Elyden Random Plots #6

On the peripheries of a war in Arkos, a solitary knight of the white league stops for a rest. He removes the helmet of his softsuit and observes the distant Mountains of Ehbot.

      Beneath overcast skies he is visited by a trio of moulting crows that land close by and stare at him. The birds pester him, as though trying to get him to move...
 

WHITE LEAGUE, the: also ‘the Alabaster Host’. Mercenaries, their roots lying in a knightly order founded in Dhalona, Parthis, in 1192 RM to defend those without the means to do so themselves. By c. 1300 RM they had chapters in most ntns. around the Inner Sea, settling there in return for a yearly tithe and peonage of each member for a term no more than 4 years. The Imperial grip tightening, they came to charge payment for their deeds, both as a means of sustaining their tenure in imperial lands and to fill their already pillage-fed coffers. By c. 1600 they had become bankers and moneylenders, with chapters of the White Bank in most imperial cities, their forces working mostly as mercenaries for the Korachani empire though open to employment to any who could afford their services. In 2374 RM the Korachani empire descended on many chapters, destroying them, lessening the rapidly increasing influence if the Legion. Crippled by the blow, the White League struggled throughout the next few centuries, splitting into smaller orders, with the original Legion remaining in Parthis. Successes in regional wars filled the Legion’s coffers once more in early 2910 RM, and they grew in the imperial W, establishing major fortresses in Parthis, Tartak, Taraha and Vaalk, where they remain to this day. The empire’s wars of the latter 3rd millennium RM – the War of the Atifexes in Llachatul and the Blood Heterodoxies in Karakhas – led to the White League fighting against Korachan (through Parthis’s alliances with Korachan’s foes). Further scuffles with the Korachani empire done little to dent their holdings, and by c. 3400 RM the empire realised it had more to gain from them as allies than enemies, and the two entered in agreements which stood to the end of the War of the Shadow and the Helix. In 3406, the White League deposed the Parthisn government, which at, until then seen most of its resources directed toward aiding other ntns. against Korachan. The Secular Republic was deposed, replaced with the Alabaster Council, which still rules Parthis to this day.
     Following the sundering of the Korachani empire in 3705 RM the White League’s power increased manifold, becoming the main power along the W Inner Sea. The Dissolution of the High-empire of Korachan after the War for the Shadow and the Helix left it stronger; helping to found the Empire of Parthis in 17 RMe.
 

SOFTSUIT: suit, echoing ancient suits of full-plate, worn by explorers and scholars travelling through Atr. and Fir. tainted lands. They are commonly air-tight and made from thick leather and lined in lead or asbestos, though the design varies wildly by period and region.