Buried deep in the records of the Divine Past is a peculiar absence. What is buried beneath the northern pole of Partizan? “The Chasmata Quarry,” says the only public record, “specializes in rare mineral extraction.” Eight words. But other quarries on Partizan all have more. You could write a book about the excavations spread across the Columnar’s Memoria Teardrop, or those digs spread hive-like through the Apostolosian Barranca, or the industrial pockmarks across the long Orion flats of the Low...
Dec 04, 2020•2 hr 45 min•Transcript available on Metacast On a map, it would seem as if the Blue Channel and its inhabitants, revolutionaries of the Millennium Break movement, were nearing freedom from the Partizan system. But a map does not show the whole of the picture. For instance, a map would not reveal that heels of Aponia, hallow of GLORY ace pilot Sabeeha, were scraping across the roof of Kal'Mera Broun's ship. It would not show the members of the ship's crew taking increasingly risky action. And it would it show what surprises lie ahead of the...
Nov 19, 2020•2 hr 42 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Blue Channel and its inhabitants have left Partizan behind. And as it grows dim in the distance, they have time to both reflect on the hard path here and plan ahead to what they hope will be a bright future. But before the moon can disappear entirely, it reaches again. Breaking away was never going to be easy... This week on PARTIZAN: Engine Burn ///Operation Dossier\\\ //Organizations\\ Organization for the Foundation of the Orion Republic (OFOR): A group of growing import in Orion territor...
Nov 12, 2020•1 hr 23 min•Transcript available on Metacast In a hanger on a beach on the Isles of Logos, Kal’Mera Broun, Jesset City, Ver’Million Blue, Thisbe, Eiden Teak, Avar, Ryrira, and Si’Dra Balos stand around a spaceship. In just over a week, if all goes to plan, they will be inside of it and it will be outside of the Partizan system. First, though, they’ll need to secure a launch platform, get past security checkpoints on and off world, and ensure the safety of not only themselves but the materials they’ll need to actually build something wherev...
Nov 06, 2020•2 hr 41 min•Transcript available on Metacast As the shape in the sea draws ever near, much of SBBR--with the help of their rivals in the Company of the Spade--begin to evacuate hundreds of thousands out of a city of millions. But Kal'mera Broun turns elsewhere, to their ship, looking for guidance before this new invader arrives. This week on PARTIZAN: The Red Light ///Operation Dossier\\\ //Organizations\\ Organization for the Foundation of the Orion Republic (OFOR): A group of growing import in Orion territory, who advocate for Orion’s se...
Oct 24, 2020•2 hr 34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Having returned from his audience on the Reflecting Pool, Sovereign Immunity briefs his SBBR and their allies on the impending arrival of what the Witch in Glass would only refer to as "the Red Light." WIth only one day to prepare, SBBR stalls out, torn on whether to accept their longtime foe's offer of sanctuary or to take their chances on their own. For newcomers Kalar Anakalar and Phrygian, this is both a worry and an opportunity. SBBR may not have the heroic verve that the stories said they ...
Oct 17, 2020•2 hr 8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Content Warnings: Discussion of a broken bone, killing of dog-like creatures, killing of humans via firearm, near-asphyxiation The Witch in the Glass By Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt “MY mother says I must not pass Too near that glass; She is afraid that I will see A little witch that looks like me, With a red, red mouth to whisper low The very thing I should not know!” “Alack for all your mother’s care! A bird of the air, A wistful wind, or (I suppose Sent by some hapless boy) a rose, With breath to...
Oct 08, 2020•4 hr 22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Content Warnings: Violence against cats, birds, and dog-like creatures. Religious sacrifice of cats. Brief discussions of a broken bone and its treatment. The Witch in the Glass; a play in Five Acts Act 1: Perseverance, or the Sage House Act 2: Contentment, or the Community at Chorus Island Act 3: The Single Star, or the View She Sees of Poppies Spread Act 4: Attention, or the Snow in Summer Act 5: The Present Day, or the Adversary Dramatis Personae Clementine (Jack de Quidt) ... ... ... ... ......
Oct 02, 2020•3 hr 9 min•Transcript available on Metacast After months away, SBBR has finally returned to Oxbridge, only to find it burning. Every day, the city is rocked by its own political revolution, as members of the Organization for the Foundation of the Orion Republic--who seek to reform Stel Orion as a league of independent republics--fight against Principality loyalists in the streets, alleys, and canals of the Stel’s largest city on Partizan. The City of Little and Plenty is scarring over. But SBBR (and much of Millennium Break) have their ow...
Sep 25, 2020•3 hr 43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Inside of the High Altar, dignitaries sit under the flickering light of a projector, while above them, the very subjects of the film they watch fend off an attack that threatens their lives. The divine Motion and GLORY, a unit of cloned Apostolosian supersoldiers which she has taken on as her pet project, have descended onto the small city of Auspice only to run headfirst into SBBR. The initial skirmishes have seen both sides battered and bruised, with schemes blooming into flowers of blood acro...
Sep 17, 2020•2 hr 54 min•Transcript available on Metacast For Kalar Anakalar and Phrygian, SBBR’s newest recruits, it seemed like another boilerplate mission. A too-warm, too-quiet night in seaside town, making sure that the people in suits and dresses could go about their politicking and gallivanting in safety. But when Ver’Million Blue called in a strange occurrence at the Strand Semaphore station to the north of Auspice, they understood this would be no ordinary mission. But no warning would prepare these new recruits--or the rest of SBBR for that m...
Sep 12, 2020•3 hr 42 min•Transcript available on Metacast It has been just over fifty days since Millennium Break took Cruciat, and each day has been more busy than the last. The hammer of the Principality fell on the organization’s independent cells across the moon, and now the leaders of Millennium Break seek allies wherever they can find them. No potential partner in the fight against tyranny is more important than the Isle of Logos. As a sovereign nation with key control in Partizan’s great sea, the Isle could offer Millennium Break a literal port ...
Sep 03, 2020•3 hr 30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Content Warnings for this Episode Throughout: Violence During a Public Event 00:00 - 20:30: Disrespect of the Dead, Implied Disrespect of a Dead Body 1:41:00 - End: Death, Deliberation about Character Sacrifice, Suicide by Sacrifice, Immolation, Violence During a Public Event, Hey everyone, this has been a really heavy week: Wildfires across the western United States, Hurricane Laura in the Caribbean and gulf states, the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha and the murder of two Black Lives...
Aug 27, 2020•2 hr•Transcript available on Metacast A month ago, Millennium Break seized control of Cruciat, ushering in a new age on the holy moon of Partizan. But like a counterpunch already chambered, the great Stels of the Divine Principality hit back with force and speed, driving minor Millennium Break bases into the dirt. Today, along with Cruciat, the only two strongholds left to the revolutionary group are the Lambic House and a trio of cities along the eastern edge of the Prophet’s Path. Millennium Break must hold this ground, at all cos...
Aug 21, 2020•2 hr 42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hey everyone, welcome to a very special bonus episode of Friends at the Table. As we said on Twitter, we're currently taking a few weeks off after the end of Kingdom to catch up on things, prep for the rest of PARTIZAN, and generally tak ea break. Many of us here on the show have spent some of that break by playing Blaseball , the internet sensation that VICE's Gita Jackson describes as "an online, joke-y, facsimile of [baseball] ... about baseball fandom, and the bullshit that goes along with i...
Aug 03, 2020•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast For those who live under tyranny, the exhaustion and fear is such that it can be hard to even imagine or recognize what escape or progress or revolution look like. But when Icebreaker Prime came over the horizon, the citizens of Cruciat, beaten down by generations of chic, high-minded Kesh terror, knew exactly what they were looking at. Millennium Break. Cruciat was all but undefended, with the bulk of Kesh’s forces engaged with Motion her Apostlosian forces to the west--an attack they would not...
Jul 24, 2020•4 hr 34 min•Transcript available on Metacast However the Summer Passage of Arms--a yearly competition of strength, skill, acumen, and style--began, it has followed in the fate of many similar comptetitons prior and become a proxy for nationalistic fervor. On the Isle of Summer in the Prophet’s Sea, all five Great Stels gather to test each other in a host of events. Commenters often say that the games bring out “the best of the Principality.” This is true, though perhaps more true--and obvious through its omission--it is the case that the P...
Jul 17, 2020•3 hr 35 min•Transcript available on Metacast With its internal threats sorted, at least for now, Millennium Break’s de facto leaders shift the bulk of their attention outward. As rebellion is sparked across Partizan, a new question takes center stage: If Millennium Break wants to lead this revolutionary moment, does it need to step out into the light of day? Who can they save if they take this risk? And who do they put in harms way if they refuse to rise to the challenge? As a dire situation develops in the Memoria Teardrop, it becomes cle...
Jul 10, 2020•3 hr 52 min•Transcript available on Metacast A week away from the moon of Partizan, a vessel rare in its luxury and power orbited the Portcullis which connects this provincial system to the rest of the empire. Inside, the living leaders of the Pact of Necessary Venture conferred with the sort of secrecy afforded only to the truly powerful. Their question: What was to be done about Millennium Break? On paper, the two groups had great reason to despise each other: Gur Sevraq had robbed the Pact of a Divine, killing its elect and a former ele...
Jul 03, 2020•2 hr 22 min•Transcript available on Metacast One might think that, with elections behind them, Millennium Break would turn its full attention outwards, towards the world it was trying to change. Instead, like an athlete determined to operate at peak performance, it turned further inward. Bringing democracy onboard Icebreaker was all well and good. A solid first step. But what was to be done about Clementine Kesh? What was to be done about those who would send fellow revolutionaries to die instead of stand with their comrades? What would be...
Jun 26, 2020•2 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Word traveled fast: The Oxblood Clan had demanded elections, and whether they’d get them had become the talk of all Icebreaker. For the hundreds on board familiar with the guild’s practices, Oxblood’s insistence was no surprise. The group was famous for deciding on things “as a family,” which meant a mix of extempore votes on the shop floor and regular elections for key decision-making roles throughout the organization. But the degree to which the entire fortress had been consumed with the quest...
Jun 19, 2020•3 hr 36 min•Transcript available on Metacast First off, a quick note of thanks to everyone who has already contributed to our fundraising efforts for Reclaim the Block, The Bail Project, BYP100, and The Marshall Project, which we announced last week. Thanks to your donations we’ve raised over $70,000 for these causes, which is INCREDIBLE. But the sale continues. You can go to friendsatthetable.itch.io to contribute. Let’s push for $100k! At peak operating efficiency, Icebreaker Prime can comfortably house almost 10,000 soldiers, sailors, a...
Jun 11, 2020•2 hr 36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hey everyone, Austin here. Today’s episode kicks off an eight episode run tracing the revolutionary movement on Partizan that formed at the end of the previous episode.We’ll be playing (butchering?) the Kingdom 2nd Edition playtest by Ben Robbins. Below, you can find all the standard info that is in an episode dossier, but in lieu of a traditional description, I wanted to use this space to let you know about an initiative that we’re kicking off today. As the themes of our show have probably illu...
Jun 05, 2020•3 hr 35 min•Transcript available on Metacast The town of Rezevi is quiet, most days. Five years ago, when the war with Kesh first kicked off, the sleepy fishing town’s residents wondered if their lives would be shaken by the conflict. But as an Apostolosian town, the demands of war--mandatory service, expectation of quarter, junior and senior reserve duty--were already stitched into daily life. In reality, it simply meant that their assigned fishing quotas raised a bit. But over the last week, a shocking number of strangers have passed thr...
May 15, 2020•3 hr 27 min•Transcript available on Metacast After a stunning victory in Orzen, the Society of Banners and Bright Returns must now face the cold light of day. Bodies wounded, hollows damaged, and reputations scarred, Broun, Thisbe, and Valence recuperate as best they can. But as the war becomes ever more complicated, and as new expectations are placed on them, tensions raise from a simmer to a boil. This week on PARTIZAN: On the Edge of Fracture ///Operation Dossier\\\ //Organizations\\ Stel Kesh: The oldest established power in the galaxy...
May 08, 2020•4 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the valley where Juniper lies along a slight river, the Divine Motion has brought her enduring velocity to bear. In front of her, the vanguard of her Black Century, the tip of an endless spear. Behind her, the vast machinery of the greatest military power in the history of life itself. And in her sights, unworthy prey: The Rapid Evening, a group sent to die for an empire they don’t believe in and fractured even in their seditious ambitions. This week on PARTIZAN: BITTER AIR - COMBUSTION ///Op...
May 01, 2020•3 hr 45 min•Transcript available on Metacast At the northwest reaches of the extended defensive perimeter known as Fort Icebreaker, Kesh brigades engage in a feint so convincing that the graves have already been dug. To the southeast, the bulk of the Stel’s might on Partizan waits for the signal to roll through the weakest point in Apostolos’ line. And in the middle, as if the axle of a wheel, is the Rapid Evening, a river, and a bastion called Juniper. Here rests the fate of the early days of this new offensive. From the hills to the sout...
Apr 25, 2020•3 hr 33 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the weeks since Kesh’s new offensive into Apostolos territory, little has changed besides the quantity of weekly war casualties. Halting Kesh’s push is Fort Icebreaker, a massive defensive line composed of a dozen smaller forts, an intricate tunnel system, and a massive moving fortress called Icebreaker Prime which stalks along the border, rejecting any intruders with overwhelming force. But that will change today, says Kesh leadership. Organized by tactical prodigy Lucia Whitestar, a complex...
Apr 17, 2020•2 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Content Warning: This episode features discussion of chemical warfare and suffocation. Deep in the Pique Ridge, at the back of a steephead valley, on the edge of the town of Orzen, under the Cathedral of Imperium is an archival facility filled with record of Partizan’s greatest secrets. And in its halls, gunfire rings out as HORIZON leader Gucci Garantine, her bodyguard Thetonious, and their collaborator Valence attempt to breach the sanctum’s innermost reaches. As below so above, as the ground ...
Apr 10, 2020•3 hr 47 min•Transcript available on Metacast Eager to refill their coffers, Kal’Mera Broun has brought SBBR to meet Kesh noble (and HORIZON commander) Gucci Garantine, who offers the group a daring opportunity to both make some money and get access--however temporary--to some Stel Nideo state secrets along the way. The target is a secure Palace facility in the canyon city of Orzen, where raw footage is given final review before being shipped off-world for permanent archival. But with Apostolos’ Barranca Loop on lockdown, its harder than ev...
Apr 03, 2020•3 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
