Tag Archives: 2nd Age

The Lament of the Twice-Blooded King

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Sundered was he in the womb of disdain,
Seed of two hatreds, of iron and rain;
Split was his cradle ’twixt tusk and fair ear,
Child of no hearth-fire, sworn unto fear.

High did he climb by the ladder of slain,
Hewn from the marrow of scholar and thane;
Hallowed the bones that he set for his stair,
Hungering upward through incense and prayer.

Ash fell as snow when the Second Sun broke,
Altars lay silent, and empires lay smoke;
All of the banners were blackened with flame,
All of the chronicles swallowed his name.

Shadow-crowned warlord, unblessed yet adored,
Seeker of godhood by blade and by word;
Silent he stood where the firmament tore,
Swearing the heavens would bar him no more.

Half-dead, half-living, in memory chained,
Held in the rot where old ages are stained;
Hushed is his breathing, yet restless his will,
Hunger unquenched in the hollows of still.

Ever he drinketh of mortal desire,
Envy and pride are the oil of his fire,
Eager are princes who feed him with ore,
Edged in red iron and promise of war.

Red are the sands where his heralds conspire,
Rivers of steel for the dark of his pyre;
Ruin is bartered in markets of flame,
Raised are the armies that march in his name.

** Alexis orates this two mornings after his dream of Raiden

When Did the Sky Break?

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A few nights into the camp east of Nodden-Torr after the group has left the time-vault, well out past the fire. A pale shape sits on a branch a little above him, about the size of the owl. Alexis paces below.

“Vorgoth told me no mortal had crossed his bridge since the sky broke.”

“I’ve been taking that for the Great Betrayal. Two other possible dates. The Great Upheaval. The Time of Wyrms and Darkness. Both of them sit well before the Second League.”

“But the coins in the griffins’ nest were second age. Every one of them. Whoever built that place, almost certainly built it in the second age, so both the other dates are too early.”

“Or something inside the second age…”

Alexis shrugs. He turns the Collegium ring, thinking of all the history books he now wishes he had actually read.

“But maybe I need to look at this all different.”

“He’s a fire giant. A giant’s words, a human calendar.”

“Some in the Collegium say fire giants live in volcanos. Some say they come from an entirely different plane.” A pause. “I had him in front of me and there was so much I would have liked to have asked him.”

“If the sky broke and put him here… then it’s his people’s word for their own arrival and it has nothing to do with our second age at all.”

Alexis gestures farewell to his audience, but it’s not there. Surely he would have heard it fly away. His hearing has been much better since he started wearing the ring of the Spider.

Someone Wrote Back (Drayek’s Temple Wall)

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A few nights into the camp east of Nodden-Torr. Alexis waits until the four of them are looking at him.

“Shasherak. Drayek. And Deragoth.”

“I’m not sure you remember what Drayek’s temple in the Westlands told us. One stretch of that carving was still readable. It recorded an alliance between Drayek’s cult and a power it called Shasherak.”

“The exact agreement was lost to disturbance and time, other than one of them was owed something.”

“There was newer carving on the same wall: ‘The Hand that Reaches, the Crown that Binds, the Blood that Wakes the Fallen.'”

“I took that as a prophesy. I think it’s a reply. Somebody read what I read and wrote underneath it what they mean to do.”

“Avv gave it back to me in a dream. Not all three of it. Just one line. ‘The Blood that Wakes the Fallen. You must stop him.'” Alexis squints his eyes. “Him.”

“The Hand we’ve had our hands on for a couple years now. The blood I can name. The crown…” Alexis asks the question “Ædelfred?”

The fire crackles.

“And Deragoth. He was Shasherak’s. The stories give him cursed armor made out of the skin of the enemies he killed. The armor Ezrin probably wears now.”

Orcs as the legions of the downfall

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While the group has a little downtime on the lush forest level in the tower-out-of-time of Nodden-Torr, Alexis muses out loud.

“Something’s been sitting with me.” He waits a moment. “The orcs that tore through Nodden-Torr had black veins running through them. Unnatural. Shadow infused in them, or some-such. Clearly altered by Shasherak. And that shadow creature we fought under Nodden-Torr, same thing: Black veins.”

He glances at the group.

“And Bandesingh uses orcs too. Different mark, same foot soldier.” He glances back. “Why orcs for both of them? Not stink lizards, not hobgoblins, not gnolls. Orcs.” A beat. “Did Bandesingh learn that from Shasherak? Is there a connection between them, or did two men arrive at the same answer separately?”

Another beat.

“There’s a spellbook tied to Shasherak that nobody’s seen in an age. I’d very much like to know where it is. I wonder if it’s being held by the Dark Hand.”