Latest revision as of 17:11, 8 June 2010

Engines of Destruction: The Deathlords of the Fourth Age

The Deathlords of the Now, save for one, have no recollection of the Days Before. They were born in the beginning of the Age of Reason, and somehow horribly slain in life, leaving their higher soul to languish in the Underworld until Lethe finally washed away their pain... or that was what should have happened. Instead, these broken souls were found by the Nightmare and given power and majesty, the very natures of these beings twisted to suit the Nightmare's goals and desires. The one that remembers lived before the Purge, a pivotal tool in the Yozi-stoked War of Providence, and needed little to inflame her hatred; she was already beyond sanity and reason.

The Seven Stages of Death

• The Hollow King, He That Refuses Creation's Truths

The Deathlord of Denial was a young, daring and extremely capable leader and tactician in the nascent era of the present Age---unExalted and unBlooded but nonetheless one of the most talented mortals alive at the time. His only major flaw lay in the fact that he made one grand plan... and never allowed for deviations. His own hubris had grown to intense levels, and he had up to that point never had a battle plan fail, for none outside could match his skill and none within his own ranks would dare deviate from the given plans.

That would change on one fateful day. He had never anticipated mutiny from within, and before he could even ponder what was going on, he was poisoned during a hasty dinner in the fifteenth day of a military campaign. As his skin turned black and his eyes clouded, he cursed his betrayers and cried out for their complete destruction.

The next day, a Circle of mixed Exalted obliterated the remnants of the King's army.

As for the King's high soul, it languished in the Underworld, destitute yet immensely powerful, drowning his domain in a chilling darkness that eventually attracted the Nightmare, specifically an agent of The Bones. Feeding on his desire to rebuild his empire and return to glory, the agent brought the King before his core self... and six years later, the first of the Deathlords made a shocking appearance in the Southern regions of the Underworld, crushing cities and enslaving numerous ghosts for labor and soulsteel generation. He hasn't stopped since, although the actions of the Dual Monarchy (and most recently, the Fallen Exalted) have stopped his expansion in the Underworld. Of course, the Hollow King has his eyes set on Creation now...

The Hollow King is a pitch-black giant of a man, standing fifteen feet tall and clad in armor made from the bones of a massive underworld horror that he slew with his bare hands. He is regal, and yet unspeakably terrifying, both in stature and thanks to the immense blade he carries, The Fall of Man. At long as he is tall, and a full five feet broad, the Fall tears through the dead before the edge even connects... but neither it or the King himself can harm the living. Nor, incidentally, can the living harm him; he denies the might of even the greatest of the Creation, but Creation denies his murderous majesty at the same time. He is unaware of this to the point of hilarious delusion, believing those who live that are struck with his blade eternally slain.

• The Rabid Dragon, She That Rages Across Creation

The Deathlord of Anger remembers. She remembers it all. The joy, the work, the agony, the endless pain and pleasure and emptiness. She remembers how she was used, a puppet to end all puppets. She remembers how with a word and gesture that were given to her from powers beyond her understanding, she tore apart the Third Age, sending it spiralling dangerously towards Oblivion... or worse. And she remembers how, finally, a daiklave ended up in her heart, ending her mortal days.

This tortured soul was held away from the Purge by powers unknown, and found herself within the newly-formed Underworld alone and without a single grave good to her name. For year after year, she simply lay motionless in her new home, running the events of her past over and over in her mind with a clarity that was unnatural for the Dead. Without much warning, the specter of what had once been the Scarlet Empress rose, stalked towards a place that only her unbeating heart knew of, and found the Nightmare... and power beyond even her imagining.

She is the only Deathlord that regularly ventures to Creation to pick fights with entire shadowlands, and she is most certainly built for the task. At 'peace', she is a hauntingly beautiful woman dressed in scarlet and adorned with jade... but with empty pits for eyes, a constant flow of blood pouring down her pale cheeks. When she is enraged (and this is often), she takes the form of a gargantuan cross between a behemoth and a tyrant lizard with fangs, claws and spines of soulsteel and red jade. With unfettered strength, deceptive speed and city-razing pyreflame breath, the Rabid Dragon, once every season, appears in Creation for a day and wreaks absolute havoc---she has been 'defeated' before, but simply reincorporates in the Underworld, waiting for her next rampage. Her ire is especially fierce for the Dragon-blooded, despising their close ties to the Elemental Dragons and hating them simply because she can.

• The Lost Bride, She That Drowns Creation In Her Tears
• The Joyous Sage, He That Smiles At Creation's Gift
• The Eager Baron, He That Purchases Creation's Secrets
• The Silent Retainer, He That Creation's Weight Crushes
• The Broken Doll, She That Mends from Creation's Ire

History and Assorted Information

• Echostone and Soulsteel: The might of ghostly desire, the agony of eternal torment.

• back to The Age of Reason

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