Skadi's Skull

{NARRATION} The totems on a surface level seemed unremarkable. They were all skulls, bound in orichalcum wire with strange runes carved into the foreheads. Each propped up on an ironwood pole. To most, they were just grisly trophies. However, closer inspection would indicate which skull each belonged to. Each one radiated a sinful energy. Greed, Lust and even an unseen Wrath. They were unpowered, however. The Nerebian mists had kept them so powered, tethering them while the room was so filled. Soft whispers can be heard from each, however.



Voices.

Within the strange totems, mainly consisting of skulls and orichalcum wiring running across the surface was the souls of the deceased. Something within them was odd, however. Potent depravity rolled from the skulls, particularly familiar to depravity emitted by those who had fallen into the curse of sin. What had happened to the spirits within?

Just who were they?

With the veins of rieka soon covering the skull-like totem before him, Ryan continued to probe further. Faint bits of necromantic energies would be channeled into the skull. Perhaps not enough to manifest what lurked within entirely, but enough to allow their voices to be heard.

"Just who are you?" Ryan demanded, his eyes narrowing upon the Totem before him. "Who are you, and why are you serving the Dreamer? Are you simply Neries trapped within? Or are you something else..?"

Of course, he had no idea if such a thing would work! Who knows what magics lurked within the skulls, nor if the small push would be enough to cause the ghost to manifest! But he had to know.

Why?
(Ryan Kyros)

{NARRATION} Ghostly images barely flicker. Soft voices carrying. They could be clearly heard by Ryan, linked to him and his rieka for now. They were unfocused, almost like a series of memories. Was there true sentience or sapience to the totems anymore? Not enough power was being channeled to manifest a full spirit. Only their gibbering voices carried out, like messages from beyond. Which would he listen to first? Greed? Lust? Wrath? Or would he dare to power one up?





It wasn't enough.

The rieka and necromantic energies provided to the spirits residing within the Totems wasn't enough to fully manifest them. Whispers could be heard in his ears, remnants of the faint manifestations of the spirits. It wasn't enough, they needed to be brought back to the corporeal plain in order to converse with.

And so he would do so.

Placing his hand on the totem in which he acquired the sword and oddly designed lipstick, more potent necromantic energies and rieka coursed through the mana circuits remaining on the skull. It was a slow process at first, as the remaining energies of the dreamer resisted it's abilities. But soon it began to overpower it's remaining energies.

"Return to this plain, under my control, spirit." Ryan declared, as necromantic bindings would be applied to the ghost within. Whether or not they would hold it down would yet to be seen however.

"Rise, and explain to me your purpose."
(Ryan Kyros)

Prima: How's clean-up..?
Prima: <Probably not your best question, Prima.>

{NARRATION} The totem was surprisingly voracious. What mana Ryan gave, it drew ten fold. It wanted more, it needed more. However, he'd prove successful in bringing back the Lust Sin Sheslaah, Champion of a foreign deity. She loomed before him for a moment before speaking.

(omitted the conversation, it's not my dev. Ryan decided to release Sheslaah's spirit)

Ryan Kyros: Rest, Sheslaah.

It was time for her to rest.

"No longer will you be bound by the horrid magics the Neries possses. No longer will you be bound by their false god and it's false desires. You will be free, Sheslaah. You will be sent to the final rest you so desire." It was a promise Ryan had no intention on breaking, after all.

With the wave of his hand, the necromantic energies that ripped her soul from the totem and begun to break down, relinquishing the control over her soul once and for all. His eyes remained fixated upon the Sin standing before him during the process, and the tendrils of Rieka soon vanished from the totem.

"Be free from heretical bindings that hold you to this world."
(Ryan Kyros)

{NARRATION} The spirit quietly wept at the kindness the Lich had shown. It was something she rarely experienced, even in her own sordid life. Slowly, she faded from view, entering her final rest. Never to be called forth again. Leaving Ryan with a lust infused skull. It still radiated depraved energy. In fact, the energy seemed to grow stronger now that the bindings were undone. Two more skulls remained.



Gorandis: You squander what could be yours, lich.
Ryan Kyros: They were bound by the energies of Nerebia.
Ryan Kyros: They would likely only betray me in the end.
Ryan Kyros: The least I could do was release them.
Gorandis: You waste them... Did you not see what became of their leader?
Gorandis: Nothing but a power source now.
Ryan Kyros: There's two remaining.
Ryan Kyros: If you desire on experimenting with them, then do so at your own risk.
Gorandis: The only risk will be their own.
Celeana Feuer: <*Sigh*>
Ryan Kyros: <*He pulls up his hood*>
Ryan Kyros: <*And also takes the lust-infused skull..*>

Prima: <A corrupted power source, for sure.>
Prima: <*Plays with a shattered staff*>
Prima: <*Uguu twelve year old so kawaii.*>

Gorandis approached one of the skulls, the one that seeped out mana much like his own, the fetish for the sin of wrath. His own depraved energies erupted around him and the runes lining his scarred body light up, sending twisting tendrils of energy into it. Drilling underneath the bone and lighting up the sockets of the eyes.

The spirit would be returned, partially. Alas poor Skadi, left as nothing more than a talking skull. But Gorandis had questions for it before he did anything too... permanent to it. THe skull was raised, propped by the energies underneath it. Gorandis peered into the glowing eye sockets with a glare. One that was backed by all the malice fed into it.

"You tried to harm my family, you tried to kill my children all under that thing's control... You have no power here... You've never had the power... And now you're left as this, as nothing... Do you even understand what you are? Corrupted with sin, just as I am. How could you possibly stand it? And how could you ever let yourself be controlled by something so vile as that... thing."
(Gorandis)

Skadi's Skull: <The eyes flicker with red energy. The hum of lightning and the storms buzz about it. There is a moment of silence before it speaks.>
Skadi's Skull: I have never hurt your family, Wrath. Your family was meaningless to me. Tell me, Bearer of the Blessing, what yields the better fight? The dragon or its whelp?
Skadi's Skull: You call it a sin. We called it a blessing. A divine gift of might.
Gorandis: A gift of nothing but endless consequences.
Skadi's Skull: Life is nothing but consequence after consequence.
Gorandis: Yes but without this 'gift' I could choose them myself.
Skadi's Skull: Do you? Do you truly choose the consequences yourself?
Gorandis: You do if you get to choose your own actions.
Gorandis: And this has robbed me of that.
Skadi's Skull: Nothing has robbed you of your will but yourself.
Gorandis: Hah, really? So very patronising... I cannot even be trusted around my own children like this.
Skadi's Skull: Ah, but you can.
Skadi's Skull: Ask yourself, Untamed Fury.... Have you considered oaths of binding? Magical runes?
Gorandis: What do you think covers my body?
Gorandis: I have tried everything and all of it has failed me.
Skadi's Skull: Then you need an outlet. In our land... the blessed ones tend to be warriors or smiths. Warriors to be let loose to appease our dark and uncaring god, or Smiths to craft glorious weapons in his name.
Skadi's Skull: To funnel your hateful energy into a weapon of war.
Gorandis: I have plenty of outlets. I have channeled the fury into a great number of things. i have wrought creatures from the void and set the loose upon the world and nothing satisfies.
Gorandis: It is never enough.
Gorandis: And you are rapidly proving how useless you are.
Skadi's Skull: Then cast me aside, Necromancer. So you may languish in your own self-pity and misery. It is not the world that is lacking, it is you. You squander a great gift.
Gorandis: I am no Necromancer. I do not raise the dead. I turn them into my tools. And you are not being cast aside. You are being given a greater purpose. Something far more useful than you are proving yourself to be.
Skadi's Skull: Because you seek the teachings of a foreign land for your condition. I know not what drives you, Blessed of my God, so I cannot aid you in what you seek from me. I only know what drove me.
Gorandis: And what drove you?
Skadi's Skull: Eternity. The promise of life everlasting. A gift for the strongest, for the chosen. The blessing came first. Like you, rage was my tool. I sought greater challenges. Cyclops to dragons to the Imperfects of the Glittering Cities. I sought to prove myself and ascend. It's why we relished the arrival of the Neries. Do you relish the coming battle?
Skadi's Skull: Do you desire to carve out the heart of a Goddess?
Gorandis: I desire their death but I desire the death of other far more. And it is that which I seek. But there is nothing else to gain from them other than self satisfaction. And I am not so crass that I will endanger the only things I care about. Not until I ensure their safety.
Gorandis: I have my targets yet I still lack what to fire at them.
Gorandis: And that is where you shall come in.
Skadi's Skull: Do tell more. I am curious about it, about you. What will be my role in your acts against others, and my revenge against Nerebia?
Gorandis: You will be the final piece of my creation. The final link in the weapon I seek to create. <*He rummaged into his robes and pulled out the four other crystals where they hovered in the air*> The spirits of warriors, demons and even the one that enslaved you. All used to power and amplify my own might, my own sin. A weapon that will crash cities upon one another.
Skadi's Skull: Strife is what drives a society. Have you talked to the mewling Lust sin yet? Or the craven greed?
Skadi's Skull: Have they sobbed at you about their woes and regrets?
Gorandis: The lust has already been released. And the greed is not worth my time...
Skadi's Skull: They come from stagnation and decadence. Without flesh and gold, useless forcibly controlled.
Skadi's Skull: But I cannot wait, Strifebringer.
Skadi's Skull: The sword is also a loci of sin magics.
Gorandis: Yes but that has already been stolen and squandered by a brat.
Skadi's Skull: Then take it back!
Gorandis: Do you not pay attention? I will not put my family in jeopardy until I have secured their safety. I will not brazenly assault and rob the future Queen.
Skadi's Skull: Then I will let you in on a secret. Something the Archbishop spilled when he thought no one was listening.
Gorandis: <*He seems to shrug, disinterested*> Go on.
Skadi's Skull: The Neries also sought something in the marshes. The presumed corpse of another Wrath. However, their focus was upon his hammers. They sought information within your libraries and this keep about it.
Gorandis: Ulfdyr, I assume?
Skadi's Skull: Or something equally archaic.
Gorandis: Perhaps I will get there first or perhaps I will send others to fetch it. But I do not need hammers for what I envision. I already have people at my beck and call to create it.
Gorandis: But, I think our little chat for now is at an end. I'll keep you around, you'll be in... relative comfort. No pain, but no pleasure, just pure nothingness until I have need of you again.
Skadi's Skull: You are the stronger one. Your will dictates fate.
Gorandis: Then farewell for now, fellow Wrath. I will earn you your revenge as I earn mine.
Skadi's Skull: I anticipate the glorious battles you will bring.

The purple energies begin to constrict and surround the skull, branding the surface of it with deep purple, living runes that squirm and shift until they lock into their proper place. With that the spirit would be bound within the lines themselves, not unlike the crystals yet instead of being solidified in one mass, they would be spread out, acting as artificial leylines across it.

Perfect for a channeling device and perfect for an enchanted core of an item. he wasn't sure how much power it would bring or how much of the sin would radiate from it. But Gorandis was still pleased with the creation and he was glad that the spirit was not going to fight him as the others would. It let him put it within looser and yet still stronger bonds.

It would be glorious... And now all he had to do was create it.
(Gorandis)