#bel'terum lore

[pawnshopsouls]

//Ok so I dunno how many of you know, but I was a HUGE Gargoyles fan as a kid. Like, I was raised on this show and I’m honestly 90% sure that it and my love of Jurassic Park as a kid led to my intense love of dragons, monsters and, eventually, trolls.

//So here is my tribute to my old childhood loves. His name is Farven (later Farven’Lē) and he is a redeemed!7'th-gen Draconum who's still working on not relying on corrosive dark magic to get things done. His kind aren't native to Bel'Terum, but some how entered a rift and were able to thrive & blend in perfectly well. Their protective nature made them prized allies and guardians, especially during the Necronum Wars when the Clerci were in need of guardians to help protect their dead.

//As natural protectors and good-hearted creatures, many saw the evils of what the Necronum Danté were doing and helped the Clerci protect both the living and dead from their vile clutches.

//However, as they did, the Necronum began to covet their power and plotted a way to break the alliance between Clerci and the race they christened as the “Eilgarum” or “Holy Guardians“. Then came the perfect opportunity, an isolated fortress on a mountain peak. Through great effort and meticulous planning, a betrayal was caused, a slaughter was had, and nearly half of the Eilgarum were led to believe that the Clerci had betrayed them, leading them to side with the Necronum Danté.

//Branded by the magics they received from the Necronum, these gargoyles began to change into more dragon-like in appearance and bloodlust, thus becoming known known as the “Draconum”.

//Hundreds of years have passed since the end of the war and few, if any, of the Draconum and Eilgarum clans remain. Farven was only one, trapped under a StoneStance curse that could only be broken by the benign magic of a Clerci. This was exactly what happened when he was brought to Salem’s bone orchard by Bonly under the mistaken belief that he as merely an effigy of the great Eilgarum of the past.

//Now, Farven is learning just how wrong his kindred was about the clerics and is now suspecting treachery not from the Clerci, but from the very hands who’d sustained his clan these many, many years.

[pawnshopsouls]

katanamasako replied to your post: if i could make you write one thing, it'd be more...

//The answer, is very obviously, BOTH. but if it were one or the other, Bel'Terum. because fascination compels me XD

//Alrighty @katanamasako! Bel’Terum Critter Lore Ahoy!!!

Belterum Bestiary: Barlum Fiends & the Founding of Litchaven

Fearsome, mindless, flesh eating monsters, these creatures were once peaceful flora, fauna, and sapient alike. However, their minds and have been warped and mutated into vicious contortions of themselves. Bones expanding beyond their frame, skin bloating with tumors, limbs growing and contorting into powerful, lethal weapons of murder, all to accomplish the work of death according to the nature of the Dark Magic they have been consumed by. Some might consider them undead for their forms and nature, but truly they are part of the Undying, kept alive by the evil magics inflicted upon them by one Dr. Barlum.

The first fiends came about in 1522, and were originally peaceful creatures and people native to the eastern region of Beirlund. Unfortunately, they were also prime subjects for the curiosities of the scientist Dr. Boris Capernicus Barlum who was researching the effects of Dark Magic on living creatures. From personal notes retrieved after revealing his terrible experiments, medical professionals have learned most if not all of the stages of dark magic contamination, most commonly called black blood poisoning. Very little outside of Clerci energy has been found to counter the effects, and so is treated as a disease that can prove terminal if the source of the dark magic is not found and destroyed.

This latter discovery was found too late, as the “good doctor” soon proved to have also been infected by the dark magics of his laboratory, corrupting his mind and spurring him into not only researching dark magic, but finding purpose, accomplishment, and even a dark glee in turning people into unrecognizable beasts. He became obsessed with the magics, eventually contracting a demon himself to become a sorcerer in hopes of “caring” for his new creations. 

Eventually, Barlum’s experiments began to reach far beyond the borders of his town, spreading the effects of the dark magics which he had been nurturing and attracting both demons, sorcerers, and other dark creatures to his midst. This led to the summoning of the Ireden War Clerics to help the remaining Beirlunds fight the vile fiends Dr. Barlum had turned their countrymen into.

Thanks to the clerics, Barlum’s maniacal forces were halted and the “good doctor” slain before he could take any more of the country. However, despite their victory over Dr. Barlum, the Ireden Clerics could not retake the lands poisoned by his magic and were forced to watch as countless demons and horrific beasts of dark magic migrated to Barlum’s ruined country, taking it for themselves and their kind. Together, they overshadowed the entire countryside with clouds and dark mists, covering it in poisonous, life sucking briars, and filling it with the most abominable assortment of monsters imaginable.

From then on, the eastern countryside of Beirlund became a land apart, a land cursed for its inhabitants, a land known as Litchaven.