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To quote one of the greatest authors of the modern age:

'The mark of a paragon of the Collective is absolute devotion to not only the Collective itself, but also its ideals, accompanied by the highest possible degree of skill directed towards supporting those ideals. It is necessary and proper to record the details of the lives of those paragons for the education of those who come after, so that the people might learn from the example of those great citizens who came before them.'

Unbeknownst to many of recent times is one who served the Collective in a roundabout manner, aiding in the creation of one of the Overcity's most loyal trade-partners; the Clarramore Cloud Gardens. Who is it, then, who has escaped the public eye while doing so much to contribute to the comfort we enjoy today? The answer is the Leclee Sunfar, an aeromancer and commissar of the middle caste during the era preceding the Taint Wars. However, it is the secret life as an architect and artist well befitting the highest caste that this work shall focus on.

The honour to notate the life of such a grand contributor to the way of life that those in the Collective might enjoy today is beyond mention, but one thing must be made clear for any who take these writings to study. The details and statements represented within are only as accurate as can be in regards to the minimal amount of record kept of this woman. While such a record would be immeasurably valuable to historians and Collectivists alike, it is with the hope that this publishing will lead to further investigation, discovery, and material on the life of such a woman.

Anonymity is a mark of a true Collectivist, and one who seeks to push glory upon the organisations to which they are tied rather than claim personal glory is to be considered a hero among any age, modern or ancient.

 

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Born into House Sunfar, in the time before the Taint Wars, it was destined that Leclee would join the noble tradition of serving the Overcity through the Bureaucracy well befitting the middle caste they had historically been linked to. Serving from the lowliest of custodians to the Highest of Supreme Justices, House Sunfar was undisputed in their mastery of government policies and organisation. While little is known of her early life, the name of 'L. Sunfar' was first found within the files of her relative Saevo Sunfar, a man well known for bringing bureaucratic promise to the young (1), listed as an assistant within the 'Training Functions Centre B'. Coming of age led Leclee to take a position as a commissar within the middle caste to bring honour to her family.

However, Leclee was more than just a capable busybody, and often found her mind wandering to other matters while she fastidiously patrolled, monitored, and filed proper form, leading her to dream of things that could be. However, her mindset was entirely economic, having been moulded well through both nature and nurture. Where other girls her age would find themselves lost with thoughts of garments and suitors, hers fell to the rare herbs and poultices only available from the loftiest of mountain heights and only accessible during the wet seasons.

Still, there lay deep fear within her heart at retaliation of her fellow citizenry for abandoning the honourable path set for her through her ancestry. It is likely that it was only under the deepest snow in the dead of Estar, after at least a decade, that she found herself knocking on the door of her most trusted advisor, Saevo. Upon an explanation of her inner turmoil and beseech for guidance, a famed argument by the venerable Tishoh Windwhisper would be repeated for her, denoting that:

 

'...it would be a crime against the Collective for one with such a talent at oratory as he had to shun the work of the orator simply because it commanded less respect than that of the scientist.' (2)

 

Such astounding logic would draw her to begin drafting within the stolen hours between duty and slumber the fascination of her daydreams, focusing them further in her spare time to begin hypothetical growth cycles for such rare plants. The same problem vexed her at every turn, however: How to ensure her imported specimens would receive the proper amount of moisture their home locale and growth seasons would provide? So close to the Blasted Lands, arid air and dry winds were problems that Hallifax was no stranger to. The amount of profit from allocation of these precious herbs and their by-products would not nearly begin to cover the cost that moving the Overcity to a location capable of inwardly producing them.

And so it was that her ruminations and plans were stalled, forcing her to resume her standard occupation while the dream she craved so desperately hung just out of reach. The case would remain as such for many years, and during this time her eye for detail and skill for organisation saw her quickly moved through the ranks of the Ministry of Justice, until finally she claimed the title of Senior Undersecretary to the Clerical Informant of the Commissariat's Legion to the High Justice. Being fresh of face and eager to appeal to the sensibilities of those higher within the Bureaucracy, Leclee found herself with an opportunity she could only have dreamed of.

The Collectivist Excavation and Reform Committee had come together with a petition co-signed by the prestigious members of the Hallifaxian Botanical and Herbological Society, requesting a state-funded expedition to the distant Mount Clarramore, where a curious sample of guano had been discovered that stimulated local the growth of the scrub about the base of the mountain, never before seen within the Basin. However, the Committee and the Society were filled with those whose service to the Collective could only exist within the intellectual spectrum for lack of access to the full spectrum of physicality, that is to say those who were exceedingly elderly, handicapped, or frail of bone.

With a chance before her, Leclee quickly applied for the available Chaperone and Security assignment to the Mount Clarramore Residual Guano Recovery campaign, and was rewarded for her due diligence and patience with the chance to prove herself capable of leading such further expeditions on behalf of the Overcity. Taking her crystalline staff in hand, Leclee whipped the winds swirling about the group into order and set out to cross through Avechna's Teeth and enter the Northern Mountains. Her greatest hopes and dreams buried within the secrets held by mounds of excreta, Leclee set out and made record by reactive training to the Campaign underneath her watchful eye. Discomfort would be found outside the generous breadth of space she provided around her person in the form of piercing winds and striking cold, while those who kept pace with her would see their stamina rewarded with gentle eddies and summer warmth on each gust created by her steps.

 

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Upon finally reaching the pre-approved site at the base of Mount Clarramore, still nestled within the slight protection offered by the edges of Avechna's Teeth, Leclee only allowed a few hours of rest and recuperation before setting her following into working order. It would appear fortune favours the ambitious, for upon clearing rubble to make grounds for their base camp, members of the Collectivist Excavation and Reform Committee found a deer trail leading into the mountains. With Leclee by their side, Junior Archaeologist Keroo Marks, the head of the Committee, and Senior Bloom Hiligrah Linnery, the head of the Hallifaxian Botanical and Herbological Society, ventured up the winding trail that rounded the Mountain.

As they rounded the peak, they would come to notice a peculiar phenomenon: a curtain of rain that seemed frozen in place by nature, never moving forward or back, ascending or descending. One swift bend would simply cause one to enter into a shower of gentle rain as though the gentle patter had always been falling. Within, the narrow path would widen to a large ledge, overlooking a shallow bowl within the Mountain. Above, the towering earth continued until it pierced the clouds, and it was there that Keroo and Hiligrah left their supervisor with orders to clear the trail to this ledge, and to set up camp within the valley below. Before the rain could even be considered a problem, Leclee lifted her hands to the heavens and narrowed her gaze, stifling the flow of water from the skies as she twirled her staff in a counter-clockwise circle above her. The clouds grew fat and petulant, then, lazy and drooping, but not one drop of water fell under her withering stare.

Two days of quick work saw the path clear, and another month would see the foundations of semi-permanent base camp set up within the valley hidden from view. Samples of the guano crystallised into stalactite formations off of ledges only a few metres above the path were broken off and brought into the camp for study. With a seemingly limitless supply of material available for study, as well as the strange weather phenomena witnessed by Leclee, the report back to the Overcity was met with high praise and rejoicing. Leclee, for her willingness to serve the Collective and her exceptional service on the field of study, was named the Chief Justice of Archaeology and Herbology of Mount Clarramore, and offered any and all supplies needed to form a thriving protectorate for the greater good of the Collective.

Over the next twenty years, Leclee would faithfully serve as her post, never a week passing without a satisfactory report on the properties of guano or minerals within the Mountain accompanied by rare, never before seen flowers or fruits and perfumes. Requisition requests began to come for the strangest of materials, however, only the freshest and hardiest of cedar wood, along with hundreds of metres of reinforced steel beams and a seemingly endless need for glass panes. Then, on the twentieth anniversary of her expedition setting out, Leclee ceased reporting to the Overcity. Expecting heavy workload with the additional construction, it went without comment for some time, but after five years had passed without word from Miss Sunfar, a delegate was sent out to inquire as to the goings on within the Clarramore Productory, which it had been known by.

 

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Upon this nameless delegate’s arrival at the Productory, he found the base camp in disarray, the two groups quarrelling in a din of chaos that was ill-befitting anything even remotely resembling the Collective amidst a torrent of hard rain. Attempting to keep order, two trill more decorated than their peers stood atop overturned crates as they attempted to rally their comrades.

With a forceful cry and a bang of his halberd against the stone floor of the Productory, the delegate's Sentinel escort called an abrupt halt to the nonsense. With a thankful look, the two trill above the rest quickly appraised the delegation of the situation.

Five years ago, construction on Project Garden saw the disturbance of a mighty deluge wyvern, a creature thought to be a piece of mythology until its awakening. Nested within the clouds above, it would appear that his slumber had kept the ever-present moisture and clouds above the Productory present, allowing a permanent location for the growing of the rare fruits and flowers that the Collective had come to love so. All of Leclee's efforts had been turned to keeping the beast subdued, so that production would continue, and without her command production and organisation had sharply plummeted.

Demanding to be taken before Leclee, the delegation was reluctantly led to the outcropping where she had once stopped the rains, a sturdy wooden lever embedded within the floor and a column of crystalline glass extending to the sky interspaced by support from reinforced steel beams. Upon witnessing the shaking and clattering lift descend from the clouds the tube pierced, it was suggested the delegation take flight into the air, only to be shouted down by the researchers present. As if to corroborate their warning, a sudden deluge accompanied a roar within the clouds above, shaking the precipice and sending crystalline guano to shatter against the ground. Moments later, the party was safely secured within the life and ascending in the rickety craft with the rain slamming against the glass in a futile attempt to stop them.

Minutes later, the screeching door opened and a bank of clouds rolled in to dampen their feet. A moment of confusion ensued before the Hallifaxian delegation was shown the cedar walkway stretching through the clouds to the far corner, where another wall of clouds roiled in perfect stillness. Striding quickly, the group were given a cursory debriefing of Project Garden, Leclee Sunfar's personal project to create a permanent location for the growing of exotic plants that could be found only occasionally in odd places within the Basin during a particularly rainy season. Cedar planks were implemented as a long-lasting walkway that would not rot and endanger the gardeners, while crystalline glass glinting in the distance was the beginnings of greenhouse for what Leclee hoped would be even rarer cross-breeds.

Unfortunately, when lucidian workers had arrived and the lift was forced to be made, approximately five years prior, they had disturbed the home of a dangerous beast of legend, a deluge wyvern. Only the timely intervention of Leclee had saved the crops and the lives of the gardeners, her fierce control over the winds themselves forcing the beast into acquiescence. As they ascended steep planks of wood to pass segmented patches of cloud sown with deep blue, flowering buds, it was further explained that diplomacy was still their greatest hope, for if the beast were to be dispatched or to leave, then the gardens would no longer be suitable for habitat.

Another set of stairs led to the uppermost area of the garden, though the cries of Leclee could be heard long before her lithe form could be seen. Almost bone-thin from malnourishment and her skin overly saturated and sagging from the constant moisture pressing against her, it was clear she had been at this post for some time, shouting praises to the Collective and glorifying the Overcity's way of life. Her voice, once mellifluous, now sounded with all the fury of a gale, shrieking and piercing at the eardrums in her effort to continue while she twisted her staff into the clouds before her.

With terrifying intensity, another roar echoed, and the very walkway beneath the delegation shifted and rumbled, the walkway threatening to give way. A sharp reprimand and another hymn of praise matched with another twist set the clouds aright. As she twisted once more, a brilliant sapphire orb opened near where her staff pressed, the clouds covering it for a moment before it focused upon her form.

While there is little record of what deeds Leclee performed next, there is one that described Leclee condemning the wyvern for its crimes against the Collective as her body began to glow. A brilliant flare is said to have followed before her staff shattered and the clouds stilled once more, where they have remained since, and concluding the fractured record of a life and death of Leclee Sunfar, a true paragon of Collectivist values willing to surrender her own life for the betterment of the Overcity.

 

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BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1. "The Life of Saevo Sunfar" by Portius Windwhisper, page 4 paragraph 2

 

2. "The Life of Tishoh Windwhisper" by Portius Windwhisper, page 2 paragraph2