Court-Rope
Court-Rope. Court-Rope is the sovereign's gift for the slow binding of the ambitious. Looking at a lord, a lady, a guildmaster — anyone with power and the will to use it — the sovereign can name the one favor that will tie them to the crown's interest without their realizing it for a full season. The favor is never large. A trade concession. A favorable marriage for a third cousin. A blind eye turned to a discreet debt. The target accepts, grateful and unsuspecting, and only later discovers that the favor has rearranged their incentives so thoroughly that opposing the sovereign now costs them more than supporting. The sovereign has bound half the council this way, one small favor at a time. None of them know the full picture. The sovereign does, and the rope is drawn a little tighter each season.