PALISADE 15: Upon Our Grace Pt. 2

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Episode description[edit | edit source]

This episode carries content warnings for civilian harm and death, torture, conscription, hallucination, uncanny visions, body horror, bodily transformation, kidnapping, and medical experimentation.

Having disregarded their official mission in an effort to both help the Figure in Bismuth and spurn Gucci Garantine, the crew of the Blue Channel begin to explore the Dim Liturgy’s primary monastery on the Isle of the Broken Key. Brnine and Phrygian corner one spy and develop suspicions about a possible second agent. Thisbe and the Figure in Bismuth search for a new source of power, and discover encounter someone they thought they’d seen the last of already. Cori meets an ancient architect and in the process is either drawn closer to or further from her god, depending on one’s perspective…

This week on PALISADE: Upon Our Grace Pt. 2

I hurt myself to see if I could feel / (magnificent) / Then I began to pray to see if god was real[Note 1]

Dossier[edit | edit source]

Organizations[edit | edit source]

Violet Cove: The Dim Liturgy claim to have seen the Divine Devotion's arrival coming in their sacred text: A battered and corrupted backup of Crystal Palace's final predictions for the future. Now the two cults work together to oust the Bilats... and perhaps to do more intriguing things, as well.
The Devotees: A church from the Twilight Mirage that is committed to the worship of the divine Devotion, which they sometimes refer to as Fervor. Common practices include the regular checking of one’s pulse and multi-day group picnic outings.

People[edit | edit source]

Sea Crepuscule (he/him): Master of the Concave Wing of the Dim Liturgy’s primary monastery, where he leads the search for specific details and predictions from the Glass Archive’s remnants.
Marlon Styx a.k.a. Em (he/him): Undercover BIS agent assigned to infiltrate Violet Cove. Has become enamored with the Dim Liturgy’s holy text.
Tenn Alpenglow (he/him): Bodyguard of Kenneth Marian Colver and Knight of the Fabreal Duchy. Resents his assignation to guard the cowardly Viceroy, but takes seriously his sworn oath to serve under the Duchy's new masters.
Kenneth Marian Colver (he/him): Former member of the Curtain, now Kesh’s Viceroy on the world. Reports up to the Stargrave. Bread concerns have been replaced with violence concerns.
Grand Magnificent (he/him): A complex figure in the history of the Twilight Mirage. Member of the Notion, Excerpt of the Divine Arbit, and (above all else) an artist.

Places[edit | edit source]

Isle of the Broken Key: Home of the Dim Liturgy since its obscure creation thousands of years ago. Now serves as base for the entire Violet Cove unit of the Cause, including the Devotees and (most recently) additional support teams from the Twilight Mirage.
Chimera’s Lantern: The second moon of Palisade, shaped oddly like a wasp’s nest or paper lantern. New arrivals to the world find its occasional glow unnatural and frightening.

Objects[edit | edit source]

The Kestral White: Flagship of Palisade's Viceroy, Kenneth Marrian Colver. Hovers like a hawk on a thermal updraft, searching for its prey.
Gambeson: The Gambeson is only about 10 meters tall (less than half an Altar), but it is nevertheless a terrifying scourge of the battlefield. Modeled after an iron maiden, except with it's tortorous doors attached to its back serving as wings. Its head features a metalworked face, twisted into extreme and offputting smile.  Its skeletal frame serves not only as body, but cage: pilots are criminal conscripts forced to pay off their “debt” to Kesh by the Divine Plight, earning their freedom through combat achievements.

Divines[edit | edit source]

Asepsis (it/its): The final living remnants of a Divine who pursues its particular vision of purity at the cost of everything else. Kept, studied, and utilized by Captain Kalvin Brnine.
The Reflecting Pool, f.k.a the Divine Past, f.k.a. Crystal Palace (it/its): In the era before the founding of the Divine Principality, Crystal Palace served as the supreme oracle engine of the Rapid Evening and the Principality of Kesh. At the end of that era, it lost its ability to predict the future, but continued as a vast archive of the past, and became canonized as the Divine Past (which now serves as the Reflecting Pool, center of the Witch in Glass’ kingdom). The final record of its predictions into the future are stored on Palisade, under protection (and study) of the Dim Liturgy and Violet Cove.

Contents[edit | edit source]

Plot[edit | edit source]

Concave Wing[edit | edit source]

Cori feels Devotion's judgment: she has not gone to Baseline to build a church, and so she is no longer Devotion's beacon. She reaches the symbol of Devotion that she spotted and finds that it's on a huge slab of glass, which has notes on it relating to the Devotees' relationship with the Dim Liturgy. When Cori touches it, her hand passes into the glass as if it were a portal. She is unable to pull her hand back out.

Meanwhile, Sea Crepuscule escorts Brnine, Phrygian, and "Em" out of the Concave Wing. Realizing that Sea is also a BIS spy, Phrygian tries to take Em into custody on the Blue Channel but Sea does not allow it. Brnine, having noticed that Cori is missing, pretends they're calling Gucci to pull rank and then leaves to find Cori. As Sea relents and lets Phrygian take Em into custody, the Kestral White decloaks on the horizon: Tenn Alpenglow has arrived to demand the return of his ward, Kenneth Marian Colver.

As Phrygian makes their way to the Blue Channel with Em, the Kestral White opens fire on the settlement. Tenn Alpenglow announces that the violence will end as soon as Colver has been returned. Phrygian successfully gets Em to the Blue Channel without either of them sustaining serious harm. They lock Em in the rec room.

Brnine and Cori[edit | edit source]

Brnine finds Cori passed out on the ground next to the glass eye, which is now open and blinking at Brnine. Cori has a dream or vision in which Devotion turns the wings on her arms black. She then finds herself in a strange dream-world, speaking to the person who created Devotion, who seems distraught. The person explains to Cori that he used to build things that hurt people and he wants Devotion to be something that actively helps them, but he can't seem to get it right: no matter what he does, it hurts people a little. Because these events took place about 450 Mirage years ago, Cori does not recognize Devotion's creator as Grand Magnificent. As she emerges from her dream/vision she sees imagery suggesting that the Curtain interfered with Devotion in some way at the beginning of the Perfect Millennium.

Cori wakes up disoriented, and Brnine offers her a granola bar. Shortly thereafter, the two of them realize that the floor of the Concave Wing is flooding. Brnine receives a radio message from Figure: he and Thisbe have kidnapped Kenneth Marian Colver, and the settlement is under attack from people who want him back. Brnine orders Figure and Thisbe to neutralize the Bilat forces attacking the settlement.

Brnine takes Cori up one floor, further from the floodwaters, and finds a terminal in which to plug Asepsis. Asepsis runs through the database and outputs a list of spies operating in Violet Cove.

Glass Archive[edit | edit source]

Thisbe and Figure learn that the power that lights Chimera's Lantern could be a source of sustenance for Figure. As they pore over the texts in the special collection they hear the voice of Kenneth Marian Colver pipe up from behind a concrete door. He insists that he has been kidnapped and beg Thisbe and Figure to free him.

While Thisbe and Figure deliberate, they hear Tenn Alpenglow's voice over a loudspeaker demanding Colver's return. Alpenglow then sets off a sequence of warning cannon fire from the Kestral White. Thisbe and Figure decide to kidnap Colver themselves. When they open the door Figure tries to knock Colver unconscious, but Colver's body bounces like rubber. Colver opens the velcro of Figure's flight suit and a hand emerges from Figure's chest: The Usher of Truth, working through Colver, has made Figure into a living portal for the Iconoclasts. In response, Figure turns the material their body is made of into concrete.

Colver tries to run, so Thisbe clotheslines him with her leg and carries him out. Figure radios in to Brnine to tell them that they've kidnapped Colver. Brnine tells them to return Colver to the Bilats so that they'll cease fire.

As Thisbe and Figure emerge with Colver, they see a Plackart piloted by Tenn Alpenglow magically flooding the ground as it moves. Thisbe sends a communication to the Bilats that she has Colver and is prepared to return him to them. One of the Gambesons attacking the settlement flies over, retrieves Colver and returns to the Kestral White, and then the Kestral White leaves.

Cast[edit | edit source]

Other Characters[edit | edit source]

Notes[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Lyrics from the song Magnificent by Black Thought
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