Album: The Divine Deception
Artists:
- Thomas Ferkol
Date: September 13, 2014
Date Added: February 19, 2025
Cover Artists:
- Nic Carey
#Wallpaper Artists:
#- Nic Carey
#- Jebb (edits for wiki)
Art Tags:
- Mortis (The Earthen Scar)
Cover Art File Extension: png
#Wallpaper File Extension: png
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/album/the-divine-deception
Color: '#e9e6ac'
Groups:
- Thomas Ferkol
- Beyond
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/album/the-divine-deception))

    As much as outer states attempt to quarantine the undead "disease" of the miasma, its presence only seems to spread with the fanatical necromancers from Alacastor. Yet within the state, life continues as though little has changed. Under the Congregation of Mortis, Alacastor's structure has been retained, and its living citizen's lives left largely untouched, their ordinary days only intruded upon by the return of the dead and an inability to die themselves. Only at the hand of Mortis can they do so, for it was Mortis' gift to humanity that they need no longer know the finality of death. Mortis, the God of Death, the Living Truth spreads its blessings to the world but only to those who are first blessed by its holy magic...

    Annette, a living but "blessed" mage from outside Alacastor, seeks understanding as forces throughout the state manipulate and toy with her in some grand purpose. Her only allies are her silent protector Corvus and the disgraced necromancer Erik as the whole of Alacastor seems to twist and conspire in seeking her favor for reasons unknown, especially to her. Meanwhile the earth below their feet continues to weaken and scar as Mortis' increasingly radiant light casts darker and darker shadows upon it.
---
Track: Shambles
Suffix Directory: true
Always Reference By Directory: true
Duration: 4:32
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/shambles
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/shambles))

    “Our “undeath” allows any part of our bodies once severed or damaged to continue living independently. It’s not as though we have much control over them once they're cut from the nervous system, however. A severed hand is still a severed hand, even if it pulsates futilely with life… Regrettable as it is that my body had to be left behind, I’m an optimist. Just take me back to Margaret, and things should be okay.”
---
Track: Blessed Daughter
Duration: 4:46
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/blessed-daughter
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/blessed-daughter))

    Halfway to Margaret, the trio are forced to stop. The Right Hand of God, the Prophet Faust, bids them to stay a moment as a host of drones march behind her, effectively blocking the way. Faust reveals she had been waiting for Erik to return north to "excommunicate" him but notes that someone seems to have beat her to it. When he asks why she doesn't finish him off, she ignores the question and turns her attention to Annette. In a curious but reverent tone, Faust ponders aloud what the phrase "Blessed Daughter" means and why this person isn't beside her father, Mortis. Annette merely says she doesn't have any answers for her. The two women have a stand off before Faust decides to leave without another word, allowing the trio to pass.
---
Track: Northern Light
Duration: 4:26
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/northern-light
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/northern-light))

    Corvus shifted Erik's head in his hands. Once sure that the prophet had left, the severed head murmured, "I've never heard of the 'Blessed Daughter,' but a hunch tells me it's you. It sounds like something they- I mean the prophets- kept under wraps until now."
    Annette stepped forward, beckoning Corvus to follow. "If it keeps people from trying to kill us, I'll own up to it for now." She paused but kept walking, tapping her thumbs together lightly in thought. "Father... you don't think he's actually my father, do you? Everything I've heard doesn't sound like the one I remember... but my memories of my parents keep getting hazier, like a dream upon waking." Her voice thinned as she moved from addressing Erik to thinking out loud.
    "I can't say."
---
Track: Architect
Suffix Directory: true
Always Reference By Directory: true
Duration: 2:42
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/architect
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/architect))

    Margaret proposes a solution to Erik's bodiless state: the creation of a new one.
---
Track: The Construct
Duration: 3:08
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/the-construct
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/the-construct))

    Through her alchemy, Margaret fashions a golem body for Erik, similar to Corvus. His abilities as a mage are limited now to the conduction of energy through the artificial form, but his body is more resistant to most forms of magic. As he adjusts, Annette tries to ask Margaret about the "Blessed Daughter," only to be interrupted by an unexpected guest.
---
Track: A Brush With Death
Duration: 3:41
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/a-brush-with-death
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/a-brush-with-death))

    "From a distance he appeared to be austerely dressed and humble in expression, but as he neared them, the air in the room distorted as though he carried the weight of the world. Behind his head, a halo of light circled ever brighter, designs twisting and slithering within its perimeter. When he stood before them, it felt as though he became the sun, with all its promises of life-giving light and deadly heat."

    The terms of Margaret's escape after sending Erik south involved creating a partnership with Mortis. In return for clemency, she would take the title of prophet and continue her research of the under close supervision. Thus Mortis himself awaited Annette's return to Margaret. He reveals that Annette is indeed the Blessed Daughter. When she objects, he states plainly that even if he isn't her father, she is still his daughter. As such, he suggests she return to the Spire in central Alacastor with him. Erik objects before she has a chance. With a flick of his wrist, Mortis causes him to fall backward, comatose. Annette catches him, and a second later he awakes startled, gasping as though he'd been drowning. Margaret states that she wishes for Annette to go on a trip to the Capillarian Forest to the east before returning with Mortis. Calmly, Mortis allows the excursion and leaves them without another word.
---
Track: Forced Progress
Duration: 2:58
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/forced-progress
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/forced-progress))

    "I've bought you some time to figure things out," she rasped.
    Annette gripped her seat tensely. "You haven't given me much of a choice in these matters." Frustration made her voice waiver slightly.
    "I've known that Mortis has had something invested in you for a long time now, but I never quite realized what it was. You must be the one to discover your place in all this, because from here on out, it will be your decisions that shape our future. I know I've been steering you all over the land, and you haven't gotten all the answers you've wanted. I am sorry." There was no "but" or "however," only the silent expectation that things would be better in time.
---
Track: Left Hand of God
Duration: 4:12
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/left-hand-of-god
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/left-hand-of-god))

    Early on their path, the trio encounters the Left Hand of God, the Prophet Percival who once had died in his pilgrimage to the fabled Mortiseum, the House of Mortis. As a Hand of the returned god, he has lost much of his sensibility. Far from the world he once knew and any purpose he once had, he's devoted his existence to fanatically serving his god. He spends the journey alternately threatening Erik and Annette with death, calling the former a heretic and the latter an impostor. Fortunately for them, he departs toward the northeast state of Nifel.
---
Track: Capillarian Forest
Duration: 4:11
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/capillarian-forest
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/capillarian-forest))

    An expansive forest connects eastern Alacastor, southern Nifel, and northern Ancilastor. Once the holy grounds of an old god of earth, few travel through the forest for holy reasons in this day. Ancient, petrified trees stand like walls around the outer forest, deterring most travelers from the wonders within. Beyond the wooden and stone skeletons, the trees grow wilder, taller, and more curiously than anywhere else. Bioluminescent boughs pulsate with dim lights at the forest's heart.
---
Track: Earthen Embrace
Duration: 3:48
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/earthen-embrace
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/earthen-embrace))

    “Once there were many gods, but the world outgrew them. Those like the sun and the moon, the sky and the sea, all faded and gone. Only one persists. Rumors reach the forest that Mortis the Living Truth has returned… Pah. What wears that name now is a pretender and a thief. No, Mortis is not the one who persists. Not this one. He gives me faith that my goddess still lingers beneath our feet. I feel more assured of it every passing day. Your pulse is the pulse of the forest.”
---
Track: Faustian
Suffix Directory: true
Always Reference By Directory: true
Duration: 3:51
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/faustian
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/faustian))

    "I'm here to retrieve you. But really, I want to give you a choice: submit or show me what it means to be the blessed daughter!"

    As they exit the forest, Faust intercepts them and demands Annette return with her. She calls out Annette, asking her to prove herself, but Erik and Corvus step forward. When Annette objects, he reasons that Faust has caused him the most trouble and wants to take the first shot. The fight begins as a duel between the two with the occasional involvement of Corvus. When Faust takes a strong blow to the face from Erik, however, she unleashes massive torrents of fire, pushing the fight in her favor. Erik and Corvus hold out for a time, but fight a losing battle. Annette finds an opening in Faust's onslaught and attempts to do to Faust what Mortis had done to Erik before. She succeeds, temporarily cutting Faust's connection to the life-force given to her from Mortis. Erik pins the stunned Faust to a tree, running her through with a rapier. But Faust still lives, watching Annette with hollow eyes.
---
Track: Reflection
Suffix Directory: true
Always Reference By Directory: true
Duration: 1:55
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/reflection
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/reflection))

    The picture finally seems to come together. Mortis isn't Mortis, the life he gives isn't his, and the world suffers for it. Somehow, Mortis has stolen the remnant energy of an old god of earth and has found a way to thread it through himself and into others. Thus he's created a web of "undeath" hinging upon himself as the conduit. As far as they know, if he goes, everyone else goes with him. That is, until Annette severed Faust's thread and bound it back to herself. When Mortis cut Erik's thread as well, it was once Annette caught him that he came back to life, binding his thread to herself as well. She realizes that, for whatever reason, she is higher in the web than Mortis himself is.
    Faust confirms that she knew all but the last detail until now. Mortis used her but underestimated how perceptive she was, believing that using the most ancient but notable clergy as his Hands would make them easier to manipulate. As Annette and the others traveled to Margaret and the forest, Faust became increasingly plagued with doubts. Her orders were to strike and take her back, not to test her abilities.
    Erik ponders whether there can be a way to sever all the threads strung through Mortis without causing mass genocide. Only Mortis knows how to create threads; necromancers were deceived into learning only how to spread them. Annette has proven she can transfer a thread, but can she handle that many? And if she does, will it actually change anything?
    After hearing their input, Annette resolves to dethrone Mortis and stop the scarring of the earth from his mad design. She believes there must be a way to cut Mortis out of the web. They'll have to get close to him, but maybe with him out of the picture, the balance would return. Drones could finally rest in peace, and the miasma would cease to spread. Erik and Corvus affirm their loyalty to her, and Faust decides to follow her as well. Thus the choices finally rested on her:
    
    Where do they go now?
    
    How do they kill a god?
