Post by Toz76 on Dec 21, 2023 20:41:20 GMT -5
Hello, dear reader. Mind if we talk a moment?
At this point, the three branches of our story have only just begun to converge. Soon, they will be tightly intertwined. And yet, you may feel that something has been lacking so far.
Conventional storytelling wisdom states simply that one should “start the story where the story starts”, and for our four “heroes” (in the loosest possible sense of the word), I have done so. The story begins when the Bronze Mage awakens. It begins when Vivian saves the Blood Alchemist. It begins with that poor dog being raised from the dead. And yet, for many of these characters, the story begins while they are fairly young. The Bronze Mage, by contrast, is absolutely ancient. He was born many hundreds of years before he wakes up in that crypt. You may be forgiven for wondering how he became who he now is. And so, if you’ll indulge me, I’d like to take a brief detour into the distant past, to meet a man named Mardoc and his eventual fall from grace.
Much has already been written and will continue to be written about the great Prismatic Knights, the order of powerful sorcerer-knights originating from somewhere near Wales. Their stories have passed largely into legend. Many who would tell the story of the great Myrrdin (later called Matthew by the British) will mistakenly assign his traits to another of his company, usually giving his magic sword and his surname of Erdagovern (literally “Beast-Poet”, but usually translated as Pendragon) to his contemporary, the noble Arturus Smith-son.
In an attempt to be as accurate as we can, we shall focus only on what can be known for certain. In the late 11th century, a young Matthew discovered a fantastic magical artifact, known as the Prism. The Prism granted him and his followers stupendous power and might, and they soon founded a mighty order devoted to the sciences and the defense of innocents.
In the time before the rise of Majika Supremus and similar, the Prismatic Knights were the unquestioned masters of the magical world. Their discoveries and heroic deeds became the blueprint for generations to come. Who could forget their battle with the enchanted boar, Ysgithyrwyn, or the quests into the legendary Brecilien? Each Prismatic Knight was identified either by a color or a metal, emblazoned on their arms and armor. For example, the mighty and powerful “Du Lac”, later known as “Hikos”, was often called the “Man In Steel”. Sir Palamedes was the “Man In Gray”. Sir Lanval (later mistranscribed as Randow) was the “Man In Silver”, and Sir Arturus was the “Man In Black”. Matthew himself and all his descendants were associated with the color blue.
The exact number of Prismatic Knights in this early time remains a mystery. Estimates range from as few as twenty to as many as three hundred. Many believe that they served a king, but they acted independently, swearing fealty to none but God and the common folk.
Into this company came one Mardoc, the Man In Bronze. Some records suggest he was a nephew of a senior knight, while others suggest he was a peasant invited to the order due to his great intellect. Still others have him as a noble of little renown before joining the order. What is known is that the Man In Bronze served in that order for many years, taking part in many great deeds but doing little of note personally. He was occasionally noted for his bravery or his magical skill, but little is known beyond that. We do know that he had a wife, but her name is lost to time.
Things change around the year 1131. This much, the Bronze Mage would later attest to personally. The Man In Bronze was on an expedition, warring with some giants, when he stumbled upon a forsaken glade. In the glade, he encountered the 12 Cubii, guarding a great egg. He personally beheld the egg as it split open, and from it emerged the great beast we know now as the Horned One.
The Bronze Mage claims that the moment he beheld the newly born form of the Horned One, something in his mind clicked into place. He realized that he had just witnessed the birth of the being destined to reign forever on this earth. On the spot, he forsook his oath to the Prism and swore eternal fealty to the Horned One.
The rest, as they say, is history. The Bronze Mage defected from the Prismatic Knights, and he began accumulating followers as the Horned One matured. Unfortunately, the Prismatic Knights gathered a great army and marched on the Horned One. They were unable to kill the Horned One or the Bronze Mage, but the Man In Black, using fell magic in an act of desperation, banished the Horned One to a near-inescapable pocket dimension.
Most of the Bronze Mage’s followers were massacred in the battle. It is often said that the Bronze Mage and the Man In Blue slew each other in battle that day, but this is certainly a modern invention, as both lived on afterwards.
The Horned One grants his followers long life and near-immortality, but to keep him strong, the Cubii would begin putting the Bronze Mage into a deep slumber for decades at a time. In this way, he became a cyclical threat to the Prismatic Knights, rising every hundred years or so, gathering a small army, before inevitably being beaten down and returning to his slumber. In perhaps his most successful attempt, he was able to gain the loyalty of two great warriors, the Prismatic Knight Lynn Eldrid and the Elder Dragon Deszelokashaya, but even they eventually vanished from legend.
As the Bronze Mage lived through the centuries, the world changed around him. It became less magical, as the Giants, the Dragons and the Fey left the known world for the fabled land of Magykka. With no one left but mages and normals, the two groups turned on each other, with the Catholic Church leading the persecution of mages and forcing them underground. Majika Supremus, a faction named for that fabled land where magic still roamed free, became the self-appointed enforcers of this secrecy, and openly starting a cult became increasingly difficult. Even the Prismatic Knights found themselves hated by the public, and eventually the descendant of the original Hikos shattered the Prism into many pieces, more or less marking the end of that great faction.
Why do I tell you all this? Does it really tell you very much about the Bronze Mage? Perhaps not. Will any of this matter later? Some of it will, but much of it is irrelevant. But I want to make two things very clear. First and foremost, the Horned One is real. The Bronze Mage beheld it with his own two eyes. Lest you think that he is fighting for nothing, that he has deceived his followers into worshipping a being that does not exist and his summoning ritual will do nothing, let me assure you that the Bronze Mage at least knows for certain that he is sworn to the service of something real and tangible. His agelessness and immortality should be proof enough of that.
But secondly, and perhaps most importantly, his devotion must be stressed. We have so far seen the actions of one fairly kooky old man as he starts a small cult on an island in the Pacific Northwest. It’s easy to see this as a silly pursuit. When the Cubii chastise him or he spends his time quipping, just know that he has been fighting for the Horned One for every waking moment for 800 years. Granted, many of those years were spent asleep, but he still has devoted several lifetimes to this, and he has not wavered in his dedication. Indeed, each failure seems to reinvigorate him, make him more determined to ensure that this time, he’ll succeed. All this man wants, more than romance, more than friendship, more than anything, is to see himself on a throne, watching the Horned One lay waste to the world he rules.
As we return to the story, as we see the Bronze Mage continue to seek allies and consolidate his forces, you may feel that he’s a sillier, less compelling, less complex character than some of the others we’ve met. And that is fair. Maybe even accurate. But he knows what he wants more than anyone alive has ever known anything about themselves. This certainty, this clarity of purpose, there’s something admirable about it, isn’t it?
It's a shame you can only gain such clarity of purpose from being in a doomsday cult, but alas, such is life.
At this point, the three branches of our story have only just begun to converge. Soon, they will be tightly intertwined. And yet, you may feel that something has been lacking so far.
Conventional storytelling wisdom states simply that one should “start the story where the story starts”, and for our four “heroes” (in the loosest possible sense of the word), I have done so. The story begins when the Bronze Mage awakens. It begins when Vivian saves the Blood Alchemist. It begins with that poor dog being raised from the dead. And yet, for many of these characters, the story begins while they are fairly young. The Bronze Mage, by contrast, is absolutely ancient. He was born many hundreds of years before he wakes up in that crypt. You may be forgiven for wondering how he became who he now is. And so, if you’ll indulge me, I’d like to take a brief detour into the distant past, to meet a man named Mardoc and his eventual fall from grace.
Much has already been written and will continue to be written about the great Prismatic Knights, the order of powerful sorcerer-knights originating from somewhere near Wales. Their stories have passed largely into legend. Many who would tell the story of the great Myrrdin (later called Matthew by the British) will mistakenly assign his traits to another of his company, usually giving his magic sword and his surname of Erdagovern (literally “Beast-Poet”, but usually translated as Pendragon) to his contemporary, the noble Arturus Smith-son.
In an attempt to be as accurate as we can, we shall focus only on what can be known for certain. In the late 11th century, a young Matthew discovered a fantastic magical artifact, known as the Prism. The Prism granted him and his followers stupendous power and might, and they soon founded a mighty order devoted to the sciences and the defense of innocents.
In the time before the rise of Majika Supremus and similar, the Prismatic Knights were the unquestioned masters of the magical world. Their discoveries and heroic deeds became the blueprint for generations to come. Who could forget their battle with the enchanted boar, Ysgithyrwyn, or the quests into the legendary Brecilien? Each Prismatic Knight was identified either by a color or a metal, emblazoned on their arms and armor. For example, the mighty and powerful “Du Lac”, later known as “Hikos”, was often called the “Man In Steel”. Sir Palamedes was the “Man In Gray”. Sir Lanval (later mistranscribed as Randow) was the “Man In Silver”, and Sir Arturus was the “Man In Black”. Matthew himself and all his descendants were associated with the color blue.
The exact number of Prismatic Knights in this early time remains a mystery. Estimates range from as few as twenty to as many as three hundred. Many believe that they served a king, but they acted independently, swearing fealty to none but God and the common folk.
Into this company came one Mardoc, the Man In Bronze. Some records suggest he was a nephew of a senior knight, while others suggest he was a peasant invited to the order due to his great intellect. Still others have him as a noble of little renown before joining the order. What is known is that the Man In Bronze served in that order for many years, taking part in many great deeds but doing little of note personally. He was occasionally noted for his bravery or his magical skill, but little is known beyond that. We do know that he had a wife, but her name is lost to time.
Things change around the year 1131. This much, the Bronze Mage would later attest to personally. The Man In Bronze was on an expedition, warring with some giants, when he stumbled upon a forsaken glade. In the glade, he encountered the 12 Cubii, guarding a great egg. He personally beheld the egg as it split open, and from it emerged the great beast we know now as the Horned One.
The Bronze Mage claims that the moment he beheld the newly born form of the Horned One, something in his mind clicked into place. He realized that he had just witnessed the birth of the being destined to reign forever on this earth. On the spot, he forsook his oath to the Prism and swore eternal fealty to the Horned One.
The rest, as they say, is history. The Bronze Mage defected from the Prismatic Knights, and he began accumulating followers as the Horned One matured. Unfortunately, the Prismatic Knights gathered a great army and marched on the Horned One. They were unable to kill the Horned One or the Bronze Mage, but the Man In Black, using fell magic in an act of desperation, banished the Horned One to a near-inescapable pocket dimension.
Most of the Bronze Mage’s followers were massacred in the battle. It is often said that the Bronze Mage and the Man In Blue slew each other in battle that day, but this is certainly a modern invention, as both lived on afterwards.
The Horned One grants his followers long life and near-immortality, but to keep him strong, the Cubii would begin putting the Bronze Mage into a deep slumber for decades at a time. In this way, he became a cyclical threat to the Prismatic Knights, rising every hundred years or so, gathering a small army, before inevitably being beaten down and returning to his slumber. In perhaps his most successful attempt, he was able to gain the loyalty of two great warriors, the Prismatic Knight Lynn Eldrid and the Elder Dragon Deszelokashaya, but even they eventually vanished from legend.
As the Bronze Mage lived through the centuries, the world changed around him. It became less magical, as the Giants, the Dragons and the Fey left the known world for the fabled land of Magykka. With no one left but mages and normals, the two groups turned on each other, with the Catholic Church leading the persecution of mages and forcing them underground. Majika Supremus, a faction named for that fabled land where magic still roamed free, became the self-appointed enforcers of this secrecy, and openly starting a cult became increasingly difficult. Even the Prismatic Knights found themselves hated by the public, and eventually the descendant of the original Hikos shattered the Prism into many pieces, more or less marking the end of that great faction.
Why do I tell you all this? Does it really tell you very much about the Bronze Mage? Perhaps not. Will any of this matter later? Some of it will, but much of it is irrelevant. But I want to make two things very clear. First and foremost, the Horned One is real. The Bronze Mage beheld it with his own two eyes. Lest you think that he is fighting for nothing, that he has deceived his followers into worshipping a being that does not exist and his summoning ritual will do nothing, let me assure you that the Bronze Mage at least knows for certain that he is sworn to the service of something real and tangible. His agelessness and immortality should be proof enough of that.
But secondly, and perhaps most importantly, his devotion must be stressed. We have so far seen the actions of one fairly kooky old man as he starts a small cult on an island in the Pacific Northwest. It’s easy to see this as a silly pursuit. When the Cubii chastise him or he spends his time quipping, just know that he has been fighting for the Horned One for every waking moment for 800 years. Granted, many of those years were spent asleep, but he still has devoted several lifetimes to this, and he has not wavered in his dedication. Indeed, each failure seems to reinvigorate him, make him more determined to ensure that this time, he’ll succeed. All this man wants, more than romance, more than friendship, more than anything, is to see himself on a throne, watching the Horned One lay waste to the world he rules.
As we return to the story, as we see the Bronze Mage continue to seek allies and consolidate his forces, you may feel that he’s a sillier, less compelling, less complex character than some of the others we’ve met. And that is fair. Maybe even accurate. But he knows what he wants more than anyone alive has ever known anything about themselves. This certainty, this clarity of purpose, there’s something admirable about it, isn’t it?
It's a shame you can only gain such clarity of purpose from being in a doomsday cult, but alas, such is life.