Difference between revisions of "The Fate of Maldegen Dirz"
From Wiki Confrontation
| Line 33: | Line 33: | ||
*''853'' : Destruction of Shamir. Dirz is seriously wounded. Basileus Antykaïn is appointed head of the Empire. | *''853'' : Destruction of Shamir. Dirz is seriously wounded. Basileus Antykaïn is appointed head of the Empire. | ||
*''1000'' : Death of Dirz, sacrificed | *''1000'' : Death of Dirz, sacrificed | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | '''The clone uprising''' | ||
| + | |||
| + | The technomancers dissected the emissaries of No-Dan-Kar who showed up in 808 to establish an embassy in Shamir. The Heresiarch was woken for the occasion. It would be the last time he authorized the use of a stem other than his own in order to create stronger, more obedient and more resilient clones by injecting fragments of isateph code into this new stem. This time, he chose Khorda, his most obedient disciple to lead the project. The Khorda clones proved as strong and enduring as foreseen but their character seriously deviated from the parameters expected of the experiment. Their stubborn temper made them diffi cult to dominate, but the use of drugs could largely compensate for this defect. Khorda was more worried by their lack of the | ||
| + | cruelty that made clones of Dirz such fierce fighters. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Yet their strength and dexterity was precious. So they were produced in limited numbers to become elite cavalry fighters. A variation of the isateph clones was engineered for the occasion. Three generations of Khorda clones ensued, improved each time, until 869. Khorda discovered that these creations had developed a language and an embryo of civilization outside of any parameter of the experiment. Fearing the reaction to the Emperor if he was to wake him to tell him of his failure, Khorda told Basileus Antykaïn III of the situation. The latter ordered the execution of all the Khorda clones. The clones proved far more intelligent and far more independent than feared. Instead of passively waiting for death, the clones threw themselves | ||
| + | at the Syhar, massacred their masters and fled. The Khorda clones vanished into the canyons of the Bran-Ô-Kor before renaming themselves “Orcs”. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Eventually Dirz was woken to inform him of the situation. Infuriated, the Heresiarch banned the use of new stems in the creation of sentient creatures. | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''The dawn of the Rag’narok''' | ||
| + | |||
| + | The Emperor’s sleep lasted more than two centuries. He was woken again on a clear night in 853 when five hundred invaders appeared out of nowhere to attack Shamir. They wielded unknown weapons, made from technologies far more advanced than that of the Syhar, and they used an extremely powerful form of magic. After only a few hours of fierce fighting, the aggressors unleashed such firepower that even the Ishim’Re fortification, which had resisted the destruction of their country and millennia of oblivion , were swept away. Nevertheless, the masses of clones of Shamir, supported by the Heresiarch himself, eventually defeated the invader. Unfortunately, the Emperor was seriously wounded in the fight. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The final hours of lucidity of the Emperor were dedicated to interrogating the only surviving aggressor. A handful of carefully selected biopsists, assisted by the Basileus himself, ripped the truth out of the prisoner; revelations that were immediately | ||
| + | concealed. A century and a half into the future, a total war between the peoples of Aarklash, called “Rag’narok”, would break out. Seizing the opportunity of this conflict, the hundreds of clones produced for battle would revolt against their masters | ||
| + | and massacre them to found their own people. The last of the surviving loyalists who had fallen back into the deepest levels of the alchemical tower of Shamir would call upon Arh-Tolth to help them. The god would then give them a machine designed to send them into the past to prevent the fall of the alchemical empire. | ||
| + | |||
| + | 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 Return of the Heresiarch == | == The Return of the Heresiarch == | ||
| − | + | ||
| + | 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 | ||
of Arh-Tolth. Physical suffering would not be a problem. The proper injection would provide a satisfying result. | of Arh-Tolth. Physical suffering would not be a problem. The proper injection would provide a satisfying result. | ||
The real challenge was the moral part. No drug could help here. In an ordinary nation, they could have sacrificed the women and children of their faithful. Unfortunately, the Syhar felt no attachment for those they reproduced with, or their own progeny. | The real challenge was the moral part. No drug could help here. In an ordinary nation, they could have sacrificed the women and children of their faithful. Unfortunately, the Syhar felt no attachment for those they reproduced with, or their own progeny. | ||
Once again, Djabril had the solution. The only being they all adored and loved was their guide, their spiritual father: Emperor Dirz. The Basileus himself stabbed the sacrificial dagger into the heart of the founder of the Empire while the Magon began the ritual of Dawn… and Arh-Tolth appeared. The army of the Syharhalna marched out to sweep away the old world and sow the seeds of a new one. Victory would herald the dawn of a new alchemical era. | Once again, Djabril had the solution. The only being they all adored and loved was their guide, their spiritual father: Emperor Dirz. The Basileus himself stabbed the sacrificial dagger into the heart of the founder of the Empire while the Magon began the ritual of Dawn… and Arh-Tolth appeared. The army of the Syharhalna marched out to sweep away the old world and sow the seeds of a new one. Victory would herald the dawn of a new alchemical era. | ||
