Vigil
12-24-10, 06:45 PM
(Open to those who registered as survivors in the recruitment thread (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?t=22166). Those making cameo appearances must have their ideas discussed and given the greenlight by me before posting. All bunnying in this thread has been preapproved. Powergaming has also been explained and will be dealt with internally unless otherwise specified.)
"My lord, you have become fatigued, you have become tired: to the land you have arrived. You have come to your city: Mexico, here you have come to sit on your place, on your throne. Oh, it has been reserved to you for a small time, it was conserved by those who have gone, your substitutes... This is what has been told by our rulers, those of whom governed this city, ruled this city. That you would come to ask for your throne, your place, that you would come here. Come to the land, come and rest: take possession of your royal houses, give food to your body."
- Said by Moctezuma II, ruler of the Aztecs, to Spanish conquistador, Hernán Cortés when welcoming him and his fellow Spaniards to the city of Tenochtitlan.
FOREWORD
On June 5th, 1926, on an eerily cool and placid morning that followed a week of inexplicable gales and savage winds from the West that caused the seas to rage under perilous and awful storms, God came to Corone. Unlike the Bible had told us, He did not descend from the heavens upon a mighty chariot to cast Judgment upon us all, or under the guise of Angels seeking to test our faith, or in the presence of His humble and wretched Son. No, God Himself chose to come to Corone and cast His eyes upon His Children that fateful day and did so in a way many would dispute to be deliberately mundane in order to conceal His arrival from those that would wish Him harm.
God came with His followers upon immense and terrible black ships from the West that morning and did so upon calm seas. Fishermen already at sea who sought to quickly salve a week of terrible seas and poor profit with that of a great catch managed to be among the first to witness the queer vessels as they arrived and made their way to the land's most prominent harbor, Perigue. These men who cast their nets at the sea, a superstitious people who knew not what these ships contained gazed upon them with immediate suspicion and did so dubiously as they noticed the black ships themselves were inexplicably alien to any kind of conventional design that any would consider normal or at all human.
The ships were awful leviathans that seemed to cut and tear through the water rather then glide upon it, and whose dark, stained sails bore a symbol drawn upon it in what many suspected to be blood, an ominous sign many would learn to belong to our one and true living God. Still, the ship was propelled forward also by mighty oars and the sound of whips and awful screams could be heard over the incessant, baritone chanting among the ship's slaves that kept them in time with the beating of mighty drums. These vessels carried with them a bloody history and those who hazarded a glance at it knew immediately that these ships were not the vessels of queer merchants from Fallien, or the harbinger of an invading armada of Alerarian ships.
No, these ships were something far more terrible and its inhabitants would prove to be a crucial ally to those they befriended, and an awful adversary to their worst enemies.
Soon, God and His ships arrived at Perigue and were moored at the docks. Onlookers could only watch and those that deigned themselves to be among the Navy or officials in customs houses were stricken dumb as they watched the alien vessels and their strange inhabitants wet their feet upon Coronian mud. The sailors themselves looked to be protomen or people of a forgotten and long bygone era that had long surpassed the world more then a millennia ago. They wore terrible and sharp pointed hats cast scarlet and were dressed in all manner of strange clothes, but many simply wore loincloths and walked upon bare feet.
They were of dark complexion and bore no similarity to the black desert dwellers of Fallien, but were instead a people of a different shade of brown. They had beaked noses and strangely clean faces for what looked to be a group of savages, and their hair was strangely well kept. Their eyes were coloured red with irises slightly too large to remain unnoticed. Though there were few women among them, these travelers from the far West walked about with their countenances exposed and bore little regard in how those at the harbor or their own men saw them.
These ugly people were the first to be loosed upon the shore from the mysterious ships, which immediately took to the docks and mingled about, chirping and clucking in a loud and indiscernible tongue. But, when the next of those who inhabited the ships took to the planks, these sailors immediately fell to their knees and pressed their faces to the ground at the howl of a long and horrible horn. Strange, tall figures that stood several feet taller than that of the savages found the docks with an entourage in tow. They were dressed in robes made of cloths found to be iridescent, but one could recognize as shades similar to that of azure, emerald or crimson, depending on where the light hit it. These figures looked upon their subjects with disdain, but looked far more queer and alien then that of those that held them with such reverence.
They stood far taller then any men any Coronian had ever seen, but their height might have been added to the fact of their strange, tall headdresses that they walked precariously to keep aloft. They were also terribly thin and emaciated, looking as if they hadn't eaten in months. However, whatever evidence of their condition might have been revealed by their faces wasn't permitted as all of them wore strange meshed veils that covered the entirety of their faces and left only pallid noses and strange, awful red eyes for all to see. Their gender couldn't be discerned as much of their appearance remained hidden, and their frames too stark and alien. These tall creatures of a higher race also led slaves by thin rope who were similar to the savages but were both emaciated and none of them bore the strange, pointed hats of their brethren.
But, however unlike these strange holy men were from the savages, they also were the only ones who bore weapons. Brilliant swords that looked to be like that of scimitars and were gargantuan in appearance to accompany the creatures who looked to stand as tall and thin as lampposts. But, as the procession of giants moved to the dock, guiding their weak and pitiful slaves to shore, it wasn't the last in the queer meeting of invaders. The tall creatures made it to the end of the docks before they pulled their slaves forcefully and kicked them to the ground before making long, elegant bows before the newest visitor of Corone as he took to the shore to the sound of horns and the thundering of drums while his entourage remained respectfully quiet to his arrival.
Our God called himself Sidalurum, and was a young and beautiful man whose very appearance glowed with charisma. Immediately upon the sight of him or hearing his tender voice, a noticeable and fiery yearning caught onlookers. Hunger. Lust. He was desired by both women and men, and if those who witnessed the procession had taken any great care in their observations, they would have noticed the amount of care the sailors and giants had taken to hide their eyes and cover their ears in the presence of their God.
Immediately, onlookers found themselves moving strangely forward as a hunger grew within them that wasn't there before. A desire to be with the God and to consummate his new arrival. His entourage carefully made way for the Coronians who stripped themselves and ran to the young God who greeted them with a warm, melting smile and a tender voice. His very words soothed them and seemed to abate their lust as the men and women of the Harbor, fell to their knees and pressed their faces to the ground like that of the savages. Naked, and their minds furious in the desire to be with the God they could only listen as he stepped past them and made his way to shore. There would be time for such matters later, he had told them. For now, he wanted to meet the people and find his new throne. He had come to stay.
Soon, news spread of the arrival of Sidalurum and his followers and it spread through the harbor like wildfire. Though he would leave with much of his arrival soon after he left his ship, the young God's very presence seemed to infect the people of Perigue. Those who talked of him were hungry to be in His presence and gain his affection, but soon found their lust turned to one another. Love filled the air and permeated the harbor as men and women of Perigue writhed and held each other in such passion they had never quite experienced before. It was as if the very presence of such charisma had caught the people unaware as they caressed and loved one another. It came to them by the sight of him. The sound of him. The very smell of him. They wanted to know Sidalurum. To taste him. To hold him and show him how much they yearned for him.
In Perigue the first orgies caused by the young fertility God came in full sway, but it wouldn't be long before such people found that their lust couldn't be satiated without the blessing of Sidalurum himself. So, within days upon hearing he had made for the capital, Radasanth, the people of Perigue abandoned their homes, their jobs and their very livelihoods to venture after him in search of finding a way to satisfy their hunger.
However, that same day God had arrived upon our shores, he had stepped from his ships and made his way along the winding dirt roads, gathering followers all along the way. Eventually he had come to the mighty city of Radasanth, and like so many people before them, the city's citizens fell to their knees in reverence of the God who walked the streets and talked to the very same people who he would deign as his subjects. That same day that Sidalurum came to Corone, he had conquered it. Dominating it with Love. Soon all of Radasanth would know his name and lust for one another in response to an alien hunger of sexual desire that carried itself upon the wind by word and by blood.
However, as Sidalurum came to Corone, made his way to Radasanth and journeyed to its center where he proclaimed his throne, a temple in his honor would quickly be built by his followers in an effort to please him. Within the week, everybody in Corone had heard of their newest God and were eager to meet him, making the long pilgrimage across the savage countryside. Within a month, there were orgies in the streets and people were busy trying to satisfy their carnal desires that they couldn't bother with matters of business or state. Soon all manner of outside trade had diminished and Corone became closed from the outside world. While word had spread that an emergency coalition of Corone's neighboring forces formed a blockade quarantining the country from whatever mysterious pestilence it had succumbed to, the Coronians remained ignorant of it.
Within the month, Sidalurum had greeted Radasanth's magistrate, the country's Barony, and attended extravagant parties thrown by members of the upper echelons of Corone's Empire. At his word and eager to please him, the people of the Empire readily disbanded their military and dissolved their government in favor of an absolutist theocracy. After all, what need was there for men of State or of Arms when Sidalurum was there to tell them what to do and to protect them from the outside world?
Soon, a virulent peace overtook Corone, and conquered the island in less then a couple of months, managing to outdo all of the country's adversaries in their attempts to invade the country and make the island their own. Sidalurum became our religion. There was no need to bow at the altars of Christ or pray to Thaynes or consult the Pagan Gods. They were in our prayers. Sidalurum is here. He had become our protector and our lover. He had become our one and only desire. Though it hadn't been easy. There were riots as fires consumed Radasanth and violence and much bloodshed came from those that resisted. But, eventually they would yield. They had to. Sidalurum was a God after all, and his word was absolute. But, those that resisted contended with the faithful that Sidalurum brought nothing but pain and pestilence with him, and his very presence was a drug that would consume us all. Those cries eventually died out to the sounds of shrill and definite passion.
However, he would only be a harbinger of Corone's eventual doom. For a far darker and irresistible hunger was about to take root and turn us against one another for a very different purpose then sex or desire. It was the same, simple desire that we shared with beasts and our pets.
In a word, we would begin to prey upon one another and eat each other for food.
"My lord, you have become fatigued, you have become tired: to the land you have arrived. You have come to your city: Mexico, here you have come to sit on your place, on your throne. Oh, it has been reserved to you for a small time, it was conserved by those who have gone, your substitutes... This is what has been told by our rulers, those of whom governed this city, ruled this city. That you would come to ask for your throne, your place, that you would come here. Come to the land, come and rest: take possession of your royal houses, give food to your body."
- Said by Moctezuma II, ruler of the Aztecs, to Spanish conquistador, Hernán Cortés when welcoming him and his fellow Spaniards to the city of Tenochtitlan.
FOREWORD
On June 5th, 1926, on an eerily cool and placid morning that followed a week of inexplicable gales and savage winds from the West that caused the seas to rage under perilous and awful storms, God came to Corone. Unlike the Bible had told us, He did not descend from the heavens upon a mighty chariot to cast Judgment upon us all, or under the guise of Angels seeking to test our faith, or in the presence of His humble and wretched Son. No, God Himself chose to come to Corone and cast His eyes upon His Children that fateful day and did so in a way many would dispute to be deliberately mundane in order to conceal His arrival from those that would wish Him harm.
God came with His followers upon immense and terrible black ships from the West that morning and did so upon calm seas. Fishermen already at sea who sought to quickly salve a week of terrible seas and poor profit with that of a great catch managed to be among the first to witness the queer vessels as they arrived and made their way to the land's most prominent harbor, Perigue. These men who cast their nets at the sea, a superstitious people who knew not what these ships contained gazed upon them with immediate suspicion and did so dubiously as they noticed the black ships themselves were inexplicably alien to any kind of conventional design that any would consider normal or at all human.
The ships were awful leviathans that seemed to cut and tear through the water rather then glide upon it, and whose dark, stained sails bore a symbol drawn upon it in what many suspected to be blood, an ominous sign many would learn to belong to our one and true living God. Still, the ship was propelled forward also by mighty oars and the sound of whips and awful screams could be heard over the incessant, baritone chanting among the ship's slaves that kept them in time with the beating of mighty drums. These vessels carried with them a bloody history and those who hazarded a glance at it knew immediately that these ships were not the vessels of queer merchants from Fallien, or the harbinger of an invading armada of Alerarian ships.
No, these ships were something far more terrible and its inhabitants would prove to be a crucial ally to those they befriended, and an awful adversary to their worst enemies.
Soon, God and His ships arrived at Perigue and were moored at the docks. Onlookers could only watch and those that deigned themselves to be among the Navy or officials in customs houses were stricken dumb as they watched the alien vessels and their strange inhabitants wet their feet upon Coronian mud. The sailors themselves looked to be protomen or people of a forgotten and long bygone era that had long surpassed the world more then a millennia ago. They wore terrible and sharp pointed hats cast scarlet and were dressed in all manner of strange clothes, but many simply wore loincloths and walked upon bare feet.
They were of dark complexion and bore no similarity to the black desert dwellers of Fallien, but were instead a people of a different shade of brown. They had beaked noses and strangely clean faces for what looked to be a group of savages, and their hair was strangely well kept. Their eyes were coloured red with irises slightly too large to remain unnoticed. Though there were few women among them, these travelers from the far West walked about with their countenances exposed and bore little regard in how those at the harbor or their own men saw them.
These ugly people were the first to be loosed upon the shore from the mysterious ships, which immediately took to the docks and mingled about, chirping and clucking in a loud and indiscernible tongue. But, when the next of those who inhabited the ships took to the planks, these sailors immediately fell to their knees and pressed their faces to the ground at the howl of a long and horrible horn. Strange, tall figures that stood several feet taller than that of the savages found the docks with an entourage in tow. They were dressed in robes made of cloths found to be iridescent, but one could recognize as shades similar to that of azure, emerald or crimson, depending on where the light hit it. These figures looked upon their subjects with disdain, but looked far more queer and alien then that of those that held them with such reverence.
They stood far taller then any men any Coronian had ever seen, but their height might have been added to the fact of their strange, tall headdresses that they walked precariously to keep aloft. They were also terribly thin and emaciated, looking as if they hadn't eaten in months. However, whatever evidence of their condition might have been revealed by their faces wasn't permitted as all of them wore strange meshed veils that covered the entirety of their faces and left only pallid noses and strange, awful red eyes for all to see. Their gender couldn't be discerned as much of their appearance remained hidden, and their frames too stark and alien. These tall creatures of a higher race also led slaves by thin rope who were similar to the savages but were both emaciated and none of them bore the strange, pointed hats of their brethren.
But, however unlike these strange holy men were from the savages, they also were the only ones who bore weapons. Brilliant swords that looked to be like that of scimitars and were gargantuan in appearance to accompany the creatures who looked to stand as tall and thin as lampposts. But, as the procession of giants moved to the dock, guiding their weak and pitiful slaves to shore, it wasn't the last in the queer meeting of invaders. The tall creatures made it to the end of the docks before they pulled their slaves forcefully and kicked them to the ground before making long, elegant bows before the newest visitor of Corone as he took to the shore to the sound of horns and the thundering of drums while his entourage remained respectfully quiet to his arrival.
Our God called himself Sidalurum, and was a young and beautiful man whose very appearance glowed with charisma. Immediately upon the sight of him or hearing his tender voice, a noticeable and fiery yearning caught onlookers. Hunger. Lust. He was desired by both women and men, and if those who witnessed the procession had taken any great care in their observations, they would have noticed the amount of care the sailors and giants had taken to hide their eyes and cover their ears in the presence of their God.
Immediately, onlookers found themselves moving strangely forward as a hunger grew within them that wasn't there before. A desire to be with the God and to consummate his new arrival. His entourage carefully made way for the Coronians who stripped themselves and ran to the young God who greeted them with a warm, melting smile and a tender voice. His very words soothed them and seemed to abate their lust as the men and women of the Harbor, fell to their knees and pressed their faces to the ground like that of the savages. Naked, and their minds furious in the desire to be with the God they could only listen as he stepped past them and made his way to shore. There would be time for such matters later, he had told them. For now, he wanted to meet the people and find his new throne. He had come to stay.
Soon, news spread of the arrival of Sidalurum and his followers and it spread through the harbor like wildfire. Though he would leave with much of his arrival soon after he left his ship, the young God's very presence seemed to infect the people of Perigue. Those who talked of him were hungry to be in His presence and gain his affection, but soon found their lust turned to one another. Love filled the air and permeated the harbor as men and women of Perigue writhed and held each other in such passion they had never quite experienced before. It was as if the very presence of such charisma had caught the people unaware as they caressed and loved one another. It came to them by the sight of him. The sound of him. The very smell of him. They wanted to know Sidalurum. To taste him. To hold him and show him how much they yearned for him.
In Perigue the first orgies caused by the young fertility God came in full sway, but it wouldn't be long before such people found that their lust couldn't be satiated without the blessing of Sidalurum himself. So, within days upon hearing he had made for the capital, Radasanth, the people of Perigue abandoned their homes, their jobs and their very livelihoods to venture after him in search of finding a way to satisfy their hunger.
However, that same day God had arrived upon our shores, he had stepped from his ships and made his way along the winding dirt roads, gathering followers all along the way. Eventually he had come to the mighty city of Radasanth, and like so many people before them, the city's citizens fell to their knees in reverence of the God who walked the streets and talked to the very same people who he would deign as his subjects. That same day that Sidalurum came to Corone, he had conquered it. Dominating it with Love. Soon all of Radasanth would know his name and lust for one another in response to an alien hunger of sexual desire that carried itself upon the wind by word and by blood.
However, as Sidalurum came to Corone, made his way to Radasanth and journeyed to its center where he proclaimed his throne, a temple in his honor would quickly be built by his followers in an effort to please him. Within the week, everybody in Corone had heard of their newest God and were eager to meet him, making the long pilgrimage across the savage countryside. Within a month, there were orgies in the streets and people were busy trying to satisfy their carnal desires that they couldn't bother with matters of business or state. Soon all manner of outside trade had diminished and Corone became closed from the outside world. While word had spread that an emergency coalition of Corone's neighboring forces formed a blockade quarantining the country from whatever mysterious pestilence it had succumbed to, the Coronians remained ignorant of it.
Within the month, Sidalurum had greeted Radasanth's magistrate, the country's Barony, and attended extravagant parties thrown by members of the upper echelons of Corone's Empire. At his word and eager to please him, the people of the Empire readily disbanded their military and dissolved their government in favor of an absolutist theocracy. After all, what need was there for men of State or of Arms when Sidalurum was there to tell them what to do and to protect them from the outside world?
Soon, a virulent peace overtook Corone, and conquered the island in less then a couple of months, managing to outdo all of the country's adversaries in their attempts to invade the country and make the island their own. Sidalurum became our religion. There was no need to bow at the altars of Christ or pray to Thaynes or consult the Pagan Gods. They were in our prayers. Sidalurum is here. He had become our protector and our lover. He had become our one and only desire. Though it hadn't been easy. There were riots as fires consumed Radasanth and violence and much bloodshed came from those that resisted. But, eventually they would yield. They had to. Sidalurum was a God after all, and his word was absolute. But, those that resisted contended with the faithful that Sidalurum brought nothing but pain and pestilence with him, and his very presence was a drug that would consume us all. Those cries eventually died out to the sounds of shrill and definite passion.
However, he would only be a harbinger of Corone's eventual doom. For a far darker and irresistible hunger was about to take root and turn us against one another for a very different purpose then sex or desire. It was the same, simple desire that we shared with beasts and our pets.
In a word, we would begin to prey upon one another and eat each other for food.