World Composition (Ravial)

Gricen set in front of a splayed out corpse. He had several nails holding the flaps of skin from the chest open, as well as the stomach. He ran a crooked knife along the smaller intestine, dark blood stained it the blade. He ran one of his own gruesome hands against the organs, his wilted flesh, some of it even hanging off at parts of his fingers, several bones exposed, before pulling them up to lick off that blood. His yellow pupils, surrounded by crimson stared at the corpse in front of him.

He then went methodically about removing the major organs and popping them into open jars beside of the body. The heart, liver, kidneys, spleen, gallbladder, and then went about removing the brain. He whispered a few arcane words then, sealing each jar in a stasis, so that the organs would persist well after the corpse would decompose. Placing those jars upon their appropriate shelves, along with several other organs from countless people. He gave a sickening grin them, some of his teeth were filed into fangs, while others had fallen out a long time before. His skin was paleish white with tears still hanging off. Wounds persisted upon his body, though no blood or disease would ever come from them.

"Paladinssss, do make sssuch a grreat trreat," he said with hisses in his voice. His lower jaw seemed dislocated against his other, causing his words to come out in such tones. A larger than normal, vile black tongue, always interuptted his speech in such tones as well.

He sent a mental note to Reevark, a demon that had pledge his servitude to Gricen himself, after Gricen freed him from the underworld. I've got a prressent for you, the hiss came out even in his mind. The double doors open to the study, a large dark blue demon walked in, morely glided along as there was no apparent feet. The thing was brutish with no apparent facial features, but arms that were larger than Gricen's waist and chest.

Reevark knew exactly what to do, its giant hands wrapped around places of the paladin's corpse and tore it away from the nails. Skin had ripped where the nails were. He had learned much through the insides of that paladin.

Gricen's made his way over to a large chair, which looked out a window into the fiery storm of the underworld. The tower was underground, or so it seemed. It pierced into the underworld itself, where Gricen had made a ready home. The top door, was hidden, by several ancient arcane tombs. Only Gricen knew the way out onto the surface from there. He looked upon the winged demons flying about, as well as the souls that were being tortured below. He could not hide the low hissing chuckle from his lips.

He was about to put a large hole in the society of paladin's once and for all upon the surface.

After the last devotion bell rung, signaling the end of the devotion itself, Pallir stood in front of the altar, looking up at the old priest who stood behind it. The old priest was well cut, clean shaven, though his eyebrows, dark gray in color from many years. He was bald and the sun that reflected through the stained glass windows always shined upon him during the devotions.

"Excellent devotion, Ira," Pallir said with a warm smile. A smile crept to Ira's lips then as he looked down at the prince. Despite his age, Ira too had a youthfulness about him, in his steps, and in his eyes, as he came down from the altar and stood beside of Pallir. He was a head shorter than Pallir, but Pallir was taller than most men.

"I just impart the words in which, He, speaks to me, Pallir," Ira's voice was comforting, like an old man's who was the best of grandfathers to a young child.

"I heard that Koryal left earlier, why is that?" Ira ended up asking, before they even took a few steps towards the doors that lead out of the devotion hall. Ira used a staff, as part of useful in walking, but the staff also carried their Lord's blessing.

"She did, but the why is clouded to me. She did not speak of her leaving," Pallir replied, her leaving had caused him to question why the moment he saw her leave from his quarters. She normally always told Pallir the news in which she traveled and where she had went. The fact that she did not do this, worried him greatly.

"She walks with the Lord's blessing, Pallir. She will return," Ira said with a smile, sure of himself that Koryal would return to them.

Rerik soon came running up to them, Pallir remembered him leaving the devotion hall to go to lunch, before continuing his training. "Lord Pallir, High-priest Ira, I have some grave news." His breathing was slightly labored, taking deep breaths and letting them out slowly to steady his heart rate and breathing once more.

"What is it, Rerik?" Pallir asked him, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

"New's has come back from some passing traveller's that Tuera has been attacked and that the dead are walking again."

Ira quickly sent out a prayer, as did Pallir. Ira then went into spell casting, closing his eyes and focusing upon the village itself. As the spell completed, his eyes went distant and traveled across the land quickly, until settling upon Tuera. The lumbering forms of humans stumbled a bout, blood dripped from their mouths, as animals had been eaten. Ira could feel the lack of life in this area. He could feel the darkness that had taken it and encircled the village, watching as these undead beings started to leave the village, smelling flesh upon the air.

Ira's eyes opened slowly, his face was etched with concern as he looked over at Pallir and nodded. "They are speaking the truth, the place is crawling with undead."

Something was amiss, and Pallir knew it. But he could not place his finger on what was happening, but he was determined to find out. His blue eyes looked over to Rerik. "Gather a handful of our finest and some of the priests."

Rerik nodded quickly and left to do his duty. "I must go Ira, I'm going to go with them to see what has befallen this village for myself and see if I can find any clues to what's going on," his voice was calm.

"Just becareful, I sense something is amiss with this," Ira said and patted Pallir on the shoulder, before leaving himself. The two of them were beyond formal names, they were the best of friends.

Pallir headed to his chamber to gather his armor.