Final Battle
The Final Battle is an apocalyptic play by the Dynastic playwright Cynis Bei, one of his earlier and more risqué works, which was the source of much controversy at the time of its release, and continues to be unpopular to this day.
Plot
The Final Battle begins with its most controversial element off-screen, recounted by the Imperial Treasurer to the Strategoi of the 1st Legion in an emergency meeting: an assassination attempt on the Scarlet Empress by Dynasts of an unnamed House, who are attempting to seize the Throne for themselves. Though she defeats them and destroys them body and soul, they have a strange demonic venom which could slay any being in Creation instantly. The Empress, too powerful for such a thing, is nevertheless forced to commune for a time with the Dragons before she can return to lead the Realm.
The reason for the meeting of the two important figures is that, in the absence of the Empress, the true goal of the coup has been discovered. An ancient Anathema cult has sought to undo the work of the Immaculate Dragons and release the Anathema from their holy prison into Creation, bringing about the end of the world. When she is ready, the Scarlet Empress can destroy them with a wave of her invincible hand, but until then they must be held at bay.
Initially, the five Dynastic Strategoi of the Imperial Guard are selected for the task, as the most powerful of the Realm’s soldiers. But the Scarlet Empress has them all killed… some were traitors who had abetted the coup, others had failed utterly in their duty by allowing it to occur. Instead, she commands that a team of soldiers be gathered from outside the Scarlet Prefecture, who have proven themselves capable of holding the line against all odds. These are drawn from Dynasts and Outcastes serving in the Vermillion Legion and the Imperial Magistracy, including a Mnemon who has a problem with authority figures, a hedonistic Cynis (who seeks to, and eventually does, bed the Mnemon’s beautiful daughter), a drunken Sesii, a starched-coated Cathak Legion drill officer (frustrated at the lack of discipline amongst his fellows but coming to respect their combat abilities), and a lecherous bandit-turned-Magistrate.
This strange group begins at odds with themselves and many Dynastic figures call for the mission to be cancelled as it is doomed to fail, suggesting themselves as superior candidates for the battle.
Nevertheless, they set out to stop the Anathema, in a grand and explosive battle they keep them confined until the Scarlet Empress returns and seals them away forevermore. The heroes have, of course, all perished, and the naysayers proven to have wanted the Throne for themselves.
Reception
The Final Battle was and remains intensely controversial. The weight of treacherous Dynastic characters (other than the heroes, nearly all are plotting against the Empress) angered Dynastic audiences; the assertion that an Anathema cult had the power to open the prison established by the Immaculate Dragons was patently heretical against Immaculate teachings; and the injury against the Empress, along with her inaction in a crisis, ran counter to the narrative presented to the Realm population by the Imperial government… a treasonous line of thinking. Heresy, treachery, and Dynastic disfavour meant that any attempt to present the play would be required to use patrician or commoner actors, which meant its quality was further denigrated and it risked yet further heresies.
While Bei attempted to assemble cast and venue, the Deliberative passed a motion, and the Paragon of Danaa’d submitted a missive to the Throne, both calling for Cynis Bei’s immediate arrest and exile from the Realm. The Empress ordered the Imperial Magistracy to arrest Bei, and he was confined to the Bastille of Thirty Faces for a year before being called before the Throne.
Under circumstances that still remain unclear to most Dynastic critics, Cynis Bei managed to present his play in a private showing before the Empress, and she decreed that the charges were dropped, but that it was illegal for any save members of the Dynasty to watch it, on pain of blinding with hot iron. In Her decree on the subject, the Scarlet Empress declared the play ‘a true reminder to my loyal children of the price paid by us all for losing sight of that loyalty’.
This declaration, and the appearance of Imperial favour that came with it, helped Bei overcome Dynastic animosity to secure funding for his later works, though most critics continue to believe this marks the point where his intended audience truly shifted from fellow Dynasts to his most extreme peers along with soldiers and the lesser classes.
