Archon's Curse [Pathfinder Kingmaker]

[Imperator Pax]

So on a lark [Humble Bundle Link] picked up the humble bundle map bonanza thing... I'll probably regret this as I'll probably eat time and more importantly take up space on my SSD that will annoy me whenever Genshin impact decides ti needs a bajillion gigs in order to update or whatever... but I've been looking into getting back into doing maps for stuff... and this story is a prime candidate for it. So I will be attempting to learn how to use Campaign Cartography 3 to make terrtain maps... and I may try and make city maps at some point for Narhold and more broadly the Stolen Lands and the first world and maybe other places to post in this thread.

I'll probably start by seeing if I can approximate what the canonical northern river kingdoms / the Stolen lands look like and work from there.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Rova 4712

[4712 AR Year Conclusion]​

Eire took the news in as well tempered a manner as he could. In truth he was somewhat relieved by the news that the Six Bears as a collective following were not going to swell the Tiger Lords ranks with manpower. The issue of borders was more of a general idea... the idea of cross border immigration control and such simply wasn't practical... barring tremendous amounts of magic... and of course it would have looked absurd to contend with the movement one way while simultaneously expending effort to encourage settlers from the inner sea to leave homes in Taldan, or Cheliax or across the sea.

It also wasn't as if his return from Varnhold was solely reliant on the matters of the intrusion of the Brevic Church of Shelyn within the realm, or Amiri's former tribe being chased into his realm by this apparent criminal from Shyka's realm.

Nilak, Amiri's childhood friend, suggested that some of the other six bear splinters had likely moved to camp with the Tiger Lords and other Kellid tribes to the west, while bands and individual families might still be in Numeria, or in southern Brevoy. Ordinarily her small collection probably tried to move on, but Fionn's breaking of Amiri's sword and encounter with Eranex suggested that the malevolent spirit might stop pursuing the six bears ... though that did raise the issue of whether the ghostly exile would refocus his attention to the kingdom itself.

Eire didn't have the time to deal with Nilak and her collection of tribesemen and if they were going to stay or go. They could work out their differences with Amiri over the latters deparature, or not but the giant would need to be dealt with... and preferably soon. This business with Sir Fredero at this Shrine of the Golden Grove as well. Then was the speculation of the continued blockage of the river traffic in the slough and what could be causing that... though despite chatter in Mivon, the southern Aldori didn't seem to consider it pressing... probably because they accepted they had an alternate trade route... and for that matter might have tolerated him better than Hannis.

He had heard little from the neighboring realm since the end of Harrgulka's escapades so he assumed Drelev's domain must have largely been running smoothly. Next week, this approaching week was going to be busy. Sunday would be the somal new moon and the following week would entail the Day of the Inheritor following on oathday, starday would mark the last day of summer by the calendar and the following sunday would be the fall equinox. In short at least two potentially as many as five different civil and religious officiatings over a span of four days. That would depend on the churches of Desna and Erastil, as well as Sarenrae and of course two weeks from the fall equinox would be ascendance day.

He had already expected that he would be travelling through the first month of the year, but with Amiri's broken sword to contend with, "Dragn has settled into bronzeshield," even though Eire had yet to find the time to visit the dwarf's shop, he had planned to visit the foritication soon, "And there are other smiths he can repair the weapon, As for Fionn," He turned to Eranex.

"No I will deal with the giant."

Amiri's protest was noted, but so to was the rejoinder that that might be more difficult than simply beating the giant. The six bears had driven the ghost off before... they needed a way to permanently dispatch the specrtal menace. That meant research and magic most likely.
--
The Golden Grove's story was as Valerie described at testament to her former's faith's hare brained and foolish obsessions with pursuing beauty in all its forms. It had been established several centuries ago, after the Taldan Empire's collapse and well beyond the early empire of Cheliax's control. This was a mistake because the group of Shelynites who had ventured into the Stolen Lands were doing so before the era of Brevic foundation. What would become the Brevic branch Church of Sheyln, after the Rogavarian conquest, never bothered to try and reclaim the remote shrine.

In short centuries ago the worshippers of Shelyn had migrated to a nice spot in the wilderness constructed a lovely shrine to their goddess of obscenly expensive marbel... and not long after their construction had been completed... were all killed by the monsters native to the region.

During the heyday of the rogavarian monarchs about eighty years earlier there had been an attempt to expand into the region, much as how Jamandi Aldori and the Issians before her had done over the past decade, ultimately culminating in their present state. To that end it wasn't that surprising to Valerie that an unsanctioned collection of idiots had moved into a shrine long abandonned for the risk of monsters and lack of governance to support them.

The Shrine of the Golden Grove was only partly maintained. Still it was an impressive structure if for the sheer expense that must have gone into quarrying the marble and hauling it here. It was built in the styles of the Inner Sea, of the Taldan empire not unlike the high dome that formed the basillica of the shrine if in miniature to the one in Shrikewall.

"Its smaller than I was expecting." Linzi remarked she trailed off looking up at the shrine's double doors and the facade of marble."I thought it was going to kind," She paused doing another double take, "of going to be bigger."

It was if as much as a third the size than the bassilica Shrikewall's cathedral to the Inheritor. Eire suspecting the interior dome height perhaps as little fifteen meters above the sanctuary floor. "I suspect that this was built with -"

"They didn't have magic, or at least only limitted means." Jaethal snorted cutting him off. "They surely built this to evoke memories of when Taldan's empire was this far north." She waved to a veranda supported by a colonade of ionic style columns, that were largely overgrown by flowering vines. The vines were nearly everywhere, except for the main double doors... and at one point they had probably been intentionally cultivated in order to blend well with the shrine... they had just not been tended for so long that they had gotten a bit out of hand. "But certainly Taldan esque architecture in miniature... or Azlanti I suppose." She dismissed, the elf waved a gloved hand.

That had been one of the observations of the Cathedral in Shrikewall that the cyclops had made when visiting was the obvious Azlanti influence in the cathedral's architecture that had passed down through Taldan's church of Aroden. He felt none of the radiance that permeated Shrikewall's cathedral grounds and that presumably rendered the city's protection against fire... but then again he suspected that that was domain magic.

Whatever the case the Golden Grove held a small cluster of human priestesses. Eire held a hand out to slow his chancellor and ward before they could move further. "The builders may have lacked magic," but there were multiple alarm spells placed around the grounds, which immediately prompted Jaethal's naturally suspicious nature, though did not necessarily prove anything.

Given the nature of Shelyn's clergy or even just the fate of the original shrine's builders it could easily have been a bard who had set the spells... or frankly a surprising abundance of caution... or Fredero was an inquisitor and able to cast the spell to protect the shrine. Eire had assumed from Valerie's recounting of her studies that the Shelynite knight was a paladin but that might have been in error.

They didn't have to wait long after their arrival as one of the sisters went to fetch the night. He was almost as grating, though not quite as perfumed and no where near overdressed as the Pitaxian dandy of a knight Moskoni. That wasn't really a surprise his letter had been obnoxious, "Valerie, you arrive at last!" The knight called out. "I worried that you lacked the conviction and bravery to answer my challenge," Shaoyu bristled at this, and even more so as the brightly dressed man continued "Or that your new companions would prevent you from doing so. Good that you came, though for is not this a place of beauty?" That was what he was concerned with, Eire kept a hand on his ward's shoulder, "I could understand if its sight alone could compel you to recant your ways and seek absolution but if you remain obstinate I am ready to make good on my challenge. Draw your steel to test against me , and we can exchange pleasantries anew after your defeat and return to the faith!"

"Sight alone?" Shaoyu glanced around a hiss of sparks, before spluttering in outrage "This small garden, Goddess Victorious, Shrikewall is testament of-"

"Yes Shaoyu these things have been said." He replied in draconic.

One of the priestesses, indeed he wouldn't have been surprised if all of them, were from Brevoy translated from draconic into vulgar taldane, which still a few minutes before they could move on. The rules of the duel itself were simple. The shrine's interior were off limits and subject to forfeiture since it was the sanctum. Fredero had well maintained, but entirely too ornate to be field armor, though his long sword was at least a practical design, even accepting the amethyst inlays. He didn't strike Eire as someone who used magic, but more a fixture of courtly society, but one who could wield a blade.

With the rules accepted. Linzi, Tristian, and Saeya Mouri stood to one side as the bard prepared to chronicle the events from the shade of one of the apple trees and he and Shaoyu and Jaethal moved opposite.

Fredero wasted no time as soon as the duel began with surprising elan for someone so overdressed and immediately went down the stairs aiming to force the blonde back and off balance, and met in a clash of steel. Sparks of fire trailed from Valerie's sword an improvement rendered in the face of Harrgulka's particular troubles to the realm, given that she couldn't conjure the magical flames herself. She had partially accepted the sword in part because Tristian could enjoin his scimitar with magical fire, presumably the enchantments on Fredero's sword were a matter of Shelynite pomp and circumstance as it dealt a harmful song like ring.

Eire frowned at the sonic attack, and damage, but said nothing, allowing the duel to unfold as it was , because at the end of it, Valerie had a clear edge. Her equipment was better, and while it was true that Fredero probably had years of experience garnered over the course of his life Valerie was a more capable fighter.

Fredero Sinnet might have been an acrobat and dancer certainly he was spry but Valerie had lived as a mercernary and with the aldori. She had probably at least as much dueling experience with the bravos of restov. She was a juggernaut in the clinch, and proved this by leveraging her longer sword to pivot around the plate protection to hip throw Fredero down the short rise of marble steps to her left.

Even with magic swords defeating plate armor was hard, unless that magic entailed some way to bypass solid steel, but a rigid sword made an effective bar to leverage a fully armored man easily enough, Fredero's tumble also disoriented him as he hit the transept nearer to a statue and reflecting pool close to the stand of fruit trees where Linzi was hastily and somewhat inaccurately, in terms, describing the bout while Saeya attempted to correct misused terminology.

The noise of the fight had attracted attention from the shrine. Another of the priestesses seemed to have peaked out to watch, and then ducked back in... he spared the movement a look considering perhaps the mother superior or whomever was in charge to chide her for slacking off... who knew. The fight continued for about another minute before Valerie forced a concession from her former mentor.

"And that Shaoyu is why we practice fighting against armored opponents," Why grappling and striking and leverage and footwork, and terrain and other details were important even when you could set the enemy on fire. Eire crossed over the path as Linzi began congratulating the chancellor for her victory.

Sir Fredero had a clearly broken nose, and a laceration on his scalp that was at least three inches running to over his ear that was oozing blood, but he'd avoided having his arm dislocated, and really wasn't that worse off. He spared only a passing glance at the statue of Shelyn, before moving on to the two armored figured. Fredero wasn't seriously hurt, but Eire also wasn't particularly expecting the out of breath knight to do anything stupid.

It was Linzi, who also venerated Shelyn, who pointed out that the statue was crying. Eire's head snapped back to look at the unusually forlorn statute of the goddess and ineed the tears running down the round feminine cheeks of marble.

He didn't have much time to contemplate what it meant.

"TULVAK!" Saeya Mouri bellowed her hands on her pole arm. "Hag!" She called in warning.

Eire whirled. Long swords unsheathed at the name.

He knew the name. The green hag had leaked the names of her coven at Nivakta's crossing, and where they could be found for her own spite filled ends two years earlier. He had never seen the green hag in person but he trusted the knight of torrent was telling the truth.

Jaethal slipped like a grim shadow and tripped the priestess who had translated his draconic earlier. "Stay there." The inquisitor of Urgoataha purred in amusement, and sinister warning daring the young woman to defy the command as she faced the entryway.

"Tristian, Linzi, rear guard." He ordered. "Tulvak." He called

"Hello there dearies. I didn't think I'd see you again." The green hag called waving a ferocious looking scythe of her own in the air, "It was so pleasing to see you deal with granny Ferras's hideous face." He thought of the bloated purple features of the iron hag his summoned octopus had drowned in the rapid currents of the Shrike river west of Restov amid a broken bridge. "I don't see that strapping half orc lad with you, that's a pity, he looked positively scrumptious."

... and then she triggered a magic ring and disappeared. He recognized the recall spell, but the question was where she had teleported to.


--

Notes: This is using content from the companion book, which again I retierate runs into the problem of writers not tending to understand scale. That being said, Eire, and Shaoyu are comparing a small shrine to the cathedral at Shrikewall while a fifty foot dome is small for a shrine its not that unusual in reality for somewhere on the frontiers.

But also this can be neatly interpreted as religious chauvinism, or also the difference in aesthetics, given Shaoyu's position while a cute garden its lacks the imperial splendor of the cathedral... but it bears in mind that Shaoyu also hatched in the Cathedral as it was being built.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Spring 4713AR
If Amiri didn't really care for urban areas cities especially as anything other than a passing place to eat, drink sleep, and occasionally use the market... the handful of six bears who travelled with her childhood friend Nilak were even more out of place within the city walls. Eire was willing to go so far as to assume that the winter had been the longest that the six bears had spent in any single place since their flight into the land of Numeria had begun...

Shrikewall during the winter months was a very busy place. The baronial seat, the royal seat now did not ice over... at best it did receive some snow typically in the early second month of the year but the Tuskwater being fed from the Shrike which remained quite brisk never froze over thus the port of Shrikewall was never shut to the flow of foreign traffic coming up the Sellen system. This meant that during the winter months people arrived but largely did not depart the capital. This was beyond the migration, as feudal homage also was included over these months.

In the culture of the Mammoth Lords it was a great symbol of power and prestige for a tribe to have foundling giants raised among their tribes. A clan commanding more than a dozen was enough to place it among the strongest of Kellid tribes, and and insured their broader following commanded great influence at gatherings as well as choice hunting grounds.

There was no questioning that Narhold was dominated by humans in population, but the significant migration of kellid, and iobarian folk from Numeria and the east as well as up from the south was bringing with it others besides just various barbarian clans to meet the proclaimed 'twice born' and so coupled with migrations unrelated to the Tiger Lords Shrikewall was a place of cosmopolitan nature that made it alien beyond the small towns of Numeria or the fringes of the world wound or Brevoy the small group had passed.


Eire watched a ship tack into the wind. "Have they given thought to where they will settle?" It was no secret that Amiri hoped that Nilak and the handful of others would settle... perhaps at New Colton or in the east somewhere in the Kamelands or on Lake Silverstep... but that they would remain close since they had been pushed from the lands of the mammoth lords.

She accepted that they were unlikely to consider settling within Shrikewall's direct boundaries. "Nilak doesn't know. It would be premature so long as that ghost bastard is still around." Compounding that was that while the worship of Desna and Gorrum were common in the land of the mammoth lords... well even Amiri had been ignorant of Iomedae, and the inheritor's church within Brevoy was small.

"Yes," Well, they were working on it. Eire regarded the lake, and then to his capital at large. The spring thaw would be begin soon, and that would gorge the rivers, marking really spring.

--
Eire was looking forward to well eventually a clocktower, and a university but the printing press by itself made it possible to provide for academic matters.

Vordakai cleared his throat making a rattling noise in his atrophied chest. He and Maestro Pendrod, a guest of Maegar's, had been discussing linguistics before the latter's return to Oppara. Modern Giant or Jotun was actually a mixture of Cyclops and Thassilonian, which was itself a part of the Azlanti language family though from a different branch. This made it distantly related, at least in the Thasilonian side, to Hallit and Taldane. To that extent most giants if they were willing to put forth the effort could learn Common or Hallit comparatively more easily than they could Draconic.

"I assume we have confirmation?"

"We do." The atrophied lich looked at the swirling sands beneath their feet. "The tiger lords call to arms towards various giants have gathered several hill giant bands to hear him out, with more approaching." Vordakai paused and with a suffering scowl continued, "Gragglebeard is a hill giant known for the brutality his host of ogres and his suit of wyvern armor. He will have to be destroyed with his host."

Amiri straightened suddenly intrigued at the conversation going on. "Destroyed?"

"There can be no negotiation with this one." That was a very quickly unanimous opinion. He had a well earned reputation for terror across the river kingdoms having wiped many settlements and was known from Numeria to Galt where he had last been reported in the east, prior to the report of his presence travelling north through the Mivonese countryside. If you needed some rampant destruction and had gold, or commodities Gragglebeard would be happy to oblige as long as he got first choice of booty. "Mivon has already placed a bounty on his head."

Eire nodded. He took the consensus in stride. There were other hill giants moving to join or at least hear Armag out and of course there was another giantish problem. "That leaves Fionn." He remarked bringing forward the discussion he had had in private with Amiri that morning.

"We have made the preparations to reincarnate Kean, and free him from the sword, but it will require waiting for the spring equinox." Which was thankfully not that far away. "Once his soul is free of the curse binding him to the sword Fionn no longer be able to return from being defeated."

He didn't like the should in that sentence, but it was the best plan that didn't involve either human sacrifice or asking Shyka to do something about her exiled frost giant. Amiri immediately volunteered to fight Fionn once he was mortal... it had been training for such a rematch that had dominated her activity all winter.

That left him with the matter of handling the reincarnation of the frost giant... and that left them still to contend with the broader context of international relations... or one of their less immediate neighbors' internal politics. While there were Giants who would have found Shrikewall's cathedral still small the fortress had been built with giantish assistance and its hall had very high ceilings. The chamber beyond the sea of shifting sands that formed the magically changing map of the realm was built and furnished in the same dark hardwoods and plaster facades mixed Chelish and Iobarian directed appearances. Vordakai shut the door behind them making him the sixth giant in the room.

Shaoyu, Jaethal, Amiri, Mouri, and two armingers accompanying her had followed. Four giants stood around a bound gnarled fifth... a cleric of the demon lord Kostchtchie who had been arrested having come from Iobaria. The cleric of Minderhal, a stone giant elder well into his ninth century, nodded. "if it pleases you?"

The bound giant licked his cracked lips, and recognizing Eire's nod began to speak.

Iobaria wasn't the problem, not at the moment at least. It was the opposite direction to the west lay the land of eternal winter. The domain of "Baba yaga will return soon." He repeated.

"Yes," The captured cleric rasped. "To replace her daughter Elvanna, to place a new daughter on the throne." The giant remarked.

He wondered if he was over thinking things... but earth's memory stirred at him. "The Tiger Lords, this witch queen could be seeking to bolster her army against her mother." Amiri suggested, which wasn't an insane idea... other than they were talking about the fucking boogeyman.

Jaethal happily reiterated Irrisen's, rather lurid, history that this had happened time and again, every hundred years the crone and her walking hut showed up to put a new daughter on the throne, and and whisk the previous queen away. There had been rebellions and defiance before... they never worked since the first daughter Jadwiga had been crowned in 3313 at the end of the Winter War.

The cleric of Kostchtchie knew nothing of that, only that five hundred years ago the ninth daughter of the crone had rebelled... and as consequence Kostchtchie had been driven from Irrisen to Iobaria. Tashanna had managed to locate the Torc of Kostchtchie which contained the soul of the frost giant demon lord. The torc which was supposedly locked within the veil of frozen tears... but that was in the far north... it was well beyond the distance that the six bears had fled across on the other side ... but the mercenaries sent to the necropolis had managed to penetrate the wards of the necropolis all the same and so Kostchtchie had some idea where it was, which meant an overland trek but being a practical sort was willing to hire adventurers of his own to see if any of them could secure his torc even if they weren't giants.

That still raised questions of what Elvanna, the reigning queen, hoped to accomplish with all of this given the events of past history. Still if Elvanna was intended to rebel... it did explain some of the migration small pockets of strangers from the west, reports of winter wolves in southern Numeria and so on. Some of course had initially been assumed to be Varisians and ulfens migrating from further west but now he suspected that there might be more going on.

He looked at the bound cleric and the manacles, they could only prove cattle rustling charge... which the evil giant was obviously guilty of and that was hardly some great shocker, but he suspected the cleric being the servant to a demon lord was likely guilty of more. "You are exiled from my realm, and declared outlaw, you will be taken to the border with Numeria and given sufficient rations for three days. Do not enter my lands without my leave." The branding magic flared a rune appearing on the purple skin of the giant and pulsed briefly.

Vordakai nodded, and the assembly reduced as the other giants and the armingers departed for the trip to the Numerian border. River Giants were used to playing the river and would insure that the cleric was sent to Numeria... and of course there were other errands that needed to be conducted. A civil war in Irrisen was not something likely to effect them... and the more he thought about it he doubted Armag's host would be in a position to march across the north without significant magical aid... and besides that would have made their lives so much simpler if the vast kellid horde simply decamped for the west and took those flocking to join them with them.

Jaethal was right that if Elvanna intended to raise rebellion it was doubtful she would fare any better than her sisters various attempts.... and if tradition held then at the end of the year there would be a new queen in Irrisen and the point would ultimately be moot.

The afternoon's course of events had them contend with several other similar matters of state, and the growing diverse population of the realm, and the king of less than a year settled on a less ostentatious, stern even high backed chair. "You have other misgivings?"

There were always going to be arguments within the church. There were squabbles between nationality... and of course he suspected given time they would see a similar 'export' from their own borders. Half elves were a complicated subject... half bloods in general. Half orcs could make a pretty good living in brevoy... if they adapted to the country, or if both their parents were half orcs... their northern neighbor was complicated...

...and the condition of the bastards of Golarion was complicated. It wasn't half orcs that were the main matter. He knew the bellflower network was active in his land smuggling small folk north to freedom, and he knew all too well that the Church as well as Milani's church were facilitating their safe passage. Eire had expected more of the same. "There is trouble brewing in Cheliax," and less charitably that Taldor was a basket case... and that played a role.

What those two nations shared in common was well... nobles and their indiscretions. Half elves and tieflings. Most of the tieflings were from Cheliax originally of course but given their status, and indeed frequent enslavement in the infernal kingdom they did escape to Taldor when possible... and well nobles in both realms tended to want to shuttle off their half elf children far from the sight of the courts as well. As Jaethal had predicted they had seen some increase in elven, pure born wood elves, to migrate as word spread of the first world cultivars. Kyonin's envoy, envoy not ambassador, was still not keen on interactions with the undead inquisitor but made the best of it if only for a peaceful position at court. That itself was a development an outgrowth of the change from free holding barony to a territorial kingdom and the monarchy.
--
Notes: Irrisen, Winter War and the actual AP will play only limited role in this part of the story... I had considered Eire making a brief trip to 20th​ century Earth (Rasputin Must Die!), that has been scrapped, Anastasia will be named dropped but probably will not appear on screen for a while though again her ascension to the throne of Irrissen will be mentioned much later in the year or in the following one.

The larger point here is to comment on the broader potential conspiracy Elvanna may or may not have engaged on to try and rebel against Baba Yaga during the course of the AP, which 'starts' in midsummer of 4713 roughly two months before the world wound incursion. (The romanovs were murdered in mid July on Earth of 1918). Again in the current version I do not plan to cover the events of Reign of Winter in particular detail, or for that matter Wrath of the Righteous other than the events of the opening of the fifth mendevian crusade, but I consider the timeline of events important even though it makes the summer of 4713 rather busy.

That being said my best estimation of Winter Reigns is that it takes place over probably a couple of months, at least probably two or three , and certainly overlaps with the world wound incursion (Elvanna thinks she's going to save the world wound for last, which leads into the next thing) supposed Elvanna oped up winter portal all over golarion.

I fully suspect that result of that would be Cheliax, and Taldor, and Qadira and the Keleshite empire (etc etc) would start putting armies through those portals to rearrange Irrisen's national face if the AP had lasted much longer than that, which might have implications on the world wound situation.

Jokingly:
Kingmaker: Winter portals in the kingdom

Damn it Nyrissa stop fucking with my kingdom!
Not me this time.

That being said the events of the torc of Kostchie are IIRC 4711 but we're going to handwave that in this particular case as I don't have that particular book hand to double check

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pharast 4713
Because Shrikewall was dominated by its geography, which in turn overlooked both the Tuskdale valley to the north and the river courses, and the tuskwater lake that impacted the city's layout. As a result the urban center was impacted by the geography. The cathedral, even with completion of the stone fortress remained the urban center of the castle town's dominant commerce structure because it formed the dominant portion of the urban center.

This had the natural by product of congregating most open air trade. Iomedae might not have been a goddess of commerce but it made sense to have in the vicinity of the cathedral in conjunction with the rest of the realm's administrative buildings other buildings related to managing the markets.

Kelesh was twelve hundred miles away, the great grass seas which dominated northern iobaria separated the Padishah empire and its satrapies from north eastern Avistan. Yet, it was an overland route that did make its way to Restov, and indeed to New Stetven for whatever reason. It would have made more sense if the Rogavarian monarchs still reigned... if Choral the conqueror had still reigned ... but those merchants still travelled.

The riverine route was possible, one could sail up the great Sellen River nearly the entire length of the river... which was why he was surprised no one had reopened the slough. It would have made more economic sense... but he wasn't inclined to look into why they hadn't when he so readily benefitted from the trade

Of the modern human empires. The Padishah Empire to whom was overlord of Kelesh was the closest to merit Vordakai's respect... Chelesh was a distant second even without factoring in its clearly declining status of power. Taldor, was so far as the cyclops was concerned, lucky it hadn't been ripped apart by civil war or conquered... though that wasn't why he respected the Keleshite's overlord. He respected them for their proficiency with magic, and extra planar interactions the same reason he respected Cheliax, and also Osirion, because they had extra planar alliances, and powerful magic. In the case of the Padishah, and also their broader cultural sphere, that was the ties to djinn and elementals.

At the same time though they did not reach the power and influence of the azlanti civilization of Azlanti high society, or their Thasilonian breakaways. The modern human empires were more territorially expansive... they were larger, and had greater populations but that meant little to Vordakai compared to, well crudely put, how much magic they could wield.

The cyclops had a voracious appetite for knowledge, and thus read whatever books he could put his hands on. They'd need to build a library. They needed to build a lot of buildings for hte capital, and for the other core towns. Those core towns, even Hereford, were much more centrally planned in layout than Shrikewall. It was in part that they weren't medieval towns at all... they, in contrast to say Olegton, or Tatzlford were the traditional arrangement of charters.

It was in this arrangement that the cyclops had turned his attention from the matter of the Sarenite faithful of Kelesh delegations memorandums to the throne, to face his single eye. He easily towered over the others in the room... none of the stone giants were present being unnecessary for the day's proceedings, and the same was true for the other giants of note in the realm. Amiri was off somewhere with Nilak waiting for the frost giant to be liberated from within her broken sword. Regongar and Octavia weren't typically involved in these matters of the realm.

So it was Vordakai, Tristian, Harrim, Jaethal, Valerie, Linzi, Jubilost and Kanerah all around the original table of the first hall that retained an accurate enough map of the 'Stolen Lands' and its surroundings. The gathering represented the council and covered the important distinctions between secular and religious view points, as well as martial, and economic.

Unlike matters with the giantish gods, Minderhal, or the demon lord Kotschie as had most recently been discussed, the Sarenite Faith was largely accepted throughout the known world... which meant it had many many individual churches, and a wide range of iterations and sects, and differing view points. Eire would not have been surprised if Sarenrae's church was actually the largest faith on Golarion, certainly as the official faith of the Padisah empire and its satrapies and its favored status across the nations in its cultural gravity ... it must have certainly been up there. Sarenrae herself was an ancient human goddess... though that would invariably provoked arguments over creation myths... and so forth.

Shelyn was likely an equally ancient goddess, she had originally been a member of the Azlanti pantheon... which raised other questions, but the necessity to rebuild Shelyn's shrine of the golden grove did attract the attention and notice of the other faiths. Shelyn had directly asked, beyond just hte crying statue, and forcing the hag's withdrawal from the shrine... well he acknowledged that doing anything with the Shrine of the Golden Grove might have prompted attention... divine direct meddling was...

"Tristian?"

The blonde sarenite cleric nodded, coughed slightly, and started to speak, "Besides orphanages, and hospitals," Sarenrae was patron of among other things lost children apparently, but also patron of healers... "I cannot deny that the dawnflower's church does involve itself in the work of the bellflower network... however."

"Tristian, the Inheritor's faith is at a minimum turning a blind eye to their abolitionist work, and I have made my opinion very clear that I support the abolition of slavery..."

"However not all of the church may feel universally compelled to do so."

Eire paused, and nodded. That was true... Qadira, Kelesh, Osirion, the Padishah empire more broadly widely practiced slavery. Azlant had practiced slavery when it had still be extent. Iomedae church while more theologically predisposed against slavery than Arodens ... was more akin to the medieval catholic churches' opinion so far as accepting, and preferred serfdom as an alternative, but was not prepared to actually force a catastrophically destructive war to abolish it. The best that Iomedae's church had been able to do was largely to eliminate it within the church hierarchy itself, regardless of financial losses.

Milani's church might have preferred they went further.... but there were realpolitik concerns that pervaded the Inner Sea. The best that could be done was ato support and encourage one view point, friendly viewpoints over those of the other branches of the church, but without out confronting them with militant force.

"There is also the other matter," Kanerah didn't like the state church of her homeland.... for rather obvious reasons. The red eyed tiefling also found Tristian's sermonizing annoying... which Amiri, and Jubilost tended to concur, while ironically Harrim didn't mind the theological disagreement, and Linzi welcomed the sunlight cheeriness. "I've been receiving requests from both the Church of the Dawnflower and that of Iomedae, and others about what resources could be provided to Mendev..."

"Yes, I've been fielding similar petitions since the start of the year... and the conclusion," that he had reached before being told, "was that there is a fifth mendevian crusade being considered. It won't b e formally pronounced until the churches in common are certain they have the resources to support it but the faith has begun petitioning its monarchs," Of which he now counted, "for considerations of support for the conflict against the abyss."

"Hence questions of grain, and iron," Vordakai observed, "And thus why the realm examines how we can transport such goods from the lands between the rivers," The word he actually used was a vaguely greek word in ancient cyclopean dialect that; in short a variation of mesopotomia.
--
Notes: Yes, that is being canonized as we move forward... I'm going to go edit that post, and do something comprehensive down the road. The fragments of divinity being absorbed are canon thats already happened with the Kingmaker jump's perks I should have phrased that better.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Jumps and Builds​

This is a place holder post it is an alternate version of Eire's evolving power set as the divine shards are assimilated with a loose chronology. I will be editting in these builds reflective of this alternative version because to be honest the idea is bugging the ever loving shit out of me, and if I don't post it its going to continue to nag me. I am omitting some of the freebies, and item purchaes to save space.

Arrival on Golarion: Generic Pathfinder https://i.4pcdn.org/tg/1567739084008.pdf

The Generic Pathfinder Jump: 1000:

Spoiler: Cleric Tree: 450

Ear of the Divine [100]: The gods are worshipped by many, and the most popular gods are always inundated with a caconophy of prayers. Desperate pleas for help, choirs singing their praises, someone hitting their finger with a hammer – that type of thing. But you are not some peasant praying for rain or something so mundane. You are a Cleric, a holy man, a living conduit of divine power. And when you pray to a deity, your voice is the sound of thunder amongst the rain of other prayers and it will never go unheard. This extends to any other beings that can hear prayers, not just your own god. Something about your inner voice is simply impossible to ignore, even if such a being were actively attempting to tune out prayers.

Will of the Gods [300]: In a world where gods are an active presence in the land and their servants walk about healing the sick and smiting heathens, it is not hard to convince the common folk to venerate them. For you, this is particularly true. Just interacting with people in a positive light will cause most you meet to start adapting your ideals and beliefs. Something more extreme such as saving them from a grisly fate at the hands of a monster or raising their child from the grave would likely cause most to drop to their knees and convert to your religion on the spot.

Holy Man [600]: No mere priest are you. You are a living avatar of the god or concept that you worship. All those who look upon you can instantly see that you are more than a man of flesh and blood, you are an icon, a living saint. Were you to worship a god of the sun, all who saw you could tell that you burned with your god's light and you could summon an aura of sunlight to literally burn with glorious incandescence. Furthermore, you overflow with divine energy. Without even channeling energy, your mere touch can heal minor wounds or repel the undead. And your domain spells can be cast at will as often and as many times as you wish without preparing them, so long as you are capable of casting spells of the level of the domain spell you wish to cast. Finally, you can create copies of your holy symbol and favored weapon at will which will remain in existence so long as you are in contact with them but will slowly fade away otherwise.

The Stag Lord Defeated: The Dragons



Eranex's Quest Resolution: Pathfinder Kingmaker Jump

Spoiler: Kingmaker.

1000CP
Freebies:
Lawful Good:
- Knightly (100CP, free for Lawful Good)
You hold yourself to a higher standard, and it would not do for your dedication to waver in the face of opposition. You gain a high degree of physical and mental discipline, and you'll find that you not only inspire others around you to act with courage, but that you yourself will never be overwhelmed by fear. This does not mean you do not experience fear - rather, such emotions will never cloud your judgement, cause your hands to shake, or otherwise leave you with such deleterious effects.
- First World Flora (100CP, first free with 'Esoteric Gardener')
The wilds of the Stolen Lands contain more than mundane or even magical plants and wildlife. Thanks to the unusually thin barrier between the physical world and the so-called 'First World' where fey make their home, the Stolen Lands see an unusually high variety of otherworldly plants and unusual, plant-like creatures. With each purchase, you gain a number of seeds,
saplings or other such materials suited for growing one of these strange plant types, including instructions on how to plant and nurture them. You also gain the means to control the more dangerous variants and ensure you don't find yourself (or your friends) on the wrong side of a hungry mass of vegetation. Though this control remains fairly basic and instinctive, given these plants aren't exactly smart, it is usually enough to train even the most primitive of these plants such that they only harm those they're supposed to harm - or those being suicidally careless. You may choose from the following options:
Second, the large, lush petals of Mana Plants are used to collect vast amounts of magical power. Though these plants take time to grow and they are useless on their own, their supernatural nature allows even a single such flower to generate vast amounts of arcane energies. Once grown large enough to fill a small room, this type of plant could power a multitude of arcane enchantments, equipment, and wards across an entire castle without difficulty.
- Safe Travels (200CP, free for Lawful Good)
A nation does not end at its cities' walls, and you'll find that the roads and farmlands that crisscross the wilderness of the Stolen Lands are at least as important as the grand institutions of the capital. With this upgrade, you gain the advantages of a much better protected travel system to support your people. Where before you might have had mere dirt tracks and muddy paths leading to your villages, now you'll have roads made with cobblestone or even granite setts - allowing for far faster and easier travel all year round. You'll likewise gain high-quality stone bridges over any rivers that might otherwise form obstacles, including a small garrison for protection against hostiles, toll collection, and other such economic and safety concerns. As your kingdom grows and prospers, you might even find yourself with easy access to watchtowers and other small outposts to keep the roads safe, further reducing the risk of banditry, goblin infestations and wild animal attacks alike.
--
- Esoteric Gardener (200CP)
Having a 'green thumb' is not so unusual - there are countless farmers, herbalists, and other such men and women reliant on their ability to cultivate plants, to speak nothing of what experienced Druids can accomplish. But your gifts take on a rather more… varied approach, and your gift doesn't end with mere mundane or common magical plants. Rather, yours is a gift eminently applicable to the nourishing and cultivating of supernatural flora, in particular those with a strong tie to the First World - with all that implies. Plants and other flora will flourish under your hands, and you could grow massive, otherworldly flowers literally luminescent with gathered magical energies as easily as others might plant wheat or potatoes. You know just how to make plants thrive even in hostile environments, and breeding new, often supernaturally augmented, plants is a trivial matter provided you have some time and a bit of fertile soil. And for those who feel that flowerpots and soil are a poor way to power… think again. A single First World flower, in the hands of a true master, can become a threat more insidious and terrifying than an entire army of invaders.


- Unformed (600CP) The creatures of the First World come in many shapes, sizes and overall levels of power - first among them the so-called 'Eldest', including Shyka The Many, the Lost Prince, and the Lantern King. Beings of nearly godlike power, these Fey lords are nigh omnipotent in their own realms of the First World... but like any other creature originating from the gods' first 'test' of Creation, their powers are still mutable. Some may grow stronger or weaker through their own actions, outside circumstances sometimes result in strange differences in their apparent might, and in some, exceedingly rare cases... one may become an Elder without already possessing such power. Nyrissa once thought herself on this level, but her hubris saw her broken instead. You, on the other hand, share a certain spark, a dim flicker of power within that - should it be fed and fanned by experience and growth - will eventually see you rise to such lofty heights. Much like Magdh is a seer and prophet of surpassing skill, Shyka The Many's powers relate around the flow and manipulation of time, and the Lantern King is the Eldest of mischief, transformation and doom, so too must you choose a particular focus for your slowly awakening nature. With this power, you will learn any Pathfinder talents falling under your chosen focus at a vastly greater speed, simultaneously removing any limitations on how far these abilities might grow. You start only barely stronger than you otherwise would, but in time, you will be mighty enough to become one of Golarion's most powerful beings. You will need patience, however... the First World is old, and so are those who would rule it. Without continually pushing yourself to excel, to surpass old achievements and grasp even greater power, it could take centuries or even millennia before you are a peer to the other Eldest. Make sure you know when your claim is worthy - or you too might be forced to know Nyrissa's sorrow.


- Bountiful (100CP)
The Stolen Lands are a wild, untamed land, with few sites of civilization and barely any infrastructure. But while the region is little more than unmarked canvas on the map, behind its wild appearance lies a remarkable wealth of resources, ripe for the taking. This purchase ensures your entire kingdom is criss-crossed with a wide variety of advantageous quarries and mines, fertile soil or unique spices and crops, old fortifications that can easily be restored to working order, glades and vistas of unusual beauty to inspire bards and attract travelers, and other such locales of interest to a young but ambitious kingdom. The wide variety found in these improvements means improvements to any single aspect of your kingdom will be rather minor, but harnessing these resources provides one of the most reliable and effective ways to improve your kingdom's overall power, prosperity and influence with only minimal effort required.
- Waterways (100CP)
Rivers are the lifeblood of a region, with many towns and cities specifically built along riverbanks for the advantages they provide. Fresh water is quite valuable, fishing is a comparatively fast and reliable source of food, and rivers often enable much more convenient travel both by boat and along the side of the river thanks to (relatively) level ground.
Although the Stolen Lands barely count as being part of the so-called 'River Kingdoms', they are nonetheless criss-crossed with a variety of rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water. With this perk, the advantages of such terrain features are greatly improved. Rivers are made wider and deeper to allow for larger boats to travel their winding lengths, and your territory will become home to a wide variety of smaller streams that improve access to water for both drinking and farmland. You'll be able to easily construct any major towns you like next to rivers to connect them to the rest of your kingdom, with each gaining the benefits of piers, ports or even a lighthouse. You could even use the water for defense - creating moats around your cities or
heavily defended bridges across rivers that are otherwise hard to cross will not be a challenge for your people.

Varnhold Vanishing / the Kingdom foundation: Crusader Kings III
https://docs.google.com/document/d/18wMlZxqhvBclgnrHhGsADGCq6-_0oWFtkCBVdUlDYjc/edit

Crusader Kings 3 is very long...

Spoiler: Organization

You gain +1000 CP stipend to spend solely on this section.
This is the part where you're going to be building your own realm and giving them perks. Upon finishing this section, you will receive 500,000 refugees and many more people to help jumpstart a new realm anywhere in the setting.

The following discounts are given to you:
Six 50 CP perks
Four 100 CP perks
Two 200 CP perks
One 400 CP perk
Discounted perks are 50% off.
Discounted 50 CP perks are free.

Wetlanders [50] Your people are masters of living around water. They are comfortable with any amount of humidity, can swim as fast as sprinting on land, do not expend stamina nor get fatigued from swimming in water. Your people cannot be slowed down when walking or running through water nor can water push them down.
Melting Pot [50] Foreign or minority cultures within your organization are much more receptive to assimilating to your main culture, social values, and religion. You can choose one culture that people should assimilate to, and freely choose if this is a full-on assimilation, produces unique divergent or hybrid cultures, a mere acceptance and coexistence with the other culture, and et cetera. Full-on assimilation takes a few years to finalize.
Bureaucratic [50] Your people value consistent record-keeping as of great importance, and take great pains in logging down information for every situation imaginable. As such, it is impossible to permanently scrub any and all records logged down by your people, for such efforts will always be insufficient and result in the information being once again found somewhere else. Additionally, whoever logged down the record will always be able to find it in no less than a minute of effort. If they want this record to remain eternally accessible, they can also grant a similar level of accessibility to the organization at large, thus allowing anyone within the organization to find a copy of it just by looking around in their surroundings for a minute. The copy will then disappear once it is used.
Eastern Roman Legacy [50] Military personnel and mercenaries only need to be paid a fourth of the usual rate, thanks to their keen sense of frugality and loyalty of service. Additionally, it is impossible for such soldiers to grow bored during duty and they can be absolutely trusted not to fool around or cause unrest with the civilian population. They're mindful enough not to cause any trouble even if they're occupying enemy territory as well. As such, subjugated peoples are receptive to your army as long as your military doesn't threaten their lives.
Chernozem [50] Every soil is as fertile and bountiful as black soil when sown and harvested by your people. Their crops also grow as efficiently as if they're in the best suited environment, regardless of actual weather or environmental conditions. Sowing the same crop in the same land no longer negatively affects the soil's nutrition cycle either.
Crusader Skylines [50] Your organization is the absolute best at interior designing, city planning, and the optimization of all available spaces. All living space shall be created and managed to their utmost efficiency. Your cities could easily accommodate for unprecedented growth and modern developments in technology.

Horse Lords [100] Your people are born into the saddle. Starting from the age of four, your people can learn how to ride the saddle on any mount (and learn how to drive any vehicle) and master it on their own over the course of a month. If they receive help, this can be narrowed down to a couple of weeks or shorter. It won't be long before your people's children know how to outcompete adult riders from other realms.
Communal Festivals [100] Social events hosted by your people are an amazing experience. Festivities are far more boisterous, foodstuffs and goods on sale appear in greater quantities than even a participating merchant would expect, and all negative habits effectively cease to exist for the duration of the event. "Negative" meaning anything that may incur harm upon another person without their consent. Mutual duels could still occur if that is the nature of your people's society. Absolutely nothing can ruin the potential fun of these events without willful participation on your part.
Bourgeoisie [100] The elite of your society may sit high in their ivory towers, but they will never grow complacent or ignorant of what is happening below them. In fact, the elite of your organization are keenly aware of everything that is generally going on in lower society, even in incredibly distant regions. As a side effect, your elite never make out-of-touch comments or policies that could rouse the proles against them, or at least know how to enact such statements or policies in a way that is overlooked by the proles. This makes it much, much harder for your lower society to compete or rebel against their betters.
.Look After Yourselves [100] Your military always keeps perfect maintenance on their equipment, thus rendering attrition impossible among the ranks. They look after their equipment so well, there will never be a case where someone ends up losing something due to neglect or circumstance. Even thievery simply never happens. It may not sound like much, but having a poorly disciplined army that does nothing to maintain their equipment is a horrific rot that can destroy any military from inside out. With this perk, your military will not be left for want of a nail

Industrious [200] Your people are ridiculously industrious. They do not get bored nor burned out from doing the same thing over and over again, although they cannot get harmfully addicted to repetition.


Shock Troopers [200] Your people have a natural talent to make for fearsome warriors at close combat, particularly shock troopers and other heavy infantry that are meant for intense combat. It'd only take a couple months of training to churn decade-hardened veterans for any specialization of heavy infantry that are as impressive as the Druzhina, Huscarls, Sarawits and Varangians of old. This also affects modern counterparts of heavy infantry that are otherwise considered as specialized troopers or special forces of any military, e.g. mountaineers, marines, etc.

On An Open Field! [200] Your people have a natural talent to make for swiftsure light cavalry. It'd only take a week for them to be completely attuned with any mount or vehicle, and a couple of months of training to churn out decade-hardened veterans for any specialization of light cavalry that are as impressive as the Mongols, Konnis, and Mulathunums of old. This also affects modern counterparts, such as any cavalry role that relies on light combat vehicles to perform adequately.z

Hell Chargers [200] Your people have a natural talent to make for daring heavy cavalry. It'd only take a week for them to be completely attuned with any mount or vehicle, and a couple of months of training to churn out decade-hardened veterans for any specialization of heavy cavalry, whether they're charging forwards with warhorses or leading armored spearheads in the modern era. They'll demonstrate as much impressive prowess as the cataphracts and gendarmes of old. This also affects modern counterparts, such as tanks, assault mechs, and any heavy frames that require an operator to pilot.

Unyielding [400] Your military is no longer affected by issues of morale because they're always at peak morale. They'll rationalize every terrible situation as something that could be overcome, no matter how staggering the odds. If they were the type to be constantly depressed or otherwise doubt themselves, they'll mentally compartmentalize and treat their job as if they were passionate about it. An army that knows no fear would completely nullify the psychological effect of certain weapons and tactics. With unbreakable morale, your soldiers would never break formation against cavalry charges, and soldiers wouldn't freeze at incoming projectiles either. Your soldiers would never retreat on their own accord unless they are ordered to retreat or their military doctrine indicates they should. Their unbeatable warrior spirit also grants immunity to anything that may mentally influence them against their will, such as fear, possession, charms, suggestion, illusions, and torture.

Spoiler: Religion

The following discounts are granted: Six 50 CP perks for free Four 100 CP perks Two 200 CP perks One 400 CP perk You gain +1000 CP stipend to spend solely on this section. Companions do not receive stipends or discounts for this section.
Adorcism [50] All spirits and supernatural entities view your adherents as people of interest, and never in a bad way. To these entities, your adherents are peculiar, harmless, and worthy of doting attention. Good-natured and indifferent spirits go out their way to help your adherents over matters of small convenience. Malicious spirits generally avoid your adherents wholesale, unless your adherent desire an encounter with one, in which case the malicious spirit will only have a neutral attitude at worst. Even devils, demons, and undead have neutral feelings to your adherents, whether or not they're capable of feeling in the first place. Whoever the spirits are, your adherents can make efforts to befriend them and form a friendship that is no less interesting than a friendship between normal living people. This perk is subverted for each adherent if the adherent intentionally acts offensively or harmfully to the entity somehow.
Adaptive [50] Your adherents won't ever convert to an entirely different faith, nor will they betray their virtues. They also know effective measures to practice their faith in secret, which can be useful if they're facing persecution. In such cases, their religious practices cannot be discovered by any investigative effort, and their faith won't ever deteriorate or die out across generations.
Armed Pilgrimages [50] All adherents do not have any difficulty expressing their language and intentions to each other and their allies. Additionally, cooperation between your adherents and their allies are always genuine, and all adherents actually invest themselves to supporting their faith. You can trust your adherents to never jeopardize a situation due to infighting.
Esotericism [50] Your adherents consider being knowledgeable as a virtue, and always go out their way to understand topics given to them. They need only a few seconds to formulate a well-thought judgment, and they can see through any logical errors in arguments or decision-making, whether it's from themselves or someone else. If you want, this won't ever go against the development of your faith.
Legalism [50] Your faithful adherents are intuitively knowledgeable about how the law should work. They are aware that precedents must be established and maintained, and that there is an order of things in regards to justice. As such, you may either have your adherents abide by legal codes strictly as written, or flexibly by interpreting the spiritual meaning of the text while accounting for their own personal morals and religious virtues.
Sacred Childbirth [50] Your adherents are familiar with modern practices pertaining to childbirth. Additionally, all pregnant adherents are intuitively aware of every stage of conception, pregnancy isn't physically apparent on the adherent (this is optional, you may also set conditions), pregnancy does not hinder their mobility, there are absolutely no complications from pregnancy and birth, childbirth is always painless, and the infant's birth takes only a few minutes. Each mother could easily go through the entire process by herself.

Alexandrian Catechism [100] Your adherents always think critically and objectively about any topic they're thinking of. As a result, they can instantly receive the full context and nuance of any conversation they're involved in, identify logical errors in arguments, and identify all efforts intended to mislead or control other people. This gives them the ability to see through all lies and forms of illusions. As a toggleable feature, this perk may not work against your faith or your organization.

Aniconism [100] Nothing can tamper, dilute, or otherwise nullify the magical capabilities of your faithful adherents, if they have any. This prevents adherents from losing the ability to cast any sort of magic and their spells won't ever get nullified by anti-magic sources, although it doesn't stop things like magical ice walls being melted down by fireballs.

Unrelenting Faith [100] Your adherents learn all martial-related things 2x faster and similar boosts can stack multiplicatively. This applies to learning things about combat, tactics, and strategy. You may restrict which aspects of these don't apply. Physical training is also 2x more efficient, their results cannot be lost due to time or disuse, and physical improvement never results in deteriorating health conditions, i.e. a bulked body won't increase the risks of heart failure but you can still tear your muscles from exercising the wrong way.
Warrior Priests [100] All your faith officials and leaders, such as priests, cardinals, imams and rabbis, learn martial abilities and hone their physical bodies 10x faster and similar boosts can stack multiplicatively. Their martial and physical capabilities cannot be lost due to time or disuse. They cannot injure themselves from over-exercising.

By the Sword [200] All your faith adherents are capable of physically interacting with ethereal or otherwise intangible entities just as effectively as normal people could to other normal people. Enchantments and magical abilities are not required. Spirits wounded this way may still regenerate from their wounds like normal people can, though spirits don't really have many options to perform healing other than magical or spiritual means. They normally bleed ectoplasm which acts as their lifeblood, and upon "death", the spirit disintegrates into the immaterial realm.
Ecclesiarchy [200] Your adherents are immune to all unconsented effects regarding spiritual and mental phenomena. Their souls cannot be tampered with in any way whatsoever, and their memories cannot be interfered with or read. You and your organization can still mess with their spirit and mind, even if they wouldn't consent. Additionally, deceased adherents that were once governed by your organization or have served within your organization can be resurrected by you if you have the power to do so. If people within your organization also have a similar power to resurrect them, they can do it too.
Reincarnation [400] All your adherents are capable of reincarnating after death. At default, they reincarnate as newborn human infants within the same culture, society, and organization. You may freely change or loosen conditions for where they reincarnate, thus allowing them to reincarnate in different places or perhaps outside of your organization. You may also change how they can reincarnate as, i.e. can be born in different cultural families, only born through a specific sapient race, reborn as an animal, or as other living organisms. The person's genealogy always fits the parents. Reincarnation isn't always immediate; it can take a while for a person to reincarnate, perhaps even longer depending on how strict the reincarnation criterias are and how often people are born. There's a queue for each reincarnating person, after all. Whether they retain full knowledge of their previous lives are up to you.
Saved from Damnation [400] Religious events hosted by your adherents have the profound effect of cleansing the souls of all participants by removing any ailments to the soul, restoring said souls to perfect condition, and granting them immunity to any malicious phenomena that could tamper or mess with their souls & minds without their consent. You and your organization alone have the power to tamper or mess with their souls and minds even without their consent. If the ailment was possession, the spirit is forcibly expunged. How the spirit is disposed of is up to you, and you may set conditions for which spirits are given different treatments. Total irreversible destruction of affected spirits is optional.

--
In the Future:
https://drive.google.com/drive/fold...MYWk5Ync?resourcekey=0-81gzOg9roLJympR0A4C8yw

There are a couple of others including one potential technological one for dealing with Kiaransalee as well as with the Numerian arc, but those are still far in the future... and these seven jumps (out of a total of ten) will take a while to post in this post.

What I do want to be clear on, is that this is not at risk of turning into the problem that befell my DxD stories of this compelling a rewrite, this is a story of kingmaker, of kingdom making as well as of the actions of the First world, not just nyrissa but of Shyka and the other eldest. I want that to be understood because from a basic outline, Bear Rib's drow cyoa provides a lot of the initial powerset, and other factors both directly and behind the scenes

 

[Imperator Pax]

Notes Irrisen (Mythkeeper video)


So not terribly relevant because the Witchwar Legacy does not directly play a role in this but the Mythkeeper has posted a video on Irrisen, and he does state that the Adventure takes place in 4710 (or when Eire first arrives in Golarion), where as Reign of Winter's AP takes place three years later in the current story year of 4713.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pharast 4713
As she wandered the plateau over looking the great lake Nilak was unsure of what to do, Amiri was doing her best to convince her small gathering of the surviving six bears to remain nearby, but that was a daunting prospect. She was glad to see her childhood friend, and the winter had been a respite, but it was more complicated than that... Nilak was happy that her friend was alive, and healthy, but her new following even contending that it was a settled people following with all accompanying oddities bordered on terrifying and would have been outrageous all the same even without the ghostly frost giant's unyielding pursuit of the six bears from the realm of the mammoth lords.

The totem animal of Amiri's new following, the great lion sat on the banners from the stone fortress gate houses, a common feature of settled people. Traditionalists would have rejected it out of hand for the frivolity of the work that went into such banners, but would have settled for simply scorning such a waste of time.

As was typical of southerners, of settled folk in general, there were a mass of of workers toiling at various tasks that produced goods that the Realm of the Mammoth Lords occasionally traded for, but usually saw no need to. The utility of far eyes was occasionally recognized, but most glass goods were simply too fragile to be of interest to nomadic tribes at least so far as conservative elders were concerned, it was rarely acceptable to trade for such frivolous things. Though sometimes the six bears had agreed to help transport such things to large gathering places where some other followings would meet to trade, that was generally harmless and often beneficial. She understood how markets worked.

It was better they had been told as children to render all you could from the hides of the great animals under the sky. To make beads, and catches and bindings from the bones and sinews of animals... though yes working iron or what the southerners called 'arsenical bronze' ... in comparison to some other sort of bronze Nilak supposed... to make weapons was a different story. Even those came from the earth itself, or from the stars falling to the world rather than the complex practice of glass making. Amiri had been gone so long that these things no longer really effected her, they were simply a facet of the life here, and that these crafts people created them.

It was normal for Kellids to view such alien goods with some degree of suspicion... but that wasn't what made this land's dominant following terror inducing. No that was better exemplified by the the silver dragon banking into the wind and flying down towards the great gathering hall... because such a thing attracted little notice. Within the realm of the mammoth lords it wasn't unheard of for a tribe to have giant members... and it was not unheard of for giant tribes to have White dragons among their ranks.

That was a frame of reference for what could be seen. Giants, and their kin, here spoke the southerner's tongue, the language of the once massive Taldan following of the far south. It was the language they called 'common'. It was almost unheard of for a giant tribe to in its gathering to pay homage to a human following.... at best giant tribes might settle for some token trade of goods, or perhaps mutual grudging respect... but submission was the sort of thing one only heard of happening far to the west in the great icy lands of Irrisen, where the daughters of the witch queen commanded the loyalty of ice trolls, and frost giants.... and like fey as well. There was no land of eternal winter here... but Nilak had to wonder if that was just an exaggeration, after all most southerners seemed to think that the realm of the mammoth lords was all snow drifts and taiga... so maybe the stories exaggerated too...

Whatever the truth was Nilak didn't know how to react to stone giants, and others pay home to a single great chief. It was too strange, and made all the more by seeing increasing numbers of people wear the same standard pieces of clothes turned out by these 'factory' things where people followed rote steps.
--
He shook his head. He had had his own dreams of dragon's fire, and there was the kellid shaman, and others... so maybe something was coming... but the experience with Shyka, and then the foundation of the kingdom and the dreams of what he assumed was a great island in a river valley in the first world still vexed him when he remembered the dreams. The occasional changes the shifting reflection.

Eire washed his hands, and his face, which never failed to remind him that Shrikewall, and indeed the core settlements had the benefit of running water... it was in part the use of bronze age hydrology, but it was also more complex metallurgy... and magic as well. Magic played an important role as well particularly in the construction of infrastructure, but it was not an all important part.

Jaethal was correct to observe that his magical abilities, and those of other spellcasters made it possible to build the cathedral but there was nothing impossible from an engineering standpoint in the cathedral itself. It was simply a matter of resources, and labor.

... and the elf came through the doorway, "Congratulations Eranex has returned," Not that he was surprised, the stone giant elder, a druid of several centuries, had told them he'd be ready soon... that wasn't today's item for the agenda, but he was sure that Eranex's arrival likely had excited the kobold population of Shrikewall as 'auspicious', which was a good translation of the draconic word. "She should be here momentarily."

He nodded to the inquistor of Urgothoa and collected the various documents he'd been purusing the evening before. Eire finished the draft documents, and turned the conversation to the morning greetings.

"yes, yes good morning." Jaethal rolled her eyes, but wasn't nearly as acerbic as her words might have suggested. Elves did sleep, their rem process was different, but not that different, but as an undead and one directly reanimated by a goddess Jaethal did not sleep per se. Her occasional torpor condition was further removed from trancing but was also sort of like meditating... the end result was Jaethal tended to work through the night. "I still have a lot of work to do." She replied, "But we're at least on schedule."

Schedule. He should have considered it more thoroughly but one of the problems with early adoption of mechanical crafts. Powered looms and so forth, like those manufacturing jeans was the matter of standard time keeping. That was without even touching on the matter of things like time zones... which was something he didn't want to start to deal with...

He hadn't thought to start dealing with organized time keeping. All the towns were new construction... they were going to need the introduction of standard timekeeping, with clock towers ordinarily he'd have put them in the time square... given the core townships in the kamelands... he'd revised that for those to integrate them into being apart of the new churches of the Inheritor being built in those royal settlements... but urban clock towers were not going to be enough. They'd need smaller ones ones that provided time at workplaces and also in bureaucratic institutions a step that by and large had not occurred in earth, despite clock towers having been a medieval invention and even considered a requirement of a proper city in northern european settlements in particular hadn't become standard work and government fixtures until the period of proto industrialization several centuries later with complex coal mines developing.

... and that was a whole other matter of the Royal Government. Eire just nodded, but he didn't say anything as they entered the adjoining solar. Valerie looked significantly more tired than either of them, and the blue eyed tiefling while chipper was also still dragging. It was a pity that Shrikewall's climate was wrong for coffee... they seemed like they would be able to manage tea, but they would deal with agricultural matters, especially ones that might require mechanized investment that they didn't have time for. Especially when any such discussion would be sidelined from tea and silk, towards the matter of either foodstuffs or yet still more exotic first world plants...

"Your majesty."

He nodded. "We have a few more days until the spring equinox," the half moon right around the corner, and a week from that would be the Rebirth, full moon bringing them fully into the spring season. "I believe that we can dispense to leave the farmers to farm, and focus entirely matter of the challenges to the peace..." which was a nice way of saying Gragglebeard, and the ghostly frost giant Fionn both needed to die. Those would be the first rides of the spring of 4713 by the Arodenite calendar, and today they would work out the allotment of resources, and the plans to make it happen.

--
Notes I was playing with the map, and leaving aside that Absalom is the prime meridian on Golarion, Restov would roughly correspond to Hamburg on Long/Lat projections, which again doesn't really meant that.

 

[Imperator Pax]

20 Pharast 4713
Spring came with the rains as the colloquial wisdom proclaimed. That coupled with the thaw as temperatures rose insured that the great rivers that comprised their portion of the Sellen river system were busy. The rain currently sheeting off the eeves of the hall tinged faint memories, but Eire turned his attention to other things.

Amiri didn't waste any time on the matter. As soon as Kean, the now freed frost giant, was able to stand on his own, she immediately went to the matter of 'can we please go kill his evil brother for good this time'.

And well lack of ceremony aside she was right it did need to be done. "I trust you know where Fionn is hiding then?" He inquired

The fierece barbarian warrior was quick to answer, and explain.

Apparently Gary had found the portion swamp in his exploring of the western frontier another of one of the Taldan border encampments like where they had originally found the boggard living. That was therefore the last impediment to the logistical matter. Fionn should now be able to be permanently laid to rest... but even if that were not the case, they'd know in a week if he returned after the full moon... which he hoped was simply a coincidence that it was called the rebirth moon. Amiri had begrudgingly agreed to permit Eranex to go with them in his absence. Shaoyu was not happy about not being permitted to go with Amiri and Tristian, and Regongar and Octavia... but the truth was there were matters of state.

Eire nodded, and while he would have preferred they waited for the rain to cease he bid them good luck, word from Mivon 's traders and those coming from the city state suggested Gragglebeard remained in the eastern frontier of that country. He was making a mess of things, including attacking some of the caravan trade that they received. .

The royal court, the great hall was a vast structure, cavernous in its height to accommodate people, to remain cool in summer and indeed to allow giants to stand unbent. It did mean that there were limits in the number of rooms, and that the number of floors were limited but it served the purpose it needed to... and of course part of that construction was that the foundation of the original cyclopean structures that the taldan settlement had been built up on were still solid, and had just been divided into two or even three levels when the Taldan's had repurposed the 'palace' site.

"Well since they're gone we should get on with it." Harrim complained. "I'm sure its terrible news... civil war perhaps? Are we to see a great tide of refugees upon our stoop?"

Eire accepted the letter from the brown haired priest... which as was never a good sign opened with ecclesiastic salutations of our brother in the faith. He suspected that he might well have begun to be looked at for support to this endeavor the new crusade before the monarchy but the actual proclamation did change the legal or accepted cultural process. He had been expecting these kind of communications once it became clear that there were inquests arriving through other offices of the kingdom's offices.

Officially speaking in Draconic his title translated to mean Sovereign of Narhold. In Common, in Taldane, it was King of Narland. Beneath such rested 'overlord of the narlmarches' which was functionally identical in either language... but at the kingdom level he was suzerain to the lands to the east of the Kamelands. There were the tors, and hills, and steppe.. per the brevic charter his realm's legal claim expanded deep into Iobaria as overlord to the Varnhold charter. It was a lot of land...

It was a matter of Chelish pride, and probably diabolic realpolitik that the nation supported the Mendevian crusades. The infernal house of thrune continued the tradition of support for the crusades against the abyss and its demonic denizens. Still it was more complicated than something as absurd as Evil and Good versus Chaotic. That wasn't the case, or at least it was a gross oversimplification that among other things ignored the participation of chaotic good entities that abounded.

Eire rose from his chair, which as the original hall was not on a raised platform, instead simply placed in the center of a great table. It was an arrangement that made the most sense to retain, and his motion of rising caused a small clamor as various warriors came to attention. "An army marches on its stomach," He remarked... and if there was any singular development of the realm implemented it was the agricultural reforms that underpinned his realm; such as the bringing in of stocks of 'iobarian wheat' which was typically planted after the late summer crop and grew over the cold months. Winter wheat in other words. Certainly a written law code and non arbitrary proceedings were good for stability, but the state of the granaries were arguably more important.

Transporting those goods meant travelling overland to the Numerian border and then down river before sailing up to Chesed, or the usual crusader route of up the west sellen. Grain unfortunately took up a lot of space... and arms and armor would be significantly heavy as well. The granaries would be a matter he could see to in private, but making his decision he began mental itinerary of who all he'd need to speak to. Decision made he called up the representatives from the church of Minderhal, Brigh, and deciding on including Arsinoe from the Abadar delegation. There was no notable presence from the church of Torag present at court, and it was only at this point that frankly that realization struck him. That was a little odd... but he supposed partly a result of so few dwarves in the realm at large.

It was not however intended to be an exhaustive gathering so much as the beginning of a list on what they could produce... to get the ball rolling. Just as a medieval army needed to start mobilizing months before the campaign season the process of supporting a crusade entailed many of the same steps even if one was only supporting the logistics of the war rather than directly sending troops.

--

Eire listened to the water powered hammer drop, and contemplated his options. Coal. That was what he needed to source, and a lot of it. He had seen no evidence reported of sources north of shriewall despite the gold, and silver reserves that the taldan had known about, and he had access to plentiful iron reserves. He wondered if his holdings along the marsh might hold coal reserves, or the opposite direction... it was preferable to use coal than to deforest timber to fuel furnaces, he'd need to produce steel en masse...

He stopped musing, and looked to his ward. "I will spend most of tonight studying," And that was true, that was very much what would dominate his evening, "indeed probably the remainder of the month." Though he was going to need to make certain journeys out of respect to his feudal obligations to his vassals, including New Colton, "If you go now you should be able to catch up with Amiri and the others." Shaoyu didn't need to be asked twice, if she wanted to join the punitive expedition against the spectral monster to the north. "Was there something else Valerie?"

With a somewhat reserved expression she nodded, "Sir Fredero has volunteered for the crusade." She was clearly uncomfortable with her former mentor's choice.

Eire rolled his eyes, he couldn't help it. The truth was with winter he had little focus on hunting down the green hag tulvak... and truthfully he much expected that now that Saeya thought the hag was within the realm she would eventually find the old monster, but Fredero remained as he recuperated naturally from the fight hoping to find his own redemption. He would have preferred to ship Fredero back to Brevoy, but he had withheld... the truth was Shelyn had made it clear she wanted the shrine restored...

... which was an imposition on the realm, but he would do so. That was part of the reason he hadn't outright expelled Fredero ... he didn't need the paladin committing suicide in disgrace he was already likely to have to contend with more interactions with the Brevic church of Shelyn than he wanted to. One of the storm giants who worshipped Shelyn as Syriss, their goddess of music, had made the now painfully reiteration that it was small. Still the first step to making sure the golden grove could function was a road connection, and of course having a protective wall built. He wasn't sure whether any of the Varisians would permanently settle they had a reputation as nomadic carvanners but there were likely gnomes and halfling, and half elves who might.

That was only part of his need to scour the current estimates of their population, and dispersion of people through the realm.

After a moment he turned, "Do you disapprove of this?"

"I do not disapprove of the realm supporting the crusade, without the crusaders to hold back the the tide of demons the world as we know it would be much worse." Valerie replied, "But I'm skeptical of how much thought has gone into it."

"Yes, well that is why logistics wins wars." He replied. "We will do what we can to provide aid to support the crusade, and do so best according to our means," But there were going to be questions about how successful this fifth crusade could be, "Speaking of crusaders, how are Jubilost's guests doing?" His visit to Lake Silverstep had found a kellid shrine to Shyka, and from there an invitation to something called the inconsequent debates that was being put on in the first world... after which the Many had simply deposited the participants on his side of the 'border' in the material world.

Sheyln's shrine of the Golden Grove, and Varnhold were very much a part of the growing east to west, horizontal, expanse of the realm, but the Kamelands and silverstep represented a more coreward version of that same sort of expansion. An irony given his titular titles focused more on the west, but it had been in the east most of the sudden explosive form of kingdom building was really taking shape. He thought of the road that was to run from New Colton to Hereford. The shield road as well that would need to be restored. The dwarf fortresses, and watchtowers were something to work on, as were the Taldan ruins that dotted the landscape.

There was a pause and a shuffling of large figures. The largest of them was a so called Slag Giant, her skin a dull orange. The others were mountain trolls who formed a separate collection from Trobold, which he also needed to visit, to the south. The mountain folk, who were themselves quite large, dwelled near Silverstep and were allies of the good fey who already were known to dwell in the region. Finding that out had been a relief.

Though he had not actually broached the matter, he suspected that word of mouth had likely carried the settlement of trobold had likely passed through the fey and brought the word to the mountain folk, and likely to other non evil giants, as well more neutral tribes in the iobarian border land. Whatever the truth, whether their movements were a result of that or related to the great barbarian convention to the west the few hundred different true giants, and the slightly smaller population of mountain troll tribes who dwelled near Silverstep were thus far a welcome part of his no longer so eastern realm.

He and Valerie waited as the objects were placed on the table. The long swords were all functionally of the same pattern. Scent stopper style pommels almost genteel quillons on the otherwise cruciform crossguard, the blade length just shy of three feet came to reinforced piercing tip. Together creating a blade that was unyielding enough for a knight to use against an armored opponent while still capable of being used as a cut and thrust sword.

The metals were treated alchemically during forging gave the cinderblade their namesake coloring, what distinguished these from normal flaming swords were that they were designed to imitate the properties of flame strike. Careful experimentation had shown that Jaethal could charge the sword with negative energy as well though the channeling only enhanced the blades default 'flame strike' esque effect.

They, this first batch of swords from the castle's smithy, were intended though for clerics of the Inheritor in the realm's service. With the prospect of the crusade though, there would be a renewed demand for magical weapons with such properties. These represented a change. The process that made these swords was a uniform, an industrial process in a way that Eire was relatively sure was unique in Golarion... and even if it wasn't the process of that alchemic treatment in the steel had other applications than just making magic swords.
--
Notes: We will resume normal update patterns most likely next week. That means we will round out Pharast 4713 monday, and I will update other things throughout the next week.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pharast 4713
Linzi heaped significant praise on Trobold's progress since the summer of the year before. She was right that a significant amount of progress had been made. Hargulka's tribe of trolls had been compelled to move from the Bronzeshield fortress for a number of reasons, but among them was that the size, and strength of the trollls, if somewhat limited by their lack of book learning, and experience was they could help raise their own lands.

Unlike his Kameland territories he'd largely allowed Hargulka to workout how to organize his settlement without creating a plan. It was not a surprise that Hargulka had focused on obvious things he had learned from the river folk. Most of the houses were a mix of sod and timber long houses that wouldn't have been too out of place in Brevoy... other than their scale.

One of the thing Hargulka had specifically requested assistance on was the matter of the river's flow rate. Simply put the murque was not fast enough to efficiently turn a waterwheel, or at least not of the type that was commonly employed in Avistan, not for what all they were using mills for. Its tendency to silt up was another complication as well, but more complex mills that could do things beyond just grind grain.

The trolls progress ...

Well at the core of it they were jumping well beyond the level of development most trolls on Golarion lived at. Harrgulka was no pun intended largely been aping human society, 'borba', trolls were willing to use fire for cooking and metal working but since most trolls lived in solitary groups or at best in small collections of extended families of hunter gatherers, with an emphasis on marauding hunters than gathering. Trolls were inherent omnivores not pure carnivores so they needed a mill to grind grain, because well borba kingdoms farmed, thus a troll kingdom needed to farm. The same logic applied to wanting to move from any sort of tribal system to a feudal one.

Also, by engaging in large scale agriculture a troll could farm enough land to stockpile through the winter... and indeed could actually support livestock through the winter which was bound to be even more popular with the common troll than bread alone.

So to address the matter of the water wheel they had used troll labor to dig a large mill pond. That had been the easy part, and now as green returned to the trees, and grasses bloomed, metal gearings were installed to insure the axles within the mill house worked efficiently and were more robust than a wooden gearing mechanism.

In the mean time Hargulka had other projects. Trobold's fields lay naturally beyond its simple palisade wall, but he had done the sensible thing of organizing a work to raise a rather impressive eight foot wattle fence around the fields. This a process of taking saplings in the spring, or other greenwood and bending the fences into formation it was the same broad technique that brevic peasants used to make their house walls.

This was useful as well since the trolls had not gotten to the point of needing to clear and drain the swamps they had started the process of raising pigs, as well as some cattle, probably some sheep on of the more marginal land. Hargulka planned to plant corn in part of his adopted three field system this year on top of that.

All in all things were going well... though... his actual reason for Corn was because the formerly wandering hill giant Munguk had set up with the assistance of some enterprising kobolds and mites a still to produce what was effectively high proof shine for local consumption. Hargulka had tried it, while visiting Shrikewall, and like most trolls who had tried it liked it, and wished to cultivate his own attempt.

As with the metal gearings for the mill, that was a specialty product that would take time to build, but it was good that Hargulka was looking to other products. Also Hargulka was wondering about fighting Gragglebeard.

The sluice gates opened, and the wheel began to turn, the installed gears turned the turbine within and the hybrid mill after a few minutes begin the process of turning. Then it was just a matter of making sure it properly ground the grain... they'd see what else it could do over the next couple of days

So that was what they did next with a few of the clerics of Brigh and, the Empyreal lords Bharnarol, and Eldas. The Archon lord's sacred animal was a beaver, and the beaver folk viewed him as their divine patron... though Eire wasn't actually clear if Eldas had created them or not. Their presence though was not unusual, far from it as the Empyreal lords were fairly well represented among Shrikewall's wide range of good deities who were broadly affiliated with Iomedae's own church. Somewhat less represented, and absent today's gathering were the small inclusion of Osirion and Tian Xia's clerical communities, but he didn't hold that against them. The presence of clerics of Minderhal, well their presence didn't surprise him at all.

In the mean time Hargulka also had questions about coal, besides the matter just making shine.
--
Shaoyu regarded the Mivonese Aldori with annoyance. She huffed and threw her red hair over her shoulder and continued to scowl at the upstart bravo who had the gall, the utter ridiculous absurd wherewithal to come and complain to the the great basilica of the inheritor regarding their problems.

It didn't help that she'd been left behind in Valerie's tutelage to over see the matters of the realm, not that she wanted to go see the trolls and their new water mill. The chancellor told the man that they had heard of Gragglebeard, "As of yet the giant has not crossed the frontier, and his majesty is currently down the river. So thus if the hill giant did cross with his brigands the problem would resolve itself in its natural course."

In heaven's righteous fire, but Shaoyu didn't interject that because Valerie hadn't stated Eire was away visiting Trobold, but the chancellor didn't specify that. Trobold was not a human settlement... well it had humans in it but the gathering of the settlement was built more along the lines of giantish scale... which was odd for the kobolds who lived there.

Shaoyu stopped... it made sense of course that Gragglebeard however dim and unintelligent hill giants were it had to recognize crossing north would be to stand against heaven's will... but why was this blackguard mercenary busying himself with plundering a ... what was the word, "Condeteri," She muttered stumbling over it, and drawing their attention, "Why does this mercenary tear across your hinterlands Aldori?" She demanded hastily.

The Mivonese man startled at the question.

Brother Vaclav clearly wanted to chastise her manners, but withheld himself. She had clearly struck upon something. Gragglebeard was not a mercenary of the city state, did not belong to the free city's companions, and great companies of armsmen... so there was no reason why he shouldn't per se. Brigandage wasn't exactly unexpected, but he was still far to the east of where he was presumed to be heading...

... but that was the thing they were assuming that Gragglebeard the giant and his company were moving to answer the call of Armag twice born.... what if he wasn't? A year ago she would have hastily rushed to accuse the preening cockerels who lived west beyond the great swamps... this Pitax place that Linzi spoke of... after all they had mounted several disreputable attempts of low warfare against not just the realm, but also were surely responsible for the attack on Jamandi Aldori's mansion before she had herself hatched.

... and indeed the attack on the manor home in restov struck her as suspicious. Such an attack by cut throats and brigands in such a brazen manner? Given the lessons about the history of the region and past behavior she would have accused Pitax without real proof... but she withheld the accusation... at least in front of the foreigner. Shaoyu would speak to Valerie after he was dismissed she decided.

The Mivon Aldori frowned in contemplation, and tugged at the end of his waxed mustache as he turned the rampage across his country's boundaries over in his head.

It was obvious that the strange land of Uringen and the dwellers of the Embeth forest would not do such a thing. Pitax was the only possible explanation... perhaps save unless the brutish murderous galtians were... but the simplest answer was in the direction Gragglebeard was attacking from... he was in the east... if Mivon moved to respond they would surely have to redirect troops weakening their western border away from Pitax.

An hour later she outright exploded the accusation within the sanctuary of the great cathedral.

Harrim scratched his beard, wrapping his fingers around the patchy hairs and tugging at his own facial hair, though with more force than the bravo. "I have to agree that its possible..." The dwarf grumbled and recalled how the attack on Jamandi Aldori's mansion had come in the middle of the night... and that while it wasn't entirely the same it was hard to dispute that such an underhanded craven tactic would very likely be within Pitax' wheelhouse of tricks.
--

 

[Imperator Pax]

Gozran 4713
The magical lights provided far better illumination than fluorescent style bulbs for his table. They didn't put off heat either, but magic could provide heat as well, though there was a fireplace. Eire had some idea how his contemporaries lived. He'd seen a few Brevic barons, and he'd seen Jamandi Aldori's home, and he had seen how Maegar lived... and thus his inner sanctum was at least by the standards of North eastern avistani nobility strange... probably. It was nice to have an abundance of paper though.

Gunpowder worked. Eire knew that because after arriving in Golarion he'd been put in the situation where he'd used precious ammunition that he couldn't readily replace to put down bandits... before he'd realized the exact extent of his magical abilities. That was ammo he wasn't going to get back, but it did tell him that science largely worked as it was supposed... except in areas where it didn't.

Gunpowder though worked.

Black powder worked like it was supposed to and indeed was manufacturable. That was less useful than it actually sounded on paper. Alkenstar had yet to develop corning... it had taken him a minute to recognize that was the chemical reason for how unreliable their guns were... but it made sense corned powder had taken centuries to supersede early blackpowder in Europe where it had been developed and even into the 19th​ century had still been used on other continents until industrial mass production.

Pouring over, the previous night the books that occupied one waterproof rucksack from Earth, he had again recognized the difficulty of practically introducing scientific concepts even without Plato looming over everything as a giant inertial boulder... or Galen for that matter. No the major problem was that magic made medical treatments, typically in the application of positive energy directly or through more complex spells the explicit domain of divine spell casters...

Bards could heal, and were arcanists, but that exception didn't change the fact that institutionally the ability of healing magic tended to make healing in general a domain of the church... even if churches didn't legally monopolize it. Then there were healing potions and other alchemy. That made... well a book on the development of science over the course of the 18 and 19th​ centuries on earth... pretty useless... which admittedly in retrospection it probably wouldn't have done him much good on Earth either... excepting perhaps jogging his memory on topics he might have forgotten... but on a world of magic it didn't do him much good at all.

The sort of things 'discovered' and codified by early 19th​ century French, and Englishmen just weren't actually all that useful in his situation. Or the development of two and four stroke diesel engines in England and German. Nor were the arguments they had with one another particularly the theology given he was on another world. The history book, which was what it was rather than a purposeful engineering treatise, wasn't that useful. Science, and specifically pure history wasn't that useful, geology, since golarion seemed to largely follow normal rules in geologic formations, would have been more useful, engineering processes, physics, and mechanical movements were useful... pure science less so.

It wasn't the first time he had recognized that he had made the journey into another world with presumably at best incomplete information. In much the same way the books themselves were not perfect. Golarion already had new world crops. Potatoes, and Corn... what it hadn't had, and made sense was the lack of uniform agricultural standards... standardization which frankly didn't exist even on the earth he had left behind.

It made sense. He'd asked Nilak about how the Kellids of the Realms of the Mammoth Lords.... which itself was a Taldan appellation .... handled agriculture... and the simple way was that while largely nomadic full followings... the dozen or so great confederations of nomads were large enough that at any one time some limited cultivation could be undertaken in the large valleys of that region while others pursued the great prehistoric game or drove aurochs or other pastoral animals.

Cheliax and Taldor had never moved beyond Manorial... not really There were some planation farming, which was more an intensive cultivation of planation crops, and even that on earth had been a Mediterranean or Levantine development on earth... though Cheliax did seem to have started colonization efforts... which well beyond his concern. Success was more determined by the monopoly on political power, sufficient monopoly to bypass institutional conservatism, while still having a fall back in the event he had fucked up and his agrarian reforms were too fast or made a mistake somewhere.

But he hadn't... agrarian reforms, and successful implementation of multi field farming, and crop rotation along with horse collars and steel plows were so much easier than attempting to endow universities and conduct pure scientific research. He still wasn't in a position where that was practical.

He looked at the mechanical clock, and back to his papers and to all of the instruments that were a part of his kingdom or would be. Agrarian reforms were the basis of the realm's prosperity, but they could purchase cotton from Osirion, were purchasing cotton from osirion and use it to produce jeans... and that had significant functionality... spinning jennies could be run by water power, they didn't need coal for that.

After a moment he grabbed a sheet of paper... gelatinous monsters for cleaning... oozes were slimes... maybe they could be used to clean up coal mining... something to write down for later.
--

Eire watched the heat begin to recede. These bellows were not driven by coal. They were magic, and that made them impractical for the industrial process because it was difficult to scale them up. He had the iron and material to in small batches make crucible steel, but he did not have the furnace fuel and resources to fuel it by coal.

Amvarean waited for him beyond the entry way. "It is insufficient?"

"Regretably. I will make do with a water mill, but," What he really needed was a source of coal, and it was looking like his best option would be up the murque river on the border with the slough, that was weighed out by calculated the regional characteristics of sedimentary rock formations and other conditions. He suspected that even before the ice age engendered by the Earthfall cataclysm the previous ice age, which there idence of had created the conditions for coal deposits... but unfortunately while he suspected the road of shields probably sat astride such coal deposits or in proximity no dwarven records of such reserves survived. They would have to search. "We will need to re garrison and rebuild the entire road of shields." He informed the silver dragon.

Amvarean nodded as if this was the most natural thing in the world.

As for the mill... they could rely on the Shrike's flow to turn and power the mill... that was doable but it would require more work compared to the energy density provided by hard coal. He didn't regret settling Amvarean on Lake Silverstep... in fact that was probably the safest enfeefment possible... but the road of shields was a string of dwarven fortifications and was almost purpose built to serve as his marcher lands with Drelev... if only he had people to settle there and bring them into service... but that would ideally be labor and manpower who could be full time craftsmen and wage workers rather than subsistence farmers.

... and given everything they might be dwarves... probably wouldn't given how little in terms of dwarven immigration the realm had attracted thus far but they would be other races.

He paused, and regarded the lakeshore, "In the mean time..." well he had another project, and one more in line with arcane magic practices. One he suspected would only be potentially viable due to the mana plants that he had been cultivating... but he needed a second opinion before he brought it to the castle at large... he probably needed to discuss it with Jaethal as well.

The dragon in the guise of a half elf tilted her head head, "a metal flying machine?"
--
Regongar was happy to leave the sweet teeth to... whatever it was they were going to go do, instead he was going to prod Garess again. It was a brisk walk, that took him into the upper city, or town as it was coming to be known had changed a lot.

The sagging, patchy palisade wall that had ringed the stag lord's fort was gone. Vordakai had begun the process of restoring the old dilapidated tower that looked out over the lake... there was talks about putting an observatory adjacent to it... or probably restoring the ancient cyclopean structure there. It wasn't going to be quite the same Kaessi, the tiefling trio's patron,... or elder whatever... had built her villa there, and there was already a strong Qadiran feel to that entire wing...

... or maybe Qadiran was wrong, the Cathedral shared that domed architecture ... something that blended Azlanti architecture of the Arodenite church but more than that more than the stone architecture it was the emanating magical nature that contrasted with most of the other buildings... and the handful of houses built on the plateau around the capital inn were the only brevic style architecture besides the hall.

... buildings that looked more out of place as granite sets were put down and something akin to how things had looked under wizard rule pre earth fall ...

Regongar didn't have any strong opinions on that one way or another. Even as an arcantist... well the book stuff was really Octavia's thing what he saw was the power that went into the statement. He didn't care about the brevic architecture , only that it was overshadowed.

That was the crux of the point Kaessi was making, as he walked right into the conversation upon entry to the new keep's hall. Regongar wasn't as dismissive as city people, as Amiri was... but the Kellid barbarian wasn't necessarily wrong... people in city's tended to look down their noses at people like him...

So Regongar always enjoyed it when bigger city people looked down at those sorts of people... it was funny how the city people had this pecking order of bigger cities, 'more civilized' stuff. Vordakai snorted drawing Kaessi and Kessil Aldori away from their discussion.

He wasn't stooping. That was the really impressive thing about the last year. The giants who had come down from the mountains had built everything to giant scale... they did a lot of talking about tradition this and tradition that... but Regongar couldn't fault their work. It was big... and it made a statement. The old wooden hall was comfortable, and nice to spend the winter in and be jovial in but it didn't make the same statement. That was what impressed him.

The Cyclops waved his hand, "The city will continue to grow, administration must develop. It is only the natural order that it will require the education of wizards," The ancient cyclopean word actually more generally meant any arcane spellcaster... "and while Brevoy was founded by dragons I suspect they had less interest in correct ways and means. Rather than to claim kingship for kingships sake."

That was the sort of comment that Shaoyu would have been insufferable about... but he didn't see the Red Dragon ... Regongar supposed she probably had lessons. He stopped at the table all the same and prepared to ask after the captain of the guard.

"With our lovely chancellor," The tiefling replied, "If you're searching after leads on the Technic league I doubt anything has changed." Regongar grimaced. "I can say with certainty that there hasn't been any word about them from Varnhold."

He growled and set his face in a teeth bearing face, "I'm telling you we're going to have to fight those bastards." Regongar didn't really care about religion, or technology. Gorrum didn't really ask a lot of questions or deep navel gazing and that suited him fine, he didn't have the tongue for lengthy prayer.

Vordakai's singular eye fixed him, which was always creepy, "It is possible given their alleged mandate to attempt to control the flow of technology that they may attempt to act, but thus far nothing... and they are in opposition to Brigh's church as well."

That was true. Brigh's clergy really didn't like the technic league... for all of the technic leagues tenants seemed to fly in the face of the clockwork goddess's beliefs.

He regretted that turn in the conversation though, because well.. they were a church, and churches wanted to build churches... well it was a little more complicated than that when it came to a comparatively odd faith like Brigh's.

 

[Imperator Pax]

15 Gozran 4713 AR
It was mid morning by the time they had convened, and he'd largely spent the intervening two weeks busy with other matters besides, but it could not be officially avoided... not given ... well some of the things he had in mind. Things that he would need to address sooner rather than later.

The announcement of the Fifth Mendevian Crusade was not unexpected. Not really. The fourth had, some what reluctantly, 'officially' ended in 4707 with a demonic retreat but with the crusaders too exhausted to press their advantage. It also had seen a number of changes and reforms the crusader kingdom, but the fourth had lasted fifteen long years and it had no doubt taken time for resources to be gathered against the malignant threat posed by the world wound.

The year 4707AR...

The truth was that it had been put forward as an official end after the fact. A recognition of low morale, declining participation... the fourth's reserves were scraping the bottom. The result was a petition across the Inner Sea, across Avistan as a whole, and beyond preaching the dangers of what would happen if the crusaders failed... and what would happen if the demon hordes of the world wound were able to sweep out from the hell blasted nightmare scape of sarkorsis unchecked by valiant arms.

Thankfully they weren't just having it sprung upon them. No, while officially the Mendev Crusades were organized under the inheritor's banner, and thus the Church of Iomedae was first among equals... they were not sole deciding factory. Far from it. They had to act in concert with the other great faiths who contributed to the crusade, and also the supporting nation states.

To that end... the 16th​ of Arodus, the beginning of Armasse was to be the proclamation of the first day of the fifth crusade... at least if all went according to plan. There was much in terms of preparation that needed to be done to gather consensus from the churchs of Torag, Abadar, Desna Shelyn as well as others. There were a number of good deities and empyreal lords whose churches were involved. That meant it was a complex balancing act. It was a complex, and delicate balancing act, not just of faiths, but also national participation.

It meant they had time. Time that perhaps they could make a flying ship, that could alleviate compelx rivering switching over, or long overland travel.

"You want a what?" Harrim asked tugging at his beard threatening to actually pull hair loose.

"Oh, yes I talked to one of the gnomes from Alkenstar about them." Linzi squeaked standing up in her excitement at the prospect.

Eire would have liked that he could have enjoyed that same excitement, but he had to consider the practical and what it would be used for. It was true he liked the idea, and that Alkenstar was what had allowed him to consider. The truth was though he had considered going north west to Mendev... it hadn't really occurred to him what that really would have meant... or the fact that perhaps of all of Avistan it might well have been the place he would potentially stood out least among the leadership at least. Iomedae's church in Mendev fielded a wealth of powerful clerics, inquisitors, paladins ranging from humans, half elves, aasimar and others and their ranks were further buttressed by gold and silver dragons united in the inheritor's service.

The truth though was more complicated still about the war torn realm of the world wound. He had been informed that cities like Kenabres were surrounded by favelas populated by thousands of refugees. That was another part of what could be offered in support for the crusades' cause. Just there were obvious military aims there was a political and economic sides to the equation, and that meant providing material to support the war effort.

This was not just a matter of donations. Torag, and Abadar were both gods of commerce and their churches expected fair trade, and fair pay for goods, but they also expected honored terms. The church of Erastil also expected similar continuance of practice for the common good. All of that aside, there were simple political reasons to work out provide x goods at y volume for a fixed per unit price and part of that was that this was the fifth crusade organized the churches of good aligned deities were looking for success.

There was a thump that jarred them from the discussion as the door banged open, Jaethal had been conspicuously absent from the meeting, but that in itself wasn't unusual. Spring this year was proving very busy, The Elf Inquisitor looked particularly exasperated, "Are you still talking about the sky ship?" She shook her head, "Well we have another issue closer to home. We have yet another new cult..."

He assumed initially Jaethal was being a little unkind. Technically speaking there were a wide range of schismatic and religious splinters that had chosen to settle in the kingdom... not necessarily to everyone's like. There was a cluster of various small pantheons, including ones who specifically chose to venerate triumvirate, groups of three, as well as ones who venerated groups of five gathered together deities.

"Some Kellid Shaman and some Taldan sorcerer have apparently come to the epiphany that a great gathering of dragons is inevitable. They won't shut up about the dragons return, and its spreading to the kobolds."

Because of course it was. That was without even touching on the recent church of Apsu who was a lawful good silver great wyrm of tremendous size. Their arrival stemmed through contact with church of Iomedae, though Apsu's church had connections with Torag and Sarenrae. The delegation though believed that Silverstep was a holy site to their dragon god.

It was very likely this year was going to be quite busy. "And the giants." Harrim added.

"Which ones?" Eire asked. The Stone and Storm giants worshipped Erastil had expressed interest in visiting the temple of the elk, but that involved crossing from the south eastern tors.

Harrim frowned, "They claim to be Taiga giants, come down from the far north east of the Dunsward. The nomen centaurs vouched for the druid leading them." The conversation wound. Taiga giants... whatever other distinctions between them and frost giants were, included a propensity to be nomads... and not exactly... or at least weren't rumored to be especially keen on civilization. So it made sense that they got along well with the Nomen centaurs and the militant followers of the Green Faith. It was the latter that was a potential pressure of its own, given that before the world wound the kellid nation of Sarkorsis had been largely one of adherrents to that ancient faith.

--
Tristian's faith in Sarenrae was less martial than was necessity for a crusader. This was not say his particular iteration was the dominant, or norm among the dawnflower's church, and Sarenrae was heavily involved in the Mendev crusade.. and thus there was a particular matter he was suited for in terms of contribution.

The human toll of the rusade and the resettling of refugees was not the same thing as settling normal migrants... and of course there was the matter of those orphaned by the crusade who had no where else to go.

There were security concerns of course. He'd been warned already that crusaders and witch hunts had been common across the past crusades ... and that there were treacherous demon worshipping cultists who masqueraded behind the ranks. Eire had done his best to impress upon Tristian these warnings, while still reiterating the actual goals of the kingdom and the humanitarian mission.

With the printing press operational it was ideal that Linzi be involved in this side of things. That was something the exuberant halfling was prepared to do. Even as the Halfling continued to talk about it loudly and excitedly Jaethal was regarding him in preparation for the other half of responsibilities that were coming with the task. He'd be having a conversation with Amiri and Valerie in particular as well about the need for a permanent standing army as well.

There were differences. The possibility of any heavy cavalry force, potentially any cavalry would like fall to Valerie. Thankfully the expansive grasslands that dominated the Kamelands supported horse breeding, was an option to support baronial efforts. Eire crossed the room to look down at the knave from the second storey vantage. They probably needed to relocate all gatherings like this to the keep, but the stone fortress was not yet complete... though that was a matter of mission creep than anything else.

In a corner he spied an aclove feature one of the new shrines added to the cathedral, the growing population of cat folk had added a small bronze statue of a cat sleeping by a hearth. Adanye. Another indication of a growing kingdom. Of a prosperous kingdom.

The undead elf joined him. "Not much use for a fight, but I have a collection of eldritch scoundrels, and archaeologists who are working towards what you asked for."

He nodded.

Despite being King there was still so much of the land they didn't know. The Kamelands were a great example of this even, how much they had not known, without considering the broad expanse of the charter maegar had been granted. Kame was well for all intents and purposes a synonym for cairn, referring to a collection of rocks or stones in the countryside. He knew also that Jaethal's efforts to establish the little ministry had included recruiting a handful of talented slayers into ministerial posts.... but the truth was the main fighting for would need to be a little more mundane.

... or as the elf referred to them warm bodies... and she wasn't wrong per se.

"it will cut down on the amount of time I need to spend actually hands on, in exploring." Or more correclty it would free up exploration to allow him to make a state visit in support of the Mendevian crusades this summer. It was not intended as a long trip, but there was a prohibitively extensive list of things that needed to be done this summer for the realm.

--
Notes: this was the easiest way to begin name dropping classes without being too overlty game mechanics / pnp.
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/bard/archetypes/paizo-bard-archetypes/archaeologist/
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/co...zo-rogue-archetypes/eldritch-scoundrel-rogue/
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/hybrid-classes/slayer/

I kind of sort of use Legendary games kingdom making expansion in table top... some times, so some of that stuff also show up its third party stuff. I'm still working on maps, after looking around I figured out I can import the canonical map as a sublayer and more or less trace over it... I'm having some scaling issues with it, and also the drawing of bodies of water into the softwater its a learning process.

Hopefully I'll be able to put up a map of Narland done via campaign cartographer at some point.

 

[Imperator Pax]

25 Gozran 4713AR
Ekundayo was himself originally from Absalom, but his career as an adventurer had taken him into the River Kingdoms where he had eventually settled down in the southern edge of the Narlmarches. The village of Bristlehill was quite close the shield wall, as the dwarves had named the forested mountain that both blocked the Slough, and also served as the source for the Murque Skunk, and thorn rivers. Bristlehill the actual hill was part of this mountain, and was in Eire's opinion little different in topography to the low laying southern Appalachia chain. It was not particularly high elevation, and thus its effect on wind and rain was mild. This was in comparison to say the nearby Tors, or the Rockies on Earth.

The village had been lucky to not have been attacked over the winter during the troll troubles, and frankly extremely lucky that they had realized it was under threat. Its geography as part of the geographic shift that shaped the river made it useful. Bristlehill might not have been particularly tall but it and the populace living there west of Candlemere provided them a useful place to start fortifications from that was in between Hereford, and Candlemere but north, and for that matter east of the Bronzeshield. That made Bristlehill important, because it gave them a logistical stopping point for supplies earmarked for the fortress, and for any work they did on other dwarven ruins along the shield road.

The spring thaws had not created entirely new rivers, but it had notably deepened the main arteries of the kingdom and the tributaries that flowed into them before they reached bodies like Candlemere or the Tuskwater. He wondered if the thaw this year had had a similar effect on the tributaries in the Slough. Whatever the case they had been lucky. The flooding had been manageable and that it deepened the little Sellen was probably a good thing. More than the river thaw though the spring brought with it trade as people were no longer confined to their home villages for concern of the cold.

Bristlehill had been subject to land clearing and repair after Harrgulka's submission but the real work would be this year... or at least the work having been done so far was a step beyond last years. Bristlehill hadn't so much had a market square so much as a common village field that was near-ish to the center to hold market days. What Bristlehill had lacked was now answered by a new cobblestoned district capped at one end by a large timber lodge style pub. It represented a part of the standardized building process of towns with royal attention.

Eire turned to the ranger, "You are certain this person is trustworthy?"

"I am." Ekundayo replied.

He reflexively growled. "We will have to move against Gragglebeard then." He nodded. "I cannot have him move on that Taldan fortress." It wasn't really a fortress more a dilapidated river crossing gate house...


Whatever one wanted to call the building, the ruins, whatever it was however an actual stone structure even if wasn't a fortified tower house... and clearly its purpose had been to facilitate crossing the river. It was legally that river which was his border with Mivon.... or at least notionally close enough to be an issue to the realm's security.

In the year 4499 the Iobarian warlord, or tryant interesting that historical records suggested he'd used the Cyclopean term, Choral the Conqueror had swept down and in the span of roughly a year subjugated the lands of Issia and Rostland. Choral the Conqueror's knowledge of cyclopean wasn't that unusual for an iobarian, nor was his mastery of draconic... but he seemed in his early reign had used the title.

This ascension of House Rogavaria displaced the families who would become the Mivon ruling elite, as well as the likes of the Liacenza and others who would go on to establish modern Pitax. A development that had been the norm as the River Kingdoms had been ungovernable and unstable since the collapse of the Taldan empire.

"He has a wyvern with him." Ekun pointed out, speaking up abruptly and unexpectedly.

"Really?" That was news. The Torag worshipping ranger merely nodded. "Well regardless him coming east makes him our problem," And that was unfortunate, it had probably been too much to hope for that the giant and his band would be dealt with by Mivon, or that they 'd go west to join Armag in a much straight forward route.

Still the wyvern would be in addition to the few hill giants, some ogres, some more trolls and a plethora of apparent orcs. They broke conference to tend to other matters allowing Jaethal to appear from the shadows, "Harrgulka?"

"No I had wanted to accompany him to deal with the thickskins." They should have dealt with the other lizard folk last year decisively, and now this year they were interfering with attempts to trade with another sensible and friendly lizard folk tribe to the west, and that was intolerable. "We will deal with this ourselves."

Jaethal shrugged but didn't question his use of 'we' in the context. She shook her head and moved on. It was suggested that it was possible that gragglebeard might be looking to breed the wyvern with native examples of the breed that were found in the Kamelands, and the tors of levenies, but that was pure speculation, and the truth was Jaethal had another matter she wanted to address.
--
As with Shrikewall Candlemere's ruins were originally those of Iobarian cyclops and thus it had been easy to clear the ancient debris and partition into two levels and several rooms for standard human sizes the structures of old. The lighthouse served as a heliograph to Shrikewall, though was mostly used as a beacon in favor of magical communication.

Candlemere was its own separate lake from the Tuskwater and its smaller size, coupled with the island which housed the town made the crowded waters seem that much more busy compared to the capital. The island township was a bustling urban city in its own right and home to the realm's church of Nethys... he knew of course that the twins maintained a house hold shrine within their villa at the capital but it was to gods of magic and trade that candlemere abounded.

Nethys was the largest, and the original structure. The Orsirion gods Thoth, Ptah, and Sokar formed a trinity, with small shrines to both Ra and Bastet reflected the several hundred permanent Orsirion residents who had settled on the isle never mind their frequent trade delegations from up the Sellen. The Orsirions were also the reason for the presence of a smaller temple to Abadar on the isle in the west quarter of the town. In the east built so as that the temple facing it rested a marble faced temple of Sarenrae which was of course where they were going to meet Tristian.

The Orsirion presence was complicated by their relationship with the smaller 'Keleshite', that was Qadiran humans, community... admittedly the populations had significant ethnic and cultural overlap. Katapesh, and Qadira had sent traders, and Qadira was still a satrapy of the of the Keleshite empire. If taken just as an ethnicity there were quite many Keleshites over all, a product of the Padishah's reign over all three realms for a long span of time in the past.

Most Chelish immigrants, of all races, had chosen not to settle on Candlemere favoring to move on to Shrikewall or settle in one of the settlements where a Church of the Inheritor had been erected. Originally Hereford in the west, but similar churches were already planned for the Kameland towns in the lands between the rivers and were drawing seed populations in the hundreds. Careful cartography presented Eire with the rough approximation that Candlemere island was roughly comparable in size to Manhattan, and thus the island had space even without accounting for the peninsula that created the narrow passage of the shrike that ran from Tuskwater into Cnadlemere... or the other shorelines of the lake.

Like Manhattan this was the entreport fro river travel into the realm, and thus it had plenty of reason to grow, and thus needed bureaucracy to manage the influx of new arrivals, and the business they brought with them. It behooved the royal government o insure that there was space for temporary but safe, secure, and healthy accommodations for both permanent residents, and temporary ones alike... it was in that that the clergy and the religious sectors of the settlement came into play. Baronial law had been drafted with taxation in mind, and particularly that taxes collected as part of the tithe would be allocated to support specific welfare and medical services. The Cathedral of Shrikewall's magic sustained clean water throughout the city, as well as of course protecting it from fire.

Such taxes also provided ample justification for things like legal distinction of who was a subject of the king, and travelling merchants, and registration of religious affiliation. It was far from a comprehensive national or identification system, but it was useful for government work. Especially with Candlemere having nearly three thousand permanent residents, and substantive transitory passers through.

He avoided entering the plaza proper there were too many people in it already, and standing here Tristian was more likely to see him. Sarenrae's temple was as he understood the architecture of 'southern' golarion was a mix of native Osirion building styles and those practiced by the Keleshite empire of the east. Eire gave indication of notice to the proselytizing and sermons given by a handful of Tristians co religionists as it ws for the most part standard Sarenite dogma rote barring the one on the corner professing a condemnation on the evils of slavery and the absence of the institution within the realm.

It took Tristian several minutes to join them from wading through the crowds of the plaza. A plaza that was impressive in its artistry compared to what it had looked like a year ago. This island was the entryway into the realm, and so it grew faster than most places... but the Kamelands were a wide open expanse of unsettled land and there were ruins that dated back to the Taldan period aplenty, and between then and the present others had tried to make there way.

 

[Imperator Pax]

25 Gozran 4713AR
Tristian did not wish to be involved in, and was not interested in the national politics of the Padishah Empire. That was in spite of its state sanction and clear preference of the Dawnflower's church. He did not wish to be drawn into factional strife within the church over political schisms... and yet it was within expected orthodoxy that he lobby for Royal Patronage of the church, and the establishment of new churches to the Healing Flame.

A key part of that lobbying was that while it seemed unlikely that migration would eclipse Chelish migration with migrants from Osirion, and Kelesh as well as further there would need to be other churches... in other settlements.

There was another compounding factor this this. Shelyn's response to the golden grove had entailed direct divine intercession when gods intervened the churches paid attention even when it wasn't their deity. Perhaps even doubly so, when it was a third party. Further it was compounded with the church's interest in demonstrate that the Sarenite faithful were prominent among the crusaders of Mendev, and support for the holy mission against the world wound.

With a pause to no doubt compose his thoughts, Eire gestured to the map of his original chartered domain. He began indicating New Colton on the western shore of the Tuskwater, before gesturing to the island they were on further south. Candlemere island and the lake that it shared its name with, "While with urban planning Candlemere can support more people." Indeed many more people potentially, I do not want migration to strain resources that are available. A settlement in the eastern Kamelands," What would become the city of Memphis, "Will be erected there," He indicated the eastern shore of the lake, "Or I suppose more correctly will be established as independent of the island city. If what you are telling me proves accurate regarding the immigration that will need to be but as you have just highlighted," He remarked to the heavily set cleric occupying the bench opposite him, there is the crusade as well." The pen went over the map, and wrote out the name Memphis and on the western shore, New Colton , the lizard folk village to the west of Candlemere... though obviously they wouldn't settle humans with the lizard folk, but it served as a way station up the river to Hereford. "There is another settlement up the Shrike where it meets the Thorn," Where there was an existing way station, Tristian knew.

With no time to advise his co religionists Tristian waited for the priest to contemplate which of the two future townships that they would prefer to have support for a church to the dawnflower. Eire himself had matters to deal with to the east ... a rogue giant or something ...

Rather than Memphis, which was already in proximity to the church here, he graciously accepted the offer of Royal sanction and support for one at the town that would build in between the capital and the Old Scyamore.


--
Her desk was filled with documents that demanded her attention. Things she should have been focused on, to the exclusion of distractions... which was what she called Kalikke's pet projects.

Kanerah on the one hand was happy to be spared questing adventures. It simply wasn't her cup of tea... a drink which was still in unfortunately short supply... she was so much better suited, and Kalikke as well whether or silly goat of a sister wished to admit it, to remaining here. Shrikewall was not Qadira regardless of other otherworldly beings, and trade passing through. It was not Taldor either. The promise of prestige and wealth would draw many immigrants to the realm even if not as many journeyed to the city at the center of the world.

The two divided their responsibilities on the council relative to their own talents. Kanerah was more comfortable focusing on the cold impersonal systems of hierachy and law that the legal code called for. The implementation of the realms coinage and the tax systems. Their division of labor didn't always work out, especially since the kingdom, now that it was a kingdom had to refer leadership matters to other members of the council.

If she had know that the bellflower network had planned to ambush her today she'd have of course switched places with Kalikke, but she have to settle for detailing her meeting with them and insuring that her nicer sister contended with it.

Which was what she was doing now.

A few moments later they changed positions and Kalikke's blue eyes were focused on reading her sister's handwriting and the details there in. Cheliax was a cruel place in a difference to Qadira, though her homeland could also be cruel. Her sister's office was filled with tall stacks of bound paper each page awash with draconic script. They were no longer handwritten but printed by the complex, and rapid movable type of a machine. From the figures marked out some of the papers detailed the cost of goods, fixed, in realm managed 'general stores', outlets that provided standardized goods of many varieties to people... even now there were further plans to expand cermaic production under 'Wedgewood', and plans for greater production of metal for durable iron goods through them.

Her sister's looping handwriting detailed the latest news from cheliax through messenger from the abolitionist bellfower network that helped slaves escape servitude to the north. The Bellflower network's primary mission was the liberation of halfling slaves, but their good work included freeing others from bondage including not just humans but also tieflings... it wasn't just humans and tieflings.

People who when freed from bondage, and safely in a new land would need homes, and work. Something detailed in what probably were imperfect translations from draconic concepts of hospitality as contributions, in the form of taxes, to welfare funds and payment into to create houses, but also entailed a bureaucratic policy of assessment and resettlement. Wherever such ideas had come from it created a framework for her to work with, and meant she could help people without Jubilost or her sister needing to become involved, and thus they could focus on their parts of exchequer.

Kalikke supported the abolition of slavery. There were thousands of tieflings living in Cheliax as a mistreated under class, as slaves, and tens of thousands of halflings. While the Bellflower network tilled the soil to see them free in distant lands... it was not her only responsibility. Tieflings were not the only mixed bloods coming to Narland... and from her sister's handwriting there were plenty of unfortunate half elves, noble bastards are otherwise, from Cheliax or elsewhere in the Inner sea ... it wasn't quite the same thing but it was still a good thing.
--
Notes: This is an addendum to the previous section that was taken off, because while it comments on certain things, I pulled it because I was going to expand it. So it goes up as a Friday update.

And I'm going to side bar here to discert on certain factors, in my personal model of modern economic development and Industrialization firstly I do not think it was a sure thing. I think it was a combination of factors, and I actually think that it was actually delayed from onset by the protestant reformation occurring in England. [That is a specific reading of factors of capital disruption particularly in metallurgy in England, and I'll leave that there.] However I view pre and proto industrialization as well underway in England and in parts of northern Europe by 17th​ century and in specifically the banking reforms, the maritime carrying trade networks, and the development of manufacturing among other factors. I consider England to have become 'Industrialized' by the 18th​ century, which uses a broad definition of industrialization but certainly the arrival and survival of the bank of england is a major factor.

So here, and it should be 'Wedgwood' we're referring to pottery and ceramics is a part of the industrial process of improving the standards of living of the common working man. The same with durable iron (later steel) goods and tools.

Anyway, Wedgwood pottery, in the semi long term, expect abolitionist pottery to make an appearance, but more to the point, coupled with textiles, with metal tools, this is not just about export, but thats important to its also about standard of living. Thats going to be a noticeable thing two or three years towards the latter half of the decade.

 

[Imperator Pax]

27 Gozran 4713
He watched sky, and then turned. He had an obligation to do this because because being king meant preventing the predation of ones peasants by interlopers. Whether that was an obligation levelled for moral and pragmatic reasons it existed. Legitimacy was a facet of ability to rule.


The waters of the little Sellen were only a slight curve to their bend, at this place at least they were only somewhat bent with the high side anchoring the northern portion of the river as it crossed. Given the lack of uniformity in the damage it was probably just age, there likely hadn't been any catastrophic flooding... just a couple of supports had gotten old and rotted.

The Taldan ruins were... ruins there really wasn't a much more accurate description. The old stone bridge was in poor condition, but would not be a priority to repair. The simple truth was this was the realm's southern border with Mivon to the west, and what were frankly vast unclaimed hinterlands to the immediate south of the Little Sellen. He supposed that Mivon could have laid claim to lands further west resting on the mountains as their natural territorial feature, but for all practical purposes the real boundary of power projection of the Aldori exiles was the town of Jovvox to the south west down and on the southern side of the river fork.

Without a clear mercantile motive there was little point to dispatching Dave or one of the realm's other engineers to come here and spend time and resources repairing the bridge. There was no reason to project power any further into the tall grasslands that continued beyond the little Sellen river's southern shore.

Gragglebeard himself was a fairly typical specimen of Hill Giants... besides his fancy armor. He was perhaps a little taller than Munguk, a little more muscular even but his distinction lay in his equipment and to a lesser extent the ruthless cunning the part time mercenary full time bandit seemed to exhibit.

Apparently they'd caught the giant as he was still weighing whether or not the bridge could support their weight or if they needed to cross individually. "Hmm ogre attempts at engineering, that's a new one." Jubilost grunted in observation lowering his far eye, and gesturing to several felled logs on the other side of the little Sellen. There were at least eight decently sized trunks that had been rolled towards the riverbank, and it looked there were more in the distance.

Gragglebeard seemed to be making a series of vaguely affirmative grunts to his ogre lieutenant but also looked either annoyed or constipated. Eire eyed the blue wyvern... after Gragglebeard it seemed the most dangerous thing present. It had been suggested that Gragglebeard might have heard stories that wyverns nested in the mountains and was looking for a mate for the beast, or extra wyverns to train in order to increase his own forces and their standing. Wyverns would impress the Kellids he assumed beyond any military utility.

Given a few more minutes Jubilost made the determination given the condition the bridge, and its compromised supports that it would be unwise to risk fighting on the bridge proper... in fact that letting the reavers get on it and intentionally collapsing the bridge might be a practical solution to the problem.

"It doesn't change the fact that the wyvern can fly, or that while it would probably daze the hill giants and trolls they could probably clamber back to shore."

"It would deal with the ogres and orcs though."

Jubilost did have a point there.

Amiri merely grumbled that she didn't want to wait for Gragglebeard to cross the border. He wasn't actually as concerned about the legal ramifications of attackin bandits over the border with mivon. Rather it was, so much as setting the precedent, but even that was less the matter than he didn't want to attack too soon and have gragglebeard or some of his bandits get away and then cause trouble later.

To that end he had kept weighing whether or not to open the attack from that side. He glanced to the others, "I'll begin summoning... give them some incentive to come this way, be ready." He ordered.
--
Archons screamed overhead. A handful of heaven's foot soldiers lobbed flaming javelins herding the Reavers towards the bridge. Amiri tapped her foot, and Regongar kept flexing his fist reflexively. Linzi and Jubilost had both withdrawn to the back row. Jaethal eyed the Legion Archons as the squad pivoted to hack at the angry squawking wyvern with their great swords. The trap was sprung though, the flaming javelins had insured that the trolls in Gragglebeard's ranks had hightailed it towards the bridge and way from the angelic legionnaires.

"For Gorrum!"

Amiri swung her repaired and strengthened greatsword at one of the trolls before it could get any further from the bridge. It wobbled hamstrung. Regongar unleashed a blast of lightning of his own, before waving his corrosive scimitar forward.

The attack on the bridge support began from their secondary force even as Gragglebeard realized they were trapped in the middle of an unstable bridge. He started ordering troops to jump in the water, or to force their way through the force . He didn't try and turn around and go back. The bridge buckled as the supports failed, and the crumbling turned into a deafening roar pitching thousand years old stone into the little Sellen.

The Little Sellen wasn't especially deep, not enough to reach the giants thighs but that didn't mean Gragglebeard was happy to splash into the still relatively chill water of early spring, but he and the other large giants would have little difficulty wading the rest of the way through the debris. If this had been further north, closer to Shrikewall or really anywhere along the Shrike's passage where that river was deeper and faster than the little sellen Gragglebeard would have had a problem... but the Little Sellen was not the Shrike.

Regongar laughed even as the lantern Archons swung around for another pass, and there was a string of profanity in giantish. All that did was make the cursing giant a target as the Absalom born ranger knocked an arrow that struck the giant under the armpit. Jubilost started to say something but was drowned out by the wyvern shrieking.

It's head was snapping towards the more humanoid archons.

Eire didn't expect the beast to last long, but kept it in his peripheral vision as he looked down at the river and prepared to join the battle himself.

--
Amvarean, daughter of Silverstep allowed her maid to brush her hair out. She had assumed her usual humanoid her typical appearance as a half elf. She had always found it much easier to move among humans in such a form, though it wasn't always easy to do so among elves. She had found that disappointing ... well she still found their attitudes disappointing often enough, but it had been a different sort of disappointment when she had been a wyrmling of Shaoyu's age.

Unfortunately today was proving particularly busy, with spring here there was no shortage of things to now contend with. Those ranged from of course having to hear from her sister's retainers... such as the blodeuwedd Dandrael who protected a small shrine with a passage to the first world ... as well the protests against more unruly fae. There were on that account a handful of obnoxious satyrs causing mischief with their drunken revelry. And of course she had only just recently returned from dispatching the will o wisp the peasants had dubbed the friar's lantern.

On top of such things there were reports of a malevolent troll, as well her guards had seized a band of meddlesome goblins who had been causing trouble. Apparently there were enough goblins around that the nerdowells had told them about the goblin village of Greengripe that existed as well. The captured goblins in question had been ordered to leave the kingdom. She was relatively sure that the nomadic band would do so, but if they did not then she would destroy them.

She'd need to send for the centaurs to provide benediction for a pair of dead peasants, or rather their ghosts, or failing that borrow a cleric of Phrasma from Our Lady of Graves in Varnhold, or from the Pharasmin congregation at Candlemere. The laudwigs had been good people and it was likely that the goblin village of Greengripe was responsible for their deaths.

She hadn't yet sent on her memorandum to Shrikewall as such, but it was the direction her investigation pointed towards.

Her own steward entered the drawing room and laid out a map of the eastern kamelands, and specifically the eastern portion of her domain around Silverstep lake. Though she had lived in the region for centuries... she had never paid much attention to the human ruins , or really the ruins in general prior to her death at the hands of ilthuliak.

She had not ruled the area in the sense that she now did. It was her duty to provide guidance and law to that which fell under her wings. That included a long list of things there were the ruins of an ancient canal, which would take some effort to restore but could be useful for farming. There was an old taldan quarry, and presumably nearby a castle that had been built using its bounty. Some Taldane documents recovered named the keep Thornhollow.


... there was also a herd of mammoths that had been discovered that she hoped to have domesticated, either for humans or for the stone giants... the stone giants had also shown her a naturally occurring hot spring and the great projection of a tor that if it were built upon would have made an excellent lair. All of these things, and others made their way to her attentive eye.

--
Notes: because I am a sucker for most things Kingmaker I went and got Gremlin brothers Pathfinder Infinite supplements from drive thru. They're alright. I don't use the VTT or Roll 20 material so they're not really worth the seven bucks per se for how small the actual pdfs are but on the other hand I like Pathfinder infinite lore expansion like this even if it is small., but yeah id say the price is only warranted if you use the VTT assets.

So this particularly uses name drops stuff from their Kamelands pack, i would also say that they need some better proof reading there are some mistakes and repeats between the paths... but at least someone is doing something.

 

[Imperator Pax]

30 Gozran 4713AR
An interesting bit of trivia: Calistrian wasps apparently produced honey... and with little else to do with the particular gift Eire had left it to ferment into mead over the winter. It hadn't aged quite as long as he might have otherwise done, but he'd filtered it to remove the husk, which was... unusual for most liquor in golarion that didn't come from a still. A distraction over the cold months of the year. Unfortunately the vaguelly oaken tasting notes masked enough alcohol to apparently put Jhod out for the night, and rendered much of the council beyond tipsy after a few glasses.

Maegar ribbed the aldori twins in his service that he'd brought along with him to try some more, despite the caution of temperance. The baron of Varnhold slurred, a skeptical "yeah." He replied to the his own cleric of Erastil as turned to prod his long time companion instead.

Eire sipped the mead, idly musing that this was a drink he had brewed since before he could shave... and with reflection that he wasn't quite human anymore either. He put the glass down. If there was anything Jaethal loathed of being undead it was her inability to enjoy... Urgoatha the pallid princess was a hedonistic goddess the necromancy and undead wasn't her sole domain it was just one more excess though she was among other undead patron of the debauched vampire courts as well which... Jaethal wasn't one of. Jaethal had no fear of sunlight, or of drinking blood, and could actually still be healed by positive energy but she couldn't enjoy her old pleasures.

"Well I suppose I should fetch something less potent."

"I've had dwarven rotgut that doesn't hit like this stuff."

He wasn't sure if that was a protest or an endorsement, but the royal council and this assembly had other work to do. There were investments that needed to be made into the Varnhold, supporting its peopling and work to make it productive... but that was easier said than done. Eire recognized that Maegar's domain would be the most culturally brevic... and most likely the most culturally Rostlandic of the realm.. and that meant contending with certain facets of peasant conservativism.

Erastil's church was hallmarked by conservative adherence to tradition, which among other things included the need communal consent in villages. This didn't have to be the whole village it could just be a body of elders, but the rationale was to mitigate risk. At this level, and the level above it there was simply no central control over the village economy... and frankly productivity of shared fields and the strips system was, so far as Eire measured things, absymal.

Eire suspected that such details at least could have been recognized by someone willing to study the issue... it ws the prospect of more complex financial and economic systems and organizational ideas where even educated persons on Golarion would not have reached certain follow on observations, and conclusions. Eire did question how much 'generalization' could be generated from looking at the native river kingdom villages as well as north to Brevoy. Pitax and Mivon were warm enough to support grapes and olives apparently, which provided both a convenient agricultural niche both locally, in their impact on culture, as well as for export to neighboring realms. By large however they largely followed the brevic manorial model which much as on earth had a practical limiting effect on the supply labor and manors were not really capable of responding to market forces.

It didn't appear to be true serfdom of course... that would have required a more coherent model of government, a more complex feudal arrangement than either brevoy or Pitax had. Peasant labor, as in the riverlands, were not legally bound to the land but at the same time Brevoy was also not a fully monetized market either, frequently commuting cash in favor of in kind payment. Eire suspected part of that was that Issia was less agriculturally focused than the south, and that Issia might have otherwise wanted to keep labor on hand couldn't for other factors.

Simply put the Rogavarian monarchy had for its two hundred year reign had held the kingdom together and in stasis and in turn had ruled in conjunction with the influences of Abadar, Pharasma and Erastil's churches. Presumably, Eire theorized that had created a custom that limitted the ability of Brevoy's great houses from extracting arbitrary rents and services from their peasants.... not that it apparently had stopped the issians, or probably other rostlandic lords from levying tolls and tariffs on goods passing along roads and rivers whenever they could, which was itself a sharp contrast to the river kingdoms...

... but to that end the six river freedoms were themselves, had themselves only been codified at Daggermark a century earlier.

That was part of the matter at hand. Not only did the tors separate Maegar's dunsward and steppe domain from the river kingdoms proper his population ... whatever population had already dwelled in those lands were more Iobarian, besides his brevic settlers. Of course the Varnhold's closeness to brevic traditions was not unique, but Maegar hadn't needed to force the issue on native villages as perhaps Hannis Drelev had needed to do. The Drelev domain had remained quite aloof, quiet, over the past year, likely in no small part due to the Hooktongue slough being closed to trade coming north as a result of alleged monsters in the southern slough. Whatever Drelev was doing it was almost certainly based on imposing the brevic model or noble's ideal of society on the lands of his charter.

The matter of Varnhold however meant that it was not subject to the crown law and the establishment of the realms distinctions of written and thus non arbitrary justice. Not that Varnhold had had a problem with crime before its unfortunate disturbing encounter with the cyclops lich. However it was a matter of standard practice, and one that they needed to contend with.

Eire didn't particularly care how Maegar or his subjects partitioned inheritance. That was a local issue and he wasn't going to tie royal courts up with such a matter, without a pressing reason, such as that a dispute could not be settled more locally. From an institutional perspective the kind of problem, an appeals process, he had not planned to have to deal with prior to the vanishing any time soon... but well then things had happened from there.

Maegar, the Nomen Centaur's under their war priestess, and Vordakai, all represented the eastern fringe of his realm in the mountains and beyond... and also probably there were human inhabitants within the boundaries of the charter Restov had acknowledged Maegar's rule over that didn't even know Restov had done so, never mind the migration of people from Iobaria who were just passing through seasonally.

The varnhold would have formed the obvious nucleus of the development of Maegar's domain, the establishment of farming communities to the north, and the development of the town in Varnhold pass were practical geographically determined courses of action. Similraly the road that Maegar's people had laid to Nivakta's crossing, and the bridge over the shrike to the village that laid on the Brevic side of the border had been clearly practical to the growth of Maegar's barony.

Eire waved to the map that dominated the table. From Hereford, and the boundary of the narlmarches in the west, down to a southern boundary at the Bronzeshield fortress across to the lakelands dominated by the urban centers of the capital, to New Colton, to the Lizardfolk, and to Candlemere island and coming further east to the expanse of the Kamlands, to the trollish hold to the lands beyond rivers , to Silverstep and in the north varnhold pass and leading to Varnhold itself.

Effectively five separate subdivisions, not even counting those portions of the realm to the north and south, to the far western fringes and eastern expanses, not covered by this particular map. It notably did not include the northern stretch of his domain, discounting the Temple of the Elk, the old sycamore, Akiros's fief, the fief of Svetlana's sister at Davik's crossing, the sorrowflow mines, or for that matter the mines north of old scyamore, it did not count Oleg's trading post. It was not that he had forgotten the northern march it was that they were not the subject of this meeting. He would discuss those with the kobolds, with Oleg, with Akiros, and Kressle separately at a later date specifically once they were confident that all the basic planting of the season was completed at their own farmsteads.

"With spring here we turn to both the issue of planting, but also the tax rolls, work for the year." and here year in this case was marking from the present date to roughly the 13th​ of Lamashan ... the harvest feast in the typical Erastilian farming calender. "The thickskins and the raiders under gragglebeard represent a potential recurring problem." :He paused for a moment, "They, themselves, are not the problem," They had been dealt with, "but rather the sort of problem in general." And the sort of problem that required an organization solution to deal with, because he was looking west to where the barbarians were migrating to meet the tiger lords, and recognized something needed to be done... and the crusade provided a further justification for installation of organizational principles in the realm. "This is the outline of the central west to east expanse of the realm, though does not include the fringes that comprise the dire narlmarches, the green belt or our proper border with mivon. We will construct fortifications, or bring into good condition existing structures to support a standing army that will rotate its membership to insure responsiveness to incursion. To accomplish this a survey will be conducted on placing these defenses at locations."

The process of supplying such troops, to stocking the primary granaries, and weapons would be principally a royal requirement though some would be assumed by the troops and facilities raised by Maegar, Harrgulka, and Amvarean.

The castles that would need to be built would need to be supported, would need to be in effect burghs with the aim being that no significant town or village be thirty miles from such a fortified settlement. The problem was immediately self evident. Varnhold didn't have the people to adequately fortify but a fraction of the eastern approaches... and of course the Greenbelt was similarly going to be a difficulty to fortify, and the Narlmarches wasn't exactly going to be easy.

What the Narlmarches could supply though was abundant timber in addition to quarried stone from frequent bald hills and rocky outcroppings the landscape that had made the land so difficult to settle hitherto. Still It could be done because people were immigrating and bringing skills from the south masonry to expand beyond pure timber construction.

There was a pause and Jaethal coughed, "So we're not going to discuss the Archangel of Vengeance's Church?"

Eire paused, Ragathiel was an Empyreal Lord as she had highlighted he was an Angel. One with long ties to Iomedae's church, "I had planned to permit them a place at Hereford, particularly as the castle town grows larger... Amvarean is not against permitting them to raise churches in Silverstep at some point in the future."

Jaethal rolled her eyes, "You summoned Legion Archons to deal with-"

"Giant brigands," He interrupted. The two King and Advisor stared at each other, there was a pause... "Graggle beard needed to be dealt with, and quickly... which I admit coupled with Shelyn's churches actions draws attention focus to religious matters within the realm, especially with the Crusade approaching." There was a pause, "And the ship is intended to be able to ferry supplies." Food, fodder for horses... the world wound had tainted the old lands of Sarkorsis and made it difficult to sustain war in that blighted land... and the truth was contributions to the cruade would bring in hard currency as the good aligned churches paid for the crops at the market rates of the Inner Sea rather than the inflated rates they were worth in the north nearer to the crusader state.

 

[Imperator Pax]

1st​ Desnus 4713AR

This was a step forward. The beginning of an important institutional tradition.

He accepted the bound booklet and likewise appreciated the temporary transition from draconic script to common. The latter was what the almanac had been printed in, and it to represented a part of the efforts to improve the realm. In particular the almanac introduced the changes in pig farming, particularly piglet care, that had only entered earth in the early 1900s, but it also emphasized the basics of hybridzing plants, and the use of seed corn and wheat varieties. Not that he expected the latter to really be used... for that matter he suspected that these early editions of the farmer's almanac would only really be used by 'professional farm laborers' serving the realm on the now royal farms.

The default beast of burden at erastalian farms was quite likely to remain the draft oxen forcing fields to remain in long strips as much as by the process of turning the bovine as by the longstanding tradition of communal farming and plowing. Still the almanac was the perhaps foremost publication of royal interest... besides of course using the printing press to promulgate written copies of the law in both taldane and draconic.

He idly thumbed through the first few pages, and the illustrations, particularly of jean clad workmen with farming implements produced by the baronial farming service. The jeans were the sort of the early 20th​ century on earth, and the tools were similarly largely of 19th​ and early 20th​ century farming patterns before the advent of serious mechanization in farming in the united states... but still utilizing late 19th​ century metalworking and tool design.


The almanac met with his satisfaction, and the volume next year would include more tables detailing the average rainfall of the realm, and updates next year, as royal records kept stock of changes and shifts over time. More importantly the almanac referenced the new standards and measurements being implemented.

Eire appreciated at least in their practical terms the feudal levee, and the construction services that, particularly, the stone giant were able to provide to the realm, especially under the direction of careful stone work and dressing allowing certain building projects to be brought forward. As part however of feudal labor supply it did represent a service rather than a cash payment, and while the orderly stone giants and rock trolls did accept payment in coinage and purchased goods in trade it was in addition often to barter. Still there was no denying its usefulness.

Without the giants it would have taken longer, among the substitutions for their labor was the use of standardized brick sizes to be produced by baronial, now royal, tunnel kilns that used a mechanical extrusion process to replace by hand manufacture. He still needed a source of coal, and mines, but there were good iron deposits south of silverstep, and he looked forward to the prospect of cheap nails, standard pitch screws, and the like. The reduction of cost of materials would be good, more than good.

He sat aside the book with a contented sigh... even as his thoughts drifted towards the matter of the letters from the church of Iomedae, the circulars making their way around. It was another demonstration, in its own way a reminder of of Kanerah's need for additional personnel to handle the growing bureaucratic management of a central kingdom and the population growth. Involving oneself, and the realm in the crusade meant acting external to the kingdom's borders, and not in the adventurous sort of way of simply riding over the horizon to the neighboring kingdom.

They had two and a half months, so really two months to prepare for the crusade's beginning, and determine how they could support efforts in Mendev. The 16th​ of Arodus would mark the beginning of Armasse this year.

Linzi exploded through the door holding up a freshly printed book of her own. "Its done." In cursive taldan script was written the title 'The Forgotten History of Iobaria,' then in block subscript Volume 1.

It was Maestro Penrod's book. It was another thing to be pleased with.

The scholar had comprised an entry level primer in the first part of the book detailing Cyclopean lore of Casmarron... particularly the language nuances that had caused the ranger Willas Gunderson to mistranslate the warnings regarding Vordakai's tomb. It also included the specifications of ancient cyclopean jewelry and other details of life, such art styles and not to confuse bracelets for rings.

Eire browsed the book though his was his first look at the production. What really caught his notion was that Iobarian as a modern ethnicity were themselves supposedly the descendants of the Ulfen who had migrated from the west, with 'some' intermingling with the existing natives, but that the Ulfen had been invited to come over and rule Iobaria some thousands of years earlier.... but that connection overland and by water had been cut with the winter war that had seen the establishment of the kingdom of Irrisen fourteen hundred years prior.

... but of course that only went towards his curiosity, his existing curiosity over Golarion's population. The Arodenite Calendar reckoning from the founding Absalom, the city at the center of the world, dated the Earthfall cataclysm some ten thousand years before present, which had in turn created its own miniature ice age, that Eire recognized was an occurrence of the ash kicked into the atmosphere causing temperatures to plummet and the extension of the ice caps as a result as glaciation took hold. That coupled with the expansion of those glaciers had caused the collapse of Classical Human, Cyclops, and Elven civilizations on Golarion, though it had not force life all the way south to a narrow habitable band around the equator... whether that was a quirk of geology or the whim of gods he couldn't say... but regardless the population of golarion had plummeted from its pre Earthfall numbers, and he doubted that ten thousand years was enough to fully recover to whatever it had stood at during the Thassilonian, and Azlanti height where magic and centralized leadership from complex urban centers, according to Vordakai, had allowed sprawling metropolis to exist... all devastated and abandoned due to the Earthfall.

Which still raised other questions. The Azlanti and the mainland Kellids ... and for that matter the other mainland populations including 'Keleshite', and Mwangi populations were distinct from one another... and not just distinct ethnically they had been distinct technologically. On a time scale that didn't make sense, and while Eire was considering just chalking that up to gods, and magic the Azlanti disappearance and Kellid survival post earth fall raised questions that gave him a headache, especially since they were attempting to chronologically order the histories of the lizard folk as well.

At least with the lizard folk they could record directly from draconic and just have the printing press record it. It would hopefully keep linguistic drift concerns down. It was still only one part of a nascent literature, and history record keeping tradition for the realm.. to attempt to preserve information that would likely otherwise disappear as lifestyles changed.

That way history would not be forgotten.
--
Paper production was not to the point of sustaining a paper currency. Checks, promissory notes, well that was doable... but that kind of capital wasn't necessary at this stage... the economic structure wasn't complicated enough.
Paper money was going to have to wait, and organized promissory notes while feasible with administration likewise could wait until the establishment of a national bank... and they needed a larger population base than existed at present... and so he peered over the rolls of immigrants, and the communications of sponsors of churches, and other previous immigrants... and indeed of persons he suspected were bellflower tillers or other agents among other groups that were not necessarily religious.

Some of the colonists were not really refugees but others were. The Church of Iomedae's initial wave of colonists the few thousand who had migrated in the initial year of barony... and in part due to the promise of constructing a large church to the inheritor had almost certainly been those who could afford to migrate but not so well off that they didn't have a reason to really stay where they were. There had afterwards, after the stag lord had been defeated, and as that cathedral took shape in that first year... well the Church within the Inner Sea had begun to consider other factors... and to contend with other streams of migration.

"Thank you Jaethal." He closed the binder, and pushed it to one side... and the truth was he agreed with her... this was something to keep on top of. He didn't object to the Bellflower network's opposition to slavery, but he did need to remain ostensibly neutral to insure the flow of 'legal immigrants' from Cheliax... that was especially true given the infernal kingdom's support for the Mendevian Crusades. He suspected it was only a matter of time before Cheliax either noticed what was going on, or decided it could not turn a blind eye to it... and that would be a headache. For now though there were benefits to not having formal diplomatic relations, the lack of an embassy and everything being conducted through religious intermediaries well... things could be danced around for a longer.

There was a pause. "There is another matter." She declared. "One we should deal with before more impetuous persons make problems of."

There was a frown from his chancellor to his right, and he looked at the inquisitor. "Speak then, what happened?"

"Out of an abundance of caution," Or paranoia, "I reexamined both the Technic league's original belongings as well as the area where they had been skulking," Something they had the man power for now. "My initial expectation was that the technic league were looking for the lost dwarven fortress, given their notes on reported automatons. That does not appear to be the case." Located near the, to the south, the temple of the elk was part of the dwarven shield road. Pointedly it was a fortress that had been set up to mine adamantine, which well to say that was valuable was an understatement, the entire shield road was valuable just as a road, never mind bringing the ancient mines back into use.

Jaethal was clearly holding back something perhaps in exasperation of what it might entail, but while she was concerned how Regongar and Octavia would respond to Technic league activity that was only part of her reservation of the situation. So they reached for a map of the Narlmarches in particular and settled down to address the matter.

It clearly showed the old technic league camp, and the temple of the elk where of course search parties had begun working out from. She had been cooperating with both the church of Erastil and with Akiros further to the east.

They had stumbled upon the technic league's activities as the league's agents had themselves run afoul of their own investigation... apparently dealing with some kind of dangerous fungus and combination of monstrous frogs, which frankly didn't seem all that strange for this particular region of the Narlmarches at all... which was probably why no one had noticed. Only several years of protracted heavy spring rains running into the usual summer ones, and the shifts those downpours in the rivers, deepening the arterial rivers that dominated the Narlmarch had really made it possible.


The narlmarches were broken up by an abundance of steep hills that shaped the river network. A recent landslide had uncovered a strange metal section, that had yielded more of the strange constructs that had apparently initially drawn the the technic league originally. The metal was what people called numerian steel.

"And the two automatons?"

"Destroyed unfortunately. Akiros and his kellids made quick work of them." She shrugged, "it wasn't hard to retread the path the league's minions followed." Apparently the frogs could be reasoned with, domesticated even by druids, but the fungus was for whatever reason aggressively hostile... it might have been something of the green mother's carnivorous plants or who knew what else, but they'd had to take fire to all the spores, and thoroughly cleanse the area.

... still Jaethal wasn't wrong if the landslide had revealed what it looked to have revealed then the technic league would be back.

"In any event, its a flying ship of sorts."

He nodded, but denied having any answers about it. "I appreciate all of your hard work." The question would be to find time to investigate it... though they could task Regongar and Octavia to look into it, perhaps with support from Brigh's church. "We'll have to investigate, but as I said... Numeria's technology is as much a mystery to me as it is to you."

 

[Imperator Pax]

Desnus 4713
Two weeks had passed, and the days were becoming noticeably longer as the summer solstice approached. Jaethal crossed her arms and looked at the mass of steel and crystalline lenses. The sullen elf tapped her foot as she squinted into the sunlight. "Explain."

"The simple description is that its a greenhouse, those are condensers," He paused, and then deciding to elaborate continued, "to pull water out of the air." He supposed that a different sort of wizard would have tired to just conjure water from the elemental plane, but while that had occurred to him it had seemed a needless complication when we he was already dealing with a lot of planar magic. It was a magic greenhouse

"Ah yes a green house." The undead inquisitor snarked, then looking at the apparatus again, "Its to sustain mana plants." She determined after a moment.

"Yes." He replied deciding to explain, at least in basic terms the process, because truthfully the first world flora was the heart of the entire system. "The flowers will receive concentrated solar energy, water and in turn directly power both the ship's primary lift capacity and defensive bank of wards." It would be the center piece of the ship, but the skeleton of the vessel would be a long metal skeleton of alchemically treated alloys. That in itself would be a significant undertaking, as would the building of the supporting frame work to support the floors and weight to allow cargo space, and for passengers. They didn't have the metal production capacity to make a metal hull... and any future ships that might be might have to made in two separate halves mated together, but that was in the future.

It was also why he had no plans to mount centrally powered magical siege weapons the craft... nor plans to mount ballistae or blackpowder cannons. Such were the principle weapons of Alkenstar's flying galleys. Given that it needed to be able to carry them and supplies promised grain to Mendev in three months fixed weapon mounts were hardly a priority not on that kind of timeframe.

Valerie said nothing, but the elf gave a long exasperated sigh. "Sooner or later, and at this rate it will almost certainly be sooner we are going to have to contend with issues with my former homeland."

Kyonin was famous for the Aiudara. The elf gates. The return of the Kyonin elves had been sufficient in number for the kingdom to expel Taldor from the region when Taldor had been much stronger than the modern declining empire of the present day...

Thankfully Kyonin was more isolationist than interested in reclaiming past elven glories... but it also had not escaped Eire that he had more elven subject, pure blood elves, than he had dwarves. Halfbloods, half elves, easily outnumbered all pureblood elves by a ratio of two, approaching three, to one.

It would certainly not hurt therefor in the interest of trade as well as domestic politics to remain on cordial terms with the kingdom of the elves to their south. Kyonin was after all basically the southern most of the river kingdoms, which was not a particularly politic description, though geographically accurate given its position relative to the Sellen network. "We're no closer to finishing our research on the elf gates than we were at the start of the year." Though admittedly that was because it was not a priority... the mistuned gate of Zzmas the spider did need to be kept underguard but they still weren't sure on how to fix it.

On the other hand besides Kyonin's interest in first world affairs, and particular apparently flora fauna, denizens the eldest and so forth they were very interested in the aiudara beyond Kyonin's borders... and if it came out that a nominally speaking human kingdom had figured out to fix an elf gates there was very likely going to be a diplomatic incident of some stripe.

He leaned back, "I understand he replied, and stepled his fingers. "As I said the mana plants generate the motive power for the ship. While its not intended for war, it should allow us to fly across Numeria to Mendev's seat at Nerosyan." The problem was self evident looking at a map for while Nerosyan had been sensibly constructed where the Egelsee river flowed into the West Sellen , and thus the city was a part of the great Sellen River Network Mendev was far in the west, and thus travel to there would have ordinarily meant toll passage from Numerian, a financial burden which while guaranteeing a rather safe passage did create a hurdle in the long history of the crusade. That was without considering travel time.

Planning he trip and the time was one of the major factors impacting the entire project of a flying ship... it had really nothing to do with Numeria.

"Nor is it related to recent discoveries, but we should accept that while that may be true it may not appear such to outsiders, and thus we may also face problems diplomatically from the technic league."

Valerie paused, not immediately responding to Jaethal's summary, and then after that moment to compose herself looked at the elf, "What are you suggesting?"

"I am suggesting that if the Kellid horde under Armag does make a bid for the Numerian Tyrant's throne we should weigh who we support. If this Armag Twice Born was to become Tyrant he might be in a position to eliminate the Technic League entirely." There could be no denying a new Black Tyrant in Numeria would certainly shake up the political order... and such a consideration was something Jaethal had considered.


--
Regongar started to volunteer to investigate technic league activity, but Garess and Maegar both stated they already had their respective guards handling things... and Jaethal had her own, investigators make sure that they weren't acting against the interests of the realm. The problem was that the Technic League didn't always dress in obvious costume... though occasionally they were so blatantly arrogant not just to dress in such a manner they outright advertised their affiliation to any who asked.

As the brevic law code made clear, regarding unrepentant banditry was execution by sword or rope. Slavers found practicing their trade by force, guile, or coin were hosti humanis generis, and to face the same fate. So far though the numerian organization had not been found either holding slaves or attempting to take them, which was good enough for Regongar.

Regongar looked to Eire immediately to protest his uninvolvement all the same. "I am sorry Regongar, I will permit you to investigate the league's activities in the realm... but there is actually another matter regarding their involvement." He needed him to investigate the uneartehd ship, "And I also need you to be aware that beyond the technic league it would seem that the Tiger Lords are exploring ruins on their own. So I need you to be aware of that as well."

Amiri had only passing familiarity with the giant pantheon... in fact she largely had assumed that the giants more or less worshipped the same gods as everyone else. Maybe by different names, and that even if that weren't the case it didn't really matter. Nilak called Tristian's goddess Sister Cinder so it made sense that Giants would call the elkfather something else.

It might have made sense for them to call Gorrum by some other name. Erstig wasn't that different from Erastil after all, and with the way hill giants tended to mumble their words it probably sounded about the same.

More than that though Gorrum had no universal texts... that was the meaning, but the word Eire had used was ecumenical. There was not a 'canon' unlike in his own church to the Chelish war goddess , and presumably Aroden of Humanity before her had in the lands of the Inner Sea

"Armag's claim does not win him universal or unflinching support. It has been many many generations since the Tiger Lords could claim by name and lineage alone untamed aid from the other clans." the former werewolf remarked.

"IF he could sway giants to his cause it would greatly aid his standing." Nilak observed. "Surely he would need treasure for that?"

There were looks exchanged. "Reciprocal gift giving would potentially win him allies." Eire acknowledged, "And I admit that could be what he's looking for but for the hill giants he will need to likely demonstrate some degree of martial prowess."

Amiri's hand tightened on her giantish sword ready to face any challenger. Regongar considered and wracking his brain for what he knew of Numeria's strange metal ruins beneath the surface.

--
He had reports from Garess to read through, and he expected that Regongar and Amiri would be busy in the western reaches of the realm well into summer. They had already departed taking with them small parties of their own just as Garess planned to make sure that the road north to Olegton was equally alert for potential technic league interlopers.

Eire knew that as time passed, as more migrants immigrated into the kingdom, especially as a kingdom his ability to implement things would change. There were somethings, some facets that needed to be implemented early, and some that could only be implemented later as there were more people, more towns.

Truly standard weights and measurements were one of the hardest things to implement beyond basic common units. It was necessary for standardized parts, and that was necessary for what he needed... not just for the airship but for the manufacture of common commercial goods. A simple water driven hammer could produce a general pattern of sword, and its fittings in general measure or other steel tools in what was mass production, and that was for martial weapons sufficient to arm and equip a medieval army. There would be hand fitting involved but that was acceptable even for non magical weapons intended for common footsoldiers, and guardsmen. The problem lay in more complex and ultimately more mundane things.

Standard pitch screws came to mind. It was a requirement best implemented before there were many large towns with commiserate numbers of individual craftsmen. Nuts, bolts, screws, and even nails needed to be produced to specific tolerances and sizes. It was also why there was a standard brick size produced by baronial, now royal kilns. The motive power largely, though not exclusively made possible by the flowing of the Shrike river though magic steam engines using fire magic to heat and strengthen fire to higher temperatures certainly helped... but that required a standard unit of temperature, and a way to measure it.

This was his realm. The process of construction standards earlier would save him trouble... and the mass production of durable spares of clothing at a pittance meant people free from inefficient construction of work clothes at home or on communal looms, letting them work ideally in monetized professions which would give them the money to buy goods to to justify expanded production for export and trade.

The Crusade presented an opportunity for export of commercial goods that weren't food. Healing magic or not there were never enough bandages, and that could be added to the list of goods in the future... but the crusade was certainly an unplanned economic factor... and one more complicated than say something like needing to import cotton, or needing ready access to coal reserves. The cotton was easily addressed by trade with Osirion, to which he could reexport the finished product too in theory if the market was of interest, so far it was a novelty and time would tell. The latter, coal reserves was a more complicated matter beyond just a good source. It would be labor intensive, and most likely he would need steam engines in the mines themselves to run pumps to make them viable as well as safe.

Coal was a complex factor, one beyond Narland's productive means to industrially exploit at this stage. Right now they were largely using surface harvested peat, and that was fine, because it was what the villages used, because of the prevalence of rivers and bogs and swamps... but that was not the same thing as hard coal.

In much the same fashion canals could be readily constructed due to the labor requirement it took to excavate and the construction of the locks needed to manage them. It was easier, though still labor intensive, to build good roads given the distances involved. That might not always be the case, but in terms of the kingdom's current situation Eire recognized the limits of the labor pool, and of course that how that labor could be called up and for how long in particular a feudal corvee labor could be expected. In short there were limitations to what he could do constrained they were with logistics and demographic boundaries.

The church of Brigh was a small faith, and he was grateful that Arsinoe had introduced them to the realm, but the minor goddess had few followers, and wasn't an evangelical faith either. Jubilost was currently engaged in an animated discussion with a taldan cleric of the whisper in bronze that currently looked like it was getting out of hand as the matter of Numeria and the Technic league had once again been brought up.

Brigh was herself a neutral goddess, but well her followers were some of the patrons of the illicit trade of Numerian artifacts evading the Technic league's efforts to contain the spread of such goods. It was a booming smuggling that seemed to run through the markets of New Stetven... but then from what Jubilost was saying New Steven's markets were involved in significant smuggling of antiquities from all over the inner sea and golarion beyond... which was something of a surprise. Given its relative isolation and population size, in its corner of north eastern avistan Eire would not have considered the young nation of Brevoy to have that kind of market... perhaps something to do with House Rogavaria... but the conversation needed to be headed off they had other matters to deal with.

Jaethal ghosted up to him and regarded his sketches for a moment, then to the gnome's conversation, "Are you still planning to visit Silverstep?"

"I am." He replied, "Why?"

"Amvarean has sent word that she has an interloper."

"More goblins?" He questioned. Jaethal replied with a statement in draconic and he raised an eyebrow, "I see." Eire replied in the same language.
--
Notes: there are some scraps of additional content of the party members and royal court but they're presently sitting in a side document as we move into summer. Its not that those events won't happen its just they're not making progress so Eire is off to make a circuit of his eastern territories. And some of this will have other factors i.e. Amiri's internal description of Aroden, and Iomedae, and that will reflect somewhat when Eire introduces an equivalent to midwinter dedicated to Iomedae later in the year for Narland's local practices.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Desnus 4713
The homes of the eastern Kamelands, those along Lake Silverstep reminded him of berghausen from Germany. They were largely timber shaped homes in a similar building manner to those at Shrikewall but still distinct enough from those at the royal capital. They were lovely two and three story farmhouses and chalets looking over the lakeshore. The town of Silverstep, already a population of about seven hundred, much like Hereford was not intended to be a recreation of Shrikewall... though if Amvarean wanted to build chalets at Hereford in this style he certainly wasn't going to object. They were quite attractive to look at; picturesque and nostalgic for a long time ago.

Unlike Hereford, Silverstep did not have a stone keep... but admittedly Hereford had the advantage of having had a stone keep due to it being of elven construction that predated Hereford's founding. Silverstep had the advantage of having a dragon as feudal overlord. In that though the three settlements shared the facet of having Churches to Iomedae as their central religious structure of the township.

"I am sorry Amvarean, please repeat that if you don't mind." He stated after Linzi's ear splitting squeal of excitement. He had already known about the iron mines in the western foothills of the tor, and the were to be especially important... and he wasn't terribly surprised to find other mineral wealth in the tors... from the sound of it the whole great western range that divided Avistan from Iobaria on most maps... and was probably the result of the plates pushing up on each other acting as a font of mineral wealth. North of Shrikewall were old Taldan silver, and gold mines. There was Sorrowflow even further north of here. Then of course there were the road of shields and the mines in that chain that the dwarves had built.

The dragon in half elf guise nodded, and pushed a braided lock of hair over her ear, "Recent efforts in the lands remitted to me south of the little seen have been productive, but I believe that they have contributed to attention from the east in Casmaron."

Amvarean had been flying the week before, as spring had thaw been building, temperatures warming and noticed the presence of other dragons, and some investigation of her newly established exploration of the whispering grotto had shown the poking around of a juvenile gem dragon. A crystal dragon native to the elemental plane of earth. Most likely the juvenile had entered the material plane through a natural portal between the realms in the vicinity of of the tors, and had then heard about the the source of precious gemstones.

The brass dragons likely though came from as she had said casmarron who may or may not have originally migrated to the arid steppe as a consequence of the ascendancy of House Thrune to the Chelish throne in 4640, but had migrated into a region of Casmaron with an existing population of blue dragons who likely took exception.

It was that particular issue that had brought them to the eastern side of his kameland domains, and entailed bringing word to Maegar as well... but then they'd been side tracked by precious gems and shiny dragons. Distracting them from the prospect of needing to add blues to the chromatic spectrum of ... black dragon, and potential red problems, or greens.

He'd actually been expecting a white problem from the Casmarron steppe, but in hindsight blue pressures made sense given the broader historical picture. "So we are looking both potentially a push pull factor in migration. Pressure from the blue dragons of the steppe and a pull factor in the broader diverse communities raising in the kamelands, plus potential treasure."

"That is an astute description." The silver dragon agreed.

"Ooh are those pits," Some of the outliers in size were several hundred feet deep, "We found are they from gold dragons?"

"It is possible they were dug by questing golds." Amvarean replied. As it was it seemed as if the region of the Kamelands were not to the dragon's taste and they moved on... given the sprawling expanse of grasslands to the south it was possible they had migrated in that direction.

Of course changing the matters to gold turned the subject of conversation to Copper dragons and the matter of Galt's revolution, which of course was a dispute that Silvers tended to oppose. Though most of the coppers in Avistan resided in Andoran which had become the point of congregation for their like after the failed attempt at overthrowing House Thrune. That brought them through the rest of the metallics, ending with bronze.

"Do you think some would come and live in Shrikewall?" Linzi questioned quill at the ready

"Probably not. Memphis," The settlement on the eastern shore of the lakes, "as it grows larger perhaps." Grew large enough to support libraries, and places of study. Of course he was speculating, unlike Taldor he no intention of exempting private banks, even draconic ones, from taxes. He couldn't honestly say with certainty he knew. "We will have to speak with Maegar." There weren't sufficient people in the Dunsward to reasonably have forewarning, he pinched his nose and weighed the situation with regards to dragons... he had no idea how Brevic citizens thought about dragons.

"What is it?"

"There is also the matter of the bulettes." He shook his head. They lived basically in between Varnhold and the nomen grounds, which was itself a potential headache. The nomen were nomadic so they migrated and knew how to avoid the land sharks apparently but it would be another thing to contend with in relation to the Dunsward territories

That closeness to two of his vassals, coupled with bulette's digging ability... well something had to be done... and that was the monarch's responsibility to deal with. There were a few solutions. There was a burgeoning druid community, Kobolds and dwarves were known to tame bulettes... but that most likely required raising the creatures from eggs.

Bulettes were not a natural creature. Some idiot wizard's idea of a guardian modelled on a shark but travelling through the earth had been hit by the good idea fairy... and now they were found all over golarion... and that was why the alternate contingency was to simply hunt down the bulettes in the region and kill them all... an alternative he'd prefer to wait on acting on because Amiri was otherwise occupied, and it was precisely the sort of expedition she was likely to favor being party too.

Maegar's barony lacked a large druid population, and there were even fewer Kobolds. The druids similarly would have to come from Silverstep. Alternate options involved asking for Vordakai or the stone giant's assistance. It was something of a nuclear option in Eire's accounting, since in terms of valuable labor the giantish labor was the most valuable given their expertise.

... and speaking of the baron, Amvarean's enfeefment was complicated. Not so much her territorial demesne, or her being a dragon, as it fell within the original narlmarch charter geographically. Rather that Maegar's status of a third son seemed to put perhaps some pressure regarding his reaching out in the first place, after a successful mercenary career Maegar had assumed that as a noble scion he knew enough, and had enough resources, with Restov's support, to establish Varnhold.

He accepted that no one could have reasonably expected an ancient casmarron menace like Vordakai to be woken from his torpor... but Maegar had also hoped that his knowledge of Brevoy, brevic traditions of rule might allow him to distinguish himself. Instead of the one helping, he was the one needing help.

"It would probably be wise to consider asking Maegar how he would like this handled... and we could question the centaur what they know since they are also near by."
--
Kankerata was the name the centaurs had dubbed the cantankerous old bulette. It had unusually lived in the area for decades, which stood out among other details on reflection. Its long presence had created a myriad of furrows and sinkholes across the landscape... but an area, that was for a mature bulette too small. 'The world eater' should have been patrolling a larger area, especially given the lack of obvious forage for the landshark to feed on in the dunsward.... indeed the fact that Kankerata hadn't abandoned the area for another hunting area was itself the first indicator.

That it was a lone specimen wasn't particularly unusual, but they would need to exercise caution, given the compromised nature of the terrain... one look at the terrain though suggested it was more than that.

"The terrain breaks are too even." He noted. "Summon Vordakai, I want to know if his people might have built something here." Might being the operative word, It was the best guess he had if wizards had made bulettes why wouldn't the iobarian cyclop have used them to protect a now ruined place. They were too far east to suggest it was potentially Azlanti... the terrain was wrong to be dwarven... and not to type cast but it seemed doubtful that that this far out into the grassland it would be elven either.

It was a guess, but cyclops was the best they could go on if htere were buried ruins. "Eire?" The silver dragon questioned.

"Also summon elder Hulthrak, I want Kankerata taken alive." The mammoth wrangling giant primeval elk riding stone giant druid would be their best option for that. It was ultimately a bit of extra, unnecessary excitement. While old certainly, the site was Taldan, it post dated the 5th​ army of exploration, which had reached the lake of mists and veils and begun the process of taldan rule in the early 21st​ century of the Arodenite calendar.

It almost certainly predated the return of the Kyoni elves to Golarion, which put the time frame of the ruins in a half millennium ballpark. It had definitely collapsed and been buried... probably as a result of Taldan expansion and back and forth conflicts of the Dunsward that had pushed the centaurs further south, and east... but the dunsward would have still been a dangerous place... and Eire still wasn't conclusively sure exactly how Sorrowflow mines to the west had been destroyed. They'd originally been operating on the assumption that the most direct pathway would have been pursued... but at least this settlement had been destroyed at a time when Qadira had been at peace with Taldor. They weren't sure about the sorrowflow dates but it was probably later... but the damage looked similar.

Someone had intentionally attempted to use bound elementals here.... so at least on that account there was something that Vordakai could investigate... but it was unlikely to yield them any answers quickly... but excavating the settlement could be relevant to Iobarian history during the late Taldan golden age, as well as provide a sight in the east for the realm and a place for future expansion... even if it wasn't cyclopean in origin. It did leave Eire wondering exactly how quickly the Taldan frontier in Iobaria and in the far north east of Avistan had started to roll back even before the elves had returned... presumably it had started even before Kyonin had returned in 2632, but that had probably accelerated weakening of Taldan central authority by exasperating the divide between an eastern and western focus. They were relatively sure that Sorrowflow had been destroyed between two thousand years ago and twenty five hundred, and that would put the destruction, in the more recent scale, contemporaneous to the elven return to golarion.

That very well could have been a coincidence. Still it would bear investigating both sites, and developing both to support the realm.


--
Notes: Necessary lore dump, but this also leads into among other things why Narland had certain mounted military units that it does, though they're often small units in the case of bulletes, or wyverns in the future.

Also because there aren't Paladin military formations in Narland, in contrast to Lastwall or Mendev because despite the cathedral to Iomedae (and this is in the future) Narland does not have a lot of Iomedaen paladins compared to other professions, which is unusual since Iomedae is the paladin cliche, where as Narland's military is principally centered on heavy infantry, not to the exclusion of knights or mounted units, but we will get there. The primary reason though is population diversity, most of Narland's cavalry are 'ethnic iobarians'.

Anyway the next three segments cover Densus 4713 in the east of the realm dealing witht the management of Varnhold's charter areas.

I do wish to state that I'm not current on second edition lore and changes, supposedly there are developments in 2E's timeline but I haven't read any 2E original AP yet and so I'm not sure if I'll incorporate lore from second edition yet, we will see.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Desnus 4713
The trip they had planned was one to work their way eastward across the domain. A few days here a few days there, but slowly moving to the edge of the charter boundary. The mountains to the north east were too far away, Silverstep was still the dominant northern feature, but their presence lay in the east. In a few days they would cross into the Varnhold since Vordakai was meeting them here. The withered lich was approaching slowly, measured strides more out of consideration for the heavy trunk he carried and no doubt its contents.

Eire watched as heavy steel plows and horse teams worked across the Royal farms. The dozens of fields, literally hundreds of horse were tending several different rotations of various crops. The steel plows were of a 19th​ century design but there were limitations that prevented him from implementing certain 19th​ century agriculture techniques, and certainly uniformly. The implementation of the three field system, and mold board style plows, and here more colonial, or early American agriculture four field systems and steel plows based off of John Deere's designs of the early 19th​ century provided the food which filled the royal granaries. The horses were largely from native herds that ranged the southern kamelands.

Together they allowed a small specialized, wage based royal workforce to provide food for the realm, and population growth, and control food prices. They generated an excess that was designed to support growth. The population of the realm to expand.

The giants, and their veneration of Erastil were not an issue. At least not to his farming methods... not within the giants iteration of the faith. It was the Brevic church of Erastil which, his new farming methods considered too new, and too different. It kept farmers working on royal institutions all year round really, and for wages rather than for their own crops. He had concerns that some of the brevic church bordered on Luddism... even though that term didn't exist he knew the royal system was not a typical feudal manorial system.

As monarch he was the largest landholder in the realm, which was itself an anomaly. He didn't have competition from the various churches. Not real competition. In theory Varnhold was the largest separate feudal domain spreading into the dunsward, but in royal recognition Maegar's domain really ended running south from Brevoy's official border, roughly anchored near Restov. That was still by feudal terms a large area over a thousand square miles a still truly voluminous patrimony for Maegar to rule over, but not the absurd grandiose dispensation of the brevic charter.

They produced other things as well. Potatoes particularly those at Candlemere, as Kaessi had noted, weren't just grown for food, they produced starch that went into paper manufacturing that paper then went into the printing presses.

Vordakai made no comment on the farms. "I have compiled a map from what survives of my records, and worked with Maestro Pendrod over other sources. While as we have confirmed the ruins in question are clearly Taldan, the the centaurs have verified there is at least one remnant of the old empire." He meant Koloran. "Given its size, and its location within the dunsward it is easily reachable, and should be investigated."

Eire turned. "Does it have a name?"

"The horses," The centaurs, "call it the city of hollow eyes. It would seem no one has managed to open the main entrance, but they speak of undead cyclops."

Hence hollow eyes... that made sense. "Does it have a Koloran name?" He asked but the withered lich merely shrugged.

"I am sure it did, but it would have been a small frontier settlement little better than a town at the time of the civil war breaking out. It is in the open grasslands of the Dunsward. It is to the north east of my tomb, therefore it lay south of Maegar's domain according to the map."

The artificial lines drawn on the map. That didn't really reflect significant territorial features. In the west were the tors which gradually descending into the wide open grasslands, and in ancient days would have been dotted by watch towers of ancient Cyclops and elves. "Do you think that any Cyclops still dwell among the ruins." Was there another Vordakai, a liche or some ancient other survivor.

"I do not." The atrophied lich replied, "The horses tell me that they would seasonally travel to trade with iobarian tribes both horses and human barbarians among the ruins. The 'city' as they call it lacks any of the associations with the valley of the dead among their people." the nomen centaurs, and probably their thundering hooves forbearers had suffered significant loss of historical culture at taldan hands after all. "I would doubt any of the degenerate descendants of my kind would stomach such neighbors, unless of course actually brought up in a human tribal band. Then perhaps, but the horses mentioned nothing of the sort."

They were going to need to reconstruct the ancient network of watchtowers, build fortified... burhs for lack of a better term, along the frontier and roads to shape trade that came in from off the steppe. The idea was both security and economy. Routing trade along a specific route would insure that it passed up through Varnhold to Restov, and also didn't intrude into the lands of the centaurs, the horses as Vordakai tended to call them.

Though clearly the Cyclops was merely looking at political frameworks of an iobarian model. It would be very easy to brevic sensibilities to be traditional feudal gamesmanship. Though it would take time for the old taldan ruins, the blood furrows, in the dunsward to be cleared and explored, and to settle new people it still represented a royal investment into Varnhold's domain. Vordakai acting towards a move in his own borderlands would have looked much the same.

He decided to go ahead and address that, and, "Further that means settlement, and in practical terms," With a lack of civilized giants, "That means humans."

"of course."

Iobaria had giantish populations, but hill giants and frost giants were unlikely to be found along the steppe. He doubted the trolls would be found. Eire didn't know enough to comment on the habits of ogres, and thus really the predominant human ethnicity to the south east of them was like to be the horse lords and their mounted pastoral nomadism along the low valleys, and high plains along the caravan trade

... and that Eire would need a survey to help plan, but it did remind him of how odd Golarion was in ecological diversity... the ancient azlanti and their contemporaries made things so strange to plan for in terms of agriculture.

Vordakai asked if there was a problem. "No merely considering the scales." The time frames of Golarions history, the distances involved. It was a lot to deal with.
--
They absolutely weren't going to call it 'the city of hollow eyes'. That just wouldn't fly. It wasn't really a city either... it might have been the remains of one, from the ruins certainly it appeared to have had centralized palace lead administrative centers, thus distinguishing it from a town... but the modern locale was more ruins, and gathering place rather than long term permanent town It was a place to trade seasonally, and little more.

In a similar fashion to Shrikewall's castle, the footprint and height of the buildings was somewhat misleading. The ancient cyclops had had to build their floors with tall ceilings, large arches, and supports to support them and thus while exterior's were tall there weren't many individual floors... and this had been constructed late in the empire's existence with only limited structures having magical supports integrated into the construction. Most of the town had succumbed to time, the elements, being broken into probably starting with marauders during the cyclopean civil war looking for supplies but certainly as others had moved in in the age of darkness, and through the age of enthronement. Maestro Pendrod was certainly going to want to visit, but that would have to wait until they had secured a foothold in the region... but that was in itself relatively easy. They had the centaurs to levy a claim over overlordship, and enforce a standing guard until permanent connections overland could be managed.

Officially Eire had marked the Hills of Nomen, the southern half of the Icerime peaks that formed the eastern official border of Brevoy's real territorial extent should be their practical border. It was a nice solid territorial claim. It was from the Hills of Nomen that the Shrike flowed down that further justified using its geography as the hallmark of the realm. The Castrovin sea similarly an official territorial claim... even though in practical terms Eire didn't expect them to reach the sea for many years to come.

In equally official terms he had enfeefed Maegar's assimilated Varnhold into an area of a thousand square miles, a large duchy, and similar areas for the Nomen and also nominally an area in the south Vordakai was to administer, which was where the 'city of hollow eyes' lay.

Xamanthe cantered up, skittering to a stop to the opposite side the cyclopes stood, but more than anything looking concerned, beyond simply unnerved by her former undead captor. Eire's eyes set into a narrowed scowl of quicksilver slits, "I take it there is a problem."

Amvarean and Shaoyu had not joined them for this outing. He had allowed Shaoyu to remain at Silverstep to observe Amvarean's efforts... especially given developments in demographics so to speak regarding the area he had enfeefed the silver dragon. "there is a dragon." At his no doubt rather 'of course there was look', and the more pressing detail was what kind, the young centaur warrior continued, "Its huge," That wasn't helpful, "blue," Xamanthe was at an obvious loss of words, "With scales the color of open sky. I happened to overhear the human tribes speaking of seeing it come down,"

Further questions followed, apparently there were a mix of Kellids from Numeria they had set up a camp, but they didn't seem here tor trade, instead investigating, 'looking to loot', the unopened great chamber of the cyclopes in the center of the city. Xamanthe said they were Tiger Lords, but that there were also other tribes around some from the Kara people of the south east. "Show me."

For Xamanthe Huge was something of an underwhelming context. Certainly the long serpentine form of the blue was large, but in truth the wounded dragon was not much larger than Vordakai was, and smaller than elder Hulthrak, who had wrestled the bulette Kankerata into a magical steel pen to contain the creature. More to the point though the blue dragon's wing had been raked by a potent acid... and given the pattern... from a larger dragon, a black.

The injured male arched his neck, "Ah guests," The motion reveal the ragged acid burns continued across the side, "Please come closer, don't fear we can help each other." The words were spoken with painful effort and with a cautious look thrown to the side. The blue dragon regarded Vordakai the longest whether because he was in such a mixed company of centaurs and humans or because the cyclops was a liche or ... because both.

"It is generous of you to speak Taldane, but unnecessary." Eire replied in Draconic, "What brings you within my hold?"

The blue's head raised slight and he inhaled cautiously, and then attempting to straighten and fold his his wings back... not easy to do given the torn ligaments and damage to his side, then looking down to the earth. He sighed, "Only my determination carried me this far. Damned Ilthuliak ..."

"Ah I see. I am afraid I have questions then, as the witch has attacked one of my retainers previously." He replied.

The dragon blinked, and gestured to his wounded side, "Yes, her acid still burns me, I cannot travel further on this wing, I cannot dance in the sky any longer."

"Then I would be a poor host." Eire replied the healing magic filling the remains of the ruined cyclop's home. The blue dragon sagged in relief as the burning ceased. "Still I have questions, as well I should say will Amvarean, and Eranex."

Vordakai seemed to be barely concealing laughing at the polite adult blue dragon's growing borderline alarm at the situation that it found itself in. His eyes had widened at the names of the two silver dragons and glanced at them in turn.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Desnus 4713
"Oh my goddess, I can't believe I missed meeting another dragon." Linzi declared her outburst rattling the table and the cups of tea. The new settlement whenever it could actually be called a settlement would need a temple to Desna It was something of a compromise position, a consideration for the centaurs... and truthfully letting them preside over it or not Desna was likely to be popular with many of the humans likely to settle here.

Here would still need a name, but that wasn't the immediate priority. Unlike the realm at large whatever this settlement took, it did not have ready proximity to a body of water that directly connected to the broader Sellen network. It was surrounded by grassland, which was also true of the Taldan site to the north but it was close enough to Varnhold, a couple dozen miles, that a wide enough highway could be constructed to address that issue.

Eire shook his head, "You have not missed meeting another dragon." The blue, Mitharius, was currently in discussion with Amvarean and her half sister... which rather certainly assured that it was unlikely to attempt an admittedly already unlikely double cross.

"I missed you healing an injured dragon." Linzi remarked still very put out, even as she stole a look in the direction of the three, really four, human form dragons.

"Yes, well I find first aid is best rendered as soon as feasible." He replied... and of course any details the blue could yield about the black dragon who had at least temporarily killed Amvarean in her own lair none the less was important. Ilthuliak would need to be killed, and killing a black dragon of wyrm age would require preparation. Regardless of what powers he could call upon...

Not the least of which would be finding where the black dragon made her nest, you couldn't kill something you couldn't find... well theoretically with enough magic you probably could, but finding Ilthuliak's lair would be better.

He just hoped Ilthuliak wasn't in the Hooktongue slough.... but he knew for certainly the black wasn't in the Narlmarches proper ... which suggested that... maybe she was responsible for the blockage of trade going up the East Sellen River.

Linzi didn't seem to realize the potential danger of that being the case, and he wasn't going to draw attention to it. There were some details they'd just have to wait and see what panned out, and if she was more focused on the heal injured dragon then that was fine. They still needed to investigate the cyclops ruins, which as it happened seemed to be also what the Tiger Lords had come here for as well.

Vordakai cleared his throat to signal he was going to speak, "I have investigated the site in question... the door remains intact as a result of surviving wards... but while I suspect some lesser, and most likely ravenous undead remain I sense no signs of a guiding intelligence." There was a pause, "Maestro Pendrod will be joining us shortly, I hazard that his excitement has exceeded prudence... but the site is very likely intact inside."

Deciding he wanted to make sure "You are certain there isn't another cyclops inside?"

"I do not believe so." Vordakai repeated, then with pointed consideration, "Given that the wards, and sanctuary within are intact it is possible, but improbable." What Vordakai meant, was that this was not like his mausoleum in the valley of the dead, while there were probably more dread zombies here, and traps besides there were no indications that a necromancer, and not a lich had used this town as his base back in the final days of the cyclopes's empire. "Whoever was entombed here is likely dead, and if undead, one of the ravenous unthinking brutes."

The Tiger Lords warily watched them... the blue dragon had taken on a human appearance of a blonde ulfen or possibly northern iobarian man. Aecora knew there were living Cyclops in the area, but in one of the few agreements she had with Vordakai had concurred with his dismissal that they were barbarians... in the sense that they either didn't practice magic, or couldn't Eire wasn't entirely certainly which of the two Vordakai found more offensive to his ancient sensibilities.

The condition of Iobaria's remaining Cyclopes population was unfortunately a potential security concern. If it wasn't one thing it was another, since of course it wasn't just Cyclopes, it would be hill giants. It would be potentially more spriggans, a rival centaur tribe was also in the realm of possibility. This was the frontier with Iobaria... regardless of where the actual border was it was more of a porous frontier than fixed standards of an industrial, or even the borders between territorial monarchies. Brevoy had been the nearest thing in this neck of the woods, though technically farther south was Galt that had the history having been a province of Cheliax, and then Taldor before that.

Vordakai glowered a milky white, monocular, glare at the carved stone door, and spoke the word of opening. There was some scratching, and then the grinding of gears as it slowly forced itself opened after thousands of years sealed shut.

Shaoyu hissed drawing her longsword as the first of the zombies came out of the now open doorway. The creatures fingers were broken, and barely attached, and it looked like it had literally been gnawing on rocks or something hard for what little broken nubs remained...

...or had remained prior to a wave of flame burning away its skull.

Still Shaoyu had the right idea, and Eranex followed suit cracking another dread zombie's skull quickly with her fey touched mace even as more shuffled into daylight. Silver longsword blades formed whirling barriers of blades five feet from the entrance that tore through limbs, and giantish torsos as several more dread zombies rushed forward.

By that point the Tiger Lords had decided to join in brandishing greatswords to assist in dismembering the eight plus foot slavering undead.

"I take it this must happen often?" The erudite polite voice questioned.

"Yep," Linzi replied to the blue dragon's question, "Pretty much all the time, isn't it exciting?" The halfling squeaked. That was probably not the solution the blue dragon masquerading as a wizard was looking for, but accepted it with some reserve. It was interesting that Mitharius was an elven name, but he took the form of an Iobarian... or skaldic human.

He actually suspected that this was as close to a strong face in adversity that the blue dragon could muster and was probably a little worried about what he had found himself in, trading near death for a complete lack of grounding as he wandered into the unknown.
--
Maestro Pendrod arrived from Varnhold as part of a train of guardsmen and craftsmen atop swift ponies. The brevic horses supported small wagons with only limited beds and goods, but it was enough to stake some eight foot poles into the ground, and with the centaurs' assistance furnish a very basic protected pavillion... not that it was really necessary Desnus's weather was quite mild, and while it was warm in the day the breeze and dryness of the steppe heat was quite pleasant.

Pendrod was almost depressed seeming at having missed the opening of the structure, though Linzi was quick to fill him in on all the sword swinging, swashbuckling against the zombies after. More than that though Pendrod intended to write to his home institution in Oppara about this most latest, and most intact Iobarian find. As part of the professor's agreement with Vordakai, he had agreed to only ascribe work to 'members of the local aristocracy of the kingdom' going quite far to avoid stating that Vordakai was a Cyclops never mind a withered lich, never mind that he was from the ancient and now deceased empire originally.

Instead the Taldane academic community just probably assumed that Narland was a collection of strange weird people with absurdly esoteric hobbies... or something like that. For the most part none of Taldor's nobility seemed interested in in travelling beyond the gilded city and most of the immigrants of Taldor were from 'the unbearded' or were minor nobility or aristocracy affiliated with the religious classes, which admittedly did include a part of the church of Shelyn from Taldor's domain... but that was a potential headache that he would have to deal with later in the year ... when they inveitably brought up the condition of the shrine of the Golden Grove.

"This is amazing." Pendrod declared spinning around, "So many artifacts you could have an entire museum and still be able to support exhibits to other institutions." And Pendrod was really only talking about common goods. The everyday knicknacks of daily life that had filled the main spaces, which were unique perhaps only because of their artwork, and the scale, being meant for giantish folk's hands.

Speaking to Vordakai, and not loud enough that he'd be overheard, "He something of a point, a museum is not the worst idea, and truthfully we will need institutions of higher learning of our own."

The cyclops paused considering, rather than rejecting the idea out right, "I would have expected Hereford, or Silverstep to be the more likely sites beyond the capital." And he wasn't wrong, but there was already a growing disparity between frankly in population terms Candlemere was more populous than Varnhold, as was Olegton. Varnhold Pass was roughly comparable to tatzlwyrm.

"Its a matter of settlement, as well as economics." They needed to be able to create a route through Varnhold that could ultimately route north and allow the caravans to pass to Restov. Eire paused, letting his mind catch up, "Something to plan for next year I think, there is," There always was, "so much to do." Armasse this year would require him to be out of the country. That was going to be the telling thing.


--
Notes: this is one of the divergence points: In the AP Ilthuliak has relocated to the Brantheld mountains, which ecologically for Black Dragons doesn't make sense, before she relocates to Nyrissa's domain in the First World.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Desnus 4713
[Spring Conclusion]
Among the more pleasant surprises of the Bronzeshield fortresses, though in hindsight one that shouldn't have surprised him at all, was the fact that the dwarves had long ago developed a track system for carts for use in moving supplies. Better than that was that the dwarves had already used steel rails rather than iron, or wood. Obviously, in hindsight, the latter would have required importing trees from the surface, but the iron option would have been more brittle than steel, and required replacement more frequently, as well. It among other things gave him an example by which to show people what he meant when he talked about railroads.

The dwarves had never applied their rails to overland movement, never mind the transport of goods overland across significant distances instead relying on traditional middlemen arrangements to caravan such goods to market, or simply selling their wares at dwarven markets locally. Given what little Eire had gleaned, from his limited exposure, to the dwarves of Golarion, or at least Avistan, he could still understand why those changes hadn't been made.

Tracks in a mining, rails in a mining operation made sense even with manual power, before you introduced horse power. It facilitated significantly less resistance, allowing much greater loads, which had additional benefits in organization of the mines, and processing. The dwarves had simply never taken it to the next step... at least they hadn't by all indication but that might have been just Brevoy, or possibly Avistan more broadly.

Maegar dressed in a coat decorated by a circle of four hatchets, the symbol of the Issian house of Varn coughed slightly, "Maybe we should go back to the blue dragon." and the fact that the blue had decided to leave south east of the realm departing into the Iobarian Steppe.

Shaoyu scowled and crossed her arms, "He all but fled over the border, it was embarrassing to call him a dragon." She snapped.

Maegar blinked... with a suffering sigh shook his head, "That wasn't exactly what I meant little miss."

Amvarean hoped, though Eire was himself skeptical exactly how successful it would prove, that the blue dragon would be as good as his word and that he would invite a mediated settlement to prevent fighting between metallics, and chromatics, at least further, fighting, in the eastern lands beyond the border.

Eire put his tea cup down, "When Cheliax fell to the infernal house of Thrune," and a part of him was glad that Thrune had taken that as their official title for the sake of it sounded offensive otherwise, "there was an exodus, a migration which has the likelihood of creating a problem on our eastern frontier," I.e. The former lands of Varnhold's charter. Without the annexation following the vanishing all Maegar would have had warning of would be little more helpful than the advice to be polite to dragons, and that they were a potential concern but without real details. "Amvarean is correct it is in our best interest to provide a peaceful sanctuary to cordial dragons, it is," was even more, "undesirable to have a dragon war on our eastern steppe especially in light of encouraging the caravan trade to come through your lands and to Restov."

"... well when you put it like that..." Maegar took a sip from his stein of beer, "What about- the flying ship?"

"I have to return to the Kamelands to oversee the fitting out, and I will be in Mendev for the opening of the Fifth crusade." He remarked, "While I certainly support the war against the abyss, it will provide the realm the opportunity to export excess grain, and animal fodder and eventually other goods, and it will likely facilitate the necessary connections to encourage further migration," Human capital to provide the labor force necessary to operate standardized works, "And that it why roads need to be built in the Dunsward, and to these new settlement sites before then, and to standard dimensions.

He didn't have time to build steam engines... and frankly even with the diagrams and understanding of chemistry the earliest ones would likely still be used to run pumps not motive engines.

There was a lull, and then he nodded, "How are the Osirion Pharasmins settling, in I know that their doctrines are ... a little different than Brevoy?" and the practices of the Brevic church.

Maegar shrugged, "I mean they drink beer so I don't have any complaints. I admit they're different than what I was expecting, but having a church of Pharasma reassures the peasants, and they really needed it after what happened."

"That is good to hear, truthfully if this caravan," city was the wrong term, "business is to succeed, then we need to take steps to prepare for it. Desna, as well Abadar I think... I will speak to Arsinoe when I return to Shrikewall." Maegar interjected with a question, "Yes she is an Aasimar, though I feel its something of an exaggeration to say she follows me everywhere in the capital." He steered the conversation back and pulled the drafting documents over, "These rails need to be run at the labelled angels along the slope from the mines, you can pull them from horses, and these, also use horse drawn power but the winch is what pulls the carts themselves."
--
Eire looked over the eastern skyline... his eastern skyline. The prospect of kingship was different, and though it was less pronounced than in Shrikewall, the Varnhold ... the dunsward exhibited similar signs of contact with the first world. The overlap...

... among the contents recovered from the 'city of hollow eyes' sealed vault had been a map... border gore was an accurate description of the divide between Cyclopes and elven outposts in ancient times... it explained the various ruins though. Why there were elven ruins so close to Vordakai's tomb, but that there were also cyclopes tombs, and towers, and other remnants north west of Shrikewall in what were today ancestral forests.


It was important to remember that Koloran had been founded by those escaping Ghol Kan, they had been immigrants... and an immigrant expansionist empire flowing out of the iobarian steppes. It raised more questions than they had answers to. The only possible survivor of ancient cyclops culture seemed to be deep in iobarian as well, the island of Iblyos, but such investigations would have to wait.

"I didn't bring the matter up with Maegar yet, but it occurs to me Drelev and Mivon both claim the slough remains blocked. Drelev claims more giants than we know fought under Harrgulka banner ... and, there is the possibility Ilthuliak is in the swamp."

"It is the natural dwelling, and it would not be remiss for one of the Vutha to subjugate malicious creatures to disrupt trade." The swamps to their west had all manner of potential lackeys for a black dragon to lord over... not just trolls, marsh giants, and boggards came to mind and the list went on. Amvarean recounted a lengthy list all the same.

"If that is the case, I would suspect its only a matter of time until it becomes something we have to deal with. For now all we can do is face one task at a time." That meant the crusade, and what was to be his first real foreign trip abroad as a ruler... visiting Restov really didn't count since ... and visiting Mendev would be his first trip as monarch in his own right. "As I mentioned to Maegar before we turned to the possibility of the dragons displayed from further west by the Thrune ascension, we will need to take the examples from the Bronzeshield fortress and have our metalworkers emulate them."

It would be impractical to use the same mana plant driven engines as the airship. No they would need simpler steam engines. Wood fired ones would work, as would coal. They could make 19th​ century American engines run off soft coal while they continued to search for anthracite... and of course the other option the more long term comprehensive magical option was electrification of some sort, or just out and magical steam power.

It wasn't that he expected an immediate result. The goal was to relink the Road of Shields on their western flank. Ideally they would be able to link that to the capital for the transport of goods, but the river network of the Sellen largely meant they just needed the goods of the Road of Shields line of fortresses to transport to the Murque River terminal at Hereford. That would be sufficient.
--
Notes: This is somewhat abridged, and I may actually take a week, because we start summer 4713 in the next part and I need to focus on the material of the two adventure packs that take place in 4713. Snows in Summer is loosely touched on next update, and of course the beginning of the Fifth Mendevian Crusade (and the events of WotR) begins on Armasse.

One thing I will need to touch on further though is the work on the Road of Shields and their constituent fortresses over the course of the second half of 4713 and into 4714, which is where we will also explore some of the perks and other things.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Alright for the moment the CK3 material is largely a direct port from the previous version, but the dragons content is below

Varnhold Vanishing / the Kingdom foundation: Crusader Kings III
https://docs.google.com/document/d/18wMlZxqhvBclgnrHhGsADGCq6-_0oWFtkCBVdUlDYjc/edit

Crusader Kings 3 is very long...

Spoiler: Organization

You gain +1000 CP stipend to spend solely on this section.
This is the part where you're going to be building your own realm and giving them perks. Upon finishing this section, you will receive 500,000 refugees and many more people to help jumpstart a new realm anywhere in the setting.

The following discounts are given to you:
Six 50 CP perks
Four 100 CP perks
Two 200 CP perks
One 400 CP perk
Discounted perks are 50% off.
Discounted 50 CP perks are free.

Wetlanders [50] Your people are masters of living around water. They are comfortable with any amount of humidity, can swim as fast as sprinting on land, do not expend stamina nor get fatigued from swimming in water. Your people cannot be slowed down when walking or running through water nor can water push them down.
Melting Pot [50] Foreign or minority cultures within your organization are much more receptive to assimilating to your main culture, social values, and religion. You can choose one culture that people should assimilate to, and freely choose if this is a full-on assimilation, produces unique divergent or hybrid cultures, a mere acceptance and coexistence with the other culture, and et cetera. Full-on assimilation takes a few years to finalize.
Bureaucratic [50] Your people value consistent record-keeping as of great importance, and take great pains in logging down information for every situation imaginable. As such, it is impossible to permanently scrub any and all records logged down by your people, for such efforts will always be insufficient and result in the information being once again found somewhere else. Additionally, whoever logged down the record will always be able to find it in no less than a minute of effort. If they want this record to remain eternally accessible, they can also grant a similar level of accessibility to the organization at large, thus allowing anyone within the organization to find a copy of it just by looking around in their surroundings for a minute. The copy will then disappear once it is used.
Eastern Roman Legacy [50] Military personnel and mercenaries only need to be paid a fourth of the usual rate, thanks to their keen sense of frugality and loyalty of service. Additionally, it is impossible for such soldiers to grow bored during duty and they can be absolutely trusted not to fool around or cause unrest with the civilian population. They're mindful enough not to cause any trouble even if they're occupying enemy territory as well. As such, subjugated peoples are receptive to your army as long as your military doesn't threaten their lives.
Chernozem [50] Every soil is as fertile and bountiful as black soil when sown and harvested by your people. Their crops also grow as efficiently as if they're in the best suited environment, regardless of actual weather or environmental conditions. Sowing the same crop in the same land no longer negatively affects the soil's nutrition cycle either.
Crusader Skylines [50] Your organization is the absolute best at interior designing, city planning, and the optimization of all available spaces. All living space shall be created and managed to their utmost efficiency. Your cities could easily accommodate for unprecedented growth and modern developments in technology.

Horse Lords [100] Your people are born into the saddle. Starting from the age of four, your people can learn how to ride the saddle on any mount (and learn how to drive any vehicle) and master it on their own over the course of a month. If they receive help, this can be narrowed down to a couple of weeks or shorter. It won't be long before your people's children know how to outcompete adult riders from other realms.
Communal Festivals [100] Social events hosted by your people are an amazing experience. Festivities are far more boisterous, foodstuffs and goods on sale appear in greater quantities than even a participating merchant would expect, and all negative habits effectively cease to exist for the duration of the event. "Negative" meaning anything that may incur harm upon another person without their consent. Mutual duels could still occur if that is the nature of your people's society. Absolutely nothing can ruin the potential fun of these events without willful participation on your part.
Bourgeoisie [100] The elite of your society may sit high in their ivory towers, but they will never grow complacent or ignorant of what is happening below them. In fact, the elite of your organization are keenly aware of everything that is generally going on in lower society, even in incredibly distant regions. As a side effect, your elite never make out-of-touch comments or policies that could rouse the proles against them, or at least know how to enact such statements or policies in a way that is overlooked by the proles. This makes it much, much harder for your lower society to compete or rebel against their betters.
.Look After Yourselves [100] Your military always keeps perfect maintenance on their equipment, thus rendering attrition impossible among the ranks. They look after their equipment so well, there will never be a case where someone ends up losing something due to neglect or circumstance. Even thievery simply never happens. It may not sound like much, but having a poorly disciplined army that does nothing to maintain their equipment is a horrific rot that can destroy any military from inside out. With this perk, your military will not be left for want of a nail

Industrious [200] Your people are ridiculously industrious. They do not get bored nor burned out from doing the same thing over and over again, although they cannot get harmfully addicted to repetition.


Shock Troopers [200] Your people have a natural talent to make for fearsome warriors at close combat, particularly shock troopers and other heavy infantry that are meant for intense combat. It'd only take a couple months of training to churn decade-hardened veterans for any specialization of heavy infantry that are as impressive as the Druzhina, Huscarls, Sarawits and Varangians of old. This also affects modern counterparts of heavy infantry that are otherwise considered as specialized troopers or special forces of any military, e.g. mountaineers, marines, etc.

On An Open Field! [200] Your people have a natural talent to make for swiftsure light cavalry. It'd only take a week for them to be completely attuned with any mount or vehicle, and a couple of months of training to churn out decade-hardened veterans for any specialization of light cavalry that are as impressive as the Mongols, Konnis, and Mulathunums of old. This also affects modern counterparts, such as any cavalry role that relies on light combat vehicles to perform adequately.z

Hell Chargers [200] Your people have a natural talent to make for daring heavy cavalry. It'd only take a week for them to be completely attuned with any mount or vehicle, and a couple of months of training to churn out decade-hardened veterans for any specialization of heavy cavalry, whether they're charging forwards with warhorses or leading armored spearheads in the modern era. They'll demonstrate as much impressive prowess as the cataphracts and gendarmes of old. This also affects modern counterparts, such as tanks, assault mechs, and any heavy frames that require an operator to pilot.

Unyielding [400] Your military is no longer affected by issues of morale because they're always at peak morale. They'll rationalize every terrible situation as something that could be overcome, no matter how staggering the odds. If they were the type to be constantly depressed or otherwise doubt themselves, they'll mentally compartmentalize and treat their job as if they were passionate about it. An army that knows no fear would completely nullify the psychological effect of certain weapons and tactics. With unbreakable morale, your soldiers would never break formation against cavalry charges, and soldiers wouldn't freeze at incoming projectiles either. Your soldiers would never retreat on their own accord unless they are ordered to retreat or their military doctrine indicates they should. Their unbeatable warrior spirit also grants immunity to anything that may mentally influence them against their will, such as fear, possession, charms, suggestion, illusions, and torture.

Spoiler: Religion

The following discounts are granted: Six 50 CP perks for free Four 100 CP perks Two 200 CP perks One 400 CP perk You gain +1000 CP stipend to spend solely on this section. Companions do not receive stipends or discounts for this section.
Adorcism [50] All spirits and supernatural entities view your adherents as people of interest, and never in a bad way. To these entities, your adherents are peculiar, harmless, and worthy of doting attention. Good-natured and indifferent spirits go out their way to help your adherents over matters of small convenience. Malicious spirits generally avoid your adherents wholesale, unless your adherent desire an encounter with one, in which case the malicious spirit will only have a neutral attitude at worst. Even devils, demons, and undead have neutral feelings to your adherents, whether or not they're capable of feeling in the first place. Whoever the spirits are, your adherents can make efforts to befriend them and form a friendship that is no less interesting than a friendship between normal living people. This perk is subverted for each adherent if the adherent intentionally acts offensively or harmfully to the entity somehow.
Adaptive [50] Your adherents won't ever convert to an entirely different faith, nor will they betray their virtues. They also know effective measures to practice their faith in secret, which can be useful if they're facing persecution. In such cases, their religious practices cannot be discovered by any investigative effort, and their faith won't ever deteriorate or die out across generations.
Armed Pilgrimages [50] All adherents do not have any difficulty expressing their language and intentions to each other and their allies. Additionally, cooperation between your adherents and their allies are always genuine, and all adherents actually invest themselves to supporting their faith. You can trust your adherents to never jeopardize a situation due to infighting.
Esotericism [50] Your adherents consider being knowledgeable as a virtue, and always go out their way to understand topics given to them. They need only a few seconds to formulate a well-thought judgment, and they can see through any logical errors in arguments or decision-making, whether it's from themselves or someone else. If you want, this won't ever go against the development of your faith.
Legalism [50] Your faithful adherents are intuitively knowledgeable about how the law should work. They are aware that precedents must be established and maintained, and that there is an order of things in regards to justice. As such, you may either have your adherents abide by legal codes strictly as written, or flexibly by interpreting the spiritual meaning of the text while accounting for their own personal morals and religious virtues.
Sacred Childbirth [50] Your adherents are familiar with modern practices pertaining to childbirth. Additionally, all pregnant adherents are intuitively aware of every stage of conception, pregnancy isn't physically apparent on the adherent (this is optional, you may also set conditions), pregnancy does not hinder their mobility, there are absolutely no complications from pregnancy and birth, childbirth is always painless, and the infant's birth takes only a few minutes. Each mother could easily go through the entire process by herself.

Alexandrian Catechism [100] Your adherents always think critically and objectively about any topic they're thinking of. As a result, they can instantly receive the full context and nuance of any conversation they're involved in, identify logical errors in arguments, and identify all efforts intended to mislead or control other people. This gives them the ability to see through all lies and forms of illusions. As a toggleable feature, this perk may not work against your faith or your organization.

Aniconism [100] Nothing can tamper, dilute, or otherwise nullify the magical capabilities of your faithful adherents, if they have any. This prevents adherents from losing the ability to cast any sort of magic and their spells won't ever get nullified by anti-magic sources, although it doesn't stop things like magical ice walls being melted down by fireballs.

Unrelenting Faith [100] Your adherents learn all martial-related things 2x faster and similar boosts can stack multiplicatively. This applies to learning things about combat, tactics, and strategy. You may restrict which aspects of these don't apply. Physical training is also 2x more efficient, their results cannot be lost due to time or disuse, and physical improvement never results in deteriorating health conditions, i.e. a bulked body won't increase the risks of heart failure but you can still tear your muscles from exercising the wrong way.
Warrior Priests [100] All your faith officials and leaders, such as priests, cardinals, imams and rabbis, learn martial abilities and hone their physical bodies 10x faster and similar boosts can stack multiplicatively. Their martial and physical capabilities cannot be lost due to time or disuse. They cannot injure themselves from over-exercising.

By the Sword [200] All your faith adherents are capable of physically interacting with ethereal or otherwise intangible entities just as effectively as normal people could to other normal people. Enchantments and magical abilities are not required. Spirits wounded this way may still regenerate from their wounds like normal people can, though spirits don't really have many options to perform healing other than magical or spiritual means. They normally bleed ectoplasm which acts as their lifeblood, and upon "death", the spirit disintegrates into the immaterial realm.
Ecclesiarchy [200] Your adherents are immune to all unconsented effects regarding spiritual and mental phenomena. Their souls cannot be tampered with in any way whatsoever, and their memories cannot be interfered with or read. You and your organization can still mess with their spirit and mind, even if they wouldn't consent. Additionally, deceased adherents that were once governed by your organization or have served within your organization can be resurrected by you if you have the power to do so. If people within your organization also have a similar power to resurrect them, they can do it too.
Reincarnation [400] All your adherents are capable of reincarnating after death. At default, they reincarnate as newborn human infants within the same culture, society, and organization. You may freely change or loosen conditions for where they reincarnate, thus allowing them to reincarnate in different places or perhaps outside of your organization. You may also change how they can reincarnate as, i.e. can be born in different cultural families, only born through a specific sapient race, reborn as an animal, or as other living organisms. The person's genealogy always fits the parents. Reincarnation isn't always immediate; it can take a while for a person to reincarnate, perhaps even longer depending on how strict the reincarnation criterias are and how often people are born. There's a queue for each reincarnating person, after all. Whether they retain full knowledge of their previous lives are up to you.
Saved from Damnation [400] Religious events hosted by your adherents have the profound effect of cleansing the souls of all participants by removing any ailments to the soul, restoring said souls to perfect condition, and granting them immunity to any malicious phenomena that could tamper or mess with their souls & minds without their consent. You and your organization alone have the power to tamper or mess with their souls and minds even without their consent. If the ailment was possession, the spirit is forcibly expunged. How the spirit is disposed of is up to you, and you may set conditions for which spirits are given different treatments. Total irreversible destruction of affected spirits is optional.

I will be adding some additional notes from the CK3 jump, but lets move on


The Dragons
Version?
1000
Mithral (-250): Technically native to the Astral Sea, Mithral dragons are the greatest of all Metallics, and are frequently employed by the gods as agents upon the material planes, though unfortunately their distance from the dealings of mortals leaves few records or much information available about them. They have an inherent, but random, ability to see divine visions of the future or the wills of the gods, which only grows more common as they age and gain more control over it. They are more than capable of teleporting short distances atwill and happily abuse this in combat. Their breath weapon is a blast of blindingly bright radiant energies. They are also immortal; no Mithral dragon will ever enter the Twilight.

Six Hundred Perk (Discount)

Arch-Dragon (-600): You ventured to one of the Planes or perhaps received a blessing from a deity aligned with one of the cosmic laws of morality or ethics. The exact nature of this blessing depends upon which blessing you have received. You may only take this once and must think about this carefully, as for the duration of the jump going against your chosen alignment in a significant manner will lose you everything here, and in addition to that restriction, you will also not be able to cast magic tied to the opposite alignment either (Law vs Chaos, Good vs Evil). All blessings have some details in common; you are immune to fear, polymorphing and disease, you can see through all illusions and invisibility, you may communicate telepathically with any creature within a hundred feet of you, and you become significantly more agile on the wing, approximately one and a half times as much as you previously were.

Law: Embracing the blessing of Law causes your scales to turn smoother and almost steely. Your breath weapon will be imbued with antimagic energies that cause anything your breath weapon touches to be shrouded in a lingering antimagic field for a while after it strikes – this is perfect for stripping magical blessings off dangerous opponents. You can also surround yourself in a blessing of pure Law that fills your enemies with a sense of terrible doom and snuffs out energy-based attacks.


Origin: Protector

Spoiler: Proctector Tree

Carpe Diem (-100): With such a great lifespan, it is extremely common for dragons to adopt a view on time that confuses and irritates other races. After all, to a dragon, vanishing for a few decades is barely any time at all, yet for a human it is a very significant chunk of their lifespan. Worse, when the friends of dragons are threatened, it is a common reaction to sit back and totally analyse the situation, which can take months or years, during which time a dragon's friends and allies can be lost. Not you. Your likely long association with mortals has ensured their attitudes towards time has rubbed off on you. You can be assured that no matter how long you live, you can retain a human attitude towards timeframes if you wish to.
No Parental Issues (-200): Most dragons recognise that raising the young to healthy adulthood is important for the continued existence of dragonkind. Even the most wicked dragon is intelligent enough to recognise that raising a functioning family helps cement their legacy and can ensure they have more of their kind to call upon during emergencies. You can raise your young just right and ensure they will retain fond memories of their time with you. This also applies to any young you might wish to adopt too.
The Land Rejoices (-400): It is known that many dragons are capable of laying dreadfully potent curses upon entire regions of the earth, scouring it of life and driving nations within it to ruin. It is lesser known that dragons who set themselves up as the protectors of regions can bless it in their own ways. What you protect will boom as long as you bother to focus on actually protecting it from danger. As if by magic, trade will flourish, harvest will be thick and heavy, and (internal) peace will reign. Just be wary that such wealth and prosperity may attract external attention.

Lair+600 Lair Points

Spoiler: Lair

Palatial Estate (-100): A favourite of the Lung dragons and Steel dragons, this makes your lair into a dragon-sized palace, with optional antechambers capable of fitting your vast size as well as large councils of nobles, ministers, or other dragons who seek to come to you for tribute. This is a palace fit for an emperor, as you no doubt are.
Flying (-200): By some mysterious means your lair floats above the earth and flies around at your will. This makes it much more difficult for terrestrial creatures to invade, though as most dragons can fly this will not offer any significant barrier to you. Optionally, you may choose to have your lair sitting atop a cloud, and this is a favourite of Silver dragons.
Egg Incubators (-100/-200): Dragon eggs are not particularly easy to incubate; a dragon that wishes to ensure their eggs will hatch must visit them regularly to breathe their breath weapon over to ensure the environment is comfortable for the wyrmlings, otherwise the eggs may never hatch at all. A single hour without ideal incubation conditions can be enough to kill the wyrmling within. Fortunately, eggs stored within this chamber will remain under ideal circumstances and result in the dragon hatching alive.
 For an extra 100 DP, you have a clutch of dragon eggs of your species to go with it. Initially you receive five eggs. After they hatch, the eggs will be replaced with a random number (from 2-5 eggs) that will again be replaced upon next hatching and so on, though you may indefinitely delay the new egg batch. Alternatively, you may choose to replace hatched eggs with dragon eggs of a species not inherently stronger than yours, if you want some variety in your hatchings. Be warned that attempting to raise dragons of famously opposed species (such as Red and Gold dragons) will require even more skill to avoid ending in tragedy.



Cult of the Dragon (-100): Dragons are some of the ultimate expressions of power and majesty. Many people come to venerate them as aspects of the divine, or even as living gods. Dragons, for their part, often find such fanatical dupes highly useful to their plans. Unlike other purchases here, your cult may have a headquarters in your lair, but is more specifically a subversive force capable of penetrating a whole kingdom at once. Your cult contains those who are capable of channeling divine magic, potentially in spite of your lacking divinity.

Dragon Guards (-150): Up to seven gold dragons of your age who prefer to shapeshift into canaries right up until their dragon nature is needed. They are loyal to you and will prefer to hang around you disguised as birds but ready to return to their original form and shit fury on anything that might dare to try to harm you.

A couple things, the Mithril Dragon is something of a variant state this will be relevant later but this is the Radiant fire breathing version not the mithril metal shard storm version. The Lair will not show up until after Ilthuliak is dead, so 4714

 

[Imperator Pax]

Yes, I will post a power set thing, and on that front one of things I'm doing is that not all of the powers come into effect all at once, see most recently the lair comment, but in the mean time I come to share maps

Not by me. Yeah the Campaign Carographer besides just not having the time is still taking some effort to work with, but

Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1uKH9IAYM8ER6_jo2YtwQ9527OoRjRWwc This goes to the stolen lands over all

Zimmonius has done some really cool maps: https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/yd3yiz/kingmaker_2e_mapproject/

 

[Imperator Pax]

27 Sarenith 4713AR
The Summer Solstice was the longest day of the year and one celebrated by numerous churches and faiths. That meant the disturbance had been noticed quickly. People of course took note of the odd development of snows in summer.


The 'disturbance' being the sudden formation of portals of cold and ice, and with winter fey abounding through them... well Eire had initially just assumed that this was some First World catastrophe and was to be dealt with like every other mess the first world tried to inflict on his realm.

... having human prisoners to interrogate who weren't cultists or druids or such... forced a reevaluation of that initial assumption. He wasn't sure if that made things simpler, or more complicated that this crisis did not involve the first world. It also forced him to reconsider any efforts to hunt down and destroy the black wyrm Ilthuliak in the face of a much more immediate threat.

The call had already been issued to alert the garrisons of the other towns, but not to summon the army... or to attempt to assemble a general levy. They didn't have enough information yet... and from the look at the way the snows were limitted really to just the immediate vicinity of the portal, and was largely not sticking to the ground he suspected that this attack, this invasion had not contended with the realms closeness to the first world. The summer months and the summer sun held winter at bay... so perhaps they were lucky that this incursion came at midsummer.

Still they would need to be on guard against any further portals. Thus they stood here with the Irrisseni invaders bound in cold iron manacles in front of the portal in soggy grassy from melted snow.

He wondered if they couldn't do something ridiculous like reverse the polarity and force summer's fire through to this realm of eternal winter but one thing at a time. "Kean?" He asked the fey touched frost giant.

"It will be much colder on the other side." The giant nodded his head sagaciously. Amiri scoffed at this word of caution, but it was a valid point for those who had not been born in the far north such as the land of the mammoth lords, but Irrisen was a land unlike the Mammoth lords it was a land abounding with winter fey and in the grip of supernatural cold.

... from Eire had been told he was almost jealous of the degree of magic Baba Yaga had wrought to transform her kingdom ... from the ulfen kingdom before, but regardless of how impressed he was by the magic there was war to wage against Baba Yaga's daughter for this intrusion into his realm. The thoughts were punctuated by the drumming of his fingers along the stonework of the taldan fortification of the woods. "We can hold this side, and we will move from there." The Taldan explorers of probably of the fifth army of exploration given the bones and equipment of the dead buried here originally had had a small fortified camp here one more watch tower and small settlement abandoned and left fallow after Taldor's decline. It was functionally identical to Garry's patch of Taldoran stone work with little apparent care for the flow of magic and leylines... or maybe they'd all been built for that purpose... no notes nor records survived to explain the Taldan reasoning for their actions.

He supposed that would be one more thing to do... when there wasn't a threat of invasion hanging over them. Eire eyed the pulsing barrier of cold and then looked at the huntsmen. The fey nodded and lept across the border.

They'd follow soon, there were a few things to do first. Once they were across they would secure the other side using magic like create stone, and fabricate spells. The other side of hte portal lead into the so called hoarwood forest ... or at least on the fringes of the greet sea of trees that was Irrisen's largest forest. Indeed that was likely to put them within reach of the Irrisen border with the land of the Mammoth lords as well.
--
Kean's warning was well made. Eire was glad he'd put on the merino wool baselayers he'd brought from Earth to keep him warm... and it suggested to him a need to focus on raising sheep with such fine fibers for the realm once all of this was handled.

Smoldering eyes burned within the helm. The lord of the hunt rested a hand on his longsword. The wild hunt monarch was different than the usual sort. His features more draconic. Instead of green eyes or birdlike wings with leaves instead of feathers they showed wreathed scales and red full pupils. They had emerged near Tiressia's grove at New Colton soon after the Irrisen portal, and had ridden down the winter fey who had come from the land of eternal winter.

He didn't intend to depend on them. They had agreed to fight Irrisen's winter fey, and if attacked by Irrisen's other forces to retaliate but Eire was operating under the assumption that the specification of winter fey would leave them fighting the humans, and presumably most of whatever monstrous allies Irrisen's witch nobility had at their command. Cold iron flaming longswords waited for that battle, whether giants, or trolls, or winter wolves.

He looked over at the snowbanks as summer heat blew through the portal, and then through the pine needles and the hunters were away. Staring through magically augmented sight Eire felt a degree of change in his opinion... Baba Yaga's work was impressive, yes. That part of his opinion hadn't changed, but this was a land that fundamentally a magically dominated tyranny. For some inscrutable reason, or simply because, he couldn't be sure.

The nearest place of governance was about thirty miles to the north sitting on this side of the river. It was time to go find the local leadership, and express most strenuously their objections their Queen of Irrisen's intrusion into his lands. They left the stone carvers the handful of dwarven spellcasters to work their magic, leaving the tree line behind they began the advance to Kizobran to the north east.

Unlike Brevoy, or Narland it was hard to adequately describe Irrisen's settlement patterns. The lack of proper seasons effecting cultivation, traditional agriculture represented something well beyond what he'd thought... so Kizobran sitting along the river made sense... but that it was smaller than he'd expected. "Tradesmen?" He questioned.

"So it seems." Jaethal agreed.

"Try to keep them alive." He replied eyed the traffic along the banks of the Gullik river. He wondered if the Irrisen had known to follow the river when they had marched to launch their attempted attack on New Colton, they seemed at least to be well acquainted with riverine trade if not agriculture.

Jaethal nodded and directed his attention to the local church of Pharasma. He was actually surprised to see a temple to the Lady of Graves, but then supposed he shouldn't have been. He exhaled a breath, that was almost flame in heat. Snow turned to steam. She ignored it and gestured to another building

The construction looked new-ish, and in comparison to other buildings expensive, or at least less slapdash and dilapidated. The gingerbread style housing, as he thought of them, that was the norm of structures here in Irrisen were a sharp contrast. All the homes had gates around their enclosures. A pattern of decoration that followed from larger high status homes down to the small peasant dwellings in the worst condition.

Brevoy had a degree of distinction in architecture. Predominance of timber construction aside, Brevoy's houses varied with social status it was a feudal culture with multiple classes of people, but it was not serfdom. Irrisen was a nation of serfs.

He curled his hand and recited the poem in draconic. Flashes of red and white erupted in the pale gray skies as orbs of flame heralded the appearance of elder fire elementals... and in doing so, in expanding if temporarily his own forces, even putting aside the logistics of how they had gotten here, through a magic portal, was another demonstration of how Golarion, How Northern Avistan was not a copy of medieval Europe.

... at least not identical to Earth it wasn't. Eire recognized that he was a medieval potentate in many of the ways that mattered, but also that he was closer to being an absolute monarch those the majority of those kings of western europe and not because he happened to be the most powerful magic user in the realm.

His eyes narrowed in on the local place of concentrated political, aristocratic power... it was time to pay the local baroness a visit, and express his distaste at her liege's behavior. Once the local situation had been secured... then he would have to figure out what they were going to do from here.
--
Notes: I swear I'm missing a section, but I can't find it, but this takes us into the events of the snows of summer where Elvanna of Irrisen decides in addition to being smacked by the good idea fairy of betraying her mother (which is suicidal but understandable) to simultaneously provoke a fight with all the other realms of Avistan and presumably those of Casmarron, Tian Xia and the Garund (plus the other continents but yeah).

 

[Imperator Pax]

The Mythkeeper has released a new video, that I have not at this time had time to watch, covering Northeast Avistan - Mendev, Brevoy & Iobaria, which I will admit is sort of emblematic of the problem from my perspective. Mendev by itself is the site of not just a major adventure path but many separate smaller self contained adventures beyond just wrath of the righteous, Iobaria is basically flat out early medieval Russia in scope in many respects, and well, Brevoy really needs its own source book.

His video is thusly reposted here:

 

[Imperator Pax]

28 Sarenith 4713AR
The peasants of Kizobran had not dealt with an invasion in living memory. It had not been since the reign of the previous baron and baroness that their homes had been seriously threatened by hostile armies from beyond Irrisen's borders... and for good reason Irrisen's first line of border defenses were magical huts and and enchanted dolls, which the unwary might have scoffed at. The only potential danger were those coming overland and penetrating their security by luck and in small bands or being predated upon by the natural predators of Irrisen itself.

Predators that were keeping their heads low, and their presence shy under the angry burning sky above them.

By opening magical portals in the hoarwood forest the reigning Queen of Irrisen had sacrificed those prepared defenses allowing a foreign host, the first of what were to be several, never mind the many adventuring parties besides, to pour into the province bypassing the traditional defenses and along not just Kizobran but Waldsby, Ludovny and Dammartorp, Veshtak and Sosulka to all be threatened for the first time in ages. Never mind the prospect of them all being threatened simultaneously by separate forces.

Kizobran was typical of Irrisen settlements. It was only perhaps seven hundred, if that, souls. A dozen giants, seventy odd priests and armingers, and a collection of supporting forces were enough to shatter the defenders in a head on confrontation once the fire elementals had streamed down from the sky without winter fey to contend with.

They had taken a hillside near the river overlooking the town. Eire saw no more of the wild hunt fey, but he saw no trace of the winter fey other than their cold iron sundered corpses. Shaoyu exhaled a burst of black flecked flames in challenge. A challenge that was unmet. Resistance had ceased.

Brother Vaclav bowed, "Your majesty, Lady Mouri has wheeled to contend with a hag, she should only be momentarily delayed."

Hags were an unnatural phenomenon. They were twisted warpings of changelings. They were created by the ritualistic mutilation of changeling daughters by foul magic. It perhaps there for unfair, or presumptive, but hags were too often an irredeemable evil. Given the nature of irrisen he was not going to question the knight of trident's actions without reason.

If this had been within his own domain, or even within his neighbors perhaps Eire would have considered wanting an accounting... but not at the moment... and more than likely if Mouri was dispatching a hag in the field... it was because the creature had clear and damning evidence in its lair of malignant actions. At least he hoped that was the case.

"The barrier is weakening."

He nodded, even as the wall of force waned. A magical item most likely, not a true artifact, but some sort of temporary protection. Nor was it some specific feature built into the construction. It was a desperate attempt to hold out in expectation that some kind of aid was forthcoming... aid that clearly wasn't

The local jadwiga, the prisoners taken of the officers of rank had never had to contend with a serious foreign invasion. The almost universally silver blonde malfoy look as he thought of them had been surprised , shocked astonished even at the prospect of taking a frontal assault by heavy infantry a largely alien experience to the proud, arrogant lordlings.

"I doubt the baroness was expecting this."

"They will kneel or kneel in pieces." Shaoyu declared raising her nose in the air and crossing her arms over her chest. It might have worked better if her human form was taller.

He regarded the milling captives, and then turned to his ward. The young dragoness was right, though and speaking of Dragoness. Wings glittered in sunlight as Eranex swept down from the wide circle of flight she'd made over the river dancing through the sky into the land of the mammoth lords where they had pitched a secondary camp encircling the city temporarily. The silver dragon resumed half elf form.

The fey touched dragon looked at the failing wards. If the baroness had been intending to outlast them it wasn't working out that way. "There is no sign of Irrisen reinforcements forthcoming." That was good news that the settlement had no obvious sign of aid forthcoming.
--
Eire stared up at the sky, and not down to his muddy boots. He felt the pull of the first world. The nearness of it as it tugged at his very presence. Whatever magic that kept Irrisen in its eternal winter was it seemed to him tied to the first world... and if guessed correctly...

... then it was possible to roll back the winter by defeating the winter witches... something he expected the current queen either hadn't known... or hadn't really contemplated as being a reality... but as it was the hoarwood was experiencing... or at least this part of it was experiencing its first summer in literal centuries... and the summer sun was melting frost, and taiga... and though the woods were too wet and soaked by moisture to burn...

... the same was not true of seems of methane gas as wildfires ripped through the soil, and tore through the landscape. The chemical fueled firestorm was summer vengeance after fourteen hundred years of absence. The result was not just the wildfires, it was also an oppressive humidity that had replaced the cold. It was even in his opinion unpleasant, but was malevolent hell to anyone who had never known summer.

The Irriseni peasants, and especially their jadwiga overlords languished under the heat... any surviving winter fey were probably even worse off as summer made itself known too all around. To that extent though it was here in the open air beneath the great expanse of the sky and in this heat that Eire found himself holding court over the defeated population.

He turned a half step, looked over the horrible flooding that the gullik river was undergoing and sighed. Brother Vaclav had attempted to assemble something approaching appropriate to hold open air court... but that had largely fallen to the wayside. Most people here spoke either skald or less commonly Hallit... not that he was particularly prepared to address anyone in sylvan or giant even if there was a population to address.

They had a more pressing problem anyway than the crowd's inability to converse he intended to fix that with magic, though he'd be giving the speach in Draconic, but the truth was... they could not leave these peasants here in Irrisen. They had already been petitioned by a hidden priest of Milani to carry the population away... that the White Witches of Irrisen and Queen Elvanna would likely exterminate them rather than have it get out that foreign invaders had swept aside the border land and broken winter's hold...especially given what Elvanna was attempting to do to the rest of Golarion.

Other petitioners wanted them to push forward invade and drive a blade of summer's heat, regardless of how much the Irriseni peasants suffered under its sudden onset, into the cold bleak heart of Irrisen as a kingdom.

Eire was not prepared to march on the ducal seat, nor the Royal Palace at White throne to the north west. He didn't have those kinds of resources, he didn't have that kind of army, but given this sort of threat being mounted... he was already considering the prospect of having to revise his plans for a permanent standing army... but not today.

He looked over the several hundred Irriseni ranging from the peasants to the militia to the changeling witch who was their ruler, and in a corona of solar fire, and draconic malice he made his introduction. "We are Eire of Shrikewall, sovereign of Narhold." Pine trees cracked and burst into flame as their sap combusted as he outlined precisely how pissed off he was at having his domain invaded and this foolhardy attempt to turn summer into winter.

That speechifying though was posturing. It was a statement of discontent as much for his own vassals as it was if the Irresseni noble carried word to her duchess, or to her queen or to anyone really. They could not remain here indefinitely So as the long span of the sun through the sky approached its end, and night approached they continued to prepare.

Since they were going to abscond with more or less the sum of the population they were taking everything that more or less wasn't nailed down. That was something of an exaggeration, but if it had writing on it, if it was a book, a chart, a ledger, a map they'd take it with them. If there were goods they would take those too. He wanted to know more about Irrisen but he was also leery of what to do, and about the necessity of returning to the River kingdoms through the portal.

They would maintain a foothold in Irrisen for the time being, but... but he was still weighing what to do from here. In the mean time for the first time in fourteen hundred years, the summer sun beat down on the necks of the Irrisenni populace bathing the land in a humid heat.
--
Notes: The events of Snows of Summer is relatively short and we mostly will be focusing on its knock on effects rather than the fairly limitted military threat that Irrisen poses .... because Elvanna's plan is more or less attack all the major kingdoms of the inner sea and a bunch of minor realms at the same time and equally so Eire can't just march on Irrisen's capital of Whitethrone, and certainly not within a few days of the portals appearing.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Erastus 4713AR
He had had no shortage of petitioners even before leaving for to invade Irrisen. It was simply part of rulership. The line had only grown as a result of his brief absence. That applied to both domestic petitioners and foreign complaints. He'd actually been a little surprised that there hadn't been Irriseni petitioners on taking Kizobran, but some discussion on that subjected had revealed... well the reality of how the Jadwiga ruled, which was ... not benevolently to put it mildly.

The 'new culture' that ruled pitax, that of Castruccio Iorvetti, hadn't introduced olive oil cooking. It had always existed because it was originally a taldan cuisine choice. Modern Pitax, before Iorvetti, had not placed the same ... snootiness on the Taldan throwback's importance. Pitax had the current climate to support either form of cooking; butter or oil. It was on the far western fringe of the Rostlandic plain and was warm enough to support olive cultivation, but olives were vulnerable to cold. Pitax rarely saw snow within its southern lands and major communities... so the sudden Irrissen incursion was very likely a problem for haute coture food production.

He might have cared a bit more about the complaints of the merchants and travelers if there weren't more pressing concerns. That the olive trees might die was unfortunate, but he had other matters to contend with so he sent the men away. Probably for the best as the next petitioners were the ones that sparked a change from derision and skepticism to over the border hostility.

The supernatural heat from the young dragoness warmed the hall, despite the high ceilings that would ordinarily have abated summer's heat. "That's enough Shaoyu," He chided standing. "Welcome to Narland." He was careful not to take his eyes off the winter witch, but they were holding this conversation in common.

There was a curtsey, and an introduction. The newcomer introduced herself as the countess Bozena, of a domain called Bosorka. The winter witch sighed straightened and looked, tired, as she attempted to explain the situation in broad strokes. "My mother has taken leave of her senses. She has rebelled against my grandmother, even now has demonstrated this foolishness by chaining her travelling home, and impaling the bodies of her retainers," She actually used a Russian word, boyar, which caused Eire to pause at its loan into Taldan, and presumably Skald. "and those loyal to Baba Yaga. Even discounting that this is suicide with extra steps, she has also declared war on all other relams of Avistan. A war that Irrisen cannot and never could feasibly win."

For fourteen hundred years Irrisen had managed a foreign policy of trade, but guarded borders facilitated by feudal armies and magical sentries. Simply put Irrisen could fight the linnorm kings and perhaps overland armies from the Inner Sea...

"But by opening these portals Irrisen can no longer trade land for time, and allow winter to have its way on the unwary." Eire wasn't ignorant that fighting Irrisen directly would have required him to take the field. He had already done so intermittently ... but he didn't need to point out that if he could secure a portal, and anchor it to the other side.. then Cheliax and Qadira could certainly could, and they had the manpower to launch an invasion through the portals and march on Whitethrone. Either one of them could... and Elvanna had declared war on all of the great powers of Golarion from the sound of it.

What the Countess Bozena of Bosorka did not want was to be put in between her mother or grandmother, or for that matter a war her mother had instigated. To the point of leading an exodus to the portal near Kizobran with seemingly her entire domain on a ship down the river having apparently lied to those she passed that the fall of Kizobran was the reason for the movement of people... given the apparent crisis in the capital of white throne no one had questioned her. Baroness Wilimina of Coldwater had allowed them to pass unmolested on the way down the river. He was a little surprised that Irrisen did not have internal passport controls, but perhaps they were too simple a feudal society to develop such an idea... or perhaps questioning one of the queen's daughters , even one in nominal disgrace, was deemed foolish.

Whatever the case for fourteen hundred years Irrisen had seen a succession of rulers every century, and Baba Yaga had replaced each daughter in turn and taken with their mother her first generation. All things considered Bozena's fears seemed rather merited even without truly concrete ... her unwillingness to involve herself in a rebellion that seemed unlikely to succeed in the first place was clearly self preservation
On the other hand he was quite intrigued that Bozena had been allowed to bring her people down the river. Elvanna was it seemed too busy to respond to either their incursion but word had spread... streaks of the hoarwood forest were ablaze where foreign invaders had thrust through portals the queen had opened.

Soldiers from forest portals in Cheliax, and indeed the other kingdoms of note in the Inner Sea had come through across the duchy bypassing natural, and witch wrought defenses at the kingdom's borders and attacked the winter realm. Where Winter Witches, or the authority of Elvanna was defeated and put aside by invaders Summer broke through as it had when they had done as much. The Jadwiga Elvanna, and the rest of Irrissen's ruling class did not know how to react to the development.

So no one had seen fit to stop here. The portal was a gateway to freedom far from her mother, or her grandmother. What she could not offer was a way to close the portal.

"I speculate only defeating my mother might yield a way to do so, at least to defeat her entire scheme."

Which would presumably entail marching all the way to the Irriseni capital and putting it to the sword... something he did not have the resources for... no. He would have to hold what they held already and once other responsibilities were taken care of pool his resources with the other attacked nations to consider what needed to be done to resolve this.

Besides, as things stood Amiri seemed to be quite enjoying the prospect of managing the garrison on the Irriseni side of the border with a small rotating party of guards and fighters from across the realm.
--
Once the offer of bread and salt, and drinks as well were exchanged Elvanna's daughter was shown away and Eire returned his attention to the matter of the Pitaxian food shortage... or possible food shortages. It was not news that he particularly liked to hear.

If it proved only to be a problem for their olive trees then so much the better, but if it struck their wheat harvests for later in the year... then there would be a much bigger problem. He wouldn't be surprised if given tensions with Pitax any grain merchants attempted to take advantage of the situation from the brevic side of the border... but maybe Pitax could afford that.

If there was one thing Iorvetti did seem competent at it was maintaining bread and circuses for the masses... his people probably wouldn't starve. So assured of that much at least he could turn towards other matters. For the past several months there had been a pointed guard for and investigations of the technic league's activities and that would probably need to be maintained.

Brother Petros bowed, the chelish cleric was filling in for Brother Vaclav today who was at Hereford supervising the church faithful's efforts to redouble the defenses of the originally elven settlement. "A true implement befitting imperial power your majesty." The muscular war priest remarked as they walked the length of the drydock.

If you didn't know what you were looking at it would have been a ridiculous statement to make... but Petros wasn't brown nosing. The opposite the chelish cleric of Iomedae very much meant what he said, and had a conviction of steel...

... and in hindsight with good reason. When he'd started this project, leaving aside well magic he hadn't stopped to consider that most of Golarion, outside of the anachronistic windjammers... indeed with her gold writing on her prow Enterprise more resembled the later than the manowars of the chelish navy.

That she had over a dozen meters in length on a notable chelish manowar was another reason for Petros's favorable impression. That was because the manowars of the inner sea the great warships for the most topped out at sixty meters Enterprise at a fixed measure of ship eighty five... of course that came at a trade off.

Enterprise had been a learning experience for craftsmen. The alchemically treated wood and metal gave her hull and frame strength, but she was a mix of the two, built around a large and complex magical arcanotech engine, and supported by a complex crew.

She had no fixed weapons either... magical siege weapons could be carried but they were likely to be awkward as hell to actually use ... he hadn't seriously contemplated the idea of firing down on a target especially given the idea of doing so accurately.

The space taken by the need of the greenhouse holding the mana plant, and the motive force that gave the ship flight meant she actually had less space for people and cargo than a smaller chelish manowar... but she could fly.

He excused himself to go see what Jaethal wanted. The undead elf inquisitor had a responsibility towards well as he would have thought of it as internal security in the sense of counter espionage but as secretary in the classical sense of the medieval and early modern period Jaethal's role as a member of the council involved the inherent position of legitimacy of the government.

That included a lot of things ranging from public opinion management, surveying of what was going on in the countryside, but there were also internal economic components. Mostly because merchants were also basically spies often enough. Jaethal was also responsible for inspectors to make investigate other potential, maybe not criminal offenses but at least things that might be internally disruptive, and keep tabs on such thing.

This combination of both sorts of activities and other responsibilities meant, required something that was not adhoc, though they were not quite to uniform civil service tables yet either. The realities of the narlmarch meant that in addition to various eldritch tinkerers and scoundrels Jaethal required archaeologists and archivists , which wasnt new information but with the disturbance from Irrisen it did prompt her to contend with other issues.

There could be no questioning that the Tiger Lords had been becoming more active, that was evidenced by them operating as far afield in small travelling bands as the Dunsward, but more than that Eire had only been monarch for under a year. That was to say the actual pronouncement of kingship rather than lesser recognition as a sovereign if minor power. Eire did not like the river freedoms per se, the sixth river freedom was in practice much too close in his opinion to justifying brigandage and he didn't like not being able to levy tolls and taxes... he not fully dismissed them, but if the growth of the realm continued he intended to reiterate the dragon law's supremacy in written form to any traditions crafted further south that he had not been party too.

He nodded, "I suppose some degree of criminality is to be expected," Some of the bandits were probably just desperate but that was not excusable. He might have liked to spare Amvarean, but, "I will ask the clergy to provide labor for patrols in the west where possible, but thank you for bringing it to my attention."

"The Narlmarches aren't the center of royal agriculture. They could be just bandits, but it could be our neighbors or their agents."

"Either way you're correct that you'll need more manpower." He replied. He was glad, he doubted Amiri, or Ocatvia, or Regongar would have considered asking for more manpower... and there were days he worried Garess might not think he needed more manpower to tackle a problem.
--
Notes: Well I hit up my local game store and picked up the print edition of Book of the Dead it looks interesting... buying physical media for gaming is painful (then again buying physical media for academic purposes is painful).

 

[Imperator Pax]

Erastus 4713
He had to write a memorandum. It was part and parcel of rule to explain things to the community at large. He didn't necessarily have to do it personally but there needed to be an official government accounting for why something had happened. It was just in this case he was doing more than affixing the royal seal on such matters.

The freak weather, no more a more accurate description the magical attack by Irrisen's ruling Queen was a problem. It seemed that as long as they maintained a foothold on the other side winter was kept in abeyance. That so long as they were occupying Irrisen's side of the portal Winter let go, retreating to a more natural passage of the seasons. That had probably hadn't been the ruling queen's intention, but it required them to hold a position lest they have to contend with summer snows.

There were other reasons. Irrisen was as much touched by the first world as his own lands. He could not permit the malevolent winter fey leave to cross the border. The portal though was inviting fey attention though from the denizens of the Narlmarches, and presumably from the first world. It was a headache that he had tasked Jubilost to keep track of, as possible. To be fair though Tiressia and Melianase would be assisting in that committee but there was the whole usual normal summer matters of the realm that needed to be handled.

The processing of erecting a kingdom was toil. In the medieval calendar and for that matter in the frontiersman calendar the summer was arguably the most active portion of construction. Most of the flooding associated with spring thaws had abated, and thus for the majority of human history in the northern third ish of the world this was the predominant construction season following into fall interrupted really only by the necessary agricultural duties.

There were immigrants who migrated north on the promise of being homesteaders. Much as settlers of the New World had in the early 19th​ century had to settle on the promise of the midwest. There was no travel across the ocean, and unlike the 19th​ century fledgling republic he didn't have that benefit of such a large pond. Eire would have liked that. There were other migrants though. The rule of House Thrune was only part of the motivation for religious migration.

On earth the Qing dynasty had instituted internal passports, and relied on language to isolate their possessions to a degree from influence. It wasn't a perfect solution but by restricting foreigners to entreports, and discouraging the learning of the Chinese language and generally created a system of bureaucracy designed to frustrate foreign relations the Qing had been able to buttress their rule over China. There was nothing like that on Golarion that he'd been able to determine from what Eire understood of Tian Xia as a continental landmass they had splintered into some kind of internal civil war or into disparate kingdoms... there were immigrants from Tian Xia but significantly less than those from the Inner Sea.

Whatever t he case there were plenty of places with plenty of reasons where immigration was possible so long as there was somewhere that could exercise a 'pull' factor. The River Kingdoms even without the river freedoms would have had a hard time enforcing border controls outside of very narrow geographic confines at least in a continuous manner.

Eire had the advantage that riverine traffic directed up the Sellen Network and to Candlemere and Shrikewall. Anyone wanting to immigrate into the kingdom from afar had no reason to avoid coming to the kingdom's center of governance, especially the religious followers of lawful deities. It wasn't perfect, and it formed the second intersection of the population administration.

Simply put not everyone migrating were pioneer types looking to carve out their own family homestead on the frontier. Those people who were needed to be settled in new farming communities, but there were other people who were migrating for other reasons and preferred living in towns.

That was useful, more useful than farmstead homes and settlers really, because Eire had structured the baronial farms with the intention of producing on an 18th​ and even early 19th​ century protocol of agriculture in terms of crops. The multiple fields system was ingrained at the original baronial conception steel moldboard plows as well. That meant being able to better support the townships that were growing east west laterally around the kingdom.

There in was the dominant focus of his summer court. He didn't have to worry about individual peasants needing to be directed to gather or harvest things... that would have been patently unmanageable. Indeed he had to rely on Oleg, Roy, and Amvarean, and so on to manage smaller fiefdoms. It was just a division of labor matter. Much as how the council was a division of labor. The Twins, and Valerie, and Amiri and Jaethal had different responsibilities.

Eranex shifted, she was in a humanoid form of her own, the same one she had confronted the ghostly fae frost giant that her patron goddess had exiled from her own realm. "My sister is verily pleased with the progress of goddly knights, the stewardship of the land." The half fae silver dragon remarked, and he was pleased to hear it.

Besides Candlemere Amvarean's domain upon the Lake was perhaps the most directly accessible portions of the realm from Shrikewall. It was also suitable as a location to cultivate the mana plants native to the first world, and given Amvarean's nature well Kyonin's elves were unlikely to do more than grumble. Amvarean knew her share of elves after all. It might not be enough in the long run Jaethal admitted that Kyonin was often slow to make decisions, but if they did... well they'd deal with any pressure from the elves when it came.

"And not to dissuade from that but I feel it would be best to contend with the Road of Shields, and its restoration."

"We do not have the labor to spare for it."

They didn't. There were too many other things going on this summer. Even with just the crusade, but if what they understood was correct, and Harrim was convinced, "There should be, the adamantine shield fortress, near the temple o the elk somewhere in the North Narlmarches." The Silver Shield fortress was in the Dire Narlmarches, further to the west, and the bronzeshield fortress had been Hargulka's temporary residence in the south. There were an unknown number of watchtowers dotting the landscape. There were references to a Gold Shield, and an Iron Shield fortress though the general consensus was that given the dwarven maps of the Shield wall the fortresses all built on their side of the border not Drelev's. That was probably simple natural geography the slough was not suitable to the dwarven deep underground mining.

Or, for that matter their halls.
--
Valerie walked the open boulevards of the capital's high district. If Maestro Penrod's theory was right the plateau had probably been settled by the ancient cyclops but well have had even earlier settlers, and when they were gone ... when the earth fall had happened eventually the Taldan had reused the sight. Only parts survived from those ancient epochs.

The Stolen Lands remained wild and untamed, but the connection of cities was slowly welding the realm into an actual kingdom. Not necessarily in the ways she would have expected it. Valerie had expected... well not necessarily an idealized frontier life but one where she might have been a bit more hands on in contesting goblin hordes, driving off orcish raiders.

Regardless of the charter laid out, recognized by the sword lords she had been realistic enough to know that the barony would have to carve out somewhere in the wilderness. A place with ready access to timber and farmlands, erect a hall, as they had done, and perhaps raise a motte and bailley castle once they had time. Seizing the Stag Lord's fort which had been built on ancient ruins had saved them time yes, but there were other factors. She would have made little consideration of the ancient ruins. Maegar's Varnhold was really what she had expected.

Instead she was here, standing in a city that could have been mistaken for having always been here. The Fortress Shrikewall had been built by giantish labor. That was true even of the interior where a dozen slag giants had made a steel interior frame of beams to support the structure, and plastered around the beams supporting the roof with high arches. It had a sort of timelessness to it that awed her former coreligionists.

Those same Sheylnites took the same myriad of forms as filled the kingdom. They ranged from non Iomedae worshipping halflings like Linzi, to Tian people who had brought tea and mulberry trees, there were others, like the storm giants who worshipped her as Syriss, and there were the Sthenos that Sheylyn herself seemed to have directed to migrate to the kingdom.

Her former mentor had claimed his majesty had the ear of the divine. Even now as Irreseni escaped through their side of the portal to freedom they spoke of Summer in mythical hushed terms, and the chains of winter being forced to give. That was she supposed miraculous. Jubilost made, however obnoxious the gnome was, an equally compelling point that it might well have been a facet of the ties monarchs had symbolically with the first world.

She wondered if monarchs were tied to the other planes if that was what had befallen the Rogavaria if that was how the House of the Dragon had disappeared so suddenly, and so completely. She was not however a wizard, or a scholar of the arcane, and her religious upbringing had never entailed contemplating such things.

Maestro Pendrod had no explanation either, but he had said that from the historical record of Iobaria that Choral had only been one of many great Iobarian war leaders and kings with dragon allies. Though not nearly as academic in his reply Kundal had agreed that great kings, in the Kellid Numeria sense, reckoned their warriors to include dragons and giants. At least with the latter Amiri agreed such was the case for the distant kellids of the lands of the Mammorth Lords.

She heard an argument and spied one of the, frankly annoying, street preachers who was embroiled in most likely one of Pendrod's colleagues from Taldor over apparently how something translated from draconic. The blonde, ulfen, wizard seemed very annoyed by the mistranslation of whatever it was, and Valerie felt the need to intervene before the street preacher potential made this more of a scene.

She strode forward and interrupted the two arguing men.

The ulfen wizard straightened and regarded the disheveled street preacher from the side of his eyes, "This one apologizes for such disturbance, I am Mitharius and am returning from a mission for your sovereign." The wizard replied in draconic.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Erastus 4713
She had been working most of the morning, as she did most days with her sister swapping over after the midday. The details might slipped by her... probably had slipped by her in previous months, but today was a little different.

Kanerah looked at the ledgers, stopped, and went back to check the ledgers of the previous month, and then the month before and only stopped there as Valerie entered the hall. She would have brought it to Eire, but... the blonde would do. The red eyed tiefling woman lacked some of her, well really any, of her sister's bright bubbly personality and faking it was doable but annoyed her and thankfully wasn't necessary instead she rushed forward to insist the Chancellor come over and insure she was reading the reports correctly.

"Look at this,"

Each of the volumes were heavy black tomes, they had volume numbers in gold script corresponding to the month, and in block script also the last two digits of the calendar year. This process of recording information had begun with inauguration of the Cathedral of Iomedae, which had drawn first with its planned construction, and then with its completion, migrants from the Inner Sea nations. Each monthly volume was inked with the names and origins of each new immigrant who arrived in Shrikewall and came to the seat of Eire's power after his coronation in 4710 of the Arodenite Calendar.

This had officially superseded the earlier record keeping that had gone into effect after the Restov coronation. In practice with the creation of the printing press the baronial ledgers had been gathered up and copied for administrative records, but those were less fancy books, manufactured and bound for scribes to reference from any of the, still nascent, ministries of the crown.

At the time the printing press had been finished there had still had been a view that the population was not necessarily consuming enough material that it was necessary for subjects to truly need a domestic printing industry of such capability. The press was for the sovereign's affairs more than anything... and probably in no small part to the amusement of the halfling bard. The press besides records also had allowed the promulgation far and wide of the realm's laws, especially once the kingdom had been proclaimed.

It was thus no secret that the realm had attracted a growing, and diverse population since the barony had been founded. That Eire presided over, organized, and directed settlement of the wild lands of the narlmarches, and the kamelands of the original Brevic charter. The ledgers made it easy to establish that many immigrated from the nation of Cheliax. What Eire described as a push factor, versus the pull factor of the new barony's promised freedom, and potential economic success for new subjects.

Valerie moved around the table and looked at the books, all of her immediate concerns about relaying the message of the Iobarian wizard Mitharius temporarily superseded in prominence in favor of Kanerah's observation of the realm's migration.
--
There were all sorts of metals civilization needed in order to make tools, and goods. This place was an example of that. The steam power turned belts that ran all the way up to the ceiling... but this was not just some kind of workshop, this was a temple to Brigh... and amusedly it was one of the few proper temples to the minor goddess in all of Avistan, save perhaps in Numeria to the north west.

Given the way that her clergy acted... it was hard to take the claim that goddess was one of industry... or rather industry in the terms he tended to think of, but he would not argue the point. Still Brigh's clergy had been useful in a variety of things really since Arsinoe had introduced them. Though he wouldn't phrase it as such he'd almost argue that they were probably more useful as problem solvers than Abadar's more numerous clergy were... but that was probably being unfair.

Abadar in his modern church was more a god of law than the Azlanti god of commerce and urban settlements that he had been before the great cataclysm of Earthfall. That wasn't to say he wasn't still a god of those things.. but the Master of the First Vault's church was less important to Narland than it was in Brevoy, and Brigh's church provided a kind of specialized labor. It drew wire and handled complex metallurgy. Things that the kingdom needed that Abadar's church just wasn't involved in.

No what really made the distinction was while Abadar's clergy did actually happen to have a form of double entry book keeping it was still a medieval form of it. No denying that was better than nothing, but it still lacked financial mechanisms that defined centralized banking and other organizational details that made a national bank a functional institution. There were institutional hurdles to clear, and potential conflicts of interest from banking and mercantilist interests that didn't exist with Brigh's clergy.

The result of this was that the Realm was willing to extend certain recognition to an otherwise minor faith. This temple this grand workshop of artifice and metal working differed significantly from the churches of the inheiritor. That was perhaps even an understatement for how different this building was.

Copper pipes. Steam cases. Vices, and punches. There were tables to work crafts, and drafting tables with protractors and paper. It was not an assembly line, but one of the things that royal administration had provided to both the Church of Abadar and Brigh were standard imperial weights and measures. The difference was what the two institutions of faith used them for... and in Brigh's case what their church did was manufacture printing presses.

They weren't to interchangeable parts yet, but they were moving in the right direction. They'd go to templates, and large batch production and work from there. They just needed more time. Time was in general what the realm needed to grow as immigrants continued to come, and so satisfied with things he returned outside.

There were other projects that needed to be done. He wasn't going to legally enshrine a royal monopoly on textiles... or silk production for that matter... but the truth was he didn't expect he would need to. The first was that he doubted there would be much natural occurring competition in the private ... not any time soon... and the second was that with steam power, with water driven power from the rivers the looms to turn silk would slow come up to the level of processing reaching early 20th​ century levels in machinery terms... but there was no way he'd have sufficient silkworm production to meant refinement capacity... so he wasn't in a hurry there.

Abadar's clergy didn't mind the patronage of Brigh's church... so far as he could tell... and they didn't mind the dirt, or grease.. but Sheyln's clergy didn't seem to share that opinion. In the fall of the previous year one of Sheyln's paladins, and specifically Valerie's former mentor within the church, a brevic knight had crossed the border in search of the Shrine of the Golden Grove. A marble wrought domed shrine built in the traditions of classical Taldor. Due to its geographic location, and not helped by its small size, it had been lost to the wilds far from civilization as it was. So, Ser Fredero Sinnet had decided to take it upon himself to ride south cross the border and find this lost shrine and restore it...

... well that wasn't precisely a well thought out plan, even without considering malicious factors... like Tulvak the hag who had migrated at some point from southern Brevoy earlier still after she had been driven out from the village of Nivakta's crossing on the south rostland road that ran along the banks of the Shrike river. In a world where gods were a tangible presence reclaiming a shrine was more than simple piety. It was not that the church of Shelyn was particularly belligerent, really the opposite the problem was the divine signage associated by the reclamation of the Shrine which created the institutional pressure.

Much as how Varnhold's subjects, who were predominantly Brevic expatriates had wanted churches to Pharasma to see to their spiritual needs... and most likely how he would need clergy of Abadar, Shelyn's church was a popular fixture of attendance and interest to migrants from the Inner Sea... that was in part due to the obvious. As the core of the royal territories took shape in the kamelands... and with agricultural reforms ranging from steel blows and seed drills... the settlements were urban not agricultural rural ones that would have other religious inclinations.

Not that he'd considered something like central opera houses but that might need to be considered at some point down the road... but at the moment he could hardly guess what Shelyn's church was particularly interested in doing... and he wasn't the only one. Valerie was not happy about the situation. Intruding, and intrusion had been thrown around, even as Linzi had wanted to praise the church ... admittedly she was still apart of the Church of Shelyn's congregation... but she could no more answer questions about what the church wanted than they could.

It was a rather bothersome... but it was part and parcel of the system.
--
Given the geography on which Shrikewall was built, with the cathedral on the prominence of the hill, and with the lake to its south, with the Shrike and the skunk rivers to its east and west, and indeed with the hills that the shrike cut through to the north east there were very few places to attack from... one had to come through the Tuskdale. He hadn't considered it all that important to raise a stone fortification ... a castle immediately.

That was less true of his Kameland settlements. The grassland steppe between the Gudrin and and the Shrike was arguably the most martial settlement of the realm. This was not Hereford, or any of the fortresses along the long abandoned dwarven road of shields. Here the baronial... now royal horse could be grazed, and raised, and indeed it was a place of organization. It was a place of administration and record keeping.

There were no farms tended by individual families. The whole given area belonged to the crown in a way that served a stately purpose. That would change with time. The variety of purposes for horses divided herds into specific specimens. Some pulled heavy steel plows, while some were intended for messengers, and others would be trained for military purposes. The majority were for the first, the most important factor in efforts or adjacent.

The rich thick black soil was plowed, rocks carved from its depths and relocated and careful measurements taken. It was not a collective farmland. It was a large organized royal farm, and unlike the original baronial farms in the Tuskdale there represented a step closer still to late 19th​, early 20th​ century north American farming in terms of equipment. It had been here that the first bushels of Iobarian wheat grown in the kingdom, winter wheat had been harvested. Winter wheat, Eire mused that that was something of a coincidence given Queen Elvanna's idiocy this year... and that he still needed to contend with the Irrisen problem... for he had a month until they needed to be in Mendev... for the opening of Armasse. Valerie was clear that from the sixteenth on she should conduct Armasse in his stead through the end of the month preparing and maintaining the realm's defenses, and that he would return from his journey to the crusader kingdom once matters were underway.

He looked over the summer fields, that far from the Narlmarches forests had not been touched by the Irrisen winter, and nodded, "We're doing well, you shouldn't need to contend with this," Actually well was an understatement. He'd have been happy with just the progress of their first year, but it was improving, still beyond the level of cultivation of the first world flora.

The almanac for this year's summer temperatures and rain would have to include a foot note marking this year as an anomaly of course. It would be important to make sure people knew that, that it was remembered... even if it was kind of annoying to the process of creating an almanac and giving them some idea of average rainfall.

There was one another matter here, Eire stepped away from the terrace overlooking his project and towards Jaethal, who would also be remaining behind. The elf frowned, "Valerie has sent word that the wizard Mitharius requests an audience at your earliest convenience. It would seem that he has upheld his bargain, and carried word to at least some of the dragons of western Iobaria, and the windswept wastes,"

"Oh?"

"I have a second letter from Amvarean saying she has been contacted by a silver dragon that she is on epistolary terms with regarding both his watching over Galt, and also Mitharius's contact with his convocation of fellow silver dragons at high summer. This dragon also apparently reported a portal to Irrisen is active in galt."

Eire nodded, and regarded his farmlands. He had questions about Iobarias nearest draconic populations... but of all his draconic neighbors the one he needed to concern himself the most with was slaying the black dragon Ilthuliak.

--
Notes: obviously this is a direct series of references to the shard and the perks from Crusader Kings 3 notably effecting the kingdom, what I am doing is using the Kingmaker perk of having kingdom effecting powers gradually take effect, in contrast to CK3's explicit test of 'You start with 500,000 refugees who may come from different regions from the setting.' rather than a large and increasing migration and perks taking effects, now that latter half of text, that is very much in effect, its just they're not showing up at the start in order to build shrikewall.

Otherwise Eire wouldn't be complaining about the manpower he'd be complaining about the logistics of feeding such a population... never mind the formal faith population. [I will hopefully be updating Out of the Dark this month, but also posting the text for the Drow Cyoa perks... and I also need to go see if the drow of the underdark jump ever got finished.]

 

[Imperator Pax]

Erastus 4713
With many thousands of immigrants migrating from the inner sea and encompassing a startlingly diverse number of kingdoms across the expanse of southern civilization the prospect on its face should not have been all that unusual. To be requested by a goddess to provide sanctuary to a community was not all that surprising. It wasn't frankly even that outlandish a prospective given the activeness of the divinities of Golarion... the request wasn't an unheard of one.

It was ultimately the specifics of the requisition, it was the details more so than the resources of finding space for refugees displaced by conflicts or schisms beyond the boundaries of the Kingdom.

Sthenos were... snake women... they were like Medusae rather than meluisine, but were distinct from both. Apparently having rebelled against Lamashtu Stheno the First, namesake of the species had a century earlier prayed for Shelyn to deliver her from her previous goddess's wroth.

The result was well a new species and stheno's soul joining Shelyn in Nirvana.

This would neatly settle the matter of operating the church of the golden grove. Shelyn would provide clergy and that her faithful would make arts of all sorts for the realm as it grew. Linzi was naturally thrilled... Valerie felt perhaps not unjustly that her former goddess was putting upon them... but this had the potential to be useful.

The realm had a growing diversity of races. That was well established by not just Shrikewall, and Candlemere, but New Colton and Memphis to the east. Indeed, he almost might have preferred that Shelyn settle her refugees at Memphis... but it would benefit the Narlmarches and he could focus matters on Memphis... she was after all not the only god with temples.

Then of course there were the ones who didn't despite the growing number of adherents. Bastet had no dedicated temple yet. A shrine to her graced the entry to the Inheritor's cathedral to reflect the catfolk presence, but in Memphis and Candlemere the Osirion deities had needed their own spaces. Ra and Osiris might one day need temples of their own in the western districts of the Tuskdale. They were deities of famous Paladins and thus were quite friendly with the Inheritor's church. Osrisis clergy were also significantly more tolerant of unique undead like Dave, and Jaethal which was a distinct positive in Eire's opinion... though how they would interact with Vordakai well... that was a problem for another day.

Where Candlemere though held growing sites to Nethys, and Sarenrae in particularly Memphis... much as its name sake on earth held royal endowments to Sokar, Ptah, and Thoth. Admittedly the hawk headed god of revenge... was the least busy of the three... but Eire had insured he was at least present ... given Shelyn's involvement of late that might not have been the best decision since it almost certainly would draw the attention of either from the trio or... from some god he had failed to consider previously.

He paused drawing a contemplative sigh even before the inquiry.

"Your majesty,"

Eire closed his eyes... and considered the goddess Stheno had betrayed... and other details regarding Lamashtu... "Its nothing." He replied... which wasn't true at all... but if something happened... they would deal with it then. "Lets go see." He remarked.

Linzi bounced with glee as the slip opened. Heavy darkwood, and alchemical steel, and brass mixed... they had to use mixed materials. He would have preferred a more fully metal hull... but it wasn't practical. They were lucky that hte Narlmarches were such pristine woodland. The result was a ship that... well if he were honest about how he thought it looked, it was a steampunk packet ship or maybe a clipper of the early 19th​ century. Those had been the ship's of his Earth that had shaped his view of it, and that was why it more resembled the windjammers that did exist on Golarion

The question was would it work. Was it practical, could it carry them, and their dozens of tons of supplies to Mendev, and return them home. The clergy of Brigh and various others were confident. Giants had helped shape the timber latice skeleton, and work the steel after all.

It was industry of a sort, somewhere between medieval industry and the ort he was familiar with, and in many respects it verged into the early modern. Yet, there was no denying this was an arcanotech craft. It was the work of magic, and mundane crafts.

Three hundred passengers, and fifty tons of cargo. It was a flying ship, rather than an airplane. Not that Golarion was familiar with the later... a cleric of Nethys bowed, "Your majesty."

There were a number of safety features being considered... the life boats were well, basically small skiffs with featherfall charms. Indeed the life preservers were for all intents and purposes feather fall rings. It had taken research to create the spells needed to provide... magical gravity so in theory Enterprise could fly upside down, but Enterprise had not been laid out or intended to carry cannon so she was not intended to fight.

He stopped, turned as he ran his hand down the railing surrounding the upper deck of the shift. A part of him was linked to the Stolen Lands... but he'd seen other such connections to the land. Large, and small. Amvarean and her sister Eranex's presence effected lake silver step. To a lesser extent Tiressia and Meliasane were tied similar to how Maegar was linked to the Varnhold, and to an even lesser extent the spirits responded to Akiros.

He pivoted in his place, as the feminine form of the outsider took shape. The Arcanotheign. Nethys was ... frankly not lucid enough to talk to his own worshippers the Arcanotheign was one of his few servants who could really be said to be able to act as an intermediary for the mad old wizard god... that wasn't why he was familiar with the herald of Nethys. That dubious honor stemmed from the situation the twins had found themselves in, even with the disk that allowed them to shift positions at will.

Even without the levitation effect the gray skinned outsider was taller than he was, she was in excess of seven feet... but he supposed better the unannounced arrival of the Arcanotheign than the unanounced arrival of the devil called forefather... though if the Arcanotheign was here, that might not be far off.
--
Eire paced his solar as the summer sun hung high in the sky, "I admit its unlikely that the Arcanotheign has reason to lie." But it was somewhat absurd that in theory that this could be undone... but then perhaps not, they were talking ninth level magic... and more to the point they would be intervening so directly with the twins condition of existence it would attract Auferon's attention... which assumed he hadn't already noticed.

That was on reflection something of a large assumption. The truth was that while the Twins were an important part of the realm's administration their acquisition of hte disc had largely made their situation... well they had considered it somewhat resolved.

...and yet here they were discussing this. Certainly having both capable of operating independtly would have been a boon.

That was something to certainly work towards, but Auferon, the forefather, served Mahathallah who in turn was loyal to Asmodeus. He wasn't ready for that... and it wouldn't have been outside of the realm of possibilities for the Forefather to act through the infernal house of thrune, or at least through chelish agents.

The sand swirled underneath, the magical map refreshing. It was the original smaller realm map from before they had added the Varnhold and its charter to his own. There were days he wondered what it would have been like to actually been involved in building a settlement by hand from the ground up. The truth was as he absorbed shards he knew some of the power was investing his domain... it wasn't an entirely unheard of concept. Dragons effected their lairs, and he supposed that Golarion's wizards were probably capable of creating their own demiplanes at high enough level, and probably had a similar enough phenomenon.

Ramziran was a faker, a wizard playing god and the masked man was probably or at least Eire wouldn't have been surprised if his realm had some connection to the first world that bound him to his kingdom in some way. That was speculation of course. The masked wizard god king clearly had taken his realm by force of arms building on previous realms... but he was also far away so details were hard to be sure of.

Eire watched the sands solidify into their normal colors of the terrain, "If the arcanotheign is correct," Which was not potentially the case, but that seemed unlikely... most likely Nethys's herald was accurate, "Then," he mentally considered the calendar. Kean had been reincarnated of course... so the equinox... "Once we return from Mendev. Still it would be wise to exercise caution in the interim, we need take no chances." ... and he'd need to speak with probably the druids more broadly, and possibly Kean himself on things.

--
Notes: This obviously sets up for the twins getting their own bodies back, again I am disappointed that the 2E Companion book for pathfinder is lacking on covering some characters. This among other things would have been a good opportunity to dive into Jaethal's backstory in Kyonin, Pharasmin inquisitors, more dwarf content for Harrim, more Technic League backstory. Frankly it seems half done.