WHAT EXACTLY IS ORZAND?
By Yusis Orzand, "the least terrifying Overlord ever"
When my friends and I were trying to find a way to break Kreisia's cycle, we searched for anything we could learn about "Orzand". We knew very little about Orzand, except that it's the name of every cycle's Overlord, and that it's mentioned in some legends about Yumarac, the off-world ancestor of the Altean race.
Stories about Yumarac predate Kreisia's cycle, and have been passed down through the generations. Anemos shared many of those stories when my friends and I journeyed to collect Aldea's pommel stones. In the last few days before the destined battle, we asked more questions of the Alteans living in Ascendance City, and borrowed some of their ancient books. We didn't learn much more than what Anemos already knew.
A few days after I became the current Overlord, I realized something. Something that still makes me want to scream, if I think about it for too long.
We should have asked Aldea about Yumarac when we had the chance. Yumarac CREATED the Holy Brand Aldea.
Why didn't we ask Aldea about Yumarac?
Why didn't Aldea TELL US about Yumarac!?
Aldea, you knew we were searching for anything we could find to break Kreisia's cycle - anything that could be a piece of the puzzle - anything at all! You knew!
THE LEGEND OF YUMARAC'S ARRIVAL ON KREISIA
Yumarac came to Kreisia hundreds of years before the cycle, at least. Maybe a thousand years or more; no living person knows exactly when he arrived. Some of the Overlord's massacres have been so extreme that they nearly eradicated historical records.
(Even Aldea might not know when Yumarac came to Kreisia. Aldea may not have kept track of how long it slept in its shrine after Yumarac left it there. As a Time Mage Overlord, I can pick up on precisely when memories of destroyed monsters took place, but I can't access any monster memories from before the cycle's dawn.)
No one knows exactly how Yumarac came to Kreisia. He wasn't summoned. Anemos thinks he used his near-limitless magic power to travel the universe.
(Anemos once asked me if Yumarac could have been from my world, since I look a lot like an Altean. I said, "No." Then I thought about it some more, and said, "Well... I really don't think so.")
(Magic and Altean chants don't exist in my world. As far as I know, anyway. My world does have myths about fantastic things in ancient history, but there's no proof that any of the myths ever happened. Also, no one in my world has naturally green hair.)
THE LEGEND OF YUMARAC'S POWER
The full extent of Yumarac's abilities is unknown. Legends say his magic power was so great, and his knowledge was so advanced, that most of it was nearly incomprehensible to Kreisia's native Lunarls.
(I'm not sure why Alteans today have less magic talent than Lunarls, when their ancestor Yumarac had such extraordinary magic. Maybe it's a generational thing? Or maybe the legends exaggerate Yumarac's power, I don't know.)
Yumarac was not as physically powerful as Kreisia's native Vargs, but he did know some combat techniques they had never encountered before. He freely taught them ways to more effectively fight the undead monsters that menaced their world.
(Laminah has told me that some of her fighting style - especially the emphasis on decapitating and dismembering undead monsters, to make their bodies quickly "bleed out" as much miasma as possible - can be traced back to Yumarac.)
Yumarac could bend both space and time to his will. Legends say he could even bring the flow of time to a complete stop.
(I think the legends are wrong about this. Truly stopping time in the physical realm is impossible, as far as I know. %Time Stop% doesn't literally stop time; I just named it that because it sounds cool. What %Time Stop% really does is pause the progression of certain forces relative to the flow of time. Whoever recorded the legends probably didn't know the difference.)
Yumarac taught the Lunarls of Kreisia how to create new types of magic items. Lunarls already knew how to make float gossamers, sleeping beads, beads that dispel afflictions, and elemental magic beads, as well as holy magic beads that could heal injuries, cure miasma poisoning, or revive a fighter who's been battered unconscious. Yumarac demonstrated how to make slowing-beads that drag upon the target's perception of time, and teleportation beads.
(Teleportation is magic that affects the target's position in space, and time is the fourth dimension of space. Even though teleportation beads are made from a mix of different types of magic, teleportation itself is a stripped-down form of time manipulation. Aldea can teleport up to four people because it knows some time magic from Yumarac.)
(Summoning monsters is a form of teleportation, but it's mixed with dark magic. Only monsters can do it, and it only works on undead servants under the summoner's direct control. The summoner can't summon anyone or anything else, not even himself.)
(As a Time Mage, I probably could learn a spell to teleport myself around, if I wanted to. I don't want to. That's one advantage I definitely don't want to have, when I battle the next Savior. I'm worried that after Orzand erases me, it could learn how to teleport itself.)
Yumarac also introduced bardic magic to Kreisia. Bardic magic is the only magic wielded by living Kreisians that can manipulate time (slowing-beads are created through bardic magic), and it's far weaker than the feats Yumarac was once capable of. (It's also weaker than what I'm capable of, although it can counter my %Slow% spell.)
Yumarac knew how to shape intelligent living beings from raw magic power. He didn't pass this secret on; scholars have reconstructed some of his techniques, but all attempts to shape living beings out of magic have been unsuccessful.
Scholars have speculated that shaping living beings out of magic is impossible now. Creating a living being requires a lot of magic power. Dark magic has grown too strong on Kreisia, even during the "low ebb" of the cycle's beginning, and it's crowding out all other kinds of magic.
Living people can't shape dark magic. Only the undead can wield miasma. Miasma's "hatred of life" makes it unusable for most purposes, other than spreading death, terror, or suffering. (I can sometimes get miasma to do other things, but I can't make it go against its core desires.)
I'm pretty sure miasma can't be shaped into living beings. Miasma prefers to slay the living and trap their souls in undead bodies. As the Overlord, I can only use %Wielder of miasma% to shape objects, and I'm limited by the Rules of the Overlord Orzand.
No undead monster has ever made a living being out of any type of magic. I don't think that's something monsters can do, since the miasma that animates monsters is "hatred of life".
(Even if it were possible, I would absolutely never try to shape a living being out of time magic. I'd rather not think about how Orzand would warp such a creation.)
Legend has it that all the intelligent beings Yumarac once created out of magic are gone now, except for one. (Spoiler alert: it's the Holy Brand Aldea.) The others fought to protect Kreisia during turns of the cycle, and the last of them were destroyed ages ago.
(I suspect the legends are wrong about this, and another being that Yumarac once created out of magic is still around...)
THE LEGEND OF YUMARAC'S LOVE
Yumarac saw Kreisia as a beautiful, innocent world. He loved its skies, its seas, and its forests. Then he fell in love with a Lunarl maiden. She was a priestess closely attuned to Kreisia's holy power. Her name has never been recorded.
(Monsters tend to target priests and priestesses. Since knowing a person's name makes it easier to target them with magic, the priestess kept her name a secret. If she ever told Yumarac, he respected her wishes and never told anyone else.)
The priestess was put off by Yumarac's strange appearance, and troubled by his nearly limitless power. She was particularly concerned by how he could control people's bodies and minds with "chants", an innate ability completely separate from his mastery of magic.
(It's impossible to use magic and chants at the same time. It is possible to talk, move, or whatever while doing either, but anything other than words or actions specifically intended to focus concentration will make casting the spell or maintaining the chant harder. Too much physical or mental strain will interrupt a spell or a chant.)
Yumarac's first attempt to court the priestess was a disaster. She tried to evade him by stealing his own teleportation beads and invoking their magic. He blocked her teleport with his spell to stop time. Then he apologized for frightening her, and asked her to keep the remaining beads as a safeguard for her own life, should she ever need to escape Kreisia's miasma or monsters.
Yumarac spent years hunting Kreisia's undead monsters, and helping Kreisia's people evacuate areas contaminated by miasma. The Lunarl priestess often crossed paths with him, when treating Kreisia's injured or protecting settlements against the undead. As time passed, she came to accept that this mysterious off-worlder truly loved Kreisia, and truly loved her. She also became completely enraptured by his gorgeous, light green hair.
(What IS it with Kreisia and-!? Why is everyone here SO obsessed over-???)
Yumarac and the Lunarl priestess were married in a joyous celebration, and they had children together. Their children were the first Alteans. I'm not sure if the word "Altean" is from the name of Yumarac's race, the name of his home world, or something else.
(Did the priestess' own children know her name? Maybe not. Maybe they just called her "Mom".)
Yumarac's children all resembled their father - light green hair, furless, rounded ears instead of long ears, no tail, and they shared Yumarac's power of "chants".
(Altean physical traits, affinity for chants, and innate resistance to harmful chants are usually inherited whenever Alteans have children. After countless generations of intermarriage with Lunarls and Vargs, the Alteans still have a very distinct appearance.)
(Anemos has told me that other traits become more visible if Yumarac's ancestry is distant enough. Cynthia has trails of light green in her hair and can use some weak chants; her Altean ancestor is probably many generations back in her Lunarl lineage.)
(As far as I know, Yumarac is the only off-worlder who has had Kreisian children. No summoned Savior has ever left behind any offspring on Kreisia. That's not a coincidence, and not only because the Savior's destiny is to become the next Overlord...)
THE LEGEND OF YUMARAC AND THE MIASMA
Yumarac was deeply troubled by Kreisia's miasma.
He feared this concentrated dark magic substance, that could not be destroyed by physical or elemental attacks, that poisoned people and animals, turning them into undead things.
The miasma even possessed corpses. If miasma contaminated a dead body before the soul had time to depart, miasma would consume the body and trap the soul inside a shell of dark magic, animated by miasma vapors within. This dark magic shell, molded into a copy of a living form, would rise as an undead monster that could further spread its poison.
(In the time before the Overlord Orzand, I wonder how much free will those undead monsters had. Sasha was from that time. She remembered very little other than her name.)
Yumarac resolved to protect the world he loved, and the family he loved, from the curse of the miasma.
THE LEGEND OF YUMARAC AND ORZAND
When Yumarac tried to lift the curse of the miasma, a mind arose within it to oppose him. Yumarac named this mind "Orzand".
Orzand, the mind of the miasma, declared that it would %Protect Kreisia from all life.%
(This legend calls Orzand "the mind of the miasma", but I think that's only partly accurate. Orzand and Kreisia's miasma aren't quite one and the same, just as Aldea and Kreisia's holy power aren't quite one and the same. Orzand is more like a mind that represents miasma, like how Aldea is a mind that represents holy power.)
Yumarac led a great army against Orzand, in a pitched battle to save Kreisia. The entire army was lost.
The army's sacrifice was not in vain. They weakened Orzand just enough. Enough so that Yumarac could put the Mind of Orzand to sleep, and seal it away. Yumarac used up so much of his power that he was never able to wield great magic again.
(Yumarac must have kept his knowledge of magic, since he later invented the summon spell. I suspect he also kept a little bit of weak time magic, enough to help him travel the world more easily than an ordinary person.)
With Orzand asleep and sealed, miasma drained from Kreisia. Undead monsters almost vanished, as Kreisians culled their numbers.
Yumarac returned home, and lived a quiet life with his beloved wife and children. Decades of peace and happiness passed. Yumarac still worried that one day Orzand could awaken.
THE LEGEND OF THE HOLY BRAND ALDEA
Yumarac's Lunarl wife was an exceptionally powerful priestess, with great mastery over holy magic. She shared Yumarac's fear that Orzand could one day awaken. She resolved to work with her husband on a plan to eternally protect Kreisia.
Yumarac's magic was spent, but he still had his power of chants that could control a person's actions. He used chants to delicately guide his wife through the steps necessary to shape holy magic into a supremely powerful, living weapon with an intelligent mind.
He named this creation "Holy Brand Aldea".
Aldea was made from the holy power that naturally shines within Kreisia. With the miasma at a low point - possibly the lowest since the dawn of time - Kreisia's holy power was in tremendous abundance. So much holy power existed that Yumarac and his wife could funnel and transform it into a being who cherished Kreisia even as they did.
(It's almost certainly impossible to create another being like Aldea today. There's too much miasma contaminating Kreisia, even at the cycle's "low ebb" when the miasma and Orzand are at their weakest.)
Something went wrong, when Aldea was created. Yumarac's wife died. Legends do not recount why or how. The Alteans firmly believe that Yumarac did not sacrifice his true love deliberately.
(I have a theory of my own. I suspect that, at the moment Yumarac's wife comprehended exactly how Aldea would eternally protect Kreisia - the cycle - the shock to her system was too much.)
(The cycle is cruel. It would be hard enough for a "corrupt" off-worlder to accept responsibility for creating such a merciless system. Compared to us, native Kreisians are so innocent...)
Yumarac was devastated, heartbroken. His resolve to protect Kreisia remained steadfast. He entrusted the Holy Brand Aldea with a failsafe plan to keep Orzand at bay.
Yumarac instructed Aldea to create a shrine for itself, in the grasslands where Kreisia's holy power was most abundant, and wait within. Aldea obediently did as it was told, and slept peacefully within its shrine.
THE LEGEND OF YUMARAC'S SUMMON SPELL
Yumarac spent his final years on Kreisia traveling far and wide, teaching Lunarl priestesses a holy magic spell that he'd invented. If the people of Kreisia needed help, this spell would transform that need into a summon that would call an off-world Savior. Yumarac stressed that, if Orzand ever awakened, then only an off-world Savior wielding the Holy Brand Aldea could vanquish it.
Yumarac also instructed the people of Kreisia to create and maintain summoning stations, outside the range of wards designed to repel undead monsters. These summoning stations were small shelters where priestesses could cast the spell to summon a Savior.
(Magic that blocks monster summoning also interferes with the spell to summon a Savior. I'm not sure why that is, when wards that block monsters don't stop living people from teleporting, but I have a guess. Wards that block monsters repel their dark magic bodies. Even though off-world Saviors have living bodies, the summon spell uses both holy magic and time magic to transport the Savior between worlds. Maybe wards against dark magic also mess with other types of magic; not enough to stop most spells from being cast, but just enough to disrupt the complicated and far-reaching summon spell.)
Today, knowledge of the summon spell is shared among all of Kreisia's mages, priests, and priestesses, but only a Lunarl priestess can summon an off-world Savior. Vargs can't use much magic; Alteans can use magic pretty well but not as well as Lunarls; and male Lunarls don't have as much raw talent as the females do. Very few Lunarl priestesses have enough talent to successfully cast the summon spell, and monsters often target Lunarls with strong magic talent.
(Ideally, a Lunarl priestess would be under the protection of bodyguards when attempting the summon spell. In practice, very few Kreisians are brave enough to guard an aspiring Priestess of Salvation. The destiny of the Priestess of Salvation is to become a Lesser Seal that will track down and kill anyone she used to know, including former protectors.)
When Yumarac invented the summon spell, he put safeguards in the magic. Some of these safeguards strictly limit who the spell can call. The spell can't summon a Savior who has young children, or anyone else depending on him for survival, not even a pet. Holy magic's "love of life" ensures that summoning a Savior won't leave any living being abandoned to a cruel fate.
(Except maybe parasites? Those might be abandoned. I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but even holy magic has limits.)
The summon spell deliberately protects Kreisia from the "corruption" of off-world offspring. The spell can and sometimes has summoned a female Savior, or a Savior who isn't male or female (some Saviors in history could be described as "both" or "neither"), but the spell can't ever summon a pregnant Savior.
The summon spell also ensures that the Savior won't bring any other off-world life to Kreisia. No other people at all, and not any pets, wildlife, parasites, contagious diseases, nothing like that.
The summon spell has a long list of subtle effects on the Savior. These effects can be difficult to detect by most means, including divination spells. The Savior himself may never notice. I certainly didn't.
The spell "records" how the Savior's body and mind used to be, and then modifies the Savior in certain ways. The "recording" is so the Savior's body and mind can be returned to their original state, if the spell is reversed. Saviors have been sent back to their home worlds before, when more than one Savior was summoned in the same turn of the cycle. Only one Savior has to die and become the Greater Seal each cycle; Aldea always insists that any "superfluous" candidates for Savior return home, to protect Kreisia from off-world "corruption".
If the Savior has any kind of symbiotic relationship (that's when two different species exist together in a way that benefits both), then the summon spell changes the Savior's body a little so he's fine on his own. I remember just enough from high school biology to be pretty sure that happened to me. People from my world have a symbiotic relationship with certain microorganisms (that's a fancy word for "extremely tiny animals") in their digestive system.
The summon spell also gives the Savior the ability to understand and speak the Kreisian language, even if the Savior belongs to a species that doesn't use sound to communicate. Another effect ensures that the Savior can survive in Kreisia's environment. If needed, the spell will alter the Savior so he can breathe Kreisia's atmosphere, handle Kreisia's natural temperature ranges, get all the nutrition he needs from Kreisian food, stuff like that.
Still another alteration is... how do I put this. The Savior isn't prevented from, uh... sharing an intimate relationship... but the Savior is prevented from having any children on Kreisia. Even a Savior who belonged to a species that reproduces by dividing in two was blocked from cloning itself.
(Cynthia has told me stuff about the summon spell, but she definitely didn't mention this last thing. I'm pretty sure she didn't know. I learned about it while searching the memories of monsters.)
(Monsters have overheard some very weird conversations, including a certain heated argument between that clone-species Savior and Aldea. Right in the middle of a battle with lots of monsters, when the ability to divide in two would have been helpful.)
THE LEGEND OF YUMARAC'S RETURN
Some Alteans believe that Yumarac never died... or that if he did die, he'll be reincarnated. That one day Yumarac will return to Kreisia, to the world he loves so much, to the people he loves so much.
(I have nothing to say about this legend. My own theories about Yumarac may offend some people, but %The Overlord makes obeisance to no one% anyway.)
THE LEGEND OF THE CYCLE'S DAWN
Centuries after the last time anyone set eyes on Yumarac, Orzand awakened. The miasma surged, engulfing Kreisia in floods that brought death and worse.
A desperate Lunarl priestess summoned a Savior from off-world. She was the first Priestess of Salvation. Every priestess who has since summoned a Savior has been known as a Priestess of Salvation.
The Savior and the Priestess of Salvation journeyed to the Holy Brand Aldea's shrine. Aldea warned them that they could not vanquish Orzand unless they and two more Kreisians were willing to sacrifice their lives and more.
Two other Kreisians volunteered to aid the Savior and the Priestess of Salvation, knowing the price all four of them would have to pay. The Savior wielded the Holy Brand Aldea against Orzand's legion of undead monsters. Then, the Savior vanquished Orzand. The Savior and his companions, including the first Priestess of Salvation, sacrificed their lives and more to ensure that Orzand would remain Sealed.
(I think that when Orzand first awakened, it couldn't cast %Miasma falls, everyone dies,% not all at once, because the amount of dark magic in Kreisia was still somewhat low. I'm also pretty sure that this Savior didn't battle Orzand directly. He just fought his way past monsters, to the core mass of the miasma. Close enough for Aldea to turn him into the first Greater Seal, and turn his companions into the first Lesser Seals.)
(Aldea must have had to create a castle for the first Greater Seal and shrines for the first Lesser Seals, instead of moving and reusing the Overlord's castle and the Lesser Seal shrines like it usually does. I'm guessing that Aldea had enough power to shape a castle and three new shrines because it had recently awakened from much more than ten years of sleep, and because it didn't have to expend any strength fighting Orzand.)
For ten years, Kreisia was peaceful. The Lesser Seals were imprisoned in hidden shrines, and held back by Aldea's pommel stones. The bonds between the Lesser Seals and the Greater Seal kept the former Savior, who had become the first Overlord Orzand, imprisoned in a castle shaped from Aldea's holy magic. The Overlord was unable to harm anything outside of his castle, and unable to leave it by any means, not even teleportation.
(Aldea's holy magic castle flat-out blocks the Overlord from influencing Kreisia in any way, other than drawing in miasma vapors or communicating with undead monsters. Even then, %Master of monsters% is mostly disabled. The Overlord can't give the monsters any commands. The miasma animating monsters still pressures them to stalk and kill the living, but since monsters are weaker during peacetime, they tend to retreat and stay hidden a lot.)
Then the Lesser Seals gained enough power to shatter their crystal prisons, and the Overlord gained enough power to disregard the restrictions of his castle. The Overlord blighted Kreisia with miasma, monsters, and undeath, until another desperate Lunarl priestess summoned another Savior from off-world, to wield the Holy Brand Aldea and stop the Overlord's reign of terror.
Kreisia's cycle had begun.
(Sometimes I miss the days when I thought Kreisia was a dream.)
WHAT EXACTLY IS KREISIA'S MIASMA?
Miasma doesn't exist in my world. Aldea has told me that miasma only exists in Kreisia, at least for now. Everyone knows what miasma does; it uses dark magic to kill living things, and it turns people, animals, and fresh corpses into undead monsters. No one really knows what miasma is.
I'm not completely sure I know, either. I do know that miasma has drives and desires that give it a sort of "will". It craves death, terror, and suffering with a greedy, endless hunger. It compulsively traps souls in a useless attempt to fill its own void, and it wants to keep those souls trapped forever.
I also know that being the Greater Seal on Kreisia's miasma feels like being sick. Memories of being physically sick are part of deal, but it also feels like being sick in the head. It would be a struggle to keep my own mind even if I didn't hear the Voice of Orzand.
During the last ten years, while I was imprisoned in my castle, there were days when I felt what's left of "Yusis" slipping. To hold on, I listened to my friends' voices, preserved in Cedric's crystal. I listened to them over and over. What's left of "Yusis" has lingered this long because of their help, and the hope of seeing them again.
Aldea once told me that holy power is "love of life" and "hatred of that which threatens life". These drives form the "will" of holy power. Holy power is, as far as I can tell, the complete opposite of miasma.
I think miasma is "hatred of life" and "love of that which torments life".
"Hatred of life" exists in my world. It just doesn't exist as miasma. It exists within people.
"Hatred of life" doesn't create undead monsters in my world. "Hatred of life" causes other evil things. Evil things that aren't in Kreisia. I'm not going to give any details.
I've wondered if miasma is something that happened by chance, when the world of Kreisia came into being. Maybe "hatred of life" spontaneously separated into miasma, and all the people on Kreisia evolved free of its corruption? While in worlds like my own...
...I don't know, I'm just guessing. Maybe my first guess is wrong. Maybe Kreisia was always innocent, and miasma is the "hatred of life" from other worlds, given a new form here.
Aldea once told me that only an off-world Savior can bring Kreisia ten years of peace, because only off-worlders are "corrupt" enough to hold Kreisia's miasma within a stable Greater Seal.
Aldea didn't mean that off-world Saviors are evil. Not really evil, anyway.
Off-worlders are "corrupt" because we have some "hatred of life" on the inside. Just not in the form of miasma. How much "hatred of life" we have, and how much we allow it to control what we do, depends on the person.
Has every Savior seen "hatred of life" destroy people, before being summoned? Is that why every Savior has been willing to sacrifice their life and more, to protect this innocent world of Kreisia?
WHAT EXACTLY IS UNDEATH?
My world doesn't have undead monsters, except in movies, video games, and ghost stories. I'm not going to talk about any of those; I don't think they're relevant here. Undeath in Kreisia is its own thing.
Undeath in Kreisia means having a body made entirely of dark magic. An undead body has a flexible outer shell of semi-solid miasma, and looks sort of like a living body with pale skin, sharp fangs or beaks, black claws or sharp hooves, and glowing yellow eyes with vertical pupils. An undead body doesn't have blood, muscles, bones, or internal organs of any kind; it's hollow, and animated by miasma vapors within.
Undead monsters don't have very much weight, which makes it a lot easier for winged undead monsters to fly. Large winged undead monsters typically use both their control over miasma vapors and an affinity for wind magic to give themselves more lift and propulsion. Wind magic isn't required for monster flight, but it helps.
(Sasha used wind magic in this way, so she was a lot better suited to, say, pull a moderately heavy coach then I would have been in dragon form. I can't use any elemental magic.)
All monsters can spread undeath by using their fangs or claws to inject poisonous miasma vapors into their victim. Some monsters are more poisonous than others; the Overlord tops the list, and can easily poison victims with just the miasma vapors that drift off of his body. Some living beings are more resistant to being turned than others; "miasma resistance" can be supplemented with holy magic anti-poison wards.
All undead monsters have the soul of what was once a living person or animal trapped inside. Miasma has to trap a soul in order to take the shape of a monster. I'm not completely sure why that is, but I do have an instinctive feeling why. I think miasma needs a soul to give itself structure.
Miasma itself doesn't have a personality, and doesn't understand all situations. Miasma is just a mindless, disorganized "hatred of life". The Overlord can shape miasma - so can a few other undead monsters (not all monsters) - but only into inanimate objects.
Holy power is the opposite of miasma; it's a mindless, disorganized "love of life". Holy power wants souls to have their freedom. Holy magic attacks are super-strong against undead monsters because holy power really wants to free their trapped souls.
Like miasma, holy power doesn't have a personality, and doesn't understand all situations. Holy power can't comprehend that monsters who have kept their own minds might not want to have their souls immediately freed. Monsters like this are extremely rare, and usually have deep regrets that keep them more strongly tethered to their cursed existence.
The hydra on my island is one such monster. He used to be a Varg warrior; twenty years ago, during the Wizard Overlord's reign of terror, he was killed without any chance to resist. (I'm not sure if he died from a miasma flood, apocalyptic magic, a monster ambush, or something else. He doesn't like to talk about it.) He regrets that he didn't go down fighting; after he arose as a monster, he wasn't able to find and challenge Savior Clize before the cycle turned.
During the siege on Vatoren, the hydra obeyed Overlord Clize's command to join the siege... by walking there, very slowly. The Overlord couldn't just teleport the hydra across the continent; there are strict limits on monster summoning, and extra-super-strong monsters like the hydra can't be teleported very far. The hydra didn't reach Vatoren before the siege ended in the total annihilation of both sides.
A few months after I became the Overlord, the hydra reached out to me through the "network" that connects the minds of monsters. He decided of his own will to come to my island... by swimming here, very slowly. He's stayed here ever since.
Now, the hydra really wants a glorious battle against the next Savior. He doesn't want to settle for anything less.
(I haven't asked the hydra why he never tried to challenge me when I was the Savior. I know the answer, and I know he doesn't want to admit it to me. He probably thinks it would offend me, or something. He should know that I'm not going to blame him for wanting to fight a better Savior than the likes of me, but there you go.)
Holy power is very confused by my friends (the current Lesser Seals), living people whom miasma has made weak to holy magic. Holy healing magic recognizes that my friends have living bodies, and does work on them; holy attack magic harms my friends as if they were partly turned, even though they have no miasma within. Holy power doesn't want its own confusion to hurt Cynthia, and is reluctant to let her channel it unless she really needs it.
Only the living can shape holy power, and not all living beings are sufficiently attuned to "love of life" to wield holy magic. I sure wasn't.
(Can holy power be shaped around a soul? Is that how Yumarac and his wife created the Holy Brand Aldea? Does Aldea have a soul? If it does, then its soul couldn't have been stolen from a living being; holy power would never allow that.)
The body of an undead monster initially resembles whatever living body or fresh corpse that miasma consumed, including the appearance of any clothing worn (but not usually anything carried) by miasma's victim. Undead monsters don't really "wear" any "clothing"; it's all part of their dark magic shell.
It's usually possible for a monster's dark magic body to be reshaped. (Lesser Seals are the exception; Aldea's pommel stones make their dark magic bodies incapable of significantly changing shape, so that their former friends and loved ones can more easily identify and destroy them.) There are limits to this.
Monsters can't change their glowing yellow eyes; I think that's because of their connection to Orzand, which has similar eyes in the illusions it makes me cast. Miasma demands that monsters always have sharp fangs or beaks that can poison the living. Miasma often (but not always) insists that monsters have sharp claws capable of inflicting poison; monsters with hooves are the most common exception. (Hoofed monsters can still inflict poison by biting, and their hooves hit extra-hard as a trade-off.)
Beyond that, miasma refuses to let monsters mimic living beings too closely. A monster can't make its body capable of doing anything inherently connected to "life". That includes eating, drinking, breathing, sleeping, or...
...uh...
...ugh. I wasn't good at talking about stuff like this back when I had a living body. Now that I'm an undead thing, bringing this up feels really weird and really, really creepy. I'll just say that, uh... physical intimacy... let alone having children... all of that is inherently connected to "life". Miasma is completely opposed to anything like that.
Monsters can't reproduce like the living do. Monsters can create more monsters only by poisoning victims, or by directing miasma to consume fresh corpses; this enables miasma to trap more souls within dark magic bodies.
Monsters often reshape their dark magic bodies into forms resembling animals or birds; I think that's because the soul trapped inside unconsciously identifies with a given type of creature. The Overlord can further change the forms of monsters to make them more powerful.
The dark magic body of an undead monster has very limited physical senses. There's only a basic sense of "touch", and monsters can't feel physical pain. Monsters can see through their eyes (or through divination spells), but their vision is a blurry, black-and-white mess. Monsters have no sense of smell or taste (monsters can't eat or drink anyway). Hearing is a monster's best sense; sound makes vibrations that miasma can pick up on.
The mind of an undead monster isn't generated by a living brain. No internal organs means literally no brain. (Yeah, that includes me. I try not to think about it.) Instead, the mind of a newly turned monster is an impression of what used to be a living person's or animal's memories and thought patterns, stamped into dark magic. This impression is usually "erased" in short order.
A few undead monsters (like me) hang on to their own minds by willfully and repeatedly "redrawing" the lingering impression of what they once were. Even so, the mind of a monster inevitably decays. Memories fade. Names are forgotten. Resisting miasma's pressure to destroy, terrorize, or torment life becomes harder.
(I've asked Sasha how she kept her own mind for so long. She said she didn't know. I think part of what worked was how she retreated to remote, inhospitable areas of Kreisia as much as she could; miasma couldn't pressure her to destroy life quite as heavily, because there was almost no life nearby for her to destroy. I'm testing that theory on myself. Now that I've awakened the Lesser Seals, I'm staying put on the barren island where my castle is. Maybe isolating myself from the living will help me hold out for longer.)
Kreisians are so innocent that the pressure to destroy life is... it has to be even more horrifying to them than it is to me. When Kreisians are raised into undeath, they usually erase their own minds very quickly, often instantly. Off-worlders might have more resistant minds, but the Voice of Orzand can turn up miasma's pressure and completely erase the mind of any former Savior who refuses or breaks its rules, especially its rule to %Protect Kreisia from all life.%
I can't slack off on upholding that evil rule forever. Eventually, what's left of "Yusis" will be permanently erased.
WHAT EXACTLY IS THE OVERLORD ORZAND?
The Overlord Orzand is a glorified miasma sewer.
I'm not exaggerating. I mean that literally.
The Overlord Orzand is created to be a temporary seal on Kreisia's terminal illness, the miasma. This seal "wears out" in ten years; the miasma grows so powerful that the Overlord spreads death, terror, and suffering as surely as if there were no seal on the miasma at all. If the next Savior does not vanquish and replace the Overlord, then the Overlord will eventually destroy all life in the world, and maybe the miasma will spread to other worlds after that.
The Holy Brand Aldea plays a role in the Overlord's creation, by writing a directive on the Savior's soul and overseeing the Savior's willing sacrifice to become the next Greater Seal. Aldea doesn't directly turn the Savior into an undead thing (or directly turn the Savior's companions into Lesser Seals); miasma does that.
Aldea does influence the Savior's transformation (and Aldea's detached pommel stones influence the Lesser Seals' transformations). Aldea adds something to the new Greater Seal that no other monster has - a vortex that automatically attracts and concentrates miasma, trapping it in a "harmless" state. Only the smallest fraction of the miasma within the Overlord's vortex can be used to power the Greater Seal, or otherwise escapes as %Poisonous miasma% vapors.
The Overlord Orzand consists of six components upon creation. These components are the Greater Seal (including its miasma vortex), the miasma trapped in the Greater Seal (especially in its miasma vortex), the Voice of Orzand (which speaks for a mind embedded in the miasma), the rules of the Overlord Orzand (the Voice cherishes these), the soul of the former Savior (which has Aldea's additional rule written on it), and the mind of the former Savior.
The mind of the former Savior is completely expendable and always erased sooner or later, often right after the Greater Seal's creation, leaving the Overlord with five components.
WHAT EXACTLY IS THE VOICE OF ORZAND?
The Voice of Orzand is how Orzand communicates its will. Living people can't hear the Voice of Orzand, unless they willfully pledge obedience to the Overlord Orzand.
The Voice speaks to undead monsters through their miasma. Yeah, that includes me.
I don't hear the Voice all the time. It talks to me when it wants to. Which is way too often. It enjoys messing with my emotions, anything to make me feel miserable or worse. One of its favorite things to say is, %YOU HAVE SAVED NO ONE. YOU CAN SAVE NO ONE. YOU WILL SAVE NO ONE.%
It's obsessed with its rules, and has repeatedly emphasized that I'll be erased if I refuse any of them.
The Voice isn't choosing to let me keep my mind. It can't erase me until it has determined that I'm refusing a rule. If not for rule #2, %The Overlord must protect Kreisia from all life,% I might be able to keep my mind indefinitely.
Maybe.
As it is, what's left of "Yusis" will get erased whenever the Voice calculates that I've slacked off on rule #2 too much. I've been using miasma vapors to kill a lot of plants and insects; I'm causing lasting ecological damage to Kreisia's more remote areas, but eventually that won't be enough.
WHAT EXACTLY IS A BARGAIN WITH ORZAND?
Only the living (assuming they haven't pledged to serve the Overlord) can make a meaningful bargain with the Overlord Orzand. Undead monsters (and living people who have pledged to serve) are the Overlord's slaves. The Overlord can grant privileges to specific monsters or living slaves, but he's not compelled to keep any promises he makes to them. The Voice of Orzand rarely bothers to say anything to its slaves anyway, outside of giving them orders, and most monsters erase their own minds.
Bargaining with the Overlord Orzand is extremely dangerous. In the preserved memories of past Overlords, I've seen times when living people have dared to strike deals with the Overlord Orzand. This has never ended well. Not once. There have been a few times when it didn't end as horribly as it could have, maybe.
The Overlord Orzand can only make bargains in physical person. He can't strike a meaningful deal over long-distance communication, although he can certainly make threats.
The Overlord is always compelled to keep his side of any bargains he strikes, to the letter. Right now, that applies to both the Voice and to what's left of "Yusis". The Voice has to uphold any bargains that I make.
In theory, I have to uphold any bargains the Voice makes. In practice, that's not likely to happen because the living can't hear the Voice, unless I repeat its words or cast an illusion that speaks for it.
(Should I mention that what's left of "Yusis" literally can't sign on to any bargain that would directly refuse or break the rules of the Overlord Orzand? That's kind of obvious, isn't it?)
Striking a bargain with the Overlord compels the other person to keep their side. The Overlord Orzand can't strike a bargain that either side can't guarantee. Whether something can or can't be guaranteed is determined by what both sides believe; if either side thinks that any part of the deal can't be guaranteed, then the deal isn't possible.
This is why my bargain with the Voice was to "try as sincerely and effectively as I can" to get the Lesser Seals' pledge of obedience. The Voice couldn't straight-up demand that I make them pledge, because the Voice knew I couldn't guarantee something that had to come from the Lesser Seals' free will.
The Voice is compelled to be honest (more or less) when it's making a bargain. That doesn't stop the Voice from turning bargains to its own advantage, in vicious or cunning ways. It gets a twisted thrill out of doing that.
The Voice is NOT compelled to be honest when it's not making a bargain. The Voice can and does lie. Over and over.
I'm not compelled to be honest either, unless I'm making a bargain. I don't like dishonesty, and I'd usually rather refuse to answer than tell a lie, but I'm not above flat-out lying to others or even to myself. Especially to myself. It's pretty pointless to lie to myself when I know I'm lying to myself, but I've done it anyway. Call it part of being a "corrupt" off-worlder.
When I became the Overlord, I made a bargain with the Voice of Orzand to preserve the Lesser Seals' lives. That technically wasn't the same as "a bargain with the Overlord Orzand", since my mind and the Voice are both components of the Overlord Orzand, but for all practical purposes it worked the same way.
My bargain with the Voice seemed to turn out okay - my friends are alive, I don't owe the Voice anything more for the deal I made, and my friends never owed the Voice anything to begin with - but I can't shake a really bad feeling about what I did.
WHAT EXACTLY IS ORZAND?
The Voice of Orzand is closely connected to Kreisia's miasma. The Voice speaks for a mind with the power of dark magic, power that I wield as the Overlord. This mind has grown in strength as Kreisia's miasma has grown, over the past ten years.
I think Orzand is the reason why I can read the memories of destroyed monsters, preserved in the miasma. Something within Orzand automatically directs miasma to record memories.
Until Orzand erases me, it can only access memories that I decide to look at, or memories of past Overlords (which it has personally experienced). Orzand isn't interested in searching through memories anyway. It thinks looking at them is "useless".
There are some weird things about Orzand. Why does it have rules? Why can't it erase me right now? Why is its worst rule to %Protect Kreisia from all life%?
Why would Orzand care about protecting Kreisia in any twisted context? I don't think Kreisia's rocks matter to it.
Why is there no mention of Orzand in any Kreisian legend from before the time of Yumarac? Why do the legends say that Yumarac named Orzand? The Voice of Orzand really does consider "Orzand" to be its own name.
I have a theory.
I think Orzand was once a living being that Yumarac made out of magic. (I'm not sure which type; my first guess would be mind-related magic, like what enables sleep spells or the %Pledge of obedience accepted% power.) Orzand was something Yumarac created to seal away Kreisia's miasma, something that was supposed to keep Kreisia safe.
I think Yumarac screwed up. Kreisia's miasma, "hatred of life" in its purest form, twisted Orzand's highest directive from "Protect Kreisia" into %Protect Kreisia from all life.%
I can't prove this, but I do have evidence. When the Voice of Orzand communicates with me, I get a lot of the same impressions that I once did when communicating with the other being Yumarac made out of magic - the Holy Brand Aldea.
Yeah, that's right, Aldea. I'm comparing you to Orzand.
Orzand is driven to %Protect Kreisia from all life,% just like Aldea's function is to protect Kreisia from the miasma. Orzand doesn't address or refer to anyone by name (except itself), just like Aldea doesn't (except for Orzand). Orzand is rigid and uncaring in the way it thinks, just like Aldea is. Orzand speaks with some of the same phrases that Aldea uses. Orzand can read my soul, just like Aldea could. Orzand has zero respect for me, just like Aldea did. Orzand enjoys torturing me-
-okay, that one's not fair. Aldea didn't enjoy torturing me. I'm pretty sure Aldea can't feel any kind of joy.
Aldea, I really do hate you more than Orzand, and here's why.
I think Orzand was fused with Kreisia's miasma, with "hatred of life", early in its existence. Either when Yumarac created it, or very soon afterward. I don't think Orzand ever had a chance, or a choice, to be anything other than what it is now.
So, Aldea... what's your excuse?
End of Appendix: What Exactly is Orzand?
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