The Frailed One



Writings are few and far between of The Frailed One, also known as The Fourth Brother. In fact, he is not mentioned in any of the ancient scriptures until his attempt on the World Machine. Through fragmented sections and mentionings it is surmised that The Frailed was the younger brother to the Three and was mutated and broken, both physically and mentally. It is unclear if he had any apprentices of his own, but it is unlikely.

The World Engine
The legend states that after Ultwe’s death, Gustav locked himself in The Granite Spiral and took his eyes off The World Engine. Using this gap in security, The Frailed ventured to destroy The World Engine and break the veil containing the spirit world in check. Paetor the Blade gave chase with his apprentices. None were ever heard from again.

The Truth
Otho, apprentice to Bystal, brought together heroes of the prophecy given to him by his master. Believing Bystal to be trapped in The World Engine, Otho brought his champions together with a key found inside The Granite Spiral and entered the World Engine to save his master. Each hero was visited by visions of Bystal during their journey, imploring them to come and rescue him, racing against his former colleague Herekesh who planned on destroying the Engine, thus dooming the world.

Upon reaching the center of the Engine, Otho and the heroes came across Bystal impaled into the machine and The Frailed One lying prone on the floor, both suspended in some sort of magical energy, preserving them stuck in time. The heroes proceeded to battle the Godking, a fight that they seemed to be losing, until one of them pulled the sword from Bystal, releasing him from his prison.

These were the final moments.

You don’t remember much from that moment. It’s all a blur, really. Time stood still yet continued on at a pace that was alien to you, dizzying and disorienting. The pain and punishment felt up to that moment seemed constant and irrelevant. What you do remember is the sword slid from Bystal’s stomach and left him slumped to the floor beside that massive beast that decorated the room, The Godking screaming his protests in that powerful, commanding voice.

Things started changing, though. Bystal began to grow and grow, shifting and cracking within his own skin until he resembled nothing of a man but now a monster, terrible and massive in power and horribleness. Fur and claw of a grimmursven, height and strength of a giant, the indescribable and incongruous tentacles and gaping maw of The Deep Ones, and any other untold and unfamiliar similarities to creatures unknown to you.

You remember a bright light then as the World Engine kicked to life. A gentle breeze or a howling gale, you couldn’t tell which you felt but you do know that you felt something. You remember falling back into the starry abyss but you remember being caught and held tightly in a mother-like embrace. A familiar voice, one you have heard before in your dreams, came to you and filled your head with its reassuring cadence. The real Bystal, you knew this because you could feel his weakness. The World Engine had started again, ending his limbo but starting his death.

He wanted to tell you the truth, for you deserved it and you must know that this was not your fault. He had come here centuries ago, feeling foolish for his actions against his master and teacher Ultwe, he sought to make amends by joining Paetor and his followers in their actions against The Frailed One. Herekesh, also guilty over his actions had found that he had been played by The Frailed One, but as a angry and spiteful man he turned his attentions South and vowed to create an army powerful enough to stop the beastly brother should he succeed in his task.

The truth, as is often lost through history as man likes to romanticize and glorify the past, was that The World Engine was never truly at full power. It once was, this is true, but as The Brothers favored man they limited the Engine’s workings, slowly cutting off magic from the world and thus dooming the ancient races.

The Frailed One sought not to destroy the Engine but to overload it, to bring magic flooding back into the world to give his followers, the ancient ones, a chance to thrive and fight back. In the furious combat, The Frailed One managed to turn two of the ancillary engines to full power but was only stopped when Paetor left two of his strongest apprentices to disable the machines and guard them against any tampering for all eternity. In a terrible final battle, The Frailed One threw Paetor from the perch of the World Engine, damning him to an eternal plummet through time and space. Bystal, heavily wounded by terrible gut wound and completely drained of magic, Bystal retrieved Paetor’s blade from the ground. In a final act of desperation, Bystal rammed the sword through the Frailed One’s belly and into The Engine, stopping the machine near completely but effectively stopping the fourth Brother’s actions.

Unfortunately Bystal succumbed to his wounds and lay in a place between life and death, unable to move but not truly dead. The Frailed One, however, remained pinned to the World Engine, the most powerful magical source in existence. Magic trickled into his open wound, granting him a bit of power but not enough to revive himself completely. Cunning as he was it was only a matter of time before he formulated a plan to help him escape. Taking the form of Bystal, he began to search for someone to help him through the power of dreams and he found a willing subject: Bystal’s newest apprentice Otho. Through visions and deception, The Frailed One tricked Otho into believing he must stop Herekesh, now known as the Godking, and continued to do so for thousands of years.

You must not blame Otho, Bystal told you, for he knew not what he was doing. He was blind in his faith and his love for me that he refused any alternative. Through the centuries, Otho searched for those with Heroes Blood, as the imposter Bystal told his apprentice that he must prevent The Godking from ever entering The World Engine, to fight a shadow war against him for all these years. Things came to a head, however, as The Godking prepared for war and had outmaneuvered Otho and The Jointed Provinces. Through sheer force of will, Otho had brought together a group of heroes who could actually stop The Godking and his machinations, with some help from false visions of the legendary Bystal, of course.

You stopped him in The North, you helped keep his reach from the Hydra Isles, you broke his siege and you stopped him here in the World Engine from what you thought was destroying it, which was not for the reason you had been lead to believe. He sought revenge against the Frailed One and was attempting to make sure that the machine was never turned on again through destroying it. You stopped him. You saved the world from his terrible vengeance.

But you have also released The Frailed One. What he plans, I do not know, but he fear he is too powerful to comprehend now. There is only one other being that could truly stop him. His last remaining brother... Gustav.”

With that, Bystal’s voice drifted off into a weak gasp and that warm embrace was lost. You remember being pulled by your shoulders up a long set of stairs, you remember being laid out and seeing a city of smoke filling the air, but you do not recall the meaning of these images. Faces flashed in front of your eyes and voices shouted your name, but you do not remember if you answered or not. All you knew was that you were alive, for the moment, and that was enough.

The siege of Cortesia lasted another week. The Agralish soldiers were many and Ashes of the Godking powerful. The combined effort of the Grasturmese soldiers, the Northmen, and Lord Grant’s calvary was enough to bolster defenses and give the Cortesian soldiers a much needed reprise from combat. The battle continued deep into the city, with the Godking’s army taking everything up to the second to last wall, when trumpets could be heard from outside of the walls. The Jointed Provinces full military might had finally made it.

Over the course of days, every province’s personal military made it to the city under their Duke’s banner and successfully routed the invading army. Without leadership, the enemy scattered to the winds and returned to what ships remained, returning to their dry and sandy homeland. More than a third of the city’s population had been massacred by the southern invaders.

The Inquisition’s traitorous deeds came to light and many high ranking Inquisitors were publicly executed, including Premiere Axiom Verge Corletani. The organization was abolished and it’s headquarters were destroyed, where in it’s place King Aester had a monument built depicting Northman, a provincial soldier, and a Grasturmese sailor standing united.

While not publicly honored, several heroes came to be known for their actions in the war. Ophelia Irons was made a knight and given a ranking position in the Provincial military. She sent for her brother’s family who resides in Cortesia in a well-off position of wealth.

Lord Isaac Grant, heralded as a Cortesian hero, was lauded as a major factor in the tide of the war turning. After 5 years, King Aester declared that he would be named Lord Marshall Grant, retiring Grand Marshall Oren from the position he had held for over 40 years. His remaining Hollowed Children all hold ranking positions in the military, Jaren has since retired and now holds a small keep in Cortesia. Isaac continues to not wear a nose prosthetic.

Ashen Grizzlyfire returned to the Northlands along with Bjorn Nightslayer and the other Northman that assisted in rescuing of the city. King Aester issued them a promise that aggression would halt between the two countries and he would begin working on trade routes immediately. Bjorn went on to be a fairly powerful clan chieftan in the North, merging with the Icerails.

Ashen’s serious wound he received in the battle led to some serious health complications in his future. Only 3 years after returning home, his head failed him and he passed away quietly in his bed. In those three years, his clan saw a surge in support and continues to be a strong force to this day while being run by Ashen’s son Macray, who received the name Bonedust in the war.

Leon LaCroix survived his wounds, only barely. Sylvia Dotern and her apprentice Taffin were the ones to pull the heroes from the depths of the World Engine and she used her magics to stabilize the wounded. He was offered a position by both the Cor’a’Tai and the Cortesian government by King Aester, but he declined. His whereabouts are currently unknown.

Jarmin returned south to his homeland. Regarded as a local hero he continued his efforts against the newly developed warlords and the subjugation of his people. He no longer received any visions.

The one formerly known as The Prince of Peaks, Bregiv, went missing during the battle. He was last seen at the head of a Galleon with a handful of Northmen, including Tall Man and Groyce, Dredge’s son. Reports of their location vary, but some say he resides now in the Hydra Isles at the head of a mercenary group that is quickly gaining traction.

Dredge Ramhead and his war party have been declared dead. Last reports place them at an enterance to a cave that Dredge believed to be where the grimmurs had been breaking surface. None of his men were seen again.

Simon, now King LaCroix of the Hydra isles is one of only two powerful players in the Hydra Isles. King LaCroix turned down The Godking’s bribes, but his adversary, King Frachet, did not. With enough money to fund a country, King Frachet has garnered enough naval and land forces to contend with Simon’s unified islands. The war continues to be bloody and there appears no end in sight.

Both Otho and The Godking’s remains were never found, Sylvia professed that she could not find either corpses. Agralan has splintered into 10 different countries, each being led by a surviving Fang as warlords. The Godking has not returned and is presumed dead.

Over the years interesting reports have begun to trickle in. Grimmursven activity has increased 10 fold, Northmen begin to gather in large super-clans and move further south. Word of mountains shaking as huge, lumbering beasts begin to move across plains and between hills. Sightings are coming in of enormous sea monsters and entire fishing villages in The Hydra Isles being eradicated by men with the claws of crabs and the faces of squids.

Magic seems to be returning, those with abilities have found themselves even more powerful and children seem to be exhibiting signs of magic more and more frequently. The World Engine runs again and it seems that man dominance will soon be tested.