Riel Epic

[Maharg67]

One 11.1[36]

 

Prograndis had taken Sabatee through more of NiziKvatch, so that they made their way through an artisan industrial area of workshops, small warehouses, workshoptories (workshop-factories), small factories, workyards and other facilities including display-houses of goods. Prograndis paused three times, leaving Sabatee in the centaur taxi-cart, to do business but was always quite quick to return.

 

Then they came to a another sector, as divided off by an inner wall, which was normal for Imperial Cities, that puzzled Sabatee for it was not like Kvatch, or anything of the Empire, at all. The streets were made up of lightly glistening platelets like something taken from a snake. The sunlight was subdued there and odd fog filled much of the sky. Sabatee shook his head in wonder, and abhorrence, as he noted the vulgar, melodramatic statues that each fought for attention being strange snake like humanoids.

 

The centaur had changed into a powerful snake-quadruped creature, hissing at times at the snake humanoids that strode in little clothes at all or overdressed in robes or scaled body-armor. What disturbed Sabatee even more were the human slaves who were obviously badly treated as they scurried along in fear, often with large heavy looking backpacks or pulling small two wheeled carts full of goods.

 

Sabatee spoke to Prograndis. "I do not like this place and wonder that you have brought me here to it. Are you really the SageWizard Prograndis?"

 

The other shimmered and became a snake-humanoid, his robes becoming scale-leatherish in appearance. His voice showed the influence of being part snake. "No and I am glad not to be a sickening human. We Serpentia, of the snakemen, have been granted great generosity of powers by the Celestial Serpent that looks upon us as its favored ones. You stinking humans are meant only to be ultimately consumed by the ever present hungering hunger of the Celestial Serpent. Our ancestors were FirstOnes that the Celestial Serpent altered to befit its image. The FirstOnes can be fixed, in their shapechanging, to create new peoples. They were created by a mysterious Aedra, a Grand Divine. Yes, a Grand Divine of a set of deities that are greatly unknown in Tamriel and even the whole of Nirn, being no accident for they wanted it that way. The other deities know of them, such as the Nine Divines and the Daedric Gods, but are wary of even speaking of them."

 

Sabatee frowned. "Why did you bring me here?"

 

The creature hiss-laughed. "I am High SnakePriest Urishast. To torture you, to take from you the hidden information that has been planted in you, to enslave you and then to feed upon you. We Serpentia harvest the humans from NiziKvatch who are suppressed in a false peace by great magic of our people, a magical reflection gift of the Celestial Serpent. Bless the Celestial Serpent from tip of tongue to tip of tail. We Serpentia know a good deal about what has truly been going on. The so called Thirteen Divines (AntiDivines) are but superclones designed mostly to divert the attention of the Nine Divine as they do battle in the Plain of Celestial Natures, a realm where no such conflict can be resolved because of its very nature. How stupid are the Nine Divines and how very clever is the Celestial Serpent. How stupid are humans, and others, who sought safety in this NiziPainting as dominated by we Serpentia. We are grandest, greatest, of the wise."

 

Sabatee sighed. "So why the grand diversion? Why take all that trouble?"

 

Urishast grinned sharp teeth. "Myxcrodix is the key for there lies something that the Celestial Serpent desires and what the Celestial Serpent wants, the Celestial Serpent gets. As for the stupid PaleOnes, they were meant to be feed upon citizens and then be fed upon by the false AntiDivines but that plan went wrong because the PaleOnes learned the truth somehow. You can not escape for I have bound you with magic. Soon we will come to a temple-house where your suffering will truly begin."

 

Sabatee watched a strange scaled airship fly low overhead. "The Celestial Serpent has always had great weaknesses such as extreme arrogance, a false assumption of its superiority and the over cunning, complexity, of its plotting. Too much deception, too much divide and rule, too much of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing and too much merciless use of what it sees as expendable blind puppets that often turn out to not be so blind to the truth."

 

Urishast scowled and hissed, suddenly being obviously nervous. "Shut up you, fool clone! What would you know of such things?"

 

With a soft shimmering the false Sabatee became the real Prograndis. From his robes he took a silvery globe, with a copper button, and pressed the button before hurling the sphere amazingly high up into the air. There was a blast of magical energies and very much changed.

Edited January 9, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

One 11.2[37]

 

The Legionards, and other forces, who had never been effected by the dark mind magic of the Serpentia, stormed into the snake people's sector of Illuthdomis. They attacked in fake scaled airships, they thundered in on horses and other steeds, they came on-in steammagic machines and mostly they came on foot.

 

The fighting was savage at first, the Serpentia summoning up serpent monsters and their elite guards attacking the invaders. For a short time it seemed that the scale armored soldiers, on their serpent steeds, might even force back the Legionards, Legionaries, Rangers, mercenaries, battlemages and other fighters. Mages fought each other with different kinds of magic.

 

But the invasion was too heavy and the defenders were too taken by surprise in their arrogant assumptions of superiority. The Serpentia had assumed that they could easily control so called 'inferior peoples'. They were learning the hard way that they were very wrong.

 

Human slaves were freed and placed into the caring, skilled, hands of healers. As invading soldiers, led by mages, stormed into temples they found there many horrors. Soon temples were burning as who could be saved, were saved. A terrible butchery of snake-humans would have begun except it turned out that only a small minority of them were Serpentia while the others were down trodden workers whose living conditions were little better than those of human slaves.

 

The real SageWizard Prograndis watched parts of Illuthdomis burning, doing so from the top of a serpentine tower. With him were the bodyguards of the false Sabatee, who were now elite Legionard warriors and battlemages. The fighting was ending and the fires were being put out except the temples, and temple-houses, that were being deliberately burned.

 

Prograndis spoke. "Urishast was under some kind of mind control. I could 'sense' it. I could also 'sense' the powerful, hidden, presence of another that was the one that was controlling Urishast. I think there is at least two celestial snake here in Illuthdomis. I think that the celestial snakes knew I was the real Prograndis even as I entered Urishast which was why they turned the fool priest against me."

 

The area was transforming, buildings were changing as were streets and other landmarks. It was the effects of activating the Transformation Sphere that he had hurled up into the air after activating it. The lesser serpent-humans were being set free along with human slaves.

 

Prograndis spoke again. "The fake Prograndis wanted me to come here but why? I have doubts that he truly knew why he brought me here, that his mind was clear at all on many matters. Unless it was, is, a trap but it does not seem to be a very effective one."

 

At that very moment there was a strange shuddering, shimmering, sparkling sensation that seemed to go through everybody and everything. In the distance something massive smashed up out of the ground being a sparkling, spitting, snake like tail of garish rainbow patterns that flowed and ebbed in hypnotic patterns. The huge tail thrashed, and writhed, crushing serpentine towers and then it slipped away underground again. Quietness fell upon everything.

 

The SageWizard grimaced. "So that is a major clue to what is going on and, if my suspicions are true, we are all under great threat. For that was no less than part of the Celestial Serpent itself as cut off from the greater part of the Celestial Serpent and trapped here in an ancient NiziPainting. How it happened is not clear at all but I do know that the Celestial Serpent will fear that the cut off part of itself could somehow be used against it and it will do anything, everything, it can to either destroy it or get it back."

Edited January 9, 2014 by Maharg67

[Robert55]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :confused:

[Maharg67]

One 12.1[38]

 

SageWizard Promagnis, sister to Prograndis, spoke as she sat with a few VIPs of the Imperium (core of the Empire including Imperial Court, Imperial Government and Imperial Guilds). She was just as impressive as her brother, to look upon, but in her own fashion. Her charisma was more subtle. "What we have dealt with is a series of deceptions, both of greater and lesser status. The whole war between the Nine Divines and AntiDivines has been a massive deception but one in which both sides were drawn into with out true awareness of how they were being manipulated. That was partly because the Plain of Celestial Natures lends itself to such deception, causes like wise in those that exist with in its boundaries."

 

She showed her own amazement. "Those killed during the battles of Kvatch are not actually dead but are inside an ancient NiziPainting as created by the Grand Aldmer a very long time ago. Only a tiny number of people know that there were the Grand Aldmer and the General Aldmer, the former existing in hidden underground cities and the latter being the Aldmer who spread across Tamriel to form many later Mer Peoples. This has to remain so for though the Grand Aldmer Cities are hidden, the more people that seek them and their secrets, the more likely somebody is going to get access to knowledge that they should not."

 

Imperial Treasurer Chovis spoke out, a very smart but sometimes overly ambitious man in his Imperial Government Robes. "We could use some of those 'secrets' to improve the Empire, to make the Empire more secure against its enemies."

 

Promagnis spoke to him. "Such 'secrets' are beyond the conception of the Empire, let alone the control of the Empire, and would do more harm than good. Or so the Dwemer, the Uritimer and others, have found out the hard way."

 

Chovis frowned. "I have heard of no Uritimer!"

 

"Exactly, they were wiped from history when they meddled with Aldmer technomagical devices." Then she stopped with a thoughtful expression on her face before she went on talking. "I communicated with both Prograndis and the Eternal Champion Jadekia just before I came to this meeting. They had much of interest to speak of."

 

So it was that Promagnis passed on information that she had gained from the two, including accounts of the strange events that they had been part of. The meeting concluded so that those attending it could study, and think on, what had been spoken of. Promagnis went to do some more healing on the Emperor's clone.

Edited January 10, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

One 13.1[39]

 

The five Hero DemiDivines began to go deeper into Myxcrodix, exploring and also seeking to find the thing that had devoured the helpless firstling, taking it from its globe to do so.

 

MyxcrodixPrime began the process of 'birthing' the other firstlings, it would take some days before they came out and then they would need to be further shaped, program-conditioned and otherwise prepared; these processes had begun inside the globe-machine.

 

Xena, and Gabrielle, halted in a great octagon shaped chamber with four wall sections being doors and four being nizidoors to four different NiziPaintings. NiziPaintings normally had more than one nizidoors, or what looked like very life like active paintings, and each of the NiziPainting shown in that place might easily have frame-doors open in very far off places.

 

One NiziPainting showed a great valley full of huge buildings of monolithic metallic stone but the city was choked with amazingly thick jungle. The buildings, and other structures such as statues and statue-towers, were truly gigantic. Any smaller structures were hidden by the jungle if they were there at all. That nizidoor was heavily sealed and it was soon seen why that was. The monstrous creature reared up its head from the jungle being like a great serpent but one of glistening purple-black while its head was a globular shape from which came out many big tentacles. It appeared and vanished with speed as if in fear, despite its obvious power and strength. A short time later a flying monstrosity, even bigger than the snake thing, flew down from the sky and hovered with huge sweeping wings of exotic shape flapping slowly. It was more than the wing movement that kept it in the air for the Hero DemiDivines 'sensed' dimly exotic dark powers in that one.

 

MyxcrodixPrime: "I did know know of these NiziPaintings' existence until this moment. I wonder what else has been hidden from me. I do not have the ability to unlock, or unseal, the nizidoors. Anyway those are ninziwindows designed mainly for viewing and not actual access except in emergencies or other special situations."

 

Gabrielle shook her head. "I have been into a handful of NiziPaintings and have never encountered anything like that one. I have never encountered such a thing as a niziwindow though I have heard of them. That is a place of living-dead monsters, or so I think considering what I 'sensed' of them. I am 'gifted' when detecting undeath, the living-dead, the trapped dead and other such unnatural states of existence. I often think of it as being more of a curse."

 

A second niziwindow showed only endless darkness except for tiny lights that zipped in strange zigzag patterns. Then there was a brief, strong, flash of light that showed part of a great mound of skeletal remains of multiple kinds of long dead creatures. Apparently it was not a wise place to go.

 

A third niziwindow showed a great, long abandoned Dwemer city in a great cavern full of exotic lifeforms such as great floating jellyfish like things floating in the air. There was the activity of some Dwemer technomagical machines still functioning such as big humanoids stomping along raised roadways and big columns rising slowly up and down in long rows. Lifeforms were creatures of very exotic nature or ones evolved to survive in that place.

 

It was the fourth niziwindow that was of greatest, immediate, interest. For there was a great desert of sand dunes with ancient, partly smashed, buildings poking up into the air. There was a great impression of total desolation, of lack of any life at all. The sky was bright stark blue with no clouds and no apparent moisture or so the DemiDivines 'sensed'. Then something huge reared up out of the sands, collapsing a large dune in the process, and it was the head of a great garish rainbow coloured serpent. The 'sense' of sheer malignant power, and hunger, struck the pair and they stepped back defensively. They had a horrible impression that that aspect, of the Celestial Serpent, could 'sense' but not truly detect them. It had come to the area to devour them for the world was totally dead and it continued to suffer a hunger that never ceased.

 

The pair left the chamber so as not to tempt the Celestial Serpent again even though 'something' told them that the entity could never get through the niziwindow because of certain given laws of transdimensional nature.

Edited January 10, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

One 13.2[40]

 

RedSonja leaped to one side as a long spine-tentacle slammed through the air and into a silvery wall. She whirled to bring her divine magical longsword down on the strange weapon limb, cleaving its end off. The garish rainbow creature screamed, being octopus and snake like at the same time. It moved with amazing speed and shot a second big spine-tentacle at her. It was fast, agile, hard to kill but not too smart.

 

The Hero Divines had begun to run into such serpent-creatures and even with the assistance of the golems, golemites and other entities sent by MyxcrodixPrime, the fights were often difficult. Yes they were winning the fights but were being slowed down in their search for answers, prompting them to believe the attacks were meant to delay them but from doing what and why?

 

She fired a big pulse of energies from the tip of her longsword and it struck the globular body of the thing so that it screamed. To her surprise three other pulses of energy struck it as three Divinemors stepped into the big chamber, aiming and firing even as they did so. They ran towards her, firing as they came at the beast. It shuddered horribly and died, burning away into nothingness even as it fell heavily towards the floor.

 

Four red fighting golemites, and a fighting metallic golem, lay scattered on the floor as they self-repaired but then a silver golem came stomping to their rescue, bring means of faster repair.

 

"So the fourteen of you are up and about." RedSonja studied the odd clones, of damphires, with a half smile. She was wary of their strange nature that was something that she had never run into before. "We could use your assistance."

 

Shand, the damphire, spoke from his helmet covered head. "Thirty-three of us now exist being ten general teams of three along with a command team of three. Shaun, Sasha and Sarna are now in command, Sarna being newly generated as a damphire clone. We have the ability to generate clones, from ourselves, with fair ease but would not want to do it too often. Sixteen new clones have been generated. We have recalled lost knowledge. We were not just sent here, to Tamriel, to help conceal the true nature of PrimeDivinemor but because we can use our damphire natures in special ways to achieve certain tasks that were given to us. Trouble is the actual mission data is sealed deep in our minds. We have gained strong glimpses of what is there and some odd facts. The Celestial Spirit can not, will not, feed off damphires. Somehow we are a very different kind of entity known as the unlifen. We are not alive, dead, undead or living-dead nor even the bizarre dead flesh living. It sounds most contradictory but we were sent by the Celestial Spirit to deal with the Celestial Spirit; we do not know what this means."

 

RedSonja looked briefly surprised and then she looked just thoughtful. "We will wait for the damaged golera (golem and golem like entities) be finish what they need to finish and then return to the Home Sector using the teleport chamber network."

 

MyxcrodixPrime had reactivated certain very useful network-systems, such as the teleport chamber network, and they were being used very selectively and carefully. So far there had been no troubles.

 

At that moment strange chiming alarms began to sound through out the ancient city and the air sparkled closer to the ceiling with red flashes as if to add to the sense of urgency.

 

MyxcrodixPrime: "I have been forced to seal off the teleport chamber network for safety security reasons but I will send transports to pick you up that can use the street tunnels to get you back to the Home Sector. I do not fully know what the trouble is but I do know that it is focused towards MyxcrodixCore, the ancient area that I have never been able to access directly."

Edited January 11, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Zero 3.1[41]

 

The false AntiDivines, in the Plain of Celestial Natures, surrendered as they began to die along with their followers. Yet they did not die but became absorbed into the Plain of Celestial Natures where the became alive in a very exotic fashion. The Nine Divines departed, taking their forces with them, being puzzled and fearful how easily they had been manipulated into taking part in a great false war.

 

The Nine Divines realized that their attentions had been diverted from Tamriel, which was no mistake, and set out at once to assist in finding out just what had been happening 'behind their backs'.

 

The real Emperor, Baurus, other Blades and yet others appeared in the WhiteGold Tower but they were sick of mind-body-spirit with no knowledge of what had happened to them since the assassination attempt by the MythicDawn had failed. Amongst those that returned were MythicDawn Followers, or MythicDawners. Not only were they also very sick but all had somehow learned 'something' that caused them to renounce their faith to MehruneDagon and willingly promise to serve the Empire by giving up secrets, general knowledge of the MythicDawn. In some cases MythicDawners promised to infiltrate the cult, for the Empire.

 

The new network of enemy agents turned out to be doppelgangers, of the living-dead, who quickly became the enemy of many of the Empire's factions including such as the Dark Brotherhood and even the Thieves Guild. Captured doppelgangers died with out giving away any information. It was not known what their real goals were.

 

People, from outside, gained access to NiziKvatch when three nizidoors were opened up to allow this. One was in Kvatch, one in Imperiarna and one in the Secondary Imperial Capital of Illustria that was on the eastern coast of Tamriel thanks to the Imperial Land Corridor there between to other provinces other than Cyrodiil. NiziKvatch was cut off, inside the NiziPainting, from other sectors of the NiziPainting realm.

 

The Orbis drifted across Tamriel as one of many as one.

 

 

Edited January 11, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

One 14.1[42]

 

SageWizard Prograndis moved deeper into the NiziPainting that contained NiziKvatch and NiziSatcha, the new home of the snake-humans who had once been lowly workers serving the Serpentia. He was no longer in either NiziKvatch or NiziSatcha but in a realm that stretched out seemingly for ever in all directions and was made up of primordial jungles, great sweeping rivers and swamplands much like those of the continent of Aldmeris that had existed and had not existed. Aldmeris had been the original homeland of the Aldmer where they, the first Mer, had been created.

 

Dinosaurs moved amongst the jungles, through the swamps and flew overhead. Dragons had evolved from dinosaurs, with the assistance of powerful technomagics. That is early primitive dragons as created by the Aldmer, as flying steeds and to carry out other services, and not the Imperial Dragons of Akatosh's creation.

 

He followed a long curving raised roadway of metallic stone that went one way and then another. Now and then he met briefly an Aldmer peacefully meditating nakedly in a small semi-enclosed alcove or a peaceful group moving along in basic robes with goods to take to the local markets or bring goods from those markets. The Aldmer of AkiTerrikaKio (the name of that realm of the NiziPainting called AkiTerrika) had long adjusted to the fact that they would never leave the confines of their comfortable prison but the prison was so huge that they had little to worry about.

 

That is until lately for he also ran into groups of Aldmer warriors. All Aldmer had power intrinsic magical and other abilities but the warriors wore special scaled armor and carried powerful technomagical weapons. Each had reported to him, honestly enough, that there had been sightings of a distant creature that seemed to be the Celestial Serpent. It was enough to concern even the powerful Grand Aldmer of AkiTerrikaKio. In truth they were weaker, less advanced, than their ancestors but even their ancestors had been wise enough to fear the Celestial Serpent.

 

Lady CerestoDavoo did not meet the SageWizard Prograndis by mistake, of course not for the other Aldmer would have reported him through the links that all Aldmer had with each other. Also those Aldmer kept hidden many of their technomagical tricks as had others of their kind. Instead she came to him in an elegantly, falsely fragile looking, wingboat that was quite able as a war-machine. Elite bodyguards, technomages and mages came with her along with one consultant and one half naked companion.

 

CerestoDavoo gave to Prograndis a simple clay beaker of clear, cool, water that was a traditional signal that she wanted them to get right down to practical business with out the long sets of formalities that were the norm in such matters. He slowly drank down the water to openly accept this and to show that he trusted that the water was not poisoned.

 

The exotically beautiful, and very old, Aldmer woman spoke in fluent Ancient Aldermic. "Greetings, SageWizard Prograndis, for once you have come when there is great trouble you can help with and not just to drink our wine and eat our food."

 

It was a joke of Aldmer taste for he had come a few times to assist the Aldmer of that place. "Yes, to eat your food, drink your wine and seduce your women but there is no time for such pleasures this time. Your people have spotted the Celestial Serpent."

 

She showed her puzzlement. "Yes but it does not behave like the Celestial Serpent. It has made no attempt to feed on anybody, on anything, not even the flora and fauna. The animals do not seem to fear it and yet all legends speak of animals fleeing it so hard they would often die of exhaustion."

 

Celestial Serpent against the Celestial Serpent? In Myxcrodix the Celestial Serpent had its monsters attacking, killing and feeding but there, in the NiziPainting of AkiTerrikaKio, the Celestial Serpent was acting unnaturally against its reputation. He had communicated with the Hero DemiDivines in Myxcrodix and they had spoken of the attacks along with the alarms that rang through the ancient hidden city though the reason for them remained a mystery.

 

Prograndis sighed. "We will need to speak to this Celestial Serpent."

Edited January 11, 2014 by Maharg67

[Robert55]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :geek:

[Maharg67]

One 14.2[43]

 

The SageWizard Prograndis used a garden rake to scratch the smaller, rainbow, serpent avatar entity as it lay on the grassy, muddy, jungle ground making throoming thrumming throbbing sounds of pleasure. It was speaking in a voice that was somehow gentle and booming. "And in the sky are birds flying and in the ground are worms wriggling and in the water are fishes swimming and..."

 

Prograndis smiled. "Rainbow Serpent, if you do not mind, I need more information of the Celestial Serpent that you came from and what is happening in Tamriel."

 

The self renamed Rainbow Serpent did not sound happy responding to that. "Here I came to be different, less hungry, less hurtful, and I still continue to change. The Celestial Serpent hates me, abhors me, but the Celestial Serpent hates all, abhors all, including itself. It wishes me harm but I am not really its enemy; no for it could leave me here, a place I can not leave from, and go away. Except that there is another Celestial Serpent now that is caught in another NiziPainting, of the Drained World, and it has attained great power and abilities of death destruction itself. The Celestial Serpent can hold me in contempt but what of this other that calls itself the Celestial Viper?"

 

The Rainbow Serpent shivered with delight as Prograndis scratched it with the garden rake. The 'avatar' represented the much much larger main Rainbow Serpent that was off feeding on 'extra tasty things that grew in a big glowcrystal cavern' just for it. The Rainbow Serpent spoke of a nice little big fat woman who had come and helped changed things. She still visited on a regular basis but the arrogant Aldmer never knew she was there.

 

Knowing at once who the 'nice little big fat woman' was, Prograndis realized that much more was happening than he, and other SageWizards, had previously believed and that had been on a grand scale involving the whole of Mundus and not just Tamriel or the Empire. The 'nice little big fat woman', he 'sensed', was the LittleBigMon as one of its expressions, its avatars. If the LittleBigMon was there then very serious events were taking place and if the LittleBigMon was there, then what else was there? Prograndis had 'sensed' being observed on an amazingly subtle level and wondered if the Orbis had come to Mundus. If so he was deeply concerned.

 

Prograndis nodded. "We will help protect you, try our best to make you happy."

 

The Rainbow Serpent spoke with an oddly happy tone of voice. "Good and then you can be my dad just like the LittleBigMon said you would be."

 

The SageWizard smiled. "Of course, how could it be any other way." He took out a softly glowing, fully charged, golden charge-crystal. "Open up for a special snack!"

 

With a gulp, the big creature swallowed up the charge-crystal and there was the muffled sound of an explosion before the Rainbow Serpent gave a big sigh of contentment. "Very good! My bigger self is adjusting a great big lot of caves into a home with lots of mushy, gunky, moss to sleep in and little nice critters to feed off the scale stuff and pests. The nice little big fat woman made the Nest Caves very special safe and the bigger me will sleep there for a time. We must not be too busy or we might attract the Celestial Serpent to want to come here instead of it attacking the Celestial Viper."

 

Prograndis smiled. "I am going to stay here with you but I am also going to leave for I can be more than one that is one, just like you, but not so much as you can."

 

The Rainbow Serpent spoke. "Don't want to talk about the horrible Celestial Serpent any more, or that horrible Celestial Viper or those other bad things like the evil Mer CoAxian or those horrible uckies or the big tricky ugly one. Maybe I will speak of them later. I am changing to being alive now and that is truly goodness itself."

 

Soon it was asleep!

 

Evil Mer CoAxian? Horrible uckies? Big tricky ugly one?

Edited January 12, 2014 by Maharg67