Chapter Summaries

Rorschach located Brigadier General Richard and arranged for Franz to join Richard’s unit as a servant and attend a military academy. Rorschach and Richard then discussed the Empire’s continuously operating Anti-Magic Devices and the possibility of a Dead Magic Zone along the borders, leaving Rorschach intent on researching how to cast spells within one.

• Rorschach used an Electric Wave Communication Spell to locate Richard and flew with Franz into Richard’s camp.
• Rorschach told Richard that Franz had been captured by the National Guard after claiming Rorschach was his big brother, and Richard agreed to keep Franz with his unit as a family-raised servant.
• Richard’s adjutant arranged for Franz to work as an orderly and sit in on military academy classes while being spared harsh corporal punishment and monitored in his studies.
• Rorschach told Richard that the Emperor had installed three Anti-Magic Devices in the Imperial Palace and that the Imperial Army wanted collectors for the southern front.
• Rorschach and Richard suspected that the Empire was using mithril and Transmutation Dust to power long-lasting Anti-Magic Devices, potentially creating a Dead Magic Zone along the borders.
• Rorschach doubted the devices could create a complete Dead Magic Zone and decided to research casting spells within one.

Rorschach gave Richard a miniature car and asked him to help present a luxury car to the Emperor, then traveled to the village to bring Old Merkler’s family to Bayern. He discovered signs of cult activity and found Old Merkler and the Village Chief together, with the Village Chief still guarding the box of gold.

• Rorschach gave Richard a compressed miniature car and asked him to help make cars fashionable among the wealthy by presenting one to the Emperor.
• Rorschach read Franz’s letters, then headed toward the village to bring Old Merkler’s family to Bayern.
• Rorschach sensed familiar irregular magic near the village and overheard the miller urging villagers to resist an expected grain requisition and gather at the mill.
• Rorschach found the Village Chief’s home empty, with his hunting rifle missing, and went to the Merklers’ house.
• Rorschach found Old Merkler and his wife with the Village Chief, who held the wooden box of gold Rorschach had entrusted to him.

Rorschach returned to his village, discovered that his parents had been pressured into funding an outsider’s Care and Aid Society, and learned that the village was vulnerable to both grain requisitions and cult activity. He decided to take his family to Bayern after confirming that Franz was safe, as the Mother Goddess Cult was spreading through undefended regions.

• The Village Chief asked the Merkler family to use Rorschach’s donated gold to reduce the village’s grain payments, and Rorschach appeared and agreed that grain would be more useful than money.
• Rorschach questioned his parents about an outsider miller and learned that the miller had organized the Care and Aid Society, which his father had been funding.
• Angel explained that the Merklers had supported the outsider because they feared their wealthy household would be targeted, and that their home had been robbed several times.
• Rorschach criticized his parents for hiding the danger and funding the group, then decided to bring the family to Bayern.
• Old Merkler worried that leaving would separate the family from Franz, but Rorschach showed a letter confirming Franz was safe and attending a military academy.
• Rorschach warned that the miller was stirring up the villagers and that the Mother Goddess Cult was spreading through regions left undefended by the mobilization of mages.

Rorschach discovered that the grain had been contaminated by a mutation-inducing influence, then infiltrated a cult meeting and exposed the miller’s drug-fueled scheme. He burned down the mill, captured the miller, and demanded to know what he knew as fires and murders broke out across the town and nearby city.

• Rorschach inspected the village’s stored wheat and found that magic had caused it to grow into severely mutated plants, though cooked grain was safe to eat and unlikely to pass contamination to people.
• The miller gathered his followers and urged them to resist a grain requisition by taking Powdered Medicine, making sacrifices, and sending Old Merkler’s youngest daughter to the mill.
• Rorschach punched the drugged miller into the cellar, then persuaded the villagers to burn the mill and pretend no one had been there.
• Rorschach returned to the burning cellar, restrained the miller, and demanded that he reveal everything he knew.
• Multiple murders and precise fires occurred that night in the town and nearby city.

After purifying the village and destroying a nearby den, Rorschach moved the Merkler family to Bayern while the Village Chief stayed behind to watch over the village. He then warned Alexander von Humboldt that Mother Goddess contamination was spreading through the Empire’s food supply and urged broader detection and protection, before returning to his Magic Tower to experiment.

• Rorschach performed a second purification of the village, then persuaded Old Merkler to leave for Bayern by promising land and fine liquor.
• Rorschach invited Old Melson to come with them, but the Village Chief refused because he was waiting for his dead son; Rorschach gave him supplies and a badge to signal if disaster struck.
• The Merkler family left the village with Rorschach and traveled by airship to Bayern, where Andre helped settle them.
• Rorschach presented Alexander von Humboldt with contaminated wheat seeds and samples from destroyed dens, warning that Mother Goddess cults were targeting the food supply.
• Humboldt explained that the Empire was considering installing Anti-Magic Devices in major cities, while Rorschach argued that the guild and secular institutions needed to find ways to detect and counter the contamination.
• Rorschach handed Humboldt his evidence, returned to his Magic Tower, and began experiments.

Rorschach tested a long-duration Anti-Magic Device in Bayern and discovered a way to resonate with its chaotic field. The experiment ended with him dispersed across the field, communicating telepathically while struggling to keep his matter waves from collapsing.

• The Imperial Army activated the fourth-generation Anti-Magic Devices along the Helmut Defense Line, disrupting magical communications across the northern continent.
• The Mage Guild rerouted cross-border messages through Bayern, Istarani, and the Lowland Duchy, and prepared to send written information by telegraph.
• Rorschach began a field test of his improved Anti-Magic Device with Martin, Caroline, Andre, and apprentices from the Tower of Arcane Arts.
• Rorschach explained that the device created a Dead Magic Zone and severe interference zones, then approached it to study the chaotic environmental magic power.
• Rorschach resonated his body with the device, dispersed across the field, and contacted Caroline and Andre through an unstable Telepathy Spell.
• Rorschach called off the first experiment because the Transmutation Dust powering the device was running low.

Rorschach discovered that the sustained Anti-Magic Device destabilized matter and used the resulting magic-power patterns to cast Telepathy by manipulating magic strings. He began imagining a Magic Weaver that could reshape urban spellcasting and help the Mage Guild, then continued the experiments while considering how to gain a seat in the Archaic Arcane Senate.

• Rorschach explained to Caroline that the Anti-Magic Device disrupted matter's probability distribution and might create a crack through which the Mother Goddess could enter.
• Caroline confirmed that Rorschach had dispersed the matter of his body through space, and Rorschach described how his enhanced Arcane Vision let him manipulate magic-power stripes into strings.
• Rorschach used a magic string to cast Telepathy to Caroline and Andre inside the Anti-Magic Device.
• Rorschach conceived of a Magic Weaver that could make spellcasters use magic strings and give the Mage Guild control over spellcasting in cities.
• Rorschach ordered Martin to distribute Energy Potions and told the Mages and apprentices to undergo desensitization training.
• Caroline asked what Rorschach had been thinking about, and he said he was considering using his work to join the Archaic Arcane Senate.

Rorschach published a groundbreaking paper on Anti-Magic Fields as the Empire and Mage Guild reached a temporary stalemate over anti-magic defenses. On the Western Front, Paul received a prototype Magic Weaver-equipped Mechanical Breacher as the Republic prepared to attack the Helmut Defense Line.

• Mages across the Empire researched ways to counter Anti-Magic Devices, while the Archaic Arcane Senate released Baron of Leipzig manuscripts and the Alchemy Department developed the Black Coffin System for Mechanical Breachers.
• Rorschach submitted a paper on Anti-Magic Fields, Magic Strings, and a new spellcasting method, naming Andre and Caroline as coauthors; Andre feared he could not defend the work.
• The Mage Guild's countermeasure research and the Empire Supernatural Security Control Act left the conflict over Spellcasters at a temporary stalemate by late autumn.
• The Empire and Republic prepared new offensives after the early autumn campaign, with Paul receiving a prototype Magic Weaver for the Dawn Player on the Western Front.
• Paul learned that the prototype would let the Mechanical Breacher operate inside Anti-Magic Devices only if its controller entered the Black Coffin, and he looked toward the Lowland Duchy's fortress on the Helmut Defense Line.

Paul led the National Guard’s Western Front assault on Fortress of the Blazing Sun, using Goliath Machines to draw out the duchy’s anti-magic defenses before piloting the Dawn Player through them. An Istarani ironclad and rival Istarani forces then joined the battle, while the Empire and its allies launched major offensives against Valois from the east and south.

• Paul ordered six Goliath Machines forward as bait, and the fortress’s anti-magic devices stopped them while Pascal led the ground forces’ attack.
• Seven more Goliath Machines approached, but Paul’s Dawn Player adapted to the Magic Weaver and advanced through the fortress defenses.
• An Istarani ironclad appeared offshore and fired on the battlefield, but Paul used a Lagging Spell to catch and throw one of its shells.
• Istarani Royal Exiles and the Istarani Republic entered the battle on opposing sides, and the Republic helped Valois breach the Empire’s Western Front barrier.
• The Empire’s three army groups invaded northeastern Valois through Bayern, while nations allied with the Order Church advanced into Valois’s southern grain-producing regions.

Rorschach briefed the Special Zone’s committee on the powers preparing for total war and proposed that Bayern quietly take control of transport routes and mineral resources in territories the Empire captured. Bayern would preserve its forces and avoid governing or fighting the local population as the wider conflict approached its decisive stage.

• Andre told Rorschach that the Senate had passed the wartime bill in all three districts, as Bayern mobilized industry and connected its railways to the Empire’s.
• Rorschach explained that the Empire, Valois, and other powers had gained the capacity to wage total war, while Istarani and the Order Church’s coalition entered the conflict.
• Rorschach told the committee that Bayern should stay out of direct combat and quietly take over transport routes and mineral resources in the Empire’s newly captured territories.
• The Steel Mill director understood that Bayern could support the Empire’s war effort in exchange for access to occupied resources, while local Valoisians continued governing their territory.

Bayern and the Empire shifted production toward military logistics as the Empire mobilized young citizens and fought off a Valoisian breakout with poison gas. With the Lowland Duchy surrendered to the Valois-I coalition, Paul persuaded the war council to adopt tactics built around simultaneous breakthroughs and rapid attacks on enemy rear positions.

• Bayern redirected factories and refining plants to produce transport vehicles, fuel, and supplies for the Empire’s war effort.
• Imperial recruitment squads seized Olaf and sent him through training to the eastern section of the Helmut Defense Line.
• Olaf’s trench unit fought off a National Guard attack, but the enemy’s poison gas nearly killed him until his elven comrade cast an Air Filtration Bubble.
• The Empire’s Eastern Front campaign wiped out many Valoisian forces, while the Lowland Duchy’s surrender increased the threat to the Imperial Capital.
• Paul argued that human-wave assaults would fail against fortified defenses and proposed simultaneous breakthroughs followed by cavalry raids and supporting advances into the enemy rear.

As the Republic and the Empire committed their main forces to competing offensives, Paul urged the National Guard to advance toward the Imperial Capital and force a decisive battle. In Besan, Maxim met Rorschach for negotiations, having decided to leave the center of power after this final act for the Committee for National Salvation.

• Paul argued that the National Guard should use its advance toward the Imperial Capital to draw in and cripple the Imperial Army's Western Front forces, and the generals supported him.
• Paul insisted the army had to keep advancing because Valuana's defenses could buy time and the Republic could no longer supply its massive force.
• The Committee for National Salvation fortified Valuana, preparing defenses around the capital and in the east.
• Imperial troops passed through Besan after seizing supplies and disarming residents, while Byernians later recruited locals for mining work and drove off a crowd with Four-legged Iron Monsters.
• Maxim arrived secretly in Besan and met Rorschach, explaining that he had come to represent the Senate and Bayern and that he was leaving the center of power.

Maxim and Rorschach negotiated a secret agreement in which Bayern would secretly supply Valois and return its occupied territory if Valois held out and won a major victory. After William II rejected the Mage Guild’s appeal, Rorschach marked the agreement as the Archaic Arcane Senate’s first judgment of death against the Empire.

• Maxim decided to withdraw from the committee’s affairs but proceeded with secret negotiations on its behalf.
• Rorschach offered Valois protected administration of the occupied territory and secret deliveries of industrial goods, including twenty percent of mineral output.
• Maxim and Rorschach agreed that Valuana must hold out until December and the National Guard Western Front must win a major victory for Bayern to return the occupied territory.
• Maxim explained that the Mage Guild and Archaic Arcane Senate, rather than Bayern alone, were key to the agreement’s meaning.
• William II rejected the Mage Guild chairman’s appeal against a citywide spellcasting ban and had him escorted from the Imperial Palace.
• After receiving the chairman’s report that talks with William II had failed, Rorschach marked the agreement with Alchemical Ink, declaring the Archaic Arcane Senate’s first judgment of death against the Empire.

Maxim signed an agreement with Rorschach, who defended the Mages’ approach to changing society and warned Maxim that he was in danger of becoming isolated. Meanwhile, Paul’s Western Army Group reached Sasan, where Rat Speakers helped protect and coordinate the advance as the National Guard prepared to face the Empire’s main defensive force.

• Maxim questioned Rorschach’s methods, and Rorschach explained that the Mages sought to build a new order rather than rule through violence.
• Rorschach told Maxim that equality required making magic or comparable power available to everyone, then warned him to guard against isolation and danger.
• Paul reviewed the Western Army Group’s strength and relied on Istarani Rat Speakers to keep Imperial airships from bombing the advancing troops.
• The army reached Sasan and received a Rat Speaker relay report that the Empire had concentrated its main defensive force around the province’s main city.
• Paul ordered the entire army to prepare for battle.

Paul anticipated an early Imperial attack and launched the National Guard against the enemy’s northern defenses, but Imperial Chain Shot disabled several giant machines. The Guard exploited the breach to surround the Imperial Army in the east, while a delayed order from the Emperor arrived as the Imperial commander faced defeat.

• Paul ordered the National Guard into position and predicted that the Imperial eastern troops would try to flank his main force.
• The National Guard sent Iron Giants through smoke toward weak points in the northern defenses, while the Rat Speaker disabled two Imperial airships and an Impact Type device briefly disrupted the giants.
• Imperial Chain Shot tangled the Iron Giants’ legs and toppled three machines, so Paul committed the cavalry and ordered the Guard Regiments and artillery to attack the eastern Imperial Army.
• National Guard infantry widened the northern breaches, and cavalry struck behind both the northern line and the eastern formation, trapping the eastern Imperial troops under artillery fire and Guard assaults.
• An order from His Majesty the Emperor reached the Imperial commander too late, and the furious commander punched the Army Mage who relayed it.

General Galisha revealed his plan to defend Valuana by striking the Imperial Army as it crossed the Rhine, and the National Guard launched a massive counterattack along the river. The fighting raged around the Rhine-Sene confluence as Galisha ordered Valois's troops to stop retreating and fight to the death, while the battle spread into the skies.

• General Galisha warned the National Assembly that Imperial forces were approaching along the Rhine and demanded full mobilization for Valuana's defense.
• After non-committee delegates left, Galisha explained his plan to the Military Committee to defeat the Imperial Army at the Sene-Rhine confluence.
• The Imperial Army's crossing began under rain and mud, and Galisha's forces attacked across a 220-kilometer front while many enemy units lacked artillery.
• Valuana mobilized additional corps, carriages, river vessels, and secretly hidden Bayern-made trucks to bring soldiers and supplies to the front.
• Three National Guard corps held the former royal hunting grounds at the confluence, and Galisha ordered every able unit to attack and every other unit to hold its position rather than retreat.
• The fighting spread across the riverbanks, and at daylight spellcasters from both sides contested the sky.

Imperial and Valoisian airships fought a disastrous battle in the skies while Major General Richard Hench recognized that the Empire could not hold its long front against the approaching Istarani army. Hench ordered a withdrawal, and Kano prepared Aurora One for launch as the Rhine River battle ended.

• Imperial and Valoisian airships clashed, and several vessels were destroyed when Valoisian crews used their gas bags as aerial bombs.
• Major General Richard Hench learned that the Istarani army was approaching the Royal Hunting Grounds and realized the Imperial Army had no reserves to reinforce the threatened front.
• Hench ordered the Imperial forces to withdraw, citing their failed objective and the danger of leaving the Empire undefended.
• After the Rhine River battle lasted through the night, Kano learned the Imperial Army was withdrawing and ordered preparations to launch Aurora One.

Kano oversaw the launch of the Mage Guild’s first starship as it rose above Valuana and crossed beyond the atmosphere. The vessel and its passengers faced their most dangerous test ahead: passing through the Transmutation Dust Layer Flow.

• Kano went to the command center atop Starlight Torch Tower while airships from both sides remained locked in a tense standoff over Valuana.
• A brilliant light appeared west of the battlefield as the starship launched, prompting the opposing forces to halt their attacks and lower their banners.
• The starship’s engines converted Dulling Transmutation Dust into water, electrolyzed it into hydrogen and oxygen, compressed the fuel, and ignited it to produce thrust.
• The Transmutation Dust Collector arrays across the region adjusted their targets to open a passage for the starship through the turbulent flow.
• The starship climbed through the atmosphere with its passengers aboard, while Mages and students at the ground station waited for it to face the Transmutation Dust Layer Flow.

Cavendish led his team aboard the first Atmospheric Sounding Project starship through the Transmutation Dust Layer Flow. The starship safely reached its predetermined orbit, leaving the team’s breakthrough as a shared achievement of the Mage Guild.

• Cavendish and his teammates stabilized themselves with protective, calming, and healing spells as the starship climbed toward the layer flow.
• Cavendish sent a final report to the ground before the team began its course change and separated the first-stage engine.
• The starship spun through the vortices while its outer collector dulled Transmutation Dust and fed it into the second-stage engine.
• Rorschach and Caroline tracked the starship from the Boundary Land as it approached the layer flow’s upper surface.
• The starship broke through the dangerous region, slowed its rotation, and entered its predetermined orbit.

Cavendish and his crew stabilized their starship above the Transmutation Dust Layer Flow and began exploring the strange celestial fragments around them. When a Divine Kingdom fragment threatened the ship, Rorschach intervened and confronted a being who identified himself as Thoth, though he said Thoth was not him.

• Cavendish confirmed the starship had survived the dangerous passage, refueled it, and released communication spheres to report their safety.
• The crew experienced weightlessness, then activated Earth Bind, established a breathable cabin, and expanded the ship into a functioning base.
• Cavendish struggled to steer around dangerous celestial debris and a Divine Kingdom fragment that drew close to the starship.
• Rorschach recognized a familiar presence in the fragment, and Caroline sent her spirit to alert Kano before warning Rorschach not to take risks.
• Rorschach left the Boundary Land and blocked the fragment from reaching the starship.
• A figure emerged from the Divine Kingdom fragment and called Rorschach similar to the Formless God; Rorschach asked who he was, and the figure answered that he was Thoth, but Thoth was not him.