In the main tiline, we watched the first skirmishes on the Isle of Kheper start as imperial expansionists on both sides of the fighting lines started suiting actions to words. It was a magical world, and magic was on the side of the Delphans, but Siricil had its own fair share of Casters and had a very strong martial culture. There was no doubt whatsoever that things were going to escalate, as there were too many forces on both sides that wanted this fight… and Entropics around were pushing it forward, too.
On the Other Shore, I watched the careers of the Gallivants start taking off, and Sif and Thor as well.
As normal in worlds where going Wide wasn’t permitted, and with such basic Classes, rate of advancent was actually fairly quick, even if Avatars and Hagbloods were cheating as much as possible and going as Wide as they could with extra Feats and Masteries. Not needing any form of training was naturally extrely nice as well, all they needed was practice and raw Karma to reclaim what they’d had before.
Their romps through the Doomrose Dungeon earned them plenty of basic loot, fighting experience, tactical practice, and experience with different configurations with one another. Thor and Sif were given honorary mberships in the group of Avatars, as they were the only ones with truly godly nas, which never failed to earn so ironic laughs and comnts.
The Gallivants were normally in two teams within the Dungeon, changing up as whim and need took them, using the ti wisely to improved Nad Weapons and Armor.
Molniya did make one change to her primary gear out, switching to a Spear as primary over the Axe that was Valus’ primary Weapon. Valus was also a spear master in his role as a Hunter of Monsters, but it fit far more as the weapon of a virtual Erhiar… and nothing said it could not also double as a Glaive if need be.
Molniya wasn’t going to be a shield-maiden, but given her future image, a spear for a thunderbolt fit better for her than an axe… but an Axe would do just fine for her secondary weapon.
As weeks beca months and then years, their skill and abilities grew, their acclaim among the adventurers who dared the Dungeon did as well… and then they began to extend outside the Dungeon, starting in the lands around Firerose that once would have ford the heartlands of where I grew up in, and now were mostly wild and untracked lands occupied by ruins, monstrous creatures, a lot of undead… and new races being brought into the world by Immortals taking advantage of a lot of death to insert their favorites into the mix.
That included Nifloids, as the Immortal Hierarch simply didn’t want to give up on her pet creations and all the havoc they could be capable of, but our extermination of them in the North had severely hampered their early population growth and expansion.
Into the empty spots had surged these new races, as well as a lot of petty human warlords, bandits, and barbarians, with Entropics happy to sponsor their savagery as civilization broke down in so many places. Primitive and brutal races, like jotuns, garls, and veerbeg proliferated, while xvarts, wulfen, and various types of lizard n began to expand their numbers around the world.
There was room to grow, there was fighting to be done, and if the nifloids weren’t there to conveniently provide beatsticks, other Immortals were happy to take up the slack and insert their own protagonists to do so.
The morlocks seed to have caught the eye of soone, for they turned up about ninety years after the Doom, coming out of the caves and tunnels that were once ho to the nifloids, but were now located further south and opened into lands destroyed by civil war, violence, and cataclysm. Soon they and other tribes of primitives, like the garl and even violent neanderthals, ape-n, and the like were setting up territories in lands once held by Iberon and other parties, even encroaching on the remnants of the Erto tribes, who found that their aggressive and martial natures suddenly had sothing else to pay attention to in this hostile world.
It didn’t take long before the lands now north and west of Doomrose and its fiery Ringlands were occupied by savage tribes, while the newer races made more appearances overseas.
I recollected that the rakasta cat-folk and the lupin dog-folk weren’t brought into being for at least another two thousand years, and just resolved to wait until they did co about.
Bullywugs were rising in strength in so swamp areas now. Troglodytes were laying claim to caverns that once nifloids would have used, and competing with morlocks to do so. The serpent-folk were rising on other continents, spurred by the new nifloids intruding on their buried lairs and ancient sites, rising to fight them and take back a world which had outgrown them… and their dinosaur mounts and servants certainly made such things a bit more of a fight than anyone wanted.
Empires fell apart into warring kingdoms, were overrun, fought back, migrated, new ones were established, and wars and battles were happening across the world.
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Into the violent chaos of this ti ca the Gallivants, including Sif and Thor.
Where they went, they beat back the threats. They taught people to co together, to recover the knowledge lost by cataclysm and strife, and taught them to face the morning of a new day and hope again.
They were here, there, and everywhere. The Mirror-Portal could deliver them anywhere around the world they were needed to spread word of the Salute and the Church of the Morning, and with them ca word of Spock and the Master Shef, and the Postal Guy. Explorers daring to venture out into a new unknown, and those who held a safe place for such daring travelers, and those who traveled between them, knitting communities together who had fallen apart.
I watched their legends rise with their deeds. There were adventures into lairs of savagery and evil, there were battles and raids with tribes of savages, lizard-folk, and new humanoids, and there were wars and battles with all the servants of Immortals clawing for a place and power in this new world, at the expense of anyone and everyone else.
The Gallivants ca to fight them, and as they did, their legends grew. Various irked or interested Immortals sent servants, minions, beasts, and aught else to test them or kill them, and those servants died again, and again, and again. They only added to the legends of the powers of the Avatars and drove more people to follow them, as they were shining lights against the darkness and proved it repeatedly.
On the other side, my na grew more distant in mortal circles… but grew more well-known in other ones.
Cirruluxul’s na and position also spread. She was not a Dragon Queen, she could not possibly be one at her age, but with behind her, she had no difficulty cowing, commanding, and ruling over her elders, although she acted as a ruler and took only the hoards of those who challenged her.
It hadn’t been a large number, these last twenty years, but it didn’t need to be a large number when it was the hoards of dragons. Her wealth spilled out behind the throne she lay upon to sleep, greater than the hoards of the most ancient wyrms who dwelled in the Firelands. To a dragon, it was horribly exposed, as if any thieving magpie could co in and make off with a coin.
Never a coin was touched by thieving Fey or Elental, although it was not for trying. Most simply didn’t survive entry uninvited into the Throne Chamber, and those that did usually ended up in the jaws or her, Duum, or the unseen servitors that visiting dragons could sense but not see about the place.
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It was plenty hard to miss the arrival of The Sun Dragon.
Opal was his given na, and he reigned over all the dragons of Neutrality. Said dragons were, on average, the weakest of the three main lines, with Gold/Amber and Red/Ruby dragons on the sides of Chaos and Law all being stronger than the Blues who were strongest of Neutrality.
It did not matter, since he was not the weakest of the Dragon Rulers, that status falling to Pearl, the Moon Dragon. No Great Wyrm was going to challenge him unless it was ti to die or ascend, and any such effrontery or rudeness would be punished for what it was.
His roar upon arrival at the Firelands rang out across it and drew even the most isolationist wyrms from their slumber and out to the entry of their caves to greet him in return. Glowing and shining with the splendor of rainbows radiating from the center of each great pristine white scale, trailing fla and light, he flew past the outer Rings of Fire, supre and unchallenged by any of the very territorial dragons who lived there, in so of the most desired lair locations in the world.
He was followed by four Blue great wyrms, two of each gender, and a great wyrm of White, Onyx, and Jade as well. By itself, his entourage held more strength than the wyrms and great wyrms of the Rings combined!
The dragons took wing after their liege, who did not disallow them. This was a matter of dragons, and it would have witnesses!
Opal flew directly for the center of the Rings, and the Castle wound about with stones of rose with fire falling from it at the center of it all. He gazed upon the magic of the Castle there… and he almost paused as he read the power of what was present.
This… this was magic an Immortal might envy!
He had intended to sweep into the Castle atop its mount, enduring any mortal magic without effort by spending so Immortal Power, gliding directly into the central chamber in a show of might and dominance.
Above the Castle, the lightning sparking intermittently there began to flash… crimson, leaving winding black trails in the air that looked like thorned vines.
Opal, The Sun Dragon, checked his lofty ambitions once again. He could feel the eyes upon him from that storm, and it was very, very clearly conveying that he and his showy display was not welco here.
He looked upon the Castle, and saw there was a grand archway and landing platform, although no road to the central keep seed to exist. His information indicated that dragons who wished to speak to the Lady of the Castle perched upon this platform and called out, as if they were re mortal supplicants before a bipedal king.
He was no re supplicant! He was a Dragon Ruler! “I am Opal, The Sun Dragon!” he thundered out, his head high. “Co forth and greet !” he demanded.
Two things happened at once.
There was a BOOM, as a dozen strokes of lightning went off at once and converged on two points. He could see the air sweeping towards himself, but he could not stop it.
The clap of thunder hit like a tornado. Every dragon flying over the Inner Ring was blasted away, from the greatest of wyrms to the least hatchling, all with equal indifference. They went tumbling through the sky helplessly, trying to catch their balance, all pride and regal power destroyed.
Crimson lightning circled about two swirling nimbi of black clouds in the air, crackling with sharp, unnatural notes that pricked at scales and any eyes that dared to look upon them. The nearest native wyrms all averted their gazes and kept their distance as a pale swirl of winds filled out a rough seeming of a face, and clouds black as ink poured down about the rough approximation of a face there.
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