Grace that comes with healing

"You're off your bloody rocker!" shouted Pietro.

Pawdrig raised his tankard and slowly drained it. In truth, it was already empty, but the gesture gave him time to marshal his thoughts. He'd been hoping for a better response than this when he joined the table.

"Look," he responded. "All I'm saying is that we should think about it. What's wrong with that?"

"What is there to bloody think about? It's the Black Plateau! It's a great big steaming pile of shit and the sooner we're rid of it, the better. The. End."

From the way Pawdrig's new drinking companions were eyeing him, it was clear he wasn't winning this argument. Not currently. He needed to change the framing.

"Which is worse... the Black Plateau... or the Grendel?" he asked.

"Black Plateau!" came a chorus of responses.

"No, right, but no. But think about it. The Grendel can't invade us while the Black Plateau is doing its thing, can they? If it goes away... maybe we all end up in the salt mines? Then what, eh?" He stared pointedly into the eyes of each of his fellow drinkers in turn to emphasise his point.

"Can't is doing an awful lot of work there, buddy," pointed out Anabetta, the bravo at the other side of the table.

"Nah... he's right..." chimed in Graeme, the only other orc drinking with them. "Back when... well you know... back when... The Salt Lords were not up for a fight here. Not while the Black Plateau was doing its... thing."

"You agree with this idiot?" demanded Pietro.

"I'm not saying it can't happen." answered Graeme. "But it's a big risk, innit? For them and us. I don't reckon they'd do it unless they had no other cards left to throw down. But if Morning Glory puts it to sleep... well: suddenly it's a much better play... isn't it?"

Pawdrig leaned back in his chair and spread his hands wide to make it clear the orc had just won his argument for him.

Overview

Over the last two years Ylenwe has aided multiple times with helping mend the damage from the scions of Cold Sun. Now, with Cold Sun increasingly a grim memory for the people of the Empire - though all too real a threat to the lands across the Sea of Steel - zie is reaching out in earnest to the Empire. It seems the Perfect Morning feels, with a year of friendship between them, that now is the time to talk of healing and harmony.

The Dam of Apstrus

• The river Doubt in Apstrus has been dammed
• The Dreaming Spire has been completed
• Icarion is thriving

For the last year, Ylenwe has provided succour to the people of Spiral. Zie sent forth her Dawn Chorus, a flock of strange winged beings with the approximate shape of a human or an orc but covered in white, dove-like feathers, and clad in shimmering robes. The Chorus has been a welcome sight for any traveller braving the wilds of Spiral in the last year, for in its presence the howling madness of the Black Plateau is reduced to a murmur. Yet the Chorus cannot be everywhere - its duty was to assist an Imperial army in the heroic task of damming the River Doubt in Apstrus and diverting a portion of its flow to Icarion, as part of a wider effort to reduce Mareave's aridity. The Towerjacks - and one lone military unit of Towlen Nighthaven - have been hard at work this season doing exactly that.

The dam itself is a stout building of practical Holbergian design - it is steadfast and well-built. Not perhaps beautiful in form, but still pleasing in the way it fulfils its function. The dam is carefully shaped. The most ingenious aspect of its construction is its paired spillways. The minor spillway faces south-east towards Mareave, through the narrow traveller's pass that links Apstrus and Icarion. This has always been a treacherous journey - now it is one that only an owner of a particularly sturdy raft could hope to contemplate, and they would be well-advised to have their affairs in order.

The designers of the dam have carefully calculated the required flow such that as much water as possible is channelled to Icarion - but the narrows between the two territories can only carry so much water. As such, the dam also possesses a major spillway, an outflow that spills the excess water through the wooded ruins of the lower part of the region, down to Apulian below. Wags have taken to calling the two flows the Lesser and Greater Doubts, respectively.

To celebrate two years of friendship, prosperity, and the completion of the League's reckoning with Urizen, our premier building society - Red Raven Holdings - commissions this gift to our neighbours in Spiral: to build The Dreaming Spire upon Mount Cinnius, Ankra, Spiral. It will serve as a home for the Omphalos of Urizen, the Library of Solen's Doubt, and all Urizen Spiralites, wherever they may be. Irrespective of political boundaries, the Omphalos is the heart of Urizen's people, with whom we are proud to live, side by side.

Announced by Lucrezia Corvinascura, Chair of the Wolf

A good portion of Apstrus now lies below the waters, including the site of the grim battle of Solen's Doubt where the Black Plateau rose to full wakefulness. The spire of Solen's Doubt is gone now, lost beneath the waters, but the texts of its library that are the legacy of the dead to the living have been removed to the Dreaming Spire, an Omphalos marking the heart of the Urizen nation. A heart that will always lie here in Spiral now, even as the territory's fate is tied up with the city below rather than the spires above.

The waters of the reservoir are calm and still - they show no sign of the pain or terror of the past, save for a few ruined spire-tops visible when the water is at a lower ebb. No restless dead wander here - the work of Varushkan volhovs has seen those unfortunate souls either moved on or at least kept from haunting the dam and its reservoir. The Imperial Orcs have worked especially hard to ensure that no bones of their kin lie here, and the names of their fallen lost at Solen's Doubt have been inscribed painstakingly into the brickwork of the dam.

There is a fundamental air of solemnity and finality to Apstrus now. There have been ruined spires for a long time here, but now they have a weight to them - what an Imperial Orc might call an air of worth. The efforts to ensure that the Dam of Apstrus is a monument to solemn finality and the remembered dead have quelled any fears that restless spirits would trouble the region, but nevertheless that sense of finality now gives the region the ruins quality. The spreading delta formed by the Greater Doubt - whose waters once reached the sea through many disparate narrow streams and tributaries rather than a great outflow - has naturally flooded the lower portion of the region, and so it also gains the marsh quality.

Clear Waters in Icarion

Kirriemuir Campgrounds

Commission Type: Sinecure

Location: Icarion, Mareave

Cost: 30 mithril and 90 crowns in labour

Time: Three months

Effect: Creates the title of Keeper of the Kirriemuir Campgrounds, and encourages Yerende settlement in the region.

Availability: One year or until the situation materially changes

Keeper of the Kirriemuir Campgrounds

Type: Imperial Orc

Appointment: Imperial Orc Senators

Powers: Receives 4 pawns of Day vis

Responsibilities: To ensure that the Kirriemuir Campgrounds remain a tranquil beauty spot for the weary traveller

• Icarion is quickly becoming an oasis
• There is an opportunity to develop the Kirriemuir campgrounds into a beauty spot
• This will encourage members of the Yerende sept to settle in Mareave

Ylenwe's heralds have been seen often in Icarion. Even amidst the fighting in the territory, they have found places of tranquil harmony here, by the waters that flow ever-freer day by day. One such place is the small campground and traveller's post known as Kirriemuir. Kirriemuir was long just a bend in the road - barely anyone lived there, and it was just one stopping-place amidst Icarion's dry foothills. Now it is growing day by day. There are Sannites here, but also a burgeoning community of Yerende, who have made the long journey south to make a home here, where there is now no shortage of gardens to tend.

A fresh spring has arisen here, amidst a newly-formed Day regio, the groundwater of Mareave finally spilling over after centuries of parched neglect. The waters fizz as they come from the ground, not with the primal strength associated with Spring but a calming burbling fizz that carries pleasantly on the air. Where the fizzing waters have arisen, Ylenwe's heralds have begun to walk. They offer fresh mineral water from the spring to weary travellers, and a listening ear for those tormented by the travails of life or recovering from time on the front lines. The waters of Kirriemuir taste wonderful - not the neutral refreshment of pure water, but a textured taste that only geology and aeons of time can render. They have curious magical properties too: when mixed with a few simple dyes, they make an excellent base for the substance known as prismatic ink.

There is an opportunity here. The Senate could develop Kirriemuir into a beauty spot and create the title of Keeper of the Kirriemuir Campgrounds. This would result in a sinecure providing four prismatic ink every season. Moreover, developing the campground will increase the size of the Yerende community here; the region will gain the Yerende keyword. The heralds have indicated that they are happy to continue dwelling here if Perfect Morning retains amity, but the effervescent waters of Kirriemuir are likely to continue flowing with or without them - their presence is a symptom of what has happened here, not its cause.

Sing a Song of Solace

• Ylenwe has conceived of a way to bring harmony to the Black Plateau
• The solution requires a perfect piece of music and somewhere to perform it

Ylenwe has enjoyed a year of amity because the eternal promised to use the time to study the Black Plateau. The hope was to find a lasting solution to protect Spiral from its pernicious influence. While the Block screens those who dwell in the spires or densely-packed streets of Apulian, that still makes travel in the territory uniquely perilous - even the recent proposals to build a fortification on the edge of the dark mesa would not wholly solve this problem.

The Morningstar has completed a great study of the Black Plateau but zie is no closer to understanding how it was made than when zie began. Childe of Gentleness believes it is fundamentally not a creation of ritual magic. While ritual magic has exacerbated it in the past, especially the rituals of Night, it is fundamentally some magic of the mortal world that it is beyond zir nature to understand in its construction - some manipulation of the very essence of the world itself that zie cannot perceive.

Though the Dove has no answer to the question posed by the Black Plateau, zie has discovered a remedy - music. Many eternals have some interest in music - not least Sung, who has her own interests in Spiral - but one of its clearest advocates was always Ylenrith. That passion endures, though Ylenwe's interest is focused on its capacity to bring inner harmony and a sense of numinous clarity. Zie is still interested in the perfection of music in its technical aspect, as Ylenrith was, and they are greatly appreciative of the craft of composition. But the Dove is clear that zie believes music has a capacity to uplift and help those who hear it find inner perfection. The Black Plateau is disharmony incarnate - what better way to soothe it than music?

The land itself cries out an endless song of anger and pain, disharmonious mourning for folly and grief, loss and faithlessness. Ylenwe's heralds note that the First Companion too, is a being hurt and healing - but who, through music has found a way to love zirself again. To quiet the Black Plateau needs the same approach. First, the right piece of music is needed, something mathematically perfect. Secondly, an appropriate place must be built for that music to be played, and carried in a chorus by Ylenwe's servants.

A Piece Apart

• Ylenwe has found a piece of perfect music
• The eternal entreats Hieronymus Dowland, Lirielen Starsong, and Kespoena Archsky to perform the piece at 13:00 on Saturday in the Hall of Worlds

Where there is sorrow, there is a chance for the grace of healing. Some time ago, Dove charged zir heralds with finding someone capable of producing a mathematically perfect piece of music. Since Morningstar took that step first, zie did not know why it was needed then. Time has brought clarity to what was obscured; causality is a strange thing in the realm of Day.

Lirielen Starsong and Kespoena Archsky of Urizen, and Hieronymus Dowland of Dawn, were identified as optimal candidates, the heralds so moved by their performances that they were unable to decide. Zie hoped to potentially name one of them as the Chosen of Ylenwe. Unfortunately, due to a series of miscommunications - for which the Dove seems to blame zirself above all else - the eternal has not yet been able to meet with either Hieronymus, Lirielen, or Kespoena, nor hear their pieces. However, the Dove now knows that their pieces of music must serve as the foundation-stones for the chorus that can soothe the rageful stones of Screed.

The Dove wishes to hear the pieces - and indeed, have them be heard in public - and to discuss the matter with the three. As such, zie humbly requests that the three perform their pieces to a public audience in the Hall of Worlds at 13:00 on the Saturday of the Spring Equinox. The Morningstar accepts that the worthies of the Empire have many demands on their time, but the High Bard, the Archmage of Day, and the Maestro of the Cat's Graces (if they exist), are all welcome to join the audience if they are free. Indeed, any and all are invited to attend and to listen - provided that all understand that the purpose of the meeting is to give the three a chance to perform the perfect music they have crafted.

If any of the three wants to adapt their piece now they understand its purpose, they are welcome to do so, but zie offers assurance that it is not necessary. The harmonious foundation the musicians have already created is more than sufficient for what is required. If the composers can provide Ylenwe with the notation for their pieces, so much the better, but again there is no requirement to do so.

The Stone Becomes the Foundation

Harmonious Chimes

Commission Type: Edifice

Location: Screed, Spiral

Cost: 13 white granite, 13 mithril, 14 ilium, and 78 crowns

Time: Three months

Special: Requires the three to agree to allow their music to be used by Ylenwe to calm the Black Plateau Opportunity ceases to be available if Ylenwe is placed under enmity

Effect: Creates a ring of amplifiers around the Black Plateau that, in conjunction with perfect music, soothe it to quiescence for a year Creates opportunities to find ways to deal with the threat of the Black Plateau permanently

Availability: One year or until the situation materially changes

• Ylenwe has presented plans to help quiet the Black Plateau
• The plan involves the creation of thirteen pillars in a golden spiral
• The performance of the perfect harmonies is part of this plan

Pathway to Serenity envisages the creation of a ring of thirteen monoliths of mithril and ilium in a Golden Spiral spinning out from the centre of the Black Plateau. The position of each has been carefully calculated by Ylenwe, starting from a point of perfect stillness, at the centre and radiating outwards to reach the borders of Screed.

Working with the Empire's magicians, Cradlesong could give light to a Day regio there, on the border, at the point where the silence meets the storm. That spot would become an Island of Solace, protected by the power of the regio from the chaos of the rest of the Plateau. Once complete, members of the Dawn Chorus would perform on the Island itself, ideally alongside Imperial magicians. The refrain they would take up - the refrain made resonant in the edifice's very construction - would be the pieces provided by the three - working in harmony together.

It is the fact that it is a piece made by mortal hands that is the key, it seems. Indeed, Epsilon Close is clear that zir magic would not have sufficed. Zir nature as Ylenwe, not Ylenrith, was necessary to understand the harmony required, but it is not a harmony zie is capable of reproducing alone. The Black Plateau is a mortal barbarity, and what mortal hands made only mortal hands can destroy. This has resulted in the fortunate side-effect being that Ylenwe does not require the cession of the edifice for it to function.

The harmony of the music and the disharmony of the Black Plateau would weave together, lulling it back to a state of relative quiescence - quieter than it has been in several generations. This effect would last for only a single year, and intense fighting, violence, or outbreaks of fear and anger amongst the people of Spiral would surely foreshorten the duration. For those four seasons, however, the beating heart of despair at the heart of Screed would be quiet. Travellers in the wilds of Spiral would no longer be assailed, at least not while the Chorus still sang.

If the plateau can be quieted with harmony, then Ylenwe reasons that the knot of anger and hate and fear that is embedded at its heart could, metaphorically, be unwound permanently. Exactly how it can be done and what it, Screed, and Spiral might look like if this were achieved, Ylenwe cannot say. Such things are not within the purview of the Perfect Morning: that would be a matter for mortals. All zie can say, with the certainty of a Hierarch of Sea and Sky, is that it can be done and that the harmonious music and the ring of resonant amplifiers is the first step.

Once it is quiescent, then the Empire could send prognosticators to study the Black Plateau to try to solve the problem more permanently. Likely it will need careful study by the best minds of Imperial magic. The right order might be able to properly understand how it exerts its influence and how to counter it. It would be a race against time, given that whatever they discovered would need to be put into operation as swiftly as possible. Ylenwe has no doubt, however, that the Empire can succeed.

Morningstar invites any who wish to be part of this discussion to attend the performance of the piece, so that the matter may be talked about with more confidence afterwards. Zie hopes that the three will also stay and assist zir in these discussions - as a being of Day, Nested Interval occasionally struggles to communicate clearly zir intent and motivations.

A Discordant Solo

• Pawdrig duSesna points out that Apulian could be argued to benefit from the presence of the Black Plateau

The idea of quieting the Black Plateau is popular with many, but not everyone thinks it is a good idea. There's always someone who thinks something is a bad idea, and so it proves. Pawdrig, a member of the duSesna Guild of Reckoners, cannot help but point out that the Block has proved largely effective at keeping the influence of the Black Plateau out of the city of Apulian. That's not a reason to leave it active, of course, but there is some evidence that the Black Plateau has also kept the Grendel armies out of Spiral. Pawdrig is quite blunt about it - "It's all well and good to run round bringing harmony to the Black Plateau or whatever it is the Big White Bird wants to do, but it'll be one bloody expensive concerto if it opens the door to a Grendel invasion..."

Discussion of the matter with any well-connected Apulian orcs confirms that the Salt Lords Council are notoriously jumpy about the Black Plateau. They lost entire armies when it exploded - the experience left them wary of risking an invasion. Of course nothing is guaranteed, but once they discover the Black Plateau is quiet, any "protection" it did provide would quickly evaporate.

On Wings to Perfection

Cultivator of Solace

Type: Chosen

Appointment: Eternal

Income: One Dove's Feather each season Up to five prismatic ink each season A magical musical instrument once a year

Responsibilities: To bring harmony where there is discord To spread appreciation for the arts of music and mathematics To represent Ylenwe in zir dealings with the Empire

• Ylenwe plans to choose an Imperial citizen to be zir Cultivator of Solace

Pathway to Serenity also believes the time is right to invite an Imperial citizen to become zir Cultivator of Solace. Zie intends to offer the position first to Hieronymus Dowland on the advice of both Chorus and Stanza, but if he declines, zie intends to discuss the matter with both Lirielen Starsong and Kespoena Archsky - though of course only one could take up the role. The Cultivator is charged with striving to bring solace to places with a troubled history of sorrow and pain, like Spiral. They would also be responsible for spreading appreciation for the arts of music and mathematics, as well as soothing troubled spirits and working to make the Empire a more harmonious place.

Being Ylenwe's chosen instrument to cultivate solace within the Empire brings with it certain boons from the eternal. Zie would provide them with a Dove's Feather each season - a unique item that could be activated once to send a short message to the eternal. This is intended to allow the Cultivator to keep Ylenwe informed about their efforts to bring harmony and solace to the Empire, both what they have done and what they intend to do. It is zir expectation that the Cultivator would work to identify people and places in need of peace, harmony, or tranquillity and do their best to foster them.

The eternal would offer zir aid when zie was able to. As long as the message shows the Protector is working towards the shared goal of harmony, zie would provide them with as many as five vials of prismatic ink each season. The Cultivator should not expect to hear from Ylenwe unless zie had something important to say, but if they received the vis from their patron, they could take that as a sign that they still enjoyed the eternal's favour.

Finally, zie would provide the Cultivator with a musical implement (a form of magic item) each year, an Instrument of Harmony that would empower the Day lore and Night lore for the ritualist who was bonded to it and played it during the performance of a ritual. The Cultivator could use the instrument themselves, or provide it to another who would use it to pursue harmony.

Unlike an Imperial title, Ylenwe would choose who held the position. Being the Cultivator of Solace would not make one ineligible to hold an Imperial title, but it could invite questions about "split loyalties". Ylenwe zirself is less inclined to choose someone as zir Protector who already holds a title, as they would already have calls on their Loyalty and their time. The Cultivator would serve as long as they wish, or until Ylenwe feels that their cooperation has achieved everything together that is possible. Whoever is chosen is not subject to revocation nor even the writ of excommunication - because it is not an Imperial title. If the Pure Morning is placed under enmity, however, they may be called on to prove they have severed ties with Ylenwe or else be charged with receiving aid from an eternal enemy of the Empire.

Ylenwe asks that Hieronymus consider the matter prior to the meeting in the Hall of Worlds and express their decision as to whether to take up the post at that time. Likewise, that Lirielen and Kespoena both consider the matter carefully. Zie wishes them all to understand that there is no obligation, nor will zie be offended if they decline.

Harmony in Mind and Body

Appraise Ylenwe's Aid

Motion Type: Appraisal

Necessary Details: Prognosticator chosen

Effect: Presents opportunities agreed with the eternal Ylenwe, for them to render aid to the Silver Chalice

Special: Requires a change to the manifesto of the Silver Chalice

Availability: Until the end of the Summer Solstice 388YE Only available while Ylenwe is not under enmity

• A herald of Ylenwe wishes to discuss holistic medicine and wellbeing with members of the Silver Chalice
• Asymptotic Blessing hopes to encourage the order to re-examine their manifesto
• If that happens, the eternal would work with the Prognosticator's Office to find ways to support the Silver Chalice

When zie visits the Hall of Worlds to hear Hieronymus's work, zie will not come alone. Zie is bringing one of their most beloved heralds, Asymptotic Blessing, as well as a few of Asymptotic Blessing's fellows.

Asymptotic Blessing has been given the task by Ylenwe to focus on another aspect of zir interests; the arts of holistic healing. Over the last year, as Ylenwe has enjoyed the amity of the Conclave, zir heralds have been a quiet presence throughout the Empire. They are genial white-feathered humanoids with a silvery teal sheen to their skin, who seem drawn to places of contemplation or healing. Notably, however, they have eschewed hospitals and places where the art of the physick is practised in its conventional form. Ylenrith used to encourage healers to explore and embrace advances in medical sciences, moving away from superstition and tradition, but Ylenwe is known to favour an approach to medicine which emphasises finding the root cause of illness rather than focusing on treating symptoms, and recognising the link between the body and the spirit.

Asymptotic Blessing wishes to speak to the Grandmaster of the Silver Chalice and other members of her order. He - and by extension Ylenwe - would be delighted to discover if the Grandmaster sees things as they do. Currently, the order's constitution puts a heavy emphasis on medicine - on working with physicks and apothecaries, and on the precise and surgical nature of physical healing. This has its place - though healing as an expression of irrepressible life is more of an expression of the Primal Forest than the Cascading Skysea. The hope, however, is that the Silver Chalice might be open to a holistic view of the healing arts, one which nourishes the spirit as much as the body, aching heart as much as stinging wounds.

Asymptotic Blessing doesn't want to come with a particular set of prescriptions. It would just like to have an open conversation with the Grandmaster about the order's constitution - to explore the limits of what could and couldn't change. If a set of proposals could be found that Asymptotic Blessing and his fellows thought better reflected Ylenwe's holistic view of the healing arts, and the Senate approve the change to the Order's manifesto, it could unlock many benefits.

If that happened, Ylenwe's heralds would bequeath 2 pawns of prismatic ink each season to the order for as long as they did not have enmity. In addition, the Senate could order an appraisal of all the ways that Ylenwe might work with the Conclave order to support them. Heralds of the Day eternal would work with members of the Prognosticator's Office (or the Beurteilung) to produce a set of proposals that were acceptable to Ylenwe, which the Empire would then be free to consider at their leisure.

Asymptotic Blessing's plan is to arrive with at least one companion alongside Ylenwe in the Hall of Worlds, to listen to the perfect piece that will be performed. Afterwards, they hope to find a corner of the Hall of Worlds for him and his fellows to talk with the Grandmaster and those she wishes to involve in the discussion. The herald would welcome the presence of the Archmage of Day if they are available - to assist with the discussions - presumably a different corner to where the eternal is in counsel with those considering the fate of Spiral and the Black Plateau.

Further Reading

• Silver Chalice
• Spiral
• Mareave
• Ylenwe