Imperial Expedition Planet Dirt Official Historical Log: 3
"Prior to the Emperor’s Ascenscion, His Imperial Majesty gave one clear order that we were to fall back on if we ever lost communication and needed an update to our priorities.
Burn it all down.”
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I am Sarkonius Pelotimous Vacenyth the 7th, Emperor of The Eternal Argomenium Empire, Hallowed Be His Name, Conqueror of Aquia, Blazer of the Fiery Path, Friend of the Northern Wastes Beast Horde, 13th Challenger of the Tower of Isi Smi, The Green Kissed, and I am exceptionally restless. There was nothing quite so dangerous in the empire as me when I am like this; I am the Paragon of my world after all. There are few who can even suggest to me that I walk anything less than the chosen path.
Logically, I understand that any moment now, the Universal-System will be introducing the most recent (and arguably the most important) addition to the System. But still, the wait and the anxiety that came with it were making me feel as though it was slowly killing me. It has been 6,400 System years since the Empire had last been granted access to one of the emerging System Genesis-class worlds, and this represented what might be our best shot at changing the inevitable death spiral we seemed to be locked into. For 29,000 years my ancestors had ruled and steadily grown until Sarkonius Pelotimous Vacenyth the 4th. Cursed be the 4th, a ruler who expanded too far and too fast, forgetting to consolidate and strrengthen the Empire's hold on new territories before venturing to the next.
During the reign of the 4th, we faced catastrophe. We lost. For the first time in a millennia, after endless and consistent flows of war, we crashed against the endless legions of the Silent Death. They were a monastic order that had risen to prominence in a different section of the Universe, but eventually, like the Eternal Argomenium empire, they had consumed everything else that was smaller. Before them, the Eternal Argomenium empire had been unstoppable.
It was the cannibalism. It’s not that ritual eating of the dead wasn’t practiced elsewhere throughout the System space, but the Silent Death didn’t just practice cannibalism, they were cannibals in every sense of the concept. Their laws had the need to consume not just the dead slain on the battlefield, but even living captives. Not even just captives. In their attempts to induce System-generated Titles and Skills, they had introduced requirements for the 1st born to kill 2nd born, and for third born to kill 1st born if the 1st born had failed to level up to a constantly changing societal average level. They despised weakness, and it was literally codified into every disgusting stanza of their legal system. It was this fixation on cannibalism that scared everyone who fought them. They just were not satisfied with eating the dead; no, these gross ghouls would capture a soldier and then proceed to feed on him for months, sometimes even years or decades if the soldier was a particularly hated enemy. They were a people who had mastered healing magic, and it was a novice level job to “maintain” the food supply. As a practical side effect for their empire’s military, this act of constantly practicing low and mid-range healing spells caused their armies to be able to take massive damage with limited attrition. They were absolutely abhorred by their foes because unless you caused fatal levels of damage to them, they would almost definitely return, stronger and even nastier. And when they returned, they would try and eat you all over again. Disgusting wannabe-ghouls.
I spat on the floor, cursing softly, my already anxious mood ruined by my persistent ruminations of the source of the decline of the Empire. Today was a day of celebration! I must focus on my good fortune! After 6,400 years of being snubbed and consistently pushed to the back of the queue by the Galactic council, they finally could deny me and my people no longer! An entire world of fresh species, fresh resources, fresh slaves! A new battleground for my elites to safely farm. New Dungeons. New monsters. My eyes narrowed in thought as I considered this new world that would soon be filled with old foes. A whole new world just for me.
If. If I could claim it. I have to remember that. The planet was not solely for me; I was just, ideally, the most powerful force that was going to be going to the planet to claim land. Ideally. With the right amount of momentum and the proper application of force, I would sweep over the planet in a wave, and it would become My planet. If I can claim it. I will do it. I have to. On my face, my lips curled in cold fury as I mentally reminded myself that I am the Seventh and this planet Will be Mine.
Momentum was the key. The Universal System encouraged inhabitants from new worlds by providing a plethora of world-specific Titles and Skills. These skills and titles were only available for members who had lived pre-System in that world. And even then, the access to these bonuses was locked into who achieved the feats first. The thing was, extensive records had proven that the System did not envelop a world simultaneously and instantaneously. I had best heard it described as the System oozing into the world from the weak points, areas where the firmament of reality had already been damaged by events that had previously happened upon a planet. Often, natural disasters of enormous magnitude, or places of great warfare, areas where magic had run unchecked, or even areas of particularly violent scientific tests that weakened the bonds of reality itself. After pooling near these weak points, the energy of the System would rush out into the surrounding areas, then from there, it would spread into the rest of the world. In some areas, there had been found to be areas of planets that were either resistant or highly susceptible to the energies of the System where implementation was either accelerated or delayed. However, by the time the system had fully spread out to a planet, it often already exhausted on the majority of the easily achievable titles, with the more complex Titles remaining unavailable until the right conditions arose.
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Because of the world-changing potential of the Title system, it was encouraged, vigorously and violently by Galactic Council mandate, that societies who were allowed to be in the early waves of a Planetary integration would pacify and remove all potential sources for Title-based problems and similar potential disruptions to the Galactic stability. In other words, by Galactic Council mandate, we are to crush and kill any sentient or sentient adjacent lifeforms we encountered. This way, the Council ensured that beings with Titles were few and far between, with Titled survivors having as much to fear from one another as they did from us. Because the thing about a Title, was that it can grow. Even the weaker Titles found within the initial spread of the System could become something wonderfully grand or truly horrific.
Grimly, I smiled darkly, my distaste for the powers that ran the Galactic Council causing my aura to flicker with a violent thrum of energy. My eyes tightened, irritated with myself for the loss of control within sight of my subordinates. Granted, they would likely witness any type of display of power from my aura as an indication of my strength and not for the embarrassing lack of proficiency that it actually was. I was relatively new to developing my aura powers. My subjects and enemies, the Galaxy at large, they all believed that I had been an auric prodigy, developing my powers around my second century of existence; however, the reality was far from this. The truth was…. Darker than I like to think of. Darker than I liked to remember. When I thought of it, I felt… felt like It might be getting stronger.
I had been only a little under two hundred years old, on my first planetary conquest for my father, the Emperor at the time, when I had encountered my first Title-holder outside of my family and my father’s Imperial Guard. The planet had supposedly been pacified for over thirty-seven years without any reported sightings of a Title-holder. It turned out, the reason why Title-holders were so rarely seen was that one of the planet’s Natives had been systematically hunting every last member of the dominant Native species on the planet. At the time, I hadn’t known about it, but the murderous Native was obsessed with gaining ever greater power, and having achieved a Title that provided some form of especially potent bonus when consuming the Title of another, the Native had gone blood-crazy in his search for power. It had all culminated in me driving my favorite set of punch-daggers into the Native’s chest. Normally that would be the end of it, but the Native had an Ability from its Title that allowed the Native’s soul to attach in a parasitic fashion.
Titles could offer such insane benefits. The Native’s Title had steadily gained strength from all the other titles, and amongst the benefits the Native had attained, one of them had allowed it to sever the connection between its body and its soul at the moment I was engaged in slaying it. I hadn’t known any of this. At the time, I was too engrossed in applying healing formations and slathering alchemical regents over my wounds to even think about protecting myself from a invasion into my very soul. It wasn’t until months later, when I found myself sleepwalking within my private study, that I realized there may be a problem. When it happened the third time, I summoned the Imperial Healer and…. Then I had to execute him because of what I learned. Not that I knew it exactly what it would entail at the time, but the Native had become my Dark Passenger.
It took…. It took a lot from me to come to an accord with my Dark Passenger, and it was a shaky one at best. To call it an agreement was too strong of a term, to be honest. At moments when it appeared as though I would die, my Dark Passenger would use abilities, usually auric in nature, in order to save my life. After over a thousand years, I mostly believe that is because It can’t survive without me. Over the years there have been a few incidents where It had cause to converse with me. Usually just inane nonsense and screams of rage that go on for… well… years. For anyone else, it would be a burden, but, I was an Emperor. I had an entire multi-world nation with which to supply me all the alchemical, technological, and magical protections I needed to lower the psychic screams of my Dark Passenger. Sometimes, I almost thought I had found the right combination to fully protect myself.
I never did. They always found a way through.
The problem was…. Sometimes my Dark Passenger acted out. Slew my subordinates. Interrupted meetings by brutally lashing auric whips of power through my subordinates, spraying viscera and leaving rent bodies in my presence. The worst part was that my Dark Passenger made me complicit; when It slew indiscriminately, in order to maintain the illusion of control and competency, it forced me to justify to any survivors that I acted with reason. While I am certain that I have done an excellent job in reassuring my subjects that I am a source of strength and grandeur, sometimes, I will admit privately that I see them looking at me with eyes that seem a little less respectful than they always are when I address them directly.
My mind is probably spending too much time thinking about my Dark Passenger because of how It seems to react to the early days of conquest on new worlds like this one. Usually, because my Empire was not given priority rights, I had to wait until a planet was basically already tamed and dominated before I and a small force were allowed to purchase access to it. How would my Dark Passenger react to a planet where we were in the initial wave of Integration? It should be fine. Regardless of how many of my subjects It kills, this time will be different. This time, I have access to my entire Empire, and it won’t matter who dies. All that matters is that I am going to burn everything in my way.
Everything.
I forced my firsts to unclench and I reached my senses out to the portal formation once more in order to check the stability of the developing connection.
Any minute now, everything will change.