A habit I can't break
Overview
Magic fills the known world. It rides the winds, it rises with the sun and the stars, it flows in great currents through the forests and the seas and the sky. It is part of the rivers and the forests, the seas and the skies. It is studied, mastered, examined, and debated. It is mysterious, enigmatic, unpredictable, and yet follows its own strange laws. All mortals practice magic, and yet they are not the only sources of magic in the world. It comes from rattling runes, from the heavens, from the wellspring of blood, from the shapes and symbols of creation, and while it can be bidden, it cannot always be restrained. Wonder is all around, an endless wordless tune that winds and weaves around all things.
This wind of fortune rounds up a roundup of assorted strange events, some arising from mortal actions some with less explicable causes. There are several companion pieces to this wind. A friend like you deals with things relating specifically to the eternals of the six realms while Here you come again addresses the plenipotentiary messages of the archmages.
In Progress - This Wind of Fortune will be updated in the run up to the event with additional content; we'll remove this marker when the last information goes on it.
Old Scales
- The trained rakshasa resident at the Imperial Menagerie has passed away of old age
- The Keeper of the Imperial Menagerie no longer receives Winter vis or unique consumables
- Claude of Holberg has arranged for a taxidermist to preserve the body so it can be added to the Sculpture Garden
- Heralds of Skathe have asked Conclave to render the body as tribute to the Thrice Cursed Court
In 380YE, the magician-princes of eastern Principalities of Jarm presented the newly-crowned Imperatrix Lisabetta with a rare and valuable gift - a trained adult rakshasa. Housed in the Imperial Menageries in Holberg, the exotic creature has provided the Keeper of the Imperial Menagerie, Kay Griffinsbain of Dawn, with both pawns of heart's blood and the incredibly rare substance known as the Tears of the Rakshasa.
Tragic news has recently come from those responsible for tending the rakshasa; the creature has become increasingly frail over the last year or so, and shortly before the Autumn Equinox, the beast passed away in its sleep. While it had long been the star attraction, recent additions such as beasts captured in northern Sermersuaq, drakes from Mareave, and similar recent additions have long since eclipsed the rakshasa in their capacity to draw crowds. Some of the keepers feel that the creature's demise - given it was the beast for whom the menagerie was originally built - marks the end of an era.
Normally the creatures body would be disposed of by the staff at the Menagerie, but in this case there have been not one, but two legal offers to buy the creature's corpse. Claude of Holberg, the creator of the Sculpture Garden would like to acquire the remains. He plans to arrange to have the body preserved by the city's finest taxidermists. Once this beautiful new art is complete, it will be added to the garden to delight and terrify visitors. Obviously, the Rakshasa is the property of the Empire, so any funds paid to receive the remains will be added to the Imperial treasury, but adding Flocki to the Garden will increase the income available to the Financier of Holberg's Phantasmagorical Mementoes by two crowns a season.
The alternative, well, the legitimate alternative, would be for the Conclave to use a Declaration of Acceptance to grant the Thrice-cursed Court permission to take the body. The Lady of Laments is eager to obtain it - apparently rakshasa are rare, and if the civil servant who spoke with the heralds understood them properly - the Jarmish Prices don't permit the Court to take the bodies of Rakshasa. If the Conclave do allow the Hag Queen to claim this trophy, then her heralds will come to Holberg, remove it, and provide the Keeper of the Imperial Menagerie with 8 vials of heart's blood - one for every year the creature was kept in captivity.
And finally, the civil service is required to inform the Conclave that Agramant has also asked if he might take the body. Apparently he offers to "place a terrible spirit of winter in Floki's corpse and have it run amok in the Salt Flats eating Druj - or wherever the Empire would like". If the Conclave have completely taken leave of their senses, then they can agree to this offer with a Declaration of Acceptance. It would, of course, be completely illegal to do so while Agramant remains under enmity, and everyone involved would inevitably end up under investigation by the magistrates.
The body will be given to Claude, to preserve its legacy for the Empire, unless the Conclave choose to accept the other offer, in which case that will take precedence.
City of Wonder
- The hakima have sent a magnitude 80 arcane projection of Night to be performed at Anvil
- The arcane projection, Dust, Glass and Flame will be with the egregore host Azuza i Riqueza
- If the Brass Coast can perform the ritual, then the effects will begin after the Autumn Equinox
- If the Coast can't perform the ritual the benefits will begin after the Winter Solstice
The City of Wonders is almost complete. The torches of the Burning Agora are ready to be lit, to shine a light on the passionate exchange of ideas. The Brazen Propylaeum needs just a few more finishing touches: exuberant and stunning paint to inspire the adventurers. The first Market of a Thousand Sails is starting to see stalls being set up, and interested buyers are already looking out for a good deal.
But the Fountain of Wonders remains dry. The arcane projection is ready, but everyone has been caught out by the speed of the construction. The swiftness with which the Brass Coast has achieved the impossible has taken everyone by surprise. While that is wonderful, there is a drawback. The hakima thought they had another three months to get all the magicians in place that they would need to perform the ritual. They have the materials - but to cast such a powerful ritual would need the support of hakima from all over the coast. They were making plans to perform the ritual at the start of the Winter Solstice, not the end of the Autumn Equinox!
Everything else is ready; the mana crystals have all been acquired, the ilium is placed in the Fountain of Wonders, all that remains is for the ritual to be cast. The hakima don't want to be responsible for the delay of the City of Wonders, so they have sent the arcane projection and the magical supplies needed to perform it to Anvil with Azuza i Riqeuza. The hope is that the Freeborn covens might be able to find a way to perform the ritual at the summit?
If the Brass Coast can cast the powerful ritual, then they will gain the benefits in the coming season, such as they are, if not, there will be a season's delay while the hakima of Anduz get enough magicians together to perform the magic.
The Last Encore
- The magical song that has been echoing across the Empire is finally coming to an end
One year ago, the eternal Lashonar offered a chance to cast an arcane projection in Brocéliande. That projection, called An Ode To Blood And Sacrifice, caused a song to resonate throughout the whole territory. Yet its effects did not stop there, and before long the song Painted was being carried all along the trods, repeating over and over in people's dreams. It continued throughout spring and summer, and echoes of it can still be heard as the Autumn Equinox draws near. Yet nothing lasts forever, especially not from the mercurial realm of Night, and as the seasons turn it becomes clear that the performance is finally coming to an end. Some few can still hear faint echoes of the song, but all is over.
There is some talk in the wayhouses of Navarr about what the whole saga meant. Most point to the judgement of Nathair Autumngale - where Navarr go, music follows. Others speak of the impending final battle against the vallorn, and the importance of the oaths that bind their nation together. A third group, no less vocal, question whether the music needs to have any meaning at all. Surely there is room in the Empire, they say, for things to be beautiful on their own account. Not every story needs to have a moral.
Rivers Red and Lively
Something has shifted slightly. It may be a consequence of the recent magical chaos - Rivers of Life and Rivers Run Red were both cast numerous times in assorted theatres during the ongoing constellation excitement and represent the most common such magic used. What seems to have happened is a little worrying. Those two rituals have always been a little odd - their effects are almost impossible to replicate with other types of magic, and the way they counter one another so specifically is not seen elsewhere.
After the Summer Solstice, it becomes clear that the laws surrounding them have changed. Rather than each ritual removing the other from a territory, they instead replace them. If Rivers of Life is cast on a territory, and that same territory has Rivers Run Red cast on it, the first ritual fails and the second takes full effect. Once one of them is in effect, it isn't possible to just remove it - only shift whether it is keeping death at bay or attracting it. This looks to be a permanent change rather than anything temporary.
Interestingly, and again there may be a constellational involvement here, it seems that the generally held belief is that there is no way to replicate Rivers of Life or Rivers Run Red with another realm of magic. The Unfettered Mind in particular are of the opinion that Winter magic can create similar effects - but that they would have the same relationship to each other and the Spring rituals. That is, if a notional Winter "Rivers of Life" were cast on a territory under one of the Spring curses, it would replace that curse, and vice versa. The theory is that the effects of the two Rivers spells (and their Winter equivalents) somehow occupy the same "space" in the magical make-up of a territory, and that "space" can only hold one ritual at a time.
This is good news for people who want to fight the vallorn, say some magicians, but bad news for people who do not want to fight under a dreadful curse that has wild potential for terrible outcomes.