Aurelian Vaidyan

Aurelian Vaidyan

Yakuub
Kuldhara was a peaceful village on the outskirts of Naya Vapna. It is a small community of hard working citizen. Citizens that had a habit of breaking their backs for the Empire and minding their business. Trees grew tall there and children played games on the cobblestones born from bored minds and whimsical spirits. Birds sang their songs and they contrasted against the fine brass drone of Brahmus Vaidyan's analytical declarations. His estate of stone, iron, and marble stood as a monolith over their meager existence.

"...and you see, we learned from these studies how we might, uh... benefit by the existence of their people," he said as he set his tea cup down on the table and wiped his thin lips with his handkerchief. "It was ultimately an endeavor that my superiors at the time discarded and kept locked away. As they say, what one Raj desires may not very well be what the next does. In any case, we were remarkably close to creating something close to what the Deva used to eliminate their dragon precursors. Imagine the horned ones waking to find that their own flesh has been tricked into eating itself."

He laughed away the thought of what could have been. What advancements might have been made if only the Empire was but a fraction of what it used to be. The audacity of peoples grew larger and all of the things that his forefathers fought for were but a memory. What clambored about the court now buy sycophants and penny pinchers? They fed on the Raj Imperatus' corpse and threatened to swallow glory itself whole. It sickened him to no end, but only weak minds cowed when there was something to be made of all the pieces.

"And tell me, Primus, certainly you've learned of the most recent edict? It is something I have much desired to discuss with you more than most."​
 
Broad hand, laden with scars, went wide about the copper colored neck of the carafe. Squeezed about its narrow width, and lifted it from the tray, much to the serving girl's wide eyed horror. The pour glugged fast from the wide mouth of the vessel. Came to stop with twist of the wrist.

How he hated tea.

Kalinus Setra sat firm, adorned in his Capital colors, and set the ceramic vessel down. Swirled his drink. "I forget that you were there with us, Vaidyan," the Praetorian confessed. "At the walls of Karmatun all those years ago," his rust colored eyes locked onto the Brahmus' own countenance. A daggerous smile cut across his lips. Bared a flash of teeth. "For the memory of the blood spilled that day, I will count your word as just that," he looked down to the wine. "A memory," drank, swished the wine betwixt his teeth, then spit it unto the floor where it splashed like so much red.

The serving girl drew sharp breath, and set down the tray quick. Hurried to clean the mess.

"You speak of the prisoner's conscription," he took a second pull from his cup. Passed it down. What else would this mad man think of, if not the freshest stock, ready for the knives.
 
“A memory indeed…”

The Praetorian remembered grand things like the wall and the blood that was spilled. An honorable thing to be sure for Brahmus Vaidyan was no stranger to Legionary doctrine. It was at the very core of the society that they served. Banners flapped in legionnaires' memories and they notch their minds like their swords that they butchered the world with. So that the Raj Imperatus may sit and serve as the representative of light in this world. But the Raj even in his withering gaze could see the decay. The Empire rotting from within and the vultures coming to pick at it’s carcass, those Western barbarians and the Eastern Machine Princes.

Wise men knew when to turn away from the chivalric flapping banners and marching soldiers. Setra remembered the walls of Karmatun, but Vaidyan remembered it’s bowels. So far away from the light of the gods where all that existed was his will and the wailing of ghosts…

All of them died during the procedure but one.

Kharmatun had been a bloodbath. Setra held the city against the barbarians that led an assault from the Free Cities in enough time for Kshatriis Dhalsim and Vahj to press them from the rear in a a heavy cavalry assault led on by Clan Dhalsim’s Haramun. It did not take long for the mercenaries’ armies to crumble. Captors were taken as slaves and Kshatrii Vahj owed Brahmus Vaidyan more than a few favors.

“Among other things, yes. I shall cut to the chase Praetor,”
he said calmly even as he watched the servant girl rush to clean the mess that this brute of a man made on his fine marble.
“The Raj has become quite interested in a project of mine that could very well, eh, change our fortunes in the coming generations… For the better, of course.”

All of them died during the procedure but one.

Light did not reach them. The clinking of metal instruments made music with flesh as the red haired captive thrashed about. The air was dense as they cut to make their child’s path easier through the subject’s chest. If it were not for the straps and chains that held him down, he might have killed them. The threshold for pain was remarkable. The subject’s flesh failed him as a black hand covered in blood reached through his chest, tearing through flesh and bone.

Those that chanted in a circle about them stepped back in horror. And the creeping, wide mawed idle that hunched over them all, its wings so tall that they were apart of the tall, cave-like ceiling. And it’s eyes glowed the color of grisly memories, two stones that whispered secrets for the Brahman to divine.

A cry most infernal came from the subject’s chest, a sound so shrill, an aid’s heart burst in her chest…
 
"May The Most Radiant, be praised," Kalinus said dry as the vintage that sloshed with the lift of his cup, again he drank, and so he let pass the gulp down his throat.

He had heard of the horrors that had been hidden there, beneath the very streets of Karmatun. Of those souls that had gone missing from ledgers. Counts. Slaves. Prisoners. The sick. The old. Women and children. Only a number here. A score there.

Rif raff and rabble that no one would miss whislt the siege went on. While his men died, and Dhali and Vehaj let them bleed. Let them starve and turn desperate. While this mad man went on with his... experiments.

But Karmatun was Clan Setra's city. Once the dust had settled.

How many years it had taken him to root out the evils that had been left to fester there in the darkness of his city. To make clean the blemishes, Vaidyan, and other such shortsighted dogs, had riddled his prize with. How many men he had lost, just to be rid of the filth they had left there in the wake of their perversion.

Karmatun, seat of Clan Setra, Loyal to the Empire.

Ignorant to its secrets.

"Yet, you play coy with me Vaidyan," the Praetor said gruffly. Smiled sweetly, and poured himself more wine. "You speak of the phage and a project that has drawn the brilliance of the Raj himself, to shine upon you," he ceased his pour. Swirled his cup, and cast his eye about the Brahman's estate. "Yet you leave me, waiting in the shade," he stilled. "Do you fear I am not one to bask in His Light?" his eyes returned to the old monster. Testing.
 
"I have not known fear in quite some time, Praetor," the old madman laughs, perhaps a bit nervously. It was not because he feared the great Kalinus Setra, though there was much about him to fear... No, his nervousness came from excitement.

There are men who see the world in black and white, but there were other colors. The color of blood made near black when the scalpel cut through heartflesh. The color of terror itself when pain effected vision and made a concept as real as the table that sits between them. For once, he looks upon the mighty Kalinus Setra without blinking and seeing the hunger in his eyes. The Praetor might look back and see the void if he was wise enough. A reflection of the depths a man might go to in the pursuit of knowledge or power that could not be achieved by playing the games of mortal men.

A servant walks by with silver goblets. Wine of a fine vintage. Vaidyan takes one of them with the steady fingers of a surgeon and brings the silver to a quivering bottom lip. He drinks deep before sitting the cup down upon the table. He leans forward, though he breaks his gaze from Setra as he finds his words.

"I have called you here for the purpose of revitalizing our Empire's might. You are a prideful man. I did not need to have you seated here before me to know that. Even He knows it. Your exploits have gone far from being noticed in the Capital, I assure you," he says before pausing for a beat.
"Before year's end, I will have, eh... Completed work on a prototype genome. The blueprint of the perfect soldier that will require field testing. The Machine Princes to the East have far surpassed us with their advancements and everyday the other nations of the world gain some sort of advantage over our own capabilities. I mean to remedy this. I've-"

He becomes annoyed when a serving girl approaches with supper. Frustration leads him to backhand her. He rises from his seat and whispers something to her in Devahnyon. She holds back her tears and slinks away into the shadow of his manor as he is seated. He adjusts his spectacles...

"You are on the frontier where this design is to be tested. And despite our differences, you are the perfect man to see to it's wielding..."
 
There was little in the world worse than a fool who had lost the sense to fear.

He had seen it in soldiers, just as he had seen it in the spoiled, and rotten. He had seen it in the slaves, made to fight in the pits. How it turned them from nothing, into avatars of something far older and greater. How it brought ruin to even the mightiest and venerated of houses. Reason stolen from them by the very same winds which stirred the sands afield.

And he saw it in this thing that only wore the skin of a man. Smiled with teeth it so surely borrowed. Played at whatever game it thought grander than the Empire itself.

It was not the first time he had seen such abomination. He knew it would not be the last.

I have called you here for the purpose of revitalizing our Empire's might...

Wormings and falsehoods. Yet. Kalinus nod, and took another drink.

Prideful. Yes. Kalinus Setra was most certainly that.

Before year's end...

And so it came to pass. The truth of it. What this thing really wanted. Another playground. Another blight to spread, in pursuit of his game.

The serving girl comes. Is slapped. Cursed at in words too quick for him to hear in full. His own Old Devahnyon too rusted to keep up. Kalinus but takes another drink. Nothing more than a fly, buzzed too close to the old house cat.

You are on the frontier...

"You do me great honor, Brahmus," a title worth less than coppers. But he made it sound like silver fallen from his lips. "The frontier is, and always shall be, where the Empire's true mettle shines. The Yuddhic path, one where a soul truly burns for our Resplendant Father," he brought chalice to chest, and bowed his head in reverance to the Raj Imperator, and the Sun he manifested upon the mortal world. Eyes opened, and fixed unto the worm, Brahmus. "Karmatun will not act without His official seal or decree," he looked back to the cup. Swirled the wine. "Argun, however," something like a smile. "Jumps at the chance to garner what splendor his Jackals can claw out" a drink. Cup removed. Eyes set unto the madman. "And what is one banner's succes within the Empire, is all of our success, is it not, Brahmus?"
The Yuddhic Path: Teachings of war, and its connection to the spiritual. Far outdates the teachings of Ko, but has been folded in to those scriptures.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
"Karmatun will not act without His official seal or decree,"
He'd been raised in the shadow of the Imperial Court and had seen the Raj Imperatus when he was still but the heir, a whelp that was to have the light of the world handed to him to do what he would with it. And when he rose, how resplendent was he? A fool of a man that could not see all the vultures about him, digging their claws into him and pulling him this way and that. Before long his resplendency had been replaced with absent-minded stare. A commanding presence reduced to brittle mind and body. And while he withered, Aurelian learned the truth of things. He learned what Emperor and Empire truly was. A steel-proof apparatus for the wise Brahman to whisper his wishes to. A great Djinn that made gold appear for the wise men's ambition. Bodies appear for his curiosities. Commands and orders in ink for one to pass to whom they might... Aurelian takes a patient sip of his tea. A rotten smile spreads across his wrinkled features, one that does not quite reach his sharp, beady eyes. All things in good time. And with a pull of a string, the Raj Imperatus will move.

His will be done.

"...Jumps at the chance to garner what splendor his Jackals can claw out."

"Mm... Well said, Praetor," Aurelian concedes, "I once maintained quite the relationship with the old Praetor of Argun, but I understand his heir has now taken up leadership of of the... illustrious Jackals. Perhaps a trade if you are willing. I'd very much like to meet the new head of Clan Argun. In exchange, I shall introduce you to fellows that might well serve your own interests within the Capital."
 
What darkness stirred beneath the surface of Kalinus Setra did not come to light.

"An agreeable arrangement, Brahmus," he spoke as a mountain would to the wind. Hand clutched in a stone's stillness about the silver goblet. "Ortan Argun has grown well into his responsibilities as head of Clan Argun. Every bit the eager hound, ever seeking to sink his teeth into prey across the frontier lands. The young Primus must learn how to hold such burdens of ambition to account,"

A drink of the wine. Emptied. A raise of the fingers to another servant in waiting. The goblet was filled. The vintage dry, but so sweet.

"Something that I am sure someone who is as wise in the ways of the Magisterium, as they are leal to our Radiant Father, may impart upon them," Face like an old effigy carved into the cliff side. Let the pup see what it meant to deal with the wormtongued.

Where would his ambitions, and this man's madness, take them?

All roads lead to ruin.

"Ortan was amongst the first to volunteer his stock of mortal material to the new conscription efforts." A swirl of the silver goblet, as if his hands clawed about the world. "The bulk of his stock coming from Prison Fortress Hestio "
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The interest of the Brahmus was visibly piqued at the mention of the Prison Fortress. For long had he desired to test his designs within it's walls for laws were a foreign thing when it came to prisoners of the Empire. Historians might know that such a thing hadn't always been the case. A long time ago, the early kings within the realm of what was now considered the Empire were far less iron fisted in their designs for the people they ruled. Perhaps that was what led the First Emperor to an early conquest. He was devoid of what made mortal men mortal. He thought as gods. There was no such thing as mercy or compassion. All of the things the meek and helpless counted as holy and righteous.

Vaidyan's eyebrows raised and his forehead wrinkled as he thought over what was being implied by Praetor Setra. It occurred to him that perhaps the man had set the young Jackal in his path in order to get rid of an enemy that posed a more immediate threat to him than his kin within the capitol. Some things were worth the path that Aurelian Vaidyan had imagined himself worthy of walking. The path set before him by right of the gifts bestowed upon him. There was one god in all the cosmos that was capable of creating one such as he. One that sat upon his throne of the Great Star. His master Ko was the master of all in the universe. And so when he brought his tea cup to his lips and sipped, it was in reverence of divine calling. So was the smile when Praetor Setra agreed to the terms set before him.

"Then I shall go with members of my order to introduce myself to young Ortan,"
Brahmus Aurelian raised his tea cup a bit as plans swirled within the black abyss of his mind.
"And he shall find value eternal in what it is I plan to teach him. Of governance and punishment... Of the possibilities of the glories this great Empire has to offer. I bid you stay here for a night or two Praetor. I have rather interesting guests that are to visit in that time. Visitors that have been wanting to meet you for some time."
 
A swirl of the silver vessel. The last drag of wine.

"I have no time for such delays, Brahmus," he set forth. Set the goblet down, and stood himself up. "But I look forward to the lessons you administer to the young Scion of Argun," his robes needed no adjustment. "If your... aquaintences wish to meet me, then they may find me within Clan Setra's capital estate,"

A bow. The bare minimum required to sign respect owed by station. To signal to all who observed. They were in equal service to His Radiance. The Raj Imperitus. "May his light shine the way forward, Brahmus Vaidyan," he rose, and made for the exit. Undisturbed by any expectation
 
There was a measure of awe when Aurelian watched the Praetor leave his presence. For he had sepnt so much time within the capital that he was sure he'd seen the last of those who might consider themselves "Old Imperials" pass away from the land. Either swallowed by the horror of war or by the miasma of politics. They became no different than the men they claimed to hate. Those that gathered about the throne and bled it dry to feed their bellies and those of their descendants with the remains of those that were too small to make a difference within Ko's domain. A domain that was all.

The Brahmus wiped the corner of his mouth with a handkerchief as the wheels turned in his mind. There was much to be done after this visit and little time to waste. He rose slowly from his seat, the shell that hid a sharp mind weakened by the years. "Zera. Come," he motioned for one of his serving girls to help him get within confines of his estate as a smile played at his lips...

This meant that things must needs move faster and progress must be made...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom