Tales of the Dispute

The Proud Flesh

It's believed by most scholars of the Dispute that this phenomenon is a mutated version of some ancient military medical sorcery. It takes the form of columns of living flesh, marching in a group. The living flesh appears as a band of distorted human figures, marching in formation, towards some long-forgotten battlefield. The number of figures varies, from dozens to the hundreds.

The Proud Flesh is not generally harmful or aggressive, and will not defend against (or even react to) attacks, but anything standing in the way of the formation is liable to be trampled.

There are scholars and treasure-seekers who try and track and monitor the movements of the various battalions of Proud Flesh, in the hope they can find the locations of ancient battlefields or fortresses.

The Festival Forever

The origins of the Festival are lost to time. It is believed that it started as a regional festival that gradually grew in size. It's not known what, if anything, the Festival originally celebrated.

Over the centuries, the Festival has transformed into a traveling city – a wild riot of color, art, and commerce roaming across the expanses of the Empire Immemorial. The vast Festival Forever caravan stops in a new location, constructing elaborate theaters, marketplaces and circuses for a period of time. Eventually, it packs up and moves on to a new location. There is no off-season. The Festival never stops.

The games and casinos of the Festival are often in violation of local laws and custom, especially in more conservative areas of the Empire, but the economic and cultural power of the Festival tends to overcome any resistance.

The Festival has its own internal administration, bureaucracy, and peacekeeping forces. They generally avoid entanglement with Imperial matters, and the Imperials pay them the same courtesy.

Festival Patois

Not a full language, Festival Patois (i.e. Carny-Speak) is a dialect of Imperial Common spoken by members of the Festival Forever.

Non-Festival folk can understand bits of it, but it is so choked with Festival jargon and in-jokes it is generally impenetrable to outsiders.

There's a rich tradition of work songs in the Festival Patois, usually used to coordinate packing and unpacking the Festival, and innumerable traveling songs to guide them to their next location.

The Festival Lords

The mysterious rulers of the Festival Forever. No one outside the inner circles of the Festival is actually sure who they are. In the rare instances the Lords make a public appearance, they are clad in voluminous robes and wear colorful carnival masks.

The Lords appoint the heads of the various Festival organizations: The Order of Peacekeepers, The Order of Health, The Order of Travel. Most importantly, the Festival Lords decide by their own secret formulas how long the Festival stays in any one location. The time can vary from days to weeks.

How the Lords are selected is unknown. Popular theories include:

• The Lords inherit their position from their parents.
• Wealthy Festival merchants can buy lordships for themselves.
• The Lords are chosen randomly from Festival members – everything from stagehands, musicians, and peddlers are said to have served.
• The mythical Spirit of the Festival summons who it will to serve it as a Festival Lord.
• The Lords are figureheads. The Festival is under the direct control of the Emperor.