Smithers

Really makes you think.

Updated.

Updated.

Active Personnel Validation Recognized Affirmed and Current Marked Men in Axios For purposes of diligence and scrutinization in contract validation. FROM: Hexicanum Personnel Desk TO: AXIOS School of the Ouroboros (Founding School) School Master Adeon of Rhoswen (MIA) Marked Man Iatrilemar Elervathar (MIA) Marked Veteran Valahan de Grey Marked Man Ikur Seregon (MIA) Marked Veteran Atlas of Westfall (MIA) Marked Man Argent (MIA) School of the Stag School Master Coren Isil (MIA) School of the Fox School Master Adeon of Rhoswen (MIA) Marked Man Abelas Caerme'onn Marked Man Aegon of Yharm Marked Man Kepri (MIA) Initiate Jin Initiate Rykov Tanet Certified Hexicanum Contractors Marked Man Renuald aep Dyffryn Marked Man Vicelin of Redmarch Marked Veteran Victor of Svengard Marked Man Alfred Maynard Marked Man Mikolaj de Saltpans Dead Marked Men Morris Gerald Elgan Robert Chivay Roland Sparrow Oan Frondson of Brevis Gansem Therist Initiates Haddock Plissken Peyton Abney Yosi Sam Maelgwyn Dietrich Konigsberg Martin Alexander Bedevere Casey Shaw Siegfreid La Valette Gibs Viktor of Redmark Wallace Patrick Garrett Arcite Alcher Collins Abbe Sterah Roopak Lithren Stillwater Torian etc. and unrecorded initiates. A seal of a sparrow is bound to the document with wax.

Bon Voyage = = = = = It was a dim, frigid morning nestled in the early days of the Amber Cold and the seas were out of their usual character. Their waters were veiled by a cold, cloying fog, thick like pea soup - the final death throes of the last evening's sudden and furious rain squall. The pastel-blue breaking through the twilight sky was edged by the barest hint of rusty gold, promising a magnificent sunrise within half of an hour. For now, however, the seas sat unperturbed. An unnatural breath of air broke the wall of mist, sending small eddies whirling off in many directions. The disturbance was heralded by the oily orange glow of a ship's lantern, then followed by a dull, white canvas sail. It thundered as it billowed and caught the wind, finally freed of the murky fog that had confined the boat's progress to a crawl. A shouted command floated across the quiet sea. The shadows of men swarmed up the rigging and a half-second later the fore staysail fluttered, forcing the ship two points into the wind and silhouetting it against the rising sun. The vessel was a striking one - a schooner by title but built in the agile character of a sloop-of-war. It sported a single gun deck and eighteen ports, at which sat poised a ballista each. It was newly tarred and painted, with a black and yellow stripe stretching across well-lacquered chestnut beams. A small party of men stood on the quarter deck. One man - stern-faced with a greasy mustache - bellowed an order. His golden epaulet and cocked hat betrayed a position of rank, which he carried with the type of entitlement granted by merit. The other three men stood by, idly but alert, at a position of ease. All three men carried two swords each, sheathed across the back and rising past the blade of the shoulder. One of the three men stood at the head. His appearance was grizzled - his face was scarred, and he lacked an eye. The one-eyed veteran turned and spoke in undertones to the man with the cocked hat. The man in the cocked hat roared. “Close-hauled on the port tack!" A throng of men surged to the mizzen shrouds and braces. The topsails danced and grabbed at the wind before clawing their way open and driving the craft trough the water. It pitched towards the lee shore, tactfully cutting its way through the sea. A few minutes later the man barked again. Two flags flew up her halliards - the first, a striking sparrow with its wings spread, and the second bearing the sigil of a manticore. The boat - and her crew - lapsed into the quietude coming with pursuit of mission. Over the span of an hour, the schooner bit its way through the smooth ocean towards the shore. It seemed to move at once both lethargically and with urgency. Soon, the officer directed her to lie hove-to. She slowed in the wind and came to a placid stop. After a pause, she dispatched a quarter boat. On it sat three men, each with two swords. The veteran grimaced and stepped onto the soggy, blighted pier, flanked by his two companion hexers. He slipped his hand to his belt, palmed something, crushed it, and tossed it to the sky. An otherworldly flare screamed into the heavens and crested beneath the clouds, burning with the passion of a newly-birthed star. It cast its brilliance for leagues. The cry of "All sail!" reverberated through the wooden decks and carried across the ocean. The small boat peeled once again off to sea. The three men cast a last look at the vessel before turning towards their own path. They began abreast and moved with purpose.

[!] A name is added to the wall of the dead. "In memory of Haddock Plissken, who lost his life in the line of duty. May he rest in peace."

[!] A name is added to the wall of the dead. "In memory of Oan Frondson, who lost his life in the line of duty. May he rest in peace."

[[FM: Guild is currently active.]]

The MANTICORE Initiative Great threats require great men. On occasion, greater threats require groups of significant, motivated men to mitigate them effectively. In a Realm under threat, it is critical that an element with capable assets and defined methods and objectives manifest. This group of men will operate in denied areas, in hostile conditions, to hunt the enemy behind his lines, kill his ringleaders, burn his home, and degrade his center of gravity to expedite his fall. In a crisis, good men don't rise to their expectations, but fall to the level of their training. In a well-planned surgical war with a righteous cause, they will do both. The missive ends with a brief protocol for reply and directions to several locations for letter drops. This letter presents the three sigils of the Marked Men and the seal of a Manticore, side-by-side. [This organization will operate under a PK clause.]

This would make sense - if this was how a spawn tavern functioned realistically. Earlier in the thread, somebody aptly used the term 'roleplay sink' - that is exactly what spawn-based roleplay hotspots have become in every map where they have existed. This isn't an arguable point. Some spawn areas have functioned better in this regard than others by virtue of better guidelines and management, but a spawn area will *always* draw roleplay from other areas by principle. The idea that a spawn tavern or similar hotspot functions in a way that damages roleplay in a location is easy to argue against simply because it is not possible to determine where the players would be otherwise were there no such institutionalized hotspot. However, common sense indicates that if players are in one location then they are not in another, thus drawing RP towards a single point by virtue of special protections - in a bad way. Speaking generally on the implications of this proposal, it is correct that the single best mode of player retention is to jumpstart the new player's immersion into a roleplay setting. A spawn does not have to be large or overly built - it should function only to get players to roleplay centers as quickly as possible. A protected spawn area where loitering is encouraged is not the best way to facilitate that. If only a single capital for a race exists, spawn the new player in the most consistently populated area in that capital. In the case of multiple, spawn the player at a racial crossroads. In this manner, retention is also built in map layout and ease of access to roleplay centers. This can all be handled without the introduction of a spawn-based roleplay hotspot, which is damaging in the long-term and provides new players with a false impression of LOTC's roleplay atmosphere and systems. Those players that prefer to stick to tavern-type roleplay can do so by creating their own centers with their own groups rather than relying on an area where detrimental special protections are institutionalized.

It's not my place to tell you how to run your events, but it's easy to see - even without knowing the event details - that a creature that's genuinely unkillable is going to frustrate the participant. After all, when dealing with dark creatures, if a group of players can bring down a daemon or banish the strongest of apparations with enough tact, it will make little sense to the player why they can't find a method to make some sort of leeway. That seems overwhelmingly like a problem with the structure of the event and not the player. I want to emphasize again to the ET, in a general sense, that the player is investing as much time and effort running through the event as the ET is executing it - that's why player annoyance with an ET actor or their events exists in the first place. It doesn't matter if it's pretty lore on paper, makes absolutely complete sense, and follows a storyline that the ET writer and actor believes is on the scale of the greatest of epics; if the event doesn't properly engage the participant then it is not succeeding as an event. Many actors do not seem to grasp this concept and, as a result, the problem hasn't changed significantly over several maps.

The bounty system has clearly been a popular one, and it clearly has a few flaws. The majority of the points listed are also clearly great improvements and would allow participants to engage more effectively with the bounty system. There are benefits and detriments to the ranking system. The largest benefit is that it would bestow tremendous meaning upon bounties by means of prestige and additional goals. The system could be handled IC or OOC - the function is the same. Several detriments to the ranking system have been brought up - I see the two foremost as being a fear of power gaming and a fear of exclusion. The first appears to be an easy solve. The quasi-blacklist system is a good idea - an ET should be able to submit a report of a player, to be reviewed by an ET manager for a decision, with the player given first a warning (to allow improvement on etiquette between events) and then finally a blacklist. There are not so many people tackling bounties as to make this system unmanageable - it is, on the contrary, quite the opposite. The second is solvable by virtue of adjusting the ranking system. For example, don't exclude bounties to participation by a specific level of player - instead, assign an ascending point value to each rank and make the bounty require a certain sum. These types of solutions are not difficult to build. To this, I've just gotta say - what were you playing, and were they right? If they weren't, and you weren't at fault, it is within your purview to take initiative and say so. I've sat in on many ET conferences through several maps and helped organize events. I (very) often saw an attitude that was, regrettably, ET vs. the player, in that many ETs believed that if the player didn't like the event or how it was being run then they shouldn't have been there. An ET isn't unchallengeable - the player is investing as much of their time and energy completing the event as the ET is running it. This is why I've advocated so heavily for a voluntary review system following ET events: have players fill out a form to allow the ET to individually make meaningful improvements to their events and thus develop activities that are more and more enjoyable.

Malv is a cool dude.

"I support our boys in blue."

"This does not strike me as a tenable legal position.", scrawls a grim scholar and budding canon lawyer toiling in support of Conservatorie ecclesiastical repositories.

It was, surely, only by the rigorous study of linguistics and the application of battle-tested anthropological methodology that the pioneer reached such expertise.

In the wake of recent events, a methodology is submitted, in original and copy, to the academic repository of the Conservatoire for review and discourse.

A treatise, penned neatly on bleached vellum and bound between two cured leathers via wine-colored twine, is left to the scholars and administrators of the realm, in copy. The original is forwarded to the Johannesburg Conservatoire of the Empire, for review and discourse. A METHODOLOGY on the SECURITY OF THE HOMELAND PROLOGUE All states that have held rule over men have been and are built on tenants and principles agreeable to the safety of government. To this end, principles can be separated into institutions, these being delineated to diplomacy and foreign affairs, the conduct of internal security, the exercise of espionage, the use of throne agents, the application of justice, and the maintenance of the primary infrastructures of the state. All states thus safeguarded by moral and godly men of just countenance, with confidence and competence both aptly exercised, will surely encounter success as of natural course outside of times of significant adversity, and will find their realms the safer for it. But the difficulties occur when introducing within the formula states and societies of alien races, them being bound by strange customs, standards, and values unknowable to men, as well as prone to developments based in abnormality. Thus, this treatise will thus assume governments and institutions as being of men by matter of course, and bound suchlike in societal and political norms, though these discourses are surely in many places applicable to and within the administrative frameworks of alien races, notwithstanding their perspective as being of men. BOOK I On the Exercise of Diplomacy The master of state will recognize the place of diplomacy, for it is often that it is most beneficial to extend an open hand, thus benefiting by way of treaty and intelligent design the safety and well-being of the realm. OF DOMESTIC AFFAIRS, It is necessary for the lord and king to keep presence in court and maintain the positive dispositions of the peoples and his counselors, else the foundations of the state and its master will separate as if driven apart by a wedge, and he will find no security in times of adversity. The lord and king who does conduct his rule solely through counselors will surely find his government as being of lesser security, as it rests on the goodwill of and trust placed in counselors who may themselves have ambition at odds with those of the master of state. He will avoid granting favor unnecessarily and need remain at once suspicious, but accessible, and stern, but fair, of and to his ministers, bureaucrats, and lords, thus establishing systems of merit and avoiding the fomentation of petty and non-beneficial rivalries. He will hear privately the ills and ambitions of his counselors, lords, and ministers, and will judge conflicts among his disciples with a just and steady hand, cultivate good personal relationships where able, but approach all negotiation impartially. The lord and king who is absent, and who grants his rivals ever greater concessions, will cause his enemies to arise and form designs against him. OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, The lord and king will endeavor to establish relationships of benefit with the states of the world. The state, in times of neutrality, will dispatch agents of diplomacy to states abroad to convey its messages, and if proper will seek embassy and permanent emissary in foreign lands, to provide routes of negotiation and recourse for perceived ills and otherwise avoid unnecessary conflict. It will also seek systems of trade and mutual conduct, as far as it is willing and to commit, and if to its benefit. The state, in times of adversary, where it is not proper or reasonable to do conflict through exercise of one's own legions, may war by means of proxy - whose alignment, if bound properly beneath surface by means of measures taken for privacy, may be as necessary disavowed. The state, in times of war, if at advantage may conduct diplomacy with versatility. The lord and king will leverage this diplomacy as surely as a sword, tolerating it or severing it in wrath, but it would benefit him to endeavor to safeguard it, and thus allow terms of his liking when the enemy is truly duressed, unless waging war to conquer. If at disadvantage, he will proceed as if at advantage until he can no more, and will concede as little as is able and as is within his interests to do so, unless deception of scale of power has failed and defeat is inevitable. ALL THESE LINES OF THOUGHT, when properly applied, may be beneficial to the safety of the realm, as the lord and king has applied diplomacy and formulated alliance, treaty, and somesuch, and through it may know of the dispositions of his friends and enemies, belay threats appropriately, and also strengthen his position over all. BOOK II On the Internal Security of the State How maintain the ways of methods of the state in the midst of those that would do it harm, from within its walls and borders, foreign enemies set aside? This is a question approached by method of variety. Some lords and kings, as to hold securely and with great confidence the reigns of the state, have disarmed their subjects; others have tended careful connections with the people to grow agreeable dispositions; others have withdrawn to the safety of their chambers and high towers to guard their person, drafting law and policy from afar. THE INTELLIGENT LORD AND KING, conducting himself thusly, will resort to more discreet means to safeguard the realm, for it is not of dishonor if it is for the security of state. The lord and king will proceed - with the aid of ministers, themselves having been thoroughly tested, and found to be pure and not seeking ambition at odds with the master of the state - to create an institution of spies for the safety of the regime, and to inform on unrest as to allow the lord and king to invoke action preemptively. The master of state and his ministers will dispatch them to domestic armies and militias, in the bodyguards, the administrative bureaucracies, the peasantry, lordly retinues, among institutions of diplomacy, and all else that is apt. He shall hold sacrosanct the church, unless it is clear that corruption is within, in which case he will seek it with great vigor. HAVING SEEDED THE SOCIETY, at all levels, with informants, the king and lord shall make of their rigorous use for benefit of the state. The spies shall know of rumours prevalent in the nation. They shall ascertain whether there prevails love or dissent for the state and its ministers, magistrates, and ruler. If no significant dissent exists, the state will maintain this by way of reward. Where dissent is found, it shall be ingratiated by reward and conciliation. The informants will pay special attention to those who live upon the gold and grains of the state, and those who supply such things. The institution of spies will detect factions of insurgents and rebels, or those that intend armed resistance. By way of these spies, or in extraordinary circumstances, throne agents, the state will keep them fractured by way of sowing dissension among them, so that they may be mutually alienated and fail to galvanize a force of size. In necessary situations, the state will declare act of "Dies Irae", or Day of Wrath, upon a hive of such rebels or dissidents, razing it and executing all men above the age of 16, to belay future threat. In lords that display enmity, they shall be reconciled if able, or punished if not, in secret or by forcing a fall-out of public opinion against them. In times of great need, the state will dictate a force of secret police to act preemptively in line with objectives of domestic affairs. They will have powers over all institutions, as dictated by the master of state, and act as inquisition to treachery and deceit. THROUGH THESE AND OTHER APPROPRIATE MEANS, the master of state will safeguard his government and its longevity, and the realm will be safer for it. BOOK III On the Institution of Espionage The institution of espionage, existing in peacetime as well as in far, is newly exercised, having previously been an institution of the moment, foisting reliance on highly placed traitors, the reports of agents of diplomacy, paid informants, and other such things. It requires no master of stratagems to know such as that knowing the secrets of an adversary, of their true capabilities and goals, and their vices and motivations will be of benefit to the state. Thus, even in times of peace, it is beneficial for the lord and king to maintain an institution, headed by trusted and competent ministers, vested with the responsibility of collecting all information of foreign origin perceived to be of use to the state. The master of state will act accordingly, to his benefit. OF INDUSTRIAL ESPIONAGE, the state will collect information on the economic advantages of foreign entities, and seize these secrets accordingly. These may include significant economic interests as modes of operation, large resource caches, production outputs, trade information, company secrets, and other such items. OF MILITARY ESPIONAGE, the state will collect information as to the nature of foreign militaries. Targeted shall be their fortresses and defenses, armaments, the locations and details of their commanders, their military technologies, and other such things of the master of state's war interests. OF POLITICAL ESPIONAGE, the state will ascertain the objectives of foreign leaders, and act appropriately. They will know their scale of power, troubles, the competing factions amongst their states, those who have grudge against them, their grand architectures and visions, and their foremost designs. OF DEVELOPMENT OF INFORMANTS, it is often that the best and most vigilant are drawn from the poor or wretched of society. A host of foreign lords will often not expect a serving women to be dutifully recording the meetings of policy, an orcish warhost will often not expect a small goblin to relay knowledge of weapon caches and military plans, and a group of treacherous elves will not often expect a secretly disenfranchised lord or prince to leak civil secrets, and other such true examples. ON THE MOTIVATION OF INFORMANTS, it may be said that they are found to be numerous. Prominent is coercion, in forms of threat and blackmail, often leveraged against close friends and family members, or in threat of revealing personal secrets. The informant enticed under coercion is not trustworthy, and this should be avoided as a method of development where able. It may be more apt to develop by manner of rapport. Rapport may be established by capitalizing on vice, as through money, relations, or ego, or through modes of ideology, such as patriotism, religion, disaffection, and grudges. These informants will be more reliable, and should be held as valuable. They will be protected by means of tradecraft and obfuscation. HAVING BUILT AN EFFECTIVE INSTITUTION, the state will be more informed, and the designs of foreign leaders against the state will be belayed, and the state will be safer for it. BOOK IV On the Use of Throne Agents IT IS NECESSARY, in this instance, to identify difference between infrastructures of espionage, internal security, and the application of throne agents, the former being of external intelligence to benefit the diplomatic and military options of the lord and king, the middle being internal for virtue of safeguarding the realm, and the latter being to fill gaps of both former and provide options otherwise inaccessible. Those agents and spies whose competence and purity have been dually tried, through task and by virtue of surveillance by spies of the same institutions, will enter into the confidence of the lord and king as 'throne agents', and be vested with special task according to his needs. A throne agent need exhibit skill in guessing minds of others, need be properly trained in martial affairs, whereout may come a yare disposition, need possess ingenuity of exceptional amount, and thus able to clearly and independently formulate useful designs, and need be vested with the most confidential trust of the master of state. THEIR USE IS THUS DICTATED; it may become necessary for the lord and king to take stance of direct action or somesuch exercise of power, where the application of legions and agents of diplomacy is not apt or otherwise of use, and the networks of spies can do no more, leaving no recourse but to engage in singular acts to reach specific goals, hereafter embodied with example. The lord and king may find necessity to raise or support insurgent armies in foreign lands, to conduct sabotage and assassination to adversary and in realms otherwise denied to military scouts and other such groups, to conduct necessary perfidy and raise false flags in peacetime, or seed their own networks of informants and inform on the designs of domestic lords, amongst other such things. It is necessary that a throne agent may not know of other agents, for reasons of safety and so he will not do much damage under torture, except in times of great need where it may be apt to draw exceptional men together and accomplish great things. A throne agent may otherwise also be any merchant, conquistador, rogue, any trusted and influentially placed person in another realm, and certainly any especially trusted man of the home state itself, who may be competent, of confidence, and vested thusly with goals of high importance, but separate from the ministers and bureaucrats of the state and thus motivated by no ambition but loyalty to the lord and king. THEIR BOONS ARE MANY, and the lord and king who maintains a trusted such cadre close to bosom will find himself all the more fortunate for it. BOOK V On the Administration of Justice It is the institution of justice that dictates the morality of the state, and a safe society will lean on its proper functioning. OF LORDLY AFFAIRS, the lord and king will refer to the Book I on the exercise of domestic diplomacy, inasmuch as domestic affairs require, wherein it is recommended that he solve lordly disputes quickly, decisively, and with a just and steady hand. OF COMMON AFFAIRS, he will appoint state magistrates to oversee capital and lesser courts. They will be pure and otherwise devoid of corruption, and if discovered to display such, will be stripped of their office and publicly dealt the harshest possible punishment as allowed by their social status. The lord and king will investigate and discover this corruption by way of domestic institutions and agents, predesignated with this such concern, who will work both independently and with stately assistance to uncover treachery. He will prepare his magistrates to deal with items of law, including determination of valid legal disputes, of forms of agreement recognized by the state, in providing recourse to those such violated, in dividing inheritances and estates, in legally concerning marriage, in the recovery of debts and deposits, in the rescision of purchase and sale, in defining ownership, permits, cooperative undertakings, laws of slaves and labor, and will define the bounds of robbery, defamation, gambling, assault, and else as necessary. He will set out punishments, and allow no man to fault the hand that deals them, for paths of crime and consequence will be clearly and publicly beheld. He will carry out punishment at the capital level rarely, and only for the most severe of crimes, including murder, treason, blasphemy, and other such transgressions. OF THE ALIEN RACES, the lord and king will be suspicious, for his people will also, and he will designate special agents for their monitor. Their punishment for crimes will be most severe, as far as treaty with foreign states allow, so as to belay their corrupting influence. He will require the registration of all magicians, punishing with tortures and maimings those that do not comply, for they are an especially dangerous force. He will specially designate organizations to hunt and confront rogue mages and groups, eradicating their families up to three generations where necessary. IF ALL THIS IS FOLLOWED, and the lord and king conducts himself justly and avoids over-zealotry, his rivals will always fail galvanize the people against him under masquerade of recourse for ills, unless through use of treachery discoverable by other means. In this manner the government of the state will be exalted and held as the ultimate arbiter of justice, guarding the security of the realm. BOOK VI On the Maintenance of the Primary Infrastructure All lords and kings hold jurisdiction over some levels of primary infrastructure, which if lacking protection would harm severely the interests of the state. The state will thus endeavor to safeguard them to the greatest possible degree, and hold criminally liable those that act against them. For the purposes of simplicity, these infrastructures are thus designated military, economic, and public. OF THE MILITARY INFRASTRUCTURE, the lord and king would do well to see effectively managed the maintenance of the military roads, fortresses, and legions, for through them he will defend his lands and government, else suffer hardship and loss in times of significant adversary. He will formulate contingency, inasmuch as it is apt and useful, and will plan for wars and other such scenario with his neighboring states, even if in times of peace. He will evaluate effectively the capabilities of the domestic lords and houses, and will take the necessary measures to ensure loyalty, but will never discount the possibility of treachery, and will reinforce himself accordingly. He will form unavoidable strongpoints, unassailable walls, and secure areas of fallback, to belay enemies both foreign and domestic. He will attain and upkeep the greatest siege engines and will equip his men with armament of the highest attainable quality. He will treat his advantages of technological prowess as a primary infrastructure, attained and maintained by method of Book III, on military espionage. If he has no advantage, he will create one by way of research and development. Finally, he will personally ascertain and test the abilities and loyalty of his highest commanders, they themselves being a resource to be cherished. OF THE ECONOMIC INFRASTRUCTURE, the lord and king will take great care, as it will build the backbone and wealth of his government and people. He will treat arrangements of foreign trade as separate from martial affairs, insomuch as it benefits him, but will not discount their severance as a necessary tool. He will maintain a rigorous systems of taxes and tithes, enforced by methods of bookkeeping and redundant accountants to exercise them, and will dutifully seek out inconsistency, permitting no man to cheat the state. He will build good will with the entrepreneurs and business leaders, and he will encourage competition, as it is healthy for the attitude of the citizens and the health of the realm. He will build and upkeep the strategic economic resources of the state, including such installations as mines, manufacturing and processing plants, forests, and quarries. If of critical state importance, such as in the import and refinement of Thanhium from resource points abroad for reasons of energy and such, the state will maintain supply lines with force, up to and including necessary war. The lord and king will nationalize or otherwise establish unalienable ties with critical aspects of industry, and will not suffer their sabotage or disruption. OF THE PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE, the lord and king will spend greatly, and build a grand budget, for it is through such projects that a legacy is seeded and the wealth and grandeur of an empire is displayed. The lord and king will maintain the state and safety of the public roads crisscrossing his domain, for they bind his people together, and without them his cities and villages will become isolated, and productivity will grind to halt. He will maintain forces of competent guard in his cities where able, or guide the creation of civil militias where not, knowing that uneasy lands are where his control is weakest and the people are most suspicious. He will maintain the churches and the grand cathedrals, out of his piety and his respect for the people, and will take severe and immediate recourse against their desecration, and will not tolerate the gods or idols of foreign lands. He will ease the lives of his people by way of convenience, marking signs, constructing stables, building aqueducts and such other public logistical works, funding the sciences of logistics, and will generally upkeep the modernity of his state. He will especially focus his attention to the gathering places of men, being taverns and such, as far as being that they allow for public discourse and leisure. ALL THIS AND MORE the state will build and upkeep, and the people will be pleased, and the state will be wealthy, and the realm will be safer for it. - The work ends abruptly.

A stalwart man fletches his arrows for a worthy cause.

The Killing Fields A small host of men sat in a circle around a clearing. Some wore peculiar medallions and some did not. They sat in the middle of an unnamed black forest, near a village no man cared about, amongst hills that declared allegiance to no nation. Swords glittered around the campfire, which at this point had reached a dull roar, and most men carried two each - one of silver and one of steel. They had been forced to the Path, by virtue of hunters that sought them instead of monsters, but it was no matter - the world was a malevolent place filled with feckless men, and eventually somebody would have need of a professional. For now, they were filling their time with stories. An old, weary veteran with one eye broke the dubious silence. “Let me tell you of the killing fields of Kanaan.” His words were paints on a canvas and he wove his epic with the finesse of a practiced master. = = = The picture was one from the warrior sagas of old, akin to when the Exalted Godfrey spurred his legions to action and united the realms of Man. A legion of men, marching against a force to which peace and order was anathema. It was surely a sight to inspire legends - rank after rank of warrior clad in burnished gold armor with ornament enough to put High Elven artificers to shame, their helmets graced by scarlet plumage. At the flank of the procession stomped columns of dwarves bearing war machines mighty enough to bring kingdoms to heel, and elusive elves with long, elegant weapons flitted through the lines at will. In the third rank of the golden warriors strode a man whose dark hair had not yet become tinged with grey and whose vigor bore the weight of his armor readily. His mind was eager and pride blossomed in his heart, for he was part of an allied cause marching to do war with a dread dragon whose dark paragons terrorized the world. He had tested his mettle in single combat with several of these acolytes, coined ‘Harbingers’, and emerged only slightly scathed. His record in his Order was among the best, and against the enemies of the world he would make his name. Such was the arrogant confidence of the host which sallied through a dark portal, which had itself been dragged screaming from another world, and into the meatgrinder of Hell. They made their beachhead quickly. On the horizon - if it could be called that - towered a black spire that clawed at the heavens. This world was unnerving - organic and yet not, as if torn from a confused mind. The ground was fleshy and pink, and it bled malice from open sores in the earth through plumes of acrid smoke. The sky, which was truthfully no sky at all, was solid, red, and wept rancid tears that poisoned food and bit into armor. It was the haze that was the most insufferable for those first weeks, sweeping in at the worst of times to chill bones while the forces of men still labored to build a defensive line of small stone fortresses and weather the siege they knew must be coming. When it withdrew, some men were always found dead, and not always of the cold. The survivors bit their tongues and carried on - the horrors that the men could already see were enough to cause dismay without also pondering what wailed and shrieked in the dark and unknowable fogs that swathed so much of the world. The brutes and fiends they had prepared for came eventually, but not all at once. The holy magicks of the Order fared well against the beasts of that ungodly realm. They faced the Ordermen in small skirmishing lines, never large groups, and inevitably fell to the retreat after inflicting only a few casualties and receiving many more. The commanders of the encampment first rejoiced and then despaired. They had recognized the folly of their plan. They had no rations for a conflict this prolonged and this stream of constant brushfire skirmishes, as small as they were, threatened to belay the benefits of their initiative with an encroaching war of attrition that would eat at them slowly. The success of supply lines that would have warded against this fate was based in sheer luck; use of portal was an imprecise art. Some supply caravans would make it through entirely, enough to raise the hopes of the men, and then the rest would arrive as nondescript wagons of soggy wood, crowned by unidentifiable bundles of flesh and hair led by horses with open sores and festering wounds. The world itself seemed to be toying with them. At the best their legion would be forced to withdraw, bereft of supplies and in violation of the oath they had sworn to strike the black dragon from the sky. At worst they would be battered down to a sorry band and overrun by creatures drawn from a child's night terror. The men graced with the responsibilities of command decided that this was no option at all and, with their backs pressed to the wall, made the decision to sally forth into the barren wasteland and march on the black tower with the remainder of their forces. The man rallied in the morning, which they had branded 'morning' arbitrarily as time passed without method of measure, and formed columns. The pace was exhaustive, for the commanders did not want to provide the men a chance to contemplate what they were to face, but the fleshy wastes were more vast than anticipated and the march only succeeded in driving the men to fatigue. When the drained legion finally neared the base of the great, mocking black spire that rose from the earth, the fog rolled back and revealed its secrets. The black spire towered and dominated the foreground, but its state was not constant - it shifted constantly in form, as though the mind that had wrought it was indecisive, and spite rolled from its zenith in visible waves, nearly forcing men to their knees with the weight of its malice. Every angle of it was subtly, inexplicably wrong, and to stare too long led to revulsion. At its base sat a screaming, ungodly legion - a mass of diseased bodies bristling with weapons of black metal. Some were men, volunteers or conscripted into service, some were nightmarish fleshy facsimiles of life sustained by the energies of the wasteland, and others were just evil, yawning holes in the air. At the fore of the spire’s columns stood its generals; dread angels bearing flaming blades and swathed in billowing black robes, with a void presented where faces should be. The Descendant races of the legion had no time to contemplate the horror that they faced, for the order to charge was given almost instantaneously. The legion faltered for a moment before building its speed, and the two forces clashed abruptly with a roar of bodies hitting bodies and metal slamming against metal. To call the fighting fierce would be to do it shame - the devil’s legion fought like a force possessed - for that was exactly what they were - and the Ordermen did battle with the vigor of men who found themselves confronted with an enemy that human nature rejected out of principle. The gray veteran was no stranger to the dance of war. Where he fought beasts and fiends he improvised as he needed, rolling and striking to disrupt lines of attack and debilitate the enemy. Where he fought men he reverted to the old fencing arts, taking the Imperator’s Defense to combat the rigidity of men studied in Callini or, naturally, attacking with the Thoulnbalt to belay the opponent’s Capa Corra. Then, in the manner of a man burdened by the arrogance of skill and success, he fought his way to the fallen angel at the fore of the profane legion. He presented himself with a sneer, his blade crackling with a holy energy. The angel scoffed and, with a sword made of fire and reeking of brimstone, smote him across the face. Pain drove through his skull like a lance as he fell. White lights danced through his head and clear fluid leaked from the mangled, fleshy socket that had just been his eye. Two men stepped up to fill his place and the dread general cut them down just as quickly, with relish that offended morality. In every direction, men and dwarves died in droves. To his left a battle-captain of the Order toppled, his golden chestplate marred by a thicket of black-barbed arrows, and to his right a dwarf fell flailing under a wailing fiend of jagged, diseased flesh pieced together by the machinations of a devil. The air was marred by the rancid stench of voided bowels, split bellies, and open wounds. He felt the despair run through the battle line and, as he lay dying on a field of corpses, he saw the men waver en masse. The accursed black spire rose above them all, taunting them quietly and laughing at their failure. There were no reinforcements to count on in this fantastic hellscape, and even the hardest of soldiers could last only so long against unstoppable odds. The last glimmer of hope that still fluttered in the veteran's breast died as the first men began to rout. The demons of that chaotic world screamed their delight and leapt eagerly into melee, shredding those who tried to flee. A deadly rain of black arrows fell from above, killing indiscriminately and peppering the corpse-strewn ground like so many gravestones. Their legion would be crippled. On this day the war for the endurance of the Descendant races would be lost, in a world far from home, and in the midst of a desperate melee none would ever speak of again. Then time stopped and a gold light split the fabric of the world. The veteran felt warm honey flow through him. He tilted his head with the last of his strength and looked to the source of the light - a being of unfathomable beauty and all the majesty of a lesser god. Its features were perfect, yet unknowable, framed in a corona of light so bright that it threatened to burn itself permanently into the eye. Were the veteran standing, he would have fallen prostrate in rapture, for who could fail venerate so faultless a being? The mastery of creation and an infinite breadth of knowledge were poised at its fingertips, and the presence alone of this avatar marshaled the surrounding maelstrom to order. He wore armor of a material too perfect to be mundane gold, and bore a long, slender blade carved with impossible swirls and of whose bright color no word existed. In an instant, the figure stood before the awful angel at the head of the unholy columns. +KNEEL+, the being murmured, filling a thousand minds and dragging the war to a halt, and the veteran wept to hear a symphony of voices so perfect. The foul general spat its evil dogma in defiance, but its flaming blade sputtered and died. The demigod moved in slow motion - as if on his own time, disconnected from the world. He stepped forwards and, without effort or urgency, drove his perfect sword through the black angel’s chest with a ring; a single, immaculate tone that echoed for far longer than it should have. A last shuddering breath rattled past the veteran’s lips, released now without regret as he had beheld enough beauty for a millennia. The color dripped from the air, events cast in black and white as his mind died, and the final light began to lapse from the world. Then the being looked at him and smiled, and the grizzled veteran felt his soul glow. Time snapped back with a roar and the arrows once again began to fall. He found himself on his feet - how this had come to be, he knew not. His energy was electric and, even for his injury, he felt as if he’d drunk the ichor of the gods. His fatigue was gone and he twirled his sword with the vigor of a warrior of purpose. He killed with an economy of motion that surprised even him. He stepped and cut, battered a spear aside and stabbed, then lopped off a limb on the backstroke. His sword was wreathed in a corona of gold and he channeled the blessings of his patron with an adeptness he had only dreamed of, augmented by the fury in his breast. The veteran raised his unoccupied hand and split the ranks of the damned with the force of a holy gale. By his side, men who had routed or fallen seemed to have rediscovered the virtue of their cause. The battle line moved as a whole again, and the paladins of the veteran’s company cut swathes through the enemy columns. Ahead, far ahead of the battle line, the golden figure was amongst the foul legion. His sword was a ripple, far too fast to follow with the eye, and he moved through them without seeming to move at all. He simply existed and one point, and then the next, stepping through the folds that separated worlds and cutting down monsters by the score. He brandished holy magicks as an extension of his will, and where he pointed golden detonations shattered whole battalions in seconds. The veteran at once both found his spirits emboldened and felt great shame to have wielded his sword so crudely, for even in a thousand lifetimes he would never match such grace. The veteran and his company fought on for an eternity. He did not see the Dread Dragon plummet, pierced by a golden lance, but the unbridled roar it loosed as it fell felt as if it had brought the fury of warring gods to bear. The struggle after the demon died was not so much a battle as it was a mop-up. Its unholy generals were killed or fled. The majority of the monsters, no longer held together by evil force of will, perished instantly and those sentient beings that were volunteered or conscripted to its service were gathered and summarily executed by squadrons of men deaf to their pleas for mercy. Such was their cold fury that the surviving Ordermen in command were forced to discipline and dismiss three officers - they had lead their companies to torture and wage atrocity against those who had betrayed the races of men. When the legion emerged from the dark portal with an eighth of their original number, there were no roaring crowds to meet them - they split up quietly, without fuss and with few words exchanged. Each man, dwarf, and elf returned to his own , their charges complete. The feeling was one of languidity, but not of a good kind, and the world seemed to march on at a snail’s pace; oblivious to the wars that were waged in other realms for the sake of simple survival and the continuity of men. Those that had marched through Hell had not returned entirely whole. = = = The old veteran’s story trailed off with a rasp. He registered then that his throat was a desert, and he eyed the stars distrustfully as he realized that he’d been speaking for the better part of an hour. He gestured for his earthenware canteen, provided by a wary acolyte, and took a long draught. His one eye was hollow, and demons danced in it. “I believed in God after that.” A burning log snapped. The campfire lapsed into silence.