Eternal
Year 31
Sometimes it seems surreal that the Empire hasn’t attempted to retake Rask yet, but then there have been a few major changes all decidedly not in the favor of the Empire.
First off, Kane’s death was a bigger deal than even you thought it would be. Kane’s “Butcher of Rask” infamy wasn’t exactly the most efficient way of keeping the plebs in line, but it was working better than nothing at all. Not to mention it was also keeping his command in line as well. When he died, Empire troop morale in Rask dropped and the native Raskians’ morale went up significantly. The towns finally unified enough that they declared Rask to be independent of Empire law and rule.
You figured the Empire would send more troops to re-establish order, but instead they started withdrawing from the area entirely. Apparently some of the shadows still causing problems for the Empire south of Rask started engaging in suicidal tactics and taking out high ranking commanders, including Captain Roldan (Who you always thought would’ve been one of the first to be sent to Rask) With this set back, the Empire decided it would be better to crush all the opposition in places where they at least had a majority of control, hence Rask was left alone for now at least.
In the meantime, the shadows are…well a shadow of their former selves. It is almost quite certain that all of them south of Rask are being ruthlessly hunted to extinction and there weren’t many left in the first place (even less when they started with suicide tactics). The last shadow “stronghold” is Fort Defiance where presumably Cyrus still rules over his small group of brainwashed followers. You say presumably because nobody has heard anything from them since Kane was killed. You haven’t even been the target of any revenge assassination attempts. The place is still intact, but has effectively closed itself off from the outside world. Despite the major shadow influence on starting the rebellion in the first place and people helping them in the past, nobody is in any particular hurry to thank them and Fort Defiance is looked upon as a monastery of religious fanatics that should be steered clear of.
As for you and Talia, you’re exceptions, but not by much. You were known as a shadow outcast long before Kane’s death so nothing much has changed with how people treat you, though sometimes you get a few small thank yous for directly being involved in Kanes death, then on the flip side you also get a few fuck yous for indirectly being involved in the near total destruction of Volgst.
Talia on the other hand doesn’t get much of either. It’s somewhat known that she was the one that actually killed Kane, but due to her continued dedication to Dendrin, she’s just looked upon as one of the “acceptable” religious fanatics, rather than any sort of hero. Not to mention nobody wants to piss off the killer of the Kane.
In keeping with your outcast nature you and Talia have made yourself at home in one of the many abandoned cabins in the wilderness. It’s not much, but after fixing it up it’s a suitable home. You both are fairly self sufficient
While things are currently peaceful, you’re finding it harder and harder to find ways to pass the time. Part of you is always on guard believing that one day the Empire will eventually come back or even closer to home, that shadows will attempt to kill you. You’ve set up many traps and scouted several potential escape routes as possible. Even with that large of a concern you’re still left with a lot of extra time which is mostly spent with Talia and that’s becoming another situation lately.
Talia is also finding herself restless, possibly even more than you are. Part of the problem is that she was once part of a bigger community that she identified with and now she is effectively isolated from that community. That isn’t the only the problem though, she still believes in Dendrin and the “shadow way” and namely that means all her ideals and plans for the future have practically gone by the wayside. She once stated to you that one of the reasons why she bonded with you is because she had this idea that when the Empire was brought down you and her would spawn several Eternal shadows to become little Dendrin worshippers and presumably strengthen the community because of it.
Well, the Empire hasn’t fallen, the shadows are near extinct and Talia hasn’t gotten pregnant despite how much the pair of you have had sex. To be quite honest you were never really paying too much attention to that last one until Talia started bringing it up recently. You always figured she was using some sort of shadow magic to prevent such a thing in the past due to how inconvenient it would be (You know planning a rebellion and all), but now in this time of “peace” it’s been brought to your attention that something must be seriously wrong.
Given that you weren’t really a true shadow to begin with, the whole legacy thing wasn’t really something you were placing a priority on, though you do find it a bit odd. You can only come up with the conclusion that you, her or perhaps both of you just can’t produce offspring. Talia on the other hand feels that something NEEDS to be done to try to correct this, and that something is placing greater faith in Dendrin to bless you with children.
This in it of itself is asking the impossible of you, but Talia also wants to travel to the Delerg province to locate his original temple. She remembers where it is and she figures that perhaps the connection to him will be stronger there.
As one can imagine this has caused a great source of arguing on your part. Disregarding the fact that Derlerg is still Empire territory and that both of you aren’t exactly wanted there, there’s also the fact that you’re never going to “believe” in Dendrin like Talia, no matter how much she wants you to. The best you’d be able to do is fake it, and you’ve tried that before, didn’t work for you. You also aren’t really convinced that he’d bless you with children anyway, given how unhelpful he is in the first place and that’s assuming he’s even able to do such a thing.
However, all of these arguments have fallen on semi-deaf ears. Talia is quite aware of your feelings on the matter, but she would like you to make the attempt. She tries to point out that Dendrin has been guiding or at least looking out for you in some way, because if he wasn’t he wouldn’t have spoken to you on a regular basis in the past or guided her to you when Kane was getting the better of you. If that were anyone else telling you about that last one, you’d think they’d be trying to get you to do what they want as “payment” for saving your life. However, given that it’s Talia, you know she’s being sincere in her belief, which makes it even harder to argue against since you can at least understand the idea of owing someone.
At this point, if you really insisted on staying put you aren’t sure if Talia wouldn’t just leave again, after all she did put her faith of Dendrin over you before. This makes you question if this is even going to work out to anyway. Sure, you and Talia have had some good times in the distant past and even recently, but this just might be an obstacle that’s always going to be between you both and going to be insurmountable.
Sometimes it seems surreal that the Empire hasn’t attempted to retake Rask yet, but then there have been a few major changes all decidedly not in the favor of the Empire.
First off, Kane’s death was a bigger deal than even you thought it would be. Kane’s “Butcher of Rask” infamy wasn’t exactly the most efficient way of keeping the plebs in line, but it was working better than nothing at all. Not to mention it was also keeping his command in line as well. When he died, Empire troop morale in Rask dropped and the native Raskians’ morale went up significantly. The towns finally unified enough that they declared Rask to be independent of Empire law and rule.
You figured the Empire would send more troops to re-establish order, but instead they started withdrawing from the area entirely. Apparently some of the shadows still causing problems for the Empire south of Rask started engaging in suicidal tactics and taking out high ranking commanders, including Captain Roldan (Who you always thought would’ve been one of the first to be sent to Rask) With this set back, the Empire decided it would be better to crush all the opposition in places where they at least had a majority of control, hence Rask was left alone for now at least.
In the meantime, the shadows are…well a shadow of their former selves. It is almost quite certain that all of them south of Rask are being ruthlessly hunted to extinction and there weren’t many left in the first place (even less when they started with suicide tactics). The last shadow “stronghold” is Fort Defiance where presumably Cyrus still rules over his small group of brainwashed followers. You say presumably because nobody has heard anything from them since Kane was killed. You haven’t even been the target of any revenge assassination attempts. The place is still intact, but has effectively closed itself off from the outside world. Despite the major shadow influence on starting the rebellion in the first place and people helping them in the past, nobody is in any particular hurry to thank them and Fort Defiance is looked upon as a monastery of religious fanatics that should be steered clear of.
As for you and Talia, you’re exceptions, but not by much. You were known as a shadow outcast long before Kane’s death so nothing much has changed with how people treat you, though sometimes you get a few small thank yous for directly being involved in Kanes death, then on the flip side you also get a few fuck yous for indirectly being involved in the near total destruction of Volgst.
Talia on the other hand doesn’t get much of either. It’s somewhat known that she was the one that actually killed Kane, but due to her continued dedication to Dendrin, she’s just looked upon as one of the “acceptable” religious fanatics, rather than any sort of hero. Not to mention nobody wants to piss off the killer of the Kane.
In keeping with your outcast nature you and Talia have made yourself at home in one of the many abandoned cabins in the wilderness. It’s not much, but after fixing it up it’s a suitable home. You both are fairly self sufficient
While things are currently peaceful, you’re finding it harder and harder to find ways to pass the time. Part of you is always on guard believing that one day the Empire will eventually come back or even closer to home, that shadows will attempt to kill you. You’ve set up many traps and scouted several potential escape routes as possible. Even with that large of a concern you’re still left with a lot of extra time which is mostly spent with Talia and that’s becoming another situation lately.
Talia is also finding herself restless, possibly even more than you are. Part of the problem is that she was once part of a bigger community that she identified with and now she is effectively isolated from that community. That isn’t the only the problem though, she still believes in Dendrin and the “shadow way” and namely that means all her ideals and plans for the future have practically gone by the wayside. She once stated to you that one of the reasons why she bonded with you is because she had this idea that when the Empire was brought down you and her would spawn several Eternal shadows to become little Dendrin worshippers and presumably strengthen the community because of it.
Well, the Empire hasn’t fallen, the shadows are near extinct and Talia hasn’t gotten pregnant despite how much the pair of you have had sex. To be quite honest you were never really paying too much attention to that last one until Talia started bringing it up recently. You always figured she was using some sort of shadow magic to prevent such a thing in the past due to how inconvenient it would be (You know planning a rebellion and all), but now in this time of “peace” it’s been brought to your attention that something must be seriously wrong.
Given that you weren’t really a true shadow to begin with, the whole legacy thing wasn’t really something you were placing a priority on, though you do find it a bit odd. You can only come up with the conclusion that you, her or perhaps both of you just can’t produce offspring. Talia on the other hand feels that something NEEDS to be done to try to correct this, and that something is placing greater faith in Dendrin to bless you with children.
This in it of itself is asking the impossible of you, but Talia also wants to travel to the Delerg province to locate his original temple. She remembers where it is and she figures that perhaps the connection to him will be stronger there.
As one can imagine this has caused a great source of arguing on your part. Disregarding the fact that Derlerg is still Empire territory and that both of you aren’t exactly wanted there, there’s also the fact that you’re never going to “believe” in Dendrin like Talia, no matter how much she wants you to. The best you’d be able to do is fake it, and you’ve tried that before, didn’t work for you. You also aren’t really convinced that he’d bless you with children anyway, given how unhelpful he is in the first place and that’s assuming he’s even able to do such a thing.
However, all of these arguments have fallen on semi-deaf ears. Talia is quite aware of your feelings on the matter, but she would like you to make the attempt. She tries to point out that Dendrin has been guiding or at least looking out for you in some way, because if he wasn’t he wouldn’t have spoken to you on a regular basis in the past or guided her to you when Kane was getting the better of you. If that were anyone else telling you about that last one, you’d think they’d be trying to get you to do what they want as “payment” for saving your life. However, given that it’s Talia, you know she’s being sincere in her belief, which makes it even harder to argue against since you can at least understand the idea of owing someone.
At this point, if you really insisted on staying put you aren’t sure if Talia wouldn’t just leave again, after all she did put her faith of Dendrin over you before. This makes you question if this is even going to work out to anyway. Sure, you and Talia have had some good times in the distant past and even recently, but this just might be an obstacle that’s always going to be between you both and going to be insurmountable.