Tolvoli Butcher

Overview

The Tolvoli Butcher is an Imperial title responsible for overseeing a distasteful "trade" with monstrous creatures that lair in the ruins of the Heart of the Tempest in Miekarova. In return for helping to secure animals to feed to the dubik near Tolbi, the butcher is able to buy some of the potions the wagon raiders who visit the site bring back. They're also responsible for keeping an eye on the situation, and making sure that if the dubik become a problem they are dealt with.

The title was created when the Imperial Senate voted to construct the Tolvoli Slaughterhouse. during the Summer Solstice 385YE, following an opportunity presented that season. Construction was completed shortly before the Autumn Equinox 385YE.

Responsibilities

The Tolvoli Butcher is responsible for ensuring that the dubik near Tolvoli do not become a problem. If the slaughterhouse were to be threatened in any way, it would be the responsibility of the Butcher to deal with those threats. Likewise, if any particular opportunity were to arise related to the slaughterhouse, the Butcher would expect to be consulted as to how that opportunity might be resolved.

It is perhaps worth noting that the point of the ministry is to provide beasts that can be fed to the dubik resident at the Heart of the Tempest. If the Butcher does not operate the ministry, then a significantly smaller number of beasts are available that season. The longer such a situation persists, the more likely it is that the dubik will go looking for blood by themselves.

Powers

Blood of the Grove
6 crowns	1 Bloodvine Liquor
13 crowns	2 Bloodvine Liquor
21 crowns	3 Bloodvine Liquor

Blackblood Thorn
6 crowns	1 Blackblood Thorn
13 crowns	2 Blackblood Thorn
21 crowns	3 Blackblood Thorn

Darkwine
70 rings	1 Darkwine
142 rings	2 Darkwine
216 rings	3 Darkwine
292 rings	4 Darkwine

The Red Harvest

As a ministry, the Tolvoli Butcher can exchange animal blood for unique consumables at a set price. The Tolvoli Butcher spends their money and makes their choices during downtime from their character page. Money is removed from, and resources are placed into, the character's inventory when the downtime is processed.

The grove near Tolvoli produces three different types of elixir depending on the quality and quantity of the blood provided. Bloodvine Liquor is a sweet, thick, gloopy substance that provides additional power to a magician working Spring magic, provided they spill copious amounts of their own blood in the casting. A Blackblood Thorn is razor-sharp and must be thrust into the skin when performing Winter magic to provide a burst of additional power, but leaves a stinging wound that may take some time to heal completely. Darkwine is a euphemistic name for a bitter alcoholic infusion that looks like blood and smells of honey, and grants vigorous health for a time. All three are tonics.

Appointment

This title is appointed during the Autumn Equinox each year. The Tolvoli Butcher is appointed by citizens of Varushka who control mines and forests personal resources. The larger the resource an individual has, the more votes they can allocate in support to a candidate. The voting is handled by the civil servants in the Bourse.

Only a Varushkan citizen may hold the title. They do not receive a seat on the Bourse. As a title appointed through the Bourse they cannot be revoked by the Imperial Synod.

Tolvoli Slaughterhouse and the Heart of the Tempest

Once upon a time, a college of magic stood in Miekarova. It's not clear that anyone ever uncovered the true story of what happened with it. As near as most people can tell, it started out as the "Hearth of the Tempest" and had a connection to Yaw'nagrah, or perhaps Irra Harah or maybe even Arhallogen. The name changed to Heart of the Tempest, and a little more than a year after it was built the forest around the Heart started to expand and there were rumours of creatures of the realm that sound to most people a lot like dubik pressing beyond its bounds and harming people. The forest abruptly ceased expanding, and everyone assumed someone had done something and that was it all dealt with and moved on with their lives. The people at the vale of Tolvoli, in particular, breathed a heavy sigh of relief and went back to hunting, trapping, and drawing beggar's lye from the woods.

By all accounts, however, the area remained soaked in fecund Spring magic, and that kind of thing attracts attention. Stories began to percolate out of the magically woven woods that actual dubik were gathering there, slipping into the forest and nesting among the trees. A few ventured a near the vale of Tolvoli, and had to be dealt with, but for the most part they seemed content simply to gather in the forest far from prying eyes.

The mandate enacted by the Varushkan assembly in Spring 385YE, urging people to seek out deals with dark powers, sent an enterprising gang of wagon raiders set out from Tolvoli to see if they could gain anything from the haunted groves around the Heart of the Tempest. They weren't fools; they took plenty of precautions and loaded themselves down with both wards and sharp axes. Of the dozen who set out, nine returned, and they would give no indication as to what happened to their three missing siblings beyond stating emphatically that it was important that no changeling ventured into the twisted, magical woods. They also came back on foot, without their wagons, but with samples of unique dark red liquor that they were able to sell for fairly large amount of money.

It is well known that dubik feast on blood. It seems that while the dubik up near Tolovi prefer human blood, they are prepared to accept animal blood as long as it is fresh and steaming. The wagon raiders bought up a lot of sheep, goats, and oxen, transported them into the depths of Miekarova, and handed them over to the dubik. They say that the creatures used the blood to water a garden, and paid with unique magical potions and winter-infused thorns. Unfortunately, after only a couple of such trips, the wagon raiders had stripped Tolovi and the surrounding vales of every spare animal.

So they reached out to their neighbours, to the National Assembly that encouraged them to make contact with the dubik in the first place, and asked that a slaughterhouse and stockyard be built at Tolovi. This would allow more animals to be brought in and more magical potions to be acquired.

The slaughterhouse itself was commissioned by the senator for Miekarova, and work quickly completed. The stockyards that surround it rarely want for cattle to be bought not only by the wagon raiders who deal with the grove but by the people of the vale as well. Trade is booming.

This creates a problem all its own, of course. The dubik in the woods near Tolvoli have been fed a lot of blood, and no doubt have a taste for it. In the event their supply of animal blood were cut off, it is entirely possible they would leave their grove and seek out the much more potent, much more desirable blood of humans and orcs.

Summit	Elected	Votes
Autumn Equinox 386YE	Misha Klubnika Alexandrovich Petrov	0 Votes
Autumn Equinox 385YE	Misha Klubnika Alexandrovich Petrov	311 Votes

Recent Elections

This title is currently held by Misha Klubnika Alexandrovich Petrov; it will be reelected at Autumn Equinox 387YE. The table to the right shows the citizens who have been elected to hold this title in the years since Empress Britta died.

The Title in Play

The role does not provide additional information about events in the Empire, nor allow the player holding it to request special reports or downtime actions. These details are assumed to be below the abstraction layer. The title holder is encouraged to create their own stories about their activities within reasonable limits and to get involved in events appropriate to their title during the game, but they do not have any powers beyond those explicitly listed in the section on powers.

These details exist partly to provide context and character to the role - and partly to allow our writers to use the title as a plot hook. Plot that involves the position will be rare - but all the campaign positions in Empire have these details to create the potential for it to happen.