Studies, 228
Isaac Soro
Published in the Spring of 228, this book collects a number of research papers written by Isaac Soro of the Dawning Star.
Possession of this tome is worth **** Research Points per session, on the subject of ****. You may only use points from one book on this subject in a year. If delivered to the Church, this tome is worth **** Church Prestige Points.
The Ascension of Miko: an Approach to Dating Mytho-Historical Events
Current astrological theory divides the sky into an infinite number of concentric rings around a central position. Each ring is further divided into an ever-increasing number of positions, each of which may or may not contain stars. These positions are named in the same manner and pattern as the cosmos deck. That correspondence suggests a deeper linking between the stars and the cards.
That deeper linking is the mythology of the Cosmos Powers, after which both the cards and the stars appear to be named. Asawa Kei writes, "The Powers embodied by the Cosmos cards are both principles and entities of limited will."(1)
It is important to differentiate between the positions in the sky and the set of Powers which can be invoked with the cosmos deck. The night sky is the Physical Cosmos: infinite, defined. The Powers named by the cosmos deck form the Mythological Cosmos: potentially finite, partially undefined. The Mythological Cosmos is a proper subset of the Physical. There is no evidence that the Physical Cosmos has changed over the Ages, but ancient writings about the principles of Asura and Deva suggest the Mythological Cosmos isn't fixed:
"The battlefield is the Cosmos itself, as shown by the Great Wheel. In some alien way, the asura are struggling to make the Wheel grow, while the deva struggle to dissolve the Wheel and free those trapped upon it. The battle is waged most fiercely in the End Times..."
Hitoshi Kage's Book of Echoes contains this cryptic line, "Again, Komaru bowed His head. 'You are right, My sister. We have turned the balance of the Cosmos by coming here. To address this, We must send Our children back.'"
Other sources indicate that the source of this growth is the miko who participate in the End Times. Komaru Akagawa put it bluntly: "Then, the End Times come. Eight of the miko become the Powers the sorcerers serve, and all but the eight greatest sorcerers are stripped of their powers." Also see the works Literography(2) and Herald and Fire(3).
But miko do not form all the Powers. En'you Aral writes:
"When the ages fall, the powers that rise come from within Mourn and from without. The hybrid powers are shaped of miko spirits and human hopes. But the pure pacts, the pacts of the Cosmos and the Forces, they are something else. They are from beyond the Cosmos. They may even be Skyborn."(4)
The hybrid Powers are those that bridge the gap between the cardinal and the wedding pacts, the attunements which demand the miko's presence: Urania, Neith, Shousei.... These are the Powers the miko become.
If eight miko ascend at the end of each Age, and each hybrid position in the Cosmos Wheel is filled by a single miko, then we can work out the size and shape of the Mythological Cosmos for any given Age. The Wheel is arranged in rings around a central point. The first ring contains zero positions, the second ring contains eight, the third ring contains sixteen, the fourth contains twenty-four, and so on. At the end of the Fifteenth Age, the miko who ascend will complete the sixth ring.
Miko Positions Filled in a Given Age
| Age | Ring | Age | Ring | Age | Ring | Age | Ring |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 5 | 4.1 | 9 | 5.2 | 13 | 6.2 |
| 2 | 2.1 | 6 | 4.2 | 10 | 5.3 | 14 | 6.3 |
| 3 | 3.1 | 7 | 4.3 | 11 | 5.4 | 15 | 6.4 |
| 4 | 3.2 | 8 | 5.1 | 12 | 6.1 | END | 6.5 |
With this, we have a tool to assist in dating historical events. The Marquess of Ishikawa, Hiroko Sone, saw an early draft of this paper and used this method to place the Second Pharonic War in the early Fourth Age.(5)
Likewise, passages in On the Merru indicate that the fall of the En'you did not happen before the Fifth Age, and most likely did not happen after it.(6) That fall seems to have been directly related to contacting a Cosmos Power beyond the safe limits of that Age's Mythological Cosmos: "It is too soon. It is the last of the dark moon's Powers. It cannot yet walk the world, but Tarabia means to call it. I cannot know what shall come of this."(7)
(2) "Eight are pulled clear of the world's undercurrent while eight, balancing them, are ripped up into the Cosmos itself, freed from their ties to the world."
(3) "At the time of the Dream, only the strongest of the Miko becomes a Power, and I intended that it be me."
(4) On the Merru
(5) Histories of the Minamet: "with his ascension, the Whispering Gate could be opened at last."
(6) "Empty of heart and hand, Umi bore the ordeals of Kyokin and Lethora and gathered all of the power that Damien could offer."
(7) On the Merru, again.
On the Date of the End Times
Since Paraceln's Dream, there has been much confusion and speculation regarding the date of the End Times. There are three main factors in this: a calendar change at the beginning of the Age, a misunderstanding of ancient sources, and misinformation spread by the Church of Inner Light.
Prior to Paraceln's Dream, years were usually marked by the passage of the dark moon, Damien. The rise of the Church of Inner Light brought a calendar reform: since the Dream, years have been marked by the passage of the sun. Damien's year is longer, with a period of 512 days to the sun's 400.
Ancient sources indicate that the length of an Age is "two hundred years" long.(1) These are certainly Damien years, although misinterpretation of this led to the Church's initial claims of 200 PA, attributed to Shiliya as a hundred years from the day of Paraceln's death.(2)
Paraceln died in the year 100 PA. Some sources, having heard that he lived for 100 years, began the naming the date of Paraceln's Dream as the date of his birth. In fact, Paraceln did live for 100 Damien years, which is the period of 128 Solar years. The most accurate pre-Dream records report his year of birth as 178 SA. Paraceln had his Dream at age 28 Solar, which corresponds to 22 Damien years. So we see that Setsuna's Age lasted 200 Damien years.
Attempts to place the End Times at 200 PA come from a simple failure to differentiate Damien years from Solar years. A sorcerer lives 100 "years" and an Age is 200 "years" long. If Paraceln's death had been in 100 PA by Damien reckoning, Shiliya's statement would have been accurate: in 100 Damien years, the End Times would come.
Recognition of the difference between Damien years and Solar years has led some scholars to place the End Times in 228 PA, but this is also flawed. A 228 figure depends on a calendar change during this Age, rather than at the start of it. If Paraceln had died 100 Damien years into this Age, it would be correct to say that there were 128 Solar years remaining in it. However, his death in 100 PA is by Solar years, and corresponds to a mere 78 Damien years.(3)
To properly calculate the date of the End Times, we must set aside Shiliya's prediction and return to the sources she must have used herself. An Age is 200 years long, according to writers who used Damien reckoning. A period of 200 Damien years is equivalent to 256 Solar years. By the Solar calendar we use now, the End Times will come in the 256th year of Paraceln's Dream.
(1) Hitoshi Kage's Book of Echoes uses this phrase to mark the first End Times and the interval before the next. Komaru Akagawa describes the miko suffering 200 years of abuse, reversed at the End Times. Also, En'you Aral writes, "Three thousand years has Komaru from its namesake's coming - fifteen short ages in which to rise and fall and rise again."
(2) Which is odd, as Shiliya lived through the time of Paraceln's Dream, and would have been aware of discrepancies caused by the calendar change and Paraceln's actual age.
(3) The 78 Damien years in Paraceln's Age add to the 22 Damien years he lived in Setsuna's Age for a total of 100 Damien years, or 128 Solar years.
Gunpowder & Cannon
When the Touraine came to Komaru, they brought their western arts of war with them. While Komaran tactics focused on massed units of pike supported by archers and cavalry, the Touraine formed their armies around innovations unknown to Komaru: gunpowder and cannon.
The active element in modern gunpowder is plains crystal mined in the south. Unlike other witch crystal, the plains crystal is volatile, and reacts explosively when exposed to geomantic magics or open flame. For this reason, it is sometimes called flawed witch crystal. The Touraine seem to have arrived with stockpiles of similar crystal from some source across the sea.
When the plains crystal ignites, it produces intensely hot silvery flames called balefire. When excited by especially flammable fuels, the flames burn a rainbow of colors, changing at whim. Colorless or not, the fire spreads quickly, and is very difficult to contain. The destruction of Hiyama(1) is a tragic testament to the danger of balefire.
Interestingly, the Touraine once used balefire as a weapon on the field of battle, propelled or projected from devices called firethrowers. The details of these designs have been lost in the passage of time; it is likely the weapons were abandoned because of the danger they posed to Touraine forces using them or shortages of crystal in the years before the Excrescence.(2)
To make gunpowder, the flawed crystal is ground into a fine powder and cut with inert material to limit the rate of burn. The modern ration of 32 parts sawdust to one part crystal strikes the best balance between power and stability. Even so, the powder remains unreliable, and any imprecision in packing, priming, or sparking a weapon can cause an explosive misfire. Twilight Crux techniques have largely eliminated this risk in smaller weapons, but are not completely effective in stabilizing the larger quantities of powder used in artillery.
Florello Lacroix developed those techniques and combined them with modern smithing processes to craft cannon barrels that would withstand the intense energies of use.(3) Prior to his refinements, cannonfire was erratic and dangerous. Weaknesses in the metal caused fatal explosions when barrels were stressed by sustained fire, and undetected cracks would sometimes destroy weapons on their virgin firing.
Modern artillery is a versatile tool on the battlefield. Loaded with cast-iron cannonballs, it tears through stonework fortifications and collapses walls. Loaded with grape shot (fragile cannisters packed with smaller balls, nails, or even pieces of chain), a cannon can injure or kill a dozen men at short range each time it is fired.
(1) Powder stores beneath this Minamet town caught fire in 210, gutting it. More than 500 men and women died during the blaze.
(2) The Jitani were the first of the Komaran families to explore the potential of Touraine cannon technology.
(3) These advances also brought pistols firmly into common use, after hundreds of years of Komaran indecision about their value.
Data Concerning the Darkness in the Sky
As an aid to those working to solve our riddle of stars, I've collected these observations. Use this information wisely.
5 Waxing 2, 223
The northwest half of the night sky goes dark.
5 Waxing 4, 226
The rest of the sky goes dark.
4 Waning 8, 226
The original 4 Waxing in the manuscript was an error, and has been corrected at the author's instructions. - Komaru Takanobu, 228
The sun and the bright moon go dark for a duration of 80 hours, then return with a thick haze in the sky, The stars remain dark. No celestial movements preceded this event. No celestial object has an 80-hour period.
There is evidence of a latitudinal shift in the thinning of the darkness: light was observed in Sone lands about half an hour before it was seen in Yuasa highlands, but this data may be suspect, as these time recordings were made using mechanical clocks in the absence of more precise methods.
8 Waxing 4, 227
A faint, flickering light is seen on the eastern horizon. This light is not starlight. The haze remains.
1 Waning? 6, 227
Stars return in the southeastern sky. The haze remains. This date is uncertain, due to cloud cover. The actual date may be a day or two earlier.
The Haze
The haze in the sky waxes and wanes in intensity or density, but not in any pattern. It rides lower in the sky than most clouds, and traps heat closer to the ground.