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COLONISERS: Season 7!!! (Colonisers of Nemain)
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F*** off.
Thousands of years ago, a young Nevia encountered something very interesting upon the plane she recently gained control of. A group of humans living underground, imbued with strange powers of precognition and the power to remove malevolent magic. Calling themselves the Omenseers, she gave them land and a place in the Rising Sun, all in exchange for a single favor, to be called in whenever.
1 week till Marching Upon the Wendigo
"It is time to call upon the Omenseekers." Nevia said, standing at the front of an assembly of some of the most brilliant minds in the Rising Sun, angel, human, elf, and other alike.
"My liege, there is no telling what they will do once freed from our favor! They could ruin the entire empire with their power!" A distressed looking elf stood up, waving a quill around.
"My sources say there is one of their exorcists left, and their precognitive mages pose nearly no threat to us, since they have such little numbers to fight with," Nevia smirked, before putting her arms before her. "Any more questions?" Silence followed.
"I will call for the Omenseers at dawn. Any who wish to see them can come," she said, before turning out of the room.
6 days till Marching Upon the Wendigo
A long, dusty, and abandoned road led to the home of the Omenseers. A group of strangely clad figures appeared in the middle of the road, a teenager with white hair and one blue eye pressed her hand to the ground, and the party disappeared. If one happened to be about 100 miles closer to the capital on the same path, you would see the same strange occurrence happen again, leaving behind a dispersing, smoke-like, sigil of one eye.
____
"My lady. The Omenseers are here." A footman, someone of no importance, beckoned to Nevia, who sat upon her terrace, looking upon the capital of the Rising Sun, Nyvgard. Nevia turned away from the view, walked out of the room, and walked into the audience chamber, where a motley group of figures, clad in blue robes stood. In the center stood a teenage girl, at odds with the rest of the group with her white robes.
"Empress Nevia," one of the figures in blue robes knelt, before standing. "We are here to fulfill the favor our ancestors granted you. What would you like us to foretell?"
"I require the correct course of action to take on Nemain. My great-granddaughter fights for us there, and she is faced with a conundrum. They prepare to fight a group known as the Wendigo, and the plane itself has presented defenses. The defenses are creatures of the plane, and for peace, they only ask we treat the plane with respect; shape our advancements around the nature. She plans to accept. I have brought you hear to council because we require the perfect agenda to implement."
"We can fulfill this wish." Turning, the figure, who appeared to be a man, murmured to the group. The girl in white robes stood off the side, arms crossed, while everyone in blue robes stood in a circle. Chanting, they raised their arms, blue swirls of power following their motions.
Abruptly halting, each figure, in eerie synchronicity, turned to face Nevia.
"To win this campaign and restore balance to the Rising Sun, we offer you one choice. Any deviation will result in failure. Ally with Nemain, and you will reap the benefits. Refuse the offer, and your forces will fall. Spies placed in your ranks will be rooted out by the Exorcist. Defeating the Wendigo is the next step, and for that, you, Nevia, must unleash your wrath upon their combined forces. Those who turn traitor shall aid the victory, and accepting your own mortality will save the day. Your spark shall save them all."
(story card)
As if awakening from a stupor, each Omenseer staggered before standing straight and composing themselves.
After murmuring to themselves, the Omenseers straightened, and the speaker stepped forward.
"After consulting the future we spoke of, we have decided to offer you some things, both physical and advice. Firstly, in order to root spies out amongst your number, we offer our exorcist, Lyria." He pointed to the girl in white robes, who straightened.
"I am happy to be of an service required, your majesty." She bowed.
(anti-spying spying card)
"Secondly, do not deviate from what we have advised. Doing so would be foolhardy and would result in disaster. Finally, there is always the chance we have foretold wrong, so do not give yourself false hope. We have given you a chance; that is all. Thank you for this chance to prove ourselves." Bowing, all but Lyria exited.
"We can send you to Jene immediately. Call up the portal!" Nevia shouted to her advisors.
Back on Nemain
Jene paced, receiving the information in stoic silence.
"So we have to go exactly by the letter of the foretelling? We can do that. Set the exorcist to work amongst our camp. Leave out an offer for Nemain, stating after me..."
(challenge card)
"Must go faster!"
She rushed his reptilian mount onward the lights of the town shining in the distance, a beacon of safety from the dark. He looked back hoping to see some sign that he had outrun his hunter but he saw nothing...
Wait nothing? Why was that bad? Nothing should mean that she had succeeded in escaping, so why did the deepest voice inside her tell him to still run? Had she truly succe-
The two guards stood guarding the heavy gate their eyes fluttering between sleep and vigilance. One perked up, he could see something headed their way, a messenger headed towards the town.
"Get ready, we've got an arrival" he called over to the other. The two men prepared to lift the gate up as the lizard mount came to a halt in front of it."
"What's the code?" the first guard shouted down, but there was no response. "Hey can you hear? What's the code?" still no response.
"Somethings wrong" the other said looking down, "I'm checking it out." He grabbed his spear and a lantern and descended the stairs. At the front of the gate he found the mount, it looked nervous ever so often checking behind for danger. "He are you okay? Your lizard doesn't seem well..." He asked out. But no one responded, in fact as he approached he found no rider at all.
(Not my entry)
---------------------------
Jemaine adjusted himself in his seat starring the warrior across from him down,
"Tell me again what you saw"
"It was horrifying, creatures made of shadow and darkness came out of nowhere, they killed of all our men in the blink of an eye, dragging them away into the woods."
"Then why are you still here? What they just ignored you?"
"No they left me on purpose, It was weird one of them came over to me and looked right through me. It whispered something right into my thoughts...I can't stop thinking about it..."
"That's enough...get out." Jemaine rose from his throne of swords and pelts and signaled for the guards to take the warrior away as they did the crazed man started yelling,
"They're coming for all of use unless we do what they want, they'll kill us all!". His screams faded out of earshot eventually turning to silence.
"What do you make of this" Jemaine asked Lienne.
"My guess would be that the plane is fighting back against it's invaders. We have seen similar effects before. But none have been as powerful as this..."
"Any suggestions on how we can defeat it?"
"If it truly as powerful as we are to believe then there is only one think I can think of..." The Savant turned to a the ornate chest buried beneath piles of supplies and weapons at the back of the room. "One of the three Godslayers could gives us an edge." Jemaine's gaze fell on the chest. Inside of it the three weapons that their ancestors had used to slay the god they once served to claim freedom.
"I cannot" Jemaine was angry his advisor had brought this up, "We have forgotten how to use them" He knew that was a simplified version though, legends said that the Godslayers only awoke for the worthy, and no matter how hard he tried they refused to awaken for him.
"I think I found a solution to get around that" She moved over the chest "The oasis in the desert that I found the other day, my magic is greatly amplified there. I could preform a ritual to contact our ancestors, perhaps their insights could show us how to awaken one of the Godslayers." With that Lienne opened the chest, dust flew across the room as she produced from it a plain shield made of wood, "What do you say? Want to learn how to become worthy?
(Part 1/2)
The heat of the desert reflected of the still oasis and onto the travelers. Jemaine did not like this place, something was of, but Lienne had assured him that it would be safe. He continued explaining the plan to the large minotaur in front of him.
“It’s simple Moren, just wait here and wake us up if anything goes wrong. This shouldn’t take long.”
“Yeah, sure thing boss, don’t worry about it.”
(Not me entry)
Jemaine nodded and turned to Lienne who was setting up the ritual, she pulled a shattered skull from her bag and placed it on the ground in front of her.
“This is all that remains remains of one of our founders, if my research is correct, she is the one who wielded the shield when destroying the god.” She beckoned for Jemaine to sit in front of her, he did and the two closed their eyes. Jemaine felt a strange tingling wash over his body, silence filled the air but nothing happened.
“Did it work?” he asked out
“What did you say?”
Morgentha turned to her companion, the stocky fighter stood behind her as she raised the bright shield above her head.
“Did it work? The enchantment!?”
Enalf nodded, as a blast of malignent energy landed on the shield, any normal armament would have broken but the Shield of Silence held firm against attacks.
“The tyrant should be converted into mortal form any second now!” The two looked up, they were standing in the ruins of a once grand chapel now torn asunder by the attacks of their ruler. From the rubble he rose like a cloud of ash and cinder, as tall as the sky he stood over the approaching allies.
(Not my entry)
“Maggots, your heresy will not go unpunished, I will wipe you off the face of the plane!” He outstretched his hand and a wave of sinew and flame washed over his assailants, Morgentha watched as one of their own was turned to ash instantly,
“Not on my watch” She held the shield up and willed her whole being into protecting the ones who fought alongside her, the simple wooden shield lit up in a blaze of white light, its power surging forth across the battlefield the flame spill covered them all but miraculously the people were not gone, instead the Shied of Silence had saved them all from a grisly doom.
“Well done” Enalf moved from behind her “Keep that up while I finish the job.” He smiled and ran into the fray as Zechiran summoned his hordes of zombies. Morgentha willed more energy into the shield her desire to keep the ones around her safe fueling its power. The god of slaughter summoned another wave of flame that may have stymied the attackers but did not take their life. Final a the battlefield shook as the ritual took hole over him, him the god of feasting’s power diminished and his hold over his worshippers lessoned, Morgentha watched as Enalf drew a dark black blade from it’s sheath and ran forward to take the swing.
The delve into the pasted ended before Jemaine could see what happened next, his mind was launched back into his own body. “Why did you end so soon?” He turned to Lienne, but wash shocked by what he saw. One of the horrors that had been assailing them had grabbed her next to it Moren was struggling with another. Jemaine pulled out is sword and stood up prepared to run forward to defeat the monstrosity. But then he remembered, he ran over the Lienne’s bag which had fallen onto the ground. He pulled the shield out from it, its ornate decoration shone in the sun. He again charged at the horror but this time he knew what to do, just like he had seen in the vision Jemaine focused on his desire to protect his two companions, his people. For the first time in hundreds of years the shield flickered to life it’s power covering the battlefield. Just as it did the monstrosity harrowing Moren found purchase and struck it’s bladed fingers attempting to cut deep into his flesh, the claws were deflected by a blast of light. The beast stumbled back and Moren used to opportunity to gore it with his horns. Jemaine cut the other in twain his sword slicing through it’s horrid skin. Both the beasts collapsed to the ground and dissipated into smoke. Jemaine looked down at the unconscious Savant. “Thank you Lienne.”
(This is my entry – If it’s not clear I’ll be defying Nemain)
Normally it's 48 HOURS!..
But I think we'll grant a preemptive extension, since not as much time was given this week as usual.
"Neither of us expected this, did we?" Tenar said.
Sarai chuckled humorlessly. "That's what we get for walking into a world we knew nothing about. Still, we have to make a plan for this."
"Well, we aren't changing the world, are we?" Tenar pointed out. She took a sip of tea. "I'm sure we can come to some sort of agreement with..."
"The local culture," Sarai finished after a brief pause.
"I suppose."
The two were quiet for a while before they both started laughing.
"Local culture?" Tenar asked. "That's the best you could do?"
"I had to say something," Sarai said. "Maybe it will stick."
"I hope it does," Tenar said. "So, about seeking an arrangement with the local culture..."
Harbinger see's no gain from the denizens of Nemain, however, there is no loss in his mind either. He watches the transgressions of the other factions unfold with Nemain. Harbinger has been alive for millennia upon millennia, patience is a virtue he has plenty of.
For now, Harbinger and his Xedd will play along with Nemain. No harm in biding time, let the fools create their own demise and take control when needed.
------------------------------------
"The Nature Guardians beckon us, telling us to cease any destruction of their world. We once did similar things, back in our homelands. We must stand by their side, ready to fight for this world, so that the fate of our Island does not befall this world as well." The shaman was no fool. He knew that war with Nature itself was futile. But the others whom he needed to convince might not think the same way.
The Exile, who still held on to his old language was a fan of fire and industry.
The Harbinger had recently bought some Mechanical soldiers for the Tribe.
The Queen was his last hope. She remembered what had happened, had remembered the cries of her parents, and had vowed to never let it happen again.
She would side with him.
"We must stay neutral! We cannot anger our potential allies who might wish to fight these creatures!" Hundr signed rapidly. Mason nodded his head in agreement.
"No, it is our duty to protect Nature, just as she protected us." The Queen declared. "Tell them of our decision Shaman."
(Choosing option A here)
"We must not bend our knee to these threats. They would have us stop spreading the Fathom and seeding the land with our magic." Declared Arckus, head of the Fathomnauts.
"Are you insane? We have always held to nature. They only ask that we stay true to our oaths. We merely need to be less forceful with our magic." Spoke an old ways devotee.
As the murmurs went through the chamber a stalemate had been reached. Tonme knew that he was the deciding factor. The Fathomnauts had been instrumental in securing their lands and were far more loyal than the old ways zealots but he found himself agreeing with those very zealots.
Finally he spoke, " You have given me much to think on these last two days. We will hold to the oaths we live by. We will continue to spread Fathom but we will let Nemain control it to a greater deal. No longer will we use it to terraform directly. Slow natural change only influenced by us but ultimately controlled by nature." He gave a long pause to let the words sink in before finishing, "Fathomnauts, begin forming techniques that are more suitable for balance with nature instead of domination. Old Ways practitioners, make a pact with Nemain. Form it from Fathom and truth. We will allow the plane a certain amount of control but we are just as much nature as they are."
It took several days but eventually the pact was made and the terraforming slowed. No longer did the land change in a day. Nemain was consulted constantly to see what was and was not allowable. Fathom being tainted by local powers yet made stronger for it. But most of all was the effects the pact had. It was made of Fathom and able to act through it if need be.
(Picking option A)
Kanamaru once again stood before Linava. Nemain's ultimatum had to be dealt with, one way or another.
"Seshess has solved many a conflict in Tsayami's history. Rather than chose bloodshed, the leaders of each clan chose one champion to best the other in a battle of wits, curated by a member of the Greater Way. We can simply apply the same tactic here. We ask the wilds to submit a champion, and we do the same."
"I'll be our champion," declared Kanamaru. "I may not know the intricacies of the game, but a leader must show strength. Send a messenger to the wilds: should they win, we give in to their requests and stop our mining. Should we win, they will allow us to continue as we are. In the meantime, you are to teach me your game."
(And yes, I am taking Option C literally, just for fun
48 HOURS NOW!
It's been a while....
Tick, tock, tick tock...
The harkinian empire.
Harkinian Empire led by guy who says mah boi.
Just a side thought, but if i do join in season 8...
Archives Files 17.1954.8834
There were seventeen cases slated to come before me today, so my hours were brief. Seventeen cases I saw and I judged fairly, and I was about to present the closing speech when there was a disturbance in the crowd. It is forbidden to have weapons or combat protocols at the hearings, so of course that was followed upon by the Nodes, but it appeared at the time that one of the other tribes had somehow crept into the grand chambers themselves!
Sentra’s absence to go hire herself out to our foes has apparently weakened our guards vigilance and attentiveness. No such ruffians should be able to get through, and I will call for a doubling down of the watch Nodes.
Needless to say, their intrusion alone would be cause for execution by any of a right mind, but this was a solemn affair for us, and I would not mar it with something that could be dealt with afterwards. In an attempt to show a scrap of good will, I permitted them to live and to my surprise, they stated that they would bring a case to us.
This was not an unwelcome peace of information. No matter how ugly or hidden they were, they at least recognized the authority we naturally wield over them… or so I thought. Amused and intrigued, I permitted it, though it was highly unusual. If it were meritorious, I thought to give them at least minor ease, as a gesture of good will towards their submissiveness.
However, when I bid them to bring suit, they did not accuse a Node or debate a law. Rather, they made a mockery of our very system of order! They stated that they were representatives of the plane itself and had sent messages to the other tribes and factions requiring them to stop causing changes to the lands. Of course, we concluded that they meant to ask for our assistance, but when I mentioned that, the leader seemed shocked, then had the nerve to laugh at me. I repeat, he had the SHEER NERVE to LAUGH at ME!
Much to the contrary, he claimed that he was here to warn us especially off of our ways and to warn us that they would be forced to act against us if we don’t comply.
This attempt to make a farce of everything we stand for left me with no other choice than to send a message. I stood from my seat and took a moment to compose myself, turning my back to them. Even with how far they had gone, they wouldn’t dare break the sanctity of the hall. It’s majesty should have put them in their place from the moment they entered.
After a moment or two, I was suitably composed that I could deliver an effective reply. I demanded that they get on their knees, apologize, and rescind every blasphemous and insulting word that they had said, and told them that we sisters would decide their fate later. Any sensible being would have obeyed; it was clear that I was in no mood to deal with their silliness and stupidity. They, being of flesh and so not sensible in the slightest, laughed and went to take their leave. I would not let this travesty stand. Their mockery, insolence, and stupidity were by far more than enough to warrant what happened next.
I blasted four of them into dust and less. “Take that back to your elders with our stern refusal to comply with their powerless, egregious, worthless demands! And let them know that you, fools, weaklings, and those who must be worthless even among their own race, have incited a war between our peoples that will not be sated by anything other than complete, utter surrender and your heads delivered by your next of kin to our table!”
I instructed that they should not be hindered on their way out, but that careful eye should track them over the horizon. This was enough of a mockery to make me worried there might be something, futile as it must be, to their claims. Our power and dominance on this plane is clear to see already; if they feel so firm as to challenge it with such mockery then they have to be planning something. It is essential that we have this information soon, and even more so that we strike them while they try to prepare for an all out war. Nothing that they do will harm us, I am sure, but it would be better to be safe.
~~Eulogea, Mourner of the Core