A dramatic reenactment of a minute of one of the Accord’s gatherings regarding the Hemifolk.

Year 22 BA, Miziani, Hall of the Accord

An enormous circular room, with a big round table in the center, lightened by a circular opening in the overhead dome. Around the Room, two semicircular tribunes, leave gaps.
From one the divinities enter, followed by their allies, subordinates, scribes, and servants. After the divine beings sit at the table and their followers sit on the tribunes, from the other opening enter the Sphinx Ekima.

EKIMA: welcome everyone to the 2054th gathering to reach an accord to the shape of the cosmos. I, Ekima of the Scale, will be arbitrating this meeting.

Are present here:
Shaitan Asmodeus, emperor of Hell, first among the archdevils;
General Maizto-el, the light of the Heavens, Plenipotentiary voice for the angelic hosts.
Master Oioio, he who exists and does not not-exist, Lord of Order.
Mister Shaklapf and Miss Xyalnaq, the everchanging, Lord and Lady of Chaos.
Sultan Iblis of the Ifits, the Eternal Flame, Lord of fire.
Queen Zawba’ah of the Djins, the Perpetual Breath, Lady of Air
Caplihess Shir-Shir of the Marids, the Unending Flow, Lady of Fresh Waters
Matron Maxios of the Daos, the Unmovable Pillar, representative of the Triumvirate of Earth.

Lords and Ladies, are you all present?

EVERYBODY: Aye!

EKIMA: are your retinues present?

EVERYBODY: Aye!

EKIMA: Unfortunately Archduke Angar, the master of fangs and Lord of the Western Beasts and Archpriestess Wasima, the misteress of feathers, Lady of the Eastern Beasts are not present, they delegate their vote to Shatin Asmodeus and General Mazito-el respectively.

ASMODESUS and GABRIEL: Aye!

MAXIOS: I must raise a concern about the numerous “delegations” the Beasts’ lords have done to their allies. This is clearly a stretch of our initial agreement.

OIOIO: I Agree.

ASMODEUS: Oh, come on! We have ferocious monsters causing havoc and eating people. These things… these beings sprung out of nothing, these horrid mutants everywhere! Someone has to take care of them if we want to make the continent inhabitable soon.

MAXIOS: That seems a “you” problem

MAZITO-EL: We helped you and your sisters numerous times with some of your “you” problems, and we ask you the same kindness.

MISS XYALNAQ: do you remember when the mutated wurm ate their city? It was just finished!

MISTER SHAKLAPF: that was hilarious!

EKIMA: Order! Please!

OIOIO: I agree.

EKIMA: Today’s agenda concerns the four species of humanoids known as Satyrs, Harpies, Mermaids, and Centaurs.

IBLIS: who?

Ekima lifts her paw and her masked assistants open a door in the hall, letting a dozen half-folk enter, the Harpies sit on elaborate perches, and the merfolk are rolled in big glass bowls with wheels. They are all afraid and bewildered, clueless about why they are there.

IBLIS: I see. Them.

EKIMA: Nobody here has claimed these people. As per the initial agreement, you took the duty to guide humanity, whatever shape it may take, to take a place in this new world.

SHIR-SHIR Didn’t we already talk about this?

EKIMA: Yes, one year and three days ago.

SHIR-SHIR: How long did we make the year again?

OIOIO: At the moment, it is 366 days, but soon it will be an exact 360 once we finish the moons.

MISTER SHAKLAPF: We should have gone with the leap years system.

MISS XYALNAQ: why not make at least some leap seasons? Just for fun.

ASMODEUS: If you bring up this topic again, I will strangle you with my hands even if you don’t have a neck! The calendar is one of the few things we settled on!

MAZITO-EL I must agree with the Adversary that we must stay on the agenda. I have asked Zaraq-el, the guardian of memories, to collect any information on the subject.

Maizto-el raises his hand from the side seats and angels stand up. The Celestial being has its head turned back to forever watch behind him. It sings and an unthinkably complex glyph of light appears in the center of the room. The mortals present avert their gazes and those who are not quick enough faint from the overwhelming wave of information sweeping their minds.

ASMODEUS: Thats’all there is!? You should be called the angel of forgetfulness.

MAIZTO-EL: Yes, there are considerable gaps, but it’s a start. They seem to always have been without a patron deity, so maybe we leave them that way, we did that with the Tritons after all.

ASMODEUS: But they had a deity, and they fought with us against him when he rebelled. And they were crucial for defying the Abstractions because they were Orphans. They want to remain orphans and they earned the privilege to do so.

SHIR-SHIR: Didn’t we agree not to bring up my brother’s actions? Because if we start to rummage in the past we may never end this.

ASMODEUS: sure… but can you elementals take one each? They seem already, like, thematically appropriate. Wouldn’t you love a race of avian people, Lady Zawba’ah?

ZAWABA’AH: (crying) Look at what we have done… how we tarnished the creation! Look at the suffering we have caused!

MAIXOS: Why did you ask her? Let her go hug one of her orcs or something.

OIOIO: There are efficient ways to deal with this problem.

MAIZTO-EL: Most Serene Master of Order, we know you are proposing extinction… again. So let me repeat, again: no genocides, no cleansings, no eradications, no mass murdering of any kind.

ASMODEUS: I must agree with the Tyrant, we should not harm any innocent soul, or at least try not to!

IBLIS: Maybe they could be useful in the rebuilding of the Creation, become tools of…

MAIZTO-EL: Sorry to interrupt you, most Excellent Lord of Fire, but you seem to propose mass slavery… again. As for any form of large-scale killings, any form of undeserved coercion will receive my veto.

ASMODEUS: And mine. You are better than this! If even the Tyrant is against this way of controlling people you know it’s bad. What would you do if we voted to make your beloved elf “a tool”

IBLIS: Point taken.

MISS XYALNAQ: We should make a raffle!

MISTER SHAKLAPF: or just put our names in a hat!

ASMODEUS: honestly, it doesn’t seem such a bad idea at this point.

OIOIO: I disagree.

MAIZTO-EL: I disagree too, Adversary. We need more information, we can decide the fate of hundreds of generations of sentient beings with a game.

MAXIOS: Can’t we retrieve the archive of the Silver Dragon from the trench?

EKIMA: All matters about dragons and their belongings are scheduled to be discussed in 547 days.

IBLIS: The gaps in history are due to the Great Oblivion: if we open the cubes our memories will know.

ASMODEUS: The Hades Cubes are offlimits. Belfagor is looking into their condition after they crashed into the material world.

MAXIOS: The archdevil of Sloth? It will take eons!

ASMODEUS: I beg your pardon, her title is “the patron saint of Serenity”.

IBLIS: the other knowledge we have uncertainties about is the time before our creations. We could ask the Firsts.

ASMODEUS: Don’t call that scum anything else than scum!

MAIZTO-EL: Let’s call them Wonders and Horrors, that seems how they like to be called.

ASMODEUS: Lady Ekima, put on the agenda we must discuss an appropriate name for… them.

EKIMA: It is set. The issue regarding official names for the creature known as the Firsts will be discussed at the first available occasion in 1531 days.

IBLIS: Anyway, we call them they surely know something, I think Lady Shir-Shir should talk to them.

SHIR-SHIR: excuse me?! Why me?

IBLIS: well, you have always been on friendly terms with them.

SHIR-SHIR: Why you people can’t let things go? Those are things of the past.

MAIXOS: You know, all right, you won’t go there because you were on good terms with them. You will go because they are imprisoned in the North Pole and ice and snow are part of your domain.

SHIR-SHIR: but.. jails are the archdevil domain.

ASMODEUS: Prisoners’ lips are sealed in front of their jailers. Someone from the outside would surely make them more talkative.

EKIMA: it’s time for a vote: do you want Caplihess Shir-Shir of the Marids, the unending flow, Lady of Fresh Waters to go to the Frzone Prison to confer with the Wonders and Horrors?

EVERYBODY (except Shir-Shir): Aye!

SHIR-SHIR: Fine. I’ll do it. Can we at least end the session here? I just… I just can’t stand you right now.

EKIMA: if there are no objections the gathering will end here. The matter of the four species of humanoids known as Satyrs, Harpies, Mermaids, and Centaurs, will be discussed again at the first available occasion in 1532 days. All in favor.

EVERYBODY: Aye!

All the deities stand up and go out, with their followers right behind them. Some just disappear into thin air. The Helf People are there, silent.

The Grey Wardens, assistants to Ekima, gently escort them outside.

A SATYR: so… what would be of us?

THE GRAY WARDEN: You will know.

A SATYR: but when?

THE GRAY WARDEN: you have to trust the process.