[OPEN TO KENOMA] EXECUTION OF THE INNOCENT

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WHO: The Regent and Interested Kenoma
WHAT: As promised, the Regent is carrying out the Innocence Entity's invite-only execution.
WHERE: The Regent's Throne Room.
WHEN: Firaseri 22nd, after dissipated Kenoma have emerged.
WARNINGS: Disturbing imagery, gore, limb loss, general unpleasantness.

It's the evening of the 22nd when the call goes out: it is time for the execution. This is purely an event for the willing and or eager, and besides being informed of it, no Kenoma will be pressured into attending. Those that are interested, however, will be led to the Regent's throne room for what promises to be a very special occasion.

Upon entry, the set up of the throne room will seem quite familiar to those that have been there before. A cavernous room filled with nothing but the throne itself, its emptiness seems an intentional call to the void. Several stairs lead to the dais where the throne sits, currently occupied by a the Regent. As usual, any details about the Regent are obscured behind flowing robes and a faceted mask. Presently, they are swirling around a glass of what is presumably wine, but drinking absolutely none of it. Any Kenoma that seem interested will be offered a drink by one of the Citadel servants on duty.

It's not just the Regent present, however. Off to the right side of the room, an arrangement of familiar void-dark spears have been fused into the wall and floor, with their prisoner still held at their center, pierced from all sides. Estinien Wyrmblood appears as little more than a shadow of his former self at this stage, every ounce of color stripped from him, in sharp contrast to the black ichor that bubbles and drips from a cruel assortment of wounds. One eye is swollen with infection, oozing void, while the other is completely blank with whiteness. Each limb has been shorn down to a stub, as if burned by a dark fire from the outside in; all except a set of ragged, broken wings strung up being him. His torso, pierced as it is, seems to be barely holding onto form.

If he reacts to the arrival of 'guests', it isn't apparent. Instead, he seems practically comatose, all except for that open eye and the shallow movements of his breath. His shard is exposed, resting beneath his collar bones, an eye-like shape that has become similarly colorless. The usual sheen of color that all shards hold has faded away, now showing nothing but the gray of the stone beneath it. Those with True Sight will see that he has fallen to the first tier of Pleroma, and even that he is only tenuously hanging on to.

At their throne, the Regent lifts their glass.

"Welcome, kindred."

Comments

ATTENDANCE

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Please make a note here if your character is attending the execution. The Regent will be paying attention to who turns up.

PREGAMING

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You may post any general pre-execution threads below this top-level. If your character is addressing the Regent specifically, please call them out in the subject of your comment.

THE MAIN EVENT

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Once they've had enough revelry for the evening, the Regent rising from their throne signals that it's time. Striding to the front of their dais, they lift their glass, still not a drop from it drunk.

"To all of you that made this possible," the say. "For hundreds of years this creature has eluded my touch, unwilling to relinquish Horos from its grasp. It's only now, as the end arrives, that it dared be lured close enough that it could be marked... and oh, will it ever be.

"I truly believe that those standing here now will be my final generation of Kenoma. That you above all others will witness as the final threshold is crossed, leading millennia of my most devoted followers behind you. It is nothing less than what I promised them. That, though they may not be at my side in life, they will follow me in death to a new reality. One where death is no limitation, but simply a rite of passage."

They slowly begin their descent of the stairs as they speak, moving towards Estinien's broken body. Their dark claws hook beneath his chin, lifting it up as if to appraise whether there is any life left in his eyes. Inconclusive, perhaps.

"To think, that the Innocence gave it all up for this. A few stray fools who accomplished nothing for their cause. It shouldn't surprise me, really. If there was one thing the Pleroma will never achieve, it's learning when to quit."

With that, wine glass still in one hand, they dig the claws of the other into the flesh around Estinien's shard.

REACTIONS

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For any reactions characters might have to the execution.