Kirian events 4
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This is a partial list 
Realm of Kiria's events (kirin_crisis ids 1 - 22 and kirin_loyalists ids 1 - 490 from /1826643372/events/Kirin Events.txt).
- kirin_crisis events are random disaster events that have a chance to occur during the Great Gallop Onward, threatening the nation's stability, which may lead to a civil war.
- kirin_loyalists events are about the civil war after the failure of the Great Gallop Onward from the point of view of the forces loyal to the Realm of Kiria (either with Rising Sun remaining loyal, or seceding from the realm), as well as the future of Kiria after the civil war if Rising Sun had revolted.
Post-civil war Kiria with Rising Sun that remained loyal shares most events with post-successful Great Gallop Onward Kiria. Refer to Kirian events for details.
Kirin Crisis
The Poisoned Lifeblood of Kiria
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The horrific reek of sewage and pollution struck Autumn Blaze like a slap to the face as soon as she stepped out of the train car in Verdant's train station. Even a few hundred meters from the shoreline, the Great Mellifluve stank like rotting fish and foul eggs. Cinder Glow gagged as she followed Autumn off the train, and she quickly pinched her nose shut with a cleft hoof. "That smells horrific!" she shouted over the hiss and whistle of the steam engine behind them. "What crawled up Concord's divine rear and died?"
"This is terrible," Autumn said, wincing as she made her way from the train station toward the river. Sickly kirin dotted the streets, leaning against the walls and grimacing, while others briskly trotted to where they needed to go, noses covered with cloth masks to keep out the stench as best they could. When the delegation from Vermilion arrived on the shores of the Great Mellifluve, they found them covered with dead and rotting fish, the once blue waters of Kiria's lifeblood a sickly green and black. To their horror, they saw a few kirin on one of the island communes of Verdant dropping buckets into the poisoned water to bring back to their homes. It was little wonder Verdant was so full of sickly and starving kirin.
"The factories upstream are causing this," Autumn said. "I read reports that they were dumping industrial waste into the Mellifluve, but I didn't imagine it was this bad!"
"It's not just the factories either," Cinder remarked. "Farmers are dumping fertilizer into their fields, and it's all running off with the rain. And the cities are exploding in population. They don't have anything near robust enough sewage systems to deal with all the waste. All of that is getting dumped into the river, and it all flows downstream to Verdant."
"We have to step in and do something to stop this," Autumn decided. "We can't let these kirin languish like this. The pollution is killing them, and if we don't do something about it, it'll kill Verdant itself!"
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 If we don't save the lifeblood of Kiria, then our nation will die!
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The End is Nigh!
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Littlescale maneuvered her tiny dinghy through the many canals of Verdant, her pole clutched tightly in her magic as she pushed it against the canal floors. "River clams! River clams!" the filly yelled, rattling her bucket of clams with a hoof as she passed by countless kirin sailing up and down the canal with her. "Two for a tael! Five for two! Clams are clean and tasty, the pollution can't get in their shells!"
She finally reached the mouth of the canal and turned left, making her way toward the Coruscating Lagoon, Verdant's largest water market. Hundreds of little boats bobbed in the green and black waters filled with countless peddlers like her selling their wares to kirin that sailed past. But today, the calls and cries of peddlers were silent, and hundreds of kirin watched from their boats and the shorelines as a tall stallion in fiery red and orange robes stood on a barge in the middle of the lagoon. Curious, Littlescale pushed her dinghy closer to hear what he was saying.
"Verdant has been abandoned by Vermilion!" the stallion said, and Littlescale recognized him as a priest of the Rising Fire sect that dominated Verdant. "We have been left to rot in filth and sewage. We languish in the waste that they pollute the lifeblood of Kiria with! Our children and elderly are stick and starving, and the air hangs heavy with the stench of death and disease! Our beautiful waters, once as blue as sapphires, are now black with acid! Who is to blame for this? It is the greed of the northerners and the vanity of the east! Vermilion drags us into a new age, an age of marvelous modernization, or so they say. But look at what their industrial revolution has done to our home! We suffer and die because they chase greed and power. Greed and power! The Plenum in Vermilion has abandoned Concord's teachings. They have forgotten Her tenets! And worse yet, they have poisoned the mind of our beloved Matriarch, forcing her to chase progress and growth over a harmonious relationship with nature. It must end!"
The crowd murmured its approval, but the priest was not finished yet. "If we allow the greed and corruption in Vermilion to fester, then Kiria will be ruined in a few short decades. They must be stopped, and the corrupt hedonism of the so-called priests and mystics of The Way of Fire must be put to an end. So I ask you, kirin of Verdant, will you stand with me and my brothers and sisters as we take back what is ours? Will you stand with us as we save our home from pestilence and plague? Will you stand with the Rising Fire against the depredations of fickle Vermilion?"
He was answered with applause and cheering, and even Littlescale clapped her hooves together. The Way of Fire had abandoned Verdant and all who lived in it. It was time to look for new guidance to save her home.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Running out the timer on the decision “The Poisoning of the Mellifluve” |
The Rising Fire shall save Verdant and carry out Concord's will!
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The Great Typhoon
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Rain Shine awoke that morning feeling refreshed and well-rested. Vermilion was draped in gray as the clouds above continued to rain on the city, with the occasional gust of wind rattling the foundations of her palace, but it did not bother her. She always slept better when it stormed outside, and she loved to sit in her morning room and read the teachings of Concord with a cup of ginseng and listen to the rain pitter-patter on the roof. But as she prepared to sequester herself away in the morning room, she turned first to a page for her morning briefing of the day's events.
"It is bad news, your Divinity," the page said, bowing his head low. "Last night's storm was the dying gasp of the terrible typhoon that struck our east coast two days ago. We spent all day yesterday assessing the damage, there was simply so much destruction wrought along the coastline. The heavy rainfall and strong winds caused massive flooding, landslides, and widespread damage to buildings, farms, and infrastructure. We don't know how many kirin lost their lives, but we expect it to be at least five hundred. The coast needs aid immediately if we are to mitigate some of the damage."
Rain Shine was taken aback; even though she had made considerable effort to learn more of the affairs of the Realm she was supposed to rule since ending the Silence, sometimes she still felt like she was kept in her gilded cocoon, isolated from the world outside. "Then I shall send the aid the coast needs immediately," she declared. "I will write an official proclamation this morning. Is there anything that is already being done?"
"The priests and mystics of The Way of Fire have organized donation and charity efforts to bring taels and food to the hardest hit regions, your Divinity. Fickle Current has also asked the members of the diaspora to donate funding toward rebuilding the region. If there is any silver lining to be found in this catastrophe, it is that their funding and involvement will help to modernize the coastline now that the land has been cleared by the storm."
"The Way of Fire and the diaspora rarely get along," Rain Shine observed. She had at least learned enough through the Plenum to understand that much about her subjects. "If they do not learn to work together, I fear their efforts may hurt more than they help." She dismissed the page with a wave of her hoof. "See to it that Fickle Current and Winter Frost receive my direct instructions to coordinate their efforts. We cannot afford to let this crisis grow worse."
Trigger conditions
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On every month for |
Immediate effects
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It will be done, your Divinity.
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The Fire Rises where the Tide Recedes
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It had been a long few weeks in Vermilion for Autumn Blaze. Ever since the Great Typhoon smashed into the eastern coast and left ruin and devastation all along the coastline, Vermilion and the Morning Secretariat had been thrown into turmoil. Securing funding and a disaster relief plan should have been an easy first step that everykirin could agree on, but when it came time to decide who should provide the money and where it should be directed, the Secretariat ground to a halt. Partisan fighting forced the bill to drag on and on, and while the Secretariat argued amongst themselves, the kirin living on the coast suffered in wait for help that was taking too long to arrive. It had taken Autumn bringing Rain Shine into the Secretariat and asking her to issue decrees to arbitrate on the relief plan that had finally started to get things moving, but it had been too little, too late. It seemed like every kirin in the capital soon started blaming the Plenum for the failure to aid with disaster relief, from the most conservative Way of Fire mystics to the most ardently nationalist diaspora returnees. Even farmers and laborers have started to speak out against the government, and it became increasingly clear to all the members of the Plenum that the kirin of the Realm blamed them for the suffering along the coast.
But that was not the end of the bad news. As Autumn looked through her day's reports, she found a report from an aide traveling the region and detailing the situation. In lieu of proper governmental support, the Rising Fire religious sect had taken it upon themselves to step in and provide aid to those hit hardest by the typhoon. While this was good for the kirin along the coast, it foretold disaster for the authority of Vermilion over the Realm, as the Rising Fire grew in strength and support in the east to bolster their stronghold over the realm in the west. The intervention by the Rising Fire has created a surge of popular grassroots support for their communalistic ideals at the expense of the Way of Fire and Matriarch Rain Shine's authority, who could soon find themselves squeezed by communalist heresy from both sides. And should the Way of Fire and the Rising Fire come to blows...
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Running out the timer on the decision “In the Wake of Cyclonic Fury” |
The Way of Fire's failure is the Rising Fire's success.
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Kirian Venom
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By the time Internal Affairs arrived at the scene of the crime, the constable and local militia had already started arranging the bodies by the rail tracks for identification. He frowned down at the twisted remains of the rails, warped and curled by an explosive blast. Two hundred meters away, the train that had been carrying passengers from Vermilion to Chrysanthemum lay on its side, its windows broken and its frame crumpled, the Trans-Kiria Rail insignia decorating its exterior pockmarked with bullet holes. Even this long after the attack, one of the wheels on the caboose still turned lazily beneath the afternoon sun, the momentum from the crash still whiling away on well-greased bearings.
Affairs quickly located the constable and pulled him aside to get the details right from the kirin who likely knew best what was going on. "What happened here?" he asked him. "Those rails were blasted apart. Was it bandits?"
"Absolutely," the constable said. "Their bodies were littered all around the train. They got enough gunpowder to blow the rails and derail the train, but they only had swords and scythes, while the guards had rifles. They paid dearly for what they stole."
"And what did they steal?" Affairs asked.
"Chrysanthemum was expecting Lady Zenith Bloom to arrive today," the constable said. "The NAKP had dispatched her to the city to establish a western branch of her party in Chrysanthemum, or so we had been told. She brought a lot of gold bullion with her, too. Somehow the bandits found that out and laid their ambush. Lots of kirin died here today." The constable shrugged. "There were no survivors from the train. We haven't found Lady Zenith's body yet, but we assume she's among the dead somewhere. At any rate, this seems like the last hurrah for those bandits. Not likely to be many of them left after they tried rushing riflekirin with swords."
Affairs nodded and thanked the constable for his time before he left. He could only look at the carnage around the rails and shake his head. Was this one final act of glory for the bandits of the west? Kiria was changing so quickly and so drastically that even bandits had to know their time was coming soon. Perhaps it was one final statement from a dying breed of kirin, one final chapter to their story for the world to remember them by. So many things were changing these days that Kiria would need an epitaph for the old ways within a few years.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Running out the timer on the decision “Banditry in the West” |
Immediate effects
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The world is changing, and Kiria has no place for outlaws anymore.
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Strife and Want in Peace-and-Plenty
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"A messenger here to see you, Premier," Cinder Glow warned Autumn Blaze before the imperial messenger hurried into Autumn's office. Autumn looked up from her paperwork and opened her mouth to offer the messenger a greeting, only for the kirin in front of her to quickly toss a half-dozen scrolls down onto Autumn's desk before she could get a world out. "There is a famine in Peace-and-Plenty," the messenger said, bowing her head. "I didn't even need to read the messages to know what they were about. I saw it with my own eyes. The farms are failing and kirin are starving in the towns. Those letters almost certainly are asking for Vermilion's help in solving the famine."
Autumn was taken aback, and it took her a few moments to find the words to respond. "Peace-and-Plenty is in a famine? How could that be? When Fickle Current proposed implementing new farming techniques there, he said they would be limited to the Sorghum Foundry's private farmland. How can the entire breadbasket of Kiria be starving?"
"Sorghum owns more farmland in the area than you think," the messenger explained. "They officially only own 300 acres of farmland around the city limits, but they forced several thousand more acres of farmland owned by independent farmers into sharecropping after they helped to create and then bought up titles to the land in the name of the Matriarch with the help of the NAKP. The farmers own and work the land at Sorghum's leisure, and earlier this season Sorghum forced them all to adopt new planting practices if they wanted to keep the land."
Autumn Blaze was shocked and taken aback. Of course, Current had neglected to mention that little detail when he proposed his new farming techniques. And now that they had all failed, they were taking down Peace-and-Plenty with them. How was Kiria supposed to feed its people if its most fertile and prosperous farmland had failed? If Peace-and-Plenty was struck by famine, Autumn could scarcely imagine how terrible things were about to become for the rest of Kiria. "I... thank you, messenger," she said, staring off into space above the mare's head. "Leave the notes and you are dismissed. I will... I'll try to find some way to deal with this all... somehow..."
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
On every month for |
Immediate effects
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"I should have known better than to trust Fickle Current."
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The Fragrant Smell of Chaos
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Coal Fire stood in the darkness of her bakery as the sounds of rioting and looting filled the streets outside. She couldn't see much past the boards she'd nailed over her windows and door, but she knew the mob was getting closer. Soon, they'd decide to turn their fury on her bakery, and all she had to defend herself with was a black powder pistol her grandfather owned. She was terrified at the thought she'd have to use it. She'd never killed anykirin before. Could she do it if her life was on the line?
It had been a scary few weeks in Fragrance, especially for bakers like herself. Grain supplies had collapsed with the famine in the countryside, and Coal didn't have enough flour to make bread for anykirin more than herself and her parents. Fragrance had started importing food to combat the growing crisis, but that had just made the prices on food staples rise dramatically. Just to make ends meet, Coal had had to raise the price on a loaf of bread from one tael to fifteen, and she'd already had to chase down a few colts who tried to steal from her when she wasn't looking. But despite all of that, Coal had hoped she'd be able to get through the tough times until Fragrance solved its food issues.
Then Old Leatherscales died. Somekirin had beaten the amiable, grandfatherly bard to death on the street corner where he played the spike fiddle by day and slept by night, and looted his corpse of its valuables. A few days later, the authorities hanged a colt from a tree across the road from Old Leatherscales' corner - a street urchin from the countryside who they claimed was responsible for the murder. The response from the Fragrance's community of rural migrant workers, experiencing the brunt of the food shortage and scapegoated for the city's growing ills, had been explosive and furious. A mob quickly formed and started looting the granaries across the city, and once those were empty, turned their attention to the local bakeries. Until now, Coal's had been spared their attention, giving her time to prepare. But they were coming, and it wouldn't be long before they tried to steal what bread she had left.
Glass shattered across the street, and Coal snatched the pistol in her magic, the weapon quivering in its red aura. Vermilion needed to do something to save Fragrance from itself. It had to. Only the Matriarch could stop the growing violence that was swallowing the city. And if they were fast enough, maybe they could save Coal and her family as well.
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Is triggered only by
On every month for |
Immediate effects
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There's nothing more dangerous than starving kirin with nothing to lose.
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Tea Time with the Divine
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Autumn Blaze took another sip from her tea, watching as Rain Shine did the same across from her. It was funny how life was, sometimes. Here she was, sharing tea with the Matriarch Superior of Kiria, and making idle conversation as friends. She knew that the kirin sitting across from her was a divine being to which she should show respect and devotion, but she had grown so comfortable in the Matriarch's presence that she saw her as a friend she could speak freely with like any other kirin.
Of course, given the situation of Kiria, the world of politics could not be escaped forever. "Fickle Current approached me with a request today," the Matriarch began. "He is growing concerned with a movement that calls themselves the Incendiaries. Have you heard of them? They have a substantial base among the peasant farmers, and they give them an outlet to channel their frustration against modernization into. The farmers fear losing their land for infrastructure and urban projects, and instead believe in land justice, collective ownership of the land, and a resurgence of religion in our way of life. They have even started attacking and damaging new projects that are being constructed, and the kirin building them."
"I heard about the attack on the dam near Chrysanthemum and the granary fire at Cornsilk," Autumn said. "But truth be told, I have so much going on that I haven't been able to give it proper attention. I think I read that they're loosely affiliated with the Rising Fire; at the very least, they're certainly friendly enough with that sect of our religion. If they're being organized, that poses a big problem for us."
"Even still... I am sympathetic to their plight," Rain Shine said. She sighed as she added, "I spent sixty years of my life isolated in Vermilion, oblivious to the suffering of my subjects. And now they are being thrust into a brave new world just as quickly as I have. They are scared and confused, and I don't want them to be hurt because they are afraid." After a moment's pause, she pursed her lips and looked away. "I want you to learn more about the situation and recommend a course of action, Premier. Find me a solution that is best for everykirin, and I will make it so."
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Of course, Matriarch.
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An Incendiary Decision
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Autumn Blaze bowed as a formality when Rain Shine's attendant led her into the Matriarch's reading room. Normally, such a greeting wasn't necessary between the two friends, but when other kirin were around, it wouldn't do to act disrespectfully to the country's divine Matriarch Superior. Autumn had at least learned enough about politics to realize a slip up as small as that would give her rivals an opening to try and take her down in the next gathering of the Plenum.
But when Rain Shine dismissed the attendant and the two kirin were all alone, Autumn smiled and joined Rain Shine by her side on the floor. "I've spent some time looking further into the Incendiaries matter," she said, and she placed a folder full of papers before the Matriarch. "And I mean, phew, those kirin are sure going crazy. They're not really a huge problem right now, but if we let it grow out of control, this incendiary situation is going to grow into an inferno. So the way I see it, you can either strongly condemn the Incendiaries and their movement, or express sympathy and ask them to cooperate so that we can actually get to the root of their problems and help them out."
"I see," Rain Shine noted, but then she frowned. "And why would I not simply choose the sympathetic route? They still are my subjects, despite their lashing out."
"Because... well frankly, Matriarch, there's a chance they won't listen to you," Autumn said, anxiously rubbing her hooves together. "You're our divine Matriarch Superior by all the rights and blessings of Concord, which means your word is Her will as well, and kirin should listen to you immediately. But the Incendiaries might be too mad at the state and the government to listen to you. And if kirin in the countryside are ignoring your divine voice, then that undermines your authority to a considerable degree." She sighed and shook her head. "As much as I hate to admit it, I think that the condemnation is a safer option. You can call upon all faithful kirin in the land to report on Incendiary activity and aid the authorities in cracking down on the movement. That way, you're appealing to kirin who already respect you, rather than those who don't. They'll listen to what you have to say, so you don't have to worry about losing face with them. But you're going to make the Incendiaries a LOT angrier if you condemn their movement." Then she bitterly chuckled and added, "Oh, forgive me if I say it, Rain Shine, but I am so glad I'm not our Matriarch Superior right now. I'm not the one who has to make the decree."
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Taking the decision “The Incendiaries' Movement” |
Immediate effects
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We must condemn the Incendiaries and their movement.
We must sympathize with the plight of the Incendiaries and ask them to cooperate.
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Banditry in the West
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"The Plenum now gives the floor to Governor Amber Grain of the Auspicious Clouds province."
Autumn Blaze watched as the governor made her way to the center of the Plenum's chamber to speak. The mare must have been in her late sixties, but she carried herself with a fire and brimstone air about her that made her seem imposing and youthful despite her age. And she wasted no time launching into the reason why she had requested this audience with the Plenum in the first place. "My province is in chaos and lawlessness!" she snapped, harsh eyes sweeping over the assembled delegates as if they were axes and the kirin were trees. "Bandits are emerging from the countryside to prey on our new flows of trade and commerce, which were dead for so long. They attack kirin on the roads in broad daylight, because they know nokirin will stop them! Where is the Vermilion Banner Army? Where are the soldiers? Things are too out of hoof for my constabulary to handle on its own. My province, as well as the rest of the western provinces, need direct action from the army, yesterday!"
"The Grand Gallop Onward should be modernizing the countryside and providing kirin with better jobs and more opportunities than ever before," Fickle Current countered. "The only reason there would be a bandit problem would be because of a misuse of the funds and aid the Plenum has sent the provinces."
Amber Grain scowled at him. "You were born wearing that suit, weren't you?" she snapped at him. "If you spent one single day of your life toiling in the fields or working in one of those deathtraps you call factories you'd understand why kirin are turning to banditry. All these companies buying up and reshuffling farmland is displacing farmers off of land their families have worked for generations, and half of them won't even go into the cities to work in factories when they see the maimed and mutilated begging for taels in the streets because they lost hooves or horns on the job. And the foremares there work their labor to the bone for little more than a tael an hour, with no protections and no rights. What else is a kirin without skills to do but turn to banditry? So until you fix that up, the West needs soldiers if we're going to deal with this bandit problem!"
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
On every month for |
Immediate effects
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We have to secure the West from bandits if we want the Grand Gallop Onward to be successful!
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Harmony with Nature
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Autumn Blaze and Winter Frost watched side-by-side as five priests and priestesses of The Way of Fire led a procession of followers down to the banks of the Great Mellifluve outside of Vermilion. Singing, chanting, and simple music tapped out on a drum and chimes accompanied them down to the water's edge, where the assembled kirin waded out into the blue waters of Kiria's lifeblood. Autumn, for her part, was just happy to see the clear blue of the water return once again. The poison in the rivers was receding, and Verdant had already made great strides in recovering downstream. It was something the Plenum and the Morning Secretariat could be proud of, at least. Well, maybe not Fickle Current and his cronies, but the rest of the Kiria...
"It's still not as clear as I remember it," Winter Frost solemnly noted, her eyes wandering away from the ceremony and toward the deepest blue of the river. "There's still poison in our lifeblood. Just less of it."
"Completely eliminating pollution was an impossible order," Autumn explained. "We would have to cease our modernization completely. You know we can't do that. Kiria needs this modernization to rejoin the world. But we could at least limit how much factories could dump into the river, and force them to explore other means of dealing with their waste." She hesitated before adding, "Thank you for convincing the mystics of The Way of Fire to support our efforts. We wouldn't have been able to do it without them."
"The sixth tenet of The Way of Fire says we must live in peace and harmony with nature," the priestess said. "This is not harmony, but perhaps it is peace. If the future children of Kiria can benefit from what we do today, then I will sleep easier for having my mystics find compromise outside of Concord's divine wisdom."
As the chanting in the water came to a close, two of the priests waded back to the shoreline and set fire to the fuses protruding from a rack of fireworks. One after the other, the fireworks shot into the air with colorful sparks and briefly dazzling displays of light. Winter Frost bowed her head at the display of thanks to Concord, and Autumn did the same after a moment. It was the perfect end to a peaceful day, and Autumn was thankful that she and Winter could share it in friendly company instead of as bitter rivals on the Plenum floor.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Taking the decision “The Poisoning of the Mellifluve” |
We can work together to make a harmonious and prosperous Kiria yet.
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Stronger, Better, Healthier, Together
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The paper lanterns lit up the night in Radiance, their colorful light shining on rows of new and modernized buildings lining the streets. Where the town had almost been completely destroyed by the Great Typhoon slamming into Kiria's east coast, all of the nation had come together to help rebuild the coastline. Where there was once destruction and desolation, peace and prosperity had taken its place. And now, with the reconstruction efforts complete, the townsfolk of Radiance had taken it upon themselves to thank those who had saved them with a feast for the scores of volunteers who rebuilt their town.
It was the same throughout much of the east coast, Rain Shine noted as she strode into the town as the surprise guest of honor. Kirin were happy to see her, and the glee and relief in their faces led her to softly smile back at them. Recovering from the typhoon had been a group effort, with kirin from all trots of life working together. Soldiers, bureaucrats, returnees, mystics, peasants, and even NAKP cadres and local Rising Fire leaders had all contributed to rebuilding the coastline. It was what Rain Shine had wanted to see from her subjects as Kiria embarked on the Grand Gallop Onward, and what she saw here today instilled confidence that her efforts were not for naught. If the cooperation and prosperity in Radiance was a barometer for the Realm as a whole, then obviously the kirin people were doing something right.
That pleased Rain Shine more than any amount of respect or devotion her subjects gave her.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Taking the decision “In the Wake of Cyclonic Fury” |
United and together, we will create a better world for our foals than the one we inherited.
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Sharing What Little We Have
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It had started with a single cart rumbling down the dirt road to Fragrance. That cart, pulled by an elder kirin who had seen dozens of seasons come and go, had been loaded to the brim with as much wheat as it could hold. And when he arrived in famine-stricken Fragrance, he merely unhitched himself from the cart and wandered off, only returning to the cart once it was empty to take it back to his farm. Day in and day out, the elder kirin would make the trip to the city, giving away his one cartful of wheat to anykirin who needed it. He became a hero to the local kirin, and when his cart broke a wheel on the journey into town, the smith made him a new one for free as a sign of thanks.
It wasn't long before the story of this humble farmer spread throughout the countryside. Shortly after, where before there was one cart, soon there were two, then five, then ten. More and more farmers gathered up everything they could spare and began making the journey to Fragrance, delivering it to kirin in need for free. Within a month, the same started happening in other hungry cities in the realm. The poor peasant farmers with barely enough land to feed their families started to solve a crisis that the NAKP and the large consortium farms could not, and in doing so, began to knit their communities together. With food filling bellies once again, the tempers began to cool and kirin started seeing each other as friends once more, not as rival hungry mouths that would take their next meal away. Even Matriarch Superior Rain Shine herself spoke to the nation of the movement, and issuing an imperial decree to establish a national Farmers' Day as a holiday in thanks to the peasant farmers for saving the nation from famine by sharing what little they had.
As for the farmer who started the movement? He simply returned to his farm without giving anykirin his name, unwilling to be put in the national spotlight as a hero. In his own words to one reporter that managed to track down his homestead: "I just did what I thought was right. Kirin were hungry, and I had something I could spare. Simple as that."
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Taking the decision “The Crisis of Bread and Rice” |
Sometimes it's the everyday heroes who save the day, not the big names in government.
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The Death Knell of Banditry
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
It had only taken five minutes for the last bandit cell outside of Amaranth to collapse. The local constabulary, supported by a company of Vermilion banners, had surrounded the bandit hideout and demanded the surrender of everykirin inside. When the bandit leader insisted on fighting to the death, a single shot from a markskirin ended her rule far quicker than it began, and her followers shortly thereafter surrendered to the banners.
Midnight Candle watched with a small frown on her face as the bandits were led away from their encampment one by one, with banner soldiers guarding the column on either side. The bandits certainly didn't look like the vicious marauders they were in the stories parents told their foals; rather, they were poor and broken kirin, many well into their middle ages, many more barely old enough to be considered adults. Some had foals clinging to their legs or backs, crying in fear as their parents were dragged away to await their fate. All of it hurt Candle's soul, and she couldn't help but mention it when the company commander trotted by.
"They may be poor farmers just trying to feed their families, but they're bandits, Candle," the officer said, shaking his head. "Desperation doesn't forgive the killing and stealing they've done."
"We should be helping them, not imprisoning them," Candle countered, and she touched her red and orange robes for emphasis. "The Rising Fire wants to help all the kirin of the land. If we work together to support one another, then farmers wouldn't have to turn to banditry to support their families. The Way of Fire only imposes order and treats the symptoms of unrest, but it does nothing to weed out the root cause."
The officer just shook his head. "I don't disagree with you," he began, "but how far should we let an individual push their interests when it hurts so many more? If we are ever to move forward as a nation, we need to unify and deal with the problems at hoof. Maybe one day we'll be able to stop kirin from turning to a life of banditry, but all we can do now is play catch up and stop the ones who already have." He patted Candle on the shoulder and gave her a small nod. "Go back to camp and ready a service for the troops, chaplain. I'm sure there will be plenty more like you who want to know if what they're doing is right in Concord's eyes."
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Taking the decision “Banditry in the West” |
Today, we kill bandits. But tomorrow, we may not have to.
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Mining Concord's Home
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
The below descriptions are available for this event.
The following description is used if:
- At least one of the following is true:
- Country flag KIR_expelled_communists is set
- None of:
- Realm of Kiria:
- Has completed national focus
“In the Vermilion Court”
- Has completed national focus
- The three priests standing before the assembled Plenum made for an odd sight. Autumn Blaze could tell at a glance that the three, two stallions and a mare, were part of The Way of Fire's more ultraorthodox followers. Their clothes and coats were smeared with black ash from countless sacred fires, and one had even tied gunpowder-coated string into their mane, though he hadn't lit the sparkling fuses before making his appeal to Rain Shine. "Where is our Matriarch?" the mare among them asked. "We seek an audience with her Divinity, not with mortal kirin who claim to be acting in her name."
"The Plenum is blessed with Matriarch Rain Shine's divine authority," Autumn quickly countered. "Rest assured, however, that all the proceedings that happen in the Plenum are brought before the Matriarch. Now, petition your case, honored guests."
Though that answer hardly seemed pleasing to the priests, one stepped forward regardless. "This modernisation project is going too far!" he exclaimed, angrily stomping his hoof. "The mountains surrounding Vermilion are Concord's sacred domain. Every single peak and every last valley were blessed by Her hooves. It was those mountains which She first crafted to shield Vermilion's fertile valley from the primordial fire that gave birth to the world! And it is these mountains that miners and prospectors defile every day, digging through the earth for material wealth, and trampling over the foundations of our theocracy and our society! They must be stopped!"
At this, Fickle Current stood up and scowled at the three. "The mining companies are doing important work that is critical to the Grand Gallop Onward. Not only that, but they are doing so in a respectful manner. No prospecting occurs within fifty kilometers of a temple or shrine, and all named mountains in the range are free from mining activity. But I feel I must reiterate, Premier, that the resources they extract are important for our modernisation efforts. It cannot progress smoothly were they to be interfered with."
"All of the mountains must be declared sacred property!" the other stallion priest exclaimed. "They are Concord's by right. Is nothing sacred? This modernisation drive is self-destructive. Cities are consuming the countryside in a cannibalistic fervor that destroys nature. They must be stopped before it is too late!"
The following description is used if:
- The Rising Fire was allowed into the Plenum. (?)
- The three priests standing before the assembled Plenum made for an odd sight. Autumn Blaze could tell at a glance that the three, two stallions and a mare, were part of The Way of Fire's more ultraorthodox followers. Their clothes and coats were smeared with black ash from countless sacred fires, and one had even tied gunpowder-coated string into their mane, though he hadn't lit the sparkling fuses before making his appeal to Rain Shine. "Where is our Matriarch?" the mare among them asked. "We seek an audience with her Divinity, not with mortal kirin who claim to be acting in her name."
"The Plenum is blessed with Matriarch Rain Shine's divine authority," Autumn quickly countered. "Rest assured, however, that all the proceedings that happen in the Plenum are brought before the Matriarch. Now, petition your case, honored guests."
Though that answer hardly seemed pleasing to the priests, one stepped forward regardless. "This modernisation project is going too far!" he exclaimed, angrily stomping his hoof. "The mountains surrounding Vermilion are Concord's sacred domain. Every single peak and every last valley were blessed by Her hooves. It was those mountains which She first crafted to shield Vermilion's fertile valley from the primordial fire that gave birth to the world! And it is these mountains that miners and prospectors defile every day, digging through the earth for material wealth, and trampling over the foundations of our theocracy and our society! They must be stopped!"
At this, Fickle Current stood up and scowled at the three. "The mining companies are doing important work that is critical to the Grand Gallop Onward. Not only that, but they are doing so in a respectful manner. No prospecting occurs within fifty kilometers of a temple or shrine, and all named mountains in the range are free from mining activity. But I feel I must reiterate, Premier, that the resources they extract are important for our modernisation efforts. It cannot progress smoothly were they to be interfered with."
It was at that point that Rising Sun stepped in with a curt clearing of her throat. "Modernity and The Way of Fire are not mutually exclusive. Is it not true that Concord bestowed the world on us kirin to rule after She created it and us? We would be doing Her a disservice by refusing to partake of the gifts She has given us. Wisely utilizing the resources that Concord Herself placed for us would show Her as much devotion as maintaining Her pristine creation, if not moreso."''
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
On every month for |
Option conditions
 The priests are right: we cannot defile Concord's creation in pursuit of material wealth.
Fickle Current is right: the modernisation of Kiria is too important to ignore.
Rising Sun is right: Concord bestowed us with the resources, and utilizing them will honor Her.
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Always enabled:
A Tael of Two Scrips
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
Coin Counter paced back and forth outside of Matriarch Superior Rain Shine's study, trying her best not to show her anxiety or break out in a nervous sweat at her impending meeting with Kiria's absolute theocratic leader. She had never met the Matriarch before, nor so much as seen her in person outside of anything resembling an official function of the state, and here she was about to spend ten, fifteen, maybe even twenty minutes in conversation with her, one on one, about a matter of absolute economic priority. She was terrified that she'd completely forget what she needed to say and then stare at the Matriarch, dumbfounded, like a deer after the invention of artificial lights.
Taking a deep breath, she set her folder down on a nearby table and began to leaf through its pages to remind herself on what she needed to say. In Fragrance and Rhapsody, the returnee population had become so entrenched in their ways that they had established a de facto parallel authority to the imperial administration that consisted entirely of their most respected (and wealthy) businesskirin, intellectuals, artists, and other high-profile figures. That was a political problem all in its own, but the economic problem at the route of it came from these figures' desire to use their own paper money over the Kirin tael, the gold coin that had been around since the creation of the Realm. The diaspora's paper money was based on the Sycee Trading House's bank notes, which they called 'scrips', and were backed up by the massive stocks of silver and gold Sycee possessed in Griffonia, which they were slowly but surely moving back to Kiria. The scrips were far more popular (and stronger) than the Kirin tael in the northern cities, and were undoubtedly responsible for strong economic growth and investment among the returning diaspora, but it undermined and devalued the tael the more it circulated. And now, Coin Counter had to explain the situation to the Matriarch and ask for her opinion on what should be the official currency of Kiria. The money was, after all, minted and circulated under her divine authority.
That left Coin Counter with a tough pitch to sell. Should she try to convince Rain Shine to disallow the use of the diaspora scrip, strengthening the Kirin tael and reasserting Vermilion's dominance over the north but slowing its economic growth? Or should she convince the Matriarch to accept the scrip as acceptable currency alongside the tael, even at the risk of devaluing the official currency further, to encourage the growth of the north even more?
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
On every month for |
One nation, one currency. The tael will be the only coin accepted in Kiria.
Sycee's scrips are growing our economy. We cannot delegitimize them for pride.
Offmap Civilian Factories: +2
 Modernisation!
All Coastal States: Weekly Population Growth: +300
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Big Trouble in Little Kiria
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
The below descriptions are available for this event.
The following description is used if:
- At least one of the following is true:
- Country flag KIR_expelled_communists is set
- None of:
- Realm of Kiria:
- Has completed national focus “In the Vermilion Court”
- Has completed national focus
- Autumn Blaze still hadn't gotten used to the formal military bows from the general as she entered the room, but she had had enough meetings with Coral River that she was gradually getting used to it. The general herself was always kind and friendly, so that didn't bother Autumn, but it was more the fact that she now found herself involved in military intelligence briefings that threw her off. She never imagined that the military would partially answer to her, yet she also never imagined she'd be in this position when she was a foal...
"The majority of the Realm is quiet, save for a few scuffles with bandits in the west, but the big issue is Fragrance," Coral River said, tapping a map of Kiria for emphasis. "Paramilitaries who call themselves the 'Gleaming Scales' have all but broken out into gang warfare in the streets against a coalition of social and religious forces, including Way of Fire mystics and trade unionist movements in Fragrance. They're popular with nationalists in the Realm, and are mostly led by diaspora returnees, which explains their ideals. The Gleaming Scales seem to have imported Wingbardian fascism almost down to the letter—and trust me, I've been to Wingbardy. I should know."
"Okay, so it sounds like it's time to get the military involved," Autumn said. "Why haven't they been dealt with already?"
"Because Fickle Current and the NAKP have often used the Gleaming Scales as under-the-table enforcers for their policies in Fragrance and Rhapsody," Coral River elaborated. "They're farther right than the NAKP is, but they aren't afraid to join forces when it suits them both. So normally, going after the Gleaming Scales would be unfeasible, because Fickle Current and his allies would bail them out. However, there has been a split between the NAKP and the Gleaming Scales lately. We COULD crack down on them now... but they are only a fringe movement, and the situation in Fragrance is delicate. Clearing them out could embolden other parties to fill the power vacuum, whether that be the Rising Fire or trade unionists. But they're hardly pleasant kirin, and they're likely funded by wealthy individuals who don't have our nation's best interests in mind. I'd be lying if I said I'd be sad to see them go." She shrugged and deferred to Autumn with a bow of her head. "At any rate, the decision is not mine to make. That responsibility rests on your shoulders, Premier."
The following description is used if:
- The Rising Fire was allowed into the Plenum. (?)
- Autumn Blaze still hadn't gotten used to the formal military bows from the general as she entered the room, but she had had enough meetings with Coral River that she was gradually getting used to it. The general herself was always kind and friendly, so that didn't bother Autumn, but it was more the fact that she now found herself involved in military intelligence briefings that threw her off. She never imagined that the military would partially answer to her, yet she also never imagined she'd be in this position when she was a foal...
"The majority of the Realm is quiet, save for a few scuffles with bandits in the west, but the big issue is Fragrance," Coral River said, tapping a map of Kiria for emphasis. "Paramilitaries who call themselves the 'Gleaming Scales' have all but broken out into gang warfare in the streets against a coalition of social and religious forces, including Way of Fire mystics and trade unionist movements in Fragrance. They're popular with nationalists in the Realm, and are mostly led by diaspora returnees, which explains their ideals. The Gleaming Scales seem to have imported Wingbardian fascism almost down to the letter—and trust me, I've been to Wingbardy. I should know."
"Okay, so it sounds like it's time to get the military involved," Autumn said. "Why haven't they been dealt with already?"
"Because the Fickle Current and the NAKP have often used the Gleaming Scales as under-the-table enforcers for their policies in Fragrance and Rhapsody," Coral River elaborated. "They're farther right than the NAKP is, but they aren't afraid to join forces when it suits them both. So normally, going after the Gleaming Scales would be unfeasible, because Fickle Current and his allies would bail them out. However, there has been a split between the NAKP and the Gleaming Scales lately. We COULD crack down on them now... but they are only a fringe movement, and the situation in Fragrance is delicate. Clearing them out could embolden other parties to fill the power vacuum, like the gang of Rising Fire adherents who call themselves the Cascading Sparks. They've become a major player in the conflict in the past few months, and they're extremely popular with the poorest of the poor in the city. What they lack in funding and equipment they make up for in sheer determination, and they've bloodied the noses of the Gleaming Scales more than once. Both sides are hardly pleasant kirin, and they don't have our nation's best interests in mind. I'd be lying if I said I'd be sad to see them go, but we can only focus on one or the other. As soon as we attack one group, the other will go to ground until the coast is clear." She shrugged and deferred to Autumn with a bow of her head. "At any rate, the decision is not mine to make. That responsibility rests on your shoulders, Premier."''
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
On every month for |
Option conditions
The situation in Fragrance is too delicate to disturb.
The Gleaming Scales must be put down before they become even stronger.
Save
The Cascading Sparks are the real threat here, and we have to stop them.
Save | |
Order in the Court
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
With the imperial constitution finally written and delivered to every town in Kiria, no matter how big or small, Autumn Blaze had hoped that the worst of the challenges that document would face were behind it. But while the rest of the Realm read and ratified the constitution, the city of Rhapsody quickly rejected a part of the constitution relating to the implementation of the new judicial system. After a quick talk with her advisor, Fern Flare, she soon figured out why.
"Rhapsody has always had this important judicial institution that they're fiercely proud of," Fern Flare explained. "The Procurate of Rhapsody is this entire system where the priests with the greatest seniority in the city can serve as absolute arbiters and judges in any cases or complaints they take an interest in. It's a system where right and wrong is decided solely by whoever is highest in the pecking order, and it's been entrenched in the city for a long time, even during the peak of Vermilion's power. I can understand why they don't want to let it go."
"They have to, though," Autumn protested, frowning at the letter of Rhapsody's rejection. "They can't just accept part of the constitution and keep their own judicial system. The constitution is needed to standardize our laws and practices across the entire Realm so it's easier to govern. They can't even claim that they're doing it for The Way of Fire; even Winter Frost agreed to it, and she's THE voice of our religion in Vermilion."
"In Vermilion, but not in Rhapsody," Fern Flare quickly countered. "Pushing this issue could create tensions between Vermilion and Rhapsody down the line. It might be better to let them have this exception. Just this once."
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
On every month for |
Once we give one city an exception, the others will want their own.
Rhapsody's friendship is important enough to allow an exception.
Save | |
A New Standard or an Old Banner?
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
Autumn Blaze would be the first kirin to admit she had no experience with the art of war, and so she had long tried to put matters of warfare into the hooves of experienced and studied kirin she could trust. But the newest dilemma on her desk was one that she had to attend to personally as the imperial premier. With the modernisation of the country, and the dawning reality that the world the Realm had returned to was even more dangerous than the one it had cut ties with a century ago, Kiria was in desperate need of a modern, functional, and supplied army to protect its borders. That left Autumn, as its premier and effective head of government, in dire need of a solution to bolster the banners and provide for Kiria's security throughout the process.
Autumn tapped her pen to her lips as she tried to recall what she'd learned at her last meeting with the officers of the Vermilion Banner Army, and that was when an idea came to her. On the western border with the zebra natives and griffon colonizers existed many regional militias that had maintained their military traditions throughout the Silence to protect their lands from raids across the river. They were antiquated and fought with swords and outdated battle tactics, but they were organized, well-trained, and had a strong identity as warrior-kirin. Better yet, when the news of the Grand Gallop Onward reached the western border, they had immediately reaffirmed their oaths of loyalty to Vermilion and Matriarch Rain Shine. There was a possibility in here to do something with them and bolster the army as a whole.
Autumn snatched a sheet of paper off her desk and prepared to write down a proposal for the Reform Bureau, but she hesitated before putting ink to paper. These units were hardly top of the line; what they possessed in discipline they lacked in equipment and modern doctrine. Would it be better to let them keep their organization as autonomous military units and adopt them into the Banner Army, or dissolve and disperse them to integrate them into the growing banners as a whole? Keeping them together would please the martial families of the west, but it would also hurt the spread of new ideas. But dispersing them into the army would allow them to be better trained and more effectively used, and the mixture of ideas from throughout the Realm would help dilute any biases of the western soldiers; The Rising Fire was very popular in the west, after all, and it could be a risky endeavor to let those beliefs grow unchecked...
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
On every month for |
The Banner Army needs to be bolstered with existing units.
Three Banners of Frontier Militia will be incorporated into the Vermilion Banner Army: - Banner of the Sisterhood of the Sworn Swords - Banner of the Brotherhood of the Benevolent Braves - Banner of the Fraternity of the Western Champions
We should dissolve these militias and train them in the ways of modern warfare.
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Dialectic Dialects
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
Sometimes, it was days like this that reminded Autumn Blaze just how little she understood about Kiria, despite being its imperial premier. She had always known that the Realm was a large nation home to many diverse kirin culture groups, but never before had she faced the problem of having to use a translator to speak to kirin who lived under her jurisdiction. But as a group of kirin from Verdant brought a petition all the way up to the Morning Secretariat for them to resolve, Autumn felt like she was beginning to grasp just how monumental a challenge keeping the nation together during the Grand Gallop Onward would be.
After sorting out some confusion with the translator, and with the assistance of members of the Secretariat who hailed from Verdant, the issue at hoof became much clearer. Verdant, diverse as it was, had its own dialect of the kirin language, to the point where it was difficult for Autumn, who was from Massicot, to understand what they were saying. While the language the majority of the Realm spoke and the dialect Verdant spoke used the same script, their pronunciation, grammar, and vernacular were extremely different. But the crux of the issue rested on what Fickle Current and his NAKP party had been attempting to do in the city. The NAKP had begun to offer language classes in Verdant to help the local populace learn how to speak the Vermilion dialect of kirish, which had angered the local leaders in Verdant, especially the mystics of The Rising Fire, who felt they were being scolded for supposed 'backwardness' by the bourgeoisie colonizers from the north. Their demands were quite simple: that the NAKP leave the city and cease attempting to teach Vermilion kirish in Verdant's schools and teahouses, and let Verdant proudly embrace its cultural heritage instead of letting it be erased by the influence of the north. When their demands triggered outrage from the NAKP members seated in the Morning Secretariat, who claimed that it was the right of the NAKP to conduct these educational ventures to promote patriotism for the Realm as a whole, Autumn quickly realized that it would come down to her and her supporters to decide whether to accept the petitioners' plea or not.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
On every month for |
Verdant's heritage is important and must be protected.
One culture and one heritage will make the realm great again.
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Kiria's Covered Cage
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
The kirin sitting across from Autumn Blaze unsettled her. There was something about him that wormed its way under her scales and made them itch. Maybe it was the way his eyes seemed to pick her apart whenever she spoke, or the slight crookedness of his muzzle, a memory from some traumatic injury long in his history. More likely it was the way he spoke, and what he spoke about, that made her feel ill at ease. Not even Matriarch Rain Shine sitting by her side made her feel any better.
"Thank you for that... lengthy history on the Banner of the Covered Cage, Ember Wane," Autumn said, picking her notes up and jogging the pages together. "I never knew that Matriarch Noctilucent Charm had created an organization so... loyal and dedicated to enforcing the policies of The Silence. Coming from a small farm in Massicot, I never would have imagined that one of the Matriarch's banners was dedicated to rooting out any attempts to turn back the clock and go back to what life was like before The Silence. That's, uh... quite a doozy."
"It was necessary," Ember Wane grunted in a gruff voice. "Kiria's survival depended on making sure The Silence was followed. We worked in the shadows to make sure that it was. My family, and the families of all my bannerkin and comrades, have spent generations enforcing it, without thanks or recognition for our hard work. We have always been loyal to the Matriarchs, first to Noctilucent Charm, and now to you, Matriarch Rain Shine. And now, with Kiria changing and The Silence ended, I come to you on behalf of the Banner of the Covered Cage to ask for official recognition of who we are and what we did in the century since 903. It is time that we are no longer forced to live in secrecy, but be rewarded for our faithful work. Do this, Matriarch, and we shall serve you however you see fit, with no more reason to hide in the shadows."
Before Rain Shine could respond, Autumn nervously cleared her throat. "Y-Yes, well, we're all thankful for your work. I know I'd want recognition too if I had to do what you guys did. But Matriarch... we can't be too hasty here." When Rain Shine raised an eyebrow, Autumn sucked in a deep breath. "The Banner of the Covered Cage... well, from what Ember Wane has told us, they check out with stories we've heard from peasants and farming villages about organized groups of bandits that would sack towns that tried to reorganize their own societies during The Silence. I don't think Ember is going to try to deny that his group was involved in that. So we have to be careful here; do we really give official recognition to the Covered Cage given how the public would feel about that? Or do we just... keep this under the rug, for the time being?"
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
On every month for |
The Banner of the Covered Cage will be recognized for their hard work.
It is too soon to officially acknowledge the Banner's existence. (Nothing) | |
The Last Sunrise of Sunrise
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
Matriarch Superior Rain Shine retreated to her study after her lunch, a worrying thought pricking at the back of her mind. Ever since Ember Wane had come to her seeking recognition for the Banner of the Covered Cage, her thoughts were troubled by what her Premier had said and what that meant for her realm. Had this paramilitary group really been operating without limits and without check for this long? It bothered her that she knew so little about them. They were apparently organized by her mother, and had been operating under her command for decades. Now they claimed to be loyal to her as Kiria's ruling Matriarch. They could be useful, there was no doubt, but Autumn Blaze had made it clear that working with them was a double-edged sword, and would come with its own host of problems.
Chief among them was a record she found in a tattered scroll that reported on their progress to her mother. Though it was short and laced with jargon, Rain Shine was able to suss out the real story inside of the banner's report. It detailed an "intervention" in the town of Sunrise, and how "quick and decisive action" by the banner had "dismantled the heretical society" inside of Sunrise. It sounded so clean on paper, but when Rain Shine brought up other reports and letters that had been sent around the time of the banner's actions, it painted a far bloodier story.
Sunrise had once been home to a millenarian sect of The Way of Fire, who believed that the Vermilion Dynasty had failed Kiria, and that Concord could never be so cruel as to punish the entire Realm with something as harsh as The Silence. Instead, they believed that the Vermilion Dynasty had acted out of corruption and greed, and had smothered Kiria with The Silence in its lust for absolute power. But at the turn of the millennium, Concord would bestow a new avatar on Kiria to overthrow the Vermilion Dynasty and return Kiria to greatness, and so the town and its inhabitants refused to follow the decrees of The Silence and prepared for the new avatar's arrival. By all accounts of the time (what few there were), the city of Sunrise was peaceful and prosperous, open to sharing its wealth with its neighbors, and had modernised in its own way—at least until the Banner of the Covered Cage descended on the town. The inhabitants were slaughtered to the last for charges of heresy and defiance of The Silence, and the entire town put to the torch. All this the Banner had done in the name of the Matriarch and Concord, and though the story had become something of a folk tale in kirin society, the reemergence of the Covered Cage would surely reignite those stories and fill the peasants and farmers of Kiria with outrage.
It left Rain Shine at a terrible impasse. She didn't know what she should do about the story of Sunrise and the Banner of the Covered Cage. Should she come clean to her subjects, apologize for the decades-old massacre, and condemn the actions of the Covered Cage? Or should she suppress the incident as best as she could, in the hope of maintaining peace and calm?
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
On every month for |
Immediate effects
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The Realm must come clean about its past if it wants to move forward.
The knowledge of what happened in Sunrise would do more harm than good.
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Kirin Loyalists
id 1 - 10
Minutiae of Survival
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
The below descriptions are available for this event.
The following description is used if:
- At least one of the following is true:
- Country flag KIR_expelled_communists is set
- None of:
- Realm of Kiria:
- Has completed national focus “In the Vermilion Court”
- Has completed national focus
- "The situation is grim, Premier. I want to know that you have a plan."
Fern Flare sighed as she looked at the piles of papers and files strewn about her desk. Across from her, the High Priestess Winter Frost watched her with cold and skeptical ice blue eyes. "I'm not the premier. That's Autumn. I'm just Acting Premier while she's taking some time off for her mental health."
"If I considered that mare our premier I wouldn't have addressed you by her title," Winter Frost said with a dismissive wave of her hoof. Then she brought that hoof down on Fern's desk. "The Realm is in crisis, and Autumn is incapacitated. It's up to us to fix this mess. The banners are in disarray, and the commonfolk in the far west have fallen to heresy and are rising up against us. Autumn's foolish Grand Gallop Onward left them behind, and now we've lost them to a demagogue who twists Concord's word into a whip she uses to get what she wants. They spurn Matriarch Rain Shine while claiming to fight in her name. We have to destroy them all if we want to bring peace and prosperity back to Concord's realm."
"The west isn't our only problem," Fern Flare reminded her. "Fickle Current took his friends back to Fragrance and have established their own de facto state there. The kirin of Greater Providence in the north have always been more reluctant to follow Vermilion's rule, and I've heard that even Rhapsody is tempted to throw its lot in with Fragrance. Current was clever; he made sure that Greater Providence received the bulk of the Realm's industrialization efforts, and now Fragrance has an industrial base that rivals the rest of the Realm. And as time goes on, he'll only grow stronger. We can only hope that they don't push for war as well."
"If they have any common sense, they won't," Winter insisted. "For now, we must focus on shoring up the loyalty of the kirin in East and Central Kiria. War is coming to their homes, and they have to be ready to defend the Way of Fire and the Matriarch Superior."
The following description is used if:
- The Rising Fire was allowed into the Plenum. (?)
- "The situation is grim, Premier. I want to know that you have a plan."
Fern Flare sighed as she looked at the piles of papers and files strewn about her desk. Across from her stood the High Priestesses Winter Frost and Rising Sun, though the two mares stood about as far apart from each other as they could. Getting them together in her office had been a pain in her flank, and Fern only hoped they wouldn't start fighting in the middle of the meeting. "I'm not the premier, Priestess Frost. That's Autumn. I'm just Acting Premier while she's taking some time off for her mental health."
"These are stressful times," Rising Sun agreed. "But mares of resolve will power through them for the good of the Realm. Since our premier is evidently not one, you will have to make decisions in her stead as if you are the premier."
Winter Frost shot Rising Sun a look, as if offended that the heretic had even deigned to speak, but pointedly turned her attention back to Fern Flare. "The Realm is in crisis. The banners are in disarray, and that foreign traitor Fickle Current took his friends back to Fragrance and have established their own de facto state there. The kirin of Greater Providence in the north have always been recalcitrant fools, and they've even bribed Rhapsody to put the selfish greed of the Procurate over its duty to serve Concord."
"What the morally corrupt in the north take from the Realm, the west will offer in faith and virtue," Rising Sun said, a small smile curving her lips. "Fragrance may be a formidable foe, but they are nothing compared to Concord's divine will. We will strike them down for their defiance of her will. And when things are over..." She looked directly at Winter Frost, and her smile turned into a predatory grin. "Things will change."''
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
Kiria will endure.
 The Embattled Dynasty
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A New Way for the Way of Fire
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
The smell of incense wafted past Winter Frost's nose as she sat in the Vermilion Pagoda, waiting patiently while the priests and mystics from the upper echelons of the Way of Fire made their way into the room and took their seats before her. The distant crack and pop of fireworks from the morning service punctuated the pagoda's interior, though in light of the topic on Winter's mind, she couldn't help but imagining them as the reports of distant rifles in the countryside. Concord willing, that sound would never make its way to Vermilion, but she had to be prepared for that eventuality.
When all the mystics had taken their seats, Winter Frost slowly looked over each of them in turn. Some were young, but many, many more were old kirin, kirin who had spent decades faithfully serving the Realm under The Silence. They had done their part to keep the peace and hold the Realm together while faithfully following the Matriarch's decrees, and now she had gathered them here to explain how they would serve the Matriarch in a new way.
"Concord has seen fit to test our resolve by arranging us against Her enemies," Winter Frost began. "The Realm is under assault by villains who would destroy everything the Way of Fire stands for. Everything we have struggled to achieve would be undone in an instant if we do not fight for it. So fight we will."
She took a deep breath and unfurled a scroll stamped with the Matriarch's seal before her, turning it so the other kirin assembled could see it. "The Way of Fire must lead from the front if we are to safeguard the soul of Kiria. It is not enough to be spiritual mystics and temple priests, guiding our wayward followers toward a pious life. Now we must become battlefield leaders, chaplains, and provocateurs to fight against the enemy wherever it rears its head. We will fight to restore the Way of Fire, fight for Concord's holiness, and fight to redeem our realm from treachery and heresy. We must show the Matriarch Superior our utmost loyalty and devotion, and support her in these horrid times. Some of us will fall, some of us will falter, but so too will new heroes and champions of Concord rise to the challenge. It is up to us, up to each and every one of us, to strive to become that kirin."
With one final nod, she rolled the decree back up with her magic and set it aside. "The Way of Fire must stand resolute or be snuffed out. And I will not let its flame die with me."
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
The Way of Fire has saved Kiria from crisis before. It will again.
The Resolute Flame
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A Matriarch's Hopes
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
Rain Shine's mouth felt dry as she looked at the microphone placed before her. It was such a queer device. Simply by speaking into it, every kirin in the Realm with a radio would hear her voice instantly, no matter how far away they were. Few kirin in the Realm had even seen her face; fewer still had ever heard her voice. That was about to change.
The studio technician gave her the signal, and Rain Shine drew the speech she'd prepared closer to her face. "Concord's blessings be upon you, kirin of the Realm," she began, her voice trembling slightly as she tried to imagine she was speaking not into a radio, but to a kirin in her home. "I have always tried to do what is best for you. You are more than my subjects, for we are all foals of Concord, each and every one of us. We are a family. And whenever I think about the consequences of my actions, I think first about how they would affect my family.
"The Grand Gallop Onward was supposed to be a new beginning for Kiria," she continued. "We would leave the stillness of the Silence and join the chorus of the modern world. Concord willing, I would be able to bring my family to a new life of peace and prosperity. We would follow the model of successful countries like Equestria, where democracy, constitutional rule, and the guiding hoof of benevolent leaders ensure equal opportunity and a safe and happy life for everykirin. I believe that these ideals hold water, and they are the ideal that all creatures should strive towards."
She took a deep breath and let that statement settle into the minds of her listeners across the Realm. "We are still reaching for that ideal, even in the trying times we now find ourselves in. There are those that would subvert our peaceful desires to suit their own ends. They would replace selflessness with selfishness, compassion with disdain, freedom with tyranny. They would twist the word of Concord to suit their own selfish desires. But we will not let them. I still believe in peace, but regretfully they leave us with no choice. In order to protect our family, we must discipline those that would tear it apart. I am now calling on you, kirin of the Realm, my brothers and sisters in Concord, to take up arms and to defend our future. Only together can we see the Realm out of these dark days. Only together can we once more find peace and prosperity under Concord's boundless love. And only together can we save the Realm."
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
Thank you.
The Embattled Dynasty
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Harmony in Crisis
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
Unease settled in Fern Flare's chest as she looked out at the empty seats in the Bluegrass Pavilion, where she had scheduled an emergency meeting of the Realm and Harmony Party. A year ago, those seats would have been filled, and she would have sat in one as she listened to Autumn Blaze extoll the party's virtues and stump for the party platform. But Autumn was sick with stress, and with war breaking out across the Realm, many party members were either imprisoned, dead, or had gone off to help on the front lines. The Realm and Harmony Party was merely a shell of what it once was, but somehow, Fern needed to find the strength to keep what was left of it together.
Unfortunately, for better or for worse, the current crisis gave the party plenty of reason to stick together. "We are not finished yet. Not by a long shot," Fern told the kirin gathered around her. "We were the largest and most influential of the forces guiding Kiria as it navigated the Grand Gallop Onward. The radicalism of Fickle Current and the Rising Fire have shaken many worried kirin free from their influence, and they fall to us with their fears and worries. We have the connections and resources to navigate this crisis and guide Kiria out of the darkness. Everything we have must be dedicated toward bringing peace back to the Realm and depriving those who would profit off of the Realm's misery of the means to do so."
"What about the Way of Fire?" somekirin asked from her seat. "They say the war is a sign we never should have strayed from the ways of the past. From their teachings and guidance. They'll try to undermine our efforts if we don't cooperate with them."
"And what will cooperating with the Way of Fire get us?" another kirin challenged. "They're trapped in theocratic dogma. We have to stay true to our promise for the Realm: a departure from conservative superstition, and a chance to bring harmony and democracy to all kirin. Fickle Current fights to carve up Kiria for foreigners, and the Rising Fire challenges our worship of Concord, our Matriarch, and our entire way of life. This is a war of ideologies; how can we hope to survive if we don't stay true to our own?"
"We cannot alienate the Way of Fire by refusing to cooperate with them in this time of crisis!" A third kirin protested. "We must first focus on defeating the threats to the safety of the Realm by working together. Once the Realm is safe once more, then we can push for our principles and beliefs!"
Fern Flare listened to the angry voices beginning to rise around her, and she bit on her lip as she realized she needed to represent the party's will and put a stop to it before it got worse. The more she filled in for Autumn, the more she understood why serving as Kiria's premier had broken the mare.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
Our principles and dedication to harmony make us strong. Not bowing before priests.
The Embattled Dynasty
We may be strong alone, but we cannot win this fight without the Way of Fire.
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Resist the Traitors, Defend the Realm
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
The below descriptions are available for this event.
The following description is used if:
- At least one of the following is true:
- Country flag KIR_expelled_communists is set
- None of:
- Realm of Kiria:
- Has completed national focus “In the Vermilion Court”
- Has completed national focus
- Fern Flare trotted along the aisles of typesetters and printing presses lining the warehouse, observing the start of what was about to be one of the largest printing undertakings the Realm had ever witnessed. Vermilion Heralds stood off to the side, orange and gold satchels resting on tables ready to receive thousands of pamphlets to spread far and wide across the Realm. What exactly would be in those pamphlets, pamphlets ominously titled "Resist the Traitors, Defend the Realm," had, as of yet, remained unresolved. The reason for that followed Fern Flare as she observed the machines; Winter Frost, concerned on behalf of the Way of Fire as to what the contents of the pamphlets would be, had long fought with Fern Flare to get what she desired inside of those pamphlets, not what the Realm and Harmony Party had advocated. Now, with the pamphlets due to begin distribution that evening, a decision had to be made one way or another.
"The pamphlets are to focus on building toward a harmonic democracy and resisting warmongering and tyranny," Fern Flare growled out of the corner of her muzzle. "Why is that such a decisive issue? Surely you can agree with something like that!"
"Because there are more important things to remind kirin of in only a limited space!" Winter Frost snapped back. "We have to remind them about their loyalty to the Matriarch! The Matriarch is Concord's chosen avatar in this world. She is divinity made flesh! Nothing, not even your misguided calls for democracy, is more important than that! Concord gave us the Way of Fire, and She gave us the Matriarchs. Loyalty and belief in Concord's gifts is the only thing that will save the Realm!"
"Concord isn't fighting this war on our behalf! We have to do it ourselves!" The two mares stopped next to the head typesetter, his suitcase of characters open and ready to be inserted into the first press. Both mares fumed, but only one would get her way.
The following description is used if:
- The Rising Fire was allowed into the Plenum. (?)
- Fern Flare trotted along the aisles of typesetters and printing presses lining the warehouse, observing the start of what was about to be one of the largest printing undertakings the Realm had ever witnessed. Vermilion Heralds stood off to the side, orange and gold satchels resting on tables ready to receive thousands of pamphlets to spread far and wide across the Realm. What exactly would be in those pamphlets, pamphlets ominously titled "Resist the Traitors, Defend the Realm," had, as of yet, remained unresolved. The reason for that followed Fern Flare as she observed the machines; Winter Frost and Rising Sun, concerned on behalf of the Way of Fire and the Rising Fire as to what the contents of the pamphlets would be, had long fought with Fern Flare to each get what they desired inside of those pamphlets, not what the Realm and Harmony Party had advocated. Now, with the pamphlets due to begin distribution that evening, a decision had to be made one way or another.
"The pamphlets are to focus on building toward a harmonic democracy and resisting warmongering and tyranny," Fern Flare growled out of the corner of her muzzle. "Why is that such a decisive issue? Surely the both of you can agree with something like that!"
"Because there are more important things to remind kirin of in only a limited space!" Winter Frost snapped back, speaking first. "We have to remind them about their loyalty to the Matriarch! The Matriarch is Concord's chosen avatar in this world. She is divinity made flesh! Nothing, not even your misguided calls for democracy, is more important than that! Concord gave us the Way of Fire, and She gave us the Matriarchs. Loyalty and belief in Concord's gifts is the only thing that will save the Realm!"
"And you would champion your out of touch dogma over the reality of our world?" Rising Sun asked, earning a scowl and sharp glare from Winter. "The Matriarch Superior specifically instructed The Way of Fire, through YOU, priestess, that your sect and mine are to work together for the good of the Realm. Driving home your message about loyalty to the Way of Fire at the expense of Fern Fare's beliefs in democracy or mine over the right of my kirin to worship how they choose is perhaps the greatest heresy of all. After all, it goes against the Matriarch's wishes." Then she turned to Fern Flare. "Do you think that calls for democracy mean anything to a kirin fighting for her life? No. The only thing that matters to the poor and the starving is the hope for peace. Focus instead on making promises of peace and justice, not any sort of grand call for reform. Democracy and tradition mean nothing if they do not improve the lives of ordinary kirin everywhere while war rages around them."
The three mares stopped next to the head typesetter, his suitcase of characters open and ready to be inserted into the first press. Each fumed, but only one would get her way.''
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
Option conditions
Fern Flare extolls the virtues of democracy and resisting tyranny.
The Embattled Dynasty
Winter Frost reminds Kiria of what they owe to Concord and the Matriarch.
The Embattled Dynasty
Rising Sun paints a picture of peace, justice, and prosperity for the common kirin.
The Embattled Dynasty
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Help From Our Pony Friends?
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
The below descriptions are available for this event.
The following description is used if:
- At least one of the following is true:
- Country flag KIR_expelled_communists is set
- None of:
- Realm of Kiria:
- Has completed national focus “In the Vermilion Court”
- Has completed national focus
- "It will not stand, Fern. Foreigners got us into this mess. Now you would have foreigners get us out of it, too?"
"Why are you so against this, Priestess?" Fern Flare asked in an exasperated voice. Winter Frost stood indignantly on the other side of Fern's desk as the brown mare rubbed at her nose scales and took a deep breath. "Autumn is personal friends with two of the Elements of Harmony. Their influence in Equestria is considerable. If we ask and invoke the Hyacinth Accord with our pony friends across the sea, they will be more than generous with leveraging what they can for our cause. We can negotiate a lend-lease agreement and even ask for some military advisors to help shape up our forces. Surely if we have the means to acquire equipment and expertise from our friends, we should by all means pursue it?"
"The last thing Kiria needs is more foreigners on our soil," Winter Frost adamantly stated. "The more we invite in, the less control we have over our country. How long before they fill out our government, too? They already stole Fragrance and our industry. They are nothing but trouble."
"Like we have much control over the Realm right now," Fern bitterly remarked. "And if we don't get help, we're not going to lose what we have."
"If you want help from the Equestrians so much, then have them send us supplies and machinery so we can make our own weapons. The Realm is for Concord and her foals, not a plaything for foreigners, and we will win it back ourselves."
The following description is used if:
- The Rising Fire was allowed into the Plenum. (?)
- "It will not stand, Fern. Foreigners got us into this mess. Now you would have foreigners get us out of it, too?"
"Why are you so against this, Priestesses?" Fern Flare asked in an exasperated voice. Winter Frost and Rising Sun stood indignantly on the other side of Fern's desk as the brown mare rubbed at her nose scales and took a deep breath. "Autumn is personal friends with two of the Elements of Harmony. Their influence in Equestria is considerable. If we ask and invoke the Hyacinth Accord with our pony friends across the sea, they will be more than generous with leveraging what they can for our cause. We can negotiate a lend-lease agreement and even ask for some military advisors to help shape up our forces. Surely if we have the means to acquire equipment and expertise from our friends, we should by all means pursue it?"
"The last thing Kiria needs is more foreigners on our soil," Winter Frost adamantly stated. "The more we invite in, the less control we have over our country. How long before they fill out our government, too? They already stole Fragrance and our industry. They are nothing but trouble."
"This war is a test of our faith in Concord," Rising Sun added. "If we believe in our righteousness, then we will prevail. But if we rely on foreigners to solve our problems for us, what does that tell Concord about her foals? That we cannot survive without the help of foreign creatures and their false gods?" She shook her head and frowned. "Winter Frost and I do not see eye to eye on most things. But this is something we can agree on."
Winter nodded, similarly frowning. "The most we can afford to accept from Equestria are supplies and machinery. Kirin will win this war, not foreigners. And if you try to force this measure through without us, you can forget about our support in anything else you want to pass through for as long as you're acting in Autumn's stead."''
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
Our Equestrian friends will happily share arms and advisors!
We can't trust foreigners, but we'll take their heavy equipment.
The Embattled Dynasty
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The Thunderbolts
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
"Princess 2-2, you're cleared for landing. Try not to bang up the gear as much this time, over."
Sundown Skye smirked as she reached for her radio in her cramped cockpit. "Been a while since I flew a Gladiator, Control. Hurricanes have a little cushion to their gear. Something that'd be really nice when landing on a dirt airfield."
"We take what we can get out here, Skye. Now set her down, I heard somepony say we're due for a night in town. And I know how you've been eyeing up those Vermilion mares. Talk about eye candy!"
"Can you blame me?" Skye chuckled as she gently pulled on the stick, turning her biplane toward the landing strip. The airstrip had been freshly built with Equestrian engineers, and the parkway was lined with Equestrian biplanes gleaming under the Zebrican sun. All were painted in traditional air force camo, with the exception of a black and gold stripe running down the midline of the fuselage, and the same pattern painted over the Equestrian roundels on the wings. They were all Thunderbolts planes, a volunteer air force sent over from Equestria to help their harmonic kirin allies in the ongoing civil war. The chance to fly over some distant and exotic country had been too good of an opportunity to pass up, and Skye had immediately volunteered to join the Thunderbolts and fight in the name of harmony abroad. It also didn't hurt that the pay was good... real good. She was making three times as much as she did in the Equestrian air force to fly an outdated biplane and sortie against an enemy that could barely afford anti-air guns. All in all, it was like a hunting trip, except her weapon was an aeroplane and her quarry were rebellious kirin fighting against harmony. Her wingponies were all comrades, and they weren't soldiers, just employees of the Realm and Harmony party, which made it about as relaxing a war as Skye could imagine. And the pony in the control tower was right; Skye was definitely enjoying the chance to sample some of the local wildlife while on leave, to put it one way.
Still, she couldn't help herself. As she approached the runway, she yanked hard on the stick, sending her aircraft into an aileron roll just before landing. After righting the plane and feeling the landing gear shudder as they hit the dirt, her radio crackled to life one more time.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
"Nopony likes a show off, Skye."
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
(No triggers) |
' (Nothing) | |
Harmony Shines Brightly
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
Doctor Lucent Shine had worked up a lather by the time he made it back to his house and hopped off of his bicycle. He was getting better at this, he thought to himself; while never a particularly athletic kirin, Lucent had resolved to use a bicycle to make his commute to the temple where he'd taken up teaching electrical engineering ever since the All-Kiria Collegium shuttered its doors with the outbreak of civil war. The benefits were twofold; his bike didn't need gasoline unlike his automobile, which was such a precious resource for Vermilion's armed forces that any waste couldn't be spared, and it helped him stay in shape. After all, if the war took a bad turn, Vermilion would soon be putting a rifle in his hooves to defend the Matriarch, regardless of his status as an intellectual and the former professor of electrical engineering at Manehattan Polytechnic.
As he wheeled his bicycle up the driveway to his front door, he waved at his neighbors sitting on their porch drinking tea. They waved back, and one of the two mares drinking tea stood up and leaned against the railing. "Can I ask you something, Doctor?" she asked him, her local accent coloring her words in a way that Doctor Lucent was still getting used to after living his entire life in Manehattan. "Why didn't you go with the rest of them?"
Lucent paused and cocked his head. "Rest of them?" he asked back. "You mean the members of the diaspora that went with Fickle Current to Fragrance?"
"The very same," the mare answered. "I heard that they're rich in Fragrance. That Current stallion keeps them well cared for. They even opened a new college there. So why stay in Vermilion?"
"Because it's not about money." Lucent shrugged. "I was foaled in Equestria, and I grew up being taught about friendship and peace and harmony. When the Silence ended and kirin started coming back to our home, I couldn't help but join in. I wanted to show everykirin here what it was like to live in a country as wonderful as Equestria, and it's not a dream I've given up on yet. We'll get through this; there's still a chance for harmony in Kiria yet." Then he touched his hoof to his horn as if tipping his nonexistent hat and left his neighbors to think about his words.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
There are still plenty of kirin out there who believe in Harmony.
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Training Field Politics
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
Line after line after line of recruits filled the training field, alternating between push-ups and prancing in place with the whistle of the drill sergeant as they worked on their physical conditioning. Fern Flare watched them with the camp's commander, Scarlet Rose, as the next line of defense prepared to take the field for the future of Kiria and its Matriarch. "They seem better than the last time I was here," Fern remarked to the commander.
Scarlet Rose nodded. "When you were last here, the Banners were in chaos. We were fighting a war with militias and ad-hoc bannerkirin regiments. Nokirin was truly ready for a war, but there it was. Yet we survived our trial by fire, and things are improving, albeit slowly."
"Mmhmm." Fern Flare watched the soldiers training for a few seconds of silence before steering the conversation towards the real reason she had decided to visit the training fields. "I heard that these bannerkirin were provided by Winter Frost," Fern Flare said. "Devouts she managed to scrape together from some of the villages in the mountains. And I also heard that she wants to expedite their training and put them under the command of some of her Valiants."
"You heard right," Scarlet said. "And I would be wary of it if I were you. You should know even better than I do that that mare is always working an angle. Way I see it, she's worried that the Realm and Harmony Party is getting too much power. Most of our commanders in the field are part of Autumn's party, and I bet if you made them choose, they'd stick with her over the Way of Fire and the priests sitting in their temples. Winter doesn't like that, so she wants to have her own bannerkirin regiments serving the faith first and the Realm second."
"Yet we all fight and serve the Realm, no matter who we agree with more," Fern said, a frown forming on her face. "I don't like that at all. We shouldn't be dividing the loyalties of the troops in the field. That's going to cause more problems down the line, I can already tell." She thought for a moment and tapped her hoof against her chin. "There are more ways to serve the Realm than fighting, I suppose," Fern said, feeling out her thoughts. "Not all of our Banner families are renowned warriors. Many were economic powerhouses rather than military masterminds. Why not direct some of these banners towards military production? Perhaps the ones with an extraordinary relationship with the mystics of the Way of Fire?"
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
We need soldiers, regardless of who they agree with more.
- Fire-Forged Banner of the Thundering Tide - Fire-Forged Banner of the Eastern Wind - Fire-Forged Banner of the Crystalline Scimitar
Let's take troublesome elements off of the battlefield and put them in the factories.
The Resolute Flame
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id 11 - 20
Only the Good Die Young
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
"Present, ARMS!"
Fern Flare watched with a shiver as the entire corps of soldiers performed a rifle salute in the parade grounds before the Vermilion Palace, with row after row of steel bayonets glistening in the sun. All the assembled kirin part of the first regiment of the Volunteer Guard 1st Corps were smartly dressed in their parade uniform, and a tall vermilion and pink banner fluttered at the head of the corps. Their regiment had been proudly christened 'Realm and Harmony' by the Realm and Harmony Party, and Fern Flare knew that they represented the best of the best of the Vermilion banners. But what really struck her about the kirin assembled before her for inspection was how young and full of vigor they were.
She turned to the bannerkirin commander, who turned to face her expectantly. "Shield-General Bright Burn, was it?" she asked. "Your regiment is a model for the rest of the banners to aspire towards. But I can't help but notice that most of your soldiers barely look like they've seen twenty winters."
"Many of them haven't, ma'am," Bright Burn responded, to Fern Flare's surprise. "We're all volunteers from various trots of life, but these are our prime years, as strong as we'll ever be. We've all decided to dedicate them to the Realm and to the Matriarch. Even if we die, at least we'll die in the name of Harmony."
"Teenagers and young mares and stallions shouldn't be so ready to die," Fern Flare said, taken aback. "You have your entire lives ahead of you!"
"And what would those lives mean if the Realm falls, ma'am?" Bright Burn asked her. "I graduated from the Royal University of Canterlot and intended to work my way into the Royal Guard someway, somehow. But when Premier Autumn ended the Silence and announced her intent to reform the Realm in the model of the adoptive country I had grown to love so much, I changed my plans to return here and help her. Now, the best way to help her is to fight for her. Every one of us knows that we might die, ma'am, but we also know that there are countless more who cannot fight for what's right. If we die so that somekirin else can live in peace and plenty, then we are willing to make that sacrifice."
The bold statement took Fern Flare's words away, and all she could do was clumsily nod her understanding. She felt her throat tighten, and she couldn't manage to look Bright Burn in the eyes.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
These kirin, so young and so bold, are far better than we ever will be.
The Embattled Dynasty
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Defending the Homefront
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Standard-General Firetail looked out at the recruits that had gathered in the town with a mixture of admiration and concern. Admiration because so many faces had gathered willingly in the town to pledge themselves to the Territorial Volunteers. Concern because most were too old or too young to be deemed fit to serve in the banners themselves. But Firetail had put out a summons through all the surrounding villages for willing volunteers to enroll with the Territorial Volunteers to protect their homes, and over a hundred kirin had answered that call.
Even if they had all been young and fit adults, the weapons they brought with them would hardly make them more than a mob. Most carried sabres and arquebuses, and those that didn't held farming implements by their sides. Firetail had brought a crate of modern rifles with him and his entourage, but that would barely equip a third of the kirin assembled here today. But it would make do. After all, it wasn't like they were marching these kirin off to war.
He watched as his officers helped divide and organize the volunteers by village and hamlet. The Territorial Volunteers were never intended to be a professional fighting force; it was only to police the hinterlands so that the able-bodied kirin could go fight on the front lines. But they had an advantage that even the fit and valiant conscripts lacked; this land was their home, and they knew it well. Any river crossings, any mountainous passes, any hidden dens and coves, these kirin knew about, and the invaders did not. They could use the land to their advantage, multiplying their ragtag force while mitigating the strengths of their enemies. And on top of everything else, these kirin fought for their homes and their families, and nothing else. There was no greater motivator than doing whatever it took to defend one's own.
They were motivated, they were trusted by their neighbors, and they were willing to stand up when nokirin else could. For that, Firetail knew they would exceed his expectations.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
This land is their home, and they will fight to keep it safe.
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Strict Standards
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Autumn Blaze swirled the glass of baijiu in her magic, feeling the strong drink helping to soothe frayed nerves and suppress the guilts that had kept her secluded in her home for far too much lately. She watched from the sidelines as a band played and young mares and stallions danced on a dance floor, each dressed to the nines in their dress uniforms. Tonight was the graduation ceremony for the current cohort of kirin from the Massicot War School, and these proud kirin, now finally having attained their officer's rank after months of brutal and intense study and drill, found themselves enjoying one last chance to relax and celebrate as if there wasn't a war going on.
"So young and innocent," Autumn could only remark with a sigh when Fern Flare joined her at the side of the dance hall. "But happy, too. It feels like it's been forever since I felt anything like they do."
The rueful remark elicited a look of concern from Fern, but she let it slip by without challenge; she was just happy to see Autumn participating in something social for once. "We had to graduate them six months early, but plenty of them will finish their training on the battlefield," Fern said. "We'll send the best to the front lines, and the rest will go to Vermilion and other administrative hubs to help keep the wheels turning. Their job is just as important, if not moreso. But I'm confident they will succeed."
Autumn nodded and took a sip of her drink, feeling the burn of alcohol crawl down her throat and humming. "Most of these kirin have RaHP pins, don't they?" she observed, pointing at a pair of stallions dancing together not too far away.
"We've been able to keep a good grasp on who gets admitted to the War School," Fern admitted with a shrug. "All these kirin strongly believe in harmony, just like the last few cohorts we've graduated through the school. We're building a strong force in the field that believes in what we're fighting for."
"Strong as it can be with dwindling enrollment," Autumn said, and Fern arched an eyebrow in surprise. Autumn could only laugh. "I'm still the Premier, you know, even if I've done a terrible job of acting like it. I did my best to catch up on what I missed before tonight, and I noticed that enrollment has been flagging. Fewer and fewer kirin are meeting the party's criteria for admittance, and it's starting to get concerning. If we don't slacken our standards a little, we might not have enough kirin to push through many more cohorts."
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
It might be best to lower our standards a little.
We must ensure only true supporters of harmony go through Massicot.
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Zealotry Behind Enemy Lines
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Even now, Fern Flare still found herself in awe when in Matriarch Rain Shine's presence. She'd come a long way from the daughter of farmers; now she was sitting in the Matriarch's study, sharing tea with the embodiment of Concord's divinity made flesh.
After the usual pleasantries, Rain Shine set her cup back on its platter and smiled at Fern. "I've enjoyed getting to know you better, Fern, so I hope this will not come across as rude if I ask about Autumn's health. She is a dear friend of mine. Is she doing well?"
"She's getting better," Fern assured her. "Hopefully, it won't be too long before she's sitting here instead of me. Until then, I'm only doing my best to fill her place." She set her own cup down and touched the folder she'd brought with her to the meeting. "I have a proposal that I would like your thoughts on. The war..." she hesitated at the look of sadness that flashed across Rain Shine's face, if only to disappear behind divine neutrality as quickly as it arrived. "It's not wise to make premature conjectures, but it is wise to be prepared for all outcomes. This one in particular considers territory lost to the secessionists." She opened the folder with her magic, revealing the dozens of documents stuffed inside. "We've organized plans for stay-behind brigades, equipment caches, and resistance training for soldiers and operatives. Volunteers will disguise as civilians and help sabotage critical targets. Only... we've had to rely more than we'd like to on the Way of Fire."
"Oh?" Rain Shine's brow furrowed. "You make that sound like a bad thing."
"The devout are the backbone of our resistance efforts, and their zealotry will be helpful in fighting against impossible odds," Fern Flare admitted. "But zeal can be counter-productive, and the Way of Fire sees this war as a personal affront to Concord Herself... and you. I'm afraid that in their hooves, resistance could quickly become terrorism. Devotion is a powerful motivator, but times have changed. The Way isn't the be-all and end-all that it used to be. The kirin fight for other ideals now; a democratic future, yes, and their loyalty to you, their Matriarch, but also for their homes and families. We don't need sleeper cells of zealous terrorists, but a network of trained organisers who can sustain long-term resistance efforts with grassroots support."
At that, she closed the folder as both mares frowned at it. "We'll have to be careful in how we proceed, Matriarch. Otherwise we could be creating a bigger problem than the one we're trying to solve."
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
It is the Way that makes us strong.
The Resolute Flame
Terrorism is no substitute for a popular struggle.
The Resolute Flame
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A Broken Cage
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The doors to the throne room opened unexpectedly, interrupting Matriarch Rain Shine's conversation with Fern Flare. All heads turned toward the open doors, where a raggedy kirin stallion stepped forward, a confused soldier worriedly following right on his tail. It took her a second, but Rain Shine soon recognized the commander of the Banner of the Covered Cage, Kiria's obscurely infamous secret police who once enforced the edicts of The Silence. "Commander Ember Wane, to what do I owe the—oh my!" Rain Shine exclaimed upon seeing the soaked red bandages on his leg and shoulder. "What happened?"
"Bandits on the road. Nothing to worry about," Ember Wane replied, though the response was forced through gritted teeth. He stopped in front of Rain Shine's throne and gave her a stiff bow. "Reporting for duty, Matriarch."
"You are in no position to report for duty," Fern Flare insisted, looking the stallion over with equal parts concern and wary. She'd learned more than she would have liked to have known about the Covered Cage in her time in Autumn's stead; the Covered Cage had doggedly enforced the edicts of the Silence during Matriarch Noctilucent Charm's rule, and they supposedly exacted extreme punishments on villages that refused to comply. But she also knew why Ember Wane was supposedly here. "What happened to your banner?"
"Scattered. Dead. I don't know," Ember replied with a sigh. "When the Silence ended, we were at our weakest. And we were never officially recognized by the Matriarchate. Most simply left for greener pastures, or tried opposing the seditious secessionists on their own. My Banner is spent."
"I'm sorry," Rain Shine apologized, bowing her head. "If I had known how much we could have used your aid, we would have reorganized the Banner sooner. As it stands, we need all the help we can get."
"My Banner may be gone, but I'm still standing," Ember said, rising from his bow. "And I will help any way I can."
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
An experienced spymaster may still prove useful.
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March of the Golems
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Ember Wane stood on a grassy hill, looking out over the gentle slopes and curves as dozens of trucks arranged themselves in the field behind him to unload their ancient contents. There had once been a town here, but not many kirin knew it; the Banner of the Covered Cage, the organization he proudly served, had expunged its heresy from the Realm decades ago, leaving not a trace of the kirin who had once defied Matriarch Noctilucent Charm's will. But those kirin had created marvels in their heresy; perhaps it was fitting that he had brought them here to see if their memory could at last serve the Realm.
The kirin behind him hauled crate after crate out of the backs of the trucks, and when they arranged them in the field, they cracked open the boxes to reveal dusty clockwork golems fifty years old. As the laborers positioned and unpacked hundreds of crates on the hillside, Ember Wane trotted to the side where several artificers sat with all sorts of monitoring equipment, including a half dozen thin and curly metal antennae jutting out of bulky boxes. In front of the artificers, a battery of howitzers had been assembled, aimed down at the field where the test would begin. If the golems went rogue upon being activated, Ember was certain to ensure that he lost nothing other than a few dozen rounds of ordinance.
Soon, the laborers' work was completed, and they withdrew to safety, leaving the chiliad of golems standing stiffly in the field. All Ember had to do was spare the artificers a nod, and the other kirin did the rest; shouting orders to each other, they ran through their procedures, and then somekirin pressed a brass button on one of the antennae boxes. The air thrummed with charged static, and everykirin held their breath as they waited for a response.
After what felt like an eternity, the golems began to jerk, and bellows of steam erupted from their metal hides as they powered up. They stood in place, awaiting command, and at Ember Wane's raised hoof, the artificers set the golems to march 50 paces forward. In lockstep syncopation, the constructs responded to the order, their thundering hooves the only thing audible for a mile. After 50 paces, they stopped in unison, awaiting their next orders, and Ember let a pleased smile adorn his muzzle.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Finishing the decision “The Salvage of Sunrise” |
Our enemies will be crushed beneath our metal hooves!
- 'Marching Iron' Lockstep Legion - 'Steel Will' Lockstep Legion - 'Brass Revenant' Lockstep Legion
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Drowning in Heresy
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The peaceful stillness over the lake was broken with riotous yelling, sending a pair of cranes fleeing skyward to escape the commotion. Down by the shoreline, the locals of a nearby town followed a procession of Way of Fire priests to the water, where a cadre of soldiers hauled several bound, beaten, and broken kirin onto a small barge. Some of the prisoners fought back, some cried, and some seemed resigned to their fates.
As the congregation formed into an unruly semicircle by the shoreline, the seniormost priest turned to address the crowd. "The kirin you see before you have been tried and convicted of heresy most damning," she announced in a solemn voice. "They have acted against the interests of the Matriarch, of the Realm, and of Concord Herself in pledging themselves to the lies and deceit of the Rising Fire. For that, they have been condemned to a heretic's death, so that their heresy may serve as an example to those who would turn their back on Concord."
One by one, the soldiers on the barge roughly forced the prisoners into flame-retardant sacks, sewing the only opening shut with a heavy cord attached to leaden weights. The last prisoner kicked and screamed as she realized what was about to happen, and it took three soldiers to force the writhing and thrashing mare into her sack. "No!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "I'm innocent, I swear! I love Concord! I love the Matriarch, no, don't do it!" But her cries fell on deaf ears, and a gag was forced into her muzzle before she herself ended up inside a sack like her fellow condemned.
As the soldiers pushed the barge out into the middle of the lake on poles, the priest only continued her sermon to the crowd. "When we die, our bodies are burned so that our flame may rejoin the Primordial Fire that Concord nurtures in heaven, but what is doused in water may never burn. Thus is the fate of all heretics; the fish shall feast on their flesh and leave little but their sodden bones behind, and so their souls shall remain bound to this world in eternal torture. Let this serve as a lesson and warning to those that would take up arms against the Matriarch and the Realm: heresy shall always be punished, and only true devotion will make Concord proud of her foals."
Her final words were punctuated with the first of several splashes as the soldiers kicked the writhing sacks into the lake.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
We must not let heresy lead us astray.
The Embattled Dynasty
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Free Religion or Tolerated Religion?
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
The Morning Secretariat had long shuttered its doors since the start of the civil war, but today they were opened to all. Inside, representatives of those factions still loyal to Vermilion gathered to witness a landmark historical accord to be delivered by Matriarch Superior Rain Shine herself. Within the hour, the Matriarch would take the unprecedented step of condemning persecution of the Rising Fire, who had remained steadfast allies of Vermilion in these troubling times even despite their religious differences with the Way of Fire.
Of course, it would never be that simple. Before the Matriarch arrived, representatives of both sects had squared off over some of the details in the soon to be announced proclamation, their grievances championed by Rising Sun and Winter Frost as the two mares all but literally butted horns in the center of the Secretariat. "Do you think I cannot see what this is?" Winter Frost challenged, baring teeth that had started growing unsettlingly long as she did her best to control her rage. "As soon as your heresy is unshackled you and your followers will do everything you can to spread it like a pestilence upon the Realm."
"If you strip the right of the Rising Fire to coexist with the Way of Fire, then my supporters and I will trot out of this room and make our peace with the North," Sun threatened. "You will be on your own to face Fickle Current's industrial fury."
Winter sneered, but she recognized the fangs in Rising Sun's threat. "I will not renege my support in the eleventh hour," she finally assured Sun. "But the Way of Fire is the state religion of Kiria, and it has been our salvation for centuries. I want a clause added to the accord that expressly states that the Way of Fire holds primacy over the Rising Fire in all matters, especially in what is taught and sponsored by the state."
"You accuse me of trickery for personal gain and then seek to subordinate me to your orthodoxy?" Sun challenged, bristling. "I will never allow such a clause to find its way into the accord. If you really want a sign of good faith, how about this: we will agree to let the Way of Fire be the practiced state religion if you agree to not interfere with our right to profess our beliefs. I get what I want, you get what you want. Happy? If not, I withdraw my support of this accord, and Vermilion itself."
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
Perhaps it would be better to offer Rising Sun some goodwill...
The Rising Fire
Fine, we'll take your compromise.
The Rising Fire
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When Winter Smothers the Sun
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Silent Snowfall courteously waited and gave High Priestess Winter Frost her space as she finished her prayers and meditations before the shrine of Concord, feeling a comforting warmth in the flickering pink and blue flame burning in the fire bowl. All of the answers to life's problems could be found in that flame, if one knew the right questions to ask it.
Slowly, Winter raised her head from the floor, and after a silent moment to finish off the whispered prayers on her lips, she looked over her shoulder and spotted Silent standing behind her. "Speak, Snowfall," she told the acolyte. "You would not be here if it weren't important."
"It is important," Snowfall admitted, and she took a deep breath. "The Way of Fire has had overwhelming success in encouraging Vermilion to see things from our point of view, as I'm sure you're aware. We've almost entirely overpowered the dissenting voices in the Rising Fire, drowning them out in the truth of Concord's word."
Winter Frost blinked and cocked her head. "You make that sound like a bad thing, acolyte."
"In a sense," Snowfall admitted. "Vermilion is held up by the cooperation of its three pillars of strength. The Way of Fire, the Rising Fire, and Autumn's Equestrian harmonists. What happens if we make the Rising Fire feel like they're wasting their time cooperating with us? They could leave Vermilion, turn their backs on us. We're stronger with their support than without it. I just think... perhaps this is too much of a good thing, High Priestess. It might be best to cut them some slack so that they still see this alliance of convenience as something worth maintaining for the betterment of the Realm."
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
On every week for |
Perhaps it might be best to offer Rising Sun some respite.
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When the Sun Burns Away Winter
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Rising Sun had always enjoyed heat, enjoyed fire. Perhaps it was cliche for a mare with her name, but the hot days of summer had always been her favorite, and even if she couldn't get outside to enjoy the heat, she always liked the crackling blaze of a fire, of feeling the smoke tickle her nostrils and the back of her throat. There was an old saying among the kirin, something along the lines of 'play with fire and expect to be burned', but Rising had never been burned before. Not even when she held her hoof over the open flame of a burning brazier devoted to Concord within one of Her many temples, letting the pink and blue flames lick against her hoof.
Her ears perked at the sound of the temple doors opening behind her, and she gracefully turned around to greet her visitor. She recognized Dayspring Rose, one of her most faithful acolytes and personal pupil, and a smile adorned her muzzle. "Dayspring, my child," she said, warmly, pleasantly. "Do you care to pray with me?"
"I would enjoy that, Priestess," Dayspring said, momentarily bowing her head. "But before I do, I have something I'd like to discuss..."
"Speak," Rising Sun said, and she turned back to the burning brazier, sitting before it as she let its heat wash over her. Dayspring did the same, sparing the fire a look before hesitantly turning toward her mentor.
"We have had outstanding success illuminating the kirin of the Realm in the ways of the true faith," Dayspring began. "More kirin in the Realm believe in the ultimate truth of the Rising Fire than they do the dogmatic orthodoxy of the Way of Fire that has given them so little for so long. But I fear we may be too successful, if such a circumstance could be imagined."
"I'm having difficulty imagining it," Rising said, raising an eyebrow. "Could you elaborate?"
"Well, I mean... Matriarch Rain Shine is always going to support the Way of Fire," Dayspring admitted, even if it put a frown on Rising Sun's muzzle. "That is who she is. That is what the Realm is, at least for now. The Way of Fire still holds tremendous sway over the Realm if only through its history. If we crush their voice, force them out of the future of the Realm... I'm afraid they'll do something drastic."
Rising Sun thought on that for a moment, then nodded. "Yes, that is wise," she agreed. "Perhaps I have been pushing Winter Frost too hard. Cooperation benefits all... so long as we're the ones charting the course."
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
On every week for |
Perhaps it might be best to offer Winter Frost some respite.
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id 21 - 30
Colt Meets World
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
A light rain fell over the small village as Clementine hopped out of the back of the truck, and he quickly drew the hood of his coat up over his horn to keep himself dry. He looked around, orienting himself in the small town before trotting off to the well-lit windows of the inn. All the while, thunder rumbled in the distance, though Clementine knew it wasn't from a storm. He wondered how close to this little no-name village the frontlines had drawn now.
When he entered the inn, he scanned the room and the number of kirin gathered inside before he found the liaison he was to meet with. She was a large mare, especially for a kirin, and muscles toned from years of hard work on a farm rippled under her red coat as she moved and joked with her companions. Clementine, on the other hoof, had never worked on a farm in his life; born and raised in Equestria like much of the Diaspora, he had volunteered to return to Kiria at the behest of Autumn Blaze and the Realm and Harmony Party to spread the ideals of Harmony to his struggling homeland. To say the red mare intimidated him was an understatement.
Nevertheless, he had a job to fulfill, and fulfill it he would for his country and its way of life. The red mare and her comrades looked Clementine over as he approached, and a few snickered behind their hooves, but the stallion did his best to brush that aside and speak with confidence. "Red Dawn, my name is Clementine. I was sent by the RaHP to aid and assist in the defence of this town in any way possible. The RaHP hopes that by fostering cooperation with the Rising Fire along the frontlines, we can work together to create a more harmonic and peaceful Kiria when the dust settles. I've spent most of my life living in Equestria, and I believe that by following their ideas of harmony and cooperation, we can make a Kiria as great and prosperous as them."
Red Dawn raised an eyebrow at the scrawny stallion in front of her and snorted in amusement. "You really think you can fix Kiria with some fancy ideas you learned in some far away place, kid?" she asked him. Before he could answer, she let out a laugh and scooped the young stallion up in a muscular foreleg, dragging him to her side in a crushing hug that left him wheezing for breath. "Don't worry, kid. Kiria isn't the same as Equestria, but we'll see you straight. After a few weeks fighting with us, you'll see how the world really works. How's that sound?"
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
Sounds... great! Can't... breathe...
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On the Funding of Temples
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Rising Sun listened to the endless string of speeches by prominent priests and mystics of The Way of Fire with a similarly endless contempt. Two weeks ago, she had instructed one of her junior acolytes to put forward a motion in the Morning Secretariat to suspend the collection of tithes and donations to Way of Fire temples and monasteries in order to procure funds to support the ongoing war against the NAKP, and as she had predicted, the motion had ignited a spectacular firestorm in the chamber. She had carefully arranged several of her best orators and even enlisted in the aid of economists and advisors to make clear what should have been a simple choice, but that damnable priestess Winter Frost and her allies had initiated what had essentially become a filibuster campaign to kill the motion by bringing in mystic after mystic to lecture to the Secretariat about the moral virtue and religious significance of the tithes. Somehow Winter and her friends expected the rest of the Secretariat to believe that allowing the priests to continue to leech off of the poor and impoverished like parasites pleased Concord, but Rising Sun and the rest of her followers knew all too well that the Way of Fire simply wanted to maintain their hedonistic lives while the rest of Kiria burned around them.
But now it seemed like Winter had finally run out of notable kirin to bring before the Secretariat, and even the harmonists of the Realm and Harmony Party, so eager to let everykirin have their voice heard, were sick of the debate. Seizing her chance, Rising Sun once more brought up a vote to end debate on the matter, and Winter Frost's traditionalist allies were swiftly outvoted by unanimous votes from their opposition. All that was left now was to see who had made the better point: the practical arguments of the Rising Fire, or the eulogizing morality of the Way of Fire.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
The temples may keep their tithes.
The Resolute Flame
What need does Concord have of gold and taels? Seize it all for the war chest.
The Rising Fire
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On the Selection of Administrators
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Winter Frost scowled as she watched Rising Sun and her witless cronies try to steal more power for themselves through pointless debate and sham arguments in the Morning Secretariat, wasting time that should otherwise be devoted to the ongoing war against the foreigners in Fragrance. Many of the heretic's bills were easily shot down by Winter's coalition of traditionalists and members of the RaHP that remained suitably pious to Concord's divine teachings, but this most recent one had become a thorn in her side that she couldn't quite make go away.
Last week, Rising Sun had brought forward a motion to allow the provinces to choose their own regional administrators rather than allowing the Way of Fire to appoint temporal clerics throughout the land as it had traditionally done for centuries. Such a change would normally be too radical to draw substantial support from Fern Flare's Realm and Harmony Party, but the illusion of democracy had proven an alluring temptation for too many of its members. But Winter Frost knew better. She knew the heretical sway Rising Sun and her cult had on the commoners of Kiria, and how quickly the ambitious mare would seize control of the countryside by installing her cronies in a new secular administration with the unwitting aid of the masses she led astray. Kiria needed the spiritual guidance of the Way of Fire, and only pious officials who governed with Concord's favor could keep Kiria together and free of sin and corruption. So rather than let Rising Sun try to sway more votes to her side with her honeyed words and treasonous tongue, Winter decided to take a gamble and force a vote now, even if she didn't know for sure how much of the RaHP was likely to defect to Rising's side.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
The provinces shall remain governed by appointees of the Way of Fire.
The Resolute Flame
It's time for the people of Kiria to choose their own representatives.
The Rising Fire
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On the Dominance of the Serene Tendency
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Fern Flare watched in alarm as the Rising Fire planted a bomb in the Morning Secretariat and lit a match. Not a literal bomb and match, of course, but it might as well have been one. She knew Rising Sun was ambitious, but what she was proposing threatened to completely destroy the tense cooperation between the Rising Fire and the Way of Fire that Kiria needed to survive the ambitions of Fickle Current and his allies in Fragrance.
It all centered around a motion innocuously titled Motion No. 43. In it, Rising Sun issued a direct challenge to the primacy of the Circle of Serene Tendency in the Realm of Kiria by pushing to install a Rising Fire mystic as one of Matriarch Superior Rain Shine's spiritual advisors. To anycreature unfamiliar with Kiria and the Way of Fire, such a proposition would seem harmless, but the motion itself was practically blasphemy in the eyes of High Priestess Winter Frost and the hardliners who rallied around her. Historically, the Matriarch Superior always kept four spiritual advisors close at hoof, one for each part of her Realm: Greater Providence, the Vermilion Realm, the Western Mellifluve, and Zaikiria. These advisors lived with her in the Vermilion Palace and always had her ear when few other kirin in the entire Realm did, and all four had traditionally been selected from the Circle of Serene Tendency, the ultimate religious authority of the Way of Fire through which all the temples in the Realm subordinated themselves to. But the Rising Fire had displaced the Circle's primacy in the west, and Rising Sun sought to capitalize on that by replacing the advisor of the Western Mellifluve with one of her choice, and thus break the Circle's monopoly on the Matriarch's ear. It would be a recognition from the Matriarch of the legitimacy of the Rising Fire, and in a theocracy like Kiria, Fern Flare wondered whether the Realm could survive such a controversy.
But Fern Flare knew that her party would be the deciding vote in the deadlock between the Way of Fire and the Rising Fire, between Winter Frost and Rising Sun, and she decided to push for a vote before somekirin turned nirik in the Morning Secretariat. She just needed to decide on which direction she wanted to whip her party's votes: support the primacy of the Circle of the Serene Tendency and preserve its privileges at the expense of Rising Sun's support, or allow the Rising Fire to have their voice in the Matriarch's ear and keep them happy at the risk of destabilizing the realm and national unity in the long run?
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
The rights of the Circle must be preserved to preserve the Realm.
The Circle has already lost its primacy in the west. Might as well make it official.
The Rising Fire
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On the Industrialization of the Realm
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Dayspring Rose felt honored to be in attendance during the most recent round of debates in the Morning Secretariat, but she was starting to feel that politics were not her forte. The Secretariat was locked in debate over industrialization plans to combat the equipment and material advantage of Fragrance and the deep pockets of its wealthy patrons, and what Dayspring felt should have been a simple matter had dragged on for days as kirin bickered back and forth over the where and what of the matter.
Frowning, she turned aside to Kindling Flash, who sat next to her in the gallery. "Why is this taking so long?" she asked him. "Priestess Sun already proposed concentrating armories and munitions factories around Chrysanthemum. It has the workforce and is far from Fragrance's reach. It makes perfect sense. So why are the rest of them so greatly opposed to it?"
"Think of the big picture," Flash replied, and he gestured across the aisle to where Winter Frost and her allies sat with stern frowns on their muzzles as they listened to a young Rising Fire acolyte address the Secretariat. "Priestess Frost wants to focus instead on non-military manufacturing around Aureolin. Why is that? The answer she gives the Secretariat is that when the war is over, armories and munitions factories would be ill-suited for industrializing and modernizing the poor and rural west. Civilian jobs would suit that much better. And she's right. But there's a far more obvious reason, though of course, nokirin will say it."
Dayspring blinked, frowned, and then cocked her head. "She doesn't want the west to have military industry. But why? Are we not allies against the foreigners in this war?"
"Allies of necessity, Rose," Flash corrected her with a small shake of his head. "We needed to join forces to repulse the NAKP and their corruption and greed. But this war has not brought the Way of Fire and the Rising Fire closer toward reconciliation. Today's ally may be tomorrow's enemy, and it is best to not arm a kirin you do not trust and then turn your back on her."
Dayspring nodded in sullen understanding, and on the Secretariat floor, somekirin motioned for a vote to end the debate. It passed only by the slimmest of margins, and then it came time to settle the matter decisively.
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Civilian industry around Aureolin.
Military industry around Chrysanthemum.
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A Realm in Ruin
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
Vermilion was burning.
Nokirin knew who started the blaze; all anykirin knew was that everykirin had a match, and somekirin dropped theirs. Vermilion, the grandest city in the Realm of Kiria, and the holy city through which The Way of Fire had maintained peace in the Realm for centuries, had been all but reduced to ashes.
Rumors drifted across the realm like smoke from the ruined city. Somekirin had attempted to launch a coup; nokirin knew who struck first. Mystics of the Circle of the Serene Tendency had been found dead, lined up against a brick wall; the lifeless bodies of acolytes of the Rising Fire drifted down the Great Mellifluve. Nirik raged in the streets, their mindless howls of rage creating a cacophony of apocalypse over the ruined capital.
Those rumors traveled to the frontlines faster than any telegraph or radio signal. The effects were localized at first, but soon conflagrated, like a single smoldering coal igniting a grand bonfire. The soldiers of The Way of Fire and The Rising Fire turned on each other up and down the front, slaughtering their former allies in a vicious bloodbath. Caught in the crossfire, the harmonists of the RaHP responded to attack with counterattack. Divisions disintegrated and the chain of command lay in ruins. There was only one rule: kill or be killed, no matter who stood at the other end of your rifle.
As Vermilion burned, the Matriarch disappeared into the smoke. Nokirin knew what happened to Rain Shine, but there was no sign of her as the days passed and the flames died down. Was she dead? Was she hiding? Her body was never found, but then again, not much remained of the palace when the ashes settled. All that remained was hatred, violent and cruel, and the supporters of each of the three parties that once fought to protect the Realm rallied around their leaders like the nirik warlord states of old. In a cruel twist of irony, only the NAKP remains sane and standing, the lone polity in the Realm not twisted by the hatred of the nirik state.
Only time will tell if they can put out the flames or if the inferno will engulf Fickle Current and his allies as well.
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Immediate effects
Nirik State icon Nirik State
Throughout history, there has always been the concept of Apocalypse, and the creatures that propagate it. Be they lunatics, doomsayers, prophets, or the genuinely concerned, such creatures weave tales of grandeur and sacrifice, of fervent hope and insurmountable dread, of butchery and plague. They wield fear with as much grace as any swordsmare, whipping those who hear their stories into a frenzy of anxiety and defiance, only to inevitably be disproved by the jeering mundanity of Fate. Now, it is widely agreed, we have far surpassed any apocalypse ever conceived. Millenia of progress have been immolated in smoke, trampled by the weight of those fateful mistakes and the hubris of a race which dared to believe it could move past itself to become something better. Such dreams are but nostalgia now, idle trivialities to be contemplated by the few kirin who yet remain sane in this cataclysmic hellscape. Nirik in the thousands fight and kill and die, but do not live, doomed to be slaves to the grim will of Rage. Optimism lays dead, sacrificed on the altar of Despair. All that is left for those hapless few whose hope has not been consumed by the inferno is to pray for deliverance, most likely in the form of another major power intervening for fear of the nirik threat fulminating outwards. Pray to whom? No one knows. Even Concord no longer holds vigil over the Realm of Shattered Hope, Tartarus Incarnate on earth.
Nirik State icon Nirik State
Throughout history, there has always been the concept of Apocalypse, and the creatures that propagate it. Be they lunatics, doomsayers, prophets, or the genuinely concerned, such creatures weave tales of grandeur and sacrifice, of fervent hope and insurmountable dread, of butchery and plague. They wield fear with as much grace as any swordsmare, whipping those who hear their stories into a frenzy of anxiety and defiance, only to inevitably be disproved by the jeering mundanity of Fate. Now, it is widely agreed, we have far surpassed any apocalypse ever conceived. Millenia of progress have been immolated in smoke, trampled by the weight of those fateful mistakes and the hubris of a race which dared to believe it could move past itself to become something better. Such dreams are but nostalgia now, idle trivialities to be contemplated by the few kirin who yet remain sane in this cataclysmic hellscape. Nirik in the thousands fight and kill and die, but do not live, doomed to be slaves to the grim will of Rage. Optimism lays dead, sacrificed on the altar of Despair. All that is left for those hapless few whose hope has not been consumed by the inferno is to pray for deliverance, most likely in the form of another major power intervening for fear of the nirik threat fulminating outwards. Pray to whom? No one knows. Even Concord no longer holds vigil over the Realm of Shattered Hope, Tartarus Incarnate on earth.
Nirik State icon Nirik State
Throughout history, there has always been the concept of Apocalypse, and the creatures that propagate it. Be they lunatics, doomsayers, prophets, or the genuinely concerned, such creatures weave tales of grandeur and sacrifice, of fervent hope and insurmountable dread, of butchery and plague. They wield fear with as much grace as any swordsmare, whipping those who hear their stories into a frenzy of anxiety and defiance, only to inevitably be disproved by the jeering mundanity of Fate. Now, it is widely agreed, we have far surpassed any apocalypse ever conceived. Millenia of progress have been immolated in smoke, trampled by the weight of those fateful mistakes and the hubris of a race which dared to believe it could move past itself to become something better. Such dreams are but nostalgia now, idle trivialities to be contemplated by the few kirin who yet remain sane in this cataclysmic hellscape. Nirik in the thousands fight and kill and die, but do not live, doomed to be slaves to the grim will of Rage. Optimism lays dead, sacrificed on the altar of Despair. All that is left for those hapless few whose hope has not been consumed by the inferno is to pray for deliverance, most likely in the form of another major power intervening for fear of the nirik threat fulminating outwards. Pray to whom? No one knows. Even Concord no longer holds vigil over the Realm of Shattered Hope, Tartarus Incarnate on earth.
Pirate Thalassocracy icon Pirate Thalassocracy
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The NAKP is the last hope for a stable Realm.
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A Realm in Repair
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
The last gun fired just as dawn broke in Vermilion... and then silence. Premier Autumn Blaze stood by the doorstep of the Morning Secretariat and watched the sun rise, first a sliver on the eastern horizon, but soon a brilliant golden disk breaking through the morning haze and the distant black smog of gunsmoke. Fern Flare had awoken her last night at midnight to inform her that Fragrance had surrendered, and the war was over.
She hadn't slept since then. For the first time in countless days, she felt like the nightmare was over, and she was finally awake.
When she stepped inside, the Secretariat was filled with enthusiastic chatter... chatter which abruptly fell silent as the Premier made her first official appearance in the Secretariat since the war began. Her hoofsteps echoed throughout the silent chamber, momentous to match the occasion. Autumn, not one usually accustomed to silence, nevertheless found her mind swimming with thoughts she couldn't yet put to words. She was about to declare the worst period in the Realm's history since its founding, even worse than The Silence, over. She was about to declare a powersharing agreement that had been hammered out between The Way of Fire and The Rising Fire over countless sessions of negotiating throughout the war. She was about to announce a project of reconstruction to bring Greater Providence back into the fold and begin a cautious modernization to rebuild Kiria where the Grand Gallop Onward had failed. She was about to announce to the countless families of the Realm that their sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, would finally be coming home.
When she finally took the lectern and looked out over the crowd, she found a thousand eyes watching her with bated breath. And then, with one clear statement, she broke the silence, just as she had broken it once before, what felt like a lifetime ago.
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Is triggered only by
{{{triggered only}}} |
"It is over."
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Imprecation
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Quiet drowned out Vermilion. When news of the peace spread, Winter Frost left the city, which was abuzz in muted celebration. She soon found herself in a pavilion nestled far from anyone looking for her. It was to meditate, to thank Concord for ending the massacre, to—
"Found you, finally!" crooned Premier Autumn, ragged hooves clacking against the floor. "I looked for you all day. Had to get a map of local holy sites and all! Shouldn't be surprised to see you here! I just wanted to catch up before the Secretariat."
With care, the surprised Winter opened her eyes. "Forgive me for lacking your enthusiasm when so many of Concord's flames have been extinguished."
"Oh, right." Autumn bowed halfway to respect the dead. Then, she slumped hard against a pillar, "They shouldn't have gone... no, I just want to fix this, fix what I've done. We were all about constitutions and democracy, but try talking that when everykirin was fighting for their lives against their own kin. I had a hoof in all that... I probably set us back ages! Everykirin... the suffering! All because I misjudged... "
The grass outside swayed in a breeze. "I do not envy your position, Autumn. Your Grand Gallop Onward was imperfect, but that does not mean we should've not galloped. When Concord sees us fall, She guides us back up. We have seen Kiria fall first-hoof by the transgressions of pride and impatience, yet we are miraculously preserved." Winter half-turned from her intruding guest. "Consider the days before the Secretariat a moment of reflection. Reconsider your Gallop. Think on what kirin want after an age of death. Then, we shall meet again with blood-bought wisdom."
Autumn could only nod. "Thank you for that. I mean it." When she scurried away, however, Winter's smile dissipated.
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Is triggered only by
{{{triggered only}}} |
—to ask for divine punishment of that wayward Premier.
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Set Your House in Order
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
Back in her office, Autumn cradled the paper summons to the first peacetime Morning Secretariat in a long time, whose doors had rarely opened when war bogged the parties down with unusual responsibilities. The list of topics this time evidenced discussions on reconstruction efforts and benefits for the families of fallen soldiers.
The door to her office opened with a fumble. "So, Autumn, do you still remember the morning meetings they have in the Vermilion Palace?" Fern asked, closing the door just as clumsily.
"Oh, motivational stuff, exercises and rituals, the actual meeting... basically non-delegates across the parties talking about what to do next." She looked Fern straight in the eyes. With a knowing grin, "You attended one of them, didn't you? It's a super secret conspiracy group, right?" she joked.
"...maybe?" Fern replied. That got Autumn standing from her chair. "Usually, it's just the party functionaries, but Winter Frost was there, and so were a few of the RaHP senior delegates." Checking Autumn's surprise, she continued, "I know it's inter-party, but this is unheard of for a housekeeping meeting."
"I'm probably the last person who should say this," Autumn interrupted, "but we have to cool it. Winter Frost's been helpful even though we disagree a lot, and it's not like meeting with the Serene Tendency is a crime or anything. With the NAKP gone, we should be co-operating with Winter. Gotta hoof it to those who attended, though; they've got more initiative than me."
Fern sighed, just now taking the seat across the table. "I just hope that's all there is to it, because none of the delegates told me in advance about meeting with Winter today."
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Is triggered only by
Selecting the national focus |
"It'll be fine! Just tell them to put it on the schedule."
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The Harmony We Make
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
"Whole band's back together!" Autumn half-sung when the last few delegates entered the Morning Secretariat. "We've got a lot on our bowl today! High Priestess Winter?"
"Thank you, Premier." Winter Frost, this session's chairkirin, stood to address the assembly. "To begin the reconstruction of Kiria, we must first examine the reason for its ruin. The well-intentioned Grand Gallop Onward has seen Kiria bathed in a sea of blood, bereaving a generation of its mothers and daughters. Premier, if I may, you are a mare gifted with an incomparable passion... but through it, we've galloped with little caution. We've neglected to find peace with our neighbour, instead scorching them in our lethal hubris. Which is why, with all the respect you deserve, dear Autumn Blaze, I am compelled to raise a motion of no confidence against you. Those in favour, raise your hooves."
A bevy of hooves rose, blocking Autumn's vision from the bullish crowd. The temperature in the chamber seemed to plummet to the single digits. "No, no!" she could hear Fern scream, the ends of her mane aflicker with flame. "You can't just turn on Autumn like that! She's done so much for all of us! Wh-what about harmony and democracy? N-no, Bitter Root? You, too!?"
The accused RaHP delegate stood up just as Winter demanded the assembly to behave. "Dear Autumn," he began as silence seeped back into the Secretariat, "the High Priestess is right, not to mention that our party had to be constrained from democracy to stay afloat during the war. How could we say we're for the rights and self-determination of every kirin when we forced the Realm's will upon them?"
The aghast Autumn bowed without reply, taking her leave with the retreating remnants of the party that should've cared. The flood that bristled behind her eyes crashed down, muffling Winter's second motion from Autumn's crumbling world.
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Only Fern and Cinder heard her cry.
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id 31 - 40
Rain
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"You can't just let her do that!" Autumn lay at the hooves of Rain Shine in her throne room. "I trusted her! All that, all our teas, all our meetings, and she just—"
"Calm down." A magic spark allowed Rain Shine to rub Autumn on the back, easing the worst out of the former Premier. Whole minutes elapsed, each a pregnant burden on Autumn's withers. "I've observed what I've observed; I've said what I've said. I cannot overturn a democratic vote—"
"Why was I so blinded!?" howled an inconsolable Autumn. "Was I really so self-absorbed, so caught up in the Grand Gallop Onward, that I thought everything was sunshine and rainbows while Kiria lay dying because of me? Because of me, we burned each other's tinder, we dowsed ourselves out, we—"
A hoof graced her scales, only that of the Matriarch. "It is not your fault, Autumn. Please know that burning in you is a flame that cannot, should not be quenched. Your presence and work here are indisputable proof of that. Though you must leave for political reasons, know this, too: in my heart, you'll always be the Premier that cared. It is up to me to work with Winter Frost, but you... let Concord guide you to a better path."
Further talk was pointless. Autumn escorted herself out of the throne room. The night eked its way into the open-air courtyard, barren save for stoic guards and a waiting Fern Flare. "We can still bring the fight to the Priestess," she murmured as she matched Autumn's morose pace. "We may have lost Rain Shine's trust, but a big chunk of the RaHP are still on our side. Most of the rank and file are still loyal. That's hundreds of functionaries across the Realm, at least. We even have General Bright Burn who sympathises with—"
"What's the point?"
Autumn's question crawled out of her muzzle. In a forced amble, she left a stunned Fern. A sagging tail and a forlorn head was the last she saw of her.
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"You used to love to laugh at everything, Autumn..."
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Autumn Blaze Resigns; Winter Frost New Premier
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[This.GetNewspaperHeader]Autumn Blaze has resigned as Imperial Premier. Winter Frost was elected as her successor by the All-Kiria Plenum with a comfortable margin, and was quickly ordained to the Premiership by Matriarch Superior Rain Shine. The RaHP's immediate reaction was that of restrained optimism. Though some protested what they allege to be a silent coup, Autumn said in an interview this morning that "I trust Winter to finish the work I've started so that our wounds from the civil war can heal. She's got my backing and Rain Shine's, too." Regarding her own party, the RaHP, Autumn said, "Obviously, everyone's got differences, and I don't think we expected Winter to be where she is now, but we'd fall into the Silence if we close our ears against Winter or if she blinds herself to the needs of the Realm outside the spiritual. To my friends, do your best moving forward by being both an ally and a conscience on her withers."
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From the unbridled excess of yesterday comes the antidote of moderation.
 Winter Frost
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Dies the Fire
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The imprint of Autumn's exit could've suffocated Fern Flare. She'd been numbering the days left to her in this party: she, the last stronghold against Winter's choke-hold of harmony.
"Why call us here?" Bitter Root said. "Surely, you're not here to defend Autumn once more?"
"Yes, I am." Most eyes rolled. "I'm here to call all of you to reconsider what you're doing. It's one thing to throw the mare out, but to throw out her precious work, the civil service she helped build for years?"
"Ridiculous," Bitter began, with the rest of the room's assent. "Anykirin else would've conjured up the same thing had the Matriarch Superior chosen them."
"But the Matriarch Superior didn't choose any kirin else," Fern shot back, "and most of us were blindsided by the war, so who're you to say that you could've prevented it? In fact, it was Autumn simplifying bureaucracy for everykirin, hoofing the reins of the state to ordinary creatures like you and me, that brought us further than any theocracy... or do you want to be nothing but Winter Frost's hoof-polishers? Is that what you want to reduce this party to in the name of moderation? Look at what she's done to someone who helped her, trusted her, treated her like a friend! Just like she cast Autumn out, she'd cast you out the moment you lift a single hoof against her!" Calming herself down, keeping the nirik within her in check, "Call Autumn out for her mistakes, if you must, but let me tell you that she didn't mope around getting stuck on what-if's: she just DID, and what she did kept the Realm float. Have THAT, her civil service, be her lasting legacy. If Winter wants to meddle with the bureaucracy, they have to get to you first...
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
"...so I hope you put up a fight."
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The Twelve
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Twelve Magistracies. Twelve chairs to helm the Radiant Hierocracy. A list before Winter ran down every qualified mystic for these twelve positions:
The bottom nine sat, in three triumvirates of equal standing, as the Mystics Militarch, Literarch, and Burearch, each imbued with sanctity. The Militarchs would lead the crackdown on enemies and traitors, both foreign devils and local heretics; the Literarchs would oversee research centres under the rigorous doctrine of both the scientific method and The Way of Fire; and the Burearchs would commit to paperwork in the shadows, serving as mediators for both government and Concord.
Above these nine hovered the two Priestesses Seneschal, responsible over the national-level housekeeping duties of The Way, such as the initiation of senior priests and dividing the budget of the Hierocracy across the Realm accordingly.
Reigning over them was the First Priestess herself, the undisputed head of The Way, second only to the Matriarch Superior herself in the discovery and recording of Concord's will. She would live adjacent to Rain Shine and consult her, along with chosen texts, to guide the faithful deep into this strange new millennium.
Winter neared the end of her deliberations. The mystics on her list would comply with her every word as the Imperial Premier, even the new First Priestess herself. There was a certain sweet irony to how it was under Winter Frost that the Hierocracy and First Priestess were, finally, technically, subordinated to the Imperial Premier — albeit not in the way the Autumnal advocates of state supremacy over the Way had envisaged. But many kirin yet unreached were at the mercy of Autumn's misguided secularists and whoever else lay in sinister waiting. Seeding the Realm with the words of Concord through Winter's chosen would be the first move in reclaiming Kiria for Concord.
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
May complete virtue be found in us.
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The Best
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
The strokes of a singular ballpen in her office had served as the soundtrack to Fern's turbulent mindscape.
The party's faithful still held on to their seats in government; they'd touted themselves as young, adaptable, willing to tinker with the modern world. Yet, fancy new gadgets of all shapes and sizes paled in the face of furnishing food and nourishing minds... another report flipped over on her table, telling her of yet another pair of mystics becoming regional overseers over agriculture and education. How long the truly harmonic among the RaHP could hold the line against the extinguishing tide of a new Silence, she could only guess, make estimates of.
Killing fields. All those soldiers dying on those killing fields an eternity ago, on the verge of setting their lives aside for nothing but a hard reset, an endless retreat back into the safety and darkness of the past.
The last stroke of the pen was made, and her door slid open. In stepped Bitter Root, a face exuding triumph in advance, shrouded in a three-piece suit and a dose of professionalism. "Miss Fern, I would—"
"—like to inform me that I am demoted or resigning from my position as the Premier's deputy and my own role in the party?" she finished, locking eyes with him. The muted shock in his eyes said yes. She stopped counting the days.
"You're quite astute, though specifically, you will lead Kiria's heavy industry sector. Instead of being a distant name and face, you will have hooves-on work at the forefront of getting Kiria into high gear."
Out of his breast pocket slid a scroll of parchment. A resignation letter, written in tidy brush strokes.
At the bottom, an absent space beckoned for her signature.
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
"Then... I shall be the best Minister for Heavy Industry that Kiria will ever see."
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Errors
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Bitter Root stepped onto the rickety platform of wood, a testimony to his remaining cool in the head in the face of near-unanimous attendance for this RaHP meeting. A seat reserved for delegate Autumn Blaze lay empty and absent.
"Our former premier faced precarious predicaments," Bitter began. "Autumn had to shove Kiria forward and fast, lest we be swallowed up by a plethora of envious neighbours. So, why did the Grand Gallop Onward fail? Let me illuminate the two errors suffered by Autumn's premiership:
"First, allowing agitators like Fickle Current and Rising Sun to gain too formidable of a hoofhold in the Plenum. Autumn's trusting nature blinded most of us from their sordid designs for a heathen or godless realm; we had become too proud to tame her unfettered altruism, leading astray masses of Concord's sons and daughters into a million ditches and graves, away from Concord's flame.
"Second, dismissing the Serene Tendency for a misinformed future. The advances the rest of the world have made leave us with much to emulate... much to shun, and much more to consider with caution. We are grateful for Autumn having had training under a temple, yet in her quest to woo the NAKP and the Rising Fire, she neglected the Matriarch Superior herself as well as the ardent adherents to the Way of Fire. A proper dialogue between the RaHP and the Serene Tendency would've thwarted most of Fickle's and Rising's plans."
On cue, a backdoor opened, unfurling a small march of devout mystics. "Let us rectify these errors in our own small ways. These mystics from the Tendency will take the floor and introduce to us plenty of perspectives this party of harmony must converse with."
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
Let us watch our conduct, brethren.
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Candidacies
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The smoulders had faded from the western village of Lavendulan, but for its prefect, Willow Torch, they were afterimages, hoofprints left by the fierce blows between the Rising Fire and the Realm. He had thrown in his lot with Autumn, planting his ears close to the nearby rivers to hear of the Premier's progress, what wondrous ideas she had to call utopia down from the rest of Concord's creation.
Alas, that affair had birthed vacant marketplaces, empty tables, absent souls, and a Vermilion mystic whose scroll had enough girth to intimidate him with.
"...which, in short," the mystic went on, "leaves the palatial positions in the hooves of mystics or priestesses to guarantee a baseline of unity across every province. It is clear that, for these lofty offices, a simple vote of the kirin is insufficient."
The obvious question seemed to dangle before Willow, clothed shabbily compared to the finely garbed holy mare. "I shall be replaced, then, like all these bureaucrats you've discussed?"
"Not so," she replied, assuaging his concerns with a motherly smile. "Mystics and priestesses are not omniscient. They require kirin who've undergone the democratic process... such as you. Autumn Blaze is quite wise to suggest ways in which every kirin can participate in the wider life of the Realm."
Hope burned bright in his eyes. "So, shall I retain my position?"
"You would have to prove it," answered the mystic, unrolling the first few paragraphs of her scroll, which turned out to be examination papers. "The Realm will enact re-elections for every village-level position. You must qualify for candidacy by taking this test, which will try your knowledge of The Way's tenets and the inner workings of proper governance."
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
Torch gulped. A tall order, it would be.
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On Excess
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News had arrived of a persistent little festival in the hamlet of Aroma, an overlooked stopping point for Fragrance-bound merchants. From the scraps of information Winter had gathered, it was a recent invention, from her predecessor's time, meant to celebrate the bounty of the north. Said festival occurred thrice every year, a waste of resources and a precedent for wanton indulgence, to do away with restraint and propriety.
The mystic over Aroma's province had asked its prefect, Verdant Petal, to stop and reconsider. This repeated for several mystics of fast increasing rank. Pathetic it was that this thorn in Kiria's frog had been shot to the Premier's desk.
The meeting with Petal was brief, in Aroma's outskirts, flanked by Brocades. "Have you no shame? Do you live just to appease your appetite? Do you work for a month only looking forward to rest and relaxation?"
"What is peace and plenty if we don't enjoy it some of the time?" argued Petal. "Concord's given us much—"
"Much is no license for excess." She looked past Petal's withers. Ahead, Aroma shone with music and smoke, layered with the chatter and cheer of a celebrating crowd. "You have lost mastery over yourself and have strung your constituents along that same perilous path. In the name of the all-caring Matriarch Superior, discipline will be meted out."
A nod at the Brocades justified their lockdown of Aroma.
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
A shackled Petal trudged through emptied streets and dead lanterns.
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Mare Clausum
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A continent and several seas away from Equestria, the pegasus Silver Lining had found herself in tiny rural Clearwater, loaded with school materials and a passion to follow in Applejack and Fluttershy's hoofsteps: nurture harmony in the next generation, with Autumn Blaze leading from afar.
When Autumn fell to Winter, panic set in. The new Premier proved unwelcoming to the world knocking outside, wanting to help, and to the kirin in Clearwater, Silver was the world. The number of sympathetic families seeking to enroll their foals under her tutelage dwindled. They never said a word; locked doors and darkened windows said enough.
A scorching noon meant break time. The foals left to chase each other laughingly by the rice fields. Having picked up her books around her wings, Silver headed back into the farmhouse to prepare for the next subject.
"Leave."
Shock surged through her veins. The voice behind her had a form: a mystic, wearing delicate fabrics, a sheathed sabre, and a severe expression.
"Your materials sow disharmony among the young ones, Miss Silver. I should know; I've paid attention to your words. The villagers tell me what their children have learned: indiscipline, disobedience, arrogance... and The Way's texts are conspicuously absent." She raised her head, cuing Silver to look back: her students running around, cheering each other in playful rivalry. "Your Equestrian values of unchecked liberty will spoil them, leave them entitled and embittered with an amnesia that destroys any respect for the lot they have in life under Concord. You are raising them to be Rising Suns and Fickle Currents... merchants of bloody disharmony. So leave."
Magic grabbed Silver's books and stuffed them in her bags, locking them tight. The mystic's stare locked with hers. The hilt of her sabre conspicuously glimmered with a magic aura. Silver's could only falter.
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
She looked back one more time.
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Quiet Bunch
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"Leave us be," was all Applejack heard, said straight to her face by a besuited, bespectacled geezer of a kirin who had the gall to say "I'm with the RaHP" like it was a badge of honour. No, she hadn't sailed the seas and the Mellifluve, traveled this far from her friends and family, just to get stopped at the gates of the "harmony" party's headquarters.
"And leave y'all alone to go back to your Silence?" Applejack shot back at him and his group of cronies. The Silence she had helped end... the few letters she'd received from Autumn, of everything tumbling down like a tower of haystacks... "You've made lotsa' mighty strides when ya opened the country up, and now yer' gonna just forget all that? Forget all the friends you've made outside this place!? Yer' jus' gonna tear down everything Autumn did for her neighbours, her friends... kirin just like you!"
He snorted; little clouds of smoke escaped his muzzle. "Autumn threw our lot in with you Equestrians and your ways, which has wrought only devastation. A den of disharmony." The representative scratched his chin; he reeked of incense. "We trust you and your friends to uphold the harmony of your fellow ponies, so we request that you trust us to do the same for our fellow kirin."
It was like talking to a brick wall. Some stubborn fancy-speaking brick wall that trapped everyone inside. Applejack was tempted to throw her hat on the ground in frustration. "What about Autumn? Yer' just gonna forget about her, too?"
"She's made miscalculations, as do all creatures," he replied. He glanced towards the RaHP's gate. "It is her fellow kirin who decide her legacy here... not the whims of a foreigner, Miss Applejack."
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
The gates closed behind him. Honesty could only watch.
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id 41 - 50
Unknown
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As a reward for her service in the civil war, Resplendent Mint was anointed a banner-commander of the Enduring Blade. Just weeks ago, she'd been posted to the Western Territories with a new assignment: lure out and destroy whatever was left of the Rising Fire, with the support of the local authorities. Funnily enough, a long-time friend found in the same Banner had also been given the same assignment, though far up north and close to Fragrance to deal with NAKP stragglers.
The first few days were simple: take down extant paintings and other public depictions of Rising Sun and her cult; they glorified a traitorous heretic. Then came the bog standard crackdowns of sectarian cells meeting in caves, forests, other kirin's homes.
She was told to update the village's historical annals, scrolls that hung and swayed along the main path. It wasn't Rising Sun and her sect, the Rising Fire, that temporarily occupied this town but "western heretics", in league with "northern usurers". The town had exchanged hooves a fair number of times, but was ultimately liberated and returned to the fold. Letters from her higher-ups joined in the charade, referring to Rising Sun only as "the leader of the western heresy". Mint was instructed to note down the names of anykirin who spoke the traitors' names, so that they would be visited by her comrades and be reminded that the retention of such inapposite knowledge was deleterious to health and harmony.
At the end, the news spoke of a pacific future under a rejuvenated Rain Shine. The foals' scrolls (modern textbooks were denied) supplied to a new school did the same. Euphony and Concord had always been called that, though the same kirin had always lived there. Mint then wondered if her memory was already failing.
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
The next cell she cracked down on spelled Rising Sun's name wrong.
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Not a Hundred
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Elevated on a platform in the Verdigris Rotunda, Winter took count of the vivid banners that remained. At Silence's end, a scarce hundred of the Thousand Banners had survived. Today, it was... thankfully still a double-digit number. A double-digit number of Banners held together by a mishmash of blades and machine guns, missing armour pieces, and faces that outed them as conscripts just to fluff up a Banner's numbers during the very civil war that stripped the Banners of whatever scrap of dignity Autumn hadn't touched.
Winter scowled (she was too far away for the soldiers below to notice) before returning to her speech, amplified by a microphone. "Of the Thousand that served before the Matriarch's reign, you are the few that have remained steadfast. See this not, however, as a sign that you are obsolete. Instead, see it as Concord weeding out those lacking in bravery and loyalty."
With a wave of her hoof, another group of soldiers stepped forward, thinly surrounding the Banners. "The Thousand Banners," she continued, "shall not be discarded into the dustbin of history so ignominiously. The privileges that have been given to your forebears for the ultimate sacrifice you can give to Concord shall remain, but the Brocade Commissaries—" she paused to gesture at the ring of non-Banner warriors, standing with neutral glares "—shall test you daily: in mind, strength, and spirit, so that even without an external foe, you can stay sharp in fighting your darker selves. In return, you will be blessed with the spoils of modernity: state-of-the-art weaponry with which you can most effectively render service to Concord and Her avatar, Rain Shine. Now, rise, you Banners... come forward and renew your oath to the Realm, to Concord, and to the Matriarch."
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
From Vermilion, the Banners shall fly in thousands again.
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Watchers
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
Winter combed through incident reports detailing the escapades of the Brocade Commissaries. Along with the Banner of the Covered Cage, the Commissaries had ensured national compliance to the Silence. Unlike the Banner, whose modus operandi was flushing out already organised groups, the Commissaries eradicated dissidence before it could organise at all. Region-wide inspections weeded out individual kirin of interest, usually Bannerkirin with uncertain loyalties but also inclusive of civilians who talked too much.
Rain Shine had shown no warmth towards the Commissaries. And who could blame her? The reports implied kidnappings, interrogations — weaponizing the chilling effect upon their suspects. The Covered Cage fought for the Silence; the Commissaries silenced so it never had to fight. Usually.
The Premier looked up, seeing the two guests that had watched her read. Veiled by robes and armour in all but their faces, Wild Fire and Water Lily now served as the Commissaries' co-Commanders. Their eyes latched onto Winter and the seal she held in her magic. The last papers displayed their names and their confirmation into the Magistracy.
The Covered Cage, like all Banners, also sought to perpetuate its own legacy and lineage. The Commissaries, patrolling in the shadows, had neither: only loyalty to Concord and Realm. In their eyes, Winter reckoned, her own brand of harmony was the next best thing.
The scrolls were put away. Two thuds left fresh stamps on the commanders' documents. Winter hoofed them to their owners who spoke not.
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
They only bowed.
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The Virtue of Variety
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The two-kirin army of Scholar-Valiants sauntered to the gates of the Vermilion Palace: Kite Dancer carried around his barrel a collection of blades he'd forged himself, boasted a rack of army medals on his shirt, and let the holy robes of The Way sway in the wind; Fern Meadow cocked one rifle out of a few in her magic, pulled a wagon teeming with war games, and balanced on her back a stack of books and scrolls.
The gates opened to a courtyard already occupied by many members of the Serene Tendency, who watched them with intrigue. A stage had been set in the centre, slightly bloodied, along with tables set aside for strategising. As if out of the ether, Winter Frost appeared, ready to facilitate the proceedings. "We have heard of your exploits. Masters of many trades are a rare breed. But the Hierocracy depends not on hearsay. For the next twelve hours, you shall spar with Concord's most gifted in their respective fields, and you shall alternate between physical and mental battles at set intervals."
"Oh, so like chessboxing?" Fern quipped.
Winter cringed at the mention of alleged foreign influence. She let it slide. "A close analogy, but this is no mere competition. You shall be tested to the limits Concord has given you, for as members of the Magistracy, you will answer to the needs of each and every one of Her children, and the management of the Realm is a duty that is never free from that responsibility. Commit a single error, and you will set ablaze an unquenchable fire among the subjects that entrusted their lives to you."
The two nodded then bowed halfway. "We understand," replied Kite.
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
"Then may your most fateful twelve hours begin."
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Peace and Quiet
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Cameras, microphones, radios... Winter had grown up her whole life without them; were it not for Autumn, she would've gone back to the Primordial Fire without having ever seen them. An Imperial Premier's obligations hoisted upon her other plans, so these strange things filled the conference room where she was to sign the Joint Memorandum of Understanding between the Serene Tendency and the RaHP. She did her best not to flinch; only the most astute could see her falter.
Not that it mattered once Bitter Root and the RaHP delegates arrived and stood opposite her. On cue, Winter and Bitter were told to stand in the middle and begin their addresses about the unity that the Memorandum would exalt and uphold in law. Said Memorandum, negotiated between the Tendency and the RaHP, would put the Vermilion's civil service in submission to the Radiant Hierocracy, reaffirming the Realm as a true theocracy where faith was the true sign of government service.
When Bitter finished his speech, it was Winter's turn. She stepped up to the podium and looked at the dear children of Concord that comprised the audience. Fancy three-piece suits mixed with priestly garments, she had expected. Only now, she saw that the venue had become standing room only, brimming with kirin of more ordinary clothes. Farmers, miners, fisherkirin... their eyes pleaded for her to finally give them rest: rest from war, from the slaughter of their families, a slaughter the world had shoved onto them by hedonism and heresy. They yearned for peace and quiet for the rest of their days.
When Winter and Bitter inked their signatures on the Memorandum, she finally gave them the peace, quiet, and rest they'd yearned.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
May Concord destroy those who dare breach upon our peace.
The Joint Memorandum of Understanding cemented the Realm of Kiria's post-war pyramidal socio-political hierarchy under the leadership of the Serene Tendency. The Matriarchate, whose executive and legislative authority had been slowly eroded in favour of the Morning Secretariat and the All-Kiria Plenum during the Autumnal Premiership, was restored to its formal position of absolutist power over all aspects of the Kirian state and society. The democratic and secular organs established to manage the Grand Gallop Onward were superseded by the Serene Tendency's Radiant Hierocracy, which assumed responsibility for the governance of the Realm on behalf of the Matriarch Superior. The Vermilion state bureaucracy, which had underwent partial modernising reforms under Autumn Blaze, became wholly subordinated to the Hierocracy as the functionaries who carried out its orders on the provincial and local level. The Realm and Harmony Party, a former political powerhouse which lost much of its popular support after the civil war, would become a junior member of the Serene Tendency's ruling coalition. The Thousand Banners were too restored to their pre-Silence role and status as the professional military caste of the Realm, though under the strict supervision of the Hierocracy. The wealth, priviledges and power of the Kirian merchant class and mercantile interests were severely curtailed through measures hearkening back to the repressive decrees of the Silence. Finally, maintaining the integrity of the hierarchy were the Brocade Commissaries – the secret police pledged to the Matriarchate but controlled by the Hierocracy – who kept the bureaucracy, the military and the commonkirin under close and constant surveillance. — Echoes of Silence: the Rise and Fall of the Autumnal Premiership | |
Unknow Thyself
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As the Mallow Clan-compound burned, the hellish flames illuminating the myriad ranks of flint-faced Brocade Commissaries bombarding the settlement, the young stallion tried to excise his own illegal identity from his thoughts.
Winter Frost's Imperial Decree had not minced words: "The EXTERMINATION of the TRAITOR-CLANS of BLOOM, MALLOW and SNOW," it was titled. The method of execution for the elder matriarchs and patriarchs of the condemned lineages was crucible-drowning: each stuffed into an enclosed, air-tight iron-cast crucible atop a burning pyre, where sea water would be pumped in until the fire of life was drowned in boiling brine.
His faithful maidservant had been leading him out under smouldering arches and burning trees, her knowledge of the area vaster than her master's. The flickering tongues of many a conflagration touched them but barely as they slipped past the final ring of Commissary artillery batteries; the remaining banner-retainers loyal to his lineage had erupted into their nirik forms before charging the Commissary lines, their feral offensive immolating the once-lush landscape of orchards and farms surrounding the compound. A vain hope — that the Brocade Commissaries would burn with them — persisted.
The singed pair would not stop until they reached a river sheltered by ample forest cover. The young stallion could still see the pillar of smoke rising from the ashes of his once-promising future.
"They'll be after you for the name you bear, the blood in your veins," his mareservant said, collecting water from the babbling creek. "They'll kill, they'll jail, they'll drown every foal whose parents dare carry 'Mallow' in their name. But I know somekirin who can forge identities. Change your mane, grab a pair of glasses, grow your facial hair... he'll take you to a Hindian slum, or maybe you'll be in Khamrin, taking up the name of a flame who suffered a newborn death. You... you brought the valuables, Master?"
He nodded, taking out a sack. The heap of taels and the bars of family tinkled as his hoof rummaged through each piece, only to be stopped when she asked him: "What shall you call yourself, Master?"
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
He could only sit amidst the ashes of the Mallows.
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Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
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' (Nothing) | |
The Bud
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"Bright Burn, leader of the discontents under his Cherry Blossom Society," Lively Luminescent began by Bitter Root's side. His secretary had, on the claim of urgency, blocked his view of the Banners practising under a cool, relaxing morning. "Equestria-born, shaping up to be part of the Royal Guard, then returned to Kiria on the Realm's side when the war broke out. He, however, has sworn his loyalty to Autumn's version of the RaHP."
"Another uppity firebrand, then?" said a miffed Bitter Root. He moved to the side to get a better look of the Bannerkirin.
Luminescent stepped to block him again. "An entire army of 'uppity firebrands' is at his beck and call." Her reports floated into his magic grip, detailing a list of names and estimates on the New Standard Army or the NSA, the modern form of the Banners Autumn Blaze wanted to push pre-war." They'd fought well, but now, they're sitting around, prime for Bright's agitation for more 'drastic democracy'."
He groaned. "It's not just the soldiers, then? Some of our clerks and bureaucrats might get swayed by this drivel."
"They are," she said. "Shall we call a party meeting on this?"
"Just send them a memo on what we'll do." He put out his hoof to list one thing with: "have their civilian supporters shuffled to the Hierocracy where the Magistrates can keep a close eye on them, far from the Army's jurisdictions... maybe have them serve this Banner, for example." He gestured to the lines of soldiers just across, now preparing their rifles. "We starve the NSA of political support, and we'll just paint them as hot-blooded warriors with nothing better to do."
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Is triggered only by
{{{triggered only}}} |
The blossoming begins.
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The Inextinguishable Light of Youth
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Whispered rumours had made the rounds across the Massicot War School for the past few weeks. Chartreuse Light could deduce that much from the radical cadets in his batch. They'd prattled about a million dissatisfactions; what Chartreuse had seen were his neighbours not dying on the streets.
One morning thrust him into the rumbles of megaphones and a thousand hoofsteps. He raced out of bed: The training grounds had been cleared to make room for a thousand chanting kirin. Flags, banners, other fabrics were raised with text that proclaimed The Four Demands: acknowledge the Hierocracy's mistakes, secure the freedoms of political dissidents, enforce transparency for Winter Frost (decried as "Noctilucent Charm Reincarnate"), and open the government to anyone and everyone willing to participate.
The shouted demands only intensified. Glimpses of nirik fire flared; Chartreuse flinched, reaching for a gun he and the rest of his fellow cadets weren't supposed to have been issued.
"Halt!" yelled somekirin; only by sound magic and her own megaphone could she be heard over the protest's din. "You now face Director Icterine Larch! If you do not disperse peacefully, we will contact the nearby Banners about the situation!" The next words turned motherly: "Cadets, please do not persist! If you continue and turn to violence, you'll throw away your lives. Many of you aren't yet twenty-five; much still lies ahead of you! As for your Demands, know that we listen! Let us do our part, and I bid you farewell."
The Director sauntered away. The flags were lowered, the cadets murmuring discontentedly but slinking back to routine.
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Is triggered only by
{{{triggered only}}} |
Chartreuse's heart couldn't slow down. Their words persisted.
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Blossom
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"This is Bitter Root," the voice cackled on the radio set, cutting through the tension of the operations room. "What's the Matriarch's situation?"
Cinereous Iris, head of Massicot's garrison, tentatively glanced outside. A full moon against a starless sky was the canvas for the boiling stand-off between two armies at the Viridian Palace. It was supposed to have been a normal visit for Rain Shine; now she was holed up, protected by her personal retinue and ruthless Brocade Commissaries. "The NSA has surrounded the Palace with contingents from the War School and civilian supporters. They demand an audience with the Matriarch. Her forces have locked the Palace down. No, Mr. Root, we would've killed ourselves trying to stop the NSA if they were headed for the Matriarch!" A shouting match between the Palace's two armies had now turned into a frenzy of speeches from the protesters.
"Then evacuate her," Bitter replied. "Contact the Palace to stage a diversion. She can't risk staying there."
The dishonourable idea made Iris cringe. "She'll lose face resorting to underhoofed maneuvers and subterfuge. We... we have a half-formed plan of ringing the nearby Banners to surround the city and force the NSA to negotiation on our terms."
"You'll risk a Massicot massacre if the NSA does not accept our counter-demands," crackled Bitter. "What's the point of saving face when the Realm's been set ablaze?"
Only static came from the radio. Outside, the harsh glow of lanterns illuminated an undulating, raucous wave of kirin: all armed. Iris, suddenly the lifeline of an entire city, changed her frequency to the Palace's:
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
{{{triggered only}}} |
"New orders. Evacuate the Matriarch Superior ASAP."
"Hold your position. We're calling back-up."
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id 51 - 61
A Holy Departure
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In an outpost on a hill overlooking Massicot, the Matriarch Superior sought refuge from the fiery night. A hoofpicked squad of guards had been selected to spirit her away under cover of darkness, while their comrades distracted the mutinous soldiers at the palace gates with desultory attempts at fraternisation. Alone in her commandeered quarters, Rain Shine had tuned the radio to a broadcast by Bright Burn that spoke of common sense reforms and liberties. If it were up to Her...
"Your Highness, if I may?" That was the commander of the outpost. He had stopped at a distance from Concord's Avatar and waited for a nod of permission from Her before he continued: "Why stay here? Why not return to Vermilion? The mutineers are only a short march away. Should they seek you out..."
She'd given the same answers over and over again: to be near her children, the children of Concord, even when they were unruly - even as Massicot teetered on the brink of an inferno.
Transmissions from Winter Frost and the RaHP found their way to her an hour later. They politely begged the Matriarch to leave while the situation was yet manageable. Those reasonable pleas did not stop Rain Shine from turning her gaze back towards a city slipping away from the grip of the Realm. Massicot's new flags and banners, striped brilliantly in five colours, seemed to call out to her to what could've been.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
The event “Blossom” option “"New orders. Evacuate the Matriarch Superior ASAP."” |
A colourful spring is spreading forth.
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A Staving Off
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
Word travelled quick of the Realm's answer: Banners had descended upon Massicot, kindling undertones of panic among the protesting cadets and civilians. Chartreuse Light chastised himself for getting swept up in the high.
A yellow figure stood out from the sea of kirin: Bright Burn, in the flesh. He hurried to the Palace, talked with the guards, then entered. More word spread of negotiations within the Palace, hoping to be heard by the Matriarch. Minutes then hours melted into turbulent vigilance. This could go long. Chartreuse saw his comrades setting up tents, beds, and grills for food to wait it out for days then weeks.
The doors opened; not half a day had passed. Bright Burn frantically rushed down, ordering everyone to stand down. One of the Banner's leaders had been brought into the Palace to listen in, and had prepared a speech to address the NSA's concerns. Her oratory ended with, "The Matriarch will never slam the door in your face! It has warmed Her heart that you have an indomitable spirit in going up to her so directly to lay open the cries of your heart. But it is time to deliberate on your demands in more logical, less charged environments. Return to your places and you will face no punishment. Thank you."
The gathering ended quickly; the feelings did not. They never faded. The days ahead escalated with Bright Burn setting up a radio programme in Massicot proper, and his first episode denounced the negotiations for what it was: a delaying tactic. Chartreuse had slept to a repeat of that episode back in the War School. He then woke up with a five-coloured pin and another rifle with extra ammo.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
The event “Blossom” option “"Hold your position. We're calling back-up."” |
He did not remember getting these before.
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Magistrate [KIR.GetKillHCHname] Assassinated!
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
TO: Imperial Premier of the Realm of Kiria, Winter Frost
Magistrate [KIR.GetKillHCHname] has been found killed in her home. The murder is to be blamed on Lieutenant Carmine of the New Standard Army and her five subordinates.
The security detail in [GetKILLHCHname]'s home consisted of eight personnel, part of which were two Valiants. Carmine's soldiers posed as sergeants and privates stationed at a nearby village before initiating hostilities.
The head of [KIR.GetKillHCHname] was found detached from the body. Carved into the horn were the words "traitor to all kirin". Anti-Matriarch and anti-Premier pamphlets surrounded the body and the head.
Pending action is to declare Carmine and her accomplices as enemies of harmony to be shot on sight.
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Mean time to happen
30 days
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Immediate effects
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~ Burn Pit, Minister of the Bureau for the Sanctity of the Realm
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SUBJECT: Magistrate [KIR.GetKillHCHname] Murdered!
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
TO: Imperial Premier of the Realm of Kiria, Winter Frost
Magistrate [KIR.GetKillHCHname] has been found killed in her home. The murder is to be blamed on Lieutenant Carmine of the New Standard Army and her five subordinates.
The security detail in [GetKILLHCHname]'s home consisted of eight personnel, part of which were two Valiants. Carmine's soldiers posed as sergeants and privates stationed at a nearby village before initiating hostilities.
The head of [KIR.GetKillHCHname] was found detached from the body. Carved into the horn were the words "traitor to all kirin". Anti-Matriarch and anti-Premier pamphlets surrounded the body and the head.
Pending action is to declare Carmine and her accomplices as enemies of harmony to be shot on sight.
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Mean time to happen
30 days
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Immediate effects
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~ Burn Pit, Minister of the Bureau for the Sanctity of the Realm
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SUBJECT: Magistrate [KIR.GetKillHCHname] Killed!
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
TO: Imperial Premier of the Realm of Kiria, Winter Frost
[KIR.GetKillHCHname] has been killed after a hostage situation initiated by rebelling cadets of the Massicot War School.
[GetKillHCHname]'s most recent duty had been to instil the Tenets of the Way of Fire among the soldiers as acting High Disciplinarian of the School. This has not been well received by mutineers who would later join the New Standard Army revolt.
While [KIR.GetKillHCHname] would escape the initial revolt, the Magistrate would be captured and taken into a hut far from urban centres. Nearby Valiants discovered [GetKillHCHname]'s location and attempted negotiations. This failed when one of the NSA cadets misfired her weapon and discussions broke down into a gunfight. The Valiants were recalled to more pertinent war theatres (given that their objective has died).
In what could be interpreted as an act of spite, [GetKillHCHname]'s head was delivered to our department. A note was included, the contents of which imply that [KIR.GetKillHCHname] would have been executed regardless of the negotiations' result, and that [GetKillHCHname]'s death was "revenge for the massacre of Massicot's sons and daughters at the bloodstained hooves of the blinded Hierocracy".
Pending action is to elevate the security details of the remaining Magistrates. My view on the matter is that further assassinations attempts can no longer be prevented, given current conditions: We must instead focus on preventing their success.
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Mean time to happen
30 days
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Immediate effects
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~ Burn Pit, Minister of the Bureau for the Sanctity of the Realm
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Drowned in Cherry-Blossom Light
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A single command to arise rendered Massicot ground zero. Preparations long in the making — secret communications, hidden stashes, false flags — ended with rifles securing nearly every settlement in the Trypan Interfluve, with the RaHP's Massicot branches fortified into little bases.
They bore the insignia of the New Standard Army, headed by Bright Burn, whose speeches saturated the airwaves in an all-out attack on Winter Frost as "the traitor-architect of a New Silence, Noctilucent Charm reincarnate, murderer of the liberties that every kirin deserves! Shall we offer our souls to traditions that have stifled our nation and led many to lives so bent and broken, they might as well be dead!? No! Awaken, Kiria, awaken!"
Radio transmissions of the Cradle of Kirinity falling city by city fast reached Vermilion and the Imperial Premier. Her first response was to hurry to her private quarters to answer Bright Burn back with her own speeches. Outside her room, millions of weary kirin had to kill each other once more. There was no exhaustion: there was fear, fear that the civil war had not truly ended, and the age of nirik warlords and eternal conflict was at hoof should these rowdy "harmonious" brats get their way.
Caught in the crossfire was Rain Shine. Estimates of rising death tolls had already been told her, fudged or not. How fragile was kirinity, to be rent asunder twice now? Speaking up was out of the question: a national crisis of faith would disintegrate the little solidarity the Realm had like a heap of loose sand. In a flicker, hope blossomed that maybe... just maybe, the NSA and a new Kiria would reach her.
The Matriarch decided to keep quiet.
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Immediate effects
Mutinous Army icon Mutinous Army
Revolutionary Army icon Revolutionary Army
The decay of Kiria's old order has revitalised the spark of freedom for a great multitude! Every day, the promises and evidences of genuine harmony whisk hundreds of Winter's soldiers to our cause! And why shouldn't they be? We fight for our own self-determination without the restrictions of ancient warfare and its philosophies! Winter Frost and her stiff martial hierarchies shall falter in our fluid forward surge!
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Protect the Realm and repel disharmony! For Concord and the Matriarch!
Unlocks New Foci to deal with the revolt. Forms and Deploys Five (5) Battle-Standards of Devout Skirmishers. With the Kirian Army in disarray, all that stood between the mutinous New Standard Army and Vermilion were a rag-tag formation of pious commonkirin. These were the Devout Skirmishers, formed from local Way of Fire devout, led by mystics-martial of the Serene Tendency and sanctified by the Radiant Hierocracy. To these peasant soldiers, revolutionary marshal Bright Burn's troops were but the latest in a long line of warlords set on overthrowing the Matriarchate and destroying the Realm. — Echoes of Silence: the Rise and Fall of the Autumnal Premiership
Only in a new Kiria shall every kirin be set free!
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Put Down
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The bronze lid closed over the water-filled crucible. It muffled the cries of the drowning stallion once known as Bitter Root. He could barely be heard across the courtyard and its attendees.
Priestess Brazier Cast, the event's host, needed only to recite a list of the criminal's misdeeds: high treason through malicious compliance and lack of active obedience to the Hierocracy in ensuring harmony within his own party. The rest of the no-name's partners had not fared better, having been shunted into a dozen high-security prisons across the Realm along with the survivors of the New Standard Army. The party's juniors, scattered everywhere in Kiria, had had their names and identities posted in as many public places as possible to be caught or, failing that, to be shamed to the extreme of suicide. Conservative and liberal alike would be condemned for their complicity in Bright Burn's attempt at another war, another massacre in the name of "liberty". Another generation enlisted to kill each other at the altar of "democracy"? No more.
The mystics, soldiers, and priestesses who were watching remained quiet for the duration of his death. They weren't the bloodthirsty NSA who revelled in the shower of murders if it meant the absolute anarchy of unlimited freedom: they were exhausted. With this stallion's passing, the RaHP would be formally dissolved, and with that, the last bastion of disharmony.
The noises stopped. Only then could they relax, all relieved.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
Discord's pathetic flames are going out all over Kiria.
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Erasure
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Hooves and magic held onto ink, pen, blank papers, and open cabinets, and Clinker Fennel couldn't stop noticing the missing names. The talk around her in party meetings had never acknowledged that they stopped existing. The common thread was too obvious to miss for her: Rising Fire and NAKP sympathisers... Rising Sun and Fickle Current themselves, all generalised into faceless rebellious children that needed stern discipline. Yet, they had valid points, genuine grievances that ought not to be swept under the rug.
The crackle of torches outed Clinker Fennel in the middle of the RaHP archives. She fought against the rope that bound her, confined to a corner of the dingy dungeon. The lights turned on, revealing her captors: senior RaHP members by the pins on their clothes and the creases on their foreheads. "You should be more careful with handling sensitive information, miss," said one. "A junior representative of the RaHP ought to be more considerate."
"You can't toy with Kiria like this!" Clinker yelled. "They'll find out the truth, what you're editing and redacting, and they'll rebel!"
"Then what will they do?" the senior continued. "Repeat the mistakes the heretics and usurers did? Or repeat the mistakes we, as Kiria's harmonists, did? You let this information pass on to a million irresponsible hooves, and they will react, twist it further, and react again... we'd be stuck in a cycle of reacting to the past. No good will come out of your leaks, left in the open for anyone to interpret to their heart's content. So, turn away and stay silent, young one; we have better things to do than to dwell on our past sins."
After her rigorous nodding, a cowed Clinker was let go, escorted away.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
A bloody past gives way to a serene future.
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SUBJECT: Magistrate [KIR.GetKillHCHname] Blown Up!
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
TO: Imperial Premier of the Realm of Kiria, Winter Frost
[Winter, take the following to heart in the briefing tomorrow. Further details will be verified before then.]
[KIR.GetKillHCHname], leader of their associated Banner, has been killed unceremoniously at the entrance of the Banner's base of operations by hostile elements. Said base of operations has also been firebombed; recovery of personnel and assets has led to mixed results.
[KIR.GetKillHCHname]'s death is deemed highly improbable given the intentional distance set between the Banner's main operations and active war theatres: the Banner's main purpose, which is to police the Radiant Hierocracy and its various centres and significant offices from external threats, necessitated operations away from conventional battle.
Many of the hostile elements have been identified and killed. The few that are unaccounted for are of ambiguous fate thanks to the advanced state of charring some of the corpses in the bombing have suffered.
The Banner's base has been moved to an undisclosed location and its leader must now meet the prerequisite of not having been a Magistrate beforehoof.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
Immediate effects
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Option conditions
~ Burn Pit, Minister of the Bureau for the Sanctity of the Realm
~ Burn Pit, Minister of the Bureau for the Sanctity of the Realm
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Rebirth
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"It'll be our own little thing," Firethorn said to Bright Burn. They had disembarked the evening down-river boat to take an informal tour of Hyacinth, the real RaHP's new base of operations. The smells of exotic fruits blended with the stench of sun-dried fish and of sweaty seakirin offloading ships across the piers. Lanterns had turned the city into an explosion of light that the grand sea reflected like floating pearls.
The papers to set the Open Coastal City up — with its own legislative assembly and constitution along with plenty of benefits for NSA and RaHP "immigrants" — had been signed fast. Suspiciously fast for Bright Burn: the "open" city was not a concession from the Tendency but containment. "Our little thing. For now."
She chuffed. Hid her agitation when passing NSA soldiers waved her and Bright by. "They've given us this. That's a start." Another war was not needed... hopefully not yet. "I still have faith in them, for compassionate reform."
"So your answer's just 'sit here and wait'?"
Either he was dense or he had run out of patience. "A free Hyacinth is important. The world will look to us as a haven of Kirian democracy, and they'll go here to skirt around Winter Frost's backwards rule. She'll then have no choice but to adopt some of our policies. Then... more kirin will be heard all over the Realm, and we can build on that."
Bright kept a smile for another squad of NSA soldiers passing by. His tone remained jaded. "We'll see. If things fall apart and I see no reason for Winter to listen anymore, you'll join me with your rifle or you'll join me in death."
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
Immediate effects
 Fealty to the Matriarchate
Hyacinth is fully aware of its status as a Kirian special economic zone and not much else. On one hoof, it is only right, to an extent. We still hold fast to the Way of Fire, if only in the core tenets, and the Matriarch Superior shall be forever in our hearts. On the other hoof, allowing the free trade of good and ideas in this port city is a tacit admission from Vermilion that pre-Silence society can stand to learn from Autumn Blaze's teachings. But of course, Winter Frost and her ilk are in it only to take an unsavoury cut of democracy's benefits... without embracing democracy themselves.
Beacon of Democracy icon Beacon of Democracy
Unshackled from Vermilion's bonds, the democratic pro-Autumn remnants of the RaHP have consolidated their numbers here, where the harmonist-republican method is free to be tried out in a myriad of forms. If one democracy fails, another is soon propped up, better than the last. Theorists, writers, and politicians from all sides of the political aisle jostle their way in here to breathe the air of fresh liberty... and to make it their own.
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Bright trotted right to the armykirin. Firethorn went left to meet with officials.
Releases OCC Hyacinth as a Puppet. | |
Black Hole
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Lieutenant Darkened Roast just had to say "imported vegetables" when asked. A meagre first task for the newly promoted Hyacinth officer standing before a grand wall of searchlights, barbed wire, gun emplacements, sniper nests, and highly trained Realm Bannerkirin who had their weapons aimed at him and the truck he'd been driving, stocked with vegetables for cargo and soldiers for security. So far, the questions he'd gotten from the border guards were simply enough to warrant memorised answers: his name, his rank, purpose of trip—
Pain spiked his head's back—down to the ground, tasted asphalt. "What's this?" he scarcely heard. A pallet slid before him: vegetables rolled to uncover pamphlets.
Agony pulsed in his skull, addled with... just breaking points. The pamphlets were written by... the names escaped him; it was all anonymous under some "Hyacinth society". The gist of it was criticism against the Realm, against the Imperial Premier and her oppressive Hierocracy. Their faces stood right before him: violent to the core for the sake of the old. "And what will you do? Cause a diplomatic incident by arresting me? Detain a foreigner for no good reason and prove your point, huh!?"
"Your democracy is in Hyacinth and shall spread no further!" the Bannerkirin stated as fact.
Roast sized up the guard. Dared him with a turn of his hoof. "What, are you afraid of processed pulp and some words?"
Out flew punches and fire. A pallet and vegetables were his shield and cover. The rage of being trapped here in Hyacinth, waiting for the other to be convinced or to die... the black and red of the nirik, he rejected. Orders were given to salvage the remaining pamphlets and to run, escape—
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
Completing the national focus |
The truck exploded. Everything burned in the retreat.
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id 260 - 490
A Realm in Ruin
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
Vermilion was burning.
Nokirin knew who started the blaze; all anykirin knew was that everykirin had a match, and somekirin dropped theirs. Vermilion, the grandest city in the Realm of Kiria, and the holy city through which The Way of Fire had maintained peace in the Realm for centuries, had been all but reduced to ashes.
Rumors drifted across the realm like smoke from the ruined city. Somekirin had attempted to launch a coup; nokirin knew who struck first. Mystics of the Circle of the Serene Tendency had been found dead, lined up against a brick wall; the lifeless bodies of acolytes of the Rising Fire drifted down the Great Mellifluve. Nirik raged in the streets, their mindless howls of rage creating a cacophony of apocalypse over the ruined capital.
Those rumors traveled to the frontlines faster than any telegraph or radio signal. The effects were localized at first, but soon conflagrated, like a single smoldering coal igniting a grand bonfire. The soldiers of The Way of Fire and The Rising Fire turned on each other up and down the front, slaughtering their former allies in a vicious bloodbath. Caught in the crossfire, the harmonists of the RaHP responded to attack with counterattack. Divisions disintegrated and the chain of command lay in ruins. There was only one rule: kill or be killed, no matter who stood at the other end of your rifle.
As Vermilion burned, the Matriarch disappeared into the smoke. Nokirin knew what happened to Rain Shine, but there was no sign of her as the days passed and the flames died down. Was she dead? Was she hiding? Her body was never found, but then again, not much remained of the palace when the ashes settled. All that remained was hatred, violent and cruel, and the supporters of each of the three parties that once fought to protect the Realm rallied around their leaders like the nirik warlord states of old. In a cruel twist of irony, only the NAKP remains sane and standing, the lone polity in the Realm not twisted by the hatred of the nirik state.
Only time will tell if they can put out the flames or if the inferno will engulf Fickle Current and his allies as well.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
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The NAKP is the last hope for a stable Realm.
Forms and Deploys Six (6) Regiments of the Anti-Nirik Mutual Protection Army: - 'Princess Fall Shade' Anti-Nirik Patriotic Regiment - No. 2 Anti-Nirik Patriotic Army 'Save the Realm' - All-Kiria Business and Trade Circles Patriotic Salvation Roundtable Volunteer Brigade - No. 3 Anti-Nirik Mutual Protection Army 'Fragrancese Volunteer Rifles' - No. 5 Anti-Nirik Mutual Protection Army - No. 6 Anti-Nirik Mutual Protection Army | |
To Make Us Melt...
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Fern Flare sat at one side of the table. Autumn Blaze sat at the other, bleary-eyed, still somewhat sick. Between them sat a mound of papers and photos that made Autumn's stomach churn.
The documents spoke of severe, heavy-hoofed measures, all emitting from one source: senior RaHP delegate Effusive Extract. His overriding of locally elected leaders, though, bore little trace of personal enrichment. The villages in his jurisdiction found themselves put under lockdown and martial law. Shops, schools, and businesses were seized and converted into temporary housing for soldiers travelling to and from the front. Armed checkpoints screened every kirin coming in or out; inside the villages, price ceilings kept food cheap, and local farmers destitute.
Guards monitored daily chatter among the residents for possible code words and hidden enemy comms. Public meetings were outlawed. Suspected collaborators and petty criminals alike were dealt with summarily. The Rising Sun and the NAKP, Effusive alleged, might've infiltrated the Realm so thoroughly as to justify such measures. The rear area had to be kept secure, he said, so that the efforts of the Matriarch's loyal generals at the front would not be undermined.
"This has bad written all over it!" cried Autumn. "We have to stop him, like, now! He's as harsh as the Rising Fire say we are!"
Fern let her friend simmer down before speaking. "Us intervening might not be for the best. Some of the RaHP in the know... they think we have to fight fire with fire. Something about Rising and Fickle not playing fair—"
"So what, we'll ignore all this, sweep this under the rug, stoop to their level?"
A notable point, one that was hot-headed and brash, still burning with the idealism that made Fern, and so many others, believe in Autumn's vision for Kiria. Fern could've easily pressed her point that Rising and Fickle were taking full advantage of Autumn's insistence on keeping the homefront as close to a semblance of normality as possible. That, or prudence: the choice lingered for several burning minutes.
Trigger conditions
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Mean time to happen
90 days |
"Alright, I'll round up an investigation team."
"We'll let Effusive be an exception."
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...Into Nothing
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Dust rose from the table as a box of folders and binders were dumped onto it. Far from prying eyes in Vermilion, Fern Flare and her investigative team cracked open the windows to let in some cool evening air. The party crest of the RaHP hung on the far-end wall, covered by a thick sheet: the party's local branch, being barely quorate, rarely held meetings these days. "Many of the RaHP's cadres have gone off to fight in the war, meaning that local affairs are being managed by caretaker administrations," Fern began, "but that can't be the whole picture. Lemon Balm, anything to corroborate that?"
A few folders flipped opened in Balm's magic, flicking through to the relevant pages. "The Serene Tendency are doing the party's duty."
Fern blinked. "Come again?"
Balm levitated a stack of photos into Fern's view, each portraying a kirin in the flowing robes of the Serene Tendency. "Priestesses and mystics. Their rule was all we've ever known until the Silence ended. What happens when all the elected representatives go back to the cities, or to the front, when the party calls for their help? No one sees them around anymore, but your local priestess at the temple knows you, knows your neighbour, knows your friends, and they all know her."
Placid smiles danced on every mystic's muzzle in those images, the tip of an unnerving iceberg. "What about the elected mayors and ministers who aren't called to war?"
"Good leadership isn't worth much when there's nokirin around to carry out your orders," Balm replied. "So many of our civilian functionaries have been reassigned to the war effort that local leaders need the help of the Vermilion Army or the Tendency if they want to get anything done." A picture was given: the mayoress of Camphor sitting alone at a council meeting, the seats reserved for her fellow councilkirin empty. Standing behind her were officers in military dress, and mystics and acolytes in their crimson robes.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
The event “To Make Us Melt...” option “"Alright, I'll round up an investigation team."” |
Autumn's dream, like all dreams, is half-remembered smoke.
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Embers are Forever
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There were few reasons for the First Priestess to call in the Patriarch-Commander of the Banner of the Covered Cage. Ember Wane didn't expect the meeting in a temple pavilion to solely be for the sake of some tea and chess with Winter Frost. He was never good at chess, and he preferred coffee. Or rice wine. He decided to broach the topic. "Is there any service that the Covered Cage could offer to the First Priestess?" he rumbled, aware of the scars rippling across his muzzle.
Winter nodded, then took a sip. "I am well aware of the long and storied service of the Covered Cage to the Realm. A shame it is, what has become of your banner." She set her cup aside. "But our service to the Matriarch is never finished. Fickle Current and his clique have shown where their allegiances lie: themselves. They're an insufferable blight upon the land. They lead the common kirin astray from The Way of Fire, onto the path of heresy and blasphemy." She levitated Ember's cup of tea to refill it. "You have the capabilities to force their hoof."
It was true. A false emergency gone wrong would be foal's play. The NAKP weren't so popular with the peasants they'd forced off the land and into the sweatshops. Raids on refugee camps by the banks of the Carmine River sometimes spilled over onto Vermilion's side of the border. Way of Fire mystics routinely visited these camps to render aid unto the needy, sharing with them the light of Concord's love—and Rain Shine's benevolence. An unprovoked attack during one such routine visit would provide sufficient justification for escalation. All they'd need were some corpses dressed in northern uniforms, and a hoofful of dead peasants, give or take a few dozen.
It would be bloody, though, and costly. The war should've been enough. But he had his orders, and his duty. He sighed. "Other kirin would be capable of more diplomatic approaches. I suggest you speak to them first... or let the northerners be."
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
{{{triggered only}}} |
Winter glared. "By the Matriarch's authority, this must be done."
AI logic:
Winter relented. "I will take your word."
AI logic:
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Embers are Forever
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"The Viceroyalty of Providence," Ember repeated over tea break. The fatal words and implications of whatever Winter had been mulling over marinated in his mind. Kiria's response to the young nation's folly, according to Winter, would be violent.
"They must not fall through war," Winter clarified. "Enough of Concord's innocent children have left us too soon." She affixed a gaze upon a weary Ember. "Am I correct in believing that you and the Covered Cage still possess the means to ensure the self-proclaimed Viceroy's loyalty to the Matriarch?"
Ember mentally scrolled through a long list of plans. Not enough of his banner had recovered to facilitate a full-scale fight. What he had scrounged up was material for pamphlets and weapons. Blackmail wasn't a creative avenue for coercion; it would be a good workhorse, anyhow. Procured uniforms, forged identities, planted evidence... he did not have to put in the finishing blow. At least with the Realm, the good kirin were those faithful to a solid foundation: the Matriarch and Concord. What did the Viceroyalty have for good kirin? The competent? Competent for what and for who? There was no foundation to speak of, only their own: to be loyal to one's self was shaky ground to stand on.
Until a more obvious option broke out. "We have Concord and the Matriarch Superior behind us, First Priestess. The Viceroyalty have sworn their allegiance to them. If Her representatives ask them to re-integrate, they back down on the pain of war. That will save us a great deal of work and ruin."
"They seceded from Concord's Realm," Winter said over another mulling over of fragrant tea and Ember's suggestion. An attempt to make Ember act...
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
{{{triggered only}}} |
The Viceroyalty's freedoms will be their own undoing.
AI logic:
The Realm will implore the Viceroy to return or perish.
AI logic:
Tea ended early. Nothing would be said to the Viceroy.
AI logic:
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Vermilion Demands Our Subjugation
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"No more will we be shackled to the fate of our lesser sibling!" Fickle had once declared from magnificent Fragrance when [Root.GetNameDef] broke with Vermilion. He and his colleagues had the industrial firepower of the outside world at their hooves: the modern era seemed ripe for the taking.
That was eons ago, exemplified by the latest missive from the Realm to his office. That "lesser sibling" crushed the heretics, brought them to heel. Against his expectations, the Realm stood tall, invigorated by a renewed spiritual unity, then set their eyes northward.
A short request: The Viceroyalty shall be re-integrated into the Realm, now that the emergency was over.
The heady high of independence dissipated. Saying yes would be the epitome of betrayal: the NAKP would call for his head, unable to do anything else before the Realm's surprisingly reborn might. In his emotional depths, perhaps returning to Kiria might've been his first mistake, an ambitious project sabotaged by a horde of bad-faith dealers. Griffonia, at least, had been receptive to basic business practices.
And it was a peaceful alternative to saying no, which would put on his books the highest expense: kirin lives. The Viceroy refusing his master was to cast a great offence upon the Realm, an offence whose sole method of payment was bullets and blood. Every enterprise would be oriented towards the war: stocks would plummet, any semblance of security gone. They might win and gain a greatly multiplied return on investment, or lose and forfeit all things.
A knock rang on his door. "Chairkirin, Acting Premier Fern has arrived in the city. What should we telegraph her?"
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
The event “Embers are Forever” option “The Realm will implore the Viceroy to return or perish.” |
"Tell her we accept. Arrange a safe exit for me, Cypress, and the others."
AI logic:
"We refuse. I'll meet her personally. Notify the generals."
AI logic:
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Risk Tolerance
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
88 Chrysanthemum Plaza's security ushered Fern through the halls. Open doors provided glimpses of falling papers and redirected calls, of chatter over selling or evacuating. A pair of guards blocked off the door of a roaring nirik ranting about plummeting stocks.
She was swept into the Viceroy's office. Across the table, Cypress Snow stood beside a haggard Fickle and his dishevelled tie. A pile of scattered documents pretended to be orderly. "You don't look good," Fern asked.
"A long night," he said. "It isn't over. We have many details to hash out." Pages floated in his magic to Fern's side, important sections underlined. "The only major concession we ask of you is that you safeguard me and my group until we're out of Kirian waters." Fern flipped through the papers. It was as Fickle's telegraph said: a peaceful hoof-over of [KIS.GetNameDef] to [Root.GetNameDef], with a list of NAKP officials paid to co-operate with the Realm as "economic consultants". The diaspora's corporations would continue operations provided they follow the Realm's business codes.
The hoof-over was easy. Dangerously easy. "I figured some resistance, Fickle, but we're having this for almost nothing. Why?"
Fickle stopped fixing his tie. "I know when a venture is too unstable to invest in. After you vanquished the heretics, it was only a matter of time until you came to collect. Fighting you would've been costly, and I did not come here to kill. As for negotiations, we tried, but our secession should've told you how those went. It's not worth it here. I, Cypress, and several others will leave for greener pastures. Maybe we'll both have greater fortunes to negotiate with down the line, but now...
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
The event “Vermilion Demands Our Subjugation” option “"Tell her we accept. Arrange a safe exit for me, Cypress, and the others."” |
Option conditions
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Lies Written in Ink
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
The magnificent city of Fragrance welcomed the visiting Fern Flare with a telegraph of Fickle's reply: no.
Conquering the west's hills and forests had provided little relief, then. The urban lights and the open sea cradling them portended a second bout of massacre. The Realm had already killed many of Concord's spiritually misguided; eradicating a great number of Her foreign-born sons and daughters...
Her sedan sped to 88 Chrysanthemum Plaza, the nerve centre of the NAKP (the rest of her motorcade barely kept up). An audience with the Viceroy was demanded, so he stepped out the front doors, flanked by his personal guard. "Viceroy," Fern began, "your response has been rather... surprising." Formal decorum burdened her excessively, so Fern Flare—the mare herself, not the Acting Premier—dropped the pretence: "Fickle, after all the fighting down west, you've done this? I... you know what the Realm has to do just to not lose face."
"As I recall," Fickle said, "we agreed upon this arrangement to maintain a level of autonomy for the north, the perfect balance between independence and submission, if you will. Vermilion's latest request disturbs that balance outrageously. By going back on its word, the Realm has lost enough of that face." He shook his head, filled with shame (feigned or not, Fern did not know). "Perhaps it was not balance you wanted but time, just enough time for the fires to cool down so we would forget why the north abandoned you."
He extended a hoof for a shake. Fern returned the gesture, then hurried away amid the groaning rumble of ships and the ominous tolling of city bells.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
The event “Vermilion Demands Our Subjugation” option “"We refuse. I'll meet her personally. Notify the generals."” |
Option conditions
The question of modernity is but written in blood.
The question of modernity is but written in blood.
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SENDER: COMMANDANT CINCHONA OF THE STANDARDISED BANNER OF KIRIAN SIGNALS
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
TO: Acting Premier Fern Flare
RE: Loss of General [THIS.GetName]
INCLD: Final reports of [THIS.GetName] before capture
While performing counterinsurgency operations in [1076.GetName], Officer [THIS.GetName] has been captured by [KIC.GetAdjectiveCap] opposing forces.
Upon [THIS.GetName]'s arrival in [1076.GetName], a local force of valiants were put under the command of General [THIS.GetName] to perform rear-area security and reconnaissance in the region's rural countryside. However, the force of valiants had already been infiltrated by Rising Fire preacher-provocateurs prior to [THIS.GetName]'s arrival. While reconnoitring the area, General [THIS.GetName] and their force succeeded in tracking down a group of Rising Fire guerrillas. Upon making contact, the valiants refused to open fire, instead detaining [THIS.GetName] and defecting to the Rising Fire forces. It is believed that [THIS.GetName] has been transported deep into enemy territory, presumably to be delivered to [KIC.Capital.GetName].
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
On every month for |
How drenched is the west in heresy!?
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Watched
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
An ashen head faced the sun. It had collapsed fast: smuggling fugitives to the ports, sending them to Sen Kinh or further... then he was cuffed and bound, dragged for days to an open-air prison where he could only kneel and look up.
At noon, a mare was shoved into the same mechanism he was chained to. She, too, would face the sun. Her body was lean, frail skin stretched over bones. She spoke little. What he could tell was... young, ardent devotee to Autumn and her promises, though that was long ago. The mystics of the mare's village said no to her "Equestrian" suggestions. Her last resort for true harmony: a personal hunger strike. The last she remembered, she'd worked up a crowd. Which must've been when the shadows noticed.
Hoofsteps heralded a crew of photographers, chefs, and guards. Robes and metal plates of black robed their chief, who nodded silently at the mare. He then sauntered to Fervent. "Be harmonious, sir, for the sake of your companion. Tell us where you've stashed the other refugees." Fervent kept silent. His muzzle quivered.
The shadowy chief nodded again, so the crew raced to Fervent's fellow prisoner. Containers opened from which wafted the delicious smell of rice-garlic porridge. The guards pried open the mare's muzzle with a crowbar, then inserted a funnel and tube into her mouth. The chefs' combined magics levitated the canister of porridge overhead. Addresses were said, names of friends and family, future recipients of this impromptu photoshoot. Her eyes widened. The cameras snapped at the first gob of slop she half-swallowed, half-tried to vomit out against the snaps and flashes of soulless cameras.
The chief forced Fervent's head to watch.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
The event “Watchers” option “They only bowed.” |
Fervent painfully wished he could face the sun again.
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Masters of the World
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This is a community maintained wiki. If you spot a mistake then you are welcome to fix it. |
The latest RaHP meeting among the top brass had everyone squeezed around several borrowed tables and a badly arranged divider. Written testimonies of the Massicot War School protest had been distributed to all present, paperclipped with images of a mass of uniformed soldiers. Unarmed, their sheer numbers yet posed a threat.
"Why don't we crush them," some impatient delegate suggested, "like we've already crushed the apostates and the merchants last time?"
"They ARE trained," said a surly Bitter Root, "that's the problem. We are faced with an impending revolt of our own officers, with their soldiers behind them." The NSA, the NSA... another thorn, yet another bunch of miscreants who would never be content. He couldn't stifle a sigh. "That said, it is unwise to reject them outright. We are the party of harmony; we champion progress through stability. The Serene Tendency will be indebted to us for listening to the NSA—"
"And if those upstarts believe we're not doing enough?" That stopped Bitter. The balance narrowed into the breadth of a single mane strand. The Tendency disavowed great change; the NSA demanded nothing but.
The pictures of a thousand-strong and counting, gathered in unarmed solidarity, seemed to look back at him.
Trigger conditions
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Is triggered only by
The event “The Inextinguishable Light of Youth” option “Chartreuse's heart couldn't slow down. Their words persisted.” |
"We will do enough."
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- Unedited script
- 2.2.1.4
- Events