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Dawn of Magic
And . . . the last recap. At our final session, we had Bonnie ("Leif"), Marc ("Mushamee"), Martin ("Kaeso"), Mike ("Rufus"), and Stéphane ("Vinz").
Time: Dva 12, 1003 Imperial Reckoning.
Place: Tenosia.
Last Event: The final battle is joined!
The hostilities open with 80 or more legions of Starfish-Men storming into Tenosia – led by their Dark God – after their wizards strip away its protective covering of earth. However, Hippolyte's armies are in the city, braced for the attack. Once the enemy has committed fully, Recnam calls upon the power of Necros. Necros returns Tenosia and all the forces within it to the mortal universe . . . where Black Adolph's horde is waiting to close the trap. With the Nybboth destroyed, this means the Starfish-Men have no avenue of retreat. Then Necros possesses his servant and hurls him at the Dark God, leaving the armies to fight their battle.
Hippolyte and Adolph have the home-plane advantage, superior air forces (the flying disks of the Starfish-Men being no match for Adolph's semi-divine Valkyries), and foreknowledge of the enemy's only point of entry. These factors enable them to achieve a crushing ambush. As the Starfish-Men adjust to finding themselves in an alien world and scramble to set up their sinister purple-sphere artillery, Hippolyte sends her cavalry around one edge of the enemy formation, while Adolph's forces charge the enemy's rear. The Amazon queen is further aided by Elixirs of Leadership provided by Kaeso – and most of all by the heroes' actions. The result is a crushing blow to the Starfish-Men, reducing their effective fighting strength by more than a third and denying them the defensible terrain of the uphill side of the city.
Just when things couldn't be worse for the invaders, Recnam-cum-Necros knocks down their Dark God. One of the Starfish-Man generals assumes command, but he is not the equal of a divinity . . . or of Hippolyte. As he takes over the invasion force and rallies them for a hasty attack, Hippolyte launches an all-out attack into the gap left in his lines by the fallen god. The Amazon queen, now bolstered by not only Kaeso's elixirs but also Vinz's magical blessing, anticipates his every move – literally by magic, in this case. The result is even more devastation in the Starfish-Man ranks, with only minor casualties on the defending side. The only real setback is an error by Rufus, who commands his guerrillas to unleash arrows on an out-of-place element of the citizen rabble led by Leif. Fortunately, those casualties are light.
At this stage, the battle is all but won by the armies of the mortal world. The Starfish-Man commander, unable to withdraw to his world, tries to retreat down to the ocean and along the shore to save what's left of his command. Hippolyte predicts this, too, thanks to both her skill and Kaeso and Vinz's magical aid. She presses her attack, and Adolph's horde acts as anvil to her hammer. The remaining Starfish-Man forces are driven into the sea and destroyed.
Twelve hours after the battle began, it is over. The defenders have suffered only minor casualties, and of their heroes, only Hippolyte and Kaeso are even slightly harmed – the result of a near thing involving one of the enemy flying disks. Across the field of battle, horns sound in triumph. Adolph meets with Hippolyte and, true to his oath, declares that this victory has proven that the world's nations, leaders, and armies are worthy of their places and titles, and do not need his sword to lead them. His army finally leaves the mortal world for its immortal reward, taking with it the bodies of the fallen. That night, there is much celebration in Tenosia, and runners are dispatched to the world's four corners to spread the good news.
In the years that follow, the gods who regularly manifested in the world and directly meddled in the affairs of mortals cease to do so, and take to operating only indirectly, via empowered clerics. Recnam's sacrifice in the battle thus becomes the last divine manifestation, while Recnam's example in life marks him as the first of these powerful priests. Magic flourishes, however, and wizardry grows in importance to become a respected profession. As for our heroes . . .
Kaeso dedicates his time to rebuilding war-ravaged Tenosia, creating a glorious city that becomes the wellspring of a Golden Age of Technology. The only thing that somewhat mars this is a little remnant of Necros' power: On the anniversary of the great battle each year, zombies walk. However, their appearance is brief and peaceful. Kaeso never ages, despite the passage of time – a result he engineers through alchemy. He makes sure that Hippolyte receives similar benefits, in order to stay unaging like her husband, Mushamee. He does the same for Leif, disguising the youthfulness potion as a bottle of wine.
Leif at first walks the earth. Eventually, he settles into the life of a Northern shaman. In the custom of his people, this doesn't mean a life of abstinence and asceticism. Indeed, Leif takes two more wives – one a Valkyrie, the other a mermaid – and with these and Diandra, he has many children, all of them unusually gifted in their own ways. Every year on his birthday, he receives a special bottle of wine from Kaeso, and as a result of its powers, he does not age.
Mushamee is dubbed "Emperor of Arms" by Nicolai, and given Nicolai's own leadership over the Empire's legions so that Nicolai can focus on rebuilding (although those in the know suspect that Nicolai really wants more time to study magic). Over time, Mushamee and Hippolyte have many daughters, Amazons all. Between his inability to age and Hippolyte's own supernatural longevity, theirs is a long union. As the decades wear on and the peace comes to look lasting, the general spends progressively less time with the legions and correspondingly more time on his estates, making wine and – with Kaeso's aid – brandy.
Rufus returns to the great city of Roma with Helena. He takes with him the remarkable gladiators rescued from the secret arena under Kapital, and over time trains them as a special police force, loyal to the Emperor. During this time, Helena bears a child – albeit a strange one, who doesn't quite resemble either parent. In the years that follow, Rufus' lawmen keep the peace well in Roma. Rufus' descendents inherit his power of memory, and make a pilgrimage to Tenosia in commemoration of the great battle fought there.
Vinz vanishes mere days after the great battle. His allies eventually find his body – which shows signs of having been killed as a ritual sacrifice – along with a note explaining that this is the price paid to keep the gods from interfering directly in the mortal realm. There is no sign of Loclá. Years later, though, there comes word that Spirit Anaconda has been assassinated. Nobody is sure who did it, but Vinz's allies recognize the telltale signs of their old friend's methods . . .
Vinz's letter (1/2)
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Dear colleagues,
Now that the war is over, you are probably reading this while looking at my ceremonially mutilated body lying on my bed, with the door locked from the inside, and (hopefully) wondering what had happened. I can assure you, no one killed me, this was something I inflicted upon myself. Although we have not always seen eye-to-eye, I think in the end we made a terrific team, and I think I owe you some explanation of what has really happened at the end of the fight, and why the world will appear to have changed - hopefully for the better.
You see, I have always wondered why, in their "infinite wisdom," the Inquisitors taught it would be a good idea to have one man who had lived a thousand lives, has violently died a thousand times, and has seen all the goodness and evilness humans and gods could inflict - a thousand times over. At first I thought it was simply to have someone with some knowledge of the past, but I realized after a while that aside from allowing me to "remember" some of his knowledge from past life, this ability was not such an important factor for this war.
I think it is no big secret that I despise Gods. Looking at all the times I have interacted with them, there is one thing I found out the hard way: they are as impetuous as children, except for the fact that they can smite entire towns and cities if they are in the mood. In this respect, they are no better or worst than humans - they are just much, much more powerful. Objectively looking at all my lives, the only real effective use of a God I found was to countermand the actions of another (which this last fight is a perfect example, with Necros / Recnam sacrificing himself just to neutralize the actions of the Dark God). But if this is the case, shouldn't we be better without Gods in the first place? A world without any direct intervention would let humans, spirits and elementals, actually act without the implicit threat of offending some God they don't know about and be smitten just for it. I have no illusions, I don't think this will eliminate war, or some idealist bullshit like that - I am too much of a cynical for that. But at least, without Gods' direct interventions, the "power level" of conflict will be greatly diminished. Yes, magic and divine powers will still be there, but at least there is no risk they would destroy our entire realm of existence.
Now these thoughts had went through my mind for a long time, but there was no actual way to act on them... until recently. You see, when looking at the Inquisitors, they were able to change reality to forge a place in it - in my case going all the way back to the preceding age. As the ultimate proof of the level of power they had, they were even able to make me the personal assassin of a being as powerful as the Serpent Queen, which, if you remember, is a Harb herself. So when, with Nicolai's help, I was able to tap into one of those sources of power, I not only saw a way to destroy the Nybboth, but also to change reality so that the Gods would not be able to touch the world, except through the use of special holy men wielding some of their power.
(...)
Vinz's letter (2/2)
So the plan formed into my mind: if I could control the energy released, I could not only destroy the Nybboth, but also put some kind of veil around our world to make it unaccessible from other dimensions, including whatever dimension the Gods are living in. But I also knew we would need the Gods one last time in the big fight to neutralize the Dark God, so instead of putting the veil in place as I destroyed the Nybboth, I set it up so it could be activated at a later time, at the cost of sacrificing myself. And if you read this, then it means that my plan went off without a hitch - at least the part about setting the veil.
Because you see, I am not an idealist. I don't want to die. So I made every precaution to insure the survival of my soul. Which is why, before the final fight, I have put my soul in a jar held by my wife. Then we have found a young Teclan body that I put in Suspended Animation. Now the plan is, when I sacrifice my body, my soul will go back to the jar, from which I will take permanent possession of the comatose body, and me and my wife will leave for Tecla forever. I will finally have the opportunity of doing something I was never able to do in all my thousand lives: grow old, in peace, with a person I love.
That is of course if my plan succeeds. Testing if the veil is in place should be easy: the Starfish dimension should now be out of reach, and you will see no more direct intervention from the Gods. As for knowing if I survived or not, well, that should be a bit difficult since I want to be left alone (which is why I'm not describing the body I will use at all). But I do have a grudge to settle with Spirit Anaconda for being such an asshole and asking for the death of his people just so he could be their master. So if you ever hear someday that he was assassinated with a powerful slash to his throat, well, you will have your answer.
But now it is the middle of the night and the sounds of celebration have died down, so it is time to go. Hope you have a nice life; I certainly plan to have one. And believe me, immortality, in one form or another, is not what it's all cracked up to be. "Be aware what you wish for, because you could get it."
V.