Vroshir

Antagonists in the Cradle series.

Related Links: The Way and The Worlds, The Abidan

The Vroshir

Cosmic antagonists on an über-apocalyptic scale. They are one of the largest threats to the Abidan. They travel in and out of the Void. Many are thieves and murderers.

The Vroshir would have to extend themselves on several fronts and sacrifice valuable worlds to penetrate Sector Eleven. They didn’t work that way. They were bandits, after as much bounty as they could with as little risk to themselves as possible. (Bloodline ch 17)

The Vroshir violently oppose the Court of Seven Abidan Judges, calling them tyrants. There have been at least ten generations of Vroshir. The first generation of Vroshir had worked for the Abidan. A full Vroshir is a formidable foe indeed.

All four match descriptions of tenth-generation Vroshir. The first generation of Vroshir had worked for the Abidan, long ago. They lived to shatter the Eledari Pact and see the Court of Seven cast down.

“Relinquish your Presence into our keeping,” the black-haired woman ordered, drifting down to hover over Pariana’s cracked barrier. “You shall be taken as a prisoner of war, and all others will be liberated.”

“Wiping someone as significant as a full Vroshir from reality was all but impossible.” (Underlord, prologue)

• See Pariana of the Titans, a member of the Abidan protecting a small Iteration

Vroshir Goals

Like all human-type beings, the Vroshir need The Way . They want order in the cosmos, and predictable laws of physics, not chaos, but they are criminals. They are thieves and murderers. So they absolutely hate the Abidan organization, especially the Judges. They also say they want to free the people from Abidan control. They want to take control of the Iterations, too. They steal people and entire populations from Iterations, separating them from the power of the Judges.

Without the Way, the world’s laws would eventually crumble, which the Vroshir wouldn’t want any more than the Abidan would. They wanted to use this world, to add it to their network, not to see it dissolve into fragments with no causality or consistent physics. (Underlord, prologue)

But if the planet itself must be destroyed, and if millions must die in the liberation process, that’s okay too.

Iteration 246: Commandment: From far away, Suriel watched a rain of orange lightning fall across the eastern hemisphere of the planet, scorching it to bare rock in seconds. Dull gray vessels drifted away, bearing most of the people and objects of any significance. Around the planet, war raged. Vroshir defended their ships’ retreat with protective workings, barriers, guardian beasts the size of moons, and shields that could block exploding stars. Abidan attacked to seize the ships, lances of blue as they drew on the Way to reinforce their attacks with absolute authority. But it was too late; millions had died in the planetary barrage, and the Iteration’s relationship to the Way was weak. Color-swirling portals bloomed in front of the ships as they prepared to leave through the Void. (Bloodline, prologue)

Vroshir characters

• The Vroshir organization includes all sorts of humanoid warriors, plus Void beasts of all types and sizes:
• “Void beasts clawed their way into being, indescribable horrors slashing their way through more strands of order.” (Reaper, ch 14)

The Horseman

“The Horseman rides from world to world, gathering energy systems and replicating their effects. He has demonstrated capabilities from at least thirteen dead worlds, and under certain conditions, he could have bypassed Ozriel’s protection.” (Blackflame, ch 21)

The Silverlords

“The Silverlords gather armies from the worlds they conquer. Between them, they may have found a combination of specialists and assassins capable of catching Ozriel unaware.” (Blackflame, ch 21)

“The Silverlords were elites, powerful figures even by the standards of Judges.” (Bloodline prologue)

“They knew better than to fight a Judge directly, but that meant only that they were cautious. Not afraid. She couldn’t hunt them down, and they knew it. If she chased them too far, eventually they’d overwhelm her with numbers. A saying passed down among Judges: “There are always more Silverlords.” (Bloodline, prologue)

There are vast numbers of Silverlords, all wearing silver crowns.

Suriel glimpsed a group of Silverlords chanting in tandem. The silver crowns on their heads shone and serpentine runes twined around them as they called on the energy systems of plundered worlds to make their attack. That working would be enough to rewrite the physics of any local Iteration, but Razael backhanded the ribbon of symbols with an armored fist. The working of the Silverlords shattered. (Reaper, ch 14)

Silverlords attacked Iteration 247: Jester.(Bloodline, prologue)

Iri, the Angler

Iri is a mastermind thief and an excellent soulsmith, of some cosmic type. As a mortal on her homeworld, she forged an invisibility cloak. (Bloodline, ch 8)

• Iri the Angler of the Crystal Halls. The Crystal Angler. The Cosmic Thief.
• Her fortress is called The Crystal Halls, where she shows off her stolen treasures
• Her Loot: The Angler has stolen six weapons from Abidan Iterations (Blackflame ch 21). Recently, she stole a dozen scythes made by Makiel the Abidan judge and reforged them into one scythe. (Uncrowned, ch 1). Now she has a Worldseed — so very rare — which the Mad King paid in exchange for the scythe she made. (Uncrowned, ch 17)

Iri was robbing the Abidan. She stayed focused on her excitement to distract her from the fact that she was packed inside a box buried beneath one of the most secure Abidan facilities in their vault-world of Haven.. . So the Angler sat with her power extended like a fishing-line, dangling outside the impenetrable vault. Waiting. She knew what was locked in the vault, and she knew that with Ozriel dead or missing, the Hound would send for its contents. . . . When the Spiders were thoroughly confused, she would slip out of their web and back to her fortress at the Crystal Halls. Where these scythes would be the crown jewels of her collection. Except...they didn't work, did they? The Scythe of Ozriel was unique, and these were only pale imitations. It would take the greatest craftsman in all the worlds to cobble them together into something resembling the original. Something worthy of display in her Halls. Iri cracked her knuckles and got to work. (Uncrowned, ch 1)

The Mad King

Duraman was a very wise and good king originally, and part of the Abidan’s executor program. However, he tried to save a world by merging with the threat —- a Class One Fiend of Chaos, Oth’kimeth, the Conqueror. He went mad. He hates the Abidan judges because they are inflexible and arrogant, and because his Fiend hates them. He lives in Tal’gullour, Fortress of the Mad King. (Report on Mad King, Bloodline, ch 5)

The Mad King hosts an entity that has killed Judges before, but the Court would have been notified if he had left his Iteration. If he has found a way to cross the Way without alerting Sector Control, then he represents a Class One threat.(Blackflame ch 21)

His Origin Shroud

The Mad King created an Origin Shroud from four sacred treasures, including an invisibility cloak the Angler had made when she was mortal and living runes he stole from Darandiel, the Ghost of the Abidan.

He had stolen from the personal collection of the Third Judge of the Abidan Court: Darandiel, the Ghost. He had taken from her a band of silver bound with living runes, designed to allow even a Judge to veil their power.” (see book #9, Bloodline, ch 8)

His dark deeds

The Mad King and his Fiend Oth’kimeth have destroyed numerous worlds, because Ozriel is not around to stop him.

As she watched, one of the lights from the cluster labeled ‘Sector 12’ turned black and withered away. Iteration 129: Oasis. The Mad King and his Scythe had finished their reaping. (Bloodline ch 20)

Fiends of Chaos

Not members of the Vroshir, per se, but Fiends would probably be happy to join forces in killing Judges of the Abidan.

True Fiends defy classification by nature, and the only individuals known capable of threatening Judges remain imprisoned in Asylum. Also, no Fiend has ever demonstrated the ability to pass into existence without disturbing the Way, and the Spider Division has reported no such violation near Harrow or Limit prior to Limit’s expiration. (Blackflame ch 21)