The Fall of the House of Pierpont

Note: This is an over the top humiliation story that takes place in a fantasy universe.

***Prelude***

In a world that in many ways was much like our own, and in other ways starkly different. It is a world of humans, but also elves, nymphs, and goblins. It is a world with kings, queens, and generals, but also magicians and sorcerers. A world of hierarchies and divisions but also of divine judgment. A world with familiar earthly laws of physics, only slightly altered A world where science and magic coexisted like they were one in the same. This world was named by the ancients as Vero. While Vero was filled with many kingdoms this tale takes place in the Kingdom of Seaton. A Kingdom quite unique.

Before this tale can unravel further there must a brief introduction to the history of the Kingdom of Seaton. As this story would make little sense if there was not some background information given. Founded thousands of years in the past the Kingdom of Seaton was once ruled by absolute monarchs that that ruled by divine decree. Although many different families have held the Seasonic throne they generally ruled in the same way, by exploiting pain. Pain is a trait that has helped humans survive, possibly, in fact more than any other trait. Knowing that fire will burn, and that a predator can cause agony will lead any human or humanoid being to form a strong survival instinct. The early rulers of the Kingdom of Seaton knew this well and knew that they could control the population with the threat of pain. Displaying the pain of one ne'er-do-well or a would-be usurper to public display would show off the power of the monarchy and would act as a blockade against those who would dare break the then devine law of the monarchies. Yet, a curious and unintended consequence of this display of monarchical power was that the masses began to enjoy watching this savage pain. Large crowds would gather, even pay a fortune to see torture and death be put upon their fellow citizens. It became a spectacle for the people and over time the people demanded more cruel and unusual punishments for criminals.

Yet societies change. Over time in the society of Seaton, there was a power shift, the Kings and Queens slowly lost power, although they were able to remain starkly wealthy and in control of their own vassals, the merchant class emerged as a more powerful force than even the Kings and Queens. The merchants formed their own elected government and the vast majority of the people were under the rule of this rudimentarily capitalist society. The Kings and Queens were forced to sign decrees that reduced their own power and because of this civil war between the monarchists and the merchant class was avoided. Thus the Kings and Queens and their families still ruled small portions of the Kingdom. For every great city within the Kingdom, there was a palace ruled by a member of the royal family, these palaces were self-sustaining, with farmland and serfs. The royal family was unable to control the people outside of the territory surrounding their palace, but for the people who resided within their territory, they had absolute control. The only aspect of the government that was under the palaces' control was a self-defense force filled with elite knights. Since no invading army had attempted to attack the Kingdom in over one-thousand years the Knightly order had become nothing more than thugs for their royal bosses, extracting money and food from the serfdom.

Meanwhile, the civilian population outside of monarchical control enjoyed a mostly decadent life of earthly pleasures and distractions. And although some aspects of a society change, others do not. Like in the times of old, the highest form of entertainment was the act of publically torturing and/or executing criminals. The civilian non-monarchical government had long outlawed "cruel and unusual" punishment, so the entertainment came mostly from the palaces, where a serf, who tried to escape his or her oppression or who had lashed out against a knight who may have been beating them with a truncheon would be taken to the city center to be punished, publicly. Usually stripped naked the serfs would be whipped, spanked and occasionally beheaded. By charging the wealthy citizenry of the cities the royal vassal lords were able to live opulent lifestyles themselves. Furthermore, the civilian population loved to read endless articles and books about the lives of the royals. This gossip and intrigue involving the royals and their lifestyle took up more public discourse than all other subjects combined. Occasionally the entire population would be gripped by a massive scandal involving the royal family, the largest of which would be when a royal family changed houses.

In the time this story takes place a dramatic change in the royal house had indeed occurred. For the previous century, the Pierpont house had sat on the Seatonic throne. The House of Pierpont had proven to be extremely cruel to their subjects, which of course the city dwellers outside of royal control loved, due to the frequent public entertainment. In fact it was said that the Pierpont royal family received most of their profits from selling tickets to public punishments. In the last days of the house of Pierpont, the cruelty had become almost abhorrent, on a daily basis a serf or groups of serfs were brought forward to be tortured, humiliated and executed. This is why the city-dwelling citizenry was quite disappointed when the Conwyn family was able to take the throne through a series of politically motivated marriages. Yet the Conwyn's indeed found a way to satiate the masses and bring in gold to strengthen their own power. The House of Conwyn had decided to publicly punish all of the members of the cruel House of Pierpont by publicly punishing them. The House of Pierpont had used all of their political capital to sign a treaty called the Treaty of Griggs(named for the city for which it was signed) for which they believed would save them of the worst possible punishments, in this treaty it stipulated that the House of Conwyn was not to "mutilate or execute" any member of the House of Pierpont, and each member of the House of Pierpont would be given a trial. Yet the Pierpont negotiators did not account for the House of Conwyn's creativity.

***Lillian Pierpont(Lillian the Stunning): The wicked and sadistic princess***

The worst cruelest palace to be a serf was the Palace of Lillian Pierpont, in the province of Zuria. The large palace with swirling spires was located next to the metropolis of Zuria City one of the most prosperous cities in the entire Kingdom. Lillian was a princess not yet 30 years of age, and also a sadistic tyrant who seemed to truly enjoy every bit of cruelty that she inflicted on her serfs. Even other members of the House of Pierpont resented the fact that Lillian had so much power at such a young age.

Lillian was a stunning beauty looked like the height of haughty sophistication. She was tall possibly around 6'0" tall with long legs and a sleek but curvy body, her head always tilted upwards so that she looked down her nose at almost everybody she encountered, her hair was styled lavishly, as it was straight near the top of her head and curled as it descended down to just below her shoulders. Lillian's white flesh and blonde hair were contrasted by her dark almost always raised perfectly groomed eyebrows and her dark brown eyes. She always wore a sparkling crown adorned with fine exotic gems. She wore the finest long ornate dresses of the finest exotic silks, her dresses were also adorned with striking gems. On her feet, she wore tall high heeled shoes which amplified her height considerably, to the point where she stood taller than most soldiers.

Lillian's beauty was only matched by her cruelty. It was this combination of beauty and cruelty that attracted sycophants wherever she went. These sycophants would do anything and everything Lillian asked, and what she asked was abominable, her serfs were starved, beaten, forced to grovel and even eat their own fecal matter to survive. Lillian seemed to get great satisfaction from her absolute power and abused it terribly. Like all members of the royal family, Lillian was a trained fencer, and excelled at the sport, besting many of her fellow royals on a regular basis. Going further she enjoyed practicing her fencing maneuvers on her subjects, she would stab and slash them as they were helplessly tied to a post.

Traditionally in a palace, the one safeguard against the cruelty of a royal was the palace sorcerer or sorceress. Only a small fraction of the population had any genetic propensity for magic and only a small portion of them had the ability to command magic in such a way that they could be called a sorcerer or sorceress. The job of the sorcerer or sorceress in a palace was to act as a healer, an oracle and a spiritual advisor to the royal ruler. If the sorcerer or sorceress deemed the ruler they counseled to be incompetent or unfit in any way they could banish this member of the royal family into a nether realm. Lillian's sorceress was Adadelis the Wise, a beautiful veteran sorceress in her fifties, who commanded respect amongst all around her. Lillian afraid that Adadelis would either banish her one day or somehow curb her power had Adadelis pushed into the nether realm and sealed inside. Lillian herself was able to make the seal with Adadelis' iconic staff, yet before the seal could be made a few dozen disgusting flying eels escaped and began ravaging and terrifying the land. This was a small price to pay.

***Helena the Worthy: The Chaste and Arrogant Knight.***

It was Helena the Worthy that pushed Adadelis the Wise into the nether realm and sealed her in.She did this at the bequest of Lillian. Helena and her five henchwomen acted as Lillian's personal bodyguards. Helena was strangely devoted to Lillian above all else, Lillian noticing this had quickly promoted Helena to the top rank. Traditionally in the province of Bruston, a prince would have an all-male group of personal guards and a female royal would have an all-female group. Furthermore, each knight being male or female took a vow of celibacy. After their service to the royal family, each knight would traditionally marry a warlord from the northern Kingdom of Xemor. The intense Helena was very proud of her chastity and took it upon herself to mercilessly beat any unmarried serf woman that was accused of any type of sexual activity. She had already outstayed the minimum service time and could at any point have left Lillian's side to marry, yet in her late twenties, she still stood loyally beside the cruel Lillian. Both women seemed to have a nearly amorous respect for each other.

Helena's armor fit snugly around her body she was shorter than Lillian but had wider hips and larger breasts, her armor glistened in the sun, she was almost always flanked with other almost equally armor clad young chaste women and Helena never left her trusty sword and shield behind. Her shield and sword, as well as the ornate designs and symbols on her armor, were light blue, which matched her eyes. Helena's hair was dirty blonde, long and thick it was tightly braided in two ponytails fell over each shoulder, and descended all the way down her body to her knee caps. Helena was clearly proud of her body and her rank, and would routinely force serfs to bow at her feet. Helena seemed to think of herself as someone who was the model of virtue and justice, she had an enormous ego. Helena was monstrously judgemental towards everyone but Lillian, for whom she seemed to almost worship. Lillian played into this by praising Helena as the "most brave and worthy knight" which fed Helena's ego turning her into a near narcissist. Helena would glow with pride when Lillian would lightly touch her knight's cheek or stroke her hair while complimenting her.

***Sylvia the Cruel: The Indolent, and Traitorous Inquisitor.***

The other highest ranked syncopath found frequently at Lillian's side was Sylvia. Unlike the egotistical Helena Sylvia was not born to any status, on the contrary, she was born into serfdom. It was the House of Pierpoint that noticed Sylvia's penchant for cruelty. From a young age, Sylvia was an unabashed bully, cruelly physically and emotionally tormenting her peers. It was this unusual trait that allowed Sylvia to become an apprentice inquisitor and eventually get her own post in Lillian's palace. Sylvia had all but forgotten her humble origins and detested doing the "labor" of her occupation, instead, Sylvia preferred to be carted around on a litter. Four sturdy and naked serfs would carry Sylvia as she lied on her side and was fed grapes and other fruits by another equally nude serf, her litter was rimmed with gold and contained many soft pillows to allow for Sylvia's utter comfort. This lifestyle of indulgence led Sylvia to become rubanesque in her figure. Sylvia's excess weight did not render her unattractive, as her weight was well distributed throughout her figure. Sylvia's wore dark form-fitting dresses and her dark eyeliner, and black hair combined with her nearly white flesh gave Sylvia an intimidating look and her presence was indeed a frightening sight for the serfs. So hated was Sylvia by the serfs she was almost always flanked with some of Helena's excess guards.

Sylvia was Lillian's inquisitor, meaning that she used her intimidation and bullying ways to root out any serfs that had even spoken an utterance that insulted Lillian or any of Lillian's sycophants. Sylvia's favorite form of punishment was to watch as one serf whipped or somehow abused another serf's genitals. Thin strings were tied and pulled around men's scrotums vaginas and anuses were struck with whips and other apparatuses. Since Sylvia herself was slothful she mostly coerced serf's to punish each other, as she laughed with wicked joy at the pain. It was Sylvia that was present in a full executioner's garb that whipped the naked bodies of the serf's for the city's amusement while Lillian sat back and watched from her mobile throne. Of course, if the whipping ever brought Sylvia into any sort of hard breathing or sweat she would hand her whipping instrument over to her large muscular and mute male assistant.

***Evelyn Conwyn(Evelyn the Good): The Vengeful Reformer of the House of Conwyn.***

After Lillian was deposed Evelyn Conwyn was put in her place. Evelyn, born into the serfdom herself married into the House of Conwyn at a young age, her husband died soon after during a boar hunt, and Evelyn became a powerful princess, not beholden to any man. In fact, in many ways Evelyn was similar to Lillian, both were childless attractive young women, and both excelled in the sport of fencing. Yet in other ways the two women were opposites. Evelyn was short and athletic in build, with piercing green eyes. Evelyn chose to wear trousers instead of long flowing dresses, yet most of all Evelyn having come from a commoner's background was very sympathetic to the plight of the serfs. So it goes without saying that Evelyn was enraged when she found out how the serf's had suffered at the hands of Lillian and her cronies. Evelyn was determined to punish Lillian to the highest degree that was legally acceptable.

Lillian and her compatriots were allowed a trial and using legal maneuvering Lillian was able to prolong the trial for over one year, all the while she was able to live in luxury in her own quarters with her two closest sycophants, Helena and Sylvia. Each time Lillian was forced to testify she acted indignantly and arrogantly, Lillian was confident that any punishment that would befall her would not be personally damning enough to cause her lasting pain. News of the other Pierpont punishments were light, a spanking or a public confession was all that occurred. Lillian wished to move with her assets to a large city and marry an older wealthy merchant and wait for him to die before taking his estate. Lillian knew that the Treaty of Griggs did not allow her punishment to kill or permanently mutilate her, so Lillian knew that she would be able to keep her ravishing good looks and this would be enough to attract almost any man she chose. Throughout most of the trial, Lillian looked at herself in the mirror and made sure that her makeup and hair were prim and proper, her biggest concern was keeping any semblance of power and status she could muster. Ironically, by prolonging the trial, Lillian had unwittingly made herself the "main event" the last Pierpont punishment, and the city dwellers were clamoring for a spectacular finally to what had been a disappointing comeuppance for the house of Pierpont.

Helena was far more angry, finding the whole trial to be a miscarriage of justice, Helena was adamant that she had never broken the law and had simply carried out orders from her superiors, Helena would grandstand to the court for hours making sure to compliment herself on her own heroism in vanquishing "the threats of serfdom" and protecting the great and powerful Lillian, who she made clear was "illegally disposed of" and that Helena would revel in personally executing each and every one of the Conwyn usurpers.

Sylvia did not take the trial seriously, she simply yawned and chuckled as her crimes were read to her. Sylvia truly believed that her end sentence would be a banishment to another palace where she would continue to work as an inquisitor, Sylvia believed her skills were irreplaceable, she thought that, be it Conwyns or Pierpont each palace would need someone cruel and sadistic enough to keep the serfs in their place. Sylvia made it be known that she was quite vexed at the fact that during the trial she had to feed herself, that there was no enslaved serf at her disposal to drop the food into her mouth.

After the long and drawn out trial, the three main defendants were shocked when their punishment was read out. They were to be hauled off into the city center to the gallows and punished in front of a crowd of onlookers, then they would each be sentenced to a "unique" task for approximately one year after their public punishments. Each of the three main defendants had different reactions. Sylvia's nonchalant attitude transformed into indignant rage. It had not crossed Sylvia's mind that a public punishment was even an option for someone of her status and abilities. Sylvia screamed that the court would live to regret their decision. Helena almost immediately puffed her chest up and started to make a long-winded speech about how she would be turned into a martyr for all of mankind and that she would not be humbled under any circumstance. Lillian's reaction was the most understated, her face slightly more pale than usual, her voice slightly more nervous than usual just reiterated that they would not be "killed or mutilated" and that the punishment would quick and mostly "pomp and circumstance."

***The Scene of the Punishment***

In the middle of the city square, there was a wooden stage, this is where public punishments generally occurred. Around the stage was a standing area, that held a capacity of around five thousand. Surrounding the stage there were hotels, restaurants, and shops. On the day of the Lillian and her compatriots punishment the area surrounding the stage was filled with people, some of which camped for days to get good seating, and many of which who had paid exorbitant amounts of money to be present. The restaurants and bars were crowded elbow to elbow with patrons, many of which had been drinking and eating since the early hours of the morning. Above the restaurants and bars were expensive hotels, with long balconies looking over the city center. On the balcony stood many of the cities most wealthy patrons, many of who sipped from glasses of wine. The men and women sitting on the balconies had paid top dollar to be there, and many had scheduled their stay weeks in advance. These hotels jutted up five to seven stories. Many of the rich patrons on the upper floors held binoculars so that they could get a closeup view. Finally, the roofs were dangerously full of brave men and women who had climbed the scaffolding to get a view of the punishment.