The Anointing of the Moon Queen

The Great Forum of Highstone was bathed in the pristine, golden light of mid-morning. Across the eighty ascending tiers of white ashlar granite, thirty-five thousand delegates, chieftains, elders, and guildmasters stood in breathless, sacred silence. Overhead, the forty silk standards of the united clans fluttered gently in the mountain breeze, their heraldic crests gleaming like jewels against the cloudless azure sky. Down the center of the vast marble floor, upon…