Concordant Academy of Command
Cadets! Welcome back to Gold Arrow Station! It is good to see so many familiar faces, and even more, to witness your commitment to the Concordance. The next 12 weeks will be the most challenging of your lives. But on this anvil, you will be forged into the leaders that the Concordance for Survival needs!
I recognize some of you from when you were Pit-Meat. I'm shocked that a few of you lived to make it here today! Years ago, they tried to send me through War College. I wasn't dumb enough to say yes! Now, when you're done, I'll have to salute you! Until then, you still answer to me!
The Concordant Academy of Command of the Concordance for Survival is a training program for veterans who have served in one of the branches of the Kirinal Defenders. They are required to complete the course to become an officer in any of the armies surrounding the Kirinal Pit.
The academy's purpose is clear: to instill in its cadets that the mission to contain the Kirinal Pit takes precedence over all worldly concerns or political conflicts. The survival of not just Erathia, but countless other worlds across the multiverse, hinges on their ability to set aside personal ambition, national loyalties, and political squabbles.
In the Pit We Are Forged, For the Future We Stand.
Meet Upsilon Squad
Orientation Day
Every decision you make can affect the fate of entire planes of reality. As officers, you must rise above the chaos of battle and the distractions of diplomacy.
You must embrace one truth:
The Pit must be contained.
These 12 weeks at Gold Arrow Training Facility will turn you into true leaders. Or they will break you.
I will test your physical endurance. Instructor will measure your strategic thinking. Both of us will measure your mental toughness and capacity to lead.
I’ve been at the Station since I was fresh Pit Meat. My warband, the HHH, runs the checkpoint on the trains and skyships that come down the Gold Arrow River.
I’m in one of the so-called “Unity Squads” where they put in a soldier from each of the Cantons. I’ve been around long enough to know we’re just as likely to kill each other as we are to become a team.
Either way’s fine by me. Ain’t nothin can stand up to my chainguns!
Training Begins
The first thing we do is place you into squads mixed together for maximum success. Some will be "unity squads", made up of representatives of each of the Eight Cantons of the Kirinal Concordance Zone.
Squad placement is vital here at CAC. You will pass or fail together.
If one member fails, the entire squad washes out of the Academy.
Squads are given a name according to an archaic alphabet: Alpha, Beta, etc.
The Upsilon "Unity" Squads are rumored to be made up of either the most promising or most dangerous cadets entering that class.
I'll tell you right now. It's not a rumor. It's true.
Once the assessments are complete, the cadets are put through history classes about the Kirinal Catastrophes, the history of the Concordance, and of each of the Bad Shatters.
I knew that they would strip me of my magisterial garb. I retain my Dark Banner and Bone Mask as is my right. Wearing these mortal garments is a price I am willing to pay for the power I seek.
They begin our trials with a maze and an obstacle course. I am not allowed to use my undead minions. They force me to exercise this physical form, this prison of flesh that I am trapped in. My wit and will handily solve the maze. My corporeal form is humbled by the course.
Building Bonds
I am, of course, a great proponent of the Concordance and all that it stands for. My family has greatly profited from its existence! To become an officer, I knew I would eventually have to mix with the hoi polloi.
Unfortunately, finishing school did not prepare me for the reality of living with a talking rabbit, an axe-wielding turtle, and an orc in a wheelchair.
Nevertheless, a Jekel always perseveres. I get down into the muck. I rub shoulders with the pirate girl and the awful little necromancer. As always, I put on a good show.
You will be spending the next few weeks are spent on squad and patrol exercises. You will each be given command of your squad and lead them through various exercises.
And this is where the fun stuff starts! You'll be learning how to call in artillery strikes from the skyships and the big guns! We have a Finder coming to teach you multiversal navigation!
You will be rules of warfare across different planes from an expert in negotiation and the Blood War.
You get to cross-train each other in the methods, weaponry, and personnel about their own military. I can't wait to see Necrokd try to pick up a bastard sword!
Hello and welcome to my little class on etiquette and interdimensional conflict! I am Titivilus, your friendly neighborhood Ambassador of Hell. I'd love to talk to you afterwards about your ambitions and whatever it is your little hearts desire!
Real Leadership
Congratulations cadets on making it to the halfway point of the Academy. In the upcoming weeks you will join the Kirinal Divers as they survey the day's Manifest
I know some of you don't leave your own Cantons that much. We're going to change that.
You will travel through the Kirinal Wastes to shoot at Wasteland Bats and visit the Anomalous Forest to hunt Shatter-Kith. You will walk the length of the Pit Wall and ride the entirety of the Inner and Outer Rings.
Tour of Lost Worlds
Greetings cadets, I am Concordant Beacon Finder Numan! I am here to complete your training on multiversal navigation.
We will travel by portal, through dimensional doorways, and down the branches of the world trees! Along the way, I'll be taking you on a "Tour of Lost Worlds".
We'll visit an assortment of worlds that have suffered a variety of apocalypses. You will find out how those world's failed firsthand. Learn the lessons so that our civilization will survive and thrive!
As a Tridenser Knight, I've served with plenty of soulforged, but I've never met one as sassy as Finder Numan! I started that tour as my normal flirty self, but I soon learned that the trip was all work and no play.
We visited realms that had fallen to shadow. Worlds decimated by the Blood War. We saved survivors of a zombie apocalypse. We watched the radiation of dead stars rain on our magical fields. For the first time, I really understood what we fight for.
The Final Challenge
You have entered the final weeks of CAC! We will put you through your last round of testing and physical assessments. Your final exam will be a practical test. Your squad will be stranded on a random plane in the multiverse. Your goal will be to return to Gold Arrow Station by the end of the week.
If you don't return, we'll send a Finder to retrieve you. If you're still alive, you'll be permitted to go through CAC in a year's time.
And to answer the question in your heads: Yes. There are squads who have never returned.
The Cracked Mirror
The artifact that sends the squads to a random plane is called the Cracked Mirror. It sits in the CAC headquarters protected by powerful abjurations. Those that look deeply into the Cracked Mirror can see alternate versions of themselves, living lives that they could have had.
I am a Tridenser Knight from another land.
I am an orc warrior born with a broken body.
I am a tortoise soldier who escaped the mad emperor.
I am a rabbit from the Shattered Moon.
I am a noble born with extraordinary privilege and overwhelming responsibilities.
I am a maimed necromancer who hides behind cruelty.
I am a goblin reborn.
The mirror shows me what I could have been.
I see worlds where I lived the life of my squadmates and they lived mine.
Commissioning Day
Cadets, congratulations on surviving the trials! You have proven yourselves worthy of being Kirinal Defender officers and maharlikans!
However, your real trials begin now! Each of you will be choosing which branch you will serve in. Choose wisely!
I've never seen a sorrier or luckier lot of ne'er-do-wells in all my years as a soldier. I couldn't be prouder of each and every one of you!
But dont' get too cocky! Enjoy your Commissioning Day. Celebrate! You've earned it. But once the hangovers wear off, I'll see you on the Wall!
Tonight, you will dine with your friends and family.
Once you've stuffed yourselves, head over to the Silver Gate District and tell them Sarge sent you. First rounds on me! Make sure you have some balut for me and if you wake up with some new tattoos in the wrong bed, that just means you did it right!
Since my return, I have not known who I really am. Mealworm still haunted my dreams. Now, perhaps, my new life will truly begin.
Love how this is coming along so far. I really enjoy that some of it is coming from the mouths of the Instructor of Recruits and Sgt. Kill Flayer themselves. The squad are comprised of some fun characters too.