Take a stand

Lots of stuff in the news over the past fortnight, and no time to write about any of it.  It has been mostly about the racism in America and the over reaction and under reaction by various people and there has been some play over the President's comments.  And there has been more fallout by those people who are the type to make issue of things— you know the people who counter Black Lives Matter with All Lives Matter.  To be clear, all lives do matter, but the people who say it really only care about themselves and feel Black Lives do not matter.  

There was a protest in The USA about the decision to remove a statue of General Lee by a group of ultra Right wing politicals, including the KKK, and Neo-Nazis.  During that protest there was a counter protest by Black Lives Matter and an Antifa group; more on that later.  During this Counter-Rally, one of the former group, the right wing radicals, drove through the protest killing one protester and injuring several others.  Very very bad and clearly a terrorist action, an action meant to inspire terror, but an unorganized attack.  

Later many government officials extended their condolences and outrage towards the attackers and their condemnation of the Neo-Fascists and the KKK, while the president blamed most sides and actually took the side of the fascists, appeared to.  He and many people like him and the extreme right winged, seemed to think that the Antifa started it.  

Who are these radicals with the name Antifa, stress the 'ti' syllable.  Simply put Antifa are an unorganized group that arose to oppose Fascism in all its forms.  They argue that if they had been present in Europe in the early part of the last century, they may have prevented the rise of the Fascist powers of Gmany and Italy.  Those powers plunged Europe, Asia, North America, Africa, into a six year war that caused millions of deaths.  So, they are opposing anything Fascist and they appear where ever they see it; I mean they are regular citizens who are walking around and they see that the Neo Nazis are a real thing and they get upset and they protest, because they had relatives that fought in the War, or they read their histories, or they just finished learning about the Death Camps; it does not matter, they object to fascism and they protest it.  They are all Antifa.  

People talk about Black Bloc as Antifa, they are not.  Black Bloc are anarchists who don face masks to commit vandalism and violence, but they do it because they are against order.  They go to organized demonstrations and do violence and vandalism, but they are not part of the main group, but use it as cover.  Just as the KKK uses their white garb to prevent their identities from being uncovered.  

So, the President of the United States posted his statement as a tweet that both sides were at fault.  The first side were 1500 Nazis and Kkk, they were protesting the removal of a statue of a confederate war leader, Robert Lee.  And the second groups was much larger and confronted the smaller group and dispersed it.  The first group was shouting slogans calling for Jews and Israel to be destroyed.  They shouted slogans against Muslims, Jews and black people.  They carried torches similar to the ones that lynch mobs carried to the beating and hanging of Black People in the Deep South and to the burning of witches in the ancient past.  The second group was composed of members of Black Lives Matter and several Antifa groups, there were all sorts.  They were unorganized with protest signs and later armed with whatever was around.  The right wing protesters from their own accounts were prepared and using military precision, armed with torches, shields and many of them fire arms.

It does not matter who started what, but what is clear is that the Nazis and the KKK came expecting violence, even if they were not willing to use their full arsenal.  At the end of the day of riots and confrontations, the right Wing people were in retreat, but that did not stop one of them from driving his car into the assembled protesters and killing one.

To which people point and say, "Both sides are responsible for the violence."  Because both sides came to the protest armed, both side were prepared for violence and both sides shed blood.  And both sides killed people.  Which is not true of course.  If one side had not shown up, then there would not have been violence, meaning if the Nazis and the KKK, were permitted free reign, there would not be violence.  History tells a different story, a story where fascists were emboldened by successes and upstaged themselves by destroying synagogues and later starting a war, killing millions in Death Camps.  The KKK were never so successful, but they were marching without their head coverings, soon if they were not pushed back on as strongly as they were, could there be public lynchings again and Strange Fruit hanging from the trees?

They were strongly protested against and pictures of the marchers were taken and they were posted on social media and they were ousted publicly, named and families disowned them.  Some people were fired from jobs.  And the statues are coming down.

The statues.  Town squares across America are littered with statues of Civil War generals that never fought battles or visited them.  The statues were all raised in the 20s and 30s as statue sellers were drumming up business by getting towns to compete with each other for patriotism but instead enriching these Statue makers.  The statues are relics of times that were less inclusive and today are used as rallying points for a minority of people who fear other people.  In years past, icons that the far right have rallied around have been taken down in the South.  The Confederate Flag was removed when a white man walked into a church filled with black people and praised the Confederate South and then started killing people.  Now the statues are going.  

But still, people say that both sides were at fault in Charlottesville.  People shouted out that Blue Lives Matter, when people tired of watching police forces shoot Black men dead because they were just there.  BLM was launched to protest that the police forces in the States had a policy of shoot black people first and ask questions later.  People shouted, White Lives Matter too, and they do, but they were not threatened with death by standing still.  They are not charged in crimes because they are White.  

People who shout Blue Lives Matter are the people who are the problem.  It is the thinking that they are not anymore privileged than anyone else and everyone has the same opportunities as them; they don't.  Not in Canada and especially not in the States.  Both sides are at fault.  Both sides were involved in street violence, but one side killed people.  Both sides were protesting, but one side has a history of intolerance and mass murder.  As one person wrote in a tweet prior to the counter protest, "Do you want to tell your children and grandchildren what you were doing when the intolerant Right gained political power, or do you want to tell them that you stood in their way and prevented them from gaining a foothold?"

Session unfolds

Revelations were abound in Creation for the Player Characters, Nameless Wolf, The Practitioner, Messenger and the rest.  The tasks before them seemed great, organizing the defense of a hostile city, getting the inhabitants to accept their help and, lastly figuring out how to destroy the many shadowlands outside the city, depriving the undead armies easy access to the city and then to destroy the minions of the Neverborn.  Strangely, the last task was the simplest to start with and the rest were dependent on timing.  

The Practitioner took a couple of hours to figure out how to move the words of Creation to alter the flow of essence that penetrated the fabric of reality.  Considering the depth and power of the changes he was making, a small mistake could result in an unplanned effect, as little as a wrong inflection on one sound might result the lands becoming as barren as the deepest desert just for starters and a more drastic error might erase everything around him for countless leagues.    His choice of a body guard, the traitorous Abyssal and one time friend, the Messenger was important.  It was one more act to show that he was still trusted and an opportunity for him to betray the group, but he remained true to his word, this day.  An attack from the Shadowland, that he skirted to cast his great spell, could end the spell and his existence.  The attack did not occur.

As soon as the casting began, its casting would take four days, the Nameless Wolf, landed and approached the City of Amber River.  The last few hours before the predawn light touched the horizon, two great forces of the Cult of Illuminated troops touched down less than an hour's march of the walls, not as an invasion force but as its protector.  The forces arrayed outside the city were caught by surprise as the Nameless arrived by Stormwind Rider, the retreated inside their walls and the patrols outside were left outside when the gate walls were barred from within.  The three exalts moved toward the walls, along the bridge covering the Amber River, the Propagandist, the Sidereal Martial Art expert Lupo and, the Nameless.  Nameless reordered the troops and gave them a message that he wished to meet with the Statrap about the defense of the city against the armies of the dead that are gathering outside.  He then turned and left the gate retiring to the far side of the bridge.  

After a couple hours, the maingates opened and a force progressed across the bridge, they stopped halfway.  A lone figure broke away from that force and crossed the rest of the way.  Negotiations ensued to begin negotiations.  The Herald moved between the two groups until the Dragon Blooded, the Dynasts were comfortable enough to treat directly with their enemy.  It was not until the nameless threatened to take the negotiations directly to the bedchamber of the Satrap that they relented.  Negotiations did not start until the Practitioner was half way through the spell, purple lightning flickering across the sky.  

Negotiations were put on delay for the reason that for all of his words, the Nameless' words were only that and there was no real reason to trust them.  Every interaction to date had ended with many deaths and the destruction of much property and he claimed that the attackers that worked with undead were from a different faction and were trying to destroy the world.  To their ears this was an unbelievable possibility; the childhood stories they grew up with matched this story and the idea that it was not so, could not be believed.  The Nameless, understanding this, invited them to check out the local Shadowlands upon the completion of the spell.  He then adjourned until then.

The spell completed and a great storm formed over the area and a heavy warm golden rain covered the region and continued for most of the day.  When the rain lifted the medium sized and smaller shadowlands had closed up, the land was free of blight, right up to the edge of the Fell, bloated and unchanged, but the lesser shadowlands closed in less than a week, a major accomplishment.

Negotiations resumed and they seemed to be heading in a direction that pleased the Solar Exalted and the Cult of the Illuminated, when there was a rush of wind and a crash of sound as the people outside the tent clamoured in fear; outside a gateway to Yu-Shan had appeared and six men and women advanced from the Gate to the negotiation tent.  Guards that jumped to defend the tent were swatted aside by the glance of the old man in robes' glance of disdain.  He swept the tent flaps aside and crossed the room to stand directly before one of the Cult's Advisors, Venerable Silk, who he promptly backhanded and shouted at him about endangering Creation with his little stunt.  He claimed that altering the Loom of Fate could have disaterous repocautions for the entire world and he had acted with so little concern that he should….  He stopped as if first noticing that the room was full of Dynasts and Immaculate Monks.  He motioned to one of his fellows and spoke to her, "Iron Siaka, Clear the room of the rabble.". This included the Solar Exalted, until the Nameless objected, making it clear this was his meeting, not his.  The eldest Exalt turned to him and motioned that the Solars may stay, saying that they are part of this too.  And so the characters met Chejop Kejak, the leader of the Bronze Faction and the Architech of the Usurpation.  

He claimed that the Loom of Fate had been altered so that the identity of exalted had been obscured in the North.  It was only when Adamant Circle Sorcery had been cast and they could not pick out the identity of the caster from the flotsam that they detected the ruse.  That and the group of ten Solar exalted they had been tracking coming from the North-East had suddenly become Terrestrials after they crossed an unknown barrier.  He then told Silk that they had removed his changes.  

Discussions continued from where they were going with the Dragon Blooded, except clearly these Exalted, could except that the Solars might be telling the truth that they were not completely evil.  Chejop conceded that there might be a diffence between Solar Essences and this new threat, but he remained unconvinced.  The Practitioner and the Nameless shared a look with Deepwater and the sorceror asked to send for the proof of what he said, to which Kejak assented.  A messenger spell was sent to the Messenger and he began to journey to them.  Chejop then began to talk about the things that he knew.  All the Sidereals present were part of a committee in Heaven known as the Convention on Shadowlands, that researched their cause and formation as well as methods to close them.  He then announced that the Sidereals he traveled with were also part of another secret committee, the Convention on Deathlords and the other Sidereals present would now be included in this committee.  He told them that he had first become aware of these Deathlords a few centuries ago when a powerful ghost was seen travelling though Creation during the day and was tracked down to the Shadowland where the city gods of Great Forks had defeated it.  They tracked it down but lost track of it as it entered the North.  They had been doing a lot of scouting into the Underworld in the years since and had managed to uncover a few other Deathlords, but they did not know the significance of these creatures until one attacked Thorns a few months ago.  

It was then that The Messenger entered the tent.  Practitioner asked him to show Chejop his anima, his caste mark.  It appeared like a standard gold Night Caste ring, until he dropped his disguise.  His Golden Disc mark fades to black and a drop of blood dripped from its edge.  Chejop peppered The Messenger with multiple questions about how this occurred, he responded where he could and Chejop scoffed at his gullibility and naïveté.  Those that had known Chejop  in the millennia before would have recognized a slight softening in the way he treated Messenger, although he was harsh in his statements afterwards it was more like those of an understanding and disappointed father…

The Nameless brought the attention back to the present asking what Chejop was going to do to help them in the defense of Amber River.  The most powerful human in Creation turned to look at the Nameless Wolf and pointed his words at him as sure as the Solar's arrows, "We don't trust you yet.  Too many of the attacks against have been accompanied by the forces of The Underworld to allow you to defend this land."  He forestalled his objections that they were not Solars with a hand gesture, "We know now that they may have been something else, but the people will not except such a quick switching of tactics by your kind.  You are still the demons that are going to end the World, however you believe that you are here to save them.  Go to the North and stop the reinforcements from getting here.  I will send observers to help you.". He left it unsaid that they would be evaluating their actions and the opposing group as well.  Two of his fellows step forward, a woman wearing only robes and clothing that is green and a woman with a gore-maul named Iron Siaka.  They will evaluate the actions of the Solars.  

The group takes to the field.  They arrive in the early dawn, just before the undead army reaches the Shadowland they are heading towards and so their arrival is unseen.  The new day arrives and while the army prepares to wait out the day, the Solars carefully probe the army.  They discover that the Abyssal enemy are unused to working together and that they are from the North East, from the Lover.  They also learn that they are seeking someone called the Thrice Dread Achiban, the leader of the Fell.  They seek to buy his support with his own personal Abyssal Exalt and with that, the Fell.  It is clear that the Deathlords seem to not know what they know, that the Fell is controlled by the Black Sun another Deathlord.  While tempting to inform them, the discovery of a Celestial Monstrance, with a corrupted Solar soul is too much of a prize to not destroy the army and take it.  The Night caste and Day caste, Nameless Wolf and Messenger, decide to remove that Abyssal scouts and begin the attack.  The goals are to wipe out the army, capture a Abyssal Exalt and take the Celestial Monstrance. 

The battle goes smoothly, the scouts are removed with minimal effort and in the initial seconds of the battle, the abyssal generals are removed in their sleep.  The battle was more of an after thought, the routed forces flee into Creation where they are put down.  

In the cleanup, the Messenger receives a chilling telepathic message from the Black Sun, "While you spend your energies uselessly on battlefields that matter not, real battles occur.  You, traitor, will fall; the true battle is for Whitewall and the Holy Road, which are now mine!  Your ineptitude is easily guided and you fight unimportant battles and will lose the War.  Yo-Ping, Luranume and Uvanavu, the Syndics, have fallen before me.  You lose." 

The Practitioner quickly dispatched a sorcerous message to Leaf asking for word of Whitewall…

Don't give GRRM ideas how to tell his story…

Lots of suggestions on how to make the Battle for Amber River more Epic!, because obviously I can't.  But I discovered how I will do it.  

Amber River forces will be lead by the Underworld's acknowledged leader of Marama's Fell, the Thrice Damned Achiban.  With nemesary support and skeleton chains et al. As a chance force from the Lover is seeking out the said leader to offer an alliance.  The Lover's forces include many Abyssals who to the Sidereals appear as just Exalted on the loom due to Gold Faction tampering.  The Bronze Faction has figured this out and will confront.  

This is all a diversion.  The real attack is on Wallport and Whitewall and the Holy Road.  It was never going to be Amber River.  Amber River will fall eventually and the slaves will one day become a apart of his Shadowlands but uniting the West and the East is much more critical.  The holy road divides his nation into two, both in Creation and in the Underworld.  The destruction of the holy road would be a signal in the underworld louder than the disappearance of the Empress in Creation!

The scene begins with Chejop and four others storming into the planning session for the Battle of Amber River.  He is angry with Venerable Silk for having Tampered with the Loom of Fate.  He then states that he has removed the changes he made.  The Bronze Faction can now see where the Solar Exalted are in the North.

He then accuses The Wolf and his sorcerer of planning a duplicitous attack on the forces in Amber River and it won't work.  Also it was a clever ploy trying to divide The Realms forces by declaring a peace and then attacking from behind.  Eventually he calms down and allows less heated discussion to occur.  He tells them that there is a force of Fifteen Solars heading into the area from the North East with a large force of walking dead.  A legion.  There numbers are being supplemented along the way as the erase towns and villages, but they are unrelentingly heading to Amber River.  

Eventually he agrees to allowing the group to form their plans to attack the new group and allows a couple of his advisors to join the expedition, Iron Siaka and the Lady Who Wears Green.  Chejop refuses assistance in Amber River though.

Not one to gloat but one to let his traitorous minion a chance to know that his side will lose he sends him a telepathic message via his tattoo telling him while he enjoys his 'Victory' he will be feasting on the essence of Yo-Ping, Luranume and Uvanavu!  The Messenger might not know who these people are but someone will.  

The result of Iron Siaka being part of the battle quickly become apparent she will attest to the veracity of the Solar's claim and say that the foes they faced were similar to Solar Exalted but their anima displays were wrong and their Charms disbased.  

The Lady Who Wears Green, will say that she heard rumour of these exalts before but she identifies that these are not locals and may be allied with the Solars.  She says that they bear the markings of a ghost from the North East, the Lady in a Ramaint of Tears.  

The effect will be noticeable at once.  First, the North will be cut off fro the rest of Creation.  The Holy Road carried the bulk of Northern trade.  Gethamane will have to start living off the dole almost entirely.  The haslanti airships will have to come South to trade and then sweep to the East to avoid the Fell.  

Second, Whitewall will be slowly torn to pieces and the walls cast asunder and swallowed into the Fell.  

Third, the west and the east fell will be joined together and the leader of the Fell will announce their ascent, Marama, former Dragon Blooded, and her consort The Thriced Damned Achiban.  

The destruction of Whitewall will take some time, and the player characters can save the bulk of the inhabitants, if they work quickly.  Half a million is all they can save.  If they can only find a destination for the extremely well educated citizens of one of the most prosperous people like Denandsor … hmm.