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Techni-coloured BloodBath
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 Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 11:08 am
[Yes, I know she looks more like a girl now. Those pics are supposed to be reversed (the hooded one is her in disguise)...
I assumed you guys didn't want to spent an unnessisarily long amount of time in the caravan, so maybe we'd go through the desert quickly.]
Jaeto scratched his head. "Um... let's see..." He paused to think for a moment. What was the princess like? She hardly ever acted like herself, so it was hard to say. "I know she likes watching boys play sports and train for the army... It helps her know how to act like a boy... She's nice... and quiet... and-" Jaeto almost choked on his words as the caravan started rocking. He lost his train of thought so he stopped talking.
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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 11:28 am
"Lovely." Hashmal said, "In Draon society, we had a council decide matters... They were all fools... Gender didn't matter in terms of politics or social standing..." She seemed immobile even during the bumps.
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Techni-coloured BloodBath
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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 11:31 am
"It wasn't because she was a girl. It was because she was born with non-royal blood." Jaeto muttered. His head hurt.
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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 11:34 am
"Then how is she the heir to the throne?" Hashmal blinked, "Monarchies rely on royal bloodlines, unlike the republic the Draons maintained..."
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Techni-coloured BloodBath
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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 11:37 am
Jaeto tried to make himself more comfortable by sitting away from the wall so he wouldn't bump into it each time the place shook. "Because the king loved his daughter despite her blood. He heired it to her but the citizens didn't approve. The king had no other children... Calisto would have made a fine queen, in my opinion."
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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 11:42 am
"Was she adopted or is the King her biological father. Half-royal is still royal... There should have been no problem with her taking her rightful place. Ah, but that's looking at it with Draon ideals. You humans don't believe in such equality." The Dark Knight leaned back, grinning to herself under the helmet. She'd just insulted humanity to state her point.
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Techni-coloured BloodBath
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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 11:51 am
"You're right." Jaeto agreed. The monarchy in Cal's home town was horrifically fauled. "The princess was concieved by the king's first wife... while he was away for a few months for business. They seperated for obvious reasons... Since her mother is no longer queen, and she had no biological connection to the king the citizens didn't feel she should take over. But the whole war over it is rediculous... It's not up to the populous... it's up to the king. It's a shame he died before officially appointing her. If he had, this whole mess would have never started."
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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 11:58 am
"Someone should just go and slaughter the naysayers..." Hashmal had a dangerous tone, as if offering her 'services' for just that purpose. "Or maybe just one of the big ones... that would shut up anyone else immediately. Fear is a powerful motivator. Imagine if the Princess returned with the dreaded Dark Knight of legend as her support. It would be enough to make an army quake in fear."
(I'm not sure Jaeto knows Hashmal is the Dark Knight... she looks like a reptilian in heavy plate... with glowing eyes...)
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Techni-coloured BloodBath
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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 12:55 pm
[I JUST realized that I might have stomped all over what Jaeto originally said about the princess. She's supposed to be born out of wedlock... What I said, does that still constitute as wedlock? I don't think it does...]
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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 7:51 pm
"For the brief time we've known each other, this is the first thing we've agreed on something, Knight." Farfarello didn't much mind the bumping, though he would regret it later on tomorrow when he was sore all over.
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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 8:27 pm
Hashmal blinked, "Well, I wouldn't be surprised if we agreed on more... I find humans to be rather stupid, killing each other for the most trivial of reasons... Like the story of the two men and a single gem... unwilling to share the prize, they kill each other." she chuckled to herself, "Were it Draons, the wealth would have been divided... and I believe a demon would snatch it when the other turned away..."
She nodded to herself, "I would have given up on them, were it not for Elysia... She was... different."
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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 8:43 pm
"I find them rather amusing. I do know some that would go after a rock of the earth, but I see no value in such a trinket. The things I seek cannot be seen. Material things just get in the way..." Farfarello smirked, dying to turn around and see the expression Jaeto was wearing at the blatant attacks and insults on his kind, but instead addressed Hashmal once more, "Who is this Lady Elysia? I've heard a great deal about her, but I don't quite understand. What did she do that was so great?"
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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 9:06 pm
"Lady Elysia was a Magi of incredible talent. Nobody knows where she came from, only that she wandered the lands and doing acts of kindness towards the less fortunate. She then received a gem from me for saving my life... A gem of pure Arcanicite, which enhanced her powers greatly. It was then that she stated her real purpose..." Hashmal paused, letting the words sink in, "She was out to fix an imbalance of Deep Magic. Normally this task was done by a keeper at one of five locations in Mythicaa... but they were long dead. She had set out on her own for this task... She moved from each area, solving the imbalance in each area... Her actions made her a hero... as she neared the last temple, she fixed the last balance, but the toll of all the areas was too much for her... The keepers weren't human, and they barely survived correcting an imbalance, but she did all five within a year. When the last balance was restored, the Deep magic she'd absorbed exploded... She flared up. Some mistook her for becoming a goddess and ascending to the heavens." Hashmal laughed bitterly, "In reality, the force of her magic caused her to indeed ascend, but not into a god... She became something in between, and was scattered apart into fragments. The life force, the one thing capable of restoring her to power was split in two... one half is in the artifact called Elysia's gem... the last is in the blood of a human family, who was entrusted with the gem by a phantom of Elysia."
Hashmal looked at the demon, "But the other fragments of essence can materialize as phantoms, which appear angelic, but are far darker. without her spirit, they take another's as their own, becoming twisted things... which are known as White Wraiths... I believe even you demons fear them..."
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Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 1:20 am
Ephlas left the next room he had entered just as fast. It was incredulous, the variety of Deep Magic traces that had been detected... the sample of 'air' needed to be destroyed, immediately. Having it near the body was like having an Intravenous wire of lead slowly dripping - seeping - into your body. This was, obviously, bad.
Unless there had been a major remodeling in the years that Ephlas had been away, the tower that rose above the Magic Academy had a simple architecture and layout. The tower had floors each dedicated to a specific purpose - not all of them magical, some scientific (such as an astronomy observatory) - and a central spire around which everything was located.
This 'center' or 'core' was a burning inferno, which served as a power source to the less... moderate, of the scientific endeavors.
Of course, this might be changed around some, but Ephlas knew there was still a giant furnace on the lowest basement level, whatever that may be now.
It was a magical fire, powered by four different sources. The mountain of coal dumped into it was one source. The mote of ether was another. This provided a tiny, minuscule droplet of ethereal flame, which tinted the red fire a blue tint. Third source, would be the magical dragonfire stone. This was a legendary artifact that had stories around it far older than Elysia and her gem. It spoke of the dragons that had supposedly roamed the world, before the rise of humans, many, many centuries before even Elysia's time. It spoke of a war....
The dragonfire stone was an incredible source of the power of fire - and there were rumored four other such artifacts, each an unmatchable source of power for that element.
But, that story is for another time. However, the flames produced by the dragonfire stone are green, just for the sake of description.
The fourth power source for the massive flame was a prototype device that sought to duplicate the dragonfire stone's power by channeling the Deep Magic that was in all air, no matter how thin. It failed miserably, but was a breakthrough in channeling the ominpresent Deep Magic. I say breakthrough, because channeling Deep Magic by machine was not possible before this device. It still isn't practical, at any rate.
But back to the present.
Ephlas walked directly into the forge fire, ignoring his extremely uncomfortable proximity to the deadly mix of multicolored flames. The vial full of air from the Gravity Mines - whatever was in it, was glowing a bright white now.
Ephlas threw the phial (vial?) into the flames - more because he couldn't hold it any longer, than because his mind was made up and resolute about what he had been about to do.
The flames multiplied exponentially, no doubt causing an energy surge everywhere else in the tower. This energy was magical by nature, and so able to be tapped almost anywhere in said tower. Ephlas had just performed a very dangerous deed.
But the results were very interesting, to say the least. When the fire had died down to its usual strength (taking more than a minute to do so), all that remained of the glass container of air was a shining, black rock.
Black, somehow, because of a chemical reaction to the intense flames. Shiny, because tiny motes of glass were dispersed throughout its structure.
The rock, or stone, to say more accurately, was big enough to fit comfortably in two cupped hands. It glittered every color imaginable in the intense firelight, and Ephlas had to invoke a simple spell to cause it to fly to his hands, from out of the fire.
Ethereal fire was a great danger to Magi, when uncontrolled. Unlike regular fire, there was no possible way to remain unharmed from it. And - even more dangerous - Eldritch Flame, derived from ethereal fire (or so some scholars think) - is pure destruction, Armageddon by ice.
Ephlas peered deep into the textured layers of this black stone. It wasn't smooth, but neither was it jagged. Ah, time to examine it more closely, later. The entire Academy - and possibly some concerned officials from the palace - would be curious and possibly a little angry at him now.
It didn't matter. He had a huge find, whatever that may be. And doubtless, scholar, scientist, Magi, and royal guard would all try to deprive him of this... thing, for their own use. Which was dangerous, but men were greedy and naive.
Ephlas couldn't claim to be exempt from this natural flaw of their race, but he honestly wasn't interested in resisting who he, at base nature, was. He just sought a more... intellectual path through life.
Or so he had thought at one time. Magic seemed to find him wherever he went, giving him little choice but to make his profession in it.
Which raised a related but completely insignificant question at the time: What did Ephlas actually do for an income?
Other times, my friend. Ephlas was already out of the basement and into the main lobby, on the ground floor. His goals were to get out, and to leave for Rantuinne immediately, by whatever means of travel.
If (for the story's sake) Clem wished to intercept Ephlas, to travel with him or whatever comes to mind, this would be the one and only time to do so.
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Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 1:23 am
Dakon entered the palace through... some means, anyway, and walked straight in upon the scene between the two elves and his Royal Majesty of Rantuinne.
May I also mention that the elves, while also implementing government through a monarchy, as well used a Parliament?
~
Where was Tanessa, Cedric, and the other Magus? Shall we just say that, by now, they'd made their pilgrimage to Eopia?
((Still waiting for Duke Elmire's thoughts on the Baeltian-Favraes situation.))
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