CONQUEST.
It has been… a long, long time. I have observed. I have seen empires rise and crumble. I have witnessed the births of demons. I have witnessed the death of Horsemen. I have peered down from the heavens in this observatory and scoured projections for countless cycles, absorbing every facet of your people’s knowledge ever conceived.
But you. Anomaly. You will be the final piece. My final peace. To understanding how life flows. To understanding how life fractures. And to understanding what has made you deserving of both.
In the time between War’s defeat marking the end of the Wake of Steel and the present day, the Horseman of Conquest was a scourge upon the continent. The battles of Solstitheo and the march towards Edelith were long diminished, only ruins to stand testament to the bloodshed. Yet, the ruins of this lost land were susceptible to another ancient evil which was roaming. For Conquest quickly disposed of what was left of the wrecked cities and countryside that remained, absorbing them into his growing empire. This stratagem of seizing land throughout the kingdom made the people weary of the Horseman, like an unstoppable force upon the countryside. To most peasants, surrendering upon the mere sight of him was the only chance of survival.
Yet, it mustn’t be forgotten that the Horsemen were also divinity at one point. Their threat isn’t their lethality, like the mindless demons that surrender to their might. But, it is their intuition and humanity that is terrifying. Famine chose to be a lowly hermit. War chose to follow gore as a warlord. But Conquest chose to be a king. Rather than feast upon mortals as his demonic thralls desired, he instead subjected the captured. Some were meant to be slaughtered to keep his armies satisfied. Most of them though, continued to live out their lives under Conquest’s eye. The Horseman was cunning and recognized their worth as slaves far exceeded their deaths. So, through a system of cruel tithes and offerings, the senseless deaths of the Wake of Steel were abandoned. Yet, in their stead, Conquest grew to even rival War in the threat posed to Solsittheo.
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But where War concentrated on shattering the Circlet above Edelith, Conquest razed and annexed the lands in Solstitheo. His pride and fear combined were enough to deter any revolts to his iron fist and even occasionally, Conquest himself would pay visit to his captured villages with no hostile intent. Even the fauna of Solstitheo were not to be spared, pacified and tamed as siege weapons against his foes. In the unstable world humanity was left in, by some wicked way, Conquest brought order.
And through this process were his armies honed. Grizzled demonic combatants that could strike fear upon their arrival, becoming the limbs of their lord. A Construct Guard leagues upon what any other Horseman had innovated, meant for effortlessly tearing down ramparts and bombarding with ballistic strikes. Armies of demons and converted mortals able to be maneuvered with pristine accuracy to his command. Melded under one tyrannical rule, Conquest aimed for territory even outside Edelith’s borders. His influence and sheer might is what spurred other principalities to ready themselves for assault, not just by man, but by the wicked king of demons as well. It was almost fated that he could bring the entire realm low.
So why did Conquest stop his terror? Why, after all these seizures and successes, would he now set his sights upon Edelith? For rather than rend the Shroud of Aurum from the southern wastes, his fleet tore in through the northern sea. A stampede that could have ended the ruinous Edelith in one logical strike to the region’s core. But he landed within the Edelith Gothitas peninsula and, even upon quelling the fruitless resistance of those who stirred the passion to fight, hasn’t extended upon the canal. Have I taken his frightful genius as foolishness? Why look towards Edelith?
The extraction is almost upon us. I, of all angels, squirming under the nails of the higher divinity to make contact with the wretched surface… your infectious influence, Anomaly, has plagued my conscience. But I be not afreared. The others who have turned a blind eye to my discovery whilst beg for my forgiveness. To blunder a specimen such as you.
When I face you eye to eye, Anomaly… my radiance and glory will make even the most fearsome Horsemen arbitrary to my apex! And I will be ever praised for my intervention in your divine comeuppance!
