"That you cannot see a thing,
Does not mean it is not there.
He to the World Hope can bring,
Will ever banish despair."
(OPSOR, God of Hope; from "Collected Answers to Communes: working papers towards a Creed of OPSOR", a manuscript at the Temple of OPSOR on Earth)
"We may be new to Valdrea, but we too have a long tradition of service to our Gods. We shall continue to respect the laws and customs of our new home, but I believe we have our own special contribution to make to this great Empire."
(Kyarlin, Champion of SARAN; from his speech at the Inaugural Banquet of the House of Heaven)
"If you really want to use the power of Fire, you have to think aggressively."
(Inferno, Sword of FORTH, Ayekal of Fire)
"My dear friends, these coming months are an opportunity and they are a challenge. If we truly mean what we say about Good being all about helping the World, then surely it needs help today more than it ever did before."
(Ulrik-Kazan; from a sermon at the Temple of Peace on Earth)
HIEMS stirs in His Crypt. The long aestivation of the Demigod of Winter will shortly end again, for 7 Weven is the first day of Winter. And this will be a hard Winter: HIEMS can feel it in His blood, which is running especially cold. When it runs cold enough, He arises to blow the snows of Winter out of the Ice Lands and across the World; ousting AUTUMNUS into vernalation, and ruling the Elements of the weather until VER in turn comes, breathing warmth to awaken new life in the World, and heralding the approach of AESTAS.
All four Demigods of the Seasons are Chaotic, and Their changes cannot readily be predicted, but come They will, each in turn, and in His or Her own time. Sometimes the handover is smooth, and sometimes They fight for control of the Season, but the succession is inevitable as Their blood cools or warms.
This Autumn the Ayekal, following in the wake of War, have prepared the way well for the onset of Winter. It is in the nature of HIEMS to take the lives of those who are weak and ill-prepared for Him: the cold, the hungry, the sick; and to return their souls to KOROS, perhaps for a better incarnation. This Winter there will be many of them. HIEMS can feel it in His blood, and He hungers for them.
Of course, being Chaotic, the Ayekal and the Seasons do not work smoothly together. KRAK and HIEMS are old allies, opposed by VER. SITH prefers AESTAS, and is often opposed by HIEMS. FORTH works with both AESTAS and AUTUMNUS, and has an ambivalent relationship with HIEMS. But the depredations of the Ayekal have all served to prepare the way for Winter. Whether WAGREN's Destruction of ORIL has served HIEMS by weakening VER, Who served Her, remains to be seen, in about a Season's time.
Some would say that HIEMS has already woken. Winter always comes first to the Kingdom of the North, and the snows have already come to the Northern mountains. In Bjarmigen the mists of Autumn are giving way to the fogs of Winter, and the first flurries of snow were felt towards the end of Tekrim. They have not settled yet in the city, but outside in the lower-lying countryside patches remain. The Kingdom of the North will soon feel HIEMS' icy grip. Normally He does not encroach in strength much farther South than the Northern Provinces of Valdrea, but in bad years He has been known to bring snow to Kuntax and Taur Galen, and this will be a bad year; HIEMS feels it in His blood.
The World is ill-prepared for Winter. KRAK, FORTH and SITH have seen to that.
Following the death of ORIL at the beginning of Summer, the Autumn harvest failed worldwide. War, and the destruction that followed in its wake, exacerbated the situation, and, despite the imposition of rationing and various Magical initiatives, it is clear that there will not be enough food to go round. In some of the worst-hit rural areas, people are already starving. There will be Famine this Winter.
In the war-torn areas, there will also be a lack of shelter. The Western and Northern Valdrean Empire were badly damaged by Bandit and Badlander incursions, which penetrated into the Central Provinces. The Bandits sacked Yarmena, and the Valdreans razed West Post. Whole streets have also been burned in countering the Plague. The Kingdom of the North has been assaulted by raiders all along its borders, and the small town of Kariz destroyed in a vicious battle. But all this devastation is as nothing compared to that suffered by the Bandit Kingdom, and especially in Rockholme, which has been torn by continuous strife for over a year now. The Fires may be burning down now, but they have done their work.
So far, it is the Plague that has claimed the most souls. Now believed to have originated in the Demonic and Undead attack on Fort Kostof, it was spread by unsuspecting Bandit invaders across the Western Provinces of the Empire, as far East as Yarmena, and back home to Rockholme. The Temples made vigorous efforts to cure and contain it, but during Tekrim it spread wider afield. This is believed to have been caused by Teleporting Planists, but whether as deliberate acts of terrorism, or due to carelessness and failure to heed warnings and report for Detect Spells, is not known.
By the middle of the month Plague had broken out in the Kingdom of the North, and amongst the Elves and the Dwarves. King Bjorn imposed a quarantine on Bjarmigen 13 Tekrim, and the towns of Hadal, Freld and Sveso were also quarantined. The situation was critical for about a week, but mass Curing by the Temples, and a ruthless campaign by the Town Guards of burning the dead in their homes, eventually brought the Plague under control in the North.
The Elves and Dwarves have been reluctant to pronounce on their own situations, and all sorts of wild rumours have been circul-ating of mass deaths. But Clerics returning from assisting them have reported similar successes to those in the North.
Yet all this has diverted attention away from the West, where the Plague has continued to rage beyond control. Its incubation period has been shortening all the time, and its outbreak is now practically instantaneous after infection. Whether this means it has now virtually run its course, and that it will die out with the coming of Winter, remains to be seen.
Despite such problems, in Valdran political life goes on. On 1 Tekrim the Championship Tournament of the House of Heaven was held in Valdran. An Investiture Ceremony was scheduled to take place at the new House of Heaven Arena, adjacent to the Temple of SARAN on Earth and the House of Heaven building, on the Island of the Temple of Heaven on Earth.
At dawn of the 1st a group of Men of KOROS from the House of Karma Teleported into the Gateway to Valdran. They announced their wish to join the House of Heaven, and that they included ten adventurers who wished to participate in the Tournament. The Judges confirmed their eligibility, and they were welcomed warmly by the other Men of Heaven. The Men of KOROS were led by the elf Mildor, who turned out to be the famous Loren, formerly wielder of the legendary artefact, the Sword of Justice, which he is said to have renounced on leaving the House of Karma.
The Investiture Ceremony duly began at 3 o' clock, but after only five minutes the Emperor Arril interrupted the proceedings, coming out and making an announcement that he regretted that the Ceremony was cancelled, by Order of the Emperor, for security reasons. The Championship Tournament would still take place from midday in the main Arena, on the island in the Sacred City, and the House of Heaven's oaths of loyalty to the Empire would be taken there and then, where everyone would be more secure. The day was still a public holiday, and the public Games would still be held at the Circus. Arril did not say what the threat was that had led to the cancellation of the Ceremony, but there was intensive activity by the City Guard, the security forces and Wind Walkers right across the island and around the Tournament for the rest of the day. Rumour had it that some dreadful act of terrorism had been foiled. Some said that the Beast of Valdran had returned. Others attributed it to Chaotic terrorists, of the feared Cults of Xudar, Namaja or Vozhey, or the notorious Starweb. Another story claimed that Arril's men had been caught napping, and that the culprit had only been stopped by the personal intervention of Harrek of Grinen. Of course, all such rumours are themselves the work of Chaotics.
The Tournament opened with a mass swearing of the oath of loyalty to the Empire, and the contest then began. It was a knockout contest, with the participants being seeded. The No. 1 seed, Kyarlin of the Men of SARAN, eventually took the Champion-ship of the House of Heaven, and Jafat of SHELDA, wearer of the miraculous Armour of Murio, the Second Championship. Relvon of the SARAN Combat Team Leo took the 3rd Championship, Mildor of the Men of KOROS became 4th Champion, and Andane of ESCUS 5th. There were two deaths: the trainee Persea, and Sextus of Team Leo, tragically killed by his close comrade Quintus. There was one disqualification; "Number Four" of the KOROS party, who turned out to have been an orc, but was disqualified for cheating after he had submitted in a duel.
The Tournament was followed by a celebratory banquet and ball, which went on late into the night, though for some the festiv-ities were dampened by the casualties. Food for the feast was specially Created by Clerics who had not participated in the Tournament.
The Champions of the House of Heaven now began to take their places in the Imperial power structure. The first duels for offices were fought 7 Tekrim. Kyarlin took the Command of Fort Venture, Jafat the Directorship of the Imperial Food Supply, Mildor the Lord High Executionership, and Andane the Directorship of the AMV.
With responsibility for the distribution of food within the Empire and the co-ordination of Magic-Using efforts, and with their Clerics highly placed in the Temples of Valdrea, the Men of Heaven are poised to play a leading role in the struggle to resist the depredations of HIEMS this coming season. Will their undoubted power and innovation be enough to make a crucial difference?
Players should please now submit their next plots. As the pace of world events has now slowed down somewhat, it should be possible to plot for the next season, instead of just the next month.
If VER does come on time, Winter should end 18 II 2502. Initial plots should therefore be for a period of three to four months.
How fast these will be run will depend on the level of detail in the plots.
© P.R. Wild, 3 March 1991
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