Hi!
I did a bit of searching in the wikis and it says there that I have to do a number of masterpieces for the empress before getting banned from the court. The thing is, since the "Making Your Name" update, I’ve done a number of masterpieces and I still haven’t got banned from there. My "Carving a Reputation at Court" quality is still at 3, I can’t get it to 4 for anything. Do I need to do anything else?
After making several masterpieces the Veteran Privy Councellor should appear and offer you an eventual position at the cost of an incredibly scandalous work. You have the option to accept, which raises your Carving a Reputation and forces your next work to be the scandalous one, or you can decline, which lowers your Carving a Reputation a bit and allows you to keep making things. I would recommend being banned eventually in order to access the Foreign Office and Port Carnelian. HOWEVER don’t do this without Scholar of the Correspondence 10! During Christmas the best way to increase Taste of Lacre, the quality you spend for special items, requires a SotC check which needs 10 for 100%. Once you have SotC 1, you can choose a special option on the Beneath the Neath ride in the carnival to raise it to 3, and from there raise it to 7 through an option under Seeking Curios in the Forgotten Quarter. The issue is raising SotC to 10 either requires high watchful and many expensive items, one-time events and good luck with rare opp cards, two Fate-locked companions from the Labyrinth of Tigers expansion, or writing a bunch of symphonies at Court. The last one is by far the cheapest and quickest as the Correspondence Symphony option when completing it gives 1 CP up to level 10 for several hour’s worth of actions. So yeah if you want to be able to do much at Christmas don’t get banned until you’ve learned as much as you can.
I’ve had the misfortune of letting my foresight fall behind my rash decisions, and in result have gotten myself banned from court. Is it possible to get the empress to allow me back in?
It is not currently possible to return to court once banished. That will likely change. Eventually.