Aesopian 1121 Share Posted May 1, 2016 _,.,-~"~"~-,.,_,.,-=~´"-~-"`~=-,.,_,.,-~"~"~-,.,_,.,-=~´"-~-"`~=-,.,_,.,-~"~"~-,.,_,.,-~"~"~-,.,_ The Untouched -~=~-~=~-~=~-~=~-~=~-~=~-~=~-~=~-~=~-~=~-~=~-~=~-"The soldiers of Iblees burned where they stood. Thousands of skeletons and zombies burst into fiery inferno, and his living servants fled."_,.,-~"~"~-,.,_,.,-=~´"-~-"`~=-,.,_,.,-~"~"~-,.,_,.,-=~´"-~-"`~=-,.,_,.,-~"~"~-,.,_,.,-~"~"~-,.,_ The Untouched are some of the final remains of the undead armies raised by Iblees during his first war with the Descendants. Many of the Untouched have long since perished, bodies and minds eroded by the flow of time, but there are those who live yet. Some are still loyal to their old master, but others have abandoned him – choosing to carve out their own paths. During the time of the four brothers, before the arrival of Iblees, civilization expanded rapidly. The squalor in which Horen and his children dwelt did not last long -- in only the span of several decades, his sons and daughters would invent the techniques needed for agriculture. The dwarves, under the wise tutelage of Urguan, would discover the fundamentals of mining, carving out the tunnels that would form the basis of their grand subterranean empire. The first WAAAGH! undertaken by Krug and his warriors led to the invention of leatherworking when they realized that it was harder to bite through two layers of skin than one. Malin and the elves, deep in the forests, would be the first to not only develop an understanding of animals, but of each other – their inventions of domestication and language would throw the early world into a golden age. This time period was termed the ‘age of exploration’, and would continue until the coming of Iblees several centuries later. It was a time of both bright new futures and great risk-taking. Though at first travel was limited to horseback and raft, this was not to last. As nautical engineering took off, larger ships were launched, and with them, greater distances travelled. It took only a century for ship design to progress to the point where it was a viable form of transport between distant landmasses. Malin and the elves took the forefront of exploration, always eager to seek out new and exotic forms of life, but the humans kept up close behind. While the elves, in their sleek and trim vessels, chartered and mapped, the humans colonized. They formed the first great trade routes which the orcs and dwarves would later use to cross the oceanic expanse. However, with this period of expansion also came incompetence, recklessness, and disaster. The future looked bright for the four brothers and their burgeoning nations, but the ocean was as dark and unforgiving as the first day it was forged. Through storms and stone, salt and stars, sailors would try with all their might to carve out a legacy for themselves and their families on the seas. Some succeeded. Others did not. The age of exploration was a time of both bounty and struggle. Many perished to secure the safety and prosperity of future generations, making sacrifices that would lay the foundations of civilization. Death was not something the four brothers and their children were accustomed to – every lost life was a tragedy, to be mourned by every race. This would spark the construction of grand mausoleums throughout the world. Miles of barrows, carved in the depths of mountains; great burial mounds amongst the wheat fields; pyramids of bone and sand to house a single orc; catacombs dug beneath the roots of ancient trees. If only they had known how many tombs they would have needed for the coming battle. When the war began, every corpse in the world began shuddering back to hideous un-life. For thirty years Iblees battled the Descendants, and for thirty years there were those undead who clawed against seabed and against sandstone for the chance to serve their master. But then one day, the sky became gold. The Aenguls and Daemons descended and joined the fray, fighting against Iblees. Divine light scoured the land, and all those undead on the surface were charred to ash. Iblees was defeated and chained in darkness, and his voice turned to silence. The golden rays penetrated deep, but not far enough. Deeper than the light, under rock or water, there was safety and silence. The undead below did not burn, but they suffered a different kind of torment. Without Iblees, their will was stolen from them. All they were left with was confusion, purposelessness. Some destroyed themselves, others went mad and attacked everything around them, but many decided to live on. Those who chose to survive would become the Untouched. _,.,-~"~"~-,.,_,.,-=~´"-~-"`~=-,.,_,.,-~"~"~-,.,_,.,-=~´"-~-"`~=-,.,_,.,-~"~"~-,.,_,.,-~"~"~-,.,_-~=~-~=~-~=~-~=~-~=~-~=~-Beneath Water and Earth-~=~-~=~-~=~-~=~-~=~- -~=~-~=~--The First Drowned-~=~- The First Drowned are truly ancient dead. Even their youngest members have lived many times over the years of the oldest mortals who still walk the world today. They are the few of Iblees force’s which, at the time of the golden day, were trapped deep under the ocean. It is that same seawater which has allowed them to survive to the modern day, keeping them preserved. Without sunshine, and in a place with pressures so intense that most living creatures cannot survive, the First Drowned found their home. Quickly they adapted to this environment -- those who did not were ground up by ocean currents and shark-teeth, their dust cast into the seabed. But even so, as time stretches on, rare mistakes can build up. Surviving First Drowned are to be feared for this reason – if they have acquired the ability to be unscathed by the ages so far, then a single upstart adventurer is unlikely to make any difference. There are many varieties of First Drowned, occupying the entire spectrum of what can be considered undead. Some are mindless monsters, and some are powerfully intelligent. The ocean is a dark and quiet place. Men are born and slain, empires rise and fall, but the talk of the descendants does not pierce the seawater. The First Drowned moulder in the depths, seeking purpose above all other things. Zombies no longer exist amongst the First Drowned. All that remains are the Ghouls, who tread a line between two kinds of madness. Zombies were the quickest to recover pieces of their sanity when Iblees’ voice was cast out. Many of them still contained the remains of brains inside their skulls, filled with the hopes and dreams of their living selves. They salvaged a crude intelligence which gave them the ability to cope. They learned to hide far from the shores, where no surface-dweller would ever find them – to keep to the crevices and deep harbors, where they would not be dredged up out of the sea by fishermen. Their years of introspection transformed them into ghouls. They have consciousness, but no soul. Those who did not manage to recover these pieces of their old selves were doomed to drag themselves onto the shore as feral undead, ineffectually attacking coastal villages where they would inevitably be cut down. However, time did not treat these undead well. Microscopic organisms and the flowing water tended to ablate away skin and muscle, and erode bone to nothingness. As their organic components were devoured by time, they descended more and more into senility. If they lost too much of themselves, they would become feral. This was a fate worse than death; they had spent so much to merely reclaim pieces of their old minds, and to have it stolen from them was a terror. Flesh is now a great commodity amongst the Ghouls of the First Drowned. They hunt shipwrecks and seashores for the remains of sailors, harvesting them for bodyparts which they can use to replace their own decaying pieces. An intact set of lungs is prized, an eyeball is a treasure. They have developed an entire system of economics based around the exchange of flesh. Although this has done much to preserve these creatures, at its extremes, it produces two kinds of madness. There are first the Thews. These creatures are usually unnaturally large, misshapen, vaguely humanoid. They are ghouls who have partaken too much in the flesh – perhaps after coming upon the shipwreck of a cruiser, or the remains of village after a flood. They consume and consume, binding more and more bodyparts to themselves. Their minds become fragmented and they lose their inhibitions, driving them to consume yet more. Inevitably, this produces a colossal amalgam of flesh, often from dozens of people, collected together into one great creature. The mind of a Thew is often spread among the many heads adorning its body. Though they might be intelligent, capable of speech and logic, they are extraordinarily dangerous and often mad. The hunger for lifeforce courses through them, and they do whatever they can to acquire more flesh to add to their corpulence. Second, there are the Eoliths. These are the fossilized ones. They are most commonly the victims of shipwrecks in the middle of oceanic expanses, far from the coast. Without any sort of flesh to feed them, they decay badly. They lose their skin, their muscle, and eventually their brains. They are nothing more than skeletons. Unmoving, they often become embedded in sea-silt, leading to their partial fossilization, hence their name. They are not aggressive unless attacked, flailing wildly at their foes with nonsensical movements. An Eolith contains the fragments of a mind, but no way for that mind to exert its will. All that is left is the faint lifeforce which animates it, keeping it tethered to the world. It is a torturous existence, and one that is constantly marked by a desire for release. Lords Revenant, though it was not their only name, it is the one most remembered. They were the black kings, the dead defied, the obsidian sirens -- they were to be Iblees’ generals and commanders in his army. We know them today as protoliches. They were the zeroeth generation lich, the creatures that would later be used as a template to design the first true liches. We do not know their precise origin. Some sources claim the Lords Revenant were the corpses of sorcerers, raised in death to do what they had in life, while others state they were created from the living servants of Iblees, an ultimate reward for their service. We only know that while the liches of the next generations would largely be raised by the efforts of men, it was the touch of Iblees himself that gave the Lords Revenant their un-life. The Lords Revenant were the only members of Iblees’ undead army to actually flee into the ocean and earth when the golden rays first crested the horizon, though many of them still perished on that day. They are unique among the undead in many ways. They are not thoughtless creatures, but instead possessed of a mighty intellect, with minds fit for both military strategy and arcane secrets. They are immensely powerful and cunning, and often will do whatever it takes to accomplish their objectives. Many have adopted their own creeds or goals since Iblees abandoned them, and no longer owe their allegiance to their former master. They might lust for the surface, and scour seafloors for shipwrecks, plundering them of their cargo – be it corpses, arcane artifacts, or rare gems. Others amass followings, living and dead, to teach and participate in ancient ritual. However, there are also a very dangerous few who still hold onto their old loyalities, and await the time that they are called into battle. Though in many minor fashions Lords Revenant are different from the liches of today, it is two important qualities which truly separate them from their modern brethren. Firstly, they do not have phylacteries. At least, not in the traditional sense. Phylacteries exist as tools to store lifeforce to give birth to and maintain a lich. A necromancer could not simply produce a lich without one, because they simply do not have enough lifeforce at their disposal to accomplish such a task. This was not the case with the Lords Revenant. Iblees was a daemon – he had enough lifeforce within him to produce a lich wholesale, without need for gradually storing lifeforce over time. This act tethered the Lords Revenant to Iblees, binding them to him in much the same fashion as clerics are bound to their deities. In effect, Iblees himself became the phylactery for the Lords Revenant. So long as he continued to exist, even trapped in the void, the Lords Revenant could themselves continue to exist. Secondly, they can perform necromancy. Without traditional phylacteries, the Lords Revenant do not have a ‘locked’ lifeforce as a normal lich might have. Accordingly, and as was instilled in them at their creation the knowledge of how to do so, the Lords Revenant can perform necromancy. There are stories of Lords Revenant roaming the forefront of the battlefields during the first war. They raised to unholy life the freshly fallen corpses. In the pitch of fighting they would resurrect soldiers' dismembered limbs to fight against them. Being undead themselves, the Lords Revenant had phenomenal insight into undeath, and it gave them the ability to deftly hone their art. Curiously, very few reports exist today of the Lords Revenant using necromancy. There are cases where they will subvert a necromancer’s control, or otherwise forcefully dominate an undead, but none where they actually raise the dead. Some think that Iblees’ banishment took that power from them. Others say, that all this while, that power is being spent. That down there, at the bottom of the ocean floor, the Lords Revenant discovered something. It would take thousands of years of necromancy to raise this corpse. The corpse of an Aengul. During the first war, animals, both domestic and wild, were raised and used in the undead ranks. For a common necromancer, the amount of lifeforce required to resurrect and sustain animal life makes the practice untenable, but for a daemon, this cost is moot. Hulking undead bears would throw themselves against barricaded doors, shattering wood with sheer weight. Rotting cattle would lay down in the riverbeds upstream of villages, and simply allow themselves to decay, poisoning miles of waterways. Even the smallest creatures served a purpose in the war; the four brothers and their children quickly learned the utility in a swarm of several million undead wasps. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these creatures were lost to the golden rays. The incandescence turned them to smoke and ash. Even those who survived, buried beneath the ground or under the ocean, would decay over the coming centuries. Unlike the undead descendants, these creatures did not have any consciousness they could reclaim; their bestial instincts were unable to cope with their new situation, and they would slowly rot into nothingness. But this destiny was in store only for some of these creatures. This fate did not befall the Coral Goliaths -- now some of the last beasts raised by Iblees. Death is present in many places. Coral reefs are really nothing more than a trillion tiny skeletons, stitched together with calcium bicarbonate and algae. In the armies of the dead, they too would serve. Few people really comprehend the size of a coral reef. The biggest can be several hundred kilometers in length – larger than cities, as heavy as mountains. The Coral Goliaths had no equal on the ancient battlefield. They would rise from the sea amidst the storms (which they themselves often caused by their stirring), and cleave whole coastal villages from their foundations, casting them into the ocean. Their fists could break the backs of dragons like shafts of wheat. Their footfalls were earthquakes, their voices a million microscopic screams. They were truly terrible foes. Entire armies were destroyed beneath them. When the golden light shone, the Coral Goliaths on the surface were turned to stone. The Mountains of Rawl, the Bilebh-Ob Pillars – they and countless other geological formations originate from the Coral Goliaths. Great veins of coral-shaped stone run through them where the goliaths were petrified thousands of years ago. A few survive today, deep beneath the ocean. They did not last through the ages through cunning, or magic, but by their sheer size. Once fit to destroy armies, they are not quite as big as they once were. The ocean currents have eroded them down, but not yet to dust. Many have been reduced to the size of toddlers, and even the largest are only as high as a house – hardly the city-obliterating constructs of old. They wander the seafloor, without purpose or hope. Aspiring necromancers sometimes search the depths to find one of these creatures and supplant its will. Though they cannot raise Coral Goliaths, they can take control of them. They make simple servants. Their intelligence leaves much to be desired. There are rumors, however. Rumors of quiet behemoths. Rumors that when the reefs were raised, not all heeded the call. Rumors that could devastate the world, if they turned out to be true. Some of the largest reefs in the world are most certainly old enough to have been present during the first war. Some magi even claim to detect a faint and foreign life force coursing through them. Yet, they do not move. Maybe it is true that they are just a failed experiment in necromancy. Or maybe, they have been sleeping all these years. Maybe, when the time is right, they will wake. -~=~-~=~--Implementation-~=~- Hereafter I will describe individual implementation designs for each of the previously described creatures. It is not necessary for these all to be accepted, and bits and pieces may be individually selected for implementation. First Drowned Ghouls, beyond their Event Team applications, provide established background for players who want to try out a Ghoul character without necessarily having a necromancer who has personally seen to their creation. Besides the higher standards required for accepting such an application, they are otherwise identical to a common ghoul in every fashion. Thews and Coral Goliaths constitute forms of undead construct, and are governed by the same racial modifiers, both receiving the ‘Golem’ race tag. As necromancy constructs already exist, both may be applied for by a player interested in becoming one, but they require roleplay on the part of a necromancer (or at least someone who has this within their power) to dive underwater and seek out one of these creatures to take to the surface. The exact nature of this recruitment process, including its difficulties and requirements, is left to the discretion of the LMs and MAT. Behavioral tendencies of both of these creatures will be elaborated on in the following paragraphs. Thews behave similarly to ghouls, but are more intelligent and more unpredictable than a normal ghoul. They will often subvert the orders of a necromancer if they believe they can somehow acquire more flesh. They are fond of defiling graveyards. They inherit the brains of the corpses they attach to themselves – accordingly, they may have the accumulated knowledge of many individuals, though their ability to actually use that knowledge is limited (a high intelligence, but low wisdom). They are subject to dissociative identity disorder as their consciousness flits between their brains and nervous systems. Coral Goliaths do not have vocal cords or a central nervous system. They are unable to communicate except by making loud internal grinding noises. They respond to orders simply and succinctly. They do have some intelligence (a leftover of their initial resurrection). They are fond of seawater, mosses, rocks, crustaceans, and other small sea life. They enjoy spending time inside skeletons. They have limited self-protective mechanisms. If a necromancer has them under control, then when that necromancer is not present, they are likely to obey whatever commands they are given by any source, provided they do not conflict with their necromancer. Lords Revenant are not designed to be roleplayed by common players. They are an event-only creature, designed for flavor rather than for playability. They are too powerful. _,.,-~"~"~-,.,_,.,-=~´"-~-"`~=-,.,_,.,-~"~"~-,.,_,.,-=~´"-~-"`~=-,.,_,.,-~"~"~-,.,_,.,-~"~"~-,.,_-~=~-~=~-~=~-Conclusion-~=~-~=~-Alright, this here constitutes a short lore piece I was interesting in creating about undead survivors from the first battle between Iblees and the four brothers. If this is well-received, I might take a crack at undead which were preserved beneath the rock instead of the water, things like mummies and tomb-lords and statues, oh my. -~=~-~=~-~=~-tl;dr-~=~-~=~-Introduces some survivors from the war between Iblees and the Four Brothers: really old ghouls (playable, bigger ones require the support of a necromancer), liches which were made by iblees (not playable, event creature), and coral golems (require support of a necromancer to play). _,.,-~"~"~-,.,_,.,-=~´"-~-"`~=-,.,_,.,-~"~"~-,.,_,.,-=~´"-~-"`~=-,.,_,.,-~"~"~-,.,_,.,-~"~"~-,.,_ 13 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
excited 10833 Share Posted May 1, 2016 It's beautiful +1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandNewKitten 2788 Share Posted May 1, 2016 16 minutes ago, Aesopian said: _,.,-~"~"~-,.,_,.,-=~´"-~-"`~=-,.,_,.,-~"~"~-,.,_,.,-=~´"-~-"`~=-,.,_,.,-~"~"~-,.,_,.,-~"~"~-,.,_-~=~-~=~-~=~-Conclusion-~=~-~=~-Alright, this here constitutes a short lore piece I was interesting in creating about undead survivors from the first battle between Iblees and the four brothers. If this is well-received, I might take a crack at undead which were preserved beneath the rock instead of the water, things like mummies and tomb-lords and statues, oh my. _,.,-~"~"~-,.,_,.,-=~´"-~-"`~=-,.,_,.,-~"~"~-,.,_,.,-=~´"-~-"`~=-,.,_,.,-~"~"~-,.,_,.,-~"~"~-,.,_ "Short lore" my ass! This is incredibly well written and had me gripped from the start. Not only a ridiculously good read but some very flavorful roleplay possibilities. Solid work & +1 Can't wait to see these in action. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ayevia 141 Share Posted May 1, 2016 Can't wait for these to be in action, like kitten said! +200000 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
drfate786 1639 Share Posted May 1, 2016 +1, very good and original. We need lovecraftian lore like this if we want good RP. PM me if you want to help me out with something...this lore might prove useful. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corvoo 562 Share Posted May 1, 2016 Damn this is well written. I really hope to see this implemented. +1 to you, friend. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeaLulu 1783 Share Posted May 1, 2016 aaaaaaayyyy I love it but a thing I noticed; " Others say, that all this while, that power is being spent. That down there, at the bottom of the ocean floor, the Lords Revenant discovered something. It would take thousands of years of necromancy to raise this corpse. The corpse of an Aengul. " You will probably want to make this separately vague or remove it. I understand its not necessarily a part of the lore proposal (as it is just part of the "story" being told and just rumor), but some people may think it is and that may trigger them. And there is no really defined manner of what sort of corpse, if any, an Aengul would leave. When they descend to our plane they take humanoid shapes, normally. However as evidenced by Nemiisae they can also take other forms, such as her turning into a giant spider. I would just keep it vague to "That down there, at the bottom of the ocean floor, the Lord Revenant discovered something. All of their power they funnel towards this discovery, a perhaps vain attempt to raise whatever corpse they had discovered, millenia ago." and then if you want to do something with that later talk to LMs or submit a different lore proposal. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aesopian 1121 Author Share Posted May 1, 2016 39 minutes ago, TeaLulu said: aaaaaaayyyy I love it but a thing I noticed; " Others say, that all this while, that power is being spent. That down there, at the bottom of the ocean floor, the Lords Revenant discovered something. It would take thousands of years of necromancy to raise this corpse. The corpse of an Aengul. " You will probably want to make this separately vague or remove it. I understand its not necessarily a part of the lore proposal (as it is just part of the "story" being told and just rumor), but some people may think it is and that may trigger them. And there is no really defined manner of what sort of corpse, if any, an Aengul would leave. When they descend to our plane they take humanoid shapes, normally. However as evidenced by Nemiisae they can also take other forms, such as her turning into a giant spider. I would just keep it vague to "That down there, at the bottom of the ocean floor, the Lord Revenant discovered something. All of their power they funnel towards this discovery, a perhaps vain attempt to raise whatever corpse they had discovered, millenia ago." and then if you want to do something with that later talk to LMs or submit a different lore proposal. Yeah, when I was first writing it, I had the same thoughts, but the rough draft I showed to swgrclan and a couple other LMs -- they seemed fine with it. I'll leave it for now, but if it's a problem then I am fine with changing it. It is, after all, just a hook. I mean, I don't actually refer to what shape of corpse they left behind! Just that they did. Maybe they didn't even 'die', but chose to abandon their body when they left the mortal realm. It is a mystery!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jentos 6848 Share Posted May 1, 2016 I like +1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tower_Pyro 21 Share Posted May 2, 2016 I love it this is some Awsome stuff +1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einnatz 10 Share Posted May 2, 2016 After the move from Aegis, I always wondered, wouldn't Iblees have had more? He's certainly lasted a far longer time than the necromancers army he had recently recruited. Should be implemented +1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lotoke 25 Share Posted May 2, 2016 Sounds great, works brilliantly as an explanation for the undead that survived Iblees' fall. +1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balthasar 2070 Share Posted May 6, 2016 You told me to read this. And it's very well written! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supremacy 3357 Share Posted May 20, 2016 Unfortunately this lore has been denied— citing a lack of a need for new creatures given the douzens of unused ones we have right now. Sorry for any inconvenience. If you have any queries PM me. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wretched 2038 Share Posted May 21, 2016 Unfortunately this lore has been denied. Feel free to message supremacyOps any member of the LT for the reasons why. Moved to denied. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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