So...here we are once again for another edition of Plot Points with your (somewhat) faithful host, High_Inquisitor!
(HA! I get it!)
For this edition, we will be taking a look at one of the most alienated (yet pivotal) "nations" in the world of Erondir Itterra: the arctic prison-colony of Xenosae. It has a rich backstory to it, as well as a brief tale of insanity and horror!
But enough about what I ate for lunch, on with the show!
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(Quick note: This has all been written down first in this Inquisitor's "BIG BLACK BOOK 2011", a collection of all the hair-brained ideas that I shall have throughout the December of 2010-December 2011. Enjoy!)
During the First Dread Plague, a group of rebel magi were caught trying to dabble in the magic of the daemons. Ilynn, who at this point was busy fighting to keep the mortal realm safe, including his City of Magi, took little notice of this rebel group--until daemon after daemon began to pour out from inside the city's walls. After the city of purged and deemed secure, Ilynn found those responsible and banished them from the city. He then sent out a warning to all other inhabited lands and all the other gods of the Unekara, warning them of their ties to daemon magic and treachery. These magi were essentially banned from Erondir Itterra.
Although, essentially does not necessarily mean completely...
After sailing around the world, the group came across a sizable island of perpetual snow and ice. After finding a suitable spot to land, they embarked and found no sign of life. This, they felt, was an ideal place to continue their studies in peace, without Ilynn's intervention.
They named their colony Xenos, being strangers to a strange land. They did what they could to survive in the unforgiving climate. When they were not struggling against the perpetual blizzard, they were studying the secrets of daemonic magic. However, progress was slow and many were growing impatient with the lack of results. Some were driven to madness, swearing that they knew the secret but then dying and/or disappearing inexplicably; some were driven to commit suicide as the thoughts of imminent failure impeded their every movement. Eventually, there remained only one devoted mage.
This last mage, whose name has been erased from history, was visited in his dreams by an entity--neither goddess (Aijani) nor daemon (there had been reported cases where daemons have visited the mortal realm through dreams); Aijani may know what exactly this being was, but she is reluctant to talk about this. In this dream, the mage was given the secrets to not daemonic magic, but something greater--the power to become a deity himself.
Using what little he could find on Xenos and underground (there is an extensive cave system on the island), the mage was able to somehow scrounge together the materials for a crude yet supposedly effective device that held in it the potential to allow this mortal to transcend mortality and become a god. The crucial component of it all--a crystalline core that could deliver the power of godhood with the blood of 10,000 mortal--was found underneath the encampment itself (supposedly, according to the gods that whisper about this event amongst themselves, they have never before encountered a crystal like that before, nor have they seen anything like it since). How it got there, the mage did not know, nor did he care. His only concern was the ultimate power to wield all the magic he could imagine.
But there was still one flaw: Ilynn had been watching the group of magi since their exile. Concerned about this growing threat, Ilynn traveled and personally examined the machine. However, unknown to Ilynn, the mage would have been unable to activate his machine anyway; he lacked the blood required to run his precious device properly. Even so, Ilynn--much like the others in the Unekara--saw this as a threat to usurp their power, and the god of magic felt the need to finish the job he had left undone for several years.
After killing the rogue mage, Ilynn tried to destroy the machine. The structure itself was simple enough and disintegrated almost instantaneously, but the crystal core...it would not be destroyed, not even by one of the Unekara! However, it was able to be split into fragments (at the cost of an enormous amount of power from Ilynn) which were scattered to obscure places around the world. His threat dealt with, Ilynn traveled once again back to his City of Magi, where he could recuperate and recover after his ordeal.
Sometime between the First and Second Dread Plagues (roughly a 1500 year gap or so), a group of citizens on Antaea were arrested for attempting to assassinate a beloved king. After praying to Svorni for guidance on the matter, the king had a dream. In it, Svorni and Ilynn suggested that the criminals be sent off to the frozen wastelands in the south. The original Xenos colony was all but exterminated, but Ilynn felt that the king did not need to know of the dark history surrounding the island.
To this day Xenosae is a prison colony. Those that perform unspeakable crimes are exiled here. Those that guard the walls are as unforgiving as the arctic landscape. Yet somewhere, deep below the surface, lies the site of an almost abhorrent crime against the gods...
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Hope you enjoyed this episode of Plot Points! Don't know how regularly I'll be updating, but when I do, at least it'll be juicy like this was!
Subject: PLOT POINTS: Part II 
Wed Dec 29, 2010 7:15 pm
