The Nexus of Old and New

The Nexus of Old and New is a part of Tales of Arkain, focusing on the Undead Nexus.

## Synopsis

This story is several descriptions pertaining the Undead Nexus factions there is.

## Story

When the Avatar of Death created the Undead, we were bound to his will. Yet, while he wanted them to remain his loyal serants, he wanted to see them develop without his interference. In order to do so, he created the nexus to seperate his armies of the Dead into different organisations. While the nexus were still bound to Aridon, they had some sort of own will and could develop their own behaviours and mindsets how to best serve our master while he remained on the top of the mountain, watching over them and the rest of Arkain. Six of these nexus had been created, all of them had become their own "self" as time went by: The Ejara, Zirr, Rohir, Splecir, Ardoz and Scarec Nexus.

**The Ejara Nexus**

*"Whether in life or death, all beings of Arkain are destined to serve our master in the end. We are the enforcers of his will, the harbingers of his rule. The Living will serve or die. There can be no freedom or alliance, only the master, the servants and the slaves."*

The very first action of the Ejara Nexus was their war against the Nerubians, a race that had evolved out of the spiders living in the caves of the mountain. The Ejara Nexus used brute force to slay the beasts and dark magic to have the dead creatures serve them. As soon as they were done either capturing or killing the creatures, they took the eggs and had the undead Nerubians breed them. In doing so, the Ejara were the ones that would turn the Nerubians into the slaves of the Undead. The Ejara believe that all living have to serve our master - and if they refuse to, they must either serve in death or be slaves in life. Hence they are in charge of the Nerubian breeding stations. They guard them and protect them from outside harm so that the Nerubians may live until they have evolved for long enough to be killed and raised as undead servants.

**The Zirr Nexus**

*"Knowledge and power are one and the same. Mastery of knowledge and magic is what makes us worthy in the eyes of the Watcher. Our knowledge is not for the mortals or immortals of this world to be seen, it serves one purpose only: To aid us in our eternal service."*

The Undead of the Zirr Nexus are the keepers of knowledge and secrets, the masters of the arcane and lorekeepers. My Rasi brethren and I have been created long ago by the master to record all history and knowledge we could find in the mortal world. For a long time, we had been wandering the world and managed to both watch the mortals and remain unhidden thanks to the abilities he gifted us with while the others within the Zirr Nexus studied all kinds of arcane secrets and skills. The Zirr Nexus may not be the most numerous of the nexus, but they hold many secrets in their books and will not hesitate to unleash everything they can whenever it is required.

**The Rohir Nexus**

*"The Living must see the folly of their ways. Only the master can grant vision. The Living will serve the master, whether they like it or not. We will infiltrate their ranks to make sure that they do what they are meant to do. If they resist, we will use our less subtle abilties instead."*

The Rohir Nexus are the actual nightmare of the Living when faced on the field of battle. They are not really dead but also not really alive. They are spirits stealing the bodies of the Living, they are the Reborn. The numbers of the Rohir Nexus are enormous as they are using their appearance to wander among the mortals and "turn them" to join their side - either by the use of persuasion or by force. The Rohir Nexus has its eyes everywhere, they possess both living and dead bodies to infiltrate mortal ranks, living a normal life, and gather their numbers until they are ready.

**The Splecir Nexus**

*"..."*

Out of all the different nexus, the Splecir Nexus is the one that has never strayed from its path, even when given some form of independence. They remain the loyal servants of Aridon without any quirks or doctrines, they only serve his direct will or the will of his most loyal followers. Yet, despite the lack of any unique "personality", they should never be underestimated. On the contrary, they are considered the champions of the Avatar of Death, the servants of his will. Among them are the Ethereals, the most sacred of his followers, like the Spirit Legionnaires, along with all other kinds of Undead. They do not fight with zeal or try to capture living for torment, they fight with cold determination until they are told to stop once they are unleashed.

**The Ardoz Nexus**

*"Fear. Pain. Torture. Suffering. Agony. A slow, painful death. Cruelty is the key to unlock the powers of death. The more traumatic the death of a mortal is, the more powerful the servant when entering the service of our master."*

The Ardoz Nexus remained in a relatively dormant state for a long time. Only when they first encountered intelligent life in the form of Nerubians captured by the Ejara Nexus, they began to actually evolve. They experimented on the captive, using dark magic and other tools of torment, slowly driving their prisoners insane while also crippling them. The Ardoz believe that the harm they inflict both on body and mind will make the target more powerful when raised after death - or when its flesh or spirit are used to create one of their monstrosities or other devices. This has also resulted in their torturers to know a lot about the physiology of many different species. A living being may prefer being killed than being captured alive by the Ardoz as they know how to make any race beg for the sweet release of death. However, while their behaviour may be cruel, their creations that come from these experiments are without a doubt extremely effective.

**The Scarec Nexus**

*"The flesh is weak. To serve the Watcher of Arkain means to let go of not only the desires and weaknesses of the mortal mind but to also let go of the filthy flesh. Only bones are pure and can bring both the living and dead understanding on how to best serve in the afterlife."*

The Scarec Nexus was the first to develop a very specific mindset and they have remained loyal to it up to this day. For them, every kind of flesh is undesirable and must be disposed of. They are zealous believers that they are destined to start their own unholy crusade to rid the world of all that is flesh until nothing but bones remains. The fact that they know that the master would not approve of them doing such a thing is the only thing that prevents them from doing exactly that but it should be noted that there is not a single Undead in their ranks that is anything but bones.

However, during the Second Voidwar, new nexus have emerged: The Kezzar Nexus and the Lenira Nexus.

**The Kezzar Nexus**

*"We were betrayed. Left back to die. Now we have returned to take revenge on them all. We were Demons in life, now we are demonic nightmares in death."*

The Kezzar Nexus was born when the dreadlord Ornasion entered the service of Aridon the Watcher. Our master had decided that he would be given the chance to lead his own nexus and allowed him to shape it by his own designs. Ornasion used his new powers to raise the dead Demons of the Blooddrinker Legion, and later also other legions, to serve in his army once more. Just as they did in life, the now undead Demons fight with fierce ferocity and grim determination. They have cut all connections to their old life and now want to prove that they are just as loyal as all other nexus.

**The Lenira Nexus**

*"The will of the Divine One is our will. We are the humble tools of his divine will, students of his endless wisdom. Only the maidens of the True Elves are worthy of this sacred honor. No other race is worthy for we are his creations. His children."*

The Lenira Nexus was created when the Dark Elves re-joined our master to serve him once more. A combination of Undead soldiers and the living dark elven priestesses and warrioresses. The Lenira consists mostly of Dark Elves rather than Undead yet the Undead within their ranks are developed very similar to their living allies, fanatics that would rather see any other living race burned than left alone. At the same time, they share the Splecir Nexus' determination to follow only the wishes of the master, which is also why they did not launch a full scale invasion against the surface. Yet.

After the master has decided to go into seclusion, he has left the nexus for themselves to do as they like in his absence as long as they do not endanger his work... His great champions have either joined a Nexus or taken control of one. I will be there to record the story as time progresses.

## Note

The Daviliad Nexus was absent in this descriptions, because the story was made before the Nexus was approved by Aridon, after requests from Queen Keera to lead her people once again, even in death.