Ozymandias, Arcane Overseer

[Varos Talantos]

Ozymandias, Arcane Overseer

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away".

~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

As the year regarded as 11,000 BCE by Humans crept into being, the realms of Earth were reaching an intermediate age. Having been created a few thousand years after the Seamstress took her charge over the Fortress at the Edge of the Void, the lands they roamed had become more advanced technologically than ever before or since those days. Their world was thick with various species (some no longer present on Earth) and the Supernaturals had been discovered and enslaved by their resourceful Human counterparts. Identification implants were slipped into the leg of the newborn Supernatural and they were worked hard, long hours in the most inhumane of conditions and deadliest of regions. They were used as test subjects, held under strict control, denied recognition as sentient beings, stripped of worth, belittled, devalued, treated as sub-living.

In those times, a pre-Spartacus symbol of dignity arose within the Siberian wastes as a house-slave. His owner operated an intercontinental chain of gladiator schools that pitched Supernaturals against each other for survival, hopeless of gaining freedom. As this man's house-servant, the Demon Pirio learned of finer things and saw the way his kind (and all Supernaturals) were abused. He saw them practice and drill and talk of fighting and war and gleaned knowledge of combat and strategy from their lessons. He learned of geography, how to manage things, how to be ruthless and predict your opponent from his time serving his ever-calculating plutocratic master.

He remained silent, he obeyed, he learned, and he reviled the ways of the Humans in the quiet shadows of the death-ridden palace. He was a self-taught strategist and defined his ethics as nearly the polar opposite of those held by his master's gluttonous race. For thirty-five years, Pirio waited and learned. For thirty-five years, Pirio saw the less-fortunate pitted against each-other with mere cloth to force a quick, brutal fight lest they freeze to death in that bitter Siberian frost. For thirty-five years, he formulated a plan.

However, after thirty-six years, Pirio could wait no longer. The palace was octagonal in shape and made of thick granite walls that could protect those inside even from the advanced satellite-directed attacks of the age. The deepest four levels of the structure were buried underground and it was in these areas that the doomed slept, ate, existed in wait for their demise. The two layers above them served as massive training grounds while their dreaded overseers took rest in the floor closest to the surface. The details of the initial insurrection are lost to time, but it is known that Pirio had managed to free northeastern Asia in a sweep that extended from the Bering Strait to the Chinese Himalayas and the eastern edge of modern Afghanistan within six months.

The Humans were naturally distressed over the uprising, but ignored the problem to wait for winter's end. The slaves took advantage of their apathy with a winter campaign that extended their boundaries to Siam in the south and carried them to modern Jordan on their western front in a matter of a week under the leadership of the brilliant Pirio. Shocked and alarmed, the Humans quickly ordered the Commander of the Armies, Sirum Halica, to deal with what they referred to as an outbreak. He was defeated and killed in an extended battle that claimed four million lives from each side over the span of a fortnight. Sirum had underestimated the defensive force at Ho Chi Minh and the Australasian forces were eradicated. This allowed Pirio to seize the southwestern Pacific and it's valuable factories and shipyards to secure his flank as he resupplied after taking western Russia.

The Humans now debated at Sirum Halica's replacement and decided to elect the General Torins to lead his European forces with those of General Puiti's African army. Knowing it would be an impossible push into Siberia, yet still wanting the glory, Torins ordered Puiti's forces to defend the front in eastern Europe while he moved to reposition his troops in the Middle East for an offensive. In the least-remembered strategical failure in history, Torins lost Europe to the slave armies. Still holding Africa and realizing the foolishness of his move, he decided to defend Africa with the two armies instead of pressing an attack. He reported these events to the Councils to be replaced by General Ozymandias of the Great Plains of North America, placed before a tribunal, and executed.

It was then, in their time of fear, that the Human civilizations elected to give General Ozymandias emergency powers with the charge to "do everything necessary". As the new Commander of the Armies, Ozymandias decided that to support the troops in Africa would only encourage a bad situation and that it was instead better to attack where he would not be expected. Utilizing his emergency powers, Commander Ozymandias mustered 300 million troops and invaded Kamchatka through modern Alaska, striking into the heart of the Supernaturals' forces. After five more years of warring and a total of 700 million dead, Ozymandias struck down the enemy and was hailed as a hero and savior. He used his newfound status and clout to become Prime Magistrate of the civilization at 88 years of age.

As lord over Earth, he refreshed civilization and built massive monuments, including one of himself that boasted, "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair." He held power for another 375 years, spending most of it studying arcane magic and tightening his grip on the world he ruled. When he was 463 years old, he took all he knew from his studies and successfully ascended into the Khyper-Diorem. Part of the process of the ascension, however, caused his inner attributes to become manifest and he has become deformed and hideous, a frightening beast that is an incarnation of the wickedness of the ascended Ozymandias. He now wanders the Plains of the Khyper-Diorem, seeking whom he may devour.