By Jorge-Ben Georges
Senior Investigative Reporter, The Red Sun News
(A follow-up to “The Silence, the Vote, and the Aftermath: What Really Happened with the Xandrians and ‘The Big Party’.”)
Xandrians go from “Allowed to Compete” to “Outperforming the Accords”
Since being granted the opportunity to participate in official Chaos Broker matches and Trials, Xandrian Handlers have out-performed the Academy Accords on many metrics. Their performance at “The Big Party”—the Second Chaos World Invitational Championship—was commendable and, as I reported in these pages, drew notice across the Firmament (see coverage: ).
The most stunning metric is, frankly, the one most Brokers pretend not to check: the Accord Reputation Leaderboard. The Xandrians sit atop it by a comfortable margin—a result not of one-off fireworks but of consistent presence in Chaos Battles in the Altareth River Valley (ARV), where they have steadily built REP (Reputation) and Vault Value. They are doing all of this while respecting the rule limiting them to a single Permanent Agent Contract at any time, a constraint that makes their trajectory even more noteworthy.
A Second Petition, and a Bigger Ask
Given that momentum, it should surprise no one that the Xandrians and their allies at the Padoccia Trade Union have submitted a second formal request to the High Council and the Chaos Academy to recognize Xandrians as fully licensed Brokers.
Further, the Xandrians are requesting that Xandrian Handlers be instituted as a permanent Academy Accord, even though Xandrian Chaos Brokers have not been formally trained by the Academy.
The Council and Academy have announced a thorough (and possibly lengthy) review. Meanwhile, the Altareth Union Bosses have, characteristically, leaped at the chance to launch the next sporting spectacle.
Enter: The Accord Wars
Fresh off the unqualified success of “The Big Party”, officially the Second Chaos World Invitational, which saw hundreds of elite Agents and their Brokers battle through a brutal calendar of Trials culminating in a widely watched Grand Finals (the Altareth Broadcast Union reports 79% of households across the Firmament tuned in for the Finals and 52% for the average Gold Trial), Union Boss Jak Camora framed the next move as inevitability:
“The Big Party proved the tremendous appetite that denizens of the Firmament have for watching their favorite Chaos Agents battle it out on the Shard Fields of the Altareth River Valley (ARV). This represents a Firmament-wide opportunity to take the spectacle of Chaos Battles to the next level. As a result, we are thrilled to announce the launch of the Accord Wars, the first-ever Accord-based Championship for Chaos Brokers. We are currently running Accord War Trials…trials, and are very pleased with the results. Expect an official announcement from us on The Accord Wars very soon.”
As predicted in this column, the Altareth Union Bosses have indeed launched an Accord-based Championship—“The Accord Wars”— with the backing of the High Council and the Chaos Academy. The format is simple and seismic: a series of Gold-tier Trials where the winners are not individual Agents but the Accords themselves.
Why this matters now: the Xandrian Handlers have been admitted as a fourth Accord in the Accord Wars. This is not formal recognition as an official Academy Accord, but it is a strong validation of their claim—and billions across the Firmament will regularly watch Xandrians compete as a team against the famed Pathfinders, Champions, and Warriors.
Dissent, Philosophy, and Semantics
Not all applaud, however. Hank Marblemaw, Provost of the Chaos Academy, told me:
“While I enjoy a good war, I prefer to enjoy them through the comforts of a book or motion picture—perhaps even the occasional digital game. War in real life I don’t condone, and neither do I condone the impression that our Academy Accords are at War with each other. True, they battle each other… and now Xandrians, I guess… on Chaos Shard fields, but this battle does not extend beyond the Shard field. We promote healthy competition among our Accords, not War. We hope these Accord Championships—I guess I’m now legally required to call them Accord Wars; not sure why we pay these Academy lawyers the fortune of emperors for this nonsense… anyway, we hope the Accord Wars help promote competition and fraternity among our Accords and the Xandrian Handlers, while creating value and wealth for their Houses and the Firmament in general.”
From planet Grovaws, Titus, speaking for the Madhi leadership, voiced enduring concerns: that traditionally venerated, and secret, Chaos Shard Battles are being transmuted into entertainment, with Agents and Brokers recast as athletes and coaches rather than as the chosen protectors of the Shards and the Firmament.
The Table After 17 Weeks
The Accord Wars are already underway, with 17 weekly Accord Trials held so far as part of its first season. The Alusian Pathfinders lead the Cunning Champions, Sovereign Warriors, and Xandrian Handlers, respectively. The Pathfinders opened up a healthy lead early on, that the Champions have been chipping away at ever since.
While the Xandrians currently sit last on the Accord Wars’ leaderboard, two truths are hard to ignore:
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They show up—every Trial, nearly every Shard Battle in the ARV.
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They continue to dominate the overall REP Leaderboards.
Taken together, that’s a compelling case for at least granting Xandrian Handlers official Broker Licenses, if not official Accord status. Every additional Trial also proves the stability and safety of their alternate Shard Battle technology, blunting the primary objection the High Council and Academy have raised in earlier denials.
Timelines, Trophies, and Two Spectacles at Once
Asked how long the Accord Wars will run—and how the next Accord Trophy will be decided—Jak Camora promised an upcoming announcement laying out long-term plans for the Accord Wars, the Accord Trophy, and additional honors for top Accords and Brokers.
On the Xandrian request, High Regent Dusana told me: “We will conduct a thorough review of the Xandrians’ request for official Brokerage Licenses and accreditation as an official Accord. The High Council will decide on the Xandrians’ Brokerage Licenses, while the Chaos Academy will decide on the request for Xandrian Handlers to be listed as an official Academy Accord.”
Hank Marblemaw, with his trademark bracing candor, added:
“Our Academy Brokers have accomplished some impressive stuff, but there are some whose commitment to their House is less than that of a Massieu masseuse dealing with a Tsallis client. The Xandrians’ impressive performance on the Accord REP Leaderboards should be a wake-up call to Academy Accords and Brokers who are coasting on their Academy license. That, to put it mildly, is comparable to Dragos excrement, if you know what I mean. On the other hand, we must note that Xandrian Handlers are not technically Academy graduates, making the decision to make them an official Academy Accord complicated, to say the least. The good news is that this decision lies with the illustrious Academy heads—with input from Hank Marblemaw himself—so no one should lose sleep over the final decision being as fair as possible to all parties.”
Read between the lines and it’s ominous for complacent Academy Brokers and encouraging for Xandrian Handlers. Marblemaw is plainly referring to patchy commitment among certain Accords versus the steady diligence of the Xandrians.
Where This Seems Headed
In my view, the remarks from Dusana and Marblemaw point where we’ve long suspected: big changes to the Academy Accord structure are on the table. My conjecture is that performance in the Accord Wars will significantly influence those changes.
Reading the tea leaves (and a few smoke signals from within the Altareth Unions and my friends at the Three-Headed Liar), my conclusions:
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The Xandrians have an excellent chance of achieving their long-sought goal of full Chaos Broker licensure, aided by Padoccia’s political tailwinds and by their battlefield performances.
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The results of the Accord Wars will determine the future of the Academy’s Accord-based organization—and the fate of the Accords themselves. It’s also telling that all Academy Heads—including Wolfram of the Tsallis, Sorith of the Brillouin, and an undisclosed Dagna Ro representative—will together decide on Xandrian official Accord status. Some, including Wolfram, have signaled support for equal footing based on performance, which, in my view, improves the Xandrians’ odds.
Expect me to go quiet again while the dust settles and I gather hard facts and well-evidenced conjecture. Watch for official messaging from the Altareth Union Bosses on the long-term format of the Accord Wars and its prizes, especially the Accord Trophy, twice won in one-off Trials by The Cunning Champions, but now a far richer prize under a season-long gauntlet.
One more whisper from the wings: I’m hearing the Third Chaos World Invitational Championship aka “The 3rd Big Party”—will launch in parallel with the Accord Wars, and has potentially already started early Silver and Gold Trials broadcast to a premium audience paying premium amounts for exclusive access. This gives the Union Bosses two spectacles to promote at once and potentially doubling the market for the “sportification” of Shard Battles: a blend of sport and show, with a dash of real danger and violence—and a ready-made cast of super-beings living among us.
In the meantime, I remain at an undisclosed location—for my personal safety and to protect my neutrality from the many powerful parties tugging at this story. As ever, I will send you the truth I can prove, and the conjectures I can defend.