Weekly Challenge (May 7): Traitors and betrayals

There was a series of events informally known as the Great Clan war which was essentially a series of betrayals by several Great Clans of Nightfall. First, Clan Lunari betrayed their long-time friend, Clan Maldak, by invading their land in search of a magic eagle sent from the gods. This led many refugees of Clan Maldak to flee their island to find safety on the mainland. Unfortunately when they got there, Clan Bloodbreaker was waiting for them, having been gifted the coastal lands by their parent clan. The Bloodbreaker Clansmen demanded the refugees pay a toll, but they elected to sail up the coast to find a different port as they had little money. Enraged, the Bloodbreakers massacred the refugees and burned their ships. Their parent clan, Clan Stormcrown, was disgusted with Clan Bloodbreaker's actions so they rode to the Bloody Coast and massacred their own child clan. Two of the most well-respected Great Clans (Stormcrown and Lunari) had tainted their reputations forever, Clan Maldak lost most of its land, and Clan Bloodbreaker was completely obliterated.

In the year 967 A.G. the 15th Emperor of Baralj, Carčena Mielna was on his death bed with no heir. The nobles families in the capital city, Majvimo, began vying for the throne. This particular tale of betrayals leads to the current reign of Baltazar Aruže, the 16th Emperor of Baralj.

Baltazar was born to the Ban of Ružalje, Harun Aruže, through an arranged marriage with Petra Amorema. When it was found out that Baltazar shared some DNA with the Patuljudi through his mother's side, both became worthless in his father's eyes. With nothing holding him back, the Ban Aruže began researching the mythical Eye of Bezkoa which was said to protect the wearer from all harm.

He poisoned his wife and got his son to go searching for it under the guise of using it to save her from an uncurable illness. Before he left, Baltazar went to see his best friend Emina, the daughter of Duke Darantza. Emina granted him with a sword and an egg from her father's treasury. The Duke had instructed her to do so, plotting to steal the Eye of Bezkoa after having heard wind of the Ban's plans.

So Baltazar manages to get ahold of the Eye after his new friend hatched yada yada... but on the road home he is ambushed by a group of swordsmen and mages. He only realises, after stabbing her through the chest, that he was ambushed by his best friend Emina. Proceeding home, weary and depressed by his encounter, he loses it when he returns home to find out that his father had poisoned his mother to get the Eye. His mother was on her lasts breaths. And so he murders his father and the Duke and with the Eye now worn by his beastly companion, he rises to become king. And dare I say a good one at that.

cw: parasitism, body horror

Volpta Imvek al-Krithilisc was one of the Union's most fearsome generals during the First Intergalactic War, responsible for victories that cost the humans dearly, and had the Union been victorious, she would have been celebrated a million times over for helping to bring to heel the largest heretical civilization that the Ampulex had ever faced. Why she betrayed the Union that she had served so loyally only makes sense in the context of biology.

The insectoid Ampulex race parasitize organisms that have higher central nervous functions. Once an Ampulex larva is implanted into a host, it hones on the host’s nervous system and travels to the brain, where it grows and establishes its own junctions. The Ampulex degrade their host brain’s synaptic pathways, wiping out memory epiphenomena and consciousness, and reprogram the neural system to obey the parasite’s commands in the form of precisely injected chemicals at neuronal junctions. The Ampulex only interact with the world through the body of another living thing.

Which brings us back to Volpta. What neither the Ampulex nor the humans knew about the parasitization process was that an extremely small minority of humans was impervious to the neural reprogramming of parasitization. They could be indoctrinated into the Union's religious society, they could be physically parasitized, but they retained their consciousness, their memories and their willpower. The human who would become host to the Ampulex Volpta al-Krithilisc was one such individual.

If there were any indication of Volpta's lack of Ampulex cognition, none detected it. The host's training and indoctrination was uneventful, she received the standard dosages of pacifying neural suppressants, learned the Ampulex language, and by all accounts accepted the writings of the Sannasid texts as gospel. When the host's ascension process was carried out, the Ampulex larvae was implanted, and the normal physical changes of an ascendant host manifested.

Precisely when the Union indoctrination broke is unclear, but at some point during her military campaigns, she initiated contact with her former civilization, the humans, at first only by sparing captives, and later by passing along military information. The ultimate betrayal, was the coordination of the Massacre at Phoenim, in which Volpta deliberately rallied the Union fleets into the Hyadean Path, the convergence point leading into human space. Once the enemy fleet was inside the Path, the humans fired their experimental weapon, collapsing the ancient pathway in space, devastating the Union war machine, and ultimately bringing an end to the conflict.

Her betrayal was only uncovered after she made her escape, rendezvousing with a contingent of heavily armed and wary humans. A betrayer of one civilization, and a pariah to another, she's since faded into obscurity, living off a substantial compensation from the human government. Intelligence reports claim that she maintains a small farm on Thkeinos, a barren colony world in the badlands, which recently declared independence from the human government, and is making diplomatic inroads with the Union.

The Thousand Suns Empire, was ruled by the immortal leader Seraphite the Czarchild. He ruled over 30% of human space, uniting approximately 2000 planet states to defend against piracy, imperialism, and other defense problems. Other governments feared his power, but they stood back. Despite good intentions, being a benevolent dictator of over 2000 planets is going to put a lot of stress on you, and it did. Economic, social, and political problems from over a thousand systems started pushing all their burdens on him, corruption started running rampant in politics and one day he just went berserk and destroyed half a planet for being a front for pirate organizations.The corrupt officials and conspirators used this opportunity to drive his name into the ground even further, by firing nuclear rockets onto massive populations under his name. Foreign factions started demanding his resignation or execution and built up militaries to help states that started revolting against him, but as soon as it started, it ended. He left, never to be seen again. The Thousand Suns Empire is currently in a constant free for all civil war of attrition, factions rising and falling, uniting and splitting, nobody is going to win.

Some 300 years back, the Federation of Human Worlds suffered a civil war. The outer colonies felt neglected, and the weak central government was unable to resolve the issues. The outer colonies seceded, forming the Colonial Union. The first days of the rebellion were chaos. The plans of the secessionists ran deeper than anyone had ever dreamt. An assassination attempt on the President almost succeeded; two more on the admirals of the First and Third Fleets did. Secessionist cells in the Marines on the capital world, Kingdom, seized military hardware and devastated the loyalist forces before they were defeated. Cells and traitors in the navy massacred loyalist crew; three fifths of the Federation's warships, luckily mostly frigates and destroyers, were seized by the Union traitors. The Admiral of the Fourth Fleet went to the Union; the Admiral of the Fifth had his fleet seized from under him. In the confusion, it was unsure which way the First and Third Fleets would turn; only the loyalty of the Second Fleet, under Admiral Oskar Santarin, was assured. In this dark time, three great leaders emerged to rebuild the Federation. President Oritz, General Demarée, and Admiral Santarin. Santarin was able to take control of the better part of the First and the Third with his personal charisma, although not without significant elements turning traitor first. As the only remaining loyal admiral (Akamai of the Fifth was held hostage) Santarin was almost singlehandedly responsible for the success of the Federalist forces. He smashed the almost-equal Separatist navy in a series of decisive battles. But Santarin was no hero of the republic. Although it was never revealed to the public until decades later, his goal was a military coup, that would institute himself as Napoleonic emperor of a new Enlightened Republic. A repeat of the events of the beginning of the war played out, blamed once again in the Separatists. This violent coup attempt, however, was orchestrated from the highest levels of the government, by Santarin himself. To Demarée and Oritz, it looked like the end of the Federation was at hand. The Fleets were loyal not to the Federation, but to Santarin himself. Desperate measures were taken. A black ops team of the first Immortals ever deployed in combat boarded Santarin's flagship, FIFS Marcus Aurelius, during the Battle of Marchand to assassinate the would-be dictator. The attack almost failed, but the traitor Admiral Kassa of the Fourth Fleet redeemed himself at the last. The Immortals strike team, unable to get to Santarin, sacrificed themselves to disable the Aurelius and the Separatists downed the warship with all hands. Admiral Kassa committed suicide soon after, and the Separatist navy was broken. The Federation was healed, with a stronger central government. But the ambitions of Oskar Santarin were never forgotten.

Duke Carponio Rocchi, lord of the town of Giuglia. He betrayed his country once, then later threatened to betray the country he'd originally turned to.

Rocchi was originally a vassal of the Marcher King of Legnasia, a small petty kingdom in the eastern half of what is now Kafetra. In the west, numerous Kafetro-Vadyan tribes began to coalesce and eventually, in the year 514, they formed a new country - the Tribal Confederation of Astarcia. This new country was antagonistic towards Legnasia, threatening invasion numerous times, but they were always put off by the military might of Legnasia and its southern ally Talor.

Astarcia began to foster bonds with the individual lords of Legnasia. Duke Carponio was one of the first sympathisers to the Astarcian cause. Eventually, Talor became embroiled in its own wars, making Legnasia and Astarcia balanced in power. When Astarcia invaded in 538, though, Carponio and several other lords defected, with Carponio's defection in particular tipping the scales heavily in Astarcia's favour. A war projected to last two years was over in a matter of weeks, and Legnasia was annexed. Astarcia changed its name to Kafetra, the nation we all know and love today.

Over the next twenty years, though, Carponio used his snowballing power inside the new administration of Kafetra to swing the scales more heavily in his favour. His most daring action bordered on betrayal - the Giuglian Ultimatum.

Carponio had noticed that when his fellow defector lords died, Kafetran administrators were using the law to seize their lands and disinherit their heirs. Obviously Carponio didn't want this to happen when his son Iannes took his place, so he isued the Giuglian Ultimatum. He'd been getting friendly with Talor and Sati, two neighbouring countries recently, and threatened to defect and assist them in an invasion that would tear Kafetra apart. His terms were that the Duke of Giuglia would be proclaimed the Grand Duke of Kafetra, with a ton of other minor changes to ensure that legislator could never wrest control of the country from the Grand Duke.

These terms were reluctantly accepted by the government, and that's how Duke Carponio Rocchi managed to use betrayal and treason to affirm his family's place as the foremost power in the region.

The city-state Lyria, leader of the Lyrian Free League, was the major reason the Amnish Pact wasn't the strongest political union in Aquinia for several centuries. The fleet if the Bay hindered westward expansion and Lydias mercantile efficiancy stopped Amnish monopoly of many goods.

Then, one fine summer in the mid 400's, Lyria left their own union after a several year long spat with the other cities of the Baie Sarcelle and negotiated entry into the Pact with very favorable conditions. The remaining members of the Lyrian Free League, now the Free League of the Bay, where either smashed apart militarily or ousted economically, making it one of the weaker leagues. Several cities later followed Lyria to the Pact under far less favorable circumstances. The Pact was almost unopposed for a century.

The Agreement of 442 lives in infamy for the remaining bay cities and the north. The south though sees it as a great victory. Most agree though that the Lyrian switch in allegiance was an act of great pragmatism or even treachery.

The Great Kingdom of Renhald, Ruled by King Hyld the Great (yes that was the country's name), was ruled by the most incompetent king possible. Half the country was starving, gay marriage was frowned upon by the monarchy and the king mostly said "I don't care" to many important decisions.

Because of this tendency, tensions were rising between Niyilos and Renhald. King Hyld had said I don't care enough for it to lead to the brutal murder of several Niyilos ambassadors and diplomats, and the breaking of several treaties. The countries were on the brink of war.

No surprise when King Hyld's most trusted advisor, Yipons Jarl, who was the only person close to the king who didn't seem to be an idiot, went "Stuff it!" and went over to Niyilos as a messenger, and told the queen that King Hyld declared war on her. This was right after he pledged eternal allegiance to the king.

He was trying to overthrow King Hyld, but he wouldn't have been able to gain support in Renhald, he was mostly hated there. Queen Grioslak was fond of rash decisions, so she of course retaliated. King Hyld didn't care, he attacked back gladly. He (Yipons Jarl) survived to reunite with the king. King Hyld was happy to see him. Yipons tried to kill him. He failed.

The war came to be known as War of the Fools, and King Hyld, who died from a stray spear to the throat, was forever known, as King Hyld the Idiot. Because of this war, the monarchy fell, and a democracy came about in its place. Yipons became the first Prime Minister, and had a long term of 6 years(where he made gay marriage all good in everyone's eyes, by being pansexual) , before his sudden assassination by who is considered to be the last remaining King Hyld supporter.

Chuul was a warlord and Senior Admiral during the Great Referendum. Vagabond society was determining whether they would join the Empire or not, and what stipulations they would place on membership. Factions put forward Trials to determine who would speak for the species (and which path the species would take), and the aliens of the Empire were allowed in to witness and participate.

The finalists of the trials were some of the most decorated admirals in the Vagabond fleets. Chuul had clinched one of the spots. He was firmly against integration with the Empire, calling their culture lacking and unworthy of the Vagabonds. His position did not originally include war against the Empire, but it soon became clear that the rest of the species was leaning towards integration.

Calling upon the insular nature of Vagabond Society, Chuul rigged the Final Trial. His scheming killed the alien ambassadors taking part in the Trial, along with several of the other participants.

He then called his fleet to action, shooting down warships and habitats alike from factions that were planning to declare loyalty to the Empire. The civil war he sparked lasted for five years before Chuul was finally cornered and eliminated by the loyalists.

He won a measure of victory from his crushing defeat: his xenophobia gained sympathy across the species, and led the Vagabonds to join the Empire under a single condition: that they would be able to control their own population and habitats.

While the Vagabonds are now loyal members of the Empire (and gain many benefits from the arrangement), Chuul’s legacy reverberates through their culture to this day.

The Initiative was an alliance created by Fjordania to switch the balance of power on their nemesis, UNICA. The Initiative's members were Xipharia, Sultaria, The Collective, and The Assembly. Fjordania never liked any of them and was just using them temporarily. After UNICA was no longer a problem for them, they decided to destroy the Initiative. They assassinated key leaders of all the member factions and played them off each other. It was largely successful, the member factions immediately started fighting while Fjordania got away with little backlash. This led to a golden age where Fjordania got to play intergalactic hegemon for a few centuries until UNICA's resurgence. While the Collective is now neutral, the Assembly is still fighting a hellish war against Xipharia and Sultaria. The sad thing is, it's been so long almost no one knows why they still fight.

In the Aurelian Empire, an Assassin type augmented warrior named Andrew Mehmet ended up deserting the Empire after he killed a different Assassin to save a foreign woman he'd started having feelings for. The Blackwatch were sent to go kill him, but he and armed men from the other country managed to kill them. Then they arrived in the Red Jungle on a different continent, where elements of the Thirteenth Legion where sent to hunt him down. They tracked him to a military outpost, which they then attacked. Andrew himself was engaged in single combat with Emperor's Champion Daniel Kyem, who he managed to narrowly escape due to Daniel getting sidetracked slaughtering twenty people who opened up on him with machine guns. Eventually Andrew got into safe territory with the woman he loved, and the Aurelians left knowing that they had finally settled the Assassin vs Legionary debate as well as proving to the world that five legionaries were enough to force the evacuation of a two hundred person strong outpost even if the five of them were wounded too badly to continue their pursuit.

Double Betrayal:

On the pantheon:

During the war on the [Old King of Hell], the [Fallen Light] was betrayed by [Order] in that [Order]'s plan refused to accommodate her. It condemned part of the world to eternal suffering, in addition to everyone who was already under [The Old King]'s rule. She could no more allow this to pass than [Order] could throw the world into utter chaos. She begged and pleaded with him, but to no avail. The plan would go through and it would not be changed. This was an act of horrible cruelty, but it would have won heaven's safety and destroyed [The Old King]'s power, though the people under him would never be saved.

Instead, though, she took a gamble, and refused to work with the plan. If her plan failed, heaven would not be saved. She took her share of heaven and crafted it into a tool that shattered the [Old King of Hell] and, in her last actions before crashing to earth, destroyed him. But in doing so she shattered the perfection of heaven and ruined a large chunk of it. Heaven has been lessened by this deed, and Hell remains as large as ever.

The world continues to spin, for her betrayal caused that. But Hell continues to be a threat to this very day for the same reason, and Heaven will never fit quite as much as it would have with her.

Sorry this is so long . . . it's a rather complex situation.

Setting:

A kingdom like early 17th Century France, with magic (a 'sword and sorcery' version of The Three Musketeers).

Cast:

The Church is very powerful.

Amenders are a small group of people seeking rational explanations of nature and the world. They are slowly groping their way to establishing the first sciences. The Church condemns them as heretics.

Wizards are few and far between and have limited power. The Church condemns them as heretics.

The King can't openly defy The Church, but he wants the advancements the Amenders can offer, and his most trusted adviser is a wizard. The Church wants to condemn him as a heretic.

Corvel is a knight, very wealthy but with no hope of rising in the ranks of nobility.

Past Actions:

Corvel secretly funded Amenders to further their studies and spread their discoveries. He bribed a neighboring knight's steward to start using the Amenders' information about fertilization and crop rotation, then denounced the knight to The Church for consorting with heretics. The Church exiled the knight and confiscated his lands, later selling them to Corvel. After scaling back the new farming practices so they weren't as obvious, he now has the richest farmland in the kingdom.

Corvel bought a large supply of powerful aphrodisiacs from a foreign witch and gave them to a woman so she could seduce his brother, a Cardinal in The Church, and keep him interested until she became a permanent member of his household. She now reports regularly on the Cardinal's activities.

When the wizards wanted one of his peasants as a student, Corvel secretly allowed it and bribed the young man to teach him all he learned. When the boy washed out of his studies, Corvel killed him, claiming he'd just learned of the boy's involvement with wizards, but it was really so the boy couldn't tell anyone of the arrangement.

Main Achievement:

Corvel continued funding the Amenders and orchestrating their movements so they'd become more powerful and more in the public eye.

Using his knowledge of the on-going affair, he blackmailed his brother, the Cardinal, to lead The Church into a policy of denouncing the Amenders ever more vigorously but not taking any action against them.

Corvel cozied up to the King, saying he had to continually speak out against the Amenders because his peasants were all very faithful to The Church, but he, like the King, believed their knowledge and discoveries were vital to the future of the kingdom.

He used his knowledge of magic to infiltrate a meeting of the wizard's council and learned which ones could be best deceived by false information he'd plant.

Using his influence over the Amenders, and with the King's backing, he planned a seemingly spontaneous march on the palace by Amenders calling for freedom from oppression by the Church. The King was prepared to receive the leaders gracefully and accept a few of their minor demands. This was seen as the first step to making the Amenders more acceptable to the peasants and forcing The Church to stop persecuting them openly.

The wizards saw this as a dangerous time, but believing the demonstration had been carefully planned and all contingencies foreseen and accounted for, they gathered to watch from the sidelines.

On the day, Corvel stood behind the King as the Amenders presented their demands. When the King said they should have some rights, Corvel drew his dagger, shouted "The King is a heretic" and stabbed him in the back.

At the same time, groups of armed men, organized by the Cardinal under Corvel's orders, attacked the Amenders. They slaughtered those in the street leading to the palace and then ran wild, hunting down and killing anyone who wasn't perfectly faithful to The Church.

Corvel himself led a charge of righteous vigilantes against the wizards standing peacefully in a side street. Although hit by a spell which left him lame, he carried on, and pressed the attack until he personally slit the throat of the King's trusted adviser.

Throughout the kingdom, more than 10,000 Amenders and wizards were murdered that day.

Corvel, being seen by the peasants as a faithful hero, and with the blessing of The Church, took the throne he'd long coveted.

Wyn Harpsinger - Betrayal at Stillcreek valley

Around the year 565 Leto Paldwyn, heir to the throne of Ora, was on his last military campaign, on the Oran borders with the vast wilderness. Setting out from Cear Fyrst, Leto, his best friend and son to a lord of Ora Mathias Thornwall and another of his friends and also of noble birth Wyn Harpsinger they travelled with a small army into the wild lands, to slay beasts and monsters and make the borders more safe for the common people.

During a vicious and unexpected attack by a pack of wild Wyrms in Stillcreek Valley, Leto and a few of his men got split off from the others. Wyn saw this and had plenty of chance to move in with his men and close the gap. Instead, he ordered his men further back, making it impossible for Leto and his to retreat back to the main battle force. This left them without assistance fo the others and surrounded by vicious beasts. Beasts that made short work of them, a cruel death.

Mathias never saw this but he had his doubts, doubts that became grounded when they returned to Cear Fyrst. As Wyn's father, Lord Harpsinger, had sent for him to return to the capital, as the king had fallen ill suddenly. With Leto death, this meant that there were two heirs left to the crown, either the king's nephew, who was far away on another mission or Lord Harpsinger. Who had been a close friend to the king.

Everybody knew what had happened but without clear evidence, they could not rise up, and by the time the news of the dying king and dead Leto arrived at Mercaro, the nephew, Lord Harpsinger had already assumed the throne. Forcing a coronation due to the absence of any contenders aside from him.

It is suspected that the Harpsingers had the king poisoned after Wyn had seen a chance to have Leto killed. The Harpsingers were known to have spellwrights in their service that knew the art of Whispering (sort of long distance communication), which would allow Wyn to contact his father from afar. What makes it all the more dramatic is that Leto was supposed to return to the capital after this mission, to start the procedures where he'll take over from his father.

(Not really a betrayal for personal gain or intention)

Pebbleroy the Deranged was a vassal under King Lokar's reign of Hetothis. He was clinically insane, explanatory by his name, and brandished a sword with its guard styled to look like a grinning mouth.

Pebbleroy fought beside the King's forces against the Zequea region on several accounts. All but one of these battles resulted in a victory. The one loss of these battles led to his capture in which he was tortured and his face mutilated to wear a constant wide grin, suiting his reputation.

Pebbleroy escaped after seven years of captivity and returned to the King's hold where Lokar held a feast for the reunion. At the feast, he became heavily intoxicated and slid his dagger into the back of the King. The justification of this act is unknown but likely to be due to his mental instability, especially after his years of torture in captivity. Pebbleroy fled the hold in the direction of The Hushed Forest.

Later, Pebbleroy became an urban legend to the peasants and commoners of Hetothis and is rumored to still be lurking the forest.

Драхомир(Drahomir)

Necessary Planet Context:

The technological advancement of the dominant sentient species is around that of Earth 2017, but the population is far smaller(only around 1500 individuals in total) and there is far less poverty and war. Biologically, the species’ individuals resemble millipedes(not unlike, Koh, The Face Stealer from Avatar: The Last Airbender(though the ideas evolved separately) ranging from a foot long at birth to over sixty feet as elders.

The government was meant in, its inception, to be a combination of a “Geniocracy” and a “Gerontocracy” i.e. governed by the smartest and the oldest. The elders were wise and more than capable of defending the cities if necessary, given their impressive size. 

Story Begins:

Drahomir was this planet’s young Einstein. He was the unrivalled expert in biology and weapon design, including biological weapons. He had an unparalleled intellect and was a loyal patriot, and student of worldly culture. As could be predicted, he was eventually invited to occupy a seat on the governing council. He eagerly accepted, knowing full well the perks of power. After a year or so in office, with the considerable boon to productivity from the endless resources his position received, he had finally completed his new biological weapon, a type of living grenade. It could be programmed with the genetic code of the species using it. Then after activation, hundreds of leaping leaches would spring from inside, latching onto any living thing that didn’t possess the programmed genetic code. After latching on, the parasites would lay eggs immediately. The eggs would hatch in less than a minute and the second generation would emerge, equipped with wings and a haemotoxic venom. After stinging their victim, the second and final generation would quickly drop dead.
He was invited to unveil his invention at a secret party, normally restricted to only the eldest members of government. The dinner was civil and filled with lively political debate and old war stories but there was a sense of uneasiness in the room, centred around Drahomir. A fidgeting from elders he had never seen lose their poise. At the end of the penultimate course, the oldest and longest elder Drahomir had ever seen slowly coiled into the room, and everything was silent except for the clacking of the hundreds of legs and sound of the dry belly being dragged across the floor. He took his seat at the head of the table and the kitchen, which hadn’t stopped churning out food all night fell silent as well as the chefs were ushered out the back. Two elders exchanged glances and looked at Drahomir before entering the kitchen and returning with a golden food cooler that spanned the length of the hundred foot table. It was passed down until the end reached the Grand Elder. Some elders looked anxious but most couldn’t take their eyes off of the seam of the cooler, drooling over its mysterious contents in a way that Drahomir had never seen anyone over the age of eighty do, let alone any of the composed and restrained elders, most of whom were nearing their second millennia. The lid was removed and inside were thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of new born infants, glistening and squirming, crying and gasping. None of them could have been over a month old and some even seemed prematurely hatched.
“My revered friends and colleagues,” began the Grand Elder, “Let this sacrifice go not in vain, their weakness become our strength, their ignorance become our wisdom, their death become our life; their youth become our youth.”
“Their youth become our youth,” echoed the other fifty elders. Then the Grand Elder rose to his full height, towering over seventy feet above the table, though teetering a bit, and dove into the cooler, using his legs to shovel the infants into his mouth. Greyish blue blood smeared the walls in a violent slosh and as he had reached the end, the section of the cooler where he began was uncovered and those elders at that end of the table began ravenously devouring, slurping and crunching. The Grand Elder leapt off out of the other end and crawled until nearly completely upside down on the ceiling before stopping to catch his breath, then scurrying down and wrapping all the way around the table before returning to his seat at the head of the table, a feat that would have been impressive even for someone a quarter his age. He sat and began to concentrate on something, though Drahomir couldn’t tell what, and was in too much shock to speculate. Then the Grand Elder backed slowly up the wall, then pushed back his most hind legs from the wall so that his behind was dangling in front of his face. A clear pocket of fluid began to form at the end of his body, a biological change everyone experiences during maturation, between 25 and 50 years old, but never in someone past their nineties. As the last of the infants were devoured and the cooler licked clean, the other Elders began to do the same. Then each sprouted another pair of legs from the fluid filled sacks. Age cracks began mending and the air pulsed with young sweat.
“Our newest guest seems bewildered. Did you miss the chance to partake entirely, young Drahomir? Do not worry. You are still young and in another decade, you’ll again have your chance to share in the finest delight of power: ageless youth eternal. I’m informed you have a weapon that will revolutionise the way we see combat. Perhaps even finally put an end to the pests that plague the cities on the outer ring?” The Grand Elder’s voice boomed across the room and landed with a thud in Drahomir’s ears and chest. The room’s eyes sprung and snapped tight onto him like a trap. He was now trembling with more rage and disgust than he knew could even be felt by one mind alone. He rose from his place and knowing words would fail him, he bolted for the kitchen. He heard a roar so deep and thunderous it could only have been from the Grand Master, followed by metal clangs and ceramic breaking. He didn’t look back until he got to his lab but the power had been shut off. He crawled through the third story window and raced to turn on the power generator in the basement. Barricading the weakest set of doors with one end of his body, he attempted to contact his younger siblings to warn them of the danger and inform them of what he’d seen. There was no response and when he hung up the comm, he caught a glimpse of the news display. “Genocidal Terrorist: Former Elder Drahomir evades authorities.  Militia called to action.” He heard the sudden sound of the outer gates and fences crashing down. There wasn’t enough time to disable the automatic defence systems and a hundred, then two hundred young civilians, most barely a century old, were mowed down. Another hundred dissolved before he could cut the power. Single handedly he had been responsible for the largest mass murder of his people in the history of the planet. It took him mere minutes to become an even worse monster than the one all over the news. He narrowly escaped the masses through a tunnel he had built in his basement. Meanwhile the elders continued to call in more support. There was no greater threat to their power than the release of this truth and they could always rebuild as heroes. Drahomir was hunted for days but avoided surveillance long enough to find his sister’s house. If there was anyone he could trust and who would believe him it would have been her. His twin, with whom he shared a bond that could not be shaken. When she saw face though, she did not ask for explanation or attempt consolation. She charged at him with a blood rage. He was forced to kill her and in so doing, lost his last attachment to his planet. He raced to the laboratory, activated the penultimate protocol from outside the gates, clearing all remaining militia from the area. He stormed into the doors and into the lab, slashing down every combatant in his path. He equipped himself with the full stock of biological grenades he had manufactured and programmed them to know the code of only one. He hunted down every last elder and consumed the body of each, known as an ancient dishonourable post-mortem ritual in war. When it was all over, Drahomir had grown by twice his previous length. The last wave of militia died attempting tunnel into Drahomir’s lab from below, not expecting the subterranean minefield. The planet was no longer the kind of place to raise your kids. And there were no parents left to raise them. Within a year, Drahomir started and finished building a spaceship that got him off the desecrated planet and delivered one last parthian payload before searching the stars for a new start.

The 7th Emperor of the First Empire of Magnus, Alcr, and his companions set out on a quest tried to find the lost Heart of Arū, an artifact that was lost during the War Over The Seas, Icnï an Zhan. The companions were known as the Company of The Heart. They sailed across the seas of east Ra'Arū in order to find The Heart. During the journey, they encountered many monsters and difficulties. On the 5th month of their journey, the Company found themselves at a strange island (future Dafvan) with a door in the shape of The Heart on it. Elrin, the son of the Fisherman Ric, sacrificed himself to open the door by binding his soul to Xan, Guardian of the Lost, God of Protection. In the chamber where The Heart was found, one of the Companions, Reik, son of Oric, turned on Alcr and company, stabbing Alcr in the leg, killing three companions, and injuring another one. Reik escaped with The Heart, leaving Alcr and the injured companion for dead. Reik renamed himself Elric, King of the Reikin. This ignited another War Over The Seas, resulting in Elric triumphing over the Empire, creating a new Era and planting the seeds for the Second Empire of Magnus.

UNLIMITED STORY

Someone, it hasn’t been confirmed who, leaked the plans for the Delta Suit. Not only was the suit incredibly powerful, but its energy demand was off the chart. The only source that could run the suit was the planet’s elemental cores.

Syphoning power from the cores lead to worldwide catastrophe as the planet went into a full blown tantrum. Earth splitting quakes, violent tornadoes, colossal tsunamis and destructive volcanoes.

This leak led to irreversible consequences for the planet Genesis and possibly its destruction.

Wild man! keep working I like it all!

I hope its okay I made a comic instead of writing it out? I just think visually.

http://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/hex-lovers/hex-lovers-the-dark-lords-of-delicatessen/viewer?title_no=75741&episode_no=14