With the invitation from Exarch Solomon, to all citizens of the Empire, to visit the newly-recovered home of the Shattered Tower, curious folk across the land have been consulting recent travelogues. With Reikos having been in the hands of the Druj, and the overrun by Spring Magic in order to undo the damage wrought by them, the land is unfamiliar but the Highborn are flocking to return. As a result, Imperial libraries are starting to receive new maps and information about the rebuilt province…
Excerpt from Ravi Hearthstalker’s ‘Guide for Pilgrims to the East of the Empire’, updated spring 381
The gentle hills of Chalcis Mount were long in the hands of the barbarians. They are the site of the recently restored Gardens of High Chalcis. In some poems, they are called the Red Downs due to the distinctive hue of the Imperial Roseweald that grew profusely on their slopes – although in the wake of the Druj occupation the name has taken on sadder connotations.
High Chalcis was once one of the larger settlements in Highguard. The town was a centre for healing and the study of the apothecary arts where the medical knowledge of the Empire was codified and expanded. The settlement fell to surprise attack in 367YE, and the storehouses of knowledge raided by the Druj and turned to corrupt uses. The town was then converted into a twisted fortification by the Druj which was destroyed during the bloody retaking of the region. However the ruins that remained were, in their turn, erased by the green wave of plants that spread over the hills.
What came next though was even more surprising. Overnight a set of bright and shining towers appeared, battlements and spires glowing alike with a magic that has only slowly faded across the season. It has left behind a trace of the taste of Summer in this place though, and a strong Summer regio.
The most curious potential pilgrims locate this note of curiosity, published in the ‘Bastion News’ in the winter of 380, apparently in response to rumours circulating about the sudden appearance of a very unusual fortification in Chalcis Mount…
Sisters and Brothers of the Shattered Tower,
I write from High Chalcis, Reikos shortly before I start my journey to Anvil. I have spent this season at our reclaimed home along with some of our number, clearing the last of the accursed fungi and cataloguing what exactly it is that we have recovered. It is very odd: in some ways things here are recognisable as my childhood home: the outer keep with the barrack rooms for units of Unconquered on furlough, the workshops used by our artisans. The chapel is just as I remember, with fine mosaics showing virtuous deeds and stories of Paragons. Other things are less familiar. It is as though some great levelling has happened around our once hill-top home: instead of rising ground we are now fortified by water and instead of rolling hills we are close to a tributary of the Couros, with water meadows all around and a new moat and fishpond. The hospital and herb garden is much as I recall, but in place of old Brother Hector’s tangled rose garden there is a strong Summer regio, taking the form of a very formal garden much as you might find near the finest Dawnish Castles. I am sad to say as well that the once bustling village that surrounded the keep, where your families lived and worked, is all gone: nothing remains. Either the Druj, the ‘landscaping’ undertaken by our great enemy or the fungi have between them erased it all. There are no fields, no paths cut in the woods, no droveways for livestock. The only cultivation is our Regio and the herb gardens. I don’t think it will stay like this for long though: your military units that have rested with us this past season have started to enthusiastically claim the land back from the wild, beating paths and laying out plots for houses and fields. There is talk of bringing their families home, and rebuilding, which gladdens my heart. The Castle itself is greatly altered: we have gained towers, galleries and a library as well as what seems like acres of stained glass. It seems well defensible though, for all the prettification it has undergone. I include some rough sketches I have started to make for Hazel’s archive so that those of you who have yet had chance can see something of it for yourselves. I hope to commission more effective maps and perhaps some better sketches of the elevations and aspects for our records over the next season.
I look forward to seeing you all well and safe in Anvil: my thoughts especially are with those on the fronts with the armies. Sister Maya, your letter arrived at the chapter house; some of the first correspondence to come to our reclaimed home.
In vigilance,
Rinnah
The Chapter House of the Shattered Tower
High Chalcis Reikos Highguard Late Summer 380
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