To write or not to write - that is no longer the question!

Many in Abelis were not surprised. They didn't agree with it, but they figured it would have been only a matter of time. Still, the edict created quite a buzz. The morning after it was announced by heralds on the four corners of the market square, the city was one profession short but full of gossip.

It had all started a year ago. In February of 1142 a young, well dressed traveller checked into the main inn in Abelis' main square. He paid half a year's rent up front and settled into one of the more comfortable chambers of the inn. Dressed unassumingly, he mainly kept to himself and didn't mingle much with the locals. Where he came from, why he left there,... no one really knew, nor cared. Life in the city went on as it always had. Until first novel appeared...

In June of that year, a new novel became for sale in several of the city's shops. In the beginning sales were low. But after a female member of the local chapter of the Church of the Scarlet Flame had picked up a copy and discussed its content with the head of her chapter, the cat was out of the bag.

The novel told the story, in rather salacious detail, of the affair between a noble lady and a wandering artist. The Church of the Scarlet Flame, who didn't condone such flagrant 'inappropriate' relations, made their opinion on the matter quite clear through the sermons of the priests. This only led to more interest in the novel. Within days after the first denouncement of the novel by the Church, all available copies had sold out.
Soon bards and story-tellers were singing and recounting the story all over town (very useful for those who couldn't read; they finally got to understand what all the hubbub was about).

A few month later a second novel appeared. It continued the story of the lady and the artist, much in the same way as the first one. The novel described certain scenes in such detail that its readers would be blushing heavily before the end of the chapter. Naturally, the Church kept on decrying the novels. They demanded they'd be banned from sale, but by the time they tried to stop the spreading of the novel, it had already sold out. No one who owned one would come forward to bring it in...
In the meantime, people had been trying to find out who the author was. The novel was credited under a pseudonym, 'The Scarlet Wildfire'. The owners of the shops who sold them couldn't tell the people anything more; the novels were delivered by the printers who themselves didn't know who had written them.

What people did know, was that there were unmistakeable similarities between the features of the lady in both novels and those of Lady Isalda, the wife of Abelis' ruler Lord Hior. While the story was set in some imaginary far off realm, the description of the lady clearly matched that of Lady Isalda. It didn't take long before word reached Lord Hior (his estates servants couldn't stop gossiping about it, and so Lord Hior got wind of it). Naturally he was not amused, although he had faith in his wife. She denied categorically that there was any truth to the amorous stories of the novels.

When autumn arrived at the end of September, so did the third novel... Even more salacious than the previous two, the writer had clearly become more audacious. So far no one had been able to determine who he was (and the Church of the Scarlet Flame had certainly tried).

This time though, it was harder for the Lady Isalda to profess her innocence. Not only describing all her features in great detail, the writer had also described a pair of birthmarks during a particularly steamy scene in a bath house. Because of their location on her skin, no one other than herself and her husband should be aware of them... Confronted by her husband, she confessed that half a year ago she had been spending some time with someone who introduced himself to her as an artist looking for a muse. They had spent several pleasant afternoons together, after which one thing had led to another... She swore she hadn't seen him for months, after she had expressed her distress at all the gossip going around when the first novel came out. She had read a copy herself and the scenes he described sounded all to familiar to her. But when he insisted he had nothing to do with the book, their affair had soured. To her surprise, more novels kept being published afterwards, increasing her fear that people would figure it out.

She refused to give up the name of her lover however, for fear of what her husband might do to him. Furious but unsure what to do, he conferred with the Pontiff of the Church on how to take action. Since the Church's own efforts in unmasking the author had not bore fruit, Lord Hior did the only thing he could think of: he banned the profession of novelist in all of Abelis. As his edict proclaimed, anyone caught writing and/or publishing any new books or novels would be arrested and tried. Those who had information that could lead to an arrest were offered a handsome reward. Anyone caught owning one of the three novels by the Scarlet Wildfire would be publicly whipped.
The edict allowed one exception. The only ones permitted to write and publish written works were members of the Church, and that only after the Pontiff's staff had cleared them for publication.

Needless to say that this edict didn't stop bards from singing their songs or story tellers from telling their tales; but in public they were smart enough though to steer clear of the contents of the banned novels.

And in that inn in Abelis' main square? Soon after the edict was published, a certain unassuming traveller hastily checked out of his room and made his way to another city...