Michael’s Musings Special: Open Letter To A Certain Stalker…

Featured image art “Your countess” by Inkwhite (@Inkwhite_mo)

By Michael (@of_michel)

After reading my good friend Sir Alan’s article to this mysterious stalker of our prime minister, First Vampire (and close, personal friend) Viola Mundilfari, it’s time I added my 2 schillings worth on this sore subject.

To the cowardly stalker of Viola Mundilfari:

You probably know who I am from my position in in Queen Anna’s Government and my articles in this fine newspaper, nevertheless, I’ll introduce myself.

I’m Michael, Arendelle’s trade minister, uncle to Queen Anna and Snow Queen Elsa, and a fellow minister and personal friend of PM Viola Mundilfari.

For a couple of weeks or so, Viola, myself, her friends and family, have had to put up with your posters and hand bills, slandering and badmouthing Viola. Of course, Princess Danny ripped them down and then made a nice fire to roast marshmallows and stargaze under the night sky with Vi, Danny and myself. You were just like an empty can, rattling and making a lot of noise and no more.

Then, you stepped over the line, my fiend. You invaded the home of Viola, Hilde Von Altheim, and Tess. Painting slurs on the gates of the Grand House and tossing rotten fruit on her doorstep. You went a bridge too far, and now we’re all looking for you. Payback is hell.

I don’t know what is driving at you to do this. Maybe it’s for past sins of the Mundilfari clan. Or what she had to do in London. Whatever it was or why, you just stepped into a deep hole of reindeer shiatsu with us. Alan posted his thoughts, here are mine.

Continue reading →

Postcard from Anna: From Harbour to Heartland

Featured image art “The New Exalted” by Arute (@ast05water)

By Anna

Hello, Arendelle! From far away, across the waves, on the mountainous slopes of Victoria Peak in Hong Kong!

Sinclair Manor, the mansion belonging to my fellow Exalted member Peony Sinclair, suffered an intense and unexpected battle with Harrison’s hired assassins and warriors. No thanks to the British colonial administration, which we suspect has been paid off by Harrison to look the other way! I’ll be having a word with my British counterpart, Vic, when I have the chance back in Europe. Harrison is getting away with murder, and I fear it won’t be just a figure of speech if he gets his way.

I had the most extraordinary day: Lady Kam, comprador of the Princely House and Kristoff’s manager of the ice trade in China, invited me to inspect her clandestine force of… how do I put it? Triads. These well-trained, well-built women and men are members of the Lotus and Crocus, a clandestine underworld group Kam formed for my sake.

For Arendelle’s sake.

Continue reading →

Elegy for Immortality: An Exile’s Last Will

Featured image art by hannah.digiart (@HDigiart)

Greetings, unfamiliar reader.

If you’ve discovered this final testament of mine, I’ve passed from this world of futility and frustration. I sensed my end coming quite some time ago, and have just finished penning this as a sort of bittersweet witness… perhaps, a kind of revenge.

Please, if your eyes fall upon this testament, don’t look away.

I’ve spent my life waging wars across Europe for a dream… a mirage. For although that immortal bastard invited me to join that most august circle – the Exalted – he discarded me like a piece of refuse once it became clear that his other hangers-on, in particular those Romanovs, were better placed than me to hunt down a mysterious substance called the elixir of life.

You read right. The elixir of life. You might call it ambrosia. Others, the Holy Grail or the cosmic milk of immortality.

Whatever you name it, it exists. I swear upon my honour and my career as Europe’s greatest conqueror. I was so close.

Continue reading →

VEXED VI: Arendelle’s Countess dogged by unknown harasser

“The First Vampire” by hannah.digiart (@HDigiart)

By Mikael, Senior Reporter for The Arendelle Guardian

ARENDELLE – As Her Majesty embarks on her journey to the Forbidden City, things have taken a turn for the bizarre and perplexing in Arendelle. Anna’s de facto regent, the aristocratic vampire Viola Mundilfari, is suffering a string of slanderous attacks against her character and position by a mysterious assailant.

“Beast of the night.”

“Repent and just wither away.”

“You should be locked up.”

“You don’t deserve a drop of blood.”

Shortly after Anna departed for the Celestial Empire, Vi began receiving upwards of five pieces of hate mail per day at the prime minister’s office and her own home, with the government suspending Vi’s public appearances to prevent the harasser from getting near her. Some of the letters are incoherent insults, with expletives scrawled in capital letters that we can’t print. Others contain eerie allusions to her complicated past and insulting references to her undead state. Furthermore, posters have been pasted intrusively on the walls of homes and businesses, with an accurately drawn rendition of Lady Mundilfari’s profile and insults like “Fiend” or “Night Creature” scrawled at the top.

Residents and shopkeepers across the kingdom have told reporters that the vicious posters are unwelcome.

Continue reading →

Allies of Arendelle: KAM CHIK-LOEI, Comprador of Bjorgman

Featured image “Weaver” by Arute (@ast05water)

You’ve met Will Harrison and Tiffany Hunsecker, Anna’s foes in Asia. Now get to know four of Anna’s closest foreign allies. They come from far away, separated from Arendelle by land and sea. Yet they’re as close to Anna and Elsa as you are, and help protect Arendelle’s international interests. “Allies of Arendelle” features four OCs that assist Anna with her goals in our Emerald Dragon arc: Kam Chik-loei, Tileke, Fujiwara Takako, and Luna de Borbón.

Kam Chik-loei (金織女)

With a nod of her head, Arendelle prospers. With a snap of her fingers, economies flourish. Making people wealthy is the power of Kam Chik-loei, the richest person in the British-ruled port of Hong Kong. Lady Kam serves as the comprador of the Princely House, Kristoff’s company of Bjorgman. She’s also the secret leader of the Crocus and Lotus, the Arendelle-allied but illegal triad society that’s locked in ongoing turf warfare with Harrison’s criminal allies, the Floodgate gang.

To call her Kristoff’s second-in-command is almost too simple. True, she’s a member of Bjorgman’s executive committee, and she sits on Kristoff’s board. But she’s so much more. She’s the procurement officer. The personnel recruiter. The guarantor. The underwriter. The chief interpreter. This isn’t even where her power is. Her authority comes from being the conduit through which all of Bjorgman’s money passes. There’s no transaction that she doesn’t oversee, no income or expenditure she doesn’t supervise. Depending on her snap judgement, a simple “Okay lah” or “No lah” can mean months of revenue or crippling financial losses. She’s the master of the Chinese world of trade, in which her boss would be lost without her.

Continue reading →

Emerald Dragon: Old Foes, New Clash

“Narco lords” by Arute (@ast05water)

Anna rarely has any true enemies. Will Harrison is one of them. He’s been plaguing Anna ever since our queen discovered the existence of the Exalted, of which he was once a member. He was her first truly international enemy, and the only one that managed to best and humiliate her, dealing severe economic harm to Arendelle.

When she ascended to the Exalted’s leadership not too long ago, Anna managed to return the favour by expelling him from the secret society. But since then, he’s grown wealthier and more powerful. And he’s on the hunt.

Now, as Anna rises in stature and authority among the world powers, he would love nothing more than to drag Anna down and reduce Arendelle to his private fiefdom.

Will Harrison and his equally ruthless secretary, Tiffany Hunsecker, are back. And they plan to make Anna’s life hell.

Continue reading →

Michael’s Musings: Dinner with Tileke

Featured image art “At the Nokk Club” by PURY (@puryartist)

By Michael, Trade Minister

Before the hostilities of the Russo-Arendellian War, I had the chance to spend some time with Arendelle’s newest friend and ally, serakser Tileke of the Ottoman Empire. “Serakser” means “commander” – in other words, Tileke was to the Ottomans what General Mattias was to Arendelle.

This energetic fireball leader of the Ottoman forces came to help relieve and bolster the depleted Arendellian military before the final Battle of Arendelle. She presented herself with a swashbuckling flair and energy that is rare and amazing to see. With her invaluable assistance, we were able to stop Princess Katina Romanov from conquering Arendelle (yet at a price, I must say, was so terribly high for both sides, especially Katina.)

I had invited Tileke to dinner with me at the Nokk Club to get to know her better, and also discuss potential business. Her father is the Grand Vizier himself, Husrev Pasha, who’s like our own Prime Minister Countess Viola Mundilfari. Our kingdoms have a very good trade business going and I wanted to explore ways of making them better. Making friends like Tileke go very far in that endeavour… especially on a personal level outside of business where myself, Queen Anna, Snow Queen Elsa, Sir Alan, and the others are concerned.

We arrived at the Club and ordered our drinks before ordering dinner. I had pulled out a cigar to relax with. Tileke glanced at me from the corner of her eye, intrigued. She was curious, hungry to learn about everything that made Arendelle – especially things that looked wild and unusual. “That’s not how we usually inhale back on the Bosphorus,” she said, sitting back casually and rocking on her chair, much to the disapproval of the waiters around her. “What’s that stick?” Tileke asked me.

Continue reading →

A Future Without Elsa

Featured image art “Snowstorm” by PURY (@puryart)

VICTORY as Queen Anna stakes vampire traitor Countess Vi through her heart

By Mikael, Defence Reporter for The Arendelle Guardian

The desperate rebellion against Anna led by Countess Vi, Anna’s former prime minister, is about to be crushed by Her Majesty. As this article is going to press, the newly conquered states of the Southern Isles, Chatho, Weselton, and Vesterland will be recognizing Anna as the new and first Empress of Arendelle.

Loyal citizens of Arendelle, rejoice! Our beautiful motherland is now the Empire of Arendelle!

Since the death of Elsa, Anna was tragically broken and, as if a fire was lit within her, gloriously rallied and wiped out all her enemies. Seeing herself as a failure, she rapidly reorganized our kingdom into an engine of “total war,” and began a campaign of relentless expansion. Now Arendelle is several times its original size, having swallowed all her former allies, and with a navy that has blown apart the Prussian and Austrian fleets in Europe. Anna is even poised to wrench colonies in Asia and the Americas from their original masters of the British and French.

Yet in the midst of all this glory, the Countess claimed that Anna had lost her way and instigated a rebellion. Treason! It’s obvious that she simply wanted to seize the new Arendellian Empire for herself. After more than two years of fierce civil war, Her Majesty has crushed Vi’s forces and is now poised to seize Mundilfari Keep itself!

The sister-queens are dead. All hail the Last Sister!

Long live Empress Anna!

Continue reading →

Journals of the Exalted Overture: Your Burden

Featured image art “The New Exalted” by Arute (@ast05water)

Welcome to Journals of the Exalted! This is the prologue to a four-part series exploring each member of Anna’s new Exalted. Now that she’s accepted leadership of this secret society, she’ll also be responsible for putting it together… before Lord Yixin tasks her with his ultimate objective.

Make sure to follow each member’s story:

Overture: Your Burden

Part I: The Gold Reindeer

Part II: The Ruby Tiger

Part III: The Sapphire Phoenix

Part IV: The Emerald Dragon

Continue reading →

The AG’s NEW story arc: Emerald Dragon!

Featured image art “Moon Deity,” by hanna.digiart (@HDigiart)

“What if you could protect Elsa and Arendelle forever?”

It’s the 19th Century. The war between Arendelle and Russia has ended. Anna’s leadership enters a new era as her kingdom rises to becoming a global power. In this new ongoing arc, The Arendelle Guardian’s story goes cosmic but also introspective, with Anna encountering her own mortality and what eternal life might mean for her as a queen and as Elsa’s sister.

Continue reading →