Acheron

Battered Book of Fables Dragonmade The terrible thing is that all your favorite characters die in the end. (Special thanks XenonZerrow.) 70

Acheron "I know what lurks in the world beneath. You are not nearly frightened enough."

Memento Mori Generation 3 Nascentes morimur The quiet fanatic.

Memento mori (Latin: "remember that you have to die") is the medieval Latin Christian theory and practice of reflection on mortality, especially as a means of considering the vanity of earthly life and the transient nature of all earthly goods and pursuits. Memento mori has been an important part of ascetic disciplines as a means of perfecting the character by cultivating detachment and other virtues, and by turning the attention towards the immortality of the soul and the afterlife. This curse would be traced down his lineage. All Vigil's children were destined to die, like any dragon. But they would be given a second chance. It was up to the children if they would accept the bargain.

---

Wake upthe Shadeyou have toyou mustWake up

The Shadewake upThe Shade has infested the Underworldyour dutyOUR dutyYou must wake up.We need you.

WAKE UP

You must listen, younger child of our god. Our time with you is short. The Shade has infested the Underworld. This cannot be allowed. Take our form, and with it our strength, to do what must be done. Take this guide - take him, but do not trust him - that you may seek out The Shade's corruption. Find it. Contain it. Imprison it. As above, so must it be below. Else will The Shade gain the strength it needs from Death to devour Life. Now GO... and REMEMBER.

---

What else could he do? Acheron accepted the Bargain - and with it, the Burden.

Other Gaolers often reject the notion that they could share common cause with Acheron. To many of them, it seems he has aligned himself with powers nearly as foul as those all righteous members of their breed oppose. To other Gatekeepers of the Memento Mori lineage, he likewise seems traitor. What Gatekeeper could consort with the Cthonic Conclave, that openly welcomes the restless dead among their living members?

Acheron knows better. There are things in the Underworld that have no place among the living or the dead, and that above all else must not be allowed to travel between them. The Underworld is stranger than most of his people - either people - yet know. Time will prove the rightness of his cause. Until then, he must build the barriers and lock the gates that keep them all safe. And though others may scorn him, they obstruct him at their peril.

Of the Gaolers, only his mate Asphodel believes - but she lacks the tools his lineage possesses for waging war on these battlegrounds. Of the Memento Mori, his cousin Ksenia comes closest to understanding - but her wandering feet lack the dedication to purpose that drives Acheron. The rest of the Krewe...they mean well, but they have their own concerns, and it can be difficult to make them feel the urgency of his task. In moments of crisis, they aid him without hesitation. But in the hours and days between, obligation weighs heavy, and his road can be lonely indeed.

The familiar to which he is bound is a strange guide. With its head sealed away, it cannot speak to its living partner. Acheron has taken to calling it "Faust," though what name it once possessed, no living soul knows. Knowledge sometimes springs unbidden to Acheron's mind: jagged crystals of thought that irritate and gall, cool nuggets of certainty that refuse to be malleable as thoughts ought to be. An alien intelligence, thinking with Acheron's mind. Faust, it seems, knows far more than it should about The Shade.

Acheron can't help but worry about the crimes for which Faust lost its head. How will Faust use the knowledge they experience together, once Acheron's own Second Chance is spent? Will it - can it - be bound to serve another generation, as it has served him? Will Acheron's final death sever the bond between them? Or, if the time comes when Faust must be locked away in the prisons Acheron builds, will Acheron himself be required to join it?



Adopt by Vendrus!