K von Carstein
Likes to go for a walk
- Location
- Belgium
- Pronouns
- He
So basically the Beastmen are only one subspecies of the Skavens? /s😉
Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest
- Thread starter Boney
- Start date
- Fantasy Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Mopman43
Mountain-Hermit of Nitpeak
- Location
- Vermont
It ends when someone runs in holding a plucked chicken, as is tradition.
I was seriously considering figuring out how to say featherless biped in PM notation, but it would have been way too much work for a joke that requires two fairly esoteric deep dives just go get.
Yeah, they do that from time to time, no idea why. I've reordered it back into the right place.
All distinctions and categories are human concepts. There are no 'types' of things, everything and everyone is a minority of one.
There is no
- Location
- Somewhere.
We do not need another Skitter! We've already got plenty!
Mopman43
Mountain-Hermit of Nitpeak
- Location
- Vermont
Shadow Stalker is an Ulgu mage with a Mastery that lets her use Substance of Shadow in light.
- Location
- on the way to the fire.
- Pronouns
- He
All sufficiently large fictions will have a worm crossover in time, Amber!Skitter is just staying ahead of the curve.
Last edited:
Mopman43
Mountain-Hermit of Nitpeak
- Location
- Vermont
As the number of fics written for a property increases, the probability that someone will write an Alt-power Taylor fic using it approaches 1.
(Of course, there's already multiple such fics for WHF)
- Location
- Europa, Jupiter Orbit
Imp has a triple mastery on Mindhole (range, affects multiple people, reversible at will) and can chain cast it, but doesn't have any other spells.
- Location
- on the way to the fire.
- Pronouns
- He
Too late
[jk] accuse the We of being a disembodied amnesic peggy sue'd taylor.
alright alright, no more worm jokes...
[jk] accuse the We of being a disembodied amnesic peggy sue'd taylor.
alright alright, no more worm jokes...
Tales of U-K8P: A Storm from the South, Epilogue
- Location
- Chicago
- Pronouns
- She/They
Tales of U-K8P: A Storm from the South
Part 12 - Epilogue
Darna snarled at the mass of skeletons over the slumped body of her friend. She had never felt more Dawi in her life than she did at the moment- awash in a sea of enemies, the footing treacherous beneath her, and only the axes and hammers of her companions to set her back against. Defending a kingdom and a King that had seemed powerful and glorious beyond belief, drawn out and annealed by repeated battles until it seemed even a careless breath would break them.
She saw the tiny group of reinforcements enter the avenue a hundred yards away, a small figure in red robes at their center. She saw the emotions flicker across Hannah's face: fear to joy and relief to sadness and despair to steely-eyed determination.
She saw her friend do *something* and collapse from the backlash of whatever spell she had attempted.
Then the skeletons started to explode.
It was like firecrackers on a string- first a small ring of soft pops centered over where Hannah was, then rolling outwards as each detonation triggered two more until the entire avenue shook with the deafening, resounding noise of skeletons bursting and clattering to pieces.
And then it was over.
The chain reactions were still ongoing- there was a dull roar as the wavefront propagated back up the underway into the Black Crag, but under Karagril the situation had gone from a thousand enemies to every dwarf to a hundred dwarves for every enemy in the span of a breath, and the dwarves wasted no time at all in putting them down- the few giant scorpions and animated statues which were all that remained of the Tomb King's host.
Above her, King Belegar stared in amazement, then began laughing and shouting.
"Vala-Azril-Ungol!"
The cry was quickly taken up by those around them, and Darna found that she, too, was laughing. Laughing even as tears ran down her face. Beneath her, a body stirred.
"...s'd we win? 's that wa 'is is?" Lissele managed weakly.
"YES! Yes, we won. It's all won- the whole war Lissele, we just won the WHOLE WAR!"
"...'s good, right?" But Lissele had a smile on her face too, even for as weak a joke as it was.
"Yes," Darna sobbed through her smile, "yes, it's very good."
__________________________
Hannah didn't remember much of the time between making her decision and sitting in a small room with the King of Karak Eightpeaks while he fed her tea, but she supposed it must have been a few hours at least. At least, King Belegar had had a chance to wash his face, to change out of his gromril plate and into casual chain and leathers.
She blinked at him a few times. He steadfastly refused to disappear, instead wrapping her hands around a steaming mug with his own.
"Ah, that's good lass. Glad to see you aware and moving again- the runepriests told me you were at the center of whatever it was that happened but I'd begun to think I'd need to dig elsewhere for answers."
"Are… did we win?" Hannah asked.
"Aye, the rats are all dead and that blasted mummy retreated with the few soldiers he had left. We won. Now, can you tell me *how* we won?"
"...Lissele? And Darna?"
"One's in the healers' hands and the other one's making a nuisance of herself telling stories all over the damn place. Stories that I have managed to avoid commenting on until I know what really happened, as is a King's prerogative. Are you going to tell me what really happened?"
The memories came rushing back and the calm vagueness that wrapped about her cracked. She sat up sharply, slopping tea over her wrists.
"I can explain! Well, um, l can mostly explain… But it's not as bad as it's going to sound! The Lady Magister Weber knew all of it and she was fine and never went evil!" Hannah babbled almost desperately. "I swear I won't do it again!"
King Belegar lifted an eyebrow almost as high as his crown.
"Lass, whatever it was you did do likely saved us all, so I bloody well hope you WILL do it again if it comes down to it- your oath is rejected. Now, what was *it*?"
Hannah drew a deep, shuddering breath. She knew she had to confess, knew that of all the judges she could have hoped to face, a dwarf king whose kingdom she had just saved was the best option she had. But somehow she still couldn't make her lips form the words 'I used Dhar'. So she tried another tact.
"Your majesty, you were probably to busy with the war to know, but the priest Dorin was my commander until he passed. He gave me a key, and some words for the longbeards, and they named me heir to Magister Johann of the Gold Order."
"Ah, the lease on the Gold Tower. Yes, I was informed- had to give my approval before they could even talk of a new leaseholder, but I'd figured I'd have a chance to sort it out after the rats were crushed. So you are the little mageling trying to fill those shoes, huh? Seems a good start you've made."
"Thank you, your majesty. What you may not have known was that some things had been left to Magister Johann by the Lady Magister, includingthelibermortis." Hannah spoke the last few words in a rush.
"What." King Belegar's face could have been carved out of stone.
"Inc...Including the Liber Mortis?"
"Heard you the first time, lass." The king stood to pace, mustering into his beard. "Seventy years since she disappeared and *still* that woman manages to surprise me. Must have had it up her sleeve the whole damn time." He turned to face Hannah.
"You know what I asked her, the day she told me she could build the Eye of Gazul? I asked her if she had any other super weapons tucked away. And you know what she said? None ready for deployment. Bloody grey wizards and their bloody secrets. Now- hero of the Karak you may be but I certainly can't let *that* just float about my kingdom; you are no Mathilde Weber, not yet. Will you surrender it?"
"Yes! Yes, absolutely. It's in the gold tower still, I can just…" Hannah stood up, looking for a place to set her tea, only for Belegar to wave her down.
"It's not going anywhere, and no one else knows of it, yes? Good. Then stay there a moment." He paced, deep in thought. "Your colleges aren't going to be the least bit happy about this, are they?"
Hannah gulped, forced into consideration of the actual consequences of her action for the first time.
"No, your majesty. We- they'd probably expel me and burn me at the stake. And they'd be right to do so. I'm an oath breaker…"
The king's eyes sharpened. "Oath breaker? Explain. Quickly."
"Article seven: No Magister may ever study the Forbidden Lores of the Daemonic Powers, nor the unholy ways of Necromancy, nor any other sorcery or witchcraft that utilises the wicked powers of Dark Magic. Any Magister found disregarding this Article is guilty of an Abominable Act and is both Heretic and Traitor and will be put to sword and fire immediately.
"I studied the Liber Mortis hoping for a weapon I could use. And when I learned that the weapon I sought required the use of dark magic, I used it. I knew it meant my death to use it and I did it anyways because I couldn't watch everyone die and do nothing!"
Hannah was shaking, tears running down her face. King Belegar ceased his pacing and stared down at her.
"So that's what you meant when you said you'd swear never to do it again. Just as well I rejected you, you'd already broken an oath not to do it in the first place, a second would be worth less than dust."
There was something calming in confessing; Hannah's shakes slowed, and her tears dried. She looked up at him, awaiting confirmation- her fear had passed, and all that was left was the knowledge that she had chosen to trade her life, her soul, for Lissele and Darna and all the rest. She didn't think she'd chosen wrongly.
"But."
And that word was enough to crack her.
"But we are not in the empire, and they do not know you are an oath breaker. Yet. And it was my kingdom you saved in breaking your oath, and poor repayment indeed would it be to send you to the pyre for it."
His fingers drummed on the table.
"Do you wish to die for this?" He asked.
"Do I… No! No, your majesty. I don't wish to die."
"And will you keep secret all that you learned and did, on pain of death by burning?"
"...yes, your majesty?"
"Then here is what happened: you utilized an ancient weapon of this Karak at my order, and this weapon, which required a wizard to use, destroyed that army. If anyone asks you what this weapon was, you will tell them you swore an oath of secrecy to me. If anyone points out that this weapon had effects suspiciously similar to the Liber Mortis, you will deny it. Is this clear?"
Hannah gaped at him. Full on, fish out of water gaping- which was, she felt, the only appropriate response when a Dwarf King told you they were going to lie on your behalf.
"Y...Yes! Your majesty!"
Belegar sighed, and passed a hand over his face. He looked old, Hannah suddenly noticed.
"I do you no kindness by this, lass. Your name, and those of your friends, are going to be shouted to the skies as the heroes of this war. And each time you'll have to smile and lie, lest you burn for it. I know such things rest lighter on umgi but to spend the rest of your life praised for breaking your oath would destroy me, or any Dawi I laid this upon. To do it to you and call it a 'reward' is hard enough. Can you survive it?"
She took a deep breath. And another.
"I will, your majesty. I must. I made my choice to sacrifice when I touched that power, and this is a lesser sacrifice you offer me. I won't waste that difference."
"Then we both know what we must do."
____________________
Darna was pacing back and forth in front of the healers' ward when Hannah found her. The two of them barely exchanged words, just hugging each other and crying tears of relief until the door finally opened and a nurse gestured for them to follow. In moments they were at the side of a bed, and the nurse was withdrawing, closing a curtain behind herself to give the women some privacy.
On the bed, Lissele stirred. Her injuries had been extensive. Three broken ribs from killing the rat-spider the master moulder had ridden on, a nasty snaking series of gashes running from her left wrist all the way up her arm and wrapping down around to her hip from where she had gotten tangled by his electrowhip. A cracked pelvis and shattered femur from where an animated statue had kicked her as she tried to retreat.
Fortunately, the Karak housed Jade wizards, and to the heroes went the special attention. What had been her second set of permanently crippling injuries within the space of a week had been mended to scar tissue and deep bruises.
"...Hannah? Darna? Oh thank the Lady. You both made it."
"We made it. We all made it. Oh thank the ancestors you are still with us too."
Hannah said nothing, but simply crawled into the bed next to Lissele, and laid her head on her chest.
Lissele smiled and closed her eyes.
Content.
_________________________
The news spread quickly, of course, at least the broad strokes.
That King Belegar had faced down a Nehekharan Tomb King and dared it to prove him a liar. That King Belegar had unleashed yet *another* magical superweapon from his seemingly endless stores of them. ('Remember the time he unleashed a dragon?' the gossips prodded each other, and this newest 'just another' superweapon faded for lack of detail into the background, while the greatest hits of the Eye of Gazul and the Dragon's Tooth Menhir were played again.) That clan moulder had made a play during the siege and had been rebuffed. That new heroes had been minted, fêted, and loosed upon the world.
Closer to home, it was discovered that the girl who had rallied the Undumgi at the West Gate, the girl who led the king to the secret skaven army, and the girl who unleashed the weapon to destroy the Tomb King's army were all freshman students at the University of Karak Eightpeaks. And they were roommates.
The "golden trio", as they were quickly dubbed, had become inescapable. One famous etching of the three- Darna in the foreground, with a steely expression, flanked by Lissele as a fully armored knight and Hannah as a classic bright magister- was known to have made it as far as Lustria, albeit in the form of a pamphlet advertising the University. It was a success; enrollment for the next matriculating class was actually *up*, despite the Karak being only months past a gruelling siege.
Merchants and students and noncombatants who had ridden out the war in Ulrikardin came flooding back, eager for tales and stories, in awe of those who stayed and fought. Longbeards nodded knowingly to each other as they grumbled that Dorin might have taken an awful long time choosing a trustworthy wizard, but by the ancestors he had chosen the *right* one.
And as for the trio themselves?
Darna was almost bursting with good cheer- the longbeards who taught her pre-rune classes had ceased to snort and turn away when she brought up leaning actual runesmithing; instead, there was much stroking of beards and consulting of the old records to try and find precedent.
Lissele had been told there was a Captain's rank in the undumgi awaiting her upon graduation, and in the meantime she had been invited to join the Karak's professional bloodbowl team- the only human on an otherwise all-dwarf roster. She confessed to her friends that she doubted she would ever get over having her childhood idols ask *her* for her autograph.
And Hannah? Bright, charming, whimsical- if she had been the darling of U-K8P before, now she was it's queen. Diving back into magical art with a passion, she was fielding commission requests from Tilea to Marienburg. And if there was an edge to her work that hadn't been there before, well, she had been blooded now. And no bright Magister would dare gainsay her preference for the visual arts over the martial arts, not with an entire Karak lined up behind her.
In truth though, all three of them hid their scars.
Lissele would wake up in the middle of the night, panicked, grasping for sword and helmet with phantom alarms ringing in her head, only to be soothed back to sleep by the arms of her girlfriend. The two had taken to sleeping in the same bed almost immediately after the Lissele had been released from the healers, but far more for the comfort and security of another human next to them in the night than anything prurient.
Darna had taken to spending much of her time with the We, and the egglayer rescued when moulder had been driven to flee- when pressed, she confessed to a sense of undischargeable debt to the injured web weaver who had saved her from falling to her death in the Grand Abyss, and who had proven so essential to her survival in enemy territory.
And Hannah? She quickly learned to smile through tears, and to deflect uncomfortable questions, even those from Lissele. It wasn't all that different from what she had learned in the Altdorf slums, and again in the bright college apprentice dorms. But her art had changed, as did the way she created it- now with a kind of frantic, desperate energy that spoke to a fear of running on borrowed time. She became clingy, sticking tightly to Lissele and Darna as if afraid she would never see them again if she let them out of her sight.
It was a bit of a surprise to the Karak that she seemed to strike up an unlikely friendship with the King, though more questioning glances were directed at him than at her when the two of them were seen speaking quietly over tea. And if there was some puzzlement over the hints of scorn and pity he showed her, well, he showed her gratitude too, and none were rude enough to comment.
But time heals all wounds, and if it fails to heals, it at least slowly dulls memories and pain.
By the time that the golden trio graduated, Hannah barely even flinched at hearing the words "oath breaker"- though they were never directed at her. Her friends were happy and *alive*, Lissele loved her and she returned it wholeheartedly.
She had come to U-K8P with a head full of dreams and stories. What she had found there was a home, and a family.
And that? In their own way, they all agreed. That was enough to make the sacrifices worth it.
A/N- and that's a wrap! I can't promise more Soizic soon, but it is up next now that I've gotten this beast out of my head. Hope the bitter-sweet tone strikes the right notes for an ending.
Part 12 - Epilogue
Darna snarled at the mass of skeletons over the slumped body of her friend. She had never felt more Dawi in her life than she did at the moment- awash in a sea of enemies, the footing treacherous beneath her, and only the axes and hammers of her companions to set her back against. Defending a kingdom and a King that had seemed powerful and glorious beyond belief, drawn out and annealed by repeated battles until it seemed even a careless breath would break them.
She saw the tiny group of reinforcements enter the avenue a hundred yards away, a small figure in red robes at their center. She saw the emotions flicker across Hannah's face: fear to joy and relief to sadness and despair to steely-eyed determination.
She saw her friend do *something* and collapse from the backlash of whatever spell she had attempted.
Then the skeletons started to explode.
It was like firecrackers on a string- first a small ring of soft pops centered over where Hannah was, then rolling outwards as each detonation triggered two more until the entire avenue shook with the deafening, resounding noise of skeletons bursting and clattering to pieces.
And then it was over.
The chain reactions were still ongoing- there was a dull roar as the wavefront propagated back up the underway into the Black Crag, but under Karagril the situation had gone from a thousand enemies to every dwarf to a hundred dwarves for every enemy in the span of a breath, and the dwarves wasted no time at all in putting them down- the few giant scorpions and animated statues which were all that remained of the Tomb King's host.
Above her, King Belegar stared in amazement, then began laughing and shouting.
"Vala-Azril-Ungol!"
The cry was quickly taken up by those around them, and Darna found that she, too, was laughing. Laughing even as tears ran down her face. Beneath her, a body stirred.
"...s'd we win? 's that wa 'is is?" Lissele managed weakly.
"YES! Yes, we won. It's all won- the whole war Lissele, we just won the WHOLE WAR!"
"...'s good, right?" But Lissele had a smile on her face too, even for as weak a joke as it was.
"Yes," Darna sobbed through her smile, "yes, it's very good."
__________________________
Hannah didn't remember much of the time between making her decision and sitting in a small room with the King of Karak Eightpeaks while he fed her tea, but she supposed it must have been a few hours at least. At least, King Belegar had had a chance to wash his face, to change out of his gromril plate and into casual chain and leathers.
She blinked at him a few times. He steadfastly refused to disappear, instead wrapping her hands around a steaming mug with his own.
"Ah, that's good lass. Glad to see you aware and moving again- the runepriests told me you were at the center of whatever it was that happened but I'd begun to think I'd need to dig elsewhere for answers."
"Are… did we win?" Hannah asked.
"Aye, the rats are all dead and that blasted mummy retreated with the few soldiers he had left. We won. Now, can you tell me *how* we won?"
"...Lissele? And Darna?"
"One's in the healers' hands and the other one's making a nuisance of herself telling stories all over the damn place. Stories that I have managed to avoid commenting on until I know what really happened, as is a King's prerogative. Are you going to tell me what really happened?"
The memories came rushing back and the calm vagueness that wrapped about her cracked. She sat up sharply, slopping tea over her wrists.
"I can explain! Well, um, l can mostly explain… But it's not as bad as it's going to sound! The Lady Magister Weber knew all of it and she was fine and never went evil!" Hannah babbled almost desperately. "I swear I won't do it again!"
King Belegar lifted an eyebrow almost as high as his crown.
"Lass, whatever it was you did do likely saved us all, so I bloody well hope you WILL do it again if it comes down to it- your oath is rejected. Now, what was *it*?"
Hannah drew a deep, shuddering breath. She knew she had to confess, knew that of all the judges she could have hoped to face, a dwarf king whose kingdom she had just saved was the best option she had. But somehow she still couldn't make her lips form the words 'I used Dhar'. So she tried another tact.
"Your majesty, you were probably to busy with the war to know, but the priest Dorin was my commander until he passed. He gave me a key, and some words for the longbeards, and they named me heir to Magister Johann of the Gold Order."
"Ah, the lease on the Gold Tower. Yes, I was informed- had to give my approval before they could even talk of a new leaseholder, but I'd figured I'd have a chance to sort it out after the rats were crushed. So you are the little mageling trying to fill those shoes, huh? Seems a good start you've made."
"Thank you, your majesty. What you may not have known was that some things had been left to Magister Johann by the Lady Magister, includingthelibermortis." Hannah spoke the last few words in a rush.
"What." King Belegar's face could have been carved out of stone.
"Inc...Including the Liber Mortis?"
"Heard you the first time, lass." The king stood to pace, mustering into his beard. "Seventy years since she disappeared and *still* that woman manages to surprise me. Must have had it up her sleeve the whole damn time." He turned to face Hannah.
"You know what I asked her, the day she told me she could build the Eye of Gazul? I asked her if she had any other super weapons tucked away. And you know what she said? None ready for deployment. Bloody grey wizards and their bloody secrets. Now- hero of the Karak you may be but I certainly can't let *that* just float about my kingdom; you are no Mathilde Weber, not yet. Will you surrender it?"
"Yes! Yes, absolutely. It's in the gold tower still, I can just…" Hannah stood up, looking for a place to set her tea, only for Belegar to wave her down.
"It's not going anywhere, and no one else knows of it, yes? Good. Then stay there a moment." He paced, deep in thought. "Your colleges aren't going to be the least bit happy about this, are they?"
Hannah gulped, forced into consideration of the actual consequences of her action for the first time.
"No, your majesty. We- they'd probably expel me and burn me at the stake. And they'd be right to do so. I'm an oath breaker…"
The king's eyes sharpened. "Oath breaker? Explain. Quickly."
"Article seven: No Magister may ever study the Forbidden Lores of the Daemonic Powers, nor the unholy ways of Necromancy, nor any other sorcery or witchcraft that utilises the wicked powers of Dark Magic. Any Magister found disregarding this Article is guilty of an Abominable Act and is both Heretic and Traitor and will be put to sword and fire immediately.
"I studied the Liber Mortis hoping for a weapon I could use. And when I learned that the weapon I sought required the use of dark magic, I used it. I knew it meant my death to use it and I did it anyways because I couldn't watch everyone die and do nothing!"
Hannah was shaking, tears running down her face. King Belegar ceased his pacing and stared down at her.
"So that's what you meant when you said you'd swear never to do it again. Just as well I rejected you, you'd already broken an oath not to do it in the first place, a second would be worth less than dust."
There was something calming in confessing; Hannah's shakes slowed, and her tears dried. She looked up at him, awaiting confirmation- her fear had passed, and all that was left was the knowledge that she had chosen to trade her life, her soul, for Lissele and Darna and all the rest. She didn't think she'd chosen wrongly.
"But."
And that word was enough to crack her.
"But we are not in the empire, and they do not know you are an oath breaker. Yet. And it was my kingdom you saved in breaking your oath, and poor repayment indeed would it be to send you to the pyre for it."
His fingers drummed on the table.
"Do you wish to die for this?" He asked.
"Do I… No! No, your majesty. I don't wish to die."
"And will you keep secret all that you learned and did, on pain of death by burning?"
"...yes, your majesty?"
"Then here is what happened: you utilized an ancient weapon of this Karak at my order, and this weapon, which required a wizard to use, destroyed that army. If anyone asks you what this weapon was, you will tell them you swore an oath of secrecy to me. If anyone points out that this weapon had effects suspiciously similar to the Liber Mortis, you will deny it. Is this clear?"
Hannah gaped at him. Full on, fish out of water gaping- which was, she felt, the only appropriate response when a Dwarf King told you they were going to lie on your behalf.
"Y...Yes! Your majesty!"
Belegar sighed, and passed a hand over his face. He looked old, Hannah suddenly noticed.
"I do you no kindness by this, lass. Your name, and those of your friends, are going to be shouted to the skies as the heroes of this war. And each time you'll have to smile and lie, lest you burn for it. I know such things rest lighter on umgi but to spend the rest of your life praised for breaking your oath would destroy me, or any Dawi I laid this upon. To do it to you and call it a 'reward' is hard enough. Can you survive it?"
She took a deep breath. And another.
"I will, your majesty. I must. I made my choice to sacrifice when I touched that power, and this is a lesser sacrifice you offer me. I won't waste that difference."
"Then we both know what we must do."
____________________
Darna was pacing back and forth in front of the healers' ward when Hannah found her. The two of them barely exchanged words, just hugging each other and crying tears of relief until the door finally opened and a nurse gestured for them to follow. In moments they were at the side of a bed, and the nurse was withdrawing, closing a curtain behind herself to give the women some privacy.
On the bed, Lissele stirred. Her injuries had been extensive. Three broken ribs from killing the rat-spider the master moulder had ridden on, a nasty snaking series of gashes running from her left wrist all the way up her arm and wrapping down around to her hip from where she had gotten tangled by his electrowhip. A cracked pelvis and shattered femur from where an animated statue had kicked her as she tried to retreat.
Fortunately, the Karak housed Jade wizards, and to the heroes went the special attention. What had been her second set of permanently crippling injuries within the space of a week had been mended to scar tissue and deep bruises.
"...Hannah? Darna? Oh thank the Lady. You both made it."
"We made it. We all made it. Oh thank the ancestors you are still with us too."
Hannah said nothing, but simply crawled into the bed next to Lissele, and laid her head on her chest.
Lissele smiled and closed her eyes.
Content.
_________________________
The news spread quickly, of course, at least the broad strokes.
That King Belegar had faced down a Nehekharan Tomb King and dared it to prove him a liar. That King Belegar had unleashed yet *another* magical superweapon from his seemingly endless stores of them. ('Remember the time he unleashed a dragon?' the gossips prodded each other, and this newest 'just another' superweapon faded for lack of detail into the background, while the greatest hits of the Eye of Gazul and the Dragon's Tooth Menhir were played again.) That clan moulder had made a play during the siege and had been rebuffed. That new heroes had been minted, fêted, and loosed upon the world.
Closer to home, it was discovered that the girl who had rallied the Undumgi at the West Gate, the girl who led the king to the secret skaven army, and the girl who unleashed the weapon to destroy the Tomb King's army were all freshman students at the University of Karak Eightpeaks. And they were roommates.
The "golden trio", as they were quickly dubbed, had become inescapable. One famous etching of the three- Darna in the foreground, with a steely expression, flanked by Lissele as a fully armored knight and Hannah as a classic bright magister- was known to have made it as far as Lustria, albeit in the form of a pamphlet advertising the University. It was a success; enrollment for the next matriculating class was actually *up*, despite the Karak being only months past a gruelling siege.
Merchants and students and noncombatants who had ridden out the war in Ulrikardin came flooding back, eager for tales and stories, in awe of those who stayed and fought. Longbeards nodded knowingly to each other as they grumbled that Dorin might have taken an awful long time choosing a trustworthy wizard, but by the ancestors he had chosen the *right* one.
And as for the trio themselves?
Darna was almost bursting with good cheer- the longbeards who taught her pre-rune classes had ceased to snort and turn away when she brought up leaning actual runesmithing; instead, there was much stroking of beards and consulting of the old records to try and find precedent.
Lissele had been told there was a Captain's rank in the undumgi awaiting her upon graduation, and in the meantime she had been invited to join the Karak's professional bloodbowl team- the only human on an otherwise all-dwarf roster. She confessed to her friends that she doubted she would ever get over having her childhood idols ask *her* for her autograph.
And Hannah? Bright, charming, whimsical- if she had been the darling of U-K8P before, now she was it's queen. Diving back into magical art with a passion, she was fielding commission requests from Tilea to Marienburg. And if there was an edge to her work that hadn't been there before, well, she had been blooded now. And no bright Magister would dare gainsay her preference for the visual arts over the martial arts, not with an entire Karak lined up behind her.
In truth though, all three of them hid their scars.
Lissele would wake up in the middle of the night, panicked, grasping for sword and helmet with phantom alarms ringing in her head, only to be soothed back to sleep by the arms of her girlfriend. The two had taken to sleeping in the same bed almost immediately after the Lissele had been released from the healers, but far more for the comfort and security of another human next to them in the night than anything prurient.
Darna had taken to spending much of her time with the We, and the egglayer rescued when moulder had been driven to flee- when pressed, she confessed to a sense of undischargeable debt to the injured web weaver who had saved her from falling to her death in the Grand Abyss, and who had proven so essential to her survival in enemy territory.
And Hannah? She quickly learned to smile through tears, and to deflect uncomfortable questions, even those from Lissele. It wasn't all that different from what she had learned in the Altdorf slums, and again in the bright college apprentice dorms. But her art had changed, as did the way she created it- now with a kind of frantic, desperate energy that spoke to a fear of running on borrowed time. She became clingy, sticking tightly to Lissele and Darna as if afraid she would never see them again if she let them out of her sight.
It was a bit of a surprise to the Karak that she seemed to strike up an unlikely friendship with the King, though more questioning glances were directed at him than at her when the two of them were seen speaking quietly over tea. And if there was some puzzlement over the hints of scorn and pity he showed her, well, he showed her gratitude too, and none were rude enough to comment.
But time heals all wounds, and if it fails to heals, it at least slowly dulls memories and pain.
By the time that the golden trio graduated, Hannah barely even flinched at hearing the words "oath breaker"- though they were never directed at her. Her friends were happy and *alive*, Lissele loved her and she returned it wholeheartedly.
She had come to U-K8P with a head full of dreams and stories. What she had found there was a home, and a family.
And that? In their own way, they all agreed. That was enough to make the sacrifices worth it.
A/N- and that's a wrap! I can't promise more Soizic soon, but it is up next now that I've gotten this beast out of my head. Hope the bitter-sweet tone strikes the right notes for an ending.
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Minor quibble in the AU, after using the Liber Mortis she'd probably have to go through a hell of a detox to make sure she doesn't contaminate any of her magic with Dhar residue and doom spiral.
Fortunately she does have the facilities to do so here, but it'd take months of recovery and definitely not touching any magic, I think?
Fortunately she does have the facilities to do so here, but it'd take months of recovery and definitely not touching any magic, I think?
Ericwinter
Definitely not a Skaven Infiltrator
- Location
- America
...I don't think there is such a thing as detoxing after touching Dhar, or we would be a lot less afraid of it. The world would probably be less afraid.
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Pronouns
- He/They
You could let your soul rest, so that by the time you next channel magic the active Dhar is gone, and won't twist the magic now passing through you into Dhar.
But the Dhar you channelled will still have left an impact on you.
And of course if you get a Dhar arcane mark no amount of rest will ever allow you to channel magic without it congealing.
This has been one hell of a journey. Thanks for writing it.
- Location
- Chicago
- Pronouns
- She/They
Thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed it- I've been looking forward to those little dopamine hits of your reactions each time I posted.
And thank you for doing the work and the world building that set the whole thing up- I'm just playing with the masterwork I've been handed, more or less.
I know it started as a kind of 'far-future AU' that I wrote because I liked the idea of where the boons could lead, but it really morphed into way more than that along the way. And sure like 80% of that was just me trying to think through what a crisis for the new Karak would look like, who would still be around given lifespan differences, what would happen to those lose ends and secretes that Mathilde never told, stuff like that; but y'all know how much I love adding texture to the reborn K8P and this let me play at that at scale. (The other 20%, of course, being me wanting to write cute lesbians and trying to figure out how to fit bloodbowl into the setting as a real part of it.)
And because I wanted to write an AU where the good, well-intentioned mage character unleashes the power of the Liber Mortis that Mathilde is never *actually* going to touch- and that required a lot of pressure to be plausible, if the character was going to stay sympathetic.
I had thought Ericwinter had the right of this? That it would be a permanent stain on her and her soul, but the actual Dhar itself wouldn't be present to corrupt other winds inside of her after it has been cast. I admit I don't know- I've never really read anything Warhammer where touching dark magic *wasn't* done by someone already falling or fallen, but I guess we don't get much detail about people like Kurt III who did it.
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Pronouns
- He/They
Established BoneyCanon is that you can switch winds of magic, if you don't have an arcane mark, but need to take some time to allow your old wind to leave your soul before introducing a new one. While the Dark Magic has inherent, permanent, damaging effects, it seems like it would also have that aspect of existing in the magic channelling part of your soul for some time, interfering with attempts to use any pure wind.
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I kind of see recovering from low level (one spell, maybe two) dark magic poisoning being like recovering from 10 years of bad Smoking.
Ya, your lungs are scarred for life, but you can get back up to 95% in a few years if you stop completely.
same with early chronic Dhur, you're never going to be 100% percent after, but with good living, you can get most of the way there.
Ya, your lungs are scarred for life, but you can get back up to 95% in a few years if you stop completely.
same with early chronic Dhur, you're never going to be 100% percent after, but with good living, you can get most of the way there.
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So, time to follow up on my theories for the five primary Old One cities. We can be pretty sure of Qt (Quintex), Iz (Itza), and Zl (Zlatlan). I suspect that Cl was a city on the southern continent, that now is (or lends its name to) the Gates of Calith. That just leaves Cd, which all evidence suggests is in the Old World. The question is, where in the Old World?
I'm going to make a bold prediction - Cd is now Karag Dum.
It's still a bit of a stretch, but it's interesting enough that I figured I'd share it. My other real candidate is Athel Loren, but I can't find any matching names there. (Except Coeddil, but he's a treeman, not a place.)
I'm going to make a bold prediction - Cd is now Karag Dum.
- If I'm right that Cl was settled to keep an eye on the south polar gate, it implies that another city would be close to the north pole. Quintex, Itza, and Zlatlan are not, so Cd is the only one that could be.
- Karag Dum had unusual geographic features even before the wastes came - a small outcropping of mountains in what was otherwise featureless tundra. If the city was once there, it might explain that.
- If the city was overrun during the Coming of Chaos, everything above ground would have been looted or destroyed. However, some underground chambers might have survived for dwarven settlers or explorers to find.
- Something at Karag Dum can terraform its surroundings with divine-like energy, and control or influence a demigod. Dwarven technology has never been seen to do these things. Salvaged Old One tech, on the other hand, probably could.
- The Runemasters of Karag Dum went far beyond the Runesmiths of the rest of the Karaz Ankor. Was it really just a willingness to experiment, or did they have inspiration from other sources?
- The name is... at least a bit similar. If the dwarfs could still puzzle out Old One writing, they might have given the place a similar name. They would render a hard "C" as a "K" in their own language, so, "K___d___".
It's still a bit of a stretch, but it's interesting enough that I figured I'd share it. My other real candidate is Athel Loren, but I can't find any matching names there. (Except Coeddil, but he's a treeman, not a place.)
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Mopman43
Mountain-Hermit of Nitpeak
- Location
- Vermont
If we're being accurate, Karag Dum was settled during the initial expansion by the Dwarfs- this was after the Polar Gates collapsed, but before the Vortex was finished and the Ancestor Gods disappeared. The last sight any Dwarf had of Grimnir was when he strode north from Karag Dum.
We don't, technically, know if the Runemasters were actually more capable than the conventional Runelords. All we know is that they referred to themselves as Runemasters, and the rest of the Runesmith's Guild felt that was them placing themselves as greater than Thungni and Grungni.
I just thought I'd note- Cd, Cor-Dum.
Could be something, could be nothing.
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