January 1st 1209 PC
The town before me, nestled between two mountains, used to be called Burthorpe, now it was but a charred graveyard. In the three years since I had left, conscripted by The King's Death, I had murdered thousands of people, starting with Burthorpe. The guilt I felt over the actions I'd been forced to commit slowly ate away at me, I'd liberated myself of The King's Death three months prior, and was still trying to full come to terms with what had happened.
"Were there any survivors?" I asked the Valhallan marine who had tailed me here.
"Yes, people on the outskirts of the town were able to get out before the fires got too severe." He replied.
"I want you to ask them about a man named Hans." I said, feeling my eyes tear up, again, "I can't seem to stop crying anymore."
"I will ask the survivors who were saved by Valhallius, and you have every right to cry, even I've cried at times during this war." He answers, pulling out a small book and making some notes.
"How much longer will I need an escort?" I asked him, staring in the direction of my old forge.
"As long as deemed by your psychologist." He replied, putting the book back in a pouch on his belt.
In the three months since I'd been with Valhallius, I'd spent one month in an intensive therapy facility, and the two months since I'd been tailed by a Valhallan marine Sergeant. Valhallius was in the process of retaking heavy territory losses to The King's Death, and the only reason I wasn't considered a POW was because I had value as the descendent. Despite desperately wanting to fight back against The King's Death, the military leadership of Valhallius still saw me as a threat, I didn't blame them.
I slowly walked down the hill stepping out onto familiar roads, strewn with bones, and broken tools that had been used to fight back. I walked for a few minutes, everything here was gone, but it seemed like only yesterday that I had been interacting with the people who used to live here. I came up to the site of my old forge, it had been before the day of my conscription, laying in front of it was a skeleton, dressed in rusted armour, and a cloak baring the symbols of The King's Death. He was the reason I had been conscripted in the first, I'd killed him in a fit of rage – my first kill – I closed my eyes and breathed slowly. Since the return of my morality gruesome sights like this were stomach churning to me, I stepped around the body, and walked into the lot of my old forge.
"Is this where you used to live?" The sergeant asked me, examining the charred property.
"Yes, I was a blacksmith, this was my family's forge, founded by my great-great-great-grandmother…" I choked back tears, "But it's nothing but a burnt piece of land now…"
"You should try blacksmithing again, it might help you get past the memories of the last few years." The sergeant suggested, examining the remains in front of the lot, "This person was an officer of The King's Death, must have been killed during the assault on Burthorpe, if the death was violent enough, we might be able to pull the soul back into this world and extract information from it."
"He died before the attack on Burthorpe." I said, my hands began shaking.
"Oh…?" The sergeant said, looking up from the corpse, "This is the man you strangled to death isn't it?"
While I was in the intensive care facility I gave a full recount of my experiences all the way back to my conscription, which included the strangulation of the officer who now lay before us as a skeleton.
"It is, no one must have touched the body after the conscription order they were probably too scared…" My right hand began to shake even more violently, I grabbed it with my other hand to steady it then I realized that my whole body was shaking.
"Maybe we should get back to the citadel, I think you need another session with Doctor Sooruk." The sergeant said, pulling 2 teleport tablets from a pouch on his belt.
I took one and smashed it against the ground, the spell activated instantly, the world was engulfed in a blue fire. When is dissipated I was standing the courtyard of the citadel of Valhallius, a massive floating fortress high in the sky over the Fremennik isles. The anxiety attack that had begun while I was standing in Burthorpe suddenly spiked and the rune that had been imprinted on the back of my neck knocked me unconscious.
"Welcome back, come for another therapy session?" The Saviour said.
I had entered a subconscious dream world projected by the remnant soul of the Saviour. The 'room' was a comfortably lit study, I could see a globe at the corner of the room, the windows were black, and I was laying on a couch. I sat up, and looked at him, he was dressed differently from the last time I had seen him, now he wore a flowing black robe of silk, and had a long white beard.
"What are you this time?" I asked him.
"Oh this? I just trying on old outfit, that's all." He answered, casually stroking his beard.
"Could you make it daytime? The black windows are rather depressing." I said, pointing at one of the windows.
"Oh that's no problem at all, though I could remove them all together if you prefer…" The Saviour said, raising a hand.
"Just make it daytime."
"Very well." He flicked his hand and suddenly daylight streamed in from the windows, "So what caused you to have an attack this time?"
"I visited Burthorpe." I said, laying back down on the couch.
The Saviour was silent for a moment before answering.
"I told you that was a bad idea Suiro." He said after a long moment.
"My name isn't Suiro anymore, that name was stripped from me 3 years ago." I said angrily.
"Right, what was it…? Sterk…?" The Saviour said, making notes on his pad of paper.
"Yes, I told you last time I had an attack." I replied, anger dissipating.
"Have you made any other notable progress in managing your PTSD?" The Saviour asked, trying to move on.
"No, it's gotten worse in fact." I said, putting my hands over my face "Can't you just make this go away? You did it before in Daemonheim."
"What I did in Daemonheim was break the personality charm that had already been placed on you." The Saviour answered.
"What the hell is a personality charm?" I asked, confused.
"Sigh, I should've explained them to you in Daemonheim… a personality charm is a way of quickly altering a person's personality to its exact opposite, it was developed by a member of The Reapers for use on violent criminals, however the texts regarding it went missing after the first cataclysm, I had assumed them lost." The Saviour said, standing from his chair, and walking over to one of the bookshelves, "I'll lend you a book about it, detailing years 21-27 of The Reapers[MG1] , you may find it rather interesting."
"So all you did was break a curse on me?"
"Essentially, unfortunately I can do nothing about the PTSD from the events that happened to you while under the influence of the charm." The Saviour said, tossing me a book.
"What would you recommend to help ease it?" I asked, catching the book.
"I would recommend doing something familiar, something you did prior to the casting of the charm." The Saviour said, taking another book off the shelf and examining it, "Perhaps you should try blacksmithing again."
My eyes shot open, and for a brief moment my right eye burned with power, and the blanket of the bed I had been laying in was transmuted into a book titled 'Years 21-27 of The Reapers'. I placed it on the nightstand next to my bed, and sat up, it was nighttime, and the stars were out, they were beautiful from the citadel, no stars to obstruct them. I got up and walked over to the window, the night sky seemed untouched by the events occurring below, not even clouds blocked the view from the citadel.
The next day I went to the forges in the citadel, a section of the forge was cleared for me under a medical provision from my psychologist. I picked up an ingot, it was a familiar sensation, but it felt like something that I had almost forgotten, I tossed into the forge to heat it up. I pulled it out with a pair of tongs when it began to glow, I placed it on an anvil, then I struck it with a hammer, the sound rang out. The first few hits I was fine, then I began to sweat, I must not be used to this kind of activity, I thought to myself, striking the hot ingot a few more times. My ears began to ring, the sounds of battle filled my mind, my hands began to shake, the ingot fell to the floor, I struck the anvil.
I didn't feel the rune on the back of my neck activate, but apparently it did.
"Doc, what the hell is wrong with me?" I asked my psychologists, Doctor Sooruk.
"You're suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and we are trying to help you." Dr. Sooruk said, her Elven voice laced with calming magic.
"But why would blacksmithing do that? It's not a stressful activity…" I said.
"It would appear that your mind has attached the sound of metal striking metal to the idea that you're in danger." Dr. Sooruk said, taking down some notes, "Although, I find it odd that blacksmithing would trigger an attack, it is something that you did before your trauma, and it was something you did your whole life, it makes very little sense for it to be a source of anxiety even after everything you went through."
"It seems that there is nothing normal about me these days…" I said, turning my head to look at Dr. Sooruk.
She was wearing a simple skirt that came down to her knees, the green fabric seemed to be laced with gold. Her eyes were a cold blue, and seem to dissect your very soul, her hair was silver, and cut short, her ears ever so slightly pointed. I found myself staring at her, not out of lust, but out of wonder, she noticed, and gave me an annoyed look.
"Maybe you should try an activity that you've never done before, have you consider archery?" She said, crossing her legs.
"I don't that would be good..." I said, remembering the battle of Catherby, I'd been stationed within earshot of an archer's nest.
"Then what about magic?" Dr. Sooruk said, putting her clipboard down.
"I've never done magic before… don't you have to have an aptitude for it?" I asked, turning my head to the ceiling.
"No, anyone can learn the basics, whether or not you have an aptitude doesn't matter." Dr. Sooruk replied.
"I'll try it, anything to help this goddamn PTSD." I said, putting my hands over my face, I was sweating.
"I'll see what I can do." Dr. Sooruk said, smiling.
The next day I woke to Doom standing over me, apparently he was now trusted enough to be allowed to roam the compound. I got up and walked with him for a while without saying anything, he was dressed in a green and black tunic, I wore the standard medical robes for patients. We came up to a pond, at the center a small stone golem regulated the magic in the citadel, essentially keeping it afloat.
"SO, have you made any progress with your PTSD?" Doom asked, sitting down at the edge of the pool.
"I'm going to try magic today." I replied, opting to remain standing, I noticed an armoured figure moving toward us, "More importantly do they trust you? They're still quite suspicious of me."
"They've always trusted me, I just had to show them this." Doom pulled an amulet out of his pouch, it had a red silver and gold eight pointed star over a red circle on it, "This is a Reaper's amulet, proof of service to The Reapers, legends are told about those who hold these amulets, and when they pass the magical scrutiny that invariably comes with the notion that one could be from such an ancient clan, it gives you access to a whole bunch of stuff. I was going to give you The Saviour's, however things went too quickly back in Burthorpe and I was unable to get it to you."
"The why not give it to me now?" I asked, "And if they trust you, then could you do something about my restricted movement?"
"No, and no, if I were to give you the amulet right now it would look suspicious, and I sense neither of us want any more suspicion levelled against us than we already have. And they TRUST me, it doesn't mean I have influence over them." Doom answered, spinning the amulet around on his finger.
"Is there anything you can do for me right now?"
"Yes. You said you're going to try magic right? Well then take this." He stopped spinning the amulet, and raised his hand, a small vortex opened up on it, and a staff emerged, "This is called a Mindspike, it's something that was developed by the druids in Taverley, I imagine not many still exist." He tossed it to me, "Take it, it should help you a lot with casting your spells."
"Thanks…"
Later that day I met with one of Valhallius' mages, he gave a rundown of the basics, then some instruction with some basic combat magic. The Mindspike eliminated the need for runes, and impressed the other mages, they almost confiscated it for study. By the time the sun went down I'd gotten the hang of Wind Strike, magic was a lot easier than I had expected, according to the mage that instructed me, I had an aptitude for it.
"So, how was magic? Any flashbacks, anxiety…?" Dr. Sooruk said, flipping through some pages on her clipboard.
"No, in fact I quite enjoyed it, I think I'm going to pursue it more thoroughly moving forward." I answered, a smile daring to show itself on my face.
"Good, I think it would be good for you to pursue something like magic, you'll be able to contribute to the war effort, without unnecessary stress to yourself." Dr. Sooruk said, putting her clipboard down, "You've been in the care of Valhallius for 3 and a half months now, and the high council would like to speak with you now that you've recovered somewhat."
"I've got a few things I'd like to ask them, when do they want to meet?"
"Right now, I just wanted to make sure you were up to it, I'll direct you to the council chamber." Dr. Sooruk said, standing, and directing me to follow.
She directed me across the citadel, to a massive almost fortress like building, the main door was guarded by Valhallan marines. The winged crown of Valhallius flew from banners, and adorned the tabards of the guards that manned the ramparts. Dr. Sooruk muttered some words to the marine at the door, and he opened the door for her, I followed her into the building.
The inside was equally as impressive as the outside, torches lit the stone hallway and pictures of what appeared to be past leaders of Valhallius adorned the walls. Dr. Sooruk led me through to a massive wooden door, the sign on the door read 'High Council chamber'. She entered, and I followed, the room had a circular table surrounding a blue globe of energy at its centre, at the table sat a group of people, each wearing a different cape. Dr. Sooruk bowed to the assembled men, then walked out the door, leaving me facing what I guessed to be the highest ranking members of Valhallius. The door boomed as it shut behind me, the man sitting the furthest from me gestured to a chair in front of me at the table.
I sat down in the chair, the man sitting on the other side of the table gestured with his hand and a package of papers emerged from the globe of energy at the center of the room, it landed in front of me.
"Sterk, welcome, I do hope you're doing better than when we welcomed you to Valhallius." He said, smiling, he looked about 40.
"Thanks, what's this?" I asked, holding up the package of papers.
"It's a draft of a plan we hope to implement immediately." He answered.
I flipped through the package, skimming the information in it, it appeared to be a plan to utilize my ancestry to legitimize total victory for Valhallius.
"I'm not going to cooperate with this." I said, tossing the papers back onto the table, they scattered over the side and onto the floor.
The man on the other side of the table smiled.
"Well you see, it's not really your decision, I should have you imprisoned for what you've done, however you have value as the descendent, and I'm not going to waste that if I can help it." He said, "You'll either go along with our plan, or we'll imprison you for the remainder of your pitiful life."
He had me in a difficult position, what he was saying was essentially right, no one would argue with him if he had me imprisoned.
"Ok, let's say I go along with this plan of yours…" I said, looking around the table, "What would you make me do first?"
"The first step of this plan is to marry you to the current heir of Valhallius." The man said, gesturing with his hand, an image of the princess appeared in the sphere of energy, "In order to do that however, we will need to fabricate a descent for you, and create a new identity–"
"Why would you have to do that?" I asked, cutting him off.
The man's eye twitched slightly.
"We need to, because no one will accept the marrying of a former member of an enemy clan to a member of Valhallius' royal family."
"I was not a member of that clan by choice, AND my status as the descendent of The Saviour should be more than sufficient for the people of Valhallius." I said, crossing my arms.
"Perhaps, I do not wish to risk it however." The man said, smile fading, "We can discuss the details at a later date, right now I just need to know that you're onboard with it."
"I'm not saying no." I replied.
"Good." The man said, a smile returning to his lips.
"If that's all you wanted to talk to me about, I see no reason to keep sitting here." I said, standing to leave.
"By all means." The man said, waving his hand.
I returned to my quarters and laid down on the bed, this clan is better than The King's Death, I thought to myself, before I knew it I was asleep. In my dream I seemed to be floating above Gielinor, I was fighting someone, or something, massive bolts of energy were thrown off when our weapons made contact. I could feel my right eye burning, I saw Doom rocket into the thing I was fighting, he was armed with a pair of blue claws.
"Oryx! I'll pin him to the ground, use the Holy Driver to destroy him!" He yelled, struggling against the force of the monster he was fighting, his armour rune by the looks of it, began to crack.
The thing we were fighting was like a black shade, its eyes glowed red, and it radiated unholy energy. Doom drove the monster to the ground, when it struck the force exerted by Doom caused a massive crater at the site of the impact. I aligned myself directly above them, then began channeling energy in my right eye, the pain was almost too much for a dream, but then this wasn't a dream, it was a memory.
I unleashed the stored energy, a beam of pure white energy struck Doom and the creature, a blood curdling roar came from the creature. Doom came hurdling out of the pillar of white light coming from my eye, his body was singed and smoking, his armour wrecked beyond repair. Then I lost control of the energy, and it shot in the 4 cardinal directions, carving massive trenches, and incinerating everything in its path. I tried to regain control, and stop the destruction but I only succeeded in momentarily stopped the flow of energy. I lost control a moment later and another beam of energy struck the ground, carving new trenches in the ground, this time the energy stopped, and my right eye slammed shut, throbbing from the prolonged usage.
I felt myself fall to the ground, Doom caught me, and helped me stand the battle had obviously been hard won. We moved to the center of the new carved eight pointed star, what had obviously been the creature was now but a pile of bones. I collapsed to the ground, then looked at the massive trenches that had been carved into the ground.
"Doom, how far do you think these trenches reach?" I asked him.
"At least to Varrock, maybe further…" He replied, sitting down on the edge of one of the trenches.
"You know…" I began.
"What?"
"It's nothing, just a thought…" I said, shaking my head.
"Out with it." He replied, levelling a battered claw at me.
"Well, you know how you were looking for a new symbol for The Reapers, well… What if we used an eight pointed star?" I said.
"heh, I like It, kinda like a compass rose, I guess our influence does extend pretty far…" Doom said, looking up at the sky.
"Then it's settled, from now on The Reapers will be represented with a compass rose."
A knock at the door woke me, the sun was setting, and the light inside my room was orange, I got up, and walked over to the door. I opened it to come face to face with a member of the high council, he had a black robe on, his amulet displayed the symbol of Valhallius, his blue and white cloak displayed a set of scales and a winged crown. He had a rather angry look on his face, he pushed past me, and into my room, he looked around, then pulled out an orb and tossed it into the air, it circled the room before glowing green.
"Now we can talk." He said, sitting down on my bed, "I am Aethenous, current leader of The Loyal Elite."
"Leader? What the hell is The Loyal Elite doing here, I thought this was Valhallius." I said, surprised and confused.
"Valhallius is a coalition of many different clans fighting under one banner, the remainder of The Loyal Elite became a part of it when they pushed The King's Death back from Kandarin, under the current arrangement we are allowed to maintain our traditions in exchange for swearing fealty to the Emperor of Valhallius, hence why my cape bears the crest of Valhallius." Aethenous said, gesturing to his cloak.
"Interesting, that would explain how Valhallius was able to make such massive territory gains practically overnight."
"Indeed, but moving on to the reason why I came here, the council is planning on using you to remove the power of the royal family." Aethenous said, the tone of his voice deadly serious.
"I figured they were planning on using me, I think I'm alright with it though, at least this time I won't be forced to fight." I said, a feeling of anger welling up in my stomach.
"You can't really be ok with that, they'd be using you to destroy the monarchy of the United Fremennik Tribes, imagine the devastation that could have on the political landscape of Valhallius." Aethenous said, his face showed fear and panic.
"I don't care about the political situation of Valhallius, I just want this damn conflict to end." I replied.
Aethenous looked depressed, he stood and walked over to the door,
"If you change your mind, my chambers can be easily found in the south garrison complex." Aethenous said, walking out of my room.
I closed the door behind him, and laid back down on my bed, I didn't care if they were going to use me, I just wanted the flashbacks to end. That night I couldn't sleep, just as I caught up to go the mess area of the medical facility I heard voices just outside my room. I crept to the door, and placed my ear against the wood, listening, they were talking about something I could barely make out what they were saying.
"…Descendent belongs to The King's Death…We will have him again!"
"I understand, but listen, if we use him now, we will be able to destroy the royal family of the Fremennik isles…"
"How would you use him better than we would!?"
"Because I seem to be the only one of us with a brain in his head!"
One of them stormed off loudly, the other one let out a sigh and walked down the hallway, when I was sure the coast was clear, I opened my door. The hallway was deserted, moonlight streamed in from the window, I closed the door, what was The King's Death doing here? My mind reeled from what I'd just heard, they were going to use me as a pawn to destroy Valhallius.
I burst through the door, and raced down the dimly lit corridors, I needed to talk to Aethenous. The medical garrison was on the Northern part of the citadel, Aethenous was situated in the southern garrison. I raced across the dark fields and stone pathways of the citadel, several guards ran after me, I ignored them, my situation was just serious enough that I could deal with the punishment later. I crossed onto the center section of the citadel, several guards attempted to cut me off, I felt my eye activate, and I leaped over them, and kept running. As I crossed onto the southern section of the citadel alarm bells started going off, I began to panic, my legs felt like lead, in my desperation I felt my eye activate again.
This time it teleported me to Aethenous, I popped into a room, the only light streamed in from the window because of the full moon. Inside the room there were three men, one of them lay on the floor, blood streaming from a wound on his neck. The other two stood over him, one of them was dressed in a green and black cape, he had a set of wicked claws on his hands, the other wore a black cloth mask, and a black robe and cloak. The man on the floor was Aethenous, seeing a member of The King's Death standing over him pushed me into panic mode, I figured I had about 10 seconds before the guards got here. I felt the rune on the back of my neck begin to activate, I strained against it to cast a simple spell, to my surprise it went off, the air bolt flew across the room aimed at the man from The King's Death.
The other man was ever so slightly in the way of the bolt, it cut a slash across his right cheek, blood spilled from the wound. The other man dodged, but the bolt caught part of his cape, shredding a piece off of it, he began to counterattack when the other man stopped him. The man in black gestured to the window, The King's Death assassin seemed to understand, both of them jumped out the window. I collapsed next to Aethenous, the adrenaline in my system seemed to be neutralizing the rune on my neck, Aethenous spurted blood from his mouth as he tried to speak. I struggled to bring my ear closer so I could hear him, I felt myself begin to succumb to the rune I just barely managed to hear what he had to say before losing consciousness.
[MG1]Possible entry for the consolidated lore timeline…?