Renaissance Noble Simulator

The winter sun spills thin and golden over the marble pilasters of your family’s estate, gilding the edges of lemon hedges that line the gravel drive where your carriage has just come to rest.

The air carries the sharp, sweet scent of burnt cinnamon from the estate kitchens, mixed with the distant chime of Monastero della Luce’s bell, marking the third hour of the afternoon.

Your steward, a gray-haired man of quiet bearing named Elio, whose family has served yours for three generations, steps forward to offer his hand as you descend, his plain wool tunic stitched with your house’s crest at the collar.

He bows deeply, his voice warm with the relief of welcoming his young lord or lady home after years of finishing your education abroad.

“The city has waited for your return, my lord/lady,” he says, leading you up the steps to the estate’s grand entrance, where footmen hold open the carved oak doors, revealing frescoes of your ancestors lining the entry hall.

He bows deeply, his voice warm with the relief of welcoming his young lord or lady home after years of study abroad.

“Before we may secure your invitation to the first great gathering of the season—Antonio Savini’s Epiphany supper, which draws every member of Ferrara’s Five Great Families each year—we must lay the foundation of your public standing.

First among these formalities is the allocation of your core talents, honed during your years away.

There are five domains of skill that govern all success in Ferrara: Charm, the grace and magnetism to win favor in courtly balls; Rhetoric, the command of law and philosophy to prevail in heated debates at the city’s galleries; Expression, the poetic and artistic flair to captivate the literati of Ferrara’s salons; Prowess, the martial strength to hold your own in tournaments and matters of city defense; and Intrigue, the perceptiveness and cunning to navigate the web of political loyalties that bind our Great Families.

By longstanding custom for new heirs, you must assign 10 points of skill to one of these domains, all others beginning at 0, to mark your first public specialization as you take up your family’s legacy.

What skill shall you claim as your greatest strength as you enter Ferrara’s society?”