JeVondair Family/Selenia/Resurrection

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The Battle of Xavax - The Xerarch Falls

Prelude: The Battle of Xavax

Total: 9 attackers (323 Inf, 292 Arch, 154 Cav) 16 defenders (247 Inf, 13 MI, 117 Arch, 24 SF) Total combat strengths: 8330 vs. 5840 The region owner Greater Xavax and their allies defend. The Alara troops attack because they are at war with Greater Xavax. The Minas Nova troops attack because they are at war with Greater Xavax.

A calm wind blows, to the joy of the archers. The defenders take up positions inside the Palisade (1).


High Justice Walsh Adam is spotted reading from the Giggling Manual of Madness.

Xerarch Selenia JeVondair is spotted wielding the Adorned Scythe of Dwilight.

Duchess Gloria Wader is spotted wearing the Lysander's Toe of Eno Chia.

King Druzil Sharpspeare is spotted wielding the Giggling Shield of Beluaterra.

High Justice Walsh Adam is spotted wearing the Tempered Ring of the Plains.


Brynjar Snowdan, High Marshal of Minas Nova, Count of Nimraw, Marshal of the Nova Elite takes command of his army. They deploy in Archer Opening formation. Bracka Magdalen, Captain General of Alara, Dame of Itorunt, Marshal of the First Alarian Army takes command of her army. They deploy in Infantry Charge formation. Godric Tórrarin ka Habb, Knight of Xavax takes command of his army. They deploy in Fortification Defense formation.


Robb Starfall, King, Master of Coin of Alara, Royal of Alara, Duke of Itorunt, Margrave of Itorunt has been wounded by Shield and Gladius (17). Selenia JeVondair, Xerarch of Greater Xavax, Royal of Greater Xavax has been wounded by Galantos Guards (2). Borugar Galantos, Knight of Itorunt has been wounded by Fearless (11). Sir Lionel Kinsey, Talon of Greater Xavax, Knight of Xavax, Marshal of the Phoenix of Xavax has been wounded by Royal Guard (7). Robb Starfall, King, Master of Coin of Alara, Royal of Alara, Duke of Itorunt, Margrave of Itorunt has been captured by Shield and Gladius (17). Khrot Dusthammer, Knight of Itorunt has been wounded by Turqn Guards (21). Emily Maywood, Dame of Xavax has been wounded by Kuda Hitam (3). Godric Tórrarin ka Habb, Knight of Xavax has been wounded by Kuda Hitam (3).

The defenders are vastly outnumbered, and panic spreads throughout their ranks.

Fall of the Xerarch | Rise of the Phoenix Queen

ASHES OF XAVAX: Part I: The Xerarch Falls

They came at first light. The sentries had been killed. The alarm towers silenced. The Defenders of Xavax did not know they were under attack until fire arrows lit the pre-dawn sky, raining down upon the Palisade.

But even at the worst of times such as these, the Xavax were no easy prey...

Godric Tórrarin ka Habb, Vice-Marshal of the Phoenix of Xavax, was the first to man the defenses, rallying what troops they had to meet the horde of bandits that suddenly poured from the forests of Enubec. Talon Lionel and Xerarch Selenia were right behind him, alongside Prince Hector Serpantis Tandaros and Knights Julian Emily, Victorique, and Viktoria. Together, these 8 faced off against more than double their number, forming a shieldwall to protect their ruler.

Before the attackers reached bow-range, they stopped and a single speaker stepped forward. Selenia could not make out who he was, but she heard the voice

"WRETCHES OF XAVAX! It seems we caught you with your pants down again!" Mumbled chuckles reverberated through the enemy lines. "Perhaps you'll see reason and bend over easily this time?" Selenia could not see the gestures she was sure accompanied the words, but they were met with outright guffaws from the bandit lines.

"MAYBE IF YOU HAD ANYTHING SUBSTANTIAL BETWEEN YOUR LEGS...OR BETTER YET, BETWEEN YOUR EARS-" Selenia shouted back "We Xavax might have cause some for concern!" Her jibe found a mark among her own soldiers, rousing them to mirth that even the bandits could hear clearly.

"HAVE IT YOUR WAY, WITCH OF XAVAX! CHAAAAAAAAARGE!-"

And so the bandits came

and came

and came

The Defender's of Xavax were outnumbered, though not outmatched. SSelenia wounded an Alaran knight, and witnessed the capture of the Alaran King, Robb Starfall. But the bandits kept throwing themselves into the fray and the Xavax were slowly whittled down. Selenia herself was the first to be wounded by an errant blade that somehow found it's way through the growing cracks in the shield wall. Growling in pain, she fought on. But the conclusion of this battle was already written. Lionel and Godric both suffered wounds as the defenders were overwhelmed. To their horror, Selenia and her Fearless fought on, foolishly holding the line while the wounded withdrew. Indeed, she fought on until she was the last noble of Xavax standing. The Xerarch was slowly enveloped, and their bloodied blades went to work...

And then for her there was only darkness.

Xerarch Selenia of Xavax fell that day. Cut down by High Justice Walsh of Minas Nova. The bandits broke through the defenders, singing, crowing their victory as they sacked the city.

Killed! (2 days, 8 hours ago)

You have been killed during the battle in Xavax!

Unique Items Lost (2 days, 8 hours ago) In your last moments, you regret that you will never be able to pass on any of your unique items to your heirs, as they are being taken from your cooling body.


ASHES OF XAVAX: Part II Ruthless Loyalty

Godric Tórrarin Ka Habb was a man that new himself. He knew he knew his men, he new is oaths, and he knew his god.

And so it was that the Old Tórrarin knew his duty.

There was no way, no way in all the hells, that he was going to leave his liege Selenia's body on the field for those carrion thugs from the west to pick over. He gathered his fiercest fighters, those few that were not wounded, and set out amid the confusion of the Sacking of Xavax. The bandits had spilled into the city, looting wantonly. Most were drunk to insensibility, and those few that wandered into his path were ruthlessly cut down. Every time his men spilled more bandit blood, Godric's grim expression cracked the barest smile.

Before long, they'd reached the Palisade where Selenia had fallen. Bracka, Alara's Captain General, had set a couple guards to watch over the Xerarchs remains...no doubt to ensure that she could desecrate them herself once she had the time. They died quickly and painfully, grabbed and castrated where they stood, their throats slit and left to bleed out while Godric himself collected her body.

The former Arbiter of Xavax was by no means a small man, but even he was surprised by how....small...Selenia seemed now. Tiny really, she could not have been more than 5'4 and barely any heft at all to his great arms, even in armor. His men formed a cordon around him as they slipped through enemy lines and back to the city, to Torrenhal, the very estate Selenia had granted to him in the earliest days of Xavax,

The Hall was far from the merchant district, where the majority of the bandits were reveling. Taking no breaks and accepting no aid. Any bandits that got in his way, died. Any peasants that recognized his burden and tried to touch her, died. Any servants that did not make haste to get out of his retinue's way, died. And with none of its great fires lit, it seemed a cold and imposing place unworthy of interest...just as Godric had planned. He carried the Xerarchs body the entire way himself. He did not take rest until he'd laid the Xerarch's body down himself in stately repose upon a berm built up over one of the great firepits beneath an open skylight in the Hall's ceiling high above from which sunlight filtered down, caressing Selenia's features as though trying to stoke the fires that once burned within her.

Godric's gaze hardened at the sight. He was no stranger to death. There was no hope. This was the best he could do for her. This and kill as many of the bandit bastards that did this to her as he could possibly get his hands. Their mothers he vowed silently will weep tears of blood when they see what I've done to them...

"Glory to Xavax" he muttered under his breath as he stalked out of the Hall.

ASHES OF XAVAX: Part III The Harrowing Maelstrom

Pain

Darkness

The sensation of Falling

She was freezing, burning, suffocating...and the harshest of winds howled around her. Through her.

Then...nothingness.

She had no eyes, and yet felt them flutter open. She could see nothing but darkness, an infinite blackness through the eternal howling of that fearful wind. And yet...she could make out...lights. Tiny lights, like stars, being blown by the wind.

There were thousands of them. Millions of them. An untold number of lights being swept into and through that black abyss like a churning current driven by that howling wind.

And, like candles and twinkling stars, they were being snuffed out.

She had only just enough time to realize this before she was caught up in the maelstrom herself, snatched by the wind like a leaf in autumn swirling ever deeper into the unknown. The wind tore at her, trying to rip her apart, to blow her away and scatter what was left of her. But she fought it. She fought the temptation to give up and be blown into Oblivion. She was frightened, terribly so, just as she had been on the day that Litch had come for her on Madina, or when that Judge of Falkirk that had killed her husband and then captured her. She spun end over end, weightless but feeling as though she were being crushed and shattered. She let the pain of it, the fear of it, pass through her. Mastering it as Lionel had taughter her all those years ago. She focused as best she could, delving deep into the ether within herself. Harnessing the pain and fear to fuel her rage, fighting for any sort of purchase against the wind. Though she tumbled, her vision remained clear. She could see the other lights growing closer, collected into a jetstream by the ruthless howling. And in those little lights, she could see...expressions, faces. As if to mock her, one of those lights was pushed closer to her than the rest. Lighting struck her as she recognized the face of Xander, the Captain of her Fearless unit who had been with her through it all. His visage was a mask of terror. He could not see her, though she struggled, could not hear her, though she shouted, and she watched his eyes roll up into his head, watched as he visibly gave up. And the moment it happened, his light, his soul, winked out. Shredded by the merciless wind and swelled forever into the darkness. He was not alone. Hundreds of souls followed him into oblivion, and Selenia could feel that fate tearing at her as well. Her anger evaporated, overwhelmed by a renewed fear within her that was ten times as strong. and it tore at her soul like a thing alive.

She screamed then, screamed like she had never done before. Even when monsters had been near to devouring her, when undead had surrounded her, when assassins and traitors had cornered her, she screamed. And her frightful sounded melded with the millions upon millions of souls around her, forming the very wind that drove their lights blazing to extinction, each lost to their personal despair.

Selenia imagined wrapping her arms around herself, curling into a little ball as her spirit streaked like a comet through the abyss. And just when she thought she could take no more, a sound like a tiny silver bell somehow rang through the darkness and the howls of the damned to tickle her ear. She knew that sound and instinctively reached for it, longed for it with all the might her soul had left.

She knew that sound.

She loved that sound.

She grew closer to it, letting the crystal clear, clean ring of it guide her and envelope her. It was the sound of daylight, composed of many notes...the playful yips of Gia's wolves, Kin Hyral's secret smile, Uthred beaming in the corner, Caedwyn singing the song...welcoming...welcoming...

Högni

The silver bell, and all the notes that made up its sound, was the voice of her son laughing in her arms the day he was born as her closest friends and retainers crowded in to greet the her beautiful little Prince, her childe of starlight...

Somewhere distant, she could hear Uthred's familiar voice..."She is one of ours..." And as if by some command, that horrible, soul-scything wind fell silent, the blackness fell away, and was replaced by white. EVERYWHERE white, with no up or down.

She was somewhere else, she could feel it, and the Great Terror was faded. This was not Xavax...

ASHES OF XAVAX: Part IV The Awakening

Whiteness.

No Up.

No Down.

Just an endless expanse of white. She shouted, but her voice echoed off of nothing and unto a million nowheres...only to reverberate back to her, swelling like a great wave..gentle at first...but becoming a towering, invisible force with 1000 times the volume, forcing her down to a knee with hands clapped about her ears.

Knees...

Pressure.

Something...underfoot?

Selenia opened here eyes. She blinked, she could blink! Instinctively she smiled, shaky with relief, but the muscles in her face felt odd, as if they were not used to her using them that way. She shrugged off the sensation, content to simply breath. She swelled her chest with fresh mountain air, but even this felt strange, as though her longs were subtly different. And was that mountain air? She looked around, but there was only whiteness. She looked down, and her paws crunched into fresh snow. Even as this registered, the vision expanded. She watched as a true mountain god-like proportions revealed itself beneath her. The limbo whiteness gave way like clouds of mist to reveal crags that could swallow cities, aglow from within with the blood of the mountain flowing miles and miles beneath her. Power seemed to thrum from the glowing crags of the great mountain, glowing brighter reds and oranges, a rumble like a thousand thunders trembled through the rock, its voice so deep and powerful that Selenia's first instinct was to quaver in abject terror at the force of it. She grimaced, showing all her teeth and fangs as she bowed her head, shut her eyes and curled her tufted tail around herself.

The rumbling grew greater. Avalanches of snow and rock shook from the mountainsides, falling into the deep crags to explosive effect. Great clouds of steam made mist from the snow, hitting the magma far below rose before her, backlit to fiery hues of red and orange and gold. But the mist did more than simply rise...it coalesced to a single point, a broiling sphere, revolving around an epicenter in the sky before her her, rotating like a broiling storm of clouds and flame and light. Growing exponentially with such explosive fury that the thunder of a million Cavalry would have been lost within it.

Eyes closed, Selenia did not see the primordial god-thing forming before her, lost as she was in her fear of it. Then as though summoned The pall of the silver bell again tolled through her mind. Her son, she could feel him as though he had a golden thread of magic tugging right at her heart...and something more. She felt it as she felt her own heartbeat, and was reminded that this, even this, could not have been worse than the Abyss.

Selenia opened her eyes and looked. She was still alone atop the pinnacle of that monolithic mountain, but it was alone in a night sky aswhirl with stars and galaxies, seeming to float through the endless pocket of sky. But this time, those little lights were stars, not souls. Before her, the sphere of roiling fury and light floated, planet sized. It's radiance bathed her in the heat of magic equal and opposite the fury of the Abysal wind. Selenia felt...strengthened, rather than shredded, and at the core of her, the silver bell rang ceaselessly in her heart, helping Selenia to grasp her boldness again. She looked square at the sphere before her and knew it to be alive.

And then it roared

It was the only word Selenia could think of to put to name the sound it made when she finally faced it. It was like the thrumming of the Great Mountain combined with the searing, life granting heat of the sun. The sound of a fire great enough to hold back the tides of the deep sea itself. It hit her like a comet, stunning her senseless. For a moment, she lost all sense of who and what she was, everything she had ever been was blasted and seared away...save for the constant, joyous ringing of the bell at the core of her being. Her essence, her very soul, refused to be parted from it, wrapping itself protectively around it, formlessly at first, but gaining strength as she reformed herself with a Will she had not know she possessed. Black lips curled back in a fierce snarl, razorsharp black claws unsheathed from four paws, slashing into the very rock of the mountain side, bracing her from being blown away from the primordial's might. Great muscles rippled along her legs and shoulders and her tail streaked in the wind of god-thing's fury as she reared her head, opened golden eyes glowing with a might and power all her own. Alone atop that titanic mountain stood a lioness, golden. She was less than a kitten compared to what she faced, barely a speck. But she had Endured. Fearless, she bared her teeth in hope and rage...

And she

Roared

Back

Comparatively, it must have been no more than a drop in a bucket. But she was heard. You see? a familiar voice spoke from the ether. I told you...

And then there was a blackness that swallowed her world yet again. But this time, Selenia, awash with magic, felt no fear. The silver bell still tolled, summoning her, guiding her like a lighthouse to a lost ship. She could feel her formless self smiling as she drifted through the warm, comforting dark, her body shining golden all its own and radiating the energy of her rebirth. But she thought of none of this...only of sleep.

And of waking...

Interlude

Roleplay from Jeroen Ardorson Nifelleisca (1 day, 23 hours ago)

message to all nobles of Greater Xavax

Jeroen stumbled onto Xavax's streets upon word of the horrific news. Frothing at the mouth, he proclaimed, "Daimonic Perdanites MURDERED our Xerarch! To arms! To arms!" Running through the streets with a crazed look in his eyes, he saw some cloth-maker with cloth that looked a bit too similar to Perdan's colors. He burnt the cloth, shouted, "Death to Perdan!"

Jeroen had been furiously writing letters inside a Xavax inn and tavern, when he thought to order a round of drinks for all. And then a rousing speech. It was not long before the entire establishment was slamming their mugs upon the tables and chanting, "Death to Perdan!"

Jeroen was leading a small band of men, from every walk of life from street sweeper to esteemed squire, chanting "Selenia the Saint!", "Death to Perdan!", and "Death to Daimons!", when some parchment fell from his bag. Perhaps he need not move so erratically, but that did not cross mind.

What did cross mind was sudden recognition of what he possessed. He had completely forgotten he owned such a scroll, with his long retirement. He had once used such a parchment on King Garin, though it did not have the success he had sought. Maybe. Just maybe. This would...

Leading the band of rabblerousers to where Selenia was lying in state, he bid them wait his return. And entered to see Selenia once more, for what anyone else thought would be the final time. Jeroen hoped for more.

Jeroen carefully read the inscription and completed the ritual. While he had certainly done his best with his King Garin, King Garin had not been deceased, merely seriously wounded from vile Perdanite weapons. Now that he thought about it, perhaps daimonic weapons from Perdan, but when he had performed the healing ritual on King Garin, he had not yet reached such conclusions.

Jeroen stopped. Breathed deeply. He could not think on the past. He must focus all his will. Went over the ritual again to ensure nothing had been missed. And continued.

He could feel something different this time. The magic flowed around him as before, but this time, there seemed to be instant recovery. Selenia sat up. Others paying their respects gasped. He offered his hand, with a smirk, as Selenia jumped in fright and confusion. With calmness, he offered his hand again, and Selenia witnessing those witnessing her, quickly regained composure. Together, they exited the building and stood before the crowd of mourners, who now murmured in surprise at seeing their Xerarch stand once more.

Jeroen felt that this spellcasting had been a worthy experience. And educational too.

– Jeroen Ardorson Nifelleisca


The Phoenix Queen Rises

Magic in the Air (1 day, 21 hours ago)

The ravens fly and the sky is changed. Someone has cast a magic spell in the vicinity.

Magical Healing (1 day, 21 hours ago) You feel an unknown force entering your body, with no prior announcement or warning. Suddenly, you feel much better and your wounds have closed.

Wounds Healing (1 day, 20 hours ago) The healers say your condition is improving. You are recovering from your wounds, and able to act and send messages, though you can't do as much as usual in a day. It will take about 0 days for your wounds to fully heal. During this recovery time, you receive two hours less per turn.

Returned to active duty (1 day, 20 hours ago) You have returned to active duty. You are in Xavax.


ASHES OF XAVAX: Part V The Phoenix

Agony was her entire world. From the tips of her toes to the pinnacle of her skull, everything was a fire with pain. She felt as though an inferno had ravaged her tortured lungs as they expanded for the first time in to long, at last drawing breath. Her back arched with the sudden flash of torment racing through her veins as her buddy greedily sucked down air, forcing her chest to expand further and spearing each and every one of her nerve endings in the process.

A deluge of sensations flooded her senses. She felt true summer sunlight on her skin from above, smelled the scent of cedar pine and mead and sweat and dried blood. At first, she could see nothing, her face a tortured grimace as someone gently placed a damp towel over her eyes to help moisten them, at last allowing her to blink. She turned her head to face whoever it was, slowly turning her body to lie on her side. She reached out with a paw to brace herself...only to find that her simple human hand was not strong enough. Gravity took it's course and Selenia fell off the berm, igniting a renewed firestorm of anguish as she collapsed on the floor below.

Footsteps.

Someone racing to her side.

Her head cradled in a lap.

Moisture...WATER! on her lips. She drank gratefully, croaking in protest when the bowl was taken from her. "Not so quickly, my Lady, or your body will make you pay for it."

"Jer...Jeroen?" She said raspily?

"The one and only, freshly returned because I heard those Perdanite daimons were up to their old tricks. And I just so happened to have a scroll of powerful healing magic on my person that I was saving for a rainy day. And considering how many tears Your Majesty's Fall caused, well, today seemed like that day." He leaned forward, "You're welcome."

"Wha-" Selenia gasped, eyes darting wildly. Darting down to her hands as if to confirm they were indeed hands. Fading sigils of eldritch power, the healing magic Jeroen used on her, were still fading into her rejuvenated skin like glowing tattoos...not unlike the Fountain of Youth Magic Scroll she'd used on herself in order to safely give birth to her son.

Her Son!

Selenia jerked, trying to sit up, but her muscles refused to obey and Jeroen restrained her before she could hurt herself again. "Try not to speak, my Lady Xerarch," Jeroen hushed her. "You've had a rough night. You're very fortunate Sir Godric went out and brought you back to Tórrarinhall. And you have the gods-own luck that I was here and just so happened to have a magic scroll to help. Yes, yes, very lucky indeed. Why I even-" But Selenia, he saw, was struggling to even remain conscious. One final word escaped her lips.

"Hög-ni..." she struggled.

"We'll find the prince and bring him to you, Xerarch." But Selenia had already gone limp. This time, though, her chest rose and fell steadily. He checked her pulse, satisfied that it was even. He allowed himself a moment to marvel at the irony of this woman, who ruled a realm that had taken the Phoenix as its symbol, and how she literally embodied that symbol now. When he was sure Selenia was in a deep, healthful sleep, he summoned help at the top of his lungs. Servants and warriors came running, blades bare and expecting trouble, but skidding to a halt at the sight that greeted them.

"Send word far and wide" Jeroen declared. "The Xerarch Lives. And when she wakes up, I'd hate to be her enemy" There was a moment of stunned, almost reverent silence before Chaos broke out as questions were asked and answered and orders issued and obeyed. Tórrarinhall came alive around them. "Especially one of those damned dirty Perdanites..." Jeroen whispered quietly to himself, smiling at the thought.

Reception in Greater Xavax and Abroad

The Xerarch Returns

Roleplay from Selenia JeVondair

Message sent to the Rulers of East Continent (13 recipients) It is said that there are three prime pillars of power: Wealth, Information, and the Hearts of Men. A ruler, especially an effective ruler, must have all three. But at the moment, all nations hungered for more information about Xavax.

Your network of spies, be they traders and merchants or infiltrators and traitors, came alive as you leaned on them to provide you with the most accurate, up to date information as possible. Now that time had passed, you are able to confirm one thing for sure: The Xerarch lives. But that is where the consensus on facts ends. You've heard that since her ordeal, Xerarch Selenia had not appeared in public, not even to grant her warriors hope. In fact, she also had not written any realm-wide proclamations, a common event that characterized her rule. It's absence left her own people confused, and rumors spread wildly. Insidious rumors that Selenia had been reanimated as undead had soundly failed to penetrate the rank and file of the Imperium's commonfolk and aristocracy alike. Rather, heroic tales abounded.

The reports you receive conflict wildly. One source said that the Xerarch had only been very badly wounded and so close to death as to mimic its likeness. Others said she really had died, but Death could not hold her and sent her back. Still more claimed that she'd fought her way back to life, impressing even gods and now that she lived, her skin glowed golden and a bolt of midnight black streaked her hair from the strike that had killed her. "Eyewitness" accounts said they'd seen her passing by with fire burning from her eyes and thunder rumbling from her lips as she rose and immediately began hunting for her baby.

You disregard most of this as pure nonsense. Such things simply did not happen in this world, and such fantastic beings could not exist. If Selenia was alive, as all reports agree, then she was still a mortal woman. While the circumstances of her return were no doubt amazing, some of your shrewder intelligence analyst believe that the Xerarch was intentionally letting the rumor mill burn wild. To the Xavax, who's symbol was the Phoenix and who were by all accounts a warrior people that embraced heroes like no other, the powerful queens status was becoming larger than life. If nothing else, numbers supported this as your agents report the count of aristocratic houses in Xavax have risen 7% to 63 total pledged to the Xerarchs service.

63.

Given such responsibility, whether she'd died or not, Selenia surely could not remain silent for very much longer. And this was proved correct when an independent wine trader who sympathizes with your realm brings you a pamphlet entitled Ashes of Xavax: A Memoir. In it, the trader reveals that the Xerarch decided to pen down her experiences, the facts as she new it regarding what had happened, and had them disseminated to every corner of her realm. Thousands are in circulation, but thanks to the hot warzones along Xavax's borders, its no surprise that few managed to leak out. Whether her tale confounds or elates you, you confirm that the people of Xavax have taken the Xerarch's words as gospel.

Finally up to date with the most, if not the best, information possible, you decide what to do next...

– An intelligence report


The news spread like wildfire across the continent.

It is not possible to accurately measure the enormity of the impact and connotations of Selenia's return. Her enemies denounced it as proof of witchcraft and blackest sorcery, claiming that her body had been reanimated as an undead thing in the necropolis once called Xavax City and called for the whole of the Imperium to be purged. Neutral Leaders expressed grave concern and unease, unwilling to risk denouncing her but equally unwilling to defend her.

Meanwhile, the Xavax were elated. rumors abounded that perhaps the proclamation of her death was a mistake or a ruse all along, medical experts argued that her humors had been imbalanced during the Battle, causing a mostly-dead like state. Others argued that it was rare and powerful healing magic that was the ONLY reason, not gods nor litches, that allowed her to rise from her death bed, citing that perhaps elements of the powerful Fountain of Youth spell she'd cast on herself two years before in order to give birth to her son had lingered and reacted powerfully to Jeroen's scroll. Powerfully enough to call her back from beyond the veil. Still others saw it as a purely religious happening, a sure sign that Uthred the Unstoppable had interceded with greater powers on her behalf, securing her divine favor and further.

When news that she breathed was confirmed, a movement began in Xavax to bar her from participating in any future battles, the better to protector for the good of the realm and her own safety, causing vociferous argument between the knights of Xavax.

Selenia herself did nothing to stop the growing myths and rumors. Indeed, she was so weak that entire days would pass before she addressed the realm again. During this interlude, the Ruling Council of Xavax wielded complete authority and ruled in her name. Regardless, there was one consensus: Selenia's mandate, her right to rule, had never been stronger. She literally is Xavax. More than that, she'd become the very Phoenix that Xavax had taken for its symbol...a being that had died and rose again even stronger than before.

Orders from Selenia JeVondair

all nobles of Greater Xavax Defenders of the Imperium,

This is my first public address since my ordeal in the failed defense of the Capital. It has taken time for me to collect myself, and I promise to be among you soon. By now, each of you should have received a copy of my memoir recounting my experiences on that day. They are the facts as I know them, for better or for worse. And to that end, I have an announcement. For there are three of you whom I wish to honor:

Sir Godric Tórrarin ka Habb, second Arbiter of Xavax and member of the Old Guard of the Phoenix. By all accounts, when I fell, it was you who risked life and limb to recover me and secret me safely in Torrenhal. Without you, without your loyalty, I would surely be truly dead now. My gratitude will be undying.

To Countess Gia Dragonfyre who on this very day is granted admittance into the elite Old Guard of the Phoenix (its your 200th day in the realm!) , you who risked life and limb riding hard with your only thought being the rescue of my son Högni Peredhel, the only blood of my blood, the very center of my life. Without you, without your dedication, the bandits surely would have taken him, maybe even killed him. My gratitude will be undying.

And finally, to Jeroen Ardorson Nifelleisca who arose in my greatest hour of need and sacrificed your most powerful scroll of healing to give me a second chance at life, my gratitude will be undying.

I would like to award you all the Medal of Monarch's Thanks, a phoenix spun in gold to adorn your personal crests so that all may know what you have done for me, and The Shield of Uthred, a medal of honor and the highest award I have yet given, so that all may know what you have done for Xavax.

For winning both and forever securing your legacy in the annals of Xavax, I will grant each of you one wish. If it is within my power and in the favor of the well being of my people, I will endeavor to grant it.

GLORY TO XAVAX


– Selenia JeVondair Xerarch of Greater Xavax


Letter from Godric Tórrarin ka Habb (just in)

message to all nobles of Greater Xavax I was struck down in the field in Enubec. The wounds became infected but Tor has seen it that I live. I thank you all for your concern.

I also thank the Xerarch for the medal. I understand it is a great honour, but as with the Codex I am but a simple servant of the Imperium and I will strive to serve further.

I will confirm, however, that our Lady Selenia did die. I held her stiffened corpse in my hands. Her shining eyes were dark. I was not enveloped in rage but sadness, hoping she would suddenly draw breath, but her breast would not rise and my heart was as stone. I have seen much death in my days and I will attest to the fact that I have seen our Lady fall and rise. The Phoenix truly lives, Tor willing.

Hail,


– Godric Tórrarin ka Habb Knight of Xavax


Roleplay from Otoro Sakana (29 minutes ago)

message to all nobles of Greater Xavax Otoro looked over the remnants of his army as they began the journey back to Eunebec. There were less than a third of his men still here. None of the remaining men were without injury. Watching the healers at work, caring for his wounded men, Otoro couldn't help but feel a swell of pride. His men had stayed on the field of battle until the last man had fallen to the storm of arrows.

It was an odd sensation and feeling. On the one hand, Otoro knew that his men were brave and would do amazing things. However, seeing something in action was quite different from knowing it was a possibility. Watching his archers moving closer and closer to the fight in order to take aim was a powerful thing to behold. It felt wrong trying to take credit for this undying bravery. To try to say that he was the reason that his men were on the battlefield until they needed to be carried off.

Especially with their new war cry. "For the Phoenix Queen!" That powerful cry had been the sustaining force for his troops during the long, hard battle. Every arrow that flew at the enemy seemed to be humming and screaming that cry as it founds its mark. That same cry was whispered in the healer's tent as injured men breathed their last.

No, as much as wished to take credit for this bravery, he knew that it was their risen ruler who was the true source.

– Account of Otoro Sakana, Knight of Xavax