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feat: adds sarla stuff

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Deepak Mallubhotla 2022-06-11 21:45:19 -05:00
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the 9 virtues:
survival (ennearch's a dick who refuses to come to a Flock meeting in the Barns)
growth
balance (one of the Triple Ennearch's virtues. Ironic, he's a hot-headed jerk)
hope (one of the Triple Ennearch's virtues)
mercy (Third of the Triple Ennearch's virtues)
charity (quite powerful Ennearch who is the most common patron of Flocks in outlying cities (Sarla needs his help to advance in the Hierarchy))
ennearch named
reason
strength
chastity Ennearch Simeon, who has a team of Meadowlark Communicators

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Whitewood: named for cottonwoods
Ennearch Simeon: Named for st Simeon Stylites

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Exercise of Connection -> touching the Meadowlark
Exercise of Order -> Turning the input only signal into a two-way signal, to influence the outside world.
Exercise of Expansion -> pushing "power" through the connection.
Exercise of Order
spontaneous order vs imposed order

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Preferentialists: the emperor was the lord of the mountain returned to beasts as a yak because they are the favoured kind
# Exceptionalist: The emperor was an exceptionally skilled Meadowlark practitioner.
Anhistoricist: The emperor was a normal yak (although maybe of non-trivial magical skill). Large numbers, good organisation and historical revisionism are responsible for his legend.

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overarching theme: trying to do the right thing can make things worse
big conflict: role of the hierarchy in galvarellan culture, treason / excommunication of the hierarch and appointment of auroklos as hierarch
small internal conflict: sarla doing what?
deciding on supporting auroklos?
Sarla ends up convincing herself that throwing herself into her studies and practice will give her security. She's wrong.
Sarla given to hierarchy as a young child, raised in service
Sarla is educated and grows up, not many chlidren given to the Hierarchy, and she's aware of the commotion around Yakaterina's arrest.
She enjoys her time with her friends Cyril and Marina.
They approach the age of the Trial (traditionally 14) with trepidation, because if they fail they'll be turned out from the Hierarchy.
This freaks out Sarla, who only knows about her father, who won't write back in response to her letters, and is scared of losing everything.
As Sarla grows up, she starts to learn about the Meadowlark in her extra classes, in preparation for her Trial.
Her teachers, Tomasz (one of the Practicants in charge of leading a class) and Grigory (who has only recently sworn his vows) begin to teach her the Exercise of Connection.
When she starts to learn and practice the Exercises, Sarla is distracted by a buzzing sound others seem to be unaffected by.
It distracts her enough that Sarla starts disturbing her classes.
Tomasz and Grigory point out that if she can't do the basics, she probably is not going to succeed at her Trial, and suggest she just give up.
Sarla freaks out, and starts studying during her free time.
They don't have any advice for her, just to stop letting her mind wander to random sounds.
She spends less and less time with Marina and Cyril, but both of them try to hang out with her while studying anyway.
She does start to despair though, because she can't keep her mental focus on the exercises, because of her friends and because she keeps hearing that damned buzzing.
Eventually she learns to ignore those distractions more, but by this point she's basically been barred from actually attending classes.
She spends her time in the Library, learning from books instead of her instructors.
When she turns 12 she's informed she will be facing the Trial early.
It's up to Tomasz to decide when she's ready, and he wants her to be not his problem anymore.
He figures that since she'll fail anyway, might as well do it early.
She rightly freaks out. It's a dick move on his part.
The day of the Trial, she's barely slept and is an absolute mess.
The buzzing sound has been getting worse and worse, and she's having a very hard time concentrating when she prcatices.
She enters the classroom where the Trial is being held, and it's a Councillor (scary!) and a Master, Master Auroklos.
The Councillor seems annoyed to have to give a trial to a very young yak, but Auroklos seems to mostly pity her.
They send her out for a moment to talk to Tomasz, and Sarla overhears him telling the examiners that she does not have potential.
Auroklos says that Tomasz should have just waited for her to reach 15, the maximum age for her to pass the Trial before she couldn't stay in the Hierarchy any longer.
The Councillor agrees, but bemoans how expensive it is raising a yak.
In any case, as the Councillor points out, Tomasz has done his part already, and the Council has added her name to the register of Trials, and this Trial is going to happen.
She starts doing the exercises as they take note, and seem relatively unimpressed.
She tries her absolute best, but as the Trial goes on, the buzzing sound gets louder and louder and eventually throws off her concentration, and she's devastated.
She's clearly failed, and gives up and runs out of the room.
As she leaves, she kicks one of the planters because it's particularly loud.
Auroklos calls her back in, asking why she picked that one.
Through tears she explains that it's too loud and she can't tune it out.
Auroklos seems surprised, and the Councillor face palms.
Auroklos whispers something about there needing to be consequences, and the Councillor resignedly agrees.
Auroklos walks Sarla out of the room, down the hall, and Tomasz is called back in.
Sarla sits silently as Auroklos talks about something confusing, until he mentions that 12 is still too young for vows anyway, but she will have to be studying Meadowlark things.
She's passed! What?
Yes the buzzing sound was the Meadowlark, the Voice of Beasts.
She hasn't yet learned to control it, but turns out all her ridiculous practice was just making it easier to hear it. Whoops.
Tomasz and Grigory will face some serious consequences for missing that their student was more competent than they were.
Sarla does better.
She's awkward and her new classmates are older and don't like her.
Many are friends of Grigory and Tomasz, and their punishment is harsh.
They blame Sarla.
Sarla also is now less able to talk to her friends, Marina and Cyril.
The stuff she's studying is fascinating, and she throws herself into it.
When she reaches 15 she decides whether to say vows and become a Renunciate in the Hierarchy or to leave and join the lay world.
Vow time, magic nun yak.
Cyril and Marina do too, yay!
They're very happy to stay in the Hierarchy, but neither do as well as Sarla.
She spends more and more time in research, and seems likely to become a very very young Practicant.
They get older, and Marina is clearly super into Sarla.
Sarla is internally very into Marina, but is not self-aware enough to realise it.
Kinda heartbreaking.
At one point Marina shoots her shot, and Sarla doesn't notice at all.
Poor Mar-mar.
She leaves the Hierarchy.
Suppression is officially gone now.
It's easier for religious yaks in the lay world now.
She only wanted to join to be near Sarla.
Cyril scolds Sarla because Sarla is inconsiderate.
Oh no that's Sarla's friend group.
Microcosm of how Sarla ruins her own happiness (she and Marina would be cute af) by pursuing what she thinks would make her happy (performing well with the Meadowlark).
Sarla does not have a lot of connections within the Hierarchy.
She isn't related to someone important outside the Hierarchy, like a lot of those who merely spend a year or two in the Hierarchy, and she doesn't really seem useful for any of the powerful yaks within the Hierarchy.
Not savvy enough for most of the Ennearch's or Councillors to take her under their control.
Some minor conflicts here and there.
Tries to parlay her academic achievements into perks in her life, and is rebuffed.
So she doubles down and studies harder.
She makes it to Practicant.
She swears her Practicant oaths before the Council, is added to the Register, is now allowed to use the Meadowlark outside of the Hierarchy.
It's basically the equivalent of getting an advanced degree for people.
The Council isn't going to give her anything though, apart from the bare minimum she shares with Adepts way younger.
Her only options are either to find an influential yak to glom on to, or to try to become a Master Practicant, which requires an instructor.
None of the Ennearchs have much use for that.
Mastery of the Meadowlark is not as important as it once was, and now that Ennearchs don't have frozen assets anymore (because Suppression is ending), they have true power: wealth.
Amidst all of this is great debate about who the next Hierarch should be.
She ends up reuniting with Master Auroklos, who agrees to train her.
Auroklos is not very popular.
He's not part of any of the Offices of the Ennearchs, and the Council mostly seems him as a nerd and a loser.
He wants to do it traditional though, have her pass the traditional tests of being a Master Practicant.
Nowadays the standards have dipped.
there's a growing sentiment that it's the fault of an increasing population of farm animal refugees.
This colours a lot of her interactions with people based on their thoughts on this.
Kind of an irrational belief that ends up affecting the refugee crisis for Calvin and Kral later.
At some point around her she meets Cyril again, and he's a dick about farm animals.
Sarla basically just follows authorities and the books don't say one way or another, so she uncritically believes it.
As she trains with Auroklos, it becomes pretty clear that A) she finds his instruction brilliant, B) he has other stuff going on she doesn't understand and C) he thinks the farm animal stuff is bad theology, and doesn't understand why anyone is against farm animals.
He wants her to study a lot and not bother him with "easy" stuff (even if that "easy" stuff is actually super deep Meadowlark theory).
Auroklos talks to her about an upcoming Council vote.
He's championing an agreement to a Treaty with the Galvarelli government to regularise the status of the Hierarchy within the Republic.
It seemed very unlikely, but it seemed like he managed to convince a few people. (TODO: What happens behind the scenes here?).
Suddenly he's not isolated crazy yak Auroklos, he's candidate for Hierarch.
Still disrespected. Most of the Hierarchy sees him as a puppet candidate that the Government approved of, nothing more.
He has less and less time for Sarla, and basically pawns her off on others to push her through the process of becoming a Master.
He does still use her for errands.
Her abilities as proof that the Hierarchy could be valuable to the Republic, and that the Meadowlark was more than a relic of a bygone time.
Doesn't go great as far as the government goes, because the political elite are quite negative to the Meadowlark.
But while running an errand she sees her old crush Marina.
She's now a quite beautiful yak, and very happy to see Sarla.
They connect a few times, and this time Marina is a bit less ambiguous with her hint.
Omg Sarla finally admits she kinda still likes Marina a lot.
Cute.
It takes a Master to nominate a Master to the Council, and Auroklos claims that it would be improper for him to nominate her, as her instructor.
One of the Ennearchs takes her out of the city to use the Meadowlark to enliven the fields of a small yak town (Greyfield idk some name).
She realises there is a way to tap into the deeper history of the land to make the whole field grow immediately, rather than the small incremental growth she was asked to do.
Auroklos is annoyed, because it means the Ennearch does not need to keep returning to the town.
Sarla expected praise and is broken by the insult.
It seems like he has other work to do, and is annoyed she's not helping with it and is going on about being a Master.
She runs more and more errands for him, tracking down members of the Hierarchy who are campaigning against the farm animals.
And the small minority that are in favour of the Barns too. Too politically charged, antithetical to whatever Auroklos wants.
The Councillor from her Trial ends up humiliating her by publicly bringing up her breakdown, he supports another yak who wants to be Hierarch.
It's painful.
Auroklos is unsympathetic and unhelpful.
But he has more work for her, if she's ready.
She is not.
Runs away to Marina's, and Marina says she should just leave the Hierarchy.
There's a chance for a new life outside, together.
Bit of domestic bliss.
But who's that at the door?
Auroklos? but why?
Flatters her a bit, points out that she can become Master if he's the Hierarch.
An "Oh, honey..." moment because Sarla can't say no.
Marina is hurt all over again but Sarla is going to be so important in the Hierarchy with her new rank!
Ends up completing some mcguffin quest (documents linking other leading candidate to Yakaterina's treason plot), new Hierarch in place! It's Auroklos!
Sarla does not end up becoming Master right away.
Auroklos has a lot of work to do.
But she gets the hollow victory of being right-hand yak to a yak who doesn't seem to really care about her, public scorn because he's still seen as a weak puppet.
And the love of her life won't respond anymore.
It's okay, there are more books to read, right?
Ending has to be Sarla carrying out some dirty work for Auroklos, showing her full descent.
Does she murder?
Does she blackmail?
Maybe both.
She must end up miserable.
As Auroklos becomes Hierarch, the people she hated end up as necessary political allies, she's still working with the Councillor and other people she dislikes.
Auroklos favours the Councillor from the Trial, because he's more important.
Sarla's stuck now, she can't do anything else because she's done too much for Auroklos, but she sees that Auroklos only cares about her utility.
And if she's not as utilitous as Councillors or any of the Ennearchs, then shame on her.
She won't ever make Master, likely, she's made enemies of her friends.

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prompt: foreshadow an upcoming event.
upcoming event: the destruction of the Temple and the discussion of rushing water and solid rock:
Sarla is a practicant, Auroklos is
―So you know the legend of the Emperor and the Dwarf-burrows?, Sarla asked.
―The one where he drowns all of them? Marina asked.
―Yeah, and that he was able to redirect a river to flood the underground Dwarf cities to do it.
And the point is, it's attested to in a few different texts.
{WHATEVERNAME} mentions it here, Sarla said, indicating a book thicker than it was tall.
There's a few Dwarf stories about it too.
And {ANOTHERYAKSCHOLAR} thinks that it explains the soil characteristics in {NAME_OF_PLACE}.
So it definitely seems like it happened.
Marina looked bored.
―Sure, let's say it happened.
Why's that exciting?
―Well that's the question, right?
What the Meadowlark can actually practically do.
Like―
―Yeah, but we know the Meadowlark can change the landscape, Marina interrupted, twiddling with tassels on the cushions under her head.
―Not that fast, though.
Like it's the mundane Meadowlark to shape the earth with grazing and fertilisation, but that's not what Yakob did.
If he moved the river all at once, that's something else, evidence of greater powers.
Marina sighed.
―That doesn't mean we have to be all Preferentialist about it.
He had enough engineers to do it manually.
―Yeah, I know, we still don't know.
But it's still a data point!
Marina laughed.
―You're such a fucking nerd, Sarla.
She gave Sarla a smile, before continuing.
―By the way, I got you a treat.
Sarla raised an inquisitive eyebrow.
Marina held up a burlap bag.
―Greycaps, freshly grown.
{OTHER_YAK} had them.
And it's my day off tomorrow too.
Want to try them?
Sarla thought about it a moment.
There was still so much to read through, and Marina was always particularly persuasive.
―I'm meeting Master Auroklos tomorrow morning, so half a cap?
Marina broke out into a big smile and bit through half a mushroom, handing the other half to Sarla.
―Ew, you could have just cut it in half.
―Yeah, but I didn't think you'd mind, Marina said, winking.
Which was uncomfortably true, Sarla thought, as she chewed her greycap dose.
---
Sarla woke up, light streaming into her room.
Marina was asleep in the bed next to her, drooling on the pillow.
Sarla looked at the face next to her, enjoying the moment, before realising how late it was.
She rolled out of the bed and hurriedly got ready.
Marina seemed to stir.
―Red notebook, she mumbled, keeping her eyes closed.
―What?
―Writing in the red notebook last night, Marina mumbled, even less coherently.
Sarla searched her room a moment before she found a book with a red cover.
It was unfortunately not a notebook, but instead a collection of pre-Imperial folk stories.
She flipped through her notes and saw that she had written all over an old children's story.
―Oh fuck, this is a library book.
Marina snored in response.
Sarla got changed and as she walked to Auroklos's office, she connected to the Meadowlark.
She felt the traces of vitality in the air and ground around her and nudged herself to be more alert, more awake.
It helped a bit, at least with cutting through the drowsiness, but she still felt lingering sluggishness and nausea.
Only so much that the Meadowlark could do.
It was hard to read her messy scrawl as she walked, but she'd been writing notes on a story about a yak that could vanish and reappear miles away, like a Dwarf-mage.
Her notes themselves were incomprehensible, a combination of inscrutable diagrams, graphs with unlabeled axes and, most embarrassingly, Marina's name written down many many times, with increasingly ornate flourishes each time.
Her stomach seemed to collapse in on itself as she regretted how unprepared she felt for the meeting.
Auroklos seemed annoyed the moment she reached his office doorway.
He had a stack of papers in front of him; he was displeased either at their content or her late arrival.
Or, she thought, even more likely both.
Practice planter boxes sat unused at the side of the room, taunting her with their lack of use today.
She stood a moment, with her stomach churning and her head starting to throb.
She instinctively touched the Meadowlark again, to try to fix both.
It helped a little, but Auroklos immediately gave her a look.
―Don't make a habit of that, he said, with a soft, icy voice.
Discipline yourself, otherwise you will never grow.
―Yes, Master Auroklos, Sarla said, feeling her stomach drop with guilt and shame.
―What do you have for me today?
It took a moment for her to remember what she'd done since the last lesson, and some part of Sarla's brain seemed to work of its own volition.
―I worked on the exercises of Order, like we discussed.
She flipped through her primary research notebook.
Auroklos seemed to losing interest, attention flipping to whatever was on his desk.
―I took notes on {YAK_SCHOLAR}'s theory of hierarchies of spontaneous order, and tried to come up with exercise variations for each one.
―And? Auroklos said, without raising his eyes.
―And, well...
Sarla's voice trailed off.
―I was also thinking about the Emperor.
Auroklos kept reading, without responding.
―You know, whether his abilities were from the Meadowlark or not.
I know you said there wasn't evidence either way on the historical emperor, but if we assume it's real―
―If we assume that everything about Emperor Yakob is real, then we will find ourselves believing very foolish things.
―Yes, but still, I, um.
Sarla's mind was going a bit blank and she had to take a deep breath.
Thoughts from last night bubbled up to the surface.
―Um, I just had this thought on the types of spontaneous order, and whether the myths could be thought of through that lens.
Especially the redirection of the river {RIVER_NAME} over the Dwarf-burrows.
Auroklos looked up at her.
―So, {YAK_SCHOLAR} talks about how spontaneous order can magnify actions.
Small interactions with the Meadowlark pushing the world over the hill, so to speak.
―This is all quite well-studied already, Sarla.
Many metaphors already.
{NAME} says a tiny spark can grow to a large fire, under the right circumstances.
And {YAK_SCHOLAR} talks about the small rock that creates a landslide as it falls.
―Yes, but what if there's a way to control that?
Setting up the fuel in the right way, if you catch my meaning?
Auroklos gave her a dismissive look.
―Sarla, focus on what's relevant.
Are your set of revised exercises on Order done?
Sarla shook her head, and found that her eyes were having trouble pointing anywhere but the ground.
―Sarla, your ambition is laudable.
But remember, to be a Master Practicant means to fulfill the Emperor's mandate directly, and that mandate includes following the Hierarchy's path of growth and advancement.
Before reaching for the Emperor's abilities, try reaching for those which might be attained.
―Yes, Master Auroklos.
―We'll need to cut this meeting short, Sarla.
I'd hoped to spend some time growing trees from seed for wood, he said, gesturing to the planter boxes.
{SOMEYAKSCHOLAR}'s Code says a Master Practicant should be able to go from seed to precise wooden tool without even dirt or water.
Sarla stifled an immediate urge to note that {SOMEYAKSCHOLAR} was, in his own way, a wooden tool.
―But I have far too much to do right now.
We'll meet again tomorrow morning, two hours after dawn.
Promptly, please.
Tomorrow was Sarla's only planned day off this week, but being a capable scholar meant making it her priority, so she nodded.
Auroklos turned back to his document, grunting in what Sarla assumed was a form of dismissal, so she hurriedly collected her stack of notebooks and left.
Relief that the ordeal was over diluted the critical thoughts about her own inadequacy.
Every time Auroklos brought up his own standards for what a Master Practicant should be, they seemed a more unnecessary target for her to try to reach.
No other Master Practicant today could match those standards, except the Heresiarch currently in prison.
And except for Auroklos, maybe, but she had no idea what he could actually do.
She sighed.
Marina enjoyed Ennearch Simeon's Office.
Simple work, and Communicators were so important for the Hierarchy.
But Sarla couldn't do that.
She didn't have Marina's ability to settle into something steady like that.
It felt too stagnant for Sarla.
A half thought emerged, and fought its way to the forefront of her attention, that Sarla might have to learn those skills if she continued to fuck up her own work.
No one else was about to help her reach Master Practicant.
Marina was still in Sarla's room when Sarla got back.
She'd apparently just prepared some lentils with corn cobs, and offered Sarla a bowl.
―You're amazing, Marina, thanks.
―Of course. Gonna study now?
―Yeah, he wants me to catch up on stuff and come back tomorrow.
―Bummer.
Well, eat first Sar.
You need it.
Sarla sat and chewed her food slowly.
―Why was I taking notes in that library book last night?
―It was a library book? Valuable?
―No idea, Sarla shrugged.
―Well you're still probably fucked either way if you return it to the library scribbled on.
I don't know what you were thinking about with your notes.
I mean it was greycaps, so only the Lord of the Mountain knows if it was useful or nonsense.
You were babbling about children's stories being the key to truth.
―Ugh, that's not helpful.
Marina nodded sadly.
―If it's any consoltaion it was very fun to listen to.
And then you were doing math shit, and you know I hate that, so I tuned out.
Anyway, want some privacy while you work?
―Yeah, sorry Marina, I'll have to concentrate for a bit today.
Marina headed out, and Sarla got back to work.

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―Ma'am, now! Adrienne said, grabbing Sarla and Nikki and pulling them back towards the tram.
Sarla pulled back, and closed her eyes.
Adrienne screamed, until she suddenly stoped.
Adrienne screamed, until she suddenly stopped.
Nikki looked down, and threw up.
Somehow, Adrienne's torso and legs had turned to soil.
As Nikki watched, grass, and after a moment, lavender sprouted and grew from the guard-captain's corpse.

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―It's perhaps more accurate to say that I am that leftover power.
I have partaken of all of it.
I'm not a Witch.
I'm the Witch.
I'm not _a_ Witch.
I'm _the_ Witch.
And Caprina, I hope you realise that I have no desire to explain my goals or desires to you.
There's no need.