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Letter from the Tyvian Trade Commission posted:
Our most Esteemed Empress,
As you know, freight from Serkonos, bound for Tyvia, is now routinely set upon by pirates, or spoiled with bloodflies. In addition to the loss of Tyvian lives, be they crew, dock workers or shop keepers, there is the material cost of the cargo itself, which can barely be calculated.
If things continue unchecked, we will be forced to cease trading with Serkonos, and perhaps to even embargo ships from the southernmost Isle altogether. But this need not come to pass. The Trade Commission is a reasonable body, and has already considered remedies to ameliorate the situation.
We seek the following:
1. Independent, qualified inspectors at all ports.
2. Patrols to defend against pirates and smugglers.
3. Compensation for the previous and future losses.
It is this list of remedies that I wish to discuss with you, in person, at the earliest possible opportunity. So far, your staff have registered our efforts to establish a definitive time for negotiation. Prompt them to action, Majesty, for we are eager to travel to Dunwall.
Until we can sit down and discuss this in a civilized fashion, I send you our best.
Demyan Shurygin, Principle
Tyvian Trade Commission
Letter from Advisor Helmswater posted:
Empress,
We face yet another murder, and I cannot remain silent on this matter. Strange, is it not, that all the victims have openly opposed you? If not strange, then oh so very convenient.
Is there anything you wish to tell me, Majesty? How can I be an advisor if you don't include me in these most sensitive of endeavors? I feel I must be the only person in Dunwall who doesn't know the truth about the Crown Killer.
Don't leave me out in the cold!
I remain,
Your trusted servant and advisor,
Leonora Helmswater
Ship Launch Protocol posted:
Empress,
After the Royal Protector's shake-down cruise, we'll launch the ISS Jessamine Kaldwin just before the anniversary of your mother's passing. Pending your approval, of course.
On the platform, we'll have a bottle of Kingstreet Brandy, tied to a long tether, that you will release to swing out against the hull.
What you say during the ceremony is, of course, up to you, but here are some ideas intended to serve as food for thought.
May a brisk wind hurry you to shores near, far, and fair. May you shelter your crew from the perils of the terrible Ocean. May you always sail for Gristol, true of heart, and homeward bound.
Yours faithfully,
Advisor Wainwright
Audience Request posted:
Captain Mayhew, you don't know me, but you've got to tell the Royal Protector that I have urgent need of his time. I'm carrying a message that has to be delivered face to face. Tell him I'm working with Anton Sokolov, an old friend.
All the boats are being sent away from the docks, but I'll delay as long as I can. Tell Lord Corvo to find me there.
My ship is called the Dreadful Wale.
- Meagan Foster
Crown Killer Strikes Again! posted:
Dunwall citizens express shock and fear as yet another outspoken critic of Empress Emily Kaldwin has met with a violent demise. The latest victim is none other than Ichabod Boyle, notable entrepreneur and supporter of the arts.
Boyle recently wrote an opinion piece harshly criticizing the Empress for what he called her "slipshod style of governance" and her "willful neglect of duties." Authorities are convinced the Crown Killer is the culprit, given the gruesome details left at the crime scene.
As Her Majesty's most outspoken adversaries fall one by one to this notorious assassin, we boldly ask: Is it now the duty of the Royal Protector to murder all who dare criticize the Throne?
Letter from Wyman posted:
Emily,
I didn't want to wake you this morning, but you'll forgive me since we must have said goodbye a hundred times yesterday night. And the only chance I get to see you with your hair all whichever way is while you're asleep. As soon as the sun rises, you'll put on your Empress face. It makes me happy that I know your real face, the one that laughs at our silly rhymes.
I don't want to go back to Morley, but I'm needed there. It'll be four months before we see each other again. I'll miss you. And yes, I'll bring you some white leaf tobacco for your hookah. (Lord Corvo, if you're reading this letter as per your Royal Spymaster functions, know that I am joking and perfectly aware that the white leaf tobacco is forbidden in Gristol).
Take care, my daring Emily, don't go falling from a rooftop.
I love you.
- Wyman
Captain Ramsey's Orders posted:
All City Watch personnel assigned to posts in the immediate vicinity around Dunwall Tower:
On the anniversary tomorrow, we'll be receiving guests from across the Empire. Most are detailed in your itineraries, but there is an unlisted contingent from Karnaca. It's last minute, but important.
None other than the Duke of Serkonos will be travelling with an entourage that includes VIP guests and some rather exotic equipment, aimed at impressing our Empress. Let them pass and don't bother harassing them with the usual inspection nonsense, on my orders. And if you spoil the surprise, I'll have your head.
Disseminate this note to all squads.
Captain Mortimer Ramsey
First Officer, Night Watch
Stay Ready posted:
I want you in place, just after the Duke and our new Empress make their appearance. Things will happen fast.
Do your part, and there's a share of the spoils for you and the others. Turn on me now, and I'll ask the Duke to send his assassin after your dear old parents.
Trust me, the so-called Crown Killer is the last dinner guest you want in your home.
- Mortimer Ramsey
Note to Beesley posted:
You've come this far with me, Beesley, don't get clammy feet now, man. Delilah is our rightful Empress, or will be soon, I promise. And the Duke will make sure we're properly compensated for our part in orchestrating this coup.
I have men across the City Watch, and let's just say certain stubborn Emily Kaldwin supporters are being arrested even as I pen this note. On top of that, the Duke will be bringing over a hundred from the Grand Guard.
Now do your part! And shred this note as soon as you've read it. Put it down the toilet.
- Mortimer Ramsey
Ichabod Boyle Case - Witness Statement posted:
Witness Name: Peter Atkins
Occupation: Matchbox Maker
On the 16th Day, Month of Earth, just before midnight, I was on my way home after a couple of ales at the pub. Stopping to pee next to the Boyle Company offices, I heard moaning and furniture creaking, so I thought maybe some people were having fun and I could have a peek.
But when I got close to the windows, that's when Mr. Boyle started screaming like a slaughtered pig. He was all tied up. There was someone wearing a hooded cloak, and I swear, I think he was eating up Mr. Boyle's guts.
That has to be the Crown Killer, I told myself, and so I ran as fast as I could to the nearest Watch post to get help. And your soldiers could have made it to Boyle in time if they hadn't taken half an hour to fine me for throwing up. Anyone would have done the same after what I had been through. You guys should have some respect.
Letter to Laura posted:
Laura, don't tell me my business. My family's been at this game for a long time, and I'm not acting alone.
Currently, I have several friends working on similar pamphlets aimed at further turning public opinion against Emily Kaldwin and her cursed Royal Protector. Lady Brambly is calling hers "Bastard Daughter." That ought to light them up at court. Nathan Bettenbridge is nearly finished with "Prosecution for Corvo Attano." I'm giving consideration to releasing my own as, "Should Parliament Rule? A Modest Proposal."
Yes, I know she's the Empress, but eventually she'll bow under the weight that we will bring down upon her. First the gentry here in Dunwall, then the Parliament. Finally, the other Isles.
By early next month, look for these works plastered on the walls here in the Capital City, but if you're abroad you'll see them in Dabokva, Alba, Karnaca, Caulkenny and Yaro as well. I have friends all over, Laura. Don't let it slip your mind for a second.
- Boyle
Woes Plague Beleaguered Dunwall posted:
Dunwall's troubles have multiplied of late, calling into question the very efficacy and intentions of our Empress. As evidence that Emily Kaldwin has forsaken us we need to look no further than Rudshore Financial, more commonly called the Flooded District! Though recently drained, we dare not celebrate, as the area is still riddled with maintenance problems remaining from its time underwater! With so many unable to find work, would this not be the perfect moment to unveil a grand scheme to restore this once-posh area?
Alas, no further considerations have been proposed! Nor has the Empress submitted solutions for the current whale oil shortage, even as we endure rationing and discomfort. The picture of incompetent leadership is completed when you add to all this the periodic "accidental" citizen deaths at the hands of the Dunwall City Watch, all while Captain Mortimer Ramsey – appointed by our Empress – maintains the perfect innocence of those men and women in uniform who are supposed to protect us!
Order to Clear the Docks posted:
Corporal Blevins,
I won't tolerate any more questions. Send all boats away from the docks. Tell them it's for the Anniversary of the Death of Our Beloved Empress Jessamine. Threaten to seize their vessels. I don't care. Just clear the docks.
And according to the morning patrol, there was a woman here earlier who refused to leave. She captains the Terrible Whale, or the Dreadful Wail, or some other rubbish. She was asking for an audience with the Royal Protector. If you see her, I want her arrested immediately.
You have your orders, Blevins, and trust me, you don't want to make trouble right now.
Captain Mortimer Ramsey
First Officer, Night Watch
The Royal Protector posted:
[Excerpt from a Historical Record of Government Positions and Ranks]
Throughout the ages, rulers have always faced attempts on their lives. Once in a generation the Empire is rocked by the death of a powerful political or religious figure. As such, city-states across the Isles have devised varying strategies for protecting their leaders.
In the capital city of Dunwall, each new Emperor is allowed to appoint a Royal Protector. This is far more than a trusted bodyguard. Much more revered than the hand-chosen guards defending Dunwall Tower or the food tasters, the Royal Protector is a court figure, given enormous latitude, who keeps constant company with the highest ruler in the known world. At the age of twelve, the young monarch participates in the selection process, making the final decision about who will safeguard his or her life. While most of those chosen as Royal Protector have been men, several times throughout history, a woman has served well in the role.
For the first time in Dunwall's history, a monarch has been slain by her own bodyguard. At the time of this writing, with Dunwall in the grip of the worst plague ever recorded, our fair Empress Jessamine Kaldwin has just been murdered. The deed was done by her former Royal Protector-turned assassin, Corvo Attano, who is still sitting in Coldridge Prison awaiting his deserved execution. Some argue that it is worth noting that Corvo Attano is the first Royal Protector in the history of the Empire born outside of the Isle of Gristol.
Whispers from the Void, By Barnoli Mulani 1 & 2 posted:
Treatise on the Physical Existence of that Foreign Realm [Excerpt]
It is a common story: A person has stopped breathing, pinned under carriage wheels or some other tragic happenstance, and is thought to be dead. But when the weight is removed - they make a quick recovery! But nonetheless, for a moment or two, this person was lost to us, lost to the world itself.
And what did they experience while in this temporary death? Darkness? Nothingness? No, indeed not! They tell us, as so many before have, that they were in a particular place, and can describe it vividly.
And who among us does not know this place? Have we not all seen it in our dreams? This place we share, in the farthest reaches of our minds. The realm where nothing makes sense, where one is at once both lost and at home. The Void.
---
These little glimpses of the Void in dreams or described by those awoken from comas, are not limited to a select few. In my interviews, I've gleaned that there is not a single citizen without such visions, at one time or another!
This then, must be a real place, not folklore or mass delusion. Perhaps it exists deep below the earth, or far above it. Perhaps it is right next to us, but hidden. Some trick of the light, or wondrous curtain bars us from fully knowing it. And we all but wait for a natural philosopher to unlock the phenomenon, to show us how to see it at will.
But when so revealed it will not be a fearsome place ant longer, not the distant and special realm described in the myth of the Outsider! It will be strange, yes, even unsettling. But nonetheless it will be a new realm for us to explore and eventually conquer.
What new treasures await us there? Are the lakes made of liquid diamond. [sic] The clouds of weightless silver gas? And what things we would learn?
Corvo Attano, The Royal Protector In Our Times, Parts 01 & 02 posted:
His parents were older at the time of his birth, and his father died in a lumber accident outside the city when Corvo was still young. Around that time, his only sibling, a first-born sister, moved away to Morley and the family subsequently lost all contact with her.
Only 16, Corvo dazzled the people of Karnaca when he entered and won the annual Blade Verbena. The spectators, from all over Serkonos, were thrilled to see someone so young and striking, from a working class family, advance through duel after duel, eventually taking the prize. This unexpected outcome secured Corvo a junior officer ranking in the Grand Serkonan Guard.
As a soldier, he was involved in a number of conflicts against organized criminal groups, rogue city states within Serkonos, and pirate bands along the chain of islands radiating east from Serkonos. Sent from his homeland at the age of 18 by the Duke of Serkonos (then Theodanis Abele, father of Luca Abele), Corvo was assigned to serve the Emperor in Dunwall as a diplomatic gift. His Serkonan heritage made him a bit of an outsider in Dunwall, but the capital city must have seemed exotic and full of old world mystery.
A few months after he moved to Dunwall, it is recorded that Corvo received word that his mother had passed away several weeks after his departure from Karnaca.
Bone Charms posted:
[Excerpt from a book on sailing traditions and scrimshaw]
Bone charms, a sailor's blessing, they say.
The carving itself is a practice from long back, passed from father to son, old man salt to greenhorn still getting his sea legs beneath him. In the old times, men cut into the tusks of ice seals and into the arm-long fangs of bears that roamed the isles north of Tyvia.
Once the whale trade began, the practitioners went to engraving the bones of these great beasts, rendering charms that sing in the night and grant some small boon to a man's vigor or defense against pregnancy.
Old History Textbook posted:
Chapter 12: The Whaling Trade
In 1631 Emperor Finlay Morgengaard commissioned the first fleet of vessels made expressly for the hunting and processing of whales. They were powered by sails alone, and so were at the mercy of the winds. Although these whaling ships were small by current standards, Morgengaard's fleet established the robust whaling trade we still enjoy today.
Modern whaling vessels are much larger and use steam power to traverse the seas in search of whales. Did you know that every part of the beast is used? In addition to canned meat and whale oil, there is also a flourishing whalebone trade. Baleen is used in roofing. Whale skins are processed into crude cloth. Bladders are made into wine flasks. Even the intestines are carefully harvested for their precious ambergris, used in many medicines and perfumes.
[Handwritten note at the end of the chapter]
Emily,
Half of Morgengaard's whalers fell to the rough coast east of Morley. You can still see the remains of ships poking out of the water should you ever visit Arran. Also, there's no mention here that it was Sokolov himself who designed the first steam powered whaling ships! He'll tell you all about it if you ask, and he's sober.
Empress Jessamine Kaldwin posted:
[Excerpt from a book on the late Empress]
Many of those who lived through her reign will weep until the ends of their lives over the pale beauty with the piercing eyes, and the foul end she met at the hands of her own twisted servant and protector.
In her father's day, the Kaldwins were thrust in the limelight despite their distance to the throne, when the former dynasty provided no heirs. A prosperous age followed the Emperor, but his daughter would have different luck. During her short life, political intrigue and minor conflicts created cracks in the Empire, undermining unity across the Isles.
The Rat Plague, however, was a terror for which neither Empress Kaldwin nor any other living being was prepared.
The Knife of Dunwall posted:
[Excerpt from a Penny Novel]
Chapter 3
Daud stared at the blade. The plan had gone perfectly, even better than he could have hoped. In fact, the whole thing had been too easy. But now that was over, he felt hollow, and there was nothing in the world that could fill him again. He knew it with a certainty that scared him.
Billie called from the next room. "Boss?"
"Leave me." He nudged the door closed before she could say anything else. He trusted her more than any of them, but he didn't feel like talking.
Cleaning the blood from the blade, he studied the marks it made on the cloth. Royal blood, but it looked the same as any he'd seen before. Weren't the high and mighty supposed to be filled with something different? Something better?
Daud was tired. No amount of blood could change the way he felt. He didn't drink as a general rule, and sex had never interested him. He felt a kind of exhaustion that couldn't be soothed away. A smile crept across his mouth. The Knife of Dunwall, exhausted. And yet something else. What was he was feeling, exactly?
He'd looked into Jessamine Kaldwin's eyes at the moment her life slipped away. And in that moment a thought occurred to him: He'd made a mistake. He'd been misled. That kind of thinking was useless. She was just as dead, whether he regretted it or not. But he'd seen his true face reflected in her eyes; seen himself for what he really was. Not a renowned assassin, not some great shaper of history. Just another playing piece in an unknowable game.
Dr. Galvani's Journal posted:
I’ve been invited to a soiree at the Boyle Estate. Of course, I won’t attend. The 28th day of the 7th month, the Month of High Cold, is the day I met Anton Sokolov at the Academy. Why would I tarnish the anniversary of the most important day of my life by licking aristocratic boots? I have no time for fools. I will be solving the riddle of this plague.
Perhaps I’ll raise a cup of Tyvian red.
Old Diary posted:
[The pages have been half-eaten by rats, only a few are still legible]
4th, Earth, 1837
Fools. Running in the streets. No worse place to be! Everyone knows plague is carried on the winds. I will do the only sensible thing and lock myself up until the infected breezes move on. I have plenty of dried meats, and other foodstuffs. Enough to last me quite a while I think. Empress Jessamine called for calm, and I will heed her call, alone!
25th, Nets or thereabouts
Strong winds tonight. I am afraid for anyone who hasn't barricaded themselves inside as I have. I know that Empress Jessamine and her Royal Protector, Lord Attano, will find a solution soon.
High Cold, Probably
I have lost track of time. Sometimes I sleep for days. I might be sick. But I dare not venture out to find a doctor. An ill wind might find me. And the plague is far worse than melancholy, is it not?
Month of Clans, I think.
The wheat tastes rancid. Still no word from the Empress or Parliament. No City Watch walking the streets and ringing bells to announce a cure. But I know Empress Jessamine will do everything in her power to save Dunwall from the plague. I need only wait a little while longer.