“I forgive you,” the traveler said, “for it is not me you set your hearts against.”
The villagers scorned him and bade him be silent, but he shook his head.
“There is a man you spurn, but he is not me. You have never met me. You do not know my home, my mother and father. You do not know the secret thoughts...
2021-11-24 17:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
An emergency session will convene tomorrow morning in Kaupf Hall to deliberate on the latest reports from Sibyl, Sever and other sources along the Daressan fronts. Of primary importance are the disposition of partisan-controlled strategic assets. We now know that in addition to Sobriquet (ref. Anomaly 3022), the Daressan partisans ha...
2021-11-17 17:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
The raven derided the mockingbird daily for lacking its vision. How could it feed its children, limited as it was? The sun rises and falls. Still the raven boasts over its growing children. The sun rises and falls. It tells the mockingbird that it pities the family who must rely on such a parent. The sun rises...
2021-11-10 17:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
We phrase national identity as a form of altruism, in most respects; it is a conferred set of values that stands as an equal alongside natural bonds of family and friendship. Just as a man might defer or subvert his individual wants to aid a member of his family, so too do we ask that he act contrary to his base nature in the name of his c...
2021-11-03 16:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostSo, some of you may have noticed that we're up past that $500 threshold. This means that we've hit the goal to increase the patron benefits to three chapters, and I'm going to try and be prompt about it. I'll be writing a bit faster through the course of November, and I think I should probably be in a good spot to drop an extra chapt...
2021-11-03 15:58:59 +0000 UTC View Post
I am often accused of fomenting hatred. I will not deny that such a hatred exists; the long and painful subjugation of Saf by Ghar has left wounds upon my people that do not easily heal. But these are people within the whole, carrying their individual burdens.
We already know from our long experience under Ghar’s boot that a ...
2021-10-27 16:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Two men came upon an artifex on the road, and seeing that he was carrying many fine wares they decided to rob him. The artifex did not resist, laying down his burden for the men to take - but their joy was short-lived, for a great bear emerged from the woods to menace them.
They quaked and feared for their lives before the bear, but ...
2021-10-20 16:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Another symposium to review evidence from the Daressan front will be called to order next Rimesday. As with the last sessions, a primary focus will be given to directing and shaping Sever’s behavior in order to mitigate the more destructive tendencies of the bearer.
Subgroups will meet to discuss several other specific anomalies an...
2021-10-13 16:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
It is unfashionable to discuss the metaphysical implications of ensoulment. We have Saf to thank for that; nothing sours a concept quite so efficiently as a poor execution. The fault does not rest with them alone, however - rationalism has largely prevailed in the post-Gharic continent as a matter of practicality and, dare I say, som...
2021-10-06 16:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
It should be evident by now that the War is not the same species of conflict as prior, lesser wars. This is not the polite squabbling of warlords or some noble feud; the Safid mean to make the world Safid.
Not the continent, gentlemen. The world. It is folly to think that Ardalt will be able to take its ease on our mainla...
2021-09-29 16:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Does history repeat itself, as is often claimed? It would be so, were ‘history’ an agent unto itself that could indulge in repetition. History as an entity does not exist in the present, however. History is the summation of past events through present eyes.
None should be surprised, therefore, to hear claims of patter...
2021-09-22 16:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
The story of Saf is, broadly, the story of the Safid Cults of the Eight. Even when Ghar itself lost its grip on the old Safid lands, their governors held the reins of power with few real challenges until nearly a century later. This was the Third Bulu War, at which point historians begin to mention the name of Salman Ghazali.
S...
2021-09-15 16:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
As phase three proceeds we have shifted the majority of our Leiko forces into plan variant 41-F-Moderate. Naval salvage efforts are proceeding apace, with at least three-hundred recovered Safid ensouled. Approximately half of these have been transferred to our affinity management specialists for retention exercises (per 50-A-Aggressi...
2021-09-08 16:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
What should arise from possibility? Every stone contains within it a thousand stones, yet only ever appears as one. Chip the stone; countless possibilities have vanished and countless remain. Place it in the ocean; the water grinds it to sand.
The thousand stones were no less real than the sand. The sand is no more ...
2021-09-01 16:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
War has no inherent rules. When one fights for survival, freedom and the prosperity of the coming generations, there is no question of propriety or correctness - there is only the end toward which we strive.
So why, then, do we play this warlike game and term it war? Why do we withhold ourselves from our utmost and tread lightl...
2021-08-25 16:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Certain aspects of the state are perceived as inevitable consequences of circumstance. Conflict exists, therefore so too does a military. Resources are finite, therefore an economic system arises to apportion them. These are simple, logical responses to the nature of the world.
There is a hazard, however, in continuing to...
2021-08-18 16:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
The first phase of Initiative Sunburn has concluded within predicted bounds, and all field commanders have been instructed to proceed to the second phase under plan variant 30-C-Moderate. Auspex analysis has identified the following primary complicating factors:
No shell misses. When we say such a thing we mean that it has not struck men or materiel - but every shot strikes something. Walk through Daressa, where the thunder and fire has raged for years without respite, and you will see that war kills more than men.
- Saleh Taskin, On Reclamation, 687
—
The roar o...
2021-08-04 16:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Recognition of the self is not a simple thing; our close perspective distorts our view and makes it hard to discern truth from illusion. Often our baser fears and needs skew our perception - that we are flawed is inevitable, but even the best men shy away from confronting their flaws for fear of that intimate and personal disquiet that follows.<...
2021-07-28 16:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
At the start of time there was nothing, for everything that might exist was balanced by its opposite. The universe was perfect in its emptiness. Into this void came the first soul, and as it beheld itself it became inconsolable - by existing, it marred what had been perfect. To witness perfection it must cease to exist; to witn...
2021-07-21 19:28:06 +0000 UTC View Post
The initial deployment of the fire-team structure has been a success, resulting in a twenty-three percent increase in intra-team soul retention. The post-deployment review committee found no major errors, but wishes to propagate the following clarifications to further-increase the effect of the change:
It has been my experience that men will readily accept that their mind shapes the manifestation of their soul, yet when I dare to suggest that the reverse might be true I am met with scorn, disbelief or even anger. I cannot bring myself to be irritated with them; the prospect of an involuntary change in one’s consciousness is frightening...
2021-07-07 16:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
In short, gentlemen: this farce must be called out for what it is. The organization that was meant to advance our understanding of souls for the benefit of all men has been supplanted by a labyrinthine and twisted tumor on the flank of government. I have no control over it. Though you will not recognize it, this chamber has no ...
2021-06-30 16:01:49 +0000 UTC View Post
Dr. Josef LeMegne
Administrative Hall #84
Braun Island.
Sir -
By receipt of this letter you stand informed that the Assembly as convened on Waning 35, 673 has revoked your right of travel to the mainland until further notice. While this body recognizes that your efforts in service of Ardalt have been exemplary, your...
2021-06-23 16:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostSo way back when I was setting up a Patreon and writing the initial chapters of Inheritors of Eschaton I put a few pie-in-the-sky goals up because it seemed like the thing to do. One of those is that at $500 total, I was going to increase the chapter benefit for patrons by one chapter, which would put you guys at 3 weeks ahead.
<... 2021-06-16 18:10:13 +0000 UTC View Post
The axis/skew model remains a problematic metaphor, not least because metaphors in this field of study have a troublesome way of becoming resilient even if (or perhaps especially if) they are inappropriate. To begin with, it implies that there is a zero point between extremes. Any amount of empirical observation will prove this to be...
2021-06-16 16:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Today we embark on a grand undertaking. Throughout history, man has viewed souls as instruments of fate - blessings, curses, miracles. It is my hope that future generations will mark today as the day when souls became the instruments of man.
Let us not shrink from this purpose. We all have souls, we all know the manner of...
2021-06-09 16:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
The near-random distribution of souls among the populace has been a problem throughout history, one that we have historically resolved with incentives. The hill clans made bannermen of their ensouled, the Gharic solution was to grant citizenship; in both cases rewards were given for coming forward and serving your people.
But as our ...
2021-06-02 16:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Because I'm going to be using a lot of public-domain artwork and other older image references, I thought it might be a good idea for me to keep a log of all the sources for said artwork in case anyone was interested, as well as to credit the original artists for any of their work. I won't be reposting it weekly, but I will be updating it t...
2021-05-26 23:16:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Per the last round of reporting, the policy workgroup has recommended that the experiments with sub-subunit doctrine be widened to include the entirety of our continental forces. The model of one ensouled as the core of a mundane “fire-team” has been an unqualified success. While elite units composed entirely of ensouled have bee...
2021-05-26 16:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post