Of Bramblethorns and Batterhorns

ItanoCircus

I shall now sing you a tale known to my people. It is an ancient tale, but one that I promise is as true as myself.

Once, in a land reminiscent of the Fallen's mighty towers, stood a mighty Hero. As the dreaded Shale piled onto Atlas, he took the living structures of the Fallen's mighty towers and granted them sentience, but not wisdom. This was the birth of the Seedbot. This is the start of Alder.

Compare it now, if you can, in your mind's eye. I trust you've seen the impressions left to us, artistically imagined and recreated into Bramblethorn Goliaths? Imagine them now, the huge constructs whose head looms tall over as it strides over its foes, cleaving the unrooted.

Long ago, there were no Goliaths.

Now imagine, if you can, the Batterhorn. A proud Beast unfettered by the Anites that so nearly plunged Atlas to the slumbering depths. Its large antlers grew, but by no means of our own. Its fate has conspired a greater tale than for it to fall, wasted and left only as bones, a decaying relic of a once-proud time. Between its mighty horns and charge, can we not see its prided jewel?

Long ago, there were no Batterhorns.

The lowly Seedbot, you see, tells its story. It grew and grew, merging with its Sapling in its struggle to adapt to a world hostile to the Great Enemy known as Life. Forever abandoning a quest for wisdom and demanding to be used in service of Gorok and her champions, it grew to its towering, colossal form. The Bramblethorn Goliath calls as it rises, keeping the shell of what remained. It holds its past as its helmet, the only means by which they tie themselves back to their Roots, and to the service of they who called them.

But now we turn our tail to the Batterhorn. This creature in its infancy, when the Anites were yet to loose themselves on these lands, was small.. scaly.. reptilian. In truth, it would not have been amiss as a pet in Apophis' court... or in Apophis' meals.

Remember that once there were no Goliaths. There were no Batterhorns.

But this scaly, scampering, reptilian creature had a role that was set before it. And on a Seedbot, discarded and scrapped, it happened. And so... it happened.

Remember as it was told to us: No creature, high or low, survived unscathed.

But unscathed and unchanged are different words, and as evolution had guided Atlas before, so did it guide this scaly creature. It wore the Seedbot carcass as its own home, and grew into its power, adapating itself to the changing world and its changing self.

So now we have the mighty Goliaths, who cleave, and the stalwart Batterhorns, who crash. And so when the Batterhorn hunts, it goes after both the meek Seedbot and the lumbering Goliaths. Evolution, even unaided, is not unguided.

Besides... Seedbots, alive or flattened, taste quite good.