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The Cultists: Rapture
The Cultists: Rapture
The streets of the Citadel were layered with ice and snow, making walking upon it difficult and treacherous. The Witness had to tread carefully lest its peg-like legs slip.
It was as the Preachers foretold. The skies had gotten darker and darker over the years, and sunlight became scarce. Winter’s bite was getting fiercer. This time the lands had remained frozen for five years. The waters around the Citadel’s ports had long since frozen, and fish gradually stopped appearing in the fishing holes. Clay deposits hardened beyond use, and even winter-resistant crops starved from the lack of sunlight. Animals that went into hibernation never woke up, and scavenging their frozen remains could only stock the larder for so long before they too ran out.
Auriga was dying. She was drawing her final breaths, and her children were to perish with her.
The Witness looked left and right as it walked down the streets. People of various races were doing whatever they could to keep themselves warm. These people were once divided into factions. Now, they live and fight together, united by their faith. The Witness saw not only Eyeless Ones and Jotucs, but also Roving Clan and Drakken children huddled around a Kappaku’s golem to keep warm. A Morgawr mastermind, dressed in priest robes tailored to clothe his twisted body, did his best to soothe the fears and worries of his flock.
It looked up and saw a streak of light flying up and piercing the dark clouds. A Vaulter ship escaping the freeze.
Up in her Throne, the Queen looked out over the freezing city. Though she could see and feel the fear and despair of her subjects, she herself was at peace. No, not just peace. She felt a joy unreadable on her blank faces. Today was the day. She broadcasted her voice throughout the city, through the many statues of her likeness that watched over almost every street and district.
“My followers. My subjects.”
Hearing her voice instilled a good number of citizens to cease shivering and bow before her statues.
“It is no secret now. The truth is written all around us. Auriga is dying. We are expected to die with Her, but I and the Unspoken had decreed otherwise. On this day, your faith and devotion to us, to the Eternal end, will finally be rewarded.”
She did not hear the roars of applause she usually would whenever she spoke, but she didn’t need to. She could sense their hopes rising. The anticipation. She remained silent for a few seconds to bask in it. Then she raised her four arms.
“Unspoken! The time is now, lift us from this frozen tomb!”
A large portal, black with starry white specks, opened above the Throne and grew until it encompassed the entire city. Old ruins and wreckages of vehicles from other times and places _ Rubbled castles, crushed cars and a battleship among many more _ fell out of the portal and were suspended in the sky. A long, winding mass descended and coiled itself around the Queen’s Throne. A leviathan, resembling a gargantuan serpentine merfolk with the head of a seahorse, whose body was lit up by bioluminescent light. They were the brightest lights the Witness had ever seen since the sun was dimmed by the clouds.
The leviathan raised his arms into the sky, and a swarm of gigantic black and white tentacles emerge around the Citadel’s borders. The ground shivered and quaked, and the Witness tumbled over onto its side along with many others who weren’t holding onto something. It could hear screams of panic echoing throughout the city as the cataclysmic event ran its course.
Then all of a sudden, the earthquake stopped. Aside from the screams of the citizens that gradually died out, it heard nothing. There was no sound of icy wind or snowfall. There was an eerie, otherworldly stillness in the air. When the Witness looked up, the portal in the sky was gone… But so was the sky. The land. Everything was replaced by what looked like an underwater landscape. There was a shimmering white light in the sky, like a sun seen from the bottom of the ocean. Small fish, large whales, and everything in between swam around the Citadel. Yet to the city’s inhabitants, it felt like they were still on dry land. They were still breathing air that now smelled like the ocean, and gravity still kept them firmly planted on the ground. To the Citadel’s west side, there was a structure made of salvaged metal and parts structured to look like an archway that was over a hundred meters tall.
The sound of crumbling drew the Witness’ attention. It saw large cracks creeping up the Throne as it began to break and fall apart, the leviathan still coiled around it. Reacting quickly, it shouted for everyone nearby to flee from the falling rubble. The Nameless Guard dove into the danger zone to pull a drakken child to safety, right before a chunk of rubble fell on the spot.
Dust clouded where the Throne once stood. Then the leviathan’s lights shine through the cloud. He descended down onto the ground, swimming like an eel in water. In his hand was the Queen herself, held like a chess piece on his open palm. Her arms and head twitched and shivered in that iconic Cultist way. She was finally free from her Throne.
The Witness looked upon the large leviathan gently holding her with awe and disbelief. Is this the Unspoken’s true form?
Joining the Queen and the Unspoken, two other entities materialized into view. A broodmother with a taur-like body, swollen with growing spawns, and a sergal, voluptuous and curvy, with his arms crossed over his chest and shining a seductive smile.
“Behold our true nature, children,” The Queen spoke. “The truth of what we are.”
The sergal stepped forward to speak in her stead. Compared to her harsh and commanding voice, his was smoother, gentle… Yet the Witness could feel a proverbial venom in his words. A Sly and manipulative voice that could convince a Roving Clan to sell out his whole tribe for a few ounces of Dust.
“Welcome to the Deep Dark, friends,” He said, still smiling gently.
Here's my first course of action in intergrating Endless Universe lore into my tales. The Cultists had been my absolute favourite faction in Endless Legend, and when I found out Auriga froze over in Endless Space 2, I was rather distraught. The thought of such a cool and creepy faction just fading away was unacceptable in my eyes. So this is my interpretation of what happened during the final years on Auriga.
The streets of the Citadel were layered with ice and snow, making walking upon it difficult and treacherous. The Witness had to tread carefully lest its peg-like legs slip.
It was as the Preachers foretold. The skies had gotten darker and darker over the years, and sunlight became scarce. Winter’s bite was getting fiercer. This time the lands had remained frozen for five years. The waters around the Citadel’s ports had long since frozen, and fish gradually stopped appearing in the fishing holes. Clay deposits hardened beyond use, and even winter-resistant crops starved from the lack of sunlight. Animals that went into hibernation never woke up, and scavenging their frozen remains could only stock the larder for so long before they too ran out.
Auriga was dying. She was drawing her final breaths, and her children were to perish with her.
The Witness looked left and right as it walked down the streets. People of various races were doing whatever they could to keep themselves warm. These people were once divided into factions. Now, they live and fight together, united by their faith. The Witness saw not only Eyeless Ones and Jotucs, but also Roving Clan and Drakken children huddled around a Kappaku’s golem to keep warm. A Morgawr mastermind, dressed in priest robes tailored to clothe his twisted body, did his best to soothe the fears and worries of his flock.
It looked up and saw a streak of light flying up and piercing the dark clouds. A Vaulter ship escaping the freeze.
Up in her Throne, the Queen looked out over the freezing city. Though she could see and feel the fear and despair of her subjects, she herself was at peace. No, not just peace. She felt a joy unreadable on her blank faces. Today was the day. She broadcasted her voice throughout the city, through the many statues of her likeness that watched over almost every street and district.
“My followers. My subjects.”
Hearing her voice instilled a good number of citizens to cease shivering and bow before her statues.
“It is no secret now. The truth is written all around us. Auriga is dying. We are expected to die with Her, but I and the Unspoken had decreed otherwise. On this day, your faith and devotion to us, to the Eternal end, will finally be rewarded.”
She did not hear the roars of applause she usually would whenever she spoke, but she didn’t need to. She could sense their hopes rising. The anticipation. She remained silent for a few seconds to bask in it. Then she raised her four arms.
“Unspoken! The time is now, lift us from this frozen tomb!”
A large portal, black with starry white specks, opened above the Throne and grew until it encompassed the entire city. Old ruins and wreckages of vehicles from other times and places _ Rubbled castles, crushed cars and a battleship among many more _ fell out of the portal and were suspended in the sky. A long, winding mass descended and coiled itself around the Queen’s Throne. A leviathan, resembling a gargantuan serpentine merfolk with the head of a seahorse, whose body was lit up by bioluminescent light. They were the brightest lights the Witness had ever seen since the sun was dimmed by the clouds.
The leviathan raised his arms into the sky, and a swarm of gigantic black and white tentacles emerge around the Citadel’s borders. The ground shivered and quaked, and the Witness tumbled over onto its side along with many others who weren’t holding onto something. It could hear screams of panic echoing throughout the city as the cataclysmic event ran its course.
Then all of a sudden, the earthquake stopped. Aside from the screams of the citizens that gradually died out, it heard nothing. There was no sound of icy wind or snowfall. There was an eerie, otherworldly stillness in the air. When the Witness looked up, the portal in the sky was gone… But so was the sky. The land. Everything was replaced by what looked like an underwater landscape. There was a shimmering white light in the sky, like a sun seen from the bottom of the ocean. Small fish, large whales, and everything in between swam around the Citadel. Yet to the city’s inhabitants, it felt like they were still on dry land. They were still breathing air that now smelled like the ocean, and gravity still kept them firmly planted on the ground. To the Citadel’s west side, there was a structure made of salvaged metal and parts structured to look like an archway that was over a hundred meters tall.
The sound of crumbling drew the Witness’ attention. It saw large cracks creeping up the Throne as it began to break and fall apart, the leviathan still coiled around it. Reacting quickly, it shouted for everyone nearby to flee from the falling rubble. The Nameless Guard dove into the danger zone to pull a drakken child to safety, right before a chunk of rubble fell on the spot.
Dust clouded where the Throne once stood. Then the leviathan’s lights shine through the cloud. He descended down onto the ground, swimming like an eel in water. In his hand was the Queen herself, held like a chess piece on his open palm. Her arms and head twitched and shivered in that iconic Cultist way. She was finally free from her Throne.
The Witness looked upon the large leviathan gently holding her with awe and disbelief. Is this the Unspoken’s true form?
Joining the Queen and the Unspoken, two other entities materialized into view. A broodmother with a taur-like body, swollen with growing spawns, and a sergal, voluptuous and curvy, with his arms crossed over his chest and shining a seductive smile.
“Behold our true nature, children,” The Queen spoke. “The truth of what we are.”
The sergal stepped forward to speak in her stead. Compared to her harsh and commanding voice, his was smoother, gentle… Yet the Witness could feel a proverbial venom in his words. A Sly and manipulative voice that could convince a Roving Clan to sell out his whole tribe for a few ounces of Dust.
“Welcome to the Deep Dark, friends,” He said, still smiling gently.
Here's my first course of action in intergrating Endless Universe lore into my tales. The Cultists had been my absolute favourite faction in Endless Legend, and when I found out Auriga froze over in Endless Space 2, I was rather distraught. The thought of such a cool and creepy faction just fading away was unacceptable in my eyes. So this is my interpretation of what happened during the final years on Auriga.
Category Story / Fantasy
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 120 x 120px
File Size 25.2 kB
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