Medese un Torill

Onnubhat

The tale of Medese and Torill ties into the fate of Dyjinn, a Quajyn of the shadow realm and an apprentice to the last wizard of the Illiban- Oq-qusemeyteii. Dijynn would one day become one of the most dreaded warlords in Valore history and would claim this title with Oq’s teachings.

Oq-qusemeyteii was a young child during the scarring of Ada and she was a powerful wizard during the cleansing of the Illiban. She was born as the only child to a poor beggar of the streets of Ultummo, the jungle city of Asaltamun. The Illiban of Ultummo were of the tribe Ijjitiske and in their hearts grew a great greed for vain and corporate things and so the denizens of Ultummo became divided into the poor and the rich. The rich lived in their megastructures of frosting glass and black stone, designed to appear atrophied and cadaverous; A mockery of the exquisite construction of the cities across the eastern sea, those of Sebri'ati and of Va'unasta. Below, in the muddied streets, lived the weak who had grown gawky in their squalor and the poor who worked to the bone for mere scraps and a handful of coins that barely kept them clothed and fed.

Oq was of these poor folk and as she grew up in a time where children were being stolen from the streets to be offered as sacrifice or molested in holy rituals, she had learned quickly the power of sorcery and of it's hold upon her people, striking fear and obedience into the hearts of all. She witnessed once as a royal soldier to the Absolute King had dragged a young man out into the streets and r***d him before his family home, his younger siblings were forced to watch. As the boy lay broken and defiled he cried out in rage to the gods and his body began to boil , his skin stretched as muscle burst forth from the tears in his flesh. He screamed in pure agony as he was torn apart from within, calling to him power he could not control. Before the soldier had time to react, however, the boy had exploded into a mass of jagged bones and searing flesh, impaling and melting his assailant. She knew this was the gift of the false gods and was in awe. As she grew up wandering the city she would find places of magic and watch the wizards practise their rituals in robes of green and yellow, decorated with the finest furs, feathers, and metals. She would peer through cracks in the walls of old abandoned buildings where amateurs and cults practised their weaker spells of conjuring and hexing. She became familiar with the sacrificial rituals of the black church. She became quite learned in these deadly practises and as she grew into adulthood had become a master of the art.

In her sprawling city of bony structures and deep roots, Oq became a feared wizard. At the age of fifty she had seemingly mastered the form of magic known as Keoneksis, the ability to steal the energy within a person with a single touch. The only drawback to this power was that with its origin being of an evil one, it often disfigured those who used it, all except for Oq. Oq had discovered how to convert the energy she absorbed and would use it to revitalize her appearance. She used this to her advantage as she would garb herself in fine feathers and furs of yellow and black stripes, luring in predators and draining them of their life which only built upon her strength and beauty.

As time passed Oq had taken a different form; her heavy curls had been turned a soft pink and held up in a poofy afro with a cloth of shimmering silk. She dressed herself in robes of metallic-synthetic fabric that gleamed like sheets of steel and yet were coloured in many shades of pink. She stood taller than most and was angelic in her poise, her skin was warm mocha and her eyes piercing yellow.

The churches of Ultummo eventually began to fear her power as a justice had returned to the city. Oq stole the life from those she deemed corrupt, who turned her city into a classist dystopia and grew fat and crude on the suffering of those beneath them. The poor began to hail her as a goddess and it was only by this act that the King Absolute would intervene with the turmoil of Ultummo. On a night where a shadow clung to the jungles around Ultummo, the king had sent forth his army. They cut their way through the thick foliage, travelling by means of secret paths, and when they came upon the city they had followed. directs orders to murder anyone in sight, in hopes that this vile act would draw out Oq, to which it had. Screams echoed through the city, fire raged through the streets spreading wildy. Children were left abandoned where they stood and the soldiers cut down anyone who'd dare stand in their way. They made there way only halfway down the main street of the city before they encountered Oq. They unleashed a volley of fire, beams of condensed and irritated light that would sear through stone, flesh, and even hard metals. Oq was left without even a singed hair and simply laughed wickedly at such a pathetic attempt. The first soldier charged her and she drew from her cloak a long crescent blade and hewed his head from his body with a swift and singular motion. To the first of the advancing she had reached out and drained them of their very souls without even touching them. As she absorbed their energy she appeared to grow fairer and stood as a dark and harrowing figure before them and so they fled and would sooner face the wrath of the King Absolute then to be denied a true death, for it was that the souls she had taken did no go to the light, but rather acted as kindling to her flaming magic.

She became the thing of worship to the church and would be the only survivor of the g******e that would come to Ultummo. Escaping the horror of the Illustara, she clothed herself in the robes of a beggar and wore an old face sagged with wrinkles and offered herself up as a prisoner to the Sanahn, pretending to be a false Sister of the cities only temple to Ada. They bound her in heavy chains and brought her before the Immortals and their four divines and was cast to the realm of shadow with the rest of her peoples, being saved from the cleansing of the Illiban and so it was that the Illiban were no more, save those of Kzvelta.

Dyjinn was born of a sickly Quajyn and would be orphaned shortly after his birth. Raised in the temple of Ada by the silent monks, he grew to despise Ada as he saw their punishment as unjust in the wake of his ancestors slaughter.

He would find himself wandering the many islands of their realm to the extent where he memorized every pebble, every blade of grass, and every line of tracing black bark upon the dire trees that grew with heavy leaves and winding branches. One day, while wandering one of the smaller outer islands that he had been forbidden to trek upon by the silent monks for they knew of the wickedness that lived there,he found himself before the black house of Oq-qusemetyeii and she would reveal to him her form most terribly beautiful. At first Dijynn had been wary about interacting with her, knowing immediately who and what she was. He even confided with the grand monk of the temple who had warned him that dabbling in such magic was the cause of their exile and that he should never return to Oq for she was outcasted for a reason as she could not hide her true form from the monks. The silent monks were never ill towards Dijynn and always thought of him as a respectable acolate in the arts of magic, for he was greatly skilled in such ways, but they knew that he had a heart filled desire for many things; knowledge, power, magic. They were patient with him and even advised him in his yearning for knowledge. It was this yearning however that had eventually brought him back to Oq and it was by this yearning that he would fall the way he did.

There lessons were brief at first, for some displays of her dark powers were too frightening to him and though he held no love for Ada in his heart, he was still a spiritual man and did not want to fall from the good graces of the silent monks, for he had always held them dear even if there faith was one he scoffed at.

He in time came to admire Oq learning of her strength and of what she used her powers for, claiming her banishment was a crime itself for she used her wizardry solely to defend those who couldn't defend themselves. Though he feared her magic, he learned of it and would eventually come to surpass her in prowess. He combined the art of the shadow folk with the wizardry of Oq and formed a strange magic, a twilight magic. Dyjinn, as he aged, saw himself as righteous in his hatred for the realm of darkness, righteous in his ways of learning, and he saw himself as a god amongst lessers. Oq fueled this hate and those around him began to see this and would grow to be afraid of him, feeling the hatred seep out from the very pores of his skin. They feared perhaps he was descending too far into such blood magic. This however was a feeling quickly dissipated as Dijynn had refused to use the form of Keoneksis, for to obtain such magic one would have to consume the soul of another. It was a defiance made in the open, public to all, and they saw hope that perhaps Dijynn was not truly succumbed to the seduction of Oq. It was when the eldest of the exiles fell to a strange illness that Dijynn knew this was his chance to win the respect of all his peoples and so it was he marched into their city, up the steps of their clinic, and used a reversed form of Keoneksis, draining the energy of the air around them and breathing it into the elder and he was healed of his sickness.

Though he earned the affirmation he had desired, Oq loathed him for turning an art she perfected into a magic only one of the darkness would use, a spell of healing. She dragged him, one night, to the edge of the temple island and cast him down to the writhing and breathing sea below that shone its light forth like the surface of a sun. He fell through the fires and found himself falling further and further until he broke through the other side and he was suddenly falling downwards to a land that stretched into forever, A land of jagged mountains and deep shadows.

He plummeted to the land below and landed in a black sea where he was swarmed upon by mindless tentacles from an unfathomable being that lurked beneath the waves.He used his magic to defend against this creature, careful as to not harm it and to only deflect, not wishing to see what such an unfathomable being could unleash in it's anger. He fled with haste, swimming to the far shores of grey sand and crawled ashore with laboured breath and filling the still air with curses in Quajyn.

This land was a sanctuary for Nirrium and it was her design from the beginning to bring the Illiban here, seeing what wickedness they had turned too. She believed the melancholy of this place would bring the peace of Ada back into them, to free them of the bonds of the scarring. This shadow realm was said to be the remnants of the land the divines had left behind. Here there lived a peoples whose silhouettes remained only, a true shadow folk in comparison to the Quajyn who lived above the burning sky of gold. The only ones who lived down her were great dragons that took forms far more terrible then the gentle sages named the vissir. They had hide that shone like iron and were studded and spiked, their eyes shone like rubies cast in the glow of dim candle light, and their horns twisted into forms like old oak branches. They stalked Dijynn through the land, their heavy and large forms produced vibrating purrs with sounds resembling that of a cabalistic string quartet. They had become cimmerian and had skin that resembled the onyx and ash rock around them, their scales shining like oil in the light.

As he travelled far through the lands, coming to a straight valley after hours of wandering, he had found himself come before the greatest of all these dragons; Axyli he was named by Dijynn and he found him perched atop an old pillar of carven stone.

"Do you see this stone?" Axyli asked Dijynn through his mind,

"This is a stone of guidance, built by my ancestors in a time no one remembers," he continued as he crawled down from his stone and approached Dijynn who was in awe of all that had conspired.

"What does it say?" Dijynn inquired as he approached the stone, finding he could barely comprehend the written form as the painted letters were of a different reality and so could not be fully understood by Dijynns physical limitations.

"These stones that follow along the old path walked by your creators in a time so long ago, tell the story of a great and unending evil that consumed the eternal light and usurped that perfect existence. Now only chaos rules and the small remnants of light cling to hope, yet they fade as quickly as burning grass," Axyli explained, his voice echoing through Dijynns mind like a breeze through a mountain cave.

"So what is a Quajyn doing in our realm? your kingdom is the heavens and ours the garden, who are you to trespass in our dwindling keep?" Axyli questioned, encircling Dijynn like a cat to a rodent, snarling and hissing in disgust

"I was cast down by my master, she has come to be jealous of my skill," He answered truthfully and Axyli knew this to be true, seeing into his heart and mind.

"Perhaps you have been brought here for a reason," Axyli stated before opening his mouth to let out a deafening roar that seemed to shake the very foundations of the earth beneath Dijynns feet. Dragons crawled out from behind rocks and ruin, dragons of many forms and sizes. Axyli sat back on his hind legs and unfolded his wings, stretching them out and catching Dijynn in wonder as he beheld this grand dragon, older than the very reality he knew.

"We ruled this land before it was scattered to oblivion. Our mother Abandoned us here, here in this place that remains but a fading memory by a dymentious force." Axyli sighed, his brothers and sisters sat around Dijynn, looking down upon him in curiosity.

"Why do you tell me these things?" Dijynn asked as his wonder turned to anxiety, taking in the sheer numbers of these elder beasts.

"We know what you desire, you desire revenge!" he declared and the thunder in his voice sent a ringing through his very soul.

"We wish to help you young child of light, but only for one reason," Axyli spoke and Dijynn asked what this reasoning was, a question that turned Axyli silent for some time as he pondered his answer.

"We wish for a single pleasure, we wish to see color," He answered with a heavy soberness, "we miss the grass, the fall of rain, the clear skies."

It was then that Dijynn realized something, that this land he was in was truly as Axyli described, a place poorly remembered. Dijynn offered them the chance to see the color of the darkness and the splendour of the reach, only if they would help him leave that shadowed realm and so it was they had agreed to ally themselves with Dijynn. He had, however, returned to his islands to confront Oq and found that almost a milenia had passed and the sheer number of his people had multiplied and his kingdom grown. He was proud at this sight and even happier to hear that his master had died years after throwing him to the sea below, succumbing to the same illness that had taken his mother so long ago. He stood before his kindred and offered them the chance to return home, only if they would fight with him, declaring that he could claim victory and bring justice to his people. None had opposed, but none offered themselves as soldiers for his cause and so it was that Dijynn called upon his new comrades and they came to his side and as they soared up from the golden sea below, bringing gales up with this ditter of their vast wings, his peoples fell to their knees out of fear at the sight of these terrible beasts. Dijynn declared himself the new King Absolute and while feeding into the power of the dragons he had torn open a gateway into the realm of darkness. It was, however, that the Quajyn could not pass through and so Dijynn sent out his army of dragons to recruit those dire and cumberous souls scattered throughout the universe. In time Dijynn had massed an army that very few could stand against and yet with this strength he sought only one thing, the death of the Sanahn.

As his agents and commanders in the darkness took great assemblies of war and rallied their forces, Dijynn had tested the barrier keeping him trapped within the shadow realm, yet he could not break through. It was not until he would come to meet Vanna that he would be granted passage through. As he was opening a portal to the realm of darkness he had found himself staring through into the ruins of old Lav'namoor, standing directly before the old enchantress who had directed his power and brought it before herself. She reached forward, grabbed his hand, and pulled him through. She shattered the restraints of the Quajyn and so it was they could enter into the realm of Darkness once more. Dijynn was in the land he had heard so much about from his master and those of the silent monks and before him the feared admiral of the king before him, he stood before the Vampiress of Lav'namoor.

She had been roaming the lands in solitary exile since the slaughter of her kind, waiting to exact her revenge, her powers faded as her source of blood-letting had been banished from the darkness or murdered in cold blood. She offered Dijynn her services much as she had to her old king and he accepted, Unbeknownst to him that she was planning to use him to bring down the Myrrian Empire and the Sanahn, hoping to rule the cosmos herself once they had achieved victory.

Dijynn brought his people to old Lav'namoor and soon his emissaries would return bringing him legions of barbaric warriors from across the known universe and in time he had amassed an army that dwarved the combined forces of the two children and only he could contend to the strength of the children of light.

During the scarring the Myrrians had seen little war as they managed to keep order within their imperium, but the outbursts of violence they had seen had forced them to establish a prominent militant force, though they also felt the effects of the scarring too and had resisted only by a breath, building a mighty militia to enforce their absolute rule. The Sayahn developed a branch of their order known as the temple militants and it was the first of these monks who learned their combat forms from the divines themselves. Illdaste had helped them perfect the sword form, Nirrium guided their hands in implementing a modest balance of hand defense and magic offense. Orvastul taught them his own hand and so they became adroit in close combat. Lauriel showed them the art of the spear and so it was that they became the most skilled warriors of Valore and the Myrrian faith would learn of these skills in combat as well, establishing the temple militias.

The empire built a grand fleet of starship carriers and brigades, armed to the teeth with laser cannons and auxiliary craft units. Their battleships were far more advanced than any under their ruling empire and their fighter jets were the fastest in the known cosmos, excluding the ranger ships of the Illustara. Though the Myrrians were now considered fine combatants, the forces of Dijynn still fought with brutal savagery and so often could overpower the Myrrian forces with sheer fury. With Vanna at his side Dijynn had become an adept warmonger, but he was naive and brash in his tactics; finding a new unchained confidence in all this overwhelming pith. Vanna advised him in all manner of battle strategy and he gave the positions of highest command to the loyalest of the Quajyn, positions that would offer them a chance to acquire great skill and yet keep them safe from the bulk of the fray. The dragons had brought the most eager for bloodshed before Dijynn and of these there were four great armies; The army of the Maqtaowi, descendants of the Kavatus of Isis. There were the Dalamuga of the distant ice worlds of FTT-22c and 22e. The Anodane of the Korasett system who brandished slick and elegant weaponry and armour, yet whom were beastly in figure. Lastly, the Aht of the old Ihss empire, conquered thousands of years passed through peaceful negotiation by the Myrrians and implemented as a trade treaty to the great power.

All but the Anodane were descendants of the first children of light, and held great hatred for them. Dijynn admired their fierceness, but scolded them for keeping their forces divided. This was an issue for space combat as only the Aht were skilled pilots, yet their ships were weak and small compared to the hulky heavily armed and armored ships of the giant Anodane. The Maqtaowi were skilled in close combat, but their starships were archaic, and the Dalmuga were all but stupid and were kept as simple brutes. They were fierce in their own rights, but divided they were weak and so easily crushed.

To these four forces he tasked the most important part of his plan, they were to combine forces and draw out the armies of the Sanahn. They were to assault only the Illustara and this would hopefully draw the Sanahn forces of Valore off world to aid in defense of their archives, museums, and temples. At first this unified force had quarreled amongst themselves and their assaults were sloppy and disturbingly amatuer. When they were successful Dijynn could see why Axyli had brought these four before him as they brought with them a ruin that could be called nothing but barbaric. He tasked his most trusted Quajyn, Nijarin, to lead this newly formed legion. Nijarin was a patient commander and though those under his leadership loathed him at first, they came to trust him in time as he proved to be a skilled warrior, bearing a similar crescent blade to that of Oq. This legion was named the Savvage and they became the deadliest opposing force in the cosmos for some time. Nijarin would calculate the perfect attack plans and the Savvage would carry his vision out, and so it was the Illustara force had began to dwindle until only the Nayir'ostan remained in equal strength to the Myrrian empire. Dijynn knew of their actions during the cleansing and so declared that as long as they stayed neutral in this war his armies would not even look in their general direction, and so they agreed and were shunned by Valore. Now as the Illustara fell, the Quajyn rose and rebuilt the city of Lav'namoor though this time they built it in the fashion of their shadow realm. Lav'namoor was a city of thick black towers and strong fortifications and at the centre of the city there stood the rising palacade of Dijynn, the tallest of all the towers. In honour of the Illiban the Quajynn had painted the lower levels of the city in all shades of purple and with the intermingling of gold, Lav'namoor became the city of gold and purple.

So it was that Dijynn had claimed countless victories and then, when his revenge was all but nearly complete, he turned his gaze to the Myrrians for he grew jealous of their loyal empire.