JACKAL AMONG SNAKES

Epilogue 3.3: Relics of a Bygone Time, Working Well Into Modernity

the vasquer standard

elenore saw the completion of the capitol of the blackgard union during the age of revolutions. the bastion, as it was later named by the people, came to embody the significance of her station by sheer force of necessity. the position of prime minister came to have so many offices serving it that the building needed to be enlarged. the bureaucracy that elenore had established at the very beginning of the blackgard union did not stagnate where it’d been born—rather, just as the society had grown, so too had it.

her reforms of the era split the power of her seat, but her workload had grown so intense it was necessary. even despite this fragmentation, the last vestige of truly imperial power can be seen in the prime minister’s office. every position that received some delegated authority remains directly appointed by the prime minister, and that seems unlikely to change. in practice, the prime minister still dictates the direction the government takes.

elenore became an unwilling icon to the working women of the era. in civil service, where women had become extremely prominent, she set the standard that many of them aspired to. in wider intellectual movements, too, her continued quiet and skillful reign was heralded as the epitome of excellence. elenore’s complete avoidance of these movements has ensured they never reached the heights of others of the age, but prince garm says their affection ‘wasn’t entirely hated by the esteemed prime minister.’

on the personal front, elenore and durran continued to raise a revolving door of orphaned children. prince garm deemed it ‘a hobby of theirs, wherein they would take in those young children visited by a great tragedy, and then expend their efforts toward ensuring the children achieved both great happiness and great success despite their misfortunes.’ when asked, elenore merely claims it to be ‘small recompense for the good fortune i had to experience firsthand such a reversal of fate.’

elenore and durran had no more trueborn children after therese, which was a point of small friction between the pair that nonetheless never amounted to genuine conflict; only a ‘few snide comments,’ according to garm.

sword and shield

galamon and orion, once called the sword and shield of the empire, adapted to their changing roles well. the army, for its part, became far closer to something of that of state-funded workers. they still saw action, at many points—the imperial fleet, for its part, was constantly hard-pressed to keep the waters safe as trade began to explode. by and large, the soldiers engaged in far more acts of public benefit, such as laying out the railroads or expanding the sewer systems.

the order of the sun under orion, meanwhile, expanded massively. they faced innumerable challenges as they did so. anti-traditionalists decried the dated role of knights in an enlightened society, while instances of excessive force drew close scrutiny from the public eye. in the face of all that, the people constituting the order changed just as society did.nôv(el)b\\jnn

speaking from my experience as a knight of the sun, it came to be one of the most difficult roles in society. every day, the knights see the very lowest of society—rapists, murderers, thieves, appearing one after another. we see children enduring that which none should ever have to, and we have to deal with the aftermath of those who’ve taken their lives. we see all that drives men and women to crime, and we see all the misery resulting from illegality.

it can be very difficult not to break beneath that strain. it very nearly did break me in 72ac, and led to my retirement in 73ac.

nevertheless, the order grew into a fixture of the blackgard union, and knights themselves a very prominent and celebrated citizenry. orion, as their leader, dispelled the notion of superiority of arms entitling one to superiority of rights. he seemed the very ideal of the knight they all aspired to—protector of the weak, unfailingly virtuous, and pursuant of the truth no matter the cost.

prince garm describes it simply: ‘paradise.’

science of magic, and the magic of science

magic, fundamentally, could be said to have endured no major revolution. its knowledge was spread, yes, but spellcasters had been probing the depths of magic long before the last calamity ended. it’s been the interweaving of magical and mundane that has produced the most significant steps forward. it began in the field of healing arts with raven—his methods involved an all-too-clever combination of the magic of healing with the mundanity of surgery. that methodology spread to other fields. the combination of the forces of the world and the forces of magic have struck many as the future.

raven continued this endless march forward with all the fervor of a sinner seeking penance. his advancements in the healing arts remain incredibly notable, even in this age—curing ailments such as arthritis, delaying the onset of dementia, and mitigating the negative effects of strokes stand as the most prominent examples. a great deal remains out of his reach of yet, and many of these treatments remain ridiculously costly, requiring the aid of an s-rank spellcaster. nevertheless, people take strides toward making these methods more efficient, making the magical mundane so that all might partake in the fruits of knowledge. things have advanced far enough even non-magical humans can breach one hundred years of age.

other fields march forward in lockstep. the field of magical engineering is becoming particularly prominent, where boats that can sail in the air and other such impossibilities for the common man become closer to reality every day. robust protections from government ensuring that the one who discovers these things can profit from them make many incredibly eager pursuers of the runaway future. older methods are made more efficient day by day, and what was the privilege of mages yesterday becomes the pleasure of the common man today.

the dwarves, for their part, take part in this revolution with eager hands. largely unblessed magically, they’ve long been applying magic in such conventional ways. now, their methods are going through a rebirth in the forges of the blackgard union, making them one of the wealthiest classes of citizenry in the nation.

these successes, however, are shadowed by what some think is to be a grim future. increasingly, a phenomenon known as magical scarcity has been observed. as the name suggests, the simple ramification of this fact is that magic, as more users arise, is not quite so plentiful as it once was. magic itself hasn’t decreased, yet as more people use it, the primeval force is drawn thinner. while it’s far too early to know if this will be a prevailing trend or an anomaly, the fact remains that many see efforts toward efficiency in magic use as an inevitability if the population should continue to rise, which it seems like to.

regained nobility

several noble houses that fell out of prominence in the past began to reappear, some of their status regained by merit of effort expended. elias of parbon saw the continuance of both the bloodlines of parbon and jast, alongside his wife ridia. after achieving great success in resettling land near relize, their family began the parbon foundation, an organization that funds research into healing arts.

nikoletta of monticci remains very wealthy, but the monticci lineage seems likely to pass alongside her. the name lives on in the form of the many magic schools she founded alongside mina of veden, herself another noble. rumors suggest both of their wills are entirely dedicated to a fringe movement promoting certain civil liberties.

hegazar and vera, former duke and duchess of dirracha, continue their lineage as the only nobles appointed by argrave himself. they were ornery at first, vehemently protesting the king’s decision to end nobility. vera nearly divorced hegazar, who’d lost all of his magic, but a firm rebuke for their protests from the crown made them unite closer than ever. by this age, hegazar reclaimed what he lost, and the both of them were s-rank spellcasters. hegazar is noted for a feat of magical engineering called ‘projections,’ which can display complex images on glass surfaces, enabling complex interfaces on devices. the potential of this invention has yet to be fully explored, but its patent has already earned them great wealth.

house quadreign remains the only noble house in possession of what can be called a heritage—namely, their black flame. vasilisa’s incredibly effective stewardship of the north also earned her family some wealth. her daughter—which she admitted she never intended to have, if not for a touch too much to drink—stands poised to continue her unexpectedly brilliant political legacy as she campaigns for governor, today.