From f6b85e2db1d803af4683e55e44c21eaaf6ba7d91 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Meta Vens Date: Sat, 5 Sep 2026 04:38:43 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] Clarify lore articles: accessibility wave 24 --- .../Sources/What the Three Ledgers Kept.md | 75 +++++-------------- Kalsa/Public/World/Gods and the Dead.md | 75 +++++-------------- Kalsa/Spoilers/Reference/Timeline.md | 74 +++++++++--------- 3 files changed, 78 insertions(+), 146 deletions(-) diff --git a/Kalsa/Public/Sources/What the Three Ledgers Kept.md b/Kalsa/Public/Sources/What the Three Ledgers Kept.md index e662dc4..9429533 100644 --- a/Kalsa/Public/Sources/What the Three Ledgers Kept.md +++ b/Kalsa/Public/Sources/What the Three Ledgers Kept.md @@ -13,80 +13,45 @@ tags: # What the Three Ledgers Kept -Three records outlived the cult crisis now called the Three Ledgers Schism: a -covenant book, a miracle ledger, and a death inventory. Reformers, centralizing -clergy, household coalitions, and mortuary keepers still arrange them into -incompatible lessons. +The Three Ledgers Schism was a dispute over who could take charge of a cult after its living anchor died. The proposed successor sought control of its obligations, aid, and dealings with the dead. Three surviving records show how that claim was contested: the covenant book recorded obligations and their terms, the miracle ledger recorded aid, and the death inventory held objects, statements, and claims awaiting judgment after the death. + +Reformers, centralizing clergy, household coalitions, and mortuary keepers still draw incompatible lessons from these records. No surviving copy names the cult, its god, the district, or the year. ## The anchor dies -The cult's living anchor died during a failed transport season and poor -harvest. Witnesses agreed about the body. Afterward, some rites continued, -some failed, and manifestations contradicted one another. +The death came during a failed transport season and a poor harvest. Witnesses agreed that the anchor was dead. What followed was harder to establish: some rites still worked, others failed, and manifestations contradicted one another. The dead left no transcript, and there was no agreed account from the god explaining its intent. -No surviving copy names the cult, its god, the district, or the year. Nor did -the dead leave a transcript or the god supply an agreed account of its intent. +Senior clergy controlled the central sanctuary and its most visible ceremonies, while champions guarded the shrine. A proposed successor said the rites that still worked confirmed his emergency authority. Nobody could make plain what had reached the god or what had come back. Meanwhile, people needed food. -Senior clergy held the central sanctuary and its most visible ceremonies. A -proposed successor claimed that the continuing rites confirmed his emergency -authority. Champions guarded the shrine. Whatever reached the god, -or came back, did not make itself plain enough to feed anyone. +The coalition supporting the successor ordered the three records copied into a single register. This changed how their contents were presented. The covenant book distinguished voluntary promises from inherited obligations, coerced submissions, and temporary relief. The merged register placed all of them under one claim of continuing service. -The succession coalition ordered three records copied into one register. The -covenant book had preserved whether each obligation began as a voluntary -promise, an inheritance, a coerced submission, or temporary relief. In the new -copy those origins sat beneath one claim of continuing service. The death -inventory became proof that the anchor meant the successor to inherit every -relationship. The miracle ledger became a list of assets available to his -office. +The other two records were made to support the same succession claim. The death inventory was presented as proof that the anchor intended the successor to inherit every relationship. The miracle ledger became a list of assets at the successor's disposal. ## Grain before succession -The miracle stewards refused to certify the merged register. Their store -workers kept the existing household minimum moving through minor shrines and -suspended non-emergency grants that rested only on the disputed succession. -Grain, medicine, carriers, and healers remained with households already on the -relief rolls. Petitioners seeking new work waited. The successor lost the -public miracles that might have made his claim look settled. +The miracle stewards refused to certify the merged register. They continued the existing minimum household relief through minor shrines, keeping grain, medicine, carriers, and healers available to households already on the relief rolls. They suspended non-emergency grants whose only authority came from the disputed succession. Petitioners asking for new work had to wait. -Outer settlements bore the delay while a sanctuary dispute consumed guards, -messengers, and credit. Some households relied on the successor's champions to -keep rivals away and backed his claim. In districts fed through smaller shrines, -grain arrived under the stewards' refusal and secured their support. Petitioners -beyond the existing relief rolls continued to wait. +This refusal also deprived the successor of public miracles that might have made his authority appear settled. Support divided partly according to what people received. Some households depended on his champions to keep rivals away and backed him. In districts supplied through smaller shrines, continued grain deliveries won support for the stewards. + +The dispute at the sanctuary consumed guards, messengers, and credit. Outer settlements bore the resulting delay, and petitioners outside the existing relief rolls continued to wait. ## The body leaves the shrine -Mortuary witnesses held the body, the working death inventory, and several -pending claims to sever obligations. When champions tried to place them under -succession custody, the witnesses moved the body and inventory beyond the -central sanctuary. Memory keepers copied the anchor's conflicting last -statements instead of choosing the one most useful to the living office. +Mortuary witnesses had custody of the body and the working death inventory. They also held several unresolved claims to end obligations. When champions tried to bring the witnesses and their holdings under succession custody, the witnesses moved the body and inventory out of the central sanctuary. -Covenant witnesses continued hearing entry and exit terms. Stewards kept the -household minimum moving from the miracle ledger. The mortuary witnesses stayed -with the body and death inventory. An accusation copied from the dead anchor -therefore carried no order to open the stores. +The anchor had left conflicting last statements. Memory keepers copied those contradictions rather than selecting the statement that best served the successor's office. + +Responsibility remained divided. Covenant witnesses continued to hear the terms on which people entered or left obligations. Miracle stewards used their ledger to maintain the household minimum. Mortuary witnesses stayed with the body and death inventory. An accusation copied from the dead anchor could therefore be preserved as testimony without becoming an order to open the stores. ## What survived the hearing -A mixed hearing let the successor retain high office, the central shrine, and -the right to conduct public rites. No verdict on divine preference entered its -order. The original covenant records kept the origins and limits of their claims. The -miracle ledger stayed with its stewards; stores and open promises were audited -together. The death inventory remained in separate custody until its objects, -statements, and severance claims could be heard. +A mixed hearing allowed the successor to keep high office, the central shrine, and the right to conduct public rites. Its order made no judgment about whom the god preferred. -Distribution resumed unevenly. Some people completed contractual exits and -lost the cult welfare their households had depended on. Displaced witnesses -did not all return. Nobody established which manifestations belonged to the -dead anchor, or whether the god had chosen anyone. +The records remained under separate authority. The original covenant records preserved how obligations had begun and what their limits were. The miracle stewards retained their ledger, and the stores were audited alongside promises still to be fulfilled. The death inventory stayed in separate custody pending hearings on its objects, statements, and claims to end obligations. -Reform cults cite the crisis when they divide records and keep copies beyond a -successor's reach. Centralizers remember the aid delayed while enemies -gathered. Household coalitions bring the covenant book when inherited service -is demanded. When a successor reaches for the stores, the promises, and the -body at once, mortuary keepers ask who wants the body and why. +Distribution resumed unevenly. Some people completed contractual exits from the cult and lost the welfare their households had relied on. Not all displaced witnesses returned. Nobody established which manifestations belonged to the dead anchor or whether the god had chosen a successor. + +Reform cults cite the crisis to support dividing records and keeping copies beyond a successor's reach. Centralizers point to the aid that was delayed while enemies gathered. Household coalitions bring out the covenant book when someone demands inherited service, so the demand can be checked against the recorded obligation. Mortuary keepers remember the attempt to take custody of everything together. When a successor reaches for the stores, the promises, and the body at once, they ask who wants the body and why. Return to [[../World/Gods and the Dead|Gods and the Dead]], or begin again at [[../index|Kalsa]]. diff --git a/Kalsa/Public/World/Gods and the Dead.md b/Kalsa/Public/World/Gods and the Dead.md index 3e3eec3..92c7eb0 100644 --- a/Kalsa/Public/World/Gods and the Dead.md +++ b/Kalsa/Public/World/Gods and the Dead.md @@ -11,80 +11,43 @@ tags: # Gods and the Dead -Kalsan gods are not metaphors made harmless by disbelief. They protect, conquer, bargain, bless, refuse, remember, demand, and sometimes die badly enough to poison a district for generations. +Gods in Kalsa act upon the world whether people believe in them or not. They protect and conquer, bargain and bless, refuse requests, remember promises, and make demands. Some have preserved cities through war. Some die, and a god's death can poison a district for generations. -No surviving cult, court, or mortuary tradition has established that they are -all-knowing. +Their power does not establish how much they know. No surviving cult, court, or mortuary tradition has shown that gods are all-knowing. A divine warning may reveal a danger hidden from worshippers, while a household's fraud escapes the god and turns up in a store ledger. At some shrines, a dead rival still answers, leaving the victorious god's cult unable to explain why. -A god's warning may expose a danger hidden from its worshippers. Store ledgers -still catch household fraud that passed beneath divine notice. Gods have -preserved cities through war; mortuary disputes form around the shrines where a -dead rival answers and the victor's cult cannot explain why. When such a claim -enters public use, its pieces are often kept apart. The covenant book -carries the beginning and terms of the promise. Store workers mark the petition, -supplies, beneficiary, and what arrived in a miracle ledger. At death, the body, -last statements, and any familiar answer pass to mortuary witnesses. Clergy, -prophets, champions, and enemies argue across these holdings about what the god -witnessed, what reached it through servants, and what it merely insists must be -true. +Clergy, prophets, champions, and enemies dispute what a god witnessed directly, what its servants reported, and what it simply insists is true. The records used to examine these claims are often held separately: -[[../Sources/What the Three Ledgers Kept|What the Three Ledgers Kept]] follows -one old succession crisis in which combining those records nearly made a -divine claim impossible to contest. +- The **covenant book** records how a promise began and its terms. +- Store workers use the **miracle ledger** to record the petition, supplies, intended beneficiary, and what actually arrived. +- At death, **mortuary witnesses** receive the body, last statements, and any familiar answer. + +These holdings let people compare a divine claim with promises, delivered aid, and evidence from the dead. [[../Sources/What the Three Ledgers Kept|What the Three Ledgers Kept]] follows an old succession crisis in which combining them nearly made such a claim impossible to contest. ## Covenant and submission -People enter divine relations by different roads. One household promises work -and offerings in return for healing, burial, defence, or food. Elsewhere a -child inherits an attachment whose first agreement nobody can produce. -Conquerors point to the survival of a defeated people as proof of rightful -submission. +A relationship with a god may begin with an agreement: a household offers work and offerings in exchange for healing, burial, defence, or food. Other people inherit obligations. A child may belong to a cult through an attachment whose original agreement nobody can produce. After conquest, conquerors may claim that the defeated people's survival proves their submission was rightful. -Living officials enter their current service and relief promises in the cult -ledger. An inherited attachment may have no first agreement attached; after a -conquest, its earliest surviving entry may be an order. Witnesses elsewhere -must supply the god's acceptance or an ancestor's agreement, if either account -survives. +The cult ledger records the service and relief that living officials currently promise. It may say little about whether anyone agreed to the relationship in the first place. An inherited attachment may lack its founding agreement; a conquered people's earliest surviving entry may be an order. Evidence that the god accepted the terms, or that an ancestor agreed to them, must come from witnesses elsewhere—if those accounts survive. -Some magnificent shrines have empty relief stores. Their miracles depend on -people carrying aid, tending bodies, -guarding stores, and preserving the terms under which the work was owed. When -those people or stores disappear, sacred authority can survive long after its -ordinary promises become impossible. +Fulfilling the promises also takes people and supplies. Aid must be carried, bodies tended, stores guarded, and the terms of the work preserved. Even a magnificent shrine can have empty relief stores. If its workers or supplies disappear, its sacred authority may endure long after it can no longer provide what it owes. ## The unquiet dead -Death does not guarantee silence. Names are heard in sealed rooms. Familiar gestures form in smoke or ash. A dead champion appears to answer a living oath. A burial ground consumes the edge of a miracle and returns memory, appetite, warning, or accusation. +The dead sometimes seem to answer the living. People hear names in sealed rooms or recognize gestures in smoke and ash. A dead champion appears to answer a living oath. A burial ground consumes the edge of a miracle and returns memory, appetite, warning, or accusation. These occurrences leave witnesses with evidence, but not necessarily an agreed identity for whatever answered. -When a familiar gesture forms over a body, kin may answer with the dead -person's name while a release sect arrives to sever old obligations. A ruler's -guard may come for the remains. The mortuary witness writes down the voice -without entering a returned person in the record. +When a familiar gesture forms above a body, kin may address it by the dead person's name. A release sect may arrive to sever old obligations, while a ruler sends guards to claim the remains. The mortuary witness can record the voice without certifying that a person has returned. -Control of the body can decide who receives offerings, inheritance, and -protection from whatever answered. Some mortuary offices separate the remains -from testimony and keep cult debts out of the hand guarding the manifestation. -Their warrants end at a jurisdiction's edge. Beyond it, kin, clergy, or ruler -may take body and voice together. +Who holds the body can determine who receives offerings, inheritance, and protection from whatever answered. Some mortuary offices therefore keep remains and testimony in separate custody. They also keep authority over cult debts out of the hands of whoever guards the manifestation. These arrangements hold only within the office's jurisdiction. Beyond its boundary, kin, clergy, or a ruler may take custody of both body and voice. ## Hungry holy places -Shrine keepers, delvers, and mortuary offices preserve reports in which repeated -miracles make a place dangerous: old deaths answer near gathered power, failed -divine successions leave competing presences drawing from the same offerings, -or a shrine continues answering after its priesthood has forgotten whom it -serves. A shrine keeper may call the answer a broken covenant while a mortuary -witness recognizes a dead voice and a steward records every grant that weakens -near the burial ground. +Shrine keepers, delvers, and mortuary offices preserve reports of places made dangerous by repeated miracles. Near gathered power, old deaths begin to answer. After a failed divine succession, competing presences draw from the same offerings. A shrine may keep answering even after its priesthood has forgotten whom it serves. -[[../Sources/The Faces in the Ash Halo|The Faces in the Ash Halo]] follows an -answer roll into a Jamnai furnace court where divine armour closes around a -champion and familiar dead cease answering afterward. +Witnesses do not always agree about what these events mean. A shrine keeper may describe an answer as evidence of a broken covenant. A mortuary witness may recognize a dead voice. A steward may record each grant that weakens near a burial ground. Those accounts preserve different parts of the problem without settling it. -Some shrine networks close a hungry site. Healing and burial petitions move to -smaller shrines along the wider route. The sick and bereaved who cannot travel -wait beyond their reach. Closure orders therefore draw requests to reopen, -copied failure records, and demands for itinerant aid. +[[../Sources/The Faces in the Ash Halo|The Faces in the Ash Halo]] follows an answer roll—a record of responses associated with the dead—into a Jamnai furnace court. Divine armour closes around a champion there; afterward, familiar dead cease answering. + +Some shrine networks close a hungry site and send healing and burial petitions to smaller shrines along the wider route. People who are sick or bereaved and cannot travel must wait beyond those shrines' reach. Closure orders consequently draw requests to reopen, copies of failure records, and demands for aid that can travel to those who need it. Read [[../Sources/What the Three Ledgers Kept|What the Three Ledgers Kept]], or continue to [[Magic and Miracles]], [[Relics and Ruins]], and [[../Places/Low Sere|Low Sere]]. diff --git a/Kalsa/Spoilers/Reference/Timeline.md b/Kalsa/Spoilers/Reference/Timeline.md index 62999ec..852b184 100644 --- a/Kalsa/Spoilers/Reference/Timeline.md +++ b/Kalsa/Spoilers/Reference/Timeline.md @@ -13,52 +13,56 @@ tags: # Timeline -Dates and durations are unresolved unless the seed supplies them. This sequence records only relative order. +Kalsa's history begins on Earth, follows the Ark's journey and terraforming of Kalsa, and continues through the fall of its eight Rings and the societies that formed afterward. -## Before departure +The numbered entries give the established relative sequence. Dates and durations remain unresolved unless the original seed supplies them. The later events listed separately do not yet have a complete order. -1. Logos is founded on Earth as an artificial-island polity. -2. Logos builds a space elevator and orbital industry. -3. Prometheans construct the eight-Ring Ark from asteroid material. -4. Ark society separates increasingly into embodied Primitivists and simulated Posthumans. +## On Earth: building the Ark -## Exodus and seizure +1. Logos is founded on Earth as a polity built on an artificial island. +2. Logos builds a space elevator and develops industry in orbit. +3. Prometheans use asteroid material to construct the Ark, which has eight Rings. +4. Ark society increasingly divides between Primitivists, who live in bodies, and Posthumans, who live in simulation. -5. The Ark departs Earth. -6. Embodied Posthumans become rare; most Posthumans enter simulation. -7. Fuel failure forces a destination change to Kalsa and a long terraforming program. -8. Mathys infiltrates and overthrows Posthuman control. -9. The final Mathys survivor merges with Ark systems and becomes [[Spoilers/Foundations/Prometheus|Prometheus]]. +## Leaving Earth and losing Posthuman control -## Exaltation +5. The Ark leaves Earth. +6. Most Posthumans enter simulation; those living in bodies become rare. +7. A fuel failure forces the Ark to change its destination to Kalsa, where it must undertake a long terraforming program. +8. Mathys infiltrates the Ark and overthrows Posthuman control. +9. The last Mathys survivor merges with the Ark's systems and becomes [[Spoilers/Foundations/Prometheus|Prometheus]]. -10. Across millennia of terraforming, Prometheus establishes worship and coercive evolutionary games. -11. Control populations are repeatedly deployed to the surface as labor and form settlements. -12. Luck emerges spontaneously in one Ring. -13. Prometheus develops Sorcery, Shamanism, Analysis, Prophecy, Channeling, and Intuition in sequence. +## Exaltation: terraforming and the development of magic + +10. During millennia of terraforming, Prometheus establishes worship and coercive games that shape evolution. +11. Control populations are repeatedly sent to the surface as laborers and establish settlements. +12. Luck arises spontaneously in one Ring. +13. Prometheus develops Sorcery, then Shamanism, Analysis, Prophecy, Channeling, and finally Intuition. 14. Spokers remain excluded from the Children of Fire's Kaos program. -## The Fall and Expansion +## The Fall and the expansion of the Crown Cities -15. Luck-ring rebels and Spokers sever the Rings from the drive core. -16. Eight Rings make emergency re-entry and become the Crown Cities. -17. Spoker and control-descended powers initially dominate Children of Fire deprived of Promethean direction. -18. Technology decays unevenly and Techpriesthoods emerge around relic continuity. -19. Ringlands overlap; the War of the Magi begins. -20. Borders stabilize after major wars and partial exoduses. +15. Rebels from the Luck Ring join Spokers in severing the Rings from the drive core. +16. All eight Rings make emergency re-entry and become the Crown Cities. +17. Without Promethean direction, the Children of Fire are initially dominated by Spoker powers and powers descended from the control populations. +18. Technology deteriorates unevenly. Techpriesthoods emerge around the continued preservation and use of relics. +19. The Ringlands overlap, and the War of the Magi begins. +20. After major wars and partial exoduses, borders stabilize. -## Known later events with uncertain placement +## Later events whose placement remains uncertain + +These events belong to the later history, but their positions within it are not fully settled. Some have an established local sequence, such as Saxfoldi's exposure followed by its becoming mobile and hidden. - The Ju'onai Hegemony annexes the original Channeler Crown City and disperses Channeler communities. -- Sarxe survivors consolidate at a static Saxfoldi. -- Terjamna break through; an event remembered as a Soiru'i sacrifice exposes Saxfoldi and the Ji'esti massacre follows. +- Sarxe survivors gather at Saxfoldi while it is still a fixed settlement. +- The Terjamna break through. An event remembered as a Soiru'i sacrifice exposes Saxfoldi, and the Ji'esti massacre follows. - Saxfoldi becomes mobile and hidden. - The Ju'onai Hegemony and the Terjamna power divide the City of Prophets. -- Magical expression becomes less concentrated; recruitment and lineage politics grow in importance. +- Magical expression becomes less concentrated, and recruitment and lineage politics become more important. -## Adopted histories with uncertain placement +## Adopted histories whose placement remains uncertain -These events were established by recorded repair passes rather than found verbatim in the seed. They have factual owner notes but no adopted absolute dates or complete mutual order. +Recorded repair passes established the following events as history; they do not appear verbatim in the seed. Each linked note owns the facts of its event. No absolute dates have been adopted for them, and their order relative to one another remains incomplete. - [[Spoilers/Events/The Three Ledgers Schism|The Three Ledgers Schism]] - [[Spoilers/Events/The Closed Lift Appeal|The Closed Lift Appeal]] @@ -75,11 +79,11 @@ These events were established by recorded repair passes rather than found verbat - [[Spoilers/Events/The Empty Bridge Vigil|The Empty Bridge Vigil]] - [[Spoilers/Events/The Ash-Halo Armament|The Ash-Halo Armament]] -## Unresolved +## What the chronology does not yet establish -- Absolute dates, epoch names, and duration of each stage. -- Relative order of the War of the Magi, Ju'onai expansion, Channeler annexation, Ji'esti, and division of the Prophetic City. -- The present day, the ages of current institutions, and which present procedures descend continuously from their claimed predecessors. -- Whether the return of Prometheus occurs; it remains a [[Spoilers/Reference/Story Seeds|story seed]]. +- Absolute dates, names for the epochs, and the duration of each stage. +- The relative order of the War of the Magi, Ju'onai expansion, the Channeler annexation, Ji'esti, and the division of the City of Prophets. +- Where the present day falls, how old current institutions are, and which present procedures have continued without interruption from their claimed predecessors. +- Whether Prometheus returns. That possibility remains a [[Spoilers/Reference/Story Seeds|story seed]]. See [[Spoilers/Foundations/Ark and Fall|Ark and Fall]] and [[Spoilers/Foundations/Language and Reckoning|Language and Reckoning]].