Topic: An Ancient's Decision

Celeviel · Date: 2012-02-05 12:26 EST

It had been centuries since a meeting was called of the Elder, the very thought extinguished just as her race. But Celeviel knew intervention was necessary if she were to keep reign on her family, even when it clashed with their freedom or happiness. And so it was she called for them, in their new home at Bristle Crios. The woman sat pained in her study, petite hand covering facial expressions unworthy of her ancient beauty. But with every pained thought, there was a wave of disgust. She had never made an order to her children since that day they fled and she prayed she would never have to. But the looming decision, though regretful, had already been made.

Unbeknownst to them, the remaining children of the Ancient species were walking into troubled lands. Though Irosque knew well the conversation before them, Saphyera was completely unaware. They walked together in silence, no looks shared as their heads bowed upon entry to the Demon House and made way toward their mother. Up the stairs and down the enormous hall, stopping just before her door with great hesitation.

Irosque palmed the door, head still bowed and letting loose a hefty sigh as he glanced at the expressionless Saphyera. She shifted her weight like a nervous child, side to side already feeling the pressure of this meeting before it began. But he guided her with a hand to her back, allowing her entry first while he followed shutting and locking the door. Celeviel rose from her chair and moved with those same pained expressions to her children, hand went to the napes of their necks as she leaned her forehead in toward them. They greeted her just the same, the family sharing a moment of their ancient "hello" before Celeviel moved away and motioned for them two take seats beside her own. Reliques...maps...books, all they had left was minimal of their race. But they were splayed all over her desk, dusted and torn...but there as if Celeviel had been trying to search for something.

"I'm sure Irry, my dear, you know why have called you here."

The Elder spoke softly, pacing steadily in front of them. She had been armored with lilac scaling, intricate patterns enveloping her entire body. She didn't need to "dress" like a human in front of them, here...they could be themselves.

"The problem with Faerran's family proves devastating and unfortunately you are nothing to them. I will not allow our name to be smudged, they obviously have more history than we do here and we will tread lightly until we can find more like us. That girl, your fiancee, has not shown a love for you like you give her. She bows before that drow woman and is obviously a puppet. I pity the child, but business rules higher than affection or blood."

Irosque tensed and made a movement to stand but Celeviel's hand moved flatly in front of him in a nonverbal command to sit still. Amber golds were cruel upon him.

"You will obey me Irosque, that girl will be no good for you if she continues this minimal display of her so called love. She will be just like your last, though her wager would be to build better business bonds."

Saphyera extended a hand to touch Irry's own, squeezing his fingers in comfort as molten hues skipped between her mother and him. Though she wanted to stay as much out of this as possible, she was not told why her presence was needed and curiosity always won favor.

"Mother, though I know this is regarded as a family meeting, what is my purpose in it' Have I done something to ail you or our name?"

Celeviel stopped and stared at her daughter, head shaking as lips pursed and thinned. It was obvious she was at a mental war with herself, but elder blood was commandeering her now.

"Saphyera, you know better than I do that you were suppose to be on the hunt. It is women that have the gift of sensing our own dimensions apart, yet you flounder yourself in this place and waste away with men that are not worthy of you. It is unfitting I should even call you my daughter."

The younger image of her mother winced and moved to sit further into her seat, head turned from amber gold's sight while lips rubbed together in fear of saying what she shouldn't. But she stayed put, enduring the lash with relented patience.

"I do not care if you wish to whore yourself about, but if you decide to take this route...strip yourself of us immediately. I will not be followed by flawed blood. Take a suitor here and there, this is fine. But continue your search as I have instructed. Do you understand me, child?" The Ancient bore into her daughter with those ambers, face stern and hands fisted at her sides as she waited the reply.

The fireling stood and raged internally, fire bubbling human's flesh as she moved toward her mother. As all commands were to be taken, she moved to one knee with an arm sweeping over chest and back in the perfect bow. Head lowered and tresses hid the flaming expressions she bore. "Auditis mandata mea maior. Faciam ut dicis." And with that the fireling moved out of the room in a raged exit, sympathetic looks given to her brother over a shoulder before she disappeared into the Demon House in search of something to smolder her flames.

The Ancient's brows lifted and a small smile was given to her daughter's presentation, a hand lightly touching her crown of auburn before allowing a nod to her exit. Now, attention was returned to her son. She moved toward him, short frame mildly intimidating against his own.

"Irosque, though I know it has been hard for you to move from your past...you can not expect me to watch you fall into this trap. Though merging with their family would prove beneficial, it would not for your heart. Our family never breed for business, we never lived for it. Our name was built so strong because we raised man and were given liberty to do as we pleased." A hand extended to touch his cheek, thumb stroking just beneath his eyes as the Elder bent before him. "Do not bow for a woman who will not bend for you."

Those words had hit him hard, head lowering further allowing the mane of black to construe his features. But there was a glistening, a salted rivulet that stained his face and fell into hands threatening to cover it. "I don't know what to do. I'm always defending us. I was attacked the other day by a man she knew and she did nothing. I was the one that told her mother about us."

The Ancient's heart sank, lips inaudibly cursing the drows and their twisted affairs of business before happiness. But she was well aware she was not one to judge, silent profanities kept to herself as both hands now cradled his face and beckoned him to look upon her. "Filiole, dicendum dedisse. Si non audierit, si non ....deinde eandem illam amo. Omnes qui facere potest."

Aryan eyes pooled with fresh tears that he refrained from shedding, a sigh as his mother touched and willed him. He listened to her well, a soft thrumbing of his scales given with his reply. "Lorem copia detur mihi sermo est. Aenean erat proelium ire iubes finis noster".

The Ancient smiled for him, wiping the tear that did fall as her frame slowly rose bringing him with her. "I would do nothing less, Iros. Nothing less. But remember, my child, if it does not work...we are to break ties completely. That girl will never be spoken to, including her family. Do you understand me?"

As Saphyera bowed to the command, so did he. But he looked up at his mother, features confident in his loyalty to the Elder. "Faciam, inquis. Sed spes est quaedam similis nobis?"

The Ancient moved away, eyes gazing out her study's window. "I pray and hope everyday, my son. Every day. You may go now, I am tired."

He said nothing more to her, his exit bowed and feet heard in a rushed exit to find the one he called fiancee. The Ancient waited until he had left the demon house, collapsing into a chair and falling into soft sobs. It pained her to act this way, carved permanent places in her heart where she ached for a race that once was.

Celeviel · Date: 2012-02-08 19:46 EST

Many have asked, very few answered. What is an Ancient' How can a creature possibly live for so long and know so much' The answer is a simple one really, though the story behind this Ancient family is a lot more complicated than one simple word. But the word I will give you is Obyrith.

An Obyrith is a demon that existed before the tanar'ri, it so happens they created the tanar'ri. But these demons were present before the world was defined as such, before fleshlings walked and bacteria gathered. They loom in a realm untouchable to the both gifted and those without. Their language is a form in which ears could never comprehend, most Obyriths hardly spoke. They said that looking upon such an ancient demon would cause you to go mad, majority will never know because these creatures hardly surrender themselves to the eyes of man.

Though...once upon a time, an Obyrith saw the ever slow creation of man. It pondered whether to devour or aide the creatures. What better way to bring about a world ruled in your own visions, driven under your desires if you helped them. For once, the ancient demons actually thought and concluded that aiding the fleshlings would benefit an invisible reign the humans would never realize. Chaos, hate, death...even possibly love, all these emotions ruled by the ancients. But the Obyrith knew very well it couldn't live amongst them as itself, any look could surely kill the fleshling. So it made a deal...

"Human, give me your blood and I shall give you a child. It will grow and become an adult in a day in which it will help you prosper and bring success to your race."

The human could only agree because they were brought here by an unknown source and had no knowledge of how to survive. So the snake tricked Adam and Eve, giving more than a sweet pomegranate to soil their abundance of perfection. They gave their blood and took the child and within a day as promised, it became an adult that gave them unsurpassed knowledge of how to survive. The first Ancient (as the humans called the child) had no identifier of sexual race, it produced asexually and held no profound characteristics which leaned it toward a certain sex. But it was a beautiful creature, too dazzling to watch for so long. The humans became obsessed with every word the Ancient had to stay, volunteering to raise it's offspring for trades of more knowledge.

Eventually the Ancients had multiplied to the point exact origin was unknown, there were clans and families developed that mingled together with the humans. It was high rule that an Ancient never co-produce with a human, it would soil their blood and destroy their existence. They followed the command of their originator Obyrith, giving the humans as much as they wanted and teaching them dangerous emotions. But not everything was malicious, the Ancients grew to love their human companions and because such they were banished from the realm of their originator. The Obyrith knew very well this was a possibility and took it's chances, highly disappointed that the blood of man could do so much damage to the blood of its own.

The Ancients, though devastated, began to enjoy the life Earth had to offer. They introduced the humans to other realms, inviting them to see other races that their originator helped to create. But the humans became selfish, wanting too much and the Ancients could not supply their incessant demands. There was a man from a different world, a Bewitcher of all trades that spoke wrongly of the Ancients. He told the humans secrets the Ancients never could, all the gifts they possessed and the possibility of obtaining it just by wearing their scaled flesh as armor. The humans became intrigued, fear driving their insanities further. They knew they weren't the only race out there and compared to most, they were the weakest. So they listened to the Bewitcher that promised them he would subdue a woman chose by the Ancients, this woman to be the bond between human and Ancient alike. Though there was the rule, the Ancients no longer had their previous home and could do as they pleased.

It was a sad day when the Bewitcher made the woman infatuated with him, though she was pregnant with an Ancient's child, she refused to stay. The father of the child heard the news, begged for his wife to come back and tried his best to convince her of his trickery. But she wouldn't listen and he knew very well what the Bewitcher had planned. The Ancients knew for some time what the humans wished, though they became too naive to react against it. It was unfortunate for that family what became of them, the father killing both mother and child to prevent his future babe from being skinned and the mother humiliated. The Bewitcher had fled behind the humans, caused war and spread lies that the Ancients were too dangerous to be trusted anymore. That they had killed the woman in hatred simply because she was human.

The humans listened, craving a place in this world that was their own and not given to them by a higher species. They wanted power and the only way to have it was to skin the Ancients and wear their scales as armor. It would give them speed, agility, healing powers, and strength. It would give them immortality because all the humans feared death more than they feared a stronger species. So a war was waged, many battles fought. It was evident that the humans learned quite well, able to maintain again the Ancients quite well and building tactics that killed nearly half the Ancient race. But eventually humans would tire and their bodies would give in where a species born and bred for war would triumph. The Ancients killed and hunted down every last human as they fled, one was not to be spared because they could spread the tale of the Ancients. Child and mother were enemies just the same, it made no difference. Bloodshed was simple as that, bloodshed. But the trace died with the last child smuggled away by his begging mother, the two disposed of immediately.

Though the Ancients managed to withhold their ground and destroy all evidence of their existence, many of them had fled to places unknown. What little of them that did survive continued to wander for many centuries and into many realms trying to recover the lost race. These small groups decided separation may be best because within their travels they discovered books, pictures, and stories of their lives. All of these were collected, even trinkets and carvings. Any memory of them was taken to ensure survival.

The group that now resides in Rhyd'n consists of a family of three, one of the few first families that developed during the time of raising the fleshlings. The son, Irosque, carries the heavy burden of bringing war to their people as he was the man who killed his wife and child. The daughter, Saphyera, was unmarried before their leave and remains the second female that is able to sense their kind through other realms. The mother, Celeviel, is the last remaining Elder of her Ancient clan. Still claiming hopes that her race remains prevalent in hiding.