Deshret Topic /4
NPCName
Snakebite"As the serpent shuns thought,
It shuns fear.
It strikes with the speed of wrath
And the skill of compulsion."
- Deshret, The Red Sekhema
Careful Planning"Greatly outnumbered, Deshret dressed her personal guard
in identical garb. When the Empire rode north, Deshret and
her guard took turns revealing themselves, creating the illusion
of speed beyond the capabilities of even the Virtue Gems."
- History of the Maraketh
Advancing Fortress"A man cowers behind his walls.
A woman carries her fortress with her.
In heart, in mind, in hand."
- Sekhema Deshret
Deshret's BannerWhen the sun sets, the plains should be red.
Deshret FlavourText /30
nameflavour
Deshret's Banner
BaseItemTypes
When the sun sets, the plains should be red.
Ranger25
CharacterTextAudio
My gift, from one fighting woman to another, Deshret.
Templar50
CharacterTextAudio
No soul should suffer as you have, Deshret.
Scion32
CharacterTextAudio
You will be the first of many to throw off Nightmare's shackles, Deshret.
LibraryGaribaldi4
NPCTextAudio
{Book 4: The Red Sekhema's Saddle}

In return for her military support in the rebellion, Voll promised Sekhema Deshret the return of the Maraketh grazing lands stolen during the imperial conquest of the Vastiri Plains. The Red Sekhema agreed on one condition, that she might have Hector Titucius' skin with which to fashion a rhoa saddle.

To this end, Voll and Deshret engineered a trap for General Titucius and his Vastiri Legion. The Maraketh had long been able to predict the comings and goings of the vast and vicious dust storms that constantly plague the plains. Deshret located one such fledgling maelstrom within a day's march of Titucius' camp. For his part, Voll identified a number of imperial spies amongst the Maraketh and fed them false information regarding a potential tribal uprising. Taking the bait, Titucius had his Gemling legion surround the supplied location, thus placing himself squarely in the path of Deshret's dust storm.

On the third Galvano of Vitali 1333 IC, the tempest descended upon Titucius' legion with blinding, deafening ferocity. Deshret's {akhara}, born and raised in dust and wind, swept through the legion, harvesting it like a field of ripe corn. Once storm and Maraketh fury had abated, the Vastiri Legion existed only as a multitude of dust-cloaked mounds. The Red Sekhema claimed her prize and it is said that there is no more comfortable saddle in all of Vastiri than Deshret's.

{ - Garivaldi, Chronicler to the Empire}
LibraryGaribaldi5
NPCTextAudio
{Book 5: The Emperor is dead. Long live the Emperor!}

On the last day of Divini 1333 IC, High Templar Voll laid siege to Sarn, his ranks swelled by Ezomyte, Karui and Maraketh rebels under the respective leaderships of Thane Rigwald, Hyrri of Ngamakanui and Sekhema Deshret. Emperor Chitus rallied his freshly minted Gemling Legionnaires and, for a time, looked set to execute an effective defence of the capital. But his efforts were cut short by his closest advisor and friend, Lord Mayor Ondar.

During the celebration of the Night of a Thousand Ribbons, Ondar struck Chitus down with blades tainted with the most virulent of poisons. Yet the emperor's inhuman constitution served him to the very last. Taking up his axe, Chitus cleaved Ondar in twain before expiring himself, in a visceral and calamitous display of thaumaturgy.

Malachai, Thaumaturge Laureate, and his gemling consort, Lady Dialla, were captured by Victario Nevalius' citizen revolutionaries shortly thereafter. With their leadership either dead or detained, the gemling aristocracy of Sarn had no choice but to offer the city's surrender.

Voll and his Army of Purity marched through the gates of the capital and the following day, the High Templar was crowned Emperor Voll the First.

{ - Garivaldi, Chronicler to the Empire}
OyunBannerQuest
NPCTextAudio
Sekhema Deshret sealed the Mines, trapped the Nightmare within its black den.

The Beast should never have been imprisoned. The Beast should have been destroyed, yet, for all her ferocity, it seemed that Deshret lacked the courage to do so.

And now, after two centuries guarding this hole in the ground, this {akhara} lacks the strength. But you are not Deshret, and you are not one of us. You will succeed where we have failed.

Deshret's Banner will break the Seal and open the Mines. It was taken from her when she fell to Voll, the Brittle Emperor.

Take the stairs to the south-west, descend to the Dried Lake. You shall have no trouble finding the Brittle Emperor. You'll smell him before you see him.

Bring Deshret's Banner home, and you will be free to pass into the darkness as you wish.
OyunShownBanner
NPCTextAudio
The wind carries the welcome aroma of shattered bones. It is good to see that you know how to fell even the monarchs of Nightmare.

Once you mount Deshret's Banner upon the Mines' entrance, Deshret's seal will be broken, and the darkness will become your hunting ground.
OyunOnKira
NPCTextAudio
Kira has the blood of Deshret in her veins and the bonds of Deshret in her mind.

Her loyalty to her {akhara} is admirable. Her loyalty to the past is not.
OyunOnDeshret
NPCTextAudio
The Maraketh once stood united under Deshret's Banner. That was before the plagues, the tempests... the corruption.

Deshret rode here with this {akhara}, the Kiyato, to put an end to the Beast's curse. And upon the very threshold of the darkness she faltered.

Perhaps she saw that King Kaom had gone there before her and not returned. Or perhaps the nightmare simply overcame Deshret's seemingly indomitable courage.

Either way, she chose not to ride into the mountain, to slay the Beast. She closed and sealed the Mines and committed this {akhara} to Highgate's guardianship.

The tempests, the plagues... they passed. Of their own accord, or because of Deshret's seal, we do not know.

But what I do know is this. When Deshret vowed to watch over these Mines, she simply traded one curse for another.
OyunDeshretQuest
NPCTextAudio
Yes, Tasuni has informed me of Deshret's existence within the Mines, but has been unable to tell me how she comes to be there. Another troubling hole in our knowledge of Nightmare.

Regardless of her origins, I will not risk my {dekhara} in an attempt to free her. Even were she still flesh and blood, I would decide the same.

She is our Sekhema no longer, and we have fulfilled our duty to her memory many times over. Kira will not agree, yet her revolt will rise only as words. I am her Sekhema and she will not cross me.

So, free Deshret if the opportunity arises. It is only right that she be allowed to return to the dust of the Vastiri, but it would be wrong if any should follow her there.
OyunDeshretFreed
NPCTextAudio
Thank you for doing Deshret so great an honour. Your generosity shall be remembered.
OyunOnKaom1
NPCTextAudio
We read the land, learn its stories. Kaom and his warriors entered those Mines some twenty years before Deshret sealed the Mines and bound our {akhara} to this mountain.

Neither soil nor stone speak of Kaom's return. Perhaps he is dead, or perhaps he merely wishes he was. After Voll, anything seems possible.
OyunOnKaom2
NPCTextAudio
We read the land, learn its stories. Kaom and his warriors entered those Mines some twenty years before Deshret sealed them and bound our {akhara} to this mountain.

Neither soil nor stone speak of Kaom's return. Now we know why. He became a monarch of Nightmare, like Voll before him. It seems the Beast has uses for those with a talent for conquest.
OyunOnDaresso
NPCTextAudio
Daresso? Yes, Petarus has spoken of him. The disturbing question is this:

How does a man who, by all accounts, has been dead for over a hundred years end up as a Nightmare monarch in the bowels of Highgate?

Unlike Kaom, there is utterly no trace of his passing, and we have scouted every footstep of this mountain and its surrounds. There is no other entrance. No physical entrance.

Deshret, and now this... Daresso. Yes, most disturbing.
OyunOnMalachaiDead
NPCTextAudio
I was right to have faith in you, Curse-breaker.

You have succeeded where we have failed. You have slain a creature that was thought to live forever in the minds of those who came before you.

Voll, Daresso, Kaom, Deshret... the greatest champions Wraeclast has seen in the last three hundred years. You stood where they fell. Now you are the champion of champions, and Wraeclast should bow at your feet in gratitude.

You certainly have my gratitude, and that of my {akhara}. We have been exiled from our land by fear and misguided duty. Now we may return, to ride where we will, live how we wish.

Curse-breaker, Giver of Freedom... we thank you.
KiraOnMinesOpen
NPCTextAudio
Deshret's banner flies at the Mines' entrance and now the darkness gapes, hungry and expectant.

Our Red Sekhema sealed that gate for a reason. Not simply to prevent the Beast from reaching out, but to hinder those fools who would disturb its slumber.

And here you are, about to be swallowed by that darkness. Let us hope the Beast doesn't notice your passing.
KiraOnDeshret
NPCTextAudio
Deshret lies shackled in the darkness, while I, her blood, am shackled by duty to remain here. Oyun has decreed it.

Will it be you then who frees Deshret from her dishonour? Perhaps you will, perhaps you won't. Either way, it is Deshret's fate to suffer at the mercy of injustice.
KiraOnDeshretFreed
NPCTextAudio
Deshret has ascended and returned, as we all must, to the dust of Vastiri. The Red Sekhema's dishonour has passed, and for that, outsider, I will always be grateful.

Yet honour lies not in {whether} an act is committed. Honour lies in {how} an act is committed. What does it say of the Maraketh when we are forbidden to attend to our own?

What does it say of Oyun and her belief in her own blood, our own honour?
KiraOnDialla
NPCTextAudio
"When a woman forgets how to die, a woman forgets how to live."

Deshret said that to her {dekhara} on the day she killed Titucius, Scourge of the Maraketh.

{I} say this of Dialla: When a woman knows nothing of life, how can she care for the living?
PetarusVanjaOnDaresso
NPCTextAudio
Petarus: Daresso? He's down there, inside the mountain?

Vanja: Are we talking about {the} Daresso? The Sword King?

Petarus: Seems like it. But... how did he get in there? He left Oriath about a century and a half ago, hoping to find a cure for his lady, Merveil. He would have had to fight his way through the Maraketh, but... Oyun's never mentioned anything of the sort.

Vanja: Maybe he didn't go in alive.

Petarus: What do you mean?

Vanja: We live in a land where the dead walk and {things} like Dialla live for centuries.

Petarus: You think he died somewhere else and then the Beast got hold of him?

Vanja: Could be.

Petarus: Well, if the Beast can do that, then... what bloody good was Deshret's Seal?

Vanja: Exactly.
TasuniOnDeshret
NPCTextAudio
The Red Sekhema was the woman who forged what it meant to be 'Maraketh', a people united, strong. Deshret lit fires in the hearts of women and loins of men. When she fell, so did the Maraketh. We've been falling ever since.
TasuniSealBroken
NPCTextAudio
The gate is open, and now I hear her voice as clearly as if she were sitting right here with me.

Words of a dead woman, reverberating up from the depths of Highgate. A spirit chained, yet not enslaved. Tortured, yet unbroken.

That dead woman is Deshret, and our Red Sekhema longs to return to the dust of her Vastiri. Free her, and I shall reward you as my gifts allow.
TasuniDeshretFreed
NPCTextAudio
I felt it, {saw} it... the storm of her release. Our Red Sekhema is free to mingle once more with the red earth of our birthplace.

Deshret was the howling wind, the lash and bite of the driving dust. Our wild Vastiri is weakened by her absence no longer.

You've done yourself proud today, exile. Righted a wrong that we Maraketh have borne for far too long.

And of course, as promised, you shall be rewarded.
TasuniOnGodlessThree
NPCTextAudio
Malachai's apprentices. Shavronne of Umbra, Doedre Darktongue and Inquisitor Maligaro. You'll find no more devoted servants in all of Nightmare. In life, they were the three finest forgers of corruption in the Empire.

I'm inclined to agree with Malachai on this one. It would have been such a waste to let them languish in death.

Poor Deshret. Each had their wicked way with her, you see, their turn at trying to subsume Deshret into the collective corruption. Ingenious, they are. True artists. Had Deshret been in possession of an imagination, they might well have succeeded in creating a Ghast of her. Fortunately for us, Deshret never had such a faculty.
TasuniOnGodlessThreeDead
NPCTextAudio
If Deshret were able, she'd thank you for dispatching her tormentors, Malachai's wicked little trio. You'll have to content yourself with my thanks, instead. Deshret has been avenged, as is the way of the Maraketh. Tidiness helps one sleep at night, don't you think?
IrashaTakeFeather
NPCTextAudio
Not since the fall of Deshret has this {akhara} seen so sad a moment. Our gods are false. Our Sekhema is dead. But you, Outsider, you offer hope.

Without the Feather, Tasuni will be unable to take control of Highgate, no matter how much he lies and whines. My people will never allow it.

And Oyun's passing leaves me with only one course of action. I will take the Sekhema Feather and mount the saddle of Highgate. It will be a difficult journey ahead. Our faith has died with the gods you have slain, yet I know in my heart that we will find a way to go on.

For your troubles, outsider. Perhaps I was wrong, and good can come from beyond our borders.
Snakebite
UniqueItems
"As the serpent shuns thought,
It shuns fear.
It strikes with the speed of wrath
And the skill of compulsion."
- Deshret, The Red Sekhema
Careful Planning
UniqueItems
"Greatly outnumbered, Deshret dressed her personal guard
in identical garb. When the Empire rode north, Deshret and
her guard took turns revealing themselves, creating the illusion
of speed beyond the capabilities of even the Virtue Gems."
- History of the Maraketh
Advancing Fortress
UniqueItems
"A man cowers behind his walls.
A woman carries her fortress with her.
In heart, in mind, in hand."
- Sekhema Deshret