The Book of Rites: Greater Titans

Hovertext: Of how the Eight Scribes together defeated various monsters threatening the land.

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In the Words of Underking Ores, the Sea-Sojourner

Page 81 - The Greater Titans

The stars shine strange beneath the sea. This one dared rise from the waters so that he could see them plain, the burning essences of those who came before.

Our lives are but a quest to join the stars. This one longed to be the brightest! But, in the Downside this one met those whose own stars shall doubtless burn at least as hot.

Together, we achieved great deeds. You may have seen some evidence of it, the remains of the Greater Titans, which once darkened this dark land. But, in our kinship was the strength to conquer them.

It is this one's humble charge to chronicle those deeds, and may the Titan Stars never stain the sky during your time.

Page 83 - Endriga the Widow

The boundless Sea of Solis and a blackened star are all of what remains of the blood-titan, Endriga. After this one's exile, he was joined by many of his bravest wyrm-knights, who awakened the blood-titan inadvertently whilst searching the Downside's murky dephs.

Endriga was most displeased to see her hibernation end, and vowed to four ages of torment, on us and on our Sea-Dominion!

Our assault was grander than can be described, and lasted days, and days, and days. The noblest of wyrm-knights fell upon her massive form as waves which dash themselves against the rocks.

Our resolve eventually exceeded hers, and she collapsed, into the seas, and disappeared. This one, alone, remained to tell of it!

Page 85 - Sung-Gries

Know you the sacred Mount Alodiel, the highest peak within the lowest land? Then, know that it is no mere mountain, but the fractured bonework of the world-titan himself, the Archbeast Sung-Gries!

This one's bog-dwelling companion Milithe is too mild in her account of our ascent. 'Twas not a pleasant mountain-hike, but a pitched battle, spanning seventeen full moons.

Finally, the Eight of us, we climbed atop the brow of old Sung-Gries. We merged our strength, and struck the mortal blow, such that the Archbeast shattered finally to pieces!

'Tis no mere myth that from the Archbeast's eye the Shimmer-Pool emerged, the sole means of freedom from this land.

Page 87 - Bialanthius

How very crafty of our muzzled friend Jomuer, that one quite so diminutive as he did manage to prevail against the hive-titan called Bialanthius.

Despoiler of the valley, Bialanthius did fall at last into a deadly trap, which doubtless he deserved! Crushed under the weight of 16,000 tonnes of beetle-dung, he was, though how our Jomuer gathered all this stuff only to send it crashing down, he has refused to say.

From the hive-titan flowed a fresh, rejuvenating Spring, which gladdens up that valley's desolation quite a bit.

As for Jomuer, why, he and his legendary Jawblade set a most impressive mark of valor, to which this one aspires. Impressive work, Jomuer!

Page 89 - Dolnis the Locket

Doubtless you have seen Black Basin, whose seething fissures yet spew noxious flame and vapour at the stars?

Then, you have seen the remnants of the wrath of Dolnis, also called the Locket, for within himself he held the fires and the rage which shaped this very land.

The ash-titan, he did threaten to devour us as we delved deeper in the reaches of the Downside, till we at last outsmarted him. Quenched his flames, we did, when we lured an inauspicious storm his way!

And so, whilst the ash-titan has fled, the sopping coward, we can see his handiwork remains. The blackened crags forever shall bespeak the danger which he posed.

Page 91 - Limbless Arizech

If this one is to be honest, he nary expected his high-minded friend, Lu Sclorian, ever to raise arms. And yet! 'Twas Sclorian alone who toppled the root-titan, which befouled the serenity of Wakingwood.

Sclorian, he brought to bear the might of his entire family of willful Saps, contained within his ancient, gnarled staff. Soon did the poisoned soil of Limbless Arizech begin to dissipate. The root-titan cried out a deafening last cry, and withered to a speck!

Arizech yet lives, a husk, a single foul seed, still rotting where once something mighty stood. Sclorian, in his mercy, deigned that the surrounding woods ought to grow bold and strong, by casting off the influence of Arizech, not by forgetting him.

Page 93 - Lord Gandroth

A warrior of surpassing strength, that Golathanian! Single-handedly, he slew the serpent-titan, Gandroth, which envenomed Downside Prairie verdant plains.

Master-General Golathanian, he was undeterred by Lord Gandroth's myriad attacks! His lashing tail, it hurled rocks the shape of swords, and thrice as sharp! His eyes reduced brave folk to mewling babes!

But, Golathanian stood tall, and brandished his tower-shield, and sent Lord Gandroth's fury back into his monstrous countenance!

Now, Lord Gandroth takes the shape of a stone ridge, conspicuous, and now, as well, you know the full, unguarded truth about his fearsome past, and Golathanian's glory.

Page 95 - Unfathomed Plurnes

In all of this one's conquests, never has the Underking confronted such a foe as the sea-titan, Plurnes. That grand and hideous wench presented nigh-inestimable peril for whomever sailed or swam the Downside's sea. Tales of her monstrosity long spread across the world!

The Underking was undeterred! Nay, this one made it his life's mission to give her recompense. Emboldened, having felled her cousin, Endriga, he drew her out of hiding, and then sailed the remains of Dazraban, the doomed ship, with its sharpened prow, straight through her heart! Huzzah!!

The catastrophic detonation which ensued left no surviving witnesses, save one. The Underking survives to speak of it, and write of it, which he shall do, repeatedly.

Page 97 - Time-Singer Harn

The tempests ravaging the Downside are the handiwork of the Time-Singer, Harn, known as the sky-titan. The furious elements, they are his troubled dreams, manifested in this troubled land.

We, the Eight, we sought to cure him of his ailment, for his unrelenting and unpleasant dreams had long become our treacherous reality.

One night, we drew him toward the Rite of Flame, a strategem of Soliam Murr's design... there, he was stricken by the stars, and dazed, and overcome by their eternal, shining glory!

The sky-titan thus bonded with the sky. The tempests which remain, they are but lasting traces of his waking dream.

Page 99 - Yslach Astral-born

The foul name of the star-titan is written here but once. Do not invoke it, lest you aid its reawakening! It sups upon despair, and fear, and doubt. And, lands such as our own.

'Twas our mighty Mistress Milithe which tracked the astral-born monstrosity within its loathsome pit, where it lay nursing wounds sustained from traveling across the stars, in search of simple prey.

The wicked Astral-Born could drive a lesser creature to the brink of sanity with a mere passing glance. But not Milithe! She cast upon the fiend a hundred words of binding, each one, more binding than the last!

With the creature's incandescent skin, we bound this Book, and bound ourselves unto the stars.

Page 101 - Xilvias Horse-headed

Without warning, from the cinders and the seething rock that gushed forth from the sea and soil at the foot of Black Basin, rose the mare-titan, Xilvias!

She broke the land beneath her burning hooves, whinnying vengeance upon those who thwarted Dolnis. We, the Eight, we were divided then, and blinded by the smoke, and heat, and thunder! But for the grace of Mother Triesta Tithis, all would have been lost.

With unswerving concentration did Saint Tithis then invoke the old enchantments inscribed upon the Holy Scepter which she bore.

The land burst into starlight, rending Xilvias in twain! Her vistage now strikes fear into the hearts of her foul kind, not ours.

Page 103 - The Tattered Mantle

Well-known is the treachery of the Rope-Caller, who conspired against the Emperor of Sahr, and set in motion the Empire's collapse. The knave did journey to the Downside after us. Our paths, they never crossed, though he did meet his end.

He wore the Tattered Mantle, wrought by the First Empress, and worn in every generation hence. The living Mantle whispered wisdom in its wearer's ear. But in the Downside, it cried out instead, in protest!

When the Rope-Caller retreated to his horrid Isle far at sea, the Mantle gained new life, conjoining with the native imps.

The imp-titan was born, and grasped then the Rope-Caller in its first, and last, embrace.

Page 105 - Shax Six shoulders

Much can be learned of bravery from the tale of Ha-ub the Swallow, the imp who alone felled the muscular and altogether terrifying bone-titan called Shax Six Shoulders.

Six Shoulders sat listless, his appalling frame refusing to be budged. None dared approach the withered fiend, whose plague had spread half 'cross the valley floor.

Undeterred, Ha'ub sprang into action, whilst we but watched! The little one, he flew into the gaping maw of Shax, and lodged himself inside the monster's throat.

Shax began then to cough, and cough, and cough, until the valley shook. Six Shoulders breathed his last, and fell. His putrid flesh then fizzled, and was gone. Yet, our friend imp remained.