The Elf you take to be Prince Eltharion wears the blue-and-white livery of Yvresse under incredibly ornate armour, topped by a helm with two towering feathered horns that threaten to cause trouble should he stand too close to the chandeliers. His longsword is of an unmistakably Elven design, but the Runes it bears mean it must be an heirloom of unimaginable age. Despite being so fine as to make the meeting room of the Imperial Palace he is standing within seem shabby and worn, his armour seems like it would not restrict his range of movement at all, and his posture as he turns to face you is one that would allow him to draw his sword against you in a single motion, should he feel the need.
"Archmage of Ulgu, Mathilde Weber?" he asks as you approach.
You set aside the elaborate greeting you've spent the trip here concocting. "I have that honour."
"I am Prince Eltharion, the Warden of Tor Yvresse, and I am Ulthuan's delegation on the matter of recent interference with the Waystone network in the lands of the Empire." His sentences are clipped and simple, barely a step above battlefield cant, and you're not sure if he's condescending to you or if he habitually spurns the full range of Eltharin.
"What is Ulthuan's stance on the matter?" you ask neutrally, carefully examining the Prince.
"Initial reactions among the Phoenix King's advisers were negative, but the point was very firmly raised that if there is a way to expand the Waystone network that Ulthuan depends upon for its survival, then that is something that should not be erased out of hand just because we did not come up with it." The look in his eye makes you suspect it was him that very firmly raised that point. "For that reason, I am here to open negotiations for Ulthuan to acquire full documentation of the techniques and methodology of your additions to the Waystone network, as well as anything related you are developing."
"Why does Ulthuan need what we have developed when it pioneered the entire field?" It's a question you couldn't stop yourself from asking, even if you wanted to.
"The Waystones we have covered your lands and ours in is the artisanry of the Inner Kingdoms. In every foreseen scenario, it performs its task perfectly. But it does not deal well with the unforeseen, or with deliberate sabotage. What you have created may not be fit for Saphery's libraries, but there may be a place in Yvresse's armouries for something that can be taught and deployed quicker and easier than a Sapherian masterpiece."
You nod in understanding. "The Empire would be open to those negotiations, but it is not the only party involved. This project has been performed in concert with the magical traditions of Kislev, Tor Lithanel, and the Karaz Ankor."
He does not hesitate. "Then I am here to open negotiations with Kislev, Tor Lithanel, and the Karaz Ankor."
You do your best to refrain from hesitating too, even though the matter is one that would perhaps benefit from some hesitation. "Very well," you say. Luckily, there's a convenient time and place approaching where such a meeting can be arranged.
---
Kislev City is filled to bursting. Though Boris has wielded the power of the Tzar since a few minutes after his father's death was discovered, his coronation proper is still seen as a proper milestone, the moment the new ruler is presented to his Gods and subjects. Every tavern and public house is filled to capacity and then some, but in the proximity to a ceremony that is sacred to, among three others, the God of Hospitality, those who arrive too late to find conventional quartering are able to find something that will at least keep them warm and off the street. Thankfully, you and the other members of the Waystone Project are able to claim space within respective embassies to wait until the appointed hour.
The coronation of a Tzar of Kislev is a straightforward affair, but that does not mean it is a simple one. In the Western Hall you originally met the Tsarevich in several years ago, the Boyars and their retinues take up most of the space with the remainder going to foreign notables. This leaves the Druzhina and Atamans to compete with each other for the remaining space, with the losers spilling out into hallways and courtyards to crane for a glimpse. But even those are better off than those with no noble title at all, who are left to mill about the roads closest to the Bokha Palace, as if hoping to absorb some sort of significance from the event by sheer proximity.
At the epicentre of it all are the chosen High Priests, and at the centre of those four is Tzar Boris Bokha. Once there had been a single set of regalia that a Tzar would be coronated with, but over the centuries Kislev has accumulated quite a selection, and in modern times the exact pieces a Tzar chooses are taken as statements of their intentions as ruler. Some past Tzars and Tzarinas have been crowned in the name of only a single God, particularly the Khan-Queens in the name of the Widow, but Boris has High Priests of all four of Kislev's chief Gods, and the regalia has been chosen to match. Each one speaks ritual words of an ancient and unfamiliar language that cause the energies of the room to ripple in unfamiliar ways as they step up to adorn the Tzar.
By a particularly aged crone of the Widow who manages not to be dwarfed by the other three High Priests, he is presented the same halberd that you've seen him wield in battle, glowing brightly in a nimbus of the Widow's strange magics.
By an incredibly large man, naked from the waist up, with muscles rippling under fat, he is clad in armour of scale and fur, the usual secure clasps and buckles temporarily replaced with ones that can be secured in place in a more timely manner.
By a tall and slender man with a soul entwined with some sort of fiery spirit he is draped with a mantle bearing the bejewelled golden crests of the three cities of Kislev, interspersed with ones representing the four oblasts, where the majority of Kislev's nomadic tribes live.
By an impressively muscled and moustached man who almost glows with barely-contained energy he is crowned with an oaken circlet studded with polished lightning-glass.
There's a clamour of cheers from the crowd as Boris stands there in his mismatched regalia, the energies of the four Gods flowing over him without interfering with each other with what seems like familiar ease, and he seems to grow larger in some ephemeral way. You've seen history being made before, but this is history being cast, the usual jumbled mess of conflicting forces and people and events being manhandled into a pattern that can be written directly into the history books.
"People of Kislev," the Tzar's voice booms out, somehow different to the voice of merely Boris, and you strain your limited Kislevarin as best you can. "This day will be recorded in many different ways. Here, it is the 966th year of the Gospodarin Calendar, and the 496th Urtza. The Imperinyi reckon it as the year 2490, the Karzełki the year 7013. But to me, the most important measure is that 188 winters have passed since the end of the Great War.
"For the rest of the world, the Great War was long ago, its history already fading into myth. But here in Kislev, the wounds of the Great War still bleed as freely as they did when they were first carved. Praag remains ruined, Troll Country remains swelled larger than ever before and colonized by Norscans, and our churches squabble with foreign faiths instead of serving the land and the people. There are mutants and spirits in the forests, and Orcs and Goblins in the mountains. Half of Kislev does not answer to Kislevites.
"We all know the truth of Kislev, that there will be another. Tomorrow or next year or ten years from now, there will always be another. If they find us as we are now, we will be ended. For us to survive, we need to be more than we are. I swear upon the Land and the Gods that I will make it so, and that I will bring ruin to any and all that would stand in the way of Kislev's rebirth."
---
Out in the streets, there is feasting and drinking as the common folk are gifted the means to properly celebrate the ascension of the new Tzar. Inside the Palace the spread is even grander and greater, but it is largely neglected by most in favour of the richer banquet of politics. There are a great many people that want to be among the first to speak to the new Tzar, some to show off their status, others to find out for sure whether or not their status still exists in this new regime, and a precious few with actual business that actually needs attending to. That there is a foreign Wizard so high on the list draws a great deal of comment. You hear your name bandied about in connection with the Battle of the Shirokij, and with the Expedition, and with the Elves of Laurelorn and Ulthuan, but thankfully not with the succession itself.
Officially, you are here to speak with him regarding the Waystone Project as it undergoes the ephemeral but hugely significant change in status from the pet project of the Tsarevich to a key part of the Tzar's mandate, and to attend a meeting of representatives of the Project's current stakeholders. Unofficially, there's also the matter of your hands and his being stained with his father's blood, and the consequences of that commonality are yours to dictate.
Blood Price - For the crown he now wears, Tzar Boris promised to pay the price demanded by yourself, your Order, or your Emperor. If necessary, Mathilde would have retroactively laid any groundwork required off-screen.
[ ] [BLOOD] Personal (specify what)
Ask a price that serves your own interests - money, access, titles, knowledge, whatever.
[ ] [BLOOD] Order (specify what)
Ask a price that serves the interests of the Grey Order or the Colleges, whether that be with Kislev itself or the magical traditions or other organizations that exist within it.
[ ] [BLOOD] Empire (specify what)
Ask a price that serves the Empire, such as advantageous treaties, greater economic or military ties, or a renegotiation of disputed borders.
[ ] [BLOOD] Nothing
Ask no price at all. This may or may not be appreciated by the Tzar.
Waystone Negotiations - Prince Eltharion has arrived from Ulthuan to negotiate for access to what the Waystone Project has discovered and developed. Though Ulthuan will inevitably make the argument that they have a right to that information, their lack of influence with the involved parties means that a price can be extracted from them. Every polity involved will have had the chance to formulate a list of desired items, information, or concessions, but you could also have convinced the other parties to present a united front for a specific goal, as long as it benefits everyone involved.
[ ] [ULTHUAN] Cooperation
Ask for Ulthuan to supply information to further the Waystone Project, most notably the method of connecting new Waystones to the existing network.
[ ] [ULTHUAN] Marienburg
While this matter alone is not enough to pry Marienburg and Ulthuan entirely apart, concessions could be extracted that would be advantageous for all of the polities involved in the Waystone Project, such as the free flow of trade from the Reik to the Sea of Claws, and an explicit stance from Ulthuan regarding the canal matter instead of their current deliberate ambiguity.
[ ] [ULTHUAN] Payday
As academically successful as the Project has been so far, from a certain point of view it has absorbed quite a bit of resources and delivered very little that is of concrete value in the here and now. Allowing each of the polities involved to extract their own price from Ulthuan will please the backers of the Project and burnish the good name of everyone involved. The Empire's share would be decided in a later vote.
[ ] [ULTHUAN] Other (specify what)
- There will be a two day moratorium for people to prepare their wishlists.
