Willow and rain

Beauty Once

There was beauty in Therunin, once. Spring would bring delicate marsh flowers, see blossoms kindle and spread like wildfire through the trees, waken the raucous beasts of the fens and the forests to full-throated life. Summer would herald long, warm days when jewelled dragonflies darted here-and-there across the waters, fruits and berries ripening, the great beetles of the deep woods scuttling about their inscrutable business under blue skies. The Druj have changed that, perhaps forever.

The Tarn valley is marked by poison that taints the waters and threatens to kill anyone who drinks, or is unlucky enough to let too much of it sink into their skin. They have ravaged Eastring and East Ashes with war, slaughter, and terror. They have come to Peakedge Stead with burning brands and a thirst for destruction that has barely been seen since they swept through Zenith as a burning plague devouring everything wholesome or beautiful in their path.

And then, their dominion secured, they chose to destroy what they had taken. Spite, it might seem, motivated by little more than a desire to deny Therunin to the Navarr and drown it in the vallorn of Tharunind. Or perhaps not just spite? There are strategic reasons why rendering Therunin impassable would help the Druj in their war with the Empire, just as the Empire has benefited from closing passes into Jotun lands along the western Empire. There are the heralds of the Green Mother who walk alongside the Tainted Basilisk - that wicked eternal of the Spring realm has long desired to see the vallorn unleashed across the world. She offered the Empire aid in return for unleashing the vallorn of Béantal Dol, it stands to reason that the Druj might also gain her boons by releasing the vallorn into Therunin.

Yet spite is often enough, with the Druj. They break what is precious not to hear the sound it makes but to cause others to fear what they might do to their own precious things. In Therunin, the vallorn rouses and as Spring fades toward twilight the first signs of that awakening are seen across the territory. The miasma rolls out of the southern woodlands into the rest of Therunin - for there is no part of this territory that does not edge along the forest claimed by the Doom of Terunael. With the miasma comes the vallornspawn husks but there are also significant numbers of ettercaps - more than have been seen before in one place. The insect-creatures are especially worrisome, for they evidence a cunning hitherto unseen among them. They practice caution, where the husks simply charge anyone who intrudes upon their domain. They use crude tools and salvaged armour. There is speculation that they are actively raiding the steadings the Druj have conquered, ignoring the slaughtered Navarr in favour of looting their weapons of war.

The miasma is no respecter of borders, however. The whisper of the vallorn’s verdant fog pooling in northern Morrow are now confirmed, along with a few clashes between sentinels and vallornspawn in the foothills of Peregro and Altis. The miasma settles in the lowlands, mind, meaning that many spires are simply too elevated to be threatened by it. Not yet, at any rate. But this is little consolation to those in the lower valleys of Morrow, or who need to travel at ground level for whatever reason. The problem is contained for the moment, but what bulwark can hope to hold back poisoned air?

The miasma, terrible though it is, is only the tip of the spear. Abominations have risen in Sweetglades and Greenheart, and begun to press out into regions long since claimed from the vallorn. The rising power of the vallorn begins to flow through the roots, the waters, the beasts and insects, of the forested marshes. Things begin to shift, near the border with the Bane of Tharunind. It’s slow and fragile at first, but it grows in power as it rises. It spreads most slowly in the Lower Tarn Valley, but even the poison there is not enough to turn back its tendrils. There is little news from the east of the territory, but in Peakedge Song and the Upper Tarn Valley the vallorn is certainly advancing, seemingly inexorably.

Raincallers Song

There is an oasis of safety, however. The gentle power of Lord Rain continues to ward Peakedge Stead. A wall of impenetrable briars surrounds the hospital and the House of Healing. The guardians of Beckburn’s realm - quadrupedal creatures of living wood that spread flowers wherever they walk - continue to sing their bubbling song of life and protection. The people seeking sanctuary there are safe, for now. Yet that safety comes with a price.

During the Spring Equinox, the Archmage of Spring met with Father Tarn in parley. During that meeting, the eternal agreed to expend his might in preserving Peakedge Stead for a second season, to keep alive those who sheltered there and prevent both the Druj and the vallorn from devouring it. Yet Coomarta of the Rains believes he was very clear what his aid would cost. That the Imperial Senate would grant the Conclave the declaration of Remorse and they would use it to remove the rituals Rivers Run Red and Mountain Remembers Its Youth from Imperial lore.

On the understanding this could not be achieved in Spring, but could be done by the end of the Summer Solstice, Willowbraid exerted himself to cause the wall of life around Peakedge Stead to continue for another three months. If it were achieved, then the eternal would do as he promised and not only protect Peakedge Stead from the Druj and the vallorn, but enfold Thornsong House as well so it would be safe once its wards failed. He would not only create a place of sanctuary, but a place that might be used as a stronghold to fight the vallorn when the time comes.

Yet he was also clear what the consequences would be if his trust were not repaid. If the Archmage cannot follow through, if the Senate and the Conclave do not fulfill their end of this bargain, then Ossegrahn will withdraw from the Empire. Not just from Therunin - from the entire Empire. He will step away; he will not agree to future plenipotentiary until the Empire can repair their fundamental breach of trust. Peakedge Stead will be destroyed by the Druj who remain in Therunin, or subsumed by the vallorn. Those sheltering there will die, and the Houses of Healing will be lost. When the wards protecting Thornsong House fall, the college of the apothecary arts will doubtless meet the same fate. The healers and peace-makers of the Empire both will lose a potent ally, and there are few other eternals whose interests coincide with those who seek to preserve life.

Given there are no Imperial armies in Therunin, it is unlikely any force could get into position in time to save Peakedge Stead and the Houses of Healing, and the people sheltering there. Ossegrahn will do what he can to ease their passing, but he is already at the limits of his power and without the show of faith from the Empire he will have no choice but to walk away.

Bleak Prospects

Navarr who have come home from the trods to join an army! No armies have been sent this season to Therunin. Cleave to your Oaths and your Virtue & we will show the Druj the folly of their plans. It takes more than an Imperial Army with a name and a banner to win a war. We ask the Thorns, Vates, Guides, Brokers, Vines and those that can fight to do whatever they can to harry the Druj. Strike from the shadows, Sabotage their wagons, upset supply lines, spit in their drinks & overstretch their healers. We ask the People who are able, to RESIST the Druj in any way they can. Leave a binding of thorns on every wall, appear to comply but speak out, pilfer from their stores and have the Courage to endure reprisals. We ask the Druj for just One bad day, A guard who drank too much, a scribe who can’t find their glasses, a Quartermaster who can’t find enough rations, a slave who said “Not Today!”, a day to reclaim what is ours.Ioan Longshadow, Navarr Assembly, Spring Equinox 387YE, Vote: Greater Majority 278-20I hear the inspiring words of Estella Lucati and thank her for them. However, we must not turn away from breaking the Druj’s ability to wage war on us. Whilst the Navarr have stated that the Vallorn should be removed from this plane of existence now that we have the method to do so, we cannot undertake the largest military offensive in history with the poisoned blades of the most treacherous folk in Creation at our backs. Navarr is at its weakest ebb for a decade. Liathaven is long lost. Therunin under the heel of the Druj and the Isaella’s Dance shattered. We call for aid from our Imperial kin in rebuilding Navarr’s strength, and ask that we defeat the Druj and stabilise the other fronts before turning the Empire’s full might against the Vallorn.Harwyn Eternal, General Assembly, Spring Equinox 387YE, Vote: Upheld 1726-290

The mood in Therunin is beyond bleak. There are no Imperial armies in Therunin, none to reclaim the territory from the Druj and none to fight the vallorn. Full two-thirds of the stridings returned home, believing that they were coming back to begin the great war against the vallorn. But those who returned to Therunin endured defeat at the hands of the Druj and now they face destruction at the hands of the vallorn.

Barely a year ago, Gaelen Embercast judged the vallorn to be the greatest spiritual threat to the Empire, a statement the Assembly of Nine backed with a greater majority. Only last season, Estella Lucati's sermon called on the Ambitious to dare do all and imagine a world in which the vallorn were defeated. The General Assembly overwhelmingly rejected that vision and said that the Druj must be defeated first. But there is none here to do that either...

Now the Navarr Assembly have called on the people of Therunin to do everything possible to harry the Druj, to resist the enemy in any way they can. There are still a handful of steadings in the territory - the people that came home to fight the vallorn - but there simply aren't enough people left to make a difference. They sacrificed everything to help their people escape the wave of orcs breaking across the Tarn Valley and Peakedge Stead. They have precious little left to give.

The vallorn is on the move, and unless a major military force moves into Therunin after the Summer Solstice, then it will expand to claim at least one region and maybe more. There may be a chance to stop it becoming another Brocéliande but decades of striving and sacrifice are set to be undone in months.

Nothing stands between the folk still in Therunin and the Mallum orcs. Nothing stands between them and the vallorn. Only Lord Rain, and only in Peakedge Song, and only for a little while longer.

It is enough to make anyone despair.

Game Information

Therunin and Lord Rain

The Druj completely control Therunin, except for the two regions of vallorn, Greenheart and Sweetglades Peakedge Song still stands but if a way is not found to save it this season, then it will be destroyed The Empire has comparatively little information about Therunin as there are no Imperial forces there

The Druj still control Therunin, but it is being contested by the vallorn. It may be worth reviewing the information presented last season about the situation in Therunin, as recounted in the game information section of the To hold death's hand in mine wind of war.

Peakedge Stead and the Houses of Healing are still being protected by Ossegrahn but by the end of the Summer Solstice his patience and power alike will have run out. If the Conclave has not removed Rivers Run Red and Mountain Remembers Its Youth from Imperial lore by the end of the summit, Ossegrahn will be forced to withdraw his protection and Peakedge Stead (and Thornsong House) will be destroyed, and the people taking refuge there killed. Furthermore, Ossegrahn will turn away from the Empire, meaning he will no longer respond positively to plenipotentiary nor offer new boons to Imperial citizens.

The only other way to save the steading would be to move enough Imperial armies into Therunin to take the region. But that would bring its own cost, as the advancing Imperial force would meet the expanding vallorn head-on.

The Empire’s actual awareness of what is going on in the territory is limited by its lack of presence there. What reliable information is coming out of the conquered territory is confused and unreliable and mostly focuses on what is happening with the vallorn.

Vallorn

The vallorn is on the march, advancing on the Upper Tarn Valley, with a force strength of 25,000 Its focus will shift to attack any army that comes into the territory

What is certain is that the vallorn is expanding in Therunin. By the start of the Autumn Equinox, if nothing else changes, it will have claimed the Upper Tarn Valley. Expanding in that way will dissipate some of the vallorn's strength, so it will be weaker the following season when it attacks the next region.

There is some speculation that the Druj forces are, or have been, up to something in Eastring and East Ashes designed to hold the vallorn back, or at least preserve some sort of presence in the east. They have had uncontested control of the Docks at Feverwater and Mudlark’s Haven for nearly a year and if they are doing something it is probably there.