In the Caliphate of Azithan, known by its neighbors as the Necromancer Kingdom ...
Missionaries are sent out. Two by two, to the neighbors of the Caliphate and to far distant lands. The Faithful march to these lands. This is a chance to go out and help heal the world. Usually, the two new missionaries will join an established group.
But, sometimes, two will be sent to a land without missionaries. To a different place, helping the whole human race. And that mission will be something incredible!
They don't march door to door. Not when it is just the two of them. Instead, they start looking for social ills that can be solved with lifeless. Oh, and raising lifeless.
If you're going to send two to represent the Caliphate, then one of them should be able to create Lifeless. It'd be silly to do otherwise. the other should be .. maybe a Paladin? Yeah. Paladin and wizard. The strong arm and brain of the Caliphate.
They are really, really nice. If a child goes missing, they find out who did it and have a chat. A conversation. At least until the kidnappers won't talk, and then they murder them and raise their dead bodies as lifeless servants. They are fighting for a cause.
They do cut a nice image; braided hair, stylish clothes. Robes, shirts, and pants kept clean and pressed. Their haircuts are precise. They are the army of the Caliphate.
... How frightening are missionaries who fight to end social ills, have no sense they may be wrong, and hold religious services that power their undead servants?
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They will engender all sorts of emotions in the people they visit. Fear for sure, as children they will have heard stories of the Caliphate and their Zombies, but the lifeless are nothing like those childish takes off slavery and gore.
ReplyDeleteAwe, as just two missionaries can walk where they like without fear.
Jealousy as people look on their fine clothes and full purses.
Other people will not so freely give up their dead relatives though. On stopping in a settlement the missionaries will offer the services of their lifeless in return for corpses. A medium troop of a half dozen lifeless could dig a foundation in a day, or transport a building's worth of timber. For that all they ask in return is two bowls of soup and the body of your father. Without making arrangements like these the missionaries will struggle and will rarely be welcome, frame as a trade though, the people see their passing through as a blessing.
Brian Ashford Nice work.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely there's fear. And from, say, ruffians, there's a sense of outrage: who are these outsiders to order us?
Some will give up their dead. A corpse is a burden, and a liability. A lifeless is precious.
Some will be put to the sword by the Missionaries. They will be raised as lifeless, to give them the redemption they clearly need.