An Empire Eternal

Have you got a game, book or movie you'd like to make a story out of? Want to expand on a story or plot that stopped? Have an original idea for a story that you want to post somewhere? Here's where to do it. Basically an RPG where one player controls ALL characters in the story.

An Empire Eternal

Postby mega raptor » Sat Dec 15, 2007 3:41 am

Bad title, I know, and I suppose it's not too terribly well done from a writing stand-point. But the stories I intend to continue to write will expand on these characters a lot plus I wanted to get something out. Also, there's a lot here in italics that represents Deus's thoughts, but it's going to be missing because I'm too lazy to go through and put in the tags.

-----

It seems to me that, for a species that had once explored the vast uncharted depths of the multiverse, they did a remarkable job of removing themselves from it. It would appear they are attempting to hide a secret not meant for us, Deus thought. He watched his Rytel guide lash the bizarre alien creatures native to this world that they rode upon, and he wondered if she knew the importance of the ruins he had had chartered a guide to. Probably not. Again, these creatures seemed to have attempted to wipe the knowledge of themselves from the multiverse as completely as they could. She even said that she was one of the few who knew the way. I doubt many are interested in them.

He smiled as he recalled purchasing her services. She had claimed it cursed, and that it claimed the few that ventured near it. And then he had placed the coins that amounted to hundreds of the local currency before her, and she had felt the ridges in them with her extra pair of limbs on her back, and had agreed to take him there. Most people are so stupid, Deus had thought as she accepted his offer. Go against everything they’ve been taught, everything that’s been ground into their minds for more than they expect.

Again, the Rytel lashed their mounts, and they snorted and walked on. Deus adjusted the speaker on his throat, making sure the needles that connected to his spine were in place, and said, “How much further?”

The Rytel gave out her strange purring “hmmm” and answered, “A day and a half, at the most.”

Deus nodded, and glanced out at the landscape. It was a mountainous world, one the Rytel had only recently begun to colonize, and that they had not had great success in doing so. Their feline forms were more suited to the forests and jungles of their homeworld, and considering the nature of sentients, they were quick to blame their poor fortune on superstition and bad luck. They themselves were, of course, not at fault.

Their mounts continued on as the sun slid under the horizon, and the Rytel stopped them to make camp. As Deus set up their tents, he glanced to see her crouched down, dog-like, her grasping limbs over her shoulder with flint and tinder clutched in her hands. Her attempts to make a fire in this oxygen-poor atmosphere were futile so far, and as the wind whipped past them Deus dropped the framework of the tent and squeezed a fire-ball out into his palm before he threw it down onto the wood.

The Rytel looked at him sideways, and asked, “How did you do that?”

“Bio-hack,” Deus said simply.

“How does it work?”

“With great difficulty.”

She turned her head away and sat down, staring at the fire, the massive claws on her middle limbs crossed.

Deus yawned and thought about whether or not he would have to kill her now. Probably not, this world is too remote for her to be of much notice. It would be easy, though, a guide out on an expedition to a remote location, neither she nor the client she was taking out are ever found… Yes, I could do that. No trouble at all.

Deus stared into his fire, watching it crackle and flare up, its flames blue. He tried to recall what he could remember about the creatures he was on the trail of, the city-builders that had removed themselves so effectively from the multiverse.

He remembered that they had explored the multiverse, and had much of it charted. If he could find some of there charts, they could greatly help him get home. They hadn’t made the Warpgates or the tunnels, no one seemed to remember what had created those. But the city-builders had used both to great effect, and had an empire that had once encompassed galaxies. And he also remembered that they had disappeared very suddenly, and it had been indicated that something external had wiped them out, that they probably had fallen due to some monsters they had unleashed from the multiverse. But no one seemed to know for sure: very, very few scholars had ever heard of these bizarre ruins, and Deus knew of none that had been previously discovered.

No one even knows what these things looked like, Deus thought. Why the bloody hell would they know what happened to them?

He continued to stare into his fire until he finally crawled into his tent and slept.

-----

The next day, the Rytel took Deus up to the ruins, and as soon as he saw them, he almost felt regret at coming: they stood there, the sentinels left by a long gone, long forgotten species, a race that came and went long before any modern species. They protruded strangely from the mountain they had been carved out of, so many strange aeons ago. His mount gave a grunt of fear as they treaded towards it, and as they walked under an arch older than perhaps even he, he spotted, carved into the arch in a language he had nearly forgot, the words That is not dead can eternal lie/and with strange aeons even death may die. He noticed that it was only carved, and that there was no coloration to it: even thought it was very likely that it had long decayed, Deus also knew that carvings were used primarily in societies where the native species relied on sonar for perception.

Memories of a mad poet, a city almost similar, creatures that were at the same time like a crocodile and a seal, and finally gazing down into a cavern from the height of what felt like Mount Everest cascaded through his head, and Deus smiled, and remembered, There is no Mount Everest anymore.

Deus shifted his backpack off his shoulder, and pulled out his yo-yo and a few tools he had brought for digging, and his wristpad, for any information he would need to record. He tied his few tools to his belt, strapped on his wristpad and left the Rytel to make camp, and set out, walking carefully through the city.

Carefully treading its hills, Deus noticed that nothing lived in the settlement: it was sour, almost, too bitter for life to live in. Its proportions were wrong in that way he had come to expect from alien architecture, the halls of its buildings too tall and too narrow for him, making him feel uneasy and unhappy.

It was repulsive in another way, as the buildings had an ancient feel to them, and staring into them, looking into the empty buildings, he noticed it, and felt it as we treaded through the settlement. It sent a shiver through his spine, that un-enjoyable feeling of great age. Deus had felt it at similar sites in other universes, but it continued to bother him, no matter what tune he hummed or what philosophy he dwelt on as he examined the ruins.

And it was devoid of anything other than structures: only the buildings remained, there were no furniture, no scrap of parchment of writing, no picture, no indication of what may have built this place, other than the writing that had been written on the arch-way. Though it was no unexpected that most of it would be in ruin, as he had no doubt as to the place’s immense age, he expected there to be some indication that this place had ever been more than buildings protruding from the mountain.
Deus was so bothered by this, he found what he had presumed to be a graveyard, and painstakingly excavated it, only to find nothing, no coffins and no bodies, not even relics that the species may have believed a deceased one may possess in whatever afterlife they may believe in. It was as though something had came through and sacked the place, while leaving the city to stand as a monument to the destruction that had been wreaked.

Deus wandered in and out, through the houses and buildings, searching for some clue to the designers that had built the place. By now, he was beginning to doubt if it was indeed the same creatures that had built this place as he was searching for: he had seen their scant ruins in other dimensions, and knew from that that the creatures always left some mark as to their designer. Though the architecture was similar, Deus knew that in all the infinities of the multiverse it was possible that two species had indeed built similar cities, and even used the exact same writing.

But of course, he knew that he had not yet examined the buildings higher on the mountain: if there were any clues as to the origin of the city, he would likely find them there. And if he could confirm the place’s origin, perhaps he could also find what he was looking for: at the very least, a Warpgate to continue his journey.

I probably could find one in a few lifes if I just mined the asteroid belt long enough, Deus thought. But I also wish to find followers, and perhaps a map of the multiverse.

In the late afternoon, Deus thought to check the writing on the archway: he noticed as he wondered back towards the entrance that the coloration of the rocks was different. As he examined them, and dated them with his tools, he found that the archway was younger than much of the rest of the rock, by perhaps hundreds of thousands of years.

Now why would they do that? Deus thought to himself. Deathlessness and eternal sleep… What is sleeping? That which cannot die? But why can’t it die… It cannot die because… It cannot die because… Because it is forever, immortal, sturdy, eternal… But what is it that is eternal, that is forever?

Puzzling over this, Deus wondered if perhaps whatever had cleared this place had placed the archway to remember the city’s destruction: Did they think that this city would remain, not dead, not destroyed, but simply “sleeping?”

Or maybe the survivors of this attack put it up-maybe as a memorial to those killed? But if they’re killed, they’re not really sleeping, are they? They’re dead… But what if some of them are sleeping, are still alive somehow, maybe up on the mountain?

Deus had returned to camp and had sitting in his tent, thinking. Now that he was done, he stood up and left, telling him that he was to be back by dark, otherwise he would fall to some “evil” that the mountain apparently had. Must be quite a place if it can earn a legend on a frontier world, Deus thought.

And so he climbed the mountain, even as the sun set and the Rytel’s fire was a tiny dot far below. Deus searched most of the buildings, lighting his way with his fire squeezed onto his palm, searching for some clue about the city.

Still, he had no success: no hint of an origin, not even a signature tucked away in some corner of some artifact by some proud craftsman. Not even a single scrap of cloth or a splinter of wood, so thoroughly had the attackers acted when the place was sacked.

He found it at the peak of the mountain, where a single doorway protruded from the rock, too tall and too thin as always. Deus threw his fireball in, aiming for the wall, and looked into the illuminated room: it was a stairway, spiraling away into infinity, into the depths of the mountain. Its steps were too wide and too steep, but Deus stepped through anyway, eager to explore the new building. Memories rushed through him, memories of a similar incident, and he remembered that when the towns were built the government building was always in the center, as it was now.

Perhaps if it was true, it could indicate that the ruins he had visited in far-off dimensions and the settlement he was exploring now were a part of one and the same long-forgotten civilization, one massive multiverse spanning empire.

Deus walked down the steps, down and down, further into the depths of the mountain. He sang a few songs he remembered under his breath when the silence of the place became too much, even for him: “Imagine there’s no heaven/it’s easy if you try/no hell below us/above us only sky…”

“Home in the darkness/home on the highway/home isn’t my way/home will never be/burn out the day/burn out the night…”

“If everyone cared and nobody cried/we’d see the day when nobody die/and I’m singin’ amen…”

He did not know how long he ventured down the hallway, stumbling down the too-large steps by the light of his fire, but when he glanced at his wristpad it indicated the it was mid-morning the next day. He dimly remembered sleeping again, and realized by now that his Rytel had almost certainly gone, assuming that some hideous fate had befallen him.

Despite this, there was no fear on Deus’s mind: he had done this before, and he had traveled far too far for something like fear to bother him. He would not, could not allow it, he would not allow the alien architecture or the disturbing antiquity of the place bother him. Even the silence of the place was losing its effect as he filled it with songs remembered from the infinite amount of cultures he had visited and shaped.

Instead of fear, Deus felt excitement creeping into his heart: he was re-discovering relics of a long gone age, searching for artifacts to help him on his journey back home. It was possible that he could memorize the coordinates of this place and use it as a base of operations, a place to collect artifacts from the multiverse or to hide out from poorly done schemes or simply to think and reflect. The possibilities were endless.

And as he could hear something bubbling on the other side of the walls, the stairs leveled out, and straight ahead a bridge arced over water that streamed down from somewhere above. The creatures founded their city on an oasis, Deus thought.

The water poured over the lip of a cliff, and Deus ran across the bridge, twirling his yo-yo’s cord around his finger, he saw the water poured into an enormous cliff, and steps carved into the cliff lead down to the banks of a massive lake, where another bridge lead to an island where the town’s center was. And beyond that, the lake emptied into a river, and lining its banks was another city, sprawling off into the un-explored darkness.

Deus ran down the steps and across the bridge and into the town’s center, which he recognized immediately. It was much like the other town centers he had once seen in far-gone dimensions, and he knew that it would contain every record that he needed, perhaps even a Warpgate or a map of the multiverse that he so needed.

Venturing across the bridge into the town center, he threw open its rounded doors, only to find a single, circular room with a large disk, a meter or so in diameter, lying in the center. What he recognized as an infa-red beam he had tripped as he entered hastily, and as he did so, the disk whirred to life, drivers inside it spinning and a long-forgot recording played.

The recording played in the form of a hologram, and in it Deus could at last see the face of the creatures that had created the empire he had long hunted: it was centaur-like in shape, but insect-like in design, with eight limbs: four for locomotion and four for grasping. Its body was covered with a bristling yellow fur, and its limbs were scrawny, with the joints easily visible. Its head lacked any eyes, and in its place was a sonar mechanism dividing its head in two side-ways. At the bottom of its head there were a few clacking mandibles, and lining its neck were gill-like structures.

It began in an old language Deus barely recognized, with a thick accent that made translation difficult for Deus to keep up with.

“We were scholars and artisans once,” it began, “and we had an empire we had long thought eternal. It stretched from one end of the multiverse to the other. We had learned to manipulate matter at an elementary level, and we had laid bare every secret nature had once kept close.

“But it seems,” The creature rasped, “That we learned too many secrets: we discovered those accursed Warpgates, those machines that could open holes from one time and dimension to another. And we explored these dimensions, studying other natures, exploring every world we could find, populating them as we pleasured. We built cities far more massive than this one: cities so large and reaching so high that we had to bend gravity to allow them to continue un-heeded.

“Now, however, every one of them is gone, destroyed by those monsters that we were so foolish to leash from their containment. I do not know why they felt the need to destroy us. Perhaps they are lead by the urges of some blind idiot god, or perhaps they simply love to destroy, or maybe they simply feared us beyond measure. I cannot say. But I can say this: that searched us out, destroying nearly everyone of us, leaving a few of our cities as empty shells, monuments to our failure to defend ourselves and to our foolish choice to probe every depth of the multiverse. And in some of these cities, they left a pitifully small amount of us alive, leaving us to greave and perhaps to watch us take our own lives out of grief. I was one such individual, and I have tried every line of communication I could and searched out every one of our cities, and I can say that I am the only one left. I am only happy that they never discovered this section of the city, as I found out too late that the creatures despise water and the underground. I am lucky as well that the tools I need are preserved: if not, then I would have simply taken my own life, as it is not worth living, not now, not without anyone that I hold dear.”

Deus noticed, out of the corner of his eye, a mist rolling in, across the lake and into the town center. But still he concentrated on the creature’s words, now being recorded on his wrisptad. “Or, so it would seem. But of course, our leaders were not as foolish as they appeared, for scattered across the infinite worlds that make up the multiverse, there were many such sanctuaries where we placed many thousands of people, dead yet dreaming. I cannot go, as I am dying myself, sick of a virus that I know could easily spread and wipe out the rest of my species, and I know that for now I am the last of my species still alive. But massive amounts of my people lie dead and reaming, so much so that should our fallen empire, once thought eternal, should have no problem in rising. If, that is, and only if one kind soul were to search them out with the tools provided, they would have no trouble starting our empire again, with the benefit of our knowledge and power.”

Deus smiled at this, and let out a cough as the mist continued to swirl around him. Still, the creature continued.

“Now, of course, I felt that, after watching my species become torn to pieces by monsters from beyond space and time that some fail-safe should be put in place, to prevent anyone that might wish to do us harm from accomplishing their goals. Thus, I intend to make you one of us: your psychology and physiology will be remade so that you will be sympathetic to our goals. As I have been informing you of our plight, a retro-virus, encompassed in the mist that you have triggered, has been seeping into your lungs. By now, it will be too late to be reversed.”

At this, Deus coughed again, and quickly he fell to his knees, coughing and coughing, and cursing himself for falling for this trickery, and quickly he plucked off of his back a cybernetic, and threw it across the room should it be damaged in his transformation. It was a micro-chip, and the source of his immortality, as it was capable of downloading his memories and personality into any being whose nerves contacted it.

And he collapsed, still coughing, as the hologram continued on, giving instructions on how to gain the memories of where the hidden sanctuaries of dead and dreaming creatures…

-----

Weeks later, Deus awoke. He picked himself up, flexing his new pairs of limbs, sending out sonar pulses, clicking his mandibles, and testing to see if his flame still worked. Deus walked to the hologram disk and examined it, reading the writing on it that gave directions in the city to a map of the multiverse and a Warpgate.

Quickly, driven with a purpose, Deus galloped in his new form to the building mentioned, and found what he needed: the map of much of the multiverse, detailed down to the individual continents on each planet, and a Warpgate, easily programmable with his new-found knowledge.

Deus picked up the map in one of his hands, and typed in the coordinates that would take him to the largest of the ancient race’s sanctuaries. As soon as the Warpgate was ready, he leaped through, the luxury of staring into the beautiful swirling silver face of the Warpgate denied to him.

-----

Samael stepped into the Rytel’s business tent, and questioned her on her last client. “He disappeared in some ruins to the far north of here. I won’t go near them now, not now that he has angered the spirits in venturing into their city, but I can sell you a mount to get to them.”

Samael pushed aside the tent flap and glanced at the mounts outside. He nodded, and told her, “Sounds good.”

-----

Somewhere far, far away, an Empire Eternal awoke from its slumber, no longer dead but still dreaming…
It's you and me against the world. We attack at dawn.

This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but with a whimper. - T.S. Eliot
mega raptor
Butterfly
Butterfly
 
Posts: 649
Joined: Sat Aug 26, 2006 2:51 pm
Location: Dublin, OH

Postby TyrannoTitan » Sat Dec 15, 2007 3:52 am

Its a good title, actually.

...Wow...just...wow. Thats depth right there. I'm not sure if this is based, even loosely, on something, but it is amazing none the less. Very interesting, and I can't wait for more.
TyrannoTitan
 

Postby mega raptor » Sat Dec 15, 2007 4:03 am

Thanks, TT, thanks a lot. But if you want depth, try H. P. Lovecraft ( http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lo ... index.html ) Granted, it was written in the early 20th century, and thus there's a bit of racism and some old ideas in there (I think ether is mentioned in one story) he is basically a huge inspiration for Steven King (and The Nameless City was clearly an inspiration for this story.)
It's you and me against the world. We attack at dawn.

This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but with a whimper. - T.S. Eliot
mega raptor
Butterfly
Butterfly
 
Posts: 649
Joined: Sat Aug 26, 2006 2:51 pm
Location: Dublin, OH

Postby TyrannoTitan » Sat Dec 15, 2007 4:06 am

Ya, I've heard alot about his book with Cthulhu in it. Seems really interesting actually.

Still, awesome fic.
TyrannoTitan
 

Postby Doc 42 » Sat Dec 15, 2007 12:07 pm

Wow... sweet story man, lots of detail... It sortve reminded me of Iain m. Bank's books more than anything
Image
"**** off TT"-Doc 42

Trophy art by CompyScavanger
Slow Posters Club
Doc 42
Cool Guy Moderator
Cool Guy Moderator
 
Posts: 8618
Joined: Fri Jan 05, 2007 9:20 pm
Location: Ireland


Return to Single Writer Fiction

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests

cron