Peaks and planes

"Have you heard the news?" said Rob in a voice that clearly indicated he was hoping the answer was no. Few people like to gossip more than Robert Miller, so he pressed on before anyone could spoil it. "Some Urizen wizard's comin to Marches. Clytemnestra Wanderer, she's called." he continued. "She's bringin her folks with her." he finished, emphatically.

The news brought a chorus of surprise from the assembled patrons propping up the bar of the Tipsy Bough. Questions were fired at Rob like arrows, "When?", "Why?" and "How many?". There was some discussion of whether the visitors would all be sleeping at the Bough - the inn had three large guest rooms and a common room that could hold a dozen, but Rob cut in again.

"No, no, she's bringing everyone. All the wizards and the scholars, all of 'em. That's what I heard. They're turnin up to learn about farming and help get the harvest in!"

"Well that's past decent of them!" cut in Sandy Wise. "Be more than nice to have a few extra hands to help bring the crops in." There were murmurs of agreement to this and a few wry sideways glances. Sandy's place was the second largest farm in Dashburn and she was always short-handed at harvest time. It would certainly be nice not to have Sandy begging everyone for help to get Tucker's Field cut that just somehow seemed to happen every year.

"Have any of 'em ever worked a farm before? " cut in Harry Thorn. Harry was a notorious cheapskate who always ran out of seed because he couldn't bear the thought of half a bag going to waste. "Good cider takes good apples. These... scholars... they're up for a ten hour stint digging ditches are they? I'm not putting up some fancy wizard who thinks you can plough a field by readin a buke."

"Sword and shears both cut alike, Harry Thorn!" Sandy fired back. "Just set out a table like you would for the Landskeeper when they come calling. This ain't no different. Just another guest come to help with the harvest."

An argument quickly descended on the Bough's common room. Sandy Wise and Harry Thorn didn't see eye to eye anymore, not since '72 when three of Sandy's pigs had got lose and eaten half of Harry's turnip field before anyone found 'em. Harry claimed Sandy had let them out, so she didn't have to pay for feed, and Sandy said it was Harry's fence that needed mending and that was how they'd escaped.

People left them to it. A grudge is the one harvest you can bring in every year, as Sarah Friar was fond of saying.

Marcher hospitality could prove to be quite challenging for the refined folk of Urizen.

Overview

The aftermath of the rift between some Marchers and some Urizeni has led to the National Assemblies of the two nations proposing an exchange of ideas. Marcher priests are encouraged to visit the distant mountains while magicians, sentinels, and sword scholars are encouraged to travel to the Marches and help bring in the harvest.

While this attempt to build bridges between the two nations is ongoing, they are perhaps symptomatic of a growing rift between the Marcher assembly and the people of their nation. The Assembly has denounced those Marcher Landskeepers who opted to curse Urizen last season and called for the latest Marcher to attempt it to be shunned. And in concert with the new Throne they have denounced people across the nation who have been showing their support for the outcast Marchers.

This growing rift between the Marcher Assembly and the people of the Marches bodes ill for all concerned. Last season Fanny Moulder encouraged those Marchers who were increasingly out of step with their Assembly to look to their yeofolk and their stewards for guidance rather than the follow the lead of the monks and friars. Somewhat ironically, this disregard for the authority of the Imperial Synod, has long been the hallmark of the sword scholars, the very iconoclasts the Assembly has encouraged to come to the Marches and share their views.

Points of Correspondence

• The Marcher and Urizen assemblies attempt to build greater understanding between their nations

Led by the sword scholars and the House of the Wanderer, the Marcher and Urizen Assemblies have continued to try to build rapprochement between the two nations following the conflict that developed over the emergence of Cold Sun. Clytemnestra has called on mages, sentinels, and sword scholars to make a pilgrimage to the Marchers so that they can "learn about the pride and virtue of The Marcher's connection to their Land" and help "bring the harvest home."

The Marcher Assembly have responded in kind, with Jedediah Boon urging the friars of the Marches to follow him to Urizen. However, the Marcher Assembly is forced to fight this battle on a second front.

A Distant Pilgrimage

People of Urizen - mages, sentinels, sword scholars - come with me on pilgrimage to learn about Marcher land! Jedediah Boon of the Ore Hills inspired me with his pride in his land and his people and I want our people to learn about the pride and virtue of The Marcher's connection to their Land. Come with me in the Autumn. Let us learn of Marcher farming, Marcher pride, and let us help to bring the harvest home.

Clytemnestra, Urizen Assembly, Spring Equinox 386YE, Upheld (Greater Majority (186-0))

• The Urizen assembly can urge magicians to abandon their research and travel to the Marches for the coming season to help them bring the harvest in

Rather than use their unrivalled magical powers to help the Marches, Clytemnestra has proposed that the mages, sword scholars and sentinels of Urizen should travel to the Marches and get their hands dirty, bringing in the harvest. There is certainly no shortage of work to be done; there are fields full of crops to be cut and gathered, but there are also walls that need repairing, ditches to dig, and fields still to be tilled and planted with a second crop. Most Marchers who work the land have spent years becoming accustomed to spending the daylight hours hours in back-breaking physical labour - work that is invariably performed by ushabti back in the mountains of Urizen. The thought of joining those endeavours is an intimidating prospect for those more accustomed to a day of scholastic study.

It is not just the prospect of long days of gruelling physical labour that is somewhat off putting. The real wrench will be leaving their studies behind. Travelling to the other side of the Empire to spend the season hoeing fields, scything grain, and pulling weeds means having to suspend their work on magic. Still, people are prepared to make the sacrifice if the Urizen Synod are convinced it will help Urizen and the Marches understand each other better and it is worth the price. If that is the case then they could pass the following mandate:

Strive, toil, and claim the just rewards of your labours. We send {named priest} with 75 liao to urge mages, sentinels and sword scholars to help bring the Marcher harvest home. All that is worthwhile is shared with those who deserve it.

Synod Mandate, Urizen Assembly

If this mandate is enacted with a greater majority, then a large number of Urizeni citizens will abandon their work for the season and travel to the Marches to do what they can to help bring in the harvest. The direct benefits for the Marchers will be limited; the Urizeni have no experience with the kind of arable agriculture used throughout the Marches. Urizeni magicians have ushabti to undertake the arduous physical labour of farming, so many will find the work gruelling at best. None-the-less Marcher farms will benefit from the extra helping hands at this crucial time and every Marcher farm will see their income increase by 12 rings for the season as a result.

Sadly, such a benefit will not be without a cost. The Doyen of the Spires is a unique Urizeni title charged with using the heliopticon network to lead the magicians of Urizen in their research on new magic. With so many magicians on pilgrimage to the Marches, that work will be stymied - cutting the rate of research by half. That would mean the Doyen could only research 10 ranks of magnitude in the season after the mandate was passed.

A Friar Exchange

Never leave a river unbridged when you can build one out of rope. Never leave a rope bridge when you can build one out of wood. Never leave a wooden bridge when you can build one out of stone. We thank the Urizeni sword scholars who brought their teachings to our nation and did the heavy lifting on the first rickety bridge between our Nations. We invite the House of The Wanderer and the priests of Urizen to return again and this time friars of the Marches follow me to Urizen. Where we have disagreed in magic we will unite in faith two schools of virtue together in one cause; to share how our same religion manifests in the people of our different Nations. Let us break new ground with pride.

Jedediah Boon, Marcher Assembly, Spring Equinox 386YE, Upheld (Greater Majority (222-0))

• The Marcher assembly can urge friars and monks to visit Urizen to share how their shared religious manifests in the people of our different Nations

The Marcher Assembly is keen to reciprocate the Urizen Assembly's gesture of friendship and return the favour. Jedidiah Boon has called for friars of the Marches to follow him to Urizen where they can debate the Way with questors, illuminates, torchbearers and sword scholars. It is a long journey - the Marches and Urizen are at opposite sides of the Empire - but the opportunity to build a bridge between the two nations is an appealing one.

It will not be without cost however, the friars and monks are the spiritual leaders of the Marches, they are the ones that other Marches look to for instruction in the Way - and most of them help to lead the virtuous, providing sermons and instruction on the Virtues as well as advising the people of their nation on spiritual matters. With so many Marcher priests away in Urizen, inevitably the congregations of the Marches will suffer. The Assembly can pass the following mandate if they decide they wish to pursue the exchange of spiritual ideas and wisdom.

The Prosperous are not selfish; all that is worthwhile is shared with those who deserve it. We send {named priest} with 50 doses of liao to encourage friars to share their virtue with Urizen. Let us break new ground with Pride.

Synod Mandate, Marcher Assembly

If this mandate is enacted, then Marcher priests will travel to Urizen to engage in spiritual debate with the virtuous there. The exchange of views is likely to be lively, to say the least. It is not hard to imagine that some questors and torchbearers will push back against the more heterodox Marcher ideas, such as the claim that people can reincarnate as trees if they are good or rats and other vermin if they are bad. However the presence of so many Marcher priests across Urizen will mean that every Urizeni congregation will gain 1 dose of liao and 2 votes in the coming season.

Spending the season in Urizen means that it won't be possible to tend to the spiritual needs of the Marcher people. They'll manage just fine without many of their priests for a season, but it does mean that participation in congregations across the Marches will suffer. As a result every Marcher congregation will lose 2 doses of liao and 4 votes after the Summer Solstice.

A Growing Divide

• There is a growing divide between the position of the Marcher Assembly and the views of some everyday Marcher citizens
• Jack Tiller and Frankie Moulder have been persuaded to come to Anvil at 7pm Saturday evening, hoping to speak with some of the priests of the Assembly to try to put the matter to bed

Most Marchers are of the view that magic is best employed in service of the nation and the people, either supporting the harvest on farms across the nation or supporting soldiers who go off to war. There is a long-standing suspicion of those who use magic against the farms and farmers of the Marches, they look to their threshers to hunt down such people and punish them for their wickedness.

This distrust has seen endless fuel added to the fire in recent years. The cursing of the Mournwold saw thousands of innocent Marchers, young and old, die at the hands of Imperial ritualists. It left a vivid scar that has never really healed to this day. Those who buried their family members in the wake of the curses find forgiveness is difficult to find.

Thus the recent flood of bad magic affecting the Marchers has raised a bitter harvest. Throwing open the doors to the Day Realm which allowed Cold Sun to enter the Empire may have been the straw that broke the camel's back, but for many Marchers it was just the latest in a long line of magic that has been inflicted on them. First, it was a dreadful storm that brought devastation to countless farms. The ritual to enchant the Empire with Autumn magic may have seemed like a blessing to many but that too ravaged the Marches wreaking havoc on their crops.

The Empire has heard our anger; if a sorcerer curses the Empire again then Imperial justice will be swift and final. We send Jenny Arbor with 25 doses of liao to urge threshers, landskeepers, and Marchers to deal with sorcerers lawfully and to put their faith in the Empire.

Jenny Arbor, Marcher Assembly, Spring Equinox 384YE, Upheld (Greater Majority (142-0))

You don't call for the magistrate if your house is on fire. Threshers should deal with sorcerers by any means necessary. We send Gaelen Embercast with 25 doses of liao to remind everyone that the vigilant despise that which threatens what they watch over.

Gaelen Embercast, Vigilance Assembly, Spring Equinox 384YE, Upheld (186-84)

In Spring 384YE, the Synod Assembly passed two mandates on these issues. The Marcher Assembly threshers, landskeepers and Marchers to deal with sorcerers lawfully and to put their faith in the Empire. People responded favourably to this call, pleased to know that the Marcher Assembly was confident that legal means were sufficient to deal with any problems that might arise.

The Assembly were warned however, that the mandate could be a double-edged sword. If Marcher lands were hit with more widespread curses then people would be twice as angry and baying for blood. If Marchers died due to those magics and Imperial law once again failed to bring the perpetrators to justice then it would have caused the entire Marchers to revolt.

It is something of an open question in the Marches whether justice was actually served or not. The chief instigators of the ritual that brought Cold Sun's armies to the Marchers were found guilty of treason by negligence and the ringleaders were fined a truly eye-watering amount of money. That outcome seems fitting to most Marchers, and they approve of it. But as far as they know, nobody was ever punished for the storms or for the Autumn curse? The names of some of those involved were publicized, but nothing was done. There is a deeply cynical view expressed in a few places that the mistake of Urizen and the Archmage was to inflict Cold Sun on the entire Empire... if they'd just restricted themselves to ravaging Marcher farms then no punishment would ever have befallen them.

That judgement wasn't the only thing the Synod said on the matter at the time. While their own assembly has encouraged Marchers to be law-abiding, the Vigilance Assembly took the opposite view. Led by Gaelen Embercast, they reminded Marchers that in the past they didn't just find sorcerers and hand them over to the Imperial law - they took responsibility and ensured that those who cursed others got what they deserved. That mandate caused a resurgence of the old tradition with an emphasis on direct action with the understanding that the Vigilance Assembly would have their back.

So when a dozen threshers took it upon themselves to match magic with magic and curse those presumably responsible for the many curses that have bedevilled Marcher territories plenty of Marchers were more than pleased about it. It seemed to many to be a fitting punishment to teach folk a lesson on what happens to those who use magic irresponsibly. The idea that these landskeepers used curses and that's not something threshers should do gets short shrift from many folk. Partly, this is an unfortunate consequence of the widespread views of many Marchers that land and farming are the most important thing in the world - they simply do not see any equivalence at all in cursing mana sites and cursing farms. Crucially they assume the Marchers were responding to the curses thrown by others - they were going after the sorcerers. It's not the tools, it's what you do with them that counts. Beaters and bandits both use bows, but Marchers still know one from the other.

We renounce and condemn the actions of Hugh Farrier. What he has done is wrong! Next summit, he is to be shunned by the Marches and should be stripped of his position. His plans to curse Urizen is against the sentiment of the Marches. We understand the devastation curses cause and as an act of penance, any curse performed on Urizen from a Marcher is to be followed by recompense. This mine is trapped. There is nothing left to dig.

Peregrine Boon, Marcher Assembly, Spring Equinox 384YE, Upheld (Greater Majority 238-12)

Threshers who pat sorcerers on the back, even when they harm rivals, are no threshers at all! Shame on those who praise Marcher sorcerers! Our courageous Linley Weaver is a fine Marcher who stood and enacted a Thresher's job greatly!

Rhubarb Ironwood, Marcher Assembly, Spring Equinox 384YE, Upheld (Greater Majority 250-0)

The Marchers are not striking this time. The Throne has acknowledged our grievances, and promised an address where they consider cursing Imperial territories acts of treason. Further as Master of Magic, that action will be taken. With these and other acknowledgements by Imperial bodies, the Marcher farmers choose not to put Imperial prosperity at risk, for repeated slights. Lets judge this field by its harvest.

Rey Fosterbrooke, Marcher Assembly, Spring Equinox 384YE, Upheld (Greater Majority 194-12)

Into the Hornets' Nest

• The situation is becoming increasingly fraught

Into this hornets nest, has marched Emperor Vesna. Marchers were promised that the Throne would address the issue in her address and so they have. However, many Marchers have heard the phrase in the address, "I see the veneration of those who would maliciously curse their imperial siblings and it sickens me" and assumed it was criticism aimed directly at them. It appears to be a very pointed rebuke of those Marchers who have publicly gone out of their way to show their support for the Threshers who went after the Urizen sorcerers.

The Throne is not alone in this - the Marcher Synod has passed not one, but two statements of principle that both seem to touch on this issue - and each with a greater majority. The priests of the Assembly have been nothing if not consistent on this matter. Peregrine Boon has called on Marchers to shun Hugh Farrier for attempting to curse Urizen, while Rhubarb Ironwood has cried shame on those Marchers who praised the landskeepers that the Conclave condemned as sorcerers.

If the Assembly and the Throne hoped this would influence opinion in the Marches, it has, but perhaps not in the way they may have wanted. Marchers are led by consent. They choose who leads, everyone is born equal and respect is earned not demanded. They fiercely independent, proud, and stubborn. Being told they are wrong by their Assembly and that they should feel ashamed of their actions hasn't made many folk less keen to support Bella Flowerfields, Brother Harvest, Robyn Of Bassingham, Saura Penny, or Eli Scrump. If anything it has had the opposite effect - people are now proactively seeking them out to offer their support. Instead it has led to increasingly public grumbles about the Assembly.

To be fair, this is not the fault of Rhubarb Ironwood or Peregrine Boon. The reality is that this disenchantment is fundamentally caused by the fact that the Marcher Assembly swore blind that Imperial law would bring justice to any sorcerers who cursed the Marchers - they staked their reputation on it. Now sorcerers have attacked the Marches with curses three times within the space of a year or two and only at the point where they unleashed the Cold Sun on the entire Empire do there appear to have been any real consequences at all. It is this, more than anything else, which has fundamentally undermined trust in the Empire, the law and most of all, in the Marcher Synod.

What is painfully clear to everyone is that everyday Marchers across the nation, the kind of folk who couldn't find Anvil on a map, let alone actually turn up there, are increasingly at odds with their own Assembly. Not everyone feels that way of course, there are plenty of people who are still listening to their priests, but there are also people now saying it is the friars and the monks who should be ashamed. That conflict worries the wise - the Marches is a nation of grudges, when people fall out then the bitterness tends to fester and grow, like weevils in grain. When that happens, the grain is ruined, and you have to throw it out and start over. Better to nip this in the bud before it gets to that stage - but how?

All the Way to Anvil

Liars and gossips sleep in the same bed.

Marcher Proverb

• Jack Tiller and Frankie Moulder are visiting Anvil hoping to speak to the National Assembly about the growing tensions between them and their people
• Old Tam Witch-hazel wants to have a chat with the landskeepers especially those currently shunned by the Marchers at Anvil
• Both "delegations" are expected to arrive around 5pm on Saturday evening at the Marcher camp

After some discussion, folks agree that the best way to start to solve this might be to sit down and thrash it out. If the Assembly are right and these Landskeepers they've denounced are "wrong'uns" then folks want to know so they can tell everyone to pipe down and mind their own business. And if the Assembly are "chasing the gamekeeper instead of the poacher" then folk need to know so they can shun the Assembly till they sort their act out. Either way, best it was sorted, and that will only happen if each side gives the other a piece of their mind.

There's a wide ditch between saying and doing. Nobody is keen to go all the way to Anvil, it means days off the farm at the height of summer, but it's clear that is what is needed. Fanny Moulder, Landskeeper of the Mutton Downs, finally persuades her husband, Jack Tiller, and her niece, Frankie Moulder, to make the trip. He plans to arrive in Anvil at 5pm on the Saturday evening, looking to speak with Peregrine Boon, Rhubarb Ironwood, and any other members of the Assembly who're about. Jack likes a drink, so he'll head for the biggest tavern in the Marcher camp first and start looking for folk there.

At the same time Old Tam Witch-hazel, a landskeeper from Mitwold, has been bullied by several of his peers into coming all the way to Anvil to talk to his peers. He specifically wants to talk to remaining members of the Ruined Hill and Scorched Lands covens: Bella Flowerfields, Brother Harvest, Robyn Of Bassingham, Saura Penny, and Eli Scrump. He's happy to speak with threshers as well as landskeepers, and he won't object if Hugh Farrier is there, if anyone wants to bring them, but he's not really here to talk to anyone else. Given he estimates there's about fifty or sixty landskeepers and threshers on their way to Anvil this season, he'll leave it up to the folk at Anvil as to where they want to meet but ideally somewhere where the number of interruptions from people who aren't landskeepers or threshers can be kept to a minimum.

Further Reading

• Sound the bells - Spring 386YE wind of fortune about relations between Marches and Urizen
• Fixing What is Broken - Spring 384YE wind of fortune about threshers
• Tend to the flame - Winter 383YE wind of fortune about curses and remorse