Curator's Edda
The Curator's Edda is a set of recovered excerpts authored by the Curator of Naset, the Emperor of Naset's close confidant and advisor during the times before the Calamity. These scriptures depict historical knowledge from the Calamity regarding the Empire of Naset lost to time and sand.
Detailed within a small amount of hieroglyphical tablets that have been translated and rewritten by Nasetan sages and scholars, four stories are detailed by the Curator. The first tale, known as "Host", details the four core players within the story: the Emperor, the Brother, the Curator, and the Protector. The second story "Betrayal" details the Brothers corruption due to the whims of Arkhan, how he kills the Emperor, and how his undead legions battle against the Curator and Protector's armies. The story "Apotheosis" regales the Emperors return from the dead and the sand soldiers that accompanied him as they fought back and destroyed Arkhan's legions of the damned. The final scripture, "Descension", tells of how the Brother was locked away below the Citadel of Naset within the Tomb of the Emperors, at the cost of the Curator descending with him.
While these tablets may tell the tale of the apotheon's history and fall, empire archeologists predate these historical entries as being transcribed before the Calamity took place. It is unknown how the Curator had access to this knowledge long before the events occurred, whether it be because of the Curator being the goddess of knowledge Malady's apotheon or because of an unwritten use of chronomancy by the champion, it is a mystery that still confuses sages to this day.
Summary
Naset, a land of tradition and divine energy, was held aloft by the ambitions and authority of four divine souls. Champions or devout of the Primaris, they watched their empire blossom and grow as they approached calamity. The Emperor, though haughty and prideful, is generous. As his father passed the devout of the Dawnfather took to his calling without hesitation. Above all, he cares deeply for those who would march alongside him into Naset's golden future, However when the Emperor took up the mantle as ruler of Naset, he was arrogant. Blind. He accumulated power and planned his Apotheosis so that he might stand as ruler over not just Naset, but the entire world. He had yet to know that in his attempt to achieve this goal, he would die a truly horrible death trying. The Protector, a powerful apotheon one long dead god, he was a generational talent with his blade and his ascended form was equally feared. In his time as a general he felled threats from below and above the dunes and conquered the black marsh from the denizens within it. However despite these accomplishments he was a brash and savage individual, clambering for attention and acceptance from the gods and individuals he held dear. Little did my melded soul know what fate would befall him. The Brother, a gifted practitioner of the arcane, unbeknownst allowed hatred and jealousy to cloud his mind as the Whispered One took hold of it. It told him of his deepest believed truths and lies to himself. His power, his justification, his rightful place atop the throne. Certainly the Emperor could not have achieved all that he was able without his Brother by his side. If only the Brother realized his corruption and envy sooner, it might have prevented Naset's foretold demise... but some part of a mortal's humanity is lost when they become a true apotheon, and any forgiveness or leniency was quickly erased from the Brother's mind. The Curator, the transcriber of these tablets, a sage, scholar, and apotheon of the Knowing Arcanum. His newly won blessing allowed him countless lifetimes to spend in study and contemplation over the nature of the arcane and the divine, life and death, the discovered and what was yet to be. But this same extended lifespan would, after the fall of Naset, also prove to be his curse. So many long years in the dark with that betrayer filling his head with words of hate and resentment only fueled his rage towards the vile soul, tainted his knowledgeable mind with madness.
Host
In ancient Naset as the Calamity raged around his empire, the young Emperor was persuaded by his Brother, his magus, to attempt the fabled ritual of apotheosis – despite ancient warnings to do so only in times of direst threat. His brother, whispered with temptations of power and authority by an unknown thought at the back of his head, had given into his resentment towards his brother. He was meant to be the rightful heir to the throne, he was meant to lead Naset to a new era of prosperity, he was the one meant to ascend to the realm of the gods. The Emperor was arrogant and rash, a danger to the people and the Primaris as a whole, and it was the responsibility of elder kin to right their younger;s wrongs. The Brother's corrupted hubris proved disastrous. As the ritual dias focused the dawn rays into a transformative beam, the Brother betrayed the Emperor, shoving his kin aside and stealing its power for himself. In an instant, the Emperor was obliterated – and the Brother remade as a spectral being of pure, malevolent energy – as the city around them began to be swallowed whole by the desert. Whispers of dark magic flooded the streets as his form was corrupted, the Brother writing in agony, as the Whispered One's hold was sealed on him. The Curator and the Protector, Ascended heroes of Nasetan legend, sensed in an instant that something had gone terribly wrong and rushed to the Citadel. They hurled the Brother into a chained sarcophagus – but the magus shattered it into shards, each piece like shrapnel cascading through the Protector's body.
Betrayal
Piece by piece the heroes were slashed and torn apart, their bodies regenerating as Arkhan's skeletal legions surrounding the Citadel sank it into the ground. Without hope the two searched for a way to combat the Brother, to protect their citizens, to hold off long enough for their deities to arrive. But war was raging across Riven, there was no promise of divine powers rescuing the city of gold, no promise of making it through this battle alive. Understanding this the two sought not to survive, but to delay the inevitable. For two months the three fought endlessly against a torrent of rain and sand, each passing day the Undying King's reliquary inched closer to the Citadel and each passing second their bodies began to fail them. On the end of the sixtieth day the Protector took his last breath as his divine strength failed him. He and his melded soul had not let a single civilian fall past the apotheosis ritual, and they and the royal guardsman who perished alongside the Protector had fulfilled their duties as warriors. As the sky darkened, Arkhan's form loomed over the Citadel, and the Curator fell to the sand in front of his enemy, in this moment hope had been lost. They had held strong, lost hundreds of soldiers, but in the end the Empire of Naset was doomed to the will of a jealous apotheon and maniacal god. In the respite the Brother would take from the battle however, this split second would pose just enough time for deities of the Primaris to arrive through the blackened clouds. The God King, the Raven Queen, and the Lamb and Wolf, had arrived before the Citadel was swallowed by its sands. As the gods began to battle amongst one another a powerful blow from the Great Usurper knocked the amber gem of Celestor's hammer loose. Colliding with the apotheosis circle it transformed into a beacon of bright light as gleaming as the sun that shone above the city, emerging from it the ashes of a the dead rose as the Emperor returned fully apotheosized. An army of sandstone constructs emerged with him, a tide turned as his forces collided with damned souls, and Naset's fall was prevented despite what fate declared.
Apotheosis
While skeletal hordes of soldiers were fought back into the wastes, and the battle of gods above them retreated into the distance, the Emperor and his advisor struggled to contain the pure arcane energy they once called their confidant. They fought for another month straight, unable to gain advantage against the magus' form and without a way to truly destroy the apotheon. The Emperor feared the end was nigh once more, and it was not until he realized he would be forced to make a terrible choice did he waver... The Curator dragged the Brother into the Tomb of the Emperors and shouted to his emperor to seal the door. With a heavy heart, the Emperor entombed his advisor with a madman he once called his brother in the buried ruins for all eternity. Now they fight beneath the very Citadel their people live within, and for eons the Curator will do so until a way to destroy the undead soul is discovered.
Descension
Date of Setting
Related Articles
