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Regalia had not been a city steeped in Magic, not like the Altalar lands and the grand capital of Rië. As much as Magic was still present in the city, many of its inhabitants had never seen it. The city that sprawled most of the Imperial Isle was so large that in the outskirts or some of the racial quarters, very few people had actually seen anything demonic or magical, despite the many strange occurrences in the last few years. Today, just at the break of dawn, would be one such day where the city would be lashed by Magic in many quarters that had not experienced it before, but would also see the rise of proud organizations to defend the city from what seemed like a really sudden and odd appearance of Demon origins.
Perched on one of the roofs of the High Elven district, where-in not only Altalar but also Cielothar and Avanthar lived, a great Hellion beast sat perched on the tallest tower, balancing on a thin metal statuette of Estel that peaked the dome. It watched the streets below, the thick golden fur in its neck ruffling gently in the wind as the rising sun's light reflected off its red and golden eyes. A guardian hound to some, or a hound of doom and destruction to others, the events that were about to unfold on the city would draw many more questions that they bore answers for the strange summoning circles that had been appearing in select places of the city the night before.
Before long, before the sun had even half appeared on the horizon, across the street appeared a decrepit creature, a faceless creature, a creature with arms made of oozing green pus and slime which spoke in no mortal tongues. It was also before long, without any great warning or dialogue as a prelude, that these two creatures would start a battle that would endure for most of the day. The first to strike was the Faceless, using its slimy arms to lunge itself across the rooftops to reach the Hellion Beast, which readied with its large claws and canine muzzle to tear into the Demonic creature. Both of Demonic origin, this battle was guaranteed to be mighty.
Blows were exchanged by both sides. A wolf-like snarl followed by a bite in the shoulder, a swipe with razor sharp claws, followed by a slimey wrap around and a throw, a torrent of force and a crash. The two foes battles with each other at first, but included their surroundings before long. The loud noises and the toppling of stone tiles outside woke the first Altalar who took to the streets to see these creatures making battle on their roofs, and it was also here where the Demonic ooze would first use the strange summoning circles he had placed around the city. The nearby circle came to life, spewing forth blobs of green liquid that quickly solidified into ghastly shaped of molten clay warriors. They jumped on the hellion one by one, trying to crawl on its large back and punch and gash at its fur. As they fell one by one, their dismantled and dismembered bodies fell to the streets below, reforming, and attacking the citizenry.
Panic quickly rose in the streets below as the claymen started seizing onto the Elves in the streets, running back and forth for cover as the claymen continued to rain down on them. It was then that the Hellion beast cast a great summoning spell of his own, with white light spewing forth from his hands and ghastly torrents of white smoke filling the streets. These smoke streams would gather and give form to great ghostly apparitions of High Elven soldiers of the old Empire, clad in great silvercraft armor, windvane woven silk and topped by the grand eagle wing helmets of old. They were exactly the pictures of old Elven tomes and stories, lethal grace given ghostly shapes to defend their people and creator. These ghostly shapes of the Altalar drew their Nightsilver bows and glaives and brought battle on the claymen everywhere they went. In the Alaÿ street, a row of ghostly spearmen took up position, letting the fleeing living Elves past before unleashing volleys of ghostly arrows upon the claymen, taking them down by the dozens. Even on the roofs, ghostly apparitions of the Elves would appear, loosing arrows on the Demonic Ooze and other creatures that assailed the Great Hellion beast.
Elsewhere in the city, the great fire of the Divine Militia and the Holy Sepulchre lit up with its bright blue flame, a sign that unholy things were afoot in the city. Before long, the church bells around the city rang the morning, though not in a call for prayer, but in a call for holiness and protection as white smoke was sent from the guard towers in response. Legions of Imperial Url warriors, Divine Militia Inquisitors and Violet Order Guards marched out of the Imperial Palace, the Divine Militia HQ and the Red Citadel respectively to meet the would be invaders of the city. Their response would not come timely enough for the High Elven district, but they would soon join in this messy battle.
The Demonic Ooze and the Hellion meanwhile stumbled into the Yanar District, the claymen in the High Elven district slowly falling apart again and the ghostly Elves disappearing into thin white smoke as suddenly as they had appeared, even to the last second fighting with grim determination to slay the clay men and assault the Demonic Ooze from the rooftops. When the Hellion and the Demonic Ooze stumbled into the Yanar district, the Hellion was struck by a great torrent of vile putrid corrupted mess, causing him to crash with great speed into the Estel shrine, collapsing on top of him. The Demonic Ooze did not gloat in victory, as it knew the battle had yet to be won.
From beneath the rubble, the Hellion cast a spell on the vines to come to life to defend themselves and the garden in which they lay. A great beast of vines, twigs, branches and rock formed out of the soil to meet an equally gargantuan creature of slime origins that looked more like the putrid remains of bones buried deep in the soil sewn together by sewer rot. The two creatures that had been summoned to their lords made battle with one another in the background while their creators did so on the rooftops. The flowery vine beast sprang great traps of fiber and leaf, creating nets of protections to keep the Yanar safe who were terrified and hiding in their houses while the bone rot continued to charge around the quickly desiccating garden, attempting to swipe at both the Hellion on the roofs and the Evergrowth Golem in the streets.
Much like transitioning from the High Elven district to the Yanar district, the two battling raged into the Isldar community after their encounter in the Yanar area, a fight where the Ooze seemed to be getting the upper hand. It pummeled the great Hellion beast one and over just as the bone rot slew the vine creature in the Yanar district, weakened by the magic of its creator waning from the area. Before the bone rot could turn on the Yanar who were still seeking protection in the houses however, the first Sons of Piety and Crystal Maidens arrived under the lead of the Reverend of Torre Belesta who happened to be in the area with a small mission outpost. With selfless dedication, as the beast sped towards them with intentions to kill and maul, did they summon a great Unionist exorcism onto the creature, denying its magical presence and undoing its bindings until it fell into ruin before their feet.
In the Isldar district meanwhile, the Isldar were hiding in their houses also, but taking a more proactive stance to protecting their community that had suddenly been invaded by a titanic fight of two Demonic presences. Across the roofs and the streets beyond, the chorus of Isldar voices could be heard, singing and pleading to the protections of the cold mountains of Ellador and Frostwyrm to save them from the demon essences. It had appeared as if Frostwyrm had answered, for when the Chorus reached its highest, the Isldar received a vision of his great piercing blue eyes and frozen cold descended on the area. The Demonic Ooze suddenly found its gel and slime freezing in the cold, and the Hellion which was wrapped in thick golden fur, managed to resist the cold and break free from his entrappings. This terrain was hostile to the Demonic Ooze, and as such, it retreated to the Varran District, with the Hellion now in pursuit.
When the Hellion and the Ooze arrived, the Varran had already armed themselves and taken up defensive positions. At first they attempted to shoot arrow and fling rock at the ooze, but this appeared to be futile. If anything, the Ooze acknowledged their disruptive presence for the first time since starting the fight, and creating clay men of the green ooze specifically to clear out the Varran. A wild melee would follow quickly. It was also in that moment that the great Hellion cast another spell of summoning, creating a number of white ghostly apparitions of proud and tall standing Varran clad in armor. These Varran took up positions between the living Varran, creating unified lines of ancient Varran casting fire and thunder through their tubes of lightning, flanked by the living Varran with bow and arrow, casting down the clay men. The fight among the Varran streets continued for a good half an hour before this battle too spilled over into another street, the clay men eventually being defeated by the locals, who cheered, only to see the ghostly varran disappear in thin air again.
The fight between the two Demonic forces continued through various streets, some visited longer than others, before the great bells of the Cathedral rang and the Imperial Legions arrived. In the Kaiser Theomar Square, the two Demons made battle while Url Legionnaires formed up lines on the far end. The Ooze again recognized their approach and summoned great ogre-like beasts of ooze to get rid of their nuisance, the Hellion unable this time to cast a counter spell due to the increased fatigue of the fight. The Urls prepared the charge, donned their spiked helmets and charged in unison, the entire square and the surrounding houses trembling from symphony of clattering hooves and beastly growls. As horns met the Demonic summons, many Url were cast back, yet some were toppled and cut to pieces. The Url showed ferocity and strength in defence of their city, which was quickly supplemented by the arrival of the Imperial Dragon that descended from the sky, and with a landing, swooped strong clawed paws and tail at both the Great Hellion and the Ooze.
The Ooze cast vile magics in evil tongues while the Great Hellion beast spit magic back at it, though much of it turned into a three way struggle, as it wasn't quite clear yet if the Hellion beast was actually protecting Regalians or using them as a distraction while supplementing his own counter spells to defeat this creature. The Imperial Dragon thus fought with both of them, and the three way battle ensued on the square, where the space afforded by its size luckily kept damage limited to just the golden statue of Theomar that was crushed when the Hellion threw the Imperial Dragon into it. The battle raged on between the two as the Urls continued to fight a losing battle against the Slime Ogres, until the arrival of the Divine Militia and more Sons of Piety carrying great the Luminous artefacts of Unionism. They too marched in formation, Divine Militia in front of shield the men of cloth, led by the Reverends of the city to cast down the demonic ruin that had taken hold of the area. As they chanted the verses of Union, the magical bindings of the Ogres depleted, causing them to collapse and the Url to turn on the Great Hellion and the Ooze.
It was in this moment that the Hellion showed ambiguity at its best, casting a great spell of mind control on the Urls which caused them all to attack the Imperial Dragon instead. In a stroke of irony, the Imperial Dragon was now thus attacked by the Url Legions he had created, letting out a painful cry as the Urls started jumping onto its back and wings, hacking at them with their axes and horns. The Divine Militia and Sons of Piety tried to intervene by casting their rituals of Exorcism on the mind controlled Urls, but were unable to intervene until the Violet Order charged onto the field and managed to restrain the Urls with pure numbers, unfortunately not in time before the Dragon's wings were broken and it could no longer lift itself off the ground. The Imperial Legions were thus defeated, but the battle raged on.
The Ooze eventually made its way into the Allar District where the Allar, much like the Varran, had already armed themselves against the invaders, and pelted large quantities of chemical substances at their invaders. It was the Allar pelting Holy Water that would eventually prove too much for the Great Hellion, though seemed to not affect the Ooze in the slightest. The first Holy Water bulb did nothing, nor did the second or third, but by the twelfth, the Hellion suddenly transformed back into his Human Velheimer form, weakened and a lot smaller than the form of the Great Beast. The Ooze now definitely got the upper hand, the Hellion attempting to counter spell upon spell with his own, but his frailer growing body was giving out.
Finally, above the great bend in the river between the New District and Old Town, the Ooze managed to subdue the Hellion. Just as a contingent of Imperial Guard, Divine Militia, Violet Guards, Sons Piety and Reverends, as well as Citizen Militia arrived to cast the Demons out of the city, high up in the sky and on a torrent of ooze, did the Demonic Ooze impale the Hellion Demon. He was restrained so utterly that all would think that any normal Human's body would have disintegrated from the vile magics that had been blasted on it. The slime torrents that had been fighting above the Sihai District, making battle with ghostly apparitions of the Loong Dragons all disintegrated, and the ooze all seemed to ebb away from the city. Even the summoning circles themselves dried up all over the city, as the Demonic Ooze seized upon the Hellion Demon, and simply vanished from that pillar of disgust that stood in the middle of the river, the slime collapsing not too shortly afterwards and washing away in the river.
It was unclear what this event had actually meant. The battle had raged across numerous districts, some shorter than the others. Nearly a third of the city had been covered, and the clean up was a long and arduous process, a rare and unified effort of the Divine Militia and the Violet Order, as well as regular citizens and even Old Town Gangs using whatever rituals, Magics and Alchemy they had at their disposal to rid themselves of the Void Tainted clay and remains of ruins that the battle had caused. Few would know the further implications of what had transpired, or even to what extent the inhabitants of the city had actually influenced the battle as a whole.
It did however show a rare instance of so many organizations working together to fight a common foe, or rising up to take care of those in need when normally they were divided. Both Delmonte and Letoirneau guards aided in the defence of the Kaiser Square, healing agents of the Imperial Clinic dispensed security and care to the wounded non-Ailor, and Yanar healers helped ex-Black Guard despite their earlier history. When faced with a common threat, the city did seem to come together, though in the face of speculating the correct interpretation of today's events, they diverged again. Many called for an extermination of all Demonic things in the city, while others called for another occupation of Old Town, as if they had been responsible. It would seem that whatever story befell Regalia, the only one that would always ring true throughout history, was that Regalia always remained a city of a divided people, and those who would rise to the occasion to make whatever event unfolded before them to their advantage.
OOC:
Perched on one of the roofs of the High Elven district, where-in not only Altalar but also Cielothar and Avanthar lived, a great Hellion beast sat perched on the tallest tower, balancing on a thin metal statuette of Estel that peaked the dome. It watched the streets below, the thick golden fur in its neck ruffling gently in the wind as the rising sun's light reflected off its red and golden eyes. A guardian hound to some, or a hound of doom and destruction to others, the events that were about to unfold on the city would draw many more questions that they bore answers for the strange summoning circles that had been appearing in select places of the city the night before.
Before long, before the sun had even half appeared on the horizon, across the street appeared a decrepit creature, a faceless creature, a creature with arms made of oozing green pus and slime which spoke in no mortal tongues. It was also before long, without any great warning or dialogue as a prelude, that these two creatures would start a battle that would endure for most of the day. The first to strike was the Faceless, using its slimy arms to lunge itself across the rooftops to reach the Hellion Beast, which readied with its large claws and canine muzzle to tear into the Demonic creature. Both of Demonic origin, this battle was guaranteed to be mighty.
Blows were exchanged by both sides. A wolf-like snarl followed by a bite in the shoulder, a swipe with razor sharp claws, followed by a slimey wrap around and a throw, a torrent of force and a crash. The two foes battles with each other at first, but included their surroundings before long. The loud noises and the toppling of stone tiles outside woke the first Altalar who took to the streets to see these creatures making battle on their roofs, and it was also here where the Demonic ooze would first use the strange summoning circles he had placed around the city. The nearby circle came to life, spewing forth blobs of green liquid that quickly solidified into ghastly shaped of molten clay warriors. They jumped on the hellion one by one, trying to crawl on its large back and punch and gash at its fur. As they fell one by one, their dismantled and dismembered bodies fell to the streets below, reforming, and attacking the citizenry.
Panic quickly rose in the streets below as the claymen started seizing onto the Elves in the streets, running back and forth for cover as the claymen continued to rain down on them. It was then that the Hellion beast cast a great summoning spell of his own, with white light spewing forth from his hands and ghastly torrents of white smoke filling the streets. These smoke streams would gather and give form to great ghostly apparitions of High Elven soldiers of the old Empire, clad in great silvercraft armor, windvane woven silk and topped by the grand eagle wing helmets of old. They were exactly the pictures of old Elven tomes and stories, lethal grace given ghostly shapes to defend their people and creator. These ghostly shapes of the Altalar drew their Nightsilver bows and glaives and brought battle on the claymen everywhere they went. In the Alaÿ street, a row of ghostly spearmen took up position, letting the fleeing living Elves past before unleashing volleys of ghostly arrows upon the claymen, taking them down by the dozens. Even on the roofs, ghostly apparitions of the Elves would appear, loosing arrows on the Demonic Ooze and other creatures that assailed the Great Hellion beast.
Elsewhere in the city, the great fire of the Divine Militia and the Holy Sepulchre lit up with its bright blue flame, a sign that unholy things were afoot in the city. Before long, the church bells around the city rang the morning, though not in a call for prayer, but in a call for holiness and protection as white smoke was sent from the guard towers in response. Legions of Imperial Url warriors, Divine Militia Inquisitors and Violet Order Guards marched out of the Imperial Palace, the Divine Militia HQ and the Red Citadel respectively to meet the would be invaders of the city. Their response would not come timely enough for the High Elven district, but they would soon join in this messy battle.
The Demonic Ooze and the Hellion meanwhile stumbled into the Yanar District, the claymen in the High Elven district slowly falling apart again and the ghostly Elves disappearing into thin white smoke as suddenly as they had appeared, even to the last second fighting with grim determination to slay the clay men and assault the Demonic Ooze from the rooftops. When the Hellion and the Demonic Ooze stumbled into the Yanar district, the Hellion was struck by a great torrent of vile putrid corrupted mess, causing him to crash with great speed into the Estel shrine, collapsing on top of him. The Demonic Ooze did not gloat in victory, as it knew the battle had yet to be won.
From beneath the rubble, the Hellion cast a spell on the vines to come to life to defend themselves and the garden in which they lay. A great beast of vines, twigs, branches and rock formed out of the soil to meet an equally gargantuan creature of slime origins that looked more like the putrid remains of bones buried deep in the soil sewn together by sewer rot. The two creatures that had been summoned to their lords made battle with one another in the background while their creators did so on the rooftops. The flowery vine beast sprang great traps of fiber and leaf, creating nets of protections to keep the Yanar safe who were terrified and hiding in their houses while the bone rot continued to charge around the quickly desiccating garden, attempting to swipe at both the Hellion on the roofs and the Evergrowth Golem in the streets.
Much like transitioning from the High Elven district to the Yanar district, the two battling raged into the Isldar community after their encounter in the Yanar area, a fight where the Ooze seemed to be getting the upper hand. It pummeled the great Hellion beast one and over just as the bone rot slew the vine creature in the Yanar district, weakened by the magic of its creator waning from the area. Before the bone rot could turn on the Yanar who were still seeking protection in the houses however, the first Sons of Piety and Crystal Maidens arrived under the lead of the Reverend of Torre Belesta who happened to be in the area with a small mission outpost. With selfless dedication, as the beast sped towards them with intentions to kill and maul, did they summon a great Unionist exorcism onto the creature, denying its magical presence and undoing its bindings until it fell into ruin before their feet.
In the Isldar district meanwhile, the Isldar were hiding in their houses also, but taking a more proactive stance to protecting their community that had suddenly been invaded by a titanic fight of two Demonic presences. Across the roofs and the streets beyond, the chorus of Isldar voices could be heard, singing and pleading to the protections of the cold mountains of Ellador and Frostwyrm to save them from the demon essences. It had appeared as if Frostwyrm had answered, for when the Chorus reached its highest, the Isldar received a vision of his great piercing blue eyes and frozen cold descended on the area. The Demonic Ooze suddenly found its gel and slime freezing in the cold, and the Hellion which was wrapped in thick golden fur, managed to resist the cold and break free from his entrappings. This terrain was hostile to the Demonic Ooze, and as such, it retreated to the Varran District, with the Hellion now in pursuit.
When the Hellion and the Ooze arrived, the Varran had already armed themselves and taken up defensive positions. At first they attempted to shoot arrow and fling rock at the ooze, but this appeared to be futile. If anything, the Ooze acknowledged their disruptive presence for the first time since starting the fight, and creating clay men of the green ooze specifically to clear out the Varran. A wild melee would follow quickly. It was also in that moment that the great Hellion cast another spell of summoning, creating a number of white ghostly apparitions of proud and tall standing Varran clad in armor. These Varran took up positions between the living Varran, creating unified lines of ancient Varran casting fire and thunder through their tubes of lightning, flanked by the living Varran with bow and arrow, casting down the clay men. The fight among the Varran streets continued for a good half an hour before this battle too spilled over into another street, the clay men eventually being defeated by the locals, who cheered, only to see the ghostly varran disappear in thin air again.
The fight between the two Demonic forces continued through various streets, some visited longer than others, before the great bells of the Cathedral rang and the Imperial Legions arrived. In the Kaiser Theomar Square, the two Demons made battle while Url Legionnaires formed up lines on the far end. The Ooze again recognized their approach and summoned great ogre-like beasts of ooze to get rid of their nuisance, the Hellion unable this time to cast a counter spell due to the increased fatigue of the fight. The Urls prepared the charge, donned their spiked helmets and charged in unison, the entire square and the surrounding houses trembling from symphony of clattering hooves and beastly growls. As horns met the Demonic summons, many Url were cast back, yet some were toppled and cut to pieces. The Url showed ferocity and strength in defence of their city, which was quickly supplemented by the arrival of the Imperial Dragon that descended from the sky, and with a landing, swooped strong clawed paws and tail at both the Great Hellion and the Ooze.
The Ooze cast vile magics in evil tongues while the Great Hellion beast spit magic back at it, though much of it turned into a three way struggle, as it wasn't quite clear yet if the Hellion beast was actually protecting Regalians or using them as a distraction while supplementing his own counter spells to defeat this creature. The Imperial Dragon thus fought with both of them, and the three way battle ensued on the square, where the space afforded by its size luckily kept damage limited to just the golden statue of Theomar that was crushed when the Hellion threw the Imperial Dragon into it. The battle raged on between the two as the Urls continued to fight a losing battle against the Slime Ogres, until the arrival of the Divine Militia and more Sons of Piety carrying great the Luminous artefacts of Unionism. They too marched in formation, Divine Militia in front of shield the men of cloth, led by the Reverends of the city to cast down the demonic ruin that had taken hold of the area. As they chanted the verses of Union, the magical bindings of the Ogres depleted, causing them to collapse and the Url to turn on the Great Hellion and the Ooze.
It was in this moment that the Hellion showed ambiguity at its best, casting a great spell of mind control on the Urls which caused them all to attack the Imperial Dragon instead. In a stroke of irony, the Imperial Dragon was now thus attacked by the Url Legions he had created, letting out a painful cry as the Urls started jumping onto its back and wings, hacking at them with their axes and horns. The Divine Militia and Sons of Piety tried to intervene by casting their rituals of Exorcism on the mind controlled Urls, but were unable to intervene until the Violet Order charged onto the field and managed to restrain the Urls with pure numbers, unfortunately not in time before the Dragon's wings were broken and it could no longer lift itself off the ground. The Imperial Legions were thus defeated, but the battle raged on.
The Ooze eventually made its way into the Allar District where the Allar, much like the Varran, had already armed themselves against the invaders, and pelted large quantities of chemical substances at their invaders. It was the Allar pelting Holy Water that would eventually prove too much for the Great Hellion, though seemed to not affect the Ooze in the slightest. The first Holy Water bulb did nothing, nor did the second or third, but by the twelfth, the Hellion suddenly transformed back into his Human Velheimer form, weakened and a lot smaller than the form of the Great Beast. The Ooze now definitely got the upper hand, the Hellion attempting to counter spell upon spell with his own, but his frailer growing body was giving out.
Finally, above the great bend in the river between the New District and Old Town, the Ooze managed to subdue the Hellion. Just as a contingent of Imperial Guard, Divine Militia, Violet Guards, Sons Piety and Reverends, as well as Citizen Militia arrived to cast the Demons out of the city, high up in the sky and on a torrent of ooze, did the Demonic Ooze impale the Hellion Demon. He was restrained so utterly that all would think that any normal Human's body would have disintegrated from the vile magics that had been blasted on it. The slime torrents that had been fighting above the Sihai District, making battle with ghostly apparitions of the Loong Dragons all disintegrated, and the ooze all seemed to ebb away from the city. Even the summoning circles themselves dried up all over the city, as the Demonic Ooze seized upon the Hellion Demon, and simply vanished from that pillar of disgust that stood in the middle of the river, the slime collapsing not too shortly afterwards and washing away in the river.
It was unclear what this event had actually meant. The battle had raged across numerous districts, some shorter than the others. Nearly a third of the city had been covered, and the clean up was a long and arduous process, a rare and unified effort of the Divine Militia and the Violet Order, as well as regular citizens and even Old Town Gangs using whatever rituals, Magics and Alchemy they had at their disposal to rid themselves of the Void Tainted clay and remains of ruins that the battle had caused. Few would know the further implications of what had transpired, or even to what extent the inhabitants of the city had actually influenced the battle as a whole.
It did however show a rare instance of so many organizations working together to fight a common foe, or rising up to take care of those in need when normally they were divided. Both Delmonte and Letoirneau guards aided in the defence of the Kaiser Square, healing agents of the Imperial Clinic dispensed security and care to the wounded non-Ailor, and Yanar healers helped ex-Black Guard despite their earlier history. When faced with a common threat, the city did seem to come together, though in the face of speculating the correct interpretation of today's events, they diverged again. Many called for an extermination of all Demonic things in the city, while others called for another occupation of Old Town, as if they had been responsible. It would seem that whatever story befell Regalia, the only one that would always ring true throughout history, was that Regalia always remained a city of a divided people, and those who would rise to the occasion to make whatever event unfolded before them to their advantage.
OOC:
- All this information is public, and you may post a roleplay reply or testimony on this thread to your character's involvement.
- You may have been a Guard involved in subduing the Url. You may also have been a Reverend leading the Sons of Piety, or a Divine Militia person, or a Citizen Militia, or practically any person who bore witness and played a part in this progression. As long as you write it on this thread it will become canon.
- You may have been anyone watching the final scene, or any of the race specific people if you had a reason to be in their districts.