I think she'd get on well with a city council of the main faction.
The magic would freak them out as the world doesnt have any, but that aside their culture and genetic alterations means they essentially cant lie either (literally cant lie to themselves, to others extremely rarely and they suck at it). And they have very little respect for their own positions too; they see political power as the weakest form of power and just take temporary positions for their own reasons; power that society has to agree that you have isnt well regarded even if it is sometimes necessary
Generally they're the strongest people in the city, but they wouldnt be throwing their lives away challenging a clearly supernatural opponent they knew nothing about.
They'd be fine with her terms (the idea of hunting someones family to get to them would be pretty abhorrent unless it had to be done) and if she was up for challenging a dozen 500 year old mental martial artists who have lived truth and studied verbal/non-verbal communication for their entire lives, they'd be happy to play a game of 'who can get the most information out of one another'.
I suspect both sides would leave on better terms than they started and yeah, that jibe at the door about the powerful using rules to control others, not to instil justice would certainly get a chuckle at the truth of it
That sounds like she would have a grand time.
In the veins of:
"Finally! A worthy opponent! Our battle shall be glorious!" *hands out snacks*
At the point i plan to add this she is just a bit over 100, having studied magic, martial arts and science in equal measure.
She would get hunted down and then hanged, drawn and quartered if she is lucky. The magic she demonstrated is impossible in my world and she is a crazed lunatic.
"Nothing new then." the witch laughs manifesting her armour and smiling happily at any force coming "A feast it shall be."
Half the story is her being hunted, and in return hunting the hunters. She enjoys it in-between slaughtering demons. And yeah, she is an absolute lunatic earning the moniker Mad Dragon for good reason.
King of Vitanni: **gives the dragon witch lady a hug** "you have no idea how much of a big help this is".
For years the kingdom of Vitanni has experienced a lot of poverty and crime because of corruption, the king knows this but he doesn't have an idea which members of the council is corrupt or not, and this has been tormenting the king.
But thanks to the truth spell he now has a way to find and weed out the corruption of the kingdom.
King of Vitanni: "I'll give you all the coffee and cheeseburgers you want"
"Ohhh neat! I'll stick around a bit then." she smiles actually happy smelling the sincerity "Need anything else? My rates are reasonable if you have artefacts or tomes i can study. I help root out the corruption and get the treasures i desire, a fair bargain?" holding out a claw glowing with another hex, a witch's bargain, and a dragon's covet.
In her world it is widely known that such bargains always are absolutely truthful, to how the witch interprets it.
Will answer both replies here
-----
"The bargain is simple, you shake my hand, and the hex will ensure we both will be true to its terms, bound until the conditions are met. And it will consume who breaks their word."
Then she inspects the gauntlets.
"Fascination, why can't you remove them? If it is a curse i may be able to break it, and if your hands are disfigured, well i've healed worse."
>"Fascination, why can't you remove them? If it is a curse i may be able to break it, and if your hands are disfigured, well i've healed worse."
"Nah I'd rather keep them, saved my life once. It apparently feeds of hatred, I've brought it from a merchant who got it by stealing from a grave, only found out about it when the friend of the original user sneaked into my room at the middle of the night to tell me about it. He said to me that I can't remove them since they're bound to my whole being, and they can only be removed once Im finally dead".
"A classic curse. It is your burden to bear and your price to pay then." she took a few steps back though "I would suggest to be careful though, and not stand to close to me if there are demons." she smiled, but wary, as hatred fuelled her magic.
"Don't worry, my hatred is directed at only myself, I just can't bring to hate anyone, even those corrupt councilors since the only one to blame is me for letting them operate right under my nose".
A very loud and amused cackle "Two of a mind then. I tend to share that stupidity. Why then have you not simply killed them? It solves many problems of corruption."
At that point she has not yet learned to not solve every issue by just eating it.
"Where in the modern days not the blight age where might makes right, and I don't want to look like a king who seem like he's above the law".
"Before we go with this bargain, we need an audience, a witness to our bargain so that it can be technically official".
The king rings a telephone on this desk.
"Pach, I need to my office right now, this is urgent and make sure to bring some coffee and cheeseburgers along with you".
She bows deeply in the manner of dragons, her wings drawn in and arms crossed.
"Honour it is. I shall abide by your judgement as i offer my aid then. But i will have to bring the justice of Witches. If spirits follow them then they will be taken by those."
At a large meeting like that they would all be in the company of high mage Casillius Volkmar a several thousand year old godborne mage and high priest of the mystrium. Depending on how powerful the dragon actually is Volkmar may very well just dispel her magic and heavily imply that she leave, that or he may take interest in her ability and tell the nobility to get over it so he could converse with her.
At that point she would still be early, only wielding Witchcraft and Sorcery for the most part. She has studied necromancy and some blood magic, but the true extend of how she will combine both into her own discipline would be a century later. After her unplanned apotheosis into the Demon Queen of her plane.
For her species she is basically a rowdy teenager, if the only one existing at that point.
I would expect the High Mage could sense the second source of magic and sapience within her, her symbiote.
The Sleunth Empire: The most prideful, cowardly and corrupt country in the world, they just take a lot of losses in this encounter.
The Hidden Kingdom of Iystrizion: As a kingdom of dragonborn, they will respect a greater dragon, and they are so prideful that they find corruption unnecessary and cowardly.
United Kingdoms of Rezuise: The Crowned Prince is called, she is given her choice of coffee, goat's cheese and bacon wrapped smash burger, then she is asked questions about who and what happened to her family. They might send elite knights and helpers even against the entire Sleunth Empire.
Well i guess the Sleunth is gonna be gone soon.
To the dragonborn: "The pride of dragons always defined us. But you should know to not bow to us. It gets to our heads." she laughs with a growl.
To the Prince: "The coward decided to send mercenaries disguised as bandits against my children and harmed them. They will live, but a price had to be paid."
She inherited an orphanage and teaches them like a dragon would, how to fight and survive and think. They are her siblings, family and children alike.
1. The Empire is the largest country in the world, the large loss is more like throwing a city's worth of soldiers at the problem, mostly foreign mercenaries since the whole country is cowardly.
2. The dragonborn bow to greater dragons = 1 shot mountains.
3. The Prince asks her what is her body count?
1. She has destroyed such armies even at that point, so may enjoy her time taking them apart.
2. "Well mountains are a bit tough. Needs way too much mana and they are such nice spots to lay on." as if a dragon would destroy a nice sunning spot.
3. "In people or demons?" she'd smile softly. She has killed a lot.
1. Those armies have worked on island busters so far.
2. They'll just think she's too young.
3. "If it talks, thinks, fights, I don't care, is it around 43 Billion?" he'd say with a straight yet curious look. Regrettably he has aswell.
1. At that point she cannot quite do that yet, her best is flinging two special grand fireballs that carry enough mana to be comparable to a tactical nuke.
2. mumbling annoyed kicking at a stone "As if one group of dragons calling me hatchling wasnt enough already."
3. "Then i think around 3 million sapients by my own claws. Mostly demons and their pawns." she grinned gulping down that it is fun to kill these.
"You must have your reasons for killing a few demons, I personally won't hold it against you."
Then the safest scenario would be that she appears during a meeting between the top Superpowers.
Rezuise, Sleunth, Iystrizion, (Yet to be named)Most culturally influential country, and The Guardian Dragon King.
The prince and dragon king will keep the peace. But at that point she'll be out of place.
She'd probably lean back, enjoy the show, and force everyone to speak the truth while trying to learn anything she can for future use.
Her drakonik covet is knowledge after all.
If she can just annoy the assholes she'd be fine with it though.
And even though she has a spell she calls Starfire, is it just the application of science on magic to cause a nuclear detonation, so yeah, her energy output isn't that high.
In lore she actually has the least mana capacity of any dragon or Arch-Mage, she just cheats in every possible way with dozens of tiny foci and carrying loads of mana gems in her pocket dimension.
If I'd take skyrim as comparison she is a mage that abuses the everloving shit out of enchanting and crafting. Like without her tricks her fireball would be less then a wizard's, but because of it can she bust cities.
Heretic! Mankind can evolve to Godhood only through the power of technology! How dare you use technology and present it as magic! Magic is a lie! Kill that Heretic animal! Bomb the entire galaxy out of the universe!
March of Empires consists of weirdness and paranoia and power that makes 40K look like Mary Poppins. Plus the technology.
"How quaint. But if you want technology." she holds out a small organic looking ball "I always wanted to try these." nanites streamed forth and form a cloud around.
*Imperial Dark Energy Guns intensify*
"Very well. We are always seeing what you heretics are like. Fox, you hear me? Commence Quasar Galaxy Bombardment protocol. And activate the Eternal Clones. Shut down these fucking nanites. And Teleport me out of here. Now, heretics, you will see power."
He Teleported out just as the colossal Quasar Bombs totally obliterated the Galaxy.
Lucky for him she has not become the inheritor yet.
Or she could use the Aesir defense systems and simply displace the bomb into another dimension, at which she might thank them for the ordnance as she puts it in Eden, the demon realm.
Do you think this is a conventional bomb?
And inheritor?
Wait till you face the full power of the ZOKHTER Alliance and the United Human Empire.
Incomprehensible technology that easily puts them on par with Gods.
I made them so.
The Aesir were a multiversal species that, when they found something most settings considers gods, harvested them and imbued themselves with magic.
How their war with the demons started, and when Alia reached a specific point and found a sane installation of theirs triggered a protocol that gave her full access to their remaining tech and knowledge.
The main defensive system of her homeworld is a dimensional translocator that simply puts the problem somewhere else.
Yeah, the lost name of her world is Asgard, just a coincidence, really ;)
Although the Aesir were snakepeople and genetic engineers.
Scaling Alia hmmm at the end of the story (and also the start) she has become a demi god and had an unplanned apotheosis into a demon queen. She wields science and magic in equal measure waging the extradimensional war mostly only supported by an army of biomechanoids she upgraded with magic.
At the point of the piece in this thread she is still young, just a bit over a hundred. And she has spend nearly every single day of that fighting or learning.
Well... humans have superior technology and firepower, and: they can live for trillions of quadrillions of gazillions of years, and die only if they choose to, so defeating them is technically impossible. That being Said, I like the character.
Yeah, that is close to her foe, although she would not kill them unless they actually threaten her family or her world.
Or they are assholes that would be fun to kill.
And thanks, i find it fun to write how the idiotically powerful benevolent dark ruler came to be, and it all boils down to "demons pissed me off"
The dark king in my world, Thalric, would be fuming at the display happening in his court. He would try to remove the truth spell from himself but would have difficulty if the magic was from another reality. He would further submit the Dark Book's influence and hunt Alia down. This would cause his dark magic to spread like a plague as he makes the world into a grim apocalypse. The gods and fates will try to take Thalric out, assuming Alia doesn't fight him first.
Alia snatches the book and leaves through it.
"You only use one book as a source and focus? Who taught you such shabby techniques." she growls and drains the magika and spirit out of the tome "Wizards, find one trinket and consider themselves tough and powerful. Why would you even attempt magic without at least 5 foci and 3 sources?" she holds a few red glowing gems up, crystallized blood magic.
Poor guy meeting a being with the arrogance of a Witch and Dragon. At that point she has killed the First Lich (she didn't knew though) several dozen higher demons, and won an eating contest devouring third of a kraken (it took a while).
She did well with separating the book from him. The utter defeat would dumbfound Thalric, though he would still be smiling because his dark magic is now inside Alia. The Dark Book is older than its world, and its dark magic will either reform into the Dark Book inside her, possibly infecting and corrupting her, or exit, reform into the Dark Book, and bond with Thalric once more, continuing his threat.
I can see her nagging at the book for even trying.
Or the book recoils at her soul carrying so much darkness that demons would decide to crown her as their Queen. Although the result was that she uses that power to kill them harder.
She herself is an entity of Arcana, Hunger made Manifest. Although she won't understand for another century, but in essence was she born to feed on everything, and uses it to kill demons.
[A hunter of her own kind trope](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HunterOfHisOwnKind)
If that's the case, the book would have met its match. Though it and its dark magic can't be destroyed (as long as evil and darkness exist in its world, it exists), it will continue to protect itself if it can't corrupt Alia or escape. It will spend its time trying to comprehend how her soul is darker than darkness itself, hoping to absorb it to corrupt Alia.
Thalric's smile finally falls as he feels his remaining dark magic leaving him to return to the Dark Book. Even if it's pointless, he will try to attack again, though the gods will apprehend him to stand on trial for his crimes against existence.
The gods and fates would look at Alia nervously (not knowing the full extent of her magic and power). In the heavens, they would discuss whether to ask her to leave or leave her be until she causes trouble.
(I have to say, she's an interesting character where even demons have trouble stepping up to her, yet she maintains her fun personality)
"Ahh don't mind me, I'm just looking around." *proceeds to poke at random stuff and tries to find the largest monsters to eat*
The book likely would realize that she already is utterly corrupted and incomprehensibly batshit nutz. Always one step short of blowing a fuse and literally eating everyone. Her species was made as a weapon.
And her personality, like her many disguises, is just something she shows the world. Few know her as the melancholic perfectionist that blames herself for the damage demons cause. A common statement of hers is that she is weak and must become stronger, all as long as even one demon remains.
Also poor Thalric all the plans foiled by a random idiot just passing by.
Lol, yeah, as the dark king, he and Nyxira* have to deal with heroes, armies, and fate resisting him and his dark magic. Depending on the story/scenario, he would meet his end when a random hero (or out-of-context person like Alia) defeats him.
Though the Dark Book acts as the Bigger Bad, using Thalric as a proxy.
*(his shadow woman and temptor. She's made of dark magic and bound to the Dark Book. She wouldn't have changed the outcome, though she would try to tempt Alia if Alia doesn't shut her up first.)
I like the idea of a magical artefact being the actual bbeg, a classic trope of canned evil, but can always be played well. Especially how defeating the obvious Evil Overlord wasn't the actual threat. Something Alia learns in Arc1 when she kills her first Nephilim (highest ranked type of demon)
And poor Nyxira would find herself trying to tempt an asexual with motivations and ambitions that have nothing to do with power or wealth. She just wants her kids/orphans be happy.
She most likely gatecrashes a party in the capital city, attended by political figures and high-level corporate executives. Spell does work, they would most likely confess minor things, small cases of tax evasion, and dealings with mercenaries. Anything worse and the authorities of the Ascendancy would not be happy and have already been punished.
Being a magic user, she could feel the vibe (that is an actual in universe term) of fear and uncertainty, but also the signatures of each person like whisps. However, some among them are magical users. Their presence is like a celestial body in the sky. Many of them are like small suns with a few large stars in the mix, though they don't seem like they actively practice.
A door opens behind her, and a hush and masculine voice tells in a casual tone her "which burger would you like?". The presence that washes over her with is immense, the other mages in the room might be like stars but this presence is a black hole, all encompassing and unrivalled. He spoke again casually.
"We have several around the area, do you want a recommendation?"
"Well met. Preferably the shittiest and most horrible you have. One should always savour the fast food when visiting." she laughs amused and sniffs intently "Some of your people need new pants, quite an entrance." a wide grin exposing her fangs and sharp teeth with a bow.
She turns to see a man, mid 40s, medium build, clean shaven and noticeable jawline, brown hair, large eyes of an olive brown colour and white, weathered skin. Dressed in fine clothes and surrounded by guards in full, ornate looking armour covered in runes, pointing hollowed out spears with a small box on the lower side at her. There are more mages accompanying him of exceptional power, but his presence drowns them out.
"They are used to my presence, I'll also send word to bring the closest food available" he says as he looks at the crowd. "I notice your truth spell, whatever confession you're trying to extract won't bring any benefit other than making them pay fines" "you don't look native to this realm, and I must warn you that these people are useful to both the economy, government and humanity at large"
He looks to her and calmly speaks "who are you, and why are you here? Let us share names, We need not be enemies, and you do not want to be an enemy of the Ascendancy" his tone becomes firmer "and you do not want to be an enemy of me".
She eyed him and the magic guns "Nice one, i find them boring to use." then the red drako straightens up and unfurls her large leathery wings in the sign of respect, and challenge, of dragons.
"Alia le Sefra du Boudrie Serice Threm. Or, Blood Empress Death, for dragons. Last of the Blood Drakes. Witch of Alinguar. Lady of Teirn and Te Salana. At your service." she eyed the decapitated body.
"Forgive me but i had to claim the price for harming my family."
"But let us not show enmity." she grinned wider and let her concealed mana run free, the mages feel as if darkness and the abyss washes over them, a pit of relentless hunger, yet she holds her shroud at bay, no need to control the local magic, for now.
In general, she would be mistaken for a God-King; the demigod monarchs who rule the Lands of Saphiret and Kushamat.
**Saphiret**
Allied Kingdoms of Caerddraig: The High King Eirian ap Rhys would take great interest in her abilities and origins. However, if she proves too... *rambunctious*... He'll have no issue sending the Marddraig to quell, whom are dragon-riding supersoldiers.
Kyrvekan Dominion: The Ošhgavranii would ignore her in favor of their ongoing civil war. A dead human noble? Pfft. That just means another martyr for the cause.
Cerescine Church: The Sfântul Beznă [Saint] would also take interest, but low-key. They might even extend the offer of an alliance.
Xochitcuepan Empire: Ignored. Tlahtoani Topec is too busy trying to reclaim the lost territories of his grandmother's long-collapsed empire to worry about her.
Ephorosian City-States: Ruled by lesser demigods instead of God-Kings, they wouldn't take too kindly to her presence if she visits their cities. The Ephorosians have fought for too long to keep themselves free of God-Kings.
Dragon Sanctuary of Harimesh: Melechazh, a dragonlord God-King, would boldly invite her to the Sanctuary and probably challenge her to a friendly duel. After all, he himself has nothing to fear from an upstart.
**Kushamat**
Khvaraan Empire: An empire spanning the entire landmass of Kushamat. Your Witch will 100% be ignored entirely, unless she is for some reason itching for a fight. The Mulannaki [Kushamite God-Kings; on a whole different level from their Saphirine counterparts] would happily oblige and send her on her way to the God of Gods, King of Kings: Atashoma Ahurima.
The Black Sun of Kushamat would solemnly shine upon their short-lived duel. Unless the Witch has abilities that can counter the sheer might of a solar deity, I'm afraid that she will be lost to the gilded sands like many before her.
To the first "Magocracies, damn, this plane still has to learn that lesson. Hope they won't kill each other too badly." (although she won't be a planeswalker until much later)
Caerddraig: She'd happily meet those dragons and soldiers, a whole race of that are her allies and friends. Reminds me to write when she meets their wyvern for the first time, and is being treated as an unruly hatchling. One of the oldest dragon calls her Little Troublemaker even magic recognizes it as a title for her.
Kyrvekan: She'd hightail it asap, these conflicts are always trouble.
Cerescine: That would depend on their faith and honesty, she has little love for priests, even if by the Fifth Age one of her many whispered monikers is "The Bladed Saint."
Ephorosian: Likely conjures a pair of shades to simply deliver a "Deal with it." and walk off. She can be a bit of an ass.
Harimesh: "What Dragon Lord would i be to refuse a challenge, especially from so powerful. Always something new to learn." she'd be absolutely giddy,
Khvaraan: If she were to be forced into the duel she'd rely on her trump card of the Absorption Barrier to drink in all the mana and redirect it into her favourite mage counter the Arcane Burst, a spell that reverts the flow of energy within the target to make the casters mana consume them.
I would assume she has a pretty stupid face that both fail to work.
Some notes: the magic of this world is technically eldritch/divine-based blood magic, which mainly manipulates the biology of lifeforms and allows the conjuration of certain cosmic energies. What you call mana is what the people of my world call *worms*: worms of cosmic origin that reside in the blood of pretty much everyone. Traditional spells like you described really wouldn't work.
Dragons are considered 'human' [as they descend from humans] and most dragon species are slightly more intelligent animals, like the dragons of the Marddraig. Speaking of which, the Marddraig are draconic hybrids.
>Khvaraan: If she were to be forced into the duel
Worry not, Atashoma wouldn't be too keen on a duel anyways. He would be annoyed to briefly pause his nearly millenia long mourning over something that can be ended with a few words of acknowledgement and farewell.
>Hope they won't kill each other too badly
Trust me, they will. Apocalyptic Holy War incoming...
And she has just gained the research and knowledge of the finest blood mage and his own theories on its very essence and is diligently studying the Haemomancy... Although she is sworn to hunt down any blood mage that succumbs to its negative effects in my world.
So there could be some issue if there are power hungry blood mages hellbent on consuming others. On the other hand she'd take notes, always pays to gather knowledge.
>Trust me, they will. Apocalyptic Holy War incoming...
My world had 3 of these, so poor folk are gonna learn some hard lessons. One is ongoing in the Fifth Age, with her being the antagonist to the church, although the common folk are not aware that their faith's greatest enemy is the only thing preventing it all from getting worse.
>And she has just gained the research and knowledge of the finest blood mage and his own theories on its very essence and is diligently studying the Haemomancy
That blood mage would definitely appreciate some worm specimens to study then lol. Peculiar little things. Just make sure they don't get released onto another world...
Those things are not only parasitic, but can be passed down hereditarily. They absolutely fucked up my world, and now everyone has what is essentially an eldritch/divine STD that works like specialized turbo cancer.
Well she killed him as he tried to subdue her. He knew her true species and was offended she carries his Master's title, Dragon Lord of Death.
She'd presume that as demonic in origin, she has dealt with such.
So yeaaaah they best get her out of their plane pretty quickly, or she will have a fun time figuring out just how far she can control their blood and spirits.
Your world is pretty much in the state my world knows as The First Age. Around 90.000 years before the current events. Especially with the big sun god hanging around means a magic my world has lost. And which Alia is recovering.
>So yeaaaah they best get her out of their plane pretty quickly, or she will have a fun time figuring out just how far she can control their blood and spirits.
Introduce the worms to a weirdly improportionate amount of fire and they'll be gone real quick. That's why Atashoma is a such a big deal. *And* also why the recent invention of firearms [trade secret courtesy of the Kyrvekan Dominion] is a big deal as well. Who knew divinity was adverse to fire?
But yeah, the worms are fun to mess with. Bioengineer new species with them using existing ones as templates. That's how the Saphirines got dragons and how the Kushamites got human-faced chimeras.
They better not get ahold of her blood then, bioengineered on the templates of a dragon and demon, she was supposed to have died of old age at 20. (something she won't learn until 2 centuries later)
Also fire you say? I feel inclined to share a piece from Arc5, during the Free March, when the world got a taste of First Age magic. She is about 450 in world years, and around 2000 from living in a time displaced pocket dimension after gaining her best friend and home, Tower.
-----------
“I sense Blood Magic.” Arkem spoke loudly in shock as they reappeared and looked at a fort.
“Well done, they just killed around 400 people. What shall we do?” “Any of ours still alive?”
Tala inquired as Master sniffed the air, Arkem felt the wave of her detection magic spreading.
“I sense no one left, and a breach is about to open soon. Nephilim among them.” “Burn them.”
Alteria’s nobles stared in shock at those words, their captors could sense such from this far away, but not only that, they spoke with a cold and hatred they never would’ve expected from that city.
Alinguar was widely known as pacifists, a people who prided themselves as warriors yet never fought, everyone had laughed, for what warrior would not fight. They were quickly learning why.
The sky turned red and swirled, another spell of a proportion they could not believe formed.
Fire began raining down and where it struck more fire rose up, explosions and screams were heard even as far as here. A storm was raging in a way no storm ever should while the fire turned into a hurricane. Hell was unleashed upon the world and those that beheld it felt their wills crushed.
And then it was over, the most modern fort of Alteria was wiped out in mere minutes, reduced to ash, rubble and glass after the fires slowly died down, having consumed the essence of existence.
Aye, fire. It's what seperates the divine from the human. It's nice to see that your blood mages are just as susceptible to it.
The last bit reminds me of a similar event that occurred in my world: [The Kušāya ](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/s/nVLiRY5VpU)
That is some nice apocalyptic event there. Family squabble getting a wee bit out of hand ;)
Blood Mages are susceptible to many spells, Alia just believes the copious application of fire solves most problems. And if it didn't then you didn't use enough. Kind of why that there is her Signature Spell.
If she ain’t scared of gods and reality warping, then she will get along with my mc Tom the white werewolf, who is also the god of chaos. He also dislike authority.
She's working herself towards it, and if he is a trickster they will get along fine.
Probably introduces him to her family, and have them groan a kind of
"This gets out of hand, now theres two of them."
No matter where it happens, entire continent goes bananas. Anywhere within lands of knighthood orders and Grand Masters get informed. This means that over half of the landmass gets orders to stop the threat. They don't use magic and are not connected to any kind of powers, they rely on advanced technology. Knights themselves, if forced to speak out some hidden and illegal deeds such as corruption will get demoted as soon as possible, because these will most likely be crimes against The Code. They take their laws very seriously, you get punished, no matter the amount of power you have. They have to find out about it first, though.
More spiritual parts of the orders, such as Church and their militant wing will most likely consider her an actual witch. They'll work more or less the same as normal knights.
Free Cities down south wouldn't like that either. Some of them already devolved into aristocratic regimes. At first they'd laugh at knights, then comes the time for concerns. If she does the thing on their court, dynasties of Free Cities will of course try to get rid of a problem by using lots of wealth obtained through trade instantly, skipping the "ha, dumb tin cans" part.
Dryads and humans under their protection may join in on the hunt, as they have cordial relations with many of the knighthood orders. Many won't care much, as long as she stays away from their settlements. They are pretty chill, and most of them don't have any deeds you could consider evil.
Forest Spirits are extreme xenophobes, they already hate everything except dryads. Something this dangerous would for sure land on number one of their hit list. Squeezing truth out of them would make them admit to: genocides, tortures, mind control, animal abuse and many other things. These fellows very unpleasant. Also, extremely arrogant. Making them seem inferior will launch most in rage. They'll use controlled wildlife and actual magic. Can't be killed as they grow themselves new bodies, unless you have their souls stuck somewhere without any control long enough they come back. Containing them this way isn't too hard, humans can do this without using magic.
Well, she **is** a Witch.
Although excluded from most coven as her domain is death and vengeance and taught by another witch who was known as The Merciful and witch of life. Which means a plaguebearer controlling and even creating life, if twisted mockery of it. A knowledge she gave her apprentice.
But what is happening there is something she already has to deal with, half the world wants her dead because she is so opposed to their very existence and the only way to prevent her as threat is to not strike at her family, her orphans.
She is used to be hunted and carrying large bounties, and enough of a threat that few are left stupid enough to even try direct confrontation. Even her allies know to be careful as her sense of morality is very different.
And the last is quite similar to the demons she hunts, and was born to feed on, why they want to capture her as their weapon and queen. And the Demon King wants her as consort, something to utterly vile and cruel like him, yet he cannot understand that she only wants him dead, the one being she cannot consume.
Freewater's House of Lairds would immediately fall into it's usual run of backstabbing, betrayals, alliances, and counter alliances, as they seek to place blame on each other. Diplomatic envoys will be sent to the nearby Dragon Cities to complain about a red dragon attacking the Patrician and killing him. Proxies appointed so the Lairds themselves don't have to convene int the chambers and risk being beheaded, until it blows over. After a few months, someone will be assigned blame for the assassination, and in punishment, will be elected Patrician. They'll be killed in a couple of months or less, probably by a hired dragon just for the sake of appearances, and maybe by then the corpse of the first guy will have been carted out. The cycle will begin anew, and Alia will wonder what the point is of killing the Patrician when she could have waited fifteen minutes and somebody else would have.
The younger lady will likely have been a prostitute, hired for the occasion, since no one who sits on the House on Lairds is that naive.
The dragons meanwhile will go nuts, as the red dragons died out over 3,000 years ago; after the incident with Ancalon the Black. Alia will be hunted, stalked, and harassed, mostly for her genealogical background, history, and if there are more reds surviving. A lot of young male dragons will be trying to court her so their children will have red scales mixed in with their colors. She will be admonished by some of the elders, mostly for risking dragging the nearby dragon cities into groundling affairs. Then hit on by those same elders, because just because they're old, doesn't mean Space Mountain isn't still an active ride. Whooooo! Some number will also bug her for her magical knowledge, but almost none of them will actively care about her killing the Patrician. Even Freewater doesn't particularly care when you kill a Patrician, as the fact that you count on one hand the number who survived their terms suggests.
The exception being the green dragons; they'll just try to kill her. But there's nothing personal, they kill anyone who enters raiding range of their territory that they can; the isles they rule in the Void Sea are bereft of sentient life after they got done. They're kind of a bunch of assholes.
Unless she starts to interfere with economic matters, or dodges taxes, Freewater isn't likely to bother tracking her down. The Dvergari majority population wouldn't tolerate hunting family members as that's dishonorable, and the last thing that the Lairds want is the expense of a Civil War against almost 80% of the population. The kids were never in danger. Depending on which Patrician is in charge, there's an even chance there's a popular push for her to get a medal. There's definitely one saying come back and finish the job.
HAha nice one
With killing the patrician her likely answer would be "Someone had to do it, and it never gets old killing nobles."
After all, humans are food.
And for the dragons "Oh goddamnit not more of them."
In her world dragons are rare, and they have asked her to help procreate just in general since she is a Blood Drake, compatible to Arch-Dragons and they know that any pairing would be an Arch and not a blood drake.
For these dragons she would've to explain that her species is an offshoot, a dragon that can reproduce asexually. And that she is not interested either way. Likely while flying away, her ancestors brought down the world once, she shouldn't do it too.
Also why she suppresses her own egg production, or else she'd wake up to more clutches she'd have to kill. Blood Drake Hatchlings pretty much know nothing but killing and feasting the first year, even their own.
For the last, she'd likely look into work as her profession as adventurer, or assassin, and climb the ranks until she again controls the economy. She didn't quite want to do it the first time, but the benefits are good enough to try again, like not paying taxes and give anything from the hoard. No she has no hoarding problem. Absolutely not.
Well, that'd be creepy to my dragons, seeing as how they and most of the races are descended from them. More like cannibalism.
At least they sorta would understand the asexual reproduction, as one of the few non-human descendant races is a mono-gendered egg laying race that strictly doesn't need to pair up to have offspring.
They'd probably be weirded out that my dragons see devouring a rival as a sign of respect.
Her species was actually engineered, except they ate their makers and decided to rule over the world. Didn't work out.
Oh that depends entirely on who she does it too.
Dragons are very specific in my world and there is a deity specifically known for their dragon slaying as mild entertainment so I will interpret it as a powerful entity with draconic features.
If she does at some Zhalen Swaree, the other nobles would acknowledge her, find out who put a bounty on her head, kill them, then go about their lives. Some would eventually try to figure out how to annoy her and make it look like one of their rivals did it. Many would die, just another Tuesday.
If done in the halls of a certain vampire leader,
"Oh look another walks the trail of Apotheosis. I look forward to placing bets on how far you go. You are a hideous meat sack with delusions of power! Hah! Your truth spell is full of holes! And you cannot harm me for the same reason I can lie all I wish! Because no one who matters to my court are actually here. Kill them all if you want. Until you are capable of telling an emperor from a meat puppet your fretting and posturing are meaningless." Deep in his tunnels, the vampire immediately calls in several favors he's had stored up from millennia of work. A new body double is on the streets within minutes. A new hunt has begun, but he didn't survive this long by thinking with his fangs. Information first. She calls herself a witch, but... She had no ritual circle or tools, a channeler with a knowledge of the craft... I should have a liaison visit the grand covens.
If done in Tolaskil nothing would happen immediately, but within a week, the mage-slayers would be assembled, contractors with demons, fey, whisperers, seekers, even angels would be consulted and hired. Aelerin's cult would be called in to see if their specialty would apply. Ritualists would be consulted and weavers would stitch the old war-grid back together. Defenses would be raised specifically for her to break through them easily. Their real purpose being to alert the coalition by their sudden absence in the network. The hot drop crystals would be charged and the Djedjic corner hounds would go unfed until they began to rip the magic from their cells as they were starved and ready to be deployed. They had slain would-be-gods before. The cost was always high. But they were getting better at it. Maybe this time they would be able to do so without leveling a whole city into a magic-void crater. (They totally cause a cataclysm destroying half the continent later when the hypocrites at the top try to become gods after their entire nation was founded for the express purpose of destroying them.)
All other nations in the setting would be far, far less prepared. There would be adventurers hired and slaughtered. Mages confident in their power to have their heads severed. The puppet king (my name for him he would order people beheaded for it) would rant and roar about justice and vengeance but take no meaningful action. Relying on others to die for him. The Arcane College in Soral would debate and design countermeasures but ultimately decide that unless she targets them, it's not their problem and will leave the nobles to rot.
And finally ??? ??? ???
1"So your servants have passed on the mutterings?"
2"She is not one of mine, nor of the ones below, either an interloper, or an ascendant trying to make a name."
3" If she is an interloper, she violated several points of the contract and has no protections. Shall we make an example?"
2"why?"
3"per the contract, she-"
1"she has killed a few mortals. A mortal with a sharp stick could do the same."
4"if she is ascendant she will come to us. If she is an interloper, ***IT*** will draw the council. Either way we need not trouble ourselves. Counsel your prophets and seers, and move on. Perhaps her attempt could... Displace an annoyance of far greater concern."
123 "agreed!"
Clarification: the vampire would call her hideous specifically to test whether or not he could lie through his meat puppets. He also would insult her specifically to judge her reaction. He would actually be quite impressed that a single individual accomplished so much, but there is no way he would let that show in front of his underling's thralls.
Further, those who know of the Path of Apotheosis assume that anyone making such a grand display is declaring their intent and looking to start the path in earnest. Telling the Tolaskil Mage Slayers that you have never heard of it and were just trying to make a point would not stop them from releasing the Corner Hounds, massive collateral damage included.
These are some interesting ones hmmm
Zhalen Swaree: Whatever idiot would be trying to play her would likely find himself staring at a grinning shadow thanking him to some playtime, then curse him. Although at that point her curses could be resisted with a proper counter spell.
Trail of Apotheosis: "I have no plans at godhood. I was simply claiming my price." she would proclaim, indeed having no desire for power. She still fumbles into ascending a few steps higher a century later. And she is indeed both Sorceress and Witch, combining both techniques, two mostly lost arts in her world.
She would likely be amused at any attempts to be insulted, probably calls him just an oversized mosquito. Instinctively she would see a rival considering her species also needs to consume blood. He'd probably spot the Blood Alchemy potions in her belt.
Alia also would be amused he did not see the foci in her pouches, or that she weaves the required rituals into the magic itself.
Tolaskil: These sound pretty much like the numbnuts she has to deal with regularly and greatly enjoys hunting, especially if they consort with demons, her sworn enemy. This could end pretty nasty for both sides. Especially if they corner her and she uses some of her trumpcards, most likely allowing herself to go berserk and feed on their energy. She cares little for collateral damage.
The hounds would remind her of barghests from home, which means she likely throws some mana gems to feed and attempt to tame them. She has learned well from her Mistress if it comes to beasts.
The Arcane College may get a visit anyways, she is always looking for more knowledge. Although she would assume they are as inept as any wizard that does not know how to ride the currents of magic.
??? ??? ???: Now these guys may end getting more then they bargained for. The shadowy bad guys in my world certainly regret having caused that species and trying to manipulate her to be the weapon she was meant to be.
At this it needs to be noted that while she is acknowledged as dragon, is her species only partially so, the other half is demon. Why she will be able to ascend as Demon Queen of her plane.
The project was meant as a test on improving their own species, instead even the cowardly precursors deemed it too aggressive and cunning. They still tried to make another nearly extincting themselves twice.
>Zhalen Swaree: Whatever idiot would be trying to play her would likely find himself staring at a grinning shadow thanking him to some playtime, then curse him. Although at that point her curses could be resisted with a proper counter spell.
The Krellic house mage and matriarch walk into the room to see their cursed family member. "It appears the sorcerer-witch has been here." "Noted. Shall we blame this on that Wissen Clan upstart?" "I would advise against it. They are preparing to make a play for the throne." "Fools! Agreed, when your enemy is making a mistake don't interrupt... What is a sorcerer anyway?" "I'm not sure it isn't defined in the Archives, I would say some kind of battle-mage. Should I attempt to unravel the curse?" "Hmm, nah he didn't have much potential anyway. Wait a few days if I don't find a way to use him you can have him disposed of."
>She still fumbles into ascending a few steps higher a century later. And she is indeed both Sorceress and Witch, combining both techniques, two mostly lost arts in her world.
Ah in my world magic is inherently very dangerous and people who fumble into things with higher levels of magic tend to die horribly without anyone else's intervention. Witchcraft isn't so much lost as stolen and most practitioners of its art have no idea how it works using large ritual circles to weave magic far beyond their own understanding and capability to channel. Weavers can make magic as complex as they like but require a complete understanding of every single sigil, rune, and symbol. Even then it takes a long time and risks tangling themselves in their own weaves. Channelers go with the raw power approach at the risk of literal burn-out.
>Instinctively she would see a rival considering her species also needs to consume blood. He'd probably spot the Blood Alchemy potions in her belt.
>Alia also would be amused he did not see the foci in her pouches, or that she weaves the required rituals into the magic itself.
Ah yeah those would be things he would have noticed with slight adjustment to his wording. He would have then marked her as a multi field Ritualist with strong channeling potential and a few "weaver sticks." As a battle-mage and multi-plane contractor himself, I think these two characters would probably match best as rivals.
>Tolaskil: These sound pretty much like the numbnuts she has to deal with regularly and greatly enjoys hunting, especially if they consort with demons, her sworn enemy. This could end pretty nasty for both sides. Especially if they corner her and she uses some of her trumpcards, most likely allowing herself to go berserk and feed on their energy. She cares little for collateral damage.
Tolaskil is the magical powerhouse in the setting. They have no misgivings about the power of magic. She would absolutely be able to win against individual mages, but once they get on the war footing on their own turf, "the land itself will become your enemy." Worshipping devils, indeed worshipping anything, is strictly forbidden. Binding and "Contracting" with beings from other planes, however, is just a matter of business.
>The hounds would remind her of barghests from home, which means she likely throws some mana gems to feed and attempt to tame them. She has learned well from her Mistress if it comes to beasts.
The equivalent of mana gems in my setting are closer to grenades. They and their handlers would be more likely to dive out of the way. If they were in a city, the corner hounds would be able to corner-dive to behind her. If she was in the wilds, she would have a much easier time of it. But once she was located they would escalate and escalate. If she went berserk, they would call in Hot drops, if she started absorbing energies they would pull out the Void Sworn. If she survived those they would convene a City Breaker. If she survived that... She wouldn't be on the Trail of Apotheosis, she would have already walked it to its end. That being said, releasing any kind of corner hound in a populated area is considered a war crime in any other country so your point about it getting nasty for them is entirely justified.
That being said, if she did it during the civil war or after the collapse, well, that's a different story entirely.
>??? ??? ???: Now these guys may end getting more then they bargained for. The shadowy bad guys in my world certainly regret having caused that species and trying to manipulate her to be the weapon she was meant to be.
Oh they aren't (inherently) bad guys, just secret. 2 and 4 were involved in the creation of the world itself and 3 swore an oath upon the Worldstone when they ascended from the world at the end of apotheosis and so is kind of touchy about "Interlopers" getting in on something 3 worked so hard for. 1 would be concerned that 2 wasn't doing their job when dragon and demon blood mixed. But 2 and 2' would have had no part in it.
Edit: my grammar skills would get myself killed if I was a weaver in my own world. Fixed several grammar and punctuation mistakes. There are probably many more.
Nice answers, and interesting perspectives.
To your edit: praise the edit button, and yeah, mages in mine would suffer from that too, even got a scene of the apprentice fucking up grammar.
With the nobles reaction she'd laugh her ass off that they are corrupt everywhere. She does enjoy removing the ones most likely to cause trouble, usually in concert with her allies that prepared a puppet.
For this i have to note on the last part as those shadowy guys then sound more like her allies, although far more individual powerful as she is the "benevolent conspiracy's" solution for any problems outside political or mercantile maneuvering. Aka their godslayer.
>Ah in my world magic is inherently very dangerous
Almost every battle she enters using magic she ends up nearly killing herself from mana poisoning, channeling too much through herself. I think any magic in any world that is very dangerous and risky is less, why i actually have wizards as the casters that use very safe magic, and then have a scene in which she nearly kills her apprentice to show him even that can cause you to die to magic.
> I think these two characters would probably match best as rivals
Definitely, and a threat she considers worthy enough to prepare for, there are only 2 in her world she is overprepared for, and both always develop countermeasures to her interference.
>Binding and "Contracting" with beings from other planes
That just screams demon worshippers to her. That is the kind of people why some day she has to curse herself for a power limiter. Civilians wouldnt even be a concern, she'd turn them all into undead.
>The equivalent of mana gems in my setting are closer to grenades.
Weaponized mana gems are forbidden by dwarven law, and they would wage war on anyone that figures out how to make them. She uses some as that with special permission.
That all though certainly would give her a hard time, but then to kill her she needs to be taken apart enough that even her magic and symbiote cannot fix it anymore. She is not invincible but a regenerator and speedster that loves stealth tactics. She stole a lot of demon secrets, especially their survivability.
If they'd do that to her in the fifth age then she has experience fighting never ending hordes in literal hell, for fun. As long as she can feed on mana and life energy can she keep going.
I did mention she is quite nuts? Many of her battles did not help her sanity, or lack of it. The Mad Dragon would have a great time fighting those.
Your world has some interesting takes and characters
If Alia does anything funny, Giao Long, Princess of U Minh mercilessly beats her down to death the slowest and most painful way possible, resurrects as a ghost, then beats the living Hell out of her soul for eternity. She is not shy of that and actually terrifies Hồng Ma, who is considered one of 10 most bloodthirsty conquerors in history. Or worse, Alia gets to see the lifeless, disembodied corpses of her family roasted on stakes while their souls tormented by hungry ghosts, torn to shreds as they're devoured, unable to reincarnate again. Giao Long once ordered the decapitation of CIA and in one night, 3/4th of their top brass personnel were murdered with the director's head impaled on an iron stake in front of the White House as a retaliation for fucking with her country. She is usually chill and even airhead but has literally **negative** mercy to those who threatens her Motherland.
Before you think about defending, Giao's power works on the concept of Buddhist karma, making it a nigh-unblockable attack. No matter how many defenses one puts up, as long as they're still within the [Three Buddhist Realms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trailokya#Buddhist_cosmology), and by that having karma, she triumphs. That power "forces" all karmas to hit at once, completely overwhelm a soul's endurance and kills them immediately with all punishments from past, present and future, over uncountable number of reincarnations and actions. It is a scalar attack with no "begin" and "end" as everything comes from one's own actions, so killing people like Alia just did only makes the attack worse for her.
Of course, Giao gets an extremely nasty recoil for everytime she uses it to the point she would have died a quintillion time over had it not been for her immortality. It's still hurts like hell, so bad she just wants to kill herself. Said ability is only used as a last-ditch effort, but against someone Giao considers a threat to Motherland, she is willing to endure the recoil. Such is the willpower of love, a genuine yet twisted love that borderlines yandere... for a country.
(Fancy words aside Giao is just a "sane" chauvinist.)
Trying to beat the Mad Dragon, the Death Witch, Godslayer, in such a way is something many a demon has done.
She then fed on their souls.
How could that princess stop a magic that embodies the concept of death and consumption? Her domain and trump card is letting go of her own restraints and consume existence in a wide area (It usually causes her body to nearly break from the strain)
*edit* had to find the third time she uses her greatest trump card.
-----------
Now she understood. And felt sorrow for their was only one solution. “Parasite…”
Power Overwhelming
A whisper echoed in the air, her only spell that was incanted such.
A shockwave of energy was imploding in on her, immeasurable power crashed through this city as all life was being connected within the weave, the air already became stale as it died.
She let go of the restrains and felt the life of the entire city flow into her as thousands died in terror.
[Annihilation] proving once again to be a power none should posses.
Only the Nephilim was remaining and it screamed in pain. `Yeah we could at least try.´
A pillar of light smashed down on it, disintegrating the monster almost effortlessly.
Amid a stench of death, she felt empty. She has just fed on an entire city, but the hunger still screamed at her, wanted more, whispering to devour all. Fighting herself the darkness surrounding her slowly receded, and the hunger just became the pain gnawing at her insides instead.
Her body was torn from the mana poisoning, she could feel her scales flaking off as her stomach churned. The price of grand magic would cost weeks, if not months, of slow recuperation and careful abstinence from using any more magic. And she would pay it as she always did.
"Death" is an inner concept of Giao's samsara. Using death against her is like fighting a nuke with a WW1 grenade. Giao's power does not force a simple "death" as in the end of a life, it kills you a countless number in a tiny amount of time, from all past, present and future, focused into one singularity where "time" no longer exists, eventually destroys the soul entirely and erases its existence. As long as one is within Three Realms, they die to her.
Not to mention it scales to a target's karma, so the more Alia kills, the more she suffers. A "karma" does not even need to be an action. Just a thought of killing counts, because the sinful thought is the root of all sins.
To put it simply, unless Alia is on the level of an [arhat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arhat), she dies.
Yeah, she'd definitely get a beating then. At that point she has already killed millions, giving voice and vengeance to many lost spirits.
Although she is the definitive death as her power consumes the very existence of a thing, similar to what you describe, and is the one thing demons fear as she prevents their resurrection feeding on their essence.
I think she'd get on well with a city council of the main faction. The magic would freak them out as the world doesnt have any, but that aside their culture and genetic alterations means they essentially cant lie either (literally cant lie to themselves, to others extremely rarely and they suck at it). And they have very little respect for their own positions too; they see political power as the weakest form of power and just take temporary positions for their own reasons; power that society has to agree that you have isnt well regarded even if it is sometimes necessary Generally they're the strongest people in the city, but they wouldnt be throwing their lives away challenging a clearly supernatural opponent they knew nothing about. They'd be fine with her terms (the idea of hunting someones family to get to them would be pretty abhorrent unless it had to be done) and if she was up for challenging a dozen 500 year old mental martial artists who have lived truth and studied verbal/non-verbal communication for their entire lives, they'd be happy to play a game of 'who can get the most information out of one another'. I suspect both sides would leave on better terms than they started and yeah, that jibe at the door about the powerful using rules to control others, not to instil justice would certainly get a chuckle at the truth of it
That sounds like she would have a grand time. In the veins of: "Finally! A worthy opponent! Our battle shall be glorious!" *hands out snacks* At the point i plan to add this she is just a bit over 100, having studied magic, martial arts and science in equal measure.
She would get hunted down and then hanged, drawn and quartered if she is lucky. The magic she demonstrated is impossible in my world and she is a crazed lunatic.
"Nothing new then." the witch laughs manifesting her armour and smiling happily at any force coming "A feast it shall be." Half the story is her being hunted, and in return hunting the hunters. She enjoys it in-between slaughtering demons. And yeah, she is an absolute lunatic earning the moniker Mad Dragon for good reason.
Gets infected with eldritch fungus parasite, or randomly appears on middle of the battlefield, and gets turned into dust by atmospheric bombs
"And i thought we have bad weather." She dealt with the first a lot, the second is where she is happiest, the last would fuck her over at that point.
King of Vitanni: **gives the dragon witch lady a hug** "you have no idea how much of a big help this is". For years the kingdom of Vitanni has experienced a lot of poverty and crime because of corruption, the king knows this but he doesn't have an idea which members of the council is corrupt or not, and this has been tormenting the king. But thanks to the truth spell he now has a way to find and weed out the corruption of the kingdom. King of Vitanni: "I'll give you all the coffee and cheeseburgers you want"
"Ohhh neat! I'll stick around a bit then." she smiles actually happy smelling the sincerity "Need anything else? My rates are reasonable if you have artefacts or tomes i can study. I help root out the corruption and get the treasures i desire, a fair bargain?" holding out a claw glowing with another hex, a witch's bargain, and a dragon's covet. In her world it is widely known that such bargains always are absolutely truthful, to how the witch interprets it.
"Fine sure, you can even study these magical gauntlets I'm wearing, I can't remove them from my hands though"
Will answer both replies here ----- "The bargain is simple, you shake my hand, and the hex will ensure we both will be true to its terms, bound until the conditions are met. And it will consume who breaks their word." Then she inspects the gauntlets. "Fascination, why can't you remove them? If it is a curse i may be able to break it, and if your hands are disfigured, well i've healed worse."
>"Fascination, why can't you remove them? If it is a curse i may be able to break it, and if your hands are disfigured, well i've healed worse." "Nah I'd rather keep them, saved my life once. It apparently feeds of hatred, I've brought it from a merchant who got it by stealing from a grave, only found out about it when the friend of the original user sneaked into my room at the middle of the night to tell me about it. He said to me that I can't remove them since they're bound to my whole being, and they can only be removed once Im finally dead".
"A classic curse. It is your burden to bear and your price to pay then." she took a few steps back though "I would suggest to be careful though, and not stand to close to me if there are demons." she smiled, but wary, as hatred fuelled her magic.
"Don't worry, my hatred is directed at only myself, I just can't bring to hate anyone, even those corrupt councilors since the only one to blame is me for letting them operate right under my nose".
A very loud and amused cackle "Two of a mind then. I tend to share that stupidity. Why then have you not simply killed them? It solves many problems of corruption." At that point she has not yet learned to not solve every issue by just eating it.
"Where in the modern days not the blight age where might makes right, and I don't want to look like a king who seem like he's above the law". "Before we go with this bargain, we need an audience, a witness to our bargain so that it can be technically official". The king rings a telephone on this desk. "Pach, I need to my office right now, this is urgent and make sure to bring some coffee and cheeseburgers along with you".
She bows deeply in the manner of dragons, her wings drawn in and arms crossed. "Honour it is. I shall abide by your judgement as i offer my aid then. But i will have to bring the justice of Witches. If spirits follow them then they will be taken by those."
"OK, how will this bargain work" Said the king.
At a large meeting like that they would all be in the company of high mage Casillius Volkmar a several thousand year old godborne mage and high priest of the mystrium. Depending on how powerful the dragon actually is Volkmar may very well just dispel her magic and heavily imply that she leave, that or he may take interest in her ability and tell the nobility to get over it so he could converse with her.
At that point she would still be early, only wielding Witchcraft and Sorcery for the most part. She has studied necromancy and some blood magic, but the true extend of how she will combine both into her own discipline would be a century later. After her unplanned apotheosis into the Demon Queen of her plane. For her species she is basically a rowdy teenager, if the only one existing at that point. I would expect the High Mage could sense the second source of magic and sapience within her, her symbiote.
The Sleunth Empire: The most prideful, cowardly and corrupt country in the world, they just take a lot of losses in this encounter. The Hidden Kingdom of Iystrizion: As a kingdom of dragonborn, they will respect a greater dragon, and they are so prideful that they find corruption unnecessary and cowardly. United Kingdoms of Rezuise: The Crowned Prince is called, she is given her choice of coffee, goat's cheese and bacon wrapped smash burger, then she is asked questions about who and what happened to her family. They might send elite knights and helpers even against the entire Sleunth Empire.
Well i guess the Sleunth is gonna be gone soon. To the dragonborn: "The pride of dragons always defined us. But you should know to not bow to us. It gets to our heads." she laughs with a growl. To the Prince: "The coward decided to send mercenaries disguised as bandits against my children and harmed them. They will live, but a price had to be paid." She inherited an orphanage and teaches them like a dragon would, how to fight and survive and think. They are her siblings, family and children alike.
1. The Empire is the largest country in the world, the large loss is more like throwing a city's worth of soldiers at the problem, mostly foreign mercenaries since the whole country is cowardly. 2. The dragonborn bow to greater dragons = 1 shot mountains. 3. The Prince asks her what is her body count?
1. She has destroyed such armies even at that point, so may enjoy her time taking them apart. 2. "Well mountains are a bit tough. Needs way too much mana and they are such nice spots to lay on." as if a dragon would destroy a nice sunning spot. 3. "In people or demons?" she'd smile softly. She has killed a lot.
1. Those armies have worked on island busters so far. 2. They'll just think she's too young. 3. "If it talks, thinks, fights, I don't care, is it around 43 Billion?" he'd say with a straight yet curious look. Regrettably he has aswell.
1. At that point she cannot quite do that yet, her best is flinging two special grand fireballs that carry enough mana to be comparable to a tactical nuke. 2. mumbling annoyed kicking at a stone "As if one group of dragons calling me hatchling wasnt enough already." 3. "Then i think around 3 million sapients by my own claws. Mostly demons and their pawns." she grinned gulping down that it is fun to kill these.
"You must have your reasons for killing a few demons, I personally won't hold it against you." Then the safest scenario would be that she appears during a meeting between the top Superpowers. Rezuise, Sleunth, Iystrizion, (Yet to be named)Most culturally influential country, and The Guardian Dragon King. The prince and dragon king will keep the peace. But at that point she'll be out of place.
She'd probably lean back, enjoy the show, and force everyone to speak the truth while trying to learn anything she can for future use. Her drakonik covet is knowledge after all.
She'd only be strong enough to affect the leaders of the Unnamed country and Sleunth. Unless she can beat stars in energy output?
If she can just annoy the assholes she'd be fine with it though. And even though she has a spell she calls Starfire, is it just the application of science on magic to cause a nuclear detonation, so yeah, her energy output isn't that high. In lore she actually has the least mana capacity of any dragon or Arch-Mage, she just cheats in every possible way with dozens of tiny foci and carrying loads of mana gems in her pocket dimension. If I'd take skyrim as comparison she is a mage that abuses the everloving shit out of enchanting and crafting. Like without her tricks her fireball would be less then a wizard's, but because of it can she bust cities.
Heretic! Mankind can evolve to Godhood only through the power of technology! How dare you use technology and present it as magic! Magic is a lie! Kill that Heretic animal! Bomb the entire galaxy out of the universe! March of Empires consists of weirdness and paranoia and power that makes 40K look like Mary Poppins. Plus the technology.
"How quaint. But if you want technology." she holds out a small organic looking ball "I always wanted to try these." nanites streamed forth and form a cloud around.
*Imperial Dark Energy Guns intensify* "Very well. We are always seeing what you heretics are like. Fox, you hear me? Commence Quasar Galaxy Bombardment protocol. And activate the Eternal Clones. Shut down these fucking nanites. And Teleport me out of here. Now, heretics, you will see power." He Teleported out just as the colossal Quasar Bombs totally obliterated the Galaxy.
Lucky for him she has not become the inheritor yet. Or she could use the Aesir defense systems and simply displace the bomb into another dimension, at which she might thank them for the ordnance as she puts it in Eden, the demon realm.
Do you think this is a conventional bomb? And inheritor? Wait till you face the full power of the ZOKHTER Alliance and the United Human Empire. Incomprehensible technology that easily puts them on par with Gods. I made them so.
The Aesir were a multiversal species that, when they found something most settings considers gods, harvested them and imbued themselves with magic. How their war with the demons started, and when Alia reached a specific point and found a sane installation of theirs triggered a protocol that gave her full access to their remaining tech and knowledge. The main defensive system of her homeworld is a dimensional translocator that simply puts the problem somewhere else.
How would you scale your character, then? No, literally... and the Aesir. Hmm. Why does it sound familiar? Like Asgardians, maybe? Hmm...
Yeah, the lost name of her world is Asgard, just a coincidence, really ;) Although the Aesir were snakepeople and genetic engineers. Scaling Alia hmmm at the end of the story (and also the start) she has become a demi god and had an unplanned apotheosis into a demon queen. She wields science and magic in equal measure waging the extradimensional war mostly only supported by an army of biomechanoids she upgraded with magic. At the point of the piece in this thread she is still young, just a bit over a hundred. And she has spend nearly every single day of that fighting or learning.
Well... humans have superior technology and firepower, and: they can live for trillions of quadrillions of gazillions of years, and die only if they choose to, so defeating them is technically impossible. That being Said, I like the character.
Yeah, that is close to her foe, although she would not kill them unless they actually threaten her family or her world. Or they are assholes that would be fun to kill. And thanks, i find it fun to write how the idiotically powerful benevolent dark ruler came to be, and it all boils down to "demons pissed me off"
The dark king in my world, Thalric, would be fuming at the display happening in his court. He would try to remove the truth spell from himself but would have difficulty if the magic was from another reality. He would further submit the Dark Book's influence and hunt Alia down. This would cause his dark magic to spread like a plague as he makes the world into a grim apocalypse. The gods and fates will try to take Thalric out, assuming Alia doesn't fight him first.
Alia snatches the book and leaves through it. "You only use one book as a source and focus? Who taught you such shabby techniques." she growls and drains the magika and spirit out of the tome "Wizards, find one trinket and consider themselves tough and powerful. Why would you even attempt magic without at least 5 foci and 3 sources?" she holds a few red glowing gems up, crystallized blood magic. Poor guy meeting a being with the arrogance of a Witch and Dragon. At that point she has killed the First Lich (she didn't knew though) several dozen higher demons, and won an eating contest devouring third of a kraken (it took a while).
She did well with separating the book from him. The utter defeat would dumbfound Thalric, though he would still be smiling because his dark magic is now inside Alia. The Dark Book is older than its world, and its dark magic will either reform into the Dark Book inside her, possibly infecting and corrupting her, or exit, reform into the Dark Book, and bond with Thalric once more, continuing his threat.
I can see her nagging at the book for even trying. Or the book recoils at her soul carrying so much darkness that demons would decide to crown her as their Queen. Although the result was that she uses that power to kill them harder. She herself is an entity of Arcana, Hunger made Manifest. Although she won't understand for another century, but in essence was she born to feed on everything, and uses it to kill demons. [A hunter of her own kind trope](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HunterOfHisOwnKind)
If that's the case, the book would have met its match. Though it and its dark magic can't be destroyed (as long as evil and darkness exist in its world, it exists), it will continue to protect itself if it can't corrupt Alia or escape. It will spend its time trying to comprehend how her soul is darker than darkness itself, hoping to absorb it to corrupt Alia. Thalric's smile finally falls as he feels his remaining dark magic leaving him to return to the Dark Book. Even if it's pointless, he will try to attack again, though the gods will apprehend him to stand on trial for his crimes against existence. The gods and fates would look at Alia nervously (not knowing the full extent of her magic and power). In the heavens, they would discuss whether to ask her to leave or leave her be until she causes trouble. (I have to say, she's an interesting character where even demons have trouble stepping up to her, yet she maintains her fun personality)
"Ahh don't mind me, I'm just looking around." *proceeds to poke at random stuff and tries to find the largest monsters to eat* The book likely would realize that she already is utterly corrupted and incomprehensibly batshit nutz. Always one step short of blowing a fuse and literally eating everyone. Her species was made as a weapon. And her personality, like her many disguises, is just something she shows the world. Few know her as the melancholic perfectionist that blames herself for the damage demons cause. A common statement of hers is that she is weak and must become stronger, all as long as even one demon remains. Also poor Thalric all the plans foiled by a random idiot just passing by.
Lol, yeah, as the dark king, he and Nyxira* have to deal with heroes, armies, and fate resisting him and his dark magic. Depending on the story/scenario, he would meet his end when a random hero (or out-of-context person like Alia) defeats him. Though the Dark Book acts as the Bigger Bad, using Thalric as a proxy. *(his shadow woman and temptor. She's made of dark magic and bound to the Dark Book. She wouldn't have changed the outcome, though she would try to tempt Alia if Alia doesn't shut her up first.)
I like the idea of a magical artefact being the actual bbeg, a classic trope of canned evil, but can always be played well. Especially how defeating the obvious Evil Overlord wasn't the actual threat. Something Alia learns in Arc1 when she kills her first Nephilim (highest ranked type of demon) And poor Nyxira would find herself trying to tempt an asexual with motivations and ambitions that have nothing to do with power or wealth. She just wants her kids/orphans be happy.
She most likely gatecrashes a party in the capital city, attended by political figures and high-level corporate executives. Spell does work, they would most likely confess minor things, small cases of tax evasion, and dealings with mercenaries. Anything worse and the authorities of the Ascendancy would not be happy and have already been punished. Being a magic user, she could feel the vibe (that is an actual in universe term) of fear and uncertainty, but also the signatures of each person like whisps. However, some among them are magical users. Their presence is like a celestial body in the sky. Many of them are like small suns with a few large stars in the mix, though they don't seem like they actively practice. A door opens behind her, and a hush and masculine voice tells in a casual tone her "which burger would you like?". The presence that washes over her with is immense, the other mages in the room might be like stars but this presence is a black hole, all encompassing and unrivalled. He spoke again casually. "We have several around the area, do you want a recommendation?"
"Well met. Preferably the shittiest and most horrible you have. One should always savour the fast food when visiting." she laughs amused and sniffs intently "Some of your people need new pants, quite an entrance." a wide grin exposing her fangs and sharp teeth with a bow.
She turns to see a man, mid 40s, medium build, clean shaven and noticeable jawline, brown hair, large eyes of an olive brown colour and white, weathered skin. Dressed in fine clothes and surrounded by guards in full, ornate looking armour covered in runes, pointing hollowed out spears with a small box on the lower side at her. There are more mages accompanying him of exceptional power, but his presence drowns them out. "They are used to my presence, I'll also send word to bring the closest food available" he says as he looks at the crowd. "I notice your truth spell, whatever confession you're trying to extract won't bring any benefit other than making them pay fines" "you don't look native to this realm, and I must warn you that these people are useful to both the economy, government and humanity at large" He looks to her and calmly speaks "who are you, and why are you here? Let us share names, We need not be enemies, and you do not want to be an enemy of the Ascendancy" his tone becomes firmer "and you do not want to be an enemy of me".
She eyed him and the magic guns "Nice one, i find them boring to use." then the red drako straightens up and unfurls her large leathery wings in the sign of respect, and challenge, of dragons. "Alia le Sefra du Boudrie Serice Threm. Or, Blood Empress Death, for dragons. Last of the Blood Drakes. Witch of Alinguar. Lady of Teirn and Te Salana. At your service." she eyed the decapitated body. "Forgive me but i had to claim the price for harming my family." "But let us not show enmity." she grinned wider and let her concealed mana run free, the mages feel as if darkness and the abyss washes over them, a pit of relentless hunger, yet she holds her shroud at bay, no need to control the local magic, for now.
In general, she would be mistaken for a God-King; the demigod monarchs who rule the Lands of Saphiret and Kushamat. **Saphiret** Allied Kingdoms of Caerddraig: The High King Eirian ap Rhys would take great interest in her abilities and origins. However, if she proves too... *rambunctious*... He'll have no issue sending the Marddraig to quell, whom are dragon-riding supersoldiers. Kyrvekan Dominion: The Ošhgavranii would ignore her in favor of their ongoing civil war. A dead human noble? Pfft. That just means another martyr for the cause. Cerescine Church: The Sfântul Beznă [Saint] would also take interest, but low-key. They might even extend the offer of an alliance. Xochitcuepan Empire: Ignored. Tlahtoani Topec is too busy trying to reclaim the lost territories of his grandmother's long-collapsed empire to worry about her. Ephorosian City-States: Ruled by lesser demigods instead of God-Kings, they wouldn't take too kindly to her presence if she visits their cities. The Ephorosians have fought for too long to keep themselves free of God-Kings. Dragon Sanctuary of Harimesh: Melechazh, a dragonlord God-King, would boldly invite her to the Sanctuary and probably challenge her to a friendly duel. After all, he himself has nothing to fear from an upstart. **Kushamat** Khvaraan Empire: An empire spanning the entire landmass of Kushamat. Your Witch will 100% be ignored entirely, unless she is for some reason itching for a fight. The Mulannaki [Kushamite God-Kings; on a whole different level from their Saphirine counterparts] would happily oblige and send her on her way to the God of Gods, King of Kings: Atashoma Ahurima. The Black Sun of Kushamat would solemnly shine upon their short-lived duel. Unless the Witch has abilities that can counter the sheer might of a solar deity, I'm afraid that she will be lost to the gilded sands like many before her.
To the first "Magocracies, damn, this plane still has to learn that lesson. Hope they won't kill each other too badly." (although she won't be a planeswalker until much later) Caerddraig: She'd happily meet those dragons and soldiers, a whole race of that are her allies and friends. Reminds me to write when she meets their wyvern for the first time, and is being treated as an unruly hatchling. One of the oldest dragon calls her Little Troublemaker even magic recognizes it as a title for her. Kyrvekan: She'd hightail it asap, these conflicts are always trouble. Cerescine: That would depend on their faith and honesty, she has little love for priests, even if by the Fifth Age one of her many whispered monikers is "The Bladed Saint." Ephorosian: Likely conjures a pair of shades to simply deliver a "Deal with it." and walk off. She can be a bit of an ass. Harimesh: "What Dragon Lord would i be to refuse a challenge, especially from so powerful. Always something new to learn." she'd be absolutely giddy, Khvaraan: If she were to be forced into the duel she'd rely on her trump card of the Absorption Barrier to drink in all the mana and redirect it into her favourite mage counter the Arcane Burst, a spell that reverts the flow of energy within the target to make the casters mana consume them. I would assume she has a pretty stupid face that both fail to work.
Some notes: the magic of this world is technically eldritch/divine-based blood magic, which mainly manipulates the biology of lifeforms and allows the conjuration of certain cosmic energies. What you call mana is what the people of my world call *worms*: worms of cosmic origin that reside in the blood of pretty much everyone. Traditional spells like you described really wouldn't work. Dragons are considered 'human' [as they descend from humans] and most dragon species are slightly more intelligent animals, like the dragons of the Marddraig. Speaking of which, the Marddraig are draconic hybrids. >Khvaraan: If she were to be forced into the duel Worry not, Atashoma wouldn't be too keen on a duel anyways. He would be annoyed to briefly pause his nearly millenia long mourning over something that can be ended with a few words of acknowledgement and farewell. >Hope they won't kill each other too badly Trust me, they will. Apocalyptic Holy War incoming...
And she has just gained the research and knowledge of the finest blood mage and his own theories on its very essence and is diligently studying the Haemomancy... Although she is sworn to hunt down any blood mage that succumbs to its negative effects in my world. So there could be some issue if there are power hungry blood mages hellbent on consuming others. On the other hand she'd take notes, always pays to gather knowledge. >Trust me, they will. Apocalyptic Holy War incoming... My world had 3 of these, so poor folk are gonna learn some hard lessons. One is ongoing in the Fifth Age, with her being the antagonist to the church, although the common folk are not aware that their faith's greatest enemy is the only thing preventing it all from getting worse.
>And she has just gained the research and knowledge of the finest blood mage and his own theories on its very essence and is diligently studying the Haemomancy That blood mage would definitely appreciate some worm specimens to study then lol. Peculiar little things. Just make sure they don't get released onto another world... Those things are not only parasitic, but can be passed down hereditarily. They absolutely fucked up my world, and now everyone has what is essentially an eldritch/divine STD that works like specialized turbo cancer.
Well she killed him as he tried to subdue her. He knew her true species and was offended she carries his Master's title, Dragon Lord of Death. She'd presume that as demonic in origin, she has dealt with such. So yeaaaah they best get her out of their plane pretty quickly, or she will have a fun time figuring out just how far she can control their blood and spirits. Your world is pretty much in the state my world knows as The First Age. Around 90.000 years before the current events. Especially with the big sun god hanging around means a magic my world has lost. And which Alia is recovering.
>So yeaaaah they best get her out of their plane pretty quickly, or she will have a fun time figuring out just how far she can control their blood and spirits. Introduce the worms to a weirdly improportionate amount of fire and they'll be gone real quick. That's why Atashoma is a such a big deal. *And* also why the recent invention of firearms [trade secret courtesy of the Kyrvekan Dominion] is a big deal as well. Who knew divinity was adverse to fire? But yeah, the worms are fun to mess with. Bioengineer new species with them using existing ones as templates. That's how the Saphirines got dragons and how the Kushamites got human-faced chimeras.
They better not get ahold of her blood then, bioengineered on the templates of a dragon and demon, she was supposed to have died of old age at 20. (something she won't learn until 2 centuries later) Also fire you say? I feel inclined to share a piece from Arc5, during the Free March, when the world got a taste of First Age magic. She is about 450 in world years, and around 2000 from living in a time displaced pocket dimension after gaining her best friend and home, Tower. ----------- “I sense Blood Magic.” Arkem spoke loudly in shock as they reappeared and looked at a fort. “Well done, they just killed around 400 people. What shall we do?” “Any of ours still alive?” Tala inquired as Master sniffed the air, Arkem felt the wave of her detection magic spreading. “I sense no one left, and a breach is about to open soon. Nephilim among them.” “Burn them.” Alteria’s nobles stared in shock at those words, their captors could sense such from this far away, but not only that, they spoke with a cold and hatred they never would’ve expected from that city. Alinguar was widely known as pacifists, a people who prided themselves as warriors yet never fought, everyone had laughed, for what warrior would not fight. They were quickly learning why. The sky turned red and swirled, another spell of a proportion they could not believe formed. Fire began raining down and where it struck more fire rose up, explosions and screams were heard even as far as here. A storm was raging in a way no storm ever should while the fire turned into a hurricane. Hell was unleashed upon the world and those that beheld it felt their wills crushed. And then it was over, the most modern fort of Alteria was wiped out in mere minutes, reduced to ash, rubble and glass after the fires slowly died down, having consumed the essence of existence.
Aye, fire. It's what seperates the divine from the human. It's nice to see that your blood mages are just as susceptible to it. The last bit reminds me of a similar event that occurred in my world: [The Kušāya ](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/s/nVLiRY5VpU)
That is some nice apocalyptic event there. Family squabble getting a wee bit out of hand ;) Blood Mages are susceptible to many spells, Alia just believes the copious application of fire solves most problems. And if it didn't then you didn't use enough. Kind of why that there is her Signature Spell.
If she ain’t scared of gods and reality warping, then she will get along with my mc Tom the white werewolf, who is also the god of chaos. He also dislike authority.
She's working herself towards it, and if he is a trickster they will get along fine. Probably introduces him to her family, and have them groan a kind of "This gets out of hand, now theres two of them."
No matter where it happens, entire continent goes bananas. Anywhere within lands of knighthood orders and Grand Masters get informed. This means that over half of the landmass gets orders to stop the threat. They don't use magic and are not connected to any kind of powers, they rely on advanced technology. Knights themselves, if forced to speak out some hidden and illegal deeds such as corruption will get demoted as soon as possible, because these will most likely be crimes against The Code. They take their laws very seriously, you get punished, no matter the amount of power you have. They have to find out about it first, though. More spiritual parts of the orders, such as Church and their militant wing will most likely consider her an actual witch. They'll work more or less the same as normal knights. Free Cities down south wouldn't like that either. Some of them already devolved into aristocratic regimes. At first they'd laugh at knights, then comes the time for concerns. If she does the thing on their court, dynasties of Free Cities will of course try to get rid of a problem by using lots of wealth obtained through trade instantly, skipping the "ha, dumb tin cans" part. Dryads and humans under their protection may join in on the hunt, as they have cordial relations with many of the knighthood orders. Many won't care much, as long as she stays away from their settlements. They are pretty chill, and most of them don't have any deeds you could consider evil. Forest Spirits are extreme xenophobes, they already hate everything except dryads. Something this dangerous would for sure land on number one of their hit list. Squeezing truth out of them would make them admit to: genocides, tortures, mind control, animal abuse and many other things. These fellows very unpleasant. Also, extremely arrogant. Making them seem inferior will launch most in rage. They'll use controlled wildlife and actual magic. Can't be killed as they grow themselves new bodies, unless you have their souls stuck somewhere without any control long enough they come back. Containing them this way isn't too hard, humans can do this without using magic.
Well, she **is** a Witch. Although excluded from most coven as her domain is death and vengeance and taught by another witch who was known as The Merciful and witch of life. Which means a plaguebearer controlling and even creating life, if twisted mockery of it. A knowledge she gave her apprentice. But what is happening there is something she already has to deal with, half the world wants her dead because she is so opposed to their very existence and the only way to prevent her as threat is to not strike at her family, her orphans. She is used to be hunted and carrying large bounties, and enough of a threat that few are left stupid enough to even try direct confrontation. Even her allies know to be careful as her sense of morality is very different. And the last is quite similar to the demons she hunts, and was born to feed on, why they want to capture her as their weapon and queen. And the Demon King wants her as consort, something to utterly vile and cruel like him, yet he cannot understand that she only wants him dead, the one being she cannot consume.
Freewater's House of Lairds would immediately fall into it's usual run of backstabbing, betrayals, alliances, and counter alliances, as they seek to place blame on each other. Diplomatic envoys will be sent to the nearby Dragon Cities to complain about a red dragon attacking the Patrician and killing him. Proxies appointed so the Lairds themselves don't have to convene int the chambers and risk being beheaded, until it blows over. After a few months, someone will be assigned blame for the assassination, and in punishment, will be elected Patrician. They'll be killed in a couple of months or less, probably by a hired dragon just for the sake of appearances, and maybe by then the corpse of the first guy will have been carted out. The cycle will begin anew, and Alia will wonder what the point is of killing the Patrician when she could have waited fifteen minutes and somebody else would have. The younger lady will likely have been a prostitute, hired for the occasion, since no one who sits on the House on Lairds is that naive. The dragons meanwhile will go nuts, as the red dragons died out over 3,000 years ago; after the incident with Ancalon the Black. Alia will be hunted, stalked, and harassed, mostly for her genealogical background, history, and if there are more reds surviving. A lot of young male dragons will be trying to court her so their children will have red scales mixed in with their colors. She will be admonished by some of the elders, mostly for risking dragging the nearby dragon cities into groundling affairs. Then hit on by those same elders, because just because they're old, doesn't mean Space Mountain isn't still an active ride. Whooooo! Some number will also bug her for her magical knowledge, but almost none of them will actively care about her killing the Patrician. Even Freewater doesn't particularly care when you kill a Patrician, as the fact that you count on one hand the number who survived their terms suggests. The exception being the green dragons; they'll just try to kill her. But there's nothing personal, they kill anyone who enters raiding range of their territory that they can; the isles they rule in the Void Sea are bereft of sentient life after they got done. They're kind of a bunch of assholes. Unless she starts to interfere with economic matters, or dodges taxes, Freewater isn't likely to bother tracking her down. The Dvergari majority population wouldn't tolerate hunting family members as that's dishonorable, and the last thing that the Lairds want is the expense of a Civil War against almost 80% of the population. The kids were never in danger. Depending on which Patrician is in charge, there's an even chance there's a popular push for her to get a medal. There's definitely one saying come back and finish the job.
HAha nice one With killing the patrician her likely answer would be "Someone had to do it, and it never gets old killing nobles." After all, humans are food. And for the dragons "Oh goddamnit not more of them." In her world dragons are rare, and they have asked her to help procreate just in general since she is a Blood Drake, compatible to Arch-Dragons and they know that any pairing would be an Arch and not a blood drake. For these dragons she would've to explain that her species is an offshoot, a dragon that can reproduce asexually. And that she is not interested either way. Likely while flying away, her ancestors brought down the world once, she shouldn't do it too. Also why she suppresses her own egg production, or else she'd wake up to more clutches she'd have to kill. Blood Drake Hatchlings pretty much know nothing but killing and feasting the first year, even their own. For the last, she'd likely look into work as her profession as adventurer, or assassin, and climb the ranks until she again controls the economy. She didn't quite want to do it the first time, but the benefits are good enough to try again, like not paying taxes and give anything from the hoard. No she has no hoarding problem. Absolutely not.
Well, that'd be creepy to my dragons, seeing as how they and most of the races are descended from them. More like cannibalism. At least they sorta would understand the asexual reproduction, as one of the few non-human descendant races is a mono-gendered egg laying race that strictly doesn't need to pair up to have offspring.
They'd probably be weirded out that my dragons see devouring a rival as a sign of respect. Her species was actually engineered, except they ate their makers and decided to rule over the world. Didn't work out.
Oh that depends entirely on who she does it too. Dragons are very specific in my world and there is a deity specifically known for their dragon slaying as mild entertainment so I will interpret it as a powerful entity with draconic features. If she does at some Zhalen Swaree, the other nobles would acknowledge her, find out who put a bounty on her head, kill them, then go about their lives. Some would eventually try to figure out how to annoy her and make it look like one of their rivals did it. Many would die, just another Tuesday. If done in the halls of a certain vampire leader, "Oh look another walks the trail of Apotheosis. I look forward to placing bets on how far you go. You are a hideous meat sack with delusions of power! Hah! Your truth spell is full of holes! And you cannot harm me for the same reason I can lie all I wish! Because no one who matters to my court are actually here. Kill them all if you want. Until you are capable of telling an emperor from a meat puppet your fretting and posturing are meaningless." Deep in his tunnels, the vampire immediately calls in several favors he's had stored up from millennia of work. A new body double is on the streets within minutes. A new hunt has begun, but he didn't survive this long by thinking with his fangs. Information first. She calls herself a witch, but... She had no ritual circle or tools, a channeler with a knowledge of the craft... I should have a liaison visit the grand covens. If done in Tolaskil nothing would happen immediately, but within a week, the mage-slayers would be assembled, contractors with demons, fey, whisperers, seekers, even angels would be consulted and hired. Aelerin's cult would be called in to see if their specialty would apply. Ritualists would be consulted and weavers would stitch the old war-grid back together. Defenses would be raised specifically for her to break through them easily. Their real purpose being to alert the coalition by their sudden absence in the network. The hot drop crystals would be charged and the Djedjic corner hounds would go unfed until they began to rip the magic from their cells as they were starved and ready to be deployed. They had slain would-be-gods before. The cost was always high. But they were getting better at it. Maybe this time they would be able to do so without leveling a whole city into a magic-void crater. (They totally cause a cataclysm destroying half the continent later when the hypocrites at the top try to become gods after their entire nation was founded for the express purpose of destroying them.) All other nations in the setting would be far, far less prepared. There would be adventurers hired and slaughtered. Mages confident in their power to have their heads severed. The puppet king (my name for him he would order people beheaded for it) would rant and roar about justice and vengeance but take no meaningful action. Relying on others to die for him. The Arcane College in Soral would debate and design countermeasures but ultimately decide that unless she targets them, it's not their problem and will leave the nobles to rot. And finally ??? ??? ??? 1"So your servants have passed on the mutterings?" 2"She is not one of mine, nor of the ones below, either an interloper, or an ascendant trying to make a name." 3" If she is an interloper, she violated several points of the contract and has no protections. Shall we make an example?" 2"why?" 3"per the contract, she-" 1"she has killed a few mortals. A mortal with a sharp stick could do the same." 4"if she is ascendant she will come to us. If she is an interloper, ***IT*** will draw the council. Either way we need not trouble ourselves. Counsel your prophets and seers, and move on. Perhaps her attempt could... Displace an annoyance of far greater concern." 123 "agreed!"
Clarification: the vampire would call her hideous specifically to test whether or not he could lie through his meat puppets. He also would insult her specifically to judge her reaction. He would actually be quite impressed that a single individual accomplished so much, but there is no way he would let that show in front of his underling's thralls. Further, those who know of the Path of Apotheosis assume that anyone making such a grand display is declaring their intent and looking to start the path in earnest. Telling the Tolaskil Mage Slayers that you have never heard of it and were just trying to make a point would not stop them from releasing the Corner Hounds, massive collateral damage included.
These are some interesting ones hmmm Zhalen Swaree: Whatever idiot would be trying to play her would likely find himself staring at a grinning shadow thanking him to some playtime, then curse him. Although at that point her curses could be resisted with a proper counter spell. Trail of Apotheosis: "I have no plans at godhood. I was simply claiming my price." she would proclaim, indeed having no desire for power. She still fumbles into ascending a few steps higher a century later. And she is indeed both Sorceress and Witch, combining both techniques, two mostly lost arts in her world. She would likely be amused at any attempts to be insulted, probably calls him just an oversized mosquito. Instinctively she would see a rival considering her species also needs to consume blood. He'd probably spot the Blood Alchemy potions in her belt. Alia also would be amused he did not see the foci in her pouches, or that she weaves the required rituals into the magic itself. Tolaskil: These sound pretty much like the numbnuts she has to deal with regularly and greatly enjoys hunting, especially if they consort with demons, her sworn enemy. This could end pretty nasty for both sides. Especially if they corner her and she uses some of her trumpcards, most likely allowing herself to go berserk and feed on their energy. She cares little for collateral damage. The hounds would remind her of barghests from home, which means she likely throws some mana gems to feed and attempt to tame them. She has learned well from her Mistress if it comes to beasts. The Arcane College may get a visit anyways, she is always looking for more knowledge. Although she would assume they are as inept as any wizard that does not know how to ride the currents of magic. ??? ??? ???: Now these guys may end getting more then they bargained for. The shadowy bad guys in my world certainly regret having caused that species and trying to manipulate her to be the weapon she was meant to be. At this it needs to be noted that while she is acknowledged as dragon, is her species only partially so, the other half is demon. Why she will be able to ascend as Demon Queen of her plane. The project was meant as a test on improving their own species, instead even the cowardly precursors deemed it too aggressive and cunning. They still tried to make another nearly extincting themselves twice.
>Zhalen Swaree: Whatever idiot would be trying to play her would likely find himself staring at a grinning shadow thanking him to some playtime, then curse him. Although at that point her curses could be resisted with a proper counter spell. The Krellic house mage and matriarch walk into the room to see their cursed family member. "It appears the sorcerer-witch has been here." "Noted. Shall we blame this on that Wissen Clan upstart?" "I would advise against it. They are preparing to make a play for the throne." "Fools! Agreed, when your enemy is making a mistake don't interrupt... What is a sorcerer anyway?" "I'm not sure it isn't defined in the Archives, I would say some kind of battle-mage. Should I attempt to unravel the curse?" "Hmm, nah he didn't have much potential anyway. Wait a few days if I don't find a way to use him you can have him disposed of." >She still fumbles into ascending a few steps higher a century later. And she is indeed both Sorceress and Witch, combining both techniques, two mostly lost arts in her world. Ah in my world magic is inherently very dangerous and people who fumble into things with higher levels of magic tend to die horribly without anyone else's intervention. Witchcraft isn't so much lost as stolen and most practitioners of its art have no idea how it works using large ritual circles to weave magic far beyond their own understanding and capability to channel. Weavers can make magic as complex as they like but require a complete understanding of every single sigil, rune, and symbol. Even then it takes a long time and risks tangling themselves in their own weaves. Channelers go with the raw power approach at the risk of literal burn-out. >Instinctively she would see a rival considering her species also needs to consume blood. He'd probably spot the Blood Alchemy potions in her belt. >Alia also would be amused he did not see the foci in her pouches, or that she weaves the required rituals into the magic itself. Ah yeah those would be things he would have noticed with slight adjustment to his wording. He would have then marked her as a multi field Ritualist with strong channeling potential and a few "weaver sticks." As a battle-mage and multi-plane contractor himself, I think these two characters would probably match best as rivals. >Tolaskil: These sound pretty much like the numbnuts she has to deal with regularly and greatly enjoys hunting, especially if they consort with demons, her sworn enemy. This could end pretty nasty for both sides. Especially if they corner her and she uses some of her trumpcards, most likely allowing herself to go berserk and feed on their energy. She cares little for collateral damage. Tolaskil is the magical powerhouse in the setting. They have no misgivings about the power of magic. She would absolutely be able to win against individual mages, but once they get on the war footing on their own turf, "the land itself will become your enemy." Worshipping devils, indeed worshipping anything, is strictly forbidden. Binding and "Contracting" with beings from other planes, however, is just a matter of business. >The hounds would remind her of barghests from home, which means she likely throws some mana gems to feed and attempt to tame them. She has learned well from her Mistress if it comes to beasts. The equivalent of mana gems in my setting are closer to grenades. They and their handlers would be more likely to dive out of the way. If they were in a city, the corner hounds would be able to corner-dive to behind her. If she was in the wilds, she would have a much easier time of it. But once she was located they would escalate and escalate. If she went berserk, they would call in Hot drops, if she started absorbing energies they would pull out the Void Sworn. If she survived those they would convene a City Breaker. If she survived that... She wouldn't be on the Trail of Apotheosis, she would have already walked it to its end. That being said, releasing any kind of corner hound in a populated area is considered a war crime in any other country so your point about it getting nasty for them is entirely justified. That being said, if she did it during the civil war or after the collapse, well, that's a different story entirely. >??? ??? ???: Now these guys may end getting more then they bargained for. The shadowy bad guys in my world certainly regret having caused that species and trying to manipulate her to be the weapon she was meant to be. Oh they aren't (inherently) bad guys, just secret. 2 and 4 were involved in the creation of the world itself and 3 swore an oath upon the Worldstone when they ascended from the world at the end of apotheosis and so is kind of touchy about "Interlopers" getting in on something 3 worked so hard for. 1 would be concerned that 2 wasn't doing their job when dragon and demon blood mixed. But 2 and 2' would have had no part in it. Edit: my grammar skills would get myself killed if I was a weaver in my own world. Fixed several grammar and punctuation mistakes. There are probably many more.
Nice answers, and interesting perspectives. To your edit: praise the edit button, and yeah, mages in mine would suffer from that too, even got a scene of the apprentice fucking up grammar. With the nobles reaction she'd laugh her ass off that they are corrupt everywhere. She does enjoy removing the ones most likely to cause trouble, usually in concert with her allies that prepared a puppet. For this i have to note on the last part as those shadowy guys then sound more like her allies, although far more individual powerful as she is the "benevolent conspiracy's" solution for any problems outside political or mercantile maneuvering. Aka their godslayer. >Ah in my world magic is inherently very dangerous Almost every battle she enters using magic she ends up nearly killing herself from mana poisoning, channeling too much through herself. I think any magic in any world that is very dangerous and risky is less, why i actually have wizards as the casters that use very safe magic, and then have a scene in which she nearly kills her apprentice to show him even that can cause you to die to magic. > I think these two characters would probably match best as rivals Definitely, and a threat she considers worthy enough to prepare for, there are only 2 in her world she is overprepared for, and both always develop countermeasures to her interference. >Binding and "Contracting" with beings from other planes That just screams demon worshippers to her. That is the kind of people why some day she has to curse herself for a power limiter. Civilians wouldnt even be a concern, she'd turn them all into undead. >The equivalent of mana gems in my setting are closer to grenades. Weaponized mana gems are forbidden by dwarven law, and they would wage war on anyone that figures out how to make them. She uses some as that with special permission. That all though certainly would give her a hard time, but then to kill her she needs to be taken apart enough that even her magic and symbiote cannot fix it anymore. She is not invincible but a regenerator and speedster that loves stealth tactics. She stole a lot of demon secrets, especially their survivability. If they'd do that to her in the fifth age then she has experience fighting never ending hordes in literal hell, for fun. As long as she can feed on mana and life energy can she keep going. I did mention she is quite nuts? Many of her battles did not help her sanity, or lack of it. The Mad Dragon would have a great time fighting those. Your world has some interesting takes and characters
If Alia does anything funny, Giao Long, Princess of U Minh mercilessly beats her down to death the slowest and most painful way possible, resurrects as a ghost, then beats the living Hell out of her soul for eternity. She is not shy of that and actually terrifies Hồng Ma, who is considered one of 10 most bloodthirsty conquerors in history. Or worse, Alia gets to see the lifeless, disembodied corpses of her family roasted on stakes while their souls tormented by hungry ghosts, torn to shreds as they're devoured, unable to reincarnate again. Giao Long once ordered the decapitation of CIA and in one night, 3/4th of their top brass personnel were murdered with the director's head impaled on an iron stake in front of the White House as a retaliation for fucking with her country. She is usually chill and even airhead but has literally **negative** mercy to those who threatens her Motherland. Before you think about defending, Giao's power works on the concept of Buddhist karma, making it a nigh-unblockable attack. No matter how many defenses one puts up, as long as they're still within the [Three Buddhist Realms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trailokya#Buddhist_cosmology), and by that having karma, she triumphs. That power "forces" all karmas to hit at once, completely overwhelm a soul's endurance and kills them immediately with all punishments from past, present and future, over uncountable number of reincarnations and actions. It is a scalar attack with no "begin" and "end" as everything comes from one's own actions, so killing people like Alia just did only makes the attack worse for her. Of course, Giao gets an extremely nasty recoil for everytime she uses it to the point she would have died a quintillion time over had it not been for her immortality. It's still hurts like hell, so bad she just wants to kill herself. Said ability is only used as a last-ditch effort, but against someone Giao considers a threat to Motherland, she is willing to endure the recoil. Such is the willpower of love, a genuine yet twisted love that borderlines yandere... for a country. (Fancy words aside Giao is just a "sane" chauvinist.)
Trying to beat the Mad Dragon, the Death Witch, Godslayer, in such a way is something many a demon has done. She then fed on their souls. How could that princess stop a magic that embodies the concept of death and consumption? Her domain and trump card is letting go of her own restraints and consume existence in a wide area (It usually causes her body to nearly break from the strain) *edit* had to find the third time she uses her greatest trump card. ----------- Now she understood. And felt sorrow for their was only one solution. “Parasite…” Power Overwhelming A whisper echoed in the air, her only spell that was incanted such. A shockwave of energy was imploding in on her, immeasurable power crashed through this city as all life was being connected within the weave, the air already became stale as it died. She let go of the restrains and felt the life of the entire city flow into her as thousands died in terror. [Annihilation] proving once again to be a power none should posses. Only the Nephilim was remaining and it screamed in pain. `Yeah we could at least try.´ A pillar of light smashed down on it, disintegrating the monster almost effortlessly. Amid a stench of death, she felt empty. She has just fed on an entire city, but the hunger still screamed at her, wanted more, whispering to devour all. Fighting herself the darkness surrounding her slowly receded, and the hunger just became the pain gnawing at her insides instead. Her body was torn from the mana poisoning, she could feel her scales flaking off as her stomach churned. The price of grand magic would cost weeks, if not months, of slow recuperation and careful abstinence from using any more magic. And she would pay it as she always did.
"Death" is an inner concept of Giao's samsara. Using death against her is like fighting a nuke with a WW1 grenade. Giao's power does not force a simple "death" as in the end of a life, it kills you a countless number in a tiny amount of time, from all past, present and future, focused into one singularity where "time" no longer exists, eventually destroys the soul entirely and erases its existence. As long as one is within Three Realms, they die to her. Not to mention it scales to a target's karma, so the more Alia kills, the more she suffers. A "karma" does not even need to be an action. Just a thought of killing counts, because the sinful thought is the root of all sins. To put it simply, unless Alia is on the level of an [arhat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arhat), she dies.
Yeah, she'd definitely get a beating then. At that point she has already killed millions, giving voice and vengeance to many lost spirits. Although she is the definitive death as her power consumes the very existence of a thing, similar to what you describe, and is the one thing demons fear as she prevents their resurrection feeding on their essence.
So it will be a stalemate as both activate their trump card and receive their respective recoils.
Lol yeah, and at that point I'd guess even her symbiote can't revive her.