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Written By Apollo

Nov. 13, 2020, 3:53 a.m.(5/17/1014 AR)

Who shapes a soul?
Not Death alone;
For we in our reaching
stretch large as we dare.

Written By Victus

Nov. 13, 2020, 1:32 a.m.(5/17/1014 AR)

Relationship Note on Orazio

There is not much for me to say. He and I did not enjoy each other’s company so much as tolerate it.

He deserved better than this. He deserved to live long and find a peaceful end.

May those behind this assassination die swiftly. It is more than they deserve.

Written By Cambria

Nov. 12, 2020, 11:57 p.m.(5/17/1014 AR)

Regret has a flavor and it is stale, and all the cups of wine in the world do nothing to wash it away.

Written By Zyanya

Nov. 12, 2020, 11:02 p.m.(5/16/1014 AR)

In the water garden
the roots spread wide
through shadow and silt
without soil's restraint.

So too in bloody pools
to reap darker blooms.

Written By Zyanya

Nov. 12, 2020, 9:35 p.m.(5/16/1014 AR)

Relationship Note on Valdemar

You are mistaken, Duke Grimhall, and speak from assumption rather than knowledge. An example of why you are wrong: I bore the writs of an Imperial citizen for thirty years, but when petition was made for me to leave Jadairal and come here to learn Arvum, those writs were lifted without argument when we asked. We maintain as much free will there as people do here, under your oaths and the restrictions which come from birth and station.

As well, Skald has been worshiped in Jadairal, in Weijin, since before you were a Compact. Skald and all of the gods. The Empire is faithful to the Pantheon.

My invitation was not made to you but to those born without your many advantages. I hope they hear it. But also I hope if you wish to learn more, you ask the emissaries here for permission to visit and see for yourself. To properly learn and do away with your assumptions.

Written By Hamish

Nov. 12, 2020, 8:07 p.m.(5/16/1014 AR)

We have lost a seraph.

We have lost a bulwark of justice.

We have lost a shield of the faith.

We have lost one closest to the gods.

Dominus Orazio was a great man. I knew him far less than many and I grieve for moments denied just as I grieve for what we have lost.

Remember your friends and your family, all of those that you love and that love you. War is coming. War is here. We will not all live to see the other side of it.

Written By Nina

Nov. 12, 2020, 7:50 p.m.(5/16/1014 AR)

Relationship Note on Niklas

Prince Niklas reminded me that the Ironwool is actually a Crownlands invention! That was my mistake. Sorry, Crownlanders!

I wonder why I associated it with Oathlanders. No, I know why, though... because it's armored and it's rather stiff.

Written By Gwenna

Nov. 12, 2020, 7:16 p.m.(5/16/1014 AR)

Relationship Note on Orazio

When I was new to the city of Arx, and had been a Voice for the House only a few months, I had requested to speak with then-Father Orazio, Legate of Concepts, Shield of the Faith, about a marriage contract. He graciously invited me to brunch with him to review the matter. The contract was the first one I had ever helped oversee, and while the language is often rather predictable with such, I hoped for his wisdom, insight, and hopeful blessing. The betrothal was a love-match, and I suspect to this day that His Grace sent me into the mouth of the proverbial lion's den knowing full well how /that/ would go over. Which, as I half-expected, it did not.

What was wonderful was that we discussed it and while we both had different views, he didn't make me feel like the stance was patently wrong or misguided. He was someone that I believe often told people not what they wanted to hear, but what they needed to hear. I left that meeting feeling like he felt I had promise, and if I kept growing and learning, I might have a bright future in Arx. I never told him how hopeful that made me feel that day, and how it eased my worries about being a good Voice for House Redrain a little bit. We never really crossed paths again after that, beyond Assemblies or other meetings of the sort, and I always meant to reach out again to speak - but time has a way of slipping through our fingers when we think we have all the time in the world.

I regret very much that I never thanked him for his kindness and conversation, or told him how it impacted me. I will hold fast to the memory of a quiet morning and lively discussion, and of tea and brunch with the man who surely changed no few lives during his own.

I mourn his loss, and I mourn for those who were lost fighting against these terrible attacks against Faith, House, and Compact. Though, too, I am grateful that many, my dear friends among them, escaped with their lives.

Written By Medeia

Nov. 12, 2020, 6:16 p.m.(5/16/1014 AR)

(The handwriting is shaky, and in a few places the ink runs after having gotten wet - likely from tears, but the document remains able to be deciphered. A note attached to it indicates the page was delivered by Fortescue Antoni, an assistant to the writer.)

Yesterday was the kind of day I might have mused about to my uncle, those days where you can see the gods at work, and he would have listened patiently as I feebly worked my way toward some understanding - minor though it might be. Within just hours, I went from planning for the city's precious beginnings to being faced with dire endings. He would have understood, I think, all the complex feelings I have about the two together and having been the Harlequin who said his prayer.

I was reminded today to look to the living. And so I'd like to extend my sincerest thanks to Marquessa Reigna for running to the Queensrest with me and bandaging those we could in the streets, Princess Reese for standing watch over us, Samira for making sure I got home somehow, my Baroness-Regent Lucita for staying the night with me. To those who have sent notes of condolence, who have offered help, who have attempted to visit but been turned away - and the one who was let in. To those who fought across the city and those that took on the solemn duty of tending the injuries. To everyone who stands for the Compact.

Someone, someday soon, will remove Ivan Helianthus's head from his shoulders. Whoever you are, may the gods guide and bless you.

Written By Mirari

Nov. 12, 2020, 4:39 p.m.(5/16/1014 AR)

Relationship Note on Kima

I miss you so much, Lady K. I'm sorry I-- I'm sorry for everything.

Written By Mirari

Nov. 12, 2020, 4:38 p.m.(5/16/1014 AR)

Relationship Note on Orazio

I can't say I ever knew you all that way. Despite my once serving Kima Saik. All I remember, honestly, is that time you were speaking with Nekarris near the time of Silence. I remember the way you coolly shut down Costas-- a feat few were able to do.

I'm sorry I never really got to know you.

Written By Raymesin

Nov. 12, 2020, 4:32 p.m.(5/16/1014 AR)

Relationship Note on Orazio

I never knew Dominus Orazio, Scholar. Never met him, so far as I know. But I know what sort of man he was by those who mourn.

Written By Sabella

Nov. 12, 2020, 4:28 p.m.(5/16/1014 AR)

I was there at the Cathedral, one of the first to gather when I heard there were heretics denouncing the Faith and saw the smoke billowing from within. I saw the first two Templars to be slain on the steps and watched as everything devolved into fights within the crowd that had gathered. I saw incredible feats of bravery from those citizens of Arx that had come to ensure that we would not be terrorized in our own streets.

And I saw the Gods themselves answer prayers to help in the fight by sending rain to quench the flames. They crushed the heretics that had retreated into the Cathedral they tried to destroy.

They are with us.

It is so important for us to not give up hope in moments like these when grief can be overwhelming. What I saw last night was terrifying in the moment, but I also was able to return home without a scratch because the people of Arx, the people of the Compact rallied together to defeat the threat we faced. Many had swords, others buckets, some only their voices, but we all stood in opposition and fought for the Faith and the Gods. Regardless of family or house or affiliation to one of the many groups in Arvum we all stood as one.

The Cathedral walls still stand and I have no doubt that the restoration of the inner sanctum will be absolutely glorious--a testament to how much the people of Arvum love and cherish our gods and each other.

Those who have fallen will never be forgotten. Let their memories inspire us to be our best for what comes next.

Written By Belladonna

Nov. 12, 2020, 4:24 p.m.(5/16/1014 AR)

Relationship Note on Orazio

A great individual leaves behind a lasting legacy that will be remembered for as long as the Compact stands, with none capable of appropriately filling the void left by his grace. Maybe that is what greatness means: to punch a hole in the world you leave, one that makes successors feel lacking by comparison and days seem just a little darker with your absence. The Dominus succeeded in both.

Written By Valdemar

Nov. 12, 2020, 3:19 p.m.(5/16/1014 AR)

Relationship Note on Zyanya

It is odd, after your spiel about Jadairal, to hear you invoke Skald's name. Jadairal, where writs are forced upon people. Whatever the excuse, whatever benefit they claim you will get for it, that is a removal of free will. Those you're extending this invitation to may find it a worthwhile cost, and if they were the only ones to pay that price, I wouldn't be writing this. But their children will pay it too. And their children's children. And generations of their family to come after that, born without the same choice that they got to make for themselves.

Written By Sydney

Nov. 12, 2020, 2:54 p.m.(5/16/1014 AR)

< There is nothing but a furious stroke of ink slashed across the page as though produced with four fingers dragged across the page rather than any writing tool. Below it, there is simply the date. Penned neatly and primly underneath of it. >

5.14.1014 AR

Written By Neve

Nov. 12, 2020, 2:49 p.m.(5/16/1014 AR)

I killed a man today. It's the first time I've actually killed a man. It happened by my hand. Well, my arrow actually, which my hand put in place and the bow, the fine Ida-made Greenwood bow, that's actually what killed him.

I didn't kill the man I intended. I shot, and it went by him. And it struck an even eviler man doing even eviler things behind him right in the eye. So..I kind of killed the wrong man, not the one I was aiming at - but I killed this man by sort-of accident in a good way? I think?

I don't know the name of the man I killed. I'll probably never know it. We don't know what to call him when it comes time to remove his body from it's place. How are people..able to kill other people when they don't even know their names? Does it bother them? Sure, even if they are evil men (and women) and put to sword, or arrow, or frying pan, or whatever have you. Does it weigh on them that they killed a person, even a bad person that would do ill will, that they ended another person of whom they don't even know of? That is the end of their story in this world. Do they have loved ones at home that will never be told of what happened? Considering the actions..maybe that is for the best.

Written By Tanith

Nov. 12, 2020, 2:01 p.m.(5/16/1014 AR)

Harlequins try to be there at the end, deal with what's left, minister to who's left. It's a strange journey for me, being around so many 'beginnings'. I wonder what it will be like if I out live them all, and hold the hands of people I helped bring into this world, me feeble and white-haired and them no better. Time equalizes us all, yeah?

I saw a girl I delivered of her mother when I was 17, helping a midwife who was handling twin mothers birthing at the same time. That baby is 15 now, taller than me, long limbs and a big grin and I see her helping her family at the docks. Nearly grown as teenagers seem to look. I don't think I'll have kids of my own to mark the time like that, watching a person go from babe to child to adulthood, but it happens to me just the same. One day, I'll be 75 and she'll be 60. 95 and 80. If I'm lucky. And then we'd be old together and-

...fuck, scholar. Sorry. There's something in my eye.

Written By Zoey

Nov. 12, 2020, 1:02 p.m.(5/16/1014 AR)

I have had a number of people ask what happened last night at Kennex Kay during the riot in Crimson Square and while the Cathedral burned. I write this for them, as well as those in the future who may study accounts of that day. Hopefully as I dictate this my head will stay clear enough to accurately describe how events unfolded.

My home was attacked.

They came with hammers, smashing a hole in the wall, pouring in by the dozens chanting "Death to Kennex!" They came with fire, and they came with steel, threatening to kill every soul they encountered here and burn everything to the ground.

I took up my bow and stationed myself on the landing overlooking our great hall while Lord Ian joined the fray below. Once Lord Wash had seen to it that the children and their nannies were safely barricaded away he joined me on the stairs. The battle raged on, furnishings catching fire as blades clashed and arrows rained down. Count Dominico Magnotta, one of my proteges, followed the invaders in and joined my husband in cutting them down and driving them back.

As you might have guessed we were successful, but the price was high. Among the bodies of the traitors were many of our own soldiers and members of our household staff, many of them ex-thralls freed by House Kennex. They will be mourned, and we will seek justice for them as well.

I also took an arrow to the chest that by some miracle did not pierce my lung or my heart, though I suspect I will be laid up in bed for some time. For a moment I thought the Queen of Endings would receive me then, but Lord Wash and Count Domonico saw to me until Lady Juliana arrived, and another of my proteges, Mitress Raja Culler, comforted me while the arrows were removed and my wounds tended.

What matters most is House Kennex still stands. Our family and our duchy will endure.

Written By Tyrus

Nov. 12, 2020, 12:41 p.m.(5/16/1014 AR)

The children are safe. At least this storm didn't take any of them away.

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