The invention of consumption, conceived by the Dimir, is what has allowed our peoples to prosper to such an extent.

The essence of the world has allowed our strength to surpass our mortal limits, what exactly is this invention you ask? Well its rather simple in hindsight, the Dimir people simply studied the beasts.

They grow stronger over time as they age, taking in the worlds ambient essence, that is true, but it is when they fight, kill and consume, there would be victims that they see an explosive growth in strength.

For within all beasts, ourselves included, you will find the essence stone. A rather splendid stone, a shining emerald, green as fresh life, shimmering with the power of creation, paling with light as the essence strengthens. Many types of essence stone have been found over the centuries, all colours of the rainbow, all splendid in majesty, but green is the cornerstone of the world, the basic starting point of all lifeforms, it was the Dimir people that allowed us to change that, to break our shackles.

They invented rune’s, the crux of the Dimir peoples magic, to be carved into the essence stones themselves, the essence stones within us, and it worked, those glorious enchanters, these runesmiths, they did it.

It allowed us to partake in the consumption, as the beasts do, to grow in power, faster, stronger, more resilient, an increase in all basic functions, the magics of our peoples grew too, as all of our magic is formed and powered from our own essence, so that was a matter of course. That was not all though, as our essence grew, as the colour finally started to change from the emerald splendor, to approach a pale-yellow luster, precious Topaz, so too did our peoples, they started to change too. Talents appeared, strange talents, some wonderful and amazing, some terrible and powerful, all different, I even hear tales of a knight within the bulwark, who could create mirror images of himself, a dangerous talent indeed upon the battlefield.

Who knows what else could await us? how about when our essence stones reach the orange Carnelian stage? Well only our leaders have reached such a stage and they are not sharing, Still it leaves me wondering, how about the beasts in the world? What stage have the oldest reached?

Here is a terrible thought, what of the monsters in the deep? I hope we never find out the answer to that particular question.

Kazie Umbre 1st scholar of the Arcanium Consortium

Tree branches snapped and scattered, flung violently away from a fiercely charging group of men and women, all a bristle with weaponry, desperately in pursuit of a missing comrade.

Worry and anger plain to see upon their faces, a hulkingly armoured figure staunchly leading the way, his figure seemingly glowing with an unknown power, his metallic grey plate armour casting a strong green light to his surroundings.

They all felt it now, the corruption, the rot, they were getting closer to the source of it, Cerus gritted his teeth, he had promised not to lose another member of his troop, especially the ranger Lena, he had failed, again.

No! they would get her back goddammit! They would not leave her here in this hellhole, consigned to a fucked fate, she WILL be found! If he had to shove his axe into the monster that had taken her, handle, blade and all, then so be it.

A buzzing voice came from over Cerus’s shoulder, one of the mages releasing a quick spell, a bright yellow light shot into the air, hovering above the charging group like a miniature sun, following their mad dash through the dark skeletal forest, a simple light orb amongst the most novice of spells, but appropriate for shedding the veil on the arrived nightfall that blanketed their surroundings.

Cerus gave a grunt in thanks to the mage, it would alert any of the enemies they were pursuing, but they could not see in the dark, so they would have to take the risk, they were making a hell of a lot of noise as it is anyway.

The ambient essence of rot and decay in the area spiked dramatically as they noticed that the ground was becoming slightly rocky underfoot, a monolith of dark rock, unveiled under the illumination of the light orb above, loomed from the dark night, more a large hill of stone hidden under vast wooden guardians, mighty twisted black trees, gargantuan limbs spread in a dense network of bare branches hiding the hill beneath, lifeless grey stone peeking from under the roots.

Cerus immediately halted his men, they formed up into a battle formation once again, dead twigs and grey fungus crunching underfoot as they shifted positions. The mages instantly started chanting spells of fire and destruction, their staffs shining with a forbidding light from the stones attached to their heads, prepared to unleash at a moment’s notice, the heavily armed men encased in steel plate-mail swiftly pulling their kite shields into a semblance of a wall in front, protecting the mages behind, a small fortification of steel and muscle, sharp steel swords readied to slip through the gaps to puncture, slice and maim whatever broke upon them.

Cerus himself started twisting the pommel of his great battle-axe, wherein was set a small stone somewhat like the large versions the mages possessed upon their staffs, runes started to be revealed upon the shaft of the axe spreading toward the large double headed blade, as if a spell of concealment was being released, finally a small click was heard softly, and the blades of the axe started to let out a faint hum.

The essence stone of a hammerquake, a beast found far in the deserts of the east, which travelled and hunted within the dunes with deadly vibrations, to shatter and break the bones of unlucky victims unfortunate enough to fall prey to them, enchanted with Dimir spells and inlaid into the pommel of the great axe, it was a devastating weapon only granted to officers in the Valen army, grimacing slightly, Cerus hoped it was enough to face whatever was here.

Cerus started to concentrate and the green light that seemed to flow from him strengthened to cover all of his men, sweat broke out upon his face and under his plate armour.

Never easy doing this but well worth the trouble if it could save the life of one of my men, thought Cerus.

The men around gave thankful nods toward the Sargent, the special abilities from those who had achieved the topaz essence stage were never anything to sneer at, especially Cerus’s, as the men had found out in the past, it saving some of them more than once, the power of small wound mending and disease resistance was always welcomed.

Taking up the lead of the group Cerus led them with slow gaits and bated breath around the monolith in search of Lena, eyes ever probing for whatever lied in wait.

The essence was growing deeper again as they circled around, slight nausea felt by all as they were exposed to such a concentrated amount, through the shadow of the night they stalked, area aglow with the harsh light cast down by the miniature sun following them from above.

That is when they saw it, The Maw, that void, darker than the night that surrounded them, like a great stone creature with jaws agape, stalagmites for fangs hanging from the ceiling, nothing but impenetrable inky shadow dwelling within. This is the epicentre Cerus knew, he could FEEL it inside himself, a fear gnawing away at his heart, unease running down his spine, a whispered voice taunting his very mind.

The fear was palpable, the men behind Cerus squirming in discomfort, uneasily gazing into that abyss, it was here, a gateway to the deep, the worst-case scenario. Lena was lost, we failed.

Guilt and anger consumed Cerus, it had happened again, right under his eyes AGAIN. He swung to his men, addressing the mages at the very back.

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“Collapse this fucking hellhole, your strongest destruction spells” his harsh voice loaded with wrath, jabbing at the abyss with the battle-axe.

“Yes Sargent!” the mages responded, they took a small moment, recovered some composure as they let their last spells fade, they touched staves, the inlaid stones side by side and began to chant once again in unison, their voices melded, words blending together as the chant climbed in intensity, their orbs beginning to release a gold and brown shimmer into the air, finally their voices reached a crescendo, staffs suddenly pointed toward The Maw, an ear splitting boom resounded shaking the very bedrock beneath their feet, two large javelins seemingly made of brown light with interspaced golden cracks, two meters length each, rocketed from the glowing orbs, almost instantly impacting with the back of the cave, the light blinding, as the soldiers huddled behind their shields to save their vision. A second resounding boom sounded out, sucking at the very air, The Maw instantly crumbled in on itself as if a giant had dropped from the sky and had crushed it into nothing more that shattered rock and debris, the entire rocky hill and its giant guardians crushed along with it, Cerus was dazed, as the officer of the group he had to have some knowledge of what mages where capable of utilising, but he had no idea that the mages assigned to his troop were so powerful, no that’s not right, it’s not that they happened to be particularly powerful, it’s that they so familiar with one another that they could cast a spell that was beyond them individually, perks of being a long lived elf supposed Cerus, ample time to practice.

Searching keenly over the rubble left behind for any opening left to the deep Cerus finally left formation and sifted through the rubble while his men watched his back, tumbling rocks and shifting through the broken roots he could find nothing.

“Well there is no sign of an abyss gateway, we are lucky I suppose, nothing has come out besides whatever took Lena,” Sadness was painted in the eyes of the Sargent as he gazed at the rubble hoping for evidence of Lena’s survival, a sombre hope. Relieved sighs broke from behind his back as the men let go of clenched teeth and loosened stressed muscles taut with adrenaline.

They really did have to turn back to the bulwark, losing two rangers of his troop were a disaster commiserated Cerus mournfully, they were effectively blind now, the wolf they were supposed to of been hunting was of no consequence, he would have to make a full report to his superiors, a passage to the deep appearing was grave news, who knows how long it had been open for and what had come through, even if they did collapse this one another might appear. They couldn’t waste time, they had to return immediately.

Cerus turned to one of his men that had walked to his side observing the rubble.

“Take five minutes to rest, we must head back to the bul-” Cerus’s speech stalled as he finally glanced at the knight next to him, the mans visor was open, eyes wide in shock and fear as he glanced behind the Sargent, Cerus spun around, battle-axe coming to a guard position blocking the front in case of enemy attack, his own eyes behind his visor widening in shock.

It was a bloodbath, the mages were gone, in their place a mess of shredded meat and blood splattered across the desolate floor, staffs splintered and essence stones missing.

Shouts of distress and fear sounded from the men as they scrambled away, fleeing toward the Sargent in disarray.

Cerus’s own distressed face filled once again with wrath, muscles bulging under his plate mail, his eyes never stopped roving for the enemy, he finally unclenched his jaw as his own voice shouted above the shocked clamour of his men.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP! ENEMY ATTACK! FORMATION NOW! MOVE!” his voice sliced through their shock and their training kicked back in, their adrenaline running on high again as their own anger began to surface, their friends were dead, some fucking thing had eviscerated them, no way they wouldn’t pay for that in their own blood.

Cerus stood in front as his men formed a circle formation of shield and sword, battle-axe vibrating with power.

A sickening laugh reverberated through the night, as pitch blackness began to fall again with the waning of the orb of light in the sky after the death of the mages, illumination coming from Cerus alone now, as his power of regeneration faintly lit the darkness around him and his men.

Then Cerus saw it, watching in the darkness of the trees, behind them the whole time, a colossal shadow with two eyes of the blackest darkness, a cruel mirth and endless hunger seemed to shine from them. Its shadowed frame slowly stalked toward them, trees snapping like kindling under the grasp of this behemoth, as if not even obstacles to it.

“CONTACT!!” Cerus’s shout screamed into the night, his men saw the colossus stalking toward them, anger overriding their obvious fear helped them shift smoothly into an arrow like formation with Cerus at the centre front, two shield bearers at his shoulders to help cover him, the other three in a reverse triangle bracing against them from behind, a standard tactic again much larger opponents that the Valen military had devised for their troops.

The looming shadow finally breeched the perimeter of the luminance that Cerus’s regeneration power was giving off into the surroundings, the glow just enough to reveal the dreaded appearance of the monster.

Standing at five metres tall and a metre broad at the shoulders, a cloak of seemingly endless shadow flowing from its back, this was something that only the deep could produce. Two massive thighs wrapped in thick, jagged, plates of bone extended down to huge clawed feet, that cratered the ground with every heavy step, also wrapped in plate like black bone with jagged spikes, covering the full length of them, they would be devastating to even the thickest plates of steel, no groin was visible only smooth black bone covering the lack of that particular anatomy. The black plating continued up the front of its torso, segmented around the waist for ease of movement, covering its huge pectorals and continuing to its colossal shoulders, culminating in footlong spikes, its arms had rippling muscle as thick as Cerus himself was wide, encased in segmented black bone, huge talons affixed to the fingers on its right hand, its left arm also covered in segmented bone plating, but it had no normal forearm after the elbow, a terrifying heavy mass of dense bone replaced it, spiked and barbed across its entire length, a massive maul straight from a nightmare, all the cracks and joints across the length of its hulking form constantly oozed blood with every movement, leaving splatters of blood in its wake.

It was the head though, that almost made Cerus and his men break ranks and flee, a head fully covered in solid bone, segmenting down into smaller scales by the scalp ,where a mass of knotted and thick clumped long hair drenched in blood cascaded down into the shadows flowing from its back. Two great horns pierced the bone upon its temples, curving out and tapering into sharp points behind its head, two impossibly dark void fissures, abhorrent eyes, glared with insanity from deep inside the armoured face through slits, forever weeping blood.

The only opening was the mouth. A crack in the armour that suddenly opened as the nightmare released a heaven shaking roar, rows upon rows of teeth unsheathing, as its jaw impossibly lowered, revealing a meter-wide gaping maw that seemed to have no end within its depths.

The shadow like fog behind the nightmare flared out like wings unfolding, the tortured voices of many living creatures screaming and wailing into the night began, the faces of many animals appearing within the darkness, pleading for release, for mercy in no tongue the sentient races would ever understand.

A lone anguished voice reached the ears of Cerus and his men, a voice in so much pain, a screaming woman. Lena.

Something inside Cerus broke, he gave one order to his men, his tone surprisingly calm.

“All of you go, warn the bulwark something has invaded from the deep, warn them all, do your duty”. Cerus pushed his men away urging them to go, he took one last look at his men. He would not see them again.

He hoisted his axe threatening the monster, his calm veneer broken as rage consumed him;

“COME GET SOME YOU UGLY BITCH!!”.

The nightmare seemed to smile.

It could finally share the pain.