Cycle 2400.10 — JULY 2025
📰 THE KOVARI ISLAND CURRENT
Edition 002 – Delivered Unrequested. Opened Without Permission.
If you’re reading this, you’ve already been noticed.
🌲SABLEWOOD: The Whispering South Stirs Again
In the mist-laced lower reaches of Region 2, something ancient continues to breathe softly through the trees. This cycle, more fragments of Sablewood’s ritual life have come to light. The forestfolk—those with horns curled like memory and tendrils that shimmer with thought—have begun gathering openly.
But this is no rebellion. This is communion.
Their connection to the land remains unbroken. They share silent meals beneath the trees. They sing songs to the canopy without making a sound. They craft tools of driftwood and bone and exchange them not for trade—but for trust. The balance of magic, memory, and mutual respect is so deeply woven, even The Guardians hesitate near their roots.
💄 THORNWAY RETRO: Glamour, Grease, and Growing Power
While Thornway’s elites remain sealed in luxury and secrecy, a sub-district along the western promenade continues to bloom like an over-lacquered flower. Thornway Retro, once dismissed as a phase, is fast becoming a culture of its own.
Painted in pastels and stitched in vinyl, the residents spin through diners, tattoo parlours, and rooftop jukebox nights with a kind of practiced chaos. There are rules here—but they’re unspoken. You dress to impress, but never to conform. You celebrate everything like it’s sacred, even when it’s just a birthday.
Those born in Retro aren’t trying to return to the past—they’re reinventing it. With grit. With glitter. With absolute, unrelenting aesthetic control.
A new age is winding up its record player. And it’s got something to say.
🎭 MASQUERADE QUARTER: Curtain Up. Truth Down.
Above ground, Masquerade Quarter remains as polished as ever. Streets of black stone and gold trim glimmer under the gaze of lanterns shaped like memories. Actors wear joy like perfume. Art hangs in every window. But beneath the performances lies something deeper.
This cycle, eyes turned underground—to the cellar vaults, the locked doors, the corridors carved beneath the stageboards. Whispers of old rituals. Of masked figures who never remove their costumes. Of laughter echoing where no one lives.
The Quarter thrives on illusion. But not all illusions are harmless.
Here, even shadows are rehearsed.
And some plays are never meant to end.
🧩 THE WARDS OF ASHLOCK: Quiet Work in Quiet Lands
Nestled between the fractured cliff-trade of Blackreach and the warm fogline of Sablewood lies a strange little place—the Wards of Ashlock.
This month, the black-clad caretakers have been seen tending broken machinery and twisted limbs—specifically those of discarded Strikers. These mechanical horses, once used by The Guardians, are not welcomed elsewhere once defective. Yet here, they are repaired, comforted, even… loved.
The women of Ashlock are young, poised, and eerily synchronized. They rarely speak. But when they do, their voices carry weight.
Their work is not sanctioned. But The Guardians do not interfere.
Not here.
Not anymore.
🛠 BLACKREACH & SECTOR 9: Steel Breathes, Circuits Twitch
In the iron maze of Blackreach, trade persists—legal and otherwise. Bright-eyed runners shuttle goods between tunnels. Blue eyes gleam in the half-light of boiler vents and rusted walkways. Steam presses against skin like a second atmosphere.
Meanwhile, further northwest, Sector 9 flashes with unstable brilliance. Its neon spires blink like warnings. Corporations duel behind mirrored glass. Augments hum in alleyways. No one rests here. They upgrade.
Both districts remain under heavy Guardian presence this cycle. Several incidents of unauthorized net-diving were recorded in the south docks of Sector 9. In response, black mechanical Strikers were deployed along the highlines at dusk. No further details were released.
🦴 THE WASTELANDS: Still Breathing, Still Watching
Nothing civilized grows in The Wastelands.
But something mutates.
Rustborne clans and Techgrave Prophets still roam the cracked red crust, chanting in old languages and trading radiation like currency. No new settlements recorded. But two Guardian patrols failed to return. A black smoke cloud was seen on the 4th dusk of the cycle. It did not dissipate.
As always, avoid passage.
Unless you have no other choice.
🕳 FORBIDDEN ZONE: Still Silent. Still Sealed.
No changes.
No entry.
No explanation.
Even The Guardians do not speak of it.
📜 ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE DRAFTSCRIBE'S DESK
District Codex Updates: Expect revised district-specific laws in next cycle.
Masquerade Gallery Expansion: Six new sanctioned exhibits approved aboveground. Access restricted after third bell.
Guardian Striker Behavioural Shift: Units observed hesitating near Sablewood border. Investigation pending.
Festival Season Delay: The Mid-Ashen Festival will not occur this year. No reason given. Do not ask again.
🔮 COMING NEXT CYCLE (AUGUST)
First reports on Sablewood wildlife studies (including water-gliders and dusk-spirits)
Initial Ashlock Kindred record-keeping entries
Mapping effort: unseen borders between Blackreach and The Wards
Masquerade Quarter: whispers of a performance that never ends
District Codex drops for Carnivale and Blackreach
Guardian route tracing experiments—“Where do they return to?”
Survey reports from the Dead Zone perimeter (if allowed)
🌀 This is Kovari Island. The air is strange, the rules are shifting, and the land listens.
Keep your step light. Your voice lower. And never, ever look past the veil unless you're ready to see what’s behind it.
