I am not delivering official reports calling it a mana pooper. Anyways we’ve started setting up a living space for it at Uudistar alongside the other critters. The village constructions have begun largely along the coast and established the home guard between all of them in a more organized military force. Roads also under construction.

In other news, our scout force venturing eastward found another of those northern villages filled with angry fur clad folk. However, not long after that we lost contact. I should note though, they did report the discovery of the village before they went missing. Which indicates that said northerners may not have actually attacked them, even if that is the usual pattern. Generally when such hostilities break out our people are able to at least evade and report back. I suspect the monsters got to them instead, that or some foul conspiracy.

Also I’ve had the order put out to the armies to recall in and stand ready at the capital with the gatestone. Next cycle we will be landing, if all reports are correct then this will be rough.

In regards to the politics going on within the elven city, our ambassadors have taken a new approach. While the Aywin are preaching for emigration we’re now offering something closer to a refugee deal. Because Katara and Aywin are liable to go to war soon, and we imagine the civilians might be tired of that. They’ve opted to try and predict future events rather than charismatically convince of current situations.

Greetings Keeper! It is a glorious day for the Oda people.

In regards to the monks, I’ve discussed recruiting the kineticists with Shime. She notes they aren’t really aggressive warriors, so if you order them to join an assault on anything they are liable to abandon their duties. Though they do make for great scouts at least. It is noted they are not actually the best fighters, but their ability to manipulate the environment around them makes them quite dangerous depending on the location they fight in. The more ‘stuff’ is around them, such as within the forest, the more powerful they are. They might not do so well within cities though. On the upside, in terms of defense, we could just place their weapons of choice strategically around the city. It is unlikely that a cauldron of water would be useful to an invading enemy despite being a dangerous weapon for a kineticist. So with prep time we can maximize their impact.

Yuzuki heard of this and opted to pitch her newest advancements to me…I think their competitiveness might be getting out of hand. But Yuzuki’s experiments have yielded results after constructing several dozen swords until one worked. It utilizes the gudwud as a core and backing of their blades in some peculiar arrangement. While it might slightly compromise the durability and integrity of the sword it allows her students to channel their ki through it. Resulting in what she calls the Kensei, they can channel their ki through their signature weapons which gives it remarkable benefits. While the Sohei were able to create a fighting style exploiting utilizing their ki to move the weapon in their hands, the kensei have become one with their weapons. Allowing it to serve as a true extension of themselves as evidenced by their ability to pour ki into the weapon. While it does not work with enchanted weapons as it relies on the pathways normally used by magic to be open for ki, they seem to produce similar effects. Rivaling at minimum third tier enchantments.

She has drafted her best student to us for testing.

Takei is a bit on the young side though that seems to have advantaged him in learning new tricks. He also showcased the greatest natural talent, besides Yuzuki herself, when it came to mastering these new techniques.

He is a bit of a serious sort though it doesn’t suit him well given he looks like a sixteen year old girl if you ask me. Though I’m told that’s normal for students this early in their monastery training. They haven’t quite gained enough footing to feel the pull towards self expression over being a well disciplined student to appease their teachers.

Through is innate Ki his sword has a similar effect to the true strike spell. In the demonstration Yuzuki arranged, I witnessed Takei split twenty arrows loosed at him simultaneously with just his sword. Well that might be a bit of an exaggeration, he dodged some likely due to them being too close to impacting at the same time as another arrow, but still quite impressive!

In my frank assessment, Yuzuki’s Kensei are vastly superior warriors to the kineticists as it stands now. Though they do have the advantage of learning from the way of the Sohei and improving upon it, along with Yuzuki’s military minded advancements in fighting. So they are technically a generation ahead in their fighting style.

Yuzuki asked you to find something for Takei or herself to do in the field, believing that the techniques can only be further refined by practical engagement with an enemy.

In relation to monastery affairs, Amare has since left Haven to return to the south I believe. Not entirely sure however, she is a hard one to keep track of.

Moving on to Naval matters. Iwanagi has finished navigating the perimeter of the island. As far as he can tell they are in large a much more technologically primitive society across the entire island. Though they do have boats and the ability to travel to other nearby islands they never took the much longer voyage to the main continent, likely due to sea monsters.

Speaking of the nearby islands, our scout boat that was traveling along this way found more island clusters west of the area Iwanagi was exploring. To add to that, another island was found in the far northeast when passing by monster island.

As to your question regarding the dreadnought, it’s always had a captain.

Moving on to political subjects. We’ve initiated a public relations campaign with the elven people, urging them to come visit up north and consider settling down here as requested. Though we will see the results of that over time.

So we’ve sent the settlers, done some economic conversions, and as your advisor I’m stopping you from recruiting Vaslochar before we have a second civil war. They’re the demonology house, we JUST had a big fight over the blackguard’s demonic ties and it produced Alexandria who is liable to just murder them all.

Moving along, Ivan isn’t terribly princely. I’ve noticed his distinct lack of interest in becoming one, something about a warrior’s pride and spirit. Hence his constant lingering around with the knights. Can probably order him to father at least  a few children though.

Our forces have reached Moncayo pass in full now, with the Nalkas cannons arriving and opening fire immediately. Despite its convenient location it definitely lacked a standing government and the place was reduced to a ruin within the day by the cannons. In the chaos most of its people fled south into the forest to avoid…well being on fire.

They didn’t put up much of a defense afterwards, while they might have been able to they  opted to flee outright. So through shock and awe I suppose Alexandria has taken over Moncayo with no losses. The place is in a bit of a ruined state now though so might take some effort to repair but it still has some houses for now at least.

Alright so we have some visitors from the badlands checking out the field we just finished constructing. Oh right, construction of that finished if you would like to take a look at what you just spent a fortune on for a silly game. There is already some expressed interest though the people here to look it over are not capable of making such financial decisions without talking it over with their lords. So, progress is being made at least.

Next up, our explorers in the north following along the road have found a town that harvests mana at the lake as well as the surrounding area. It appears to be Faelyn’s outpost, while it is not terribly well defended it is pretty close to her citadel so that’s a thing. They also noticed while passing through the area that Lieksä looks like its walls are receiving some repair and enforcement. Perhaps not terribly relevant but as part of general scout reports they figured to mention it.

Our ambassadors have arrived in Lennecas to talk things over with the elves after taking a ride with the boats carrying the cannons. For the most part it seems that the elven royalty aren’t too interested in breaking down their nation to just move into the frozen north. While times are bad for them, they do still control the southern range of the forest and are already deploying forces to reclaim their lost cities. Though it may be wise to instead go after the citizens who have to do the work, they might be far more interested in emigration then their rulers. For the most part Konya seems to be having better luck talking politics with them though.

Greetings Keeper! It is a glorious day for the Oda people. Iwanagi’s ventures continue, and he may have found a second island while he’s at it. He found two more settlements, a particularly large city, in comparison to those he has seen before at least, and a colony outpost of that same city it looks like. It seems that they realized they could sail the short distance across and found it convenient to be able to do so. It shows to the potential of the islanders, while their technology is far behind ours here on the main continent the fact that they have successfully voyaged and established a colony speaks to their strength. This particular settlement was more amicable than the last one Iwanagi encountered.

Following first contact protocol, Iwanagi has stopped off at their port to see what he might be able to negotiate. They do definitely seem to be interested in weaponry more than anything else given that the islanders seem to have difficulty in acquiring or working metal.

So far no signs of the foreign colonizers at least.

The dreadnaught has been constructed and deployed to assist with the village construction site. Construction should be done soon, might want to name it. Also that scout you sent to look around that area near Sanctuary and the Cayetano outpost is still out there drifting about if you wanted them to do something else.

In regards to the resources necessary to colonize the southern island, I do recommend we consider sending extra supplies to perhaps build a second one. It is becoming evident that it is actually quite large from Iwanagi’s journey, and he has learned there are more islands down there that form an interconnected world as far as its natives are concerned.

With the monastery reconstructed, Yuzuki has begun her experimentation as she had planned. Also we are already hard at work recreating the guns, though there is a quirk to it. While we are able to figure out the engineering behind it the problem is a type of resource that can hold the mana to fire it. While the gudwud can easily hold the amount, the problem is the discharge is so massive and sudden that most materials we have access to cannot be made to do so fast enough. In the guns we have acquired, it is making use of a small crystal in its construction. Similar to the ones in the anirace bikes we have observed. It is likely that the badlands have access to this material somewhere in their land, but we’ll have to see about finding some for ourselves to reliably produce these weapons here at home.

Konya has arrived at the elven city of Lennecas. He has managed to procure their interest in establishing an embassy in Haven for its druidic temple that also consist of the monks. They do have a significant recollection of events involving Shime, so Konya has leveraged her position at Haven to get their attention for the offer. Though it seems for the immediate future they intend to reclaim their lost cities and begin reconstruction to start rebuilding their nation. Though they would be interested in joining the alliance formally but they are curious as to writing out the terms of the alliance…they are also still a little wary of the Katara, who are still their closest neighbor. While the much-feared Ankathi is gone, Alexandria’s reputation did not travel slowly. Konya feels that involving Katara in these talks might make better headway since that is their primary fear. If Katara could be convinced to send someone to affirm the most obvious point of the alliance – the military aspects – it would do well for easing their fears.

Eliana is leaving now it seems, heading back to the city of Melun. I tried…so hard…to keep her from running into the inquisitors during her stay. She left us a peculiar bit of knowledge though. See I showed her the remains of the coven during her stay and she found the Black Bowl we’ve had in the vault for centuries now. She was able to appraise it and tell us exactly what it summons. If activated, it brings forth a monster born of the primordial chaos in physical form. It turns out the last time it was used, she was around to know of it.

Usually those kinds of creatures cannot exist in a physical body, but the one tied to the bowl can. However, it develops a serious case of amnesia each time it goes dormant. She mentioned that it could be used to create a sort of dark aasimar or tiefling, which would be unique as no one else has ever had access to such a creature. She recalled the last time it was around, the creature was known as the devourer. An all consuming monster filled with an endless hunger that could not be explained, having once eaten an entire city’s residents at the height of its power.

Because it is bound to whoever summons it, it cannot disobey them. The problem with controlling it comes from its…impulsive nature. Said creature’s amnesia makes it rather child-like. It isn’t malevolent so much as it is just an idiot and last it was seen in the body of a small child with tentacles and teeth. The records of the curse driving people insane for summoning it seems to be a hyperbolic expression of the fact that…well its a child with enough physical power to rival a small army. I’ve never been a mother so I can’t comment.

I have listed this information as top secret, you are the only person allowed to know about this thing. Because if word got out that it summons a primordial creature in physical form, then its likely a certain someone might take interest.

Moving right along, Ivan is still not quite here. He’s not too far away but I give it another week before he shows up.

Ryo is still just chilling out in Kirillobatov if you need him to do anything.

Also, there is a thing we could consider doing. So basically, we can impregnate a lot of our population for a huge spike in population growth out of nowhere but doing so might make productivity fall across all endeavors dramatically. Obviously we wouldn’t push it onto the military women, but you can technically order the population as queen to do its general duty to Katara with a bit more emphasis on the ‘right the hell now’ part of it compared to our usual traditions regarding this. Though we may see a sudden drop in our economics for a little while after doing so. A little while being years as suddenly every fisher, hunter, mason, cobbler, and blacksmith gets knocked up and then has to deal with the offspring and all. Though, as Advisor I feel its worth pointing out that doing so would leave the genetic exploit still in place for the most part. Even if we convince Ivan to become a prince…well he’s just one guy and all.

On to other matters, our people have arrived in Cayetano to look into this whole angel thing. They were…way too happy to tell us everything. Even going as far as to offer us an archangel for our current predicament. As for the general report of angels they went to learn about…okay so-

The angels come from the primordial light. If you ask Cayetano that makes them rightfully the most ‘good’ of the primordial entities. Though technically correct, there are still the occasional errant ones who go a little bad. So that isn’t exactly set in stone. They do look the most human-like though. They are the general masters of restorative magic, there is no healing in the world as good as theirs. Cayetano clerics even demonstrated this to our scouts by smashing a vase and restoring it in front of them. Spell called divine mending, which unlike the arcane version can be used for more then just fixing cracks. It is worth noting that the angels are physical unlike the dark spirits or demon lords. The archangel I mentioned earlier is a person you can see and touch…and uh…procreate with.

Also, it stands to reason that if angels are known for being physical…and dragons are known for being physical…then it stands to reason that both of the parents in Alosne are actually standing somewhere. Which makes it odd that we don’t really see either of them. Granted we haven’t had anyone spend that long there.

Also all the towns finished basic construction, need names.