Character Portraits - Cassia (Patreon)

It's more confessions from Roy! I mean…character portraits. This time it's fan favorite, Princess Cassia. She was one of the first characters I fleshed out in TBaK, though not the very first (I'll cover that lady down the road). Cassia has been fascinating to me. Mostly because I am still not sure what to make of her.

The Cassia/Valentina rivalry was something I wanted to establish early. They are close in age, Cassia is traditionally better looking (sorry, Val), and being the youngest sibling is always going to make you want to compete for attention. While Valentina lacks any self-assurance, Cassia has it in spades. While Valentina is mostly ignored, Cassia is doted on by her parents. Yes, she is their favorite, especially after that incident with King Brennus's scuttled marriage. The one question I always have though is why, if she is so popular, do they send Valentina off to tour the kingdom? Is it because these travels are dangerous, and they couldn't bear to lose Cassia? Even I'm not sure, and Helena and Aricellus refuse to answer my emails!

Cassia's model was, I believe, the second model created for the game. Because of this, her model has…issues. I work around them as best I can, but I really hope I can talk her into a new hairstyle, and maybe some slight cosmetic surgery soon. Nothing big. She is beautiful, but some areas make her hard to pose.

Cassia does have a historical inspiration, though Cassia fans need to read to the end of the paragraph once they see who it is: Marie Antoinette. She is not meant to be a carbon copy, but she shares many traits, both good and bad, with the ill-fated French Queen. Don't worry. She isn't meeting an untimely end. However, her interests seem more vacuous. Cassia truly is the classic entitled royal child, though she does care about things besides herself. Mostly her animals, but also her parents.

She is the closest of her siblings to Prince Marius, which I still find humorous. Sure, the two are very close in age (though Valentina and Marius are separated by just over a year), but I still don't know exactly why they are so close. They seem so different, and you'd think Marius's antipathy towards the MC would cause issues. It kind of worries me, if things go south with the MC and Marius, but I suppose Cassia would choose great sex over family. Cassia's story line is going to be interesting, and, to be honest, is one of the more challenging ones to write. I am sure there is more I need to uncover with her, but she just stays right there on the surface. Parties, fashion, rubbing your relationship with her in Val's face - those are what she seems to care about most.

The most fun dialogue to write is between her and Val. She does know how to push Valentina's buttons, and she does it very well. Perhaps those skills could be useful to you in non-Valentina adjacent areas? I'm honestly not sure. She does want things, and wants them right away. Chapter 7 will show us that, and the results, as with most things in TBaK, will be both hilarious and terrifying.

Eventually, we are going to delve into her other big hobby, but just thinking about all the poses and special texture work I'll need to do to make that happen has me putting it off. So, for now, maybe more lewd fashion shows that put you a step away from being discovered fucking her? Maybe Marius would be willing to help you out there?

One note here about the princesses. Remember that King Aricellus came to power through some rather unpleasant methods, and it was after the children were born. Aricellus did not inherit the throne. The younger children have had more growing up time in the palace, and that is going to affect their thinking, even if it was just a couple of extra formative years. Aelinia would have grown up in the war camps for a good portion of her life, whereas Val would not remember that near as well.

On that note, some background on Caudium's current predicament. There has been a lot of political upheaval. While Caudium traditionally did have primogeniture, it has now been a few decades since that last took place. We've seen battles among political heavyweights, generals, and even the random influential equestrian for the throne. And Roy is here to help you out. When making your decisions in the game, make sure you consider this history. Think about how the people might be feeling after regularly having some civil war, no matter how short. What if you liked the last king and thought his son would be pretty good? This is not a stable situation, hence why you were brought to the palace in the first place. Your job is going to be to exploit this unstable and untenable situation to ensure your survival (and maybe increase your position?). You'll have a variety of ways to do it, though some endings will turn out better than others.

I'm thinking the next installment should be on Kaylan, as she must be pretty pissed with me that Lydia was discussed before she was. And we know that a pissed Kaylan is not a pleasant thing.