Blessed Bond of the Immaculate Dragons

Utility

The Blessed Bond of the Immaculate Dragons, known colloquially as the Blessed Bond, is a mixture for mortar and cement, widely used in the infrastructure and construction projects of the Scarlet Empire. Though mortars and bindings are known to most cultures across Creation, the Blessed Bond is unique in both its strength and its durability, able to form structures without need for brick nor block and resistant to the ravages of time, weather, and even ocean waves. Because of this, the roads and structures of the Realm stand superior to those of their Threshold rivals.

This fact is brought into the lives of many amongst the common people by the network of roads the Imperial Legions leave behind on their campaigns, meant to ease future deployments and the collection of taxes, but inevitably employed far more by farmers hauling goods to market and merchant caravans journeying their trade routes.

Composition

The core ingredients are known to many across creation, for they are used in a multitude of different mortars: Limestone (most plentifully available on the Blessed Isle), Water, & gravel and/or sand. The Blessed Bond employs a different component, replacing plain sand with volcanic Ash, which is plentiful on the Isle and in the Southern Threshold. The fact the Scarlet Empire has its most dominating hold in these regions is no coincidence, though some (such as the jewel merchants of Gem) oft overlook the value of the ash to focus on more glamorous materials such as Firedust and precious stones. Yet even knowing all these components, as some outside the Scarlet Empire do, the Blessed Bond requires not only the right materials but also the right proportions of them, the right methods in making use of the mortar, and the correct consecrations, a reason the particular passage of Immaculate scripture which provides them is held not at the Palace Sublime but in the vaults of the Righteous and Accountable Ministry of Weights and Measures, under a seal that opens only with two keys: one held by the Minister of Weights and Measures Waris Ulmar on behalf of the Scarlet Empress and the other by the nestor of the Temple of He who Illuminates both Worlds with Majesty and Power on behalf of the Mouth of Peace. This passage is not included within the standard copied folios of the Immaculate Texts, instead being most often memorized and passed on by word of mouth to those in need and authorized to receive it.

History

The Blessed Bond’s origins date back to the First Age, under the rule of the Solar Exalted, its strength and durability a reason why so many ruins of that age have withstood the march of time and devastation of conflict. However, by the high point of the Golden Age it was a basic material for mortal use, with the Exalted paying it little heed as they worked with more advanced imperishables such as those use for the Great Coast Road.

The Usurpation saw the removal of the Solars and their affiliates, the purges which followed claiming many mortals who had been considered experts by the old regime due to their suspect loyalties. Somehow in this chaos, the recipe for the Bond was lost to Creation, and the structures of the Shogunate made use of lesser materials, oft reinforced with steel or wood to simulate the strength the Bond once granted. This use of lesser materials is a reason why the Great Contagion and its end through use of the Imperial Manse so devastated Shogunate infrastructure: it simply could not endure such stresses and much of it crumbled.

The Realm only rediscovered the substance as it began to take shape alongside the unifying Immaculate Order, where texts attributed to the Immaculate Dragons were brought forth at the COUNCIL OF NOTCEA. The Scarlet Empress and the Order (perhaps guided by the Bronze Faction in their midst) recognized the importance of the recipe and set out to employ it as the foundation of the Scarlet Empire.

Politics

The value of Blessed Bond being evident, The Guild has devoted significant efforts to uncovering the secret of the mixture, a reason why it falls to Immaculate monks devoted to the Immaculate Dragon Pasiap to mix the Bond, even for commercial projects: the common folk of the Realm and the secular Scarlet Dynasty cannot be trusted with such a secret. Such monks can be found working with many Imperial institutions, but most are attached to the engineering units of the Imperial Legions and are versed in both the martial arts and military command as well as roadworks. Most Legion infantry talons are trained in a particular task in preparation and use of the Bond, and for projects scales are detached and assigned alongside scales from other talons, ensuring no soldier easily knows the whole of the secret and yet building cohesion within Legions and Dragons through camaraderie.

The Guild also finds difficulty in that its efforts are sometimes thwarted by ostensible comrades in struggle with the Realm, the military state of Lookshy… while the Guild would jump at a chance to build its own durable network of roads across the East, it is not in the interest of the Seventh Legion to see this happen: its skyships, Warstriders, and advanced powered armours are Magitechnological advantages lessened if such roads allowed the more numerous but more poorly equipped Imperial Legions to deploy rapidly into battle… some also observe that such roads would similarly allow the lesser armies of the Confederation of Rivers possibility of unifying in opposition to the Seventh, rather than facing certain destruction in piecemeal battles, which would threaten Lookshy’s military hegemony in the River Province.