Charon’s contest is the succession mechanism of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse: a cosmic tender opened when an office falls vacant — here, when Suriel resigned the title of War to seek redemption on Mount Analogue. It made Auro the new Horseman of War.
| Type | Event (succession contest) |
| Convened by | Charon |
| Place | Mount Analogue |
| Winner | Auro |
| Spanish entry | El concurso de Caronte |
The daemonic customs
Charon convened the protocol after a historic resignation of horsemen. On the ground it was run by a nightmarishly bureaucratic daemonic customs: bureaucrats at desks floating on carts, old women in white noting everything, reptilian gendarmes with boars that sniff out magic, angel blood and bribes, and above them the Customs Officer, a skeleton of golden bones with lapis-lazuli eyes, a huge staff and his order of merit. “Forms to the left.”
Rules
- Requirements: the three attributes of war — firepower, mobility and refuge (a planar ship).
- Jury: the other three Horsemen, who dwell inside the Book of the Damned; their verdict cannot be challenged.
- Practical test and prize: to take the Castle of the Prism.
- The winner receives temporary powers ratified at dawn.
- The whole contest is subject to daemonic challenges and bribes.
After a parade of minor candidates (Ryder/Raider among them), Auro was consecrated Horseman of War.