The People's History of Ephia's Well, Second Edition

[Erudiche]

The People's History of Ephia's Well

Second Edition

[Erudiche]

Dramatis Personae

The Authors

A Storyteller: a scholar, a Legate; now, dust.

An Acolyte: a scholar of the Lantern, a seeker of truth; once, a poet.

Of the League of White

Domhnall Guivarch: a Legate, an Asterabadian; allegedly, a madman and murderer.

Ricario Castella: a Modini and an unlikely populist; a Legate with hemlock on his lips.

Akna Ymir: an embattled Legate, a war hero; once, of the Tribe of the Bear.

Echemmon Telemanus: an Agasian, a mercenary, a popular leader, and ultimately a failure; a man who did not know when to let go.

Jamileh Attar: a scholar, founder of the Competition, an accumulator of spurious titles.

Yomar ag-ka-em Kamarya: an Agasian, a weaponsmith, an Alchemist, a brooker; he lived and died a slave to his urges.

Odmaus Squeev: a drug-peddler, a physician, a Magistrate, the people's tribune.

Alexandra Sayburgh: a radical and Auk-declared Hetman of the League of White; one wonders what her true designs were.

Of the League of Gold

John Syter: a water magnate turned Legate, a drug-addict, a showman to the end; a corpse for sale.

Sol Auk: a protege of John Syter, a Legate, crimelord; and not nearly so blessed as he dreamt.

Mari Blacke: a priestess of Gellema, at times a Magistrate and Advocate; a heresiarch with dreams dashed against Lions' fangs.

Qari Alriyh: a scholar, a conservative, a Legate; allegedly, a ghost.

Skaldorr Merizad: a merchant, a patriarch; a brooker who could not escape a Lion's gullet.

Gers Geiger: a Guildmaster, a mad wizard; a closed door, sealed forever.

Fritz von Volkrin: a prostitute, a brooker.

Of the League of Purple

Azadeh Zarat: a Legate, a scholar; an explorer of the unknown, consumed by it in the end.

Naelin Karstwen: a captain of the Torchbearers, a map-maker, an explorer; a seal-breaker.

Sephidra Niridhe: a treasurer of the Torchbearers, an explorer, a perennial candidate; an egg thrown against a high wall, again and again.

Isabella Ftizgerald: a politician, a brooker; once, of the Whites.

Atreous Loukanis: a champion of the Games, a murderer.

Zaniah: a beloved Gamemaster, a disastrous Legate, an unnecessary death; ah, but what more can be said?

Marcellus Saenus: a scholar, the Man of Kardesler, an Izdur-turned-Agasian; a Legate crowned in red stars.

Gausim al-Marain: an Ashfolk, Legate, a Waterbearer, a deserter.

Salvatore di Ravioci: a Modan, a holyman, an Inquisitor; to some he was a hero, to others a madman.

Amenya Graen: a Magistrate, a Paladin, an Inquisitor, a controversial legal theorist; once, of the Legion.

Aaisha al-Samar: an Ashfolk, Deputy to the Chief Scribe and Officer of the Sublime Bank.

Bashir Khatara: a Scribe, a former Vizier, a renowned tailor.

Of the Unaligned

Snorri Ironfist: Shield of Ephia: a Torchbearer, a dwarf.

Baracknar Boneprick: a dwarf, a fighter; survived Kulkund but not Luca Ferra.

Syl Halavant: a Torchbearer, a wizard, a self-professed "Psychic Mage", a mountebank.

Kypros Kadys: a Paladin, a Roadwarden, a leper, a political radical, a traitor; once, of the White League; too, of the Gold League.

Shahlil Shadowbrook: a Twindari, an assassin.

Alfred Delafosse: a cook, a brooker; once, of the Balladeers.

Marl Marlson: a culinarian, a restaurateur, a coprophage, a brooker; surely a toothsome meal for the Lions.

Portia Softstep: a scholar, an iconoclast, disappeared in murky circumstances; once, of the Balladeers.

Of the Tower of Q'tolip

Estellise Azimi: an Imperial Fatespinner, an Apothar, a collector of dolls, a lover of wine.

Vergal Medista: an Apothar, a wizard; divisive and dead.

Cosine Mevura: an Apothar, a Djinn-hunter, a war hero, an economist of the truth; regrettably, dead.

Mae Stern: an Apothar, a mechanist; midwife of the Red Star.

Owain: a monkey, a saviour, a sniper, a political activist, a tyrant.

Alexander Bestworth V: a Nadiri, a murderer, Owain's familiar.

Lucian Nailo: an observant Nadiri.

Of the Fourth Legion of the Sultan's Janissaries

Rennik Colmes: a Lieutenant, a detective, a Syter Sly; now, Warmaster – Ave Imperator!

Leander Niftkil: a veteran of the Red Hill, a hired cutthroat; a collector of names: the Gentleman, the Queen's Blade, the Throater, and finally, dead.

Joachim Sathuul: a Sergeant of the Sultan's Janissary, a veteran of the Red Hill, a man who survived an axe to the neck; by all accounts, a man of honor, regrettably dead.

Averroes Tashfhin: a soldier, a Chaunter of B'aara, a traitor, a matyr; did she prevail over the Adversary, dear reader?

Dorvant Kinney: a soldier, a Peer, a martyr of the Trenches.

Of the College of Balladeers

Lynneth Llywarch: a Waradim, a Lyrist of Lost Heath; perhaps, the image of a true Knight.

Aubrey Domergue: a Balladeer, a politician, a Syter Sly; now, a Lyrist.

Velan Volantis: a Balladeer, a hero of legend, a convicted brooker; a book spelled his death, and a book his immortality.

Of the Priory of the Sibylline Vine

Amelie: a Sister, a Kulamet, a poet; who stood unbroken before the crowned Djinn and lived to tell the tale.

Hypatia: a Sister, a weaver of Isphi, a charter of secret histories; once, a journalist.

Selsi: a Sister, a survivor, a champion of the Cinquefoil cause.

Nebtu: a Sister, a scholar; a philosopher of some achievement.

Narwen Alendiel: an Acolyte, a singer, a painter, an artist, an Ambassador of the Gift; once, of the Balladeers.

Leiah Avrayana: an Acolyte, a winner of Syter's Raffle.

Of the Banda Rossa

Kythaela Reithel: a Balestriere, an axe-master; once, of the Torchbearers; they never did find the body.

Kragg Stonefury: a Balestriere, a dwarf.

Bruno Oar-back: a Balestriere, a landlocked pirate; a renowned journalist beloved by semi-literates everywhere.

Of the World Beyond Our Walls

Constantine Diakos: an Illuminator of Ibtihal's Court, a Legate, a Wyrmist; now, Sibilant Warleader; he has now seen his people slaughtered twice, and he will do so again.

Iakmes Ir-Emun: Chief-of-Chiefs, father of the Age of Bronze, the creation of Ephia's Well; the Antithesis.

Itaja Sijapuros: a Wyrmist, a terrorist; in his last moments, as the Mother's mercy filled his lungs, one wonders if he was redeemed.

The Gutter Banshee: a Gutter Banshee, whatever that is.

The Tonsured: the holder of the False Cup, a mystery with a dead end.

[Erudiche]

Foreword

Dear Reader,

I write to you as the author of this Second Edition of the People's History of Ephia's Well. I write to you as a seeker of truth. I write to you, in this capacity, as the voice of the League of White towards posterity. The People's History represents one of the great popular initiatives directed towards the enrichment of the free people of Ephia's Well, and enables them to understand and reflect upon the events which have brought us to our present moment and its present struggles. With the regrettable passing of its original author, I have taken up the task of finishing the effort.

The Second Edition is considerably revised from the First, with many adjustments and edits being made. A story is a living thing. It depends greatly upon the teller. I hope to tell it as I understand it, and in a manner most edifying to one's reason and senses, for the pleasure of our most beloved and tired people.

If one should have qualms with the history, the author might be contacted at the Abbey of the Sibylline Vine for revisions.

Dedicated to Sophia, without whom I would be nothing.

[Erudiche]

Act I

Syter and Zarat

The Tragedy of the Triumvirate

Dark Djinn, Bleak Beginnings

What, dear reader, shall we tell you of the first days of this History of the Well? Should we write of clinking of coins and selling of spices beneath B'aara's mosque in the Souk? Should we write of the wonders of the Pyramid, of the undercity, of the great murals and frescoes and tattered literature of the Leonine era? Or of the perils and misadventures of the Well's coterie of adventurers? Of secrets found? Of loves lost? Of feuds fought? Of silly little things and joys which bloom from the horror like flowers from a skull?

There is much which might be written and even more which might not about this place, our repose, our refuge, our beloved home, Ephia's Well, known by many names and bearing many flags. Iistu, Dry Wells, and many other titles garland its history. Once the cradle of all civilization, once the home of the Summer Palace, once at the head of a thriving young Satrapy; once, presuming itself a new Caliphate. There were, in truth, any number of places to begin, but we shall leave the Ages for the Ages, and shall begin humbly in Iyar 7787, where many of today's most prominent figures first arrived in their columns and caravans, seeking shelter from the storms ravaging the Great Ash.

Renowned and august among these figures is Marcellus Saenus, once a humble librarian who recollects these early days with ease ill-befitting his advanced age. In his memory, lingering most vividly of that early time was the seeming omnipresence of the Djinn Courts.

"Back then", he reminisces, "they were foreboding... but not immediately malicious".

Indeed, travellers would often be haunted by strange apparitions who asked for help, or names, or guidance to the Well, and it was those encounters which taught Ephians the importance of telling strangers to "Live and drink". During this period, a traveler by the name of Justin Rosedew, invited just one such a traveller to the Well in exchange for a most sumptuous suit. His actions saw the spread of strange darkness throughout the city and, eventually, his dark transformation and untimely death.

Tempted by the promise of power, there were those who sought more than mere invitation, and dared brook with the Djinni Courts. Thus it came to be that on 28th of Iyar 7787, Kulkund emigree Skaldorr Merizad was captured and exposed as a Brooker. The leader of a dwarven family whose mercantile endeavour had brought him much success amidst the Gold, Skaldorr's darker exploits were discovered by Cosine Mevura, of the Astronomers. The trial, much-publicized and presided over by none other than Gold Legate John Syter, was also the first time many refugees saw the punishment of the Voiced: throw over the wall, still dressed in their togas, bones splintered and flesh rent between the jaws of the Lions of Orentes, to the delight of the crowd.

Hand to Mouth, Rags to Riches

Of course, for the vast majority of the Citadel, the quotidian struggles of daily life far eclipsed any extradimensional terror.  The sight of new refugees, still dressed in their orange wraps, hustling for coin and scrounging through the muck and refuse for food became a defining sight of these most recent migratory waves. The legendary Gutter Banshee, for instance, notorious for wailing and shrieking while robbing the destitute wormingers. Others took up artistic pursuits, jingles, poems, literature, portraiture, a subject exploring in Niranye's Musical and Art History of Ephia's Well in greater detail. Merchants and vendors competed for stalls in a crowded Souk, enterprising entrepreneurs traded worming spears for trading licenses, corporations and new institutions blossomed like fields of poppy. Magnates such as Water-merchant Sol Auk and potion-brewer Ophelia Whitmore made entire fortunes from adventurers trying to survive.

So great was the hustle and bustle, the wheeling and dealing, that performers began to desert the Krak des Roses for the clamor upon the floor, seeking finer acoustics elsewhere. Indeed, the economics of this period are explored in former Legate Gausim al-Marain's Hysairian Economic Theory. Among the frenzy of activity associated with the Great Migration of 7787 was the founding of Naelin Karstwen's Torchbearers, a guild of cartographers, scouts, and explorers of renown whose legacy would include participation in the War of the Southern Wastes, the breaking of the Seal of Osman IV, and numerous political misadventures.

Many of these institutions would not enjoy such longevity, for instance: Another luminary of the period, the magician Gers Geiger established his Alchemists' Guild, a murky organization of brewers and scholars, around whom revolved rumors of brooking and necromancy. The Competition, founded by archaeologist Jamileh Attar, served as a nexus of independent and often iconoclastic scholars. Khalid al-Hayim of Warad, Mari Blacke of the Sabotage and a few other priests founded the Wheel of Ephia, a tumultuous, frequently aborted and frequently resurrected attempt at coordinating organized religion in the Well. The Empty Gallows of Shane Gallows, would, like their founder, not withstand the test of time. Gallows' exile for embezzlement of public funds left unemployed his reporters Estellise Azimi, Mae Stern, and the future Sister Hypatia.

Of course, many of these impromptu initiatives faded in popularity as the Signatories of the Accord began accepting new recruits. Over time and trials, such as the famed Tower Debate, the Bandarossi attack on the Nusrum, or the Storytelling night with Cinquefoil Grandmaster Elizabetha d'Auvergne, new members began entering the Accord. Sister Hypatia, for example, remembers fondly becoming the first new Acolyte. "I was where I needed to be. Where I truly needed to be". Like her, many would take to their fresh positions with passion and dedication. They would find much meaning in their newfound duties. Many remember, for instance, the eagerness with which the then-Student Lynneth Llywarch took to exemplifying the virtues of the knight-poet for the College of Balladeers, rising from humble origins as a wandering holy-woman of Warad to the great ranks of heroism in Ephia's Well.

As the Accord and the Well metabolized the newfound energy of the refugees, tensions and indigestion were quick to set in. As a newly-minted Recluta, for instance, Kythaela 'the Lion' Reithel was known for her bitter distaste for the vocal anti-Elvenism of much of the Banda Rossa, and her exploits and intrigues among their ranks are the subject of many tall tales. The numerous debates, feuds, and internecine struggles of the Exiles of Q'tolip proved a source of popular amusement, with anecdotes of the spinning Nadiri Cosine Mevura, the broom brigade of Estellise Azimi, and aged benevolence of al-Azim. Scandal rocked the Krak des Roses when the Balladeer Velan Volandis required students to fashion works in his praises for admission to the College of Lost Hearth.

As we reflect on the commercial works of these early waves, we must wonder what it is that separates the magnates of history, the fondly remembered John Syters and Whitmores, from the ranks of grifters and charlatans such as Sol Auk, Merizad, and elf-pass dispenser and faux psychic Syl Havant. For Syter was no more virtuous than they, a known abuser of Scorch, Dirt, and innumerable other poisons, a patron of gambling and vice, a man who issued extralegal death sentences, a man who stood idle and profited from the sale of Ephian Water as many desperate refugees dug through fetid worm entrails in the Dry Gutters. The People's History leaves for the reader such answers and reminds them only of the old wisdom: it was not Orentes II who built his pyramids.

Regardless, never let it be said that the Well denies profit to the determined and inventive.

The Triumvirate

And what was it that inspired this maniacal, frenzied search for lucre? Philosophers greater than myself have pondered the question without a satisfactory answer for many centuries, but one would be remiss to ignore that pinnacle of attainment and status in Ephia's Well: the Voice.

The very first nominal application of Asterabadian Democracy, Ephia's Well represents a grand social experiment on the behalf of the Sultan of Baz'eel. Sharply criticized by the forces of reaction for its demagogic tendencies and propensity for ochlocracy, and also for threatening the rule of the powerful and wealthy, it is too criticized by radicals discontented with what they understand as a deformed application of their theories. For a critical Asterabadian reading of the Well's democracy, see the Republic Betrayed by former Legate Domhnall Guivarch. It is, despite everything, the most democratic settlement of note within the Great Ash, compared to bureaucratic Baz'eel, tyrannical Kha'esh and Qadira, autocratic Banafsi, and the primitive utopianism of Spring's Gift. In her recollections of the halcyon days of activism under the old Triumvirate of Diakos, Syter, and Zarat, Acolyte Ianthe Khalkaos conjures vividly a debate amidst representatives of the Leagues, which took amid the rainbows and fountains of the Palm Heights.
"I couldn't believe people were allowed to speak so freely on such matters", she explained, with a fond smile.

This period, of rotating power-sharing between Diakos, Syter, and Zarat, is referred to as the Triumvirate. Interlopers and outsiders to this arrangement are known, such as 'Haggard' Elossi and book-vendor Rashid al-Rashid, but broadly the tale of the Satrapy's first decade might be understood as a peace meted out by the seasoned statesmen of the three Leagues. And during this period the Voiced enjoyed the fruits of their experiment, in exchange, of course, for money. Five-thousand dinar has been the historically upheld price of a Voice, with brief exceptions, and is thus a valuable prize for many politicos, adventurers, and savvy merchants. Yet one needn't a Voice to involve themselves in politics, and indeed nearly as soon as they arrived many refugees adopted one of the city's banners for their own, setting the stage for the end of the Triumvirate and the following Interregnum.

The League of Gold, representing domestic capital and nominally meritocracy, was initially co-founded by the Astronomers of Eagle's Mount, their very manifesto authored by Zenithar, then Apothar, Oro Konthaz. In these early days they enjoyed the great charisma of Legate John Syter, whose Voice-raffles, furniture-discounts, cheerful announcements and general disposition made him a beloved figure across classes and sections, despite his relentless support for the rights of capital over labor. Even his enemies knew him to be a man of great charm and good manners, no matter how matter how many mothers went hungry as the Voiced enjoyed his antics. One of his most famous events saw the raffle of a Voice, won by the soon-to-be Acolyte Leiah Avrayana.

Ill-considered accounts have expressed surprise at the lack of popularity of the League of Purple, yet is there anything more fitting for the League of paternalism, aristocracy, and loyalism? The Triumvir of Purple, Zarat, was a scholar, content to pursue her studies with quiet dignity and disinterested in what she surely considered the undignified and coarse activity of politics. The League of Purple was joined by many who shared this attitude, many who viewed themselves as compassionate and reasonable actors, for whom politics was a four-letter word, and for whom daring and struggle were notions earning but a sneer.

There is, finally, the League of White. Tumultuous, determined, and populist, the League of White is a Republic in itself. There bloom a hundred utopias, a hundred schools of thought, united beneath the alabaster flag of the Magus Asterabadi, seeking the realization of the Ideal Republic. Plagued by infighting, self-defeating factionalism, and a terminal lack of discipline, the League of White found itself at this time as little more than a cult of personality surrounding the former Legate Constantine Diakos, by all accounts a statesman and gentleman in the eyes of the public, to the chagrin of many a populist in the lead-up to his hotly contested campaign for election.

The Disappearence of Constantine Diakos

Constantine Diakos cut a dramatic figure in his white toga, salt-and-pepper hair and perfectly straight teeth belying little of the sickness beneath. The Well preoccupied itself little with his intrigues, and much with the slow incursions of outside perils. None embodied this more than the infamous Itaja Sijapuros 'Cursespeaker', a drunkard and blasphemer, initially of little note. One might have mistook him as any other capering, unscrupulous adventurer, perhaps distinguished by his fervor and malodor, perhaps attributable to his prolonged stays in the Creep. There he consorted with strange priests and the radical fringes of the League of White. There his sermons grew in attendance, in furor, as huddled masses of down-and-out Orentid, unreconstructed rebels, and the most ruined of addicts lifted their cheers for his speeches.

This culminated, as it often does, in a brutal murder. Janissary Quentin Scarbork was kidnapped and ritually sacrificed in a depraved rite carried out by Itaja and his minions. He was swiftly exiled by Legate Azadeh Zarat and a Voice-bounty was placed upon his head by the order of Sorazin Bey. From his dark den outside the city, Itaja schemed and disseminated dark and heretical literature, some of which survives in private collections and disreputable bookshops. From his exile he became the most recognizable face of Ephian Wyrmism, enjoining himself to a rising Melek horde, conjuring Ashstorms and catastrophe.

In this climate, one of the highest profile acts of Wyrmist terrorism was the kidnapping of Constantine Diakos. By the Ides of Iyar, Diakos, Candidate of the White League, had been missing for several weeks. An emergency Assembly on Iyar 18th saw accusations traded between anxious political camps, including levied against the Legates Syter and Zarat, and a bounty raised: a Voice to any who recovers the Triumvir. On the 22nd, a band of White League diehards ventured into the desert and returned with Diakos in tow, wounded and with his arm in a sling. Witness to the events, Khalid al-Hayim, observed, "They arrived joyous, but much burdened with secrecy." Only two parties to these events survive, Lyrist Domergue, and the Triumvir himself.

Rumors, of course, abounded. That Diakos was sent to negotiate in Alkab for grain and was captured by the Melek and their human abettors, before being tortured, was a common narrative. Darker stories, of deliberate cavorting upon the Roiling Scarp, caught the ear of the Legate Syter, who established in Assembly the investigative duo, the Syter Slys, consisting of Aubrey Domergue and Rennik Colmes, in order to shed light on the unfolding malfeasance.

Yet life unfolded in its normal, banal way. Commerce clinked and clanked onwards. The business of politics proceeded, Diakos resumed the campaign and led the League of White into the Palette Games of Hziran 12th, where they were soundly trounced between Purple Atreus Loukanis (who would go on to take up as a hired killer) and Gold Mariett Fineweather (who consumed copious amounts of Scorch and Dirt in view of the Princess' palatial seats preceding her final match). It was a bright and pleasant day, blessed by wind and clouds dappling the sky. It smelled of flowers.

The clouds would continue to gather.

The Great Ash Storm of Hziran 7787

With the advent of Hziran came portents. The weathervanes of Baz'eel twisted in the breeze. The calculations of the Astronomers returned unprecedented results. Old bones in the Souk spelled disaster. And out in the wastes the largest Ash Storm in recorded history was approaching, entire villages disappearing in its enormity, never to be seen again. The city set about to its preparations, new pylons were established to measure the coming storm and calibrate the Shade, the great artifact of the Q'tolipeans, which had endured much in the last years. Doubts arose, of course, whether it would withstand this onslaught, far more punishing than any previous test.

On the 26th of cursed Hziran, the Storm arrived. The people of the Well retreated into the Shade, those stranded outside hiding in cervices, beneath ruined shanties, or the mounting dead. The Shade screamed and raged against the terrible force, like the breath of an angry god. The people held their breaths, as it seemed the Shade would hold. The peace broke in the middle of the night, with a keening shriek heard across the Citadel, the lashing of winds, and the flickering of the Shade. A pylon of the Shade had been sabotaged, smashed by a brutal strike, and a half-dozen Legionnaires vanished at once beneath the unmitigated fury of the Storm. A flood of blue and green made for the shattered pylon, struggling vainly to repair the ailing Nasaru, saved only by the unexpected intercession of particularly hideous little simian, Owain, in the employ of the Nadiri Alexander Bestworth, who repaired the pylon. The Shade was salvaged and an emergency Assembly was called. The prime suspect, Kypros the Leper, was dragged before the Voiced for a public examination, bereft of his previously technicolor starcloak.

In the gloom a furious, tense Assembly was convened. Legate Zarat stared in silence at her hands, gaze distant and without focus. Syter twitched and fidgeted in his seat, jaw on edge, as though in anticipation of what was to follow. The Syter Slys produced a letter before the Assembly in the midst of the proceedings, which they alleged had been procured from Syter's office. Within was an expression of satisfaction with Diakos' capture and a swearing of alliance between the Gold Legate and the forces of the Wyrm. The Assembly went into uproar, shouted recrimination and whispered calumny reached a crisis point when blades were drawn before the Stele and the Voiced were dispersed by force amidst an attempted coup by lower officers of the Legion, including Sergeant Rennik Colmes.

In the confusion, Kypros exited the Assembly without pursuit.

Soon thereafter, the Scribes of the Sublime Garden discovered the corpse of John Syter alongside the mortally wounded Diakos, gutted with a poisoned dagger. Syter was taken by the Twindari for his last rites, his body at some juncture lost and later found in the possession of Baz'eeli curiosity vendors. Diakos was brought to the Water Temple of the Mother for urgent ministrations. Zarat, during the mayhem, was nowhere to be found, and even the best efforts of the Legion, Scribes, and Consulate were unable to locate her -- the last known sighting of her was making her way with great haste to the Depths beneath Ephia's Well.

As the Storm raged in the following days, waxing and waning in fury, many saw opportunities amidst the chaos and disorder. Stirring from their coffee cups, many intriguers sharpened their blades. Stirring from their wine and revel, many adventurers braved the sands, exploring the wastes for hope of secret prizes in the desolation. Among them was the Order of Archaz, a dwarven band of explorers who arranged a doomed voyage to Mount Kulkund with numerous allies, with the hopes of uncovering the ancient lore of the fallen Kingdom. The expedition was, broadly, butchered by the Low Kulkund defenders in their pursuit, survived only by the fighter Boneprick, shield-bearer Snorri Ironfist, and a storyteller of some note. Accounts describe the expedition in greater detail, suffice it to say however that many bodies returned to the Well in procession, chief among them Leiah Avrayana, one of the first of the new refugees to win her Voice in Syter's raffles.

As funeral preparations commenced for the decimated expeditionary force, then-Scribe Marcellus Saenus raised the alarm, but too late, for massed in the Assembly Chamber, chanting and painting the walls in blood, were Itaja Cursespeaker and Kypros the Leper, along with a band of depraved madmen and Wyrmists. The Stele was alight with a sickly glow, and throughout the dark ceremony was called the name of the Perilspoke.

"Roll! Roil! Churn! Coil! Upturned ash! Do you hear it? Something stirring... what might it be? IO! There be no shelter here... or anywhere."

From between the floortiles rose a sea of hisses, a stench of venom filled the air, and a foul curse struck the city. Cries rose up from the Bellows, infiltrators were seen prowling the streets, cutting throats in back alleys and rampaging throughout homes and houses. Among the fracas, Itaja and his followers were brought before the Well and drowned. As the city's defenders contested the Plaza: Astronomers, Cinquefoil, Janissaries, and independent alike fought for their lives against the hordes of deformed inbreds now streaking feculence across the city, erstwhile Legate Diakos departed the Water Temple, making his way with great peace and leisure from his hospital bed, towards the Pyramid. Melek sprung from every cavity, serpents from every shadow, as within the Assembly Chamber Constantine Diakos implanted the Great Sigil of Bashmu upon the Stele of Law.

In the sky, a serpent devoured its tail. As it did, the voice of Constantine Diakos echoed across the city.

"Let me tell a tale, although I am quite poor the teller.

Once, there was a Queen. She ruled wisely over her people, and her Kingdom was a place of light, and art, and of song. It was a bounteous place, where learning was drawn up from the earth and ancient things not whispered for a thousand years or more were spoken. Her name was Ibtihal ar'Orentes. And she promised to work a miracle. The Queen was overthrown. Murdered. Her kingdom torn down. Her miracle, stolen- claimed by zealots of a false Goddess as their own. And what of her people? Her shining people, who loved to sing and discourse upon the histories? Who painted frescoes, glory be, to uphold the ancient ages forgotten? What of her people? They were massacred. Butchered. Begging, imploring. Like chattel. Like swine.

But some of us did not die. Not all of us. Some of us wept quietly in the dark places. Some of us begged for absolution, for protection. And to I, Constantine Diakos - latterly an Illuminator at the Court of Ibtihal ar'Orentes - the Wyrm replied:

'I will protect you, Constantine Diakos. But you must give me praise.'

This, then, is my praise to he. My prayer, for they who were slain, who were dragged into the streets and put to the sword! My memorial. My prayer. Bashmu-Kar! Bashmu-Kar! His eye is upon the Well, now. You may try and scrub it, but you are beloved of he. For now, and forever more.

Beware."

The Storm raged. Melek blood ran red in the Gutters. The mark of the Wyrm prevailed in the sky. And emerging from the clouds was the Ecstatic Terrace of Baz'eel, fit with a battalion of Geomancers who dispersed the Storm, Waterbearers and Holy Fools to cleanse the Stele, and Janissaries of the First Legion to crush the remaining Melek. And so they did.

In the days following, the White League languished in disorder and disgrace, abandoned by those who had only days earlier slavishly followed Diakos' dictates. The League of Purple rejoiced for the attentions of the Golden City and grew greatly in membership. The League of Gold saw many customers who might be sold bandages and medicines. And the dead were counted in mounds.

The city was deeply, perhaps irrevocably wounded by this, the end of the Triumvirate. This marks the beginning of the Interregnum, where many independent Magistrates were appointed, and during which time Rashid al-Rashid sat as Interim Legate, presiding over the embattled populace beneath the watchful gaze of the Sultan's Majordomo. Democracy in Ephia's Well was shaken, vulnerable. There was very little faith remaining in the Leagues or the institutions of the Accord, which represented peace and prosperity for the years of the Triumvirate. The conditions were prime for demagoguery and tyranny.

Thus ends Act I.

[Erudiche]

Act II

Auk and Rashid

In the Court of the Golden King

A Return to Normalcy and the Primaries of Tammuz '87

Stonefolk awoke, greeted by the red of dawn in the Tablet. Silent processions made their way from the Gate of Roses, filing through the Krak, and into the Walls. Muscular, lumbering forms set to work, humming mournful songs, righting houses, repairing signage, laying new brick and new mortar. Glaziers crept from their Unionhouse, whistling and replacing shattered and ruined windows. Builders scuttled the floors of the Pyramid, and Scribes scrubbed the blood from the masonry. Gathered in Elossi's, tired men and women in blood-stained shifts shared the Qalyan in quiet contemplation. Life was, slowly, returning to normal in Ephia's Well. Many sought to return to their old habits. Others, however, saw opportunity in the fallout.

From atop the Tower of Q'tolip, Vergal Medista, in this matter the voice of the Exiles, declared the wish of the Wise Master to regulate, license, and oversee independent scholarship in Ephia's Well, and, during more salacious episodes, to withdraw the Shade from those standing in his way. Also active among the so-called Starlocks was the monkey, Owain, who raised in written word his request for a Voice not some yards from the Tower of Alchemy, where the mad mage Gers Geiger claimed to create life from nothing as the B'aarat bells chimed through incense smoke in the Pyramid. Distant mourners, filling the Maqam, wailed 'live and drink', in memory of John Syter, his funeral overseen by Princess Shaimela. At the peripheries and amid the crowd, intriguers of all colors muttered secrets, gossip, and all manner of political ambitions. Memberships changed hands, badges flashed discretely, and campaigns begun.

The primary of the League of Gold was something of a coronation. Its king and queen, Syter and Whitmore, were dead. Syter by the intrigue of Diakos and Whitmore by the former Purple Champion Atreus Loukanis, discovered red-handed having slain her in the Gutters and promptly executed alongside his murder-posse. In the fallout, Syter's appointed successor, friend, and, perhaps, lover, Sol Auk, a local water merchant, was crowned. A Stonefolk known as a man of few words but silver tongue, notoriously illiterate, and an able Magistrate, he rallied a dejected League to his banner, despite rumors of his coin filling Loukanis' pockets, politically and financially motivated judgements, and the mysterious accidents and ailments befalling his rivals within the League.

The primary of the League of Purple was acrimonious. Sephidra Niridhe, Isabella Fitzgerald, Estellise Azimi, and Rennik Colmes contested the race. Each put forth their own visions of a Purple Pyramid, and as the League rallied behind the candidacy of Sephidra, regarded by detractors as a Purple in name only, she describes considerable pressure from her rivals to focus on defense and remilitarization shortly before they withdrew their candidacy. Isabella Fitzgerald lingered in the League as an advisor to the Niridhe campaign, which cleaved to the old policies of the League of White, while Colmes offered conditional support to Niridhe's political adversaries, and Estellise Azimi left for the League of White.

Stil reeling from the black stain of treason, the League of White was staffed by a skeleton crew of only the most active and faithful members. The primary was contested by Aubrey Domergue and Lynneth Llywarch, of the Cinquefoil Rose and Domergue's protege. After many a long night spent in debate, Domergue stood aside and endorsed the more popular Llywarch, with an illustrious and ever-growing standing as a protector of the faith, a stalwart populist, and a fair vendor of elixirs, with the passionate support of the College of Lost Hearth behind her.

With the primaries concluded, the prospective Triumvirs, Sol Auk, Sephidra Niridhe, and Lynneth Llywarch, entered a tumultuous and chaotic election.

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail

Rennik Colmes, despite everything a favored son of the Legion, recovered from his rash actions during the collapse of the Triumvirate and his political misadventure in the League of Purple quickly. One of the earliest extensions of his recovering influence was to bring the Gamemaster Zaniah Almirah to trial on charge of treason. Zaniah Almirah presided over many games of wit and daring for the entertainment of the public and cash prize, and one such game included a salacious riddle whose solution referred to the 'sublime buttocks' of the Sultan, prompting the prosecution.

The trial was immensely controversial and widely mocked, prompting further discussion of His Majesty's anatomical features, resulting in the arrival of Princess Hasheema and her declaration of a mistrial. Pointedly, this avoided the issue of whether or not it was, under the law, treason to make reference to the undignified features of the Sultan's anatomy. In the days following the trial, which Sol Auk has presided over and had refused to recuse himself of despite a well-known rivalry with Amirah, he claimed that it was at his advice that the trial was dismissed. Consequently, it was Colmes' reputation which suffered abuse and derision in the aftermath, and Gamemaster Almirah found her social status climbing.

While her colleague in the League of Purple found unlikely success in the face of the law, Sephidra Niridhe withdrew from the election due to a mysterious bout of illness, such as that which had befallen many rivals of Sol Auk. Sol Auk had been seen in the days prior in close counsel with the Ambassador of the Banafsian Archonate, sharing wine and mussels and silver platters of dinar. Replacing her with barrister and solicitor Cyrille Monteglas, formerly of the League of White. Described as a charmless sardonic whose campaign ridiculed the League which sponsored him, Monteglas sounded the death knell of the Purple campaign. The Purple base was thus forced to decide the election: Magistrate Auk or Balladeer Llywarch.

The Llywarch campaign faced heavy opposition in the press and was obsessively derided and slandered as an organization of religious fanatics, a Diakosian fifth column, the personal thralls of the Cinquefoil Grandmaster, and various other political snarls. More generous critics observed a paucity of policy and ideological education on the part of the White campaign. Yet it was not without supporters, including an endorsement by Sergeant Colmes and the dutiful support of many populists and indeed many disaffected Purples. It seemed, for a moment, that the Lost League of White, so it had been termed, might prevail.

Yet Sol Auk drew support from the collapse of the League of Purple as well, including a great deal of Ephian money, and the spiritual leader Maria Blacke, High Priestess of the Hypnopomp, who foretold many apocalyptic prophecies in the event of a Llywarch government and mobilized something of a festering underworld of Gellemedes to the support of the League of Gold. With coin running like wine through the palace, Sol Auk was able to win the support of the Alchemist's Guild, Tower of Q'tolip, and the Banda Rossa, and established a formidable fundraising machine which procured roughly a dozen Voices on the eve of the election, enough to secure an exceedingly narrow majority.

Sol Auk was inaugurated with cheers from crowds of loyal supporters and with warm blessings from the Royal Family of Baz'eel. Even amid the cheers of 'live and drink' and 'up the Gold', his cold gaze revealed nothing of the content of his mind or his heart.

Days of Blood and Money

Hazezon Mraize, of the Axe, a swordsman in the employ of the Gold League described with melancholy the term of Sol Auk as a "gradual descent from the heir of Syter, to selling drugs in the Creep, to trying to create a Brothel". One wonders, of course, as to whether it was Sol Auk's character which descended, or simply the pretense of decency which has until now satisfied the Voiced of Ephia's Well. His very first day in office, when the ceremony had wound down, indeed, was marked by a scandal: the consecration of the Stele in the name of Gellema, as a political prize to Mari Blacke for her support and for access to her immense fortune.

Mari Blacke addressed many an anxious crowd, dressed in white and gold, voice deep and dark, promising that her Lady Between the Stars, would shield her children, and inflict misfortune upon all who threaten them. Blacke took up the worship of a heterodox strain, if such can be said to exist, of Gellemede thought, personifying the conventionally genderless and unknowable Gleaming Friend as her Lady, and with this a fixation on the stars, and open praise offered in her Hall of Star and Revel. This represents something of her apogee in the politics of the Well, smiling softly before crowds who implored reason, insisting that a deity of deceit, entropy, decadence, and anomie had no place governing the Stele of Law. During this time the Stele wrote and deleted laws by unknown whims, documents would disappear from the Palatial Archives and new records detailing entirely fictional events would be found here and there. The primacy of Hands-for-Feet would end when Lynneth Llwarch and a coterie of Waradim clergy would enter the office of Auk, sacks of dinar in hand, and see the Stele reconsecrated. Such set a pattern, and where once the Stele had sat near exclusively in the clutch of B'aara and Izdu, it would now rotate for whomever provided a sufficient fee.

As the Stele was sold to the highest bidder, so too was public office. Legate Auk tested the limits of Legatorial discretion and began selling openly posts within the government of Ephia's Well, naming Gers Geiger Minister of Trade and Qari Alriyh Magistrate. Emboldened by a lack of opposition, all social stakeholders either colluding with his ministry or otherwise pacified, Sol Auk embarked on his most notorious scandal: the Colmes Doctrine.

On the night of Tammuz 28th, Sol Auk declared that the Voiced could not be charged for minor crimes, nominally with the intent of reducing the unnecessary burden on law enforcement during a period of considerable instability and criminality, an idea he credited to Rennik Colmes. Among the Voiced eager to make use of their newfound liberty was now-Balestriere Kythaela Reithel, who, a copy of the legal code of Ephia's Well in hand, began travelling the Well and engaging in every listed minor crime, checking them off one by one as she went and, by all accounts, having a splendid time of it. It goes without saying that the city devolved into something of an orgy of petty theft, fist-fights, brawls, and mayhem, with Voiced robbing and beating Voiceless in the street, ransacking homes, and engaging in the general activities befitting the class. This resulted in the Royal Family asserting a much harsher control over Sol Auk through their agent, Rashid al-Rashid. Sol Auk revoked his doctrine at the request of the Royal Family, citing it as a simple failed experiment.

But make no mistake, Sol Auk was neither controlled nor chastened, as we shall see later.

Running Amok

In the days of the Auk-Rashid Ministry, the Well was certainly a livelier place than it had been previously, with many games played out within and without the walls. For instance, one of the first major outings of then-Nadiri Cosine Mevura, the Djinn-hunter, when he, alongside a group of Balladeers, Nadiri, and unaffiliated caravaneers uncovered a Hobgoblin cult, enthralled to a Djinn of an oasis. There they had carried out many dark sacrifices to release their master, using kidnapped travellers from the Long Road. It was only by the intercession of the young Nadiri that the atrocity was re-bound.

Less triumphant was the first expedition to Luca Ferra, carried out on the 1st of Tammuz by a large party of explorers, caravaneers, and Accord. Answering the call of a mysterious sailor they ventured to a cursed and haunted island, with living corpses of all those who had died there rising from the reefs and blistering jungle tarns. There was a cacophony of madness, cannon fire, black magic, and an army of vengeful, hungry dead. And worse, beneath, unnameable Horrors of the Depths, which devoured and rent limb from limb many of the explorers. When they had turned the tide and escaped with their lives, the glamor protecting their captain fell, and revealed her as Trazant, the Dread Pirate of the Undead, whose home they had so generously reclaimed for her to rule.

They returned to the Well quietly. Many candles were lit in the Maqam.

Those without time for mourning numbered the Apothar Vergal Medista, and his loyal apprentice Alexander Bestworth V. Preoccupied with his many efforts to seize control of scholarship in the Well, and his divisive theories on Formorian linguistics (see Abdul al-Ayada's 'Apothar/Apothari split' for more details) he earned the hatred of many independent scholars and explorers, including of the Competition and its alumni, among them Jamileh Attar and Marcellus Saenus. So intense was this enmity that rumors of Vergal worshipping the heretical god Pra'raj became popular, a theory which would soon spread to the rest of the Tower and remain a popular term of abuse for some time. What is true is that Medista and Bestworth butchered a young Nadiri in the Creep, injuring dozens in the spellfrost. The matter was investigated by the Fourth Legion although details were never released to the public.

Thought many had at the time characterized this as having escaped without due consequences, it was indeed this incident which spelled the end of the duo. For lurking in the dark recesses of the Well was a Twindari heretic, Shahlil Shadowbrook, a monk and fanatic who, possessed by religious ecstasy, swore to bring the final balance of the Martyrs' scales to those who escaped judgement. She set about a systematic campaign of torment, including attempting the life of Bestworth in the Tower of Q'tolip itself, before being captured and crucified to die in an Ashstorm. She escaped and, in the days following, captured Apothar Medista, his mutilated body found later beneath the First Wheel, devoured by birds and marked with clerical signs.

The reception to Medista's death was positive. Apothar Estellise Azimi was heard to laugh upon the Bellows at its announcement, and Nadiri Lucian Nailo described Medista as headstrong, selfish, and generally offputting. Indeed, the Alchemist Guildmaster Gers Geiger was said to have engaged in open celebration of Medista's demise, prompting now-Apothar Cosine Mevura to seal the Q'tolipean alchemy laboratories to the public, stirring yet more conflict in the Well. Shortly thereafter Nadiri Bestworth disappeared into the desert, presumed dead by this assassin or one of his other numerous enemies after a bout of what the press termed 'monkey madness', whereby he allegedly quit the Astronomers and ran naked throughout the Pyramid.

Shahlil Shadowbrook, for her part, now severely scarred and deformed, remained at large for weeks, until she submitted herself for a duel against Balestriere Kragg Stonefury and Sergeant Rennik Colmes on Maribeh 28th. It is said that even outnumbered, the assassin presented a difficult contest for the two trained swordsmen but was ultimately dispatched and slain. It is uncertain what became of her body. Less might be known of what became of her soul.

The Fall of Alfred Delafosse

One of the most significant stories of the period is that of Alfred Delafosse. A student of Lost Hearth and a chef by trade, he is at first glance a presence of little potential or note. Haunted by the fall of the Outrings and easily cowed, he was a tremulous figure little resembling the heights of heroism the College seeks to emulate. Delafosse was, allegedly, pursued by malign spirits of the Old City, or at least consumed by the fear that such was the case. And so great was his fear that at the nadir of his sanity did deal with a Brooker to banish these phantoms. Imagine, then, his horror, was soon Djinn of Earth and Flesh became hounding him to collect on his debts. Desperate to escape a certain demise, the chef sought the assistance of Amelie of the Sibylline Sisterhood, a Wyldwalker. She worked closely alongside Delafosse, attempting to cure his curse when, tempted by the spirit, did he surrender to it her name.

In reprisal, Delafosse was stripped of his Rose cloak and sent to the Garrison by his comrades in the Balladeers for prosecution, where he assaulted Apothar Mevura in a fit of madness. By some means did he persuade the Legion for clemency and was allowed to join first the Oathseekers, a militia of the League of Purple operated by Purple League Chancellor Isabella Fitzgerald, before deserting them for a posse of Gutter Pirates, making a living by robbing wormingers before facing an ignoble and unremarkable death, an unmourned end to an ultimately wasted life.

Her name in the clutches of the Djinn Prince, Amelie fled the city to protect those around her from its hauntings, wandering the sands with spear in hand, accompanied only by a wild lioness of the Ash. She departed and would not return from this wild sojourn until the matter was resolved.

We shall see the tale of her Errantry Upon the Sands soon enough.

Thus ends Act II.

[Erudiche]

Act III

Auk and Almirah

A Lift of the Conductor's Baton

Errantry Within the Well, Errantry Upon the Sands

Sol Auk was not stirred from his tub when in the evening of Maribeh 23rd it was announced that elections would take place. The Legate of Gold contemplated the bubbles, the aromas of eucalyptus, and the waiting servants prepared with his various oils. It was that time again. And yet. he simply exhaled through his nostrils, breaking the water's surface. Before long, he requested more bubbles. Yet outside would begin what was termed by Deputy Chief Scribe Aaisha al-Samar the most chaotic of elections.

The primary of Gold was a clash of three fascinating personalities: Kythaela 'the Lion' Reithel, the Balestriere last seen rampaging in the brief hours of the Colmes Doctrine, now fashioning herself as a Syterean go-getter; Lojir Trajaros of the Tower of Q'tolip, an eccentric wizard and by all accounts an exceptionally bright, efficient political operator; and, finally, Mari Blacke, High Priestess of Gellema, now seeking part the curtains of history and take her place on center-stage. The primary was highly competitive and each candidate had their most loyal supporters.

The primary of the League of Purple was a crowded race, pitting Toleigh Castal of the Banda Rossa, Cosine Mevura of the Tower, Marcellus Saenus once of the Scribes and best known in that era as the proprietor of the Ophelia Whitmore Memorial Library, and Chancellor Isabella de Veend (nee Fitzgerald). The League of White, for its part, was a contest between the Balladeers Pirouette Manners, some kind of mime, and Lynneth Llwarch, joined shortly thereafter by Mae Stern of the Tower of Q'tolip.

While this alone would prove for an interesting race, towards the end of the primary period it came to be that Amelie, last seen in self-imposed exile, hunted by Djinn, was met at the Gate of Roses and accompanied on a long journey to Qadira and there to the distant isle of Hufaidh. This party consisted of many, including all the primary candidates save for Blacke, Castal, Saenus, and Stern. In their possession was a strange artifact whose design and construction had been carefully overseen by the young Nadiri Trajaros as the centerpiece of his thesis: the Crucible. Built by the engineers of the Alchemist's Guild in the darkest secrecy, its purpose was to bind and imprison the Djinni Prince which presently tormented the Acolyte. Indeed, her account, In Errantry Upon the Sands, is definitive, and should be consulted by any scholar of the histories, or, indeed, the written word.

As their ship cut soundlessly through the waves, and dug into the soft sand of Hufaidh's shores, they were greeted by the ominous and towering forms of the awkward jungle trees. In the distant rose the fuming caldera crowning the silent isle. A silent and dilapidated lighthouse sat perilously close a distant cliff's edge. Bringing the Crucible with them, the party made their way through the jungles of Hufaidh, and from the trees and cliffs and undergrowth and air emerged mounds of mindless, hateful flesh, compelled into motion only by their own desire to see the suffering of their existence inflicted upon others. Bile bubbled and frothed from the black soils and jungle mud, and the party was pursued up to the caldera itself. It was there that Amelie called forth the Prince of the Djinn, weakened by the presence of the volcano and its ancient power enough to be bound to the Crucible – but not without one final ploy – for as it went it plunged its claws into the Acolyte and dragged her within as well.

But she did not go alone, for after a moment's decision all but Apothar Mevura and Chancellor de Veend, who remained behind to guard the comatose forms of the pursuers, leapt into the Crucible of Lojir Trajaros. They plunged boldly into a realm which defies description, fashioned of flesh and the very concept of flesh, a realm of mysteries belonging to the insane, texts written centuries in the future rotting with age, and prophets with blackened teeth. Intruding on this nightmare were Djinn of flame, enraged at the trespass into their ancient home. In the chaos of the pursuit, Pirouette Manners and Lojir were lost within his own creation, trapped for eternity with the Prince of Flesh.

From its throne of bones it grinned a cheshire grin, presuming the party its playthings in this realm. Yet it was wrong, and one can only imagine the expression upon its wretched countenance as Estellise Azimi and Acolyte Amelie together bore a hole through the wards of the Crucible and beating it into submission, winning an escape from the confines of Trajaros' mausoleum. "They had come with me to do something that is done once in a hundred years," Amelie observed, "and we have shared the company of heroes."

Very few remain who attended the great Errantry. Those that had may recall dark tomes retrieved from their voyage and recall the light their pyres cast in the night. They will recall the examinations, the urgent efforts towards purification.

They may recall, at their periphery, the solemn, increasingly elusive figure of Velan Volandis. Volandis was something of a celebrity of the College of Balladeers, known for his heroism, his penchant for marketing, and his incredible charisma. Indeed, toys and dolls bearing his likeness are still enjoyed by children and collectors of all ages today. The Velan Volandis series of thriller novellas even made the Sublime Parchment's Best Sellers list for three months in a row. Yet he had become too known for his more and more undeniably suicidal antics and scant public appearances, marked by an increasingly erratic disposition. Thus, without his usual charm, or characteristic histrionics, or anything at all save a cool look, the figure left the party massed at the Caravansary without a word.

The Last Days of Velan Volandis

As our heroes returned to the Well, battered and bruised, minds racing with memories they would rather forget, they were not greeted with open arms but instead quarantines, inquisitions, and the tips of Legion blades. And, indeed, Rennik Colmes had reasonable cause for fear, as the candidates had, in large part, brought lists of signatures with them upon their journeys. Yet he extended further than careful examination carried out by Apothar Mevura, and began to, under pain of treason, disbar the survivors of Hufaidh from holding political office, an act which, perhaps in defense of his colleague Mae Stern, Mevura openly decried as "naked corruption."

Creeping down the steps of the Pyramid, at the smell of conflict, was Sol Auk, who moved swiftly and silently to towards the League of White, joined by Sergeant Colmes, where an ultimatum was issued by Lynneth Llywarch of the White: neither you nor any other Rose shall attain the candidacy of this League, else you shall be killed as a traitor. The Balladeer, reluctantly, agreed, and the deal was kept from the public, and the League was suddenly without a candidate, for even Mae Stern had been issued a similar ultimatum, this time by the Zenithars of Q'tolip, who offered her Apotharship in exchange.

Of course, the secrecy of the arrangement was so total that soon other Balladeers and Bandarossi pursued their political careers, prompting all candidates of the Rose to be summoned to a meeting by the Legates and Sergeant Colmes, who offered clemency: one candidate of the Rose would be fielded in this election, and by the will of the Sultan, no member of the Accord should ever run again. Kythaela left the room proudly wearing her Gold pin and with a grin upon her face.

The League of White, stripped of its candidates twice, was left more or less defunct, and would have run no one if not for the intercession of one woman: Estellise Azimi. Pouncing at the end of the primary despite the open hatred of the Marquis Charles de Savaray, co-founder of the League of White. At the Marquis' bidding, in the last hour of the primary, Velan Volandis, the hero-turned-engima, swept into the League Office to accept the challenge, smashing directly through the impromptu barricade Apothar Estellise established at the League door to seize a petition, thus violating for a second time the agreement between the Rose and the State.

In a private corner Volandis was found by the Sergeant and silhouetted in shafts of light and gloom they spoke. There, the scent of Mizzar on his breath, Colmes listened to Velan's confession. Not of violating the truce, which, indeed, was mere child's play at this juncture. With a smile, Volandis promised the Lieutenant a more serious charge to try him for – brooking. He presented one of the flesh tomes of Hufaidh, and professed to the Lieutenant with characteristic braggadocio that he had given his name to the Djinn so that the party at Hufaidh might escape the Crucible, and was marked with a tome that would not remain destroyed, no matter what effort he took.

A moment of silence passed. When asked why he would confess, Volandis replied that the Djinn would not let him end his life, and neither would he force his brothers and sisters to take it from him. In what Colmes described later as the most heroic act of Volandis' life, Velan gave himself to a swift trial and a dramatic execution by the Lions of Orentes, and, never one to fail to impress, slew one before a shocked crowd of onlookers, painting the sands crimson before succumbing to the onslaught.

Perhaps his tale is even true. The world will never know.

As he lay dying, one might imagine Volandis smiling.

What better an end but a mystery for the ages?

The Election of Maribeh '87

With the sudden demise of Velan Volandis, the White League was left to the hands of Estellise Azimi. Azimi, Apothar of the Mount, and Fatespinner of a distant Empire of the Outrings, is known for many things, but tact and a courtly manner are not among them. Direct, blunt, and persistent, she oversaw a campaign which promised the primacy of labor over capital, which proposed the abolition of dinar, and the realization of a fully popular government. Such talking points would, indeed, find their way into later campaigns and themselves draw from the philosophy of the Magus himself, but at the time of the infamous Candidate Debate provoked an immediate uprising within the League of White, with members accusing Estellise of public drunkenness and deliberate sabotage on the payroll of the League of Purple, accusations which to this day the Apothar strenuously declines.

Kythaela Reithel, who left her meeting with the Legates ready to seize the Gold primary, found herself outmatched and soundly defeated by the deep pockets and pervasive connections of Mari Blacke. Bitter, enraged, and eager to assert that power refers to power, however, Reithel had Mari beaten and kidnapped from her Hall of Star and Revel and dragged to the dungeons of the Krak des Roses, where few return to tell the tale. Yet return the Priestess did, bloodied and limping, but spared. Never thereafter did Blacke speak openly against the Red Company. Yet one wonders what machinations took place in Gellema's twilight.

The League of Purple was represented by an unlikely candidate, indeed, one whom whose prosecution and capital punishment had been supported by many members only a month prior: Zaniah Almirah, Gamemistress and bounty-hunter extraordinaire. A late arrival to the primaries, with wealth, a certain glib charm, and an absence of ideology to speak of, she cultivated the growing White-Purple tendency within her League, championed by Chancellor de Veend, and arrived on the debate stage ready to contend with her rivals.

This culminated in the aforementioned Candidate debate, notable mostly for the total collapse of the League of White observed therein. As soon as the debate had ended, a small gang of League members summoned an emergency meeting of the League of White, beneath the observation of Ordrem Klard, the League Official and a Prince of the Blood of High Kulkund who renounced his title. Klard was a supporter of Azimi's candidacy per the rules of Asterabadian procedure, termed democratic centralism. The mutineers, lead by a Voiceless of, at the time, little note, Domhnall Guivarch, declared the campaign aborted. Guivarch lead a small contingent to negotiate with the League of Purple for policy concessions in exchange for an endorsement and was soundly laughed out of the premises of the League of Purple due to his status as a Voiceless, still dressed in a brown caravaneer's tunic.

In the days following Blacke and Almirah competed in the halls of power for support, yet the Priestess of Gellema seemed to come face to face with an immovable wall. The Tower of Q'tolip was united in opposition to the Gellemede cult, with Apothar Estellise going so far as to destroy the altar of the Hall of Star and Revel; the Banda Rossa had only days earlier attempted to see her dead; and the College of Balladeers reviled her as a puppet of Sol Auk. As part of an arrangement between the League of White and the League of Purple, Chancellor de Veend negotiated a subsidy to provide chosen Voiceless of the League of White funds towards the procurement of their Voices.

So it came to be that Zaniah Almirah was inaugurated as Legate as Ephia's Well, relieving, for a time, Rashid al-Rashid of his duty. When Sol Auk looked down at the, comparatively, diminutive form of the Gamemaster, and she at his inscrutable face of clay, one must wonder what thoughts were exchanged, amid the cheers and chants of 'Eagle! Eagle! Eagle!' echoing throughout the city.

Murder and Cannibalism

During the reign of Almirah and Auk, the State found it suitable to provide incentives and negotiate new terms of migration between the Golden City and the Satrapy of Ephia's Well. One fruit of this policy of Maribophilia was the arrival of many Ashfolk from the metropole, many of whom still decorate the avenues of Palm Heights today. Departing the ordered and wealthy imperial capital of Baz'eel to the glorified frontier outpost of Ephia's Well is said to have shocked many a new arrival, and indeed many of their earliest memories trend to the absolute negative.

For instance, Qari Alriyh expresses his disdain for the Alchemist Guildmaster, Gers Geiger. A man of many controversies and self-described "loose-cannon", Geiger's Guild was known to harbor many sinister and sinewy figures of the scholarly community, including the Baharist Bernadette Valentini, who served as his personal secretary, even as the Legion uncovered upon her the mark of Baharu on account of the investigative work of the Janissary Averroes Tashfhin. She was not charged due to the absence of necromantic materials on her person, and is indeed cited as an inspiration for the law of Illegal Worship and Practice.

Such an environment, of course, facilitated Brookery on a scale difficult to imagine in our present historical moment. Nasreen Shabani recalls what seemed to be a constant parade of high profile Brooking trials, and indeed the courts of the Well became severely backlogged with the appearance of an ominous Red Star, which offered patronage to those dealing with Djinn. So it was that a coven of Brookers, lead by the mad wizard Theodine Bone and his apprentice, a prostitute by the name of Fritz, popular among the meetings of the League of Gold and known to distribute leaflets agitating for the execution of new refugees, established itself in the Well. First, in a botched human sacrifice, Fritz slew his master Theodine, and after being offered clemency in a court of law attempted to assassinate the Legate accompanied by bound Djinn. He did not survive capture, in this case.

Possibly the highest profile Brooker of Ephian history was the celebrity chef, Marl Marlson. Marlson, a culinary maverick who proclaimed his supremacy over the beloved Mro Po, and operated a dangerously over-financed restaurant in the Plaza of the Well enjoyed by much of Ephian high society, was known for run-ins with the law and his share of erratic conduct, being slandered in the tabloid press as a coprophage. This slander seemingly sent his previously successful career on a downward spiral of debt and desperation, culminating in a cooking contest against Mro Po, where he, with the assent of Legate Sol Auk, emerged the victor. It is speculated that in order to outperform his adversary, Marlson sold his soul to the Court of Corpulent Flesh. Indeed, shortly thereafter he was found to house a cannibalistic Djinn within his liver, which emerged at the time of his execution before being rent by the Lions of Orentes.

One such brooker who never faced the Lions was, to shock the League of Purple, Isabella de Veend. De Veend, herself undergoing a rapid political collapse and relocation of much of her estate to Kha'esh following a heated conflict with the government, did deliver the name of her rival, the Captain of the newly Stele-appointed Torchbearers, Naelin Karstwen, to a Djinn. To escape charges for Brooking, Isabella fled to the far reaches of the Disc, establishing herself in a dug-out outside of Frostport, before being captured by the Janissary Johan Marssos. On the return voyage, it is said she threw herself from the ship into the frozen sea. So ends, ignominiously, the career of the Purple Chancellor.

Following the demise of the Purple Chancellor, however, was the assassination of the White Official, Ordrem Klard, at the hands of Hrothgar Childkiller (of the Low Kulkund diaspora) of the Union of Glaziers. Klard, a notable supporter of the failed Azimi campaign, was ambushed in the League of White Office and cleaved in twain. Childkiller awaited the Janissary and submitted to arrest. The trial, presided by Sol Auk, culminated in the allegation of Childkiller that now-Lieutenant Colmes had permitted the assassination of Klard as part of a negotiation with the Glaziers, and that by attempting to prosecute Childkiller he had broken his deal. Auk determined that the case was a mistrial and permitted Childkiller to go free without consequences.

Rumors abound the death of Klard and its causes. There are those who speculate that it was reprisal for the support of a failed political candidate. There are ethnic speculations revolving the legacy of High Kulkund, indeed this theory was actively embraced by Childkiller. There are speculations that Auk himself ordered the assassination, as shortly thereafter he nominated White League militant Alexandra Sayburgh, whose White Sash militia had openly celebrated the assassination, Hetman of the League of White – an invented post meant to direct the League in future action. Truly, the possibilities are endless.

Auk, however, was not reliant on the Glaziers (exclusively) for the execution of adversaries. It was by his order that the Crows, led by the Gutter Pirate Karim yn Tarek, a band of assassins and hired killers was formed to consolidate the Legate's control of the Well's criminal underbelly. Among them were many disreputable misfits and former bandits, including the young Galen Castor, who was said to have overseen the absorption of the remnants of Isabella's Oathseekers into their number. The Crows, despite the nature of their profession, were surprisingly well received by the crème of Ephian society and would over time work their way up the ladder of respectability, attending Assemblies in Voiced togas and enjoying the attention of many a Baz'eeli socialite.

With the League of White pacified, for now, and the criminal underworld in his grasp, Legate Sol Auk turned next to the Accord as a limit on his power, and, at the command of Baz'eel, issued the Anti-Accord Law, making good on an early promise and disbarring Accord Signatories from standing for election on pain of death. With the assent of Legate Almirah, the law went into effect Tabbah 17th in the face of massive outcry from many members of the Accord and with dutiful support from others.

The Tonsure's Caravan

But all these vain struggles would appear as dust in the wind compared to the turning of the Wheel. So it was by the will of fate that Lynneth Llywarch, Lyrist of the Lost Hearth, led an expedition of Cinquefoil to the Rampart Nusrum and first laid eyes upon the shifting form, mirage-like, dream-like, of the Tonsure's Caravan, coming in the thousands and tens of thousands from the lands of poison and death, from the rotting carcass of the Old City, and returned with news of their arrival.

And were they received with open arms, survivors in a world of death? One would be a fool to expect such things, of course. And it was before the Assembly that the Legate Sol Auk laid out his plan, that the refugees be sold as chattel to Kha'esh, or else butchered by the Banda Rossa, or a million other fates each more gruesome than the last, for the Well could not sustain them, and would if they should arrive be awash in wretchedness. Many resisted, of course, these measures, such as the Cinquefoil Rose and the League of White. Leading the way in preparation was the Lyrist and her most loyal companions, among them Acolytes Hypatia and Ianthe, who under cover of night seized a sizable grain shipment from a fortress of the Hundred Princes, providing for sustenance for many of those who would one day arrive.

As preparations unfolded, the Celestial Barge was commandeered for further scouting missions of senior Accord officers and the Torchbearers, south of the Rampart. It was there that the ship was intercepted, entrapped in nets thrown from the backs of flying raptors. Two of the Sibilant First-scale honor-guard, and the third, dressed in the uniform of a general, Constantine Diakos, now leader of the Sibilant Warhost, serving beneath a new Empire, and a new Emperor. The Barge was able to escape amidst a violent struggle and make its way to the Caravan.

There, witnessing the many thousands of refugees, starving, wild-eyed, and devoted in their trek, they met with the leader of this Caravan, the Tonsure. A giant with skin of slate, dressed in a ragged, moth-eaten toga of blue hue, face covered in a grim mask, and deformed with the scars of many years. This being, suspected by some to be of the mythical Latent, known as the Tonsure, offered its welcome to the dignitaries, holding firmly in its clutch a bejeweled Cup of gold, lined with the most precious stones of centuries past.

It was there that the Tonsure spoke, alongside its apostles. The Sibilant Host had set upon the Caravan, seeking flesh and seeking also the Cup and its mystical properties. The Cup had been recovered some time in the past by a young boy at the Tonsure's side without name. Standing tall, Cup aloft, did the Tonsure proclaim that they would come in the thousands to the sacred land of Ibtihal ar'Orentes, who it named Pilgrim and Queen, and proclaimed:

"Dakhwar for Her."

The return of the expedition was the opening of the very gates of eternity. Temples raised prayer after prayer. Bellows echoed throughout the city and the pieces of the Great Game moved hither and thither with great pace. The Rose, of course, wished nothing but to fulfill their sacred mission; the Tower, of course, wished nothing but to study a strange artifact; the Janissary, of course, wished nothing but to protect the Well from the foreign and unknown. All at once, the teeth of the Well were at edge. The end of the dark age was finally dawning. Even the most staunch skeptic could not, for a even a moment, silence the voice of credulity within their heart.

And, as is ever the case, did Legate Sol Auk offer bribes for custody of this Cup. Zaniah Almirah, for her part, alienated much of her political base through her willingness to offer it to the Cinquefoil Rose, as part of some elaborate political calculus.

Many questions emerged thereafter: what is to be done – about the Caravan – about the Cup? Too many questions, too grave, too enormous, with the weight of the world resting upon them. From wall to wall did political cliques and posses gather, speaking furtively over mizzar and coffee, speaking passionately over wine and ale, speaking darkly in the palaces and in the shadowed places. And in this commotion, it was scarcely noticed when several chests of gold were loaded surreptitiously onto horse-drawn wagons and the wagon train mounted by Legate Sol Auk, still dressed in his golden toga. By the time his absence had been noted, he was already half-way to Qadira, where by all accounts he established a fairly lucrative casino.

Thus, with his departure, new elections would be called, now, on the eve of crisis.

Thus ends Act III.

[Erudiche]

Act IV

Alriyh and Saenus

This Bloody Earth

The Beginning of the End

Long night after long night piled upon the shoulders of Purple Legate Zaniah Almirah. Interim-Legate al-Rashid lay in bed sleeping with a copy of the Tazikrat held to his bosom. No such luck for the former Gamemaster, whose tired eyes surveyed tax records, reports on the growingly apocalyptic forecast of the Caravan, and pessimistic communiques from diplomatic contacts abroad. The situation was, surmise to say, grim. Property tax had been abolished by the Auk government, sales tax was at a historic low, and multiple lavish allotments, coupled with highly irregular expenditures and graft, had strangled the flow of funds into a dwindling treasury, held afloat only by the slow trickle of new Voiced into the Assembly.

Despite her victory over the Gold League in the previous election, Zaniah's grasp on power was not stable. Lurking outside her office were enemies all around. Already having survived her first assassination attempt at the hands of Fritz von Volkrin, Zaniah was faced with League hardliners who were dissatisfied with her closeness with the Cinquefoil Rose, a parallel State of Gellemedes in service to the Hall of Star and Revel, and many demanding social stakeholders, eager to leverage any perceived weakness. Her correspondence was flooded with letters upon letters, endless questions: what about the refugees? What about the Sibilant? What about the Cup?

Friends were few. The darkness was growing. Slipping beneath the watch of her guard, Legate Almirah continued her work as a bounty-hunter, prowling the sands and bringing man and beast to justice, as her city floundered without leadership, state funds bled away, and Brookers prowled the streets. On the occasion of her hundredth bounty, it is said that Zaniah, dusting her hands of the brigand, was approached by the controversial B'aarat holyman, Salvatore di Ravioci, a convert hailing from distant Il Modo, who sought to establish a Hospitaler, or Inqusition, to purge the city of Djinn, necromancers, Wyrmists, and Pra'raji. Of her own volition or out of a desire to appease the conservative element of the League of Purple, she named him acting-Magistrate, and soon enshrined his Inquisition upon the Stele of Law, with Salvatore as its Grandmaster.

Salvatore, seen by the public as something of a madman or Holy Fool, would take to his duties with zest, forming a posse consisting of numerous notables of the period, including the Janissary Averroes Tashfhin, a self described knight errant of the Wheel; Ozias Hasapis, an arcanist and B'aarat mystic; Janissary Amenya Graen, a fanatical B'aarat and a favored selection for Sergeant before her resignation from the Legion, citing ethical qualms; and, perhaps strangely, a young Domhnall Guivarch of the League of White, known at the time as a devout B'aarat and newspaper editor. Salvatore's Inquisition would find itself close collaborators with Apothar Cosine Mevura in the hunting of aberrant and dark elements within Ephia's well, and would enjoy a deeply fraught, tense relationship with the Fourth Legion, intermittently treated as a deputy force and as rogue vigilantes, much to the chagrin of Legate Almirah.

The Inquisition seemed to, however, serve as something of a counterweight to the swirling mass of dark arts accumulating around the League of Gold, with Salvatore speaking often of the "Gellemite peril", and taking to the vigorous burning of blasphemous or otherwise restricted literature in the Plaza, to the great protest of many scholars. It is known that from their Lesser Tower, Guildmaster Geiger and his disciple, the Baharist Bernadette Valentini, were said to scrutinize the movements of Inquisitors with some disdain. Such is true even of Baz'eeli scholar Qari Alriyh, who describes Salvatore as a deluded follower not of the Mother, but of the Court of Water and Light, a Brooker, and a madman.

Yet the domestic unrest overseen by her nominal employees was not the foremost of Zaniah's concerns nor troubles. For it was announced to the people of Ephia's Well that a Congress would be called at Kardesler, in the distant Valley of Wisdom, which would bring together the free powers of the Great Ash to discuss the matter of the Caravan and the Second Sibilant Empire. In desperation to know the minds of nearby powers, in particular Kha'esh, a fearsome land power governed in great part by the terrifying magician Azarmidokht the Golden, she approached and formally tasked Apothar Cosine Mevura to scry upon the Golden Vizier, to know his mind and his intent, to know his weaknesses and what would be necessary to triumph at Kardesler.

The Three Bad Days of Zaniah Almirah

With some reluctance the Astronomers of the Mount fulfilled the order, and by an arcane trap were noticed swiftly. The response was swift and immediate: the outrage of the terrible Azarmidokht and mighty Kha'esh. To placate the Emirate, Legate Almirah provided fifteen thousand dinar, spending the very last of the Well's funds and rendering the state, officially, destitute. That evening she delivered a brief and chastened address to her people:

"People of Ephia's Well, and beyond. I speak to you now, not only as your elected Legate, but as a humble woman, who has had to learn much, in a short time. I have erred. In my haste and urgency to deal with the crisis of the refugees and the Sibilant, I tasked an Apothar with scrying upon our neighbor: The mighty, and glorious, Kha'esh. In doing so, in my naivety, my disregard- I have caused a rift.

I have sullied the honor, the sovereignty, of our most cherished neighbour, and for this, I am truly, and sincerely, sorry. The mistake is mine, and mine alone. It is my hope, that one day, Ephia's Well might mirror the might and glory of Kha'esh, and the generosity and mercy of the Emir. For He has, in his wisdom and magnanimity, agreed to let this one affront be forgotten. I am, before his Glory, but a commoner, but a worm, and I am eternally grateful for this show of mercy. Let it be know, then, that gratitude is owed. Live and drink."

And, indeed, later that day, with Pra'raj at its zenith, dour Janissaries opened the vaults of the Coinchangers and, in a solemn procession led wagons loaded to the brim with food, water, linens, silks, and in the greatest supply, dinar, out of the Gate of Coin and towards the distant Caravansary. Partisans in purple cloaks, eyes wide, chased and implored the Legionnaires all the way up to the Gate, gnashing and wailing as the lifeblood of the strained economy vanished. The uproar was immediate, not merely from Purple chauvinists.

Apothar Estellise Azimi explained to the people of Ephia's Well that not only had Legate Almirah bankrupted the Well, she had also attempted to sell the right the possess the Dakhwar to the Astronomers for fifteen thousand dinar, directly violating her earlier pledge to the Cinquefoil Rose. As Zaniah leapt from one scandal to the next, it soon came about that a massive protest, near a riot, had assembled at the door of the Palatial Pyramid, and thronging members of the League of White, cloaks and banners fluttering, filled the Plaza with chants and curses. Zaniah addressed them from the steps, and was jeered and booed by hissing grounds, massed beneath a new and charismatic leader: Echemmon Telemanus, the White Axe, a mercenary-priest of Agaslakku who spoke in the simplest and firmest terms for the betterment of the people of Ephia's Well, roaring in defiance at the Legate's equivocations with the downtrodden at his back.

The protest was eventually dispersed by the order of the Legate, armored Janissaries clanking and clanging among the crowds, forcing them out of the Plaza and into the side-streets and pubs from whence they'd emerged, even a suffering a few scattered altercations with White Sash militants. Slinking away from the increasingly hostile crowd, Zaniah, with no funds left to provide for State expenses, instituted an emergency tax hike, raising all taxes to 15% -- in the traditional method of Baz'eeli accounting, as in the base sum in addition to 15% of the base sum, a matter which would become the source of a great deal of consternation. For amid Zaniah's scandals and her many sojourns into the sands, indeed, this increase went utterly unannounced – until, of course, tax day, where debt collectors and Legionnaires began slapping padlocks on the properties of the landed in the Well, claiming tax delinquency and sending the great mass of Ephian wealth into uproar.

The tax protestors, led most prominently by Alchemist Guildmaster Gers Geiger and Mari Blacke of Gellema, promised retaliation, demanded the immediate reduction of taxes, and called for the resignation of Almirah as Legate, citing her failure in the management of Kha'esh as just cause. The protestors were joined by dissatisfied Purples and, indeed, many adventurers and citizens who had grown embittered with the government. Geiger's furious bellows, accusing Almirah of bribing Kha'esh with public funds for her own personal safety, and Blacke's simplified analyses of the institutional cost of the tax increases, set the Almirah government on ever more precarious footing, alongside the ceaseless attacks of the League of White and the internal schemes of the League of Purple. And, quite simply, the Legate was unable to keep up.

Spurning, again, the attentions of her security detail, Zaniah fled the Pyramid and made her way, later in the day, for the Souk, hoping to clear her mind and attempt to salvage a flagging term as Legate. The sun was fat and heavy in the sky, sagging slowly towards the horizon, and a fetid humidity settled over the market. Hands to her temples, the embattled Legate made her way past the foot of the Water Temple, breathing out a sigh. Yet, her breath hitched. From behind, a toothless man, dressed in rags, had pierced her through with a spear. Yet, say what one will about the Legate, she was not known for weakness. She turned and with spellflame in hand a brief and furious struggle ensued, sending chaos all throughout the market.

By the time the Legion had arrived on the scene, the Legate lay dead before the House of Silk and Leather. First to arrive was Sergeant Joachim Sathuul, who gave chase to the killer, a Gutter Pirate and affiliate of the tax protestors, Anum Ur-Hakan. He ran the assassin down and slew him on the spot. In the immediate aftermath came pouring words of condolence from Zaniah's adversaries, condemnations of violence, and firm affirmations that the upcoming elections would continue as planned. A brief, circumspect funeral was held in the Maqam, attended by Inquisitor di Ravioci, his most loyal followers, and the scant friends remaining to Zaniah. The ceremony, it is said, was interrupted by the Bellows of Rennik Colmes, notifying the Well that power would transition from Almirah to her designated successor: the librarian, Marcellus Saenus.

In life, Zaniah had been known of a woman of great charisma, a popular entertainer, and a friend to everyone. In power, she was known as a blunderer, an equivocator, a spendthrift, and a coward. In death, it is hard to say if she is known at all. Such is the life and the death of Zaniah Almirah, one of but many others.

The Congress of Kardesler

It is said that the Orcs of the Kruggmeh Clan have a certain rite of passage for their young – each and every infant of their people shall be examined, taken from its mother's breast, and if it should cry it would be thrown from a cliff's edge into a carrion valley. If there ever was such a trial faced by man, it should seem that Marcellus Saenus confronted it. The newly-inaugerated Legate, who had retired from a brief political campaign to tend his library and his watercolors, now marching in his Tyrian purples alongside a diaphoretic, tremulous Legate al-Rashid, at the head of a broad procession of Ephians, over the crumbling Spindlebridge, through the ancient Valley of Wisdom, and up the steep doubling steps to the Valley of Kardesler.

Upon their arrival, the comers were greeted with the glittering parade uniforms of the Second Legion, arranged in elaborate formation, on guard. The brilliant plumes of their helms sagged beneath the unrelenting heat of vicious Tabbah. They were lead there by Mustafa Bey, in full dress uniform, and standing beside the Princess Hasheema and her First Legion honor guard – terrifying ogres, silent and towering. Arriving after the Well was the delegation of Qadira, the Raja Guard and the Maharajah himself, dressed in tiger-skins, accompanied by many drummers and musicians of his hundred ships.

Following thereafter was Azarmidokht of Kha'esh, appearing in a brilliant flash of light, dressed in robes of woven gold. Each leader was humbled by the Arbiter of Kardesler, an Ashfolk of immense age and power, and each took their place. Nominated to speak for the Well were Legate Saenus and three of those present on the expedition to the Caravan: Lieutenant Colmes, Lyrist Llywarch, and Sephidra Niridhe. The mood of the Congress was tense. None of the powers, none except for Ephia's Well, took seriously the notion of a resurgent Sibilant threat. The delegations of Kha'esh and Qadira, indeed, openly scoffed at the suggestion of a new Empire. Of far greatest interest to the assembled were the Caravan and the Cup.

The Lyrist, Legate, and Torchbearer, alongside Princess Hasheema, argued to the Congress in favor of the rescue and preservation of the refugees, to deliver them from the grasp of the Sibilant Empire, although Azarmidokht was unmoved, and spoke of cutting down the refugees with force of arms and magic and simply seizing the Cup from them. For his part, Lieutenant Colmes advocated for a small force to steal into the camp and, beneath the notice of the Tonsured, retrieve the Chalice before the Sibilant force could obtain it – Colmes argued before the Congress that the Orentid leadership and uncertain intentions of the Caravan, as well as its immensity, would mean that even should it mean no harm, it would certainly strain the capacity of Ephia's Well beyond breaking.

As arguments continued, heated, throughout the afternoon and the evening, the Well was soon joined, in the coming sunset, by an unlikely attendant. A foul drone arose in the Valley and, marching in perfect time, came Iron Men – the Remade of Qa'im, a strange steel box in hand. There, they articulate their offer to the free people of the desert:

"GIVE THEM TO QA'IM.

THEY WILL BE PRESERVED.

GIVE THEM TO QA'IM.

GIVE THEM TO QA'IM.

GIVE THEM TO QA'IM.

GIVE THEM TO QA'IM."

This caused the Congress to spin into total disorder, with too much being discussed at once for any scholar to record. The Alchemist's Guild proposed a variety of hair-brained solutions to the issue of the war, the League of White and the Lyrist of Lost Hearth demanded succor for the refugees, recriminations and accusations of treason and murder were thrown this way and that, as the Arbiter, alone in the ritual circle, looked away, towards the shattered throne of the ancient Caliphate.

So it was that amid the descent of the Congress into madness, and the arguments throughout the night ringing from the walls of the Valley, that Marcellus Saenus rose, and addressed the people of the world. Straightening his awkward toga, and assuming the pose of traditional Baz'eeli oratory, the scholar of the histories, who would be known as the Man of Kardesler, spoke:

"We cannot abandon our home, the Fourth are our protectors. And I hear many voices, that wish to aid this caravan... I hear them. The Rose is ready to fight. But I do not hear how many of the rest of you are ready to fight as well -- so show me. Raise your right arm if you are ready to fight with them -- To spit at Pra'raj, as you walk the scalding desert -- to face the Orcs, if they stand in our way -- to cut down the Sibilant, when the Wyrm's gaze falls upon us.

Tell me, Ephia's Well! Are you ready to fight? Or will you cower before the Wyrm?"

And so, one by one, amid the arguments, amid the cheers, amid the howls and the bellows and roars, among the cloaks of White, of the Rose, of the Legion, of the Purple, of the Astronomers, right arms rose as though carried by the wind of a hurricane. With them too rose Marcellus' arm, and with vigor beyond his years, he continued, in that moment transforming from a simple man, or a politician of the League of Purple, into a figure of great potence,

"If you march, I march with you!"

So it was that amid a wave of sentiment, passion, and fury, the course was decided: Ephia's Well, Baz'eel, Kha'esh would join forces and make war with the Sibilant and come to the rescue of the Caravan. More wary voices, such as those of Lieutenant Colmes and Estellise Azimi, echoed at the fringes, drowned out by the great mass of war: caution, caution, they implored, for the treasury was empty and the leaders untested. Indeed, contended the Apothar, this is merely a stunt for distract from the blunders of Purple and the failures of Almirah. But, for better or worse, their words went unheeded. The Maharajah of Qadira, sparing a sardonic smile, swore a fleet of ships to the effort, a war in the deep reaches of the mainland, and swiftly departed with his guard. Soon thereafter departed the Qa'immi, carrying their screaming box, and a final message:

"SPIT ON PRA'RAJ AND ALL ORDER CORRODES.

YOUR PLANS WILL NOT SUCCEED.

YOU HAVE NO HOPE.

YOU HAVE NO FUTURE."

It was the project of those now leaving the Valley of Kardesler to defy its prophecy.

The Election of Illul '87

The primaries and election of Illul were altogether a vicious and unpleasant contest and, in many of the worst ways possible, serving as a model for those which would follow. In the aftermath of the removal of the Accord from electoral politics, it came about that the Leagues of White and Purple underwent a rapid and radical rearrangement in membership, with new faces and old seeking to find their place in the order of things.

The League of Purple saw the return of Sephidra Niridhe by acclamation, running unopposed after her opponent, Marcellus Saenus, dropped out to focus on the care of his library and, ultimately, was appointed Almirah's replacement. During the primary process, it became clear that the earlier animosity from Colmes had only deepened, especially in light with Niridhe's strong position in favor of rescuing the Caravan, and it happened that Colmes and many Janissary officers enjoined themselves to the League of Gold upon her victory, allegedly, the speakers of the League of Gold have insisted, to prevent the accession of Gers Geiger to the candidacy. Sephidra found herself viciously opposed by the Tower of Q'tolip and facing opposition from an unexpected source – shortly before Legate Almirah's demise, it became known to the public, on account to the diligent reporting of Estellise Azimi, that the Purple Legate had actively sought to undermine Sephidra's campaign, expressing concerns both surrounding Niridhe's merit and the perils of a Purple Monochromancy.

The League of White saw a primary contesting Echemmon Telemanus, a recent upstart with a passionate base and strong momentum following his oratory against the Almirah government; Alexandra Sayburgh, the controversial, Auk-linked White Sash leader; Narwen Alendriel, then-Balladeer and Envoy of Spring's Gift; and, briefly, Mote von Nachtshatten, a Torchbearer and personal ally of Apothar Azimi's, who retired from politics following a psychotic episode of some description revolving around gnomes. Telemanus would emerge triumphant from the race, faced with the monumental task of unifying the moderate and radical wings of the League of White, represented by the Alchemist Yomar Kamarya and Sayburgh, respectively.

The League of Gold's primary, however, was most vicious by far. Seeing Baz'eeli scholar and Sol Auk's Magistrate, Qari Alriyh, facing the Alchemist Guildmaster and Minister of Trade, Gers Geiger, the League of Gold primary was one of the most blatantly kleptocratic and corrupt political engagements in Ephian history, bar none. Both candidates developed a practice which would go on to be reviled in future elections: electoral press-ganging, a process by which refugees newly arrived on wagon trains, still in orange-wrap, would be ambushed, bribed, and offered League membership and a petition to sign, and in some, most severe cases, taken to purchase a Voice in exchange for their guaranteed vote. Bribes offered for signatures were common and extravagant, and both parties put their tremendous fortunes towards the acrimonious race with over one-hundred thousand dinar being spent.

Ultimately, the contest was narrowly decided in the favor of Qari Alriyh. Geiger expressed his delight over the bellows at the veritable bidding war which he had effectively stated, and mocked Alriyh for, allegedly, requiring considerable loans to have won the campaign. Thus it was that Sephidra Niridhe, Echemmon Telemanus, and Qari Alriyh would compete for the First Seat. No candidate would enjoy a unified house in the coming race, and indeed there would be a great deal of intrigue to follow.

Qari Alriyh ran a campaign of loyalty to Baz'eel, of cautious conservatism and fiscal austerity, and of a non-accommodating approach to the refugees who, similarly to his newfound ally Rennik Colmes, he feared would be a destabilizing influence on the Well. Criticized by his adversaries as a Purple interloper in the League of Gold and a reactionary influence, his measured approach won him the tentative support of many political camps normally ill at ease with the League, with many disaffected Purples and some White Leaguers turning to his support. Alriyh's campaign was also resoundingly in support of the proposed 'Illegal Worship and Practice' law, which would ban Wyrmism and Baharism from practice in Ephia's Well, after their legalization by an earlier Syter-Diakos ministry during the Triumvirate.

Telemanus ran what has been termed as a conservative campaign for the League of White, stating that no reductions of the Voice fee would be instituted until the war was over, favoring lucrative state contracts with the Alchemist Guild for the production of weapons, and favoring a victory at all costs approach to the war, consistent with his devout Agasianism. His campaign was heavily influenced by the Alchemist weaponsmith Yomar Kamarya, a personal confidante of Geiger, and also by his campaign manager, the firebrand Domhnall Guivarch, a political pragmatist and propagandist for the League. Telemanus also struggled to not alienate the League's Old Guard, such as Lyrist Llywarch, Balladeer Aubrey Domergue, Apothar Stern, and Apothar Azimi, who he deeply alienated with his equivocations regarding custody of the Cup.

These things, however, could have been managed given a keen enough personage. What was not manageable was Telemanus' position on the Illegal Worship and Practice law. Telemanus, a devout pantheist, spoke openly before the League that he supported legality of Wyrmism and regarded any effort to ban it as blasphemy against the divinity of the Wheel. After many heated arguments, and indeed even an attempt to have him dismissed as candidate, he announced and promptly retracted his position on the support of the Wyrm Cult, while at the same time being seen consorting within the Krak des Roses with the infamous Najh-ra of that very cult, destroying the political prospects of the League of White in the Illul election. Members were then tasked with deciding whether to flee to the Niridhe or Alriyh campaigns, and indeed most chose the League of Purple over that of Gold.

Niridhe's campaign was criticized for its closeness to the Rose, for her continued support for the White-Purple tendency of former members Almirah and de Veend, and for a general sense that she had enjoyed her opportunity and failed. Many members of the League had taken to naming her the Torchtraitor, citing her earlier withdrawal from the Aukian election, and frequent chants of 'Remember Banafsi' were raised by partisans of the Gold League. Not dissuaded, Sephidra continued to contest the campaign, backed by many White Leaguers searching for a way to prevent the re-election of Gold to Sol Auk's former seat.

Despite their best efforts, however, Alriyh was named Legate of the Assembly, sitting in the First Seat, after a close election. He took the stage, flanked by Balestriere and Recluta of the Banda Rossa, his close personal bodyguard for much of the waning days of the election. As he swore his vows of office, raising the heirloom ring of Syter and exclaiming 'live and drink', anyone looking could see the grins upon their faces.

Of Knight and Gnome

Averroes Tashfhin and Yomar Kamarya would, at first glance, in the heady days of sweltering Tabbah and cooling Illul, appear entirely unrelated, and, perhaps, somewhat unassuming. Tashfhin, a young soldier of the Legion, known by many contemporaries as 'Eos', on account of her archaic dialect. A self-professed knight errant of the Wheel, Tashfhin hailed from much the same pantheist school as Telemanus, maintaining the holiness of the profane Perilspoke even in the face of opposition from within the Legion and from Salvatore's Inquisition. So outspoken was her opposition to the law that, when infamous Wyrmist terrorist, Najh-Ra, came to trial under the newly-inaugurated Illegal Worship and Practice law of Saenus-Alriyh, it is said that Tashfhin deliberately fumbled the prosecution to permit the Stonefolk to go free.

Meanwhile, Kamarya was a gnome hailing from a remote region of the Great Ash where his people had settled. A skilled weaponsmith and a vocal Agasian, Kamarya was an advocate for a universal right to bear arms and was a decorated member, in good standing, with the Alchemist's Guild. So sought-after was his expertise that even the secretive Astronomers of Q'tolip brought him onto their secret weapons project, code-named Ao, as a senior consultant, in spite of his repeated and vocal opposition to the Tower of Q'tolip and consistent public accusations that the Tower routinely murdered Nadiri (an accusation which remains popular to this day). Kamarya made use of stolen research from the project to begin a secret process of brooking with Far Horrors from beyond the stars, and secondary negotiations with the terrible Court of Shadow and Air.

As the wheel of fortune turns, both would end in exile. Averroes was placed on trial beneath Mari Blacke, now serving as Saenus' Magistrate, prosecuted by Rennik Colmes as a traitor, and defended by her fellow in the Inquisition, Guivarch. There, she was deemed guilty, and her sentence of death commuted to conditional exile: she would be allowed to return, provided she completed a great act of pilgrimage to each god of the Wheel. At the Gate of Coins she was stripped, dressed in rags, and armed only with her Advocate's walking stick to defend herself, and cast into the wilderness.

Kamarya held an exit poll during the voting process of the Illul election. In his large, comedically so, seat, he collected the names of each and every voting Voiced. The keen-eyed noted that he had grown over his time in the Well, and with each passing day, slowly and subtly grew increasingly deformed and sallow skinned. At the conclusion of the polling process, an order was made for the gnome's arrest, and as he fled the city, records in tow, it was revealed that an investigation carried out by the Legion and Tower that Yomar had died some days previously whilst calling down a meteor with the Astronomer technology, and lived only through the intercession of his dark masters, twisting him into a dark shell of his previous self. It was suspected, then, that he intended to flee to the Horror-infested impact site and there offer the names of every Voiced in the Well to the Horrors, an act which would make even the saga of the Alfred Delafosse pale in comparison.

Indeed, he may well have succeeded in this task, despite the deployment of Legionnaires in pursuit, if not for the intercession of the exiled Tashfhin, who hunted him among the sands and the worm tunnels, before cornering him and, after a prolonged melee, slaying him, gravely wounded by his dark magics. It was at that moment, the thought of her exile's end surely on her mind, that she was cut down by Student of Lost Hearth, Alvaro Vilagrassa, a personal ally of Kamarya's. The subject of the manhunt, despite the legality of killing an exile, turned to Vilagrassa, who was expelled from the Rose and pursued into the den of a so-called Spell Bear, which is said to have ripped him asunder in a manner most violent and disturbing.

Averroes' exile was later commuted posthumously by Legate Saenus, and a small funeral was held in the Maqam. In attendance was her associate, the future Legate Guivarch, who would go further and later declare her an Honored Martyr of the B'aarat.

The Trial of the Century

In the days preceding the march towards the shattered south, the Legion, Tower, and Inquisition were strained to the limits fighting enemies within and without. A sect of the Wyrm Cult, organized beneath Najh-Ra and her lieutenant, snakecharmer Sadiki Khepri, had taken to kidnapping and ransoming students, operating from scattered bases encircling the Roiling Scarp and demanding the relegalization of the Wyrm, throwing a student of the College of Lost Hearth, Nathyra Everdance, from the bleak mount.

At the center of much of the dark magic flowing like water through the citadel was the Worshipful Guild of Alchemists, time and time again involved in terror tales of necromancy, brooking, and cooperation with the dark powers. Its Guildmaster, Gers Geiger, had repeatedly and rather openly assisted criminal elements of his organization with only token denouncements of their activities when they were exposed to the public. Indeed, Geiger, even after the introduction of the Accomplices law, had personally smuggled the Wyrmist black magician Suppi in and out of the citadel with the use of teleportation magic.

With the departure of Lieutenant Rennik Colmes, redeployed abroad after the Legion High Command in Baz'eel was impressed with his performance, control of the First Patrol Company, most active in law enforcement in the Well, fell to Sergeant Joachim Sathuul. Sathuul was a man described by his comrades as impatient and suited for the field and the record would, indeed, demonstrate this. The day following Geiger's criminal interference in the Suppi Case, Sathuul gathered a posse of Astronomers and Inquisitors to supplement a small detachment of Legionnaires. Together this procession, including Sathuul, di Ravioci, Apothar Mevura, and soldier-turned-Hospitaler and Magistrate Amenya Graen, made their way to the Tower of Alchemy, where Geiger was in residence. Finding him unreceptive to calls to open the door, the Legion prepared to force it open when, at once, Geiger revealed himself.

It is said that, exiting fully enspelled and under the power of Haste, Geiger foiled his pursuers with the use of grease and a chase ensued throughout the Well. He fled into the Krak des Roses, seeking the sanctuary of the Rose's sovereignty over the fortress. Not to be deterred so easily, the posse followed, and a brawl ensued upon the floor of the Krak. Blades and sorcery crossed paths, and rings of fire filled the bar, setting the sitting area ablaze. Gers was, finally, subdued, yet as they attempted to retrieve his battered body, dressed in now-blood-stained yellow robes, the posse was accosted by Bandarossi, demanding ten-thousand dinar in restitution for the damage inflicted upon the premises. A stand-off ensued, resolved when, at the request of Condottiero Paolina, Sathuul agreed to repay the sum with interest over the weeks following from his pay.

Geiger was then taken for trial at the Hall of Jurisprudence, presided over by Marcellus' Magistrate, Amenya Graen herself, to which Geiger vigorously objected as a conflict of interest before a large and intrigued gallery. Initially demanding to be made his own advocate, Geiger claimed to have become light-headed from blood loss, and hired Gellemede heresiarch Mari Blacke to serve as his advocate, herself Marcellus' other Magistrate, to the chagrin of the Legate. The prosecution, headed by Sathuul with Soldiers Kinney and Nifkil as counsel, presented the charges: unlawful resistance (serious), vandalism (capital), assault (serious), and reckless endangerment (serious).

Notably, all the charges brought forth were ones incurred in Geiger's chase. This is on account of the fact that when inspected in the Garrison by Apothar Mevura, no brooker's mark, Wyrm-sign, or Baharist sigils were found; it was also determined difficult to prove, at the time, that Geiger had aided Suppi's escape from the law. Seeking an easy capital sentence, the prosecution had decided to prosecute Geiger for the criminal actions which the Magistrate herself had observed as a direct witness. The case, at first glance, would appear to have been sealed.

It was not. It what has since been described as both the Trial of the Century and the saddest and most embarrassing odyssey in Ephian legal history (compared even to State Vs. Childkiller), it was revealed that Magistrate Graen had only a tenuous understanding of both court procedure and the penal code, silencing, dismissing, and resummoning witnesses throughout the proceedings. The prosecutor and Magistrate both served as witnesses, prompting several legitimate civil rights complaints from the defense. The prosecution fared poorly, falling into numerous rhetorical traps laid by the deft oratory Mari Blacke, and relying on an exceptionally hostile witness in the form of Balestriere Kragg Stonefury to support their vandalism charges – when asked who was responsible for the damage to the Krak, he infamously pointed to Sathuul.

Legate Saenus was reportedly dismayed, allegedly having muttered beneath his breath that he had told them to prepare a strong case. Deliberations began not in the deliberating chamber, but indeed, before the court, with Legate Saenus and Blacke asked to confer – in breaking with tradition, the prosecution was excluded from this deliberation. Indeed, the breaches of procedure were so extreme that newly named Minister of Trade, Iseppo Qoras, barged into the courtroom clad in ushanka and fur-coat, demanding to take Graen's place upon the judge's seat and condemning the proceedings as a farce, for which he was fined and removed from the court by Graen's order.

The verdict was thus: Geiger was deemed guilty of unlawful resistance and capital vandalism, yet innocent of assault and reckless endangerment. The rationale being that indeed, Geiger did resist arrest, and that indeed his spellflame resulted in the damages to the Krak des Roses, but his violent action was retaliatory in nature and he had, in Graen's view, reasonable cause to fear for his life at the sight of an armed posse. This gives rise to what had been termed the Gers Geiger precedent: under this jurisprudence one might reason that while it may be illegal to resist arrest, once one has begun to resist, attacking with lethal force the arresting officers is no more illegal than, say, simply running away.

Geiger was sentenced to repay the damages to the Krak des Roses and conscripted to assist in the war effort, drawing tears of joy from the wizard and tears of despair from the Bailiff, who had already prepared the Lions of Orentes for Geiger's execution. Following this incident, Blacke was dismissed as Saenus' Magistrate, likely in reprisal for her role in the case. Graen would soon resign as Magistrate as well.

Yet for Geiger, all was not well. For emerging in the Ephian underworld was a new assassin, one known variously as the Gentleman and the Throater. Fearsome, to be sure, it seems that an anonymous client procured the services of this Throater and, in the days following, Gers was found dead by blade after a mysterious explosion at the Tower of Alchemy. The identity of the client is, at this time, still a mystery. The consequences of Geiger's death were dramatic, spelling the slow demise of the Worshipful Guild of Alchemists, beneath the far more conservative management of Wajeeb al-Sattar, patented of the famous 'Wajeeb' beverage. Geiger's demise marks, then, the rise of a new overlord of the Ephian underworld: the Throater, who in coming days would become quite the menace.

Final Preparations

Looming, great and terrible, over Illul was the spectre of Marcellus' War, the price of the noble sentiment of Kardesler and the greatest test the young Ephian state had ever known. The treasury was still devastated from the mismanagement of Auk and Almirah, and with Legate Alriyh unwilling to increase taxes, the war effort was severely inhibited. Appeals to foreign powers such as Frostport and Il Modo fell on deaf ears and no aid was able to be mobilized from distant Qadira. Much of the populace was mobilized to march south towards Diakos' Sibilant legions beside the Accord, many would march without armor, without weapons, without supplies or healing Ephian waters, down into the fields of dust and death.

At the same time a small horde of the Thousand Clans had begun to make for the Caravan in turn. This was the personal host of Iakmes Ir-Emum. In the war council of the first campaign in the south, the notion of engaging in parlay with Iakmes was first contended by the Agasian Echemmon Telemanus, and later would be realized. The terms of Iakmes were simple: for the support of he and his host, bring forth the skull of a Groknak as a show of strength. Legate Saenus, hearing this request, sought to arrange a Groknak hunt to acquire such a skull, but at public outcry from druids, Stonefolk, priests, and others, this hunt was precluded. In an attempt to find some manner of compromise, Legate Saenus commissioned the artist and Balladeer Narwen Alendriel to create a Groknak skull themed banner, which was delivered to Iakmes thereafter. Also delivered to Iakmes was a scrobe of magical potence, of domination, for which the Orc leader was eminently grateful.

As war preparations fizzled and ground to a halt, there was a project of particular importance whose reputation precedes itself: the Meteor. Initially envisioned by its pioneer, Apothar Mae Stern, as a means to extract baublium, a rare magical resource, from celestial bodies by diverting them to the Disc, the military application of being able to hurl a large meteorite towards one's enemies was evident. As the project pivoted towards a that of a superweapon aimed at destroying the Sibilant force, objections and concerns manifested themselves.

The project itself would require an immense amount of baublium to power the weapon, codenamed Ao, and the State's baublium drive did not meet even the lowest projections of input, resulting in numerous logistical hurdles for the engineers to contend with. Due to the short notice of the war there was little time to vet the meteor chosen, with the initial candidate of a particular comet rich in magical signature being used. The project was developed in tandem with both Legates, the Legion, and, according to Stern, senior personnel of the Cinquefoil Rose. As the device, prepared on schedule even under the conditions, ensnared the Meteor in its gravitational pull, a terrible discovery was made.

The Meteor was a Blood Horror from the farthest astral abysses, alive, intelligent, and malevolent. As the project leaders became aware of this concern, it soon began to eclipse all prior fears of the lack of materials or potential collateral damage to nearby refugees. While, according to Stern, Legate Alriyh regarded the project as a necessary evil, Legate Saenus was more hesitant to approve the project, and indeed was joined in this by Apothars Mevura and Azimi. It was only with the continued insistence of Apothar Stern that Saenus, eventually, relented in his objections. When asked for her rationale, Stern stated plainly that it was her belief that with the failures in preparation for the war, Project Ao was necessary if victory and, she believed, the salvation of the Caravan was to be achieved.

Conversely, Legate Alriyh insists that he never approved the project, describing Apothar Stern as a brooker, and described its deployment beneath the aegis of Saenus with himself as but a helpless bystander, unable to prevent the machinations of the rogue Legate of Purple and the Tower of Q'tolip. Regardless, the project was completed on schedule and, eventually, authorized for deployment at the Red Hill.

One must remark on the situation Ephia's Well found itself in, then. The Well was bankrupt, ruined by lavish spending, embezzlement, foreign policy blunders. Its Legates were unable or unwilling to increase taxes on the eve of war. Its government unable to make the sacrifices, such as the execution of a Groknak, necessary to prevail. A city governed by sentiment, able to put forth the commitment to justice and without any ability to seek its realization. A people divided by sectional schemes, even as they marched destitute on the eve of war.

One might reflect upon that era and look towards our own. What waits for us, my friends, when Ephian steel shall be drawn before the great war camps of Iakmes? What waits for us in this uncertain future?

The War of the Southern Wastes

We will not spend overlong on detailing the war. This History is a social and political text, and for a definitive account of the conflict, its battles, its heroes, and its innumerable losses, one need only refer to the account of Sister Amelie (The War of the Southern Wastes: A History), a veteran of the conflict. Suffice it to say that the defenders marched southwards, and there discovered a tragic sight in the realms of ash and death: by the time of their arrival, the Sibilant Host had already reached the Caravan, and most of its inhabitants had already been butchered, reanimated, or worse. A lone Orc was seen, delivering a banner of Iakmes' own design: a legion of Orcs, laughing. There would be no aid in this battle.

Tensions were high, as well, as the Ephian force approached the remaining leadership of the Caravan, for it seemed that each Signatory had its own designs upon the Cup of the Tonsure, and each would, if it came to it, draw blades within their own rank. So it was that the Tonsure, amid the confusion, disappeared with the Chalice, never to be seen again, making the question a moot point for the time being. The eastern front (the Dead Forest) was taken by the Rose, the west (the Trenches) by the Legion, the centre (the infamous Red Hill) by the Astronomers and the various independent forces. The Torchbearers would serve as runners and the relaters of message. Three battlemages of Kha'esh would contest the air, and a detachment of First Legionnaires would be deployed on carpets. There would be no others.

The battle was, to be clear, a bloodbath and a terrible rout for the Ephian forces. Half of those fighting perished against the innumerable onslaught of Sibilant armed with blade, venom, gas, and even dragons – as well as indescribable horrors and the hideous Profane Union. Much of the battle was spent protecting the Q'tolipean superweapon from the terrifying force sieging the Red Hill, and indeed the issue of power was such that corpses were looted for any trace scraps of Baublium there present. Hundreds drowned in the mud of the trenches, were butchered by Sibilant axes, trampled by oncoming Asabi riders, and worse. Many of the great luminaries whom we have named previously perished ignominiously in the conflict, among them Lyrist Llywarch, Inquisitor di Ravioci and most of his followers, Echemmon Telemanus, the majority of the Bandarossi present, the majority of the Torchbearers, and many others named in Amelie's account.

The battle was only turned when the Meteor was dragged screaming from the sky, when the world was red as blood. At the last moment, the Ao device ran out of power, and freeing itself from its grasp the Meteor instead detonated prematurely, showering the entire Great Ash with blood and fire, and inflicting great ruin upon the Well. So great was the disaster that the Third Legion was stationed in Ephia's Well to keep order, abandoning their old holdout at Korumak, on the frontier with Qa'im.

The Sibilant Host would be shattered by the Meteor, and would retreat broken and burning towards the fetid metropolis of Esamm. Yet as they returned home, marching through molten sand and pools of blood, the men and women of Kardesler would lift no songs nor carry the pride with them. For the great preponderance of the refugees lay dead and dying. The Cup, vanished once more. The Tonsure, gone to the dark annals of mystery. Thus the phrase would be coined, 'Ephian Victory', a victory so catastrophic it differs little from defeat.

And in numbers greatly reduced, only a few hundred surviving hunger, storm, Sibilant, and the Meteor, the Caravan finally arrived at Ephia's Well. They came ragged, broken, and empty-handed. And there would be no Dakhwar for Her, for she had died so long ago.

Thus ends Act IV.