The Vines Characters

Introduction

This page is a description of the characters and setting of the Vines Deck. It’s completely irrelevant to the game, but might be of interest for fans of the universe.

The Game of Vines: Vines is the generic name for a broad collection of trick-taking games in Carrisor, played with a five-suited deck. The game is at least a hundred years old, and similar games may date back for as long as a thousand years. The Cerevalo Deck, or Meere Deck, is the most popular style of deck, having first been produced during the Cottage Wars in the Free City of Meere.

The Vines deck has 55 cards in five suits. Each suit has the ranks Ace through Seven, and four face cards. In descending order the face cards are Knight, Bishop, Farmer, and Tar. In most games, the Ace is part of the top block and plays as the highest card.

This deck was designed by Jacopo Cerevalo, an engraver from Kingsgate The images were originally block printed, and then hand-tinted, making each deck a singular work of art. This basic design has been copied many times since, including more modern multi-color block printed editions. It is also sometimes called the Artisan Deck.

Although Cerevalo’s characters were based on contemporary historical figures, his depictions were swayed by personal biases and tastes, and therefore are not always accurate or flattering. Nevertheless, Cerevalo’s iconography and his character designs have become the standard for nearly all Vines decks manufactured in Meere.

The years of the deck’s design are contemporary with the Cottage War and the construction of the Coralon Canal, a period lasting roughly from 765 to 780.  (Which is described in a different entry, here.) Each suit represents a different region of Carrisor and its important historical figures from the era.

The Ranks:

Knights (often erroneously called Kings) are the highest of the face cards, and typically depict actual royalty, or the most powerful people in their families or regions. Knights are typically shown with armor, sword, and shield, and a simple metal circlet. Each suit strays a bit from these basics, as is true in all the suits.

Bishops: Though sometimes chosen for their associations with the Church, the characters chosen as Bishop more generally represent advisors, confidants, and powerful aristocrats who exist outside the ruling family. The are shown in robes and miters, and carrying bishops’ crooks.

Farmers: These characters often depict people of high status outside the aristocracy, such as powerful merchants, power brokers, or (in the case of Green) actual farmers. They are shown in a broad straw hat, with a pitchfork or scythe, and always with a large white goose.

Tars: Short for “Tarpaulin,” the oilskin cloth of the sailor’s garb, Tars are drawn as sailors but often represent villains, scoundrels, or foreigners to their region. One region’s traitor is another’s hero, however, so many of these distinctions are a matter of perspective. Tars are drawn as sailors, with felt hats, pistols, and high boots.

Iona Castle (Red)

Symbol: Red Crown

Heraldry: The Lionnar Crest: On a field or, a lion rampant regardant gules.

The Lionnars are the royal family in Iona, far to the north. They rule the continent, or so they claim, often without much to back that up. They struggle to remain in power, but since no other city in the realm claims to be the seat of all power, the title is theirs almost by tradition.

There are no Kings or Queens in the Vines deck, mostly due to prohibitions from the Crown. They maintain that there can be only one monarch at a time, not one in every corner of the realm. This type of petty regulation only underscores the fragility of their rule, at least as it was in the early days of the Cerevalo deck, under the young Queen Seren. In modern days their grasp on power is not so tenuous or strained, though of course there are still many challengers for the Throne.

KNIGHT: Queen Seren Gallumet Chanson Lionnar, “The Singing Queen.” Crowned in 762 at the age of 17, Queen Seren was a caring but inexperienced leader. She had close family ties in Iona and LeBâton, and she was the mother of Kind Arduchai Lionnar, who was born in 769.

In the Cerevalo Deck, Queen Seren is depicted as youthful but stern, bedecked with the traditional circlet of a knight. Her hair is worn in wavy brown curls at shoulder length. 

She wears a red cloak and gold tabard, tied at the waist with a patterned red belt. She wears light armor with pauldrons. Her right hand rests on a shield with the Lionnar crest, and the same crest appears on the front of her tabard. Her left hand holds a longsword with lion’s paws on the hilt and crossguard.

Queen Seren stumbled in her early years as monarch, making several cautious decisions that weakened the power of Iona in both practical and political terms. In her later years she became more adept at politics, but still struggled to unite the Principalities under her rule. Queen Seren died in 792, aged 45 years.

BISHOP: Lord High Exchequer Jean-Paul Munier, of Knightsbirdge. In his youth, Lord Munier served as an advisor and counselor to the Queen’s predecessor, Kind Fera. He remained in the family’s service, advising Queen Seren, until his death in 775.

Munier is revered as a bastion of loyalty and stewardship, although the true details of history cast some doubt on that. In the Cerevalo deck, he is depicted as an impeccable elder statesman, a portly man in his early 60s, with short brown hair and a well-groomed beard. He wears the arms of the Lionnars on a cleric’s robe and miter, and carries a bishop’s crook. For his years with the Kingsgate Navy, Lord Munier also carries a small white sextant.

FARMER: Generale Elan Veris Dorralen Lionnar, Iona’s Master of Coin. Though perhaps equally qualified as Lord Munier for the role of Bishop, Generale Elen Lionnar plays the Farmer in this deck. “Generale” is not a military rank in Iona, but a citizen’s rank of roughly the same status.

Elan is depicted as willow-thin, with wispy blonde hair and no beard. He has delicate hands and narrow shoulders, a physique suited for working behind a banker’s desk. He wears the tunic and broad-brimmed hat of a country farmer, carrying a pitchfork in his right hand, and a basket of onions under his left arm. His tunic bears the Lionnar crest. Tied to his belt is a small leather pouch emblazoned with a gold coin, a symbol of his rank and position. The farmer’s goose stands at his feet.

TAR: Edmirel Dacet Lureli Fastner, Chief Engineer of the Kingsgate Royal Fleet. Edmirel Fastner is a stout sailor of middle-age, with short, curly brown hair. Lureli wears the felt hat, high boots, and boat cloak typical of the Tar rank. A coil of rope is slung over their left shoulder, and they hold a flintlock pistol in their right hand.

Born in the Free City of Meere, Edmirel Fastner was Iona’s representative at Gordel Coralon’s infamous fire sand demonstration in 767. They were a longtime friend and ally of Coralon as well as a close confidant of the Queen. Fastner was saddled with the difficult task of satisfying Queen Seren’s complex and shifting demands for the canal project. 

Fastner served on the planning commission in the early stages of the canal’s construction, from 770-776. Due to ill health they left the project in 777, and did not live to see its completion. Edmirel Fastner earns a place in this deck for many years of service to the Lionnar Royal Navy, and as an advisor in the Royal shipyards in Meere.

LaForêt (Green)

Symbol: Green Tree

Heraldry: The LaForêt family crest: Vert, on a bend sinister or, three lentils vert 

A subtropical region to the south of Higale, LaForêt is a mostly agrarian Principality, and the North’s younger, weaker brother. Its capital is LeBâton City. LaForêt contains Lac Viève, the continent’s largest lake, as well as vast swaths of swamps, timber, and scrubland. WIthin the southern region, Lowgal, are the subtropical regions of Danceur, Senna, Sumides and Olpier, home to the ranches and farms that feed most of the continent.

The LaForêt family rules the Principality of LaForêt, plotting tirelessly to supplant the Lionnars as rulers of Carrisor. They rarely succeed and never for long, as Iona always seems to find more strength in her allies.

KNIGHT: Lord Baron Dufont Célèbre Mielleux de LaForêt, Prince of LeBâton. Prince Dufont wears the circlet, tabard, cloak, and boots of a knight, and carries a sword in his right hand and shield in his left. His tabard and shield are decorated with the LaForêt crest. 

Prince DuFont is uncle to Lord Gerun, below. He is depicted as middle-aged, with a pointed gray-brown beard and straight dark hair. In truth, he was nearly the same age as his nephew, but always bore greater responsibilities and titles.

Dufont was one of the primary architects of the later phases of the Cottage War, when forces from Iona and Baronet began using the farming communities of LaForêt as proxies in their own long-running struggle. This conflict continues into the present day, and the LaForêt family remains the closest and strongest threat to the reigning Lionnars.

BISHOP: Gran Ducas Serelin Piècefort LaRoux, Grand Overseer of LaForêt, and Cygnet of Lac Viève. Ducas Serelin served as mistress and confidant to Prince Dufont, and although they were never married, her titles and powers were essentially equal to his. She was a daughter of old money in LaForêt, and her long relationship with the Prince was as practical as it was romantic.

Serelin was older than the Prince, but she is pictured as younger. She has long, straight black hair worn in a braid. Her countenance is plain and serious, appropriate for a woman at the top of a vast mercantile organization.

Serelin is pictured in the Bishop’s costume, with cloak, miter, and staff. In her left hand she holds a white lily, representing her beloved first daughter who died in infancy.

FARMER: Berel Molari, vaunted leader of the rebellious cottage farmers, and alleged secret agent of the Lionnar interests. Berel is shown as a young woman, with a strong but not bulky build. She has long brown hair, tied back, and freckles.

Though she is considered a hero to the Lionnars, Berel’s influence was truly felt only in the earliest days of the Cottage War. In later days she struggled with little success to reunite the warring factions and put an end to the conflict, which had long since passed far beyond her control.

Berel is shown in the traditional farmer’s straw hat and tunic, wearing a gold sash decorated with the three green circles of the LaForêt crest. (In truth she bore no heraldic arms.) In her left hand, she holds a farmer’s scythe; in her right, an ornate coffee pot. A pipe is thrust into her belt, beside a square green tobacco pouch. At her feet is the farmer’s goose.

TAR: Lord Baron Gerun Jiles Prudhomme, nephew of Prince Dufont, principal architect of the franchise farming system and unwitting instigator of the Cottage War. Lord Gerun’s innovative and profitable cottage farm program was the spark that ignited a feud between two classes in LaForêt, which persists even today in a two-party feud between factions of the working class.

Lord Gerun is depicted as a young sailor, wearing the felt hat, boat cloak, and high boots of the Tar suit. His body faces left, but his head turns to the right, representing his famous journey to the far east. Over his right shoulder is a coil of rope, and in his left hand is a spyglass. His right hand holds a sailor’s flintlock.

Lord Gerun is tall and stout, and has a wild red beard. He wears a wide belt with a square green tobacco pouch on the left side, emblazoned with the image of a pipe.

Meere (Brown)

Symbol: Brown Anchor

Heraldry: The arms of the Free City of Meere: Tenné, a caravel brunâtre.

The Free City of Meere is a shipbuilding port on the Flatwater Strait, in the stormy northwest of Carrisor. Meere’s printing houses were the first to possess the artistry and technology to produce inexpensive playing cards, and this is where the Cerevalo deck was designed.

Meere enjoys relative autonomy from the Crown. Along with the magical artificers of the Fire Hand, they produce some of the most sophisticated and unusual machinery and technology on the continent.

The city is not only wealthy and remote. It also enjoys the protection of the Artificers of Fris, a mysterious society of wizard-crafters for whom the Free City of Meere is their only point of contact with the outside world. 

KNIGHT: Duces Cassail Bocklyn Grene, High Lady of Fladdock and Port Overseer of the Free City of Meere. Duces Grene is a proud elder stateswoman, shown wearing the circlet, tabard, and robe of the Knight rank.

Duces Grene’s tabard bears the arms of Meere, and she wears a wide belt with a short tail. She holds a scimitar in her right hand and a large buckler in the left, which bears the city crest.

Like all politicians of Meere, Duces Grene rose to her position through a lifetime of hard work and sacrifice, being elected to many lower offices along the way. At the time of the deck’s design she was at the height of her influence, and she was instrumental in supporting Gordel Coralon’s mission to construct the Coralon Canal.

BISHOP: Dockmaster Gordel Coralon, Architect of the Coralon Canal. In life, Gordel Coralon was small, impulsive, foolish, and greedy. He surrounded himself with the trappings of wealth, and judged his own success by the strength and ferocity of his enemies.

This is almost nothing like the figure portrayed in the Vines deck. Gordel Coralon appears as a towering figure, with broad shoulders, a massive curly beard, and fierce, penetrating eyes. His hands seem large and strong enough to dig the Coralon Canal on their own. 

Gordel wears the bishop’s miter and cloak, and holds a bishop’s crook in his right hand. Around his neck is a large round medallion bearing the Meere City crest, but on a gold field. In his left hand is a hefty pouch of gold coins.

FARMER: Salten Minister Orly Celeren Brightmoon, Great Lady of Fire. Despite the deck’s origins in Meere, Salten Orly is the only Fire Hand representative in this deck. In life she was a respected merchant of Meere, as well as a highly respected artificer of Fris.

The wizards of the Fire Hand are craftsmen of unparalleled skill. They are mysterious and insular, allowing no one to visit their island, and instead carrying out most of their trade in the city of Meere. Salten Orly Brightmoon was instrumental in bringing fire sand to the canal project. She would later become a symbol of the gross power and overreach of the wizards of the Fire Hand.

Orly’s unusual farmer’s hat has square corners and a feather. She carries the goose and pitchfork of the Farmer rank, but wears a Frisian wizard’s gown rather than the farmer’s tabard. Hanging from her belt is a large, intricate timepiece, and around her neck she wears a small magnifying lens.

TAR: Worden Niall Slate Belleporter, Commander of the Transport Fleet. Slate’s “fleet” was a navy of roughly 100 prison ships, crewed by low-risk criminals whose only other option was to serve in land-based work crews such as mines and factories. The fleet served the Crown and other paying clients under a myriad of contracts, and prisoners worked off their sentences with meager wages and long hours.

A prison labor profiteer, Worden Niall was vehemently opposed to the construction of the Coralon Canal, rightly believing that his personal supply of mobile labor would be diverted to the project by the Crown. He first lobbied against the canal in Meere, then once again at Niland. He later made several attempts to sabotage the project, coercing parties of bandits from Tiris to disrupt and threaten the canal work crews.

Niall was killed in a brawl in the city of Enn, near the end of the Canal project in 778. Due to several external pressures including the draw of labor for the canal project, the Transport Fleet was disbanded in 782, and Niall’s fleet and fortune were absorbed by the Free City of Meere.

Worden Niall appears as the Tar in this suit, wearing the Tar’s traditional felt hat and boat cloak. He wears a baldric of rank beneath the cloak: a pale sash with dark edging, indicating the rank of Fleet Commander. 

He is a small, stout, cruel man, powerfully built and dangerous. His wiry white eyebrows and unkempt mutton chops reach out from his face like angry spiders. He wears a patch over his left eye. His right hand holds a flintlock pistol, and his left holds a large ring of keys, representing his role as Commander of the Transport Fleet.

The Burning Tower (Purple)

Symbol: Purple Chalice

Heraldry: The CoeurDeboeuf sigil: Purpure, a dove with calamansi branch argent.

Directly between Higale and LaForêt stands the Burning Tower at Mikoren on Lake Jirulen, the nexus of power for a church whose influence spans the continent. This is the seat of the Pontiff, and a hub for clerics and acolytes from all corners of the land. The Burning Tower has branches in every corner of the world, spies and assassins who quietly trim the sails of power.

The Burning Tower has no official coat of arms, but the white dove is the most common symbol of the faith, representing harmony and balance. It is displayed in churches, sold as jewelry, and worn as arms by those who have been gifted with the CoeurDeboeuf surname. This is not a family name, but a title earned through service to the Church.

The Burning Tower itself earns its name from the mass of serpent’s ivy that covers it, which turns a fiery orange-red in the fall. They say that the ivy represents persistence, and the tower itself represents strength. Like the ivy, the Burning Tower’s roots and tendrils reach everywhere, grab everything, and from time to time the church figuratively erupts in flames, as it seems doomed to eternally do battle with itself.

KNIGHT: Prelate Bartolomeu Strathmoor, Pontiff of the Burning Tower and High Exalted of the Feast of Leeds. As the church’s highest ranking cleric, the Pontiff resides at the Burning Tower and oversees all the affairs of the church. The Pontiff is selected by and from the ranks of high clergy of Carrisor, and serves in the position for life.

Pontiff Strathmoor takes the role of knight in this suit. He wears a circlet with a slight upward point, indicating his association with the church. He wears a tabard and cloak decorated with the white dove, and holds a longsword in his right hand and a shield in his left. His tabard is not belted, giving it the feel of a bishop’s robe.

Strathmoor is depicted as a bookish man, wearing small glasses and a short, well-trimmed beard. He is of medium build, and wears the short-cropped hair typical of men of the cloth. He wears a heavy plaited necklace, with a large dove pendant on a gold bezant.

BISHOP: Lady Bishop Osla Nials Lionnar CoeurDeboeuf, Lady High Consel for Royal Iona, and advisor to Pontiff Strathmoor. Osla Lionnar is also the sister of Queen Seren, and represents the church as its advisor to the royal family in Iona. Lady Osla is the preeminent agent of the Burning Tower in Higale.

Lady Osla is pictured in the bishop’s miter and robe. In her left hand she holds the bishop’s staff, and in her right she holds a single red rose, a symbol of the Lionnar family.

Lady Osla is depicted as a young woman, though by the time of her ascendancy to Lady High Consel she was in her late forties. She has flowing yellow hair and a narrow frame. She gazes up and to the left, signifying that she spent her final years descending into madness.

FARMER: Ser Bennarossa “Benna” Deales CoeurDeBoeuf, Seneschal of Mikoren. A servant of the Burning Tower, Ser Benna was born in Weis, on the Sierin peninsula. He was the Seneschal of Mikoren, the nearby city that supports and defends the Burning Tower.

Ser Benna is shown as a middle-aged man, bald and clean-shaven. He wears the farmer’s hat and tunic, with a scythe in his left hand, and a goose under his right arm. Tied to his belt is a single large key, representing his role as seneschal.

TAR: Pepitanian “Pepi” Nightfox CoeurDeBoeuf was a youthful adventurer from Niland, and is the deck’s only character from Larnins University at Niland. Pepi grew up in an orphanage in Chaqun, and joined a pilgrims’ caravan to Niland at the age of 14, in 766. Along the way she earned her CoerDeBoeuf surname by showing bravery and devotion in a series of misadventures that befell the caravan.

During the early years of the canal project, 770-773, Pepi helped bring expertise and protection to the canal zone from Niland and parts east. She was instrumental in thwarting several attacks on the project, including at least three raids by Tiris forces, instigated by Niall Belleporter. Pepi and Niall became famous rivals in their battles for the canal zone.

Though she was never officially a member of the church, Pepi’s adventures became legendary, and she later parlayed that notoriety into a comfortable position as a professor of military history at Larnins.

Pepi is pictured in sailor’s garb, felt hat and boat cloak, with trousers and high boots, and a pistol in each hand. She is brash, exuberant, and young, with flowing blonde curls, and a single white pearl earring, representing her youth in the orphanage at Chaqun.

Baronet City (Blue)

Symbol: Blue Lock

Arms: The Simoleon crest: Azure, four flying fish argent.

Baronet is an ancient trading port on the Sierin peninsula, dating back at least two thousand years. It is the capital and largest city in the Principality of Sierin, and is governed by a congress of wealthy merchant families, the Simoleon family chief among them. Baronet is a cosmopolitan city with a mix of people from all over the world, and their banks and merchant families are the richest lending institutions, collectively wealthier than the church.

Factions from Baronet jockeyed for power during the Cottage War, and also competed as backers and beneficiaries of the Coralon Canal project. During the Cottage War, the most powerful of these families joined into a syndicate known as the Congress of Merchants. This consortium included five major families, but was dominated by the Simoleons. 

KNIGHT: Mistress Ada Praccis Hawker Simoleon, Lady Exchequer of Baronet City. A relative latecomer to the Cottage Wars, Ada Simoleon eventually sided with the cottage farmers, and made a small fortune in tobacco and coffee in LaForêt. During this time she also became Lady Exchequer of Baronet City, and High Councilwoman for the Congress of Merchants.

Mistress Ada is shown as a middle-aged woman with curly brown hair. She wears the traditional Knight’s uniform, with a gold circlet decorated with a coin, and a tabard and cloak bearing the Simoelon crest. She holds a longsword in her right hand, and a jade plant in her left, symbolizing old wealth. She has a small tobacco pipe tucked into her belt.

BISHOP: Lord Ector Crane Purstring, Baronet’s Master of Coin. Ector Purstring was Executive of the Royal Mint at Aoni from 763 to 771. As Master of the Mint, Lord Ector approved all patents and land grants for Sierin, Higale, and the Warelmont. He also worked closely with the Coralon Canal Commission, from the earliest days of the project, on the finer points of land use and fee structures. This also made him privy to details about fire sand. After the canal project, the Purstring family made absurd profits dealing in black market fire sand.

Lord Ector is depicted as a rugged, weatherbeaten man. He has strong, angular features and a full beard, with shoulder-length wavy black hair. He wears the traditional bishop’s miter and cloak, adorned with the Simoleon arms (despite actually being of the Purstring family). In his right hand he holds a bishop’s staff, and in his left, a small set of scales representing his role as Master of Coin.

FARMER: Ducese Aloise Field Baronet, Dockmistress of Merit’s Bay. The Baronet name is the oldest in Carrisor, and they are still the most respected merchant family in the city of the same name. Ducese Aloise was Dockmistress of Merit’s Bay from 764 to 777, and was also one of the earliest investors in the Coralon Canal.

Ducese Aloise is tall and strong, with long dark hair and large hoop earrings. She wears the traditional farmer’s garb: straw hat and tunic, with a wooden pitchfork in her left hand and a goose under her right arm. Her tunic is decorated with the Simoleon crest, but she also wears a large belt pouch with a golden fleur-de-lis, representing the Baronet family.

TAR: Ser Duce Filus Buckwort Riĉa. Filus Riĉa provided the bulk of Lord Gerun’s financing at the outset of the cottage farm era. Riĉa was an unreliable scoundrel from a minor merchant family, who spent most of his adult life carousing in LeBâton, and who had become a longtime friend of Lord Gerun.

Filus Riĉa is pictured in traditional sailor’s garb: Felt hat, boat cloak, and decorated bucket-top boots. He holds a flintlock pistol in his right hand, and a spyglass in his left, symbolizing his affiliation with Lord Gerun’s eastern voyage (though he did not actually participate). He is clean shaven, and his hair is a tangle of long, beaded braids.

To learn more about the Cottage War, read the previous post here. And don’t worry; it won’t be on the test. The games in Vines have nothing to do with the history of the deck.