EXTRA WRITING FOR SAINT ADRIATICA

There should be mention of a few things before Shivan gets deeply involved in this mission.
One is the fact that Shivan has in fact mysteriously spent ten years at the obelisk.  This
could be discovered from journals and dates on manuscripts informing him of the loss of the
Excelsior and subsequent war between the Ferrum and the Alchemists, which is creating
further rifts in the Empire and serving to re-ignite the debate between Precursors and
Sophellians.  At which point, Alacassandra may well be mentioned as an exceptional pioneer 
of the Order.
The second is the curious appearance of paradoxes, as detailed below.

ENCOUNTER IN THE DUNGEONS (or should this be what Shivan experiences in the limbo sequence
of the Builder Queen's Halls, in which case it would be set in the Imperial city and Shivan
would escape in order to kill the Emperor in a mad fury and bring about the destruction of
the Empire).

In addition to Shivan's meeting with the Keeper, the Keeper should mention the increasing 
occurence of paradoxes and warn him that he might see what might have been and that he may
not like what he sees.
As soon as Shivan enters one of the deepest regions of the dungeons, which he must cross
through in order to get to the palaces beyond, there should be an atmospheric ambient that
evokes a strong sense of dread and foreboding.  At various parts of the way, he should come
across voices and half-glimpsed figures that echo the effects of the black and silver of the
obelisk and the semi-invisible Shadow Order (in fact, we should use a sort of 'effects 
trademark' here, including an 'obelisk theme' music wherever Shivan encounters a paradox).
Footsteps are heard crossing a broken, ornamental stone floor but nothing is seen until
Shivan gets close up, at which point a figure appears out of nowhere and Shivan gasps, 
"Filian!  Brother!"
"A dismal prison!  A typical place for a cur to conduct his business, if thou asketh me, 
Shivan."  The ghostly figure of Shivan steps out from the shadows.  "Let us hope he hath a 
good explanation for what happened.  It cost us much to gain the trust of those tribesmen
and unite them once more with the Alchemists."
"Aye, but you saw as much as I that their powers of divination were beyond anything ever
witnessed by men of the Imperium.  That tree of knowledge that they took us to cannot exist 
in the real world at all.  It is a real asset for any people ; that they can see into the
hearts of men and surmise how everything must be and must have been."
"True, twas an uncommon enchantment."
The figure of Karaquan walks up to the two of them.  "I am glad to see that thou doth honour
the agreement of our meeting, Filian, but bear thee in mind that the Shadow Order art all
about thee waiting for my command.  Your little brother canst do naught against them."
"In the name of the seven spheres that art under my command by the prophecy of the Starlit
Moon, tell me if and why thou didst slaughter so many in Caerah, the only town in the North
that dared welcome the Empire."
"I can see how this distresses you, but it was a question of control.  Your family was 
indeed destined to save your people, as that ring you wear describes.  It would have gained 
Caerah its independence from the tribesmen, but the timing was not right.  Caerah suited the 
Empire much better as a centre for Imperial power.  The Master Builder and the sacred land
of Athalon must come first.  They threatened progress!"
"It's as I thought.  Well, it's time you tasted a little of what you call 'progress'"
(They fight.  Karaquan wins.)
Karaquan - "Guards!  Kill the other one too."


When the scene is over, Shivan should have only one place to go and once he goes that way
he should come across a member of the Shadow Order.  I think it might be a good idea to
further dramatise the action by having the place in which the Shadow is standing to be lit
up before Shivan sees him, at which point he speaks, emerging from the darkness.
OPTION 1 - (He explains that this is an alternate reality and that, had Filian lived to 
fight this duel Shivan would have led the Northerners against the Empire and defeated them. 
Yet by doing so he would have allowed the old gods that oppressed man and kept him in fear 
back into the world?)
OPTION 2 - (He does not appear at all and Shivan is left until the Builder's Queen's Halls
mission to find out that he would have ended up killing the Emperor in a rage, had his 
brother lived - with the same consequences as above.)
Therefore, all that is left is to fight the battles that you CAN fight (Baldergast) and to
always pursue justice and virtue in a free-thinking fashion.

SAINT ADRIATICA - Paradoxes

1)  Baldergast, who according to some, died in Darkmere and according to others lived to
fight in the battle of Craig's Pass, appears at Kristantium when the Ferrum Miurus fight
their first battle against their fellows, the Alchemists.
Baldergast still remains a legend.  Some think that he has become a Shadow and his identity
and loyalty is in question.
He fights the Golden Demon to a standstill, nobody knowing truly whose side each is on, and
only after the demon has killed countless men merely by charging through them.  This has yet
to be documented but would be useful to include in the story.

2)  Shivan experiences a test of faith.  He encounters a ghostly apparition of himself 
meeting up with his brother, Filian, who challenges Karaquan to a duel.  He loses, and
Shivan swears vengence.  A member of the Shadow Order watches in the darkness and turns to
him.  He asks what the meaning of this vision is, and he is told to keep to stay true to
Master Yahwol's instructions.
The Shadow might also speak to him as the event is taking place and ask who he is, to which
he might reply that he is a friend, and member of the Shadow Order.  This character is also
found amongst Borkman's gathering of Keepers in the last mission.
We later find out that Shivan, in the timeline played out by this vision, kills the Emperor
and is subsequently hanged.

THE MEETING / MURDER OF DRAGON ORDER 'GENTLEMAN' - This bit reminds me of that line from 
Rudyard Kipling's poem 'If' and should help to give Shivan even more of a heroic status at
the point he is about to find another key to the Builders Temple.
'If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools'
refers to Shivan's appeal for Hammerites to be more expressive in their love for the Builder
(this might well appear in Shivan's early writings as featured in Tallion Academy.  The 
Dragon Order, hailing Shivan as a hero of the Cravonian war, take this the wrong way, taking
it to mean a 'slovenly impiousness' when he was in fact calling for better communication 
between the Orders.  As a result, the people of the Dragon Order are now imprisoning and 
torturing the Cravonians for what they see as a schismatic rebellion from the central 
Athalonian republics where the Emperor rules.  Shivan is, naturally, horrified as many were 
simply suckered by Constantine's promises and trickery.  However, by killing one of them it 
might create an interesting complication to the storyline as he might be inadvertantly 
taking out his only ally, as it is the Dragon Order who honour him for his role in the war.


SILVER MARK NOTES - The silver mark can represent either self-deceit, self-awareness or an 
overactive conscience.  (Self-deceit can come as a great tragedy, as many of those who 
suffer from it can be noble-minded and whilst the Shadow Order have been known to draw out 
such people there are still those who slip the net.  In the case of Shivan, for example, 
it is clear that he has a destiny.  It is just not quite so clear what that destiny is, 
although clues are strewn about in the form of the names that he bears.  Shivan comes from 
Shiva, the Hindu God of destruction.  Ragnathus comes from Ragnarok from the Nordic legend 
of the end of the world.  And so we find the situation poised at the end of the Builders 
Queens Hall mission.  I am still trying to make this part effectively fit the pattern of 
my ideas on the subject, but what I am trying to achieve is a dramatic situation whereby 
Shivan must die so that the Empire can live on.
Following this, the Keepers can then make maximum use of the split timeline and the powers 
of silver to rescue both.  How this is achieved (and explained with any degree of fluency 
and clarity) is also something Im working on, but it basically involves a conflict of 
supernatural forces.
