recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Records: the RA Cavalry

## **The Majesty of the Royal Arms Cavalry**

The comparatively high-speed horse-mounted troop was knee-knockingly large for the times. Designed to quickly achieve flanking positions or other key tactical placements, this cavalry company was designed in the same force structure as the main mounted infantry. Five horses made a squad, four squads made a platoon, ten platoons made the company.

The soldiers' armor was very similar to the infantry, though optimized to fighting on horseback. The weapons varied slightly regarding the sword, with a slightly smaller shield mounted to their back, and the standard-issue *Smoothbore Projector*.

The horse itself had mid-level armor. There were thoughts about logistics and carrying armor that would allow armoured (heavy) capacity, but it didn't weigh against the speed and firepower of the projector they carried.

The Cavalry Company lived and died by their horses.

* 213 troop
* 213 horses
Records: Sky Culture Evolution

### **To Take the Skies Away**

As the battles raged above their heads, the war of the angels had a significant impact on the beliefs of humankind. This was especially true for those who deified celestial aspects or conflated a theological heaven with the cosmological heavens.

This included every religion on earth to a small degree, but for some, was profoundly influential in mitigating mystification of the sky.

### **Surface-dwelling Samples**

* The recent Inca Royal Republic was profoundly affected, with their sky-belief pedigree etched across the earth on the Nazcan highlands.
* The Chinese culture, semi-allied with Aquitaine and the CMC, was profoundly affected. Their Mandate of Heaven was only partially symbolic; the "Celestial Empire" was one of the old names for China itself.
* Judeo-Christian cultures weren't immune, particularly the Greco-Roman influenced Christian culture, that leaned on imagery of the pantheon of a sky God throwing thunderbolts (especially when one of the archangels disclosed that he'd gone by many names, including Mars).
* For multi-theistic cultures, like the Greek-Roman or the Nordic or any of a dozen others, there were places for the Gods and expectations that the archangels may have played a role in establishing early narratives. If Michael, the executive after the expulsion of Lucifer, was Mars – *who was Jupiter?* Who played the overgod role? Zeus, Odin and so on.

### **Deeper Inquiries**

It was explicitly stated that the archangels had "gone mad" but there was a growing sense that points were interpretive. Were there competing narratives between archangels and the angels, even before that? Was it possible to see whose hand was who's in scripture?

Given the prophets of the world, what was really God's word, what was the angels', and what was... more creative?
RtL-The Two Memories

Characters, no matter where they hail from, find they are drawn together by recalling *the Two Memories*. In a world where the unexplained was becoming commonplace, those two incidents were and are bigger than everything else combined.

A ghost might terrorize a home, a manor, even a village... but those two events happened in the skies above, and *everybody* saw it. They felt it. They suffered invisible blows from the *Battle*, then three years later, fled from a sky on fire during *Starfall*.

### Five years ago, silent terror in the *Battle of Moon's Shadow*

* This cataclysm in the heavens, happening somewhere between the firmament and the moon above, defied common description. For five days it raged, rising and setting with the lunar backdrop during the new moon. Beautiful to behold, people talk of arcs of fire and lightning. In the daytime, it cast its own shadows. At night, the skies sometimes flared to brighter than the noon sun. Often, the dark moon itself often flashed so bright that people had to look away.
* Most knew it was a battle, perhaps the final battle, in the War of the Celestials. Through some areas, it became known as the Heavenly Hell. It is unknown with what weapons they fought, though when the shining combatants died, we people below felt it. *Excruciatingly* felt it. In places, an eldritch glint would glow towards the earth and where it shined, all life perished.
* For more details, head to the ***Hall of Records***.

After *The Battle*, there was a lull in the unexplained, then a resurgence as those incidents grew to a new level. The sightings of ghosts were no longer alleged, *they were confirmed*. Now the dead were rumored to rise and demons said to walk among men. It's unknown what exactly sparked the war, but the theory is that *everybody lost*.

### Two years ago, *Starfall:* the *rain of fire*

* The Night Battle had been far above, but Starfall wasn't far enough. Nor was this a battle so much as it was giant arrows of fire slamming against an invisible heavenly shield. The heat was enough to start fires on the ground and the bombardment lasted a day and a half, from Ireland to China as best as anyone could tell. The shield protecting the world shattered in the final blows. It was said *that* was the moment Leeds Castle became a fountain of fire, exploding back toward the heavens.
* As the sky crumbled, the heavenly heat scorched London. Still, that was lucky in comparison to other lands. Whoever pummeled the firmament landed blows in northeastern Asia and the sea south of India. Flashes and thunder were heard around the world. The stories from the Silk Road tell of a rain of stones the size of houses and smoke from fires that burned for months.
* For more details, head to the ***Hall of Records***.

It felt as if that was supposed to have been the end of the world. Certainly, it was the end of the world for some – yet overall, the world itself survived.

And what of the shield? Was that the Order of Merlin?

No matter where people hail from, all they need is a few gestures toward the sky to break the ice...
Records: United Britannia

## **Unification: the Manifest Destiny**

It was a simple fact of geographic proximity – and by extension, political contiguity. Either they would forever be at each other's throats, or they would unify and exist as one people. They chose the latter.

It was not homogenous, no more than a human body had more than one bone or one organ: there were many distinct cultures within Britannia, and in that, the islands were a microcosm of humanity.

Now, between England, Scotland, Wales and Cornwall, they come together to form a new polity: *United Britannia*. These entities swore to support and defend each other. Cornwall, the Isle of Man and England followed the English Magna Carta, while Wales adopted an only-slightly-modified Magna Carta.

The keys of liberty and justice were the same for all of them. Scotland was working on the ratification of their own.

### **The Mythic Capital**

Cavalon, south of the Isle of Man, was designated the capitol of United Britannia. This magical land wasn't English or Welsh, Scottish, Manx or Irish. It was *all of them*. Together, they were stronger than the sum of their parts. The true magic was the power of their unity (/cue inspirational music).

England, by nature of resources and percentage of contribution to the UB, was designated first among equals.
Records: the Passing of Charles V

## **The End of an Era**

Former king, now Duke Charles V of the Île-de-France, left as he lived: a romantic. The former king passed peacefully at the grave of his late wife Joanna.

Charles V was succeeded by his twelve-year-old son, young philosopher, artist and survivor of the Dominus Exorcus, Charles VI. Notably, young Charles was already on an accelerated maturation arc, physically, mentally and emotionally, in much the same way as Richard and Edward of England. It was widely suspected that was caused by the time he'd spent with them.

### **Requisite Ceremony**

King Edward IV did not *want* to attend the funeral, but did. For him, it was less about the memorial, and more about marking the passage of time and events. He did, however, crown Charles VI with the Duke's Coronet of the Île-de-France.

Also attending both the funeral and coronation was King Edward I of Scotland (technical Dauphin of France), King Rick of Aquitaine and Arelat (Steward of France), King John of Castile and King Rupert of Germany.

### **Shadows and Whispers**

There were rumors of assassination attempts, though publicly and officially, nothing visibly transpired.
Records: the SA lands in China

## **The Shadow Ambassadors**

Emperor Zhu Biao requested magical assistance from the makers of *Glow Stones*, by way of a thousand-man army that took the land route and landed in Zion with barely 250 men. After they were transported to Anjou, and they could speak directly to the Magus, it came out exactly how dire the situation was in the [former] Empire of China.

Rick knew the east would have problems (like everybody else), but didn't realize the extent of the devastation. There had been rumors, of course, with Silk Road trade now all but dead out of the area. Again, it was a direction that Rick was ready to extend himself but the human condition demanded intervention. To gather intelligence before committing more resources, the CMC sent a vanguard SA platoon to China.

### **2 Weeks vs 3 Months**

The platoon was swift, silent and mostly invisble. While mapping their way, the SA were careful to avoid most direct contact with non-humans (orcs and the undead), and where there was contact, there were no survivors to spread the word (so the forensics were not obvious – *and the orks were looking*).

Once past the Gobi desert, they took stock based on collective reports that come from former trade routes.

The Catholic diocese in China (originally run by Italians) was extinct and Silk Road merchants via central-western trails were almost extinct. The southern routes were marginally better, but only sea trade was considered survivable at the time (and that went a *long way* before they could reach safer land routes, starting mostly in India).

With their stealth, including actual invisibility, it took weeks for two dozen Sergeant-at-Arms specialists to reach the Ming Court.

### **Initial Assessment**

Once in the former Imperial Court, the character of Zhu Biao, much less the Chinese royal privy council, was found to be profoundly different from that of his father.

The SA now maintained a regular though nearly-invisible western presence in the Zhu court. To the king, they provided regular, real-time updates of the Chinese contingent via *Scrolls of Correspondence*. There were direct negotiations on what the SA were authorized to assist with, and what they were authorized to accept (as the royal court was throwing the kitchen sink at them for them for direct intervention, training and so on).
Records: Ming Census

## **The Count**

The Ming *lijia* census, begun in 1371, staggered through the worsening plague and the continued zombie/ork war. As much a search for survivors and non-toxic water, by November, they finalized the count at roughly 15,500,000 people and rapidly dropping.

Zhu Yuanzhang, the self-proclaimed Hongwu Emperor, was facing rebellion and officially dropped his claim to the Mandate of Heaven (as several warlords looked to remove it from him).

### **Lessons Buried in the Numbers**

The census became an extended logistics scouting mission, and there was plenty to learn simply beyond the number of survivors. The one ray of hope was that the orks of the Orient were battling the undead more than the humans.

Also noted: orks did not rise as undead – but this turns into a massive question as to why humans do.
Records: Mobile Portaling Developed

### **Arcano-Engineering Breakthroughs**

Travel by portal was extremely different than teleportation, which was itself extremely secret (and allegedly a scary way to travel). Travel by portal was relatively calm, and by now, the OM had developed both single and dual portal technology.

* The dual-anchor method was comparatively low energy and extremely durable – what was used between Calais and Dover (et al).
* The single-anchor could project a doorway for someone to step through, but couldn't bring the projector with it. Mobile portaling changed that.

Using a point-to-point field projector, with the portal generator in the middle, mobile portaling was now a possibility. This could be used for ships to appear virtually anywhere. The field could extend the length of a Regiment, for the unit to appear virtually anywhere, and it did so without the complications of teleportation.

### **Technique Access**

For the time being, it was *strictly* limited to certain Royal Navy and Royal Army branches (CMC and Aquitaine), but the fact that it could be done *at all* was simply mind-boggling to even most of the OM/RANP.

That a Regiment could now appear *anywhere*, away from established portals, brought another significant evolution to Royal Arms' strategy, as well perception of the power projection on the part of the CMC.
Records: the Archangela Strain

### **The Unexpected Parry**

The airborne plague ravaging China had been bioengineered with a dual vector: encoded post-metabolic animation frequencies. In other words, the same thing that killed the victim turned them into a zombie. It was a particularly durable or powerful zombie, but it was particularly virulent, which was all "they" needed.

They didn't expect that humanity below would figure that out. It was a given that the faction providing the archangels were engineering the narrative in their direction. They had superior (comparatively godlike) power, they expected to leave behind a legacy that reinforced their own story. The faction providing the "regular" angels had something to say about that.

Evenly matched, perhaps even superior in some respects, the "regular" faction needed every advantage it had simply to not squash the mortals below as they waged their proxy war on peripheral battegrounds: the sky above and spaces usually invisible or inaccessible to humanity below.

The magic changed the game. Giving a mortal faction understanding of physical principles beyond what they had previously... *changed the game*. Combining this forbidden mundane knowledge with magic... *began to reverse the game*. Even cultures that survived their evolution with magic wouldn't recognize the path that humanity was now on.

The OM/RANP had turned magic into an analysis machine. It had figured out what evil had been unleashed on China – and now it was creating answers to that challenge.

### **The Highway to China**

Even as the Gods themselves were battling in the sky above, the SA/OM kept fighting beneath them. By the end of August, the portal traffic between Aquitaine and Henan was a two-way highway. Even more, the CMC was now paving a literal higway through upper central Asia, over the Caspian Sea, toward China.

The orks were still a major threat to humanity where they roamed; but to the Regiments, were regarded as simply another tactical challenge.

### **The Persistence of the Plague**

The plague and undeath had been the major concern, and the mystics and RANP combined had sacrificed themselves at an alarming rate looking at the pathology... *then one key breakthrough:* **a cure to the airborne plague**.

There was a brief window of incubation from exposure to death, usually under 12 hours, and it had been 100% fatal. If the mystics could get the infected before death, they could cure them. The cure itself required a two-part process: first curing the biological vector, then isolating and draining a kind of nearly-sentient spiritual vector.

### **Chinese Innovation**

Henan was growing its own RANP chapter, and combined with the all the minds of the west along with them, were already working on the step: *an inoculation*.

That cure to the plague, though, was all-important. It allowed the mere mortal soldiers to be far more aggressive in combatting the undead.
Records: Automaton Wide-Release

## **Joyful Labor**

Some six months after the London Conference on automatons, the first of the truly-refined efforts were reaching commercial markets in London and Bordeaux (and soon after, around the CMC and into the frontiers).

There were several manufactories, mostly in some mix of OM and RANP brain trust behind the automatons themselves. There was very little standardization at this point save for some of the chassis hardware, but there were four initial model classes. It was basic categorization but covered the gamut of the greatest needs:

* household
* agriculture
* general labor
* sentry

Powered by arcane crystals, half the cost of this new labor was in the power source. Unlike the old ways, where the power source was same food everybody else ate...

The less expensive initial option (by a long shot) was to simply use a regular supply of industrial-strength crystals. The more expensive option was to get channeling ("permanent") crystals, though that would eventually pay off down the road.

In former slave-use economies, at this point more at the edges of the CMC, the automatons were a savior.

### **Market Analysis**

Aquitaine's RANP-OM experience had been working with partners to refine the AI and physical capacity of synthetic labor. After the plague, the whole world was still depopulated, and with certain genocidal tactics to depopulate it further, even premium labor didn't come close to filling demand.

The synthetic labor was a Godsend-Promise, but they'd needed to work the bugs out before a wide release: namely, how to make it as human as possible without making it too human. The more sophisticated the interface and processing, the more it could understand and do. And the bigger risk of other human-like behavior as well.

In this case, the automatons that came to market had designed consciousness: finding fulfillment in carrying out the tasks it was designed for: essentially, fulfilling it purpose in life. It had a destiny – and that alone was engineered as "destiny" was an automatic function or consideration, especially of the AI that had been built from the ground-up.

### **Long-Term Concerns**

There were a dozen issues flagged for tracking, from how learning would affect programming and prioritization, to potential for programming corruption, to how it would handle conflicting orders. Lab and limited testing did what they could, but it could only be "so perfect" before the needs of having *something* outweighed the risks and liabilites of having nothing. The post-plague world had a *great deal of nothing*.

Even the "perfect" automaton was imperfect. What did it look like if it did its job "too well"? Would humanity grow soft and decadent and rot away? Would agricultural automatons grow to be the only labor for food – only to fail in some catastrophy and send humanity into starvation?

Having a machine that was "too perfect" was its own liability, but that was a lesser and more long-term problem than the pure evil it replaced: *slavery*. It was a complex issue and it would tracked and talked about for as long as it existed.
Records: the RA Force Structure

There would be more than 1,756 soldiers as technically scheduled, to be sure, with auxiliary, support, and so on. That 1700+ base, however, ensured the Regiment could operate independently. Additionally, it was a fully-mobile force: every soldier was mounted, though actual engagement would involve most of them dismounting to fight.

* Squad (5)
	+ 4 privates
	+ 1 corporal
* Platoon (21)
	+ 4 squads
	+ 1 sergeant
	+ **Note:** each war wagon typically held 2 squads and was pulled by 2 horses; 2 wagons/platoon
* Company (213)
	+ 10 platoons (20 wagons)
	+ 2 lieutenants
	+ 1 captain
* Battalion (641)
	+ Typically 300-800
	+ 3 companies (641 men; 60 wagons + 120 horses)
	+ 1 captain
	+ 1 Major
* Regiment (1301)
	+ May be smaller than a battalion, usually larger
	+ 1 Battalion (641) + 3 Companies (639)
	+ 1 support platoon (21) 4 wagons; 10 horses

**Command Company Total Equipment list:**

* 284 total troop (including wagon crew and overall CO/XO officers)
* 74 horses
* 31 wagons

**Artillery Company Equipment List:**

* 213 artillery soldiers + 22 Wagon Crew (235 total soldiers)
* 52 horses
* 40 cannons
* 10+1 wagons (including the command wagon)

**Musketeer Company Equipment List:**

* 213 musketeer soldiers + 42 Wagon Crew (255 total soldiers)
* 52 horses
* 20+1 wagons (including the command wagon)

**Cavalry Company Equipment List:**

* 213 troop
* 213 horses

**Battalion Equipment List:**

* 641 infantry soldiers, including command + 128 Wagon Crew (769 total troop)
* 64 wagons
* 128 horses

**Total Regiment Equipment List:**

* 1,756 soldiers, including command and wagon crews.
* 519 horses
* 127 wagons
* 40 cannon

## **They were already planning on larger formations**

The Brigade would come together, if necessary, depending on what the neighbors did once England had found its equilibrium with Aquitaine and France. The brigade-strength organization was projected at 3-6 battalions (their current Regiment of St. George was roughly the equivalent of 2 battalions).

In this case, they’re going heavy – but it’s a changeable designation: any group of two or more regiments. If larger, single forces were required... *God help the world*. Given that the angels seemed somewhat divided about that, long-term plans were made looking at the possibility of Divisions or Corps.
Records: Explorer in Mumbai

## **HMS Explorer reaches the Subcontinent**

After two months of coastal mapping, the Explorer reached the Seven Islands of Mumbai. At the time marginally controlled by the Delhi Sultanate, the Sultanate itself was in decline as stories came out of the west and confidence in religious mandates declined.

From the south, competing Hindu kingdoms were edging into the area and the RANP wasn't shy about distributing *Glow Stones* to the locals as gestures of good will.

### **Learning the Locals**

The Indian political landscape wasn't completely unknown, there *had been* a good deal of silk road trade, whether that was actual overland road travel, or now mostly, along the Persian coast. It also helped that the CMC were now so deeply involved in the Levant to get snippets of news from the east.

That line of communication had dropped off since the rise of the orks, now very spotty as the orks hordes were extremely organized and rampaging though central (and southern) Asia.

### **Making Contact**

The Delhi Sultanate was controlled by the Tughlaq dynasty, at the time Firuz Shah Tughlaq, who had been a reluctant ruler. The reputation prior had been cruel, and under the priests, religious issues were pursued to a degree but political issues were largely let go.

Some 14 years into his reign, the *Incidence of Incidents* had begun and the clerics had no answer for him. At this point, he was hanging on based on a secular desire for law and order, significantly changing the character of the Sultanate – and generating conflict from the previous religious power base – right up to news of the *Murder of the Saints*. At that point, the disillusionment hit the sacred sector like a meteor.

## **Southern Incidence of Incidents**

The Hindu and Buddhist regions had experienced their own brand of supernatural oddities, though around concentrated religious areas, it tended to lean more "divine" magic than arcane magic – and some of it was mind-bendingly bizarre. Here, the psionic phenomena were spinning into vortexes and unfolding in psychedelic fields that could be healing... *or fatal*.

The vedic healers were on the verge of breakthroughs all their own, and did channel some actual, measurable power. That they did so without Jesuit (or at this point Sufi) training was astonishing. While they could collectively invoke a massive amount of low-level power, the high-level energies were elusive (or burnt out the practitioner as sure as arcane energies).

This opened a complex dialogue with the Jesuits and Sufis to gurus of India. They had a lot to unpack.
Records: the Shaking of Kilkenny

## **The Night the Sun Rose**

On the seeming heels of the *Altercation*, the sun rose in the middle of the night and an earthquake nearly flattened Kilkenny. Fires were lit for miles around and the area northwest of Kilkenny was devastated. The center of destruction was a smoking crater that swallowed the town of Rathdowney Trend. There was no explanation why or how and there were immediate thoughts that this was the work of an archangel.

As for targets, it didn't make any sense from an archangel POV. They could've hit London or Paris, Cairo or Constantinople or any of a dozen cities that would've sent shockwaves around the world.

There were no survivors for *miles*, and those at the inner edges had terrible burns.

### **Forensics of the Apocalypse**

It didn't take long for the ROM to track down there was an underground lead mine, roughly at the epicenter of the explosion. Piecing through the burned moonscape, they found traces of arcane magic.

They couldn't be absolutely sure, but it was likely somebody had stumbled over a technique for alchemy – and tried to convert a lead vein to gold. With the impurities in the seam, an attempt to convert with arcane energy would result in a catastrophic explosion – *exactly what they saw here*.

The ROM was upfront about it: they couldn't confirm anything because there wasn't enough left, but it was likely somebody trying alchemy.

Do. Not. Do. It.

### **Unlikely Good News**

While that was deeply disturbing to many, it was a actually and oddly good sign that it wasn't an archangel. In time, it started to give hope that the power of magic might be enough to fight back.
Records: Gunning for the Magus

## **A Cosmic Assassination Attempt**

Rick was out deep in the wilderness, high in the Alps, away from protective wards. He wasn't camouflaging his presence and was conducting work on large-scale defensive magic when he was attacked.

Forty died in the assault, including bystanders, OM and Jesuits. Ten beings in fiery red, estimated to be demons, assaulted with blinding purple fire. Rick, the OM and Jesuits fought back, eventually killing the beings, but they only left burn marks rather than corporeal bodies.

While many named the assailants as "demons," there was some question as to what a demon actually was: but it seemed like a corrupted angel.

### **Word of the Attack Spreads**

While the English Royal family had endured a pair of attacks, this was the first time an attempt had been made specifically on Rick – and they'd tracked him and waited until he was far away from his protective wards.

Rick was allegedly wounded by the demons (or fallen angels or whatever). He wasn't in armor at the time and suffered wounds that would've killed anybody else. He was recovering, if now scarred in spots that healing magic could not erase. *That* was something profoundly terrifying as well, especially for those who knew the healing power of the Jesuits.

Notably, after the attack, he didn't leave the area where he'd been "experimenting" – though the OM did need reinforcements and replacements to assist and replenish what they'd lost in the attack.

### **A Christmas Reappearance**

King Rick wasn't seen again by those outside his inner circle until Christmas in Bordeaux. He was walking with a mild limp and the burn marks were still evident along his left side. While there were sympathies, it was difficult to accept them given the number who had actually died in the attack.

Rick continued his generous Christmas traditions and did later address the CMC Imperial Senate in a closed session. The assassination attempt had been a harbinger of a greater war between the angels and archangels. The archangels were desperate, and it was showing, but the reasons for their celestial hatred wasn't fully understood (apparently, even by the angels).
Records: the optics of Optics

## **The Spectacle of Eyesight**

Some four months after the Royal Order of Merlin leaned in to support the Royal Academy, and looped in *The Royal Company* to help out, the *Eyeglass Company of London* had unexpected, overwhelming success. Already, to meet demand, expansion was required.

Most often, it was reading glasses – and grinding ability made bifocals an affordable reality. They'd gone on to create sun glasses and safety glasses alike, and all of this was "enhanced" with selectively modern knowledge, but otherwise completely mundane (non-magical).

The success had to be seen to be believed.

### ***Scoping it out*…**

The Eyeglass Company had its own store front. While it was a subsidiary of the Royal Company, and mentioned so in the not-so-fine print, people didn't always make the association.

That started to change when the Company was tasked with one additional production objective: *telescopes*.

Utilizing designs the RANP had recently created, the company was able to build roughly one telescope per day. As a note, that one scope was sold for enough to pay the wages for the whole shop for a week – and there was an instant 6-month backlog.
Records: Metal Magic

## **The Blue-collar Merlins**

Similar to the multi-purpose maritime magic, magic is focused within the RC’s *Metalworks* to assist in metal production. They were striving for purer mixes, better blending, hotter temperatures, bigger hammers, faster cooling and so on.

The bulk of the Metalworks product in this case is building both exterior armor plating and reinforcement for castles (Rainham and St George in particular). Only slightly behind is building cannons, medium and small arms and melee weapons and armor for the Royal Arms.

Again, the magic assistance isn’t announced or publicized, but it’s not particularly hidden either. There’s enough VIP guests that see the process that rumor eventually gets out.

This helps set the perception of Royal Company metal working that much farther ahead. The mundane engineering is already a couple hundred years ahead of the Alt-Timeline developmental curve, but throwing magic in there makes both the quality and the perception globally unattainable.
Records: House Plantagenet

## **The Next Evolution of the Royal Household**

### **The Strategy of Family**

It was considered a stroke of protective genius to keep sensitive roles within the *Royal* House of Plantagenet. At the same time, in a trend of passive-aggression, it was held against the Crown for being "so defensive." Relying on the baronage was the way of Edward III: he'd lived by it, and in the wake of the corruption scandal, died by it.

Tthe Crown Prince had the political capital to pull off a change in the definition of “Royal  House ” – and given this altered lines of succession and church-decreed endorsement of "rightful" kings, was itself as profound as Magic. By decree, then, the Crown Prince changed the definition of an English Royal House.

Now somewhat corporate, it brought distant blood into the House itself, rather than making the House dependent on a single living soul. It brought a sensible progression to the selection of succession, making it a Royal House decision rather than any strict Bilateral or Cognatic family lineage (and would partially serve to mitigate the possibility of warring cadet branches).

The “Wisdom of the Crown” was seen as a way to create peace in a broken system of succession that nobody really believed anymore and had otherwise been corrupted hundreds of years ago (even if it ever had a glimmer of truth to it). This also greatly limited the influence of what would become the greater peerage on the royal family. In some ways, this was more closely associating the royal family with national identity rather than class identity.

### **The Installation of a Cabinet**

It became a committee choice for the remainder of the Privy Council. By all estimations, the growth in management positions had already been so profoundly positive for England and the Crown that many of the biggest critics going in were now their biggest proponents. It was centered on one main point: *success*. In ths short time the Councils were active, the amount of cash the Crown had (without new taxes) was now able to keep the operations moving.

To ensure the holders of the titles were empowered to accomplish the job, the *roles* were made as technical nobility. The titles were not inheritable, but once the title was held, they would retire with it even after they'd left office.

**The Reception of Change:** Roll Call of the Royal Household

* Baron Hugh Manchester, Lord Chamberlain
* Baron William Rempston, Lord Steward of the Household
* Esquire Eduard Lytton, Comptroller of the Household (spending)
* Esquire Bernard Beauchamp, Chancellor of the Exchequer (income [taxes])
* Esquire Herbert Price, Master of the Household (House manager) & Cofferer of the Household (House paymaster)
* Esquire Eadmund Rageman Lord High Chancellor (courts) (former Chief Justice of the King's Bench)
* Esquire Humphrey de Gloucester, Lord High Constable (Secretary of the Army)
* Esquire Seymour Warwick, Lord High Admiral (Secretary of the Navy)
* Esquire Philip Wheatley, Master of the Horse
* Esquire Roger de Norwykes, Royal Marshal (Royal Personnel Protection… *and the Crown spymaster*)

 SPOILERS: NOT FOR PLAYERS
Explorer: Explorer reaches Dhaka

## **Dhaka, Ahoy**

The *HMS Explorer* had an extended stay in Mumbai, plus a two-month early-summer coastal exploration brought the *Explorer* to Dhaka by the end of June.

Now back in what was marginal Delhi Sultanate rule, the *Glow Stones* already had unintended consequences as the Delhi Sultanate had now officially become a secular organization.

With marginal civil war in the northern strongholds of the Sultanate, new alliances were forming that were unthinkable before, including with Hindu kingdoms to the south.
Records: Papal power in Germany

## **The Papa's Outreach**

Rome was on a Holy Roll: working deals that finally facilitated the order of the Church's divestitures of temporal power. For the Church, and its newly inclusive directive, this was an absolute key to maintaining credibility as *spiritual* leaders.

Germany had been particularly challenging as the relationship was a kind of passive-aggressive connection that borrowed divine authority when it was convenient, then discarded it when it wasn't (like Charles IV's Bull for orderly succession in the former Holy Roman Empire).

All over, the Church had worked transfers of the scattered German Bishoprics to trusted successors. Often, this involved the elevation of previous common to aristocracy. These were generally even-handed, careful and fair inheritors. Some of them went to neighboring aristocracy when they were particularly worthy (which was on the rare side).

### **The Plantagenet Presence**

The three biggest temporal polities were the Prince-Bishoprics, the former ecclesiastical votes of the Holy Roman Empire. Not surprisingly, they were bequeathed to a group who could ensure the peace without giving them to a competing Crown: the *Noble Plantagenet*.

Of course, it was *Plantagenet*, so if it was a "crown" or not was really splitting hairs. This made the Noble House the largest vote in the Kingdom of Germany. Predictably controversial, the agreement to keep the peace was that none of the NP arrivals would be eligible to be elected king until 1400 (giving 20 years to settle in and show just how "German" they could be).

### **The NP Assumption**

The NP brought a level of order and standardization that just seemed to click with the culture. Everyone who went also read from the *Germanic Book of Learning*, so by the time they got there, they spoke the local dialect, knew the regional history, customs and culture. While the locals were prepared to hate the outsiders, they instead adopted them.

Germany would soon have their own *Regiments*, but more, they brought the Royal Diet together to speak of a unified charter of government...
Records: the RA Musketeers

## **The Royal Ranged Soldiers**

The Musketeers were based off the version of the musket invented by the Royal Company, circa 1376. In this case, the "musket" was a *Rifled Projector*, and the musketeers filled the role of ranged infantry, otherwise filled by archers and so on.

The musketeers were otherwise similar to standard infantry, with a few exceptions. The similarities were in basic combat skills, armor (save for their additional chest pad), and transport as mobile infantry. They were organized in the same fashion: 5 to a squad, 4 squads to a platoon and 10 platoons to the company.

### **The differences were subtle but important**

First, musketeers used longer *Rifled Projectors*, a firearm that had a true aim of about 500 yards and an effective range of about 1000. The power of the projectiles at 500 yards was enough punch straight *through* a knight at long range – and the musketeers' aim was *very, very good*.

Next, they carried taller kite shields. These shields not only had a kick-out leg to turn it into a free-standing cover wall, there was a notch at the top of the shield meant to steady the musket for aiming, essentially making it a bipod-mounted weapon.

Most musketeers were recruited from the ranks of archers, and often carried their bows and arrows as back-up... or for comparatively silent attacks.

### **Battlefield Deployment**

The Musketeers had a great deal of flexibility and range to their firepower. In certain pitched battles, they could be grouped entirely in one area for advantageous ballistics. On a wider battlefield, their 10 platoons could be spread out in any configuration to support the infantry.

Equipment:

* 213 musketeer soldiers + 42 Wagon Crew (255 total soldiers)
* 52 horses
* 20+1 wagons (including the command wagon)
Andrés Iniesta

**Andrés Iniesta Luján** (Wiki); (Fuentealbilla, España), es un futbolista retirado, centrocampista histórico del FC Barcelona y de la selección española.

## Clubes

Andrés Iniesta debutó en el año 2002 con el FC Barcelona, ascendiendo de las categorías inferiores del Barça, único club en el que jugó en Europa. Fue uno de los mejores jugadores que de la historia del club en el que formó la mítica pareja Xavi-Iniesta en la que Xavi era la batuta e Iniesta ponía la Magia y consiguieron todos los títulos posibles incluido el sextete bajo las órdenes de Pep Guardiola y etapa exitosa también con Luis Enrique. En 2018 decidió marcharse al Vissel Kobe para enseñar magia en Asia hasta el final de su carrera. En Japón conoció a Yōichi Takahashi que lo dibujó de forma aberrante para "Captain Tsubasa".

En la selección española es uno de los mejores jugadores de la historia, cuenta con más de 100 partidos y logró el gol que dió a su selección el título mundial en la final de 2010 contra los Países Bajos.

## Títulos

Con el FC Barcelona ha conseguido numerosos títulos, tanto nacionales como en competición europea:

* 9 Ligas (2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018)

* 6 Copa del Rey (2009, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018)

* 4 UEFA Champions League (2006, 2009, 2011, 2015)

* 3 UEFA Super Cup (2009, 2011, 2015)

Con la selección española es uno de los fútbolistas más laureado:

* 1 Mundial (2010)

* 2 Eurocopas (2008, 2012)
1367

## **World Events**

* January 18 – Ferdinand I becomes King of Portugal after the death of his father, Peter I.
* April 3 – Battle of Nájera: Pedro of Castile is restored as King of Castile (now in Spain) after defeating his half-brother, Henry II. Pedro is aided in the battle by the English under Edward, the Black Prince, and Henry by the French.
* October 16 – Pope Urban V makes the first attempt to move the Papacy back to Rome from Avignon. This move is reversed in 1370 when he is forced to return to Avignon and shortly afterwards dies.

### **Date unknown**

* Otto I, "the Evil", becomes Duke of the independent city of Göttingen (now in Germany) after the death of his father, Ernst I.
* A stone Kremlin Wallis built around Moscow to resist invasion by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
* A university is founded in Pécs, Hungary.

## **The Sphere of Magic**

### **Birth of Richard of Bordeaux**

* January 6, the Day of the Epiphany, **Richard of Bordeaux**, the "Child of the Epiphany" is born in Bordeaux, Aquitaine.
	+ The younger son of Prince Edward of Woodstock and Joan of Kent ("The Fair Maid of Kent").
	+ REFEREE EYES ONLY: deep background ***spoilers***.
* Richard's father, Edward of Woodstock, was heir to the throne of England, and had distinguished himself as a military commander in the early phases of the Hundred Years' War, particularly in the Battle of Poitiers in 1356.
	+ Edward of Woodstock would gradually become known to history as “The Black Prince”, but wasn't called this contemporaneously. As the timeline went through a new iteration, things changed...
* This is during a deteriorating point of truce in the first third of the Hundred Years’ War between England and France.
Records: Retirement of the Drums

### **The Sophistication of Audio Magic**

Collospatium was the RANP's mangled latin truncation of conversation at a distance, what was already happening with the standardized wand calling via the communication crystals. Collos for short (in technical circles), and shortened again to "calls" for the English connotation of calling out, the lingo was already evolving.

Calls were a marker of the rise of aural magic: audio transmission (essentially arcane radio) had been codified in the [October 1382] Communications Crystals, and the enchantments had grown to the point that they could create transmitters and receivers without being tied to wand activation. This allowed the Royal Arms to create speakers hooked into soldier helmets, bypassing traditional battlefield instructions like drums or horns.

The Arms had already moved away from it as there was no action on pitched battlefield anymore: nobody was dumb enough to stand downrange of magical ordnance. These days, tactics were all fire and movement, and via one method or another, communication.

Still, the retirement was a culture shock in the Arms, where the Drums (and the bugles and other region-specific instruments) were part of the mindset. While the RA retained a band, that band now remained in their respective headquarters.

### **Peripheral Invention**

It was the same advancements that marked the *rise in audio playback*.

There had been dozens of different manifestations of audio recording and playback, themselves associated with the Comms Crystals. They found the best balance between the methods, then it was agreement of applications of standards in the Commonwealth and so on. By standardizing, it allowed a market to flourish where recordings could be transferred.

By January 1383, as the Drums retired from the battlefield, people in London, Bordeaux and beyond could carry the rhythm of the drums with them.
Records: The Discord of Heaven

### **A Message from Above**

A year after the ***Altercation of the Angels***, and six months after the consensus-decided ***demonic attempt on King Rick's life***, a message is mysteriously inscribed on places of worship around the world, in every religion, in every language:

"May God have mercy on your souls."

### **Mixed Message...?**

While it's not signed, it's presumed to be from the archangels.

As it was on every place of worship, some see this as a message of unification. Perhaps it should be, when taken in that context, but the overall message is considered a passive-aggressive threat. Sort a well-wish before sentence by firing squad.

### **What Now...?**

After that vaguely ominous message, silently inscribed into stone walls in the dead of night, many groups prepare for "the end."

The rumors from the OM are that the archangels expect humanity is *their* end, and therefore humanity is at *its* end. The lesser angels aren't sure how that's going to manifest and will do their best to protect humanity, but they can't make any guarantees.

### **Key Conduits Still Open**

Profoundly, the non-arcane healing miracles are still accessible to the Jesuits, Sufis and apparently others (such as the growing WestHem druids).

While this is a great sign, it muddies the water on the nature of the angels' relationship to God.
Records: French Recruitment Campaign

## **The True Enemy**

Charles V was running out money, people and time.

What he still had working for him: *fear* and *uncertainty*.

Charles reached out across Europe, placing the blame for the strange events at the feet of England and it's magic. Even if people bought into the Merlin legend, and there was good reason to at this point, the father of Merlin was theoretically a demon (hence where the magic theoretically came from). If Richard was Merlin, what did that make Edward IV?

The Pope mentioned that they'd studied the magic and found no trace of evil, but for those who already had their mind made up, not only did the Church have a spotty reputation, they'd just admitted fallibility. This also appeared the Church was endorsing magic (and it kinda was), which now placed suspicion of the Church on par with fear and loathing of magic.

On the other hand, there were plenty that felt just the opposite – but England wasn't asking for them to step up and be counted. For those who'd already directly benefitted, across Aquitaine and through Northern Italy, speaking ill of England were fighting words.

### **Someone to Blame**

As Charles laid blame for all evil at the feet of the English, the transparency of the argument was coming clearer and clearer to a greater percentage. While those who felt that way was narrower and narrower, their philosophical motivation was purer and burning hotter.

This worked very well as Charles used the patterns of old Crusades to drum a holy-level crusade against England. This even got certain people with England, who more than agreed. Elements of Scotland and Ireland bought in, but this was *extremely* devisive there as the Merlin-Arthur-Excalibur legends were that much closer. Not to mention eye witness accounts of what happened in the streets during London's Apocalypse.

Slowly, from as far as Russia, anti-magic crusaders brought money and arms to France.
RtL-Local Survey

## **Myths and Legends... *Floating Through the Pub***

There is plenty of regional lore, local superstitions and biblical-level tales to create anxiety in those who don't enjoy any evidence to the contrary. Usually well-tamped down and attributable to youth (or wine), most simply give testimony of terrors the eye-rolling they deserve and carry on.

The last decade, though, the tales of Old Wives have been downright tame in comparison to the unbelievable babblings of the local barber (who was reduced to a blubbering mess in the corner). Strange lights floating through the forest or streaking across the sky. Strange sounds or sudden winds are the most innocuous.

In the last five years, the incidents have been increasing in number, size and effect. Based on the gossip from town to town, and in ports with foreign ships, this has been happening *everywhere*. Something is happening, and it's happening to the whole world.

While these things weren't mentioned specifically in Revelations, any fool knows this probably means the end of the world. Therefore... people who can write have been writing it down. That kind of list seems like just the kind of the thing the *Order of Merlin* would be interested in seeing.

### **10 Most Common Incidents**

1. Floating lights: person-level. May fade after a few seconds, may travel for miles.
2. Unexplained winds. Sometimes with odors, most of the time, not.
3. Unexplained, localized noise.
4. Flying lights, in the sky. Some slow and bright, some fast as shooting stars.
	* Some leave burns, including on people.
5. Strange shimmering or distortions of the air.
6. Strange illusions of all sorts. Trees in the wrong spots, two feet of a babbling brook in a dry field that disappears after a moment. Will never leave a trace of moisture, but has left the trail of water through the dust or dirt.
7. People in familiar dress (or strange outfits) that seem to fade in and fade out.
	* Spookiest when they notice the observer.
8. Unexplained murders. Houses locked from the inside, with all the occupants violently killed.
9. Ghosts. Not illusions, but *ghosts*. People known to be dead, floating transparent, right through a pub.
	* Some ghosts are angry, some are terrified, most are terrifying to behold.
10. Things on fire... with a fire that doesn't generate heat.
	* Some fires are in different colors, and some colors are *deadly*.

There are other, more exotic incidents – *some things that defy description* – and these seem to be recurring across countrysides the world over.