“Pretty much.” Rupert said matter-of-factly, as if there was absolutely nothing strange about the story. “Why do you ask?”
Maelen sighed again and rubbed his eyes. “Well... it seems that Verigas was more scared than you thought. The Rod of Tiernon is now following us or someone so close in description to us as to make little difference.”
“The what?” Gastropé asked.
“The Rod of Tiernon. Tiernon’s elite cadre of holy soldiers and knights. They’re principally used to battle evil, destroy the wicked, send the damned off to their infernal torments, that sort of thing. They’re about five miles behind us on this road. From what I was able to pick up, they’re searching for a party of wizards and demons on their way to Freehold. Led by some individual calling himself, Lord Edwyrd.”
All the rest did a double take at Maelen’s words. They all looked to Edwyrd, who looked as confused as anyone did. “Lord Edwyrd? Unless I got a promotion, they must be after someone else.”
Maelen smiled grimly. “And how many parties of wizards and demons recently came across the sea from Gizzor Del, on their way to Freehold, with someone name Edwyrd in them do you think there are?”
“But I’ve never called myself that; you’ve been in this group almost as long as I.” Edwyrd complained.
Again Maelen smiled again, still grim. “I don’t care what they call you or I or any of us. The point is, we have some of the best-trained religious fanatics in the world five miles down the road, all looking for us. I suggest it is time for a plan.”
“What we need,” Archimage Tureledor stated, “is a plan.”
“What we need,” councilor Davron retorted, “is to know why the Rod of Tiernon is marching up the path to our door.”
“Given their normal reticence to discuss anything with the Council,” Councilor Trevin D’Vils stated, “all we can do is formulate a plan. Since they’re not likely to bother informing us why they’re attacking.” She looked around trying to get people to agree with her.
“We don’t know that they’re attacking us,” protested Sier Barvon. “Do we? All we know is that they’re coming this way.”
Damien simply shook his head. He’d called this late night council session to warn his fellow council members of the imminent presence of the Rod. As he should have known, getting them to agree on the situation let alone what to do about it was proving difficult. He couldn’t even get all twelve of the currently appointed thirteen member council to show up.
Lenamare and Jehenna had declined to attend as had Exador and Randolf, the Archimage of Turelane. Apparently the two factions had no desire to be in the same room and civil to each other. Zilquar was away somewhere and had not been reachable at his school.
Alexandros Mien shook his head, the old Archimage from Garander spoke up. “Look, we have to assume they’re coming here, we don’t know why, but there is no place else they could be going. The question is why? Why are they coming? We haven’t had a major disagreement with them in over six hundred years.”
“I suspect,” Trevin stated, “it has something to do with Lenamare and Exador’s spat. They’re the ones we should be asking.”
“And how?” Lord Archimage Gandros, chair of the Council of Wizards spoke up for the first time, “do you propose we ask them? They haven’t been exactly cooperative in resolving their own dispute which they brought before us. You expect them to be any more forthcoming on this?”
“Since they’re here and it would be their necks on the line as well, I’m sure they’d be willing to cooperate.” Sier Barvon tried to point out. Damien just snorted, knowing Exador and Lenamare.
“What about the inquisition?” Several councilors paused in their thinking to look at Trevin as she brought this up. “Given that the Rod is coming, is this a good time to be sending our members out on fact finding missions?”
Tureledor answered, “It probably would be best if we were all present to present a united front.”
“Since when in the last six decades, have we presented a united front?” Davron asked. Tureledor simply glared at the man.
“United in fact, or united in appearance, Trevin has a point.” Gandros stated. “I think, Damien, we may want to postpone your tour until we understand the situation better.”
Damien nodded, he wasn’t so sure. He felt that perhaps his tour could shed some light on what was up. Especially since he was positive that it had something to do with the dueling wizards. This point in time was not, however, the time to disagree. There was already enough disagreement around the table.
“I think,” Damien said for the first time since answering questions on the advent of the Rod, “reticence or not on the part of the Rod, we should at least arrange a messenger to find out what they’re up to. If it is Lenamare or Exador they want, then at least we’ll know. If it is us, they’ll probably simply capture the messenger so he or she can’t return to warn us. Knowing the Rod, it is highly unlikely they’d simply kill the messenger out of hand. Unless we sent a demon.” Several council members muttered about this, but none could really come up with a good objection other than complaints from the less optimistic ones.
After a bit more fruitless discussion they adjourned. As they were standing up, Alexandros looked to Gandros and asked, “We can assume you shall be informing our brother Council as to the situation.
Trevin D’Vils snarked, “Oh, do you think they’ll notice an invading army?”
Damien smiled at her, laughing at the inside joke; “I fear Lord Felgraf has already noticed. It was he who alerted us to the Rod marching through his city.”
The Council States
Home of the Council of Wizardry, the Council States is a federation of city states dedicated to the preservation of knowledge, the responsible use of wizardry, and free trade.
While the implication is that the Council states are governed by a “Council” there are actually two councils that provide the necessary inter-state regulation, adjudication and other federal functions.
The Council of Magistrates is made up of representatives elected by the ruling body of each of the member states. The Council of Magistrates is responsible for ensuring free trade and the upholding of economic treaties between the member states. It works with the Council of Wizardry to provide joint defense of the collective states.
The Council of Wizardry is made up of the preeminent wizards of the land as selected by the Council Roster. The Council Roster is an organization consisting of all duly recognized wizards in Norelon (and in much of Eton). Membership is incumbent upon presentation of credentials, abiding by the Code of Wizardry and payment of dues. The Council is foremost authority on wizardry in the land and is empowered to take action against members and non-members who violate the Code of Wizardry. Further, because many of the members are also ruling lords the Council of Wizardry carries considerable political weight, in and of itself, beyond that of ruling committees.
Government of the Council States is handled by applicable committees made up jointly and equally from members and/or appointees of both Councils. The Ruling Committees are each responsible for their designated area of authority and these bodies make applicable laws and rulings for their sphere of influence. Individuals requesting an appeal of the decisions of the committees may petition the independent Committee on Appeal. If their arguments are found to be of merit, the appeal may be forwarded on to the two Councils.
Committees are typically formed of 13 members (with the exception of Arms and Justice which are 27 members each), the chair of each council appoints one member to each committee and six other members of each council get one appointee each. Which committees a councilor appoints to is determined by seniority and the relative importance of the committee. In theory a council member can appoint him or herself to a committee, but this is almost never done due to time constraints, workload, and appearances.