DISCOLIQUID 1963 Share Posted April 2, 2023 For fifty years, Auriel had walked the surfacelanders world, exposing weak eyes to the radiant spears of the lofted apathetic sun. Cracked leather gloves cupped her gaze often, shielding from the blinding light. Time & again, sunlight drove her back down into the Deep below the surfacelands. Here, as she saw it, was the true top of the world. All beauty fell from the earth's depths, falling far & eventually to sit on the surfaceworld under the hateful glare of the sun. Auriel knew that the whole of the realm was upside down, valuing the bleak brightness of sanitized sunlight, instead of furtive gleams. When she travelled to the bleached lands, her eyes ached & spotted, drove her to nausea, and culminated often in sickening sun spots that stained her vision. And for fifty years, she had stolen whatever she had desired from the surfacers. From pocket change to family heirlooms, there was no qualm. In the shadow of darkness, Auriel's kleptomania had lead her to steal much: prized gems, books of knowledge, rare metals, secrets, religious trinkets. All of it she had brought as offerings to the Low Lord, Grimdugan. His domain was the lowest of the Dwarf Lords, of thieves, beggars, scoundrels, and gem-miners; yet still he also commanded considerable beauty & furtive generosity. For every darkness, another darkness beyond it, on & on wherever the sunlight did not touch. Auriel's gleaming, rust eyes, made out the clear rubies that marked her pathway - picking out details in the subterranean darkness. Upon his obsidian altar, she arranged her criminal liturgies. The Emerald Book taught her four fold of Grimdugan's Low Lessons, and to each of these she made her offerings. In the name of Darkness, she offered an adunic cloak, jet black & nearly invisible upon his altar, where she set her other ritual sacrifices. In the name of Stars, she offered arkenlyte, a secret she had traded for with stolen metals. In the name of Greed, she offered kuila crystal, thieved from the ruins of an Elven city. Next, a clay urn. Broken in a sharp crack In the twinkling depths, where only glowing blue mushrooms offered sapphire light, Auriel took out her moon ink. The kleptomaniac dwarf performed her secluded ablutions, cleansing her hands in invisible ink. The moon ink was attuned to Grimdugan's starry skies & the wanderer's moon, but down here was clear as liar's water. Upon the cave face, she scrawled a secret in this sanctimonious ink. A secret sealed in ink that moonlight would never touch, not once spoken to another, but etched there nonetheless in scripted silence & infinite invisibility. The Doomforged raised high her sacral obsidian dagger. Each of her eyes she robbed of sight, so she might never see the false light of day again. Sleep took her after the low ritual in the sapphiric depths. Auriel took the precious eyes of her family into her hands & laid down upon the altar of Grimdugan. There, she was stolen away. Her prayers reached far, deep into the world's caves, seeking religious restitution from her avaricious God. She imagined falling, falling, falling; down tubes of earth to the heart of the world, wherein she saw only a hollow of grey occlusion. Auriel's dream flashed with surreal chromatic blurs, her wounded eyes lolling wildly in her head. A prayer gone unanswered, she had found only an empty pit... sparkling with gemstones eternally out of reach. She ran, wailing, crying, laughing, pocketing what unowned glimmering treasures she could from the abandoned halls, before she too was robbed into darkness. [Grimdugan's Tome] [FA Link] 19 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ULTRAMIDI 258 Share Posted April 2, 2023 +1 very based 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_RoyalCrafter_ 3242 Share Posted April 2, 2023 NARVOK OZ GRIMDUGUAN 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cloakedsphere 1462 Share Posted April 4, 2023 Another has seen the truth. Another has been born from blood, sweat, and tribulation. Their mind was opened to the realities of the realm. He'd awake from his slumber after having the dream of their creation. Writhing in sweat and pain unimaginable to the average dweller of Almaris, he set off to let his peers know of another amongst them. Spoiler https://www.deviantart.com/visionsofdoom/art/Eye-of-the-Apocalypse-928091131 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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