Difference between revisions of "Ram"
From Wiki Confrontation
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*''1 005'' : Siege of Acheron. | *''1 005'' : Siege of Acheron. | ||
*''1 006'' : The Gates of Hell. Third battle of Kaïber. End of the Siege of Acheron. | *''1 006'' : The Gates of Hell. Third battle of Kaïber. End of the Siege of Acheron. | ||
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| + | == The Barony of Acheron == | ||
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| + | During the secession from the kingdom of Alahan, the powerful families of Acheron divided themselves into two camps: those who remained loyal to the Lion and the renegades. The principal architects had been under the thumb of the Black Togas for a few years; the traitors had no diffi culty in crushing those faithful to the crown. Consequently, the deceitful Houses became known as the Dark Houses. Of these Houses, only four have survived: Brisis, Hestia, Vanth and Mantis. Although their founders had been part of the Black Togas, the Houses of Scourge, Lazarian, Sarlath and Tanit did not develop until after the secession of their barony. The majority of the Dark Houses do not consist of a single family. Over time, they have absorbed less powerful Houses | ||
| + | through weddings and intrigue. The progeny of a dominant House forms a dynasty, and a dynasty’s representative is known as a “dynast”. The subjected Houses are called lines, and the representatives of a line are known as “lieges”. | ||
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| + | For example, within House Mantis, Nimrod Mantis is a dynast and Sophet Drahas is a liege. Within the hierarchy of the Ram, a | ||
| + | dynast has greater status than a liege. The dynast with the highest rank is called “Father” or “Mother”, by the whole family. It represents its House in the Eternal Circle, the supreme authority of the Order of the Ram. For this reason, the fathers and mothers of the Dark Houses are also known as the “Eternals”. The Dark Houses all have a gathering place, an ancestral ruin of their family, or a building constructed in the decades following the revolt. These places are collectively known as the Claws of Terror because they are symbolic of the cruel grip the Ram has on Acheron. | ||
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| + | Once a fertile land, Acheron has neither seasons nor days, if a day is measured by the short period during which Lahn is at its zenith and struggles to transform the eternal night sky into a heavenly maelstrom. The fiefs of Acheron are black and nearly sterile. The unfortunate serfs, tied to their land and their Lords, spend their entire lives struggling to extract enough from the land to survive. Phantom villages and ruined buildings are pock marks on the landscape, evidence of a past life. Some buildings suffered the ravages of time quicker than others, as if the land itself chose what was allowed to remain. | ||
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| + | Here and there, villages stubbornly cling to a land that regretfully yields benefits. The population of Acheron is mainly made up of the living though, over time, the dead inexorably undermine the supremacy of the living. The Darkness has created a flat and desolate landscape, eroding the hills that delineated the lands of the Dark Houses. Today there is hardly any distinction between the fields of a Brisis or of a Vanth. Their lands are wide, desolate stretches of blackness beaten by strong and icy winds or blistering hot blasts from the hells themselves. Even the mines that made the barony a commercial powerhouse have been abandoned: the weapons of Acheron are now forged from tortured souls and Darkness. | ||
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| + | ''“Then, the time of the Ram will come. Those who know death, who have embraced | ||
| + | it as a loving and faithful slave, will surely see the signs. Salaüel, the Lord of | ||
| + | Darkness, he who brings Evil and Knowledge, Sire of the Abysses, shall appoint his | ||
| + | champion - the Incarnation of Vice. | ||
| + | This individual will lead the faithful to victory through death. This individual will | ||
| + | raise the banner of eternal war, the Rag’narok. | ||
| + | This individual shall raise the army of the dead and will be served by only the mortals | ||
| + | worthy of worshipping Darkness. | ||
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| + | Salaüel will not step foot on Creation until the last days of the living: truly, the | ||
| + | wheel of death has crushed half of them; it has already reduced the time of their reign, | ||
| + | the reign of life and of the Light, by half. | ||
| + | When the time comes, His beloved daughter, the Queen of Vice, whose face burns | ||
| + | hearts and souls, will proclaim the end of the age of peace. A hundred generations of | ||
| + | men will have passed; a hundred generations of men will not be seen again. | ||
| + | When the faithful emissary of the Lord of Darkness, Belial, whose forgeries harvest | ||
| + | life obscuring the Light, finally stands on mankind’s land, the last era will be ushered | ||
| + | in! | ||
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| + | And so shall the black harvest of the eternal war begin. When Lahn hides his face in | ||
| + | the sky, it will be time to prepare to confront death and harness it. | ||
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| + | Finally, to herald the beginning of the time of the dead, following the previous era, | ||
| + | the first of three will come, an emissary of an even greater evil. Beyond Evil, in the | ||
| + | heart of Darkness, is indeed the source of corruption: the master whose name cannot | ||
| + | be written, seven sins and three crimes, the Vice multiplied by blood...” | ||
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| + | - The Codex of Salaüel, Feyd Mantis'' | ||
