Sleeping Giants Game 5

Intro

Jordan's Older Brother

The day is May 23rd, the year 511. It was nearly 2 years ago, but you still remember it like it was yesterday.

You awoke early that morning, much like any other. You said your prayers amidst the tapestries lining your chamber, finishing just as the sun was shining through the stained glass window in your chamber. Today, however, you wouldn’t be training in the yard. Today, you’d be attending the Ceremony of Archbishop Ascension for Maximilian Steingard, your older brother.

Everything went off without a hitch. You stood in the crowded Great Hall that day, the famed tapestries of Thalos lining the walls. Your position was toward the front of the crowd, right behind your father, Cardinal Jostan, and Maximilian’s mentor, Archbishop Alice. Your brother knelt upon the dais not 20 feet in front of you, with High Priest Marcus leaning on his cane in front of him, a hand on Max’s head. Though his frame is weak, his voice carries through the entire hushed hall.

“In witness of all present, and the ever-present Lord Thalos himself, I hereby recognize Maximilian Steingard for excellence in discovering, tracking, and abolishing evil from this land. He has made the world safer, and more importantly, carried on Thalos’ legacy through his gallant deeds. Because of his latest efforts in destroying a powerful enemy from the realm of Shadow, I do hereby declare that, though he knelt as a simple Bishop, he rises now as Archbishop Maximilian Steingard.”

The mammoth tapestry directly behind the altar makes a sudden movement in the wind, as though Thalos himself is breathing his blessings into the hall. Max rises, bows to the High Priest, then to the crowd, before making his way through the throngs of people to the other end of the Great Hall. As is customary.

From there, you never were sure what happened to Max. You had your own duties to attend to, and when you questioned your father later he refused to speak of it. Max held the position of Archbishop for only a few weeks before he disappeared from Skyhammer altogether. He caused several scenes within the church, and was prone to getting into arguments with the other Archbishops and, even worse, with his own superiors. The rumors state that the high station was too much too quickly, and he simply couldn’t handle the pressure. He was the youngest person ever to reach the rank of Archbishop, after all.

You don’t know if the rumors were true or false. You have had no contact with Max since his disappearance, and you dared not press your father on the topic after his refusal to speak of it. The only inkling of his existence came about exactly a year later, on May 23rd, when you were delivered something a bit odd. It was a scale, perhaps that of a dragon, that was slightly larger than your hand. On the inside was etched an inscription, in an alphabet and language you never identified.