Sum'gial was surprised when he was alerted by his armies. No sane creature would ever enter the territory of the lich. Yet, here he was in his throne room, waiting for four such creatures to arrive. A whole caravan had arrived, but he was waiting for three legendary undead and a merchant in his throne room. A soft green light showered the throne room, as the first creature entered a sense of familiarity washed over Sum'gial.
Another folly of his predecessor, another son as an experiment. This one was slick, seemingly doing what he was supposed to, but in reality he was gunning for his head even more than Jacob. Hundreds of assassins, a notorious reputation, even fear of the surface dwellers all came from Malvek Ryh'dunn. Even Sum'gial was wary of this son of his.
He paid attention to the other three, a goblin vampire disguised as a halfling, an undead slime stuffed inside an armor, and a female wight. Now that combination should start a joke, not that funny when it happened to him. They had enough firepower to overwhelm him.
"What brings you here, my wayward boy?" Sum'gial asked cooly.
"I want out of your control." Malvek replied.
"In what way are you under my control? Do I dictate what you do? Do I control where you are? Have we even met after you were born?" Sum'gial asked aggressively.
"Am I not your experiment? Do I have a family? Did you not sign a contract with my mother?" Malvek asked back just as aggressively.
The room temperature lowered suddenly, and Sum'gial got up from his throne, as he walked towards Malvek, said "Oh yes, the contract, my contract with your mother was non-interference with you, every experiment needs its controlled variable, in the experiment I designed that was you. As for your family, did I tell you not to get married? You had every chance to get married and even had the fortune to become anything you wanted, but you chose to be a mediocre slave trader, and a fish bone stuck in my teeth!"
"I had seen what you had done to Jacob, what choice did I have?" Malvek practically yelled.
"Don't blame your own choices on me, wayward child. I was a mere watcher towards you, as for Jacob, her mother wanted his son to be one to end me! And the contract with her was designed that way. Besides, you were more than one hundred years old when you and Jacob met, I was merely an excuse for your choices!" Sum'gial snapped back as his soulfire stared right into Malvek's eyes.
Malvek didn't back down and stared back into Sum'gial soul fire, and asked "where is our other sibling?".
Sum'gial's soulfire flickered and said "In E'nathyr, she is a matron priestess of the Mushroom Queen! She might have met Jacob by now. We will talk later about my experiments, my wayward son, now why don't you introduce these undead friends of yours?"
"That's not necessary, you should be aware of who we are. After all, we sent a prior message to you. We are the ones you communicate with via forums of the damned." Selithrae said.
"Nonetheless, we should follow the established etiquette." Sum'gial said smoothly.
"Very well, meet Vyrgil the elegant vampire," the posh goblin bowed with gentlemanly manners "This is Muck, or as you know the ball of liquid," the undead slime oozed out of the armor, "And I am Selithrae." as she released the illusion of living.
"I am Sum'gial the lich." Sum'gial said with a slight bow. "I am assuming you are here for class stratification knowledge, and to make allies?" Sum'gial added.
"Ah yes, what is class stratification?" Vyrgil asked seemingly innocently.
"It is not that simple to explain, Vyrgil. If it was, you wouldn't need to come here and learn about it," Sum'gial replied.
Vyrgil inclined his head. "Then explain it as you would to an impertinent student, lich."
"Simply put, class stratification is the evil order. The amount of resources that exist are limited—the arable land, extraordinary power sources, even the knowledge of the extraordinary. These are the chains that hold down the population in many places. Let me explain it in Ther'vassi terms," Sum'gial said.
"According to Curm of NosGoblin's writings, the aristocratic circles were after eternal life. They used alchemy to create the Philosopher's Stone—and the problem is what it is made of. A single stone was forged from hundreds of thousands of intelligent beings and their souls. I don't know how it is made; it is cursed knowledge," Sum'gial explained.
"Wait, my grandfather wrote about these?" Vyrgil asked, voice tight.
"He catalogued what should have been buried," Selithrae said quietly, letting her illusion drop. "I have seen ledgers like that. Lines of names. No faces."
Muk's armor creaked; a soft glug. "Hundreds of thousands isn't 'material.' That's neighbors."
"Your grandfather?" Sum'gial tilted his skull. "You must be very lucky to have survived until now. In any case, the Philosopher's Stone hastened the end of the goblin age. Eternal life for artificers and their families cost billions across worlds and planes. As their need for more lives increased, so did their number of enemies." He paused to let the weight settle.
Vyrgil listened, jaw set.
"Finally, when they could no longer attack other planets, goblin aristocrats turned upon the goblin race itself. The bloodshed began in secret; one careless move destroyed everything. Common goblins rebelled. Dissatisfaction burned through cities—countless artificers, countless houses fell…" Sum'gial let his voice trail.
"I'm hearing 'choice,' not 'fate,'" Malvek murmured, but his eyes stayed on the lich.
"The Goblin Pantheon had held other pantheons at bay. Once faith was cut off by the aristocrats of their own race, Ther'vassi crumbled in six months. The gods brought down curse after curse…" Sum'gial's voice thinned.
Selithrae's gaze went distant. "Curses linger longer than crowns."
"The last great artificer of Ther'vassi had risen barely five hundred years before the fall. Now, the classes." Sum'gial straightened. "First, the ruling class—at the beginning, elevated from the commons; later, hereditary."
A flicker of pride crossed Vyrgil's face. "Merit turned into surnames," he admitted.
"Second, the ruled—those who provided faith to the Pantheon and food to the nation. In the age of goblins, they could still become artificers, warriors, priests, wizards—then their paths upward narrowed, decade by decade. The last great artificer was noble-born."
Muk shifted. "And the last class?"
"Third, the slaves and conquered—or the consumables for the Philosopher's Stone, as the aristocrats called them. They had access to neither weapons nor knowledge. Their existence was for the work no goblin wanted—and for procreating more 'consumables' for Ther'vassi," Sum'gial said.
"Say it plain," Muk muttered. "Taken."
"Denied weapons," Selithrae added evenly. "Denied letters."
Malvek's smile didn't reach his eyes. "And where, exactly, would you file me, Father? Merchant? Assassin? Experiment?"
Sum'gial gave a low, patient hum. "Class stratification is the absence of movement between classes. Resources collect in the hands of the few; paper closes the doors; blood writes the exceptions. Then the classes turn on one another, and the nation dies."
—
As they sat in the lich's laboratory, Selithrae was thinking of the class stratification. She suddenly realized that elves had a class stratification problem as well, so she asked "Many kingdoms have class stratification, why haven't they collapsed yet?".
"That depends on the happiness of the lower class, for example: in elven communities a lower class income is almost the same as a noble's earning in a human kingdom. They have different ways of reaching upwards, despite having difficulties reaching the very top, they have a clear and open path to reach there." Sum'gial replied.
"What about human kingdoms?" Muck asked.
"Human happiness is relatively simple, as long as they have enough to eat, have a wife, have a happy family, and a faith to follow, they are relatively happy. They are materialistic, they have enough coin, they have a path to advance." Sum'gial replied.
Malvek snorted and said "That has not always been my experience.".
"Of course, human hearts are complicated, and their dynasties are relatively short lived. In one nobles' territory, they have good governance, in another territory they may have people who want to drink the noble's blood." Sum'gial said dryly.
"How do drow deal with it?" Vyrgil asked.
"Drow don't have a national identity, but city states. The capricious queen of mushrooms doesn't favor one house for long, as the class stratification appears, our capricious queen gives an order that causes chaos among the city states." Sum'gial said dryly.
"I need to return to the eternal winter lands, let's sign our treaty and be done with it." Selithrae said.
"I would not be in a hurry to return if I were you." Sum'gial replied.
"Why is that?" Selithrae asked.
"E'nathyr was able to become a city recognized by the queen of mushrooms, thanks to their sacrifice of moon elves." Sum'gial said lightly.
As the air had got colder and colder, Selithrae felt her wrath rise, and said "Tell me more about it!".
"E'nathyr was one of the participants that attacked the remnants of the moon elves, they captured a couple of female priestess alive and sacrificed them to the queen of mushrooms. Nowadays, the class stratification problem has become more and more obvious in E'nathyr. The queen of mushrooms has been whispering ambition, and expansion to the matron's ears." Sum'gial like it had nothing to do with him.
"The matrons want you gone then." Selithrae said.
"Indeed, the queen of mushrooms doesn't care about me, she wants chaos in E'nathyr. Intrigue, murder and chaos are what the capricious queen desires which gives me a chance of survival. As long as I make some moves in E'nathyr, there will be chaos which should take around a century or so to settle down." Sum'gial said.
"When will you make a move?" Selithrae asked.
"I already did, it hasn't made a splash yet." Sum'gial said.
"Jacob?!" Malvek exclaimed.
"Indeed, a casual move at the moment, but Jacob is talented. I am pretty sure there will be a large fight in E'nathyr." Sum'gial said.
"What do you want, Sum'gial?" Muck asked.
"I want an alliance, non aggression and a defensive one." Sum'gial replied lightly.
"You are in trouble with a bunch of fanatic priestesses from Underdeep, and you want a defensive alliance?" Muck asked again.
"Yes, I am pretty sure you all have your troubles here and there. I read about your need for an eye, Muck, and your need for what happened to moon elves, Selithrae, in the forums of the damned." Sum'gial replied.
"So, that's why Vyrgil's luck brought us here." Selithrae said.
—
The throne room had been transformed once again. A great parchment floated between Sum'gial, Selithrae, Vyrgil, Muck and Malvek. its edges curling with ghostly fire. Above it hung the silver-and-black scales of Ilyrion, the Eternal Arbiter, tilting with every word.
—
The treaty that changed the age of humans was signed by a lich, a wight, a slime undead, a goblin vampire, and a drow, dark dwarf, and human mix race. That single treaty changed the pattern of pantheons, the relations between mortals and gods, as well as showed Orbisar power of obsessions.
Sum'gial the lich, later known as Ocd Lich, created magitech surpassing great artificers, created magic that shocked hell, his obsessions changed the universe.
"Universe changing treaties in the age of humans" by Ben the historian.