John Cadence

—"Felonil My Home" by John Cadence, written in the 1540s. It evokes the city's dirty industrial air, oil-slicked water, cheap whiskey, and pickpockets, but with a fondness.

**Žan Këdenza**, anglicised from Euluska as **John Cadence**, was a famous poet and writer from **Felonil**. He stayed in the city almost his entire life, through its many changes, and these influences shaped his works. He witnessed the rapid progress of technology throughout his 112-year lifespan.

## Žan Këdenza

Këdenza on a rainy street corner in Felonil.

### Born

1489 TE, Town of Mornala Fields, Carmogan

### Died

1601, Dorado District, Halcyon South, age 112

### Known For

Poet who wrote about Felonil; The writer of 'An Uncertain Decade' political history book; fiction writer

### Partner

Lakonia Mareäna (librarian - m. 1524, d. 1591.)

### Family

Marja Këdenza-Mareäna (daughter, b. 1529, became a centrist politician)

## Early Life

Born in Carmogan in 1495, he grew up the eldest son of Spirrana and Felund Këdenza, two wagon-makers. Throughout his early years, Žan experienced dramatic changes in the history of Felonil, which shaped his later works.

His parents were one of thousands who moved from Carmogan to Felonil when he was only a year old to escape The Wasting Blight, a godly plague that swept across much of the Central Danderillon and caused huge waves of deaths and food shortages. His family found work on making wagons and coaches for the North Felonil branch of the Charger Coach Company. They were very working-class and did not have a lot of money to spare, so Žan entertained himself by making up stories about heroes like he had learnt about in school.

When he was in his early teens, the two-year Felonil Riots broke out, where free mercenary guilds that had ran unchecked began to clash with gangs and the *Beetlecrushers* (police; nicknamed that because of their stompy boots). The rioting lasted two years on-and-off, and was a very uncertain time for many people, who found their neighbourhoods the sites of battles between thieves' guilds, adventurers' guilds, the police, and mafia groups, among others. Žan's home neighbourhood changed hands several times, as gangs ran protection rackets, were forced out, returned, etc.

## "An Uncertain Decade" - Bestseller

In 1514, when he was 25 and working as a journalist with the **Felonil Overleaf** paper, the city of Felonil declared independence from the crumbling Lusken Empire. It was a time of jubilation and celebration, with parties in the streets, but also marred by some small pockets of loyalist violence. Whe Felonil soon declared itself capital of the new nation of **Scarossar**, Žan witnessed the rise of the democratic republic from the ex-imperial administration. He reported heavily on several events during the transition to a republic, and became known as a journalist for his descriptive prose that painted vivid pictures in the mind.

Five years later, the **Sack of Luskan** occurred, when the Lusken Empire was violently dissolved by the Vortais-Lakayan Alliance. Žan started writing, and eventually published his first book two years later, about the incidents of the past 10 years - he titled it **An Uncertain Decade**. It covered the political events of 1509-1519, roughly including:

* 1509: The execution of the di'Sforza family in 1509
* 1510: The Pharox Thas Catastrophe that wounded the Lusken Empire's power in Lakay
* 1510: The Lusken Empire's failed attempt to invade and establish a colony in West Rakkimar
* 1510-13: The Lusken Empire's three-year crackdown on piracy in Wolcott Straits as a last-ditch effort for control
* 1513: The impossibly unlikely rise of the Lakayan Liberators, whose freedom fight culminated in the **total overthrow** of the Lusken Empire in Lakay.
* 1514: Felonil's declaration of independence from the Luskan Empire
* 1514: The massacre of the Last King of Bracken and his royal court, and the declaration of Bracken as a rulerless city again.
* 1516 - the Lusken Empire's *Treaty of Passage*, signed to prepare to invade Felonil; and the secret *Vortais-Lakayan Alliance*, created to invade Lusken once they commit to invading Felonil and leave their capital undefended
* 1519 - The Battle of the Horn and the Sack of Luskan by the Vortais-Lakayan navy and army.
* 1519 - the fragmentation of the old Lusken Empire into 10+ nations: Carm Junta, Datrian Empire, Duchy of Bristos, Nova Republic, Cessalia, East Estir, and many others down south. The declarations of independence of the Fallonese city-states. And the Vortic establishments of the protectorates of the old Lusken city of Sanctum.

## Midlife and Poetical Success

**An Uncertain Decade** was an instant bestseller, and catapulted him into semi-fame and moderate wealth. He moved to the south of the city to a grand house, and pursued poetry and writing full-time.

Here he began publishing his poetry about Felonil. He would often be found walking in the city in the rain for inspiration, or in local cafes and hole-in-the-wall joints. His poetry was very down-to-earth, dealing with everyday scenes and slices of life in the largest city in the world as industrialisation crept in. Many of his poems were heralded as very poignant by people who had spent their life in Felonil, evoking a sense of comfort, nostalgia, and sometimes a twinge of sarcastic wit or feigned annoyance at the city's problems, but overall conveying a sense of love for Felonil, such as "Felonil My Home" and others.

He wrote some political non-fiction about the Moor Wars of the 1520s, a series of oilfield conflicts on the outskirts of Scarossar.

## Later Events Witnessed

From the 1530s onwards, Žan witnessed, and wrote about, the Industrial Revolution of Felonil, which took place from 1532 to the 1550s and onwards.

During 1552-1553, he witnessed the breakdown of law and order when the deprived industrial areas underwent widespread gang wars and rioting. He likened it to the riotiing he had seen as a young teenager, and wrote many poems and pamphlets comparing the two events, highlighting the underlying social structures that led to these problems time and again - how the people of Felonil would be doomed to repeat it if they did not identify the problem at hand.

During 1560-1561, he saw the rise of the shadow-cabal of fascists known as The Oracles. They took control of Felonil's political echelons and a reign of terror began for a few months. Žan helped to shelter several ex-democratic political ministers in his manor house to shield them from persecution. In 1561, when the Lakayan Navy came to Felonil to liberate it (and bombard it), Žan wrote poems about the striking visuals of the bombardment, and how it shattered several old buildings like The Old Minster Cathedral, the city's oldest Lusken church.

That summer, Felonil was official **Halcyon,** capital of the Lakayan Federation. Žan was not initially a huge fan of this, writing more poems about the 'good old times' of independent Felonil which echoed the sentiments of many. Many people turned to his poems in this time of great social change for comfort and vindication. However, Žan slowly came to understand that the Federation was nothing like the Lusken Empire, and whilst he would have preferred Felonil to be independent again, it wasn't as bad.

In summer 1567, he was actually at the theater play where Henri Angier was assassinated backstage.

## Final Decades, and Death

In 1572, the 83 year old Žan gave a speech at Lord Governor Machavellio's unveiling of Professor J. Arnu Waldenstromm's invention of *electricity.* This ceremony was where the Lord Governor announced that Halcyon would be hooked up to a city-wide grid of electricity, which would power lights, trains, businesses, and homes. Žan wrote poems and treatises about both the potential dangers of electricity, but soon after the first lights were unveiled, he began to write of its 'captured beauty', like 'lightning caught in an empty bottle'.

In 1593, now elderly and mostly house-bound, Žan wrote one of his last few pieces of prose, about The Crime of the Century, where a gang stole millions from the most secure vault in the city. He likened it to crimes of the past.

Žan passed away early in 1601 TE, having lived to witness three different centuries of the city. He died peacefully, surrounded by electric lamps, motorcars, electric subway trains, and modern medicine - having been born in a late medieval-style infirmary over a century ago.