ORIGINS: Nepiroth Darioth Zilo
Tales from Cabina
The forest loomed ahead as several
dark figures tore through the early morning mist of eastern Cabina. They crossed
a span of green forest vegetation before emerging on the edge of a large glade.
Silent as shadows, they sped towards the ring of trees situated in the middle
of the glade. This particular patch work of forest was unique in the sense that
all the trees were stone dead; the locals had spun a plethora of tales about
their origins; some said they had been dead since the beginning of time, others
said a Ult-afia Mage had cursed the land and all who dwelt within, some even
said it was the passage way for the dead into the underworld, whatever the
legends, the dead trees stood- sentient, gnarled and glowing dull grey in the moonlight
of Cabina. The infamous nature of theirs had earned this patch of land the name
Deadwood and possibly even more infamous was the guild that called it home.
The guild house was a massive edifice
that slowly rose amongst the taller trees of deadwood. It was built in early
times by the original lords of the glade back when the land still breathed life.
It boasted a large guild hall, forty and five living quarters, eating quarters
with marble lined walls, and several underground caverns that could serve as
training quarters.
The shadows sped between dead trees; their
passage noted only by a soft rustle in the wind and their weapons bound with
shade-afia to mute the clanking of metal and gleam of silver. A figure amongst
them gave a signal and watched as they broke formation, fanning out into groups
of twos; lethal as shadow, they were the lost guilds of Cabina, the dark secrets
and untold heroes hidden behind the epic tales and ballads of all great legends
of Cabina, always behind the scene, always un-witnessed but that was from a
different time. Now they existed as shattered fragments; torn from the shadows
by the very country they served, made to work for money and loosing whatever
pride they had in their profession, they had been made vague- like a fleeting dream
that sped from memory…but Osab En Kahr would see it all change-they would rise
again! Not as the petty assassins they were now…no! They would become the night
once more, the legends of old spoken to him by his grandfather Udmas En Kahrl
the last testament to a forgotten people as he underwent his rites of passage, the
wise one had grabbed him by the elbow, kissed his eyelids and in a ritual of
old, placed upon him the shade-afia. Giddy from the memory, Osab sent out the
last signal for the attack, he would usher in the new age of shadows and it
would begin tonight.
Nep Zilo had always been a special
case, born as the only son to the most powerful dark mage in Cabina; Carnes Nix,
Nep was to be sacrificed by his father to the nether demon Lacirith in exchange
for dark knowledge and power. The demon had claimed the child’s soul but returned
no knowledge or power to his father. Consumed with wrath at this deceit, Carnes
Nix flew into a rage creating a blind-afia that bound the demon to the empty flesh
of his son while severing his son’s soul from the maelstrom within the demon.
The demon had lashed back, killing Nix in the process but the afia took hold
even after the casters’ death. The effect of this afia had unseen consequences
as all afia born of unfettered emotion usually do; for the early periods of his
life, Nep had shared his body with a remnant soul of a demon persona that
called itself Alob. It wasn’t very long until he realized that the demon while
granting him unlimited access to dark afia also took possession of his life
force further entangling its soul with Neps’. Nep knew he had to do something
and fast, he sojourned in the wastelands for three moon years and on his seventeenth
moon year, he created an afia he called Uboros that bound the demon Alobs’ soul
with his life force forcing it to feed from its immortal life span. Nep became
immortal but the sheer power of using the afia had venomous side effects, he
could barely walk and as he lay on the dry desert dying slowly, visions of the
nether world driving him to the brink of sanity, he remember fragments of his
mother Riha Zilo. Clinging to these memories for sanity, it was in this state
that he was found by Troll Nihil who had ventured out to the wastelands years
before.
A few years later Nep, Troll, Tarey
and Klaus became the founding members of The Spot- a guild created by Trolls’
grandfather.
Something was wrong; Nep could feel
afia alien to the wood. He sat cross-legged on a rug in a room on the highest
point of the guild. Breaking his reverie, he stood and walked to a balcony that
overlooked the western and northern plains of the guild grounds. Probing with a
mental net of afia, he prodded the dead vegetation until he found what had
triggered his interest. Moving like wind through the trees, where thirty shade-aspect
afia energies, their motion depicted stealth and precision. He was impressed
they had some skill coming this far unnoticed especially since Klaus was out on
perimeter duty, shaking his head sadly he knew this was where their luck
ended.; the guild had a full house today, all eighteen members accounted for
and eager for blood-the fools could not have come at a worse time. Sensing no
Omega level mage amongst them, he yawned and returned to his rug…it was going
to be a long day.
Down a few floors in the guild, Ifay
Frost and Ned Cruz, shared a knowing look quietly left their drinks and the
rowdy guild hall where Leo Niel and D.L brawled, tossing chairs and tables in
their wake. Outside they pulled on their hoods and vanished into shadow.
