Those intimately involved in the Purity Crusade have
been dealing with the resultant political fallout ever
since. It's only been a millenium or so since it
formally ended, so most Old Crusaders still remember
quite well the desires and beliefs that drove them to
clean out the Marches in the first place. There has
been widespread tactical criticism (as would occur in
any good military force after a successful campaign),
and a grudging amount of strategic.
There are Crusaders that will admit that their methods
might have been extreme, at times: there are some
Crusaders that have freely admitted that they would
not join in a second expedition into the Marches.
There are even a few Crusaders that, if you got them
drunk in an Earthly bar, would weep and ask precisely
why God apparently felt it necessary for them to
slaughter helpless, minor spirits that never hurt
anyone.
However, no Crusader who was part of the squads sent
to exterminate the unicorns has ever recanted his, her
or its actions.
Some monsters should not be permitted to walk under
the open sky.
Unicorns
Corporeal Forces: 3 Strength: 5 Agility: 7
Ethereal Forces: 2 Intelligence: 3 Precision: 5
Celestial Forces: 3 Will: 5 Perception: 7
Vessel: unicorn/3, +2 Charisma
Skills: Dodge/3, Fighting/3, Large Weapon/6 (Unicorn's
Horn), Move Silently/3, Running/1, Tactics/1
Songs: Attraction (Ethereal/3), Blood* (Celestial/6),
Charm (Celestial/3), Draining (Corporeal/3), Ecstasy
(Corporeal/3)
Relic: Unicorn's Horn. A Unicorn's Horn is halfway
between being a relic and a 'natural' feature of the
creature. If has several potent features. First off,
it's a potent weapon (equivalent to a level/3
corporeal relic, with a Power of +3 and an Accuracy of
+2), useable in all three realms and capable of
causing celestial damage. Second, the unicorn may use
it to detect the closest individual that fits its Need
(see below): it will give approximate direction and
distance, and begin to glow within 10 yards of the
target. Lastly, the horn acts as a level/3 reliquary.
Separating the horn from the unicorn's skull kills
the ethereal, and results in a 'mere' level/2
reliquary that glows in the presence of the Pure.
Discord: Murderous/3, Need/6 (Life force of virgins)
*Unicorns were the only ethereals that have ever
demonstrated an ability to use this Song, although it
is uncertain whether this was the regular Celestial
Song of Blood, or else a Song that simply duplicates
the effects.
Oh, that's right, humanity currently has no actual
knowledge of what unicorns really were. That's
partially the fault of Hell - Nybbas enjoys warping
the legend of unicorns nearly as much as he enjoys
portraying elves as happy, shiny little humanoids
(instead of the giggling psychopaths that most of them
really were). It's also partially the fault of
Heaven: the Host (after the first time that they
killed the last one) couldn't think of a way to fit
them into the natural ecosystem, so they encouraged
humanity to think of the Damned things as strictly
legendary.
Now, it should be noted that, all things considered,
the unicorns weren't evil in the sense that, say, the
average denizen of Faerie is. Any kind of balanced
ecology will produce predators: of course, from
Heaven's point of view all ethereals are predators,
but that's just propaganda. Most are just parasitical
(although some of them approach the status of
symbiotic). In fact, that's how the unicorns got
started: they were minor ethereals associated with
Purity.
Unfortunately, the problem with being associated with
Purity, when you're an ethereal, is that any bit of
impurity is potentially fatal. Most types of these
ethereals quickly dissolve. The unicorns, on the
other hand, were able to compensate from taking the
step from being a parasite to becoming a predator:
instead of leeching off of human concepts of Purity,
they instead fed directly on those that best
exemplified the Word.
But the unicorns were simply too good at being
predators (Jordi would disagree, but then Jordi has a
completely different definition of 'optimal human
population'): they combined near-human intelligence
with a constant need for life energy. Needless to
say, humans have the most complex life patterns of any
corporeal life form, so the unicorns naturally preyed
on them - and developed a method of hunting that the
average human couldn't withstand.
All of this might have been - well, not forgiven, but
not handled with extreme prejudice - by the Host,
except for a wrinkle: the unicorns were so successful
in their adaptation that they began to make the
transition from being an ethereal species to being a
corporeal one. By the time that the Host noted the
situation (with no small degree of alarm), unicorns
had established themselves in Eurasia and beginning to
make inroads in other parts of the planet. The Purity
Crusade began, in fact, merely as a specific mission
to wipe out this one species: however, Uriel's own
prejudices, coupled with Seelie interference (elves
loved unicorns), soon escalated the whole thing into
the Purity Crusades. Many Old Crusaders date their
decision to serve from the first full reports on what
unicorns actually did to steal their prey's life
energy, and the average age of said prey (after all,
the older the prey, the less likely that he or she
would be acceptably... pure).
Since the Crusade, the Host has kept a careful watch
on ethereal representations of unicorns (thanks to
Hell's interference, the concept has stayed in the
collective mind of humans). There have been at least
sixty-three instances where a 'modern' ethereal
unicorn has metamorphosed into the older, deadlier
version. Theorists have suggested that sufficient
memories of the old days of blood and horn have
remained in the collective unconscious of humanity to
make the template still available, as it were: and, as
unicorns are still considered evocative of Purity
(despite Heaven's best efforts)...
Well, let's just say that the threat hasn't gone away.
Luckily, between the Tsayadim and the saner ethereal
pantheons (all of whom blame unicorns for getting them
into this mess in the first place), the numbers are
kept down. In fact, it's said that the sight of any
unicorn is the only thing that will cause a Tsayadim
to break off the pursuit of an ethereal spirit
(presuming that said spirit hasn't gone after it as
well)...
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