Eternal
“I can close it! I need to get over to the book!” you shout and quickly run over to it and flick through the pages.
You find the page and begin to speak the words only for several of those ghostly forms to suddenly swoop down and take it. Before your eyes they rip it to pieces laughing the entire time. Pieces of the book either fly off never to be seen again or fall before you completely useless.
“NO!” you shout helplessly and try to blast them with magic bolts. You hit some of them causing those to dissipate, but the damage is done.
“The end will come soon…this world has been marked on the list for a long time…you have welcomed death back to it because of your hubrissssssss….” One of the ghosts mocks.
The ghosts continue to taunt you as you desperately try to pick up some of the pieces that actually landed near you in the meantime your Eternals are urging that you all need to get away from the pyramid as more of these ghostly forms are starting to appear and one of them has noticed that the large pile of bodies on the left side of the pyramid is starting to animate.
“Emperor! We must go!”
“NO! I won’t be beaten! Not when I have achieved my goal, I…Aaaagh!” you start to say when all of a sudden you begin to feel very weak. It’s not just you either; it’s your Eternals too. The feeling is similar to the draining effect by undead creatures or the negative zones of Mortos. You might not be aging, but you definitely don’t feel well, in fact you feel like you’re going to die and given how close to death you’ve been on several occasions, you’re very familiar with what that feels like. In fact, you’re reminded of the time when Cyrus nearly killed you. Feels like that.
Realizing that standing to fight isn’t going to work, you listen to your Eternals and begin down the pyramid steps to your right. Though you make sure to be careful since you’re dizzy and feel like you’re going to tumble at any time.
When you get to the bottom, you see more spirits and the like pour out of the black void above the pyramid and the pile of bodies that were one dead have now begun to shuffle around their original area to the other side where you are currently at. You attempt to control the slowly advancing horde in perhaps an effort to turn some against each other, but your spell has absolutely no effect and it’s like some greater force is controlling them. It’s Mortos all over again.
After dispatching the closest ones by the more traditional sword, gunYou and your remaining Eternals make haste through the desert towards the Nalin border. The more distance you put between you and the pyramid makes you feel a little better, but you’re also concerned. You’re supposed to be immortal now, and while you know that doesn’t mean you can’t feel pain, you wonder if the spell actually even worked at all because you had the very real feeling that you were going to die back there. You may have very well doomed the word for nothing.
You try not to not to think about it for now, you’ll have plenty of time to dwell on it when you get back to civilization.
When you do reach the closest village in Nalin, the peasants there are so far unaware of the impending danger, but many of them have begun feeling scared since even from this distance they can see the large blackness that has unnaturally gathered above the pyramid in the distance. You make a short announcement in the middle of the village.
“People of this village, listen to your Emperor. There is a darkness coming in this direction and it will consume you and everything within if you stay here. I’d advise you all to move on to one of the larger cities for safety if you can. Do not give into fear and stay strong and you will survive this. The Empire WILL survive this.”
Having little else to say, you move on leaving the villagers to heed your advice. You proceed to do this with every settlement you move through on your way back to the capital and urge the bigger ones to start sending out messengers to other settlements to warn people as well.
When you get to the capital, you’re immediately giving orders to make this situation news throughout the Empire. If there was civil unrest before there probably will be more of it, but keeping people in the dark until the dead are beating down their door is likely to result in unreadiness and lead to more causalities which will in turn…result in more undead.
Steps are taken to completely eradicate the dangers of the dead rising up when you have the graveyards ordered to be dug up in all major cities and the bodies burned immediately (The kobolds are the main ones that take care of this task)
It is a grim day indeed though when you have the cemetery of Empire heroes cleansed. The final resting place of some of your closest former companions is broken open and their bodies destroyed. In those cases you do the job yourself, because well they deserve that much.
But better it should be this way than for them to rise up as some undead monster that will no longer the person you knew any more.
Despite these steps, the Empire is a large place and not every small village or hamlet can be accounted for and that’s not even counting Nyttrus which only gets the news weeks later when the first reports of the dead rising up from their graves starts.
Worse is the fact that another large void similar to the one in the Usksha Desert has opened up near New Dessel. When it did, the effect was sudden and instant. Several airships were destroyed in the area. This so far hasn’t happened anywhere else (yet) but you wonder if its due to the portals to Mortos being located there. Perhaps some sort of thinner barrier between the dead and living there or something.
Whatever the reason New Dessel itself has gone silent. It can be assumed everyone there has decided to lock themselves up in the mountain, but all attempts to send people to investigate have failed. Either the hostile spirits screaming out of the void are too overwhelming or the investigators don’t come back at all. The ones have managed to come back also report of a life draining effect they feel as soon as they enter the area. Their description is similar to what you felt back at the pyramid.
It’s a major loss considering the importance of New Dessel. You were considering making a trip to Mortos to ask the necromancers for help since only they might know how to stop this, but with the portals either destroyed or inaccessible now that’s no longer an option. (And given your last visit it’s probably unlikely they would’ve helped anyway)
While you initially believed that more civil unrest would follow this catastrophe, you’ve surprisingly found that hasn’t been the case, if anything this event has caused people to band together. While you don’t doubt that a lot blame you for this there remains a greater fear of this undead plague and a slight hope that you MIGHT be the only one to save from it. In short, they don’t really have many other options, because going it alone without the help of the Empire would surely be suicide.
With few options of your own, you rally a general state of emergency and the war against the dead begins in full swing. You can’t be everywhere at once, but you try your best and fend off major attacks personally when you can.
Year 90
You stare at the portrait of your beloved Alison. As much as you’ve always missed her, a part of you is glad that she perhaps isn’t still around to see what you’ve done.
Would she have still stood by your side? Would she have tried to stop you? Would you have even bothered with any of this had she still been alive?
Like many questions that rely on “what if” the answers are irrelevant because what they are is not reality.
You tear yourself away from Alison’s portrait for a moment to glance into the mirror to your left.
A young face stares back at you. An Eternal in his prime ready to conquer the world. The problem is you’re no longer in any position to do so, for something else is doing it better than you ever could.
You think about all you’ve lost within the short time you’ve achieved “immortality.”
You lost contact with Nyttrus years ago, and you don’t know what’s going on there now. Who knows if anything still lives on that jungle continent.
Several more voids in the sky began appearing, releasing more undead into your realm and draining the life energy of the living. Entire provinces at this point have now been depopulated leaving only the dead behind, some provinces like Nakol have been cut off from you. Rask and Delerg are the only places left of the Empire and you imagine even that won’t be true for very long. Even now a void hangs over part of Quala and everyday it grows bigger. It’s only a matter of time before the entire world is completely enveloped by death.
All your Eternals are dead, along with most your Eyes and military. Cassandra herself was killed last year in the last desperate struggle to hang on to the Arat province, but it was a futile task when the enemy is literally without end.
As for you, you’ve never given up the fight even though you know you’re going to lose. It’s inevitable, but you can’t just lie down and die. You have to fight, you have to survive…but you’re also so tired. And it’s not just from the effects of death slowly creeping up on you. There’s a part of you that just wants to put away your instincts and training for a moment and do what Nicodemus did. Let nature take its inevitable course.
Your introspection is cut short when one of your advisors knocks on your door rapidly.
“EMPEROR! EMPEROR! THE UNDEAD ARE HERE! THEY’RE AT THE GATES! THEY’RE ACK!” a voice says being suddenly cut short and several grinning specters come through the closed door.
“Hm, looks like they’re already past the gates.” You say and then unleash magic bolts at the specters sending them back to wherever they came from.
This is somewhat unexpected. While it is true there is a large amount of undead currently in Quala, there wasn’t any sign of an army anywhere near the capital yet, let alone the palace. You heard no signs of battle outside or even any yelling that would denote an alarm or call to arms. And you certainly would’ve been alerted long before an army was at the gates.
In fact other than this interruption, its dead quiet.
And then a feeling of oppressive dread swarms over you followed by that draining experience. This isn’t good.
You open your chamber door and see a desiccated husk in front of it. It’s not animating so that’s the good thing. The bad thing is when you start exploring the rest of the palace; you’re finding everyone like that. Several of those specters float about the palace, which you dispatch as quick as you can, but you’re still feeling weaker by the second.
You don’t know what is causing this sudden drain, but it’s not the specters and the void isn’t near enough yet. It’s something else.
And by the time you drag yourself outside your palace you see it with your own eyes.
You see a black-cloaked figure standing in your courtyard with several bodies lying all over the place. The trees and the other plant life are completely dead as well. This thing is giving off a negative energy that is sapping you at an alarming rate. You struggle to keep standing.
When it glides over to you, you try to cast a spell, but it fails. You draw your sword only to end up using it as a crutch to prop yourself up on.
This is it. This is death itself and you’re now right in front of it.
“Do your worst.” you say trying to prepare yourself for it to attack.
To your surprise, you get a response.
“Oh trust me, you wouldn’t like that. My worst makes your worst look like a kindness.” The being says in a slightly deep voice.
You have no answer, but once again to your surprise the being speaks again.
“But this is no time for threats or boasts, I have come to talk mortal.”
“Talk? Are you…fucking with me?” you ask.
“Not at all, however I feel it would be in your best interest to listen. It would seem you have a slight difficulty in doing that at times, but then again it’s never too late to change. Even in your final hour.”
“I guess…I don’t have much of a choice…” you wheeze.
“Good. I understand your current condition, so I’ll try to be brief. Don’t worry though I’ll keep you alive until we’re finished.”
You find the page and begin to speak the words only for several of those ghostly forms to suddenly swoop down and take it. Before your eyes they rip it to pieces laughing the entire time. Pieces of the book either fly off never to be seen again or fall before you completely useless.
“NO!” you shout helplessly and try to blast them with magic bolts. You hit some of them causing those to dissipate, but the damage is done.
“The end will come soon…this world has been marked on the list for a long time…you have welcomed death back to it because of your hubrissssssss….” One of the ghosts mocks.
The ghosts continue to taunt you as you desperately try to pick up some of the pieces that actually landed near you in the meantime your Eternals are urging that you all need to get away from the pyramid as more of these ghostly forms are starting to appear and one of them has noticed that the large pile of bodies on the left side of the pyramid is starting to animate.
“Emperor! We must go!”
“NO! I won’t be beaten! Not when I have achieved my goal, I…Aaaagh!” you start to say when all of a sudden you begin to feel very weak. It’s not just you either; it’s your Eternals too. The feeling is similar to the draining effect by undead creatures or the negative zones of Mortos. You might not be aging, but you definitely don’t feel well, in fact you feel like you’re going to die and given how close to death you’ve been on several occasions, you’re very familiar with what that feels like. In fact, you’re reminded of the time when Cyrus nearly killed you. Feels like that.
Realizing that standing to fight isn’t going to work, you listen to your Eternals and begin down the pyramid steps to your right. Though you make sure to be careful since you’re dizzy and feel like you’re going to tumble at any time.
When you get to the bottom, you see more spirits and the like pour out of the black void above the pyramid and the pile of bodies that were one dead have now begun to shuffle around their original area to the other side where you are currently at. You attempt to control the slowly advancing horde in perhaps an effort to turn some against each other, but your spell has absolutely no effect and it’s like some greater force is controlling them. It’s Mortos all over again.
After dispatching the closest ones by the more traditional sword, gunYou and your remaining Eternals make haste through the desert towards the Nalin border. The more distance you put between you and the pyramid makes you feel a little better, but you’re also concerned. You’re supposed to be immortal now, and while you know that doesn’t mean you can’t feel pain, you wonder if the spell actually even worked at all because you had the very real feeling that you were going to die back there. You may have very well doomed the word for nothing.
You try not to not to think about it for now, you’ll have plenty of time to dwell on it when you get back to civilization.
When you do reach the closest village in Nalin, the peasants there are so far unaware of the impending danger, but many of them have begun feeling scared since even from this distance they can see the large blackness that has unnaturally gathered above the pyramid in the distance. You make a short announcement in the middle of the village.
“People of this village, listen to your Emperor. There is a darkness coming in this direction and it will consume you and everything within if you stay here. I’d advise you all to move on to one of the larger cities for safety if you can. Do not give into fear and stay strong and you will survive this. The Empire WILL survive this.”
Having little else to say, you move on leaving the villagers to heed your advice. You proceed to do this with every settlement you move through on your way back to the capital and urge the bigger ones to start sending out messengers to other settlements to warn people as well.
When you get to the capital, you’re immediately giving orders to make this situation news throughout the Empire. If there was civil unrest before there probably will be more of it, but keeping people in the dark until the dead are beating down their door is likely to result in unreadiness and lead to more causalities which will in turn…result in more undead.
Steps are taken to completely eradicate the dangers of the dead rising up when you have the graveyards ordered to be dug up in all major cities and the bodies burned immediately (The kobolds are the main ones that take care of this task)
It is a grim day indeed though when you have the cemetery of Empire heroes cleansed. The final resting place of some of your closest former companions is broken open and their bodies destroyed. In those cases you do the job yourself, because well they deserve that much.
But better it should be this way than for them to rise up as some undead monster that will no longer the person you knew any more.
Despite these steps, the Empire is a large place and not every small village or hamlet can be accounted for and that’s not even counting Nyttrus which only gets the news weeks later when the first reports of the dead rising up from their graves starts.
Worse is the fact that another large void similar to the one in the Usksha Desert has opened up near New Dessel. When it did, the effect was sudden and instant. Several airships were destroyed in the area. This so far hasn’t happened anywhere else (yet) but you wonder if its due to the portals to Mortos being located there. Perhaps some sort of thinner barrier between the dead and living there or something.
Whatever the reason New Dessel itself has gone silent. It can be assumed everyone there has decided to lock themselves up in the mountain, but all attempts to send people to investigate have failed. Either the hostile spirits screaming out of the void are too overwhelming or the investigators don’t come back at all. The ones have managed to come back also report of a life draining effect they feel as soon as they enter the area. Their description is similar to what you felt back at the pyramid.
It’s a major loss considering the importance of New Dessel. You were considering making a trip to Mortos to ask the necromancers for help since only they might know how to stop this, but with the portals either destroyed or inaccessible now that’s no longer an option. (And given your last visit it’s probably unlikely they would’ve helped anyway)
While you initially believed that more civil unrest would follow this catastrophe, you’ve surprisingly found that hasn’t been the case, if anything this event has caused people to band together. While you don’t doubt that a lot blame you for this there remains a greater fear of this undead plague and a slight hope that you MIGHT be the only one to save from it. In short, they don’t really have many other options, because going it alone without the help of the Empire would surely be suicide.
With few options of your own, you rally a general state of emergency and the war against the dead begins in full swing. You can’t be everywhere at once, but you try your best and fend off major attacks personally when you can.
Year 90
You stare at the portrait of your beloved Alison. As much as you’ve always missed her, a part of you is glad that she perhaps isn’t still around to see what you’ve done.
Would she have still stood by your side? Would she have tried to stop you? Would you have even bothered with any of this had she still been alive?
Like many questions that rely on “what if” the answers are irrelevant because what they are is not reality.
You tear yourself away from Alison’s portrait for a moment to glance into the mirror to your left.
A young face stares back at you. An Eternal in his prime ready to conquer the world. The problem is you’re no longer in any position to do so, for something else is doing it better than you ever could.
You think about all you’ve lost within the short time you’ve achieved “immortality.”
You lost contact with Nyttrus years ago, and you don’t know what’s going on there now. Who knows if anything still lives on that jungle continent.
Several more voids in the sky began appearing, releasing more undead into your realm and draining the life energy of the living. Entire provinces at this point have now been depopulated leaving only the dead behind, some provinces like Nakol have been cut off from you. Rask and Delerg are the only places left of the Empire and you imagine even that won’t be true for very long. Even now a void hangs over part of Quala and everyday it grows bigger. It’s only a matter of time before the entire world is completely enveloped by death.
All your Eternals are dead, along with most your Eyes and military. Cassandra herself was killed last year in the last desperate struggle to hang on to the Arat province, but it was a futile task when the enemy is literally without end.
As for you, you’ve never given up the fight even though you know you’re going to lose. It’s inevitable, but you can’t just lie down and die. You have to fight, you have to survive…but you’re also so tired. And it’s not just from the effects of death slowly creeping up on you. There’s a part of you that just wants to put away your instincts and training for a moment and do what Nicodemus did. Let nature take its inevitable course.
Your introspection is cut short when one of your advisors knocks on your door rapidly.
“EMPEROR! EMPEROR! THE UNDEAD ARE HERE! THEY’RE AT THE GATES! THEY’RE ACK!” a voice says being suddenly cut short and several grinning specters come through the closed door.
“Hm, looks like they’re already past the gates.” You say and then unleash magic bolts at the specters sending them back to wherever they came from.
This is somewhat unexpected. While it is true there is a large amount of undead currently in Quala, there wasn’t any sign of an army anywhere near the capital yet, let alone the palace. You heard no signs of battle outside or even any yelling that would denote an alarm or call to arms. And you certainly would’ve been alerted long before an army was at the gates.
In fact other than this interruption, its dead quiet.
And then a feeling of oppressive dread swarms over you followed by that draining experience. This isn’t good.
You open your chamber door and see a desiccated husk in front of it. It’s not animating so that’s the good thing. The bad thing is when you start exploring the rest of the palace; you’re finding everyone like that. Several of those specters float about the palace, which you dispatch as quick as you can, but you’re still feeling weaker by the second.
You don’t know what is causing this sudden drain, but it’s not the specters and the void isn’t near enough yet. It’s something else.
And by the time you drag yourself outside your palace you see it with your own eyes.
You see a black-cloaked figure standing in your courtyard with several bodies lying all over the place. The trees and the other plant life are completely dead as well. This thing is giving off a negative energy that is sapping you at an alarming rate. You struggle to keep standing.
When it glides over to you, you try to cast a spell, but it fails. You draw your sword only to end up using it as a crutch to prop yourself up on.
This is it. This is death itself and you’re now right in front of it.
“Do your worst.” you say trying to prepare yourself for it to attack.
To your surprise, you get a response.
“Oh trust me, you wouldn’t like that. My worst makes your worst look like a kindness.” The being says in a slightly deep voice.
You have no answer, but once again to your surprise the being speaks again.
“But this is no time for threats or boasts, I have come to talk mortal.”
“Talk? Are you…fucking with me?” you ask.
“Not at all, however I feel it would be in your best interest to listen. It would seem you have a slight difficulty in doing that at times, but then again it’s never too late to change. Even in your final hour.”
“I guess…I don’t have much of a choice…” you wheeze.
“Good. I understand your current condition, so I’ll try to be brief. Don’t worry though I’ll keep you alive until we’re finished.”