[X] Elder Komandir Varhan Sarbadgar, who brings with him the support of his Pale Horse Standard and some of the most extreme veterans of the War with the Mare, many of them on leave in Nachivan and spoiling for a fight.
[X] With the Rage of Rehabam we destroy our foes [Fervor rises to Absolute, recruitment will continue, the sect will prioritize absolute militancy over the next few weeks as it prepares measures to defend against the Jury of Nachivan].
[X] Ma'on, the gunpowder-fists of the Western Navel [Gain a contact in the Militant Pugilist sect and its squads of street-toughs, granting strong bodies on the ground].
The Torch of Memory
Fire is the destroyer. It is the flame that engulfs civilization. When the Gushans ignited the libraries of Sufgan's marvelous capital of Kanarot the smoke from the libraries was so thick that a deluge of ink blackened the now accursed plain around. When the Vasp of Gushanaram wish to teach the long-abused witches 'stern lessons', it is by the fire that they exact their savage work, erecting stakes that turn the hills to 'blood lanterns' . The great industrial hells erected by the apostates of humanity who call themselves tycoons are run upon chained and imprisoned fire. And when a company of Jurors dies, it is in fire, the immolations of their standards in the practice of misguided martyrs.
But fire is also the creator. It is the flame of the soul and light of nations. Without fire you would perish in the cold; without the light of the torch you would be trapped in darkness. It is the fire in your hearts that carries you forward, and the rage of Rehabam is the rage of fire, and his angel's crown a crown of flames. As the grass of the Hamgad Steppe is every summer burned to refresh the soil, so to must the grass of the old order be burned to refresh Vaspukaran. And it is the warmth of the hearth of the HaKhofshim Mekdash that warms you all in the darkest cold of this dread winter. Even as you mourn the death of Yoni in the solemnity of shiva, sitting in remembrance, your hands and feet need not be bundled, and you do not shiver as lambs in the chill of despair.
And it draws visitors. The factory upstairs is not heated, but the Mekdash is, so on their break working girls come down and warm themselves and listen to the sermons hosted by Galavani Chana, then walk back upstairs and warn their boss that if he dares treat them badly the gun-nuns will march up to the second floor and beat him half to death. Wanderers from the outside approach, drawn by the heating of the Mekdash but then staying for the lectures of Dvorah or the one-man acts of Wendam, who performs for the children.
And on the fifth day, Ma'on comes.
Brotherhood of Misbegotten Sons
In columns of five-by-five, in a whirl of feet storming and biceps flexing, burst through the door tough men and boys, wearing sleeveless orange shirts and flared orange bandanas in the midst of winter, hands wrapped in bandages well-bloodied. Each sports cuts or wounds, broken noses or scarred faces, save for the youngest, who make it up for it with wide and wild eyes and bouncing steps. They smell of sweat and street, and dirt is their anointing ash. Silent in their vigil, they do not crack even a noise as they carry baskets wrapped in cloth in their right hands. All wear sashes of ascending, from green to red, red the greatest and green the lowest. And all flank on either side an elderly blindfolded guru, his long robe orange and his sash crimson. One arm is held behind his back, the other taps a cane across the ground in front. On his silken blindfold, words embroidered: TZEDEK. Justice.
Ma'on brings with them not just food in their baskets, and not just master martial artist of the grappling one-tusk art Guru Uirtavira Senkelzester, better known as Blind Man's Bluff, the No-Eyes Annihilator, but also the spirit of the streets of the Western Navel. Descending from the hills and terraces of ancient lands, ejected by the prophets of profit who see in their homes an opportunity for riches, they are the forgotten men of history. Disconnected from their families, scattered across the cities of the Hadit, they are drops within an ocean, dispersed and alone, working in the most miserable conditions, or else struggling in crafts which are purported to be holy but with every year become harder to sustain.
They are former haberdashers and the weavers and the coopers and the cobblers whose prayers cannot defeat the grind of the machine. Without tradition, without custom, without community, they become ghosts, clinging onto what little they can retrieve of their ancient folk beliefs. Books of myths and legends have grown popular among toilers, and also the practice of letter-writing to their distant relatives, but for those unlucky or unfortunate enough to have been thrown out of their tenements or workshops by the alien force of rising capital, there is no recourse but to crawl into a gutter and simply wait to die. Failures as sons, whose fathers look down on them, failures as brothers, whose families discard them, and failures as men, whose wives leave them, digging at the bottom of the trash heap for the will to survive another day.
It for these men that Ma'on calls to, and it is to these men that Ma'on is salvation. It is the brotherhood of misbegotten sons, organized into a concentrated sect 20,000 strong that controls the western navel with greater strength than the Jury of Nachivan itself. Through street squadrons who elect street gurus who answer to sect councils who elect sect gabbis and sect cantors, Ma'on has become the streets and avenues of the western navel, its protector and its guardian. They are the new face of male urban pugilism, bringing a message from village huts to tenement back-alleys. It is because of them that you are safe here, for no Juror had until the massacre of 14th Tislev dared to fight head-to-head within their neighborhood the fists of Ma'on. The Ghadim ultrapugilists cannot compete with its commitment to social justice, nor the ferocity of Ma'on's community of toughs, who in their every action seek to glorify God by exalting his lost boys to the status of defenders of the peace.
The Free and the Brave
But there are fears among the sect of HaKhofshim. Who are these boys who come to us with bloodied noses and stiff lips? How can we trust them when they ignore the commandment to glorify the woman just as well as man? Are they not perhaps wild beasts and animals with no sense of discipline, or creatures of the night who enjoy violence for its sake? It is these questions which occupy the sect, perhaps influenced by the reality of Pugilism's rural roots, that have caused it to come to fear the urban gangs and mobs that have so often turned their violence not against the high, but against the low, with pogroms and with riots attacking bakers and not bankers. Or perhaps it is the reasonable fear of the militant women of the Gunpowder Eucharist, who see in Ma'on's thrill in male strength a dark side that argues female weakness.
But this is not Ma'on, and this is not its way. It is not a pack of hooligans, nor a pack of chauvinists. Its founding as a male order was based on the cultural proclivities of Heldargast, and if it is to be faulted in this way, it is a choice subconscious and not purposeful. Guru Bluff himself speaks to the matter as they partake in the hospitality of HaKhofshim: that the woman is sacred, and Ma'on seeks to defend women. If they can defend themselves, Guru Bluff admits with the scratch of his head, then that is all the better, for there will always be others in need of help, and they could use the women's help as well.
It is true, as the sect surmised, however, that Ma'on is devastated. It is not enough that the golden calf that has replaced God in the minds of the high steals men from their homes and their families and makes of their bodies sacrifices to the altar profitable. No, they must also slaughter those who challenge this. The cantor Ulvarani Bharya was among the oldest of the sect, who was called Giant Grandfather, a close friend and co-founder of the movement and its martial art with the Guru Bluff. And when they hear the story of Yoni, the tough men of Ma'on do nothing more than weep, and some bang their fists in solidarity. It is not enough, they cry, that they cut down our elders who will guide us forth, but also the children who will be our future, brave boys who should not have to be so brave as to sacrifice their lives.
Results: Alliance formed with Ma'on. In a street confrontation, Ma'on will provide additional support and protection with its on-the-ground tough squadrons to HaKhofshim.
Two Fists, Intertwined
Their good nature, and the taste of their delicious injera bread, falafel rolls, delectable vegetable soups and slippery noodle broths, does much to ease the sect to them. Ma'on admits they are not the most sophisticated, but that they offer an embrace which no other sect can to its membership: a family of brothers who are tied to one another by sweat and by blood for the purpose of justice. And it is for the sake of justice that the sect offers its own vast manpower to HaKhofshim. Not only for cooperative marches to intimidate and strike fear into the murders of the Jury Nachivan, but also for the sake of joint government.
As it turns out, Ma'on functionally runs a community policing effort from its own Temple of the Bloody Tusk. From here, they support in particular programs to aid the most vulnerable in the Western Navel, a place defined by its highs and lows, from the great families and mansions of the Synod and its attendant priests, to the vagrants who often live along the thoroughfares, and many of whom have been saved from exposure by the blankets and warm shelter offered by Ma'on. But in particular, Ma'on is hoping to work with the sect to expand their support to areas where HaKhofshim might have special knowledge.
They identify three areas of joint work. They are eager to ensure working children, especially orphans, receive an education and are not being abused: the printer bulletin boys, in particular, often chosen at age eight and let go at age sixteen or seventeen, and the chimney sweeps are particularly miserable. Bukak, arms crossed and on a cushion stuffing himself with a pita and falafel, mutters through full mouth that the Ravs can help, and have enough experience with working kids.
Ma'on is also concerned about protecting the 'nightwomen', who provide pleasures in the taverns, but whose existence is so unspeakable to orthodoxy that they have no recourse to protecting themselves from either tavern owners or their worse clients. Galavani Chana, in quiet contemplation even as she slurps her soup, says that the Gunpowder Eucharist can help in aiding them. Finally, there are the crippled Juror veterans, who come to Nachivan in the hope of finding work or redeeming pensions, and instead end up near death on the street with their stipends robbed by komandirs, often addicted to the pain-relief offered by yamroot. Hyanaki Akov, thoughtful and still deep within his mourning, bites into an injera roll and agrees that the Scourge of God knows enough of them to help.
But Guru Bluff points out that it would be wiser for this to happen once at a time: Ma'on is prepping, just as much as HaKhofshim surely is, for a potential confrontation with the Jury Nachivan. It would be wise, they suggest, to focus on one area in particular, and then, if such cooperation works well, to expand. After all, Guru Bluff humbly admits, they have themselves been chastised in their ambitions by the death of Cantor Bharya. As Cantor, Bharya sought an aggressive, expansionist, and maximalist vision of Ma'on power in the city, only for it to end with himself exploded. Bluff, his blindfold wet with the tears of a mourning friend, mutters that at least Bharya can have pride his martial arts skills were so feared they dared not confront him without the cheat of a bomb thrown at his bedroom.
As the sects solemnly contemplate their shared loss, it comes to the floor onto which initiative for community aid should be supported.
[] The Children in their toiling caves. Ma'on will work with the Ravs of Labour to improve the working conditions and bring education and joy to precarious and sometimes orphaned children as young as eight who work in some Nachivan's most difficult professions.
[] The Women of the darkest night. Ma'on will work with the Gunpowder Eucharist to provide protection and investigate abuses of female sex workers who work in challenging conditions on an effectively illegal basis within the taverns of Nachivan.
[] The Veterans left upon the street. Ma'on will work with the Scourge of God to provide a support network and potential recuperation into society for Juror veterans who have been abandoned on the streets of Nachivan, many of whom are now yamroot addicts.
The God of Good
Exarch Coravan thinks himself a provider of good works. Think about how much good he has provided to the women of the Eglantine Mill, to whom he has so graciously provided employment. Think about how kind he is to extend to them the chance for stable work, to sign them on as permanent mill-girls, to ensure stability in the family by allowing their children to come along as well and help their mothers at their feet. Think of how well he cares for them, that those girls who prove themselves in productivity can meet him in person, and that he lets them have breaks to make prayers, some of which are, of course to him and his good fortune.
If the Juror manufactories are built around iron discipline, and the sailors' warehouses on cultural isolation, Eglantine bathes itself in piety. The Exarch, after all, is not just a governor and owner but a high priest: to work for him is sacred, and to shirk your work is blasphemous. Eglantine Mill is structured as a temple, but with choirs replaced by the whir of the cotton machine. In the place of wine and bread, workers swallow cotton dust, and the women are so hungry that attempts by well-meaning reformers to ventilate the cancerous dust are met with complaints that the 'inhalation of the cotton puff is a fine substitute to lunch'. Visits by the Exarch, and celebration out of good workers, keep the women in line, as do assertions that they will disappoint their villages and husbands should they fall behind. The gospel of wealth, that preaches it is good to have riches and a pity to be poor, turns old teachings on their head, and bewitches the working girls who fear that their exhaustion is a symptom of impiety.
Central to this twisted theology is the assertion, truly, that this must be the best of all possible worlds. Initially intended as an innocuous proof of God by a High Priest some hundred years ago, the phrase has become the mantra of an indulgent class that transcends the boundaries of the chambers, containing Jurors, High Priests, and even those among the Mouflons and Low Priests who have chosen idolatry over solidarity for their fellows. The lure of money, and its increasing demand upon all who rely on it, destroys the old social relations meant to retain some measure of restraint of the high upon the low. As Pugilists you understand this was always a falsehood, a deceitful lie meant to trick the tillers and toilers to look above for succor, but this is well beyond that: It is a relishing of immiseration, a joy in crushing of the downtrodden as not just inevitable but just.
And it has a sway on the workers of Eglantine. Initial efforts by the Ravs of Labour come to naught not because of the resistance of the mill monks, though these inquisitorial Low Priests are an accursed set, but from the mouflon women themselves. Many, although expressing grief for young Yoni lost, simply do not believe things can be better for them. Some of them break down crying when offered assistance, saying they have sold all their possessions, their wedding dresses woven by their mothers, just to survive, that if they were to lose this they would rather 'simply perish than continue to persist in humiliation'. God is good, and God has given them work. Is that not enough?
The Ravs of Labour, frustrated but still obstinate as ever, assert that this is a fundamental fact for many of Vaspukaran's mouflons. It is not just that they are crushed, but that they try to kiss the boot that steps upon their necks. The old tenets and ethics of the sages have been taken and stolen by demons who exploit these lambs of God. It will take time, but already cracks have appeared: A few of the braver women of the mill have surreptitiously agreed to at least feed information from the inside, and Chana and the Nuns of the Eucharist are running messages from in to out for the Ravs, using existing grapevines of working women's gossip to disguise reports.
It is a small but momentous step, and a reflection both of how far organization has come and how far it still has left to go. Working Mouflons, many of whom still have one foot still in their villages, will not easily be swayed by a gospel of freedom that threatens to upend what little they have, but still their very desperation is the fruit of militancy.
Let all agree, as the Pasan Ghadi once said: That those who think this world the best of all are those who profit from it most of all!
Results: Contacts gained with workers within the Eglantine Mill. Long-standing efforts to undermine worker morale and sow fear in its membership challenge efforts at organizing.
The Light that Must be Fed
Even as Wendam snores in their shared cubicle in the HaKhofshim Mekdash (with it judged too unsafe for Dvorah to stay in her home at least for the moment), Dvorah writes by candelight early into the morning the next stage in the development of HaKhofhim theology. As she does, she meditates on her own life, and its reflection of the truths of Pugilist scripture.
For man was created with both the capacity for light and for darkness, two parts of the soul at odds within. The imperfection of man, curdled in the construction of the spire, shook God, to see his children with such a capacity for cruelty.
Dvorah was born with feet too large and legs too long, with nose too big and lips too thin. A humiliation to the lineage Huygarani whose eldest daughters had always been called 'dolls of the mountains'. Her mother assured her, at least, that she could be proud she was a Huygarani, the descendants of princes, and of mighty kings. That, at least, she could be proud of, and be enough to assure a marriage of a decent type if she was not also stupid.
This capacity for cruelty was rooted in the dominating ethos, that leads man to rule over man, and label one as lesser and one as greater, no matter their true capacities for love, and their love of God.
Gazanya was a maid and a spinster and a witch and she was more of a mother to Dvorah than her mother could have ever hoped to be. She loved so much when Gazanya would put Dvorah in her lap and tell her stories while she ran a gentle comb through her long hair, and promised her that she was not the giraffe that the other high priest children teased but a darling beautiful.
By this fashion a human could be transformed into a slave, mental or physical, and every kind of evil enacted on them without any type of redress.
She was twelve when they threw Gazanya on the street. She had lain with her uncle Jurni and become despoiled by him. A maid cannot be pregnant, and a witch's spawn is a bother for the household, her mother well-assured her. Jurni himself was lightly chastised by her father, to stop being such a fool, but otherwise all merely shook their head. Gazanya had been everything to her, and then she was nothing at all.
When Dvorah wept for her, her mother hugged her and said, oh my dear: She was after all just a witch.
To dispel the darkness is no one person's duty, and the darkness infects itself into every institution of the human society. It is an impulse that comes not just from our free will but the facts of gold and gospel that so much influence the road on which we walk.
You will go to study at a good Yeshiva, her father orders, and she says confirms, yes father. And you will go and charm a decent man, her mother orders, and she affirms, yes mother. And she is thrilled, for she wants to please them. This is her chance, by God, to please them. This is her chance for them to look at as that which she is: a Huygarani, of proud lineage, old and august. This is her duty. This is the only thing that matters.
The road back from this darkness is a collective effort - it is not by one act, or by one person, that illumination comes. It is the transformation of the whole world, that promises enlightenment.
She meets Esterkezy Oshana at the Yeshiva, who teaches her that she might be her own person. She who challenges her every assumption, that shatters the idols of her life.
She meets Baba Tanda on the street, who teaches her that this world is not enough. She who upbraids her for her docility, and urges her to reinforce her mind with iron.
And she meets Guru Wendam in the strangest of all places, as a man in disguise snuck in as a Juror guard to her graduation ceremony. And at first he does not teach her anything at all, but instead tells a joke: of a dog walking into a tavern, and saying it can't see a thing. And when she stares at him twice blinking, he only rubs his beard, and admits it is funnier in the original Kokabi, and then for the first time, she sports a shy girl's smile.
In time, they will teach each other how to love.
But this transformation will not come peacefully, for the forces of darkness that profit from the world that is will wish to prevent the world to come. It is by apocalypse, violent, great, and decisive, that light itself will triumph.
She burns the letters from her mother, demanding to come home. She burns the letters from her father, disowning her for eloping with a 'deserter cur'. And as the flames dance upwards, and ash sprinkles on the ground, she knows that she walks now the road of freedom. And as arms close around her, and she leans back into Wendam's embrace, she knows she does not walk alone.
There will be setbacks, and catastrophes. Darkness is everpresent in the human soul, and has roosted since the beginning in its recesses. It is informed by certain fundamental material supports that must be destroyed for it to be truly eradicated. Without that, darkness will strike back.
They read the sentences of exile and Dvorah goes pale and closes then her eyes. Of course she should have known she would not have been sent to Kutan. Of course, of course, of course. The judge himself, a pale and fat old man, shrugs at her protests:
You are a daughter of the Huygarani lineage, proud and old and august. You do not belong among these simpletons, out on the frontier. Time in Zarnai, to meditate upon your sins, and then a return to your family for discipline.
But the light of the Human Soul is created by God, and it is divine. Against it, darkness is baseborn, originating, and crude, unable to fight against the refinement of the illuminating mission that comes ever-closer to the spiral's root and the world to come.
She hits a nun over the head with a plate and puts another in a headlock until she is unconscious just like Baba Tanda showed her, then escapes her cell on the mountainside by way of rope and tied bedcloth. She steals a sari and perfume from a local manor the way Qanam said he'd steal from the Cheshvan baggage train, then intimidates the railway monks to let her ride to Yomri.
After all, she is a daughter of the Huyganari lineage, proud and old and august, and how dare they deny her privilege to ride wherever she may like?
In the end, the defeat of dark by light is the task of all, and the task of love: the comportment of the human community into a single mass, who collectively sing their praise to God, free as one and free as all.
The sages gather for a picture, and she wonders if perhaps she is out of place, too elegant, too high, but Baba Tanda gives her a rare smile, and Wendam squeezes on her hand, and Qanam gives her a curt nod and Akov looks at her as if she is a prophet of the world to come.
And at last, Dvorah knows to what lineage it is that she belongs, and to what she owes her loyalty: to that of the free, and to those yearning to be free, for now, and forevermore.
And it is by these hopes that HaKhofshim proclaims: There will no end to darkness, until we have built the world to come.
Results: New Doctrine created. The Truths of Light and Darkness, which asserts that the two principles of light and darkness are not just metaphysical concepts but fundamental representations of social forces that cannot be changed without changing the conditions in which they are formed.
The Man They Fear
And then, a pale horse, and upon it a rider: his name was Varhan Sarbadgar.
A Juror of the Pale Horse Standard holds vigil with the sect on the fifth day and offers an invitation. Wendam and Akov take it, and find themselves on the way to Karogen Academy. There, they find Sarbadgar, the men of his standard, and a festival unlike any they have ever seen. It looks at first like a witch's ritual, and Akov wonders if they took the wrong turn at Saranon Avenue. In the courtyard, Jurors dance and hoot around an Irminsul, a carved pole-tree imported from Gushanaram, lighting fires and cheering to the aspect of God's wrath.
An effigy of a Juror of Nachivan is dragged forward and hanged from the Irminsul totem-pole, whilst magi throat-sing and strum menacing steppe guitars. Drums beat to the pace of heartbeats, ever faster as the effigy rises and swings higher, higher, and soldiers don demonic masks with distorted faces, taking turns with red-painted spears to impale its gut. Then, at last, the Effigy's central cavity is pierced, and from its torso pour out roses, and the demonic-jurors fall back, collapse to their feet, beg forgiveness.
Female magi in thick dresses and masks step forward from the edges now and carry gilded skulls with woven peacock feathers forming sinews of muscle and shell eyes, and bear them to each of the mask-wearers. Each skull is of a former komandir of the Standard, and in battle they are carried upon spears by standard-bearers. The mask-wearers reach forward and kiss a skull, then fall backwards, shuddering, declaring that the wrath is expelled from them. And then, at last, Varhan Sarbadgar himself, wearing a prim and proper juror's uniform, watching all with an impassive eye, puts a hand up, and declares, that in the place of wrath is freedom, and the men of his standard, that Akov realizes are officers, repeat that in the place of wrath is freedom.
This is the Pale Horse Standard. Formed out of an army of Gushan slaves who rose up at Amalgast's declaration of emancipation, they are one of the oldest standards in all Vaspukaran. Amalists to a man, and bounded by ancient vows to protect liberty, they are natural radicals for whom the Sanhedron is merely the latest righteous cause. Five years ago Sarbadgar, against the orders of the High Jury, took them to fight the Mare, and were part of the some of the most pivotal battles of the war, that broke the advance of the Garden Corps in Dargang Circle.
Sarbadgar himself is an olive-skinned man in middle-age with a well-kept dark beard, a high forehead, chiseled nose and an impassive, unreadable expression. His eyes, normally half-lidded, light up with something dangerous when he speaks animatedly on the cowardice of the high juries. He does not partake in the 'weakness of humour' and is statuesque in manner. Wendam thinks he and Qanam would find themselves fast friends. Sarbadgar explains he is a hard man borne out of hard circumstances: a Gushan, no matter how intelligent, cannot rise high in Gushanaram. Its vernacular Perusian Rite, also applied to Hamayan, separates the faithful into 'conquered castes', with the Vasp at the pinnacle and Amalgastene Gushans ranked far below, and their witch compatriots at the very bottom. Laws intended to humilitiate and disparage make it difficult to rise high: as a komandir, Sarbadgar's career is at its height, and he could never become ataman. Even High Ataman Buman Burs, himself a Cheshvan, is only of the second rank, and many of the elite Vasp of Gushanaram mock him behind his back as 'that great brute'.
He has, from the beginning of his life, been taught the cold lessons of hierarchy such as exists nowhere else in Vaspukaran. And it is because of that, and because of Dvorah's writing on extinguishment, that he has called on you.
The Coming Storm
Sarbadgar is not alone. He is joined by komandirs and officers elected as elders for their chamber from across the frontier, and even a few from the interior who have lost patience with this 'pestilence upon the faithful'. Their grievances are many: from the weakness and humiliation of Vaspukaran to the immiseration of their soldiers by the cloying high juries to the worship of the 'false god of riches'. The feared angelic banners are not happy: their Atamans, Sarbadgar reports, are reading his speeches and giving thanks to him for his words. But it is not by words that Sarbadgar intends to inflict change upon Vaspukaran.
Sarbadgar shares with Akov and Wendam something that shocks both, and the sect itself: that the Great Synod is not acting so aggressively on behalf of its old doddering instincts but out of deliberate strategy. In effect, every single High Jury has turned against the Rite of Liberty supported by itself and the Jury of Nachivan but they have no firm capacity to act against it. The banners of the interior have radically atrophied. High Ataman Burs, who Sarbadgar appears to know personally, may hope to resurrect Steedeater, but the thing he creates will be a mass of confused levies, not a true army. In this environment, no true civil war is possible, and all the High Juries fear it, because it would immediately expose them as impotent.
In this environment, the Synod and its allies still retain the single most effective fighting force in proximity to Nachivan. The Angelic Lhazaran Banner is far downriver, and anyways is likely to be more concerned with events in Nesra. The other banners are on the far frontier. The Kedarkan High Jury are bankers and summer knights, and their veteran standards, like Akabar Morsi's White-Gold, are too ambitious to be trusted by their superiors. Dvarim is paying for years of extortion of its juries by now descending into a revolt of the barracks. Barabanan is passive and internally divided, and too concerned about internal control to act outside the south. Yelisan...Yelisan is concerned with matters of sacral importance to the north.
The Sanhedron, Sarbadgar advances, is an imperfect instrument for liberation, but it is the most effective instrument to challenge the Synod's authority over law. By comparison, no such instrument exists to assert authority over force against the Jury Nachivan. Sword-Altar is too entrenched in the city, and the potential rivals too scattered. The Pale Horse has only been allowed to brings its officer corps and a complement of guards into the city, and in total they only form a few hundred trained soldiers. Veterans or no, they are not enough. It is the same for White-Gold, one of the most effective standards in Vaspukaran: Sarbadgar has struck up a friendship with its Komandir and elder Akabar Morsi, but Morsi's standard is in Makha circle, hours away by train. Many other juries are effectively useless as combat units, or else have been denuded and exhausted by the War with the Mare and cannot act with vigor.
All of this is to say that he would like to arm you.
Results: Alliance formed with Varhan Sarbadgar...? Did a komandir just say he wishes to arm us?
Instruments of Liberation
The statement, said so bluntly, takes Akov and Wendam off-guard. But Sarbadgar means it: He has been studying your sect. He knows you came from Kutan, though not exactly how. He knows you must have weapons of some kind. And he knows that you have Jurors among your number. You are not enough, but the fact that you have made an alliance with the 'street boys' tells him you are of value. That your women are armed and trained as well is of no small utility. In a true street-war, the western navel is critical: it contains the synod, one of the major avenues to the Heavenly Mount, Vikrag Prison, and the bridge connecting the southern section of the city, with its own radical sects who would need to cross to aid you.
And finally, he adds, he has no doubt of your commitment to the cause of freedom. He is no pugilist, but he respects the Pasan Ghadi as a son of the Amalgastene dream of universal liberation. And that you are one of the few sects who appear to understand and even respect the ideal of the jury is what most comforts him. He cares little for the formal privileges of the Jurors, of the centuries of accreted special rites. Instead, he points to his men embracing one another around the Irminsul, all veterans of war, all supporting one another in every thing and knowing that their komandir is a man of virtue: this is what a jury is. A community of free warriors, not slave-soldiers to the golden calf.
This is what you will help him birth again. For a war is coming, and when it is won, there will be an age of miracles. Come along with the path with him, and he will ensure a place for you. It is an extraordinary admission, and a dangerous one, and yet Sarbadgar says it simply in one of the most prominent military academies in the country, to widespread nods by other elder Jurors who have brought their own officers here.
And with that, he sends you on your way, and an officer arrives to the sect, outlining the means by which Sarbadgar intends to lend you the means to walk along his holy path, while the sect sits flabbergasted, praising God this opportunity, even as they ruminate over his reported words.
Choose two out of the four below.
[] Modern Rifles. Sarbadgar has connection with arsenals of veterans of the war, and they will absolutely be able to divert shipments of rifles and smuggle them into the city to much better outfit your mass sections. These are modern arms, designed for the War with the Mare.
[] Machine Guns. Sarbadgar knows that some among your number are themselves veterans, and are trained with the use of machine guns: you had none in Kutan, but he is willing to lend some to you regardless. Machine guns would be significant in urban fighting.
[] Maps of Nachivan. Sarbadgar has since the beginning of the Sanhedron been commissioning and purchasing street-maps of Nachivan: these maps are a significant tactical advantage and will help you far better in any kind of street-war or even for simple strategic navigation.
[] Starshy Officer. Sarbadgar is willing to place as a secret liaison to your sect one of the officers of his standard. In addition to solidifying a personal relationship, having a capable and veteran officer would be extremely useful in training your sect in how to fight.
The Widening Gyre
The Bull Infallible, finally issued by the Sanhedron with the Patriarch's immediate assent, does not relieve tensions. Proclaimed on the 25th of Tislev, the Bull Infallible asserts that the Patriarch's power has been deliberately curtailed by a 'dread cabal', that the Synod has been engaged in a 'conspiracy against the faithful', and that the Jury of Nachivan 'has blood upon its hands'. It asserts that that the Grand Sanhedron is not only a legitimate but the supreme authority above all others in Vaspukaran, and that it can make laws pertaining to all aspects of Vaspukaran. By virtue of its representation of all four chambers, it claims total authority over every law of the other chambers.
It asserts that the Great Synod must, by the day after the Festival of Lights on the 30th and last day of the month of Tislev, withdraw the Originating Principle. All Synods must also reverse their support for the originating principle. The Juries who have gathered at Tendavara are to return home. The Lesser Sanhedrons, which some of the Synods have been attempting to outlaw, are formally recognized as official advisory bodies on the circle and Metropolitan level. The High Juries must also assent that they support the Sanhedron.
It is a massive shift that reveals just how far the Synod and Jury of Nachivan have pushed the Sanhedron. With many of its elders from the frontier, they did not fully grasp the extent of the Patriarch's captivity: Now, having seen it revealed to themselves, they are so disgusted they are willing to even court a total war in order to see it ended. As the Defender of the Faith and Vicar of God, the Patriarch's long withdrawal from temporal affairs has only improved their prestige among the people and regional elites who are not confronted with his human mistakes but only his divine presence.
The response from the Originators is panicked. There are requests for negotiation from the Originating Juries. On the 26th of Tislev, the Jury of Nachivan asks to reopen negotiations with Patriarch Santsarran. He refuses, and then it leaks from the Heavenly Mount to God's Own in a special report that there has been an ongoing effort since the beginning of the Sanhedron by specific ministers to undermine and destroy the Patriarch's authority by feeding him false information. Several ministers and the Abbot of the Order of Silence flee the city.
On the 27th, massive bread riots rock several sections of the southern city, including some of the Exarchates, emboldened that if they act the Sanhedron will be forced to fix bread prices. The Jury of Nachivan withdraws its soldiers from the streets, instead reinforcing Kennakerib Hill, Fort Karnak, Vikrag Prison, and Tzinhas Barrack. There are sailor's protests, and the Great Synod, deprived of its protection, totally evacuates the city because of your and Ma'on's agitation on the streets. An institution as old as the Second Patriarchate itself is functionally dissolved by the will of what they denounce as 'the most vile street-rats and schismatic scullions'.
On the 28th, the panic spreads outside the city as Synodic Circles surrounding Nachivan, where High Priest Archdeacons realizing that this is going too far too fast, declare they wish for a middle option between the Bull Infallible and the Originating Principle, begging instead for 'peace to reign in heaven'. These include Warabad, Makha, Ralabarak, Titarkulan and Kular. In reaction, massive explosive riots shake their capitals and spread into the countryside. Anti-machine artisans in Warabad attack telegraph lines and mills, breaking machines and toppling containers of cloth. It is reported that several telegraph lines around the city of Nachivan itself are damaged, with the Jury of Nachivan vowing they will be repaired as soon as possible. The High Jury of Kedarkan feebly asks for calm. The High Jury of Dvarim besieges mutineers, heedless of the hostages they will kill with artillery shells. High Ataman Burs, in Ramayan, has gone silent, and is no longer responding to requests from Nachivan for reports on his whereabouts.
In Nachivan itself, the energy is electric. The Jury of Nachivan appears absolutely petrified: it has completely surrendered the streets. In its place, the avenues are increasingly filled by Sanhedral supporters, volunteers joining from the middle, upper, and lower classes supportive of the Sanhedron's mission and adding their numbers to the moderate sects. Elder Kardon Hadi baptizes 3,000 'holy fighters' in the Park of the Pillars. Elders supportive of the Zekheri sect declare that 'in defense of the moral Sanhedron, there must be a holy war on the immoral synod'. There is discussion of abolition of the Great Synod altogether.
And on the 29th of Tislev, also, a pamphlet appears everywhere on the streets of Nachivan, anonymously printed: It advocates that the High Priesthood be abolished, and distinctions ended between the chambers. It is signed by a 'Rav Boros', effectively indicating that the person in question wishes to present themselves as a 'simple holy man', referencing the peasant brother of Amalgast, and argues that 'it has gone on long enough that we are ruled by these confused old men who cannot tell apart sacrilege from sacramenet...'
But even chaos cannot stand against the prerogative of the holy days. The 30th of Tislev is Ohrlachag, the festival of lights, and a holiday of peace, after the legendary declaration of pacific rule that came with Amalgast's final victory over the Gushans. The shops are closed, the workers are on leave, and all within the city are huddled in the temples, praying. It is one of the single most sanctified and important days in the year, and a sudden pause for tranquility in the midst of madness. On the eve before, lanterns are lit on the River Hadit with well-wishes and prayers to God for this year to be a year of wonders, and flow away upon the wind.
It is a marvelous day. The winter vortex has stopped howling, and there is a gentle shower in the morning. You yourselves gather in the HaKhofshim Mekdash for the morning service. It is the first holiday since Yoshrei, and all wonder just how far you have come since then, how great you have grown, even as your sect remains small and modest. It is in spirit, above all, that you have become exalted, and will continue to exalt yourselves. It is Baba Tanda who declares it: Let the next month be the month of freedom, and for today, let us rest, and be gladdened!
And all cheer, even as they remember Yoni, and the pain, and the agony, for they know that on this day of wonder, you are nearer still to God, and nearer still to the world to come, now closer than it has ever been before. A palpable, fragile hope is now in the air: the Sanhedron has turned, and its elders have turned to the streets. The Jury of Nachivan is cowed. The people are beginning to rise everywhere. In Nesra, they already begin to wrest power from the powerful.
And in here, in your little temple, you are beginning to believe, that this best of all possible worlds may soon be replaced by something far better than it was.
END TURN 3
The Sect of HaKhofshim [The Free]
The Three Prescriptions of the Righteous Movement
Discipline {Focus}: High. The movement retains a strong central focus and mission of freedom. Fervour: Absolute. With the rage of the angel Rehabam do you ignite the fire of your hearts. Popularity: Small. The movement has started to spread in Nachivan and has established another chapter.
The Three Stolen Tools of the Foolish Master
Wealth: Modest. You have a consistent flow of income from dues, donations, and smuggling. Influence: Small. You have connections in the underworld and some of the Sanhedral elders. Doctrine: Prosaic. You have intriguing ideas which distinguish you, but little intellectual backing.
HaKhofshim Relics, Institutions, Traditions
These are the physical or symbolic anchors of the sect and represent its shared heritage, history, and bonds.
Six-Shin Aluf [Relic]. The sacred angel-flag that flies in defiance of evil. Steels the hearts of all who see it. Sefer Ghadi [Relic]. A precious and sacred illuminated manuscript of the Book of Ghadi. An icon of artistic righteousness. The Spirit of Hasadaya [Tradition]. The founding myth of the HaKhofshim, a heroic prison break immortalized in sect memory. Crimson Headbands [Tradition]. Blood-red headbands reflect the blood of martyrs and the cleansing of the strain of evil.
Black Sheep Printing Covenant [Institution]. You operate a contracted printing press which allows you to magnify your popularity. The Guns of Hasadaya [Institution]. You are armed and dangerous and have a hidden cache of bolt-action rifles. HaKhofshim Mekdash [Institution]. A modest but beautified temple, which strengthens internal discipline.
HaKhofshim Fundaments
Fundaments represent the originating beliefs and philosophical tenets of the sect. They cannot be invested into or improved, and are more difficult to change without consequences.
Pasan Ghadi's Legacy (Metaphysics): You are a sect of the Pugilist schism, believing in the dualism of the soul into parts light and darkness, the war against five evils, martial arts training, and the necessity of personal and collective alignment to hasten the apocalypse and the world to come. Increased affinity with other pugilist sects.
Sayings of Guru Myriam (Theopolitics): You are a sect of the militant pugilist splinter of the Pugilists, interpreting the world to come as a call to action. You believe that the world to come will be achieved only by a dramatic transformation of real conditions and the levelling of social relations and equality of the human soul. Increased affinity with militant Pugilist sects and other radicals.
Flood as Treachery (Theodicy): Holding that God is intrinsically good but that the Flood was a result of the treachery of evil that forced the direct intervention of God, you argue that it is essential to work to expel and destroy evil within the souls of humanity in order to prevent terrible intervention from the righteous judge. Increased affinity with Pugilist and Confessional sects.
Transmigration (Apotheosis): You agree with the position of Rav Yatoni and the Second Patriarchate that the Patriarchs Amalgast really do possess a portion of the soul of the prophet Amalgast, and that it is possible by election or selection to elevate a figure or entity to supernatural power. Increased affinity with Confessors, Pugilists, and the non-Amalist masses.
Amalgast the Accelerant(Prophecy): You place Amalgast within the broader Spiral of Truth as simply the greatest of prophets so far rather than as a being different in kind as well as degree. Greater affinity with all radicals and with foreigners, decreased affinity with the orthodox masses.
Low Disavowal (Eschatology): You deny and despise the works and doctrines of High Confession, seeing its prioritization of a Patriarch-led and totalizing vision of existence as anathema to the possibilities of freedom offered by the world to come. You have far less affinity with High Confessor sects.
HaKhofshim Doctrine
Doctrines represent politically focused and present-oriented positions elaborated on from the sect's fundamental tenets. Doctrines are separated into tiers by order of power. Investment of doctrine points increase effects.
Doctrine of Extinguishment (Tier II): A powerful attack on the institution of the Grand Jury as it is currently constituted, on the practice of immolation, and Juror self-sacrifice. Significantly increases Juror recruitment but also attracts negative attention from their commanders.
Abolition of the Threefold Tithe (Tier I): An elementary attack on the threefold tithe for its fundamental unfairness and robbery from the lower to the upper chambers, and advocacy for its total abolition.
Light of the Sanhedron (Tier I): Your sect believes that the Sanhedron, if used correctly, can act as a tool of freedom for the people and for the rescuing of the country from its place of bondage. This is a popular position with the masses.
Incapacity of Cloister (Tier I): Your sect argues that the Patriarch, both because of his background as a High Priest and his captivity, cannot be counted on to be a faithful friend of the flock. This is a radical position, and will mark you as such to both the masses and other sects.
The Mosaic Principle (Tier I): Your sect argues that the Autocephalates should be significantly reformed and changed in favor of fairer and more equal systems, but deny the necessity of a unified rite or a radical transformation in the nature of Autocephalous autonomy.
Truths of Light and Darkness (Tier I): An argument from first principles that light and darkness are not just metaphysical but social principles that derive from material conditions, and that altering them requires altering the conditions and society which fosters them.
HaKhofshim Sages
Sages are leaders and notables of the sect who provide bonuses to actions to which they are assigned.
Guru Wendam [+Popularity]. Former Juror and sect sage with strong experience in subterfuge. Available. Flagellent Akov [+Fervour]. Juror defector from Nesra, leader of the Scourge of God. Available. Kendanaya Dvorah [+Doctrine]. High Priest's daughter and accomplished schismatic writer. Available. Baba Tanda [+Discipline]. Well-armed low priestess grandmother and organizer. Available.
HaKhofshim Mass Sections
Mass Sections represent affiliated organizations and orders of the sect with missions, purposes, and ambitions.
Scourge of God [Heterodox Underground Juror Standard-Cult]
Ambition: Spread the word of the Lord to the Jurors of Nachivan. Be inculcated into the sect's doctrines.
Convent of the Gunpowder Eucharist [Militant Religious Feminism]
Ambition: Advance radical gains in womanly rites. Expand the ranks of the convent.
Ravs of Labour [Mystic Labour Federation]
Ambition: Keep the Sect focused on Labour issues. Expand operations in Nachivan.
HaKhofshim Chapters
Chapters represent individual sub-sects established across the Kingdom of God. Chapters self-govern but send a share of member dues to the central sect. Yomri Chapter [Established]
Size: Tiny (Sub ~1000)
HaKhofshim Allies & Connections
Yeladada Merchant Clan [Connection]: A smuggling family of Amalist merchants with which Wendam is working on circumventing the city's customs walls with.
Elder Kardon Hadi [Connection]: An elder of the Sanhedron representing Vadashta for the Low Priesthood, he is an oblate serfdom abolitionist and champion of free silver.
Girls of Eglantine Mill [Connection]: Brave mill-girls passing messages and information from within Eglantine Mill but not yet committed to organizing the massive industrial enterprise.
Ma'on [Ally]: A nearby all-male Pugilist sect that works to police the neighborhoods of the Western Navel alongside its toughs and braves and that is working with HaKhofshim to lend its manpower against the Jury of Nachivan.
Elder Varhan Sarbadgar [Ally?]: A hard-bitten elder and radical juror, and komandir of the Pale Horse Standard. Wishes to arm you to stand against the Jury of Nachivan.
Rector Qanam [Ally]: Rector of the sect, on a mission to the Metamoa revolt on the Ischak Plateau to spread the teachings of HaKhofshim and assist Maryam Vashti in her holy people's war.
[X] The Women of the darkest night. Ma'on will work with the Gunpowder Eucharist to provide protection and investigate abuses of female sex workers who work in challenging conditions on an effectively illegal basis within the taverns of Nachivan.
[X] Machine Guns. Sarbadgar knows that some among your number are themselves veterans, and are trained with the use of machine guns: you had none in Kutan, but he is willing to lend some to you regardless. Machine guns would be significant in urban fighting.
[X] Starshy Officer. Sarbadgar is willing to place as a secret liaison to your sect one of the officers of his standard. In addition to solidifying a personal relationship, having a capable and veteran officer would be extremely useful in training your sect in how to fight.
We already have a cache of rifles. What we need is heavy equipment and someone to train us in using it. If we're going to go toe to toe with the Sword-Altar, we need to start aggressively bootstrapping up into a real modern fighting force as soon as possible, and this is the best way to do it. It also comes with a nice side benefit of potentially solidifying the good Komandir as a long-term ally.
[X] Machine Guns. Sarbadgar knows that some among your number are themselves veterans, and are trained with the use of machine guns: you had none in Kutan, but he is willing to lend some to you regardless. Machine guns would be significant in urban fighting.
[X] Starshy Officer. Sarbadgar is willing to place as a secret liaison to your sect one of the officers of his standard. In addition to solidifying a personal relationship, having a capable and veteran officer would be extremely useful in training your sect in how to fight.
I'll pre-emptively vote for the aid options I want to win, but I'm split between the Women and the Veterans.
In terms of the question around the arms stockpile it's important to keep in mind what you have would be enough to maybe arm the Scourge and the core of the Sect. The additional arms can arm much of the rest of the sect.
Also to clarify, it'd be 1-2 machine guns. Just one is enough to lock down a corridor.
[X] The Children in their toiling caves. Ma'on will work with the Ravs of Labour to improve the working conditions and bring education and joy to precarious and sometimes orphaned children as young as eight who work in some Nachivan's most difficult professions.
Our the children not for the future! They should be taken care of and raised for that future not forced to work there life away when so young!
[X] Modern Rifles. Sarbadgar has connection with arsenals of veterans of the war, and they will absolutely be able to divert shipments of rifles and smuggle them into the city to much better outfit your mass sections. These are modern arms, designed for the War with the Mare.
[X] Starshy Officer. Sarbadgar is willing to place as a secret liaison to your sect one of the officers of his standard. In addition to solidifying a personal relationship, having a capable and veteran officer would be extremely useful in training your sect in how to fight.
And with the Komindr since we already have rifles but not enough to arm our whole sect if needed so I think I'll go for those and the officer is a no brainer we will need someone experienced to train us up on there use.
Oh how I hate this vote with a passion. To have to sacrifice two to help one.
[X] The Children in their toiling caves. Ma'on will work with the Ravs of Labour to improve the working conditions and bring education and joy to precarious and sometimes orphaned children as young as eight who work in some Nachivan's most difficult professions.
But in the end, before my rights, I must save the children.
[X] The Children in their toiling caves. Ma'on will work with the Ravs of Labour to improve the working conditions and bring education and joy to precarious and sometimes orphaned children as young as eight who work in some Nachivan's most difficult professions.
[X] Modern Rifles. Sarbadgar has connection with arsenals of veterans of the war, and they will absolutely be able to divert shipments of rifles and smuggle them into the city to much better outfit your mass sections. These are modern arms, designed for the War with the Mare.
[X] Starshy Officer. Sarbadgar is willing to place as a secret liaison to your sect one of the officers of his standard. In addition to solidifying a personal relationship, having a capable and veteran officer would be extremely useful in training your sect in how to fight.
As far as starting the rudiments of a more expansive social welfare network I think starting with the children is probably the best course. They really should not be working at all and especially in the sorts of industries they are working their health, education, and life-expectancy are all severely negatively affected.
Then regarding the arms, I'm inclined to favor the rifles over a machine gun. It's a matter of tradeoffs. Modern rifles will turn the Scourge and the Gunpowder Eucharist and the Sect as a whole into effective combatants. So it's like a choice between arming maybe 1000 combatants (maybe more) versus having one company of around 150 riflemen (the arms taken from Kutan were only enough to arm the original Sect) and one MG. Now the MG would definitely lock down one approach to the Western Navel the Jury of Nachivan might take but we'd be spread thin covering any other approaches. So it's a tradeoff between presence versus firepower. And in this particular instance, right now, I think the best approach is to give as much of the Sect as possible a military role and training and a modern rifle to cover more ground and to be an even bigger cadre for paramilitary force later on.
Also going with the Starshy Officer because military training is needed to make the most of any arms.
EDIT: Actually, @Cetashwayo, how many people can be armed with the rifles we have versus the rifles that Sarbadgar would provide?
[X] The Veterans left upon the street. Ma'on will work with the Scourge of God to provide a support network and potential recuperation into society for Juror veterans who have been abandoned on the streets of Nachivan, many of whom are now yamroot addicts.
[X] Modern Rifles. Sarbadgar has connection with arsenals of veterans of the war, and they will absolutely be able to divert shipments of rifles and smuggle them into the city to much better outfit your mass sections. These are modern arms, designed for the War with the Mare.
[X] Modern Rifles. Sarbadgar has connection with arsenals of veterans of the war, and they will absolutely be able to divert shipments of rifles and smuggle them into the city to much better outfit your mass sections. These are modern arms, designed for the War with the Mare.
[X] Starshy Officer. Sarbadgar is willing to place as a secret liaison to your sect one of the officers of his standard. In addition to solidifying a personal relationship, having a capable and veteran officer would be extremely useful in training your sect in how to fight.
Yeah as I said above you have enough right now to arm the core + the Scourge and not all the Guns of Hasadaya are modern arms. With Sarbadgar's you've got enough for near to the whole lot.
[X] The Veterans left upon the street. Ma'on will work with the Scourge of God to provide a support network and potential recuperation into society for Juror veterans who have been abandoned on the streets of Nachivan, many of whom are now yamroot addicts.
[X] Modern Rifles. Sarbadgar has connection with arsenals of veterans of the war, and they will absolutely be able to divert shipments of rifles and smuggle them into the city to much better outfit your mass sections. These are modern arms, designed for the War with the Mare.
[X] Machine Guns. Sarbadgar knows that some among your number are themselves veterans, and are trained with the use of machine guns: you had none in Kutan, but he is willing to lend some to you regardless. Machine guns would be significant in urban fighting.
I understand the impulse to help the children but our work with jurors is paying off. Creating a network that cares for injured veterans is going to further solidify our way as an alternative to the utterly dysfunctional system that has turned most high juries into non-combat ready parade soldiers.
I think we need modern rifles and machine guns, the officer would be nice to have but I want our sect to be armed properly when shit goes down. We might have been able to pick the officer had we purchased new weapons in Nachivan but we didn't so we need all the guns we can get.
We aren't going to be getting a bunch of machine guns. Even one "modern" Maxim style machinegun would be a huge boost, to be sure, but period wise they should be rare even for the professional armies. In 1914 almost everyone was marching to war with no more than 2 machineguns per battalion. So the Pale Horse probably can only give one up, maybe a section of two, without seriously compromising its own firepower.
[X] The Veterans left upon the street. Ma'on will work with the Scourge of God to provide a support network and potential recuperation into society for Juror veterans who have been abandoned on the streets of Nachivan, many of whom are now yamroot addicts.
[X] Modern Rifles. Sarbadgar has connection with arsenals of veterans of the war, and they will absolutely be able to divert shipments of rifles and smuggle them into the city to much better outfit your mass sections. These are modern arms, designed for the War with the Mare.
[X] Starshy Officer. Sarbadgar is willing to place as a secret liaison to your sect one of the officers of his standard. In addition to solidifying a personal relationship, having a capable and veteran officer would be extremely useful in training your sect in how to fight.
Retooling my vote in light of new information. We're only being lent one or two machine guns, which is useful, don't get me wrong, but the sect would likely benefit a lot more from a more permanent and widespread arming of its mass sections.
Also, as a veteran myself... I must. I know what it's like to be tossed aside by a big bureaucratic machine that doesn't care about you anymore, and it sucks. We also, more cynically, need warm, trained bodies if we're going to stand up against the Sword-Altar in a meaningful way.
[X] The Children in their toiling caves. Ma'on will work with the Ravs of Labour to improve the working conditions and bring education and joy to precarious and sometimes orphaned children as young as eight who work in some Nachivan's most difficult professions.
[X] Machine Guns. Sarbadgar knows that some among your number are themselves veterans, and are trained with the use of machine guns: you had none in Kutan, but he is willing to lend some to you regardless. Machine guns would be significant in urban fighting.
[X] Maps of Nachivan. Sarbadgar has since the beginning of the Sanhedron been commissioning and purchasing street-maps of Nachivan: these maps are a significant tactical advantage and will help you far better in any kind of street-war or even for simple strategic navigation.
The hour of recknoning grows ever-nearer. Soon the blood of those who would opress the toiling masses will flow, and we will purify this tide of blood until naught but the free flow of SILVER remains.
Going to be honest 1-2 machine guns will be a really valuable force multiplier because they give us the opportunity to really defend crucial positions. But if people insist on the officer the rifles are more important for the fight imo.
[X] The Women of the darkest night. Ma'on will work with the Gunpowder Eucharist to provide protection and investigate abuses of female sex workers who work in challenging conditions on an effectively illegal basis within the taverns of Nachivan.
[X] Modern Rifles. Sarbadgar has connection with arsenals of veterans of the war, and they will absolutely be able to divert shipments of rifles and smuggle them into the city to much better outfit your mass sections. These are modern arms, designed for the War with the Mare.
[X] Starshy Officer. Sarbadgar is willing to place as a secret liaison to your sect one of the officers of his standard. In addition to solidifying a personal relationship, having a capable and veteran officer would be extremely useful in training your sect in how to fight.
the woman is sacred, and Ma'on seeks to defend women. If they can defend themselves, Guru Bluff admits with the scratch of his head, then that is all the better, for there will always be others in need of help, and they could use the women's help as well.
The statement, said so bluntly, takes Akov and Wendam off-guard. But Sarbadgar means it: He has been studying your sect. He knows you came from Kutan, though not exactly how. He knows you must have weapons of some kind. And he knows that you have Jurors among your number. You are not enough, but the fact that you have made an alliance with the 'street boys' tells him you are of value. That your women are armed and trained as well is of no small utility. In a true street-war, the western navel is critical: it contains the synod, one of the major avenues to the Heavenly Mount, Vikrag Prison, and the bridge connecting the southern section of the city, with its own radical sects who would need to cross to aid you.
There are sailor's protests, and the Great Synod, deprived of its protection, totally evacuates the city because of your and Ma'on's agitation on the streets. An institution as old as the Second Patriarchate itself is functionally dissolved by the will of what they denounce as 'the most vile street-rats and schismatic scullions'.
Archdeacon shows up to the House of Creation and theres just 5 Ma'on flicking knives and 5 Gunpowder Nuns cleaning their guns outside the door. "Oh hey, you're still here?" one of them says.
"No I am not," says the archdeacon, and turns around to head towards the train station instead.
Zeb has his headband and rifle still. He's as jittery and smiley as a schoolboy who has recently had his first kiss. It is an unnerving energy to observe in a fully grown man.
[X] The Children in their toiling caves. Ma'on will work with the Ravs of Labour to improve the working conditions and bring education and joy to precarious and sometimes orphaned children as young as eight who work in some Nachivan's most difficult professions.
First things first, I have made my opinions on supporting the children quite clear in the past! Now, on to darker business! It is written that geography is the third Ataman in every fight, friends, and I think it true! Therefore, before we make our plans, let us attend his council of war!
The Synod has fled. Many who have seen Sword-Altar withdraw behind their walls think they are fleeing also. That is not the case, my friends. Consider the importance of these four positions. When they sally out - when these eaters of blood can no longer restrain their hunger- to retake the city by force, they will be well-positioned to do so. Fort Karnak and Vikrag Prison cut Nachivan in half, controlling both ends of the Mushad Bridge. The sects of the southern city are armed and dangerous, but I doubt that they can take the fort by storm. They will not be able to aid the Sanhedron.
Besides preventing forces from crossing the Hadit, these Jurors are well-positioned to seize the main avenues and cut off the Heavenly Mount from any outside support. The men at Kannakerib Hill could cut off the other side and join this assault, if the Jury intends to storm the gates as they have done before. And of course, Tzinhas in the north is not far from the Muvad Mekdash. Not far at all, my friends! The Sanhedron itself is likely in great danger.
The city may support the Patriarch and the Sanhedron, but oh, no, not its geography! The Hadit wears a four-cornered hat, my friends! And isn't it glorious? Isn't it wonderful? When Karogen was in Harasdad, before the gates of the Temple, the son of Oren asked him: "Why does the Lord allow such injustice? Seven thousand men have left this plaza to pillage against your orders - only seven remain." And the breath of God spoke through Karogen: "God saves through their greed - wouldn't the poets die breathless attempting to recite seven thousand glories?" And the Gates bowed open for the Rav, and the pillars shattered, and the helmet of Malachi was crushed under his heel, and a righteous hand slew the Last Guardian.
Our glory must be lesser, but even a fraction of the Rav's honor would sate any man. The battle will be all around us, in every corner of the city, and with Sanhedral forces spread thin (as I suspect they are) the rifles are a must. One does not turn down hundreds of extra rifles in a time like this. Many of us want an officer from the Pale Horse embedded in our ranks. I understand why. They are brave, competent. Given time they could make our trigger fingers as formidable as our fists. Given time.
But what time do we have to give? The battle is on! A few days or weeks is not enough time for one man to turn a thousand into an army (excepting the intervention of the Lord Our God, of course!). And do not devalue the machine-guns just because we will only receive 'one or two'! Sword-Altar may be more blooded, more ruthless. Toy soldiers all the same. Do you really think they will cross a bridge under machine-gun fire, or hold the walls of Vikrag if they are swept with lead? Do not think of them as one or two guns - but one or two fires extinguished.
[X] Modern Rifles. Sarbadgar has connection with arsenals of veterans of the war, and they will absolutely be able to divert shipments of rifles and smuggle them into the city to much better outfit your mass sections. These are modern arms, designed for the War with the Mare.
[X] Machine Guns. Sarbadgar knows that some among your number are themselves veterans, and are trained with the use of machine guns: you had none in Kutan, but he is willing to lend some to you regardless. Machine guns would be significant in urban fighting.
Days of instruction would not help seriously besides making sure everyone goes through the paces of basic marksmanship and care for their weapon and maybe a few useful tricks, though "weeks" (say a month) would make a real difference in getting the civilian members of the Sect and the mass sections accustomed to military discipline and functioning beyond just a street-fight. And the officer represents a direct liaison to the Pale Horse Standard, who can keep the Sect abreast of their plans for the fighting and coordinate directly with the Sect when the hammer falls.
I suppose if you think the Nachivan Jury is going to move very soon though having the machinegun or two would make more of a difference then. Though if we have more time the long-term advantages of having a larger cadre of trained fighters would be really worthwhile.
[X] The Women of the darkest night. Ma'on will work with the Gunpowder Eucharist to provide protection and investigate abuses of female sex workers who work in challenging conditions on an effectively illegal basis within the taverns of Nachivan.
[X] Machine Guns. Sarbadgar knows that some among your number are themselves veterans, and are trained with the use of machine guns: you had none in Kutan, but he is willing to lend some to you regardless. Machine guns would be significant in urban fighting.
[X] Starshy Officer. Sarbadgar is willing to place as a secret liaison to your sect one of the officers of his standard. In addition to solidifying a personal relationship, having a capable and veteran officer would be extremely useful in training your sect in how to fight.
[X] The Women of the darkest night. Ma'on will work with the Gunpowder Eucharist to provide protection and investigate abuses of female sex workers who work in challenging conditions on an effectively illegal basis within the taverns of Nachivan.
[X] Modern Rifles. Sarbadgar has connection with arsenals of veterans of the war, and they will absolutely be able to divert shipments of rifles and smuggle them into the city to much better outfit your mass sections. These are modern arms, designed for the War with the Mare.
[X] Starshy Officer. Sarbadgar is willing to place as a secret liaison to your sect one of the officers of his standard. In addition to solidifying a personal relationship, having a capable and veteran officer would be extremely useful in training your sect in how to fight.
