Of all the Elemental Domains the Sorcerer Kings have explored, the Domains of Earth are by far the most difficult and dangerous to explore. It is not merely the imposing topography of the shallows reaches of the Domain, where hills become towering mountains and mountain ranges reach such heights that their peaks dominate every horizon, rising to such heights that the hated sky is only visible when one looks straight up. Reaching the deeper Domains requires traversing these inhospitable reaches to discover the caves delving deep into the mountains that descend eternally into a world of oppressive depth and stillness.
Avalanches, flash floods, ghol attacks and rockfalls have claimed hundreds of unwary explorers, before they even reach the deeper levels, but these dangers are faced daily for the rich bounty in minerals they provide. The true dangers live deeper in the Domains, deep underground where the hated sky does not exist and the Eternals dwell.
Conforming to ideals of beauty few understand, Eternals are obsessed with the expansion and preservation of the perfection they bring to an imperfect existence. Their towering forms do not seek realism, for the real is seldom ideal. No, their forms are simplified and to more correctly embody the ideals each seeks to represent. Their cities resemble honeycombed warrens of obsessively carved tunnels, courts and living quarters sculpted from the living stone of the Domain.
Their claustrophobic alien aesthetic is as oppressive as their arrogance from which stems the danger they represent to any explorer foolish enough to seek them out or unlucky enough to stumble upon them. It is not that they are inimical to mankind per se, but rather consider themselves so far superior to humanity; to its imperfect, mutable forms and limited lifespan, that they look on us as we might look upon the animals. Our only appeal to them rests on our novelty and what entertainment our antics might provide.
Countless Sorcerers have met their end, unable to swallow their pride before the towering ego of these brutal creatures. Many others have lost their lives simply because they are unable to keep up with the labyrinthine customs of these capricious creatures. But many yet endeavor to do so for by dancing along the razor’s edge of obsequiousness and humility in the courts of the Eternals a Sorcerer can find immeasurable wealth and power.
While they enjoy gathering in groups to flaunt one’s superiority and compete amongst themselves, for what good is perfection if none other can witness it, these are deeply antisocial beings with no empathy to bond them to one another. Sorcerer Kings have come to label them distrosociphiles in an attempt to convey their unique interaction, for it is precisely by exploiting their egos in this arena that Sorcerers can trick these creatures into servitude.
Two paths have been developed over the years, for Eternals, for all their complexity and ego, are creatures of Elemental Earth and thus unchanging and deeply predictable. It is in establishing their dominance over these difficult creatures that Sorcerers of the Court of Earth develop their trademark perfectionism and patience, for though the path to power in the Domains of Earth is predictable, it is incredibly narrow: a single mistake or hasty move can end the career of even the most powerful Sorcerer. While all Eternals seek to embrace and encourage perfection the path they choose is different. Ikons seek to build and protect perfection, whereas Destroyers seek to protect perfection by eliminating the imperfect.
The path of the Ikon is one of flattery and subterfuge, tricking the Eternal into accepting a role that benefits the Sorcerer. There are countless legends and examples of stories and legends where the sorcerers lure and trap the Eternals into bonds or locations, and each of these have a small seed of truth. Ikons trapped in this form of servitude are difficult servants, their ego undiminished but it is precisely this ego that aids their masters in these bonds: for if an elemental is perfect, how could it be tricked by a lesser being? Unthinkable, therefore, it clearly chose to be here and serve its poor imperfect master to aid it in its doomed attempts at emulating the Ikons perfection. It is little wonder that many Sorcerers opt to use Eternal Ikons as guardians and protectors of their territories or craftsmen to limit the interactions as much as possible.
Entrapping Destroyers is perhaps simpler, but not less dangerous: the Sorcerer must bait a Destroyer into attacking him and overcome him. If the Destroyer was defeated, it was not perfect and other Eternals do not give it another thought. However the difficulty here lies in calibrating the level of provocation to ensure one is assaulted by a single Destroyer, rather than the whole Court. This requires weeks of painstaking observation and research, patiently exploring the unique traits of each individual to calibrate the offense so precisely that it and only it, attacks the Sorcerer. This could be a particular color combination that it finds particularly offensive, or the missquoting of a favorite poem, perhaps even the mispronunciation of a particular word. Whatever it is, it must be carefully calibrated and pitched to affect only a single Destroyer, for deep within their Domain their power is such that only the most puissant of Sorcerers could hope to overcome more than one at a time.
Once bound, Destroyers serve only one purpose: to obliterate the foe on the battlefield. Convinced of their own superiority, these creatures saunter onto the battlefield at their own pace, advancing on their foe and placing them in an impossible dilemma: to attack the Destroyers is to awaken their wrath and power, but to ignore them means ceding ground and objectives. Either way, the Sorcerers win.
