-Anastacia of Astora-
"In the Age of Ancients the world was unformed, shrouded by fog. A land of gray crags, Archtrees and Everlasting Dragons. The world was homogeneous, static. Without beginning or the end." One part of her listened carefully to the tale of the male of the two newcomer gods, but the other screamed inside her head. There are a pair of gods sitting on the floor besides me around my bonfire!
"But then there was Fire and with fire came disparity. Now there wasn't just existence but there were states of existence. Heat and cold, life and death, and of course, light and dark." The two just showed up one day, healed her and dragged her out of her prison ignoring all her protests.
"Then from the dark, They came, and found the Souls of Lords within the flame. Nito, the First of the Dead, The Witch of Izalith and her Daughters of Chaos, Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight, and his faithful knights. And the Furtive Pygmy, so easily forgotten. And with their lord souls built civilization for their people." Then they turned the Firelink shrine into the place fitting to be the domain of the gods.
In one moment there was a normal gray and gloomy place and in the next there was a beautiful shrine made out of white marble, illuminated by the golden light, with breathtaking gardens on the floor beneath.
"Soon Seath the Scaleless betrayed his own, and told Gwyn how to bring down his kin. With the strength of Lords, they challenged the Dragons. Gwyn's mighty bolts peeled apart their stone scales. The Witches weaved great firestorms. Nito unleashed a miasma of death and disease." Naturally the paradise that they created here stood out like the sore thumb in contrast to the rest of this gray and dark hell. And so undead flocked to it like a moths to the flame.
"But the dragons were mighty, and the war of the Lords was bloody and costly. So Gwyn came to descendants of Furtive Pygmy, the humans, for help. For Pygmy unlike the rest of the Lords shattered his dark soul and gifted it all to his descendants. And so with the help of Ringed Knights the dragons finally fell. And the age of fire began." And naturally now that he begins to tell blasphemous tales against Gwyn there are many here to hear him.
"But Gwyn was afraid of humanity and their dark souls, for they were opposite to him. Darkness to his light, emotions to his reason. And so he marked their souls and bodies with a ring of fire that he connected to the first flame, caging the Dark soul within them. And so men assumed the fleeting form." Ice shot through Anastacia as she listened to the god speak. Not that she doubted that Gwyn would do such a cruel thing but…
"But all fires pitter out eventually, even the first flame. And with the weakening of the flame, the ring restraining the dark souls of humanity did as well. Alas the Dark soul within the humans grew hungry and ravenous from the imprisonment and turned from the blessing it used to be into the curse you now know as the dark sign." At that, some whispers of outrage were heard, but most of the people in the shrine had an expression of bitter acceptance that she felt on her own face.
It is true that hardship strengthens the faith of people, but there is a limit to that. Life in this dying world has long since eroded the faith of most undead.
-Asclad-
Asclad turned to the frowning Solaire, after hearing the god's story. "Are you alright, my friend?"
Truthfully his faith in gods was always half hearted, and after his stay in undead asylum he lost what little faith he had for them. So he wasn't bothered by this god's words.
No, what worried him was that his new friend would take it badly. After dealing with that dragon together, he really took a liking to the cheerful and optimistic fellow like Solaire in this gloomy time.
"Do not worry my friend, these words will not hamper my will. Though I can't say that news of Lord Gwyn's misdeeds do not hurt," Solaire said. "Although I want to believe that these words are lies, I can feel it in my bones that they are true."
Suddenly a voice besides them spoke, startling them. "To his credit, he truly did believe that darkness was going to ruin the world. And he was willing to feed his body and soul to the first flame in order to prolong the age of fire. So from his perspective he sacrificed himself to save the world."
The male god was sitting beside them as if he was always there. He didn't know how they missed him, his gigantic soul like a beacon to his senses.
"By the way I have an offer for the two of you." Said fair haired god. "I want you two to give me any special soul you can find. In exchange I will strengthen you. If you find any of the lord souls and if you pledge yourself to me I will fashion a sun for each of you to be the Lords of."
Again, he didn't know how but he knew that the god spoke the truth.
Solaire now had a wide smile, his gloomy mood gone. "To think that I would find such a mighty patron. I promise you, my Lord, that we will do our best to fulfill your task." He jumped to his feet and dragged Asclad with him.
Well I suppose that alongside ringing the bells, I had taken upon myself another quest. Which is not bad. One thing that he learned in undead asylum is that undead with purpose and goals do not become hollow easily.
…
He rose up after dying to the Bell gargoyles, feeling the warmth of the bonfire on his face.
Even without looking he knew that new god Fionn was beside him. He showed up at any bonfire that they connected to since he gave them his mission.
"Why do you keep following us, Lord Fionn? Surely the god of your power has more important things to do," he asked.
"To watch your story as it plays out, of course. The two of you fighting through this dying land, standing up every time you fall, not faltering in face of death or failure." Said the god. " Two mortals growing strong enough to challenge the gods with just their will and perseverance. Is that not an incredible story? Is it not worth watching?"
"I guess it is." Murmured Asclad.
Just then Solaire appeared near the bonfire as well. He evidently dyed yet he jumped to his feet with enthusiasm.
"Come friend, those fellows can't bar our path forever. Let's go and kill them in jolly cooperation." He paused. "Now that I think about it, would the people not think of me as a bloodthirsty barbarian if they heard my words just now? They surely would. Pretend you didn't hear that, my friend, my Lord. Hah hah hah!"
…
Going through the dark forest of darkroot gardens he and Solaire avoided awakening the golems again. Even though they were not too difficult opponents last time, they didn't feel like going through them again.
They found their patron sitting beside the bonfire, his wife beside him resting her head on his shoulder.
She was holding a shimmering, translucent mass in her hand that looked like a soul but was not, and showing it to him.
They came close and bowed to them in greeting, to which Lord Fionn indicated for them to sit down.
"We bring unique and strong souls to you, Great Lord, as requested. These are five souls of nameless soldiers, three large souls of nameless soldiers, and the soul of the moonlight butterfly." Said Solaire as he gave it to their patron.
Lady Rhyas peered at souls curiously. "Interesting. I guess your efforts bore more fruit than mine."
"Well, I wouldn't say that. All those templates of flora and fauna of this world are not bad, they hold some rare concepts in them, and that name is not impressive." Lord Fionn argued, and then looked at the two of them. "Well? Let's strengthen your soul, shall we?."
Asclad could feel something entering his soul and getting assimilated. It felt like eating a piece of crystalized importance, like every obstacle he overcame gained the new metaphysical felt the strength of both his mind and body rise with this.
When he came back to his senses two gods were talking among each other again, ignoring two of them that were until now riding on the high of soul elevation.
He heard Lady Rhyas speak with a voice full of schadenfreude and dark satisfaction "…was planning to murder her, can you believe it. So I asked him to give me his name and he did." Lady Rhyas seemed to be explaining Lord Fionn how she got that soul like mass that Lord called the name.
…
He watched as Solaire finished flirting with fire keeper Anastacia.
"My friend! My fair lady had given me the precious gift as a sign of her favor." Solaire bragged as he walked towards him and showed him a ring of pure gold on his finger. "It empowers my vitality and endurance to great extent."
As they walked and bickered good naturedly amongst each other they past a golden figure slumped to the side.
Asclad stopped. "Sir Lautrec? Are you alright?"
After a moment he leaned down and shook his shoulder lightly. Seeing that it's not working, he took of sleeping knight's golden helmet.
When he saw underneath it, he was shocked.
"He has no face?" Asked Solaire to his side, breaking him out of his stupor. "What happened to him?"
"I think I know what happened." Although he didn't remember much of the discussion the two gods had earlier today because of the rush he felt from his soul growing he still remembered the soul-like mass in Lady Rhyas possession that Lord Fionn called a name.
He had a good guess of whose name she had taken.
…
It is undisputed fact that structured magic requires practitioner to have firm grasp on laws of reality in order to employ it.
The reason for this is because reality passively resists any attempt to warp it, the more the reality warping goes against how reality ought to be stronger resistance. This resistance shows itself in the significant jump in energy cost of both actualization of the spell and its upkeep.
The structured magic minimizes this problem by incorporating laws of reality into its spell structure.
Then people may ask themselves, what about the primitive human magic tribes that are prevalent in this age. What do a bunch of uneducated cavemen know about the laws of reality? Why do we call their magic structured magic?
Well, the answer to that is somewhat complicated. Not all magical traditions use the same set of laws in its magic. After all, reality is a great and complex tapestry.
For example, the magical paradigm of various divine pantheons is rooted in the Astral dimension. It uses their knowledge of concepts inside of the Astral dimension and their interactions in order to leverage them against the rest of reality.
Their paradigm sprung from their understanding of origin of their divinity as a partial authority to command their concepts inside the Astral dimension.
On the other hand, magical paradigm of the fae druids is rooted in soul dimension. It uses our knowledge of stories that are comprises soul of something, or in other words records that float in soul dimension in order to leverage them against the rest of reality.
This way of welding magic was of course inspired by our titles.
The primitive tribes of humanity do have paradigm of their own even if they do not think of it in that way. Their paradigm was rooted in dimension of faith.
And metaphysical topography of faith dimension was really mailable. It changes in accordance with faith and belief of other beings. Because of this their paradigm shifts according to their beliefs.
Excerpt of first chapter from Magical Traditions of Primitive Tribes of Humanity by Prof. Lenora ferch Weber.
…
-Fionn ap Asteron-
Main principle of wizardry is that magic of all other magical traditions can be incorporated into wizardry. Because of this all wizards used multiple paradigms in their workings.
As result of this wizards gained a fearsome reputation of being versatile opponents that always had a trick up their sleeve.
Because of this all wizards had a fiery passion for finding new magical traditions and stealing their secrets. And Fionn and his wife were no different.
So imagine their delight at studying three magical paradigms and multiple traditions that sprang from them.
His focus right now was especially on miracle casting.
It was a fascinating system of magic. The casting of today uses practitioners' faith in the various miracles of the gods in order to recreate them, the actual truthfulness of those miracles are not actually important, only your faith in them.
The gods of Gwyns court on other hand used their faith and belief in themselves in order to cast miracles.
He focused and with a wave of hand a golden light enveloped his two companions, healing them. Interesting them before they entered Quelaag's domain was a simple thing.
They were both tired and frustrated, having died many times on their journey through Blighttown.
"What are you doing here my Lord?" Asked Solaire.
"I'm going with you for a while. There are four individuals that I want to recruit here." Fionn answered while listening in amusement, choking sounds from the woman to the side.
He turned towards her. "What do you think?"
She seemed startled when he turned his attention to her, but not surprised that he managed to pierce the invisibility enchantment covering her.
"Who are you? Your soul puts to shame the souls of all three Lords combined." She asked in a mixture of shocked awe and fear.
"I am Fionn, Archfae of Tír na réalta, Archon of Stars, Origin of Magic. What do you say? Would you like to enter my service with your two sisters and brother?"
"My Lord, I am afraid that the rest of my family have become mindless monsters. In fact if you give them a merciful death, I shall swear to be your most loyal servant. Please my Lord, they have suffered enough." She pleaded.
"When your mother tried to transform her Lord-soul of life into the new flame she lost control of it. For life is ever adapting, ever changing, ever evolving." Fionn shook his head. "You escaped before the flame of chaos reached you and warped your mind and body, but the rest of your family hadn't."
She started crying now but he continued, this is not the time to sugar coat it. "Three of your siblings were close to escape as well, they failed but they were far enough from the flame that it only warped their bodies and not their minds."
"Their situation is not enviable however. Your brother Quelan's body is now that of a great demon that sweats rivers of lava from his skin, he lives in great pain. Your youngest sister Quelina weakened greatly, saving their servants from demonic parasitic disease. She now survives only due to your sister Quelaag who gives her humanity by hook or by crook." he said.
The mother of pyromancy Quelana seemed stricken. "Naturally if they came under my service I would fix those issues for them."
…
Quelaag upon seeing them didn't rush and attack them on sight like she usually does. It seemed that she thought better of it once she saw Fionn.
From there he gave her his offer, to which she agreed to. The state of her sister was worsening despite her best efforts, it was a downward spiral from which she didn't know how to get out. Fionn was her last hope.
Soon they arrived before the fair lady Quelina. She looked sickly and thin and even her spider lower half didn't look so good.
Fionn lowered his hand on her while her sisters looked worried from the side.
Leveraging his titles as a Archfae and Original Fyrnenon he cut deep into her being with his power. Changing her whole being into the fae race of Fyrnenon.
In a flash of light instead of half spider sickly woman now stood a beautiful blonde haired witch in her prime.
With that done, he now had to transform the other sister, rest of their servants as well as their brother.
He decided to leave Quelana as she is for now. The story that she carves out will hold more weight without the fae strength backing her. She held promise, she just had to steel her heart and give her suffering family a final mercy.
Honestly he understood not wanting to kill her family, even if they were a bare shadow of what they once were, but this has passed being kind-hearted and entered into territory of being cowardly.
…
-Asclad-
As soon as he entered the chamber Asclad ran to the left, killing the thing there. Solaire ran in the opposite direction, destroying the one on the right and avoiding the floor falling down. Quelana was concentrating on supporting them and burning the branches in their way.
This was the perfected strategy that they worked out after many many deaths.
Asclad ran back towards the entrance of the chamber, while dodging the falling floor and fire raining down from above.
Soon he met there with his other two companions and they rushed towards the middle.
Hacking and burning through the wall of branches, they finally arrived at the heart of the fire demon-tree thing that was the bed of chaos.
Asclad swung his sword, cleaving through it with almost no difficulty.
All of them came to a halt in shock when they saw Lord soul just floating there.
"We killed her?" Asked Quelana in shock.
"Well that was anticlimactic." Said Solaire in shocked incredulity.
Asclad sympathized, he to could not believe it. They feel in battle with a bed of chaos countless times, and yet one swing of sword at one particular point of her body and she dies instantly.
"Well we better bring the Lord soul to Lord Fionn now." He said after a small pause, deciding to forget about this. This was the most frustrating enemy he ever fought.
…
After giving Lord soul to their patron they returned to Firelink shrine and got Andre to ascend some of their reserve weapons with divine ember.
Andre was different from before, both in body and spirit. Like all others that were turned into fae by the new Lord and Lady, he was now better looking with his features now more dignified and noble. His change in demeanor was more subtle but present nonetheless. He was now more focused and driven like someone set a fire in his heart.
Also like all others that were turned, he seemed to know and see more than before. Knowing things he couldn't know and sometimes speaking in wage riddles.
After getting their divine weapons they headed to the catacombs.
The skeletons and necromancers were annoying, but not very hard to beat. No, the most troublesome enemies were bonewheel skeletons. He fucking hated them.
Anyway, after beating some weird and somewhat funny necromancer in the chamber full of books they continued into the Tomb of the Giants.
The darkness was all encompassing and even with lanterns the visibility was low.
After some time of walking they saw a familiar person.
"Well if it isn't trusty Patches." Said Solaire sarcastically.
"Hey Quelana, put the two of you under invisibility enchantment. I want to know what will he do if he thinks I am alone." Said Asclad to which she nodded.
He continued and the trickster saw him. "What, you again? Well, well! I see that your companions aren't with you. You've been strangers. Anyway good to see you're well, mate. Oh, right, you came at the perfect time. There's a fine stash of treasure right down that hole. I found it first, but... well, we're friends now. I'll split it with you! In any case, have a look, it'll shimmer you blind! Heh heh heh…"
Asclad in return waived and said quick 'hey' and put on curious but weary expression on his face and did as the Patches asked, although he already had a guess to where this is going.
As soon as he peered down Patches pushed him down the hole.
"Heh heh, this is what I do, my friend. The trinkets I'll be stripping off your corpse; that's the real treasure! Nyah hah hah hah!" Patches laughed.
Although he wasn't laughing very much when he got a great fireball in the back, courtesy of irritated Quelana. He died, of course. His burning corpse falling down the hole.
The priestess Reah was there, along with two of her companions that have gone hollow.
After defeating them, Reah gave Solaire a new miracle and they continued on their way.
The Tomb of the Giants had of course many giant skeletons. And although they were stronger than ordinary ones, skeletons are still skeletons and so easily defeated.
They continued slicing through their opposition until they found a plunging hole that was entrance to the Gravelord Nito's chamber.
As it seemed is customary for fighting a Lord, they died a lot. Nito's spell that closes all those great swords to plunge out of the ground was really damaging and hard to evade. His physical strength was no joke as well.
It took a lot of trying, but they succeeded.
…
Fyrnenon shape shifting is one of the most famous innate abilities of our race.
And although what people call freeform shapeshifting is an incredibly convenient ability, the true power of that innate ability is assuming the form of our templates.
This allows us to not only assume the form of the template effortlessly but also to unique powers of said template.
For example, many noble houses of hell found out that for Fyrnenon to take their template one drop of their blood was enough. And that Fyrnenon could use the bloodline abilities of the clan they have a template of.
Although it is not well known outside of our race, Fyrnenon could build templates of their own without taking it from anyone.
This means that many templates in possession of one Fyrnenon may not exist anywhere in the universe, due to said template being created by them.
Excerpt from Compendium of Known Innate Abilities of the Fyrnenon by Anton ap Mikhailov
…
-Rhyas ferch Asteron-
Rhyas took Estus' flask and poured out its contents, leaving the liquified light of the First Flame to float before her.
Then she infused the golden liquid with a wisp of soulfire and seven grams of twinkling titanite dust.
The ball of liquid weighed and bubbled, as she added one more ingredient.
Upon mixing with the three drops of Phenix tears, the mixture changed state of matter from the liquid into plasma.
With a push of her will the mixture merged with a template of a beautiful prehistoric bird of paradise.
What remained was the template of the bird of gold resplendent flame and deep abyssal darkness that represented the cycle of the world of Dark souls. The age of fire and the age of dark.
The Phoenix of the First Flame.
She exited her soulscape and drew slightly on her new template. There was no need to turn fully into the bird for her to wield its abilities, after all.
Above her palm a ball of First Flame hung. It did not possess the might of the first flame in the beginning of the age of fire, but that could be solved by pumping more power into it.
She turned her head around, careful not to wake a cute child resting her head on her lap, looking at the bonfire of the Painted world. Without a little offshoot of the first flame that are bonfires, she could not have made such a powerful form.
Suddenly a wall of mist that was the entrance to the painted world of Ariamis shimmered and three figures walked in.
Priscilla propped herself upright and looked at the new visitors. "Art thou mine new companions? Mine fairest Lady Rhyas told me of thine quest and asked me to assist thee."
…
-Asclad-
"Fuck!" He cursed as he dodged the lunge from Ornstein and recast homing soulmass and magic weapon. Thank god that he started learning sorceries, or this would have been even more difficult.
Priscilla exited her invisibility and for one final time she swung her scythe, ending the dragonslayer's life.
"Curse you abomination! You should…have…been…killed…in…the…crib." Gurgled Ornstein from the floor.
"Thy words doth not concern me, thee mere Imitation. Now be quiet and take thy defeat gracefully, doth not mar the image of that brave knight any further." Said the uncharacteristically unkind Priscilla.
"How did dragonslaying knight slighted you, for you to say such words, lady Priscilla?" Asked Solaire the question they all wanted to ask.
Now that he thought about it she was unusually vicious during the whole fight, and especially against the executioner.
"This is not Ornstein. This is golem madeth in his image and corrupted by that loathsome pig." said Priscilla angrily.
"Alright let's not tarry here, another chamber awaits us." Asclad to everyone's agreement.
…
The moment four of them fell into the abyss they moved.
Quellana started her bombardment of pyromancies, Asclad and Solaire opened with a barrage of ranged sorceries and miracles each, and Priscilla sent out ranged slashes of lifehunt.
Afterwards three of the melee combatants attacked at close range while Quellana stayed back.
Battle was short but vicious. The four kings did not lose without a fight.
With a yell Asclad rammed his sword enhanced with a great magic weapon into the king's skull.
"Well that was an impressive battle." Said Lord Fionn that was sitting beside the bonfire as usual.
"Thank you, my Lord." Asclad said while giving him a substernal amount of unique souls that they collected.
"Hmm." Lord hummed while four of them came back from the high of your soul suddenly becoming larger.
When he came back to his senses he saw something laying down not far from the bonfire.
It was a giant head of… "Is that a primordial serpent?"
"Hmm? Oh yes. He was getting quite disrespectful, so I had to teach him a lesson." He said while taking out gray soul.
"Aren't they supposed to be unkillable?" Asked Solaire.
"Well obviously not." Said their Lord casually.
…
The Crystal cave is the most frustrating location in the entire world.
The number of deaths that they have suffered due to falling to death, of those damnable invisible paths was ridiculous.
For this reason alone he is going to kill Seth the Scaleless, and he is going to make it hurt.
"So you are still alive, little abomination. A pity. I hoped that you died in that accursed prison of yours." Said large but deformed dragon, in a cruel tone of voice. "What cat got your tongue? Are you not going to say something to your father?"
"I have nothing to say to someone who is not long for this world." Said Priscilla calmly.
That was not very surprising. He learned till now that although Priscilla was the kindest woman he met she was surprisingly strong willed.
"Foolish girl, I am immortal!"
"So were the rest of Archdragons and yet they hath fallen. And thee, father, were always least impressive of them all."
It seemed that old Seth had an inferiority complex because he was pissed.
With a roar and lunge, battle began.
…
Giving the last part of Gwyn's Lord soul to Lord Fionn was supposed to be their last task, or at least he thought so. Apparently not.
Because it seemed their lord needed something that does not exist in the present day so he transported them back to the past.
So now they are going through the Forest of Oolacile that has a curious resemblance to the Darkroot Garden.
After going through the forest and passing one fellow that claimed that he was taken to the past by some nightmarish black hand they came across the place in which, according to locals, Knight Artorias Abysswalker fell.
The knight fought well but was defeated. He would have given all of them all a fight for their money if they fought individually, but fighting all four of them at once was too much for him.
After killing that pesky dragon they continued towards that so-called primeval man.
…
Abyssal chasm of Oolacile was similar to Tomb of Giants in that it was incredibly dark. Adding to that the floating souls of the humans consumed by their humanity, the place looked hellish. Not that the humanity phantoms were very challenging enemies.
Going through dark chasm they eventually found a wolf, being protected by the shield that projected a dome that shielded the pup from the abyss around him.
"Well then, where did you come from, little guy? What are you doing here?" Asked Solaire as he petted the little wolf.
"His master hast gone to great lengths to protect him. T is admirable." Said Priscilla.
"Well we can't leave him alone so he might as well come with us," he said to the agreement of others.
And so four of them and a wolf pup continued towards the man that had brought the abyss to Oolacile.
They knew immediately when they were at the entrance to the chamber that housed the primeval man. The might of his soul did not lose out to the Lord Nito or the Bed of Chaos.
He was broken from his thoughts when he heard…Solaire arguing with wolf pup?
"... can't come with us, it's too dangerous." The whining and growling was his only answer.
"No, you are not coming and that is last." Said Solaire with a much harsher voice, which seemingly cowed pup into compliance.
So they headed towards the chamber.
However it seemed their opponent knew that they were there too, and he was feeling impatient. Because a gigantic black hand lunged out of darkness and grabbed them. Dragging them into its chamber and dropping them down.
The mutated and dark thing waited for them there. It had black inky and leathery skin, its face looking more like a beast than a human with a muzzle full of razor sharp teeth.
It had deer-like horns and ridged spikes going down its spine.
Suddenly it jumped towards them with incredible speed, and the only thing they could do was dodge to the side.
Asclad dodged the things staff by hair's breadth, but still shockwave flung him to the side.
Ignoring Solaire who was hurling the sunlight spears at it and Quellana who was doing the same, it pursued him instead.
It seems that it does not like me. He thought as he layered crystal magic weapon and strong magic shield sorceries on his equipment.
With a yell he lunged at the creature and cut into it while levering the power of his humanity (or in other words tiny fragment of the Dark Lord soul), he concentrated on the spell formula while filling it with all his fear and aggression, letting out a dark orb to smash into it just before it's flesh met his sword.
Now that I think about it, my medaling in dark sorceries may be the reason for creatures' aggression towards me. Like seeing another predator muscling in on its territory.
But while he had gotten quite a few hits in while dodging its blows, he could not dodge forever.
Thing's staff slammed into him and sent him flying.
Solaire and Priscilla attacked the creature with ferocious frontal attack, in order to distract the creature while he recovered.
Just then he heard a wolf's howl and saw from the corner of his eyes pup sprinting towards the fighting.
Solaire could as well because he cursed loudly.
He quickly chugged an estus and hurried back just as the creature started to cast some large scale dark sorcery.
Fuck! This is going to suck!
…
With a final great combustion from Quellana, the thing was finally dead.
As its corpse disappeared it left behind a shivering woman, dressed in an expensive dress.
Just as he took the dark soul of the beast and was about to see is the woman alright, a pillar of light descended from above for each of them (woman and pup included).
…
-Fionn ap Asteron-
As he watched the battle end with his sight Fionn flexed his power and with a thought willed all sane residents of Oolacile to this time.
He looked towards the Big Hat Logan with whom he was debating on the sorcery of this world till now.
"It's time."
The old man just bowed in acknowledgement.
He pulled all unique souls he got from the four, and started bringing them back to life as fae, Artorias going first.
Soon a mass of people were looking around not knowing what was happening.
He ignored them and pulled on the newest template in his collection and transformed.
Rhyas truly outdone herself with this form. He thought as his form unfurled.
A Phoenix one story tall and growing, made out of golden-white flames and abyssal darkness.
Another Phoenix rose from the other side of the shrine, his wife transformed too.
Both of them rose into the sky, spiraling each other as they flew. The pillar of fire tailed behind them as they performed their airborne dance.
Everyone in the world sensed the two pure beings of the First flame that rose into the sky. From the gods and humans living in distant lands to the ones just beneath them.
And despite this seemingly wonderful thing, all of them knew in their bones that soon the world would burn out and the age of dark would begin.
All of them knew that their only chance is to bend a knee to two beings if they fished to be saved.
And they all did. From newly arrived denizens of Oolacile, to the Dark Sun Gwendolyn, to Gwyn's firstborn son and the Ornstein with him, to the Gwynevere Princess of Sunlight in the distant lands. All kneeled and all were turned to fae in an instant.
With another flex of will all the possessions of the newly turned fae as well as anything else worth taking like secret treasures, libraries and natural resources were stripped from the world, and channeled it in their personal pocket space.
In the presence of two Phoenixes of the First Flame, the first flame started to burn stronger and brighter.
At that moment it was like the beginning of the age of fire, and then darkness.
In its dying breath the first flame burned brightly, but it burned out just as fast.
And so the age of fire ends, and age of dark begins.
…
All beings capable of magic produce one kind of magical energy or the other, sometimes even multiple ones.
But it is very hard for someone to start producing some kind of energy that he was not born with. Chanell from another source, yes, start producing it on your own, no.
This is important because the kind of magical energies you use can severely restrict what kind of magic you can use.
Using necromantic or demonic energy for healing is for example almost impossible. These energies just do not have concepts aligned for healing.
People have often bypassed this restriction by channeling the energy of cosmic forces, planes, dimensions, or powerful entities. Drawing power from sources other than your own, becoming a sorcerer.
This however, besides taking time to master, can open sorcerers to influence from those sources. This can be dangerous, both for the architecture of your soul and for the continuation of your free will.
The Fyrnenon can bypass this problem entirely. They can incorporate production of new magical energies, if they have the sample of said energy in question.
Sorcery of course is not useless even to Fyrnenon. Being able to produce all kinds of energy they may be, but their stores of energy are not limitless. One of the advantages the sorcerer's poses is that they had a practically unending pool of energy to draw from…
…the sorcery of Fyrnenon draws from the stars of the Tír na réalta that were said to be representing the personal energies of their monarchs.
Excerpt from The Study on Sorcery of Nonhuman Beings by Scorpius Black.
…
Back in the Tír na réalta the two of them floated in space.
Turning their attention inwards, they entered their soulscape. One particular part of it that represented one of their innate abilities.
This part of their soulscape was an empty space filled with numerous stars of all colors. Each star represented a specific magical energy.
Fionn took out the Lord souls and soul of Manus and started working.
Souls of life, death, light, and dark were incorporated into their soulscape and titles, and soon enough four new stars hung in the soulscape.
With a pull from their Phoenix template, they drew on the first flame and fashioned the star from it as well.
This space incorporated the titles of Zenith of Matter-Energy, Archon of Stars, and Original Fyrnenon. And with it they had an infinite amount of any magical energy that had its star.
Exiting their soulscape they pulled on the energy of the four stars. Using the Zenith of Matter-Energy and Archon of Stars they created the five new stars in realspace.
…
Sitting on the throne of his palace in Astropolis, Fionn looked at four kneeling fae.
"You four have completed my task excellently and now it's time for me to complete my part of the deal." He said to the four. "From the energies of the Lord souls I have fashioned the four stars, one for each of you."
"Solaire you will be the Star Lord of the star Gwyn, Quellana you will be the Star Lady of the star Quela, Priscilla you will be the Star Lady of the star Nito, Asclad you will be the Star Lord of the star Manus." Said Fionn.
Although the titles are often gained by one's own achievements, that wasn't always the case.
After becoming a Fae Lord and after that the Archfae one becomes able to bestow certain titles onto their subordinates. These titles can of course be taken away by bestower.
He teleported away from the palace and into their private cottage. Finding his wife on the table sipping tea.
He took a cup waiting for him and took a sip of his own.
They gained new subjects, made five new stars, and gained many new templates. And he ensured a happy ending for the characters from one of his favorite childhood games.
….
AN: Its been a long time since I played dark souls and I had only wiki as a sort of reminder, so I am bound to make mistakes. For example I have already completed more than half of the chapter when I realized that I had them start killing bosses that drop Lord souls without finding lordvessel. After trying, and failing, to edit it without rewriting most of the chapter I gave up. You can think of it as AU or mc secretly helping them behind the scenes.