And now we have the final batch, and there’s a lot of them so we had better dive in!
We start off with Ruin, then we go through Murder of Crows, Sense and Sensibility, Four and Four, Two Minutes, A Lost King, Wild Blue Yonder, and finally, Drinking Song For the Socially Anxious
Ruin
The ongoing issues with the constellations the Lock and Key are causing problems with divination rituals.
Watched – If you use the Cast Off the Chain of Memory ritual at the Imperial regio then you can write down a memory (up to 99 words long) and essentially swap it for a memory from somebody or something else. The paper must be infused with iridescent gloaming (just hand over a measure to the ref) and you have to write your character PID on the paper.
You can also write about ooc themes or imagery you have phobias about to ensure that the memory you receive does not involve anything like that. You can hand these in and pick up your new memory the next day from the Regio.
Crescendo – The rituals Swim Leviathan’s Depth, Clear Counsel of the Everflowing River, and Combing the Beach will be restricted during the Summer Solstice, you can ask the questions only on Friday for pick up on Saturday.
Observer Effects – If you use a divination ritual or spell then you can roleplay that you got your answer from a strange or unsual source. Check the Wind of Fortune for the full list of rituals effected.
The Great Conjunction
Blood and Consequences – Between Time in and 10pm on Saturday players will be able to access a mysterious additional power for some rituals. This is only for rituals that call beings from other realms, check the wind for the full list. At the beginning of the ritual the person should cut themselves, allow the blood to flow freely, and after the ritual has been completed they will start their bleed timer and begin dying. This will give them a +1 to any lore.
Conflict and Family – There is something in the air this event which is causing you to become really annoyed by the people you are closest to. Feel free to roleplay that you find your loved ones very annoying, but check in with them out of character first!
Conjunctions
Battle and Sorrow – Something strange is moving across the Empire, there are reports of attacks from beings that have the proportions or humans or orcs, but which are NOT humans or orcs. Any of the people going on these skirmishes should keep an eye out for clues or evidence as to what or who these attackers are.
Saturday 17:30 – A group of the strange attackers are moving on the Grove of Ishal, where they will kill the mystics living there. The Raven Seer is responsible for arranging this skirmish to protect the mystics under their care.
Saturday 18:00 – Another group of attackers is moving towards the Harps of Astolat and then will move on to the town of Weaving. The Harps are a great work which improve the mana production of the area. The High Bard of the Empire is responsible for this skirmish.
Saturday 18:30 – A third group are moving towards the Pool of Silver Clouds, the seers there have foreseen their own deaths and would appreciate the Dean of the Thorned Rose arranging a skirmish to stop that happening.
Murder of Crows
This Wind of Fortune is for the Wintermark Assembly and talks about steps they could take to recognise two people they view as heroes.
Yulia Kasimiova Voronov
The Varushkan senator was instrumental in getting the most recent treaty with the Thule done, it is seen as what made certain the territory of Semersuaq was returned to the Empire. She was massively unpopular for this in her own nation, then died in battle. There is the opportunity to try and have her remains interred in the sacred marshes of Kallavesa, despite her not being a Wintermark citizen.
There is also the option to have her name written in the Wintermark Chronicle of Heroism, or even have her recognised as a Paragon or Exemplar. These opportunities are not in competition with one another, though each one will have different obstacles and characters may have different reasons for being for or against them. Read the wind for more info.
Dogri Thulebane
Dogri Thulebane refused to leave Skarsind when it was given to the Imperial Orcs, an army was sent after him and he was brought to face trial at Anvil, before dying in a battle.
He already rests in the marshes of Kallavesa, and has his name written in the Chronicle of Heroism, so some people are pushing to have him recognised as an Exemplar.
If this happens then Wintermark will forever refuse to give up their land without a fight, thanks to his inspiration. There are also options for creating a memorial to him with True Liao, either where he was buried in the marshes or in the land that was ceded to the Thule after his death. This latter one would be rather difficult since the Empire doesn’t own it anymore, and if it were to be chosen a bunch of young and reckless Wintermarkers would likely go up there determined to take it back, no matter the diplomatic outcome.
Jotun Honour
So for the past several years the war with the Jotun has moved pretty slowly, the border lurching back and forth every so often. One of the things that Wintermark has been doing in that time, has been following Jotun ideals of Honour. There has been some push back against this.
There is an option to abandon the use of honour with a mandate, this would tell the armies of wintermark to cease treating their opponents with honour and instead treat them as ruthlessly as they would any other enemy. This would mean more Jotun would die, but more land would be taken and more quickly. But the Jotun would notice pretty quickly and this would likely have an effect on their own conduct twoards the Wintermark warriors they previously held in high esteem.
Sense and Sensibility
This Wind of Fortune is about the goings on in the Marches.
Every night after the Spring Equinox a giant, shirtless, idealised miner has been projected onto the sky above the Mournwold causing all sorts of consternations for the locals. The image is apparently a magically romanticised image of Jedediah Boone, Miner’s Suffrage Activist and regular Anvil attendee. You can tell because of the knuckle tattoos, “Mine” and “Free” respectively.
He is attempting to get the Miners the right to vote in the Marches, this has not been going very well for him and the latest plan is to try and get a inspirational figure to fight behind. Then you can go through the various assemblies to get them turned into an exemplar or paragon and something will surely happen.
Mournwold Orcs
This giant human figure painted on the sky has been upsetting some of the Mournwold Orcs who are feeling like the Empire isn’t really doing much to get them included, luckily a group are coming to Anvil this summit to talk to the local priests and hopefully get things rolling with making them citizens.
A Busy Time of Year
This time of year usually has a lot of young Marchers travelling through the nation earning some money by working on other farms. For the first time some of the Mournwold Orcs are thinking about coming along. There is a mandate to encourage them, if it is not passed then they will give it a miss this year, and maybe reconsider doing it at all.
Free
Some people have decided that the giant image is about a tragic love story. As such there are already books and songs about it, and some people even visited from far afield to see the images and imagine what the story might be.
Pruning Shears
This is another Marcher focused wind of fortune, this time about the new Exemplar and an opportunity to fight the Whisper Gallery.
Work has been going on for years to get Joshua Benson recognised as a Exemplar across the Empire. He was recognised by the General Assembly, but few people outside of the Marches have ever heard of him.
This may change given the conjunction that is going to happen this Friday, a small group of 20 people will have the opportunity to visit the Orchard where he was laid to rest and consecrate the site with the True Liao that Martin Orchard was awarded with last event.
There is also an opportunity to allow the Marcher Assembly to put through a mandate that will encourage people to go on pilgrimage to the site.
If this mandate was passed it would also encourage people to investigate the local area and after 6 months a treatise on the goings on in Upwold would be given to Martin Orchard or his proxy.
There are also a series of mandates about investigating the Whisper Gallery. The first was to encourage the local Threshers to go looking for Allies to the Whisper Gallery in the Marches, this would create an opportunity for Thresher characters to go up against some at some later date, but everyone who owns a mana creating personal resource would lose one mana crystal for the season to represent the chaos this would cause.
There have also been two other mandates put forward, one is from Martin Orchard telling people to go and investigate in Tassato instead, where it would cause armed fights in the streets and anyone with a mana site will lose two mana crystals. And there is another mandate in the Highborn Assembly asking people to look in their nation, which would have similar effects of reducing mana crystal production but possibly get some interesting things moving.
Four and Four
This Wind of Fortune is about the actions of the eternals that didn’t get a plenopotentiary this event.
Barien
The Iron Duke invites Aletheia, Daughter of Carmen and Lightning on the Ice to come retrieve their scroll of challenge and being their tasks, while the pair of Skjal Bjornson & Blaidd Sinan should come discuss their request with Barien’s servants so the Lord of the Crossroads can find them a suitable quest. At the upcoming gathering the Iron Duke’s servants will be hosted in Wintermark by House Geris, between 7pm and 9pm on Friday and then they will return at 1pm on Sunday to meet with anyone who they missed the first time.
Barien also wishes to give the Artisans of Wintermark a schema for a new artisan item, they should speak with his heralds to arrange which one they get.
Janon
For this coming downtime any general can ask for the heralds of Janon to fight with their army. Alternatively there may be options to ask for his heralds to join a smaller group, perhaps a single military unit?
There is also an opportunity to change the Burning Falcon’s quality to one that encourages the soldiers to be passionate above all else, it would reduce the number of options a general can choose from but would make those remaining even stronger. To this the general must take part in the ritual, Transmogrification of the Soul’s Echo, which will make a short term change, but if 25 rings are added then it will be made permanent.
Some of Janon’s heralds will be about on the Saturday evening of the event, they specifically wish to speak to the Imperial Orcs, Kahendrin Wordsmith, Vanja Oddsbreaker, and “those Dawnish, you know, the ones who want to kill all the Druj.” Plus anyone who is really determined to come see him will be listened to if they turn up.
Kimus
Heralds of Kimus will be arriving at the Hall of Worlds at 17:00 to speak with the Synod on what is believed to happen to the souls of humans and orcs after they die. There’s also an experiment that might be theoretically be taken to find out more about the Labyrinth if anyone wants to try it out.
Lashonar
Lashonar’s heralds will be delivering the letters sent last event to people of differing religious beliefs who wish to hear from other people.
There are also some conjunctions. See at the bottom of this Wind for the info.
Siakha
Last season the the Conclave put Siakha at neutral rather than enmity, this meant her heralds were free to wander about the Empire. The heralds do not attack anyone, but if anyone attacks them then they retaliate with immediate killing force. They have also instigated fights by encouraging people and in some cases gifting boons of artisan weaponry.
Apparently there is a group of heralds walking to Anvil and they will arrive at some point during the summit. They have not been clear about what they want, but apparently they are “seeking their prey”.
Tharim
Tharim’s protection is still keeping the heralds of any eternal without amity from being able to enter the Hall of Worlds.
For the past several seasons a family of merchants have been coming to Anvil to sell cursed items, it turns out to be something to do with a curse involving Tharim. Apparently, there is now an option to either send the items to Tharim via the illegal Tribute to Thrice Cursed Court, or cast the ritual Words of Ending to destroy the curse. If enough of one or the other is done there may be some interesting effects and either Tharim or the family may wish to send their thanks to the collector who helped them out.
Ylenwe (once known as Ylenrith)
Ylenwe wishes to make restitution for their past bad behaviour, and they have several ways that this could be done if anyone is interested.
There’s a whole bunch of things here, one is about the Swan’s Chalice, one is about the Highborn plan to make Bastion bigger and better than Timoj, one is about the shield, Ajax, that is carried by the Champion of Pride which has been cursed by the Druj, and finally something about shards of music that citizens of the Empire are looking for. If you know anything about these or want to know more, check out the Wind for more information.
Zakalwe
Heralds of Zakalwe will be visiting Anvil at 19:30 on Friday to reward the Dawnish people who had a go at their challenge last event, this event they will be looking for people in Wintermark who can have a go at the Autumn summit.
A second herald will be visiting the Imperial Orcs on Saturday at 13:00 to speak about another matter that Skywise Gralka brought up.
Conjunctions
Saturday 16:15 – Some heralds of Siakha have been seen hanging around in the Golden Downs area of Mitwold (my character’s from around there, I think) and appear to be destroying a small path. Threshers local to the area who are named in the Wind of Fortune have the chance to go along and find out what is happening.
Saturday 20:30 – Some Druj are hunting one of Lashonar’s heralds, the eternal has asked the Magician Eliza of Sarvos to arrange for a skirmish to rescue the herald. In return, Lashonar will allow Eliza to speak to anyone they wish through the Autumn Equinox Caucus Forum. While they can pick anybody, there are apparently some people in particular Lashonar thinks they should speak to.
Two Minutes
This wind of fortune is about the repercussions of what the conclave has been getting up to.
The conclave changed how it runs recently, overall this seems to be going well and is much, much shorter than how it used to be.
Emissary to the Tchemetzi
A delegation of mages from the Celestial Arch went to Faraden to spend time with a family who have close ties to the Eternal Ossegrahn. The Tchemetzi have nothing but good things to say about the Spring Eternal, treating many of his eternals like eccentric, elderly relatives. They even have an area that is very similar to a fane on their estate. They are surprised that the Imperial Conclave are keeping him at arm’s length, but are very interested in what the Conclave can do for them.
They have asked for the ritual Regrow the Land’s Heart, in return they will send 2 bottles of vital honey to the Imperial Conclave every season. and they will put in a good word with Ossegrahn for us.
Any member of the Celestial Arch can decide to have been part of this group, and you are free to roleplay that any of your regular income has come from trading there.
In addition, there is another Faraden family (the Arshlan) who have been given a ritual and the 9 wains of mithril that they wanted for it has arrived and is waiting with the civil service to be allocated.
These two families have a lot of ties in Faraden and the connections built with them is improving the standing of the Empire with the people of Faraden tremendously.
The Quiet Hall
Last season the Quiet Hall was endowed upon the Custodian of the Lost to be made into a hospital for those badly affected by magic. There is now the opportunity to expand it. Doing so would create several potions every season. It would cost 10 weirwood, 20 crowns, and take three months to construct.
Breaking the Ice
A giant bleeding ice boulder that bled winter vis has been destroyed due to its connections with Blood-On-The-Snow.
Suranni Refugees
A large chest of magical potions was gifted to the conclave in thanks for helping the Suranni refugees find new homes in the Empire. It is now available to be endowed.
The Suranni Refugees have found places to live in almost every corner of the Empire, except that is with the Freeborn, the Imperial Orcs, and the Highguard. Though there has been some improvement with how they view the Highborn, apparently in a few decades they might not even hate them on sight! To be fair though they did just escape from religious persecution, so maybe being afraid of the overtly religious Highborn is fair enough.
A Lost King
This Wind of Fortune is about the ongoing efforts to welcome the three septs of Orcs, the Ethengraw, the Illarawm, and the Yerende, into the Imperial Orcs. This Wind of Fortune also contains a lot of really interesting info on the religious beliefs of the Orcs, I would really recommend reading about it, but I will just be summarising things here.
Each of the septs asked for a folly to be built so that they could feel truly welcomed and accepted into the Imperial Orcs, now the time is coming close that the forge of the Ethangraw, the Ossuary of the Illarawm and the herb garden of the Yerende are all finished. This means that from 2024 the Ethangraw and the Illarawm will be available to be player characters.
The Black Forge
The Ethangraw asked for a mighty forge to be built so that they could make their own weapons and armour, it has been completed and they are now enthusiastically making enough for everyone.
There is an option to speed up their ability to arm and armour their people, which would in turn supply a third Imperial Orc army. This would cost 200 mithril, 50 thrones and take a year to complete, and the name of their new army must be a proud name that does not imply that they are subservient to anyone else.
They have decided that they are now ready to join the Imperial Orcs, but they want to wait another season so that the Yerende can join in with the formal swearing of oaths and such. Those who have spoken with the septs recommend that the Imperial Orcs arrange a big event for the swearing in.
The Bone Temple
A group of Mystagogues from the Illarawm are going to visit the Imperial Orcs 20:30 on Saturday to gather information about their fellow orc’s ancestors. There will be a conjunction at 22:15 to go to a mystical ceremony to hear from the ancestors.
Any Imperial Orc character can decide that their character has visited the Bone Temple during this downtime, if you have you will have an additional Hero Point for the duration of the Summer Solstice.
The Sun and the Spear
There is a lot of discussion over the group currently known as the Imperial Orcs choosing a new name for their sept, so that they can differentiate themselves from the other orcs now joining the nation. There is a mandate over whether or not to accept the name the Sunstorm.
Wild Blue Yonder
This is the big diplomatic wind of Fortune, lots of info from people coming from all around the world to Anvil!
The Grendel
The rest of the Grendel do not seem to be pleased with Salt Lord Kaliact’s decision to join the Empire, things went very quiet for a few days before they got busy again. But they have conspicuously ceased to trade with at the Broken Shore Market.
There is a small enclave from Spiral who do not wish to join the Empire, they are sending an envoy at 13:00 on Saturday.
The Iron Confederacy
The relationship with the Iron Confederacy is not very friendly, there is little trading going on and most of the people crossing the border are the Suranni Lawkeepers who are looking for cultists of the Hand of Dumon.
In fact, the biggest news coming from the Iron Confederacy is that lots and lots of suspected magicians (and presumably people who were never suspected) have disappeared, some of the priests are saying that Dumon has eaten them all, but others are looking North to the Empire and wondering if the magicians might have come this way.
Faraden
The relationship with Faraden is getting better and better. More diplomatic envoys are passing between the two and the complaints that the Empire are too full of themselves seems to be disappearing.
However, there is bad news with the Jotun. Apparently they are wanting the Faraden to stop trading with the Empire and are going to do their best to remove the trade options over land. Since the Faraden are afraid of the sea this could be a very big problem.
The Liberty Pact
The Liberty Pact will meet twice at the upcoming summit – 22:00 on Friday and 19:00 on Saturday.
Everyone seems to be getting along reasonably well, however Axos is coming after getting in a snit and there might be some awkward feelings on both sides.
Asavaea and Jarm
Asavaea are holding a blockade on the Sumaah, and this is causing a -2 trade disadvantage for fleet owners. Asavean war ships attacked and destroyed the Sanctuary of the Justicars and the corsair town of Shantarim and the Cavabianca Docks have been destroyed by Asavean saboteurs, ships from Axos have been seen throughout the Bay of Catazar and have been attacking members of the Liberty Pact wherever they can find them.
If you have a fleet you may roleplay that you have been protecting Liberty Pact ships from the Asavaeans, however it should be noted that there have been no Grendel ships sighted in these events. Diplomatic Endeavours
Ambassadors can write in to Profound Decisions to send a single letter every season. It must follow the rules of Call Winged Messenger, which means up to 2500 characters maximum.
Drinking Song For The Socially Anxious
This is the last Wind of Fortune! It focuses on who is coming to Anvil and what times.
Saturday 18:30 – The narcotics sellers will be setting up shop outside the Forge.
Saturday 19:00 – Go through the sentinel gate to visit a ship selling Jarmish spices.
Saturday After Conclave – Some Autumn heralds will come with a game for people to try out. It costs one ingot of metal per round and there are apparently prizes to be won.
Sometime during the event – Thule traders are coming to talk about investments and trading opportunities.
Sunday 11:00 – The leader of a proposed Prosperity focused sodality is visiting the Hub to find people to speak with about Prosperity, particularly wants to speak to Heilyn Brownwyn’s Rest.
Friday 18:00 – Venator, a herald of Eleonaris, will be visiting with some other heralds. They wish to speak to Cecilia de Gauvain.
Apulian Orcs
There will be some Apulian Orcs in the League all weekend, they want to learn more about the Empire.
Saturday 15:00 – Salt Lord Kaliact and other notables will be coming to Anvil to hopefully get sworn into the League. The Questioner Graime will also be coming at this time to speak to League priests about religious integration.
Friday 19:00 – Odhrán Larnach Von Apulian will be coming to the field to speak to the fashionable, especially the writers of The Looking Glass.
Saturday 15:30 – 16:30 – Beitris d’Apulian and Comhnall von Apulian will be visiting the academy to speak to the children about what sort of things they should be teaching their own children to help them do well in the Empire. And that’s all folks!