At your earliest opportunity, return to these lands. Proceed to my estates near Mirsvr with greatest haste, and I shall join you there to discuss our work.
You may not have heard the most recent news from the eastern quarters. Following a failed attempt to prevent the Valdjini company from succumbing to the pressures of agitation, an insurrection has seized control of an industrial district of Otvev. The blame for this has been placed solely on the Temar Company; though traitors within our ranks contributed to our mission's failure, Valdjini cowardice allowed the cancer of agitation to grow and fester.
In the aftermath of this debacle, Otvev and Vilv have cancelled their municipal contracts with us. Our routes to the East have been dogged by attacks, seemingly from free traders. I suspect the Valdjini and Eltjini may be the originators of these aggressions, either through employing proxies or disguising their own vessels. As well as these cowardly acts unbecoming of civilized trade, many believe the Valdjini and Eltjini Commissions are close to declaring outright open war upon the Company, with the backing of Vilv, Otvev, and many of the smaller companies. Public opinion among the groundsfolk has turned against us in these cities, though our support in Mirsvr and Zhikav remains steadier.
These events have caused significant disruptions to our TransOlyen and Hoitani offices – as well being unable to supply our Depots adequately, investors are beginning to doubt the security of the enterprises carried out in those regions, and their wavering confidence compounds our difficulties in addressing the material causes of their concerns.
Upon your arrival at my estate, I request that you begin to outfit the Fasaathi with whatever you may require for an extended cruise in the TransOlyen region. Supplies have been procured and my staff have been instructed to assist you to their greatest extent. I have arranged a line of credit to purchase any further necessary material from the city. Latest intelligence and reports will be made available to you; begin planning your operations. If I am not present I will join you at my earliest convenience to furnish you with further details and instructions.
Our investment in you was not insignificant, and we expect it will continue to deliver.
In entering the service of the Company, any Abheski possessed of the virtues we exalt above others – these being leadership, initiative, clarity of thought, and financial acumen – may become successful and the very envy of their fellows. Further, with proper training and discipline these virtues may be cultivated and promoted; so that in the training of cadets, the Companies do their utmost for the benefit of these young officers, and thereby the benefit of the Abheski nation.
To truly benefit the nation, we must first understand who we Abheski are; a nation of diverse parts, no doubt, but possessed of a common history.
We came to these lands from abroad – it is not known where exactly from. Some believe that one of the distant lands of Ycairn is the place of our origin, but most agree that we came from another world. Traditional belief across much of the continent holds that we came from the Sun itself, but others believe our origin is from Fasaath, or Kombyeny, or another point within the night sky.
We Abheski are an industrious, creative, and innovative people. Having tamed patches of the wild expanse of the lands, building towns and farms and trading posts, the most successful and prosperous of our ancestors founded the five great cities – Zhikav, Vilv, Otvev, Mirsvr, and Lansk.
Though we live alongside other peoples, we hold ourselves apart. The Abheski have distinguished ourselves twice by mastery over the skies – first, in building the mighty towers that soar over our cities. Some of these towers are centuries old, and stand strong to this day, the least of them stretching higher than fifty people. In the last few generations, our supremacy over the air was proven again in being the first nation to recreate the science of powered flight; our ships, lifted by mighty dvint, broke us free from the shackles of the land.
Trade is the blood of the Abheski culture. Spread across this harsh and hostile continent, ever taming the ancient forests and defending against the great beasts, our trade is what makes the Abheski prosper above all other people; and the Companies are the pinnacle of Abheski trade. Not restricted to one province, we can deal in goods from across the known world. Not bound to the paths of the rivers and coastlines, we can go anywhere our airships can carry us. Abheski goods are prized from the tents of the Anshessi to the outposts of Hoitan, and if an Ebwari baron wants to exchange letters or goods with a Nalmyan chief, it is most probable that an Abheski vessel will carry their intercourse.
There are other practices that mark us as a peculiar peoples among our neighbours. All nations have their own calendar of celebrations and holidays, and the most important of ours is The Yearsrise festival. Though we differ on which precise day this takes places, Abheski always celebrate the end and beginning of the year around the time of winter solstice. Other peoples reckon the year differently: the Erthani begin at the spring equinox, and the Ebwari count from the height of summer. Other nations practice more curious calendars yet.
Our other important festivals are the First Feast, which in ancestral times celebrated the first hunt after each winter; and the late summer Meetday, where the harvest traditionally begins and the year's differences and disagreements are put aside.
Each city and town observe their Founding Dates. These may variously remember the day the first settlers began to build their new homes, or the day the first Spire was finally completed, but always are celebrated with great revels and public entertainments.
Though we are all Abheski, we may have slight differences in our speech. The rapid speech of a city-dweller may sound different to the calmer pace of a settler from the deep forest; the clipped vowels of Otvev are readily distinguished from the rounder syllables of Zhikav; the plain words of the groundsfolk contrast with the florid oratory of the wealthy classes. All these however are still Abheski, and can readily talk to one another; just try to understand the harsh Hoitani or the singing cadences of the Ebwari to hear how truly different language can sound.
Extract from A Child's Primer and History of the Abheski, published by the Temar Company Press
I trust the lapse in our discourse requires no explanation or forgiveness, old friend; we are but recently able to send letters beyond the city once more, after the insurrection that struck my district. I understand Mirsvr has not gone without similar agitation and suffering. I regret this sincerely for your fine city, and I rejoice that the greater terror that held Lansk is yet a stranger to you. I hope to hear gladder news of your affairs than the sad tale I give you today. I won't inflict upon you further accounts of the agitators' occupation; I cannot tell you anything that has not been printed in broadsheets, though I counsel you to doubt the more lurid stories. Since the district's liberation however, our business has not returned to its previous condition.
I was in the unenviable position of providing a necessary product to the citizens of the district, and so I was forced to deal with the Executive and the self-appointed tyrants of the Supply Committe. I had no wish to support or validate their actions, but had less wish for the innocent population to starve! Thus, with no small distaste, I continued to produce bread with grain supplied by the Executive, to be distributed by the Executive, even at times relying on workers assigned by the Executive. Collaboration it was not, Muzhits, as it was performed under duress and only out of necessity.
Regardless, when the bailiffs and the Companies took back the District, I could easily have been accused of treachery, were it not for my bakery being shut down for lack of material. A scarce two days prior, I had a cart of grains stolen from my yard, the very last in the city that I could secure. I could not prove the author of this outrage, though I know it to have been on behalf of Pivan. That scoundrel has not been seen since the night of the battle, when his brewery was destroyed. The loss of that brew is a sore blow to Lansk; the man shall not be mourned so deeply.
Nevertheless, this theft proved fortunate, as I had to suspend operation and thus the Company had no basis to accuse me of collaboration with agitators on that first day, a day of brutal reprisal.
I said, however, circumstances have not improved. Supply is still disrupted, as despite the collapse of the barricades, the Erthani no longer trade here and the Companies are struggling to deliver supplies sufficient to our needs. Many of my workers have fled or been arrested – good dependable men and women, who I never suspected of agitation in years of employment, are nowhere to be found. Those who remain are often without homes, or grievously injured, or seeking better employment than the wages I can promise on such meager trade. A new Temari agent has been deployed to distribute capital in aid of reconstruction, but I like her not. It's said she was a Licence-Prospector, and a brute. Whether this is true I cannot confirm, but despite abundant rumours of her rough conduct, she has taken on many clients and partners among my fellow business owners. I hope I will not need to resort to her aid.
You no doubt heard of the slaying of Chief Bailiff te Eintov, your fellow son of Mirsvr. I never thought to ask, did you know him? I can only hope the new appointee Akhirin Sarta will not repeat te Eintov's mistakes. The zeal he has shown in the first days of his office exceeds what is required – raids of businesses and homes are commonplace, carried out upon the least suspicion, and far more brutal than is wise. Though I have not been subjected to Sarta's attentions yet I fear that any day he may come, he and his bailiffs backed by Temari marines.
As you see, Muzhits, my siutation is dire, perhaps as dire as ever it was beneath the agitators. I know not of your situation, owing to our isolation from business matters, but I ask you – any spare capital you may have to lend me, or other assistance you could render, would be a great boon to an old friend in need. A stake in my business is forthcoming, should this be favourable, and my gratitude will be a surer bond still. I await your reply, and hope to hear of your continued success and prosperity.
READERS; you will by now have heard the joyous news that the insurrection in Lansk has been quelled. With order restored against the current of anarchy and agitation, all honest Abheski will doubtless celebrate this victory. However it is our unfortunate duty to advise your joy be tempered, as solemn news and shocking details of the affair become known to the world outside the rebels' barricades.
The action to liberate the occupied district was undertaken at night, to minimise the harm inflicted upon the innocent citizenry imprisoned beneath the cruel yoke of the agitators' violence. A joined force of Municipal Bailiffs and Marines detached from the Temar and Eltjin companies struck at several points on the district's perimeter. Upon gaining this foothold, they quickly sought out the ringleaders of the self-styled Lansk Popular Executive, based on intelligence given by loyal and lawful citizens within the barricades, who at great personal risk passed this information to the outside world.
Some among the agitators were quick to flee at the first sign of trouble, retreating to vessels docked on the river and casting off under the aegis of Erthani ensigns. Those who remained behind did not give up their gains easily – in fierce fighting along the riverside docks, Chief Bailiff Baurin te Eintov was slain alongside several of his most loyal men. Seeing their tyranny crumble before them, many agitators burned large parts of the district, caring not for the cruelty it would inflict on the population. Several streets of apartments and workshops were reduced to rubble and ash, killing many unfortunate citizens and leaving others without home or workplace. Even the batteries held by the rebels were turned against the district, inflicting particularly grave damage to the historic Old Tower.
Fleeing citizens, finally able to escape the barricades, were welcomed by Bailiffs and municipal aid in the surrounding districts. Many of these souls have been directed to new temporary lodgings in the Temar Company Depot, where the resources of that enterprise have been generously set aside for their care.
The disturbing details of life within the district are now coming to light as these sorry refugees can freely tell of the horrors that agitation inflicts. The alleged aid provided by the Erthani was seized at once by the cabal of anarchists leading the rebellion, while the common citizen starved. Children forced to pick for morsels among refuse-piles, which gathered at every corner and spilled out of every gutter. One mother told us how, lacking any other means to feed her family, she caught and cooked rats, who, emboldened by the deplorable filth of the district, would elsewise have preyed upon her infants. Violent gangs enforcing no law other than their own petty caprice and venal urges not only ruled the night, but made a terror of the daytime. Failure to obey the dictates of the Popular Executive resulted in reprisals, including public executions of horrific brutality, that decency will not permit us to reprint in these sheets.
Though we rejoice that the misrule of the agitators has come to an end, it is nonetheless a sad end to a sad tale. The true extent of the damage inflicted upon the people of Lansk can not yet be accounted. Those agitators who escaped justice shall be sure to strike again, and all lawful Abheski must ever be watchful for the storm front of anarchy.
Mirsvr Pump Broadsheet – pre-print manuscript prepared ahead of the operation to crush the LPE insurrection.
An Account of the Orator Yethara
Her Falsehoods and her Crimes
The Orator known as Yethara has preaches across the Abhesk, from Zhikav to her alleged home city of Vilv. In her wake, agitation and strife has bubbled forth to disrupt the peace and prosperity of these great cities. But who is this agitator?
Yethara claims to be from Vilv, yet the authors, possessed of no small familiarity with that great city, have not found any there who knew of her, neither in her youth nor as fellow workers.
She preaches of justice and freedom for the workers and groundsfolk, but what does she know of labour, and working conditions? In all her speeches she never tells what her trade was before she set out to crash Abheski society.
The authors of this pamphlet can reveal that Yethara, far from being a humble Vilvan worker questing for justice for her fellow groundsfolk, is in fact a hypocrite, a subtle infiltrator fomenting agitation to disrupt the trade of the Cities and the great Companies that have made the Abheski a prosperous nation.
Yethara was born indeed to a Vilvan mother, but by an Erthani father. She was raised on a stinking vessel of that nomadic nation, learning from the cradle not of industry and toil and honest trade, but of treachery, mendacious dealings, and jealousy. Having spent the greater portion of her years aboard barges, she donned the guise of an Abheski only well into adulthood, and then only to pursue a plan of sabotage and dissent.
In her tour of preaching her agitations to the groundsfolk, she travels not by airship. The sky, beloved of all Abheski, is not her path. All true Abheski, undeceived by the glamour of dissent, recognise her beliefs as dangerous; understanding this, she sticks to the ground and the waterways, knowing she will not be challenged but instead receive aid from the disaffected and the hostile nations who share in her jealousy. Upon the sovereign decks of Erthani vessels, she is shielded from the bailiffs and constables and marines. In the deep forests, she is hidden from the sight of those vessels that protect our communities .
We wrote of the strife to be found in the wake of this orator. When she spoke in Lansk, she provoked a riot against the bailiffs, wherein dozens were killed. In Mirsvr, a mob stormed the Lesyan Tower and slaughtered another score of innocents. In Otvev, a fire claimed a Company Depot, though the docks and the Erthani fields were spared any such disaster.
It is clear to all that Yethara is not a mere orator, preaching a creed of justice. The inescapable conclusion is that Yethara is a vile conspirator. Whether she is among the leaders of the agitators attempting to bring our nation to ruin, it cannot be said, but she is certainly the most visible figure and the most dangerous.
Don't let this Agitator destroy us!
Protect your family, protect your prosperity: If you know of agitation or conspiracy, tell your bailiffs, and tell your bosses.
Pamphlet anonymously distributed ahead of a labour rally in Mirsvr.
I regret sincerely the delay in replying to your most recent letter. I cannot lay the blame on the grim tidings it bore – though I thank you dearly for informing me of the terrible news, despite your own losses. I had already learned through Company channels of the events in Mirsvr, and knew at once, before reports had confirmed it, that the violent lusts and anarchic fervor of the agitators had struck our own families. Though I weep for us both that we must live in a world where such horror and pain can befall us, I thank all fortune and all gods that you, dear dear Cousin, were spared the fate that struck down our fathers, and that you and our mothers and my brother are still safe from the turmoil gripping our city.
I promise you that the weeks elapsed since receipt of your letter have not been spent idly, nor have I allowed my industry to merely service the pursuits of wealth and career that once consumed me so wholly. Nothing of this interests me now – advancement in a Company can gain me nothing, nor can wealth, when the very foundation of our civilization is subsiding below us. My efforts have placed me back in command of a vessel, yes, but not in order to secure promotion or amass a fortune. I have returned to service in order to fight against agitation with the only methods such brutes understand.
All my assets have been leveraged in the outfitting of a new vessel. Being found innocent in the affair of the Nomad, I am not without my supporters, Cousin, many of whom have used their influence and their wealth to assist me in this endeavour. The Fasaathi was outfitted with the greatest dvint and batteries I could afford. We did not lack for numbers to crew the vessel; some of my benefactors worried that my infamy as the victim of mutiny would attract crew seeking to foster further agitation, but every soul was thoroughly vetted and all are staunch opponents of anarchy.
I am not strictly under the command of any of the Offices – though I am still within the Company. Having raised the financing for the Fasaathi myself, I am flying as a free agent, answerable to the military commission but not under strict orders. A curious arrangement, you'll agree, but with the backing of my benefactors and the need for extreme measures against this coming storm front of dissent, one that has proved desirable to the Commission.
I am taking the vessel on its maiden flight tomorrow. I have intelligence of a hidden portage route deep in the TransUssin region, oft used by the Erthani. Disrupting this route should frustrate that wicked nation in their ambitions to shake the Spires to the ground.
I would dearly love to be in Mirsvr, finding those who burned our households and wrecked our businesses. But I know the Company agents and city bailiffs are better placed to seek that justice, and my skills are better aimed elsewhere.
I have sent a credit note to my representatives in Mirsvr – the remaining portion of my funds not invested in this expedition are at your disposal, dear Cousin, for your use in the care of our remaining family. I will return as soon as it is safe for me to do so, and together we shall mourn, but we shall know it is safe in Abhesk at last.
Yours,
Contract-Captain Yar te Yarllen, Temar Company, location withheld.
Your letter arrived at Depot last night. Should this reply find its way to you in a similar time, I make that an eight-day round trip from your tower in Mirsvr, to my cot on the frontier and back. I thus concede our wager settled, and you may consider payment delivered, awaiting only my presence in the city. I confess I am not sorry to find myself the lesser in this matter, as my joy at our progress outweighs by far the stake I placed against you.
As to professional matters, the state of my honour is less certain.
The progress here has been slower than was hoped, as I cautioned in my reports when this expedition was first planned. The blame does not lie on the scouts, as I know many on the Boards and in the Wardrooms are no doubt speculating – at least, on no scouts other than myself. As the first Company man to observe these lands and the author of the reports upon the intelligence of which the appraisements were calculated, what blame can be assigned for this region's deficiencies thus far must surely be assigned to me and the poor quality of my intelligence or my inability to communicate its significance. I remind you again, nonetheless, of my early and continued pessimism regarding this venture.
The Hoitani are much as I found them twenty years ago. I needn't describe their character again for you. The Company consensus seemed to be that enough material tribute would be sufficient to sway Hoitani chieftains from their position of reserve into acceptance of a closer partnership with the Company. This was never to succeed, as I insisted from the start; the Abheski mind and the Hoitani mind are too dissimilar. This is not to denigrate them, you understand that my respect for their nation is considerable. They simply do not share fundamental concepts of value that are apparent to us, and the benefits of our way of life are perhaps incomprehensible to them. They care not for a letter carried from Mirsvr and back in eight days. The bribery and force that work so well in the Anshess or beyond the Belt simply are not persuasive here.
After the late debacle in that western camp, I fear our progress will be slowed further. The destruction of that settlement was of no benefit to Temar – the Hoitan see little if any distinction between the Companies. The work achieved by our scouts, against the unreasonable expectations of the Boards, was highly promising, now rendered useless. The bumbling of a Valdjin captain has undone our project to an immeasurable degree.
I feel no joy in this vindication. I am galled to see the Erthani – really Benvin, the Erthani! – trade with the Hoitani more successfully than we. Our best course to salvage this region is to allow our scouts continued liberty in managing their own affairs – to an individual they are as disgusted with the Valdjini massacre as I, and are themselves best placed to repair their own contacts among the camps. Failing that, a further deployment of force, while regrettable, will yield the most profitable returns in the least time. I know the Boards grow hungry.
Please communicate all I have disclosed here to the relevant Boards and Members. I will continue to direct our efforts, and update you through the usual channels.
Our people arrived here when the forests were still young, child. We made our home here, and made this land ours, and we have forgotten where we sailed from. Some say we left from a cruel kingdom far to the East of Hoitan. Some say we came from frozen Triir, far away in the south. Others believe we sailed from Fasaath, or from beyond the stars... all we remember is we fled from a great and terrible disaster.
A hundred families set off in a mighty seaship, the greatest vessel anyone had ever seen! Half the forests of the Vikol would not be enough timber to build this mighty vessel. Away we sailed to safety, but the journey was a long and dangerous one!
Our ship was sucked into a great whirlpool, and we were tossed and shaken. But our ship did not break, and we were brave!
A great wave carried us out again, and a mighty waterspout threw us into the air! But our ship did not break, and we were brave!
We landed with a crash, and the waters closed over our ship. But our ship did not break, and we were brave!
After a hundred nights we came to this land, to beautiful Abhesk. The mighty ship sailed up the river and where we stopped, we founded the first city of Mirsvr. From its masts and timbers we built the first Spires. We felled the great trees of the Abhesk and built the first ships of the air, and we learned to fly.
We sailed out across the sky, over this beautiful land that we would make our own. All the Great Cities of the North were founded by us. From Otvev to Zhikav we took this land and built our Spires.
The monsters of the deep forests and the jagged mountains could not scare us – our ships flew above them, and we were brave!
Cruel Anshessi chiefs and cunning Erthani cheats could not trick us – our ships flew above them, and we were brave!
Long frozen winters and great storms could not stop us – above it all our ships flew, and we always were brave!
And so Abhesk, the greatest land on Ycairm, became ours.
