Midnight RPG - Chapter 30.111

Within the Cadaverous Eye

While within this artifact of massive necromantic power these are the things that Kyuad learned...
BILL: feel free to ask any questions you have regarding Kyuad's knowledge base from being joined with (or in) the Eye. I'll answer the questions as best I can. Some may be purposely confusing or incomplete. First I'll try and note all the things we talked about to collect your info gained...

Near Perfect Undeath

The matriarch of dragonkind, the beast on wing, death incarnate, the Wrath of Shadow, Zardrix is our greatest success. A gift given unknowningly by our masters to the Fallen One, the Hate of Aryth. An ultimate success of undeath, created by the device of our master's whims. Who then is the true gods of Aryth, that which revolts from the light or they that hold the beacon, allowing the Enemy to cast Shadow? Yes... it is with this that the world will come to destiny, the culmination of our master's work. The body not killed, living but dead within. The mind surpressed from feelings of heart. What became of her is - "living undeath". What pulses and pumps the dread ichor within her veins then if heart is lost? So comes the next incarnation of a plan set in motion when the world was young...
There is a great and grotesque necromantic experiment walking the lands of the world. Yet her black blood moves as with the tethered dead, the fuels of unlife. However the demand on the body of the beast yet beckons, two and ten times the worth of replunishment of feast and dream is call for the Wrath to maintain the Thing on Wings - lest the clutches be lost... For her neck is as thick and long as a maudrial tree, and her wingspan could cover an entire village. She trails smoke, fire, and darkness behind, and an unearthly roar precedes, heralding the destruction that she will wreak.
But the masters may now fear even themselves knowing that the cutting of the pump from her breast is long lost by the powers of those of Black Blood, this Claws of Zardrix is lost to mankind. Yet she is still a tool to more than one, the near perfect undeath.

THE ULTIMATE LIE

There is one truth, hidden from the eyes of man, fey and dragon alike. One truth, which would plunge the forces of Izrador, the Shadow in the North, into chaos. One truth, that has been hidden for millenniums by the darkest forces on Aryth, one truth, hidden behind thousands of years of deceit. One truth, so absolute, so fatal, it would shatter the forces of darkness into a thousand fragmented pieces: There is no god. Izrador is dead. All the gods are dead. The Sundering did not cast a god out of heaven. It was a divine cataclysm of heaven, in which all the gods perished. The Sundering was no war between divine beings. It was a war between god and mortal. Mortal won. Maybe the Elthedar grew arrogant, and believed they no longer needed their creators. Maybe mankind looked at the Elthedar and their gods, and his jealousy at the glory of this people turned to hate. Maybe the gods, fearful of the mortal race of Men, not of their creation, began the evil. Maybe the gods made the fatal mistake of making mortals fight their wars. There was a war, a war unlike any other, a war known now as the Sundering. In its final days, the power of mortals shred the divine realm apart, spilling dying gods from heaven. One of these burned through Aryth's skies. Izrador. In the final act of the gods, Izrador's body smashed into the world of the Elthedar, scarring it one final time. Then, there was silence.

How did this come to pass? There are many tales.

Some say that the Elthedar were created by the gods, that they were their mortal descendants on Aryth. If so, they were the ungrateful progeny of the gods. How they did it is uncertain, but as the Elthedar race grew and prospered, they came to realize one thing: They had no need of the gods. Like discontent heirs, tired of seeing their condescending, all-knowing parents make their decisions, they went to war on their creators. They won. They never had time to celebrate their victory. As the gods died, the fabric of the very world was torn and shaken, and the event known as the Sundering came to pass. The Elthedar race died with their divine parents. Their own twisted progeny now walks Aryth as elf and dwarf, gnome, dunni and orc.

This may or may not be true. Some claim another tale.

These scholars claim the Sundering were not an act of the Elthedar. The Children of the Gods loved their parents. They were not alone on Aryth, however. In other lands, the race of Man grew. It looked at the Elthedar, their gods and their glory, and they felt envy. Man had no gods, no glory. Every day was a bitter struggle for survival. Envy soon turned to jealousy, jealousy to hate. Hate to rage. A unified, primal rage that grew so powerful mankind was able to do the unthinkable. They may have been a primitive race, but they were powerful nonetheless. Mankind blasphemed against the gods, stormed the cities of the Elthedar, and brought about the Sundering.

There are other stories too. The truth is lost in time.

Following the destruction of heaven, dying gods fell. Most plunged through cosmos, perhaps plunge still. Only one burned through the skies of Aryth – Izrador. If he was dead as he fell, if the actually fall killed him, or whether the direct touch of the mortal world was his bane, are all debated. But he died, his essence smashing into the northernmost reaches of Eredane.

The gods died, but their servants did not. Scattered across the world, angels and demons despaired, their world torn apart. However, the forces of evil had a rally point. They flocked to the Scar left in the earth by Izrador, and there, they formed a pact. They would preach the continued glory and existence of Izrador, proclaiming him the Shadow in the North, the Evil Under the Mountain, the Dark One. When shattered Elthedar drifted north, they were easily subdued by these spirits, twisted into the race know to Man as the Orcs.

The Keepers of Shadow

For a long time, the Keepers of Shadow were the true lords of darkness on all of Aryth. The remnants of a shattered celestial realm, they flocked to the remains of the only god to fall with them. Champions and symbols of all causes, fearful of the Elthedar, fearful of mankind, and fearful of the future, they clustered together like lost children. Unlike lost children, they were still powerful, but that power was slowly seeping away from them. They came to realize one horrifying truth: They were dying. No longer fed by the divine energies of their masters and creators, the angels and demons were withering away. Like starving cannibals, they first turned upon each other. However, this was before they discovered the latent powers of a dead god.

Black Mirrors do not sap the magic of the world for the benefit of Izrador. The celestial overlords of the Keepers do not eat, breathe, or sleep, but they need sustenance to survive nevertheless. The divinity that once kept them alive – for they are all avatars of the gods – is gone. Instead, they have turned on the world, sucking on its magic, living as arcane parasites that feed in magic and life. Through the zordrafin coriths, the pure essence of the world is channeled through the corpse of Izrador, warped into divine energy that the avatars can feed on. Excess life-force is bled back through the mirrors as divine energy, allowing it to be accessed by the legates and other spellcasters serving Izrador.

At first, black mirrors existed only among the orcs, the Keeper's warped Elthedar servitors. However, as the lands grew more barren, they came to realize that they had to expand in order to survive, seek new lands to prolong their lives while searching for a permanent solution. The wars known as the Rises of Izrador were attempts at this, but it was not until these wars were led by the creatures they destroyed that one was utterly successful. Now, as orc, even man, prospers in the divine, the Keepers fear they might have bitten over more than they can chew, as their Machiavellian schemes threaten to collapse on themselves.

Adding to their hardships, the Keepers are far from united. Though Razors hunt their enemies, giving them a united face against the outside world, many inner splits exist. Once champions of radically different causes, most those who were once of light have long since turned to corruption and darkness. Even among the heart of evil though, there is dissent, as fallen angel battles demon, battles demon, battles devil over the power to pull the strings of the world.

The First of the True

The First of the True had once been the destroyers of gods. Whether human, Elthedar or something more sinister at first, none know, but the traditions and responsibilities of the order had long since moved to Man. Ever since the Sundering, The First had aggressively hunted, enslaved or killed remnants of the divine all across Pelluria, destroying the past of the continent in favor of the true children of Aryth, by now embodied in mankind. Now, they had come to cleanse Eredane. Beirial was its champion, and he came north with a cause. Word of Izrador had reached their ears, and they came in force to annihilate a broken god. Together with his fellow First, he spearheaded the advance of mankind into Erenland.

Hostility between Man and Fey – the descendants of Elthedar, children of the gods – was immediate. Rather than begin a systematical eradication of the Fey, though, Beirial led his forces north. There was a threat there unlike any which the sorcerer had ever seen before, a creature which not even the stories of The First could describe, and Beirial would lead his men through fire and death to find it. By spell and sword, the Dorns plunged through central Erenland, crossed the Sea of Pelluria, and entered the North. In their wake, they left the decimated cultures of the gnomes and halflings, as well as their own fortifications along the Eren and the Pellurian coast.

In the Northlands, the Dorn did battle with the orcs. Having witnessed the rapid progress of Man across the south, the Keepers felt true fear, and hurled all they had at this new, aggressive enemy. For decades, the races did battle. Thousands died, and Man was forced to consolidate his positions before advancing. In these years, The First founded many cities across the land, beginning the civilization of the Dorns in Erenland.

As the war kept going, Beirial, like all mortal men, aged. In his age, he too felt fear. Fear like he had never felt before. The fear of the death that crept upon him as his hair turned to silver and his skin wrinkled. He feared he would never see this divine, and he feared where he would go when he was gone. The First preached no afterlife, and Beirial did not want to disappear. It was with this goal in mind, that the sorcerer made secret contact with the Keepers. He offered them his order, his fellow men, and himself, in return for one thing: A touch of the divine. The Keepers consented.

Beirial in turn, upheld his end of the bargain. In the cataclysmic years that followed, The First were eradicated, the few survivors the ones who turned to the Shadow. In Pelluria, the rise of the Sarcosan empire with its star worship spelled the doom of the brotherhood on that continent. The Dorns, having lost their champions, were on the brink of doom, when the Fey intervened. Led by Aradil, the new alliance of fey and man halted the tide of darkness, and created new allegiances. This event became known as the First Rise of Izrador.

The Order of Shadow

It is no coincidence that the Order of Shadow is mostly human. Founded by Beirial the Betrayer, the order at first consisted of those of The First that Beirial managed to corrupt. Later, it expanded, as generations forgot, but never recruited among the orcs, who Beirial saw as the progeny of the Keepers. The Order of Shadow plays a vital part in the divine scheme, because they are the ones who spread the word of Izrador's greatness. Aside from Beirial and a select few, once of The First, the order's members do not know that Izrador does, in fact, not exist. They preach with fervor and devotion, solidifying the lie, and giving it life.

For millenniums, Beirial has played the subservient ally of the Keepers, waiting for a time to strike at them, taking the power of Izrador and the black mirrors for himself. He knows that the god is dead, but he also believes that he can claim a larger part of that godhood for himself once the Keepers are not in his way. Beirial knows, however, that he cannot take on the ancient avatars alone, and is forced to wait, spinning his webs and laying his plans.

The order, almost entirely human, displays Beirial's continued xenophobia towards Elthedar descendants, a xenophobia which is strangely present in the order at large too. Most legates are uncomfortable around the orcs, who are supposed to be the faithful soldiers of Izrador. While faithful, doubt is still a large part of the life of many legates, who worship, but never hear the voice of their god. When the time is right, Beirial plans to reveal the truth to them, and use them as a weapon against the Keepers, destroying the celestials once and for all.

The Orcs

Like all other Fey races, orcs were once Elthedar. When the Sundering shattered the race, scattering its remnants to the wind, those who were to become orcs drifted north. They sought peace in the distant colds, but found something entirely different. Ultimately, they found the Scar, and were warped by its lingering evil. Twisted and dying, they were formed by the Keepers into what they are now; the warriors of Izrador, the soldiers of a dead god. The spiritual scars of their ancestors fateful contact with the dead god still linger in their hearts, but what they hear in their dreams is not the voice of Izrador, it is the echoing screams of their tortured progenitors.

The leaders of the orcs, the Mother-Wifes of Izrador, are some of the most misled creatures on Eredane. The truth rests right in front of their eyes, yet they do not see it. Perhaps they do not want to, perhaps they chose to ignore it. The fact remains though, that the witches are avid worshipers of a dead god, and send their people to die in his thankless name. The kurasatch udareen are one of the Keepers closest allies, treated as old friends and used as leashed dogs. However, should the truth be known to them, their vengeance would tear apart orc lands.

The Night Kings

Fearing the growing power of the Order of Shadow, but reluctant to destroy it and its skilled leader, Beirial, the Keepers desired new champions, in order to balance the power among more factions. In this quest, they sought out the most powerful heroes of good, corrupting them like they had once seen Beirial corrupting his fellow man. Success was total. Too total. The Night Kings fully embraced their dark gifts and strode into the world, disregarding the Keepers, who were but wardens. They would be conquerors. Now, only Zardrix remains in their control, as the Keepers possess her heart, and control her through it. The other three are left to their own devices.

Among them, Ardherin has begun to suspect the truth, secretly fed to him by Beirial. Vard though, remains an almost ever-present threat, and the Sorceror treads lightly. Sunulael, originally created as a balance to Beirial, has become increasingly doubtful, as even now, he does not hear the voice of his god. For now though, he is content with fighting his war against Beirial, blaming the other priest for his misfortune. Jahzir does not care, relishing in the powers granted him, believing that as long as his master does not chastise him, he does his duties well.

Aradil

The Witch Queen of Erethor knows precious little about the force that is Izrador. Even through her great power, she is not able to stand against the united force of the Keepers of Shadow, and against her, they will always make a united front. Those scant few mortals who know the truth hide their knowledge well, and are not easily found or captured. Should any unlucky mortal stumble across the truth, the Razors remain on hand to deal with them, as the Keepers take a very personal interest in defending their secret. So far, after 8,000 years on the throne, Aradil knows only one thing: The Shadow is hiding something, and it is hiding it well.

Aradar

Known to some as The Well of Hope, Aradar has been a strange enigma to the world, ever since its name was first spoken. Until the Last Age, the place has been but the reflection of a ghost, for in a world of light, a a candle is hardly visible, but as the world grows dark, it becomes a beacon. Now Aradar, and its effects, are more visible than ever. Resistance fighter and legate alike now hunt it, seeking a price that cannot be found by living eyes.

Aradar has long been believed to be a place, but this is not true. Aradar infuses the world, the earth, the water and the sky above. It is the spiritual mate of Aryth, created by its children.

In ancient times, when the Elthedar laughed, cried, dreamed or prayed, their hopes, emotions and desires reached the heavens. This spiritual essence of life, helped the gods build and maintain the world. When the Sundering destroyed heaven, these spiritual forces of creation no longer had a place to go. Life, however, is inventive, and will not dwindle easily. Rather than bleed away and wither, the energies of life gathered, forming a place beyond, but within, all places. This is Aradar, and it is the gathering point of every dream dreamed, every hope held, and every joy felt. It is also the home of whispered curses, dark thoughts and tears shed. Aradar is a many-faced place.

After 10,000 years of life without gods, Aradar has become great indeed. However, it was not until the days grew dark, and the hopes of the living desperate, that the force gave back to its benefactors. As a desire for salvation, for champions and for aid grew in the hearts of those who suffered from the shadow, Aradar answered. In small drips, the force of the place seeps into the mortal world, touching the souls of Man and Fey alike, creating involuntary champions of the world. Whether the time this has happened is random, or whether it is destiny is unimportant. Heroes can be forged by these touches. What they chose to do with their blessings is up to them.

Among all powerful forces of Aryth, there is a united fear of Aradar. It is an enigmatic entity which they have been unable to hunt down for the better part of three ages, yet it keeps affecting the mortals of the world in strange ways. The Keepers fear Aradar for the potential power of the place, Beirial fears it because he believes it is a growing divine entity, not yet born. Aradil fears it, for she knows that not only good seeps into that place, and she has seen more than one vile being touched by Aradar. The only one who doesn't fear the name is Ardherin, who sees in it only the potential for destruction, and an upheaval of the ancient, hidden status quos.

Despite their fears, all hunt Aradar, for it is a price that cannot be allowed to fall into the hands of another. But how does one hunt the ghost of dreams? How does one hunt the energy of life? All factions have come to the same conclusion: When it manifests, seize it. Spies, channelers, legates, spirits, demons, all are involved in a hunt for those who walk what one scholar of the Order of Truth called the Heroic Paths, the Pathwalkers.

The White Mother

Orcs of the White Mother have existed since before the founding of the Order of Shadow. There have always been dissidents and doubters, and rebellions, even large-scale ones, have occurred. However, there has not been a time before when the orcs have been so far from their masters. Though the Keepers of Shadow expend great amounts of resources in order to exert influence over the orcs south of the Fortress Wall, control in these areas invariably falls to the Order of Shadow, the Night Princes, and the kurasatch udareen. Under such circumstances, the doubting orcs have prospered.

The chosen champion of the White Mothers is Grial Fey-Killer, though he does not know it himself. For the last two decades, as Grial waged his war, the White Mother orcs have infiltrated his command structure, and do their utmost to sway the warlord to their views. Already, the seeds of doubt have been planted in his heart, but they have not sprung out yet. For now, The White Mothers await the right time before springing their plan to life, still believing that there is a god, but believing that he cares not for the orcs. In the meantime, they are content with letting the orcs whittle away at the other races, who they by no means see as allies.

THE PATHWALKERS OF ARADAR - Kiss of the Dreamworld

The first to discover a Pathwalker were the Lightbearers, the militant allies of the Order of Truth. When the phenomenon started appearing in several people, the Abandoned took a serious interest. After twenty years of study, the order has developed one theory:

• The Pathwalkers draw on the divine. To them, there is no other explanation for how their powers have come into existence. The source of this divine though, is open for debate, but three theories prevail. Either, the Pathwalkers have been able to tap into some hidden reserve of the divine on Aryth, effectively becoming avatars of the Lost Gods.
• Another theory is that Aradar has become manifest in the world.
• The third alternative is a dark one, which is nevertheless not discarded: The Pathwalkers draw on the powers of Izrador. How this could be possible is heavily debated, but some suspect that the dark god may not be in control of his powers.