Blood of Uruk

The Blood Mage Rudatha has orchestrated the capture of many of his siblings, for he alone understands the Khan's true legacy. Raja Rudatha - or the “Spider Prince” as some call him - never leaves the serenity of his library, but his webs of information and influence cover the Dominion like a blanket. Yet land is not Rudatha’s focus, for he alone among his vast number of siblings understands the Great Khan’s true legacy. Where most see only the lands taken from conquered enemies, Rudatha sees in each of his father’s conquests another Ancient One bloodline woven into his own. Each of the Great Khan’s heirs is a weapon, for each represents a different combination of Ancient Ones that he or she can call on for supernatural support in battle. Rudatha plans to collect the whole set.

Webs of the Spider
RECOVERED FROM THE DIARY OF DHATRI THE TREACHEROUS, ANOINTED WET NURSE TO THE HEIRS OF JAHNU KHAN, SOVEREIGN OVERKING OF THE URUK DOMINION (HE WHO IS DEAD, BUT FOREVER LIVES IN OUR HEARTMINDS) - BOOK 2, ENTRY #988

I have lived on Eretsu’s blessed soil for more than a century. My eyes — while not as sharp as they once were, gods no — have seen so many things, my memories’ memories can’t remember them. And my ears! Oh, all the secrets they’ve heard! All the sweet, babbling first words ... and the desperate, screaming last words ... and all the sounds in between. I’ve drank deeply of the sights and sounds of Kutastha, our Dominion’s great and glorious capital city, most of all.

And I have seen and heard golems! These days, it is a rare capital resident who hasn’t. Our mighty Gudanna safely stomp and slither throughout Kutastha using the Mahat Rantu — the elaborate network of massive roads and twisting skywalks built just for them. And they soar above, too.

I counted myself savvy to the creatures. I spent many a morning watching my wards, the heirs of the great Jahnu Khan, learn to ride the beasts during visits to the royal stables. The golems there were old things — they prodigiously shed their splintered teracotta scales the way horses dropped shit — but the monsters were retired battlefield conquerers, well worthy of their new roles as royal training mounts.

But only now, as an old woman, do I understand that I’d never seen or heard golems — not truly — until tonight.

Tonight, under the fat, full moon, I bore terrible witness to golems at war.

- Original written by J.C. Hutchins -

The Symbol of the Blood of Uruk
The symbol of the Blood of Uruk appears as a white Gudanna symbol rising behind a red flower.