This episode carries content warnings for distorted and layered vocals, discussion of civilian death and mass destruction, description of being bound, tight spaces, compulsive thoughts and mind control
After the calamitous encounter at the Isle of the Broken Key, the Bilateral Intercession finds itself on the back foot. Key intelligence assets compromised. A flagship, along with its crew and commander, lost to the sea. Insurgents capturing resources from the Diadem’s train lines. A snare closing around on Stargrave Elcessor. Something must be done. Something must be done.
Bilateral Intercession: One of two factions vying for leadership of the Principality, comprised by Stels Kesh and Nideo, and lead by the so-called Peaceful Princept, Cynosure Whitestar-Kesh (he/him), who took control of the faction from the Curtain, a secretive intelligence organization with roots in Kesh’s ancient spy operations. The “Bilats” are a conservative and reactionary force, aiming to return the Principality to its roots both literally and figuratively. After a long campaign against the Pact of Free States, they managed to take control of Palisade.
Jade Kill: Based in Joyous Guard, this military arm of the Cause is operated by the Delegate liberation faction known as Reunion and supported by Kalar Anakalar's (he/him) Giantkiller unit and a wing of Swordbreakers. Led by August Righteousness (he/him).
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.
Grey Pond: With members of the Oxblood Clan, the Company of the Spade, and the Shale Belt's Concrete Front, these blue collar revolutionaries are experts at getting the Cause the equipment it needs (and maintaining what it has when that's the only available option).
Carmine Bight: From ramshackle additions to the rocky shores of Rifle Island, Captain Skelton Knaggs (he/him) and his fearsome flotilla launch rusted pirate vessels beneath the waves, guided by a coalition of Hyphan navigators.
Rose River: Though they are undoubtedly committed to the Cause, this unique research unit (combining Veronique (she/her), her Divine Fealty (any pronouns), and their followers with an out-of-time NEH Sleep Detachment squad) hope for a day when they can be something other than soldiers.
The New Asterism: What was once a schism between Received and Progressive Asterism has now been healed by the false prophet Gur Sevraq (he/they), or at least someone in his name and face. The New Asterism claims that to be a citizen of the Principality is to have an obligation to "better the world," in the sense that one invests in property or in the way that a settler “rehabilitates” or “improves” the places they claim by violence.
Stargrave Elcessor (she/her): Leader of the Bilateral Interecession’s occupation of Palisade, assigned personally by Cynosure Whitestar-Kesh. As a Stargrave, she has been granted the means and “right” to detonate the star at the center of Palisade’s star system if she determines that those here are an existential threat to the Principality.
Connadine (he/him): Commander of the BIS on Palisade. An expert in psychological operations and folklore. As a composer, his opus is the Adagio, a plan to get everyone on Palisade operating in ways not only predictable, but scripted. As a conductor, his orchestra now turns towards the second movement.
Elle Evensong (she/they) - Elle arrived to Palisade along with the first wave of Devotees, making a name for herself as a cunning combatant and clever commander. She became a poster child for Twilight Mirage's support of Palisade (and, for members of the Dim Liturgy, a prophesied bridge between the past and the future). But as the war began to heat up, she seemed to vanish into the background. Pilot of the Cataphract.
Zedd Z. Izzard (he/him): Lovable dirtbag chef. Works in main hall's mess hall. Knows everyone’s favorite drink and most people's favorite meal. Satisfactory pilot. BIS Spy.
Routine Rennari (he/him): Half-Apostolsian, scion of a minor Kesh noble house, and the Blue Channel's heavy.
Saffron Septet (she/her): A doctor from the Twilight Mirage who lives as a digital consciousness, spread across a number of bodily forms including a heavy Torch Unit, a small motorcycle, and a unique and specially-crafted surgeon body.
Partial Palisade (he/him): A man who was once a Divine, now living in the shell of a being quite unlike what he once was.
Mustard Red (she/her): A cyborg who once served as a member of Brink Proxy, with a speciality in surveillance. Joined the Cause during the Devotees expansion onto Palisade.
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.
Bontive Valley: Blessed by the departed divine Bounty, the Valley provides the Bilats with fruit that never rots and hyper-nutritional grain.
Diadem Gravtrain: While the vast trench-city on Palisade's equator lays abandoned, Kesh has reactivated its railway via an operations center in Carmathen.
The Paint Shop: Sitting atop the central peak of Steeple Catterick, most people assume the Paint Shop to be no more than an artist commune where visiting artists collaborate on eccentric and avant-garde work. In truth, it is both a manufactory and front for the Bilateral Intelligence Service.
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.
Perennial (she/her): The Principality's so-called 'adversary,' who lives at the center of the galaxy and whose chaotic whims spread through her "Perennial Wave," an ever-present nanoparticle that has recently bonded with Kalmeria.
Broadcasting live from the caves of Sinder Karst. That's right, we'll tell you where we live 'cause you can't reach us, not in a way that matters. It's your boy, Baldwin Home, a.k.a. Black Screen, Concrete Front, you already know what it is. Hitting you with another missive from the frontlines, giving you an update on their missiles and known crimes, so you can move under their noses and know where they sharpen their knives, so you can recognize it by sound [OVERLAPPING: Bank to Church. I'm at Position Alpha.] and get your own honed too, cause they need to be! What did I say? Play it back, play it back! They're-they're-they’re moving on us now.
Bilateral Intercession yet they got three heads so I gotta break it down for you. It's like this: Stel Kesh, they'll try to confuse you with half-true museums and the shine of gold and silver, so let's keep it simple. They wear a lot of fancy shirts. I'm not kidding, you should see they closets. And that's fine by me, you should see mine! But I know who made my shit and I know they didn't make it at gunpoint, direct or indirect. Kesh, Kesh only know what's on the label, with Kesh it's always about labels. For as long as there's been a Kesh [OVERLAPPING: He has no idea. Listen to him go.] they've been breaking everybody and everything down so it fits into little drawers, little boxes. They've been the same since before any of us were living here on Palisade.
Next up, Stel Nideo, they run the churches and the schools, and the cameras and the swords, and the blood-coloured jewels. What can I even say that they haven't said themselves? Their little prophet and their big Divines treat words like prison cells. It's a prison faith, it's a prison ideology. They locked up they own selves with a warden psychology. They preach fields into gardens but turn lands into landmines. They practice [OVERLAPPING: You gotta give it to Connadine. They all speak on rhythm.] metaphysical arson and replace homes with confines.
Which leaves us with just one more head on the Hydra, one more round in the chamber, one more villain inside the Intercession war procession. Exanceaster March, you're worth half a bar, lightweight, but fuck it, I'll give you eight.
You're the [OVERLAPPING: Roger. Executing now.] ideal mosquito, bloodsucker supreme. Turned your back on your people so you could follow your dream of monopolizing the future, 'cause fuck it, you want more. Well, so do I, which is why I rhyme, and why we'll knock down your— [GUNSHOT]
Austin summarizes the faction-level events of the previous arc for Jack, Art, and the listener, including an out-of-character discussion that was cut from the last episode: the Blue Channel players have decided to go after Stargrave Elcessor. After some discussion about Jack and Art's intentions to respond equally aggressively as the Authority, the Conflict Turn begins.
Kesh ramps up control of the Diadem Gravtrain, greatly increasing the mobility and presence of every arm of the Authority on Palisade and heightening surveillance of Cause movements. The Cause finds its efforts thwarted more and more frequently, and falls for fake intel that leads members to their deaths aboard booby trapped decoy trains.
A Nidean broadcast, rife with Stel propaganda, depicts Nidean forces landing on and claiming control of Chimera's Lantern. The Stel almost immediately begins to receive reports back from the forces on Chimera's Lantern: "We weren't here first."
Zedd Z. Izzard, in custody in the Blue Channel's rec room, squeezes through a grate in the wall into the ship's vents. He encounters an Asepsis drone on patrol and, having heard from his superiors of something unusual aboard the Blue Channel, elects not to evade it but rather to rip out the drone's processing unit. Zedd's probe tells him that he could learn more about Asepsis in Brnine's quarters, and he narrowly evades Routine on his way there. As he enters the room Asepsis makes him feel the weight of every lie he's told in the preceding year, and Zedd realizes the thing aboard the Blue Channel is a Divine. Zedd manages to confound it by feeding it false intel about the BIS, throwing off its readings. He then makes for the front of the ship while it's docking, takes out Saffron Septet, and escapes into Carhaix.