Glorious Pallas

‘No sword can vanquish castle walls, beat as it may upon them day and night; thuswise is the power of intellect and reason a bulwark against chaos and malice. But this remains so only if the barricades of civilization against disorder are shaped by a skilled stone wright and planned by a careful thinker.’ – Glorious Pallas Pallas, famed as both a warrior and an architect, helped found the city of Thalass on the isle of Pelagos. She created a magnificent palace, broad tree—lined thoroughfares, paradisiacal gardens, inspiring shrines, geometrically perfect arcades, and, her crowning achievement, the city’s mighty yet elegant walls. On the night of a festival being held in Pallas’ honor, a dappled owl alighted on her balcony. It spoke with the voice of an erudite, commanding woman. The owl said she was an avatar of an Aetherial known as the Wise Warrior, the Mistress of Arts and Science, and Guardian of the Soldier-Scholar and Warrior-Poet. Pallas had exemplified the virtues and skills of the Wise Warrior, who wished to elevate her to the status of Aetherial to serve as her herald and champion. Unwilling to decline the commendation of such a being, Pallas agreed. The owl bade her lay a hand upon its feathered brow, and when she did so, she was transformed into a living breeze that followed the owl to its home on the highest peak of Pelagos. Pallas returned for her festival, touched by supernatural power, radiating grace and serenity. With a towering shield as grand and sturdy as the city walls and a spear as straight and perfect as her fine columns, she was like a vision of Thalass itself personified as a shining knight. For generations, she watched and advised as the people and her architectural creations both grew, changed, and endured. Pallas saw many rulers of Thalass come and go, but none so ambitious and successful as Polemarch Agameos. Having inherited a substantial commonwealth of islands, Agameos pushed to absorb as many of the remaining Argonite city-states as he could, by conquest or diplomacy. After watching centuries’ worth of would-be empires fall to discord and infighting, Pallas saw in Agameos the dawn of a new era for the Argolades, and partnered with him to help manage the nascent instruments of his government. One of Pallas’ duties is to administer tests to make sure Agameos’ bureaucracy and soldiery are top-notch. Her trials measure physical strength, athletics, combat by sword, spear, and javelin, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, poetry, theology, seamanship, and more. Her challenges for a given candidate are biased only somewhat toward that candidate’s intended function – would-be scholars are still tested in discus-hurling and long-distance hiking, and potential elite soldiers are not spared scrutiny of their oratory and command of history and science. Some of those Pallas tests are elevated, as she had been, to become Aetherials serving the Wise Warrior. Pallas also lends her wisdom to Agameos’ diplomatic dealings. When the Argonites entered into negotiations with the Nyresan Union, Pallas was there – both anxious and excited by the possibilities. On one hand, she is proud of her people and believes they deserve a place on the world stage. But the Argonites are newcomers to a thousand years and more of politics and prejudices between the people of Teleria, which they will have to navigate delicately.