Horiocula

Horiocula

Mysterious, immortal beings who governed Fate, and as time revealed, the orderly halves of the spiritual Servitor race, magical servants created by the Ancients, and left in control of their vast, eternity-changing artifacts. After the fall of the Kel, the Ancients were all but extinguished, and left the servitors to oversee eternity. By the time of the Sorceror War, they had reached an impasse in the style of governing the world. Unable to cooperate, they agreed to separate between essences of chaos and change, and order and immortality. They used the power of the Chronosphere to separate the worlds and set up barriers to prevent either side from abusing them, deciding that no governing force was better than the people who would be governed, thus the Chronomancers were formed, but had no capacity to use the relics they defended. the chaotic Genies ruled the physical world of Mordica Red and the Horiocula oversaw the ethereal dimension of Mordica Blue.

The Horiocula came to see their error, as forces within the world plotted to undo their work, and unable to cooperate with their existential opposites, and in line with their original plan to avoid divine intereference, they exercised as little power as possible, allowing the people of the world one last chance at redemption, in place of the heavy-fisted rule of their creators. Through their appointed agent, Berek of Karn, they kept a quiet ahnd in affairs beyond the scope and understanding of most, as the ancient Sorceror struck back at existence iwth one last desparate manuever-his love-lorn apprentice, overlooked and forgotten in the aftermath, insinuated her way to power among the Chronomancers and plotted to not only rule, but to use the forbidden artifacts to undo creation, and recast it in her image. with this she sought revenge for her lover's death, and the desire of all to control existence, the very reason the Anceitns had left its control to the indifferent magical servitors.

As they were native to Mordica Blue, they were present only under duress, such as through special summons in items they had sent to the other world by agents, agents like the Elves. They were naturally aloof beings, seeing intruding into life with prophesy and intervention as counterproductive, and the dangers of abusing hteir power being too great to grant to the mortal world. Their counterparts, the Genies, believed teh opposite, and intruded as much into the lives of mortals as they could, but resulting in many of them being captured and mastered by wily human mages, and made to serve the ones they viewed as playthings. When the Horiocula were present, they were at best obscure, often misleading and omitting information that would ultimately prove correct, but was bound to be useless or misinterpreted. this was tehir guard against the misuse of their divine oracular sight, Fate, gained when they separated from the Genies, but bound by the binding oaths before the separation to be unable to act on it. They could see events as theyw ould transpire, being immortal time had no relevance to their sight or experience, but were frustrated that with all their knowledge they could not use it, and those they would gift with it, would invariably fail to appreciate their own temptations or lack of foresight-many a time they would ask things barbaric, such as murdering a young girl, knowing that if she were to mature and her life lived out, she would serve as the grandmother of a terrible warlord who would murder tens of thousands. such was the foresight that it proved a curse for those of Good who had it, and a means to acquire power for the Evil who obtained it.

Their divine origins, supernatural oracular powers and aloof manner led many races to revere them as Gods, and they formed the pantheons of both worlds, serving each society and culture elliptically by posing as deities, a way to attain their goals without direct action, and serving as an alternative to the fear-worshipping demon cults. The Kel worshipped them as the divine incarnation of the Ancients, and most benevolent dieties were in fact Horiocula. To priests, tehy channeled the sources of magic the ancients had, allowing priests invoking a god's name to cast spells regardless of the fact there was no god; the rituals behind it were just cultural colorings of the casting of a spell.the Genies, masters of the elemental magics and arcane sorcery, did not interfere wit this, but influenced those on Mordica Blue with the same, giving an even tradeoff.

While the Gen were individual and personified, the Horiocula were almost a solidarity, appearing very similar and with little to distinguish them. they were humorless and sober, acting and speaking very little, with a kind of rote benevolence that underlay their original purpose as magical servants, without ego, will or conviction. They upheld the grand scheme and order because it was their purpose, while the Gen were beings of passion, whim and excess. The Horiocula had a grace about them, and a resigned sense that destiny was not about choice or chance but a great tide moving in a single direction, its outcome predetermined. still the path had to be walked.

Near the end of her purge of the Chronomancers, the Horiocula told Berek he could summon the ones to defeat Melissandra. He did this, but when he saw teh summoned were mere novices, he despaired. Melissandra herself saw it as a cruel humor, that his last effort was not only hopeless but unworthy of metnion. To prove her point she appeared before them and cast them into her plot, as insult to his failure. That they would go on to triumph against the odds and defeat her was part of the style of the Horiocula philosophy, to do as little intervening as necessary.