Difference between revisions of "The Fate of Maldegen Dirz"
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== Chronology == | == Chronology == | ||
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*''1000'' : Death of Dirz, sacrificed | *''1000'' : Death of Dirz, sacrificed | ||
| + | == Maldegen Dirz == | ||
| + | Maldegen Dirz was born in Carthag Fero, in Akkylannie, to the rich house of engineer Balfeden Dirz, in 643. The child soon revealed extraordinary intelligence and obviously possessed a gift for magic. Trained from a very young age in all scientific fields, he was able to correct his father’s plans before he was ten. Indifferent to any possible development of his mystic abilities, Maldegen Dirz favored his passion for science. | ||
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| + | He quickly specialized in biology, a rather unexplored field at the time. At eleven, Maldegen Dirz discovered parasites in the water recycling systems of Carthag Fero. He offered to coat the city reservoirs with copper and to treat drinking water with selected bacteria. Within a few months these corrections had cleansed the city of a great number of major diseases. Being a voracious reader, Maldegen Dirz used his newfound glory to gain access to the best libraries of the city and to correspond | ||
| + | with some of the brightest minds on Aarklash. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Thus, he entertained some serious correspondence with mystics and scientists of the Kingdom of Alahan, including Rhea de Brisis. | ||
| + | It is she who told Maldegen that missionaries sent to the Syharhalna, on the other side of the Migol Sea, had discovered the ruins of an ancient and powerful civilization. | ||
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| + | '''The Brisis expedition''' | ||
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| + | With the financial support of Rhea de Brisis, Maldegen Dirz, then aged sixteen, managed to convince his father and several scholars from many countries of the interest of an archaeological expedition to the Syharhalna. | ||
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| + | He who went by the name of “Dirz” left with an expedition and entered the desert with a map he had been able to draw by cross-referencing ancient tales and charts. It took him only a few months to unearth the ruins of a city. In 660, a research team discovered a building miraculously preserved under the desert sand. It also found dozens of artifacts. A few months were enough for Maldegen Dirz and his men to understand how these items worked and to list their fields of application. However, one particular item proved to be a challenge to Dirz’ genius. After hundreds of tests, Maldegen Dirz realized the machine could heal any living thing placed inside it, no matter the severity of the wound or illness. The young genius discovered what was to become his lifelong vocation: his science and this technology were going to allow him to unveil the secrets of life. What | ||
| + | the population of this fallen empire had achieved was barely the beginning. Maldegen Dirz would take their knowledge to the limit. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Dirz and his men investigated the dunes of the Syharhalna for five years, unearthing many wonders. At the end of this epic journey, the artifacts discovered had made Maldegen Dirz so famous that the order of the Alchemists of Merin off ered him membership. That this fellowship of illustrious scientists had asked him to join was a first in the history of the order. The | ||
| + | Alchemists of Merin, who dedicated their lives to improving the everyday life of the Akkylannians through science, had never accepted such a young member. Maldegen Dirz hesitated for a long time before returning to Akkylannie to accept the invitation. | ||
| + | He was convinced that he didn’t need to be in Akkylannie to accomplish great deeds; he could do it just as well from the Syharhalna. | ||
| + | |||
| + | It was Rhea de Brisis who persuaded him to accept on the day they finally met. Rhea de Brisis had already demonstrated her superior intelligence and the sincere interest she showed in Maldegen Dirz’ work, notably when she told him that the black gemstone he had found was a gem of Darkness. The pair of scholars soon became lovers. Leaving Rhea in charge of the expedition, | ||
| + | Maldegen Dirz returned to Akkylannie with the certainty that the excavation sites were in good hands. His discoveries earned him the admiration of the Alchemists of Merin and further supporters. | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''The Alchemist''' | ||
| + | |||
| + | Dirz the Alchemist soon prospered thanks to his genius and the knowledge brought back from the Syharhalna. He reached a peak in his reputation when he demonstrated that animals, and men, were immune to diseases they had already survived. Using a Syhar artifact, he managed to create a treatment against the most common disease of the time. | ||
| + | |||
| + | In 667, as a reward for his immense contribution to science, Maldegen Dirz was appointed Prime Alchemist, Head of the Order of the Alchemists of Merin, by the Emperor. His was so popular that the population was soon speaking of the “Alchemists of Dirz”. | ||
| + | The same year, Rhea de Brisis was forced to return to her homeland, the barony of Acheron in Alahan. She presented Maldegen Dirz with the assistance of the Black Togas, a community of mystics who offered to send scientists to the Syharhalna. Maldegen Dirz | ||
| + | accepted even more gladly because the Black Togas clearly had the means to dig out entire cities from under the sand. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The cities of Djaran and Tasith were brought back to life. The excavation workers and the scientists, as well as their families, all worked to free the cities. They were the first inhabitants. They were slowly joined by the nomads who were attracted by the sweeter life of the cities. The scientists offered their knowledge and technology. In contact with the nomads’ beliefs, their faith was gradually diverted from Merin in favor of Arh-Tolth. Within a few years, Merin was no longer worshipped. He was but a former tutelary fi gure given only lip service for the sake of appearances in front of some Akkylannian fanatics. | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''Meeting Incarnation''' | ||
| + | |||
| + | In 668, an enigmatic nomad going by the name of Djabril the Voyager traveled to Akkylannie to speak with Maldegen Dirz. This faithful of Arh-Tolth was a sage who knew the many secrets of the desert. He converted Dirz after demonstrating that both their gods were different faces of a same deity. Maldegen Dirz off ered his friendship to Djabril. Once the Alchemist converted, Djabril taught him his secrets, including the location of a lost city in the eastern parts of the Syharhalna: Shamir. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Maldegen Dirz and his disciples returned to the Syharhalna. They discovered a ravaged city at the location known as Shamir. As excavation workers removed the rubble, they made an astonishing discovery: a wild eyed man dressed in rags who seemed to have been living there “forever”. He spoke none of the known languages of the time. It is only after much eff ort that they managed to get his name: Arkeon Sanath. His saviors shrugged their shoulders and ignored his eccentricity. What could you expect of a man who spent years “living” alone among these ruins? While Arkeon Sanath made his return to human society and learned to speak Akkylannian, his knowledge of the city rocked the comfortable certainties of the explorers. He was brought before Maldegen Dirz, who discovered the truth after a long conversation: Arkeon Sanath had survived the cataclysm that had annihilated the Ishim’Re civilization hundreds of years before. | ||
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| + | He had survived alone all this time. Confronted with the immortality of Incarnation, Maldegen Dirz understood that Death could be defeated and that Man was imperfect by nature. From this realization, he elaborated the idea of creating a being freed from time and death. This goal would haunt him for the rest of his existence. In the meantime, Arkeon Sanath had stepped into the unique position of favorite experimental subject and first lieutenant of Maldegen Dirz. The settlers had built prosperous cities and had their own cult. All they were missing to claim their independence and form a nation was a leader. Maldegen Dirz added the resources of the Alchemists of Merin to those of the disciples he already had. He made some major breakthroughs in the understanding and applications of more Ishim’Re artifacts. For the first time he got a glimpse of how to defeat death. There was a possibility he could even reach the level of Arh-Tolth by giving life to a being liberated of all “natural defects”. | ||
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| + | These resources also allowed him to rebuild Shamir and find out more about the mysterious civilization that had left such treasures behind. | ||
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| + | '''The Heretic''' | ||
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| + | Maldegen Dirz was twenty-four when he set himself to furthering the discoveries of the Black Togas by combining their knowledge of mana with the science of the alchemists. | ||
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| + | The work of Maldegen Dirz and his disciples went on for five years, traveling back and forth from Akkylannie to the Syharhalna. | ||
| + | In Akkylannie, the aura of the Prime Alchemist continued to grow. His collaborators and the population itself considered him a genius capable of feats that greatly surpassed the abilities of any normal scientist. His reputation reached another peak in 671 when Dirz stopped a cattle plague epidemic that threatened not only to destroy the livestock of Akkylannie, which would have caused a famine across the country, but also to spred to human populations. But this feat was a trifling compared to the real work of Maldegen Dirz. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Very early in his research, the Prime Alchemist had been forced to admit that his contemporaries were not prepared to comprehend | ||
| + | the extent of his research. Maldegen Dirz took the decision to build secret research laboratories under the excavation sites. At the height of his glory, supported by the Black Togas and financed by many Akkylannians, he had no problem getting hold of the necessary supplies and transferring them to the desert. He made sure one of his interlocutors could ever understand the greater picture of the project, not even Rhea de Brisis; his disciples were given orders to keep their discoveries secret. While aldegen Dirz shared his most orthodox inventions with Akkylannie, his closest assistants kept exploring the stems and codes their master had entrusted them. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Their work was focused on size and several colossal creatures were engineered in tanks. The Prime Alchemist was ruling a state | ||
| + | within the state, built in the heart of the Syharhalna. With its own cult, separated by weeks of seafaring from Imperial administrative centers, the Syharhalna was almost independent and attracted all the free thinkers of Akkylannie. The name | ||
| + | of the Alchemists of Dirz no longer designated a society of scholars but all the pioneers who followed the doctrine of the young visionary or those who left to live in the desert. The population of Djaran, Shamir and Tarsith soon grew beyond the ten-thousand residents mark. In addition, the reputation of the scientist soon challenged that of Pope Demetrius. Some people whispered that if the pope were to die, Maldegen Dirz ought to be next in line! The pope’s official successor, Cardinal Lazarus, | ||
| + | took these rumors very seriously. He commanded the Seat of Internal Affairs, the ecclesiastic court of justice, to find evidence to convict Dirz of heresy. | ||
| + | |||
| + | In 673, Maldegen Dirz and his closest disciples were arrested. The Black Togas quickly reacted and to defend Maldegen Dirz they sent Iandorias Lazarian, who was very much in the Akkylannian public eye. Renowned theologian and scholar, Iandorias Lazarian was a jurist specialized in canon law. He was also the adopted son of Cardinal Lazarus himself. By the end of the trial, the verdict was straight forward acquittal, which forced the Seat of Internal aff airs to present apologies to the Prime Alchemist. | ||
== Dirz the Heresiarch == | == Dirz the Heresiarch == | ||
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Once it was done, Genariah took command of the leaderless fortress as it had been ordered. The Battle of Dawn that was fought there against the Akkylannians later demonstrated Generiah’s qualities as commander (see Army Book: Clones of Dirz): This victory eliminated the threat of an attack on Shamir, where the Heresiarch had retreated. Dirz had every right to be satisfied with his work. | Once it was done, Genariah took command of the leaderless fortress as it had been ordered. The Battle of Dawn that was fought there against the Akkylannians later demonstrated Generiah’s qualities as commander (see Army Book: Clones of Dirz): This victory eliminated the threat of an attack on Shamir, where the Heresiarch had retreated. Dirz had every right to be satisfied with his work. | ||
| − | == The | + | == The Quest of the Heresiarch == |
His status as Emperor did not quell the ardor the Heresiarch put into his research. In 707, he put the final touches to the land | His status as Emperor did not quell the ardor the Heresiarch put into his research. In 707, he put the final touches to the land | ||
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After the questioning, the Emperor felt his fi nal hour approaching. However, his mind was still working with the genius that had always characterized him. He ordered that Shamir should be abandoned and that a new city be built where the true-born would live at the top of the alchemical tower and not underground. Thus the circumstances in which the revolt was supposed to take places would be altered in favor of the true-born. He decreed that all male clones would be made sterile so that the goals of the revolt could not be achieved. He then transferred the regency of the Empire to the Baliseus who would be in charge of preparing the final assault of the Rag’narok. Finally, he gathered years of annotations, re-wrote some of them and reorganized | After the questioning, the Emperor felt his fi nal hour approaching. However, his mind was still working with the genius that had always characterized him. He ordered that Shamir should be abandoned and that a new city be built where the true-born would live at the top of the alchemical tower and not underground. Thus the circumstances in which the revolt was supposed to take places would be altered in favor of the true-born. He decreed that all male clones would be made sterile so that the goals of the revolt could not be achieved. He then transferred the regency of the Empire to the Baliseus who would be in charge of preparing the final assault of the Rag’narok. Finally, he gathered years of annotations, re-wrote some of them and reorganized | ||
the rest, creating within a few hours one of the founding texts of the empire: the Traitise of Alchemy, halfway between religious scriptures and scientific reference book. The Heresiarch then sunk into a coma and was returned to the stasis tank, until the day Syhar science would be able to heal the terrible wounds of time. | the rest, creating within a few hours one of the founding texts of the empire: the Traitise of Alchemy, halfway between religious scriptures and scientific reference book. The Heresiarch then sunk into a coma and was returned to the stasis tank, until the day Syhar science would be able to heal the terrible wounds of time. | ||
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== The Return of the Heresiarch == | == The Return of the Heresiarch == | ||
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The epilogue of the life of the Heresiarch happened in 1000 during the Dawn ritual. Basileus Villa, head of the church of Arh-Tolth, and the Magon, grand priest of the cult, received from Djabril the Voyager the means of summoning Arh-Tolth to Aarklash for good. The ritual required inflicting unspeakable spiritual and physical suffering to the most fervent worshippers | The epilogue of the life of the Heresiarch happened in 1000 during the Dawn ritual. Basileus Villa, head of the church of Arh-Tolth, and the Magon, grand priest of the cult, received from Djabril the Voyager the means of summoning Arh-Tolth to Aarklash for good. The ritual required inflicting unspeakable spiritual and physical suffering to the most fervent worshippers | ||
