PARTIZAN 47: Operation Shackled Sun: Act 3: The Stories Told About the Things We Do

"Why do we travel the Prophet's Path? This is a question raised yearly at this time, as we prepare for our Pilgrimage. Today, a year before the Millennial Celebration, which risks overshadowing the true answer with the spectacle of anniversary, I want to give as direct and clear an answer as I can imagine. When we trace the path that Logos Kantel traveled when they first came to this moon, we retell the story of their arrival, of their miracle working, and of their devotion to progression—the determination to move beyond the draw of conquest.

Now, you might say, 'Gur Sevraq, don't we retell the stories of the prophet during nearly every service?' And we do, we do. But a story is not a simple thing. A story can change. It will shape itself around the way we tell it, or when we do. The room a story is told in seeps into the facts of the matter. The voice of the speaker, like the line of an artist, gives form to ambiguity. And, worse, there is no pure retelling. No single great orator who might be able to capture the truth, no metaphor incapable of losing its power, no choir whose songs can always, eternally lift us… or ground us, as need be.

Nothing shapes a story more than the world we are in. It can twist meaning away from us, transport us into a world of stretched mirrors and garbled echoes. And that is why we return to the Path. Whether we walk or ride across the sands, when we travel the route that the Prophet did, we do so as a stylus into clay. We know the world writes on us. And so every year, we gather so that we might write back on it."

• An Excerpt from a Sermon by Gur Sevraq, leader of the Church of the Resin Hart, circa 1422

This week on PARTIZAN: Operation Shackled Sun: Act 3: The Stories Told About the Things We Do

///Operation Dossier\\\

//Organizations\\

The Curtain of Divinity: Though Kesh is technically governed through an elaborate parliamentary democracy, the truth is that The Curtain of Divinity, a secretive organization inside of the Stel (and with agents across all of the Principality), serves as the actual power behind the throne. Knowledge of the Curtain is carefully guarded, and its membership is even further protected. Currently, the Curtain is most firmly aligned with Kesh and Nideo, and fights in an open war against the Pact of Necessary Venture and Millennium Break.

The Pact of Necessary Venture: Though they trace their lineage back to an exploratory committee founded in the late 14th century of the Perfect Millenium, the Pact was not made in earnest until five years ago in 1418 PM, soon after hostilities began between Kesh and Apostolos.

Currently, the Pact has finds its greatest support from members of Columnar and Apostolos. They are in a state of open conflict against the Curtain and Millennium Break.

Millennium Break: Dissidents, idealogues, rebels, and mercenaries. Even now, they agree on little, except this: It is time for a new Millennium.

GLORY: With the help of advanced Columnar cloning science, the Glory Project (or simply GLORY), claims to have resurrected (and made immortal) heroes of the nation's past called Eidolons. On Partizan, they field Kleos, Apothesa, Vervain, and the squad's leader: Laurel, elect of Motion.

Company of the Spade: A veteran mercenary unit founded by space miners who learned how to pilot Hollows in the most dangerous of settings. They've been brought to Partizan to combine both types of expertise.

//People\\

The Witch in Glass (she/her): A former scion of Kesh who, after knitting a bond with the adversary Perennial, came into control of the body of the Divine Past. Now scours Partizan for the lost, injured, and unsure, recruiting them into her growing city-state. A shaky ally of Millennium Break. Haunted by an old foe.

Gur Sevraq (he/them): Once the Leader of the Church of the Resin Heart, now a discontinuous prophet: One self welded to the consciousness of their greatest living rival, the other a representative of everything he once opposed. Once controlled the Divine Future, but that was lost to Stel Nideo after his great fall.

Kleos (they/them): Skin is fully like a shiny maroon. Bright red cloak wrapped around neck and hanging back like a cape, totally topless otherwise. Khaki army pant capris, a spear slung over their back, and a heavy sidearm at their waist. Pilots the Epoche.

Gucci Garantine (she/her): Defector from Stel Kesh, controller of House Brightline and HORIZON's efforts on Partizan. Now a powerful member of Millennium Break's political class, heading the Party of the Masque.

//Places\\

Girandole: The massive gas giant around which Partizan orbits. Deep within its gaseous storms rests a secret Portcullis which leads towards the space sector containing the Nobel homeworld and Autonomy Itself.

The Reflecting Pool: The city that has emerged inside of the Divine Past's body, led by the Witch in Glass. Its citizens come from every walk of life on Partizan, all united in the desire to leave the past behind and start a new life. Currently being used as a flagship for the allied forces of Millennium Break and the Witch in Glass.

Obelle: A small, seaside town between Apostolos territory to the north and the independent lands of the Prophet's Path to the south. Once a sleepy agricultural town with tiny small tourist industry, it became the starting place of the now all-consuming war on Partizan when the Divine Past was driven into the sands west of the town.

//Divines\\

The Divine Motion (she/her): Long after enemy fuel tanks run empty, Motion continues to power Apostolosian machines of war (like its infamous retinue, the Black Century) and service (including the massive Barranca Loop that allows Apostolos to regularly launch ships spaceward). Ver'MIllion Blue's rival. Has taken a new elect, Laurel, a clone of the Apostolosian war hero Cassander Timaeus Berenice, a young, yet intuitive Apostolosian commander known to be attentive and authoritative in equal measure.

The Divine Asepsis (it/its): "Cleansed and purified" Vigil City with its army of micro-mechanical servants until Millennium Break knocked it down for the count… and until Kalmera Broun took some of its parts to study in their free time.

//Things\\

The Demiurgos (aka "The Demiurge," Laurel's mech): A Pneuma model (see below) which has been modified using cutting edge research and materials, including recovered parts of the supposed "exemplar," Branched materials, stabilized Perennial Wave particles, and, of course, Motion's own divine power.

The Blue Channel: Kal'Mera's Broun's corvette. Though it's rated for spaceflight and features a cargo space large enough to hold at least three hollows, it does not have the ability to break escape velocity on its own.

"Autonomy Itself"/"The True Divine"/The God of the Nobel/The God of Logos Kantel (they/them): Granted the power to transform Partizan into a living world to Logos Kantel 1000 years ago. Guided the Nobel and other cultures in the Scutum-Centaurus arm through the course of their history.

Operation Shackled Sun: An ongoing military operation led by Motion and her allies in the Pact of Necessary Venture. Through the use of a web of space stations called The Lattice, the Pact plans to capture the raw energy of the being that is worshipped as "Autonomy Itself."

Curtain Ideograms: A vast collection of graphic symbols and code words used by the Curtain to communicate information clandestinely.

//Additional Notes\\

ACT 1 SCORE

Challenge #1: Rescue Kalar and the Figure in Bismuth

Roll 1: Kalar: 3d6, 10 Cool (spinnable - SPUN: 13)

Roll 2: Figure: 3d6, 15 Doubt (LOCKED)

Roll 3: Thisbe: 3d6 11 Cool (Spinnable - LOCKED)

Roll 4: Phrygian: 3d6 9 Doubt (Spinnable - LOCKED)

Roll 5: Figure, 3d6, 7 Cool (Spinnable - LOCKED)

Roll 6: Kalar, 3d6: 11 Doubt (Spinnable - LOCKED)

Roll 7: Thisbe: 3d6, 13 Cool (Spinnable - LOCKED)

Roll 8: N/A

Total Cool: 44

Total Doubt: 35

Act Total: 9 COOL

ACT 2 SCORE

Challenge #2: Stop the Portcullis

Roll 1: Broun: 2d6, 7 Cool (hedged, SPINNABLE - LOCKED)

Roll 2: Millie: 3d6, 12 Doubt (hedged, SPINNABLE - LOCKED)

Roll 3:SI: 3d6, 7 Cool (hedged, SPINNABLE - LOCKED)

Roll 4: Broun: 3d6, 8 Doubt (SPINNABLE - SPUN, LOCKED)

Roll 5: Mille: 3d6, 13 Doubt (SPINNABLE - LOCKED)

Roll 6: SI: 3d6, 8 Cool (SPINNABLE - LOCKED)

Total Cool: 22

Total Doubt: 33

Act Total: 11 DOUBT