Many of the love affairs of Tal'Vorn's Gods are both glorious and epic in scope. They vary from the timeless and unending love of Shaltar and Vriclar, to the fiery but short lived romance of Hevar and Lilar and to the infamously numerous dalliances of the Goddess of Lust, Dellimentai. Yet, one love is far too dark for the bards to dare whisper about.
The vile and hidden Divine Daughter of Vriclar, the Goddess Illaria is a rule unto Herself. She is evil, pure and simple. Whilst the Dark God is degenerate and corrupt, He was not always that way and fell many millenia ago. Illaria, on the other hand, was evil from the day She drew Her first breath. Indeed, if not for Shaltar pulling away the child, Illaria would have throttled Her Divine Mother with Her own umbilical cord. The Goddess Illaria, The Heartless, is the Divine ruler of the Still Water, Evil and Insanity.
Hydros controls the seas, this is true, the Laughing God guiding those who fall prey to the ocean into the River Styx into Zarner's care. But, should you drown away from the ocean, away from the sea, then have no doubt, The Heartless will take you for Her own, pluck you from your grave and devour your flesh and soul. No other God is quite this monstrous, bar one. Killar the Mad, Killar the Devourer, Killar the Bloody-Mawed God of Slaughter, Killar the Divine Husband to Illaria.
Together they cut a bloody swath across hundreds of worlds, slaughtered thousands as the other Gods moved on and Shaltar's controlling presence moved to the next planet of interest. However, things changed with Tal'Vorn. Killar was trapped, caged by the malevolent deceit of the Dark God, and Illaria was left alone without Her Divine Husband for the first time in thousands of years. She had no idea what to do and simply retreated to the hidden places of Tal'Vorn, the swamps and the fens of the North, below the frostline. The Heartless Goddess remained there for several years, confused and alone, not understanding what had happened. Finally she fell asleep, drifting on the marshy currents, until the coming of Humanity.
Illaria, one of the few of the Gods left on Tal'Vorn at that time, felt the impact, but simply assumed it was some of Terra's destructive antics, and went back to sleep. Until Killar struck His bargain with Vralic however. Instantly the Gibbering God contacted His Divine Wife, whispering to Illaria in Her slumber, dark and reassuring words, forbidden knowledge and half-true rumours. And there in the North, Illaria awoke with a new purpose, full of the desire to free Her Divine Husband.
There were several ways Illaria could have gone about this, but the Heartless chose the simplest. For several hundred years, She simply stole the souls of those that died in her realm, that drowned in unmoving water, in the fens and the bogs and the marshes near Lathrandar, Karamaterra and the small human villages that arose on the edge of the North. However, this piecemeal approach was slow and ultimately not really worth the effort of channelling the stolen souls to Killar as the Slaughter God received more souls daily from His Demons then Illaria could provide in a week.
Illaria determined to create Her own children, similer to Killar's Demons, in order to further aid Her in stealing the souls of the living. However, rather then simply plucking loose the souls of those unfortunates who lost their lives in the still waters, these creatures would be loosed upon the world in order to actively slay for Illaria and thus for Killar. The Heartless Goddess was not one to create Her own children if she could simply steal and alter the creations of the other Gods. With that mentality for a full year Illaria stopped giving souls to Killar, ignoring the Gibbering One's ever more frenzied cries for Her to surrender the spirits to Him.
Instead, She twisted the souls, breathing into each an essence of Her own vileness and evil, and thrust the poor things back into the bodies from which they had been plucked, forcing them back into a cruel mockery of the life that each of them had once possessed, before having the soul plucked from them by Illaria.. Thus were born the first of Illaria's children, the Drowned Woken Dead, the Riven and the Fallen, the Accurséd.
The Accurséd are cursed with the touch of Illaria's very essence, and as such come, over time, to roughly resemble the Goddess, though naturally each Accurséd still looks unique and differences in hair and eye colour are no unheard of. Typically however, they have pale hair which drifts behind their heads as if they were suspended in water even in the strongest winds and even paler eyes that have a tendency to stare, unblinking, for a disturbingly long time. However, the most obvious relic of their birth is their skin, a pale blue and blotched with darker patches, an Accurséd looks all the world like a drowning victim given life. This effect is only heightened by the perpetual slick wetness of their flesh and hair, something which conveys itself to their clothing as well.
Internally almost every bodily fluid has been replaced with stagnant, foul smelling water, including the Accurséd's blood. Indeed cutting or punching an Accurséd seems to do little damage, their rubbery flesh simply absorbing the impact, or reflexively closing the wound. Their bones possess a certain lack of rigidity as well, making them highly resilient to blunt trauma, especially long falls and high speed impacts, but they lack the physical strength of most other Races. Indeed they are actually approximately two thirds as strong as a human, but able to withstand more then ten times the damage.
Unfortunately for the Accurséd, water is heavy, making them sluggish and slower then the average human, and you rarely see one of the Riven trying to break into a run. They tend to move ponderously, but their resilience to damage allows them to do so almost unstoppably. An Accurséd requires little rest as their bodies resupply their energy from water, but if they become dehydrated that they die very quickly. Because of this Accurséd rarely stray far from a good source of water, preferring swamp or still water to rivers and the open ocean itself is anathema to them, the salt in the water almost as lethal as lacking the water itself.
However the Accurséd do have one thing on their side to make up for their lack of speed and strength. They are a unique breed of Woken Dead, one which is permanently cut off from the River Styx, leading to their title of Riven. Not only does this grant them immunity to the Commands of the Mortis it also allows them to Riven other Woken Dead. Once summoned through the usage of arcane rites and vile magics far more complex and dark then anything a Mortis controls, the Accurséd can severe Zarner's ties to the Dead. A Riven Dead, as they are known, are bound the Accurséd that 'freed' for the rest of eternity. The only way a Riven Dead is reconnected with Zarner is if the Accurséd that loosed it is killed. Unfortunately the Fallen are Woken Dead themselves are are thus immortal and notoriously difficult to kill, even more so then their tough bodies would imply.
Cuts and slices will not kill an Accurséd. Not even piercing the heart or brain will fell them for very long. The only way to finally kill an Accurséd is to remove the head and the spinal cord. Whilst the decapitation might not seem such a difficult task, removing a creatures spine, even one only as quasi-living as an Accurséd, is an horrific process. Yet, if even a sliver of the cord survives then over time the Accurséd will actually regenerate. It is for this reason that a Woken Dead army lead by the might of a powerful Accurséd Caster is difficult to stop. You have to cut down every single Woken Dead on the field of battle and then disable to Fallen ready for the brutal and unavoidably slow act of killing them.
It is for this reason that most of the battles in the North seem to rage between the Woken Dead. Whilst this may seem confusing to the normal people who live there, it is not actually just the Dead attacking each other for no reason. Instead it is two armies, one lead by a Mortis and the other by an Accurséd, each determined to see the other finally dead, though for diametrically opposed reasons. Quite often it comes down to a complete slaughter of every thing on the field of battle. However the Mortis have a tendency to come out on the losing side in these sorts of battles.
The Accurséd can lead from the front, using its spells and resilience to destroy their enemies, whilst the Mortis must hang back. Riven Dead under the command of an Accurséd are as immune to the Mortis' commands as the Riven themselves and this removes the Mortis' primary advantage in a fight. Mortis are, unfortunately, no more resist to damage then their parent species and body provides and though they can summon new warriors onto the field of battle much faster then an Accurséd can, they are loathe to do so. This is primarily due to compassion on the part of the Mortis.
Although the Woken Dead do not feel pain as living beings do, they can still suffer and the Mortis find the desperate motions of dismembered and crippled Woken Dead a bitter sight that tugs at their heartstrings. For this reason the Mortis only force the Woken Dead to do their bidding if there is no other choice and to see the Accurséd driving their helpless dominated charges on to their own destruction angers the Children of Zarner like little else. Though they do not wish to do it, the Mortis know that only they can take to the field of battle and hope to fight an Accurséd on an even keel.
However, Accurséd powerful enough to summon entire hoards of Woken Dead are thankfully rare. Most Accurséd focus their energies on summoning a few powerful Dead, rather then a shambling hoard of lesser warriors. Of course, ultimately, it doesn't matter how many Woken Dead there are, the Accurséd are still an abomination on the face of Tal'Vorn.
Each of them born from Illaria from a fresh victim, each of their faces used to belong to a living being, to someone's loved one, the Accurséd kill in Her name, the souls of the slaughtered being channelled straight into Killar's eager maw. They force the Resting Dead to Wake and do their vile bidding and they will never tire or stop until the whole of Tal'Vorn is a dead, rotting, lifeless world, remade to match Illaria's mad dreams.
© Joshua Binks (Paladin), Christopher Riley (Carnage) and Vanessa Vaughan (Andanin) 2002 -