreshments or Decorations clock that is completed increases
the quality of the party by one. Each additional Planning clock that is completed increases
the duration of the party, from one action, to a two segment clock, then four segments, then
six, then eight, then ten.

~132~
Party Plaza
If your kingdom has the Party Plaza improvement, every party begins with one Planning
and one Decoration clock already filled in. For each additional Party Plaza improvement the
kingdom has, add another filled Planning and Decoration clock. You don't have to pay
Treasure for filled Decoration clocks gained from a Party Plaza.
Party Plazas also count as unused improvement slots for the purposes of parties.

Party Size Limits

The maximum number of Decorations and Refreshments clocks that can be created and
filled is equal to the hosting kingdom's free improvement slots+2. For example, if a kingdom
has a Land of 1 and two improvements, it has two free improvement slots and can have up
to four Decorations and four Refreshments clocks.
The maximum number of effective Planning clocks is equal to the number of filled
Refreshment clocks+2. You can fill more Planning clocks than you can use, but you won't
get any effect from them. For example, a kingdom with Land 1 and one free improvement
slot may host a party with up to three Decorations and Refreshments clocks. If the
kingdom's princesses fill all three Refreshment clocks then they may use up to five Planning
clocks.

Help From Your Friends

If your kingdom is at +1 or better relations with a nearby kingdom, you may ask them for
help setting up the party. This doesn't take an action. Roll with dice equal to your
relationship with that kingdom. For example, if you have +2 relations with them then roll
two dice.
On a failure that kingdom is either too busy to help or just isn't particularly inclined, but
they'll offer some minor resources or a few hours of their precious time; add one tick to a
randomly chosen party preparation clock.
On a partial success they're willing and able to help out. Add one tick to any two of your
party preparation clocks.
On a full success they're happy to help. They will either add three ticks to your clocks or pay
the Treasure cost for a Refreshments or Decorations clock.
On a critical success they're absolutely delighted to help however they can. They will add
five ticks to your clocks and pay the Treasure cost for a Refreshments or Decorations clock.
Each kingdom may only be asked for help once per party.

~133~
Invitations
Princesses must decide who they're going to invite to a party. If you have at least +2 relations
with a kingdom or faction then they'll automatically accept the invitation. The GM may
decide that other kingdoms or factions will also attend, regardless of their relations with
your kingdom (or whether or not you actually want them there).
For every other faction or kingdom you'd like to invite roll your kingdom's Tier against
theirs, modified by relations. If a princess wants to put extra effort into the invitations then
Treasure or Standing may be spent to increase the effective Tier of her kingdom by one per
point spent. For example, if a kingdom's Tier is 1 and one Treasure and one Standing are
spent on invitations, the kingdom's Tier is 3 for the purposes of all invitation rolls for this
party.
On no effect or lower then there's either no reply to your invitation or they send their
apologies; they won't be attending. On limited effect then they might be persuaded to
attend with a successful Reach Out action. On standard effect or higher they would be
delighted to come. On a critical success the invitation is always successful, regardless of
effect, and on a fumble the invitation is always declined.
Example: Stella's kingdom wants to invite the local faction reps and neighbouring kingdoms to a
party they're throwing. They have +2 relations with their patron faction, the Scientific Promotion
Society, and +3 with one of their neighbours, so they'll both definitely be attending, but -1 with
another Tier 1 neighbour and +0 with the Tier 2 controlled lands kingdom they share a border
with. In addition, they're +1 with the Tier 2 Luxury Seekers and at -2 with the Tier 3 Hunter
Guild, which are the other factions with local reps. Stella decides to spend one Standing to increase
the chance of getting some replies to her invitations, effectively increasing her kingdom's Tier from
1 to 2 for the purpose of the invitation rolls she's about to make. With the -1 neighbour she gets a 6,
a surprisingly positive result. They will certainly attend. With the neutral Tier 2 controlled lands
kingdom she rolls a 4. They send their apologies; just too busy. With the Luxury Seekers she gets a 5,
a partial success with limited effect. They might be persuaded to attend if a princess Reaches Out to
them. Finally with the Hunter Guild she manages to roll a 6, but still gets no reply. It would've
taken a critical success or far fancier invitations to convince them to attend.

~134~
Too Many Crowns On The Dance Floor
The maximum number of groups that a party can support is equal to the hosting kingdom's
free improvement slots plus the number of filled Refreshments clocks, multiplied by two.
For example, if a party is taking place in a kingdom with one free improvement slot and they
filled two Refreshments clocks then up to six groups could attend. Of course, you can invite
as many groups as you want, but if too many turn up then there's just not going to be
enough miniature sausage rolls for everyone, and that's terrible. How this plays out is up to
the GM, but a reduction in the party's quality would seem like a good start.

Events & Contests

Parties hosted by player princesses have a length determined by the number of Planning
clocks filled, as detailed above. The princesses planning the party are free to include events
and such, deciding what will take place in which segment. It's up to the GM and princesses
to agree on any mechanical effects from these events, if any. If there isn't a set event during a
segment then princesses can do what they like as per a normal party. Enjoy some of the
refreshments they prepared, talk to the Important People they invited, get the latest Juicy
Gossip and Shocking Secrets, attempt to sway factions one way or the other.
Contests take up two party segments, with at least one free segment before and after (so if
your party doesn't have at least four segments then forget it, no time for competitions). They
cost one Treasure to put on, plus any prizes the princesses want to award. Including a contest
in a party increases its quality by one and awards Standing to the hosting kingdom
equivalent to the Treasure value of the contest's prizes. Princesses from the hosting kingdom
may participate in the contest. It's all in the spirit of good clean fun and jolly competition,
after all, and I'm sure they wouldn't dream of tilting things in their own favour. Would they.

Guest Arrival
Not everyone arrives at a party on time. Sometimes they don't show up at all. For each
group attending a party whose attendance is not assured, roll fortune. On a 1-3 they aren't
there when the party begins. During each segment of the party (including the first) roll
fortune for each missing group. On a 4-6 they arrive. If the party ends before that group
arrives they send their apologies; something came up and they weren't able to attend, but
they're sure it was lovely.

~135~
Playing Host
As the hosts of the party, you can spend your action during a segment making sure your
guests are comfortable and having a good time. Roll an action using an appropriate aspect.
Generally this action will be from a controlled position with standard effect, but the GM
may rule that scale, a large difference in Tier, multiple groups with negative relations to your
kingdom attending the party, or other factors may influence things.
On a fumble you've made a faux pas or otherwise mucked things up; reduce the party's
quality by one.
On a failure you haven't done any permanent damage, but neither have you improved things
for anyone.
On a partial success you've done an adequate job of making sure everyone's having a good
time; add increased effect to the party's impression roll.
On a full success you've done a great job making your guests comfortable and enhancing
their party experience; increase the party's quality by one for the purposes of impressions.
On a critical success you've performed faultlessly. Even your rivals can't deny being
impressed. Increase the party's quality by one, and also add one tick to the relations clocks of
everyone present.
The hosting princesses may only play host once per segment, but it can be a group action, or
one princess can set up another's action. The effects of playing host stack, so for example if
the player princesses play host during three segments of a party, achieving two partial
successes and one full success, then they'd improve the party's quality by one for the
impressions roll, and increase the level of effect by two levels.
If the princesses don't spend any segments playing host, the GM may rule that the party's
quality suffers as a consequence.

~136~
Good Impressions
After the party ends, make an impressions roll. For each group that attended the party—
kingdoms and factions, most commonly—roll dice equal to the party's quality against their
Tier. Relations do not influence this roll. Based on the effect achieved add ticks to that
group's six segment relations clock. At standard effect (quality equal to Tier):
Fumble: No ticks | 1-3: One tick | 4/5: Two ticks | 6: Three ticks | Crit: Five ticks
If a relations clock is filled, reset it to zero and improve relations with that faction or
kingdom by one. The princesses' actions during or after the party could also add ticks to
these clocks. (Or remove them.)
Example: A group of princesses have worked hard and managed to put together a party with a
quality of two. Their patron, the Hunter Guild (Tier 3), sent a representative, and their
neighbouring kingdoms attended too (both Tier 1). After the party has come to an end, with the
inexperienced monster hunter-focused princesses never managing to get more than a failure result
on their hosting, the impressions roll is made. For the Hunter Guild (Tier 3 versus the party's
quality of 2) the princesses roll two dice with limited effect, getting a four and one. For a partial
success at limited effect only a single tick is added to the Hunter Guild relations clock. For the first
neighbour the princesses roll a two and a five, another partial success, but with great effect thanks
to the party's quality. Three ticks are added to that kingdom's relations clock. For the second
neighbour the princesses roll a one and a three, a failure. However, because of the great effect two
ticks are still added to their relations clock.

Don't Forget The Colour

Aside from filling in clocks and paying Treasure and such, remember to spend some time
discussing the party. What food are you serving, what do the decorations look like, where in
your kingdom are you setting it up, how are your subjects going to be involved? Is there a
theme for the party? What time of day will it take place? Will there be fireworks? Parties
can be a time for princesses to express themselves and relax just a little. Remember to have
fun with them!

Party Favours
Putting on a successful party awards Standing and kingdom XP equal to the quality of the
party, and an additional Standing and kingdom XP for each faction that attended.
Every princess who helped to set up the party marks two XP, either in traits or in Heart.

~137~
 Big Picture Clocks & The Wider World
There's a whole world out there, beyond the little stretch of frontier where the player
princesses have their kingdom. The factions play their games, individuals push their agendas,
and the terribly polite politics of princess society influence everything.
One thing to keep in mind is that big picture clocks don't necessarily affect the entirety of
Princess World, but they definitely affect the area the player princesses are operating in. If a
faction increases its Tier, it's increasing its influence within this region. If the founding of
new kingdoms or entrance into the wild lands is blocked, it's only in this area.

Tick Tick Tick

Big picture clocks can generally only be influenced by factions. It's not likely that a frontier
princess's actions will ever have any direct effect on such huge and important matters.
However, that's not to say that they're powerless. Reaching Out in particular can be used to
sway factions one way or the other. Details of how this works can be found in the PW:FK
Core rulebook, in the Free Time section.
Big picture clocks can be included from the beginning of the campaign, or introduced
gradually as the wider world has a growing impact on this one little frontier kingdom. The
first party the player princesses attend is a good place to introduce big picture clocks.
There's no ideal number of big picture clocks to have running at once. I'll generally have
between three and eight at any one time, with new ones popping up as clocks are completed
or destroyed. If a new faction comes into the campaign I'll usually give them a couple of
clocks to get them started and serve as an introduction to what they're interested in.
Getting everyone involved can make big picture clocks more fun, with each player taking a
faction or two and rolling for them as you go through the clocks. Exploring what's actually
happening with all these rolls can be engaging too. What happened to give the Sparkle
Union that big full success? What kind of breakdown was there, in the Noble Traders, for
them to roll a miss like that?
Alternately, maybe you don't want to include big picture clocks at all. That's completely fine.
Things are happening elsewhere in this Princess World, big things, important things, but
you're too far removed to be touched, out here on the border.

~138~
Support & Opposition
When a big picture clock is created the GM will decide which factions are supporting it,
and which are opposing it. As a general rule, a faction can be supporting or opposing a
number of clocks equal to its Tier. For example, Exploration Unlimited are a Tier 2 faction
and so could support two clocks, or oppose two clocks, or support one and oppose another.
At the end of each session the GM should roll for all concerned factions, using a number of
dice equal to their Tier, and add or remove ticks according to the results:

Fumble: 1 tick added or removed, but the opposite of what was intended.

1-3: 1 tick added or removed.

4/5: 2 ticks added or removed.

6: 3 ticks added or removed.

Crit: 5 ticks added or removed.

Roll for factions supporting a big picture clock before rolling for those opposing it. If a clock
gets filled before the opposing factions have their turn then they're too late, it's been pushed
over the line and completed.

One Tiny Push

If a princess has successfully influenced a faction during the session, most likely via a Reach
Out action, that faction's position will be changed by one level. If opposed or supporting,
they will instead be neutral and not roll this time. If they were neutral then the princess has
pushed them into rolling to oppose or support the big picture clock. If the princess achieved
a great or higher level of success on her action then the faction's change in position will be
permanent going forward, otherwise it will return to its previous stance after this one roll.

Stalemate
The GM should keep in mind that, generally speaking, if a clock has an equal number of
factions supporting and opposing it, the clock will probably be stuck going back and forth
for multiple sessions, and maybe the entire campaign. This might be what you want—if the
player princesses want the clock filled, or would like to see it removed as a threat, they're
going to have to act—but if you'd like a clock to eventually be filled make sure to have more
factions in favour than opposed. Even if one of them is a relatively low tier faction, like the
Sparkle Union or the Luxury Seekers, they could get a lucky full success that pushes the
thing over the line.

~139~
Creating New Big Picture Clocks
The creation of a new big picture clock is not a small thing; it involves a faction committing
time, resources, and political capital, none of which are lightly spent. It's up to the GM to
decide when new big picture clocks come into existence. Parties are a good place to
introduce them, but they can come up during kingdom affairs too, or just be introduced
when the existing big picture clocks are being rolled for. There's a table of big picture clocks
in this section that can be rolled on, or just used for inspiration.
As for how many segments a big picture clock should have, think about the magnitude of
what is being attempted, as well as the strengths of the faction involved. The Sparkle Union
attempting to increase its Tier in the region is a big thing, requiring a lot of effort from a lot
of people, and so would require perhaps an eight or ten segment clock. The Scientific
Promotion Society completing a new study into wild lands phenomenon would likely only
require a four or six segment clock, but if it's the Luxury Seekers doing it then it'll probably
be eight segments at least—just not something that's in their wheelhouse, and they're a
notoriously lazy faction. The Strongwall Group are experts at blocking things, the Kingdom
Defenders and the Guidance Collective often tour frontier kingdoms, the Hunter Guild and
Exploration Unlimited are good at organising hunts and excursions and expeditions.

Player Princess & New Big Picture Clocks

Although a player princess can't create a big picture clock on her own, it's certainly possible
to push things in a certain direction. If a player princess is interested in trying to get a new
big picture clock started, they should describe the big picture goal they'd like to happen and
name the faction they're trying to influence into making it happen. The GM should start a
long term project clock, which can be filled via princesses performing (most likely) social
actions against the Tier of whatever faction they're attempting to push into creating this
new big picture clock.
Once the project clock is filled, the GM creates the new big picture clock that the princesses
were pushing for. The faction that created it will be in favour of filling it, but it's up to the
GM as to what the other factions think about it. Creating a big picture clock is just the
beginning of the battle.

Destroying Big Picture Clocks

Sometimes an idea just can't gather support, or is ground into nothing by relentless
opposition. If a big picture clock has no ticks, and an opposing faction achieves a full success
or better against it, the clock is destroyed.

~140~
 Random Faction Goals (1d20 + 1d4)
1 2 3 4

1 Tax: -2 Treasure/session Tax: -1 Treasure/session

Tax: -2 Treasure when any core is

Tax: -1 Treasure when any Tax: -1 Treasure when a relic or Tax: -2 Treasure when hosting a
2 sold (monster lair, treasure
Treasure is found artefact is found party
palace, etc)

Tax: -1 Treasure for each new Tax: -1 Treasure for each new Tax: -2 Treasure for each new Tax: -1 Treasure when any long
3
improvement built subject group boon term project is completed

One-Off Tax: 1 Treasure for each One-Off Tax: 1 Treasure for each One-Off Tax: 1 Treasure for each
4 One-Off Tax: 1d4 Treasure
two improvements subject group boon

One-Off Tax: 1 Treasure for each One-Off Tax: 2 Treasure for each One-Off Tax: 1 Treasure for each One-Off Tax: 3 Treasure for each
5
2 Chaos Wild 4 Treasure Tier

6 Expedition: Someone wants to use a frontier kingdom as the base for an extended expedition into the wild lands

7 Hunt: Someone wants to hunt something in the wild lands, and needs to pass through a frontier kingdom to do so

8 Excursion: Someone wants to investigate something in the wild lands, and needs to pass through a frontier kingdom to do so

9 Study: Someone is trying to complete a study

10 Petition: Someone is trying to gain support for something

11 Tour: Someone wants to visit frontier kingdoms to check something or for a specific reason

12 Funding: Someone is pushing for increased funding in a specific area

13
Revoke: End an existing block, tax, funding, or other ongoing thing
14

15 Block: No new taxes Block: No new funding Block: No entry to the wild lands Block: No kingdom expansion

16 Block: No new improvements Block: No new subjects Block: No new boons Block: No new kingdoms

17
Power Grab: Tier advance for a faction
18

19
New Frontier Kingdom: Someone is pushing for a new kingdom to be founded
20

Tax/Funding Benefits (1d6 + 1d6)

1 2 3 4 5 6

1 No direct benefit to frontier kingdoms

+1 Standing & +1 +2 Standing & +2

2 +1 Standing +1 Kingdom XP +2 Standing +2 Kingdom XP
Kingdom XP Kingdom XP

No Treasure cost for +1 Treasure per XP -1 Treasure cost for all 1/2 Treasure cost
+1 Treasure/Tier of -3 Treasure cost for
3 first Decorations & earned for the Land expansion (rounding up) for Tier
monsters defeated Shield upgrades
Refreshments clocks kingdom's focus projects increase

+1 XP when Training +1d & +effect on

+1d & +effect on +1d & +effect on +1 Standing on +2 Standing on
4 in a specific trait, or Borrow Something
Calm The Wilds Reach Out princess advance kingdom advance
Heart Special

-1 Tick on Elementals +4 Treasure if a +1 Treasure if a

+1 Tick on one
5 -1 Chaos & Monsters relations princess takes a heart princess suffers level Clear 1 Weight
relations clock
clock scar 2 or higher Harm

+1 Treasure when a 1 Treasure paid on all 1 Treasure paid on all 1 Treasure paid on all +2 Treasure paid
6 +1 Treasure
report is submitted research projects construction projects social projects when hosting a party

~141~
 Taxes
For a 'Tax' the Treasure cost must be paid either once per session or whenever the condition
is triggered. For a 'One-Off Tax' the Treasure must be paid just once, when the big picture
clock is filled. The GM can decide on what (if any) benefits the tax might bring to the
kingdom, or roll on the Tax/Funding Benefits table. If a tax can't (or won't) be paid then
there will be consequences.
If it's a Tax then the benefit will be ongoing, at least until such time as the tax is revoked.
If it's a One-Off Tax the benefit applies only once, but might be multiplied by a factor of
two or even more. If a trigger is involved then the princesses have until the end of the next
session to fulfil the condition and receive the benefit.

Tour
These are often inspections, of a sort. Maybe the Guidance Collective are making sure
everyone's behaving and not mistreating fairies, maybe the Noble Traders are making sure
everyone's paying their taxes and doing their accounts properly, maybe the Hunter Guild are
asking about any big monsters you might have spotted out in the nearby wild lands, maybe
the Royal Architects are inspecting improvements and castles for defects and flaws. The
princesses will have advance warning of a tour, with maybe a session or two to get things in
order before the faction representative makes their visit. Failing to be up to standard might
incur a cost in Treasure, a loss of Standing or relations, or require free time actions to fix. On
the other hand meeting or exceeding expectations might add ticks to a relations clock, award
Standing, or have other benefits.

Funding
Similar to a tax, but without frontier kingdoms having to contribute any Treasure. The GM
decides what is being funded, or can roll on or pick from the Tax/Funding Benefits table.
Generally funding will be ongoing, but might be for a limited period, for example a four
segment clock that gets ticked at the end of each session. When it's filled, the funding ends.
Funding also might consist of a one-off grant, and a princess will need to both fulfil the
conditions and successfully Reach Out in order to apply for it. Funding can also be ended by
a revoke clock.

Revoke
When this big picture clock is filled an existing block, tax, or source of funding is stopped
and no longer has any effect. There could also be a revoke clock for an expedition, tour,
study, even the founding of a new frontier kingdom.

~142~
 Expedition
Expeditions are extended forays into the wild lands, often lasting for an eight or ten
segment clock. To the kingdom hosting their base camp they might award Standing,
increased relations with the faction, and possibly Treasure or kingdom XP or other rewards.
They take up improvement slots while they're ongoing, at least one and possibly more, so a
kingdom without enough Land won't be in the running to host one. They might also
increase Chaos, add ticks to the Monsters & Elementals relations clock, reduce relations
with a faction opposed to the expedition, bring trouble to the kingdom's doorstep, or have
other negative effects.
Often a frontier kingdom will be targeted by an expedition big picture clock. It might be the
player kingdom, or one of their neighbours. Events and actions might change which
kingdom is favoured for the expedition, including the player princesses Reaching Out.

Hunt/Excursion
Hunts and excursions are shorter than expeditions, generally taking place within the
timeframe of a session or two. They don't usually set up camp within a frontier kingdom, but
rather just pass through on the way to whatever they're hunting or investigating within the
wild lands; using the teleportation circle, enjoying a meal and a cup of tea before setting out,
perhaps borrowing a few things or some useful-looking subjects for the trip. In any case
whatever space they take up in the kingdom doesn't require an empty improvement slot.
Hunts and excursions usually increase Chaos in the area, and might add ticks to the
Monsters & Elementals relations clock, but could increase relations or have other rewards. It
might also be that the player princesses want to go along for the trip, in which case it'll likely
be a kingdom affair, or take free time actions.

Block
If this clock is filled a block is placed upon the named activity. If princesses want to engage
in the activity they're either going to have to deal with a lot of red tape or a degree of
subterfuge.
While a block is in place any big picture clocks related to the blocked activity are frozen.
They aren't rolled for, and ticks cannot be added or removed.
When a block is put in place it might be for a set period, or a 'revoke' clock might be started
in an attempt to end the block. It might be up to the player princesses to get that revoke
clock started and filled, if the block is messing with their biz.

~143~
 Study
This clock is for a study to be completed and the results published. These are usually big
clocks, at least eight segments, but generally unopposed. The effects of a study clock being
filled will vary depending on what the study was about. It will usually take a free time action
for a princess to read a study in the depth required to gain a benefit from it. If the study was
into a specific area, for example divination magic, party decorations, or border shields, then it
might give increased effect or extra dice on actions involving that thing. If the study
concerned a wild lands phenomenon, monster, or elementals, then it might reveal something
interesting in the nearby wild lands, or give bonuses against it. Studies can also be more
general, giving abstract resources that can be spent during affairs or on free time actions to
give a bonus. If a study is into 'the wild lands' then a princess who spent a free time action
reading the study could roll an aspect like Bookworm, gaining hold depending on the result
(one hold for a miss, two for a partial, three for a success, five for a crit). This hold could be
spent to gain an answer to a question about the wild lands, and if the answer is applicable it
could give increased effect or even a bonus dice on an action.

Petition
Petitions are generally in support of something happening, whether it be fewer forays into
the wild lands, more parties, or an increase in a faction's power or responsibilities. If a
petition clock is filled then the petition is a success; it has made an impact, general opinion
has turned in favour of whatever the petition is about, and princesses making any rolls
(especially on Reach Out actions) that go along with the petition would probably enjoy
increased effect and maybe even an extra dice. On the other hand, going against a successful
position would likely weaken effect and might worsen a princess's position. Even Reaching
Out can be a risky action, if it goes against the 'common sense' of the times.
Successful petitions might also give increased or decreased effect on faction rolls. For
example, if a petition for more taxes is successful then any factions rolling to support a tax
clock would gain increased effect. If a petition against expansion is successful then any
factions rolling to support the founding of a new kingdom would have decreased effect.
The effect of petitions is always temporary. Either make a clock and tick a segment each
session, removing the petition's effects once it's filled, or roll fortune at the end of each
session; on a 1, the petition no longer has any effect.

~144~
 Power Grab
When this clock is created the GM will name a faction. If this clock is filled, the named
faction will advance in Tier. Generally this will be at least an eight segment clock, with a lot
of opposition.

New Frontier Kingdom

The patron faction might be decided by the GM, or it could be that several factions are
bidding on the rights. In that case start a new big picture clock for each interested faction,
with supporting and opposing factions represented as normal. Whichever faction fills their
clock first wins the right to found a kingdom.
The player princesses might be asked to help establish this new kingdom; building the
border shields, helping to capture a building in the wild lands for the castle or their first
improvement, putting on a party to welcome the new princesses to the neighbourhood, and
so on.
New kingdoms begin with a Tier of 0 and often have a lot of problems that the player
princesses, with their more established kingdom, might be able to help with.

~145~
Optional Variant: Intricate Politics
With this variant each faction gets a pool of dice equal to its Tier. They can commit these
dice to supporting or opposing big picture clocks. This variant works particularly well if
every player takes the role of a faction, with negotiations being a part of the process. Go
down the list of clocks ('the agenda') one by one, discussing them, making deals, promising
support or opposition or neutrality on clocks further down the list, and so on. Each clock
should be rolled for in turn, starting with the one at the top of the list.
Before anyone rolls for a clock, everyone should declare how many dice they're committing
and whether they're supporting or opposing. After that, everyone supporting the clock rolls
to add ticks, then those opposing roll to remove ticks, as normal.

Intricate Politics & New Clocks

If the GM allows it, a player can use dice from their pool to create a new clock. It's up to the
GM to decide how many dice must be given up to create the new clock, and whether the
clock can be created at all. It might feel appropriate for the player to roll fortune to see how
close the clock comes to their ideals, or the GM might allow them to ante any number of
dice from their pool and roll those; on a full success the clock is created just as they wanted,
on a fail result perhaps it has many segments or just can't be created at this time.
The GM can also add new clocks as normal, either rolling randomly or just deciding that a
new clock is being added to the agenda.
New clocks, whether created by a player or the GM, are always added to the end of the list.

Intricate Politics & Reaching Out

If a player princess successfully Reaches Out to a faction, to push them into supporting or
opposing (or remaining neutral on) a certain clock, then that faction must follow the wishes
of that princess for this turn.
If the princess pushed for support or opposition then the faction must reserve at least one
dice for that clock, and take the stance the princess pushed for. If the princess achieved great
effect on her action then the faction gains +1d when rolling for that clock.
If the princess pushed the faction into a neutral position then that faction may not roll dice
on that clock this turn. If the princess achieved great effect on her action then the faction
adds one dice to its pool for this turn.
When using this variant it is not possible for a princess to permanently alter a faction's
position.

~146~
 Tournaments
Princesses tend to be on the competitive side, because with great power comes the great urge
to test yourself against others who are similarly (but ideally just a teensy bit less) powerful.
Since straight up princess-against-princess combat inevitably escalates into melodramatic
battles with catastrophic fallout and heart scars all around, the factions of Princess World
came up with the idea of tournaments. Officially sanctioned fights within a tournament
structure, with magical shields to prevent anyone getting hurt and lovely ceremonies and
nice food and comfortable seating for those watching.

Structure
Tournament fights are usually one-on-one, but could be team-vs-team or even kingdom-vs-
kingdom. These rules are focused on one-on-one fights, so will probably have to be adjusted
a little for brawls. Tournaments most often follow a standard bracket structure, initial heats
leading to quarter- and semi-finals which in turn yield the dramatic finale, the two final
princesses (or teams or kingdoms or whatever) facing off to determine the ultimate
champion. How the initial heats are filled is up to the GM to decide. It might be random, or
you might match rival against rival or even friend against friend. It's probably a good idea to
match player princesses against NPC princesses, at least initially. Who knows how this thing
is going to go, though.
How common tournaments are is up to the GM and princesses to decide together. It could
be the focus your campaign, a major sub-plot, just a one-off diversion, or you could ignore
tournaments completely.

Opposing Princesses
Player princesses get a lot of advantages in this game. They're powerful individuals often
rolling with multiple dice and extravagant levels of effect. However, in a tournament they're
up against other princesses. Equally powerful, just as extravagant. NPC princesses can either
have their own special abilities, or the GM can assign them a combat quality. For a princess
who's more of a social or tech support type, maybe a combat quality of 0 is suitable. For a
princess who's clearly a fighting force to be reckoned with a combat quality of two or three
might be appropriate. Add the princess's combat quality to any rolls she makes during a
tournament fight, as both extra dice and increased effect. It's a good idea to note down the
NPC princesses' aspects too. If you need a measure, just think of how many dice your player
princesses usually roll in fighty situations. If your fightiest player princess is usually rolling

~147~
five or six dice in combat, give a fighty NPC princess a Tough of 3 and a combat quality of 2
or 3. If your social player princess most often only musters one or two dice in a fight, give
that NPC social princess a Graceful of 2 and a combat quality of zero. Keep in mind that
combat quality increases both the number of dice rolled and effect, so it's more powerful
than aspects alone.

Tier VS Tier
Although fights are personal princess-to-princess matters, their kingdom's Tier might be a
factor. It's up to the GM to decide.

Aspect VS Aspect
Princesses are free to use whatever aspects they want in their actions during a tournament.
Fitness aspects such as Tough, Sporty and Graceful will likely be the most common, but
others could also be used. It's up to the GM to decide how effective a princess's approach is.

NPC VS NPC
You can play out every fight if you want to, or you could just make a roll for each pair of
NPC princesses, highest level of success wins. If they achieve equal levels of success then the
one who rolled the most dice wins. If it's still a draw compare the next highest dice of each
princess until one wins. If it's still a draw after that either roll fortune or reroll the whole
thing.

Prep Points In Tournaments

It's up to the GM as to whether or not prep points will be allowed during a tournament.
Since NPCs don't get prep points they give a significant advantage to player princesses.

XP In Tournaments
Action rolls while in a tournament fight give no XP. However, princesses get one XP for
entering the tournament and an additional XP for every fight they win. See Tournament
Rewards for details.

Princess Weapons In Tournaments

Everyone's using their weapon, presumably, so it all sort of cancels out. There is no increased
effect for using a princess weapon in a tournament fight, but potency could potentially apply.
If a princess isn't using her weapon then she'll probably suffer reduced effect.

~148~
Magic Shields In Tournaments
Nobody actually wants to see a princess get seriously hurt in a tournament. On the other
hand it'd be boring if everyone involved had to pull their punches and show anything less
than the spectacular display of over the top princessitude that they're capable of expressing.
Therefore special magic shields are used during tournaments. Each participating princess
receives temporary shielding that can absorb a certain level of punishment before failing.
This could be an amulet or other piece of jewellery (that shatters dramatically when
overcome, naturally), glowing auras that surround them, actual physical armour, three
separate tiaras, or anything else the GM and princesses agree is fun and fitting.
In any case, tournament shields have three layers; limited, standard, and great. The first layer
is easily overcome, shattered by even a limited level of effect. The next is overcome by a
standard level of effect or greater. The final shield is much tougher, requiring a great level of
effect or higher to be destroyed. Once this final layer is gone that princess is considered
defeated and her opponent the victor.
Losing shield layers isn't harm, and comes with no negative mechanical effects. Just an
escalating sense of tension as defeat grows materially closer.
Only one shield layer can be lost each round, and they're always lost in order; limited,
standard, then finally great.

I Don't THINK So
Player princesses have the narrative ability to resist consequences they don't like. Does this
include losing a layer of shield? That's up to the GM to decide. Tournaments could be a case
where having this level of narrative control might be too much of an advantage. You might
want to disallow it, or have resisting losing a layer of shield also require a Hard Choice to be
made.

Hey, That Actually Hurt!

Princesses might take harm if they're the target of a critical success or excessive levels of
effect. It's up to the GM to decide this, and whether or not it disqualifies the attacking
princess. Control is an important quality for a princess, after all. On the other hand, do we
really want to see these young princesses holding back? They'll soon recover from any little
nicks or scratches they take. Let them have their fun.

~149~
Tournament Fights
Princess vs princess fights are determined by contested action rolls. In every turn each
princess decides the aspect she's using, as well as special abilities, levels of escalation, and
how much she's willing to push herself.
There's also one special choice with a tournament roll; whether the princess is being careful
or reckless.
If a princess is careful then she's focusing on a balance between attack and defence. She's
exploiting opportunities when she sees them but trying not to leave herself open.
If a princess is reckless then she's disregarding her own defence in favour of an all-out
attack. Her own safety and shields aren't a concern. Her priority is taking down her
opponent's shield no matter what.
The outcome of each contested action roll depends on what position each princess is taking.
If a princess is careful then her opponent's level of effect is subtracted from hers. If the
remaining effect is high enough to overcome her opponent's current layer of shields then it
is shattered.
If a princess is reckless then directly check her level of effect against her opponent's current
shield layer. If an equal or higher level of effect is achieved then that layer is shattered. This
could mean both princesses lose a layer of shield, which could potentially mean a draw. See
Time Limits And Technicalities for a few suggestions on dealing with this situation.
If one princess is reckless but the other is careful then the careful princess might be able to
punish her opponent's lack of defence, if she can keep calm and withstand this brutal assault.
If the careful princess rolled at least a partial success then she is considered to have a limited
level of effect, even if her level of effect would have been reduced to no effect by other
factors. If she wishes, she may increase this level of effect to standard by marking two
Weight, or to great by marking four Weight.
Rolling a miss in a tournament fight always has no effect, regardless of other factors.

~150~
Positioning In Tournaments
Princesses begin in a controlled position at the start of a fight, but being reckless increases
that position first to risky, and then desperate. Being careful reduces the danger of your
position from desperate to risky, or risky to controlled. If you're already in a desperate
position then being reckless doesn't worsen your position, but it does give your opponent an
additional level of effect. If you're in a controlled position then being careful just maintains
that position. Position changes occur after the current action.
Acting from a risky position gives your opponent an extra level of effect. Acting from a
desperate position gives your opponent two extra levels of effect. Of course this works the
other way too; if your opponent is risky you get an extra level of effect and if they're
desperate you get two extra levels of effect. If you're both in a desperate position then you
both get two extra levels of effect. Matches between two reckless princesses tend to be
resolved quickly.
Princesses can choose to trade position for effect to gain an extra level of effect. In this case
your opponent gains effect from your current position, not the position you're trading up to.
For example, if you're in a risky position and you trade up to desperate your opponent will
only get one extra level of effect from the risky position you were in, not two extra levels of
effect from the desperate position you're trading to. From the next round of this fight you'll
be in a desperate position, and your opponent will gain two levels of effect.
If you trade position for effect then being careful will not reduce the danger of your position
after this action, it just prevents it from going even higher. For example, if you're careful and
trade from controlled to risky, then in the next round you will be in a risky position. If you
were reckless rather than careful, you will be in a desperate position in the next round (risky
from trading position for effect, desperate because of your reckless approach).
If a princess is in or trades up to a desperate position and chooses to be reckless, her
opponent gains an extra level of effect; +3 effect rather than the usual +2 effect for desperate.

~151~
Time Limits And Technicalities
Princess battles have the potential to drag on, so having a time limit will put pressure on the
princesses and keep tension high. Three or four actions makes for snappy fights, but don't
leave much room for tactical play or escalating back-and-forths. Increasing it to five actions
or more opens it up a bit, in exchange for longer individual battles.
In any case once the time limit is up the princess with the most layers of shields remaining is
the winner. If both princesses have the same shields then you can take it to the judges and
compare their final rolls. Level of effect, level of escalation, and number of dice rolled should
all be considered as factors. As a general rule, effect beats escalation which beats number of
dice. Alternately (or if you really can't make a call by comparing rolls) you can go into
overtime; one final action to determine who wins. If both princesses still have the same
layers of shields after this then, again, you could compare and judge their rolls, go into
another round of overtime, judge it a draw and deal with how THAT plays out, or roll a
fortune dice for each princess to see which of them won on some obscure technicality.

Tournaments & Heart Scars

Taking a heart scar during the pressure and stress of a tournament is definitely a possibility,
but how is everyone going to react? Does it disqualify the princess who took the scar? After
all, it's not something that anyone wants to encourage. It's not usually anything that anyone
really wants to even think about. Having it occur so publicly, so dramatically ... well, that's
likely to cause a stir. Or maybe it doesn't. Maybe everyone just sort of pretends it didn't
happen. Let's all smile because everything is fine. What a jolly tournament this is—and
what a stirring life these lucky young princesses lead, out on the frontier! More tea?

Tournament Rewards
Every princess who competes in a tournament gets a bonus XP at the end of the session.
They get another XP and one Standing for every fight they won. Prizes for winning fights
or reaching the finals are up to the GM to decide, but Treasure is always welcome. There
could also be a special item or privilege for the ultimate winner of the tournament.
If faction representatives are attending then the actions of princesses during the tournament
could also increase or decrease relations. This will depend on the faction. For example, the
Hunter Guild might be impressed by determination, good solid fighting, and of course
winners. On the other hand the Guidance Collective would probably be more impressed by
examples of nobility under stress and good sportsmanship.

~152~
 Example: Attending A Party
The player princesses are SynSofia Breeze the Coordination Princess, Hika Hika Pumpkin
the Lantern Princess, Pi "Pipi" Pi the Potato Princess, and Candy Explosion the Danger
Princess. Their kingdom of ShadowMint has been sponsored by the Universal Librarians,
with a focus on Magic Research. The librarians sponsored their kingdom because they need
a hub in the area, which is largely Hunter Guild territory but with occasional rogue library
activity. None of the player princesses had any affiliation with the Universal Librarians prior
to this; Candy, Pipi, and Hika were all recruited by their former Princess Academy teacher,
Mallory Mallory the Plant Princess, who also serves as their faction representative. SynSofia
Breeze was Mallory's underclassmen, specialised in apparel evocation, and was previously
working for the Noble Traders as a desk clerk. She was recruited for ShadowMint as a
manager, expected to organise the younger princesses and provide some sort of leadership.
The ShadowMints are attending a party thrown by their controlled lands neighbours, the
Hunter Guild-sponsored kingdom of Rawhide. It's being put on to welcome all the new
princesses to the area; not just the ShadowMint princesses, but their Hunter Guild-
sponsored neighbours from the Rough & Wild kingdom, and their Guidance Collective-
sponsored neighbours from the PeaceStar kingdom. Also attending will be faction
representatives from the Hunter Guild, the Guidance Collective, and the Universal
Librarians. Representing the Hunter Guild is Slab Redbrick, the Punch Princess,
representing the Guidance Collective is Granny Poppy, the Knitting Princess, and
representing the Universal Librarians is Mallory Mallory, the Plant Princess.
For potential big picture clocks, the players decide on the following:
Name Segments For Against Effect

The Big Hunt 6 Hunter Guild Universal Librarians +5 Chaos, +1 relations Hunter Guild

Lantern Funding 4 No Treasure cost for lantern projects

Obstacle Course New kingdom improvement: Improved Fitness

4
Funding Training

The Big Fight 6 Hunter Guild Fighting tournament is held

The party will be eight segments long, with a competition taking up the sixth and seventh
segments. One of the Rawhide princesses is Horseshoe Wilds, the Cattle Princess, and she's
putting on a cow race.

~153~
First Segment
The ShadowMint princesses arrive at the party and are greeted by the Rawhide princesses;
Sausage, the Sausage Princess, Horseshoe Wilds, the Cattle Princess, and Bullet Mont
Blanc, the Pistol Princess.
Candy Explosion, Pipi, and Hika Hika Pumpkin all eat sausages prepared by Sausage, and
clear one Weight.
SynSofia Breeze talks to the hosts to try to make a good impression. This is a social roll
using Stylish—not the best aspect to use with these practical Monster Hunter princesses,
and with their higher tier and the -1 relations that ShadowMint has with Rawhide, the roll
will be at no effect from a controlled position. SynSofia decides to trade position for effect,
giving the action limited effect from a risky position. She's pushing things a bit and showing
off a little, a bold move but one that pays off, as she rolls a 6. One tick is added to the
Rawhide relations clock.

Second Segment
The PeaceStar princesses arrive; Hope and Truth Weathervane, the Tiny and Giant
princesses.
SynSofia Breeze takes the opportunity to eat some sausages, clearing one Weight.
Candy Explosion also eats more sausages, gaining no mechanical benefit but also avoiding
awkward social contact with anyone.
Pipi talks to the PeaceStar princesses, using Chatty, with Hika marking one weight to help
on the roll. ShadowMint is at +1 relations with PeaceStar, and Pipi is sharing some of her
delicious homemade potato chips with them, so the roll will have great effect from a
controlled position. Pipi rolls a partial success, so three ticks are added to the PeaceStar
relations clock. The Tiny and Giant princesses love Hika, who is a teeny-weeny, and Pipi,
who is an amazing giant girl.

Third Segment
The Rough & Wild princesses arrive; Azure HeartDrop the Slime Princess, Mana
Silverspine the Dragon Princess, Peko PekoPeko the Manga Meat Princess, and Lilac
Appleby the Leaf Princess. This is the first time the ShadowMint princesses have met the
Rough & Wild princesses, and they're being set up as a sort of 'rivals' situation, so the GM
decides to roll fortune for each of them to see how they react to their opposite number.
Azure HeartDrop rolls a 1 for her reaction to Hika; instant trouble there. Mana rolls a 3 for
Candy, so her reaction is neutral. She doesn't notice Candy, yet. Peko rolls a 4 for Pipi. They

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have a mutual appreciation for food, which could form the basis of a good relationship. Lilac
rolls a 5 for SynSofia. Being the de facto leaders of their respective groups, these two have
some sort of tentative fellow feeling towards one another.
Because the Rough & Wild princesses are introduced as rivals to the ShadowMints, the
GM creates a special ten segment 'First Impressions' clock with five segments filled. Positive
interactions will fill the clock, negative interactions will empty it. If it fills then relations
improve; if it empties then relations will sour.
Hika marks a prep point to have a lantern to show off, and uses Tinker to try to get along
with Azure HeartDrop the Slime Princess. Due to poor relations and Rough & Wild being
a higher Tier kingdom she's at no effect from a controlled position, so she trades position to
risky for limited effect. Unfortunately the highest she rolls is a three, a failure. Azure is
rather spiteful and mean and throws shade at Hika's lantern. Relations drop by one and
Hika takes the level 1 harm 'hurt feelings'. She chooses to resist the harm, but unfortunately
has no points in social aspects. She rolls a two as her highest and so takes four Weight.
Candy Explosion decides to challenge Mana Silverspine to an arm wrestling contest. The
GM decides that Tier or relations don't matter here; it's a one-on-one princess to princess
thing. They're both rolling Tough, which both princesses have three in. Highest level of
effect wins the contest. Candy rolls a four as her highest, but Mana rolls a six. Mana wins
the arm wrestling contest but walks away with respect for her tiny but determined opponent.
The GM adds two ticks to the Rough & Wild relations clock, but Candy marks a Weight
because she really really wanted to win.
Pipi decides that she's not going to make an action roll to try to influence Peko PekoPeko,
the Manga Meat Princess. She's just going to let her delicious homemade chips do the
talking for her. The GM rolls fortune for Peko's reaction to the chips, gets a four, and adds a
tick to the relations clock.
SynSofia Breeze decides to roll Sensible for her interaction with Lilac Appleby, getting a
partial success. The GM decides that the two of them get along well, have a gentle venting
session about the stresses and hardships of frontier life, but don't really talk about kingdom
stuff much. The GM adds one to the Rough & Wild relations clock, and SynSofia clears
one Weight for a pleasant conversation.
At the end of this segment the Rough & Wild clock stands at nine ticks; not quite enough
to improve relations, but the ShadowMint princesses seem to generally be getting along well
with their 'rivals'. (Aside from Hika and Azure.)

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Fourth Segment
The faction reps arrive; Slab Redbrick for the Hunter Guild, Mallory Mallory for the
Universal Librarians, and Granny Poppy for the Guidance Collective.
Mallory approaches SynSofia, wanting to know why she hasn't received any reports yet.
SynSofia rolls to deflect using Foxy, getting a partial success. The GM offers a Hard Choice;
Mallory won't pursue this line of questioning any further if SynSofia marks two Weight and
mentions an embarrassing incident from her academy days. SynSofia grits her teeth and
brings up that silly thing with Princess Debbie, and the teapot, and that ... that ... monkey.
Afterwards she feels like she needs a bath, but the ShadowMint kingdom's lack of progress
re: magical research is dropped.
This interaction with Mallory doesn't take SynSofia's action for the segment, so she gathers
the others for a little coordination. If they play their cards right they have a shot at
increasing relations with every faction present, so SynSofia gives every princess her own
mission. The GM allows SynSofia to roll Foxy as a setup action for the others, somewhat
guiding but mostly manipulating them into advancing relations with the faction reps. The
action has normal effect from a controlled position and SynSofia rolls a partial success,
giving the others increased effect on their social rolls.
First Pipi approaches Mallory, with SynSofia providing backup. Their goal is to get the
Universal Librarians to support their new obstacle course project. Pipi rolls Chatty, and
SynSofia marks Weight to help her and give her an extra dice. Thanks to SynSofia's help,
the coordinating speech she gave, good relations with their patron faction, plus the
deliciousness of Pipi's homemade potato chips, the action will have great effect from a
controlled position. Pipi rolls a partial success, which is enough to sway Mallory into
supporting their obstacle course project. After the party, the GM will roll the Universal
Librarian's Tier and add ticks to the obstacle course clock depending on the result.
Meanwhile, Hika Hika Pumpkin has trotted off to show Granny Poppy her lanterns. After
reassuring her that the lanterns are in no way powered by fairies, Hika struggles to bring up
the subject of the new obstacle course. SynSofia has a flashback to before the party, a
conversation with Hika about the basics of princess politicking. SynSofia marks one Weight
and rolls with Sensible, getting a full success with a 6. The GM decides that Hika, who has
no points in any of the usual social aspects, can use Bookworm for the roll to get Granny
Poppy on their side; she can treat it like homework, studying for a test, organising her
arguments, and remembering all the complicated advice that SynSofia gave her. Hika's
Bookworm is excellent, but she's in a bad position regarding effect thanks to the Guidance

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Collective's higher Tier and her 'drained' harm. She'll have to escalate twice to even get the
effect to limited, and she needs full effect or higher in order to sway Granny Poppy. Hika
decides to escalate once to d8s, trying to copy SynSofia's more flamboyant style, and trades
position to desperate, really putting herself out there and risking offending Granny Poppy in
order to get this done. Fortunately she rolls an eight, a full success, and we cut to Hika Hika
stumbling back to SynSofia in a bit of daze, not entirely sure what she said but with the
triumphant news; we have the Guidance Collective's support!
So, after the party the GM will also roll the Guidance Collective's Tier, and add ticks to the
obstacle course improvement clock based on the result.
Meanwhile Candy Explosion eats more sausages in her continued effort to avoid talking to
anyone.

Fifth Segment
The final free segment before the big cow race.
Once again SynSofia gathers her princesses, big congratulations to everyone on doing such a
great job getting the factions to support the obstacle course project, except Candy who just
ate sausages the whole time. She now wants them to focus on the controlled lands Rawhide
kingdom, who are hosting this party. SynSofia decides that she and Hika will use a group
Sensible action in talking to the Rawhide leader, Sausage, while Candy and Pipi will
perform a group Tough action in talking to Rawhide's Cattle Princess, Horseshoe Wilds,
about farm matters and strong cows.
SynSofia goes first, talking to Sausage about hopes and dreams, wishes for the future, where
she sees the Rawhide kingdom going and how their new ShadowMint kingdom might be a
part of that. The GM judges it to be controlled position, limited effect, because what can a
burgeoning frontier kingdom really offer an established controlled lands kingdom? SynSofia
pushes it to risky to get the effect to standard, and both she and Hika roll partial successes.
Sausage listens to all SynSofia's talk of hopes and dreams, and smiles at Hika's naïve
attempts to help, and she does feel more favourable towards the ShadowMint kingdom now;
the GM puts three ticks on the clock. But she also sees right through SynSofia's act and cuts
her down to size, because new kingdoms always try this sort of thing. SynSofia marks no
Weight, but instead suffers the level 2 harm 'Small Fish, Big Pond'.
Meanwhile Pipi and Candy are talking to Horseshoe Wilds. They decide not to follow
SynSofia's lead in trying to manipulate people into loving them, but instead just have a nice
friendly conversation about cows. The GM suggests that they don't roll it as a group action,
but instead both just roll from a controlled position and no effect; if they both get full

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successes they'll add a tick to the relations clock, otherwise it's just a nice chat. Candy and
Pipi agree, Pipi rolling Chatty and getting a partial success, Candy rolling Tough and
getting a failure. Pipi and Horseshoe Wilds have a good conversation about farm life, while
in the background Candy shows off how hard she can headbutt a wall, impressing no one.
No consequences are suffered, but no ticks are added to the relations clock.

Sixth & Seventh Segments

The big cow race begins! Candy is the only ShadowMint princess participating, the others
just watching and cheering her on. The GM rules that the ShadowMints performed no
actions to get information on the other participating princesses. Pipi points out that they
just chatted to Horseshoe Wilds specifically about cows, which the GM acknowledges as a
fair point and reveals that Horseshoe Wilds plans to show off a bit but take no risks. She'll
escalate to d12 from a controlled position.
Candy considers this information and decides to escalate to d10 from a desperate position,
pushing herself for both an extra dice and increased effect. She doesn't care if she gets hurt,
she just really wants to win this, especially with SynSofia and Mallory and the others
watching. The GM rules that because she's trading to a desperate position her princess
speciality of Danger applies, so she gets an extra dice for that. She also uses her Call Your
Attacks special ability, and her So Impulsive special ability.
First the GM rolls for the other participating princesses. Truth Weathervane escalates to d8s
from a risky position, but rolls a failure. She falls off her cow partway through the race and
breaks her arm.
Mana Silverspine escalates to d10s from a desperate position and rolls a full success.
Horseshoe Wilds escalates to d12s from a controlled position and rolls a full success.
The GM judges that, as it stands, Horseshoe Wilds is going to win and Mana Silverspine is
going to come in second. If Candy Explosion can roll a full success on her roll, she'll come in
second. If she gets a crit, she'll win.
Candy Explosion rolls her dice and gets a nine as her highest; a partial success.
Horseshoe Wilds, the Cattle Princess, takes first place in the cow race. Mana Silverspine
and Candy Explosion are absolutely neck and neck, and finish tied for second place.
However, Candy really really really wanted to win, or at least beat Mana. She's upset with
the result and takes the level 2 harm, 'Not Okay'.
The other ShadowMint princesses support her in their own ways; Pipi gives her a huge hug,
Hika reminds her of all the times Candy has saved Hika, SynSofia quietly tells her that

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there will be a next time. Candy herself is a tight little ball of conflict. She's happy to be
supported by her friends, but at the same time it's because of them that she's hurting so bad.
She really didn't want to let them down.

Eighth Segment
After the excitement and disappointment of the big cow race, everything winds down. Hika
and Pipi go off to see if they can help with Truth's broken arm. Candy stomps over to the
food table for a final dozen or so sausages. SynSofia maintains a respectful distance from
Candy, ready to step in if anyone tries anything, or if Candy chokes on a sausage.
While that goes on Pipi is rolling Earthy to see if she can heal Truth's broken arm. Pipi has
the Healer special ability, and while this mostly involves feeding hurt princesses massive
quantities of potatoes, in this case she rolls a critical success. Pipi grew up in the Cottage
Garden Kingdom and had a lot of rumbustious siblings and subjects to take care of. She's set
a broken arm or two in her time, and so does an excellent job here. Hika, meanwhile, is
trying to cheer up Truth by putting on a shadow puppet show with her lanterns. She rolls
Graceful and gets a 6, successfully delighting Truth. The GM judges that by their helpful
actions, along with their purehearted and friendly intentions, they've improved relations
with the PeaceStar Kingdom to +2.
Back at the food table, SynSofia notices Mana Silverspine approaching Candy. SynSofia
rolls Sensible to try to discern Mana's intentions and intervene if it seems like she's about to
do anything that might hurt Candy emotionally. She rolls a three, a failure. SynSofia marks
Mana as coming to bully Candy, tries to put herself between the two of them, but is swept
aside by Mana and is helpless to stop what follows. Fortunately, Mana only wanted to
properly introduce herself to Candy and tell her that next time, it won't be a draw.
Everyone is now leaving, the party drawing to a close. At this point normally the party
would end, but Hika Hika Pumpkin, being the good girl that she is, decides that it'd only be
right to stay and help clean up. SynSofia and the others just want to get home, but they
wearily follow Hika's lead and stay behind to tidy. The GM rolls fortune to see how the
Rawhide princesses react to this unusual action and gets a 6. They're very impressed! So
impressed that the GM adds a tick to their relations clock, filling it and improving relations
with Rawhide to a neutral +0. The ShadowMint princesses are not the useless nerds the
Rawhide princesses expected.
The Rough & Wild princesses, not wanting to be shown up, also stay to help. There are
mixed feelings about this.

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SynSofia rolls Sensible to try to coordinate the tidying, getting a 2. She's tired and her heart
isn't in it, and her attempts to organise are entirely ineffectual. Pipi uses Earthy to help put
away the leftover food, getting a 6. She's very helpful with the disassembly of the food table.
Candy mostly just pokes around looking for stuff to steal. She rolls Nosy and gets a 4. She
finds some loose change between seat cushions, gaining one Treasure, but the GM starts a
four segment clock for Rawhide called 'Those ShadowMint Girls Actually Are Useless' and
adds a tick. Hika rolls Tinker to take down the lights and store them properly, getting a 6.
She uses her special stool to reach high places, as she's very small, but when she comes back
from putting away the lights her stool isn't where she left it. Very strange. Meanwhile, over
the other side of the room, a certain Slime Princess is using a stool to take down
decorations...
Hika is outraged that Azure stole her stool, but unfortunately she's the only one who thinks
the Slime Princess is evil. Everyone else is completely taken in by her cuteness, including
SynSofia and the other ShadowMint princesses. What's to be done about this stolen stool?
That's an issue for another affair, as this party is most definitely over.

Post-Party Paperwork
The GM rolls for the big picture clocks that were set up before the party. The player
princesses only focused on getting their new Fitness-improving obstacle course, but they
managed to get both the Universal Librarians and the Guidance Collective on their side.
The Universal Librarians are Tier 3, so the GM rolls three dice, getting a partial success.
Two ticks are added to the four segment clock. Mallory puts in the application and it's
approved, but securing funding might take a while. Next the GM rolls for the Guidance
Collective, Tier 2 so two dice, getting a full success. Granny Poppy remembers to mention
the ShadowMint kingdom at the next meeting/knitting circle, the Guidance Collective
helps fund the obstacle course, and a few days later an enormous gift-wrapped box turns up
at the ShadowMint kingdom. The GM creates a new four segment clock, 'setting up the
obstacle course'. When it's filled (by using free time actions and rolling appropriate aspects)
the princesses will get their new improvement.
Even though the player princesses didn't try to influence anyone towards or against the
other big picture clocks, the GM still rolls for them. The Hunter Guild gets a partial success
on The Big Hunt, adding two ticks, and the Universal Librarians roll a failure opposing, so
one tick is removed. In total, one tick is added to the clock.
Nobody is opposing The Big Fight, so the GM just rolls for the Hunter Guild, getting a full
success. Three ticks are added to the clock, leaving just one for it to be filled.

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Hika Hika didn't manage to talk to anyone about her lantern project, so no dice are rolled
for it.
Everyone takes the level one harm 'Drained' for staying late to help tidy, except Hika who
already had drained, so she takes the level two harm 'Exhausted'.

~161~