My Trials have come to an end. I have been impressed by many of you, though I have also seen, in others, a pathetic lack of drive or petty in-fighting. I have seen wide-eyed youth step forward to attempt their best, and I have seen centuries-old veterans throw childish tantrums. Overall, I cannot say it was boring.

As the Trials were five, we will go through them in order to announce individual winners before moving on to the ultimate victor.

I. Essence

First place:

With a resounding lead of over twenty million, Mhaldor triumphs with a grand total of 42,198,822 essence, including Jeramun's bonus two million.

Mhaldor's biggest contributor, by far, was Jaybles Xanatov.

Second place:

With 20,943,773 essence, Ashtan follows. In the Seat's case, Ryzan Valeth was the best-placing individual.

Third place:

Hashan, with 17,019,646 essence, including Jeramun's bounty, narrowly escaped fourth place. Accipiter was their greatest participant.

Fourth place:

Eleusis is pushed to fourth by Hashan's success with Jeramun, finishing with 16,090,080 essence. Ozmatiah Black led the pack.

Fifth place:

Cyrene scored 7,365,914 essence with Tarvius at the lead.

Sixth place:

Targossas scored 603,126 essence, despite a city-wide ban on My Trials.

II. King of the Hill

First place: Mhaldor, who went completely undefeated.

Second place: Hashan.

Third place: Ashtan.

Fourth place: Cyrene

Fifth place: Eleusis.

III. Song-writing

All the participating cities submitted at least passable songs, varied in writing quality and how much of a lullaby they truly were. Some were wonderfully written but failed to stick to My theme, and some scored higher on theme and worse on beautiful wording. After assessing on various criteria, I concluded:

First place: Ashtan
Second place: Cyrene
Third place: Hashan
Fourth place: Mhaldor
Fifth place: Eleusis

IV. Scrappers

In a surprising turn, Hashan took not only first place with Lenn Le'Yuet's undefeated streak, but also had a multi-way tie for second and third place. Mhaldor and Eleusis tied for fourth place thereafter.

V. Riddle

The most important clue to My riddle was the first line: "Like always, this and every other one is a mistake." This was a hint to eliminate that and every other line, leaving us with the true puzzle:

Resolute I stood immoveable.
Ever staring, never blinking.
I'm your rule of law followed almost to another T.

Quite obviously, the answer is then 'statue.' If the first two lines are not enough, a written law is a statute which, if we do not follow to 'another' T, is then a statue.

Hashan was the first to guess correctly, impressively taking under a day from the riddle's posting. However, their active imaginations (and, no doubt, local cultist) led them to believe it was specifically a statue of Khalas. I did not specify word count, so I will only penalise a single point for the overspecificity.

The second city to guess correctly was Cyrene, followed by Mhaldor.


Overall:

Points were assigned as such: Each first place is worth five points, second place four points, third place three points, and so on. The following exceptions were made:

- Hashan scored only four points for their riddle answer due to their penalty.
- Because Hashan locked out the other cities from places two and three in the Scrappers, only fourth place points were awarded to the tied Mhaldor and Eleusis.
- Targossas is awarded 1 point for going against the wishes of their Dawnlord.

1) Hashan - 19 points
2) Mhaldor - 17 points
3) Ashtan - 12 points
4) Cyrene - 11 points
5) Eleusis - 6 points
6) Targossas - 1 point

Well done to Hashan, who have showed not only commitment to their chosen cause, but a willingness to overcome any obstacles they encountered. As the scores show, the victory was hard-earned, and Mhaldor only barely fell behind towards the end. The closeness of their battle was amusing and exciting both.

Penned by My hand on the 19th of Sarapin, in the year 816 AF.