Threnody

 Thirty-two thousand years ago there was a world made mostly of wind andlight. It was a vast world, a gas giant of sorts over 75,000 miles indiameter. Its natives called it Euphony.Islands made of porous stone, riddled with tunnels and bubbles ofair, floated in the sky, orbiting a central radiance known simply asthe Glow. All gravity on Euphony oriented toward it. The Glow had manycolors, cycling from the orange and pink of coral to a silvery white toa vibrant crimson throught the twelve-hour day, becoming a deepblue-green at night, a color that would have reminded people on otherworlds of the sea.Euphony had no sea, but it had no lack of water. Clouds of allsorts wreathed the world, scintillating with the reflected light of theGlow. The clouds carried rain to all the floating isles, even fillinglakes and streams. The cloud cover was so thick that nothing of the skybeyond could be seen - not Liga, the distant sun, nor any moons thatmight have existed, nor the stars. The natives did not suffer for lackof these phenomena, however, not with the constantly changing Glow andthe sight of the islands and clouds reflecting its brilliance. The skyis usually as bright as the Glow currently is because of reflection ofthe Glow and filtering in the dim light of the sun. They had somethingelse, too, that most other worlds did not: a wind that sang beautifularias as it whistled through the pores of the islands, rising andfalling in pitch and tempo and harmonizing with the songs of theworld’s ubiquitous birds. It was this wind-song that gave Euphony itsname.The islands were heavily forested and populated by birds of allsorts. The primary sentients were giant eagles, the birdlike raptoransand aarakocra, and the avariel, or winged elves. The races believedthey were part of a spectrum with the eagles at one extreme and thewinged elves on the other; the raptorans were closer to elves and theaarakocras closer to eagles, but all were cousins. Of the three, theavariel were the most powerful and sophisticated.Each race had its own pantheon - the raptorans worshipped theirgoddess Tuilviel Glithien, the Queen of Air and Night who ruled duringthe time the Glow was darkest; the aarakocras worshipped their godsKocraa and Syranita. Remnis, prince of eagles, was also well-respectedby everyone on the world, though by the giant eagles most of all. Theavariel worshipped a group of brother and sister gods they believedlived in the High Forest beyond the clouds, but who at the same timerepresented all of nature. These gods were called the Seldarine.The primary gods of the Seldarine were:Aedrie Faenya, goddess of wind, weather, fertility and song.Thought of as the mother of the avariel and all of nature, AedrieFaenya was revered above all the others.Sehanine of the Glow. Sehanine represented the light of the Glow, and dreams, gravity, death, and transcendence. Corellon Larethian. Corellon represented the reflected light thatglinted on the floating isles, and the shadow too. His symbol was acircular island with only the lower crescent lit. He was also thepatron of arts, magic, crafts, and war.Araushnee. Araushnee was the stern goddess of weavers, darkness,and fate. She was said to influence all plans the avariel might make,and to guide the path of the islands around the Glow. Her ways andmeans were said to be mysterious as night itself. She was also thepatron of elven exiles, those avariel banished from their community oftheir kin. The avariel were saddened when the crimes of their peopleforced them to drive them from their homes, and took solace in theknowledge that Araushnee would guide them in their new lives indistant, unpopulated isles.The capital of the avariel was called Aria, and this was also thename of the large shining lake it overlook, and the great island onwhich they both rested. In the capital ruled a king and queen. Becausenone could match the avariel in either magic or martial might, the kingand queen of Aria claimed the title of King and Queen of all Euphony.The ninth queen of the Aelee dynasty (which was the 14th dynasty toreign in Aria) was known as Kiaran. Kiaran had actually been born amember of the house of Salee, which had in the previous dynasty beenthe family from which kings and queens came from, but which had beenoverthrown after they had started experimenting with dark magic. Manyin that house were banished, and those left behind had to contentthemselves with far-lessened prestige. Still, Kiaran was beautiful andeducated and of undeniably noble blood. The crown prince of the Aeleeloved her from the moment he met her, and everyone agreed that thedarkly lovely and magically talented Kiaran was a good match.Kiaran, like others of the Salee, was a worshipper of the goddessAraushnee, though she was not especially reverent and made appearancesat ceremonies of the other gods as well. She respected Araushnee as thegoddess who separated the weak from the strong, and the one who watchedover the banished members of her birth house. Kiaran was well-liked by her subjects, and loved by her king. AedrieFaenya blessed their union with a number of children, three daughtersand a son.She reigned as Queen of Euphony for two hundred and sixty-five years.In the two hundred and sixty-fifth year of Kiaran’s queenship, herhusband the king came home unexpectedly early after a tour of some ofthe inner isles. There was an eerie hush in the palace, and theservants looked at their king in trepidation. He knew something must bewrong, but could get nothing out of them. He searched the palacefrantically for his queen, sure something was wrong. He stormed intoher laboratory to find the queen and her daughters standing around somesort of horrible abomination - a collection of elven corpses crudelystitched together and somehow terribly animate, their voices shriekingin a chorus of undying pain.Kiaran gifted her husband with a sweet, if somewhat embarrassedsmile. He would not listen to her impassioned justifications of heraction or the crying of his daughters. She had broken his heart, andthe only course was clear: she and those whose innocence she hadcorrupted must be banished.After a long trial in which a long list of atrocities wasuncovered, the Queen and her daughters were found guilty of theircrimes and named dhaeraow,traitors. They were led at spear point to the edge of the furthestcivilized island, many thousands of miles away from Aria. They werebranded so that no other avariels of the empire would ever accept them.They were given food and water and ordered to fly away and never returnto any island in the avariel empire. “May Araushnee have mercy on yoursouls and guide you to safety,” their excort read to them formally.Then, to avoid the spears of their guards, they flew into the airyvoid. Behind them, mourners wailed a sad song, the same threnody theysang over the dead.The island faded into the distance behind them until it was hiddenby atmospheric haze. “Araushnee will guide us,” the youngest princesssaid, choking back tears.“Forget Araushnee,” Kiaran told her daughter. “Where was she during that sham trial? I will guide us.” They flew from island to distant island, living off the land andthe occasional generosity of the aarakocras, looking for the banishedremnants of House Salee.They found a hint on an island where stemless flowers hovered inthe air; Kiaran found a signet of her house, much corroded by the yearseven in the comparative shelter of a shallow cave.They found a better hint in a village where the aarakocra stainedtheir feathers red with the blood of their enemies. They told her of atribe of avariel who had disturbed the bones of their ancestors withwicked magics, and how after a long battle they had slain the defilers.Kiaran thanked them for their hospitality, then she and her daughtersslew their night watch and killed the rest of them in their sleep.At last they came to an island that was nearly all verticalmountain slope. Kiaran could almost taste the magic in the air. TheSalee sages flew into the sky to meet her party when she was stillabout a mile away. Their bodies were tattooed with skeletal patternsand their faces were hidden by cowls; they were otherwise naked, andfithy.“Identify yourself,” the Salee ordered, their voices raspy from disuse. “My name is Kiaran,” she said, her voice full of relief after her long journey. “I’m of your house. House Salee.”The sages conferred, pointed out various distinctive attributes ofKiaran and her daughters, looked carefully at their brands, and finallynodded. “Welcome then, Kiaran Salee. Welcome home.”The four newcomers trained with their older cousins for twentyyears, becoming as gaunt and tattooed and filthy as they. They learnedmuch, but even the ancient banished princes of Salee were shocked atKiaran’s power. At last, following a particularly savage duel, theybowed their heads in defeat. “We can teach you no more,” they said humbly. “We can only point your way to your next teacher.”Kiaran cocked her head in interest. “There is, of course, a price. How badly do you desire vengence?” Kiaran thought. They told her more, and she considered what she had learned.Seven days later her daughters helped her create the ring of summoning.They carefully painted the runes with brushes dipped in their ownfreshly opened veins. “Daughters,” said Kiaran. “When we were banished, we traveled from theland of the living to this land, this purgatory, a place of livingdeath.”They nodded.“I was responsible for your birth. Now I bring you from death todeath.” With cold fire she killed them all. She snatched their soulsfrom the air before they could travel into the Glow. She spoke thewords of power.Darkness and cold filled the circle, darkness deeper than any caveand cold more savage than any snow. Two eyes opened, burning with aflame that could melt souls. Black wings unfurled, not feathered likean avariel’s but leathery and ragged. A heavy, hairy head bowed, itsmassive twisting horns moving with it.Its voice was deep and sonorous, but bestial, corrupt. It was ahowling beast and a well-spoken prince. It had the dignity of a funeraland the senselessness of a massacre. Each word it spoke felt like adeath.Power enough to summon something of Orcus, it mused. It has been longandlong and longagain since I’ve tasted such from a mortal. It glared into Kiaran’s heart. Name yourself, spellworker.“Kiaran,” she said. “Kiaran Salee. I am your thrall.”Yes, Kiaransalee, said Orcus, its black lips curving upward into a shark-toothed grin. You are.Orcus brought her back with it to the Abyss, where the darkness andcold and void of the demon lord were everywhere in the land and sky andthin air; wherever she went the eyes of Orcus stared at her; wherevershe fled its voice mocked her. It swallowed her up in its wings; itdrank of her spirit and ate of her flesh. It used her in this wayatrociously and repeatedly, but she learned what it wanted and how tosatisfy it. She learned how to convince it to teach her things, thingsonly it knew and secrets it had stolen from those who came before it.She tasted of her captor as it tasted of her. It did not begrudge herthese little gifts. After all, it would never let her go. She learnedall she could. Decades passed in the cold and darkness. She waiteduntil she thought all its secrets were hers.Kiaransalee, as the Lord of the Undead had named her, had one lasttrick. She used her own blood to open a gate and called to her firstpatron, the one with a prior claim on her soul. “Araushnee,” she whispered. “Guide me, Great Weaver. Guide your lost one to freedom.” She stepped through the door.Stop, ordered the darkness. Don’t gothrough. Don’t forget, I still have your children’s souls.“I won’t forget,” she promised the world of Thanatos. “I’ll be back for them.”She stepped into a forest where all the leaves of the towering treeswere shining silver-bright. There seemed no end to the land, no placewhere it dropped off into the sky. “The High Forest,” she whispered.Oh my, whispered the trees. You are a lost one. What has become of you, princess Kiaran?“I was a queen,” Kiaransalee said to the wind.You were a slave, the leaves laughed at her.“I have been many things,” Kiaransalee admitted.You have only been a slave. To yourfamily, to your husband, to your vengeance, to that thing in the dark.You have only been a slave.“I have learned much,” said Kiaransalee. “I am so much more than I was.”No, said the trees, and thousands of red eyes looked at her from silver webs. You are still a slave. You will always be a slave.“This is the fate you intend for me?” Kiaransalee clenched andunclenched a fist, her hand wanting to work magic but not having adirection to point in.This is your fate, said the spiders. Kiaransalee stretched out her power, the power she had gained bydrinking of Orcus and learning his secrets. The ground rippled. Allaround her, the divine spiders of Araushnee died. Then they got upagain.“I will defy my fate,” said Kiaransalee.All of reality rippled. The skies above the silver trees darkened.The pale cold fire within the dead spiders went out. The spidersquickened with new life.A nice trick, said the spiders. Apretty new collar for Orcus’ little kitty. Drink of my venom, kitty,and perhaps you can choose the collar you think you want. But you canonly ever trade one collar for another, kitty cat. You will always be apet. You will never be truly free.The spiders were everywhere. They came toward her like a great wind,and she could not stop them. Her changes were instantly erased. Theyfilled her mouth and nose and eyes. Unwillingly, she drank.None of us are free, saidAraushnee, looking sadly at her misguided daughter. The goddess knewwhat was to come. She knew all of it: the unforgivable atrocities thatKiaransalee was yet to commit, Araushnee’s own betrayals millennialater. She was a goddess of fate; she spun the threads of destiny evenas destiny spun her. There was nothing she could do. She could cut thethreads, but they were all that supported her. Without them, she wouldstill fall into the Abyss. Araushnee wept venomous tears, and went tobe comforted in the arms of the god she had chosen as a lover.In the palace of Aria, the king remained unwed. He couldn’t remarry; not when Kiaran still owned his heart.He shuttered the windows of the palace. He refused to let hissubjects refer to him as the King of Euphony; every song the wind sangsounded like a dirge to him. The only title he acknowledged was King ofThrenody, a widower king mourning his lost love. As the years wore on,his son became the real ruler. The prince took his own wife - not fromthe House of Salee, which was if anything in worse shape than beforeafter its second royal disgrace. There were worried reports from the empire’s frontiers of a darkpresence massacring entire villages. The king’s son ordered severalflights of the army to investigate. They never returned.The presence, whatever it was, continued to approach. The king’sson ordered his entire army and all local militias to attack it,holding nothing back.None of the soldiers returned.The days seemed to grow shorter. The Glow was red for longerperiods of time, as if it were absorbing the blood of the slain. Stormsgrew more frequent. The wind began to howl as much as it sang.Then new reports filtered in. The soldiers were finally coming back.They were not positive reports.It seemed nothing could stop the undead hordes. Those thereanimated soldiers killed were forced to join them as they flew towardAria, never stopping, never slowing.The king and his son met them at the palace door. The king’s facewas calm, resigned, and even seemed a little grateful that at last thelong-delayed reckoning had come. His son simply looked horrified.“Say hello to your mother,” the king advised him.Do as your father says, howled the legions of undead, their tonguesstolen away from them by a greater will. Then they spoke to the king.I told you my research was for the good of our people. You wouldn’tlisten. You cast us into a living death. Now I will prove to you thegood my research can do. Magic is very good for vengeance, I’ve found.Magic assures us of justice, and what more could a king wish for hispeople?“I’m ready, Kiaran,” said the king. He watched his son writhe in agony as his life was stolen away.Hours later, Kiaransalee sat on the throne that had once been herhusband’s. Her husband sat on the throne that had been hers, his blinddead eyes looking at her with love. “You’ve no idea how far I’vetraveled to get back here,” she told him. “To the far corners of theworld, to Hell and Heaven. I wandered the negative energy plane for atime. Do you know what that is? You soon will, love. I’ve made a breachin the Glow. It’s more negative than positive now. Do you see the redshift? It feeds my powers, my darling. My darling love.”She gazed at her son sitting at their feet. Her precious baby boy.He’d stay with her forever, now. And soon she’d get his sisters back.It shouldn’t be too many eons before she was ready to take on her oldteacher. She could wait. She would gather worshippers and power onwhatever world was susceptable to her gifts. Even a demon lord couldget old, but she was undying.She listened to the wind howling outside the palace. A beautifulsound, but not one she’d ever heard before. Not even in the Abyss.“What did you call it, dear? The song the wind sings now?”“Threnody,” said the king through his dead, dry lips.“A song to mourn the dead. Terrible beauty from tragedy. Yes, mydarling, that’s very good. Very, very good, handsome husband of mine. “That’s all this world will ever hear from now on.”Her legions would soon complete the extermination. Nothing would remainbut red light and storm, fire and ice, ash, salt, dust and void. Theclouds would freeze into ice and islands would melt into slag. Nothingwould remain of the world’s song but her threnody.Gnibile (Threnody)Spelljamming pirates gave it the ugly name of Gnibile, but theundead who haunt the giant gas world still remember its old name:Threnody, the mournful song of the dead. Gnibile is the sixth planetfrom Oerth. Gnibile’s orbit is between the planets Edill and Conatha.Its mean distance from Oerth is 600 million miles. It takes Gnibileabout 25 years to orbit around Oerth. It has a ten hour day followed bya fourteen hour twilight. It is the second largest planet inGreyspace, after Edill and not counting the sun. Moons: Earth, magma,ice, and fire clusters. Salt, vacuum, ash, negative energy, and dustclusters. Portals to the negative elemental planes. Its diameter isroughly 75,000 miles.