Eternal
In the course of the Emperor’s mentoring he mainly focuses on subjects like strategy, tactics, the lands of the Empire and even politics. Most of it is what could be called “book learning” though given your eleven grueling years with Mistress it’s a welcome change.
He does however teach you a bit more magic though, mainly how to heal yourself. It’s surprisingly difficult to learn and takes most of your focus. The Emperor goes on to say that’s why there aren’t many dedicated magic healers.
“Anyone with the focus, the will to learn and a violent streak can learn how to throw a ball of flame into someone’s face. Destruction is always easy. Healing yourself or others requires sacrifice. Which brings me to the other point of why there aren’t many dedicated healing mages. Keep using it on a regular basis and you’ll be shortening your own life span by a few decades or so.”
Your face shows a sign of alarm when the Emperor tells you that, to which he just smiles.
“Oh don’t worry son, you’ve only just learned how to do it. You won’t suddenly be withering and dying anytime soon. Besides I get the impression that you probably won’t be using it all that much anyway being a tough guy and all. Its also Still, it might come in useful in a tricky situation.”
“I know sir, I wasn’t worried about me.”
“Then you must’ve been worried about me. Don’t be concerned about me son. My life span is far from being extinguished yet. Trust me. Besides who wants to live forever right?” The Emperor chuckles. “Besides, if you want any further proof of longevity not necessarily being a boon look no further than the svelk and derro, the so called elder races.”
The “elder races” are what most humans commonly know as dwarves and elves though much of the former is still a mystery and sometimes even mythical while much of the latter gets only some of the information right. Such is the knowledge of the unwashed masses.
Common knowledge about the svelk is that they’re a race of nomadic backstabbing mercenaries who do nothing but lie, cheat and steal for fun and profit. This is a pretty fair assessment. Many don’t even believe the svelk stories about how their once ran a sprawling empire bigger than any human ruler has ever known, but this is probably one of the few things the svelk regularly tell the truth about (even if exaggerated a lot).
They truly are a race that has fallen from greatness, though greatness is perhaps a generous term. One might think that their current state is the result of natural degeneration of a once “noble” race. The reality is svelk attitudes were very much like how they are now when they did have power. Worse probably, and do they ever long to get those bad old days back.
One can’t really discuss the svelk without also mentioning their sveld cousins or elves as everyone else calls them. While most believe that the elves are the “original” and the dark elves are the “evil offshoot” (The “dark” part came about due to humans encountering the “normal” elves first and just tacked on “dark” due to the meaner nature of the svelk though their skin does tend to be darker as well) this is not the case and if you ask any svelk they’ll tell you quite loudly that THEY are the pure blood originals while the elves are impure and fit only for destruction. (In fact “sveld” roughly means impure in their original language, though it has a harsher meaning)
What exactly makes the elves “impure” isn’t really known by anyone mainly because most don’t know that they’re a mongrel off shoot race to begin with. The Emperor has told you that svelk and humans can’t reproduce so that can’t be it. From what he’s gathered from various conversations with older svelk who are willing to discuss the matter, the elves are tainted with some sort of fairy blood, which might explain their predisposition to the wilderness. The svelk on the other aren’t exactly great lovers of nature despite their nomadic ways. The elves also tend to be more pious, or they at least observe various minor nature spirits of some sort, svelk don’t seem to worship anything or at least not anymore.
One might wonder why the svelk haven’t just simply united to put down roots again if only to have a shadow of the civilization they once had. They’re certainly capable of working together when necessary and they were very successful about it in the past. (Their collective hatefulness of other races is apparently enough) It isn’t that simple for some reason. The Emperor believes they’ve been cursed by something very powerful, probably a god that they offended. Possibly even one of the ones you once heard Mistress claim her people called rulers. Knowing the svelk, they probably saw themselves as gods and tried to replace them and were punished for it.
Common knowledge of the derro or dwarves is almost nil. They come up in stories now and then, but most people who live on the surface have never seen one. The Emperor has mentioned on more than one occasion that he’s quite familiar with much their culture and such, but has only ever really told you a few bits of information about them in passing.
From what the Emperor has told you, he says they’re a warrior race by nature though they’d have to be given all the danger that lurks underground. They rarely have any reason to interact with surface races, though their attitude towards them ranges from hostile to cold most of the time. They’re also fairly ruthless and the older they get apparently the more mentally unstable they get, and given how long they live that can result in wide range of madness. Whether this is some flaw within their race or a result of something else is unknown, but the derro are fully aware of this and it is actually a law that any ruler who has obviously become too far-gone to lead effectively is executed by his personal guard. Apparently this works better than one might think and doesn’t lead to routine assassination attempts on rulers, though the Emperor has said the derro are a rather pragmatic people. Even most “normal” derro will willingly commit suicide when they feel that they’re losing most of their mental capacity, but that’s more of a personal choice. It usually doesn’t even come to that mainly because the derro are usually so busy fighting off the horrors of the underground that many die in battle anyway. Their most notable foe are trolls which are also extremely rare on the surface and thankfully so.
In keeping with their pragmatism the derro have learned ways to fend off their inevitable decline into madness in the form of various minerals they mine to eat as temporary cures (Hence why the svelk have been known to call them “rock eaters”). Despite their predisposition to insanity, or perhaps because of it, they are also great inventors, though again these inventions tend to be of the practical kind. The Emperor also says that like the svelk they don’t worship anything, though given their grim lot in life they probably believe they live in a kind of “hell” anyway. Utter oblivion would actually be preferable, maybe even “paradise” to a derro.
One might think between the inevitable insanity and constant war the derro would be a race either in decline or near extinction, but they’ve actually managed to thrive to a small degree. This is an interesting comparison to the svelk who once had almost every advantage and are now eking out an existence. Their civilization isn’t a large one, but it is a powerful one that has lasted for millennia.
A common derro saying pretty much sums up their worldview:
“We’ve been here since this unforgiving world saw fit to expel us from her polluted womb. We’ll be here until death itself calls us all home from this nightmare we call life.”
The “curse” of longevity indeed.
He does however teach you a bit more magic though, mainly how to heal yourself. It’s surprisingly difficult to learn and takes most of your focus. The Emperor goes on to say that’s why there aren’t many dedicated magic healers.
“Anyone with the focus, the will to learn and a violent streak can learn how to throw a ball of flame into someone’s face. Destruction is always easy. Healing yourself or others requires sacrifice. Which brings me to the other point of why there aren’t many dedicated healing mages. Keep using it on a regular basis and you’ll be shortening your own life span by a few decades or so.”
Your face shows a sign of alarm when the Emperor tells you that, to which he just smiles.
“Oh don’t worry son, you’ve only just learned how to do it. You won’t suddenly be withering and dying anytime soon. Besides I get the impression that you probably won’t be using it all that much anyway being a tough guy and all. Its also Still, it might come in useful in a tricky situation.”
“I know sir, I wasn’t worried about me.”
“Then you must’ve been worried about me. Don’t be concerned about me son. My life span is far from being extinguished yet. Trust me. Besides who wants to live forever right?” The Emperor chuckles. “Besides, if you want any further proof of longevity not necessarily being a boon look no further than the svelk and derro, the so called elder races.”
The “elder races” are what most humans commonly know as dwarves and elves though much of the former is still a mystery and sometimes even mythical while much of the latter gets only some of the information right. Such is the knowledge of the unwashed masses.
Common knowledge about the svelk is that they’re a race of nomadic backstabbing mercenaries who do nothing but lie, cheat and steal for fun and profit. This is a pretty fair assessment. Many don’t even believe the svelk stories about how their once ran a sprawling empire bigger than any human ruler has ever known, but this is probably one of the few things the svelk regularly tell the truth about (even if exaggerated a lot).
They truly are a race that has fallen from greatness, though greatness is perhaps a generous term. One might think that their current state is the result of natural degeneration of a once “noble” race. The reality is svelk attitudes were very much like how they are now when they did have power. Worse probably, and do they ever long to get those bad old days back.
One can’t really discuss the svelk without also mentioning their sveld cousins or elves as everyone else calls them. While most believe that the elves are the “original” and the dark elves are the “evil offshoot” (The “dark” part came about due to humans encountering the “normal” elves first and just tacked on “dark” due to the meaner nature of the svelk though their skin does tend to be darker as well) this is not the case and if you ask any svelk they’ll tell you quite loudly that THEY are the pure blood originals while the elves are impure and fit only for destruction. (In fact “sveld” roughly means impure in their original language, though it has a harsher meaning)
What exactly makes the elves “impure” isn’t really known by anyone mainly because most don’t know that they’re a mongrel off shoot race to begin with. The Emperor has told you that svelk and humans can’t reproduce so that can’t be it. From what he’s gathered from various conversations with older svelk who are willing to discuss the matter, the elves are tainted with some sort of fairy blood, which might explain their predisposition to the wilderness. The svelk on the other aren’t exactly great lovers of nature despite their nomadic ways. The elves also tend to be more pious, or they at least observe various minor nature spirits of some sort, svelk don’t seem to worship anything or at least not anymore.
One might wonder why the svelk haven’t just simply united to put down roots again if only to have a shadow of the civilization they once had. They’re certainly capable of working together when necessary and they were very successful about it in the past. (Their collective hatefulness of other races is apparently enough) It isn’t that simple for some reason. The Emperor believes they’ve been cursed by something very powerful, probably a god that they offended. Possibly even one of the ones you once heard Mistress claim her people called rulers. Knowing the svelk, they probably saw themselves as gods and tried to replace them and were punished for it.
Common knowledge of the derro or dwarves is almost nil. They come up in stories now and then, but most people who live on the surface have never seen one. The Emperor has mentioned on more than one occasion that he’s quite familiar with much their culture and such, but has only ever really told you a few bits of information about them in passing.
From what the Emperor has told you, he says they’re a warrior race by nature though they’d have to be given all the danger that lurks underground. They rarely have any reason to interact with surface races, though their attitude towards them ranges from hostile to cold most of the time. They’re also fairly ruthless and the older they get apparently the more mentally unstable they get, and given how long they live that can result in wide range of madness. Whether this is some flaw within their race or a result of something else is unknown, but the derro are fully aware of this and it is actually a law that any ruler who has obviously become too far-gone to lead effectively is executed by his personal guard. Apparently this works better than one might think and doesn’t lead to routine assassination attempts on rulers, though the Emperor has said the derro are a rather pragmatic people. Even most “normal” derro will willingly commit suicide when they feel that they’re losing most of their mental capacity, but that’s more of a personal choice. It usually doesn’t even come to that mainly because the derro are usually so busy fighting off the horrors of the underground that many die in battle anyway. Their most notable foe are trolls which are also extremely rare on the surface and thankfully so.
In keeping with their pragmatism the derro have learned ways to fend off their inevitable decline into madness in the form of various minerals they mine to eat as temporary cures (Hence why the svelk have been known to call them “rock eaters”). Despite their predisposition to insanity, or perhaps because of it, they are also great inventors, though again these inventions tend to be of the practical kind. The Emperor also says that like the svelk they don’t worship anything, though given their grim lot in life they probably believe they live in a kind of “hell” anyway. Utter oblivion would actually be preferable, maybe even “paradise” to a derro.
One might think between the inevitable insanity and constant war the derro would be a race either in decline or near extinction, but they’ve actually managed to thrive to a small degree. This is an interesting comparison to the svelk who once had almost every advantage and are now eking out an existence. Their civilization isn’t a large one, but it is a powerful one that has lasted for millennia.
A common derro saying pretty much sums up their worldview:
“We’ve been here since this unforgiving world saw fit to expel us from her polluted womb. We’ll be here until death itself calls us all home from this nightmare we call life.”
The “curse” of longevity indeed.