[Blog] The Burrower Wars Part III: Life of Keres

[Havard]

As the Burrower Wars raged on, Keres would often think back to the events of his life having lead up to this point. While Keres was human, his true parentage was unknown. As a young child, he was discovered by a tribe of Brute-Men, the Qullan who raised him as their own. Perhaps it was growing up with the Qullan that made him feel different. He felt even more like a stranger among other tribes, the powerful Garls, the dangerous Fey or the Human Tribes.

Instead explored the mysteries of the Shamans. The Qullan had always regarded Keres as a holy child. As he grew older he began wandering into the Great Glaciers. This is where he found the weapon. The Carnifex Scythe. This artifact from the Cthonian Age was where he first encountered real power. And from that point on, he knew that he wanted more.

Looking back at his life, his biggest achievement was climbing the mountain top to the Throne of the Gods. From that point on it was easy. Tricking the God, Temrin, back to his lair and killing him with the Carnifex weapon. He drew power from Temrin's blood, which he drank. Also, he kept the god's still glowing heart in a medallion around his neck.

Using these two sources of power, Keres could summon the Burrowers, in order to destroy the world. From this destruction he hoped to drain infinite power. But there was something wrong in his memories. A person appeared now and then. A human. He wondered if this human had actually been there, but the face appeared him the memories of Keres in many stages of his life. Who was he though? This mysterious figure.

Keres had been wondering about this Mystery Figure for a while now. Would he see him again? Unfortunately, the next time the Figure appeared, it would be too late for Keres to do anything about it. "You!" he said, as the Figure appeared in front of him.

"Who are you, thief?" Keres asked, noticing that the Figure held the Temrin Medallion in his hand. But the mysterious man simply vanished in thing air. With a grim smile on his face.

Instantly, Keres felt the mind-link to the Burrowers disappear. That day, his armies began to fail. Months later, all was lost.

***

The mysterious figure returned to his own time. Khoronus, General of the armies of King Robert of Geneva had climbed the mountain to the Throne of Gods centuries after Keres. The Throne olds the secrets to Time Travel, allowing Khoronus to thwart Keres' plans. With Keres explosed, the Gods intervened.

Some believe that Khoronus placed the Heart of Temrin near the Bramwald Forest, where was later constructed the Bramford Abbey, whose monks claim it still resides there today. Then he left the world. A new God of Time had been born. But it is said that he left behind a means to travel through time, so that others could explore such mysteries in later centuries.

Full article: http://blackmoormystara.blogspot.no/201 ... t-iii.html


-Havard

[Yaztromo]

Hehehe... you forgot to leave a hint about where the Carnifex Sythe may be now... :wink:
After all, it would be "just" a weapon fit for murdering an immortal... why Keres didn't use it a second time against anothe god? :mrgreen:


BTW, do you give an explicit, active role to Thanatos in your version of the history or is it something that you leave to speculation?

[Havard]

Hehehe... you forgot to leave a hint about where the Carnifex Sythe may be now... :wink:
After all, it would be "just" a weapon fit for murdering an immortal... why Keres didn't use it a second time against anothe god? :mrgreen:

Thanks for keeping those comments coming! I hope this part didnt feel too anti-climatic

As to why Keres didn't use the Carnifex Scythe against Khoronus, I figure he simply lost the initiative roll. Khoronus was able to Time Travel away before Keres could attack him. BTW, I don't think Khoronus would be an immortal yet at this time. Retrieving the Heart of Temrin was part of his Quest.

Where the Carnifex Scythe is now is a good question. Finding it would be a great adventure opportunity. Perhaps as you suggested elsewhere, there could indeed be a Tower of Keres somewhere still after these thousands of years? If discovered, this weapon would be a very powerful artifact. There could be a fairly epic quest revolving around destroying it.

What are your thoughts?

BTW, do you give an explicit, active role to Thanatos in your version of the history or is it something that you leave to speculation?

Thanatos is definitely involved in one way or another. Basically I'm thinking these two options are most likely:
a) Thanatos is Keres.
b) Keres is a pawn of Thanatos.

I tend to prefer b), but a) is more consistent with the ZGG Blackmoor canon.


-Havard

[Yaztromo]

As to why Keres didn't use the Carnifex Scythe against Khoronus, I figure he simply lost the initiative roll. Khoronus was able to Time Travel away before Keres could attack him. BTW, I don't think Khoronus would be an immortal yet at this time. Retrieving the Heart of Temrin was part of his Quest.

Keres could have lured another immortal (there are quite a few... :roll: ) and used his energy exactly as he previously did with Temrin (I wasn't thinking in particular about Khoronus).
I wonder why he didn't think about it...

[Yaztromo]

Where the Carnifex Scythe is now is a good question. Finding it would be a great adventure opportunity. Perhaps as you suggested elsewhere, there could indeed be a Tower of Keres somewhere still after these thousands of years? If discovered, this weapon would be a very powerful artifact. There could be a fairly epic quest revolving around destroying it.

What are your thoughts?

This sounds like a great adventure indeed!
In general I like the possibility for humans to really challenge immortals :wink:
I think that the issue would be clearer if we knew why the Scythe has been used only once... maybe Khoronus took that as well? maybe some immortal is keeping in his/her plane (I don't expect immortals to be happy about leaving around a weapon that in mortal hands can kill them in one blow...) and will award it to the Worthy?
This is the kind of adventure fit for a character ready for immortality...

BTW what is the previous history of the scythe? who made it? how was it used?

[Havard]

This sounds like a great adventure indeed!
In general I like the possibility for humans to really challenge immortals :wink:
I think that the issue would be clearer if we knew why the Scythe has been used only once... maybe Khoronus took that as well? maybe some immortal is keeping in his/her plane (I don't expect immortals to be happy about leaving around a weapon that in mortal hands can kill them in one blow...) and will award it to the Worthy?
This is the kind of adventure fit for a character ready for immortality...

Yup lots of possibilities here. Khoronus would probably have taken it if he was able to. But then he was not yet immortal, so perhaps he had to leave it behind?

BTW what is the previous history of the scythe? who made it? how was it used?

The name Carnifex should be a clue to its makers. Read more about the Carnifex here. Note that the author places the Carnifex Tyranny 10 million years into the past, while other fan material has moved it forward to around where I have the Cthonian Age.

Of course, it is possible that the Scythe was used after the Carnifex challenged the Immortals and before Keres got his hands on it...

-Havard

[Yaztromo]

Where the Carnifex Scythe is now is a good question. Finding it would be a great adventure opportunity. Perhaps as you suggested elsewhere, there could indeed be a Tower of Keres somewhere still after these thousands of years? If discovered, this weapon would be a very powerful artifact. There could be a fairly epic quest revolving around destroying it.

What are your thoughts?

I can see that the idea of the Tower of Babel adapted to Mystara could fit nicely in this occasion, as the biblic Tower of Babel was the sign of rebellion of humans towards God, but instead brought division, war and chaos. I can see a relation in this case.
The biblic Tower of Babel (Babylon), just like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, was made of mud and hay bricks dried under the sun, that tend to crumble and don't last very long times without major and continuous maintenence (for this reason we still have the pyramids but not the hanging gardens).

This means that a similar tower built before the Burrowers wars wouldn't be standing anymore during Blackmoor or Thyatis civilizations, but maybe just a few crumbled bricks would be still visible.
At the same time, I would expect that the Immortals would actively search the Scythe in the Prime Plane (it could be possibly more relevant for them than the Nucleus of the Spheres, that is at the centre of the WotI wars), so I'd suppose that it is now in a "secret" demi-plane.
Keres (unless you can find somebody else that did this...) possibly used the power of Temrin to build this demi-plane, where he kept the Scythe away from prying eyes, but couldn't keep the Heart of Temrin, that was needed in Prime plane to power up the Burrowers.

That secret demi-plane could have the ancient tower still standing and well defended (a proper challenge for a character in search of immortality).

The gate between the Prime plane and the Tower's plane could be in a secret chamber / dungeon underground in the old location of the crumbled Tower... probably guarded by a mighty guardian like a Blackball and... uhm... can you think about a place with an underground dungeon, with a Blackball at its bottom and in a special magic area with reality warps / gates t other dimensions??? :wink: maybe a place with such magic influences that thousands of years after is still populated and well settled? :mrgreen:

What do you think? 8)

[Yaztromo]

Of course, it is possible that the Scythe was used after the Carnifex challenged the Immortals and before Keres got his hands on it...

The story of this Scythe could be fascinating...

[Yaztromo]

Maybe it was just my impression, based on nothing, but I thought that the Burrowers wars lasted for long, long time: centuries or millennia, rather than few years (possibly with along anti-climax).

After all, the fact that the Burrowers are not controlled by Keres anymore doesn't mean that the Burrowers wars are over...

[Havard]

Maybe it was just my impression, based on nothing, but I thought that the Burrowers wars lasted for long, long time: centuries or millennia, rather than few years (possibly with along anti-climax).

After all, the fact that the Burrowers are not controlled by Keres anymore doesn't mean that the Burrowers wars are over...

Good point. At least a couple of centuries. My original idea was that Keres lived for a very long time even before he (possibly) ascended to true Immortality.

However, it may be that the conflict was not truly resolved with Keres loosing the Heart of Temrin. Perhaps that was just the beginning of his downfall, and the Immortal Intervention that put the Burrowers back into stasis happened much later.

-Havard