Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

+++ MARKS +++

- the king’s mark is a huge tattoo across the chest. it manifests after the current one dies.
- the queen's and joker's marks are both on the back of the neck, and manifest at birth.
- the jack’s mark is on the back of the right hand. it can manifest at any point in their life.
-  ace's mark is on the left shoulder. it can manifest at any point in their life.
- the joker's can change into any of the four at any point in their life, or not at all.
- hearts has not had an ace for several generations

+++ SIGNS +++

there are 2 kinds of magic in this universe: the first is a "sign"—an innate magical ability, which people with marks have. the second is "arcana"—book- and spell-based magic you gotta learn and can hone, based on innate potential and/or hard work.

♥️ KINGDOM OF HEARTS ♥️

<> LUDWIG (k): can project emotions to other people, potentially a crowd. failing to control it, he would project his own emotions to those around him. very very dangerous if unchecked.

<> KIKU (q): can "read others' hearts" i.e. emotions, useful for gauging their intentions and at times to tell when they're lying. you can tell when he consciously uses it by looking at his eyes, which would briefly flash with a swirl of colors related to the emotion he read.

<> FELICIANO (j): light manipulation. he harnesses energy from any light source into various forms, commonly barriers or illusions. it can also be used to make projectiles or burn stuff up, but feli doesn't like fighting or hurting people. so he simply doesn't do that!

<> GILBERT (x/a): mirroring. he can reflect attacks back to the attacker and copy an opponent's sign for a limited time.

<BONUS> SADIK (former jack): same sign as feli. he lives in the forest now. old man. wears a mask (sometimes). no one in hearts is allowed to know he's still alive—except feli (who respects him a lot, sees him as a teacher). feli can visit whenever he wants. but if anyone else tries, they'll get lost ;)

♠️ KINGDOM OF SPADES ♠️

<> ALFRED (k): super strength. the more confident he feels, the stronger he gets. at his peak at the end of the story, he can easily rip the spades' royal palace from its foundations and punt it right out of the continent. however, do not be fooled. he can get MUCH stronger than that. his only limiter is whether or not he believes he is capable of doing something. thus, people are always lying to him. making him feel weak or scared. because they CANNOT handle his swag!

<> ARTHUR (q): life energy manipulation. when controlled well, he has brief periods where he can put back what he's taken—potentially saving the source from death. however, if his emotions get in the way, he can only take. he can harness this energy into a variety of forms, but most of the time, he turns it into his signature black flames.

<> YAO (j): metal manipulation. think of it like telekinesis, but it only works on metallic substances. most useful for turning small blades into projectiles, or warping metal surroundings to trap opponents. his weapon of choice would be long, heavy chains with hooks and spear tips at the ends. think "queen of thorns" from darwin's game. HOWEVER, he is most certainly not limited to solid metals. never forget that metals can be turned into liquid or gas, too.

♦️ KINGDOM OF DIAMONDS ♦️

<> FRANCIS (k): i'm tempted to call it healing or giving life, but it's difficult to use it on people and large animals. he mostly uses it on plants, which is why diamonds never has a bad harvest. be careful with him. there's a reason he copes with parties, gourmet, fashion, and wine. just leave him alone. he needs to be silly—doctor's orders!

<> LILLI (q): actually, i've never thought about it. let's just say she's too young for them to know.

<> BASCH (j): can turn things he touches to stone. the more intense his emotions when he touches something raw, the harder and more impenetrable the stone. to avoid using it accidentally, he's always wearing gloves. do not be fooled by his mark; he's the real one in control of diamonds. do not test him or try to piss him off—because you WILL regret it.

<> MATTHEW (a): double-sided telepathy. he's always hearing the thoughts of everyone around him, BUT ALSO able to see through any wall/physical barrier AND magical barrier/glamour. his mark is an ABSOLUTE SECRET b/c he's the lord of bells and he openly campaigns for his region to be independent from diamonds... but francis+basch pretty much already Know lmfao. thus/and yet, matt refuses to take any consorts, is always busy pacifying the court of bells, always refusing to send diamonds any grain or minerals, and is overall just not having a good time. matt THINKS he can lead the bells' military, government, church, and all the rest of society just by himself... if only diamonds would fuck off. but he's wrong~ :p

♣️ KINGDOM OF CLUBS ♣️

<> IVAN (k): creating illusions. most effective when used against a single target, or when used on himself to make him appear differently to anyone who sees him.

<> ERZI (q): firestarter. the only limit is her own exhaustion. instead of being seen as a force for destruction, in the frigid lands of clubs it's more like she represents the warmth of life. safety and protection and cooking. ex-convent girlie (raised by nuns). EVERYONE adores her. if someone says they don't like erzi, they're either lying or aren't actually from clubs. impostors do be sus 💀

<> RODERICH (j): puppeteering. he can finely control the movements of any human or animal target. with his mind. so incredibly powerful he does not even need to move, make a sound, or even look in your general direction to control you. all he needs is to be in the same room as you. absolutely fucking terrifying. BUT don't worry—as he has already mastered his sign. he has a beautiful wife, many hobbies, and he is always busy scolding ivan whenever ivan bothers to visit the clubs' capital city (rare). roddy's just an aristocrat by nature + always will be; he's fine as is!!!

<> ANTONIO (a): kind of like... the inverse of alfred. he can harness any opponent's emotions to make himself more powerful. unbeatable in any type of competition—military, physical, mental, emotional, social, etc. he just is THE winner. everyone wants his dick or cum or romance or hand in marriage. eww. just stop it. he's BORED!

+++ CHARACTER MOTIFS +++

- ludwig: sanctity, the spoken word, duty vs desire
- gilbert: mirrors, reflections, glass
- kiku: wisdom, clocks, the ancient
- arthur: shadows, rot, fire
- feli: the sun, lights, open spaces
- ivan: optical illusions, manipulated space, things are not as they appear
- francis: jewels, abundance, hedonism
- basch: stone, walls, barriers
- alfred: the mechanical, strange contraptions, man vs no god

+++ KINGDOMS AND REGIONS +++

♥️
+ region of hearts (central west)
+ region of roses (north, nearest to diamonds)
+ region of cups (southeast)
+ region of stars (southwest, disputed, where the border with spades is)
+ in the "red alliance" with diamonds.
+ arcana is illegal here.

♠️
+ region of spades (east and south)
+ region of greens (north, where the border with clubs is)
+ region of shields (west)
+ historical region of axes (south, a lot of which lies over present day stars)
+ historical region of pikes (northwest)
+ in the "black alliance" with clubs.
+ arcana is legal here... but be careful.
+ spades people often say: "if [you're] TOO good at arcana, the spade queen will snatch [you] away in the night and lock [you] in her vast underground dungeon."
+ does spades even have a dungeon? everyone who lives in the spades capital says there's no dungeon.
+ spades' capital residents say there are two palaces: the main one and the other one.
+ the main spades palace is for the queen—huge place with a giant sprawling garden which he maintains personally.
+ the other spades palace is for the king—his personal workshop; no uncool people allowed!
+ ...is there a spades dungeon?

♦️
+ region of diamonds (north and west)
+ region of bells (south and east, in rebellion, wants to be recognized as a separate "kingdom of bells")
+ in the "red alliance" with hearts.
+ arana is TECHNICALLY legal here, but do it too much and basch will personally show up at your door. you already know what happens when basch takes off his gloves. do you WANNA be turned to stone?
+ (answer in the priv QRTs or DMs with your best friend calling me [author] a liar/evil.)

♣️
+ region of clubs (huge and sparsely populated except for small pockets of population centers)
+ claims on parts of greens based on the historical region of crosses which was bigger
+ present day region of crosses (southwest)
+ in the "black alliance" with spades.
+ arcana is fully legal here. do whatever you want—forever!
+ ...but preferably not in the clubs' capital city.
+ or else, Roderich.

♣️ is the biggest.
♥️ second biggest.
♠️ third biggest.
♦️ is the smallest.

+++ GEOPOLITICAL LORE/WAR/LOVE GAMES +++

i don't have developed thoughts about hearts' economy, just generic mostly self-sufficient, relying on their harvest, some regions are slightly better off but not by much. they are on fertile land, not wanting for water either. the population would be growing, i think.

if you average it out, purely geographically, clubs is doing the worst i'd say. spades is just... what they're doing is unsustainable. if they slowed down and reprioritized they could be doing a lot better, but the culture and especially the current queen is just... y'know. diamonds is doing the best—but they're kinda cheating, so :p

ludwig and gilbert are from the region of stars, the region where the border with spades is. stars is disputed and will ultimately be the cause of the war between hearts and spades. the basis of spades' claim on stars is that the majority of it is included in the historical region of axes (which is an old region of spades).

axes was also a former kingdom, which included shields, pikes, and later spades. over time, they lost parts of their lands to hearts and then got overtaken by spades. this is why spades considers themselves the successors to axes, while shields tolerates this arrogance (reluctantly).

the basis for these claims over land is where kings, queens, and jacks are born. for example, axes was the birthplace of a bunch of spades royals. this meant that the kingdom of spades (which is based in the region of spades) had a strong claim to the land, and if they had the military power and support, they could justify making that region part of the kingdom.

however, throughout generations, the region of stars (which used to be a small region that didn't touch upon axes at all) gradually expanded as hearts grew wealthier. and this expansion was justified by how spades royals stopped being born there while there started to be more hearts royals from there.

the region then gradually slipped from spades' grasp because the conflicts with hearts were growing too expensive and because they had another precarious border to defend: the one with clubs, in the region of greens.

anyway, in our present timeline, the conflict over stars had been relatively cooled down because no royals had been born there for a while... but then boom, ludwig.

going by this tradition of claims...

ludwig, being from stars himself, has all the cause to reignite the conflict with spades in the name of tying stars more strongly to hearts. and the thing is, spades knows this. they fully expect that once the new generation of hearts royals get their shit together, they have no excuse not to expand through stars again.

so, from arthur's perspective, he's acting in advance to prevent further loss of territory. he's helped by the fact that relations with clubs are kind of at a stalemate, so he can more freely focus on their border with hearts.

but arthur's crowbar for war seems flimsy, doesn't it? i mean, think about it:

stars has been in place for a while now. the people there see themselves as subjects of the kingdom of hearts. the fringe minority who held on to the idea of axes and preferred the spade crown usually just moved to spades anyway.

for the most part, spades isn't wanted there. it's just the royals who still stubbornly cling onto the idea of historical axes. however, this stubbornness happens to be backed up by quite the army and a queen with the strongest sign in spades history PLUS he's also the most dedicated arcana practitioner in history, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

+++ EXTRA: DIAMONDS +++

diamonds is interesting, though i don't think i'll be able to feature them much in the actual fic. it's only made up of two regions, diamonds and bells. for a long time, bells has been treated as second-class—especially once it got rarer and rarer for diamonds royals to be from there. diamonds is wealthy, yes, but it keeps a lot of that wealth for itself: tending towards building lavish structures and hoarding.

this has only intensified since the current jack, basch, came to power. the queen—his sister lilli—is still a child, so he acts doubly as regent for her and that's why he holds so much more sway in diamonds' court than jacks usually do.

meanwhile, the king (francis) also pretty much defers to basch, as he has less interest in governing and more interest in the arts and such. he's the life of the party!

- basch @ lilli: i know he's the king, but he shouldn't be your role model
- francis: nonsense. call me big brother, too, lilli ^_^

francis wants to think they share custody over lilli, while basch just sees him as an annoyance.

(+ pretends not to be impressed whenever francis visits lilli and makes the flowers in her room grow using his sign to cheer her up. lilli's quite sickly and is rarely allowed to go out thanks to basch being overprotective, so this is a big deal for her.)

(+ turns every single assassin or spy arthur sends into stone—because basch alone remembers francis' real trauma. basch neither forgives nor forgets—and he never will! he's just the jack of spades. he is BUSY. shoo! go the fuck away... or else!!!)

(+ basch loves francis and lilli... in his own way. give him a break.)

francis is the kind of king who leaves all the boring governing stuff to his jack and just throws lavish parties and gets drunk. his people put up with it, though, and love him anyway b/c his sign can make plants grow—which means there's never a bad harvest.

to show their appreciation for fran, diamonds people send him nothing but their  best produce and most lovingly-written letters + books + arts. they always tell him he's welcome to visit them any time, but they know francis can't leave the capital too often. he already gives them so much.

and oh yes, clubs DEFINITELY needs a sign like francis' too!!!

...too bad basch made diamonds into a motherfucking FORTRESS and is SUPER careful with + suspicious of their northern neighbors! :p

also, this process of diamonds turning into more and more of a fortress understandably makes the people of bells feel excluded in their own kingdom, so the current lord of bells (matthew) wants to separate. diamonds isn't providing much for them, so why can't they just look out for their own?

of course, no kingdom wants to lose territory and population, so this is an ongoing conflict. not quite a war yet, but bells is withholding its grain and other crops, stuff like that. tensions are simmering.

if war were to happen, clubs would likely support [LOST, GO TO OTHER DOCS].

if war were to happen, clubs would likely support bells for one simple reason: it's a blow to diamonds, and clubs would take LITERALLY any opportunity to screw them over. oh, clubs fucking despises diamonds. ON PRINCIPLE!

spades would not support bells, even though their own relations with diamonds are icy at best. this is because the lord of shields (AKA yao the jack of spades) could see this and turn separatist, and they wouldn't want to encourage that by validating bells in their attempt to do the same thing.

hearts is "allied" with diamonds, but they could go either way on this. in the story, diamonds shows little sympathy for the conflict with spades over stars, which might make them turn a blind eye to requests for support.

+++ EXTRA: CLUBS +++

as for clubs, aushun are fairly older than ivan here, married, and had been running the kingdom for a while. before ivan, clubs hasn't had a king for a few solid decades.

erzi is the most interesting: she was born a commoner and raised in a convent until the previous queen died. this is because said previous queen was pretty nasty and unstable about her throne and power. to keep erzi safe, the previous jack arranged for her to be raised and trained in secret from the queen. the eventual transfer of power went surprisingly smoothly; previous queen ended up committing suicide over a lover, after which erzi was revealed to the kingdom as a VERY MUCH WELCOME change of management.

roderich is a courtier from an established family, and the two got close through working together and eventually married. he only manifested the mark of the jack after that, and it was taken as a symbol that their union was a fortuitous one.

antonio was a middling official in the clubs military, who manifested the mark of the ace after putting down a rebellion. he's usually away from the capital doing stuff similar to that. he's a commoner who just ascended the ranks of the army because he's good at his job lol... in contrast to the nepotism that also goes on everywhere else :p

...what people don't know about antonio is that his actions in the military were deeply traumatizing to him. he travels a lot, visits other kingdoms or churches or royals... but always in disguise. because of his sign. eventually, i want him to meet sadık; he'll understand him.

last but not least, ivan grew up among herders in the most remote parts of northern clubs. he manifested the mark of the king as a child, but no one around there really understood its significance. he was taught that it was some kind of curse, so he hid it and kept it absolutely secret for the longest time. his sign, meanwhile, was explained away by the superstitions and religious beliefs most relevant there.

this is until the first time he had to go to a major city to sell their wares. his older sister (iryna), who usually made the trips, fell sick so ivan took over her duties. upon getting there, he decided to sightsee a little bit after he was done with the deliveries since it was his first time in any place other than the... cold wastelands lol. but during his stroll through the city, he encountered a peculiar building with a bunch of people lined up outside.

the line, as it turns out, were people claiming they were the next king of clubs and the building was a royal outpost for verifying marks. long story short, it's kind of like anastasia; ivan learns what his mark and means and after so long, clubs finally has a king! yay!

he has a bit of an adjustment period, learning how to navigate the royal court and conduct himself, but luckily he has aushun to help him. still, he's atypical as far as kings go, and refuses to buy into the pomp and stuffiness of the court in favor of doing his own thing. it's still also hard for him to trust people because of the life he's lived, but that turns out to be advantageous, especially when coupled with his sign.

it's during the big ball to announce the new king that rusame first meet, actually. upon alfred seeing ivan across the ballroom, it was pretty much at first sight for him.

(iryna and natalya actually think all the king stuff is fucking WEIRD as hell, and firmly refused when aushun offered them to move to the capital. ivan visits them when he can. always will! he loves his sisters forever!)

the thing with clubs is the capital and the surroundings are very far removed from the rest of the country—especially the remote regions. thus, while aushun have adapted to deal with court drama and rivalries and the matters relevant to big cities with most of the wealth, they're kinda just ??? about everywhere else, which is why ivan's perspective is valuable to them, yes. he basically provides a counterweight to an entire royal court that has become stale. for that reason ivan's arrival makes antonio go "oh wow, fucking finally" and he quits his post in the military. nowadays, antonio just does literally whatever the fuck he wants an NOBODY can stop him b/c he Is The Most Winner Of All Time lmfao.

another funny thing is, aushun can't really make their king DO anything? like, ivan really just does what he wants and is not bound by silly court rules. his goals are beyond your understanding.

re: spades and diamonds relations: you think fruk would cooperate? really??? and alfred is fucking useless at diplomacy. he either commits 1000 faux pas or just annoys the shit out of everybody for being so cocky. meanwhile, yao doesn't give a shit lol, he's busy with internal shields matters. yao is always the lord of shields FIRST, jack of spades distant second.

alfred's sign is useless for running the kingdom, but he's reeeeally hands off about that anyway. like i mentioned before, he's this eccentric inventor-nerd type who (when he's not chasing ivan's ass) is just holed up in his workshop with his various machines and contraptions and weapons, and only goes out to field test them. kinda like entrapta from she-ra (best girl btw).

+++ EXTRA: THE RUSAME TANGENT +++

fun fact, alfred is actually from greens! (yes, same region as lady freya, wife of the previous spade king + the woman that taught arthur arcana.)

...but instead of using that to aggravate clubs over their border, he does the exact opposite and uses it as an excuse to "strengthen ties with clubs."

i imagine typical dates as alfred inviting ivan over to his hometown in greens and the two of them going hunting together. alfred likes showing off his strength, after all, and to no one more than ivan. (it's effective but ivan would never admit that.)

sometimes, ivan would use his sign to trick alfred into thinking his date got lost in the woods and look for him... only to be scared out of his mind when a huge bear shows up. in reality, it's the work of ivan, who can create all manners of illusions.

this is a recurring theme in their relationship: ivan loves playing tricks and mind games to try and scare alfred away, but he always underestimates how obsessed alfred is with him.

never forget: it was LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT for alfred and he can rip the entire motherfucking continent apart if he wanted to. but he just wants ivan.

ivan just needs some time, a little persuasion, some sense + sensibility, etc. to realize it! 😉

+++ EXTRA: BUT WHAT, WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH HEARTS, ANYWAY? ISN'T THIS FIC ABOUT LUDWIG AND GILBERT??? +++

well... hearts is. complicated. lemme explain:

- then-prince kiku is the son of the previous king and queen of hearts (who died in childbirth), and was born bearing the mark of the queen—an exceptionally rare occurrence.
- prince kiku is BELOVED by the people of the hearts! always loved him + always will, now and forever!
- as kids, gilbert and ludwig used to glimpse royal processions whenever their grandpa took them to the capital to sell crops and buy supplies for back home.
- kiku’s childhood friend and the royal gardener’s son (feliciano) manifested the mark of the jack when he was 12, and couldn’t be happier to serve his best friend.
- the day the king (kiku’s father) died, ludwig fell sick and emerged one week later bearing the mark of the king. he was 15.
- the previous jack of hearts (sadık) was close with kiku's parents, and even took feli under his wing for the first few years after he manifested his mark. at present, he lives in the fringes of cups as somewhat of a hermit.
- feli @ ludwig: i hate fighting.
- ludwig: is it not the jack's duty to fight?
- feli: well... technically, it's the ace's. we've just not had one for generations.
- ell. em. eff. ayy. oh. 💀

+++ NOW WE'RE STARTING TO GET FREAKY: TUMBLR NOTES +++

the basics of it is just king of hearts ludwig whose own heart is in two places (with his kingdom and with gil) + chaotic joker gilbert who wreaks havoc against this damn kingdom for taking his brother away from him.

in my take on cardverse, jokers are wildcards with strong magic who could potentially manifest any of the marks of king, queen, jack, or ace. and they are systematically hunted down to avoid the case of a usurper who kills the righteous king/queen.

so ludwig is supposed to capture and kill gil but HOW COULD HE? so whenever he has gil in his clutches, he feels super conflicted but always ends up coming up with a way to make sure gil slips away while he has plausible deniability for letting it happen.

but at the same time, he fucking hates gilbert for making it really goddamn difficult and doing provocative and risky stunts all the time. lud just wants gil far away from the heartland so he can protect him, but to gil's perspective it looks like lud is choosing the kingdom over him. miscomm hell.

it's really not accurate to call it enemies to lovers bc it's more like enemies who so clearly never stopped loving each other but are pitted against each other against their own wishes.

honestly, all of this is just leading up to an emotional dungeon hate-fuck after which ludwig lets gil escape again. that is, after ludwig makes gil understand his real reason for turning him away is because he loves him more than anything and just wants to protect him :'(

also, after letting gil escape, lud tries to surreptitiously go back to his room but of course he's caught by feli, who is LITERALLY the one in charge of all the magical barriers in the castle so he Knows lmao. he's sympathetic, though, and is like "sigh... the things you two have to go through because of an old fairytale 😢"

i know i wrote this for angsty smut but i wanna give them a happy ending 😖😖😖

remember how the joker can manifest any of the marks of king/queen/jack/ace? the way i want it to end is there being something that actually threatens ludwig's life and gil is the one who saves him, after which he manifests the mark of the ace.

(also forgot to mention kiku is of course the queen of hearts, he and feli are childhood friends and they are also in love. so lmao, by the end of this now you have 2 obnoxious couples running this kingdom. on brand for being the "kingdom of hearts" tbh.)

other kingdoms' royals watching all this and being like these bitches gay... good for them, good for them.

as ace of hearts, gil is gonna HATE the pomp and formality of the court and governance so he's gonna paw off as much of that stuff to itapan, who grew up among all that so they don't mind.

feli meanwhile is just really fucking relieved because hearts hasn't had an ace in like over a century. kiku's parents were always working overtime, running themselves ragged! no wonder kiku's mom died in childbirth; she couldn't take it anymore.

and yet, now feli is forced to watch ludwig and kiku try to do everything by themselves again. nuh-uh. wrong. y'all doing too much; you'll kill yourselves from that much overwork + overwhelm + misery!

thus, feli is the jack of hearts. thus, he has the most powerful sign in the history of ever. thus, he's also a pacifist. hates fighting because he knows it won't solve anything.

but... he also knows people of hearts are super fucking afraid of arcana. arcana is literally illegal and has been for centuries. thus, feli just does what he can. he helps out his king and queen when they are tryna do too much, but also knows nobody in hearts listens to reason or logic.

thus, feli hopes + yearns.

thus, feli is RELIEVED when gilbert comes into his own, manifests the mark of the ace of spades.

thus, feli happily lets brand new ace of spaces gil do all the shady, confidential, report-directly-to-the-king type jobs. gil's sign+arcana are both stronger and better suited for combat, too, anyway—so he should be the one doing that in the first place!

feli and kiku are also just glad to have gilbert around becayse for once they're actually seeing ludwig HAPPY like wtf

to expand on this: itapan who are so used to seeing ludwig be so polite and restrained being bewildered by the way he passionately bickers with gilbert over the smallest things.

itapan who are used to ludwig being professional and distant and inscrutable being so fucking shocked at how easily gilbert can goad him into almost missing meetings in favor of making out.

itapan who have so far accepted that ludwig smiling is a rare and treasured occasion and ludwig laughing is almost unheard of suddenly hearing him burst into laughter bc of something gil said that didn't even seem all that funny.

he's so in love it's fucking pathetic honestly

but i live for sappy gerpru so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

+++ EXTRA: LUDWIG VS. DIPLOMACY +++

> how's ludwig doing diplomatically?

ludwig literally has his hands full just trying to manage the court and domestic matters that his queen is worried enough to try giving him magical therapy sessions.

♥️♦️ diplomacy:
- francis: aww... it must suck to have a border with spades 😔.
- ludwig: you literally do... have a border with spades.
- francis: then you know exactly why we won't be sending you any reinforcements! ✨

♥️♥️ diplomacy:
you know the lord of stars, whom ludwig must get to cooperate with him so they don't get fucking steamrolled by arthur overpowered kirkland? it's feliks. y'know, poland hetalia.
- ludwig: please... just send your troops here...
- feliks: didn't you use to be a farmer?
- ludwig: we just need to pass through—
- feliks: also, weren't you technically my subject? why should i listen to you now?
- tolys (whispering): uh, because he has the mark of the king?
- feliks: oh right, i forgot about that part.
- ludwig: so, you'll send us the troops? 🥺
- feliks: nah.
- ludwig: huh??? why not 😭
- feliks: idk. i just don't feel like it.
- ludwig: ?????????
- feliks: bye!
- tolys: [sigh] that is all, your majesty. please go home for now. to the capital. rest.

tolys is feliks' aide and is from a prominent family. basically a caseworker because his lord is a mess. (still loves him, though!)

ludwig and gilbert's grandfather used to work for them and was quite loyal. gilbert even met tolys a few times when his grandpa had him make deliveries to tolys' family's estate. they barely remember each other, though. gilbert dreaded those jobs because they were all part of that whole "find penitence from your sins through hard labor" thing.

the worst part was, it wasn't even for anything he did—but for the tattoo on the back of his neck, which supposedly marked him as evil from the day he was born. super unfair, but to be fair, people did have generations of legends and stories repeated about the joker king and how evil he was.

i definitely need to have ludwig kiss the tattoo at some point when they get together. like, the two of them are in bed. ludwig pulls his brother close to plant a firm kiss on his nape, right over the tattoo. he laces their fingers together and tells gil, "you're not evil. i know you're not because you're the one who taught me how to be good."

sigh... i just made myself sad thinking of ludwig's sign. his conflict for most of the story is that he seemingly has no sign, or if he does have one, he is blocked from using it somehow. it causes some in the court of hearts to doubt his kingship, and even question how he'll get them through a war with spades.

for the years since his coronation, he's been ultra strict with himself. as if to compensate for his inability to access his sign, he has instead earned a reputation for being super hardworking and efficient in every aspect of his royal life. the court of hearts is pretty much forced to respect him because they CANNOT dig up his dirty laundry; itapan will never let them!

emotionally, he's really repressed too. it's partly to keep up that hard-working and efficient reputation, but partly also because he still hasn't processed what happened with gilbert.

kiku, despite not knowing what happened, can see that ludwig is hurting and wants to help him work through that in order to access his sign. throughout the story, they have these sessions where kiku uses his own sign to try and suss out where the blockage lies exactly, to little success. it seems the more he tries, the further ludwig closes up.

(kiku's sign btw is basically being able to "read others' hearts" which is, historically, actually more of a king's sign. it has limited applications, but it makes him pretty good at gauging people's intentions and even often being able to tell if someone's lying to him.)

feli, meanwhile, sees little point to all this. in his perspective, the attempts to access ludwig's sign do nothing but hurt him, so why keep at it? lud's a mighty fine king even without a sign, and the opinions of some nobles and courtiers don't change that.

but as the story goes on, and thanks to gilbert-related shenanigans, ludwig gets put in situations where he loses his cool and abandons that stoic, repressed, efficient front... and that finally makes his sign emerge.

and that sign is "changing hearts" which, if he were in full control of it, would enable him to affect any size crowd of people's emotions. for instance, with one command, he could have an army be taken over by a tidal wave of loyalty and dedication right before sending them off to war. but if ludwig CAN'T control it, the sign would involuntarily surface in his most emotional moments and basically telegraph those feelings to everyone around him, making them feel that way, too. horrifying. you could imagine the disastrous effects if he happened to echo a depressive state to those around him...

the reason i made myself sad is realizing the even tighter iron grip he'll need to have on his emotions so his sign doesn't go out of control ☹️

gil's sign is "mirroring" which is super fucking versatile. in close combat, he can give any hit he receives right back to the opponent. that's how he escaped the soldiers trying to kill him back when the sign first emerged, he did that instinctively bc survival situation. the more important and powerful aspect of this though is that he can also mirror other signs. t's how he'll ultimately stand a chance against arthur.

also i imagine at a critical point there needs to be a scene where he mirrors kiku's sign and through that learns that everything lud's doing is really for him ☹️☹️☹️

oh god, i can imagine gilbert mirroring ludwig's sign and them being able to feel each other's emotions bc they're both echoing it using the sign. that would be super intense during- [gets spritzed with holy water spray bottle] gil mirroring lud's sign to project the pure bliss he feels as lud enters- [spritzed spritzed spritzed]

also, i would imagine ludwig not wanting to use his sign en masse to manipulate others' emotions (he's a good boy!!!!) so gil would be the only person he'll voluntarily use it on—because he knows gil can do it to him, too. THAT'S amore.

tbh this au's mostly just flimsy context to justify the scenes i want to happen.

TOP 5 SCENES UNREIN CARDVERSE AU EXISTS FOR:
- (5) unspecified scene of gil kneeling in front of lud, kissing his hand, and calling him "my king"
- (4) angsty dungeon/castle sex scene i mentioned earlier
- (3) confrontation scene with the guards after lud's mark gets verified
- (2) gil mirroring kiku's sign
- (1) gil saving lud in that final face-off against arthur

anyway...

feli's sign is drawing energy from light and being able to use that in a variety of ways, but it's pretty hard to control and requires a lot of focus to use. i mentioned before he was in charge of all the magical barriers in the castle;s that's only one of the applications. he basically draws from a bunch of light sources and uses them to create this translucent barrier around the grounds that can singe whoever goes through and alert him when it happens.

it's for this reason he loves taking afternoon siestas in the sun—just feeling the energy from the sunlight course through him, and at times redirecting it with his fingers. it could be a really powerful sign for combat, but feli doesn't like fighting. he's a pacifist, always and forever.

[...]

IM NOT EVEN DECIDED ON HOW GERPRU MEET IN THE PRESENT- wait. lemme cook:

gerpru's first meeting in the present will be initiated by gilbert. remember, gil's goal here is to turn ludwig against hearts, and for that he needs to win back his brother's trust first.

and it's ludwig's desire to understand gilbert that leads him down a series of choices between his duties to hearts vs seeking to make sense of gil's actions.

but... as lud lets himself be distracted, in comes the threat of spades. this should drive a wedge between ludwig and kiku, who would rightfully think that lud's neglect is what allowed arthur to believe he can get away with this war.

and the central conflict is: gerpru are positioned as enemies, but they don't want to be.

from gilbert's side, this manifests as "why should we let these marks dictate our lives?" like, if ludwig believes gil can choose not to be defined by the mark of the joker, then lud can choose not to let himself be defined by the mark of the king either.

besides, as gilbert sees it, hearts never did much for them anyway. growing up in stars, near the border, they felt pretty neglected.

but as the story goes on, it becomes clear that ludwig just isn't going to abandon hearts. his sense of duty won't let him, especially since the only times he acted selfishly resulted inadvertently in the goddamned war with spades.

thus, gilbert's progression is to "okay i get it. you may be willing to die for this kingdom... but i'm not going to let you. because you're my only family left. my brother. i love you more than literally every single fucking thing in this world + all other worlds. arthur can burn all of arcadia—for all i care—but he IS NOT allowed to hurt YOU."

the funny thing is, a happy ending with ace of hearts gilbert is possible because kiku would figure out that while gil has no sympathy whatsoever to hearts, he IS unfailingly loyal to ludwig which basically means gil's an asset as long as lud is still on the side of hearts/kiku. but that does not mean kiku has to like gil. or vice versa. endgame snarky prupan who only get along for ludwig's sake :p

prupan glaring at each other over the dinner table and gerita going "not this again"

i'm also thinking about the final battle with arthur again, specifically how i want it to end:

like, i don't want gilbert to beat him. it doesn't make sense to me. arthur's been using that sign all his life, and ego breakdown or not, there's no way gil overpowers him. so i want gil to be able to fight back at first, but eventually arthur will be able to retaliate and almost win again. he will be in full power-mad mode, and then for my own pure self-induldgence, chains will spring up out of nowhere, suddenly holding arthur back just as he was about to strike gilbert down :^)

and you know who fights with chains :^) :^) :^)

sir jack of spades himself, who thought this war was stupid from the beginning. to set this up of course i need to have arthur specifically asking yao to aid the war effort and yao firmly refusing via thoroughly roasting arthur's reasoning for it

alfred will also get a bonk from yao later of course for letting arthur loose on the world

yao [cuffs alfred on the head]: this is all because you can't stop being HORNY

"honestly if arthur just got regularly dommed he wouldn't be like this, please work on that" - yao @ alfred, probably

alfred: building a harem is too much work i'd rather invent new guns ://

if only spades had an ace... someone could balance arthur out

[UPDATE: ALISTAIR! GO TO ARTHUR DOC, I'LL TELL YOU ALL ABOUT HIM. SOURCE—AM SCOTTISH🪄]

+++ CHAPTER OUTLINES +++

CHAPTER 1
- memories of playing chess with gilbert
- "i only want to heal the pain in your heart, my king" / magical therapy scene
- having remembered gilbert, ludwig goes to the royal library to read about the joker again
- everyone knew the story of the joker king, but not ludwig, who had to be told by soldiers with rough voices as they held his brother down, away from him, and exposed the mark of the joker on the back of his neck. everyone knew the story of the joker king, except ludwig, who had to learn it on the day he lost his brother.
- 

Text: 

Chapter Text

why are there four kingdoms?

there are four kingdoms because they're all in a stalemate. none can attempt to conquer any of the others. let's run through each scenario:

spades:
- can't conquer clubs because they'd probably lose, but even if they won, they have no hope of occupying it for long because it's a stupidly big, cold wasteland. if they tried to occupy only west clubs, the beaten government of clubs would just bide their time in the east and take it back.
- can't conquer hearts because the rich, fertile, and smart diamonds would see their own demise coming shortly after, and thus would send material and military support to hearts. spades can't possibly hope to match those deep pockets.
- can't conquer diamonds because clubs and hearts both hate spades too much to let it have access to those riches and fertile land. they also hate each other, but would cooperate and crush spades in a pincer.

clubs:
it has problems occupying itself, so it has bigger things to worry about before it can even think of expansion.

diamonds:
they might have very deep pockets, very fertile land, and great natural defenses, but these same defenses also make it hard to expand outwards. they're also the smallest of the four kingdoms by far and they're very aware of that. that's why the kingdom has turned itself into a fortress under the direction of the current jack of diamonds.

hearts:
- doesn't share a border with clubs.
- can't conquer diamonds because it's a fucking fortress, and also spades and clubs would put their differences aside and crush hearts in a pincer.
- can't conquer spades because it has a superior military, and also clubs would intervene if hearts got too close to the region of greens (split between northern spades and southwest clubs, the region of pikes).

the things that (supposedly) change this and give arthur the audacity to invade hearts in the story:
- diamonds' rebellious region of bells prevents it from sending any aid whatsoever to hearts.
- hearts' sudden transition to king ludwig (teenager), the power conflicts with his queen, and that whole thing about him apparently having a joker for a brother, whom he can't even apprehend and kill. we all know how the story of the joker king ends.
- alfred's secret affair with the king of clubs.

Chapter Text

opener

In ancient times, the War of the Suits raged through the great continent of Arcadia. Dozens of small kingships and fiefdoms vied for control of the lands and waterways, and stopped at nothing to achieve their ambitions. Schemes, betrayal, and the use of the dark magical art of Arcana created ever-shifting alliances between these middling powers. Should any one kingdom amass too much power in the eyes of its rivals, those rivals would temporarily put aside their differences to tear it down. The common people lived short, unpleasant lives—fearing exploitation and cruelty at the hands of their desperate lords, who wanted to cling to power by any means necessary. And yet, should their lord fall, only greater cruelty awaited them at the hands of a new sovereign.

Peace would only come thanks to the arrival of the Messenger, who descended from the heavens with the following decree: Arcadia shall have no more than four kingdoms, so named Clubs in the north, Spades in the west, Diamonds in the east, and Hearts in the south. Any kingships therein shall become regions and trade away their independence for a share of rulership. The divine marks of King, Queen, Jack, and Ace will determine who shall lead a kingdom's people.

Chapter Text

FRUK TANGENT

francis is the king of diamonds, the smallest among the four kingdoms but the wealthiest. the kingdom of diamonds only has two regions, diamonds and bells (the one that wants independence and of which matthew is the lord). diamonds produces lots of wealth but mostly keeps that to itself, with its current jack preferring hoarding and building walled fortress cities while its king is more concerned with throwing lavish parties and being a patron of the arts.

now, the reason arthur envies francis is mainly due to magic. francis' sign is the complete opposite to arthur's: he can make life flourish at the cost of his own hunger and exhaustion. making plants grow so diamonds never has a bad harvest, using most of his time for public audience curing sick people and animals. he's a disney princess who fucks and sucks and gets blackout drunk with the best of em. all in contrast to arthur, who aside from all you already know about him, is also really fucking repressed in this intimacy department bc he can't trust anyone.

side note: due to francis' personality + the current queen (lilli) being a child, it's her older brother and regent, jack of spades basch, who mostly runs diamonds. his sign turns anything his hands touch into stone, so he's always wearing gloves. basch keeps the account book straight and everything running. he's the one who loves fortresses and stability and telling other kingdoms to fuck off when diamonds isn't very clearly benefitting from an interaction.

anyway, getting back on topic: here's a nice illustration of fruk's dynamic in the main story.

gil presents arthur with a peculiar package one day at the castle. (ignore the fact that gil is working for arthur for now. i will explain the context of that later.) usually, he would get rid of such a thing on sight since he knows arthur's schedule and therefore knows if he's expecting a package, and this one isn't on the schedule. so, he goes to do exactly that, get rid of it, but is stopped by arthur himself.

arthur takes the crate apart with magic, to reveal a statue of a person with various kinds of flowers poking out all over the stone. "i see my latest assassination attempt was a failure." upon gil asking him what the fuck that means, arthur explains that the statue is in fact the corpse of an assassin he hired

"who was he for?" gil asks.

"francis bonnefoy, the king of diamonds," arthur monotones.

gil stares at him, then at the statue-corpse. "you don't seem so bothered he failed."

"oh i'm bothered," arthur says. "not by his death and the accompanying floral arrangement, i expected *that* much."

"then by what?"

"that frilly bastard is mocking me," arthur glares at the statue.

"how so?"

the queen chuckles humorlessly. "by showing off how he has his jack at his beck and call. it's sickening."

that's exactly what the "mockery" was. francis was like my jack loves me but yours hates you, i win again. what arthur hears is "how can you expect to rule your subjects when you can't even rule your cards?"

Chapter Text

CARDVERSE v2 it's actually about them this time

the basic premise of it is king of hearts ludwig whose own heart is divided between his role in the kingdom and his love for gilbert, and joker gilbert who hates the kingdom for taking his brother away from him.

in my take on cardverse, queens and jokers are born with their marks (on the back of the neck), the king's mark (on the chest) manifests soon as the current one dies, and the jack's (on the back of the hand) and ace's (on the shoulder) can manifest at any point in their lives.

jokers are wildcards with strong magic who could potentially manifest any of the marks of king, queen, jack, or ace. they are usually hunted down because of fear inspired by the legend of the joker king: a joker who manifested the mark of the king, and due to their lust for power, killed the rightful king to usurp their throne. each kingdom has their own version of this ancient story, so which was the real one has long been lost to history.

marks are more likely to manifest within the same family. it's why royals often marry; their heirs are more likely to have marks too. though, of course, sometimes marks still manifest on the absolute most random citizens. speaking of which...

gilbert and ludwig were peasants raised by their grandpa in the southwestern outskirts of hearts, near the border with spades. their grandpa knew what the mark of the joker meant, so he treated gil like he was cursed, working him as hard as he can from childhood and immersing him in church so he could "repent" and hopefully not manifest the terrible things that mark was meant for. the tattoo on the back of his neck supposedly marked him as evil from the day he was born, and their grandpa raised him as strictly as he could, hoping that gil would somehow find penitence from the sins he was born with through hard labor.

young gilbert worked nonstop around their village, though nobody wanted to be friends with him. they saw him as weird but nothing to be afraid of. the one really afraid of him is his grandfather and he'd convinced him that he should never allow anybody to get close to him because nobody could ever know about his mark. it was how he kept gil subservient; "all my abuse is to protect you" type shit. as a result, people mostly stayed away from gil because he radiated the energy that he wanted to be left alone. by the time their grandfather died, gilbert had internalized all that and believed he doesn't need anyone else. apart from ludwig, that is.

obviously, all that was no way to grow up, and the only reason gilbert didn't turn out exactly as their grandpa had feared was because he had ludwig. no matter how difficult things got, gilbert would still muster a smile for ludwig. he'd shower him with all the food and trinkets he scored whenever he went into town, teach him chess using a board he scored off some soldiers, and put him to sleep with stories every night no matter how tired he was from work during the day. he'd sneak away from his duties to play with ludwig to make sure he wouldn't get lonely, even though he often got punished for that. ludwig wouldn't fully understand the meaning of the many scrapes and bruises that often littered gilbert's skin until their grandfather finally died, after which they stopped appearing.

even when it was just the two of them, though, gilbert was still working as hard as ever, continuing his routine of penitence even when there was no one left to punish him. he did his best not to let ludwig see that side of him because he wanted him to stay as carefree as possible; as long as ludwig could stay bright and curious and not weighed down by the world, gilbert believed he could keep going on. ludwig, meanwhile, has kinda always been in love with gil. his brother was his hero, the person he loved most in the world, and he would do anything for him.

then one day, when ludwig was 15, unbeknownst to the two, the current king of hearts died... and ludwig immediately fell sick. he was bedridden with a fever and was in extreme pain for about a week, with gilbert worried out of his fucking mind. his usually unbreakable disposition collapsed, and he found himself in tears by ludwig's bedside, begging god or the devil or whoever was willing to listen not to take away the one good thing in his life. and since god has a sense of humor, ludwig eventually made a full recovery, but with a newly manifested mark of the king of hearts. so he did survive, but he was going to be taken away anyway.

after the previous king's death, a search was immediately underway to find the new one. it took some time for officials from the capital to reach the village where gilbert and ludwig lived, but they did eventually reach them, and at first gilbert didn't want to let them in because he knew what would happen. however, he was no match for multiple guards so they got their way and were able to magically verify the authenticity of ludwig's mark.

wanna know how they "magically verified" the mark? they took a knife and made a small slash on his chest, over the tattoo, which made it glow to kind of "repair" itself over the broken skin. that's the magical property of the tattoo - even if you cut out the skin containing it, it'll remanifest itself.

at this point, gilbert was starting to panic again, which seemed strange to the officers because shouldn't he be happy his brother's the new king? so, they had gil restrained and that's when they discovered the mark of the joker on the back of his neck. they went, "ah so that's why... apparently the evil joker would go so far as kill his own brother to usurp the throne huh. good thing we got to you in time, your majesty."

ludwig was bewildered at the mere suggestion. "brother would never!" but the officers then went on about how the joker is this and that and blah blah blah and it sounded exactly like all the shit their grandpa used to say about gilbert, making ludwig freeze in shock. the officers took this as acquiescence, and turn to gilbert to have him struck down right there and then. gilbert thrashed and struggled in tears, "you don't really believe that, do you? you're my family, the only thing that makes my life worth living!"

and due to the life-threatening situation, that strong innate magic gilbert had been suppressing all his life finally broke free. he overpowered the officers and broke out of there, and with one last tearful glance at his shell shocked brother, he propelled himself as far away as he could. that was when his grudge against the kingdom of hearts started. thus begins their years of separation.

there are two kinds of magic in this world, the signs those with marks have, which is a unique ability, and arcana, which is the type of magic you learn, spells and lots of useful practical things. all the royals have signs, but not all of them have the magical potential necessary to learn arcana. it's rare for royals (except the joker) to have strong magical potential, but arthur is the exception to this rule and happens to be a prodigy at arcana. good thing he's in spades, too, because arcana is illegal everywhere else. and so, for gilbert, having newly manifested a terrifying degree of magical potential, there is really only one place to go to lick his wounds and avoid capture.

to cut a long story short, gilbert travels to spades and subsequently gets magically located by arthur, who offers to train him in arcana in exchange for becoming a secret servant of sorts to carry out his dirty work. of course, at first gilbert doesn't want to trust him (he is from hearts after all and the relations with spades are icy at best), but arthur informs him that as a joker, he'll never find a place anywhere else. it's his choice whether he wants to constantly be on the run, or take the golden opportunity he's been offered. gil asks if arthur's not afraid that he'll manifest the mark of the queen of spades and betray him, but arthur is little concerned, remarking that if that does happen, gilbert will still have to kill him, and demonstrates with magic that he isn't getting close to arthur's abilities any time soon.

so gilbert starts to work for him while honing his arcana. he gets very strong, and after years of training, actually beats arthur in a one-on-one fight, but just as he thinks he's won, arthur unleashes his real weapon: his sign. the wild grass on the field they're fighting in begins to wilt from where arthur sits collapsed, and before gilbert can process what's going on, he is surrounded by menacing black flames.

arthur doesn't use his sign at full strength often because it's so destructive; he has to suck the life out of the all the living things around him to gather the energy necessary for those flames. so he mostly relies on arcana. but on the battlefield, his sign can be absolutely lethal, turning the life force of his targets into more fuel to make the flames rage ever more. it's also really fucking difficult to control, and if he's not careful, at some point he won't be able to stop himself from just taking and taking.

and that's just the backstory! the main plot is about the following conflicts:

- ludwig navigating the court of hearts and his responsibilities as king, wanting most of all to keep the allegiance of his queen and jack (kiku and feli) as his actions regarding the matter of the joker seem to them more and more contradictory (since the version of the story they've been told was the officers' version, the joker trying to kill the new king to keep him from ascending to the throne).

- ludwig wanting to rebuild his relationship gilbert and understand his actions because he's changed a lot in the present compared from the last time they saw each other, but refusing to have to choose between his brother and his kingdom.

- ludwig's struggle to activate his sign --- a unique magical power all royals are supposed to have --- due to his unresolved emotional shit.

- ludwig's quest to both find gilbert while keeping him out of the clutches of those who want him dead resulting in oversights and bad decisions that lead to a war with spades --- and subsequent tension with kiku for letting that happen.

about arthur, he's a lot of fun for me to write. the way i explained it to my friend was that, he's the chosen one and he knows it. strongest magic of any queen in spades history, and his king basically lets him do whatever he wants

the king of spades, alfred, has little interest in actually running the kingdom. he's carefree, blunt, and mostly oblivious to people's feelings (especially arthur's). he lets his queen have the reins because he much prefers holing himself in his workshop, tweaking and testing his many inventions. he's okay with arthur carving out a path of destruction through hearts, for example, as long as some soldiers will bring his inventions along and field test them.

as for the war:

the kingdom of hearts is made up of several regions, one of which is the southwestern region of stars, which is where gilbert and ludwig are from and is also where the border with spades is. hearts kind of expanded over time to include this area, and a lot of it was a long time ago part of the historical region of axes.

axes used to be a kingdom, then a region of spades, then got smaller and smaller that whatever parts were left in spades' control just got included in the main region of spades. so they have this historical claim.

but, of course, the real reason they are using this historical claim is because the area happens to be fertile, arable land.

add to this, it's kind of been a longtime political ambition among spades royals to "get axes back" but they haven't been able to do it because 1) hearts is stable and prepared to defend it and 2) no ruler of spades has been quite strong and motivated enough.

for the first time in a while, neither of these is true. hearts has a new king who, as i mentioned earlier, is going to make some bad/distracted decisions due to his focus on finding the joker, and the current queen of spades might just have enough power and charisma to pull it off.

as for the other kingdoms:

diamonds is allied to hearts but only on paper. in practice, they don't actually do much. over the course of the story, ludwig and kiku actually ask for their assistance in the matter with spades, but francis' reply pretty much boils down to "lol it must suck to share a border with spades" :p this is thanks to the influence of his jack, basch, who has strong opinions about diamonds getting involved in other kingdoms' affairs. for a jack, he holds much more sway than usual because 1) his little sister lilli (a child) is the queen and has designated him as her regent until she comes of age and 2) francis is the kind of king who's more interested in throwing lavish parties and being a patron of the arts than actually running the country. this results in him happily letting his jack have his way, leaving basch with virtually no opposition. since he came to power, he's done a lot of centralizing reforms and turned the capital into a fortress.

basch and francis agree that this whole conflict with spades is the perfect proving ground for the new king of hearts, letting them see what ludwig can handle and what they can expect of him in the future as an ally. besides, they have their own problems. as far as the four kingdoms go, diamonds is the most compact, only made up of the regions of diamonds and bells. since diamonds hosts the capital and the entire government apparatus, the people of bells are treated as second-class, paying lots of taxes in produce and coin for not much in return. this has made their standing with the current lord of bells, matthew, really testy. they know he wants independence for bells, so ideally they have to make sure the situation never escalates to that, but if it does, well, that's exactly what basch is preparing for.

as for clubs, they didn't have a king for a long time, with the queen and jack (erzsi and roderich) ruling together and eventually getting married. ivan's ascension to the throne was a bit of an anastasia story (tell me if you want the elaboration on that), but what's important is that his present role in the court of clubs is atypical of a king in that he's kind of a wildcard who does a lot of secret missions and research while letting his queen and jack continue on as they have. ivan only occasionally involves himself with courtly affairs with an outsider's perspective when he feels the decision-making is too stale without him.

clubs is the biggest of the four kingdoms, but most of its land is sparsely populated, and there's a disconnect between the capital and the provinces. ivan is originally from the remotest northern region of clubs, so he brings some much needed insight into the court, which is composed of people who only know of their warmer homes in the cities and are only concerned about outplaying each other to gain standing and clout. most of the time, though, ivan works more closely with the ace of clubs, antonio, who is a military official. they share an understanding that what with the queen and jack focused on courtly affairs and the everyday trifles of governing what is closest to the seat of power, it falls to them to consolidate clubs' grip on the rest of its territory.

clubs and spades are also allied. to counter the alliance between diamonds and hearts (the red alliance), they've formed the black alliance. however, this alliance is pretty much a complete sham because everyone knows the relations between clubs and spades are so icy and so fraught with their own border conflict over spades' northernmost region of greens that it's only a matter of time before they backstab each other.

Chapter Text

the OTHER cardverse amerus

Summary: As an alternative to all out war between their kingdoms, the young King of Spades asks the Crown Prince of Clubs for his hand in marriage.

the short version of it is basically rusame meet in battle, and alfred is so impressed by the way ivan fights that he falls in love with him right then and there and asks ivan to marry him once the battle is over. for circumstantial reasons, they have to part ways, but the next time they meet, ivan takes alfred up on his offer.

however, what makes it fun in my opinion is the context. alfred is the young new king of spades while ivan is slightly older than him but still a prince of clubs. his father, the king of clubs, is quite abusive and exploits ivan's love and loyalty by always sending him out on impossible missions with no regard for whether or not he'll survive, and any success is only met by an even more unreasonable next demand. the king's goal is to become immortal so he'll never have to give up his throne, and he'll sacrifice his own heir to do it.

ivan meets alfred in battle when both of them get isolated from the rest of their forces. the war they're fighting is over disputed territory between clubs and spades. up to this point, alfred was famous for being an undefeated warrior and commander whom no one could match, fighting personally in every one of his campaigns as a matter of pride. but when ivan comes intimately close to killing him, all he can think about is how beautiful ivan looks as he does it. alfred says that he's fallen in love, and claims their meeting must be a once in a lifetime opportunity, a fated encounter, and there's no way he's letting ivan slip away from him afterwards.

ivan is stunned. he thinks alfred is fucking crazy, of course, 

more cardverse rusame lol

ok so! the vision is at some fancy party in the spades royal palace. not sure what it's supposed to be celebrating but it might be the rekindling of spades' claims on axes under arthur's new campaign. arthur himself doesn't seem to be enjoying the party much; he's sulking by himself with a glass of wine because even with all his efforts, his king and jack still neglect him. yao isn't there (since he doesn't support the war) meanwhile alfred is there but only physically; he was forced to come as a formality but he's just looking out the window wishing he could be back in his workshop with his babies (inventions).

cue the entrance of a beautiful, mysterious lady with long, flowing platinum blond hair. no one at the party knows her, but her clothes give away that she's not from spades. even among the foreign guests and nobility invited bc they support the war, she stands out. to everyone's surprise, she even catches the eye of their king — noted to be forever disinterested in anything that isn't a weapon or machine.

everyone's watching when she catches alfred's eye and brazenly asks the king of spades for a dance. out of a mix of curiosity and amusement at her forwardness, he accepts. they exchange pleasant flirtations during the dance until the she notes his lack of a consort. (since, if the royals aren't gonna get together, it's custom for them to take consorts.) alfred isn't shocked by the question since he gets it all the time, but instead of giving the usual noncommittal answer, he's compelled to tell this lady the truth.

so alfred tells her that sorry, he has no plans of taking one any time soon. when she asks why, he says that his heart already belongs to someone, someone who can never become his consort. at this, the lady smiles, and breaks the illusion for alfred only, revealing himself as ivan. "you don't happen to mean me, do you, your majesty?"

"how did you- to show up here is..."

"don't worry, you're the only one who can see me for who i really am."

"your sign is truly remarkable, isn't it?"

"you're right that i can never become your consort, but just for tonight, won't you show me a taste of what that would've been like?"

"with pleasure."

then, they dance and drink and party the night away, with no one the wiser that the spade king's heart firmly belongs to the king of clubs.

that was it btw

the whole vision was just that

rusame tricking everyone lol

ugh i can just imagine when cardverse rusame have sex they're gonna get SO MUCH mileage out of the consort thing

alfred is so fucking weak for ivan acting and talking like he's his consort

for every vision of them romantically ballroom dancing with added loyalty-testing illusions there has to be corresponding rough sex afterwards

and that is why arthur doesn't bother looking for him the next day lol

recall how spades and clubs diplomatic relations are a bit icy as well

they still technically have disputed territory

ivan of course will get a bonk from erszi and a huffy rant about how he's an idiot from roderich

sigh... must be nice to be in love... they do the most irrational shit

Chapter Text

CARDVERSE (arthur & spades)

gonna find a way to have arthur participate in this story too so i can have all my three favorites.

haha...what if...warmonger spade queen arthur who's only too happy to take advantage of the heart kingdom's instability to redraw their borders in his favor while his king and enabler just lets him? then it'll be at a battle that he'll use his unfair magical advantage to isolate ludwig and kill him? and that's when gil swoops in? :-)

alfred in this: "you wanna start a war with the kingdom of hearts artie? yeah sure do whatever you want. anyway i just called to say i'm extending my vacation in the kingdom of clubs for another month, hope you don't mind xoxo"

also since cardverse is an inherently bizarre universe at the end of the war there's gonna be a treaty and alfred's just gonna pat ludwig companionably on the back and be like "sorry about that dude. my queen did go power-mad there for a little bit, but don't worry, i'll take care of him. good luck on your end!" and ludwig and gilbert are just like goddamn that man is eccentric.

but pruk are gonna hate each other for life //affectionate sigh//

my cardverse arthur is still my favorite, he's basically the chosen one and he knows it. and he's EVIL: strongest magic of any queen in spades history and he uses it to be a fucking warmonger and harass hearts about their shared border.

OH I JUST REMEMBERED PETER. HE ISN'T IN THIS BUT IF HE WAS, ARTHUR WOULD'VE KILLED HIM WHEN THEY WERE KIDS, WOULDN'T HE? BC THEY BOTH HAD MARKS BUT ARTHUR WANTED NO COMPETITION FOR RULING SPADES. AND THAT'S WHY HE THINKS KING OF HEARTS LUDWIG IS WEAK FOR BEING UNABLE TO KILL HIS JOKER BROTHER?

arthur declares war just bc he thinks he can win. in the story, the reason he actually harasses ludwig over their shared border is bc he refuses to recognize him as king and his reasoning for that is "since you're too weak to kill your brother i'm not gonna waste my time treating with you if he's gonna usurp your throne soon anyway."

he's a lame angry bastard <3

arthur's sign is actually kinda similar to feli's now that i think about it. his sign is drawing out energy from life instead of light, most commonly in the form of his trademark black flames. like, imagine him standing in a grassy field and the grass around him slowly dying as he amasses a menacing ball of black fire. if he decided to direct that at a mass of people, an army for instance, them burning would only make the fire stronger.

super op combat magic. if he was calm and collected and not using too much, he can actually put it back. but when his emotions are flaring he can only take take take. and the thing about hearts is that has vast swaths of very fertile land, absolutely full of life. and spades is much more compact and limited in that regard, with the way arthur draws from spades' lands to fuel his conquests not helping in that regard. so that's mainly why he wants to expand. 

also speaking of kings and queens not having to be married, the reason arthur can do what he wants is bc alfred gives him free rein. alfred in this is really carefree and mostly tinkers with experimental weaponry (so yeah arthur can declare war on whoever he wants as long as alfred gets some good data on his latest inventions). and when he's not doing that, he's away in clubs on his scandalous affair with ivan :p

just imagine this dude who's supposed to be the spade king and has magic superstrength but he's a huge fucking nerd inventor-type who uses that strength to lift and throw around heavy equipment, and he's so oblivious to most people's feelings that he's unknowingly accelerating arthur's ego breakdown by letting him be a warmonger. AND he shamelessly relentlessly chases the king of club's ass and EVERYONE knows.

> The fact that this whole story is just filled with so much pain and emotion for pruger but it's just nothing for alfred 😭💀💀
> Just another day

YEAH HE DOESN'T CARE THAT MUCH, HE HAS EXPERIMENTS TO RUN AND EXPLICIT LETTERS TO SEND TO IVAN LMAO

and @ arthur being like "bonk! no more wars for you! our people are struggling, go sort out some taxes"

yao in this au is not putting up with usuk's (but mostly arthur's) bullshit. despite being the jack of spades, his loyalty is to the province of shields first and foremost. (side note: provinces within the four kingdoms are named after alternate cardsuits. the disputed territory between hearts and spades is another such province, stars.) instead of serving the king and queen in the capital, yao maintains his post as the lord of shields and cares more about regional matters.

he thinks spades is made up of a bunch of upstarts with little resemblance to the once mighty axes (pre-spades kingdom that contained most of the modern day provinces and more) they try to emulate. just imagine arthur having his ego breakdown meanwhile yao couldn't care less and is just sipping tea in his shields estate. arthur wants to amass support and troops for his war effort but yao is like "lol stfu i'm not giving you more grain when the central spades government continues to give us jackshit. just because we're the breadbasket doesn't make us a charity."

yao manifests the mark of the jack of spades after becoming de-facto patriarch of his family and lord of shields. a group of wealthy patrons conspire to assassinate his father and take advantage of the resulting power vacuum in shields to install a new lord more friendly to their business interests. however, shortly after his father's death, yao manifests the mark, steps up to keep his family together, and uses his newfound position as jack of spades to sway the court into letting him become the new lord. then he goes after the people who killed his father, using the very chains securing the gates of their fortresses to rip their throats out. yao has never cared for the royals or the court in the capital because he always saw how his father had to secure the interests and prosperity of the people of shields all on their own, and that's exactly what he plans to do to as lord, mark of the jack be damned.

yao cares very deeply, but only for his family and the province of shields. everyone else can go fuck themselves [[usuk especially]]. he is stark contrast to arthur, and this fact vexes arthur endlessly. where arthur is extremely selfish and destroyed any and all family he had to advance himself, yao dedicates his entire life and political and business genius into providing for his family and the province of shields more generally.

if i had the talent to write a fantasy political thriller, that's basically yao's story of becoming lord of shields. it took a lot of political alliances and backstabbing and longterm scheming to clear away his many relatives and others who were aiming to be the next lord, even with his mark and sign.

i encountered this one cardverse fic where arthur manifests the queen's mark and alfred has dreams about him as if compelling him to search for him.  it'd be nice if several years after this story, arthur's still as depressed and unfulfilled as ever, feeling neglected by his king while being barely tolerated by his jack. but one night he starts dreaming about the ace the same way as in that other fic just bc i like that idea a lot

since arthur does have some magical connections not entirely related to his sign and all

but the question is who

OH MY GOD WAIT

FFFFUCK I'M GETTING SOMETHING

 bringing in ace of spades allistair to have scoteng feat. thoroughly messing with arthur to pay him back for what he did to their other brother

to understand the payback, we must first talk about arthur's ascension to the throne.

it starts with arthur and allistair's mom realizing she'd just given birth to the new queen, and her first thought is that arthur would certainly be taken away from her to be raised as royalty if the government finds him. she doesn't want that to happen; she would very much like to raise her son, so she chooses to cover up baby arthur's mark, take allistair, and run. they move far away from the heart of the spades region, to the south, and start a new life.

but allistair is not a fan of their mom's decision. he believes it's selfish of her to just keep arthur from his destiny entirely. so as arthur grows up, allistair makes sure to tell him all the stories about royalty and the marks that he knows, hammering it in to arthur that he's special and destined for greatness and nobody can ever take that away from him. and arthur is enamored by all this. from the start, he's always been ambitious and had a bit of an ego (esp since their mom spoils him too). allistair doesn't realize how much he'd been feeding that until arthur's sign starts to manifest.

how does arthur's sign first manifest? well, a few years after their move, their mom gets close to a local and has her third son, peter. (guy runs off shortly afterwards.) peter is born with the mark of the joker, and as you know, the marks of the queen and joker are on the same spot, the back of the neck. mom and allistair know the meaning of the joker's mark, and this time there is no question this child must be hidden if he's to be protected, for the exact opposite reason as arthur.

but arthur... he sees his newborn baby brother who has a mark same as he does, and because of all that ego-feeding, his first thought is "does this mean i'm not special anymore?"

this only gets worse as peter grows up. their obviously mom shifts her attention to the new baby who needs more care, and she's even more protective towards him because unlike arthur who would only be taken away if discovered, peter would be killed. to arthur, though, it feels like getting abandoned.

he and allistair have an argument about this on their way home from an errand, in a field of tall grass, and when arthur turns from angry to livid, the grass around him wilts. he doesn't notice at first, but allistair does. he tries to get arthur's attention, to just stop for a moment because what the fuck is happening, but arthur keeps up the shouting match like "see? even *you* aren't listening to me anymore!" at that outburst, black flames erupt from his back, setting ablaze the grass he only now realizes have all died.

ali's terrified bc who wouldn't be lmao. arthur, on the other hand, responds to that fear with excitement. alistair goes, "how... did you do that?" and arthur's like "*me*? i did this?" and they're just both staring at the fire and dead grass around it, alistair with fear and arthur with a manic grin.

thus begins scoteng's slow estrangement alistair is just *scared* of arthur now and tries to distance himself because he's seen what he's capable of. however, arthur doesn't understand why ali's acting grim; manifesting his sign is the best thing that's ever happened to him. arthur's eyes are filled with wonder as he sucks the life out from a potted plant and uses it to make black flames dance on his fingers, but when alistair looks him, all he can see is the death and destruction arthur can so easily inflict.

it hurts me to give him such destructive powers but at the same time i'm like "yes make him even more evil"

arthur starts going out to use his sign whenever he has the chance, first to just random spots in the massive grassy plains near where they live, but as he hungers for stronger sources of energy, he starts taking on bigger plants and bushes at the edge of the woods. now, even though they live in a pretty isolated area, on the outskirts of town, arthur technically isn't allowed to go far alone. but since their mom's busy with peter, she doesn't notice, meanwhile alistair is still keeping his distance.

a breakthrough moment for arthur is when he's in the woods, about to suck the life out of a bush, but then it shakes. by impulse, he digs his hand into the bush and pulls out a small rabbit. and he's seen them before, but this time something is different. he can *feel* all the energy and life inside, so much more than the grass and bushes, calling to him, begging to be released from its container.

so he starts taking, just a little at first, one hand holding the rabbit and the other open to try and make a flame. the rabbit whimpers, but arthur quickly loses note of it when in his other hand appears a glowing ball of black flame that is so pure and so strong he can't stop looking at it. it's beautiful, and he can make it bigger, stronger, purer. he tells himself he's not going to suck out everything like he did with the grass or the bushes, but his grip tightens on the small creature, and he just keeps taking more. once the flame has grown so big he can't control it with a single hand anymore, he releases his grip on the rabbit without a glance, his eyes never straying from the ball of energy he's shaping in his hands, and he doesn't even notice it's dead.

gotta work up to humans somehow :^)

just noticed i've slowed the pace gradually and now it's at a crawl even though the entire point was to be a quick backstory to contextualize alistair torturing arthur with his sign in the present sksjfdhsb

to speed up again: arthur learns that what peter has is indeed the joker's mark by eavesdropping on alistair and their mom arguing. arthur had lost track of time earlier in the woods and is only sneaking back home when it's already evening. that's why mom and ali are arguing; she's mad that ali wasn't watching him.

anyway, this is where everything goes wrong because at that moment arthur remembers the joker as part of the stories alistair used to tell him when he was younger.

stories about the joker king who usurped what was rightfully someone else's by manifesting their mark.

suddenly all arthur can think about is how everything changed for him after peter was born: their mom turning all her attention to him, the distance that formed between arthur and alistair, etc. but now that arthur has his sign, that means he has the power to reclaim what's his.

you already know where this is going :^)

ALFRED SAGA

the glorious queen of spades is quite a sad pathetic bastard who hides behind his magical powers tbh. and i love him. i am holding him in my hands 🥺🤲 but anyway, onto how child alfred grows up as the king of spades with 20ish y.o arthur raising him.

it starts with arthur receiving distressed reports from farmers and villagers in the northern spades province of greens. apparently, some unknown monster has been terrorizing their livestock, collapsing their trees, and in some cases destroying houses and buildings. of course, he has his suspicions on who this might be considering the previous king of spades just recently died.

when arthur gets there, it turns out to be 5 y.o orphan alfred having newly manifested the mark of the king, with a wildly powerful sign he can't control. he's scared and sad; all those acts of destruction were him reaching out to people for guidance, trying to help people, and blindly stumbling around.

arthur is able to subdue alfred easily with arcana, and reassures him there's nothing to be afraid of. arthur says he'll guide him in everything he needs to know and give him a new home, in the palace, where he will never want for anything again. overjoyed, alfred runs up to him and lets arthur carry him back to his carriage.

the rest of the vision is heartbreaking. it's arthur lovingly raising alfred, in part out of guilt for how he killed his own younger brother but also in part to make sure alfred remains solely loyal to him so that even if he's the king, arthur still fully controls the kingdom.

alfred doesn't adjust instantly to life at the palace, nor do the staff immediately adjust to him. there are lots of thrown-around furniture, doors off their hinges, and holes in the walls from alfred running and playing around and trying to see where everything leads. he's a very curious and determined child, unbelievably stubborn when he sets his mind on something, so it's a challenge for arthur to keep him on track. thankfully, alfred quickly grows attached to arthur, the only person who has shown him this much attention and consideration, so that helps.

one day, when alfred sees the sorry state of arthur's rose garden (place where artie practices controlling his sign but always fails and ends up killing the plants), he's brought to tears by the sight. seeking to cheer arthur up, al attempts to replace the dead plants by bringing a whole ass apple tree from the orchards outside the castle grounds. at first, this evokes arthur's ire since alfred is strictly forbidden from leaving the palace (y'know since he still can't control his superstrength), but when he sees what alfred was trying to do, he's touched and actually keeps the tree there. arthur tends to it without practicing his sign, making it the longest lasting plant in his garden.

(you could say arthur having an apple tree in the middle of his garden as his most treasured plant makes him a bit like the evil queen :>)

arthur himself grows very attached to alfred also, patiently ordering for every broken thing to be cleaned and replaced, mending all destroyed walls and doors and windows with his arcana (spell-based magic separate from his sign). but there's still the matter of alfred's sign, which he must learn to control. after all, unlike arthur's, alfred's sign can't be turned off. that's just how he is.

arthur's advisers and military officers are quick to suggest combat training; alfred would definitely make a monstrously strong soldier, and thus project a tough and intimidating image as king, but arthur sternly disagrees. he thinks what alfred needs is the exact opposite: a discipline that teaches him not to grow and rely on his sign, but to control it.

as mentioned before, al is an exceptionally curious child, so the epiphany comes to arthur one day when he catches alfred at the library, despairing over a mechanical trinket which he'd wanted to examine but had ended up breaking with his strength. arthur asks him what's wrong, and alfred sniffles and says he just wanted to know how the thingy worked but now he can't because it's in pieces. arthur takes a moment, and then asks, "would you like to learn how to handle trinkets like these, take them apart from the inside out, without breaking them?" al is like wow, that's possible? you'll teach me? and arthur says of course, he'd love to.

the next day, arthur calls upon the royal mechanist to gather as many broken guts and spare parts from any machines they had, and that's how alfred learns how to control his sign, as well as what kickstarts his passion for inventions.

>arthur actually being a healthy-ish brother figure?

except... he's not entirely selfless in his motives. he's also afraid of alfred overpowering him, so he doesn't want him to grow up a soldier type.

arthur raises alfred to always hand the reins of power over to him, letting arthur make all the difficult, complicated, and boring political decisions. he incentivizes alfred to never take an interest in running the kingdom, fully encouraging him to put his passions first while arthur works everything else out.

>he succeeded

except it backfired in that alfred gradually drifts away from arthur as he grows up to the point that he barely pays him any attention, making arthur feel just as isolated as he was before al came along. alfred grows up thinking that people are too fragile and messy and complicated, and the only place for him is among his inventions. after all, if arthur won't let him within an inch of political decision-making, that must be because al would just muck it all up, right? just like how he used to destroy everything he touched.

the last bit of the vision/dream is more out of context and far removed from the rest, but i believe it's after the final battle in the hearts vs spades war, where arthur is about to murder gerpru but is stopped by his own king and jack. it's arthur coming face to face with alfred as he's subdued by yao's chains.

arthur's beaten and in the wrong but still unable to swallow his pride, glaring scornfully at his king. *how could you betray me like this, so close to victory?* his eyes ask. alfred sighs and kneels to be at level with him. "remember when i was a kid and you were the only one who could calm me down when i was upset?" arthur does. alfred would stomp the palace floors into cracks and debris, and arthur would calmly follow him, clearing the fallen furniture and fixtures in the way. then, once he caught up to al, he'd cast a restraining spell and hold him until he stopped crying. arthur averts his eyes to look at the ground. "you might not have been able to match my strength, but through your spells, you could stop me so easily. fix all i'd broken. prevent me from destroying anything else. like that, you were stronger. and i relied on that, but now... i'm relieved you're not. and i'm beginning to think you never were."

AU DREAM
it's about cardverse arthur again but this time it's during the period gilbert was working for him. did i ever tell you about that?

if i didn't, then: after being forced to run away from ludwig, gil leaves hearts to go to a place where arcana (learned magic not from signs) is legal. he goes to spades, a 
which is decidedly unfriendly to hearts. as he discovers his natural affinity for this magic which he had suppressed all his life, he becomes kind of a sorcerer for hire, whatever pays the most. gil figures that while he had spent his entire life running from his magic and believing it's evil, it was that same magic that had just saved his life by allowing him to get away, so might as well use it to *make* a new life for himself too.

and, in the quiet of a moonless night, he can allow himself to hope. hope that if he had enough money and enough power, secure a good enough position for himself, he could see ludwig again. only, this plan gets quite derailed because the thing is, no talented magician in spades escapes the attention of the queen.

basically, arthur meets gil in secret, humiliates him in an impromptu magical duel, and upon beating him, asks gil if he would like to work for and learn from him. gil accepts.

and so, gil becomes arthur's magical apprentice as well as agent, who does tasks arthur needs done but can't be known about publicly, i.e. doing his dirty work. intimidating or apprehending suspected traitors and enemies to the queen, sometimes killing them, doing general spywork for him (with the help of magic), etc.

arthur's older than gilbert and he acts very provocative with him, borderline seductive. and all gil has to in exchange for all this attention from the queen of spades is stay on arthur's good side.

(gil eventually betrays him, which leads up to him reaching out to ludwig, but that's not the topic right now.)

onto the dream.

the dream is of gil presenting arthur with a peculiar package one day at the castle. usually, he would get rid of such a thing on sight since he knows arthur's schedule and therefore knows if he's expecting a package, and this one isn't on the schedule. so, he goes to do exactly that, get rid of it, but is stopped by arthur himself.

arthur takes the crate apart with magic, to reveal a statue of a person with various kinds of flowers poking out all over the stone. "i see my latest assassination attempt was a failure." upon gil asking him what the fuck that means, arthur explains that the statue is in fact the corpse of an assassin he hired

"who was he for?" gil asks.

"francis bonnefoy, the king of diamonds," arthur monotones.

gil stares at him, then at the statue-corpse. "you don't seem so bothered he failed."

"oh i'm bothered," arthur says. "not by his death and the accompanying floral arrangement, i expected *that* much."

"then by what?"

"that frilly bastard is mocking me," arthur glares at the statue.

"how so?"

the queen chuckles humorlessly. "by showing off how he has his jack at his beck and call. it's sickening."

that's exactly what the "mockery" was. francis was like my jack loves me but yours hates you, i win again. what arthur hears is "how can you expect to rule your subjects when you can't even rule your cards?"

did i ever tell you what happened between young arthur killing peter and him taking over ruler of hearts? bc again, he had to kill someone to get there.

peter does haunt arthur but very subtly and arthur still refuses to admit to himself that he feels guilty. he keeps telling himself all that killing was necessary to get on the throne. although, now that he's on the throne and still not happy, it sounds less and less convincing.

how arthur kills peter: he tries to burn the house with his stand while alistair their mom are out. however, when she sees the house in flames, she runs in to rescue her baby, and upon finding his burning corpse, bursts into tears and stays to die with him. right before she runs into the house, she looks arthur right in the eye, arthur insisting it was an accident, but it's clear she doesn't entirely believe him. arthur is more guilty about his mother's death than he is about peter.

after running away from home, arthur stows away on a produce transport to get to spades' capital city, demands to be recognized as queen, and proves who he is using his sign. he is subsequently taken in by king matthias (denmark) and his wife, lady freya* (nyo norway)—effectively getting a second chance at life, this time as royalty.

(*technically that's not the proper norwegian spelling but shhh)

matthias has always wanted children, so he treats arthur like his own son. freya meanwhile is a powerful sorceress, and eagerly trains arthur in arcana (so he doesn't have to depend on the destructiveness of his sign). he turns out to be a prodigy at arcana, easily picking up droves of diverse and complicated spells, growing in power each day. under her care, he also makes the most progress he has ever had in controlling his sign: being able to stop taking life force until there's nothing left, and even returning what was lost. after numerous sessions, the palace gardens nurtured by freya were in full bloom thanks to arthur's magic.

but as you've learned about arthur so far, you know something will inevitably go wrong :)

and he ends up killing someone, again

the first cracks start to show as arthur refuses to call them dad/mom (he calls them "your majesty" and "my lady" respectively), enforcing some distance. he might have killed most of his *real* family but they still haven't been replaced in his mind, especially his mom. what was first gratitude and awe at his mentor—the woman who literally taught him all the arcana he knows and also helped him so his innate magical power is capable of returning and giving life instead of killing everything around him—gradually turns to envy. not only is freya more powerful than him, but she's the one ruling spades by the king's side. even though she's not the queen and never will be, she's the one who has all the power. over time, this envy festers.

the turning point comes during a ball. it's been a few years at this point, and arthur's a teenager now. he's already been announced to the kingdom and introduced to most of the nobles, with the exception of one disgraced family. a member of which attends this ball, a masquerade.

arthur's just minding his own business, not really in the mood to dance or anything, when a woman bumps into him, spilling her drink all over his mask and collar. she apologizes, and then profusely when he takes off his mask to reveal who he is. "i am *terribly* sorry, sir. oh... you're the queen, aren't you?"

"yes, and you've been *terribly* rude."

"i didn't mean it..." she says, not sounding all that sorry at all. "and please excuse this further rudeness on my part, but i must ask, your majesty, how old are you?" 

"seventeen. now, you've wasted enough of my time." he huffs and turns away.

"that can't be. you look like the splitting image of moira (nyo ireland)."

arthur freezes. "how do you know my mother?"

"mother? i'm eira (nyo wales), her younger sister! i suppose that makes you my nephew, your majesty."

from there he learns about the kirklands, a minor noble family disgraced after the eldest daughter moira ran away from her marriage to the heir of a much more prestigious family, shortly before having her second son.

the purpose of careful intermarriages between nobles was to increase the chances of cards born among them, but moira hated the idea. she never wanted to give birth to a child with a mark because she didn't want them growing up in this cutthroat, power-hungry environment, so she ran away.

eira, of course, eventually gets to asking where moira is. arthur, in sparse words, says she died in childbirth. it was her third son, who also did not survive. when eira asks what of alistair, arthur, throat tight, informs her he died of disease.

in truth, he had no idea where alistair was, whether or not he stayed. all arthur knows is that he hasn't found him yet. he dreads the day he does.

after hearing his story, eira was eager to comfort him. "oh, you poor thing..."

"i wouldn't have come here, if i wasn't all alone. i'm glad to know i still have family. mum never told me anything about her past."

what arthur learns that night, more important than the facts about his family, is that he could be a very good liar.

this leads me up into the murder. since arthur's mind is so fucked up, when he learns that matthias and freya uphold the shunning of the kirklands for his mother's actions, he decides he'll just have to take the throne for himself and restore honor to his family.

of course, this is instead of any reasonable action, like just telling the king and his wife who he is and asking them to treat his family better.

finally, to the murder: what arthur does is frame freya for her own husband's death. the way he does this is there's a dark magic spell he's been having trouble with for a while now. it's the only time he's truly struggled for a long time, and the first time freya's gotten frustrated with him. after all, he's the one who begged to be taught dark magic, and this spell in particular, but it turns out he doesn't even have the guts.

what arthur does is stubbornly work through the alone until he finally does it. but, he doesn't tell her. as far as freya knows, he still can't do it.

the spell is called wraith's lament—a mercy-killing spell. it allows one to kill without the victim experiencing any pain, and without the killer being haunted by their actions. however, the caster must be clear of heart, free from hatred. and as you know, arthur's heart is chock full of hatred. how does he work through this?

he stomps down the hatred by fully surrendering himself to pride. how can he hate anyone, when everyone is beneath him? when no one even comes close? he won't kill out of hatred, but because he's the queen, and whatever he says is law, as dictated by his birthright.

and so, arthur uses the spell to kill matthias. he then enthusiastically points and testifies against freya in front of the royal court, framing her as all too eager to practice dark magic. of course, complete with a sob story about how said dark magic terrified him, and that's why he kept struggling in his lessons. oh, how he couldn't *believe* the way his teacher and adoptive mother could betray him like this.

freya is found guilty. after all, she's the only one capable of the spell according to arthur's testimony, and for that, her sentence is death. however, arthur interrupts, begging for her not to be executed. when asked what other punishment could befit her crime, arthur suggests life imprisonment in the lowest level of the dungeon, with her limbs cuffed in cold iron so as not to be able to perform arcana. and there she will stay as arthur's prisoner for many years to come.

path cleared to the throne, arthur finally assumes his places as the ruler of spades.

throughout the main story, he actually visits her a bunch of times, and goes to her seeking advice when he's at the end of his rope with no one else to turn to. after all, she's the only mentor figure he'd known in his life who's still around. where else would he go?

notably, she'll refuse to help him unless he calls her mother. ("five little words, arthur: 'mother, i need your help.'") the reason she asks that is that if he does it she'll know he can put his pride aside + he didn't only imprison her to prolong her suffering. he absolutely did, but he'd also be lost without her.

freya knows arthur's reign is doomed. she had her suspicions but what he did to get on the throne confirmed it. she also knows what arthur did, but doesn't know how he did the spell.

also, alfred doesn't know about freya, but of course freya knows about alfred :) it's actually alfred that gives her the most hope for arthur's ability to change, but ultimately arthur's lust for power still wins out and he ends up keeping alfred away from ruling his own kingdom. because he's so scared that what he did will be done to him. because deep inside, it's what he thinks he deserves.

ever since her imprisonment and his ascension, arthur's also been tending carefully to freya's rose garden, but any progress he made with controlling his sign had been undone by his heinous act against matthias and freya, and he never will again be able to return or give life to dying things, only take from them and kill them even faster.

after the war, yao and alfred exile arthur, and freya is finally freed. she goes back to her hometown in northern greens (funnily enough, not too far from where alfred is from).

now, recall that after the main story arthur starts to get visions about the ace of spades. the reason for this is that after all these years, alistair manifested the mark. and arthur dreams about him vaguely and fuzzily bc in truth no matter how it's been, not knowing whatever happened to his big brother, the only person he was never able to manipulate, still haunts him + he deliberately put out magical feelers to search for other spades cards in case he needs to raise and manipulate them like alfred or kill them like peter.

(side note: way to go, mommy kirkland for birthing 3/3 mark-bearing children, the complete opposite of what she wanted.)

Chapter Text

cardverse chapter titles & outlines

+++ TITLES +++

(0) The Joker King
(1) From Funeral to Coronation
(2) The Shuffled Deck
(3) Queen of Hearts
(4) The Reunion
(5) Illusionary Forest
(6) The Firestarter
(7) To Dream Under the Stars
(8) The Masked Wizard
(9) In the Court of the Diamond Jack
(10) The War Chest of Spades
(11) The Joker and the Queen
(12) The Catacombs of Old Axes
(13) The Garden of Avarice
(14) To Reign as a Spade King
(15) Dissenting Bells
(16) The Invasion
(17) Ace of Hearts
(18) Lord of Shields
(19) The Ace and the King
(20) Epilogue: The Spade Queen's Grimoire

+++ OUTLINES +++

- The Joker King
introduces the legend of the joker king, ludwig's present struggles and conflicts as the king of hearts interspersed with flashbacks from his childhood with gilbert, eventually ending in their first meeting after years of not even a glimpse of each other.

- The Queen of Hearts
holy shit i just figured out why i'm stuck and couldn't figure out how to naturally start the present narrative and gerpru's first few meetings before the hearts/spades war

the answer to get unstuck is, as always, add conflict >:) or more like portray the conflict that should've been present from the beginning but i missed bc i defaulted to axis bffs while failing to consider the setting: gerpan conflict

to explain why they must have conflict, i first need to talk about kiku. he is an extremely special case: a queen born to the previous king and queen. his mom died in childbirth so he was raised by his father, who from the start trained him to rule. this means that kiku would have a very cautious, long term view of things since he has both his parents' legacies to live up to, plus the entire kingdom's expectations that he's special since his situation is so unlikely. add to this, his sign makes him even more conservative and firm in his decisions since he's able to gauge people's intentions most of the time.

so even if ludwig is studious and capable in everything he does, he is unable to conceal the fact that his heart lies elsewhere. like sure, he dutifully does what is expected of him, but that won't cut it for a king. a king needs to have ambition of their own and be at least one step ahead at all times. and kiku sees himself as being on ludwig's side; he wants him to succeed and be an effective partner in rulership for the sake of the kingdom. he also never got ludwig's side of the story with what happened with gilbert. all he knows is the soldiers' version of the story, which is that the joker tried to kill the new king, his own brother, before he could even be discovered, but failing that, just lashed out at the officers with a powerful fit of magic. so it makes sense that kiku would be a major obstacle in this plot.

and ludwig can't clear it up and tell kiku because he himself is not sure what to think about his brother anymore after years of being told by his grandfather that gilbert was "born evil" + years of reinforcement from everyone at the castle who has ever heard of the story the same way kiku did

kingdom policy, which kiku of course upholds, is to always be on the lookout for the joker and kill him immediately when found. and ludwig wants to find him, more than anything, but he doesn't want to kill him. so his main concern for this story is how to find gilbert by himself in a way that keeps him out of kiku's clutches.