To The Corvi

Lady Lois,

There was a theft, a break-in at the record vault in Stonefall; they stole some amount of pages of ancient Agauran scripture and a smattering of census reports, though the latter may have been an attempt to scrape what they could before the Blackguard came through. We are not dealing with amateurs. No, my assumption is they are well-studied and aim to follow old footsteps with a new direction.

Needless to say, our Fates are tied together. Strange bedfellows, indeed.


~Nalick DeMarche

First, let me express my utter displeasure with anyone stealing from my land. You can do a lot of things to me and to people I care about, but once you touch our books and paperwork, I have no choice but to destroy you and everything you stand for.

Anyway, putting threats of murder aside for the moment, here is what I know from my own personal form of research. Whatever power that is in play here is not quite Aguara. Similar but not the same. The place that Travancians ended up is somewhere in between Travance and somewhere that is not quite Eodra. Again, similar but not the same. The two planes? places? are intersecting at times; and those intersections are happening more and more often.

Hope this helps.

I might have a hypothesis about the interconnection of planes, but nothing concrete. In my studies of old planar magics, there used to be a sort of, planar rotation around elemental planes, where one plane was closer to the prime material, and thus had a slightly greater influence. Usually it would be tied in a similar sense to the seasons, but work on this phenomenon was very little. It's quest possible that whoever was creating this form of pseudo plane on Arawyn, was using planar rotation in either the remnants of the old Aguarran plan from when they were all separated, or the rotation of the combined Eodra to create what we've seen.

Like I've said, this is merely a hypothesis that I will need to research deeper into and test in order to test its validity.

Aleister (Aleister) wrote: If I may be so bold,

These people revel in pain and suffering. It grants them their power, no? I would consider a steady hand in this matter. If it is your pain and anguish they seek, do not give it to them. Instead, show them indifference when you dismantle their machinations. Show them that they cut stone and not flesh.
Give not to the beast the blood of which it seeks.

__________________

((NOT ANGELIANA))

Can nay believe D about t'agree w'th'mind fucker spineless puss sammich o'er here but he be right.

It struck a cord aye? This here be how D took incentive away fr'her captors a lifetime ago. Years o'torment ago. IF ye can stop showin' yer enemy th'reaction they be wantin' from ye? Their purpose fer their actions be destroyed aye? Mind fuck puss elf be correct. Let'em cut into stone, nay yer flesh, smile, like D does, when they be strikin' ye with their daggers. NAY, it nay easy. But, aye, it works.

Praise her an'th'chains D was born into, this here be how. SO learn from it fellow Corvi. It be a great lesson. Breathe in tha'wonderful pain, revel in it, and vanquish yer foes without slowin' down.

Pain, Anguish, Rage, Blood, GLORY. Praise be.

Nay D ain't helpin. Fuck land. Trident be sailin' gloriously again.

~ D

Oh, I'll smile alright. I'll smile as my blade removes their head from their neck.

Some further information, as promised:

The original Cult of Ceno is the reason Aguaran priests call themselves "Cenobites". They were a Kormyrian sect led by a person named Ceno around the time the Rift formed. Aguarans were not really known for scholastic pursuits like "writing things down", but Ceno decided to apply their Kormyrian sensibilities to the faith. They and their followers studied the philosophy and metaphysics behind the faith. Their personal end goal was to find a way to ascend to a purer form of pain and strife than a human body could contain, and become closer to/another mask of Aguara, though it had the ripple effect across the faith of bringing attention to the value of scholastic pursuits in general. To this day, those of us within the faith who have closer connection to the more cerebral aspects - priests - bear Ceno's name.

They studied, debated, and performed many experiments, and built a vast series of underground tunnels in which to hide their knowledge (and themselves - remember that at the time, openly worshiping a Dark goddess in Kormyre was punishable by death). They called this labyrinth the Red Road - yes, named after that Red Road - possibly because they wanted to use it to call forth the liminal space? It's unknown, because so much of the knowledge has been lost.

It was lost because one day Ceno believed they had hit upon the correct method and ritual to achieve their goal. The cult performed this great ritual, and then vanished entirely from Arawyn, never to be seen again. Some of their notes can still be found, in bits an pieces here and there, but I don't know if anyone has ever found the original tunnels. It's unknown whether Ceno's ritual succeeded or not; it either worked perfectly and they ascended, or it went horribly and the backlash destroyed the Cult of Ceno. Either way, nothing was ever heard from them again.

There is another piece of information you all need to know. Philosophy of battle and the Aguaran faith aside, these cultists in particular do not require seeing your pain or anguish in order to draw their power (no true Aguaran does, but that is another topic).

They dug up the body of a girl who died suffering and used the pain in her soul to do what they did.

You can't hide your pain when you're dead.

They don't need your pain. They just need pain. How many bodies do you think are buried in Travance that died suffering?