I finally finished the new chapter. I do have some misgivings (more on that below) but it was overall an excellent follow-up to the first one.
Chapter 2 picks up immediately where we left off,
after the conclusion of the Blood Tribunal. Things play out differently depending on whether House Devereux has
won or lost the trial, but the overall direction of the story remains the same - Duvessa's ever more ambitious (and dangerous) bids for power.
We are introduced to several new major characters:
- Branislava Quinza - Daughter of Lord Davor, and heir to House Quinza. Unlike her father, Branislava is a naive, sheltered weakling and worse, a Duvessa fangirl! Removing the only real antagonist in chapter 1 and replacing him with a naive sycophant feels like a bad choice. It lets Duvessa become too much of a darkside Mary Sue. This is my biggest problem with chapter 2.
- Hartwin Bosque & Lord Marshal Raphael Bosque - The brothers of House Bosque, Hartwin is the mild-mannered patriarch, and Raphael is the brutish commander of the Kingdom's military and undefeated champion of tournaments. Raphael is obsessed with his own glory and is on a mission to eradicate banditry from the Kingdom. The fact that the King doesn't care and isn't willing to fund his crusade frustrates him. This causes financial problems for House Bosque, which Duvessa seeks to exploit gleefully.
- Kristina Bosque - Wife to Raphael Bosque. Has some unspecified history with Duvessa. She seems perpetually tormented and detached from the world. She hates her husband and doesn't live with him, and Raphael feels the same. Kristina seems to be close friends with Princess Della, daughter of King Fellner and wife to Kristina's brother, Ondrea Calder. It feels like this will be important later.
- Dragana - Iron Maiden of the Royal Sword, the King's elite soldiers. Raphael, urged by Kristina, asks the King to assign protection to Duvessa. King Fellner agrees and sends Dragana, much to everyone's confusion, as guard duty is very much below the station of the commander of the Royal Sword. Nevertheless, Dragana accepts, as she is deeply loyal to the King and doesn't see fit to question his orders. A formidable soldier, she treats Duvessa's scheming and cruelty with open disdain, and tells her that she'll report any lawbreaking to the King:
- Katia Ivavenko - Living in a strict patriarchy, her husband is the official head of House Ivavenko, but it's an open secret that Katia is the matriarch, the true power, and oversees everything. She has been a role model and surrogate mother to Duvessa in her youth. As a result, Duvessa is nicer, more open, and more trusting with Katia than she's with any other noble. They can even be called allies. But it also means that Katia is aware of who and what Duvessa is, making her a formidable potential treat.
- Priscilla Ivavenko - Katia's youngest daughter and Duvessa's childhood rival. She is a sweet and kind girl, entirely uninterested in the politics of her family. She uses her resources to help the poor and considers Duvessa her 'very best friend'. Duvessa, on the other hand, has always been immensely jealous of her and, depending on your choices in chapter 1, done horrible things to her. But even when Duvessa confesses to (almost) everything to try and disabuse her (and hopefully shut her up), Priscilla is unwilling to face the truth:
- Melina Ivavenko - The elder daughter of Katia and heir to House Ivavenko. Unlike her little sister, Melina is smart and politically active. Much to Katia's dismay, Melina's politics involve loudly advocating for freedom of religion, which is considered heresy by the crown as the only accepted faith is Verunism. Melina is secretly a believer in another religion, Eadwynseld, which puts her in considerable danger as she walks a very tight rope to achieve her goals. Unlike most, she does not trust Duvessa, and threatens her to keep her mouth shut.
- Nobody - A mysterious stranger who shows up almost randomly in Duvessa's life. He hints at an Eadwynseld conspiracy called "The Path" high up within the nobility and wants her help to investigate. Duvessa is deeply suspicious, but chooses to keep an eye out just in case. A lot happens, but nothing seems conclusive and the matter remains unsolved.
Beyond all the scheming and politicking (which is so well-written and worth a read by itself), the game's greatest strength remains Duvessa's characterization, bordering on psychopathy. Like I said in my chapter 1 review, despite everything wrong with her, she continues to have moments of introspection - maybe she shouldn't be
this cruel, or gleefully stomp on people when they are down? On the rare occasion this inner tension reaches the surface and she admits her devious nature to someone, people either don't want to believe, can't find the right words to react, or just have their suspicions confirmed without being able to do anything about it.
Her inner conflict is stronger in chapter 2. It almost feels like Duvessa wants - on a near subconscious level - for
someone to stop her, somehow, but she has no idea how to get there. The insomnia from chapter 1 briefly seems to get better before being replaced by nightmares, which only serves to unsettle her further.
This being F95, I should probably talk about sex scenes as well
There are quite a number of them, but what I said in my first post still applies: Duvessa is not loving or caring in the slightest. Any sex she has (whether as a sub or a dom; I play the latter) is about manipulating and exerting power over her target. Almost all of it is abusive to some degree. But, crucially, it doesn't
feel porny. The scenes I saw were entirely in line with what I'd expect a powerful and amoral psychopath to do, toying with inferior people (in social standing or intellect) for fun.
Overall,
Jezebel continues with Duvessa accumulating ever more power while becoming ever less stable. I'm excited to see what happens next
