Stop #2: Naxxramas, Construct Quarter
"So Twilight..." Kel'Thuzad began, pacing lightly across his makeshift 'classroom'. "Why would YOU like ME to teach you necromancy?" he asked, dead seriousness poisoning his echoing voice. The mare fidgeted in her seat, the small pile of parchment and notebooks crumbling slightly as the desk shifted.
"I... I would like to learn. For as long as I have remembered, all I've wanted was to learn..." Twilight began. The mare looked to her mentor, who was attending this class at her own request. Celestia smiled, and nodded gently, beckoning her to continue her little speech. "I've always had a passion for magic, no matter the background... illusion was one of my favorites..." she chuckled sheepishly, remembering the time she had manipulated Shining into doing her chores, cleaning her room, and making her dinner while her parents were away.
"Illusion is not easy... how trained are you in it's use?" Kel'Thuzad asked, generally surprised that such an innocent looking mare would delve into dark magics of that caliber.
Perhaps... she is not as innocent as I thought...
"I'm a novice at best, but that's besides the point..." Twilight breathed in once. "Magic itself is not evil. Those who use it choose it's use. Necromancy is as evil as destruction, if used for the wrong purposes." Twilight finished. The lich gawked in invisible shock at the young unicorn. His shocked face quickly turned to a grin...
"Well said, Miss Sparkle." Kel'Thuzad chuckled. "Now... I must warn you. Necromancy is an EXTREMELY controversial magical school, perhaps more so than nethermancy and demonology..."
"Can I trust you to not misuse the knowledge that I bestow upon you?"
.........
Silence.
.........
"Yes, you may." Twilight spoke, finally.
The lich sneered.
"And can I trust you to not judge me for what I show you or do in your company?" Kel'Thuzad inquired. Celestia's head jerked to the right at that question.
"Yes... you may."
"Very well..."
The lich snapped his brittle fingers...
And they teleported.
.........
With a deafening crack of ice, the three beings exploded from an ice block that had formed in the center of Naxxramas. The lich was the first to move, being immune to the impossible chill of the necropolis...
Ah... home.
"K-K-Kel'Thuzad... W-W-Where are we?" Celestia stammered, the shaking alicorn humorously wrapping her and Twilight in a conjured blanket of faux-fur. The lich chuckled.
"Welcome aboard Naxxramas... my base of operations when I served your brother's predecessor, Twilight." the mare, however, was too busy wrapping herself tighter within the solar goddess' embrace. The lich all but smacked himself for his stupidity.
"I apologize for the chill... not many living things ever came aboard my necropolis." Kel'Thuzad paused, and in a simple wave of his arms, the cold dissipated, the frigid chill of Northrend sucked clean from Naxxramas. The mares sighed, and lowered the blanket, which burst into flames upon reaching the ground. The archlich nodded, and turned towards the large opening hall of his citadel.
"Well... were to first?"
.........
The empty rooms of the Construct Quarter echoed with the hoofsteps of the ponies, and the occasional clinking sound of two of the lich's soul chains colliding, before correcting their paths.
"So tell me, Kel'Thuzad." Celestia began. "What did your previous master have you... do here?" she asked, rather uncertain of whether she wanted to hear an answer at all. The lich turned his head to the solar alicorn.
"Build an army." he said simply. With another snap of his fingers, the denizens of his acropolis as he remembered it materialized before them, scouting and guarding the halls of the necropolis. The mares visibly gagged once the putrid smell of undeath hit them.
"Kel'Thuzad, what exactly... are these creatures?" she shivered, walking slowly past a ghoul, who's ribcage was clearly visible behind several small strands of necrotic, decaying flesh.
"My army." he said simply once again. "Do not be alarmed, Princess... no harm will come to you. This is but a memory..." he reassured the goddess, who was quite distracted by the appearance of another ghoul, this one's features were surprisingly intact, beside the fact that his arms were mangled beyond repair, and his eyes were missing, a glow of bluish-yellow emanating from within his otherwise empty sockets...
Twilight, on the other hand, was already scribbling down notes on the constructs, the undead minions of the Scourge interesting her greatly, despite their horrific appearance and smell.
"Kel'Thuzad, what is the process used to... bind the flesh of these... 'soldiers' together?" Twilight politely asked, her quill at the ready to scribble. The lich stopped, and halted a patrolling ghoul, who bowed limply to the archlich.
"Mostly we used simple, long-lasting, heavy duty thread and needle to keep the constructs intact. But, as my resources grew, and my Thuzadin learned more advanced procedures, Naxxramas turned to heavy cauterization and necromantic mending. This kept the subject more agile, as string would limit the turning and twisting of some muscles, hindering movement on a more precise level..." Kel'Thuzad continued his explanation by referencing the tightly woven threads moving across the ghoul's back in a vertical matter, the ghoul's spine probably needing reinforcement at some point along the line...
"What exactly are your... Thuzadin?" Twilight asked, once she was finished examining the ghoul, who muttered something in a raspy voice, then continued on his route around the citadel.
"The Thuzadin were among the finest necromancers at my disposal. They were personally trained by yours truly, and were incredibly efficient in both battle and necromancy. In fact, the vast majority of them taught or studied in Naxxramas." he finished, coming up to the first major room of the Construct Quarter.
"So basically, they were your chief necromancers?" Celestia asked. The lich chuckled, turning his head to the alicorn as he froze a path across the stream of knee-deep plague that flowed in front of them. He shepherded them across the noxious flow, and spoke once they were across.
"No, princess. They were my generals. My commanders. My FRIENDS, even. Most had wanted to learn, same as I had, and were yanked into service as I was... damned by the might of the Lich King." he explained, stopping in front of the large hallway that he knew his Avatar of War would reside in.
"PATCHWERK! YOU MASTER CALLS!"
The room grew silent.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom. Boom.
Boom. Boom. Boom. BOOM.
"Yes, Master?"
"Twilight, Celestia. Meet Patchwerk, my Avatar of War."
The mares, in short, were terrified of this... 'Patchwerk'. The construct of stinking flesh towered over them, reaching just under Kel'Thuzad's impressive stature. He was abnormally, haphazardly built, sections of flesh tearing away at places to reveal a network of... abnormally placed bones and muscle...
"Master, who is pretty horsies?" Patchwerk asked, a long strand of embalming fluid leaking from his rotting maw...
.........
"Kel'Thuzad, I thought you said that they couldn't see us." Celestia calmly asked, ready to destroy this... this... ABOMINATION, if it threatened her or her daughter-in-law...
"Only the ones that don't have the proper memory or IQ to remember you do... Patchwerk here was one of the first abominations created by the Scourge. I oversaw the construction and molding of him myself, as a matter of fact." the lich explained, gesturing towards the abomination. "Abominations are rather... atypical creatures, taking on whatever stature and figure that their task best suites..." Kel'Thuzad spoke.
"What did... Patchwerk do?" Twilight asked, still somewhat morbidly enthralled by the fascinating layout and build of the construct before them.
"Patchwerk SMASHES!" the abomination spoke, swinging a massive, rusted meat cleaver downwards upon a ghoul that had just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
In short, the ghoul all but EXPLODED from the impact of the knife, and chunks of decaying, rotting flesh and sinew were flung in all directions...
Including at the mares standing in front of the abomination.
Celestia and Twilight squealed as brownish, congealed blood splattered on their coats, the horrifying stink and texture of the substance making Celestia finally keel over and vomit unto the chilled ground. Twilight dropped her quill. She raised her hooves to her face, and screamed bloody murder, running around in circles, desperately scrubbing herself clean with whatever magic her scarred mind could muster...
The lich sighed.
Well... here was a good place to stop for today...
Stats
Page generated in 0.031 seconds
Total duration
851 users online
1,246,718 hits today, 2,054,621 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Gee, why does that seem familiar?
Chuckles up until then end, then I burst out laughing. AT 4:30 IN THE FREAKIN' MORNING!! Meh, who cares! Others sleep to much as it is.
Oh Patchwerk, he means well.
they really have to get used to that its nothing more than a memory -_-
incorporeal guts cant hurt you...
Well this was entertaining.
Given the description of it as dark magic, as well as what Twilight uses it for, I think you mean enchantment, rather than illusion.
To use the definitions from the D&D wiki for simplicity's sake:
I would be hard pressed to describe illusion as an inherently dark magic, especially since it would be a mainstay of any unicorn stage performer. Or even non-unicorn performers if they're skilled at sleight of hoof.
6683412 Nah, goin' for the Elder Scrolls version...
Illusion is the manipulation of minds and the way others see or hear the world.
Alteration is the manipulation of the physical world.
Conjuration is the summoning of demons and the raising of corpses.
Destruction is general attack magics (Fire, Ice, Electricity)
Restoration is healing and rejuvenation magics, which also tie into necromancy at some points.
The Elder Scrolls series pins Illusion and Enchantment together, causing a bit of a negative view towards the school.
6683418
There is also supposed to be Mysticism, which concerns itself with philosophical matters and the properties of life and magical energy, the soul and effects like teleportation or telekinesis. It got retroactively un-existed for Skyrim, though, so I suppose it doesn't apply anymore.
6683418
That's... a bit disappointing. That system works well for a game with a severely limited pool of spells and abilities, but it loses so much depth that attempting to apply any kind of academic approach to it is all but impossible. You would need at least three unique subschools for Destruction just to clearly define different methods of snapping your finger to light a candle.
Not to mention the fact that you've already mentioned several schools of magic that aren't on that list, including the one that Twilight is currently studying.
6683442 You misunderstand, then. Necromancy is a conglomeration of Conjuration and Restoration. Blood magic can be seen as a more direct, darker restoration magic.
I have nothing against D&D Magical Schools, I'm just far more familiar with The Elder Scrolls schools.
Yes, I've never played D&D, please don't shoot me!
6683441 Mysticism kinda got cut into pieces and scattered across the remaining schools...
Not EXACTLY sure why they decided to do that...
6683451
Hahaha, I won't. But the system used in D&D is actually the base for a lot of other fantasy settings, and it itself is drawn from even older fantasy lore. A lot of people like it (and ones similar to it) simply because it has very clear lines and definitions for each of the schools, and I've never come up with any kind of spell effect that doesn't fall cleanly into one of the main eight schools.
That said, as long as you're consistent and definite about how you use the Elder Scrolls division, it can work just as well.
And now that I know that's what you're using for the basis of the Equestrian system, you need to stick to it. Consistency and concrete definitions are key. Under the Elder Scrolls division, necromancy doesn't exist as a distinct school. Instead of having the ponies talk about 'necromancy' as a school of magic, have them refer to it as conjuration (since the prohibited acts that would disturb their morals are all conjuration effects by the Elder Scrolls division).
Kel'Thuzad, on the other hand, would still be a master necromancer, and would refer to himself as such, since he was taught under a completely different magic system. And since you've already mentioned at least twice that Azeroth and Equestria both have distinct and different magic systems and divisions, it would fit perfectly with the established lore as well as clarify the details of the world you're building.
Of course, the big downside to that is that it would require a fair amount of backtracking, editing, as well as altering or adding parts to explain the systems (or at least define them) when the characters are first interacting. So it may not be worth it for this story, but it would still be something to keep in mind for future stories.
6683489
They've been paring down and simplifying the skill tree more with every new game and by this point I'm mostly assuming the whole thing is meant to make things easier on console gamers and newcomers to the series in general. The whole thing did used to be absurdly complex, so I suppose it's not necessarily a bad thing. Personally, I don't think it's really all that big of a loss and Skyrim is still my second favourite of the whole series, but it's just kind of what they've been doing with it. Spears as a weapon haven't even existed since Morrowind, for example.
6683564 Mods can ALWAYS fix that...
6683627
Ironically, good spear and polearm mods took forever to be added to the game since they required a whole new animation set be created that doesn't actually exist in the game. The loss of polearms after Morrowind made me incredibly sad.
Well this goes to prove what I have said in the past. Kel'Thuzad has alot of finesse in his necromancy and dealing with the dead. Trying to deal with the living about... about on par with Patchwerk there
. Though his line of questioning Twilight at the beginning there was brilliant. Gotta ask though, why does Kel'Thuzad consider Illusion to be dark magic of a high calibur?
I apologize to all those that may have stayed up waiting for a chapter. I felt like a horse (heh) had kicked me in the back of the head last night, and I am already working on the chapter as I write this. Expect two chapters today, fellas!
New Toys!
Ah, abominations. One of the most horrifying underscores of the evils of the Scourge. They are animated by multiple souls of tortured-to-insanity children.
6686443 just look at Aizen from Bleach
6686443 If you know how, you can make someone die in an illusion so convincing that they actually die. A master illusionist can control all the senses.
Minions, can't live with them. Can't take over the world without them.