Talk:Fourth Interregnum

Can I take this off my to-do page? Any floating questions? -gm

Which faction won? -Slitherrr

Since Edrell Dakt ended up becoming Arch-Warden, smart time-traveler money is on him. I'll add it. -gm

This is also why the Mainland doesn't go crusading very often. Each time more disastrous than the last. -gm

Did this permanently destroy the Stone-Warden? --Msallen

I don't think so? You mean just because it took forever? --absalom 09:49, 30 April 2010 (EDT)

On account of Peteran wizards disjoined it (first paragraph). --Msallen

Ah, good call. It was reconstituted, after a fashion, though no longer nearly as powerful. If it was ever permanently destroyed, the church would probably collapse under the weight of writing new rules of succession. Better to cobble together some pale imitation of the original Stone-Warden. --absalom 10:21, 30 April 2010 (EDT)

I'll update the warden page then! Did it have a role in the 3rd interregnum? It looks like it was a big part of 1, 2, and 4. --Msallen

Fresia's motives?

I've been thinking a lot about Fresia's part in the Interregnum. Not sure how bad it would be for something more exciting to happen here that just political stuff.

Kill Bill, A Proposed Story outline:

• At some point before or early during the Fourth Interregnum, the son of the Emperor (northern guy, let me call him Bill), a crusader cleric, came into possession of an alleged relic.
• Coolness: Relic could even have allegedly been Kivan's swords, which (with some minor timeline tweaking) might let us tie Redzan's eventual heresies into the story, and become part of the reason he had such a convincing tale a century or so later. (Redzan would have had to be a longer-lived race, though, than the human I think he was when I played him, but that would rock if he were alive during Arabelle Adventures.)
• Fresia really wanted that guy to become Arch-Warden, as he was their own hero and they felt he had been chosen to lead the world through the difficult times ahead.
• Fresians came close to converting some of the Wardens to their side, even, but Edrell Dakt was simply too much of a strategic juggernaut.
• Bill was killed by an explosion in his tent shortly after a small victory and the swords were lost in 930 FI.
• The Emperor's will was broken-- the Fresia Princes couldn't keep the families investing in war without their uniting champion. The remaining months of combat were quite calculatingly waged only to give them a better bargaining position when they agreed to Dakt's ascension.
• This would explain why Fresia was such a long hold-out in the Fourth Interregnum. They surely had to have some deep conviction (or a lot of unspoken power in this era) to fight so earnestly for so long when the entire world was pretty much against them.

How terrible is this? Did you already have something in mind that kept Fresia driving forward so late? I don't have any story ties to this idea, but it does give me a lot of great story fodder eventually. I do need to figure out some background on Fresia's position during the Fourth Interregnum for my game. -Mattie

Eh, I like it a lot. I mean, sadly, there's no really organic way to shove Redzan and his heresy in there, especially since you well know that's an adventure all it's own with a logic all it's own. Also - the Kelvinites (and Redzan) were active in Alexia, not Fresia. (The gold mine Redzan and Co. discovered went a long way in delaying Alexia's eventually decline and fragmentation.

But, beyond that, I think the broad strokes of this are fantastic and can almost work as-is. Another relic possibility (especially for a dispute tying into succession) is Mythrian's Holy Avenger Longsword, Hammer of the Eight, or some item associated with Steros. After all, those are the first two arch wardens, they're intimately tied to Fresia, and they were instrumental in forging and defining the Church and the Faith. Kivan, who played no part in forming the church (beyond his own stories being coopted into the Canon), and is an anti-social, anti-establishment ranger half-elf, isn't a great fit as the rallying point of any sort of movement. -gm