The Cadaverous Earth

[LordVreeg]

tHERE SHOULD BE A LIKE BUTTON FOR THE SLANG.....

[SA]

Glad my own contribution to the Thousand Isles could be so useful!

(Breach-loader made me chuckle)

[Steerpike]

A very rough sketch of Lophius, to give you guys the lay of the land.  Think of this like the London tube map - not precisely to scale, but made so you know where you're going.

[LD]

Nice.
Of course Steerpike would have weatherbeaten paper on hand... :D

[TheMeanestGuest]

Hey everyone, just another thing I wrote about Kaius. Thought I should post it. This is continuing off of a small fragment I wrote some time ago, but it did not end up developing the way I had originally intended. Anyways, it is here to read if anyone feels like it.

[ic]

Two years ago,

via Crepuscle,

'It don't smell so good' said Borth as Kaius lifted a corner of the tarp. 'No' Kaius paused, narrowing his eyes at the charred and broken body that lay before him. 'It does not.' he finished. Borth wore a black leather jerkin and a wide brimmed floppy hat. A well-worn but serviceable hatchet hung from his belt. A thick-set and balding man with a few too many scars, Borth was not the most pleasant thing to look at. But he was competent, and that was something Kaius could respect.

Borth wrinkled his nose and jumped out of the small river-going sloop. He landed with a splash in the shallow waters at the edge of the river. Wading onto shore he tied the boat to a stunted tree with a thick length of hempen rope. Kaius glanced out over the landscape as he donned his armour; an endless sea of tawny grasses met his gaze. A solitary bird of prey circled in the distance. He shouldered the tarp-wrapped body and hopped over the low rail. Borth scampered back to the boat, quickly grabbing the shovel and a lantern. He hurried to catch up to Kaius's purposeful stride. They walked silently for a long while, deeper and deeper onto the Veldt. Eventually, Borth broke the silence, as he often did.

'So we sailed halfway down the Radula just to get rid of that? Why not just dump it any old place?' he asked, nodding towards the corpse on Kaius's shoulder. 'Keep walking, Borth.' Kaius responded. They kept walking. Some time later Kaius raised his visor. 'As even you may have suspected, Borth, Mr. Parsevande wasn't always a corpse.'

--

They walked. And Kaius spoke. He spoke of how they were harried from Skein by the agents of House Varkolak, of their arrival in Crepuscle, of the treachery visited upon His Lady by their hosts: the Merchant House of Parsevande, and the spilling of blood that followed. He told the tale mechanically - devoid of emotion - as if it were merely something he had heard rather than experienced. Truthfully, his mind was elsewhere, focused on the task at hand. His Lady had prepared him to the best of her ability, diminished now that whatever it was that afflicted her slowly drained the vigour from her body and mind. Still, worry gnawed at him, he did not know that he was equal to the task set before him. But he set that aside, as he saw that they drew close. A solitary hill rose from the sea of grass. Barren earth. At the apex of the hill was a single Tree, tall and thin, black as pitch and devoid of leaf. It's branches did not sway in the winds that blew across the Veldt.

"Well that ain't hardly an end for such a story, is it, Mr. Alexander? Seems to me as if that Parsevande didn't quite get what he had coming." Borth screwed up his face, thoughts slowly percolating. "No Borth. He did not. And that is why we are here. Dead he may be, but Mr. Parsevande will yet have further cause to regret his betrayal of My Lady." said Kaius. Borth looked up from his revery, surveying the hill that they approached, and as his gaze fell upon the the Tree a shiver ran through him.
"Strange tree, that... only one for miles as I see it. This what we came out here for?" Borth asked. Kaius kept his gaze fixed on the Tree, and lowered his visor. "Yes." Kaius responded simply.  He began his ascent. Thirty paces, the hill was not large. They stood in the shadow of the Tree. "Here, dig." Kaius said, as he indicated an unremarkable patch of earth. Borth squinted and shrugged and set to work with his shovel. Kaius stood impassively, watching and waiting, the body of Antony Parsevande still draped over his shoulder.

Borth dug, and he sweated. It was not long before his shovel hit something, and he cleared the rest of the dirt away. He had uncovered a slab of grey stone, it's only feature a triangle set within a sunburst.  "I guess this is what you was looking for, Mr. Alexander?" He wiped the sweat from his brow and leaned on his shovel as he talked. Kaius regarded the stone quietly, seeming to ignore Borth. He bent down, and placed his armoured gauntlet atop the sigil. Remembering the words His Lady whispered to him, he spoke: "The Mandate is revealed. I submit before Truth. Valiel, Anduce." The slab retracted into the hillside silently, exposing steps spiralling into darkness. Kaius stood, and lit the lantern that Borth had placed nearby on the ground. "Remain here. I will return." he said. Borth looked uneasy, but  nodded. Kaius placed his foot on the first step.

Deeper and deeper he went, the ringing of his boots on the bare stone became strangely muffled, and the light of his lantern seemed to wane. At last the steps ended. Before him, a set of doors. Dull metal, his lantern-light reflected back weakly; the triangle-in-sunburst once again the only adornment. He stepped towards them, and they opened. A corridor greeted him, empty sconces on the walls, the light of his lantern did not reach the end. Kaius stepped inside, and the doors swung shut behind him. The sensation of being watched assailed him. A thousand eyes crawling across every inch of his skin. He exhaled and stepped forward; the feeling intensified. Another step, the light of his lantern began to retreat. It grew cold, and his breath misted before him. Another, panic rising in his throat. He had no choice, His Lady had commanded and he would obey; he would not fail her again. Another step. Sudden pressure, his vision blurred, searing pain behind his eyes. He collapsed to his knees and cried out: "Valiel, Anduce! I kneel before your Majesty! I embrace the Grace of the Mandate, and bring tribute that Truth might be revealed!" The eyes still watched him, but the pain fled, and some power returned to him. He regained his feet and stepped forward. Nothing. He kept walking, but the darkness before him did not relent. Still, he kept going. His lantern began to gutter, and it went out. He stood in utter blackness. His Lady had given him no words for this. He was at a loss. A sound, as of a single droplet hitting a still pool. He turned towards it, and he knew. "And then there was light." he whispered.

A brazier kindled to life before him, the flames purest white, the light cool and clean. He was no longer in the corridor. Darkness lay in all directions beyond the circle of illumination. There was an alter, rectangular and metallic; it gleamed dully, though brighter than the doors he had encountered earlier. It sat between him and the brazier. He approached it. Carved onto its surface was the lithe figure of a woman, lying down as if to rest. Her eyes were closed, excepting the third that lay open on her forehead, its graven stare somehow unnerving. She held a dagger to her breast, and a sunburst wreathed her head. The long tresses of her hair were carved so as to spill down the sides of the alter, pooling at its base. This was what he had been seeking. "A soul is brought in tribute, conquered in battle, its vessel I bequeath." Kaius placed the broken corpse of Antony Parsevande on the alter, and stepped back. The brazier grew brighter, and so too did the alter shine more fiercely. There was a sudden flash of heat and blinding light. His vision returned slowly, and he saw that the corpse was gone. The surface of the alter rippled as if liquid, and was still.

Then there was a woman's voice, if spoken aloud or only in his mind Kaius could not tell. There was power in that voice, old power, and he shivered. "I see you, Kaius Alexander. Down to the very bottom of your soul I see you. You are known to me better than you know yourself. You have spoken of Truth, and I have accepted your tribute. It has been an age since one of your kind has walked the halls of my Tomb. Speak in your own words, Alexander, with whom do you treat?" The voice echoed.

Kaius paused for a moment, and swallowed, then he spoke: "Those who know of you might call you Demon, or Goddess, but that is not so. You are of the Se'raphim. A true Angel. You are Valiel the Lesser, Herald of the Silver Host."

There was laughter, deep and full of mirth. It ceased. "You are correct, Alexander. I am Valiel. For aeons I laboured through space and time to bring the Mandate to this Cadaverous Earth. But its people would not submit to Truth. My power was great and terrible to behold, and so those who would not kneel called upon our Enemy and I was cast down. And here I lie, waiting." she ceased speaking, and for a moment Kaius thought she had departed, but her voice returned. "Valiel.. Few now know that name, and I am left wondering how Your Lady came upon such knowledge, for that is something my Eye cannot see. No matter. You have delivered tribute unto me. Antony Parsevande was a man of much Sin and little Truth, and I will delight in his torment. A bargain was struck, you begged guidance of me, and so I must reveal to you a piece of the Truth. Tell me, Alexander, what do you wish to see?"   

Kaius remained silent for a long while. He had not thought that this would be required of him, for His Lady had not spoken of it. "Lady Valiel. I do not desire such knowledge. I do not think it is meant for one such as I." he at last answered. "You must ask, Alexander. I am bound in this bargain, just as you are. You must ask, or you will never leave these halls." there was a note of sadness in her voice. Kaius pursed his lips, and a question came to him. "I have travelled far in my short life, and have seen many sights, and have met many people. Yet I find that wherever I look there is decay, and there is corruption, and I wonder. Tell me, what then is the fate of my world? Of this, as you say, Cadaverous Earth?" he asked. The light grew brighter until again he was blind, but it did not relent. Kaius inhaled deeply. There was a cry of ecstasy, and then Valiel's voice: "Eternity stretches before me, and I look down upon it, and I tremble with anticipation. My sight is yours. So see."

He exhaled, and opened his eyes. He stood on an empty street dusted with snow. Angular buildings of steel surrounded him, and they were rimed with frost. It was dark, and the stars twinkled overhead. There was a sun, but it had grown small and distant, and there was no warmth. It was cold, so cold, but it did not trouble him. A light caught his eye in the distance, a flash of silver, and he found himself walking. As he walked the grey steel of the buildings lining the street slowly changed, so that they gleamed with that same light. The street turned sharply, and he proceeded around the corner. Before him, a square, and in its centre a luminous pool, glowing softly. A figure sat beside it in the shadow of a black Tree. Valiel. She ran her hand across the surface of the pool as she peered into its depths. She was as in the image graven on her alter, but more beautiful, and far more terrible. Her skin was jet black, and her long silver hair twined about her and trailed into the pool. She looked up, then, and all three of her eyes were open, and they shone with an otherworldly light. Fear stole inside him, greater than he had ever known, and he quaked with dread. But she smiled, and it was gone. She beckoned, and he felt himself compelled to approach.

"Is it not beautiful, Alexander? Your world, caressed by our Light. Frozen forever in perfection. Come, sit by the pool" she said. And he sat. He sensed the presence of others all about him, but he could not see them. "My Brothers and Sisters are come, all of our Host. And we have triumphed. The designs of our Cousins are ash on the wind, and we have sent our Enemy reeling from this sphere. Does your glimpse of the Truth please you, Alexander?" she asked as she loomed over him. Kaius did not speak, he could find no words. "It does. I see it in you. There is Truth in you Alexander, but there is also Sin, and I do not yet know which way the scales will tip. You now have some of my own Truth, and I hope that it will be enough, for I see that in time there is much you could do in service to the Grace of the Mandate." she placed her hand on his shoulder as she spoke. "I have fulfilled my obligation as Revelator. You have seen, and your question is answered. Go now, Alexander. I will be watching you." she pushed him, and he fell into the pool.

[/ic]

Just to clarify, it is not my intent to pre-ordain the future of CE here. Valiel's future is merely a possibility, though she presents it as being definite. Steerpike has signed off on this, just so everyone knows I'm not just posting stuff about CE randomly :p

[Drizztrocks]

It just hit me...Ugly Americans meet Mad Max

[LD]

Sea-Creatures

You have mention of mushroom-thralls... will there be mushroom people in the upcoming content about the water for the party's journey in Lophius and surrounding areas? Muckweed that sets off poisonous spores, and lamprey-mouthed hagmen-symbiot kale feeders and Leechkin-of-the-deep, sucking on blood and rust. Sentient sea cucumbers, sea fungi that act like handlingers to control creatures, bobbing sea urchins of the deep, needlecreatures, and organ-pilfering ghostfish formed like wispy jellyfish, with tendrils long and shape non-euclidean and warped so they pass through bodies like ghosts, at angles, to emerge on the other side with a victim's organs intact in their form. (Got a little carried away with that so I just threw a bunch out there to kickstart the ideas flowing in the thread... you have covered pretty much all that needs to be covered, but more seabeasts seems like an interesting niche that is yet to be filled).

Also

Artifacts- they are mentioned several times, but I don't think there is an artifact section. Are there legends of specific fabled artifacts that have been lost to time, perhaps yet to be discovered?

Is there a holistic Religion section yet? I don't recall a section per-se although Religion does play an important part in CE.

[LD]

Could the macellaria slang "gleet, etc." from the bodysnatchers thread be added to the more recent slang additions SP did on page 30 of this thread? Or are those terms just more regional?

>>don't think I'm going to relegate the Cadaverous Earth to an afterlife position or remove death from the setting.  I may, eventually, work it into a larger cosmology with several less diseased worlds (though not before developing it more).

You mentioned that once in 2008 in response to sparkletwist... how is the cosmology coming along? :D I also forget, what does the night sky in CE look like; has that been covered before (# of planets, etc... their interaction with the sea tides?)

[Steerpike]

Well, I kind of think of Mytholith as possibly being the same world as CE in the extreme past  :P.

The night sky is similar to our own - this is meant to be far-far-far future earth, after all.  There are some weird shimmers from ruinous, defunct satellites and some distantly visible glimmers of space debris from bygone starship battles in aeons now far too distant to remember.  The atmosphere itself is thickly polluted after many millennia of industry, so on many nights nothing may be visible at all.  The moon is still around but looks a little more haggard (more craters) and probably looks yellower than it does now due to the generally denser, more occluded atmosphere.

EDIT: I will track down that slang and post it here some point soon.

[Llum]

Just to note that the moon is spiralling away from Earth (~3-4cm/year) so depending on how far into the future is it might be significantly smaller. ~30-40 thousand kilometers per million years, roughly 10% further away than it is now.

[LD]

Ah yes, your fantasy world with all the foliage- Mytholith (!)

Hm. regarding the old satellites- brings up a few questions. Is anything special living on any of them or guiding them? Defunct robots grown sentient? Did any of them crash down to earth and cause anything interesting to occur?

Also, if the moon has pulled far away, would that mean the seas are more calm? No need to get too far into the physics, but if someone knows, it could either be incorporated or handwaved away.

[Steerpike]

Wow, cool point about the moon - I wasn't aware of that.  I imagine the seas are probably duller as a result.

Satellites controlled by senile robots... sounds like a good future plot.

[Nomadic]

I doubt the moon would change too much. You wouldn't really be able to notice any difference unless you put the two "moons" side by side. The tides likewise wouldn't be all that much weaker, you wouldn't really be able to tell. Unless we're talking 500 million+ years in the future the difference in distance, rotation, and orbital speed wouldn't be enough to need to factor it in. Now if we are talking more than 500 million years, say multi-billion years into the future, then you get all kinds of crazy things. For one the Moon is tidally locked to the earth. One side always faces us because its day and its year are the same as a result of Earth's gravity slowing its rotation down. What Earth did to the Moon the Moon is doing to the Earth and if you start getting far into the future the Earth starts to become more and more tidally locked to the Moon and so its day gets longer and longer. IIRC the final figure is many billions of years in the future at which point the Earth-Moon system will stabilize with the moon a bit over 1.5 times farther apart with a synchronized period of about 55 days (55 days for a lunar year, 55 days for a lunar day, 55 days for a terran day).

The more you know! Heh. :D

[Steerpike]

Excellent points Nomadic

I think basically the time-frame is deliberately ambiguous.  At the very least millions of years in the future; not long enough for the Earth to become tidally locked with the Moon, though.

[Superfluous Crow]

Not that I disapprove per se, but why do you want to connect the Cadaverous Earth mythos to the world-as-we-know-it?
Also, I'm really not looking forward to being enslaved by sentient tapeworms...

(also, looking it up on wiki, I suddenly realize what the name is derived from. Although I know that sort of derivation is par for the course in CE. I should have seen it coming.)