Category: Part One
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Chapter Seventeen: Fog and Fire
The body births potential, yet culture’s hand shapes its destiny. Flesh and sinew grant freedom, but the lattice of tradition binds with unseen chains. Where the flesh dares to stride, the laws of man retreat in wary hesitation. – Mairad the Veiled, from The Tome of Flesh and Fate Aslavain: Twenty Days After the Summer…
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Chapter Sixteen: Final Preparations
You cannot control the bison of burden as they cross your land, but you can prevent them from making your soul their pasture. – Bal Proverb Aslavain: Seventeen Days After the Summer Solstice Hadrian moved through the chamber like a man in a trance, the fog Sylva had summoned hanging thick in the air, tinted…
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Chapter Fifteen: Rage
Bitterness is a creeping vine, tightening its hold until it strangles its host like a gallows rope. Anger, the brilliant fire, burns the vine away, freeing the branch—but at a cost. In its wake, anger leaves only scorched remains and ruin. Bitterness is a poison best avoided, for the remedy is no true cure. –…
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Chapter Fourteen: Progress
Dragonflies kill their prey in the air, devouring it on the wing. They feast on creatures too small for the world to notice, yet nuisances to those who dwell within it. Mosquitoes, macaw, and moths fall to their swift grace, a pale imitation of the dragons of old who hunted drakes, direwolves, and demons. Though…
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Chapter Thirteen: Lessons
Two eyes become six as wings unfold,Black and white—unyielding, cold.Beware the Monarch’s watchful sight;Panoptic vision of all that comes to pass,Justice reigns, and evil fades at last. Pale white wings, born of mist and flame,Glowing hot as wood decays.Fear the moth, but prize its shell,Stronger than all but spider’s silk—Treasure found in Fogflare Silk. A…
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Interlude: New Perspectives
The Blind raise a profound philosophical question about the nature of consciousness and experience. Like the Beast Kin after the second apocalypse or the insectile Brood in the far west, the Blind perceive reality through a lens utterly foreign to us. They have no eyes, yet they see—not colors, but what we must call souls,…
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Chapter Twelve: Teaching
The sheer audacity of the Sul Empire, to have ensnared existence within contract and name—a semantic web spun over centuries, millennia, truly, to do its work. By invoking the Sul name, they steal what is not theirs. They sign contracts without understanding the depths of their agreement, and in doing so, they recreate the one…
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Chapter Eleven: Oaths
The Sul Empire is shaped by twelve dominant schools of thought on justice, law, and social order. Each school enforces its own unique moral code. Officially, the empire claims these schools are equal in power, but in practice, four of them hold disproportionate influence: the Virtuists of the Bal clans, emphasizing proper action; the Consequentialists…
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Chapter Ten: Realizations
Out of the abyss,From the earth’s strangling maw,We claw forth, the unseen brood,Bound by blood to the Heart’s insatiable call. Out of the mire,From the swamp’s foul breath,We arise, the shadowed swarm,Thralls to the Heart’s hunger, lurking beneath. Out of the deep,From the marsh’s buried womb,We gather, the ravenous kin,In grim exaltation, to the Heart’s…
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Chapter Nine: Musings
In the depths where the silent tides roam,Through the echoes of darkness they comb,Only shadows prevail,In the ocean’s deep veil,Where the spirits have made it their home. Midnight currents weave tales left unsaid,Stitching sorrow where memories bled,Where the specters of old,In the deep waters cold,Tell of dreams in the dark they have wed. Beneath waves…
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Interlude: Aslavain
The snake in the jeweler’s box slithers no more. – Dion Proverb Aslavain: Seven Days After the Summer Solstice Emilia was jolted from sleep by a suffocating grip of fear, her skin slick with the remnants of a nightmare that clung to her like a shroud. Twisted specters writhed in the gloom of her subconscious,…
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Chapter Eight: The Rage
In rolling rocky hills they dwell, the Tul with eyes of flame,Amidst the stones and jagged cliffs, their dark desires inflame.They feast on memories’ tender threads, each thought they do reclaim,And twisted beasts roam by their side, sharing in their shame. These beasts of warped and wicked form, with Tul they haunt the night,Their hunger…
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Chapter Seven: The Eidolons
From Grasping Coil, in fifth age’s tender light,The Sunborn voyaged, armed with spells of might.To Sabkhata, they crossed the sands afar,Their pyromancy soared, a blazing star. In golden halls, Eternal City gleamed,Where Radiant Flame, in endless splendor, beamed.Their fiery arts, a dance of heat and fire,Wove through the empire, lifting spirits higher. With spells unique,…
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Chapter Six: The Trial
At the break of dawn, as golden light spills over the plains, the bison stirs, muscles tensing as it senses the call to stay one step ahead of the hunter. Somewhere nearby, the wolf stretches and prowls, hunger sharpening its every move, knowing that without the chase, the day ends empty. Each morning, whether built…
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Interlude: A Triumvirate Reunited
Casselia awoke with a gasp, hacking up water as she broke the surface. Memories of her last death surged—stabbed by an [Assassin] sent by the [Procurator] again. The pain had been searing, a betrayal that burned deeply. Coughing violently, she struggled to her feet. How many times must I endure this? She scowled, already plotting…
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Chapter Five: Forest of Thorns
Before the Dion Civil War, and the Beast Wars, the Sul Empire lay divided between the Dion lords of the east and the Malan lords of the north. In the thousand years since, the Malan lands have endured largely unchanged, a stark contrast to the east, where Dion dominion fractured under the weight of growing…
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Chapter Four: Convergence
As Sylva entered the Room of Threefold Oaths, she took a moment to compose herself. The room was unchanged since her conversation with the Queen of Silk, except for two men seated at the table, looking startled by their sudden appearance.
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Chapter Three: Immortal Moments
Lotem felt the shift, the flash of golden light, and the familiar wrenching sensation in his gut. His mind raced with thoughts of the impending meeting. Would Sylvine be as imposing as a storm over the plains? Would she sense his hidden companion? He swallowed hard, trying to calm the storm brewing within. This encounter…
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Chapter Two: Contracts
Sylva felt the shift take her, and in a blink, a flash of golden light, she found herself free from the confines of the sect she had called home. She took a deep breath, savoring the clean air, free from the overpowering incense of the sect. For the first time, she felt truly alive, her…
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Chapter One: Rites of Passage
In the empire’s heart, where destinies entwine: Malan’s ambition, Dion’s dark design, Kiel’s wisdom deep, where fog-land giants stand, Bal’s nomadic soul, roaming ancient land. Bound by history, yet each path uniquely sown, Together they forge an empire of their own. In competition, innovation, and unity they thrive, Under twin moons, their stories come alive.
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Prologue: Across the Diontel
In Tul’s jaws, memories rend, Flesh and mind, they both descend. Lovers’ faces, names consumed. Tul feast and Tul subsume.
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Part One: Beginnings
“A great beginning often lies not in grand gestures or eloquent speeches, but in quiet resolve—in the first step away from the past, in the choice to do better, to live differently, and to embrace a new path.” – Inscription carved into the archway that permits entrance to the Sul Empires the House of Lords
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