Nexites
"Roin of Ormsage, you are accused of being a follower of the Unspoken One, of fermenting plots against the security of the Empire, of sacriledge and heresy, of murder and theft to further the plans of your heinous master. Before sentence is carried out, and your body consigned to the fire, how do you plead?"Within The Empire of Belyos, the god most associated with warriors and combat is the Primae Saudo. Her name is often invoked prior to battle, to ensure a worthy opponent and that good fortune shines. That a Primae is invoked is unusual; most of the Empire's pantheon are Tertae, with a few Secundae. Saudo's place assured mainly because of her brother, the Unspoken One, Nexi. Where Saudo represents the honour of conflict, and its necessary nature in the world, Nexi represents the dark side of violence; of pain, maliciousness, and cruelty. Throughout the Empire, active worship of Nexi is forbidden, used only as a subject of fear and disgust; a warning that unfettered violence has dark consequences. Despite this, there are some who have dedicated their lives to serving this more reviled of the gods. They operate in secret, but are responsible for some of the worst actions imaginable, and may even be responsible for the fall of the first Empire and the invasion of the Sakamohr Confederacy. Uttered devoted to spreading chaos and confusion, their numbers are unknown and whilst their influence does exist, their actual threat is often highly inflated, and provides a good excuse for authorities to crack down on many kinds of dissent.
Structure
The actual nature of the Nexite organisation is unknown to the authorities in both the Empire and Sakamohr, but is not formally organised. Groups of Nexites operate largely in isolation from each other and have no knowledge of the activities of other Nexite groups. It is postulated that there is a central command group, who have some means of sending out general strategic aims, but the manner of this communication is unknown. Whatever it is, the authorities have never intercepted any Nexite messages.
Local groups are largely leaderless, and operate in a surprising democratic fashion; plans are proposed by any member, and voted on on, with tasks handed out according to ability. The size of a group varies wildly, from just a few people in small, under-populated areas, to almost a hundred in the biggest cities.
Public Agenda
The outspoken agenda of the Nexites is simple; to sow chaos and discord, to see established authorities overthrown, with anarchy in their place. Their philosophy is that the strong will prosper, and the weak purged, but this is not from some altruistic goal of improvement, the ultimate end goal of the Nexites is chaos for the sake of it. Disruption and anarchy is their god's persona, so that is what they desire.
History
In the aftermath of the The Inheritance War it was realised that the ultimate cause of the Usurpation and the subsequent chaos was the machinations of Nexi. This was not surprising to the other Primae; Nexi's predilections were well known, and had largely been frustrated due to the canniness of the Primae. It wasn't until he was able to target the Secundae Turbal's ego that he was able to influence larger scale actions. Whilst Nexi remained at large, and his current location was unknown, he could not be allowed to continue to cause such wide-scale conflict between the gods, as the world could not cope with another war of such scale.
Consummating their growing affections, Saudo and Nuico begat Zal'jon-weil; a being of both Chaos and Order, whose very presence was enough to prevent open conflict and whose moderating influence removed the threat of Nexi manipulating the other gods. With his power largely neutralised, Nexi was no longer considered a threat, and the other Primae withdrew from the material plane.
Realising he had been effectively countered, Nexi did not give up. His children, the Triplets of Strife, whilst lacking his raw power to create disruption, were still adept at influencing mortals into conflict. In those early days of Empire, however, the gods watched humanity intently, and Nexi withdraw from their gaze, into parts of the world with smaller populations. Here, he and his children were able to create the first Nexite cults, and slowly spread them into Imperial lands.
It took over a thousand years, but this is nothing to a god, and Nexite whispers and influence eventually saw the Empire split into two, and finally collapse. The Sakamohr invasion was also the result of Nexite machinations, with Pexld the Conqueror rumoured to be a worshipper of Nexi himself. Even the Sakamohr were not free from Nexite plans, and when they appeared to be getting too settled, it was Nexites who manipulated them into violence and in-fighting.
When Til-Yaltur unified the Empire, it was in open defiance of Nexi's plots, and the purges that followed saw Nexites rooted out of most of the Empire. It has taken centuries to finally get back into the Empire, but Nexi never rests, and his cults are still there, waiting for the right moment.
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments