Kurts
Prince
Posts: 3,760
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Post by Kurts on Mar 28, 2015 18:46:59 GMT -5
"Titles and thrones have borders and laws. What I seek is bound by neither." he listened impassively as Dayne spoke, fingers brushing against the pearl handle of his dagger as if it gave him some solace. "I have slain two of the the five and been subject to madness you could not fathom, Bryce." he dropped the formal title, embracing its lack of meaning. "Life has no meaning and has done me no favors. Death has even less, despite the empty chants of the faithful. My course has been charted and actions have left no option to turn from it. Where it ends, it will end, but I will bear witness to it."
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 28, 2015 18:54:48 GMT -5
Bryce chuckles. "If you say so, Lord Oriax. You can bend reality with a bit of blood or sap and have summoned forces from beyond this plane to your will, but think life has done you no favor. I care not. Vhagus is a liar, though, and his pitiful appeals to vanity never cease to amuse me. Do you think you're the first rival he has sought, Shadow mage? The fifth? The tenth?" The dark lord's voice is painful in its contempt. "We are still flesh and bone, and as such bound to this life. But carry on, mage, and meet your logical fate."
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Kurts
Prince
Posts: 3,760
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Post by Kurts on Mar 28, 2015 19:18:44 GMT -5
"Those were not boons that life granted but boons that were taken, breaking every natural law and imposition it had placed upon me. In the same way, I will take whatever power resides here. I did not need his honeyed words to tell me what awaits here or spur me along this path. I am sure you have felt it as well as I."
"Bounds can be broke, Bryce. As you have broken yours to your liege, I will break mine to this world. It matters not if I am the tenth, hundredth, or the thousandth to make the attempt. I will be the one to succeed."
"We do not deal in the logical. We deal in the line between genius and madness."
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 28, 2015 19:24:31 GMT -5
The figure is still. "If becoming an Other is one of your goals, then by all means proceed. Living or undead you shall bow before my might, Oriax. And if you think I ever had a liege, much less a woman, then you are more deluded than I had ever thought possible."
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Kurts
Prince
Posts: 3,760
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Post by Kurts on Mar 28, 2015 20:25:36 GMT -5
"Even in The Shadow we have heard tales of the Night King, the power he wielded that took the might of legions to overcome. And he was but a simple Westerosi. The gods themselves could not overcome one with that power and a mastery of the arcane." Oriax explained, not caring what he would sacrifice to get there. He had not felt human since Yeen. "If we meet again, I will not force you to bow and scrape, Bryce. Only die and serve."
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 28, 2015 20:35:19 GMT -5
The dark lord chuckles. "So powerful, yet so willing to believe another's lies. You think the Five mean you well after you have destroyed them...." he laughs again, "then you know you have reliable information."
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Kurts
Prince
Posts: 3,760
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Post by Kurts on Mar 28, 2015 22:49:55 GMT -5
"Not willing to believe the lies as much as find the nugget of truth in them. There is power here and I mean to bend it to my will. They think it is power beyond my abilities, power I cannot wield, power that will destroy me. They are wrong." Oriax explained, tired of being lectured to by a man likely a century his junior. "If there is a trap here, I will navigate it. If there is a crucible, I will prevail. You do not warn me of Vhagus' intent out of concern for my well-being. You attempt to dissuade me out of fear for what I may achieve."
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 29, 2015 9:14:51 GMT -5
"It took two centuries in the Dawn Age for Man to trap that power where it resides now, sorcerer," Bryce said. "Good luck to you in claiming it."
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Kurts
Prince
Posts: 3,760
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Post by Kurts on Mar 29, 2015 12:49:34 GMT -5
"It is far easier to free a beast than shackle it." Oriax replied. "Will that be all, Bryce?"
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 29, 2015 20:45:44 GMT -5
"One final thing, Lord Oriax," the sorcerer said, almost cheerily. "Emperor Vhagus, as he has styled himself now, masses a fleet to crush your little deserted little home. He is apparently still upset about some incident in Yeen. After you left, I recall."
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Kurts
Prince
Posts: 3,760
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Post by Kurts on Mar 29, 2015 23:04:08 GMT -5
"As you were so kind to remind me, I have been exiled from Asshai." Oriax replied, unfazed. "He is welcome to it, though he will have as much luck conquering the Shadow as he would have conquering the sea or air. There are horrors that lurk in its heart that even an emperor would be wise to fear."
Though his curiosity was piqued a the mention of Yeen. His last assignment from the Council before being assigned to this backwater continent had been in Sothoryos...in Yeen...a city so evil that even the jungle will not enter.
"What incident in Yeen could possibly hold any interest to Vhagus?"
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 30, 2015 7:43:26 GMT -5
"It made him what he is. What he can be." Bryce stared unblinking. "The demons of Yeen's dead gods needed a vessel to stake their claim on this world. They found Malryas's Five. Even I avoided Yeen when I felt its lure. Their dead gods have more power in their slumber than the gods we know do alive and breating and well."
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Kurts
Prince
Posts: 3,760
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Post by Kurts on Mar 30, 2015 13:16:09 GMT -5
Oriax nodded, finally understanding how these backwater sorcerers had acquired such power and mastery in such a short span. They had taken a shortcut, and an exceedingly dangerous one at that. Yeen had nearly broken him and he had not left the same man. Even now, something still lingered, more than scars.
"And what made you what you are, Bryce?" he inquired, staring at the apparition with black eyes. "Why wage your petty war here when the threat in the east looms? I came to you once, palms open, seeking alliance, and was treated as a beggar. Why take interest in my endeavors now?"
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 30, 2015 13:46:12 GMT -5
"I took a different approach, Lord Oriax. Are you familiar with the Qartheen tales of the Vampyr? They drink the blood of the living to sustain an unlife eternal. I was the Sword of the Morning in my youth, in my hubris I confronted one of these creatures. I struck it down, but it...influenced me. Moolded me. Tried to consume me. But I was stronger, even in my foolish youth. I took its knowledge, its power, and expanded it. I can drink blood, but more importantly, knowledge. Two of your sorcerers tried dissecting me in Volantis. Emperor Vhagus's mother saved me and we drank their power. We supped for months on them, every day rowing stronger. When at last they were husks we cast them aside." Bryce chuckled at the mremory. I at first tought had the stink of the demon gods upon you, but you merely consorted with them. You didn't become them. The thought of an Old God allying with the Great Other was too much to contenance. A mortal sorcerer, though, that idea is too intriguing for me to ignore. Also, you bested Harrys Snow, twice, in sorcery. Being from Asshai makes you a tempting meal, nothing more. Besting a mage, even a pretender such as him, well, that makes you a bit more respectable."
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Kurts
Prince
Posts: 3,760
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Post by Kurts on Mar 30, 2015 14:28:52 GMT -5
"It seems I am surrounded by demigods and monsters of legend." Oriax remarked dryly, though with a slightly more amicable tone. Bryce had taken an altogether different shortcut, but at least one the sorcerer could respect. After all, he could hardly fault the man from gaining power through the dead. "Is it any wonder that I have traveled from one hinge of the world to the other in an effort to even the playing field."
He thought then of the Council, currently entering the Corpse City of Stygai to seek power from the Old Gods. It would not end well.
"What is Vhagus to you then? An enemy? An ally? A rival? Something else entirely?" he inquired.
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