Winds of the World Homepage
The Broken Year has ended. As The Concord leaves the harsh choices and sombre memories of 223 behind them, heroes and citizens look to a new dawn.
In all directions The Concord has fought their enemies to a standstill and while hatred still smoulders across The Concord's borders, no ground has been lost that has not been reclaimed. While those merchants with an eye for the government of The Concord still look upon the treasury with mounting fear, there is still a government to fear for.
As The Concord moves into the year 224, we will see if it can survive the wounds it has already been dealt and whether or not they can manage to not inflict them upon each other. Welcome to the year 224AE, A Concordian Dawn.
Welcome to the Winds of the World for Winter 224!
The Winds of the World detail the changes and progression of the world of Concord over the last season, detailing the wars, fortunes and opportunities that have arisen over time. These are intended to show how the world has moved, provide prompts and guides for characters as well as let you see the results of your actions.
This page will detail the Winds of the World as a summary, with short introduction for each individual section of The Winds. If any particular section draws your attention or has game information that might affect you, click into it and read the full text which will be substantially longer and contain game information. These pages are in a slightly new format, broken up into subheadings allowing the Concord Team to focus information and provide a better cause and effect.
It is important to note that The Winds of The World are not an In-character document. Rather, it represents a collection of documents, rumours, reports and tales that have swept The Concord. Any character is more than welcome to know as little or as much of the Winds as possible, reflecting how well informed they like to keep themselves. It is perfectly acceptable to arrive in Passage having heard nothing or to only seek out the winds that apply to you. Particularly studious, influential or well travelled characters may know all or most of it. When referring to the Winds in character, you are welcome to characterise it as 'rumours heard in tavern houses' or 'the latest report from Weiland!' rather than the idea that the Civil Service putting out a gigantic almanac of goings on and gossip.
We've attempted to tag each entry in the Winds in regards to who it affects, hopefully this will make it easier to navigate. Each sub section will be updated as the Winter Summit draws nearer, with an entry being posted every Monday, Wednesday and Friday until they are all posted.
The Wrath of The Concord - The Battle in Weiland
- The Kingdom of Bordevar / The War Chamber / Armies and Heroes from across The Concord
The Broken Year: a time of malady across The Concord and increased predations by foes was brought to its zenith under the cruel summer sun in the East. Across the scrubby Lenscaster Hills, under the eaves of the Wolfden Woods, and in the outer homesteads of Carningsfield, the future of Bordevar and The Concord was placed into the forge - tested against the blades, magic, and foul temperament of The Onyx Aristocracy.
The Concord was not found wanting.
Over the year, The Concordian heroes took to the field of battle eight times through the magic of the Realmweave and the Waystones. Through victory and defeat they brought the fight to the undead, repulsing forces of The Marble Gauntlet on the field, clashing with raiding ghouls and subversive necromancers. Heroes gave their lives through Winter and Summer but their loss is not in vain.
The Concord has stood firm in Weiland and the battles therein have been won. The host of Radomir of the Veil, erstwhile Chancellor of the Southern Reach, has been repulsed and the armies of The Onyx are wounded. But all things are not without cost.
There are No Kings Here - The Battle in Bolsterlee
- Iron Valley / Lerona Mere / Any concerned with the Illsevir or the Kingdom of the Bailles
A chaotic melee of ship and sword unfolded in Bolsterlee over the past season, so much, so normal. But the exact circumstances around the battle are anything but typical. As the Liberty’s Fist attempted to hold the line at the Bolsterlee and Woodswater Rivers once again, they found a foe more interested in fleeing and wailing than pitched battles. Scrambles by both sides to pull the other into conflict were clumsily effective. When all is said and done, the Lerona Mere fleet has emerged victorious over a mess of a campaign, through no real fault of their own.
But what emerges from the fallout is of far greater concern. The Illsevir have fled Baile Fealtoiri, scrambling aboard ships as best they can and bound for the Cape of the Bailes. In their place, a Balite army under the command of Prince Iren Morgan marches up from the south in a flurry, bringing a new banner to an old home.
Cast Down, But Not Cast Out - The Battle from The Steinvaults
- The Iron Valley / The Kingdom of Bordevar
The wild places of The Concord are home to all manner of folks; from bandits and exiles hiding in the Bailite Woods of Bolsterlee, to hidden things in the catacombs of Lerona Mere and even stranger ‘peoples’ living in the darkest corners of Resinderholz. As of late, one of the most human and recognisable groups has grown into a considerable problem; The Boar’s Head Clan.
Residing the hidden valleys of the Steinvault Mountains, these warrior mountaineers have begun to move against The Concord, with skirmishes breaking out across Weiland and Windholme. While the history of The Concord’s interactions with these people is a complex one, the future is hardly written in stone. But will likely be written in blood.
Great Empires are Not Maintained by Timidity - Future Conquests
- The War Chamber / The Senate
In quiet conversations after one two many ales, the maps come out. Petty soldiers and sargents fighting phantom wars against very real foes. Or perhaps it is nobles and knights around the solar table, Captains and crews around the ship’s wheel, or hunters and priests around the campfire. The Concord is an empire of war, driven together by these threats, moulded by it and given life through it. It should come as no surprise that its people are warlike, if not warloved.
It has taken three years, but decades of defeat have been forestalled. The long retreat, the collapse of the baronies, the defeat of the legions, the scouring of the east, all have been driven to a halt. The Concord hasn’t just slowed these deaths, but has stopped them.
Aside from the predations of the Boars Head Clan in the east, no single enemy army moves against The Concord this season. While the enemy moves and shifts, grows and heals, they do not thrust themselves upon you.
While there are many that call for this as a time to rest and do healing of our own, there are great many, from taverns to the War Chamber, that continue to beat the drums of war. While it is by no means essential and may not even be recommended, it is important to know how The Concord could begin to reach beyond its borders.
What's Yours is Mine
- Title Changes / The Civil Service Report
The Concord is a young organisation and for many, the fact that it has not collapsed from bureaucratic failings or logistical nightmares is a minor miracle. The Civil Service that acts as the grinding gears across the five Realms would point to a constant drive to improve and a willingness to change (within reason) as the pliability that allows The Concord to continue.
Over the Summer a number of changes have been proposed, trialled and debated in the halls of power, with a handful even being adopted. Information on titles and changes to old ones, as well as the full list of available titles this Summit can be found within.
The Weight of Worth
- Senate Appraisals / The Passage Field Hospital and The Tribelands
In Summer of 223, the Senate’s power of appraisal was enshrined, granting the power to investigate new projects and opportunities for the Concordian treasury to be spent towards the needs of the people. With the ability to appraise two projects at a time, the Senate dispatched Civil Service assessors to Andash and Bordevar to pursue projects of economic merit. The results of these assessments provide unique options for the Senate to pursue in the coming season.
Righteous in Belief
- The Church of the Divine Spheres / The Foreign Service
In the streets of Lerona Mere a foreigner lies dead amidst a pile of thrown roofing tiles, his unassuming garb spattered with blood and dust. His companions flee into the streets beyond, leaving him unknown but not forgotten.
In a ruined township a woman stands atop an old pile of rubble. Her words are spoken with passion and zeal, but those surrounding can’t help but feel a wrongness in them. Is it the wrongness of a rightful challenge to the orthodoxy? Or is the wrongness of the heretic?
In a quiet lakeside cabin, a man’s corpse is strung up by its own entrails, his back festooned with a hundred iron barbs in the shape of stars, each one hammered into his body with superhuman force. His uniform is discarded nearby, the symbol of a Pathfinder-Captain torn from the arm and the sigil of a bloody fang daubed on the splattered window.
The Concordian Church is under attack from many foes over the Summer season and there are many questions how it shall proceed and what is righteous in the eyes of the Spheres.
I Call the Council of Six
- The Church of the Divine Spheres / Church Declarations
To be a priest of The Concord is to be a political figure. Were it not for the Divine Spheres and their belief, then it is very likely that The Concord would never have formed. The Church wields immense literal and implied power, both in this life and in the next. Priests acting in its name must intercede on matters political, moral and logistical on a daily basis. This experience is raised to ever greater heights when they attend The Summit, as it is the great centre of power for months to come.
But it is also a young church, influenced by those it split from, the ancestral beliefs of its people and from similar churches across the waves. There will be constant change in how it operates and what causes it champions or lets fall fallow.
As the Winter Summit approaches there is great change on the wind. The organisation of The Church at Summit, the result of declarations, the pursuit of new ones and the results of arcane research into the Divine.
We are the Bloodglass Inheritors
- The Iron Valley
For nearly a millennia The Iron Valley were the conquerors of Southern Esterra. While their fortunes waxed and waned, they held great territories, defeated their enemies and knew none before them. From the Mountain Kings to the Axeman's War, the Endenmani and the Lowfolk, seeing Valleyfolk banners on the horizon seldom meant peace. They were champions of their people.
But time, as it always does, has a habit of blurring our greatest truths. In the current age The Iron Valley is bloodied and bruised, but not beaten.
The last season held many important decisions for the Valley, the most important among them is how they will heal and how they will grow. With even more mountain paths before them, these folk-in-iron will carve their legend in the Age of Heroes as surely as their ancestors did.
A Matter Fit of Boghoffens
- Greenweald Baronies / Lerona Mere / The Academy
All across the Sableheart and the Northern Reaches of Lerona Mere farmsteads, Havens and roadways are dealing with an irritating plague of troublesome Greenweald creatures known as Boghoffens. Meddlesome and violent, Boghoffens delight in falling upon wayward travellers and shepherds and arraying their corpses in attempts to communicate upcoming arcane tragedy. The arrival of Boghoffens in the past has been a grim warning for small isolated settlements but the sudden appearance of hundreds of the creatures across the Sableheart and, most worryingly, outside the Weald is unheard of. The peculiar creatures have an affinity for children, refusing them harm and often engaging in play. Stories abound of Boghoffens teaching children crude dances and songs, or whispering to them the secrets of the woods, much to the chagrin and concern of their parents. The plague of the creatures across the region has had many strange effects which can be read within.
Boghoffens appear as a crude mixture of insect, plant and fae features, favouring the use of crude tools and sharp objects to inflict violence. Troublesome alone, they are downright deadly in a mob. Many Houndspriests have found it easier to simply burn out their warrens rather than attempt to dispatch the creature with blade and sorcery. For many, this surge of the irritating creatures has immediate logistical headaches as attempting to dispatch solutions across such a wide area will cause problems for both the Baronies and Lerona Mere.
But for many there is a greater concern in the shadows. Why now and why so many? The strange rhymes of the Boghoffen and their grisly trophies are said to be the harbingers of something larger and more dangerous. In that way is it better to dispatch the messengers now? Or heed them as harbinger? Or ignore old tales for what they are, old tales?
Of Monsters and Mice
- The Greenweald Baronies / Houndspriests in particular
There was a time, many years ago, when the Greenweald Baronies were a realm of great renown. A place to be respected for their faith, their great deeds and their strength of soul. They produced some of the finest craftsfolk in small things, great works of art and from within their shadowed hearts came those people of great courage. Snow would fall lightly on the great cities of Ulsterberg, Wolstad and Hasselbach. The Baronies could be counted upon as some of the greatest leaders of Southern Esterra and the mighty guilds of the Realm were some of the most elite establishments of learning and skill in the lands.
Those times have fallen into history like the collapse of a great oak, rotten to the core to the point where it is hard to imagine how it ever stood.
The modern Weald is a shadow of its former self, one Barony, no great guilds and known for little aside from sickness and its substantial supply of Concordian tax. Wealder heroes attend the Summit, giving their lives like every other realm and while many Wealders can wear their realm’s role in the founding of The Concord as a badge of honour, that seems like greatness achieved so long ago now.
There is a rot in Resinderholz, a boring of hundreds of tiny mouths. But it remains to be seen if it can be healed before this final oak comes thundering down, crushing those healthy trees that reach for the sunlight around it.
No Greater Legend than Peace
- Lerona Mere / Panoply
Little more than three years old, Lerona Mere is a youngster burdened by a history earned before it even existed. After throwing off the shackles of oligarchy, the people of Legend City have taken wary steps into a new world as rebels, leaders and entrepreneurs. These steps have not always been stable but have always been taken firmly. But even as they walked together, the people of Lerona Mere held each other back with crisis after crisis. The Docklands War, the spectre of the Second Revolution and the Prosperity Curse have sown discord in hearts and stones underfoot.
But as dawn breaks in the year 224 it appears that the storm has passed. There is peace in the Docklands (of a sort), the fires of anger have snuffed out (to a point) and a curse is lifted (while some remains). Surely a year of wealth, wisdom and wholesomeness looms for the people of The Concord’s largest city!
The Slumber of Starving Gods
- Andash (Particularly The Tribelands)
Beneath the lands of Andash are hidden many stories. Some are buried beneath the waves of sandy dunes while others stay unseen amidst the weight of great traditions. To delve for treasures and knowledge is seen as a great opportunity by a culture rich in history, but many know that danger threatens those that choose to seek.
Time will work to stack grains of sand on top of the efforts of people, but perhaps there are some things that should indeed remain buried.
Bodies once drowned in rivers of blood, testament to a warring people. Ruins to a once great empire, now broken; keepers of death and terrible secrets. Towers of perceivable darkness, surrounded by nothing but faded memories. Echoes of forgotten myths, best left silent but now quietly repeated in the solace of dark rooms.
Andash faces a history that its foundations are built upon, but the horrors of the past and present will not so easily be forgotten.
The Wave Breaks as a Heart Does
- News from the Sea
As with any maritime nation, The Concord learns most of its foreign knowledge from across the waves. The rumours of sailors, the manifests of cargo and the flags that hang over ports. This knowledge is a constant flow but it often takes time to gather itself into some sort of cohesive picture, an image the great and powerful of The Concord would do well to consider before making rash action.
News arrives from across all the oceans, each with its own tenor and danger. In the west there is silent imperial dominance as the Artebazzani continue their control, but there are whispers of distant independence. In the East there is conflict on the open sea, corsairs raiding the nations of Drummond, Dendarr and Hukarr. In the south there is mystery and dark waters.
Contained within are those rumours, as well as the results of some action taken by Concordian captains abroad, where it is publicly known.
Halig of Alfwens Wall, The First Concordian Paragon
- The Church of the Divine Spheres / The Iron Valley / Cervitas
Among the multitude of declarations upon the exterior of the humble church facade as the Summer Summit came to an end was one that appeared humble (as they all do) but with grand ambitions. It honoured a man who had died alongside his brethren. A man who had perished fighting for a different Realm in a land not his own, but of The Concord all the same, his bones interred to the earth of Weiland.
And it called this man a Paragon of The Church.
The greatest of all the honours available to The Concordian Church is the title of Paragon, recognising that individual as a great exemplar of virtue whose legacy should be studied and understood beyond their lives. But the path to Paragon has only just begun, and should this Valleyfolk be recognised it will have ramifications for the entire Concord.
In the Reflection of My Enemies
- Andash (Particularly Mukarrem) / The Idrian Cabal / The Foreign Service / The Shardcircle
Mukarrem has gained a reputation since the founding of The Concord as a place of wild occurrences. Between the invasion of the regions only settled township, the Corsair city off the coast, the vast swathes of rebels and the arcane laboratory, it is certainly a region that is proving a thorn in the Concord’s side.
As the Concord, particularly the people of Andash, attempted to appease the rebel nomads of the Al’Mai, disturbing rumours emerged from the Idrian Cabal site within the centre of the region. Strange magics are hardly abnormal for the arcanists of the Idrian Cabal who meddle with such things as a point of order, but tales of warped experiments and even heresy have begun to circulate in the taverns of Andash and beyond.
The Al’Mai, perhaps emboldened by The Concord’s support, are driven to protect the land they see as theirs and have done so at the end of a blade. Thousands of Al’Mai Shesti warriors have assaulted the Idrian Site. The Arcane art of war has clashed with the agility of the hawk and Mukarrem appears to be sliding deeper into chaos.
Journey On
- Visitors to Passage
Every Summit, the great and good of the Concord make their way to Passage, a nowhere town in the Madre Campo that serves more as a symbol of being a passage, more so than being a place worthy of its duty. They come from afar, those nobles, rich men and powerful women, those puppet masters and those that would do violence on their behalf. And with them come all the rest, the predators that would prey on them, those scavengers that would feed on their offerings, those rare principled few who will stare into the coalface and try not to flinch their morals into a shadow of what they told themselves they would be.
These ‘Concordian Heroes’ are joined by hundreds of faceless additions; civil service bureacrats, locals eager to see the strangeness and the innumerable hangers on. Within are the identities of some of these folks, the gifts they bring and the blades in their hands.
Show Me Where I Went Right
- Summary of Summer 223 Confluxes
In the previous Summit, Concordian forces rallied to close out the Broken Year, drawing particularly the Onyx Aristocracy into battle and attempting to support the coming seasons campaigns. While it is difficult to be sure it is exhaustive, the results of the last seasons Confluxes can be found within.
Gold for Kings, Silver for Nobles, Copper for Layfolk, Debt for Slaves
- The Treasury Report / The Quartermasters Report
The Concord is a vast moving machine of governance and imperium. It is a beast of coins, maps, compromises and magic. The vast apparatus of each Realm combined with the overarching talons of The Concord make for dangerous and complex matters of state. This Winds, while simple and brief, contains the important information of the treasury and the quartermasters report, detailing the funds available to The Concord and what constructions have been completed.