Table of contents
Humans:
There was a time where humans were regarded as accursed monsters. Specifically due to their incapability to use magic. Humans however have a resistance rating of 0. They were later reclassed to daemon when daemon became a classification taking their intelligence into consideration. Following this it was much later discovered that humans weren’t actually destructive but only acted in self-defence against both blessed and accursed alike. Humanaity eventually finding itself back in the unclassified.
Humanity has since made a number of treaties with blessed species. Not due to any power of themselves though. As a magic-less species with a resistance rating of 0 humanity itself doesn’t have a leg to stand on. Humans are biologically compatible with almost all blessed (and daemons). Human-blessed half breeds are individuals of magical power that is unmatched by any pure-blooded. Such half breeds are referred to as hero’s. Add to this that humanity is found on every climate on Askellion. Humans are a sight seen anywhere. Back to top
The Blight:
The Blight is considered to be a sickness of the land if not the sickness of Askellion itself. Consisting of three main sub-types as a collective they are called the Blight and always occur one after the other in the same place. Places where artifacts remain for prolonged periods of time are more likely to get blighted. Implying a link between the blight and artifacts, which itself may imply a link between the blight and the Daemon Lords themselves. What this link is has only been theorised.
The first stage of the blight only reveals itself long after it is too late and is called the Glassing Virus. The effects of the Glassing Virus only really noticeable after the second stage of the blight takes effect. There is no immunity to the Glassing Virus, only various levels of resistance. Although all resistance manages to do is slow down the Glassing Virus’s effects. Similarly there is no cure for the Glassing Virus, but with proper treatment is it possible to delay the effects significantly. The Glassing Virus itself an airborne pathogen which makes the bodies of living creatures brittle. While it’s effects are most noticable on animals it affects plants in a similar manner. It’s only that plants don’t tend to move around as much to make it noticeable. The first signs of the Glassing Virus being stiffened joints. Later accompanied by flesh in the area becoming tough. Which parts of the body varies on a case by case basis and the spread of the Glassing Virus is seemingly random in location and speed. The only real rule being that joints tend to become stiffer faster than flesh becomes harder. This build up progresses until the point the Glassing Virus earns it’s name and the body shatters. Not that the first breakpoint is deadly in the vast majority of cases. Those that break at the neck considered the lucky ones. When a joint breaks the part that doesn’t contain the heart is rapidly consumed by the Glassing Virus such that by the time it hits the floor it shatters into shard like pieces. The wound left behind by the break doesn’t bleed. The open flesh having turned into a broken mess of hard shard like pieces, effectively sealing itself. Those that contract the Glassing Virus can live for months without any proper form of treatment. Treatment allowing those to live for years if done correctly. If of course by alive you mean breathing, heart beating, capable of thought and magic if your lucky. One of the worst fates on Askellion considered to be glassed off at the hips and shoulders, the flesh of your neck having stiffened before the joints there could shatter, unable to see through glass like eyes, unable to hear through what’s left of the ears, the sense of touch dulled by the stiffness of the skin, the mind awake but all it’s capable of doing it counting each laboured breath until your ribcage finally shatters ang gives you release.
The second stage of the blight is actually noticeable before the first stage is and is called the Darkening. The Darkening being the first observable sign of the blight. The Darkening itself being further seperated into three distinct phases. The shortening occurs first. The daylight hours of the blighted areas becoming shorter (and by extension the nights longer). While this initially starts as a minuite of darkness extra at sunrise and sunset this grows with each day. The shortest recorded day having little more than two hours of sunlight. The Dulling occurs next. With the shortening of the days colour looses it’s pop. Everything becoming progressivelly more and more grey as time continues. The third being the stifling. Hardly noticeable at first but the area light from artificial sources reaches out too becomes diminished. With time lanterns seem only to emit small shperes of light at the edge of which is followed by a very sharp and sudden cut off into darkness. While brighter light sources emit larger spheres of light with the dulling taken into consideration this becomes the only way to measure light levels. People having to be very careful not to be lost in the darkness as, rather counter intuitively, if your in the darkness you can’t see the spheres of light or their sources.
The third and final stage of the blight is formally known as the Warping Hordes. No one knows what the what exactly the Warphing Hordes are let alone where they come from. The closest comparason is an abomination type accursed but even then there is a lot wrong with that. For starters the Warping Hordes are primarally black, in comparason to the abominations typical grey. The Warping Hordes appear to weild magic, although not with any rhyme or reason behind it, where as abominations exclude anti-magical areas. The Warping Hordes stop for nothing. Not even for accursed. The Warping Hordes may be cut down however rather than falling are assimilated back into the Warping Hordes. The very presence of a single member of the Warping Hordes appearing to distort reality itself. Add to all of this that the Warping Hordes never go anywhere in numbers lesss than the millions and the blight is terrifying solely for the inevitable Warping Hordes that follow it. The only reported account of an abomination actually dying and staying dead was due to the Warping Hordes. A member of the Warping Hordes is approximately a human forearm in size, insectoid and black. Beyond that descriptions vary wildly. Even from individual to individual watching the same Warped Hoard member at the same time, and as such there is little reason in describing further. They follow the blight with a delay anywhere between one and three months after the first signs of the darkening. The flood that is the Warping Hordes having never been repelled. Even societies which frequently repell abominations flee in the face of the blight. It is unknown what remains behind the Warping Hordes as behing them the world just seems to end. There is no sky, no land, no horizon. Nothing. Not even a hole where the ground should be. Simply nothing exists. Where in the presence of an abominations spaitial magics are disallowed warping into blighted areas after the Warping Hordes is possible but has repeatedly proven itself to be a one way trip. While geography states there have been many locations where Warping Hordes from different Blighted points have interacted there has been no recounts of such events in history.
Despite their ability to attract the Blight Artifacts have proven affective not only against the Warping Hordes but against the blight itself. Although not all artifacts are equal in this task. Artifacts having proven themselves to be the only way to manage the Blight. It is assumed that if insufficient artifacts are made the blight will overrun Askellion unchecked however due to the rate with which the blight spreads and the speed with which artifacts can be made the question among the few individuals who know of this is weather or not there is enough time. Back to top