National Spirit

Act One: A War for Two Thrones



Chapter 1: Instantiation

Written by @Blazinghand and edited by @swwu



Siwen I​ Siwen I​

Dark clouds pressed slowly across a red-streaked sky, a sky stained dark as the blood of a thousand dying soldiers. However weak the wind was at ground level, the puffs of aerated water (or so the Magisters said; who knew the true contents of the heavens?) pressed forwards before the gale, as though fleeing some unseen pursuer.she thought.She had always known the results of this clash. When battle had been joined as the last of her men-at-arms, knights, and levies did battle against the enemy, she knew. When she left the walls of her city with the last of her loyal soldiers, that she might spare the citizens a slaughter within its gates, she knew. When her Arch-Magister, Danush, had come before her with his readings of the enemy’s strength, she knew. When reports of the main army’s rout at the fortress city Herat arrived three months previous, she knew. And when she first learned that Queen Leila had crowned herself Monarch-Empress, she knew.She knew! Queen Siwen was destined to die as soon as the ink dried on the paper naming her cousin, Queen Leila Roshandade, theruler of Argonath, the unary despot whose word was law and and whose power was absolute. For hundreds of years, Argonath had been ruled by two diarchs, each sharing in power. For hundreds of years, by custom and by quirk of politics and necessity, the diarchy had passed matrilineally. And for hundreds of years, internally at least, Argonath had known peace. Things might have gone one this way forever, had Siwen’s uncle, in his foolishness, not married a high priestess of the Matron. All that had been broken, broken by foolishness and ambition in equal measure.Siwen’s dynasty, the Solanzins, were descended from a branch of the family of the last true Aveirian Emperor, forced into exile as the Empire crumbled. Through political happenstance, they came to share power in Argonath with an equally powerful group of exiles: The Reformed Aveirian Church. The Church was the last bastion of the true faith, now that the Empire had fallen. Together, a queen nominated by the church and a Solanzin Queen ruled, sharing power and influence, carefully carving out their roles in ruling the realm on the twin thrones in Zastan.By the laws of the realm, Queen Leila had no real claim on Queen Siwen’s throne. The laws are a flexible thing, though, and Argonath was plagued by an ever-present movement for a reorganization into a cognatic system of inheritance. Under such a system, Leila would have the superior claim, since Uncle Mayun was older than Siwen's mother, Furuz. But by enatic law, when Queen Yasmana died, the crown should have passed to the eldest daughter. And though Princess Furuz was dead,eldest daughter, Siwen, was alive, and the rightful heir. She was only 17, and already at war. She could earn her crown, her generals told her. It was rightfully hers, she thought; and the latter’s truth has no bearing on the former.Queen Siwen, who was Queen for only fifteen months, looked down from the blood-stained sky, and with a word, silenced her generals: old Hoshfarn, who was always prideful and arrogant; fat Kurush, who thought that cleverness alone might win the day; dark Ioseph, beautiful Ioseph, who lacked the convictions for his words; and the furtive Esfand, her platitudes like stale wind in becalmed sails. Despite their quarrels, they knew it too. Brave Barxu fell in the press as the clash began; Mano’s flank collapsed when a stray arrow struck her down. Soon, this collapse would become a rout, and more would die, Siwen and her generals with them.“Tell me,” Siwen said, her young voice hardened by smoke and death and shouting, “if there truly is nothing left to do, why take hope? What could possibly change the outcome of this battle, that we have not tried? Are we too stupid to see what is in front of us?”Hoshfarn physically drew himself back, recoiling from the harsh words. “I think--”“No,” interrupted Siwen. “No, you really don’t, do you?. This is done. This battle, this war, all of it is futile. Thousands, tens of thousands of soldiers and knights have died for my claim on the throne, for my righteous claim on one of Zastan’s twin thrones. Now my cousin holds the capital. Soon, her armies will sweep over this city, and she’ll find Felipe and maybe even my infant daughter Ahu, if my plans fail.”The command tent was silent.“For every sword or banner raised for my cause, that damned false queen found five for hers. For every righteous lord who knew the law, there were five zealots who would never think to go against the Church. This was the only possible outcome. Even with the power of all the Guilds behind me, it might not have been easy. With only three of them, we never had a chance.”Ioseph opened his beautiful mouth, but no sound emerged. There was nothing left to say.“None of you have anything you might suggest?” Siwen’s words were bitter in her mouth, and the silence that followed was bitter twice over.When the silence was broken, it wasn’t a general who spoke, but the Arch-Magister, Danush. Her great-uncle had stood by her, despite being great-uncle to both her and Leila. At every move, he had advised peace, at every moment, conciliation. Still, when war was inevitable, he had sided with her, pointing out that without enforcement of a rightful claim there would be no way to preserve the diarchy that had ensured stability for hundreds of years. His ancient skin was wrinkled like a prune, his hair a white shock against his dark cowl. One might expect him to die at any moment, were it not for his immense stubbornness.“There is one thing, Your Grace,” he said. “It is said, in ancient texts, passed down and carefully preserved from one Magister to an--”“Oh, come on, out with it, Danush,” Siwen snapped.“Oh!” He looked surprised, then quickly continued, “it is said that certain legal pronouncements in a time of duress would bring a magically-stored spell to hand. It would be a spell of bound energy, released with direction and strength: a spell capable of empowering humans or wreaking great vengeance on our enemies. Entire battlefields might be turned to ash, it is said.”Kurush’s fist pounded down on the table. “Well shit, old man, why didn’t you mention we had something like this earlier? A weapon like that, and we might have saved many lives. A weapon like that, and we could still sit Queen Siwen on her rightful throne!”“It’s not so simple, I’m afraid,” said Danush, drawing a sheet from his case. “Although the magic required is minimal, the particulars of the legal pronouncement have never actually matched our situation. It was made in the days of the old Empire, you see…”“Give that here,” said Siwen, and he did.Unfurling the parchment, Siwen laid bare the words and mechanism of the spell, and found it somehow required not catalyst or engine. In fact, the “spell” didn’t require magic at all. No channeling, no collection of distant stones, no connection to leylines and certainly no mages. No, this wasn’t a description of a spell. This was a description of aand a set of circumstances under which a particular set of legal minutiae would apply. The document precisely outlined national boundaries, descriptions of government services, laws setting down the rights of nobles and peasants and… grain exchange and repurchase rates?“What on earth is this?” asked Siwen, holding out the parchment.Danush sighed. “Under certain legal conditions, it is thought this energy spirit would be able to take action. Historically, several emperors and even a queen of Argonath used the invocation. For reasons unknown, the spirit never appeared. I figured it for a potential final attempt, when all hope was lost.”“All hope lost, you say?” Siwen laughed hollowly. “Fine, let’s make this proclamation. We’ve nothing else left to us; we may as well shed our dignity before our lives.”--Countless centuries passed and you lay, gathering energy. Each time a call rang through the darkness for you, you were unable to answer it, lacking the energy to instantiate yourself. You contemplated nothing, and the passage of time was meaningless to you, an energy spirit formed purely of magic and will. Impressed on your mind directly was a desire to make the Empire great, to protect her citizens, to nurture her civil society, and to bring her glory at home and abroad. Shaped into the very core of your being was a will, a drive, a need to help the empire. When the last Emperor called out for you, you strained against your bonds, but still your energy was too weak; you could not respond as the walls fell and Aveir was taken by the filthy barbarians.Your precious empire was conquered and destroyed. Infrastructure that took generations to build was demolished. Halls of learning and great libraries were burned. The colosseum of Taranus was shattered. Your people died by the, in the streets and the fields, in battle and in beds, and society itself collapsed. Where once the Aveirian gods were worshipped, now filthy barbarian gods reigned. Where once the folk spoke Aveirian and followed Aveirian ways, they now spoke in the grunting noises of filthy barbarian tongues. Where once wise governors of the Aveirian Empire carefully shepherded their territories, now barbarian kings made war and brought ruin on their filthy barbarian peasants. The world had become disgusting, and your heart ached at the loss of all the great things the Aveirian Empire once spread.As the decades passed, and the influence of the Empire receded, you saw less and less of the world. Unless a place was legally and effectively part of the Empire, you could see little of it. And, for hundreds of years, no place was both. It was to your great surprise to gain vision of Argonath again, to be able to perceive this outpost of Aveirian civilization. Their worship of the Aveirian gods was different--the pantheon reformed to deal with political concerns--but they were certainly a successor state to the Empire. Civil war raged across the realm, with a monarchist theocrat attempting to take complete control from her co-Queen. That co-Queen, Queen Siwen, was actually the reason you were able to see the realm. In her command tent, she was going through an ancient legal ritual that would grant you the right to exist, and for the first time in hundreds of years, you felt hope.Magic flowed through you, creating first a container, then a set of legal restrictions, then channels for your energy. At last, you gained a full instantiation of your mind and a complete conception of the government in operation, as well as general knowledge of Argonath. In a blast of magic and knowledge, you instantiated, bringing great magic with you! Your powers blazed across your mind, and you immediately had an intuitive understanding of what you could do, both directly and indirectly. As you reached for your power, you found most of it curiously blocked off. Some part of your essence, operating under programming outside of your control or knowledge, locked away most of your energy. Still, some was available to you immediately, and you seized it, drawing it into your mind to catalog it.Looking around, you found you had perfect vision within the seat of the government, a command tent in the the Farrah region of western Argonath, outside the city of Dehnak. In the command tent were Queen Siwen, Arch-Magister Danush, Generals Hoshfarn, Kurush, Iospeh, and Esfand; and several clerks. All the humans in the tent were staring at the visible manifestation of your form, and you could tell that Queen Siwen had already gained the benefits of Prophecy, derived from your own power. Though your words would be incomprehensible to most, she would be able to understand what you say, and her connection with magic, both yours and that of the world, was enhanced.The Queen, one of the two rightful rulers of the realm, gaped openly at you. “Did… did that just work?”--Your mind is already elsewhere, taking in what you know about the battle. Only about 4,000 of Queen Siwen’s army is still on the field, with the remnants either dead or routed. Of those 4,000, about half are outnumbered or surrounded. Only the reserve force of 2,000 around the Queen’s encampment remain completely intact. Empress Leila’s army comprises 12,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry, mostly in the process of running down and killing fleeing Solanzin soldiers. Queen Siwen probably has less than 20 minutes before her command tent is overrun.Your instantiation created you with respect for the current laws, both in effect and in legality, that govern Argonath. You recognize Argonath as the successor to the Aveirian Empire, and though its laws have diverged from what once was, you are still subject to them. Despite the ongoing succession crisis, you are in fact able to operate anywhere within Argonath’s legal borders under friendly control. Outside of Argonath’s legal borders, any magic you do personally will have no effect.Currently, you recognize Queen Siwen as the legal leader of Argonath, and can appear to her and communicate with her directly. With your store of magic, you can perform 4 greater miracles or a larger number of lesser miracles. Alternatively, your magic can be spent to create living saints or prophets, as outlined here . Whereas performing a greater miracle depletes a magic point for a year, creating a living saint or prophet depletes the magic point until the saint or prophet dies. The magic spent lives on inside them, granting them great powers, and so is unavailable to you.You’re starved for information and resources, and your government only controls about a third of the realm. Queen Siwen seems to have given up on her claim to a throne in Zastan, the capital. She has a sister, Jamie, and her heir is her daughter, Ahu. Jamie is in the city Dehnak, and Ahu has been sent into hiding for her protection. Without spending some time (which may be a precious resource in this battle), you don’t know where Princess Ahu is.You may need to act quickly.--20 secondsYou've woken up to a country wracked with civil war, in the company of a queen and her command staff on a battlefield. What do you do?[ ] Information is most important now. Ask Queen Siwen and her advisors about the battle, gathering information on the nature of the conflict. Use your powers to gather intel, exercising the innate scrying magic you were created with.[ ] Collaboration is most important now. Offer Queen Siwen and her advisors your aid, explaining the scope and breadth of the magic you can perform. Ask for their advice on what your next steps should be.[ ] Don’t spend time talking. Instead, immediately use your magic to:-[ ] Wipe out the attacking army, raining fire and brimstone down on them, boiling them alive and crushing them to death.-[ ] Create a living saint from a friendly soldier or officer on the battlefield.--[ ] Write in parameters[ ] Other (Write In)--A/N: And we're off! Remember, you can write in, and vote for as many as you'd like. Don't forget to check out the new document,, here: (link) . Also, feel free to ask questions in thread, and @swwu and I will answer them.Voting is open for 85 hours and will end at 5 pm on Friday July 15th.