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Yes, it does seem to be this warm out here most days, these days. The sun pours down on the world and you with it, beating down on like it's trying to bake you alive. They call it the Empyreal Eye, the grand Icon of Flame and Fire, Courage and Camraderie and more Names besides, in from sunlit streets to shadowed temples. There are parables about it. Perhaps it hardens us, like clay, abrading our weakness into sweat and purifying our souls. To make us better, grander, wiser.

Or perhaps that's just sunstroke, setting in, degree by degree. The dust and debris don't help either, clinging to your sweat-stained clothes. We're all feeling it, every step of the way to the Spanways. But at least the Spanways span something. The great churning, roiling, rolling rivers of the Westwards Deluge, an artery of high mountain flow that becomes a torrential almost-ocean all on its own as its thousands lesser little kin meet further up the way.

If we capture this side, then perhaps we can capture their side too? There's hope in that thought, a glimmer of a better tomorrow amidst the heat and hardship. So, let's press on, resolute and determined, every step bringing us closer to victory.

If we die here, at least in falling we might slip off of the enormity of the Span and into the cold embrace of the water below. A death away from the Empyreal Eye. Unthinkable, to some. What soul would willingly fall in the shadow, outside the embrace of the Icon itself? Still. . .

. . . Still. Imagine the novelty. Cold, in your final moments, and finally - finally - enough water to drink without worry of the next march.

--
You may muster yourself, fill out a duty rooster, define your command, ask questions, prepare for engagement. Paperwork waits for no season and knows neither sun nor shadow.

The Eye rules Pyther, and Pyther rules the world, but Legion High's unending forms do make a passable second pretender of the title of most cherished thing in all the land

--

>Officers are defined from a background, some assets, and a retinue.
>Then you customise a specific Command.

>It'll look a bit like . . . this:

# Decius Allectius Natalis
Authority 12 Reputation 08 Wealth 10
Scholae Traine - Service Records - Rikovol Windblade {Ashfog}
!Legion 2
!Mechalogistics
!Administration
---
[Listen Up!]
[They Wrote A Book On That]
[Best Parts of Valor]
---
Command:
[Volunteers] + Legion 2

--

>What's all this then?
Ah, don't panic. Think of it like a turn based multiplayer quest wargame with some light narrative elements and a whole heaping lot of surprises.

>You do this often?
Every now and again. The previous threads are not required reading, as things change and the world adjusts. But if you'd like to gander, try this: https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=art%3F

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If you find yourself new to war, heroism, hellfire hearts and the thunder of distant projectiles striking far too close to home, perhaps this little guide will offer some marginal use.

Still, remember the introduction to Crassus' Accorded Commentary On The Regulations Of Dispute Resolution Between Peers Amicable, Civil and Uncivil, that most inordinately long teatrise that has gone on to become the founding document of the Pytherii way of war:

First, above all else in affairs active, one learns to do by doing. The Act Itself Engenders Accord, Resonating.

Scholars might quibble about what that actually means, for tactics and lofty logic of logistics. But what it means to you, and the tried and true way of war around here: You'll have more questions than you feel you can ever ask, and some of them will have an answer. And as for the rest, we must estimate as we act. Only Shaunt is Ever Sure, as the curse goes.

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Certainity is its own kind of curse. One becomes so confident in the right act and true ways that doubt itself takes on the mantle of an opponent, vanquished in duel at every step. And that might be how the Theurges built an empire out of a hard-scrabble town at the edge of the world, back when world itself was much younger than it is now. It may be how they rose to prominence, grandeur and greatness. Every step on the ladder to the high heavens, taken in utter utmost assurance that it was the right choice at the right time and they the right people to make that choice.

In all the writings the Theurges have produced over the ages that return to that theme so often. Certainty. Of action, of will, of belief. Faith. Creeds. Laws. The Icons themselves as enumerated in the Tomes of Binding are brought, it is whispered, shape by the certainty we enforce upon their fluid forms. We take soft souls and harden them. It is through the very act such reckless confidence that we ourselves perhaps transcend from simple instruments of flesh and fear to the divinely endowed adherents of grand orders fit to reshape the world. There is no Order but the Order itself. To allow grit into the machinery of the universe is to grind the gears that underpin all reality into a half by the perfidious little bits of doubt. Enough of it will gum up the engine and dissuade the hand that guides and builds. Without certainty, all you have is constant questioning doubt. No good for you. No good for a theocrat. And certainly no good for politics, that insidious poison doubt is. Imagine how little would get done if the Theurges had had to stop all the time and question themselves.

And, of course, if you made mention of this to a Rebus Agent, a Senator or - voided stars and high heavens - a lawyer, they would look you up and down and ask a question that the certain rarely consider:

How do you know?

To Know and to Be is of the Other, and the Icons, and of self-propagating systems of assurance that cradle the world like the cloth that warms a babe.

But to err is human.

And without errors of prediction we would never be forced to re-evaluate the axioms that we build our lives around. A man so certain of the righteousness of his faith will join with a woman convinced of her own perfection and together they will see, in the vast wide wonder of the world, not joy and human striving. No. They'll see mistakes. To be categorised, cauterized and corrected.

Wrap yourself in too much sunlight certainty and you might start to think the Sun needs correcting on its path. All that its light ever touches is crooked to soul too hard to bend.

--

Well, theological philosophy may be interesting but it does not make troops fall in line or make sure everyone has enough water rations. Best check the soldiers again. This heat is merciless.

>>6029569
Oh boy, here we go charging again

>>6029559
Command, go ahead and show myself and the Pyrewatchers in attendance. Oh, it looks like you still have our paperwork handy. Good on you.

In that case, go ahead and show those ungrateful, arrogant, and attention starved zealots in the 404th Soft Moonfall OUT of my column! I'll be damned if my right and proper soldiery will be marching alongside their sun-addled selves.

>>6029594
Feking sunkissers, am I right? "Our only paymaster is a singular orb of gold you cannot hold in your hand" this, "we answer to but one circle of bright orange and it is not yours" that.

Well, we tried. The Faithful have their ways. At least its not a Aiopti mystery cult.

>>6029569
404th Soft Moonfall and attached elements reporting.
Souls aflame and ever eager to execute the Empyreal's will.

>>6029612
Ah, the veritable spiritual backbone of formations. It remains our highest honour to have you pledged to our service, and we hope, in part, that the Service you honour by carrying out your duties will always be worthy of your fire. In serving the the People, we serve the Eye, and in honouring the Eye, we honour the People.

All sparks and sunlit memories, Legio.

# Publius Quinctilius Varus III

I would have written up my paperwork, but I don't want to lead new commanders astray.

Currently charging recklessly through the fog to distract the sparksouls from the blades at their rear. Semper Crescuntur Lucra. Linea ascendit.

>>6029569
Blast, more marching! Does Legio High understand how difficult it is to stamp and fill out forms while on the move? Not to mention the mist - I have to worry about potential damage and I may have to ask for a re-issue!

At least my legs dont ache too much anymore. I don't get it, how does the 72nd Haillashed march in all that metal?

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>>6029569
Thus we are here reclaiming not only what was built but now is being contested. Trying to fix what is broken. But in this case one could said we are attempting to prevent the breakage. If so, who can call himself truly in charge if not us? If not me... The paperwork won't fill itself after this.

248th is already on the barge and will disembark soon and I can only communicate from distance with them now. Good luck and may the eye watch over all of us once again today.

Desert Sun Force Legion, 10th Composite "Sandstone" Cohort, Legio Advance!

>>6029569
It will soon be TIME to drive the enemy into the jaws of DEFEAT using naught but STEEL, SHEER MOXIE, and WIDE AREA BOMBARDMENT.

#Lucilla Maximus Superbus [Bondpilot]
Authority-9 Reputation-10 Wealth-? Threshold-1
Insight-1
--Traits--
(Legionflame-The Scars)(Bondpilot)(Cosmic Headaches)
--Affiliation--
!Legion
!Theurgic
!Houses
!Military Affairs
!Bondsigildry
--Tricks--
[One of us]
[Last One Out]
[Long Shadows]
-Command Retinue-
[Legio Ferrata(4)](Legio Standard)
[33rd Woeful Downpour] + Mechalog4/Legion2/Bondsigil3/Theurgic2/Houses2

>>6029569
Legio, ready and willing.

owowow...marching in this heat and a concussion really do not mix, huh?

>>6029569
"Courier, for that is your name now as far as I am concerned. Hold still, I'm gonna slap you. Now, shhh, lean in buddy. Yeah, that's right, real close."

...

"Shhh now, we gotta whisper, so listen. What in the yellowy orange on blue sunny skies hell do you think you're doing here, we're in the middle of a *sneaking* operation! Why is Command taking attendance now?"

...

"I'm not AWOL, I filled out the paperwork. Why are you all wrinkly and soaking wet? You didn't *swim* across the river to come take attendance, did you?"

...

"Well, Cerco and his chemhounds are certainly here. Now go on back and impress the Scholae with your swimming skills, somewhere else that is not here. I'd give you the whole parade shout like last time, but as you can see, we're kinda in the middle of something. Here, take some shimmer for the trip back, you'll need the energy more than me. Good luck with your swim, idiot."

>>6030170
S-sir! Neither sludge nor slime nor hail nor hell shall stay these forms about their business. P-please. Let go of my neck.

( a-and, uh, eh, uhm. Sign here. And here. )

Rolled 3 (1d5)

>>6029559
# Drakothraen, "The Heavies 8"
Authority 11 Reputation 9 Wealth 10
Scholae Traine - The Scars - Legio Ferrata
!Legion 1
!Mechalogistics
!Administration
!Military Affairs
---
[Listen Up!]
[They Wrote A Book On That]
[Best Parts of Valor]
---
Command:
[Raincatchers] + Legion 1 + Mechalogistics + Military Affairs

Elite rapid response unit used to hold important objectives, Plug holes, Protect Command points. Heavily armed and armored. All carry a Shield and Spear. With Engineering 2 they're masters of siege warfare. They know how to build extensive defensive works. Since they're well trained, well funded veterans. Their leader Drakothraen was a bit of an enigma. Same with his 3 personal guard. The old hands.

The Heavies were numbered 8th in the numerology. One of the originals. Who knows why this section of the front has been graced with their reinforcement... though there's not many of them.

#278th Blade-Holders
Authority 8 Reputation 10 Wealth 13 insight 1
New Model Soldier- Red Market Markers - Rebus Pathfinders

!Standard->!Houses
!Houses (2 total)
---
[Tricks Of The Trade]
[Cold Coin, Warm Hearts]
[Hazard Payment]
---
Command:
[Volunteers] + Theurgic + Outlander

Returning to get paid and get more men!

>>6029569
Quiet now! The enemy is near...

#Valas
Authority 8 Reputation 11 Wealth 10
New Model Soldier - The Scars - Rebus Pathfinders
!Outlander
!Houses
!Theurgic
!Military Affairs
---
[Tricks of the Trade]
[Cold Coin, Warm Hearts]
[Last One Out]
---
Command:
Esvacian Peltasts ([Volunteers] + Outlander 2)

Seems like this didn't even get over the starting line before keeling over.
A shame, the last thread was fun.