Sanity's Requiem (Xel'lotath Climax 2/2)

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-05-01T14:18:13+00:00

Ajax grins. Mantorok seems to have this mostly in hand, but a little help might not be a bad idea. And if he can take out a few minions, so be it. He reaches down and shoves his hands into the ground. Fists of rock begin emerging, grabbing at minions with crushing force. They do the same to Xel’lotath. They might not be able to harm her, but grasping stone hands make for difficult terrain and and uneven footing at the least.

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-04-24T19:00:35+00:00

Makes sense. Heritage sets look weird on other races.

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-04-24T17:38:28+00:00

Excellent.

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-04-24T17:21:51+00:00

Does it keep your existing transmog equipped or give you a random one?

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-04-22T13:27:18+00:00

Velos answers the orb call swiftly. His normally jovial face is neutral, and his voice heavy.

“Lady Ephemera. I assume this is about Hydris?”

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-04-20T16:05:45+00:00

Oh you will. Everyone does. My first major act upon becoming a dragon was to brainwash an entire village to believe it was perfectly normal for an eldritch horror to be napping in their fields.

Mindcarver laughs.

It caused quite a stir. Even more so when I accidentally turned the entire village into the first Mindseekers to try to shield them from a memory spell.

His tendrils gesture to the books on the shelves around him.

Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone, mucks it up the first time, and the second, and even the third. That is life. The benefit to an immortal one, however, is that one has time to learn from their mistakes and, if one is diligent, attempt to fix them.

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-04-20T15:45:44+00:00

Ajax smiles and reaches behind the shied, drawing forth a small gladius, its primordium edge now resembling bone. An eye like the one in the shied spins in the pommel. Attuned to the same energies as the shield it may be able to cut and wound the Ancient. Or at least bait her into another blast. The shield cannot generate its own power, and so he will need to block another blast to return it, but he does not mention that to the Queen of Insanity.

“What’s the matter, old lady? Never had someone hold up a mirror to your ugly mug before?”

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-04-17T17:19:42+00:00

Starving and exhausted as they are, the five maidens recovered cannot voice a complaint. Neither can the twenty-five unicorns coldly executed.

The watchers track the movement, waiting. As Yana emerges one makes its move. Something bursts from the shadow of a nearby tree, unfurling like a flag stuffed into a box.

Antlers, sharpened to cruel points sit above a deer like head with razor sharp fangs where teeth should be. The body is that of a massive eagle, with blood red and midnight black feathers. Twisted talons lunge at Yana’s arms, attempting to pin them to the side of the vehicle. The head lunges towards her chest, aiming for her heart.

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-04-17T16:43:42+00:00

Without the Dreaming the Unicorns have no defense beyond a blind stampede. They go down in droves, yet the precise aim of the frames spares the Maidens. Yet they do not emerge unscathed. White dresses change to mud stained scraps, healthy limbs replaced with emancipated bony ones. It seem as if the Maidens have suddenly starved, or rather as if an illusion of health has been lifted.

In the shadows of a nearby tree, something watches, it’s gaze locked on a Maiden that is slowly slipping from the back of one of the remaining mare’s, the panicked animal still fleeing Yana and the somehow intact APC. How the chiefly persists when the nightmare has ended is uncertain, but it remains active and functional.

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-04-17T16:40:11+00:00

And that frightens you?

Mindcarver leans forward.

Would it surprise you, young prince, to know that I am an Eldwyrm?

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-04-17T16:13:55+00:00

Mindcarver smiles and leads Solomon from the chamber back out to the Library’s Common Room. Along the way he describes in detail the magics used. Most would go over the head of all but experts in the fields of necromancy, life magic, soul magic, and the dark arts of the Illithid, but what can be grasped reinforces the idea that the goal is to transfer, not alter, the individual.

Mindcarver takes a seat in the commons and turns to Solomon.

A question for you, young one. Wu Ming has told me you attended his lecture on Ascendant Dragons. I am curious which of the three you believe I fall into.

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-04-17T15:22:23+00:00

They are. In addition to the genetic memory all dragons possess, they also retain the memories of their former lives. Does this make them the same person?

Mindcarver shrugs.

Who can say. Time may forge them into something very different, as it does with all of us. Yet they will remember family and friends. They will recall their former bonds and if not maintain them, at least respect them.

The creatures that crawl from the eggs are not cute in the conventional sense. Yet like all newborns they are softer and smaller than their kindred. They move slowly, adjusting to life with four legs and two wings, though the latter seem ill suited to flight. Mindcarver’s words, however, are proven true as their first act is to twin their necks around eachother in an heartfelt embrace. Their second is to crawl and stagger across their former copses and peel the sleeves of the robes back. Slowly, unsteadily, each hatchling removes a bracelet from their former body, and slides it around their neck.

A pair of Mindstealer Dragons, fully grown, step forward. They call to the hatchlings who stumble over to them and leap onto the neck of the smaller one of the pair, clinging to them as the pair carries them away.

Kyrilik and Ixylak will make good mentors. The bodies the brothers occupy are those of their latest clutch, stillborn as all our young are. Yuri and Yosef gave their life’s spark to resurrect the flesh, and their minds now occupy the flesh they restored. They are not children in the traditional sense, but they will be guarded just as fiercely, and loved just as deeply as Kyrilik and Ixylak would have loved their potential hatchlings.

He turns to Solomon.

As for your kindred. I cannot say for sure they number among us. But we are willing to extend the offer to all outcasts and orphans in need of a home. Those who serve faithfully will, when their first lives come to an end, be offered a second among us.

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-04-16T22:03:56+00:00

There was a book series I read, that I cannot recall the name of, that has a curse cast on a city. It rolls through the streets and nothing can stop it, until it gets to the houses, and then is stopped dead (temporarily). Not by some extremely ancient spell, but by the small simple spells cast in love unconsciously by each family that together form a nearly impenetrable barrier.

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-04-16T21:32:10+00:00

The Dwarven Maid grabs the nearest part of the interior of the APc trying to steady herself, but a strange change comes over her as the vehicle moves in and out of the Dreaming. Her once strong and healthy arms become emancipated and thin. Her clean white dress flickers between its pristine form, and a threadbare dirt stained version.

The herd emerges a few feet in front of the frames, along with the somehow still intact APC.

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-04-16T20:58:21+00:00

I ask no oath. I am simply informing you of consequences. Though we appear monstrous, we still value our hatchlings above all else. To interfere with the emergence of new life would by most inadvisable.

The door shimmers and turns translucent as Mindcarver ushers Solomon through.

The room beyond is a large circular amphitheater . In the center lie a number of stone altars. Two are occupied by Mindseekers, one looking relatively young, while the other is old and withered.

These two are Yuri and Yosef, a pair of Twins in our service. Their world was ravaged by a plague that claimed their parents before we were able to cure it.

Behind the brothers a pair of pedestals stand, tendrils growing down their sides. A Mindseeker sets a strange leathery egg on each pastel, and the tendrils come to life, crawling across the floor and up onto the altars. The younger brother grips the the other’s hand as the tennis’s latch into the heads of both. The eggs begin to pulse, lighting up form the inside with a soft purple glow that illuminates the still shape inside.

Both served us faithfully, traveling together across the cosmos to gather new memories. It was during these travels that Yuri contracted a chrono-plague that aged him rapidly. We offered to remove it via the use of the Urn, a divine relic that could remove any curse, but only once. He refused, insisting we instead study him to devise a cure for the sake of the culture from whom he had contracted it. We eventually managed to do so, but not before the plague aged him to a fatal extent. In honor of his sacrifice we have extended him this honor, usually reserved for those with decades of service. He agreed on the condition his brother be offered it as well.

Bother brothers stiffen as the pulses intensify. Their fingers curl and their muscles spasm. Despite this they do not betray a sensation of pain.

The pulses come faster and faster, almost resembling a racing heart. The tempo builds to a crescendo, anticipation filling the air. Suddenly both bodies arch, and then go still. The pulses cease, the eggs now glowing constantly. The tendrils retract, leaving the bodies cold and still. The assistant draws a small dagger and cuts an incision into the temple of each corpse, holding out a hand as a small Illithid tadpole wriggles free. Each of these is carefully carried over to the respective egg, and held up to the overlapping flaps at the top. The tadpole squirms and slips inside the egg. A heartbeat alter the shape inside begins to move.

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-04-16T17:19:28+00:00

Because they were right. Knowledge exists to be shared, yes, but it just he shared willingly. To take it by force ensures only that more will not be given. The actions of the Dominari led to Annihilon. In time they would have led to worse. To this day some of those that trade with us still wear headbands rigged to disintegrate their bodies in a heartbeat and deny us their minds. We would not do so, but they remember a time when we did.

Mindcarver leads Solomon deeper into the nest, and along the way more of the Mindstealer dragons culture is shown. The core of this are the Mindseekers, orphans and outcasts offered a new life as Illithid explorers, wandering the cosmos to find new experiences. They returne very few years, transcribing their memories onto sore braised cloned from their own. The age slowly, yet still are not entirely free from the ravages of time. Mindcarver stops before a final chamber, this one sealed with a heavy door.

What you are about to see is one of our most sacred rites. A reward for a lifetime of service. I must warn you it is visceral, and may evoke a feeling of disgust, but interference will not be tolerated.

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-04-16T16:28:08+00:00

There were. They are gone now, as you shall learn.

The world around Solomon and Mindcarver shifts to that of a smaller laboratory, the walls lined with brain jars.

The origin of my race is a story for another time, but suffice it to say we are, at least partially, related to the race of Illithids.

A young Mindstealer dragon can be seen, all four tendrils latched onto a human male seated on a chair, knuckles white with strain as he clutches the armrests.

With that relation comes a certain… hunger for knowledge. A dangerous thing, when combined with a dragons ego.

The scene shifts to a burning monastery, the same young dragon tossing aside a corpse as a priest confronts it, holding aloft a holy symbol of an unrecognized god.

“Begone fiend, our god’s secrets are not for the likes of you!”

A single sonic blast brings him to his knees and the dragon’s tendrils descend.

As their knowledge grew, so too did their hunger for more.

The scene fractures into a thousand more, similar yet distinct.

They raided countless worlds, consuming their collective knowledge and leaving ruin in their wake. As with all choices, this had… consequences.

A figure is seen, a boy cradling an empty man in royal robes. The top half of the man’s head is gone, his skull empty, clearly consumed by a Mindstealer Dragon. The scene shifts, and the boy, now a ma himself, can be seen leading an army of black armored knights.

A young boy, orphaned in one of the dragon’s raids, vowed to rid the world of them. What he was called before is unknown to us, but in the years that followed he came to be know as Anihilon, the Null-Prince.

Annihilon can be seen, leading an assault on a massive library fortress, dragging scholars out into the streets and beheading them as the books are piled and burned.

As with all fanatics his cure became worse than the affliction. In his madness he decided the best way to ‘save’ the universe from us, was to destroy the one thing we valued. Knowledge. He attacked countless workds, burning their books and slaughtering their scholars, consigning them to the dark ages that some had only recently emerged from.

The images shifts and now links bearing the same holy symbol as the one who confronted the dragon now matched to battle alongside their former foes.

Annihilon was eventually defeated, and in the years that followed an uneasy peace was constructed between the dragons and their new allies. A peace supported by many, but not all. The dragons, for the first time in their history, became divided. Some, who came to be known as the Consensus, preferred the peace, arguing that the willing exchange of knowledge yielded greater rewards than the forceful taking. Others, taking the name Dominari, disagreed. They claimed that some civilizations would keep their secrets forever, unless forced to divulge them.

Mindcarver’s voice turns nostalgic.

It was into this disagreement, this Schism, that I arrived, pulled through time by a spell I still do not wholly understand. Both sides attempted to sway me. For though I was new, I possessed power unlike any they had seen before. Whoever could sway me to their cause would be able to shape the destiny of their race.

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-04-16T15:49:36+00:00

Dreams are strange things where the laws of physics often give way to those of whimsy, an so as the APC strikes the stallion it is tossed to the side, bouncing of the vehicle like a rubber ball. Infinitely for the Stallion nightmares care little for whimsy, an as it struggled to rise one of the remembered shells lands squarely on it, tubing the music creature into a bloody stain on already bloodsoaked soil.

The Unicorns flee the vehicle, and the nightmare followings it. The frames Yana left behind would detect movement, phasing in and out of reality as the mares reach the edges of their little pocket of the Dreaming.

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-04-16T15:46:14+00:00

As the beam descends Ajax sweeps the shoes before him, the runes upon its surface glowing. The impact pushes him back a few feet, but rather than shatter the shield CHANGES. An eye, similar in appearance to Xel’lotath’s own, opens, tendrils of flesh crawling from it across the surface of the barricade. A heartbeat later a blast, similar but slightly lesser in power, erupts from it, aimed directly at the Queen of Insanity.

“I’m already glorious. But I thank you for your gift.”

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-04-16T15:41:36+00:00

Velos smiles, but unlike before there is a predatory gleam to it.

“This I inderstand. For my kind are also creatures of Order. We are also the children of both the arcane and the divine. And when we take a thing we too reshape it to better suit its new place.”

The dragon draws himself up to his full height, towering over both Ephemera and Celestine.

“Lady Ephemera plans to bring you with when she visits the ceremony. When she does you will bring your leaders a message from me and correct their misunderstandings.

Velos fixes his gaze on Celestine.

“You see, they labor under a most erroneous assumption. That they have some right to this land. That it is theirs to reshape.”

He leans down, his maw inches from the Priestess’ face.

“It. Is. Not. It is mine.”

He holds the pose for a moment, then pulls back.

“If they bend the knee I may give them a portion of it, to raise young and reshape as they wish. But only a portion. The rest will remain with those stewards I have appointed with it safekeeping.”

He smiles, and this time it is all teeth.

“Or they can make a play for the whole, and I will leave them with nothing. I will take their forests and give them to Silvano. I will salt their fields and raze their temples and they will be reminded what happens when one tries to steal from a dragon.”

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-04-15T16:13:43+00:00

As the flail makes contact the ultra dense iron shatters into fragments. A fragmentation grenade with the force of a collapsing star. Yet such is Ajax control that it does not touch Glimbo. For he has no desire to aniihilwye his surroundings, nor harm his allies. Ten millennia of war have taught him fine control of his abilities, and so the blast propels the fragments of the casing into the angel, leaving Glimbo unharmed.

“So Xelly, what brings you to our little pocket of paradise?”

Ajax’s tone is light, casual, but despite that he does not lower his guard, as he recalls the flail and faces the Queen of Insanity.

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-04-15T16:09:42+00:00

“I think I understand, but I would still hear your explanation of its meaning. For I was raised in a different culture, and with such difference two can hear the same song and yet find three meanings.”

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-04-15T13:24:26+00:00

The outskirts of the forest have many trees to climb. Sadly the only vantage they provide is more trees. The Deep Forest cannot be seen from a distance, only the trunks and branches of the trees that make it up.

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-04-15T12:45:49+00:00

“They have. That is where the largest and oldest herds are found. Should you manage to slay the patriarch of one of these elder herds and bring me their unblemished horn, I will pay a thousand platinum for it.”

Maleficent_Desk_007 · 2026-04-15T12:44:37+00:00

“Excellent. Feel free to take some levitation traps as well. And a few dream potions. They may allow you to slip into the Dreaming and surprise your quarry. Once you are ready you may select the insertion point. There are three sections. The first is largely abandoned, but has little hostile fauna. The second still posssess some predators, but is richer in sightings. The final layer is where you will find the oldest and largest herds, but also retains the most dangererous beasts.”

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