A Light Not Extinguished

Chapter 15: The Cruelty of those that Came before

"Six there were, at the beginning of the Genesis War. These were the six forged by Lord Vaul that crippled the Dragon, may its name be accursed forever. The Talismans are divine works, forged on the anvil of Vaul Himself."

"Alone among our kind, none came close to comprehending their secrets, save for Daith, Master of the Cerulean Forges. It was said that the blood of Vaul flowed in his veins, and with his craftsmanship did he manage to fashion replicas of the Talismans. Although lacking in [SEGMENT MISSING] that the original six possessed, they could be made in great numbers, and the Emperor of that time, Aylicaeth the Third, rewarded Daith most richly for this deed."
-Translated data from a mural belonging to a ruined Aeldari Craftworld. M24. 018. Believed to hold significant strategic information on enemy assets. Forwarded to General Lupercal for analysis.

M24, 201

Nagarythe, heart of the Aeldari Empire

Homeworld of the Aeldari. First Bastion. The Pearl of the Gods. Isha's Cradle. Throne of Asuryan. Cancer. Land of the Damned. Fruit of Sin. All these were used to describe Nagarythe, and more.

The original sun that Nagarythe orbited around was long since gone; it had been caged and shrunk inside a latticed cage of arcane machinery, alongside many other stars that orbited Nagarythe, instead of the other way around. Together, they bathed the planet in a soft purple glow, adding another layer of unreality to the shifting hellscape.

Nagarythe was not a place for the sane or the righteous. The planet had swelled to the size of a gas giant, great ethereal tentacles extending from it that wrapped around the star cages. Greater Daemons flew on ragged wings unimpeded in the space around the planet, fuelled by the raw power generated by decadence and ruin. The Eldar homeworld had become a nexus point of the energies that were being channeled to birth the Unborn God, with no small part due to the one that currently sat upon the Phoenix Throne.

Below Nagarythe was a vast abyss, ringed by a circle of intricately patterned bonelike material. This was the Webway Portal of Nagarythe; one of the Master Gates of the Webway where hundreds of tunnels converged. From here, one could travel to any point in the galaxy in a matter of hours at most... if they could get past the multitudes of petty warlords and slave masters that each jealously defended their own sections of the vast interdimensional network. The planet itself was submerged halfway into the portal, the exposed half slowly shifting like a dome of flesh.

Excess was everywhere in Nagarythe, down to the very bones of the earth. The walls of the pleasure palaces themselves creaked and mashed together in an orgy of sound, so say less of the streets where all manner of atrocities were done. The Warp and reality here were twined together, rational physics long gone. If you were strong enough in mind, then you could make your thoughts real in this place- perfect for the debased Children of Isha.

It would take too long to describe all of the palaces on Nagarythe in their torturous beauty, such exquisite torment and ecstasy that took place within those halls. But greatest of them all was the Tartagalion, and the lord of Nagarythe held court there.

The Tartagalion was not like the other palaces; it was a simple spire of silver, originating from the seething core of the planet at the northern pole and extending far, far beyond the atmosphere. Deceptively narrow, each of its levels was far larger than the exterior suggested, and one could get lost in a single level for a lifetime.

Every day the Tartagalion was fed millions of slaves in tribute. Gold and gems had no value here; only the lifeblood of sentient beings and the rarest of artifacts had bargaining value. Once the slaves entered the vast labyrinth of Tartagalion, their souls were surely forfeit: To be torn apart, devoured, resurrected and murdered again, their physical bodies ground up into profane hallucinogenics and dissected in a hundred million different ways for the amusement of the nobles.