The Divine Prodigy
Dedovor Mailat (710 - 755) was a light elf student of the infamous magic school Solarlight, and became a legendary traveller and divine wizard. He took on any challenge. He was, for a while, known as The Observer, due to his near omnipresence and vast knowledge. He published many important works during his lifetime, including Tales From Beneath (a study of The Deepest Crypt), The Observer’s Guide To Observation (a book detailing exploration tips as well as chronicling his journeys), and Divination: An Exact Science? (a book about the divination school of magic). His most notable travels were to the orc settlement Khagh Gazzu, the forests of the Lulorian Empire, and The Deepest Crypt, as well as The Eternal Pit, from which he never returned. He discovered many new creatures in The Deepest Crypt, and also discovered key information relating to the understanding of Uries (the God of Light), the life force behind everything in Aekor.
In his early childhood, Dedovor’s magical gift was immediately recognisable, and he took an intense interest in the art of magic. Dedovor was born in Wolrobertal to a noble family in the Kingdom of Galmos, and was literate from a young age, reading countless books on magic. It was natural that he should go to a magic school, and since his parents were good friends with the headmaster at Solarlight, he joined the legendary magic school at the age of 14, becoming the youngest ever student. He was a fast learner, and finished his studies rather quickly, becoming the youngest ever graduate of Solarlight at the age of 19 (both records he still holds). Now a fully trained wizard in the school of divination, Dedovor felt inclined to travel the world, and potentially write a book about his findings. At such a young age he was ambitious, and his first venture was into the vicious orc realm Khagh Gazzu. Dedovor became the first elf to ever set foot into the so-called badlands, and while not entirely accepted by his new orc friends, was not immediately killed on sight, as the orcs took a curious interest in his eccentric personality, finding him oddly charming. Dedovor always wore the same garish, purple robes and had a short, trimmed goatee. He wore his light brown hair long, but often tied it into a ponytail. The orcs took Dedovor in and showed him the intricacies of their society, and he eventually published a book Orcs: Are They As Bad As You Think? about his time there, which is responsible for most of the modern day knowledge of the orcs’ society and customs, despite not being very popular in its time. He wrote the following in his book:
It was around three weeks into my journey when I was introduced to the orc warlord Lorlakk the Butcher. I was transported by a trade caravan to the capital of Khagh Gazzu, called Gundush. When we arrived there I barely took note of the settlement, thinking we were at a less significant place making a stop, for the walls were haphazardly put together, built of wood, and looked decidedly makeshift. There were small wooden towers in front of an open road leading into the city, the notion of a gate seemingly too sophisticated for the orcs. As we rode in we were greeted by great banners showing tattered flags with the distinct orcish insignia of a crude blade on a shield and a red background. I was eyed suspiciously by all the citizens we rode past, but was seemingly safe with the caravan who had kindly taken me in. The buildings in the city were equally unstable and poorly built as the walls, and the stench of poverty was thick. When we made it to the town square, a sprawling business only discernible through the mass of bodies and stalls because of a large execution block in the centre surrounded by hanged criminals and their heads on stakes, the heat was so intense from all the movement that I nearly fainted. The smell there was also unbearable, the orcs not strong proponents of personal hygiene, with the main sewer canal flowing directly underneath the square. We waded our way slowly through it, and made it to the other side, where Lorlakk supposedly lived. There in front of me was the only stone building in the entire city, with a large unkempt garden surrounded by low stone walls. I made my way through the wild garden at the front and knocked on the door. A large orc appeared, filling the doorway, towering over me by at least a metre: Lorlakk himself. He did not seem surprised by my visitation, and he spoke to me fluently in elvish, his pronunciation shockingly distinguished. He eagerly invited me in, and I felt a warmth coming from him. I felt for a moment as though I may actually enjoy my time with him, as though he was perhaps more sophisticated than the other orcs, and was capable of perhaps the slightest bit of compassion. Yet as I followed him in I nearly vomited; he explained, as we walked through his sparsely furnished house, that all the furniture’s upholstery was made from elvish and human skin, which was why he had been named ‘the Butcher’. The layout of the house was full of unexpected twists and nonsensical hallways, with everything looking hastily slapped together, and as though it was constantly on the brink of collapse. He led me into a large room with a dining table; the tablecloth was stitched together with the faces of humans and elves Lorlakk had killed himself. He sat me down at the table and we spoke for many hours, enjoying the sour orcish beer, Krak, that kept coming. I found myself almost relaxing at times, but needed only to look down at the tablecloth to be reminded that I was, in fact, in the belly of the beast. Lorlakk was charismatic and funny, and it confused me how he was simultaneously capable of such atrocities and casual savagery.Â
Following his initial horrific journey, Dedovor did not appear disheartened; he soon visited the relatively new Vampiric Republic of Braudark, and dined with Counts Dreven, Strix, and Valentine. Dedovor is the only elf to have seen and entered Blood Drench Keep and survived to tell the tale, and he drew a rough map of the expansive interior in his journal, which he later published in his book Blood Drench Keep, Home of the Vampires which, while having gained more traction than his book on the orcs, still invoked underwhelming interest from the general populace. Here is an excerpt:
Blood Drench Keep, from the outside, is easily the most formidable castle I have ever seen. A seemingly impenetrable, carefully planned and precisely executed work of smooth, black rock, Blood Drench Keep has massive walls easily exceeding ten metres in height. I was brought here by an entourage of skeletons; happy, hearty fellows, who seemed eager to introduce me to their overlords. I was to be the guest of honour at the monthly feast of the three vampire Counts (Dreven, Strix, and Valentine) who ruled over Braudarkia, where they would typically discuss general politics and their plans for the future. Naturally I was apprehensive, and was scared that I had been tricked, but my curiosity was more powerful than my fear. The massive gate took about eight minutes to crank open, by skeletons the size of giants, working a complex mechanism I didn't quite understand, and find troublesome to depict. The walls were lined with skeleton archers, and the opened gates revealed a courtyard of sorts, lined with simple barracks for the soldiers, and filled with the same lifeless, grey soil of the rest of the wasteland. A narrow cobblestone path led up to the second gate. This was identical to the first, and after making it through the second it was necessary to make it through a third, that all had identical mechanisms and infrastructure contained within. Eventually we made it through the third and final gate, and were met by the three vampire counts. They were dressed identically, in deep black robes embellished with red. Dreven stood in the middle, his head bald and his black beard thick. To his sides, standing slightly in front of him, were Strix and Valentine. Strix, on Dreven’s left, had long, blonde hair and a cute baby face, with no facial hair. Valentine had short brown hair, a stern face, and was clean-shaven. All of them seemed as though they were the same age, in their mid-twenties, and their red eyes had the same intense, bloodthirsty stare. They shook my hands firmly, but their skin felt cold to the touch. While the exterior of their palace was made of the same black rock as the walls, the interior was immaculately decorated, sparing no expense. The decadence of their furnishings cannot be understated. Everything that could be ornamented with gold or encrusted with diamonds was, and many timeless art pieces and tapestries hung on their lavish walls. The banquet they delivered was sumptuous and delicious, entailing five courses. They talked and talked about all the politics of their evil nation, but were witty and always laughed about things, no matter how dire things may have seemed, or how wrongly a managerial decision may have panned out. They were overall far more optimistic and cheery people than I had imagined. Despite their despotic regime and being surrounded by undeath at all times of day, they maintained a surprisingly sunny disposition. They made me feel like one of them, as though I had always been a part of their big, happy family. Such is a vampire’s charm, I suppose.
Dedovor’s parents remained supportive despite his authorial failures, their wealth keeping his adventuring lifestyle afloat, and at the age of 23 Dedovor decided that he would venture into The Deepest Crypt. His most daring adventure yet, Dedovor admitted that he felt apprehension at exploring the depths of these tunnels, but felt as though it might finally be his great breakthrough. He did not spend much time in the first layer of the Crypt, and used teleportation magic to quickly traverse into the second layer. It is here that he discovered Grugrox the Pestilent, the elephant-sized rodent that was (and still is) the ferocious ruler of the layer. Grugrox and his servants tried to devour Dedovor and, after a brisk dance with death, resulting in the loss of his ring finger on his left hand, Dedovor was forced further into the tunnels, all the way to the third layer. An excerpt from his book, Tales from Beneath, details his encounter with Grugrox:
It started subtly. At first all I saw were a couple of small rats skitter past me, and while they stank, this was not particularly unnerving in an underground tunnel. I was in a particularly dark tunnel at this point, holding a torch that barely penetrated the thick blackness. I could tell that the tunnel was extremely cavernous, given the reverberations of my footsteps and the rats’ scurrying. Eventually more and more of them kept coming, until I was ankle deep in a blanket full of them. I was frozen, unsure what to do, and it was at that point that a rat the size of a fox brushed past me. Several more of these larger rats poured into the tunnel, and soon the rats were so bountiful and so loud that I could barely think. My heart was pounding as I was unsure of the next logical course of action. More rats of increasing size kept bursting into the room, trampling the smaller ones underneath them. Grugrox the Pestilent then appeared, and he was clearly the leader; I could tell in the way that the pack parted to let him walk through the tunnel. At once the rats all stopped moving, and an excruciating silence fell upon the cavern, as this giant rat the size of an elephant locomoted towards me. I did not dare move, and I felt it speak to me with what I can only assume was the power of telepathy, for nothing dared to make a single sound. I could barely breathe as it asked me why I had invaded its personal territory. I was too scared to respond, and all of a sudden the jarring, discordant mass of rats moved and sounded all at once. It felt as though the entire cavern was shifting around me, like a giant stomach, ready to push me through its digestive system, dissolve me for my nutrients, and excrete the leftovers. I dropped my torch and I noticed for the first time the reason why in fact I could not breathe: it was not due to my inexplicably intense fear at the situation as I had first supposed, but the wretched stench emanating from the foetid, foul beasts that consumed the air all around me. At that moment all I could think of was how much I despised this rotting mockery of life; the rats that were so malodorous that they stifled my lungs and impeded my logic, so horrid that they suspended all fear I had in favour of panic to remove myself from that tunnel, which had penetrated and tainted my whole being with its blighted denizens and atmosphere of absolute depravity and perversion. I did not notice at that point how the rats had started gnawing at me, climbing up my body, slowly engulfing me in a tower of filth. They had been eating away at me for so long that I lost my left ring finger in the madness, as I repeated the familiar incantation, and magically teleported further down the tunnels, into the third layer of undeath.
In the third layer he discovered many grotesque beasts which were not found on the surface, the most notable being the Ialisk, Dul’kuz, Pink Reaper, Bibrind, and Mantichne. The following extract details Mailat’s discovery of the Ialisk:
The third layer was quieter than I had anticipated, thankfully, and I had not encountered much danger during my first ten or so days there, allotting me important time to study a multitude of interesting creatures.
Firstly, I will discuss the Ialisk. This is a serpent-like creature, with a long, slithery body, that secretes snail-like mucus; this is, presumably, to ensure that its body remains lubricated and sticky, so that it is capable of scaling the walls of the tunnels as well as hanging upside down on the ceiling. They are roughly one to two metres long. They have distinct snake-like heads with incredibly long tongues that can stretch on for twice to thrice the length of the body. They also have rows of sharp, long teeth, each about the length of a finger. They do not seem to have eyes, but they make a low, gurgling sound, and use echolocation to communicate and locomote. I once tested this, by walking quietly up to one, and although not the most sound evidence, it did not seem to notice me. I then threw a rock against the wall on the other side of the cavern and it immediately turned to where the rock had landed and made the same low, gurgling noise. They are black or dark purple in colour, thus making them virtually indistinguishable from the cave walls unless moving. They seem to sleep for most of the day, only eating once. I have only ever seen them eat a Dul’kuz, and as such am forced to believe they are carnivores. If they have a certain sex eludes me. I have also witnessed Ialisks protecting silver, slimy embryos. They usually keep these embryos in a small cavern, and lie on top of them when resting. I believe - as disgusting as the proposition is - that the mucus that they secrete is also their excrement. Obviously my findings are limited and may not be accurate due to my time constraints, but I am confident that my information will prove useful or interesting at the very least, and could aid future research. Â
Dedovor also encountered The Enraged Souls, a group of four wraiths. Here is a detailed account of his interaction with them, from his book Tales From Beneath:
I happened to stumble upon a seemingly ancient underground ruin. It was made from refined Death Rock, and it stood impressively tall, nearly reaching the top of the expansive cavern I was in. It had construction unlike any I had ever seen; every piece seemed to be in perfect harmony with each other, almost as if they were willed together by the gods, which made for an inexplicable beauty. Ostensibly I was extremely curious, and so I walked into this old palace. Inside there was no furniture; the walls were bare and formed long twisting hallways that led to empty rooms. Eventually I came upon a large square room in the centre of the building. In the middle of this room was a great stone altar with four glistening longswords atop it, all aimed towards the centre, their tips touching. I slowly made my way over and where the tips met I spotted a small gold ring embedded with a black gem. In my foolishness I had not noticed the four stone statues of kings in the corners of the room, but I did feel as though I was being watched. I knew that what I would do next was undoubtedly ignorant, but my curiosity was too great. I picked up the ring and tried it on. As I slipped it onto my finger, it melted itself into my flesh, causing a searing pain that made me yell, and permanently bonded me to this clearly accursed ring. The statues in the corners all shrieked simultaneously, and my ears wept blood from the horror of these wails. Four shadowy figures escaped from the statues, grabbed the longswords on the altar, and made their way towards me. I was still recoiling from the intense pain of the ring and the wails when I once again cast that reliable incantation, and teleported all the way back to The Landing Zone. I was safe, but at what cost? What had I awakened?