Chương 491: BECMI Chapter 490 – From One Sleep to Another

Of course, Helos was perfectly happy to pursue me to have some children and start a bloodline, too, although his quickly-rising status among elves fair and dark meant he had no problems finding very willing consorts, either. And, eh, Catleya was interested, too.

"Children on my part are extremely optional right now. Perhaps after we've established a proper divine Realm, yes?" I rolled my eyes slightly. Not even a god could get me pregnant if I didn't want to be, and I didn't have a proper elven realm here to raise children in, either. Both Immortals just grinned. Of course their mortal families were alive and well on the Far Shore, and I still brought messages, letters, and updates along when I could.

If this succeeded, they just might be able to cross over and visit them, too!

"Well, lay out what we need to do, and how we can help," Emeril finally said seriously, and we got down to some more details on what needed to be done.

To Ancient Dragonsleep, Darkmoor +350 years… Cirru took her Dragonsleep in the Ring of Fire as she rose to the status of Elder among dragons. She was larger than any Blue dragon of her age, however, of a size with the Reds and Golds in mass. Such a Sleep could take years, but was aided by the intensity of the lightning storms above the Castle Doomrose, and the fact she could and would consume her own growing hoard to accelerate matters.

Duum stayed with her most of the time, with an Eternal Avatar playing Lady Gina always no more than a Word of Recall away, and Sims watching over her. None of the dragons of the Firelands dared to interrupt her Sleep and affect her power, knowing very well what I would do to those who tried. It was the same treatment as those barging into my throne room received, except I didn't bother to give them time to flee.

While Cirru was in Dragonsleep, the Throne Room itself was off-limits, and any matters that needed discussion were taken care of outside the chamber. I was normally off in the planes, breaking into the home realms of Immortals and planting Pyramids in inconvenient locations. I already knew the tactic worked, because there'd been absolutely no news of similar events happening on the Far Shore across the centuries.

Mortals who didn't raise a fuss or fight anything AND were magically concealed slid under their radar as doing nothing important, and we weren't there to really explore, definitely not to steal, and we avoided any fighting if at all possible. When we had to, we made them non-lethal so as to avoid any true ire from those concerned. Except on the Entropic planes.

We tended to wipe out anything and everything we could there as needed, because that's how they dealt with one another in their own internal politics and it was expected. Cirru awoke to Ancient, and our work continued.

To Venerable Dragonsleep, Darkmoor +550 years... Sythia launched its first attack on the Hillguard Fortress that had stood for centuries at the overland pass into Brightmoor, up past the headwaters of Father Myah. Confident in the backings of the Immortals and desiring to push back against the influence of the growing Empire of Brightmoor, they came in with their floating landbarges and arcane devices and floating chariots…

and were utterly obliterated, massacred so thoroughly it would be a hundred years before they dared do anything nearly so aggressive again. It was a cycle that would be repeated about once a century for the next thousand years, actually, as Pharaohs determined to check Brightmoor's expansions to the north and the south marched their armies to do battle… and failed utterly.

The lands that would one day be Siricil on the Far Shore were some of the contested lands, but Brightmoor turned out to be much better at claiming and developing new lands than the desert-dwellers, and not so reliant on the great fields of power radiating from Pyramids that took years and a great many resources to erect. The primary expansion was taking place cautiously in Leafmoor, the land that on this Shore where Warsherz sat on the Far Shore…

once, because the now-Duke Horn had very pointedly swept the Siricilan-born Duke Warsherz and his family from political power at the very inception of the Clash of Empires, meaning there was no sudden Siricilan reinforcements coming their way via family or wealth. That realm had a new name now: Kairokos, the Land of the Moment, or proper time, or new beginning, depending on how you wanted to interpret it.

The majority of the immigrant Siricilan population had been driven out of the former capital city of Banate (its original name returned to it) with about the same amount of love they'd shown the native Hellenics, and the former self-proclaimed Duke was now demoted and relegated to a single barony in the northeast of the country, trusted not with the border crossing to Siricil, only guarding the trade road to Federyn. If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

All of this was possible because of an odd swelling in population that had followed shortly after the slave revolt in Siricil, an infusion of manpower willing to chase off predatory Siricilans with fire and swords, and also happy to sit down and claim free lands of their own. Sir Horn's name and reputation as a rabid anti-slaver was well-known, and the incoming former slaves had been incredibly willing to Swear in under him and were thus organized with impressive speed. But that was on the Far Shore.

In the present, only barbaric tribes had been there to oppose Brightmoor's expansion south… a wariness balanced by what I knew would happen in the way of earthquakes and other natural disasters in the future, and so we had to be prepared for when Immortal shenanigans upset things around the Sea of Strife again. By upsetting, I meant shattering islands, sinking them, raising others, causing tsunamis and earthquakes, collapsing shorelines, and the like, devastating the coastal communities around that sea.

Still, it got Brightmoor to the Sea of Strife, and thus the beginning of their naval power as they also began to drive and erect a channel down from the Great Moor Lake to the sea for a direct path to the waters on the borders of the lands that hyn might come to colonize in the future. To the north, Brightmoor had slowly expanded into the mountains and their mineral resources, doing battle with the primitives that had moved there and sometimes came crawling out of the underdark.

They had also run into the first gnomes to be found on Nown, a new race with a gift for technology and fiercely proud of their hills. Thor had invited them to join his nation, and the gnomes, rather in awe of the technology the hammer-wielding giant commanded, had joined his Bright Empire and flourished under its protection, soon visible in all walks of life with the humans of the nation. In particular they became the guardians of underground places, a duty they took to with gusto.

Sythia's might and power waxed, delving into places that were growing increasingly morally suspect as their power also did, and so the first Entropics stole in to begin the downfall of the nation. Part of that was in the fact that for all its power, the defeats by Brightmoor had made the nation insular, conservative, and deluding themselves that they were the greatest nation on the world since we never invaded them in return.

The rest of the lands were all filled with savages, and there was no need to expand or share their enlightenment with the rest of the world. What few colonies they did set up often ran into catastrophic ends… some from upset local Immortals irritated that they were pissing on their own burgeoning realms, and some from the fact Sif was virulently against slavers, and plenty ready to cut down any colonies based around the slave trade, which many were.

Tribes and minor kingdoms were rising and falling with violence, Immortals were still passing bloody judgments, and only in Brightmoor were Immortals not pulling many shenanigans, although attempts to unleash plagues to ravage the population were distressingly common.

Those deeds also cost several Entropics their Avatars, earned them great hatred from the population, and when Orcus started to spread lycanthropy through the edges of the Bright Empire, the following hunt and retribution was so swift and ferocious it absolutely stunned the Immortal at the lethality of the resulting strife.

Brightmoor identified the Curses, how they were caused, how to fight lycanthropes, how to identify them, and spread that knowledge to all neighboring lands, and even overseas swiftly, aided by the Church of the Morning and its Priests. They could not stamp it out entirely, as the Entropics could just start it up again any time they wished, but the devastating impact of the Curses of the Beast never had the same effect they had on the Far Shore.

On the other hand, the noble werehawks survived the attempted purge from their evil counterparts, and werebears were allowed to dwell in their forests and live with their Curses, but not to spread them outside their family lines without Divine permission to do so.

To Wyrm Dragonsleep, Darkmoor +750 Years… Cirru heaved herself out of Dragonsleep slowly and reluctantly. Winds and lightning danced around her and the storm that had accompanied her dreams erupted even as it began to clear away, awesome strokes of thunder and lightning raging at the edges of the growing circle that wiped away the storm that had lasted for nearly a solid year over Castle Doomrose.

The constant rain hadn't made her any friends down below in Doomroot, but the adventurers spent most of their time indoors or underground, so nobody much cared, in the end. I had allowed some underground development, with the caveat that everyone who tried to tunnel into the Dungeon died rather badly, as did those who paid them, ordered them, or maybe even didn't stop the fools from doing so.

The Earth Elementals were not kind to them, and the point to stop at was clearly indicated below the ground as an all-encompassing layer of white stone not to pass. Cirru stood up, and Duum ambled over to begin the process of looking her over closely, remarking on the changes to her scales and patterns.

The white on her scales had grown more crystalline, the blue ranged from deep indigo in the thickest scales to pale azure on the more delicate ones, making her look more like someone was gazing into an evening sky, rather than just the blued heavens and clouds.

"Cirruluxul," I greeted her, having popped back here to make sure she was okay, as I did with all these major Dragonsleeps of hers… and to give her a once-every-two-centuries feast of her favorite foods, each time slightly expanded as she named new foods to add to the roll. There was enough food here to feed an army, the smells of it swirling about in a tantalizing aroma of scents and memories intertwined, and crackling drops of saliva began to spatter on the floor.

"Mistress," she bowed gravely, and I knew she had chosen once again to stay with me. She nuzzled Duum affectionately, who happily began to polish her scales with bloody-red bristles of arcane force undulating over her scales, making her tail switch in pleasure.

"Has ought happened while I was asleep?"

"Ignaxilliumvythiux has passed on. His time was coming, and he dared to challenge Pearl rather than wait quietly for death." He was the third great wyrm to have lived in the Ringlands and died, something of a testament to how long my kingdom had stood. Hatchlings from eggs born in these lands were now fully grown adults, some of them nearly to Ancient now and ready to become elders!