Society

Today I was most grateful to one Herr Himmelblau, a magnate of the League of Cogs, who sent me a device discovered in an abandoned space beneath one of his warehouses. The opportunity to examine such a find is a rare luxury, for I am in no doubt that the icy black crystals within the contraption are darkstone. Only the vermin swarms have mastered the substance - despite the claims of Eichtal’s alchemy professors (who swear their stricken colleagues are nothing to do with their experiments) (…)

Sources I can find portray a grim picture of the birth of the nation of Dathen. It seems that in the First Age of Ruin, the Highborn’s Vetian provinces faced formiddable threats from barbarian hordes and dwarven enmity. Many elves fled into the West, settling in the colonies that the Pearl Throne had already established in Silexia, and began to tame that wild region. Yet this work made them grow resentful of the Aldan nobles who sought to profit from what they were building, and who had sent (…)

It is with some frustration that I must admit to never having seen a rat, despite all I write here. I have in a number of cities searched out the gloomy wharfs and taverns which those black marketeers are said to frequent, to no avail. Perhaps it is the final fading competence of the vermin that their illicit operations are so rarely detected. The vermin were ever fraudsters, unable to create anything new but forced to ape the great nation of Avras. They surely lack the ability to create (…)

Q: Elves and humans look similar from the outside, but what makes them biologically different? Internally speaking, do they have different organs? Are there "half-elves" (i.e. can humans and elves mate to produce an offspring)?
A: It is a well-known truth that elves, with slim and lithe bodies, fine features and delicate skin, have always held a fascination for humans. We see in them many of the qualities we aspire to: grace and wisdom, beauty and culture. Yet for all these parallels, it (…)

Lorentum, 933
Battalion of waiting saurians showed synchronised excitability at the same instant. No clear provocation. Prelate Abbinger theorises long-distance shared emotional connection.
Northern Equitaine, 936
Two dozen smaller saurians brought stones bearing intricate, highly structured non-repeating patterns. Departed after depositing stones at crossroads.
Nedarac, 947
Saurians presented poor renderings of Arandad writing in apparent attempt to share philosophical ideas with (…)

Day 32
My presence remains undetected, and the new vantage point has proven most fruitful. I believe I have finally confirmed von Möltburg’s conjecture that the microcephalic quadrupedal specimens he dissected after the Renzigen Expedition are in fact the males of the species. Four to twenty inches in length, they are barely sentient, capable of little
more than fertilising eggs almost as large as they are.
Day 33
Well, it seems we can conclusively discard old Gahlengeld’s theory that (…)

He wished me to accept the services of the Sons of Glauca - a mercenary company known to employ ogres. I laughed in his face. They may be the finest fighters in all of Arcalea, but I will not have savages in my employ! Ogres are the worst of barbarians. Brutish, nasty, fat. They spend their lives in tents, rolling in mud, stuffing their faces with raw meat til the juices course down their own corpulescence. They’re cannibals, every one of them, and man-eaters too. They have no gods and care (…)

Q: What is the highest position in the Church of Sunna and who holds it today?
A: The Supreme Prelate holds the highest office in Sunna’s religion. Previously the office holder would be resident within Sonnstahl, at the cathedral or the city in most favour at that moment. However, that changed some decades back, and the current Supreme Prelate resides in the city of Reva in Arcalea. These lands are now held by the Church, largely independent of either nation. It would be a mistake to assume (…)

Orcs and Goblins
Orcs, on the other hand, should never be trusted, and make deals with Goblins at your peril. These green-skinned maniacs live to fight. Even their resting state is a small squabble. Orcs resolve every dispute with fists or blades, and if Goblins are less interested in a fair fight, they are truly resourceful in matters of murder. As varied as they are obscene, they blight civilisation everywhere.
It is said that in the mists of time, before even the Golden Age, the (…)

Holy caws beckon and I answer the call,
For I am the scales that weighs the world,
My weapon is the gift of justice,
My strike the caress of judgement.
I am the instrument of the Queen of Blades,
The crimson crow she sets upon the wicked,
From the hearth of home to the hells beyond,
I shall not waver, I shall not relent!
For I am the prophet of peace,
The right hand of righteous death,
The anointed executioner of Nabh,
Tremble and despair malefactors.
For I am the Law!