Archa and Telus: The Stories of Diarcesia [Maintenance]

[Diarcesia]

DNS Altaria is one of the few carriers in the Monarchy that has a monument to the fallen pilots of the Mundana Forces as their figurehead. The said monument, a bronze-painted statue of one of the Fates in nude guiding men and women to their next destination.

The ship is named after the Monarch Diarcesian Maximilian's wife and the only daughter of the late Septimius Aelius Adriareus. It is in active service as of 2035.

[Dyrrhonian Isles]

Private police in the Dyrrhonian Isles are notorious for their brutality and corruption. One of their leaders is the tyrannical Captain O. Pius, who has absolute authority in his turf and is also the de-facto 'mayor' of his portion of the city. He insists on addressing him with his 'official' title of "Lord Protector" and his relative, a decarch of the Mundana Forces, is his enforcer. The Captain is aware of several plots against his life and his family, which he attempts to thwart with the help of his confidantes. He has a daughter with the former mayor of Nauphus, the Official Camila Catsar, who is a childhood friend of his.

[Dyrrhonian Isles]

Modest's is a bar with a reputation for good food and friendly service. It has a good following of regulars, and the owner is very welcoming.

The food here is fairly basic, but good enough for a first date. I had the beef short rib, which came with a side salad. It was reasonably priced, and the beef was good.

Their corned beef came with cucumber, radish, and tomatoes. The dressing was basic, but good enough.

The cornbread was good, but on the other hand, the sweet potato gnocchis were just not my thing.

The beer selection was pretty light, but enough to make me want to drink more.

The wine pairings here were average. I'd prefer to drink their beer instead.

The desserts here were average at best. I was hoping for more banana pudding or strawberry milkshakes.

You will find a guy drinking Gatorade here. He seems to be in his late 20s or early 30s. He has a goatee and tends to be animated. You may recognize him by his shirt with a famous jersey number. And he wasn't getting any younger either.

"What's up, mate," I said. "I'm looking for a drink. Want some ginger ale?"

"Sure, why not?"

"I've got a bit of a craving."

He looked at me with a confused expression on his face. "Well, I've got a few options here. You can either head over to my table after getting me some of those, or you can sit back and wait for me to buy them for you."

[Diarcesia]

National Grid Power Outage Continue to Affect Parts of Diarcesian Mainland
29 January 2022

ARCESIUS—The National Grid (NG) is a Diarcesian utility company that is the primary supplier of electricity to rural and industrial areas in the country. A spokesperson for the utility said the outage was caused by a "technical glitch" and they were working to fix it as soon as possible. The outage has left many without power and has forced the disruption of some services as far as Arcesius, the capital city. Immediately, service was restored to many of the cities and their peripheries, but many more people were still without power in other areas of the country and the situation was likely to get worse before it gets better.

In particular, the outage was the second major disruption to the electricity supply in the dieresis of Neraserria in as many weeks. On Monday, a fire broke out in a power line in a rural area of the dieresis, causing considerable power infrastructure damage throughout. The cause of the incident was not immediately clear, although reports suggested sabotage. Those who believe it was caused by sabotage point to a group of contractors that were refused pay due to failing obligations. When reached out for comment, the contractors denied all accusations, saying that they repeatedly tried to raise concerns about aging components that were constantly ignored by higher-ups.

Analysts point out the outage as yet another demonstration of the growing dysfunction within the utility. The Hypurgeum Emporic is looking to investigate the increasing uncertainty of the Grid to reliably maintain its power plants, a portion of them running with nuclear fuel. A grid-integrity study will begin as part of the hypurgeum's inquiry and post-mortem analysis.

"We deeply apologize for the continued instability of the Grid's infrastructure," says Anatole Zak (Anatoly Zak), one of the utility's chief engineers. "We are inching closer to identifying the cause. We are aware of whispers of sabotage, but it being the cause is very unlikely."

Zak adds that the Grid is already well-underway in their upgrades to their power plants and transmission systems. "We are anticipating a full restoration of services tomorrow afternoon."

[Wochaystein]

For Wochaysteiners, the foreign country of Jestar Falls is so far away from them.

They consider Turtle Town to be a beautiful city with a history that goes back a thousand years. They find its inhabitants cultured. One of their favorite places there is the Great Statue Of The Turtle.

On my first official day of my visit, Terezin and I set out for what I consider to be a great hall. In view of one of its windows is the Great Statue. I think it tells the story of their founding myth. The statue is much older than the town itself. Perhaps they named the city "Turtle Town" because of it?

My companion and I enjoyed a drink together, chatting idly about the news and events of the day. Occasionally, we would move to a new topic. We took our time, since travel to such a distant place is a rare event.

The hall is filled with locals, many of whom have come to speak about their daily lives. They range from young up and comers, to faces seasoned by time. They appear to share their stories as they go on. It is fascinating.

I shall give many thanks to my excellent editor, Cynthia Moss, for helping me put my stories together, and suggesting this place to me to visit.

[Wochaystein]

Some of the many secret archives/documents of Wochaystein that were revealed to the public:

• The identity of the creator of the Chimera Antenna
• The location of the ruins of Laila's Tower, where the remains of the original Lost Tribe of the Zuidrians are stored
• A proscription list of the pretender Imperial Families during the civil war
• An analysis of the resurrection rituals of various heathen faiths and associated relics, by Brando Welter
• A chronology of the rise and fall of the Holy empire

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"With the identity of the Chimera Antenna's creator, we can infer the list of every known person and organization connected it and their activities. This will be a great resource for researchers, historians and others looking to learn more about the then-fledgling technology."
—Dr Engilram Dunkel

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An archeological expedition to the site of Laila's Tower uncovered more insights of the indigenous Zuidrian people. They appeared to place much emphasis on highly gifted children who are thoroughly educated to become the ruling class. The group was mostly comprised of children of the aristocracy.

[Dyrrhonian Isles]

The Burning Root is a garnet jewel made in the Avant-Gardist style.

It hold the distinction of the largest sale of an artcle of jewelry in the Dyrrhonian Isles. The item was once the prized heirloom of the Argyris clan, but it was sold in 2021 to the Diarcesian Monarchic government for $3,475,700 to further pay for the family's debts.

Presently still under the care of the government, it is on display in the Dyrrhonian Isles's section of the Hall of Diereses.

Said to evoke flame when moved viewed from different perspectives, the Burning Root is a sight to remember.

[Wochaystein]

One of the Wochaysteiner secret archives/documents that were revealed to the public is Barohecti's theory of the universe once referred by Ibn al-Qūṭiyya Wittiza. It describes a very different cosmological model from the currently-popular Big Bang model. The theory states that the universe is a series of tubular structures where men can hypothetically traverse and observe their near-identical counterparts who differ only in choices that were taken in important crossroads of time.

Barohecti, a resident of the Holy Empire, was accused a heretic and had his distributed works all burned, save for a handful of copies kept in the empire's archives under inquisitorial seal.