Journal of Aether Pelagios

Personal Reflections of a Combat Chronicler Private Journal of Aether Pelagios 267 AT Twenty years of service.

Sometimes it feels like yesterday I was a fresh-faced scribe, assigned to document the "peaceful integration" of the Northern Peaks.

Ha! We were all so stiff and formal back then, trying to make conquest sound civilized. These days, at least among ourselves, we admit what we are - the force that will finally unite humanity. Though I suppose in official records I'll still use the approved terminology.

Interesting how time changes perspective. I remember my first sight of our pressure cannons in action. The sheer force of it, water moving with enough power to shear through stone. I was terrified.

Now? Now it's almost beautiful, watching our engineers direct those silver streams with surgical precision. Progress, I suppose.

A young lieutenant asked me today about the Alexandros stories. Wanted to know if they were true. Told him what I always tell them - check the records. They're there, verified and witnessed.

The tiny babe, condemned to the mists for weakness, who climbed back up to us. Nature herself rejected our rejection of him.

I've interviewed three of the original witnesses myself over the years. Their stories never waver, though their hands still shake when they tell it.

Strange to think how far we've come. When I started this job, we controlled, what, twelve peaks?

Now? Twenty-nine and counting.

Each one different, each one a challenge to integrate. But the system works. It always works.

Install the water systems, begin the education programs, show them the vision of a united humanity finally pushing back the mists. Within a generation, they're as Etherwave as we are.

Had dinner with an old friend tonight, Commander Kyro from the Seventh. He was there at the beginning, one of the first to hear Alexandros speak of his vision. Says he'll never forget that day. The youngest Water Sage in history, standing before the council, telling them that our water mastery wasn't just for survival - it was meant for conquest, for unification, for humanity's destiny.

Some of my fellow chroniclers get frustrated with the locals when we take a new peak.

They resist, they cling to their old ways, they refuse to see the bigger picture.

But I understand it now. Twenty years of watching this process has taught me patience. They can't see it yet, but they will. They all do, eventually.

Found my old notes from the Eastern Campaign today. Had to laugh at my formal tone back then. "Forces deployed in strategic formation..."

Nonsense.

It was chaos, beautiful chaos.

Our ships appearing out of the morning mist, water cannons catching the sun. The local defenders had never seen anything like it. Neither had I, if I'm honest.

I Remember writing "tactical superiority demonstrated" in my report. What I wanted to write was "by all the peaks, we have become power itself."

The young ones don't remember how it was before Alexandros. The petty squabbles between peaks, the waste of resources, the lack of vision. They've grown up with the dream of unification, of pushing back the mists, of reclaiming what was lost.

Sometimes I envy them that clarity.

I had to discipline a junior chronicler today. Caught him embellishing battle reports. Told him what my old mentor told me - we don't need to embellish. The truth of what we're achieving is grander than any fiction.

Twenty-nine peaks unified in twenty-four years. The numbers speak for themselves.

Alexandros made a rare public appearance yesterday. Even after all these years, he still has that presence. Hard to believe he's only forty-four - something about him feels ancient and new at the same time. The marks of the mists still visible on his skin, those pale streaks that prove his story. Watched him demonstrate a new pressure weapon to the troops. Even our veteran engineers were amazed. He understands water and pressure in ways that defy explanation.

The dreams are getting stronger. Not just mine - I hear the other chroniclers talk about them too. Dreams of a world without mists, of cities spreading across open ground, of skies full of ships. Alexandros says these aren't just dreams, they're memories. Memories of what we once were, what we can be again.

When I write that in official reports, it sounds like propaganda. In my private thoughts, I'm not so sure.

Another peak requesting peaceful integration today. That makes three this month. Word spreads, patterns repeat. Show them our power, show them our vision, watch them join the cause.

Some of my colleagues take this as proof of our destiny. Maybe they're right. Or maybe people just prefer to be on the winning side.

Twenty years. Twenty years of watching us grow, watching us expand, watching the dream spread. Do I believe everything I write in the official chronicles?

I don't know. But I believe in what we're becoming.

I believe in the vision. And most importantly, I believe in what I've seen with my own eyes.

The mists took Alexandros as a babe and gave him back to us as a leader. Whether that was miracle or destiny or something else entirely, I leave to greater minds than mine. I simply record what I see. And what I see is the future, shaped by water and will, pressure and purpose.

Time to end today's entry. New reports to file, new victories to chronicle. The Unified Peaks Eventuality moves forward, one peak at a time. And I'll be here, watching, recording, believing. Glory to the future we're building. Glory to the truth we serve. Glory to Etherwave.

- Aether Pelagios Combat Chronicler, Third Aqueous Legion