Seventh Sanctum Generators

Enonaca

This unethical magic-user is driven by megalomania. She employs forbidden magic in her plots, often engaging in blackmail of important magic-users to achieve her goals. She posesses a strong immunity to magic.

This sensual lady has hooded blue eyes that are like two turquoises. Her fine, straight, cream-colored hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a helmet. She is short and has an amazonian build. Her skin is white. She has thin lips and large feet. Her wardrobe is unusual and sexy, with a mostly red color scheme.

Zardanal

This infamous wizard is motivated by insanity. He employs forbidden magic in his plots, often unleashing unspeakable dark forces to achieve his goals. He is heir to a kingdom but doesn't know it.

This guy puts you in mind of a mysterious shadow. He has large aquamarine eyes. His silky, straight, medium-length hair is the color of obsidian, and is worn in an artistic style. He is tall and has a wide-chested build. His skin is white. He has prominent cheekbones. His wardrobe is plain and businesslike, with a mostly gray color scheme.

Pheletiri

This persuasive mage is motivated by religious fanaticism. She employs forbidden magic in her plots, often creating exotic artifacts to achieve her goals. She has a large fortune.

This lady puts you in mind of a hunting tiger. She has slitted gray eyes that are like two windows looking out on an overcast sky. Her fine, straight, night-black hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a fluttering flag. She has a wide-hipped build. Her skin is brown. She has a wide chin. Her wardrobe is utilitarian and professional, with a completely yellow and blue color scheme.

Isange

This smart magus is driven by revenge. He uses demonology in his plots, usually engaging in blackmail of clerical leaders to achieve his goals. He has non-human ancestry.

This man reminds you of a clock that can't keep proper time. He has round gray eyes that are like two windows looking out on an overcast sky. His luxurious, curly, white hair is waist-length and is worn in an exotic, artistic style. He is tall and has a broad-shouldered build. His skin is china-white. He has a strong chin. His wardrobe is no-nonsense, and is mostly green and yellow.

They got together because of those little vixens, the ones claiming to be the new Avatars of the Gods. What rubbish. With the science and technology that their society had been discovering, also came a sound knowledge of forces of magic. Spirit and death magic, enchantment, and charm.

Once upon a time, those items also used to be covered by the Seven Gods. But now, they were the realm of magic.

Last harvest, word traveled fast as it was hardly past Thaw now, a foursome of girls no older than puberty had been shown off in a central part of the Church's district. Peasants and farm folk threw in gladly with cheering and celebration. They foolishly believed that these girls were the embodiments of the physical elements: earth, air, fire and water.

"Rubbish," said Enonaca. But then she was fond of the word. Her raven-haired companion, the mad Zardanal grunted.

"What if it's true?" He asked. "I mean, I manipulate the essence of Darkness, do I not?"

Pheletiri gave a pshaw-noise, tossing her hand into the air. "Any necromancer or dark lorist can do that, Zardanal, I can do it. It hardly means you're an avatar."

"But what if they are?" He asked again.

The four of these mages were uncomfortable with the thought. Their jobs - well, their lives in some cases - were going to be made much more difficult if the girls were really what they appeared to be. For what would come next?

A sweeping 'reform' of magic? Surely the high class and rulers would have to acknowledge the power of the Gods, if they really still existed.

"I've been doing some research," said the exotic white-haired Isange. He put down a huge tome onto the round wooden table they were sharing, it was open and held many other pages marked by strips of ribbon. "When I was cast out of the Church, it was - of course - due to my ... unique heritage."

"You don't still want us to believe you're a quarter demon, do you?" Asked Pheletiri with an annoyed sigh.

"You of all people should know better than to ask that," he said, grey eyes meeting hers. "You purposefully avoid reading my aura, Phele, why is that?" The white haired man gave a brief smile, and then turned back to his book. "The gods come and go in cycles. This is not the first time they have 'come back' from a long absence."

The others perked up with this information. "What happened then, last time they did this?" Asked Enonaca. She twisted her golden hair around her long fingers.

Isange nodded and flipped the book to another page. "When last, was Urdanh 'blessed' with the reappearance, that was some seven hundred years ago."

"A hundred years for each God," Enonaca muttered. "How droll."

"How appropriate," said Pheletiri. "It makes some sense, at least to me. But how long do they remain so powerful? No one in any of our lifetimes combined would have seen their Avatars."

"True," Isange continued. "For seventy years each reigns, then they appear to dwindle if not vanish completely for the rest of that time. The Avatars are not born again for more than two hundred years. More than time enough for ... well," he chuckled and rolled his eyes at Pheletiri, "seven generations to pass."

"But why let their reign end at all?" Asked Zardanal, "why not continue to enforce their power?"

Isange grinned widely at that. "I was hoping you could put the pieces together... The demons used to be allowed to rule, in that time. An unequal amount, certainly, but they were not as powerful as the Avatars or their Gods."

"Well terrific," Enonaca said, "how does that make us stack up, even if you do have demon blood in you, Isange? It means we don't even stand a chance against their Avatars, let alone the Gods."

Pheletiri muttered below her breath, an odd prayer that she knew from childhood. "Enonaca, please, we cannot take down the Gods, that would be pointless. We require them to keep the world running properly."

"We require the Gods to keep the masses behaving properly," Isange corrected her. "Technology and magic work perfectly well without the gods' power. They at the very least do not require worldwide belief to work - only physics and aether."

Zardanal's fist began to bubble with black waves of tarry-like color. "I believe that my power is stronger than any young girl's, Avatar or no."

"And I believe him," Enonaca nodded toward the black-haired mage and then back toward Isange. "We could work out an attack plan, and carry it out before they even know what hit them."

The others nodded, eventually.

They hardly knew that dozens of other such meetings were taking place around the world - some in a panic, and some with more or less powerful members.

Their first attack met with failure, but only because of the sheer volume of power that hoards of 'believers' gave the girls. On a pilgrimage to one of the holy sites of the world, the girls were paraded about and followed by literally thousands of pesants.

"Don't these people have anything better to do? Isn't there a harvest to plant or something?" Enonaca sighed. Their powers didn't even eclipse the back quarter of the crowd, and there was simply no way that they would place themselves in such danger as to reach the children on foot - among the throng? Impossible.

But they now knew they could wait until a time when the girls were less well padded.

They would wait another month, perhaps less. Striking again...

This time they learned the power of the Avatars were not misrepresented in Isange's book - with but one wave of her hand, the white-haired fire-Avatar Fante almost burnt Zardanal to a crisp. But she couldn't do it, the flames didn't miss, they merely did no damage.

The look on the other girls' faces were precious, even though the mages hardly had time to notice as they were scrambling for Pheletiri's enchanted transportation discs.

"So perhaps you are more than you seem," Enonaca said, drawing herself up to the ebony-haired mage. He allowed her to drape herself over his arm and entwine her fingers through his hair. She sought power like a moth to a flame.

"I've always said," he laughed.

"Well that was interesting," Isange said, brushing the ash and soot from his clothing - all that remained of the fire-Avatar's power. When they'd gotten back to the castle that Pheletiri allowed them all to use as a base, it was plain they had more research to do.

What about the other Avatars? Earth, Fire, Air and Water were represented. But... Mind, Time and Absence? Those things were never adequately portrayed in church documents. The elements were clear, and though some tried to claim that Mind wasn't really a non-physical element, it could only occur where life did, time and the negation of things were pretty obvious.

Absence appeared to be Zardanal's domain. It was easier to believe now that the Avatars were real - that the Gods were coming back, with that display of both power and nullification of it.

Enonaca too seemed to be of the 'negation' persuasion - after all she had usually been able to snap her fingers and magic would go awry. Isange was firmly and clearly of the Demonic inheritors of that last two hundred-ten years, and Pheletiri... Perhaps she was a devout Mind type after all. Magic could only be worked by those of a higher degree of intellect, it was just as hard as higher math and sciences.

Eventually, the group realized they would need more of an advantage if they were to disrupt things. They realized that even if they didn't succeed in killing the girls - perhaps even one of them could be destroyed before the mages would be caught and killed. That would throw a wrench into the Gods reformation, now wouldn't it?

The form that they decided to get in this 'advantage' was to be found on another world, a parallel place where dragons fought endless epic battles.

The Citadel of Shadows.

Once they would find companions there, perhaps, this job of keeping the power in the hands of the powerful would be much easier...

NEXT!