Flencks

### **Current status**

flencks [stylised all lowercase] is the Cardinal of the Chamber of the Full Moon. He works alone to build a land to please the Thing of Dreams.

### **Early Life**

flencks entered the world naked and alone, already adult yet totally juvenile in mind. Wading into the darkening world of Azrane, flencks continuously died to its hostile inhabitants; each time, he reappeared in the safe haven of the Nether Stargate.

After exploring the regions around the Stargate to which he's inextricably tied, flencks decided to settle down quickly. This way, he wouldn't continue to face the confusing and painful curse of undeath. It was at the town of Aurora that flencks first met another of his kind. After a pleasant interaction with the citizen of Aurora, flencks asked to be neighbours with the cosy town. On what he believed to be acceptance, he found a quiet hill to set down his bed and built a house and a farm for himself. For those weeks he imagined the world developing around him, he looked to Aurora with feelings of companionship. He longed to join the budding nation. This did not last.

After what felt but one day, the true nature of Aurora was revealed to flencks. He rose eager to till his land, to strengthen the bonds between himself and the citizens of Aurora, only to find his farm destroyed by the larger town. Suddenly, he was being strongarmed into abandoning his homeland. flencks had a minor dispute with Aurora's leader, Blue, when he mistakenly hit the leader with his stone axe in jest. Attacked by Blue in retaliation shortly after, flencks thought this dispute settled. Though, when he stood his ground for his town, war was declared on him. Eventually, flencks bit the bullet and left his homeland for greener pastures.

### **Amethystus**

It wasn't long after flencks' exile from his homeland that he met AuraPB, another longing for a place to call home. Aura sailed flencks far west, to a sunken stone circle at the end of a shallow bog. The stone circle descended deep into a cave system below ground, and it was there Aura decided to settle Amethystus. Shortly after that LordCrowe joined the pair, and Crowe officially formed the Council of the Deep.

Paying no heed to the cultural significance of the old stone circle, flencks used it as the foundation for Dook Tower, the seat of power for Amethystus and its only official overground building. After this, flencks tried to live a comfortable life as a shepherd and a farmer. Unfortunately, the undead of the world sought him out, and flencks was faced with his curse of undeath again.

One full moon, only a couple of months after founding the town, a zombie horde broke down the doors of Dook Tower and decimated Amethystus. It was then that flencks decided his curse needed to be addressed. He began experimenting on the undead that turned up at his tower, and using the soul-logged soil of the swamp to develop inventions to benefit the townspeople.

### Westfall

Shortly after the completion of Dook Tower, the ruling body of Amethystus, the Court of the Deep, decided that flencks should take over for Aura as acting mayor in the King's absence. In the same meeting, Foreign Minister Crowe founded the nation of Westfall in order to protect Amethystus from the threats of Magnolia and Dawn to the north and south, respectively.

Immediately joining Westfall was the Isle of Foxes (Autumina), the neighbouring town to Amethystus. Shortly after that, failing to rebel against Zora, Yoyomand and a handful of other Dawn citizens deserted the town of Aurora for their disdain for Dawn's ruler, Blsu. Those deserters founded the hill town of Toblerone and joined the nation of Westfall.

Most enjoyed their time in Westfall during the rule of the Absent King Aura. Home Minister flencks continued to develop the cave system beneath Amethystus and did what he could to promote the region's economy. However, the powers of Azrane continued to grow while Amethystus stagnated in the idyllic Westfall.

Inevitably, Aura chose to end his rule over Westfall. flencks took it upon himself to continue Aura's policies in Amethystus and tried (and failed) to find allies in the other small towns scattered across Azrane. Foreign Minister Crowe had yet to recruit another to Amethystus or Westfall, or to solidify any alliances with other towns or nations, and he also began to take a passive stance toward the nation's affairs.

### The Fall of the West

Some time later, Magnolia and Frontier declared an honour war on Dawn. Every signatory of the 'Magnolia defence pact', a defence treaty created by Crowe to ensure all nations act against Magnolia if they declared war on a signatory, refused to fight with Dawn. Scrambling for a plan to not sink into obscurity or vassalisation, Crowe discussed with flencks his open plan to declare civil war and to overthrow the monarchy. Not seeing the benefit to this plan, but equally never having wanted to take over the monarchy himself, flencks did not act against Crowe. Instead, flencks formed an alliance with Dawn in order to make reparations with his homeland.

On the day of the war, Crowe revealed he had enlisted Magnolian forces to quash flencks alone. To boot, the Dawn alliance failed to amount to anything. Knowing that Crowe's allies wielded greater power than even a united Westfall, flencks sought help from the professed neutral interventionalist nation, Frontier, to keep Magnolia at bay while Westfall settled its own business. Instead, Frontier declared a conquest war on Westfall. Shortly after, Magnolia said they would also conquer Westfall (but did not declare war). Seeing Crowe as the least threat to Westfall, flencks decided to visit Toblerone and Yoyomand to enlist their help against Magnolia. Unfortunately, Magnolian forces were already at Toblerone, and Yoyomand was in the process of fleeing Westfall to save himself. After surveying the potential battlefield from a distance, Crowe abandoned his plan and also fled the known world. The Isle of Foxes parted from Westfall while these events unfold, and flencks was left completely alone against a possible two conquest wars against the largest nations on Azrane. Knowing that Amethystus was doomed and flencks was destined to either live with his conquerers or live alone, flencks declared the war a 'war for fun' and invited everyone to join in.

Unfortunately, no fun was had. Magnolia's conquest war was never declared and few expressed interest in a friendly fight with two towns up for grabs. All flencks had built, everything he developed during his time on Azrane, was meaningless. Nobody cared. On realising that, flencks dissolved the nation and sold Amethystus to the first bidder, Sweeber, who integrated the ghost town into Frontier. flencks thought about joining Dawn to develop his homeland, however remembering how its rulers had treated him turned him off the idea. He did squat in Aurora for a few days but, feeling no bond with his home after everything that happened, chose instead to travel the free world for some time.

### The Chamber of the Full Moon

flencks spent a few weeks exploring all the known world, trying to find the ideal place to settle. During the days, he scribed his learnings about undeath and the lunar cycle. At night, he chased the moon. Eventually, flencks found himself at the edge of the world, the moon still hanging in the distance like the foot of a rainbow. flencks was astonished to find there that he could advance no more. In fact, he felt the slightest push backwards when he tried.

flencks camped near the world’s edge for a week. After this time, he found his tent had been slowly dragged some dozen metres from the border. At first flencks thought someone was playing him for a fool, but he quickly discovered he couldn’t even reach the old world’s edge anymore. Azrane was shrinking fast. Faced with this, flencks pilgrimaged back to the Stargate Portal at centre of the world and settled nearby, knowing should the world shrink further, his home would be one of the last standing. He decided to make a place for the inevitable refugees of Azrane, and sought guidance from the Thing of Dreams for how to create somewhere that won’t fall to petty, worldly politics.

This is how the Chamber of the Full Moon came to be. flencks chose to settle on the tallest mountain around the Stargate Portal in order to remain close to the Moon yet grounded in Azrane. He constructed idols to the Thing of Dreams atop tall towers and invited refugees and travellers to make the rocky outcroppings below the Chamber their home.

A few months later, during the construction of Chamber’s church, flencks returned from his prayers and began preaching that the Moon was overwhelmed. flencks claimed that the Moon would weep and that Azrane would become bountiful but scarred. Shortly after, small meteors crashed all over the world. Great ravines tore through the land near Chamber. And a cold, unforgiving blackness hung at the bottom of Chamber’s cliffs.