A necromancer must first and foremost view death as not an absolute, but potential. Our power and might come from our welding of those who've left this world, and as such anything that was once living bears the ability to become our power.
- Guide to Necromancy (Lost) Author unknown, Written in the mostly lost second age.
Do you remember the western shore
Where the world gave a curse we bore
I remember a beast as white as snow
With eyes far crueler than a crow
I remember that western shore
Where Axus Dur began his chore
I remember the river of Gullood
It ran red the color of Blood
I remember those wretched days
Of which the dead made such grand plays
Do you remember those twisted blights
That made many a good man not to go swiftly into the good nights
- The Bard Opries, on the Black War of the West
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This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The skeletons gaze upon the slowly moving celestial bodies, was unceasing. Days had passed since its landing, and slowly life returned to the mountain. Due to it not being raised by a necromancer, the skeleton bore no aura of death, and as such birds began to perch on the motionless white bones like they would to tree branches. Squirrels and other creatures came, sniffed around, and left without a care.
However, it was on the seventh day that another external factor exerted itself upon the skeleton in the form of a beast. The creature would one day be named a 'Mitocrasis' by the explorers currently climbing the mountainside in fact. It looked like a hybrid mess of a Bald Eagle, Black Panther, King Cobra and African Rhinoceros. It walked on four powerful yet lean legs. Covering the chimera class monstrosity was scales and fur as black as night. Cold, unfeeling golden eyes penetrated all it gazed upon. It was silent with no wasted movements. Which was odd for a creature that was large in not only size but also in the size of its round stomach. The six black wings, that at first glance one assumed couldn't lift up such a massive creature, laid upon its sides and back with the occasional twitch as if aching to be spread out in the heavens above. Two long sleek fangs protruded from its chubby mouth, oddly in harmony with the two thick stubby horns on its thin sleek nose. The small tail of creature swayed from side to side, seemingly with its mind of its own. To an idle observer, it would seem like the tail was tasting the air, hunting for the unseen and well hidden potential threats.
However it should be known that no threat existed on this mountain for it to even consider. Even with the explorers from the human realms, it was the king of this mountain. Nothing for miles could hold a candle to it, including fellow specimen. The average life for a Mitocrasis was a measly 70 years, which for a chimera class was undoubtedly low. Yet this specific one had lived nearly quadruple that. There sat no exact reason why, it simply just hadn't died. Of course it very much helped its species was the type that would simply keel over, and as such even until the moment it died, it would bear its absolute potential, never fearing itself to weaken.
It was on this day that such a creature came out curiosity to location of what made it feel fear for the first time in a rather long age. The Mitocrasis peered over the edge of the crater, immediately causing the other creatures, that too came to sate their natural curiosity, fled. However the skeleton still lacked any sense of life, danger or anything else. Thus it continued to stare upon the rising sun of the eighth day.