In the skies far above lands Yoruns group have never been to or even heard of they stand atop Ghairlakriars back looking at the ancient city floating before them. Ghairlakriar flies closer to the city and the ancient magic still coursing through it extends out a platform large enough for her to land on it alongside it is a walkway into the city. Yoruns group teleports onto the walkway but as soon as that happens the very same ancient magic that greeted their approach creates Golems from the ground that rise up and walk aggressively toward the group while more begin to appear with crossbows appearing throughout barricades in the city. As they prepare to defend themselves Yoruns vision darkens a bit as he sees something akin to the ghosts he saw before, this one seems more solid however and looks like one of the previous chosen's people yet a skeletal version of them while wearing a cloak and wielding a scythe similar to Yoruns own. The ghost-like figure approaches the golem and reaches out to them at which point they stop in place and the crossbows lower.
"Why'd they all stop?" Sunhale asked confused
"No idea" Both Golanier and Joolak responded just as confused
"You guys don't see that?" Yorun asked pointing towards the ghost and the golems
"See what? The golems? Course we see them but there's nothing else there" Sunhale said
Yorun looks at the skeletal entity once more and watches as it raises its hand to it's head pointing at the cloak before taking it off. Yorun takes off the cloak allowing everyone to sense his magic once more or in the case of Ghairlakriar and Joolak for the first time, they all notice something new however looking at him.
"Raeknar ....your eyes" Sunhale said with concern and intrigue
Sunhale makes a magical reflection of Yorun and Yorun looks at it confused, his eyes are aflame with black fire and his eyes have turned a greyer colour alongside those flames, Yorun looks back at the skeletal entity who motions for him to follow.
"All of you follow me..." Yorun said still focussed on the entity
They nod as they follow Yorun who himself begins to follow the entity, they walk through the city seeing countless bodies mostly gone due to the conditions they've suffered over time while seeing old scars of battle across the city improvised barricades throughout the city as well as mounted crossbows and ballistae all throughout the city as if they people fought a long battle yet were unprepared for it. Following the ghost they eventually begin to walk up a grand staircase in the city and they feel a source of magic nearby which the ghost heads to, there stands what seems to be a temple one of which is in better condition than everything else in the city upon approaching the building the statues outside of it on each side of the door turn their heads to look at Yorun and within seconds the stone that makes them up extends from certain parts creating a stone cloak and scythe as the windows of the temple get Raeknars symbol on them. Yorun looks at the statues and then looks at the group.
"Ok that creeps me out" Yorun said with an unnerved look on his face
"Agreed" Sunhale said
Yorun pushes open the temple doors and as he does so the temple's main room lights up with torches self igniting and stone people coming out of the ground cleaning the temple. The ghost walks through Yorun heading into the temples main room and up to the podium at the back of the room, it extends its hand toward Yorun motioning for him to come over which Yorun does while the others walk in except for Joolak as he is not small enough to get in. As Yorun approaches the ground beneath the podium opens up and an alter raises up with a body Yorun now recognises as his predecessor on it and Yorun as well as everyone else feels the magic emanating from the body. Yorun looks at the body examining it and he notices it is perfectly preserved despite the age of it and he is amazed.
"Yorun of Kurinet" The ghost said
"You can talk?" Yorun said as he looked towards the ghost yet he does not see the confused look from the others
"I can" The ghost said
"Yorun, you alright?" Sunhale asked saying Yoruns true name as Joolak is outside
"I'm fine, guessing you heard nothing right?" Yorun asked
"Yup you're sounding crazy" Golanier said as he looked around
"Yorun, look at me" The ghost said
Yorun looks at the ghost-like entity once more.
"I stand in this intermediary realm between yours of the living world and Faelerm, you wish for information and that I can give, if you so wish" The Ghost said
"Of course" Yorun said
"Raeknar allow this old soul to return to the realm of the living for a temporary time to instruct your new chosen" The ghost said
Raeknar appears next to the ghost-like figure and yet is unable to be seen by the others as well.
"I will allow this but you cannot take your original form besides your soul is used to this form you have now" Raeknar said
"That is fine" The ghost said
Everyone sees as reality itself tears open and the skeletal figure walks out of it now longer ghost-like but solid just as any other person , Yorun no longer seems crazy as the other two see the figure before them, Joolak even hits the deck to look through the door into the temple upon sensing this massive magical power coming from the figure now standing in the temple. The magical energy surging from this person is alone enough to outpower Ghairlakriars own power and to be sensed even on the ground by multiple empires.
"Yorun of Kurinet, Sunhale of Lar'Tureak, Golanier of Jakhel and Joolak or Salkinan. I have heard much of all of you though some more than others for a variety of reasons" The skeletal figure said
"Who are you? Why do you know of us?" Sunhale asked hands firmly on his blade watching the figure closely as they stood behind the alter with the body on it
"In death I am one who aids Raeknar in taking souls from the realm I had just been in to Faelerm itself, settling them in where they need be but in life I was Jinarl the previous chosen of Raeknar" Jinarl said to the partial shock of everyone there
"I... am legitimately surprised you are still around... in Faelerm" Yorun said as his mind continues to process that
"I gave my life to Raeknar and this world, I'll gladly give my death to both as well in hopes that I will see the world in a better place eventually" Jinarl said
"Ok there's a lot of questions but my main one right now is how come Yorun could see you but the rest of us couldn't?" Golanier asked but he is immediately given a glare of green light like an eye from Jinarls normally empty eye socket
"I will answer that question but don't get me wrong Golanier, I would destroy you right now were I allowed to for squandering the magic I asked Raeknar to gift to this world by using it for the evil you brought upon the world" Jinarl said
"Sur-" Golanier said before having his soul forcefully removed from his own undead body
Jinarl brings Golaniers soul to his skeletal hand and he merely touches it and Golanier falls silent as his soul heads back to his body and once inside it again it collapsed to the ground. Yorun looks at Golanier and then to Jinarl.
"What'd you do?" Yorun asked
"Basically shut his soul down for now, he and many others who took the title of 'Necromancer' over the years angered me to no end. Anyway to answer the question he posed, the realm which I was in is an intermediate realm between this one and Faelerm, this intermediate realm is not one known to mortals at least usually and as such was never given a name so during my time in both life and death I named it The Wayrest" Jinarl said
"The Wayrest? Why such a normal name?" Sunhale asked
"The Wayrest seemed appropriate as it is a realm in which those who die go to on their own before their souls are taken to Faelerm itself by myself, the others like me or Raeknar themself. The Wayrest unlike other realms is basically on top of the living realm, you see the realm just as a living person would, all of nature, the structures and buildings yet you are not seen by all of that and are unable interact with the normal world only other souls in The Wayrest" Jinarl said
"Is that were Raeknar pops in from?" Yorun asked
"Sometimes, it is a useful way to watch you and others without being noticed" Jinarl said
"Then why could I see you? Or those demons ghosts?" Yorun asked
"As Raeknars chosen you have abilities gifted to you as I do, your connection to Raeknar gives you a connection to the Wayrest and Faelerm. In places of great death such as battlefields occasionally the walls between the realms weaken due to the surplus of souls traversing those walls, normal people can see them however that is only for recent events but we can see souls and the actions that brought them to The Wayrest in not just recent places but ancient as well particularly if they have involvement from someone like us. Felan'Ortika, Demons folly and even my own home places of such immense amounts of death all with my involvement in some way" Jinarl said
"But Felan'Ortika and even this place I saw no uh ghosts? is that even the right thing to say?" Yorun asked
"Not really but it is the easiest way to describe them but as for why you didn't see them there or here? The souls are long gone from both The Wayrest and Faelerm but Demons Folly is different, Demons have no souls and as such their mockery of life is still tainting the area like a lingering curse upon The Wayrest and living world but as it does nothing to anyone, Raeknar has not gotten rid of it" Jinarl said as he looks to them
"Why does your... body... still radiate magic?" Sunhale asked
"Ancient magic from Raeknar to keep my body from decomposing or being damaged, something originally done for the purposes of making a great tomb at my peoples behest but well that didn't come to be and the magic remains, this magic is not the magic running though this city keeping it floating or defended that is actually just magic I gave to the city before my death still there although it will soon begone as well at least another fifty years in it though" Jinarl said
"You mentioned others like you, what do you mean by that?" Yorun asked
"My people, we were called the Kai Tamar and after I died and they were killed, Raeknar due to growing to care for me as their chosen made a decision, any Kai Tamar who wished for it was allowed to become apart of Faelerms inner workings, they would make new skeletal forms for us to place our souls into and aid Raeknar if we so wished, I have been doing so all this time and while no others of my people exist anymore the other Kai Tamar around either have no souls or other souls who wished to help over the years. My people in a sense have been immortalised and I am thankful" Jinarl said
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"Ok probably time for the big questions" Yorun said
"How about this I'll explain who I am, what I did and what happened to my people then after if you have additional questions I'll answer those" Jinarl said
"That's perfect but can you allow Golanier to actually be uh awake for this?" Yorun asked
"Fine" Jinarl said dismissively as Golanier snaps awake quickly getting up with a horrified look in his eyes yet he says nothing clearly now understanding not to against Jinarl
Jinarl doesn't move as the entire city seemingly comes to life through illusions, old damage disappears, the bodies disappear as the streets and skies fill with his people of all ages and even the golems as well as other makeshift defence structures disappear. Within the temple itself the very body of Jinarl disappears as priests come into view and begin to do various tasks until what looks like a far younger Jinarl walks in.
"In my youth I was a warrior priest for my people, bringing people closer to the gods off the battlefield and directly to them on it however as time had gone on I decided to travel to the other nations lands wanting to broaden my horizons on well everything" Jinarl said as the illusion changes completely showing them the young Jinarl flying to different places with different races
"During my travels I saw much going on and most of it not good things, injustice after injustice some with from what I could sense godly involvement, it broke my heart for a while that the gods seemed to care so little about us, from the wars and petty kings as well as all the chosen I had seen doing horrible things then as I continued to travel I felt more godly involvement in these things from pretty much all of the gods to some degree now of course I cannot dare imagine any gods intentions and I'm sure some were not malicious but it felt like it yet throughout it all I saw one god completely uninvolved" Jinarl said
"Raeknar" Yorun said
"Correct, after a while I began to search more for Raeknars involvement, nation after nation I searched and yet I found nothing so I grew bold probably more so than I should have been and one day I flew to a mountains peak and carved out a place to sit and pray. I prayed to Raeknar and asked them why the world was the way it was, Raeknar the arbiter of justice seemed almost uncaring about that and I had truly not expected an answer it was a depressed travellers vain cry for answers but then right in front of me Raeknar stepped into our reality. Despite my position as a warrior priest nothing prepares you for a god coming to you alone because you asked for answers never mind those answers actually being given because that is exactly what happened, Raeknar laid everything out from the god chains to the other gods cares as well as their own" Jinarl said
"Raeknar just explained it all? Nothing needed in return?" Yorun asked
"Yes, due to my years as a warrior priest, even if I was fairly young at least by my peoples standards, I had done enough in the name of the gods to warrant it. Anyway the news was all a shock to me but nothing more so than hearing Raeknar themself state that they didn't really care all too much about the mortals but more wanted to get justice into the world to stop their chain, that hurt me quite a bit that the last bastion of the gods in my eyes was almost as uncaring and I asked Raeknar for something" Jinarl said
"The duties of a chosen" Sunhale said making Jinarl shake his head
"Close, I asked Raeknar for the ability to return the dead to life, make an army of the dead who were killed as a result of the injustices wrought upon the world by the gods and Raeknar fell silent for a moment before replying" Jinarl said as he focusses the illusion on Raeknar who has taken the form of Jinarl himself
"You are an interesting mortal, I will not allow you to bring souls from the afterlife back to the living realm but I will grant you the ability to raise their bodies as soulless soldiers, the ability I call necromancy and you would be the first to use it" Raeknar said
"Not exactly what I expected but I can work with that" The Younger Jinarl said
"So long as you bring justice I will give you this magic" The illusion Raeknar said
The illusion Raeknar then reaches out to the younger Jinarl and touches his soul and the illusion shows what happened to his soul as it gets lit with a green flame while the other magics of the soul are forcefully pushed aside and a new magic fills the gap all the while the young Jinarl screams at the pain.
"I had not been made a chosen that would not come for a long time, I had just been made the worlds first necromancer however it did take me days to recover on that mountain" Jinarl said
"It didn't take me nearly as long and my soul was actually stabbed" Sunhale said
"True however there are certain factors, for one Otaper or whatever you wish to call them had given such magic out to many people before I was the first person to get this magic and second off you were prepared to get that magic due to your use of the darkness over the years your soul had acclimated" Jinarl responded
"I suppose that makes sense" Sunhale said
The illusion then changes around them once more to a large recent seeming battlefield, people are there collecting the dead to return to families when the younger Jinarl flew down to the battlefield his landing his hard clearly his body and soul are still in bits of pain. Those collecting bodies look over and draw blades just in case but as they approach they see something they've never seen before green flames emanating from Jinarl as bodies around him begin to stir and raise.
"Unlike yourself Yorun I had extensive magical training and despite obviously never having training for this sort of magic I figured it out quickly also Raeknar implanted little false memories into my mind to teach me" Jinarl said
"Lucky you" Yorun said
"At least you didn't need to deal with the magic being implanted within you" Jinarl said
They watch as Jinarls younger self begins to raise body after body and the people who were there collecting bodies quickly fall to the ground terrified by what they're seeing they freeze in pure terror as Jinarl continues to raise more and more bodies including those the people know for sure were dead.
"I spent years travelling the world once more but this time looking for recent battlefields and building my army, I kept quiet at least as much as I could rumours circulated and well that many bodies disappearing isn't going to go unnoticed but the mountain where Raeknar gave me necromancy? I turned it into a veritable fortress using undead to hollow parts out, built the place up and gather materials for it all. Once I had what I believed to be a large enough army I began the march, over the coming years I took my army to as many cities and villages taking down those who deserved to go to Raeknar for what they had done and progressively getting more and more soldiers in my army" Jinarl said
"Where did it go wrong then? Usually this sort of thing goes well at first then horribly wrong so what happened?" Sunhale asked
"I wish you weren't correct, I had been bringing an army and justice across the realm but I was no chosen, I was still just a normal person and the gods other than Raeknar began to get sick of my and a chosen was sent after me. The chosen they sent was one of my own people and were a chosen of both Gaeronak and Malekanivor, you know how powerful a chosen for either can be never mind just one person with both. My army and I was crushed quickly, take a look" Jinarl said
The illusion changes once more showing a large battlefield, an army of the dead with various races making it up fighting a similarly large living army of many races yet the living army seems to be winning due to the influence of the person flying above it, a red scaled Kai Tamar is empowering the army through the power given to him by being Gaeronaks chosen while around the battlefield chaos from being Malekanivors chosen ensues, random explosions, the ground shaking, pockets of gravity changes. The enemy chosen then lands in the undead army and begins carving through the undead, they see Jinarl try and fight the chosen yet within seconds they see Jinarl lose limbs and get killed, some parts of the undead army remain but not for long as eventually the magic leaves the undead mages as Jinarls soul heads into the Wayrest.
"Gods, but this isn't how you died later on since you were obviously a chosen here in this realm at some point" Yorun said
"Correct, my soul headed to the Wayrest and was greeted by Raeknar who took me to Artiel in Faelerm but once we were there. Raeknar said something I had not anticipated well I don't think I was anticipating much, dying is overwhelming" Jinarl said
They see the illusion changes once more to show a place none of them have ever seen, Artiel in all its glory the good place of the afterlife and amongst all the souls of the afterlife they see Raeknar and Jinarl.
"Jinarl, you sought me out to bring justice to the world and I gave you some magic at your request, since then your actions have brought much to the living realm. You have changed my mind on certain matters and thus I give you this chance. I can return you to life, fix your body, give you more abilities with your necromancy and make you my chosen. You will be able to go toe to toe with the other chosen out there or call upon me should you need it" Raeknar said
"You'd do that?" The young Jinarl asked
"Of course, you need merely agree, the other gods save for the god of time cannot see into my realm unless I wish for them to and as such they more than likely believe you are going into your rest here in the afterlife. Agree and rip their chosen asunder, bring justice to the world as my chosen with a far more powerful army of the dead" Raeknar said
"I agree" The young Jinarl said
"Those two words changed the rest of my life and death, I spent the next decade in Faelerm, learning all that I could of necromancy and the new abilities given to me some of which you know, such as necromantic curses and soul binding among others. The biggest change however was my new chosen abilities again things you know, being dead has some usefulness, no body just a soul and as a result no need to eat, drink or even sleep so during the decade I was damn near constantly training and learning more from Raeknar as well as allowing myself to be taken over by Raeknar since yes Raeknar can do that even without a body trust me it is a different feeling. Once I was returned to life I went back to my home, called upon the chosen who killed me to fight and I beat him, I then asked my people if any of them wished to join me in bringing justice to the world then they were welcome too and soon enough some of my old warrior priest brethren joined me as they saw it as no higher calling. I then raised an army once more and we began the long arduous task you now have during which Raeknar grew to care more for mortals the more we talked especially. The other warrior priests agreed that if they died I would bind their souls and raise their bodies and as time had gone on I did just that, but every time I decided they had served long enough I would release one and make a great tomb for their body laying it to rest. Every single one would be preserved inside forever more for my people to remember them. One such body being coveted and raised by a certain Kalrin many years later" Jinarl said but his glare was felt by Golanier right at the end of his words
"How did it all come to an end then?" Yorun asked
"Well I was around for a long time and I had brought a lot of justice to the world, I grew old however and I decided my time had come at least in the living world, I laid the rest of the undead to rest and passed on, simple as that my people had a time of mourning and to celebrate the life I lead at least until..." Jinarl said before growing silent
The illusion around them changed to show the city as a desperate battlefield, makeshift defences being put up and soldiers dying by the thousands as they try to put up a defence against what seems to be every other races army and hundreds of chosen filling the dark red skies.
"By the gods" Sunhale said defaulting to his native language in shock
"The gods spoke to every race telling them that Raeknar had given my people the ability and duty to bring the world to a halt with necromancy and commanded everyone that would obey to marshal their troops and go to war with my people, no warnings were given, many chosen were made and my people stood no chance. They were wiped out entirely every single person, if I could be sick anymore I would be just thinking of it all again" Jinarl said clearly disgusted by it all
"But Raeknar didn't do that right?" Yorun asked
"It was the plan, at least partially and the gods sought to snuff out the embers of the fire I lit under their noses. When my people were slaughtered however I asked Raeknar to do something else, give the potential for necromancy to everyone, make it a perpetual threat to the order the gods want to keep so desperately and Raeknar did so but not without another consequence. Raeknar made it so that every races life span was halved from then on as a consequence which would really annoy the other gods as they would have to change certain things" Jinarl said
"We all used to live longer..." Yorun said
"That is... incredible" Sunhale said
Golanier cannot hide his amazement at what he has seen and heard yet he still says nothing.
"Any other questions?" Jinarl asked
No one says anything and as a result Jinarl steps forward and looks at Yorun.
"There will be much for you to learn and do as time goes on Yorun and as such I want you to raise my body, my memories as well as skills are in there, bring this world to justice and your family as well as the others from Kurinet will be brought back. They wait for you and are glad to hear of your time here going well despite the injuries sustained in doing so. The gods will want to stop a repeat of what I did and so soon enough they will bring a heavy challenge before you, prepare Yorun and good luck" Jinarl said as the illusion disappeared while Jinarl jumped through a portal back to the Wayrest which closes immediately after
Yorun despite his state of shock looks at the body Jinarl had in life and he takes a breathe before raising this ancient body from it's slumber, the bones and scales creak as the body stirs and then stands before it's new master.
"Now then, I know your name, let's get back to Ghairlakriar and head home with our new undead general" Yorun said
Yorun looked to the newly risen Jinarl and began to walk with the others back to Ghairlakriar all still reeling from the new information they've learned but Yoruns mind is not only on that but on the fact he'll have to kill the worlds oldest dragon when they return...