This month’s first update is more courtly intrigue and horror with Scars, bringing our mercenary friends towards a collision with the Kallefain, who we learn a little more about in the snippet below. For the full story, check out the link above and enjoy!
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The mages that had once ruled Kallef had had a sense of fashion even more evocative and resplendent than the richest Tellian. After their downfall, excessive finery had been rejected as decadent, iniquitous and impious. Now Kallef’s culture preferred a style of clothing that matched their dour, newfound righteousness. At least, if they didn’t, they would come to the attention of the Office of Assurance of Public Responsibility and Service… and very few people upon Pacis Ara wished to draw the attention of Kallefain witch hunters. It was not only mages and fiends they hunted down, but all those ‘heretics’ who were deemed a threat to Kallef’s rule… or the authority of the witch hunters themselves.
Which made Khy-kala’s choice of outfit all the more curious. Valmira was one of Kallef’s southern neighbours. Smaller, and situated on a jutting peninsula, it had resisted Kallef’s attempts at annexation for centuries, the skill of its navy making up for its relatively small army. The conflict between the countries had had many pretexts; economic competition, arguments regarding oceangoing trade routes, territorial disputes, long-standing grudges. Before the Scarring, relations had begun to cool towards an amicable tolerance, but after Kallef’s revolution, things had gotten worse between the nations. Valmira was always touchy about the security of its borders especially where its larger neighbour was concerned, and they did not allow Kallef to violate its territory as brazenly as they did their neighbours’. More than one ‘excursion’ into Valmira’s lands ended with a reduced Kallefain force returning home with the flayed skins of their companions.
It did not help matters that, although criminals and truly corrupt or dangerous individuals fleeing into Valmira would be returned to Kallefain hands, Contessa Amylia would grant sanctuary to those deemed unjustly persecuted by Kallef and its witch hunters. Whatever her relationship with the she-elf, Justir had no doubt that the contessa delighted in having Khy-kala around merely for the grinding of teeth it would cause in her neighbours. Khy-kala’s mere presence was, as she had stated, an affront to the Kallefain delegation; that she was wearing a Valmiran outfit with the contessa’s colours was a slap to their collective faces.
He could see pinched expressions and scowls as they glared at Justir and his companions, but the greatest of their ire, and their attention, was reserved for the she-elf and he wondered again just what the history between her and that kingdom was.
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