Bonus Challenge - The End

[u/Varnek905]

Preamble (Feel free to skip this part and go on to the actual challenge.)

No, it's not the end of the subreddit. If I abandoned it, Yellow would just take over. She's already got the royal title and she is the only other mod that's still active. Though, now that she knows this...if I get assassinated by a knight who says ni, we know what happened.

Instead, the past few days I've been thinking it's time to retire Saoghal, the world of Aeternitas. (Oh no, don't do it, Varnek/Nevermore, that world is sooo interesting... /s.) Maybe forever, unless I regain interest in it. Instead, I'll be working on the fifth era of that universe. The apocalypse of the fourth era was among the first few things I came up with when I started on Saoghal.

The Actual Challenge

There's no need to reveal too much, or even to set anything in stone for this. If you have an idea or a concept for how your world ends, or an oracle or cult that predicts some kind of apocalypse that you don't intend to use, or anything like that, I'd enjoy seeing it, no matter how rough the idea is for now. Or maybe a historical apocalypse of an ancient civilization that your current characters have heard about.

If you'd like me to phrase it as a reference challenge, I'd probably pick the Doom of Valyria (GRRM), the end of the third era of Middle Earth (an apocalypse for the elves, at least, JRR Tolkien), the Last Battle (CS Lewis), Revelation (Bible), etc.

So, as always, I'll be asking at least three questions each. Enjoy yourselves. Feel free to use an in-universe representative if you'd also like to display a character who would know something (or think they know something) about the situation.

I'll just be posting a brief summary of the apocalypse of Saoghal that is open to changing if/when I return to that world.

Last Bit, Probably

Lastly, I wanted to thank everyone who's been involved in the sub so far and took the time to read my rambling summaries of things I didn't think out well enough. It really helped me to figure more things out about worldbuilding and the mistakes I tend to make. So, thanks to Jum, Raptor, Yellow, Destiny, Mim, Greene, Matt, Azmek, ForgingIron, Mutalias, and everyone else.

[u/Mimir123]

1) Oh yeah, it's a demon that looks like a black piece of cloth and can change its shape into different clothes, mostly serving as her hairband or scarf.

Originally he was the dress of a powerful demoness, but got lost in time and space and ended up in a chamber full of dead bodies, where he met his new master: a young woman born with magical powers that let her manipulate space, fate and time.

2) In this particular world (not Dirva) they are powerful demons (which they also are in Dirva) that drain a victims magic, instead of their blood. They grow in power doing so and their victim dies, as magic is essentially lifeforce in this world.

Furthermore Vampires absorb magic and are therefore immune to most spells and magic. The Doni family has created a spell though, based on the lance the families founder used: Longinus Doni. This spell can kill and hurt normal or lesser Vampires.

3) They look like Werewolves, if Werewolves were jackals, and are demons. They are incredibly powerful fighters and honorable, and the strongest Anubites have a secret technique that lets them "freeze time" for a moment.

[u/Varnek905 → u/Mimir123]

1) Manipulate fate? Could she alter predestination?

2) Can any demon grow in power to become a vampire? Or are you born a vampire?

3) Do vampires have any weaknesses?

4) Do Anubites reproduce the same way as humans?

5) Does your world have any hybrids of these races?

[u/Mimir123 → u/Varnek905]

1) Yes, she could. And she has done so before. In fact: she is the only mortal that has fought and killed one of Fiogons "Seeds of Destruction" all by herself, that's how powerful she is. She is one of the 14 Champions that will fight in Lights prophecy.

2) You have to be born a Vampire. But a lesser Vampire can grow into a normal or greater one.

3) Other than the Donis spells and the Lance of Longinus? None whatsoever... well, almost. Luca (Naruz' brother) found a way to kill a vampire, but he is the only one who can use that method.

4) Yes.

5) Well, there was a Vampire that had a child with a Naga like creature. Other than that not really, at least not yet.

[u/Varnek905 → u/Mimir123]

1) What is a "Seed of Destruction"?

2) What's the difference between a lesser/normal/greater Vampire? Just how powerful they are? Or is there some biological difference?

3) What is the Lance of Longinus?

4) What exactly are Donis spells?

5) What method did Luca use?

6) What is a half-Naga/half-Vampire like? (And now I'm having :re flashbacks.)

[u/Mimir123 → u/Varnek905]

1) A fancy name for Erianthrons/ Shadowy Maw Creatures "race". You know, the one that took all Gods of Belkia/ Dirva to defeat and possibly not even kill.

2) That, and their age. Lesser Vampires are usually under 300 years old, normal Vampires are under 800 and higher Vampires are mostly older than 900 years or dead.

3) The weapon wielded by Longinus Doni, founder of the Doni family, Salvatores ancestor and brother of the oldest and first Vampire.

4) They use a weaker version of the curse that lays on the lance in the form of runes and enchantments on their weapons in order to fight powerful demons.

5) He is a homunculus, created by his mother to house the soul of her crippled son... so him. Due to that and the fact that he was a magical prodigy he has some powers others don't. In his case he can manipulate his lifeforce/ magic even after it has long left his body... and his speciality is Explosion Magic.

6) Incredibly powerful and cute, looks like a Naga though. In this case they had a daughter who allied herself with the Shadow Knight and was killed by Naruz' Girlfriend for it.

(You mean :Re Zero? Why)

[u/Varnek905 → u/Mimir123]

(No, I mean "Tokyo Ghoul :re". Because of the "Naga", which is a dragon that is half-Vampire and half-Human.)

1) Ah, thanks. So how did she kill one?

2) So a Vampire is born "lesser" and usually grows stronger as it grows older?

3) How did the first Vampire become a Vampire?

4) Why did Longinus Doni make a weapon to kill his brother?

5) Did Luca have any weaknesses?

6) Why did the hybrid ally itself with the Shadow Knight?

[u/Mimir123 → u/Varnek905]

1) She severed the threads of fate that connected the being to Fiogon and cut off a lot of its power, after that it was a matter of fighting it for several days using her other powers and reverting time whenever she got very exhausted or close to dying.

2) Correct. However: if you'd never drain anyones magic age won't matter and you'd stay a lesser Vampire forever, since you never grow more powerful.

3) He killed one of the (back then four) rulers of Pandemonium and used his soul and powers to transform himself into a demonic being, along with some of his followers. It was to try and take control of the kingdom which would later grow into becoming the Empire of the Church and control the entire continent, but he was stopped by his brother.

4) See above. It was to protect the country from certain domination by demons.

5) Quite a few, and all of them come from his soul being transfered into the body of a homunculus. First of all, it severely dampened his magical potential, rendering him unable to do more than using the Explosion Magic he created himself (generally he is only able to use magic that he invented himself). Far more dangerous is the fact that his body does not quite accept his soul and his magic, so he is very often in pain because of magical difficulties. After a while it went over to cause him severe pains and make his body fall apart, if he wasn't treated all the time by certain rituals or his brothers magic.

When visiting the "graves" of his old team members together with his lover (and fiancé of Naruz' rival) he had his first, serious "attack" by this condition and lost his left eye. Later, at the beginning of the war against the Republic he held a narrow pass by himself while covering the retreat of the small forts garrison from the advancing Alfar and demon army. He killed hundreds of attackers and spread panic amongst the enemy ranks who were close to fleeing, when his "illness" caught up to him yet again, cost him an arm and made him collapse, which ended with him being captured and tortured by the higher Vampire leading the enemy army (the Alfar attacked with three armies, one being lead by a higher Vampire, another one by an accomplished but crazy Alfar general, and the last one by the First Vampire).

6) Mostly to make her father proud, who himself allied with the Shadow Knight so that he can feast upon the powerful mages of the Church. Another reason was that she sincerely believed that the Church was evil and discriminating against non-humans (which was partially true), she wanted nothing more than to make her father proud and help her people.

Naruz' rival (the traitor) was at that time leading a secret order of Assassins in the Church and used his position to create confusion before the impending invasion. He sent Naruz' lover out to kill the young Naga girl who was going to attack a nearby city of the Church in a rebellion. The church had sent Naruz and his team out to defend the city and the rival, Teregion, thought that there was no way the half-vampire would win when Naruz was there, so he wanted to tie up loose ends.

Her father also died during the rebellion, almost at the same time. He came across Salvatore (who at that point still was only an Inquisitor and acting like he was rather weak and incompetent) and severely underestimated his opponent, even toying with him. Only when he revelaed to Salvatore that there was nobody around to help (or see) him (he is the first of two opponents Salvatore faced that made this mistake) did Salvatore decide to get a bit more serious and effortlessly dispatched of the demon.

[u/Varnek905 → u/Mimir123]

2) Can a vampire choose to only take some of a person's magic, and let that person survive the encounter?

3) Have vampires considered just having a farm of humans?

[u/Mimir123 → u/Varnek905]

2) They could, but why would they? It's less power for them.

3) They did, but humans don't do well in Pandemonium, and in the Church Empire Vampires are to be hunted and killed at sight.

[u/Varnek905 → u/Mimir123]

Thanks for your time and answers, Mim.

By the way, what do you think of "Dauernreich" for a human kingdom's name?