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Setting: Betaria, Year 0 (the eve of unification).anchor
Citara is a crumbling theocracy. Public confidence is waning, food is scarcer, and even the sacred lemon grove has suffered from blight. Redvale, by contrast, has become a thriving, egalitarian town of free citizens and cooperative institutions. The conflict is no longer between equals—it’s a managed unraveling.
Main Charactersanchor
- Alin Karro – The Scout Turned Courier
- Originally dispatched by Citara five years earlier to locate and assess the renegade settlement.
- Alin defected after living briefly among the Redvalers and now lives a double life: running a quiet spy network inside Citara and guiding defectors through the hidden trails along the Rhizel’s tributaries.
- Torn between guilt at betraying his homeland and hope for something better.
- Priest-General Marthen
- The last remaining high official with real control in Citara.
- Ruthlessly intelligent but visibly aging under the pressure of holding a dying system together.
- Implements reforms in a last-ditch effort: elevating commoners to priesthood, promising land titles, introducing new ceremonies to restore faith—but it only accelerates collapse.
- Daya Vesh – Redvaler Diplomat and Spy Handler
- Grew up in Redvale. Sharp, strategic, and deeply empathetic.
- Manages intelligence from inside Citara, trains exiles, and recruits idealists within the Citaran ranks to act as seeds for change.
- Believes unification must come not through conquest, but through conversion.
Plot Outlineanchor
Act I – Echoes in the Groveanchor
- Redvale has intercepted news of another planned raid.
- Alin meets secretly with Daya in a citrus orchard outside Citara under the pretense of delivering farming supplies.
- The raid is canceled—not by confrontation, but because half the raiding party defects in advance, tipped off and offered safe passage.
Act II – A Desperate Pivotanchor
- Marthen realizes that Redvale isn’t just surviving—it’s pulling people in by choice.
- In a bold move, he starts elevating citizens to mid-level priesthoods, hoping that power and status will keep them loyal.
- But Daya has already seeded these candidates with ideas and quiet alliances: they accept the robes, but shift the rhetoric subtly—talking more of fairness than of divine order.
Act III – Infiltration and Substitutionanchor
- The spy network inside Citara becomes self-sustaining. A young priest openly quotes Redvaler thinkers during a public ceremony, drawing cheers from the crowd.
- Citaran citizens begin referring to the Redvalers as “our cousins,” no longer rebels.
- Factions form within Citara’s ruling class, and some temple guards simply stop reporting for duty.
Act IV – The Silent Endanchor
- Marthen makes one final speech to a half-empty hall. In it, he doesn’t call for violence but laments the loss of “truth.” He knows he’s lost but bows out with dignity.
- A joint delegation from Redvale arrives—unarmed—to begin the formal process of merging councils, issuing amnesty, and redistributing remaining resources.
Coda – The First Voteanchor
- A week later, a public vote is held in Citara on the adoption of the new constitution and social code.
- Alin watches from a rooftop, lemon blossoms drifting in the breeze.
- The motion passes by overwhelming majority.