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Dantalian

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“Zaros’ knights?” asked Orcris. He had heard of various cults and rogue clans referring to themselves as such, but until this night had not heard a real Zarosian speak of Zaros as even having knights.

“In Zaros’ reign, a few of his more prominent warriors received blessings from Zaros himself," explained Isamu, "They became his personal soldiers, if you will. Like you, most were honorable, strong, and cunning. They were respected and admired by fellow Zarosians, and feared by the enemies of our master. In fact,” he added with a quiet laugh, “One of my ancestors was among their ranks, and since him, every descendant in my family has sworn an oath of allegiance to Zaros. In fact, I think that we of the Muramasa family are the only family that can claim they have held allegiance to Zaros every generation since the usurper Zamorak took power.

But it can be difficult too. My family is an honorable one, despite what the Saradominists may say about all Zarosians, and sometimes, one may have a difficult time between deciding whether to do a dishonorable thing that will further our cause, or to do the honorable thing that might hurt our cause…”

Orcris felt a chill crawl up his spine as Isamu stared at him in silence. A few moments later, though, he nodded slightly and said, “Well, I have kept you long enough, I will leave you to your musings now, Sir Orcris, farewell.”

Orcris remained in place for several minutes after Isamu had left, carefully considering his options. He had gotten no closer to a decision when a voice coming from behind him said, “He knows, and doesn’t care, so you can carry on.”

Orcris jumped in spite of himself, but had the presence of mind to draw his blade and spin around. Now facing the speaker, he felt the sting of embarrassment. The one standing before him was only a child, although a slightly odd one, with blood red eyes, pale skin, and white hair which seemed to shimmer in the moonlight. "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

25-Jul-2009 23:11:42

Dantalian

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“An albino?” Orcris asked himself.

“Nice to meet you,” said the boy, extending his hand to the half elf, “My name is Aion, and I already know of you, Orcris, the one who bears the evil light of the empty lord, so there is no need to introduce yourself.”

“Very well,” sighed the half-elf, “But I have a feeling that you’re not a Zarosian, like me, and thus I must ask; what are you doing here?”

Aion tilted his head to one side, and smiled playfully. “The same thing you’re doing,” he said.

“Which is?” asked Orcris.

“Going to rescue Cruus,” replied Aion.

Orcris opened his mouth to protest, but realizing there was no point in denying the truth, remained silent.

“Don’t be surprised,” said Aion, “Isamu knew it too. He was waiting for you to do it all night… okay, since Rue fell to sleep anyway. Don’t worry, he won’t interfere, and if he did, you could simply tell him you saw me, and that would satisfy both him and Rue that you did*’t have anything to do with Cruus’ escape. Besides, I think Isamu wants to let him go too. Like you, he can’t condone kidnapping and drugging a child, even if that child is an ahura older than many human adults.”

“Ahura?” repeated Orcris, *I thought that Isamu called him an “asura”.”

Aion seemed to consider this for a moment, before nodding, “Ahura is more archaic, I suppose,” the child sighed, “The name for that race shifted to asura about, oh, several millenia ago. The same time the daeva became known as the deva, and humans switched from honoring the ahura to worshipping the daeva.”

“What is an asura anyway?” asked Orcris, “I’ve never seen a demon like Cruus or Rue before.” "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

25-Jul-2009 23:14:38

Dantalian

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“Asura aren’t demons at all,” replied Aion, “In fact, calling an asura a demon is a really bad idea, especially a female asura… Some, like Rue, though, may be alright if you call them a “devil” but that title is also inaccurate. It is however, what some humans called them after encountering asura for the first time in thousands of years. Some ignorant humans still refer to asura as such. But other than fitting the stereotypes humans have as to what demons look like, and fitting a second stereotype of demons in that the asura prefer darkness to light, asura and demons have nothing in common.”

“You still haven’t answered my question,” Orcris pointed out.

“Right,” sighed Aion, “Basically, early in history, the four primordial gods took human followers and granted them great power, thereby forming four races of demi-gods, if you would. Aither, god of light created a race which called themselves the “deva”, literally, the “shining ones,” Ananke, goddess of order created a race which referred to themselves as the “Guardians”, the goddess of chaos also made a race, but like her, they changed their names so often that all the other races simply referred to them as the Chaotics, and finally Erebos, god of darkness created the asura.

Originally, the asura were the protectors of the mortal races, whom the deva wished to destroy. In fact, it was originally the asura who taught humans how to build cities and farm. Until then, humans wandered the land, hunting the animals they could and gathering various plants." "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

25-Jul-2009 23:17:08

Dantalian

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"However, it did*’t take long before the deva realized that there were advantages to having mortals at their beck and call, and so they presented themselves as gods to the mortals… Until this time almost all humans were ruled by queens and councils of priestesses, and the deva found support among the men of the human race. The deva claimed that men were superior to woman, and that the asura had reversed the natural order by placing woman at the top of the social ladder; complete lies of course, but many humans fell for these lies, and under the direction of the deva started various revolutions. Until that time, with the exception of a rare murder, humans rarely killed one another, so the various priestesses were almost completely unprotected as the first of the rebels stormed their temples and put them to death.

Of course, since at the time most human cities were also independent states, the deva did not immediately have a successful revolution. Many cities remained loyal to the asura, but even as they did so, the deva encouraged the humans of their cities to build up armies and forge weapons of bronze. With these new armies, the deva invaded city after city, bringing most of the world under their rule. The deva than set themselves up as gods, and claimed that the asura were just a type of demon who wished to enslave the human race. Reflecting this belief, humans began depicting demons in the likeness of the asura, and holy beings in the likeness of the deva.”

“Why did*’t the asura put up a better fight?” asked Orcris, “Wouldn’t they be a match for the deva?” "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

25-Jul-2009 23:19:30

Dantalian

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“Perhaps,” replied Aion, “But shortly before the deva began their campaign to win over the humans, demons launched a massive invasion into Niflheim, the asura’s homeland. At the head of the demon army was the Void King himself, ruler of the demons. Facing up against such a formidable foe, the asura could not spare troops for any other conflict. On top of that, the asura generally disdain fighting… or at least use too.”

Orcris was about to ask what he meant by that, but was cut off as Aion exclaimed, “Ah, here we are!”

The boy quickly walked into a nearby room, with Orcris shortly behind. Inside, Cruus was still lying on the floor, apparently unaware of his surroundings.

“I’ll handle this,” said Aion, “However, you should be ready to leave, Rose will be coming shortly after Cruus and I have left.”

“Why’* that?” asked the half-elf.

“She’ll notice the spell I’m about to use,” replied Aion. Raising his hands over Cruus, Aion said, “Queen of Law, restore to order the mind of this lost one; Nan Noupaar!”

Cruus’ body seemed to flash with gray light, and the boy murmured something before sitting up. It looked to Orcris as if he had awoken from a deep sleep.

“That spell,” said Aion, “Nan Noupaar, can restore someone’s mind from inebriation and the effect of drugs. It is my gift to you, Orcris, since you wanted to help Cruus. You remember the incantation I assume?”

Orcris nodded. "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

25-Jul-2009 23:22:07

Dantalian

Posts: 3,434 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“Good, after some experience with it, you might find yourself being able to use it simply by saying the spell’s name. However, be warned that it uses the power of order, so Rose will likely despise it.”

“Aion?” mumbled Cruus, *What’s going on here?”

“You were captured by your dear brother, again,” Aion rolled his eyes. “So I had to come and rescue you.”

“Oh, um, thank you,” said Cruus. Looking at Orcris, he asked, “And who is he?”

“Orcris,” replied Aion, “A rare honorable Zarosian, he helped me rescue you.”

“Oh, thank you,” said Cruus, bowing.

“I know you want to thank him properly,” said Aion, “But we must get out of here before Rose arrives. I can sense she’s already halfway up from the dungeons. So…”

“Right,” sighed Cruus, turning to Orcris he said, “Thank you again, I hope we see each other again some time.”

“Cruus,” sighed Aion.

“Oh, right,” replied Cruus.

Orcris watched in interest as shadows enveloped the two boys and they vanished. Moments later, Rose came stumbling up the stairs.

“I senshed some using Nan Noupaar!* She shouted, swaying heavily, “What idiotsh uses* that shpellithingimiwut?”

Aware that Rose was drugged beyond anyone’s ability to reason with her, Orcris simply turned and walked away, heading back to his bed to get what sleep he could before the next day. "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

25-Jul-2009 23:24:08

Orcris

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Interesting, more story about Orcris. Always something I don't mind. Interesting history lesson as well, I always like those.

~Orcris~
~Est sularis oth mithas~
~Courage is the magic that makes dreams into reality~

26-Jul-2009 20:14:19

Mar

2023

Swolomon

Posts: 1,527 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Hey guys =]

Good to see some of the old lot still lurking around the forums.

Aqua, love the add's as of late, i really enjoyed the explanation about the demi gods, also some good history about orcris.

Remember guys im always lurking the forums =]

02-Aug-2009 04:40:04

Dantalian

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A splash of warm liquid brought Taiyama out of his sleep. He looked around sleepily, it was still dark out, and he did not immediately remember where he was. He probably would have gone right back to sleep had he not noticed that he was waist deep in some type of warm, sticky liquid. He tried to move but to his horror found that a myriad of tendrils had wrapped themselves around his body, making any movement below his neck all but impossible. At that moment he realized that he could no longer see the mist of the swamp, instead, his vision was cut off by what seemed to be a large leaf.

He swallowed a curse as he remembered the rumors he had heard from various adventurers foolhardy enough to enter the Tenedra Swamp, and yet lucky enough to escape with their lives. Rumors that spoke of a type of plant which swallowed humans whole and slowly digested them in a warm acid.

As if to confirm what Taiyama feared, a dull burning started up in his legs where the liquid had seeped through his armor. His terror mounting, Taiyama increased his efforts to struggle, to no avail.

Great, he thought bitterly, I’m going to die to a stupid plant.

In a last desperate effort, he began shouting for Ruko and Weva at the top of his lungs, hoping that they had escaped the man-eating plants and were near enough to help him. However, he was actually surprised when the plant suddenly opened up, spitting him back into the cool, moist air of the marsh. Taiyama sighed in relief, and slumped onto the spongy ground.

“You should be more careful, this area is full of Carn Plants.”

Taiyama looked up in surprise, he did not recognize the voice that had just spoken. Before him stood a man with white hair, who surprisingly bore no other signs of old age.

“Who are you?” asked Taiyama, sitting up.

“My name is Jayson,” replied the man, “I am a Guthixian who has business in this marsh. As I assume you Zarosians also do.” "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

02-Aug-2009 07:15:01

Dantalian

Posts: 3,434 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Taiyama was about to ask how Jayson knew he was a Zarosian, then noticed Ruko and Weva sitting a little ways away, both drenched, and the former looking thoroughly terrified.

“Your companions had the same issue that you did,” said Jayson, “I let them out, and thanks to the warlock’* exclamation of ‘Zaros be praised’ it wasn’t hard to figure out what god your group followed.

If you don’t mind me asking though, what brings you to this marsh? It’s not exactly a tourist attraction.”

Seeing that Taiyama was not about to answer his question, Jayson sighed. “So you’re after the Mists of Time as well?”

“As well?” asked Weva, “Does that mean that you too are after the Mists of Time?”

Jayson nodded. “Thanks to you Zarosians, the Light of Hope was destroyed, thus the balance is tipped in favor of darkness. We need to correct that imbalance before irreversible harm is done. However, do not think that we are unaware that you are manipulating us into helping you undo the seals on the Black Pentagram. For now, I will offer my assistance in destroying the Mists of Time, but afterward, do not be surprised if I fight against you.”

“What makes you think that we need your assistance?” questioned Ruko.

“The Carn plants that nearly ate you, for starters,” replied Jayson, “And that you seem to have no idea at all as to how to reach the Mists of Time.”

“He does have a point,” Weva admitted with a sigh, “But, Guthixian, keep in mind that once the Mists of Time are gone, we have no obligations to one another. You may well find yourself dead the moment we finish.”

“Good, then we have come to an understanding?” asked Jayson, “In that case, I shall be pleased to assist you. Now follow me, and I will take you to the Mists of Time.” "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

02-Aug-2009 07:17:54

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