Hollow Deeds Worldbuilding Part 5 Can't Keep It Down Edition

>Those who are members of Sanctuary are some of the best in their respective fields, be they a healer, a priest, or even a knight standing valiantly against the onslaught of the Dark.
>Along with Sanctuary, several amongst the hunter orders have also stationed themselves in Bastion in order to ensure it's protection. It is not uncommon to find Deconstructors, or Slingers wandering about patrolling the dark corners of the city in search of any threats alongside priests or knights in armor.

>Some amongst the Church have even gone out in search of him, with rumors popping up about Sularis Achron , The Hunter Of the Bright Dawn himself having been trying to find Gyenyeld himself before going out to face the dark tides rising in the frigid north.Whatever the case may be, many still stay true to the high paladin General an have full faith in his eventual return.

>The Tuchor Pattern Arcane Disruption Rifle-cannon shell. Also known simply as a Spelljammer round. This is the latest in anti-arcane Hunter tech. The long rifle cannon shell is a hollow brass shell, the outside possesses small vents carved into the brass, which leads into the hollow inside, on the front end and back end of the shell there are inline rings of Anti-Arcane Breakdown Circuits, specially developed Autocraft Rune Devices that are made via delicate alchemical processes, creating a silver ring lined with crystal. Within the hollow shell is a thin net of silver thread with the faintest grains of raw bymetal. The Spelljammer round is not used to kill or wound targets, instead, it is used on spells, as the name suggests. It only works on a certain level of spell, and has a threshold, so it cannot be used on extremely powerful magic. When the round comes into contact with arcane energy of a sufficient concentration and level, the circuits trigger, the alchemical elements reacting to activate it, and the round releases an wave of energy to disrupt the concentration of arcane energies, once disrupted, the net of silver within the round will begin to attract the disrupted energies, sucking in the spell like a whirlpool. Due to the extreme energy being taken in, the shell will heat up to high degrees, melting the circuits and the vents, ensuring that whatever magic the round absorbs cannot be released, but also meaning each round is one use only. The Spelljammer rounds were developed in reaction to the steady growth of night cults throughout the land, and the recent spike in foul arcane rituals.

In the last fifty years, a new cult was classified by local governments. They are officially known as Brotherhood of the Reverent Vilespawn. At first the Brotherhood was a small cult that did regular actions, small sacrifice, small scale rituals, seances, nothing that draws great attention or threat. But as if a fire set loose on dry brush, the Brotherhood expanded rapidly to a frightening degree. In only ten years the Brotherhood of the Reverent Vilespawn had over one hundred known cultists reportedly, and they had begun to perform even larger scale dark arts. From investigations, the most important item of the cult is the Tinged Black Blood Tome. Deep research into magical archives and arcane libraries shows no recorded information on this tome. Every time a dark arts situation arises with the Brotherhood, copies of the Tinged Black Blood Tome can be found, quickly scrawled pages of messy writing and diagrams, bound with simple string and leather, every time a copy of the tome is found on these rituals, it is usually only a dozen pages, and each copy has different pages than the last, researchers have studied these copies, but no matter how much they try, they have yet to decipher the strange characters.

Regardless of these problems, the major issue with the Brotherhood is their connection to the Vilespawn, the Vilespawn are something the world has not seen before, no records of dark creatures of any kind report them before they appeared. Vilespawn, as far as research, investigations and interrogations have found, are creatures from the deepest, darkest corners of The Border, and are incapable of stepping through the Border without someone on the other side opening the way, but once on the other side, Vilespawn are capable of keeping the way open for others.

Vilespawn are grotesque creatures, the few examples show them to be twice the size of a full grown bull, standing on four massive limb, each limb possessing three blunt nails. The head of the Vilespawn extends upwards on a long, thick trunk of a neck, usually bristling with insect like arms, but sometimes just a pair of whip thin tentacles, the head of the Vilespawn is wide and flat, a pair of long, thin horns extending straight out on both sides, the face is a mass of small orb-like eyes all collected into one bulb in the center of the face, beneath the bulb of eyes is a curtain of insect like claws covering a mouth full of gate like teeth. The body of the Vilespawn is usually covered in thick, nigh-impenetrable armor, some examples have shown large spines, others possessing more, larger insect-like limbs with sharp bladed tips. Vilespawn possess tails, long, thick and powerful, the end tipped with a mass of clawing talons capable of grabbing. There have been sighting of other 'breeds' of Vilespawn, including one sighting of a smaller, winged breed, a larger aquatic breed, and a smaller, wolf-like breed, but no actual evidence have been presented to document these. The one other breed that is documented however is the Vilespawn Overruler, as cultists referred to it, which was a massive sized Vilespawn, with a centaur like body, it's lower half looked like the usual Vilespawn, it's armor covered in long, curved spines and possessing two tails, and it's upper half being ontop of a centipede like trunk covered in insect-like limbs, the upper body possessed two massive, bladed limbs and a smaller pair of human-like arms, and there were four horns on it's head, curing upward into a 'crown' like position.

The Vilespawn possess no conventional means of communication, though they can communicate. The few times the Vilespawn have attempted communication, they were seen swallowing a human by the head, and leaving the victim hanging from their maw, the voice of it's victim would then come from the Vilespawn, but from nowhere in particular. They speak in broken words, that are difficult to understand, but every message they gave had a clear intent, "Submit to the Vilespawn, or become the pavement for our king's passage" It is unknown what they mean by "king" as no cultist has possessed information beyond the basic.

Combat with a Vilespawn is an extremely dangerous en-devour, as their hide is extremely tough, and their shell is even stronger, they have numerous ways to attack, and can shred targets in seconds. Known weaknesses so far are silver weapons, which seem to burn the hide of the Vilespawn, high concussive weaponry, and explosives. Beyond that, extensive damage and high powered weaponry can hurt and kill Vilespawn. When a Vilespawn dies, it's corpse has been documented as melting into a mass of liquid flesh before solidifying in a few minutes into a dark purple solid substance, no attempt to break or harvest samples from this substance have worked, the only method that works to move the masses is to tear the substance directly from the ground.

Reposting this from the last thread.

>The Blight of Durendel. The town of Durendel had been faced with a dark corruption for many years, but it was only when several skilled Hunters from various branches and several of the elite amongst the Church came to investigate did they find the root of the problem.
>A truly ancient vampire, an Eldest, had nestled itself deep beneath the town in slumber, it's vile existence blighting Durendel and all that surrounded it, poisoning crops, turning water into toxic sludge, causing various mutations to infect the townsfolk, and even turned the very surrounding forests into masses of branching tendrils and snapping maws.
>Eventually, through an extended ritual invoking the power of the Light, they managed to force the horror above-ground to where it could be confronted and banished. The townspeople of Durendel screamed as their bodies where reduced into a sludge of flesh and biomatter which was used to construct the Horror's physical form, which erupted out as a mass of tendrils, screaming flesh, and corruption
>The fight was long and arduous, but eventually the Hunters and the Church forces managed to cast the aberration back to the abyss that spawned it, but at the cost of the entire town and the destruction of much of the neighboring area
>Even today, the area in which Durendel once was remains a blighted hellhole to which numerous monstrosities flock. There are even rumours that there are those who would wish to summon back the Blight, but none have been able to confirm this.

These things sound highly unpleasant, especially since there was no recorded mention of them before they started to manifest in the material plane. Wonder what they mean when they talk about their "king" though.

Clearly something very terrible if the Overruler wasn't their king

Yeah. I mean that thing took the most skilled, and probably the greatest of the Church's knights at the time to fight, and we don't even know if it was killed since a plane of darkness swallowed both of them thus leaving nothing behind, and yet that thing still wasn't their 'king"? I fear what shall happen should their king actually manifest itself.

>It should also be noted that defeat of the the Blight was the start of a series of seismic shocks spreading throughout the continent, as if it's defeat had caused something to slowly awaken from slumber.
>Eventually the shocks ceased, but not before many people suddenly fell ill and perished, along with The Border bleeding over in higher concentrations.
>Whatever the defeat of the Blight had caused to stir, it was something dark and terrible, something deeply linked to The Border itself, something unfathomably vast and ancient.
>The defeat of the Blight had undoubtedly drawn this things attention, and thus the Church and numerous philosophers, scribes, seers, and Hunters document and gather everything they possibly can on the nature of the Eldest and past records of sudden quakes following the defeat of an Eldest, and their links to these sudden stirrings.

The Orient has a strange connection to the Occident, despite so much distance and tribulations preventing them from regular contact, the Orient has a number of counterparts to the Occident. The School of Lao being one of the well known equivalent of the Guilds. But for the Hunters and the Church, there is actually one equivalent, The Folded Stars University. The Folded Stars University teaches and trains warrior-scholars in the art of combat and spiritual manipulation. The warrior-scholars practice a form of Yten-Wushung or "Way of the Inner Divine" which is a kind of magic in the Orient, and the warrior-scholars use a form known as Puo-Sholu, or "Inner Alchemic Light", where they channel the internal strength and their spirit into miniature spells that are usually close ranged, or concentrated, they also majorly use Runic Arts, intricate designs that allow them to transfer, channel and strengthen their Puo-Sholu even further, the most common usage is the Runic Tattoos, where they coat their bodies in personalized tattoos that turn themselves into spiritual weapons, as well as acting as armor, or strengthening any armor or weapons they already use.

The Folded Stars University is separated into various classes, each a school all their own of arts, styles and ideas

The Orient also has a unique aspect that is completely unknown to the Occident.

During the era of the Ivory Emperor (some hundred years after the First War) a man that history has come to know as The Bringer of Darkness, unleashed a terrible ritual. At the time, the second largest city in the Orient was known as Onpen, it was a prosperous city that was somehow avoided most horrors in the world. It was located in a patch of calm seas, and surrounded by three other major cities that held back most dangers, thus Onpen was known as The Pearl of the Orient, because it was probably the only place in the world that knew no fear or danger. However, a master architect of the city had, for several decades, secretly etched out runes and dark sigils across the entire city, until one dark night, a massive ritual was unleashed. The city of Onpen died in one moment, as the entire city was turned into fuel to split open The Border (or as it is known in the Orient, Hou di Ren or "Realm of Hate"), The Border's influence spread across the sea, and the islands, swallowing multiple cities and communities, it became known as The Falling, as a blanket of darkness turned the lands of the Orient to nothing. Though the Border subsided mostly, to this day there still exists a solid black blanket of darkness that stretches across miles of ocean and what once was islands, this location is called Ri Ouren or "The Black Sea"

The only thing that has prevented the Orient from being beset by countless Border things crawling out from the Ri Ouren is thanks to the efforts of numerous Rune Artists who have crafted massive wooden pillars covered completely in runes that act as a wall to keep the Ri Ouren at bay, but thats just it, it's a wall, and walls can be overcome.

>Not much of the world is known, due to the nature of the ocean as well as the Three demonic moons along with various other horrors making sea travel near-impossible.
>But sometimes on the rare occasion that one of those other unknown nations actually builds a ship capable of traversing the deadly waves, travelers from other lands will pass through.
>These travelers will usually bring with them their own sets of beliefs and faiths, and may be inclined to share them with others
>some believe that everything can be explained away by "science" (these are usually the first to get eaten), whilst others believe that the Gods exist, but are heavily weakened from a conflict with the Dark ages ago, and yet countless others believe in their own myths and legends, their own brave heroes and blessed warriors
>It is times like these that remind the people of the lands that all is not lost, that others are out there and that hope still shines, dim though it may be.

In contrast to Sulisism, worship of the great goddess of Light, the Orient's major religion is Self Divinity. Self Divinity is the belief that there is one god, and that one god inhabits all people. Their belief is that ever soul is actually a part of god, and thus every man, woman and child possess a power of the divine within themselves, and through deep spiritual growth and focus, they may tap into the divine.

Though the Orient is going through religious upheaval in the current era of the Purple Emperor, and numerous smaller religions are stepping forth, Self Divinity is still a major aspect of most of these religions, and is still the foundation for all of the Orients magic and technology.

The more lore that's given for them, the more it seems like the Orient is literally some fantasy Japan, but with runes instead of prayer beads, or slips.

I don't see enough of it to be Japan, besides the very clearly Asian sounding language and words.

I don't see any problem with that though, as the Occident is literally some fantasy Europe.

I am kind of pushing, though, for the Orient to have schools/academies/universities as their major organizations, and a rune heavy tech and magic society, also a major focus on study and weaponizing knowledge in comparison to the Occident's focus on weaponry

Guess that makes sense. Got to wonder what other regions have done to build themselves up, and what they have put their faiths in. Or how they try to deal with the Border and its evil.

>Small pockets of Light can occasionally manifest within the world, burning bright and brilliantly, standing out against the darkness pressing ever closer
>These motes of Light can be used to temper ones weapons and spiritual ability, giving them new found vigor and strength with which to oppose the Dark
>Sometimes this Light may even form into shimmering pools that one may dive within to renew their tired bodies after long conflict, or even from afflictions they suffered whilst on the front lines
>unfortunately these pockets of Light do not last long, either being snuffed out by the forces of the Dark, or simply fading away after a time.

>Some have even taken to using this Light to imbue their armor and weaponry with holy power, making it so that each strike burns away monsters attuned to the Dark
>Others have taken to using it to inscribe runes onto various items, be they books, scrolls, pens, walls even boats. The power of Light is used in a variety of tasks, no matter what they may be.

Small Bump before sleep