Chapter 5 – The Dust Vanguard
Shurima.
A vast desert with copious sand and centuries of fascinating history.
Many of its mysteries have been burned and erased from memory by its scorching heat, and others have perished by the arid conditions that make sustainability a difficult procedure. The past is only preserved if there is something to recount it.
Contemporary Shurimans can tell you about the myths and legends of the ancient Shuriman Empire, led by the youngest son of a former Emperor, known as Azir, until its obliteration by the traitorous slave boy and once best friend of Azir: Xerath.
Others can also speak about the horrors of the war between the Shuriman Empire and one of its colonised regions: Icathia, which no longer stands tall and proud after the rebels meddled with unspeakable magic that tore a rift in the woven fabric of matter. The Void was opened, revealing the abominations of unreality and total destruction. The Shurimans were defeated, but Icathia was swallowed whole and disappeared from existence. The war was won through inadvertent self-sacrifice.
The details and intricacies of these events are actually far greater than described here, but the superfluous scrutiny of human history in Shurima was for a long time no concern of the ancient Brackern race that had inhabited the Valley of Song in Southern Shurima, long before any human had settled in the desert. The Brackern were immense crystallised scorpion-like creatures that could grow to the size of small houses. They were wise and their very lives were tied to ancient crystals. Each Brackern had the responsibility to go and find one that was "meant" for them. A dying Brackern was a rarity, but whenever one did die, its consciousness was stored inside the crystal that had accompanied it throughout its life. This preserved consciousness would then act as an aid to the next Brackern who owned the crystal next.
But just as the Brackern knew little about the existence of humans, humans were oblivious to existence of the Brackern.
The ancient Rune Wars broke out and enveloped the world in chaos. To preserve their lives, the Brackern went into hibernation in the valley that they resided in, using only their crystals as their beating hearts for sustenance. Significant events in Shuriman history, like the rise and fall of the Shuriman Empire, the annihilation of Icathia and the Noxian occupation in Northern Shurima were unknown to them.
It wasn't until recently that black marketers discovered the Brackern and their crystals, viewing the fascinating gems as potential for valuable trade commodities. As explosives were used to open the caverns and expose the Brackern and precious crystals, only one sole Brackern awoke from the incursion. He was called "Skarner".
Skarner was among the strongest of his kin, and horrified to see the band of thieves attacking his home. He fought back as best he could, but could only retrieve a few of his friends' crystals and kill some of the thieves without dying in the process. He attempted to wake up some of his kin to help him, but they died after mere moments without their crystals in claw.
The remaining marauders ran away, but Skarner could not follow in pursuit. He had to stay and keep watch over his vulnerable friends.
For weeks he trod the same sand over and over again, thinking about how to deal with the predicament he was in. In the end he concluded that if the crystals continued to be mistreated by humans, his kin would die.
It was a risk that Skarner had to take, but he had to go on a long journey that would take him across Valoran, to regions he had never seen before.
After spending a month erasing all traces of the human excavation, he set off on his long peregrination.
Skarner made sure to steer clear of human settlement, avoiding the trader's settlement of Marrowmark and rivers that were likely to be reliable source of water. This wasn't too difficult to do though because so many areas of Shurima were uninhabited, but it also meant that he would be trekking over the harder to traverse regions, such as hilly or mountainous ones He also did not want to get into a fight with a Xer'Sai, an eldritch species of predators from the Void, which was named after The Great Sai: the region in the desert that they typically roamed. With his own crystal in his possession though, tiring and becoming exhausted was not an issue.
The sun also bothered Skarner very little. It was sweltering to most beings, but to a Brackern with a crystallised exoskeleton it was nothing.
He had been travelling for over a month continuously and had still not made his way out of Shurima: Kalduga was still miles away.
Skarner stopped and looked towards the ground. Though he could not see all of his six legs, he felt an unnatural tremor in the earth that ran through them. It made him feel uncomfortable and deeply anxious. He could sense that the vibrations were coming from somewhere distant, but because of how closely tied the Brackern were to the land, he felt every tremor like a violent earthquake. He closed his eyes and wished with all his heart that it would end.
Around three minutes passed and the tremors subsided. Skarner opened his eyes. Everything seemed to be fine around him, but he sensed something new in his presence. The earth felt… different.
The sensation was ineffable to humans, but Skarner knew intrinsically that earth was not the same it had been mere minutes ago. It seemed larger and denser.
This was not all though.
In his inner body, he could feel a newfound energy in the air that only he could detect. It seemed to be coming from all directions, but more strongly so from the east. It reminded him of the time he spent searching for his own crystal in the valley, but this sensation was on a far greater scale than anything he had felt before. There were no crystals nearby. How could there possibly be this much energy in the earth all of a sudden? It could have been magic, but crystals weren't carriers of magic.
Skarner knew that we was emotionally sick, but he was also aware of his own sagacity and how finely tuned his senses were. This was not the case of a human having a mirage of seeing a body of water in the desert: this was different. The energy he felt was no illusion.
Mixed feelings and suppositions were going through Skarner's mind.
It seemed inconceivable that energy like those found in the Brackern crystals could materialise out of nowhere, but if it had, then a spark of hope grew in the young scorpion's heart. The crystals found in Southern Shurima were finite, so this emanating energy could potentially be harvested and brought back to his family.
Darkness was around every corner though. What if the energy was the result of humans tampering with the crystals that had been stolen from his kind? Could this be negative, inorganic energy?
Or what if the source of the energy was being emitted from something bad? The pernicious effects of something that is seemingly good for you can quickly end one's life.
Nothing was certain, but one word stood out to Skarner that came with the energy that he now sensed: "Dust".
He couldn't pinpoint where the word came from or how it related to the energy he was feeling, but the term seemed significant to him nonetheless.
Skarner's theory was that "dust" was a manmade energy propellant that may have been extracted from the earth and had been tinkered with. Regardless of whether or not it was a good feeling, Skarner felt invigorated at the possibility of having discovered an alternative to the crystals his kin had been so dependent on.
The young Brackern could not decipher how far way the dust was. It could be on a different continent altogether, and Skarner had no idea how to swim. The length of the journey didn't matter though. For many humans, all that mattered was the destination: an afterlife. For the Brackern on the other claw, life was a lesson: a lesson to be retained and a lesson can only be learned via the journey through it. If there is a goal to be reached, then the goal must be reached. If there is fight to be fought, then you must fight.
Skarner's original mission was to retrieve the crystals that had been stolen from him. A renewal of avidity coursed through his body though. His zeal was energised. Skarner was the protector of his race and their crystals, but now, he was also the collector of dust.
Skarner: The Dust Vanguard
