Eternal

Year 41

“We had to kill another group of ogres sniffing around the fort today.” Cyrus remarks.
“Yeah, I know the battle woke me up, by the time I got ready, all of them had been killed.” You reply. “I’m going to have to speak with Flog, because I thought we had an understanding that he was to keep the giant and ogre population down or at least manageable.”
“I say we just kill him and be done with it.”
“Hmm, yeah I know he’s not your favorite person, but he’s proven himself useful, vital even in the past. Besides he’s the only thing keeping that’s keeping that rabble in line.”
“He’s also the only thing keeping them organized. Maybe he’s planning on making an army to march upon us.”
“Yes, I have considered that too, I’m just wondering what’s worse. A completely hostile unchecked horde of giantkin or a semi organized army of the same which may or may not be reasoned with.”
“Perhaps you may need to ask Dendrin for guidance on this matter.” Cyrus says.
“Perhaps…”

If Dendrin actually did have any advice on the matter, it probably wouldn’t do you much good anyway considering how whimsical he is, not to mention he’s chosen not to speak to you for quite some time, as he is prone to do.

Being Shadow Master has been a bit of odd since you’ve taken the position mainly because you don’t feel like you have a specific purpose.

The first two years were easy enough as you were still mostly concerning yourself with rebuilding Evergloom for defense, additional training for the shadows and making sure Rask kept its independence, but that was never truly ever an issue since the Empire never did make a come back and reports of their continual descent into chaos was assured.

The next two years consisted of a halfhearted attempt at spreading “the faith” mainly to build up numbers. From what you could piece together of shadow history from the few books that Cyrus still had, the shadows never had an aggressive policy on such things, pre or post Empire days, they mostly relied on people either coming to them of their own free will or being “born” into it. There have been a few shadow births, but you’d rather have a more traditional way of gaining recruits because “breeding” a new order isn’t really going to be a big option seeing as your current ratio of men and women isn’t great and those with Eternal heritage can’t reproduce at all. While you could’ve easily told everyone to start putting the remaining Raskian towns to the blade and do the whole “convert or die” thing, you decided it wouldn’t be that great of an idea for several reasons. So you relied on a more missionary way of doing things like sending certain shadows to towns and stressing the benefits of being a shadow. It got a few people interested, but nothing major. The Raskians in general have become less trustful of the shadows over the years now that the war with the Empire is over, almost as if they are expecting you to start launching a religious crusade. You soon got the impression that the Raskians would prefer if the lot of you would just leave them alone now. Somewhat ungrateful considering all you’ve done in securing the country’s freedom, but hardly surprising.

Last year was the official fall of the Empire, from what you heard the Emperor’s palace was in flames and the few remaining generals or strong military men have taken it upon themselves to carve out various fiefdoms for themselves while other places have gone the way of total anarchy. There was even a little bit of celebrating in Rask and among the shadows when it occurred. However, you couldn’t help but be a little disappointed that the great enemy you struggled so hard against was now gone forever. Like you craved the chance to fight them again if only for the opportunity to be in battle once again which has sorely been lacking.

Now with the giantkin starting to become a problem once again, you’re half tempted to take Cyrus’ advice. You’re certain that it would be a sure victory for you and to an extent, Flog has been getting less and less reasonable as the years have gone on. Perhaps it is time to get rid of him and take your chances with more problems with giantkin in the future.

Instead of talking with Dendrin about it, you choose to discuss this situation with someone that will have a better opinion on the situation.

“It sounds like you’ve sort of made your mind up about Flog already.” Talia remarks.
“You might be right, but I was wondering what your opinion was on the matter.”
“Better you should ask Dendrin for guidance on that, rather than me. Though I suppose if he has become more militant maybe it’s for the best, but…”
“But you think I should try to renegotiate with him?”
“No, I wasn’t going to suggest that, I was going to say maybe we should leave Rask altogether.”
“What? Why?”
“The people here obviously don’t want us around, food isn’t the easiest thing to come by and we’re basically the first target whenever a group of ogres or giants come lumbering down south.”
“We faced the Empire and survived against all odds, I think we can handle being disliked by the plebs and the occasional giant attack.”
“You’re probably right, but I just feel like we’re stagnating here. Like we aren’t rebuilding the order the way that we should. We’ve also lost a lot of history, even certain rituals. I mean I’ve remembered as much as we were taught and tried to pass these lessons on to the new eternals when I first trained them and continue to do so. The tomes we still have here help a bit, but ultimately when we lost Gloom, we lost a lot more than just a home.”
“Well, where would we go?
“That I don’t know. Delerg perhaps?”
“That’s quite the distance, not to mention the area isn’t all that much more hospitable in terms of environment given that it’s mostly swamp.”
“Yes, but it is the birthplace of the shadows and we do have an old temple there.”
“Yeah and it hasn’t been used in centuries and is probably a crumbling ruin that’s half sunk into the swamp by now! Has anyone here actually ever been there, because I’ve only ever heard about it.”
“Yes, I believe a few of the older brothers and sisters have. They would know the best way to get there. I want to just say though, that this is merely my opinion. I do not know if moving all of us somewhere else is the best solution or if it will even help, but I just feel like the longer we stay here, the further away we’re going to get from our roots and in another couple of generations, the shadows won’t be anything like the ones of old. But perhaps that is Dendrin’s will, as I said I don’t know. Only you would know being the Shadow Master and able to speak to him directly for guidance.”

You give an acknowledging nod, but in reality you’re just left with another decision to make all by yourself. What Talia is suggesting sounds crazy and quite frankly you don’t even care about shadow history, but what does make this idea appealing is the journey and the challenge. You were just thinking about a change of some sort and while killing Flog and his little band would break up the monotony, perhaps a whole change of scenery is really in order.