Silent Tide

This page contains spoilers for the following products: Silent Tide (scenario), Assault on Absalom.
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For another meaning of "Silent Tide", please see Silent Tide (scenario).

In the early 40th century AR, the empire of Taldor concocted and nearly carried out a military operation called the Silent Tide designed to conquer the powerful city-state of Absalom.

First invasion

The original plan involved a secret group of agents known as the Black Echelon weakening defenses within the city itself during the foggy month of Desnus. Once Absalom was in a more vulnerable state, a series of signals were to be given, bringing with them a naval attack from a giant armada which had been waiting off the coast of the Isle of Kortos. Most of these signals would involve colored lights from high buildings from hidden Black Echelon operatives, but the final signal was the interruption of the Oathday playing of the great organ in the Metro-Cathedral. When the chosen invasion date came, no signals were given; the operatives had been discovered, and their sinister plan was foiled. It was not long before Absalom's navy overtook the waiting Taldan fleet, ending the threat and stopping the Silent Tide before it began.

The members of the Black Echelon were hunted down and put to the sword, and no one in Absalom thought any more of the Silent Tide. However, prior to the operation's onset each member of the Black Echelon cell swore the Binding Word, an ancient oath that held them to their mission even beyond the grave. For centuries these operatives laid in wait for the decided-upon signals.

Second invasion

In 4708 AR, an elderly military historian named Yargos Gill came into possession of the Black Echelon's codebook and unwittingly began the Silent Tide almost a millennium after it was intended to go off. When the codebook was then stolen from him by the War Hounders gang and their leader Nessian, it fell to the Pathfinder Society to end the threat of undead saboteurs and a long sunken armada of ghostly invaders to the city of Absalom.

Third invasion

As part of his ongoing schemes against the Decemvirate, Grandmaster Torch allied with Thurl, a betrayer of the Pathfinder Society turned into a demonic abomination in 4717 AR. Torch had been instrumental in the Society's previous intervention against the undead Silent Tide, and with Thurl he initiated a plan in which he would activate the Tide during an assault on Absalom by Thurl's demonic army.

The city once again repelled the invasion, though at a great cost: many defenders died, and Primarch Gyr of House Gixx disappeared. Under the interim leadership of Wynsal Starborn, the city first liberated slaves to bolster its defenses, then outlawed the longtime practice entirely.