Veleraen
Titan of Aslan
The Kingdom of Horrors and Bad Memories (Indefinite) Shortly after this thread The trek to the Sherian had been a long and quiet one. He had left the comforts of his own keep in Caronis to find that which had been plaguing this world; the Hourglass. Alrinyes had taken it in a fit of passion during the fall of Ainlar to spite the Aetherians and now Orestan, the Archon who had been tasked to keep it safe was now desperate to get it back for his master. The only problem was Alrinyes was in Narim... Whether she was there anymore, the Titan had no clue. Nor did he know whether or not she had heard him through the amulet, but he had to try. It was his sworn duty. He needed to prove to Orestan that he could be trusted once more. This was something he needed to do for himself, as he had also failed the first time during the Long Winter to get it back from Kalendryas. Now with Kalendryas out of the picture for the time being, Alrinyes was running amok, creating all sorts of havoc. Things had to change. Narim itself was a graveyard; a city for the damned. The dead slept there, a city where Aeternia itself was linked to and if one wasn't careful, they could find themselves in Krypta; truly a trip Veleraen did not wish to take. Jalat more than likely hated him more than ever for what had happened at Narim. It was almost as if the God of Death had to open a hole so wide at Narim just to fit all the souls that descended to Krypta that brightening... It still gave him shivers and made his nightmares worse the closer he got. Narim was haunted for a reason; Mr. Scythe. Duncan had been the architect behind what had happened, Veleraen having been the unwilling participant that enabled the souls of all of those who could not block out Srennius's intrusion to escape from their bodies and turned them into husks of their former selves. Veleraen had lost something that brightening when he saw the bodies fall like leaves in the wind, their minds gone and in their place...nothing. A trail of death had been left in the wave's wake when it exploded from the pair, traveling across Sherian and took everyone, animals...even the forests seemed to die slowly but surely. Ever since that brightening, Veleraen had swore that he would never return, as he did not wish to revisit Narim and the horrors he witnessed there but now he had no real choice. Alrinyes was here, somewhere, and he had to find her before she did any more damage to the plane of Time itself. As Veleraen approached Narim from the north, he could see the crumbled walls and the dead earth around it. Truly a city of the dead, he was not welcome here. The Titan of Aslan would be a beacon to those who sat in the realm of the shadows and Aeternia itself. And so first, he scouted to try and see what had happened to the city and what was going on currently. Hakan flew up high above and the Titan tapped into his mind and tried to see what his bondmate saw high above. "Tell me my friend, what is going on down there?". The Giant tried to keep to the outskirts for now, hiding behind whatever he could but it was hard and he probably would already be spotted on approach from any direction but regardless, he tried. He needed to see if there was any possibility of getting access to the city now that the Sherian had been relegated to the realm of the wilds, effectively abandoned by the Kingdom. |
Even for a Titan, an approach into Sherian was a lot more complicated than simply arriving at a destination. One did not simply walk into Narim. The province was rife with threats, from roving bands of orcs and bandits to hordes of undead that occupied vast swathes of land. Veleraen's problems did not begin with arriving in Narim to search for Alrinyes. Getting there was a problem in and of itself. From where would he enter Sherian, and what sort of path would he try and take to get to Narim? |
OOCApologies, I am so used to simply walking to places, I keep forgetting Sherian is still a land of the crazies Veleraen's destination, while not easily reachable, had a pathway to it. The Titan simply needed to pick a way to go. The easiest way? Well, there probably was no easy way to Narim. The first and safest part of his journey would be to make way for Candace's Respite and take the Khardran Pass which was still within Imperial control for the most part. Veleraen had taken this pass many times without much difficulty. The only problem was whether or not he wanted to go through the Sherian wilds or stick to the coast. Inland was probably more problematic than the coast, simply because the northwest above Narim, from what Veleraen could remember, had not been hit by the death wave from the battle of Narim. It had simply been to the east and south, at least from what he had read of Imperial reports. But who truly knew? He hadn't been down there since that fateful battle and now he needed to get back in. So Veleraen made his way west through the province of Maeve and then headed south and tried to follow the coast down south through the outskirts of Breecetoun. He had traveled through Breecetoun before but what remained of it now? He wasn't sure. So the Titan kept his distance and kept heading south, hoping for the best. |
Passing through the Khardran Pass, at least, was no significant problem. Veleraen had likely heard that as of late even this place was no longer safe, caravans from Candaceburg that passed through frequently being raided and disappearing. As it was, though, it would indeed be the case this time as well that he passed through with no difficulty. Then again, he was also a massive hulking giant. Not quite as soft a target as a food caravan. Getting to Maeve was simple. Going down the coast was not, Veleraen found, as he rather quickly ran into the problem of the roving hordes of undead that littered the countryside, hundreds of them simply loitering around, attacking anything that came nearby. |
He had created this mess... As the Titan had set his gaze upon the roving hordes of undead, guilt shunted itself into his chest and took over. What had he done? Eyes lowered themselves to the ground as he recalled that fateful moment when Duncan had taken everything from him. Sherian had been transformed in an instant from a thriving wilderness to a virtual wasteland of death and destruction. The grunts and muttered shuffling of the undead broke him from his thoughts as he looked out and considered his options. The best thing he could do for these empty husks was put them out of their misery. They roamed this world seeped in nothingness; a meaningless existence that sought them to kill for no real purpose. He owed them more than what they deserved but the one thing he could do, was give them peace. He looked around and found a higher spot or a hill of some sort, some place where he could get a sight and physical height advantage and then called out to the undead with a hoarse and very blunt shout to simply get their attention. The Titan readied himself as he shifted in his armour and raised his halberd, pressing his back foot into the ground as he braced for the horde that was sure to approach at the sight of a fresh target for consumption. |
This sort of penance was the sort of thing that might even take the giant a lifetime. The undead were near-endless, with almost the entirety of a province being rendered into unthinking, unfeeling undead. Not to mention the loss of the Imperial Mage Corps and whatever other travesties might have occurred in the aftermath of such an event. The province of Sherian had been outright abandoned afterwards, and only recently had there been inroads into trying to fix the mess that had been made there. With the thread of the Xet gone and all this business about the throne finished, perhaps there was finally time to fix the problems present within the Empire itself. It was bloody monotonous work. The zombies weren't any particular threat to Veleraen but they were persistent all the same. Their numbers were sufficient such that the giant would have to spend a great deal of time dealing with them, but never quite enough to fully overwhelm him either. All the sound and the noise only served to garner all the more attention, which just caused more and more undead from the surrounding areas to begin to wander in his direction. Rebels, former citizens of the Empire, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, husbands, wives, all people who once had lives of their own, all crushed to pulp by his hands. |
He wanted to tell himself that what he did was for the betterment of the Kingdom...that cleansing Sherian of this menace to get to Narim was the best for both parties at hand. But Veleraen only found the horrible work of cutting down the undead soul-shattering, as with each swing he took with Ran'Kor, more and more truth struck true at his heart, making the pain of the past echo inside of himself. Blood cast itself upon his form as he cut through the horde like a hot knife through butter. He simply stayed in the same area and cut and cut until the horde was thinned enough that he could walk south and out pace the horde, cutting more and more as he went towards Narim. "They have to stop eventually..." He hoped at least. |
Eventually, indeed, the tide of undead stemmed. Veleraen was surrounded in a sea of blood and gore, untold dozens, likely hundreds of zombies having been rendered into nothingness by the giant. Even now he could see their bits and pieces flopping about on the floor, still consumed by the gnawing hunger of their undeath - something that would never cease until they were completely and utterly obliterated. Arms that continued to try and claw at him, legs that kicked at him, jaws that gnawed away. Anything that Veleraen left behind could potentially prove to be a threat to somebody else. But perhaps he was finished with the violence, and would simply move on now that the path was reasonably clear. But if the giant went further south, he would have to do this again. The undead were too innumerable, and he far too ostentatious. |
His chest heaved with regret as he cut down the last few corpses and looked out to see the death he had wrought. As he had done the deed, tears had descended from sullen orbs, guilt pushing them outward in a trickling flow. Now they mixed with blood and gore as his once fairly clean appearance was now marred with war and death. He took an aetherium hand and wiped off most of what was lingering on his frame and looked down to see the limbs that still flailed about, trying once last desperate time to wreak havoc on the world. Veleraen went around and stomped and crushed anything else that was moving so that no hapless travelers would become victims to his mess that he had already created so many eras ago at the battle of Narim. Then the reality of things hit him; he would have to do this many times if he wanted to get to Narim...He looked off into the distance and no doubt found more silhouettes on the horizon waiting to meet the edge of Ran'Kor. "Feth." Veleraen could not get the image out of his head, of a huge streak of dead bodies all the way from the Sherian border of Maeve all the way to Narim. Would he be known as the butcher of Sherian after this? Or a warrior determined to right the wrongs of this land? Alrinyes was still lurking, supposedly in Narim but getting there was going to be painstaking and tedious. He needed a better way...A more efficient way. He knelt down amongst the gore and eventually simply sat down to calm his chest that was still rising and falling with the adrenaline of the past, many candlemarks. After a while of pondering, the Titan set up camp a ways away from the scene of battle and cleaned his armour, ate and would arrive to the conclusion in the morning, that the only way through was cutting a path. He had no real means of dismantling the undead en masse but he could probably out pace them as he walked, which meant that he could bait them into following him to Narim at a distance. So instead, he braced himself after his morning rituals of prayer and a bit of food, the Titan readied himself for a blood bath. His plan? Simply keep walking and cutting to out pace the hordes that existed in front of him. He would make his stand at the end, a ways away on the outskirts of Narim and cut them down as they walked towards him. |
Another day. Veleraen was easily capable of outpacing the zombies, able to keep himself in front of them. He'd hit a snag relatively quickly into his plan, however, noticing that there seemed to be small towns and villages in his path. Which he was dragging these zombies right into. That would probably be bad for the villagers. |
Not long into the Titan's foray into the wilderness to drag the zombie horde along behind him did Veleraen realize a rather large flaw in his plan; there were still inhabited areas in Sherian that were in his way. This would prove a rather large obstacle in getting to Narim. He swore under his breath as he came over a ridge and realized that a town was not far away now. So instead, the Titan made a decision to commit to something that he silently swore he never wanted to do. He couldn't allow any more harm come to the remaining, living residents of Sherian, therefore there was only one solution left: stand his ground here and make sure that the rest of the horde he was dragging behind him didn't reach the towns ahead of him. If he could clear this batch out and make sure the area was secure, then Veleraen could move onto the next area. Hopefully by doing this, he would not only make the area even more safe (by clearing out the undead) but would also even open up the possibility for safe travel and trade to be conducted between Sherian and the rest of the Kingdom. So it was settled. Veleraen turned and brought his back to face those he wished to protect the most and braced himself for another slaughter fest. The monotony of slaying mindless husks was not something he wished to do for the rest of this journey, but it seemed that if he was going to clean up his own mess, he was going to have to ensure that those who had the life ripped out of them during the battle of Narim had peace once and for all. |
The bloody task started up again, with Veleraen hacking his way through the ranks of undead that he had gathered around him. On the plus side, it seemed like they were totally focused upon him, utterly ignoring the surrounding towns and villages. This was good! The bad part was when the villagers came out to attack him. And the Titan came to the epiphany that while, perhaps, some of the survivors of Sherian were exactly that? There seemed to be many others that weren't, not in the traditional sense. He could see that they, too, were undead, their bodies trapped between life and death. But these weren't like the shambling, mindless zombies that he had encountered thus far. They retained their sentience, they were organized, and quite frankly they were pretty livid at the fact that he was mowing down people who had once likely been their friends and family - mindless or not. They'd heard the commotion, seen the golden Titan doing his thing, and saddled up to go out and give Veleraen a piece of their mind. They were already dead, after all. Their lives were already pretty much forfeit, and a good few of their number had probably gone crazy from the monotony of their undeath. Now, they had a target for their aggression, and they had no issue taking it out upon Veleraen. Perhaps some of them even had an idea of the role he'd played in their current state. So. Would Veleraen treat them the same way he treated the hordes of undead up until now? |
With every motion of his halberd, he not only cut away the threats before him but a little bit more of himself chipped away from inside. Slowly but surely the undead threat was being torn down but as he did so, his soul started to shrivel. It became a living nightmare as he heard noise coming from the village behind him. "No....this cannot be!" Veleraen's swipes and hacks had turned him around momentarily and caught the sight of the villagers charging out to meet him; to harm him. In that moment, he thought that everyone here had been lost but he heard talking, shouts of actual people from this group. They seemed to be aware of their affliction, as if their souls had not been ripped but their bodies...Their bodies were transformed forever. Their anger leeched into the air like a rotting stench and Veleraen saw that if he did not defend himself from these people, he would be rotting in the ground. "Please! I have come to bring them peace!" Veleraen cried out to the group who supposedly sought vengeance for their now truly deceased relatives and loved ones. But it seemed this time around, there would be no turning back. All he wanted to do was end this. They were all gone. The only thing that was left of these people now were their shells and these townsfolk had suffered greatly since the Sherian Secession war. They were not right in the head, lingering in the shade of death where madness was truly to follow. They were truly lost. "Please do not make me do this..." Veleraen silently begged to whomever would listen. "I cannot...I cannot do this!!" The Titan felt emotion overcoming him as blood flew around him, his chest tightening as he continued to clear the wilderness of the undead. When the Titan realized that there was nothing else that was going to stop these people from ripping him to shreds, there was only one thing he could do; defend himself. He did not take such action lightly however, as the pang of guilt tightened on his heart strings so tightly that he felt what he was about to do next would rip his chest in two. Veleraen saw the villagers approaching and as they got closer, Veleraen backed away from the zombie horde and went at a ninety degree angle and then turned again so that he had both the horde and villagers in front of him. He continued to walk backwards and took whatever came at him head on. As the first wave of villagers hit him, his orbs watered and his heart trembled. "Forgive me." |
Veleraen was hardly in a position to be asking for forgiveness, what with the "I was responsible for nuking the province and more or less destroying the lives of you and everybody you ever loved or knew." Plus, he was going to totally destroy them right now! Not cool, man. All things considered, it was a bloodbath. Not even their unliving rage allowed the former Sherianites to so much as scratch Veleraen, as he scattered their bits and pieces all over the countryside. Their screams of rage and fury would likely echo in his ears long after he'd crushed their skulls and silenced them, however, along with the rest of the massive horde of undead he'd caused to draw towards him. And even this was but a drop of water in the ocean, considering that he'd rendered near an entire province into these monstrosities. The ground was soaked in blood and the scent of iron was rich in the air. Here and there were little twitches and gurgles from giblets and digits that remained on the floor. The screams of the unliving slowly gave way to laughter, laughter that Veleraen was all too familiar with. The sight of a laughing figure, of a portly man, at the very corner of his eyes, a finger wiping at the tears - but if the giant turned, it was gone, and the laughter ceased. His suffering was naught but entertainment. |
The Titan could not allow their perverted and twisted forms to remain in this world. Their very presence presented problems in Sherian and he had no other real choice but to cleanse this land once and for all. He did it all the while hating himself for it; cursing his past and the decisions or perhaps, indecision, that had caused all of this in the first place. The bloodbath continued and Veleraen roared and shouted at himself out of frustration and anger, a fine red tinted mist starting to form as he deftly shredded and mutilated the rather helpless undead Sherianites. There was no satisfaction derived from anything he did that brightening, as his actions disgusted him. The stench alone made him wander a ways from ground zero and lift his helm and he spat out onto the ground as nausea over took him. Then, as he stood there in the silence, an all too recognizable laughter echoed in his ears... Veleraen swiveled suddenly but saw nothing but a glimpse. The laughter happened again and again and soon Veleraen found himself pivoting to try and catch the offender he only knew as the Corrupter. "Show yourself Heathen!" His jaw clenched hard as he barked out an order into the chilled air. Meephos was laughing at him. Laughing at his emotional distress. The Corruptor was now a true enemy and seemed to follow and nip at his heels whenever he had a chance. Veleraen saw him in shadows and out of the corner of his eye constantly, as if the shadow of Meephos was following him around, haunting his thoughts at every chance. But Veleraen would not give him the satisfaction. His breathing slowed and his eyes closed momentarily, just long enough for him to calm his heart rate. His chest rose and dipped slower and slower until the adrenaline from emotional strain of putting all of those undead to rest, faded. "You will not be laughing when I finally come for you Meephos...But this brightening I am still after Alrinyes. Consider yourself lucky." Veleraen looked into the distance and realized he had quite the hike ahead of him if he was going to get to Narim and exact a lot of bloodshed along the way. But he was going to do what he had to do to get to Narim. He needed to parlay with Alrinyes. It was now or never and the fear of Sherian and his past was not going to overcome him. So the Titan pushed on towards Narim. He had no second thoughts about cutting down any undead that attacked him, whether it was a mindless husk or a group of villagers who had lost their minds but not their sentience. He was going to clean up this mess once and for all. |
Why wouldn't He follow Veleraen around, when the Titan was getting caught up in situations like this? It was free entertainment! The conflicts in Aeternia could get ever so stale, after all, mortals had a great way of mixing it all up and providing something fresh. So! Narim. Plenty of undead along the way. The Titan went with a direct path towards the shattered city, which inevitably involved plowing through uncountable hundreds, thousands of undead. Could he have put a bit more effort into trying to go around them and take a more circuitous route? Certainly! But the more time he spent, the more opportunity for Alrinyes to slip through his fingers. Sherian was already lost. Surely he wouldn't fail in capturing the dark archon as well? Well. On the plus side, from here on out Veleraen found that his enemies were only the mindless shambling undead. Either he was lucky enough not to encounter any more of the sentient variety, or they were wise enough to perhaps not get in the way of the giant hulking Titan who could pulp them. Not all had quite given up on their lives, undead or not. It'd be a few days of travel regardless. Endless fighting punctuated by the need for sleep and perhaps the occasional wash. Eventually, though, he could see the ruins of Narim far off in the distance. |
The trail of death he left behind him was gruesome but necessary. He needed to get to Narim to meet with Alrinyes. If she hadn't left already, Veleraen had wanted to meet with her. This madness had to come to an end. Perhaps negotiation was the only avenue left to get the hourglass back into the right hands and to end these rather disruptive changes to the time continuum of Aerysia itself. As Veleraen settled down at the end of a rather long and bloody brightening of travel, he spotted the ruins of Narim in the distance. "Finally." The Titan gave a sigh of relief. He didn't want to run through Sherian again to slaughter more husks. Now he was within reach of his goals; whether he would truly grasp them was another matter. He made camp and prepared to meet with Alrinyes the next brightening. When he woke, he dressed himself and dawned his armour as usual, however he wished to try communicating again using his amulet to see if Alrinyes would show herself outside the city. Concentrating on the amulet, Veleraen again tried to reach out to the archon. "Alrinyes...I am outside the city to the north on the outskirts. I wish to speak with you about the Hourglass. I do not come bearing ill will towards you. I merely wish to exchange words." He waited to see if Alrinyes would appear. If she didn't show, well, Veleraen was prepared for that eventuality too. |