Riding Baphomet's Bike

A little concept, character/vehicle design and digital painting/illustration featuring original characters and elements from my vast story project, the IN LAK'ECH Mythos (which main story has sci-fi, fantasy, modern and ancient elements and inspirations. I plan to develop it through a comic book series, however the story is still in stages of development).


These young people are:
    Alica Kozlovskaya - a 16 years old girl from Brest, Belarus, who has become a sorceress, necromancer and technomancer following an accidental pact of blood she made with the entity known as the Baphomet. This motorbike she's riding is a result of her sorcery over a standard motorbike.
    And William Mattoni, the protagonist of the IN LAK'ECH Mythos, a 16 years old boy from São Paulo, Brazil, who's capable to transform himself into a super-fast lizard-man since he was 14, what led him to adopt a secret identity as the Cuetzpalin Paynal (from the nahuatl "lizard" and "fast", named after a pre-hispanic Mexican deity regarded as the messenger of the god of war and patron of Mexico, Huitzilopochtli). If you want to know more about their background story, enjoy the following large description.

STATUS QUO

    This scene is part of a story arc set around June-July 2011.

    Alica and William are running from and fighting a series of "Teutonic Knights", a semi-official Teutonic/germanic military order (that includes some members from the original order, but isn't the same) created in collaboration with the Catholic Church by decree of its latest Pope, Leo XIV (originally a Polish bishop named Wieceslaw Jozef Dziedzic), who also installed Inquisitorial Offices across several countries inside and outside Europe. The European Union, each of its members, as well other governments acknowledged by the UN as its members, have received Leo XIV's measures with mixed reaction, but part of the population and even some official institutions have collaborated to allow, and even promote the installment of Inquisitorial Offices, counting with the chuch's representatives, armed militias (some that act in collaboration with national security and army forces in diverse countries), as a measure to counter terrorism - since "the world witnessed, since July 2010, increasing action of terrorists across the gobe, motivated by anarchy and destruction". Namely, Pope Leo XIV referred to distinct, informal groups of militant anarchist individuals recently armed by the theft and redistribution of military equipment realized by, among others, the infamous super-fast inhuman lizard-man Cuetzpalin Paynal, who claims to be a defender of the autonomy of the indigenous communities across the world, of animal liberation and the defense of the rights of the sentient beings, as opposed to the industry of death perpetrated by the bourgeois democracy, any form of hierarchical government, the UN, the cartels which run the global capitalist system and the slavery imbued with its needs, the churches that parasite the population, the official military and police forces, the private security which supports them - as they're bounty hunters run by profit, and overall, an opposer of the civilizatory principles that only continue to enslave human and nonhuman animals. These distinct groups and individuals usually act locally, however through Paynal (who considers himself a messenger, rather than a strategic leader or manager like the always manipulative mass media like to portray. The only occasions he takes a leading instance are during armed conflicts, in which they're necessary for survival, as he's more protected than his human comrades, either physically or regarding the State's ability to identify him or use surveillance - any activist could be easily identified and persecuted by the State(s), but Paynal has no home or identity where the State(s) can look after. Like a wild animal, like humans, like a living being, he's a nomad - not a sedentary slave) they managed to establish a limited network of information. Most of those militants keep a double life, living their own lives serving the capital and when a group sees an opportunity to act, they gather and plan their action, minding the most secure time, place and strategy according to action. These weapons Paynal stole and redistributed also includes formerly private-owned Mechs and super-suits from the Alpha-Omega series, previously owned by the private military academy and agency, the AXIS Institute, defunct since June 2010. Some of its former agents still hold the rights to use those suits, however several have been "stolen" (or rather caught, in a mission several agents died, on a secret inter-dimensional island near the Bermuda Triangle which Paynal was also involved, and survived, alongside some of his allies, such as the Cuetzpalin Cuauhtemoc, Omepaynal, Montezuma, the Wayob magician Xbalanque and the rogue biologist Jacob Mills, current user of the secret Gamma armor since 2009), and those are particularly sought after by a wide array of beligerents, official and semi-official, private security or national military organizations throughout the world. Paynal hasn't been alone in his decisions regarding the fate of such equipment - among his previously mentioned allies and some more, based in distinct regions of Europe and Oceania, they have distributed the equipment to trustworthy anarchist collectives, and also granted them military training. The original idea is that these equipments, including the armors and mechs, have to be shared among their affinity groups, and that they're distributed not in a centralized area, but as far as they can go, albeit only to trustworthy individuals and (informal) collectives. This means that there's no centralized or formally organized group, community or armed force of terrorists like their bourgeois enemies implies, but an informal network of individuals more or less involved with the direct actions, riots and armed conflicts, in which some of them don't even know the others, as in the specific case of riots derivated from protests, they're bound by objectives in common, and take spontaneous actions, both planned and not so muc planned. The equipments are stored in occuppied warehouses or private properties shared by some individuals related to one or another "collective". Despite that complex background, Leo XIV, following the common misinformation spread by a mass media only less responsible for its role in keeping the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer than it's responsible for instigating childish fears and prejudice among population, believes that there's a global terrorist organization which he and others call the Necoc Yaotl (from the nahuatl "Enemy of both sides", one of the many names used to refer to the pre-hispanic Mexican deity Tezcatlipoca. It was also the name by which Huitzilopochtli referred Cuetzpalin Paynal after the later stood against Huitzilopochtli's initiative on sending Aztec Cuetzpalin militias to kidnap entire populations of indigenous communities through Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil and Antisuyu [Tahuantinsuyu's Northeastern region, bordering Colombia and Brazil's Amazonian region states], and a name Paynal adopted for a cell of rebels which participated in July 2010's attack on Rio de Janeiro, destroying much of its government's physical institutions, besides churches, banks, monuments and a wide array of private businesses, mostly foreigner establishments or local ones created for tourists. This is by no means the name of an entire international movement, however the mass media transformed it in public ideary, or a not so collective unconsciousness).

THE INQUISITION
    Despite unjustifiable and unreasonable approach (does private profit accounts for reason? If it does, then it's ok), an array of organizations (from self-proclaimed right-wing to left-wing, conservatives to progressists, liberals, democrats to nationalists, and so on) across the globe acted in accordance with the church's outspoken necessities of creating an international campaign of Inquisition to end terror (even if it did temporarily restrict some individual liberties, arguably allowing persecution of dissidents, either political, religious or even sexual, by official authorities), in several cases, under official national security, what has enhanced the church's influence over the government's authority, claiming in each case a nationalist defense of tradition, even though the inquisition is international, which means the church is an international organ of surveillance, with private profit. Some sectors of the society equally opposed to the supposed international terror (a fraudulent hype fed by the same level of misinformation which privileges the State of Israel and vilifies any muslim individual, and which supposedly backs the profitable war on terror or make it any more socially acceptable) have still criticized the rise of Inquisitorial offices and its Inquisitors (some officially annointed by the Pope, others self-proclaimed, counting with their own paramilitary supporters). It's allegiance to other christian churches was also disputed, and depended on each case, but the vast majority of Orthodox communities from Europe supported the Catholic initiative in a direct level, as many of their enemies were already known by Orthodox communities - some neopagan villages across Teutonia (northern Germany), in regions of Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Dalmacia (which covers part of Bosnia and Hezergovina, Croatia, Slovenia and Albania), Czechkoslovakia (which covers the Czech Republic, part of Hungary and Slovakia) and Iugoslavia (covers part of Hungary, Serbia and Romania) were closely related to the distribution of military equipment from one of Paynal's long-time allies, the entity known as The Triton (who is known by William as the inhuman identity taken by the 16 years old human Gustavos Mauros, from Piraeus, Minoica [Greece]), and its ally the pyromancer who claims to be Dazbog (named after the Slavic God). Their different social context undoubtly causes their vision to differ from Paynal's own, even though both usually claim to be anarchists as opposed to any form of government, and also for economical reasons. Dazbog, howevers, harbors more a Pan-Slavic view of Myr (from the Russian "world", rather than a literal interpretation, means a more complex concept), that more or less connects with an anarchist perspective (afterall, Slavic autonomy is still compatible with an autonomy of the peoples policy), but is also shared by the other extreme, when appropriated by nationalists (not necessarily imperialists, but also including those, in several cases, Russian imperialists promoting Russia as the birthplace of Slavic culture). Dazbog and several of his allies are Rodnovers, whose religion is the reconstruction of pre-christian traditions, and he sees it that the very autonomy of the Slavic peoples are threatened if they follow an alien religion, an alien god - a view not shared by all of his allies, even among the pan-slavic or "revival" militias, but what first got the Triton to meet him in person - at least two years back, the Triton, like Paynal, has casually destroyed a diversity of christian churches with bombs and other apparel in urban centers and in the suburbs. Some argue this anti-christian sentiment may prevent the organization of a working class revolution as the majority of the population is still christian, however despite anti-capitalist, Paynal doesn't believe in or struggle towards a working class revolution (a point which he differs from his Brazilian ally Omepaynal, or differed from, as Omepaynal had his consciousness just recently taken over by Axayacatl, a Cuetzpalin bounty hunter currently working for the Republic of Tahuantinsuyu, that's trying to transform the general hysteria about terror into another opportunity for its expansion and military intervention among neighboring countries, including Brazil, where several areas occuppied by independent armed groups of landless workers and indigenous resistance have been organized through Paynal's influence, and until then the Brazilian government has been only partially able in diminishing their efforts), instead his motivations are basically defined freedom for all sentient beings that should be only possible beginning with the destruction of all governments, the economical system, mass society and the sedentary model adopted by industrial civilization. Arguably, this opposition to mass society has driven Paynal, in several occasions, to perform mass killing of people who would anyway participate in the mass killing of other people - the non-human animals, who are sentient and self-conscious, but are still unecessarily forcefully bred, enslaved, exploited, caged, hunt down, slaughtered and consumed - for some, for the sake of profit, for others for the sake of a petty convenience, but never consciously for the sake of tradition or need, like some of the defenders of animal exploitation would declare. Besides, for years the animals mostly consumed by those people didn't even exist in the American continent. Actually, the only reason human meat isn't marketed isn't because some mercy from the authorities, but because humans have another way of serving the system. They consume and produce, unlike non-humans who could only do that if forced to. This way, people aren't taking the non-humans and not even their own individuality or creativity seriously, instead they're relying on their own convenient irresponsibility, or provocatively their general lack of capability in working on someting good rather than "working" with raping and slaughtering. Because of this William decides to act, there's a responsibility towards the non-humans not being taken seriously, and even if it's outlaw, it's still ethical. Besides, social segregation and slavery policies are generally still legal with other names, and aren't ethically acceptable. This stigma among formal left-wing, communist, socialist, social-democrat and "progressive" organizations with the illegal actions perpetrated by the "Necoc Yaotl" has led several of them to join liberals in campaigns and propaganda against anarchists, with the intention to "dissociate the working class struggle or the general progressive struggle for rights from the terrorist militias", something that didn't surprise Paynal at all, but only showed him how small and how corruptible the defenders of mass society can become.

HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE
    Amidst the sectors which support the Holy Offices of the Inquisition of Pope Leo XIV's own project of restoring the Holy Roman Empire (his general distaste for the European Union, as well as his hatred for anything related to communism are some of his motivations for this bold and opportunistic military campaign), there's the Aragonese King, Carlos, the sucessor of the previous king Enrique slain by Cuauhtemoc, one of Paynal's allies, reportedly allied to the communist party within a larger Basque separatist movement, in the last month. Carlos claims to descend from several lineages of Holy Roman Emperors, and his increasing popularity is the first facade by which Leo XIV's plan of uniting Europe -and then the world- under a christian monarchy begins to be exposed. Eventually, Carlos acquires command over the semi-official Teutonic Knights, that despite semi-official, have among them several militants in high ranking positions within Aragon (in the IN LAK'ECH Mythos, Aragon isn't just the name of a state within Spain but all of the nation following the downfall of Francoist regime in the seventies. The Aragonese royalty, under King Enrique, has acquired a privileged status in the following constitutional monarchy), Teutonia, Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia. Because of historical conflicts and divergences, it proves a little hard for the Teutonic Knights to gain favor from Dutch, Lithuanian and Polish governments and population, however the Pope's influence grants them some autonomy to act internationally. The Teutonic Knights are often portrayed by the mass media as an official guard of Teutonia, as well as a military order of the Catholic Church which displays mutual interests with other christian communities - even though they are just a part of the germanic military, and one whose authority is still disputed by certain sectors of the parliament. Once aware of this delicate situation, Leo XIV himself visits Teutonia, visiting the official Inquisitor, Heinrich, and making sure the opposition will either formally hand the teutonic military to or fuse it with the Teutonic Order, or die in sorry accidents to be replaced with other politicians aligned with the (christian catholic) religious public's needs. It was during this meeting of teutonic authorities with the church that Carlos decided to accmpany Leo XIV - Carlos has several strategies of self-promotion, including financing "cultural events" and also the claim that he survived a direct attempt at his life from Paynal, what he actually did, in the same occasion his predecessor Enrique died. Carlos' public acceptance in Aragon was initially more divided, as was it in the political sphere - he's got little political experience due to his age - however Leo XIV's influence made it easier for his ascension to power, as did the military intervention (which some claim a coup) to put him in charge, even though he's not Enrique's son, but a nephew. Carlos claims to descend from the royal family of the Bourbons, that have been deposed in the third decade of the previous century, when Spain witnessed it's second Republic. This fact has been met with animosity by conservative, far-right traditionalists who believed Carlos would turn Aragon (which name derives from Enrique's lineage) "back into Spain" - something that besides changing the capital from Madrid to Toledo, shouldn't make that much of a difference, as Aragon retained spanish as it's official language - meaning, from a constitutional monarchy accounting with an elected parliament and membership within the EU, barely granting the autonomy to the Basque, Catalan and Gallician communities, into a supposedly autocratic, but actually theocratic, unitary and imperialist kingdom with no regard for "other spanish nationalities" (the Basque, the Catalan, the Gallician and even the Aragonese). Carlos' plan, in collaboration with Leo XIV's own, however, was even more ambitious, and if achieved could surely disappoint some of his current spanish and aragonese supporters for its pan-European objectives: he claimed to be a heir from the Habsburgs, a lineage of Roman Emperors from Austria that has lost its direct political authority since the return of Otto Habsburg to Austria after the WWII Teutonic occupation. That claim is disputed, however, as despite he may descends from one of Otto's children, Otto's heir, Karl, became an influent politician that for his own security didn't make any claim to the throne. Carlos, on the other hand, doesn't make it formally, instead, he start to promote an international european christian democracy, which is practically the same Leo XIV is already arranging - through the Inquisition (how much an Inquisition-backed kingdom can be a liberal democracy? Both are compatible and very similar if you ask me, surveillance and control, the elites, all elements are still there, but as some of the wealthier people just can't live another life, they start to use whatever excuse to further exploit the most they can, not because they have something personal against "the poor" [not necessarily workers, poor also means unemployed, individuals and communities existing at the margins of a vertically built institution], but because their lives and lifestyles automatically depend on it. It isn't even a matter of a personal choice, but a part of a system in which individuals have no control over their own fate and decisions, all are set by those that gather and produce more "money" - through the efforts of many others that depend on them for their most basic needs).
    One of Carlos' original critics, the neo-conservative Vitorio Manfredi (previous member of the AXIS Institute as the secret Agent Sigma, he was the son of a deceased Italian futurist, industrialist and nationalist Sergio Manfredi, who was later adopted by Jorgen, CEO of the Ulhaden Corporation, a Teutonic weapons & military equipment development enterprise, associated to the AXIS and itself developer of part of the Alpha-Omega armor series which the Sigma is part of), has become his ally since Carlos' popularity among conservatives grew, and his relation to the Inquisition seemingly posed an actual threat to the current conversion of the European Union into a chamber of degenerates, for the Inquisition and Carlos' proximity to Leo XIV, a staunch defender of a restoration of a Holy Roman Empire (while keeping a limited autonomy to its nation members, as long as they enforce christian religion and identity) sounded like, to the political illiterates, like a more conservative version of an European Union. Carlos, however, promoted such transition smoothly with his propaganda of a christian democracy, something which first led Vitorio to criticize him, both personally and through Vitorio's own puppet neo-conservative, economically liberal think-tanks. Either way, because of the military support the Kingdom of Aragon (which conservative sectors hoped to convert into a Kingdom of Spain once more, no matter the difference would only be felt, of course negatively, to the populations that speak other languages other than spanish) supplied the Teutonic Knights, Vitorio was instructed by his current mentor, Marco Friedenreich, that their interests were shared by Carlos and Leo XIV, it's just that Carlos would lead the transition, while Leo XVI would be the spiritual leader. Marco also assured Vito that Teutonia, Lacia (Italy) and Austria would still be sovereign states within the Holy Roman Empire, as it was more likely a way to rid those nations' societies from the socially liberal degeneration brought by years of internationalization. Marco is also an ex-AXIS officer, as Agent Pi, and like Vitorio keeps the legal ownership of his armor. Showing their support for the development of the Holy Roman Empire, Pope Leo XIV has granted them knighthood and as part of the Teutonic Knights they have been crucial on its campaigns in the East (despite the Orthodox Church of Russia's original animosity towards the war on terror and restoration of order in the west, its government declared to stand against obscurantist displays of power, and calling the attention for possible campaigns of this self-proclaimed Holy Roman Empire in Russian territories, it reported to strike back). Leo XIV sent spies to Czechoslovakia, Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine and Russia, that would stage armed conflicts among paramilitary groups linked to diverse fronts. Eventually, the Belarusian KGB would guard its borders and violently retaliate any advancements - which, in one occasion, had Marco and Vitorio detained by Belarusian authorities, what earned Carlos and Leo XIV a hard time trying to set them free with the armors intact. Only once this advancement has been launched, right-wing sectors within Belarus claiming for a restoration of its christian identity started to take a more vocal support for the Holy Roman Empire campaigns and the Teutonic Knights. Belarus has been ruled since 1994 by the same supposedly democratically elected, but actually forged leader, Lukashenko, who according to some of his oppositors in the first years of rule has adopted a Soviet nostalgic leadership. This doesn't mean much as while both official patriotic and communist parties of Belarus support him, there's opposition from both sides, too. After years of political persecution, obscurantism and surveillance, though, it's becoming harder for any opposition to stand a material chance, what had part of it - especially the defenders of a christian democracy - willingly vouching for an exchange of an imperial dictator for another.

THE BLACK KNIGHTS
    Since the advancement of the "Necoc Yaotl"s actions on Europe against the official Inquisition offices, conflicts have spreaded to several urban centers on an almost daily basis, resulting in riots and a state of civil war across key locations, including Berlin, where Carlos was once again attacked by Paynal (or rather his human-self, William Mattoni) and the Schwarze Ritter (from the german Black Knights), a medieval-era group of multi-cultural armed combatants originally based in Königsberg (nowadays Kaliningrad) that stood against the contemporary Inquisition, the Teutonic Knights, who under orders of the Catholic Churches promoted and fought the Baltic Crusades against local independent Slavic communities, and also the Palarokhian Order, a secret organization of magicians from all of Europe that years before the Black Death outbreak have founded a short-lived kingdom in nowadays Belarus, and have made their place among the nobility of several kingdoms, including the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Kingdom of Kiev, the kingdom of Prussia, and even farther into the land of the Bretons and what would become the Dutch Republic. The Palarokhian Order's instrumental responsibility for the outbreak of Black Death, under their current leader Umbra (an incarnation of the primordial dragon and elemental god of darkness, Tupaq) hasn't been adressed by the Church's efforts, at the time more worried about persecuting its own people, be it through the inquisitions, the baltic crusades, or the persecution of the last remaining Cathar christians (including one of the founders of the Black Knights), or other communities, such as slavs, jews, and those accused of witchcraft practice and "paganism". In the 13th century europe, it was common to blame someone slightly different or someone that didn't accept jesus as its persona savior to be responsible for someone else's disease - sanitation wasn't taken seriously, guess there's no sanitation in heaven. Is it too much different now? Unfortunately religion and personal appearance still accounts for several employing factors, and being employed directly leads to how one has slight conditions of surviving - as a slave, of course. Then and now, organized mass society only served to continue crimes against individuals and the preservation of an elite, sometime picked by chance, but now by obedience, fear and cowardice, as the surveillance and the police like never before counts with an immense gap in comparison to any "common" individual or citizen (just remember some individuals aren't really citizens, and their freedom and self-sufficiency is constantly met with a miserable condition). The resources are never really shared, the only thing legally shared is slavery and repression, and religion has always played a major role in forcing this obedience to authorities, that are inherently corrupt because of their positions and predetermined roles. This is no different case, a slight resistance (the "Necoc Yaotl") is met by a heavy amount of repression, that was always there - in the minds of the populace, in their fears, in their obedience and faith and belief in authorities, both or either those they see - their preferred politicians, social figures, celebrities, representatives, entrepeneurs, religious leaders and so on, usually aligned to their own comfort, always telling common sense and what the majority want to listen to, self-comforting messages that mean nothing at all and which consequence is still causing someone else's suffering for transfering to it more responsibilities than one can take - and those they don't - figures such as idealized ancestors, deities, who are usually used as examples by the first.

WAR
    Alica has become an enemy of the Palarokhian Order and the Belarusian KGB since she has been identified as an unregistered necromancer, months after she made an accidental pact of blood with the Baphomet, an entity previously controlled by the Palarokhian Order, and kept in a facility at Chernyakhovsk, at least since it was occupied by the USSR after the Nazi defeat. The Baphomet's pact was also performed centuries ago by the first generation of the Black Knights, in an arrangement from the Basque witch Sorginak, a Black Knight herself, but the Baphomet's location was still hidden for years, by the secret Temple of Baphomet, that claimed to grant safety and education to practicioners of witchcraft during one of the most cruel persecutions of witches in history. The Temple of the Baphomet was unrelated to the Palarokhian Order, however some of its members were also members of the other order. At the wake of the Russian Revolution, the Temple of the Baphomet, an informal organization, has been dissolved, and the Black Knights, based in Königsberg, part of the Kingdom of Prussia, have for the first time became masters of their own fates by claiming the philosopher's stone, the dormant form of the Baphomet with their hands. It didn't last long, however, the Black Knights were a traditional enemy to the Teutonic Knights, and still lived in a mostly Teutonic estate for years, their extinction has only been prevented because their castle was hard to be reached and out of their campaign assignments, some of their superiors, when not failing to locate them, feared their haunting presence. In the 30s, the Schwarze Ritter lost the Philosopher's Stone to the Nazi regime, however they managed to remain in Königsberg, where they planned to release prisoners from the regime. The group, however, has considerably diminished and their fortress was eventually abandoned following attacks by Soviets and the British in the next years. In search for the philosopher's stone, the Black Knights found out it ended up in the hands of the Palarokhian Order, that had several of its members involved with the technological council of the Soviet Union. With the Baphomet and their damaged castle in hands of their enemies, the last remaining Black Knights have split into different groups - some moved to the Soviet Union, where they hoped to identify the Palarokhians, and others to the west, across Poland and western Teutonia. Even after the dissolution of the USSR, the Baphomet would still be kept in a facility controlled by the Palarokian Order on Chernyakhovsk, not too far from Kaliningrad, former Königsberg. With this in their hands, the Palarokhians have forged blood pacts of the Baphomet with select subjects from the KGB in order to create super soldiers (as a result of the pact, one develops, besides the ability to generate an armor and an array of weapons, the ability to use necromancy, a limited telekinesis and technomancy, which allows one the ability to transform and mentally command pre-existent vehicles, including military ones) whose use would also be determined, as whenever the Baphomet was awaken - by heating up the Philosopher's Stone to a certain degree - those who made a pact with it were put into a dormant state until it was frozen back. The Palarokhians were able so far to keep the Baphomet under control, either awaken or dormant, and build generations of a squad of dozen super soldiers, a number that couldn't increase at a time because there were still unregistered people who made the pact - the last remaining Black Knights. These soldiers were replaceable according to the Palarokhian Order, but still had an inner hierarchy. Bielorussian KGB captain Valdim Valtheran, descendant from one of the most influential medieval Palarokhian families, for example, forged a pact in 1981 after his life was threatened during the Tahuantinsuyuan-Chilean conflicts between 1981 and 1985. His son, the Belarusian-Chilean Ollantay, would make a pact in 2006, following his dismembering by Cuauhtemoc, disguised in a human host as the identity of INTERPOL soldier Iñaki Urrutikoetxea, who saved Vadim (at the time, an INTERPOL and political exile from Belarus) from his own son, who'd killed him. From what Cuauhtemoc, an ancient ally of the Black Knights could tell, the Black Knights were likely extinct, as for years he didn't find any of them, including his long time allies Drachensohn and Sorginak.
    It was only in October 2009 that Alica made the pact and began to understand her newly-acquired powers, in a time she witnessed the death of several of her friends at the hands of unidentified military men who were cleansing the place from witnesses of the Baphomet (it was awaken in a forest bordering Belarus and Poland under orders of Ollantay, as part of a strategy that meant to drive his father into a state of slumber), that had come out of control, and moved towards some towns in the south direction, including the one Alica lives. During this time the Baphomet had tried to escape, it killed an official, and not long after has made a pact with Alica, who was bloodied in the occasion (the military launched bombs and mortars against bystanders). She survived and made it back to her home safely, without being identified by the Palarokhians, who were still able to hold the Baphomet and return it to Chernyakhovsk. From then, she started to learn of her powers, to witness some of her friends returning as partially conscious, party controlled undead, and to find out an area including her current city was under surveillance by a secret organization that acted with permission and collaboration by the KGB, likely searching for an unregistered necromancer. This moment of persecution led her to hide her identity while using her powers, all while she received telepathic instructions from the Baphomet to free it from a facility in Chernyakhovsk, Kaliningrad. This quest, which she pursued initially for self-interests (once or twice, in the first months of the pact, she overslept on some situations, due to the awakening of the Baphomet, controlled by the Palarokhians. Likely, using a database of the national medical centers, they would find if someone recently had passed out for days, and they would investigate all those who were in such condition. Her parents noticed a time she slept for two days, and brought her to a hospital, in which some Palarokhian agents would identify her as a suspect. To prevent that the Baphomet got out of control again, they returned it to its dormant state, allowing Alica to wake. Because she was reported as living in Brest, and of being known to the victims of the October incident, they started to espionage her, which she realized after some time) has become part of something larger, as she got more exposed to the nature of a government and authority, and also because her role put her in the same trail as Sorginak and Drachensohn, who refuged in eastern Poland, saw on her a potential new Black Knight to gather the others and strike the Palarokhian Order. Most of the visions sent by the Baphomet were largely ignored by the surviving Black Knights after all these years, but to see someone else has risen to the same need of releasing the Baphomet (albeit still keeping it in a dormant state, just not a dormant state watched by the Palarokhians or any government), Sorginak has taken Alica under her wing for the next months, culminating in the identification and gathering of the last Black Knights - which Alica reunited after travelling to Lithuania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine and Russia, and the plans for an operation of rescue in Chernyakhovsk, and later of taking the ruins of their castle at Kaliningrad as their new fortress. This operation happened in October 2010, the same occasion by which Cuauhtemoc would hear the Black Knights were still alive, and when William would meet Alica. This operation at the Chernyakhovsk facility coincided with an attack by the secret organization Hebdomad which Vadim is part of, and they became a third party interested in the Baphomet, which was stopped nevertheless, as the Black Knights sucesfully conquered their fortress and autonomy back, this time also with help of dragons, Fafnir (not long before, a Norlander human, leader of some "New Asgardian" or Asatru religious movement, that was also protesting a government's decision to sell the Alfheimr woods to an enterprise. He was irreversibly transformed into a dragon during his pagan marriage ceremony, after coming in contact with the cursed ring Andvarinaut mistakenly exchanged with his own by a still mysterious individual. The present people expulsed him, fearing his wife Katharina would be harmed by such a demon, and with no else to run he fled to the Nifelheim mountains searching for food like a wild animal, when he met the Jötunn inhabiting a series of underground caves underneath, and managing the even deeper caves of Hel, a slave-pen and breeding ground for inhumans enslaved and managed by the Jötunn based on surface's demands for demons, mining labor and genetic material. At the time, the occasion of the Alfheimr woods took Paynal's attention, who also came to investigate Fafnir's convenient disappearance, just to find he was transformed into a dragon and dragged to Hel, where he and Paynal would not only break free from, but also find out a secret Jötunn Scientific Organization seemed to manage it for centuries and to keep contact with a select group of humans involved with the Norse governments since the 10th century, what eventually made the Church their client. They destroyed Hel and set free the "dragons" and "demons" kept by it) and "Torchwing", a dragon freed from Hel, and himself one of the first Black Knights.

NECOC YAOTL - "ENEMY OF BOTH SIDES"
    The Black Knights and their newest ally, Alica, have most certainly become enemy of both sides as both the Catholic Church / Holy Roman Empire, the European Union (that is divided among its members concerning the HRE), the secret Palarokhian Order and the government of Belarus, alongside its allies, have labeled them as criminals. On the matter, the UN considered it a bunch of criminals and self-proclaimed anarchists. What mattered, though, is that keeping the fortress of the Black Knights, the network of autonomous, anarchist resistance known to Paynal has just increased, and they would stand a valuable support in favor of some Rodnover communities in Lithuania slightly more allied to anarchist objectives, namely, the Rodnover community of "Stribog" (named after the Slavic God of Wind, a name shared by an ancient Triton (a species of water humanoid creature) a.k.a Coelacanth, an ally of "The Triton", there known as Vodyanoy and Dazbog). It became a strategic spot to counter advancements from the Holy Roman Empire and also to keep Alica out of the reach of the KGB, as they've got no power in Lithuania. There was, however, time that she had to return to her home, for school (she was in the third year of high school at the time). With all the repression going on, it was actually just getting harder to conciliate "a normal life" with the struggle for survival, something William claimed to understand and feel even more, as just recently, back in April, with Omepaynal's transformation into Axayacatl, he realized that if one who has the power to become a Cuetzpalin use it too much, it may eventually lose its ability to return to its original form, meaning the time for him to quit being Paynal was coming soon, so he decided only to transform in extreme situations, and probably only in these campaigns against the Inquisition and the Holy Roman Empire, for this war is something he couldn't avoid or miss, it was a responsibility. He still intended to grow closer to Alica, and didn't waste their time together, he only pretended not to know these feelings weren't mutual, playing like given time it would be. But deeply, he didn't understand Alica, and she didn't understand him. But they still liked similar stuff ("nature", the woods, animals, vegan food, games, anime, comics, metal music, and crappy stuff some 16 years old people are exposed to) and made good company for each other - as you can tell by their faces. That's what matter, right?