Chapter Summaries

Rorschach rode his Pneumatic Car with Master Humboldt and Chancellor Otto, explaining how the Alchemical device worked as Humboldt learned about driving. Otto left for the Royal Palace, while Humboldt accompanied Rorschach toward Kempston, where Rorschach recharged the car’s potion as Andre warned him not to overdo it.

• The Chancellor, Master Humboldt, and three mages boarded Rorschach’s unusual car, and Rorschach explained its Pneumatic Engine to Humboldt.
• Humboldt got out of the driver’s seat and moved to the back, letting Andre drive while Humboldt asked questions and learned about the car.
• The Chancellor asked Rorschach about the car’s cost and operation, and Rorschach described the possibility of making cars widely available.
• At the Royal Palace, Otto thanked Rorschach and entered with his waiting secretary and guards, while Humboldt chose to continue with Rorschach toward Kempston.
• Rorschach pumped magic into the car’s Alchemical Potion, and Andre warned him that too much would make the cylinder explode.

Rorschach drove Master Humboldt and Chancellor Otto from Munich to Kempston, where Humboldt described the Empire’s turmoil and the Emperor’s incurable illness. As they arrived, Humboldt warned Rorschach that the chancellor’s arrival marked the end of Bayern’s peaceful days.

• Rorschach drove Humboldt and Chancellor Otto along Bayern’s newly built roads, impressing Humboldt with the smooth journey.
• Humboldt explained that Otto had avoided air travel because he feared an airship crash caused by sabotage, and that he had helped Otto enter Bayern discreetly through a Teleportation Array.
• Humboldt described the Imperial Capital’s factional infighting, the Crown Prince’s strained relations with the chancellor, and the controversy over Helmut’s appointment as marshal.
• Humboldt revealed that he had failed to cure a distinguished patient—the Emperor, whose cancer-like lesion was caused by the Flesh and Blood Curse.
• After the carriage arrived in Kempston, Humboldt warned Rorschach that Otto’s arrival in Bayern would bring an end to the peaceful days.

Rorschach and Humboldt agreed to cooperate on studying agriculture’s effects on nature, while King Albert and Chancellor Otto clashed over Bayern’s wartime autonomy and the Empire’s leadership. Albert demanded that Bayern be treated as an ally with greater rights, leaving the negotiations unresolved.

• Humboldt examined Rorschach’s farmland, found its soil highly fertile but ecologically distorted, and praised Rorschach for considering the risks of intensive agriculture.
• Rorschach and Humboldt agreed that the Tower of the Forest would work with them on studying and protecting nature.
• Chancellor Otto confronted King Albert over the Bayern Legions’ withdrawal without prior Imperial approval.
• Albert argued that Bayern would not surrender its army to Imperial command if the Empire’s war against Valois became a campaign of conquest and plunder.
• Albert demanded equal standing for Bayern as an ally or the restoration of the old system of electors.

Chancellor Otto left his tense meeting with King Albert without agreeing to Bayern’s independence demands and traveled toward Kempston to investigate Rorschach and the steel mill. On the road, he studied Rorschach’s classified Agency file, still unable to understand the young Spellcaster.

• King Albert said Bayern wanted independence, and Otto replied that any agreement required the Emperor and Imperial Council’s approval.
• Otto told Albert that he was considering a retirement home in the Empire, and Albert welcomed him to Bayern.
• After leaving the palace, Otto said he had not decided whether to negotiate and ordered his party to travel to Kempston.
• Otto planned to inspect Kempston Steel Mill and judge its strength and Rorschach’s potential influence on Bayern.
• Otto reopened Rorschach’s classified file and reviewed the gaps in his Agency records and the strange circumstances surrounding the organization’s collapse.

The Chancellor traveled to Kempston and was astonished when its residents greeted his convoy with a large roadside welcome. After learning how quickly the reception had been organized, he grew more impressed with Rorschach and Bayern’s potential.

• The Chancellor’s convoy traveled overnight on the new road, and guards reported seeing several unusually fast birds.
• Near Kempston, the convoy encountered crowds welcoming the Chancellor, with a banner identifying the event as organized by Kempston New District and the Steel Mill.
• Bart prepared to greet the convoy, while Andre reassured him about the ceremony.
• Tanya’s Sky Knight Squadron confirmed that the convoy belonged to the Chancellor and reported its route and travel stops.
• Bart rallied the crowd, then rode to the convoy and welcomed the Chancellor as his carriage advanced through the cheering residents.
• The Chancellor observed the orderly, energetic crowd, waved to them, and raised his assessment of Rorschach and Bayern’s potential.

The Chancellor toured Kempston’s factory, saw its advanced smelter and agricultural constructs, and recognized Bart’s abilities. In a private meeting, he proposed electoral reform that could give Bart a path into the Imperial Council through a newly defined western district.

• Bart and Andre showed Otto the factory and explained how the constructs could serve as farm tools.
• Otto heard how Bart had settled refugees and became more interested in him as a potential ally.
• After Andre left the meeting room, Otto asked Bart whether he wanted to enter the Imperial Council and said Bayern’s current system made that nearly impossible.
• Otto described the Empire’s planned electoral reform and sketched a preliminary map dividing Bayern into three districts.
• Otto grouped Lanster and Kempston in a western district with at least three seats and urged Bart to fight for equal status with an Imperial free state.

After an accident at the Coking Plant, Rorschach and Caroline traveled to the Air Element Plane to investigate the danger behind the exhaust portal. They arrived above a battlefield, where the native creatures stopped fighting and began worshipping them.

• The Chancellor learned that Rorschach had established a self-governing special zone within the Kingdom of Bavaria and suspected it might eventually develop its own armed forces.
• Rorschach examined Hannah and Martin's report on an Air Element Sprite that had escaped into the gas tank and caused an explosion.
• Rorschach decided to investigate the Air Element Plane rather than shut the exhaust outlet, and Caroline agreed to accompany him.
• Caroline prepared summoning scrolls as a safety tether, and she and Rorschach opened a portal through the damaged exhaust outlet.
• Rorschach and Caroline emerged above the Air Element Plane's cloud-filled upper layer and saw gray-blue-skinned natives fighting on mounts and floating rafts.
• The natives spotted Rorschach and Caroline, stopped fighting, and began worshipping them.

Rorschach and Caroline discovered that the Little Blues used factory exhaust to cultivate food, but a civil war threatened the portal’s upkeep. As Rorschach prepared to intervene, a colossal creature called TunTun rose from below and approached the tribe.

• Rorschach learned from the elder that the Little Blues harvested Kabayo fungi using gases from his factory’s exhaust outlets.
• Rorschach discovered that two families were fighting over Gas Collection Wells and livestock, and he promised the elder that the portal would keep supplying useful gases if the tribe stopped fighting.
• The elder ordered the families to cease fire, but the warriors questioned the Mages and looked ready to resume battle.
• Rorschach prepared a spell to end the conflict and appoint a king, while Caroline offered to protect the portal with a barrier.
• Pterosaurs surged upward through the battlefield, and the elder warned Rorschach and Caroline that TunTun devoured everything.
• Rorschach saw the outline of TunTun’s enormous mouth rising through the clouds toward him and Caroline.

Rorschach used a dangerous spatial spell to destroy the Kronos Sky-Beast, TunTun, after it threatened the gas wells and factories. The blast tore a hole through the Air Element Plane, giving its native little blue people their first view of the sky.

• The pterosaurs’ growing numbers and noisy courtship attracted TunTun to the settled gas-collecting tribes.
• TunTun accelerated toward Rorschach and Caroline, and Caroline prepared to teleport them back to the Prime Material Plane.
• Rorschach refused to flee and formed a sealed black sphere from spatial distortions, while Caroline shielded them from the pterosaurs.
• TunTun swallowed the sphere, which collapsed inside its belly and distorted the beast before reaching its limit.
• The sphere expelled the energy and flesh it had absorbed, blasting TunTun through the Air Element Plane and opening a hole to the starry sky.
• The little blue people watched Rorschach and saw the sky for the first time.

Rorschach killed TunTun, ending the immediate threat at the Waste Outlet and giving the Air Sprites enough supplies to stop their civil war. He made the tribe responsible for maintaining the outlet and left the elder as his agent, while quietly encouraging the Air Sprites to direct their devotion toward him.

• Rorschach killed TunTun with a single blow, and dragons and other creatures gathered to feed on the behemoth's remains.
• Caroline stabilized the Waste Outlet, while Rorschach watched the Air Sprites collect materials scattered by the jet.
• The elder promised that the tribe would stop fighting, and the heads of the two great families agreed to end the civil war.
• Rorschach told the Air Sprites to settle disputes peacefully and appointed the elder as his agent to oversee the Waste Outlet.
• Rorschach taught the elder a symbol pointing toward him as Caroline teased him about the tribe worshipping him.

Rorschach and Caroline explored the upper atmosphere of the Air Element Plane and discovered that its lighter gases could improve airship safety. They returned with the idea of developing an Air Creation Technique, while Rorschach left to meet Chancellor Otto.

• Rorschach and Caroline ascended until the air grew too thin to breathe and isolated a small space with an Aether Membrane.
• Rorschach tested an oxygen candle and an airbag, concluding that the upper layer contained hydrogen and other gases lighter than those in the Prime Material Plane.
• Rorschach explained that the lighter gases could improve airship safety, and Caroline agreed to investigate an Air Creation Technique based on Water Creation.
• Rorschach and Caroline descended to the Blue Elves’ banquet, where the elder offered Rorschach a beautiful member of the tribe, but Rorschach refused the gift.
• Caroline opened a temporary portal for Rorschach to leave, and he prepared to meet Chancellor Otto.

Chancellor Otto met with Rorschach over a meal and described how retired officers and Spellcasters had formed an extremist network that pushed the Empire into war. The chapter left Rorschach connecting the group to the assassination attempt before Bart’s wedding.

• Chancellor Otto questioned Bart about Bayern, then invited Rorschach to dine with him at the Steel Mill.
• The Chancellor’s secretary inspected and purified the meal before the Chancellor explained that attacks on the Empire’s upper ranks had increased.
• Chancellor Otto gave Rorschach a file on his past and explained that a mage intelligence organization had absorbed the Agency after the war began.
• The Chancellor described how retired officers and Spellcasters organized through the Retired Officers’ Club and secretly agitated for war.
• Rorschach connected the extremists’ use of violence to the assassination attempt before Bart’s wedding.

Rorschach met Imperial Chancellor Otto, exchanged intelligence and technological proposals, and received files revealing his former agency codename. He then gathered the special zone’s leaders and asked whether they should align with Bavaria, Valois, the Empire, or no one.

• Rorschach learned that assassinations of resident mages had likely been suppressed by the Army Mages, and Otto revealed that Rorschach’s agency codename had been Ibis.
• Rorschach proposed combining Telepathy Spell and Electric Claw to create a long-range magical communication system, and Otto promised serious consideration.
• Rorschach told Otto that he planned to develop a stable new light gas for airships, while Otto discussed the Empire’s small-district electoral reform.
• Rorschach sealed the conference room and told Bart, Mr. Hase, Caroline, Andre, and Valan that the special zone’s growth had attracted the Imperial Chancellor’s attention.
• Rorschach asked the gathered leaders whether their force should side with the Bavarian royal family, Valois, the Empire, or none of them.

Rorschach told the meeting that the chancellor had proposed an Empire-recognized free state with its own constituency, then urged the group to strengthen the special zone rather than focus only on seats in the Imperial Capital. Valan’s report showed Bayern’s economy weakening outside Rorschach’s industries, and Bart later revealed that he hoped Amelia could represent Würzburg if the royal family fell.

• Mr. Hase mistook Rorschach’s question about whom to serve as a hint that Rorschach might seek a crown.
• Rorschach explained the chancellor’s free-state proposal and asked whether the group would send representatives to the Imperial Capital.
• Valan reported that Bayern’s exports and traditional workshops were suffering as the Empire tightened control over the southern states.
• Rorschach warned that their prosperity depended too heavily on wartime trade and urged them to improve conditions in the special zone.
• Bart told Rorschach that Amelia could win support in Würzburg if she ran for office after the king and prince were gone.

Rorschach found Caroline in his Mage Tower and helped with her research into locating the Air Element Plane. Caroline proposed adapting the legendary origins of Water Creation into an Air Creation Technique, and they concluded that the Boundary Land could connect the spell to the elemental plane.

• Rorschach entered the Mage Tower and found Caroline working in the workshop.
• Rorschach helped Caroline with her calculations, using the Tower Spirit to handle the difficult mathematics.
• Caroline described the legend of the sage who made the Water Creation spell with Ceres’s help, then suggested using it as a model for an Air Creation Technique.
• Caroline explained that ancient divine battles had made teleportation within the Main Plane more difficult than travel between planes.
• Caroline proposed registering the Arcane Seal with the Tower Spirit in the Boundary Land to connect to the Air Element Plane.

Rorschach and Caroline completed the Air Creation Technique, a new exclusive spell intended to supply gas to the Empire’s airships, and debated the consequences of wartime technology. They planned to seek a route back to the Tower of Stars, while Kano’s research into the Astral Realm advanced amid the Republic’s upheaval.

• The Boundary Land’s Golden Tree had grown as spell uploads, new users, and diverted faith strengthened it, and Rorschach and Caroline refined the Air Creation Technique’s gas-extraction model.
• Caroline questioned Rorschach about helping the Empire build airships that would attack Valuana, and he argued that war would spread technology beyond the battlefield.
• Caroline urged Rorschach to cherish lives and apologized for judging him, and he thanked her for helping complete the exclusive spell.
• Rorschach offered to ask Master Kano about a cross-border route so he and Caroline could visit the Tower of Stars, and Caroline welcomed the idea.
• Kano continued his research as executions and political divisions worsened in Valuana, and Transmutation Dust Extractors created weak regions that brought his team closer to entering the Astral Realm.

Kano and the Tower of Stars studied how their Transmutation Dust Extractors could create thinner regions in the Transmutation Dust Layer Flow, allowing hidden celestial bodies to become visible again. After their model produced a small improvement, Rorschach’s telegram prompted Kano to propose expanding the extractor array so he could make the crossing himself.

• Kano demonstrated to Poincare how interacting extractor flows might create a vortex and a thin region in the Transmutation Dust Layer Flow.
• Poincare warned that modeling the chaotic flow would require extensive data and calculations, but the Tower of Stars joined Kano’s research.
• Teams launched Aerodynamic Balls beneath the dust layer and used their trajectories to map its lower region and test the Blue Barriers.
• Poincare’s team produced a crude flow model and adjusted the extractors, making an anomalous patch of sky brighter.
• After receiving Rorschach’s telegram, Kano suggested adding Rorschach’s extractors to the array so he could make the crossing, and Poincare challenged his willingness to risk it.

Rorschach helped Kano and Caroline prepare a network of Transmutation Dust collectors to illuminate the stars, while Caroline joined Kano’s team at Valuana. Kano then launched alone from the Floating Pod, pushing through the dust toward the Astral Realm.

• Kano told Poincare that Caroline would support him on the ground during the dangerous project, and Rorschach arranged for her to travel to Valuana.
• Rorschach ordered Andre to adjust twenty-one Transmutation Dust Extractors, and their operation caused several dim stars to brighten.
• Caroline arrived at Valuana and took over research duties from Paulina and Kano’s team.
• Kano departed in the Floating Pod, which teleported to its highest reachable point before he left it and continued upward behind a barrier.
• Kano pressed through the Transmutation Dust Flow toward the Astral Realm as the Floating Pod’s light and sound were swallowed.

Kano crossed the Transmutation Dust Layer Flow into the Astral Realm and reached the Archetype Layer, where he verified that the Law Tree could be used to monitor spellcasting worldwide. After returning to the ground station, he warned everyone that a necromancer was preparing Transcendent Magic.

• Kano used Time Stop to pass through the Transmutation Dust Layer Flow and enter the Astral Realm.
• Kano reached the Archetype Layer, saw the Law Tree, and tested whether its nodes could reveal spellcasting across the world.
• Kano noticed a remote branch glowing with decay and Newborn, and deduced that a necromancer was preparing an eleventh-circle spell.
• Caroline prepared to forcibly recall Kano after his communication signal disappeared, while Rorschach secretly arrived and offered to search for him at the Boundary Land.
• The first forced recall failed, but Kano and Rorschach emerged from a rift above the Teleportation Array, and Kano announced that a necromancer was preparing Transcendent Magic.

Kano learned that a possible Tenth Circle necromantic spell was being prepared and had to decide whether to defend Valuana or head to Fortress of Montecchio. As he asked Rorschach to help stop the spell, the Imperial Army withdrew from the fortress, where Richard raced back after learning Major Schmidt was missing.

• Kano told Poincare and the others that the Law Tree’s eleven circles had lit up, suggesting a Tenth Circle necromantic spell was nearing activation, and directed them to alert selected Mage Towers in secret.
• Kano and his companions saw Valuana’s grim streets and heard that the National Guard had captured Fortress of Montecchio and retaken the Condé Capital, prompting Kano to suspect the Imperial Army’s chief was preparing the spell there.
• Kano asked Rorschach whether he could stop a Tenth Circle spell without the Starlight Torch Tower’s amplification, and Rorschach agreed to try.
• At Fortress of Montecchio, Hench learned that the Imperial Army was withdrawing under orders from higher command and concluded the retreat was meant to lure the National Guard into overconfidence.
• Richard rode back toward the fortress after a junior officer reported that Major Schmidt had not returned, unaware that his teacher was also inside its secret chamber.