Category Archives: Anhilarya

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Metallurgy in Nightfall: Skysteel

In my previous entry I mentioned skysteel.  Perhaps you are, oh king, already aware of it, but since I believe that none of your own ancestral weapons weapons are forged of it (if I remember the latest intelligence our people have on your own kingdom), it may be worth a few lines to explain it.

Skysteel is so named because the ore from which it is forged falls, not surprisingly, from the sky in a blazing ball of fire.  I believe that the astronomers still argue about where it actually comes from–are they pieces of another world or simply fragments from rock from the Void left over from creation?  In any case, much of the stone in which the metal is encased is burned up by the fireball, leaving blobs of black and grayish metal.  I don’t know if it is the high temperatures in the fireball or if the metal is something else entirely, but weapons created from skysteel are unique.  They are far stronger and lighter than regular steel and, according to my sources, can take on much more of an enchantment.

Skysteel weapons are so rare because skysteel is so rare.  It is unusual to find more than a few pebbles at a time, and a handful can take years of travel to assemble.  The starsisters, though, seem the be able to now harvest it almost at will.  I don’t know if their mother, Hai’Lyn, sends it to them or if they have some way of attracting it, but since I have begun traveling under the Twilight (this trip started a fortnight ago) I have seen regular fireballs streaking across the stars, sometimes at a rate of several an hour.  From my window, I have seen two pass by in the distance since I sat down to pen this entry.

Always, their direction is the same:  I reckon them to be heading towards Anhilarya’s City of Hammerforge.  It should take no great amount of imagination to divine to what use she will put it–I fear that your armies will face the results of her labors someday.

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Metallurgy in Nightfall

As you consider, oh King, the best defenses against the expansion of Nightfall, you would do well to take into account their weapons and armor.  They are unlike anything I have seen in all my travels in Khumkato.  That is, of course, too large a topic for a single entry, but I can at least make a start.

For years now, the standard thinking has been that the armies of Nightfall march with crudely made weapons in hand.  We believed that the starsisters relied primarily on sheer numbers and the desperation of their oppressed people to overcome their enemies.  That led some of the kingdoms in other parts of the world to scoff and mock at how weak the Empire of the Sun must have become to fall before such foes.  Others, more charitable but only slightly more wise, allowed that their sorcery, particularly the Twilight, somehow made up for their lack of smithcraft.

I here and now dispute this all as nonsense.

Apparently, in the early period of Nightfall, some of these statements may have held true, but only in certain localities.  From the beginning, the starsisters brought with them a magical skill in metalcrafting unmatched in its depravity.  They equipped highly specialized shock troops with these arms, and used them with deadly efficiency, destroying key forces and positions that would otherwise have turned back their less potent hordes.

The trouble was that these weapons apparently could only be forged in very special circumstances within the deepest parts of the Twilight.  As the Twilight has expanded across the former Empire of the Sun, the locations and times have also increased in number.  I believe that they will soon have the opportunity to equip large formations with these weapons.

I am endeavoring to get a closer look at some of these items, but in general I can say that I believe them to be more brittle and less durable than the best steel of other nations, but the reason they are so is because they are imbued with incredible enchantments–I have heard of the Corruption’s Edge, the Poison Edge, and the Burning Edge to name only a few.  I understand that they can create armor that, when shattered by a hard enough blow to break it, melts into a shower of acid, sprayed outward.

I have heard of other weapons, forced with skysteel–the legendary metal that falls from the heavens–that can hold the most potent enchantment without losing their strength.  I understand that these weapons are forged personally by the seventh starsister, Anhilarya, herself.  While some smiths have done wonders with skysteel and others have managed some enchantments, their particular combination is a secret that Anhilarya has shared with no one–not even her sisters.  One of these weapons in the hands of a good warrior can be worth an entire legion of lesser men with lesser weapons.

I will pass along more information as I discover it.

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The Starsisters

The seven starsisters, under their mother Hai’lyn, are the ruling powers behind the nation of Nightfall and the center of the Cult of the Starsisters to which all are forced to pay homage.  They are incredibly powerful mystical beings that, according to the peasants’ legends, descended to our world of Khumkato from the outer darkness more than seven generations ago. They are said to be the living representations of the stars in the constellation of the serpent, where Hai’lyn allegedly resides.  While no one has ever seen their mother and some doubt her existence, the sisters are clearly very real and their strength grows steadily with the corruption they spread.  They are subduing this entire continent.

While I know that there are seven sisters, I have only been able to identify and locate five of them in the portions of Nightfall that are contained in the former Empire of the Sun.   (I would suggest that your majesty consider further expeditions to locate the remaining two.)  They are   Anhilisha, Anhilynya, Anhilerya, Anhilysha, and Anhilarya.   Apparently Hai’lyn likes to do things in groups and isn’t very creative with her naming.  Each of the starsisters will be treated to a separate entry in this compendium as I compile information on them.

From what I have been able to ascertain, the starsisters are not physical/corporeal in any real sense of the word.  They are very powerful spirits of some kind, and they possess the bodies of mortals to interact with and rule their physical realms here on Khumkato.  Their energies burn through the individual’s body, leaving behind a mindless husk that obeys their commands and seems to be able to manipulate the darkness of the twilight.  Thus the twilight is spread and maintained, even in places where the starsisters are not present.  I have seen one of Anhilisha’s ceremonies of transition.  It was…disturbing.

Each of the starsisters maintains control of a different section of Nightfall, living in a tower that burns with a brilliant white light at it’s peak.  Usually, the tower sits at the center of their ever-expanding district, and they sometimes have constructed newer abodes as the center of their twilight shifts and moves with time.  They are nearly always to be found in the darkest parts where the destruction of the corruption is at its worst.  Their cities all have grandiose, almost ceremonial, names such as the “City of Glorious Twilight,” the seat of Anhilisha’s district.  While marvels of engineering and planning at their center, the cities’ outer regions are dirty and chaotic.  They are universally dangerous places to be no matter where you happen to be inside them, and the mara haunt the grounds surrounding the towers.

The starsisters are very different from one another in terms of personality and style of rule, though they all share a love for cruelty, sadism, and murder.