Chapter Summaries

Keosius invaded Soul Weeping Castle and confronted Aurest, holding the lich’s phylactery and cutting off his appeal to Myrkul. He forced Aurest to choose between submitting to the Empire and complete annihilation.

• Aurest searched Soul Weeping Castle for spell components and prepared to face the Red Dragon he believed had taken his phylactery.
• Keosius tore through the castle’s wards, entered the great hall, and revealed Aurest’s phylactery in his claws.
• Aurest tried to bargain with Keosius, offering his wealth, spells, and research in exchange for the phylactery.
• Aurest invoked Myrkul’s protection, but Keosius used the Empire’s authority to sever the connection between the lich and the god.
• Keosius threatened to destroy the phylactery and gave Aurest the choice to submit to the Empire or face complete annihilation.

Keosius forced the lich Aurest to submit, taking the Myrkul's Bone Scepter and claiming control of his phylactery. Aurest surrendered Bewildering Valley and Soul Weeping Castle in exchange for being allowed to continue existing.

• Keosius threatened to destroy Aurest's phylactery, and Aurest begged for his life and submitted.
• Aurest offered Keosius Bewildering Valley, Soul Weeping Castle, and everything he possessed.
• Keosius accepted the Myrkul's Bone Scepter and examined its necromantic powers.
• Aurest asked Keosius to return his phylactery, but Keosius insisted it was included in the surrender.
• Keosius told Aurest the phylactery was safe under his control and warned him not to disobey.

Keosius had Aurest use Myrkul’s Bone Scepter to revive Count Hart as a powerful wight bound to the Red Dragon. Hart returned as an undead marquis, and Keosius planned to use Aurest for a larger purpose.

• Keosius asked Lang Pu, Dolo, and Mezhuolash for their views on trusting the lich Aurest, and the dukes discussed his value and the secrets he could provide.
• Keosius had Tiefling soldiers bring Hart’s preserved corpse into the palace and ordered Aurest to revive him as a high-ranking undead with independent consciousness.
• Lang Pu reminded Aurest that Keosius, not the lich, would command the new wight, and Keosius lent Aurest Myrkul’s Bone Scepter to complete the transformation.
• Hart awakened as a wight, recognized Keosius as his master, and knelt before him.
• Keosius welcomed Hart back as Marquis Hart and considered how the Empire could use undead, while hinting at a larger plan for Aurest.

Keosius returned to the Storm Highlands and used a Legendary Spell to tear open the earth, uncovering the buried tomb of Storm Giant Elder Randta and the ruins of the Giant Empire. He entered the cavern with Aurest and Hart, leaving the lich worried that Keosius would make him resurrect the enormous dragon snakes.

• Keosius brought Aurest and Hart to the Storm Highlands, where he recalled his former home and announced that he had come to reclaim what was his.
• Keosius unleashed the Empire Domain and cast a Legendary Spell that split open the wilderness.
• Keosius led Aurest and Hart into the cavern exposed beneath the earth.
• Aurest recognized the cavern as Randta's tomb and saw the ancient bones, ruins, books, and weapons buried there.
• Keosius said he had returned to see Randta and intended to put the elder's collections to use.
• Aurest tightened his grip on his staff, fearing Keosius would order him to revive the giant dragon snakes.

Keosius forced Aurest to use Myrkul’s Bone Scepter to raise the Azure Foot Dragon Snake carcasses as an undead army. He sent Hart to lead the skeletons into the Underdark and told Aurest that more transformations and other duties awaited him.

• Keosius ordered Aurest to transform the Azure Foot Dragon Snake carcasses, threatening him until the lich agreed.
• Aurest cast Undead Scourge, raising over a hundred Skeletal Dragon Snakes at the cost of much of his soul power.
• Keosius gave Hart a Bone Whip and command of the skeletons to help the Empire establish a foothold in the Underdark.
• Hart led the undead army through a portal toward the Underdark, eager to wage war against its inhabitants.
• Aurest asked to accompany Hart, but Keosius refused and warned him that this was only the first batch of undead he would transform.

Keosius forced Aurest to raise seventy thousand Northern soldiers as undead for the Empire. After the skeleton army emerged, Keosius ordered Aurest to follow him to another site for more undead.

• Keosius brought Aurest to the Battle of Okaglar and ordered him to transform the buried Northern soldiers into undead.
• With Keosius empowering the spell through the Empire Domain, Aurest raised seventy thousand skeletons from the battlefield.
• Aurest briefly claimed the undead as his own before correcting himself and declaring them servants of Keosius and the Empire.
• Keosius praised Aurest, then ordered him to go with him to the next location for raising undead.

Keosius forced Aurest to convert more than a hundred thousand undead for the Empire, then allowed him to keep five hundred as his own. When Aurest returned to Soul Weeping Castle, he found the Empire had rebuilt it as the Undead Creature Research Institute.

• Empire teams entered Soul Weeping Castle, removed its remaining traps, and began transforming it into a public facility.
• Aurest sensed that Soul Weeping Castle was being demolished and asked Keosius about its changes.
• Keosius told Aurest to focus on converting undead and promised he could return to Bewildering Valley after finishing the last batch.
• Keosius let Aurest keep five hundred of the more than ten thousand skeletons he raised, and Aurest completed his work.
• Aurest returned to find Soul Weeping Castle rebuilt as the brightly lit Undead Creature Research Institute.

Aurest returned to Soul Weeping Castle and found that the Empire had turned it into a modern research institute, then received a new order from the Emperor. In Istaria, players discovered an announcement about the newly introduced Undead Followers.

• Maxi Chulin guided Aurest through the renovated Soul Weeping Castle, now the Undead Creature Research Institute, where researchers praised him as a model employee.
• Aurest found his Bone Pen and diary locked in display cases, then freed them after Maxi explained the Empire had altered their presentation.
• Maxi gave Aurest the Emperor's summons, and Aurest reacted with alarm as the Bone Pen recorded that the castle no longer belonged to him.
• Players gathered at the notice board in Istaria as Tiefling Guards posted an announcement about the new Undead Followers event.
• The announcement drew thousands of players to Embers of the Burned Emperor Square within minutes.

Singo learned that the Undead Creature Research Institute would let players turn corpses into summonable undead followers, then rushed to deliver a boss corpse before other players claimed the opportunity. He arrived at Bewildering Valley and found a line of players already waiting at the institute.

• Singo read the event notice announcing that Soul Lamenter Aurest would exchange corpses and experience for permanent Undead Follower Rental Contracts.
• Singo realized that the contracts could let him summon former bosses and flew toward a bandit hideout to retrieve a boss he had killed.
• Singo told his group to collect corpses, while Born Battle Maniac reported that major guilds were already fighting over the Frost Giant battlefield.
• Singo found the Half Giant-blooded bandit leader's rotting corpse, wrapped it up, and ordered his Wyvern to carry it to the Carter Duchy.
• Singo reached Bewildering Valley and saw more than a dozen people waiting at the Undead Creature Research Institute with corpses, skeletons, and a coffin.

Singo joined a line of players carrying corpses and coffins to the Undead Creature Research Institute, where they planned to create undead Followers. As the gates opened, Researcher Maxi announced that admission cost five Gold Coins, leaving the eager players facing an unexpected fee.

• Singo met Lang Li Bai Tiao and Dark Night Wolf, who carried a coffin filled with ancestors from the Bosk family mausoleum.
• A Barbarian player revealed that he had brought eight generations of Norton ancestors, while Yu Zhong Cheng Chi boasted of gathering the ancestors of three Northern families to raise as undead.
• Undead Knight said he wanted to find himself a wife, prompting the other players to rebuke him.
• The Institute's gates opened, and Researcher Maxi invited the players inside to have Director Aurest convert their undead.
• Maxi stopped Undead Knight at the entrance and demanded an admission fee of five Gold Coins.

Singo paid to have a Half Giant corpse converted into a powerful Ghoul follower at the Undead Creature Research Institute, where players flocked to rent undead. News of the boss-level followers sparked a widespread hunt for corpses and bones across the Empire.

• Singo watched players leave the institute with undead followers, including Yu Zhong Cheng Chi with three powerful ancestral skeletons.
• Singo paid five Gold Coins to enter the institute, then chose an expensive Half Giant Ghoul conversion that cost 800 Gold Coins and 5,500 Experience.
• Aurest raised the Half Giant as a Ghoul Leader with Challenge Rating 7 and gave Singo a rental scroll, while the institute retained control of the follower.
• Aurest lamented his exhausting work, unaware that Keosius took ninety percent of the experience he earned.
• Players spread news of the institute across the forums, triggering the Great Excavation Movement as they dug up graves and ruins to find corpses and bones.

Keosius watched the empire’s new skeleton farming system take shape across the Matra Great Farmlands, where players and Druids used undead labor and magic to increase food production. The chapter ended with Holy Light Bro tending the fields at night while disguising his desire to be naked as devotion to nature.

• Keosius reflected on the empire’s recent stability and the experience players had earned by defeating a lich.
• Alifu Levi reported that experiments had successfully turned undead creatures into farmers, and Keosius viewed the skeletons plowing and sowing the Matra Great Farmlands.
• The empire’s Agricultural Affairs Department organized Druid-led skeleton farming while cooperating with the Technology Department on improved seeds and crops.
• I Don't Eat Jin Ke La founded an organic fertilizer company by buying and stockpiling excrement, then partnered with the Agricultural Affairs Department.
• Holy Light Bro led skeletons through nighttime farm work, used Druidic magic to strengthen the seeds, and praised their nakedness before transforming into a bear.

Earl Jesse led the Empire’s vanguard in building Tahan City in Carterpa and then launched an assault on a Hill Giant tribe. The battle began with an aerial bombardment and ended as Jesse’s Dragon Beast Cavalry charged the giants.

• Jesse’s vanguard established a camp in Carterpa, opened a permanent portal, and began constructing Tahan City with help from the Empire Engineering Department and Ti Tong Pao Lu.
• Jesse learned that a Hill Giant tribe of roughly one hundred and thirty members had been found southeast of the city and rallied the troops for an attack.
• The Red Scale Conquerors bombed the sleeping Hill Giants from Wyverns, killing their chieftain Bone Club and setting their camp ablaze.
• Jesse fired on the Hill Giants, then led the Empire’s Dragon Beast Cavalry in a charge against them.

Jesse led the Empire’s expeditionary army in destroying a Hill Giant tribe after its members attacked an Imperial hunting party. Afterward, he learned that Thrace Kingdom scouts were nearby and ordered his forces to confront them.

• Jesse’s Terrestrial Dragon Beasts and troops charged into the Hill Giant camp, and Jesse shot the elder who challenged them.
• Imperial soldiers divided the battlefield and slaughtered the Hill Giants, then burned the young trapped in a cave and shot those fleeing the smoke.
• Jesse declared the tribe exterminated and discussed why the Empire considered Hill Giants pests rather than potential citizens.
• Bart reported that Thrace Kingdom scouts were stationed sixty li southeast, while their elite forces fought the Kassand Kingdom.
• Jesse ordered the expeditionary army to march against the Thracian scouts and make them recognize the Empire’s power.

Jesse led the Imperial Vanguard Legion to confront Piotr McGrath’s Thracian scouts at the border of the Kattepa Area. After the Empire demonstrated its military strength and killed a captured scout, Piotr withdrew, while Jesse declared the area essential to the Empire’s southern campaign.

• Piotr McGrath ordered his force to guard the border and dismissed the northern Empire as weak barbarians.
• The Imperial Vanguard Legion arrived with Wyverns, Terrestrial Dragon Beasts, cannons, and Hobgoblin cavalry.
• Jesse warned the Thracians that they had crossed into Imperial territory and shot a captured scout as a warning.
• Piotr ordered his soldiers to retreat, deciding that the Thrace Kingdom could not risk provoking the Empire.
• Jesse said the Empire needed absolute control of the Kattepa Area as a foothold for its future southern campaign.

Kassand’s Duke Ily defended Teotihuacan against the forces of Thrace and Seleucia, who sought to reclaim the Holy City. The battle began with Kassand launching a devastating attack against the besieging armies.

• Ily rallied Kassand’s soldiers on Teotihuacan’s walls, declaring that they would defend the Holy City and restore the empire’s glory under Otis.
• Tirena Star Angel accused Kassand of rebellion and urged the forces of Thrace and Seleucia to retake Teotihuacan.
• Ily ordered Kassand’s warriors to defend the city and attacked Tirena with a blazing crescent of blade light.
• Kassand’s ballistae and Arcane Legion unleashed arrows and magic against the allied forces, bringing the battle to the brink.

The battle for the Holy City intensified as Tirena and Ily fought while the Angel and Titan Divine Descendants suffered heavy losses. Thrace’s mortal army brought Thunder Hammer cannons and firearms to the field, forcing Ily to recognize that ordinary soldiers could now threaten Divine Descendants.

• Thrace’s Arcane Legion raised golden shields to block Kassand’s attacks, though golden arrows still killed soldiers.
• Tirena and Ily exchanged powerful blows in the sky while Angel and Titan Divine Descendants joined the fighting and died on both sides.
• Ily and Tirena disputed who held the rightful imperial authority as the mortal armies advanced toward Teotihuacan.
• Tirena ordered the Thrace troops to fire their Thunder Hammer cannons, inflicting casualties on Kassand’s forces and injuring Divine Descendants.
• Ily caught and crushed a cannonball, then noticed the mortals’ rapid-firing weapons and grew wary of their power.

Thrace’s cannons and casters inflicted heavy losses on Kassand before Stelgen and Jagos escalated the battle into a devastating magical duel. Kassand held Teotihuacan after two days of fighting, and Otis learned that Thrace’s weapons resembled military equipment from the Embers of the Burned Empire.

• Thrace’s cannon bombardment and Angel Divine Descendants wounded and killed Kassand soldiers and Divine Descendants until Ily called for Stelgen to intervene.
• Stelgen raised a vast force barrier that stopped and redirected the cannonballs, but Jagos shattered it with Disintegrate Spells and followed with Meteor Bursts that killed over a thousand soldiers.
• Stelgen absorbed the meteors’ energy and answered with a Sunburst as the armies’ casters and Divine Descendants joined the battle.
• After two days of fighting and tens of thousands of casualties on each side, Kassand retained Teotihuacan.
• Stelgen showed Otis images of Thrace’s weapons, and Navin Bessarius identified them as similar to the military equipment of the Embers of the Burned Empire.

Navin persuaded Otis to let him approach the Embers of the Burned Empire again, arguing that gold could win the Red Dragon’s support and help Kassand. After the council, Otis revealed his fear that his power and life were fading, and resolved to unify Holy Fadlan to regain Amanata’s blessing.

• Otis raged over the Red Dragon rejecting his friendship and supplying weapons to Thrace, while Navin worried that Otis’s pride was weakening Kassand.
• Navin blamed Wilhelm’s bribery for the Red Dragon’s refusal and convinced Otis that the Red Dragon could be won over with more gold.
• Navin asked to serve as an envoy to the Embers of the Burned Empire again, and Otis agreed, ordering him to obtain the weapons mortals could use.
• After the council ended, Otis dismissed everyone and discovered a crack on his cheek as he felt his power and life draining away.
• Otis resolved to unify Holy Fadlan and become its true emperor so he could regain Amanata’s blessing and remain immortal.

Navin Bessarius traveled in secret to Istaria City to seek the Embers of the Burned Empire’s aid for Otis, but found the city transformed into a bustling industrial center. The Imperial Guard recognized him and escorted him through the city, leaving him astonished by its growth and unfamiliar sights.

• Navin Bessarius journeyed for over a month through the Dwarf Kingdom, Mill Valley, and Anzeta Corridor to reach Istaria City.
• Navin marveled at the city’s rapid construction and recognized the bayonet rifles carried by its Tiefling Guards.
• The Tiefling Guard captain identified Navin as the Kassand envoy and said the Emperor had foreseen his arrival and was waiting for him.
• Navin entered Istaria under guard and observed its busy streets, players, and distinctive architecture.
• Navin watched a smoke-belching train arrive, saw Wyvern-riding peace officers overhead, and encountered Ogres treated as respected citizens.