A summoning by the King. As an Exalted Templar of New Guistenal, he knew that all that meant was more yelling, preaching or complaining from the High Priest. Absolom was becoming impossible to suffer with all his rants about the day of the Coruscation and His Highness' impending return. The High Priest kept blowing the trumpets of their God's faith, and collected all the praise and power they brought for himself.
Finally, the doors opened and the armored Draj could march in, a belligerent look by now frozen in his eyes. The hall was, as usual, dimly lit. At the opposite end, sitting on a throne carved from one of the mountain's stones that pierced right through the marble floor, was the empty suit of armor the Draj of New Guistenal still believed to be their "God". Forged in metal and obsidian, and shaped to resemble a glorified, paragon exemplar of the cross between man and dragon the Draj were created to be, the armor had been everything the Templar had ever seen of the King.
Darukar knew better. Dregoth was gone - he had been gone for centuries, he had been gone before Darukar was born and had been gone ever since. All was left was lies, scheming, and the High Priest's madness. A frail spiderweb of promised glory that kept the people of New Guistenal waiting, working and worshiping like the Templars saw fit.
Darukar moved towards the throne with haste, but soon his stride was broken. Something was amiss. The hall was empty, abandoned by the crowd of yesmen the High Priest used to surround himself with. The High Priest himself looked different. Gone was his bronze chair, that usually was put right in front of the throne. Absolom was standing by the throne, or rather hanging from it, his skeletal talons nervously clutching its edges.
As the Templar stopped to look around, the large metal doors of the hall closed behind himself. In the darkness, he could see nobody standing by them.
"Come forth, Templar." The hissing voice of Absolom was high pitched, almost trembling. "The King has new tasks for the Order."
"What is this, High Priest?" said Darukar, "More fantasies of resurrection? New taxes for the Cult?"
It was as if Absolom had been hit in his stomach by a punch. The High Priest seemed to faint, and nearly collapsed, then he pulled himself together and with a demented smile started hissing again at the Templar. "You have no idea..."
The High Priest was stopped. The left glove of the dark iron suit raised from the throne as to demand silence, then the voice said "Waste no time. Tell him what he needs to do."
Darukar couldn't later be sure there had been actually any word uttered. It was as if the words formed into his mind, or rather as if they tore it apart and tossed it to the corners of the room until he was left crawling on the ground, oblivious to anything else but the words themselves. He didn't know how long he was left there, trying to recover his sanity and perception, but soon the voice of the High Priest tore its way to his ears and he was able to crawl to his knees.
"... one thousands men. Strong armed, able-bodied. You will pull them from the army, if needed. You'll bring them to the Lower Chambers, and build barracks and set up a forge. You will start digging. Two, three wells. Build stairs, dig as deep as you can and as fast as you can.
You'll contact the elven raiders. We need slaves. All races, but tell them to hit mostly the Merchant Houses. We want no trouble with the City States. Dwarves, and Muls will be sent to you, to work and replace the dead, and to die themselves. Keep the humans, and the women, and the children, in a number no smaller than one thousand. One thousand for the levy."
Darukar had a rush of pride. "New Guistenal doesn't bend its knees to the Dragon!" he yelled.
"Nor it will." The voice tore him apart again. Absolom fell to his knees too. "But the Dragon must feed, and we deeply care that he does."
With an unnatural, screeching noise the armor rose from the throne. The King started walking towards the end of the room, to the exit that led to the Lower Chambers.
"You are dismissed!" Absolom's angry voice brought Darukar back to reality. "I trust that you will see Our Lord's command done, in haste. And spread the world, the King has returned.. now go!"
----------
Absolom approached the being he considered a God with hesitation.
"Can we trust him?" Dregoth was now speaking with his natural voice, if such a thing even existed. Even in his own undeath, it chilled Absolom to his marrow.
"Yes, Your Highness. The Templar is rash, but obedient, and too stupid to make questions".
The Dragon King seemed pleased, and kept walking in silence.
"My Lord?" Absolom was still frightened, but excitement was now rising and giving him new boldness. "What of the Coruscation? The Promised Day? We're ascending to the surface, aren't we? So why do you send them to dig deeper?"
The Dragon King stopped, and turned to his High Priest. For a few second, the armor's empty eyesockets fixated on Absolom's barred eyes. "Are you sure you want to know?" the King asked, in a flat yet threatening tone.
Absolom was terrified, but he needed to know. He had spent centuries waiting, preparing, preaching. His dream was too close. He needed to know. "Yes, my Lord. I wish so."
The armor stood still for a second, then resumed his march.
"Follow me, then". And so the Sorcerer's King narration began.
I traveled far, Absolom. I traveled more than I initially planned and more than I would have wanted if I knew what I would have foundt.
I am not a God, Absolom. None of us is. And I will never be one. Gods do exist, however. I've seen them. I fought some. The power they wield is impossible to match. The worlds they rule... they're ripe with power. The energy of life, of the elements, of magic itself - it flows more abundant than the sands of Athas' desert.
At first my discovery made me desperate. I struck deals with powerful entities of the Elemental Planes. I pursued a way to achieve godhood against all evidence. The reason, the nature itself of the power of the Gods eluded me. I could not find an answer. I could not ascend. Borys' ascention... it is much like the divine one, and yet nothing like it. I cannot follow that path. I cannot allow myself to, anymore, because now I know where it leads.
You see, Absolom, as I was more and more frustrated by my futile attempts, and as I had to flee and recover from my clashes with the seemingly all powerful entities of the Outer Planes, I started to research history. I needed to discover why our world is different. Why there is no God left here, and why we cannot become like them.
And what I found is that.. it's as if the entire multiverse refused to acknowledge our existance. Pay attention: it's not that they don't know Athas exist, or of the Suns. They refuse to accept we are here. Their perception prevents them.
And there I foundt my answer. I understood what powers the Gods. What makes Athas different. I understood what Athas is, what the Dragon is.
Perception.
There is a story - one I could find, one not unlike that we foundt on the ancient records we collected here. A great war raging between Gods and Primordial Powers, ending with the victory of Gods on every world, every plane... except here. Athas, the abandoned cesspool of the planes. Such irony.
Oh, don't misunderstand - that story is an half truth, more than a true lie. There was a war. It raged here too, and while here the Primordials were stronger than in most other planes.. they didn't win. You see, perception.
The Gods were saved, all through the multiverse, by the spirits of the land - the same spirits mortals foolishly worship on Athas. Those spirits were more powerful than both gods and primordials, but they cared little for history, so when they came and won the war for the sake of the Gods, the Gods credited victory for themselves. It happened everywhere I've been. Gods rule worlds that they never truly conquered.
And yet there is no God on Athas. None is left. The Spirits are here - even stronger, and yet even madder than in any other place of the multiverse. Yet, no God is left. Who killed them, then?
Perception.
I kept digging, I kept looking and I foundt more. I needed to find more. Divine power was beyond my reach, and yet the very place I came from was free from such usurpers. How did Athas defeat the Gods? How did we kill them aeons ago?
I looked for a power greater than them. Something they would bend to, something even they would fear. The spirits would never lend us power, so I needed something else. I kept searching, until one day, from the dying words of a tortured madman, I got a clue.
I foundt something everyone in the multiverse feared. They feared it even if they didn't know its existance. Much like Athas, most of them refused to acknowledge its existance. Perception.
Perception gives power to the Gods. The Gods are divine, immortal, invincible because the entire universe wants them to be. The multiverse believes the Gods rule it, and so they do. They can level mountains and dry oceans because in every living being, in every shard of creation is instilled the knowledge, or rather the lie that they are entitled to such power. Perception.
Their followers believe in their godhood and thus that is made true.
Divinity is a self fulfilling prophecy.
Ironic, isn't it? But then again, why not on Athas? People worships us. We deem ourselves invicible. Borys sure does, yet he's no god, is he?
Once again, let's go back to what I foundt. What could a multiverse that forced on itself the perception of omnipotent, universal guardians could fear? Nothing can fight Gods, out there, because nothing believes it can. Even I failed. It's a shard of knowledge that is crafted into every single grain of sand, every leaf, every drop of blood in the multiverse. What could such a universe fear?
They call this place the Far Realm. They do not know what it is. Those who found out went mad, or refused to acknowledge what they discovered. It was hard for me too, at first.
The Far Realm is more than a place. It's an idea. No, not at all - it's the absence of ideas. That's where the fear comes from. Perception. The mind, the beliefs, the expectations - they shape the multiverse. Very literally so. I've been in places where you can turn rocks to fire by simply wanting so. Perception is the engine of the multiverse; gods are its cogs, and mortals its power source.
The Far Realm is nothing like that. It's the golden exception. They call it "alien", but it's the only natural place there is. They call it "madness", but it's the only form of sanity out there.
It's the only place unaffected by perception. There is no will to apply there. It obeys no rules, no expectations. I've been in places of great terror, and pain, and they were so because those who inhabitated them wanted them so and those who feared them believed them so.
The Far Realm obeys nothing.
It is not perceived. It is real. Uncompromisingly so.
You cannot wish it away. You cannot wish it different. No god can claim it for its own.
I looked for that place. There I can find the answer. There I can find the power. Then I looked back, and understood where to look. We need to go looking for that place. We need to start over.
You see, Absolom, upon this realization something more came to me. I realize the truth. I understood why I couldn't become a god. And I thought of Borys. How wrong we were! We claimed he's losing himself. We were wrong. He's not becoming mad, he's becoming real. And when his transformation is over, and we will make sure it will be, no god in the multiverse will be able to oppose him.
Absolom, the Primordial didn't defeat the Gods. Or rather, they did, but as in the rest of the multiverse, the Primal Spirits came to their rescue, or the rescue of the worlds. However, on Athas everything was different. The Spirits were different. The land was different.
I've seen countless planes. Nowhere, anywhere the mortal races are so gifted in the powers of the mind as they are here. Some say it's evolution - some say they improve to fight back the planet. I say they're untainted by perception. They have no external power to believe in, so they believe nothing, and instead they just see. The Mind Eye - quite literally. Athasians can exert the power of the mind over the world because there is no veil, no lie between their minds and Athas. No gods.
The Gods didn't die. The Gods realized what Athas is.
They fled.
----------
Absolom had been silent, his mouth still open in disbelief.
They had reached an opening in the side of the mountain, a natural cavern that looked right over the windswept sea of sand that surrounded New Guistenal.
"My Lord, if what you say it's true.. that power... we must seize it. We must unleashed it. The Coruscation.. it's..."
"It's nothing. It's the past. We will not return to the surface, we will not return to the light. We will collapse the surface dwellers in the true heart of Athas. We shall bring the Darkness." Dregoth's voice was calm, yet a note of excitement started to resound in it.
"Then we shall leave, my Lord. We need to find the Far Realm. You need to go there before anyone finds out!"
Dregoth looked at the sand, and then down, as if he could see through it, through the rocks and earth and the immovable stone of the submerged mountains.
"Absolom, I just did."
The High Priest stared at the sand in shock. The world was suddenly silent, and in that silence, as the howling of the desert wind slowly escaped his reality, he could hear something linger, an howling of a different kind.
The Sorcerer King started walking again.
"We will dig, as far as it's needed. One thousand able bodied slaves will be prepared. The Dragon will have his levy, and we will feed him with something that will open his eyes forever. Preparations must be done".
Absolom raced after his God.
"My Lord! What of the others? They will find out. They will hunt us out! If they discover your plan, if words of your return comes to their ears..."
Absolom could hear Dregoth laughing.
The Dragon King kept walking, his every step more thunderous than the previous. The howling sounds raised more and more, till Absolom had to fall on his knees, holding his hands on his ears.
Dregoth was changing. One by one, the pieces of his armor fell off, or where shot away by the incredible force of his shapeshifting body. A moment later, the massive form of the Dracolich was filling the cavern... and yet something was different about him. Something flailed around his skeletal tail. In the darkness, eyes could be seen glittering on the surface of his wings, and when the dragon reared back and roared, a mass of tentacles erupted from his ribcage.
Let... them.... come!
(So what if Athas IS the Far Realm. Maybe in the core of the planet - the Athasian version of the Underdark? - or maybe in the dying suns. What if Gods fled from Athas, instead of being killed, because Athas is at the center of something that even they fear? What if the powers of the mind, and Borys' madness, and the alien looking creatures are a consequence of the vicinity of the plane of madness?
Could make for some interesting adventures. Athas probably would have never been different. No idilliac, high fantasy days, just an eternity of survival while the planet breeds its monstruosities to invade the multiverse. What if the Dragon Kings were "merely" picked by the mutated evolution to become candidates for the Far Realm's version of divinity, and Borys was becoming the herald of such army?
And please, pardon the stuttering english, it's not my first language).
I also love the idea. Thankyou for sharing!
It's well-written, and what quirks there are in your language are consistent and, I thought, artistic. Nothing compromised its understandability.
I also love the idea. Thankyou for sharing!
Thanks, it was pretty fun to write it because to me the Far Realm is one of the definite lore improvements in 4th edition, and I always was fascinated by the idea of linking it to Athas... and this was a way that sort of made sense. People having psionic powers because of the vicinity of the Far Realm, the lack of deities due to the fact that Athas is deadly to them too, and even more importantly, the heroes being unknowingly the last line of defence between something that risks to consume the entire multiverse and whole planes who either ignore their existance or consider them useless.
Plus, it would give me the chance to play an horror-style DS game. Lovecraftian themes work exceptionally well in primitive, history-is-a-mistery, I-don't-really-know-how-old-and-deep-this-dungeon-is settings.
Good enough to keep me interested through the entire read and a very interesting spin on athas. Good job!
It's well-written, and what quirks there are in your language are consistent and, I thought, artistic. Nothing compromised its understandability.
I also love the idea. Thankyou for sharing!
Thanks, it was pretty fun to write it because to me the Far Realm is one of the definite lore improvements in 4th edition, and I always was fascinated by the idea of linking it to Athas... and this was a way that sort of made sense. People having psionic powers because of the vicinity of the Far Realm, the lack of deities due to the fact that Athas is deadly to them too, and even more importantly, the heroes being unknowingly the last line of defence between something that risks to consume the entire multiverse and whole planes who either ignore their existance or consider them useless.
Plus, it would give me the chance to play an horror-style DS game. Lovecraftian themes work exceptionally well in primitive, history-is-a-mistery, I-don't-really-know-how-old-and-deep-this-dungeon-is settings.
It's perfect. Really. I just imagine throwing this dialogue at my players when they reach, I don't know, level 29 - after months, years, of slowly telling them what is supposed to be the ''real'' Athasian history.
You wouldn't mind if I steal this, would you?
By the way, what is your first language?? The spelling and grammar are almost perfect in the text.
It's well-written, and what quirks there are in your language are consistent and, I thought, artistic. Nothing compromised its understandability.
I also love the idea. Thankyou for sharing!
Thanks, it was pretty fun to write it because to me the Far Realm is one of the definite lore improvements in 4th edition, and I always was fascinated by the idea of linking it to Athas... and this was a way that sort of made sense. People having psionic powers because of the vicinity of the Far Realm, the lack of deities due to the fact that Athas is deadly to them too, and even more importantly, the heroes being unknowingly the last line of defence between something that risks to consume the entire multiverse and whole planes who either ignore their existance or consider them useless.
Plus, it would give me the chance to play an horror-style DS game. Lovecraftian themes work exceptionally well in primitive, history-is-a-mistery, I-don't-really-know-how-old-and-deep-this-dungeon-is settings.
It's perfect. Really. I just imagine throwing this dialogue at my players when they reach, I don't know, level 29 - after months, years, of slowly telling them what is supposed to be the ''real'' Athasian history.
You wouldn't mind if I steal this, would you?
By the way, what is your first language?? The spelling and grammar are almost perfect in the text.
I'm italian, and yes sure, steal away. I shared it for a reason
.