The Worldeater Saga, Part XXIV: Renewal and Reconnaissance
Late into the Monomachy’s first year, the goddess known as Omei gathered Her courtiers within the scoured remnants of Naryusa Adil and detailed the next step of Her enigmatic scheme. Utilising Her newly bolstered power, She summoned Astral’s mysterious quicksilver and bound the surrounding area to it, bringing it nearer to the deceptive sphere of chaotic Yellow. Giving Her followers instructions to shape the quicksilver into jungle landscapes, She departed to lay the groundwork necessary within Her own realm and left Her mortal priests to their work.
Only a few weeks later, the feral goddess of Instinct emerged upon the Prime once more and twisted the oneiric shapings left behind by Her followers into a single, beating heart of flaxen magic. With grace and inveterate magic, Omei revitalised Naryusa Adil, permanently binding the scoured landscape to Astral and the mercurial essence of Chaos. Anchoring the sphere to the Prime by way of a warped painting, the goddess set about using this newly established foothold to fashion soldiers and annoyances that swiftly set out to march upon the Sibre, the newly established headquarters of the Argent Watch. Those witnesses who went to inspect the painting found that they were capable of manipulating its surface, impressing changes upon Naryusa Adil’s landscape and even binding their own psyche to its shifting face.
The same week, wild Haern journeyed towards His Father’s Tree of Creation and inspected the damage to its bark and roots, His mourning heard all throughout the realm. In spite of this, He found hope within the bitter ash of Drakkenmont’s magitechnical assault: several of the tree’s explosive drupes yet remain, their flesh glimmering with the essence of slain Divinity and limitless potential. Cradling them alike to a newborn babe, the Hunter departed to parts unknown after commanding the Heartwood council to prepare for a grand ritual of mysticism to beseech the Guardians for aid.
Even as She set these distractions in motion, however, Omei set to work laying the groundwork of Her next act. Choosing a remote location upon the banks of the Teo’ltien, the goddess drew the Eastern Itzatl mere inches nearer to the Astral Realm and tasked Ayastia with fabricating a magical ward against Corruption’s servants. Beneath the coverage of this ward, Immortal Instinct ensured the success of Her future ritual, though She remained silent for several weeks.
Meanwhile, the Theocracy of the North set themselves to the task of tracking down the Dreikathi’s lone remaining airship within Sapience’s skyscape. Employing dragonlings as scouts, citizens of the Dragon charted out the circuit of the airship’s patrol, their efforts spearheaded in no small part by Voidwalker Evlentesh. Though the operation only lasted two whole weeks, the city showed that they possessed mastery and coordination in spades, for they swiftly managed to work out the details of the airship’s path and swore to utilise this information in the near future in an attempt to take back the stolen Demon Blade and secure vengeance for Drakkenmont’s callous violence.
As Instinct’s courtiers worked and the North toiled to their own ends, the Hegemonist wasted no time in employing His pilfered might. Bedazzling luminescence beset the Festering Waste in the ensuing days as Abhorash wrought a dark miracle previously beyond His grasp, His unquestionable power driving out the Underking’s mists of Death from the Lich Gardens and leaving behind a smouldering wasteland suitable for His own machinations. Free from Dhar’s decade-long strangehold, the dreaded location soon saw slaves scurrying in and out, guided by the Sanguine Fist’s loyal citizens in a rebuilding effort of otherwise unknown purposes.
Unwilling to allow such cruelty to persist, the Hammer of Dawn swiftly deployed their forces. For weeks, Grand Crusader Benedicto Silverain led efforts to free these slaves and put the Empire’s citizens to the sword, joined by Brute Eaku Redwood, Pentarch Kalena Emerson, Professor Aloli Gallant, Hiale Meleah Bravewish, and many other citizens who felt it necessary to take a stand against Bloodloch’s continued profit from cruel slavery. Though they painted the newly named Lich Scriptorium red with the blood of overseers and slavedrivers, the work inevitably progressed and the Hegemonist handed down more secretive orders in His quest for absolute dominion.
Then, upon the two-hundred-and-ninety-ninth day of the Creators’ Monomachy, Omei once more made Her move. Summoning Jhura Gallant to the Eastern Itzatl, She bid Her violinist to put on a performance worthy of the ages. Not one to disappoint, the Ascendril Magus set herself to the task, serenading the realm entire with the music of Astral ritual. At the crescendo of her work, Immortal Instinct emerged and bound the waxing power of Green to the Prime Material, Her work completed too swiftly for Legyn, Chakrasul’s Ghost of Despair, to interfere. Drunk on Her growing power, the feral goddess retreated to Her Astral Realm after several enigmatic comments to Her closest representatives.
As foreign powers prepare to finish their election and gods walk the realm in secret, the Monomachy approaches another moment of terrible import…
Penned by my hand on Falsday, the 25th of Ios, in the year 512 MA.
