Lore: An ancient construct built as guardian for this place, the Eidolons were creations of the Nym. Little else is known.
Strength: More Data Required
Weakness: More Data Required
Damn it, I really hope this thing isn't hostile.
"Who? I-I see naught but golden life! Who-stands-before-me?" The Eidolon's voice didn't get any better, and in fact stuttered over words, like a scratched record or glitching audio file. "Declare yourself. Who seeks to commune with the Spirit Tree?"
Felix licked his lips and squared himself up before the Eidolon. "I do."
The flames in the Eidolon's helmet pivoted, focusing on him. "I see, a new Authority rises. I-I cannot move. How long has it been since your predecessor?"
"Uh, several Ages, I think," Felix said.
"S-several Ages!" The Eidolon's voice, rough and deep, trembled with anxiety. "I have slept so long?"
Wait, no. That's its Spirit. Felix blinked. It has a Spirit?
"What are you?" Felix asked. "You look like...are you an Archonic Construct?"
"I am an Eidolon! Sworn to s-serve those who rule the great city of Naevis, and to guide those who wish to commune with the Spirit Tree." It jolted very slightly, but enough that the plants on its frame shuddered. "What manner ofI appear to be immobile. The joints, the fixtures, the array itself is corroded. But if it has truly been Ages, then it is remarkable I am still here at all." The fires of its eyes swiveled toward Felix once again. "Thank you, Authority-bearer, for waking me. Let me perform my duties. To begin with"
A beam of green-gold light shone onto Felix, sweeping over his form in a single swift instant. "A life scan. You are as expected. AA Primordial?"
Shock and alarm flooded the construct's Spirit, and Felix flexed his knees, gathering his power to run. The Eidolon creaked again, as if it were trying to moved toward him. "No, more than that. Primordial. Nymean, as well. And"
It stopped rocking, and those eyes flared brighter than ever, enough that Felix had to squint.
"Unbound."
Unlike before, there was no alarm or beginnings of fear. Instead, Felix was surprised by an absolute avalanche of joy.
"An Unbound has returned! Oh glorious ancestors!" Its voice rang from the cavernous chamber and set the Sprites to flow away in waves. "And what is this? Not only Unbound, but an Inheritor? Will wonders never cease?"
Myriad, mirthful noises erupted from the empty chest of the stone Eidolon, and Felix started to relax. It seemed it liked Unbound enough to overlook his Primordial Race.
"Ahem, yes. I am Unbound," Felix said. "And you're a guide construct? Why do you have a Spirit?"
"I am an Eidolon, not some simple guide. The effort of thousands went into my forging, so complex was the process. My Spirit and Mind taken from my mortal Body, placed in this holy receptacle so that I might be of use for Ages to come." Its voice faltered. "Ages already past."
"You were mortal before? A Nym?" Felix asked.
The Eidolon's Spirit shook, as if rousing itself from slumber again. "Yes. I was a humble servant of the empire long, long ago. My final reward was to continue that service, to live on and aid the city I loved."
"This was...a common occurrence?" Felix asked. He hated the idea of being shoved into a golem, bound to serve others for an eternity. Or as close to one as he could imagine. "Wait, are all Golems people?"
"Golems? You mean those mean creations of steel and orichalcum? No, those were never more than children's playthings. Idle projects of a few brilliant but bored Minds. The Eidolons were one of our artificers' greatest accomplishments. How do you not know of this?"
"Things change," Felix said. "So being put into an Eidolon was a reward?"
"An honorable and voluntary service, one that would raise a House to exalted status within a generation!" The construct-that-was-once-a-person cut itself off. "Or it was a desolate sentence for the most depraved of criminals."
Felix's eyes widened in horror. "People would be sentenced to have their Minds and Spirits ripped out of their Bodies? Forever?"
"Only the truly heinous. It was not a punishment often enacted."
"How do I know you're the former and not the latter, then?" Felix asked. He was careful to keep out of melee distance with the creature, for all that it appeared immobile.
"My word," said the Eidolon. "And the array on my chest should clear up any confusion."
Felix raised an eyebrow. "All I see is a glyph."
"Yes, that is it," it said. Its voice rumbled and scratched, as if catching on some internal mechanism. "C-can you not read it?"
"I" Felix frowned. "Gimme a second."
Felix focused, flaring his Manasight and Theurgist of the Rise together. The glyph rippled, meaning teasing slowly from its shape. He already identified growth, guardian, and eternal, but now he began to see more.
Title: Architect of the Rise engaged!
Manasight is level 57!
Manasight is level 58!
Manasight is level 59!
Much more.
The glyph just about exploded, it's details unfurling like a thousand, thousand folds in a piece of paper the size of a dinner plate. Within each wrinkle there was meaning. Not scribed or engraved, but embedded in the glyph itself. It was an array, the simplest and most profound array he'd ever seen, with minimal effort put into the sigils and their permutations while still achieving something utterly remarkable. It's packed with Intent instead of scribed notations. Modern inscription used a longhand version of something the ancients apparently did with their very Will.
Theurgist of the Rise is level 66!
...
Theurgist of the Rise is level 70!
Wow! Already Felix could see the ways he could use this technique, were he to grasp it. Small nodes of Intent were bundled along the shaping of the glyph, all of them lit with Mana but the bundles shining brighter still. Amazing. It'shuh. They're not just Intent. They're Memories.
Without warning, Felix felt pulled by a sudden and inexorable gravity. Between eye-blinks, he found himself elsewhere.
What the hell?
Felix stood in a large chamber, smaller than the Vault but far nicer. The floor was polished marble, a blue kind veined with white and gold. Hexagonal pillars lined the hall, each made of gold or at least painted that way, and between them were a large crowd of people. Folks of many Races, but mostly Nymean, all wearing clothing that was part drapery and part armor. They all looked weary, and saddened, as if the sun weren't shining brightly through twenty-foot tall casements down the length of the chamber. It felt like a funeral, though he saw no coffin.
A dais stood at one end of the chamber, and atop that was a dark throne upon which a woman with dark hair, icy eyes, and a crown with nine tines sat. She spoke, and it was like a whipcrack of thunder.
"Paragon Karys, come forth."
He recognized the flavor of things. The odd clarity and sudden, disorienting transportation. He'd been pulled into one of the Memories in the glyph array.
A man that looked remarkable similar to the Eidolon stepped carefully out of the crowd. It was as if the image of the Eidolon was superimposed over his stooped, aged form. He had dark skin marred by wrinkles and age spots, and his tightly curled hair had more grey than black in it. His eyes however were as bright as any in the crowda shade of summer grass. The manNymcame to attention before the regal figure.
"Paragon Karys, you have proven yourself in a thousand ways over the course of your career. You are a man of impeccable standing and stalwart virtue. You stand before us, ready for the finaland longestchapter in your service. Do you have anything to say?"
Karys stood taller, his aged stoop unbending for a moment. "Only that I wish all could have the opportunity to serve the Empire as I have, as I will."
The queenempress?straightened upon her throne and her mouth curved into a sad smile. Her eyes glittered with unshed tears.
"We shall remember you, Paragon Karys. This War will not stop until we have more heroes such as yourself step into the fray. Your surviving family will be elevated among the greatest of Magi." The empress gestured and figures of stone and glittering orichalcum strode forward. "We bid you fondest farewell."
The figures, Eidolons all, took Karys in their gentle grip.
"And welcome to the final battle."
The Memory twisted. The world turned incandescent
and Felix stumbled back, his heels hitting a stone step. The Eidolon loomed over him, still festooned with flora.
"I was once Karys Taiv, Paragon of the Golden Empire. I am now your servant," the Eidolon's eye fires flashed. Knowledge and wonder flitted across the Eidolon's ancient Spirit. "Inheritor of the Herald's Hook."