The Gods of Alteria: Jer’Zail
Jer’zail was one of the last Gods to enter through the Oculus, so bored was he of the vast, endless nothing outside of Alteria that he became curious as to what his siblings had devoted so much of their time to.
Upon entering Alteria, Jer’zail was immediately unhappy with the result. There was no conflict, no creature that he could force to obey him, all he saw was lifeless, desolate blackness. He was unimpressed with it.
The God of Strength spoke with the other Gods about their own creations. Lo’ani showed him her beautiful garden with colours and endless flowers. Jer’zail was sickened by the display. Kurthal showed Jer’zail the impressive creatures and his endless jungle – Jer’zailremained unmoved as he deemed the creatures too weak for his purposes. Sermali presented Jer’zail with the endless sky of her plane and the majesty of its views. Jer’zail considered them beneath him. Dershan shared with his older brother a secret from beneath Alteria’s surface. Jer’zail deemed it inconsequential. Finally, when Jer’zail came to Quel’Lan’s domain, Quel’Lan showed him the fantastically magical realm she had made. Jer’zail found it mundane. Disappointed with his siblings, Jer’zail returned to his dead, grey plane and sat upon his throne, depressed at the lack of anything interesting in the other worlds.
Some of the other Gods came to look upon Jer’zail’s domain, most examined his lifeless creation and moved on, thinking their eldest brother was pondering on his creation. The last Goddess to visit him, Quel’Lan, decided to goad her brother into action. Quel’Lan teased Jer’zail, for his plane lacked any imagination and didn’t show the fury he was so well known for.
Quel’Lan had her fun at Jer’zail’s expense and left the God of Strength alone on his desolate plane. Enraged that his siblings had all accomplished some form of success in their own domains, Jer’zail found his inspiration in rage. His fists slammed into Alteria’s surface and dented it. Where his rage burned, flows of fire and molten rock overturned until his entire plane was aflame. None of the other Gods applauded his work. None dared to even enter his domain for Jer’zail was known for his wrath. They shrunk away from Jer’zail and left the God to his land of fire and death..
With their fear, Jer’zail knew he had made the proper plane. A plane where only those of true strength could survive. As the Gods turned their gaze from his newly formed haven, Jer’zail sat upon his throne, now flowing with magma while flames erupted about his frame. The creatures that crawled forth from the fissures bathed in the rage of Jer’zail and as his rage consumed them, their forms twisted into horned, spiteful frames to match their new nature.
As Jer’zail watched his new playthings fight among themselves. The weaker of the creatures were crushed and reduced to ash across the God’s plane. He watched in glee as they fought for his amusement.
One day, as he walked his wonderful plane of fire, Jer’zail came across a small encampment in the rocks. None of his creatures had ever created a settlement and he was intrigued at which of his siblings’ pitiful creations would dare infringe upon his domain.
Jer’zail looked upon the pale-faced creatures but they bore no signature from his siblings. So small were they that he knew his creatures would devour them in time. Jer’zail was impatient, however, and sent his creatures to deal with the small encampment of pale-face creatures.
Watching the large wyrm-like beasts split the earth as they approached the encampment, Jer’zail turned away, perfectly content to let his minions deal with the weak little beings in his stead.
Jer’zail returned to his volcanic throne and looked across his plane bathed in flame. It was great. It was vast. It was violent… but it missed something. Jer’zail pondered on this a great while until finally, he was struck on the toe.
Confused, Jer’zail peered down at the base of his throne. Before him stood one of the creatures he had sentenced to death. It had survived his rage-filled beasts, crafted armor from their remains and wielded one of the spikes of its rage as a weapon.
Jer’zail laughed and asked the little creature what chance it thought it had against the God that had created a plane of such fury. The creature bellowed at the God, its essence screamed that it was not afraid, that it did not fear death and that it would have the God bend its knee to him for the terrible deed Jer’zail had done.
For days, the small creature attacked Jer’zail as the God watched in curiosity. For days it landed blow after blow against the God until its spike was dulled to a pebble, yet it did not yield.
After a week, Jer’zail finally stopped the creature, who still tried to swing at the God. He placed the creature in his palm and held it before his face.
“You have shown your ferocity, weakling” Jer’zail said to the creature as looked over the insignificant speck that had somehow defeated his creatures born of rage. Still the creature would not yield. With interest, Jer’zail offered the creature a compromise.
“There is no honour in me killing you, for it would be as easy as drawing breath. Instead, I offer you strength and power. To be by my side and to be free to roam my lands. What do you say?”
The creature was tired. Its knuckles were bloody and its armour heavy. It agreed and with a deep breath, Jer’zail released his fiery essence upon the creature. The fire circled the creature and renewed it. The breath entered its body and burned it from the inside. Its hide hardened from the weak flesh from what it was and became a strong hide. The flame erupted from the creature’s skull and cooled into mighty horns and finally, the lava leaked down the creature’s back and formed tail with a pointed tip.
No longer did the creature miss its armour or its spike. It had natural weapons. Jer’zail tasked his new Abyssal to go forth and return with more of those who had been like him so that he may bequeath them the same gifts.
The new Abyssal strode forth into the remains of his old encampment, his former friends looked upon him in fear and worry. Forcefully, the new Abyssal brought forth his old clan before Jer’zail for them to receive the God’s gift.
So was born Jer’zail’s children; The Abyssals. Born of stubbornness and pain. Born to a desolate plane of fire and death. Born of strength and weakness. Born to serve Jer’zail and bring others into his glory.
And though the Abyssals serve Jer’zail, they wait. They watch.
They know, deep in their black hearts, they will prevail.
Even over their god.
Eventually.
And when that happens, there might be none more proud than Jer’zail himself. Preferably after they’ve wiped out the other weaklings, of course.
All about priorities on that one, Stardrake.
The Abyssals are the embodiment of ‘might makes right’. Only the strongest prosper. Heck, a lot of their ‘judicial systems’ are based on gladiatorial combat.
That suggests that they do have a legal system of some form, though, which suggests that while might makes right, they do have some form of code. Part of it, I guess, might be that while fighting is okay, you have to be upfront about it: you can pick a fight to someone’s face, but it’s not accepted to claw someone’s gut open from within a crowd and do a runner.
However, if you are accused of such a cowardly act, and you can beat your accuser into a pulp, that shows that you do have the strength rather than relying on un-Jer’zail-like sneaky subterfuge to survive.
Very good summary of how the Abyssals view their own society. If you plan on being sneaky about offing someone, you’d best pull it off without a hitch or their bigger, more powerful sibling might take offense and challenge you openly to the arena.
There’s one slight bit of additional tomfoolery here: Magic. While most Abyssals show off their expertise in their physical appearance and attire, magic users are difficult to identify for non-abyssal people. Those gifted with the ability to commune with the Gods act just like their bigger counterparts, but they are usually ranked among the best when it comes to arena combat due to the fact that all natural talents are acceptable when entering the Circle of Strength.
Many a cocky Seraph, snooty Elf or belligerent Neutral have insulted an Abyssal mage, accepted their challenge and been torn asunder by their essence manipulation capabilities. To other Abyssals, mages are well known – it’s a rather common occurrence to go to the arena and watch a fight or two, so most Abyssals know where each other stand in relation to one another’s skill level.
Not all arena combat ends with death, mind you. Often times the person winning will give their opponent a chance to yield. By the rules of the Arena, and to avoid unnecessary death, each participant is requested to give one opportunity for their opponent to forfeit the fight. Once the opportunity to forfeit is declined, the winner can choose what to do to their opponent freely. If no such opportunity is provided, the Queen determines what to do with the one who disobeyed a royal request.
Most Abyssals prefer to leave their opponents battered, bruised and broken as a reminder of what would happen to the next would-be challenger – though this usually only extends to other Abyssals. Members of the other races are often not as lucky as to leave the arena with just a few broken bones.
I’m now curious as to whether there’s any rules about when the request to forfeit should be issued. Can you, for instance, issue the request before the fight begins and therefore technically fulfill the requirement, even though the opponent might have no sense of how outmatched they are or not, so that when you do reveal your true strength your opponent has no chance to reconsider and yield and you can kill them freely? (Alternatively, such a tactic could be an act of mercy in cases where the two ARE clearly outmatched and the weaker party knows it: possible in situations where an Abyssal calls out someone in response to an insult, but figures that the fear of the prospect of an arena beatdown was punishment enough.) Or does the opportunity to forfeit have to come after the fighter has demonstrated their strength and achieved a dominant position?
Also, what are the consequences of refusing a challenge?
The option to yield can be given at any time. Throughout the ages, it has become known as bad form to offer the opponent to yield prior to the first exchange in strength. If the opponent is killed in the first exchange, there is no penalty – such as the scenario provided of being absolutely outmatched. For the battle to be considered worthy of Jer’Zail’s praise, strength must be displayed in the arena before either Abyssal contestant will be allowed to forfeit. This usually requires one of the Abyssals to achieve a dominant position.
For the other races, Abyssals are less inclined to stick to the rules and usually offer them many chances to yield – there is no real strength in beating those who are too weak to properly fight.
To refuse a challenge, a lot of social factors come into effect. Someone of a lower fighting class than you who challenges you can be met by the challenged in combat (Which usually ends with a sound whupping to put the whelp back into his/her place), it can be met by a stand-in of equal ranking in order to ensure a good fight is had (Which keeps the higher-ranking Abyssal’s rank intact, but gives one of his sub-ordinates a chance to raise their own rank), or it can be thoroughly ignored as with the equivalent response of: You’re not worth my time with very little social ramifications to the challenged, while providing the challenger with a small boost in rank and respect. Often times, higher ranks will use this to make their subordinates back down – simply raising their head in defiance (Showing the jugular – a weak point, or vulnerability) indicates that the individual whom is tilting their head is waiting for the other to challenge him/her) will cause those who know their place to back down for fear of being challenged and proven to be weaker or to prevent their potential death.
In the event that a high ranking individuals feels as though their name has been sullied or if they feel as though they have been wronged by someone of a lower standing, the higher ranking individual can call out the lower rank to a challenge. If a higher ranking individual verbally makes a challenge to a lower ranking individual, the lower ranking individual has no choice but to accept or be seen as a coward. To be seen as a coward is to have a massive stigma placed around yourself for having not accepting a challenge from a better. This stigma will flood over into your personal life and will often times make you lose enough standing with those around you that you will be forced to work your way back up from the lowest tiers in order to regain your former rank.
Most Abyssals who are beyond outclassed by their challenger will gladly accept a call out from a higher up – even if they lose (if they’re left alive), their standing will increase if they perform well enough in the Circle of Strength.
Boy I don’t like the look of that guy…