Tales of the Vigilants (Mystria)

[The Ctan]

Office of the Imperial Regent, Blessed Idrise
Press Release

A major discovery stuck at the foundations of Mystrian archeology this week, as well as revealing a danger to the Salamand County in the North Marches of Idrise. This discovery was made by a company of the Vigilants, recently re-founded by the Regent of Idrise, part of an ancient order who seek and contain the Jade Passages that exist on the Myst Continent.

The area of the defunct Garano Industries consists of a closed Materia Factory previously believed to have been producing the now-banned synthetic Materia, a process that converts living beings into the frozen-magic material.

The Elemental being revealed that it was Tarnarul, who had locally been misidentified as a daemon, believed to have been slain by Ser Garanos about one hundred years ago. It now seems likely that Ser Garanos actually explored the area in the pit when it was flooded and set up Garanos intustries in order to exploit the energy source within the binding prison.

The Binding Prison is not dissimilar to those in use Great Civilization, with several different advancements, and non-invasive study seems likely to be revealing to make advances in this field also.

The being within is described as ‘Twice-Cursed-Void-Demon of the Starless Deeps.’ This is known to be a star-travelling being but its origin beyond this point is unknown; the Mysidian Guardian believed the creature to have originated in the star system known to modern astronomers as the Vurit-Meiathos system.

An exploration and contact expedition sent to the Vurit-Meiathos system reports that several planets there have traces of previously undiscovered settlement on their surfaces, but these reveal Mysidian offworld settlement similar to that observed on Ubrik-Parr and other known offworld sites, the damage to the settlement is consistent with an attack dating to around a year before the date the Garanos Prisoner was sealed away however.

The Garnos Prisoner is believed to be extremely hostile, but it must be acknowledged that it is in significant pain due to the processes of the factory having tapped into the confinement vessel. This damage to the confinement vessel has also allowed it to remotely kill several local people, with a phantasm projected outside its vessel.

It is believed that the Garnos Prisoner’s containment vessel cannot be moved safely as the Prisoner has a link remaining to the nearest Jade Passages, which it sought to harness for power, and that moving it would weaken these links, and potentially damage the fabric of local spacetime.

New protections for the local people, as well as the arrival of an expedition led by Maria Czajka from the Ancestral Study Group of Malgrave to work with the local people to improve security and living conditions, while the Grey Mages of Idrise and representatives of the Circle of the Sublime, a C’tani organization, have taken control of the site with a new garrison.

The guardian known as Tarnarul however, has excited almost more comment than the monster it guards, still sane, and able to communicate in hieratic aquan, Tarnarul has been a wealth of information about Mysidia, allowing the scholars who have been able to communicate with him to begin to decipher Mysidian texts.

The wealth of information being revealed about the distant past, from the existence of the Lost City of Adoulin which stood on what is now the surface of Terradin, to details about Palamecia that confirm part of the reasons for the cultural fear of stellar travel held by Spireans and Alteans, which it links to the comoing of the Garanos Prisoner.

The decoding of Mysidian texts is believed to be possible for the first time in modern scholarship, allowing much more insight in the past than before.

Specially mentioned in the Hall of Heroes were the Vigilants directly involved in the discovery:
Eristha Amarith (Idrise - Palomecia)
Lloyd Bladeworthy (Corneria)
Ser Marron the Kind (Idrise - Diest)
Canose Bornell (Idrise - Anion)
Chaeli (Idrise - Unrecorded)
Edæa Æðelynnymya (Kouralia)
Nagara Hamilcres (Rintyar)
Utan-din-heligha-rosens-flamma-vore-vi-dömda Din-heliga-ilden-branner-vådera-synderssen (Absolute Royal Federation)
Rhee Min-Seo (Malgrave)

By Imperial Decree of the Regent, the settlement of Garano and the area immediately adjacent is also henceforth recognized as an independent Imperial Township and Special Archeological District under the leadership of Ambrose Walthur with a grant of land ownership to be subdivided into secure freehold properties abrogating any prior claims to property rights in this area’s land unless prior owners should come forth to present claims for arbitration within the year. Claims derived from familial descent from Baron Garanos will not be entertained.

ENDS

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OOC: This thread is for stories and posts relating to an ongoing RPG campaign within the Mystria region; so this thread doesn't have a direct narrative structure that will necessarily flow for people outside the campaign. Not all are directly within or relating to my nations (such as this one or Lord Atum) or the other players' but most are set in Mystrian Altea.

[The Ctan]

Given at the Hall of Heroes in Anion from the Ruby Throne, in the fifth year of our rule, in the month of Heavenly Fire on the thirteenth day, to The Most Worthy Vigilants of the Salamand Region Greetings,

I write in person to commend your recent actions at the town of Garano that have now been brought to my attention and which have opened the eyes of the archaeological community of the Blessed Realm of Idrise and of Mystria to a lost epoch and gives us by far our best window to date into ancient Mysidian culture as well as how previous civilizations addressed the longstanding issues of Mystrian civilization; your accomplishment is remarkable and proves the strength of the Vigilants as an institution.

I cannot express enough my gratitude, though in expression of this I have made a point to formalize the people of Garano’s claim to their territory and I have also expressed my assurances that the discovery within their land will not be harmful, a group of necrons have been posted to take control of the Pit area itself and ensure that no reckless actions take place.

Although it is not the culture of my own people, the Carda Tyaroi, to give gifts of value directly in many circumstances, it is an expectation of the people of Altea to see the monarch distribute wealth and objects of value to those who have accomplished deeds and by that act ensure that all may see what it is that others may strive for; for this reason I have instructed my worthy Herald Kalan of Gravenridge to present to you certain gifts of provenance and value.

Firstly it is my pleasure to now confirm the knightly status of Ser Marron the Kind of the Silver Knights of Deist is now recorded in the Honour Rolls of Idrise as a substantial title and I enclose a patent and warrant for a grant of arms to be recorded by the Heralds; for long have the Silver Knights and their traditions been unrecognized in Idrise save in song and story, and of course in deed, this shall be changed in due course but this at least I may do at once.

Further to this I have enclosed several gifts to be given to you by Kalan, chosen for the use of each of you, and I bid you to bear and use them as seems fit to you, as tokens of the grateful nations of Idrise.

Cordially and Sincerely,
Palanedhel,
Regent of Idrise

[The Ctan]

The form of the demon was different as she crossed the threshold, infiltrating the barriers of the world was difficult, and passing by the guardians of the Jade Passages was a constant challenge, they were overwhelmed and their seals were not what they once were despite the best efforts of the Gods and Vigilants and so many others who had tried to keep heaven and earth divided. She did not move as a human, she did not have a form, instead she was able to see with senses no mortal possessed and move in ways no mortal did. She passed through the vision-precincts and speaking halls of abandoned heavens, beyond the guardians of the Immortal Emperor, and the hell-chambers of the teeming myriad-gods, slipping wraith-like past guardians that made something within her know the fear of a trembling babe, until at last she came to a space - if space it could be called - that was the one her allies used.

She would not return to the hospital; the new Vigil aspirants were not the Vigilants of old, but they knew enough to be dangerous, and she had no doubt that they would not make the same mistakes again, if they had thought more of the healing their spirit-torn woman would need they would have held her and been able to force much from her.

She did not have anything with truly physical form, but the idea was within her, the thought of the scales that balanced her needs and her tasks, she had not lied, much of what she did was only trade, she always found telling the truth was the most effective way to lie, for she had only taken life from the willing, and granted healing to those in need, at least in the hospital, but she had no illusions, the balance always had to be paid, her own ability to heal was drawn from the store of life she had taken, and she had to profit, by any abstract moral calculus, she took more than she gave.

This did not trouble her, for she was beyond regarding the forms of life that called themselves human and beastling and dwarf with any more regard than they might an animal within their fields that they harvested, she was content to allow some of them brief days or hours or swift-flying years to enjoy a pact, so long as she kept her needs sated.

But of late she had needed more, long ago she had sworn a pact, and now the needs of that pact called, she had overplayed her hand in drawing so much from the hospital, and those who had forged agreements with her had paid handsomely in lives and debts, but she would need a new source of harvest.

She had several at any given time, and no single method of operation, but first the Vigilants would need to be attended to. Daemonalators were not uncommon in Altea. She was not the mightiest of demons, but she was prolific, and she had acted in lieu of many greater beings to broker agreements with mortals who sought power for one cause or another.

She had kept her Avowed far from Salamand these last years, she had no need to have such fragile mortal assets - the sheepdogs of her herd - in the conflagration that would soon erupt, but when one wanted to kill a mortal directly, without chicanery or ruse, and without a wasteful display or power, there were few as creative as other mortals.

She would send her commands, even then, the Avowed needed to be called on carefully, one intelligent enough to excel as a warlock or pact wizard would rarely squander their own time and effort at the beck and call of their patron, and she would need to choose an Avowed she had asked little of. Her moments passed in thought, and she began to draw her plans.

[The Ctan]

Flakes of snow fell against the shuttered window and Marin looked out into the night. The valley beyond was a rich place for her kind, but it was not arable and too dangerous to mine, which meant that it had long been a safe haven where the majority of Altea could not reach them, nor interfere with them. The settlement of the new city in the valley to the east had been an end to that she had known; she’d always known that would bring new challenges, and while the settlers, who sought to restore Salamand to its ancestral glory, excited sympathy from her, she had duties to look to first.

It was out there, she knew.

And it wasn’t a coincidence that another daemonaltor had been seen recently. That was inevitable too.

She pulled her cloak about her, and closed the shutter, locking it, and drawing the curtains within to keep the heat in the room, turning to the stone heath and casting more wood onto the fire.

The empty bed was still a thing of dread, and she did not sleep within her own room often. The house was large, and not pretty but finely made, or at least lovingly so, the pack had been here for generations and they had learned much of the skills needed. The foundations leaked in the spring, and the roof leaked in the fall, but it was home.

She had come here to think, but her thoughts went wrong.

Change came everywhere in the end, and she had to admit that it came to Altea too, and overall that was for the best, but here, where there had been peace there were new pressures. Law and prosperity had made settlers brave the region that had so long been so isolated it may as well have been on its own continent.

Peace and Plenty had made people stronger, bolder, braver.

Better yet, Law had come. Not more than thirty miles from here there was an Invaders’ Monolith; properly known as the Pillars of Law, these carried the inscriptions of the laws of the invaders, there were thousands throughout Altea, living metal monuments that could not be marred without explosives or great unbindings of magic, they were often surrounded by low enclosures with sphinxes, or with new roadside shrines to Fornt.

Law was not something that Marin valued; but she had to admit it was nice to be able to travel freely without having to fear mobs - at least not mobs led by guardsmen - but that too had come with problems.

The Just God had been banned for many years, and she had studied his ways, to know the evil from the righteous, the deceptive from the trustworthy, such things had been forbidden then, but they had served to keep her pack safe. In the old days, when Law had been something one had to make for one’s self; there were humen bones in the midden not far from the house, she was not ashamed but did not advertise that fact. When her kind attacked, it could be made to look like the work of animals at need.

The Just God’s sacred work had driven out many Daemonalators, from cities and prosperous lands, the Great Civilization said that the worship of such gods was permitted; that was unwise in Marin’s opinion, but it was enough that they stopped sacrifices. Now her people had to deal with them in the wilderness; the dregs of what had once been an industry to rival any other in the Blessed Realm of Idrise.

And now, Vigilants darkened her door. They did not match up to the legends. But then, she remembered when she had been a pup too.