"It is done.

Even now, having seen it with my own eyes, I can scarcely believe it. I had already witnessed the confrontation in the skies of Berun between the Lady of Stars and the Pretender; I had felt the power she possessed, blazing from her like a radiant star.

But the Fox has haunted my family for generations. My ancestors were part of the coalition which sealed her centuries ago, and we kept the memory of her atrocities alive ever since, all to ensure that our vigilance would not falter.

As the one of my siblings who possessed the greatest mana potential, I was marked as his primary heir and successor. While the customs of Akitsushima generally favor male heirs, the Onmyōji have always operated differently, for raw power is more important to fulfilling our sacred duties than mere gender.

From the moment I was old enough to understand what our duty to the Dominion was, the shadow of the Fox has loomed over me. For even though she had never escaped in all the years between her sealing and the Solstice Event, we knew from our forebears' warnings that her imprisonment was far from absolute. I was taught of the atrocities she committed in Qin and the rest of our neighbours, before she crossed the sea and waged a one-abomination war against the entire Dominion.

And now, she is dead. Not just sealed away once more, but well and truly dead, never to return.

With the help of the agents from the old Division Y, now affiliated to the newly founded Mythos Suppression Authority, we were able to locate and corner her in yet another village she'd turned into her playground. I could see how this hurt my father's pride, for the Onmyōji have spent months hunting her down, only to remain several steps behind her at every turn – yet Division Y's occultists managed to locate her in a few days.

Pride, however, means nothing compared to duty, and this was precisely what my father was hoping for when he sent me to Berun to ask for assistance.

Although I stayed several kilometers from the action, my optic spells let me watch what happened as clearly as if I had been right there. The Lady of Stars led the assault, plunging down from the skies as the tip of our spear, from high enough that the Fox wasn't able to detect their presence until too late.

The Fox shed her beautiful guise then, revealing her true, bestial self. She looked like her namesake, though much larger, and made up of dark, crackling energy. It and the Lady of Stars clashed, the violence of their battle forcing the aerial mages to distance themselves. Their battle laid waste to the entire village, and those thralls which weren't dragged to safety by the mages (against their will in every case, as they all fought to remain close to their mistress even if it meant certain death) surviving.

The battle lasted for nearly an entire hour, and laid waste to much of the surrounding countryside before the Lady of Stars cut off the Fox's head with her moonlight blade. The remains were immediately secured by the Authority, incinerated in mage fire, and the ashes placed within a heavily warded coffin for transport back to the Empire, where they will be studied and eventually sealed away in the Black Vaults – a facility built by Division Y and now made available to the Authority.

Truth be told, with what I know Division Y used in the Great War and what I witnessed with my own eyes in the skies of Berun, I shudder to imagine what horrors might already be lurking in the Black Vaults, and what else will be locked away there in the years and decades to come.

It is a great relief to know that the Fox is dead, but there is still much to be done. Her thralls must be rounded up, and the damage she caused during her rampage across Akitsushima must be repaired. The image of Imperial perfection on which so much of our social order rests has been badly shaken, since we were forced to rely upon the intervention of foreigners to defeat the demon plaguing our land.

It is my personal belief, and my father's as well, that joining the new League of Nations is the best path forward to prevent further chaos. Not only will the Berun Protocols and the Mythos Suppression Authority hopefully stop such a disaster from happening again, but the Dominion becoming part of the international scene in such a manner should turn the people's minds away from our failures to protect them …"

From the personal writings of Sakura Adashino, diplomatic envoy of the Akitsushiman Dominion to the League of Nations, November 12th, 1926.


"Operation Wermut began on December 18th, 1926, at 4:00 AM, local time.

Units from the Brazilian and Unified States Armies converged on the AO, which covered several hundred square kilometers of forested area. Approximately forty thousand mundane soldiers were deployed alongside units from Research Group 51 and Division Y, with Director Serebryakov overseeing things alongside the American generals from the command center. Communication lines were maintained using both technological and magical means, with each unit having at least a pair of combat mages assigned to it.

At 4:27 AM, the first contact with the enemy was reported : a mix of human cultists suborned to the Hierophant's will and monsters (later categorized as Class Three and Four Mythos entities). Thanks to the preparations of the coalition forces, casualties remained acceptable, and the armed forces were able to link up at the pre-planned locations, encircling the target.

With the cordon solidly in place, at 7:38 AM, Regentrix von Degurechaff led a team of twenty aerial mages through the spatial gate leading to the dimensional pocket where the Hierophant had been hiding since the defeat of a previous iteration of the Usurper by a coalition of the local powers of the era. There, they engaged the Hierophant, along with a number of Fiends it had created from the individuals drawn to him in the months since the Solstice Event.

For more details on what was found on the other side of the gate, please consult the individual interviews conducted on the members of the team post-operation, which are in this report's annexes. The honor of dealing the final blow to the Hierophant went to Aerial Mage Zerayah.

With the demise of the Hierophant, the dimensional pocket began to crumble. Regentrix von Degurechaff had to exert her power to keep it from collapsing before her team could escape. Communications were re-established with the kill-team at 8:17 AM, as soon as they left the dimensional pocket.

As happened with the Fox, the death of the Hierophant didn't free those it had enslaved, even if they were still human. Those who were taken alive were remanded into the custody of the MSA, who will work to break their indoctrination with the Regentrix's own assistance.

At 10:30 PM, Operation Wermut was officially declared a success. The Brazilian Emperor thanked the Mythos Suppression Authority for its help, and made a public declaration of his intent to have his country join the League of Nations as a signatory member. In addition, Aerial Mage Zerayah has been offered the Medal of Merit, the highest honorific which the Brazilian Empire can bestow upon a foreigner.

At time of writing, the site of the collapsed portal has been confirmed by experts to be harmless, and has been opened to archaeologists under the supervision of the Brazilian government …"

Extract from the internal MSA report on Operation Wermut, filed on January 17th, 1927.


NEW YEAR DAWNS ON NEW ERA

With the Great War over and the League of Nations celebrating its first two successes in the Far East and South America, it truly seems that a page of History has been turned.

Though the Empire has suffered much in the last few years, from the long rolls of the honored dead having fallen in the Great War to the loss of the Imperial Family, we can look toward the future with our feet firmly planted on the ground, more resolute than ever to overcome what challenges may come.

Regentrix Tanya von Degurechaff has already proven her valor twice again since assuming the throne – not that she needed to do so, having led Division Y through the many challenges of the Great War – with the great victories won in the Far East and Southern America.

The League of Nations stands as the herald of a new world order, one illuminated by the lights of new, arcane sciences, while the people of the world are bound together in the lessons learned in the fires of the Great War …

From the headlines of the Berun Post, January 1st, 1927.


ARKHAM INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY OPENS

Yesterday, our President formally opened the new Arkham International University, during a ceremony attended by representatives from numerous nations, along with the President and Professor Nikol Teslus of the secretive Research Group 51.

Since its founding in the early years of our great nation, back when we were still an Albish colony, the city of Arkham has been the unofficial center of magical research in the USA, although our country's relative youth meant that we were ever chasing the trails left by our cousins in the Old World. As Research Group 51 advanced our understanding of arcane principles by leaps and bonds under the leadership of Professor Teslus, the city was selected as the training ground for the Professor's assistants, taught secrets of the universe which very few minds can comprehend, let alone make use of.

Now, however, the new International University whose construction was recently completed will serve an even grander purpose, as it will train the next generation of occult scientists : the best minds of all member nations of the League will be sent here, to study the inner workings of the T-Engine and other Mythos secrets shared by the members of the League under the Berun Protocols.

To ensure that the Protocols are strictly adhered to (the legacies of the Ildoan Crusade and Solstice Event being grim reminders of the consequences of skimping on safety where the Mythos is considered), the Mythos Suppression Authority has built a branch within Arkham. This branch will be tasked with monitoring the University's lesson plans and experimentation program, with full permission to intervene and forbid any action which might endanger the surrounding town.

In his speech, the President proclaimed his hope that the University will, in time, become one of the cornerstones for an era of peace and cooperation between nations …

Excerpt from the front pages of the Unified States newspaper The Philadelphia Gazette, April 5th, 1928.


"Three years after the Solstice Event and the fall of Moskva, the dread legacy of the Dark Mother has finally been contained to the satisfaction of the Mythos Suppression Authority.

The dome of concrete which was built over the Blast Site immediately following Operation Gottesmörder has been replaced and reinforced using magecraft, and the ten layers of arcane seals have been applied. The mana detection arrays around the site no longer detect any leakage through the dome, and the final examination of Being K's corpse before its sealing showed no trace of self-resurrection.

Per standard procedure, the occultists who performed the final checks were quarantined upon exiting the Blast Site and subjected to all the standard tests for Mythos influence. All of them came through clean, confirming that the Dark Mother is as dead as it is possible for an entity of that power to be.

The number of recorded encounters with surviving Progeny has dwindled in the last three years, thanks to the constant vigilance of the international task force charged with monitoring the region under the League of Nations' aegis, as well as the ongoing efforts by the government of Boragrad (formerly Josefgrad) under Premier Zhenkov to continue hunting the remains of the Dark Mother's horde.

The Okhotniki have continued to operate since the death of Being K. As per the League of Nations' charter, their treatment continues to be monitored by the Authority, both to ensure their well-being and to make sure the various governments which have appeared in Russy since the Solstice Event do not attempt to hide any further developments about them."

From the MSA report on the completion of the containment facilities surrounding the Moskva Blast Site, September 18th, 1929.


FIRST T-ENGINE POWER PLANT ONLINE ON THE EAST COAST

Today was a momentous occasion, as the first power plant using the principles of the famous T-Engine, which powered the enhanced forces deployed against the Dark Mother in Russy, went online, with such worthies as the President and the Regentrix of the Reich, Tanya von Degurechaff herself, in attendance.

The Teslus Power Plant is expected to provide enough electricity for the entire East Coast for the next ten years, at which point the forecast growth of the relevant areas will outgrow its capabilities.

With the prototype a success, plans are already being drawn to build more such facilities, not just here in the Unified States, but in every member country of the League of Nations.

The only stain on what would otherwise have been a perfect opening was a small demonstration of opponents to the station's existence, believed to be in the pocket of the American oil industry, which (quite rightly) sees the T-Engine as a threat to their revenue …

Excerpt from the front pages of the Unified States newspaper The Philadelphia Gazette, August 17th, 1930.


"To Johann-Mattaüs Weiss,

Warren Grantz, son of Mister Philipp Grantz and Mrs Dora Grantz, and Mary Sue, daughter of Mister Anson Sue and Mrs Andromeda Sue,

Request the honor of you and your wife's presence at their wedding,

On the seventeenth of May, in this the year of our Lord Nineteen Thirty-One.

The wedding shall take place within the church of Sarvin, and shall be followed by a celebration within the courtyard of Castle Schwartzstein, with dinner and dancing in the manners of the Empire and the Entente."

Wedding invitation received by Captain Johann-Mattaüs Weiss, March 2nd, 1931.


EMU WAR ENDS IN DECISIVE VICTORY

After thirty-eight days of brutal fighting, the forces of the League of Nations have finally triumphed over the bestial foe which emerged from our country's wilderness to threaten us all. Teams of soldiers in sealed suits are even now walking the battlefield with flamethrowers, incinerating the corpses of the feathered monsters.

In his press conference, the Prime Minister thanked the Mythos Suppression Authority for its invaluable assistance, and announced the establishment of a national day of mourning for those lost to the flightless horrors. The MSA is still investigating the source of the avian scourge which cost so many lives before being wiped out …

Excerpt from the headlines of The Glimmer, New Holland newspaper, December 11th, 1932.


August 4th, 1934 – Castle Schwartzstein Grounds

Günther stood in silence to Evelyn, the rest of their siblings forming a circle around their eldest sister, as a quartet of Imperial mages solemnly carried Gehrman's coffin toward their Maker's final resting place.

A lot of people from Division Y were here, including Director Serebryakov (it still felt weird to think of her with that title) and the Regentrix herself. Gehrman had been one of the oldest members of Division Y, even if his contributions to the Empire had only really taken off once Director Degurechaff had taken over – but then, he was hardly alone in that. Everyone in the Division had met him at some point, even if only in passing through the corridors of Castle Schwartzstein.

Now, they all stood here, paying homage to the brilliant if troubled mind behind Projekt P and the numerous prosthetic advancements which were even now being used by thousands of veterans of the Great War who had lost one or more limbs in battle – be they Imperial, Francois, or Legadonian.

Gehrman had lived long enough to see every Puppe become capable of speech, bridging the distance between Mythos entity and human being. It had taken time, and the road had been a difficult one, but enough experience of the world had proven enough to help each of the old Professor's creations awaken to full sapience.

In the end, he had passed away in his sleep, with Evelyn at his side. There had been nothing anyone could do : he had merely died of old age, his body no longer capable of keeping him alive, and the more arcane methods Division Y might have employed would have requested informed consent he was no longer able to give.

His final words, before falling asleep for the last time, had been to thank Evelyn for taking care of him, call her his beloved daughter, and wish her good fortune in her life from now on – proving that, at the very least, some part of him had always known the truth of his creations.

It had been as good a death as could be expected, which had come at the end of a long and fruitful life, one marred by great tragedies, but which Gehrman had raised above even as they left him scarred forever. Günther knew this. And yet, he couldn't stop himself from trembling, could not block the pain his chest, or the tears running down his orichalcum cheeks.

When the ceremony was over and only the Puppen were left standing before Gehrman's grave, Günther collapsed to his knees, and wailed and wept, soon joined by his siblings as they hugged each other and mourned for their lost father.


FRIGHTFUL TALE OF HORROR, BRAVERY AND DERRING-DO BY FAMED AUTHOR CAUSES RELIGIOUS FRENZY !

Henry Patrick Lovegrave's latest book, The Call of Michael, has hit the shelves this last Monday, to much outcry from the religious community, who consider the book (which take place during a dramatized retelling of the events which led to the destruction of the Holy See) to be blasphemy of the highest order – a denunciation which, it must be said, has likely done more to increase the sales of the novel than anything Mister Lovegrave himself could possibly have done.

Regular readers of this publication will be well acquainted with Mister Lovegrave's name, as the man has long been a figure of contention in the Unified States for his outrageous views on social mixity and civil rights – which reached their apex with his marriage to a woman descended from Southern Continent stock five years ago, a union that still isn't recognized in several States, leading to a number of tense occurrences when the author toured them to promote his books and the causes he supports. Throughout his writing career, the author has never been shy of using his works to promote his own beliefs, having heroes of all color and creed work together against the unrighteous, and the events of the Great War and the revelation of the Mythos have only made him bolder and more outspoken.

During the writing of The Call of Michael, Mister Lovegrave journeyed all the way to Europa to interview eyewitnesses to the Battle of Remula, and went so far as to apply with the Mythos Suppression Authority to be authorized to ask questions of the formerly indoctrinated population of Bovariastadt in order to best describe the unearthly effects of the Mythos on the minds of his characters.

While some may consider this distasteful, Mister Lovegrave himself insists that with all the wild speculation going around about the Mythos, not making its dangers very clear, even in a work of fiction such as his own, would be the height of irresponsibility. Asked about this, sources within the MSA have congratulated Mister Lovegrave for the depth of his research, though one of us also asked our journalist to 'remind him that access to the site itself is still forbidden to everyone not part of the Authority and on an investigation mission'.

Rumors that Mister Lovegrave may have somehow obtained an interview with General Lergen himself, or even the Regentrix, are as of yet unconfirmed, however …

From the Unified States newspaper The National Truth, September 2nd, 1938.


ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTS CONTINUE ACROSS COUNTRY

For the third consecutive weeks, cities across Albion have been disturbed by a number of anti-imperialistic protests, demanding significant changes in the policies of the Allied Kingdom.

The protesters appear to belong to the so-called 'Path of Stars', a movement born during the Great War as a result of civilians and soldiers alike growing disillusioned by the actions of their governments. Pre-eminent among their demands is that Parliament abolishes a number of laws that have been in effect for over a century, and replace them with new ones meant to 'protect the common people, rather than the pockets of the elite'.

The Path of Stars had previously made itself known with its support for the independence of the Albish colonies in the early 30s, which was part of the agreement by which the Allied Kingdom was authorized to join the League of Nations at the Berun Conference …

Excerpt from the front page of the Londinium Times, May 17th, 1940.


"We've found her. She is somewhere near the Tunguska river.

Come here as soon as possible. We don't have the assets to take care of this ourselves."

Top-secret message sent by Premier Zhenkov to Regentrix Tanya von Degurechaff, May 10th, 1942.


May 22nd, 1942 – Russy – Near the Tunguska River

From the outside, the house looked completely ordinary to the mundane eye. A small hut of wood and stone, with a roof made of dried hay – an almost painfully stereotypical fairy tale house. In a modern country, it would have looked painfully out of place, but here in Russy, the only thing surprising about it was its location, so far from any other sign of civilization.

But I knew better. I could see the layers of wards surrounding the building, keyed to its sole inhabitant. The first set were designed to keep people from approaching – after that, they got more aggressive, up to the three towers of bright shadow and dark fire which had been summoned from the Void to keep watch over the place.

It was quite the feat of spellcraft, and confirmed the intel I'd been given before this deployment. There were very few mages on the planet who could build something like this, and most of them worked for me.

I walked toward the house alone. The towers snarled and growled like guard dogs at the approach of an intruder, but didn't attack – whether out of fear or because they had been ordered not to by the house's owner, I didn't know for sure.

I knocked on the door. There was no need to be impolite, after all.

"Come in," said a voice I hadn't heard in nearly sixteen years.

I opened the door and stepped inside something straight out of a fairy tale. A bunch of wooden furniture was spread across a single room that occupied the entire space, built solidly but without frivolities. A fire was roaring in the fireplace, and shelves were full of a variety of boxes and other containers of wood, glass, and pottery.

Looking at the room through my other senses, I could see that there was a lot more to this place than met the eyes : entire sections of a vast lair were hidden away in folded corners of space, in an intricate display of staggering arcane complexity, that made the hidden strongholds of the Heresiarch and the Hierophant look like a child's attempt at drawing compared to a master's painting.

But, however fascinating such things were from an academic perspective, they weren't why I had come. For there, sitting on a rocking chair with a steaming cup in her gnarled hands, was the woman I had come to meet.

"Hello, Grandmother," I greeted the last Ancient left on the planet.

"Hello, child," she replied. "Would you like some tea ?"

Not quite the welcome I had expected, but again, there was no need to be impolite, and maybe I could even glean some valuable information before things inevitably escalated to their inevitable conclusion.

"Yes, please."

She gestured to the chair opposite her, and I sat down. It was, to my complete lack of surprise, perfectly suited for someone of my height. A cup of tea appeared on the table in front of me in the time it took me to blink, the small cantrip using just enough mana to register to my more arcane senses.

I picked up the cup and took a tentative sip, running every antidote spell I knew (which was a considerable amount). I didn't really expect the Grandmother to resort to something as base as poison, not at this late hour, but it wouldn't do to be careless.

In any event, the tea wasn't poisoned, and tasted really, really good. For several minutes, the two of us simply sat here, drinking and looking at one another.

"You killed him, then," she said eventually. She didn't sound angry, nor sad. Just … resigned.

"I did," I replied, not needing to ask who she was talking about. "In Berun, years ago. He tried to enslave me, and I refused to let that happen."

"Hmm." She took another sip. "He will come back, you know."

"Another version of him will, yes," I agreed. I didn't know whether the Grandmother was aware of the fact each instance of the Not-Man had nothing to do with the previous one, but felt revealing that fact to her would be a mistake. "In a thousand years. I intend to be here, or, barring that, for what I have built to be there to stand against him. He won't succeed again next time, or time after, or the time after that."

We still didn't know whether or not I was really immortal – or as immortal as the Ancients themselves, as I had no doubt I could be killed if someone put in the necessary effort. The thought of living that long, of seeing everything I knew change and disappear as the sands of Time eroded it away, frightened me more than a little, but I took comfort in the thought that I would still have companions like Visha throughout the long years.

"So, you have aligned yourself with the Adversary then ?" the Grandmother asked, her voice showing the first sign of anger in our conversation as she spoke the name used by the Not-Man's servants for Being X.

"No," I answered. "I don't serve him, and I never will. But he and I agree that the goals of your master are abhorrent. Do you know what his victory would actually mean ?"

I was curious about that. Being X had told me that long-lived souls eventually started remembering the Time Before, and the Grandmother had certainly lived long enough for that to become a possibility. But if she did, then why would she help him orchestrate the Solstice Event, all to bring about the Berun Conference and, more importantly, sealing my power so the Not-Man would have the opportunity to bind me to his service ?

"Of course I know, dear," she said, sounding like a teacher chiding a student who was only now catching on to something they'd been trying to make them understand for the entire lesson. "He wants to bring the Old Ones back. The ones who ruled before the Adversary and his ilk took over."

"And you are fine with that ?" I asked, not quite managing to hide the disbelief I felt.

"My own opinion on the matter is irrelevant, child. When he made me what I am, I swore to follow him and obey his commands for the rest of my life. And so I have, and so I shall."

She was being perfectly sincere, I realized. To her, keeping her word to the Not-Man was more important than anything else. I understood then that the aeons of her existence had warped her mind much like what had happened to Being X, until what was left could pass for a particularly eccentric human, but operated under completely different values.

"For what it's worth, I am thankful for your help in Moskva, even if it had hidden motives," I said. "And I am sorry it must come to this."

"Don't worry about it, dear. Now, shall we begin ?"

I put down my teacup. She did the same. For one, long moment, we stared each other down across the table.

Then I shifted forms, as did she, and we went down to the business of trying to kill one another.


"At 2:40 PM local time, the mana detection arrays deployed around the exclusion zone registered a sudden spike in mana, immediately followed by the sight and sound of an explosion of inordinate size. Analysis of the records indicate that the detonation was of a strength similar to the explosion of fifteen megatons of TNT, and if not for the vastness of the exclusion zone on which the Regentrix had insisted beforehand, the entire task force could easily have been lost. As it was, the mages deployed along with the recording equipment had to activate their shields to prevent casualties.

Seven minutes after the detonation, the Regentrix made contact with the team on the ground, informing them of her survival and the mission's tentative success. The explosion was attributed to the collapse of the many spells used by the Grandmother to protect her lair, which were destroyed during the confrontation. Thankfully, the Regentrix was able to avoid the brunt of the explosion by hiding with the dimensional manifold even as it collapsed, her personal shields strong enough to withstand the portion of the detonation's strength which leaked through the dimensional barriers.

Although the survival of the Grandmother is considered unlikely, in the absence of a body, the Regentrix decreed that the Authority will remain vigilant for any sign of her influence in the Russy region. This promises to be a difficult task, as it is possible the Ancient went to ground and intends to remain in hiding for decades if not centuries. If nothing else, it will provide us cause to act in the former territories of the Russy Federation, which are still in chaos from the Solstice Event's fallout.

One additional peace of good news is that the Okhotniki haven't shown any reaction to the presumed demise of the Grandmother, even those whose containment sigils were carved by the Ancient herself …"

Extract of the MSA report on the Tunguska Event, filed on June 1st, 1942.


"Following the end of the Great War and Bovariastadt's evacuation and rebuilding as one great center of research into the Mythos, the Tear has remained stable, neither expanding nor decreasing in size. By now, we are confident that the Tear is merely a visual effect and not a portal leading to some alien location, as aerial mages who flew through it eventually appeared above it – though the crossing in itself is a disquieting experience (see attached interviews for more details).

Since then, the MSA has continued its monitoring of the city's former residents across the Empire, to ensure there are no long-term effects from their exposure to the Eikons' indoctrination and then the Tear itself. While they show the signs of trauma one would expect from what they were subjected to, no physical effects were observed, and the star-marked haven't shown any additional symptoms since their initial ones.

The children born around the time of the Tear's opening have now reached adulthood, and show no difference with those born at the same time elsewhere in the Empire of any statistical significance. Many of them, however, have faced a degree of discrimination from their peers – not so much hostility as a certain level of reverence due to their link, however tenuous, to the Regentrix."

Extract from the MSA monitoring report on the Tear of Bovariastadt, filed on January 10th, 1944.


SOCIAL UNREST IN MAGNA RUMELI

Like other countries whose economy relies heavily on the export of oil, Magna Rumeli's fortunes have taken a downturn in recent years, with the use of T-Engine power stations becoming widespread across the globe. As the lower classes have begun to protest what they see as the mismanagement of their country's economy by their rulers, tensions have begun to increase as the authorities resort to violent means to maintain order …

From the headlines of the Berun Post, February 12th, 1946.


"The Deathless Cabal was, prior to its annihilation by the MSA, quite possibly the greatest threat to the world since the end of the Great War, and the greatest challenge yet faced by the Authority. It is only now, with the benefit of hindsight and the work of hundreds of investigators, that a clear picture of what exactly happened has become visible.

The Cabal was first founded by a group of wealthy men who, having learned of the Untoten's existence, believed that the secret to immortality could be found in the Mythos. After their attempts to obtain the spell formula used to create the Untoten failed, they used their wealth to finance a number of expeditions and occult research programs, concealing their actions from the Authority using the same underhanded methods most of them used to obtain or maintain their fortunes.

In 1932, one of these illegal digging sites, located in the Southern Continent, uncovered a series of four stone tablets covered in an unknown language. Over the next three years, the Cabal poured considerable resources into translating the tablets, eventually succeeding through the use of a large number of computation orbs linked together in a primitive but working imitation of the Denkmaschine, built by arcane engineers paid a small fortune for their work and silence.

The translation of the tablets revealed something called the Rite of the Unnamable, which the Deathless Cabal believed would grant immortality to those who performed it. With the lack of forethought typical of individuals who have spent their lives using their privilege to get whatever they wanted, the wealthiest (and oldest) members of the Deathless Cabal immediately began preparations to perform the Rite.

In 1936, five members of the Deathless Cabal performed the Rite of the Unnamable – which is one of the rare instances of Mythos spellcraft that can be performed without the caster possessing any innate mana, something which, to quote Director Serebryakov, 'would have raised alarms in any group with even a modicum of good sense'. The Rite appeared to be a complete success, and the members of the Deathless Cabal believed they had achieved immortality, albeit in an altered state.

Yet this was only an illusion, as those who performed the Rite instead essentially committed suicide, bringing into being a Class Five Mythos entity in return. These entities, classified as the Trostlose, or 'Desolate Ones' for our Albish-speaking colleagues, are extremely cunning and vicious, and seek only to bring more of their kin into existence as well as spread misery across the world.

Interrogation of captured specimens has revealed that, unlike the Fiends, the Desolate Ones do not believe themselves to be the cultists who performed the Rite, merely in another form : apart from the need to deceive others into performing the Rite themselves, they consider themselves wholly separate beings, innately superior to Humanity, which they regard as servants at best and playthings at worse. They do not have memories from before their summoning, but possess an instinctual knowledge of their own nature and have access to all the memories of their creator, allowing them to play the part with ease.

Visually, the Desolate Ones appear identical to the mage who performed the Rite which created them, apart from their eyes, which are transformed into two black spheres – easily disguised by a simple illusion spell, or even a mundane pair of tinted glasses. Any physical disability or weakness from old age of the original caster doesn't affect them, though visual markers are still present, and they can fake them with the same ease they pretend to be the people they replaced. Crucially, if they age, no sign of it was ever identified on the specimens the Authority examined – indeed, the prevalent theory is that the Desolate Ones are incapable of increasing in power from the moment they first manifest, as the most recently transformed cultists weren't any less powerful than the first ones.

In addition, the Desolate Ones are capable of performing advanced magic, using Elder sorcery spells akin to those created by the Denkmaschine, without the need for a computation orb. With those abilities, the first Desolate Ones proceeded to incite the rest of the Cabal to perform the Rite themselves.

Within a year, over four score of the world's wealthiest men (and a small handful of women) were turned into deathless abominations. Those few who had doubts about the true effects of the Rite were quietly eliminated by the Trostlose.

It was one of these assassinations that first brought the Cabal to the attention of the Mythos Suppression Authority. The victim was a relative of one of Division Y's researchers, who felt something was off about the death and tipped the MSA off. The ensuing investigation quickly uncovered traces of foul play in the victim's demise, although at the time it was believed to be nothing more than an act of passion, or perhaps jealousy.

But the Desolate One which had performed the murder panicked, believing the Authority had already uncovered its existence when agents came to interview him. It reacted violently, killing two agents before being eliminated by the third, its remains immediately brought in for examination.

The fact the Desolate One had been able to pass as human for several months prior to its discovery triggered the first Masquerade Scenario since the foundation of the Mythos Suppression Authority. Investigations swiftly uncovered the existence of more Desolate Ones, and eventually that of the Deathless Cabal itself. Upon learning of this potent threat to Humanity, Regentrix von Degurechaff immediately declared a state of emergency across the board, mobilizing all of the MSA's investigative assets.

Thus did Operation Gravewarden, the second largest operations ever performed by the MSA (surpassed in scale only by Operation Gottesmörder), begin. The threads of the Deathless Cabal were followed across the world, with every bit of the MSA's influence being brought to bear. The human members of the Cabal were arrested, both to be judged for their violations of the Berun Protocols but also to prevent the creation of more Trostlose. The true nature of the Rite of the Unnamable was publicly revealed in the hope of preventing others from going through with the ritual, but we know of several cultists who still attempted it, apparently convinced that the Authority's claims were lies to maintain some imagined monopoly on immortality.

Within a few months, the financial might of the Deathless Cabal was broken, thanks to the rapid mobilization of numerous government agencies who cooperated with the MSA in what was later described as an exemplary application of the Berun Protocols. Several Desolate Ones sought to escape in countries which aren't members of the League of Nations. Due to the exceptional threat they pose to Mankind, special dispensation was issued by the Security Council in a sealed session for the Authority's agents to strike regardless of potential diplomatic consequences, in black operations which, as far as we have been able to ascertain, have yet to be traced back to us.

The final stage of Operation Gravewarden took the form of an assault on a Deathless Cabal's hidden facility within the deserts of the Southern Continent, close to the location where the steles were first discovered. Military forces from the League of Nations were mobilized in order to deal with the mercenaries the Deathless Cabal had recruited, as well as the lesser, mindless Mythos entities they had summoned. The Kingdom of Kemet sent the most soldiers, with an entire division's worth of troops being mobilized and transported across the Southern Continent in time for the assault, which was spearheaded by Director Serebryakov herself. Due to the possibility of the Desolate Ones calling in a higher-ranking Mythos entity, Regentrix von Degurechaff was kept in reserve, but that threat ultimately failed to materialize.

During the following engagement, Director Serebryakov personally fought and destroyed half a dozen Desolate Ones, and reclaimed the stone tablets containing the Rite of the Unnamable. In order to be able to combat the Desolate Ones effectively should they ever return, these tablets have since been sequestered in the Black Vaults of Castle Schwartzstein. All other copies are to be destroyed immediately, lest someone else foolish or desperate enough enact it and give some of the vilest aspects of the Mythos a foothold on our world.

In the final debriefing of Operation Gravewarden, Regentrix von Degurechaff mentioned that the lure of immortality is a potent one, and that the MSA must remain ever vigilant for others succumbing to it at the expense of all reason and sense …"

Extracts from the MSA report on the Deathless Cabal, filed on August 7th, 1952.


ACTION, HORROR AND ROMANCE : THE MYTHOS ON THE SILVER SCREEN

The long awaited movie adaptation of the American pulp author Henry Patrick Lovegrave, The Shadow over Europa, has hit the cinemas across the country this week, and its popularity is undeniable, with ticket sales during its opening week-end surpassing anything before.

Rather than focusing on one specific book by the American author, the film's director chose to draw upon the entire recent corpus of Mister Lovegrave to weave together one single coherent story spanning the entirety of the Great War. This was done in cooperation with Mister Lovegrave.

It is undeniable that no effort was spared in making this movie as close to life as possible. In addition to hiring numerous civilian mages to help with the special effects and the action scenes, the filming crew obtained the rights to film some of the film's scenes in the catacombs underneath Parisee, where the agents of Division Y confronted one of the Eikons which had survived the Battle of the Rhine.

Albish Archaeology Professor Henry Carnahan assisted the film crew during the parts of the production which took part in Kemet, bringing both his expertise in the history of Ancient Kemet and his personal experience of the Mythos – as he was part of the ill-fated Albish expedition which uncovered the Nameless City and caused the Fiendish invasion which nearly laid waste to Kheriaha. In an interview to the Londinium Times, Professor Carnahan said that while he was reluctant to return to Kemet given what happened during his last visit, his mind was changed by Mister Lovegrave, who asked his help in ensuring that the Kemetian culture was properly represented in the movie.

Several aerial mages from the former Imperial Army were also consulted on the action scenes, which are, in this reporter's modest opinion, the best ever put to film – a challenge that I'm certain our own film-makers won't let go unanswered …

From the Francois newspaper La Véritée, December 12th, 1958.


"On the 16th of October, 1962, a group of fourteen mages performed a summoning on the island nation of Cuba. Later investigation revealed that these mages had ideological links to the fallen Russy Federation, and blamed the founding nations of the League for its collapse. Based on the writings recovered in their residences, it appears they sought to avenge the fallen Federation by unleashing the same kind of calamity which laid it low upon the Unified States.

Unfortunately, we will never be able to know for sure whether their beliefs were influenced by the Mythos or the result of 'natural' radicalisation, as the mages were immediately devoured by the nine Class Six Mythos entities, categorized 'Shoggoths', which they successfully brought into existence with their ritual. It is our current hypothesis that the summoners succeeded in giving orders to the Shoggoths, but ordered them to cross the sea and attack the Unified States before telling the monsters not to attack them.

The Shoggoths were similar in nature to the Mythos entities used in the creation of the Puppen, but without an orichalcum chassis or the arcane principles which allow them to empathize with Humanity and cross the boundary between Mythos and Man. While they exhibited signs of intelligence such as tool use and cooperation, they made no attempt at communication – or, at least, none which could be understood – and their behavior couldn't be interpreted as anything but hostile.

After crossing the ocean and making landfall in the continental Unified States, the Shoggoths laid waste to a local settlement, killing a total of three hundred and forty-nine people in just a few hours. The terrified survivors called for help, but the local police force was woefully ill-equipped to deal with such a threat. Eventually, as the Shoggoths began moving north following the road to the next settlement, they were intercepted and destroyed by the Unified States Army's Fifth Augmented Battalion, deployed from their base by direct order of the President.

Based on recovered materials at the summoning site and within the occultists' residence, it appears that the concept behind the ritual came from some of the Arkham Documents they managed to get their hands on …"

Extract from the MSA report on the Cuban Shoggoth Crisis, filed on December 1st, 1962.


"November 12th, 1926 : Operation Fuchsjagd. Defeat of the Ancient codenamed 'Fox' in the Akitsushiman Dominion.

[…]

December 18th, 1926 : Operation Wermut. Defeat of the Ancient codenamed 'Hierophant' in the Brazilian Empire.

[…]

June 6th, 1928 : birth of the first child of an Okhotnik father. While signs of the child's parentage are immediately obvious, and more reveal themselves over his growth, he appears free of the Dark Mother's influence.

[…]

November 2nd, 1932 : the Emu War begins in New Holland. After thirty-eight days of brutal fighting and the deployment of a MSA task force to support the divisions of the New Holland Army, the beasts are stopped a mere hundred kilometers from the capital.

[…]

September 26th, 1938 : Sakura Adashino, leader of the Akitsushiman Onmyōji and Regentrix Tanya von Degurechaff sign the Treaty of the Lotus, by which the Onmyōji are formally recognized as a branch of the MSA.

[…]

October 7th, 1940 : the Arkham Burglary Scandal. Through a combination of bribery, intimidation and blackmail, a group of criminals manage to enter the library wing of the Arkham University and escape with over thirty different grimoires containing arcane knowledge related to the Mythos. Though the culprits are caught and incarcerated within a few weeks of the break-in, fragments of the so-called Arkham Documents continue to re-emerge to this day in the hands of illegal occultists. The University President resigns in apology for this egregious failure, and security around the campus is increased even further.

[…]

May 22nd, 1942 : the Tunguska Incident.

[…]

August 21st, 1945 : the Demonsgate Breach. During an attempt to recreate Division Y's Projekt Silberschlüssel in a research base affiliated with Research Group 51 and located in a deserted area, the occultists accidentally open a gateway to another plane of existence inhabited by hostile Mythos entities. The entire facility is lost, but thanks to its isolation and the swift deployment of a brigade of Marines followed by the USA's enhanced troops in an operation overseen by the MSA, the incursion is successfully contained and the Breach sealed.

[…]

November 1st, 1948 : the Akkazar Conjunction. During a solar eclipse, the Akkazar Comet passes before the eclipsed sun. Occultists and astronomers across the world claim to have received visions of unspeakable horrors and immense engines of flesh and metal while observing the astronomical event. The MSA investigation discovers no sign of indoctrination, though several of the affected occultists need time in psychiatric care in order to recover.

[…]

October 1949 : the Hollow King is summoned by its cult in Lantao, indoctrinating thousands of the island's denizens before being confronted and eliminated by the MSA's Asian branch. De-programming activities last for several months before the influence of the entity is declared eradicated from the area, and entire sections of the island remain off-limits to the public due to lingering Mythos effects that have yet to be sufficiently understood to be dispelled.

[…]

February 17th, 1951 : Operation Gravewarden begins after the existence of the Desolate Ones is discovered during the investigation of an Imperial businessman's death under suspicious circumstances.

[…]

December 5th, 1952 : Operation Gravewarden ends, with the Deathless Cabal declared annihilated at the Battle of the Lonely Sands. Rumors of wealthy individuals refusing to accept the MSA's description of the Rite of the Unnamable's actual effects and seeking to obtain it for themselves start to circulate almost immediately : whether there is anything to these rumors beyond the distrust of the working class for the wealthy elite remains undetermined.

[…]

March 5th, 1953 : at the order of ageing Premier Zhenkov, a hundred Okhotniki (a full third of the ones who survived Operation Gottesmörder) and those of their children who chose a career in the military are permanently assigned to the Mythos Suppression Authority. In exchange, several members of the League of Nations renew their commitment to humanitarian support to the former territories of the Russy Federation, as well as their political support to the Premier's efforts to rally the fractured territories to the New Russy Republic, centered around its capital of Boragrad (formerly Josefgrad).

[…]

May 24th, 1958 : after over a decade of delay following the Demonsgate Breach, opening of the Silver Portal Network, with the first permanent portal being established between the Europan and American command centers of the MSA. Access to the portals, and those built since, is reserved to official League of Nations business due to the costs and security precautions inherent with their operation, but their existence still allows the MSA to deploy its operatives in response to threats across the world with incredible speed.

[…]

July 5th, 1959 : the cult of the Grasping Ones is eradicated after attempting a coup in the Ispagna Collective. The Class Seven Mythos entity summoned by the cultists is eliminated by Regentrix von Degurechaff herself. Despite attempts to capture the cultists alive for interrogation and deprogramming, they fight to the last. The total death toll is estimated at approximately five thousand.

[…]

October 16th, 1962 : the Cuban Shoggoth Crisis."

Fragments from the notes of a student at the Military Academy of Berun, in preparation for the portion of the History exam regarding the Mythos Suppression Authority.


July 16th, 1969 – Germania Capital Berun – Space Center of the League of Nations

On the main screen of the large control room in which over two hundred engineers and support personel worked and watched with baited breath, the display from the helmet camera of Captain Timana was being displayed, showing the bridge of the Pixie XII as her crew ran through the final checks before her maiden voyage. Due to the sheer inconceivable distances involved, there should have been a delay of a few seconds, but some clever application of the sorcerous mechanisms behind Projekt S bypassed this restriction completely.

What was to happen this day would be an incredible step forward for Humanity, of this there was no question. In mere moments, the Pixie XII would activate its warp drive, which would bring her crew to the very edge of the solar system, allowing them to deploy observation satellite around the system's outermost planetoid. And eventually, the arcane principles behind its warp drive would deliver Mankind to other stars entirely, bringing the entire genre of speculative fiction that had grown in the last two decades into reality.

The walls of the observation room in which President Eric von Lergen stood were decorated by pictures of the previous Pixies, each of which had brought Mankind further along in its journey toward the stars. From Pixie I, which had carried the first crew of aerial mages to orbit and confirmed that magic could still be used outside the planet's gravity well, to Pixie XI, which had carried Mankind to another world for the first time in History, delivering her crew to the Red Planet after a journey of several months.

One of these photographs in particular caught Lergen's eye. It showed the crew of Pixie VII standing together on the moon, wearing bulky spacesuits protecting them from the rigors of the void. By some stroke of luck, the light from the planet visible in the shot's background had fallen upon them at just the right angle that their faces were visible through their helmets, most of them smiling like children who have just had their every dream come true.

That day, too, had been momentous. The entire world, it seemed, had watched or listened to the reports of Pixie VII approaching the moon before landing and disembarking her crew – the very first human beings to step foot on a star other than the one their species had been born on … if you didn't take the Nazzadi and Division Y's accident with Projekt S into account.

Out of the entire line-up, Captain Timana jumped out for obvious reasons. Like all children born of the union of a Nazzadi and a native of Earth, his skin was silver, his features a mix of his parents in an ethereally beautiful way. Most amlani, as they were called by their Nazzadi forebears, possessed strong innate magical power – though scientists were still divided on whether this was due to the interracial union bringing out the best from both parents, or simply because the survivors of Nazza-Duhni were all already powerful through simple natural selection, and most had found partners within Division Y and the Imperial Army who were mages themselves.

Regardless of the reason for his magical prowess, Timana had proven himself as capable as his mother, the famed aerial mage Zerayah. Life as an astronaut might be less violent than an aerial mage's, but it was no less dangerous or demanding. On the few occasions Lergen had met the man, he had somewhat reminded him of Degurechaff, back when she had been a cadet at the Imperial Academy – except with less apparent blood thirst, which Lergen now realized was probably due to her difficult upbringing.

Lergen had been invited to bear witness to the proceedings, an invitation he'd gladly accepted. Of all the historical events he had witnessed, painfully few had been so optimistic as this, and he could always use more good memories. It was also a rare opportunity to go somewhere people didn't pause and gawk at his presence, due to working on something far more important than him.

Since the publication of Helena Schmidt's book over a decade ago, Lergen's already inflated reputation had grown to ridiculous levels, and his every attempt to make people understand that while yes, he'd been on the ground during several of the most important events of the century, the actually impressive stuff had been done by a bunch of other people while he tried to stay alive and do his duty, was only taken as more evidence of his modesty.

Which was how, when the Reich had gone from being an Empire to the Republic of Germania, he had received the dubious honor of being elected its first President. With Zettour and Rudersdorf having passed away from natural causes years before, Lergen was the last one left of the supposed backers of Division Y in the old Imperial Army, and many had considered him the natural fit for the job – a position with which the public had agreed. The position was mostly ceremonial, but it did come with a number of duties Lergen had done his best to discharge.

No doubt the nobility would have protested the changes to the country's constitution more heavily, Lergen reflected, had the destruction of the Imperial Court not resulted in a number of titles passing to members of Division Y, who had followed their ex-Director's lead with enthusiasm. As such, the transition from Empire to Republic had been about as smooth as such things could be, with things having changed very little from the perspective of the average citizen.

These days, Degurechaff was wholly focused on her job as head of the Mythos Suppression Authority. The agency had grown considerably since its not-so-humble beginnings in 1926, now covering a veritable network of global operatives tasked with protecting the sanctity of Humanity's dominion over the world – or, depending on who you asked, maintaining the League of Nations' iron grip on the planet.

And, speak of the devil – or, given how popular the philosophy of the Path of Stars still was these days, speak of the goddess – here she was, walking into the observation chamber with the same confidence she always exuded.

In her human form, Tanya von Degurechaff looked exactly like she had at the Berun Conference all these years ago. Time had left her untouched, something Lergen, who was well into his seventies by this point and starting to feel the weight of his years, was faintly envious of. Like him, she was dressed to the nines, though her own clothes looked more professional and practical than his own – another thing which he faintly envied her, as it had been years since he'd had any control over his own wardrobe. At least his wife took his own tastes into account, unlike his aides, who were only concerned with 'maintaining the dignity of the office and its holder both', whatever that was supposed to mean. In his old age, Lergen had found that had a lot less patience for protocol than in his youth.

"Regentrix," he nodded in greeting.

Technically, Degurechaff no longer held any official position in the Republic of Germania, but only a fool would believe that to be actually the case. The MSA's influence was greater than that of most of the nations to which it theoretically answered under the League of Nations' charter, and as its undisputed leader, the Regentrix (who still had the right to use the title as a result of some obscure bit of legalese in the document which had officiated the transition from Empire to Republic) was one of the most powerful people on the planet. Unless you counted personal power, of course, in which case she was the most powerful one without any question.

"President," she returned his greeting with a smile that, these days, looked warmer than threatening. "It's a pleasure to see you, as always."

She sat down next to him, and the two of them watched the organized chaos of the room underneath them in silence for a moment. Timana's small crew had finished running the final checks on Pixie XII : either everything was fine, or things were so catastrophically wrong it had escaped the notice of six of the most well-trained mages in the history of the world.

A countdown began, ticking down to the activation of the warp drive. On the screen, Timana placed his hand around the lever which would trigger a device whose workings only a handful of people understood (even after four decades of operation, Arkham had yet to figure out a way to teach the secrets of the T-Engine to the common academic : it really seemed that an innate spark of genius was required to grasp the occult physics Professor Teslus had uncovered). The Captain's hand didn't tremble, Lergen noted, the clarity of the image making that obvious.

Impressive. God knew, Lergen himself had needed to hide his nerves many times in his long career, and he could read Timana's body language well enough to know the man was as nervous as the President had ever been.

"Tell me," Lergen asked. "Do you have any insight on whether or not we will find someone else out there ?"

The existence of the Nazzadi and the Mythos had caused many to speculate about the existence of alien life – though the existence of the amlani had pretty decisively proven that the Nazzadi were just another Human ethnicity, if an especially exotic one. But Lergen's clearance was high enough that he knew at least some of Division Y's supersoldiers had no common ancestor whatsoever with Mankind.

Degurechaff shook her head. "I know that there is life beyond our world, but not whether that life can be reached through simple bending of space. I have reasons to be optimistic that any life we do find in the great beyond will be, if not friendly, then at the very least not inherently hostile to our existence as some of the Mythos entities are. Still, it is better to be sure, which is why I made sure Pixie XII's crew were prepared for combat as part of their astronaut training."

Well, that was only mildly terrifying, which was the best result Lergen could really have expected. He shook his head, smiling, and returned his focus on the screen, where the countdown was nearing its end.

"Three … two … one … Ignition !"


AN : And here we are at the end. Does the maiden journey of the Pixie XIII go without a hitch, or does she disappear along with her entire crew a la Event Horizon ? Does the tearing of spacetime cause some manner of large-scale calamity ? And if the vessel arrives to Not!Pluto, what do her crew find hidden there ? Some strange race of fungi-based creatures, dwelling in tunnels beneath the planetoid's forzen surface ? Or a forgotten weapon from the War of the Sleepers, left to drift across space for countless aeons ?

Such questions are no longer for me to answer - and the same is true on whether or not the Grandmother survived the Tunguska Incident, whether any Desolate Ones still lurk in the shadows, spreading the Rite of the Unnamable to the foolish and desperate, or what exactly happened in Not!Australia to cause the Emu War. This story is at an end, and if you want to write your own stories in the setting I have created, then by all means, feel free. This story has already ended up much, much longer than initially planned.

Yes, Henry Patrick Lovegrave is Not!HP Lovecraft, except basically an inversion of the man in every way that matters - including the fact that his life is much, much happier than the poor bastard of our own timeline. Seriously, look up Lovecraft's biography, it's almost comically awful.

And yes, the Mythos Suppression Authority is quite the boring, bureaucratic name. That was on purpose. I tried to find a meaningful acronym, but didn't manage it, so I fell back on something suitable for government work.

It has been a pleasure to write this story and to read all your thoughts, comments and reactions to it. Thank you all for your support, and I hope you enjoyed this journey along with me. I don't have plans to start a new story right now : there are several ongoing chapters that I want to finish first. One of my New Year's resolution is that any new story I do start writing this year will be much shorter than anything I've previously written - that is, I must have a concrete plan for the story, with a limited number of chapters and content to put in them.

Will the Muse cooperate ? We shall see. She remains, after all, the most capricious and dangerous Mythos entity of all, one that even Tanya herself could not bind, compel, or banish.

Zahariel out.