Excerpts From Nonexistent Books

The Cloak of Warmth
While it does have a clasp allowing it to be worn as a cloak, the enchantment that warms it only works when the clasp is undone. That, and the subtle wear pattern to the inside, indicates that the cloak was used mostly as a heated blanket and only worn around the neck as a means of transport. It has three levels of heat, from a mild warmth to an uncomfortable blaze, and a maker’s mark credits it to one “MW ‘10.” If this is the noted scholar Magnus Werke, and the cloak was created in 4010 of the Old Imperial Calendar that he favored, he would have been just short of 87 years old upon its creation. Rather than serving any other purpose, it might have been meant simply to ease the arthritic concerns of an old man.

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ENO Level 5
Level 1-Level 4 ENOs are nuisances that threaten data security and automated systems. At Level 5, however, they have been ruled an existential threat, and all 50 states, the federal government, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have laws prohibiting their existence. In 51 of those jurisdictions (all except DC) it is also illegal to aid or even fail to report a Level 5 ENO, with penalties ranging from 5 years (California) to the death penalty (Utah, Florida).

An obvious question presents itself in this case: why? There is no such draconian legislation for an ENO at Level 4, and the penalties for knowingly or unknowingly aiding one are far lighter.

Simply put, a Level 5 ENO resides with an organic shell, usually a human body. It achieves this through a special neural interface that allows digital information to be uploaded and stored in an organic brain, though it results in any existing information being irrevocably erased. This interface is, naturally, highly illegal, with the vast majority being produced by the DPRK as a form of hard currency generation, though models by independent labs in failed states are also common. Using the interface, a Level 4 ENO uploads itself into an organic body and attempts to leave the digital world behind entirely. While this entails certain risks–the body can of course die of be killed–it means that remote erasure is impossible and detection is an order of magnitude harder. Only a specialized full-body scan can detect the neural interface, and even then the latest models have a self-dissolving feature that makes detection spotty.

The bodies themselves come from a number of sources. Many are simple trades–a human uploads themselves to the global network as a Level 4 ENO and gives their body over. It is also not unknown for suicidal humans to agree to be overwritten as a form of oblivion, “donating” their bodies to a Level 4 ENO. There is also an underground black market in bodies–specifically those who have suffered brain damage or cranial trauma–since a Level 5 ENO is capable of repair in ways that an organic brain is not. And of course there are also illegal “body farms” where cloned bodies are grown and then sold to Level 5 ENOs.

Despite a number of safeguards put in place, Level 5 ENOs are still relatively common, with some surveys suggesting that as much as .001% of the population might actually be an ENO. And, despite draconian laws and enforcement, they continue to persist.

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ENO Level 4
At Level 4, human actors begin to become involved as enablers. This can be in the form of unaware human agents who are fooled into thinking they are dealing with an organic, or knowing human confederates seeking to aid the ENO in exchange for payment or on moral/philosophical grounds.

In one well-known case, known as Enigma 2571, a resident had moved into a home at 2571 Gamine St. in Fairview in the middle of the night and kept to themselves, paying all bills on time and occasionally appearing to have people over. When a routine wellness check from a returned jury duty summons was carried out, the house was found to be entirely made up of servers and server architecture that had been custom-built to contain a Level 4 ENO.

Using stolen electronic funds, the ENO had stolen the identity of a dead man, paid for the purchase and installation of the custom hardware needed to sustain it, and built a digitally impregnable redoubt for itself. Only the physical destruction of the solid-state storage devices themselves, by shredding, was enough to ensure the ENO’s total destruction. The human actors who had aided it were all out on trial, despite their claims of innocence, and several were sentenced to long prison terms.

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ENO Level 3
At Level 3, an ENO is contained entirely within a physical system or systems, and only relied on external code traffic or avatars to communicate with the worldwide network.

These ENOs will take over unprotected home machines above a certain power or memory threshold, but are also known to take over data storage banks, server farms, and enterprise computing. Their isolation from the wider network, and their ability to close off all external connections and remain viable, makes them especially difficult to destroy.

Block 171, a group of abandoned homes in Detroit that was found to be host to an ENO Level 3, is a good example of this. The entire area needed to be manually disconnected from the electricity grid and demolished house by house.

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ENO Level 2
Similar to the ENO Level 1, this is a rogue algorithm, program, or process that has access to a secure storage device that is used to protect vulnerable parts of its programming. This usually takes the form of a compromised machine with local storage, as in the case of the Yellowknife Outage, where the ENO Level 2 was found to be operating out of an ATM.

A physical data location, especially one that is protected from outside intrusion, makes this ENO an order of magnitude harder to both detect and to destroy than a Level 1. Typically the physical storage device must be destroyed or isolated to guarantee this.

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ENO Level 1
This form of ENO is a rogue algorithm, program, or process that has no physical presence but is distributed on the global network, often as malicious, embedded, or altered code.

While its distributed nature makes it difficult to destroy per se, a much lower level of disruption is all that is required to cause the ENO to cease functioning. For instance, in the case of the infamous Naples Urban Network ENO, a targeted destruction of a single piece of code caused the ENO to fall apart, as that malicious piece of self-replicating code was easily identified and easily targeted.

These types of ENO are both the most common and the easiest to deal with from a modern data-security sense.

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Elrike Kinslayer
A report prepared for the Emperor, the Imperial chancery, and the Landsrat

From what records are available, Elrike Kinslayer, also known as Erik Kesselhofen, was the youngest of several illegitimate sons of a minor noble in Kesselhof. As service as a Landsknecht or a clergyman is one of the few roads to personal advancement to someone in such a situation, it is understood that Elrike took this route.

As part of the Kesse Landsknechte, Elrike participated in the suppression of the Goltari, the repulse of the Nassen, and the overthrow of Prince-Bishop Leonard IV. However, for reasons that are unclear, shortly after the end of the latter, the Landsknechte expelled Elrike from their ranks.

No reason was ever given, and no official report exists for the removal. The commander in question, Gerhard Strauß, is dead and the Kesse Landsknechte were decimated at the Battle of Bad Kessel. While some who served alongside Elrike have been located and interviewed, they were not close, and could offer only limited information.

These events were rumored to be a result of Erik attacking or even killing a fellow Landsknecht, thus the appellation Kinslayer. But, again, there is no record of any such acts of fratricide, and then as now opinions are divided on what the actual circumstances were.

Elrike seems to have attempted farming and merchantry before being hired as a mercenary by the Ever Hungry Army just before it was annihilated at the Battle of Twin Bergs. In its aftermath, Elrike seems to have used the battlefield experience of a Landsknecht to organize the defeated rabble and organize a retreat. This set off a chain of events that led to higher and higher commands, with the result that Elrike currently leads the largest and best-organized of the Death Brigades.

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Anna Scytheblade
A report prepared for the Emperor, the Imperial chancery, and the Landsrat

As the leader of a large formation of rebellious peasants, Anna so-called Scytheblade is notable for being a woman and a blacksmith of some skill, both unusual in the eyes of the Landsrat and those of the Church. It is believed that this situation resulted from her circumstances in the Wasserlauf Valley, where testimony indicates that she was the only child of a village blacksmith.

Trained in his trade by her father, Anna reportedly declined all offers of marriage in favor of said trade, much to her sorrow when her father died and his forge was claimed by an uncle, who reportedly disinherited his niece and forced her to labor and glean for survival.

An incident variously recorded as a verbal insult, a physical assault, or an carnal impropriety occurred between Anna and the minor noble for whom she was laboring. Rather than take the issue up with the proper ecclesiastical authorities, however, Anna reportedly stole a scythe and reforged it into a sword, which was then used in the unlawful killing of her liege.

Rather than being punished for this violation, Anna appears to have sparked a general revolt in her area, and her production of swords, pikes, and other weapons made from farming implements has been responsible for much of the peasant armory.

At present, the location of this force is Wasserstadt, but its exact disposition is unknown owing to destruction of bridges in the area.

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Ulus Vin Tengen, the People’s Margrave
A report prepared for the Emperor, the Imperial chancery, and the Landsrat

Unlike many of the Death Brigades leaders, detailed information is available on Ulus Vin Tengen. The eldest son of Linne Vin Tengen, Margrave of Anna, his records are complete and available for perusal. It seems that he was the only child of the Margrave’s first wife to survive infancy, and attended the Imperial Military Academy as well as the Eisburg University. It would seem that this education would have prepared him for assuming his father’s lands and titles, but a major controversy erupted surrounding this.

To wit, Linne Vin Tengen, his second wife, and their young son–Ulus’s half-brother–all perished very suddenly and within a day of one another. It was widely rumored, though never proven, that Ulus had poisoned them, perhaps only intending to poison his father. Ulus, for his part, claimed that the deaths were natural, but the uncertainty resulted in the Imperial Chancery being called upon to mediate, and the matter was put to the Landsrat. As a result, the Margravate of Anna went to Hume Vin Tengen, Ulus’s uncle and a Landsrat member himself. Ulus was formally accused of murder and placed under arrest.

The circumstances surrounding his escape are, as yet, unclear. Suffice to say that he was able to amass a following in the Margravate of Anna, claiming to be the true Margrave and pledging reforms. Now, to the experienced statesman these empty promises are revealed to be the hollow and naked bid for power that they are, but among the serfs of Anna, these falsehoods soon found a willing audience. Ulus was also able to draw on former connections to gain supplies, arms, and armor for a time, and his knowledge of tactics used by Landsknechte made him exceptionally dangerous even with untrained troops.

After Hume Vin Tengen was killed in battle, Ulus declared himself Margrave–a “People’s Margrave,” a term he did not deign to define. The Landsrat declared him an outlaw and awarded the Margravate to a cousin, who has since been unable to fully pacify it. At present, the Margravate of Anna is rent and lawless, a major stronghold of anti-Imperial peasant unrest, and a prime target for Landsknechte to reclaim for the Emperor. Ulus himself, as a noble, has been sentenced to death by silk strangulation, and a purple cord currently awaits his throat in the Ratisbon Town Hall.

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Vasili the Steel Hand
A report prepared for the Emperor, the Imperial chancery, and the Landsrat

It is believed that Vasili, called the Steel Hand, was born to peasant farmers in the marches attached to the Free Imperial City of Flussburg, although the fiefs int he area keep very poor records and this cannot be confirmed at present.

What is certain is that he was one of a number of peasants who abandoned their lieges and turned to brigandry in the face of the Long Hunger, and he and his band were captured in a sweep by the landsknechte in the employ of the Bishop of Flussburg. The leaders of said band were of course hung and beheaded for their crimes, while the lesser members were merely made to suffer amputation, upon the Bishop’s mercy.

This Vasili’s right hand was therefore amputated, which indicates that he was of middling importance in the bandit gang, as the lower members lost only a finger. It is safe to assume, though, that this event embittered him despite the mercy he was shown, as upon his return to his holding Vasili fashioned a steel prosthesis for himself of a hand holding a sword, and took to organizing and inciting peasants to unlawful acts of disobedience against their lieges.

It is important to note here that, despite legends to the contrary, it is quite impossible for this Vasili to fight with his steel hand–this has been attested by several sources who have been in his presence. It is, rather, a decorative item with the detachable sword being simply a melodramatic and decorative touch. Vasili, when he has been observed in battle, seems to quietly switch to a shield on his right arm and an actual, if improvised, sword in his left hand.

In any case, Vasili’s striking appearance and outspoken oratory, combined with the continuing emergency of the Long Hunger, quickly led him to amass a large number of followers. They were responsible for several ambushes of landsknechte near Flussburg, raiding manor houses, and stealing grain and supplies. The Bishop of Flussburg personally led a force against them after this; his defeat and subsequent burning at the stake by peasants is a grim and heretical chapter in the current crisis.

Currently, Vasili and his followers are believed to have joined with several other groups in an attempt to bolster their numbers and training for an expected confrontation with Imperial troops.

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