” Are you sure this is going to work? Defiling holy shrines is one thing, but to attempt to twist and turn it is a whole another thing, Shrikra…”
The young burning blade orc glanced over the cliff’s edge. Down below, the wastes of Desolace spread before them, with the ruins of Mannoroc coven straight ahead, and centaur lands to south-east and south west respectively.
The trail up to the shrine had been nearly perilous for the group. Desolace was mostly a barren wasteland, with few rock cliffs to climb, save for the coast and the rupture made by the Cataclysm.
The clearly more mature orc warlock scoffed, pulling some of her gray hair aside as she knelt before the ancient stone bowl before her feet. It was wide enough for an orc to sit in. Behind it, facing to the south, lay a stone monolith, with a hole cut for a lens made of gemstone. During the right moment of the day, the lens would shoot the beams of the fabled goddess of the shu’halo into the bowls contents, blessing their weapons and armor with her flames.
Today however, an Eredar skull laid in the bowl, the eerie sockets burning with faint felglow, a ritual circle drawn around the bowl.
“ Have some faith. Our master may be gone for all we know, but his power yet lingers. With this spell, we’ll corrupt this shrine and become powerful enough to claim our place in this world!” She turned her head, her burning red eyes meeting Gazak’s, the burning blade orc’s, and Gremok’s, their scout’s, eyes.
“…All of us!” She promised, turning her gaze back onto the bowl, running her hands over the skull as if it’s placement within it mattered for the ritual.
Gazak nodded, resting his hand on the pommel of his blade, shielding his light with the morning rays of the sun, frowning. “ So how long until-“
“Quiet! I hear someone coming!” Gremok interrupted him, drawing his axes as he glanced down the pathway they’d used to reach the cliff.
The sprung ready, Gazak reaching for a bottle of bladegrease as he cracked the bottle across the blade before smearing it across the blade, with the blade catching alight in fel flames as his blade drew blood from his palm, grimacing as he took a high guard towards the cliff face of the path, with Shrikra snapping her fingers, forming a ball of felfire in each hand.
Gazak frowned, glancing at Shrikra “I told you coming here was a bad idea-!“
Gremok let out a fierce battle cry as he charged down the path, obscuring him from the two “You picked the wrong day to be here, tauren!!”
Gazak blinked, instantly following suit as he ran over the cliff face to see the clash of his friend and drop down onto the assailant if needed, grinning. He’d been starving for a real fight-
His eyes widened as he saw nobody- And moreover, watched as Gremok charged at nothing before him, right towards the end of the passage, with only distant rocks far below in the chasm.
Gremok roared, rising both of his axes above himself as he prepared to strike down the robed, black pelted tauren before him, who seemed to only back away with fear in his eyes.
“YOU’RE MINE!” he screamed from the top of his lungs, bringing his axes down onto the tauren.
The horror in the tauren’s eyes turned into a sinister grin, as the illusion faded from his eyes, the image of the tauren fading away, replaced with the empty rockface below, his feet slipping over the edge.
Gremok’s face turned from confident glee into utter horror as he screamed, falling down to his death and flipping over mid-air as his eyes met with Gazak’s before his body cracked open on the sharp ridges of the ravine, feeding the vultures for days to come.
Gazak looked in disbelief at what had happened in mere span of seconds as he trembled backwards, noticing movement at his feet where his shadow was.
“Look out!” Shrikra shouted, pointing at his shadow as Gazak’s attention snapped to her and back to the aberration.
A shadow fiend emerged from Gazak’s shadow, it’s gaping, distorted and warped jaws snapping after him, it’s barbed, tentacle limbs lashing after him as he stumbled backwards, nearly falling over his back as he roared, swinging his sword down hard onto the beast, splitting it open yet it still kept coming at him, causing him to fall back in terror as it’s now split maw surged towards him, a flare of emerald green flashing from the corner towards it.
The felfire crashed onto the beast, searing its warped form out of existence as it let out an apocalyptic scream its form crisping away with the flames before fading away.
“What in the name of Mannoroth is happening here…” Gazak trembled with his voice, snapping his attention towards the hoof steps both of them could now hear, quickly rolling back onto his feet.
Atahalni emerged from behind the rocks of the path, letting out a dry chuckle as his robes waved in the wind, the bone charms chiming eerily as the two orcs basked in his presence. Even in the morning light, they could sense his dark presence.
“…I must admit, I didn’t expect to find any company all the way up here. But I can’t let you defile the shrine- I have need of it for my own purposes, orcs.”
Gazak warily moved beside Shrikra, as she glared daggers after the tauren, spitting onto the ground, smirking. “Well isn’t this a coincidence! Two dark forces competing to corrupt a shrine at the same time! How about you leave us now, and you might be able to evade the wrath of the Burning Legion, eh?”
Gazak snarled, flourishing with his blazing weapon in hand. “Back off, tauren. You might have got lucky with Gremok, but he was always blinded by his own ambitions! Your mind tricks won’t work on me!”
Atahalni smiled sinisterly, that made both of them tense up, readying themselves.
“…You’re only right about one thing, orcs. And it’s not that I’m here to defile the shrine- Or the fact that your pitiful fel-magics could match the might of An’she…Or mine, for that matter. No, I think I’ll teach you why your lord was defeated, but mine lie in waiting, below the crust of this world, and gazing down at us from the great dark beyond…” He spoke, chuckling as his shadow slowly crawled completely over him, coating his form in the warped, ever shifting shades.
“Enough talk!” Gazak growled, roaring as he charged forward, with Shrikra instantly bringing her hands up, readying a spell as she uttered words in demonic, intent on crushing the tauren where he stood!
“I agree…” Atahalni spoke, extending his hand towards Shrikra just as she was about to release the spell, gasping for air as her voice seemed to disappear from her throat as her spell backfired, blasting her down onto the ritual circle, falling over the runes with a groan.
Gazak charged at him with fury in his eyes as he gave a wide sweep with his blade- Hitting the form of the tauren as he felt his blade slip through his side effortlessly as he roared victoriously!
But his confidence soon vanished off his face as he realized his blade merely swung through the shadows- Which now dispersed into a cloud of shadow, engulfing him as he roared, releasing a flurry of strikes around himself, striking true and fast like the blademasters of old, his fel-flaming blade blazing brief cracks of neon-green into the smoke as he slowly felt himself being drained out of his strength as his strikes slowed down and he felt being choked by the smoke, as his vision begun to clear and the smoke began to part…
The smoke dispersed and formed back into the vague shape of the tauren once more, but it was too late for him to realize that he wasn’t choking from the smoke. He was literally being suffocated by the tauren, and though he was more gangly and crooked than most of his kin, he still towered at the impressive height of ten feet, his massive arm hooked around his throat with the other locking his arm in place, causing his blade to stand only a few inches away from him, but at an awkward angle.
He struggled in his grip, hitting with his elbows against the shadows, but to no avail. Fear and panic begun to creep into his vision as his blows became weaker, meeting the ruthless grin of the tauren above him as his hand moved up, nearly breaking his hand as he turned them to face Shrikra.
Shrikra coughed, gasping for air as she felt her voice return to her, her crimson eyes watering and widening as she saw Gazak in his death throes in the grip of the tauren. Their gazes met for a final time before Gazak’s eyes begun to shut close and drop his blade, as Atahalni’s hand left his and grasped the base of his jaw before twisting hard to the right, audibly cracking the young orc’s neck as he dropped the now lifeless body to the side, grinning after his handiwork as his eyes were alerted to a flash of neon-green coming from the side.
Shrikra screamed in fury as she fired a torrent of fel-flames from her hands at the tauren, who was engulfed by the flames. For a while, he resisted, until the fel flames peeled off his shadows and reached his robes and flesh, beginning to burn him alive as he howled in agony, falling onto his back and twisting and turning on the ground as she cackled maniacally.
“ Yes, scream louder, fiend of the void! Scream for your masters- Tell them I sent you!” she laughed, flaring up her spell once more until the agonized howls of the tauren were completely drowned by the blazing inferno of her fel flames as her hands trembled in awe at her handiwork.
Schlick.
She let out a breathless gasp, feeling the razor sharp edge of a knife- her own dagger, bury into her throat, her hands turning almost instantly limb as the torrent of flames ended- Revealing only the charred remains of the blademaster’s bones before her eyes.
She gagged in disbelief, tasting blood in her mouth as she lurched forward, only to feel a hand supporting her weight from falling forward- The same hand that had buried the dagger into her throat, her head lolling back as her watery eyes met the sinister smirk of the tauren above her, her slumped back pressing against his chest.
“…I did say only one of you were right- The Blademaster. His mind was so focused I knew I’d have no luck dominating it- But yours…So focused on killing me. So full of hate, so full of anger and rage. Very easy to manipulate…” he spoke down to her, using his thumb to twist the dagger in the wound as she let out a breathless gag at his words as he continued.
“…This dagger here is the only thing- Though brief at it, keeping you from the void you were so eagerly willing to send me into…It seems only fair that I return the favor…” He grinned down to her, tasting her fear, even in her nearly faded husk.
He grunted, grabbing the dagger sharply before raking it to the side and dispatching of the warlock, watching her eyes close for the final time.
“But I think not.” He spoke to himself, shoving her body off to the side, beside the still smoldering remains of the younger orc.
He gazed at both of their bodies. By now, he’d be sacrificing their souls to Arikara- To the void, to Bwonsamdi- Whoever was there, whoever would hear him. It didn’t matter to him-
Until it did.
Seer Apawi sent me here to change- Not to remain. He thought to himself, chewing his lip as he gathered himself.
He let his shadow crawl off of him as he glanced at the ritual site, looking up to the sky. It was still some time until it was noon.
He walked over to the bowl, picking up the skull off the bowl as he turned it in his palm as if to gaze into its empty eye sockets, before finding it worth nothing, and casting it with one chuck down into the ravines below.
He kicked and smothered away the ritual circle until it was gone, before sighing, looking at the stone monolith before him.
Find the Blind seer. He will have the answers you seek. Apawi’s voice echoed in his mind.
He reached for the straps of his robes, and begun to strip, laying his robes behind him until nothing remained on him but the loincloth he wore under his garments, bared to the skies the way the Earthmother had made him.
Or the void had spawned him , he thought. Without his rich robes, Atahalni’s form looked nothing short of sickly and gangly- ribs showing through the patchy and grayed out fur below the black mane, his crooked spine twisting his back to the left, and the stump of his tail, missing the tip of it, resting over his left calf. His bony, ghoulish hands with their long, stretched out tendons reached out for his belongings, drawing a simple pouch of ritual incence, sprinkling them over the bowl as he looked at the stone monolith before him. It was time.
He closed his eyes as he reached his hands toward the sky, speaking aloud in Taurahe.
“Blind seer! You were driven mad by your arrogance, and now another one seeks your guidance!”
The wind howled, picking up dust around the spire, as if warily observing the Grimtotem, or circling him like a pack of wolves, ready to pounce.
Atahalni continued, bringing his hands down to the ground as if bowing to whatever presence was observing him, baring himself to the light of the sun and the elements.
“I know I am nothing short of a monster- I have killed, I have tortured, and I have felt not a twinge of shame of remorse- Perhaps I never will!”
The winds picked up as the sun was reaching its zenith, the first rays of the sun beginning to gather onto the edges of the bowl as the lens focused them through it.
“…But I call out to you, not as a fiend of void. Not as a calf that gave into the darkness in his heart- Not as one that cast away the world, blaming it for his shortcomings - I come before you, humbled, seeking your wisdom, as a fellow tauren!”
The zenith was reached and as the rays of the sun focused onto the bowl’s contents, they light up in bright flames as Atahalni opened his eyes, cowering his form with his hands as the winds lashed at his form and the ground, until they didn’t.
The wind seized blowing as it swirled around the burning incense until nothing but remains smoldered, a dense cloud of smoke surrounded him. He gazed around warily, but stayed his ground, remaining on his knees as his gaze was drawn into the presence before him, his eyes widening.
Two balls of flame, second only to the sun itself in their brightness light up amidst the mist, before a ghastly form of tauren took shape in the mists, gazing down onto him, as if towering over him in judgement.
Shakily, he brought his gaze up to his.
“…I commend you for crawling out of your shadows to meet me in the light of An’she, Grimtotem. Darkness weighs heavy on your soul, and your sins are crawling over your back…”
Atahalni looked into the eyes of the spirit with a confident look now, swallowing as he listened in.
The Blind seers muzzle twisted into a frown.
“…But you must stop blaming your shortcomings onto others. Onto An’she. I see no flicker of guilt or shame in your eyes, and for that, you are helpless, just like you were back then in the Thousand Needles, until you accept the truth.”
Atahalni frowned, snorting in frustration. “I must feel quilt for a fault that was not my choice? When my parents, my fellow tribesmen, the elements, my ancestors…Even An’she turned her back on me, what choice did I have? Was my destiny to simply waste or fade away? Arikara- The voices- They brought me respite- They brought me-“
The winds blew the smoke right into his face as he coughed, the voice of the seer Thundering in his ears as he roared down onto him.
“An’she never turned her back onto you- You turned your back on her, Grimtotem! Arikara and your dark masters brought you respite- But at what cost? Your plans of justice were soon turned into visions of bitterness and rage- And you’d see anybody suffer, to bargain for power, that’d force others to live in the same fear, as you did!”
The voices felt intimidating and scolding to him as he felt the rays of the sun lashing after his body, as if burning him as he groaned in agony, bowing back down, biting down with anger in his mind as he reached his hand towards the spirit, his shadow flickering below him.
The Spirit scoffed, bemused.
“Even after being shown the truth, you seek to lash out at the hand that seeks to pull you from the brink of Abyss?”
Atahalni hesitated. He groaned, casting his arm down and pounding the ground with his frustrated, breathing raggedly. “It’s the only way I know, to get what I want…”
“…You’ve been taking so much for so long that you’ve forgotten being given anything- Or giving away.”
Atahalni opened his eyes, choking up on his words, before responding. “But the dark ones- Arikara, they’ve given me-“
“Have they? What they have given you is an illusion of power- Of vengeance. Of power. You are a slave to their wishes- And their amusement. The question is… Have you grown so accustomed to your chains, that you no longer see the difference? The choice is yours, Grimtotem.”
The spirit looked down at him, judgingly, the incense swirling around them like a storm. Atahalni heaved for air, as he looked up into the spirits flaming gaze, blinking as he heard whispers from behind him, glancing over his shoulder as he saw the infinite dark gazing at him from his shadow, that’d crawled over his back- Without his command.
Do not believe his lies…Dispose of him…You’re strong…You can only trust us…
The whispers of the void echoed in his mind, though he heard no-one speak. His gaze shifted from the spirit to his shadow, hesitating.
“…You did this to yourself, Grimtotem. An’she can forgive you…But only if you forgive yourself.”
Atahalni hesitated again, feeling his shadow crawl more over him.
You will rule with us…All your wishes, will be made real…Your enemies will suffer…
Atahalni panted, coughing, before he spoke, shakily.
“I’m…A fiend of the void. I’ve done things- Felt things, that would turn the stomach of the most battle-hardened warriors…If there is a point of no return, I’ve passed it- And beyond…”
The spirit flared above him, but remained there. It didn’t leave, even as the shadows engulfed Atahalni, and the whispers of the Void became ever more pressing.
But even in the darkness, the light remained. He didn’t abandon him.
Atahalni blinked his eyes, and reached his hand towards the spirit.
The spirit took his hand, and with a blinding light, the shadow withdrew off of him, the protesting screams of the void disappearing, until his shadow was once more behind him- Where it belonged.
The incence lifted, revealing clear skies as Atahalni sat on his knees, sweating and panting, looking around in disbelief.
“…You’ve done much- And the road to redemption is long for you, Grimtotem- But you’ve begun your journey back to your roots.”
Atahalni swung his attention towards the voice, seeing the transparent phantasm of the blind seer standing in front of him. He motioned with his hands down at him, to get up.
Atahalni slowly clambered to his hooves, groaning as he looked down upon himself- His matted, grayed out fur had turned healthy black, like the rest of his pelt. He looked at the spirit, swallowing before speaking.
“…But how? I still have my duty to my people- To the Horde. My body will not allow me to become a warrior- And –“
“You are too concerned with what is, and what will be, Atahalni. Focus on the present- Your fate has already been altered. Just as you damned yourself, you brought yourself back…”
Atahalni lifted a brow, listening.
“…But you were born in darkness, Grimtotem. You have a gift for twisting the shadows and the void to your will- But you must stay in control, and never become a puppet of them ever again.”
Atahalni glanced after his robes, then back to the spirit, whom he saw slowly fading away.
“…Just as the scorching sun would sear away all the life on the plains if it never shifted, the darkness will consume your soul, if you allow it to take root. Find balance- And with it, your peace, Grimtotem.”
He batted his eyes as the spirit faded away, like he was never there.
The wind blew after his mane and beard as he looked down at the bowl, now empty, and the sun that was drawn behind the clouds.
He descended down the slope, glancing up at the cliff once more, before looking to the east, listening to his bone charms chiming in the wind. Thunder cracked above the dark clouds in the distance, and he remembered the whispers of war that he’d heard just before he’d left for his pilgrimage.
The Horde needed him. And he needed to prove himself.
Hey everyone! This is my first story for this toon, and I’d love to hear your feedback, both good and bad!
Big thanks for Apawi and Bearan of the Hand of Conquest for inspiring this story development for my character!