Nihilakh Dynasty
By the Overlord of Solemnace
On that world exists many a creature that should not be extant under the current geo-planetary state of their world or have a biology that makes sense. Some are born with claws, beaks and wings, others with only wings but with hooves, and still others more with wings and the physiology of equines. And from that latter group is born a strain with the abilities to wield powers that can break any object, anyone, and any thought to nothing but flickering things in the heavens, but are bereft of flight. And many more of the equines are born without any particular, explicit ability. They still possess the same sort of… methods to channel what can be best described as laid in powers that express themselves through the subjects on the discovery of their talents, which will then grant them tremendous capabilities those creatures with claws and beaks (the griffons) and those others with nothing but the burden of their fate could only dream of (the others – including a small group of equines).
Speaking of the griffons – their empire disgustingly fell to the petty desires of its people. It remains still, but as a shadow of what once was – reminds me of ours before the first installments of the Old War. We… rose back from that early blunder, and I am sure they will too. But knowing the powers that bestrode that world, it would not surprise me if such a… fateful encounter as ours occurs later after my departure. Their emperor is already a sickly being, and they worship three deities as it is, with other minor ones spread around the empire’s core’s fringes – need I add more? However, where they do not meet us in some vague allusion, is in their lifespan being more than adequate for them and for not being scared of some lump on their body that would herald their premature end. The head of one of the temples almost reached a century of life, for reference.
They are not cursed with powers (for the most part) but are surrounded by nearly all sides by those very wielders. And yet, they managed to impose themselves on the world and influenced all nations with their ideals. In a certain manner, they became the dominant race through technology and will rather than relying on the illogical.
Defiance is a trait they embody well, and I cannot but respect such a race.
And yet, there still is more. A people of shape-shifters live in isolation from their brethren – alone. Interactions with the outside of their areas of dwelling almost non-excitant – spare some odd cases here and there. They are unable to readily use their powers in a world that so universally rejects them. They are the only insectoid that rose to sentience, somehow – but, again, that whole world makes little sense. Their fangs, claws, regime, and abilities all came together to form a people predisposed for the fate they are forced into – not different from the one we used to partake in, I would like to add. Fair? No. And their treatment from the realm of the chimera is quite hypocritical, I believe. The comparatively far-off griffons offered better conduct toward this civilization than those supposedly overly open “Equestrians”, as they call themselves.
For long, they fought ceaselessly amongst each other. Within their hives or outside of them when they would briefly unite under short-lived kingdoms that barely last the breath of a lifespan. They tried to unite their people against the predation of all, but it rarely occurred – fierce creatures they are, but honor is a term they know not of. I am talking, though our aristocracy displays the veneer of honorable behavior in war but are far less so in day-to-day dealings. At least the changelings are less hypocritical about it.
However, recently a leader unbeknownst rose to prominence and unified her kind under her singular rule and iron… claw – let us utilize the proper semantics, ey? Chrysalis came, conquered, and asserted her dominion and hegemony with diplomatic and military skills that would make even the greatest of our numbers bow in respect, forgoing her status as an Unclean. She is ruling over the longest-lasting union of hives; has staved off many an assassination attempt on her person with relative ease; and improved the lives of her subjects as a whole – a ruler that comes infrequently for us all. Chrysalis also is a patron and protector of changeling culture. She made sure every artifact is preserved and arranged in neatly built museums. Elating, to say the least. If she did not repulse me for her alienness, I would have thanked her for such a boon and perhaps enjoyed a little talk; they lack much of the hated powers, so this body would not have suffered much if things went astray.
She was mustering her armies for a war on one of her neighbors the last I took notice of her. And for whoever will witness the rise of a new changeling empire: I wish you to finally understand the powers that lay in the Repressed.
Then, there are the drakes. Nothing abnormal about the picture that may have conceived itself in your imagination. They do not differ from our own retellings from ages past or the ones others shared with me. However, they are not the gracious and powerfully built specimens I – and you – would have expected. Some are, but there are so few that I would not require my second hand to count them. These drakes are hideous, glory hounds, fractious (loosely united under one lord, however), and I would wager, the last to have evolved past the first steps of civilization. Luckily, they keep what I can barely refer to as records in surprising libraries, I have to admit. In the far past, these same records state, there existed a strain – the first of the drakes, they suppose – far mightier, powerful, and awe-inspiring beasts that are now extinct. The last of their strain – Cornelia, “the Last Dragon Lord” – disappeared after fleeing the destruction she wrought upon her “children”. Fascinating story. And I am more so surprised to have found it. Although they had nothing more to really offer. So I did not waste too much time upon such a species other than the most bare-bone of information.
A “Dragon Lord” remains still, though. However, I wager, the name is more ceremonial, for none at the present could live to the name of a “Magna Dracii” – as Cornelia’s dead breed is named. A necessity, nothing more.
Now. The manner these “Dragon Lords” assert control over their people is something not so unfamiliar to us; they use a staff named the Blood Stone Scepter – the energies it emits prevented me from taking hold of it for studies, however. Its origins are unknown, but they determined it was following the disappearance of Cornelia that it came into the possession of her successor.
I like to think she went off the islands her kind took for a home for a deep sleep in the mountains of the continent they neighbor. In a mountainous and traitorous region named “the Badlands,” letting her people freely roam the heavens of that cursed pebble. I could not check on the validity of my theory, unfortunately. Some field was preventing our scans and was jamming our less than fully optimized sensors. Travels like these are always half enjoyable experiences.
They have another kin, but to my astonishment (and probably soon yours too), they inhabit the southernmost polar region of the world. How do reptilians manage to survive the unforgiving conditions reptiles so commonly disengage from? Well, the answer – as most strange things on that planet – lies not on technology but on the otherworldly.
The Olenians are a benighted species akin to the equine, but with the notable difference of two pairs of horns exuding out of their cranium and their existence as a homogenous race. Why, again, the perfidy of such a species? Well, it is quite simple: they use magic to enable their feats of engineering that, for the technological level other species display, are frankly outstanding. Their faculty permits great precision when it comes to industry and manufacturing, marrying and blending them like a child that knows not of the dangers it can wreak on them. And, I reiterate, they should not be capable of such precise aligning in their current state. I hate them. But their artifacts are quite nice indeed.
You may think I had said everything pertaining to that lush husk in space – but I am not, I am afraid. How can one world be the genesis of so many races is beyond my comprehension of biology and the natural laws of evolution. Will I spit more words on them? No. Will I waste your time on them for you? Not particularly. I have all the information on them, but they are better spent in brief, oral words than to extend what is already put on the Unclean. However, just let me cite all the remaining ones (if you cannot begin to trust me yet). They are: the felines, canines, ursines, flightless birds, mongrels, bovine, half-breeds, camelines, beastmen, even-toed ungulates, and – by the Triarchs – if I had lingered more and had found still other extant, I would have had no qualms into unleashing some specimens of my collection to hack down on these numbers. The “Angels” would have had a field day, that, I am sure of.
***
I took samples for my collection – as is what I should rightfully do. Other than the drakes and the chimera, those creatures do not die young; but for all of them (save, perhaps, the chimera herself) mature slowly, and whatever they consume is used to turn them back to the dirt they should have never risen from. But I digress. They still remain specimens to be studied and preserved.
However, one specimen I had not the chance to lay my hands upon would be the one they call “Celestia”. This “chimera” I mentioned before. They were close to nailing the name perfectly, but no matter – she is an odd form. Where the abilities to fly and cast esoteric energies are kept separated by the trappings of biology, this “Princess” of the largest and most powerful entity on that repugnant rock can utilize both, with, I like to add, a funny trick she pulls. Or not – it depends on how you perceive it.
She is able to both rise sun and moon – an impressive feat in its own right and signifying a great potential within that one being, which I also gathered has a sister that went missing a millennium ago that had the mantle of the moon. Where did she disappear? Scholars said it was due to some series of uniquely strange events one thousand years ago, but nothing more concrete. That “Luna” was there and then vanished.
These “Sisters” possess a nigh immortal lifespan. Whether they utilize some magics that are outside our reach or they add to their uniqueness by also being somehow genetically immortal, it can’t be said for sure. I could have unraveled their secrets, but Celestia’s role is so cemented into that world; it would have perhaps brought an apocalypse. Or not. The working of their celestial bodies is quite odd indeed.
They are small, very small, the sun and moon are roughly of similar sizes, with the moon notably smaller by a few kilometers. I observed the way she performs her damnable arts. I observed the way both bodies moved in the void. When she is involved, there is a brief halt. Unnoticeable and only detected by the most precise of our instruments. Perhaps, with the esoteric, one of those cursed magic users could detect the damned thing. Other than that, the chemical composition of both is nothing different than what I encountered before. But the moon has an odd carving upon it…
Those benighted creatures with magic possess powers that should be restrained. Instead, they are let to roam the land freely, with only one entity establishing control over them, but it also shares their little corner of the world with their complete antithesis in the mountainous terrain in the south of their protective forests and mountains. So much the utilization of powers was beyond any real restraint, there are many an entity that uses its ravaging effects to wrought things any mortal denizens would recoil from; savage beasts, corrupted minds, and complete disdain for anything close to sanity.
The still sane outsiders deploy wardens to counteract the expansion of the dark tides, with… various degrees of efficiency if the stories are to be taken at face value. Like all mortal life forms, exaggerations are rampant. Luckily a thing we long divested ourselves from, but I somewhat miss – eternity and an immortal memory do not lend well for those frivolities. I would have aided, but I already got what I desired from that husk in the void – why should I waste resources on creatures that, with all apparent winds, will wither and die in the upcoming millennia? Perhaps that Celestia and Luna will remain and still strode the desolation of what was and will forever never be. Perhaps – who can say? It is my… colleague’s domain, not mine.
They will fall. Or, maybe, their world and mentalities work differently. But from what I gather, I doubt it is outside this reasoning.
They live many on one rock, and war amongst each other with Celestia’s realm somewhat kept the furthest from harm – not for long, I can tell. The shape-shifters have an innate predisposition toward conquest and to unite the world under their rule. If not them, then it is inevitable that the griffons will rise to predominance – if they garner the coordination to do so, that is.
Such is evolution. A constant war, in which it appears the clawed ones – those so few in numbers compared to their equine neighbors – will prevail in this long conflict. I hope so. They remind me a bit of us: beset on every side and rising with defiance from a land that could have readily ended them many times over. Yet they have prevailed against all odds. Their empires rose and fell – as all empires do – but that is how they made their place, seized it, clung on to the opportunity of life – of flesh – and never looked back.
Speaking of empires, the mention of a “Crystal Empire” intrigued me the most. It was also a millennium or so ago (take or give a few centuries). In the lands that are now the northern boundaries of the chimera’s realm, the Crystal Empire devolved into the most unfathomably bloody regime I have come across in my readings. The ruler of said regime enslaved the inhabitants of his realm and forced them through mind control, or whatever nonsense they refer to it as, to his every bidding without a second thought. The reason for such brazen cruelty? To prepare a conflict with the chimeras and conquer the continent, of course! Dastardly for such a primitive level of technology and level of maturity. But, to reiterate once more, that world is very much replete with these types of ambitious creatures. And if the horrendous nature of the empire is yet to besmirch your sentiments (it will ring bells soon), is that its denizens, following a conflict where the chimeras partook in, simply remembered as the “Northern War,” were erased from the world they once dwelled upon. And thought they would reawake at any moment now (as in by the time I pen this). However, unlike us, the reason why such an event occurred remains unclear. Of course, you may think, the chimera should know; she was there after all – wasn’t she? But she was in as much of a loss as anyone. For when I mind-shackled one of her subjects to bequeath me with an answer, and after multiple attempts on this petty excuse of a leader, she always replied with a resounding no. With the last request having been denied by a voice unfathomably bellowed by such a frail thing. I guess appearances can be deceiving. I am no pesterer – I am an explorer of the truth and Arch-Archivist of the Great Library.
And here my more… unique fellows must agree upon what is additional proof of the foulness of these damnable powers. These creatures barely lifted themselves from the ground, and an entire people – an entire civilization – was struck as readily as it is to anger my precious colleague. They mind-shackle, enslave, kill, extinguish, and most damnably, are widespread on that world. If anything, they ought to be their own cullers as much as the one of every living thing on that rock – an end many probably would have never foreseen their “talents” can reach. Such mutually assured destruction must be a feature of their society, but one I had – and still have – no interest to study further. Perhaps at a later date, I have plenty of time after all.
The last thing I would like to discuss is a discrepancy we detected in the mountains that is house of those terrible benders of reality and flesh. Too advanced for the technology level they brought into being, but also replete with radiations of a primitive fission reactor that course through it. Did I take it? I could have. I would have awaited its awakening by some misbegotten witch or sorcerer and then kept it for my own – but what is the point? Its awakening will be a fun thing to behold for them. And, I would imagine, the stymieing of such a beast will bring some measure of entertainment for the chimera and her sister – when she returns, that is, which is also close.
They, after all, quite like rooting out threats and whatever minor dangers that – or may not – ravage their land and outside. Benevolent actions from beings of tremendous and foul power? Yes. But as we were conditioned, I tend to doubt such explicit actions. Benevolence always hides its horrors behind beatific visages and open arms.
Even if I berate those Unclean for the terrible things they wield or can bring – they have done a great deal to make themselves the fulcrum of any odd occurrences, dodging accusations with the swiftness of a flying beast.
They are fascinating. Fascinating indeed. But I already got what I desired and exchanged their artifacts. My favorite is a stylized goblet of gold decorated with beautiful precious stones – its golden, spread-out, carved wing is my preferred part of it.
If we had not lost the ability to eat and drink, I would have drunk in that chalice the precious wine of Ithakas – Zahndrekh told me much of it. And if I were of the generous type, I would offer it to him. The old nemesor has an appreciation for those things, even to this day.
