Zenobia Northern Provinces

"The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones." Shakespeare

["St. Zenobius Performs a Miracle" Domenico Veneziano]

St. Zenobius was the first bishop of Florence, a city on Earth-That-Was. He was credited with a number of miracles including that of raising of a child from the dead. Legend has it that he was descended from Queen Zenobia of Palmyra, after whom our planet was named.

The ruling families of Zenobia stake their claim to power through genetic heritage traced back to St Zenobius. His relics, therefore, are more than a matter of global pride. Genetic testing of claimants against these remains is used to substantiate any given claim.

At the beginning of the last war, the relics of St. Zenobius were taken into protective custody by the Alliance Command. This provided an opportunity for a substitution of remains to substantiate the claim of what is now the current line. The current line had strong ties to the military leadership of that time. The authentic relics themselves remained in hands of Alliance Command both as a safeguard and as leverage with the new ruling family.

Recently however, control was lost of the original relics. Soon after, remains were offered up for sale on the black market. Samples of these relics have been observed in circulation to stimulate interest among potential buyers.

After the relics appeared on the black market, our security cameras revealed Zeno Baxton, Manager of Estates and Mirra Zanzibar, Bihar Sanctuary Department of Antiquities, conducting a scan of the remains within the chapel dedicated to this saint. These test results likely indicate that the publicly displayed reliquary is a copy. Estate Management has not shared these results with our department.

It was shortly after this incident that this file was added to my portfolio.

My immediate objective became containment. Under my supervision, the remains from the chapel were taken into Alliance custody. They were transported away from the Zenobian homeworld to a secure location. The sudden appearance of two caskets would be cause for concern among the population and give opportunity to troublesome elements. With a recent attack by forces unknown of one of our research facilities, a suitable story concerning protection of planetary treasures was released to the public.

My current objective is to find and secure the original relics. In the interest of political stability, at this time it will be our official position that the remains offered on the black market are forgeries.

Meanwhile, Estate Management is no doubt conducting its own attempt at retrieval with likely involvement of the Trade Association. The Trade Association has rarely been sympathetic to the aims and methods of Alliance Military. We will keep an eye to monitoring their progress during the course of our own investigation.

It is critical that control be re-established on the stolen relics by Alliance Command. If someone should come forward with a claim to leadership based on any recovered remains, it would likely mean civil war.

Order and security must be preserved. Lives depend upon it.