Malach II

The Searing. The Burning.

It was brutal, it was savage - it had a terrible beauty in its ruining. Even as ancient centers of learning and arcane knowledge burned and toppled, there was beauty. Still, I would've preferred to observe this from a bit further away. Our father came to visit those of us in Ascalon. And then, during the Razing he vanished. Disappeared or dead, we had no idea which. No spirits we could raise or demons we could summon could enlighten us to what his fate was.

During this time we allowed ourselves to be conscripted into the Ascalonian Vanguard; Prince Rurik's handpicked special agents. There was a lot of rebuilding and defending, revenge and assignments. We were kept very busy for a long time. Perhaps I'll write about them more one day.

After two years of this - and in this time no news, no commands, in short no sign of our father, we had tentatively decided to divide the various tasks and rules our father had between us - a sort of triumvirate until we had something more to go on. Brother Ateuchus assumed control of the troops and our defenses. Sister Sabine concentrated on the family lore and the Necromancers. While I divided my time between the arcane matters and diplomacy with different nations and groups.

During this time we also kept our presence in Ascalon though. Now if someone else is reading this and wondering how we kept going back and forth between Ascalon and the Battle Isles - a journey of many months by boat - so often, I can answer that. We have in our possession the Hourglass Staffs. Family artifacts. While non-family members can access the basic functions of them, like attacking, the higher functions are closed to them. Should they try to use them, they should remember that a family steeped in Necromancy has access to a lot of rather nasty tricks.

What powers do these possess that we know about? Time... First of all they slow our aging down to a crawl, I am 60 but scarce look older than in my twenties. Second they allow us to teleport from anywhere in the world to our Hall, and back again to where we were. This allowed us to be active in two distant lands at the same time.

Now, however, we decided to expand our search for father somewhat. For this reason we founded a new Guild, registered it with the crown in Ascalon and set out. While we appointed a distant cousin (mother's side) to the position of Guild Lord, the true power remains with the three of us. The Guild Lord is needed for keeping our Guild current, registered in all nations and in good standing with the various governments. We, however, can get some work done now.