fu2
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Devourer of Infants
C is for cookie. This was brought to you by the number 2. For the cuts on each wrist.
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Post by fu2 on Aug 29, 2006 21:06:28 GMT -5
(( Note: It was almost time to go to work when I started, so this is all I could get at the moment. More to come, later.))
In order to understand the ancient order of the Undying Executioners, one must first know about their patron god, Arkelon.
Arkelon (Lesser Deity) The Soundless One, The Priced Lord, Bone Talker Symbol: A Kris held in a skeletal fist Alignment: Neutral Evil Portfolio: Assassins, Murder, Trickery, Darkness Domains: Darkness, Trickery, Evil, Death Favored Weapon: Arkelon's Hand (Dagger)
Arkelon (Ark-e-lon) is a deity without allegiance nor moral. He is the patron deity of the Azan Mob, and is known to often "whisper" suggestions of the next move they are to make. He calls no fellow deity friend, and has his share of enemies, whom Arkelon would not hesitate for a moment to destroy if he saw an opportunity present itself. Arkelon is often depicted as a Human sized figure wrapped in dark robes, and only a skeletal face revealed from beneath his hood, offering and ever toothy smile at those who behold him. Arkelon is said to reveal himself to his faithful through the bones of the dead, and as such any shrine of the Soundless One is always adorned with the remains of a dead priest of Arkelon on the wall nearest his altar.
The Church of Arkelon dates back to two hundred years after the Ark of Quain, when Arkelon ascended to divinity over his former lord. Some abandoned, hidden shrines still dot hidden locations in Fenmyr from this time, though the shrines still in use by the church today are said to be located in Azan and a number of the surrounding towns, though few can claim to have actually seen these, and fewer would dare. The Church of Arkelon is often simply referred to as a branch of the Azan Mob. The Church often acts as if leaders of a mercenary troupe, though only for the less than legal and high paying jobs. They encourage all those with ambition to "ascend to something greater than their mundane existence" by working for them, often using Arkelon himself as an example of one who became something far greater than what he was by simply embracing his true ability through throwing away care for the common rules and laws.
Clerics of Arkelon pray at sunset, when the sky turns red in the west. The Church has only one major holiday, The Cleansing of Blades, which comes at the final day of each year. All followers of Arkelon are to submerge their blades in holy water blessed by his clerics, and not use the blades for the entirety of the first day of the year. Clerics of the Soundless One may multiclass freely as Rogues, Assassins, and Blackguards.
History/Relationships:
The earliest records of Arkelon date back to around two hundred years after the Ark of Quain incident. At this time, Arkelon was one of the largest crime lords in Fenmyr, and certainly considered the most deadly for his unique knowledge of the art associated with assassins. Arkelon was in this time a follower of the old deity of assassins, Caltrus, whom had earned himself the contempt of the Unnamed One. Arkelon had apparently in this time found a way to destroy Caltrus, a dagger which some believe to have been a gift from the Unnamed One himself to rid himself of Caltrus. Upon overthrowing his lord and ascending to divinity, he visited the High Priests of Caltrus in the form of a corpse and commanded their change of following, and so it was done. Arkelon now holds no allies amongst the other deities, though he has been said to have had some dealings with Fiangon, yet he holds a strong and long lasting hatred between himself and Krasia.
Dogma:
We are but the merciful few. While others wage their wars, and kill those whom they do not know, we wait, we watch. Know of all those about you. Know of all their weaknesses. Know that when their time comes, Arkelon will count upon you to deliver them. Take no life until you are sure of the benefits, and be swift when the benefits are clear. Do not linger and take your time with any one target, it is only the way to be foiled, such is not the way of Arkelon.
For a more detailed account, refer to my memoirs and other books, this is just a brief history. -Hassani ibn Ismail Tahir
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fu2
Loyal Citizen
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Devourer of Infants
C is for cookie. This was brought to you by the number 2. For the cuts on each wrist.
Posts: 114
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Post by fu2 on Sept 1, 2006 21:07:26 GMT -5
Chapter One By his Holiness, Hassani Tahir, High Prophet and Leader of the Undying Executioners Assassins under Caltrus' rule were much different than they are today. Caltrus had no real champions under his churches, and they often fought amongst each other. Assassins were organized into various guilds that often fought one another. There was no real unity amongst Caltrus' followers. Assassins were not the elite killers they are known as today, but rather, they were really just simple mercenaries, no better than common thugs, whoring themselves shamelessly to the highest bidder. This lack of unity would be one of the many things that brought the downfall of Lord Caltrus.
Caltrus had foolishly aquired the emnity of the Unnamed One by attempting to overthrow The Unnamed One and ascend to overgod thru a series of discrete deaths in His following. Those who praised The Unnamed One, though never recieving an answer from him, still granted him power, which Caltrus slowly attempted to sap from him. The Unnamed One, being all wise, foresaw this, and thus, turned one of Caltrus' own worshippers against him. That one follower was Arkelon. A resourceful and powerful crimelord. Arkelon had slain Jylia's mortal form and acquired the Godslayer Dagger. This would later be known simply as Arkelon's Hand. Several events had only proved to further weaken Caltrus. Namely, the Ark of Quain incident. The details of how The Soundless One came to kill the king of murder are lost to time, as well as his own unwillingness to reveal such secrets. However, regardless of how he did it, the result was evident. When a god dies, he rarely does so in a quiet fashion. Caltrus' death was felt through the land. The infidels of Krasia and many crusaders of Adonis had seen this as an opportunity.
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fu2
Loyal Citizen
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Devourer of Infants
C is for cookie. This was brought to you by the number 2. For the cuts on each wrist.
Posts: 114
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Post by fu2 on Sept 3, 2006 21:02:26 GMT -5
Chapter Two
Between dealing with Krasia's followers who wished to add murder to their goddess' portfolio, and the crusaders who wished to destroy the church and its followers, the newly formed religion had a lot to fight against. One by one, many guilds and churches fell to these infidels. The only way the faithful could stave off these predations was to hold out in the Azan territory. Only by the combined might of the faithful were these nuisances kept at bay. But even so, measures had to be taken in order to ensure our survival. The faithful have been splintered for far too long. The only way our new faith would survive is through unity. Arkelon had chosen me as his prophet to bring the guilds and churches together. I was the high priest of the Azan church when The Soundless One had spoken to me. I had served as cleric and killer in his service, working my way up to high priest through contract murders, recruitment, and from killing a few of those higher than me. He had spoken to me first through dreams, then, at his command, I offered him a sacrifice of a templar in service to Adonis through which he would speak. He first praised my efforts in his name, but then gone on to explain the sorry state that his church was in. He had made it very clear what my mission was. By using diplomacy and skillfull assassination, I had to unify all the guilds and sects under his name.
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fu2
Loyal Citizen
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Devourer of Infants
C is for cookie. This was brought to you by the number 2. For the cuts on each wrist.
Posts: 114
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Post by fu2 on Sept 10, 2006 1:33:20 GMT -5
Chapter Three
I was not alone in my quest to unify the Soundless One's church, however, many of the other high priests were not quite so cooperative. In order to overtake them, I needed allies. I found them in several of the older guilds that originated in the Azan area. The guilds were headed by several families, such as the Vinci, the Rominus, the Stracci, and the Scabbia. I had visited the leaders of each of the four guilds and made them a fine offer. The only catch, they had to leave all assassin training to the church and their assassins would work directly for the clergy. In return, they could call upon the assassins any time they needed a problem solved, as well as a considerable amount of money. With my new alliance formed, it was only a matter of time before I was able to overthrow my rivals in the churches and begin eliminating the uncooperative guilds.
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fu2
Loyal Citizen
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Devourer of Infants
C is for cookie. This was brought to you by the number 2. For the cuts on each wrist.
Posts: 114
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Post by fu2 on Sept 10, 2006 20:30:07 GMT -5
Chapter Four
I had given those trained in the arts of the assassin a simple choice, they were to either become the champions of the church, or die. There was no middle ground at the time, and I could not afford for even one of them to try and capitalize on our situation. Many of the remaining guilds knew that they would soon be overtaken, so most did the intelligent thing, and joined, the rest were dealt with in a quick fashion.
After I was satisfied with the submission and death of all of the rival guilds, I was ready to begin the next phase of my plan. I had to find some way to ensure that my champions would remain completely loyal. I know assassins well, I am one. Therefore, I know that our kind is very untrustworthy.
I knew that I could not achieve this without higher assistance. I had offered a child as sacrifice to Arkelon and requested that he speak with me. Using the sacrifice, he had shown me secrets that would change my life forever. When he spoke to me, he told me that I was indeed correct, I was not powerful enough to finish these plans. Fear had overcome me. I had believed that he would dispose of me and have another take my place. He soon calmed my fears by expressing that he is not like my former lord Caltrus, and that he had other plans. He had given me a tiny portion of his very own divine power, not enough to weaken him, but more than enough to elevate me far above typical mortals. He also gave me knowledge of ancient secrets used by some of the assassins from the Empire of Sol. Secrets that were once lost.
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fu2
Loyal Citizen
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Devourer of Infants
C is for cookie. This was brought to you by the number 2. For the cuts on each wrist.
Posts: 114
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Post by fu2 on Sept 10, 2006 21:37:07 GMT -5
Chapter Five
Discreet murder has always been a most effective tool. Usually, even more so than all-out war. Murder a single, key target, such as the leader of an organization or nation, and everything will tumble down. At least, this is the case for most. Some targets are harder than the rest, and therefore require more assassins. To ensure the deaths of these individuals, you must have absolute loyalty. To ensure this loyalty, you must control the assassin's mind. To do this, you need to first offer him power and wealth.
I had learned how to give both to my champions. First, I would give them a weapon, one much like Arkelon's own. It would be a blade that is set inside a gauntlet, much like a katar or wristblade, but the blade is able to be retracted so that it can be hidden, and extended outward for use by a special mechanism. This "Fedayeen", or, "Living Dagger" would be enchancted in such a way that it would have its own strange intelligence. The weapon is surgically attached to the left forearm of the assassin, this way, he is never unarmed. To ensure that he remains so, the weapon is enchanted in such a way that if it is ever removed, the assassin suffers a painful death within a day if it is not reattached. If the weapon is forcefully removed, then the assassin dies instantly, and has no hope of being brought back until the weapon is reattached.
The weapon itself is made of a living metal, similar to mithril, while the blade is made of a Glassteel and and a strange crystal that is commonly found in the Azan area. The crystal, while fragile on its own, absorbs magic like a sponge and when combined with glassteel, it makes the blade even more durable than iron. Unfortunately, it is not easy to make such powerful weapons, so, the enchantments received by the assassin for his blade are a reflection of his status. For instance, the more jobs he completes, the more power his blade gets, as he rises in rank, he is also gifted more power. This is also a most useful method to ensure loyalty. The blade-gauntlet can even achieve a type of full sentience when enchanted enough. In some cases, it can slowly heal the wounds of the assassin, and, should the assassin's arm be severred, the blade can cause the arm to come to life and seek out it's master, where a simple cure or regeneration spell can reattach it. The more powerful assassins can also, if in a situation where he may be forced to give away secrets, not necessarily of the Undying Executioners, but of any sort, or if he is being tortured and sees that death would be a better option, can mentally command his blade to end his life, where, given time, the blade-gauntlet can sense when the assassin's enemies are not near, and use its regenerative abilities to even bring the executioner back to life! Another strange side-effect is that my assassins tend to live longer than is naturally possible. This way, my executioners will be more useful. After all, what good is a dead assassin?
With this tool, I would then be able to have the priests cast a simple spell on it. This spell is similar to a Geas, but not quite as effective. The assassins are unable to tell others of the secrets of our order, this is most important, and they are unable to strike down the clergy. I would've tried to use a true Geas, but these are no small task to accomplish, and I needed for the clergy to be able to perform the rituals for initiating an Executioner. However, the enchantments are so powerful, that the executioner cannot even write the secrets on parchment.
With all of my assassins fully initiated, and gifted their weapons, I was ready to deal with the church's enemies.
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fu2
Loyal Citizen
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Devourer of Infants
C is for cookie. This was brought to you by the number 2. For the cuts on each wrist.
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Post by fu2 on Sept 11, 2006 20:47:02 GMT -5
Chapter Six
At the time, the Adonian Crusaders from the Sol's Lumiere had been our biggest concern. While the Krasian infidels were a thorn in our side, they had stopped openly warring with us and chose instead to try to choke us out by aquiring more territory through blackmail and extortion, as well as building guildhouses in the Azan area. While this was annoying, it wasn't as critical as the crusaders, who instead would burn our churches and execute the clergy. It was time to test my new champions. I had taken my best assassins, and offered them all 3000 gold pieces for the heads of Lumiere officers. Then sent them on a campaign of terror that would be the finest in all of our history. Eventually, they had brought me the heads of several important leaders in the knighthood, including both of the Grand Masters, for those two heads, I paid 5000 gold pieces. Unfortunately, this only seemed to strengthen their resolve. I had realized that it will take more than just murdering some of their officers to fully get them off of us. In my quest to eliminate the leadership of the Sol's Lumiere, I had forgotten one of the most vital tools of the assassin. Trickery. I had a new plan.
I gathered my finest assassins and made them a final offer. I needed the head of Astrogis Raynor. 10000 gold pieces for whoever kills the leader of the Sol's Lumiere. I had learned that Astrogis Raynor was wounded in a battle and returned home to recover. This was a perfect opportunity, for he would not be surrounded by knights to protect him, and since he was severely wounded, he wouldn't be able to fight very well. This was the first part of my plan. The second part involved framing one of the guilds under Krasia's following. I had to target their largest and most powerful guild, this way, the Sol's Lumiere would have their hands full in their crusade, while the Krasians would be unable to continue their predations for a while, giving us ample time to rebuild and reestablish our church.
The guild I had targeted was simply named "The Twilight Syndicate". They had more members and influence it that one guild alone than our entire church. It was the perfect set-up. They were very famous for leaving a shuriken with a rose on their jobs. They had earned emnity for harrassing the Lumiere during their crusade. Turns out that the Sol's Lumiere wasn't just interested in eliminating us, they intended to cripple Krasia's guilds as well.
Infiltrating the Lumiere compound was easier than we thought. Mainly due to our skill with illusion magic. When we had broke in to Astrogis Raynor's quarters, we had expected him to be alone, however. To our surprise his family was visiting. This only served to complicate matters. Fortunately, they could also be used. For who can resist dead women and children? And with irrefutable evidence pointing to one of our rivals, we could safely withdraw from this fight and regroup. We had no intention of truly winning this battle, just simply getting our enemies off of our backs. In order to make this set-up perfect, I had instructed my executioners to refrain from using their arm-blades. The Lumiere had begun to recognize our handiwork, it seems, which made this all the more perfect. We waited in their very house until they were all asleep to make our move. We would simply bound and gag them, one by one, then took them in Astrogis Raynor's room. He was then tied down. I wanted him to see what we were going to do. I had woke him up and told him that he was a fool for not following our warnings. At this point we sliced his wife's throat. After taunting him, we decided he should die by death of a thousand cuts. We tried to make the job somewhat sloppy, this way our illusion would be complete. We had spared the children as well. The Lumiere would immediately dismiss us as the culprits from this detail alone. Never before in our assassinations have we spared anyone, children or otherwise. Witnesses tend to be too much of an annoyance. This time, they would aid us. After planting our evidence and escaping back to Azan, all that was left was to wait.
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fu2
Loyal Citizen
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Devourer of Infants
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Post by fu2 on Sept 13, 2006 21:37:41 GMT -5
Chapter Seven
My plan had been more successful than I could've even dreamed! Not only had the Adonian crusaders turned their fight away from us, they had also started using their famed "Black Knights" to deal with The Twilight Syndicate. It would be only a matter of a few months before the Syndicate would be completely wiped out, and the Sol's Lumiere would have to stop their crusade in order to reestablish their leadership.
With these threats out of our way, I could begin the final phase my plan. In order to better deal with our enemies, I would need a base to work from. A place where my new order could plan its treacheries in safety. I needed a fortress. Not just any type of fortress would do, however. It had to be safe from prying eyes. After many years of research, I had found the perfect location. Turns out that Azan had been built over the ruins of another city. Any lore on the city itself, sadly, has been lost to time. It appeared like ruins from an ancient city from the Empire of Sol, however, further inspection revealed that it may have been even older than that. I had saved any knowledge I could find, which, sadly, was very little, and then began to bring laborers to construct my fortress.
I had decided that my fortress would sit under the largest citadel to Arkelon in the region. While this citadel was easily a target, it had too many tactical advantages, one of them being a primary place of worship for followers of the Soundless One.
It took over a decade for my fortress to be complete. After it was consecrated, I had offered the ones responsible for its construction as sacrifice to Arkelon.
Now that our fortress was complete, all that was left was to finish the training facilities in the fortress. I couldn't let just anyone be an Undying Executioner, only the best. In order to weed out the weak, I had several initiation tests made. All of these tests are deadly.
It's a simple process, actually, I take groups of four, then run them through the gauntlet. All they have to do is survive the deadly traps and beasts placed in the course, using any means necessary. They are also allowed to kill each other to ensure victory. This is the only time executioners are allowed to murder each other. The Hall of Trials is more than just a hall. It is a large maze with four starting areas. The winner is the first one to either kill all of his fellow candidates, or make it to the center alive. Those that fail, but live, can try again when they are stronger, those that die, well, let's just say that my archmages and necromancers would find use of them in the maze itself.
Of course, this also brings me to the selection of candidates. Only the most cold-hearted individuals will do. They must be skilled in the arts of stealth, as well. I will also appoint a senior Executioner to oversee the initiation process, he or she will guide them in our dark arts, until they are ready for their first assignment. This first assignment will be unpaid, for this assignment will be their final test. It is a simple assignment, they just have to murder someone of our choosing. After its completion, they will recieve their killing blade, take their oaths, and will be fully initiated as an Undying Executioner.
There is so much more work that needs to be done, but, unfortunately, it will have to go to the hands of my successors, as I have advanced in years and Arkelon calls me to his realm. I have set strict guidelines as to how successors shall be chosen. Those I have given to my successor, and he shall give to his, and so forth. If these are violated in any way, the High Prophet's life and the lives of his relatives are forfeit. As this is my life's work, I will not have it ruined by a bumbling and inept leader.
The void calls me now. I must go to rest with my fathers. This is the legacy I leave.
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