Chapter 1-34: The Shroud

“The Shroud is a cross-dimensional Legendary Class Curse-effect spell Cast at Forty or beyond. It was Cast by a force of undead that had conquered and subsumed the world we now call Shoul, a moon now in orbit around Terra-Luna. They labored on it for untold millennia before succeeding, and after they did, they escaped the world and void they had been exiled to through great deathgates to other worlds with massive Dead Marches, there to conquer those unprepared worlds, subsume them into undeath, and then send forth the powerful of that world out in command of their own Death Marches.

“We do not know how many iterations of this have passed, precisely, only that there have been at least five.

“The original moon had twelve deathgates. The second one we discovered had constructed two others, already used, in addition to the one being attuned to Terra-Luna. By estimations, they would have constructed at least six of them in total.

“The Primary Effect of the Shroud is to cut a world off from the Divine and the Planes. Thus, all contact with other realms that might lend aid are Interdicted. Unless the world is capable of fighting a Dead March with between one and two hundred million reinforced corpse-crafted and fully kitted-out undead, the dead monsters and heroes of the prior world, and full sets of Minister-Bishop-Cardinal Buffs, the world dies, is animated as undead, and the cycle is repeated, building more Death Gates, and the Dark Cardinals sent forth to claim a world of their own as the Dark Hierophant claims that world for itself.

“The Shroud’s power is broad and pervasive. Any world encapsulated by it is utterly wiped from the knowledge of the Divine and its servants. It is perfectly possible to talk about the Shroud right in front of a Celestial, demon, or devil, and they can be listening closely, and when you finish they will not be aware of anything you said at all.” His eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “If they are trapped underneath it, they will retain their knowledge, but as soon as they are free... the knowledge is wiped again, and they won’t even be aware of the time gap.”

He looked confused. BUT... WE HAVE CONTACT WITH DIVINE POWER. THERE ARE CHURCHES ACTIVE HERE.

I nodded slowly. “Yes. And,” I lifted a finger, “your undead are Cursed by the Dawn. They can’t actually sweep out and conquer the world like they should have. That is NOT a function of the Shroud.”

He looked thoughtful. SOMETHING HAPPENED...

“Yes. Something intervened at the crucial moment, and broke something. If I were to guess, I would guess that something broke the Death Gate that brought the March here, shattering the unbroken line to the original world where the Shroud began, and the original Death Gates.” I sighed. “My gut says your World-Angel sacrificed themself to shatter the Arch of the Death Gate, and laid the Curse of the Dawn through the very medium of the Shroud, operating off the vengeance of the souls caught within it.

“But that is only a guess.”

HOW DOES ONE DEFEAT THE SHROUD?, he asked simply.

“You have to kill off every single Dark Minister, Bishop, Cardinal, and Hierophant if present, on the world. That, in turn, is only possible if you utterly destroy all their minions, as they can both body-hop to any of them, and if they die, one of the intelligent Congregants subservient to them will be promoted up to Minister status, a Minister to Bishop, and so forth.

“To wipe the Shroud you must kill ALL the undead the Shroud is centered upon.”

THAT WOULD SEEM TO BE A DIFFICULT FEAT, he observed with a straight face.

“The first step is overcoming the Curse of the Sun, and killing them permanently. Once you can do that, it is merely a question of scale. The Dark Clergy have a control range of approximately five hundred paces. From there, their orders are relayed out by their Congregants. Their status comes from command of their undead. A Dark Minister must command at least five hundred undead. A Dark Bishop must command at least a hundred thousand. A Dark Cardinal must command five to ten million.

“As they lose those numbers, either because command links are severed, out of range, or the undead are destroyed, they are demoted in power.

“Undead whose command links are severed will naturally be drawn back to their Clergy. Thus, you do not have to worry about ‘losing’ undead and them wandering free. While they can extend a long distance from their Clergy in relays, picking off one of them and breaking the relay chain forces them back towards their Clergy, which can be used against them.”

WHAT OF THE POWERS OF THE CLERGY, THEN?

“The first and most important is they automatically dominate any undead in their control range of lower power, and this basically holds true up until at least Legendary status, post-Twenty.” He frowned at that. “Furthermore, once dominated, the undead will be Bound to Serve, and cannot escape, save by becoming Clergy itself and leaving the world, the lines of control to a lesser Clergy are broken somehow, or its controller is actually slain, if it is but a Congregant.

“They will also dominate Fiends in that area as powerful Clerics might, and can enslave them as well. Such are always minions and servants, never Clergy. They might seethe under such control, but they have no choice in the matter, either.

“They can control the gathered negative energy of their Congregations into powerful blasts of negative energy, which can also manifest as the negative equivalents of elemental energy: pyreflame, soulchill, sanguine acid, hate lightning, and death screams. They can grant their Congregants the ability to shoot this energy as well. As it is pure negative energy, it can also heal their minions, and over time, slowly improve them as it learns how to corpsecraft.

“They can’t teleport, but they can shift to the carcass of any of their minions, devouring its spirit and taking its bones for their own. A common tactic is to spread hidden minions about to keep a command path open to a body safe to jump to. Trying to do that to another Clergy is useless, of course, merely kicking the lesser Clergy to another minion.

“Each Clergy has a different Patron, who are generally all in competition with one another... but once suppressed in conflict, they can only obey their superior dutifully.”

“The end goal of the Clergy is to become the Dark Hierophant, the undead lord of the entire world. Their domination of other undead extends to the whole planet at that time, and there is no chance of rebelling or escaping control. The Hierophant will be compelled to render the entire planet into a death world, erect Death Gates to solidify the power of the Shroud, and spread undeath ever wider. Once formed, each Gate will connect to another world of the living, and the Hierophant will send the greatest of the Clergy of the world it has conquered out to claim another world of their own.

“This Earth is merely one of those worlds.”

SO THE SHROUDZONES ARE NOT ALLIED...

“By no means. The Clergy there are likely deathly afraid of the Dark Cardinal and the size of its Host. In the competition for Hierophant, it has an unassailable advantage. They would like nothing more than for it to die and its March to become theirs... of course, its thralls are likely stronger than them, too!

“Being trapped in their Shroudzones by the sun, they cannot venture out and harvest the living to swell their forces. Perhaps they simply believe they will never come into conflict because of the distances between them, and the Curse of the Dawn. However, they cannot help but be aware of the conflict between them and the Dark Cardinal.”

He paused in thought. SOME OF THE BLOODED CLANS HAVE ‘ELDERS’ WHO ARE TRAPPED BY THE SHROUD. THEY SEEK TO FREE THEM.

I slowly shook my head. “That is not possible. If the Clergy took them, they are now bound to the Shroud. If their Clergy die, as intelligent undead, if they are the most powerful undead around, they will be instantly endowed as Clergy, and the Shroud will center on them.

“Vampires make poor Clergy and irritable minions. Their need for the living to make blood places them at odds with the Clergy and the Shroud. They are often expended as chaff, since they are of no long-term use, despite their power and intelligence.

“Their elders are effectively doomed, for they will fulfill the Shroud’s imperative to empty the planet of all life, including that which they need to satisfy their thirst. Moreover, if they become Clergy, they will be able to instantly dominate their Bloodline and call them to the Shroud.” He blinked at that tidbit. “They don’t want to save their elders. They need to obliterate them so they are not enslaved and doomed as well!”

I IMAGINE THEY WILL BE BOTH PLEASED AND DISTURBED TO HEAR THAT...

“I’m not up on vampire politics, but if they are anything like demonic ones, losing the most powerful members of your clan is often like an invitation for another clan to come in and take you over, and the powerful become flunkies. Funfun. A no-win situation for the unlucky.” I shrugged. “Not my problem right now.”

He nodded agreement as he closed the Vaccine and sent it off. UNFORTUNATELY, THEY ARE A MASSIVE DETERRENT AGAINST MANY OUTSIDE FORCES, AND GIVEN HOW INTEGRATED THEY ARE INTO SOCIETY, AND HOW FIERCELY THEY DEFEND THEIR TERRITORY, THEY HAVE MADE THEMSELVES VALUABLE.

“All because people are weak and don’t want to fight, so leave it to the superhuman and very hard to kill leeches to do it.” I sighed, and dismissed the problem for a later time. “Question: how hard is the divide between magic and no-magic people?”

NOT AS BAD AS IT COULD BE, AS BOTH SIDES HAVE A COMMON ENEMY TO KEEP THEM CENTERED. OF COURSE, THOSE WITHOUT MAGIC WANT IT, AND ALL THE TOYS AND GLITTER. ITS WHAT KEEPS THE PACT COUNTS FULL, AFTER ALL.

His weird eyes flashed darkly. I got the distinct impression he had killed a lot of fools swearing those Pacts...

THAT SAID, POWERED GET HIGHER LEVEL, ARE GENERALLY MORE COMPETENT, AND CAN DO MAGICAL THINGS, SO THEY OUTPERFORM THE PRIMOS IN MOST AREAS THEY CARE TO GET INVOLVED IN, AND SO MONEY FLOWS TO THEM. ALCHEMISTS AND ARTIFICERS DRIVE THE TECHNOLOGY CURVE WITH TECHNOMAGIC AND WEIRD SCIENCE ON TOP OF TECHNOLOGY, BARDS AND MINSTRELS RULE THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY, AND NO ATHLETE CAN COMPARE TO A CHI-USER. THE CHURCHES ARE NATURALLY DOMINATED BY CLERICS, AND LAY FOLK ARE TRULY SECOND-TIER. WIZARDS AND SORCERERS ARE ELITE RESOURCES DESIRED ON AND OFF THE BATTLEFIELD FOR EVERYTHING THEY CAN DO...

“Druids?” I asked knowingly.

That faint smile crossed his face again. TREE-KISSING TERRORISTS OR WISE CARETAKERS OF THE LAND, DEPENDING ON WHERE YOU LIVE. FARMERS AND RURAL COMMUNITIES WILL SEARCH THEM OUT FOR ADVICE. CITIES AND INDUSTRIALISTS ARE GENERALLY NOT HAPPY WITH THEIR HARD STANCES ON POLLUTION AND DESTRUCTION OF NATURAL SPACES.

“Yeah, accommodating them often requires some deep thinking in how to reorganize a society, and making it happen, whether the people want it to or not.”

FOR SOME REASON, THEY CAN BE EVERY BIT AS OBSTINATE AS THE DIVINELY BLESSED AND WARLOCKS IN THEIR POSITIONS ON SOME SUBJECTS.

“Conflicts with the Churches?” I asked.

NOT WITH THE GOOD CHURCHES. FLORA MEDIATES FOR THEM, AND ARU IS ALSO A NATURE-LOVER, IF NOT OF THE BLOODIER PARTS OF IT. THERE’S USUALLY A WAY TO RESOLVE DIFFERENCES TO SATISFY BOTH PARTIES, AND IF THERE ISN’T, A NON-LETHAL WAY TO CONTEST FOR IT.

THEY GET INTO MORE CONFLICTS WITH ARCANISTS. WIZARDS AND SORCERERS TEND TO BE REMARKABLY UNCARING OF WHAT THEY DO TO THE ENVIRONMENT IN PURSUIT OF THEIR LATEST AND CRAZIEST IDEA, AND ALCHEMISTS AND ARTIFICERS AREN’T MUCH BETTER.

Well, being a Blighter who doesn’t want to eat the Land will remain my little secret, I thought to myself.

His Vaccine beeped at him, surprising us both. A file popped up on Holo.

He opened it with a gesture. Inside were several folders, and they all had my face on them, although not as old as it was right now...