Faust the mythical city of floating islands that made up the home of the most powerful families in the Sacred Alliance, the Faust Fourteen. A city of betrayal, hate, love, pain and sin. Tension and strife was the norm in Faust as each family did its best to see its rise to the top of the city, to the very Islands even the royal family did not control.
There are seven layers to Faust but only the first three layers were available to the fourteen families of the city. Each island got progressively larger the higher one climbed with the Island if the royal family, located on the fourth island of the fifth layer, being almost thrice the size of the lowest family located on the seventh island of the seventh level.
Above all the families just below the very top island sat the true rulers of the city, the Church of the Eternal Dragon. It is through the will of the Eternal Dragon that the Islands higher than 4-5 were sealed and it only through his favor will a house rise higher.
It is not known to any where Faust came from or who built it- only that when the First Emperor, Charles Mordain, found it- the Eternal Dragon had already claimed the city and gave the Emperor permission to use 14 of its islands as well as the lower levels of the city for his new Empires uses. For over a millennia now this has been the status quo.
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Deep within the island spanning castle of the Mordain Family, the royal family, in a small room hidden away from all prying eyes, a woman of unnatural beauty and grace gave birth in silence. Her face beautiful golden locks were soaked and stuck to her face as she bared the pain of birth with an unearthly and silent grace.
She lay on a luxurious bed surrounded by bedmaids of equaling silence as they eased her pain in anyway they could. In the corner, a woman dressed in full armor stood in the corner silent. The process had been ongoing for hours now and the moment they all had been waiting for had finally come. With a deep breath the woman gave out her last push and breaking the silence, a wail that shook the walls and the greater castle.
The screaming babe of golden hair and blue eyes was presented to his mother who took him gently into her arms. The bed maids slowly exited the room- although they did not know yet, they would not see the next sunrise- but the knight in the corner stayed, the woman did not care. The babes screams died in its mouth as it eyes found his mothers face as if mesmerized the baby boy looked on with astonishment, at the same time the new mother looked lovingly down at her child with eyes streaming with tears. She took in everything about the boy that she could, she drunk in his appearance fully intent on remembering everything she could of her child. It was then she noticed something peculiar. It was not the unnatural intelligence the child held behind it eyes, a child born of two Epics was bound to be different.
No, it was the small, black, nine pointed star located on the right side of the child's face. It was so tiny it was easily overlooked. She studied the star on her son's face with intensity and the closer she looked at it the more she could feel the vastness of it, as if all things could be held within it and yet nothing at all. She knew immediately upon seeing it what it was, A Natural Rune. One of the rarest things that a person can be born with it.
"Already you defy expectations" she cooed to her child as she held it close. Her pride swelling to unimaginable heights as more tears fell down her face. The baby boy gave a toothless smile in reply, it sent her heart reeling in pain at the sight.
There was more that she could feel within her child, a powerfully pure bloodline. Gotten not from her, but from his father. A part of the bloodline that seemed to even out due his own fathers! She did not known how such a thing had happened. Bloodlines were always a mystery. No one in all of Norland knew how the mysterious of bloodlines functioned. Even after thousands of years of study and experimentation.
She held her child for only a few more minutes before she felt it, the pull, the calling of her god. Her time was up, it was time for her to return to her post. She wiped the tears from her face as she looked down at her child, the only one she would ever have in her life. The only part of her and *him* that would ever exist. He had gained much from her in terms of appearance, that was not enough for her, she would impart her own flesh with something of herself no matter the consequences.
She did not have much time so she did not waste any. From her hands powerful golden mist flowed from herself to the babe in front of her. For more than a minute the mist flowed form her to the child. When she was done her face had aged noticeably by a few years. Her radiating beauty was still intact, though it was of little consequence to her as she had succeeded on what she had wanted. For the knight in the corner, all they could do was stare in astonishment at the sight of magic never before witnessed.
The child, flooded with the golden energy, fell into a comfortable sleep in his mothers arms.
The woman smiled before placing a gentle kiss on his forehead before looking to the stunned knight, "Winter, please present Nassir to his father. He will surely be happy to see him." she said
"Yes" the knight mechanically said before gently taking the child in her arms. She did her best to keep her movements slow as not to wake the child from its sleep. But it seemed her worries were unwarranted as the child did not so much as stir at the loss of his mothers warmth. Even the cold touch of metal would not wake the babe from his deep slumber.
"Is there anything you wish to say to his majesty Phi-" the words died on her mouth as she looked up to see only bloodstained sheets on the bed and no mother. The knight sighed to herself and looked down at the sleeping babe. She carefully adjusted the babe in her arms before walking out of the room and down the vast hall.
She walked through the halls in silence her mind solely focused on fulfilling the task given to her. With a steady arm she held the babe while resting her hands on the blade that rested on her hips. She did not think that anything would happen, but the emperor had many wives and she understood not all could or would be sensible in their actions. She flared her aura as she walked warning any who may dared to cross her path.
Her worried turned out to be unfounded as she walked with impunity through the halls of the Palace, the servants bowed and cowered as she passed by and the few members of the royal family that she passed gave her a wide berth, only curiously glancing at the sleeping child in her arms. The news would spread, she knew, but by then it would be of little consequence. Once the boy was presented to his father everything would be settled.
Eventually she reached her destination, the one place she was sure she would be able to find the Emperor in a times of great stress. His personal dining chambers. And she was right, as she walked in she saw the Emperor in all his glory gorging upon a table full of the most decadent, most luxurious foods she had ever seen. Seared dragon steaks, grilled phoenix wings, leviathan fillets and much more all layered neatly on the table. The food on the table was so rich in energy that even she would pass out from consuming so much energy food; the emperor gorged on them with impunity shoveling food in with an inexhaustible appetite.
Having only been ruling for less than a decade now, Emperor Philip had already doubled in size, so much so that his royal chair no longer fit his hulking form. Just as much as his size had grown so to had his presence, she could feel it in her bones the Emperor was far stronger than he was when he took the throne.
There he sat in his too small throne as the much smaller court officials swarmed around him like gnats informing him of every minor thing happening in the Empire that might warrant his attention. Each one more sycophantic than the last, doing their absolute best to curry as much favor with the young emperor as they could. The Emperor only half listened to them as he ate with impunity meats that cost the amount smaller kingdoms made in decades.
In a normal situation she would kneel to the Emperor, she felt it wiser not to do so with the child in her arms. She chose to stand patiently and wait for him to recognize them. The man had noticed she was coming from long ago, it was the only reason the doors to the room had opened for them at all. She stood for quite sometime as she listened to the court officials ramble about the Alliances' current runnings.
She could tell that the man was only half listening. For as long as she had followed him- a very long time- he had never much cared for ruling or administration, but Philip was not one to shirk his duties either.
Eventually the Emperor stopped eating and raised his meaty hands and the chatter of the court officials ceased immediately.