Again, if we look at the official history, we are reminded that the Revolt of the Guilds was one of three, great Abominations which sparked the Third Great Maelstrom. There is some debate as to whether that is true, and I must confess that my researches have led me in an entirely different direction than others' Shadowlands. So I cannot say for certain, or even have a few, justified suspicions in the matter.

But suffice it to say that the Flaying did occur. A monstrous, terrible crime committed against an entire Dark Kingdom. I have spoken with those who serve the Order of Six, and they tell me that when the dead wind curves just right, one can still hear the screaming of the doomed, and smell the burnt corpus. The rivers there still run with blood, all spilled by the servants of the Great Lie...

I apologize, my dear. I was lost in memories, once more. Memories... and regrets.

But enough of my old travesties! Those done by the servants of the Great Lie - the truly-named Heretics - dwarf mine as a flash flood does a spilled goblet. The tragedy was total and absolute, and for a few more reasons than the Hierarchy has ever suspected.

You will recall from your lessons from The Book that the Center bade eight servants tread outwards, to take the word of Desire to all lands? Well, those of us who followed the Quick to their so-called New World discovered the truth of that, just as we had discovered it earlier in the Holy Lands. There, in the dead cities of the natives - all now being forcibly converted to yet another version of the Great Lie - we found traces and clear signs of our brethren having been there, once. No doubt they were slaughtered right along with the others.

Now, Desire abhors a vacuum. When one hand falls, another must pick up the knife and carry on. So it was that a group from the Order of Three was sent to re-establish our presence in the New World.

This was to cause some problems, due to the Injunction. Could these fellows no longer speak with their old leaders, cohorts and lessers, now that they were apart? Who would look after their affairs at home, and how?

The answer was slow in coming, as Desire works in mysterious ways. However, after some time it was decided that those Orders who were a part of one so-called Dark Kingdom could parley with one another, so long as they spoke not a word to one another about Cabal policy or goings-on.

This would come into play when matters between the Western reaches of the Old World and the Eastern side of things came to blows, as it so often does. And it was applied once Stygia began to take an interest in the dead of the Northern reaches of this New World.

Of course, what happened in Southern and Central areas was not repeated in the North... at least, not right away. Our emissaries did, indeed, encounter Solicitors in what is now called North America. But they stayed well clear of us, and we of them. And in those cases where our actions could not help but coincide we did our best to look out for one another, but yet not speak of it.

When Stygia started its so-called "Indian War" against the Dark Kingdom of Flint - hardly much of a Kingdom, truly - we went along with them, trying to aid our cousins. This was at the request of the Center, and we did the best we could to make certain that some places, people and things were never discovered by the Legions. We were under no circumstances to slow the expansion of Stygia, but we were to safeguard our cousins as best we could.

In the end, it came to naught. The Dark Kingdom of Flint is no more, and our cousins from there are absent. To this day, the Order of Seven warehouses great, extensive museums of things recovered from caves and holes in the Tempest, or hidden Temples in the Shadowlands. They are kept in secure vaults, tended by Gardeners who have been sworn from looking at what they hide...

What lies there? Oh, I should think these are things that Desire wants us not to contemplate. Yes?

As for the Antipodeans... there is a strange matter. Stygia holds a part of that territory, but every group of emissaries we have sent has never returned. Desire does not bid that we stop trying, but yet S:he does not explain what has happened, either. It is a matter of some debate, and I feel that it is a matter best left alone.

Those who feel otherwise often find themselves... oh, what do they call it... 'Transported'?