Sixteen guilds bind themselves to a single throne. The Archive is founded in the same season, to keep what follows.
The Concord Sworn
All Sixteen Guilds
History of the Realm
Every major event in Ashkar, from the founding of the Concord to the war that ended it. Where an event has a full story behind it, the entry links to it.
The Concord The sixteen guilds under one throne
A Marriage of Fire and Air
The Supreme Ruler weds the sister of the Phoenix Queen, a woman of the Celestial Winds. Two guilds that had never been allies stand together at the altar.
The Heir
Zarina is born. The court names her living proof of the Concord, and the phrase is repeated often enough that it begins to sound like a duty.
A Death at Court
The Ruler’s consort dies. The Archive records the funeral rites and the length of the mourning. Nothing else.
The Civil War Iskandar, and what the throne was told about it
Read The Civil War in Iskandar →
Unrest in the Provinces
In Iskandar, farmers and miners block the western tax road before dawn and seize the winter levy. They carry banners: a broken crown painted in red.
A Petition to the Throne
Iskandar’s distress reaches the capital. The throne is asked to restore order in a kingdom that can no longer keep its own roads. The Archive files the petition without comment, as it files everything.
The Legion Marches
The Supreme Ruler authorises the Justicar’s Legion to intervene. The order is limited in scope and generous in interpretation.
Order Restored in Iskandar
The separatists are broken. The Veinwright throne is dissolved by decree. The Archive uses the word restored.
The Scattering
Survivors leave Iskandar by two roads. Some go south into the waste. Some go north into the ice. The Archive loses both.
The Long Distraction A realm loses faith while its throne looks elsewhere
The Coven's Century
Grown rich on Iskandar’s collapse, the Gilded Coven buys Neon Synapse engines and pushes its borders outward faster than any charter allows.
The Cutting of the Old Groves
Sylvan sacred ground falls to the expansion. The Sanctuary does not answer with force. The Archive notes the restraint approvingly, and does not ask what it cost.
The Sanctuary's Appeal
The Sylvans petition the throne instead of raising arms. The throne rules in their favour, and the Gilded Coven remembers it.
The Heir Estranged
Zarina withdraws from court. The Archive does not say why. The Archive was not told why.
Raiders from the Waste
A host out of the southern waste begins burning border holdings. The Legion, thinned by a war it won, arrives late or not at all.
The Queen Hunts Alone
The Phoenix Queen takes the field without the throne’s leave. She does not stop to count what burns alongside the raiders, and she is not asked to.
The Abdication The last entries before the wars
The Vessel
The Cosmos Voyagers deliver a ship built for a crossing no one has made, on knowledge the Aquatic Ascendancy gave freely and has not explained.
The Ruler Departs
The Supreme Ruler leaves Ashkar with a handful of companions at the hour of its greatest need. The Archive records the realm’s judgement, and not his reason: abandonment.
The Guild Wars
Sixteen guilds, one empty throne.
All Sixteen Guilds
First expansion — account forthcoming