Mercier Family
"It's not insurance fraud, if you're cursed."The Merciers are a wellknown mercantile family with a long and rich history behind them as well as an increasing number of headstones all over Bohemia. The one thing all members of this family share are their short lives and memorable deaths ever since the medieval times. Their entire clan is surrounded and drowned in urban legends and the occasional accusations of witchcraft or unsavory worship. They have always been rich enough to live comfortably (if not long) but never to become quite powerful. Nowadays, there are three main branches: the city Merciers (dealing in antiques and occult memorabilia), the Domitus-Merciers (the best attack lawyers money could buy) and the eastern Merciers (dabbling in the art of dentistry). There are about 66 members alive to this day. The oldest member and the head of the entire family is currently Augusta Louisa Mercier. They rarely organise yearly meetings or any grand social events, but their funerals seem to be "the thing". Should you be fortunate to get invited to one, do not hesitate to accept.
The Many Deaths of the Mercier Family
The short explanation is that they are cursed. The long explanation usually involves charts and measure tapes and police reports to prove that all of the unfortunate departures are perfectly explainable coincidences and that curses do not exist. But one thing is clear: Merciers do die very often.The White Chronicle
This is a a collection of books that is shown to friends and public. It contains all the deaths and other important events from the family history and it is full of newspaper clippings and additional material fished out from museums and distant relatives. The chronicle is more popular that traditional photo albums and Merciers are proud to show it off to anyone who asks. Majority of the volumes are in the possession of the current head of the family, but other members usually have one of the volumes that is more focused on their immediate relatives and ancestors. The inscription on all the volumes ("Together, always.") is considered to be the official family motto.The Black Chronicle
Merciers are a family of prophets, due to some innate magical talent. Their visions, however, seem to be concentrated on one thing only: how they will die. Not when, or where but only how. This is called the Dream and every and each member of the Mercier family (born into it or wed) has one during their lifetime. Brides and grooms typically (but not always) have theirs on the wedding night (and to the wedding guests it is more intriguing than what usually goes on during the wedding night and they place bets on what the dream might be - and even if someone guesses it correctly, the pool of collected money always goes to the newlyweds for their honeymoon). Adopted children tend to have it the first night they spend in one of the family residences. The inscription on the book goes as follows: "No matter how bleak your Fate is, there's always hope." Below that is a small dove engraving.
"Together, always."
Popular sayings:
"It's better to be wed in Florus than to one of them Merciers."
"Cry 'Mercy! ' and Death will come for you twice."
"There are only two things insurance companies fear: giving out money and Merciers."
Ok, so I didn't comment the demonic porcupine article but I read it (I was one of the judges behind the scenes) and just like with that one, now my brain is confused. Should I laugh because the writing style is hilarious? Should I be sad because the family is cursed? I have no idea, and I freaking love that. The article body is short, but you make up for it in the timeline. And that's a strong point of the article, actually. Reading timelines can be boring, and I think that's why many people (myself included) opted for adding a history section. But your timeline is written in a very dynamic way, just like the rest of the article, so it's not boring at all! As a small suggestion, timelines are a little bit hidden, so maybe you could add a small "timeline attached" notice somewhere in the article, just to make sure people don't miss it. Speaking about the timeline, the different ways the Merciers die are very creative. I don't usually laugh out loud when reading, but this managed to cause several "silent laughs", so congrats! xD The snail assassin is definitely my favourite event. A small question about the bee allergy: did she die? It's not clear, so maybe this could be clarified. Getting back to the article body, it's short, but it tells you most of what you need to do, even the hidden truth! I love interactive elements on articles btw, so seeing something I could click was great. It's a shame that there's so much blank space due to the sidebar being longer than the main body, but I'm not sure how this could be fixed. When it comes to content, maybe I'm missing some information about each of the three branches ("dabbling in the art of dentistry"? lol). And... now idea where these four paragraphs came from. I'm normally much shorter when I give feedback. I guess I'm wordier than usual today! So yeah, great read, keep at it, and see you around! :)