The peace that formerly reigned in Terra Nova has eroded, now little more than a memory. War ravages the continent. Disputes divide kingdoms; ideals divide families. The quest for power consumes absolutely and indiscriminately. None are immune to its allure.
Who will rise and who will fall? Only time—and ambition—will tell.
UPDATES
05.26.2023
2 month character creation hold for all existing members begins 6/5/2023. Ended 8/5/2023.
10.29.2023
Change in how times flows. Was 4 IC seasons, now only 2 IC seasons per 1 OOC year.
5 whole years of Heir Apparent goodness! When I started the site, I knew I was hunkering down for the long haul, but I never could have predicted the numerous twists and turns this roleplay site has seen. Hundreds of plots, characters, and members have come and gone, all leaving marks on the site. I am so very thankful for those who have invested. Because you keep coming back, keep getting on, and keep writing, Heir Apparent has the legacy it does today. Three cheers to us!
Zevran blinked a few times at Warren's questions, before saying slowly, "If you were to stick your hand in a shadow, say one cast by a person standing in the sunlight, it would not physically harm you. Darkness is just that, creating shadows and controlling them. Rune can make a more tangible form of shadow, but if someone took a sword to it, it would be like cutting bread with a knife."
For a land full of such powerful magic wielders, it seemed this soldier understood very little about magic itself. "You could also use light for blinding, yes, but consider when you've spent too much time outside in the sun and how it reddens your skin. Light dyrs could intensify that effect."
In an attempt to help Warren understand their magic a bit better, he continued, "Some of the elements are better for battle than others. Fire, for instance, is as destructive as a natural fire, just amplified because it's controlled by the dyr. Earth and metal were more useful for our blacksmiths and builders, but they control the elements in their entirety. There's really no limit to what they can do with it except for their own creativity."
Zevran confirmed what Warren would have assumed, which was that things like darkness and light could not be used to inflict direct physical damage. It had to be used in other ways, in tandem with the human, depending on them to do the damage while the opponent was incapacitated by the element. Except that light could cause a burn. To what degree, Warren wondered.
Earth seemed like it would be one of the most useful. What was stopping all of the Earth dyrs from getting together, opening up the ground and swallowing up the whole Nevermeran army? Could they do something like that? He wished he could find a Dresmondi to speak to who wielded each element. From the sounds of it, there weren't many ways to combat any of them. If their elements were limited only by their creativity, the Eldouir would see to it that the soldiers knew every possible way to hurt, torture, injure, or kill their opponents.
"Alright," he continued, a little dejected. He knew that at one time, certain Dresmondi were fighters while others weren't. But by now, all of the soldiers would have been turned into strong warriors. It wouldn't matter which of the caravans they came from, or which element they wielded. "Do you know anything about the way the Eldouir have trained them? Methods, tactics. Anything that might hint as a weakness we can capitalize on?"
"Ruthlessly, I assume." Zevran grimaced, the bitterness plain in his tone. "Whatever they did changed those soldiers. Even if they joined unwillingly, out of fear, now they practically worship the redheads. They never question orders and they have no sympathy for they own people remaining."
But he shrugged a little, "I stayed far away from all of that. I don't know much of what they actually do to them or how they train them."
Warren could hardly blame the man sitting in front of him. Everyone knew the Eldouir were cruel. If this was all reversed, if he had been in Dresmond and Zevran in his seat, he probably wouldn't have much to tell the man, either. The Dresmondi were merely surviving. He had come here to help his people, but they weren't a military kingdom full of soldiers. The Dresmondi were generally about as peaceful as they come. You simply cannot expect the same thing of them as one might a soldier of Nevermere. And that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, except in cases like this. Cases where Zevran was their one and only insight into what the Nevermeran army would be stepping up to, and he could offer nothing.
Setting his pen down on the desk, hands once more resting in his lap, he looked between the two who sat in front of him. Once again his eyes returned and lingered on Zevran. "Is there anything, at all, that you can think of, that will help us? Any information, big or small, whether it seems important or not. Anything you know about the Eldouir, about the soldiers, about the dyrs or elements, maybe things you've heard or seen but didn't give much thought to? It may not seem like it, but I would like to free Dresmond of the Eldouir with as little loss of life as possible. Not just from Nevermere's side, but Dresmond's as well."
It seemed like his face was twisted into a permanent grimace at this point. It only worsened with what he felt like was probably the final question. "Just don't assume the Eldouir or their soldiers have a merciful bone in their body. They are ruthless and do not care who they harm to get what they want. I know you want to limit casualties but... you must be just as ruthless, or somehow more clever, to contend with them."
He glanced at Ber, having almost forgotten about his friend sitting at his side, and then back to the Captain. "I know this is more about defeating your enemy than saving my people. I've come to understand it has to be that way, or the Eldouirs could use us against you. Do not let them make you second guess. Do not show mercy, even when you think you have to. Even if it means the deaths of innocents."
Truth be told, Ber’s question had been more of an impulsive interjection intended to give his friend a brief respite from the inquisition than a thoroughly considered inquiry. Woodwick countered it easily enough, calling on experience that the soldier himself lacked, but the young man had accomplished what he’d set out to do. Unsurprisingly, the questioning continued. Sitting back, Ber was content to watch and let himself be ignored.
Let the lieutenant remember that the next time he wanted Ber to sit in unnecessarily on a conversation.
If this meeting had done one thing, it was cement in all of their minds how much of a challenge fighting the Eldouir and their army of Dresmondi would be. Never had the atmosphere of the room been particularly cheerful, but it had certainly plummeted to something far more sober as time went on. And now, it seemed, they were starting to conclude with a warning - a directive? - from Zevran to show his people no mercy when they fought. Ber looked at him and tried to swallow down his discomfort at the thought of knowingly causing harm to innocent people. That was… an idea he would maybe unpack later, he decided. Way later.
Instead, he changed course and wondered aloud, “Can we stop them from using their magic somehow? Or stop the dyr’s magic from affecting us?” His friend had mentioned, long ago, something about trying to craft some sort of potion that would render the drinker impervious too magic. “Maybe something to weaken all of them so…” His voice trailed off, and any number of possible endings rose to the tip of his tongue. So they could negate their opponent’s most dangerous weapon. So Nevermere stood a better chance of victory in the war. So they could win without catching so many innocent lives in the crossfire.
Warren had never doubted the ruthlessness of the Eldouir. That they would kill whoever was in their way, soldier or civilian, was never a question. No one who could do what they had done would bother to show any semblance of self-control. Brutality was their default setting, and mercy simply wasn't anywhere on the dial.
But know that the man sitting across from him had long acknowledged the fate of his people helped. Warren really did want to limit the casualties, but with few ways to incapacitate the dyrs other than by killing them, there was little he could do. In the long run, the best plan of action was always to go for the leaders first. More often than not, an army would fall into chaos without it's leadership. Some might desert, some might keep fighting, but taking out Hiram and whoever was left of his revolting family was the goal. Warren and his soldiers just had to keep the Dresmondi busy long enough for that to happen.
"I apologize that it has come to this for you. Genuinely," Warren said. His feelings on the matter had remained the same throughout the seasons. Just as he'd said in open court. The Eldouir were a problem created by Lorendale, sentenced by Nevermere's King, and never held accountable. Had they been chased down while they were weak, followed into Dresmond or where ever it is they had hidden, and executed as they should have been, the Dresmondi people wouldn't still be suffering today. A King should always make sure his sentences are carried out and it was the one weakness that Warren thought Cassian had displayed. He'd been betrayed, insulted, and attacked, and for some reason, had let the traitors not only go free, but thrive. It was unacceptable.
Yes, Zevran's acceptance that many of his people would be crushed was sad, and it was the true mark of a friend that Berengar attempted to step up and offer more solutions. Warren could only shrug his shoulders. "There are many Arynnite items, enchanted, that have been known to deflect, dampen, or negate magic. Unfortunately the Arynnite's do not make these kinds of items on a larger scale. Generally they are made by individuals for personal purposes, and rarely are they allowed to be used or given to non-Arynnite's. Even given our alliance with them, I doubt the Queen or the Prince would allow wide-scale production and use of any such item that is not a magic dampening collar like has been used on the gifted popular of Lorendale. And the issue with the collars is that you have to get close enough to put them on."
"As for potions..." he shook his head. "There are no potions that deflect or negate magic that I am aware of. There are potions we will likely use during battle - potions to put enemies to sleep are extremely useful but the effects can vary depending on the willpower of the person, and you still have to get close enough to use them. In summary, these means are not entirely impossible, but are generally unreliable."
He was used to the Nevermerans offering their most genuine apologies for the state of his kingdom and his peoples' plight. It didn't fix their problems, nor did it ever make Zevran feel better about it. None-the-less, he offered a small smile and dipped his head in acknowledgement.
He approved of Ber's ideas, and frankly he had shared so much about his people with Ber that the soldier was almost as equipped to make suggestions as Zevran was. But he frowned when the Lieutenant immediately shot the idea down and shook his head a bit. "When we first met the Nevermerans in Dresmond," he started, stumbling a bit as his mind raced to censor Alys's name from that bit of information, "The- witch who was there gave my friends potions that turned them invisible so they could get back into the city easily. I find it hard to believe that there is nothing that you could create that would give your soldiers some sort of protection from our magic."
He ran a hand through his hair before continuing, "Ber's idea is a good one. Perhaps if you have any witches that are particularly good at making those potions, you should speak with them to see what they could come up with. Something that could be thrown, or something that's taken by your own soldiers... Anything could help, even if it has flaws."
Once again, Woodwick had nothing but negative answers to Ber’s questions, and the soldier could feel something akin the desperation that followed every loss to Zevran and Rune replacing the faint hope that maybe something could give them a better chance against the dyr’s magic. The lieutenant didn’t seem to think such a solution was feasible, either because of Arynn Frey’s stinginess with their enchantments or because such potions didn’t exist. The Dresmondi by his side seemed more hopeful.
A small smile turned the corner of Ber’s lips upward as Zevran validated his thoughts, and he glanced at his friend. “Say we could make a potion. If we could throw something at them,” He added, nodding along before looking back at Woodwick as his thoughts coalesced, “that could nullify their magic, even temporarily, that would work better than us taking something, wouldn’t it? Because even if their magic wouldn’t affect us directly, they could just use it on the ground or air around us instead.” A pause and another look toward Zevran. “Have you and Rune ever not been able to use your magic?” Maybe they’d get lucky and his friend had a personal experience to share that could give them some idea of where to even start attempting to develop a potion that would do what they wanted.
If anyone understood the desperate need to think of a good way to disable their opponents, it was Warren. He listened to their thoughts in earnest, wishing that he had a better answer to their questions and their suggestions. Unfortunately, the thoughts they proposed were not new. "It's not that these are not good ideas," Warren said sympathetically. "Or that I think the idea to be impossible. I find that there are few things a Nevermeran witch cannot do."
But the need for disabling magic was not a new one. Gifts, too, were a form of magic. The thought to make something capable of disabling magic was years old, and he had no doubt that it had been attempted, likely time and time again. Yet to his knowledge, no one had succeeded, or those who had must have kept it to themselves. "Unfortunately, magic is very complex. Consider the sources of it. A witch from Nevermere gets her magic from her blood. Bloodlines of families born in Nevermere alone carry the power, so that aspect specifically would have to be considered in the making of the potion. A Dresmondi's magic is not in the blood, though, it's in the soul. Even if a witch could create a potion to nullify magic, we have no way of knowing if it would work the same way on the Dresmondi. It could have different effects. Worse yet, it could nothing to them and instead nullify our witches on the battlefield if they accidentally entered the area of effect."
It was dangerous and if they couldn't be one-hundred-percent sure that it would have the desired effect on the battlefield, it could only serve to harm them in the end. "While I'm sure the military already has witches working on it, I've not been notified of any successes. It could be that it's simply not been told to us yet, I'm only a lieutenant, but I prefer to create strategies around what I am sure of, not what I am unsure of."
Still, Ber's question was a good one, and Warren turned to hear Zevran's answer.
Zevran slumped back into his chair, placated by Warren's explanation on why the potions wouldn't work as well as he thought. He supposed he shouldn't have pushed so had, after all, he barely grasped the concept of Nevermere's magic. Just as they seemed to barely grasp the concept of Dresmond's.
Zevran shook his head at Ber's question, "No, Rune's always had access to her magic." It was a simple response but he didn't have much other information to give them. He wished there was more he could offer them, but he simply couldn't.
Between Woodwick’s rebuttal - which, fair, Ber hardly expected that he was the first person to have considered this avenue of thought, even if no one had informed him of the results - and Zevran’s answer, the soldier had hit the dead end that he had tried somewhat desperately to avoid. Although he hadn’t wanted to volunteer his friend, he’d thought that if they had something promising, they could test it on the resident Dresmondi and his dyr to see if it worked, but it didn’t sound like they’d made it that far. Or if they had, no one had told Woodwick, which in turn meant there was no way for Ber to find out either. With a sigh, he sat back in his seat and nodded his understanding.
That was it, he supposed. On that front, they were stuck before they could even really begin. After another moment of looking at Zevran, he turned his gaze back to Woodwick to see if there was anything else the lieutenant required of them.
"Well," Warren said, as defeated as the other two men in front of him. "We will do the best we can with what we have." And what they had wasn't much, but he supposed it was better than nothing at all. Once he'd finished compiling the information into something a little more organized than notes spread across multiple parchments, he would be able to inform their soldiers of the Dresmondi soldiers abilities, and the --
That was one thing he had forgotten. "Before I let you go," Warren said, pulling his pen back into his hand. "Is there anything more you can tell me about the Eldouir specifically. Who is there, and what their gifts are? I know you said that your information on their training tactics is limited because you've stayed away from them, and I certainly do not blame you for that. But even if you just heard names, that can be helpful. I may be able to find information on their gifts elsewhere."