Fiction The Fall of Turochlitan

The Fall of Turochlitan


There are many lesser temple cities in Lustria. While some minor cities are active, most are in ruins as the Lizardmen have gradually fallen back to Itza, Hexoatl, Tlaxtan, and Xlanhuapec. By most accounts the least of all the lesser cities is probably Turochlitan. It was arguably not a true temple city at all. But to the Slann mage priest, Merestar, Turochlitan was everything.

Merestar was known among Slann as being the most reckless and impulsive of his race (though by Human standards he would still be seen as intolerably slow acting and contemplative). Merestar responded to criticism of other Slann by saying that inaction in the face of troubles is worse than making a mistake in action and that mistakes from actions are far more enlightening in discerning the plans of the Old Ones than endless pondering.

Slann are rarely known to be talkative. It’s not uncommon for the servants of the Slann to spend more time trying to interpret vague, terse instructions than they spent actually carrying the instructions out. This was never a problem with Merestar. His proclivity for action made him a veritable micromanager to the Lizardmen who served under him.

During the time of Sigmar, the Slann’s collective mystical senses were aware of the battles between mankind and the forces of Chaos in vague terms. The Slann naturally contemplated the implications of the Old Ones plans for mankind in the wake of this small but noticeable surge against Chaos. Merestar did not contemplate long. He figured if the Humans could hold the Chaos at bay now despite their ignorance, with the guidance of the First (Lizardmen) they would be able to fight Chaos far more efficiently and would fullfill the Old Ones plans completely.

Against the opposition of other Slann, Merestar ordered the construction of Turochlitan. He then populated it with young Humans. It was not known how Merestar got the original Humans to Turochlitan. For the first several generations, the Humans were raised by learned Skinks under the guidance of Merestar. They were taught the language of the Skinks (or rather a crude dialect easier for Humans to pronounce) and they were taught of the Old Ones. By the standards of the First, the Humans knowledge of the Old Ones was shallow and watered down, but the Humans did well enough given the limitations of the warm blooded races. They took to worshipping Chotec and Huanchi the easiest, the sun god was easiest to understand and the jaguar god was easier to relate to than the more reptile-centric Old Ones.

As the population of Turochlitan expanded, much to Merestar’s approval, the Humans did most of the construction themselves to accommodate their growing numbers. Each generation seemed to take to the teachings of their Skink mentors better than the previous one. Merestar hoped that if these Humans advanced far enough, they could spread the wisdom of the Old Ones to all of Humanity. Merestar instructed his followers to gradually give the Humans of Turochlitan more autonomy to manage their own affairs.

The Humans who took the lore of the Old Ones best became the first Human priests of the Old Ones. With Human priests directing them rather than Skinks, the general piety of the Humans of Turochlitan increased. They also made their own iconography to the Old Ones, over time it became less reptilian. Less formal names were used for the Old Ones that were easier for the Humans to pronounce. Over time, the original names were forgotten by all but the priests. Merestar did not object to these changes, as long as they kept the core essentials of the Old Ones, this was acceptable. Some adaptation would be necessary if the Humans were to fully embrace the Old Ones.

Over time, Merestar had the Skinks give the Humans too much autonomy. Three new gods entered the pantheon of Turochlitan under the direction of a new priestess Kayishen. These gods were known as Maylar, Phidas, and Greymaris. If Merestar’s servants noticed at all, they must have assumed the three new gods were merely different names and visages for existing Old Ones. They were different names and visages for Khorne, Slaanesh, and Tzeentch respectively (it is unclear why Nurgle wasn’t involved). Kayishen made it her goal to control all of Turochlitan and supplant the old pantheon with her patrons. Her attempts to spread her following could not be hidden forever, especially as the religious observances of Kayishen and her followers became more extreme. Once her excesses finally came to the attention of the Skinks of Turochlitan, Kayishen had her elite Maylar guard murder all of the city’s Skink teachers. Her core followers began rounding up the remaining Humans and giving them the choice to renounce the Old Ones and serve Maylar, Phidas, and Greymaris or die painfully.

Many of the Humans loyal to the Old Ones fled in fear. They attempted to warn Merestar and the other Lizardmen. For security reasons, Merestar instructed his followers to not share the location of any Lizardmen city to any Humans, no matter how trusted. The Humans of Turochlitan were trained how to live off the jungle, but they couldn’t survive the wilderness indefinitely. Especially since the refugees were forced to flee with minimal tools and supplies. Two months later a Skink patrol found one of the refugees by sheer chance. The infections he was suffering from his travails in the jungle made him beyond saving. Shortly before he expired, he told the Skinks what had happened. The Skinks informed Marestar.

Merestar mobilized his army at once. Kayishen was not naïve enough to not expect retaliation and had prepared herself and her followers for the eventuality. Her soldiers were brimming with the gifts of the gods of Chaos (under the local names) and Greymaris had personally taught Kayishen stronger powers of sorcery than any Skink priest she had ever witnessed. Her voice was empowered with the seductive power of Slaanesh/Phidas so even the unwilling converts hastened to obey her orders.

None of the Humans in living memory had ever seen Merestar. The Humans were not even aware of Saurus and Kroxigor since Merestar did not believe that they would help the Humans assimilate the First's values. Expecting Skinks, Kayishen’s followers were totally outmatched by the stronger more militant Lizardmen who retaliated. Only having the seen the powers of the lowest ranking Skink priests, Kayishen was in no way prepared to handle mystical might of an enraged Slann and was incinerated in seconds. Not one Human was spared. Merestar personally struck down nearly as many Humans as his entire army combined. He toppled every building with his magic then ordered his followers to burn every board to ash and pound every brick to dust so the jungle would completely overtake every trace of the ruins.

Marestar collapsed from exhaustion after giving the order to destroy Turochlitan. He was carried back to his chamber. It was worried that he was terminally injured by a subtle miscast, but eventually he began eating again. For centuries he has never left his chamber, he barely moved, and he never gave out a single instruction. To this day Marestar continues to ponder what his next action should be.

 

Re: The Fall of Turoclitan

Thanks for the good evocative description, that was the imagery I was hoping for.

 

Epilogue (to both the Fall of Turochlitan and Count Renliss' Journey to Lustria)


The Lizardmen were winning the battle versus the Dark Elves. There erstwhile allies, Renliss’s minions were taking proportionally more losses than the reptiles. No doubt as the toad planned! Renliss fumed. As the battle progressed Renliss felt the Slann’s control over him diminishing slowly. As the battle was drawing to a close and the Slann were beginning their final mystical push, Renliss was completely free. In his anger he thought of charging the nearest Slann. Though the zombified Stegadon bearing his masters remains was all but invincible with the magical power flowing through it, Renliss knew his depleted forces were no match for his former “allies.” He simply withdrew, raising as many fallen Lizardmen to bolster his ranks as he could.

The Slann were preoccupied wielding the massive power of the storm. Only the Skink Priest Teyish noticed what Renliss was doing and attempted to stop him. He boldly directed his Horned One towards the withdrawing undead horde. Even channeling a tiny portion of the storm’s power, the lowly Skink had as much power as a Slann under normal conditions. He clapped his hands and pushed a massive torrent of wind and lightning towards the vampire. Renliss was surging with extra power of his own and managed to draw up his power and disperse most of it, sending part of the wind hurtling back at the Skink sending him sprawling from mount and flying into a tree. The Horned One, Loroq, had served as a mount to many ranking Skinks before and had no special loyalty to Teyish. It bolted.

Renliss ran forward to the prone Skink and was delighted to find the Skink unconscious. He wanted to plunder the Skink’s power but didn’t trust his ability to process the Skinks magical blood while the storm was going on. He threw the limp Skink over his shoulder and quietly left the field without anyone further contesting him.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Renliss needed to strengthen his forces. If he could help it he would find a way to recruit new followers without making corpses of the Lizardmen’s many enemies as he had been tricked into doing before. The secrets of Teyish gave him an option to do just that.

Teyish had once served as an attendant to the near comatose Merestar. Being detail oriented, Teyish had read up on the records about Turochlitan. Now Renliss had a portion of his information too. Renliss only had a vague idea where Turochlitan once stood. Since no markers remained, he could not find it with naked sight. To find the site, Renliss had to use his master’s makeshift Black Coach as a divining rod to search for lingering dark magic. After spending over two years searching, Renliss located the site of Merestar’s failed experiment.

The event happened before the rise of Sotek, so by this point all the bones of the fallen were as dust. The stirring of dark power was very faint. Renliss couldn’t tell if the power was weak or if it was merely contained by sanctifying rituals from the Lizardmen. Either way Renliss didn't want to take any chances. He decided to wait until Gehimnisnacht before attempting to raise the fallen.

Under the baleful light of the two full moons, Renliss reached out his power into the earth and pulled the Maylar Guard up from where they fell. Though their bones were turned to dust, enough lingering dark power remained in the dust for Renliss’s magic to combine with and reconstitute them. One by one the deceased Maylar Guard rose from the earth and knelt before their new master. Once this was complete Renliss attuned his mystical senses to the border world between the living and dead and searched until he found a lingering pained presence. He found Kayishen.

The pale spirit of the fallen priestess walked on the ground of Lustria once more. Kayishen had lost all the powers given to her by her dark gods save one: the Voice of Phidas. Though no less powerful than before, her voice was no longer seductive and compelling. Now it was twisted by centuries of anger and torment and little more than a blunt weapon. She unleashed the power of her voice on the walking corpse who dared to summon her.

“Your scream is quite potent. You almost hurt me.” Renliss responded with exaggerated disinterest.
“How dare you patronize me you foul walking corpse!”

Though she spoke in her own language (the adapted language of the Skinks) and Renliss spoke in his, both could understand each other given Renliss’ mystical ties to the dead.

“Whereas you are not even a corpse, you are a memory. If had not pulled you back from the where you were you would not even be that. I removed you from your torment and brought you back into this world because I believe you may be of use to me”
“You dare to declare dominion over ME! I am the high priestess of the True Old Ones, I serve no creature of this world. The powers of the earth and sky bow before me. I am…”

Renliss let her continue on her rant for several more minutes until she stopped talking. It took quite a while since without lungs she could not become winded. Getting no response, she tried to leave and found she was bound in a small circle of powder from crushed bone and the roots of several poisonous jungle plants approximately five feet in diameter.

“I bound you to that location temporarily. I could have bound your will had I chosen—“
“Nothing can bind me!”

That’s just what I thought once Renliss mused.

“—but I believe you would be more useful as a willing vassal. Our goals are very similar.”
“You know nothing of my goals, outlander!”
“My goal is to kill as many Slann as possible, possibly starting with Merestar who is in a weaker state than ever”
“….How may I be of service, my lord?”
“Tell me all the lore you know of the Lizardmen”

(Renliss and Kayishen show up again in Divided We Fall and then again in Legacies)