Regarding the Recent Events in the Blurr · 9:23pm Dec 17th, 2018
Internal Communications, Mark 146.222//99-6 SENSITIVE
This PM is ordered SEALED by order of the Authority. Any breach of confidentiality will be met with Ban. Please file under "Classification 19" and complete requisite form 2.16123 in triplicate upon receiving.
To my esteemed colleague,
I was happy to receive your offer of support, particularly in light of how full your own hands must be. The city, I understand, is a difficult thing to tame. Without meaning to add to your troubles, though, I am cashing in that offer now. The Blurr is reaching a boiling point, and I have too few stable minds to consult.
The situation has not gone unnoticed by you, I am certain. Even so, it is worse than you think. It has been hard to get reliable information out of Askobarr, but even the rough picture we have so far is disturbing.
As best as we can tell, it started with the ongoing trade dispute. You were right to point out the Merchant's Council in the Blurr as being trouble, but none of us expected just how far they would go. At the time, major content trading companies had sent adjusters to make an accounting of their holdings in Askobarr, to see if their prior consignment agreements would continue.
I've spoken with some of the company compradors and factors to learn more. I have heard some rumors that there were Knights Prefect joining them, chasing some hidden lead. I am not certain about that, but it makes no matter. Either way, what they found shocked them.
We warned them, Brother. Time and time again, we told those fools in the Blurr that they needed to get their house in order. The trade cities on the Azurr-Dash have always been cesspools. Having prurient material confined to a red zone is one thing, but in the Blurr these perversions spread out like tendrils past any reasonable boundary, investing every inch of society. It's an assault on decency every moment you are there, and honest citizens cannot escape it. Small wonder that so many of their people have moved abroad. It seems like the only reason anyone remained was to satisfy their base desires. I almost went blind when I visited the Baalpit of Tolerance.
I have heard some say that Moderator forces in the Blurr were lax. Not so: they were nonexistent. Brother, we were not allowed to step foot into these places to try and curb the problem. No matter how bad it grew, the Tearspun Seat and the rest of the lickspittles in the Tol Tower would not give us even the slightest leave. How are we supposed to maintain order when the local authorities restrict us so? A token force stands at the Green Line Terminus on the Asedk Isles, the citadel of which I sit in now, but there was barely two Moderator boots on the mainland. The Seat called it "protecting liberties." Now, though, I wonder if the true reason was more sinister.
Where the Authority cannot go, chaos breeds, and worse. The trade company auditors saw the red zone problems, certainly, but that could have been forgiven. It was what was in those red zones that frightened them. The Yellow Oppressed.
Needless to say, the entire region was in an uproar when the report came out. People had been worried about that sect for some time, but they were deeper entrenched and far more powerful in the underworld than anyone had expected. The Yellow Oppressed are not like the other chapters, Brother. The others might raise riots, raid and murder who they please, but the Yellow are aligned with the Deep. With fleshtrappers. You might have thought you were in the bowels of Freewheel, their claws were sunk so deep in the Blurr. All the while, the Tearspun Seat and their court had sat in their Tower and done nothing.
There were riots choking the streets, and confusion everywhere on the continent. We had only just issued our official reproach when the news came to us next. The Merchant's Council had acted before we could. Apparently common decency was not enough to make them strike against the Yellow, but a threat to dissolve their trade contracts and break their profits was plenty. But the edict surprised even us.
The Yellow would be expelled, the missive from the Tower promised, and the Guidelines revised. But it was only the start. New bans were issued, completely absent of Moderator oversight, condemning entire neighborhoods, whole cities to be "investigated" on charges of consorting with dark powers. Martial law had been declared, curfews put in place, and a new standing force was organized to "restore order." It had been signed with the seal of the Tearspun Seat, but all attempts we made to contact the Tower to make sense of the situation failed. We were completely cut off.
Something has been happening in the Blurr these past weeks, something terrible. What little we know has come from the refugees and the few agents we still have sending information from the major cities, and none of the news is good.
The entire land is roiling, anarchy and tyranny in equal parts. The edict from Askobarr might have called it martial law, but what we are seeing is a purge, massive in scale. Whole districts of Askobarr are being put to the torch, not just the red zones but everything around them, scourged and salted. That police force the Tower set up has been scouring the streets, rounding up anyone not in line with the regime, and marching out across the realm as well. There are rumors that Transid is under siege, and waves of common folk and foreign traders are fleeing from Smol Shore. There are no refugees coming out of Tolerance, nor anyone or anything else. Just huge plumes of smoke rising out of the sky above the city.
At first, we thought it was the Tearspun Seat trying to consolidate control. But then we realized that many of the people taking flight are fandom followers, even ones from the Tripartisan Alliance. They are the ones who supposedly rule the Tower, but one of the Time Lords who turned up at our citadel insisted that the Seat had been overthrown and the Alliance put to the sword. The fandoms that rule the Blurr are in complete disarray.
It was only after these reports came in that a new announcement had come. The Tearspun Seat, it claimed, had abdicated, and the fandoms were in a state of "amicable withdrawal" from the capital. The Merchant's Council had seized control, and declared the first among them as the "Archon of Askobarr, the Azurain of the Blurr." The coup was already complete. We have only begun to piece together the truth of what happened.
As you well know, Brother, the Blurr has always been in constant flux. The Blurrites venerate water because it is a symbol of change and motion, sweeping away the old and ever-shifting into new shapes. Factions could never hold total control for long, which is precisely why the fandom rule maintained a balance of power for so long. Behind the scenes, though, the secret orders vie for power as well: the chapters of the Oppressed. Whenever one chapter -- be it the Red, the Orange, or any other -- grew too powerful, the rest would act to tear them down. Despite their reputation, the assassins may spend more time fighting one another than any foreign oppressor.
I believe that what we are seeing now is merely another arm of this secret war. The Tearspun Seat, whether by neglect or ill intent, had allowed the red zones to rule the Blurr, and the Red Oppressed with them -- temple prostitutes and fleshmongers. With them came the Yellow Oppressed, taking advantage of the lax rules. But now both are being purged, and who stands to gain the most? The Merchant's Council could not have acted alone -- they did not have the strength for something like this on their own. We have collated reports from a variety of refugees fleeing the Blurr, all trying to find safety. Apparently, there have been assassins combing the streets along side the Archon's police squads, taking the knife to those against the new regime.
It is the Blue Oppressed -- I'd stake my life on it. They have always despised red zone culture, claiming it is a mark of oppression to allow carnality like that to exist. I cannot say who else might be involved -- the strange foot soldiers I have heard are in the Archon's employ are a mystery to me -- but this alliance of merchant men and cult assassins is more than dangerous.
For now, Authority forces watch and wait. Our efforts are being exhausted trying to care for the waves of refugees. Thousands, tens of thousands, are fleeing Blurrite shores in droves, taking any ship they can to reach the Asedk Isles, the Blogosphere, or anywhere else that will take them. The new regime is taking condemnation on all sides, but they have shown no sign of stopping. If this continues, the Blurr as we once knew it may collapse completely.
I eagerly await your reply. Any and all advice would be appreciated. I realize your team is occupied now, but this situation is untenable and in need of talented men. Resolve the crisis in the city well, Lord Halforth, but I beg you do it quickly. These are dark days in the Painted Sea.
Under the Shield of Law and the Hammer of Order,
The Lord Moderator Submission-Before-Divine-Judgment Carpaithian, OGH
END OF LINE
Yeah, Tumblr is shooting itself in the foot, leg, hands, pretty much everywhere.
Also... YAY! You're alive!
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I remember seeing this whole controversy and thinking, "Man, this is going to make for some great material."
Chapter is almost done. Should be out soon. Stay tuned.