The Virtue Chronicles

I'm writing a story. I really like it. But I never actually finish anything sooo...yeah. This may bomb completely like everything else I've ever written, BUT.

It may not.

And with that in mind, I give you the premise for my story, currently titled "The Virtue Chronicles."

Once Prangtar was ruled by a royal family, as most lands are. But as the king and his family grew greedier and more corrupt, it became obvious that to avoid civil war, something needed to change. Each of the King’s advisors had different opinions on what was tearing the kingdom apart.

One blamed injustice, saying that until people were held strictly accountable, chaos would continue.

One blamed dishonesty, insisting that so long as there was deception and misunderstanding, peace could never be achieved.

One blamed hatred, believing that only when people accepted each other could the world run smoothly.

One blamed political apathy, declaring that strong loyalty and respect for the government were necessary to keep the kingdom together.

One blamed hostility, stating that to rule the kingdom, peace must be a chief priority.

One blame bad thinking skills, claiming that solid, true solutions would never be reached unless the people understood their government.

One blamed the lack of compassion, impressing the importance that the people show understanding and unity.

And still another maintained that a poor understanding of the world was to blame.

One night, the advisors gathered for a meeting whose chief purpose was shove opinions down each others’ throats. During this highly productive exercise, the King was assassinated by one of his own body guards. The rest of the royal family met the same fate within minutes. Naturally, the entire kingdom plunged into a dangerous and chaotic game of Survivor.

At the peak of the kingdom’s desperation, the young advisor who advocated the use of Wisdom made a bold suggestion to his fellow councilors: perhaps they were all correct. Perhaps to rule a kingdom effectively, one must use all eight of the proposed virtues: Justice, Mercy, Logic, Love, Truth, War, Peace and Wisdom. Each virtue, in turn, had its place in a prosperous kingdom.

The suggestion was simple and logical, and it wasn’t long before the other seven advisors came to agree. With the help of the army and the citizens still devoted to unity, the advisors put into place a clever system of Houses, each dedicated to one virtue, with representatives from each forming the House of Prangtar, which would ultimately rule the kingdom.

The Houses worked together well with few major conflicts for nearly 200 years. Each House grew larger as its original founder had children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The Houses grew in respect and prestige and the people began to identify themselves with a particular House.

But now, things are growing unsteady, or so some people say. Astraea of Justice has no doubt that the kingdom is on the brink of even greater prosperity, which will surely come because of her house, and more specifically, her very own family.

Even though she has little direct experience with politics, everyone knows she’s going to be a tremendous asset to the House of Justice, including Astraea. It doesn’t bother her that her betrothed never shows her any affection; he’s from Logic, of course he’s unemotional. It doesn’t seem wrong to deal out severe punishment; crime must be discouraged, at all costs. And it doesn’t matter that Justice is bending the rules to get the result it needs. The end justifies the means...right?

But then Astraea meets the peasant Boy and everything changes.

He’s intelligent, which catches her off guard first. He knows exactly how the government works, and has real opinions about it. Astraea is reluctantly fascinated by his ideas, but when the Boy starts criticizing her House, she shuts him out.

But she can’t get his ideas out of her head. He told her the House of Justice was hypocritical, corrupt. He gave examples, but Astraea had never heard of them, so they couldn’t be true.

Could they?

Astraea begins to search, and research, and ask questions. The questions are tough to ask, but what she finds is even tougher to swallow.

The Boy tells Astraea things she doesn’t want to hear, and he makes her more angry than anyone else in the world. But every time she tries to prove him wrong, she gets the rug pulled out from under her by her own House’s recent history. The Boy knows more than she does, and it’s scaring her. Where has she been her whole life? What all has she been blind to?

How can she believe in Justice and support her House at the same time? But if she doesn’t support her House, where does her allegiance lie?

Questions, comments, thoughts, compliments and criticism are always SUPER welcome when it comes to my writing, just so you know. I'd rather have horrible criticisms than nothing XD

~Stephanie