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Sandy Desire
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A mighty scrying device! Found in the vampire lord Muir's demesne, where we managed to persuade his spirit to teach us its use. We traced through history and discovered these truths to follow. Graves can attest to them, too. He remained at the device, trying to keep at following the thread of truth.
The parts found:
A future was foreseen by the Teacher, an outcast leucrocotta - one that offered war's end. Hekal seized the chance for that future,together with two others and became the First Guardians who went around closing down the mana wells fuelling the endless wars.
This with the Teacher - and Madame Moot. Hekal was already offering Moot an alliance when the Teacher joined them, claiming to need a... scalpel, in place of a scythe, as he put it. It also explains how Moot could kidnap him from the very seat of his power - he invited her and went willingly along. Though his plans did not seem to have coalesced too much beyond this, at least until the Teacher was found waiting at the very site of his well, and gave pact and guidance there.
During that first moot of the three, Madame Moot opened her big mouth at the Teacher, and the three of them were bound to a deal she proposed in her wroth - to build a world where mortals could live and die in peace: her price for her assistance with Hekal and the Teacher's plans.
Closing the mana wells that supplied the war appears to have but been the start - and it started with Hekal's own well, closed by his own spell. This moment too you got to witness, and the effect of the closure was... grim, to say the least. Indeed, Hekal's big issue - the one that made him change tactics and leave his armies behind - was that there were dire consequences to the abundant usage of mana from the wells in the wars, even for his soldiers' sake. He'd discovered that a poison slowly seeped out from them, anathema to life, bound to doom the world in long term.
It made the world deaden in great radius around his well when he closed it - today we call such a thing Spite, and it lingers for centuries, draining all life where it touches. Even Hekal's skill and knowledge at the time could not prevent deadly disaster at that first attempt. He must've refined his technique in the aftermath, for the closure of the other wells. Or... somehow redirected the effect of it to the already-extant dead zone.
It is why the Spirit Guides and the Guardians are so important still - to prevent the abuse that would keep that grim zone from growing to envelop the world. It is why sending all of the dead kept here would be disastrous, so close to town. Spite is generated when an undead passes unwillingly. This was recently witnessed with Muir, who could not face his final end with grace.
You don't know all that's happened afterwards, as the immediate historical trace was lost in the disaster. You don't know why Hekal never sought out Rodwin and his armies again, even after the wars mostly ended - but you do mean to find out and to find them if they still exist in this world - to go to the very Moon, if need be, to look for him there. You so swear.
But... given what you know, there should be hope. Hope that this interminable vigil ends on a blessed note, that the facet of the future seen by the Teacher was favorable and true still, that Rodwin's fate was not an afterthought. That his faithful duty can be rewarded, as is right and just.
Uh... what else... oh! When you were portal-dumped, Hekal did say of you: "I do hope he’s not dead…” - rather deadpan, but with concern.
Oh, and they appear to have been the founder of the Mediums and taught mortals the very spiritual means through which we speak now. Two contemporaries of his - mediums turned spirits, not liches - yet exist, so it is truly possible Hekal too does. If he does, you'll get him here, so he can face you and pay you respects for your long loyalty's due.
Just hang in there until we can get a boon of mana to help stabilize things until then, okay? That's all we ask.
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