King Krivcol III had a brush with death at a young age. Now he relies upon astrologers to gauge his future, planning out every detail of his and his family's lives. But his growing paranoia with what's to come may be blinding him to problems around him in the here and now... -- Deathshead419
Many heads of state had advisors. Some had viseers, some had chancellors, come had cabinets of experts. King Krivkol Florentus Montgomerie Oralendo Montecroix, third of his name, had astrologers, soothsayers, fortune-tellers, and seers. Every morning, they took in omens, threw the bones, read the sky, and ran complicated calculations. Not to organise the King's day, but to warn and prevent impending disaster.
By the time today came about, it was already too late. At least, that's what the King said. And in many such cases, what the King said, went.
The cabinet of potential tomorrows only warned the King about what could happen to him or his family. Thus, they regulated what the royal family ate, where they slept, which members of staff they could trust, and a policy or law here and there. They warned against certain judgements, set appearances, and rare matters of state.
They may have been responsible for the banning of spinach in the realm. Something that made the children praise him, but angered many, many others.
And it made swaying politics ridiculously easy. All one had to do was give the right prophet the correct amount of profits and suddenly the King's favour was yours by proxy. The bad news was that this precedent was obvious to everyone and, perhaps, their cousin's pig.
Revolution was brewing. In fact - several revolutions were brewing. The cabinet of potential tomorrows could not go back on the advice they were paid to give the King, so desperately ran their own foretellings to see what their salvation might be.
All of them came up with the exact same omen, "A devil comes to overturn all that was made by corruption."
They left that prediction for the King, and packed their bags just before the Thrice-Sworn King and reluctant ruler of the Infernal Empire arrived. He had some interesting predictions that were scarily accurate without needing any kind of chart.
Starting with how much of King Krivkol's population were sharpening their pitchforks.
[Photo by Felipe Albertella on Unsplash]
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