Gentry/The Monstrous Prince

The Monstrous Prince

The cursed prince that dwells at the center of the dark forest.

Description

Tales of cursed beings and nightmares lurking in the woods have existed in central Europe for centuries. During the age of colonization, European settlers brought their stories with them across the Atlantic and met the vast untamed wilds of America. From this collision of Old and New arose the Monstrous Prince. The cursed demon that lurks in the woods to lure the pure and innocent to their doom.

Always male, he appears as a demon. A little different to each person, he shows not their fears but their own internal darkness.

Realm

The Twisted Forest
The realm of the Monstrous Prince is shrouded in eternal night. Only the faintest sliver sits in the night sky, and not a single star twinkles above. Storms of sleeting ice or freezing rain periodically lash the vast, dark forest that comprises most of the Prince's real. At the center of the realm rises a single mountain of black stone, a dark Gothic castle clinging to it's side like some hulking beast, the only entrance a drawbridge across a bottomless ravine.

Methodology

The depressed model, the traumatized artist, the drug-addicted musician. The Prince accepts or captures those who exemplify or create beauty, but have an inner seed of darkness for him to exploit. He loves nothing more than to take them and break them. Each punishment is chosen specifically to break the individual in question. The spoiled socialite might find herself cast out into the forest to survive, forced to live like a beast until she becomes one. The haughty musician may be forced to sit at the foot of the Prince's throne to play music until his fingers bleed, and then forced to play on as his music becomes worse with every measure. This is the realm where beauty goes to die.

Suggested Themes for Escapees

Some escapees give into the inner darkness the Prince showed them. Others fight against it with every fiber of their being. Sun, Moon, Dawn, and Dusk courts are all common choices among those who fled the Monstrous Prince.

By Seeming

• Beast - Nocturnal predators and scavengers, especially animals native to the lands or lore of central Europe. Wolves, bats, rats, and carrion birds are all common in the Twisted Forest.
• Darkling - Darklings come in all forms. Either as the demons and shadows that lurk the woods, or the twisted wretches that wander the towers and battlements of the castle.
• Elemental - No Elementals of warmth or light emerge from the Twisted Forest. Those who wind up taking this seeming are either fuel to the constant winter storms, or stony sentinels on the mountain, and a few exist among the twisted and gnarled trees.
• Fairest - No Fairest has ever come from the Monstrous Prince's realm.
• Ogre - The enforcers and bullies. The Prince enjoys having ogres around to torment other captives or to protect his lands from incursion. The Ogres are often the ones that gave in the quickest to his punishments.
• Wizened - The serving staff of the castle. Beaten and broken wretches that serve at the Prince's every whim.