The Return of Rao
"May Ascan save us, and I can only hope he will be able to" High Cleric Ghork, upon the sight of the eastern city of Bathel's destruction |
After the death of Nimbac, the rest of his kingdom of death soon fell apart, leaving the entire eastern coast of the empire in ruins, the artifact found in the dark palace, now known as the eye of Rao (The black pearl mentioned in the Nimbac wars), was found to be indestructible and was buried beneath the great temple of Ascan. The battle had been won, and it was now time to heal the wounds the war had left behind.
Among the survivors of the captives of the dark prince was a one year old boy, found within the ruins of one the temples of Rao, it was assumed that he was to be sacrificed to the dark primordial. The boy was discovered and taken away by an ascan captain.
Ten long years had passed sine the death of Nimbac, the empire barely maintaining most of his colonies with a diminished army, keeping most of it unfed and poorly mantained. The empire was in times of poverty, still rebuilding its eastern portion and recuperating from Nimbac's onslaught had taken a great toll on it; and many colonies had rebelled and slipped from imperial grasp.
The young boy that was saved ten years ago was now one of the best students on the Academia, possessing great powers and an incredible understanding of magic, becoming the honor of hyis family. But still, the boy was reserved and silent, barely speaking to anyone except to correct them.
The boy was sent away to the west to learn from a great ascan wizard, known to have developed several spells, now commonly used by sorcerers throughout the land, considered to be one of the most powerful wizards of the empire. The boy stayed under his tutelage for five years, learning all kinds of powerful magic.
Then, one day, the tower of the wizard exploded in a flash of fire and light. It took several days to put out the fire, and amidst the ruins only one body was found, the wizard's. The boy was nowhere to be found, and so it was assumed that he was either responsable for it or someone had took him away.
Several searching parties were sent to investigate the surrounding forest in hopes of finding him, but none succeded.
Two weeks later, the boy emerged from the forest, but he was different, his eyes were now filled with rage, when the people saw him, they ran to him, fearing that he may be wounded. The boy raised his hand, and those unfortunate enough to have tried to help him were killed instantly.
The boy moved towards the temple of the city, slaying anyone he encountered, the temple's personal guard fell in a matter of minutes, and he soon made his way to the High cleric's room. The cleric pulled out his holy symbol, trying to hold him at bay.
And as the holy symbol turned to dust in the hands of the horrified priest, the boy replied;
The priest nearly fell to the floor at the mention of the Walker of the storm, Rao smiled and continued:
The priest ran out of the temple as fast as he could, taking a horse at the stables and leaving the city. As he rode away, he turned around and saw the city being destroyed by a wave of dark energy.
The empire was filled with fright as Rao's avatar cut a swath of destruction over anything that stood in his way, be it cities, forests or warriors, heading for the capital. An entire division of the imperial forces were sent to stop him, only to be slaughtered in his hands.
The council of immortals knew what Rao wanted, they knew that he was weak and that he needed "the eye of Rao" to open a portal to the plane of Rao and recover his original form, and they knew that death and destruction made him stronger. The council decided to face him before he grew any stronger.
The battle was short, and not even the powerful immortals were able to stop Rao, many of them meeting their doom in his hands. The guardian of order (Matzelah), Bashtar, Heshneg, and even Zargh died on that day, there was now little hope for survival.
As Rao's avatar headed west towards the capital city, all towns in its path had to be evacuated hastily, many towns and cities did not do it fast enough and were anhilited by the Primordial of Chaos. As Rao's avatar approached the city of Ghanthar, many people were still trying to run as fast as they could away from the path of Rao, but it appeared that they were not going to make it.
Then a man, a beautiful blonde man covered in light, came before them and without saying a word, teleported them far from there to a safe place. Several other witnesses saw two more figures, one that was a man made of stone with fiery hair and another dressed in a black armor withy many blades. This could only mean one thing; the Ancient Ones themselves had sent their avatars to face Rao.
Rao met the other avatars while climbing the mountain of Thalak, the highest mountain in Karnar. What happened there is unknown to any man or sage, the only thing that we can say is that after two days the mountain was no more, and the avatar of Chaos was the only one to walk away from the rubble.
In the capital, a wave of fear washed over its population, the streets were covered with men and women praying, repenting and begging for salvation. Chaos had ensued in the Great temple and the Council's chambers, all of them fearing the unstoppable Primordial. The now aged General Ascal even said that they should take the whole army to face the avatar.
The council turned all of its efforts to the study of the Eye of Rao, guessing it may provide a clue to Rao's weakness, what they found was indeed important, the black pearl was structured in the likeness of a sphere of Order, you see, chaos is based on rapid movement and change, and order is nothing but stable chaos, slow chaos, one that evolves slowly. That meant that Misznhá had used her own essence to trap the Walker inside the pearl. But it was impossible to keep such great powers trapped, so the pearl corrupted everithing around it, and that explained the dark waters, and Nimbac's power.
Now, most of Rao's power was trapped within the plane of chaos, and a small amount was in the pearl, but it was more active, so it had to be the consciousness that was trapped in the pearl, and if Rao got to it, it would be child's play for him to get his form back and obliterate the entire sphere.
They now knew of a way to stop them, but where could they get pure order?, Misznhá had died, after all. The answer soon became all too obvious, the ascans had been imbued with order in the great battle.
As they prepared their spells, the grinning visage of Rao had appeared in the city, laughing as he slaughtered anything that crossed his path, he was heading straight for the great temple. Inside it, all the sages and wisemen in the empire had gathered, preparing for their final stand; they were going to create a receptacle to contain Rao, extracting pure order essence from one thousand of the best men the empire had to offer.
The gates to the temple blew apart as the last incantation was chanted, revealing a beast, now more godlike than human, all the men in the room gasped as the brave volunteers faded away in a blast of light, becoming little white sparks floating around the Walker of the Storm.
Rao screamed, and then a flash of light covered the city, emanating peace for what seemed an eternity. When it was over, only a man sized diamond remained where Rao stood, the diamond of Order, the diamond of the fallen.