The Hall of Wisdom

Part Six

Nearly twenty years after the Torment had emerged within the territories of the Venerated Republic, scattered reports of curious happenings far to the east of Vitaveus and the Republic capital of Tor had emerged. These reports originated from three distant territories set upon a collection of landmasses known simply as “The End of the World”, the farthest lands ever explored by Republic expeditions. Only three meager territories had been erected in these peculiar lands, due to its inaccessibility from Republic forces. These holdings consisted of the island of New Dardain, the military territory of Ironhollow Downs, and the grand territory of MacArthur’s Gate, a clerical city state that stood as the veritable boundary of the Republic’s exploration of Eden as a whole.

These territories were considered a last option for the dying Republic, one it would use to evacuate the Bishop College and whatever citizenry of the empire they could cram into transports in the dire situation that the capital of the Republic would be lost. These three bastions of hope had stood as a last-chance scenario for the Republic, as there had never been a report of an afflicted soul in any of the areas aforementioned. Many citizens hadn’t even heard of these distant colonies, for the Republic did well to mask the fact that other lands apart from Vitaveus had existed. For the End of the World contained it’s own mysteries; people of different cultures and races, some friendly, some hostile, and all practicing beliefs and religions far from that of the Decusian faith.

In 1333, reports of odd sightings had made its way from MacArthur’s Gate to the Grand Collegiate of Bishops in Tor. Reports of peculiar figures in the dark of night, odd sightings of errant mages, and tales of unexplained deaths began to fill the quarterly status reports that were ferried across the Pearl Sea. Before long, the true severity of the situation had reared its ugly head; it was believed that the Resolve, the mysterious cult that hadn’t been seen nor heard from in almost twenty years, had returned.

The Venerated Church, facing an impossible situation upon the main lands, had come to a hasty decision concerning these new found reports; a surge of support, comprised of the Legion, the Church Templar, the Foundry, and even the Consortium would be sent to solidify the Republic holdings of New Dardain, the Gate, and Ironhollow. Hundreds of faithful Decusians had been shipped across the great sea, their perilous journey marking the first days of what would later be known as the fall of the Republic.

Upon their arrival in the old colonies, as they were dubbed by this first wave of military power, the Republic forces had found themselves braving the unknown. Dozens upon dozens of clerical and legion battalions, infused with the magical support of the Consortium, had been sent immediately eastward from their arrival in New Dardain towards the fabled Gate, in an effort to investigate the happenings in and around MacArthur’s Gate.

What they had found there, however, was something they had surely not expected…

The reports of the Resolve had indeed been true; the cultists had re-emerged in the world of Eden, and with them, a new reign of terror had been unleashed upon a new land. The Resolve, brimming with forces gathered from their herding of Decusians in 1313, had seemingly grown from a simple cult into a veritable army. MacArthur’s Gate had been turned into a war zone, besieged by not only the Resolve, but by the fury of Hell itself. Countless hundreds of Legionnaires, Templars and Consortium magi had fallen in their efforts to reclaim the Gate from the Resolve’s unholy army. Countless tales of daemonic entities, creatures of both man and beast, flooded the desks of the College of Bishops.

Word of the findings in the End of the World had been sent immediately to the Grand Collegiate in Tor. Abhorred by the new situation, yet another hasty decision had been enacted by the Venerated Church; a new surge of forces would be sent to the End of the World, to aid in the task of securing the Republic’s holdings there. Faced with thinning clerical and military forces upon Vitaveus and the mainlands as a whole, it was decided that this new surge would consist of the actual citizenry of the Republic.

Presented with an opportunity to leave the ravished lands of the Republic, countless men and women jumped at the offer to serve the Republic by making the exodus to the old colonies. Under the guise they would be aiding the establishment of a new colony upon the lands of the End of the World, these unknowing souls were shuttled to the old colonies by the hundreds, only to be face by the grim truth of the reality that laid before them…

What exactly had been the true duty of these betrayed souls? To repel the forces of evil where countless hundreds had already failed, and somehow, uncover the secrets behind the Resolve in hopes to rid the world of Eden of the unholy Torment.

It was a task that had truly been impossible, and in the following days of the colonial exodus, the unknowing citizens of the Venerated Republic had become aware of such a fact. Slowly but surely, the situation within the colonies had began to come to light. Countless hundreds of colonists had been conscripted to aid in the efforts at the Gate, never to return to the island of New Dardain, the receiving port of the colonies. Those that had been tasked with the role of developing the small island village into a functioning city slowly became aware that there was much more going on in the End of the World than a simple colonization; a veritable war was being fought, one that the Republic was losing sorely.

But before any of the misled colonists could send word back to the mainlands concerning the situation in the End of the World, a cataclysmic shift of power within the Republic clergy had occurred, one that served to silence any protest from the displaced colonists. A new Archbishop had been declared, and with him, a new era of misery had been birthed. Capitalizing upon the fears and doubts of many within the Church, the new Archbishop had been able to assume control of the Bishop College and the hearts and minds of many clergy members of high rank and status.

It was Karl Anslem’s first executive decision as the Venerated Republic’s newest Archbishop to put an end to the efforts in the End of the World. Much to the protest of some elder clergy members whom recognized the importance of MacArthur’s Gate and the secrets it held, battalions of Templar and Legionnaires had been recalled from the old colonies to be re-assigned to duties within the mainlands. The Republic citizens, volunteers whom sacrificed their lives within the mainlands to serve the Church and Republic, were excommunicated, declared as deserters and treasonists.

And so began what was known as the Great Abandonment, the first of many callous decisions that Archbishop Karl Anslem would make during his reign as the Republic’s most corrupt and deceitful leader.