Noto

Excerpt from: “Diary of Dayspring, 3035 CA”
from the House of Prixe and Tours Historical Records

Augustine, Athefast.—since the establishment of the Theocracy, the strict prohibition of demi-humans within the city’s walls means all courier systems are to be human-operated. Augustine is in no need of pterippus maidens; the Holy City will henceforth rely solely on human runners and create new postal routes designed for human use. With Augustine exempt from service, the use of the former post of the republic is diminishing. Many of the mail-cotes now lay abandoned in the countryside, or have been dismantled entirely. The majority of our service is contained within the former Threshold, including cities such as Gehenia and Saline, no doubt due to the challenges of the morass and dense forests.

They say there is to be a sporting event known as the Freysinaia held in the Summer in the former capital of Praxedes, where some my sisters were invited to show their skill in flight by racing through the skies. I have yet to reply to express interest, fearing perhaps that this invitation is exploitative. Yet with the decline in service, I fear we face the disappearance entirely if we do not accept this proposal, and no longer will our House of Prixe and Tours, once an integral part of the republic, survive into the Theocracy.

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Noto can trace her lineage a mediatised noble house that was once essential to the old Republic for the maintenance of trade and postal routes, which was serviced by members of their house—pterippus, or more colloquially, pegasus girls. With the dissolution of the House of Prixe and Tours in 3038 CA, the pegasus girls dispersed mostly over Eastern Athefast, becoming seen as unemployed servants without purpose. Many were made into slaves, with no other recourse to support themselves. The best treatment came from those who survived by racing or other sporting endeavours, but only a handful could achieve this road to victory. The remainder of Pegasus girls integrated with the Eastern Athefast postal service, though their influence was drastically reduced. Noto is one such Pegasus girl. Her “master”, Rubin Everdale, an elf around 660 years old, was once in service to the House of Prixe and Tours and ‘stables’ many of her sisters.

Some of her sisters yearned to restore the old republic, but Noto thought that sort of thinking was naïve. The old republic was no better as a political system (so said her master), and to restore the faded out old husk of its former glory was a goal that served no-one. But still, the question of how the old republic fell sometimes preoccupied her thoughts when she lay on the hematite-glazed roofs of Gehenia, and she wondered how much knowledge had been lost in the process.

“Nothing more needs to be created; nothing more needs to be destroyed”. The tiles, stone, and marble that made up the Republic became the material that built up the Theocracy. For roughly one hundred or so years, the Theocracy of Athefast did not create a single new building material and fashioned their new society from the vestiges of the old. Was the bones of the system they replaced truly so enduring, or was it merely a systematic way of erasure?

Maybe there existed a future where all could move together. Where they could find some understanding, however small of a dream that was.

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Excerpt from: “The Fall of the Republic”, 3320-2 CA
Anthotyros Everdale
The Ecclesiastical Commission Archives.

Why did the Republic fall? On surface, most would attribute the decline of the Republic to simply the opportunistic rise of the Freysian religion, made possible by Levia Destrin’s insurrection with help from the League of Saints. This, at best, is a surface level account that ascribes too much precedence of luck and circumstance to key historical figures.

In truth, the Republic of Athefast had fallen ill, both metaphorically and physically. After the profiteering from the wars of Asmon in supplying material across the sea for centuries, the Republic had long fallen into decadence and moral decline. Corruption of the senate was widespread, with thirteen families or tribes controlling the votes in the so-called democratic republic. The disparity of wealth between upper and lower social classes were at their largest divisions during the latter decades before Levia Destrin’s insurrection.

There is also evidence of a decline in population, though it is not well documented in sources. There is one theory: there existed an epidemic or plague, backed by accounts of journals and census data that survive between 3025-3030 CA. This plague affected mostly demi-humans—a potential vector could be the transmission of this plague via fleas or lice. It is highly likely that the Freysian customs of bathing and ritual cleanliness may have spared her followers, who were proportionally human. Was it by this, that Levia Destrin was able to declare Freysia as the Pinnacle; the one true Goddess and Creatrix?

Curator’s notes, 3322 CA: This account diminishes Levia Destrin’s role in creation of the Theocracy. Denied from publication; investigations of the author’s home to be scheduled.

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Nothing more needs to be created.

Nothing more needs to be destroyed.

The famine and Cresti Uprising affected even in Eastern Athefast. A few years later, Noto was radicalised when her sister had her wings ripped off in retaliation for stealing food to survive—a horrific punishment that showed the immense divide between humans and demi-humans. It was when she found the underground artist movement in Gehenia, that her sister learned of the Hearth and its goals as a supply infrastructure and radical group. Riwi joined, and by extension, Noto followed.

Noto had started her job as a mail carrier when she was sixteen. Her main job, aside from delivering mail and adhering to postal standards, was the delivery of parcels and packages. It was then when she had her first assignment from the Hearth: sending packages of prohibited and censored books that were disguised as benign—samizdat. Her sister was the one who handwritten each of them, and it was Noto’s job to pass it from reader to reader. Under Sozon’s regime, creative arts and literature was stifled by severe censorship, which made the proliferation of samizdat gain traction like wildfire. It was clear: the educated desired what the Theocracy opposed. Many of them were not even considered insurgents, but merely tired of the cultural offerings that were sanctioned and sanitized. From samizdat, the Hearth grew until it became the supply infrastructure of Kisatkel, and consequently, the supply infrastructure of Phoenix.

Their operations went smoothly until the summer of 3674 CA. A student from Augustine was found with a banned book, and an investigation of the student body occurred. With a samizdat ring in Augustine uncovered, the Hearth’s operations in distributing prohibited material had to cease for a time. Riwi’s handwriting was not well-known outside of the written samizdat, especially since she feigned illiteracy in her public life. However, there was a potential of being caught if she was interrogated or her quarters searched. They were at a loss going forward, with no easy solution to avoid the Inquisition’s scrutiny. It was then when they got a tip from Augustine in the winter of 3675, that the Hearth had a plan:

Obtain their own printing press—one that was unique, hidden, and could not be traced back.

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“The Distribution of Prohibited Material in the Theocracy”
Chief Inspector Inquisitor Théodore de Lacratelle
The Ecclesiastical Commission Archives, 3675 CA.

After the discovery of prohibited material at the University of Augustine, the Inquisition has launched a wider search into the distribution of what is known as samizdat. The findings have determined a noticeable increase in prohibited material being distributed by underground movements since 3667 CA; the majority of readership being human (64%), followed by elf (22%) and demi-human (16%) readers. Of the human readers, 36% identified as belonging to an insurgent group. The majority of human readers are educated elites, and the network spreads across major cities (in order of prevalence, taking account population size) Gehenia, Praxedes, Augustine, Meridian, and Saline.

Prohibited material is determined by the Ecclesiastical Commission of the Freysian Creed, approved since the 3671 Commissionary Diet overseen by Most Holy Father Sozon Severgin. The list as follows: (1) religious texts outside the Freysian belief, such as the Pretenders’ Orgy, (2) Statements, appeals, protests, information on arrests and trials that are sympathetic to the wider revolutionary group known “Phoenix”, (3) Unsanctioned, unofficial, or unapproved analyses of various crises within the Theocracy of Athefast, (4) Texts, whether literary or non-fictional, that are politically aligned or in favour of reviving or restoring the Republic of Athefast, (5) Literature classified as obscene or immoral publications, outlined further in the Obscenity Act of 3668 CA.

Information within the Commission Archives have also been distributed without permission—a search and interrogation of curators is requested urgently within the clerical branch of the Inquisition.

To further rectify this, the Inquisition should request for all printing houses to submit examples of their movable-type presses, so that any printing house can have their text traced back to their source. Privately-owned printing presses may be targeted by the insurgent group that is producing and distributing the material. Note that much of the prohibited, self-published material may be concealed in book-bindings, journals, or other innocuous objects unless inspected thoroughly.

This table is an excerpt from the Obsenity Act of 3668 CA.

“Adventures in Suliesse”	Banned for its portrayal of anthropomorphised animals acting with the same complexity as human beings.
“The Canine Demon”	Banned for a mythical depiction of a warring era during the Republic, and a demonic being that switches between human and non-human forms.
“Cubeb &Louve”	Banned for the story’s sympathetic portrayal of a shamanistic deity pre-Theocracy.
“Lack of Love”	Banned for exploring a world where everyone is born as a demi-human, and lose their animal ears and tail through sex.
“The Lizard Maiden”	Banned for the depiction of a human mother giving birth to a reptile demi-human and its repercussions.
“The Star of Flax Country”	Deemed socially corrupting to the youth of Athefast for featuring a human girl that believes herself to be a cat demi-human.
“The Lizard Maiden”	Banned for the depiction of a human mother giving birth to a reptile demi-human and its repercussions.

The following works are under review by the Ecclesiastical Commission (updated 3678 CA):

“Horn of Amalthea”	Notes from the Commissionary Diet as follows: the curse of the noble family turning into beasts when hugged by the opposite sex may be permissible if the curse is broken through Freysia’s intervention.
“Heavenly Blue” and “The Masculine Mystique”	Notes from the Commissionary Diet as follows: though the nature of the novels are explicit, there is nothing inherently heretical in the depiction of the head of the Inquisition and his adjutant. Self-published as of 3676 CA.

Further works have been reviewed and new editions will contain the revisions deemed necessary by the Theocracy as listed in the Code for Published Matter. The majority of the changes fall into one of these categories: (a) any fiction containing an element of god-slaying will depict the triumph of the Freysian faith over lesser deities and demi-gods, i.e. the Pretenders’ Orgy, the old faith of the republic, et cetera. (b) no fiction shall explicitly present or state that Freysian religion is equal to or lesser than other faiths. (c) In every instance, the Freysian faith shall triumph over other faiths, and the belief of the Pretenders shall be overshadowed by the truth of the Freysian religion.