Recent content by Archanae

Archanae certainly minded her footing. Even stepping back, as the earth before her erupted in claws from massive, bony wrists that wriggled and burrowed through the soil like giant worms. Impossible skeletal figures emerged, both in size and proportion. Creatures that had no right existing in...

Every moment Archanae spent in the proximity of Radu Basarab might cause her flesh to rebel with terror, but it expanded her mind beyond any measure. She didn't need to open her eyes to imagine the carnage of an army ambitious enough to invade this desolate place. Even more so after a fortress...

While they had stood close before — less than an inch apart, even — they had never touched one another. Not until now. Archanae might as well have transformed into clay, turning even more immobile than her golem. The massive claw crawled on her shoulder like a giant crab, with a texture that...

In comparison to Radu's alien form, Archanae resembled a wandering hermit, dressed in shawls and the remains of a robe bleached to a sandy colour from wind and rain, matching her intricate brass jewelry that covered her ears, neck, arms, waist and legs. The sapphire around her neck and in her...

Alas, Archanae had no wings of her own. The fall was substantial. But she could borrow the flight of another. The floating spectre she had shackled still writhed against her chain. A pulse of white energy went through it, stilling the creature, like one might handle a phantom horse. Then she...

Radu's voice elicited a small nod from Archanae. She stepped away from the edge, releasing the jutting ribcage. "A kindness indeed. What raw element does not secretly yearn to be engineered into beautiful complexity?" An invocation followed this pronouncement, with a swirling gesture of her...

Bones and carrion eaters. As far as the eye could see. Here was a physical manifestation of one, unalienable truth of the universe: the dead vastly outnumbered the living. Her hand tightened on an exposed ribcage; a macabre railing of support on this strange vessel, bare feet planted on the...

Archanae still devoured the Mortis Engine with her eyes. A relic from The Age of Wonders. Until now, that age had been nothing but words to her. Stories, scrolls, stone tablets, mosaics on walls from a bygone age. But now; now it rose up above her in all its morbid glory. How could she not...

Her arms fell slowly to their sides, brought down from detached observation to baffled awe by the enormously grotesque display. She had never quite seen such a calcium constellation before. Did she dare guess at its purpose? "What manner of construct is this?" Her words left her unwillingly...

Once again, they found themselves back in the graveyard. The grass bristled in the wind like hairs on the back of some imperceptible beast. A ripe congregation of bones rested below her feet, and the earth practically bulged with several mounds, a vault close to bursting from its own treasure...

She paid special note to his mention of previous incarnation. So, he too had once felt shackled by the frailty of his flesh and eschewed it for something superior. He too had tasted exile from his people and relished in it. One could almost take pity on such a tale. But having lived it herself...

Solipsism. The affirmation of one's existence, by virtue of one's own mind, to the sacrifice of all other notions. According to some, the only true currency of the world, which was otherwise drowning in a sea of illusion. This kernel of philosophy churned within her, while she carefully watched...

Torment . . . He spoke of it as if it fuelled magical essence, helped to warp and rupture the reality that limited them. Was that truly the source of necromantic power? Or was it merely one wellspring to draw from? She supposed her own magic might be characterised by a fair amount of suffering...

The door slammed shut. Darkness enveloped them, no longer receiving the succour of torches from the other room, Archanae- and Torin's faces thrown into an ominous chiaroscuro by the singular light of his torch. It took only moments for a blue light to billow out from Archanae's sapphire, adding...

The weight of the whole earth seemed to press down on her here. An imperceptible burden, but there all the same. It was not merely the sense of thick layers of soil and stone above them, but the very air itself feeling heavy to draw from, stifled and cloyed with unmentionable smells, all coated...