Decided¶

Every ruling made so far, newest batch first. Each one has been applied to every page it touches.

2026-11-07 (seventeenth batch)¶

R-033 · Oren's coin toss¶

Oren called "Dragon" and won. The coin came up Dragon, so he lived as a collared servant, as the ritual says. Kira made the same call at Blackwater and lost. The Ledger of Nine says only that Oren was "collared by the coin — Dragon", and the coin rule on Tristen's page stands.

2026-11-06 (sixteenth batch)¶

The empty Archon's seat¶

The owner's choice: after Solaris fell, the King-Consort recommended Father Hollis to lead the Order of the Sun. Hollis leads it as plain Father Hollis and refuses the Archon's title. The seat is left empty, a symbol of the reform.

Margery, Duchess of Thessaly¶

The owner's note: after the conquest she was forced to sign a treaty supplying grain to the Kaelen army. She hates it but does it to survive. She is not pro-Kaelen; she is a realist, not a martyr.

Lord Ambrose Corvane¶

The owner's correction: Ambrose did not scheme to wed Cassian to Lyra, and did not know about Cassian's gambling debt to the Kaelen official. He was shamed in public when the truth came out. Cassian left a letter before leaving the house. Under the occupation Ambrose didn't kneel in submission; he followed where the money went. Cassian lives quietly in Wrenmoor, a small Marches sheep village.

2026-11-06 (fifteenth batch)¶

Solaris and Vane in Campaign One¶

The owner's notes, applied to Archon Solaris and Grandmaster Vane:

Solaris was corrupt and money-loving, and plotted with Vane (and through him Malakor) to have the Marches annexed to Kaelen. His schemes, in order: the Oakhaven Sunstone theft; starving Hollowpass through Brother Cobb to discredit Captain Dorne; being forced to appoint Trevor Lord Protector; sending Father Hollis to spy; the Corvane betrothal (Cassian, a gambler in debt to Vane); bribed physicians; and finally denouncing Trevor as a Kaelen spy. The King's appearance in open court ended it. He was imprisoned and died in prison.
Trevor passed the King's antidote secretly to Vaelen and Lyra. The healed King signed Trevor's betrothal to Lyra.
Vane was ambassador in public, living in the Eastern Embassy, and Grandmaster in secret. He supplied the Lotus poison. He personally burned Nine and believed him dead; he never knew Trevor was Nine, and found him a nuisance. He sent Oren to spy on Trevor. When the King appeared healthy, he fled to Blackwater, where Tristen revealed himself and killed him.

2026-11-06 (fourteenth batch)¶

How Emperors are made¶

The owner's note: primogeniture. The firstborn is always chosen, and that is usually seen as righteous. Previous regicide successors have altered history to become the firstborn. Malakor left the boy alive as a justification for later.

2026-11-06 (thirteenth batch)¶

Vesper's ring¶

The owner's note: Tristen gave Vesper the Ring of Ghost-Zero at Blackwater. That is where he officially made her his right hand in the underground, to act as his own Syndicate. The ring is symbolic, and an insult to the Kaelen Empire.

Tristen, Vesper and Crow¶

The owner's note: the bond between the three is tight, and Vesper and Crow are willing to die for Tristen. The background behind it (Vesper's smuggling boss, Crow's silencing by the Lotus, Tristen answering him in Lotus sign and naming him) was written to fit the canon and confirmed by the owner.

Captain Dorne¶

The owner's note: Dorne defended Hollowpass first-hand when Kaelen invaded, was quickly wounded and carried back to Thornford against his will, and survived. He now lives crippled in occupied Thornford, hates the Empire, drinks, and argues with Nella that he should have died on Hollowpass.

2026-11-06 (twelfth batch)¶

R-032 · Where Trevor became "the Torchbearer"¶

Both, in order. Oakhaven makes him a hero, and Vance honours him there. The name "Torchbearer" sticks at Blackwater a few months later, when the barge goes up in flames and the whole river sees it. Oakhaven stays his loyal heartland because it knew him first.

2026-11-06 (eleventh batch)¶

The start of Campaign One¶

The owner's notes, applied to The road to Oakhaven:

Oakhaven is where Campaign One begins. Bram hired Trevor to guard his caravan from Thornford to Oakhaven.
On the way, an abandoned caravan with broken wheels hid a Kaelen ambush to steal Sunstone bound for Oakhaven. Trevor knew it, and cleanly killed every trap-setter and assassin.
He uncovered the plot of Gorath (Ghost-12), working under Kira, to steal the Sunstone and secretly take over Oakhaven. Inquisitor Valerius, Solaris's man, had been bribed by Gorath.
Trevor made Valerius his pawn by fear, disabled Gorath and sent him alive to Ghost-Zero at Blackwater as an example. Magistrate Vance honoured him.
Later, at Blackwater, Tristen killed both Kira and Gorath.
Retcon: the goblins of early play are now low-level bandits hired by the Syndicate. Their base was Cragmaw Hollow, and Trevor destroyed the whole crew single-handed, which is how he became the legend and hero of Oakhaven.

Where the Torchbearer name came from is settled in R-032.

2026-11-06 (tenth batch)¶

Four and the Gull¶

The owner's notes:

Four governed the western regions of former Aldoria. When he was confined, the Gull succeeded him as governor, which is how the Gull came to rule the Tide Cities.
When Alyssa's crew came back to Westhaven, it was Four's men who captured the ship. Four saw potential in Alyssa and offered to make her his voice.
Four wasn't necessarily against the Emperor. He was cautious: Malakor set Four and Eight to compete, so Four kept the knowledge that the King-Consort was Nine to himself, as leverage. He did not know Alyssa would go so far as to kill Malakor.

2026-11-06 (ninth batch)¶

R-023 · Ashmar's mixed heritage¶

Ashmar is a mixed border village, so it mixes names and looks too. Belek and Kruger can be neighbours, and Alyssa keeps her name. Border-born people often mix the two peoples, for example an Aldorian build with Kaelen amber or grey eyes. Accent and upbringing mark them as Kaelen, which fits the canon: the western river towns knew Alyssa was theirs "from her accent". It explains why ordinary Aldorians found it so easy to believe the Red Ribbon was Aldorian. Tristen is the same, except that as a trained assassin he is far better at hiding his Kaelen background.

R-024 · Dates on the calendar¶

Anchor the Trade Prince's murder at spring 900 AP, with the rest of the proposed dates as on The calendar. Malakor dies in late summer 909 AP, and Campaign Three begins in autumn 909 AP.

R-025 · How often the Calm comes¶

Alyssa came back outside a Calm. The Far Lantern is the only ship to cross the Grey Wall both ways because Marrin knows a dangerous way through. That makes her return a feat in itself. The Calm stays "a season every few years".

R-028 · The Old South¶

No living people that anyone has met. The "ports" are ruined harbours Sunward captains forage from, and the ruins stay. Unexplored and empty, but still worth a voyage.

R-029 · The Grass Sea¶

A blend. Grassland that dries into savannah and then desert as you go east, and a few great clans, each made of many smaller bands. The name "Grass Sea" still fits the western edge Kaelen sees.

R-030 · The dwarves¶

A fallen dwarven kingdom, with Stonedeep as one of the few villages left. The old holds are mostly empty shells, and a few villages still work the forges. That fits Stonedeep's ore running out and half its people leaving. The peaks keep the name Frostfang Mountains for now.

R-031 · The Drowned Isles¶

An eerie, empty line of about a dozen sunken coral and shipwreck islets, with a dead lighthouse. Nobody lives there.

2026-11-06 (eighth batch)¶

The wider world¶

The owner's notes on the lands around Aldoria and Kaelen, applied to The wider world:

The Tide Cities are free merchant city-states west of Aldoria, now under Kaelen rule. Westhaven is their port at the westernmost point of Meridia, where the Farrow expedition sailed from and returned to.
The Grey Wall is a fog wall far off the west coast. Meridians call it the end of the world, because no one returns. Farrowans believe the land beyond it is the old earth their ancestors fled, no longer fit to live in.
The Sunward Isles are tropical, south of Meridia. They were a lawless place of pirates and slave trading, and since the conquest they have become the refuge and the Lantern Road's goal.
The Old South is a tropical jungle continent beyond the Sunward Isles, unexplored, left for the DM to open later.

Where these notes differed from Lands Beyond, the owner ruled in R-028 to R-031.

2026-11-06 (seventh batch)¶

R-027 · The Farrowan scholar's name¶

Professor Osric Penhallow, a man. Farrowans descend from Ferry, so their names sound like older cousins of Aldorian names. Dr. Okoro keeps her name from the sources.

R-026 · Ghost-9's code-name¶

"The Hush." The scavengers thought the boy under the beam was mute, and as an operative, rooms went quiet after he'd been in them. It sits beside the Listener, the Hound, the Edge and the Moth.

2026-11-06 (sixth batch)¶

The owner's additions. Where they differ from the source documents, these win.

Deaths¶

Oren died at the siege of Hollowpass, burning the ledger, the last one standing. (The Campaign Three handoff had him alive and in hiding.)
Lord Marshal Vaelen was killed defending the Queen while she and the King-Consort escaped the fall of Solis.

Tristen and Kira¶

Tristen and Kira are aliases the two children gave each other, not formal names. Ghost-9's code-name is settled in R-026.

Bram's caravan¶

Tobb is Bram's nephew: a young horseman, good with an axle. He is married to Pip. (An earlier reading of the handoff made Pip Bram's wife.)
The crew: Old Fen (ex-Citadel cook, the caravan cook), Sella (a Coldfell shepherd girl, the archer guard, Alyssa's best friend), Tobb, and Alyssa (a Kaelen swordswoman, guard).

The voyage to Farrow¶

Morrigan Tarr, a Tide City sailor, hired Alyssa, Old Fen and Sella, the only three of the crew who went. They left right around the Kaelen invasion. Old Fen died in Farrow.
Came back: Alyssa, Sella, Captain Marrin, Morrigan Tarr, and two Farrowans: Dr. Okoro, an elderly woman doctor who trained Alyssa, and a scholar of Ferry's history. (The handoff had three Farrowan scholars and Okoro's bag with Marrin at Westhaven.)
Now: Okoro and the scholar are in Vesper's canal tunnels under Solis as Alyssa's friends: Okoro helps refugees, the scholar inspects the old ruins. Marrin and Tarr are unknown. Sella went south, near Blackwater, after hearing of Alyssa's deed.

Farrow¶

A steampunk, technologically advanced land. Kept vague: the two years there are a timeskip, left for a future campaign. Artifacts in Meridia: Alyssa's pistol (with Eleven), Alyssa's medical bag from Okoro (whereabouts unknown), and whatever Okoro and the scholar carry.

2026-11-06 (fifth batch)¶

The calendar¶

One calendar for both realms, counted from the Peace of Selorin. Years after the treaty are AP (After the Peace), years before it BP (Before the Peace), with no year zero. Older history is dated by year only; recent history by year and season (spring, summer, autumn, winter). Chosen because both crowns signed the treaty, so neither side owns the pivot. The individual dates were confirmed in R-024. Details on The calendar.

2026-11-06 (fourth batch)¶

R-019 · Names for unnamed characters¶

Confirmed as proposed. The Aldorians are Queen Isolde (Lyra's mother), King Aldor I (the founder), Margery Thessaly, Gareth Ardent, Ambrose Corvane, Lucan Morrow (the Trade Prince), Bertram Hale (Chancellor), Simon Clery (Treasurer) and Geoffrey Stane (the old Lord Marshal). The Jade Lotus Numbers are 1 the Anvil, 2 the Silk, 3 the Kiln, 5 the Mask, 6 the Kite, 7 the Gull, and 12 the Ram, each with their archetypes and domains.

R-021 · New Kaelen names¶

Confirmed as proposed. The full list is on the Kaelen naming guide.

R-022 · What Kaelen people look like¶

A distinct look of their own: tall, lean and sharp-boned, with dark hair and amber or grey eyes, tied to no single real-world people.

2026-11-06 (third batch)¶

R-020 · Kaelen naming convention¶

All Kaelen names of people, places and words sit in the register of Malakor and Oren, which never change. The Ottoman look of Kaelen buildings stays. Malakor's image: tall, lean, sharp-featured, imperious and sardonic, in the vein of Alarak of the Tal'darim from StarCraft II. The convention is on the Kaelen naming guide. The specific new names were confirmed in R-021.

2026-11-06 (second batch)¶

R-015 · Tristen's age¶

About 33 at the start of Campaign Three, so he was taken from Ashmar at about 5.

R-016 · The Edge¶

The Edge is she, and she is Ghost-10.

R-017 · The child Emperor¶

Amends R-010. The old Emperor whom Malakor poisoned had a single child, the boy who is now nine. That's why Malakor ruled as Regent, and why he could claim the throne when the Emperor died. The child is Malakor's first cousin, not the son of a cousin.

R-018 · House Aldor's looks¶

Queen Lyra and the Aldor royal line are brunette.

Also noted¶

Oren was Grandmaster Vane's personal Ledger-man, who defected.

2026-11-06 (first batch)¶

R-001 · Kaelen's look and culture¶

Ottoman-steppe. Domed and walled fortress-cities, bazaars and caravanserais, horse-and-sea war traditions. The Hall of Lanterns stays. Names are set by R-020.

R-002 · The war that burned Ashmar¶

About 20 years before Campaign One. A short border war that ended in a bloody stalemate, not one of the two great wars. "The Ember Raids" is kept as a Draft name for how Kaelen remembers it.

R-003 · How long the revenge took¶

Three years from the Trade Prince's murder to "the one morning".

R-004 · How Ghost-9 survived¶

Combined. He took the pulse-stopping herb as the fire took the safe-house, crawled into the drains, and the river carried him out. Vesper saved him from drowning and nursed him back. This is the root of the strong bond between them.

R-005 · Ghost-12 and Kira¶

Kira was Ghost-12 in childhood, alongside Tristen as Ghost-9. After the betrayal she was raised to Ghost-Zero. By the time of Campaign One, Gorath was the new Ghost-12 and Kira was Ghost-Zero. "Lady Kira" is the same person.

R-006 · The three betrayers¶

Vane, Solaris and Malakor are the three main betrayers. Kira betrayed him too, but only as Vane's instrument. She was aiming for the Zero seat, not the whole scheme.

R-007 · The five founding houses¶

All five founded Aldoria: Aldor, Thessaly, Ardent, Corvane and Morrow. Corvane was a minor founding house that banking later made great. Ardent's founding lands lay in the Marches, and the house moved west to the Southern Hills a few generations ago.

R-008 · What Ferry was¶

A loose conglomerate of western city-states that lived beside the Kilian Kingdom in a balanced age. The Crimson Empire was born from conquering it.

R-009 · Magic¶

The mages fled west, but magic faded within a few generations across the Grey Wall, which is why Farrow turned to steam. In Meridia a few low-key traditions survive. Ghost-3 is a hedge-arcanist or alchemist, not a battle mage.

R-010 · The Kaelen imperial family¶

Malakor was a cadet-branch prince, a "vassal" in the sense of a lord of the imperial blood outside the line of succession. Hadrak is his great-uncle and calls him "nephew" loosely. ~~The child Emperor is the son of Malakor's cousin, and the old Emperor's grandson.~~ Superseded by R-017: the child is the old Emperor's only child. See the family tree.

R-011 · Why Kaelen conquered Aldoria¶

Both. Kaelen is land-hungry by geography, and this particular conquest was Malakor's engineered revenge war.

R-012 · When the Jade Lotus was founded¶

About 100 years before Campaign One, after Aldorian spies nearly assassinated a Kaelen Emperor.

R-013 · Where Malakor died¶

On his throne, in the Hall of the Ninth Door.

R-014 · The Edge¶

The Kaelen Codex version is a later event: after the Campaign Three handoff, the Edge became a wary, partial ally of Tristen and the Queen in the middle of the chaos.