PALISADE 42: A Mechanical Whine Pt. 4

This episode carries content warnings for discussion of death, imprisonment, slavery, medical experimentation, and mind control.

In the depths of the Temple of the Threshold, a moment passes, a hero dies, and the world begins to change. But Thisbe, Cori, and Brnine—standing in the heart of Exanceaster March's most advanced research facility—don't know that yet. But they do hear it coming.

A mechanical whine in the air is about to become something else. Unfinished plans will be pushed into action. Tomorrow will come, faster for some than others. And life on Palisade will change forever.

This week on PALISADE: A Mechanical Whine Pt. 4

Moon river / wider than a mile / I'm crossing you in style some day

Dossier People

Telford Stare (he/they): One of several foremen tied to the Lone Marble Group's contractor operations division. 

Crysanth Kesh (she/her): Mother of Clementine (a.k.a. The Witch in Glass). Once, third in line to the throne of Kesh and de facto leader of the Curtain of Divinity, the predecessor to the Bilateral Intelligence Service.  Now dead.

Organizations

The Frontier Syndicate: A powerful conglomerate with a broad purview, including technology, heavy industry, entertainment, telecommunications, and transportation. Led by Exenceaster March (he/him), the Syndicate betrayed the Pact of Free States and joined the Bilats in order to be part of their colonization efforts on Palisade. Developed the Altar, the predominant war machine of the current era.

The Lone Marble Group: Built around a single artifact recovered from an Advent facility, this Frontier Syndicate subsidiary develops the future of Bilat war machinery.

The Church of Received Asterism: The most widely practiced faith in the galaxy, and one of the earliest major organizations in the Divine Principality, created at the beginning of the Miraculous Millenium, over 3000 years ago. Teaches that Divines, the immortal machines and mechs that helped establish the Principality's hold on the galaxy, reflect the best aspects of the state itself. The divine Strength, in other words, is like a living flag of the Principality's own strength. Organized as a central church, led by a religious leader named a "Cycle," whose will is enacted across the Principality by their many "Songs," who rule worlds, star systems, or sometimes entire constellations.

The Church of Progressive Asterism: Created as the teachings of the prophet Logos Kantel grew in popularity 1000 years ago, and made a secondary state religion in order to prevent a large schism. Teaches that Divines are true embodiments of their names, and that the citizens and states of the Principality should look to them as guiding stars. The Divine Strength, in other words, is a reflection of strength itself, or maybe "god's strength," and we should aspire to make our strength look like the divine's. Unlike Received Asterism, there is no single central church, but hundreds of smaller sects, schools, and cults, each devoted to individual Divines, grouped sub-pantheons, or otherwise adjusted beliefs.

The New Asterism: What was once a schism between Received and Progressive Asterism has now been healed by the false prophet Gur Sevraq (he/they), or at least someone in his name and face. The New Asterism claims that to be a citizen of the Principality is to have an obligation to "better the world," in the sense that one invests in property or in the way that a settler "rehabilitates" or "improves" the places they claim by violence. If Received Asterism places virtue in the state and Progressive Asterism places it in the Divines, the New Asterism places it in the Principality's mythologized point of origin: The Twilight Mirage.

Fabreal Duchy: When the Divine Principality left Palisade nearly 5,000 years ago, they left behind a Duke and his barons as caretakers. In the generations that followed, they ruled as petty tyrants, creating Delegates as their slaves, remaking their bodies into glass and oil, and extending their reach across Palisade's continents. Though they officially report to their handlers in Stel Kesh, recently they have begun to wonder if things were better before the Principality's return to Palisade.

The Divine Collaborate: A successor state to the once vast Autonomous Diaspora, the Divine Collaborate wsa an eternally ad-hoc and temporary alliance of Divines, their pilots, and those under their protection. Defeated by the Divine Principality at the climax of the Divine Clash. In her original home timeline, Perennial belonged to some version of the Collaborate.

Places

Bontive Valley: Blessed by the departed divine Bounty, the Valley provides the Bilats with fruit that never rots and hyper-nutritional grain.

Temple of the Threshold: Built at the center of a massive bridge that crosses the Diadem, this serves as the home of New Asterism and its false prophet,

The Twilight Mirage: Created over 5000 years ago by what was then the Divine Empyrean in an effort to protect the Divine Fleet, of which they were a member. The Mirage is a false nebula that obscures the position of its inhabitants both visually and by distorting time and space. Inside, there is now a vibrant and peaceful culture that spans eight planets, orbiting a dark and living Divine sun. 

Objects

FS-N Dais