Art and Lore

Flesh of Steel, Soul of Man-I present the Vulture, the ultimate union of Flesh and Steel. The Vulture’s are the souls of our mightiest warriors, transferred into a mechanical body, given eternal strength, eternal life. The Vulture is but a pail reflection of the Glory of Goliath, but they shall serve our purpose. In addition, the Soul of the Vulture can be bound to a Blessed Machine Spirit, allowing it to return to the nearest Clock tower if destroyed so it can be restored.
The Vulture will be our first line of defense, our last line of defense, and a prototype of the Future.
-Public Speak by High Techpriest Talos

ThE VuLtUre WiLl aLlOw uS tO dEfEnD OuR LaNdS fRoM bOtH MoRtAl aNd gOd, aS iT pRoVeS tHaT a SoUl cAn sUrViVe iN a mAcHiNe bOdY. WiTh iMpRoVeMeNt, ThE dEsIgN cOuLd aCcOmMoDaTe AlL MeChAnOs fOrEvEr, aNd fOrEvEr pRoTeCt oUr sOuL fRoM tHe gRaSp oF gOdS. – Private talk by High Techpriest Talos to Council of Techpriest.

Flesh of Steel, Soul of Man-I present the Vulture, the ultimate union of Flesh and Steel. The Vulture’s are the souls of our mightiest warriors, transferred into a mechanical body, given eternal strength, eternal life. The Vulture is but a pail reflection of the Glory of Goliath, but they shall serve our purpose. The ability to bind a soul and mind to a machine body will allow our mightiest warriors to continue to serve after their death, or they age and wither to much to take to the battle field. When our enemies wage war against us, they will quickly learn that for every man or woman they kill, an even more lethal entity will take it’s place.
-Public Speak by High Techpriest Talos

ThE VuLtUre WiLl aLlOw uS tO dEfEnD OuR LaNdS fRoM bOtH MoRtAl aNd tImE, aS iT pRoVeS tHaT a bRaIn cAn sUrViVe iN a mAcHiNe bOdY. WiTh iMpRoVeMeNt, ThE dEsIgN cOuLd aCcOmMoDaTe AlL MeChAnOs fOrEvEr, aNd fOrEvEr pRoTeCt uS fRoM tHe gRaSp oF ArWaN aNd tImE. – Private talk by High Techpriest Talos to Council of Techpriest.

There is something strange about these Vultures. I could have sworn one I saw on the battle field had a human brain, not just a soul. I will nee to investigate Talos’s plan further-Techpriest Aslet

Auric stood in meditation surrounded by vast ice crystals. He smiled as he saw images of legions of Ice Golems engaging Luchuirp Golems and holding them at bay, creating a wall of stasis that stretched across the Luchuirp border, as his allies struck. He horsehockyfted his imaging and saw frostling bandits, supported by flesh constructs from Mokka's Cauldron, engaging the Svartalfar. Things were going well, and it looked as if the Deepening would soon begin, according to Anangtios's report. That was when he sensed a disturbance around him.

Reflexes honed while wandering Erebus kicked into action, and he ducked behind one of the crystals. The assassin's dart, tipped with a plant that caused spontaneous combustion when it hit a target, struck and melted a chunk of ice away. He snapped "Slow!" and the will behind the command caused time around the assassin to stretch and slow down as she was about to utter a spell that would blow the throne room apart with an inferno. It had the added effect of causing the assassin's invisibility charm to stop working, causing her to become visible to all.

Auric walked forward and studied the assassin. She was an elf, apparently, wrapped in a black cloak covered with invisibility runes that was typical of Svartalfar dress. She also carried a large supply of deadly implements. He waved his hand, and the slow time effects intensified, stopping time around the two of them entirely. Another gesture caused the temperature to lower, subtly. Guards rushed into the room, but to Auric and the elven prisoner, they did not move.

"I just thought you should know," he said, "that Illian ice sculpters are capable of altering the position and even the shape of a body after it has been frozen. It produces beautiful artwork." He gestured to the columns of ice statues lining the palace. "Not all were made out of once living people- but some were," he continued. "But, it can be done to a still living body. The process is incredibly painful, as you can no doubt imagine." The assassin's face showed that she did.

Auric released frozen time, and the guards seized her. He said ominously, "Sculpt her until she talks." The guards departed, dragging the shrieking prisoner, who seconds later died. He frowned. He thought he had removed all magical items with the slow spell. Evidently there was a physical poison as well.

He sighed, shaking his head. He needed better guards. And then an idea, propelled by the essence of Mulcarn that lived within him, came to him, and he shouted an order. A Disciple of Winter rushed in, and he gave instructions to him, and the disciple rushed out to obey them.

--

The tower of ice, not located in Garduk but near Letum Frigus, had been built by Auric's will, and it would stand so long as he remained alive- or willed it to collapse. Ice particles had gathered slowly and formed into beautiful crystals, which then formed into a tower. At the top of the tower were four crystalline spikes resembling stalagmites. It was at this top where Auric, Dumnanios, Riuros, and Anangtios were gathered. He had risen it for this specific purpose.

The ritual was well under way. Even if anyone else on Erebus was aware of it, and could fight through the Illian and Doviello guards patrolling the empire, they would not be in time to stop it. Auric's vision honed in on an island in a lake at the edge of Elohim lands. Knowing that it was important, the Elohim were guarding a small crystal sphere on the shores of the lake with their lives. He laughed as he gathered energy. Those lives would not be enough...

--

Arlonte, captain of the guards assigned to protect the Evergreen Lake, sighed as he watched the small company of Elohim assigned to this site. It was a good job they had- they did not have to protect the lake itself but rather what appeared to be a glowing green spherical rock. The priest, Lenyos, assigned to their group was currently studying it. The other guards were also enjoying themselves in the grass. They could relax in the lake, but Einion Logos had warned them strictly- do not venture into the lake.

He headed over to the priest to take a look at his analysis of the object. That was when he felt a strange sensation, as if lightning was coming. He looked up, along with the others.

There was no lightning. The clouds were glowing pure white, and it seemed as if... they were freezing.

Then, there was a sudden blast of blue-white light from the frozen clouds. It appeared to be lightning, but it was clearly not. It was directed straight at the object they were supposed to protect, and one of the guards nearby instinctively dove into the path of the lightning. His body froze and was covered in ice. It then fell to the orb, which flared green, and the body of the guard caught on fire until nothing was left but ashes. Arlonte stood staring at the orb. It was obviously a tool against winter, but...

His thoughts were interrupted when another blast shot through the sky. Seconds before it hit, Lenyos, a priest of the Fellowship of Leaves, muttered a prayer, and the earth glowed green. Guardian vines emerged and seized the orb. The blast of ice struck them... and nothing happened.

--

Auric reeled as a powerful presence interrupted his attack on the Orb of Sucellus guarding the lake. He had frozen a human who had been in the way of the blast, he knew, but that second power... intrigued, he studied it. And the part that was Mulcarn gave him the rest of the information. He had tried to freeze a massive creature, the Guardian of the Forest. Somehow, a being he had identified as a priest of leaves had summoned the Guardian's vines to defend the orb. Clever. He had tried to freeze the entire thing. There did not seem to be a way to win.

But, after a few minutes thinking, he had one, and resumed his attack, gathering more power...

--

The Elohim captain looked up again. Arlonte prayed that the attacker was beat and would go away. But that, of course, did not happen. Instead, another blast rained down from the frozen clouds. This one, though was glowing faintly golden... Arlonte realized with surprise that it was a lightning blast. The blast continued coming, becoming a solid beam, not a quick blast. Lenyos gasped in horror as the lightning drilled into one of the vines.

He cried, "The guardian..." and rushed forward. A deflected ray of lightning struck him. Lenyos screamed in pain and died.

That was when the blast penetrated through the vine.

--

Auric mentally roared at the presence of the Guardian, demanding it submit, even as he gathered all the ice energy he had in him, swallowing several nearby blizzards and nearly undoing the tower of ice he was standing on. He hurled it down into the ripped open vine. The ice would either freeze a portion of the great Guardian, or would destroy the Orb of Sucellus.

He waited to see what would happen. He did not have enough power to both take on the Guardian and to destroy the Orb simultaneously. Already, he felt himself wilting. He continued to pour out his energy and shout at the Guardian...

--

Arlonte's eyes widened as the vines began to freeze. They crystallized and abruptly melted into nothingness, the Orb having burned the frozen portions away. The remaining vines at the base of the Orb recoiled and reentered the earth, vanishing, as did the aura of nature surrounding the area. His face turned grim as he considered what this meant.

The icy beam continued coming, striking the orb, creating a shield of fire around the orb. Ice energy touched and froze the outside of the orb, which caught fire. That fire was then frozen as more ice energy poured down. Eventually, the orb cracked, and exploded, as it could take no more ice magic. Arlonte and the guards ducked as the smoke cleared and the beam stopped.

That was when the lake froze. He turned, and his face became pale as he saw an armored warrior stalking across the ice, longsword and shield in hand. Arlonte opened his mouth to order a charge, when he found he could no longer speak. The figure waved a hand and ice filled his mouth. Still striding forward, he swung the sword in a long sweep and Arlonte dropped to the ground. As he died, he saw the figure make short work of the other guards as well...

--

Taranis finished killing the guards and looked around, taking in data. It was another age. Mulcarn's presence was no longer felt- wait... there was an emission of him from the north, from the old realm of the Illians. Analysis: Mulcarn is weakened. Directive: Head north. Directive: Kill all in between targets. Directive: Determine the state of Mulcarn. Directive: Gather aid. Input data: No creatures of ice felt within reasonable range. Analysis: They are dispered or gathered near Mulcarn. Directive: Find them.

Such was Taranis. He could take in data and make decisions, albeit in a machine-like method. But after that data was taken in and Taranis came to a decision based on it, it was dumped since it could not be remembered. He continued to reevaluate his current directives, carefully checking if the position of Mulcarn or his ice demons altered. They did not. One final directive was ordered, based on climate data.

Directive: Begin the re-wintering of the world.

Part 2: The Liberation

Taranis's stead trod across Erebus had never faltered, no matter what obstacles had been in his way. He had nearly had to veer from his course as the Grigori piled on a massive amount of bodies in an attempt to block him from reaching Illian lands. But with some ice magic and his methodical use of his sword, he had broken through and continued to Mulcarn, until he reached the Illian border.

Unknown structure detected. Analysis: border fort. Accessing climatological data. Temperatures in and beyond this fort are significantly colder then those here. Conclusion: Mulcarn is nearby.

After performing this analysis, Taranis continued his steady pace forward. He raised a hand and accessed ice magic. Nothing happened for a few minutes, until the frozen walls of the Illian border fort reshaped themselves into an open gate. Startled, Illian defenders rushed forward to intercept this stranger. Taranis charged them, a sword stroke killing one, and a blast of ice magic freezing the rest.

To an outsider it appeared that someone, perhaps Frostlings, had constructed a beautiful replica of an Illian fortress and it's men out of ice crystals. The truth was that it was one of many that Taranis had created from different nations during his trek to Garduk.

--

Dunmanios, senior of the Priests of Winter and High Priest of Winter of the White Hand, rode across the barren tundra on the back of an icehorse. The Illian icehorses were bred from the ancient Winter Horses created by Mulcarn, just as he had created the Winter Wolves from the Doviello wolves. Because of Dumnanios's seniority, he had been given one of these rare, prized creatures (who could run faster in the snow then on land) and ordered to warn anything between the frozen fort and Garduk not to interfere with Taranis, the assumption being he would be the most capable to stop Taranis.

He spotted the small town of Suspiro, reasonably close to Garduk. With it's position near several key herds of arctic deer it was rapidly becoming more then just a small town and one of the main centers for the arctic deer hunt and trade. Unfortunately, it looked like there was nothing going on today- a bad sign.

The priest of winter muttered a prayer to Auric under his breath and felt the strength of the reborn god of winter fill him. He urged on the icehorse, which responded to the blast of ice magic and charged before, arriving at the city instantly.

By the looks of it, Taranis had just been here previously. He had carved a frozen path of destruction through Suspiro, freezing many buildings, people, and arctic deer being stored in icehouses. And the parts of Suspiro that had not been frozen were in panic. There was rioting, and the Illian defenders and police were having a hard time maintaining order. He cursed, and wondered if Taranis was really worth all of the destruction and chaos he was causing.

--

Auric Ulvin rose from his throne as there was an explosion, and then total silence, in the chambers outside of the audience hall. The Illian guards, the members of his court (who were best called syncophants), and other officials around him startled and stepped aside in fear. Auric raised an eyebrow as the doors exploded, and then froze in mid-air before dropping to the ground and shattering.

From the clouds of dust, Taranis the Unchanging stepped forward, his ancient longsword and shield in hand. He towered over the Illians by a head, and was covered from head to toe in armor. His blue eyes of crystal ice looked around the room before locking on Auric. He marched forward slowly.

The Illian guards, once realizing that this... thing... was heading towards their god-king, overcame their fear and threw themselves in his path. Auric opened his mouth to warn them away, but he was too late as Taranis swung his sword. The instant touch of the blade caused the guard who was touched to freeze. Taranis waved his hand and the frozen guards shattered, and he stepped over what was left of them.

Taranis halted in front of Auric, waiting for... something. Auric wondered what it was. He had no way of communicating with Taranis to discover it, and Taranis would not answer him. Except... that was not entirely true. He entered Taranis's mind, and was instantly struck by how alien it was. It was like that of a golem.

Except... it wasn't. Golems were artificial and had no mind, at least as how the term was understood. But Taranis had a mind. Much of it had been written over, it seemed, by the complex writing of Mulcarn's blessing. Mulcarn had sealed off huge portions of Taranis's mind. Auric nearly became lost in wonder in trying to understand this work of his predecessor. However, he remembered his task, and sought to find a method to speak to Taranis.

There would presumably be some way for him to give Taranis and instruction. He found what appeared to be the correct way to send a command, and sent a mental ping it to it. He received another mental ping in return, this one from Taranis. Auric smiled slightly.

"I am Auric Ulvin, the soon-to-be-new god of winter, and I demand you acknowledge me as your lord," sent Auric. Taranis's mind leaped into action and his body started slightly. Auric felt Taranis processing information.

"Prove your identity," was all that Auric was able to parse from the mental reply. Auric looked through himself for the essence of Mulcarn and the power of the sphere of winter, and showed it to Taranis, who jerked slightly again. Auric wondered what these jerks might mean, but had no time to fully analyze Taranis's mind. He still wasn't sure he was doing this correctly.

"Confirmed. Instruction?" Taranis sent through the mental channel. Auric hesitated. How to best phrase this, he wondered.

"Guard me, the reborn god of winter. Do not allow anyone or anything to harm me. Accompany me at all times unless I order you not to." ordered Auric. Taranis nodded and acknowledged the order. Satisfied, Auric broke from the mental contact and sat down on his throne of ice.

Taranis walked up the steps to the throne and adopted a position behind Auric's throne. Anyone or anything intending to harm him would have to get through an unchanging, undying, archangel of winter. It seemed like he had given the instruction the right way after all. Auric didn't realize that what he just did in Taranis's mind might not have any short-term consequences... but might have some unpleasant long-term ones.

Elijah Arnauld

Elijah entered his throne room, as always the same herald – or not, Elijah didn’t care, he only cared about that someone announced him, even if there was no one to hear it – pronounced the pompous annunciation: “Count Elijah Arnauld, gracious sovereign of the fief of Itos and benevolent ruler of its people, loyal retainer to the Calabim crown”.
He elegantly walked towards his throne. It was made of black marble, just like a great part of the throne room; it also had a high ceiling, plus columns with white marble and black marble in an elegant pattern, each column had an “angel” sculpted near the top, Elijah had indeed a very ironic sense of decoration. Behind the throne, hanged the banners of the Calabim to the left and right, and the Arnauld heraldic in the center, which almost dwarfed the other two with its enormous size.
He sat down and almost immediately, a female servant appeared almost out of nowhere and served him an elegant crystal cup in a golden tray, it obviously contained blood.
“Any news from the Royal court?” Elijah pronounced, in regal tone.

“Nothing to note, Lord Elijah. Lady Alexis has rejected the peace proposal of the Kuriotate, and Lord Flauros has been quite occupied these last months, some say he’s preparing a great festival for-“

Elijah interrupted his servant “Enough, it seems clear enough, that Alexis is again beheading, or rather biting our enemies ambassadors, I don’t know why she commits such a vulgar act, of the likes of the Doviello beasts. Seeing as the ambassador retires, his mission failed, and his reprimand incoming, is so much a more pleasant sensation.
And why drink blood directly from the cattle? Don’t the mortals have others milk their animals? It’s so much pleasant to drink blood in this way” he paused to take a sip from his cup “Aaah, refreshing indeed. So delicious are things when you obligate others to do them.”

“And Flauros… he’s just like a child. He toys around with his people – his food –
like if he was a puppeteer, which is a role more befitting to that jester that the Balseraphs call ruler, maybe he’s one of them after all!” He laughed in a profound, elegant way

“Such murderous and capricious examples of our race are these rulers. Behind all that royalty, and pomposity, there are only beasts that obey their lowest instincts, is this way how they demonstrate our superiority over the Cattle? Fools, let them stay in their hedonistic ways. Let them think they’re under control. For when the time comes, the name of Arnauld shall be the one to be heard all over the Calabim Empire, and beyond its boundaries. One day, the Living, the Dead, even the Divine shall come under my rule! For the only one suited to reign, is I!” Elijah stood up as he pronounced this last sentence

“And again, he does it” thought his scribe “Such a dominant ruler he is, that he remembers to us of it everyday”

“And he’s really convincing, if he just had the power he thirsts for…”