Sazed, Catalyst of Change

"*Sazed the fluxing satellite of adapting.
Steeping those underwing in knowledge wellspring.
Through her push and pull, obey for survival.
Her intellect, unlimited, archival."*

## State Champions

*"Welcome back Freeze-sports fans! Of course, you haven't gone anywhere however. There's nothing to welcome you back from because you're all stuck in a stadium and televised viewing is not available in this location! Do we have a show for our spectators or what Ed!?"*

*The two sports casters sat high in a frozen tower carved from a single shard of ice. With a viewing window before them, the viewing spire was wrought with logos of sponsoring companies from Formcaste. The furry man refered to as Ed wore a cloth suit that was tailored perfectly over his powerful frame. A sort of cross between formal business attire and a ceremonial robe gave him a dignified appearance to those in both commerce and cultural settings.*

*"We sure do Gel! Today's match has been awaited for months and so many airships have turned out over this frozen arena to welcome in Sazed's change of seasons in the most exhilarating way we know how! If you've come from other parts of the world and this is your first time beholding the great national sport that is Stateball, Geli is going to break it down for you really basic like."*

Cloaked in orange and black feathers from claws to beak, Gel felt right at home in the cool air without any attire at all beside his decorative tribal beads. *Ed was right, the stadium, although copius in seating could not contain the crowds. Its stands were made from everburg, an ice that doesn't melt during the Dry Spell and statistically speaking, only makes up a meager fraction of a percent of The Frozen North's total land mass. Many were floating over the field of play in airships ready for Sazed to turn the entire glacial span around them into liquid.*

*"Stateball is a celebration of Sazed's power over this land and the lessons She teaches us. As the land shifts under her eclipse, all of this ice will melt over the next hour or two and the sport will get progressively harder to compete in. It takes every ounce of these teams' talent and effort to adapt to changing surroundings using anything at their disposal dominating their opponents. At play in the center of this circular arena is our mythical monstrocity that you all know and love, Gyrzer!"*

*More about Stateball can be read in its entry.*

## Teaching Through Trial

While each moon does a great job of showering its hosting land with blessings in their own unique way, Sazed comes to the table offering great adversity to train her denizens in flexibility. While many moons are limited in their influence, affecting one place on the planet, Sazed is responcible for deciding the entire planet's season. As the only moon that shares Paracelsus' non rotating nature, she relies on the movement of Paracelsus's suns and their path of travel for her eclipse. Once every hundred and fifty days, a sun will pass Sazed and change her state. While a frozen moon, The Frozen North beneath her is a solid white expanse of ice and snow. When a sun passes, with its shining face upon her, she melts into a giant floating ball of water that resists the vacuum of space. Nobody has been able to go out past the atmosphere to visit a moon to explain this, or any of the moons' phenomena. This change of state is magnified through her influence, melting The Frozen North into a land shaped expanse of crashing waves and storms.

## The Reason for the Season

This heralds the 'Dry Spell' an ironic name for The Frozen North who's terrain is now almost entirely made of water. The remainder of the planet however experiences higher temperatures and a lower general humidity. Another hundred and fifty days has Sazed positioned between a sun and Paracelsus once again, this time during the night, its dark side facing Sazed freezing it over. The Frozen North reverts within hours to its ice caked state sending the world back into the Freezing Season once more. This period is much more literal for the Frozen north and gives it's name accurate meaning. The world experiences relitively cooler times and in some places such as The Mountains of One Thousand Disciplines, snow.

## The Penalty of Unpreparedness

Denizens have to be obedient to Sazed's states or face perishing, the punishment for failing to observe her lessons in adaptation. In the early years after Fragmenterra when her lunar cycle was not yet understood, Sazed made her first transition in that of frozen to fluid. The Frozen north which up until that point had been frozen for all of recorded history stunned all inhabitants and the vast majority of population were lost to the first melting. Formcaste of The Dust Plains were quick to the rescue of their newly made allies with all the flying ships they could spare. While Formcaste always has its own interests at heart, an agreement was made on that day that Formcaste would assist and teach the Frozen North of airships as long as they would harvest vast amounts of fresh water in return. This arrangement has held to this day and benefits both nations greatly.

The most reliable sign of eclipse coming to pass is the observance of hoarcrows which will begin to change physical state immediatly as the eclipse begins. If you are witnessing these creatures change from ice to water or vice versa without your own contingency, you are already too late.