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Post by Harliven Darkshine on Aug 20, 2008 18:18:56 GMT -5
LE FILET DE MEURTRE
The Filet de Meurtre is an exceptionally large underground maze whose key entrance is located in the stretch of forest behind the Darkshine Palace; the entrance opens up to the center of the Filet, and currently lies amidst the ruins of an old Royal Fortress which was thoroughly torn down when the Darkshine royalty came to power. It has several true exits hidden in various parts of Silvanus, some opening up into old mines or forts, but is laden down with dead-ends and ancient traps - or perhaps some new ones, considering which Lord has found himself charged with supervising it.
It was used during the Rebellion of Thorown when Queen Jazzil and her husband found charted 'safe-havens' amongst the dangers and hid operators of the Rebellion beneath it. Since then, it has not been 'actively' in use for any purpose, and every fifteen years Black Ops do a thorough check-over for any sprung traps or corpses. Animals and vegetation have long since infested certain areas, and maps can only be obtained with special permission from the Royal Family, elite nobles, and the Mercaellian Library.
Present day, Arachne's Net is carefully sealed by its own magic, allowing passage through its exits and entrances only through the fragments of portal and light magic that acknowledge change only through the current blood heir of the Blood Queen herself. With permission granted of the elves in control of it, however, it is used strategically to appear in vast numbers in incorrigible areas of Dustanova and to aid ally forces into 'disappearing' back into the maze, causing great difficulty in keeping its traps and beasts at bay when traveling through it and causing 'safe-havens' to be created within it. Prisoners are still kept here in bulk as it is inaccessible and inescapable to those without direct clearance of its keepers, and more than once it has proven a thorn in the side of the Ardentia Empire.
HISTORY OF THE MAZE:
The Filet de Meurtre was designed some odd thousand years ago by Queen Arachne de la Morte of Silvanus; under her rule, civil war was strategically sparked beneath her eye and open combat was beginning to brew due to the brutal laws this cruelly refined monarch forged, but no major movements were made beneath her ever-watchful gaze.
The Maze, which grazed the grounds deep beneath the Darkshine forests and into the mining region to the north, was an ancient mage-sustained construction in which Arachne massacred any potential rebels or disloyal advisors; it was littered with lethal traps and well-kept by the Black-Op task force which was assigned to care for it. An entrance to the Maze was constructed in Arachne’s original palace (the ruins of which lie uncharted within the Royal Forest), and she kept several scrying crystals to enjoy the entertainment of watching her victims starve to death – or else be torn apart by the starving predators she unleashed within it, or else forced to a demise by any of her elaborately concealed traps. It was sport for her; she rewarded all elves entering the Maze with a vial of poison, in case they forfeited their lives to its dark depths – as it was, she often dismissed much care in what type of poison she gave them, and often victims who decided upon taking them met with a gruesomely painful death. There were several exits to the Maze aside from Arachne’s entrance (which was situated in the center of the Maze), but they were difficult to find and often guarded by Black Ops who were, consequently, assigned to kill anyone who attempted to exit. Only once was someone able to successfully escape the maze, and he was later one of the Seven Shadow Lords under the next King which came to power.
After a while, names such as the “Queen’s Snare”, “Arachne’s Web”, and the “Quiet Finale” were bestowed upon the Maze; however, its real name was birthed by the most famous of her murders within it, and crowned upon the Maze by the monarch following her.
Nine years after the birth of her son, Eldrien de l’Alok, the Queen fell into a murderously spectacular argument with her husband, Ishmaël Beau’alis Delacroix. The King Consort, who had been arranged to marry the elder Queen, had been the last hope of Silvanus in restoring her to a righteous path; Arachne was said to have loved the learned elf fiercely, and upon their wedding day she had begun to allow herself some small sense of change, allowing him to start guiding the Kingdom out of the depths of its ruin. At his side, she drew herself to the start of a spectacular leader – but then everything went wrong.
King Delacroix was accused of unfaithful behavior against the Queen’s honor by her closest advisor – Jinajaine Ragnorok. At first, Arachne denied the possibility viciously, but over the course of several years (under which the ranks of court rearranged themselves, tilting in favor of her consort) the paranoid Queen found herself beginning to believe the whispers of her old friend and former right hand, and finally confronted the King; this resulted in a spectacular argument which was followed by an event that forced rash Arachne into reverting into her old, bloodthirsty rage: the kidnapping of her son, Eldrien de l’Alok.
Convinced by Ragnorok that her husband had staged it all, the furious Queen condemned him to the maze and released a flock of adult Raptoures into the Filet de Meurtre; she did not scry to see her husband’s fate, and when she finally died ninety-seven years later it was amidst civil war. It is rumored that Jinajaine killed the indomitable Queen herself before committing suicide, when it became apparent that they wouldn’t leave the rioting alive and striving to save their so-called honor.
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