I have been writing as a hobby for longer than you have been alive. I have been a regular member and roleplayer of no less than fourteen different online forums during that time (including the old RPG), fivesix eight of which no longer exist.
I was previously a regular on the Homestuck forums, but I became so sick of thread turnover there that I asked around and eventually found the Guild. Since joining, I have exclusively only participated in Advanced RPs. Before Mahz gave NRPs their own subforum, I used to be an NRP regular in the Advanced Subforum. I am a Guildfall survivor, and know/regularly write with a few others.
If you ask anybody who has written with me in previous RPs, they should tell you that I have a generally open schedule, I post regularly and in a timely fashion, and I never drop an RP once I join unless the thread dies. Some of them may tell you that I have extensive expertise within the realms of Biology, Psychology, and Physics, which I will make no effort to validate since there is no way I can provide hard proof of aforementioned alleged expertise to anybody over the internet (though I am happy to try and answer any questions you send my way).
My favorite fandom is the Myst franchise, which seemingly nobody other than me has ever heard of.
I was a Contest Moderator for the Writing Contests Subforum for just a little bit over two years. I wrote the Moderation Policy for that subforum and I ran a contest called the Twelve Labours; you can still go there and see all of them and the entries people wrote for them in the Contests Section and the Victory Archives.
I have been quadruple secret banned from the guild discord. That is not a joke.
@Durnehviir Let me know what you think of the broad strokes here so I can make appropriate changes prior to filling out their biography.
Demographics
Witch-Slayer Hans
He Slew a Witch Once
"I killed one witch. One. That was not even intentional, it just happened to be there and in the way of what I was actually doing at the time - and of course, it is that one small detail of the much more important work everyone remembers forever. I hate this job."
Name: Hans Iikka Guiomar Nickname/Alias: Witch-Slayer Hans Age: 31 Species: Human Sex: Male Height: 1.82 Meters Weight: 112 Kilograms
Hans' face, rarely seen from behind his helmet, is softly rounded about the cheeks with a narrow nose and slim jawline, unusual features made all the more distinctive by his orange-colored eyes. Hans' skin is a light bronze in coloration. Although Hans' build is stocky and well-muscled presently, prior to his epigenetic augmentation his build was notably trim and lithe. Signs of his past makeup are still evident in the arrangement of his musculature, made up largely of cords and coils of muscle. This is also seen around his shoulders and hips, which although broadened through training, conditioning, and genetic augmentation nonetheless seem more like poor afterthoughts to the rest of his body, as though he skipped shoulderblade and hip day.
Classification
Job/Duties: Skirmisher, Assassin, Infiltrator
"I use magic and knowledge of magical theory combined with modern military science and tactics to kill sorcerers and mages. That sounds a lot more glamorous than it actually is. May as well just say I am an assassin, or perhaps just your unusually equipped cutthroat.
"First key distinction between me and your bog-standard mage-killer squad: I am not big on tech. I have some discrete ballistic weave and armor to deal with bullets, but that is as about it. My primary armaments are a sword and crossbow, which are useful in ways a semiautomatic rifle is not. Nothing wrong with tech, by the way, and I have nothing against it. It's just a different theory and method of hunting and killing mages. While we are on that topic though: I am a specialist, which means I excel at doing exactly one thing. I hunt and kill sorcerers, mages, and occasionally other kinds of magical entities. I do not fight armored knights, the walking dead, trolls, golems, or magical creatures if I can help it. If I am fighting a mage that can summon any of those? I tunnel and kill the mage. Fighting waves of arcane fodder is some other idiot's job, so do not expect me to do it.
"And yes, it is true, I did kill a witch. Mostly by accident. They happened to be there, and they happened to be in the way of what I was actually doing. Some helpful advice: Witches are not the standard kind of magical entity I specialize in killing. Do not expect me to kill more for you unless it is both necessary and convenient for me to do so.
"Second key distinction: I am trained to hunt and kill sorcerers and mages, not to protect people from them. Yes, I have means of defending myself against magic. No, I cannot use any of them on you. Hence why people like to insult me, perhaps fairly, by calling me a career killer - I am not the best team player. I can charge through magefire and cut the mage's head off. I cannot help others do the same, or heal them, or stop the mage from using their magefire in the first place. You want mitigation? I mitigate hostile uses of magic by killing hostile mages, full stop."
Level: 5
"I will be completely honest for you. I was a level 6 that got pulled up to low 5 to be a foot-soldier for an experimental program training mage-killing commandos. Everyone else in the program died, and if that had been all I would probably have gone back down to 6 once it got tanked, except for the bit where I accidentally killed a witch and everyone decided to freak out about it. Then the program heads decided to spin me up as some kind of one-man-army savant and boom, suddenly the program gets renewed interest and funding. That means the program and its various personnel now basically exist to service and field supply me, in addition to training additional slayers. Those are a long time coming though."
Ballistic Fiber Long-Coat & Cloak -A long coat and accompanying cloak which provide limited protection against gunfire. The ballistic fibers both garments are made from are best and most frequently used to soften or otherwise prevent cutting and bludgeoning attacks from various forms of melee weapons. Overall however, the ensemble was made to value flexibility and agility over defense. It can reliably turn a few blows from ordinary munitions and armaments, but no more. Its aesthetic is specifically designed to be blend with more mystically-inclined crowds, being just fanciful enough to pass for the garb of a retainer of Lapis Nobility.
Carbon-Steel Fluted Gauntlets and Greaves -Much more 'traditional' armor for Hans' legs and hands to afford greater defense for the more important bits and pieces. Lightweight and carefully treated to look worn, so as to pass as authentic under close inspection.
Polycarbonate Ceramic Helmet -Unlike the ballistic coat, Hans' helmet is very nearly bulletproof, being the heaviest and most resilient armor he possesses. It can withstand tremendous strain and blows, but unfortunately is not enchanted or designed to abate kinetic force beyond what Hans' neck can tolerate. It will provide near-perfect protection from cutting and slicing weapons as well as bullets, but will be less useful in preventing bludgeoning trauma. The helmet is shaped to resemble the contorted face of a gargoyle, twisted in a fowl grimace, terrifying and distinctive of a specialized magical warrior upon inspection.
Enchanted Bastard Sword -Made using a printer rather than a forge, Hans' bastard sword is perhaps the least convincing aspect of his disguise, lacking the trademark 'patterned' forge marks seen in the metals used by Ghosnenite warriors, a Journeyman blacksmith would be able to tell of the blade's abnormal quality. Nonetheless, upon initial inspection is it a convincingly-rendered steel sword with patterned filigree along the blade, used in the channeling of enchantment magic. Although Hans' could readily part with and replace the weapon on short-notice, its modern make affords it a few advantages over Ghosnenite weaponry, specifically as to its superior cutting power durability.
Enchanted Buckler -As with Hans' blade, this large buckler was printed in a lab and so would be unable to survive close scrutiny by a proficient Ghosnenite blacksmith, but otherwise its appearance is immediately evocative of the works of a Noble mage from Lapis Lazuli, its face bearing a crystalline sheen and emblem well-suited to the channeling of enchantments. Also akin to Hans' bastard sword, it is not strictly necessary for his purposes and can be readily discarded and replaced at a moment's notice, although its modern make does afford it with greater durability and stopping power than could be attributed to a buckler made by a blacksmith.
Enchanted Heavy Crossbow -Yet another printed weapon, Han's heavy crossbow has been carefully sculpted, worn, and painted so as to appear to be made from wooden components. Although effortlessly slung across the back and easy enough to aim due to the reduced weight of the modern materials it was made of, due to its inherent design the device remains cumbersome to reload in a timely fashion and so is typically only used for single, alpha-strikes or distant sniping efforts. Its appearance would not survive close inspection by a suitably talented fletcher, and like the other printed armaments Hans' bears may be readily discarded at a moment's notice, though Hans' does take some care to retain possession of it given the advantages afforded by its modern design - namely its drastically increased stability, stopping power, and accuracy for a crossbow of its size.
Racial/Biologics:
Low-Grade Epigentic Augmentation (Post Adolescence) has selective enhanced the sensitivity of Hans' vestibulary system and tracking reflex while mitigating muscular atrophy and providing a modest, heightened metabolic tolerance for poisons and venoms. Augmentations of these kinds are standard-fare for Alexandrian Operatives and Commandos, and are not even unheard of amongst the rank and file Officers corp. of the standing army.
Weaknesses:
Overspecialized Skirmisher, not exceptional in pitched frontline confrontations and unsuited to fighting modern infantry.
Endar began to cast his spell, with the assistance of the Harbinger or not. He couldn't afford to wait any longer - not since last time. But as he began to cast his spell, all those currently present were caught in the aura. Depending on their willingness to move into the book, they would either stay, or move with him into that realm.
Endar experienced a most curious sensation, and the whole of the world around him faded into nothingness. The eerie, alien pitch surrounding him was darker than the furthest reaches of the forests of Noctis could ever be. There was nothing here, save for him...
And the Linking Book he had pulled into the Link with him.
The book provided him with a crucial realization. Had he been truly on his own in the darkness with no other objects of reference, he might have gone on thinking he was simply adrift in oblivion. From the motion of the book however, as it pinwheeled and fluttered in the void (if all was dark and there was no light, how could he see it? It appeared before him as though plainly illuminated under the light of day.), it was clear:
He was not drifting. He and the book were FALLING.
He barely had time to grasp the notion before a world erupted from the nothingness about him. The structure he and the others had arrived at was of immaculately fine and precise construction, surely impossible - at least, impossible within the five realms - by anything accept magical means. Looking over the side of the roof, the city surrounding the curiously ornate structure were of similar make. The roads were impossibly smooth and flat, the buildings made of queer, alien materials that defied recognition. Not even in the Oriens, or in Verum itself was the architecture so refined, or sophisticated.
The book had appeared alongside him, still suspended in the air. Upon inspection, he discovered an unfortunate development - the image upon the pane of the Linking Book's third page was still of the rooftop he now stood upon! Depicting all of its current inhabitants, no less. As it was, the book would be worthless for returning whence they had all ventured. If nothing else, presumably the book could be used again to return to the rooftop.
The gem upon Akemi's hand suddenly began to shine brilliantly once more. In the air above the rooftop, the same, curious opacity of white bled into being, followed by the strange, geometric, possibly symbolic arrangement as had appeared before. Once more, merely being within the presence of the strange being carried with it an ineffable, epiphanic realization of meaning as to what, or perhaps who, the entity was.
MYUH
Maculate Ronay Godhead
The meaning of the words it then attempted to communicate to them via the same, abrupt fashion of forced revelation that transcended mere sound, however, remained wholly unintelligible.
With another reverberating intonation, a second Linking Book manifested out of the empty sky just before the assembled group. Its pages fluttered open frantically, before halting eerily on a single uprised page, drawn taut towards the sky while the remaining pages loosened and fell lax.
With a faint humming sound, as though of a distant bird, the page became severed from its place in the new Linking Book. It drifted, suspended in the air as the second Linking Book's pages immediately began to reorder themselves once more via the same unseen force that kept it aloft, presenting the Linking Pane upon its third page. Unlike the Linking Book Endar had seen fit to force through the Link with him, the new book's Linking Pane was black and featureless.
Whatever force had kept the page floating in the air vanished. The sheet was immediately snatched by the mischievous air, and was torn from the rooftop to drift and flutter freely over the city, slowly descending.
The Godhead, once more, vanished as it had arrived - bleeding out from the world like fluid through a filter. The glow of Akemi's soul gem faded.
A moment later, appearing as though between the blinking of her eyes, the rooftop of Mitakihara Middle School appeared around her. At her feet lay the apple core she had forced through the link before her. Looking around, all appeared as it should have. She could hear the bustle of the surrounding town and the chirping of birds in the distance. The sun was out and shining - it seemed to be around midday - and despite the semi-surreal nature of the school's perhaps unexpectedly ornate architectural facade, all was well.
As she predicted though, there appeared to be no means of returning the way she came, nor of communicating with those she had left behind. The linking book was apparently a one-way means of travel.
@BrokenPromise The apple core disintegrated into motes of dusken starlight, wicked from the skein of the world like water through cloth.
Within the spinning image of the levitating book, what was presumably the same apple core bled into being within range of the rotating point of reference and dropped to the ground of the rooftop, just out of sight of the frame.
The book itself remained firmly in place, hanging suspended in the air before Kyoko.
@Majoras End The gem upon Akemi's hand abruptly shone once more, the intensity of its light greater than previously - only to then fade again in the next moment. Not a second had passed however before it shone for a third time, this time with a blinding radiance. An intonation of unfathomable portent hung in the air.
From a floating point before the assembled party, a phantom strain of light bled from the skein of the air - a curious white light that was not blinding to look at in and of itself, but which was nonetheless opaque and obscured from sight the landscape beyond it. A solitary mote of ink-like darkness bloomed in the center of that pure void, spreading outwards as billowing plumes of dye through liquid, coalescing into a series of firmer, more substantial shapes. A curious arrangement of geometric alienage that defied recognition. The mere sight of it hanging within the air evoked an immediate epiphany from those who looked and sought upon its form however, the essence of the light and shapes carrying with them an ineffable but undeniable meaning made clear as rapturous starlight.
MYUH
Maculate Ronay Godhead
As straightforward as the being's appearance had been, the words that were soundlessly projected across space to its various recipients - Mentally? Something more? - were utterly alien gibberish, incomprehensible to everyone in the assembled party.
Another intonation reverberated through the air, and out of the skein of the world a curious book bled into being, hanging in the air, its opened pages and the impossible moving image emblazoned therein beckoning.
The spinning image was immediately recognizable to Akemi. It was the rooftop of Mitakihara Middle School.
Mere moments after having appeared, the Godhead bled out of the party's awareness. The blinding warning light upon Akemi's hand faded once more. The strange book continued to hang in the air, the spinning, paneled image upon the blank third page strangely enticing.
The Turquoise Lord's domain is not a nation. Few people live there, and the Turquoise Lord has few living mortal followers. The red god is akin to a opportunistic tumor or parasite, preying upon the failings and desires of mortals in order to accrue power. The Turquoise Lord is known for their exceptionally lenient sacrificial rules and only a single commandment to follow in order to receive Theurgia from them. Thus, the Turquoise Lord is considered the patron celestial being of outcasts, pariahs, exiles, degenerates, bandits, highwaymen, pirates, and other criminals. Upon receiving sacrifices, the Turquoise Lord reanimates the dead bodies as undead minions who then set about corrupting the surrounding region, creating materials of influence for the Turquoise Lord until the land is sufficient twisted and imbued with their power to enable the formation of an anchor for the Stray Palace.
The Turquoise Lord commands in the celestial realm a structure of unprecedented scale and function, referred to as the Palace Straylight. Using material anchors formed by its servitors in the material realm, the Turquoise Lord may cast a shadow, a projection of the Straylight Palace upon the world itself. These projections displace the material world, sealing it away beneath an overlay, cast in the shape of the celestial palace. This terrestrial shadow of the Palace Straylight is referred to as the Stray Palace, the shadow of the Turquoise Lord's own dominion upon the material realm.
When knowledge of the Turquoise Lord returned to mortals three-hundred years ago during the last celestial war, such Overlays began to appear across the entire world. However, it was in the center of the world where the seed of their current mortal dominion would truly be planted. The center of the world, Tramontan, where due to chance alone most of their aimless, wandering servants would convene over time, grew in the most concentrated fashion, unhindered by attempts to destroy or banish it due to the absence of other contesting powers in the area. This infestation was ignored for a century and a half, dismissed as mere scenery by Justinian and Yuwan alike until it had grown so massive that destroying it was a daunting, godlike proposition.
A century and a half ago, the central Overlay grew large enough to manifest and fully support what is today known as The Fount, the axial tower at Tramontan. The gargantuan structure is so massive it can be seen from every corner of the world, and is so tall none can see its top. Justinians refer to the tower as 'The Great Taunt,' seeing it as a mocking symbol of dominance and superiority flying in the face of Justinian values and superiority. This precipitated an attempt by then-existing Justinian powers to destroy the central overlay and The Fount itself in a single concentrated attack, during the siege of the Central Complexus of 157 AWH. This siege, although successful in halting the growth of the central overlay, is largely considered a failure. After a tactical withdrawal and retreat by Justinian forces from the Central Complexus to an encampment within the reconquered territory near its boundaries, the entire coalition was destroyed in an instant in a catastrophic event known as the Devastation, which killed half a million soldiers, crusaders, inquisitors, mages, and even the then-Exaltarch of Archonnen himself. The site of the Devastation, to this day, remains an impermeable zone within which no being or force may intrude.
The various Justinian nations have since established a ring of forts around the central overlay, and have been waging a constant, perpetual siege against it for over a century straight. Justinian has directed for magical artifacts of mass destruction to be assembled and projected into the Overlay over the years, destroying large swaths of the original overlay and turning the surrounding land into barren, desolate waste. Little by little, the central overlay has shrunk and been chipped away at by the constant efforts of Justinian to see it banished for good.
Elsewhere in the world however, the Turquoise Lord remains a constant and unabated menace. There is a perpetual threat of Stray Palace overlay appearing within the large megacities of various states, or else within remote, secluded locales where few venture. Their servants wander the world, spreading forbidden secrets and practices to unwitting mortals who hunger for power. The Turquoise Lord is known to be directly complicit in assisting Ephemem in the Civil War between West and East Ouroborasia, and they are also suspected to be allied with the returning red god Axohaan.
The Central Overlay of Tromontan: The Lord of the Turquoise Scheme's most well-known of holding is the central overlay that dwells at Tramontan, the center of the world. It is here where the axial tower, The Fount, is located. The Fount itself extends out from the Turquoise Lord's holy site, known as The Seat, which itself comprises the core of the Central Complexus, the gargantuan foundation for the axial tower. The various Western Justinian nations have been waging a perpetual, century-long siege against the central overlay, gradually chipping away at its boundaries and occasionally projecting magical artifacts of mass destruction at the tower in order to damage it.
Worldwide Overlays: The Shadow of the Stray Palace is cast all across the world in a scattered, haphazard fashion, wherever it might be permitted to take root uncontested. Overlays can be found within abandoned mines or deep within canyons, found in the turbulent cesspits of undercities or else in the unclaimed wilderness. The efforts of civilized folk throughout the world to tear down anchoring material for the palace before it accumulates is a constant chore, and militia are always on the lookout for signs of a hidden-away extension of the Stray Palace somewhere unseen.
Discrete Freeholds: Rumors abound of a new, insidious form of overlay where the Turquoise Lord's own influence lies dormant and suppressed, while the architecture and denizens have taken guise to appear indistinguishable from indigenous native forms. What purpose and function such curious overlays serve remains unknown, and none have been positively identified even if several 'unconfirmed' freeholds have been banished.
The Turquoise Lord is known for, amongst other things, their very lenient tenants. The only requirement for sacrifices to be made to them is that the sacrifice have been procured 'By Wit of Force' or 'By Right of Conquest,' interpreted broadly. Having made a sacrifice to the Turquoise Lord, the only commandment one must then follow is that they not attack or otherwise interfere with the Turquoise Lord's servants.
These extremely lax requirements makes the Turquoise Lord exceedingly popular with bandits, pirates, cutthroats, and the lawless in general - who pillage and steal, and then simply add kidnapping and seizure to their crimes. Sacrificing their victims, these ruffians gain a measure of magical power they then use to perform yet more crimes and gain yet more sacrifices to make in a cycle of violence and ever-increasing magical power, without the complication of having to abide by the laws and strictures of an overbearing celestial being. The lesser of these fiends are known as Turquoise Bandits, while the most powerful and influential brigands who go on to become warlords or bandit chiefs are known as Turquoise Marauders. They are not true faithful worshipers of the Turquoise Lord, and merely make sacrifices to them as a convenient and comparatively easy means to gain magical power.
The Turquoise Lord is known as the patron celestial being of outcasts, pariahs, exiles, and degenerates. When knowledge of them returned to the world three-hundred years ago during the war in the heavens, it came in the form of the Lord of the Turquoise Scheme's own Trophic Secrets. Twisted and tainted knowledge of arcane natural law, seen in the dreams and idle thoughts of the deprived and forlorn as a form of lure and temptation. Such forbidden knowledge also graced and continues to come upon the minds of great intellects, scholars, and natural philosophers who study the laws and mechanisms of the world, and it is through the proliferation of these Trophic Secrets that the Turquoise Lord continues to gain followers.
When a living mortal soul is sacrificed to the Turquoise Lord, under certain conditions the body is reanimated as an undead golem that serves the Turquoise Lord. These beings are known as Servitors, and are the predominant perpetuating force for the Turquoise Lord's influence upon the material world.
The first condition necessary is that a body must remain to be reanimated. As sacrifices implicitly requires a living victim this is not often an issue, though various means of magically destroying a body during sacrifice might hypothetically be employed in order to prevent the creation of a Servitor. The second condition is that the victim have an expansive, favorable cavity within their body around the abdominal region. The females of most sentient species automatically qualify for this particular condition, but certain degenerate Red Enclaves otherwise unaffiliated with the Turquoise Lord have been known to carve cavities into the bowels of still-living male victims in order to create suitable conditions for the creation of male Servitors.
Once the body is reanimated, the Servitor is remarkably hardy and resilient. Being undead, few injuries will deter it, and even cutting off its head is generally insufficient to destroy a Servitor. Severing the limbs from the body is generally required in order for destruction to be assured, and barring that incineration of the body is generally sufficient.
Servitors themselves, upon reanimation, can bear a wide and diverse array of assumed personas. Some might appear to have identical personas and memories to the victim. Others might appear the same but somewhat changed in demeanor. Still, some may be reanimated complete different to how they were in life, with no or entirely alien memories. It should be noted that Servitors themselves are Soulless, and whatever they do or however they might act they have no true sense of awareness or consciousness, being a form of philosophical zombie. They are known for being extremely fickle and fae in nature. On occasion, if their body is whole and undamaged and if their persona is similar enough to how it was in life, a Servitor can remain undetected amongst its original community for months or even years. Other times, servitors may aimlessly wander the world, corrupting the landscape and tempting mortals with forbidden knowledge.
Additionally, on rare occasions Servitors have been known to 'adopt' individuals, such as the person who sacrificed them in the first place. Upon adopting a person, a Servitor generally accompanies them wherever they go, constantly by their side. These servitors can serve as tormentors, neutral companions, or valued advisers or aides, lovers or hated enemies. Most Turquoise Bandits and Marauders deal with such adoptions as they come in a manner corresponding with however convenient the relationship is, while most civilized folk typically destroy the Servitor itself at the soonest convenience.
Whether they remain undetected, wander the world, or adopt a mortal, Servitors constantly create what is known as anchoring material. Anchoring material comes in many forms. A carved tree, a cairn made of stones, a cave painting, curious excavations, the growth of alien, alchemical flora, chiseled cliff faces, crop circles and sigils, the assembly of crude natural altars, and so forth. All of these curious objects and structures are naturally imbued with the influence of the Turquoise Lord. Over time, once enough anchoring material accumulates in a single locale, it serves to form a foci of power and influence for the Turquoise Lord. This foci forms a physical anchor in the material world, leading to its overlay by a projection of the Stray Palace (see the Stray Palace section for more details).
All Servitors, from the moment of their creation, serve host to a gestating terrestrial monster within their womb - or their cavity, in the rare instance of a male servitor. Such terrestrial horrors are always completely unique as to their anatomical makeup, as well as their innate nature. Terrestrial monsters may run the gamut from massive, monstrous strong, hideously bloodthirsty and of feral, bestial intellect - to diminutive, pathetically weak, docile and civilized with deep and profound intelligence. Regardless of their nature, all terrestrial monsters bear souls. While they have a native, instinctual impulse to serve the Turquoise lord, this impulse may be overcome by those monsters with strong enough wills or intellects. To this day, in a few remote locations, there is the odd monster living amongst other mortals, having rejected the ways of the Turquoise Lord.
Although all Servitors play host to gestating horror within them, approximately half of them never give birth naturally. All Servitors will forcefully give birth if they would be destroyed or otherwise significantly damaged without the monster within having been slain in the process. The birthing process can range from harmless to the Servitor to wholly destructive, ranging from Servitors giving birth to delicate butterfly creatures to a hulking behemoth sloughing off the skin of its mother (or father).
The Stray Palace seen in the material world is a shadow cast upon terrestrial plane by a structure in the Celestial Realm known as the Palace Straylight.
When a Servitor creates enough anchoring material in the physical realm, the influence of the Turquoise Lord consolidates into a single physical structure known as an anchor. The anchor serves as a pin for the projection of the Stray Palace that then overlays the material realm, keeping it in place while displacing the material realm itself.
The displaced material realm is still present and whole, merely displaced. It is possible to banish Stray Palace Overlay by destroying the physical anchor pinning it in place, causing it to be banished and for the material realm to reassert itself as it was prior to being displaced. Those more familiar with the practice of destroying anchors are wary and take care when doing so, as it is possible for an anchor to be located either underground or above the ground relative to the displaced material world, resulting in the would-be-savior being sealed in solid bedrock or left to fall dozens of meters after destroying an anchor.
The projection of the Stray Palace is more than just the structures that form - it is the very skein and fabric of the world that is displaced as well. When one enters an overlay, the Stray Palace is not just the halls they enter, but also the air they breath. The stuff and material of the Stray Palace complies with natural laws, but is altogether still alien. The structures seen will regenerate over time, and possess a curious strength to them. They are not harder to destroy, but may be arranged with a complexity and enormity that might otherwise be impossible with nonmagical materials.
The Stray Palace itself possesses the visage of a mocking, terrible mirror of mortal extravagance. The sprawl of it appears much as a palace would, with great banquet halls and kitchens, ballrooms, grand parlors, long and refined hallways, libraries filled with forbidden lore, ancient and sturdy vaults, armories and barracks, forges and dungeons, thrones and bedrooms - everything one might expect to be found in any palace or castle, one can find within the Stray Palace. Each overlay is liberally littered with artifacts, treasures, and objects of various mention which serve as furnishing for each area of the palace. These objects may be moved and if present within the Overlay when an anchor is destroyed, will be banished normally. If extracted from an overlay however, such items will remain corporeal even in the event of an anchor's destruction. Though whether one can extract such items is another matter entirely...
The Stray Palace is a shadow of the Palace Straylight in the celestial realm - and to carry the analogy, the shadows of the beings that dwell within the Palace Straylight also manifest within the Stray Palace, as the shadows of the beings that cast them. If shadows were solid.
Within each independent locale of the Stray Palace dwells a shadowcast Denizen, a monstrous being who serves as twisted combination of a guardian as well as a chief of staff. Attending them are shadowcast monsters, akin to terrestrial monsters borne of Servitors but instead are projections and part of the Stray Palace itself. Each Denizen is attended by a small army of these monsters, who in turn act as their staff. A Denizen within a library of the Stray Palace might act as head Librarian, and the monsters as book-keepers. The Denizens are monstrous and alien, but largely civilized and docile unless provoked. They may be conversed and dealt with as one might when dealing with the chief of staff of a foreign palace as a guest. The monsters, unlike their terrestrial counterparts, are less overtly ferocious and predatory. They will stalk and hunt intruders, but not with overwhelming numbers or ferocity.
This is due to the rules of the Stray Palace. Within its halls are a number of decrees, and as long as these decrees are followed, intruders may venture and explore in relative safety, troubled only by predatory, shadowy monsters occasionally ambushing and attacking them. These rules include but are not limited to the following:
No stealing from the Stray Palace.
Damage not the edifice of the Stray Palace.
Offend not the sensibilities or dignity of the Denizens and Attendants.
Aggrieve not the bodies of the Denizens and Attendants.
Do not intrude upon the grounds of the Straylit Bastions.
Intrude upon The Seat at your peril.
Once any of these rules are broken, the Stray Palace will begin to react to the presence of an intruder, or intruders, like an infection - responding with overwhelming hordes of shadowcast monsters, as well as Attendants.
Celestial Attendants are to Celestial Servants what Celestial Servants are to Gods. They are celestial beings of lesser power, in service to a Celestial Servant. The Turquoise Lord is known to have a large number of Attendants, and the shadows of these beings are seen in the Stray Palace, standing guard over anchors and hunting down intruders who break the rules. Shadowcast Attendants possess limited omniscience within the immediate area and are therefore impossible to evade or hide from, and possess tremendously potent magical abilities and physical durability. They are slow, but intractable, and are the primary threat to those who would intrude within the Palace borders and break the rules.
The Crown of Form Status: Lost
Summary:The Crown of Form is a Divine Artifact made by the Turquoise Lord prior to the War in the Heavens. It functions as a Material Catalyst, as opposed to a Divine Catalyst, and is the only known Catalyst in existence that completely preempts the conscious use of magical rituals.
To use the Crown, one simply sends Theurgia into it along with a command. The Crown of Form then automagically casts the desired spell at 100% efficiency, using the most efficient ritual possible to cast for that particular effect. This is distinct from the usage of Divine catalysts, which will only augment the efficiency of a given spell the caster chooses to use.
It is known that any mortal who would lay hand upon the Crown of Form would immediately become Champion of Form under the Turquoise Lord as one of their Divine Champions, an exceedingly potent combination. However, to this day there have been no known bearers of the Crown of Form, and the Crown of Form has no historically recorded instances of use. It and its affiliation with the Turquoise Lord are only mentioned in the most esoteric and decrepit of ancient manuscripts of hidden vaults of forbidden lore.
The Lord of the Turquoise Scheme, unlike most other Celestial being, is very fickle in selecting their champions...and keeping them. The Turquoise Lord is thought to have ten champions in total, one for each aspect of the Turquoise Lord's ideological sphere that is known to mortals. Each champion has a unique set of prerequisites for being selected, a unique array of magical and innate powers, as well as unique rules for remaining champion. Due to the convoluted mechanisms by which transference of championship works, it has often been the case that the Turquoise Lord's champions have been either entirely unwilling or unwitting, and in some cases potentially even their sworn enemies.
In the event an individual finds themselves selected as one of the Turquoise Lord's champions, if they cannot be made a champion (due to already being a Champion for another celestial being, for example) they are instead cursed, and the moment the transference perquisites are met again the curse leaps to the next victim and makes them champion instead.
Due to the Turquoise Lord's fickle nature, they refuse to control and manipulate their own Champions as other celestial beings might with theirs. The Champions of the Turquoise Lord are essentially free agents, permitted to act however they please so long as they follow the specific rules of their new status.
The Champion of Enigma embodies the aspect of uncertainty and the unknown in the universe. Due to the specific mechanisms embedded within the fabric of creation by the Demiurge, it is impossible to possess a complete understanding of the world's natural laws. Even if a single celestial being could ascend to become the new Demiurge, they themselves would be unable to understand the world the prior Demiurge had created, only being able to destroy and change what is already present in addition to creating that which is new. Enigma is ineffable.
Fittingly enough, the identity, powers, and rules associated with the Champion of Enigma are obscured to mortals.
The Champion of Nature embodies the aspect of the world as it actually exists, beyond the knowing of mortal or celestial comprehension. Nature is the world.
In order to be selected as the next Champion of Nature, a mortal must be deprived of all of their senses. In most humanoids these are sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. Other mortal beings with expanded or additional senses must be deprived of them as well in order to qualify. If an existing Champion of Nature would regain any of their senses, they are immediately castigated and slain.
The Champion of Nature possesses instead a perception of the influence of celestial beings. This extends to anything containing or projecting celestial influence, including Theurgia originating from celestial beings as well as ambient Theurgia, imbued with the influence of dead gods.
The Champion of Nature possesses innate abilities similar to those of a Servitor. Every thing they touch and make contact with is imbued with a moderate amount of the Turquoise Lord's own influence. They also gain a reflexive defensive power in the form of a curse that bestows a small amount of the Turquoise Lord's theurgia upon those who would assail or otherwise obstruct the Champion, rendering them vulnerable to their wrath. Beyond these abilities, Champions of Nature possesses only modestly heightened physical vigor.
The Champion of Form embodies the aspect of the state and declining tendencies of the world's natural laws. Entropy, thermodynamics, the constant flow of energy from a high state to a low state. Form represents the flow and channeling of energy in the most efficient fashion possible as progresses to a final static state seen in the set ways of nature. Form is entropy.
The Champion of Form shall be the one who adorns the Crown of Form, and who shall remain so until it would leave their possession. As the Crown of Form is notably hard to remove, its theft or seizure implicitly requires their death.
The Champion of Vision embodies the aspect of mortal and celestial perception both of the world as it is, along with its natural laws. Vision is perception.
The Champion of Vision is selected only of individuals whose souls have been frayed due to a near-death experience, who would also be eligible to receive the Turquoise Lord's Trophic Secrets. If the Champion of Vision would ever utter a lie, they are immediately castigated and slain in a spectacular fashion.
The Champion of Vision possesses not only dramatically heightened physical senses, but is in fact bestowed with a limited, functional form of omniscience within a local area, combined with greatly heightened reflexes and modestly increased physical vigor.
The Champion of Rite embodies the identification and the existence of means and methods to redirect and channel energy in specific ways, effecting magic as an alternative direction in the decline of the natural world. A champion who bodies the very principle of rituals in and of themselves, after a fashion. Rite is order.
The Champion of Rite is always the single individual in the world who has performed and offered the greatest number of sacrifices to the Turquoise Lord. If another individual would sacrifice more, the first remains Champion but must track down and battle their rival on equal footing. The survivor either remains or becomes the new Champion of Rite.
The Champion of Rite can reflexively identify and understand every single ritual they perceive being performed, and is may reflexively recall phantom knowledge of how to perform certain rituals to overcome problems and obstacles they might face, as though experiencing the memory of a ritual used before for a similar purpose. The Champion of Rite may perform any ritual as though they had perfect muscle memory and recall for its esoteric knowledge, but in practical terms is usually still unable to cast at 100% efficiency for various reasons.
The Champion of Volition embodies the existence of chaos and free will in an uncertain universe, and the ability of mortal and celestial beings to manipulate nature if they have but the knowledge, the power, and the will to do so. Volition is freedom.
The Champion of Volition's rules are simple: Upon their death, they immediately select who they want the next Champion of Volition to be, and that person becomes the next Champion of Volition.
The Champion of Volition, simply put, cannot be stopped, impeded, held back, or restrained by any means. If they come into opposition with another being or force, their Theurgia capacity will be expended in order to temporarily enhance their physical strength and vigor until they become strong enough to overcome the obstacle. If the Champion reaches the limit of their Theurgia capacity and still cannot overcome the impediment, instead their Theurgia is expended to temporarily phase the Champion out of sync with the material realm briefly, along with a portion of anything they had direct contact with at the time.
The Champion of Wit embodies the conflict between the wills of celestial beings and mortals as they attempt to seize control of and manipulate the natural order of the world using rituals and knowledge of the universe's natural laws. Moreover, Wit also embodies the conflict and struggle that occurs between mortals and celestial beings as they fight and argue amongst themselves as to what interpretations, perceptions, and visions of the waking world are factual, as well as what particular ends and means of manipulating the world are preferable or optimal. Wit is conflict.
The Champion of Wit is only chosen from amongst mortal enemies of the Turquoise Lord, who both have knowledge of their Trophic Secrets and who has received Theurgia from the effects of a Servitor's reverse-sacrificial curse or another similar ritual. The Champion of Wit only remains so if they succeed in drawing the blood of an enemy for each setting of the sun, and will otherwise be castigated and slain.
The Champion of Wit possesses a pervasive magical aura that slowly drives those around them to a feral, predatory, highly aggressive fugue-state, precipitating spontaneous riots and sacks. Initial symptoms include paranoia and delusion, leading to hallucinations and distorted senses, peaking with an acute headache and phantom pain prior to losing time as one enters the fugue-state. Additionally, the Champion of Wit will automagically weaken and corrupt the bindings of summoned and animated beings in the vicinity, eventually freeing them and inducing rampancy.
The Champion of Domination embodies the willful assertion of self in opposition both to the world and to other beings, presented so that all would be forced to yield in order to bring about a new order in accordance with one's own purposes and desires. Domination is conquest.
The Champion of Domination is selected from amongst Nobles who are secretly of common birth. If they would ever lay with another Noble-blooded individual, they are castigated and slain.
The Champion of Domination may summon shadowcast Monsters out of thin air for a predetermined, constant upkeep continuously taken from their permanent Theurgia capacity. This way, the Champion of Domination may summon a certain number of monsters at a time corresponding to their personal Theurgia capacity. Additionally, the Champion of Domination possesses highly efficient and abnormally potent Indoctrination and hypnotic magic, as well as excelling with most forms of illusory and sensory magic in general. While these are both potent abilities, the Champion of Domination does not possess enhanced vigor as some Champions do.
The Champion of Bondage embodies the change and bend in the world as energy is redirected and channel in accordance to the will of a mortal or celestial being, as well as the yielding of mortals and celestial beings to the will of the dominating individual who has forced all other thoughts and forces to yield. Bondage is change.
The Champion of Bondage is supremely resilient and physically tough, being extraordinarily difficult to injure and capable of healing even from otherwise mortal wounds in short order. Additionally, the Champion of Bondage may attach itself to a single individual, much in the same manner as a Servitor adopting another being. The Champio of Bondage will be compelled to obey every order, whim, and wish issued by that individual. However, if that individual provides the Champion of Bondage with enough semblances and signs of their visage, the Champion of Bondage may perform an epic feat of transmutation magic, changing their body to that of their master's while changing the master's body to their own. The ascended slave thus loses their powers, and the fallen master becomes the new Champion of Bondage.
The Champion of Truth embodies the most important aspect of the world. The aspect of Truth is obscured to most mortals and celestial beings.
Although Celestial beings are not known to specialize in any confined domain of magic, with the likes of Justinian, Yuwan, Axohaan, and the Turquoise Lord all freely permitting their followers to employ many of the same - indeed, often identical - magic rituals. There are variances in accordance with regional preferences, professional areas of interest and study by local mages, officially sponsored branches of ritual magic, and as well is the simple fact that even if Celestial beings do not specialize, most nonetheless have favored branches of magic. The Lord of the Turquoise Scheme is no different.
In correlation to the aspects of their Celestial portfolio, such as it is, the Turquoise Lord's favored magics all focus upon the use of raw, brute force. This is not to say that such magics cannot be sophisticated in their own right, but as a trend it cannot help but be noticed that such rituals are often more balanced towards power than finesse.
Thaumaturgy covers a broad spectrum of rituals that manipulate and direct kinetic force and energy. Used as wards, Thaumaturgy rituals can create barriers of kinetic force, or use the kinetic energy in various projectiles (mundane or magical) to deflect or otherwise redirect them. Used offensively, Thaumaturgy can conjured invisible blasts of raw force, shockwaves, and pressure fronts. In its most overt and powerful forms, Thaumaturgy allows for widescale, at-will telekinetic manipulation.
The manipulation of kinetic force has several attractive advantages. Most kinetic magic is invisible and cannot be seen by the naked eye, save for those turbulent enough to distort the air and environs. In terms of Theurgia expenditure, there are few other forms of ritual magic that match its efficiency. Most other forms of ritual magic have to forcefully channel energy and matter into turbulent elemental forces or intricate manifolds of energy, whereas Thaumaturgy deals simply with force and motion. However, this advantage lends itself to one of the greater dangers of using Thaumaturgy - by volume and density, it is very difficult for most practitioners to know what kinds of objects they can move with a certain amount of Theurgia, leading to swing-and-miss instances of attempting to use telekinesis or else abrupt power-sinks when one attempts to move something that they probably should not have.
While similar in practice to Thaumaturgy,'Turquoise' transmutation is distinct in its application. Both variants use kinetic force, but focuses upon innate material forces rather than external ones. Internal manipulation of essence as opposed to external manipulation of form.
The first variant is Dynamic Transmutation, whereby one uses raw kinetic force to pulverize and liquefy solid materials at local temperatures, and then having the conglomerate fluid flow and and solidify into a new shape made up of a thorough mixture of the composite materials drawn upon. This can be used for means great and small, from erecting on-the-spot fieldworks and fortifications, to isolating specific minerals and ores from within the Earth, to changing the shape of an existing object. Dynamic Transmutation is difficult to use in that it is hard to discriminate between materials and therefore easy to mix something undesired into the flow, rendering precise, small-scale uses of Dynamic Transmutation something of a trial. However, for very large-scale rituals that require epic amounts of Earthmoving, few forms of magic meet the efficiency of Dynamic Transmutation. It is entirely possible to conjure improvised fortresses and battlements out of the local terrain using such rituals, if one has but the knowledge and means to use them.
The second variant is Astral Transmutation, whereby one changes the actual substance of the manipulated material in and of itself from one form to that of another, such as Lead to Gold. The exact mechanism by which matter is converted from one form to another is not widely understood by mortals, though it is known from certain heretical texts that the process itself is referred to as either Fusion or Fission, depending upon the original target material. The process itself is extremely dangerous to the user if proper precautions are not taken, and few regular practitioners live long enough to enjoy the fruit of experience in its use. Despite the danger however, Astral Transmutation has perhaps the greatest efficiency in regards to the percent ratio at which the target material is converted to a new one. Alternative forms of Transmutation are invariably safer, but waste more of the original substance.
That tower? Aye, that be one o' them works by Axehand the Pepper King! Axehand what rule those badlands to the East, and that weird hoighty-toighty mess-o-rock up North, fore they came here and started conniving wat wit tha mother of Witches and Wretches. He makes witches too you know, only instead of doing naughty things to other people they do it all what to themselves! Pieces o' em fallin' off to make familiars, and givin' birth to ugly sons-a-bitches. No idea who knocks them up, though if I had to guess I would think they get it done with the other witches, hah!
Axehand though, let me tell ya, the people who follow him are right weirdos but he's real good at buildin' stuff! His followers are building him a new Holy City on the island of fairies and bruises, using the power of angry children with hurt feelins' to do it! They make whole castles and such pop up out of holes in the ground, and they're always filled with more witches and their fuckin' ugly get. Kinda like Goffery and the rest of his drunken lot decidin' they're suddenly foibles or what-it-be and tryin' to live high in mighty in proper fashion, only they're still shit! It's right improper I tell you! Axehand ain't got the sense Justinian gave Kobolds, making lowborn serfs like that live in keeps like that. A waste of good space! Either put in right and proper people or else tear it all down for something more useful!
I've been seenin' a few places too what where everyone is a secret witch, ya follow? You know that freehold across the river? But two forthnights ago it wasna there, I tell ya, and everything there looks right and proper, but it ain't. Never heard nor seen one of those people around these parts before, now they say they serve the lord of the region? They're witches, and it's Axehand's doin' I say!
I mean, yeah, it's true the last time we mobbed one of tha places and what kilt them all that we found nothin' improper and such, but you can hardly blame us! These are queer days, what with buildings poppin' up out o' nowhere and people act like we're supposed to be able to tell which from witches. It's all mad I tell you! Like, give me back the old kind o' Axehand witches what went up and built their heathen altars and icons right on your doorstep and laughed about it! At least those were easy to deal with! You just tied 'em to a stick after having a way and jam a rock down their throat to stop them from saying weird witchery nonsense.
The name of the Tower is the Fount, apparently, and the foundry itself has another name though I do not recall the details - and both are likewise built upon Tramontan, the center of the world, hence why the Fount is also occasionally referred to as the axial tower. I said built, though of course it is known those structures are not really made by any kind of hand or labor. The currently accepted theory is that Overlays comprise of more than just the structures one sees, but extends to the very air and fabric of the world itself. It would explain much.
Nobody knows why or for what purpose of course, beyond the obvious assumption of heretical apocalyptic portents. A few astronomers measure the rate at which the Fount regenerates over time after getting struck with one of those...rather unsettling comets the mages from Sacrosanctia like to throw at it, from the ring of forts they built around the center. It makes me nervous honestly. It might almost be blasphemous to say, but I am almost glad the Fount is so apparently durable. The longer it lasts, the longer Gushawar and Yuwan do not have to worry about Justinian doing the same to us. The Turquoise Lord is a miserable excuse for a celestial being, but they make for an excellent sacrificial lamb to draw Justinian's ire at the least. They refer to axial tower as 'the great taunt' apparently, as though it were made just to spit in Justinian's eye - and Yuwan's too I suppose.
I could not tell you if it was - I do not know that much about the Turquoise Lord honestly - but one can tell just by looking that the tower is not that tall just for show alone. A few other scholars and astronomers study its shape, you see, and they swear up and down - both literally and figuratively, given the vertical aspect - that the tower's design bears a lot in common with the symbols and arrangement of some amplification rituals and rites that use geomancy, and we have all of course seen those strange...shockwaves the tower puts out on occasion, when dealing with Justinian's efforts to tear it down. I get the impression it is supposed to be like a whip - the whole of its length serves to amplify force as it travels up and along it, though for what purpose I could not say.
Of course, this whole mess, mixed blessing and curse that it is, is partly Gushawar's fault, alongside the various Justinian states. We warred for over a century and all the time just ignored the Central Overlay. People of the time dismissed it as mere scenery, back before the Turquoise Lord was a known figure amongst higher circles. I can tell you right now, if anybody had bothered to do something about it back in the day, it would never have been an issue. Just look at our undercities. Crept through and infected with overlays all over the place, like tumors, but they do not, are not permitted to spread further. Usually. The Turquoise Lord and their overlays are a menace to infrastructure, and they operate like an infestation. Manageable even in bad cases. What you see in the center of the continent is but an infestation that grew unabated for over a century and a half, and it would not surprise me if it takes almost twice as long to burn it all out again.
Here is hoping Justinian takes so long, eh? As I was saying though, the Turquoise Lord is very much like an infestation, or a tumor. They even operate similarly in regards to their followers. They tempt and encourage the worst kinds of people society has to offer into sacrificing to them, and reanimate the victims, who then spread word of their sickening practices and plague the land with the red god's signs and symbols, creating more overlay, leading to more of their servants appearing. That chaotic scheme requires particularly selfish willing mortal followers to work. If everyone in the world put their foot down and simply refused to give in to temptation, even that massive overlay at Tramontan would be irrelevant. The Turquoise Lord would fall to stagnancy and perish.
If only. The same could be said of Justinian as well, I imagine. Or any other celestial being.
The so-called Turquoise Lord is but another arrogant red god who, in their hubris, has brazenly attempted to take the world by storm only to find that they are naught but a mote in the gleam of the Justinian's eye. They are a threat only in the sense that they are perhaps the most overtly powerful rogue celestial servant, and that they insidiously manipulate unwitting mortals into serving their insensate and nonsensical schemes. While these are ultimately ineffectual and of little grand consequence, these farcical tragedies nonetheless tend to end poorly for the Turquoise Lord's pawns. It thus falls to us as the mortal followers of Justinian to rid this world and the next of this decrepit false god.
The Turquoise Lord, like many who likewise possess great ambition but little true talent or wit of their own, mimics the ways and manners of greater creeds and civilizations. Their overlays bear the semblance of palaces and citadels, keeps and castles, all twisted to reflect the Turquoise Lord's damaged mind and degenerate sensibilities. Such places even bear insensate laws and decrees, and guardians who enforce them, much as seen elsewhere - but the law of the Turquoise Lord's lands is turbulent and fickle, not worth the bother of exploiting or heeding. Each of these places is maintained by a single anchor, representing the consolidated frailties and failings of the Turqoise Lord. Tearing down these disgusting monuments to weakness banishes the unwanted intrusion upon Justinian's lands.
Their servants and practices likewise are dark mirrors of more successful and sensible people and rites. Their blasphemous, reanimated Servitors are disgusting, profaned mockeries of children worthy only of flame, while their sacrificial rites are infantile and devoid of deeper meaning, little more than juvenile perversion for the sole sake of mocking the Justinian. The only danger within their practices is the leaving about of clutter and detritus imbued with the Turquoise Lord's influence, like litter, so as to covertly enable the red god to seize control of ever more of the terrestrial world - though they rarely manage to hide such litter. As extensions of the Turquoise Lord, their schemes and plots are likewise inept and lacking in any true sophistry. One barely has to look for such tedious works in order to identify them. Only deliberate aversion to duty would deter one from effortlessly undoing such works and casting the foul servants of the Turquoise Lord down.
Only the most contemptible and unintelligent scum would ever willingly serve the Turquoise Lord, and naught but doom and delusion awaits those few foolish souls. Most that do are already degenerate filth, the likes of lawless bandits, pirates, and highwaymen. Such callous and rough individuals are typically easily dispatched, even with their unearned and heretical magic. What the forthright Justinian crusader should beware is the wily and industrious Marauder. Mortal-kind is full of clever beings, beings much more intelligent and cunning than the Turquoise Lord could ever hope to be. A number of these people, unfortunately lacking in morals, have managed to discern and exploit the red god's tenants, such as they are, for ever greater magical power. These few individuals tend to be much more insidious and dangerous than any of the Turquoise Lord's servants even could be, and are also those in greatest need of demonstrating their error in turning from the true path. The magics they use are crude rites of brute force and kinetic power, easily dissuaded with the proper wards and methods.
The Turquoise Lord is cunning. Not strong. They do not come to face Us directly. They remain in their lair, and we cannot harm them there, as they have the advantage. Send their servants against Us instead. But they are cunning. They can direct their slaves well despite not being as one, and dominate almost all the surface, so vast that even they need lieutenants, like Superiors. Use other gods, minor and less cunning, as Superiors, but are not a greater entity. The Turquoise Lord does not master them by strength or by being as one. They only have greater innate skills of speech and command, and the lesser gods are swayed by them, for they are vulnerable even to such empty things as those. Through these tools the Turquoise Lord controls the upper lands, for they depend on their disjoined bodies to remain superior.
But they also have other powers, which their enemies must not forget about. They can give their servants magic of many sorts. Conjure dire forms to serve it from the fabric of the sphere. With them, the Turquoise Lord is almost as one, because they act by one will. The walls of their lair can appear in any place their soulless thralls work their sorcery. Become very strong very fast, with all that is inside, and can be superior. Once they made a vast amalgam which could destroy the gods, and with its strength overcame the last Watcher Below. We know it was their creation for We have seen their servants use the same power, with many others. Now the sphere uppermost is empty, and the Turquoise Lord and their acolytes rule it as they do the surface.
But, for all its different limbs, the Turquoise Lord is feeble and unfit to hold dominion. Their thralls are too many for them to funnel, and battle and prey on each other. The walls of the lair can be broken, and the savage bodies torn to pieces. They are not like Us, and will end one day. The Turquoise Lord is cunning, but We are more. We have many feelers of one mind, and can find all their weaknesses. Their magics are too many to watch. We can seize hold of some of them, which daze and transform, and turn them against all but the strongest slaves. The dire bodies can be birthed by Our claws with mimicry of rite, and We absorb them into the One. They must submit, because We are stronger. Such is the weak watch they keep on their arms.
The Turquoise Lord holds the surface, but has no power Below. They send their greatest heralds to assail the Lurker in the great Hive, and reach down with the unformed walls. As one against the All, they fail, and are destroyed. They raise their servants in the north with the magic of the amalgam. We tear them to shreds, and they flee. There is no true power the Turquoise Lord can wield against Us, and We are many.
They know they are weak, and fear Us. Always they turn their brittle forces to harry and distract the Lurker Below and Us Its bodies. Once Our task will be done, they will have no more ichor to draw on, and We will prey on them. This they know. They cannot stop Us. The Turquoise Lord is blind in illusion, and believes that binding the two spheres under its bodies will lead to the greatest dominion. Were they even to succeed, this would not be. But they cannot achieve even this.
They know. They hear Us scraping at their walls, hear the death-sounds of their thralls, hear their magic being consumed. They feel the end close its pincers around their stalk. They have many servants, but in truth they are one, and We are many.
The Turquoise Lord is cunning. We are strong.
Despite what some people might tell you, not every cutthroat is eager to leap at the opportunity to sacrifice to the Turquoise Lord. I mean sure, its basically free Theurgia and goes well with the business of havoc, but unlike most of the bloody business once you go into it, you are committed. Your average folk, they might resort to banditry once, twice, to make ends meet. Your ordinary person does not want to be an outlaw, and once you factor in all the business with Servitors and the one commandment the Turquoise Lord has...you cannot stay anywhere you score. You always have to be moving, and when you want to retire you cannot go back anywhere you hit before. Going Turquoise means going nomadic, maybe even for good.
That is why there are so few Marauders. You have plenty of Turquoise bandits of course, but they never last long. They stick in one place too long and get caught up in the Lord's machinations, or the next wave of purges, or get robbed and sacrificed in turn. To be successful, you have to be a bit of a gambler. Know when to hold, know when to fold, know when to run. The Turquoise Lord is like the house - it always wins, but if you play your cards right you can occasionally be one of the few to walk away from the table with more than you came with.
So yeah, I am not what you would call a faithful, devout follower of the Turquoise Lord. You want my opinion? They have no faithful, devout followers. Just a few desperate idiots who do not know what they are getting into, and a few opportunists like me. I stay successful, rich, and alive by not throwing in with the Lord more than is strictly necessary. When I deal with them, its strictly on a favors for favors basis. You never want to be in debt to them, and you never want to get embroiled in all their schemes. That's how you get killed by a crusader or inquisitor or possibly by the Lord itself.
Another reason you always want to be on the move is because of those fucking creepy Servitors. Its all fun and games messing around with them until you get adopted by one, and that's when everything starts going straight to Ashmedairus. Once they get their hooks in you, you start having Trophic Gods-damned Secrets leaking into every idle thought and dream, and down that road is death.
Yeah, adoption. Servitors - they are really fickle, faelike. Hang around them too long, they take a liking to you and start following you around like they're your mother or lover. It's not always a bad thing in and of itself, Servitors can be useful if you can find a way to work with them, but in general its bad gamble - and remember what I said about gambling. Its basically doubling down on the whole Turquoise lifestyle, and while some people might have the luck or the stones to make it work, I am not one of them.
As far as overlays, I honestly could not tell you much about them. Always moving so that I never have to see them pop up around me. Some Marauders apparently use them to...move around. Some kind of transport spell or something, I do not know, never used it myself. Only thing I really know about overlays is that there's a big one at Tramontan - you know the one - and also that there are more and more 'freeholds' popping up. Basically overlays disguised to look like normal places, all the monsters disguised as people, all of them playing subservient to somebody who made a deal for the place. That sounds pretty as you please on paper, but let me tell you - the Lord never cedes subservience to anyone. Don't get me wrong, the Lord will keep any pact made with them. To the letter. But with freeholds, there's no way its granting actual dominion of overlay over to mortals. More like...the Lord is humoring them. Like they're a favorite doll in a dollhouse for them or something. Maybe if you're discrete enough you can make something like that work, but...no way I could ever do that. Knowing the Lord is basically pampering me like some kind of prize pet. I could never live with that.
Not to mention, I can only imagine what the Turquoise Lord would want in return. No way that comes cheap, even if its just some backwoods hick making the bargain. The lord gets something out of that arrangement beyond a disguised overlay, you can be sure of that.
The Turquoise Lord's domain is not a nation. Few people live there, and the Turquoise Lord has few living mortal followers. The red god is akin to a opportunistic tumor or parasite, preying upon the failings and desires of mortals in order to accrue power. The Turquoise Lord is known for their exceptionally lenient sacrificial rules and only a single commandment to follow in order to receive Theurgia from them. Thus, the Turquoise Lord is considered the patron celestial being of outcasts, pariahs, exiles, degenerates, bandits, highwaymen, pirates, and other criminals. Upon receiving sacrifices, the Turquoise Lord reanimates the dead bodies as undead minions who then set about corrupting the surrounding region, creating materials of influence for the Turquoise Lord until the land is sufficient twisted and imbued with their power to enable the formation of an anchor for the Stray Palace.
The Turquoise Lord commands in the celestial realm a structure of unprecedented scale and function, referred to as the Palace Straylight. Using material anchors formed by its servitors in the material realm, the Turquoise Lord may cast a shadow, a projection of the Straylight Palace upon the world itself. These projections displace the material world, sealing it away beneath an overlay, cast in the shape of the celestial palace. This terrestrial shadow of the Palace Straylight is referred to as the Stray Palace, the shadow of the Turquoise Lord's own dominion upon the material realm.
When knowledge of the Turquoise Lord returned to mortals three-hundred years ago during the last celestial war, such Overlays began to appear across the entire world. However, it was in the center of the world where the seed of their current mortal dominion would truly be planted. The center of the world, Tramontan, where due to chance alone most of their aimless, wandering servants would convene over time, grew in the most concentrated fashion, unhindered by attempts to destroy or banish it due to the absence of other contesting powers in the area. This infestation was ignored for a century and a half, dismissed as mere scenery by Justinian and Yuwan alike until it had grown so massive that destroying it was a daunting, godlike proposition.
A century and a half ago, the central Overlay grew large enough to manifest and fully support what is today known as The Fount, the axial tower at Tramontan. The gargantuan structure is so massive it can be seen from every corner of the world, and is so tall none can see its top. Justinians refer to the tower as 'The Great Taunt,' seeing it as a mocking symbol of dominance and superiority flying in the face of Justinian values and superiority. This precipitated an attempt by then-existing Justinian powers to destroy the central overlay and The Fount itself in a single concentrated attack, during the siege of the Central Complexus of 143 AWH. This siege, although successful in halting the growth of the central overlay, is largely considered a failure. After a tactical withdrawal and retreat by Justinian forces from the Central Complexus to an encampment within the reconquered territory near its boundaries, the entire coalition was destroyed in an instant in a catastrophic event known as the Devastation, which killed half a million soldiers, crusaders, inquisitors, mages, and even the then-Exaltarch of Archonnen himself. The site of the Devastation, to this day, remains an impermeable zone within which no being or force may intrude.
The various Justinian nations have since established a ring of forts around the central overlay, and have been waging a constant, perpetual siege against it for over a century straight. Justinian has directed for magical artifacts of mass destruction to be assembled and projected into the Overlay over the years, destroying large swaths of the original overlay and turning the surrounding land into barren, desolate waste. Little by little, the central overlay has shrunk and been chipped away at by the constant efforts of Justinian to see it banished for good.
Elsewhere in the world however, the Turquoise Lord remains a constant and unabated menace. There is a perpetual threat of Stray Palace overlay appearing within the large megacities of various states, or else within remote, secluded locales where few venture. Their servants wander the world, spreading forbidden secrets and practices to unwitting mortals who hunger for power. The Turquoise Lord is known to be directly complicit in assisting Ephemem in the Civil War between West and East Ouroborasia, and they are also suspected to be allied with the returning red god Axohaan.
The Central Overlay of Tromontan: The Lord of the Turquoise Scheme's most well-known of holding is the central overlay that dwells at Tramontan, the center of the world. It is here where the axial tower, The Fount, is located. The Fount itself extends out from the Turquoise Lord's holy site, known as The Seat, which itself comprises the core of the Central Complexus, the gargantuan foundation for the axial tower. The various Western Justinian nations have been waging a perpetual, century-long siege against the central overlay, gradually chipping away at its boundaries and occasionally projecting magical artifacts of mass destruction at the tower in order to damage it.
Worldwide Overlays: The Shadow of the Stray Palace is cast all across the world in a scattered, haphazard fashion, wherever it might be permitted to take root uncontested. Overlays can be found within abandoned mines or deep within canyons, found in the turbulent cesspits of undercities or else in the unclaimed wilderness. The efforts of civilized folk throughout the world to tear down anchoring material for the palace before it accumulates is a constant chore, and militia are always on the lookout for signs of a hidden-away extension of the Stray Palace somewhere unseen.
Discrete Freeholds: Rumors abound of a new, insidious form of overlay where the Turquoise Lord's own influence lies dormant and suppressed, while the architecture and denizens have taken guise to appear indistinguishable from indigenous native forms. What purpose and function such curious overlays serve remains unknown, and none have been positively identified even if several 'unconfirmed' freeholds have been banished.
The Turquoise Lord is known for, amongst other things, their very lenient tenants. The only requirement for sacrifices to be made to them is that the sacrifice have been procured 'By Wit of Force' or 'By Right of Conquest,' interpreted broadly. Having made a sacrifice to the Turquoise Lord, the only commandment one must then follow is that they not attack or otherwise interfere with the Turquoise Lord's servants.
These extremely lax requirements makes the Turquoise Lord exceedingly popular with bandits, pirates, cutthroats, and the lawless in general - who pillage and steal, and then simply add kidnapping and seizure to their crimes. Sacrificing their victims, these ruffians gain a measure of magical power they then use to perform yet more crimes and gain yet more sacrifices to make in a cycle of violence and ever-increasing magical power, without the complication of having to abide by the laws and strictures of an overbearing celestial being. The lesser of these fiends are known as Turquoise Bandits, while the most powerful and influential brigands who go on to become warlords or bandit chiefs are known as Turquoise Marauders. They are not true faithful worshipers of the Turquoise Lord, and merely make sacrifices to them as a convenient and comparatively easy means to gain magical power.
The Turquoise Lord is known as the patron celestial being of outcasts, pariahs, exiles, and degenerates. When knowledge of them returned to the world three-hundred years ago during the war in the heavens, it came in the form of the Lord of the Turquoise Scheme's own Trophic Secrets. Twisted and tainted knowledge of arcane natural law, seen in the dreams and idle thoughts of the deprived and forlorn as a form of lure and temptation. Such forbidden knowledge also graced and continues to come upon the minds of great intellects, scholars, and natural philosophers who study the laws and mechanisms of the world, and it is through the proliferation of these Trophic Secrets that the Turquoise Lord continues to gain followers.
When a living mortal soul is sacrificed to the Turquoise Lord, under certain conditions the body is reanimated as an undead golem that serves the Turquoise Lord. These beings are known as Servitors, and are the predominant perpetuating force for the Turquoise Lord's influence upon the material world.
The first condition necessary is that a body must remain to be reanimated. As sacrifices implicitly requires a living victim this is not often an issue, though various means of magically destroying a body during sacrifice might hypothetically be employed in order to prevent the creation of a Servitor. The second condition is that the victim have an expansive, favorable cavity within their body around the abdominal region. The females of most sentient species automatically qualify for this particular condition, but certain degenerate Red Enclaves otherwise unaffiliated with the Turquoise Lord have been known to carve cavities into the bowels of still-living male victims in order to create suitable conditions for the creation of male Servitors.
Once the body is reanimated, the Servitor is remarkably hardy and resilient. Being undead, few injuries will deter it, and even cutting off its head is generally insufficient to destroy a Servitor. Severing the limbs from the body is generally required in order for destruction to be assured, and barring that incineration of the body is generally sufficient.
Servitors themselves, upon reanimation, can bear a wide and diverse array of assumed personas. Some might appear to have identical personas and memories to the victim. Others might appear the same but somewhat changed in demeanor. Still, some may be reanimated complete different to how they were in life, with no or entirely alien memories. It should be noted that Servitors themselves are Soulless, and whatever they do or however they might act they have no true sense of awareness or consciousness, being a form of philosophical zombie. They are known for being extremely fickle and fae in nature. On occasion, if their body is whole and undamaged and if their persona is similar enough to how it was in life, a Servitor can remain undetected amongst its original community for months or even years. Other times, servitors may aimlessly wander the world, corrupting the landscape and tempting mortals with forbidden knowledge.
Additionally, on rare occasions Servitors have been known to 'adopt' individuals, such as the person who sacrificed them in the first place. Upon adopting a person, a Servitor generally accompanies them wherever they go, constantly by their side. These servitors can serve as tormentors, neutral companions, or valued advisers or aides, lovers or hated enemies. Most Turquoise Bandits and Marauders deal with such adoptions as they come in a manner corresponding with however convenient the relationship is, while most civilized folk typically destroy the Servitor itself at the soonest convenience.
Whether they remain undetected, wander the world, or adopt a mortal, Servitors constantly create what is known as anchoring material. Anchoring material comes in many forms. A carved tree, a cairn made of stones, a cave painting, curious excavations, the growth of alien, alchemical flora, chiseled cliff faces, crop circles and sigils, the assembly of crude natural altars, and so forth. All of these curious objects and structures are naturally imbued with the influence of the Turquoise Lord. Over time, once enough anchoring material accumulates in a single locale, it serves to form a foci of power and influence for the Turquoise Lord. This foci forms a physical anchor in the material world, leading to its overlay by a projection of the Stray Palace (see the Stray Palace section for more details).
All Servitors, from the moment of their creation, serve host to a gestating terrestrial monster within their womb - or their cavity, in the rare instance of a male servitor. Such terrestrial horrors are always completely unique as to their anatomical makeup, as well as their innate nature. Terrestrial monsters may run the gamut from massive, monstrous strong, hideously bloodthirsty and of feral, bestial intellect - to diminutive, pathetically weak, docile and civilized with deep and profound intelligence. Regardless of their nature, all terrestrial monsters bear souls. While they have a native, instinctual impulse to serve the Turquoise lord, this impulse may be overcome by those monsters with strong enough wills or intellects. To this day, in a few remote locations, there is the odd monster living amongst other mortals, having rejected the ways of the Turquoise Lord.
Although all Servitors play host to gestating horror within them, approximately half of them never give birth naturally. All Servitors will forcefully give birth if they would be destroyed or otherwise significantly damaged without the monster within having been slain in the process. The birthing process can range from harmless to the Servitor to wholly destructive, ranging from Servitors giving birth to delicate butterfly creatures to a hulking behemoth sloughing off the skin of its mother (or father).
The Stray Palace seen in the material world is a shadow cast upon terrestrial plane by a structure in the Celestial Realm known as the Palace Straylight.
When a Servitor creates enough anchoring material in the physical realm, the influence of the Turquoise Lord consolidates into a single physical structure known as an anchor. The anchor serves as a pin for the projection of the Stray Palace that then overlays the material realm, keeping it in place while displacing the material realm itself.
The displaced material realm is still present and whole, merely displaced. It is possible to banish Stray Palace Overlay by destroying the physical anchor pinning it in place, causing it to be banished and for the material realm to reassert itself as it was prior to being displaced. Those more familiar with the practice of destroying anchors are wary and take care when doing so, as it is possible for an anchor to be located either underground or above the ground relative to the displaced material world, resulting in the would-be-savior being sealed in solid bedrock or left to fall dozens of meters after destroying an anchor.
The projection of the Stray Palace is more than just the structures that form - it is the very skein and fabric of the world that is displaced as well. When one enters an overlay, the Stray Palace is not just the halls they enter, but also the air they breath. The stuff and material of the Stray Palace complies with natural laws, but is altogether still alien. The structures seen will regenerate over time, and possess a curious strength to them. They are not harder to destroy, but may be arranged with a complexity and enormity that might otherwise be impossible with nonmagical materials.
The Stray Palace itself possesses the visage of a mocking, terrible mirror of mortal extravagance. The sprawl of it appears much as a palace would, with great banquet halls and kitchens, ballrooms, grand parlors, long and refined hallways, libraries filled with forbidden lore, ancient and sturdy vaults, armories and barracks, forges and dungeons, thrones and bedrooms - everything one might expect to be found in any palace or castle, one can find within the Stray Palace. Each overlay is liberally littered with artifacts, treasures, and objects of various mention which serve as furnishing for each area of the palace. These objects may be moved and if present within the Overlay when an anchor is destroyed, will be banished normally. If extracted from an overlay however, such items will remain corporeal even in the event of an anchor's destruction. Though whether one can extract such items is another matter entirely...
The Stray Palace is a shadow of the Palace Straylight in the celestial realm - and to carry the analogy, the shadows of the beings that dwell within the Palace Straylight also manifest within the Stray Palace, as the shadows of the beings that cast them. If shadows were solid.
Within each independent locale of the Stray Palace dwells a shadowcast Denizen, a monstrous being who serves as twisted combination of a guardian as well as a chief of staff. Attending them are shadowcast monsters, akin to terrestrial monsters borne of Servitors but instead are projections and part of the Stray Palace itself. Each Denizen is attended by a small army of these monsters, who in turn act as their staff. A Denizen within a library of the Stray Palace might act as head Librarian, and the monsters as book-keepers. The Denizens are monstrous and alien, but largely civilized and docile unless provoked. They may be conversed and dealt with as one might when dealing with the chief of staff of a foreign palace as a guest. The monsters, unlike their terrestrial counterparts, are less overtly ferocious and predatory. They will stalk and hunt intruders, but not with overwhelming numbers or ferocity.
This is due to the rules of the Stray Palace. Within its halls are a number of decrees, and as long as these decrees are followed, intruders may venture and explore in relative safety, troubled only by predatory, shadowy monsters occasionally ambushing and attacking them. These rules include but are not limited to the following:
No stealing from the Stray Palace.
Damage not the edifice of the Stray Palace.
Offend not the sensibilities or dignity of the Denizens and Attendants.
Aggrieve not the bodies of the Denizens and Attendants.
Do not intrude upon the grounds of the Straylit Bastions.
Intrude upon The Seat at your peril.
Once any of these rules are broken, the Stray Palace will begin to react to the presence of an intruder, or intruders, like an infection - responding with overwhelming hordes of shadowcast monsters, as well as Attendants.
Celestial Attendants are to Celestial Servants what Celestial Servants are to Gods. They are celestial beings of lesser power, in service to a Celestial Servant. The Turquoise Lord is known to have a large number of Attendants, and the shadows of these beings are seen in the Stray Palace, standing guard over anchors and hunting down intruders who break the rules. Shadowcast Attendants possess limited omniscience within the immediate area and are therefore impossible to evade or hide from, and possess tremendously potent magical abilities and physical durability. They are slow, but intractable, and are the primary threat to those who would intrude within the Palace borders and break the rules.
The Crown of Form Status: Lost
Summary:The Crown of Form is a Divine Artifact made by the Turquoise Lord prior to the War in the Heavens. It functions as a Material Catalyst, as opposed to a Divine Catalyst, and is the only known Catalyst in existence that completely preempts the conscious use of magical rituals.
To use the Crown, one simply sends Theurgia into it along with a command. The Crown of Form then automagically casts the desired spell at 100% efficiency, using the most efficient ritual possible to cast for that particular effect. This is distinct from the usage of Divine catalysts, which will only augment the efficiency of a given spell the caster chooses to use.
It is known that any mortal who would lay hand upon the Crown of Form would immediately become Champion of Form under the Turquoise Lord as one of their Divine Champions, an exceedingly potent combination. However, to this day there have been no known bearers of the Crown of Form, and the Crown of Form has no historically recorded instances of use. It and its affiliation with the Turquoise Lord are only mentioned in the most esoteric and decrepit of ancient manuscripts of hidden vaults of forbidden lore.
The Lord of the Turquoise Scheme, unlike most other Celestial being, is very fickle in selecting their champions...and keeping them. The Turquoise Lord is thought to have ten champions in total, one for each aspect of the Turquoise Lord's ideological sphere that is known to mortals. Each champion has a unique set of prerequisites for being selected, a unique array of magical and innate powers, as well as unique rules for remaining champion. Due to the convoluted mechanisms by which transference of championship works, it has often been the case that the Turquoise Lord's champions have been either entirely unwilling or unwitting, and in some cases potentially even their sworn enemies.
In the event an individual finds themselves selected as one of the Turquoise Lord's champions, if they cannot be made a champion (due to already being a Champion for another celestial being, for example) they are instead cursed, and the moment the transference perquisites are met again the curse leaps to the next victim and makes them champion instead.
Due to the Turquoise Lord's fickle nature, they refuse to control and manipulate their own Champions as other celestial beings might with theirs. The Champions of the Turquoise Lord are essentially free agents, permitted to act however they please so long as they follow the specific rules of their new status.
The Champion of Enigma embodies the aspect of uncertainty and the unknown in the universe. Due to the specific mechanisms embedded within the fabric of creation by the Demiurge, it is impossible to possess a complete understanding of the world's natural laws. Even if a single celestial being could ascend to become the new Demiurge, they themselves would be unable to understand the world the prior Demiurge had created, only being able to destroy and change what is already present in addition to creating that which is new. Enigma is ineffable.
Fittingly enough, the identity, powers, and rules associated with the Champion of Enigma are obscured to mortals.
The Champion of Nature embodies the aspect of the world as it actually exists, beyond the knowing of mortal or celestial comprehension. Nature is the world.
In order to be selected as the next Champion of Nature, a mortal must be deprived of all of their senses. In most humanoids these are sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. Other mortal beings with expanded or additional senses must be deprived of them as well in order to qualify. If an existing Champion of Nature would regain any of their senses, they are immediately castigated and slain.
The Champion of Nature possesses instead a perception of the influence of celestial beings. This extends to anything containing or projecting celestial influence, including Theurgia originating from celestial beings as well as ambient Theurgia, imbued with the influence of dead gods.
The Champion of Nature possesses innate abilities similar to those of a Servitor. Every thing they touch and make contact with is imbued with a moderate amount of the Turquoise Lord's own influence. They also gain a reflexive defensive power in the form of a curse that bestows a small amount of the Turquoise Lord's theurgia upon those who would assail or otherwise obstruct the Champion, rendering them vulnerable to their wrath. Beyond these abilities, Champions of Nature possesses only modestly heightened physical vigor.
The Champion of Form embodies the aspect of the state and declining tendencies of the world's natural laws. Entropy, thermodynamics, the constant flow of energy from a high state to a low state. Form represents the flow and channeling of energy in the most efficient fashion possible as progresses to a final static state seen in the set ways of nature. Form is entropy.
The Champion of Form shall be the one who adorns the Crown of Form, and who shall remain so until it would leave their possession. As the Crown of Form is notably hard to remove, its theft or seizure implicitly requires their death.
The Champion of Vision embodies the aspect of mortal and celestial perception both of the world as it is, along with its natural laws. Vision is perception.
The Champion of Vision is selected only of individuals whose souls have been frayed due to a near-death experience, who would also be eligible to receive the Turquoise Lord's Trophic Secrets. If the Champion of Vision would ever utter a lie, they are immediately castigated and slain in a spectacular fashion.
The Champion of Vision possesses not only dramatically heightened physical senses, but is in fact bestowed with a limited, functional form of omniscience within a local area, combined with greatly heightened reflexes and modestly increased physical vigor.
The Champion of Rite embodies the identification and the existence of means and methods to redirect and channel energy in specific ways, effecting magic as an alternative direction in the decline of the natural world. A champion who bodies the very principle of rituals in and of themselves, after a fashion. Rite is order.
The Champion of Rite is always the single individual in the world who has performed and offered the greatest number of sacrifices to the Turquoise Lord. If another individual would sacrifice more, the first remains Champion but must track down and battle their rival on equal footing. The survivor either remains or becomes the new Champion of Rite.
The Champion of Rite can reflexively identify and understand every single ritual they perceive being performed, and is may reflexively recall phantom knowledge of how to perform certain rituals to overcome problems and obstacles they might face, as though experiencing the memory of a ritual used before for a similar purpose. The Champion of Rite may perform any ritual as though they had perfect muscle memory and recall for its esoteric knowledge, but in practical terms is usually still unable to cast at 100% efficiency for various reasons.
The Champion of Volition embodies the existence of chaos and free will in an uncertain universe, and the ability of mortal and celestial beings to manipulate nature if they have but the knowledge, the power, and the will to do so. Volition is freedom.
The Champion of Volition's rules are simple: Upon their death, they immediately select who they want the next Champion of Volition to be, and that person becomes the next Champion of Volition.
The Champion of Volition, simply put, cannot be stopped, impeded, held back, or restrained by any means. If they come into opposition with another being or force, their Theurgia capacity will be expended in order to temporarily enhance their physical strength and vigor until they become strong enough to overcome the obstacle. If the Champion reaches the limit of their Theurgia capacity and still cannot overcome the impediment, instead their Theurgia is expended to temporarily phase the Champion out of sync with the material realm briefly, along with a portion of anything they had direct contact with at the time.
The Champion of Wit embodies the conflict between the wills of celestial beings and mortals as they attempt to seize control of and manipulate the natural order of the world using rituals and knowledge of the universe's natural laws. Moreover, Wit also embodies the conflict and struggle that occurs between mortals and celestial beings as they fight and argue amongst themselves as to what interpretations, perceptions, and visions of the waking world are factual, as well as what particular ends and means of manipulating the world are preferable or optimal. Wit is conflict.
The Champion of Wit is only chosen from amongst mortal enemies of the Turquoise Lord, who both have knowledge of their Trophic Secrets and who has received Theurgia from the effects of a Servitor's reverse-sacrificial curse or another similar ritual. The Champion of Wit only remains so if they succeed in drawing the blood of an enemy for each setting of the sun, and will otherwise be castigated and slain.
The Champion of Wit possesses a pervasive magical aura that slowly drives those around them to a feral, predatory, highly aggressive fugue-state, precipitating spontaneous riots and sacks. Initial symptoms include paranoia and delusion, leading to hallucinations and distorted senses, peaking with an acute headache and phantom pain prior to losing time as one enters the fugue-state. Additionally, the Champion of Wit will automagically weaken and corrupt the bindings of summoned and animated beings in the vicinity, eventually freeing them and inducing rampancy.
The Champion of Domination embodies the willful assertion of self in opposition both to the world and to other beings, presented so that all would be forced to yield in order to bring about a new order in accordance with one's own purposes and desires. Domination is conquest.
The Champion of Domination is selected from amongst Nobles who are secretly of common birth. If they would ever lay with another Noble-blooded individual, they are castigated and slain.
The Champion of Domination may summon shadowcast Monsters out of thin air for a predetermined, constant upkeep continuously taken from their permanent Theurgia capacity. This way, the Champion of Domination may summon a certain number of monsters at a time corresponding to their personal Theurgia capacity. Additionally, the Champion of Domination possesses highly efficient and abnormally potent Indoctrination and hypnotic magic, as well as excelling with most forms of illusory and sensory magic in general. While these are both potent abilities, the Champion of Domination does not possess enhanced vigor as some Champions do.
The Champion of Bondage embodies the change and bend in the world as energy is redirected and channel in accordance to the will of a mortal or celestial being, as well as the yielding of mortals and celestial beings to the will of the dominating individual who has forced all other thoughts and forces to yield. Bondage is change.
The Champion of Bondage is supremely resilient and physically tough, being extraordinarily difficult to injure and capable of healing even from otherwise mortal wounds in short order. Additionally, the Champion of Bondage may attach itself to a single individual, much in the same manner as a Servitor adopting another being. The Champio of Bondage will be compelled to obey every order, whim, and wish issued by that individual. However, if that individual provides the Champion of Bondage with enough semblances and signs of their visage, the Champion of Bondage may perform an epic feat of transmutation magic, changing their body to that of their master's while changing the master's body to their own. The ascended slave thus loses their powers, and the fallen master becomes the new Champion of Bondage.
The Champion of Truth embodies the most important aspect of the world. The aspect of Truth is obscured to most mortals and celestial beings.
That tower? Aye, that be one o' them works by Axehand the Pepper King! Axehand what rule those badlands to the East, and that weird hoighty-toighty mess-o-rock up North, fore they came here and started conniving wat wit tha mother of Witches and Wretches. He makes witches too you know, only instead of doing naughty things to other people they do it all what to themselves! Pieces o' em fallin' off to make familiars, and givin' birth to ugly sons-a-bitches. No idea who knocks them up, though if I had to guess I would think they get it done with the other witches, hah!
Axehand though, let me tell ya, the people who follow him are right weirdos but he's real good at buildin' stuff! His followers are building him a new Holy City on the island of fairies and bruises, using the power of angry children with hurt feelins' to do it! They make whole castles and such pop up out of holes in the ground, and they're always filled with more witches and their fuckin' ugly get. Kinda like Goffery and the rest of his drunken lot decidin' they're suddenly foibles or what-it-be and tryin' to live high in mighty in proper fashion, only they're still shit! It's right improper I tell you! Axehand ain't got the sense Justinian gave Kobolds, making lowborn serfs like that live in keeps like that. A waste of good space! Either put in right and proper people or else tear it all down for something more useful!
I've been seenin' a few places too what where everyone is a secret witch, ya follow? You know that freehold across the river? But two forthnights ago it wasna there, I tell ya, and everything there looks right and proper, but it ain't. Never heard nor seen one of those people around these parts before, now they say they serve the lord of the region? They're witches, and it's Axehand's doin' I say!
I mean, yeah, it's true the last time we mobbed one of tha places and what kilt them all that we found nothin' improper and such, but you can hardly blame us! These are queer days, what with buildings poppin' up out o' nowhere and people act like we're supposed to be able to tell which from witches. It's all mad I tell you! Like, give me back the old kind o' Axehand witches what went up and built their heathen altars and icons right on your doorstep and laughed about it! At least those were easy to deal with! You just tied 'em to a stick after having a way and jam a rock down their throat to stop them from saying weird witchery nonsense.
The name of the Tower is the Fount, apparently, and the foundry itself has another name though I do not recall the details - and both are likewise built upon Tramontan, the center of the world, hence why the Fount is also occasionally referred to as the axial tower. I said built, though of course it is known those structures are not really made by any kind of hand or labor. The currently accepted theory is that Overlays comprise of more than just the structures one sees, but extends to the very air and fabric of the world itself. It would explain much.
Nobody knows why or for what purpose of course, beyond the obvious assumption of heretical apocalyptic portents. A few astronomers measure the rate at which the Fount regenerates over time after getting struck with one of those...rather unsettling comets the mages from Sacrosanctia like to throw at it, from the ring of forts they built around the center. It makes me nervous honestly. It might almost be blasphemous to say, but I am almost glad the Fount is so apparently durable. The longer it lasts, the longer Gushawar and Yuwan do not have to worry about Justinian doing the same to us. The Turquoise Lord is a miserable excuse for a celestial being, but they make for an excellent sacrificial lamb to draw Justinian's ire at the least. They refer to axial tower as 'the great taunt' apparently, as though it were made just to spit in Justinian's eye - and Yuwan's too I suppose.
I could not tell you if it was - I do not know that much about the Turquoise Lord honestly - but one can tell just by looking that the tower is not that tall just for show alone. A few other scholars and astronomers study its shape, you see, and they swear up and down - both literally and figuratively, given the vertical aspect - that the tower's design bears a lot in common with the symbols and arrangement of some amplification rituals and rites that use geomancy, and we have all of course seen those strange...shockwaves the tower puts out on occasion, when dealing with Justinian's efforts to tear it down. I get the impression it is supposed to be like a whip - the whole of its length serves to amplify force as it travels up and along it, though for what purpose I could not say.
Of course, this whole mess, mixed blessing and curse that it is, is partly Gushawar's fault, alongside the various Justinian states. We warred for over a century and all the time just ignored the Central Overlay. People of the time dismissed it as mere scenery, back before the Turquoise Lord was a known figure amongst higher circles. I can tell you right now, if anybody had bothered to do something about it back in the day, it would never have been an issue. Just look at our undercities. Crept through and infected with overlays all over the place, like tumors, but they do not, are not permitted to spread further. Usually. The Turquoise Lord and their overlays are a menace to infrastructure, and they operate like an infestation. Manageable even in bad cases. What you see in the center of the continent is but an infestation that grew unabated for over a century and a half, and it would not surprise me if it takes almost twice as long to burn it all out again.
Here is hoping Justinian takes so long, eh? As I was saying though, the Turquoise Lord is very much like an infestation, or a tumor. They even operate similarly in regards to their followers. They tempt and encourage the worst kinds of people society has to offer into sacrificing to them, and reanimate the victims, who then spread word of their sickening practices and plague the land with the red god's signs and symbols, creating more overlay, leading to more of their servants appearing. That chaotic scheme requires particularly selfish willing mortal followers to work. If everyone in the world put their foot down and simply refused to give in to temptation, even that massive overlay at Tramontan would be irrelevant. The Turquoise Lord would fall to stagnancy and perish.
If only. The same could be said of Justinian as well, I imagine. Or any other celestial being.
The so-called Turquoise Lord is but another arrogant red god who, in their hubris, has brazenly attempted to take the world by storm only to find that they are naught but a mote in the gleam of the Justinian's eye. They are a threat only in the sense that they are perhaps the most overtly powerful rogue celestial servant, and that they insidiously manipulate unwitting mortals into serving their insensate and nonsensical schemes. While these are ultimately ineffectual and of little grand consequence, these farcical tragedies nonetheless tend to end poorly for the Turquoise Lord's pawns. It thus falls to us as the mortal followers of Justinian to rid this world and the next of this decrepit false god.
The Turquoise Lord, like many who likewise possess great ambition but little true talent or wit of their own, mimics the ways and manners of greater creeds and civilizations. Their overlays bear the semblance of palaces and citadels, keeps and castles, all twisted to reflect the Turquoise Lord's damaged mind and degenerate sensibilities. Such places even bear insensate laws and decrees, and guardians who enforce them, much as seen elsewhere - but the law of the Turquoise Lord's lands is turbulent and fickle, not worth the bother of exploiting or heeding. Each of these places is maintained by a single anchor, representing the consolidated frailties and failings of the Turqoise Lord. Tearing down these disgusting monuments to weakness banishes the unwanted intrusion upon Justinian's lands.
Their servants and practices likewise are dark mirrors of more successful and sensible people and rites. Their blasphemous, reanimated Servitors are disgusting, profaned mockeries of children worthy only of flame, while their sacrificial rites are infantile and devoid of deeper meaning, little more than juvenile perversion for the sole sake of mocking the Justinian. The only danger within their practices is the leaving about of clutter and detritus imbued with the Turquoise Lord's influence, like litter, so as to covertly enable the red god to seize control of ever more of the terrestrial world - though they rarely manage to hide such litter. As extensions of the Turquoise Lord, their schemes and plots are likewise inept and lacking in any true sophistry. One barely has to look for such tedious works in order to identify them. Only deliberate aversion to duty would deter one from effortlessly undoing such works and casting the foul servants of the Turquoise Lord down.
Only the most contemptible and unintelligent scum would ever willingly serve the Turquoise Lord, and naught but doom and delusion awaits those few foolish souls. Most that do are already degenerate filth, the likes of lawless bandits, pirates, and highwaymen. Such callous and rough individuals are typically easily dispatched, even with their unearned and heretical magic. What the forthright Justinian crusader should beware is the wily and industrious Marauder. Mortal-kind is full of clever beings, beings much more intelligent and cunning than the Turquoise Lord could ever hope to be. A number of these people, unfortunately lacking in morals, have managed to discern and exploit the red god's tenants, such as they are, for ever greater magical power. These few individuals tend to be much more insidious and dangerous than any of the Turquoise Lord's servants even could be, and are also those in greatest need of demonstrating their error in turning from the true path. The magics they use are crude rites of brute force and kinetic power, easily dissuaded with the proper wards and methods.
Despite what some people might tell you, not every cutthroat is eager to leap at the opportunity to sacrifice to the Turquoise Lord. I mean sure, its basically free Theurgia and goes well with the business of havoc, but unlike most of the bloody business once you go into it, you are committed. Your average folk, they might resort to banditry once, twice, to make ends meet. Your ordinary person does not want to be an outlaw, and once you factor in all the business with Servitors and the one commandment the Turquoise Lord has...you cannot stay anywhere you score. You always have to be moving, and when you want to retire you cannot go back anywhere you hit before. Going Turquoise means going nomadic, maybe even for good.
That is why there are so few Marauders. You have plenty of Turquoise bandits of course, but they never last long. They stick in one place too long and get caught up in the Lord's machinations, or the next wave of purges, or get robbed and sacrificed in turn. To be successful, you have to be a bit of a gambler. Know when to hold, know when to fold, know when to run. The Turquoise Lord is like the house - it always wins, but if you play your cards right you can occasionally be one of the few to walk away from the table with more than you came with.
So yeah, I am not what you would call a faithful, devout follower of the Turquoise Lord. You want my opinion? They have no faithful, devout followers. Just a few desperate idiots who do not know what they are getting into, and a few opportunists like me. I stay successful, rich, and alive by not throwing in with the Lord more than is strictly necessary. When I deal with them, its strictly on a favors for favors basis. You never want to be in debt to them, and you never want to get embroiled in all their schemes. That's how you get killed by a crusader or inquisitor or possibly by the Lord itself.
Another reason you always want to be on the move is because of those fucking creepy Servitors. Its all fun and games messing around with them until you get adopted by one, and that's when everything starts going straight to Ashmedairus. Once they get their hooks in you, you start having Trophic Gods-damned Secrets leaking into every idle thought and dream, and down that road is death.
Yeah, adoption. Servitors - they are really fickle, faelike. Hang around them too long, they take a liking to you and start following you around like they're your mother or lover. It's not always a bad thing in and of itself, Servitors can be useful if you can find a way to work with them, but in general its bad gamble - and remember what I said about gambling. Its basically doubling down on the whole Turquoise lifestyle, and while some people might have the luck or the stones to make it work, I am not one of them.
As far as overlays, I honestly could not tell you much about them. Always moving so that I never have to see them pop up around me. Some Marauders apparently use them to...move around. Some kind of transport spell or something, I do not know, never used it myself. Only thing I really know about overlays is that there's a big one at Tramontan - you know the one - and also that there are more and more 'freeholds' popping up. Basically overlays disguised to look like normal places, all the monsters disguised as people, all of them playing subservient to somebody who made a deal for the place. That sounds pretty as you please on paper, but let me tell you - the Lord never cedes subservience to anyone. Don't get me wrong, the Lord will keep any pact made with them. To the letter. But with freeholds, there's no way its granting actual dominion of overlay over to mortals. More like...the Lord is humoring them. Like they're a favorite doll in a dollhouse for them or something. Maybe if you're discrete enough you can make something like that work, but...no way I could ever do that. Knowing the Lord is basically pampering me like some kind of prize pet. I could never live with that.
Not to mention, I can only imagine what the Turquoise Lord would want in return. No way that comes cheap, even if its just some backwoods hick making the bargain. The lord gets something out of that arrangement beyond a disguised overlay, you can be sure of that.
I have been writing as a hobby for longer than you have been alive. I have been a regular member and roleplayer of no less than fourteen different online forums during that time (including the old RPG), [s]five[/s] [s]six[/s] eight of which no longer exist.
I was previously a regular on the Homestuck forums, but I became so sick of thread turnover there that I asked around and eventually found the Guild. Since joining, I have exclusively only participated in Advanced RPs. Before Mahz gave NRPs their own subforum, I used to be an NRP regular in the Advanced Subforum. I am a Guildfall survivor, and know/regularly write with a few others.
If you ask anybody who has written with me in previous RPs, they should tell you that I have a generally open schedule, I post regularly and in a timely fashion, and I never drop an RP once I join unless the thread dies. Some of them may tell you that I have extensive expertise within the realms of Biology, Psychology, and Physics, which I will make no effort to validate since there is no way I can provide hard proof of aforementioned alleged expertise to anybody over the internet (though I am happy to try and answer any questions you send my way).
My favorite fandom is the Myst franchise, which seemingly nobody other than me has ever heard of.
I was a Contest Moderator for the Writing Contests Subforum for just a little bit over two years. I wrote the Moderation Policy for that subforum and I ran a contest called the Twelve Labours; you can still go there and see all of them and the entries people wrote for them in the [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/forums/45-writing-contests]Contests Section[/url] and the [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/79562-the-twelve-labours-victory-archive/ooc]Victory Archives.[/url]
I have been quadruple secret banned from the guild discord. That is not a joke.
<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;">I have been writing as a hobby for longer than you have been alive. I have been a regular member and roleplayer of no less than fourteen different online forums during that time (including the old RPG), <span class="bb-s">five</span> <span class="bb-s">six</span> eight of which no longer exist.<br><br>I was previously a regular on the Homestuck forums, but I became so sick of thread turnover there that I asked around and eventually found the Guild. Since joining, I have exclusively only participated in Advanced RPs. Before Mahz gave NRPs their own subforum, I used to be an NRP regular in the Advanced Subforum. I am a Guildfall survivor, and know/regularly write with a few others.<br><br>If you ask anybody who has written with me in previous RPs, they should tell you that I have a generally open schedule, I post regularly and in a timely fashion, and I never drop an RP once I join unless the thread dies. Some of them may tell you that I have extensive expertise within the realms of Biology, Psychology, and Physics, which I will make no effort to validate since there is no way I can provide hard proof of aforementioned alleged expertise to anybody over the internet (though I am happy to try and answer any questions you send my way).<br><br>My favorite fandom is the Myst franchise, which seemingly nobody other than me has ever heard of.<br><br>I was a Contest Moderator for the Writing Contests Subforum for just a little bit over two years. I wrote the Moderation Policy for that subforum and I ran a contest called the Twelve Labours; you can still go there and see all of them and the entries people wrote for them in the <a href="https://www.roleplayerguild.com/forums/45-writing-contests">Contests Section</a> and the <a href="https://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/79562-the-twelve-labours-victory-archive/ooc">Victory Archives.</a><br><br>I have been quadruple secret banned from the guild discord. That is not a joke.</div>
KactusPunch
Crown Sage
MarshalSolgriev
SkyeOfStars
princess
Zeroth
