Fading Suns Bundle of Holding deals!

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Through MONDAY, JULY 22 we present TWO offers featuring FADING SUNS Fourth Edition, the far-future passion-play SFRPG from Ulisses Spiele. “Fading Suns” has starships, blasters, powered armor, alien races, and weird science — but also heroic knights, noble lords, high priests, and headstrong merchants — quests, artifacts, and inscrutable mysteries. And there is horror: monsters and terrifying metaphysical truths. It’s a medieval passion play, where Humanity’s greatest civilization has fallen, bringing a Dark Age to the Known Worlds. The Universal Church of the Celestial Sun (modeled on the historical Byzantine Orthodox Church) pursues cosmic intrigues against the Noble Houses and the Reeves Guild. But even as the stars fade to cinders and the sinful await Final Judgment, a leader has arisen. Emperor Alexius has sworn to unite the worlds again under one banner — to ignite hope once more.

Start with the revived July 2022 FADING SUNS 4E BUNDLE, with all three Fourth Edition core rulebooks and early supplements.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2024FS4

And its companion offer, FADING SUNS 4 LOST WORLDS

Then venture beyond the Phoenix Empire frontier with the all-new companion offer, FADING SUNS 4 LOST WORLDS, a collection of recent supplements that explore the star systems cut off from the Known Worlds a millennium ago:

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/FS4LostWorlds

Whether or not Emperor Alexius can save the darkening stars, it won’t be long before these two FADING SUNS offers flicker into nothingness together — specifically MONDAY, JULY 22.

Blessed Lux Splendor!

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[Each year, I post a short piece of Fading Suns fiction to celebrate the holidays. For more info on Fading Suns, see the links in the menu.]

From the journals of Guiseppe Alustro, December 24th, 5023, Holy Terra:

As the glowing embers in the nearby grate warm my study and I prepare to record recent events, I am reminded of that pilgrim I encountered those many years ago on Nowhere. We had joined a caravan to journey to the Gargoyle and encountered, late in the evening, a similar caravan returning from that goliath’s site. Among them was an old hesychast named Martina. I could see in her eyes a certain light, which I deduced to be a fervor evoked by an encounter with Urzenkai. I asked to join her by the fire. Young and impertinent, I intruded upon her hospitality by asking what I later learned was considered to be a terribly rude question on Nowhere. I asked her what the Gargoyle had shown her.

She stared at me for a while, judging me. Perhaps my sincerity shone through, as she eventually gave a curt nod and gazed into the fire. “Gifts. So many gifts. We are told that the Pancreator’s grace is tiring, like the light in the dying embers of this fire. We are fools, like children on Lux Splendor who have opened all our presents and complain that there are no more to unwrap. The Pancreator’s creation is endless. Are there not always more presents when Lux Splendor comes around again? So it is with the universe.”

I nodded. It was a heartwarming message, but not the thunderous prophecy I expected from the Gargoyle. As I rose to rejoin my companions, she spoke again. “Worry not, young Alustro. Urzenkai has a message for you.” This halted me. I had not given her my family name, only my first name. I opened my mouth to speak but she had pulled the hood over her head, signaling that she was done speaking.

She spoke truly, of course. The Gargoyle did give my lady and I a vision of great import. Yet, only now, as I think back upon it, do I believe that her message of grace and gifts was the more important one.