3A

A –

The Allìandrõ Pact – Marriage pacts were increasingly popular on the Goth-Worlds for the entire duration of the Meritocracy of Orange & Purple. In their earliest periods, great balls were held with thousands of famous ecologists, technicians, generals and monarchs. The women wore gorgeous dresses- barring the Elizian branch of the Chestzans, known for their garish love of shiny fabrics- and the men in scandalously little but kilts (so as to show off their bio-engineered physiques, especially in regards to the mascilature so unique to men-folk). These events were described by one attendant, Lady Vikaras of Orange Heartgrove, as “glimpses of the way the world shouldst have been; beautiful desires of the Meritocracy to build a better future for the Goth-worlds and”.

However, by the time the Great Merit Allìandrõ gave the hand of Lady Shingle of Scree Defiance to Merka Shaido (known to be of dubious heritage and suspected in some quarters of ties to the Shadowmen of Hallow), it was patently clear to the common folk of the Goth-worlds that the political process of selecting leaders through marriage pacts had become problematic at best...and in all probability would be catastrophic. With the rise of the Shadowmen, each marriage diluted the Meritorious Bloodlines and gave uniformly unreliable individuals influence over the terraforming process well beyond their understandings. The marriage itself was held on the orbital satellite, Miaculo, and had well over 30, 000 attendants and 150, 000 servants. The expense set back the various oxygenating projects a quarter-century. Shaido showed early signs of his infamous defiance of tradition, eschewing the Orange from his costume and wearing a suit of only purple. It must be reluctantly acknowledged that the Great Merit pushed for the union because he sought to lessen the tensions between the increasingly hostile guilds and factions of the Meritocracy. Nevertheless, the Allìandrõ Pact was soley, clearly and patently responsible for granting the upstart usurper, Merka Shaido, the clout he thereafter dedicated to preventing the Unification Project...and thus forcing the Quiet Gentlefolk of Orange to take up arms against Orlando Correalis.

– Merium Wexter

See also: Shaido, Merka; Great Merits (The Blooded Order of)

Artificer Triumphant – Arguably one of the most important, certainly the grandest and most obtuse of the great Operas of the Death-Smiths of Goth, Articifer Triumphant was the last work of the great Death-Smith Maestro Orcini Flashist-Damogran, and is considered by many reputable scholars his magnum opus. Orcini’s good friend Rudolpho Husk; a minor stargazer and Seer of some little repute, foresaw the coming Unification War; though this scholar will in no way hypothesis how a lowly 5th level Seer received a vision of such great import when all the major Seers of the day were caught with their pants down both figuratively and literally, nor will this scholar hypothesise on the lasting impact that the resulting Pantless Feastday Massacre had upon the noble Seer’s career for the next few centuries. Digressions aside, Husk realized that the population of Death-Smiths would need to be inspired for the coming Unification War/Marketing Opportunity, so suggested to Orcini that his latest operative work could be modified to serve as a piece of Pro-Sales propaganda to boost production of the Death-Smiths wares. Given that the choice of Orcini’s final work (though it was now known this would be the case at the time) was coincidentally based upon the construction and maiden voyage of the semi-legendary Artificer Triumphant, the first great mobile foundry of the Death Smiths, and it’s subsequent hostile take over actions of several major warfleets as it swept throughout the Fourth Quadrant of Goth Space. Written to maximise impact along the Bokka Scale, the opera is performed by a standard Twelfth Period chorus of Carver Droids, with a “fleshy” ensemble of twenty-four major and minor vocal artistes. It’s first performance was arguably what motivated the Death-Smiths to begin their march; consequently the Opera is only performed in the “off-season” on the Eve of War.

– Graff Vynda-K

See also: Flashist-Damogran, Orcini; Pantless Feastday Massacre, The

Alizine – It was, funnily enough, in Daddy’s old Alizine safe that I found the collection of Orlando’s papers when I inherited the estate. I never expected anything important to be collected in the bally thing! Alizine, as far as I was aware being used for little more than a food-storage packaging. Pater, as I’m sure you’re all aware, went a little barmy before the end. Pater, as I’m sure you’re all aware, went a little barmy before the end. Supposedly it was the Correalis Family Curse, but I had a Witch-Psychiatrist tell me personally that was a load of tommy-rot. Anyhow, I consulted with Lukin, our house servant, and he told me that in the days of his youth, some 1700 years ago, Alizine had been the secure alloy of choice for protection. Both of one’s property and one’s body, it seems. Not only did Alizine Safes form an essential part of every Blooded Household, used often to keep both the Certificates of Genetic Nobility as well as any number of Heptarian Younglings (still used as currency in some more seedy places, I’m told, adorable little scamps that they are), it also served as the chief component of the Body Armour for the Colonial Guard. Of course, when I think of those beautiful telekinetic eunuchs dressed up in food cans, I can’t help but giggle. Can you imagine the great Lord Tarsal himself done up in one of those? Not to mention the fact that the Great Crash was caused by – you guessed it, the drying up of one of the Alizine refineries. Orlando built much of his fortune running smuggling rackets of Alizine something the Death Smiths would never have approved of, being so high and mighty about their control over manufacturing. It’s one of the reasons Orlando pushed so hard for unification. It’s no wonder they fell out the way they did.

– Roland Correalis XI

See also: Correalis Family Curse, Genetic Nobility