Number 3s Interview with OutWolder Historian and Assistant Museum Curator Danto Swithswin.
We walk into Mr Swithswin’s office in the Oghqoa museum, it is near the east wing of the museum’s section on OutWolders, it is filled with shelves packed to the rafters with documents, boxes and small artifacts with tags on them ready for storage or display. As he slowly hobbles around a desk to sit down I take a smaller chair in front of the desk.
“I must say thank you again for agreeing to talk with me, Professor Swithswin.”
“Nonsense, nonsense, always happy to talk about OutWolders, and it’s a rare opportunity to talk shop as it were with an actual OutWolder! Oh and please, just call me Danto or Professor if it suits you.”
I had asked Professor Swithswin for an interview and get his rundown on OutWolders, he’s the foremost expert on OutWolders in Oghqoa and once I told him that I was the OutWolder he’s been excitedly reading about in the papers then he was more than willing to talk.
He’s an older gentleman, an Elf with a hunched back, greying hair and frazzled beard, he may need glasses as his eyes are almost always squinted, only opening in surprise or when studying an artifact for study.
I had also checked him out with the Trust but Verify ability and he checked out ok, I am helping Number 2 with another of his research projects that we need an expert's advice on.
“Thank you, I wanted to ask you about OutWolders funnily enough. How often it happens, notable figures, why the Institute used to publicly go after OutWolders, stuff like that.”
“Hmm, very wide net you're casting there. Let’s start with how often it occurs, what do you think?”
“I was told that each year the domains would get an OutWolder per year, the gods having a hand in making sure they end up in a safe spot.”
“You're mostly correct, OutWolders do appear yearly, but only for a single domain. There have been times where Land has gone without an OutWolder for decades only to have one arrive and another decade of nothing.”
“We know this also occurs for the other Domains as historically, ambassadors from both sometimes talked about or referenced OutWolders to some degree, and then there are the ones who end up in local governance.”
“Like that Droaldoph Ca I heard about, royal adviser?”
“Yes like Ca, and there have been many before him in similar situations for good or bad." He replied nodding. “The Institute, or rather the part that deals with OutWolders, is very secretive, very secretive. They have been in this business a long time and have a massive wealth of information in their city. Now, how do you think they know an OutWolder has arrived?”
"Not sure, I know the usual method of using a specific Power or Crystal nearby, in city gates and that Adventurer Pen. Aside from those just boots on the ground, searching?"
"Not quite, the Institute is said to have a detector that allows them to see that one has arrived in Land. I'm almost not sure it exists but this has been an ongoing conspiracy for a while with it being both announced that it does and does not exist by the Institute itself."
"A detector? Interesting." I replied rubbing my chin stubble, but if there is a detector why did no Institute arrive on Farmers Rest Island when I first arrived?
"Yes quite, now let's move onto OutWolders. In our recorded history thus far and including you. We estimate there have been approximately 800 OutWolders that have arrived on Land, this is also guessing how many may have been captured by the Institute, it is the low estimate. The highest estimate is over 1150 OutWolders on Land. In actual artifacts or historical documents we have found, it's around that 800 mark."
"Not as many as I thought considering you've got what? 3000+ years of somewhat accurate history?"
"Yes well it's that "somewhat accurate" that's the main point, could be that some were made up, some were just folk tales, maybe some are older mentions of mythological creatures and beings. Lots of study needed which is hard to do with the earlier histories."
"Any other questions or move onto specific OutWolders?"
"Let's move on, thank you."
"Let's start with OutWolders who have had a net negative on the world." he says as he pulls out a tome from his desk drawer that has a large red crystal embedded in its centre cover, leafing through it for a moment before arriving on a page.
"I'll let you copy this book as well, this has the majority of information on OutWolders I have. The most dangerous OutWolders are the ones who already had Powers from their world before arriving here. This is because their Powers use different methods to power themselves whether from inner energy or natural, non mana energy and so cannot be detected by our Powers you see."
"Direrth The Destroyer from the year 1324 was one such man, a large tailed man with a rudimentary hand on his tail giving him three hands, he was able to trick a city into revolting against its government and then stepped in, he then took over the city using a Power that allowed him to alter the memories of the citizens. Frightful, he then started experimenting on the populace to determine if they can be hosts to creatures from his world, worms that would take over the host and become an army. The entire city was destroyed by concentrated Artillery Powers by a dozen neighbouring countries till nothing but a crater remained. The region was then buried and now we have lost where the original location was over time."
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
He shows me an image that the book shows, it looks like a Tiefling from D&D but with a four fingered, clawed hand on the tail and no horns. It looks to be an artist's impression but can't be sure.
"Rrikadyr, The Dark from the year 876 was another, he appeared as an Intelligent Beast, two legged and with small dark wings and horns. His Power allowed him to not only create a cloud of darkness that no one could see through but any dead that the cloud touched would awake, becoming undead and under his command. He was otherwise reported to be polite and only wanted a method to return to his kingdom but for his necromancy, his army and himself were obliterated. Also by Artillery barrages."
The next image is of a sickly, skinny minotaur-like person with small bat-like wings on his back and dark clouds with glowing red eyes and pale skulls flashing in the background. I think a lot of these will be artist impressions till we get to more recent years.
"Another is only known as "Wamere" from the year 2345 who was nicknamed "The Citadel Builder" His Power allowed him to shape the environment with his hands and it would create anything he could imagine, he could pick up sticks and clay and mould them in his hands into a weapon or device of destruction. Precious few of those exist anymore, like the citadels that he had created, massive structures hidden away in valleys, automatically attacking anyone who got close, creating wave after wave of metal soldiers and flying constructs who marched onto cities taking them by storm and sword. Many of these bastions were destroyed but some are still present, their energy depleted and left abandoned save for the local countries' guards who watch over the remains."
My previous thought was proven incorrect as a very real picture appears of a muscled man with a large mechanical left arm holding a massive mechanical war scythe. He’s seen directing 1000s of robots on a grassy battlefield that look like an average human shape but with smooth metallic skin.
“And lastly from this list is another human who went by the name Xingshigong from the year 1089. He became an advisor to an old kingdom which then fell into disarray before creating his own in his image from the wreckage, and forced his ideology of cultivation, supremacy and martial arts, of defying the gods themselves to gain power. He was able to take in the natural energies of the world and is said to have cultivated them into something called a Dao, which would then grant him power and immense strength. He was later found deceased in his mountaintop home in a meditating pose. All that power, gone.”
“Are you kidding me? You guys had cultivators?” I say, shaking my head a little in disbelief. “They are just fiction where I come from.”
“Yes, he's also the reason for the trend of wearing loose fitting clothes, ponytail and thin one handed swords.”
My eyes widen for a moment as that look pops into my mind. That's why Lock wears long flowing clothes outside of Adventuring hours, and his ponytail, he's a Xanxiaboo! Oh I’m gonna give him hell for that, I can feel the schemes scheming.
The image projected is of a young man who appears as a typical Xanxia protagonist. Fair skin, white hair, sharp chin, and Jian-type sword with long flowing robes of blues, reds and whites.
“There are so many more, and many who we have no details on.” Continued Danto “There have been ones who went crazy over time and hunted for knowledge to return, torturing any who they came across. Beings who only had a single Power but would become stronger and stronger as time goes on, ones of living shadow, who flitter through the world like the shadow of a bird in flight.”
He continued, eyes growing larger, gripping the table and standing slightly. “Large, flying monstrosities that would be at home in the Air Domain, crushing cities with their weight, giant worms that can burrow deep into the ground creating caves that stretch countries, even ones able to breach into dreams and terrify the sleeping.”
He takes a deep breath for a moment as the wide eyed look disappears. “Sorry, I tend to get that way with students, especially young ones, it’s quite entertaining for me.”
“You must know of Muahaix Aiwatito, the OutWolder who attempted to take over countries using a duplication Power?”
“Yes, matter of fact I was.”
“What many of the historical texts wont say is how close he was to winning” says Professor Swithswin. “If it wasn’t for the assassins who managed to sneak into his camp in the year 2209, within three days he would have taken control of one of the worlds at the time most fortified cities on Land. Controlling that would have cemented his rule completely.”
“If it was that well fortified?”
“Their supplies were already dangerously low by that point, they only had food remaining for the children and babes in the city, everyone else we’re starving by that point. In fact, many perished afterwards due to supply lines and reinforcements going slow to take care of any potential ambushes.”
“But, I don’t want to only focus on the negative, there have been many who helped the people of Land in many situations. It’s the bad ones who get all the publicity and study unfortunately. Cresbron for example is one of my favorites, he’s renowned for the creation of modern agriculture in the year 82 when he arrived in a village that had no fertile fields to grow food and almost no other way to get food without hunting. He created fertile soil and better methods of farming, crop rotation and many more. There's actually a statue of him in the city of Quaton.”
An image appears of a statue in a large open square of a massive four armed, green skinned giant of a man holding an assortment of farming tools in each hand, held out as if handing it over to someone to pick up.
“For every OutWolder who causes people pain and misery there are a dozen who instead lived simple lives or who solved diseases, fought in wars, diplomats, advisors like Droaldoph Ca, many were just normal people.”
“Now I have skipped over quite a lot so I think it best you have a read of this first '' he says passing over another tome, holding it over the now closed original tome for a moment before a flash of light moves between the embedded crystals in the covers. Handing it to me and opening it up I can see all the information on all the known OutWolders there have been that he knows of. This will be quite handy.
“Now, guess you won’t need to know why the Institute hunted OutWolders, the reason is quite obvious.”
“Public perception around them, big bad guys ravaging the country, I can see people being scared of OutWolders.”
We ended up talking some more about OutWolders and on Earth, but I had made him agree to hold off on writing any of it down for now as we or rather number 5 has an idea for this situation. But in any case that's all we needed for now and I won’t be going in depth on each and every OutWolder here, that would bore me to death and back.
One thing I am worried about though, as of right now I almost embody the characteristics/Powers of three of these big bad OutWolders. Duplication, Matter Transmutation and “Necromancy”. Wonder how we’ll sort out public perception around us?