Journal of the Realm’s Ending

Entry 1129 - On fun

To the folk of the Empire, life is an unremitting cycle of drudgery and duress, punctuated only by
toil, hunger, and the occasional bowel-loosening terror. Yet even in such conditions, the mind craves diversion. From the simple to the salacious, the raucous to the reserved, there will
always be a need for amusement, a fleeting escape from the weight of existence.

Most often, entertainment arrives in the form of a wandering bard, or an uncharacteristically spirited Azerian sermon, drifting from town to town, exchanging their craft for coin before
vanishing like morning mist. Grander spectacles, plays, orchestras, and dances, are confined to the great cities of the Empire, the Sunlit Citadel and its like, where wealth and stability permit
such indulgence. Beyond their walls, the wilderlands stretch vast and perilous, and no troupe of performers would long survive the Empire’s untamed roads.

And yet, there are whispers. Tales of a travelling cadre of mummers, a circus of impossible wonders, slipping between the cracks of civilization. They come without warning, appearing at the edges of forgotten villages and lonely crossroads. Their performances defy sense, spectacles of beauty and horror, laughter and despair. Those who witness them speak in hushed voices, uncertain of what they saw. Some claim to have left the show changed, hollowed. Others were never seen again.

The roads of Doaden are long, and the circus always moves on.

Chronicle of the Realm’s Ending
Entry 1552 - A Subterranean Intellect

The vast network of caves and tunnels beneath the Empire has always been a mystery to me, a simmering stew of strangeness and horror, occasionally pitting forth some new terror to plague the surface. My sparse understanding of this underworld is drawn from the few dangers that rise from its depths.

One such terror, which has grown increasingly prevalent in recent times, is the Mycena Mortifera, a peculiar fungus of unnatural intellect and great appetite. While I am no mycologist, I will endeavour to outline some basic aspects of this lifeform’s ecology.

The Mortifera is colossal, a gestalt entity formed from a network of mycelial strands and fruiting bodies, spanning the length and breadth of the Empire. Some even speculate it extends across all of Doaden.
It thrives in symbiosis with a vast array of other fungi, and areas under its influence are often overrun by an extraordinary variety of growths. These blighted places form a terrifyingly beautiful tapestry of colours and shapes, nigh-alien to our understanding....

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