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RYE - The Dazzling Wheel
🕑 Added 2024-10-03 05:38:23 +0000 UTCThe Old Ones, it was said, had known all there was to know of the innate structure of creation, and it was this knowledge that freed them from the limitations of flesh and spirit, letting them perceive existence on an axiomatic level. The revelations they received from this were never spoken aloud, but the slann had puzzled out fragmentary pieces over the millennia, deducing unspoken intent through careful study of the commands and actions of their makers. Among the most profound of these lessons was a truth that pertained to reality itself - there was a hierarchy to creation.
To the slann, there was little difference, if any, between the aethyric realm and material reality. What other creatures saw as two separate planes of existence, the slann knew to be expressions of different energetic frequencies. The water that collected in delicate drops of dew atop blades of grass was, at its heart, the same as the currents that flowed indescribably in the utmost depths of the Deep Warp. The veil between mundane and magical, possible and impossible, reality and spirit, was just that - a polite fiction, one that allowed the order of creation to exist in a harmonious fashion, without inhabitants from one realm overly disturbing the activities of another, but in the end, one that was easily bypassed if one knew the way. Among the Old Ones, it was Tepok with its crystalline eye that had seen the different levels of reality, and it was their teachings that the slann inherited.
At the root of all things was the Ur-Concept, a realm and a frequency and a concept all in one that was only theoretical even in the words of Tepok itself. The Ur was the Origin, the ultimate void that existed before and after and within and beyond creation. It was the formless dark that existed before birth and the blank absence that awaited beyond one's final annihilation. It lay 'beneath' all other layers of creation, where all other things fell away. All things sprang from it, and all would fall to its depths in time. It was largely irrelevant beyond theory, for it was simultaneously too vast and too insubstantial to ever interact with anything.
Slightly 'higher' than the Ur was the Deep Warp, a level of the spirit realm that moved according to currents more primal and alien than even the most deeply ingrained instinct. These realms were so far removed from objective reality that they were foreign even to daemons, and it was a hazard even to look too deeply into their depths, for the expanse of the Deep Warp was so unfathomably massive that anything lost within would never find its way back to material reality. The only spiritual entities capable of surviving such crushing depths were the immortal eternities of the Chaos Gods - their titanic avatars watched the capering of mortal creatures from this layer, mute leviathans unreachable even by the greatest and most horrific of their fragmentary splinter-selves.
Above the turbulent layers of the Abyssal Layer was the Warp itself, the part of the spirit world most recognizable as such. It was separate from material reality, yet irrevocably influenced by it - concepts that were comprehendable by mortal minds existed here, swimming among each other in a vast ocean of undifferentiated potential. This non-actualized sea of ‘could happen’ is what enabled the phenomenon known by most as magic to exist - if a potential event in the world was possible to be understood by those who lived within it, it could be found in the Warp and channeled through force of will into the shape of a spell. In their unaltered state, the vast majority of this magic would be composed of Dhar, for the Warp lacked the structure of the material plane, and all its substance would congeal together into slop if not held up by a framework of focused thought. This distance from the mortal world also made the Warp subject to its own laws, where like attracted like, a rule which gave rise to all manner of daemons and those gods that were mature enough for their narrative structure to hold up against the currents of the spiritual ocean.
As one grew closer to the Materium, next came the Shallows, a part of the spiritual realm that was adjacent to objective reality, if still somewhat divided from it. The Shallows was the realm of dreams, spirits, and more structured forms of magic than the uncontrolled tides of the Warp. Here was where the harmonic frequencies that made up the Winds of Magic could be found, and where gestating gods sat in tumescent slumber until their proper birth. This was as far into the spiritual realm as a mortal mind that was not specifically made for the task could safely venture, and thus the smaller entities that made this layer their home resembled the thoughts of mortals, and drew much of their strength from them. Here was where the bogeymen that lurked in imagined darkness crept, where spirits of luck and chance capered and danced with those of the winds and waters and stones. Anything mortal minds could look at and attribute sapience to was given form here, living fleeting lives of insubstantial whimsy, vanishing back into the ether once the attention sustaining them waned.
Just a little further, there was an almost imperceptible place, a transitional barrier between the ocean of the spirit world and the solid land of the material realm. The shore, where the scent of the waves still lingered and the damp could not be escaped, but there was definite ground beneath one's feet. Only here, in a realm so insubstantial that one would have to attain utmost control of their mind to even percieve it, much less walk in it, could the strands of the magic known as Qhyash be percieved.
The art of the Eight-In-One was not so turbulent and passionate as the unrefined Winds themselves, nor as weighty and uncaring as the primal tides of essence in the Warp or the tyrannical grip of Dhar. Instead, Qhyash could be achieved only with a gossamer-light touch, weaving strands of the eight winds together in such a way that skirted the rules of reality, allowing it to achieve outsized results with a fraction of the power input of other magical methods. The trouble therein was not the results, but the level of concentration and coordination it took to manage - such delicacy had been the sole province of the slann for the entirety of the lizardmen's existence. While the feats an experienced skink priest, to say nothing of an Octarine Cabal, were capable of were nothing to be cast aside, the immutable fact remained that no skink, be it mage or not, had the neurological capacity to properly contemplate and handle Qhyash. This was a constant of their creation that had been there since their inception.
Of course, the lizardmen had changed many such constants in the last century; one more was, at this point, perhaps not so much of a surprise as an inevitability.
---
The slann gathered in the depths of Chuq'xla, for it was the temple-city that they had determined to be most auspicious for the task at hand. One hundred eighteen they were, a great conclave of sages from every living generation of mage-priests with Mazdamundi himself at their head. They had watched for decades as the skink priests of their empire grew in number; as the Communion designed and implemented new varieties of skink mage, the average rate at which they spawned had increased, ensuring that a healthy amount of mages of every variety existed even within the most specialized temple-cities. Even the newer breeds incorporated smoothly with the others, the blue and amber-scaled elders of the Azyr and Ghur varieties showing no grievances at giving up the spots of preemience they had held for millennia. This was well, for now the slann intended to introduce change into their midst yet again, and this time in a massive way.
With great ceremony, the slann descended into Chuq'xla's spawning pools, ensconcing themselves in ledges carved for them along the cavern walls, and gazed with profound concentration at the glimmering waters of the Pools, and the intricate runic script carved upon their sides. Slowly, one by one, they began to speak, the deep vibrations of their voices resonating with each other as they began to recite something in a chorus of ribbiting chants.
Light formed in a lattice in response to their words, each syllable building upon the last as the vocal chords of the slann sculpted magical energy into an intricate weave. Shards of color formed and crystallized in the air above the pools, which flattened out and began to vibrate in tune with the voices of the slann. Strange fractal patterns formed upon the water's surface and began to raise upwards, forming complex geometric shapes that began to shine from within.
As the slann sang, they drew in rivers of purified Winds, channeled by an entire collective of each color of skink priest and fed into the spawning caverns. The harmonic constructs of the slann began to glow with the combined colors of the Winds, forming into an intricate series of three-dimensional sigils, each of which was made up of a precise balance of each of the eight Winds and programmed to channel the sum of their magical energies in an incredibly precise manner.
Ordinary levels of magical manipulation would not suffice for the level of sophistication the slann had in mind. These were but the tools that would craft the tools they needed.
The sigils crystallized into solidity as they finished forming, and the slann telekinetically moved them into a complex arrangement above the pools. Power pulsed through the talismans, feeding from one to the next in bright arcs that soon took on distinctive shapes. While many of the concepts embellished by the slann were too complex to be properly conveyed using only three-dimensional shapes, the symbols they had been taught that named each of the Winds of Magic had been refined into utmost simplicity by the hand of Tepok themselves, and so it was possible to utilize them here. One by one, the sigils traced arcs of light to each other in the shape of elegant, looping symbols - the signatures of the Winds, which rendered themselves into stained glass as the floating sigils did their work.
A mosaic slowly formed, eight-sided with eight spokes, each piece of Windglass mounted on a frame of neutral obsinite that was built so it could swivel and adjust, bringing one lens of glass to bear overtop of a central focusing lens, or all of them in any combination. The slann brought their power to bear in truth then, letting out a chorus of croaks that summoned a sphere of blinding radiance that thundered and roiled with intensity that set the air in the spawning cavern gusting as if a hurricane had come. The slann were not perturbed, and the icy grasp of their will compressed the sphere into a shining coil of colorless light that extruded itself through the obsinite apparatus, spearing through the central focusing lens and into the spawning pool below. It cut through the water as if it were not there, and the pools exploded into steam, which obscured the proceedings yet further and cast strange shadows upon the walls and participants both as their work continued.
The chanting of the slann became almost musical as they began to manipulate the lenses of solidified Windglass in intricate patterns, fanning them over the central beam in irregular-seeming rhythms that caused the beam to take on varying concentrations of that Wind's color. While they did this, others among them shifted the device's focusing lens in tight, precise arcs, causing the beam to shift and carve minute alterations into the pre-existing spawning matrices. The adjustments they required were, in truth, quite minute - the largest of them was no more than three millimeters across, and mostly consisted of small links and channels in between the script that denoted the spawning protocols for the existing skink priest breeds. There was no space to allocate for a separate Qhyash-aligned section; instead, the magical circuits for all the Winds would work in unison to spawn those who could wield them all.
This was a fact that had driven many in the Sublime Communion to consternation over the years - the skink priest apparatus, the entire matrix of the spawning pools, had been planned to hold all eight Winds by the Old Ones. Everything from the foundations up pointed to it; even the inclusion of Qhyash-perpetuating functionality was suggested, implied even, by the overall theme of the design. That itself was not what troubled the slann, for the Old Ones foresaw all in their workings, and yet.
And yet they had not filled out their design. They had left it incomplete, seemingly purposefully, and allowed for their servants to complete it only once the binding ties of their primary mission were removed, or at the least loosened. Yet it was not even this that afflicted some among the slann with headaches such as they had not suffered since the Mind Fog was slain.
The thing that troubled the mage-priests so was this - if they were still under the auspice of the Old Ones, all of their advancements forseen by the ineffable will of their creators, their increasing sophistication a regulatory response to the increased complexity of their mission now that the primary objectives of the Great Plan were indefinitely paused...
What then was the difference between them and the Uax?
The fungoid war-ecosystem, fellow creation of the Old Ones, was a self-completing, autonomously upgrading and self-propogating weapon, forged seemingly to bring war and destruction to everything in the cosmos. The slann had discerned this from essence lines coded into the very bones of what passed for the Uax's soul. The purpose of having created such a weapon was something the lizardmen did not yet know, but the similarities between themselves and the Uax could not be denied, as loathsome as the notion was. Both the Uax and the lizardmen were clearly presented with paths of advancement coded into their very genes, and everything from their biology to their natural social inclinations were structured to allow for the fulfilment of their inborn purpose. For the Uax, that was destruction, as primal and elemental as a storm. For the lizardmen...
The Tablets of the Plan had always detailed the will of the Old Ones. Yet those parameters had shifted, and no new ones arose to fill the void in over a century. It was with a sense of inertialess uncertainty that the slann contemplated this matter, letting none of it show on their impassive faces as they continued to inscribe the needed lines and loops upon the spawning pools.
In a matter of minutes their work was finished, and as the steam slowly ventilated outwards, the slann sat contemplatively in their alcoves and watched - already, the spawning pools were bubbling and charging with geomantic power, the self-regulating function of the city's grid responding to the new addition by performing the equivalent of a systems check.
There were no outsized magical effects that manifested within or nearby the pools, as occurred when other breeds of skink priest spawned. Instead, the pools flattened to a state of utter stillness that was so profound, the reflection contained within it was clearer than the air above. Below the surface, the slann could sense the water churning ferociously, forming an unfathomably complex lattice as currents of all eight Winds infused themselves into the pool alongside a healthy surge of geomantic power. Absolutely none of this showed on the surface, however, and even the sound in the cavern went dead, tamped down by the gravity of the spawning.
The skink priest rose from the waters without a sound or a ripple, and stood upon the surface as though it were perched upon solid ground. Its scales shimmered in the low light of the caverns, shifting between one hue and the next with seemingly endless variety, lending it a smooth iridescent sheen. The slann could also see nubs of small feathers, of all things, growing on the rear of its head where the crest would ordinarily be, trailing down the back of its spine and arms. Their thoughts rumbled, for such an addition had not been in their design, and feathers were favored by two beings attuned to magic - Tepok of the Crystal Eye, and the chaos god Tzeentch. Looking closer with their mage sight, the slann could see no signs of Chaotic influence upon either its genetic code or configuration of essence, and its affinity with Qhyash was obvious - around the skink there was a certain weightiness, a gravity that mirrored in part the aura that slann carried around their person, speaking to the ability the creature had to influence the world around it. Such signs spoke against the creature having been influenced by Chaos, but the slann were not entirely swayed, for Tzeentch was the most clever and duplicitous of the Ruinous Powers, and disguising every sign of its influence was by no means beyond its purview.
The skink priest was aware of none of their concern. It looked around, blinking in characteristic skinkish nervousness as it beheld the gaze of over a dozen slann, before padding delicately to the edge of the pool and stepping onto the stone tiles before prostrating itself before the toad-mages. "I behold thee, slann lords," it said, its voice rich and sonorous, possessing just a hint of the timbre the slann had in their own intonations. "I am Huehueyotl. What is thy will for me?"
Mazdamundi stared down at the skink with the same impassive expression that had overseen the eradication of entire species without flinching. "We suspect your creation may have been influenced by the Changer of Ways," came the answer, the words settling upon Huehueyotl's shoulders with the weight of worlds. "You will be examined, and your existence terminated if it is deemed necessary."
Huehueyotl inclined their head in grave seriousness. "I will perform the deed myself if called upon," they said. "Merely decide what it is you must do."
---
The slann took Huehueyotl to a secure temple, warded by companies of Temple Guard and inscribed with wards designed at the command of Potec, Quetzl, and Tlazcotl, and examined them with excruciating thoroughness for an entire year. Every layer of the iridescent skink priest's existence was peeled back and picked over under the ruthless gaze of the mage-toads, from scale and the flesh beneath it to their soul and the magic that ran through it. Every aspect was tested, every quality examined, and even their personal timeline exhaustively examined through calculative divination. Even furthermore, priests of the two lizardmen gods, Sotek and Ayotzl, were summoned to examine Huehueyotl, utilizing their divine senses to catch any hint of deceit or hidden corruption.
All the tests came back negative. There was no Ruinous essence embedded in Huehueyotl's essence, no fated disaster awaiting in their future. They were as free of the influence of Chaos as any lizardman, and their feathers - which had grown considerably during their examination, now resembling a headdress that bloomed in a harmonious rainbow of colors - declared a sign of Tepok's favor.
Production went underway as soon as the necessary tests were completed, for the physical markings on the spawning pools were simple and could be completed by a small team of kroxigors in less than a day, and the work of altering the underlying aethyric framework had already been done, the changes propagating autonomously to every temple-city upon their completion. Qhyash skinks arose from the pools and were integrated seamlessly into lizardmen society, their natural aptitude for wielding any and all of the Winds in tandem allowing them to take the place of slann in many routine magical rituals that had previously required the precious time and attention of the mage-lords. Examination and correction of geomantic infrastructure, obsinite pit operation and maintenance, tuning the soundproofing wards on the forge districts of the cities, and keeping the defensive enchantments upon the outer walls and Sacred Sites of a city all now fell under the purview of the iridescent skinks, and the slann suddenly found themselves with a surplus of time on their hands.
The most profound impact that they had was, of course, on the Octarine Cabals. The circles of eight skink priests, one of each Wind, had formed as a self-evident innovation under the pressure of Uax assault, but their ability to unify the magical strands they wielded was limited, their consciousnesses too specialized towards channelling their own individual spectrums of magic. The Qhyash skinks changed this - not only did they display a natural talent for weaving Qhyash that was on par with trained elf mages, they were able to coordinate and harmonize the input of their brethren when acting in concert with a Cabal, allowing the circle of nine to cast spells at a level of skill and power exceeding any of their own individual capabilities.
---
There were many bridges in Pahkypxi, for the city was host to innumerable waterways that facilitated trade with neighboring temple-cities and also functioned as a convenient testing ground for potential new ship designs, of course at small scale. It was not uncommon to see a flotilla of miniature stone ship models sail out from the catacombs beneath one slann's pyramid and engage in battle with a fleet from another, the two design philosophies battling it out to determine their superiority.
While less commonly utilized than travel by waterway, Pahkypxi's bridges served the vital service of allowing the shortcutting of ordinary travel time for important messages or supplies. It was thusly vital that they be kept fully operational at all times, and it was for this reason that the Octarine Cabal designated as Luminescent Pearls Gleaming in Moonlight had been called to the Bridge of Noon, the longest such archway in the city, stretching from end to end with several midway tributaries darting off of it. The day before, there had been something of a traffic snarl as multiple retinues of slann had moved themselves to the city's spawning pools, and an impatient Bastilodon had swung its tail against the outer arch of the bridge, cracking it in a most severe manner.
Luminescent Pearls Gleaming in Moonlight was composed primarily of young mages who had earned their aptitude through struggle during the war against the Uax, and besides the elder Azyr priest Krynkli'baag among their number, none of them had much experience utilizing their spells in anything but a destructive context. However, they heeded their orders without question, and presented themselves at the Bridge as a group, chattering idly amongst themselves as to what use they could be.
The figure that awaited them quieted all talk. The iridescent skink was no taller than any of them, its posture no more disciplined, and yet something about it drew the eye. Its outline seemed to draw the world in around it, dragging the eye involuntarily towards it as though one's gaze were caught in a gravity well. It held a bronze tuning fork in its hands. "I am Tlapallan," it said. "I was born today. Great lord Am'waahkin'eer has commanded that this causeway be rebuilt, and I am to make use of the Cabal of Luminescent Pearls to do so with. I believe this is intended as a proof of concept."
Tlapallan drummed their claws anxiously upon the tuning fork, drawing a soft tinkling sound out of the metal. "I have never used the magic of others in my hours of existence," they said, as though such a thing was to be looked at as a shameful admittance. "I will require an introduction to your abilities before we can proceed."
The Cabal looked at each other, a litany of meaningful glances dashing back and forth between them, outpacing even the rapidly muttered words that they passed to each other. At last, Krynkli'baag stepped forward, peering at Tlapallan with eyes infused with so much Azyr they had become tapestries of the night sky. "We have never seen a skink of your coloration and aura before," she spoke. "And you speak of using the magic of others as though it is yours to command. What is your purpose?"
Tlapallan blinked, momentarily startled by the question. "Ah! I was uncertain how much information pertaining to my breed had been allowed to permeate. I am an Iridescent, shaped by the slann to grasp the strands of Qhyash in their stead."
The words sent the rest of the Cabal into even more of a stir, and Krynkli'baag was forced to retreat momentarily and confer with her colleagues. A skink that could use Qhyash was ... unprecedented, this they all agreed. The conversation quickly turned to a hopeful tone, however - each of the Luminescent Pearls knew well the difficulty of making their disparate strands of magic work together, particularly in the heat of battle. If skinks such as Tlapallan could play the role of a conductor, the possibilities... well, they were considerable.
Krynkli'baag walked back over to Tlapallan, trailed closely by the rest of the Cabal. "We will contend with you," she said. "Show us what you can do and we will return with what we are capable of."
It took no more than a few minutes for a nearby plaza to be temporarily cleared, and Tlapallan walked to the central flagstone before turning to the Cabal and waiting, arms hanging loosely at their sides. Blikhaat, their Ulgu wielder and the youngest among them, was the first to make the attempt. They stepped into the shadow of a passing Bastilodon and vanished, before reappearing just behind Tlapallan, stepping out of their own shade while cloaked in a perception-dampening aura that made it nigh-impossible to see them. They drove a dagger made of shadow into Tlapallan's spine, only to find their thrust rebuffed by a paper-thin shell of white light that sprang up above Tlapallan's scales. Their eyes glowing with the radiance of Hysh, Tlapallan turned about with stupendous speed and tapped Blikhaat upon the forehead. A network of searing white threads sprang forth and tied the Ulgu skink priest up in an inescapable bind, the opposing magical frequency cutting through any of their attempts to call upon the Wind of Shadow.
"A fascinating attempt," Tlapallan said. "My fleshly eyes were completely fooled."
So it went, each of the Cabal members struggling against Tlapallan one by one, only for each of them to be defused by the Wind opposite to their own. The Hysh priest Dura'zhell was covered in a sticky shadow that smothered his light. Zuupa-khot, their Aqshy specialist, had their fiery energy drained away into the ground beneath their feet. On and on it continued, until all had faced Tlapallan save for Krynkli'baag and been solidly defeated. The iridescent skink was indeed capable of wielding all eight Winds, though they deferred against using more than one of them in any of the challenges. Even with this limitation, their sheer skill, which seemed an inherent trait, and the ability to tailor their strengths to the needs of the duel ensured a series of near-effortless victories for the glimmering priest.
At last the eldest of the Cabal faced Tlapallan from across the plaza, lightning crackling softly beneath her scales. One by one she had watched her circlemates face Tlapallan and be trounced, and by now any hesitation she may have had regarding the new skink had been completely eliminated - they were a natural virtuoso with their ability to wield the Winds, and it was clear that they would do well in command of the Cabal. However, she was not going to simply lay down and allow a spawnling of less than a day to simply walk past her and claim victory just like that!
"Are you prepared?" Tlapallan inquired. Krynkli'baag stared levelly at the iridescent skink and nodded. "You will not find me so trivial to deal with," she said. "I have seen the World-That-Was."
"My respects, elder," the feathered skink replied. "I hope to see it myself, some day." They bowed their head, closing their eyes for a moment. When they opened, they were with slit pupils and glowing a dangerous amber. Tlapallan shot forward like a bullet from a rifle, their muscles infused with the power of Ghur. Their claws, made elongated and jagged by the power of the Amber Wind, reached for Krynkli'baag's throat.
The Azyr skink was not there. Her starry eyes foresaw the intent of her opponent, and she took to the sky as soon as Tlapallan moved, their already-light flesh ascending upon a sudden gale. As the iridescent skink landed, Krynkli'baag opened her hands, atmospheric pressure condensing in her grip until a spear of ice formed in her talons. With a heave, she launched it below, guiding the spear on a fated wind to pierce Tlapallan through.
Tlapallan's head jerked upwards, perhaps sensing the fluctuation of magic. They drew back their own hand and flung, and a bolt of amber fury rocketed through the air, shaped like the fang of a Carnosaur. The two bolts collided in midair, shattering with a peal of thunder that rippled with the rhythm of a bestial roar. This too, Krynkli'baag had forseen, however, and the lightning she had ensconced within the ice carried onwards, coursing down the trail of wind and into Tlapallan's flesh.
The iridescent skink yowled in pain as the lightning crackled through their flesh. They were far from helpless against the assault, however - they thrust their hands out to the sides, and the magical current was drawn inexorably into their claws, which darkened and transmuted to stone that held the sparking energy within themselves. Tlapallan's head snapped upwards, and their enhanced legs drove them upwards in a super-quick burst of movement that sent them soaring almost to Krynkli'baag's height. A pair of batlike wings unfolded from Tlapallan's back, and they winged towards the Azyr elder, claws outstretched.
The two mages dashed around each other in the skies with agility matching the more skilled Terradon riders of the city, tracing complex loops and spirals around each other as they attempted to maneuver to a favorable angle. Krynkli'baag was driven to the backfoot, trying mostly to keep her distance so she could properly cast a spell that would affect her foe, while Tlapallan infused their flesh with more and more Ghur, until a single flap of their wings sent them arrowing across the sky so quickly they almost overshot their target. The sky darkened as they fought, a bank of clouds forming above the dogfighting pair, obscuring them save for the occasional flash of illumination as one of the two cast a bolt of energy to the other.
Krynkli'baag's foresight had been of invaluable use thus far, enabling her to see through her opponent's feints and start her maneuvers well in advance, but with each exchange, the margin by which she was able to evade Tlapallan grew narrower. Whether it was the iridescent skink learning through observation how to bluff her futuresight or simple expenditure of energy, she couldn't truly say, but the fact remained that before long, her luck would run out and Tlapallan would catch up with her.
It was fortunate for her, then, that the storm she had summoned was forming so quickly.
Three exchanges later, Krynkli'baag halted her movement abruptly, rotating upon a column of solidified air to look Tlapallan in the eye with her starry gaze. She said nothing, and her posture was utter stillness. Tlapallan, their flesh bulging with Ghur that hurried them onward, took the bait and rushed forward, snarling through enlarged teeth as the elder skink priest ceased her magic and dropped out of the sky. They prepared to fold their wings and dive, but something pinged at their awareness and they looked around. Their expression sunk as they realized with abrupt switfness the ploy they had fallen into.
Krynkli'baag had lured them into the center of an artificially constructed gale, a weather system under her control with layer upon layer of sinuous, coiling air currents that were now closing in upon themselves, preventing any exit by material means. The clouds began to spiral in around the iridescent skink, shot through with ice that crackled with an ambient magical static, and Tlapallan clenched their teeth - Winds-based teleportation would falter and collapse into Dhar in such conditions.
Krynkli'baag touched down upon the ground and waved her claws graniosely at the skies above. The clouds crackled with fury as lighting began to ricochet through them, closing in through pre-formed trails of ions on paths that led them directly to Tlapallan. The crowd of onlookers that had formed at the outskirts of the plaza were forced to cover their eyes as a series of bolts the size and thickness of trees collided at the storm's epicenter, creating a flash that rivalled the sun in brightness.
Thunder echoed outwards, the sound rattling off the city like a rain of falling boulders, but the light did not fade. If anything, it intensified, and began to change in color, deepening from electric white to a burning orange as something in the sky began to pull the storm in, swallowing the clouds and the winds inside them as the blazing light grew and grew.
A pillar of concentrated Aqshy coursed down from the sky like a falling star, enveloping Krynkli'baag before she could move. None of it burned her, or even touched her flesh, however - just above her head, a seed of Chamon sprang into existence, drinking in the Aqshy as though it were a bottomless ocean. It grew with the switftness of superheated metal, quickly becoming a solidified array of bars that assembled themselves around her into a gossamer-thin cage that hummed with magnetic force. Roots glowing with Ghyran sprang from the ground to bind her feet, chains of light and shadow sprang from the cage bars and wound around her limbs, and the wind itself leapt out of her grasp as for the first time in hundreds of years, Azyr did not heed her call.
Krynkli'baag fell to her knees as Tlapallan touched down upon the ground with elegant grace, borne by a gentle wind and suffued with an aura of absolute dominance. The stench of Ghur compelled her to kneel in the face of her superior, and she no longer had the force of will to contest it. A razor-thin blade of deathly amethyst appeared in Tlapallan's hand, a sharp-edged oar similar in design to those borne by the priests of Ayotzl. The edge of it hummed with the promise of the end as they held it to her throat, and all grew quiet.
"I concede," Krynkli'baag said, her voice heavy with reverence. "You hold the Winds better than any save the lord slann. I will follow you."
"No," came the reply, and Krynkli'baag looked up, confusion on her face. "You are the elder, and the more skilled besides," Tlapallan continued. "My talents and versatility bought me the victory, but you have more experience shaping magic than I have seconds under the sky. I will learn from you. From all of you," they said, directing their voice to the rest of the Cabal. "My purpose is to help you function, and to be an intermediary between the slann and the rest of the world. I will need your assistance if we are to do well."
With a flash, they dispelled all of their enchantments and extended a hand to Krynkli'baag. After a barely-perceptible moment of hesitation, she took it and stood, meeting the iridescent skink eye to eye. "Perhaps there are things we can learn from each other," she said.
---
As a few years passed, the Qhyash skinks became more and more integrated into lizardmen society. Most acted as the centerpoints of Octarine Cabals, but some were also recruited as the emissaries of slann - evidently, something about their ability to weave Qhyash made them especially easy for the slann to use as arcane vessels, their souls not offering as much incompatibility for the mage-lords to work around. It was thus a relatively common affair for a slann to possess at least one in their retinue, so that skink could go and address minor magical matters not worth their slann's time and attention. The Sublime Communion became busier than ever as the slann found their time reclaimed in a million small ways from tasks they had been routinely upkeeping for millennia, and were able to dedicate more of their time to contemplating the higher mysteries with their brethren.
Whenever a new breed of lizardmen was introduced into the spawning matrices, they tended to spawn more frequently than was usual for the first several years in order to ensure an adequate saturation of their numbers across the temple-cities before production tapered down to normal. Even with their relative rarity, the iridescent skinks were still subject to this - by the decade's end, in most every temple city there could be found at least one mono-Wind mage for every five to ten thousand lizardmen, and one Qhyash skink for every ten ordinary mages. This ratio ensured that any Octarine Cabal could reliably be headed by a Qhyash mage while still leaving room for independent specialists of all stripes to pursue their own projects.
As this demographic balance evened out, something peculiar happened. The Octarine Cabal had been an accepted unit of skink priest organization in lizardmen society for a time, but now there were signs of something greater emerging. A fully-formed Cabal with an iridescent skink at its head was capable of projecting its thoughts outwards and connecting with other circles in a crude imitation of the sublime connection enjoyed by the slann. This ability to coordinate naturally lead to the Cabals working together on greater and more influential projects within the lizardmen empire, taking on more responsibility and beginning to self-delegate tasks to their various members. Almost by accident, a new organization was forming in lizardmen society, a guild of mages that exchanged spell methods with each other, ensured that the maximum number of Octarine Cabals was kept up and running across the temple-cities, and coordinated with the other nascent branches of lizardmen society to keep everything running smoothly without needing the input of the slann - first and foremost the greater apparatus of the lizardmen military, but also the clades of the astronomers, Awanabil'tat's evergrowing bureau of engineers and architects, the quiet clades of chameleon skinks, and the enigmatic way by which the Temple Guard coordinated themselves. It was not long before this new organization was recognized formally, and a name given to the new guild - the Dazzling Wheel was now responsible for the training and management of non-slann mages among the lizardmen, and Huehueyotl, as the oldest and most capable Qhyash skink, took place at its head.
They quickly found themselves very busy indeed - perhaps not so chronically overbooked as Awanabil'tat's schedule, but there was never a shortage of tasks for a mage among the lizardmen, let alone a mage of mages. Almost overnight, the Dazzling Wheel had grown from nothing to becoming responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of a considerable portion of the lizardmen's magical artifacts and routine functions. Everything from keeping insect-repellent wards on the outer walls of buildings charged to ensuring that enough stockpiles of magically resonant crystals were kept on hand for usage in rituals and as ammunition fell under their purview, as well as the continued training of newly-spawned mages and the innovation of new spells and tactics. Sometimes a slann would take an interest in the training of their underlings and showcase a spell complex enough even for a full Octarine Cabal to just barely grasp, and they were slowly but steadily forming a compendium of such techniques to pass onto and educate the collective whole, thus pushing the standard for the skill of a lizardmen mage that much higher. Huehueyotl shouldered the burden with admirable zeal, coordinating with lizardmen centuries, if not millennia, older than them on a routine basis in order to keep everything in the Dazzling Wheel operating as it should.
As the slann watched these developments from their temples, some of them remarked at the ease of the Wheel's formation, which seemed to have catalyzed from pre-existing elements in lizardmen society almost as soon as sufficient saturation of Qhyash skinks occurred. They pointed to the growing complexity of their empire - where previously the rule of the slann had been highly centralized, with a mage-priest or their retinue delegating tasks on an individual level, now there were multiple semi-independent organizations that coordinated with the Sublime Communion as a whole to determine what labor should go where. The natural question raised from this emergent phenomenon, then, was what other organizations might be awaiting formation in lizardmen society, ready to be birthed as soon as the right preconditions were met.
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Qhyash Skinks successfully designed! Also known as iridescent mages, these skinks bear scales that ripple through a wide spectrum of colors, reflecting their mastery of all eight Winds of Magic and the art that stems from their combination. Shimmering feathers sprout from their heads and down their spines, which is seen as a sign of Tepok's favor. They possess a natural aptitude for coordinating the magical inputs of their mono-Wind brethren, and when at the head of an Octarine Cabal, enable the circle of mages to achieve feats of magic beyond the capabilities of any one individual. Beyond this role, Qhyash Skinks also serve as the representatives of many slann, coordinating between the mage-priests and the mundane world below their temples.
The proliferation of mature mage social units has spurred the formation of a new organization - the Dazzling Wheel is effectively a mage's guild that coordinates the training and assignment of newly-spawned skink priests, operating on the same level as the military heirarchies of the saurus, the engineering bureaus of Awanabil'tat and his architects, and the semi-independent clades of chameleon skinks that exist mostly outside the temple-cities.This growing decentralization has freed up a considerable amount of time in the day-to-day routines of the slann, resulting in a litany of research cost deductions across the board.
New hero unit gained - Huehueyotl is the first-spawned of the Iridescent skinks, a formidable spellcaster, and a naturally loquacious speaker. They are head of the Dazzling Wheel, occupying a place in lizardmen society ordinarily taken by those who would be centuries their elder.
42 slannpower has overflowed into Basic Soul Structure Examination, New total: 542/2250.
Comments
Voligne
Cost deductions > cost reductions
