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The Deathlords: Unsung Heroes of Creation

To the average person, the Deathlords are figures of darkness and mystery. Some, such as the Mask of Winters, are feared and mistrusted, while others, like the Silver Prince, are merely not understood. To the Sidereals, the Deathlords are horrors that must be defeated.

But there is a secret truth to the world, one of which no one dares speak.

Oblivion: The Font of Devastation

In the time before time, when the Wyld was everywhere and nowhere, there was a second force in the universe: Oblivion. Energy was constantly created in the Wyld, spinning itself from nothing, and falling into Oblivion, and, in the sense that a primal force of nothingness can be content, Oblivion was. It was not as though it thought, in such a sense, but it existed.

However, then the Primordials came and screwed everything up. In their constant battles with the Fair Folk, they created an island of rules in the Wyld, and they called it Creation. And they set their devices to help Creation grow, so that they could rest and be safe from their endless wars.

Oblivion was not amused.

This was something that was not simply returning to nothing. It endured. Oblivion began to send energy into the world, trying to destroy it.

Stygia

The Primordials were annoyed by the constant damage being done to their Creation. Finally, one of them volunteered to go down into the depths of the world, and stand at the gate between Creation and the Void. She was Stygia, the Eternal Guardian, and her footsteps echoed on the stairs of the Labyrinth as she sealed it away, protecting Creation forever - or so she hoped. The Primordials, selfish and lazy, were happy enough to forget about her. Only Autochthon ever deigned to visit her, learning as he always did.

When the Primordial War began, the gods had only the faintest idea of Stygia's existance, and Autochthon conspired to keep them from her, knowing her importance to Creation. As the war raged above, Stygia was untouched by either side, and unknown. However, the deaths of Primordials was a terrible thing, and it roused her. As each Primordial died, they smashed through the world enroute to Oblivion. Creation could not recycle them, and so they tore through its mechanisms and fell into Oblivion. In their wake, Oblivion began to whisper, seeping into the world.

Desperate, Stygia crafted a new creation, something to act as a buffer between Creation and Oblivion. This Underworld acted as a mirror for Creation, containing and weakening Oblivion. Still, as more Primordials died, she knew it could not last, and she went to Autochthon and Gaia, warning them of the danger to their world. Not wanting to lose everything, the Primordial usurpers argued on behalf of their defeated brethern with the gods, and the defeated were bound away instead of murdered. Stygia returned to her duties, defending the weakened borders as best she could.

Deathlords

For a time, all was well. Stygia was effectively capable of guarding the gates of the world, and the High First Age was a time when death was carefully regulated, and energy returned to Creation. The Underworld was faint and barely needed, and Stygia was happy to keep it that way. A few Solars began to explore it, learning the ways of necromancy, and she allowed it, knowing that it could become useful to her later.

Her foresight paid off during the Usurpation. Millions died as the Dragon-Blooded overthrew the Solars, and the fabric of the Underworld buckled yet again. Stygia, knowing that she could not handle all of the growing problems, came to a decision. She approached the most compassionate and sane of the dying Solars, and explained the problem to them. She called on them to defend Creation once again, as they had done while alive. Most refused, either out of tiredness, anger, or simple paranoia, but a few accepted, and the Deathlords were born.

The Contagion

The Deathlords guarded against Oblivion for hundreds of years, protecting an unsuspecting Creation, but their guard finally slipped, and a splinter of Oblivion got into the world. It spread into a disease that nearly destroyed everything, as the Fair Folk rose to take advantage of that pain. When the Contagion spread, it even infected the Jade Prison of the Solars, working its way into unprotected Essence Shards. Frightened and desperate, the Deathlords moved. Taking the shards, they began to try and repair them.

Abyssals

The process was nearly impossible. Many shards were irreparibly damaged, and Stygia had little knowledge of how to work them. Finally, after repairing what shards they could, the Deathlords released them back into Creation, and turned their attention to the remaining Shards, too damaged to ever be whole again. Instead of fixing them, they did the next-best thing they could think of; they fused them with the power of the Underworld, changing them forever, filling their holes with dark power. The new Abyssals were sworn in as the guardians of the Underworld, as the Deathlords became increasingly vigilant in their desire to keep Oblivion from the world.

Tactics

Ultimately, the Deathlords fall into two camps. One camp seeks only to use the resources of the Underworld against Oblivion, taking the scraps of the dead to defend themselves. The other seeks the aid and power of the living, controlling shadowlands even as they try to shrink them and using people on both sides of the shroud to fight. The first camp includes such Deathlords as Eye And Seven Despairs, the Dowager, and the First and Forsaken Lion, who furiously battles Oblivion to forget his own shame and humiliation at what he became in the First Age. The second camp includes such Deathlords as the Silver Prince, the Mask of Winters, and the Bishop.

Deathlords

Lord Of The Dying Land

A few years back, not long after the shards were repaired or changed, the city of Thorns embarked on a mad quest. Unbeknownst to most of its population, the king, furious about the loss of his armies, attempted to begin work on a deadly weapon, forging a hole directly to Oblivion that he could use against the Scavenger Lands, aided by a Third Circle soul of Adorjan and an Infernal Sidereal. The Mask of Winters learned of the plot only as the spell began to take hold, and he marched on the city of Thorns in a desperate bid to prevent all of the East from being engulfed in Oblivion. He was only partially successful.

Now, Thorns is a massive Shadowland, and the Labyrinth writhes under the city. The Mask is forced to use constant necromancy to prevent the Labyrinth from spreading further, even as the Shadowlands around the nation slowly engulf it. Their rate of expansion is slowing, and soon the Mask believes that it will be safe to leave the city, but in the meantime he is left with a rebellious population that does not believe his reasons for attacking the city, a host of new enemies, and a vunerable position. Time will tell if he can succeed in his mission...

Beauty And The Beast

Not long after the Contagion, three bands of refugees met near a vast Shadowland. That Shadowland was owned by the Deathlord known as Princess Magnificant With Lips of Coral And Robes Of Black Feathers. Princess Magnificant did not want people living near her shadowland; cynical after all the years of her unlife, she felt that this would encourage the spread of death in the region, destabilizing an already-dangerous area. However, when she approached the three spirits and strongly suggested that they leave, they refused. Tired and worn-out, their people had to remain, or they would die.

Princess Magnificant was proud and fierce, unwilling to compromise with the living creatures that, though she protected them, she felt no kinship to. She vowed to destroy them if they continued to remain within her territory, and to Oblivion with the consequences - if the deaths expanded the shadowland, so be it. She would not have these pathetic godlings on her territory. The magics that the three spirits shaped, however, created a tale that drew Stygia's attention to the rapidly collapsing situation.

Stygia was less than amused with Princess's vow.

The Primordial Stygia should not be confused with a kind and beneficant creator, and she very nearly unmade Princess Magnificant on the spot for daring to skirt the edges of Oblivion as she did. Only direct intervention by the First And Forsaken Lion, who had loved the Princess when alive and felt for her still, saved her from obliteration. Instead, Stygia forced the Princess to withdraw, leaving the spirits with the impression that their magic had won them victory, and bound her to serve the Lion in all things, until she learned the humility that she was sorely lacking.

Now, Princess Magnificant lives in the great castle commanded by the Lion, acting as his primary lieutenant. Although he loves her, he will not approach her save when necessary, for he remains filled with the shame of his actions in the First Age and considers himself unworthy of her. For her part, the Princess remains proud and haughty, and cannot bring herself to consider the Lion's feelings so long as she remains his servant; she interprets everything that he does as disdain for her, not love. The two seem locked into an eternity of suffering, unless one or the other can break from the cycle. However, ghosts change only with great difficulty, and how long it may be until the Princess walks free, none can say.

Troubles On A Troubled Mind

Long ago, the Bishop of the Chalcedony Thurible realized that there was something critical that could damage Oblivion's campaign. People became ghosts because they feared death. Ironically, if they were prepared to die, they could reincarnate more quickly. To that end, he began to spread cults across Creation whose precepts argued for a better world after life ended, trying to halt the spread of fear, which led to Oblivion.

Then came Ten Thousand Virtues.

The Sidereal offered to help the Bishop with his plan, giving as his reason a desire to see natural death continue across Creation. In truth, however, Ten Thousand Virtues was corrupt and tainted, touched by the raw might of Oblivion. He slowly perverted and twisted the Bishop's cults, even as he shielded their transformation from the Bishop himself. The Bishop, in turn, became ever-more solitary, ever-more cut off from the world.

Now, the Bishop's cults serve Oblivion, and the other Deathlords are beginning to wonder just why his domains are so poorly controlled. The Bishop himself sits alone, his sanity ebbing away as he lives in his own memories and imagines himself to be victorious. Soon, the time will come for Ten Thousand Virtues to place all the blame for the damage on his fallen master, the better to betray and destroy another Deathlord in his stead.

Oblivion must be fed, after all.

And The Seas Shall Boil

The Bodhisattva Anointed By Dark Waters has created a utopia for the dead. His efforts keep them from Oblivion by tying them to the living, and the living exist only to serve the dead. At the same time, the power of Skullstone in Creation cannot be denied. The Silver Prince is skirting the edges of Stygia's wrath, by the degree to which he meddles in the affairs of Creation. However, the deftness with which he fights Oblivion has bought him much leeway, which he uses gleefully to expand his power base while battling nephwracks and other monstrosities.

The truth is darker, however. The Prince has only one goal: to continue to exist as he did when alive. To that end, he enjoys battling Oblivion, as it gives him an eternal foe, but he is beginning to believe that he could do so just as easily without Stygia breathing down his neck. If the time comes for him to organize a challenge against the Primordial, he could conceivably succeed, and Creation would burn...

Comments

I like this. This is really cool. But I wonder, what is the story behind Princess Longname then? And would some of these Deathlords have succumbed to the power of Oblivion? - Tiffa

Good ideas; I'll add more stuff for the other Deathlords. >:) - FrivYeti

"...filling their holes with dark power..." Is that the way it's gonna be, now? - braincraft

Nice. I threw up something like this some time ago at JesseLowe/AlternateAbyssals; if I ever run such a game, I'll probably swipe some of the ideas here. -- JesseLowe