World-Cycle: Chapter 1 - Fly, Stormfang

• Posted by SpookyBorn2021 December 25, 2017 - Filed in TSC: Skyrim - #Dragonborn1721  #World-Cycle  - 5,264 views

  World 17 is perhaps the most interesting of the worlds that we’ve monitored so far, simply because of the way Magic works in it. Rather than be defined by the simple act of willing a spell into existence, it’s a world with incredibly strict rules and formulas that only the gods themselves can truly break. The most simplistic of these rules, is the following.

   

  Magic is limited. Not in the sense that Aetherius has run dry or anything ridiculous like that, but because a spell is weakened by each person that casts it. Let’s say there’s a spell that fires 1000 pebbles. The first person to learnt he spell can fire all 1000 pebbles at someone (which is arguably a decent spell). However, if two people learn it, they can only fire 500 each, and then when four people learn it, 250 pebbles. When 1000 people learn it, they can each only fire a single pebble, and then every person from then on will weaken said pebble somehow. Maybe they will halve the pebbles speed, or durability, or how hard it will hit, the range of the spell, the rules aren’t quite that strict, and it changes from spell to spell.

   

  This has created a very different world than the baseline magic system of Nirn. Rather than have giant guilds of Mages that all work together to teach each other and learn, magic is only directly passed down through families. Sure, these families are still organized into guildlike factions, but they rarely teach each other useful spells. Theory, yes, but only if there’s absolutely no chance that the theory would weaken the mage teaching it.  Really, these mages are such selfish creatures, but it’s understandable based on the limitations of their system. I could describe the entire system in more depth, but it would take hours of writing to do, and honestly, I’d rather throw you head first into the experience of World 17, and its hero…one, Shirou Emiya, also known as the Mage of Blades.

   

  --------------------------------------Chapter 1 - Fly, Stormfang--------------------------------------

   

  It’s a strange. You can be raised your entire life being told about how unique your magecraft is, and never really believing it. The ability to memorize everything about a sword just by glancing at it, and then to replicate it. At first glance it might be a decent power at best, but you misunderstand the basic idea. I can memorize everything about a sword. Every single time it has seen combat, or been swung during training, every ‘memory’ it has of it’s wielder is something I can see. I glance at a sword for less than a second, and I can create a near-perfect copy and see it’s entire history. That is a power that I have underestimated for my entire life, until the day that I was nearly killed.

   

  It was supposed to be a rather routine hunt. We were chasing after a Dead Apostle [1] that had recently turned an entire town somewhere in Valenwood before the chase turned against us. The deadly creature of the night came at us from behind, one second we were 40 strong, a group of trained Enforcers that had specifically trained for years to fight menaces like this Apostle. The next second, fourteen of us were left alive, half that were able to fight including me. You see, our prey was more powerful than any of us thought, and came at us with his unique brand of magic. Simply put, he was able to create the very concept of death in physical form, creating weapons that killed anything they touched instantly. All life around us was destroyed simply because his weapon was knocked away or a slash went awry. I still feel blessed that his control was limited to weapons, after all it’s what allowed me to defeat the Vampire. Each weapon he created was recorded, analyzed and used against him, the history of each weapon was recorded and used against him, every swing was met with a perfect counter. I assume it was the shock of someone using his own weapons against him that finally caused him to falter and for his next weapon to come at just the wrong angle for me to bat it straight back into his thigh. And that was enough, the deadly nature of his weapon worked against him…But still, without my power, 14 people would’ve lost their lives that day, and it’s something I’ve been grateful for ever since.

   

  “Emiya! You shall open this door immediately!" Someone shouted. "I’ve been calling you for the last fifteen minutes and you seem to have missed each command I’ve given you. Open up or I shall bring my full might against it!”

   

  “Ah, yes, yes. I’m coming Luvia, just calm down.” Rushing over to the door of my room, I quickly threw it open to reveal the face of my best friend, Luvia Edelfelt. I stood nearly two heads taller than her, not because she was short (as she reminded me on a near daily basis), but because I was so freakishly tall (her words, not mine) for a Breton. Her hair was blond, intricately twisted into long, drill-like spirals. Everything else about her either screamed nobility or feminine, that’s just who she was I guess.

   

  “Well,” she sniffed, turning her nose up haughtily at me, "that took you far too long. Perhaps next time you’d be better off not doing… well, whatever it was you were doing in there. Unless you think it was more important than I am?” Her voice, sharper than steel and twice as cold, cut through my wandering thoughts, and I took a small step back at the frigidity.

   

  “Ah, you know how I get, Luvia,” I apologised sheepishly, putting on my most disarming smile. “I’d never intentionally ignore you, so please forgive me.”

   

  For some reason, Luvia turned bright red at that, and she began to stumble uncharacteristically over her usually precise words. “Ah… well, yes, Emiya. Of course. I know you never would ignore me intentionally. You're far too intelligent for that, of course! Not that you're that intelligent... o-or that I’m giving you a compliment or anything. It’s just-" She cut herself off at that, muttering something unintelligible under her breath and visibly composing herself, before continuing in her usual haughty tone, “Emiya, you have been called upon by the Edelfelt family to complete a task of utmost importance. The Edelfelt Heiress shall be journeying to the Land of the North in just two weeks and your services as a guard have been requested. As you well know, this is an honour amongst…”

   

  “Ah, yeah Luvia, I understand. I’ll start packing everything and we’ll get ready to head out when you're ready. If you really wanted me to come, you could’ve just asked you know.” Apparently, that was the wrong thing for me to say. I barely saw her rush around the corner but before I could even speak out again Luvia was gone.

   

  Huh, strange... I could’ve sworn I saw an oddflash of red as she ran.

   

  --------------------------------------

   

  There’s something truly terrible about Skyrim. I have no idea whether it’s the cold, the fact that the entire province is little more than massive sheets of ice between mountains that are far too large to describe. Or perhaps it’s just the sheer aura of wrongness that everything gives off. It really is a desolate place, the only creatures that can survive both the natural environment and the Nords who live there are just as savage and wrong as the land itself. Frost Trolls, twice the size of a Cyrodiilic Troll (really closer to Ogres), Giants that would tower over the walls of some of High Rock’s smaller cities. Even the Horkers are built to kill anything that ends up beneath the ice or in the oceans to the north. 

   

  Luvia on the other hand... She just loves this land with all her heart. I’d say that it’s just her Nordic heritage speaking, but I’ve met Nords that even fear the idea of even stepping foot on this freezing land. Her love for this land is irrational, but she makes damn sure that I know about it (and that I accompany her anytime she crosses the border).

   

  “Emiya, wait up!" Luvia called out. "Your freakishly long legs might be able to walk at that speed, but I’m struggling to keep up. Slow down or I’ll have to punish you.” She paused for a moment to catch her breath before she continued. “Seriously, Emiya, I mean it. Slow down this instant or I’ll be docking your pay completely!”

   

  “Sure, sure Luvia. I’ll slow down a little bit, but haven't you considered that you might just be a little... short?”

   

  “Emiya!!” Luvia’s shout echoed throughout the frozen plains as she stopped moving completely. “I’ll have you know that I am the perfect height for a Nord woman. Did you know that the average Nord stands at an exact 6 feet tall, while the average male Breton stands at only 5 foot 7 ? You are over a foot taller than the average Breton while I am 5 foot 8, perhaps smaller than the average Nordic male but taller than…”

   

  “Yes Luvia, I’ve heard it a number of times this week." I internally groaned. I knew I shouldn't have brought up her height. "I apologize from the depths of my heart for even insinuating that you aren’t perfect in some manner. Please forgive me.”

   

  “Well… fine, I shall forgive you, but only because you’re a brutish warrior who simply doesn’t know any better.”

   

  Our walk was peaceful. The silence of the wastes was a lot more pleasant than I thought it would be. I suppose I should be thankful for Luvia’s unique spell for that one. The way she modified the Gandr Curse [2] to warm the body just enough to maintain a perfect temperature—she really does deserve the title “Genius Princess of the North”.

   

  --------------------------------------

   

  I knew our walk had been far too pleasant. The attack came nearly without warning, and it was only our pursuers ignorance that allowed us to gain the slightest hint that they were attacking. One of them had destroyed Luvia’s familiar, a small shadowy cat that’s only real purpose was to alert us to an attack. The first arrows came forth in a staggered pattern, perhaps an attempt to keep us from simply dodging, but probably just a sign of their inexperience with their bows. A dark barrier shimmered into existence around us and as each arrow disintegrated as they touched it. I took a breath, exhaled…inhaled…exhaled, my trigger, the sound of bows twanging in tandem was heard only by me, and as I continued breathing, light formed around my hand. It had only been a second since Luvia’s barrier was formed, but by Bow had been conjured.

   

  “I am the Bone of my Sword” The air itself hummed with my words, power coursing through the world itself. I paused, took a final breath before unleashing the conjured sword, twisted into the shape of an arrow before uttering.

   

  “Fly, Stormfang” [3]

   

  And with that, just one of my swords, the battle was won. At a speed unsurpassed by any other arrow, Stormfang flew forth, twisting through the air as lightning crackled around it. And when it impacted the hill that our enemies were standing on, a pillar of purest lightning erupted forth and pulsed for a mere three seconds. When it ended, there were no enemies before us, and the hill itself had been destroyed, not even a hint of rubble left as the sheer destructive might of Stormfang destroyed everything that it touched.

  And that is the power of but a single one of my swords.

   

   World Cycle - Table of Contents

  Chapter 2 - Emiya Can I See Your Sword?

  --------------------------------------Extra Reading--------------------------------------

   

  [1] Dead Apostles are the Vampires of this world, and they’re a particularly formidable breed. Most are simply (if such a word can even be used in this situation) Mages that have turned themselves into undead in order to gain immortality. These are generally the weakest of the Apostles, which is a sentence that is both true, and completely worthless. Even the weakest of Apostles have enhanced strength, speed, reflexes, magical reserves, Mana generation, Mana output, cannot die of natural causes (i.e. starvation, dehydration, old age, etc.) and are generally rather difficult to kill. On top of this, they can turn humans into Undead, and the more that they turn the stronger they get (turning someone allows the Apostle to use them like a Mana Battery of sorts). However, the greatest generic skill of the Dead Apostles are their ability to reverse their own time.

   

  Lets assume your powerful enough to cut off the Apostles arm, they certainly can’t regenerate it, but what they can do is reverse time around themselves so that their body has an arm. This works on almost any scale. Stab them in the heart, Apostles can reverse their time so that they haven’t been stabbed in the heart. Cut their head off? Well a skilled Apostle can reverse their time so that they haven’t had their head cut off. It does not heal them, merely revert the Apostle’s body to a time where the injury hasn’t happened. This makes killing an Apostle a nearly impossible task for the average Magi. The only guaranteed way other than just exhausting them (luckily enough, reversing time does take a fair amount of energy, and the worse the injury, the more it costs) to the point where they can’t use this effect, is to destroy them, or at the very least their head.

   

  As an additional note, only about 20% of Apostles can reverse fatal injuries (and most of them are going to exhaust themselves completely). Most will die if you cut off their head, burn them completely, stab them in the heart.

   

  However, you may notice that I said most Apostles are Mages that have turned themselves into the Undead, or been turned. There exist Apostles, generally referred to as the Apostle Ancestors who were created as Dead Apostles. They never existed in any other form, and are so monumentally powerful that only a few of them have even been killed. They border on the divine in their power, some even surpassing weaker deities in sheer strength (or their ability to survive) and while over time several have been killed or sealed away, they are still very real threats. The title these days refers to the 27 strongest threats to humankind, though most of them are Dead Apostles, and most of them are True Ancestors (or very close to it). 

   

  As for weaknesses? Well, there are very few. They are weakened slightly by the sun, though again this is much more pronounced in 'younger' Apostles. Most are also incapable of crossing large bodies of water and there are holy weapons designed to kill them (though very few are actually good at it). That's sort of everything, and even then there are dozens of exceptions to the rules. The Ancestors alone can ignore just about everything on this list if they want.

   

  [2] The Gandr Curse is a rather simplistic curse that has been greatly underpowered simply because it’s a rather common spell amongst multiple large families including the Edelfelt Family. It’s generally used to cause a minor sickness in whatever it hits, but multiple curses will stack upon each other, allowing a skilled Magus to cripple an opponent with a truly debilitating sickness that can last for days at a time. Luvia has manipulated the base concept of the spell, creating her own fully unique versions that allow her to essentially control the target’s body in numerous ways. The less harmful versions include being able to boost their immune systems (which has effectively made her immune to the original Gandr Curse), manipulate a body’s temperature, provide small bursts of mana to anyone she wants, and a host of other useful ‘curses’. She also has some incredibly powerful variants of the Curse that can be used more offensively.

   

  [3] Stormfang is a completely unremarkable weapon when wielded by anyone other than Shirou Emiya. It has a unique effect of manifesting its enchantment as a sphere of lightning when it hits, but it’s generally a rather weak attack that does little other than slow an opponent down. Shirou took the concept of ‘Lighting that effects an Area’ that is the sword Stormfang and broke his copy of the sword. A Broken Phantasm is a powerful weapon that rises in strength considerably from its base form, and while Stormfang loses most of its physical strength (being on par with an unenchanted arrow) its lightning effect has been magnified to the point where he can use it to destroy massive amounts of land. The more Mana he pours into this effect, the stronger it gets with all his magic being capable of destroying a space of land 500 feet in circumference (though this will exhaust him completely for a minimum of three days.)