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Exetrius

The Exetrius Saga (13): Taking a stand, for Nocturnus!

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Exetrius Saga

1: Fallen leaf

2: Message in Kyrrath

3: Equipment upgrade

4: Subjection of a legend

5: Family Dinner

6: Attack of the Hunters

7: Taking the Runestone

8: Supplies Arrive!

9: Festival of the Ranks (part 1)

10: Festival of the Ranks (part 2)

11: Festival of the Ranks (part 3)

12: The ranks are out!

 

Episode 13: Taking a stand, for Nocturnus!

Three weeks ago, a messenger from the west brought the word of the new heir of Cedrica to Zotharith. The prevailing mood was positive, but some warrior folk and a couple of small bounty hunters groups were clearly displeased with the unfaithfulness to the rightful ruler of the land, Lord Raavage. His influence in Zotharith had been minor up to this point, since its existence had been little known by the non-magical society. That is bound to change, for a city that is continuously growing in size, prosperity and strength...   

In the heart of the city hall, also known as Zotharith Headquarters, Onicius was leading a periodic council gathering.

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Onicius

Minister of the Department of Magic, please fill me in on the latest developments of the crystal reserves. Have the stocks recovered from Festival of the Ranks yet?

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Durkon (Minister)

Your highness! The total volume of crystals is exceeding the last recorded level, before the Festival of the Ranks, by one fifth. However, two thirds of this total volume consists of mere red crystals. I estimate that the total mana capacity will be around 62.500 equivalent spells, which is a decrease of two fifths. On a more positive note, we once again created purple crystals, which means that it should be possible to reach the power level of...

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Onicius

I assume the matter is urgent?

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Damascian (Messenger)

Sir! My apologies for interrupting the Council. In the town of Carakath, a dark figure, who claimed to be an archmage of the Black Spire, gave me this letter. I heard they have been recruiting lately...

Onicius

Thank you for your duties, Damascian, take a seat. As for the rest of this council gathering, we will continue at a later time, you are dismissed!

The councillors quietly left the room. Onicius took the letter and looked at the seal, it was genuine... He went into cold sweat, put the letter aside for a moment. He took a deep breath, opened it and started reading.

"... By order of His Majesty, Lord Raavage, rightful Ruler of all Nocturnus, each settlement in the Darklands is obligated to send armed and trained troops on His call. ... Zotharith is requested to deliver an army of 500 worthy men, trained and equipped. ... Any resistance shall be obliterated under His own hands. Hail Nocturnus!"

It was as he feared...

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Onicius

Damascian, summon the Order of Zotharith, whoever is in the city right now! General Zeruko, Taskmaster, 1st and 2nd Division commanders, Lady Asagrim, Ryo, my son, wherever he is hanging out these days... Also, I want Durkon to be chronicler of this gathering. ... This is of utmost importance, be quick!

Two hours later, everyone had assembled in the overcrowded conference room. Onicius recited the letter. After the tumult had subsided, he continued.

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Onicius

My esteemed fellow wizards in the Order of Zotharith, gentlemen, ladies. Lend me your wisdom! Today's decisions will inevitably carve out our fates, even that of the city itself. Give me a piece of mind.

Zeruko was the first to speak.

Zeruko

First of all, an army of 500 strong is ridiculous! Theoretically, we would have enough men, but what would that mean for the city? Farmers, tradesmen, fishermen; they would become soldiers, but soldiers don't feed themselves. 

Kira Derisquar

How about the equipment: helmets, chestplates, swords... iron, barracks, everything! Our resources are gravely insufficient to support an army that large, am I wrong? 

Ryo Kokoro

Can't you use magic for that or something?

Zeruko 

Look kid, it's not that simple. You need... 

The discussion was getting out of hand and everyone was talking at the same time.

Onicius

SILENCE! ... Alright, continue.

Exetrius

Eh.. If I may say something? .. Let us start with our motives. Is there anything we can gain from having Lord Raavage as our ally?

Zeruko

Our motives? I suppose we want to save our pride, Zotharith, from complete devastation.. We built this city with our own hands, a place where we can all research the ways of magic to our hearts content and become powerful wizards! This is our home, is it not? We may not be rich, but we have powerful knowledge, which we must protect from falling into the wrong hands. 

Exetrius

Then, is it right to entrust Raavage with this knowledge? Sooner or later he will certainly find out that the true power of Zotharith is magic, if he doesn't know already.

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Deliora Asagrim

Lord Raavage already holds a vast amount of power, but he craves for more. In his vanity, he would slay anything and everything that stands up to his ultimate dominance. Mark my words: Raavage will take down his strongest allies, one by one. It happened to Covenant Lord Anfauglir, and the same fate will befall the others; the Algus, the Drow and eventually the Archmage Senurhem... It would happen to us as well.

Onicius

But, even if Raavage himself will try to take our power for himself, perhaps we can at least retrieve knowledge and power of his allies for our own benefit. Imagine the incredible advancements we could make, if we were to lay our fingers on Drow magic, or Algus...  

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Deliora Asagrim

With all due respect, Sir, but do you really think, there will still be a 'we' after our submission to the Spire? He will shatter our unity! When we are all on our own, what would happen to our ambitions? Our powerlessness as isolated individuals would break our spirit. Fear, despair and the terror of war will bring us to our knees, enslave us to the iron will of Raavage, until all that's left of us are shells without soul. Are we going to accept this rotten destiny? NO! We must join the Resistance! 

Onicius 

Thank you, Lady Asagrim.

....

I have made up my mind. We shall protect our city, not only for our own sake, but for the fate of Nocturnus! Henceforth, I, Onicius Centario, Leader of the Order of Zotharith, will ensure that Zotharith becomes the most powerful Resistance stronghold of Nocturnus! 

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All

Hail Zotharith! Hail the Resistance! Hail Nocturnus!

 

To be continued.... in the next episode: Ride through Nocturnus

 

Hello everyone, here's a pretty small MOC with a pretty big story! Altogether, it took me long enough, so I hope you enjoy! Anyway, now that the epic revelation is done, I can finally do my Cat. A: Rider build without spoiling the fun. :wink: Thank you for viewing/reading, C&C appreciated!

Oh, I also took an overview shot, I know some of you can appreciate :grin::

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Edited by Exetrius

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That dragon window in the background is a really cool piece!  What set did it come in?  The pillars look great too! :thumbup:

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Most excellent entry! The story plus the different angles in the shots really made the build feel and look much bigger. 

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Very nice! I love your stories and the story-illustrating photography. The Ninjago influences in Zotharith are lovely and one of my favorite aspects of your builds, as nothing is cooler (in my opinion) than ninja-mages. 

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17 hours ago, Kai NRG said:

That dragon window in the background is a really cool piece!  What set did it come in?  The pillars look great too! :thumbup:

Thanks, Kai! The window pieces only came in 2507: Fire Temple.

15 hours ago, Merc4Hire said:

Most excellent entry! The story plus the different angles in the shots really made the build feel and look much bigger. 

Thank you! The build measures 12x16, the biggest challenge was getting as much of that space on the picture, without revealing the open ceiling and missing left wall. 

14 hours ago, Henjin_Quilones said:

Very nice! I love your stories and the story-illustrating photography. The Ninjago influences in Zotharith are lovely and one of my favorite aspects of your builds, as nothing is cooler (in my opinion) than ninja-mages. 

Thank you very much, Henjin! :sweet: I will certainly continue building in this architectural direction and I should get back to ninja-mage battles in one of my next builds. :wink:  

11 hours ago, dathil said:

I really love your story + photography here. Its really nice :D

Thanks you! 

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Nice build, we see way too few Asian-themed builds in the guilds and historic forums! :thumbup: 

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Very nice! Congrats!

I am a little confused. How can Raavage get to them? Your town is far southwest, no? Where still the Resistance/ Alliance is in power. Or the whole south part, (and east part) of Nocti is under Raavage's control?

Edited by Lazer

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Great representation of an eastern room. Love the screen. My only gripe is in the story the Desert King was an ally of the Resistance not the Spire. Slander against his mighty majesty.

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Excellent work!  I really like the photography.  I've been trying to get pics that good, but it's tough, especially with the walls and semi-enclosed space like you have, and your pics look great!  I enjoyed the story, too--very compelling!

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The black 2x2 plates alternating with RB round bricks looks pretty neat! Excellent story telling as usual too.

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On 4-2-2017 at 2:16 PM, TitusV said:

Nice build, we see way too few Asian-themed builds in the guilds and historic forums! :thumbup: 

On 4-2-2017 at 6:45 PM, Isundir said:

Sweet build, loving the detailing, great stuff Exetrius. :classic:

On 5-2-2017 at 1:49 AM, Grover said:

Excellent work!  I really like the photography.  I've been trying to get pics that good, but it's tough, especially with the walls and semi-enclosed space like you have, and your pics look great!  I enjoyed the story, too--very compelling!

Thanks a lot for the positive feedback, guys! :sweet:

@Grover Getting the pictures right is always a struggle, but it can be done with non-professional equipment: 1 desk lamp + white paper sheet + phone camera (Galaxy A3 2016). Afterwards, simple colour editing to make the colours more vivid, more true to how it looks real life or in bright daylight.  

 

On 4-2-2017 at 5:15 PM, Lazer said:

Very nice! Congrats!

I am a little confused. How can Raavage get to them? Your town is far southwest, no? Where still the Resistance/ Alliance is in power. Or the whole south part, (and east part) of Nocti is under Raavage's control?

On 4-2-2017 at 10:30 PM, Muakhah said:

Great representation of an eastern room. Love the screen. My only gripe is in the story the Desert King was an ally of the Resistance not the Spire. Slander against his mighty majesty.

Thanks you! Your criticism is really appreciated, I'm not the most literate person when it comes to major lore events... @Lazer Well, Carakath is a pretty small town that was easily overthrown by an archmage of the Spire.. that could work, right? :wink: @Muakhah I will rectify that part. :thumbup:

 

14 hours ago, soccerkid6 said:

The black 2x2 plates alternating with RB round bricks looks pretty neat! Excellent story telling as usual too.

Thank you, just a simple technique that I picked up from the Ninjago set (Temple of Light), but I think it looks nice. :classic:

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Very nice little build, Exetrius, the printed window piece especially looks nice here :thumbup: Excellent story writing too!

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lovely. as I probably mentioned before, I love how you manage to convey so much with both small builds and short stories. I need to learn that!

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On 7-2-2017 at 9:56 PM, LittleJohn said:

Very nice little build, Exetrius, the printed window piece especially looks nice here :thumbup: Excellent story writing too!

On 10-2-2017 at 0:55 AM, Umbra-Manis said:

Another excellent chapter! You really conveyed the packed feeling in the room!

17 hours ago, en_zoo said:

lovely. as I probably mentioned before, I love how you manage to convey so much with both small builds and short stories. I need to learn that!

It's great to hear that you guys are still enjoying my story, thanks!

@en_zoo I know not everyone likes spending a lot of time on reading, even though most of us definitely love lore. I try to keep it short and make it as easy as possible to keep up with (or get into) my saga. Having multiple scenes "in the brick" helps, because there is less need to be descriptive in the story. :classic:  

 

 

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