Orientation (closed)

[Xaldin Seras]

Summer 14AV
(an hour after docking)

Xaldin had to of been getting close by now. His legs were burning from walking up the dirt path for so long. He felt like throwing up do to the smell of the sulfuric air and the fact that he was not exactly athletic. Even with his uncomfortable journey up to the Citadel he was still feeling excited. He was really here at Sahova, and he really was going to be an apprentice.
An uncomfortable thought in the back of his head was starting to creep up though.

What if he didn't get in? What if they didn't think him worthy enough. He had come all this way he did not even consider rejection possible. Something made a noise in the distance that drew his attention away from these troubling ideas though. from far off it looked like some kind of crab, but it was moving terribly fast and seemed to be coming in his direction.

He squinted, looking harder and trying to get close before he recoiled in fear. It was some hideously deformed creature with a large gaping mouth and sharp heavily muscled limbs stabbing at the treacherous terrain and galloping towards Xaldin, kicking up dust and soot as it went.

The boy tried to run but he was already so tired. As he started to flee the monster sped in front of him and hissed menacingly. Its torso and head looked almost human except for the spines growing out of it and the fact it had no eyes. its mouth had several rows of rotating jagged teeth. He stopped in his tracks, looking for some way to get out of this predicament. He was no fighter and this thing could clearly kill him in a second.

He stood motionless for what seemed like hours staring at this creature. It did not move either. All he did was pant with his disturbing mouth seeming to wait for him to move. The only features on its face were that mouth and ears.

As disturbing as this was it made Xaldin think that maybe this creature only made its movements based on sounds of things like breathing and footfalls. He had been holding his breath for this time he realized that that was what was keeping him alive.

Ever so slowly he pulled out his bag of provisions, keeping a close eye on the creatures movements which started to edge closer to where he was with one stab into the dirt after another. He reeled back and tossed his tin of water, and the sound of swishing made the monster leap up and snap it with its jaws and chomp it to bits with its powerful teeth. He made a break for it, running up the hill as fast as his legs could carry him before the citadel came into view. The creature had caught notice of him and barreled forward.
Their was an echo of some kind of explosion and something whirred dangerously past his head and hit with a thud behind him.

He look back gasping to see the creature splattered on the road by a large arrow. If he was not so out of breath he would of thanked the soulless golem's for saving his life, but he was content with rasping and waving a hand at them. The doors to the citadel opened up and he limped inside with cramps in his side and sweat pouring down his face.

Upon entering the Citadel a foul smell hit his nose. He knew that smell from the ship he had came in. It was the smell of death and decaying flesh. He was expecting this of course however he was rasping for air which made the stench all the more potent. Silently a red robed figure walked up as the door shut. Xaldin was about to say his greetings but a decrepit hand reached out and firmly held his jaw, moving his head from side to side.

"A pulser..." the worn voice said as he leaned over the small teenager "and a young one at that" Xaldin wanted his hand off of his face, it made him sick to think of how those cold and soft things belonged to a corpse.

"usually they send their cargo already deceased, why did they send us one of their scrawny sacks of meat still warm."

"I want to be an apprentice" He choked out, though his voice was distorted from the firm grip preventing his mouth to move properly. The robed Nuit shook his head

"you must be insane boy, go and live your sad pulser life somewhere else, we have no use for you"

Xaldin went pale at that and shook his head "no, don't send me away, I wont be a bother! I'll work as hard as I can!"

The Nuit hissed "What kind of work can you possibly do, we wouldn't even take your corpse for our next body because it has nothing too it!"

"I know masonry! and construction!" He did. He however only knew the basics because he would not go into the mines and had to find work.

"We have Golems for that, and they would be far better at it too"

"I can learn! I can learn whatever you can teach me! Just give me a chance!"
Other figures were coming into view now and murmured among themselves. The exasperated Nuit waved his hand and turned around

"Take this pulser into the basement were his kind belongs till a decision is made, I've been irked enough for now."

As he was led by the arms deeper into the citadel he couldn't help but smile. He had made it in, all that remained now was to cement his placement among them.

[Xaldin Seras]

Summer 14 AV
(one month after gaining entry)

Xaldin was pretty used to the smell of death by now. Staying around these reclusive rotting individuals for as long as he had desensitized his nose to the stench. Their attitude towards him was something harder to take though. They literally looked down on him for breathing and having a pulse. "Pulser" was apparently some racial slur for the living and he was bombarded with it since he got there. He stomached it though; he would not be turned away from name calling and harsh living conditions. He still rather would of been here than his old home.

Today he was with a Nuit staring at a body on a slab of a table with sharp utensils spread out before them. He had seen things like this before but this was his first time hearing the speech that went along with these so called "autopsies."

"Normally" the raspy voice of the Nuit began "We do not desecrate potential bodies for our brethren. However considering this is the second most useless sack of meat in the room..." obviously that was a jab at Xaldin but he pretended not to notice "...I am going to show you the basics of how a Nuit body is created"

The Nuit picked up one of the tools. it looked simple enough but it had an odd blade. it was on a rotating hinge connected to the handle and was circular and jagged in nature. The fact that it rotated would mean he would have some difficulty cutting. Or at least that is what he thought.

as he lifted it however it seemed to come to life. The circular blade began spinning at a very rapid pace, making a whirring noise that made Xaldin cringe.

"is that...a golem?" The apprentice asked in amazement

"Of course its a golem, they don't all have to be larger than life, some of them are made only for simple tasks like..." he pressed it against the bald head and started cutting through the skin "...cutting bone"

Dust from the skull began drifting into the air as he worked his way around the head, making a neat even incision around the entire circumference. It deeply disturbed Xaldin seeing this happening to a body. At the same time though he could not take his eyes away from it. To him it was some form of art. Art that brought out deep primal emotions from his core.

"Take the top off" The nuit commanded. Xaldin moved to obey and got behind the head. He was nervous yet excited as he reached out his hands out to the skull. Like a top of a pot he gripped the piece of skull and pulled it off, revealing the gray matter inside.

"What you are looking at is the hub of how Nuits function from one body to another. While all living creatures posses this gray matter inside them it is the humans and the other offshoots of humanity that have the most developed Cerebral Cortex. Or what you laymen pulsers call the brain"

"so this is the only thing you need to function"

"Don't be an idiot boy I am not in the mood for it today. This is the master of the body. However all masters need servants in order for them to be masters of anything. Likewise without masters the servants are useless and don't work. "

Xaldin nodded and looked at the gray matter, wondering if that is what his looked like.

"Now the 'brain' is divided into two hemispheres like our own planet is. There is the left hemisphere which deals with things like logic and such, something your not all that adapted in, and the right hemisphere which deals with all the useless stuff like music and art."

"That is amazing! How do you know that, it all looks the same to me"

"Observation pulser, observation. We have many ways to watch the brain and have had generations of notes on the matter. The brain is also divided into four lobes. Their is the frontal lobe which deals with everything from how you move, talk, thinking, and even keeping track of where you are, what you are doing, the year, everything to keep you on track. Now look"

he pointed at the frontal lobe and after a moment Xaldin said "it looks kind of damaged"

"Very good pulser, your eyes do work. Yes this things frontal lobe is severely damaged and as such any poor fool who would of tried to inhabit this body would of been disoriented and an amnesiac. One has to be very aware of what kind of body you are dealing with before you take the leap inside it or else you will end up dead. Now lets move on. This is the Parietal lobe" he said pointing to the near bottom left of the brain.

"What does that do?"

"Sensory information"

"like smell and touch and things like that"

"Exactly. This is vital to a Nuit because if we didn't feel pain or pressure we would not be aware injuries until it was too late. Pain despite popular pulser belief is a very good thing. Now behind that is the optical lobe. This is where signals from the retina are processed and translated as information. In other words what you see is your brains interpretation of what your eyes pick up."

Xaldin was trying to absorb all of this information however it was giving him a bit of a headache to take all this in.

"finally we have the Temporal lobe, one of the more important of the four. This one deals with not only understanding language, but memories and emotion as well. Specifically this part of the brain deals with long term memory. That is why when you hear something over and over again it becomes 'ingrained in your brain' to use a pulser turn of phrase. As I said before if any of these lobes are damaged then it becomes very difficult to function inside the body. That is why it is ideal to have a body with its brain intact as much as humanly possible. Now repeat to me the lobes and their functions"

"Um..."

Xaldin was put on the spot. His mind was drawing a blank and the more he tried to fish out the information from his skull the worse that empty feel got.

"um is not a function"

The Nuit did not sound amused. He was just staring at Xaldin as his brain raced through his mind. As he thought about his brain he looked at the one before him. He stared at the lobe at the top. It was at the front of the skull. Frontal.

"There is the frontal lobe..." Xaldin pointed to the front of the brain "and that deals with...language..."

"expressive or impressive?"

His mind stopped again with the interruption. He took a moment to digest the question and shifted through his mental vocabulary to find the right definitions.

"eh.... you mean speaking or listening?"

the Nuit sighed "Yes boy I do"

"expressive language, the bodies movement, thinking..."

"What kind of thinking?"

Xaldin rubbed his forehead in frustration and groaned a little at the barrage of questions. he settled himself down though and asked

"what do you mean?"

"The brain thinks, its what it does, what kind of thinking do you mean?"

It dawned on him that he was not going to get away with being vague with this robed figure and that he needed to be very specific.

"Oh... higher thinking, like understanding"

"Higher level cognitive processes, I use the term loosely with you. What else does the frontal lobe do?"

Xaldin ignored the jab and continued searching his memory and tried to prove his teacher that he was smart. He smiled as the Nuit's exact wording came into his head.

"Orientation in time, place and situation!"

"don't get excited you have three others"

The boy noticed that that wasn't in itself an insult so he clearly made a little headway with this Nuits opinion of him. He wanted to keep this momentum going.

"There is the...parietal lobe which deals with sensory information like smell and pain"

"good, what else"

"This is important because without it we wont know if the body needs to be switched out"

"right, next?"

He was almost grinning from ear to ear now and felt a bit of pride and confidence in his answers

"Optical deals with sight and how the brain interprets information and Temporal deals with long term memory and understanding language as well as emotion"

The nuit laughed in his raspy way "It seems you were paying attention pulser, perhaps your brain isn't already rotted out after all."

It wasn't really a compliment but Xaldin would take what he could get around here.

[Xaldin Seras]

Summer 14AV
(later during the same class session)

"Now that we have covered the master lets delve into how the servants function. Help me flip the body over."

Xaldin maneuvered around the body and together he and the nuit flipped the body onto its stomach, causing one of the arms to flop over the side. Nonchalantly the teacher lifted the arm and put it back on the slab before bending over the body.

"Their are two sets of servants that sends out the information to the rest of the body. First there is the Central nervous system located along the spine here..." he gestured to the bony ridge of the corpse all the way up to the head that had been sliced open. "...and the peripheral nervous system which consists mainly of nerves"

"Central and peripheral, got it"

"I doubt it. Now the Central nervous system is vital to the functioning of a Nuit body or even your sack of meat. Any disruption along the line could cripple the body and prevent it from doing tasks such as walking and other necessities. It is one of the main things we check when we procure a body for transfer. This system starts at the base of the brain here..."
He pointed to the back of the neck
"...which is known as the Brain stem"

"you mean like a plant?"

"Yes, like the stem of a plant. This initial connection is where the brain's orders are brought down the line to the servant, or nerve, that carries out that specific task. Everything from involuntary functions like heartbeat and breathing to walking and writing is sent through this channel. Of course a number of the servants will not be needed in a Nuit body considering the organs that keep a body alive are not required for a Nuit to function."

Lifting his golem tool he began to slice away the skin around the base of the neck to reveal the bone underneath. It Made Xaldin's stomach turn a little but he kept watching. The last thing he needed was to show a sign of weakness when he was learning.

"Now here is the Corticospinal tract" he remarked as he pointed it out on the body
"This tract is the head servant. His job is to take messages from the master and send it to the servants. These messages are electrical in nature and move very quickly down the spine and offshoots to the job that needs to be performed. Do you know what these fibers are?"

"I don't know sir" Xaldin said as he leaned in

"Of course you don't. They are called Axons and Dendrites. Axon's receive their name from the word axis, meaning to rotate. As you can see the Axons here do just that, spiraling on an axis as supposed to the Dendrites which taper off similar to a trees branches. Axons can be much longer than Dendrites do to the fact that it sends messages to all parts of the body while a Dendrite that recieves the message does not need to go any farther than the cell its located at. Now tell me the definition of Axon and Dendrite"

"Axons are fibers that rotate at an axis and send information to different parts of the body while Dendrites receive these messages"

The hooded Nuit nodded "Right. Now the corticospinal tract is made up of mostly messengers, or Axons, and they consist of two main groups. The lateral corticospinal tract and the anterior corticospinal tract. The lateral deals with the motor functions of the body. Essentially anything that involves muscles are all connected to this tract. Any fine movements of the body are controlled by the Lateral. These connections degrade over time in a Nuit body, so any delicate experiments you wish to carry out would be best taken on when the body is fresh and unmarred. Now the Anterior corticospinal tract deals exclusively in the somatomotor cortex, which deals with things like touch and so forth. Like I said, without essential sensory information the body cannot properly function and without check will die from an accident you did not notice. It is imperative that a Nuit take care of their body since it cannot heal."

Xaldin looked deep in thought at all he said. Though he was only able to grasp some of it the thoughts of possibilities started swimming in his head. The body worked in such an intricate way by sending information to the parts of the body and all the functions to keep it alive that it astounded him how well designed that the body really was. However something nagged in the back of his head the entire time the Nuit was teaching.

"Could something like a body be created to hold a Nuit's soul? Something like a Golem that followed this same design?"

"What are you getting at pulser and what does this have to do with our lesson?"

"Everything!" he exclaimed "the way the body is designed is amazing, but the fact that it will just rot away and loose its effectiveness seems a waste. Golems are amazing though, made out of much sturdier materials than bone and sinew and can come in any shape the designer wishes. I am sure that there is a way to make something that has all of these features, maybe even a brain , but wont crumble from the inside out, and can stand up to whomever wishes to harm it."

"What your speaking of is out of the reach even the best of us. It would require a mastery of world magic that simply doesn't exist in the world today. also you would have to understand anatomy a lot more then what you do now"

"And if I did all of that?"

"Well, you would be a god, very literally speaking"

With that comment Xaldin knew right then that that is exactly what he wanted to do. He did not simply want to live forever. He wanted to be a god.

[Xaldin Seras]

Summer 14AV
(The last part of the same lecture)

"Now lets get back on track, the last part I wanted to show you is the one that will make sure the body will actually accept you. And that is icor. Icor is the lifeblood of a Nuit. After the veins are drained of all blood this substance is put in its place. This liquid is what keeps our souls inside the otherwise lifeless body. If not done properly the body will not accept you. One also has to take into account that the way of putting icor in the body must not allow it to leak back out. The body cannot heal as I have told you before, and as such wherever it is funneled through must be patched up to prevent unnecessary damage. Someone will show this too you on another day. For now I am tired of dealing with you."

"Yes sir" Xaldin bowed and walked out. His thoughts were drifting away from his lesson though and more on the concept that had gripped him to the core. He as a god. Not just any god, a god that can build a whole new Mizahar. The world had already had its Armageddon and the gods and goddesses did not seem to care. How much more would he care? He was someone born the very year everything changed. When he grew up he was dealing with the collapse of civilization as he knew it. With the power he could obtain he could create a world that was new and better than the old one. All he needed was time to learn. That time could be afforded through the path of the Nuit until he could create for himself a body that could be something extraordinary, and an army to go with it. He would be a god not of flesh but of something far superior. He did not know yet what that would be but that would be something he would look into in his training.

[Fallacy]

XP Award! Name:Xaldin XP Award: N/A Lore: N/A Notes: You have a mod intervention on your CS. Once that is taken care of you can PM me and Ill grade this. Thank you for your time Any questions or concerns about the rewards gained please send a PM