Walking the Silent Path | Distance Over Time

Distance Over Time

by unspeakable on Aug.02, 2007, under Walking the Silent Path

Black mist licked the flickering void around them.

Nicodemus noticed that his wounds did not ache so much here. His mind slowly drifted about and around his body, making him only vaguely aware of it. The bruises from the beating were more than just numb; they were someone else’s. Stalking through a drugged dream, unable to feel his fingers or toes, he turned his head and let his eyes slide slow motion, two glass spheres in a cup.

Time here was erratic. A single long moment passed as he arduously toiled to lift his foot off the ground, but the world then collapsed jerkily forward as he completed the step in a rushed panic, only to slow again as his balance shifted and he tried to twist his waist and lift the other foot. From his foggy peripheral, he saw others in the party struggling as well. One of the ladies even fell. Nicodemus wasn’t sure who it was, not having the coordination to both move forward and look to the side, but he knew they hung suspended in mid air, then gently drifted down, and not more than an inch before the ground their momentum finally caught up to them. They all crept onward, maddening marionettes, epileptics underwater.

There was a nearby hiss amidst the gurgling far-away sounds of the dead lands. Desperate to move, but unable to ignore the noise, he chanced a glance at himself with a crawling sense of danger. Wavering, he looked down at his bloodied cloak to find it cleaning itself; like flecks of ash, the tiny bits of gore were drawn into the air and boiled away. He raised his face forward once again, staring solemn and silent, striding on with grim resolve. He had to move, had to get on with it. The Shadowrealm was tasting him.

The lump in his throat wrapped around his entire neck.

Then, from somewhere else, his own voice said, “I’m death.”

Lady Balthes asked, “What was that?”

Everything snapped back to normal with the sound of rushing air.

Lady Balthes asked, “What was that?”

“Time death,” Nicodemus said.

When Tessijah moaned, they looked back at her and each other. Instead of the beautiful and exotic shaman, they saw among them a withered old woman, her tattoos crinkled and a blur, with a mane of wild hair where once was only baldness. She leaned on her staff heavily as her knees bowed.

Lady Balthes, no longer tall and proud, squirmed under her heavy pack and purple cloak with the scrawny limbs of a teen. Her usually stern expression, now peppered by a swarm of freckles, bore the air of indignant defiance so common among the youth.

Nicodemus and the rat were hardly changed but for a full curly beard and tufts of side whiskers, and gear that looked both tarnished and moth eaten. Sarah seemed completely unscathed.

The necromancer ran his fingers between the hairs on his chin, “Entropy runs rampant here. The dark ether winds blow uncommonly fierce.”

Sarah asked worriedly “So then we are close?”

Lady Balthes rolled up her thick sleeves, which immediately rolled back down past her hands. “This is unacceptable! Nick, you’ve got to fix it.”

“I can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t?”

“I’m sorry Lady, this is beyond my power.”

“Then what the pity are we even doing out here?”

As if to answer her, a crack of thunder growled overhead. The dry branches of the dead trees clattered together like clusters of thin needles, the wind picking up. The gray fog rolled away downhill, and tiny droplets began to fall.

“Great,” Lady Balthes chirped, “Just great. Now it’s raining.”

“That’s impossible…” Nicodemus looked around, alert with adrenaline.

The droplets quickly increased in frequency, flopping loudly here and there. It was more like hail than rain really, each drop big enough to see and none closer than a foot apart. The fog started to rise off the ground again, this time white and thick. The air stank.

Nicodemus urged them on, “We must find shelter.” White mist and acrid stench was all around them.

“Calm down Nick,” Lady Balthes mocked.

“I’m serious. There is no water in the Shadowrealm…” he stopped

A largish blue blob landed square on Tessijah’s face, the splash covering her left eye. The crone wiped away the thick goo, only to begin whimpering and shaking. White smoke bled up from the blue slime as she clawed it off her hand and cheek and forehead. Her skin was beginning to boil.

“…it’s raining acid.”

It took Tessijah to start screaming before the party was off at a full run. Soon they were lost in the darkness.

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Silent Paths Glossary

AE
“Age of the Empire.” The Imperial calendar begins with 1 AE, the year the Immortals all but vanished from Itima while Zin and Vrodah first appear in historical texts as powerful human born undead. The Empire as we know it technically did not exist until 1486 AE, but the interim is claimed by the Empire as “heavily influenced by our birth pangs.” Some outsiders refer to this prior millenia and a half as the Age of Kings, but within most libraries AE is still used to refer to events in Itima including and following the Mortality Wars. The current year is 1924 AE, making Zin’s Empire four-hundred and thirty-eight years old.

Aruru
A daemonic entity subservient to Nituku. Aruru’s primary domains are those of sickness, disease, and rot; his minions are thought to be the cause all such afflictions throughout Itima.

Barzil
One of the 9 Imperial provinces. It is boardered on the west by Edin and on the east by the Kurlugal Mountains. Barzil is rich in ore and its people are a hearty, brooding lot.

Beer
A social lubricant and fascilitator of both joy and torment. Many regard it as the singular achievement of civilization that may save the souls of men.

Black Eyes
Living creatures that experience prolonged exposure to the energies of the Shadowrealm often have solid black eyes, with no distinguishable iris or pupil. Also, certain magical abilities temporarily turn their user’s eyes black, such as when peering into the Shadowrealm from the Material plane. These same abilities cause the eyes to glow white when viewing the Material from the Shadowrealm.

C-Tax
A yearly insurance fee against an individual’s corpse becoming conscripted due to retroactive debts or shift in economy.

Cankleton
A small town in southern lowlands of the Imperial province of Edin.

Common
Or Common Speech. A shared language throughout the Empire. Its usuage predates 1486 AE, and was probably used to fascilitate trading among the various cultures and nations. Since then, it has acquired unique slang and dialects specific to province.

Conscription
After incurring debt of various kinds, an individual could be marked for conscription. Any citizen necromancer is free to animate the conscripted individual’s corpse after their death. The C-tax is paid by many to avoid this fate.

Cryptorium
In many Imperial cities, a cryptorium serves as a center for necromantic lore, tutelege, and a repository for bodies. Many Cryptoriums have a functioning shadowgate. The larger and more financially secure cryptoriums feature a Ziikruum.

Daemon
A hellish creature from the deeper parts of the Shadowrealm. Daemons desire souls for food, trade, and magical power, and despise undead of all kind for denying them this. Particularly, daemons revile Vrodan vampires (see Vrodah Malketh).

Daggers
A common tavern game, involving throwing a dagger or dirk at a wooden board painted with rings. Some boards are further divided by diametric lines that converge at the center, or “bull’s-eye.” Variations of the game exist, but the goal is usually to accumulate the most points by hitting certain sections of the board with a limitted number of daggers thrown, at a specific distance from the board.

Dark Ether
The winds and natural forces of the Shadowrealm. Even necromancers do not fully understand its whims.

Death-Birth
When a creature dies and becomes a spirit (instead of merely a soul orb), there is a good chance that the trauma of dying can unhinge its sanity. Although the term death-birth can be used for any spirit’s incarnation, it is usually derogatorily spoken when this madness of paradox prevails. Such lunatic spirits often replay the events of their death for eternity, or until destroyed.

Deep Shadow
A layer of the Shadowrealm “beneath” the Near Shadow. While the Near Shadow borders the Prime and resembles it in a twisted nightmarish fashion, the Deep Shadow is an endless void of inky blackness. Even stranger creatures swim its depths than those in the Near Shadow, and if one travels far enough into its bowels, one can find gates to the demiplanes of the various Hells, floating like islands amongst nothingness.

Dhampyl
A living race blessed with vampiric blood. Magically created from human stock nearly 2,000 years ago. Most dhampyl belong to a specific bloodline, or House, the three dominant being Vraash, Zatir, and Phugosi.

Edin
One of the 9 Imperial provinces. It is the largest, at the Empire’s center, and houses the Imperial capitol Zinkalam.

Elementalist
A practitioner of magic that manipulates the elements of the Material plane, each specializing in one element: Air (cyclomancers), Earth (geomancers), Fire (pyromancers), or Water (hydromancers).

Eternal Storm
The never-ceasing tempest that wracks the Storm Plains of Ukusgana. Also, a curse.

Feel the Cut of my Boots
Slang. To empathize.

Gold Pieces
A standard unit of Imperial currency. Lesser denominations include silver or copper. Coinage in the Empire bares a specific stamp indicating the province it was minted in as well as its time period. Coins minted more than 400 years ago might bare the image of nobility local to its place of origin; these coins are valued by collectors but regarded suspiciously by common Imperial citizenry.

Gremlin
A small humanoid race known for mechanical aptitude. Gremlin often behave in unnerving or enigmatic ways, but are better off in station than the nin’ki. Several small nations of gremlin inhabit various mountainous regions surrounding the Empire.

Half-Dead
Slang. See “Dhampyl.”

Heretics
Zealots from the east, beyond the mountains, who despise the Empire and Zin with all their religious furvor. They lurk amongst the common folk, spies and seditionists, and call upon the power of their god, Unus, to smite the undead of Itima.

Itima
The realm. Specifically, it refers to the largest landmass of the known world in the physical plane.

Kankal
The first of the 9 Imperial provinces. Its populated areas are cities of antiquity, while its remote wilderness is cold and barren but for grim folk and ancient monsters. It boarders the sea to the north, Edin to the south, the great forests of Thenore to the northeast, and hostile barbaric lands to the west.

Kindling Wars
Also called the Kindling Years. Approximately 402 AE to 486 AE. Faced with the growing supremacy of Vrodah’s brood, humans across Itima stage revolts and vampiric genocide ensues. Mistrust between the Vampire Kings and the vast distance between them prevents a solid defense for decades. Some speculate that the vampires themselves were weeding out their own undesirables. When Myra coalesced and announced its union, it became clear that an armistice was necessary to repel this new threat.

Magus Senatus
The legislative body of the Empire. There are 15 high seats, 45 low seats, and 90 counsels. Each of the five magical schools (elementalists and necromancers) elect 3 high seats to represent them from the low seats. This position is for life (or longer), but retirement is an honorable option. Each province is represented by 5 mages (of any school) in the low seats, appointed by the local body of nobles, and each of those in turn appoint 2 counsels to aid them in voting and communicating with both the noble and Imperial bueracracies. The Senatus debates matters of state everyday, but any policy they establish comes second to the word of Emperor Zin. Their purpose is to keep the massive Empire running efficiently while Zin continues his war against the Hells.

Majakib
A popular narcotic, it is dried green herb that is smoked through a pipe or rolled cigar. There are many varieties, both rich and poor, and its popularity is quite known throughout all the Empire. Some nobles are connoisseurs of it, and rate themselves for how well they perform at arts or sports while under its influence. Common users of the lower classes rate themselves by its use as well, but mostly in the sheer quantity they can smoke in a single sitting.

Mellul
A vampire of legend. According to historic texts, Mellul was the descendant of Tiran (and thus Vraash) and became the first vampiric martyr in 28 AE. He is also famous for inhabitting the forbidden Iron Cathedral for over a decade. Some claim Mellul built it himself.

Mortality Wars
1 AE to 150 AE. From the dawn of the new age, when the Immortals were stripped of their might, humans began to pick up the pieces of their ancient kingdoms. In many cases, this resulted in deicide. The last known immortal, Asghiat, was slain in a public execution in 150 AE by the people of the city-state Guanse (which is today in the southern province of Mungazi).

Mungazi
One of the 9 Imperial provinces. It is boardered by Ganaga on the west, Parim on the east, and both the Temer Mountains and Edin on the north. Its southern boarder is the ocean, and its southern metropli were once independant city-states before the coming of the Empire.

Myra
A nation of human kingdoms that existed from 486 AE to 1486 AE in what is today southern Edin, northern Mungazi, and northern Parim. During that period, it waged a continual war with the combined kingdoms of Vrodah Malketh and his descendants. It was not until Zin arose and united the Empire that Myra was defeated and crushed

Naman-Imria
A religious order begun by Vraash in 127 AE. It deifies Vrodah Malketh and vampire nature. It has never been adopted as the state religion for several reasons, namely that not all the Houses share its views, and the Empire in general frowns upon religous practice of any sort. The Naman-Imria has the strongest powerbase in Barzil.

Near Shadow
Another term for the Shadowrealm coexistent to the Prime. See Shadowrealm.

Necromancy
The art of magic practiced by necromancers. It involves creating undead, manipulating soul energy, and entering the Shadowrealm. Necromancers occupy an important position in the Empire due to the prominence of undead, the importance of combatting daemons, the regality of vampires and other intelligent undead, and the fact the the Empire extends into the Shadowrealm as much as it extends over the lands of the living. As a necromancer progresses in his studies and begins using stronger and stronger dark energies, however, he experiences “changes” to his body, mind, and soul. Common folk call these “corruptions.”

Necrontal Sphere
Also, soul orb. A necronatal sphere is a tiny fragment of soul energy released into the Shadowrealm when a living creature dies. Soul orbs are not sentient. Some have the potential to form into full spirits, most simply drift about aimlessly.

Necroplasm
The material which most of the Shadowrealm is composed, including spirits and other natives.

Nin’ki
A small rat-humanoid. Within the Empire, the nin’ki occupy the lowest rung of society as untouchables. They mostly live in sewers and only venture out at night to perform manual labor or unwholesome tasks. Some rural areas ban them entirely due to their propensity to carry virulent diseases. Nin’ki have no formal societies above a tribal level outside the Empire.

Nituku
One of the 5 most powerful daemonic Dukes (although, unlike the other four, Nituku is widely regarded as genderless). Nituku reigns over madness, despair, plague, and the unknowable horrors from beyond existence. Those few sages who dare to study it say that Nituku very well may be an alien entity altogether, completely unlike any other daemon duke or duchess. However, it is difficult to ascertain much truth from these scholars as they all, inevitably, end up in sanitariums, little better than jibbering fools.

Nizzal
A large city in southern Edin, noted for its prestigious mage colleges.

Parim
One of the 9 Imperial provinces. It is boardered by Mungazi on the west, the nation of Kiud on the east, and Edin to the north. Most of Parim is windswept desert, but its few cities are great centers of trade in many exotic goods from all across the southern coast as well as the eastern lands.

Passing Rite
The typical non-religious funeral service offered to the recently departed in the Empire. Although it is mostly ritualistic in nature, some modern passing rites include necromancy that is thought to aid the necronatal sphere’s safe formation into a full spirit. Dark ether alone determines the final outcome of ghostly birth. If no soul orb is present, then no such effort can be made, and the passing rite is no more than a formality.

Phugosi
One of the three prominent vampiric Houses, known for agility, depravity, and monopolizing criminal activity in areas they control.

Pity
A vulgar insult in Common slang.

Pommelhead
A large city in the southern part of the Imperial province of Edin. For hundreds of years (until 1486 AE) it was the southernmost Imperial settlement, on the war front of Myra.

Sentry
A member of the Imperial military responsible for general policing within the home provinces.

Shadow-side
Being in the Shadowrealm, as opposed to the Prime. Usually it means “in the Near Shadow,” as if it and the Prime were two sides of the same coin. When one is in the Deep Shadow, you are too removed from the “normal” aspects of Itima to be on either “side.”

Shadow-Step
The definitive ability of stalkers. To observers, shadow-stepping stalkers appear to leap into one shadow only to emerge from another. In truth, shadow-stepping uses an existing shadow in the mortal realm as a portal into the Shadowrealm, and provided they do not tarry, uses another nearby shadow as a means of egress. Shadow-stepping is not without its perils, for the stalker must physically run from one portal to the other, and can be hindered by obstacles and creatures shadow-side. A stalker using the shadow-step ability while already in the Shadowrealm descends instead into the Deep Shadow, another plane entirely. While not outright hostile, it is a strange and alien place where anything can happen.

Shadowgate
A portal into the Shadowrealm. Some operate along schedules, others open only when presented with certain keys, and some are permanent. Many are two-dimensional gates while others are three-dimensional areas that shift between realms. Shadowgates that form without magic usually do so in response to negative energy, peculiar deaths, or with whims of dark ether.

Shadowrealm
The realm of the dead. In civilized places, it is a dark and warped reflection of the Material plane. In the wilderness, it can be a hellish nightmare. Necronatal spheres, spirits, daemons, other undead, and alien creatures can be found there. Necromancers are the most adept at traversing or manipulating the phenomenon of the Shadowrealm, but other professions can do so at varying degrees.

Silent Legion
A horde of over 10,000 undead, usually mindless and given a specific programmed travel route. The Silent Legion never tarries or tires, destroying everything it encounters. A Silent Legion patrols several of the boarders of the Empire.

Silent Path
1) The wake of devastation left by the passing of a Silent Legion. 2) The art of necromancy.

Ug’gaaz
A vulgar explative, derived from the sound that can supposedly be heard echoing throughout a particular kingdom of hell.

Ukusgana
One of the 9 Imperial provinces. A devastated land, consumed by poisonous fog and the Eternal Storm. The cities of Ukusgana are isolated domed encampments, magically shielded from the torrent outside. Travel through the province is extremely treacherous. House Phugosi are the undisputed rulers of this damned territory.

Unus
The “One God” of the heretics. His religion originates in the eastern lands of Kibala, where anti-Imperial sentiment has reached fanatic levels. According to official Imperial doctrine, Unus either has died a long time ago, or never existed in the first place. Although the atheist Empire has an ambivalent stance when it comes to policy regarding most religions, devotion to Unus is considered treason.

Voodoo
A common slang term for magic, usually derogatory. Also, hoodoo or wazoo (practicioner of hoodoo).

Vortex
A rip in the fabric of the Near Shadow that leads directly into the Deep Shadow.

Vraash
One of the three prominent vampiric Houses, known for strength, honor, and a religious devotion to vampires (see Naman-Imria).

Vrodah Malketh
The first vampire of the Vrodan line. In life, he was the general of Zin’s army. After Zin became a lich, Vrodah fought his way into hell and devoured the essence of a daemon, becoming a vampire. As his power grew, he left his post as Zin’s military chief and went out to conquer his own kingdoms. Vraash, Zatir, and Phugosi were spawned by him directly and proceeded to proliferate their own vampiric bloodlines (as well as dhampyl bloodlines) and kingdoms throughout Itima.

Wolfen
A savage race of humanoids that harrow the Empire’s boarders. They resemble immense muscled wolves that stand on two legs. Although capable of using tools, most wolfen only take interest in weapons and armor, building nothing for themselves, and taking what they want through brute force.

Zatir
One of the three prominent vampiric Houses, known for intellect, spiritual fortitude, and magical aptitude (specifically necromancy).

Ziikruum
A sentient entity created through necromancy and soul binding, represented physically by a monolithic structure. A Ziikruum is the central fixture in prominent cryptorium, functioning as a repitoire of knowlege and the central operator of the cryptorium’s various magical/organic functions. A Ziikruum controls everything from the openning and closing of doors to the collection of ambient necronatal sphere energy for use by its necromancers. Some Ziikruum are advanced enough to monitor (and to a degree, alter) the biological functions of those within its cryptorium. Conspiracy theories abound that Ziikruum are even privy to its guest’s thoughts. Ziikruum are capable of communicating with each other, via the Shadowrealm, over vast distances, and form an information network throughout the larger cities of the Empire.

Zin
The undying lich Emperor. According to legend, Zin was the first human to achieve immortality through magic. In 1486 AE, Zin united the various kingdoms Vrodah and his vampiric children had conquered, calling it his Empire.

Zinkalam
The capital of the Empire, located in the province of Edin. Within is the fortress of Zin himself as well as the body of the Magus Senatus. Not to be confused with Old Zinkalam, which is located in the province of Kankal, where Zin’s fortress resided for over a thousand years before it was magically uprooted and moved physically. The two locations are connected by shadowgates, as both still contain the Shadowrealm-likeness of Zin’s mighty keep.

Distance Over Time

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Silent Paths Glossary