Letter to the Argent Mirror (and Patriarch)

Correspondence immediately following the public audience in The Argentate of Ta'Illistim Keep in Fashanos 5115 Modern Era. It is a "slice of life" piece, only unauthorized copies would be public.

Letter to the Argent Mirror

Addressed to the Office of the Seneschal:
Letter to the Argent Mirror, Keeper of Knowledge
Light of House Illistim and Reflection of the Elves

May it please the Mirror,

In the past few decades there has been unprecedented chaos upon our continent, with threats to the world and existence itself unknown since the Age of Darkness. The Dark Lords of Lornon have shown an aggression upon mortal soil unheard of throughout the history of civilization --- whether the Spirit of the Past toying with us in the Vishmiir, the warlords of the Dark Alliance wielding their hordes, or the attempt by the Jackal to forge an unholy gate so that he might walk the earth unhindered. Whether we speak of beings of Shadow or the Vvrael, there is always a single point in common, and always from the same part of the world.

Your Reflection may be aware that the Eye of the Drake was destroyed in the final struggle with the Vvrael. It was an immensely powerful artifact that sealed the most terrible interdimensional rift in existence. Flow storms were tamed for thousands of years, portals were suppressed, and incursions by malevolent beings of all kinds were warded against. There is nothing surprising in the rise of darkness. It is no coincidence that the world suddenly became vulnerable as the Veil weakened. With its destruction we can only expect more violations from beyond the pale, more unexpected upheavals, more threats by the incomprehensible and utterly abysmal.

It is our understanding the Argent feels the West is in a darkness which no light may ever reach. There is no denying the sense of this judgment. While the far north has the most dangerous unhealed tear in the fabric of reality to ever exist, the northwest by Darkstone Bay has become a maelstrom of extra-planar instabilities. There is an unstable portal to the dark moon in a ruined castle that anchors an unending flow storm. There is a valley that became unmoored from our existence and settled itself underground hundreds of leagues away. There is a mountain warped with tremendous manipulations of time and space, vanishing for thousands of years, only to return now and become the epicenter for all of our recent traumas.

Unfortunately, these threats have always originated in a lawless region, where no civilization could suppress their malice. The Turamzzyrian Empire recognizes it as a haven of dark magic and the worst of foul religions, but they are war torn, and lack the experience or wisdom for treating affairs regarding other planes of existence. Whatever the differences in ideology or philosophy between our people, one thing that has never been in question is the irresponsibility of allowing mere mortals to make such decisions. Within decades we might expect the humans to claim the Drake's Shrine, which they would undoubtedly call "Koargard," a travesty whose recklessness would be dangerous beyond imagination.

Your Reflection need not hear any pleasantries asking for aid to the West. There is nothing in the west that merits salvation or special kindness. The Elemancers may as well burn it all to the ground. But it would be better still if they stopped for a moment to discern the dangers in the flows and rifts. There can be no distinction of east and west in these situations, only our world and the infinite possible horrors of the Abyss. If it is not worth risking Illistim blood to assess, the threat may still be acknowledged. What might be done instead is call upon the Faendryl ambassador. If they were to investigate the heart of darkness, which to them would be nothing, they would burden the responsibility for whatever comes of it.

By my hand,

Lord Xorus Kul'shin
Researcher, Sorcerer Guild

Letter to the Patriarch

To the Scholars of the Valences:
For the consideration of the Patriarch
Korvath Dardanus, Honor To His Name

To whom would receive it,

The Argent Mirror has become as irrational as many had expected. Myasara has ceded all interest of influence or power in the West, regarding it as hopelessly lost in "darkness." The Council of Thrones seemed ill at ease with her state of mind, but it is doubtful they would try to force her abdication in the immediate future. The Faendryl Empire would find no significant resistance to pressing further influence in the northwest. Unfortunately, human meddling in the planar disturbances of the region is inevitable, and their superstitions regarding "dark magic" may come at a high price.

There is a hidden portal on the northern side of Darkstone Bay in a monastery overrun with monastic liches. These were once monks of Kai who guarded the gateway. It would seem they were hiding the work of the Sage Uthex Kathiasas. He was working in a shadow realm he called "the home of broken lore," which some consider to be the surface of Lornon and others another plane of existence. I suspect these interpretations are not contradictions. It might well be both at the same time, extra-planar experiments from the First Age.

Uthex was working with forging extra-planar entities from energy, "power given physical form," much as many of us suspect the verlok were fashioned by sorcerous arts. There has long been esoteric lore that Eorgina and Fash'lo'nae were engaged in extreme planar magic on their moon while the dragons were distracted, not only conjuring major demons but spiriting away forbidden knowledge, if indeed any of the legends from that time are true at all. "The Broken Land" may be a pocket reality formed from material within the moon, allowing them to hide works of transmogrification magic from whomever would have stopped them.

There is a dome on the surface that is constantly draining power from its surroundings with dark essence flows. This would have been the mechanism Uthex used to incarnate flesh from spirit, "spirits born of death," giving a quasi-immortality to those who reside in its reach. The intriguing thing about this artifact is that there may be little upward limit on the power of the entity. It might be possible to fashion beings as intrinsically powerful as "gods" while retaining control over them as one would a golem. It is in equal measures necromancy and demonology. Marlu himself may be artificial, fashioned as a servant of the Dark Queen.

The plane itself is somewhat unusual, material but strikingly artificial. I am not convinced it is an expanse as one might expect of a material plane, but rather a hollow sphere that spins fast enough to give the illusion of gravity. If it is truly coexistent with Lornon but sealed off, this would explain its tolerable conditions, and why the dark gods seem to be absent. The gate appears to be "natural," which is to say completely accidental. It may have formed when some other gate was sealed in antiquity. At the moment the site is controlled by a Sheruvian monastery, apparently refugees of the Estrion incident, and the remnants of an obscure human death cult from several millennia ago. The Order of Voln is aware of it. It is only a matter of time before human intervention deprives us of an invaluable resource.

By my hand,

Lord Xorus Kul'shin
Harbinger of the Kron'khaal