Coventina

[MattWithoos]

I want to start a thread about Coventina. A character pivotal to the story and history of Cantr. SekoETC is too modest to start one on her own, and honestly, Coventina deserves a thread unto herself - as would any MAJOR character in Cantr's history. This was the leader of THE largest city in the English Zone. Not just that, but also the oldest leader (I'm fairly sure).

Mods, please delete this thread if it's inappropriate - but I'd love to hear everyone's stories about Coventina, about their interactions with her, the positives and the negatives, the things she helped with, the things she hindered... I'm particularly curious about her early life, as well as her mid and late life.

Finally, people's interpretations on her passing would be really interesting too. I've stated mine in another thread so I'm curious what everyone else thought as well.

I think this is basically an OOC Funeral/Reception. She touched so many players for better or worse, I wouldn't be surprised if 90% of players didn't have characters at least see her. (it might also help a brilliant player get some closure on an incredible decade-long journey of playing a great character)

[MattWithoos]

I'm worried most of the players who played with Coventina in her prime aren't on the forum anymore but surely there are some who can share a story or two?

Here's my take on her death, from the Dead Characters thread:

I couldn't see a better way for her to die. She'd have lost all dignity in a war if she was imprisoned, she'd have lost all dignity if she was captured by pirates, and she'd have lost all dignity if she just faded into obscurity.

What I liked about her death was that it was foreshadowed by not one, not two but by three events. It unfolded like a rich story.

The first foreshadowing (and I'm speaking entirely from my own character's experience - maybe there's more, please chime in) was her heart issues. She was having them off and on. Makes sense for someone that old, busy and relied-upon.

The second foreshadowing was the drunken outburst - a few people were soured by that event (not me, I loved it!).

The third foreshadowing was the secret plot against her which was being unraveled.

All three things added to her stress levels, ultimately culminating in her death. A messy death, too. Like come on, what stress-induced deaths are clean? A crossbow bolt to the heart or brain? Sure. Instant-death poison? Yep. But fricken stress-induced? Yeah, that's going to be messy. No two ways about it. No coming into town saying "Hello everyone. I am quite a bit stressed, tee hee! I'm just going to die from a heart attack now. Nice knowin' ya."

Better yet, there was an air of mystique thanks to the main character involved being quite hush-hush about it. Citizens knew she died, and citizens knew it was a messy, dirty, undignified death. Good. We don't have the details, even better. The question mark above her death will remain forever, hopefully.

I think it was a good way to die.

Having said all this, I was and am so sad and disappointed that she died. I knew you'd regret some aspect or all of it. We all regret self-induced deaths, whether that's straight away or several months or years down the track. There's always a "what if?". That's the beauty of it, you slot your brick into the wall that is the story of Cantr and it stays there for many, many years. They all build upon each other to create a taller wall. One brick alone does nothing, a hundred bricks make history.

[Snickie]

I've had four characters interact with her. The only one worth elaborating on is Snick.

Snick of course spawned there, made a point of not asking people for their names and so only knew Coventina's name for sure about ten days or so after she spawned. I think her opinion of her at the time was a little unstable in her emotional self and a bit annoying in that she had a relationship with Maveri and Dacrum (she didn't like Maveri much, and she still looks down on romantic relationships), but quite efficient at running the town. When she went off to chase the Scurvy Scratcher or whatever it was called after the Doryiskom massacre and Venustas and Tabford were running Klojt, I remember being at least marginally concerned for their well-being, specifically Coventina's. I think I only drew her once, and SekoETC commented that my interpretation of her looked like Meg from Family Guy.

I remember Snick loved making fun of her, at least inside her head, of having fainted in front of Rau Naedell years and years prior. I remember Coventina being concerned when Snick ran off to work for TBR, and the high emotions after Fin died there and she brought back his body and announced her permanent departure from Klojt.

I remember the one time she came back, just for a visit and to conduct some unrelated transaction with TBR and Doryiskom. I got disconnected before we could have a proper conversation, she handed Snick a note, and Snick was dragged back onto the boat. That was the last time they ever interacted.

Coventina's death came as a complete shock to Snick. She was already stewing some upset over a handful of other things, and hearing of her death on the radio broke her, at least for a bit. She had always had a mixture of respect and disdain for Coventina (as she does for almost everyone, but this was different), but now that she's gone.... what now?

I had another one of my characters in Klojt for a short time. Real life got busy for me, to the point that I was only logging in to make sure my account didn't time out, and I accidentally let her starve. Days before she died, Coventina sent out a radio message asking if anybody knew that character. It was a nice gesture, especially considering my character had no relationship with her except for trade.

I only knew Coventina of 3000s. Back when Cdls had that cantr stories thing going, Seko posted something of a biography of Coventina's time with Adam Brinks & Co that was an interesting read.

[SekoETC]

I didn't want to start a topic because I don't think I could take it if not a single person posted in it. It would just prove that everybody was tired of her and she had outlived her welcome. I understand there can never be a landmark because Lubomir built so many statues that it reached the maximum allowed per location. A lot of my less significant characters have landmarks build for them. Coventina was my primary character for several ingame years. Only Jaina Valjean and Pharap Jahrot were somewhere in that ballpark. She was a relic of the old times and there weren't many people left from the old days. She had more friends in afterlife than living. But she was always splitting opinions. Several of my own characters who met her found her distant and cold, unapproachable. Some of them had conversations with her and felt very uncomfortable, like their intestines were tying themselves on knots.

I'm surprised Travis didn't follow her into death because his player was talking about quitting repeatedly before she died. You'd think he has nothing holding him back now but he just keeps hanging in there.

[Money]

The only characters of mine who have formed opinions that I'm comfortable sharing with the forum as a whole are Rutho Dergon and Clyde Gotherd.

Rutho Dergon was citizen of Doryiskom who died in the aftermath of the Doryiskom massacre. A politically and business oriented character he was my first foray into Cantr when I was much younger individual. I can't say he had a very strong personal connection with Coventina, they rarely talked directly, but given the length of her existence and the influence she had on the region it was unavoidable that he formed an opinion. Rutho eventually managed to attain the position of Councillor and I think in that context its easiest to understand his thoughts on the matter. Coventina managed to run a thriving community with trade and employment for all. Though she didn't seem to encourage the type of political participation, and quite frankly infighting, that occurred during the Doryiskom experiment with democracy it was always a pleasure to see what strong leadership could accomplish. The maintenance and spread of the Klojt was a bit of a sore point to him, he always thought Doryiskom would one day need to adopt currency to properly compete with its closest neighbor. I and he greatly enjoyed the negotiating a treaty with her and various other local leaders. Coventina was to Rutho a role model of a strong leader and a friendly rival.

Clyde Gotherd was another character who wound up being a citizen of Doryiskom though much later then Rutho. As a scholar Clyde Gothard was intensely interested by those individuals who had actually lived through the major events of Cantr. Unfortunately he wasn't a particularly long lived character so he didn't get to really plumb the depths of her knowledge. When he did interact with Conventina she was always forthcoming and answered his many questions as best she could. She was a trusted historical/political source and greatly appreciated for her openness.

[notsure]

Kieri DuBonnet met up with Coventina on a ship. I can't remember the name of the ship but the owner was none other than the soon-to-be-famous-pirate Adam Brinks. Kieri and her friend Khandi were out for some fun, but Kieri didn't want to be a pirate. The two girls didn't know what Coventina was, exactly, friend or foe, so they gave her a wide berth. Later Khandi told Kieri that Adam was dead and they had to take the little boat and escape. Khandi's player was kicked out of the game and Kieri ended up on a far-away island.

notsure

[sanchez]

I had a char meet Coventina as a girl on Omeo, shortly after the Adam Brinks episode I think. It wasn't until nearly a lifetime later that they met briefly again, and I realised that 'Tina' had grown into the woman she became. What a long and interesting life she led. I hope, Seko, that you'll post more of her story here, as a model of char development in Cantr.

[Joshuamonkey]

Stephanie in Doryiskom was a long-time acquaintance with Coventina although they didn't have much interaction, but I've always been impressed by Klojt and by Coventina. I think Doryiskom could have been as successful as Klojt if it had had that kind of leadership (and it has had some successful times, but Klojt has always felt like the big neighbor). Anyway I'm thankful that Cantr's presence was graced with Coventina.

[Rebma]

Two of mine met her. One will always remember the TBR jokes about her.

The other met her days before her death apparently, and was very impressed by the city she ran, especially all the trade information, and the fact that Coventina's rates on things allowed her room to make profit on a lot of the things she bought/sold. She was also grateful for the information about where not to waste time selling a certain thing.

Those are the only two that will really remember the woman, but I don't really think many others ever met her, so.

[notsure]

Actually, I had a charrie meet her a day or two before her death. She told him not to worry about her health, that she'd be around for a long time. He didn't understand why she said that, then went and died. He left town immediately after.

notsure

[the_antisocial_hermit]

The only character of mine that ever met and interacted with Coventina respected her greatly for her efficiency in running Klojt.

[SekoETC]

Coventina was 207 years old when she died. She had a long life with a lot of different stages.

Part 1: The early life:

She spawned as a prostitute in Klojt. She thought she knew everything about sex but she was sort of immature in a way. She was tricky and tried everything to avoid physical labor. Usually this involved sweet-talking and seducing people.

Her first customer took her to Pok and left her there. She was awful at reading maps, so she couldn't imagine finding her way back to Klojt without a guide. After a failed attempt of traveling with a group, she returned to Pok and worked in the tailoring shop. As far as I can remember, the tailor's name was Cid Barret. OEnone was also there at the time, and Cynthia, whom I think is dead nowadays. Coventina worked long enough to earn herself a corset and a skirt, then decided to go wandering around.

She met another traveling woman and they traveled together for a little while. In one silver mining town, Coventina was given a pair of earrings as a gift. Her ears weren't pierced yet, so the traveling companion gave her a piercing using her teeth. Coventina was very sensitive to sharp pain and she almost fainted from the shock. But it was worth it being able to wear pretty earrings.

She saw a flyer for the Gold Mine Bordello and decided to go there and apply for a job. But they slept too much to stage an interview, so she got bored and left.

In Dorian she ran into a guy who had a sloop, as well as some girl in her twenties. The guy gave both of them a ride to Olipifirovash. There the other girl was jailed for licking people without their consent.

Coventina tried to seduce Giordan and also made friends with Maveri who was a newspawn at the time. (Actually I had witnessed Maveri's spawning through Pharap Jahrot, who was visiting earlier.) One guy gave Coventina some steel, saying he had ran into a guy on the road who said "if you ever run into a person named Coventina, give her this because I owe her". [Actually they were both played by the same person and I suspect the whole interaction never happened. The player just felt sorry for cheating her out of pay with his other character.] (You can edit this out if it's too sensitive.) This guy became her last customer. The encounter they had on the road just outside of town traumatized her so much that it made her give up whoring.

She also visited Olip Forest with Giordan and tried to seduce Crag Rock. I think this may have happened before she got traumatized.

Giordan said if she'd wait a while, he would arrange her wood for a longboat. She said that's not good enough, it needs to be at least a soarer.

Part 2: The time with Adam Brinks

Now she started sailing with Adam Brinks. Maveri also came along. The ship was called Damnation of the Sea. They went to Naron and Adam threatened the leader there. They found an abandoned soarer and Adam gave it to Maveri. Coventina was jealous. She considered returning to Olip with Maveri but decided against it.

Also in Naron they picked up a girl called Mya. She introduced Coventina to lesbian interactions and also romance in general, something she never had with her male customers.

When they visited Xendra, Adam claimed he had offered Coventina for sale as a slave. She was like "what?!" Turns out he just wanted to trick some resources out of them and she was free to return to him after they paid him. One young guy fell in love with her on first sight, offering to buy her with potatoes. Then it turned out that he didn't actually own the potatoes and had no right to offer them. They let the guy join the crew anyway. Coventina was taking advantage of his infatuation.

Once they got to Siom, half the crew went to Reniov Forest to gather resources. Coventina stayed behind, wanting to avoid physical labor as usual. The guy who had a crush on her ended up having a heart attack right after returning from the resource run.

Also at this time, the sneezing sickness was raging all over the place and was being passed back and forth between characters, so Coventina had to spend several days in isolation to avoid infecting others.

Adam Brinks asked her to use her feminine viles to talk the location of Omeo island out of Max Sharp, a visiting captain. There were no world maps at the time. People barely knew Cantr and Treefeather and possibly Shai, that was all. Max Sharp was tired of people trying to convince him, so he caved in easily just to make it stop. Coventina tried to sell the information to Adam and he got enraged. He ended up locking the ship with her on it and undocking. She barricaded herself in a cabin with Mya and first tried to repeatedly run out and change the course, but given that there were more people on deck, one of them was always awake to switch the course back towards Omeo.

She was planning to starve herself to death to avoid Adam's wrath, but Mya convinced her it was better to surrender. Coventina stripped herself naked and went out on the deck, kneeling at Adam's feet. She still thought she could affect him with her feminine viles, even though she should've known better by then. Once the others woke up, they dragged her into a cabin and Adam told her to drop everything she was carried. She was so intimidated that she even dropped her notes, including her diary. Adam read it out loud and got enraged that she had tried to seduce Crag Rock, his mentor. He said he would take away everything she valued, including her good looks and wealth.

He hit her with a mace because he couldn't drag her by himself. After all, she was spawned skillful at fighting, so she was hard to drag. The attack broke her ribs, leaving them disfigured when they healed. He also whipped her, leaving her permanently scarred. That's why she rarely appeared naked in public later on, not even while swimming.

Coventina broke down mentally and was having her first psychotic outbreak. Once Adam stopped hurting her, she started hurting herself because he wasn't "doing his job". She felt she deserved to be punished - a feeling that would come back repeatedly for the rest of her life.

Once they got to Omeo, she was released without even a hide dress or any sort of a shield. Max Sharp's crew was there at the time, so she talked to one of his crew members to let her on board. The captain didn't know of this himself, but didn't throw her out either.

Part 3: The period with Max Sharp

They sailed about halfway around the island before Max revealed his evil plan. He was never intending to let anyone return to Siom, instead planning to maroon everyone on Omeo to preserve the secret of it's location. He dragged away half the crew until only two people were left in addition to Coventina: the man who had let her on board and a girl called Sunni Davies (not related to Sunni Daez in any way). Max said who ever helped him drag the man would be given food and healing food. They were starving and there wasn't a single harbor on that side of the island, so Coventina knew she wouldn't survive if she kept resisting him. She betrayed the man who had saved her, and lead him to his death.

Later the girls managed to escape, at least momentarily, when Max took them ashore to gather resources, but they had to split up when he came after them. Coventina was the only one who got away. Sunni remained Max's prisoner for a long time, until he got ambushed by Polish people and killed. Sunni joined the Polish crew and stayed with them until she died.

(As for Max's ship, Siom Gigantor Fleet 2, it was later gifted to my character Keiran by a Russian character who had somehow gotten his hands on it, and he renamed it Gold Seeker and later A Beautiful Girl.)

Part 4: The long journey home

Coventina walked across Omeo island, taking about four years as I recall. She was awful at reading maps, so she ended up in the other corner first. Once she got to Omeo, this is where Sanchez' character saw her but I don't think they spoke directly.

First there was a ship from Klojt, it was a missionary ship by the church. They said they were going to the Polish islands and couldn't turn back.

Next there was a sloop that was coming from Cantr island. At first the guy on it didn't want to go back, but Coventina was so desperate that he agreed to take her to Siom.

In Siom she got support from a woman named Breanne. After she told her story, she started having another emotional breakdown. At one point she had a nest built out of fur in the corner of a building. I think she might have still had a picture of it in her personal effects when she died. A note that says "This is my nest, please do not break."

She worked for Zady and Michael ZwellingHart, mostly tailoring, some repairs. She found an old crossbow repair project and finished it, kept the crossbow, no one noticed. She earned enough iron and steel for a soarer. Then if I recall correctly, Crystalia Xavier donated her wood for it. Coventina was awkward at shipbuilding but several people helped her build it. It was called Freedom.

She decided her duty was to warn the world of Adam Brinks and Max Sharp, and set out on a journey through the towns she had once visited with Adam. In Zuzi she met Ingrid Schwann, another former victim of Adam and joined forces with her. They made it all the way to Olipifirovash, where the only person from the old days was Senator Howto and some guy whose name Coventina hadn't learned before so she had just named him something descriptive. She visited Olip Forest again, where the Stone Knights took her to Mirovash but nothing came out of that. She had support from Adrian Miyra but the rest of the Stone Knights were against her.

She slept longer than usual and her companions decided to leave with some guy. Then she went to Second Blojt and ran into Maveri again. Coventina decided to try her skills as a massage artist, and found a customer who sold musical instruments. She massaged him in exchange for a lute. He got so relaxed that he slept himself to death. She was at first stuck on his ship, but there was a copy key project and Maveri passed her a file so she could finish it. After this she was let onto Maveri's ship, and while it was unlocked, some newspawn came in and stole all they could carry. Maveri left off to chase them and left Coventina locked up on the ship. She was patient and waited for her to come back.

Since the other ship was now without an owner, Coventina claimed it for herself. As I recall, it was already called Lover's Remorse at the time. She no longer needed the soarer, so she wanted to donate it to Ingrid. She knew Ingrid had returned to Nraam where she was from, so she sailed there, losing Maveri along the way because her ship was faster. She picked up Ingrid and returned to Second Blojt, only to find Freedom gone. They started returning to Nraam empty-handed, when Coventina suddenly spotted the soarer at random in the middle of the sea. They boarded it and convinced the thieves to flee. The ship had been renamed The Black Star or something, and I think it kept that name in the future, never returning to the name of Freedom again.

Coventina visited Naron, having found out from Maveri that it had been massacred by Adam. She spoke to the only survivor and recorded his story. After this she returned to Klojt.

Part 5: Klojt again

Klojt was very sleepy and stagnant, due to both the councillors having "miraculously" fallen asleep at the same time. Soon after they had simultaneous heart attacks. Coventina was the first one awake to pick up all the keys and went through all the buildings, cataloging everything. Jamie asked her what she was doing but she said she's just taking care of business until a better leader can be elected.

Later Coventina got attacked by a dire wolf and spent time in the hospital because she was always a slow healer. Jamie came to share a cot with her and they became lovers. That's probably the main reason why Coventina decided to stay.

A lot of notable people came and went, I can't remember all their names. There were of course Venustas and Tabford, Alexander and Nadia Balor, Terry Tadpole, Bruce McInnis and so forth. Lots of big names.

Later Maveri showed up and it turned out she had been in Shortinazy all those years. She was good friends with Elizabeth Windowpane and some third person who died soon after. Jamie and Coventina took Maveri as a third person in their relationship.

There was Dacrum Opilin. He was very faithful. He scouted the mountains for Coventina and reported back.

Coventina got caught critisizing Rau Naedell and got a letter from her inviting her to sort things out. She was certain that she would lose her head and wanted to have sex with a man one last time before dying. So she asked Dacrum and he agreed to it.

Then they went to Blackrock Forest and there was the incident when she fainted in front of Rau Naedell. They would never stop joking about it. The Rau didn't consider her a threat and told her friends to take her home.

Later Jamie got sleepier and sleepier, and eventually she starved to death when people forgot to keep an eye on her. Dacrum blamed himself over it.

Coventina was occasionally having mental issues and self-harm. One time she cut herself so badly that she needed stitches. A knife does a surprising amount of damage if you drop your shield.

Then there was the Doryiskom Massacre. I already wrote about this in another thread. Long story short, she gathered a crew of ten people to go after the massacrists, who were 5 (we thought they were 4). It was overkill but we didn't want to risk anything. Their ship was unrigged so catching up to it was like shooting fish in a barrel. If only they had changed course when they got out of telescope range from Doryiskom, but they never did. We filled the deck and let them starve. Once one of the guards stepped out and the massacrists used it as a chance to break out and hit some people, but then they returned to their cabins and that was the end of their story. Their bodies were kept in a building until a Plaekur representative came to pick them up.

At one point Coventina went on the radio under the alias of Lady Sea, and hooked up with Redfern from Sjoftich. They had a session but she was too emotionally distant for him, so they clashed and he had to use a safe word. She cried a bit and he used silk gloves to wipe away her tears. Then he let her keep them as a parting gift. Years later when he came to Klojt, they never spoke of what happened and she just sold him a longboat. Then he disappeared forever.

Most of the stories from that point on revolve around other people. Coventina split her time between town management and her poly-amorous family. It was a troubled relationship, lots of guilt involved.

At one point she snapped and beat Maveri so bad that she got permanent scars from it. Nothing was ever right between them after that. It was most likely what eventually caused Maveri's death.

At one point there was a man in jail called West, who was accused of raping two women. Coventina felt a connection with him and they spent several times talking. She never felt threatened by him. She felt like he respected her. Eventually West was claimed by Baroness Ivy Joy, and apparently murdered by her.

Dacrum lived years longer but started getting sleepier and sleepier. The last time he spoke to Coventina, she didn't hear it because she was switching clothes and didn't notice him come in. He probably felt ignored when she walked out on him. I only realized this much later when I looked through old turn reports.

Eventually she went on a trip to get away from it all. When she came back, he was dead. She figured she must harden herself emotionally, that love wasn't meant for her. It only ends up in pain.

Much later she met up with Travis. He was a 21-year-old troublemaker who was trying to get himself killed. She went full dominatrix on him in jail and turned out he liked it. It gave him a reason to live, as her little pet. Their relationship was controversial and against the no slavery attitude prevalent in Klojt. She tried to introduce a law to legalize unequal marriage, but Gwen convinced her out of it. She had a secret ceremony to take Travis as her male concubine. They had a stormy relationship. He kept saying he would want to see her with another man because jealousy was such a turn on for him, but they had a hard time finding a playmate. I won't say if they ever succeeded or not.

Most of Coventina's heart symptoms were caused by her fights with Jupiter and Gwen. Eventually the pain got so bad she couldn't live with it anymore, so she had to give up.

This isn't the whole story but it's impossible to include every detail.

[Rebma]

There were so many old names in that story. That's incredible. I never realized she'd travelled as much as she did.

[MattWithoos]

That was a really good read. Felt like a strong story arch. I enjoyed that there seemed to be several years of Coventina struggling, before she matures into a powerful woman (literally and figuratively). Her painful past clearly formed who she became.

[Mafia Salad]

The last time I had a character in Klojt it had a real bad little sister jealousy complex with the much larger and richer Dory next door. Which oddly enough is another town I spent almost no time in.

Coventina's life took her to all kinds of places I've never had a character and the few places I have were at different times, so I never got to meet her. I will say reading her life story was fascinating. Thanks for posting that Seko.