A long, long time ago by human standards there were kinsmen of the Shadow. They called themselves the Thelash. Although human-like in appearance they possessed no shadow. They were also extremely frail yet able to move at the speed of the wind, though not for extended periods of time.
At first they were only a small tribe living in a dark, damp swamp. The tribesmen had quickly learned to work together in hunt, in craft and in soul. They were able to move unnoticeable to the local wildlife, which mostly consisted of huge carnivorous spiders. They learned how to gather food and silk.
Food, the most important nutrient for the Thelash was blood. Blood is the most potent drink known to them. It contains enough nutrients to answer to their bodily needs. They can of course eat more mundane things, but they find them less nourishing and the manner of ingesting them less efficient.
Then there was silk, it was at the base of Thelash economy. It was used to make clothes, weave books, make furniture, and even buildings. Through secrets handed down through the generations, the Thelash were able to weave the high towers they like to live in. It was treated to keep the shade in, and the heat out, and so were the clothes.
Heat, one of the greatest pains of the Thelash. They would go out of their way to avoid it. They disliked heat and liked cold, although winter's touch was as deadly to a naked Thelash as it was to a human, and so was heat. Yet for some reason, most Thelash still felt heavy discomfort around high temperatures.
Thus, armed with these three secrets and two more, the Thelash slowly spread over and out of their swamp, building great cities. Eventually they came to dominate their piece of land, blocked in the west by high mountains, and in the north, south and east by a large ocean.
Yet they were happy to live there, working their secrets. They had reached a level of development that they needed no more space, as they were too few to cover it, and would remain too few for millenia. Instead, they chose to seek the truth, knowledge.
Knowledge is what will help the Thelash reach their goal : complete perfection. As a civilization and as a race, they do not long for things like happiness or domination. All they want is to be perfect. And perfection to them is reaching the state from which they can no longer be perfected. Some would consider this goal impossible to achieve, as life is too short.
Yet for the Thelash, life was not too short, there was no such thing as life. There was the time they spent as beings of flesh, Halash, which lasts 300 years and not a day more, and the state they spend as beings of pure shadow Shtelash, immortal beings that can barely interact with the mortal world.
As the Halash age, they become closer to the Shadow, and are thus able to turn parts of their bodies to a shadowy substance, the touch of which can send extreme numbing pain into one's soul, bypassing any flesh that might be in-between.
Eventually they become old enough, to lose their mortal form and become Shtelash. When one becomes such a creature, his remains are placed in a special silk cocoon, which becomes its residence. These cocoons are kept in what is referred as « Ahathemi », or Academy, as this is the purpose it serves. Young Thelash do not learn in schools or through apprenticeship, as humans would, but by speaking with their ancestors, learning what they did and how they did it. And when the children know what they can do, they are considered children no longer. They become adults, no different from any other Thelash.
The day of an adult Thelash is divided in two phases, one is the time they must spend contributing to their society, the way in which they contribute is decided when they become adults, and the time they can dedicate to personal pursuits, such as self-perfection, usually the quest for knowledge. The Thelash have little need for sleep, a few hours of meditative trance every few days are more than enough. The consumption of blood helps push off any tiredness.
The other secret of the Thelash is the working of souls. For many millenia this has been considered a waste of effort, yet some inquisitive Thelash still experimented with the art of capturing sentient souls in various objects. The preferred object is a gem, as it is considered less wasteful and easier to work with. The Thelash have learned how to get a soul out of its body, how to place the soul into a container, how to blend souls, and how to command souls.
While the first two steps are self-explained, the third and fourth ones need a bit more detail. Blending souls is an involved process in which two souls are merged together, usually keeping only what they have in common. Repeated often enough, this tends to override any personality the soul might have, while keeping useful aspects of it. Once one of the aspects is deemed pure enough, it can be commanded. A Thelash can apply his will towards the soul, forcing it to do what it has been made to do. For instance, many avian souls melded together can be used to induce flight.
Finally comes Thelash mastery over shadow. As they learned about souls, they began experimenting with their own, eventually discovering the only aspect that was to be found within a Thelash soul : Shadow. As they mastered shadow, they became able to create wonders using the vast powers it could produce. In time, all of their cities were linked using portals that used shadow as power.
This was also to be their demise.
They had discovered other sapient races, with whom they traded their secrets. Eventually, the world began to be changed. Plagues hit the people and animals, droughts hit the fields, and many other catastrophes befell on everyone. Everyone except the Thelash, who were not subject to illness or famine.
In time, it was discovered that drawing upon the power of shadows weakened the balance of the world, and suddenly the Thelash became surrounded by enemies, besieging them, seeking to destroy their creations. The Thelash did not understand the anger, yet they knew they were doomed.
In a desperate attempt, some of the greatest Thelash minds devised a plan, a plan to open a huge portal and leave this doomed world. Opening the portal required a great sacrifice, most of the living and dead Thelash would give their existence to save a few. And so they did, through the world of shadows, they moved to another world, losing many on the way.
This happened millenia ago.
A Thelash group landed in this world and seeing it as a new opportunity, they rebuilt what had been lost. Yet there were dissensions, some said they had to leave the shadow behind to avoid damaging this new world, and became more feral, never turning into shadows. They disappeared to the sands of time.
Others considered living the same way they did, but without all the portals and magic. « Magic » was the word they used to describe what souls could achieve when commanded. A third group wanted to rebuild the old civilization exactly as it was, with the same rules, the same organization. They were few, but they had arguments. And the last and fourth group wanted to push knowledge of the shadow as far as possible, as well as any experiments with souls.
For centuries these groups lived together, trying to forge a civilization while furthering their own agenda. Eventually, one by one, they disappeared. All except one. Our group. The fourth group.
We do not know if the others simply withered and died, or if they decided to move away. But the result is the same : only we remain. We who shall call ourselves the Shehalash, People of the True and Eternal Shadow.
We were a powerful civilization, discovering the secrets of shadows we were able to work shadow. In peace we created servants made of the souls of the living creatures. In war, we learned how to turn shadows into deadly weapons, tearing souls out of the bodies of our enemies with tentacles of pure darkness. We perfected ourselves so much that we no longer needed to become Shtelash, we were able to command the shadow, to be shadow, we were IMMORTALS... MWA HA HA HA.
Yet one day the accursed creatures came. They called themselves gods and thought they were omnipotent. We showed them, oh yes we showed them. We showed them they could never defeat the Shehalash. They could never find us, we were hidden, well-hidden. Of course some died, but that is not our problem. These « gods » were warring among each other, killing each other for some petty reasons. We just watched as the creatures they called their servants wiped each other out of some sort of game they were playing.
They were crazy, mad, completely MAD.
In the end, nothing remained, so we came out. And we rebuilt. On the ashes of the fallen fools that did not know they were tools in a game that was beyond them. We know. We watch and we know.
That was a thousand years ago.
Now another creatures came to us. We though them gone, but they are not. Hah ! She spoke to our Ancient Ones. Ancient Ones ? As if that bunch of fools had any power at all. I am the only one, the ONLY one !!
I heard what she said. She called herself Kearnakh, a goddess. Does she takes us for fools, we are not crazy, we will bow to no one, I said to her. I am an Ancient One, I said, I can decide if she lives or dies. Of course there are others, but they have no power over ME !!!
She said the gods were coming back, that there were many of them, and that they were more powerful than the other ones. She wanted to be our ally in the Game. I shall not be a PAWN. I shall rule the world and bring these gods down. But it is not my problem, I have work to do. I need to find the Way. The way to understand life. To understand it and to destroy it !!
She said she would give us protection from the other gods. Protection ? We don't need that I said. In exchange she wanted souls to be given to her. Ha ! They just lie around, running in those dogs, flying in those birds. She just has to grab them and it's hers. Why does she want ours ? She cannot take them. She has Rules. She doesn't understand the Power. Ha !! Gods are just powerless pitiful creatures.
Well, we can give her what she wants, not that it will be difficult for us. Yet we, the Ancient Ones, saw right through her tricks. She wants to make us think we need her. She wants to control us. Over time, she thinks she will be Our goddess. She is crazy, mad, she is MAD, completely MAD.
This was a century ago.
Now we are ready. We are ready for her tricks, we are ready for the carnage and destruction. We all are ready. HAHAHAHAHA *
While this Ancient One seems to be completely crazy, it is not the case of all Shehalash. Only those who survive beyond their 300th year tend to lose their mind. Which is the case of all Ancient Ones. And the Ancient Ones lead the Shehalash. And they hate each other as much as they hate stupid inferior creatures (that is to say, anything living or spiritual is underneath them). Shehalash under 300 are actually completely sane of body and mind, although a bit creepy at times from the light coats, cloaks and hoods they tend to wear, and the whisper which is their main language.
The art of soul melding is seldom used nowadays, people preferring the art of Compulsion. A soul is inflicted the worst possible sufferings until it learns to do only what its torturer wants it to learn. After that, the soul is usually very representative of the aspect it controls. For example, souls made to command fire will be very agressive. The soul cannot do anything outside its container until it is given the command by a greater will. If the will of the one who commands is insufficient, in the best case the powers of the trapped soul will go uncontroled until someone else seizes control, which can mean a lot of destruction in the right circumstances. In the worst case, the soul of the commander may end up being corrupted by the trapped soul. And it has been speculated that the souls may be swapped.
Most of the time, souls are trapped in fist-sized jewels and gems, mostly because of the nice hue the soul might give to the gem. Of course souls can also be trapped in more mundane things, and even rocks.
Gems are extracted by slaves bought from other civilizations from the mountains in the middle of Shehalash territory. Slaves are often treated fairly well, well-fed and sometimes well-fed upon. The concept of slavery is a bit alien to most Shehalash, hence the good treatment. Knowledgeable slaves may end up being allowed to teach. Some are even allowed to go free, not that this is a good thing since Shehalashi forests are infested by giant carnivorous spider and are generally a dangerous place to travel in.
The Shehalash have extensive knowledge on many mundane, scientific and esoteric subjects. Most of it is very theoretical, especially when it comes to mathematics. The Shehalash greatly value mathematics and therefore their written language is made around numbers and what other races might interpret as extremely sophisticated equations.
Shaladin is sparsely populated, there is no such thing as great cities or even large communities. Many small villages of no seldom more than a few hundred inhabitants lie in the middle of the forest. Land travel is seldom used, one reason being the giant carnivorous spiders (which the Shehalash got used to killing), the other that shadow portals are so much more convenient to transport resources and people. Places marked on the map are Haladesh (in the mountains) and the Shadow Portal.
There is no central government either. Ancient Ones are de facto leaders, even though they seldom give orders. Shehalash society and culture is structured enough for everyone to know what is expected of him and when to work for society and when to work for oneself. This is one of the reasons why slaves are treated fairly, they are considered as being useful to society.
The art of controlling the shadow is a nonmagic natural ability given to the Shehalash. As mentionned before it can be fashioned into many shapes, including very physical blades of pure darkness (that are no better than their metallic counterparts). Of course the ability to shred the soul to pieces is much more useful than that of shredding the flesh to pieces. It is also possible to turn oneself completely into shadow, which can be very useful to get a bit of sanity. Obviously it goes away when you turn back into flesh and blood.
Besides, there are metallic weapons made just for the flesh. Shehalash prefer rapiers and daggers. They also use long, thin metallic wire attached to the fingers to choke and dismember people.
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Topic: Battle of the Gods VI OOC Thread -preparation- (Read 13988 times)