Today the curtain rises on the second of the series of 'major events' we

are adding into Avalon over the coming months. The 'Divine Globes of

Avalon' quest is now active and in each of the four city's patron deity's

temple you will now find a great globe. These artifacts are now

accumulating an impression of each home city, a distillation of a vast

range of success and failures by the citizenry year by year.

Detailed information about the purpose of the divine globes, how you

interact with them and how you may call upon their powers can be found

in a trio of helpfiles: HELP GLOBES, HELP GLOBEIDEALS and HELP

GLOBEACTIONS.

From this point on all citizens and all events within a city's walls

will be monitored by the globe. Each year the globe will accumulate

power based on the positive and negative acts of the citizenry. Each

year, on the New Year's Day, the globe will offer a portion of its power

to the citizens of its city. This 'power' is the sum of the past ten

Avalon years of globe-vigilance; a reflection of the trials and

tribulations of city-life. All citizens may use the globe's power until

it has been depleted for the year and, once depleted, all citizens must

wait again until the New Year before the decade of distilled passions

coalesce once again whereby the globe's power is replenished. And so it

goes.

Pay particular attention to HELP GLOBEIDEALS for it contains information

on how to call upon your globe to witness, to heighten its attentions

for a short period - ideally during a time of great activity and

achievement organised by the leaders of the city. Something to

experiment with, since adverse events are as damaging to the globe while

it is in witness-mode as successes are beneficial.

Now, under normal circumstances the globes would need a full ten Avalon

years to have gathered sufficient information ready to gift an

appropriate portion of its might to its people. Rather than leave

mortalkind waiting for so long, however, the Olympians have bestowed

upon each globe eight years and a few months worth of distilled potency.

And thus from the New Year after the one coming, the divine globes will

blaze forth from their altars, awaiting instruction where to direct its

diverse powers. This is, of course, a one-off and year by year the

globes will replace the eight equal-worth year-summaries with a genuine,

entirely citizen-fuelled year... until, a decade hence, the globes are

and will remain a living embodiement of the history and impact of each city

on the great continent of Avalon.

Sebastian, the keeper of the scrolls

Written by my hand on the 3rd of Mournsend, in the year 1199.