Archivist's note:
This volume overlaps many of the events in the so-called Apocryphal Journals, but it is presented here as it's own work as it was discovered in the recent remodelling of the Gorowyn offices. The octavo journal is bound in blue dyed leather, and it had been lost in a gap between the decorative redwood panel and the blackrock maple wall sheathing, presumably since the latter Age of the New Combine.
It is advised that the student of history take her offered chronology and editorial commentary with a hearty grain of salt. In all the records we have of her hand, public and private, there is every evidence of a profound sense of her own centrality to events. Like most of the bardic-trained, it does seem she was drawn into many of the pivotal events of her time, and this must have only confirmed to her that she was therefore a driver of them.
Contemporary records confirm that during the time covered by this log - which seems to have functioned as a kind of pocket memorandum book, outlining events for later reflection in memoirs - Amrunrosse did in fact seize the Praetorship, and lead the final assaults on the D'Vinnian territories in the campaign to recover the kidnapped Legate. By this time, he had been missing for several seasons, despite all efforts to track his captors, the Amicae seem to have consistently arrived after the hostages had been moved.
Despite her position of authority, Amrunrosse still did not set down dates on her observations, but the frustrated historian will be perhaps least frustrated by this fragment of her testimony, as the dates of these actions can readily be cross-referenced in the campaign reports and Council minutes.
-1-
A trying night.
What have I done? Dear gods, Ari will kill me, and it is because of that damn Yorrik and Valacor. Vithing pissing contest over Ari.
Yorrik is consumed with his infallibility, and thinks Ari possessed of some madness. Valacor decided to visit during her examination, and scared Yorrik senseless. Yorrik, of course, called in the military.
Dear gods, but Ari saw reason and Valacor did not - he refused to stand down, escalating the situation. Because he attacked the House, I tried to have all three detained. Valacor refused, and what is to be done? He will destroy us all before he surrenders, and I will not risk the House.
I have Ari and Yorrik detained, and have placed restrictions on returning her position once it is proven that the words Valacor spoke were false. This, I hope, will give me time to run the campaign against Marconis' orc alliance and retrieve Sytan.
Damnit all, but why does Ari seek to believe that he left of his own will? Damnit damnit damnit.
- 2 -
A trying week. Valacor has decided to take his leave, and Yorrik had to be pressed in to service because he is our only healer. I cannot get Ari to promise not to kill me, so I cannot release her bonds. I will have to take the risk of it anyways - it would be just...
Finding I have support among the military -and- civilian branches. I am leading by paranoid dictatorship. This is backwards. This is not Vigiles. Will have to run campaign against myself. Planning to attack one of the House as a last resort. If reason will not win, what else can be done?
Beginning collecting the crimes I am committing. I want there to be no question how deeply my actions go. Might need to draft an arrest warrant.
- 3 -
We go after the orcs.
Released Ari. She didn't kill me, though I almost wish she had. If there is anything to be bitter about at this entire situation, it is losing her friendship. I have mishandled this from the beginning. I was so sure this would be cut and dry, and it would have been understandable, but the course was chosen rashly.
I wish Valacor would have backed down. I grow to hate his name, now. I have I time to cobble together a plan to stop him, so that justice might happen.
Asked Fafnier to kill Ari during the raid. She needs time to rest and lose her memories. She is having trouble with so many now. I don't think he understands.
Valacor is still at large. I can't move against him. Damnit, we need Ari.
- 4 -
Retrieved Sytan. Many losses.
Countermanded order to kill Ari. She is recovering and coping with memories.
Can't get the council on the same landmass together, much less the same room to reinstate Ariahdnia. Considering breaking the injunctions I laid out to do it anyways.
Too many are supporting me verbally in my tyranny. It is time to move.
- 5 -
[editor's note: update from ingame book]
Showing posts with label Valacor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Valacor. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Monday, April 30, 2012
A plain, red-spined book - Apocryphal Journals: Folodu Amrunrosse
Archivist's note:
It is clear from contemporary records that Amrunrosse was fastidious about keeping her journals on her person or otherwise well secured, yet in the recent reorganization of the archive we have found loose signatures tucked among unrelated treatises on the applied arts of entropy as relates to the keeping of vegetable gardens in various climates.
Each is no more than eight pages of vellum, stitched with waxed linen thread and apparently in good condition, aside from having been at some point separated from the rest of its volume. The handwriting appears to be consistent from one entry to the next, though there are huge swaths of the work still missing.
What remains has been bound together in a probable chronology, and wrapper leaves were added around each original signature to hold such notation as is possible. The entries are undated in the original hand, but as many of the incidents are cross-referenced in the public archives, a loose chronology may be posited.
It is unclear what arrest is referred to in the opening lines of this entry, but it may be a reference to the capture of Fafnier Brangwin by the Third Brigade during a public protest a year or more prior, since in the last entry it was clear he had already been missing for some time.
This entry appears to have been composed within a season or two of the violent raid on the Freeportian luxury resort The Crimson Rose, although it does not seem from the tone of her writing that Amrunrosse was aware of the classified report on the circumstances of that event. That very ignorance would seem unusual, as by this time Amrunrosse had been raised to Vigiles-Captain rank, as head of the counterintelligence unit under the direction of the Legate Bellum - at that time, it seems the role was being filled by Vigiles-Captain Valacor Valinos under a temporary field commission, though by the date of this entry he had surrendered it to the Restored Fafnier Brangwin. Whether peaceably or no, there is no surviving record which says.
All record of Valinos serving that role in a more permanent capacity at the Founding appears to have been unknown at the time of these events, and indeed, those sealed records were lost for several centuries. It would be illuminating to the student of Vigiles history to be permitted familiarity with the surviving records of the ReFounding, but on the orders of the Praetor herself, confirmed by the High Council, that part of the Archive is to remain sealed as Classified for the next millenium, at least.
In her defence, the Order of Solace was at that time supporting some piracy in the Timorous Ocean, and contemporary records show that the Vigiles was actively supporting the overstretched Gorowyn Militia at the time. Further, there are hints in the records of several active Freeblood organizations and allies making bids for secular power, but much of the hard detail is, unfortunately, also still classified.
It is advised that the student of history take her offered chronology and editorial commentary with a hearty grain of salt. In all the records we have of her hand, public and private, there is every evidence of a profound sense of her own centrality to events. Like most of the bardic-trained, it does seem she was drawn into many of the pivotal events of her time, and this must have only confirmed to her that she was therefore a driver of them.
It has been some time since I have had time to write. Since the arrest, there has been any number of incidents, and I just know that I’m going to be facing insubordination charges.
Ah well, the life of espionage. It is what it is, and I chose to be this way.
I hear the Wolf’s Den has finally taken itself completely off the face of Norrath - a valuable source of information gone. I served many years, and never was I really satisfied - the information games I played were entirely frivolous, but they allow me to do what I do now.
There was some disturbance on the docks of Gorowyn - had it been a city issue, the Vigiles would have readily stood by our allies. As it was, it was only petty pirates, and there was nothing to be concerned about with the city. I have not yet determined the girl we arrested had anything to do with this, but I have my suspicions.
Not long after that, Xeita and Sytan were kidnapped.
We have had success with Xeita finally. She was captured and given to the custody of a dragon - it was a glorious raid, though we were delayed far too much.
Oddly, she was kept with Sytan for a time, confirming my suspicion that the kidnappings were related. She was much bruised and beaten, and I can only hope that the lack of sexual assault will be easier to bear for all of it. Her daughter, Kahya, is quite strong for all she has been through.
With her release, I finally have some headway on the issue of Sytan. Kahya is his blood, so she can be as a beacon. Ari is attached to him, and can serve much the same function - if she will cooperate.
Ari - is losing coherence, lately. I cannot say what or why, but she seems to not be quite in our time, nor quite in any single time at all. I can only hope that having Sytan back will help, but I do not know. She seems to not know him when I speak of his title, but her pain when I speak his name is very evident.
Add to that the issue of Chryso, the Erolissian priestess. The girl is cute and sweet and looks so much like her mother. Marconis has done a number to her, to create the image in her head of the woman being as pale as I. Along with many other self-effacing tendencies, there is enough there to hang Marconis up by his thumbs for at least a century.
I hope I don’t end up having to kill the girl, though. She is the progeny of one of Ari’s old soldiers, and a friend. I will be working on befriending her again. If nothing else, she is a connection to him, and has gone to Faydwer - which is where Ari is feeling drawn to.
It is the only coincidence I have.
Fafnier is returned to us. I cannot express how glad this makes me, and how far in debt it pushes me. We are importing Vlosllye stock to feed him, and the Ilharess has declined payment. Given the nature of their quality, it is more expensive than I care to consider. I must find a way to dispel this debt for the good of the house, and the good of the relationship he wishes.
I am hesitant on this note, as he asks for a full bonding. Were I other than I am, this would be very readily accepted. To be wanted - it is intoxicating, and it has been far too long since Xil has even been heard of. I feel for Faf - but with all that is happening, no decision will be reached until after we have Sytan back.
Given the rather lone work I will be doing, I will of course explore the thoughts and see how they go. Until then, I will miss him and wish him comfort. He was so adorably enthusiastic in asking...
It is clear from contemporary records that Amrunrosse was fastidious about keeping her journals on her person or otherwise well secured, yet in the recent reorganization of the archive we have found loose signatures tucked among unrelated treatises on the applied arts of entropy as relates to the keeping of vegetable gardens in various climates.
Each is no more than eight pages of vellum, stitched with waxed linen thread and apparently in good condition, aside from having been at some point separated from the rest of its volume. The handwriting appears to be consistent from one entry to the next, though there are huge swaths of the work still missing.
What remains has been bound together in a probable chronology, and wrapper leaves were added around each original signature to hold such notation as is possible. The entries are undated in the original hand, but as many of the incidents are cross-referenced in the public archives, a loose chronology may be posited.
It is unclear what arrest is referred to in the opening lines of this entry, but it may be a reference to the capture of Fafnier Brangwin by the Third Brigade during a public protest a year or more prior, since in the last entry it was clear he had already been missing for some time.
This entry appears to have been composed within a season or two of the violent raid on the Freeportian luxury resort The Crimson Rose, although it does not seem from the tone of her writing that Amrunrosse was aware of the classified report on the circumstances of that event. That very ignorance would seem unusual, as by this time Amrunrosse had been raised to Vigiles-Captain rank, as head of the counterintelligence unit under the direction of the Legate Bellum - at that time, it seems the role was being filled by Vigiles-Captain Valacor Valinos under a temporary field commission, though by the date of this entry he had surrendered it to the Restored Fafnier Brangwin. Whether peaceably or no, there is no surviving record which says.
All record of Valinos serving that role in a more permanent capacity at the Founding appears to have been unknown at the time of these events, and indeed, those sealed records were lost for several centuries. It would be illuminating to the student of Vigiles history to be permitted familiarity with the surviving records of the ReFounding, but on the orders of the Praetor herself, confirmed by the High Council, that part of the Archive is to remain sealed as Classified for the next millenium, at least.
In her defence, the Order of Solace was at that time supporting some piracy in the Timorous Ocean, and contemporary records show that the Vigiles was actively supporting the overstretched Gorowyn Militia at the time. Further, there are hints in the records of several active Freeblood organizations and allies making bids for secular power, but much of the hard detail is, unfortunately, also still classified.
It is advised that the student of history take her offered chronology and editorial commentary with a hearty grain of salt. In all the records we have of her hand, public and private, there is every evidence of a profound sense of her own centrality to events. Like most of the bardic-trained, it does seem she was drawn into many of the pivotal events of her time, and this must have only confirmed to her that she was therefore a driver of them.
It has been some time since I have had time to write. Since the arrest, there has been any number of incidents, and I just know that I’m going to be facing insubordination charges.
Ah well, the life of espionage. It is what it is, and I chose to be this way.
I hear the Wolf’s Den has finally taken itself completely off the face of Norrath - a valuable source of information gone. I served many years, and never was I really satisfied - the information games I played were entirely frivolous, but they allow me to do what I do now.
There was some disturbance on the docks of Gorowyn - had it been a city issue, the Vigiles would have readily stood by our allies. As it was, it was only petty pirates, and there was nothing to be concerned about with the city. I have not yet determined the girl we arrested had anything to do with this, but I have my suspicions.
Not long after that, Xeita and Sytan were kidnapped.
We have had success with Xeita finally. She was captured and given to the custody of a dragon - it was a glorious raid, though we were delayed far too much.
Oddly, she was kept with Sytan for a time, confirming my suspicion that the kidnappings were related. She was much bruised and beaten, and I can only hope that the lack of sexual assault will be easier to bear for all of it. Her daughter, Kahya, is quite strong for all she has been through.
With her release, I finally have some headway on the issue of Sytan. Kahya is his blood, so she can be as a beacon. Ari is attached to him, and can serve much the same function - if she will cooperate.
Ari - is losing coherence, lately. I cannot say what or why, but she seems to not be quite in our time, nor quite in any single time at all. I can only hope that having Sytan back will help, but I do not know. She seems to not know him when I speak of his title, but her pain when I speak his name is very evident.
Add to that the issue of Chryso, the Erolissian priestess. The girl is cute and sweet and looks so much like her mother. Marconis has done a number to her, to create the image in her head of the woman being as pale as I. Along with many other self-effacing tendencies, there is enough there to hang Marconis up by his thumbs for at least a century.
I hope I don’t end up having to kill the girl, though. She is the progeny of one of Ari’s old soldiers, and a friend. I will be working on befriending her again. If nothing else, she is a connection to him, and has gone to Faydwer - which is where Ari is feeling drawn to.
It is the only coincidence I have.
Fafnier is returned to us. I cannot express how glad this makes me, and how far in debt it pushes me. We are importing Vlosllye stock to feed him, and the Ilharess has declined payment. Given the nature of their quality, it is more expensive than I care to consider. I must find a way to dispel this debt for the good of the house, and the good of the relationship he wishes.
I am hesitant on this note, as he asks for a full bonding. Were I other than I am, this would be very readily accepted. To be wanted - it is intoxicating, and it has been far too long since Xil has even been heard of. I feel for Faf - but with all that is happening, no decision will be reached until after we have Sytan back.
Given the rather lone work I will be doing, I will of course explore the thoughts and see how they go. Until then, I will miss him and wish him comfort. He was so adorably enthusiastic in asking...
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
A crumbling, stained letter
Archivist's Note:
This private letter is an exceptionally rare survival from the period, and it was discovered in a volume of mythic wondertales during the recent reorganization of the archive. It has long been suspected that the anonymous, handwritten manuscripts of wondertales were once part of the private collection of the Praetor, but the attribution pages have been lost in one of the re-bindings, as the signatures were never well-sewn to begin with.
There are no provenance records for the series of manuscripts, which themselves are only of minimal interest, written as they are to make history more palatable to the uneducated. Nonetheless, the presence of the following letter - which appears to be genuine - seems to support the idea that those manuscripts may have been the property of the Praetor, and suggests they may be worth re-examining for further historical importance.
A transcript of the letter follows below, translated from the levua, as the original document must remain protected from light and handling. It has aged badly as a result of some acid contamination in its past, and the transcription is as faithful to the original text as possible. Every effort has been made to preserve the agitation and passion of the author, which is so clearly visible in the hand.
Dearest Ariahdnia,
I write this letter with no real direction.
These last few months have been more difficult then I would like to admit. When you asked me to help you forget - I knew I was going to regret it. There has been so little in the past that I would have wanted you to remember that made it to that book of yours, and I'm afraid to know what has passed that never did.
I'll admit when we first met, your charge would have been just: you were nothing more then food. Now - I wouldn't think of you as anything less then a friend and lover.
I admit I have held you further away then most, there are [unintelligible] things I've done that I'm not proud of - - some to those you may know [an inkblot, possibly an omission] some to you. In time I may share all of it with you - but at my own pace. The last time you died - - - I watched everything I had worked to earn with you die with it.
How much of us you have recorded is beyond me. Honestly - - I may never know. I only know that you trust me less than y[unintelligible: likely, "you"] out[unintelligible: possible "outwardly" but may be untranslated ekete'uan] show, despite our past - - and - again-! -I will strive to change that.
I no longer wish to remain a trusted friend and ally. I wish more than midnight visits and deceptive respects[sic: clearly an allusion, but the context is now lost]. Our last night together was one of many passionate and cherished nights together for me - and I can only hope you feel the same way when I say that I hope there will be many - many more to follow.
Always watching, Always waiting.
~Valacor Valinos
This private letter is an exceptionally rare survival from the period, and it was discovered in a volume of mythic wondertales during the recent reorganization of the archive. It has long been suspected that the anonymous, handwritten manuscripts of wondertales were once part of the private collection of the Praetor, but the attribution pages have been lost in one of the re-bindings, as the signatures were never well-sewn to begin with.
There are no provenance records for the series of manuscripts, which themselves are only of minimal interest, written as they are to make history more palatable to the uneducated. Nonetheless, the presence of the following letter - which appears to be genuine - seems to support the idea that those manuscripts may have been the property of the Praetor, and suggests they may be worth re-examining for further historical importance.
A transcript of the letter follows below, translated from the levua, as the original document must remain protected from light and handling. It has aged badly as a result of some acid contamination in its past, and the transcription is as faithful to the original text as possible. Every effort has been made to preserve the agitation and passion of the author, which is so clearly visible in the hand.
Dearest Ariahdnia,
I write this letter with no real direction.
These last few months have been more difficult then I would like to admit. When you asked me to help you forget - I knew I was going to regret it. There has been so little in the past that I would have wanted you to remember that made it to that book of yours, and I'm afraid to know what has passed that never did.
I'll admit when we first met, your charge would have been just: you were nothing more then food. Now - I wouldn't think of you as anything less then a friend and lover.
I admit I have held you further away then most, there are [unintelligible] things I've done that I'm not proud of - - some to those you may know [an inkblot, possibly an omission] some to you. In time I may share all of it with you - but at my own pace. The last time you died - - - I watched everything I had worked to earn with you die with it.
How much of us you have recorded is beyond me. Honestly - - I may never know. I only know that you trust me less than y[unintelligible: likely, "you"] out[unintelligible: possible "outwardly" but may be untranslated ekete'uan] show, despite our past - - and - again-! -I will strive to change that.
I no longer wish to remain a trusted friend and ally. I wish more than midnight visits and deceptive respects[sic: clearly an allusion, but the context is now lost]. Our last night together was one of many passionate and cherished nights together for me - and I can only hope you feel the same way when I say that I hope there will be many - many more to follow.
Always watching, Always waiting.
~Valacor Valinos
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