TLDR
The riot’s bill comes due: fires out of the elven quarter, a day of firefighting, Eagle cavalry clearing the streets, ~100 “riot leaders” publicly executed — and roughly half of the capital’s ten thousand elves dead, most of the rest homeless. Then a slow recovery trip to Karven and four days in the Countess’s library, which quietly rearranges the campaign’s religious history: True Divination is a real ritual art of the Church with named practitioners, and the holy orders were once named for the Five Heavenly Courts — the Phoenix was “once founded as the order of the day,” and an order of the moon was declared anathema under a head named Aurelius Balventius. Finally Uryula, where Abbess Zafara argues the Empire was founded on top of the Church, not the other way around.
Key Developments
The riot aftermath
- One of the two downed Ulpia guards died; the other was saved. (Resolves the S6 loose thread.)
- The guards captured a very drunk/high survivor of the battle; nobody thinks he knows anything.
- The fire started in the elven quarter and got out of control, spreading to the docks. Haroun and Farraj fought it with fire magic for ~24 hours.
- An Eagle cavalry force — about four dozen knights under Knight-Lieutenant Zahir ibn-Zahir — cleared the streets, leaving a small force behind.
- Estate sweep (Haroun + guards): several dead servants at the al-Bushra estate; Menenia servants survived locked in the wine cellar; the al-Akram guards beat the rioters back. Gnaeus posted guards to keep looters off the Menenia estate.
- Five days later, ~100 people described as leaders of the rioters were publicly executed. (Who ordered and carried out the executions is not stated in the notes.)
- Roughly half of the city’s ~10,000 elves are dead, and most of the rest are homeless. See The Elf Scapegoating.
- The party’s analysis: they can’t tell whether the mob was targeted at the estate, but they are fairly certain the snipers were. See The Riot at the Ulpia Estate.
- The party spent ~a week and a half coordinating recovery and the noble district’s defense. The Balventia capital estate is also in recovery, managed by someone the party later carried reports from.
- Silvia’s latest letter was penned in one hand — likely hers — but not all of it was “spoken in her voice.” She likely had help writing it.
Karven and the Balventia library
- Karven — Karba in Hazadi — is the birthplace of Blessed Augustina, the first Most Holy and founder of the Church, and a major pilgrimage site.
- House Malipiero and House Balventia intermarried occasionally in the pre-conquest period.
- The Countess: no scholars in her court specialize in older religious history, but the mother Abbess at the Monastery of Blessed Ensah (Uryula) had made comments suggesting she might have knowledge. She showed no sympathy for the elves who died in the riots.
- Divination doctrine (per the Countess, expanded by the library): Normal Divination is common among the gifted (detect magic and the like); True Divination is a much rarer ritual art practiced by followers of the Maker that enables asking questions — hints at a basic level, literal questions of the Maker at a high level. Practitioners risk the fate of Vibia — the only named Blessed in the Book of Light who received the revelations that became it — whom the power eventually caused to expire. See The Faith of the Maker.
- Knowledge of Benedicto Malipiero was purged by the Order of the Phoenix and his own family.
- Church Rituals from a Secular Perspective (Felice D’Oiseaux, University of Touraine, ~2 years old): most divination-ritual uses are sedate (pro/con before an endeavor) — but Blessed Benedict, before the Third Crusade, asked specific questions, and it is accepted that his questions led to the plans that depended on the Betrayer Queen — and so to the crusade’s failure. Salemon Fouquier, the current archprelate of Ximes, used divination as a prelate during the Fifth Crusade — and is still alive. (GM clarification: only “pro/con” divinations, at least according to the book.)
- Party analysis: the Western Church likely holds divination-ritual knowledge similar to what Estelle does — specifically, similar to what Blessed Benedict did.
The orders and the Courts (all from library books — dating approximate, one narrator explicitly unreliable; see The Orders of the Five Courts)
- A donations chronicle (mentions emperors up to Caius III): Appius III made donations to “the Holy Orders of the Five Courts.”
- An aside in another book (last emperor mentioned: Appius VI): “the order of the Phoenix, once founded as the order of the day.”
- An Auvernian pilgrim’s account (Old Imperial rendition, from when Averoigne was first converted): he visited “The Order of the Dawn” — and a site by the mirror lake “where you can see the glory of the moon,” in the south of the empire, with a description of his journey there. (Possible Moon sanctum lead.)
- A post-schism history of the Orders Militant (narrator’s reliability uncertain, critical of the western orders): the Eagle began as a church guard protecting the emperor in the early days of the Empire; the Swan had secular origins and only later became religious; the early Owl focused on reverence for the court of Stars; the Gull is dismissed as “a glorified navy.”
- A hagiography of Appius III: he was patron of the order of the moon and the order of the dusk.
- A book on heresy rulings (Interregnum era): the order of the moon was declared anathema by the Most Holy — together with its head, Aurelius Balventius.
The Third Crusade shelf
- The Sun Without Shadow (Cardacci, elaborately illuminated): describes the horror of “the rising of the Goat Sun” (compare The Red Star), and Blessed Caterina, a Cardacci healer who took soldiers’ scalds onto herself again and again — and let her own brother die so she could keep taking others’ wounds. “Faith before Family.”
- A Hazadi-expedition account: the expedition’s commander covered the western crusaders’ retreat at the sacrifice of part of his force, violating the Sultan’s orders — and the Sultan forgave him.
- A Morschatti book on the Vigil of the Ten: ten noble heroes who were to accompany the Betrayer Queen on her last mission — among them Euglerrand de Tarrand.
- The library skews toward the Third Crusade — likely the Countess’s grandfather’s focus.
Uryula
- Gnaeus and Ari worked to quell the Uryula house staff’s concerns about her (they don’t like elves); it at least partly worked.
- Abbess Zafara ibn-Zahir (Monastery of Blessed Ensah): focuses on the period before the founding of the Empire. Believes the Empire was founded on top of the Church, not the reverse — Old Imperial perhaps the Church’s liturgical language, adopted by the Empire for legitimacy; the realm between the Second Crusade and the first references to the Empire may have been a theocracy that evolved into a secular state. She dislikes the Malconti calendar for early dates — e.g. she thinks there must have been much more time between the Wrath and the founding of the Church. The Grand Abbey of Chlumzen has an excellent library; so does The Holy City.
- Gnaeus and Ari had a private conversation in Uryula (added by Aaron, 2026-08-16 — see the addendum in the Notes): Ari seemed upset or concerned that Gnaeus wasn’t sleeping with her; Gnaeus laid out his reasons — the morality of the control he holds, the politics, and his intent to truly court Silvia. Ari’s response to the first: her feelings are still her own and not subject to the control. She also restated her oath verbatim — “I swear to serve you faithfully in word and deed, mind, body and soul” — and asked whether he found her morally repulsive; he didn’t care what she had done before they met (GM). (All of which bears directly on Ari and the Ring.)
New People Met
Zahir ibn-Zahir (Eagle knight-lieutenant) · Father Clodius (keeper of the Balventia library) · Abbess Zafara ibn-Zahir (and an unnamed, Gnaeus-disapproving nun)
Named but unmet: Salemon Fouquier · Felice D’Oiseaux — and from the histories: Blessed Augustina · Blessed Vibia · Blessed Benedict · Blessed Caterina · Aurelius Balventius · Euglerrand de Tarrand
Notes
(raw session bullets — click to expand)
- Aftermath of the attack on the Ulpia estate
- The guards captured the really drunk/high guy who somehow survived the battle
- Nobody thinks he knows anything, was just an amusing part of the battle
- Of the two downed guards, one is deceased, the other we managed to save
- It appears as though some fires have started by the docks
- A cavalry force arrives, about four dozen eagle knights, arrive and start clearing the streets
- Led by Knight Lt Zahir ibn-Zahir
- He leaves a small force behind
- We offer him and his men some refreshments before they leave
- Gnaeus sends Haroun and some guards to sweep nearby estates looking for more survivors
- Gnaeus dispatches a few guards to keep looters away from the Mennenia estate
- With orders to run if a significant force arrives
- Haroun and Farraj both go use their fire magic to help fight fires
- This goes on for the next 24 hours
- The fire started in the elven quarter and got out of control
- Our analysis is that while we can’t tell if the mob that attacked the estate was targeted, we’re fairly certain that the snipers were
- We spend the next week coordinating the initial recovery and post-riot defense of the noble district
- Five days later there is a public execution of about 100 people described as leaders of the rioters
- Roughly half of the city’s ten thousand elves are dead and most of the rest are homeless now
- Gnaeus pens a letter to Silvia Mennenia during this time as well
- Gnaeus notices that the letter he just received from Silvia, while all penned by one person, was not all spoken in her voice
- Likely written in her hand, thus implying that she had help writing it
- The guards captured the really drunk/high guy who somehow survived the battle
- After helping post-riot for a week and a half, we head to Karven (Karba being the Hazadi name for what the Imperials call Karven)
- We bring reports from the person managing the recovery of the Balventia estate
- Karven is famous for being the birthplace of Blessed augustina, the first most holy and founder of the church
- Karven is also well known for their Karven glass, and there is obviously a large contingent of Clan Zum there
- It’s a major pilgrimage site
- We take it slow, to recover a bit from the riots
- Notes on House Balventia
- House Malipiero and House Balventia did intermarry occasionally in the pre-conquest period
- Karven
- City is on the river
- Estate is outside the city on a rise
- The house was expecting us and has nice rooms prepared
- Everything is very luxurious
- We clean up and visit the family chapel before dinner with the Countess
- During dinner, the riots are a major topic of discussion
- After dinner we meet with the Countess privately and she gives us access to her personal library
- She’s not aware of any scholars in her court who specialize in older religious history
- She does remember the mother Abbess at the monastery of blessed Ensah made comments that indicated she might have knowledge
- Divination
- Normal Divination
- Can be found among all gifted, things such as detect magic
- True Divination
- Much more rare
- Ritual art, practiced by followers of the maker, that enables asking questions
- At a basic level, it can provide hints
- At a high level you can ask literal questions of the maker
- Those who perform those rituals run the risk of the fate of Vivia
- The only named blessed in the book of light who received the revelations from the maker that became the Book of Light
- The power caused her to eventually expire
- The Countess mentions reading a book from a scholar at the university of Touraine that mentions divination
- Church Rituals from a secular perspective
- Author — Felice D’oiseaux
- Church Rituals from a secular perspective
- Melipiero Family
- Knowledge of Benedicto was purged by the order of the phoenix and his family
- Normal Divination
- Riots
- It appears that she has no sympathy for the elves who died in the riots
- Father Clodius will let us into the Library the next day
- Library
- Day 1
- Church Rituals from a secular perspective
- More of a historical account than anything else
- Looks at the historical impact of the church, and very well researched
- Very recent book, two years ago
- Most common uses of Divination rituals are sedate
- Simple pro/con before a battle or other endeavor
- Blessed Benedict before the third crusade did ask specific questions
- It is accepted that his questions did lead to plans being developed that depended on the betrayer queen, which led to the failure of the crusade
- Haroun looks for mention of people in the book who might still be alive
- Salam Fuquier, the current arch-prelate of Zim
- Was a prelate during the fifth crusade and utilized divination then
- (GM: only “pro/con” divinations, at least according to Church Rituals from a Secular Perspective*.)*
- Analysis
- We theorize the western church has knowledge of divination rituals similar to what Estelle did. Specifically, it seems similar to what Blessed Benedict did
- A significant portion of the library is a compilation of The Teachings
- In multiple languages
- About 1000 volumes
- Book that recounts [donations] that emperors made to various religious endeavors
- Mentions that Appius III made donations to the Holy Orders of the Five Courts
- Hard to date, but it mentions emperors going to Caiuss III
- Book that mentions, as an aside on another matter, “the order of the Phoenix, once founded as the order of the day”
- Hard to date the book specifically, but the last Emperor mentioned in it is Appius VI
- Church Rituals from a secular perspective
- Day 2
- Old Imperial rendition of an Auvernian (language spoken in Auveroinge before lang du terre) account of when that region was first converted to the faith of the maker
- Wealthy nobleman from there tried to visit as many pilgrimage sites as possible
- He mentions visiting The Order of the Dawn
- Also, a site by the mirror lake where you can see the glory of the moon
- In the south of the empire
- There is a description of his journey there
- Book that describes the histories of the orders militant
- Unsure of the reliability of the narrator
- Eagle knights started as a church guard that guarded the emperor in the early days of the empire
- This is a post schism work, so has a critical view of the western orders
- Order of the Swan had secular origins and only later became religious
- Order of the Raven
- Order of the Owl
- Early owl was focused on reverence for the court of Stars
- Criticizes the Order of the Gull as being a glorified Navy
- Old Imperial rendition of an Auvernian (language spoken in Auveroinge before lang du terre) account of when that region was first converted to the faith of the maker
- Day 3
- A hagiography of Appius III
- Reference to him being a patron of the order of the moon and the order of the dusk
- Book on discussions of things that were ruled heretical
- Reference to the order of the moon
- They were declared anathema by The Most Holy
- The head of the order, Aurelius Balventius, was declared Anathema along with the order
- Book is dated to Interregnum era
- Reference to the order of the moon
- Morschatti book on the Vigil of the Ten
- The ten noble heroes who were to accompany the Betrayer queen on her last mission
- One of them was Eublerrand D’Tarrand
- A hagiography of Appius III
- Day 4
- Book about the Third Crusade, “The Sun Without Shadow”
- Elaborately illuminated
- Written in Cardacci
- Almost dismissed it
- Talks about the horror of the rising of the Goat Sun
- Blessed Caterina, a Cardacci healer
- Could take other’s wounds onto herself
- Soldiers were scalded again and again, and she took their wounds again and again
- Her brother was among the dying, and she chose to let him die so as to take others’ wounds
- “Faith before Family”
- Book accounting the third crusade, recounting the Hazadi expedition that joined the Crusade
- The commander of the Hazadi expedition had to make a number of difficult judgements
- Such as covering the retreat of the western crusaders
- Where he had to sacrifice some of his force, which was a violation of the sultan’s orders
- The Sultan forgave him though
- Such as covering the retreat of the western crusaders
- The commander of the Hazadi expedition had to make a number of difficult judgements
- Book about the Third Crusade, “The Sun Without Shadow”
- General research notes
- Gnaueus’ spiritualism helped a lot
- Haroun’s logos magic as well, which helped him understand any language (not to be confused with the Logos Tradition)
- The library has some amount of focus on the third crusade
- Gnaeus uses some of his time magic to repair some old, damaged books
- Countess Balventia mentioned that it was likely her grandfather who had the focus on the third crusade
- Day 1
- We head back to the capital
- With messages for the balventia estate (just being polite here)
- Arrive in the capital
- Recovery is still underway, with priority on cleaning up the bodies to avoid plague
- Don’t stay long
- Head to Uryula
- Uryula
- Here to relax a bit, and also see if the Abbess that Countess Balventia mentioned is still at the monastery
- Gnaeus and Ari put considerable effort into quelling the concerns of the house staff in Uryula, and it seems to at least partly work (they don’t like elves)
- Monastery of Blessed Ensah
- The nun who greets us is obviously disapproving of Gnaeus, likely due to his reputation of womanizing and partying
- Abbess Zafara ibn-zahir
- Her focus is on the period before the founding of the empire
- She believes that the empire was founded on top of the church, not the other way around
- Old Imperial was perhaps the church liturgical language, adopted by the empire for purposes of legitimacy
- Period between second crusade and first references to the realm that became the empire
- That realm may have been a theocracy
- That evolved into a larger secular state that used the religion of the maker to legitimize its’ rule
- She also dislikes the Malconti calendar, especially for dates before the period before the founding of the empire
- For example, she thinks that there must have been much more time between the Wrath and the founding of the church
- The Grand Abbey at Chlumson has an excellent library. As does the holy city of course.
Addendum (Aaron, added 2026-08-16 — not in the original notes)
- When we returned to Uryula, Gnaeus got the impression that Ari wanted to talk privately. So late that evening, he teleported into her room.
- The gist of the conversation was that Ari seemed to be… upset? concerned? that Gnaeus wasn’t sleeping with her.
- Gnaeus indicated that while he certainly found her extremely attractive, he had several concerns:
- Gnaeus has moral concerns about exploiting the control he has over Ari.
- Ari indicated that her feelings were still her own and not subject to the control.
- Gnaeus expressed concern over the political implications to his house, given the political climate right now.
- Gnaeus expressed a desire to at least try to truly court Silvia. While this culture doesn’t frown on high nobles taking mistresses, they certainly shouldn’t be flaunted. And Gnaeus believes it to be in bad taste to bed Ari while also courting Silvia.
- Gnaeus has moral concerns about exploiting the control he has over Ari.
- During the conversation, Ari restated the specific oath she is beholden to: “I swear to serve you faithfully in word and deed, mind, body and soul.”
- She had told the party that early on (~S1), but it got lost from the early session notes.
- (GM, added later:) One aspect that got lost: she asked him if he found her morally repulsive, and he assured her that he didn’t care what she had done before they met.
- (Aaron:) I’m sure eventually Gnaeus will remember that Ari is impervious to heat — and so her choice of night garb had nothing to do with the weather.
Loose Threads
- Nobody has checked on Ari’s contacts in the Isbi’liyyah elven community — and now roughly half the community is dead and the rest homeless. That network may simply be gone.
- The mirror-lake site. A pilgrim’s account with a journey description to a southern site tied to “the glory of the moon” — the closest thing yet to directions toward the possible Moon sanctum. Did anyone copy the account? It lives in the Balventia library. → Resolved: yes — Gnaeus directed the copy during the visit (Aaron, 2026-08-16; unrecorded at the time).
- Aurelius Balventius. An anathematized order of the moon, headed by a man with House Balventia’s own name — found in the Balventias’ library. Does the Countess know? Asking is delicate.
Nobody appears to have asked Abbess Zafara the actual question→ Corrected (Justin, 2026-08-16): the party did ask about the Order of the Dawn, the Courts, and the old orders — she didn’t know anything about them. A dead end, not an oversight.- Salemon Fouquier is alive — an archprelate who personally used divination in the Fifth Crusade, though only pro/con-level per the book (GM). Still a possible (dangerous) way into the tradition.
- Felice D’Oiseaux — a living secular scholar of church rituals, at the University of Touraine, writing after the city fell. Reachable?
- Who helped Silvia write her letter, and why?
- The ~100 executed “leaders of the rioters” — whose justice was that, how were they identified in five days, and did the snipers’ employers just get their loose ends cut for them?
- The “Goat Sun” — a Cardacci name for a horror rising during the Third Crusade. If it’s The Red Star, that adds a ~1441–46 appearance to the star’s record. Unconfirmed.
- Sadiq’s follow-up meeting (“within the month,” S6) — the month is running out and the notes don’t mention it.
- The Grand Abbey of Chlumzen library, per the Abbess — a future research destination (in Morrschatten?, location unstated).
- The Countess has no sympathy for the dead elves. Worth remembering while asking her house for favors — and while deciding what to tell her about Ari.
Assumptions & Open Readings
For Aaron — two minutes, and it saves a session's worth of rework
Everything below is something the notes did not say and the wiki now assumes. Notes taken during play are lossy, so filling gaps is expected — but each fill is listed here so a one-word correction lands before anything gets built on it. Strike what’s wrong; the rest hardens into fact.
Status: ⏳ open · ✅ confirmed/resolved · 🟡 partly · ⚠️ superseded
| # | Status | The assumption | Where it shows up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ✅ | “al-Bashra estate” = the House al-Bushra capital estate. The notes’ spelling is close to both the canonical al-Bushra and the older variant al-Busra; I read it as al-Bushra. If a distinct House al-Bashra exists, this is wrong. → Confirmed: al-Bushra (Aaron, 2026-08-16). | House al-Bushra; the estate-sweep bullets |
| 2 | ✅ | Father Clodius is a priest of the Balventia household at Karven. The notes only say he “will let us into the Library.” Also: he shares Gnaeus’s nomen (Clodius) — treated as coincidence of Old Imperial naming, not kinship. → Confirmed (Aaron): one of many household priests — the one who maintains the Countess’s library. | His page |
| 3 | ✅ | Zahir ibn-Zahir and Abbess Zafara ibn-Zahir are unrelated — the shared patronymic is treated as coincidence (and neither is connected to Zahir al-Akram). Nobody stated any relation. → Resolved (GM, via Aaron): Zahir is a very common name; no relation mentioned. | Both pages, collision notes |
| 4 | 🟡 | Salam Fuquier is Western Church. The notes say only “current arch-prelate of Zim” — a place the wiki has never seen. Guessed western from the French-sounding name, the western book he appears in, and his Fifth Crusade service. Where or what is Zim? → Partly resolved (GM, 2026-08-16): the canonical name is Salemon Fouquier, archprelate of Ximes. Where Ximes is, and which church, are still open. → Church resolved: Western, per table talk (Aaron). Ximes’s location still unknown. | His page’s faction: |
| 5 | ✅ | The pilgrim’s “Order of the Dawn” = the monastic order of the Monastery of the Dawn near Halwa — the same order Ismad sent the party to research. The account never says where it was. → Confirmed: same order (Aaron, 2026-08-16). | The Orders of the Five Courts; Monastery of the Dawn |
| 6 | ✅ | The mirror-lake site is a candidate for the Moon sanctum. The account describes a moon-glory site “in the south of the empire”; Estelle put Moon “south of Hazad.” I’ve assumed “the empire” means the old unified Empire (which included Hazad), making the two compatible. Party inference, marked as speculation everywhere. → Confirmed the party itself discussed the Moon-lead reading at the table (Aaron) — now cited as party analysis; the site is still unconfirmed in-world. | The Six Voices; The Sanctum Investigation |
| 7 | ✅ | “Caiuss III” = Emperor Caius III (d. 934), dating the donations chronicle to the unified-empire era. Spelling-match inference. → Confirmed: same emperor (Aaron). | The Orders of the Five Courts dating |
| 8 | ✅ | Aurelius Balventius is kin to House Balventia. The name is the masculine form of Balventia — but no source connects them. Flagged as speculation on both pages. → Confirmed (Aaron, 2026-08-16): discussed at the table — definitely the same house, believed a distant (perhaps not direct) ancestor. | His page; House Balventia |
| 9 | ✅ | Blessed Benedict ≠ Benedicto Malipiero. Similar names, ~300 years apart (pre-1441 vs ~1710). Treated as two people with collision warnings. → Confirmed: two different people (Aaron). | Both pages |
| 10 | ✅ | Euglerrand de Tarrand is of the same family as the de Tarrands. “D’Tarrand” vs “de Tarrand” — treated as likely the same house across three centuries, marked speculative. → Spelling resolved (GM, 2026-08-16): Euglerrand de Tarrand. Lineage confirmed (Aaron, same day): definitely the same family as Charles and Visenne. | His page; Charles de Tarrand |
| 11 | ✅ | The executions were carried out by the authorities (Crown/city) — the notes give a passive “there is a public execution.” Nobody is named as ordering it, and the wiki attributes it to no one. → Confirmed not stated at the table (Aaron) — stays unattributed. | The Riot at the Ulpia Estate |
| 12 | ✅ | The “Goat Sun” may be The Red Star. Pure party-side association from “horror of the rising” — the book never equates them. Marked speculative. → Confirmed nothing was said at the table (Aaron) — stays wiki speculation. | The Red Star |
| 13 | ✅ | In-game timing: late summer 1739. Built from ~1.5 weeks post-riot + a slow trip to Karven + 4 library days + return + Uryula. No date is stated. → Confirmed plausible (Aaron). | Timeline |
| 14 | ✅ | Silvia’s letter reached Gnaeus during the recovery weeks and the “help” reading is the notes’ own inference, kept hedged (“likely,” “implying”). → Confirmed nothing more was said (Aaron) — stands as written. | Silvia Menenia |
Reviewed with Aaron, 2026-08-16: all fourteen resolved (annotations above). The only residues are things nobody knows yet in-world — where Ximes is, whether Aurelius is a direct ancestor — which live on the relevant pages as open questions, not assumptions.
Already caught and corrected (GM, 2026-08-16): Salam Fuquier → Salemon Fouquier, Zim → Ximes (#4, partly) · Vivia → Blessed Vibia · Eublerrand D’Tarrand → Euglerrand de Tarrand (#10, spelling) · Chlumson → Grand Abbey of Chlumzen. Session-note spellings kept as aliases and in the Notes above.