A Green Sun Illuminates The Void, Thread III (Fate Rending Narrative)

A Green Sun Illuminates the Void

An Exalted / Familiar of Zero Story

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Contents

Chapter 1: And then, all was unfamilar
Chapter 2: Once There Was A Maiden
Chapter 3: A Bad Letter Day
Chapter 4: Mistakes Were Made
Chapter 5: Repetitious Succubus Bemoaning
Chapter 6: Ignis Sacri
Chapter 7: Tales of Halkeginia I
Chapter 8: A New Day's Dawn
Chapter 9: Flying High at World's Zenith
Chapter 10: Dragons at Twilight
Chapter 11: Night and Falls
Chapter 12: Louise Eclipsed
Chapter 13: Fallen Titans
Chapter 14: Games of Power
Chapter 15: A Serpent Nursing
Chapter 16: An Act of Usurpation
Chapter 17: Hail to the Queen
Chapter 18: The Morning After

A Green Sun Illuminates the Void on tvtropes

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The moon lay heavy and gravid over the sweltering swamps. The sound of insects was a relentless buzz in the air, and somewhere, deeper in the jungle, there was the noise of something large in the undergrowth. But here, just outside the satrapy of An Teng, was a break from the low mangrove swamps and pooled waters. Here, a low, five-sided tiered pyramid sat, below the treeline, built in marble but long covered by the muck of ages.

The flash of viridian light lit up the night, and for a moment silenced the chorus of the wildlife. And then, under the light of Luna, all that was left was a fungoid bloom of silver ash, and the burned marks scorched into the land.

The man, brown-haired, white-robed, shook off his pitted brazen spear, the crossed swords on his forehead gleaming in the night. Internal machinery within it which far surpassed the knowledge of this fallen age whined, and it vented steam, the green-lit corona around it dying out.

"That's the last of them," said his companion, in High Realm-accented Rivertongue, looking around with eyes that saw more than the material. "Now, if the schematics are correct, the hearthstone forms directly on top of this manse."

"Well, this one had the stone," the man stated, picking up an apple-sized gem which had the feel of fresh leaves despite its smooth emerald surface.

"Oh, that is wonderful," the woman exclaimed, with a flick of her head. Shifting slightly, she barked words in some alien language into the forest behind her, and red-furred apes, coated in mud, wearing armour shaped for their inhuman forms emerged, following without question the woman's orders as she shifted them around the manse. "Well, this is something we can count as a success." There was a worried look in her eyes, as she added, "And we can report it as one. It's just one geomantic nodal point, but I'm sure Deveh will be able to make good use of it."

"Yes," the white-robed man said, lowering his spear, as the two of them began the climb up the steps, to their goal.

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The moon had risen further, the light of traitorous Luna illuminating the glade in which the ancient manse stood. Already, it showed more signs of life, for the geomantic nexus had now been claimed. In the hands of the successors to those who had built this place, there were things that could be done which the illiterate gods who had been squatting in it, and who were but burnt in shadows now, could never have done.

For one, the fontal basin at the top of the squat pyramid could be filled with pure, fresh, clean water. And in the foetid heat of the mangrove swamps, that was a relief.

The woman now floated in the coolness, spread out, the moonlight illuminating her pale skin. Only her head was above the water, and her hair, silvery-grey despite her apparent youth, fanned out around her like a bridal veil. "This is wonderful", she said again, with a contented sigh. "Testolagh?"

The man was sitting by the side of the pool, his feet in the water, still dressed in his robe. "I'd rather keep my armour on, Sasi," he said, with a shrug. "And it takes far too long to dry out."

Mnemon Sasimana tilted her head, and paddled over to him, resting her head on the side of the pool as she stared up at her companion. "You're distracted," she said, simply. "The layers. The disruption." These were not questions.

Testolagh smiled, but there was a hint of worry in his eyes. "Can you at least pretend to not know these things?" he asked. "And, yes. We are their champions; we are the ones who serve them. Then why will none of the Unquestionable provide even the least details to why that happened. Even the Voice of the Yozis will not speak of it... indeed, she seems... disquieted by it."

The woman sighed. "They are the Unquestionable, and we are meant to obey without question," she said, before smirking. "Of course, I have made certain... deductions." The smirk vanished. "I am fairly sure it involves us, in some way. The Princes and the Princesses."

"Oh?"

"Point; they went to lengths to prepare one of the townhouses. Point; preparations were made for a celebratory feast. Point; respected Ligier has been working on some masterpiece. Point; one of the issues raised at the Allthing... by Geasa, among others... how are you and him getting on, by the way?"

The man bit on his lip, blushing slightly.

"Oh, well done. I mean, it's been obvious that he rather likes you, but you too are rather cute together." A pair of eyebrows raised. "And attractive, but... well, given that you two are both gorgeous, that's not exactly a surprise."

Reaching down, Testolagh splashed her. The woman pouted slightly, her eyes narrowing.

And then a trio of ichor-slick tendrils, a pulsing nauseating green, which flicked with phosphorescent eyeballs and sung soft choirs from their many mouths erupted from the water, the hosannas of their arrival quieting the insects that buzzed over head. All three lunged for him; casually, he leant out of the way, slapping one aside with a shower of brass sparks.

"Overkill much?" he asked, amused, as the woman burst out laughing. "Sasi, there are easier ways to get back at me for splashing you with water."

She pouted, still giggling. "I was only going to pull you in," she said, before sighing. "And, yes." She shook her head. "What was I saying? Well, it doesn't really matter. I must be feeling stressed, too." There was a wry twist to her lips as she added, "It's the moment when you look up and see a layer coming down towards you that really does it. I'm still having nightmares about that," she added, padding over to hug onto his legs, pressed up against him.

The man reached down, and patted her on her wet hair. "Me too."

Then came the yank, and the splash as she pulled him into the water, before emerging from it herself under the light of Luna, naked and dripping. "Well, fair's fair," she said, glancing back at her friend and the towering tentacles which were still, impossibly, coming from the water. As she began to dry herself off, and slip on her undergarments, she added, "I got to swim and cool down, and I knew you wanted a chance, but were going to be far too noble and refuse to do so when you wanted one of us to be ready at all times." She let out a pleasantly surprised noise. "And my clothes are almost dry. It's going to be so nice to have clean clothes for once. I hate these swamps. Give me a desert any day."

"Is that altruism, Sasi?" Testolagh asked, as he began to strip off his robe to reveal the form hugging armour below it, passing the sodden garment over to the woman to hang it up to dry.

"... let's just say you owe me a favour," the auburn-haired woman said, with a smirk.

There was a pause.

"Could you please get rid of the tentacles? I feel weirdly embarrassed with them looking at me? I mean, I know, I know that secret of the Great Mother too, but I just don't feel comfortable with those eyes."

A snap of her fingers, and an organic sound. "Fine," the woman said, perching on the edge of the top step and staring out over the mangroves. "Well, today a manse," she remarked, to herself. "And if all goes as planned, within three years, An Teng. And surrounding areas. You'll never see this coming, Mother."

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I should not that this isn't a spoiler for next chapter. Think of these little things at the start of new threads, following the Creation-side story, as a reward for people who read things here.

It's interesting, and it is a good story you have. And you have managed to merge the worlds very well too.

Don't think I don't recognise those two Infernals, ES. I see what you did there.

Tentacles.

dun dun DUUUUNNNNNNNNN!

Can you explain it to me?

Thinking through my half-remembered bits of Exalted lore...Mnemon?

Seems likely given her surname is Mnemon. It's that or Kimbery most likely, and I'm not betting on the latter.

Kimbery: Did you just say I wasn't your mother? DID YOU? I WILL DROWN YOU IN ACID AND IMPREGNATE YOUR BONES!

EarthScorpion and I know each other. This is not the first time I have seen Testolagh Matachim and Mnemon Sasimana.

Be glad you didn't see the rest of their coven.

Hey, to be fair, of the others, only Deveh is Exalted at this point in the timeline. Neither Johannes Van Der Brixten or Kit Firewand have Exalted yet.

Which is probably for the best.

Now I'm curious.

Did Testolagh remind anyone else of an Infernal, Male Nanoha?

Maybe it was just that the spear looked sort of like Raising Heart.

...Gladius, I really did not need to make that connection.

Testolagh does sound like a gender flipped Nanoha, complete with a gender flipped Fate waiting off screen.

Now I want to know HOW those two Exalted, and what Geasa (if he is Fate) is caste wise. Because I can see Nanoha, male or female going for the Green Sun Nimbus Flare tree.

Scourge. He uses a biiiig grimscythe. He may be one of the children the Dowager abuses, who found a weapon when her servants came to take his parents away (and younger sister, to play with their soulsteel toys and be further traumatised), but was too scared to try and defend them, and just hid instead of fighting back.

He's also very, very pretty.

As for Testolagh, he comes from a small backwater in the Hundred Kingdoms you’ve probably never heard of. A Scavenger Lord looking in the area found an ancient Solar manse buried deep under the earth, and unleashed an autonomous weapons system from a lost age, which killed her and her team and started murdering its way through the place. Testolagh, the son of the local baker, saw the pool of incohate blackness as it rampaged and saw it kill a soldier, the crossbow falling from their hand in front of him. He fled, though, arriving back to find that his family was dead. On top of that, his mother (from things found in the ruins of the bakery) had been a defector from a Realm Legion. In the ruins, he collapsed, bemoaning the way he had run, and hadn’t fought. And that was when the metody showed up. Since then, he's been one of the Slayers, and is roughly as experienced as Sasimana - the two of them having been assigned together for one of the test things. A relationship didn’t work out, not helped by the fact that he prefers men (and is so cute with Geasa!), but they’re close friends, and trust each other intimately, because they’re relatively sane, and cooperate well. Unlike the other three in their coven, who are all insane and broken in various different ways. Especially Kit.

If and when I ever get round to writing my Exalted fanfic, they'll probably show up there. ^_^

I'm pretty sure I saw elsewhere that Kit loves adorjan, and that can't possibly be a healthy relationship.

Loving Adorjan is fine.

It's when she loves you back that things go horribly, horribly wrong.

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Epsilon

I really want to see Louise when she arrives in Malfeas.
Dere-Dere schoolgirl would probably be her reaction

Technically she has an Intimacy of "Adorjan (Schoolgirl crush)". She's what happens when someone tries to emulate Adorjan as much as Louise is trying to emulate Malfeas and Cecelyne. The difference being that Malfeas and Cecelyne are more or less understandable from a human perspective, just exaggerated, whereas Adorjan... isn't.

Put it this way. She scares her Coadjutor sometimes. That's how similar she is to her patron. Sasimana and Testolagh keep her far away from the planning.

Please tell me there's a Signum analog.




Please.

i think that even better will be: E4-E5 Louise Dimension hopping to nonoha verse and battling the originals -the idea of TSAB fighting a GSP (or any other celestial Exalted) makes me smile (specially the idea of them meeting that Kit- and Nonoha learning of ,and maybe even meeting Andorjan would be the meeting of the century).

... Can we put that guy on ignore yet? He's kind of missing the point.

She's one of the components who went into the character, though far from the only one. The thing about Testolagh is that he's a shonen hero, but forged from Malfeas and Kimbery rather than more classically Solar parts. Hence, he's destructive, lethal, powerful, charismatic, never gives up no matter what the odds are, and can take almost any wound (up to and including the destruction of most of his internal organs) and keep going. When he orders you around, his words which come in green flame are like a hammer blow to the psyche. When he loves or trusts, he trusts with all his heart; when he hates, he will not stop. Those hit by his weapon are hit for massive damage, exploded in radioactive green fire, and poisoned with terrible toxins, all at the same time. And if you betray his trust, you're doomed.

He also prefers men, although has made exceptions for women in the past (including Sasi [1]). Because this is Exalted, and fuck you, yes, this manly heroic type [2] prefers the company of his own sex. What is it to you?

[1] The two of them managed the almost impossible in that two Kimbery-favouring Infernals managed to break up without ending up Reviling each other or the use of Adorjan Charms, basically because they managed to shift the Intimacies into Friendship ones.

The two of them are basically bros [3], who go around overthrowing countries, capturing manses, and working along their plan for the South-West and its complete subjugation in the name of the maimed creators of all.

[2] Albeit one empowered by twisted titan hate and spite.

[3] Only one of them is a woman. And they really prefer to be civilised about things, right until they blow up the town or enslave the local priesthood in a web of favours and leave them as Yozi cultists.

Let me make things quite clear. Firstly, I do not appreciate your discourtesy to the English language. Secondly, I will not be crossing over in such a manner; this is not some pathetic "megacrossover" where people go around the multiverse wrecking things "just because". This story is the story of Louise, as she becomes a god-monster and her reactions to being handed all this amoral power, with no one and no true peers to judge her for using it.

Please stop suggesting such things.

So, Earthscorpion, what's the current story rotation?