Apostles of Doom

“I fear I must also point out that the losses that Sentir Fallon talks about, the permanently slain avatars? That really only started to be a problem in the aftermath of Orcus’s demise. As they told you, we committed quite a number of forces to defending the Isle of Doom after Orcus’s death, and we lost a lot of saints the first thousand or so years. We lost more than we had ever lost before.”

“Shortly before the last truly huge battles, around twenty to twenty-five hundred years ago, Athgar, Sentir Fallon’s predecessor as Elder Archon of the Localverse, began to scale back our operations. Discussing this again now, I am just remembering that this was at the urging of Sentir Fallon,” Dashgar told them.

“He did? But he was not an Elder Archon at the time. He was Attendant on Astlan,” Baysir said.

“Well, as you know, we have these regular conclaves of the Attendant Archons for each localverse,” Dashgar said. “There are only thirteen worlds in our localverse that Tiernon has a true presence on. Another half dozen or so worlds have smaller presences, not large enough to merit an Attendant Archon. In any event, it is at those meetings that we discuss the shared concerns and resources of the worlds within our localverse. Obviously, I was routinely bringing up our resource issues here, and reporting on our losses. When the topic came up as to what to do about it, it was Sentir Fallon who suggested we refocus on supporting the priests and training mortal forces, rather than going in and risking our increasingly limited number of saints.”

At this point Hilda interrupted Dashgar. “That is a question I have. It would seem that in a world of eternal conflict, there would be great opportunities for self-sacrifice, martyrdom and thus canonization?”

Inethya chuckled at this. “Indeed, one would.” She shook her head sadly. “And that was generally the case before the fall of Doom. In what we might call the great saint-making battles, Doom’s forces typically gave us the cover to get the newly departed to a safe location before they could be drained of animus. Even when we were not fighting side by side, the Unlife were so reduced that we had plenty of opportunities for sainthood against lesser Unlife.”

She shook her head again. “That first thousand or so years that I mentioned, we were still able to recruit saints at about the same rate as before; however, we were losing them faster. After that, well… things got ugly and the Unlife had become strong enough that they could often consume the animus of the martyr before we could do an ascension.”

Stevos grimaced and gave a small shudder at the horror of this. Hilda closed her eyes for a moment and then raised her glass in a toast. “To those brave illuminaries and warriors who have fallen and been consumed.”

“To the fallen.” The others joined in the toast.

“So why are Torean’s forces also holding back avatars?” Timbly asked.

Dashgar shrugged. “As with Torean and Tiernon, Sentir Fallon and Noahn Whitlove, the Elder Archon of Torean for the localverse, are close.”

“So why have the Unlife held back for the last few thousand years? You said they have gotten stronger; why have they not attacked?” Baysir asked.

“We speculate that, from what we can determine, they have been purposefully holding back,” Dashgar said. “They do what it takes to keep us from expanding, but they have not tried the sort of large-scale attacks against us that we saw thousands of years ago. Given that the strength of the Unlife our people are encountering has been increasing, they are trying to build up more experienced, more powerful forces so that when they do strike, it will be far more successful.”

“Well, this appears to be exactly that. A major battle coming, and soon,” Stevos said. “We” — he gestured to himself and Timbly — “feel we should be here. Given that we are asking them for aid, we should be willing to grant ours to them.”

Dashgar nodded and looked to Inethya and then Baysir, who obviously had been thinking on this.

After a few moments, Baysir spoke. “I am fine with it, if it is fine with you, Inethya. I would aid if I could, but we all know the politics of that.” He smiled at Inethya, who grinned and rolled her eyes.

Hilda suddenly spoke up. “Well, if you two are staying, I would like to stay as well. The Unlife are my calling, after all.”

Baysir tilted his head. “I am not opposed to your doing this, but we should certainly check with Moradel and Beragamos. I do not want to have to explain your eternal demise to them; they have taken a shine to you.”

Inethya chuckled, raising her glass. “Indeed, I am loath to risk losing access to your wine cellar!”

Isle of Doom, Krallnomton: Early Third Period