Parliament of Ghosts

In life these names launched ships and armies, spared or condemned entire nations, and commanded magic unlike anything you could imagine. Today, those names are lost to the desert but something of their lives still lingers on. Hunger, hatred and madness.

The Empire of Skyrir Is the earliest known civilization to spread across Tairos and its tale is one of of tragedy, horror, and atrocity. From their meteoric rise to the final cataclysm that laid low their destiny, Skyrir was a place ruled by men and women of legend. Unfortunately, little can be said about any of them. Time has worn down their great works and the sands of the Scorchlands buried what remaines. The many outposts that dotted the Balmoran Plains and along the Tairos River fell victim to scavengers or the vengeful fury of nature's wrath. Yet, some evils endure no matter the efforts to bury and forget them. Rumors out of Baradrad speak of the shadows gathering in the ruins of Skyrir and the countless buried crypts of the desert being found open and empty by explorers. Baradradi necromancers of have peered into the veil between life and death and they say there has been an awakening within the depths of the dead city. The Parliament is holding session once more.

Living Tyrants

When the Parliament of Skyrir first ruled they were a collection of mortals and undead alike, all wealthy and powerful beyond imagination. Each was a voice for some group of people, sect, cult, or esoteric philosophy. And each, no matter how hard they tried, became tyrants in their own way. During the reign of the Golden God of Skyrir the members of Parliament were faithful scholars of the divine and zealous enforcers of his word. During the brief reign of Zharkaddos many of these lords joined the Lich's cult or devoted themselves to the study of the necromantic secrets their dead god had kept hidden all this time. Zharkhaddos attempted to complete his grand work and harness the Leylines of Tairos so that he might become a true god unlike the deceiver they had all sworn themselves to before. During the ritual most of the Parliament stood with him, aiding in what way they could and secretly hoping to sup at the excess and achieve their own measure of divine status in Zharkhaddos' new pantheon. Instead, they all shared in his failure. The destructive energy unleashed was impossible for the Lich to harness. He, his followers, and the entire empire were consumed by the fires of that cataclysm. Ash and cinders were all that was believed to remain of the Parliament. Revolts erupted all across Tairos, throwing off the yoke of the Skyriran remnants and putting their last strongholds to the torch. And, with it, any last libraries or writings of the Parliament. They were not just dead but erased. Or so the world had hoped.

Dreams in Death

While little remained on the surface of the Scorchlands to remind the world Skyrir even existed the earth below was stained with the Empire's wickedness. Shattered tombs, accursed texts, and the broken bodies of countless undead all lingered there, buried by the ruins of their nation. Zharkhaddos' failure also resulted in 'fissures' in the leylines where mana would seep fourth into the desert with unpredictable and often horrifying results. Not only would this trickle of magic continue to fuel some of the nightmares left behind by the Empire it would seep into the depths of great city itself and mingle with the echoes left behind. This became a breeding ground for mindless, destructive, threats that would rise from the sand to prey on desert travelers but none of these abominations had more than animalistic intelligence. They were beasts, rapid and starved. Yet, a singular intelligence was taking form in the shadows below. Slowly. Hatefully. And with such hunger. The sundered embers of Zharkhaddos' faithful, the Parliament of Skyrir, began to coalesce into something new. This toxic spiritual storm was growing though its mind was still nascent: a collection of random thoughts, urges, and scorn merging into one chaotic dream. As it grew and the dreams deepened many of the creatures birthed by the desert took on aspects of that dream such as crumbling identities that once belonged to the Empire's heroes and myths. These creatures were unknowing pawns, tools used by the dream beneath the sands, as it sought to wake and to remember. And then, after centuries of sleep, a deafening thunder pierced the veils of death and called the Parliament to order.

Hatred Holds Court

The Plague of Undeath that was unleashed when college of Necromancy was betrayed and expelled by Melanthris had many obvious and dire consequences for the people of Tairos. Crypts all across the continent burst open, fallen armies rose from their battlefield graves, and the dead roamed the land with an unnatural hunger. All of this is known and the records of this terrible event are throughly documented, though where the blame for it should land is a more nebulos matter. However; not every repercussion to come from the Plague unfolded in the light of day. Far from the epicenter of the disaster and deep beneath the earth the slumbering spiritual storm found its way back to the waking world. What emerged was a gestalt mind made purely of necromantic energy, raw mana, and the embers of Skyrir's most cruel souls. The Parliament was reborn but not as a body of individuals. Instead, as a single entity who's mind was roiling chaos made of willful fragments that sometimes rise to the surface before fading back into the whole. The new Parliament was more akin to the hive intellect of an insect colony or to a mortal who's mind is haunted by a deluge of voices. It is sentient and aware but it views the world through countless faces even though there is a single consciousness tethering them all together. With this strange awareness the Parliament looked out upon Tairos and raged. Their Empire was dust while the slave races prospered. Their outposts and estates were buried beneath the drab foundations of these failing nations. The very existence of Skyrir itself was scoured from the land. All of this only served to remind them of the history of betrayals that led to all of this: the betrayal of Zharkhaddos and the Golden God before him. Hatred spurred them to action and hunger the burning fuel of their drive. The Parliament set about rebuilding the world as they had intended all those long millenia ago. Armies were awoken and citizens from nearby communities began vanishing in the night to fill the abattoirs of the Skyrir once more. The Parliament holds court now but more so out of half-remembered tradition. Its members debate with each other wearing faces pulled from fragmented memory and with voices like distant echoes of the real person. All of it little more than a pantomime and programmed behavior; this is how the new Parliament of Skyrir processes the world. As a Parliament of Ghosts.

Parliament of Ghosts by Antti Hakosaari

Structure

There is really only a singular consciousness in play here but one that relies on a multitude of faces/voices to act with.

Public Agenda

The Parliament of Ghosts is seen as the controlling force behind every undead threat that moves against Baradrad. Most of the world outside the Scorchlands knows nothing of Skyrir and assumes the Baradradi are at fault for the corpses that prowl the desert wastes. The people of Baradrad know far more than any other about the threat of Skyrir and what it means that the Parliament has risen and taken command of the city once more.

Assets

The Dead. Countless millenia have come and gone since the fall of Skyrir and the desert is littered with untold resources in that regard. They also have access to magic that has not been used in the living world for an equally long time. These are the kind of spells that can impact entire nations. Finally, mana. Thanks to The Queen's Rebuke and the cracks in the leylines left by Zharkhaddos a great deal of death-infused mana leaks into the desert and though such energies would be toxic the living, the dead are able to fully take advantage. At the expense of their ability to resist their hunger though. Pulling upon pure death-energy in this way makes them even more ravenous and susceptible to madness.

Type

Exotic, Gestalt Consciousness

Alternative Names

Parliament of Skyrir

Parent Organization

The Empire of Skyrir

Related Ethnicities