Articles from Inariel

Petition on the Availability of Gems
"I have now received complaints from several nobles that the common man on the street can now be found with magicite in their possession. Those who say this have quite the penchant for exaggeration. They, after all, live in their towns and cities, surrounded by men of substantial means; surely it is expected that they possess at least a few gems. I have traveled the countryside; there's many a village where one cannot spot a glimmer of gemstone.

And yet... I have visited the jewelers in this very city of Inara, and they'd told me in no uncertain terms that business has been picking up. I can hardly walk down the street without noticing a power stone here, a soul gem there. And these ones aren't dull, either.

The watch insists that there haven't been any increase in disappearances lately. I fear, however, that there may be truth to certain rumors - of young girls being abducted at night and subjected to unspeakable horrors, of young men gaining the mark of doom and binding themselves in service of the Dark One. I fear for the future of our children.

I know well how the gem trade has made Inariel the most powerful state in all the land. I therefore harbor no desire to restrict the trade. But at the same time, I can think of no reason why we cannot monitor it, if for no other reason than to identify who has amassed enough gems to have become a threat.

I implore you, your majesty, to not overlook this travesty any longer."

-- Jared Gaylord, First Chancellor

The Heart of Carnelian
5th of Seedings

Today we returned the Heart of Carnelian to its rightful owner.

There's a reason no one swallows spiritite large enough to merit its own display case. And especially not one with an unbroken soul, like this one.

The poor fool had, by his account, the most terrifying nightmare one could possibly have, of having awoken in a dream world right next to a grotesque horror, who immediately set about tearing flesh and blood from his body, without a care for his cries of mercy. And after he'd died in his dream world, the dream restarted, and the torture repeated. He said he tried using his own power to fight back; apparently the boy's power was firecasting. Firecasting is, by many accounts, a very good ability to use if you wanted to break the trapped soul of a young sorceress; I hear being burned alive is very painful. Poor boy. If the Carnelian could be burned with fire its will would have been broken long ago.

Instead it was the boy's will that was broken, and he surrendered to the Carnelian.

By the time we of the Order of Convalescence arrived, the fighting was already over. In mere minutes the boy, possessed by the horror, had swept through hundreds of civilians and most of the town guard, having reduced them to mincemeat, and blood flowed as a river through the street. Only with the Peace of Lyre were we able to subdue the monster and extract the stone out of the boy's gullet.

May we never again see that accursed stone out of its prison.

-- Diary Entry, Irrinessus

Luminarianism
From the logs of the Syrragil Expedition:

"It has become apparent by now that the center of this necropolis is a temple in worship of their god-king, whom they call Light. The petroglyphs describe, with lavish praise, how he raised this complex out of the ground, single-handedly annihilated the armies of his enemies... the list of deeds is endless, but from it I have concluded that these people believed him to be the sole possessor of magical power, that he had been born with magic and no one else.

Except.. we know that's not true. Even without magicite, anyone lucky enough to be graced by those living, floating wisps of light we call the luminaria should have received magical powers.

But they wouldn't dare get near these wisps. Their religion teaches that the luminaria are the souls of the vengeful dead out to possess the living. Those who are 'touched' are to immediately submit themselves to the priests for 'extraction'.

I think I know what exactly happens in the ritual. I think I know why this whole underground city, and others like it, were built. I think I know who founded that religion, and why, when his lineage died, their entire civilization fell.

One does not see the three gems without also seeing their potential for abuse. And if I am correct, the level of abuse these ruins imply is just staggering.

I can only hope that, armed with this knowledge, we will not once again walk down the path of the past."

-- Vilaren

One with the Souls
"I've fought with the staff wielders; I've fought with the soul eaters. And I'd heard the charges they'd leveled at the other. 'You torment the dead and bind them to your will', said the spelltracers. 'Your persecution forced us to it', said the spellsayers. But when you've fought on both sides of a war, you simply stop believing.

I removed a soulstone from its staff, and swallowed it. That night when I awoke to the Sorcerer's Torment, I stood before the spirit forms of Kaylee - whom I had broken years ago and who now knelt in obeisance - and Arturo, who had gone half mad from his imprisonment.

I knelt, and asked for forgiveness. I asked to learn the truth.

nd they told me. They told me of their pain at having their spiritual essence being forcefully stripped from them to fuel their master's whim. They told me how being placed in a staff was akin to suffering ever-worsening cramps for the rest of eternity. They told me they'd been begging for someone, anyone, to free them.

And for the first time since my youth, I felt empathy. I freed the souls inside me, put them in charge. I let them take my body where they wished, do what they wished with me. I let them decide when and how to use both their powers and mine. And together we attacked the local mage's guild, for their abuse of the dead had gone on far too long. And now I am a hundred minds with a shared purpose:

To deliver the dead from hell on earth."

-- from Alrondor's speech dated 3rd of Saplings

-- by Yunzhong Hou