Dominion NES

[LDiCesare]

From Lanka to Arshnoc

Lanka:
We have patiently abided by our treaty. We have allowed your troops to stay in Tien Ch'i. Now with your recent act, raining toads on our capital, we will drive you back to your island.
Lord Stheran, the Eldest Brother.

What proof do you have we caused such a thing? Why not say we assassinated the Mantis or blew up Vanheim's labs? Back up your accusations with proof!

 

[Immaculate]

poor mantis... to be honest, she probably had it coming.

 

[raven013]

To: All Machakan warlords
From: Abysia

Priestess Selena writing to the different warlords of Machaka

The current Machaka is a farce compared to its glory in the past. Abysia gives this ultimatum to all warlords of Machaka:

Unite and offer to Abysia earth and water
OR
Unite and offer your warrior's blood to Abysia

Choose the former and Abysia will see it through that peace and glory will be restored back to Machaka as it was back in the past.

Choose the latter and Abysia will gladly obliged to the chaos of carnage. Expect no mercy to all Machakan warriors but mercy shall be given to all civilians.

Mighty Sagra has spoken, Abysia awaits Machaka's reply

 

[raven013]

This was the event that happened during the Council of Catalonia for this turn:

THE TRUTH OF BLOOD MAGIC

Spoiler :

Yllena, Mighty Sagra's Minister of Magic stood beside her mistress who was residing on the mortal form of the Foreign Minister Priestess Selena who was seated on the golden throne; the highest seat of the assembled Council.

The Minister of Magic waited patiently for the Council to be silent for what she was about to convey was something of such importance that their was no doubt in her mind that once she was finished of her lecture, Abysia and Marignon would never be the same ever again.

When silence finally reigned over the council, the Minister of Magic proceeded with her lecture.

"In ancient times, the Pantokrator allowed all forms of magic even necromancy to be performed except for blood magic." She began. "The Pantokrator banned his followers in the use of blood magic for it deals with the chaotic powers of demons; that for a ritual drench in blood to succeed, one must sacrifice the ultimate manifestation of astral power which is life."

"However..."

"The Pantokrator reigned during a time when magic was treated with much superstition and though powerful and all-knowing he might be, he did not share the truth about blood magic for the sole reason that the world was not yet ready for it."

"Because this truth about blood magic was withheld by the Pantokrator, many feared to study the path of blood. Likewise many have mistakenly assumed that with blood magic one could make pacts with demons and they all paid with eternal damnation with their soul."

"So in truth, the conundrum that baffles this Council is the direct result of the misunderstanding of the magical path of blood."

The members of the Council began to murmur as the words of the Minister of Magic began to register in their heads. After a brief pause, Yllena continued.

"Blood magic is like any paths of magic and as such it is still a form of knowledge which means the knowing blood magic is not inherently evil."

"There is no such thing as an inherently evil knowledge for knowledge is just the sense of knowing however knowledge without the guidance of wisdom will always fail allowing such a fool to fall into the quagmires of evil."

"Thus..."

"Blood magic is not inherently evil only those who abuse it are evil."

The murmurs between council members began to grow and one such council member, the mercenary Inquistor Guissepe El Migo protested.

"But surely you do not believe summoning demons and sacrificing virgins are not evil acts!"

"Demons are just creatures of chaos. They are the same as us or the angels of heaven. They breathe and live just as the same as we do. Demons are not inherently evil, its just a mistaken concept."

And with those words the whole council erupted into disorder. Many Marignonian Priests were outrage to have heard of such an outlandish claims as demons not inherently evil.

"That's a foolish claim Minister!" Snapped Guissepe. "You say Demons are not inherently evil but how do you explain as to why demons need the blood and life of virgins in order to be summoned? Explain!"

"As I have said, due to the Pantokrator's hold of the truth of blood magic, many have made baseless claims and rituals in practicing blood magic and one such supertitious tradition is the sacrifice of pure blood virgins."

Silence reigned on the Council. Everyone, even the Abysian Blood Priests who preached that by sacrficing one's own life was a glorious undertaking were taken aback by what Yllena have said.

"With the help of my mistress, the Great Mighty Sagra, I and my team have proven the basic element of blood magic and that it is nothing more but a potent manifestation of Astral magic, the most basic form of magic."

Again with those words, Yllena have made another stir and disorder on the council. Everyone was having a hard time accepting this great revelation.

"You claim you have proven that blood magic is nothing but another form of Astral Magic? Convince us Minister for it is highly difficult to accept such a claim!" Guissepe sneered.

And with this, Yllena gave the Mercenary Inquisitor a sharp glance and with a calm but authoritative voice replied.

"I do not only intend to convince you Priest, I also intent to make you a believer, a believer with a faith rooted in such strong foundations that you will be forever transformed."

And with that Yllena began to explain her research in Blood Magic for the next many days.



P.S.

In addition to Yllena' claim of demons not inherently evil, who on earth would believe that this cue little demon girl is evil?

 

[LDiCesare]

From Machaka to Abysia
Machakans have recovered their freedom. We will be readying our weapons and training our spiders to receive invaders.

 

[LDiCesare]

From Mictlan to Abysia and Machaka
The Mictlanese High Prietss Council warns you that the Holy Mantis, in Her Divine Realm, has communicated with Her most faithful priests. She said that the duel in Ulm had never beeen Her intent, but a spell that enemies had woven on Her material shape. In order to avoid such trickery, She intends to remain in Her Heavenly Realm, from where she will guide Her people.
One of Her commands was that the lands which were torn away from Her blessed empire should be reunited with their rightful owners.
Therefore, Machaka shall be united under Mictlan banner again.

Side note to Shinuyama
And Shinuyaman demons will be driven from Eriu to the sea to sink there and have their bones cured by the fish.

 

[Kyzarc Fotjage]

To the Oceanic Alliance and non-aligned nations of Pythium, Ermor, Jotunheim, and the Free States
Mictlan has broken its promise to Ermor and its former colonies, they're retaking the territory they had previously freed and its only a matter of time before they seek to take new territory, and this time not under Mantis's moderating influence. Their allies, the Blood Alliance, is moving and are seeking to swallow us free nations. Will we stand united against this threat or will we fall one at a time? This is the question you must ask yourselves.
Stheran, the Eldest

 

[Seon]

Dain's Compilation of Magic.

Spoiler :

There are two major types of magic in this world. Elemental Magic and Sorcery. Elemental Magic is the magical force behind flames of Marignon and lightnings of Pythium. Elemental magic is extremely diverse.

Humorously, as one masters a certain path, his or her personality seems to morph to fit what the path represents better.

Fire is by far the most destructive of all magic paths. Those who have witnessed wizards launch giant fireballs at their enemy and call forth pillars of fire and even create a volcanic eruption can attest to that. Those who practice this path seems to be clad in authorithy, and they are more violent and agressive.

The Path of Air deals with the control of the different manifestations of air such as wind, lightning or illusion. Vanheim's illusions that held back the hydras at Fomoria is said to have been created from potent air magic. Those who use this path are gifted with good eyesight, allowing them to shoot arrows better or aim other contraptions and magic.

Path of Water deals with control of manifestation of water, such as rain. The rain that doused the flames of Marignon and allowed Mictlan utter victory was no doubt created from water magic. Some even whisper that the Mictlanese fleet that was sunk recently was the work of a potent water mage. Those who practice water magic is known to have quicker reflexes then usual.

The Path of Earth deals with the control of the different manifestations of the Earth such as metal, stone and the very ground. Earth magic is useful in alchemy and in the forging of magical armor and weapons. The wizard smiths of Ulm that created magical items against the Empire is one such example of those who practice Earth Magic.

The other category of magic path is called Sorcery. Astral magic, Blood magic, Death Magic, and Nature all belong to this category.

Astral magic is using raw Arcana rather than refining it into different forms. Astral magic is a powerful tool of scrying and astrology, but it can also be used to manipulate reality and to thereby enable teleportation and arcane gateways. The close connection of the stellar bodies to the fates of man can be used to change the outcomes of certain events. Arcane magic can also be used to empower or dispel other spells.

It's a misconception that the path of death only deals with reanimating the dead and bringing back the souls of the dead. The dark Path of Death deals with the control of the different manifestations of death and dying. It includes necromancy, reanimation rituals and the destruction of body and life. Spells of Death are frightfully efficient in killing or disabling the bodies of enemies. It has been also theorized that the Sacred River of Celes is powered by potent Death magic, but that is not confirmed.


The Path of Nature deals with the control of the different manifestations of Nature. It includes control of animals and plants, as well as higher states of mind and body. Revelry and infatuation, healing and transformations, are all part of the Path of Nature. Wizards who practice in the path of Nature is known to grow food to feed their troops in a pinch. The Serpent Priests of Celes is one of the most skilled nature mages in the world, espescially in the art of poison.

There are two sources of magic in this world. One is using Arcana from the planet and the stars and other is the life force of the living. Path of Blood is unique because no other Path requires sacrificial rites and techniques. While blood is common, pure sanguine power is not. Blood magic is tremendously exhausting, as the life-force of the caster is used to empower the spells. Since the body of the Blood mage is not powerful enough by itself to cast his spells, blood slaves are used. Blood slaves are virgins of total purity who are hunted and sacrificed to empower the Blood mage's spells. Whether virgins are truly required to use Blood magic or if it is simply a preference is not known. not inherently evil, the Path of Blood is a dark art and Blood mages are more than willing to sacrifice the innocent in exchange for power.

 

[raven013]

From Machaka to Abysia

To: Machaka

From: Abysia

Priestess Selena writing:

We are delighted by Machaka's willingness for war. Very well, prepare your forces, we will test the resolve of Machaka's unity.

To Mictlan:

High Priests of Mictlan, Hail the Mantis!

The Mantis' orders are a bit strange considering the battle with Ermor was fair in all accounts; witnessed by all nations yet now the council speaks of the honorable Mantis spurting words calling the whole duel a farce?

T'is an odd message indeed; it is so out of character for the Honorable Mantis to even utter such claim. It's as if such a story is...

Fabricated...

Nevertheless Abysia sees Mictlan as its sworn blood brothers and it even sees great honor to the Lady Mantis thus, Mighty Sagra wishes to communicate with the Mantis to seek her council on this troubled times.

I will travel alone to Mictlan this coming turn and personally request an audience with the Mantis for this is the wish of my Master.

Worry not High Priests of Mictlan, I am well capable of administering the rites of contact so it would pose no major trouble to any of you concerning the mode of communication with the Honorable Mantis.

Please do make the necessary arrangements.

 

[Milarqui]

From: Ermor
To: Mictlan

Your priests' accusations of any wrongdoing on our part when you proposed the duel between the champions of Ermor and Mictlan are baseless. We never did anything to force you to do this, and in fact we were expecting a full attack on our lands when you proposed the duel. We also won said duel fair and square. While we accepted that Man and Marverni stayed with you, as it was their own volition, we can not accept that you are attempting to force Machaka and have already forced Tir na n'Og to fall back again under your rule, specially considering that the Mantis isn't currently among us.

We duly hope that this does not happen and that you remain in peace with all others.

 

[LDiCesare]

To Mictlan:

High Priests of Mictlan, Hail the Mantis!

The Mantis' orders are a bit strange considering the battle with Ermor was fair in all accounts; witnessed by all nations yet now the council speaks of the honorable Mantis spurting words calling the whole duel a farce?

T'is an odd message indeed; it is so out of character for the Honorable Mantis to even utter such claim. It's as if such a story is...

Fabricated...

Nevertheless Abysia sees Mictlan as its sworn blood brothers and it even sees great honor to the Lady Mantis thus, Mighty Sagra wishes to communicate with the Mantis to seek her council on this troubled times.

I will travel alone to Mictlan this coming turn and personally request an audience with the Mantis for this is the wish of my Master.

Worry not High Priests of Mictlan, I am well capable of administering the rites of contact so it would pose no major trouble to any of you concerning the mode of communication with the Honorable Mantis.

Please do make the necessary arrangements.

Mictlan answer

If you want to meet the Mantis, it will be possible, but you will have to leave your body in this land, as the Mantis no longer roams the realms of mortal men, and Her realm is one from where you can't come back.

We made it clear that the proposal made to Ermor wasn't the will of the Mantis, but an act of evil magic wrought upon Her body. In order to avoid such evil magics in the future, She decided to rest in Her heaven and supervise the fate of Mictlan from there.
Therefore, the treaties made as a consequence of the fight in Ulm are not binding to Mictlan, since it never was the Mantis' true will.
Abysia, we have always been friends since the vanquishing of C'tis, please don't make things bad between our people. Machaka always belonged to Mictlan, and most people in Machaka worship the Mantis, it is therefore right that Machaka rejoins the Mictlan empire.

 

[LDiCesare]

From: Ermor
To: Mictlan

Your priests' accusations of any wrongdoing on our part when you proposed the duel between the champions of Ermor and Mictlan are baseless. We never did anything to force you to do this, and in fact we were expecting a full attack on our lands when you proposed the duel. We also won said duel fair and square. While we accepted that Man and Marverni stayed with you, as it was their own volition, we can not accept that you are attempting to force Machaka and have already forced Tir na n'Og to fall back again under your rule, specially considering that the Mantis isn't currently among us.

We duly hope that this does not happen and that you remain in peace with all others.

Mictlanese can't allow undead to kill all the population of Kymriu the way they did in Ulm and Slavia and ermor before. It's never been Kymriu's will to be killed and turned into mindless zombies.
Mictlan has a duty to protect the living from the undead abominations.
It is also ridiculous to say that Tir na n'Og was forced back under Mictlan rule. Tir na n'Og was part of the vassal state of Eriu, whose king was killed by the abject Shinuyamans. Tir na n'Og therefore sought refuge in Mictlan, and Mictlan effectively protected them from Shinuyama and will keep doing so.

 

[Milarqui]

You are still bound with your honour to keep the deal you made with us. Should you attack us, it would be a demonstration that you lack true honour and a breach of the deal we made not to attack each other. So far, we have kept to our part of the deal, but should you attack us, then we will be free to attack you as we wish to.

Also, we can not stop but notice the level of hypocrisy you, priests of Mictlan, portray. Had your champion won, we are sure that you would be chanting to the skies about the wisdom of the Mantis and no mention would have been made of any dark spell being cast upon your pretender. However, once you lost, you cried "Foul" and did your best to tell everyone how your Goddess was "struck" with a dark spell that forced her to act against her will.

We duly hope that you do not carry out any plans that go explicitly against the deal.

OOC: I just had the weird feeling that I have already written something similar to this. Dejá vu, they call it in France.

 

[raven013]

To: Machakan Priest
From: Abysia

Priestess Selena writing:

Very well High Priests of Machaka, if it means leaving my mortal flesh on this mortal plane in order to communicate with the Honorable Mantis, I am prepared to do so for this is the wish of my Master, the Great and Mighty Sagra for it is indeed important that Abysia speaks with the Honorable Mantis.

Rest assured High Priests of Machaka, I intend to come back from the realm of the Honorable Mantis by any means even if it means not going back to my mortal body. Abysia's need for council is much more important than any corporeal death.

As for Machaka...

The province has claim independence and after Abysia has given it's Ultimatum, the warlords of Machaka have banded together uniting the province once again. An ensuring chaos is about to happen and Abysia intends to be part of it.

That is why as a sign of respect and tribute to the Honorable Mantis, Abysia insists that we be given the opportunity to bathe in the chaos of war as we subjugate Machaka back to Mictlan's rule.

That is correct High Priests of Mictlan, Abysia plans to conquer Machaka and subdue it for the sake of the Mantis. Machaka will once again be part of Mictlan's empire and Abysia only ask to be the instrument of conquest.

Accept this offer High Priests of Mictlan and let us forged the brotherhood of our nation with blood anew.

 

[raven013]

To: Dain the Great Sage
From: Abysia

Garnet Sorceress Yllena writing,

Wise Dain of Pythia I write to you this letter hailing your work in compiling all forms of Magic. As a fellow student of Magic I congratulate you. My patron, the Mighty Rune God Sagra is indeed truly impressed by your works and wishes that we share and compare our research in the benefit that both Abysia and Pythium would prosper.

Therefore, Abysia opens its borders for trade and research to Pythium with the goal of mutual benefit.

P.S.
A comment on your research about the two sources of magic in the world.

Experiments that we made in Abysia has confirmed that Blood Magic is actually a higher manifestation of Astral magic. We have successfully diluted the sanguine essence of normal human blood and we are able to extract a substance known as Arcana which is liquified Astral pearls.

Astral power, as we all know is the basic form of magic since all other paths of magic can can be derived from it through Alchemical synthesis and what the experiments that we made on the laboratories on Abysia have made is to actually extract astral magic from blood.

What these experiments also reveals is that Blood Magic is not evil and that its practitioners have been practicing it in the most inefficient and superstitious ways. Since we are able to extract Arcana from normal human blood, this method has debunk the myth that only female virgins are the only source of pure blood magic. It has also shown that sacrificing female virgins is unnecessary. It is estimated that a normal adult human has enough blood to make one astral gem however killing said human will ruin to the procedure as the soul and body will be separated upon death nullifying the potency of the extracted arcana. Therefore, it takes the blood of three normal adult humans to produce one astral gem.

If permitted, I would write more here explaining the process but it would be much more fitting to send you a copy of our research. Attach to this letter is a book containing said research copies.

Best Regards,
Yllena, Abysia

 

[LDiCesare]

To: Machakan Priest
From: Abysia

Priestess Selena writing:

Very well High Priests of Machaka, if it means leaving my mortal flesh on this mortal plane in order to communicate with the Honorable Mantis, I am prepared to do so for this is the wish of my Master, the Great and Mighty Sagra for it is indeed important that Abysia speaks with the Honorable Mantis.

Rest assured High Priests of Machaka, I intend to come back from the realm of the Honorable Mantis by any means even if it means not going back to my mortal body. Abysia's need for council is much more important than any corporeal death.

As for Machaka...

The province has claim independence and after Abysia has given it's Ultimatum, the warlords of Machaka have banded together uniting the province once again. An ensuring chaos is about to happen and Abysia intends to be part of it.

That is why as a sign of respect and tribute to the Honorable Mantis, Abysia insists that we be given the opportunity to bathe in the chaos of war as we subjugate Machaka back to Mictlan's rule.

That is correct High Priests of Mictlan, Abysia plans to conquer Machaka and subdue it for the sake of the Mantis. Machaka will once again be part of Mictlan's empire and Abysia only ask to be the instrument of conquest.

Accept this offer High Priests of Mictlan and let us forged the brotherhood of our nation with blood anew.

Mictlanese priests are delighted to see that our abysian friends remain true to their long-time allies. We will let you take out Machakan rebels happily. You may contact us for details for any compensation you might need in case your troops suffered during this campaign.

 

[raven013]

To: Dain the Great Sage
From: Abysia

PRIESTESS SELENA WRITING (Stapled above the Yllena's letter):

I have intercepted this letter before it could be mailed to you in Pythium and I have taken the liberty of taking out the book which my Sister Yllena has attached for state security reasons. I have also taken the necessary precaution of purging this letter of any essence residue of the book which means there is indeed no trace whatsoever that this letter and the book have ever been paired. My sister Yllena may be a genius but her incredible lack of tact may spark a security crisis on Abysia.

Do understand why it is necessary to confiscate the book since Abysia and Pythium does not yet share a more mutual relationship.

Nevertheless, the first part of the letter is indeed true; Abysia does seek to improve our relationship and we have taken the first step by reopening our stalled trade and research negotiations.

In constant vigilance,
Selena

 

[LDiCesare]

Next orders expected for Tuesday 2 February 2010

Ok, so we are Wednesday and I only have received 2 orders. Since I couldn't work on them yester'evening, since I have a rugby match tomorrow so won't be able to work on it, it would be really good to send me orders VERY SOON, so I might have a chance to start looking them up tonight.

 

[Darksaber1]

Sorry, completly forgot. Orders now sent.

 

[Kyzarc Fotjage]

I can't do mine until tomorrow, sry