John C. Wright's Journal

Choosers of the Slain, Event Relic 3, The Land of the Young, is now posted.

Choosers of the Slain

• The Land of the Young

As with all event relics gathered into the Great Museum of Man by the Time Wardens after the final extinction of mankind, this is only the current redaction.

What later chronomancers will add or alter, is, of course, a matter of speculation, based on those contemporary records of future events which our posterity allows to stand.

What makes this relic unusual is its stability. The Curator has yet no record of any variant timeline in which Prince-Chancellor Penthane displays a different character.

Some may be tempted to adduce from such illusions of stability that there are qualities of the human spirit which remain the same across all variations of time, which form a limit to the power of the Museum to edit history: but such speculation offends the dignity of the Time Wardens, and must be avoided, lest we be redacted ourselves by our own future.

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A new tale from another aeon, near or far, will be posted in this space next week.

Choosers of the Slain, Event Relic 2, She Came from Places Far Beyond his Knowing, is now posted.

Choosers of the Slain

• Event Relic 2: She Came from Places Far Beyond his Knowing

A due respect for the privacy of the dead requires public attention be moderated, lest it collapse the probability cloud into certainty. It is possible that the events depicted here are, and have been, subject to later revision, and never have had taken place. While that possibility remains viable, the Curator bans further observation.

But her name can be revealed: Sigrune.

Choosers of the Slain, Event Relic 1, The Time was Autumn, is now posted.

Choosers of the Slain

• Event Relic 1: The Time was Autumn

The Curator of the Museum of Man demurs from releasing the date, or other temporal coordinate information, from the depiction of these events, as it is not verified whether, as of the last redaction of the aeon in question, they remain in a state of Shroedinger-waveform uncertainty.

All that is known is that the time was autumn.