“So what should I call you?” Tûhorn asked after she noted I had finished my conversation with Vashanesh. I looked down at her with a raised eyebrow and a questioning look, she elaborated. “I don’t know much about elves so are you my father or mother?” She asked me and I chuckled as I suddenly turned to a flat chested amazon of a woman body wise, then a thin curvy woman without any breasts before turning back to the lithe yet densely and compactly muscled male body I naturally had.

“It doesn’t really matter much to me but your brother and sister know me as father.” I said with a smile at the bewildered look of wonder on her face at my forms malleability. A malleability I had been granted by using bone crafting on my own skeleton. It would allow me to be semi unremembered in finer features going forwards but I had spent too much time already in one form to suddenly change. It would be of use when travelling towards the north if my face suddenly appeared on wanted posters or the like I could simply change my faces structure enough to look different. Then again I still had to figure out a way to actually get a bust if I was to pass as female if there was a need for it.

Tûhorns sudden voice pulled me out of the rambling thoughts my mind was turning towards. “Wow, can all spirits do that?” She asked with wide wondrous eyes as she moved to sit down on my lap as I had sat down on the edge of the now empty fountain. On the pedestal behind me was the three meter tall statue of my winged elder form with the wings coming down in front of it to create an archway with its wings before it.

I chuckled and shook my head. “No I’m a little different from normal spirits, I only became a greater spirit almost two months ago. I’ve already lived for fifty years and unlike other spirits I still retain my own body.” I explained and Tûhorn’s gaze snapped to mine.

“Does that mean I could become a spirit?” She asked with curious eyes.

I thought on it for a bit as I rubbed my now shaved chin while I thought. “Hmm I think that it might be possible but it would require some really strange circumstances to happen.” I then said and saw her ears lower a little.

Gently I hugged her against me and spoke softly. “I see potential in you Tûhorn, it might not be the potential to become a spirit but as you are now my daughter I will make sure that you will grow to your fullest potential. You will be strong and a proud member of the Von Carstein family but we can’t use that name so for now you will be known as Tûhorn Aesir all right.” I noticed how she grew reassured that even if she didn’t become a spirit I’d still call her my daughter. I guessed she had similar abandonment issues that Akasha’d had in the beginning.

She then suddenly turned a little shy as she bit her lower lip before asking me. “Could you do that again?” She asked and at my amused raised eyebrow she giggled a little nervously. “Changing your form like that…” She paused and her eyes lit up. “Can you fly?!” She asked excitedly and I couldn’t help laughing out loud.

Flying had become a pastime of mine and Akasha’s once I’d figured out how to turn into my travel form and also learned to manifest just portions of each form from Verona. That had taken almost half a year to finally manage properly. I’d also noticed that both forms had grown with my elder form now standing at around 4 meters with the travel form having started at 2.5 and now standing at an even 3 meters tall.

I gently put Tûhorn on the fountains lip next to me and stood up, slowly gathering the liquid smoke like shadows that I could manifest from normal shadows now through shadow manipulation. Once I was sufficiently covered I put away my clothing and changed into my travel form. Whereas the Elder form was a tall wide shouldered humanoid beast clearly intent for combat the travel form was lither and more akin to a large cat halfway into a humanoid transformation.

With long slim limbs I spread out the wings as they grew out from my shoulder blades and sighed at the feeling of stretching them out. In my travel form I was essentially four-legged with limited ability to walk on my legs alone, needing me to half walk or steady myself with my hands causing a sort of ape like walking stride.

I turned my longer neck to look at Tûhorn who’s eyes were sparkling at the sight of my form as I left the smoky manifestation of shadow around me. I smiled as I spread my wings and strutted a little. I'd apparently got a bit of the self love of ones form that some dragons had from all the changes I’d gone through.

Slowly sitting in front of her I offered one of my near two meter long arms now and took her against my chest as I slowly walked on three legs to the nearest wall and climbed it up. I could sit on my legs to leave my hands free so I angled and positioned Tûhorn in the same firm grip I usually had Akasha in while my spread wings tested the wind and air currents around me.

I then leaped up into the air and flapped hard as I gained air and soon I was soaring around the area, Tûhorn squealing in delight at the freeing sensation of flying. I cast a few spells to protect her from the cold air and wind currents so high up in the air while I showed her around the area around were the gate was being placed.

Before long I noticed the procession of the Zabrûm tribesmen as they made their way together towards the ruined plaza. Thankfully they would come in through the entrance that the newly constructed gate faced. With a slight smirk I moved to gently land on top of the archway they’d have to pass through to enter the plaza ruins and lay down whispering to Tûhorn that we’d be quite to observe the tribe while I thickened the shadows around us to cause us to be just another black mass in the blackness of the night that eyes would easily slide off of.

I saw the glint of mischief in Tûhorn’s eyes as she crouched on top of the stone wall underneath me. We waited in silence and by the time the tribe had all begun to move through the archway under us, the statue serving as the gate had been completed. I watched as the trolls, goblins, orcs, ogres and those with some mix of those in their bodies come into the plaza, their gazes curious and more alive than the last time I’d seen them. I’d taken a flight over each area in my swarm form to take a good look over the tribesmen I required for my plans.

I continued to watch in silence as Kal-Gûl, Karzâg and Mozû approached Seker, Ptah and Vashanesh standing in front of the statue to welcome them. I noted that the others who held a position within the exiled didn’t look all that happy with meeting the three undead.

Ar-Kaius, Ur-Edin, Gûnd and Bûth all stood with the majority of the others while staring at Kal-Gûl and the others. “Is this true? Have you sold us to some undead?” Ar-Kaius growled as he pointed at Kal-Gûl. “They change you and you think they are a totem?! A greater spirit shouldn’t be using undead at all!” He almost roared as he moved a bit into the empty area between himself and the other three tribesmen next to Vashanesh and the others.

Slowly I began to move silently, stalking down the wall and along the edges of the group. Frankly something as large as myself at the moment shouldn’t have any business being as silent as I was. I noticed that Tûhorn moved under me in a crouch but soon moved to silence the few kids that noticed me on the edge of the group as all the adults were focused towards Kal-Gûl and his response to Ar-Kaius’s accusation. Thankfully none of them had realized what they were looking at before Tûhorn got to them.

“My totem is the Void dragon!” He almost roared right back as he walked to close the distance between himself and Ar-Kaius, the Jotun-blooded troll just as tall as Kal-Gûl with his horned helmet adding just enough to be slightly taller than Kal-Gûl. “His sovereignty among the spirits is death itself so there is no need to think he isn’t a greater spirit even if he has undead working under him.” He said though I did notice he was starting to wonder. I couldn’t have that.

Then Kal-Gûl took a step back as he watched my head rise above Ar-Kaius’s head as I allowed the shadows wrapping around me to dissipate, causing a sort of rising from Ar-Kaius’s shadow effect for those behind as I used a shadow gate to slowly sink into the ground and rise up from Ar-Kaius’s own shadow. Changing back into the elder form with wings manifested. “Oh really?” I spoke softly allowing my rumbling under tones to turn my voice to almost a purr. I smiled as I watched Ark-Kaius do a double take at my voice and then jumping back with panic at such a large creature having snuck up on him.

“Do I seem so disingenuous to you?” I asked as I slowly continued to rise up, off my hands to go from standing four legged to standing on my hind legs as I rose above Ar-Kaius, my wings spreading behind me and the shadowy smoke usually covering the membrane of my wings going away.

What was left was my wings looking like they had been made from the fabric of reality of a starry night sky for some other world as it certainly didn’t mirror the one above us. “Do I not appear to be what I am?” I then asked almost in a thundering voice as I saw the other green skins, as their races were collectively called apparently stare up at me with fear, awe and wonder as I stood before them all.

“I am the Void Dragon.” I said and placed a hand on Kal-Gûl’s shoulder as I looked from him and to the other assembled green skins. “I have made Kal-Gûl my totem and I wish to grant all of you a home within my domain. To make you into a true tribe, to heal, teach and nurture all of you into what you all can be.” I said then before gesturing at Karzâg. “Much like I did for her.” I said gently and I saw the many half-bloods in the crowd stare with open want to have the same thing done to them.

Then I wrapped my wings around my body and allowed the shadowy black smoke envelop me as I turned back to my elven form. Leaving the smoke with an amused smile at the dumbfounded expressions on many of those watching. “Now I believe you are all eager to see your new home.” I said with a kindly smile as I walked to Vashanesh and collected them into my manifested wing to send them off to Starlight ahead of time. I found it strange how it all worked, I could for lack of a better term act as a gate on my own and had a much larger range without much drop in power but once I started to make it semi permanent such as the statue before me turned into a golem gatekeeper it required a lot more power to achieve.

As much as I didn’t want to do it, I had to, not only for the theatrics this stunt I was about to pull would gain me but I also did need a permanent gate here if any of my other plans would come to fruition. I raised my hands up on either side and allowed my aura free reign, I didn’t want to have my focus split for anything even the miniscule focus it took to keep my aura locked away. I felt and heard the many gasps as the green skins moved to take those too weak or young to handle my aura out of the area of effect, having to almost stay at the archway itself behind me.

I breathed in and began to draw in every scrap of mana I could sense around me, starving the area completely and even going for the mana rushing in to fill the gap. Then I flexed my will, the shadows around me all elongating along the ground and snaking towards me to pool underneath my feet.

Black lightning danced across my raised hands as twin balls of bale fire sprang to life in my upraised palms. I pulled out a soul stone in my left and a mana crystal in my right, these would serve as the eyes for the statue and I began to pour power into them, linking the two with the same ability to create shadow gates and mumbling the few spells I needed to link this gate to the greater one at Starlight. It took a full five minutes of chanting and imbuing before the two stones rose from my palms and socketed themselves into the eyes of the statue, then came the second pair mirroring the two from before but switching hands on were each lay.

Another five minutes of chanting and channelling had these two fill in the missing two eyes of the statue of my most draconic form. Then a pillar of blue, grey, black and green energy erupted from me as I began to graft the soul into the golem and bringing it to life. As the pillar dissipated the statue began to move, extending it’s wings and allowing the green skins to see what the membranes of the wings held.

I almost stumbled back at the sheer expenditure of mana, something that might take me a week of pulling in mana from the air passively to restore my lost supply. I felt a hand grip my own and I looked down to see Tûhorn staring up at me with wide eyes of wonder then moving over to look up at the moving statue. I was abit amazed she hadn't been affected by my aura and I decided to keeping an eye on her more than I normally would. The statue shook itself a little and at that it got comfortable on its perch and looking at me with its four glowing blue and white eyes. The gems standing in for the full eye instead of like with Seker or Ptah who had shadows covering most of the gem to allow them pupils.

I spoke with a commanding tone as I raised one hand up in an equally commanding gesture. “Opnaðu hliðið til Stjarnana.” I commanded in Icelandic loud and clear and the statue brought it’s wings together to create an arch before breathing out a liquid shadow like black smoke that poured down onto the spot were the arched wings met and slowly created the effect over the open archway.

A few long moments later and the gate stabilized and one could see through it to the other end. Through the shimmering haze over the portal one could see the main square in front of the arena that had been converted into a keep like tower filling the area it covered all the way up to the top of the cavern itself. Of course they couldn’t see the keep as it was behind were the grater gate had been placed, instead they were greeted by the sight of the square surrounded by housing of stone. Above the blackness was pushed away by the shimmering nightlights so reminiscent of starlight above in the ceiling of the cavern. They were made from the rather impressive amount of mana stone I had grafted onto it in various ritual spell circle shapes along with many other warding symbols, sigils and circles. Most of which had a slightly larger crystal most often making up their centre filled with a bale fire that allowed them to work like large half spotlights meant to illuminate the small fortified near-town bellow.

I turned and watched their faces of utter wonder and awe, then I felt something else a swell within me. I staggered back and clutched at my chest as I gasped from suddenly feeling it stop for two full seconds. Then it beat once more, the first three beats as if my heart was using all its strength to start up a normal rhythm once more. I realized what it was after a thorough look through my body with most of my non-physical senses.

It had been a slight surge of power into the core located at my heart, the divine core that would blossom my power as a deity once I’d reached that stage. However this was the power of those around me having actual faith in me, nurturing my core. I was beginning to fulfil the second condition I’d need to actually rise to become a deity.

I looked up and saw the green skins looking at me with worry as I’d gone rather quiet, stepped back suddenly and gasped loudly while clutching at my chest. Then just went quiet again staring at my own chest while clutching at it. I chuckled a little, almost sheepishly. “I’m rather young as far as greater spirits go so I was a bit taken aback when you all started to believe in me as one of your tribes totems.” I explained and all but Kal-Gûl appeared a bit puzzled by my answer.

Turning around he spoke softly to his tribe. “He felt when your spirits connected to his as we accepted him as one of our guardian spirits.” The tribe all nodded and made sounds of understanding but then Kal-Gûl looked towards me and asked in curiosity. “How old exactly are you? If I go by your dragonic form you should be in early middle adolescence as a dragon. That should make you around two or three decades old.” He said and I smiled a little wryly at him.

“I’m just about between fifty and sixty, I only became a dragon around two or so months ago.” I said with a self deprecating smile. I noticed the burning curiosity in not only the dragon ogres eyes but the rest of the tribe as well and I couldn’t help but smile. “I’ll tell you the story of how I became a greater spirit later, now however.” I said before moving my hand up into a flourish.

The flourished hand was then gestured towards the gate and I smiled widely. “Ilzkâl Rogâtar awaits, please come along. The gate won‘t stay open forever.“ I said and taking the slightly worried looking Tûhorn‘s hand, I walked into the gate, feeling the shiver of feeling cold water run down your spine just all over your body that gate travel over long distances caused. If they were within a kilometre of one another you travelled too fast through them to even feel this sensation but any longer than that and the feeling just became more and more pronounced and noticeable, so with us travelling a thousand kilometres with barely two steps for us time wise we felt the full effect as we passed through on the other end.

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I shook myself and noted the shivering Tûhorn next to me and I went down on my knees to rub her arms to get some warmth into her. „It‘s a dozy isn‘t it?“ I asked with a smile as Tûhorns teeth clattered from the freezing feeling. She soon got warm enough to not shiver too much from the cold which made me think that perhaps Tûhorn didn’t have the same level of resistance to cold a normal Ice-troll did or that the sensation of cold was just the feeling of cold not true cold. I’d have to investigate it a bit more at a later date.

“W-where ar-are we?” Tûhorn asked her teeth clattering a little still as she looked over to the stone built town we had built in the underground cavern. The spells woven into the ceiling itself causing the light at the end of each spot like crystal in the ceiling to only appear as glittering stars in a vast night sky. It was an illusion to make it seem more like there wasn’t a ceiling and instead just a town built into a deep canyon. This spell also allowed me to make the powerful spot light like lights more controllable in illumination which allowed for a full day and night cycle mimicking the sky above my own borrowed manor in Veta. We‘d come upon the idea for a day and night cycle to help the living cope a bit more with living in Starlight as I was certain that without that oft taken for granted luxury of day and night we‘d have to deal with less problems than if we didn‘t.

I smiled down at Tûhorn and gestured with my hand. “This is Ilzkâl Rogâtar or we can just call it Ilzkâl for short.“ I finished with a wink and enjoyed how she and the soon others coming through the gate just stared at the town built with a sort of modern, mediaeval building style, the walls taking some inspiration from Minas Morgul of Lord of the rings fame by having the walls that sectioned off every two districts of the town to have this sort of glowing pale blue barrier around it. This was mainly to allow for a little more light besides the lamp posts we‘d put around the town.

The illusion above us couldn‘t be seen through the gate so when the tribesmen left the gate and looked around they were greeted with something they hadn’t seen through on the other end of the gate. I noted that a few servitor skeletons approached with blankets and warm chicken soup in bowls and began to distribute it around. The blankets somehow helped with the effects of the gate while the warm chicken soup would help them recover a bit from the near starvation state they‘d all been in for the past few years. They had enough food but just that, just barely enough to prevent them all from starving with maybe a day or two between really filling meals.

Soon enough I had allowed the green skins to all get situated in the square, all having warm food in their bellies and blankets to ward of the slightly chillier air than what was above ground. I began to explain that first I would allow them to move throughout the first district from the keep itself to find places to stay at and get situated while I'd go around to heal those that would need it when I had recovered. Meanwhile those hale and healthy were to greet the new day here to meet with Abhorash and Vashanesh to find out the training programs that would be on offer. I told the tribe that while I would house and feed them I didn‘t want to see them taking it for granted, this all had to be earned by them. I saw that this was a better way to get their loyalty and prevent them from becoming complacent by the rekindled fires in some of their eyes.

They would be offered to learn a trade, a type of combat style, magic if they had the talent for it and so on. I wouldn‘t allow anyone but the children to not be without a purpose or use to the tribe as a whole.

The children however were told that they would be going to a place called the webhouse to begin with. There they would learn to read and write and those adults that didn‘t know how to were also welcomed to join those classes. They did freak out a bit when I presented Lady Weaver as their teacher. She was the spider inspired minion I’d created the same day I took in the Xebat brothers both of whom were in the guises of servants to house Aesir now.

Her cloak of raven feathers had made them all think she was something like a tall elf until she’d stretched out her four spider like legs out a little and rose above as she got a closer look at the tribesmen now within a domain that had seen few of the living since I took it as my own. The few living test subjects we’d made of a few of the homeless weren’t counted and those used for resources had all been killed off quickly and painlessly before arrival anyway.

I calmly explained that I had the ability to craft and mould bodies of bone, stone, metal or flesh at times to create a body for lesser spirits that pledged themselves to me. That was how I explained the more than usual number of intelligent undead I had in my service with all those I could already converse with having been elevated to the ranks of greater undead of their types. Most hadn’t changed outwardly but a qualitative change both mentally and in terms of powers, skills and abilities had been noticed.

I looked from them over to the closing gates as Ashes and Dust came flying through and headed out deeper into the cavern. I hesitated a little not knowing why I suddenly didn’t know what to do or what I was doing. It was the same as walking into a room and suddenly not remembering why you entered the room in the first place. I shook my head and rubbed the side of my head with one hand, my gaze over the excited tribesmen milling about in smaller groups in the square now.

I smiled as I watched the seven leaders of the tribe walk towards me while I was sitting down at a pedestal that would hold a statue of meaning for the tribe and Ilzkâl as a whole. Hopefully not one of myself, I felt megalomaniacal enough with each gate being formed into my draconic visage. No this pedestal would hold a statue like those of mounted horsemen or the like, it was sized for one anyway.

Perhaps I could persuade them into creating different types of gates, like the golem gate but inserted into a wall, mural or as a simple archway. I shook my head to stop my thoughts from trailing off and nodded to the seven as they approached conversational range.

“Void Dragon.... where are we?“ Kal-Gûl asked in a slightly uneasy tone. It suddenly dawned on me as I remembered his class of geomancer. He must-have felt the ceiling above us.

“We are bellow Veta, the capital city of the Alocian empire south of the ridge.” I answered with a conversational tone which appeared to throw him for a loop. “I’ll house all of you here until you are numerous enough and capable enough to carve out a place for you on the ridge itself in the future.” I said with a smile but firm eyes. I didn’t want to have to keep up the secondary small outpost we had made to process those homeless we captured. We had already been processing the rather large amount of bodies we’d stacked up in a few storage devices we’d just piled into without processing over a months time.

With all of those filled we had to process the materials as best we could to open up some space. Thankfully we could store bone out in the open in ingots without much fear of it decaying to become useless like flesh would eventually do outside storage devices.

All seven nodded before they looked around and asked. “Will we be able to make something like Ilzkâl Rogâtar?“ Bûth asked and I sort of nodded.

„Not fully... Something close but this shouldn‘t be the architecture of your tribe. You should learn what this has to offer then appropriate what is of use and discarding that which clashes with your traditions.“ I said while holding up a hand to gestured towards the buildings around us.

“You will need to all learn and further yourselves so that the Zabrûm tribe can stand tall as one of the eighteen tribes of Hardrows ridge despite your numbers.” I then continued, seeing a light come on in their eyes.

I then looked towards Ar-Kaius, Ur-Edin, Gûnd Hoglick and Bûth each in turn and gestured for them to come towards me and to kneel before me one by one. I sat cross-legged on the pedestal we‘d decided would house a mounted statue so I was essentially leaning a little over them as I reached out to grip their heads.

First was Ar-Kaius the Horned lord, he was a Jotun-blooded troll and wore an ill-fitting and roughly hammered half-plate with the more Greek styled helm having two large elk horns placed in sockets on either side of it. As he removed the helm I noted his large nose and crooked jaw in the opposite way that his shoulders were slightly tilted as well, with one higher than the other. Two stubs of tusks most trolls had were filled down to looking more like two huge teeth that he couldn‘t keep in his mouth. Preventing his mouth from being fully closed with those sticking out of his thick lips.

He had the gentlest eyes I‘d ever seen, just a tad larger on his face than they should be but had such a soft brown that I raised my eyebrows at the sight. He only chuckled a little and then looked down at the helm in his hands and I figured that was why he mostly wore it. His chin had a thick but short steel grey beard the same colour as his thickly braided hair tied in a small ponytail at the back contrasting a little with his more stone grey skin quite a bit. I‘d thought he was white haired before my eyes adjusted better at him.

I warned him that it would hurt and once he was ready I began. I had already running on fumes after the gate and the short while that it had taken the orcs to get through the gate and fed, had allowed me to gather a bit of mana from one of the mana crystals created by the first circle I‘d placed on the roof. I still hadn‘t touched the chi crystals but they took a lot more time to finish than the others. Mana and soul crystals were completed in two days giving me four of each and after I expanded the crystal a bit to change the chi crystals completion from two weeks to one week. The con to that was that it changed the mana and soul completion to three days as more mana and soul energy was required to fill all of them despite the amplification element of the circle. Other than beginning to stockpile the crystals I hadn‘t touched the chi ones, I was still focused on my mana arts and mana cultivation. I wasn‘t going to quit just because I found something better, this might be a lesser version of cultivation but I could use it to strengthen my own minions so why not explore it to it‘s nth degree.

As I watched Ar-Kaius struggle not to scream out loud with an almost detached sort of curiosity as he changed, I felt Seker come up behind me and stand at the side of the pedestal. When the change had finished Ar-Kaius wasn‘t as crooked as he‘d been instead he was looking a bit like a square jawed Andre the giant with a build like that of a Greek god or Hercules.

His gentle eyes now gave him the look of a gentle giant and he wondered as he stood and had to remove his armour due to it not fitting him properly at all now. He stood there wearing a tunic and pants of hide half stretched over his impressive form. He hadn’t grown any taller but rather aligned and filled out a little as his ribs had been a bit too tight around his chest. So his breath wasn’t slightly laboured now as before.

He began to weep as the constant pain that had plagued him through his life and the fact he could take in full breaths without any pain must have taken its toll on him. I gestured to Seker next to me and he handed me an antlered great helm with a V shaped visor so similar to Ar-Kaius’s old helm. “I took the liberty of recreating most of your gear so that not only will it always fit you perfectly but will also pass down your line from parent to child.” I said as I stood handing him the elegant great helm and as he took it into his hands it grew to fit his head perfectly once I had pricked one of the antlers on his finger.

I felt how his faith in me strengthened and I almost purred in delight, I also realized how easy it was for gods to loose sight of each and every individual worshipper. I had a little trouble keeping those that worshipped me separate from those I was connected to like my minions and Abhorash. The tethers all appeared almost similar to me. It was easier the closer I was looking at them but farther away and it began to get hazy without following the tether.

Another gesture and I was handed a large bardiche made of Obsidian steel with an engraving over the axe spear blade of the weapon. It depicted a ghostly man of the same proportions as Ar-Kaius in the armour I’d give to him holding the weapon with three rows of horsemen coming out from either side of him followed by shadowy wargs used as hunting dogs. The first two horsemen held spears with the following one on the right holding a hunting horn and his opposite held a large flail with the last two holding bows. All seven were mounted on armoured Drakes more akin to panthers than lizards with their more turtle shaped heads.

The entire engraving was a thin layer of an alloy of Obsidian steel and Glow steel that made it have this faint blue-green light that brought the woods engraved as the edges surrounding the centre figures to almost ethereal life. This was no simple weapon as it was also an experiment of mine to create a growth type weapon that would grow it’s enchantment to fit its user with use. I’d left the very basic of enchantments on it, however I had hidden some of the runes used for expanding a shield or blast of fire that focused on growth along with a few runes used in empathic and buff oriented spells that should make the weapon sense the needs of its owner. Which hopefully allowed it to grow with its user.

This enchantment was fuelled by a piece of the condensed soul gems the size of a fist that had been allowed to melt into the axe during its forging. There was a second enchantment that allowed the weapon to resize itself to fit the owner with a type of spatial magic. It had made it so that we’d had to forge two of these for one to be infused in the other for that enchantment to work since the mass had to go or come from somewhere after all. The armour we handed over to him was enchanted with the exact same two enchantments on it for a follow up experiment with growth type armour.

“I appoint you Ar-Kaius the Horned lord, master of the wild hunt.” I said as I handed the bardiche over to him followed by a short sword that could double as a skinning knife and an obsidian banded bow made of two bands of Elderwood and Iron wood. All his secondary weapons also held the two enchantments and all of them were limited by the soul stone’s size that went into forging the weapons and armour themselves.

I theorized that this set would become a powerhouse fit for an empires elite knights or even emperors in the future if I’d spared an entire fully condensed soul gem into them but I wanted to see if the weapon had a pro or a con first with this one being as complex as a novice enchanter could perform, before I started making these en masse. I still couldn’t forge my own personal weaponry just yet as I’d decided to see if I stopped growing at some point in my Elder form and just forge a resizing weapon fit for that form so that I could use it in either form.

Not to mention I wanted my personal weapons to be among my masterpieces of crafting. I’d already taken the blacksmith, artificer, alchemist and enchanter profession classes on and had begun dabbling in all of them both during my nights and days when I could sneak off down here. I'd realized why I enjoyed being a necromancer, I loved to make things.

I shook my head and dismissed my rambling thought towards Ar-Kaius who almost seemed chocked up as I bestowed my gifts onto him. “Ar-Kaius.” I started softly as I reached forwards to grip his shoulder reassuringly. “My gifts have a cost.” I started again and almost smiled at the sudden look of horror on his face. “Their gifts must be earned. You must prove yourself worthy of master of the wild hunt before you can recruit others into your hunting band. You will have to prove your mastery of each weapon and each aspect of the hunt as engraved upon your armour.” I said as I then gestured towards Seker who held up the suit of leather scale armour we’d created for him.

With a soft inner lining of cotton as the inner most layer with a chain and mail coat above that followed by another cotton layer before the Drake and those snake, salamander and turtle type creatures scales the green skins called Urgons used in the hunting armoured coat type armour we’d created.

Of course the helm wasn’t the only other part of the armour made out of the same material as the weapons. A breastplate that was plain along with gauntlets of plated drake leather with greaves and thigh plates made out of the Obsidian steel. All of which was of course enchanted with the same ones as the weapons. It granted him this rather grand hunts master type of armour while still conforming a bit to the style of the metal forged by green-skins usually just a tiny bit more refined.

“You will continually challenge yourself with bolder and bolder hunts but never do so when there isn’t a need for food. Begin with those that you usually hunted who’s gift you might wish to receive. Hunt one of these before you come back to me to see if the one you’ve hunted have granted you any of their blessings. You will name your weapons when a blessing manifests in them and the one that your helm takes for it’s blessing shall be made into your mantle. You will forge the warriors of the Zabrûm tribe as the wild hunt once you have earned your mantle.” I ordered and Ar-Kaius looked at me with firming eyes and accepted his new clothing's responsibility before moving over to one of the houses to change from his tight fitting clothing.

I then turned over and looked at the other leaders of the tribe waiting now almost giddily as if realizing I’d decided to bestow something along with my blessing. A responsibility to the tribe would be granted to them with my gifts and they were right. I’d chosen a task that would best suit their talents that I’d selected after spying on them for over three weeks of careful observations.

Ur-Edin the Butcher became a beefcake as so many of the green skins gravitated towards differing types of muscled barbarians with very few actually not corded with muscles or fit somehow. Mostly the cooks and those that cared for the young of the tribe or mended clothing or the like. Him I granted a similarly enchanted suit of light half-platemail of an Obsidian steel and Mythril blend along a knife, bladed mace that could turn to a flail with a flick of the handle and finally a kite shield. The perfect gear to make him a devastating force both in his duties of enforcing law and order but also in combat as a whole depending on how his armour grew. All the weapons and armour I’d give them would have those two as I wanted a stable sample size to see how this experiment ended up as.

“Ur-Edin your name of Butcher is stripped from you.” I commanded as I handed him the flail last of all. He looked up at me with wide eyes but then smiled when I continued. “You shall be known as the Lawspeaker. Temper your thirst for justice with tempered wisdom enough to see through any lie and compassion for those that need it.” I finished and he nodded to me as he walked to the side.

I watched Gûnd and Bûth for a few moments before I decided to call Gûnd forth first as I guessed I’d be tribe building as I’d intended. This might be a bit heavy handed as a first move but it would be for the best in the long run. I wasn’t really putting them into positions they didn’t already fill within the tribe in the first place.

Well, except maybe Bûth, poor young man had a desperate desire I intended to see if he did have as much talent for it as Ashes and Dust predicted he’d have.