ORIGINS: Nepiroth Darioth Zilo

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.