The Radasanthian Reader
Volume III, Issue 3, Final Edition
SPECIAL REPORT: Chaos in Salvar!
Church and State At Stalemate
by P.J. Pullhearst
AOUK, SR -- In response to the charges leveled against him by Justice Lev Testhan of the Church of the Ethereal Sway, King Iorlan Rathaxea I of Salvar has ordered church buildings throughout the country burned, their priests executed, and their lands reverted to state control. Anyone who presents a nobleman with the head of a cleric, functionary, soldier, or servant of the Ethereal Sway is to be paid a bounty of 100 gold, and a number of major churches throughout Salvar have been reduced to smoldering ruins.
In addition, the King has dispatched trains southward to Aouk, where they will break briefly before continuing onto Ettermire to plead for help from Salvar's ally, Edari'axa I of Alerar. In addition, trains are being dispatched to the north to begin shoring up the King's stronghold of Vha Kotur should he need to beat a hasty retreat. Both of these railroad lines are reportedly under-defended, given the need of the King to maintain his troop presence in Knife's Edge.
The capital is in virtual civil war. The cathedral holds out against a tremendous siege, huge beasts and other summoned spirits defending it against the soldiers and the siegecraft of Rathaxea. Rumors abound that a veritable war is being fought underground, and rumblings and crashes often seem to echo from drainage grates across the city.
"We will win this battle," said the King's emissary and Chief Minister, Ashiakin Xan-Ris Azzarak. "The Church of the Ethereal Sway will find that it takes more than faith to win a war."
But in the countryside, the peasantry and most of the enlisted soldiers have taken up arms against the King. Agreeing with Justice Testhan's accusations that the King is an usurper and an illegitimate holder of the throne, this dangerously large rabble are currently unorganized and leaderless, but if given direction could turn into a tremendous headache for the King's attempts to hold the tides against him.
Attempts were made to contact Justice Testhan for this report, but the leaguer on the cathedral has prevented any reporters from entering within it.
SPECIAL INSERT: Raiaera under Siege!
