A cacophony of grunts, cackles, whines, and howls echoed through the massive ruined underground cathedral. The Sacred Monolith rose from the center of the dirty marble floor and hummed with magical energy, an emerald edifice that defiantly stood between two emerald boulders unphased by the passing of time. It's surface had become slick with the condensed heat that dominated the cavern. It glowed brightly enough of pale green light that it illuminated all the sin ongoing in its sanctum. The Congress of the Emerald Horde had begun. Dozens of tents, colored and decorated with the emblems and trappings of their respective Camp's homeland, were pitched in the ruins of the unholy place. It was a time for one of the most feared collectives of monsters on the western continent of Barthica to gather and share the tales -and fruits- of their exploits. Above the myriad sounds of hundreds of beasts were the rolling waves of their harems moaning in pleasure echoing off the cracked stained glass images of long dead unholy warriors. The Emerald Horde was no mere collection of beasts. They were monsters gathered in purpose: to fulfill the will of the Sacred Monolith and gain a harem of human girls.
Among the steaming, sweating beasts carousing, supplicating, and rutting was a small one-eyed goblin: Nutten Sak. He clutched at his shoulder, a fresh brand in the image of the Sacred Monolith still ached, the memory of the burning pain and sacred incantation would be with the youngling forever. The new member of the Emerald Horde searched vainly for his brother. Every turn lead him into a new manner of beast or maiden. He had been pushed over, knocked aside, and drenched in the ambient fluids that seemed to hang heavy in air. Just as the small green creature began to gnash his sharpened teeth in frustration he saw his elder brother Ballem Sak waving to him from the wooden scaffolding that ascended along the marble wall to the height of the ceiling. The slightly larger goblin waved to his younger sibling to join him.
The little green wretch darted between the legs of several monsters. Only on one occasion running face first into one of their impressive endowments to the laughter of all witnesses. He crossed past a circle of particularly infamous monsters all gathered around the Sacred Monument. Nutten recognized one of the circle's members, then another, and another. They were the leaders of all the various Camps that had gathered, the Speakers of the Emerald Horde.
From the circle of Speakers the first to step forward was a handsome centaur with chiseled features. His wavy brown hair fell upon bare muscular brown shoulders, one of which branded with the image of the Sacred Monolith he stood before. Upon his stallion back were three beautiful dark skinned human women, clothed in only simple leathers and naked adoration for their master. "Representing the Camp of Beastfolk I, Rizog Windrunner, offer my voice to you, oh Sacred Monument, in regaling the tale of one of our own who so embodied your teachings that we deemed them worthy of placement upon the roof of your cathedral as an Icon. Please accept this offering of profanity in your name and bless us for another birth and death!"
The elder goblin brother heard this from up high on the platform and looked up at the ceiling to try to guess the Icon he would be picking. To have your image on upon the Conquered Horizon, the massive crude fresco that framed the Scared Monolith, was the greatest honor a member of the Emerald Horde could achieve. Even having a member of your Camp adorn the massive cluttered mural was a source of honor.
Nutten Sak crawled up the crudely reinforced scaffolding to share his brother's top down view of the event. "I hate this guy." Ballem said casually, "His harem is hot though."
"The girls on his back?" the younger one answered as he hoisted himself up to sit next to his goblin kin, "Eh, they're ok. You can see the whole Sacred Monolith from up here! It's beautiful."
The elder brother laughed at what he saw as the naivety of new blood to the Horde. "I guess so."
Far beneath them, the centaur Speaker gestured to the Sacred Monolith with a reverence one would expect to see from the head of a clergy in the presence the Gods not from a monster in front of a glowing rock. "For seeing our shared dream come true, our great dream of a harem for every monster, a harem of beautiful women! I offer you boundless gratitude! I offer you all my dedication! I offer you the name and deeds of Vacaras, son of Garlan!"
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Vacaras, son of Garlan lived a cruel life even for a minotaur. Born on this continent of Barthica he was raised in the western lands of that recently became known as the Axiom Unity in the Great War with the Elysian Chorus. Vacaras spent his youth grazing the vast golden fields and sleeping in mountain lairs with little care nor fear. Perhaps once a week the most eventful thing that would happen is that the mighty minotaur needed to flee to a certain field to escape the eyes of a passing herdsmen. But even such occurrences were rare in the Axiom highlands. Vacaras lived a simple quiet life. This of course changed once the Great War began. Lands needed to be cleared, bodies needed to be trained, beasts needed to be saddled and all to settle a debate among the humans! Vacaras would not be isolated from these injustices either.
One day a woman approached our kin in the field. She was dressed in white robes over pink wool. Her head was concealed from the sun by a vast white brimmed hat. She twirled a grey staff in her hand. On her hip was a thick black tome. Vacaras had not noticed her approach and yet here she was mere feet away from him. How she could have appeared so suddenly shocked and baffled our kin. They locked eyes. Vacaras saw she was a mature, voluptuous figure with piercing eyes behind small pink rimmed glasses. The woman whispered some words in a language our field grazer did not know and lightly struck the earth with her staff. Chains made of white light erupted from the earth around Vacaras and swept around his mighty torso and bulging biceps. Though he tried to fight his restraints with his incredible strength they were unbreakable.
Our kinfolk's peaceful life was stripped away by none other than an adventurer.
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A roar of jeers and insults rose at the mention of an adventurer. "Fucking sword-swinging-chaotic-good-being-murder-hobos, the lot of them!" Ballem roared.
Nutten echoed his brother's sentiment: "Damn the spellbook-copying-corpse-looting-home-invading thieves!" There were few things and ubiquitously hated among monster kind as the adventurer.
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