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[[File:LoreAboveAllElse.png|300px|thumb]] | [[File:LoreAboveAllElse.png|300px|thumb]] | ||
'''Above All Else''' is a [[Lore]] book added in ''[[Season of Plunder]]''. Entries are unlocked by progressing the Savior of the Seven Seas seasonal [[Triumphs|Triumph]]. | '''Above All Else''' is a [[Lore]] book added in ''[[Season of Plunder]]''. Entries are unlocked by progressing the Savior of the Seven Seas seasonal [[Triumphs|Triumph]]. It serves as a biography of [[Mithrax, Kell of Light|Mithrax's]] early life as an [[Fallen|Eliksni]] pirate before he becomes the [[Kell]] of the [[House of Light]]. | ||
==I. The Long Drift== | ==I. The Long Drift== | ||
My family named me Ithriiks—"sturdy heart"—and held me aloft in the shadow of the [[Traveler|Great Machine]]. My birth name was chosen to extol my strength as a hatchling; my chosen name would be aspirational. On my third molting, I chose the name [[Inaaks]], "gentle hands." I would be the greatest weaver our house had ever known. I was so sure of it. | My family named me Ithriiks—"sturdy heart"—and held me aloft in the shadow of the [[The Traveler|Great Machine]]. My birth name was chosen to extol my strength as a hatchling; my chosen name would be aspirational. On my third molting, I chose the name [[Inaaks]], "gentle hands." I would be the greatest weaver our [[House of Wolves|house]] had ever known. I was so sure of it. | ||
Then our world ended. Then… I was sure of nothing. | Then our [[Riis|world]] [[Whirlwind|ended]]. Then… I was sure of nothing. | ||
The end of our civilization came from the outside in, like a hand slowly closing around a throat. At first, it didn't feel real: | The end of our civilization came from the outside in, like a hand slowly closing around a throat. At first, it didn't feel real: Riis was gone, and my House was trapped aboard a [[Ketch]], knowing that there was nothing at our backs. For so long, we broadcasted distress calls into the dark, hoping for others on the [[Long Drift]] to find us and offer succor. Help never came. Every satellite world we visited, the story was the same: desolation, death, despair. Weeks of searching turned into years, and I feared we were the only ship that slipped between those proverbial fingers of destruction. Were we the last? We had to continue hoping it wasn't so. | ||
As we drifted among the stars, we inevitably lost members of our House along the way. I wove the finest memorial shrouds for our dead, so that they could rest in security and peace. Then, as the eggcloth ran out, we could not give them the dignity of binding. My gentle hands were eventually used to separate dead meat from carapace. We would not starve in the dark. | As we drifted among the stars, we inevitably lost members of our House along the way. I wove the finest memorial shrouds for our dead, so that they could rest in security and peace. Then, as the eggcloth ran out, we could not give them the dignity of binding. My gentle hands were eventually used to separate dead meat from carapace. We would not starve in the dark. | ||
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It would be years before we encountered another Ketch. It bore the sigil of the [[House of Devils|House of Dancers]], renowned for their skill with machines and their generosity to those in need. Their Kell agreed to send an emissary to discuss our needs. I knew this emissary, [[Eramis, Kell of Darkness|Eramis]], when we were children. All I knew of her in adulthood was that she had a wife and hatchlings. | It would be years before we encountered another Ketch. It bore the sigil of the [[House of Devils|House of Dancers]], renowned for their skill with machines and their generosity to those in need. Their Kell agreed to send an emissary to discuss our needs. I knew this emissary, [[Eramis, Kell of Darkness|Eramis]], when we were children. All I knew of her in adulthood was that she had a wife and hatchlings. | ||
I had hoped the | I had hoped the Whirlwind had taken it all from her. I hated myself for wanting that. | ||
Eramis was no longer the meek child I once knew; that much was certain when I greeted her aboard my Ketch. She brought two hatchlings with her, just barely old enough to walk on their own. They were mischievous little things, the [[Spider|round one]] constantly trying to tug the [[Siviks, Lost to None|taller one]]'s arms off until Eramis disciplined them. I carried my son, swaddled to my chest, as a show of trust. | Eramis was no longer the meek child I once knew; that much was certain when I greeted her aboard my Ketch. She brought two hatchlings with her, just barely old enough to walk on their own. They were mischievous little things, the [[The Spider|round one]] constantly trying to tug the [[Siviks, Lost to None|taller one]]'s arms off until Eramis disciplined them. I carried my son, swaddled to my chest, as a show of trust. | ||
Negotiations between us were tense. I quickly realized that the House of Dancers had no interest in sharing their resources, but rather in assessing our own vulnerabilities. When it was clear to Eramis that we could not be easily disabled and stripped of our [[Ether]], we found a "compromise." House of Dancers would be supplied with materials for repairs and, in turn, we would take on some of their people, along with a fractional store of Ether. She was sending them to die, with us, rather than condemn them to the cold and uncaring depths of space where her people could see. I learned who Eramis had become, and what ideals she lived by: "Two hands in greeting, two hands concealed." | Negotiations between us were tense. I quickly realized that the House of Dancers had no interest in sharing their resources, but rather in assessing our own vulnerabilities. When it was clear to Eramis that we could not be easily disabled and stripped of our [[Ether]], we found a "compromise." House of Dancers would be supplied with materials for repairs and, in turn, we would take on some of their people, along with a fractional store of Ether. She was sending them to die, with us, rather than condemn them to the cold and uncaring depths of space where her people could see. I learned who Eramis had become, and what ideals she lived by: "Two hands in greeting, two hands concealed." | ||
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==II. The Whispering Dark== | ==II. The Whispering Dark== | ||
We had sailed the | We had sailed the Long Drift for centuries, but I had yet to come to terms with our new reality. My son had only borne witness to a fraction of it. He was still young, still struggling to understand his place in the world. The two children from the House of Dancers, Rakis and Siviks, were slightly older and had become his reluctant friends. They protected him from the adolescents who would steal his Ether when I wasn't looking. It was not a family to me, not truly. I had yet to understand that Ketch is kin. | ||
Once we found the | Once we found the Great Machine, we learned that it had uplifted a whole new [[Lightbearer|species]], granted them [[Ghost|power]] beyond anything it had ever bestowed to us. That betrayal drove some in our House to despair, others to death, and many to violence. Adapting to this betrayal was to be our next challenge. I listened to the poison-minded advice of soft-shelled cowards and tried to speak with the Great Machine's new chosen—our usurpers. | ||
They repaid the Machine's kindness with violence. Killed three of my closest friends. I later discovered that they shucked their carapaces and wore their chitin as armor. We learned all we could about these usurpers, like how their limbs were supple and could be pulled from their bodies far easier than our own kind. I came to love the sound of their screams. | They repaid the Machine's kindness with violence. Killed three of my closest friends. I later discovered that they shucked their carapaces and wore their chitin as armor. We learned all we could about these usurpers, like how their limbs were supple and could be pulled from their bodies far easier than our own kind. I came to love the sound of their screams. | ||
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Some of my House refused to abandon the old ways. The fools draped themselves in the naïve raiment of [[Splicers]], praying to a god that doomed us all. They could contemplate their failure with what was left of their lives in the cold dark. I had no time for them, save for goading them into raids. If we wanted to retake the Great Machine, we would not do it by prostrating ourselves like weeping children. We would take it back by force. | Some of my House refused to abandon the old ways. The fools draped themselves in the naïve raiment of [[Splicers]], praying to a god that doomed us all. They could contemplate their failure with what was left of their lives in the cold dark. I had no time for them, save for goading them into raids. If we wanted to retake the Great Machine, we would not do it by prostrating ourselves like weeping children. We would take it back by force. | ||
We killed the Machine's chosen, taking what we could, rooting through the rotten innards of their dying world. We took refuge in the shadows of their dusty moon where the usurper's ruins stuck out like bones from the dust. It was empty, it was silent, but there was value to be had in picking those old bones clean. | We killed the Machine's chosen, taking what we could, rooting through the rotten innards of their dying world. We took refuge in the shadows of their dusty [[[moon]] where the usurper's ruins stuck out like bones from the dust. It was empty, it was silent, but there was value to be had in picking those old bones clean. | ||
On one such expedition, I had strapped my son to me and set out to pick over a bounty of bones. But it was not the spools of spincable, the plates of hardsheet, or the fragments of clearcut that proved most valuable. It was what we found buried beneath the bones. What was buried deep. | On one such expedition, I had strapped my son to me and set out to pick over a bounty of bones. But it was not the spools of spincable, the plates of hardsheet, or the fragments of clearcut that proved most valuable. It was what we found buried beneath the bones. What was buried deep. | ||
We traversed that day into dark tunnels, where something hideous festered beneath this | We traversed that day into dark tunnels, where something hideous festered beneath this moon's surface. [[Hive|Horrific creatures]] that stank of wet soil, shrieked like dying animals, and tore at flesh. They possessed a ferocity we had never seen before, and my raiding party was being whittled down one by one. But when it seemed like these creatures were to finish the rest of us off… they relented. | ||
They appeared to hear something. Something that terrified them. Something that left us to wonder: what are monsters afraid of? The creatures scurried back into their warrens and vanished into the subterranean temple they spilled out of. And for a moment, I thought I heard something too. Something soft, a whisper. But as forceful as a scream. That was when we saw it, situated in a rift beyond the temple. The true treasure of this dusty tomb. | They appeared to hear something. Something that terrified them. Something that left us to wonder: what are monsters afraid of? The creatures scurried back into their warrens and vanished into the [[Hellmouth|subterranean temple]] they spilled out of. And for a moment, I thought I heard something too. Something soft, a [[Nezarec, Final God of Pain|whisper]]. But as forceful as a scream. That was when we saw it, situated in a rift beyond the temple. The true treasure of this dusty tomb. | ||
A [[The Lunar Pyramid|pyramid]] of jet black, opening its doors for us. | A [[The Lunar Pyramid|pyramid]] of jet black, opening its doors for us. | ||
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==III. Chosen== | ==III. Chosen== | ||
My mother could not keep me swaddled to her chest forever. I was no longer a child, and no longer in need of sheltering. I was my own person, and it was time that she understood that. I knew that she loved me. Because she shared her | My mother could not keep me swaddled to her chest forever. I was no longer a child, and no longer in need of sheltering. I was my own person, and it was time that she understood that. I knew that she loved me. Because she shared her Ether with me. Because she killed those who harmed me. Because she wanted better for me than the life we had. But we are not always the arbiters of our own fate. | ||
I aspired to nothing short of her approval. She was our inspiration, our leader, our hope. Kell of our House and protector of our people. She who gave me a name that meant "strength above all else." She named me | I aspired to nothing short of her approval. She was our inspiration, our leader, our hope. Kell of our House and protector of our people. She who gave me a name that meant "strength above all else." She named me Misraaks, and I was now strong enough to bear it. | ||
On the day I told her I was capable of raiding at her side, we sat together in the cargo hold of our | On the day I told her I was capable of raiding at her side, we sat together in the cargo hold of our Ketch. There was not the pride in her eyes I had hoped for. She was transfixed by the medallion around my neck, an icon of the Great Machine. One I had taken from the corpse of a Splicer. One I had earned through blood. She tore it from my neck, crushed it in her hand. | ||
"This will not protect you!" she shouted at me. "This will only lead you to death!" I had never feared my mother before, but I had never seen her look at me the way she did that day. She pushed me up against a wall with her upper arms and pressed the bent charm against my brow. "No son of mine will beg for scraps in the shadow of the Abandoner." | "This will not protect you!" she shouted at me. "This will only lead you to death!" I had never feared my mother before, but I had never seen her look at me the way she did that day. She pushed me up against a wall with her upper arms and pressed the bent charm against my brow. "No son of mine will beg for scraps in the shadow of the Abandoner." | ||