Nexus Fantasy: The Wasteland of Casrix

[Xah]

In the gaps between the clouds, the sky is a deep blue, and the sun shines down through these holes, warming the earth beneath but nothing lives to receive its warmth.

Nothing lives.

For as far as the eye can see, the land is desolate and empty. Nary the cry of a bird, the scurrying of mice or the endless toil of insects. If someone was there who was aware of the nature of the cycle of life, and they examined the soil, the water, the air, there would not even be a trace of the tiniest of living things, so empty is this land.

Nothing lives.

A closer look, a real look, one not clouded by the unnatural stillness would see that life did once exist; trees still stand, proud and upright with dry leaves rustling in the wind, the grass lies limp and withered but still faintly green, and everywhere are the bodies of the dead. Bodies unaffected by decay, desiccated and dry, faces pulled tight in the visage of death. Even the life that breaks down life has gone. People, livestock, animals; all left in a parody of where they stood when their life was taken from them. For a thousand years, only the sun, rain and earth have worked the land; erosion grinding rocks for soil, fires attempting their renewal, rains offering nourishment, but to no avail.

Nothing lives.

But things move. Lurching along a once well-maintained road is a man. Or what was left of one. Its skin is like parchment, and has cracked where the limbs force this blasphemy of a living creature onwards. Shrunken, sightless eyes are fixed on a distant point, driven on by a will greater than its own. With a purpose it does not know itself but committed nonetheless.



This is Casrix, once a proud, vibrant nation, full of learning and promise. Ruled by benevolent professors of magic for the good of all. Now a silent land, where even the waters off the shore are devoid of life. Creatures that unwittingly cross the border instantly slump, their once vital energies siphoned off to a distant place. Only the Dead remain. The Dead and one other. The one who brought it on. The Liche Lord Airgha, Ruler of Casrix and self-styled King of the Dead and Slave to the Everliving Phylactery.

[Xah]

"I remember when these lands were green, green and vibrant. Breadbasket to Tardula and its glorious Empire. Ha. What is the saying? All your eggs in one basket? Tardula relied too much on old Casrix, acres and acres of golden wheat, all flowing north. Not that the people in the city cared, ha ha ha."

Pause for coughing fit

"The college. You can still see it from here. That spire was maybe once the tallest building in the world I hear. It's been a long, long time since I left these lands, so I don't know if that's still true. The College of Wizardy. Hmph. Meddlers in things we... they never understood. Afraid to push the boundaries. Boundaries. Ha. I don't know how many people lived here. Heh. I could try and ask. It's not like they're going anywhere is it? Ha ha ha.

Another coughing fit

"I didn't think I was anyone of note, a researcher in life energy. Ha. They called use necromancers, but it was never about death, always about life. What kept living things alive, how to increase that, to stop death. We'd had some minor successes with animals. What was the term old Gallus used? Soul transference. I felt bad for the criminals who we tried that on, but they didn't suffer long. Not as long as.... I digress.

"I did find something. Find? Is that the right word? Discover. Gems in a certain combination, in a certain shape. I like to think it was inspiration that came to me, but I've always suspected something more. That accursed object doesn't feed me all the life, I'm sure of it. Keeps a bit for itself? A payment? For all my dependence on it, I don't trust it. It knows. For now, we need each other.

"Anyway. I made it. They warned me about feeding it. I... didn't listen. It appeared in my dreams, in my ambitions. If I wasn't being honest, I'd say it tempted me. Offered me things I could never have gotten otherwise. But. I said I'd be honest. It didn't tempt me. I was greedy and vain, it could have been inert and lifeless and I still would have done it.

"I made it, and I started it. It was only simple at first. A mouse. Of all the things it could have been. It died and its life energies flowed to me through that... thing. The Phylactery."

A long pause

It was fast at first, I could barely comprehend how fast. Within a minute everyone, no. Everything in the tower was dead, their power mine. Within the hour, the city and everything around it for twenty kilometres. People had no time to run, even if they could, it was far too fast. Ah. The power. I barely remember that first day, I felt like a container about to explode. Can you imagine it? The life energies of a hundred thousand people, innumerable living creatures, all focused into me. Me! It was the greatest feeling in the world. Nothing can compare. Even now, those energies reside in me. I suspect the ending of the world will come and go before they finally fade. Perhaps.

"Anyway. It was all I could do to sit in my room as that veil expanded. The pace slowed. By the time it was slow enough that people could escape, hundreds of kilometres were lost. All those people, animals, plants, even the creeping things in the ground gave their energies to me. All because of that damned device. How I hate it, and how I love it.

"The Empire was doomed after that but I stopped caring. They tried to come after me. Tried to end this nightmare, but nothing gets in. Their greatest magic users tried, and they all died. All of them. Without the grain from Casrix, there was a famine. Riots and rebellions. The armies weren't paid, and without that threat, the local lords withheld their taxes. Reform, revolt and revolution. The Empire lost its best and brightest and couldn't afford the rest.

"I have tried to maintain what I can, to rebuild. I learnt to channel the energies into the dead, and it works, in a fashion. More like mindless automatons than loyal servants, but at least the city is... moving. But never alive. I hear rumours of the world outside. Of the balance of power now, of places far away that have become great. This place does not suffer the living but you... you are not alive are you?"

Airgha stands, stiffly, and walks towards the object of his speech. It is humanoid at least, but made of precious metals and inlaid with gems. It is encased in a faint green glow, unable to move for the moment. Airgha examines it all over.

"Fascinating, the world has come far. Go back to your masters; the unalive are welcome here, although what they hope to find here I do not know. Once Casrix was a place of learning and trade, perhaps I can at the least create a poor replica of what once was."