The Court of Flowers (Patreon)

Hundreds of years prior to the beginning of Dizzy Hearts, the Elvish country of Ontonia was a militaristic kingdom; its spear-head was Lungarde. Long ago established as the capital of Ontonia, where war was fought, the city fortress was the breakwater against the wild elves of the Rift. In this fighting Lungarde and Ontonia grew larger and stronger, and the smaller nation-states of the Ontonia region united under the Kingdom to protect themselves from attack by hostile forces.

Over time, the technological advancement of the Ontonian elves and the defensive role of Lungarde ensured the safety of its people. The fighting began to die down, and for a few centuries there ensued a tentative, uneasy peace between Lungarde elves and the wild elf tribe that assailed them in the past. A young Queen, Llend, signed the first peace treaty between Ontonian elves and wild elves, offering to trade food, textiles and other goods between the two regions.

Up until the coronation of Queen Llend, Lungarde had always been an absolute monarchy, born from a millenium long lineage of fiore rulers. The queen’s bloodline had always been a symbol of great pride among Ontonian elves, believed to be blessed in their rule by the Goddess herself. Given the rarity of fiore children it was a surprise, even in the royal family, when the Queen had four fiore daughters, all equally entitled to the throne.

There were legends of two fiore sisters who shattered the kingdom in the past, creating massive bloodshed in order to seize the throne. To prevent this situation, the Queen appointed her daughters to oversee four branches of government: the Chambers of Law, the Chambers of Health, the Chambers of Commerce, and the Chambers of Faith, giving them equal representative power in hopes of keeping war from severing the kingdom again.

The government convenes and debates the matters of the day in the Court of Flowers, which is overseen by the Queen. In recent times, it has transitioned away from an absolute monarchy and into a sort of oligarchy, with the princesses having more control and power over their chambers.

Each chamber in court is supported by provincial members, advisories, from around the country, who represent their respective provinces in Ontonia. Each advisory has the duty to be the voice of their province, in their chamber, and it is the advisories who together propose bills to the court.

advisories are appointed by the princess or Queen - they are not elected - however as representatives, they are often the voice of their people. With a few exceptions, advisories are fiore or female nobles from long fiore-lineaged families.

Each Princess has the power of veto, but a veto must have the majority among the chambers, at least a 3:1 vote. , and has the prerogative to use this power as she wishes, however this is very rare. In event of a tied vote, the Queen maintains the ability to act as the final tiebreaker. The princesses themselves have no power to propose bills, but can support bills they helped create within their chambers, and can back the bills proposed by other chambers.