The Harvest Moon Consortium

[Winterhawk99]

The Fated

By Anasthia Vesk


Let’s start backwards before going inward. When it comes to The Fated, I am not intricately aware of all the holdings we have. I wager that much like other factions; we’ll have a great hand that weaves its way through the verse. But equally so, we’re not the likes to build grand monuments or force our way of life upon others. The Fated are part of the verse. Perhaps more so than others.

When we regard the Cage and the outlands, then three locations of note come to mind: The Hall of Records, our headquarters within the cage. Glorium, where we don’t have a true stronghold, but we feel a strong connection to it. And Fortitude’s Fall. A berg which we took residence within during the war around the Ma’at.

Granted, I believe our philosophy was born within Ysgard. And ‘tis there that we feel a draw towards. The sheer necessity of life, forcing one to take and protect their belongings. Each cycle, another fight. Success measured in how far we can make it. How deeply we are respected.

Sub-divisions. Again, is that in the context of the cage? Or the faction as a whole? I know the Doomguard have their different beliefs of the verse, and how entropy should be regarded. The Fated have naught with the faction. But, like any grand organization, we have various levels of involvement.

Answer and question: The faction: as a whole. Would you like to explain the various levels of involvement then?

The Cage will have its clerks, its tax collectors, archivists and the likes. We have divisions within the Hall of Records. Those that deal with death, those that deal with the treasury. But on the level of the faction.? No. We do not. The fated are… United in their philosophy and equally so, that philosophy splits us all.

Of course. We have guards, we have mercenaries, we have researchers and record keepers. It is called the Hall of Records for a reason. But there are aplenty merchants among us. There is a great distinction between Factorums and Namers. For one, a Namer might adhere to the philosophy, but they still focus their attention to life itself. To a farm, to their business, you name it. The Factotum’s among us, now they do rather seek to head the faction as their main profession in life.

Question: This philosophy that binds the faction to purpose. Could you explain it and why it both unites and splits you?

Answer: Simple. Unlike other factions, The Fated don’t believe that the verse is broken, or that there is some measure of a higher purpose. The Fated philosophy simply states that the verse is as it ought to be. Every decision ever made, every action successful and unsuccessful brought us to this very moment. Thus, this is all there is: what we’ve collectively earned. That is condensed into our personal paths as Fated. If we are secure in where we are, then all we ought to do is hold onto it. But if we rather believe that the verse is in need of change, then we ought to act. To see I changed through our own hard work. So, we may earn the future. We foresee and take it.

Where other factions dictate purpose, The Fated dictate method and understanding. What each of us does with that understanding is up to each one, themselves. Thus, we are bound, as much as we are split.

So, what you are saying is the Fated are the pragmatists of the factions and the great differences in personal philosophies and nature often are split?

Quite right, yes. Pragmatists would be a very short-sighted description of ourselves, but, it is apt. We care more for the pragmatic, rather than the lofty aspirations of most. Granted, morals aren’t swatted aside in such a pursuit. Perhaps some Fated believe that the ends justify the means, but -such isn’t shared by all.

Question: Do the Fated do any other official jobs other than keeping the hall of records and being tax collectors?

Answer: No. within the city, we are relegated towards the simple act of collecting taxes, keeping track of such collections. Keeping records of a great many things, among which are the permits handed out throughout the city. The great influx of jink is then distributed towards the various interests withing the Cage. Depending on what the Hall of Speakers meetings agree upon. More unofficial tasks are akin to scribing contracts and the likes. Though, this is more down to the individual Fated.

Question: Are there other factions you work closely with or that you consider allies?

Answer: The Mercykillers for the most part. The Indeps, we interact with in kind.

Vesk starts a new path: Now, though. I wager it is best we wind our way back into philosophy. To explore it beyond the pragmatist route. I’m sure you’ve heard of several expressions. They call us the Takers, the Heartless. We’ve known to take what we earned. So often condensed into the sight that the multiverse belongs to those who can seize it. Our fate is our own in the making, and all those that find themselves in a miserable position will have squandered their opportunity.

We as Fated aren’t encouraged to be content, but to reach further and farther ahead. Take all you can, and more. All of this often bleeds the sight that we are but a group whom embrace the concept of might makes right. Bash a skull, take some jink, and now you’re all the richer. If you can hold onto it yourself. And yet, If I am to ask you Brath. How do you look upon common thugs that do naught but take and kill for mere jink?

My answer: The common thug that has no compassion? I loathe them. I almost think of them as not a person because they are guided only by their own instinct and selfishness. Though I have seen enough to know that the fated in general are not like the street thugs you describe.

Some of us are, those who cannot look but the very surface of our philosophy. They see a key to their desires and release all other notions of insight. And thus, they fall for the trap that most miss with our philosophy. Takers take/all/ they’ve earned. Thus, if a Fated acts as a common thug, then they have to deal with such. If their life of pillaging ends with their soul damned in the lower planes. Their fate is earned.

As such, our philosophy encompasses the whole. Sure, wealth. It takes effort, and a great deal of work and cunning. But… Beyond wealth, there are elements such as love and friendship, respect. In equal terms, these are beyond valuable as well. Wealth can be taken; it can be designed to fall into our lap. Whereas friendship has to be earned. It can’t be taken by sheer force. And as such, the Fated layer such concepts with far mor recognition than the material parts of our lives. After all, the harder it is to earn, the more worth it is to take.

Wealth is hardly important to myself, to yourself. Yet for a Hiver, it is everything. Without it, they have no food, no water, no clothes, no opportunity. They might be forced to be a common thug, to fight their way out. Before they can truly develop the rest. Thus, for each of us, for each Fated, our philosophy binds and clashes. For the conflict of the multiverse, is the very conflict all of us fight each and every day.

It is also why I, as Fated, can judge others. But why would I judge a thug fighting for their life? They are doing what they can, they’re surviving. Now… when I see a Factor, or Factol, a great mage act as a mere thug… Then, I do rather force judgement. They/could/be better. But if their goals demand them to act this… Who are the Fated to judge him? Unless our own interests’ conflict with others.

Question: That seems like an oxymoron could you explain further?

Answer: In a way… The Fated leave all be, we don’t tell our members to pursue specific interest or goals. It is for them to discover such. However, I/as /Fated can yet develop such judgement over others and what they pursue. I suppose the juxtaposition is that our philosophy doesn’t enforce a thing, but its natural to still develop distaste, thus, earned.

There is a caveat to the Fated philosophy, however. And one that had broken away many that stood interested in all other regards. Charity. We rather despise it. Charity, in our sight, solves but naught. Charity is the poor man’s route towards resolving the problem of selves.

All we do with charity is to acknowledge the failings of another, enabling them to remain in place. Alive due to the acts of another, forever bound. Fore those that believe fate must be made by all; opportunity is the far greater sight. If one were to ask a Fated if it’s better to feed a man for a day, or to teach him how to fish, the latter is the answer.

Question: Teach a man to make something rather than give him something… Make him earn it and learn it?

Quite, yes. We are to teach others or… To offer them a chance to earn what they require. And it is a philosophy I’ve seen work in the past. There is a little tale I am fond of. One that I have set in motion myself. A beggar, beyond desperation. One who would likely not last more than a few cycles. And if he did, it’d be in an utterly terrible state.

However, … A good hearty meal, a night’s rest, in a trade for information. Scraps of what he’d seen. The beggar took the offer, and I gained what I required. And he in turn gained what he required. It is later that the beggar contacted me anew, this time, taking me up on the continued offer that information would pay.

Now, the beggar, with skin upon his bones, had become a fully capable man of might. Muscled, and powerful. Health imbued to his very soul. That singular chance, that shot at a decent meal and some jink turned into an opportunity to continue his momentum. He made himself into a grand worker. And had planned to spread his wings further, to take up a trade anew.

This, to me, lies at the very heart of the Fated. We’re heartless, because we demand all others fight as we had to. But… ‘Like a gifted healer’, we understand that kindness can very easily allow a wound to fester and rot. Often, it takes the harsh hand for one to become better.

My personal conviction is, as Fated isn’t to be solely concerned about myself, to be selfish. No, it’s to be cunning enough to keep building such opportunities, so more and more my uplift themselves.

Question: Your goals seem more about creating networks and interconnections with people rather than wealth? Thus, earning friendship and respect.

Answer: It is. I believe too many Fated have aligned with the concept of taking. To the point that they’re forgetting that we take what we’ve earned. And earning is more than merely the acquisition of it all.

Statement: This is quite different than anything you can read on the Fated, out in Sigil.

Quite. I recognize that most shall regard the Fated as little more than thugs, those that take. And justify their taking through some half-baked excuse of why they’ve earned it. Which more than often boils down to might make right. And yet… as of late, we’ve seen many of those with this mindset become afflicted by rotten reputation.

Question: An opportunity for you, then not only to speak outside the faction but within?

Answer: Which is exactly what I am trying to achieve. There’s enough gifted Fated, who can take all they can. Those who make great strides in the more overwhelming methods of the Fated. I, however, desire to be a reflection of what we can be, in kind. Those that bring and build opportunity.

Statement: You have done admirably by what I see in my notes.

Answer: I can’t merely utter it into words I’ve seen thug and beggar make something of themselves. Now… I shall need to do the same for a great many others, or fail doing so. Within those attempts lay the true trials. With some luck then, I’ll be representing the Fated truthfully, and completely. We are wide, we are with many a different sight. Though, the ultimate expression is of utter simplicity. We all take what’s earned.

[Winterhawk99]

The Free League

by Connor of the Stand

Ther Free league is less of a faction and more of a collective. The other factions would tell you quite obnoxiously that we are not a faction at all. To that end, we are left alone, which is how we want it. For at the heart of the Free league, its very core value is independence.

Free leaguers, I will call us indeps going forward, but use whichever term you wish, want more than just freedom to do as we wish, but also to think as we wish. That means not holding so firmly to an idea that we would be willing to see it from another angle or be closed to other thoughts.

Right, On the ideal of freedom of thought, when you hold too strictly to an idea or thought, you are no longer free. You are bound by that idea. This is, perhaps, the most abused and abuseable ideal of the Free league. Indeps who are unwilling to pick a path and make a difference, because they refuse.

For that reason, we are often called “Fence sitters.” Much like the Ciphers. We tend toward neutrality in ideals, rarely taking sides in politics or conflict.

What this does do for us, though, is make us perhaps the best faction to hire when you need a job done. Within our ranks you are bound to find someone sympathetic to whatever cause you have, and even more so willing to take your coin over it.

Our peacekeepers, for example, are a mercenary company. Yet they too are also those that work and protect the Bazaar and the Market Ward. This company, at my direction, has taken contracts with the Ciphers to protect the market ward, as well as the Sensates to protect their business interests.

This is just one example of organization within our ranks. It is somewhat of an outlier though, as companies tend to band together only long enough to do a job or venture before breaking off to go back to their own affairs.

Lastly, I will talk about our relationship with the other factions. Without getting into the full details, we have deals and contracts with the other factions. You will see peacekeepers in the ward equipped with Doomguard weapons, and Godsmen Armor.

We tend to get along well enough with the factions, though they do not recognize, nor do we wish to be recognized. Our status as a faction within the city.

The only real exception to this is that our ideals are anathema to the Harmonium. The Harmonium want everyone to live their lives within the ‘Harmony’ of their order. A place for everything and everything in its place is perhaps the most polite way to put it.

Whereas we do not want or need their ‘harmony’. Our views are so opposed to them that they tend to… react violently… in their dealing with us. This has led to open violence and conflict on the streets. But, more often than not, it is done more… clandestinely. Solitary indeps tend to go missing in Harmonium territory never to be seen again.

Question: What holdings specifically do you have, and do you have a central facility where the indeps gather?

Answer: We have no factional house, per say. But you are in our territory now. The Bazaar is for the indeps. All are welcome to do business here, lest you have broken trust or caused enough issue to be barred entry.

Question: Do the indeps have a seat at the council?

Answer: No. We have no rights or protections; save those we are strong enough to hold on to for ourselves.

Question: What about specific jobs the Indeps perform for Sigil?

Answer: Jobs? We are everywhere.

Question: Could you elaborate? You have talked about the mercenary function of the indeps. Do you perform other functions for the community?

Answer: What I mean is this… We are the most populous faction in the cage. Our people perform the jobs that… Right, that is basically all of it. Our people perform manual labor jobs, the cooking, the labor in factories. The city would be in bad shape were we to simply… stop.

Question: So, the city receives great benefit from the indeps as a faction. Is that reciprocated?

Answer: Ha! Only by way of jink. We scratch out a living for ourselves and survive by our own mettle. That is what it means to be an indep.

[Winterhawk99]

The Xaositects

By Quetzalli

She sets down a staff of inquiry, a cup of coffee and a writ mark in front of me. She then starts her lecture.

Do answers ever make sense? There is no common thread here relatively speaking. What makes sense to you, a duck does not care about. And a clam doesn’t know what the wind is. Swim, swim, swim little clam… Where in its foot does it keep and understanding?

I don’t know what you want to know about the Xaositects. We practice chaos. Sometimes I find lucidity fun. Other times it’s boring art. All you have to do is whatever and then you’re free. Because laws are just things people make up to convince themselves that bashing someone’s head in is a justified thing.

Question: So, what you are saying: is it’s a freedom of thought thing?

Answer: Is it? What is a thought? Can you think one that’s never been in someone else’s head? Not really. Words are an ordered abstract whish meaning is injected, otherwise they are mere sounds like, BARKBARKBARKBARKBARK. But meaning doesn’t exist outside of the meat in your head.

Question: Does the faction think the verse is an illusion?

Answer: Everything just is. Order, disorder, lawful, chaotic, they are grasping at soup. With a strainer instead of a spoon. The verse has nothing inherent to it. The only bounds are the inter-action, and sense has to be made after the fact. So why not just swim in the soup of it and let sense go somewhere else to make other people miserable?

Statement from me: I want to encourage people myself. Not make them miserable.

Her answer: That’s very sweet.

My answer: Thank you.

Question: Ok, how do you introduce a person to the philosophy of your faction. Let’s take that route or is this your approach?

Answer: If someone wants to be a Xaositect, I give them a test. Can they understand the unpredictable nature of cause and effect? Can they throw a spanner into the gears, and have it crash with an artist’s flair?

Question: And how do you accomplish such with a prospet?

Answer: Demonstrate Chaos.

Question: What if said subject calculates it out so instead of crashing the gears they come out with something utterly beautiful? Less a crash and more a transmutation?

Answer: I don’t know.

Question: Would they fail your test?

Answer: Depends on if they want to be a Xaositect. Order is a form of disorder either way.

Question: Do you think that disorder is a form of order?

Answer: Do you? Chaos and order are defined against each other, in a silly semantic way. As I said, sense comes after the fact of ‘Isness’

My statement to her question: I think sometimes disorder can lead to forms of order like… A snowflake.

Question from Quetzalli: And how do you know the snowflake from not a snowflake?

My answer: I would say… by its taste.

Her answer: If you say so.

Question: So, you are saying that Xaoist philosophy is something like making beauty out of disorder?

Answer: To me. Ask someone else and they might chew on your boot… That you don’t currently have.

Question: You mean another Xaoist?

Answer: Sure.

Question: I think I’m starting to get it a bit. So how does the faction hold together with so many different views of chaos?

Answer: Why does it need to be held together? A good boss knows how to get people in on a good time. That’s all that matters. The fact that unattended things always fall into disorder is our plaything.

Question: Interesting, could you explain more?

Answer: I think I’m getting bored of explaining things now.

Question: Do the Xaoists have any holdings and what do they do for the community?

Answer: Neither of those questions make sense.

Question: Do the Xaoist have any strong allies or general allies among the other factions?

Answer: We revel in chaos. It’s liberating, hum, I don’t know. Sometimes the Bleakers do funny things? The Sensates are nice too. Especially when they want ‘an experience.’ (She laughs.)

Statement from me: Xaoist seem to have a great amount of artists within their factions along with the Sensate. I can understand that.

Statement from her: Anyways! I hope that was useful.

Quetzalli leaves the interview gracefully chatting along with others at the fulcrum as she heads to the Bazaar.