IO - Armies of the Machine God

[bluntblade]

Ah, hadn't realised that. I suppose if that sect is basically dedicated to arming and maintaining them, that would work. Edited July 30, 2019 by bluntblade

[Beren]

Placeholder.

Edited January 18, 2020 by Beren

[Nomus Sardauk]

Hmm, I wonder if maybe the Quarians from Mass Effect would be a good source of inspiration for this Forge World? Given the environment I reckon hull breaches from things like accidents and enemy attacks could be a constant danger in their early years, leading to the Magi and other residents wearing their EVA hardsuits almost all the time, only removing them in specific "safe" zones deep within vessels and asteroids deemed suitably reinforced to not be at risk is such a breach were to occur.

 

As a result, the Magi eventually just started building EVA capabilities into their bionics and standard armour, resulting in a much more armoured-looking appearance. I imagine Magi with segmented, armoured hoods that can fold down and form an atmospherically-sealed helm around the Magi's head like Isaac Clarke's RIG suit or Matt LeBlanc's soldier character from the old Lost In Space movie.

 

 

After a while maybe it just becomes a cultural norm/tradition with the removing the suit in public becoming something of a taboo and only acceptable among close family and loved ones?

Edited August 7, 2019 by Nomus Sardauk

[Beren]

The only thing I would keep in mind

mind with that is that there might be some laxity when applying such traditions to menials. This could give augmentation more import in ascension to priesthood, as one exchanges comfort and socialability for survivability.

[Beren]

Placeholder.

Edited January 2, 2020 by Beren

[Uberlord Gendo]

We could also throw in a few other Mechanicum traditions:

Machine Dharma: Gyahdred from W3 being the major example, but the basic gist is that instead of a Mechanicum based on Christianity, it's based on Buddhism. In such a system, STCs are part of a path to enlightenment, at which point the adept grasps their inner Omnissiah nature. Adepts hope to be reincarnated as machine spirits.

Heck, we could even have a Hindu mechanicum. Incaladion vaguely hints at that.

 

Machine Animists: Incaladion kind of does this, but a cult mechanicum focused on the veneration of machine spirits over the Omnissiah. In such a view the Omnissiah may simply be the most powerful among many machine spirits. Also allows for some techno-shamanic practices.

 

Machine Ritualists: a distinct sect of Omnissian Rationalists. These adepts believe that while the Omnissiah as a supernatural entity is a null category, the rituals themselves contain the essential order of the universe. By performing the rites of maintainance, they uphold the cosmos. (Atheist ritualists may sound insane but believe it or not, such traditions actually exist. There's an Indian tradition whose name escapes me that believed that language encoded cosmic order and so by performing vedic ritual, they could keep the universe going despite the gods not existing. It was pretty dope.)

 

I also have a personal favorite set of hereteks that I'd like to work in if I can. They're machine ecstatics, who believe that the Omnissiah speaks directly through them and babble in scrap code.

[Beren]

Those like great additions.

 

The machine ectstatics (or at least their use of scrap code) sound like a particularly dangerous sect that should either be underground and heavily hunted before the Insurrection, or else arise during it.

[Uberlord Gendo]

With the Machine Ecstatics, I think it would make sense for them to be a perennial problem since their scrap code is often infectious, they inspire malifica in automata, etc. Probably prior to the Insurrection, they rarely, if ever, have direct contact with warp entities, but I'm thinking they're the sort of problem where they're very hard to eradicate permanently because chaos can just infect a new bunch.

When the Insurrection goes into full swing, I imagine these guys come out of the woodwork. I have a particular sect in mind that's basically my hereteks that I'd like to bring in if possible. They're guided by a mysterious warp entity, probably a greater daemon of some sort, but they've just got a specific understanding of "gifts of the spirit" and the conflict between "Machine Spirit" and "Law".

 

Sort of related, while waiting to hear what the scoop on Xei'An an is, I'm thinking the XVIIth has close relations with a couple of mechanicum forces. At the moment, I'm thinking in terms of a mendicant cybernetica legio and/or reductor covenant. I'm thinking they're on the animistic end of things, which confuses the heck out of most people since they can't igure out why one of the most coldly logical legions would want to hang out with a bunch of people who literally dress up like titans and speak for machine spirits before a battle. Thing is, this being 40k, that :cuss actually works and the XVIIth appreciates these guy's commitment to practicality. They don't know if the Omnissiah exists and more to the point, they don't care. Mazu the ptitan demands dances, feasting, and realignment of the plasma resonators.

Anyway, when the Insurrection hits, they're perfectly happy to follow the XVIIth into treason and then into the suzerainity.

I'm thinking itll make for a nice contrast that highlights how weird 40k is--pragmatic technical maintenance, shorn of theological considerations is sometimes best accomplished with some chanting and incense. It looks weird but it empirically makes the machines work better so the hypothesis that it pleases the machine spirits is adequate. Just why AI demand such rituals is entirely besides the point.

[Uberlord Gendo]

Continuing this train of thought:

Yet to be named Reductor Covenant

The expansion of the crusade and the coincident need for additional mechanicum forces provided a number of forges with a means of removing dissidents.  Either exiled or encouraged to seek their futures elsewhere, many Magi whose deviance did not quite constitute heresy formed the core of various mendicant mechanicum orders, coalescing into bands of like-minded individuals.  Such groups often formed mutually beneficial relationships with other components in the Imperial War Machine, to whom all Mechanicum ritual was equally arcane, and thus were happy to cooperate.  Freed from close scrutiny and free to follow their own doctrinal inclinations, such groups often blurred the boundaries of extant mechanicum traditions.

The XXX thus represented the confluence of several esoteric and ritualist traditions from across the expanding Imperium.  Tindalan numeromancy amalgamated with Mezoan Hermeticism and Phogolak nousemeology.  By the middle of the crusade, the XXX had developed a distinct cultus focused on cosmic harmonies.  In their view, Motive Force flowed in an ever shifting balance across the universe.  In its movement, Motive Force vibrates the Aether, whose tones, in their endless profusion, produce the myriad particles.  The particles in their harmonies and chords produce the elements, and from the elements all physical things are derived.  In addition to direct observation of matter and energy, the cycles of the universe could also be probed for insight into the universal musical score.  Towards this end, the alignments of the stars, the checksum values of doctrina wafers, numbers of rounds expended, and many more, stranger things were tracked and tabulated as a pathway towards greater truths.  Key actions were held until the propitious moment had arrived, in accordance with the sacred calculations.  At the Siege of Jhorul Sigma, the Ullator was tuned according to the prime roots of casualty figures and fired at the conjunction of Mars and Vega while the moon of Jhorul was in apogee.  The resultant destruction of the enemy fortifications was taken as evidence of the applicability of these methods.  As a result of many such victories, XXX prognosticators and ritual orchestrators are commonly included in XVIIth legion war councils and maintainance bays resound not just with the sound of machine tools, but also with the tones of plasma pipes and the ringing of cosmic chime.  For the XXX such instruments are not simply representations of fundamental quantities, but actual representations of these fundamentals and are given positions of honor in all activities.  The relic Pi Bell (needs a better name), sits at the core of the YYY, a massive sonic war engine.  Tuned to the orbital period of Holy Mars and with sympathetic oscilators arrayed according to the Holy Constants, the bells are instantiations of the Transcendant Numbers.  Battle is not simply a matter of violence, but rather is an excercise in the rearangement of the fundamental constituents of the universe as the cosmic vibrations of the Constants shape and unshape our perceptual reality.

[Beren]

Placeholder.

Edited January 2, 2020 by Beren

[bluntblade]

Could we get these added to the first post?

 

- Titan Legios

- Knight Houses

- Forge Worlds

[bluntblade]

Leaving this here: Legion Vituperati would be a neat name.

[Beren]

Placeholder.

Edited January 2, 2020 by Beren

[Beren]

Placeholder.

Edited January 2, 2020 by Beren

[bluntblade]

We could do with more hereteks

[bluntblade]

Title: The Resolute and Watchful House of Harkon

Household Grade: Primus

Patent: Warrant of Imperial Immediacy issued by the Imperial Court in 838. M30. Litterae Patentes duly recorded by the Officio Militaris College of Arms under feudal rights and attested by [REDACTED]

Warden Domain: Norodmar (Prime); The Vraccarian Rift (aka the Shielded Worlds)

Cognomen: Ymirjar (the Chosen), the Giantslayers

Allegiance: Fedelitas Totalitas

 

Stern and honourable guardians, the Knights of House Harkon stood by their oaths to the Emperor and fought with honour against the Insurrectionists, where many other forces reneged or were undone. Having weathered trial after trial first in defence of their world and then in the Imperial service, House Harkon are to this day a byword for heroism and endurance.

The Knights of Winter

House Harkon descends from one of several Knight Houses founded on the world of Norodmar in the Vraccarian Rift, in the waning centuries of the Dark Age of Technology. It was then a verdant world of towering mountains and brooding, mist-draped forests, home to mammoth, furred troll and sabre-cat. Here a civilisation grew up which was remarkably advanced and equitable for a Knight World, though much of the wilderness went untouched. United in their duty, the Houses patrolled the world and the space beyond as they and their people weathered the assaults of xenos and lingering machine-threats. According to the chronicles that remain, the various rulers of the Vraccarian Rift began to dream of reaching out beyond their borders.

But then the Age of Darkness stretched out its shadow to ensnare the Rift, and the madness fell upon Norodmar in turn. In one House - its name forever erased - sorcery took root, and madness flowed like bile from a sore. A cataclysmic war ensued, with cities Houses destroyed and such devastation wrought that the Knights of Norodmar lost the ability to travel beyond their world. But the witches were ultimately broken, their holdfasts thrown down and the ruins left barren by the victors.

The vigil over Norodmar was resumed, its guardians diminished but rebuilding their might. Fresh armours were built, the materials hewn from the crust of the planet. Over the decades new Houses arose from the remnants of those lost, or branched off from their predecessors. Its people began to look to the stars once again, thinking the storm had passed.

Only then did they realise that the taint of their defeated foes lingered. As the resettling of the old territories began in earnest, the climate of Norodmar began to shift. Summers shortened, winters grew more severe, and the Knights were confronted with a new foe. For out in the polar mountains, the last sorcerers and their followers had taken refuge. Abandoning their broken armours, they pursued mastery of their powers into the perversion of living matter. Unlike their forebears, they gained a name that is accursed to this day on Norodmar: the Turjuksei, the corruptors.

Flesh and bone they took, from man and woman, and the beasts of land and sea. This they then unravelled with the owners still screaming and spun it back together into new, loathsome shapes which matched their old Knight armours in size. They took stone and metal to clad and arm their monsters, and gave them the minds of feral beasts or the violently insane. So the Mjurdek were born.

After that, Norodmar knew no true peace. Wars raged across its surface that far outstripped those which had come before. The Knights combated the Mjurdek in battle after battle, sometimes fighting in the frozen wastes, at times in the deep and misty forests that carpeted swathes of the landscape, and even beneath the walls of their towering holdfasts. Twice a great host was arraigned to crush the Turjuksei in their icy fortress, only to be turned back with hideous losses by the power of their enemies.

In those dark and bloody centuries, entire Houses were swallowed up and broken apart in the fighting, and new armies rose from their ashes. House Harkon were one such, born from the remnants of House Skorsa in the midst of one of the most terrible campaigns of the age. By dint of valour and skill its Scions renewed their strength, and as the House grew it became a refuge for Freeblades whose own Houses had been lost.

But there was no end to the fighting, and with each defeat the Turjuksei had taken captives and corpses to feed their war machine. Increasingly the Norodmar were hemmed in, the calculus of war shifting remorselessly against them. Houses were destroyed with nothing left to replace them. Winter bit deeper and held sway longer, and Turjuksei fortresses began to rise on the borders of the great forests, where the sorcerers now hunted for people and beasts to twist into fresh Mjurdek.

But as the seemingly inevitable end loomed before House Harkon, a power in the wider Galaxy took an interest. The tale of these events is incomplete and even in the House’s own chronicles, are couched in dense layers of allegory. Indeed, this would continue throughout the following decades, with long stretches of history occluded and only half-remembered.

What is known is that a Legiones Astartes fleet moved into the void above Norodmar, seeking the Knight World spoken of elsewhere in the Vraccarian Rift. What they found was a world much diminished and wracked by the tumult of a war which threatened to see the Knights of Harkon wiped out, and Norodmar fall completely under the sway of their foes. Even at that moment, the ancient fortress of Coldstone was under attack, the High King of House Harkon fighting desperately to hold back the abominations.

So the Primarch reached his decision quickly and swept down to Norodmar. There was no attempt at contact with the Knights; instead they set upon the Mjurdek in a cyclone of fire. When the last of the Mjurdek fell, the Knights watched their deliverers emerge from the smoke. On that field they received the Imperial overture, and with it the prospect of delivering their world from the Turjuksei. What followed is named the “Red Winter” in the annals of House Harkon, “when wolf and aurochs ranged forth and pulled down the towers of bone, putting witch to steel and fire.” At the end of this bloody season, nothing remained of the Turjuksei or their despicable creations.

Guardians of the Imperium

A process of renewal would follow for Norodmar and House Harkon, as trade links were reestablished with neighbouring systems and the wider Imperium. Within the Vraccarian Rift, the Forge World of Helmijak had been similarly restored. An alliance was established in short order between it and House Harkon, and their stock of sacred armours grew closer to what they had been before Old Night. In time, cadet branches of the House would establish holdings on other worlds, establishing Harkon is a powerful and far-reaching influence in the Rift.

At the same time, however, new wars beckoned beyond Harkon’s homeworld as they gladly pledged their blades to the Imperium. While most of the House’s extant battle honours from this period attest to prestigious victories, many others languish under lock and seal. For the House’s part, the younger scions attest that they know nothing of these wars, and those few ancient veterans who remain will not be drawn on the subject.

What is known is that the House’s resurgent power enabled them to operate with relative independence within the Great Crusade. So the records which remain find them lending their strength to several campaigns, fighting alongside the Iron Bears, Crimson Lions and several famed Army and Solar Auxilia units, notably the Crown Breakers cohort at Hetaskel. They also took a part in the Siege of Tricendia, facing down the macabre power of the Rangdan beside their allies.

The House cemented a reputation as deliverers, ready to venture into the fray wherever Imperial worlds were threatened by the depredations of the alien or hostile human powers. So it was when the Nerska March came under attack by the Manglar Horde, an Ork Waaagh! of massive size and technological power. In 892. M30 these entered the region as a fleet surrounding the space hulk Stone Maw, beginning a year of carnage which reached every corner of the March.

Quickly they struck at Imperial forces and worlds, and made it all too clear how they had earned their name. While other hordes had been noted to deploy massive tanks and walkers analogous to Knights and Titans, the Manglar Horde favoured machines which appeared to have begun life as mining vehicles. These hell-engines, linked by a few theorists to the little-known Wheel of Fire campaign, would simply grind across a battlefield, pulverising anything in their way with drills or hauling it into crushing maws.

While the forces of the March set all their strength against the Orks, several outlying systems were overrun and the Backbone Worlds at the heart of the subsector came under assault, culminating in a system-siege against Kyvel itself. While it was ultimately the intervention of the Scions Hospitalier and Fire Keepers which broke the power of the Manglar Horde, House Harkon played a key role in stopping the Orks from securing their hold on the March and paved the way for the decisive blow.

Joining the muster at Katorz, Thane Jorina and her warriors volunteered to spearhead the relief effort at Gyep. Here the Orks had begun to dig in, throwing up an encampment around the planetary capital which threatened to become a city in its own right. Worse still, over the weeks it took the Imperials to reach the system, Ork hell-engines broke the walls and greenskins poured into the outer districts of the city. With all Titan units destined for other battlefields, Harkon’s were the most powerful war machines that could be spared for Gyep.

Jorina would countenance no delay. Instead she made planetfall immediately and formed her warriors into three spearheads. The largest of these led a charge with the massed armoured echelons of the Chelica Scorpions and Holothurn Chasseurs. A hurricane of fire from the Ork ranks met their advance, but the speartip comprised some thirty Knights and under the fury of their assault, the Ork line collapsed. The walkers spread out, reducing their enemies’ already ramshackle tanks to scrap and launching coordinated strikes against the towering siege engines. Behind them came squadrons of flamer-armed tanks which set whole clusters of greenskins ablaze, and super-heavy detachments which made for the enormous hell-engines which had been brought about to obliterate the new attackers.

Amid all the seething clamour of the battlefield, House Harkon formed into engaged the hulking machines. Deftly navigating the chaotic battlefield, they closed with the hell-engines and launched dozens of pinpoint strikes against them. To fight at such close range was dangerous in the extreme, and indeed more than one Knight was lost in the mechanical jaws of their foes, but one by one the enemy machines were destroyed or immobilised, leaving them prey for the Baneblades, Malcadors and Shadowswords which rained fire down upon them. With this done, Thane Jorina and her warriors turned their weapons on the Orks themselves, and the vengeful Imperial soldiers followed them in storming the encampment.

Over a day and a night, the scrapheap city was razed and the siege lifted. The Manglar Horde would make a fresh assault shortly afterwards, but it was beaten off by the Imperials. Thus the relief of Gyep aided the efforts of other forces to hold back the enemy and turn the tide decisively. House Harkon would take the field on another two worlds as the Orks were first fended off and then exterminated, earning still more honours for their valour on Ajnaz.

The Looming Blizzard

As conflict began to brew within the Mechanicum, House Harkon fell in line with their allies on Helmijak, as well as their allies further afield in Tricendia. In any case, their over-arching loyalty was to the Emperor. Thus they remained apart from forces which would go over to the Stormlord’s cause, to the extent that Insurrectionist plans began to count the Vraccarian Rift as barely distinct from Tricendia. Ironically, however, the first warning of outright conflict came with a I^st Legion ship - a small group of Lightning Bearers who had refused the turn and fled from their erstwhile brothers.

A pursuing force of Harbingers followed the escapees to Norodmar, where they barged into orbit and demanded that the “seditionists” be handed over. High King Gunnar Harkonson, despite his own bewilderment, was unwilling to give up those who sought sanctuary within his worlds. So the Knights met their landing party with uncompromising force and the Harbingers were driven offworld in a hail of gunfire. A day later, Icarion’s proclamation would reach the Vraccarian Rift.

With the Lightning Bearers’ claims substantiated once and for all, High King Harkonson set his warriors on a war footing, and the other Vraccarian armies followed suit. With drawn swords, the Knights of Winter awaited the coming foe, and a war that would eclipse even the trials of their own past.

Material Strength

Norodmar’s burgeoning industry, coupled with House Harkon’s favour in the eyes of numerous Primarchs and generals, meant that its long experience was matched with considerable material strength. At the Insurrection’s beginning they were classed as a House of the Primus rank, having lately replaced losses sustained in the Qarith Crusade, with considerable support and logistical assets at their disposal. These are well-documented, both in Imperial assays and campaign records belonging to the House and forces which fought beside it.

Similarly to some other Knightly domains, the House maintained a cadre of “bannermen” whose role and skill was similar to that of a Legion Astartes’ serf-forces. Their strength extended to a respectable reserve of tanks and other vehicles, although the power of these did not rival the regiments of the Imperial Army. Similarly, the industry of Helmjiak IV and other worlds saw to it that the House gained its own small but potent fleet to ferry its armours, which helped preserve its autonomy within the Crusade.

With regard to the Knights themselves, House Harkon entered the 31^st Millenium at a strength of 580 walkers. The balance of these were Questoris patterns, but across all the types of Knight that Harkon possessed there was a notable bias towards close-combat. The Paladin outnumbered any other models fielded by the House, while Errant and Warden walkers were also deployed in large numbers. Older and more senior scions also displayed a preference for Dominus and Cerastus armours according to taste. Notably, alliance with Tricendia brought the House limited numbers of the mighty Justiciar pattern, whose fearsome aspect and immense power made it a favoured choice. King Harkonson took one for his own mount, Dainsleif, upon rising to lead the House.

Edited December 18, 2019 by bluntblade

[bluntblade]

Adding House Stehleq to Iyacrax's armies.

[bluntblade]

Oath-Bound Vassal Houses of the Mechanicum

 

The Covenant of Sunhava

  House Sunhava were found by the expanding forces of the Madrigal Sphere before Icarion had encountered the Imperium. Bound to Akira by the Sidon Protocols, the House had internalised much of the Forge World’s own dogma by the time of the Insurrection. They were noted in particular to share the ruling cult’s veneration of electricity, as seen in their insignia and the Arc weapons they often favoured. Compared to House Rakham, who remained very much an independent and orthodox Knight House, Sunhava possessed an esoteric arsenal of sacred armours. Notable among these were the large number of Cerastus Proioxis models, used to great effect in the Breaking of Sarum.

 

  As the Insurrection loomed, Sunhava fell in line with the dictates of their masters and were soon fighting throughout the Tayargund Reach. Their battle-fervour was undimmed, and their reliability never seems to have been doubted by the Harbingers. Wherever the Akiran taghmata and Legio Telesto were encountered, so too were the Knights of Sunhava, and they became among the most feared of their kind on the Insurrectionist side.

 

The Guardian Order of Stehleq

  Seeded onto Ryltusa as part of resettling efforts after the Fourth Rangdan Xenocide, House Stehleq grew within the strictures of the Sidon Protocols. As well as standing watch over their own world, they served the ruling magi of Iyacrax and benefited greatly from its prolific forges. For such largesse, they were expected to fight seamlessly alongside the armies of Iyacrax, most importantly its Legio Pugilis. In this manner the House distinguished itself in several campaigns, and in time adopted certain practices of the Cult Mechanicus.

 

  Particular importance was placed by the scions of Stehleq on the Quest for Knowledge, and in the Crucible of Iyacrax they fought most fiercely for the spires where the world’s primary archives were stored. The vast majority of the Knights were lost in that battle and much of the remainder fell in defence of Ryltusa. Only a few dozen were left to fight on as individual households and even Freeblades, and it is widely believed that the last of the Guardian Order perished in glorious defiance in the Battle of Revan.

 

The Lyphora Allegiance

   Raised from a war-ravaged and depleted Knight House on the mining world of Baital, House Lyphora were located by a Martian Explorator fleet and sworn to the service of the Mechanicum. Accepting the strictures of the Protocols they grew strong, shaped to the liking of their new masters and becoming steadily more warlike. Increasingly they were segregated from the likes of House Taranis and other moderate forces, put at the service of more extreme elements among Kelbor Hal’s armies.

 

  Ultimately they came under the sway of Endrys Onva during the Great Crusade and came to display a remarkable antipathy for all flesh. To that end the scions themselves underwent considerable augmentation and weaponisation, to the extent that their veterans would appear truly human only in silhouette and at a distance. In time they would rank among the preeminent forces of the subjugated Forge World Locria, and one of the most powerful Mechanicum Houses in the Imperium. 

Edited December 5, 2019 by bluntblade

[Beren]

Placeholder.

Edited January 2, 2020 by Beren

[bluntblade]

Vamast makes sense as the Forge World for them to become bound to, as it is involved in the Fourth Xenocides. Edited December 5, 2019 by bluntblade

[bluntblade]

The Sautash Demi-Clave

 

The so called Demi-Clave is a direct result of the 2nd Rangdan Xenocides, where two thirds of the notoriously independent House Sautash's military forces were deployed to the front line, where they would serve in close proximity to several Taghmata from Forgeworld XXX. Over the years of the war, Sautash would suffer damages faster than could be repaired by their Sacristans, and lost more supplies than could be granted by the treaties which bound their homeworld to the Imperium. Through these savage battles, it was XXX that provided for their necessities and in the fury of annihilative war, oaths were forged and sworn between the two factions as they fought alongside one another in life and in death.

 

Returning from the Xenocide, the much-diminished lances where much altered in aspect. Many of them bore icons that symbolised battle fought alongside the  Battle-automata and Titans of XXX, or marked where a component was owed to that world. New rituals, hastily granted on the eve of battle, where used to rouse their Knight's machine spirits to war. Above all, their respect for the Mechanicum had greatly risen. Their kin saw this, and marked them traitors for it. Decrying them for having allowed themselves to bound as the House had sworn it never would, they cast the Xenocide veterans from their shores. In light of their performance alongside once another, XXX deemed it more than logical to offer the Sautash exiles safe harbour, in exchange for the solidification of battle-forged bonds in the Sidon Protocals.

Had a further idea for this, with House Sautash being the end product and breaking off from a House with a different name - House Charel, perhaps? Also we can have them settle on Quelan near Vamast.

[Beren]

Would Lorthyk have any particular reaction to this?

[bluntblade]

If it's after the Fourth, then Lorthryk will have moved on. Quelan belongs to Vamast's cult anyway. Edited December 16, 2019 by bluntblade

[Beren]

Does the world hold no further significance to them? They fought, bled and were broken there. Now another rules the world they were shattered upon, supplied by the Forge World whose territories they held the Randan away from.

Edited December 16, 2019 by Beren

[bluntblade]

Only in a spiritual sense. For all practical matters, the Ashen Kingdom becomes the centre of their world after that.