recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Records: pendulum clocks

## **A Timely Invention**

### ***Pendulum clocks***

The RANP had created the pocket watch some months prior: *just after the tools invented*. Since then, the interest in mechanics and time had only grown. One point in particular had been in the study of the motion of pendulums. The RANP had been sketching their motion, seeing the possibility of using their force to power mechanical processes (saws, bellows, pumps – and they eventually would).

They sought to observe and quantify it (which tied a bit into the musical study he was doing in terms of tempo). He made some interesting observations: the crucial property that makes pendulums useful as timekeepers, called isochronism; the period of the pendulum is approximately independent of the amplitude or width of the swing. He also found that the period is independent of the mass of the bob, and proportional to the square root of the length of the pendulum.

There were greater physics implications and he knew they were just scratching the surface as they shared their observations through the greater Royal Academy. The use in timing was spectacular. While it wasn't compact and useful in a personal timepiece, yet, it could be considerably more accurate than current clocks. By October of that year, they'd invented the first pendulum clock and licensed the design to the Royal Company.

### **The Long View**

It was "possible" that some of the RANP had a touch of Merlin's inspiration when making their rapid deductions and mechanical designs. If so, there was no nudges or notes for recompense, simply an acknowledgement to *get the information out there*.

Either way, with a royal patent (and licensing), the RANP (and the members on this project) were soon enriched as the RC produced and sold the clocks to England – and well beyond.
Records: Arcane Construction Methods

### **The Magic in the Mortar and More**

The CCC was already famous in England, and to a degree around the British isles, but the miracle of arcane-assisted construction was spreading far and wide – even beyond the Commonwealth.

There were still traditional, or minimally-enhanced projects underway, like the inner courtyard of Farleigh Hungerford Castle in Somersetshire, England, but for high-visibility, large-scale projects, some form of magical enhancement was the norm.

Where the orks were eliminated, and the human conflicts now civilized, economies were taking off. With more money available growth was happening, and that meant more of those large-scale projects.

### **Not Just the CCC**

The cities were increasingly concentrating the magic. Within 25 miles of London, for instance, magical construction had come full circle. Traditional craftsmen were taking up magic as an enhancement for what they already did, rather than taking on the whole-new-process methods that mass-builders like the CCC were using.

This meant a dozen different things, and usually in some combination. The most basic was using concrete rather than wood, and in that respect, the magical time-x water was superior for overnight curing of major pours. Likewise, even brick and mortar used temporary water, but it also used engineered, shaped bricks rather than simple block bricks.

Magical-motor mixers were the norm – and basically any tool a craftsman could use, somebody, somewhere created a magically enhanced version that made the job better, faster and easier.
Piccolo

## Piccolo

Special Move 1: Explosive Breath Cannon

Special Move 2: Explosive Demon Wave

Special Move 3: Demon Shocker

### "Special Beam Cannon"

Ultimate Move 1a: Special Beam Cannon

Ultimate Move 1b: Focused Special Beam Cannon

### "Hellzone Grenade"

Ultimate Move 2a: Shatter Shot

Ultimate Move 2b: Hellzone Grenade

## Awakening

Instant Awakening: Super Namekian

Adversity Awakening: Giant Form

## Piccolo (Giant Form)

Special Move 1: Mouth Cannon

Special Move 2: Explosive Demon Wave

Special Move 3: Hyper Explosive Demon Wave
Records: The Kingdom of Henan

### **Imperial Spirit in a Royal Court**

The 250 Chinese survivors of the diplomatic mission were trained as magically-enabled Sergeants-at-Arms and sent back to Asia. They knew what to expect, they were getting regular updates from the platoon of SA specialists who had been sent to Zhu Biao's court as emergency response.
It was one thing to read the words, but seeing the difference the platoon made was something beyond imagination.   The former Imperial Court had shrunk under the massive barrage of orks and plague-carrying undead, but with the arcane+divine enabled SA, they had stabilized and reversed the deadly trend. What was once the empire of China on the edge of death was now a well-defended kingdom in roughly the borders of the former Province of Henan, the very heart of China.

The capital of Zhengzhou was tranquil, a placid oasis amidst a hellish landscape. That was attributable to the SA specialists operating in-country until the Chinese SA could relieve them. The sudden presence of soldiers who were enabled in both arcane and divine magic had turned the tide.

## The SA Reinforcements

During the 1382 semi-circumnavigation, via the HMS Explorer's ship-portal, a second company of SA specialists had taken the shortcut to Hong Kong, and from the port, made their way via inland routes to Zhongzhou, the capital of the new Kingdom. It was not a peaceful journey, but with their arrival, there was renewed hope and optimism that humanity could prevail.

Beyond Henan, they'd done a great deal of scouting and mapping. There were several islands of humanity scattered through former Imperial China, but Henan was the only surviving polity with the organization of a functioning government. The SA Vanguard platoon was more or less intact (fully surviving but somewhat injured) and a key part of Zhu Biao's royal court when the SA company arrived.

### **For the Good of China**

AS per the deal of magical training and control, these SA were now sworn to the OM, rather than the court of Zhu Biao. The former emperor was more than willing to accept that: they were still Chinese with instructions to rectify the countryside on behalf of the Chinese crown.

It was a fine line to walk, but with so much chaos in-country, there was rarely any point where there was turbulence between the directives. While they were OM SA, they carried the Ming banner.

### **Expanding Success**

Within weeks of the arrival of the *Company*, the Ming OM SA had stabilized areas outside Henan, making contact with pockets of survivors, bringing back in refugees and running search and rescue operations 24/7.

Their success led to requests for increased training and aid to the CMC, including offers for temporal jurisdictions.
REO: indoctrinating Edward and Joan

During the recovery, Richard tipped part of his hand to his parents, offering them two visions of the future (not unlike "A Christmas Story"). Not quite time travel, but rather reading echoes, one set of visions was from a time stream that had already taken place – our contemporary timeline – and another set was the maelstrom timeline that was replacing it.

* The original timeline showed *why* Richard developed the way he did (unbalanced and defensive) and the consequences that wrought through the War of the Roses. This reminded them that Richard 2.0 pulled off *two* miracles to avoid becoming King Richard II. This group-astral projection went as far as glimpsing the world through the 22nd century. In this journey, Richard was SNS-educating his parents along the way. **This timeline, as it was and for better or worse, was now forever lost**.
* The second, hazier trip, was the time stream as it was changing. There were thousands of possible parallel worlds that theirs could branch into, with hundreds of credible options. Some of which were still resonating were alternatives that hadn't yet disappeared and still showed a world where Prince Edward was dead. Included in those possibilities had an England with Queen Joan (the first female sovereign since Empress Matilda), a King Edward in similar circumstances as his younger brother Richard had endured, several more King Richard options... and King Charles variations.
* There were unanswered and some unanswerable questions here, but no matter who was king of England, most of the glimpses ended in what could only be described as hellfire and the Cloud of Stone; the shattered debris of what was once the earth. The only futures that seemed to hold any hope also evolved the people of England – *and the world* – uncomfortably quickly.

### **The Aftermath**

The "trip" ended with parents that were now wise beyond the times – and terrified of the future. The Angels, at least some of them, were allies – but there was only so much they could do. The fear was somewhat paralyzing, but also illuminated their perspective...

* As Edward and Joan digested their place in history yet-to-be (that would now never come to pass), they were charged with assisting in the battle.
* In the process, they realized that they, too, wanted to experience the joys of toilet paper and WiFi.
* They were also notified that Edward, Richard's older brother, had already been through a modified, enhanced version of this same journey.
REO: the tutors

## **The Development of the Boys**

The F2 angels had already served as tutors for Richard, and continued to guide him as his brain developed toward adult capacity. Experientially, Richard had lived a hundred lives from birth to his current ages (4), from all socioeconomic walks in the region. This made him remarkably circumspect, but within the English-French context.

An observation by Richard was that they needed to expand their base of human resources and allies. The F2 angels thought it a risk but concurred on necessity. The very first to be brought in on *enhanced tutoring* was Richard's brother Edward.

Edward facilitated the process, the angels conducted it. Edward was already on the road to extraordinary health by Richard's ministry alone, but the angels took that to the next level. This included the wide sampling of human experience, which took an already-grateful Edward into a preternatural level of empathy, compassion and identification.

In the space of weeks, the boys were operating a roughly-equal level, though Richard would always have an advantage of being "first" (even though he was and is the second son).

### **The Optics of Tutoring**

When the observation was made that the boys needed *visible* tutors, mostly for cover story on their own learning, growing knowledge and awareness. The boys and their angelic allies guided the selection process not so much on what candidates already were, but rather based on what they could do with the candidates.

Once the modest selections were made and in-place, those candidates were transformed into *exemplary* teachers and instructors. They themselves were elevated to spectacular levels, and were regarded for "rising to the occasion" and "fulfilling their potential."

Not that they were simply maximized in their roles, but rather they were made the adult agents of the team, fully indoctrinated, trained, educated, medically maximized and otherwise enhanced. They were SNS-trained, becoming an additional picket-line against possible intrusion and interference from F1... *or anybody else*.

### **The Continued SNS training**

Shortly after bringing aboard the two tutors and the nanny – and the month after, John Wycliffe – the six of them were effectively a highly-trained clandestine operations group that began psionic training.

To a degree, Richard already had this – specializing in the Systems Medicine that he'd used to heal Edward – but they expanded that to the full suite of SNS capacity. Within a year, those six alone would've had the capacity to take over the world.
Records: Lights Over Giza

### **The Prominence of Giza**

Giza was just a few miles southwest of Cairo, but the ancient monuments and temples were a rallying point for locals – enough to create a separation from the capital city. There had been no waves of burning frogs at Giza, and that made a great deal of difference in the regional mindset.

There was still a feeling of power by those structures; enough that the locals still brought offerings to the Sphinx. When Mamluks were offended by the locals' act, in an act of iconoclasm, they broke off the nose (not an unusual practice for the pious Muslims).

Instead of being rewarded, they were punished. The official retribution wasn't enough to appease the offended Sphinx, and the area still suffered a form of "curse" as sands covered the Giza Plateau and the region suffered the Alexandrian Crusade in 1365.

### **The Draw of the Great Pyramids**

That February (1384), in and over Egypt, especially near the massive pyramids, there were new sets of lights in the sky. These were oddities unlike any seen before.

Part of the Egyptian authority was at a literal loss after the lights, as a portion of their leadership and treasury had disappeared. Likewise, the market for the automatons (as well as most of the automatons themselves) slowed considerably.

There were suspicions that the lights had been the now-missing Egyptian leadership escaping into the skies. If that was the case, it pointed at the skirmishing War of the Celestials as a likely contributor.

When the skirmishes did indeed continue, there were estimations that the Egyptian history was separate from either of the Angelic factions, making them a distinct third culture from the skies.
Records: the French ascension

## **The Franco-CMC Connection**

The Estates General had been working out details to make a jump to the Magna Carta possible. Ultimately ending in the same spot, but in a uniquely prickly French path to get there, the effort was championed by the dynamic duo of French Duke Charles VI and Dauphin Édouard.

The French additions were valuable and would be considered CMC-wide, which brought France to it's next threshold: from adopting the *Grande Charte* to entering the *Commonwealth of the Magna Carta*.

In any other circumstance, in any other era, the adoption itself would've been earth-shattering, much less the speed at which it happened. In the wake of the magically-enhanced conquest, and the growth of a magically-driven economy,

### **Royal Representation**

King Édouard, reluctantly back in Paris, represented France as the kingdom is inducted into the *Commonwealth of the Magna Carta*.

Significant that France made it there before the UB, who was still working through the heartburn of what parts make contributions to whom.

### **Value-added CMC**

Crown Rick took the opportunity to announce that the CMC will begin a Commonwealth-wide mail service, including the sale and delivery of paired or multi-paired *Scrolls of Correspondence*.

The first sales would be going out of Paris.
Where Angels Fear to Tread Campaign Wiki

## ***Where Angels Fear to Tread***

This site hosts a fantasy campaign for the Speculation roleplaying system.

Here, players can expect to battle brigands, monsters, and demons. Their arsenal includes arcane magic, divine miracles and cold steel.

Set in Earth's late 14th century, missions will take characters around the globe. The timeline that players may know is untouched until 1365, but at that point, *things started to change*. The last two and a half decades witnessed the fall of angels and demons in a way that clarified old "interpretations" of the supernatural. The world suffered the rise of monsters... and saw Merlin's magic rise to combat them.

By 1384, there were cataclysms atop apocalypses. Assuredly, the world was suffering Armageddon and all of creation would perish. *But it didn't*. Shielded behind the magic of Merlin's legacy, *most* of the world survived.

*It is now 1389*. As was foretold by Richard of Bordeaux, now a decade ago, the *Incidence of Incidents* are leading to things far worse than death – and far bigger than the death of humankind.

## **The Next Step**

Players and Referees alike should read "A Tale of Traumas," a digest of why their characters now suffer some grade of PTSD. It expands on the thumbnail above and gives a sense of what the world has witnessed and survived. Once they have that context, they're ready for the next step.

* ***A Tale of Traumas*,** a short primer on recent events***.***

 Primed and Ready? *Excellent*. Here are the key shortcuts for Players and Referees alike:

* Players are about to embark on the ***Road to London***.
* Referees get their behind-the-scenes prep with ***Darkness Rising***...

***Speculation*** is a percentile (d10) gaming system that emphasizes skill and trait points rather than class levels. Role-play gamers will find the mechanic leans more towards simulation than the modified randomness of other popular systems.

*The* *Torch of the Sun:* the escutcheon of Richard of Bordeaux

* Latest Activity
* Metagamer's Overview
Records: tax stamps

## **That Indirect Tax the Crown was talking about...**

As of the Golden Parliament, the Crown had reserved the right to charge indirect tax (and Parliament retained the right to put an injunction on it). Most of the indirect tax at this point was import/export levies, but even that was going through a revolution as it was simplified: merchants calculated what they needed, bought revenue stamps from the Crown, and placed it on their products.

Inspectors would swing by from time to time and check that everything that was supposed to have a stamp, did have a stamp. The stamps varied depending on what was sold.

### **The First Wave**

Taxes were placed on recently created "luxury items" that simply had no market before, or were profoundly changed in a new market. This included:

**The sale of contraceptives**. Really, England wanted population as much as the Church did, but not everyone wanted children. Either way, with a tax on contraceptives, it was win-win for the Crown.

**The sale of paper**. While paper was sold before, it was rare. Now, even the old paperers were churning out stock based on buying and processing RC kenaf pulp.

**The sale of ink**. Similar to paper, the broader, bigger market had sparked a surge.

**The sale of printed goods** (books, pamphlets that are sold rather than given away) and **printing presses** themselves.

**Magical items**. This was elusive for most, but the early magic wands were making their way into sighting in the London wilds, with *Glow Stones* putting a crunch on candle makers.

**Import/Export Levies**. This was now streamlined to be handled with tax stamps. With the all of the *major* indirect taxes now funneled through this mechanic, the public had the chance to get used to it – and they accepted it well, considering it was attached to the new, novel creations that they simply had to have.
Records: Silk Road Diplomacy

## **Running the Overland Gauntlet**

A diplomatic entourage from Ming China arrives in the Kingdom of Zion after a 3-month trek. They'd left mid-January, intending to take a measure and survey of the land on the way out. They arrived at the open gates of Zion in mid-March. The jouney had been brutal.

They'd started out with a thousand-strong army of battle-hardened warriors. Between the undead and orks, they'd lost over 600 before they cleared the Oirat. Even through central Asia, between the Timurid force now at constant war with the orks, the combat was never-ending. By the time they pulled in to Zion, they were reduced to about 250 battered survivors.

### **The Call for Assistance**

After medical stabilization (healing miracles), the Chinese contingent was transported by boat to La Rochelle, Aquitaine, and from there via horseless carriage to Angers.

There, Rick heard the request for assistance – and it was a generous request from recent emperor Zhu Biao. The undead and orks were bad enough that it was likely there would be no kingdom left for this entourage to return to.

The 250 were indoctrinated and started training as magically-enabled, Chinese Sergeants-at-Arms...

### **Immediate Response**

CrownCom had deep human resources – and immediately sent a platoon of Sergeants-at-Arms *specialists* back to the Chinese Royal Court. They retraced the Chinese route and brought specialized resources with them. The Chinese, frankly, though this group was all going to die.

Instead, they followed along by *Scrolls of Correspondence* as the SA made it to the emperor *in two weeks*. By that point, the future Chinese SA contingent was onboard heart and soul.
Records: the Academy

### **The Orks Were a Teaching Moment**

In its full name, the *Aquitaine Arcane Academy* is opened in Anglet, what *was* a rural area just north of Bayonne. It had been in planning and construction for more than a year now, with several CCC teams in the project, but even if it hadn't, the necessity for this school was proven pivotal after the Rise of the Orks.

While Westminster was a walled, moated city – orks had been inside if only because pigs had been inside in holding pens. The same was true for London, where holding pens had bourne out some terrible violence against those who once had carried out terrible violence against the pigs. In the heavy agricultural support just to the north of London, the devastation had been cataclysmic.

London itself was a walled city, though those were ancient walls – and there were still key facilities that were outside of *any* walls, like the Savoy Palace (home of the RANP, more or less between London and Westminster) or the Wandstone Academy (just outside the walls to the north of London). No holding pens at Wandstone, and pigs were too valuable to experiment upon), but the ensuing orkish chaos had nearly closed Wandstone.

There were already minor schools or tiny academies, but no other major arcane teachning institutions, or non-official-business research schools. Another dedicated facility was needed (or a thousand were), but Aquitaine's *Academy* was crystal clear and shining bright. Just as things were returning to normal near London, the Academy opened in Aquitaine.

### **The Protection of the Academy**

Essentially a keep all its own, it is a sprawling complex built not only to remain safe from outside assault, but to keep practitioners safe from the hazards of people just beginning to learn magic. That hazard is another reason it was built *outside* of the walls of Bayonne.

A stylized structure with classical flow to the layout, the columns look like water, frozen in time, evoking the *aqua* of Aquitaine. Many of the walls use the same treatment, with magical fish appearing to swim through the walls as if they were a tank of water. The trim and decorations all have natural, nautical themes, like shells, coral, kelp and so on.

The southern counterpart to *Wandstone*, north of London, the Academy would serve the civilians of southern Aquitaine and France, Arelat and Iberia. The construction is absolutely mind-blowing to the people of the region – and a point of massive pride for Bayonne and the surrounding area.
Records: Potions of Recollection

## **Memory Juice**

The Order of Merlin created an elixir that functioned essentially as a mundane pharma: simply imbibe and it functioned as a memory aide. With a plain title like ***Potion of Recollection***, there was no confusing what it did.

When used, all that happened would be remembered. Used before important events, it helped witnesses recall what happened without distortion. Used in training, it helped students learn supernaturally quickly and thoroughly.

There were a number of caveats and pitfalls to the concoction – namely that too much at a time could induce permanent amnesia, and the worst cases extended before (and often after) the moment of imbibing.

On the upside, magic now had a low-level, inexpensive potion. It also created a vastly enhanced version that helped imprint memories on a far deeper scale, for a longer period. Later formulation even helped the brain form connections between what the world was before (and some helped form connections to memories created after).

The first and biggest customer was… *The Royal Arms*. This tied into other methods of accelerated training, like *Pommels of Training*, that considerably shortened the time from *novice* to *master*.
Records: Scrolls of Correspondence

An invention of then-Prince Richard, still a boy and in the early days of the Order of Merlin, this magical invention began as a pair of scrolls with an entwined enchantment: *anything written on one scroll would also appear on the other scroll.* This allowed instant communication by written text across any seeming distance.

It did not require any magical knowledge to operate the scroll once created, simply the skill of literacy and access to a pen and ordinary ink (or anything that could mark paper, from lead to blood). Even the earliest scrolls revolutionized communication, and especially urgent communiques between military and diplomatic groups.

Since their creation, they have grown – and even now, continue to evolve in new and exciting directions.
Records: HMS Explorer in the Red Sea

## **It's a Small World, Afterall...**

The *HMS Explorer* made it up the east coast of Africa, over what was well-explored, well-traveled trading territory. Lately, it was mostly the purview of the Arabians and Persians, though even the ancient Greeks had made it down the coast.

Heading up the Red Sea was traditionally territory of the Mamluk Sultanate as of late, and marginally still was on most of the western (African) side, but when they arrived at Suez, the state of the Empire's decay was evident. Rather than the Mamluks, Suez was occupied by... the *Noble Plantagenet*. Mamluk authority had already disintegrated in the face of the NP claiming the Sinai for the future kingdom of Zion.

Back down the eastern coast, on the Arabian side, arrival near Mekkah resulted in a surprising invite *into the city*. The NP had allowed trade and pilgrimage road traffic to continue from Egypt to the Hejaz, so both Mekkah and Medina were grateful.

While visiting, the RANP mapped the city to a degree never achieved and shared it with their hosts before departing.
REO: the Actors

All the World's a Stage

By 1389, Humanity has come in contact with several Foreign entities, all of whom have some effect on the state of the earth.

F1: Psionically-enabled.

F2: Psionically-enabled.

F3: Mundane, local.

F4: Mundane, local.

F5: Unknown.

F6: Psionically and magically-enabled.

F7: Coalition

F8: Coalition
Records: Maritime Magic

## **The Marlin Merlins**

Magic was brought in to assist the Royal Company construction of the RC/RN galleons. There was already a tremendous amount of perceived cross-over, and the Royal Company promoted it (the Order of Merlin tolerated it).

The truth, by this point, was that the Royal Company had their own magic research and development division. They kept in close contact with the ROM, but at this point, were developing more industrial and commercial processes – not the least of which included wands for the eventual public release of magic.

### **On the Job**

Down at the Royal Company ship yard, magic used to levitate, move, and place the otherwise massive wood.

It’s used to help find leaks and plug them; treat the wood and assist fastening it.

In treatment, using magic to power sand, then power lacquer the wood, essentially plasticizing it. Essentially rot-proofs the wood, keeps it from becoming brittle, increases the buoyancy and decreases the drag of the hull.

*Side effect:* makes the wood look really nice.

* If it’s kept natural color, as the Royal Company ships are, it’s magnificent.
* Makes it a very smooth surface, so if it is painted, the paint goes on exceptionally well.

The magic assistance wasn’t necessarily announced or publicized, but rumor did spread, and the RC milked the ROM-connection perception for every pence they could.
Records: Orks of the North

## **The Spread of the Scourge**

December 11, 1381, the *HMS Discovery* reaches what lower tribes had called *Tanam Unangaa*, or the "Land of the Aleuts." While the Discovery was expecting to find the Aleut Tribe, they instead saw *orks riding dire wolves*.

The worst nightmare of both hemispheres had combined.

This was lands' end of the Western Hemisphere in early December, during a mini ice age. It was brutally cold, with ice blocking passage and exploration any farther north, but orks on dire wolves? Further, orks were observed riding Aleut kayaks and it didn't take long to figure out what had happened to local humans.

As a matter of research, this was well north of the normal habitat of wild boars – but the orks again reinforced their intelligence and adaptability by wearing furs just as humans did.

While there was one instance of witnessing four orks on dire wolves fighting (and losing to) a dire bear, seeing orks in boats, now with fast, heavy and lethal mounts was dire news indeed.
Records: Western Dire Bears

## **A New Threat**

The Western Hemisphere faced a new foe: *dire bears*.

Matching the oversized megaflora already present in the WestHem, the all-too-common black bears were mutated in a process the local tribes said was accelerated beyond what they'd seen 15 years ago with the original transformations. Fortunate that not *all* bears were mega-sized, the species formerly known as black bears were now about the size of normal elephants, joining the fray of the zoological gladiator pit of the west.

It was soon discovered that certain bees, trout and insects were also super-sized, along with an increased selection of flora as well.

If the recent rise of the orks in the eastern hemisphere wasn't sign enough that somebody (or something) was seeking to end humanity, the corresponding mega-sizing of the bears and their typical diet in the west was another sign that the phenomena was being actively guided.

### **The Isolation of the Orkish Hordes**

So far, the orkish phenomena was not found in the western hemisphere. It's theorized that was because there were neither native pigs nor boars there – and thankfully, none had yet been imported.

There were theories as to why no fauna had been supersized in the east, but nothing that could be tested or otherwise confirmable. The leading theory was that the density of apex predators simply wasn't high enough around the high-density humanity to make the selective bioengineering worth it.

### **Megaflora**

Notably, several flora have increased in size as well. While the trees aren't as aggressive, the accelerated growth is supporting the herbivores, which is in turn supporting the carnivores. For omnivores like the mega-black bears, they continue their habits, now preying as much upon the giant hazelnuts, oak acorns and whitebark pine nuts as they do on giant river salmon, giant ants and bees.

While selective species have been amplified, most have not – and are now in the same terrified position as everybody else in the area. The brown bear is now nearly friendly towards humans, and the massive kodiak finds itself in the unusual position of a distant second place to so many other forms of life that its own adaptive ability fares poorly.
1369

## **World Events**

* March 14 – Pedro of Castile loses the Battle of Montiel to an alliance between the French and his half-brother Henry II.

### **Date unknown**

* Venice repels a Hungarian invasion.
* Hugues Aubriot founds the Bastille in Paris.
* Tamerlane names the city of Samarkand as the capital of his empire.
* Košice becomes the first town in Europe to be granted its own coat of arms.
* The Turks invade Bulgaria.
* The Thai Kingdom of Ayutthaya conquers Cambodia for a second time.
* Duong Nhat Le succeeds Tran Hao as King of Vietnam.
* The Hongwu Emperor of the Chinese Ming dynasty issues a decree ordering every country magistrate in the empire to open a Confucian school of learning.

## **The Sphere of Magic**

### **May:** hostilities resume in Hundred Years’ War

* King Charles V of France found pretext to renounce the Treaty of Brétigny. The Edwardian portion of the war had raged roughly 23 years, from 1337-1360.
* France found their advantages and opened hostilities in what history would record as the Caroline portion of the war. In the original timeline, the French eventually recapture most of Aquitaine.
* Now, there were already small deviations based on the *Incidence of Incidents*. This manifest as little more than slightly different people in slightly different places, decisions made that were *nearly* identical considering the context and large-scale social forces driving the events of the times. The incidents, however, gave their own color to the changes, increasing superstition as many of these events simply could not explained (and often, could barely be described) by witnesses.

### **August:** the death of Queen Philippa of Hainault

* The dropsy that gripped Philippa of Hainault began to accelerate. It was apparent that the end was rapidly approaching for the Queen consort of England, wife of Edward III of England.
* When Philippa died, Alice Perrers’ affair with the king became more conspicuous, and it aroused bitter envy and hatred at court especially as Alice was only 21 years old. Following the queen's death, a devastated Edward leaned heavily on her considerable abilities; her courtly dominance accelerated by his loss.

### **December**: localized Welsh rebellion against England

* Financed by Charles V of France, Welshman Owain Lawgoch launches an invasion fleet against the English in an attempt to claim the throne of Wales. A storm causes Owain to abandon the invasion.
REO: the Reclamation of Richard

## **Richard: Right Place, Right Time, Right Position**

The "regular-strength" angels picked the "Child of the Epiphany" as a vehicle for change. For those vested in the previous timeline, this would be hijacking the causality stream. From the relative view, this was the reclamation of one flawed native personality to do some profound work.

As for those angels, they themselves can either guide humanity or battle the archangels, but not both – they simply aren't strong enough. The strategy, then, became giving the humans tools to compensate for the destructive interference of the archangels.

On a more tactical level, they begin clandestine tutoring Richard of Bordeaux. Present from his birth and onward, there was a careful developmental balance based on what they'd figured out about human developmental processes – and the need to have a "ringer" in this fight *right now*.

Three years in, by 1370, Richard was quietly induced to psionic capacity, but carefully suppressed it. Where did he first manifest? A demonstration of *Systems Medicine* (psionic-based guidance and amplification of the body's own healing).

### **Forced Perspective**

Over the next few years, Richard received a two-fold training: first in the rapidly disappearing original timeline, which showed his own [disastrous] reign in England – and followed through to the early 22nd century (along with an encyclopedic education of the state of human science to that point).

The second training came from the knowledge base of the race that created the angels to mitigate the *other* race's "angels." This was *extremely* advanced knowledge, and was more than just science, but politics and history.

The problem: there was no way, even armed with knowledge of almost-contemporary technology, that the earth could develop fast enough to defend themselves. This left one option: pointing out the earth's own near-misses with the often-toxic, extremely volatile *arcane*, in the hopes Richard would pick it up and master it.

### **Slingshot into Magic Capacity**

The one thing that hadn't happened in human history, or possibly *any* "local" history, was an extremely advanced science based on the four fundamental forces discovering the rare frequency to unlock access to the fifth force. *This* is what is in Richard's head.

The foreign faction's technology and science is easily advanced enough to be perceived as magic in roughly the same way a modern smartphone would be perceived as magic in the royal court of Edward III (assuming the rest of the internet was intact to support it). But what that foreign factions offers is *not* magic.

What Richard taps into is a research project that uses psionics and field-expedient science to develop *actual magic*, and develop that tool set. This is the driving factor behind the rise of the *Order of Merlin*. Optimally, Richard united humanity and they make a triumphant, peaceful entrance into the galactic community.

The first thing stopping them, though, is the faction of archangels that have influenced man for 50,000 years, seeing humans as inherently unstable, with their ultimate goal of quiet extinction...
Concept of Operations

## **The CONOPS**

The thrust of this campaign is to create a high-magic world based off a late 14th century earth.

Once those parameters were set, the actors were defined and history became a situation laboratory. The actors included various factions of humanity, but also two separate factions of "angels" – which in this campaign, are Foreign cultures ("F1" and "F2") with their own history and are using earth as a proxy battleground.

## Psionics At Large

The WAFT campaign relies on Speculation's default magic/alt-magic cosmology. This defines the place of psionics and magic in the universe, the prevalence and placement of it. There is very little crossover between communities, but where it happens, it is extremely dynamic – and the psionics is the major example of that. Most "mundane" races have some capacity for the psionic, but marginalize it. The races that fully embrace it tend to be isolated, both internally and externally, from other races.

Either one of those factions could sterilize the planet, but they balace each other and are limited in their actions and rules of engagement as they know they're being monitored by each other (and therefore a much larger star-spanning community). The factions ("angels," in this case), are both psionically-enabled races – but neither are magically-enabled.

The activity has been an unintentional beacon to yet other races, most of whom would avoid entanglements with F1 and F2, but yet other races don't know or don't care. This includes "F6" – the *Bearer of the Eldritch Light* – who F1 is confusing and conflating with humanity itself.

The timeline leads to the scenarios of 1389: *chances for players to take action*.

### **Session 0**

It's suggested that players come together for a character-building session with some limited role-play. Whatever age they choose their characters to be, subtract it from 1389 to find their birthday, then use the Search function to pick out regional events based on their chosen home location.

The campaign assumes characters are civilians or regional militia at best, and are starting out their personal journey. Players can choose to have characters that are already "on the inside" (of the Commonwealth Arms, the Order of Merlin, etc.), but that may take a Session -2 and -1 of pre-adventuring before they reach the point the rest of the players join in.

### **Players vs Actors**

Speculation, and the WAFT campaign, uses the term "players" in the game sense: these are participants at the table: friends and colleagues who are playing the game. On the other hand, "actors" is used in the political sense: generally a categorical description for factions.

### **The Year 1389**

Based on the Roll of Years, it's possible for players to start their campaign before 1389. Their missions may either fall well below the threshold of world events or they could even take part in events as they unfolded (though that session might be a bit of a predestined let-down). After 1389, the possibilities are endless.
Records: Battle of Moon's Shadow

## **The Fate of Life in the Balance**

From the Altercation of the Angels, to the Discord of Heaven, the War of the Celestials had truly begun in **August of 1383**. After nearly a year of sporadic battles in the sky, as the new moon approached in mid-July, the fireworks flared as never before.

On July 17th, there were bursts that outshone the sun, and for some, turned the night sky to day. This exchange was farther out – but much, *much* bigger. Visible as long as the moon was, the bulk of the fighting always appeared in front of the moon. There were blasts so big they lit the dark face of the moon. By now, there were six massive, identifiable entities versus a cloud of smaller entities and terrestrial observers could see which side was which.

Here, the tactics and strategies of the angels changed. From the archangels, strange "sparks" arced across the heavens, some reaching earth. Where they touched, there was no apparent physical damage, but *everything*not under a particular type of protective ward was dead.

### **Five Days of Luminant Death**

There were formations in the sky, both of the six major entities and gradually disappearing opposition. Then it was five entities, then four, then three...

The battle raged for five days until the seeming final conflict: what most saw as a spinning, glowing ring versus an oblate shining star. On July 21st, in a final flurry of blinding flashes, it was apparent they'd destroyed each other.

The Earth still stood. Not unscathed, but generally in tact with life still breathing beneath. Darkness returned to the night sky, save for the occasional shooting star.

### **The Battle was Over**

*At least for now.*

The multitude of angels, it was said, sacrificed themselves in defense of the earth... against the six archangels.

There were supposedly no survivors of either angelic type, though fallen and corrupted angels had definitely survived and there was question whether wounded angels (of either type) might still live.

In the calm that followed, newly created undead, from zombies to ghosts, seemed to taper off. There were still occasional ghost sightings, but these seemed like truly lost, wandering souls. The orks, however, were still going strong.

### **Joy and Uncertainty**

Nobody had any idea what the future held at this point. Nobody really knew why the archangels had turned on humanity in the first place, though there were suspicions within the OM. It was the darkness beyond that the Magus had warned of.

Would new angels return, of either faction? Would God show His hand?

*And what of that darkness beyond...?*
Records: the Royal Marines

## **The Establishment of the *Royal Marines***

As the galleons made their first sea trials, already gearing up for the inevitable sealift, there were a few critical holes in the defense of these offensive monsters. If they ran out of powder, or were surprised by particularly bad winds, foreign ships that were still built for HTH combat could have a real advantage if they reached the ships before the cannons could defend.

To that end, it was a given that the sailors themselves had to know how to fight, but sailors sail and man the guns. If they simply assigned sailors to switch duty on boarding actions, then they lost mobility and/or firepower.

In general, and especially after the recent, painful at the Battle of La Rochelle (1372), the wise thing was keeping a contingent of solder-specialists on board

### **As a response, the Royal Marines are founded.**

The RM are soldiers on boats. They would also as ship’s guards as well as *maritime*facility guards – and would cross-train to back up everything sailors do.

The RM would have training and equipment to conduct shore operations.

The modern RM was adopting doctrine from the Battle of Sluys (1340), during a major naval battle in the Edward III.

The battle took place in and around the harbour of Sluys in an inlet on the border between Zeeland and West Flanders. The English fleet (about 400 ships) against a combined French (about 250 ships), Castilian and Genoese fleet. Other than a small number of large vessels such as the Christopher, the Edward and the Thomas, most of the ships were extremely small, carrying crews of sailors and fighting men of around 25.

Edward III, King of England, was acting admiral against the French commanders, Hugues Quiéret and Nicolas Béhuchet, with the Genoese Commander, Bocanegra.

The Battle of Sluys: the style of warfare is clearly illustrated in this illustration from Froissart’s chronicles. Archers discharge arrows from the crow’s nests, forecastles and aftercastles while knights and men-at-arms board the enemy vessels. The fate of the vanquished is to be thrown over the side.

Considering the doctrine, the RM took a little swagger and adopted the date of the Battle of Sluys as their official founding.
Records: First Human Flight

### **The Flying Pride of the WestHem**

The Inca had been subject to particular attention in the *War of the Fallen*, and a series of devastating air-to-ground attacks drove home how powerful it was to have the "High Ground." For anyone else, it would've created a hatred of all things flight-related, but for the Inca, it reinforced their desire to reach for the sky.

Less emphasized was the power of the surface-to-air return-fire, which appears to have surprised the assaulting elements.

### **Culture of the Skies**

From the mapping of the RANP, people now knew what it looked like to look down: but that was a magically-induced view. The drive of the Inca was to soar among the birds, to sail over the mountains and to see their shrines as the Gods saw them. The *other* gods: *the ones who left the geoglyphs*.

The Inca RANP became the first to do this, not harnessing aerodynamics of birds so much as the chemistry, density and pressures. The balloon effect was already known, but few had thought to entrust their lives to it. The Inca, on the other hand, dared to step into the sky.

In this case, an actual Inca human ascended in a hot air balloon, giving humanity the new quality of *flight*. This first time was completely "mundane" (non-magical), and from the local Inca RANP chapter, there was serious pride to the achievement. Magic was working on this too, even borrowing the state of lift the balloon generated.

Shortly after the tethered up-down of the flight path, then untethered drift with the winds, the navigational wind spells used for the Royal Navy galleons are adapted to push and direct the balloons, even against the wind.

### **The Audacity of Humanity**

It was no coincidence that this was demonstrated just after the anti-earthly sky attacks. In the ruins, while smoke still rose from the attacks, the Inca had taken up the wings of Daedalus and gave shelter to Prometheus.

Many took this as provocation toward the archangels, the timing itself making it more the flight of Icarus. Some took it as manifesting the trust of the angelic allies.

They were both correct, though acknowledgement as such was careful (and careful more for the earthly audience than the celestial one).