Discovery of the Tree of Blood
Olivanticus was a powerful binder in the Elentian Empire not long before The Fall. He practiced his dark magic in secret, but was eventually discovered by the Knights of the Twilight when he used his powers to remove a rival for the affections of a woman. He had no choice but to flee, and headed into the lawless lands of the West.
Olivanticus new he’d need a place to practice far from prying eyes, and avoided any established settlements. He spent the better part of two years wandering before he found an enigma that captivated him
When he neared the Fell Wood he heard more and more legends of the consumed, and decided to investigate them. The consumed walked like men, yet had lost all visibile intelligence. They were nearly impossible to kill, and the closer one came to the Fell Wood the more consumed they’d run afoul of.
Van decided to seek out the Fell Wood, both because it was avoided by the general populace and because he was curious to meet a consumed for himself. A few weeks later he reached the edge of the Fell Wood, and had his first encounter with the consumed.
He just barely survived the fight, even with his potent magic and impressive combat skills. The consumed simply refused to die, no matter how it were maimed, burned or dismembered. It proved incredibly difficult to bind, moreso than any creature he’d ever encountered. Even after being bound the creature was wild and unpredictable, and control was a constant battle.
Olivanticus spent time studying the beast, but had no idea where it derived its power. Oddly, the closer it came to the Fell Wood the stronger it became and the more it resisted his control. Van realized that if he wanted to unearth the secret of the consumed he’d need to brave the Fell Wood, probably journeying to its very center.
He gathered a small army of consumed, binding them as tightly as he could. Then he set off to explore the wood, gradually making his way closer to the center.
His initial meetings with the Na’Elfen tribes did not go well. His fledling army suffered many casualties, and Olivanticus was amazed by their prowess in battle. They fought like demons and demonstrated many of the same powers as the consumed. Yet somehow the kept their minds, unlike the feral consumed. What’s more they knew how to dispatch the consumed, which involved driving a redwood stake through their hearts and burning the bodies in a specially prepared fire.
Before making a trip to the heart of the forest he decided he needed to know more about it. His quest for knowledge led him around the edge of the forest, until he found a valley in the shadow of a massive mountain. A small village of trappers and miners existed and he questioned them about the forest.
The people of Mountain Shadow had many myths, one of which was of particular interest to Olivanticus. It claimed that a few nights a year strange lights filled the night sky, flowing into the Fell Wood like a river of light. Further investigation revealed that these lights usually occurred on the winter solstice, which was fast approaching.
Olivanticus scaled the mountain overlooking the town, which afforded the best view of the forest he’d yet found. What he saw changed his life forever. From the mountaintop he could see to the very heart of the forest, and one tree towered over all the others. Redwoods that must have lived for thousands of years were like children seated at the feet of giant. A single tree stabbed into the sky, and even from that distance Olivanticus could feel its incredible power.
He was fairly certain he’d found the source of the consumed, but waited through winter solstice to be sure. What he saw confirmed his suspicions. On the night of the solstice Fae flowed towards the tree from every direction. It seemed the tree actually drank of the energy, and Olvanticus was sure he’d found the source of the power within the forest.
The next day he outfitted himself for a trip to the heart of the wood, leaving behind the small army of consumed he’d bound. He snuck past the Na’Elfen and the Tenders who guarded the tree itself. When he reached it he was shocked by its majesty and sheer size. The tree towered thousands of feet into the sky, and its trunk was over a hundred and fifty feet thick. The entire thing was slick with what he took for sap, until he approached.
The scarlet substance turned out to be blood, and Olivanticus filled several vials for study. He retreated from the forest, returning to Mountain Shadow and purchasing a large manor overlooking town. He decided to make it his laboratory, and quickly set to studying the blood and the consumed in general.
Eventually he realized that the blood was the source of the consumed’s power. Each and every consumed had ingested at least some, and the stronger the consumed the more of the blood he was able to distill from them.
Olivanticus knew it would confer immense power, but strongly suspected that the blood overwhlemed the will of the person who drank it. Yet what if the person could overcome the blood? Would they have the same powers as a consumed, but retain their will?
The question ate at Van until he could stand the curiousity no more. He tasted a single drop and it forever altered his destiny.
Olivanticus was assaulted by visions from the Tree of Blood. The blood itself came from a fallen god, and it was so powerful that it had awakened the tree. Anyone who ingested this blood gained a measure of the god’s power, and the more blood one drank the stronger they became. Yet the tree sought to control any who drank the blood, and he battled for a day and a night against its implacable will.
Eventually he won, reatining his sanity while undergoing the rest of the transformation that would have turned him into a consumed. Olivanticus became stronger, faster and gained greater power over the Fae. He regenerated with preturnatural speed and stopped aging. He also noticed that women were now unnaturally attracted to him, while men feared him the way a man feared a predator.
Over the next few years he took measured draughts of the blood at regular intervals, each increasing his already considerable strength, but also triggering another onslaught by the Tree attempting to seize his will. With the strength of his blood and the power of his magic enslaved hundreds of consumed to his will. He gathered both animal and man alike into a small but immensely powerful army.
The Secret of Mountain Shadow
Olivanticus realized that if he were to ever have a chance of opposing the tree he’d need a strong base of opperations and a great deal of help. That meant recruiting other Osis and giving them the blood so they could help him usurp control of the consumed from the tree.
Mountain Shadow was close to the forest, and it offered one other major advantage. The mountain that gave the town its name provided an excellent spot to build a magical device that would harness some of the energy that the tree gathered every solstice.
Unforatunately the people of Mountain Shadow were a superstitious and stubborn lot so Van knew they’d never agree to leave the area. They’d have to be dealt with if he ever hoped to build the device he needed to begin active opposition to the Tree of Blood.
Once he felt his army was strong enough Olivanticus attacked the town of Mountain Shadow. He tried to make his takeover as bloodless as possible, but the people resisted with shocking ferocity. He was forced to put down over sixty percent of the population, and word of the bloody massacre spread throughout many surrounding towns and villages.
The survivors were mostly women and children, which suited him just fine. He knew he’d need to reorder their society to get them to accept a vampyr as their lord. Olivanticus took a number of the most beautiful women as concubines, and began construction of a massive manor on the largest hill overlooking the town.
Olivanticus searched among the populace for any Osis, particularly Void, Spirit or Earth Aspects since they could most easily learn binding. He spent time training each, with a focus on hardening their will. When he felt each was strong enough he gave them a single drop of True Blood, creating new Vampyr to help him control an ever larger army of consumed.
Some were unable to handle the transformation, becoming the very consumed they sought to control. A few retained a sliver of their minds, giving Olicvanticus hope that they could be reclaimed. Yet in the decades that followed he never found a way to restore their sanity.
Olivanticus knew that his activities would be considered a threat by the Elentian Empire if they were discovered. The Knights of the Dawn had a long memory, and he also knew they’d still be hunting for him. He was careful to keep complete control over Mountain Shadow so that no word escaped.
The came The Fall. The Elentian Empire disintegrated literally overnight, and just like that the threat of retribution was removed. Olivanticus had complete freedom to do whatever he liked, without fear of reprisal from any nearby governments with the strength to stop him.
His experiment in Mountain Shadow had been a complete success, and he was eager to replicate it on a larger scale. Expanding his influence was the only way he could gain enough strength to oppose the tree, and that meant conquering an ever larger territory to provide more Osis he could convert to vampyr.
At the time the nearby kingdom of Reverian was led by an offshoot of the Knights of the Dawn that had survived The Fall. They worked hand and hand with an academy of powerful chanters to keep order and were ruled fairly and well. They were no match for the forces of Olivanticus.
He dispatched his most powerful disciples to the outlying cities of Reverian. Each disciple was given control of several dozen consumed, and ordered to wage a campaign of terror against a specific city or town. They made it unsafe to leave after dark by killing anyone found outside the city walls. When knights were sent to investigate the disciples arranged brutal ambushes, wiping them out to a man.
The few surviving knights to escape such ambushes returned to the capital, and the king called an emergency meeting. He knew that many of his cities were suffering from the consumed, and that he had to do something immediately.
A full company of knights backed by battlemages were dispatched to each of the afflicted cities. Olivanticus had Reverian city kept under close watch and as soon as the army left he gathered the bulk of his army.
He invaded Reverian at two bells after midnight. With the city’s garrison seriously weakened by the forces dispatched to help the outlying areas they were quickly overwhelemed. The consumed could only be killed by potent spells or a laurel stake through the heart, so most of the soldiers couldn’t even hurt them.
The fight for the castle itself was short and bloody. Olivanticus was far stronger than the defenders, and defeated them nearly single handedly. He killed the king himself, taking the Reverian crown for even as the king’s blood stained the floor of the throne room. He christened the country Olivantia, and sent proclomations to every outlying town and city declaring any surviving knight an enemy of the state.
The knights who’d left the city of Reverian had nowhere to go. Every hand was turned against them, and the vast majority were hunted down. A small group managed to escape to the neighboring kingdom of Valys where they were absorbed into a similar order that had also escaped The Fall.
The Valysian knights were also devoted to Dalanthar, and were horrified by the tales of the consumed. They eagerly accepted the few survivors, absorbing them and vowing to stop Olivanticus no matter the cost.
Rise to Power
Olivanticus’s seizure of the kingdom of Reverian was both ingenious and nearly bloodless. Terror kept the people in line, because they feared the consumed and knew that if they resisted the local binder lord would withdraw his protection. He’d created a dire threat that only his vampyr could protect them from. Like it or not the populace needed him, so they quickly aclimated to his control. Those who didn’t were silenced with deadly force.
His next move was to scour the country for adepts. Tests were performed in every village, and those with talent were sent to the capital where they were forced to take the blood. The weak joined the ranks of the consumed, while the strong became binders or other chanters that could serve the vampyr. These binders were given everything they could wish. Wine, women, gold…anything was theirs as long as they paid homage to Olivanticus.
When their training was complete each was given control over a city or town based on their talent and social standing. Once there were enough vampyr Olivanticus organized them into the council of binders, which met to discuss the day to day ruling of their nation leaving him free to work on methods to battle the Tree.
Olivanticus could have ruled the entire nation with an iron fist, but knew he’d fare better pulling the strings than he would being the sole ruler. That would only make him an obvious target. Instead he was one vampyr among many. He still maintained control by having his lackeys placed on the council while rivals were eliminated.
Within two generations Olivantia was the second most powerful nation in the west, second only to might Hasra. Every year more cities, towns and small kingdoms fell before them. Their armies swelled, until the council could bring to bear nearly 200,000 consumed.
Eventually Olivanticus set his sights on Valys, largely because of the small kingdom’s open and very vocal hatred for Olivantia. The surviving knights of Reverian had passed along their legacy, and Valys was eager to kill the binders now controlling the nation.
Olivanticus marshalled an army of consumed backed by the most poweful chanters his nation could muster. They attacked in the dead of night, slaughtering many of the border forts guarding the small nation.
Valys had only one choice. They petitioned Hasra for aid, offering to join the Imperium as a vassal state in exchange for protection. The imperium eagerly agreed as it gave them access to Valys’ rich iron mines and highly skilled cavalry.
Hasra launched a military crusade larger than anything ever seen in the west. Scores of Imperial Battle mages joined legions of cavalry and footmen. They outnumbered Olivanticus’s army seven to one, but they were unprepared for the nature of the consumed.
Their battlemages could incinerate them, but more conventional tactics were useless. A knight could hack apart a consumed, only to have it rise and rejoin the battle a few minutes later. The Temple of Celeste petitioned the Stewardess herself for aid, something unheard of since The Fall two centuries earlier.
Much to their shock she appeared before them, agreeing to aid them in battle. She provided a number of Eldimagus to the most powerful battlemages, greatly enhancing their strength. Entire legions of consumed were blasted to ash, and within a few days the tide of the war turned in Hasra’s favor.
Olivanticus was forced to retreat, leaving Valys largely intact in the first loss the vampyr had ever suffered. Nine out of ten consumed had been destroyed, but nearly all of the vampyr survived the battle. They retreated back to Olivantia to lick their wounds, having really lost nothing more than fodder that could be quickly regathered.
Valys called for vengeance asking their new masters to launch an invasion of Olivantia. Unfortunately Hasra’s losses against Olvanticus had been massive, and they refused. They told Valys that they’d begin preparing for war the following spring instead of pursuing immediately.
To be fair Hasra didn’t understand the nature of the consumed. They had no idea how quickly the binders could gather them, and assumed that Olivantia’s army would take years to recover. Granting them six months to prepare was fatal, and by the time Hasra launched their invasion the vampyr were more than ready.
Olivanticus had created an army of consumed nearly twice the size of the previous one. He hurled it at the invaders, and while nearly all the consumed were wiped out they inflicted hideous casualties. That hardly mattered to the binders, who simply melted away and gathered more consumed.
The hasrans, on the other hand, had a finite number of troops. They were ill equipped to fight an endless war of attrition, and even the mighty Imperial Battlemages were gradually overwhelmed. In the end Hasra was forced to retreat, never again attempting an invasion. Valys vehemently protested, but those protests fell on deaf ears.
Over the next three centuries Olivantia launched seemingly endless assaults at Valys. They were never able to overwhelm the knights, but every war gave the vampyr more territory while weakening Hasra. Their leaders grew old and died, while Olivanticus and his council grew ever more powerful with the immortality granted by the True Blood.
Even mighty Hasra would have fallen eventually and they knew it. They’d finally encountered a foe that their superior magical might couldn’t overcome, and were terrified of Olivantia. The Tree of Blood had quietly bided its time since Olivanticus began his resistance to its influence, but it was also deathly afraid of the powerful vampyr.
The Tree carefully studied the situation using its potent magic and thousands of consumed minions, and it became aware of Hasra’s plight. The tree contacted every last one of Olivanticus’s rivals, convincing them to help it with an ingenious plan that would rid them of Olivanticus forever.
The Tree’s plan was simple. They would approach Hasra and help them stage a rebellion. The people of Olivantia would rise up to kill the vampyr, wiping out Olivanticus and his supporters. The surviving vampyr would be free to seize control of the council, filling the vaccuum left by Van’s death.
Hasra was very open to such a suggestion. They paid enormous sums to train insurgents from Olivantia, going so far as to smuggle Osis out of the country before the vampyr could find them. These Osis were trained as warmasters, battlemages and other powerful chanters who could resist the vampyr. Hasra also called on Valys to seed knights throughout the country who could train the populace well enough to rise up against their masters.
Hasra also made a huge donation to the church of Amarigen, who agreed to create two hundred and fifty redwood blades. These living blades grown from the heart of ancient redwoods and were enchanted to make them even more effective against consumed.
When one of them pierced the heart of a consumed or vampyr it released a splinter. This eliminated the need for a stake, allowing the warmasters of Olivantia to quickly dispatch multiple consumed. Hasra believed that the combination of these tools would allow them to stage a successful coup, but they weren’t taking any chances.
Their methodical preparations took five years, which also gave them time to train squires, chanters and Osis from Olivantia. It was hoped that these children would emerge as leaders after they successfully overthrew the vampyr, and great pains were taken to ensure that they had a pro-hasra bent. This would convert Hasra’s only threat into a favorable ally virtually overnight.
The final stage of the plan involved Valys declaring war against Olivantia. This would ensure that Olivanticus’s armies were in the field, leaving his country vulnerable to the uprising they had planned.
The Council of Olivantia
Olivanticus served as head of the council for nearly four centuries. Over that span he created an elite class of nobility known as The Blooded. The Blooded all possessed two very specific criteria. Each was a powerful chanter, and each took the True Blood.
Taking the blood was an act reserved for those who sat on the council. Only twenty-one council members could exist at any one time. Each was required to make the perilous journey to the center of the Fell Wood. They needed to take a vial of blood from the trunk of the Blood Tree itself.
Nor did the danger end there. Should they survive the Na’Elfen, Tenders and consumed creatures populating the forest the potential council member then needed to challenge an existing councilor in a duel to the death. If they triumphed they took that councilor’s seat on the council.
The potential councilor had a year and a day from the time they reached the tree to issue this challenge. If they failed to do so they were hunted down by the Na’Elfen, who had made a deal with Olivanticus. They policed those who reached the tree, and in exchange Olivanticus kept all but potential councilors from the tree.
Taking the Blood was not the only way to become a vampyr. There were two other methods to create one. The blood could be passed on through bloodline, so if one had ingested enough True Blood their children would be born with a measure of this power.
The second method was a more direct transference. A person who’d ingested enough True Blood could feed his blood to a vassal, thus transforming them into a vampyr. These last were considered part of the Household of the person who’d transformed them.
Each of the 21 councilors had their own households and bloodlines. Since they didn’t age they grew more powerful over time. Their households swelled in size as the centuries passed, and it became increasingly rare for new councilors to arise.
Most of those who made the attempt were easily killed, because they lacked the age or experience of the elders who’d long held the council seats. The first exception in nearly two centuries came when Olivanticus’s son Rakarian burst onto the political scene.
The Ebon Fox
In the three centuries after Olivanticus rose to power he took four wives, and sired over three dozen children. Many became councilors, and some of those possessed a measure of his charisma and charm. A few became brilliant tacticians, and one or two strongly resembled their father. Yet none possessed all of these qualities until the birth of Rakarian.
Rakarian learned more swiftly than any other child Olivanticus had sired. He took to binding, military tactics and swordwork with equal ease. Nothing seemed beyond his reach and in his twenty-fifth year he made a pilgramage to the Tree of Blood and took the blood.
Rakarian waited ten months to challenge a councilor, a move many considered cowardly. Whispers circulated that Rakarian had been too rash in taking the blood, and now that he’d done so lacked the courage to challenge a councilor. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Ten months was a very strategic interval to wait. It was long enough that existing councilors relaxed their guard as they no longer expected an attack, but not close enough to the end of the year that Rakarian would be forced to make a move.
The rules of the trial said that a challenger must kill his rival, but did not specify how. Tradition demanded a duel, but Rakarian ambushed his foe instead. He attacked after a feast in the senior councilor’s home thereby winning a fight he never could have otherwise.
Rakarian’s move stunned the council, but Olivanticus publicly congratulated his son thus ending all debate. That spring he launched the sixteenth invasion of Valys with his son at his side. Rakarian proved to be the most brilliant tactician since Olivanticus himself, and easily won every battle he led.
Over the next sixty years his military victories continued to pile up, and he gained more and more support on the council. His father even went so far as to name him his official heir, much to the chagrin of Olivanticus’s elder sons. To signify this Rakarian was given direct control over Mountain Shadow, which had always belonged to Olivanticus as it was the birthplace of his empire.
Unfortunately at just over eighty years of age the Ebon Fox met a young girl in Mountain Shadow named Kera. She was an innkeepers daughter, but she was both beautiful and brimming with potential. With training she would be an exceptionally powerful binder, and Rakarian retired from public life to see that she received such training.
He fell deeply in love with her and all but vanished from court life to spend all his time with Kera. His father was furious, but Rakarian ignored all Olivanticus’s threats and entreaties that he return to public life. This embarassed Rakarian’s mother Sasha so greatly that disowned him, and refused to speak to him ever again. Rakarian didn’t care and continued to live in Mountain Shadow with his new bride.
The Purge
Four centuries of brutal oppression taught the citizens of Olivantia an important lesson. They had nothing to lose. The attractive young men and women were taken to serve as concubines. Their citizens were killed on whims. They lived in poverty and constant fear.
The knights of Valys had always had a soft spot for the downtrodden serfs of Olivantia, because they many could trace their lineage to the knights who’d fled Reverian when Olivanticus seized power. Even those who could not knew that if the vampyr were not stopped Valys would eventually be overrun.
Praetor Deitrich Valys came up with a solution to both problems. It was he who implemented Hasra’s plan to overthrow the vampyr, he who gathered Olivantia’s talented young men and women to be trained as knights, warmasters and chanters.
Military might alone would never stop the vampyr, and he knew it. Their armies of consumed and powerful binders meant they could rebuild any army that Valys and their Hasran allies was able to destroy. Not so for Hasra, who felt the loss of every sword or adept.
Deitrich knew he’d need to try something new if he wanted to save his nation. He gathered the best of his knights together, and bade them to sneak into Olivantia. Each would travel alone to a different city, town or village. Once there they were to find men with the potential to be both skilled fighters and leaders.
Because Olivanticus had spent centuries oppressing his people they lacked both. A successful rebellion required both leadership and martial prowess. Deitrich couldn’t simply send the Knights of the Dawn, as the citizens of Olivantia would have no reason to trust foreigners.
By recruiting teenagers that had grown up in Olivantia Deitrich solved all three problems. He ordered the new recruits smuggled back to Valys for training, and for the next five years they were given the best of everything. They were trained to fight, to lead and to value justice and the ideals of the Steward Dalanthar.
Over five hundred men survived the training, nearly a fifth of whom were Osis. They were smuggled back into the nation in the same small groups they’d left in. Each resumed a place in the village he’d left, and began scouting the defenses of the local vampyr. This tactic was incredibly risky, but the vampyr had grown so arrogant that they paid little attention to the people living under their rule.
Not a single returning knight was detected, and all were able to perform their missions. They generated layouts for every keep, manor house or castle containing a vampyr. A profile was created for every councilor, and many of their household servants were subverted to the cause. Once all was ready Praetor Valys sent small groups of his own knights along with battlemages to help participate in the assault.
To distract the councilors he gathered his military forces, and made very obvious preparations to invade Olivantia. The council responded predictably, sending their most skilled generals and an army of consumed to stiffen the border guard. This left much of Olivantia unprotected, particularly the houses of its leaders.
When they were finally ready Praetor Valys ordered his knights to begin the rebellion. All over the country people rose and attacked their masters. Thirteen council members were killed on the first night, including both Olivanticus and his son Rakarian.
Most of the surviving vampyr were with the army preparing to invade Valys. Before they could return to put down the rebellion Praetor valys led his forces in an assault against them. The consumed were slaughtered and many of the vampyr were hunted down by squads of warmasters armed with redwood blades. Those that survived did so by slipping away quietly, though neither Hasra nor the citizens of Olivantia knew where they’d gone.
Reconstruction
The people of Olivantia were thrilled to have their sudden freedom. They took great pride in vanquishing their hated oppressors. Celebrations lasted for weeks, as did the looting and burning of most of the vampyr’s homes. The Purge was utterly successful, leaving no sign of the the vampyr.
Once the purge was over a single question was voiced over the entire nation. Where did they go from here? Who was in charge now? Who would guide the people?
Because the Knights of the Valys had been behind the purge they were a natural choice. Unfortunately, there were two major problems with this. First, the knights weren’t trained as beauracrats. They had no idea how to run a nation, because all they’d been trained to do was fight and lead battles.
The second problem was one of innocence. Most of the knights who’d been trained in Valys were no more than twenty when The Purge ended. They were inexperienced and very trusting of their Hasran saviors. It left them completely vulnerable to the machinations of a country that thrived on exploiting other nations.
Hasran merchants and beauracrats seized on the inexperience and naivete of the knights who were thrust into leadership of Olivantia. They made contracts favorable to themselves, and even used magic to beguile their new trading partners.
In the background the Tree of blood observed the situation and was pleased. The people already hated chanters, as the only ones they’d ever known were vampyr. It was a simple matter for the tree’s minions to expose several unscrupulous chanters who were using their magic to take advantage of the people.
It quietly whispered into the right ears, convincing the knights to outlaw chanting to appease mobs of angry citizens throughout the country. The Tree knew that outlawing chanters would deprive the new government of the only tool that could oppose it.
In addition the Tree tricked the government into outlawing all trade with Hasra, infuriating the very people who’d helped free the people from the vampyr. Hasra withdrew all support, leaving the disorganized nation to fend for itself.
The citizens of Olivantia had been bred as serfs. Thinking for themselves was discouraged and most weren’t even literate. Creating a brand new government was a daunting task. Ironically they modeled the vampyr who’d enslaved them, deciding that a council would be best.
The Knights of the Dawn held a Grand Conclave in the city of Reverian to hash out the details and elect the first council. After months of debate they finalized a democratic government. Representatives would be elected from each city and would come to the capital to make laws and discuss threats to the entire nation.
Governors were appointed over each district, and mayors were elected in the smaller towns and villages. Each was responsible for overseeing their domain, while the councilors tended to the needs of the nation and served as a voice for the people they represented.
It was a great system on paper, but in practicality it simply didn’t work. Every councilor had the interests of their own district in mind, and few were willing to compromise. They bickered endlessly while deadlocking over the simplest of issues. They couldn’t even agree on a new name for the nation, leaving the hated title Olivantia in place.
The Knights of the Dawn were horrified by the situation, but as they’d help create the laws they were bound by their oaths to Dalanthar to enforce them. When the people outlawed Chanting the knights were forced to turn on the very chanters who’d helped them overthrow the vampyr.
Current Day
Fifteen years have passed since The Purge. Each year attacks by consumed increased, swallowing first villages and then towns. Those who wished to survive either fled to walled cities, or built their own enclosure to protect them at night.
They cried out to the knights of Dalanthar for help, but to no avail. During the purge the knights had relied on chanters, and those chanters were now either dead or had fled underground. The warmasters who’d stiffened their ranks left when the knights turned on the chanters. This left the knights alone in battling the consumed, but they were too few and the consumed seemed endless.
The Insidious Truth
The Tree of Blood was very pleased. Olivanticus had been the single largest threat it had ever faced, but he and his followers were dead. The government that replaced them was weak, little more than sheep to satiate its endless hunger.
There is a danger though. Olivanticus created several eldimagus throughout his reign. They were designed to be a set, each of which helped the others to amplify the user’s control over consumed. If someone possessed all the artifacts they could control tens of thousands of consumed, usurping that control from the tree and setting themselves up a a threat.
These items included the Crown, Dagger, Staff and Ring of Olivanticus. When he was killed the tree began seeking each of these objects, but Olivanticus had been clever. In the event of his death he’d woven a binding to the objects so that each appeared in the hands of one of his supporters.
The tree sent its most powerful servants to search for the objects, but they were only able to recover the crown. The crown had gone to one of Olivanticus’s wives, yet in this he’d made a mistake. Sasha had long been jealous of her husband and trully served the tree.
She immediately turned over the crown, but The Tree gave it back, telling her to use the crown to help secure control of the council of vampyr. Sasha was shocked, because she’d expected the council to be hunted down. The Tree had other plans. It realized that a council of willing servants could help it expand its influence across the world.
It’s power was limited by distance, which meant that it could only kill so many people on its own. Independent servants were the only way for it to expand its influence past a certain point.
It also needed the vampyr to help deal with the Na’Elfen. The tribes had been closely allied with Olivanticus, and had declared war on the surviving vampyr when they realized it was their treachery that caused his death. They began hunting vampyr, and their hatred of the Tree was palpable, though they had no means of harming the tree directly.
However, if the Na’Elfen were able to ally with someone who found Olivanticus’s legacy they’d become a true threat again. This couldn’t be tolerated, so the Tree instituted brutal purges of the Na’Elfen. Unfortunately, the Na’Elfen proved stronger than it counted on, and they have managed to beat back the assaults of the council.
Seven of the eleven tribes still survive, and have gone into hiding in the deeper parts of the forest. The vampyr largely leave them in peace now, simply because they have no easy way of reaching them and they suffer too many casualties when they try.
Instead, the council decided to plan their return to Olivantia. Ironically they’ve adopted the same tactics Olivanticus used to overthrow Reverian when he first took over. They have seeded lesser household members through the nation to swell the consumed populations. These consumed overwhelm local towns and cities, gradually weakening the knight’s control and sending a steady stream of refugees to Reverian city.
The council has also sent an operative to destabilized the government. They have seeded many vampyr in the highest ranks of the knighthood, and have forced its leadership to make bad decision after bad decision. This has deeply shaken the confidence the people once had in the knighthood, weakening their recruiting and increasing civil unrest.
Their current plan is to stage an all out assault on the city of Reverian on winter solstice, when their powers are strongest. If they can destroy Reverian it will break the back of the new government, allowing the council to easily retake their place as the rulers of the nation.
The Resistance
The Tree is not entirely unopposed. Olivanticus was well loved by his people, and many remember his opposition to the Tree. They seek to live free from the Tree’s influence as he did. Some vampyr have broken from the council and are hunted as renegades, others still sit on the council but quietly bide their time as they wait for an opportunity to forment change.
These renegade vampyr recently sent a missive to the Temple of Celeste, written for the eyes of the Stewardess herself. They explained what the Tree is, that they believe the Tree arranged for Olivanticus’s death, and that if the Tree remains unopposed it will eventually swallow up Olivantia and renew the war with Hasra.
Worse, at least in the eyes of the clergy, they seek to keep the people ignorant. Books are burned with alarming regularity, and they’ve taught the populace to fear and mistrust those who can read. This is anathema to Celeste and her followers, as she is the light of knowledge within the world.
Celeste sent one of her most powerful histors guarded by a talented young Imperial Battlemage. They are to meet with the vampyr to discuss the situation and see what can be done. This will be the start of the novel.
