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Description
Concept of an original character I've been working some time ago.

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This character is Alica Kozlovskaya (Алиса Козловская), a Belarusian girl who plays a major role in some story arcs from my current original story project - the IN LAK'ECH Mythos.
The goat and skeleton-like elements and overall design of her suit is a visual appearance shared by all who have made a blood pact with the Baphomet entity in the IN LAK'ECH Mythos.

THE HIDDEN ELEMENTS
The Baphomet is a powerful entity which dormant, frozen form is an egg-like stone that has been called as Baihu (White Tiger) by Eastern alchemists, the Philosophers' Stone by Nicolas Flamel and Darr (the enochian name for the stone) by John Dee. This is one out of five ancient stones derived from the Ater Adamantis, an internal organ from Apep, a primordial serpent of Chaos abruptly aborted from the veil of Chaos by Hydros the Elemental God of Water. Apep is regarded as a Quinametzin (from the nahuatl "giant"), a race of self-sufficient huge beasts that have rivalred the Nine Elemental Gods in times immemorial, and whose struggle is said to have shaped the surface of several planets. Hydros' Trident has shattered the Ater Adamantis into four stones which met different fates. Each stone had a different element, and were called the hidden elements - for while they're present in the world of matter and energy, they need to be activated in order to be identified and to have their properties known, otherwise they'd mask as another common element from the periodic table. For these elements to be activated, however, one needs to possess another activated fraction of any of it to perform the activation - which means, all those sorcerers who activate and manipulate these elements are ultimately related to Hydros, for he was the first to observe these elements. Reputedly, these elements have only appeared in the environment following Apep's subjugation. But it's so many years in the past it's difficult to tell.

THE TOPAKAR MAGIC
As mentioned before, each stone met a different fate, but in most cases, ended up at the hands of dragons, or Vovin, a proud race that in several realms was hunt down almost to extinction - by treatises between some of their own and other species. The Baihu belonged, for some time, to a wealthy dragon named Mammon, who lived in Atlantis before its collapse. From Mammon, it passed to another dragon, the proud Dantalion, who used its influence to lead other dragons into building an underground fortress beneath nowadays' borders of northwestern Russia. Each of those stones have a greater influence over other samples of the element in question. The Baihu's element is often called Darr, for it was used by the enochian speaking inhabitants of Apuqohcan, a town from the northwestern continent of the planet Topakhon, in the K Pacha solar system. Apuqohcan had a magocratic government, and its interactions with other peoples of Topakhon culminated in a wider distribution of this element's samples across the lands. This planet and its inhabitants were overseen by Tupaq (a.k.a Tokoyrikoq from the quechua "all-seeing", Sorath, Mixcoatl from the nahuatl "Cloud Serpent", Chicopaec, Ai Apukon Tiki Wiracocha, among others) - the Elemental god of Darkness, and the Primordial Vovin (or "first dragon". The dragon species were designed after him), and in a time when he and his brothers played with the lives of billions of sentient beings, watching civilizations rise and fall, he decided to take a more personal intervention over Topakhon's inhabitants, approaching selected individuals to become his ambassadors, teaching them what he knew about the hidden elements, and granting them immortality so they could see alongside him the results of their experiments. These four individuals were the Ta'tal, and each of them was granted an aspect of what Tupaq called the Topakar magic, that heavily relied on the properties of the Darr hidden element. These individuals eventually attained influence over four distinct civilizations of Topakhon, which Tupaq called the tribes of Topakhon. These tribes included several species, from humans to biomechanic semi-crustacean and semi-amphibian Yakuruna, the giant arthropod kind of Ai Apaec, and members from a bird-like humanoid kind known as Chronpuchians. Darr's properties can allow a trained sorcerer to use necromancy, telekinesis, to materialize shadows (into a substance known as Duskoplasm, the same that allows the practice of necromancy), to shift gravity, to teleport (technically, open wormholes or portal-type black holes), to open black holes (a.k.a pit-type black holes, that cast one or an entire area into the Anaghra Lemah or Dimension of Absolute Darkness, a dimension that's parallel to the universe of matter and energy and is also Tupaq's inner organism, which his mind has access to, and where he has omniscience) and a couple of things. The usage of this element hasn't been exclusive to the Topakar, however after some time, the moral implications of such usage became a concern for other nations being attacked by the Topakar tribes. Rhoughly 5000 years ago, Tupaq has entered and escaped the dimension of Chaos, accompanied by his self-generated children, the Centzonmimixcoa (from the nahuatl "four hundred alike the Cloud Serpent", cloud serpent being Mixcoatl, one of Tupaq's names. They're also called Yana Phuyu, from the quechua "dark clouds" and daeva by the Mazdaists). These demons made out of shadow have followed Tupaq in his plan of conquering Topakhon under his rule, so the four distinct nations became one - the Ors Ohorela (Law of Darkness in enochian). The other communities besides these four were either enslaved or terminated, and eventually, Tupaq ordered some allies of his to convert the planet into a mobile mass destruction weapon, replacing its atmosphere by an elaborate artificial one and its core by a controlled, isolated Black Hole, that produced endless energy for the people of Topakhon, and that could destroy nearby solar systems. The people of Topakhon didn't need the sun anymore, or anything other than their planet, and Tupaq has declared war on several civilizations across the galaxy, on a historical period of seemingly endless conflict and destruction that culminated with Topakhon's destruction and the imprisonment of Tupaq and the Centzonmimixcoa. The other Elemental Gods believed to have destroyed the Topakars once and for all as they were swallowed by the Black Hole which sustained them.

THE RETURN OF THE DRAGON
But as long as the Topakar magic continued, the legacy would live on. Different survivors led different fronts. Ai Apaec, a Ta'tal, arrived on what's nowadays Northern Coast of Chinchaysuyu (Peru), overlooking the Pacific Ocean, alongside some of his kind, who have merged within the local pre-Inca Moche community, several centuries before the common era. Spectro (the Elder), the scientist behind the development of Topakhon Mobile, managed to save the city of Apuqohcan and cast it away into a remote corner of the galaxy, while he lived in his homeland at K Pacha as another individual, where he'd become a local industrialist. Eventually, the Darr magic made it into the other side of the earth, as a Centzonmimixcoa by the name of Jahi has seemingly escaped the extermination of her kind, and between Persia and Egypt she taught some magicians about some knowledge that would unleash what was later called the Justinian Plague (an early case of Black Death in the Mediterranean). Another individual who knew of such arts was an inhabitant of Egypt, Khnum, the Goat god. From there, the knowledge would be passed to Europe, where a secret society of counselors, greedy noble men and some wealthy villains has been formed - the Secret Palarokhian Order - named after Palarokhiel, the nation of Topakhon's southeastern continent. The Palarokhian society counted with magicians from far away lands, including the easternmost realms of Europe to the north of Africa, and some of them knew where to find and collect dragons - including Dantalion's own kingdom. Through their collaboration of Jahi, in the 10th Century they became able to regain contact with Tupaq, by an obsidian crystal, and from there, Tupaq promised them incredible power, including the conquest of all their lands' kingdoms, should they be able of releasing him. A rebel dragon from Dantalion's slave pens, by the name of Snogard, has slain Dantalion and taken his crystal, during an era when the Vovin Brotherhood promised to release themselves from the shackles of tyrants like Dantalion. Snogard changed a little the role of Dantalia, and eventually became its ruler. But Snogard had his own set of beliefs, which coincided with the Palarokhian Order's interests - Snogard believed Tupaq, the original dragon, would bring a new age of prosperity for them, so he kept Dantalion's Baihu not within him (dragons have crystals as organs of their own. The most powerful the crystal, the most powerful the dragon, so with a primordial crystal such as the Baihu Mammon and Dantalion were really powerful. Only the combined effort of dozens of, if not more dragons could take them down), but on hold, for when Tupaq comes back into the world of matter. They were dealing with a thousands of years old threat, while the kingdoms were cluelessly fighting for gold and the imposition of the official religion of Rome, but some vigilant observers realized the threat and decided to act. Either way, the Palarokhian Order was so secret it surely wasn't the only witchcraft practicing society out there, and some of its own members had backgrounds on other societies before, societies some of them, like Nicholas Flamel, cared more than the cult of a shadow dragon. In 1120, Alongside some followers, Flamel stole the Baihu from Snogard, in Dantalia, and were ambushed until they reached a southern town, in nowadays Chernyakhovsk (former Insterburg), where Nicholas and his followers performed a ritual that harvested the lives of the locals and awoke the entity from the stone - with a mysterious, humanoid demeanor yet goat-like in appearance, winged and with a torch coming like a third horn from its head, and the inscriptions SOLVE and COAGULA on its arms, the followers claimed this entity to be the deity of alchemy, the true form of the philosophers' stone and named it the Baphomet (a name later used, in the next century, by Philip IV to accuse the Templars of pagan worship). Witchcraft practicers from all of Europe gathered in the town and built a fortress, where the Baphomet was contained back into its stone form, and created the Baphomet's Temple Society, a not so secret society where magicians from all across the known world were invited for practice and to share knowledge. It's existence remained largely unknown to the simpletons, like a magic house, and it acted independently of the Palarokhian order. They lost control over the stone, but not for long. In the 14th Century, after 3000 years Tupaq was finally free, and materialized again. He took the stone into his own dragon form, but was unable to keep it. The interaction between the spirit of Darkness (who has an "Ater Adamantis", an organ made from the junction of the five hidden elements, of his own) and Baphomet, however, has transformed the entity forevermore - not only it contained all the properties of Darr, it could since then convert itself into other hidden elements. The ones that made a blood pact with it were arguably, now, four times as powerful. The Temple of Baphomet has housed several victims of the Inquisition and the Crusades, yet remained independent from the Palarokhian order that briefly, under Tupaq, have some of their members put into crucial positions within French (the Ferniers), Dutch (the Soncks) and Russian (the Valtherans). Other members have also attained power in other realms, while even others have infiltrated the Temple of the Baphomet.

MODERN ERA
By the second world war, after the Palarokhian Order has been majorly taken over by the USSR supportive Valtherans, resulting in the break-up of several of its former allies, including the Soncks, who moved to Lithuania, the Temple's remnants were located at the german town of Insterburg. The USSR, following the defeat of the Axis, would take the entire area of nowadays Kaliningrad Oblast, including Insterburg - renamed as Chernyakhovsk, the Baphomet's Temple original location, and Königsberg - renamed as Kaliningrad, where the fortress of the Palarokhians' greatest enemies, the Schwarze Ritter (Black Knights), a pack of immortalized thieves and knights bound by a code against tyranny and nationalism, was located. Centuries ago, it was by the effort of the Black Knights that the Palarokhians didn't take most of Europe following the Black Death (caused by Tupaq's return). But one of their founders, the hero Drachensohn, from eastern Germany, has died just after taking the life of the self-proclaimed Palarokhian Emperor Yulmar. Or has almost, as his lover, the Basque witch Sorginak, an apprentice of the prodigious witch Aradia (actually, a host of Cuauhtemoc, who at this time was disguised under another host, "Veneficus"), has forged a pact of blood between Drachensohn and the Baphomet. The only first generation Black Knight to deny such a pact was one of the last Cathar christians, Belibaste. They would live for eternity, struggling to keep their bodies from aging - in Drachensohn's case, though, it was a bit too late, and he lived like a skeleton for the next years. It didn't change what Sorginak felt for him, though - but never imagined the source of their power would fall in the hands of the enemy by such a way - some of the Black Knights were even involved in the resistance against Nazi Germany! The Black Knights were forced to leave Kaliningrad, and have split - some to Southeast, others to the west. Sorginak and Drachensohn lost contact with their allies and lived in the border between Poland and the Soviet Union, at dispute for most of the 20th Century's second half. As for the Baphomet, it became the newest weapons of the Palarokhians involved with the USSR's secret program. Aware of how a blood pact works, and how many people the Baphomet can make a pact with, they created generations of dispensable super-soldiers using this power. If any died, they could have someone else taking its place. But they found a difficulty - they couldn't make as many soldiers at a time as they wanted to, a dozen was all. And the Palarokhians knew the reason - the Black Knights, who have retained their pacts after centuries, their very existence prevented the Baphomet from forging new pacts, and they once again proved to trouble the Palarokhians' plans. One of the 20th Century KGB chiefs which made a pact with the Baphomet in service was the Bielorussian Vadim Valtheran, who was involved in the 1981 conflicts on Chile between the interventing Tahuantinsuyuan and US/UK forces, in an episode that seemed to hint the start of a new world war, but ended with a Tahuantinsuyuan victory. During this time, Vadim had a son, Ollantay, who would spend his first years in Qollasuyu with his mother and would only meet his father years later, in Belarus, when the USSR had already collapsed. A delusional Vadim has met his son with arrogance and disapproval, as Ollantay increasingly put an effort to prove his father his worth. In 2000, Vadim and his squad were selected to support Tahuantinsuyu - despite the USSR was no more, a specific sector within the Belarusian government, a suspiciously Soviet nostalgic one, still harbored cooperation with Tahuantinsuyan intelligence - on a mission in the Mexican island of Bermeja, near Cuba. Tupaq Amaru III, the leader of Tahuantinsuyu, was present there himself, and a catastrophe happened - the island was swallowed alongside its inhabitants by Tupaq's true form, for reasons Vadim didn't know. Vadim surviver, and swore to find a way to defeat Tupaq and expose his true nature - that of an ancient Dragon-god of Darkness. It didn't happen, though, as Tupaq was tricked by his enemy brothers and swallowed his own, not to appear again for years, what left the international community widely believing he was dead. Vadim, however, was introduced to the Hebdomad, a faction that has been persecuting Tupaq for years, and that has worked in direct association with the angel-like Amesha Spentas and the government of a heavenly-like, luxurious outlandish realm of Ohrmuz, so he didn't return home for a while. His son, Ollantay, would mourn his death and prove himself after that, as he took the mantle of KGB, and started working not only for the Belarusian government, but for the Palarokhian Order, that alongside the Saqraruna organization, a secret organization currently based in Tahuantinsuyu, where it controls most of Tahuantinsuyu's council for advanced scientifical, technological, energetic and industrial development, form the shadow government.

THE COVENANT
As if a twist by fate, Vadim returned as an INTERPOL soldier, and set foot on Belarusian ground once more, in 2006, when they were activated to support the local KGB in repressing a peaceful movement of opposition during the presidential elections. In said occasion, Vadim would meet his son again, who was shocked to see he just left his duty, as he tried to tell Ollantay about how the KGB were manipulated by Tupaq, something Ollantay not only didn't buy, but stood against, in disbelief. In the same occasion, he tried to assassinate his own father, but another soldier, Iñaki, has cut his legs on the attempt. Vadim left, and didn't reprimand either his son or Iñaki. That wasn't, however, the last of Ollantay. He knew he could still live, if he made the covenant. A renewed, vengeful Ollantay would meet Vadim once again - In March 29th 2009, at the El Caracol facility in Mexico City's western neighborhoods, a group of powerful individuals sent by the Saqraruna were about to release Tupaq's human body from its recently discovered prison (discovered by a secret operation of the saqraruna involving a french-canadian informant, who got information from the Jötunn Organization, led by one of Tupaq's brothers, by their involvement with slaves trafficking), when a small counter-force arrived, led by Vadim. This time, he knew his son was prevented from dying, by accepting the same cursed pact he did (because he was no longer a KGB, he was as an enemy to the Palarokhian council as were the Black Knights), and tried to mock him for letting Tupaq use him, as Ollantay discovered Vadim has more powers than those granted by the Baphomet - he was accompanied by Vohu Manah, an Amesha Spentas, whom Tupaq identified as a detestable creation from the God of Light. The battle ensued, Tupaq couldn't be stopped, but Vadim escaped unscathed. In the same occasion, global inhuman super-fast lizard-man "terrorist" Cuetzpalin Paynal was present, and disappointed all when he believed that the Centzonmimixcoa deserve freedom for they're sentient. Ollantay didn't know exactly about the extension of his father's new powers, but would risk his life if he had to stop his father. In late September 2009, a renegade cell which split from INTERPOL because of its growing conivence with the dictatorial behavior Tupaq has adopted as the new Prime Minister of Tahuantinsuyu since his formal return in April 1st, has blockaded the northwestern exit from the city of Pachacamac, between the regions of Quntisuyu and Chinchaysuyu, and that's where Ollantay & Vadim met once again. Ollantay expected his father, and believed to have set a trap for him - he commanded the Palarokhian to wake Baphomet in the Belovezhskaya Forest Reserve (where supposedly it wouldn't harm humans and its existence wouldn't be noticed. Anyone sighting this should be assassinated at sight, so before the operation took place, government officials cerated an excuse to keep the reserve workers bothered with somethin else), so his father would fall unconscious like him, and Saqraruna officials would capture his father. It backfired, however, as Vadim was kept intact because he's bond to Vohu Manah, who has trained him to project his consciousness into an astral body. In the end, it was Ollantay that was captured, and brought to Ohrmuz, away from Tupaq and the KGB. But the awakening of the Baphomet that day has caused more consequences they could ever foresee.

THE AWAKENING
The Belovezhskaya Forest Reserve, set between the borders of Belarus and Poland, is one of the last remnants of the primeval forest which covered Europe, and is as well home to the endangered European Bison. In the past, it was the western portion of a larger forest that with time was degradated by action of Slavic and Hun populations. Among its unusual inhabitants, there were the Leshy, guardians of the forest animals, who attacked hunters and settlers. They were called by other names on ther areas, such as Jentilak in the Iberian forests, by the Basque people. The Leshy, however, were a group exclusive to this area, and were led by Veles, the underworld god of Slavic cosmology. With the destruction of the forest, Veles escaped to its secret eastern portion, where he lives surrounded by the enigmatic Prophetic birds. In the eastern remnants of the forest, the Belovezhskaya Forest, only some remains of some long gone Leshy stood. The Baphomet's awakening on the area has also awakened these Leshy, and they started to attack the Palarokhian and KGB officials, getting out of their control - as did the Baphomet. The Baphomet walked freely for some two hours, and national security was desperately activated to prevent the public from knowing about this disaster, as the Baphomet reached the northernmost borders of the Belarusian city of Brest, where a group of students was peacefully organizing an event criticizing the government. That's when the national guard appeared, and out of nothing started to kill people, as the Baphomet would reach there at any moment. Several people died, but among the survivors, a 14 years old girl was hurt and bloodied, and found the Baphomet - in an act of desperation, she seemed to talk with the entity, and unknowingly forged a pact. The Baphomet was converted back to its stone form, and the national guard took control of it. The girl, Alica, has survived, and started to listen to voices, coming from the Baphomet - asking her to release it. She didn't know what just happened, she only knew she lost friends and was desperate now - in the next weeks, some of her dead friends appeared to her, as if they were reanimated, and with a mixture of self-preservation instinct and instruction from the Baphomet, she managed to keep them away - to control the dead. But this has put her in even more danger, as she's by no means the only necromancer of the area, she's just the newest, and some of the more experienced can easily locate new ones. In no time, she would be persecuted by secret agents, while she was still learning to use her powers, and while she preferred not to engage in a life of battle as a vigilante of sorts (she knew she couldn't leave her identity exposed anyway), she had no other choice, for a matter of survival. Within months, though, she would meet another couple who made a covenant with the Baphomet - Sorginak and Drachensohn. And they wanted her to restore the Black Knights. But that wouldn't be an easy task, Sorginak would teach her, while Drachensohn told her stories about the past, all the way explaining who are the Palarokhians, what's the Baphomet, how a pact works and so on. These moments brought her great discoveries, she really had great power, however also brought her some sadness - for this power reeked of cold, dark death. She earned it from a moment she lost so many dear people, and because of it secret agents were sprouting of nowhere to kill her. But Sorginak and Drachensohn couldn't let her falter - for the sake of her own freedom, the Baphomet should be taken away from the hands of the Palarokhians. As she started to understand, she came to her own choice of invading the Temple at Chernyakhovsk and taking the crystal for her own. Afterall, it was the only way she could become the master of her own fate. The struggle, however, would take longer than anticipated - it was prudent to gather all the Black Knights that remained before they could strike, either stealthily or heads-on, into the Temple. And for that she should travek a lot, to meet the other Black Knights. Exposed to the history of corruption behind every kingdom, and the apathy which authority has for life itself, she started to naturally harbor an anti-authoritarian sentiment which also made her critical of most of her friends' positions - either progressists or conservatives, everyone seemed to want authority. Her new life also had her studying a lot of chemistry, to understand her powers and get more prepared for eventual clashes against official necromancers and so on, and she tried to keep her new abilities in secret, even from her parents who lived with her in the Belarusian city of Brest. As part of her awesome power, she can also shift some machines into Baphomet-inspired, Darr-built constructs, what qualify her ablities as a technomancer. She can, for example, change appearance and performance of automobiles such as motorbikes and cars, just like others who made the pact.

Because Alica isn't associated to the Palarokhian Council which controls the Baphomet's conditions and is allied to several sectors of the government (besides other enterprises and governments around the world), the Baphomet itself found on her a chance of freedom - it intends her to invade the fortress where the Baphomet's dormant form is kept into an icy prison, and she means to do it - not necessarily for the Baphomet, neither for the Black Knights, but for her own. Besides, if the Palarokhian Council, which she initially believes to be part of the government, decides to wake up such an entity, then she would fall unconscious as long as they decided. Her actions, however, will greatly benefit the restoration of the Black Knights in a moment of greatest need, when the actions of several independent, autonomous groups of anarchists worldwide returned to armed action against the establishment, partially inspired by the victories of the movement for autonomy in south and central america, as well in the Mediterranean, that resulted in the weakening of some institutions, as well in armed conflicts and rise of new armed groups, in part due to the distribution of weapons and military equipment forcefully taken from other militias or stolen from official military bases in distinct States. The Black Knights, too, were part of a historical initiative of international anarchist action that happened not long after the Black Death outbreak in Europe. The mass media from most states would try to promote a distorted view in which these groups were formally organized into a global network, and had someone as a leader. A name adopted by a specific cell, "Necoc Yaotl" (from the nahuatl "Enemy of both sides", one of the many names used to refer to the pre-hispanic deity Tezcatlipoca. This name was an idea by one of its voluntary members, the inhuman super-fast lizardman self-proclaimed Cuetzpalin Paynal), would be taken as a possible name for the entire "organization" (it barely can be called an organization, and it definetely has no leader. Each "operation" counts with different people that aren't bound by any contract, and despite previously planned, are somewhat spontaneous, and performed by affinity groups whenever they find they have enough resources - to attack a bank, some churches, the base of political parties, the transport stations from private businesses responsible for the profit acquired from the so-called "public transport", television and mass media centers, land properties owned by traditional landlords, the private residencies of politicians and so on, among other surveillance stations of the status quo). Because the Black Knights would benefit from Alica's actions - and also aid her - she would inevitably meet with one of their oldest allies, Cuauhtemoc, who in turn is currently associated to Paynal and other informal anarchist armed forces from europe, and that would have her meeting the human identity of Paynal - the young William Mattoni , in October 2010, when the invasion of the Baphomet Facility (previously, the location of the Baphomet's Temple) by the Black Knights was happening. From that, they would slowly develop a friendship, and after each time they talked, William would let his feelings grow towards something else, "rushing the process" and facing its consequences.

Follow, "like" & support my work on other "social" networks!

Behance | tumblr | instagram | facebook

Description
Concept of an original character I've been working some time ago.

Follow, "like" & support my work on other "social" networks!

Behance | tumblr | instagram | facebook

This character is Alica Kozlovskaya (Алиса Козловская), a Belarusian girl who plays a major role in some story arcs from my current original story project - the IN LAK'ECH Mythos.
The goat and skeleton-like elements and overall design of her suit is a visual appearance shared by all who have made a blood pact with the Baphomet entity in the IN LAK'ECH Mythos.

THE HIDDEN ELEMENTS
The Baphomet is a powerful entity which dormant, frozen form is an egg-like stone that has been called as Baihu (White Tiger) by Eastern alchemists, the Philosophers' Stone by Nicolas Flamel and Darr (the enochian name for the stone) by John Dee. This is one out of five ancient stones derived from the Ater Adamantis, an internal organ from Apep, a primordial serpent of Chaos abruptly aborted from the veil of Chaos by Hydros the Elemental God of Water. Apep is regarded as a Quinametzin (from the nahuatl "giant"), a race of self-sufficient huge beasts that have rivalred the Nine Elemental Gods in times immemorial, and whose struggle is said to have shaped the surface of several planets. Hydros' Trident has shattered the Ater Adamantis into four stones which met different fates. Each stone had a different element, and were called the hidden elements - for while they're present in the world of matter and energy, they need to be activated in order to be identified and to have their properties known, otherwise they'd mask as another common element from the periodic table. For these elements to be activated, however, one needs to possess another activated fraction of any of it to perform the activation - which means, all those sorcerers who activate and manipulate these elements are ultimately related to Hydros, for he was the first to observe these elements. Reputedly, these elements have only appeared in the environment following Apep's subjugation. But it's so many years in the past it's difficult to tell.

THE TOPAKAR MAGIC
As mentioned before, each stone met a different fate, but in most cases, ended up at the hands of dragons, or Vovin, a proud race that in several realms was hunt down almost to extinction - by treatises between some of their own and other species. The Baihu belonged, for some time, to a wealthy dragon named Mammon, who lived in Atlantis before its collapse. From Mammon, it passed to another dragon, the proud Dantalion, who used its influence to lead other dragons into building an underground fortress beneath nowadays' borders of northwestern Russia. Each of those stones have a greater influence over other samples of the element in question. The Baihu's element is often called Darr, for it was used by the enochian speaking inhabitants of Apuqohcan, a town from the northwestern continent of the planet Topakhon, in the K Pacha solar system. Apuqohcan had a magocratic government, and its interactions with other peoples of Topakhon culminated in a wider distribution of this element's samples across the lands. This planet and its inhabitants were overseen by Tupaq (a.k.a Tokoyrikoq from the quechua "all-seeing", Sorath, Mixcoatl from the nahuatl "Cloud Serpent", Chicopaec, Ai Apukon Tiki Wiracocha, among others) - the Elemental god of Darkness, and the Primordial Vovin (or "first dragon". The dragon species were designed after him), and in a time when he and his brothers played with the lives of billions of sentient beings, watching civilizations rise and fall, he decided to take a more personal intervention over Topakhon's inhabitants, approaching selected individuals to become his ambassadors, teaching them what he knew about the hidden elements, and granting them immortality so they could see alongside him the results of their experiments. These four individuals were the Ta'tal, and each of them was granted an aspect of what Tupaq called the Topakar magic, that heavily relied on the properties of the Darr hidden element. These individuals eventually attained influence over four distinct civilizations of Topakhon, which Tupaq called the tribes of Topakhon. These tribes included several species, from humans to biomechanic semi-crustacean and semi-amphibian Yakuruna, the giant arthropod kind of Ai Apaec, and members from a bird-like humanoid kind known as Chronpuchians. Darr's properties can allow a trained sorcerer to use necromancy, telekinesis, to materialize shadows (into a substance known as Duskoplasm, the same that allows the practice of necromancy), to shift gravity, to teleport (technically, open wormholes or portal-type black holes), to open black holes (a.k.a pit-type black holes, that cast one or an entire area into the Anaghra Lemah or Dimension of Absolute Darkness, a dimension that's parallel to the universe of matter and energy and is also Tupaq's inner organism, which his mind has access to, and where he has omniscience) and a couple of things. The usage of this element hasn't been exclusive to the Topakar, however after some time, the moral implications of such usage became a concern for other nations being attacked by the Topakar tribes. Rhoughly 5000 years ago, Tupaq has entered and escaped the dimension of Chaos, accompanied by his self-generated children, the Centzonmimixcoa (from the nahuatl "four hundred alike the Cloud Serpent", cloud serpent being Mixcoatl, one of Tupaq's names. They're also called Yana Phuyu, from the quechua "dark clouds" and daeva by the Mazdaists). These demons made out of shadow have followed Tupaq in his plan of conquering Topakhon under his rule, so the four distinct nations became one - the Ors Ohorela (Law of Darkness in enochian). The other communities besides these four were either enslaved or terminated, and eventually, Tupaq ordered some allies of his to convert the planet into a mobile mass destruction weapon, replacing its atmosphere by an elaborate artificial one and its core by a controlled, isolated Black Hole, that produced endless energy for the people of Topakhon, and that could destroy nearby solar systems. The people of Topakhon didn't need the sun anymore, or anything other than their planet, and Tupaq has declared war on several civilizations across the galaxy, on a historical period of seemingly endless conflict and destruction that culminated with Topakhon's destruction and the imprisonment of Tupaq and the Centzonmimixcoa. The other Elemental Gods believed to have destroyed the Topakars once and for all as they were swallowed by the Black Hole which sustained them.

THE RETURN OF THE DRAGON
But as long as the Topakar magic continued, the legacy would live on. Different survivors led different fronts. Ai Apaec, a Ta'tal, arrived on what's nowadays Northern Coast of Chinchaysuyu (Peru), overlooking the Pacific Ocean, alongside some of his kind, who have merged within the local pre-Inca Moche community, several centuries before the common era. Spectro (the Elder), the scientist behind the development of Topakhon Mobile, managed to save the city of Apuqohcan and cast it away into a remote corner of the galaxy, while he lived in his homeland at K Pacha as another individual, where he'd become a local industrialist. Eventually, the Darr magic made it into the other side of the earth, as a Centzonmimixcoa by the name of Jahi has seemingly escaped the extermination of her kind, and between Persia and Egypt she taught some magicians about some knowledge that would unleash what was later called the Justinian Plague (an early case of Black Death in the Mediterranean). Another individual who knew of such arts was an inhabitant of Egypt, Khnum, the Goat god. From there, the knowledge would be passed to Europe, where a secret society of counselors, greedy noble men and some wealthy villains has been formed - the Secret Palarokhian Order - named after Palarokhiel, the nation of Topakhon's southeastern continent. The Palarokhian society counted with magicians from far away lands, including the easternmost realms of Europe to the north of Africa, and some of them knew where to find and collect dragons - including Dantalion's own kingdom. Through their collaboration of Jahi, in the 10th Century they became able to regain contact with Tupaq, by an obsidian crystal, and from there, Tupaq promised them incredible power, including the conquest of all their lands' kingdoms, should they be able of releasing him. A rebel dragon from Dantalion's slave pens, by the name of Snogard, has slain Dantalion and taken his crystal, during an era when the Vovin Brotherhood promised to release themselves from the shackles of tyrants like Dantalion. Snogard changed a little the role of Dantalia, and eventually became its ruler. But Snogard had his own set of beliefs, which coincided with the Palarokhian Order's interests - Snogard believed Tupaq, the original dragon, would bring a new age of prosperity for them, so he kept Dantalion's Baihu not within him (dragons have crystals as organs of their own. The most powerful the crystal, the most powerful the dragon, so with a primordial crystal such as the Baihu Mammon and Dantalion were really powerful. Only the combined effort of dozens of, if not more dragons could take them down), but on hold, for when Tupaq comes back into the world of matter. They were dealing with a thousands of years old threat, while the kingdoms were cluelessly fighting for gold and the imposition of the official religion of Rome, but some vigilant observers realized the threat and decided to act. Either way, the Palarokhian Order was so secret it surely wasn't the only witchcraft practicing society out there, and some of its own members had backgrounds on other societies before, societies some of them, like Nicholas Flamel, cared more than the cult of a shadow dragon. In 1120, Alongside some followers, Flamel stole the Baihu from Snogard, in Dantalia, and were ambushed until they reached a southern town, in nowadays Chernyakhovsk (former Insterburg), where Nicholas and his followers performed a ritual that harvested the lives of the locals and awoke the entity from the stone - with a mysterious, humanoid demeanor yet goat-like in appearance, winged and with a torch coming like a third horn from its head, and the inscriptions SOLVE and COAGULA on its arms, the followers claimed this entity to be the deity of alchemy, the true form of the philosophers' stone and named it the Baphomet (a name later used, in the next century, by Philip IV to accuse the Templars of pagan worship). Witchcraft practicers from all of Europe gathered in the town and built a fortress, where the Baphomet was contained back into its stone form, and created the Baphomet's Temple Society, a not so secret society where magicians from all across the known world were invited for practice and to share knowledge. It's existence remained largely unknown to the simpletons, like a magic house, and it acted independently of the Palarokhian order. They lost control over the stone, but not for long. In the 14th Century, after 3000 years Tupaq was finally free, and materialized again. He took the stone into his own dragon form, but was unable to keep it. The interaction between the spirit of Darkness (who has an "Ater Adamantis", an organ made from the junction of the five hidden elements, of his own) and Baphomet, however, has transformed the entity forevermore - not only it contained all the properties of Darr, it could since then convert itself into other hidden elements. The ones that made a blood pact with it were arguably, now, four times as powerful. The Temple of Baphomet has housed several victims of the Inquisition and the Crusades, yet remained independent from the Palarokhian order that briefly, under Tupaq, have some of their members put into crucial positions within French (the Ferniers), Dutch (the Soncks) and Russian (the Valtherans). Other members have also attained power in other realms, while even others have infiltrated the Temple of the Baphomet.

MODERN ERA
By the second world war, after the Palarokhian Order has been majorly taken over by the USSR supportive Valtherans, resulting in the break-up of several of its former allies, including the Soncks, who moved to Lithuania, the Temple's remnants were located at the german town of Insterburg. The USSR, following the defeat of the Axis, would take the entire area of nowadays Kaliningrad Oblast, including Insterburg - renamed as Chernyakhovsk, the Baphomet's Temple original location, and Königsberg - renamed as Kaliningrad, where the fortress of the Palarokhians' greatest enemies, the Schwarze Ritter (Black Knights), a pack of immortalized thieves and knights bound by a code against tyranny and nationalism, was located. Centuries ago, it was by the effort of the Black Knights that the Palarokhians didn't take most of Europe following the Black Death (caused by Tupaq's return). But one of their founders, the hero Drachensohn, from eastern Germany, has died just after taking the life of the self-proclaimed Palarokhian Emperor Yulmar. Or has almost, as his lover, the Basque witch Sorginak, an apprentice of the prodigious witch Aradia (actually, a host of Cuauhtemoc, who at this time was disguised under another host, "Veneficus"), has forged a pact of blood between Drachensohn and the Baphomet. The only first generation Black Knight to deny such a pact was one of the last Cathar christians, Belibaste. They would live for eternity, struggling to keep their bodies from aging - in Drachensohn's case, though, it was a bit too late, and he lived like a skeleton for the next years. It didn't change what Sorginak felt for him, though - but never imagined the source of their power would fall in the hands of the enemy by such a way - some of the Black Knights were even involved in the resistance against Nazi Germany! The Black Knights were forced to leave Kaliningrad, and have split - some to Southeast, others to the west. Sorginak and Drachensohn lost contact with their allies and lived in the border between Poland and the Soviet Union, at dispute for most of the 20th Century's second half. As for the Baphomet, it became the newest weapons of the Palarokhians involved with the USSR's secret program. Aware of how a blood pact works, and how many people the Baphomet can make a pact with, they created generations of dispensable super-soldiers using this power. If any died, they could have someone else taking its place. But they found a difficulty - they couldn't make as many soldiers at a time as they wanted to, a dozen was all. And the Palarokhians knew the reason - the Black Knights, who have retained their pacts after centuries, their very existence prevented the Baphomet from forging new pacts, and they once again proved to trouble the Palarokhians' plans. One of the 20th Century KGB chiefs which made a pact with the Baphomet in service was the Bielorussian Vadim Valtheran, who was involved in the 1981 conflicts on Chile between the interventing Tahuantinsuyuan and US/UK forces, in an episode that seemed to hint the start of a new world war, but ended with a Tahuantinsuyuan victory. During this time, Vadim had a son, Ollantay, who would spend his first years in Qollasuyu with his mother and would only meet his father years later, in Belarus, when the USSR had already collapsed. A delusional Vadim has met his son with arrogance and disapproval, as Ollantay increasingly put an effort to prove his father his worth. In 2000, Vadim and his squad were selected to support Tahuantinsuyu - despite the USSR was no more, a specific sector within the Belarusian government, a suspiciously Soviet nostalgic one, still harbored cooperation with Tahuantinsuyan intelligence - on a mission in the Mexican island of Bermeja, near Cuba. Tupaq Amaru III, the leader of Tahuantinsuyu, was present there himself, and a catastrophe happened - the island was swallowed alongside its inhabitants by Tupaq's true form, for reasons Vadim didn't know. Vadim surviver, and swore to find a way to defeat Tupaq and expose his true nature - that of an ancient Dragon-god of Darkness. It didn't happen, though, as Tupaq was tricked by his enemy brothers and swallowed his own, not to appear again for years, what left the international community widely believing he was dead. Vadim, however, was introduced to the Hebdomad, a faction that has been persecuting Tupaq for years, and that has worked in direct association with the angel-like Amesha Spentas and the government of a heavenly-like, luxurious outlandish realm of Ohrmuz, so he didn't return home for a while. His son, Ollantay, would mourn his death and prove himself after that, as he took the mantle of KGB, and started working not only for the Belarusian government, but for the Palarokhian Order, that alongside the Saqraruna organization, a secret organization currently based in Tahuantinsuyu, where it controls most of Tahuantinsuyu's council for advanced scientifical, technological, energetic and industrial development, form the shadow government.

THE COVENANT
As if a twist by fate, Vadim returned as an INTERPOL soldier, and set foot on Belarusian ground once more, in 2006, when they were activated to support the local KGB in repressing a peaceful movement of opposition during the presidential elections. In said occasion, Vadim would meet his son again, who was shocked to see he just left his duty, as he tried to tell Ollantay about how the KGB were manipulated by Tupaq, something Ollantay not only didn't buy, but stood against, in disbelief. In the same occasion, he tried to assassinate his own father, but another soldier, Iñaki, has cut his legs on the attempt. Vadim left, and didn't reprimand either his son or Iñaki. That wasn't, however, the last of Ollantay. He knew he could still live, if he made the covenant. A renewed, vengeful Ollantay would meet Vadim once again - In March 29th 2009, at the El Caracol facility in Mexico City's western neighborhoods, a group of powerful individuals sent by the Saqraruna were about to release Tupaq's human body from its recently discovered prison (discovered by a secret operation of the saqraruna involving a french-canadian informant, who got information from the Jötunn Organization, led by one of Tupaq's brothers, by their involvement with slaves trafficking), when a small counter-force arrived, led by Vadim. This time, he knew his son was prevented from dying, by accepting the same cursed pact he did (because he was no longer a KGB, he was as an enemy to the Palarokhian council as were the Black Knights), and tried to mock him for letting Tupaq use him, as Ollantay discovered Vadim has more powers than those granted by the Baphomet - he was accompanied by Vohu Manah, an Amesha Spentas, whom Tupaq identified as a detestable creation from the God of Light. The battle ensued, Tupaq couldn't be stopped, but Vadim escaped unscathed. In the same occasion, global inhuman super-fast lizard-man "terrorist" Cuetzpalin Paynal was present, and disappointed all when he believed that the Centzonmimixcoa deserve freedom for they're sentient. Ollantay didn't know exactly about the extension of his father's new powers, but would risk his life if he had to stop his father. In late September 2009, a renegade cell which split from INTERPOL because of its growing conivence with the dictatorial behavior Tupaq has adopted as the new Prime Minister of Tahuantinsuyu since his formal return in April 1st, has blockaded the northwestern exit from the city of Pachacamac, between the regions of Quntisuyu and Chinchaysuyu, and that's where Ollantay & Vadim met once again. Ollantay expected his father, and believed to have set a trap for him - he commanded the Palarokhian to wake Baphomet in the Belovezhskaya Forest Reserve (where supposedly it wouldn't harm humans and its existence wouldn't be noticed. Anyone sighting this should be assassinated at sight, so before the operation took place, government officials cerated an excuse to keep the reserve workers bothered with somethin else), so his father would fall unconscious like him, and Saqraruna officials would capture his father. It backfired, however, as Vadim was kept intact because he's bond to Vohu Manah, who has trained him to project his consciousness into an astral body. In the end, it was Ollantay that was captured, and brought to Ohrmuz, away from Tupaq and the KGB. But the awakening of the Baphomet that day has caused more consequences they could ever foresee.

THE AWAKENING
The Belovezhskaya Forest Reserve, set between the borders of Belarus and Poland, is one of the last remnants of the primeval forest which covered Europe, and is as well home to the endangered European Bison. In the past, it was the western portion of a larger forest that with time was degradated by action of Slavic and Hun populations. Among its unusual inhabitants, there were the Leshy, guardians of the forest animals, who attacked hunters and settlers. They were called by other names on ther areas, such as Jentilak in the Iberian forests, by the Basque people. The Leshy, however, were a group exclusive to this area, and were led by Veles, the underworld god of Slavic cosmology. With the destruction of the forest, Veles escaped to its secret eastern portion, where he lives surrounded by the enigmatic Prophetic birds. In the eastern remnants of the forest, the Belovezhskaya Forest, only some remains of some long gone Leshy stood. The Baphomet's awakening on the area has also awakened these Leshy, and they started to attack the Palarokhian and KGB officials, getting out of their control - as did the Baphomet. The Baphomet walked freely for some two hours, and national security was desperately activated to prevent the public from knowing about this disaster, as the Baphomet reached the northernmost borders of the Belarusian city of Brest, where a group of students was peacefully organizing an event criticizing the government. That's when the national guard appeared, and out of nothing started to kill people, as the Baphomet would reach there at any moment. Several people died, but among the survivors, a 14 years old girl was hurt and bloodied, and found the Baphomet - in an act of desperation, she seemed to talk with the entity, and unknowingly forged a pact. The Baphomet was converted back to its stone form, and the national guard took control of it. The girl, Alica, has survived, and started to listen to voices, coming from the Baphomet - asking her to release it. She didn't know what just happened, she only knew she lost friends and was desperate now - in the next weeks, some of her dead friends appeared to her, as if they were reanimated, and with a mixture of self-preservation instinct and instruction from the Baphomet, she managed to keep them away - to control the dead. But this has put her in even more danger, as she's by no means the only necromancer of the area, she's just the newest, and some of the more experienced can easily locate new ones. In no time, she would be persecuted by secret agents, while she was still learning to use her powers, and while she preferred not to engage in a life of battle as a vigilante of sorts (she knew she couldn't leave her identity exposed anyway), she had no other choice, for a matter of survival. Within months, though, she would meet another couple who made a covenant with the Baphomet - Sorginak and Drachensohn. And they wanted her to restore the Black Knights. But that wouldn't be an easy task, Sorginak would teach her, while Drachensohn told her stories about the past, all the way explaining who are the Palarokhians, what's the Baphomet, how a pact works and so on. These moments brought her great discoveries, she really had great power, however also brought her some sadness - for this power reeked of cold, dark death. She earned it from a moment she lost so many dear people, and because of it secret agents were sprouting of nowhere to kill her. But Sorginak and Drachensohn couldn't let her falter - for the sake of her own freedom, the Baphomet should be taken away from the hands of the Palarokhians. As she started to understand, she came to her own choice of invading the Temple at Chernyakhovsk and taking the crystal for her own. Afterall, it was the only way she could become the master of her own fate. The struggle, however, would take longer than anticipated - it was prudent to gather all the Black Knights that remained before they could strike, either stealthily or heads-on, into the Temple. And for that she should travek a lot, to meet the other Black Knights. Exposed to the history of corruption behind every kingdom, and the apathy which authority has for life itself, she started to naturally harbor an anti-authoritarian sentiment which also made her critical of most of her friends' positions - either progressists or conservatives, everyone seemed to want authority. Her new life also had her studying a lot of chemistry, to understand her powers and get more prepared for eventual clashes against official necromancers and so on, and she tried to keep her new abilities in secret, even from her parents who lived with her in the Belarusian city of Brest. As part of her awesome power, she can also shift some machines into Baphomet-inspired, Darr-built constructs, what qualify her ablities as a technomancer. She can, for example, change appearance and performance of automobiles such as motorbikes and cars, just like others who made the pact.

Because Alica isn't associated to the Palarokhian Council which controls the Baphomet's conditions and is allied to several sectors of the government (besides other enterprises and governments around the world), the Baphomet itself found on her a chance of freedom - it intends her to invade the fortress where the Baphomet's dormant form is kept into an icy prison, and she means to do it - not necessarily for the Baphomet, neither for the Black Knights, but for her own. Besides, if the Palarokhian Council, which she initially believes to be part of the government, decides to wake up such an entity, then she would fall unconscious as long as they decided. Her actions, however, will greatly benefit the restoration of the Black Knights in a moment of greatest need, when the actions of several independent, autonomous groups of anarchists worldwide returned to armed action against the establishment, partially inspired by the victories of the movement for autonomy in south and central america, as well in the Mediterranean, that resulted in the weakening of some institutions, as well in armed conflicts and rise of new armed groups, in part due to the distribution of weapons and military equipment forcefully taken from other militias or stolen from official military bases in distinct States. The Black Knights, too, were part of a historical initiative of international anarchist action that happened not long after the Black Death outbreak in Europe. The mass media from most states would try to promote a distorted view in which these groups were formally organized into a global network, and had someone as a leader. A name adopted by a specific cell, "Necoc Yaotl" (from the nahuatl "Enemy of both sides", one of the many names used to refer to the pre-hispanic deity Tezcatlipoca. This name was an idea by one of its voluntary members, the inhuman super-fast lizardman self-proclaimed Cuetzpalin Paynal), would be taken as a possible name for the entire "organization" (it barely can be called an organization, and it definetely has no leader. Each "operation" counts with different people that aren't bound by any contract, and despite previously planned, are somewhat spontaneous, and performed by affinity groups whenever they find they have enough resources - to attack a bank, some churches, the base of political parties, the transport stations from private businesses responsible for the profit acquired from the so-called "public transport", television and mass media centers, land properties owned by traditional landlords, the private residencies of politicians and so on, among other surveillance stations of the status quo). Because the Black Knights would benefit from Alica's actions - and also aid her - she would inevitably meet with one of their oldest allies, Cuauhtemoc, who in turn is currently associated to Paynal and other informal anarchist armed forces from europe, and that would have her meeting the human identity of Paynal - the young William Mattoni , in October 2010, when the invasion of the Baphomet Facility (previously, the location of the Baphomet's Temple) by the Black Knights was happening. From that, they would slowly develop a friendship, and after each time they talked, William would let his feelings grow towards something else, "rushing the process" and facing its consequences.

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