Welcome to Season 3 of Empyrean Decree!
This evening The city of Alexandria lies bathed in twilight glow, its spires and cobbled streets dressed in ribbons of gold and black for Her Majesty’s 50th birthday. Every window flickers with candlelight, every inn is packed with revelers. The eastern gardens of Castle Vasileia have been converted into the largest theater stage in the entire kingdom, one capable of hosting every noble lord and lady of the city- and then some. Revelers are sitting atop rooftops, crowding with friends and family to get a glimpse of the evenings excitement. It has been a long time since the theater group Galatea, named for the beautiful woman carved into the bow, has performed in the city.
But the true celebration lies not in the city below…
...but in the sky above.
A thunderous cheer rises as the famed airship Absalone—its hull lacquered obsidian, trimmed with silver fire—sails overhead and comes to rest beside the palace's Grand Balcony. Beneath its keel, a great platform unfurls like a blooming mechanical lotus, lowering toward the celebration court in dramatic fashion. Upon it: dancers, illusionists, a full orchestra—and the greatest traveling theater troupe on the continent.
Tonight’s performance: “The Crown & the Cursed,” a tragic romance rumored to have been “written in secret by the Queen’s own hand”... or so the heralds boast.
Each of our players has been invited personally as “esteemed guest, noble patron, or rumored muse.” They sit in places of honor on the edge of the stage platform or in box seats on the Grand Balcony.
The wine flows.
Masks are worn.
Eyes are everywhere.
And darkness is in the air.
