Meanwhile, Altarrin continues to have problems on his hands related to the crisis.
Tolmassar is one of the empire's largest provinces by population, established across a vast expanse of what sure looked to the Jaconans frozen tundra back before there was settlement there, back before they cleared the forests and dammed the rivers and built the mines and planted farms and founded towns from which cities grew, and Tolmassar began to matter. Tolmassar guards most of the northern and western borders of the Empire, has been a core part of the emperor and its governor commands more soldiers than that of any except the Archmage-General of Jacona.
Archmage-General Norean should have been a very simply Good Candidate For Governor; ambitious, yes, but not overly so, and capable, with real military experience, and very sensibly paranoid about implausible coincidences, divine influence, and anything the Ifteli Vkandis-cultists thought was a good idea. Altarrin had selected loyal people to support him, and then the usual coincidences had caught up to them, and now apparently this paranoia has started applying to other things, like, say, the odds that the central government was planning to haul him back home and execute him. Norean has declared himself emperor, cut access to the strategically vital Widow's Pass into Tozoa, and started moving east, capturing Gate-terminals in a line to Jacona in a flurry of raids before his access was sensibly cut. He's now consolidating, getting ready to head further east, having declared himself the true most loyal servant of Emperor Bastran, out to rescue him from the evil advisors who have no doubt compulsioned the righteous and benevolent sovereign, but this is very unlikely to actually mean anything.
Advantages to going after him: He is, actually, very good at his job, if nowhere near as good as Altarrin, and if Altarrin lets him sit around doing things he will keep doing things that causing problems. Tolmassar being economically cut off from the rest of the Empire is very bad; it's a core province, very well integrated, and as long as trade and taxes have been disrupted, the Empire will have serious supply-line problems.
On the other hand, there's the other crisis.
Taymyrr is not a key province. It's just the province that blocks the Empire of Holy Ithik from coming north. It can't support a very large army. It just has a very large army, because you want a very large army to stop the Empire of Holy Ithik.
And its army is concentrated - Norean needs to watch his back, needs troops to garrison cities that are uncomfortable with being mutinous, needs to make sure Iftel doesn't invade. The governor of Taymyrr, Mage-General Jovin, just needs to worry about Ithik (and, technically, Zoskin, which, technically, exists, tiny and desperately trying to stay neutral, but that is very technical) and Iftel is all for him. Jovin got his job as a hard-driving manager with a knack for seeking out and suppressing divine cults, but he would not, actually, the first persecutor to suddenly find religion, and Ithik is offering him significant loans in exchange for him marrying a relative of the Holy Emperor and making various Ithik-friendly trade deals after he takes the throne. He's declared himself rightful Emperor of the East, and his armies are heading east to make that claim on Jacona.
Advantages to going after him: If Altarrin does, he can cut Ithik off from any non-Gate-based supply for his other enemies. He has much less territory to retreat into, making it much easier to actually end him as a threat. He's shielding the Orisan rebels' flank, and if there's actual loyal imperial troops there their revolution will have much more difficulty concentrating troops.
On the other hand, he's the most likely to collapse under his own weight; he doesn't have the financial base to support his army, and troops who aren't getting paid are very unhappy about this as a rule. And if the people of Taymyrr revolt behind him, that would basically eliminate his ability to function. Still, both of these will make him more desperate, i.e., much more likely to be a problem sooner rather than later.
All the armies assembled - Norean's, Jovin's, and the Orisan revolutionaries - are less than the loyal forces available to the Empire. But, also, the Empire has other borders to defend and other territory to garrison, and a few really large defeats for Bastran and Altarrin might make any imperial governors who are not actually restrained by compulsions or loyalty switch to what looks like the winning side. The odds are clearly in the Empire's favor. But, frankly, this is the kind of crisis it most needs Altarrin for.
(Now if only these crises came, say, fewer than once every sixty years...)