The Armistice

The Armistice (PROSE: And To Dust We Shall Return) was a hoaxed version of the Peace engineered by Faction Paradox as part of a plot to destroy the Nambiro. As a result of the Armistice, great swathes of the Spiral Politic falsely believed that the War in Heaven was ending in a signed armistice between the Great Houses and the Enemy. (PROSE: The End of the Beginning) It occurred at a point in the War after the War King was consumed (PROSE: A Farewell to Arms) and while Lolita was trying to access Earth's caldera. (PROSE: What Keeps Their Lines Alive)

In the lead up to the Armistice, Faction Paradox were in a dying state, still scattered after the fall of the Eleven-Day Empire. (PROSE: Going Once, Going Twice) The Faction began experiencing notable further loss as the Nambiro began a campaign of setting traps and false signals throughout time and space to lure in Faction agents so the Nambiro could feast on them. After capturing some Nambiro to learn of their motives and capabilities, the Faction decided to fight the Nambiro traps with a larger trap of their own, the Armistice. (PROSE: The End of the Beginning) To start, a mock version of the Venue Accords was drafted. (PROSE: What Keeps Their Lines Alive)

Faction agents disguised as acting troupes were sent across the galaxy to spread news of the Peace. (PROSE: The End of the Beginning) One such troupe consisting of Mullion, Amara, Axastyakis, Hole, and Cá Bảy Màu were tasked by their Elders with reconstituting three individuals by speaking their words. The words were actually from the troupe's personal future, when they were torn apart by internal conflict and the survivors were killed by Nambiro. (PROSE: What Keeps Their Lines Alive)

The Faction experimented with technology to alter the perceptions of millions at once (PROSE: The End of the Beginning) using a Remote colony world. This secret project was overseen by Satyavan, who had ulterior motives in resurrecting his civilisation of origin which was erased from time. Satyavan refused to report of the technology's success to the Faction, and many Faction agents were sent to the planet and killed by Remote. Mirze investigated, learned that Satyavan was the pawn of "lost souls" resembling shadows who had been erased from time and wished to return, and took his place as overseer. (PROSE: Jukebox)

Thousands of Life's angels began spreading news of the War's end to "mortals and immortals alike", at one point appearing before Intrepid, Kifah, and Gustav at the Shadow Spire. (PROSE: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing) Sometime after this, the Battle of Cratosi Fields was fought. (PROSE: Going Once, Going Twice)

"The news of the Peace spread quickly. In the dusty corners of the Spiral Politic, words of Armistice and Ceasefire were whispered in dark abbeys and cathedrals built of glass and silent vows. Hieroglyphs carved themselves into ancient rock faces in History’s adolescence. ... [People] were taking notice of the cries of peace from angels, from skulled theatre troupes, from the shadows that seeped into their bedrooms at night."

Criminals of the Spiral Underworld began trying to take advantage of the apparent Peace. Cortalian held the First Auction in Heaven on Kratoam, which ended in chaos when Kifah and Gustav unleashed the Frozen Battle of Cratosi Fields and Auteur tried to become beyond time by merging with Apep. (PROSE: Going Once, Going Twice) Sponsored by the Nambiro, (PROSE: A Shift in Focus) Huxley sent Wade, Nezf, Tabrenilsodvoravitas, and a shift to a Great Houses base on RMS in the Amazolian system to steal the "Greater Key", where they all died in an encounter with an Enemy conceptual predator. (PROSE: A Farewell to Arms)

A Nambiro the Faction had trapped in a dead-time containment field on Dust was released and tricked by Cousin Persephone into seeking The Book of the Peace. (PROSE: The End of the Beginning, And To Dust We Shall Return) The Nambiro arrived in a Faction-made simulation based on The Yagé Letters and encountered a faux William Burroughs. Prevented from extensively examining The Book of the Peace by Burroughs, the Nambiro was left convinced the armistice was real even though it knew no details. (PROSE: The Ugly Spirit, A Man Lays Dying) It reported back to its people, who then believed that with the War over Faction Paradox were the last remained source of paradox energy. (PROSE: The End of the Beginning)

The Faction proceeded to hold a ritual to get all its members to gather on Dust (PROSE: War During Peacetime) so that the Nambiro would swarm there. While the Nambiro were distracted, Z'akbo Eji harnessed the Paradox Eater to change the Nambiro's history so that they never came to hunger for paradox energy. The Nambiro on Dust all became paradoxes themselves and destroyed each other in a storm of cannibalism. Thus, the purpose of the Armistice was fulfilled. (PROSE: The End of the Beginning)