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Aphonion Tales: The Archducal Council -- Unedited notes; later posts are edited transcripts (posts MWF, update 3/1/23)
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<blockquote data-quote="CPaladin" data-source="post: 8943247" data-attributes="member: 7030144"><p>[Session 151, cont'd]</p><p>Finally, the Council reassembles. Kit starts. "Remember how we were thinking of getting Lord Sheffield to help out? He's unavailable. He was murdered. He was on a voller heading south on imperial business, and he was murdered en route. The aide-de-camp to Major General Lord Overfifer, Dame Ingrid, is a Master-level Farsensor. She saw a vision that told her that he was murdered, but it was made to seem like a natural thing. The general says her visions are never wrong. The murderer is still on the voller." Kit suggests deputizing a group of about six people to investigate, and they make it happen. [Message attached.]</p><p></p><p>Dame Brionna has a report from Field Marshal Brightspan. [Attached] They now have enough food in the southlands. They still have a shortage of both troops and especially of clergy. Small groups of bounty hunters would also be welcome. Also, there are about 300 warlord skaven who have turned to Glordiadel, and Skarit, their leader, has offered to turn them into an irregular unit in return for both the ability to move their females and ratlings to a single location and a promise of religious service and training in growing grain and birth control.</p><p></p><p>The Council is of course happy to agree to that. But Skarit was formerly a champion of chaos, and has some severe body modifications--he burns with bluish, hellish flames that will kill anybody who is in close contact, and his eyes offer him limited precognition, but are liquid pools of black oil. He converted to Glordiadel, apparently assuming that these "gifts" would vanish, but they didn't, and are now actively trying to kill him. The clerics that have tried to remove them have stabilized him, but they can't cure him.</p><p></p><p>The Council agrees immediately that they must send both powerful priests and a powerful Redactor, since removing unwanted body modifications is most clearly a matter for Redaction. At the same time, they want the priest to take the lead, to reinforce loyalty to Glordiadel.</p><p></p><p>Dame Brionna says, "All of this makes me continue to think about the need to get more clergy of Glordiadel to the Southlands. Could we, perhaps, educate and ordain some of the newly-converted Sytryites who have seen the falsehood of the Blue Sun?"</p><p></p><p>"We could," responds Alistair.</p><p></p><p>Kit thinks for a moment. "I wonder, in that case, if it would be better to sort of do some reshuffling, because in the South we want people who are very secure in their faith, and who will be good at spreading it to the Skaven and to other new populations, and so we don't want brand new converts for that. So keep the until recently Sytryites closer to home, because we also want to keep an eye on anybody who had anything to do with Sytry, and shuffle the more experienced, more faithful to the South."</p><p></p><p>"And of course some of them are just returning to what I'll describe is orthodox Sytryism, and we can't really discourage that because of the Ecumenical Council," Alistair notes.</p><p></p><p>"Yes. But the ones who are gravitating towards Glordiadel, we can absolutely encourage that."</p><p></p><p>Dame Brionna stays focused on the logistical questions. "So what are the things that we really need to do to get a bunch more clergy, even of relatively low magical power, but with as much capability as possible down there?"</p><p></p><p>"We have had some plans to open a seminary in the South to train new priests. I think we need to make that happen," says Alistair, "but it's going to take a few years to really get going. The other thing I wonder is if we can establish a program to train up a large number of additional priests. What if we reached out to all of our churches in Canberry and other civilized areas, and suggested that any of their acolytes in their late teens, the sorts of people who might normally be going to seminary in a few years, could be ordained through an accelerated program. Perhaps one year of seminary training, then ordination as deacons, and then sent South with a plan that they would then be rotated through a full seminarian program down there. Then we can augment them with circuit-riding priests."</p><p></p><p>Kit says, "I like that. I was also thinking that we could find some people who could be accelerated through seminary--people who sort of work in clergy-adjacent professions, and who already know something about it."</p><p></p><p>"You know, we could make a push for a bunch of late-in-life ordinations. Retirees and grandparents and the like who had to pursue other matters in their adulthood but might feel a call now."</p><p></p><p>"So recruiting at both ends, my lord? Sounds like we want the people who mostly spend their time arranging the flowers of the church services and such."</p><p></p><p>"The other thing is that, historically, the Church has almost exclusively recruited men for formal ordination into the priesthood, and that means that there's likely a very significant number of women among the faithful who might well be interested in serving as priests but who never had the chance to demonstrate a vocation."</p><p></p><p>"Let's give them that opportunity," says Dame Brionna.</p><p></p><p>"Absolutely," agrees Kit.</p><p></p><p>Dame Brionna says, "I'm also looking at the list of our various orders. I know that the Brothers and Sisters of Time kind of owe us one."</p><p></p><p>"We also owe them quite a lot..." replies Alistair.</p><p></p><p>"I was wondering if the Society of Compassionate Workers might be particularly worth reaching out to, given our needs. Perhaps the Ever Virgin Sisterhood of the Archangel Tophiel, as well?"</p><p></p><p>"That's a healing order, of course," notes Alistair.</p><p></p><p>"Also the Brothers of Saint Dillygaff of the Fields, given what so many of the people the South need to relearn."</p><p></p><p>"They are, in a word, pastoral, not in the religious sense, but in the literal sense. An agricultural order."</p><p></p><p>"The South needs some agricultural know-how."</p><p></p><p>"Good, so we can recruit them and get some other siblings in there," says Kit. "That's what we need."</p><p></p><p>"That exhausts what I know of St. Diligaff, because he's not exactly the sort of saint that you hear a lot about in the chapels of the nobility."</p><p></p><p>"Maybe he's venerated more among the common folks, my lord."</p><p></p><p>"That's my point."</p><p></p><p>"What about the Society of Compassionate Workers?"</p><p></p><p>"They're monks. They are involved in directly being with the most traumatized and marginalized communities that they can find. They care for orphans, which is usually more done by nuns, but they care for orphans. They work side by side with people who have absolutely nothing. They educate people so that they have basic skills like how to write their names."</p><p></p><p>"So pretty perfect for running refugee camps."</p><p></p><p>"Yes, these are exactly the people we want helping out right now," agrees Kit.</p><p></p><p>"There's a specific order of Hospitalers of the Borderlands. What's that about?"</p><p></p><p>"Those will be specific to the Shadowline," explains Alistair. "That's a crusader order dedicated to holding the Shadowline. Believe me, when you are the illegitimate son of a high noble, you get certain hospitalers trying to persuade you that you would fit in well in their order. I would not have fit well in their order."</p><p></p><p>"No, you wouldn't have," says Kit with a laugh.</p><p></p><p>"What about the Order of Holy Comforters? How are they distinct from the Compassionate Workers?"</p><p></p><p>"They're more withdrawn. They're less likely to be out running a school, more likely to be praying for the comfort of the downtrodden in their abbeys."</p><p></p><p>"Well, that's all very well, but I think the Society of Compassionate Workers and the Brothers of St. Dilligaff are the people we really need to mobilize on this."</p><p></p><p>"And the Order of the Misty Dawn. They're a large order, so even though they're not exactly matched to the type of people they would be serving, they can do a lot of good."</p><p></p><p>"My lord, what about the Sisters of Purity? Are they problematically 'pure?'"</p><p></p><p>Kit answers. "The Halo's been keeping an eye on them for that very reason for a while. They so far have not proven to be problematically 'pure,' but it's very difficult to watch inside. Not impossible, but very difficult--they're a good-sized order, but not huge."</p><p></p><p>As they conclude the discussion, they send out requests to implement the main suggestions: calling on relevant orders for aid, and suggesting to the Archbishop that they implement both the accelerating young people and recruiting irregular older people into the clergy, especially women who may have been interested but not seen opportunities. The Archbishop strongly supports any idea that accelerates young people into religious service, given his own youth. He's starting to learn how to play the game.</p><p></p><p>* * *</p><p>The next thing they turn to is a general message to the Council about the ongoing Sytryan schism. [Attached.]</p><p></p><p>The Halo is still a work in progress, and mostly focused on Glordiadelian religious matters, so it has as yet developed little information on the Sytryan situation.</p><p></p><p>"Do we know where the anti-patriarch is based?" asks Alistair.</p><p></p><p>Kit says, "The Halo hasn't reported anything about that. But we might be able to figure it out."</p><p></p><p>"Let's start by asking Bishop Waters if he has any idea."</p><p></p><p>Father Waters attends on them. "Oddly, I don't, and I find it very difficult to consider his condition at the moment. And that's very odd, because I was taking notes on possibilities just a week ago."</p><p></p><p>"So they've done something, so we don't know," says Kit. "Bishop, you said you were taking notes. Do you still have them?"</p><p></p><p>"Oh, I'm sure I do. Let me go to my chambers. I'll return shortly." He departs and comes back 20 or 30 minutes later with a fairly complex set of notes. "These are my notes, but I can't quite make much of them," he says as he lays them down with a puzzled expression.</p><p></p><p>"If if you don't mind, Bishop Waters, may I look at those?"</p><p></p><p>"Oh, by all means," and he pass through the notes to Alistair.</p><p></p><p>Alistair in particular tries to see if this might be indicative of him being in the southern continent. But while he can read the first several pages, all of a sudden, as he's looking at them, the characters begin twisting and changing in front of him. The first several pages are perfectly clear, and it's very clear that he wrote the whole document very clearly, but the later pages can't be read.</p><p></p><p>Kit looks at the notes with her glasses of reading, and she can read the whole thing, but her glasses are putting out heat, which they've never done before.</p><p></p><p>"Something is trying to make this unreadable." As it starts to approach a temperature that would burn her, Kit quickly moves the glasses away. "Not the face!"</p><p></p><p>"We definitely don't want any injury to your lovely face," agrees Alistair, while Dame Brionna just rolls her eyes.</p><p></p><p>In the brief period of time before her eyebrows get too hot, she can see that there are records from orthodox clergy that the antipatriarch was moving with a group of chivalry loyal to him int a group of small, unoccupied islands to the east of the Magocracy of Purdun.</p><p></p><p>"What's there?" asks Dame Brionna.</p><p></p><p>"Yes, and also, what kind of power would it take to have this kind of effect?" asks Kit.</p><p></p><p>"Divine power, and not clerical," opines the Bishop. "Somehow it is interfering with people's ability to track him, apparently, and you're glasses were strong enough to get through it, because they are what they are, but apparently it has the side effect of producing increasing amounts of heat when you're looking at it."</p><p></p><p>Dame Brionna examines Kit's glasses, trying to determine the divine signature. After a moment, she says, "Elberith. The First Daughter. Not what I was expecting."</p><p></p><p>"That can't be the blocking effect, though. I didn't know that my glasses were elven work," says Kit.</p><p></p><p>"Neither did I, and I commissioned them! But then, I just asked the Minister of Magic to arrange it. Apparently, some elf got involved in the process."</p><p></p><p>"A good thing, too," adds Father Waters. "If they were purely human work, I think they would have melted on her face."</p><p></p><p>Dame Brionna then focuses on the papers, trying to sense the magic that's blocking or attempting to block her. As she looks at the divine signature, it lashes back at her. Not very well, but it does the best it can.</p><p></p><p>"Father Waters. Do you have the Detect Eldritch spell that we've been given prepared?"</p><p></p><p>"Yes. I have it memorized." The Bishop casts the spell. "Huh! It is eldritch, but overlain with the signature of the servants of Arthranax."</p><p></p><p>"Well, yes, that makes sense."</p><p></p><p>"Can you get this off my glasses so that I can use them again without burning my face?"</p><p></p><p>"Yes. I also memorize that other spell. If you just put them on that table..."</p><p></p><p>"Yes, assuming we've gotten all of the information that we need from them before they get cleaned off."</p><p></p><p>"Yes, let's not do it twice."</p><p></p><p>"The other interesting thing is that the wards don't appear to have triggered," comments Alistair.</p><p></p><p>They call for Lord Silverleaves to see if he can explain anything about it.</p><p></p><p>"Yes, that's because when we attempted to reach outside the wards, you created a conduit to attempt to find him. The energy follows the conduit back in. It's good that it won't be able to manifest beyond the object that's been affected. The more interesting thing is that the wards didn't trigger when the document began to change."</p><p></p><p>"Yes, that's what I meant," says Alistair.</p><p></p><p>"That's more complicated. That is strange, now that you say it. Very strange."</p><p></p><p>"We've seen things that affect people's knowledge of a thing or a person," muses Kit. "That's what's going on with the Usurper. Is this similar to that?"</p><p></p><p>"Yes."</p><p></p><p>"But that affected people's consciousness, not physical documents."</p><p></p><p>"True--but it may not have affected the document. Who saw the text change?"</p><p></p><p>"I did," says Alistair.</p><p></p><p>"Your Grace, if I might... This may be somewhat uncomfortable..." Lord Silverleaves plunges a mental probe in much more strongly than usual, and Alistair feels fingers riffling through his brain. "The block was set when you weren't in the palace. It is affecting your vision of the writing, not the writing itself. You must have traveled somewhere since he began this move. This is a domain level divine spell, backed by psionics to a certain degree. We wouldn't be able to get through it at all, except it's less powerful than it could be. I can remove it if you'd like; that will allow you to read it."</p><p></p><p>"I think that would be best." Alistair feels a series of things like someone pulling a hair out of his head, and the rest of the Council sees little pieces of energy pulled from his head and then explode.</p><p></p><p>"Do I have it, too?" asks Kit.</p><p></p><p>"Oh, yes." Lord Silverleaves proceeds to remove the same sort of energy from her.</p><p></p><p>"I was the only one of us who went to the to Holy Cortose..." says Alistair.</p><p></p><p>"I was trying to figure that out," comments Dame Brionna.</p><p></p><p>"Have you been in mental contact?"</p><p></p><p>"We're always in mental contact."</p><p></p><p>"Contagion. It's an old magical principle," Bishop Water says.</p><p></p><p>"Indeed, anyone who has been in mental contact with you could get the same exposure." He turns to Dame Brionna. "I suppose it's inappropriate for me to apologize to you for the discomfort--code of a paladin and all that--so I apologize to the rest of you for the discomfort you will feel." A few seconds later, he speaks again. "There, you're all free of it, and if you don't mind, I'd like a cup of tea, that's more work than I expected."</p><p></p><p>"Oh, of course."</p><p></p><p>"Oh, and you should check young Lord Brightspan as well, because he is fairly often in psionic contact with one of us."</p><p></p><p>"Oh, dear! It's going to be more disturbing for a child. I'm sorry."</p><p></p><p>"Thank you. That felt like they were spiders running around in my brain."</p><p></p><p>"So sorry."</p><p></p><p>"Well done," commends Kit. "You were very brave."</p><p></p><p>"Is there anyone else who might have been exposed to the contagion?"</p><p></p><p>"Or anyone that goes with you when you went there. They won't have been exposed by contagion."</p><p></p><p>"Oh, check Jamie," Kit exclaims. "He's always playing around with psionics. Not that he can read, but I don't want anything interfering with his brain."</p><p></p><p>"He may have been able to protect himself, but it's it's wise to check."</p><p></p><p>Lord Silverleaves examines him. "He is safe, but he is on guard. Not a bad place for someone at this age, but surprisingly so."</p><p></p><p>"Can we help him bring his guard down?" asks Kit. "I'm worried if he's feeling threatened."</p><p></p><p>"How extensive is his vocabulary?" asks Lord Silverleaves. "I can try to reason with him, but it's probably better than you do."</p><p></p><p>"He doesn't have a vocabulary," responds Alistair. "He's an infant."</p><p></p><p>"He doesn't have words. He wants things, and he feels things, and that's really all."</p><p></p><p>"Oh, I apologize, Lady Lyneham. I'm afraid that would be completely beyond my ability."</p><p></p><p>"Alright. I'll just keep him calm and cared for, and we'll keep an eye on it."</p><p></p><p>"It may pass with time."</p><p></p><p>"I'm glad that thing didn't get in his head."</p><p></p><p>"He will be very powerful--much more so than a normal human child."</p><p></p><p>"Yes, that's his special destiny," Kit responds, though her opinion of that isn't entirely clear. "Lots of blessings. Not looking forward to when he's a toddler or a teenager and in a bad mood."</p><p></p><p>"And pre-born blessings, at that. Threshold will be dangerous for him."</p><p></p><p>"Well keep an eye on it to make sure that he comes through it safely."</p><p></p><p>"The only other person who was in Holy Cortose with me was Lord Davion. He will have been exposed, but I would presume he will been able to protect himself. I'm somewhat surprised he didn't notice."</p><p></p><p>"Oh, it's not his field. This is not Coercion. This is a form of Redaction, but it's mixed with divine power, which is why I could undo it. It may be that this is not Lord Quinliart himself. He is primarily a Coercer--incredibly powerful, but not a Redactor."</p><p></p><p>"Can I ask a potentially awkward question about shall I say your distant kin?" asks Alistair.</p><p></p><p>"Yes, of course."</p><p></p><p>"I have been told that there are reasons to think Lord Goldurim has done things that would ordinarily be unthinkable for a great elf of any kind."</p><p></p><p>"Yes, we're all aware of this."</p><p></p><p>"And if I recall correctly, Lord Goldurim was also the one who personally went through the gate to the enemy's planes, and drove something back, in the last incursion."</p><p></p><p>"That's correct. He's very powerful, very formidable."</p><p></p><p>"And my understanding is that his house is the master house of Redaction on their side."</p><p></p><p>"Yes, exactly."</p><p></p><p>"Ought we to be worried about the possibility that Lord Goldurim's madness is a sign that he was corrupted by that experience? Corrupted, not in the sense of his obvious corruption, but in the sense of insidious alteration of the Eldritch?"</p><p></p><p>"Our Overqueen has been concerned about that for several millennia, since before I came to Singing Leaves. She has been concerned he might well have been changed by that experience. He did not become utterly corrupt, as their servants are. But he may have been changed into something far closer to them. He was too strong a lord to have yielded to them and to become one of them. But she did not believe he was too strong to have been changed. If he were the face of the enemy, I fear we would be doomed. But he is also never, even to my other cousins, a friend, and the world he would make if he were ever in a position to make the world... It would still exist, which is not true with the enemy, but it would be horrible beyond anyone's comprehension. I would not worry as long as the Houses of Aufaulgautharim and Curinirim still stand. They will not permit it. If he remains when they are gone, he might make a play. The other Houses know they're not capable of opposing him."</p><p></p><p>"We've also worried that should both of those houses pass before him, he might launch a final kinslaying and carry it to the end."</p><p></p><p>"Very likely, and for that he could get the other great Houses that remained to back him. The greater danger, however, is that he outlasts all of us, and remains with only your people."</p><p></p><p>"I assume that the only thing that could cause him to leave other than for some similarly powerful figure to battle him would be if he chose to pass on."</p><p></p><p>"Yes. Even the Bleeding Lady of whom you may have heard, when her rage and hatred are exhausted, there will come a time when she will be able to pass to the West unhindered. Her rage apparently is justified. I've done research on that. Her husband was slain and by ambush. Despite attempting to surrender, when it was clear that the ambush had defeated him, he was slain, and she was left alone. And so she rages and hates, but even so, she will be able to go to the West. With Lord Goldorim, and with the atrocities he has committed in his madness, the Brothers will reject him utterly."</p><p></p><p>"I had thought that some of the Noldor went to the East to be with Morgroth. Is that also foreclosed to him?"</p><p></p><p>"That is the choice for some of those who follow Morgroth. But even Morgroth would not receive Lord Goldurim at this point, and Goldurim will never seek a human god. There are some of them that would receive him. The Eldritch chaos that you struggle against would certainly receive him, as would Borsh'tro or the like. But he knows that they fear him, and he is contemptuous of them. He would not demean himself to serve such as they."</p><p></p><p>"Given enough time, he might well be like unto a god of chaos himself."</p><p></p><p>"Oh, that is very possible. Indeed, if he cannot be killed, that might be our best hope. Because if he ascends, he will not conquer this plane, but just become locked in conflict with the other gods. He would be one more like the others."</p><p></p><p>"When that's the hope, I don't... wow," Alistair peters off.</p><p></p><p>"I really feel like killing him might be easier," says Dame Brionna.</p><p></p><p>"Now that we can read these notes without them changing," Lord Silverleaves says as he finishes sipping his tea, "What do we make of them?"</p><p></p><p>They remind Lord Silverleaves to cure anyone else who might have been infected--especially Lord Davion, who as it turns out didn't notice the attack and therefore didn't prevent it.</p><p></p><p>The notes indicate that the antipatriarch is in the archipelago of islands or atolls near the Empire of Tarhanna. The islands are largely between Tarhanna and the Confederacy of the Inner Isles, but sufficiently small that most maps don't show them at all, and if they are occupied, Canberry has no records of it.</p><p></p><p>"A reasonable place to set up the head of your faith, if you're weird Eldritch island ocean people," comments Dame Brionna. "What are our relations like with the nearby lands?"</p><p></p><p>"What's left of the Magocracy of Purdun is basically friendly. They are mostly Glordiadelian. Much of the Magocracy was destroyed in the intaking--essentially all of its mainland holdings. Tarhanna is a major maritime empire. They're one of the principal trading empires anywhere, and also Glordiadelian. We spoke with their emperor at the Archbaroness's funeral. I think some distant relatives of mine have lived there. If I remember correctly, there was some branch that ran off to Tarhanna and became privateers or whatnot. They also lost some coastal territories on the Khamista mainland, but now they are only on the islands. They have a largest merchant fleets in the world, and also a large surface navy to protect them, and most people, even people who would ordinarily attack those merchant ships, will respect the Tarhannan flag because of the understanding that Tarhanna will stop at nothing to defend its merchant marine. They apparently believe in ruling the seas, or something like that.</p><p></p><p>"The third nation in that area is the Confederacy of the Inner Isles. That's the Black Witch's domain-- a matriarchal color-linked magocracy. It is Paranswarmian, and the Black Witch herself is loyal to Paranswarm, and therefore part of the cause of of fighting the enemy. But, on the other hand, the primary industry of the inner isles is piracy, and a substantial portion of what they import is slaves. So they're not so much what you would call pleasant. I believe that they raid essentially entirely westerly because of understanding that they are far too close to Tarhanna to pick a fight. They may also raid Purdun a little bit. I don't know. And I I think they have very bad blood with Tarsh in the same way that the White Witch does, particularly since they find Tarsh very easy to raid. They do not stick completely to traditional piracy. It's not unknown for them to sail a small fleet into a small port or a large fishing village and blast the Hades out of their defenses, land, take what they want and leave, including possibly engaging in slaving. They're not nice people."</p><p></p><p>"Not that even not nice people deserve to be consumed by Eldritch horrors, but..." Dame Brionna can't muster more than the barest sympathy for them.</p><p></p><p>"Fortuitously, many of their principal victims are other Paranswarmians."</p><p></p><p>"But as evil as they are, those people don't sound like they would be complicit in this kind of plot," observes Kit.</p><p></p><p>"No, I wouldn't think so. I would be very surprised if the Black Witch would have anything to do with with this, and also Sytryites would in general hate them. She might well also be from the parts of the Paranswarmian tradition that would be happy to toss any Sytryites they got their hands on onto a pile of burning stuff. Which, honestly, is also a reason we might talk to them about the antipatriarch being on islands just to their east."</p><p></p><p>"But only the Blue Star folks. Ideally, those that can be would be redeemed," says Dame Brionna.</p><p></p><p>"It's hard to imagine that the Black Witch would not think that that was a great opportunity to settle some old scores assuming that she didn't get the mind infection thing. But I don't quite see how this serves the goals of the schismatic Sytryites."</p><p></p><p>"Are there Sytryites in Purdun and Tarhanna?"</p><p></p><p>"They're all notionally Glordiadelian, but I'm sure that they all have significant Sytryite minorities. We know Tarhanna is roughly a third Sytryite."</p><p></p><p>"Great," mutters Kit. "But if the Tarhannans have ships that go everywhere, and that pride themselves on keeping the peace and defending things, they sound like people that we can recruit to go look for a stronghold of badness."</p><p></p><p>"I suppose that this indicates fairly clearly that the antipatriarch is himself corrupted."</p><p></p><p>"I think there's no reason to suddenly move your location with the Eldritch if you're not," observes Dame Brionna.</p><p></p><p>"Right. Schisms can happen without massive corruption. I think that in our own period of the Three Patriarchs in our faith, the conclusion was that one was a true patriarch, and one was fallen or something, and the other was deceived. I don't remember exactly, but these things can happen. But I agree that here, it's probably not just an innocent error or deception. So, do we want to reach out to Tarhanna about it?"</p><p></p><p>"Yes, let's get them looking for it, and warn them not to engage," agrees Kit.</p><p></p><p>"We don't have an embassy. We spoke with the Emperor, but we've never had an embassy because Canberry has no ports. But to be fair, the Empire now has ports."</p><p></p><p>"Which is actually an excellent excuse to talk to them. Now that we have a port we can open up an embassy there. So let's talk to somebody from Tarhanna, and while we are, in the neighborhood, ask them about this. Do our clergy have contact with their clergy?"</p><p></p><p>"No doubt, but regular contact will take long periods of time, going back and forth. They are almost exactly on the opposite side of the planet from us."</p><p></p><p>"Sendings?"</p><p></p><p>"They would have to know the person they're sending to directly. Presumably, our various vassal states that have significant ports, like, for example, Tang, would have embassies. That means that they would likely have places to which we could teleport in the Tarhannan capital, where they could then make appropriate diplomatic introductions. I think Tang may be the best possibility. It's a large country, it has many ports, and it's solidly aligned as part of the Empire. Their ambassador can then escort an imperial ambassador, who is teleported in to meet with the Emperor and announce a desire to open a new embassy. I don't think that we can rush this too much."</p><p></p><p>"Yes, but I don't think we need to," replies Kit. "We want to get in done, but I don't think there's a fast ticking clock."</p><p></p><p>"Agreed, and the other thing is that the antipatriarch is currently positioned in a place where you would expect him to be safe, but weak."</p><p></p><p>"So you think it's possible that he's not making an offensive move," comments Dame Brionna.</p><p></p><p>"Right. Normally, you'd want to be building your power base."</p><p></p><p>"This seems more defensive."</p><p></p><p>"It's possible that they have deeply running ties within Tarhanna and Purdun, but that's something we need to know."</p><p></p><p>They decide to set this in motion, and then have to figure out who to send as an ambassador. It has to be a Glordiadelian, and should probably be a mage who can teleport there. An obdurate mage, immune to psionics, would be perfect, but they do not have any.</p><p></p><p>"They're fairly rare," notes Kit, "and we may have some and not know it, because psionics were not a thing that we tested for reliably until recently."</p><p></p><p>They then decide to ask the Minister of Magic if he has recommendations for mages capable of teleporting who would be resistant to psionics, and obviously they need to be someone who is of sufficient social standing and who is good at diplomatic matters. They also confirm that, while the Eldritch cannot teleport across oceans, humans who are not aligned with the Eldritch can without difficulty--likely because the Utter Mother, the Glordiadelian goddess of the sea, won't let them.</p><p></p><p>The Minister says, "He's not highly seasoned, but there is a young magus that I have in mind that I think could fulfill those things. Not from noble birth."</p><p></p><p>"That's not essential, but what is his background?"</p><p></p><p>"Common town boy in Grimcliff. He's been with us since his parents began to realize that... well, he read, and that disturbed them. So they brought him to a local magus, and he was able to verify that he was capable. And so they turned him over, and he's been with us ever since."</p><p></p><p>"How old is he now?" Kit asks, taking the lead on questioning the Minister about him.</p><p></p><p>"Oh, he's 19. He's young, but he's socially competent."</p><p></p><p>"What about him makes you think that he's the right person for this job?"</p><p></p><p>"He also has some mild psionics. What are they called, wild talents? Two of them. [The Minister mentions one, but my notes were garbled.]"</p><p></p><p>"What's the other?"</p><p></p><p>"I don't know what the second talent is, I'm afraid, but we know he has two. We had him examined by the Minister of the Mind, but I believe that it's not possible for him to fully learn psionics-- too late, too old, too something or other. But that's what he has, and those can't possibly be bad for ambassador. And he is socially capable--he's just not from a noble background. I don't know. I thought those things could matter with diplomacy."</p><p></p><p>"They can. I don't know how much Tarhanna would care."</p><p></p><p>"A good man. I think he's the right answer. I think you'll be pleased. He's very loyal, incredibly loyal."</p><p></p><p>Kit asks her people about how much Tarhanna will likely care about nobility of birth and reports back. "Actually, someone from a merchant family, from a decent size city, might actually be the kind of person that they respect."</p><p></p><p>"That does mean that he needs to look like he comes from money."</p><p></p><p>"Yes."</p><p></p><p>"Even if he personally doesn't, he needs to be projecting that we are a rich empire, which, of course, we are, so it's not hard for us to arrange that. And that also means he needs an actually rich merchant as a trade attache, and his entourage should be larger than might be expected, with a substantial number of personal servants and the like. Fortunately, Tarhanna does not have slaves, so that is good."</p><p></p><p>"And those personal servants can include some Toes..." adds Kit.</p><p>[End Session 151]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="CPaladin, post: 8943247, member: 7030144"] [Session 151, cont'd] Finally, the Council reassembles. Kit starts. "Remember how we were thinking of getting Lord Sheffield to help out? He's unavailable. He was murdered. He was on a voller heading south on imperial business, and he was murdered en route. The aide-de-camp to Major General Lord Overfifer, Dame Ingrid, is a Master-level Farsensor. She saw a vision that told her that he was murdered, but it was made to seem like a natural thing. The general says her visions are never wrong. The murderer is still on the voller." Kit suggests deputizing a group of about six people to investigate, and they make it happen. [Message attached.] Dame Brionna has a report from Field Marshal Brightspan. [Attached] They now have enough food in the southlands. They still have a shortage of both troops and especially of clergy. Small groups of bounty hunters would also be welcome. Also, there are about 300 warlord skaven who have turned to Glordiadel, and Skarit, their leader, has offered to turn them into an irregular unit in return for both the ability to move their females and ratlings to a single location and a promise of religious service and training in growing grain and birth control. The Council is of course happy to agree to that. But Skarit was formerly a champion of chaos, and has some severe body modifications--he burns with bluish, hellish flames that will kill anybody who is in close contact, and his eyes offer him limited precognition, but are liquid pools of black oil. He converted to Glordiadel, apparently assuming that these "gifts" would vanish, but they didn't, and are now actively trying to kill him. The clerics that have tried to remove them have stabilized him, but they can't cure him. The Council agrees immediately that they must send both powerful priests and a powerful Redactor, since removing unwanted body modifications is most clearly a matter for Redaction. At the same time, they want the priest to take the lead, to reinforce loyalty to Glordiadel. Dame Brionna says, "All of this makes me continue to think about the need to get more clergy of Glordiadel to the Southlands. Could we, perhaps, educate and ordain some of the newly-converted Sytryites who have seen the falsehood of the Blue Sun?" "We could," responds Alistair. Kit thinks for a moment. "I wonder, in that case, if it would be better to sort of do some reshuffling, because in the South we want people who are very secure in their faith, and who will be good at spreading it to the Skaven and to other new populations, and so we don't want brand new converts for that. So keep the until recently Sytryites closer to home, because we also want to keep an eye on anybody who had anything to do with Sytry, and shuffle the more experienced, more faithful to the South." "And of course some of them are just returning to what I'll describe is orthodox Sytryism, and we can't really discourage that because of the Ecumenical Council," Alistair notes. "Yes. But the ones who are gravitating towards Glordiadel, we can absolutely encourage that." Dame Brionna stays focused on the logistical questions. "So what are the things that we really need to do to get a bunch more clergy, even of relatively low magical power, but with as much capability as possible down there?" "We have had some plans to open a seminary in the South to train new priests. I think we need to make that happen," says Alistair, "but it's going to take a few years to really get going. The other thing I wonder is if we can establish a program to train up a large number of additional priests. What if we reached out to all of our churches in Canberry and other civilized areas, and suggested that any of their acolytes in their late teens, the sorts of people who might normally be going to seminary in a few years, could be ordained through an accelerated program. Perhaps one year of seminary training, then ordination as deacons, and then sent South with a plan that they would then be rotated through a full seminarian program down there. Then we can augment them with circuit-riding priests." Kit says, "I like that. I was also thinking that we could find some people who could be accelerated through seminary--people who sort of work in clergy-adjacent professions, and who already know something about it." "You know, we could make a push for a bunch of late-in-life ordinations. Retirees and grandparents and the like who had to pursue other matters in their adulthood but might feel a call now." "So recruiting at both ends, my lord? Sounds like we want the people who mostly spend their time arranging the flowers of the church services and such." "The other thing is that, historically, the Church has almost exclusively recruited men for formal ordination into the priesthood, and that means that there's likely a very significant number of women among the faithful who might well be interested in serving as priests but who never had the chance to demonstrate a vocation." "Let's give them that opportunity," says Dame Brionna. "Absolutely," agrees Kit. Dame Brionna says, "I'm also looking at the list of our various orders. I know that the Brothers and Sisters of Time kind of owe us one." "We also owe them quite a lot..." replies Alistair. "I was wondering if the Society of Compassionate Workers might be particularly worth reaching out to, given our needs. Perhaps the Ever Virgin Sisterhood of the Archangel Tophiel, as well?" "That's a healing order, of course," notes Alistair. "Also the Brothers of Saint Dillygaff of the Fields, given what so many of the people the South need to relearn." "They are, in a word, pastoral, not in the religious sense, but in the literal sense. An agricultural order." "The South needs some agricultural know-how." "Good, so we can recruit them and get some other siblings in there," says Kit. "That's what we need." "That exhausts what I know of St. Diligaff, because he's not exactly the sort of saint that you hear a lot about in the chapels of the nobility." "Maybe he's venerated more among the common folks, my lord." "That's my point." "What about the Society of Compassionate Workers?" "They're monks. They are involved in directly being with the most traumatized and marginalized communities that they can find. They care for orphans, which is usually more done by nuns, but they care for orphans. They work side by side with people who have absolutely nothing. They educate people so that they have basic skills like how to write their names." "So pretty perfect for running refugee camps." "Yes, these are exactly the people we want helping out right now," agrees Kit. "There's a specific order of Hospitalers of the Borderlands. What's that about?" "Those will be specific to the Shadowline," explains Alistair. "That's a crusader order dedicated to holding the Shadowline. Believe me, when you are the illegitimate son of a high noble, you get certain hospitalers trying to persuade you that you would fit in well in their order. I would not have fit well in their order." "No, you wouldn't have," says Kit with a laugh. "What about the Order of Holy Comforters? How are they distinct from the Compassionate Workers?" "They're more withdrawn. They're less likely to be out running a school, more likely to be praying for the comfort of the downtrodden in their abbeys." "Well, that's all very well, but I think the Society of Compassionate Workers and the Brothers of St. Dilligaff are the people we really need to mobilize on this." "And the Order of the Misty Dawn. They're a large order, so even though they're not exactly matched to the type of people they would be serving, they can do a lot of good." "My lord, what about the Sisters of Purity? Are they problematically 'pure?'" Kit answers. "The Halo's been keeping an eye on them for that very reason for a while. They so far have not proven to be problematically 'pure,' but it's very difficult to watch inside. Not impossible, but very difficult--they're a good-sized order, but not huge." As they conclude the discussion, they send out requests to implement the main suggestions: calling on relevant orders for aid, and suggesting to the Archbishop that they implement both the accelerating young people and recruiting irregular older people into the clergy, especially women who may have been interested but not seen opportunities. The Archbishop strongly supports any idea that accelerates young people into religious service, given his own youth. He's starting to learn how to play the game. * * * The next thing they turn to is a general message to the Council about the ongoing Sytryan schism. [Attached.] The Halo is still a work in progress, and mostly focused on Glordiadelian religious matters, so it has as yet developed little information on the Sytryan situation. "Do we know where the anti-patriarch is based?" asks Alistair. Kit says, "The Halo hasn't reported anything about that. But we might be able to figure it out." "Let's start by asking Bishop Waters if he has any idea." Father Waters attends on them. "Oddly, I don't, and I find it very difficult to consider his condition at the moment. And that's very odd, because I was taking notes on possibilities just a week ago." "So they've done something, so we don't know," says Kit. "Bishop, you said you were taking notes. Do you still have them?" "Oh, I'm sure I do. Let me go to my chambers. I'll return shortly." He departs and comes back 20 or 30 minutes later with a fairly complex set of notes. "These are my notes, but I can't quite make much of them," he says as he lays them down with a puzzled expression. "If if you don't mind, Bishop Waters, may I look at those?" "Oh, by all means," and he pass through the notes to Alistair. Alistair in particular tries to see if this might be indicative of him being in the southern continent. But while he can read the first several pages, all of a sudden, as he's looking at them, the characters begin twisting and changing in front of him. The first several pages are perfectly clear, and it's very clear that he wrote the whole document very clearly, but the later pages can't be read. Kit looks at the notes with her glasses of reading, and she can read the whole thing, but her glasses are putting out heat, which they've never done before. "Something is trying to make this unreadable." As it starts to approach a temperature that would burn her, Kit quickly moves the glasses away. "Not the face!" "We definitely don't want any injury to your lovely face," agrees Alistair, while Dame Brionna just rolls her eyes. In the brief period of time before her eyebrows get too hot, she can see that there are records from orthodox clergy that the antipatriarch was moving with a group of chivalry loyal to him int a group of small, unoccupied islands to the east of the Magocracy of Purdun. "What's there?" asks Dame Brionna. "Yes, and also, what kind of power would it take to have this kind of effect?" asks Kit. "Divine power, and not clerical," opines the Bishop. "Somehow it is interfering with people's ability to track him, apparently, and you're glasses were strong enough to get through it, because they are what they are, but apparently it has the side effect of producing increasing amounts of heat when you're looking at it." Dame Brionna examines Kit's glasses, trying to determine the divine signature. After a moment, she says, "Elberith. The First Daughter. Not what I was expecting." "That can't be the blocking effect, though. I didn't know that my glasses were elven work," says Kit. "Neither did I, and I commissioned them! But then, I just asked the Minister of Magic to arrange it. Apparently, some elf got involved in the process." "A good thing, too," adds Father Waters. "If they were purely human work, I think they would have melted on her face." Dame Brionna then focuses on the papers, trying to sense the magic that's blocking or attempting to block her. As she looks at the divine signature, it lashes back at her. Not very well, but it does the best it can. "Father Waters. Do you have the Detect Eldritch spell that we've been given prepared?" "Yes. I have it memorized." The Bishop casts the spell. "Huh! It is eldritch, but overlain with the signature of the servants of Arthranax." "Well, yes, that makes sense." "Can you get this off my glasses so that I can use them again without burning my face?" "Yes. I also memorize that other spell. If you just put them on that table..." "Yes, assuming we've gotten all of the information that we need from them before they get cleaned off." "Yes, let's not do it twice." "The other interesting thing is that the wards don't appear to have triggered," comments Alistair. They call for Lord Silverleaves to see if he can explain anything about it. "Yes, that's because when we attempted to reach outside the wards, you created a conduit to attempt to find him. The energy follows the conduit back in. It's good that it won't be able to manifest beyond the object that's been affected. The more interesting thing is that the wards didn't trigger when the document began to change." "Yes, that's what I meant," says Alistair. "That's more complicated. That is strange, now that you say it. Very strange." "We've seen things that affect people's knowledge of a thing or a person," muses Kit. "That's what's going on with the Usurper. Is this similar to that?" "Yes." "But that affected people's consciousness, not physical documents." "True--but it may not have affected the document. Who saw the text change?" "I did," says Alistair. "Your Grace, if I might... This may be somewhat uncomfortable..." Lord Silverleaves plunges a mental probe in much more strongly than usual, and Alistair feels fingers riffling through his brain. "The block was set when you weren't in the palace. It is affecting your vision of the writing, not the writing itself. You must have traveled somewhere since he began this move. This is a domain level divine spell, backed by psionics to a certain degree. We wouldn't be able to get through it at all, except it's less powerful than it could be. I can remove it if you'd like; that will allow you to read it." "I think that would be best." Alistair feels a series of things like someone pulling a hair out of his head, and the rest of the Council sees little pieces of energy pulled from his head and then explode. "Do I have it, too?" asks Kit. "Oh, yes." Lord Silverleaves proceeds to remove the same sort of energy from her. "I was the only one of us who went to the to Holy Cortose..." says Alistair. "I was trying to figure that out," comments Dame Brionna. "Have you been in mental contact?" "We're always in mental contact." "Contagion. It's an old magical principle," Bishop Water says. "Indeed, anyone who has been in mental contact with you could get the same exposure." He turns to Dame Brionna. "I suppose it's inappropriate for me to apologize to you for the discomfort--code of a paladin and all that--so I apologize to the rest of you for the discomfort you will feel." A few seconds later, he speaks again. "There, you're all free of it, and if you don't mind, I'd like a cup of tea, that's more work than I expected." "Oh, of course." "Oh, and you should check young Lord Brightspan as well, because he is fairly often in psionic contact with one of us." "Oh, dear! It's going to be more disturbing for a child. I'm sorry." "Thank you. That felt like they were spiders running around in my brain." "So sorry." "Well done," commends Kit. "You were very brave." "Is there anyone else who might have been exposed to the contagion?" "Or anyone that goes with you when you went there. They won't have been exposed by contagion." "Oh, check Jamie," Kit exclaims. "He's always playing around with psionics. Not that he can read, but I don't want anything interfering with his brain." "He may have been able to protect himself, but it's it's wise to check." Lord Silverleaves examines him. "He is safe, but he is on guard. Not a bad place for someone at this age, but surprisingly so." "Can we help him bring his guard down?" asks Kit. "I'm worried if he's feeling threatened." "How extensive is his vocabulary?" asks Lord Silverleaves. "I can try to reason with him, but it's probably better than you do." "He doesn't have a vocabulary," responds Alistair. "He's an infant." "He doesn't have words. He wants things, and he feels things, and that's really all." "Oh, I apologize, Lady Lyneham. I'm afraid that would be completely beyond my ability." "Alright. I'll just keep him calm and cared for, and we'll keep an eye on it." "It may pass with time." "I'm glad that thing didn't get in his head." "He will be very powerful--much more so than a normal human child." "Yes, that's his special destiny," Kit responds, though her opinion of that isn't entirely clear. "Lots of blessings. Not looking forward to when he's a toddler or a teenager and in a bad mood." "And pre-born blessings, at that. Threshold will be dangerous for him." "Well keep an eye on it to make sure that he comes through it safely." "The only other person who was in Holy Cortose with me was Lord Davion. He will have been exposed, but I would presume he will been able to protect himself. I'm somewhat surprised he didn't notice." "Oh, it's not his field. This is not Coercion. This is a form of Redaction, but it's mixed with divine power, which is why I could undo it. It may be that this is not Lord Quinliart himself. He is primarily a Coercer--incredibly powerful, but not a Redactor." "Can I ask a potentially awkward question about shall I say your distant kin?" asks Alistair. "Yes, of course." "I have been told that there are reasons to think Lord Goldurim has done things that would ordinarily be unthinkable for a great elf of any kind." "Yes, we're all aware of this." "And if I recall correctly, Lord Goldurim was also the one who personally went through the gate to the enemy's planes, and drove something back, in the last incursion." "That's correct. He's very powerful, very formidable." "And my understanding is that his house is the master house of Redaction on their side." "Yes, exactly." "Ought we to be worried about the possibility that Lord Goldurim's madness is a sign that he was corrupted by that experience? Corrupted, not in the sense of his obvious corruption, but in the sense of insidious alteration of the Eldritch?" "Our Overqueen has been concerned about that for several millennia, since before I came to Singing Leaves. She has been concerned he might well have been changed by that experience. He did not become utterly corrupt, as their servants are. But he may have been changed into something far closer to them. He was too strong a lord to have yielded to them and to become one of them. But she did not believe he was too strong to have been changed. If he were the face of the enemy, I fear we would be doomed. But he is also never, even to my other cousins, a friend, and the world he would make if he were ever in a position to make the world... It would still exist, which is not true with the enemy, but it would be horrible beyond anyone's comprehension. I would not worry as long as the Houses of Aufaulgautharim and Curinirim still stand. They will not permit it. If he remains when they are gone, he might make a play. The other Houses know they're not capable of opposing him." "We've also worried that should both of those houses pass before him, he might launch a final kinslaying and carry it to the end." "Very likely, and for that he could get the other great Houses that remained to back him. The greater danger, however, is that he outlasts all of us, and remains with only your people." "I assume that the only thing that could cause him to leave other than for some similarly powerful figure to battle him would be if he chose to pass on." "Yes. Even the Bleeding Lady of whom you may have heard, when her rage and hatred are exhausted, there will come a time when she will be able to pass to the West unhindered. Her rage apparently is justified. I've done research on that. Her husband was slain and by ambush. Despite attempting to surrender, when it was clear that the ambush had defeated him, he was slain, and she was left alone. And so she rages and hates, but even so, she will be able to go to the West. With Lord Goldorim, and with the atrocities he has committed in his madness, the Brothers will reject him utterly." "I had thought that some of the Noldor went to the East to be with Morgroth. Is that also foreclosed to him?" "That is the choice for some of those who follow Morgroth. But even Morgroth would not receive Lord Goldurim at this point, and Goldurim will never seek a human god. There are some of them that would receive him. The Eldritch chaos that you struggle against would certainly receive him, as would Borsh'tro or the like. But he knows that they fear him, and he is contemptuous of them. He would not demean himself to serve such as they." "Given enough time, he might well be like unto a god of chaos himself." "Oh, that is very possible. Indeed, if he cannot be killed, that might be our best hope. Because if he ascends, he will not conquer this plane, but just become locked in conflict with the other gods. He would be one more like the others." "When that's the hope, I don't... wow," Alistair peters off. "I really feel like killing him might be easier," says Dame Brionna. "Now that we can read these notes without them changing," Lord Silverleaves says as he finishes sipping his tea, "What do we make of them?" They remind Lord Silverleaves to cure anyone else who might have been infected--especially Lord Davion, who as it turns out didn't notice the attack and therefore didn't prevent it. The notes indicate that the antipatriarch is in the archipelago of islands or atolls near the Empire of Tarhanna. The islands are largely between Tarhanna and the Confederacy of the Inner Isles, but sufficiently small that most maps don't show them at all, and if they are occupied, Canberry has no records of it. "A reasonable place to set up the head of your faith, if you're weird Eldritch island ocean people," comments Dame Brionna. "What are our relations like with the nearby lands?" "What's left of the Magocracy of Purdun is basically friendly. They are mostly Glordiadelian. Much of the Magocracy was destroyed in the intaking--essentially all of its mainland holdings. Tarhanna is a major maritime empire. They're one of the principal trading empires anywhere, and also Glordiadelian. We spoke with their emperor at the Archbaroness's funeral. I think some distant relatives of mine have lived there. If I remember correctly, there was some branch that ran off to Tarhanna and became privateers or whatnot. They also lost some coastal territories on the Khamista mainland, but now they are only on the islands. They have a largest merchant fleets in the world, and also a large surface navy to protect them, and most people, even people who would ordinarily attack those merchant ships, will respect the Tarhannan flag because of the understanding that Tarhanna will stop at nothing to defend its merchant marine. They apparently believe in ruling the seas, or something like that. "The third nation in that area is the Confederacy of the Inner Isles. That's the Black Witch's domain-- a matriarchal color-linked magocracy. It is Paranswarmian, and the Black Witch herself is loyal to Paranswarm, and therefore part of the cause of of fighting the enemy. But, on the other hand, the primary industry of the inner isles is piracy, and a substantial portion of what they import is slaves. So they're not so much what you would call pleasant. I believe that they raid essentially entirely westerly because of understanding that they are far too close to Tarhanna to pick a fight. They may also raid Purdun a little bit. I don't know. And I I think they have very bad blood with Tarsh in the same way that the White Witch does, particularly since they find Tarsh very easy to raid. They do not stick completely to traditional piracy. It's not unknown for them to sail a small fleet into a small port or a large fishing village and blast the Hades out of their defenses, land, take what they want and leave, including possibly engaging in slaving. They're not nice people." "Not that even not nice people deserve to be consumed by Eldritch horrors, but..." Dame Brionna can't muster more than the barest sympathy for them. "Fortuitously, many of their principal victims are other Paranswarmians." "But as evil as they are, those people don't sound like they would be complicit in this kind of plot," observes Kit. "No, I wouldn't think so. I would be very surprised if the Black Witch would have anything to do with with this, and also Sytryites would in general hate them. She might well also be from the parts of the Paranswarmian tradition that would be happy to toss any Sytryites they got their hands on onto a pile of burning stuff. Which, honestly, is also a reason we might talk to them about the antipatriarch being on islands just to their east." "But only the Blue Star folks. Ideally, those that can be would be redeemed," says Dame Brionna. "It's hard to imagine that the Black Witch would not think that that was a great opportunity to settle some old scores assuming that she didn't get the mind infection thing. But I don't quite see how this serves the goals of the schismatic Sytryites." "Are there Sytryites in Purdun and Tarhanna?" "They're all notionally Glordiadelian, but I'm sure that they all have significant Sytryite minorities. We know Tarhanna is roughly a third Sytryite." "Great," mutters Kit. "But if the Tarhannans have ships that go everywhere, and that pride themselves on keeping the peace and defending things, they sound like people that we can recruit to go look for a stronghold of badness." "I suppose that this indicates fairly clearly that the antipatriarch is himself corrupted." "I think there's no reason to suddenly move your location with the Eldritch if you're not," observes Dame Brionna. "Right. Schisms can happen without massive corruption. I think that in our own period of the Three Patriarchs in our faith, the conclusion was that one was a true patriarch, and one was fallen or something, and the other was deceived. I don't remember exactly, but these things can happen. But I agree that here, it's probably not just an innocent error or deception. So, do we want to reach out to Tarhanna about it?" "Yes, let's get them looking for it, and warn them not to engage," agrees Kit. "We don't have an embassy. We spoke with the Emperor, but we've never had an embassy because Canberry has no ports. But to be fair, the Empire now has ports." "Which is actually an excellent excuse to talk to them. Now that we have a port we can open up an embassy there. So let's talk to somebody from Tarhanna, and while we are, in the neighborhood, ask them about this. Do our clergy have contact with their clergy?" "No doubt, but regular contact will take long periods of time, going back and forth. They are almost exactly on the opposite side of the planet from us." "Sendings?" "They would have to know the person they're sending to directly. Presumably, our various vassal states that have significant ports, like, for example, Tang, would have embassies. That means that they would likely have places to which we could teleport in the Tarhannan capital, where they could then make appropriate diplomatic introductions. I think Tang may be the best possibility. It's a large country, it has many ports, and it's solidly aligned as part of the Empire. Their ambassador can then escort an imperial ambassador, who is teleported in to meet with the Emperor and announce a desire to open a new embassy. I don't think that we can rush this too much." "Yes, but I don't think we need to," replies Kit. "We want to get in done, but I don't think there's a fast ticking clock." "Agreed, and the other thing is that the antipatriarch is currently positioned in a place where you would expect him to be safe, but weak." "So you think it's possible that he's not making an offensive move," comments Dame Brionna. "Right. Normally, you'd want to be building your power base." "This seems more defensive." "It's possible that they have deeply running ties within Tarhanna and Purdun, but that's something we need to know." They decide to set this in motion, and then have to figure out who to send as an ambassador. It has to be a Glordiadelian, and should probably be a mage who can teleport there. An obdurate mage, immune to psionics, would be perfect, but they do not have any. "They're fairly rare," notes Kit, "and we may have some and not know it, because psionics were not a thing that we tested for reliably until recently." They then decide to ask the Minister of Magic if he has recommendations for mages capable of teleporting who would be resistant to psionics, and obviously they need to be someone who is of sufficient social standing and who is good at diplomatic matters. They also confirm that, while the Eldritch cannot teleport across oceans, humans who are not aligned with the Eldritch can without difficulty--likely because the Utter Mother, the Glordiadelian goddess of the sea, won't let them. The Minister says, "He's not highly seasoned, but there is a young magus that I have in mind that I think could fulfill those things. Not from noble birth." "That's not essential, but what is his background?" "Common town boy in Grimcliff. He's been with us since his parents began to realize that... well, he read, and that disturbed them. So they brought him to a local magus, and he was able to verify that he was capable. And so they turned him over, and he's been with us ever since." "How old is he now?" Kit asks, taking the lead on questioning the Minister about him. "Oh, he's 19. He's young, but he's socially competent." "What about him makes you think that he's the right person for this job?" "He also has some mild psionics. What are they called, wild talents? Two of them. [The Minister mentions one, but my notes were garbled.]" "What's the other?" "I don't know what the second talent is, I'm afraid, but we know he has two. We had him examined by the Minister of the Mind, but I believe that it's not possible for him to fully learn psionics-- too late, too old, too something or other. But that's what he has, and those can't possibly be bad for ambassador. And he is socially capable--he's just not from a noble background. I don't know. I thought those things could matter with diplomacy." "They can. I don't know how much Tarhanna would care." "A good man. I think he's the right answer. I think you'll be pleased. He's very loyal, incredibly loyal." Kit asks her people about how much Tarhanna will likely care about nobility of birth and reports back. "Actually, someone from a merchant family, from a decent size city, might actually be the kind of person that they respect." "That does mean that he needs to look like he comes from money." "Yes." "Even if he personally doesn't, he needs to be projecting that we are a rich empire, which, of course, we are, so it's not hard for us to arrange that. And that also means he needs an actually rich merchant as a trade attache, and his entourage should be larger than might be expected, with a substantial number of personal servants and the like. Fortunately, Tarhanna does not have slaves, so that is good." "And those personal servants can include some Toes..." adds Kit. [End Session 151] [/QUOTE]
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Aphonion Tales: The Archducal Council -- Unedited notes; later posts are edited transcripts (posts MWF, update 3/1/23)
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