The Enmity of Scolrys, Part XXIII: Chaos-adjacent Dissolution

As the first days of Omeian unfolded, so too did the many schemes of the Six Nations.

Growing tired of the repetitive antics brought on by Faceless Madness’s followers and the realm at large’s response, Lexadhra made Her will known to three of Sapience’s four major city-states. Consulting first with Presiding Voice Bhalwyn, the Indelible offered him a chance to involve the council in Her budding plan to end Fundamental Chaos’ hyperfixated attention. Immortal Memory explained to Duiran’s leader that She required an implement of sufficient strength to guide massive amounts of Chaos energy, and that its largest component must come from the very earth and land itself. She evoked the rituals of old Azhoa in Her conversation, hinting that the council’s contribution would be best constructed in a manner pleasing to Yanai, one of Lexadhra’s Elder guises immortalised within Her mysterious virtue. Furthermore, the Goddess hinted that such participation would prove beneficial to Duiran’s aims and left the finer points of their participation to his planning.

Though Lexadhra made no deal nor handed down any instruction, She next spoke with Vanguard Inthirath. The Indelible explained that She would soon call upon the Hammer to sanctify the implement fashioned by the Duiran council and urged the Arqeshi Templar to consider matters of faith and devotion in the meantime. The Vanguard expressed eagerness to begin the work and swore that the city would aid the Goddess in the name of the greater good, adding on soon after that the threat of Lanu Du surpassed anything else the realm currently faced. Pleased with his response, Lexadhra moved on.

It was through Docent Linne, dubbed with the designation of ‘Cogger’ within the Lexadhra’s rogue’s gallery of an order, that the Indelible made Her will known to the Theocracy of the North. The Archivist engaged in dogged discourse on the topic of necessity and proclaimed that her Goddess required a vexation of gremlins no smaller than a thousand heads – and in no later than two weeks time, to the chagrin of Strategos Sheryni, Dhasan Ulo, and many other citizens. The logic-adjacent follower of Lexadhra further elaborated that her Lady had arranged a situation within which there was no unfavourable outcome for Her. To be denied was to invite Her ire and the scorn of the realm, which She would derive plentiful entertainment from in lieu of a solution to the problem threatening Aetolia. Calling this behaviour ‘vexing’, Linne worked tirelessly to convince the rest of Spinesreach of the necessity of Lexadhra’s demand.

What ensued afterward was a heated debate betwixt the Viceroys and leaders of the five conclaves, for many members of that vaunted arrangement possessed disparate opinions on the matter of cooperation. Ulo, Dhasan of Devotion, was the first to provide resistance to the plan. Claiming that they would not assist in the effort and thus deprive the city of the necessary gremlins, the Harpy insisted that the city was not the plaything of the errant Virtue. The obstinacy stumped the Dragon’s leaders for a quarter of a day before the Dhasan was convinced to reluctantly relent, though they made it clear they were doing so only due to being outnumbered.

The city swiftly threw itself into the task of appeasing the Indelible’s command at this point, under the impression as they were that the Lady required these gremlins posthaste. Through chanted devotion and solemn prayer, Ulo made themself a shining beacon to draw Lanu Du’s attention to the Prime, with word after word fixating Its non-existent eye upon the prison cell within which the Dhasan was confined. What ensued was a terrible convergence of Chaotic power unlike anything before it in this age, its manifestation breaking Ulo’s sanity nigh irrevocably. Hallucinations, grim visions, and blessed epiphanies raced through their mind as they carried out their duty with a cultist’s fervour, their fragile psyche sacrificed upon the altar of Spirean progress again and again.

At the very last summoning, drawn by artful smears of blood upon a cell wall, It That Woke commanded the gaze of the entire world.

Forced to look upon the Horror of Horrors, the realm screeched in terror and Ulo’s mind snapped like a twig in Midsummer’s heat. Rumour has it that the Dhasan sang songs that defied all sense as medical professionals tended to their needs in the aftermath, with Doctor Pietre Marcelli declaring that the Dhasan’s mental state was growing dangerously untenable. Adventurers and commonfolk across Sapience began to report happenstance developing malicious or eerie properties, with spilled liquids and shattered objects forming into eldritch patterns and vague shapes of faces and magical symbols.

As the frayed ends of sanity come undone, Strife’s zealous followers laid the groundwork for a desperate gambit…

Penned by my hand on Falsday, the 23rd of Slyphian, in the year 3 AC.