Fortune and Fate: A Fane to Fortuna

Fortune and Fate: A Fane to Fortuna is a book uncovered through use of Study-related Inquiries.

## Description

Under the guise of acting under on the authority of the Exegete Vuruzum Zelnolar, the adventurer Rinn visited the city of Oxresh to scour the libraries for information pertaining to a number of topics, ranging from the Primordial Elemental Princes, to other planes of existence and its inhabitants - as well as historical figures of note, in particular that of Fortuna Shinegulley, the first Archmage of the Guild of the Lilac Vine.

## Reading

### Completed by Rinn Zelnolar

Even those that have not heard of Fortuna Shinegulley have perhaps found themselves indirectly impacted by her actions. Like others that came to found the Ten Guilds, Fortuna Shinegulley found herself blessed by the deity Divinus, Keeper of Lost Pasts and Looming Futures, a blessing that would have her come to lead arcane research in her side of the continent for near a century and a half. For Fortuna, this blessing had physical manifestation too, shared by some, but not all, of her peers elsewhere amongst the Guilds, a third eye placed between the pair in the centre of her forehead. What made Fortuna stand aside from most of her peers however was instead by nature of her blood, hailing from the Shinegulley family, who were one of many - and arguably amongst the handful of most powerful - River Kings at the time. Since diluted down and all but lost, in her day, the bloodline of the Truetouched was particularly pure, particularly potent, and so blessed by both the Gods of Destiny and Strength & Nobility, powers divine and arcane flowed as readily through Fortuna as silk might through the hands of a merchant. Histories suggest that it was Fortuna that first discovered the deposits of Iviniuum scattered across the continent and suggested the construction of the Guilds in their vicinity - although this is disputed by a number of other sources - but facts support that the Guild of the Lilac Vine was amongst the first to start their experimentation of the arcane made material.

Fortuna's blessings did not start and end with her creation during Aita's Second Gift. In those years immediately after creation, the Ahlusian Sixteen walked amongst the land's populace, and Fortuna served as a conduit through which Divinus would leave a legacy, garnering respect and ire alike from many of the other Archmages of the Ten Guilds, who were filled with everything from esteem to indignation in response to the seeming favouritism offered by the Sovereign of the Nychthemeron towards her. Some went as far to point to her humanity as a flaw, fleeting as the race's lifespan would prove to be compared to that of elves, dwarves and all others besides, although forgetting the longevity of near half again afforded by the touch of the True in her blood. Despite the rising antagonism however, Fortuna did not find herself battling with peers from across the continent first and foremost, but instead with the locale of the establishment she had come to lead. While many of the other Ten Guilds found themselves directly within the borders of the fledgling Realms that would come to rise and last out the centuries to come, the Lilac Vine did not. Officially, the Ten Guilds declared themselves neutral from the politics of the Realms, but often found themselves intrinsically tied to them by nature of geography. With this came recognition and funding of its own, with Kings, Queens and Emperors supporting their nearby Guilds in exchange for the fruits of the mages' labours, whether as novel research, objects of power, advisors, or living weapons of war. Although technically considered within the borders of the Realm of Kingbourne - although the Realm itself would not officially form until the Council of Westdell's foundation in 99AG - the isolation of the Lilac Isle cast aside these connections, leaving Fortuna and her local colleagues to, generally speaking, largely fend for themselves. And with it, their eyes, regardless of their number, found themselves looking outwards, beyond the confines of the Material Plane, instead of towards the petty squabbles of mortal folk.

To this purpose, Fortuna, once again backed by her divine patron, would begin the construction of the Grand Orrery, a one-of-a-kind construction infused with powerful conjuration magics that combined the manipulation of the Weave in a fashion similar to the *Scrying* spell. Through this, Archmage Fortuna could study the Wandering Worlds from afar, akin to a sailor with a spyglass. Rivals disparaged the construction as of limited value, given the lack of detail in the observations achieved through it, but it would nonetheless prove to be the most advanced item of its kind until it was announced by the High College of Claxinns hundreds of years later that the design had been superseded by their arcanists. For Fortuna's reign however, and many other years besides, it forged the Guild of the Lilac Vine as masters of Conjuration magic, specifically that pertaining to the other Planes of Existence, in contrast to the other Conjuration-focused Guild - the Guild of the Golden Grain - that instead turned their attention to magics of Creation, their agricultural prowess much rewarded by the Empire of Raq, in which they were founded. The legacy left by Fortuna is undoubtedly one of prowess, a challenging path to follow on by the Sharp Song, but throughout life she was said to have known her place with a definitive focus, echoed in her final aged moments, in which her body and soul was said to have freely embraced the next steps to come alongside the Master of the Hammer, shirking efforts to revive as all Truetouched are said to, treasured as they are within the halls of Tohmos.