1373

## **World Events**

* March 24 – The Treaty of Santarém is signed between Ferdinand I of Portugal and Henry II of Castile, ending the second war between the two countries.

### **Date unknown**

* Louis I of Hungary takes Severin again, but the Vlachs would recover it in 1376–1377.
* The city of Phnom Penh (now the capital city of Cambodia) is founded.
* Philip II, Prince of Taranto hands over the rule of Achaea (now southern Greece) to his cousin, Joanna I of Naples.
* Leo V succeeds his distant cousin, Constantine IV, as King of Armenian Cilicia (now southern Turkey).
* A city wall is built around Lisbon, Portugal to resist invasion by Castile.
* Tran Kinh succeeds Tran Phu as King of Vietnam.
* Byzantine co-emperor Andronikos IV Palaiologos rebels against his father, John V Palaiologos, for agreeing to let Constantinople become a vassal of the Ottoman Empire. After the rebellion fails, Ottoman Emperor Murad I commands John V Palaiologos to blind his son.
* The death of Sultan Muhammad as-Said begins a period of political instability in Morocco.
* The Adina Mosque is built in Bengal.
* The Chinese emperor of the Ming dynasty, the Hongwu Emperor, suspends the traditional civil service examination system after complaining that the 120 new jinshi degree-holders are too incompetent to hold office; he instead relies solely upon a system of recommendations until the civil service exams are reinstated in 1384.

## **The Sphere of Magic**

### **May:** the Revelations of Divine Love

* May 13 – Julian of Norwich receives the sixteen Revelations of Divine Love.
* (Now) inspired in the wake of the survival of young **Edward***of* **Angoulême**, the revelations are slightly modified by recent events, and propelled farther and faster because of those events.

### **June:** the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance founded

* June 16 - The Anglo-Portuguese alliance is signed (what would've been the oldest active treaty in the world as it survived into the 21st century).

### **Bristol** receives independence

* In England, Bristol is made an independent county. Bristol was still reeling from losing half the population in the plague years (1348-49). Even so, the city of Bristol was still among the four largest cities in England (just behind York and Norwich).

### **Merton College Library** (Oxford)

* Merton College Library is built in Oxford, England.

### **Richard's Not-so-Secret Arcane Inquiry**

* At this point, Richard (6) is a psionically trained and educated, genetically enhanced human with secret Foreign allies that most would call *New Testament angels*. Sounds solid except for the reality that at this stage, the World (much less England) is outnumbered, outgunned and hopelessly overwhelmed.
* For a year now, Richard has been uncovering and experimenting with the tattered remains of the arcane that had been discovered and forgotten several times in history (as the original discoverees had blown themselves to kingdom come). None of those previous, however, had the benefit of *Foreign* training that the young Rick now enjoyed.
	+ The arcane... *was beginning to make sense*. This was a tremendous relief to the allies, as the primary (but not sole) foe was no less than what most would call *Old Testament Angels* (with the capital-A as they were comparative *Archangels*).
* In the English royal court, young Rick gave little demonstrations of Merlin's magic. Still talked about was "the dance," when he'd thrown a handful of kerchiefs in the air and made them fly in a spectacular bit of choreography.

* When it came to magic more palpable, Richard was coy until the courtiers finally cornered him with "Well, what do you have to show for it?"
	+ - He responded by pulling out a glowing crystal and called it "*magical fuel..."* A radiant rock was astonishing on its own, but Richard allowed anybody to examine it – *as it floated four feet off the ground, spinning in mid-air, in the middle of the Westminster Hall*.
	+ Courtiers fell to their knees, ladies fainted, nobles immediately reassessed their priorities. All of this was recorded and written about by Geoffrey Chaucer – whose accounts would soon make it across the recently-lost Channel to France.
		- "Specific details are very sensitive and will be held in discretion until further notice*,*" Rick explained. "...But this has the power to change the world." *The court believed him*.
		- The Clergy dared biblical references to Isaiah 11:6, speaking of a "child shall lead them," though given they weren't sure who might play the lion versus this lamb, they hedged their bets on the possibility that Richard was a modern messiah. Either way, though, it was clear Richard was the vessel for wisdom beyond a 6-year old.
		- It was also clear that glowing stones alone would a massive impact, thus the inspiration to create long-term energized (enchanted), low-reactivity (safe) *Glow Stones*. Richard immediately had the idea how, and while it wouldn't be suitable for powering other devices, it would be technically arcane and an appropriate calling card.
	+ In ARCSYS terms, over the last year, Rick had discovered basic scientific principles of magic and developed the engineering to harness the phenomena, including growth and tapping ***arcane crystals*** – what the "magical fuel" actually was.