To finally round off the Council of Warlocks I got a commission done by @pespillo (who is still taking comms!) for Majikus, their leader! Love the colors for the fire I initially had a generic hue in mind but this… She’s looking fanatical like you’re the only person between society and unity.
Or she’s caught two employees arguing because one of them was a reactionary twat and that pissed off his sister enough to fuck his coworker out of spite and now both coworkers are beefing about it instead of saving lives by taking over the world. Whichever!
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Got another commission of another Warlock duo by @pespillo (who is still doing comms!) of these two dinguses Viracious and Kisonus. Kis might be more brazenly loud mouthed while Viracious is more of a pointed, condescending lecture. But they are both juvenile idiots around one another. Kisonus looks like she’s about to bite his head clean off.
I feel like one of the mean-spirited things Viracious and other funerary necromancers upset about the new generation turning down the practice would be stuff like The only reason you’d have to worry about people bastardizing your image post-mortem is if you didn’t make/maintain connections in life to protect your image in death. So the fact that this generation is so worried about this says a lot, doesn’t it!!!
Ignore how funerary necromancy has gotten to a point where some people will sign reanimation contracts with companies or other entities where they agree to let theirs or others’ dead bodies be used to advertise and speak good of the entity before their body is finally put to rest. Like Shoutout to this funerary home for such good service in keeping my body nearly prepared before I go to bed in this swanky new coffin they prepared me!!! But before I pass on lemme just share a quick word from our sponsor Cubespace-
I think Viracious would rightfully complain about capitalism infecting funerary spaces and intending to address that with his conquests as a warlord and then warlock but otherwise have nothing to say regarding families and other groups who misrepresent the dead for other purposes. Or people who would just prefer not to have their bodies be interpreted like that at all.
When his children were little, Viracious’ father told them a story meant for kids:
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One day, a man stole fruit from a stall and ran. The owner called out, “Thief! Thief!” A few people ran after the thief for him, but did not know what he looked like; Only that he had fruit, and must run and act like a thief.
The thief sat down with someone else who was eating the same fruit, and began eating the fruit he had stolen. He made sure to wipe his mouth the proper way*.
When the searchers arrived, they saw the thief using polite etiquette. Meanwhile, the other man was holding his napkin improperly. “Thief, thief!” They declared the innocent man. They dragged him off and the thief left.
As the innocent man waited for his trial, it became time for lunch. He began to eat his prison meal. He had learned his lesson and wiped his mouth by holding his napkin the proper way. Meanwhile, the guard held his napkin messily and smeared his mouth.
When the court came to take in the innocent man, they saw him eating properly. Meanwhile the guard ate improperly. “Thief, thief!” They identified the guard. They took him instead.
At court, the guard said he was innocent. The other innocent man was brought in. He said the guard was a liar. Nobody was sure who to believe.
Just then, the judge sneezed. He wiped his nose, holding his napkin the improper way. The two men on trial pointed at him and yelled, “He is the thief!”
*The proper way to hold a napkin is to fold it over your hand like a triangle, with one corner pointing the direction your hand is facing. When you wipe your mouth, you rub your covered hand against it.
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Viracious’ father explained, and his son agreed, that the lesson was about proper manners; If you do not appear and act properly, then you will look as lowly as a common thief!
Viracious’ sister had a different interpretation; She instead saw the story as poking fun at the absurdity of the upper class’ obsession with decorum, and its tendency to judge others based on superficial characteristics. This bias ends up turning against one of its own when a high-ranking official such as a judge is implicated over a forgetful mistake.
Viracious and his father were adamant on theirs being the correct approach, and were unamused by the sister’s takeaway.
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           So what happens to the Council of Warlocks?
           I’ve already gone over how, in an obvious homage to something most of you should understand, Ruby inherits the power of Magick and uses it to thrash the warlocks definitively. It’s a humiliating defeat, and they’re left in the mud and rain.
           More specifically, Ruby shatters an entire mountain, or causes a chasm to cave in; Either way the warlocks are buried after they spit out their meagre curses and defenses at Ruby, but it’s too late. They know they’ve lost.
           Majikus gripes earlier on about how she doesn’t believe in worship or relying on reputations, but that she ultimately has no choice in using Magick and their power; By doing so, she inevitably reinforces that worship of Magick. Narellus reassures her that you can use a battery without worshipping it, but in the end it’s Majikus’ idea and it’s what the plan depends on, because the truth is that there is no plan, just some general ideas of how to keep the regime running until they revive Magick.
           Magick was their lynchpin, the warlocks’ way of strongarming and convincing everyone into doing what needed to be done; The rest would be figured out from there. They put all their faith that they could settle any questioning or dispute by aiming a big bomb in whatever direction was necessary. Without Magick, they would have to make this work on normal ideas and systems and solutions, instead of vague promises and threats.
           So when Ruby defeats the warlocks, she reclaims the Magestones to disintegrates them, preventing Magick from being misused and ending that plan forever. Likewise, seeing Magick clearly side with this human outsider over the warlocks delegitimizes them in the eyes of the Monster Realm as a whole; So on top of realizing they have no plan, the Council of Warlocks have also been disgraced in the eyes of the Monster Realm.
           Basically? They give up and jump ship.
           They all individually recover, dig themselves out of the rubble, and limp away to safety, their first focus being survival before thinking about finding the others. I imagine the first out are Hydrownus and Narellus; Hyd salvages Nare and brings her to safety in a cave, finding shelter from the rain.
           Nare feels a bit of relief as she attempts to rest, but Hydrownus… He reflects on how doomed the situation is. He looks at his hands, trembling, and thinks of how this is all gonna collapse and fall apart. He joined Majikus because she made him feel like he could actually do something for once, he could build and not just be nothing more than a destroyer.
           He thinks of what he did; Murdering a mother protecting her child, and how his own mother would’ve thought of that. At the time he made good with it, but now, in this tenuous moment?
           Hydrownus panics, and gives up. Without another word he just leaves the cave and Narellus turns to see he’s gone. Not so much as a goodbye or a parting gift, he’s just outta there and skiing as quickly in whatever direction is away from here. She’s quiet, and can only call out his name once, unsure.
           Viracious wakes up, to find himself in some bedroom. He’s bandaged and tending to his wounds is his sister Thanasia. He already knows what happened, so he’s just quiet. Thanasia admits to him, that… she helped do it. Just as Spelaris betrayed Majikus by powering the barrier spell that cut off the warlocks from one another, she helped plant the necessary nodes for that spell.
           That was the reason she was there; To sabotage the warlocks, and by extension her own brother. It grieves her… and realistically, she should’ve just gone along to preserve the mission. But Than couldn’t help herself. During that visit she called out Viracious to his face what he was doing, tried to appeal to him, only to be rebuked. She risked Majikus’ suspicion, because in the end she just wanted her brother by her side, and didn’t want to just throw him out so readily.
           That’s why she saved him, she tearfully admits; She really shouldn’t have. There’s no way he’ll forgive her now, so it’s pointless. But that’s what happened.
           Viracious is quiet. By all means he should be upset, but at this point he’s just resigned. It’s all over anyway. He wonders what his father would think and just lets Thanasia do her work.
           Megarus is recovered from a river and is nursed back to health. He lays low, knowing there’s a lot of enemies out for the warlocks, who see their chance with the regime’s collapse. He finds himself reunited with some old friends of his; Other mercenaries indebted to Mammon, who were freed when the warlocks slayed the dragon. They express gratitude, and so for old time’s sake, they offer him a new job. They’re working for this boss, and a warlock like Megarus could fetch a hefty price as a mercenary, and be valued as someone who could get the job done.
           Megarus considers… And relents. He finds himself signing a contract again, as he had with Mammon. Maybe this employer will be better, and they certainly can’t be worse, right?
           A door knocks and Kisonus’ mother opens it, surprised yet happy to see her daughter, sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck, arms full of cardboard boxes; Her stuff, retrieved. Kisonus comes in and explains that this warlock gig didn’t exactly work out… Her mother reassures her that this has happened before and each time she’s gotten out of it! Kisonus feels a little better. And as always, her mother adds, she’s welcome to crash here until she finds a new job.
           Kisonus sighs, digging up her old mile-long resume scroll. She really thought she’d never need to touch this thing again, huh? But now… Well, time to start updating it. And there’s a lot to add with THIS entry… She begins typing.
           For so many people, the warlock regime was something that changed the course of the Monster Realm’s history forever. But for Kisonus? It was just another job of hers that didn’t quite work out, another addition to her lengthy resume.
           Editaurus wakes up unenthusiastically in one of her studios. It’s been a few days and she can already hear protestors outside, tangling with her chimeras. She made her way back to safety a long time ago, but of course here she finds herself, cancelled once again; In this case, for being a warlock. Probably a worse sin than the child labor sweatshop debacle.
           She considers, but in the end? She can only do as she always has; Blindly move forward and ignore the haters as she steels herself and begins work on a new project.
           Narellus’ mansion weakly limps itself to a big clifftop to overlook the area below. It still hasn’t fully recovered from Khemh and the Monster Realmers’ assault, and the chaos of the warlock regime collapsing didn’t help either. But in the end it’s reunited with its master Narellus, who opens its doors. Inside is a whole lott of empty, abandoned dust.
           …She sighs, and then sits down at a table as the door closes behind her, as she gets to work sewing together a torn curtain. Back to her usual tasks.
           Majikus? I’m still workshopping her ending. I’m playing with the original idea I had for the warlocks’ ending, where they end where they began; At the first village they saved, a scenario in which they actually were the heroes. Even after everything, this village still holds them dear, and believes in what they did for them; And so they offer to host them. Besides, the village reasons; They’ll need protection in the ensuing chaos. Since this chaos is the result of the regime they established, that is now collapsing under their watch, surely the responsibility of this place’s safety falls to them, right?
           In this original ending, the humbled warlocks would’ve been able to reflect on how it started right, and wonder where it went wrong from there. But maybe they can stay here, and just… leave it as this. Don’t allow it to develop and go wrong. Just keep it the same. If this was one good action of theirs, maybe they can just follow its example and they might not go wrong from there.
           I’m thinking about this for Majikus alone; Or maybe she remains a guardian for the community she started off in.
           Either way, we have a brief montage revisiting the warlocks’ fates as Ruby or someone else monologues the ending; Hydrownus butchering sea monsters in some underwater location, having resumed his travels and quest to develop his magic, taking down whatever gets in his way without much regard, once again. Narellus opening the curtains to let in some moonlight, tending to this mansion by herself, once again. Kisonus baking something with her mom and having some fun as she notices a bit of cream on her face, her mother laughing.
           Megarus protecting a traveling caravan from bandits. Viracious playing a boardgame with Thanasia and being surprised when she wins, only for them to both laugh happily over it. Editaurus notices some protestors engaging in combat, not very successfully, with her guardian chimeras outside as she rolls her eyes and focuses back on her current project. And Majikus, once more fighting as she defends this place; Is she still delusional or has she learned something from all of this?
           The ending is meant to be cyclical, stagnant; The Warlocks thought they could break their fates, but the tragedy is they find themselves back where they started, it kind of really was all for nothing. They thought they could change the world, but they couldn’t even change their own lives! And so there’s a bittersweetness to the curse as life moves on anyway and they’re forced to live with the shame and humiliation of their mistakes and keep going; Perhaps the cruelest mistake of all.
           Viracious is a… curious exception because like. He’s the only warlock to demonstrate some actual growth, just on the implication that he actually let it go and embraced change by hanging out with his sister. It’s not cyclical because to do this, he had to have given up on his conquests and just become a normal guy.
           My reasoning for this was because we already have two warlocks who have a complex past with their sister; I wanted to keep in Spelaris and Thanasia because they were OCs I created to develop the warlocks further, and I didn’t want to throw them out. I wanted to make them work. But if I already have the same situation twice, I gotta justify it by having both be different enough to warrant it, to avoid redundancy.
           So I opted for the idea that one Warlock-Sibling dynamic would end in tragedy, and the other wouldn’t. Likewise, I was endeared to the thought that came to me while figuring out the endings of Thanasia saving Viracious, confessing, and making an appeal to her brother that actually works because he’s too defeated and humbled, and she’s proven him right so in a retroactive sense what can he blame her for? And he DID miss her, truth be told.
           Conversely, Majikus and Spelaris… Yeah, Maj crosses a line and murders her own sister, doubling down. I chose Majikus just because I like making her deranged and realistically, while Viracious was the one being a warlord even before Majikus began her quest, it’s also true that as leader of the warlocks, Majikus takes responsibility for everything they do under her watch, and even retroactive responsibility for what they did beforehand by deciding that was fine and could keep happening.
           So in that sense, she is morally the worst warlock. And for that other reason it made sense to have Majikus’ sibling dynamic end on a sour note, while Viracious’ has hope. Not to mention the perspective of Kita and her story, realizing her aunt is fucking insane and having to live with that. Poor Kita.
           I guess it’s a bit funny though because I feel Viracious is morally one of the worst warlocks because he was already pillaging and slaughtering villages even before the council formed. Compared to more down-low ones like Kisonus or Megarus, it does seem a bit unfair doesn’t it? But I also suppose that what makes Viracious different is that… he has a family member who actually called him out and didn’t enable him.
           Bless the heart of Kisonus’ mother but uh. Yeah she’s really letting her do all that. Same for Editaurus’ father. Narellus and Hydrownus enabled each other in the end, what with Hyd’s suggestion of killing Nare’s colleagues, and Nare offering to help Hyd with murdering a mother and child that reminded him of his own past. Still working on what the story is with Megarus and his family member. Majikus did at least have Spelaris… But again, he had to differ from Viracious’ story beats and it feels more fitting for Kita’s story and tragedy for her aunt to fail her so badly.
           So I guess there’s a point that the warlocks enabled one another and were enabled; That in the end they needed someone to call them out, but also to take the final step of listening to them.
           This does make me consider that Megarus’ family member, perhaps a cousin, is someone he is actually resentful towards, just to diversify things and add to the whole mess. So if that cousin also spoke up, well that’s just another reason Megarus should do it. I suggest this because the thought of Meg, such a cheery guy, having this family member he actually fucking hates started off as this irony-based gag, but it could be more than that as I think about it.
           Regardless of Viracious’ anomaly of an ending, it still applies to the entire Council of Warlocks; In the end, they turned out to be the biggest losers of all.
I’ve realized I generally do not care to clarify character sexualities unless relevant and the default will usually be idk bi or pansexual for me.
But at the same time I am having a bit of fun considering Viracious as aroace. Mostly because part of his character’s tension is his desire to fulfill the societal expectations he is supposed to live up to but not being able to fully commit, such as how he knows deep down his dad would’ve supported that reactionary terrorist group so he tries to go for a path of least resistance by reconsidering the aims of the group.
So with all that in mind I feel Vir would not consciously realize it, he’d just rationalize it to himself that he’s too busy being a warlord to settle down. If he ever got a wife I’m sure he’d treat her very well and they’d be likeminded in order for that to even happen. But then it’d be a professional, platonic marriage where they mutually co-exist and if they ever pushed themselves to divorce it’d be on. Largely good terms. With any lingering awkwardness coming not from resentment but a sense of mutual shame over having failed to live up to social expectations because as you could guess in such a conservative society, divorce is a big no-no. Than could help Viracious put it into words but alas he’s already pushed her away.
Anyhow it’s funny because the way I introduce Viracious, he is a necromancer who puppets the dead and desecrates them. And then his whole backstory is that he has made himself a puppet of the dead due to his obsession with honoring them.
