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Video: Act 3, Scene 4: An Empty Nest

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6th Scendera, 407IL.

The fey returned and we - all of us; the truths are out - have translated the scrolls that Lucia has given to me. These scrolls tell us more about the fall of the Dimenticate than hundreds of years' worth of digging through ruins has.

The Dimenticate were divided about the usage of the Trehroir - when they ran out of convicts to convert into Mascherines, they turned to ordinary people instead, and this divide in the society made them weak. They could not stand against the 'chaos' of the world, which we have come to interpret as the Cataclysm. Though we know not exactly the details of this chaos, it seems to have been enough to convince Lucia that the time for action is now, and that is all that matters currently.

The fey I summoned has told us that we must go to the Assemblea next - it cannot remember what we will find, but its memory has drawn it to those ruins.

Though I wish we had a better lead than a fresh fey's ancient memory, this will have to do.

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Vasco Tessitore

And I call myself an Inspettore.

It is not often that my intuition fails me, and I listen to it for the most part, but this... Perhaps it is because a part of me wanted to believe that he truly had perished - I had mourned a long time for him, and my mind might have wanted to preserve the meaning of those tears. Even still, with the whistles and our conversation at the Golden Canvas...

His motivations for being a part of the investigation are beginning to reveal themselves - he knew that I suffered after his supposed death and perhaps felt guilt. After all, if I had to trace my motivations for wanting to insulate myself from the world, that might be where it all started - being exposed to death at so young an age rarely leaves one untouched - and he knew it.

Whatever the case, he is right. It would be silly to remember him as the boy that I'd grown up with. Time has shaped him, changed him, and in a sense the child that I remember is dead.

There is much closure that needs to be sought with this man, but for now, I do believe enough has been said.

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Tiziana de Felici

And so the truth is out. I have delayed it for as long as possible, but I've braced myself against her wrath. I suppose that's what makes her reaction even more surprising.

She harbours an anger, yes - a cold, wintry one, but beneath that, she is hurt. That astonishes me on two levels - firstly, it is evidence that she cares; she's invested more into this investigation than I'd initially thought. Had this just been a simple mission on her part, surely she wouldn't have taken this so personally. But yet, here she is, her heart wounded by my deception. Secondly, and perhaps more surprisingly, I am astonished because I find myself... sorry - it seems she isn't the only one who's invested more into our acquaintanceship than I'd first expected.

Somewhere along the way, my view of her changed. Initially, she'd been a burden, a spy, a threat to be wary of. Now, however... a great defender, a compassionate woman to a degree, perhaps even a friend willing to expose herself. She spoke to me of her father, let me see into her mind and heart, helped me understand, if not completely, why she acts the way she does. I do not think one can show, or be shown, such vulnerability without forming some sort of a connection.

And I have gone ahead and ruined it. Now, any trust that I might have built with her has been shattered, and... that saddens me, to a point.

Still, though, she has not let her emotions cloud her judgment of the situation, as I will not let mine. At the end of the day, she is a Marshal and I am an Inspettore and we have our jobs to do.

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The Assemblea

In all of Ombre, there might be no better symbol of Altus Pride than the Assemblea. Built but a decade after the Altus had been made official, the Assemblea was constructed with a single purpose - to keep members outside of the Altus from accessing a set of ruins they've called their own: the Misted Aisles. The reason for this is simple(at least to the Altus) - their restricting access to the ruins is a display of power that they have over those who aren't allowed in.

Quite frankly, a vast majority of the Citte couldn't care less about whether or not they were allowed into the ruins, but the Citte's opinion hasn't often influenced the Altus' decisions.

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Altus Nobilis

The Altus Nobilis, or the Brown Guild, is home to a vast majority of Ombre's historians. Most of them are too obsessed with the past to worry about the present, and this blinding obsession with history has come at a cost; in recent years, they have lost the respect of many in the Citte, especially because of their reluctance to engage in contemporary affairs.

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Esebelle de Felici

To love a child is hard enough in this world. To have them hate you despite your efforts... I cannot begin to imagine how much grief that would give.

I myself have never had any offspring, nor do I see myself fathering any in the near future, but I can understand the potential that familial ties have for both hurting and bringing joy.

Though the affairs between Esebelle and her daughter are none of my business, for their sakes I hope they are resolved. This world has enough pain in it already.

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Tiziana de Felici

So this is the missing element - her mother, whom she blames for the death of her father. From what I understand, Esebelle had been involved in an accident that cost her the use of her legs and left her comatose; Zane tirelessly cared for her at the expense of his own health.

I can only assume from Esebelle's telling of the tale that he'd manifested a lifelink with her - it would be practically impossible to keep someone alive for that long in that state, otherwise. Of course, sustaining a link with another for that long is bound to take a toll on a person's body - even Kalden cannot sustain such a link for much more than a few minutes - and Zane passed away but a month before Esebelle emerged from her coma.

It is in the wake of such a tragedy that I find Tiziana, and armed with this new piece of information, might perhaps have begun to understand the cause of her actions.

She has allowed vengeance and bitterness to corrupt her beliefs.

She says that she treasures her father, and that much I believe, but framed by her actions, I now see a woman who has capitalised on the values of the guild that she is a part of in order to justify a far too understandable bitterness; she has used her guild to deal with the pain and loss. It is by no means the best way to handle her grief, but it is logical, and I will not fault her for it.

I cannot.

I only wish that she'd see the situation she's put herself in, and what she's spurning, all because of a single mistake! People make mistakes, but to allow them to drag you down the way I've seen, to allow that single mistake to twist your heart against itself, to compromise on your beliefs, to let it define you - that is never worth it. Let that single festering moment in your history control your future and you will suffocate. Like a strangled crop, you will begin to wither until there's barely anything left and... Ages, there might be no worse feeling in the world.

It pains me to watch another person endure what I have had to. Perhaps if I said something...

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Fey: Ridiro

The Ridiro are among Ombre's only trained fey. Confined to the Assemblea, the Altus Nobilis' largest library, the fey have been trained to fetch and replace the books that fill the enormous repository. Without them, the knowledge stored in the upper levels of the Assemblea are practically inaccessible.

Typically docile and obedient, their hostile behaviour undoubtedly has something to do with the recent developments in the Citte.

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Altus Nobilis: Origins

Of the Seimora, the Altus Nobilis is the oldest. Does that make them the most respected? Perhaps in their eyes.

Like the Luca Infinita, the Altus was born in the Fourth Canticle and many regard them to be the first proper guild in the Citte. Perhaps it is apt, then, that the Altus concern themselves principally with tradition and history, having spent a significant portion of their past generating historical records to be preserved; in modernity they spend most of their time guarding these records.

The Fourth Canticle saw a surge in the Citte's population which was fueled by immigration from countries across the Belt who'd heard about Ombre's wondrous victory over its fatherland, Altimire. The receipt of these foreigners to our shores spurred a primal jealousy in some members of the Citte - these were people who were concerned with preserving Ombric tradition, who feared that the welcoming of foreigners would pollute the pure blood of Ombrians. They stood together and formed a guild which focused principally on the preservation of Ombre's history and traditions.

Few in the modern world outside the Altus would say they have been successful. The tide of immigrants that rushed to our shores was scarcely halted by the formation of the Altus Nobilis. As the years drew on and the Altus realised the inefficacy of their ways, however, they instead turned their efforts inward. They created a bubble within which they began to fabricate customs of their own and began to look down upon any who did not follow them - they fed themselves the lie that they were superior, an idea that was essentially baseless.

One might wonder, then, how it is they have survived. What is it about the Altus that continues to draw so many into its ranks that has allowed the guild to remain alive for so many years? There are none around that would waste very much time postulating, but if you were to ask me, I believe it's precisely because of the lie that their pride has grown fat on. It is a lie, yes, but it is a soothingly blinding one. It is protective, for it shields its believers from the harsh truths of the Citte. When death and loss lurk around every corner, a day spent attending one of their famous Altus Balls might be in order - to forget the pain, to soothe the heart's worry, to calm the nerves. Even as I write this, I can feel the allure of such a life. But I must remind myself, and any who might be tempted to wander into their trap, that it is a lie. It is a bubble, a dream.

And all dreams must end, one day.

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The Bright War

The Bright War was a war that lasted for five years, from 347-352IL, which was the result of the Registry's execution of a vigilante, Tamara de Rassi, who had been organising efforts to steal from wealthy merchants at the docks and distributing the wealth and the goods to the less fortunate Contadani.

Even after the resolution of the Bright War, however,(the Masquerada overpowered the Contadani into submission) there were still great amounts of dissent that lingered; the root cause of the revolution hadn't been solved - the gap between the Contadani and the Masquerada was still present(perhaps even greater than ever) and this continued to fester until finally exploding, once again, decades later in the War of Bearings.

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The Miscela

The Miscela is the name given to a period in Ombre that began at the end of the Fifth Canticle and stretched all the way to the end of the Sixth, in which great numbers of Ombrians from the Randagia came to live in the Citte instead. The sentiments that led to the migration had long been building, as the difference in wealth and power between the two areas increased, and once the floodgates opened after the Song of Crimson Tides, the streets of Ombre began to fill at an unprecedented rate.

The influx of the Citte's population was so great that the Registry had to implement a law to quell it(in which the settling of new families within the Citte was disallowed), for the Citte had, by the end of the Sixth Canticle, been filled to its brim.

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The Song of Crimson Tides

The Song of Crimson Tides was a decade of Ombre's history(215-225IL) in which the nation had to deal with fierce piracy that led to the deaths of a great number of merchants and traders. Fighting back against the pirates was an arduous process, but after a decade, Ombre managed to curb the piracy enough that the merchants could travel without fear. In the long run, the Song of Crimson Tides brought more fortune to Ombre than harm - in their efforts at keeping the pirates at bay, Ombre effectively demonstrated its power to the nations across the Belt, cementing in them the desire to gain Ombre's favour. In their attempts at earning the goodwill of Ombre, the various nations began altering their trade treaties in Ombre's favour.

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Dimentica

Dimentica: A Lexicon
By Devina Vamus
For Ataran Vamus

"Charming," Cyrus said as he peered over my shoulder. "The woman was quite creative with the title, no?"

"Masha gave it to me today. She thought this was an appropriate gift to try and get me to consider joining the Vegilus," I said, pushing the thick book away from me.

"You didn't even do that well for the Accredita."

"Exactly what I said."

"Why does she want you as part of the Vegilus anyway?"

I looked away and hoped my-

"By the Ages, Cicero, how long's this been going on?" You could hear the smile in his words. He knew. Cyrus always knew.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"She's been flirting with you, hasn't she? I would never have thought. This Masha girl. It's why she wants you to join her." His hearty laughter filled the room, and it took most of my strength to hold myself back from strangling him - I shouldn't ever have brought this up. "Be one of the Vegilus, eh? I've heard the Conoscenza's filled with private pockets that no one-"

"You're filthy."

He laughed.

"I must say, though - what a way to court someone. Maybe intellectuals... excite her, hmm?"

"I'm going to bed."

"Pity she isn't here to join you," he chuckled.

I never picked up the book again.

The ancient writings that were found among ruins and on tablets were, until the Second Canticle, completely unintelligible. Many had thought, of course, that the symbols the Dimenticate used and inscribed must have corresponded with the language that they spoke, which had come to be known as Dimentica. Without any bridge between writing and meaning, however, the road to deciphering the language remained concealed.

All this changed when Ataran Vamus, one of the Valencios of the Second Canticle, Salted. His mind was frayed, though not destroyed, and his wife, Devina Vamus, cared for him tirelessly and devotedly, despite his lack of lucidity.

It was during one of Ataran's muddled moments that Devina, who had been the head Vegilus of the time, realised that something was off about her husband. She'd been doing research on the language, trying desperately to find some sort of sense within its symbols, when her husband came over and began reading the tablets and piecing together disparate pieces of her research.

Initially, she thought it had simply been a case of nonsense. How could a man whose mind could barely hold itself together make any sense of a language long dead? Devina had no answers then, but postulated that whatever warped her husband's mind must have shaped it in such a way that he could see patterns within the inscriptions in order to make sense of the writings. Subjecting her husband to rigorous tests and further prodding, Devina compiled a lexicon of Dimentica, and spent no more time questioning her husband's newfound ability - his ramblings, despite what she'd initially thought, proved to be uncannily accurate and consistent.

Though it took along time for her work to gain traction within the academic community, considering her rather unorthodox methods, Devina's lexicon proved itself time and time again to be adequate in assisting with translations and was eventually adopted as an official guide to the language.

That formed the base of the research into Dimentica, and since then, much of what has been retrieved from the various ruins has been deciphered, translated and preserved - most of these translations reside in the Conoscenza, though there are others in the Assemblea as well.

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Masquerada: Origins

"Behind shadowed eyes and blazing fires
the Masquerada grin;
With shards of ice and nimble limbs,
they hide in moonlight, dim.

And in the sky and under the earth,
the Masquerada dance.
If you were daft, you'd spare a look,
if you had wit, you'd take no chance.

For they are sly and they are cruel
and they are tricksters too.
Who'll nick your throat and slit your foot
for a coin, for a shoe.

So remember as you walk down streets
at night, and so alone.
Don't look back if you hear a call,
and if you do, pray mercy, you're shown."
- "The Masquerada," taken from Valerius Riva's most famous work, "Tales Across the Midnight Belt."

The concept of the Masquerada had not existed properly until the Fourth Canticle, after Ombre beat back the Altimirian invasion that was the March of Broken Songs. Before that, there was no distinction between those who owned a Mascherine and those who did not. The Mascherine was seen as simply a tool, not as the centre of an identity; like how a man was not a fisherman simply because of his ownership of a fishing rod, a man was not anything different from his fellow men just because he had a Mascherine and they did not.

All this changed, however, when the March of Broken Songs brought to attention the power that a Mascherine could provide, and the difference that could make. Where once Mascherines had been used to convenience everyday life, now they were being used to kill and defend the nation. It was then that owning a Mascherine began to distinguish an individual; where previously society had treated those with Mascherines the same as anyone else, it now treated them with greater respect and admiration. Subsequently the heroes of Ombre, wielders of Mascherines, were thought of as deserving a name in recognition of their heroic part in defending the nation.

It was then that the term Masquerada was formed, and it has persisted to modernity, though the connotations associated with it are not as clear as they'd once been.

In the current world, the Masquerada of Ombre are still regarded highly by foreigners who know Ombre only by name. To them, the Masquerada are the jewels of Citte della Ombre. They might make up a tiny fraction of its population, but it is common knowledge that the nation's power is to be found within their hands.

To the Contadani, however - the very people who had, roughly three hundred years ago, thought that these Mascherine-wielders deserved praise and recognition - the Masquerada are selfish, conceited beings, who have traded their humanity for power and material wealth.

If you had asked me for my opinion on them when I was younger, I would have spat on the ground and cursed them as well, but now, as someone who's been taken into their ranks... One's allegiances are not so clear when the heart and mind play for different sides.

No matter what I think or feel about them, however, one thing is clear - Ombre would not be what it is today if not for the Masquerada.

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Labores Solis: Origins

The story of the fall of the Luca Infinita is not uncommon knowledge. It was a guild that began with the best intentions - serving justice and protecting the innocent - but the Citte quickly spread its corrupting tendrils within its ranks. As the Luca flourished - and indeed, it flourished - its pride grew with it. With every victory over lawlessness they achieved, their belief that they were the beacons of what was right in the Citte only strengthened, and they worked yet harder to purge every drop of injustice from the Citte. It was a vicious cycle of self-affirmation which ended up blinding the guild to the fact that it had long strayed from the virtuous path.

In the Sixth Canticle, the simmering apprehension about the Luca's growing adherence to their version of justice(which had by then strayed somewhat from the general public's opinion of what was moral/ethical) came to a head when Judgemistress of the Luca, Loralaya Ashti conducted a raid on the Sanguello, a guild that did not survive the events of the attack.

She'd come to the conclusion that the Sanguello had been involved in the smuggling of TeSerric weapons from across the Midnight Belt, though once the Luca had infiltrated the ward and decimated the guild, there was little evidence of that. The Luca walked out unapologetic; I believe the exact words of the Judgemistress at that time were, "Some losses must be suffered in order to assure the good of the many." Certainly it was easy for her to say that - the Luca lost not a single member in the raid, which had been conducted in the dead of night.

Needless to say, the Citte did not take that well - if the Luca had the authority and capability to conduct such ruthless slaughter on baseless grounds, how safe was the rest of society? Worse still, justice on the streets had been forgotten by the Luca - ironically, they would act only if undeniable evidence of a crime was presented to them; they had no such reservations when they held their own suspicions, however.

Society's response to the destruction of the Sanguello was swift. At that time, there had been a coalition of smaller guilds that specialised in bounty hunting. Each of the smaller guilds had their own preferred methods of operation, though they worked separately and often squabbled with each other for their bountis. THe annihilation of the Sanguello acted as an adhesive for the coalition, however, and they banded together, desperate to make the point that such behaviour in the Citte was unacceptable.

Loralaya's deathly still body was found at dawn's light, a month after the loss of the Sanguello, her arms crossed peacefully over her chest, her skin pale as snow. She'd been poisoned in the middle of her Court and the perpetrator had entered and left without a trace. The day after, the Labores Solis was founded.

Since then, the Labores has acted as a counterbalance to the Luca. Though the Luca had mellowed after Loralaya's assassination, they hadn't returned to the ways of their predecessors, and the people of the streets - Contadani, mostly - needed to turn to someone for justice. The Contracts of the Labores became that avenue.

It is not difficult to understand a Contract. Upon suffering an offense of any sort, one simply need visit one of the Labores' Chapters and pay a nominal fee for an investigation to be conducted. The Labores then verifies the truth, and if it turns out that the purported perpetrator is indeed guilty of the crime, then the rest of the fee is collected and a Contract is issued. Any member of the Labores is free to accept a Contract, and will be compensated accordingly once the target has been dealt with in whatever way the head of the guild, the Kyrios, has deemed appropriate.

It would be easy to compare the Labores to a group of hired assassins, but they are truly so much more. The Labores have a strict moral code that they follow when issuing Contracts, and it is not one that has been corrupted by the Citte. Yet.

Knowing the current Kyrios, however, I am confident that it will stay that way for a while more.

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Songstresses: Origins:

The Songstresses are a special group of Masquerada that are too small to truly call a faction, but who hold so much significance in our society that they cannot be ignored.

The concept of a Songstress did not exist until the Sixth Canticle, when the increased immigration forced the Masquerada to explore more daringly into the fey-infested regions of the Citte. Until the Miscela, these areas were essentially considered barren - the fey that guarded them were dangerous and not to be tampered with, though they kept mostly to themselves in the areas around the various ruins. This slowly changed as more and more people came into the Citte after the Song of Crimson Tides in the Fifth Canticle, and space became greater and greater a commodity.

One of the ruins that this expansion claimed for the citizens was what was called, at the time, the Black Crib - an expansive ruin that sat close to the heart of the Citte. Fey were most numerous there and the sheer amount of rubble that was in the area, hundreds of feet high, made the task of colonising it incredibly daunting. It was, however, the boundary of the Citte, and no one knew just how much space lay beyond that hill of rubble that could be developed. And so, pressured by the increase in the Citte's population, the Registry commissioned expeditions out into the Black Crib to cleanse it and remove the rubble.

The adventurers that accepted the task went in with the intention of clearing stones and getting paid, but they left the ruins with knowledge that would change the Citte forever - as they killed fey and cleared the ruins, they came across living branches of a tree that poked out from the mound of rubble. As they continued to dig down, they discovered small gems, and as they reached the bottom, they discovered strange contraptions the likes of which had never before been seen by anyone in Ombre. With hindsight, today, we know that those were, in order, the Singing Tree, Chimes and Vocifers.

Needless to say, the expedition sparked great interest within the ranks of the Vegilus, and as what was to be the Singing Tree continued to be unearthed, the Vegilus worked to understand the ancient contraptions that were left behind. No sooner had the Singing Tree been fully excavated than the Vegilus discovered the mechanisms behind the Vocifers.

The breakthrough was considered momentous by the Vegilus, who saw the Chimes as having the potential to record the histories of the world - stories that would last forever. They decided that the first thing that was to be stored in a Chime would be, appropriately, the song of the First - founder of Ombre, and it was thus that the tradition of storing songs and legacies in Chimes, instead of parchment, was developed. Following the creation of this tradition came the formation of the group that was to be in charge of these stories, and a sect of the Vegilus dedicated themselves to preserving these stories and being custodians for the tree that housed them all.

Though the Songstresses might have their roots in the Registry, over time this link withered and thinned, and now they are treated by all in Ombre as neutral to the politics of the Citte, and having no other allegiance than to the Singing Tree and its songs.

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The Assemblea's Mechanism

I had known the Altus were protective of their caches of knowledge, but this borders on paranoia.

The Assemblea is equipped with a mechanism that utilises the water that falls from the Cascata to rotate sections of its structure to create an ever-shifting labyrinth to ward off unwanted intruders. The caretaker of the Assemblea is equipped with a calendar that details the single possible route to take that will guide visitors to its core, but the intricacy seems almost needless to me.

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Ruins: The Misted Aisles

The Altus Nobilis is a secretive guild which goes to extreme measures to keep their intellectual treasures away from the eyes of the rest of the Citte. When the concept of dividing the Citte into wards emerged, the Altus were the first to claim ownership of a set of ruins they'd come to call the Misted Aisles.

Found under the gentle falls of the Cascata, the Misted Aisles sit at the heart of the Assemblea, the Altus' largest collection of knowledge. What secrets, if any, they've gleaned from these ruins have not been made public knowledge. Many Ombrians secretly suspect, however, that the Altus have found little of value in the Aisles, for if they had, they certainly would have used it to bolster their political position in the Citte.

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The Cascata

Sierra Vede is not a small mountain. It reaches high into the sky and brushes the lower-hanging clouds. Though there have been a few daring individuals who have attempted to scale it, none of their expeditions have brought them to its tip. The Vegilus suspect, however, that sitting at the apex of the mountain is a spring of a sort - perhaps the same spring that gives the Collara life - which generates large pools of water that overflow and fall off the cap of the mountain in tumbling waterfalls. Most of these waterfalls don't make it to the Citte - the battering winds dispersing the water before it hits the ground - but the largest of them all has been gracing the citizens of Ombre with its bounty for time immemorial. This waterfall is known as the Cascata.

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Faveo Fedelta

The Luca are supposed to be the embodiment of honour in the Citte - men and women who hold true to their word no matter what. Though they have strayed much from their roots, I can say they still remain at least that.

Faveo might have been a threat to the investigation but there is nothing more important to a Luca than their honour. Certainly, I might have used that against him - however unwise Tiziana might insist that was - and I am not particularly proud of it, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

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Tiziana de Felici

I do not fancy myself a teacher, or a preacher, or even an instructor of any sort. I have never known a passion for influencing others, or a wish to be the one responsible for the bestowal of knowledge, but now I can see why there are those that do.

Perhaps this is what Razitof meant when he came to see me after my Accredita - he wished to see how I'd performed, wished to see how much he'd done to help me, for there is a certain vicarious pride one derives from watching a student or a trainee succeed. And though I would never call Tiziana either of these, watching her stand up against Faveo has affected me more than I would've thought possible.

I am glad, to say the least, that she found her way to us. It may not have been the smoothest journey, but it was an important one, for her as much as for me. It has shown me once again, how we all matter in this world, how we all have the ability to shape it should we so choose. It has restored an old belief of mine in the power of the individual - I'd lost that optimism somewhere in the trenches of the last few years, and it feels good to have it back.