This episode contains content warnings for violence, eye and bodily transformation, bodily experimentation, mind control, and the eating of glass (without harm).
Sometimes you think you've got it all figured out, and rightly so. You've done your due dilligence, crossed your T's and dotted your I's, asked all the right questions to all the right people. And its these specific cases when you are most taken by surprise with the truth of the thing. It goes without saying that the case Yellowfield Candle Company is one such endeavor. The truth slips through the fingers, and only one thing's for sure: it's a wax house, baby—we all just live in it.
This week on Sangfielle: The Candle Factory Pt. 3
The Almanac of the Heartland Rider
Places
Yellowfield: Before the Panic this little valley of yellow flowers was the territory of a petty wizard and the subjects he frightened or beguiled. He called it his Xanthic Demesne, but these days we just call it Yellowfield. In the center of the valley, there's a candle factory, and it is here that the old axiom refers: "All the candle light in Sangfielle was made with just twenty odd hands."
Sapodilla: One of, if not the largest city inside of the walls of Concentus. Sapodilla is on the western shore of Sangfielle's inland sea, and its leaders have gotten very good at selling it as a postcard pretty, tiered seaside paradise where civilization and culture are defended unlike anywhere else in Sangfielle. Well. it certainly is right to say that the way they defend their culture is unique, but the rest of it? Call me a skeptic.
Facts and Figures
High Vicar Regan Alaway (currently he/him, changes over time): The de facto leader of Yellowfield, the vicar preaches daily in the Factory's churchfront. A charismatic figure with a bright vision for the future.
Gala (she/her): A young worker at the candle factory, Gala has grown increasingly concerned about the state of Yellowfield and the high vicar. Now, her concern grows to worry as her mother, Galena, has gone missing.
Eyes, Ears, and Mouth: These three Caprak—loyal to the full extent of loyalty to Alaway—are no talk, all action.
Subsolum: When a reporter passing east requested comment from the High Vicar on the distinguished deity worshipped at Yellowfield's only chapel, she was told only this: "My god is of the underneath, you see. The soil and the fertility in it. The deep soil, you understand. The soil that gives us these wonderful flowers." Well that was a crock of shit, wasn't it? Not sure what to think about this one. Was there actually a Subsolum once? Is the Lord of Yellowfield Subsolum, self-proclaimed or in golden honesty? Is the whole thing a con? Who the hell knows.
Bucho (he/him) (mentioned): Whether you first hear of him as "Big Bucho" or "Two Step Bucho," once you meet him, you'll understand that no name does the gallant Shape Knight justice.
Rana (she/her): An lonely devotee of Kaitankro who now lives out her days attending to one of her chosen god's many kite-shrines.
Organizations
The Shape Knights: It took people with clear minds, great ingenuity, and implacable spirit to face down and defeat one of the living trains of Sangfielle. In the time since, they've crafted armor from their slain foe, and with that have come to be experts of all things train. They herd, they breach, they redirect. But they haven't yet killed a second.
Hosted by Austin Walker (@austin_walker)
Featuring Janine Hawkins (@bleatingheart) Sylvi Clare (@sylvibullet), Ali Acampora (@ali_west), Andrew Lee Swan (@swandre3000)
Produced by Ali Acampora and Austin Walker
Music by Jack de Quidt (available on bandcamp)
Text by Austin Walker
Cover Art by Craig Sheldon (@shoddyrobot)
A transcription is available for this episode here.
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