Friends At The Table

However the Summer Passage of Arms--a yearly competition of strength, skill, acumen, and style--began, it has followed in the fate of many similar comptetitons prior and become a proxy for nationalistic fervor. On the Isle of Summer in the Prophet’s Sea, all five Great Stels gather to test each other in a host of events. Commenters often say that the games bring out “the best of the Principality.” This is true, though perhaps more true--and obvious through its omission--it is the case that the Passage serves to hide the worst of the Principality, too. The winner earns glory, but each Stel--even those currently at war with each other--also seeks something else through their simple presence at the games: To convince the world that this is what ‘civilization’ looks like. At home, the Stels drive their boots into the backs of their most vulnerable citizens. But here on the beautiful Isle of Summer, they gather in the name of fair and even conflict on an agreed upon battleground to see who is the noblest of them a