Chapter Summaries

Rorschach tested the Alchemy Department’s Alchemical Armor No. 2, a magically powered suit designed as a step toward an enormous eighteen-meter model. Their fight exposed the armor’s strengths and weaknesses, but it ended with the warrior charging a powerful strike against Rorschach.

• Snow showed Rorschach and Andre the empty, circuit-filled armor and revealed the blueprint for an eighteen-meter model powered by a Transmutation Dust Extractor.
• An Alchemy Department mage explained Alchemical Armor No. 2’s construction and capabilities, and the mages set up a shielded arena for Rorschach to test it.
• Rorschach blocked the armor’s opening greatsword attack with an enlarged Mage Hand and slowed it by magnetizing its steel body.
• Rorschach flew out of reach and attacked with Air Cannons and Molten Rays, forcing the armor to use its shield and evade.
• The armor raised its glowing greatsword to unleash Great Disintegration as Rorschach began charging his own power.

Rorschach defeated an alchemical armored warrior with Great Disintegration, then endured tests as the Alchemy Department designed defenses for a giant construct. Later, Pascal joined the club at Mr. Messier’s funeral, where Maxim declared that Messier had died in a conspiracy.

• Rorschach destroyed the alchemical armored warrior, and Snow gathered its scattered remains into a lump of metal.
• The Alchemy Department tested defenses against Rorschach’s disintegration spell and designed reactive armor and a propulsion system for its eighteen-meter construct.
• Rorschach and Andre left the Alchemy Department by speedboat and headed back toward Valuana City.
• Pascal attended a club gathering dressed in black and followed the members to the cemetery to pay respects to Mr. Messier.
• Maxim recounted Messier’s role in overturning the wrongful conviction of three farmers and declared that Messier had died in a conspiracy by evil forces.

At Messier’s memorial, Maxim denounced the injustice that had caused the lawyer’s death, while Pascal protected the crowd from two armed assassins. The gunmen fled with Maxim and Pascal in pursuit, and Rorschach heard Maxim call for him to stop them.

• Maxim praised Messier’s courage and condemned the wealthy and the law for exploiting and punishing the poor.
• Two men burst into the cemetery and fired at Maxim, but Pascal stopped their bullets with magic.
• Maxim organized the crowd’s evacuation and led the pursuit as Pascal protected him with spells.
• The gunmen outran their pursuers, and Pascal’s spells missed as they tried to escape through the city.
• After accompanying Andre to his new home, Rorschach encountered the fleeing men and heard Maxim order him to stop them.

Rorschach and Pascal captured two attackers targeting club members at Mr. Messier's memorial service, but the retired hunters could not identify their employer. After discovering the portraits all depicted lawyers, Rorschach realized the intended targets shared a connection to their profession.

• Rorschach and Pascal pursued and captured the two attackers, then arranged for the Mage Guild to take them away.
• Maxim learned that the attackers had been caught and left the scene after Thor warned him that the Mage Guild had intervened.
• During interrogation, the attackers confessed that they had been hired to kill people at Messier's memorial service, but they did not know who their employer was.
• Pascal recognized the portraits in the attackers' coats as club members, including Maxim, and noticed that no portrait depicted him.
• Pascal asked Rorschach to use divination to investigate the employer, and Rorschach realized Maxim, Carral, and the other portrait subjects were all lawyers.

Rorschach used the Pearl of Balan to identify Grand Duke Merowinger and the former club member who helped arrange the portraits, then reported the plot to Kano. Necker explained how the attempted attack could deepen the conflict between the Royal Palace and the courts, leaving Merowinger as the leading suspect.

• Rorschach used the Pearl of Balan to witness Merowinger overseeing Maxim’s portrait and identified the young man who selected the targets.
• Pascal recognized the young man as a former member of the old club who had joined Maxim’s side after the reorganization.
• Kano visited Necker in the hospital and told him about the attempted attack on progressive lawyers.
• Necker explained that the courts and the Royal Palace were already in conflict and that the attack could be used to inflame their dispute.
• Necker concluded that Grand Duke Merowinger was the leading suspect behind the plot.

Kano and Necker discussed the Mage Guild’s political strategy and the ambitions of Valuana’s leading figures, while Kano sent Pascal to inform the Friends of Fraternity and Equality about Duke Merowinger’s role in the attack. Pascal told Maxim that the Mage Guild would not obstruct their cause, leaving the club’s relationship with the Guild on a more candid footing.

• Necker told Kano that the Mage Guild should back progressive lawyers before the Estates-General, and Kano won their card game by magically changing a card.
• Kano returned Duke Merowinger’s two guns and relayed Necker’s judgment to Pascal and Rorschach, giving Rorschach a separate assignment.
• Pascal met Maxim at a Friends of Fraternity and Equality gathering and said Duke Merowinger had arranged the attack to drive a wedge between the High Court and the royal court.
• Maxim argued that revealing the plot would provoke reckless attacks and give the king and nobles grounds to punish club members.
• Maxim asked whether Pascal spoke for himself or the Mage Guild, and Pascal said he had joined independently and that the Guild would not obstruct their shared cause.

Maxim urged the Friends of Fraternity and Equality to avoid retaliation and organize the Third Estate for the upcoming Estates-General. Rorschach delivered a rifle from Kano to Philip’s father, Duke Merowinger, who recognized it as a warning and ordered Ginnoman killed.

• Maxim calmed the club members’ calls for revenge and urged them to publicize the cemetery attack while keeping their gatherings discreet.
• Maxim called on lawyers and other members to organize the Third Estate and win seats in the Estates-General.
• Rorschach gave Philip two rifles as a gift from Kano for his father, Duke Merowinger.
• Duke Merowinger recognized the rifle as a warning from the mages and ordered his butler to dispose of Ginnoman.

Rorschach helped improve the kingdom’s telegraph network and advised Mr. Pierre on expanding it into Bayern and preparing for the Estates-General. He then discovered that dismissed Chief Justices had defied Charles XVI by establishing a Wandering Court near Valuana.

• The Mage Guild struggled with errors relaying telegrams, so Rorschach adapted punched paper tape into a semi-automated switching system.
• Merchants began using the telegraph, paying by distance and character count, while Mr. Pierre asked Rorschach about introducing telegraphs in Bayern.
• Rorschach sent Mr. Pierre a detailed letter about a possible Bayern telegraph network and urged him to influence the selection of Estates-General representatives.
• Rorschach saw lawyers promoting a Wandering Court and learned that the dismissed Chief Justices had set it up in a satellite city of Valuana to challenge Charles XVI’s order.

Rorschach witnessed the Order Church procession pass the Mage Guild and was drawn into a vision of a dying star. Meanwhile, Charles XVI dissolved the Royal Decree Courts, and Duplessis ordered measures to contain the resulting unrest in the provinces.

• The Wandering Court’s lawyers denounced the church outside the Mage Guild, and a holy knight silenced their speaker with a beam of light.
• The Order Church procession pressured the Wandering Court’s wagon to clear the road, while Rorschach saw a dim spiritual glow beneath the carriage’s coverings.
• Rorschach’s soul was pulled toward the concealed object, and he was lifted into the Astral Realm, where a colossal hand hurled what seemed to be a dying star at him.
• Charles XVI issued a decree dissolving the Royal Decree Courts, and Duplessis condemned the king’s decision as reports of unrest arrived from the northern districts.
• Duplessis ordered Auditors to supervise temporary courts, holy knights to arrest only leading agitators, and officials to restrict press coverage and public speeches.

Duplessis prepared for possible unrest in the Northern District while Father Joseph dealt with a dangerous ritual involving Brother Odysseus's sword. After the sword corrupted and consumed a bishop, Joseph subdued it but could not purify it, leaving plans to seal it and move it to St. Miller's Cathedral.

• Charles XVI asked Duplessis about the judges and was advised to prepare royal troops in case unrest broke out in the Northern District.
• Father Joseph told Duplessis that Wigram's ideas were spreading through the Church and that the sword was about to arrive.
• Wigram's Order of the Sword of Judgment held rituals with Brother Odysseus's sword, and a bishop was consumed when its evil power overwhelmed him.
• Joseph seized the sword with a golden light, suppressed its evil power, and ordered the object sealed and the ritual participants investigated.
• Joseph planned to take the sword to the kingdom's largest St. Miller's Church and purify it with a mass.

Rorschach tracked a Church procession carrying an Evil Sword to St. Miller's Cathedral, where Duplessis suppressed it and postponed its purification until the Ascension Festival. Later, Mr. Falcon warned Rorschach that the Empire would impose a grain embargo and that a large quantity of Holy Mother Cult items had been smuggled toward the Holy Kingdom.

• Rorschach followed the procession to St. Miller's Cathedral and identified Joseph and Duplessis among those who entered.
• Duplessis drew the Evil Sword, restored its radiance, and ordered the Church to prepare for its purification during the Ascension Festival.
• Rorschach told Master Kano about the sword and its suspected connection to Mother Earth, and Kano agreed to ask the Church about it.
• Rorschach read news of the kingdom's approaching Estates-General, troubled harvests, and political changes before meeting Mr. Falcon.
• Mr. Falcon told Rorschach that the Empire planned a grain embargo and that checkpoints had intercepted some shipments of Holy Mother Cult items bound for the Holy Kingdom.

Rorschach learned that the Empire had suspended food exports, worsening Valuana’s grain shortage, and Master Kano assigned him to help investigate a new wave of Underground Cult activity. The Star Robe Mages’ surveillance traced the gathering signs of the Return Mother Cult to St. Miller’s Cathedral.

• Rorschach finished copying blueprints and planned to leave the Holy Kingdom for Bayern, hoping to bring Andre and his family with him.
• Master Kano barred Rorschach from the Non-Magic Replacement Technology Experimental Group after the Empire’s food export ban stirred suspicion in Valuana.
• Kano sent Rorschach to assist the Star Robe Mages in investigating Underground Cult members and evil creatures entering the Holy Kingdom.
• Rorschach joined Captain Jean’s armed unit and recognized two Full-Plate alchemical warriors from the Alchemy Department.
• Pavad showed Rorschach a map of Mother Earth auras converging on St. Miller’s Cathedral.

Rorschach and the Star Robe Unit were delayed by a bread protest that swelled into a crowd of women entering the Royal Palace to petition the King. Charles XVI promised to restore bread supplies, then ordered harsh action against hoarders and summoned the Estates-General and Necker.

• Rorschach saw hungry women protest a bakery’s high prices and empty shelves as the crowd grew and marched toward the Royal Palace.
• The women pushed past hesitant guards and entered the palace, where the Captain of the Guard fired a shot and then retreated into Queen Mary’s tea room.
• The women confronted Queen Mary before Charles XVI agreed to meet them and promised to restore Valuana’s bread supplies and punish profiteers.
• After the women left, Charles XVI ordered grain merchants to surrender hoarded supplies, called for two offenders to be hanged, and told Duplessis to convene the Estates-General and bring Necker back.

The Estates-General opened amid conflict over the Third Estate’s numbers and voting rights, while Necker presented his reform plan. Duke Merowinger proposed separate voting by estate, threatening to defeat the reforms, and Maxim objected.

• The First Estate demanded a review of representatives’ qualifications and proposed limiting the Third Estate’s numbers, but the Third Estate refused to stand apart.
• Charles XVI opened the Estates-General and called for unity and new resources to rescue the kingdom.
• Necker presented his financial and administrative reform plan, which excited the commoner representatives.
• Duke Merowinger proposed that each estate vote separately and that at least two estates approve any reform plan.
• Maxim objected to Duke Merowinger’s voting proposal.

Maxim challenged voting by estate, and the Third Estate formed its own parliament after the Mages and many lower-ranking clergy joined them. The nobles left in anger, while an upheaval in Valuana soon shattered order, though Rorschach did not know exactly what had happened.

• Maxim argued that representatives should have equal votes, and the Third Estate demanded voting by headcount.
• King Charlie avoided taking a position, while his unequal treatment of the Third Estate further angered its representatives.
• After days of deadlock, the Third Estate threatened to form its own parliament and draft laws.
• Pascal announced that the Tower of Stars supported the Third Estate, and the Mages joined its seats.
• At least half of the Church's representatives joined the new parliament, leaving the nobles isolated and prompting them to storm out.
• The Third Estate celebrated its control of the hall, but an upheaval in Valuana soon shattered order.

Rorschach watched the Order Church’s Ascension Day High Mass as hunger and political unrest spread through Valuana. The Mass’s supernatural decree affected those nearby, but Rorschach resisted it, and Jean explained the festival’s origins as the ceremony continued.

• Rorschach learned that Pavad’s Star Robe Unit and the Alchemy Department were using a new underground passage to deliver captured Earth Mother cultists to St. Miller’s Cathedral.
• Rorschach wrote Andre a letter of introduction so Bart could help Andre’s family settle in Bayern, as scarcity and unrest worsened in the royal capital.
• Clerics debated how to aid the starving, while others longed for God to deliver a judgment; Duplessis and Joseph continued preparing for Ascension Day.
• Rorschach noticed the crowd gathering for High Mass, and Duplessis’s command, “Go forth, you are sent!” made him want to leave, but he resisted it as Jean helped Pavad break free.
• The cardinal urged the faithful to help and love one another through the coming winter, and the church distributed communion bread to the crowd.
• Jean gave Pavad sweet rations and told Rorschach that Ascension Day had originally been a southern harvest festival before the Order Church adopted it.

Rorschach and his companions discovered that Mother Earth's aura had spread across Valuana as a divine ritual unleashed Seraph, an angel of the Lord of Light and Order. They escaped the collapsing cathedral, and Seraph turned toward the cultists in the eastern outskirts.

• Pavad's map test revealed green marks across the city, especially in the eastern outskirts, showing Mother Earth's aura had spread widely.
• As cultists and church forces clashed, St. Miller's Cathedral broke apart and rose into the sky beneath a strange aurora.
• Joseph confronted the Grey Robe Knight, whose body and the Evil Sword erupted with power as Seraph descended and absorbed nearby believers.
• Jean drove Rorschach and the others through an underground passage while Rorschach held off Seraph's crimson lightning with his Deity Expulsion ray.
• Seraph left the cathedral and swung its greatsword toward the eastern outskirts, where the cultists' hallucinogenic ritual turned into a scene of terror and death.

Seraph destroyed the Return Mother cult and then attacked Starlight Torch Tower, where the Mages used the String System to stop it. Rorschach channeled Divine Power Exorcism through the tower, erasing the archangel and ending the threat over Valuana.

• The Lord’s judgment destroyed the Return Mother cult’s strongholds and pulled its corrupted souls, relics, and ritual objects into Seraph’s abyssal mouths.
• Seraph devoured Mother Earth, then became engulfed in flames and hurtled toward Starlight Torch Tower as Rorschach and Jean rushed there.
• Snow ordered the Alchemy Department to route both aether generators into the tower’s String System while Kano and Professor Poincaré held Seraph back.
• The tower unleashed a powerful Ice Ray, but it failed to stop Seraph, whose roar revealed its suffering to the Mages.
• Rorschach wrapped himself around the tower’s support pillar and cast Divine Power Exorcism through the String System, sending a wave across Valuana that dissolved Seraph.
• Seraph vanished, the black clouds scattered, and moonlight fell over the scarred city.

Rorschach met Duplessis in the ruined, floating St. Miller's Cathedral after Seraph was driven from the material world. Duplessis explained the Church's decline and sent Rorschach to investigate Istarani, while the kingdom's citizens armed themselves after the Seraphim Cult Calamity.

• Rorschach returned to St. Miller's Cathedral and learned from Duplessis that Seraph had been driven out of the material world.
• Duplessis described how the Church's power depended on mystical and political order, both of which were collapsing.
• Rorschach concluded that the Lord of Order had guided events so the angel's arrival and the Mages' intervention would eliminate Mother Earth's contamination across the continent.
• Duplessis asked Rorschach to investigate Istarani, where signs pointed to the cults' support, and said the Lord of Order had promised him a chance to advance to Archmage there.
• Duplessis said he was tired and that the kingdom no longer needed a Cardinal Chancellor.
• After the Seraphim Cult Calamity, bishops left the capital for their dioceses or the Eternal City, and the citizens began arming themselves.

George Jacques and other progressives stirred Valuana’s citizens into arming themselves, and the National Guard captured the Bastille as unrest spread across the kingdom. Charles XVI returned from hunting and wrote that nothing had happened, only to learn the people had risen up.

• George Jacques and Carral spread claims that the nobles and cultists were conspiring against the National Assembly, while citizens lost trust in the Church and feared the dismissal of Duplessis and Necker.
• George Jacques led an agitated crowd into City Hall, where Royal Guards defected and the citizens seized weapons and barricaded Valuana’s streets.
• Citizens formed the National Guard, and Marquis Gilbert led them against the Bastille, where newly arrived cannons destroyed the fortress’s artillery positions and forced its commander to surrender.
• The National Guard entered the Bastille and freed its prisoners, while armed commoners across the kingdom attacked castles and burned records of land ownership.
• Charles XVI returned from hunting, wrote “Nothing happened today” in his diary, and learned from his Captain of the Guard that the people had seized the Bastille in an uprising.