# Methikus sar Telmuril, 'The Flesh Sculptor'. The Baernaloth Cycle - 8 of 13



## Shemeska (Dec 22, 2005)

“From time to time I pause before a mirror to draw back my lips and gaze at the truth… Show me your smile and I will show you your fate.” – Matt Cardin, “Teeth”


***​

_Many a vampire lord has uttered in their brief existences that “The Blood is the Life”, and in that they are correct. But they are shadows of something greater, shadows of a concept, an idea taken flesh. In the frenzied ravages of a Tanar’ri you see a glimmer of it, a fractured aspect. In the black and measured sadism of a Baatezu you see another fraction of the whole. But only in the balance and perfection of both, the embrace of both, do you reach the pinnacle of that which I embody.

Gloating? Perhaps I am, perhaps I do, perhaps more so than the rest of my Brother-Sisters. But then again I have always been more direct, more passionate.

There is a cultivated practice to giving and receiving pain. Pain is that which all flesh was made to feel, and in that pain to shrivel or to grow stronger yet, to deflect its birthright onto another. Pain is the essence, the soul of creation, and flesh its medium, its vessel, and its chosen tapestry for itself in all its glorious shades and colors._

...

Continued in full on Planewalker

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This one has been in the works for a long time now. It's also a hell of a lot longer than the prior stories in the Baernaloth cycle (33 pages in Word). It's also -very- bloody, and incredibly violent and/or disturbing in places, so be warned. I'll also admit to having mixed feelings on this particular story, and I'm extremely curious to get some reaction, positive or negative, on it either to confirm or refute some of my own. The Proselytizer story, I felt was one of my favorites, but it got a largely 50/50 split of liked and very much didn't like, so it'll be interesting to see how it ends up for this one.


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## Fimmtiu (Dec 22, 2005)

Nice and creepy. Well done. It's a pity that most of these stories are so not Eric's-grandma-safe, but it can't be helped. A couple minor corrections: abishai are not tanar'ri, and "Niflheim" is misspelled.

Maybe you might consolidate all your Demented stories into this single thread here, with links to them all in lieu of posting the actual stories.


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## Shemeska (Dec 22, 2005)

Fimmtiu said:
			
		

> Nice and creepy. Well done. It's a pity that most of these stories are so not Eric's-grandma-safe, but it can't be helped. A couple minor corrections: abishai are not tanar'ri, and "Niflheim" is misspelled.
> 
> Maybe you might consolidate all your Demented stories into this single thread here, with links to them all in lieu of posting the actual stories.




Whoops, I thought I'd removed the abishai references before I posted it. Apparently not all of them. They needed to be replaced by a tanar'ri subtype.

And yeah... they aren't exactly Eric's gramma safe... at all. The next one in the cycle will be much more subtle and much less bloody (Chalk that up to simply wanting a different tone from this one, and because I'm actually happy IRL and finding it difficult to channel seething rage or depression when I have none )


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## joshhg (Dec 22, 2005)

First of all, simply amazing. Like always.

You can really see the pure, unadultrated evil in each of them, but each of them has a individual personality and diffrent flavor. You make it look so easy, though I know how hard it is to write evil without falling into the ruts of gore or chesseness.

I do have a few nitpicks with some grammerical errors, and me not knowing all that you were referencing with the dreams; though some of that was cleared up in the biography. Which books did you grab the locations from, Planes of Conflict?

A supurb story! Good job.
I wouldn't mind seeing them all posted some where either. Planewalker prehaps?


P.S. Is it just me, or are their names getting shorter with each one?


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## bluegodjanus (Dec 22, 2005)

I am pleased. You are forgiven for not updating your storyhour for ten days.


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## Shemeska (Dec 22, 2005)

joshhg said:
			
		

> First of all, simply amazing. Like always.
> 
> You can really see the pure, unadultrated evil in each of them, but each of them has a individual personality and diffrent flavor. You make it look so easy, though I know how hard it is to write evil without falling into the ruts of gore or chesseness.
> 
> ...




The locations in the Abyss: Woeful Escarond and the Viper Forest of Zrintor, those are both from Planes of Chaos. I was just picking up on the idea that most abyssal petitioners are brought to Woeful Escarond / The Mountains of Woe to be judged by the Nalfeshnee, and that it's perhaps out of some racial memory of the Tanar'ri since perhaps the majority of the first of them entered the Abyss and became proper Tanar'ri there. The Viper Forest of Zrintor, the 'top' layer of Grazzt's realm of Azzagrat, was always rumored to have been pulled from the Waste, but I just reversed a bit of that, with Zrintor being given away into the Abyss by the Waste, rather than the Abyss being the force behind the land grab.

The shroud wrapped female is Pale Night, the mother of Grazzt (and Vucaric, and Lupercio)and current consort of Baphomet. She's always been said to be one of the most obscenely ancient Abyssal Lords, and I just took that one step further and said that she was there before the Tanar'ri as a member of a native Abyssal race (one of them at least). Perhaps Pale Night's attempts to birth more Abyssal Lords is a long term attempt to reintroduce the bloodline of her own original kind, attempting to subvert by similar ways, the Tanar'ri which  the Baernaloths infected the Abyss with. Speculation of course, but I like it, and I've got some stuff with Pale Night bubbling around in the back of my head. She's shown up lurking in the wings on three different occasions over the course of two campaigns, and I'm far from done with her. But she's just a tangent to this current story.

Locations beyond those two layers of the Abyss, aka the ones on the prime material, were my own creation with little exception (the reference to the Order of the Planes Militant was taken straight from the Mimir article on them, be it canon or not I didn't bother to check).

The nitpicks: if there's anything really awkward in there, I'd seriously enjoy getting a mention of them over email so I can correct it. The story was 34 pages in Word, so it's likely I just missed stuff when I was reading over it. Plus, if there's anything wonky in the grammar involving the Sculptor's speach, it was intentional in most cases given that Baern's rambling, disjointed way of thinking that switches from lucid to not entirely so at the drop of a hat.


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## Shemeska (Dec 22, 2005)

Here's a list of the various stories of the Baernaloth cycle I've written so far, as well as a few other stories that relate to them. It's not a comprehensive list of my fiction, but it works for now I suppose. I'll be posting that list here as a seperate thread once I submit each of the stories officially to PW rather than having them as messageboard posts in scattered places. By that point I'll have the artwork for them as well perhaps.


The Dire Shepherd, Tellura Ibn Shartalan

Severeth Na’Halastrian, The Wanderer

Tarsikus Ibn Meth’kultesh, The Book Binder

'The Blind Clockmaker', Harishek Apt Thul'Kesh

Jezifreth Na'Harsindrian, 'The Inquisitor'

Daru Ib Shamiq, 'The Lie Weaver'

The Proselytizer, Koristal Il Palinthiin

Methikus sar Telmuril, ‘The Flesh Sculptor’

In progress:

Lazarius Ibn Shartalan, 'The Architect'
Sarkithel Fek Parthis, 'The Chronicler'
'The Shackler'
'The Dream Reaver'
'The Ineffable'

Baern not associated w/ 'The Demented':

Chorazin Ibn Shatalan, 'The Thrice Damned'
Yrsinius the Elder
Yrsinius the Younger



Associated story:

'Evil Seeps Through', a story of the Baernaloths in the 3e FR cosmology

Other stories:

'The Heart of Perdition', a story of the 'love' between Larsdana Ap Neut and Helekanalaith, the first and second Keepers of the Tower Arcane.

'The Dreamer and the Fiend', backstory to 'Heart of Perdition' which explores Larsdana Ap Neut's actions prior to her death, her children, and the unasked for advice of the Dream Reaver


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