Category Archives: Uncategorized

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The Starchildren

As I believe I have discussed elsewhere, the starsisters are powerful demons. As such they do not exist in what we would regard as corporeal form. They need an anchor to remain long in the world of Khumkato–and that anchor is usually one of the starchildren.

What is a starchild?  Usually they are raised from birth to serve as host to one of the sisters. Most of the starsisters effectively operate breeding programs in which they maintain hundreds of slaves. These slaves are paired off in the hopes of producing offspring that will exhibit certain characteristics. For example, Anhilisha values beauty above all else, while Anhilarya puts much stock in physical strength. When a girl is chosen, she is placed in a very specialize grooming program. In particular, they are fed a very specific diet of unique herbs that is supposed to slow down the damage inflicted upon their bodies while they are inhabited by the sisters. It is apparently an unpleasant process to leave one host for another, and so the sisters would prefer to keep a host as alive as possible, for as long as possible.

While this is the normal method, the sisters sometimes will choose girls from the general population, if it strikes their fancy. This has led to various noble families–and even some peasant ones–to bring their daughters forward as sacrifice in the hopes they might be chosen. If they are, the family often benefits by the association. Of course the child suffers a hellish existence while her mind is slowly extinguished and her body is eaten up painfully from the inside out. Therefore, while it would seem to grant the family some “advantage”, in fact they murder a very large piece of their soul in order to gain it. I have met some of these people, and I can say that the spiritual scars run deep and are still evident even generations afterward. But then again, anyone willing to doom their own child to such a fate is already so far beyond moral reason that I doubt they even realize what they’ve done.

Hmph.  And bear in mind this is from the perspective of a professional assassin. May the gods have mercy on those girls.

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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 Mara

My lord, I realized that in my previous entry, I referenced the “mara,” as if you should know about them already.  I see from my notes that I began an entry on them earlier, but I scratched it out and never finished it.  They are certainly not a pleasant subject to discuss, in any company, but perhaps it is time to at least broach the subject.  I doubt, though, that one entry will be enough to really describe these vile, unnatural creatures.

The mara are a sort of nightdemon that reside and breed in the deepest parts of the Twilight.  They tend to congregate in the highest concentrations around the spires at the center of the starsisters’ larger cities, though they can also be found lurking in force near the smaller towers that spread the Twilight in the outlying areas.  There are mixed stories regarding their origins.  Some say that they are the spirits of the dead who have opposed the starsisters, bound into earthly form as punishment.  Some say they are the shades of the evil ancestors who first betrayed the Empire of the Sun to the starsisters.  Still others say that they were brought into the world of Khumkato by the sisters when they pierced the veil of the heavens.  I of course have no way of knowing, but I suspect that some variation of the last is the true tale.  I have seen the mara with my own eyes, and I find it hard to believe that they belong here, even in the deepest crevices.  Khumkato can be a dark place, but the mara are darker still.

How to describe the mara?  They are shadow, formless and yet with shape; they are there and yet they are not there.  They have a limited ability to touch someone in our plane of existence, but they cannot hold complicated forms for long.  Thankfully I have never caught the attention of these foulest of  beings, but I spoken to those who have.  The mara slip in and out of your field of vision, even as you look directly at them.  It is said that as you focus on one, you suddenly realize that it is no longer there, only to feel its death-like touch caressing your throat and smelling its revolting breath as it whispers madness into your ear.  When you turn, it melts away only to come at you from some other, unexpected angle.  Its voice, I hear, echos through your mind and into your very soul.  A phrase, though spoken softly, reverberates through you, leaving the impression that certain words–usually the most horrible–are repeated again and again in a cacophony of jarring dissonance.

Perhaps it is their hunger that I find most revolting.  The mara feed off of light and life, both intangibles, but they desperately desire them in corporeal form.  All they need do is drink of a victim’s soul and mind, leaving behind a withered, shrunken husk.  But that is not enough for them.  They try to physically devour their prey, especially the remnants of the human sacrifices the starsisters regularly demand (perhaps it is a boon for their continued service).  However, since they have no settled physical form and certainly no digestive system, all they usually succeed in doing to tearing the poor soul to pieces, and smearing the remnants around until it is a bloody mess of pulpy gore.  I am sorry to say I have seen this happen to on two occasions.  I do not care to see a third.

That is enough on the mara for now, I think.  I would like to have enough stomach left to eat again before I sleep.

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The Twilight of Nightfall

The Twilight:  It is a topic that I will need to revisit several times before I can even begin to do it justice.  I don’t know that I can ever really succeed.  The Twilight of  Nightfall is like nothing the world of Khumkato has ever seen.  It defies all natural law.  It is intangible, overpowering, sinister, and unstoppable.  And I do not impress easily.

The Twilight is some form of perpetual, creeping night that devours all natural light with which it comes into contact.  It seems to be centered on the towers that the starsisters create in the various parts of Nightfall, most strongly around the towers the sisters themselves occupy.  I would try to say that the towers “generate” the Twilight, but how do you create nothingness?  It is as if there is a massive hole pierced through the daylight, revealing the perpetual nighttime of the darkspace beyond.  In the locations where it is “thickest” (I must find a better word for it) it is just as if you were walking through a cold moonless night, staring up through the murky blackness toward strange constellations, even if you know that only a few miles away, it is a completely warm and sunny day.

Traveling into any one of the cities is an unnerving prospect as one passes through the edges of the Twilight into its heart.  The sky seems to “set” as it would during a normal night, no matter what time of day it is.  The idea of “geographical” night takes some work to adjust to.  If one approaches at night, one can pass entirely inside its borders without ever realizing there was a transition.  

The Twilight is at times beautiful and is always mysterious.  There is something comforting in it–at the beginning at least–the feeling of absolute solitude, privacy, and protection.  Therein lies its greatest danger.  The Twilight is also patient.  It corrupts its victims slowly, so slowly that most do not even know that they are changing.  Animals are warped into disfigured shadows of their former selves.  The only plants that seem to thrive are kinds of moss and lichen alien to Khumkato, some of which grow to be the size of large trees and reproduce at an alarming rate.  The people, too, gradually fade from their normal honey brown skin tone to a pale, sickly white.  Left untreated, their bodies become hunched, lean, and used up.  They come to hate the sun and believe it to be deadly to them.  Their diet changes from healthy foods to the mosses and lichens, and some have even been know to resort to cannibalism.

Only regular participation in the rituals of the Cult of the Starsisters seems to affect the transformation, allowing the people living in the Twilight to maintain a semblance of humanity–those who display the most radical devotion to the sisters seem to suffer the least.

I do not  know whether starsisters are the cause of Twilight or if they simply feed off of it.  Perhaps it is both.  They are extending it, however.  As they use up one husk body after another, they push the boundaries of the Twilight farther and farther by ensconcing husks in smaller towers on the borders of their realm.  More than half the continent now lies in the perpetual darkness of Nightfall, while the starsisters exploit the rest to supply food for the large portions of the population (and their thrall armies) that still depend on human food.  This is a slow way to conquer a world, but the Twilight is irresistible, and immortals can afford to be patient.

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Niun

A “niun” is a large, very ugly cow-like creature that serves as a beast of burden.  It has short tusks instead of horns, and is capable of intense bursts of energy.  Most are docile, but I have also seen them become quite formidable when provoked–they can stick those tusks in all sorts of inconvenient places.  A niun appears to be something between the ox and the boar of your land.