User:Vordur Steel-Hammer/Roleplay Resources/The Necromancer's Heart

The Necromancer's Heart

by Althirion of Wasten Coridale

Translated from Old Aldmeris by Eurendil of Cloudrest

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You who read this, know that you have learned about one of the most dangerous artifacts ever seen: the Necromancer's Heart. And you would probably be better off without that knowledge.

The story of the Heart began in a small island town of Wasten Coridale, where I had lived for most of my life. A couple of wizards – Gelerquen and his wife Calisewen – were among the most respected members of the town community. Their wisdom and magical skills were surpassed only by their love towards each other. However, unbeknownst to the outside world, they secretly practiced the dark arts – necromancy.

That's probably a backstory many secret necromancers share. However, this case was somewhat unusual. In spite of the intrinsic repugnancy of necromancy itself, Gelerquen and Calisewen did not commit murders or raise undead armies to conquer the Isles. They appeared to have had genuinely scientific interest in the dark arts – if such a thing is even possible. Whatever the truth, everything changed when Gelerquen found a way to contact the Ideal Masters, mysterious beings living in an obscure realm of Oblivion called the Soul Cairn.

What I learned about those beings paints an odd picture. They strike deals with few mortals that manage to contact them like Clavicus Vile, and forage on souls like Sithis. They tempted Gelerquen, offering him means to become the greatest necromancer that has ever lived, in exchange for one thing he loved more than his research – the soul of his wife.

And it was not "just" giving them her soul. The Masters demanded that Calisewen had to be killed by cutting her heart out of her alive and bringing it to the Soul Cairn. Overwhelmed and corrupted by the Masters' promise of unlimited power, Gelerquen did what was asked of him. The community of Wasten Coridale mourned the loss of the beautiful sorceress, yet had no idea what actually led to her death.

Having killed Calisewen, Gelerquen delivered her heart to the Soul Cairn. There, the Masters kept their end of the bargain. Under their magic, the heart turned into hard crystal, and became the most unusual soul gem ever seen. However, unlike to ordinary gems, any souls trapped by the heart were sent directly to the Soul Cairn, and in return, the user's necromantic abilities became stronger. The more collected souls, the greather the effect.

Thus the Necromancer's Heart was born. By now, dear reader, you must surely have noticed its unlimited potential for causing death and destruction, all to sate the Masters' endless hunger for souls.

With the Heart, Gelerquen continued his studies – but at the time was already corrupted and his interest had no longer been purely scientific. People in Wasten Coridale, and sometimes on the mainland, began to vanish. Still, he took care that no one could link him with the disappearances, and indeed, no one came as close as even suspecting him.

However, everything changed when a Dwemer called Nchargarknd of Nchuleft visited the town to see its famous hanging gardens. Nchargarknd was a Tonal Architect with much greater perception than most of his self-oriented Dwemer kin. With his wisdom and power, he discovered Gelerquen's true colors. Then he managed to expose him in front of the people of the town. The townsfolk was furious, but still, Gelerquen was not executed, only banished from the town.

But Nchargarknd knew the danger would not be over until Gelerquen was dead and the Heart destroyed. It was about this time when he befriended me, and I helped him go through with his plans. Both Gelerquen and Nchargarknd used all of their skills to impede the progress of the other. Gelerquen managed to enchant the Heart so it could not be destroyed by normal means, and also fearing some wizard breaking in his lair and snatching the artifact, he made it immune to teleportation.

Nchargarknd retaliated by constructing a machine called Furnace of the Spirit in the depths of his home city of Nchuleft, and building a metal replica of the Heart, called the Anti-Heart. Only when the Heart and the Anti-Heart are both tossed into the arcane fire of the Furnace can the evil artifact be truly annihilated.

The last piece of the plan was discovering Gelerquen's whereabouts. After a lot of spy work, we discovered that he actually never fled Wasten Coridale – instead, he just retreated deep into his secret lair beneath the town. With no time to waste, Nchargarknd took the Anti-Heart and set out to finish his opponent. However, Gelerquen learned that his hideout had been discovered, and set out to Nchuleft with a similar plan – to end his nemesis once and for all.

And thus the two met in the snowy mountains of the home of our mainland cousins, which they call the Heartland. I stood behind a rock as they flung spells towards each other, shattering rocks and making ground shake. Their spells set the sky on fire, and people from the nearby cities of Rielle and Sedor watched the unusual spectacle. At the end, both combatants dealt a mortal wound to each other. Nchargarknd's body was flung off a precipice, and I could not reach it – and so, the Anti-Heart was lost to me. I also did not find the Heart on Gelerquen's corpse, concluding that, for some reason, he must have left it in his lair beneath Wasten Coridale.

But when I returned to my beautiful town, I spent years searching the lair for the Heart and could not find it. And yet I knew it was somewhere there, beneath the town. I could feel it. It was as if the Heart did not want itself to be found – yet. Perhaps in the future, it would reveal itself to the world again.

I pray that it doesn't happen in my lifetime, dear reader – and you would best pray to the Eight that it doesn't happen in yours.