“Triumvirate Theory”
Journals of William Harwood #6
Autumn Firstmoon, the Seventh
Year of Returning Light 645
Unjat, The Shrouded Lands
We arrived at Unjat this morning. Certainly not a time of great convenience for me to be falling ill. But here I am, laid up on our ship while the missus goes to explore the temples and the market without me.
Aegis above. Dianora. Doma Harwood. My wife. I still haven’t learned to accept that the words are true. A part of me still expects to see her father come through the door with a headsman’s axe to let me know that the fairy tale is over. But no. He was very upset when we returned home, in that cold and especially restrained way that a man of his bearing is required to be. But it only took a couple of nights to convince him. I’m sure that much of it was due to Dianora extolling the good business sense of such a union. Though, in the end, I suspect it would have been the passion driving those arguments that ultimately softened him.
Still, I can feel that judging eye of his fall upon me from leagues away.
Being of delicate stomach, I haven’t been able to speak with many people since docking. Really just the harbormaster. I gathered what news I could from him about local goings, but he was not of a mood to entertain me for very long. I am particularly curious to know what may have come of Professor Endrizzi and his explorations in the ruins of Agyda, but the harbormaster acted as if no such man ever existed. A strange thing, considering this was the same harbormaster I transacted with on my first visit a year prior. To know nothing of a luminary from the imperial capital passing through? Either he was in a hurry to dismiss me, or he was lying.
I’ve heard before that the imperials make a habit of expunging inconvenient facts from their records. Crimes, blunders, sometimes entire people. And such a fact, once removed, should likewise be made absent from the thoughts and words of an imperial official, like a harbormaster. I am left to wonder what kind of inconvenience you have made of yourself, professor.
With nothing else to distract from my suffering, I’m left once again with this old book, the heretical Ypsili Lexi we acquired in Traul. Normally, I wouldn’t take a rare treasure like this far from the safety of a library without meaning to sell it, but I must confess to some obsession for the mysteries that hide behind its text.
I have more recently been attempting to apply triumvirate theory to make some sense out of the deviations in this book. Of the seven true gods, the theory posits that six of them were spiritually bound to one another in a pair of triumvirates, leaving one more, Rodigo, who is said both here and in the canon to be the eldest of the gods, and, “the one who stands as only one.” That leaves Nemetes with his two wives, Gerdhun and Rigga, and then the other three, sometimes called the Triumvirate of Caetei, being Neshnan, Arsya, and Evenia. In the canonical text, there is plenty of inferential support for the theory, including suggestions that the lower, false gods, “those who were left behind,” followed this rule as well. I’ve even heard that of the long lost gods of the dourfolk, there were exactly three. So one might expect with a direct substitution of two gods for another two gods, they would substitute as well the original ties to family, so to speak, but clearly the heretical pantheon in this book does not.
In fact, a new passage I have found on Evenia, the one remaining member of the Caetei Triumvirate, says that she, “wears a veil in mourning for those she lost in the Assumption.”
The new gods, Oroisi and Kemeten, are said to ebb and flow, one to the other, between dream and portent, but neither is described as having any sort of bond with Evenia. Both are said to be at home on the island of Zsafi, so perhaps they represent a third triumvirate, a Triumvirate of Zsafi.
I begin to wonder if the Holy Sumican Empire had a habit of erasing history the same way as the the modern day Solis Imperium.
In any event, I still have no evidence that the heretical book is more valid than the canon. But if it is, then triumvirate theory would suggest that there is a third god of Zsafi. And if they match the figures in Traulish folklore, that third figure may very well be the Nightmare Queen.
In truth, it all makes for an interesting story, but I’m not sure that it gets me any closer to a real answer. Perhaps there is more for me to find on Zsafi, but it will be a while yet before I can find my way out there.
I should set this aside for now and think more on the travails of the present day. I hear Dee out on the deck. I expect she will have some stories for me.
Addendum
Dianora returned with a stone pendant bearing a familiar sign. It was the bell symbol, carved in the same style at Kemeten’s sign in the book. Said to be found in Agyda. Circumstances suggest Endrizzi was involved. Why would this be in the Shrouded Lands? More investigation needed.
