Epochxin

Epochxin is the venom blood of the ebon-swirled primal demon, a primitive relative of the massive shadowy oculoth. While this specific kind of demon is thought to exist in other valences, it was also known by Faendryl scholars to reside in the Southron Wastes. Epochxin is a portmanteau of "epoch toxin". The term "epochxin" refers to one of two things. It may refer to the blood of the ebon-swirled primal demon, or it may refer to its use as a venom, where the victim is subject to very rapid aging and ultimately crumbles. It is somewhat ambiguous to what extent the blood has to be activated to have this effect. It is thought to be essentially temporal in function, such as by Lord Brieson Cassle of the Hall of Mages, causing the victim's body to be accelerated in time relative to its surroundings. It is very closely related to the Everblood, which keeps the body restored to its condition from a fixed moment.

Ebon-swirled primal blood is the base ingredient of what can be considered a whole family of related poisons or blood curses. Among these include the Everblood, epochxin venom, the blackblood curse, the anti-Everblood salve or potion, Raznel's paragons and her own immortality, the temporary restorative poisons used on Rysus and Praxopius, and the Blue Suffer poison used on the krolvin and especially their warlord Kragnack. Through the blackblood curse variant it is responsible for the formation of the Bleaklands, and therefore implicitly bleakstone, and through bleakstone for the Blight.

History

Epochxin is the natural venom blood of the ebon-swirled primal demon. It is unknown why this relative of the oculoth family of demons has a time warping venom. Oculoths in general have the ability to cause victimes to be possessed, and their venom has mind wracking effects. The blood of the demon, which is essentially a shadow entity, is itself venom. Epochxin derivatives have been at the core of the dark magic that has made major impacts on historical events since 5110 Modern Era, but are also related to other crimes or catastrophes in the Turamzzyrian Empire dating back roughly six hundred and fifty years. This is principally through the human witch Raznel, or other figures as a result of her. Raznel acquired her knowledge of epochxin both directly and indirectly from Faendryl sources, as a result of being taught by Xorus and the time paradox of learning from Lord Brieson Cassle's studies.

Everblood

The Ever-blood is a term that was apparently coined by Grishom Stone in his "Beyond the Arkati" essay of 5112 Modern Era for the blood of Drangell. Drangell had been a giantman assassin of the Ivory Thorns who, along with the human Thrayzar, was sent to assassinate the witch Raznel. Raznel was a former member of the Hall of Mages who had turned to blood magic, and was involved in the death of Empress Mynal'lyanna's elder siblings. When they approached her cabin, Raznel was shot through the throat, but this did not matter as she was virtually immortal. Raznel broke a yellowed bone talisman which released a toxic yellow gas, which infiltrated the bodies of Drangell and Thrayzar. Thrayzar was transformed into an orc, and Drangell was transformed into a troll. Drangell thereby acquired what appeared to be a powerful form of troll blood which restored him against violent attacks. However, even when Drangell's troll form was broken by the Tehir Spiritcaller Akhash in 5111 Modern Era, his extreme healing powers remained. It was later discovered that the Everblood is truly demonic in origin. It is not known for certain if trolls acquired their healing powers from the venom of primal demons.

Everblood is easily transmitted from one host to another, largely transforming the blood of those who take it into their system. Grishom Stone also developed his "flesh golems" from the Everblood, and made himself similarly indestructible with it. It was the basis of his conceit that life could be created by us mere mortals and that we have the potential within ourselves to be "beyond the Arkati" in power. While Grishom Stone was manipulated at the time by the primordial demon Althedeus, this is more or less still his quest, now making use of a powerful artifact known as the Star of Khar'ta.

Epochxin

Everblood and epochxin were not understood to be related at first. Lady Larsya Caulfield of Bourth was injured with an epochxin poisoned arrow by the assassin Vinswith, who was apparently made using the blood of Wolfloner and Archales, who had known anti-imperial sentiments. While it was assumed this was a genuine assassination attempt, it would later turn out this was not the case, but rather that Larsya was a pawn in a grand strategy being orchestrated by Raznel. Larsya was frozen in time in a bane coffin in the shadow of Melgorehn's Reach until the means were found to halt her rapid aging. (It was later learned that Raznel had invented the bane coffins when she was a member of the Hall of Mages.) This set off a sequence of events where the Prelate Chaston Griffin engaged in a crusade using the Blameless zealots. They acquired Everblood for themselves from Drangell, who had been turned into a troll by Raznel many years earlier. This made the crusaders essentially immortal. Lord Brieson would eventually conjecture that, while outwardly seemingly unrelated, these problems were fundamentally tied. Similarly, the blackblood illness affecting half-elves was realized to not be a true disease.

Lord Brieson discovered a book in Nydds which addressed epochxin, which he noted was strangely written by two Faendryl brothers, after having been hinted that way by Pylasar having vague recollections. Brieson surmised that Everblood and Epochxin must be deeply related, essentially anti-parallel in effect, and that the solution for one would likely provide the solution for the other. Brieson also realized that Larsya, whose blood was now largely made of epochxin, would act as a beacon for ebon-swirled primal demons. Which would essentially smell themselves in her. Along with this Faendryl book and Pylasar recalling something of the Southron Wastes, and items left behind in the Hendoran outpost that had belonged to Raznel, Brieson temporarily kidnapped Larsya and used her as bait, so that samples of this venom blood could be taken. Within a pack that Raznel had left at the Hendoran outpost were alchemical formulas. These included how to make purified Everblood essence from primal blood, and how to make a tar-like black salve from the Everblood essence and other poisons. This was apparently planted by Raznel to move along the time table of her own plans.

This turned out to be an anti-Everblood poison, as well as the cure for the blackblood curse, as well as the agent for halting the progression of epochxin venom. It was discovered years later that this treatment to halt the rapid aging of Larsya in 5116 Modern Era effectively turned her into one of the paragons. In hindsight this must have all been orchestrated by Raznel, for whom it had all happened before, as she knew these events from her youth before being lost in the past in a temporal accident in 5117 Modern Era. In her youth Raznel was Lady Naimorai Kestrel, the daughter of Grand Magister Dennet Kestrel of the Hall of Mages. Dennet's family was adversely afflicted by exposure to the Talon of Toullaire, a "siphon stone" artifact from the Ur-Daemon War, which had chaotically augmented latent powers in his children and made his wife Reannah ill similar to those in the Wizardwaste. Dennet sought the aid of the sorcerous in the Wehnimer's Landing region, so that Naimorai would learn to control her necromantic powers in order to not accidentally harm others. Through these tutors and her biological father Quinshon, Naimorai learned a great deal of dark magic, as well as the history of Raznel. When Naimorai was lost in the past, and her health deteriorated, she used her knowledge to engineer her own creation into Raznel. While the exact division of who taught Naimorai what is unclear, it is known that she learned her epochxin methods from Xorus, and Naimorai suffered with living in the outpost alongside Larsya who was obnoxiously trapped in a time cycle of discovering her aged condition. Xorus cured Larsya of her condition and restored her age in 5118 Modern Era, with the assistance of "The Alchemist" Praxopius Fortney, and elemental calculations by Magister Raelee Svala.

Blue Suffer

Most of the work on curing Larsya was done before Praxopius became involved. Praxopius only made minor adjustments to the formula, mostly the addition of bleaksoil, and provided a low steel cylinder for executing the temporal magic steps involved. He spent most of his time weaponizing Larsya's blood into other poisons. Praxopius discovered that her blood was a temporal anchor for something else during an experiment on top of Melgorehn's Reach in Phoenatos 5118, speaking of it having some other purpose than a rapid aging poison, then one month later a half-krolvin was witnessed rapidly aging and collapsing into dust. Earlier that night Praxopius had told Xorus "work was by far the most complete, and likely accurate, in all of what Breshon had collected." Two weeks later sick or dead krolvin were found in a secret lab on Praxopius' ship. One week later Rysus collapsed under injuries and the poison. One week after that Kragnack was poisoned with what was later called the Blue Suffer. The contagion had likely spread to some extent on Glaoveln following the invasion in 5119 Modern Era, where Praxopius had given out poison daggers before people disembarked the ship.

Timeline

The following is an approximate sequence of events involving epochxin or related poisons or consequences of those poisons. This is a work in progress. The Witchful Thinking events in particular had a lot of out-of-sequence flashback scenes.

Year	Event
4473	Naimorai Kestrel is trapped in Toullaire following a temporal accident under Melgorehn's Reach. She meets Peter (Pylasar), calls herself Rachel, and becomes involved with the newly founded Arcanum.
4480	Naimorai Kestrel is involved in the period of imperial assassinations.
> 4480	Naimorai Kestrel and Peter expose themselves to the Crescent, later known as the Talon of Toullaire. Peter gains an ability to move back and forth along the timeline on the scale of centuries. They are expelled from Toullaire by the Arcanum for drawing unwanted attention to the Arcanum.
4565	Toullaire is destroyed in a magical explosion that forms the Wizardwaste. The extent to which Naimorai's influence on the Arcanum and/or the Talon in causing this is unclear.
4579	Brumas Brightforge of Doggoroth Keep is taken and turned into one of Naimorai's paragons. His cocooned body would be found there in 5119 after Talador became the Bleaklands, and was the last paragon to be destroyed.
4613	Deshal a Tehir fighter from near Bir Mahallah in the Sea of Fire is turned into a paragon.
4754	Harland the Bastard is abducted and becomes one of Naimorai's paragons.
4842	Eastern Sentinel Jerram Happersett went missing and was presumed dead, but was abducted and made into a paragon around the Southron Wastes.
~5080s?	Naimorai Kestrel and Peter move themselves back to her own time period. They join the Hall of Mages in the Swale. Naimorai continues to call herself Rachel.
~5080s?	Naimorai continues to deteriorate under the magical corruption from her youth and suffers miscarriages.
5092	Naimorai is involved in the assassination of Mynal'lyanna's elder siblings. She makes the elder sister Mynalari into a paragon to help sustain herself. They abduct figures from major historical events across several centuries and make paragons of them in temporal pocket dimensions.
5090s	Oronthal Jalcon is turned into a paragon and his wife is thrown off a cliff by Naimorai.
5090s?	Naimorai invents the bane coffins while still a member of the Hall of Mages.
5090s?	Peter hits his limit on helping Naimorai in her fall into darkness and reports her to the Hall of Mages for blood magic. She rebrands herself as Raznel, meaning "of shadows".
5090s?	Raznel murders Peter's new family. Peter ends up renaming himself Pylasar, after a hero figure of his daughter's.
5090s?	Naimorai Kestrel is born to Dennet Kestrel and his wife Reannah, but her actual biological father is another Magister named Quinshon.
5100s?	Pylasar's memory is scrambled by Quinshon.
5100s?	Raznel curses Thrayzar from a human into an orc and Drangell into a troll. In the process Everblood is created in Drangell.
5111	Outlaws assisting the red robe summoners (Grishom Stone and company) release Drangell from a magical prison.
5111	Grishom Stone adapts the Everblood from Drangell to make "flesh golem" clones and gives himself immortality.
5114	Grishom Stone is discovered alive and tortured in Winter's Manor, kept alive in spite of brutal injuries by his Everblood.
5114	Mayor Walkar Wellington is cursed as an abomination through his demonic armor, and feeds his thirst for blood with the fruit of blood consuming trees from extraplanar seeds provided by a Marluvian priest.
5115	The shadowy blood maw at the core of the root network of the blood consuming trees is moved from Lich's Landing through the Shadow Realm by Harrower Ersix Severus Faendryl and put into the Deadfall Forest in the Upper Trollfang. Wyrdeep druids erect an energy barrier sealing the forest.
5116	Rodnay is created as a result of Grishom Stone dealing with the Ithzir of Kol'Tarsken, using his floating cocoon transformation method along with Ithzir blood.
5116	Larsya Caulfield of Bourth is struck with an epochxin arrow from the assassin Vinswith.
5116	Half-elves and half-krolvin become ill with the black blood blight. Blameless crusaders slaughter them and secretly collect their blood before burning the bodies.
5116	Blameless crusaders gain the Everblood from themselves through Drangell.
5116	Raznel leaves behind alchemical formulas in the Hendoran outpost for making tar-like black salve, which turns out is the anti-Everblood agent, and the base for curing the black blood illness and for halting the epochxin rapid aging progression.
5116	Brieson Cassle of the Hall of Mages collects information on the epochxin, including a book in Nydds that was strangely written by two Faendryl brothers.
5116	The formulas are found and the tar-like black salve is made and put to use. Drangell and Chaston Griffin are killed with it. Larsya's rapid aging is halted and she is freed from the bane coffin.
5116	The cursed black blood, having been infused into Talador's blood marble, is used by Chaston Griffin to detonate an obelisk that transforms most of Talador into the Bleaklands.
5117	Grand Magister Dennet Kestrel and his family move to Wehnimer's Landing. He is seeking a way to cure his wife of sickness caused by the Talon of Toullaire, which also chaotically augmented latent powers in his children.
5117	Naimorai having a history accidentally injuring or killing others with her power, Dennet has Quinshon and local sorcerers help Naimorai learn how to control her powers. Through them Naimorai learns witchcraft, blood magic, the shadows, demon summoning, and various dark magic.
5117	Rysus is crippled by Naimorai's dark magic during a Rook raid on the Hendoran outpost.
5117	Naimorai is lost in the past as a result of a temporal accident under Melgorehn's Reach, following a temporal result where she uses her foreknowledge to become Raznel.
5118	Breshon Caulfield seeks a cure for his sister Larsya. He invites an alchemist from Estoria, Praxopius Fortney, to assist. Praxopius later turns out to be "The Alchemist" who created the Rone vigilante who had been attacking town.
5118	Praxopius determines Larsya's blood is a "paragon" and temporal anchor, not just a rapid aging poison. One month later a half-krolvin is seen outside rapidly aging and collapsing to dust.
5118	Through manipulation of Leafiara, Praxopius has Rysus poisoned with a health potion, as Rysus had been crippled by Naimorai's dark magic in a raid on the Hendoran outpost in 5117.
5118	Praxopius adds components to Xorus' formula for curing Larsya, especially soil from the Bleaklands which he determines is essentially blood. Sick or dead krolvin and half-krol are found on Praxopius' ship, said to be related to Kragnack.
5118	Rysus having become increasingly unhinged is turned over to the town by the Rooks and is killed. He collapses into ash and black ichor.
5118	Praxopius plans the invasion of Glaoveln, where Kragnack will be killed by a "contagion", which will affect those of Kragnack's bloodline. Praxopius says he does not believe it can be expanded to eradicate all krolvin in his own lifetime, but claims he will have it sent to Xorus in two years. Praxopius gives himself an enhanced version of the Rysus poison so he regains the use of his legs and goes out in a blaze of glory in the Glaoveln invasion.
5118	Kragnack is stabbed by contagion coated daggers and collapses into ash, while releasing bone pills on Glaoveln and along the Turamzzyrian coast that unleash a poisonous green gas.
5118	Grishom Stone forces his way into the Wyrdeep, kidnaps Briarstorm, and uses his blood to force his way into the Deadfall. His plans with the blood transformed Star of Khar'ta apparently involve the tree and maw, which Harrower Ersix had said was evolving a few years earlier.
5119	Abygail Wellington and Stiletto are fused together and made into a joint paragon by Raznel out of pure cruelty. Raznel also increases Thrayzar's orc curse to maximum, out of spite, so that his mind is drowning under orcness.
5119	With the assistance of the Chronomage Chrysamber Epoch, and various assists with his memory, Pylasar directs adventurers to the release of all the various paragons. Raznel is permanently killed in the brief window where her paragons were destroyed but before her Bleakworld transition could be fulfilled.
5120	The first Rone vigilante, Malluch Burdos, becomes a devotee of Grishom Stone and calls himself the Blood Son. He collects acolytes for the blood harvest, where they are brought into the Deadfall.
5122	The Black Wyvern of Glaoveln, Czag Pritz Tyrrax, comes to Wehnimer's Landing seeking the formula's destruction. Xorus says it is over a year late and it never arrived.

Variants

There are many processed derivatives of the epochxin venom. Generally speaking, these variants transform the blood of the afflicted into more of the toxin, though not necessarily a total replacement. They have thus far always been cured (or otherwise treated) with other variants of the poison, which has meant that creating the knowledge to cure one form of it requires knowledge of the other forms, and thus makes opportunities to learn how to make new weapons out of it. Moreover, while one form might be cured by a second form, that cure may be lethal in those of other forms. It is very easy to kill with epochxin variants, and much harder to reverse their effects without killing. They can also be modified into contagious forms, so that the poison spreads like a disease, the scope of which can be controlled. The blackblood disease afflicted half-elves and half-krol, the blue suffer afflicts krol and half-krol.

Epochxin Venom

"Epochxin" as a rapid aging poison ("epoch toxin") refers to the blood of the ebon-swirled primal demon being used as a venom. Samples of this blood can be taken off the defeated shadowy "bodies" of the primals. Ebon-swirled primal demons are primitive cousins of the massive shadowy oculoth, which itself exists in multiple valences, and the primals are said to exist in other valences but are also found in the Southron Wastes. Their history or origins in the Southron Wastes are not known. Epochxin and primals are known to Faendryl scholars. Lord Brieson Cassle discovered much of what he knew of epochxin from a book written by two Faendryl scholars, which was "strangely" found in Nydds under the suggestions of Pylasar. In light of future events with Raznel manipulating things with her foreknowledge, it is likely not an accident that Brieson found this Faendryl work in Nydds.

Epochxin essentially is the blood of the ebon-swirled primal demon. When it enters the blood stream of the victim, it causes the body around it to be rapidly accelerated, causing a very rapid aging effect. It does not fully replace the blood of the host, though that might be from the host dying first. The Everblood does the opposite, keeping the body from deviating from its state at a fixed moment of time, though not the mind and not to the extent of being immobilized. Epochxin as a synonym for ebon-swirled primal blood is the base component of the whole family of related blood curses or poisons. While it is not known for certain if he was working from primal blood directly or samples of Larsya's blood in this case, it is known that Praxopius inflicted epochxin on a half-krolvin during his experiments in 5118 Modern Era, as the half-krolvin was seen rapidly aging and then crumbled.

Everblood

Everblood originates in the troll curse of Drangell. Implicitly, Raznel must have used primal blood in her devising of the curse, so the relationship to trolls is misleading. Everblood may be spread directly from being shared between hosts. In other words, it is auto-catalytic, it transforms the host. The host then has the Everblood in their own veins, and their flesh restores to its prior form, following injuries. Those with Everblood are effectively immortal, unless poisoned with the anti-Everblood. Memories to some extent are stored in the Everblood. Thus, the host is able to be reconstituted, even when obliterated. Grishom Stone made his "flesh golem" clones of himself using the Everblood, and discovered they even mimic his tones and mannerisms. The alchemical roots of Everblood in demon blood was discovered on a "hastily-scrawled paper scrap" in a pack of Raznel's in 5116 Modern Era.

Purified Everblood essence is made simply by distilling ebon-swirled primal blood in an alembic. This is an actual mechanically existing alchemy process, provided you possess a vial of ebon-swirled primal blood. As such, Everblood and epochxin are essentially the same substance, differing mostly in their effect on the body. This may even just be a matter of whether the flesh of the body is synched the blood instead of out of synch with it. There is not a known way to make actual Everblood out of the purified Everblood essence component.

Anti-Everblood

While Lord Brieson Cassle had surmised in fall 5116 Modern Era that the solution for epochxin and Everblood would be joined at the hip, there was never any need to try to invent such a solution. Raznel left the formula for the anti-Everblood in a pack with other belongings in the Hendoran outpost. This included indications, such as the iguanoids and a pale arachnid, that the Southron Wastes were important. When the formula was actually made with the alchemical ingredients, loresinging revealed that the tar-like black salve would render those with Everblood mortal. There is a degree of ambiguity in this as Disean is said to have been cured of Everblood with the salve, but others such as Drangell were not merely made mortal, but completely melted into black ichor under its effect. This could maybe have something to do with how complete the Everblood transformation is in the host.

However, rather than being a cure for Everblood per se, the tar-like black salve cannibalized the Everblood. Apparently making more of itself at expense of the Everblood. Thus, those with Everblood are killed if exposed to the salve, which causes them to melt and collapse into black ichor. This happens on some time delay but is fairly rapid. Both Drangell and Chaston Griffin melted and crumbled from it. While Grishom Stone himself has Everblood, this would not work on him. His blood magic transformation of the Star of Khar'ta gives him the ability to rip out foreign agents from blood. This was illustrated when he removed the anti-magic poison from Cruxophim, afflicted from the first Rone vigilante (Malluch Burdos) and devised by Praxopius, and Stone simultaneously corrupted Evician with Cruxophim's lichborn cursed condition as a balance factor in the process as they were both Aelotoi.

The alchemical formula for the anti-Everblood was found on a double sided "blood-stained vellum page":

Empath Formula: tar-like black salve

• Add water
• Add ground black toadstool
• Add mashed white baneberry
• Simmer
• Add purified Everblood essence
• Chant Wither

Sorcerer Formula: tar-like black salve

• Add water
• Add ground black toadstool
• Add mashed white baneberry
• Simmer
• Add purified Everblood essence
• Chant Disintegrate

While the tar-like black salve is a lethal anti-Everblood toxin, it was also the cure for the blackblood curse that afflicted half-elves and half-krolvin. Brieson tested it first on Shinann. Then he applied it some days later to other afflicted half-elves, and it cured them with various side effects. (For example, Gavrien's hair fell out and turned into ichor worms, while Kippe's arm blackened and swelled and had to be blown off and then the fingers killed.) Brieson also boiled the salve into a bubbling potion, along with unspecified minor modifications, which he applied to Larsya in her bane coffin. The interaction with her epochxin caused Larsya to stop rapidly aging, and severely slowed or even stopped her aging entirely. However, Larsya was then frozen in time, in her highly aged condition. Moreover, her mind was frozen in that moment as well, only able to proceed for a matter of seconds. Larsya would impersonate a pirate, as she was performing in a pirate play at the moment she was hit with epochxin, and then discover her body was aged and become upset and cry out for her daddy. This time loop condition continued until she was cured and restored two years later.

Blackblood Curse

The "Black Blood blight" was a disease that afflicted half-elves and half-krolvin in 5116 Modern Era, which turned their blood black and even caused flames to darken when they were burned. The illness affected some adventurers, causing deleterious symptoms, as well as black veins. These were notably similar to the black veins people had after being exposed to Althedeus in the Shadow Realm, which apparently bled off and returned there when a portal to it was opened during the moving of the shadowy blood maw of the blood consuming trees in 5115 Modern Era. Harrower Ersix Severus Faendryl had noted at the time that these people seemed to have been cursed and it was lifting. The similarity suggested the concentration of "the shadows" as energy in the black blood. This would make sense given what happened later with the detonation of the blood marble obelisk.

The Blameless would execute the half-elves and half-krolvin in whole villages, claiming it was the God-King revealing their inherent corruption. However, the Blameless were draining their victims of their blood, and then burning their bodies. They were using the cursed blood to essentially fuel up blood marble for another purpose. Brieson had discerned that this was not behaving as an actual disease, that its spread seemed localized, really acting more like a controlled curse. When Chaston Griffin was dying under the effect of the anti-Everblood, he detonated an obelisk made of blood marble, where the blood marble in Talador had been essentially charged up with the cursed blood. This caused a magical explosion that transformed most of the Barony of Talador into the Bleaklands, which is gradually bleeding into the Shadow Realm once ruled by Althedeus.

The anti-Everblood salve was used to treat adventurers afflicted the black blood curse, and the recipe for making it was public and spread around widely. This very strongly implies that the black blood disease was really another form of the epochxin poison, as the anti-Everblood itself and Everblood are derivatives made from epochxin, and the application of this same formula with minor modifications halted the epochxin progression in Larsya. This suggests they were designed to be solved by the same agent and have mutual common roots. Later, Praxopius would use Larsya's cursed blood to remake the epochxin venom on a half-krol test subject, as well as new variants of the poison. This included a contagious form, later called the Blue Suffer, that would only spread among krolvin and half-krol. While this is not merely the Black Blood blight, it is proof of concept that it was derived from the same roots, and that epochxin can be designed into other bloodline targeting varieties. Since the black blood variant effectively created the Bleaklands, it also created bleakstone, and so in a downstream way is the cause of the Blight which had toxic gas that caused effects resembling oculoth possession.

Paragons

When Raznel was young, and known as Naimorai Kestrel, she was corrupted by the Talon of Toullaire. This was a "siphon stone" which has the chaos of the Wizardwaste absorbed within it. It made her develop an unstable necromantic power, such that she could accidentally injure or kill others by touching them. (For example, Rysus the leader of the Rooks became crippled with a curse, having gone toward her in an invasion of the Hendoran outpost.) While she learned to control this power so that it was not involuntary, eventually her body began failing as a result of this corruption. She may have had her sanity deteriorating under it as well, but she was increasingly haunted by miscarriages. In order to preserve herself forever, she used what she had learned of epochxin, and created a kind of horcrux that came to be known as "paragons". In a flashback vision she attributed her knowledge of how this works to "the Ageless One", which was an obscure epithet for Xorus, which went unrecognized though Pylasar strongly implied it by looking at Xorus in that moment. Cordarius Hodges of the Hall of Mages would later refer to Xorus as the "Father of Naimorai's magic" during Pylasar's trial.

The original form that paragons took was a body strung up in a quasi-alive state with the demon blood in them. These would be connected to her own blood. Raznel was known for using mediating creatures in her witchcraft, such as scarabs or maggots, which she learned from her blood father Quinshon. So long as the paragons existed, she would be able to restore herself physically, similar to the Everblood but more difficult to destroy. These were hidden in pocket dimensions of time throughout history, where the paragon was unaware of their own condition, surrounded by a reality shaped by their own mind. Therefore destroying the paragons required not just finding them in space, but finding "when" they were located. She used prominent historical figures who were known to have died or gone missing in given years, probably to avoid disrupting the timeline leading to her own existence.

There had been visions about destroying the paragons, later more or less confirmed to have been sent by Grishom Stone, and Praxopius made a comment once calling Larsya's blood a kind of "paragon". Larsya was also revealed to be connected to Raznel in the process of being cured, who carved the date into the flesh of Larsya's arm while possessing her. It was later discovered that Larsya was herself a paragon, when it was understood what paragons were to Raznel. Pylasar had regained significant memory of the paragons and where to find them through a ritual performed by Xorus on Melgorehn's Reach. (Quinshon also made a deal with Pylasar to help find some of the paragons in his memory.) There was also a flashback scene where Naimorai was seen becoming consciously aware of losing that paragon, which would have been years before Larsya was inflicted with epochxin, illustrating how Naimorai (Raznel) was connected to the paragons through time both in the past and future. While Larsya was cured before the process was complete, the original paragons all had to be destroyed. This involved the paragons, who appeared as projected manifestations, becoming aware of their true condition and more or less losing the will to keep existing. Larsya was perpetually discovering her own condition in a time loop, and was never put into her own time pocket dimension. This was a new method of paragon creation, and it was thought that Raznel was ultimately planning on making paragons of everyone she had ever taken blood from, making herself virtually indestructible. Raznel had planned to make this switch as the Bleakworld was forming, which was timed for when the last of her old paragons were destroyed, but she was found and killed at just the right moment.

The rough idea of the Bleakworld was a temporally warped hellscape where a vast array of paragons would sustain Raznel, who was herself in a cocoon like that of the original paragons, and she would be able to project herself like the paragons were able to within their temporal pocket dimensions. Implicitly, since Larsya was one of the paragons, that means the paragon variant of the poison is created by mixing the epochxin venom with a form of the anti-Everblood toxin in the host. These were both pieces of knowledge available to Raznel in her youth as Naimorai, when she was living in the Hendoran outpost with the cursed Larsya, after Brieson had stabilized Larsya's aging with the anti-Everblood and Larsya was no longer confined to the bane coffin. Naimorai most likely had access to Brieson's notes on the subject as her father was a Grand Magister. It is likely not as simple as "epochxin venom plus anti-Everblood", however, because the substance likely had something in it to tether Larsya to Raznel as a temporal anchor. Praxopius included Bleakland soil in her cure because of its similarity to the Wizardwaste and surmising the poison tied back to a place similar to the Bleaklands. If taken on face value, Praxopius was acting as though he was unaware of how the Bleaklands were created, which was through the black blood contagion. But there were already ill krolvin in his ship and the Glaoveln invasion was only two weeks later. He was likely feigning ignorance on the subject.

Anti-Paragon Restorative

Grishom Stone had offered to cure Larsya of her condition, but her brother Breshon Caulfield did not want to cooperate with Stone. It was later determined that the real reason Stone wanted Larsya's blood was because she was part Wyrdeep elven by bloodline, and he wanted to force his way into the Deadfall forest of blood consuming trees, which are blocked off by a barrier erected by the Wyrdeep druids. Breshon was asking adventurers what they knew of his sister's condition and if she could be cured on their own. Xorus was quickly realized to have a mastery of this subject, even though he had not been present during the period of Brieson's studies, and mostly devised a cure for reversing Larsya's condition. This was before it was known what a "paragon" was, or what their function was in sustaining Raznel, and before their special role in the Bleaklands was known or understood.

Breshon invited a prominent alchemist from Estoria named Praxopius Fortney to assist in the cure development. This was a source of consternation and suspicion, as someone known as "The Alchemist" was known to have behind turning Malluch Burdos into the first Rone vigilante, and Praxopius later admitted it. Most of the work of developing the cure was done before Praxopius arrived, which he admitted he only slightly modified. This was mostly the addition of "bleaksoil", soil from the Bleaklands, which he said was itself essentially a kind of blood. (Since bleaksoil is ultimately derived from the black blood variant, it can itself be considered a variant of epochxin.) Whether this made a difference is unknown since it could be tested once, and it had to be calibrated just right, or else Larsya could melt and crumble from an adverse reaction between the poison variants.

Xorus was working on constructing a general theory on the mechanisms of the various blood curses (See: Interventions and Restoratives of Epochxin Affliction (essay)), including those of Grishom Stone, who had been working with the Everblood variant. (Stone has transformed victims in cocoons as well, for example, and it was his methods along with Ithzir blood that created Rodnay. Rodnay has exhibited self-healing properties.) He speculated that trolls acquired their self-healing powers from extraplanar transmogrification from demon venom. His cure method was premised on a formula that would convert the modified epochxin in Larsya's blood, later understood to be a paragon state, into the Everblood through the use of heat. It was a combination of essence of fire, as well as essence of regeneration from troll flesh, and the anti-Everblood. Magister Raelee Svala did elemental calculations to carefully tune it. The troll aspects would in theory help preserve Larsya's flesh, and the essence of fire would push out the sludge, with the anti-Everblood cannibalizing the Everblood being formed from the epochxin under heat. Praxopius decided bleaksoil needed to be added to it due to the nature of the Bleaklands. Praxopius also provided a low steel cylinder, which executed a sequence of Wizard time spells, which sequenced the process of temporally reverting Larsya's body to the time it was inflicted with epochxin, and only then pushing out the toxin from her system.

This cure was only possible because of knowledge of how the other Raznel poisons worked. It was likely possible to cure Larsya significantly earlier, even if the bleaksoil was necessary, as the bleaksoil was not collected until a week prior to the ritual. Praxopius was likely delaying, as he was spending his time weaponizing Larsya's blood, into at least three known forms. One was remaking the epochxin venom variant, possibly a form that only affects krolvin blood. One was a variant that would restore bodies to a prior healthful condition, even if crippled by a curse, but which was also a poison that would eventually make the host crumble into black ash. And one was a contagion designed to afflict blood relatives of Kragnack, so that Kragnack would either immediately or eventually be killed by it. Kragnack collapsed into ash as well. The krolvin would come to call this variant the "Blue Suffer".

Uncurse Restorative Poison

Praxopius weaponized his study of Larsya's blood by creating a health restorative potion that was actually a time delayed poison. The formula for this variant is unknown. It is probably an unstable variation of the Larsya cure formula invented by Xorus. There would be a temporal reversion to the blood's "memory" of its healthy state through the use of Everblood, but there would be a small anti-Everblood component in it that would eventually cannibalize it. In this way the blood of the host would turn into oily black ichor and they would melt and collapse into ash. This was what happened when it was used on Rysus, who was half-elven and not half-krolvin. Leafiara was tricked into giving it to the Rooks for Rysus to heal him, as Rysus had been crippled with a curse from Naimorai Kestrel during the Rook invasion of the Hendoran outpost in 5117 Modern Era.

Rysus was gradually losing his mind as a result of the poison, behaving erratically, and the Rooks eventually turned him over to the town to be killed. Praxopius openly admitted to poisoning Rysus. Praxopius used an enhanced version of it on himself, so he would instantly recover the use of his legs, but would only survive a short period of time so he could go out in a blaze of glory fighting the krolvin. Praxopius' body also crumbled. He was human. Praxopius was also exhibiting some delirious mental states as a result of this form of the poison.

Blue Suffer

The "Lalk Morgil" (Krolgeh: "Blue Suffer") is the contagion that Praxopius developed to assassinate Kragnack. Praxopius claimed it would affect those in Kragnack's bloodline, where it would eventually take out Kragnack even if he was not directly hit with it. Kragnack, however, was hit with it repeatedly, and collapsed into ash. Praxopius claimed that it was necessary to use this poison to kill Kragnack. Otherwise Kragnack would not stay dead, restoring himself with his necromantic powers, and magic he had acquired from Elithain Cross. But Praxopius was nominally open to its genocidal potential against the krolvin. About two weeks prior to the invasion of Glaoveln, the militia of Wehnimer's Landing searched Praxopius' ship The Titan, and discovered shackled krolvin and half-krolvin being experimented upon. The krolvin was more or less unconscious, with scratches and small wounds, likely self-inflicted injuries. The half-krolvin was dead with no visible injuries, other than bruising. In the Glaoveln offensive the contagion was delivered using coated daggers, which were highly fragile, but which were stowed by many adventurers. The table with all the other daggers on it was on The Titan, which is presumed to have sailed back to Idolone. As such the actual poison is scattered across the continent, and given the nature of the other variants, the poison probably largely replaces the blood of those afflicted with it. Which would mean the poison can be harvested from the sick if any survivors are left.

Praxopius publicly claimed that he did not believe the contagion could be developed into a form that would eradicate the whole krolvin bloodline within his own lifespan. He said he would send the formula for making it to Xorus on a two year delay, in late 5120 or 5121 Modern Era, so that it could eventually be used to eradicate the krolvin entirely. As has been noted, this was essentially the opposite of Praxopius' way of operating, making secret deals and acting through subterfuge. Breshon had noted that it would only be a brief amount of time before another warlord took Kragnack's place and came looking for vengeance. The formula never arrived. When it was a year late, a new warlord named Tyrrax, called the Black Wyvern of Glaoveln or Czag Pritz, came searching for the formula based on this promised delivery. But their halfling mentalist Kharusa is unable to get into Xorus' mind.

Xorus in turn has argued that Praxopius was probably only painting a target on him as a decoy, so as to distract the krolvin from whatever Praxopius was actually planning, suggesting plinite weapons development by elements in the Hall of Mages. That Praxopius would not have trusted him with it, noting that the first Rone vigilante was planning on killing him, and that Praxopius would not have publicly put all of his eggs in one basket that way. That if he was serious, he would have pretended to destroy his notes in public, and turn them over immediately in secret. Or alternatively, that Octaven somehow intercepted it, if Praxopius sent it magically. That Octaven was probably Praxopius' source of plinite and that she has had an interest in controlling the Blight since 5119 Modern Era. Whatever the case may be, the Blue Suffer has probably spread among relations of Kragnack to some distance, but in its present form does not extend to all krolvin. Tyrrax claims he wants the formula destroyed. The "Blue Suffer" is clearly based on the epochxin family of poisons, given the way Kragnack died from it, and the krolvin do not possess or understand the base of knowledge upon which Praxopius was able to develop it within only a few months. Specific details of the Blue Suffer are still sketchy, but it seems like an analog of the black blood curse (which was race specific and afflicted half-krolvin), except where the end result is more like that of the poison used on Rysus or those killed with anti-Everblood.

Others

There are some other variants or related phenomena. Grishom Stone in particular has worked with the Everblood, and has his own history of blood magic projects.

• Flesh Golems: Grishom Stone made "clones" of himself using the Everblood. He has shipped them all over the place, and some such as Granthem appear to be whole personalities. Unconscious flesh golems are typically covered in a black ichor residue.

• Cocoon Children: Grishom Stone has sometimes transformed victims, especially children, into other forms such as winged monstrosities or Ithzir hybrids to open portals. Rodnay originated this way in 5116 Modern Era and self-heals like Everblood.

• Bleaksoil: The soil of the Bleaklands was described by Praxopius as essentially being blood in its own right. It was created through the black blood variant in blood marble.

• Blood trees: The blood consuming trees have some unclear relationship to it. They grow in the Bleaklands, but are also being used by Stone in the Deadfall. The blood maw core of the root network is drawn to the Shadow Realm.

• Stones: Bleakstone could be considered a variant in its own right, and blood marble (at least when infused with the black blood variant) might be considered its own form as well.

• The Blight: The Blight is not a substance. But it is either a phenomenon created from it, or else an epiphenomenon of the Bleaklands, which was created from it.

• Thrayzar: Thrayzar was cursed with the same yellow mist as Drangell. After Praxopius' experiments, Thrayzar became temporally un-fixed, and remained so after the antidote. Raznel and Stone became unable to track him, and Stone later took some of his blood.

See Also

• Wehnimer's Landing Storylines (Note: Almost all of them are related to these poisons to one extent or another.)
• "Beyond the Arkati" - Grishom Stone (2012)
• "A Study on the Occult Origins and Intrinsic Properties of Everblood and its Derivatives (Part I)" - Cruxophim (2016)
• Interventions and Restoratives of Epochxin Affliction - Xorus (2018)