A good story starts at a specific place and ends at an equally specific place. There might be other stories about these characters, and those of you who know my ongoing love affair with Allan Quatermain have no doubt about my approval of that if it’s done well, but each story begins and ends on its own.

#

Life isn’t like that. Life is a mess. While I can tell you the day I first kissed my current boyfriend, I can also tell you that I never would have met him if my computer at work hadn’t crashed repeatedly ten years prior. Without that, I wouldn’t have known the mutual friend, who wouldn’t have stayed with me for a while, who maybe wouldn’t have lived in his neighborhood if not for that brief respite on my couch. I wouldn’t have been working for the company with the shoddy computers if one of my college friends hadn’t dated a guy who eventually became my roommate. I might not have had that college friend if the boys I gamed with in middle school and high school had not taken to hanging out in a particular coffee shop.

So in some weird way, I wouldn’t be dating my current snuggle-bunny* if I hadn’t started gaming with those boys twenty-five years ago. Every piece of that puzzle is required for me to be here. And that’s just me.

But if I were to tell you that story, I’d likely skip over some of those parts. My friend who dated my roommate-to-be doesn’t appear anywhere else in this particular story, despite her starring role in other stories, equally valid.

Tell Me A Story has a story too. In some ways, I still wouldn’t have been here if not for those boys twenty-five years ago and certainly if not for my dad deciding more than thirty years ago that I wasn’t really too young for D&D. But it has a beginning, and it appears to have an ending.

But it’s also part of life and that’s messy. I’m still going to be out there, hoping that someone will find something that delights them and chooses to tell me a story that makes their heart sing. Don’t worry about the messy bits, the parts that don’t quite fit. Stories are a part of life, too, and sometimes they get a little messy. Just tell the stories that need to be told and I will try to listen.

*denotes carefully considered addition by RA’s editor

–

The only survivor of a military operation disastrously interrupted by an Umbral attack, Vincent Trung was rendered comatose after the undead creature noticed the sergeant’s psychic connection to his squadmates and exploited it, forcing Trung to experience almost two dozen excruciating deaths in a matter of minutes. Trung was written off as a lost cause by the doctors and psychics of Xương, the powerful Chamnơian nation he worked for, but kept on life support for study.

To the shock of the Xương military, Trung not only came out of the coma several weeks later, but seems to have done so with his mind mostly intact. Notably, however, his psychic talent for spreading the sense of proprioception among multiple individuals had abandoned him. With his unique abilities gone and the military leery of a potentially unstable soldier on active duty, Trung was offered a choice between a desk job and an honorable discharge.

He left.

Directionless, Trung traveled the world of Chamnơi, visiting several nations and even signing on with a shipping company as a porter for a few weeks just for the privilege of riding the famous Chamnơi space elevator.

It was it was after the elevator arrived at the space station that Trung’s dormant psychic powers returned. To his horror, Trung could feel the presence of an Umbral. In the past, Trung’s talents had required several minutes of physical contact with a willing partner to “sync” their own self-awareness into his sense of proprioception. Now, he was perfectly aware of the creature’s location and movements, just as he had been with his old squad; an unintended gift from the Umbral that had killed them.

Before Trung could alert station security, the Umbral struck, targeting civilians in the crowded bay seemingly at random. To the shock of everyone present, including himself, Vincent retrieved a handgun from a fallen guard and attacked. His perfect understanding of the Umbral’s movements meant every shot struck home. When the monster tried to smash him, Trung could feel each swing coming; it was like the creature was trying to punch him with his own fists.

Though Trung was unable to put the Umbral down with his scavenged weapon, he was able to distract it long enough for the bay to be evacuated and heavier security forces to arrive. Everyone who witnessed the strange combat hailed Trung as a hero, and Chamnơi’s media outlets are running with the story of the veteran who foiled an Umbral attack on the planet’s greatest scientific achievement.

***

Unbeknownst to Trung and the Ingressa at large, a wealthy backer has been putting together a team of specialists to fight the Umbral head on, without regard to national borders or factional rivalries. Trung, with his military career and unique ability to both sense Umbrals and avoid their attacks, has become a major recruiting priority.

Other recruiting targets include:

Soudabah, a huge woman infamous for beating an Umbral to death with her bare hands in a crowded marketplace. No one knows how she lost her eye or why she’s living on a backwater planet like Möbius Six, but rumor has it she’s a former oya of the Red Clover.

Rdrarr and Frryrdr, a kdarr brother and sister who made their names by hunting the most dangerous creatures on over dozen worlds… with a camera crew in tow. While most humans dismiss the the siblings as gloryhounds, the reason their reality show is such a huge hit with other kdarr is that they really are that good. Maybe even good enough to hunt Umbral, in what would certainly be their highest-rated show of all time.

Loraina Withgowe, apprentice and daughter of the Lady Withgowe, formerly of the Ivory Towers. On a dangerous world unknown to the wider Ingressa, a small but thriving human civilization has arose, made possible by “bone magic.” While it’s unknown how the the individual putting this team together knows about Withgowe’s world, it is even less clear why they believe a bone mage would be a useful addition to the team, since destroyed Umbrals leave behind little more than a pile of grey ooze.

Sara Cailan, owner and operator of Que Sera Sara Holdings and Storage, has made her living as a pergressor who can’t be tracked. She’s gone so far as to have several black market cybernetic implants installed in her brain that block psions attempting to pull Stepping addresses from her mind. Recently, during a harrowing escape from an Umbral attack on Novagallia, witnesses claimed an Umbral attempted to follow Sara during a Step, as all Umbral are able to do… and failed. Unfortunately, Sara was only on Novagallia because she’s been trying to lay low; several attempts have been made on her life in recent months, and recruiting the on-the-run pergressor may prove impossible.

—

Part 1 can be found here and Part 2 can be found here.

After the day she brought Yún to class, Mingyu and I spent all of our spare time together. We’d sit outside together at lunch, away from the other students, first talking about our pets and then, later and more quietly, about our families. She brought me a little bag of iron shavings to feed Ahmar, and I gave her some of the copper wire that I’d taken from the building sites for Yún.

I told her how my father left after getting a job offworld. He never wrote to me. I think he wanted to forget about us, forget he ever had a wife or a daughter, forget he ever lived on Engaul. I don’t know what we did to make him hate us so much, but I remember seeing mother crying once after getting a letter that could only have come from him. All she would tell me was that he wasn’t coming back. She married Rijal six months later, and had Rahman eight months after that. My little half-brother who took all her time and all her love away from me.

Ahmar was supposed to make up for it, I guess.

Mingyu’s parents were still married, but barely. She said her mother only lived in their house—the big wooden one on the hill, the one house in the village that didn’t come out of a box—a few days out of each month. The rest of the time, she lived in the City and came home with presents for her daughter to buy back the days she’d missed. Yún was one of those presents.

I remember the day we decided what we were going to do. We’d been talking about the question she’d asked me in school: “Do you ever wonder what Class we are?” Looking out at the white sea of cloudgrass that washed against the edges of the fields, and at the ugly rows of plastic modular homes, I started to wonder if we had any right to be here at all. Wherever people went, they made a mess of things and then left again. We invaded every planet and didn’t leave unless it drove us out.

“If someone could let you out of a cage,” she asked, “wouldn’t you want them to?”

I looked down the road at my house, trying to pick it out of all the ones that looked just like it. “I wish they would,” I sighed.

*****

Tomorrow, we’ll go into the cloudgrass with iron shavings and copper wire. Ahmar and Yún will be hungry. Yún will be having babies soon, and that means more mouths to feed. We’ll take care of them all, though. We’ll be good parents, until there are enough of them that they can turn all the fences and all the wires and everything else in this village to rust.

If we’re careful, everyone else will still believe we never meant to do it.

–

It’s June and that means it’s time for a little Gemini solidarity. Go twins! Or at least other Gemini. This is part three of three.

#

In the Middle Ages, it was sometimes believed that twins could only be born if the mother had been involved with two different men. Twins were a proof of infidelity and as such were a shameful thing to befall even the most innocent family. One twin might be secreted away, sent to live in a local monastery or with a distant relative and thus forgotten.

Or, well, honestly? Sometimes people just move away from home and no one quite knows where they’ve gotten off to until it’s too late.

#

Balan and Balyn of Arthurian stories are the latter type. Yes, I know that nowhere does Malory say the two are twins, but seeing as my family contains twins named Doris and Dora and Chrissy and Tina, I have to argue that Balan and Balyn’s mother could only have named her sons B&B if they were twins. Balan goes in one direction, Balyn in another, and when they meet again circumstances force them to fight before they can recognize each other.

Le Fresne and La Codre, Ash and Hazel, are of the former type: Explicitly twins separated at birth to save their prideful mother from shame. They don’t know anything about each other until their mother’s machinations nearly cause Hazel to marry Ash’s beloved. What horror!

Tell me about twins lost and rediscovered. Tell me about meeting that girl with your face and realizing who she must be, how she must have come to be here. Tell me about knowing your brother has gone off to have his own adventures, only to find him in the worst possible spot in the midst of yours.

Do they get to have a joyful reunion? Go home to loving parents who joyfully acknowledge them both? Does the lost twin want to be found or do they reject this sudden onslaught of affection from too-familiar strangers? Is that better or worse than being recognized too late?

Tell me about the sorrow of meeting your twin on the day she dies, or the joy of meeting her on the day she marries her true love. Tell me about finding that connection. Did they both always know something was missing? Or are they just strangers wearing the same face?

Further Reading:
Balan and Balyn
Le Fresne
Sir Thomas Malory on Project Gutenberg
Marie de France on Project Gutenberg

–

Part One can be read here, Part Two here, Part Three here, and Sister Incognita first introduced us to the Century Order here.

“It is said that there is only one true road to the Land of Silence, and it is so narrow that people may only walk in single file, always forward, never back. Only those who are still part of the kingdoms of noise and life may even dare dream of entering and somehow returning to life again. But there is a way, and I have found it. I have spoken with hundreds of sages across dozens of worlds. I would have sought out more still if it had been necessary. But I have found it! And it was right under my nose, all this time!

“This is what the herb-witch told me: you must sit by the bedside of a dying person. As they draw their last breath, you must grasp their face in both hands and stare into their eyes. Death will look back at you. You must know what you wish to say immediately, or the moment will pass and Death will leave. If you receive no other answer than passing, you have failed. You must try again — and again, and again, if you are determined. I am very determined.

“But then I realized I was wasting my time waiting for others to die. I have failed so many times already. I have seen Death only once, and though I thought my heart and my tongue were prepared it vanished before I could ask my question. And so I gave up relying on others to bring Death to me, and sought to find Death myself.

“So I fasted and I waited; I took dream-herbs and potions and I waited. And finally, finally, Death came to me and held out its hand. But I did not take it! I demanded to know where the hidden paths of the Land of Silence were, the ways that someone might walk out again when their business was done in that dreary place. And Death looked at me, and perhaps it admired my bravery. As it should. And it said to me there are four roads: the one by which all living things must one day pass, the one that is entered through dreams, the one where the living may walk, if their hearts and souls are prepared, and the one which Death itself walks, both in and out again. It said to me that it would show me that path, and I would be free to go, as I had asked the right question.

“Listen to me now. You may think me mad in this moment. You may think me dead in the next. But protect my body; do not bury me, do not burn me. I shall return return.”

Thus saying, Anna closed her eyes and did not move again. Her heart monitor went flat and doctors came flying in, in a panic that such a seemingly-healthy patient could simply die on the spot as she had.

Some say that the family did bury her after this, mourning her last story as the delusions of a madwoman. Some claim that her body was kept as she requested, and that a month to the day of her death, she rose up again, laughing in triumph at her greatest victory, and that she walked off and is somewhere still in the Ingressa, learning and studying and never dying.

Some say that her cold corpse is still preserved, somewhere deep within the basement of her family estate, waiting for that day to come.

—

This is it, then. This entry concludes several things: my regular run of columns (although I reserve the right to post additional articles from time to time), my Novagallia series, and my three-week June theme on magocracies. It’s Mureure, location of Chateau Delinoix and a rather sizable number of TDA-related people (Delinoix, Bouvillier, and others). It is also where the Lady Delinoix spends much of her time.

As you might imagine, then, I have a lot to talk about here.

Before I begin, though, I want to publicly thank the columnists for their fifteen months of dedication and imagination. Primarily, I want to thank Sean for taking over the creative director role and doing a better job than I ever could. Without Sean stepping up to take over, the columns would have ground clunkily to a halt many months ago. But his vision, drive, and dedication kept us going until we figured we had enough worldbuilding to be able to start telling more stories. Thanks, Sean! And thanks, too, for the rust bunnies.

And let me not in any way downplay the awesomeness of Marci, Sister I, or Geoff, who have all contributed immensely and amazingly to the canon of the Ingressa. I have enjoyed reading all of their columns, day in and day out, for so many weeks, and I hope everyone else has as well. Some of my favorite highlights from them include Marci’s Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain series, Sister I’s introduction of demon binding to the House of Bouvillier (which I loved so much I add mentions of it everywhere I can), and Geoff’s irregular series about the Minoan Trail planets.

Although the regular columns conclude this week, we are all staying in contact with one another, and several of us already have plans underway for the next fun thing to come out of Royal Archivist. But until then, I need to blather at you for several thousand words about Mureure. Let’s get started.

#

Unlike its friend and neighbor Sakosta, Mureure is an independent nation. It remains tied culturally and linguistically with France, its motherland, and the two nations are on good terms, but it no longer is compelled to obey Paris.

The first Frankish colonies on Novagallia came about in the time of Charlemagne, although they and their inhabitants were not what we would today recognize as truly French. Over time, those colonies struggled against repeat invasions from Pec and Nord raiders and consolidated into one walled city—the now-capital city of Reaux.

A few centuries later, French pergressors fleeing first the Black Death and later the ravages of the Hundred Years’ War found themselves emerging within Reaux’s dilapidated wooden walls. They quickly made peace with their new-found neighbors and worked speedily to shore up the city’s defenses, bringing with them new technologies their backwards kin hadn’t yet developed. Reaux blossomed in a generation from a small town barely surviving against repeated attacks from the north into a powerful bastion. Its growth fueled by an influx of French refugees, the city took on its now-characteristic French character.

Over the years, as Reaux’s influence spread across the land, it began sending out pioneers and explorers. More French cities sprang up. As the Age of Discovery blossomed on Earth, more and more immigrants came to the burgeoning colony, hoping to become wealthy from the land’s abundant natural resources.

Then came the first Suri invaders, who in the course of a decade marched relentlessly across western Ebrasae. When they reached the frontiers of Mureure, it was at war with its upstart rival Sakosta, but the two nations quickly put aside their differences to oppose the Suri invaders. Even the Pec and Nords—who had not yet been subjugated by Sakosta—as well as the Akaeans, suspended their raiding to allow the Murse to defend the frontier and the final barrier between themselves and the Suri. The Murse defenders, allowed thanks to their treaties with their neighbors to focus on protecting their eastern borders, gave better than they got, and the governor of the colony declared, “We then are the wall protecting the lands of Europeans from marauding barbarians.” Over time, this quote was shortened and paraphrased, giving birth to the phrase “mur l’europ,” or “Wall of the Europeans.”

This phrase became such a symbol of the French colony that when it rebelled in the earliest months of the French Revolution and became its own nation, it took the name of Mureure.

Why did Mureure separate itself from France when the revolution there began? Because by that point—as is still the case today—it was controlled by its magical nobility (see the Government section).

Relation With the Factions

More will be said about Mureure’s royalty and nobility in the Government section, but it is important to note here that the monarchs of Mureure belong to the House of Bouvillier, one of the Associates families that also control TDA. As a result of this tie not only with the Bouvilliers but also with TDA’s Delinoix and Rouvroy families, the nation is closely entwined with the corporate faction. Critics of either the corporation or the nation (or both) decry this connection as direct control, although, at least publicly, TDA merely enjoys many privileges within the country. More likely, it is the individual families that exert control or influence within Mureure—particularly in the case of House Delinoix. Regardless of the specifics, TDA enjoys a highly positive, mutually beneficial direct tie with Mureure.

In exchange for generous tax waivers (as in, TDA pays no taxes), the corporation invests hundreds of millions of denari and Francs a year into factories and other job-creating infrastructure within the nation. The faction also barracks a sizable portion of its private army—I mean, it’s security forces—with Mureure, and considers its branch in the nation one if its major strongholds. And in addition to the private castles and chateaus dotting the landscape owned by the various French-descended houses of TDA it also owns a dozen or so fortress-like facilities just outside the nation’s major cities and near strategic locations all across the country. Officially, these facilities are called “research and development labs” or “heavy industry testing grounds,” but few doubt what purpose they also serve. All of these facilities also house Royal Guard forces to augment the corporation’s own private security, and many Royal Guard soldiers receive advanced training from TDA’s heavy security trainers.

Recent activity within one of these heavy industry testing grounds, overlooking the city of Surre, seems to be connected with TDA’s interest in Piranesi. Hundreds of personnel have flooded the facility in the past six months, and the construction of a massive tower is well underway. Royal Guards, who report directly to the king of Mureure, augment TDA heavy security patrols at the facility. Several over-ambitious reporters have been forcefully turned away from the area, but rumors speak of at least one who disappeared completely.

Mureure is closely allied with Xindaming, itself a strong supporter of the Roman Empire. This connection through mutual friendship puts Mureure in good stead with the empire, although the two powers are not directly tied together through treaty. That said, Mureure and the Roman Empire enjoy brisk trade with one another through Xindaming’s ports. Thanks in part to this connection, Mureure and the Wàiguó Liánméng rarely interact, and when they do their relations remain cool and excessively polite. Known Murse attempts to capture Toshimese secrets regarding matic suits does nothing to improve its relations with the union.

Being essentially within the pocket of House Delinoix and TDA, Mureure attracts a lot of attention from the Derinam Corps. Every few years or so, Murse gendarmes raid suspected Derinam strongholds, but they have yet to dig up anything other than circumstantial evidence linking those locations to the Derinam. On the other hand, raids by unknown—but suspected Derinam—operatives on government outposts and TDA-owned properties occur several times a year. Again, authorities can find no concrete ties between these raids and the Derinam, but the tension between Mureure and the corps remains high.

Perhaps because of TDA’s strong secular influence in the nation, the Murse are not terribly religious people. Despite that, or possibly because of it, the Order of the Red Clover has found moderate success in spreading into Mureure. The government of Mureure remains friendly toward the religion of the All-In-One, perhaps because of the ties between the Order and TDA, and past kings have granted parcels of their own land (as have members of the House of Rouvroy) for the Order to build sanctuaries. Most of these sanctuaries exist near the nation’s largest cities, especially in the western half (with several standing in or near the capital of Reaux itself).

Government

In the early months of the French Revolution, not long after the storming of the Bastille but before the Reign of Terror, the French-Murse nobility realized the uprising could spread to their own colony if they took no action. To prevent a similar revolution on Novagallia and to distance themselves from the possibility of being connected to a republic, should the rebels win out, they gathered their forces (ironically composed mainly of non-mage commoners) and staged a coup. Today, the nobility—composed entirely of families with a proven lineage of mages—dominate Mureure, but with each passing decade its stranglehold on power slips a little more.

Mureure is a monarchy with a weak constitution offering minimal protections for its common people and maximum privileges for its noble elite. Republican sentiments run deep in Mureure, however, and the nobility frequently makes concessions to the increasingly agitated majority. Although reluctant to relinquish power in sweeping reforms, or even to create the appearance of equality as in neighboring Sakosta, the noble mages of Mureure seem content to release just enough hints of power to the commoners to avoid a full-scale revolution. Despite these increasingly common steps toward a true republican state, discontent among the masses remains high.

Mureure is ruled by King Jean-Pierre III, of the House of Bouvillier. Called “the Prince of Men” by the Murse and “Jean-Pierre the Marionette” by Mureure’s critics and enemies, External observers attribute this popularity to the king’s willingness to put the needs of the nation’s overall wellbeing (including that of its commoners) ahead of both his own best interests as well as that of the nobility.

Like Sakosta, heredity noble titles pass down along mage-producing families, from one mage in the family to the next, and only proven mages may hold noble titles. Compared to Sakosta, though, Murse nobility is harder to gain and easier to lose.

A single mage born into a non-mage commoner’s family is not granted a title, although such a person is granted access to the middle tiers of the government (higher than a regular commoner could ever achieve but lower than any hereditary mage would ever willingly serve). A family must produce mages for three straight generations before the king may grant it with a title. Since mages tend to only marry and breed among themselves, a first-generation mage usually has little problem producing a magic-wielding heir, who in turn finds it even easier to give the family its third and most essential mage.

On the other hand, a family that skips more than one generation without producing a mage is stripped of its title. The same happens to a family that skips more than two generations in five. These kinds of failing families tend to have trouble finding proper suitors for their scions, putting them into a downward spiral into commonality. It is not uncommon, though, for these fallen families to regain their nobility and honor with a spontaneously born mage who then marries into the better families.

While gossips and those who work the machinations of power enjoy watching the rise and fall of various families, it is with those houses which can consistently produce multiple mages every generation where true power lies. The House of Bouvillier counts among these eternally powerful families, and indeed it is from this house that every Murse king has hailed. The House of Bouvillier can trust in the ongoing support of the families of TDA, and as a result no attempt has yet been made to usurp the throne (although on occasion an unpopular king has been removed by Bouvillier’s allies, to be replaced with one of his relatives).

Geography

Mureure dominates much of the western peninsula of Ebrasae, stretching from borders of Kasalfki, the Xindaming Pocket, and the Vomburg Principalities in the east to ocean shores in the west. It is the largest nation of the peninsula, although many of its neighbors and near-neighbors to the east dwarf it.

Mureure’s borders with those eastern neighbors run along the Arness Mountains in the east-southeast (separating it from the Kasalfki Tsarinate), and a series of smaller ranges in the northeast (the division with Vomburg and Xindaming).

The mountainous eastern edge of the country gives way to flatlands through its heartland and to its western end. A curving plateau forms much of the nation’s interior, with a short range of low mountains sweeping northwestward and forming the Nelbion Peninsula, on which mainland Sakosta stands. West of the plateau stretch a series of lightly forested, slightly hilly lowlands that eventually reach the sea. In the southwest, the land rises and breaks up into rocky badlands that give rise to the low mountains that form the Akaean Peninsula and Akaean Archipelago.

Demography

Mureure’s people overwhelmingly trace back to mainland France, and are called French-Murse (or, less commonly, Murse-French). The French-Murse share a linguistic and cultural heritage with France, and the two nations remain connected through their commonality. Trends and fashions from France tend to have a greater impact on Mureure than the reverse, but Mureure supplies its own influences thanks to the tie both nations have through TDA and the houses Delinoix and Bouvillier (and to a lesser extent, Rouvroy).

The largest minority groups in Mureure consist of descendants of Vietnamese immigrants from the time France controlled that nation, as well as Novagallian British-Sakostans, Ming, and Dan. Despite the borders it shares with Vomburgian nations, the hostility felt between the two peoples drive people of Vomburgian heritage out of Mureure into the relative welcome they find in the principalities or tsarinate.

Mureure’s largest break with France comes in the form of religion. Murse-French tend to not publicly practice their faith, although festivals of different religions do fill the streets of villages or various city neighborhoods at several times a year. Those who do put effort into their religion tend to be practitioners of Buddhism (particularly across the eastern plateau of the nation, where the Xindaming, Vietnamese, and Dan influences are strongest) or worshipers of the All-In-One (especially in the nation’s largest cities, especially in the western half).

Although the government denies it, Christian visitors to the nation occasionally accuse Mureure of suppressing and discriminating against not only Roman Catholicism but all of the Abrahamic religions. Religious scholars (and Adax, who weighed in on the subject in Theories on Metareality and the Manipulation of Fate and Existence by the Persistence of Allegorical Sapient Beliefs, Volume VII) speculate that, if such an agenda exists, it is no doubt driven by the powerful families of TDA. Part of that agenda would no doubt come from the non-secret connection the House of Bouvillier shares with demonic forces (of which, it should be noted, the king is prohibited from engaging in). At the same time, House Delinoix is no friend to the Abrahamic faiths, although in truth most of its members show no religious inclination at all.

Bouvillier and Delinoix

The House of Bouvillier sits on the throne of Mureure, but House Delinoix—or more specifically, the Lady Delinoix—controls it. Every king of the nation has known he rules only as long as he does not overly anger the matriarch of House Delinoix, and most have done well to abide by that. A few, of course, have pitted the power of the throne against Chateau Delinoix. None survived the attempt. Although it is not required by law or custom, before a king publicly announces an heir he first gains the approval of the Lady Delinoix.

This sharing of power occasionally tests the friendship of the Houses Delinoix and Bouvillier, but it takes only a few short years and several friendly gestures to resume the bond. Since no king has challenged the power of House Delinoix in more than a century, the two families share a hundred years of solidarity, friendship, and extensive interbreeding (although House Delinoix forbids marrying for political reasons, its members frequently mingle with those of the House of Bouvillier).

In practice, the House of Bouvillier—primarily through the king, of course, but also with familial connections—controls the capital city, Reaux. Its family members and their allies (human, demonic, and otherwise) serve at every level of government, including the Council of Mages (which serves as both an advisory body for the king as well as a controlling body of which families display the requisite magery that entitles them to nobility). Through these connections, the House of Bouvillier exerts considerable influence throughout other large towns and cities in the country. This, of course, is in addition to the overwhelming dominance the family enjoys through ruling the country directly from the royal palace.

The power of House Delinoix exists economically, with many of the nation’s largest factories and mills under the direct supervision of a member of the House (most of which, of course, belong to TDA). Thanks to the nation’s connection with TDA, it is arguably the wealthiest nation on Novagallia, and most of that wealth passes through the hands of House Delinoix at some point. The seat of House Delinoix power on Novagallia sits in Chateau Delinoix, the personal residence of the Lady Delinoix and occasional home to various other members of the family. Numerous favored daughters of House Delinoix have been born in Mureure, and many more have lived in the nation for at least part of their lives.

Of course, both families exist on many worlds in the Ingressa, but both maintain a strong base of power in Mureure. A member of either house knows he or she can find safety and support in Mureure. The trick is getting there.

I spent a year and a half writing Building Character. That’s not the longest I’ve spent on a writing project, nor is it the most words I’ve produced under a single banner. But for that year and a half, these columns were always on my mind, always driving me to do research or seek out inspiration.

This is the last month Building Character will be produced, at least in a weekly format. I thought that this might be a good opportunity to look back at some of the characters introduced in these columns, in a “where are they now” sort of way. I hope these tidbits spark a few story ideas for you, and I hope that you’ve found one or two things to enjoy while you’ve been reading Building Character. Thanks for sticking with me.

***

Many coroca hate their home planet. The brief essay by the famed Novagallian physicist Sikteptek explains the situation fairly effectively; Caclecac forced the coroca to evolve at an astounding rate, aided by the chaotic mana that permeates the planet. Unfortunately, while many wish to leave, corocan children conceived or born away from Caclecac never survive more than a few hours. It’s generally assumed that the mana of Caclecac is vital to corocan development, although other environmental factors could also play a role.

The bottom line is that coroca who wish to breed are forced to travel back to Caclecac, often at enormous expense. Caclecac is, after all, listed as a highly dangerous world by the Janus Syndicate. Unfortunately, the mortality rate of coroca who return “home” is devastating. While aided by whatever technology or skills they picked up in the wider Ingressa, these things make a poor replacement for the finely-honed survival instincts instilled by a few months on Caclecac.

The Wàiguó Líanméng has sensed an opportunity to gain the allegiance of the scattered, brilliant coroca living throughout the Ingressa. Any group that could establish a permanent colony on Caclecac, a place where migrating coroca could breed in relative safety, would have the gratitude of the coroca as a species. Of course, brilliant coroca are a valuable commodity, and several attempts to establish a beachhead on the volatile world have already been made. None have ended well.

The Wàiguó Líanméng’s attempt may also be destined for failure. Six fully-equipped squads from Nibiru’s mobile army were dispatched to the planet, including three that specialized in heavy-mana operations, with orders to locate, take, and hold a suitable location for future colonization.

On almost any other planet in the Ingressa, this would be a trivial task for even a single mobile army squad. Unfortunately, Caclecac is not so kind. With the death or incapacitation of much of the expedition’s leadership, command has fallen to legendary second officer Khait Ubastis.

—

Part 1 can be found here.

“I wanted to show Ahmar—that’s my xiùtù—to my friend, Mingyu,” I tell him. I make my voice as small as I can, make it sound like I’m ready to cry. “She had one, too. We brought them both to the schoolyard after everyone had gone home, and I took Ahmar out of his cage to show her. But he got scared when she took hers out, and started twisting in my hands, and I dropped him. Mingyu tried to grab him, but when she did, her xiùtù got away from her and they both ran off, and we’re so sorry. We’re both so sorry.”

Finally, the man in the red suit looks back at me. He’s not trying to smile anymore. He’s wearing a thin sneer of frustration and disgust at having to deal with a child on the edge of tears. Maybe that’s why he wouldn’t look at me before. Maybe he doesn’t know how. For a moment, I wonder if he has any children.

“Do you understand,” he asks slowly, “what you have done?”

“I do, sir,” I say, with a little sniff. “We didn’t mean to.”

*****

It all started at school when Mingyu gave her presentation. I didn’t really know anything about her before then, except that her family was rich. When she brought Yún into the room in a little wooden cage, I nearly gasped. I kept my hands over my mouth so no one would hear me or see how much I was smiling. They would have thought I was in love.

“This is Yún,” Mingyu said proudly. “She’s my pet xiùtù, from Kaermai. She lives by eating little pieces of metal, which she absorbs into her body. I feed her iron. That’s why her fur is rust-colored. Xiùtù are a Class 2 invasive species, so I have to be very careful with her.”

The teacher interrupted. “Can anyone tell me the different classes of invasive species?”

My hand shot up. I’d done the research when trying to convince mother to let me get Ahmar. “Class 1 species are illegal to keep or import. Class 2 species require a license, and you’re not allowed to breed them. You can breed Class 3 species, but you have to account for every one of them annually.”

Everyone turned to stare at me, but from the way Mingyu looked at me from the front of the class I could tell she understood. She gave me a little smile over all the turned heads, a knowing look that was just for me and her. It was the first time I had ever seen her smile.

When she finished her presentation and all the other students were crowding around Yún’s cage to look at the little animal, Mingyu stepped over next to me.

“Do you ever wonder?” she asked quietly.

“Wonder?”

“Do you ever wonder what Class we are?”

–

It’s June and that means it’s time for a little Gemini solidarity. Go twins! Or at least other Gemini. This is part two of three.

#

Psionic talents tend to run in families. There’s clearly genetic influence, though it’s equally clear that we just don’t understand the components of psionic talents well enough to map those genes yet. Current research seems to indicate a variety of other factors coming into play, ranging from environment to family structure.

But what is most intriguing is what seems to happen when otherwise identical twins are born with psionic talents.

#

One would expect that if one sister developed the ability to Step, that her sister would do the same. Or that if one were a telepath, then the other would be as well. That makes sense, just as we expect that identical twins will both have curly hair or green eyes.

Instead, the two will invariably develop entirely unrelated talents of unequal strength. A pergressor’s sister may be weakly telepathic or uncommonly lucky, but she won’t be capable of Stepping between worlds or creating powerful telepathic illusions in weaker minds.

Additionally, the two will generally develop talents that are mutually beneficial. A powerful telekinetic sibling will be paired with a sib whose weaker clairvoyance can assist in controlling that talent, or a powerful telepath will find his sibling’s flashes of precognition allow him to use that ability without fear of repercussion.

Of course, that requires siblings who want to help each other. A minor talent that beautifully compliments some major power might be equally capable of disastrously undermining all that strength. Perhaps all it takes is a little ill will.

Tell me one of those stories. Tell me about discovering your hidden talent and about realizing that your twin didn’t share it. Tell me about twins who are confused by this, insisting they share both abilities equally between them even as it becomes increasingly clear that this is not the case. Tell me about how hard it is to let go, or how grateful one sister is to finally have something of her own.

Were they close before? Is this the thing that drives a wedge between them? Or is this realization, that they are not entirely interchangeable, the thing that finally makes these twins value each other? Are they closer now?

And does this lead them into all sorts of entertaining switcharoo pranks while they are in their early teens? Or do those have to wait until they are a bit older?

–

Part One can be read here, Part Two here, and Sister Incognita first introduced us to the Century Order here.

It is said that when the vandalism of Anna’s father’s grave was discovered, there was absolutely no question who had committed the act in the minds of those who knew her. The authorities were notified and went to her home at once. However, though they knocked and called her name loudly, no answer came. Her mother’s attempts to contact her by more conventional means met with similar failures. Cursory investigation at the university revealed Anna had not shown up for her classes or her scheduled time in the lab, an unheard of event. When the police entered the apartment, the place was empty, clearly unused for a far greater span than Anna’s recent disappearance. Her family searched and found all of her notebooks missing except for a single torn sheet that had the date and time of her father’s service, and under that a complicated math equation.

But without concrete evidence — and without Anna herself — the most that could be done was to register her as a missing person, and for a search to be launched.

For nearly five months the search continued, spreading out from her neighborhood to the city at large, to the country, then to the entire world… and beyond. An interplanetary bulletin was put out for her, accompanied by the promise of a hefty reward by her wealthy family, but though multiple leads were pursued only one was ever confirmed as an actual sighting of Anna, and even that investigation was a dead end. It seemed that Anna had disappeared entirely, so thoroughly that she left not even the smallest trace of her whereabouts. Though most gave up the search in the months that followed, her mother continued to search, desperate for some sign of her disturbed and brilliant daughter. She went to psychics and to private detectives alike, seeking answers with the devotion of religious devotee.

And then, five months to the day after she disappeared, Anna returned. Disheveled, dirty, worn dangerously thin and weak from deprivation, she was nonetheless alive and as healthy as she could possibly be, given her circumstances. She turned up on her mother’s doorstep only to collapse into her arms and was immediately rushed to the hospital. In the light of her long disappearance and her near-miraculous return, as well as the questionable circumstances just before, news outlets flocked to the hospital where she was staying, lurking hopefully for some hint to the greater story.

Weeks passed and Anna’s health slowly improved. Two months after her return, the day before she was discharged, she called for her mother. With the older woman at her bedside, she began to tell her story…

—