These Flimsy Rituals

Hello all!

Just a quick update to let you know that the Ryne crowdfunder will be ending 8am Wednesday 23rd (BST). We've fully funded, and hit our first two stretch goal, so there will be a rulebook full of art and guest writers coming 2023!

"Regardless, we weren't in there long... A couple of nights, as best we could tell, before we were dragged out down Mawk's Mantle. That leaves us back where we started, I guess - the flickering dawn, the stage, the bismuth nooses, that bloody heron. Funny what your mind notices in the direst moments."

~~~

Our ritual fades, our story ends. Behind the fallen arras, twenty years of asking and wondering. Nilkat and Belka stare into the cooling fire. They trace the knot and growth of exhausted timber, with only ash and ember to shape the phantoms of the trees that could have been.

~~~

cw: betrayal, death, violence, arrest  

"Boctive Deign, Xenarus Crow, Neah nim Gorse - they’d fill the air with blood and smoke. Their treachery had already claimed Boleth and Serrivomer, they came for us next.

There are those that rightly call the Lodge a sanctuary, but I will never step foot there again. For me that place is nowt but a tomb, in its halls our revolution is buried."

In an instant, the violent arc of Galena's pistol brings down Embrace's dawn-blessed son and with it the revolution's fault lines are seared into reality. Oken lies dying, Ivar is fractured, Ezra faces an assassins blade, Neah frays at the seams, and Ash must decide where his true loyalties lie.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Altara nim Shif: Scion of the nim Shif family and their trusted enforcer.

Boctive Deign: A charismatic member of the Wolves, whose radical treatises on Embrace are widely distributed and eagerly read.

Crik Rise: Leader of the Flint Street Knappers. Once a friend of Ezra and Nilkat, but life has taken them on a different path.

Flint Reccan: A former Jackal and companion of Oken, who stayed in Eolith as envoy to Bregu after the slaying of Relict.

Galena nim Ovid: The imposing head of the Umbral Provenders and Ash’s aunt. She has ambitious plans for the city.

Xenarus Crow: The cynical leader of the Triumphant Maybe and member of the Wolves.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

nim Shif: Embrace’s newest great family. Plotting to take over the city with silvered tongues and bloody blades.

Trusted: A small cell of revolutionaries loyal to Neah, headed by Ido Ozk Erut.

~~ PLACES ~~

The Cut: A ghostly echo of Embrace. Caerdroia’s labyrinth unspooled into unknowable maze.

Winter’s Lodge: A place pulled out from the cut. A shifting collection of mismatched architecture. A shell for the gall.

~~~

c/w body horror, family conflict, betrayal

“Embrace is a hole. A rip in the heart of the world. It’s like the gardens of Crown’s Ait - petal and green cloistered by wall from the world around. Ordered sweeps of fragant colour and soft, useless lawn. Beautiful, I’m sure, but that beauty belies the effort put into maintaining it”

As the Gall blossoms into new life within Winter’s Lodge, betrayal and despair bury their roots beneath it. Hidden out of sight of the revolution, long laid plans break and new purposes are found. Duty and despair clash violently as those drawn to the Gall’s new beginning are at odds over what it means.

Oken, Neah and Ash each find themselves grappling with destiny and choice.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Altara nim Shif: Scion of the nim Shif family and their trusted enforcer.

Galena nim Ovid: The imposing head of the Umbral Provenders and Ash’s aunt. She has ambitious plans for the city.

Mel: Once an envoy of the remnant, Relict. Brought to Embrace with Oken, she rebuilt her gestalt consciousness beneath the city. She now resides within Oken, dormant but attentive.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

nim Shif: Embrace’s newest great family. Plotting to take over the city with silvered tongues and bloody blades.

Trusted: A small cell of revolutionaries loyal to Neah, headed by Ido Ozk Erut.

Umbral Provenders: A legitimised organisation of smugglers, who use the cut to smuggle contraband into and out of the city. Based in Atrium, they use criminality to enforce their hold there.

~~ PLACES ~~

The Cut: A ghostly echo of Embrace. Caerdroia’s labyrinth unspooled into unknowable maze. A broken assortment of bismuth lined tunnels that runs over, under and parallel to the physical city.

Winter’s Lodge: A place pulled out from the cut. A shifting collection of mismatched architecture. A shell for the gall.

~~~

c/w violence, police, outer-body experiences

“A tree of crimson and bone that grew down miles, visible despite the layers of architecture between, its every inch of growth fuelled by the centuries of us. Our blessings and our bonds, our lusting and loving and hoping and playing and learning and striving.”

Ivar and Ezra watch the barricades of Tail's End and Loven Street become overwhelmed, as the Pale Lanterns arrive and turn the tide of the fight against them. Hopping from machine to machine, the pair watch the city struggle in snapshots of panic and violence, leaving more of themselves behind with each passing moment. 

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Foible: The second ghostly member of the Jubilant Maybe. Kindly protest prepper. Was murdered by the nim Shifs and the Swifts.

Nilkat: A former factory mechanic, turned revolutionary. A member of the Ginnels and our story’s narrator.

Oxbow Lake: A member of the Jubilant Maybe, who joined them on the election score. Partner to Foible.

Trilvo: The matriarch of Tail’s End. A doctor, used to working on ghosts and spirit.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Likelihood Lads: A group of bookmakers and petty thieves who run the Loven Street races.

nim Shif: Embrace’s newest great family. Plotting to take over the city with silvered tongues and bloody blades.

Pale Lanterns: A group once founded to guide stray spirits, but over time their purpose has slipped from benevolent, to enforcers, to oppressors.

~~ PLACES ~~

Hinter Ward: Embrace’s southernmost ward. The north is dense tenements, while the south has been abandoned to marsh and spirit.

Winter’s Lodge: A place pulled out from the cut. A shifting collection of mismatched architecture. A shell for the gall.

~~~

c/w violence, betrayal, body horror (ghosts)

“Ask me to talk about history and politics and you’ll be stuck for hours; ask me about the forces that shape our world and my tongue is still. I place my faith in others interpretations and what they say happened - a new Remnant awoke in Embrace that day.”

As alarms wail and the barricades are overrun, Winter's Lodge and the secrets it holds are under threat from all sides. With the nim Shifs closing in and the Death's Defiant on the doorstep, the splintered Jubilant Maybe cling desperately to their tasks. As the pressure rises, they can only hope against hope that they're doing the right thing. 

Neah closes a trap, Oken finds his duty, and Ivar and Ezra try to keep themselves together. 

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Altara nim Shif: Scion of the nim Shif family and their trusted enforcer.

Anancrik Rise: Leader of the Flint Street Knappers. Once a friend of Ezra and Nilkat, but life has taken them on a different path.

Boctive Deign: A charismatic and cunning revolutionary, whose radical treatises on Embrace are widely distributed and eagerly read.

Nilkat: A former factory mechanic, turned revolutionary. A member of the Ginnels and our story’s narrator.

Winter’s Yawl: An ancient ghost, plotting in the gaps between the cobbles. Allied with Lilylium.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Likelihood Lads: A group of bookmakers and petty thieves who run the Loven Street races.

nim Shif: Embrace’s newest great family. Plotting to take over the city with silvered tongues and bloody blades.

Pale Lanterns: A group once founded to guide stray spirits, but over time their purpose has slipped from benevolent, to enforcers, to oppressors.

~~ PLACES ~~

Hinter Ward: Embrace’s southernmost ward. The north is dense tenements, while the south has been abandoned to marsh and spirit.

Winter’s Lodge: A place pulled out from the cut. A shifting collection of mismatched architecture. A shell for the gall.

~~~

c/w gore, loss of identity, body horror (ghosts)

“As we lay entangled, fingers on each other's throats, the roots and tendrils of something new grew around us.”

There are few options left, but choices must be made. Regrouping in the streets of Tail's End, Ezra and Ivar put the weapon stolen from the Pale Lanterns to use. They risk their selves to defend their cause. Meanwhile, back in the labyrinth, Ash arrives at Rodella's Heart. Carn leads him to the Tender's sacred, grisly relic. It's time to become a Jackal. 

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Altara nim Shif: Scion of the nim Shif family and their trusted enforcer.

Carn nim Daker: The ancient founder of the Tenders, the slayer of Caerdroia and Rodella. Body mythologised, sai rule the Jackals still.

Dorish nim Shif: A younger member of the nim Shifs. Still a child, appears as a Jackal in Tiding.

Galena nim Ovid: The imposing head of the Umbral Provenders and Ash’s aunt. She has ambitious plans for the city.

Trilvo: The matriarch of Tail’s End. A doctor, used to working on ghosts and spirit.

Valour nim Shif: The leader of the nim Shifs who now stands on the precipice of fulfilling all of her family’s ambitions.

Virtue nim Shif: The brother of Valour and Vigor. Has a reputation for not quite matching his sibling's ambitions.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Jackals: More formally known as the Tenders of the Dawn’s Embers, the Jackals are an organisation of remnant hunters guided by strange divination.

Likelihood Lads: A group of bookmakers and petty thieves who run the Loven Street races.

nim Shif: Embrace’s newest great family. Plotting to take over the city with silvered tongues and bloody blades.

~~ PLACES ~~

Hinter Ward: Embrace’s southernmost ward. The north is dense tenements, while the south has been abandoned to marsh and spirit.

Winter’s Lodge: A place pulled out from the cut. A shifting collection of mismatched architecture. A shell for the gall.

~~~

c/w thought invasion, injury, explosions

“If we had one advantage, it was that we faced them on our own turf. Most of the fighting would take place amongst the gambling dens and race courses of Hinter Ward. If there were anywhere suited to turn the odds, it were there.”

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Ahste Whist: One of the seven, a group of revolutionaries who mutinied on a warship during the time of the People’s Ward.

Branch & Fleece: The chaotic leaders of the Likelihood Lads. The lasses have an ongoing love/hate relationship with Ivar.

Carn nim Daker: The ancient founder of the Tenders, the slayer of Caerdroia and Rodella. Body mythologised, sai rule the Jackals still.

Crik Rise: Leader of the Flint Street Knappers. Once a friend of Ezra and Nilkat, but life has taken them on a different path.

Dorish nim Shif: A younger member of the nim Shifs. Still a child, appears as a Jackal in Tiding.

Eviron Eaves: A prominent member of the Winter’s Lodge who the others look to for leadership.

Galena nim Ovid: The imposing head of the Umbral Provenders and Ash’s aunt. She has ambitious plans for the city.

Valour nim Shif: The leader of the nim Shifs who now stands on the precipice of fulfilling all of her family’s ambitions.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Jackals: More formally known as the Tenders of the Dawn’s Embers, the Jackals are an organisation of remnant hunters guided by strange divination.

Likelihood Lads: A group of bookmakers and petty thieves who run the Loven Street races.

nim Shif: Embrace’s newest great family. Plotting to take over the city with silvered tongues and bloody blades.

Pale Lanterns: A group once founded to guide stray spirits, but over time their purpose has slipped from benevolent, to enforcers, to oppressors.

Trusted: A small cell of revolutionaries loyal to Neah, headed by Ido Ozk Erut.

~~ PLACES ~~

Hinter Ward: Embrace’s southernmost ward. The north is dense tenements, while the south has been abandoned to marsh and spirit.

Winter’s Lodge: A place pulled out from the cut. A shifting collection of mismatched architecture. A shell for the gall.

~~~

c/w intense peril, kettling, implied death

“From Crown’s Ait, three columns of nim Shif soldiers marched on us, followed by Ministers and the Lanterns and the fucking Swifts. And at their head Valour and Vigor themselves, armour gleaming and spears in hand, come to remove the last bit of grit from the shine of their ambition.

The second siege of Tail’s End were upon us and we welcomed it.”

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Ahste Whist: One of the seven, a group of revolutionaries who mutinied on a warship during the time of the People’s Ward.

Altara nim Shif: Scion of the nim Shif family and their trusted enforcer.

Boctive Deign: A charismatic and cunning revolutionary, whose radical treatises on Embrace are widely distributed and eagerly read.

Boleth Erul Cater: A long-prominent revolutionary from Calvary. Sai are one of the leaders of the Ginnels.

Carn nim Daker: The ancient founder of the Tenders, the slayer of Caerdroia and Rodella. Body mythologised, sai rule the Jackals still.

Eviron Eaves: A prominent member of the Winter’s Lodge who the others look to for leadership.

Galena nim Ovid: The imposing head of the Umbral Provenders and Ash’s aunt. She has ambitious plans for the city.

Ido Ozk Erut: A prominent member of the Winter’s Lodge, who manages a lot of the day-to-day functions.

Rhian Fetch-Grimoire: A former member of the Shepherds of the Roil. Ivar’s sister.

Roan nim Ovid: A former Umbal Provender who left to study the strangeness of the Cut. Ash’s cousin, Galena’s child.

Serrivomer Glass: The “Warden” of the people’s ward of Atrium. Along with Boleth and Boctive, one of the three representatives of the Assembly.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Jackals: More formally known as the Tenders of the Dawn’s Embers, the Jackals are an organisation of remnant hunters guided by strange divination.

nim Shif: Embrace’s newest great family. Plotting to take over the city with silvered tongues and bloody blades.

Pale Lanterns: A group once founded to guide stray spirits, but over time their purpose has slipped from benevolent, to enforcers, to oppressors.

Syndics: Clerks and government officials, embroiled in extortion, corruption and conspiracy.

Trusted: A small cell of revolutionaries loyal to Neah, headed by Ido Ozk Erut.

~~ PLACES ~~

Hinter Ward: Embrace’s southernmost ward. The north is dense tenements, while the south has been abandoned to marsh and spirit.

Winter’s Lodge: A place pulled out from the cut. A shifting collection of mismatched architecture. A shell for the gall.

~~~

c/w mindreading, manipulation, surveillance, betrayal, break-ups

“But then our triumph broke, torn asunder not by those whose noses we’d bloodied to build it, but those who’d helped us fight for it. Boctive Deign, Xenarus Crow. They’d always held fear in their hearts. That fear would poison our fragile course.”

~~~

The day before the march on the Arrad Chambers and the liberation of Lastreah, Neah Gorse finds saimself alone in the Winter’s Lodge. Below them, the fragile machinery of the revolution whirrs. Messengers run to-and-fro, delivering news to the leaders that sit in council, and return with news and schemes.

More than anyone knows, Neah has been building sair knowledge of the revolution’s machinery. As sai comes under other’s dangerous influence, sai might be persuaded to turn the machine to  fouler purpose.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Boctive Deign: A charismatic and cunning revolutionary, whose radical treatises on Embrace are widely distributed and eagerly read.

Darjan Hask: A poet, writer and part of Embrace’s elite. Sai are a childhood rival of Neah.

Elif: Apprentice of a fashion house, leader of the Indifferent Maybe (focused on espionage).

Eviron Eaves: A prominent member of the Winter’s Lodge who the others look to for leadership.

Ido Ozk Erut: A prominent member of the Winter’s Lodge, who manages a lot of the day-to-day functions.

Renna: A former Dodger. Joined Roan’s gardens after she found the strange caves beneath Atrium during the first earthquake.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Ginnels: A revolutionary faction formed by the workers of Calvary that use the Maybes as their direct action groups.

Wolves: A revolutionary faction that formed in the early days of the Assembly. They believe that acting to secure the revolution’s safety is paramount.

~~ PLACES ~~

Winter’s Lodge: A place pulled out from the cut. A shifting collection of mismatched architecture. A shell for the gall.

~~~

c/w murder, assassination, heavy wounds, explosions, jailbreak, unreality

“Already, there were tears forming in the fabric of our banners. Soon, we’d all be grasping at them, each claiming that we should be the ones to hold them aloft. We’d tear the whole canvas apart.”

~~~

Slipping through the cut, Ash tries to linger amongst the chaos of Lastreach. The revolutionaries have stormed the inner fort and the stubborn remnants of the Hellebore Guard stand between them and the prisoners. Ash can feel something clawing at him though, pulling him elsewhere. Can he hold on long enough to find Mariana, to free his mum?

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Anancrik Rise: Leader of the Flint Street Knappers. Once a friend of Ezra and Nilkat, but life has taken them on a different path.

Carn nim Daker: Captain of the Hellebore Guard, personal bodyguard of Strau nim Callad and a deathly efficient soldier.

Cloak’s Danse: Captain of the Hellebore Guard, personal bodyguard of Strau nim Callad and a deathly efficient soldier.

Crooner: A former Jackal, turned Minister of the True, turned apparent radical. Despite his outward joviality, sai come with a bloody reputation.

Galena nim Ovid: The imposing head of the Umbral Provenders and Ash’s aunt. She has ambitious plans for the city.

Lena Fisher: The self-declared Tether of Rialla’s Harbour. A former sailor turned radical priest, who teaches a doctrine focused on community.

Mariana Pinder: Ash's mum and co-owner of their shop. Arrested for standing up to the Swifts.

Rinsaya Cinalo: A former Minister, who served as second to Crooner. Has a reputation for pragmatic idealism.

Status Raglan: A political darling of Embrace, jailed after he took credit for Atrium getting a vote.

Strau nim Callad: New-crowned head of the nim Callads, following the death of their father Harnal. Fearing nim Shif assassins, is in hiding on Lastreach.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Hellebore Guard: The elite private army of the nim Callads. The house’s money has ensured that their skill hasn’t waned, even as the house’s power has.

nim Callad: The former monarchs of Embrace, who refuse to release their grip on their burnished gold. They own most of the city’s land, extracting extortionate rents.

~~~

Episode title from Marigold by Mother Falcon

~~~

c/w blood, threats, major injury, prisons, jailbreak

“I imagine in their heads, they were biding time and collecting their forces, ready at any moment to take the fight to the upstart nim Shifs. In truth, they were kidding themselves. Their doom were writ on Fate’s tapestry, their line would soon be done.”

~~~

Hopeful, but unsure, the would-be abolitionists stand before Lastreach's inner keep. They debate the best way into the heart of the island-prison. Do they try to convince the garrison to side with them? Do they force a breach in the prison’s defences? Do they work with the apparently revolutionary ministers, Rinsaya and Crooner?

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Anancrik Rise: Leader of the Flint Street Knappers. Once a friend of Ezra and Nilkat, but life has taken them on a different path.

Cloak’s Danse: Captain of the Hellebore Guard, personal bodyguard of Strau nim Callad and a deathly efficient soldier.

Crooner: A former Jackal, turned Minister of the True, turned apparent radical. Despite his outward joviality, sai come with a bloody reputation.

Jossa Stoic: Crik’s second in command. Tough and trustworthy, respected by all the Knappers.

Rinsaya Cinalo: A former Minister, who served as second to Crooner. Has a reputation for pragmatic idealism.

Status Raglan: A political darling of Embrace, jailed after he took credit for Atrium getting a vote.

Strau nim Callad: New-crowned head of the nim Callads, following the death of their father Harnal. Fearing nim Shif assassins, is in hiding on Lastreach.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Flint Street Knappers: A gang operating out of Limbus Ward, who use gliders to get around. Most are from families with heritage in the Rushes.

Hellebore Guard: The elite private army of the nim Callads. The house’s money has ensured that their skill hasn’t waned, even as the house’s power has.

Ministry of the True: Agents of the council who wield extra-judiciary powers and private militias.

nim Callad: The former monarchs of Embrace, who refuse to release their grip on their burnished gold. They own most of the city’s land, extracting extortionate rents.

~~ PLACES ~~

Lastreach: The island furthest downstream at the confluence of the Trill and the Callad. It currently serves as the city's notorious jail.

~~~

c/w prisons, jailbreak, murder

“We declare now the institution of the Common Government of Embrace and proclaim immediate:

~~~

In the dark hour before dawn, a fleet of ships—fishing ships and trade barges, rowboats and one-person yachts, narrowboats out of the canal’s comfort—break the harbour of Laceport and sail purposefully towards Lastreach.

That final island, downstream on the Trill, has served Embrace with a multitude of purposes. Holy ground, watchpost, fort, arable hills for goats, neutral ground, a villa. Now though, it stands as a symbol of tyranny. There is found the city’s jail, and too many languish forgotten on that craggy redoubt.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Anancrik Rise: Leader of the Flint Street Knappers. Once a friend of Ezra and Nilkat, but life has taken them on a different path.

Jossa Stoic: Crik’s second in command. Tough and trustworthy, respected by all the Knappers.

Nilkat: A former factory mechanic, turned revolutionary. A member of the Ginnels and our story’s narrator.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Flint Street Knappers: A gang operating out of Limbus Ward, who use gliders to get around. Most are from families with heritage in the Rushes.

Laceport Beneficiaries: An illegal, roaming co-op dock that feeds the people of Calvary.

Ministry of the True: Agents of the council who wield extra-judiciary powers and private militias.

nim Callad: The former monarchs of Embrace, who refuse to release their grip on their burnished gold. They own most of the city’s land, extracting extortionate rents.

~~ PLACES ~~

Calvary: The most densely packed ward, filled with too-small houses and windmill factories. There are rumours that you can disappear into the Cut if you take the wrong turning.

Lastreach: The island furthest downstream at the confluence of the Trill and the Callad. It currently serves as the cities notorious jail.

~~~

c/w political unrest, takeover of government building, protest, violence

“For one moment, the night before, I’d known something like peace. For hours half-a-dozen of us had written and debated and drafted, putting words to the cause that carried our bones. LV was the one to set it and I remember the clacking of their presses as they created copy after copy. The smell of the heat and the paper and the ink lives with me even now. I remember thinking that I should sleep, we should sleep, for the day ahead of us. But how could we, when the future long fought for was being given life before our eyes.”

~~~

As the march reaches the Arrad Chambers, Oken, Ivar and Rhian make their way higher up Marrow to the great temple on top. They hope to make the most of the distraction caused by the unrest. The Pale Lanterns, that faction of ghost hunters that nest beneath the temple, have a weapon that’ll be useful in the struggle to come. They mean to steal it.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Altara nim Shif: Scion of the nim Shif family and their trusted enforcer.

Boctive Deign: A charismatic and cunning revolutionary, whose radical treatises on Embrace are widely distributed and eagerly read. Leader of the Wolves.

Boleth Erul Cater: A long-prominent revolutionary from Calvary. Sai are one of the leaders of the Ginnels.

Parsib nim Corvanus: Recently elected Warden of Holm and nim Shif lackey.

Rhian Fetch-Grimoire: A former member of the Shepherds of the Roil, sworn to keep envoys from Embrace. Ivar’s sister.

Serrivomer Glass: The “Warden” of the people’s ward of Atrium. Along with Boleth and Boctive, one of the three representatives of the Assembly.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Pale Lanterns: A group once founded to guide stray spirits, but over time their purpose has slipped from benevolent, to enforcers, to oppressors.

~~ PLACES ~~

Marrow: A ward at Embrace’s heart, built over Caerdroia’s maelstrom. A hill rises to dominate the city, both geographically and politically.

The Winter’s Lodge: A place pulled out from the cut. A shifting collection of mismatched architecture. A shell for the gall.

~~~

“The early sessions were long and chaotic, stretching through night and dawn. We slept on the hall’s pews, rather than leaving. Fuelled by a freedom centuries hoped for, it would take time to find our structure and rhythm. There were proposals about fundamental rights alongside those for docking permits, debates about abolition of the swifts alongside those about local bridge tolls.”

~~~

The people of Embrace march. A number greater than the city has ever seen, drawn from across Limbus and Holm, Hinter and Acreage, Calvary and Limbus. The streets, ever hot and humid, fill with their press of body, banner and song.

At their head is the Assembly, that council of the revolution whole. They lead the march up the winding streets of Marrow Hill, clutching their declaration. They mean to declare the people’s right to self-rule.

Meanwhile, hoping to make the most of this distraction, Ivar, Rhian and Oken move on Marrow with their own purpose. At the top of the hill is Parsant’s great temple of the maelstrom. The Pale Lanterns, holding a cache of spirit weapons, make their nest inside.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Carn nim Daker: The ancient founder of the Tenders, the slayer of Caerdroia and Rodella. Body mythologised, sai rule the Jackals still.

Rhian Fetch-Grimoire: A former member of the Shepherds of the Roil, sworn to keep envoys from Embrace. Ivar’s sister.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Pale Lanterns: A group once founded to guide stray spirits, but over time their purpose has slipped from benevolent, to enforcers, to oppressors.

Parsant: The main religion of Embrace, founded on a rejection of the remnants as divine and a centring of human importance.

~~ PLACES ~~

Marrow: A ward at Embrace’s heart, built over Caerdroia’s maelstrom. A hill rises to dominate the city, both geographically and politically.

Temple of the Maelstrom: Along with Rialla's Harbour, one of Embrace's two main temples. It is built atop the Marrow and is rumoured to be constructed over Caerdroia's body.

The Winter’s Lodge: A place pulled out from the cut. A shifting collection of mismatched architecture. A shell for the gall.

~~~

“And so the first Assembly formed, as our whole revolution broad and various, came with their grievances and their doubts, their dreams and their ideals, and their hopes for what would come next”

~~~

In the shifting halls of Winter’s Lodge, Embrace’s first People’s Assembly meets. The various revolutionary factions coalesce, attempting to find common ground and a shared path forward.

c/w state/police violence (intro: 1:30-4:20), injury descriptions, discussions of death and post-death, family drama

“The rest knew only the ryne of power. They were blades singing to be used, even if by a tyrant’s hand. They came with their Bismuth nooses and gave Mawk’s Mantle its name.”

~~~

Embrace bleeds. The nim Shifs are ascendant, their political rivals defeated. The tide was turning on the revolution. But then comes Winter’s Lodge, breaking through the night and bringing the dawn. It’s not only the nim Shifs that feel blessed by the arrival of the sun.

In the new day, the Jubilant Maybe make their plans. It’s time to strike hard.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Altara nim Shif: Scion of the nim Shif family and their trusted enforcer.

Crik Rise: Leader of the Flint Street Knappers. Once a friend of Ezra and Nilkat.

Foible: The second ghostly member of the Jubilant Maybe, murdered by the nim Shifs and the Swifts.

Galena nim Ovid: Leader of the Umbral Provenders, who led them into an alliance with Lilylium. Ash’s Aunt.

Oxbow Lake: A member of the Jubilant Maybe, partner to Foible.

Rhian Fetch-Grimoire: A former(?) member of the Shepherds of the Roil, sworn to keep envoys from Embrace. Ivar’s sister.

Serrivomer Glass: The unofficial Warden of the People’s Ward of Atrium. Revolutionary leader in hiding.

Cherib & Zedek nim Gorse: Neah’s parents. Respected members of Embrace’s upper-middle class.

Amris, Caoimhe & Panna Graft: Ezra’s family. Amris is the adoptive mam to them all and the leader of the Painted Hands.

Avery, Dalton and Mariana Pinder: Ash’s parents, run a shop in Atrium. Mariana was arrested for standing up to the Swifts.

~~ PLACES ~~

Atrium: An old neighbourhood near the docks, once home to wholesale markets and cafes. Bordered by the Castings, the Tear and the headquarters of the Tenders of the Dawn’s Embers.

Calvary: The most densely packed warded, full of too-small houses and windmill factories. There are rumours you can disappear into the Cut if you take the wrong turn.

Hinter: At the tip of Embrace’s tail. A mixing ground of working class residents and upper-class visitors from neighbouring Acreage, come to watch races at its stadium.

Winter’s Lodge: A place pulled out from the cut. Shifting architecture home to the gall.

~~~

c/w bribery, death threats, family conflict

“Within a matter of weeks all manner of scandal and blackmail, violence and assassination incident brought the council to its knees. And we were left unsure as to whether to celebrate its demise, or fear what appeared in its place. The nim Shifs ascendant, a dictatorship ruled by Valour and Vigor. The Sunspear banners like summer’s flowers blooming on near every corner.”

~~~

The streets of Acreage are broad and open. Despite the many-storied towering of the terraces, golden light always seems to bathe the ward.

There was a time when living in this ward wasn’t much coveted. It was a place of field, farm and vineyard; most of those who lived here worked on those estates. Limbus and Holm, both close to the bridges and markets, were the preferred wards of Embrace’s burgeoning middle classes.

But as fortunes grew and the city’s economy shifted, as political power diffused from Crown’s Ait to the Marrow, houses amongst the greenery seemed preferable to those amongst the new-raised factories.

It’s inside one of Acreage’s terraces that Neah Gorse waits. A trap closes around saim. Power’s hand extends from Crown’s Ait, to place a dagger against sair neck.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Altara nim Shif: Scion of the nim Shif family and their trusted enforcer.

The nim Gorse’s (Cherib and Zedek): Neah’s parents. They are respected members of Embrace’s upper-middle class.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

nim Shif: Embrace’s newest great family. Plotting to take over the city with silvered tongues and bloody blades.

~~ PLACES ~~

Acreage: Filled with farmland and vineyards growing crops for the city’s elite. Terraces on the riverbank house the upper-middle classes.

~~~

c/w arrest, difficult parent/child relationships, lost pets

“You ever done much gardening Belka? You know how you never really see a sapling appear out of the soil. Just one morning it’s there? It was like that and, honest, it was hard to believe that it hadn’t always been there.”

~~~

For the first time that anyone living has known, the dawn breaks perfect across Embrace. Glorious, amber rays carry with them a new day.

The Jubilant Maybe watch it unfold from above the city. Ezra, Ash, Neah and Ivar exit the cut amongst the familiar bone-rooted buildings of Skulltop; meanwhile Oken, brings with him the unfamiliar. He’s hauled the Winter’s Lodge, in its entirety, back into the city.

What to do with this misplaced piece of geography isn’t the only issue the Jubilant will have to contend with, as they catch up with friends and family.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Altara nim Shif: Scion of the nim Shif family and their trusted enforcer.

Amris Graft: Ezra’s mam. A community organiser and member of the Painted Hands.

Boctive Deign: A charismatic and cunning revolutionary, whose radical treatises on Embrace are widely distributed and eagerly read.

Eviron Yves: Highly involved with the Winter's Lodge, Eviron helps guide and counsel those seeking refuge in the Cut.

The nim Gorse’s (Cherib and Zedek): Neah’s parents. They are respected members of Embrace’s upper-middle class.

Nilkat: A former factory mechanic, turned revolutionary. A member of the Ginnels and our story’s narrator.

The Pinders (Avery, Dalton and Mariana): Ash’s family, a group of Atrium shopkeepers.

Rhian Fetch-Grimoire: A keen-eyed member of the Shepherds of the Roil. Ivar’s long-lost sister.

Sirus: Deputy of Tail’s End.

Trilvo: The matriarch of Tail’s End. A doctor, used to working on ghosts and spirit.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

nim Shif: Embrace’s newest great family. Plotting to take over the city with silvered tongues and bloody blades.

Swifts: Embrace’s police force. Once a ragtag militia, formed of ward locals, they have been armed and outfitted by the nim Shifs.

~~ PLACES ~~

The Winter’s Lodge: A place pulled out from the cut. A shifting collection of mismatched architecture. A shell for the gall.

~~~

c/w insects, eating of an envoy, temporary hearing loss

"The Gall, naturally, fell into Oken’s hands. That discarded thing, relic lost and living, vessel to a remnant’s power. I’m not sure whether then or later, he understood the potential of what he carried. Raised himself on power’s sap, could he truly read its dread portent? Maybe he saw it only as ember, in the carcass the jackal only sees a thing to be consumed, it does not behold the new life promised in the ground beneath."

~~~

The Jubilant continue facing off against Lilylium. Oken has just struck a decisive blow against one of the ancient envoy’s segments, but in doing so has revealed that he is the one carrying the gall.

The Jubilant are in over their heads. They’re fighting an envoy and now it knows with full certainty what its target is.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Foible: A former member of the Ginnels, a protest prepper. Killed by the Swifts on the night of the earthquake.

Midrib: One of Atrium’s dodgers, who sells the scrap, trinkets and treasures they find in the Castings. Ash’s pal.

Lilylium: An ancient and powerful envoy, rumoured to have survived Caerdroia. Seems desperate to claim the Gall and has allied with some of Embrace’s most powerful to do it.

Renna: A former Dodger. Joined Roan’s gardens after she found the strange caves beneath Atrium during the first earthquake.

Rhian Fetch-Grimoire: A keen-eyed member of the Shepherds of the Roil. Ivar’s long-lost sister.

Valour nim Shif: The leader of the nim Shif family, alongside her twin, Vigor. A ruthless, ambitious and calculating politician.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

The Winter’s Lodge: A group of weavers and spirits who call the lodge their home. They provide a halfway-house to those who need it, largely ghosts new to the Cut.

nim Shif: Embrace’s newest great family. Plotting to take over the city with silvered tongues and bloody blades.

~~ PLACES ~~

The Cut: A ghostly echo of Embrace. Caerdroia’s labyrinth unspooled into unknowable maze. A broken assortment of bismuth lined tunnels that runs over, under and parallel to the physical city.

~~~

c/w insect-like envoy

“Lilylium was the second. Envoy born before there was Embrace, before there was Alamire. In many ways we were lucky that it was the Jubilant that faced them, even if it was to be in the labyrinth they’d made their hunting grounds.“

~~~

c/w arrest

“But while we fought for the right to weave our own fates, the Jubilant stood defiantly against the forces of regression. The Cut has always been the domain of the dead and the ghostly, weighed down by the heft what came before. The labyrinth echoed with the siren song of glories past."

~~~

The Jubilant Maybe arrive at the Winters Lodge besieged. The displaced gardeners of the Green, and other strange allies beside, in tow.

Their intent is to check in on the weavers who call the lodge home and the revolutionaries who have sought shelter here. However, they meet a familiar face, Oken, who can’t quite believe that his new-found friends haven’t been lost amidst the irregular beat of his timeline. The crew is back together again.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Boctive Deign: A charismatic and cunning revolutionary, whose radical treatises on Embrace are widely distributed and eagerly read.

Eviron Yves: The imposing head of the Umbral Provenders and Ash’s aunt. She has ambitious plans for the city.

Ido Ozk Erut: A prominent member of the Winter’s Lodge, who manages a lot of the day-to-day functions.

Lilylium: An ancient and powerful envoy, rumoured to have survived Caerdroia. Seems desperate to claim the Gall and has allied with some of Embrace’s most powerful to do it.

Mariana Pinder: An Atrium shopkeeper with a warm smile and a love for a good argument. Ash’s mum.

Rhian Fetch-Grimoire: A keen-eyed member of the Shepherds of the Roil. Ivar’s long-lost sister.

Roan nim Ovid: A former Umbal Provender who left to study the strangeness of the Cut. Ash’s cousin, Galena’s child.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

The Fettled Green: A community within the cut, created by Roan. A boundless garden, thicketed with experimental growth.

The Winter’s Lodge: A group of weavers and spirits who call the lodge their home. They provide a halfway-house to those who need it, largely ghosts new to the Cut.

~~ PLACES ~~

The Cut: A ghostly echo of Embrace. Caerdroia’s labyrinth unspooled into unknowable maze. A broken assortment of bismuth lined tunnels that runs over, under and parallel to the physical city.

~~~

c/w possession, injury

“It shouldn’t be a surprise to hear that for some, the Cut were a better home than Embrace above. There were many who’d take dangerous strangeness over the hatred and oppression of the city proper.”

~~~

The Jubilant find themselves outside the Fettled Green, the lush garden in the Cut grown by Roan nim Ovid. Getting in is a problem though. It has balled itself up, roots knotted, the Cut folded around it.

And, they are not the only ones trying to find their way into the Green. There are people here, scratching and scraping at those twisted walls. Amongst them is a familiar face, Midrib, the dodger sent down here to find out what had happened to the garden.

Ash sets off an explosion, Ezra gets protective, Neah communes with a ghost, Ivar gets told off and Topaz has her loyalties tested.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Galena nim Ovid: The imposing head of the Umbral Provenders and Ash’s aunt. She has ambitious plans for the city.

Midrib: One of Atrium’s dodgers, who sells the scrap, trinkets and treasures they find in the Castings. Ash’s pal.

Mikaja Stave: A member of the Death’s Defiant, fancies himself a gun-slinger. Has taken a (dis)liking to Ivar.

Renna: A former Dodger. Joined Roan’s gardens after she found the strange caves beneath Atrium during the first earthquake.

Roan nim Ovid: A former Umbral Provender who left to study the strangeness of the Cut. Ash’s cousin, Galena’s child.

Winter’s Yawl: An ancient ghost, plotting in the gaps between the cobbles. Allied with Lilylium.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Death’s Defiant: A group of spirits, hijacking bodies to further their plans. They are led by Winter’s Yawl and yoked to sair ambitions.

The Fettled Green: A community within the cut, created by Roan. A boundless garden, thicketed with experimental growth.

~~ PLACES ~~

The Cut: A ghostly echo of Embrace. Caerdroia’s labyrinth unspooled into unknowable maze. A broken assortment of bismuth lined tunnels that runs over, under and parallel to the physical city.

~~~

CW: possession, body horror, use of corpses, insects, uncertain reality

"But you know what unites the theories we had about that place? In all of them, the Cut is subject. It’s something attached, a barnacle lodged to the city.

But the Cut is not addition or reflection or parasite. It’s not mirror, but window - mud-caked, fogged and frosted. If we’re lucky, we can spy glimpses of the silhouettes inside. We can see the wonder, a whole ecosystem - spirit-grown and built from alien perspective."

~~~

For millennia, the Winter’s Lodge has sat as anchor in the midst of the Cut. An enormity of forlorn architecture, stubborn and static. In that time it has been multitudes - temple and estate, battleground and meeting place, staging-post and hideout.

For the last few centuries though, it has been home to a covenant of weavers and spirits. They have turned it into a sanctuary, a halfway-house, a home.

It is here that Oken wakes. He finds himself in a room unexpectedly warm and comfortable, but this is not to last. The weavers of the lodge have taken on uncanny housemates. Mel is here - amongst her rebuilt hivemind - and she means to hold Oken to his promises.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Carn nim Daker: The slayer of Caerdroia and Rodella, the founder of the Jackals.

Eviron Yves: A weaver. The Winter’s Lodge, look to their wisdom for guidance.

Lillylium: An ancient and powerful envoy, rumoured to have survived Caerdroia.

Mel: Once an envoy of the remnant, Relict. Brought to Embrace with Oken, she has rebuilt her gestalt consciousness beneath the city.

Soka: A teenager who tried to rob Oken’s sanctum. She is now a part of Mel’s hivemind.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

The Winter’s Lodge: A group of weavers and spirits who call the lodge their home. They provide a halfway-house to those who need it, largely ghosts new to the Cut.

~~~

CW: possession, bothering animals

"I sent them to the Cut because it seemed like the best place for them. It's obviously not a safe-house, but it were out of the authority's control. As close to out of the city as I could get the Jubilant.  They'd still have to survive, to be canny; but at least there wouldn't be half a city baying for their blood. If I'd known what was waiting for them down there...

I don't know. I' don't think there was any other choice to make..."

~~~

The Jubilant Maybe lay low in the Cut. While they look for clues about the whereabouts of Oken, they have a chance to catch their breath and pay attention to their surroundings. 

First on the agenda is finding a way to the strange garden that Roan nim Ovid had been cultivating under Atrium. The Ginnels have had no word from them since the Earthquake. The messenger that they sent out, Midrib, has gone missing too. The Jubilant begin their search, trying to trace a path through the unmappable.

Ash looks for familiar markings, Neah plays with strange light, Ezra recruits new messengers and Ivar finds a pub (kind of).

~~~ PEOPLE ~~~

Foible: A former member of the Ginnels, a protest prepper. Killed by the Swifts on the night of the earthquake.

Midrib: One of Atrium’s dodgers, who sells the scrap, trinkets and treasures they find in the Castings. Ash’s pal.

Roan: A former Umbal Provender who left to study the strangeness of the Cut. Related to Ash and Galena.

~~~ FACTIONS ~~~

The Garden: A garden cultivated by Roan nim Ovid and Renna under Atrium. They grow strange plants inside the Cut, experimenting with its weird natures.

~~~ PLACES ~~~

The Cut: A ghostly echo of Embrace. Caerdroia’s labyrinth unspooled into unknowable maze. A broken assortment of bismuth lined tunnels that runs over, under and parallel to the physical city.

~~~

"But what they created wasn't remnant or envoy, it was something different. The many stories differ on what - a drifter, a machine, a seeker, a monster. For years it wandered, collecting tales as others would figurines. Everywhere it went new stories blossomed, until, they just stopped." - a fragment from the memories of Serrata Paige.

***

Cast out, Nepps wanders the patchwork of Ryne. It drifts through the Oceans, climbs mountain, wanders desert others would find inhospitable. Its curiosity alight, it scours the world for understanding. Everywhere it goes it collects, gathering threads of spirit around itself like a blanket of concept, emotion and resonance. And, as it travels, it changes.

On its trail are its creators. Occlo, Hiseka, Vade, and envoys of the remnant Inahus. They mean to capture it, to undo its growth. It's inevitable that they will catch it, but when that happens will they destroy Nepps, or will Nepps destroy them?

***

"We searched for ages for rumour, for story, for precedent for what we were about to do. If anyone before us had created a remnant, perhaps then the path that we were on wasn't heresy, perhaps what we were creating wouldn't be an abomination.

The closest we could find was a collection of stories from the Sounds; of something called the Spindle, called the Anchor, called Nepps." - A fragment from the memories of Serrata Paige.

***

Along the ocean floor, ten great trunks move - their every step disturbing centuries of silt and sediment. Follow one of those legs upwards - drifting past a mile of singing barnacle and coral - until you begin to see sunlight breaking above. There you will find the legs' meeting point, a great crag of calcium and basalt that breaches the sea's surface. Behold Inahus, the great wandering titan who collects secrets from the salted winds. 

On Inahus' island, a group gathers - Occlo, Hiseka, Vade. Their backs are bent, their brows furrowed as they work to realise an impossible dream. Together with the remnant, they are going to create something beautiful - not envoy, not remnant, but something new. A life unique to Ryne, a creature of curiosity to help them understand the world.

***

c/w psychological trauma, eyes

“I wouldn’t let Ezra be the middle of that blaze. They would not be our revolution’s effigy. I couldn’t… I wouldn’t… They meant so much more than that.”

~~~

The Jubilant Maybe gather. Their latest scores have made them prey for the city’s authorities. The Ministers, the Provenders, the Swifts. All want their blood.

There’s nothing to do but run, to get to the Cut - that second, ghostly city - and lie low. Getting there though, poses its own problems. They slink through Calvary’s dark streets trying to avoid all those hunting them, not knowing that there’s a different predator waiting ahead.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Altara nim Shif: Scion of the nim Shif family and one of their enforcers.

Galena nim Ovid: The imposing head of the Umbral Provenders and Ash’s aunt. She has ambitious plans for the city.

Midrib: One of Atrium’s dodgers, who sells the scrap, trinkets and treasures they find in the Castings. Ash’s pal.

Nilkat: A former factory mechanic, turned revolutionary. A member of the Ginnels and our story’s narrator.

Scran: A radical pamphleteer and Ezra’s mate.

Roan nim Ovid: A former Umbal Provender who left to study the strangeness of the Cut. Related to Ash and Galena.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Swifts: Embrace’s police force. Once a ragtag militia, formed of ward locals, they have been armed and outfitted by the nim Shifs.

The League of Gunsmiths: An organised body representing the manufacturers of Embrace’s spirit guns. They hold a monopoly on their trade which they ruthlessly enforce.

~~ PLACES ~~

Calvary: One of Embrace's Wards and resting place for Rodella's colossal skull. A tight knuckle of ginnel, snicket, and factory. 

The Cut: A ghostly echo of Embrace. Caerdroia’s labyrinth unspooled into unknowable maze. A broken assortment of bismuth lined tunnels that runs over, under and parallel to the physical city.

~~~

c/w police, between 55'33 and 59'57: family conflict/threats and discussion of disfigurement

“Drawing connection between the revolution’s many parts was its own challenge. Both because we were a house built with uncommon brick and because of the families desire to keep us disparate. Ezra and Oken wouldn’t be the only ones to find trouble.

As our messengers worked their way across rooftop, through the cut, down the canals, the Swifts swarmed like their namesakes, looking to pick us off. Over on Lastreach, the cells filled up.”

~~~

Ezra staggers through the dark ginnels of Calvary, the explosion not long behind them. The whistles of the Swifts echo down close alleyways. The night has turned familiar streets into something like a maze.

No. Labyrinth. 

Ezra knows their destination. They know every brick and cobble, every turn that’ll lead them there. Nilkat. He’s the only person who can get them out of this.

Ivar appoints a deputy, Neah goes fabric shopping, Ash has family problems and Oken contacts an old friend.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Elif: A fabric shop apprentice and member of the Ginnels. Introduced Neah to the Maybes.

Galena nim Ovid: The imposing head of the Umbral Provenders and Ash’s aunt. She has ambitious plans for the city.

Mell: The last surviving envoy of Relict, a remnant slain by Oken. She was carried to Embrace with him afterward and has been rebuilding her strength inside the cut.

Nilkat: A former factory mechanic, turned revolutionary. A member of the Ginnels and our story’s narrator.

Trilvo: The matriarch of Tail’s End. A doctor used to working on ghosts and spirit.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Swifts: Embrace’s police force. Once a ragtag militia, formed of ward locals, they have been armed and outfitted by the nim Shifs.

Umbral Provenders: A legitimised organisation of smugglers, who use the cut to smuggle contraband into and out of the city.

~~ PLACES ~~

The Cut: A ghostly echo of Embrace. Caerdroia’s labyrinth unspooled into unknowable maze. A broken assortment of bismuth lined tunnels that runs over, under and parallel to the physical city.

~~~

c/w fights with police, animal harm, NPC death

“Across the city these splinters of defiance spread. Each spelk the families plucked saw two more embedded into Embrace’s flesh. Us ginnels and those like us, watched. We were both proud of our comrade’s successes, and jealous, desperate to join the fray."

~~~

As the rain lashes down over Embrace, Ezra and Oken take shelter in the carousel. They’ve been laying low here for a couple of weeks, nearly at each other's throats.

Nilkat brings the reprieve they need. He’s got a job for the pair of them—the Ginnels are calling a meeting and he wants the Jubilant’s in convincing others to join.

Armed with a list of names—The Triumphant Maybe, The Pamphleteers, The Painted Hands—Ezra and Oken set out. But they won't just need their diplomacy for the factions, they’ll need it for each other too.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Amris Graft: Ezra’s mam. A community organiser and member of the Painted Hands.

L.V. Petit: A radical pamphleteer, that can often be found in the middle of radical gatherings, printing machine on their back.

Nilkat: A former factory mechanic, turned revolutionary. A member of the Ginnels and our story’s narrator.

Xenaras Crow: A careful, calculating, and somewhat cynical radical. Leads the Triumphant Maybe.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Ginnels: A broad revolutionary network, formed by the workers of Calvary Ward.

Jackals: More formally known as the Tenders of the Dawn’s Embers, the Jackals are an organisation of remnant hunters guided by strange divination.

Painted Hands: A group of criminals formed of people laid-off when the dye factories mechanised. They break the law to put food on the table and to pay the bosses back.

Pamphleteers: A shabby collection of small presses and independent pamphleteers. They’d be made illegal if the news-sheets had their way.

Swifts: Embrace’s police force. Once a ragtag militia, formed of ward locals, they have been armed and outfitted by the nim Shifs.

Triumphant Maybe: A radical cell headed by Xenarus Crow. They are ruthless and professional.

~~~

c/w description of insects and spiders, violence, NPC death

“For as long as I’d known, resistance in Embrace had been like puddles in the cobbles. Disparate, kept separate by the foundations of the city. Over there a union of factory workers fighting for pay and safety; here a group trying to raise their voices above Parsant’s tight dogma. For us Ginnels, so much of our work had been trying to score trenches between those waters, to turn puddle, into pool, into flood.”

~~~

The estate of Silicet nim Callad was used to hosting parties. Nearly every night, the Minister would be hosting some affair or another. The whole villa was shaped to that purpose; from the central building a torrent of jutting rooms and juxtaposed architecture broke out. A vine-covered balcony, a tiled dome, a veranda on a rooftop courtyard. Silicet was adding new rooms.

There is a secret though, at the heart of this architecture. A gap in the floorplans, a void that plunges down, like a dagger, puncturing the building from top-story to basement.

Tonight, the Jubilant Maybe mean to find their way into that space and discover what Silicet hides inside.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Branch & Fleece: The chaotic leaders of the Likelihood Lads. After they worked a score together that went bad, Ivar has reservations.

Crik: Ezra’s childhood friend and rival. Leader of the Flint Street Knappers.

Galena nim Ovid: The imposing head of the Umbral Provenders and Ash’s aunt. She has ambitious plans for the city.

Silicet nim Callad: One of the city’s ministers and a member of nim Callad. To her acquaintances she’s known for throwing the best parties in town; to everyone else, she’s a tyrant.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Flint Street Knappers: A gang operating out of Limbus Ward, who use gliders to get around. Most are from families with heritage in the Rushes.

Likelihood Lads: A ruthless, stylish, and fickle gang of bookmakers that rule Hinter’s races.

Ministry of the True: Agents of the council who wield extra-judiciary powers and private militias.

nim Callad: The former monarchs of Embrace, who refuse to release their grip on their burnished gold. They own most of the city’s land, extracting extortionate rents.

Viols: A union of sex workers, striking against rent increases.

~~~

c/w description of police violence (in intro: 0'00 to 2'43)

“Over the next few weeks, the families paraded their victory over us. Their news-sheets celebrating the crushing of the radical ward of Atrium and the arrest of the heretic priest Lena Fisher.

The press’ insults were the easiest taunt to brush off, their actions were harder to stomach. ”

~~~

Sitting patiently has never been something Ash Pinders has been good at. Laying low was never going to be easy.

In the strange and dangerous weeks that follow the destruction of the People’s Ward of Atrium, Ash searches for a way to keep himself occupied. When Ginnels tell him to keep his head down, he turns to another group instead: the Flint Street Knappers.

He’s not the only member of the Jubilant though, to turn up at their door.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Alin & Mara Pinder: Ash’s sisters. They both work for the Viols, a union of sex workers.

Crik: Ezra’s childhood friend and rival. Leader of the Flint Street Knappers.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Flint Street Knappers: A gang operating out of Limbus Ward, who use gliders to get around. Most are from families with heritage in the Rushes.

Likelihood Lads: A ruthless, stylish, and fickle gang of bookmakers, that rule Hinter’s races.

Ministry of the True: Agents of the council who wield extra-judiciary powers and private militias.

nim Callad: The former monarchs of Embrace, who refuse to release their grip on their burnished gold. They own most of the city’s land, extracting extortionate rents.

Viols: A union of sex workers, striking against rent increases.

~~ PLACES ~~

Hinter Ward: Embrace’s southernmost ward. The north is dense tenements, while the south has been abandoned to marsh and spirit.

Loven Street: A street in Hinter ward. Its people have banded together to strike against nim Callad’s rent increases.

Tail’s End: A community, built by spirits, at the tip of Rodella’s tail. A ramshackle ghost town, radical in outlook.

~~~

Episode contains spoilers for Tiding season one.

Hi everyone! Due to a combination of deadlines and illness we're not releasing a new Embrace episode this week. We're going to take a little bit more time to put the episode together, we'll be releasing it next Sunday instead.

We're releasing this bonus clips episode in its place. It's a collection of outtakes, goofs, and pre-recording chat that didn't make it into the episodes. Enjoy!

c/w police violence and named NPC death (1:21:30 to 1:25:46. If you skip the description but want the facts, check below episode notes), natural disaster (earthquake)

“Those moments were just a glimpse though. They’d soon be brought to an end. Disaster brings out the best in communities, and the worst in authority.” I can’t remember if it was Serrivomer or Boctive that said that, but either way, those words would prove prophetic.”

~~~

For a week after the earthquake, the people of Atrium, Calvary, Hinter and Holm are left to fend for themselves. Absent of the council’s attention, community effort, and grassroots organising help them to recover from the earthquake.

As the earthquake's effects make themselves known, the Jubilant Maybe spend time helping their community's efforts. They fix infrastructure, secure food, help out their families, and give people a way to relax.

This strange lull won’t last though; the void of authority is temporary. It’s no surprise when they move to take back what’s theirs.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Amris Graft: Ezra’s mam. A community organiser and member of the Painted Hands.

Darjan Hask: A poet, writer and part of Embrace’s elite. They are a childhood rival of Neah.

Elif: An apprentice for a fashion house and a member of the Ginnels.

Foible: A member of the Ginnels, who helped out on the voting score.

Lena Fisher: The self-declared Tether of Rialla’s Harbour. A former sailor turned radical priest, who teaches a doctrine focused on community.

Trilvo: A ghost healer and the community leader of Tail’s End.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Laceport Beneficiaries: An illegal, roaming co-op dock that feeds the people of Calvary.

nim Shif: Embrace’s newest great family. Plotting to take over the city with silvered tongues and bloody blades.

Swifts: Embrace’s police force. Once a ragtag militia, formed of ward locals, they have been armed and outfitted by the nim Shifs.

~~ PLACES ~~

Rialla’s Harbour: One of Embrace’s two major temples. A spire of bone covered in scrimshaw.

Tail’s End: A community, built by spirits, at the tip of Rodella’s tail. A ramshackle ghost town, radical in outlook.

~~~

c/w earthquake, discussion of murder

“In sessions over in Marrow, in the ransacked halls of the Arrad Chambers, they advocated for great sums of money to go to the Bridgers to repair their tarnished heirloom.  We’d not get a penny of it. We were left to fend for ourselves. ”

~~~

An earthquake rocks Embrace. The land that-two years ago-started moving beneath Atrium, shifts again.

With little time to reflect on their scores, most of the crew of the Jubilant Maybe rush back to their homes and families. Later there will be a chance to consider what they’ve done, but now it’s time to help, to aid, to pitch in.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Amris Graft: Ezra’s mam. A community organiser and member of the Painted Hands.

Cherin & Zedek nim Gorse: Neah’s parents. They are part of the ambitious middle classes, trying to earn their place in Embrace’s high society.

Oken nim Shif (fake): An imposter. Chosen and trained by his family to be a much more controllable tool of propaganda. Killed by his namesake.

Scran: A radical pamphleteer and friend of Ezra.

Serrivomer Glass: The unofficial Warden, elected by the people of Atrium. Member of the Tanner’s Union, a radical and a friend of Lena.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Pamphleteers: A collective of independent publishers, mostly radical in their writing. Distributors of much of Embrace’s political critique.

~~ PLACES ~~

People’s Ward of Atrium: An old neighbourhood near the docks, once home to wholesale markets and cafes. It has declared itself its own ward, with an unofficially elected Warden.

Tail’s End: A community, built by spirits, at the tip of Rodella’s tail. A ramshackle ghost town, radical in outlook.

~~~

c/w graphic descriptions of violence and death, natural disaster

“The earthquake that rocked through the city would only be a footnote. A disaster that many would tie to other events of that day. Because, at the same time as our protest, the rest of the Jubilant were over the other end of the city. And they were about to do something really fucking stupid.”

~~~

When Oken killed Relict, the Sun Spear was his weapon. This legendary artefact, long held by the nim Shif family, is no longer in Oken’s hands. Instead, an imposter wields it. A scion from the family who have disowned him, masquerading as him. Oken would do anything to take it back.

As Hulling Day continues, many citizens in Limbus Ward turn to celebration, not protest. It has been a long time since the Ochre Hull wreaked destruction on their streets. Today the hero that protected them, Oken nim Shif, visits. The nim Shif family are hosting a parade leading to Scarrel market, the site of his victory over the many-limbed envoy.

What they don’t know is that as the imposter gives his speech, the Jubilant plan to strike.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Altara nim Shif: A scion of nim Shif and one of their enforcers. She’s had previous run-ins with the Jubilant.

Anancrik "Crik" Rise: Ezra’s childhood friend and rival. Leader of the Flint Street Knappers.

Oken nim Shif (fake): An imposter. Chosen and trained by his family to be a much more controllable tool of propaganda.

Valour nim Shif: Ruthless, calculated and brilliant. Leader of the nim Shif family.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Flint Street Knappers: A gang operating out of Limbus Ward, who use gliders to get around. Most are from families with heritage in the Rushes.

Jackals: More formally known as the Tenders of the Dawn’s Embers, the Jackals are an organisation of remnant hunters guided by strange divination.

nim Shif: Embrace’s newest great family. Plotting to take over the city with silvered tongues and bloody blades.

~~ PLACES ~~

Limbus Ward: Embrace’s North-Eastern ward. Most of the city’s trade comes through here.

Scarrel Market: The hub of the city’s trade. Rebuilt following the Ochre Hull’s attack.

~~~

c/w: mass protest, violence against protestors, death, natural disaster

"Heat in Embrace wraps close to the skin - saturating, condensation mingling with sweat. There’s a texture to it that I’ve not felt anywhere else. When the sun breaks, it doesn’t tip-toe through dawn. It’s there in its full fury, from moment of first light til its dusk retreat.

That summer the city blistered. The scrimshawers were kept busy repairing cracks in bone; the Trill’s moisture was the only thing that stopped the fleshwood from igniting. Our tempers though were frayed to wicks, ready to catch. Hulling day would be the spark."

~~~

On this day each year, the people of Embrace down their work tools, and instead tend to their homes and streets. A tradition formed in the days following the Ochre Hull's attack, as people refused demands to return to work and instead repaired the rubble of their communities. The day came to be known as Hulling Day.

This year those privileged few who get to vote gather in Marrow Ward. They cast their ballots for the new warden of Holm, the ward that Atrium officially belongs to. They chose between the incumbent, Tomer Lorving - favoured by nim Daker and nim Callad - and Parsib nim Corvanus, nim Shif's proxy candidate.

Sick of their disenfranchisement, the people of Atrium are on the march. Though they know it's a hollow act,  they're going to vote in a warden of their own.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Lena Fisher: The self-declared Tether of Rialla’s Harbour. A former sailor turned radical priest, who teaches a doctrine focused on community.

Nilkat: A former factory mechanic, turned revolutionary. A member of the Ginnels and our story’s narrator.

Topaz: Ivar's trusty companion. Somewhere between a bat and a labrador.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

People's Ward of Atrium: An old neighbourhood near the docks, once home to wholesale markets and cafes. It has declared itself its own ward, erecting barricades to keep the city’s officials out.

Ginnels: A broad revolutionary network, formed by the workers of Calvary Ward.

Syndics: Clerks and government officials aligned with nim Shif. Embroiled in extortion, corruption and conspiracy.

~~ PLACES ~~

Arrad Chambers: Part of Embrace's civic infrastructure. Here clerks and bureaucrats sign away the city's future.

Holm Ward: Traditionally Embrace's dock district. People here tend to make their living from the boats that dock in the harbour.
~~~

“As much as Maybes had leaders, Ezra was the Jubilant’s. When we took Oken, others in the Ginnels had a dozen ideas for different ways we could use him - whether that be as a bargaining chip with the council or turning him into the weapon the Jackal’s said he was. It took all my sway to keep him with the Jubilant. I reasoned that if Ezra could help a fool like me, then just maybe they could do the same with Oken.”

~~~

After stealing the Jackal’s weapon, our crew head back to their headquarters - the Jubilee, Embrace’s first carousel - for some downtime. There they question the person that the Jackals had been smuggling through the city, the person claiming to be Oken nim Shalif.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Alin & Mara Pinder: Ash’s sisters. They both work for the Viols, a union of sex workers.

Amris Graft: Ezra's mum. A community organiser and member of the Painted Hands.

Cherib & Zedek nim Gorse: Neah’s parents. They see themselves as part of Embrace’s upper middle class, and are desperate to improve their station.

Mell: One of Relict’s envoys, leader of a gestalt consciousness. Once an enormous woman with a horn of bees, now a bee.

Nilkat: A former factory mechanic, turned revolutionary. A member of the Ginnels and our story’s narrator.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Ginnels: A broad revolutionary network, formed by the workers of Calvary Ward.

Jackals: More formally known as the Tenders of the Dawn’s Embers, the Jackals are an organisation of remnant hunters guided by strange divination.

nim Shif: Embrace’s newest great family. Plotting to take over the city with silvered tongues and bloody blades.

~~ PLACES ~~

Tail’s End: A small group of ghosts who’ve formed their own community at the tip of Embrace.

~~~

c/w blood, eyes, combat, discussion of police

“Then, there were the Jubilant. They weren’t professional or ruthless; they weren’t calculating or swift-tongued - but, they had their ways. They were resourceful, broad-hearted and brave. Uncertain in a way that kept them open to other means of doing things.

Others liked to dismiss them. All they saw was the messes they created but they never watched for long enough to see that, no matter how dire the situation, they always found a way back out.”

~~~

Before Oken nim Shalif, the faces of four strangers. The Jubilant Maybe, struggling to make sense of the man they’ve found in a box that should contain weapons. There won’t be long to take stock though. They may have fended off the cart’s guards, but there are reinforcements on the way - and these ones won't be so eager to give up what’s theirs.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Altara nim Shif: Scion of the nim Shif family and one of their enforcers.

Nilkat: A former factory mechanic, turned revolutionary. A member of the Ginnels and our story’s narrator.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Ginnels: A broad revolutionary network, formed by the workers of Calvary Ward.

Jackals: More formally known as the Tenders of the Dawn’s Embers, the Jackals are an organisation of remnant hunters guided by strange divination.

League of Gunsmiths: Controllers of the licensing and manufacturing of spirit guns.

Maybes: A loose collection of radical cells carrying out direct action.

nim Shif: Embrace’s newest great family. Plotting to take over the city with silvered tongues and bloody blades.

Syndics: Clerks and government officials, embroiled in extortion, corruption and conspiracy.

Umbral Provenders: A legitimised organisation of smugglers, who use the cut to smuggle contraband into and out of the city.

~~~

c/w body horror, possession, insects

"Us that used to play in the alleys and backstreets of Calvary had a game. A bunch of us would cluster together, locked arm-to-arm, roaring and vicious, pretending to be a remnant. Whoever was left got to be one of the Tenders, would try and take that giggling mass of bodies down. They’d pretend to be Carn nim Daker or Arbor’s Precident or another of their legends.

Everyone had their favourite, though there was one we always fought over. Oken nim Shalif, the slayer of Relict and the Ochre Hull. And on those streets where we played, we could see the tower where he was said to keep watch, asleep until Embrace needed him."

~~~

Before Oken nim Shalif lies the rapidly calcifying body of a god. Relict - remnant of preservation, of Eolith - dead by his spear. 

In its last moments, that vacant gives one last, parting gift. Time slips. Oken - wielder of the sun spear, Tender of the Dawn’s Embers, remnant-killer, and, at last, a hero worthy of his family’s name - becomes unmoored in time. Days, months and years begin to slip through his fingers.

“After their worldly Guidance, Tovak, died and Rialla’s Harbour was left without leadership, who else but Lena would dare say that they’re going to lead it as its new, folk-chosen head? Then to start harboring the likes of us - rebels and dissidents, maybes and ginnels - while her right to be there was still being questioned. Well, I guess shame on us for not seeing the day they built those barricades and declared themselves a free ward coming. That really was the start of things...”

~~~

After the death of the High Priest Tovak and the disappearance of the worms from the fleshwood, Atrium is left with nothing but bleak omens. The people here though are resourceful. In the face of hostility from other parts of the city, they band together. They begin to build new foundations, praying that they’ll hold strong when something comes to test them.

“I’m getting ahead of myself though. I’m talking about Atrium and you’ve got no idea what or where that is.

Back then it was a forgotten sort of place, a few faded streets, not even a ward in its own right. All of Embrace had its weirdness from our departed remnants to deal with, but Atrium - jammed between the docks and the Tear, the Jackals and the Castings - had more than most.”

~~~

As the bioluminescent blooms of the Castings open, the people of Atrium welcome summer. It is a time to share good food, fished from the Trill and bought from the docks; to brighten the streets with cuttings from the strange trees that grow along Rodela’s body; to sit with friends on unsteady chairs outside fading awnings and argue about meaningless things.

This summer though will be different. It is wicked and fierce and hot, and the people of Atrium will face a choice - wilt in the fickle shade or stand bright against the tyrant sun.

“Belka, you asked me before about my exile, about how I came to join Vilte’s parish, about why I left Embrace. I think I’m just about ready to tell that story. Now, there’s a lot to hear - about the revolution, about the Ginnels and the Swifts, the bastard nim Shifs and the defiant Maybes.

First though, let’s start with what’s important: that city is a fucking hole.”

~~~

"Where their corpses lay, an island formed. And then a city. Its citizens named it for the remnant's struggle, they named it Embrace."

~~~

“Friends, I don’t know how much you’ve heard about this place. I don’t know whether you’ve heard the stories - the rumours - about what has happened here in the past. This is the story of Carn’s Brook. You’ve heard of this surely?”

***

Around a crackling fire, four storytellers gather - maybe in a cabin, perhaps beneath uncovered stars. There they share stories - of singing sheep, of the biggest squash you've ever seen, of a painted mountain.

C/W: death, mild horror

You're crouched outside the lair of the Mustang, near the burned tree. Your friends are with you, exchanging nervous looks. Like you, they’re having second thoughts. Like you, they smell death in the air and wonder if it’s their deaths. Keen has a big piece of sheet metal with a rope across the back, because the Mustang breathes fire. Niamh has a rifle, because the Mustang is far too swift to catch. Yelena has the teachings, because maybe the Mustang can still be reasoned with. You have a knife because, in the end, someone has to cut the Mustang’s throat. It’s the witching hour, the moon is full, and fresh blood is on the ground. The Mustang will surely run tonight.

***

This is our Halloween Special, focusing on a younger Venz as he, and a group of snarls and weavers, wait warily beneath a full moon. They have come together to find and kill the Mustang, a snarl who has unravelled and sowed destruction over this land. For now though, they wait. Steeling themselves for their confrontation.

“I stand before our village’s council to relinquish my claim to become elder of the Derral family. I understand that my claim will be passed to my sister Aya, or otherwise the next person to come of age. I reaffirm my commitment to my family and will continue to serve them in other ways.”

 - Bris

***

In the aftermath of the Jackal Dorish's attack, the caravan tries to make sense of what happened. The wounded must be tended, sides taken and questions about Challa's part in this answered. Bris and Challa find themselves making decisions about the future of themselves and the caravan.

Challa loses a friend and Bris talks to a tent.

***

Hosted by Adam Dixon (@adtidixon). 

Featuring Ryan Evans (@brainxray), Steve Martin (@purple_steve), Thryn Henderson (@thairyn) and Ziz Simoens (@seasylphgames).  

Produced by Thryn Henderson and Adam Dixon.  

Cover art by Allissa Chan (@formyths).  

C/W: terminal illness, death, bugs
 
“I never thought I’d be able to think of this place as a home, but it wasn’t half bad for a while. But life being the way it is, the things we were running from caught up with us. And now, as I find myself desperately wanting to forget, to leave this place, I find myself weighed down - as if by stone.”

 - The memories of Tiller Bract recorded by The Distractible Sepult Charus

***

The camping group find shelter in the house of Tiller Bract, a rancher living near Eulogy. For the first time in a long while they are well-fed and rested.

However, like leaves in the gutter, gloom and memory weigh down this house. Sensing something strange, the group attempt to investigate the farm and their forgetful host.

Bris investigates, Venz takes it all in, Challa discovers strange animals and Belka learns about omelettes.

***

Hosted by Adam Dixon (@adtidixon). 

Featuring Ryan Evans (@brainxray), Steve Martin (@purple_steve), Thryn Henderson (@thairyn) and Ziz Simoens (@seasylphgames).  

Produced by Thryn Henderson and Adam Dixon.  

Cover art by Beck Michalak (@r_michalak). Tiding art by Allissa Chan (@formyths).  

C/W: NPC death

“But my eyes were drawn to another figure, who sat in their midst. An anathema, the monster I'd come to know as Venz. From the moment I set eye on him I knew I had to act. That if I didn't, all of these people would be doomed.” 

-Ullun Bakkal

***

Having escaped the strange remnant Corpus, the people of Ninut gather at the confluence of three territories. They rest, shocked by the dark events under the mountain, waiting to see if all of their loved ones make it out of Carn Veskl.

A small group, gathered by Jeddah and the now-awakened Vilte, are asked to make a decision about where to go next. Do they go north into Irravence’s untamed forests, or east into the grief-touched Cenja?

 C/W: Trypophobia, discussion of death

“Eolith whispers slow.
Setting sun, rays lie thick. Cool, harden, coat the tongue.
Long, dry exhale, salt-heavy funeral sigh.

Atrophy creeping.
Old crystalline veins, crumble dust-like, flake and fall.
Decay extends, searches.

Hide the heart.
Calm the pulse, slower, slower.

Extend the reach.
Split the chrysalis.
Wake the hive.

Grasp the roots outside the edges - unheeded time, more use here.
Others waste, redirect.
Bind the wound.
Brace.”

C/W: Death, trauma

"Realise this. Realise that despite your training, killing a remnant will not be easy. 

They are living gods. Even if your sword strikes true their wounds will heal, their hearts mend. You must do things right. 

These are the steps, commit them to memory." - Crooner Cassis

Venz and Shu reach the Northern edge of the Sharrow. There they find the missing remnant, and some unwanted company.

Venz discovers Sharrow's fate.

Hosted by Adam Dixon (@adtidixon). Featuring Ryan Evans (@brainxray), Steve Martin (@purple_steve), Thryn Henderson (@thairyn) and Ziz Simoens (@seasylphgames). 

Episode produced by Adam Dixon. 

Cover art by Allissa Chan (@formyths). 

"But, Vilte's greatest strength was her gift for understanding people. She was able to bring others to her cause, to build a following and inspire them into action. She showed a faith in them and, in return, they would show a faith in her." - Avyn Fiir Vorunt

The scouting party make friends with the underpeople - the community that calls Carn Veskl home. The caravan holds a meeting to discuss the lost family. Strael makes a move.

Bris prevents a fight, Challa bargains with Strael and Belka enforces bedtime.

Hosted by Adam Dixon (@adtidixon). Featuring Ryan Evans (@brainxray), Steve Martin (@purple_steve), Thryn Henderson (@thairyn) and Ziz Simoens (@seasylphgames).

Produced by Thryn Henderson (@thairyn).
Cover art by Allissa Chan (@formyths).