Records: Parliamentus Apocalyptus

## **The Royal After-Action Report**

London's Apocalypse was a chill felt far and wide through southern England. While the bitter cold only radiated to about 50 miles, stories of the bitter cold – and the *physical*dead rising – were stories that quickly made their way down the Silk Road to China and back.

All of England had jitters after the Apocalypse – and there was no telling how far it would've gone if the Royal Order of Merlin hadn't stopped it. With rumors sensitive enough to start fistfights, Edward IV called a parliament.

Worth noting: no parliament had been called in 1378 yet because the England (and the whole apparent world) was still reeling from the January *Scream of the Spectres*. February gave discovery of the World Microscopic – and now the confirmed source of many diseases – leaving people to figure out how fresh their water really was. March had formally outlawed inquisitions in England... and at the same time London was freezing, Rome was burning by the election of a pope that had since been called the Antichrist.

These were troubling times...

### **Parliament Called in Windsor**

With the literal collapse of Westminster, and it's subsequent demolition, Edward had moved some 22 miles west to Windsor Castle. There, he summoned the members of House of Lords and House of Commons alike for a joint session of Parliament.

It was somewhat a relief to not be in the scene of the battle, but after the year's events, the battle was all they could talk about. Crown Prince Edward was still recovering from his wounds, though had proven his mettle as a fighter (much to his father's pride and fear). King Edward proved that Excalibur recognized him as King of England and given that it disintegrated the risen dead, classed it as a profoundly magical and likely holy weapon.

Excalibur had now been wielded in combat, against a foe of all mortal life, and had proven itself – and reproven the righteous claim to authority of the King.

*All that said*...

### **The AAR**

The Devil's Teardrop, hovering over Westminster and eventually exploding, was (to put it lightly) a *Bad Omen*.

Exactly who or what was targeted was debated, but few things were resolved. Was it the leadership of England in their symbolic capital or was it more directly the recipient of two healing miracles and the command line of the House of Plantagenet. Technically, those were one-and-the-same (without risking treasonous thoughts), but it was still asked if that would've happened if someone else were king.

There were other factors that swayed and spun the arguments.

First, Leeds Castle (Kent) hadn't been targeted. About 40 miles east-southeast of London, it was within range of the cold but didn't have it's own "teardrop." Given Leeds Castle was the well-known headquarters of the Royal Order of Merlin, that it received no special attention downgraded the role of magic.

Second, Prince Richard was roughly 600 miles south (as the crow flies) in Bordeaux – and had no idea of any of this attack until word reached them. Was *being healed* the major factor? Prince Richard was the who allegedly healed the Edwards, but was not targeted. At least not that anybody knew of.

Was it that this evil had the power to make something float, freeze and raise the dead, but not necessarily have the vision to target specific people? Was this more a tool of war, like a siege weapon of sorts?
The wizards of the Order testified at Parliament, disclosing that the Teardrop hadn't consisted of or otherwise used arcane magic. Rather, it was sophisticated unholy magic, a shadow version of the Holy Spirit. In that respect, the moniker of the "Devil's Teardrop" seemed perfectly appropriate.

All of which boiled down to one question from the king to the baronage: *are you prepared to fight hell by my side?*

## **The Nature of Mortal Fear**

King Edward was a rousing, inspiring leader and there were individual knights who stood to be counted among those who would dare to take arms against the Devil, but the realities of the battle had already been made more than clear: the average footman, the average longbow archer, the average knight... were as outclassed by the dead as they were the Regiment of St. George itself. The weapons of hell, like cold, were things that couldn't be defended against.

While Edward never claimed this as an abrogation of their feudal duties, the knights definitely did.

The nobility, however, went the other direction: *they wanted to know what the Crown was going to do keep them safe*.

### **The Elephant in the Room**

The Crown and Parliament were now at an impasse. It wasn't as violent as the conflict between King John and the baronage, and neither side was forcing a resolution that moment, but there was a new tension as the realization settled in that the other side would never be able to offer the solutions desired.

Parliament was at the edge of requesting a *Confirmatio Cartarum* (Confirmation of Charters) of the Magna Carta, but they were still smarting after the Audit and Rectification two years prior. King Edward was at a high point in popularity across England and now carried an actual, working Excalibur – which *nobody* wanted to face in battle.

On the other side, the Crown now considered the nobility little more than glorified land owners and intimated as such. The future for Houses that maintained any sort of peerage was likely as a regional administrative layer rather than any sort valid military authority of their own.

The collision course was set.