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The Empty Lord

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[#5AGSIZET9]

[#5AGSIZET9]

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Tsugon sipped his drink, and his eyes became somewhat glassy as he reached back into the depths of his mind. "I was about fifty years old at the time," he began. "That is incredibly young, almost infantile, for Mahjarrat. I was the second son of Umari, the ruler of Thida. Several decades after I was born, my brother Thaduka staged a rebellion in Thida. He forced me to swear allegience to him, and I did so. Back then I worshipped my brother, you see. Well, you know how that ended. Thaduka overthrew my father, and he killed both him and his many wives, including our mother. Thaduka became the Emperor of Thida."
Tsugon stopped for a moment. His facial expression was odd, a strange mix of happiness and sadness. "Those were some of the best days of my life," he said finally. "Thaduka was in charge, and I was his favorite. I was too young, then, to fully understand the politics of Thida. I grew, and I learned more than enough in time. Thaduka took me in as his protege. I was enthralled with the magical arts, and so he taught me all about them. I have always been a fast learner, so I took to it from the start. In those days, Phori and Khanu were one, so the whole range of techniques were available. Thaduka mentored me for nearly five years. Then, things took a turn for the worse.
"There was a member of Thaduka's inner circle, a pitiful being named Ithagora. Ithagora became jealous of my growing power; in truth, I was stronger than any Mahjarrat in Thida except Thaduka and a few of the elders. So Ithagora mentioned to my brother his suspicion of my prowess. Of course, Thaduka shot him down at first. However, Ithagora's plan was for the long term. Several months passed, and Thaduka began to watch each of my accomplishments with resentment and fear. In the end, he began to believe Ithagora's lie."
"So he exiled you?" asked Azzanadra. "If he feared you, why did he not have you killed?"
"He still, on some level, felt some love for me," Tsugon replied.

04-Jun-2009 05:47:03

[#5AGSIZET9]

[#5AGSIZET9]

Posts: 3,564 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
"Thaduka confronted me one night. He did not even say that he suspected me to be a threat. He claimed that there was a plot in the city to kill me, one far too large even for him to contain. His advice, then, was to flee the city."
Tsugon shook his head in anger. "Even as he removed me from his sight, he still claimed his love for me as a brother. He lacked the spine even to voice his true feelings. I was so young, I thought he was absolutely right. It was on that night that I left Thida. I took refuge in the city far to the south, the city of Ku."
"Ah," interrupted Sliske. "I came from Ku many years ago. It is connected by a gate to Gielinor that emerges south of Khaseph."
Tsugon nodded. "Yes, though I lived there long before you did. Although I hear that the gate you mentioned has been destroyed in recent years."
Sliske seemed shocked at the news, but he allowed Tsugon to return to his story. "Please continue," Sliske said.
Tsugon smiled. "Anyway, I was all set to forge my new life in Ku. However, soon travelers from Thida arrived, bearing news." Tsugon's smile faded to a grimace. "Many of the inhabitants of Ku, myself included, were gathered in the square when they arrived. The great story was how the Emperor Thaduka had exiled a revolutionary that threatened to throw the kingdom into chaos. A revolutionary by the name of Tsugon."
Tsugon pounded the stone table with his fist. The memories were tearing at him. "You do not know the rage that filled me at that moment. My brother, that I trusted above all, had tricked me into leaving and then made me into a monster. When I heard of what had transpired in Thida, I swore that I would get back at him. The anger still burning within me, I left Ku to get my revenge. You know this part of the story as well. I attacked the temple at Korthu Pit, stealing the Khanu orb of shadows. Then, I went to the other temples in turn. Soon, most of the world was deprived of Khanu magic."

04-Jun-2009 06:20:22

[#5AGSIZET9]

[#5AGSIZET9]

Posts: 3,564 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Tsugon chuckled bitterly. "Beware of falling into such anger," he added. "You could end up harming far more than just the target of your rage. I wanted revenge against Thaduka, but I ended up harming all of Freneskae. The Khanu orbs were of course important to the magical balance of the Mahjarrat. The loss of these were a crushing blow, so immediately Thaduka sent out assailants to find me. I managed to flee to Dis, and then northward through Necraeda to this land. Back then, the valley of Necraeda was not yet filled with the spirits of the dead; that was a product of the Khanu orbs I stole."
"So, if the orbs weren't here yet," Azzanadra asked, "what sort of magic was here?"
"The Xinadi already lived here, but they were unable to perform magic of any kind. You see, they were too far separated from the outside world to be influenced. They looked almost exactly like they do now, except their mental powers were not so enhanced. They have always used telepathy to communicate, but the Khanu influx of magic boosted their performance to incredible levels. It also gave them their control over fire."
"Can they perform other magic?" asked Zaros. "I mean, they are Mahjarrat, so can't they use blood, smoke, ice, and shadow?"
"It's true that Khanu does contain those elements, but Khanu lacks the power that Phori has. Those elements are weakest in Khanu and strongest in Phori. On the flip-side, the elements of fire, spirit, mind, and energy are dominant in Khanu. You can see this embodied in the Xinadi. Those elements are now exclusive only to this area, since they are nearly nonexistent in Phori."
Zaros was blown away. The magic of Freneskae was far more complicated that he had thought.
"So the deprivation of Khanu caused the rest of Freneskae to develop into a purely Phori society, and the abundance of Khanu transformed this region," Azzanadra said. "So, why didn't you stop this change once you saw it coming?"
"A good question. You see, at that point I was dead."

04-Jun-2009 20:10:34 - Last edited on 04-Jun-2009 20:12:06 by [#5AGSIZET9]

[#5AGSIZET9]

[#5AGSIZET9]

Posts: 3,564 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
The last word he spoke seemed to hover in the air for some time. "Dead?" asked Azzanadra, confused. "What do you mean? That's impossible!"
Tsugon sat down his cup, his face contorted in a grimace. "I fled through Necraeda, and I entered this land. As I wandered in the wilderness, I was attacked by a group of Xinadi from the Tagan tribe, just as you were. They were nonmagical at that point, so they fought me with metal weapons. I easily defeated them, but in my bitterness and anger I killed them. After I walked away from the battle, I was weak from the lack of food. I was confronted by some of the Lora Xinadi. They saw how I had defeated the Tagans, who were their bitter enemies, and so they took me in. I became one of their own.
"I was powerful. My magical training in Thida, paired with the enhanced Khanu forces I achieved by carrying the orbs themselves, made me essentially a god among the Xinadi. I became the leader of the Lora tribe, and I made them the most powerful tribe in the region. Our empire was absolute, and no one had any will to overthrow us. I took the Khanu orbs and hid them away in this very hillside and reigned from the village. Then, something I did not forsee transpired. These orbs, over the course of my three-century reign, started to influence the Xinadi. I mentioned that Khanu enhanced their mental prowess as well as gave them their magic. This transformation created the Xinadi you know today, and so they could now fight me. The Tagan tribe organized several other tribes, and a group of revolutionaries attacked my palace one night.
"The attack was well-coordinated, and it finally allowed a group of Xinadi into my throne room alone with me. They overpowered me with their minds, paralyzing me. For all my power, I was brought down by their superior techniques. I was about to die, when I realized that I was the only one that knew the location of the Khanu orbs. With my death, the ancient orbs of the Decaphim would be lost."

11-Jun-2009 06:32:09

[#5AGSIZET9]

[#5AGSIZET9]

Posts: 3,564 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
"So what did you do?" asked Zaros. "I mean, you were surrounded by Xinadi that wanted to kill you, so I don't see how you could have escaped."
"Ah, now this is where my death comes into play," Tsugon replied. "My body did not escape that room. The rogue Xinadi killed me, and then they made a very public desecration of my corpse before burning it. However, my soul was more than safe. In the end, I did the very same thing that the mighty Decaphim did. They used a very powerful and very ancient spell that encased their spirits in the orbs. It is called a Sudosoma, a spell where the soul is anchored through a spiritual medium, such as the orbs, that encase the soul to keep it from passing on. I cast this spell in the midst of the Xinadi, though they had no idea what I had done. A shard of my soul entered the Lora shield, an emblem of the tribe that was made of the strongest materials. When the revolutionaries killed my body, the rest of my soul joined it. And then, I waited."
"What freed you from the shield?" asked Azzanadra. This branch of magic intrigued him greatly.
"The point of a Sudosoma is to someday be reborn," Tsugon explained. "My soul inside the shield was constantly, from the very beginning, building me a body. It siphoned energy from the surroundings, whatever it could get, and grouped it bit by bit around the shield. When enough energy was there, it was transmuted into a replacement body that my soul would then travel to. This body that you see before you is the product of this process."
"How long did it take to do that?" asked Zaros.
Tsugon sighed. "Around six thousand years," he replied, to the astonishment of all.
"That long?" asked Azzanadra.
Tsugon nodded. "It takes a lot of energy to build a body from absolute scratch, and some of the energy was necessary to keep my soul from fading from the Sudosoma. And it was a long, lonely time. All I had were my own thoughts. I would not recommend this method of extending your life."

11-Jun-2009 07:02:26

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