Yet a few days, and thee
The all-beholding Sun shall see no more
In all her course; nor yet in the cold ground,
Where thy pale form was laid, with many tears,
Nor in the embrace of Ocean,
shall exist thy image.
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Viradon’s Tower, at the Fall of the River Vir, is often called the False Tower - in contrast to the White Tower and the Black Tower. A fifty-floor construction which stands alone on a spur of jagged rock near the World’s Edge. The place is heavily guarded by a detachment of the Solar Army, but, in this time of Civil War, more and more troops are funnelled away to the front line.
What lies within? Well, surely the Charters know, they’ve been picking at the construction and carting away wagons full of unmarked boxes for years.
Surely? What within the tower could stymie the full attention of the King?
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The great fortress of the Coin Knights, Ardrang, lies a few leagues north-east of the city of Madrevel, in the Duchy of Defiance. Vast towers, a foundry fit to equip an army, a feasting hall second only to the one in Surang far to the south.
It is built atop a massive stone sphere. Some call it the Child Moon, the locals have called it the Egg of God. Whispers say the cellars fall all the way into the depths of the sphere itself. What could be down there?
Rumour says the Robber-Knights have retaken the castle, in recent months.
In the depths of the Void, it is very easy to hide. Nobody can see you.
Iron Scribes say…
“The universe, the whole mass of things that are, is corporeal, that is to say, body, and hath the dimensions of magnitude, length, breadth and depth. Every part of the universe is ‘body’ and that which is not ‘body’ is no part of the universe, and because the universe is all, that which is no part of it is Nothing, and consequently Nowhere.”
The symbol of the Iron Scribes is the Sword-sans-point, a symbol of contested meaning - does it represent the lost freedom of the people under tyranny? The ultimate futility of violence? The need for a blade to secure a covenant? The fate of those who oppose the Iron Scribes?
Iron Scribes say…
“Fear of things invisible is the natural seed of that which all calleth religion.”
Iron Scripture is not necessarily illegal magic, but the literacy that goes hand in hand with it is. There are a few collaborating Iron Scribes who use their magic for the King in exchange for leniency in the case of their literacy. These collaborators with the King and the Chantry are derisively called Tin Scribes by their defiant ex-fellows.
The origin of Iron Scripture is not known.
This man, he is neither wise nor foolish, but a secret third thing.
This man, he does not die for king or country, but a secret third thing.
This man, he sees neither light nor darkness, but a secret third thing.
Chapter 1 of the Knightly Matters (Summary)
It opens (pictographically, as this popular tale is rarely recorded in writing) on the Siege of Vel Index, where the Nameless Knight arrives astride his monstrous horse, Baligant. At this time in the story, he is the only Knight of any note in the land - symbolised by his riding alone in the circle of the setting sun.
The siege goes poorly. The city sits on a high mount in the Sunan Hills, which divide the Torni Plain from the lands of the Hanchen. It was designed to be unassailable by master architects in ancient time. A bandit army, former mercenaries unpaid by the Duke of Draad, have seized the city’s walls, and are holding the people as hostages in order to extract that which they are owed.
The Knight disguises himself as a washer and Baligant as his old mule, ignoring the squabbling generals carrying out the siege. They crawl up the drain where the Pointera, a tributary of the River Shay, flows out from the high city.
He makes his way quietly through the city, noticed by none - despite his plate mail. The disguise must’ve been damn good.
When he reaches the old bastion, he throws off his disguise and sets about the mercenaries, cutting off hands and heads in precise revenge for the crimes he has witnessed them enact on the people of Vel Index. Those who have left the people alone are left with sundered shields and sore heads - but with no blood spilled.
As battle continues, he meets the first of many duelling opponents mentioned in the Knightly Matters, Red Haired Hua, the captain of the ex-mercenaries. Hua begins a prepared speech - which is interrupted terminally by the sudden stroke of the Knight’s halberd.
The final violence ensues, and the Knight leaves through the Eagle Gate of Vel Index as the Sun sets, cleaning blood from his armour - and picking bones from the fangs of his horse.
He leaves Vel Index, awe in his wake, riding towards the rising moon - to later meet his first Squire, Saeraath.
The Solar Chantry is the state religion of the Kingdom. It is a religion which contains nothing salvific, nothing which could lift the spirit or reinvigorate the soul, but one which portrays human existence as a constant struggle, a delicate balancing act - painting the iron grip of the king as less a gauntlet crushing the windpipe, and more a steering hand upon the reins.
The King is regarded not as a god, but as an intercessor with the ever-present and ever-dangerous Cosmos.
The hoi polloi of the World Above believe that the mad dancers of the Moon are always seeking access to their dreams, the tyrannical princes of the Sun watch from dawn to dusk, that the ghosts of the Void lurk in every shadow, and that every engineer, alchemist, or doctor not in the King’s direct employ must derive their education from the callous nobility of the Stars. As such, in the common belief, however bad the King and his rule may become - the alternative is worse.
The symbol of the Law Scribes is the Fourfold Square, which is said to represent the robust construction of the world and the successive layers of existence.
Law Scribes are said to believe that God, or, the Demiurge, or, All Truth Absolute, has abandoned the world, left the throne, discarded their crown, let their sceptre fall and break against the stone, and so on. They can’t agree on why - the main theories are Disgust at Humanity, that they were Pulled to a Greater Calling, or that They Left Simply to Rest. No Law Scribe believes that God is dead - although some believe they are a bastard.
Law Scribes say…
“The title of ruler of all is not one easily filled. It hangs loose about the usurper, like the robe of a giant around the frame of a mere man.”
….the Yliaster represented the two basic compounds of the cosmos, matter representing "below", and the stars representing "above".
Rumour says the Robber-Knights have retaken the castle, in recent months.
+
+
In the depths of the Void, it is very easy to hide. Nobody can see you.
+
Iron Scribes say…
“The universe, the whole mass of things that are, is corporeal, that is to say, body, and hath the dimensions of magnitude, length, breadth and depth. Every part of the universe is ‘body’ and that which is not ‘body’ is no part of the universe, and because the universe is all, that which is no part of it is Nothing, and consequently Nowhere.”
The symbol of the Iron Scribes is the Sword-sans-point, a symbol of contested meaning - does it represent the lost freedom of the people under tyranny? The ultimate futility of violence? The need for a blade to secure a covenant? The fate of those who oppose the Iron Scribes?
Iron Scribes say…
“Fear of things invisible is the natural seed of that which all calleth religion.”
Iron Scripture is not necessarily illegal magic, but the literacy that goes hand in hand with it is. There are a few collaborating Iron Scribes who use their magic for the King in exchange for leniency in the case of their literacy. These collaborators with the King and the Chantry are derisively called Tin Scribes by their defiant ex-fellows.
The origin of Iron Scripture is not known.
+
+
This man, he is neither wise nor foolish, but a secret third thing.
This man, he does not die for king or country, but a secret third thing.
This man, he sees neither light nor darkness, but a secret third thing.
+
Chapter 1 of the Knightly Matters (Summary)
It opens (pictographically, as this popular tale is rarely recorded in writing) on the Siege of Vel Index, where the Nameless Knight arrives astride his monstrous horse, Baligant. At this time in the story, he is the only Knight of any note in the land - symbolised by his riding alone in the circle of the setting sun.
The siege goes poorly. The city sits on a high mount in the Sunan Hills, which divide the Torni Plain from the lands of the Hanchen. It was designed to be unassailable by master architects in ancient time. A bandit army, former mercenaries unpaid by the Duke of Draad, have seized the city’s walls, and are holding the people as hostages in order to extract that which they are owed.
The Knight disguises himself as a washer and Baligant as his old mule, ignoring the squabbling generals carrying out the siege. They crawl up the drain where the Pointera, a tributary of the River Shay, flows out from the high city.
He makes his way quietly through the city, noticed by none - despite his plate mail. The disguise must’ve been damn good.
When he reaches the old bastion, he throws off his disguise and sets about the mercenaries, cutting off hands and heads in precise revenge for the crimes he has witnessed them enact on the people of Vel Index. Those who have left the people alone are left with sundered shields and sore heads - but with no blood spilled.
As battle continues, he meets the first of many duelling opponents mentioned in the Knightly Matters, Red Haired Hua, the captain of the ex-mercenaries. Hua begins a prepared speech - which is interrupted terminally by the sudden stroke of the Knight’s halberd.
The final violence ensues, and the Knight leaves through the Eagle Gate of Vel Index as the Sun sets, cleaning blood from his armour - and picking bones from the fangs of his horse.
He leaves Vel Index, awe in his wake, riding towards the rising moon - to later meet his first Squire, Saeraath.
+
Has the dawn ever seen your eyes?
Have the days made you so unwise?
Realise, you are
Had you talked to the winds of time
Then you'd know how the waters rhyme
Taste of wine
How can you know where you've been?
In time you'll see the sign
And realise your sin.
+
The Solar Chantry is the state religion of the Kingdom. It is a religion which contains nothing salvific, nothing which could lift the spirit or reinvigorate the soul, but one which portrays human existence as a constant struggle, a delicate balancing act - painting the iron grip of the king as less a gauntlet crushing the windpipe, and more a steering hand upon the reins.
The King is regarded not as a god, but as an intercessor with the ever-present and ever-dangerous Cosmos.
The hoi polloi of the World Above believe that the mad dancers of the Moon are always seeking access to their dreams, the tyrannical princes of the Sun watch from dawn to dusk, that the ghosts of the Void lurk in every shadow, and that every engineer, alchemist, or doctor not in the King’s direct employ must derive their education from the callous nobility of the Stars. As such, in the common belief, however bad the King and his rule may become - the alternative is worse.
+
The symbol of the Law Scribes is the Fourfold Square, which is said to represent the robust construction of the world and the successive layers of existence.
Law Scribes are said to believe that God, or, the Demiurge, or, All Truth Absolute, has abandoned the world, left the throne, discarded their crown, let their sceptre fall and break against the stone, and so on. They can’t agree on why - the main theories are Disgust at Humanity, that they were Pulled to a Greater Calling, or that They Left Simply to Rest. No Law Scribe believes that God is dead - although some believe they are a bastard.
Law Scribes say…
“The title of ruler of all is not one easily filled. It hangs loose about the usurper, like the robe of a giant around the frame of a mere man.”
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How to describe sacred steel? As blue as the thunderbolt, white as the pure snow, black as the soil, and grey as the morning fog.
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Vassari in Action.
You can tell it's her because of the rapier.
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….the Yliaster represented the two basic compounds of the cosmos, matter representing "below", and the stars representing "above".
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Ceremtis is where the method of making silk was discovered and originated. Cerem was its own kingdom, for a few brief moments in time. They once had a festival where chosen people (always married and older than fifty years) went from home to home wearing a black silk pall and a horse’s skull on their head, demanding to know “has the hour come? Has the hour come? Give me booze and I’ll go away.”
Alas, the Sun King banned this charming tradition about fifty years ago, after hearing reports of it became intolerable to him.
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I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
When Spring comes back with rustling shade
And apple-blossoms fill the air.
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It's a privelige afforded to the larger cities, to organise their own Night Watches.
Everywhere else, it's the King's Solar Army
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The Branch Merchants, a group of itinerant Kelkoran cultists who wear green veils and chains of gold amulets. They sell medicines, pest-poisons and emetic concoctions, providing aid in both medical crises and pest infestations. They worship a goddess of overspilling life called Hi-na. The Sun King has banned them, but they never seem to end up caught for long.
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One Within, One Beyond
One Mostly Dead, One Nearly Alive
One Above, One Below
One Calling Out, One Silent Evermore
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The old Kelkoran Empire was made up of Banners, which represented clans, nomadic groups, areas of land or mercenary factions. Supposedly, there were over three thousand Banners.
In theory, they are now forbidden by the Sun King. In practice, they still fly over the labyrinth vales.
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Tome Scribes say….
“By His order bodies are produced; His order cannot be described. By His order souls are infused into them; by His order greatness is obtained. By His order people are made high or made low; by His order they obtain preordained pain or pleasure.”
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For the entirety of known history, the King has sent soldiers to search for something in the valley of Madrevel, in Defiance. It is the best mapped valley in the entire world. The soldiers were never allowed to know for what they searched.
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There are two true towers upon the disk of the World Above. Each is at least a hundred floors tall, and ends in a point.
Sar Arum is the Black Tower, in Arumell. It rises high above the woods and the capital of Chelborc. Once, the entrances were sealed with rubble from the ruined fortress of Uxt, and all the doors had molten lead poured over them to block them by Signatories, but since the rebellion, enterprising souls have torn down the seals and begun to explore the lower towers, hauling out strange treasures built for giants, slick statuettes of black stone depicting men and women with fish-like forms, the seeds of blood red trees, and strange things besides.
Sar Isad is the White Tower, in Draad. It rises high above the roofs of the Great City of Dramyth (sometimes poetically called Vel Isad). The entrances to it are supposedly well-guarded, but there are whispers of criminals breaking in through underground cellars to store their ill-gotten gains inside the great tower itself. There are just as many rumours of bloody bodies being flung from the eightieth floor with no eyes or teeth - but the Duke’s Grand Guard and the Solar Army cover up these incidents quickly, if they do occur.
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Dream Scribes say…
“And this they will play until the serpent arises to rebuke them, saying: "What do ye, playing with stars and fates, and life and death?" And they shall be ashamed of their playing in the hour of the laughter of the serpent.”
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In outer Zzargod, where the forests end in the County of Reneth, there are huge caverns that bubble and boil from some distant steam, vomiting huge amounts of heat and streams of boiling water. It’s a popular resort destination for the wealthy, but many have gone missing in the Kettle Caverns, and in recent years, increasing numbers of massive, blind, albino snakes have slithered out from the depths.
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In inner Zzargod, on the coast of the Sea of Vir, there’s a place where the soil is chalky and grey and no living things can grow. Some people say they’ve seen the ruins of a huge old city inside the ring of hills. But the howls and the screams of pain have turned back prospective explorers thus far.
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The Skull Scribes and their Caput Mortuum - worthless remains.
Rot is a process. Processes require inputs and have results, so they say.
The world was born from the decay of EMPTY LIES UNDONE, or God. All corpses bloom.
Bones beget nothing.
All of the profitable rot has happened, in royal society. All the ideas and peoples which can be extracted from this controlled collapse are here. Either, we must crack the bones for access to the marrow, or bury this time and provide a new order, for which to slowly fall apart into lush and fertile chaos.
Before the invention of mechanical clocks (in Tackelm, in Arumell) the people of the World Above mostly used incense clocks to tell the time.
For a true Giant, the form of the earth is no impediment. Their might is unparalleled. Few stories of them have reached back Above, but all are spoken in a voice that shakes with terror and awe.
Fear the Manticore, the idea which kills Scribes.
All of the profitable rot has happened, in royal society. All the ideas and peoples which can be extracted from this controlled collapse are here. Either, we must crack the bones for access to the marrow, or bury this time and provide a new order, for which to slowly fall apart into lush and fertile chaos.
+
Before the invention of mechanical clocks (in Tackelm, in Arumell) the people of the World Above mostly used incense clocks to tell the time.
+
+
For a true Giant, the form of the earth is no impediment. Their might is unparalleled. Few stories of them have reached back Above, but all are spoken in a voice that shakes with terror and awe.
+
Fear the Manticore, the idea which kills Scribes.
+
Outer Zzargod looks like this.
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The ravenous bats of the void - bad souls cursed to eternal hunger which sweep the battlefields at night, looking for the abandoned wounded.
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A bishop rings a bell
A cloak of darkness fell across the ground
Without a sound
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Behold, I saw a horse, pale greenish grey. The name of the one riding on it was Death, and Oth was following him. Authority was given to him over a fourth of the earth, to kill by sword and by famine and by plague - and by the wild beasts of the earth.
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