Fallen Rauros & Empress Varkula

TO BE FINISHED: Claire to provide details – tied to the Eternal Kaela and the Clarion Call of Ivory and Dust ritual

The Frozen Portal of Stone & Woe

TO BE FINISHED: Anyone’s story really; myths about where the Winter Regio and the Stone Portal came from – did it appear after the founding of the Chapter, did our founder know about it beforehand and founded the Chapter next to it for a reason (a bargain with an Eternal perhaps?). No definitive answers just theories that our characters will know and sometimes debate on.

The Lost Library

All the know the story of mad Emperor Nicovar and his campaign to destroy the Empire’s Libraries. However this Imperial calamity had a local element to it for Haros and the Suns of Couros in particular.

Even in Nicovar’s day, the Suns of Couros had an extensive library of Winter texts and, despite the chapter’s seclusion, this was known to the Draughir Emperor. He sent troops specifically to Haros to ensure this library was destroyed along with larger, more well known repositories within Highguard.

The orders came as a surprise to many lore keepers and archivists at the start of the campaign but the Suns of Couros were forewarned by their draughir former librarian, Daniel, ringing his bell furiously from within the Cliff of Eyes supposedly on the day that the order was given to destroy his library. Retiring only weeks before to the Cliff, Daniel had felt the madness approach once he started hearing voices coming from the books of the Library and obsessing over the catalogue – convinced that books were moving on their own volition.

When one of the servants came to his cell to find out what was wrong, Daniel was insistent that the Library had to be moved into the Cliff for safe keeping. The servant thought it was all part of Daniel’s encroaching madness and turned to leave him. However Daniel demanded that the servant at least take a message to his successor and former assistant Neriah – “the Serpent has been unleashed – it will consume all that we hold dear if the Library is not sealed within Cliff of Eyes before the next new moon”.

The servant left the Cliff and faithfully took the cryptic message to the Neriah as the chapter’s librarian. Neriah upon hearing the words spoken by his former master paled and hurried up to the Cliff to speak to Daniel himself. No one knows what was spoken between them but a short while later Neriah ordered his assistants to move the texts of the Library into the Cliff as fast as they could.

The Exarch of the time was away on Synod business and Neriah fobbed off those Council members who came to ask him what was going on. Three days later on the morning of the new moon, the last of the texts had been moved into the Cliff – all documented and listed in their new locations. That afternoon Daniel’s bell rang again as Imperial troops loyal to the Emperor were sighted approaching the settlement. By this time Neriah’s fellow magisters and Council members were demanding the return of the Library or at least an explanation of his orders and actions. They used the appearance of Imperial troops as the means to force him to explain himself. Instead of facing the troops and his colleagues, Neriah fled into the Cliff of Eyes with the catalogue and disappeared.

The commander of the Imperial troops was under direct Imperial orders not to reveal her mission to the chapter until the library had been secured, so she ordered her troops to search the chapter house in the hope that the Library would be found. When the word came back about what Neriah had done, she led her troops into the Cliff to root out the Librarian and the hidden texts – that was the last anyone saw of her or her troops. No sounds of battle were heard, no cries of terror or death came echoing out of the Cliff, just the gentle chiming of wind chimes as the summer breeze blew against its many cave faces.

Terrified at the probability of Imperial punishment over the disappearance of Imperial troops visiting the Chapter, as well as the implications of how they disappeared, the Council was unable to decide on a course of action. Eventually, after two days of inaction, one of Neriah’s assistants, a draughir, braved the Cliff of Eyes to find out what happened. He did not find any sign of the troops, Neriah or even Daniel, and the Library, which had been so carefully stored and catalogued within several empty chambers had been chaotically strewn throughout the Cliff’s corridors and chambers. Not only that, but many volumes had somehow had their folios separated and then re-aggregated with folios of other unrelated volumes. Carved in blood over the Frozen Portal of Stone and Woe were the runes of Irremais (Wisdom) and Lann (Bargains / Debt).

The draughir returned from the Cliff of Eyes and calmly reported his findings to the Council who again were hit by indecision. Only with the return of the Exarch and the news of Emperor Nicovar’s madness and death was the order made to bring the texts back to the chapter house and to ritually cleanse the Frozen Portal.

Whilst the books were brought back into the chapter house, their reorganisation and and cataloguing was beyond successive librarians and archivists – many of whom swore that the books moved as if to sometimes confound or illuminate a researcher but always to undermine any attempt to catalogue their contents.

The Black Howler of Haros

Before the bad days of sieges and raids Haros was, during the day, a settlement of broad paved avenues, tall clean buildings and leafy courtyards filled with the bustle of trade and industry. However, once the sun set and the residents retired to their homes for bed, those avenues were abandoned, the buildings shuttered and the courtyards barred. A few taverns scattered across the settlement provided warmth and the sounds of human cheer but otherwise Haros settled down to silent contemplation – broken only by the clock bells of different chapters ringing out the hours. The guardians of the wall chapters kept vigil looking out and the urban chapters provided the Watch that kept vigil from within. Haros, despite its reputation as a cross roads and trade hub, was a relatively sleepy settlement with few problems of crime and little to fear from distant barbarians.

However on certain nights, when the moon was being renewed or on the Winter Solstice, there was a certain edge to Haros when darkness fell. It was commonly held that, on these blackest and longest of nights, a beast of Winter, named by locals as the Black Howler, stalked the settlement’s streets looking for its prey of the unvirtuous.

Whilst some have claimed to have seen the Howler and lived, no one has ever been able to give a clear description. Common descriptions are “wolf like” “red eyes” “fur as black as midnight” “as fast as an eagle” “as large as an ox”. Its one distinctive trait everyone is sure of is its howl – a bone chilling wail that cannot be mistaken for a fox or wolf. The wail and the disappearances on its stalking nights are enough to convince people of its existence but all attempts over the centuries to hunt or track it down have failed – sometimes with additional disappearances.

Local tradition has it that the beast enters Haros from the Cliff of Eyes and can only be warded against by flame and the bell ringing of the virtuous. So on nights of the new moon and especially on the Winter Solstice, the Suns of Couros chapter had the responsibility of building a large bonfire in front of the Cliff of Eyes, lit just before sunset and tended to till sunrise by guardians and servants of the chapter. Whilst the chapter bell, nicknamed the Howling Bell by locals, was rung in continual sonorous rhythm all night.

The Howler did not come every new moon or Solstice and it could be many years before the wail would be heard again and the disappearances restart. The bonfire ceremony and bell ringing, however, would continue every new moon and Winter Solstice, year in, year out – until the fall of Reikos.

With the chaos of the fall of Reikos, the influx of refugees, and the changing leadership of the Suns of Couros chapter, the ceremony was not performed at all during the first six months after the fall. Once order was restored, Exarch Silas decided that it would be inefficient to continue the practice in the present circumstances. It was an unpopular decision amongst the the other chapters but they could hardly argue against Exarch Silas’ cold and calm logic behind his decision. The vigil site was exposed beyond the southern walls and the guardians were needed for the walls, further, the incessant bell ringing would interfere with the bells rung in case of attack. The locals grumbled darkly about draughir and their ties to Winter but did nothing – fearing the worst when the Winter Solstice approached. However the Solstice came and went; with no wails and no disappearances except those accounted for as casualties of war. As each new moon and Winter solstice came and went by without the wails, the story of the Black Howler receded from people’s minds, focused instead as they were on the more immediate threat of the barbarian raids and attacks.

So far in the nine years since the fall of Reikos no sight or sound has been made of the Black Howler and most of those who initially complained have conveniently forgotten their superstitious worries. There are those, however, who do not forget and mutter into their cups on the coldest, longest and darkest nights that perhaps the beast is taking its fill from the barbarians – for now; growing stronger each year as the old traditions and protections are forgotten in the name of expediency.