The Songs of Skion

[Dienekes22]

TNow none are left who remember the elder days, when Skion wept and suffered in the fog and dust. For she was dying, and so were her people. We know only that magik saved her. The sorcerers of the past did make amends with the sciences, and together they made the Matter Machine. And so Skion was rescued from collapse, and her people united in the utopia that followed.

Woe to the people and their ignorance.

And Skion was at peace. For generations they prospered. And they put away their weapons and forsook their conflicts. They did not look into the stars, for their riches were beyond counting and their pleasures were beyond compare. The planet Skion and her twin moons flourished.

Woe to Skion, she who was not prepared for what was coming.

And from the stars did come their doom. From the depths of space came the swarm, a chattering mass of teeth and hate. It landed upon Skion in great egg sacks, which burst forth with malevolence and anger. The masses of swarming things chewed through the people and the streets were filled with corpses. And the people were surprised and dismayed, for they had stopped looking to the stars. In their utopia they had become lazy and lost.

Now death was upon them.

The Serenity of Skion could do little to stem the tide of death and violence. He decreed that the people should flee Skion for the moons and space stations. And the people cried out, for of course there were not enough ships, and of course the moons could not hold them. As the people died the Serenity saw reason, though not without great prodding from his advisors, and he instead ordered Skion to fight.

And so the armories were opened, and the factories were started, and the people were armed. A line was drawn across the planet and miles upon miles of defenses were dug and erected. Trenches stretched from horizon to horizon to stop the advancing swarm.

Woe to Skion for picking up her swords.

The battle was ferocious. The guns sang for weeks and every inch was defended with blood and steel. There could be no sleep, only struggle. And the dead became like mountains, piles of gore and corpses behind counting. But the guns of Skion did outlast the enemy, and the swarm was rooted out and burned and the planet reclaimed. It was in these days that the first of Skion’s great Heroes were acclaimed: Dienekes and Eldon.

Woe to Dienekes, for all he would See. Woe to Eldon, for all he would become.

Dienekes and Eldon fought as brothers during the Swarming, and many foes fell to their blades. Eldon was called the Saw of the Army, for he dove into battle with a chain blade he attached to a pike, and many horrid did die beneath his fury. These great Heroes took to the stars with their brothers and sisters to search the depths of the Brikverse for the origins of the Swarm. They would destroy it once and for all.

Woe to Skion, for she knew not what she was doing.

Of course, Skion’s war was not only about destroying the swarm. Colonies were founded and new worlds discovered. Skion stretched her influence far into the depths of space as fast as her ships could carry them.

During these travels and petty conflicts Eldon stumbled upon a mighty artifakt: Maniac Beer. In his ignorance he sought to replicate it with the Matter Machine. This brought his doom upon him, for it summoned the Lambda Shard of the magnanimous Warhead, lover of moms and bloodshed. And Eldon was captured and changed by the Shard into Eldon, First of His Kind, a most unholy amalgamation of Warhead’s Spirit and Eldon’s body, and he was set upon his countrymen.

And Eldon became a thorn in the side of Skion and his war was to be made against Dienekes.

While Eldon saw the face of Warhead, Dienekes reported he had a vision of great trouble and sorrow. And he would not share his visions, but resolved to fight with vigor in the wars of his people. Behold, Dienekes, who shall meet his brother in battle.

Eldon did battle with Dienekes when an artifakt of immense power was discovered. The Blue Transparent Core it was, a lost relic of great import, and many nations would battle over it. The troops that discovered it were destroyed most utterly, save one named Elyana, who was not inmolated by its power but reborn as a sorceress.

Now Eldon brought his Immortals to retrieve the Core, knowing Dienekes would be there protecting it.

Woe to Dienekes when he must fight his brother.

Dienekes was struck down by Eldon, and by this sacrifice the Core was rescued from the hands of the enemy. But Dienekes did not perish that day, for he was rescued by unknown means. He will not share the tale, much like his visions, a man of many secrets. But all could see that he had endured an ordeal of great cost, and his mood was sour.

Now Dienekes returned to the interior to meet with the Serenity, who was at that time overseeing the bombardment of a Swarm world. Dienekes did not wish to share this time with the Serenity, for he declared the leader false.

“I wish you were as I remember,” he is known to have said, there in the majesty of the Serenity’s quarters.

Woe to Dienekes, who suffers in secret.

And Dienekes, acting in the best interests of Skion and her people, did throw down the Serenity and slay him. And he reported his own treason and placed himself before the people for judgement. The people cried out in horror and anguish, betrayed by their own hero and brought to the edge of civil war. Dienekes did not bow but instead stood tall before his peers and countrymen.

“See the opulence of our Serenity! I have delivered us from it! See how he has used our suffering to gain honors and prizes! See how he lounged in the sky while we fought in the mud!”

And the people would not convict Dienekes, but still the citizenry seethed with malice, and so did war nearly erupt among them.

Woe to Skion for her anger. Woe to the people who would spill the blood of friends.

But Dienekes demanded an election, and would not hear calls to nominate himself. Elections were held across the Protectorate. A new council was ratified, and a new Serenity. And so did he take the mantle of leadership, as mandated by the people, with only the slimmest of margins. He stood before them and declared a new dawn for Skion, and the people did put down their arms.

And the many wars of Skion were redoubled, and the woe of Skion was without end.

[Dienekes22]

This is my attempt at an in-Brikverse explanation of Skion’s lore. It’s also an exercise to determine how the Skion talk to one another, and in the end I’ve chosen “extremely dramatic and wordy.”

I’ll probably update this as times goes on, but probably not for the better.