Lore questions.

Maghak

http://wiki.aetolia.com/Ylem
http://wiki.aetolia.com/Leyline

Ylem is a bit amorphously defined at the moment, but I have thought of it as 'difference' or potential (in the sense of potential energy, such as a coiled spring). Foci spawn when planes collide or intersect; this creates points of compression and "friction" of a sort. Tapping into that disturbed point yields a substance formed from the energy differential between the two planes. It could be thought of as a physical form for the energy of planar interactions, which is why it can be tapped as a very powerful fuel source and cause chaos when biological things are exposed to it.

If you look at HELP YLEM you will see that it's described as 'energy left over from creation' - this is correct, as the motions of the planes spring from the origin of existence, and if the planes should settle, stop moving or become anchored, the flow of ylem would stop. Likewise, draining so much ylem that the potential energy between the planes is lost would have the effect of slowing or stopping their motions relative to each other, potentially with disastrous results.

Xavin

@Maghak - Knowing what you said here, does this mean that the Dreikathi somehow managed to anchor their portion of the material plane in place, or stopped it from intersecting with other planes? The stated purpose for their invasion was that they had refined all of the ylem from Albedos and the surge of energy through the leylines when the needle of balance was activated alerted them to our continent and the ylem potential it had.

It's curious!

Maghak

That would be telling, wouldn't it? Sure is an interesting question.

Ishin

I was just doing a little forums searching on the Shadowbound, and I saw that nobody had really asked anything here about them yet. I can remember when @Iosyne was sick with it, and her followers got sick too. I know there are others, though likely the immense majority of them can't get to Prime for whatever reason(s). I was wondering if any of you Gods would be able to expand on that a little bit? It's a big part of Syssin lore, yet all we really have as examples are a few events with Iosyne, some events on Shadow that not many people were privy to, and if there's anything else out there I haven't run across it yet. Or is it one of those things you can't say much about until future events?

Tina

Ok, for a long time we'd been told and thought that Indoran was Kalsu for despair, and Indorani was Kalsu for children of despair. Then the new timeline came out, and one of the entries was this. In Hlugnic (high Dwarven), 'endoron' means 'mage'. Other races begin using the modified form, 'Indoron', as shorthand for 'despair'. Does that mean Indoran and Indorani aren't kalsu for despair and children of despair anymore? Or are both true, and the slang term found it's way into Kalsu eventually?

Damariel

@Tina: Kalsu adopted 'indoron' from the High Dwarven/Hlugnic 'endoron', and although the original word meant 'mage', its association with the Indorani led to its meaning in other languages being quite different. This is often what happens when words are borrowed into other languages; there's connotations and shades of meaning that are absent in the original. So, to summarize: yes, Indoron is the Kalsu for 'despair', and Indorani was used more colloquially - if you wanted to examine how Kalsu forms actor nouns, you could argue it as a corruption (har har) of 'indoron ti'.

Ishin

It could be that, yeah Tina. It would make sense that if the outsiders called them 'Endoron' or 'Indoron'(since the two are pretty much the same phonetically), and then they simply absorbed Indoron into Kalsu as a reference to themselves. They could have also changed Endoron to Indoron to differentiate between the two languages so they wouldn't be seen as integrating a lesser language into their own. English has a habit of doing the same, as it's assimilated a lot of words from other languages and simply spells them differently.

Bakhtuh

I imagine it may have to also do with a kind of slang, derogatory reference to the Indorani empire on the part of the Ankyreans. From what I have read in the histories on the wiki, the rise of the Indorani empire happened at a time when the Ankyreans were at a low. Instead of translating it as a neutral "mage" in their tongue, the Ankyreans translate it as "despair" and allow the non-Kalsu term to enter their language, controlling the connotations it carries.

Damariel

@Bakhtuh‌ - Just so. All they knew was that these heart-devouring, beast-summoning, innocent-slaughtering necromancers called themselves something that sounded, to the ear of your average Ankyrean speaker, like 'indorani' - so that was the word they used. It's not hard to see how that kind of grisly, terrible image would come to be associated, in a more general, metaphorical sense, with the idea of 'despair' overall. It's sort of like how in English, the term 'Nazi' often sees use to describe something or someone strict, hardline, picky, or harsh, the word bearing only tangential relation to its original source.

Lim

Damariel said:

@Bakhtuh‌ - Just so.

Damariel is Bravosi!

Damariel

Certainly no Westerosi swine.

Angwe

Who are the Nazetu in Tiyen Esityi, exactly? Are they a tribe? Chak's reserve army? Pirates?

Rashar

Thought it was put out somewhere that Chak gave them the ol' Amish shun for looking at too many Playboy magazines.

Xavin

Rashar said:

Thought it was put out somewhere that Chak gave them the ol' Amish shun for looking at too many Playboy magazines.

Basically this. But I thought it was Bloodloch doing the shunning, so they up and left.

Setne

Will continue to ask for more information on the various holidays. I will be the Toz of holidays.

Reux

So. Fengard. Like the only place I care about in this game of unicorn.

---

"sisters33922" the salacious Sisters.
An obscene amalgum of three pale, bare chested women rests here, coiled upon the hindquarters of a hydralisk.
Each beautiful in their own right, the Sisters Ephesia, Minoria, and Eritrea glisten with a thin layer of oil over their bare flesh. The three women are bound at the hip with surgical precision, each body melding with the other, Minoria in the center, Ephesia to her right, and Eritrea to her left. Minoria's silvery locks offset the raven threads of ink that drizzle down around the naked shoulders of her sisters, but the eyes of each are a dull, milky blue. Beneath their torsos, a serpentine hindquarters of steely scales, each the green of rotten puss, snakes backwards for several feet, eight sets of talons supporting the movement of the mass of flesh.
The salacious Sisters does not look particularly dangerous.

I realize that there's assumptions where Blizzard got those names, but are there other -lisks or even hydralisks wandering Sapience? Kinda cool if I could find another naturally occurring, lizard or snake lookin' one and turn it into a mount or a pet.

---

There's three factions I can name that currently reside in the keep.

- The doctor and his creations. (Argoboles, Garwhols, Chempalas, Lichospheres, henchmen in the I.Box)
- The Enorian troops. (Knights, Invokers, anything behind the menorah)
- The bad guys... (Wyrms, Constructs, Grimshrills, Ogres, and anyone else passed the curvy lady)

I've seen time and time again Enorians kill the Enorian side. While I don't understand how Lumores and Phenkyre work into that faction, it's pretty clear from the descriptions of the heroes and dialog from a couple that they're Enorian. Should... someone... care? Does Auresae sigh heavily when knights and leaders are offered to her? Or am I wrong about the faction's affiliations?

Were all the bad guys in the keep before it was invaded, or the doctor tried to take over? Hecuba, Derban and Smirnick seem practically Spirean (though I think the Spires was found after Fengard). Does Chakrasul care about this faction at all?

I'm not going to argue the doctor, because it seems that no one has his back, and everyone wants him and his dead. Weird considering he's got entities at his back and the bad guys want to collect their corpses, but meh.

---

And finally, why does anyone stay in the keep if the Belladona is long removed and dead? Is the doctor really that reviled? Is there something else worth jailing? Are there supposed to be secrets and treasures the three factions are trying to find?

.02

Angwe

Reux said:

I've seen time and time again Enorians kill the Enorian side. While I don't understand how Lumores and Phenkyre work into that faction, it's pretty clear from the descriptions of the heroes and dialog from a couple that they're Enorian. Should... someone... care? Does Auresae sigh heavily when knights and leaders are offered to her? Or am I wrong about the faction's affiliations?

This has always bugged me, too.

Daskalos

Enorian has no laws of protection up that way, but I know in the Luminaries the only thing you can kill are the phenkyres (aggro). We also say you can kill pretty much any non-sentient, but I know I don't let the Lumies kill things that are allied to the 'Light'. In fact, the RP is that Daskalos got his Phenkyre from Gladius. As for the area? Most of the mob names for the 'leaders' came from Achaea when it was Belladona's keep (:and then her keep here ). When Bella was cured into Yrtez, Gladius snapped out of his trance and the Keep became a battlegrounds of sort between Bella's former factions all trying to wrest control from each other. (this is all from memory, so might be some mistakes, but this is how I recall it)

Tina

Ok, my question is on the relation between Idar Karif and Rahn. Now according to the in game lore I've read, Rahn's vessel was some hero from over the Sapphire Sea, a model to all the gods of what a mortal could be, who got tricked and trapped by Chakrasul, and tortured in a volcano for a while. Eventually the ordeal "refined" him till the spirit of fire and purity found a home in him, and he became its vessel, and Rahn was worn, ala events post 7, and a few other sources.

Now, according to the Legend of Tiyen Indoran, Idar was the leader of one of the old armies of light that formed in the age of despair to fight the Indorani. Chak disguised herself, married him, eventually drove him mad, and he killed everyone in his castle, then jumped off the tallest tower in it to his death, ending his life in madness and suicide.

However the wiki says on Idar as follows.
Idar Karif was a great warlord during the Age of Despair. He formed the armies of the Light before being seduced and ultimately destroyed by Chakrasul, eventually becoming the mortal shell of Rahn.

Now, if he was driven insane and committed suicide, it seems impossible that he later on recovered from madness and death, and became a shining hero across the seas, get tricked by Chak again, and tortured till he died again. So is the origin story for Rahn wrong, the ending to the legend of Tiyen Indoran wrong, or is the wiki wrong and Idar wasn't a vessel for Rahn? Which lore is the real lore?

Daskalos

From what I understand...

Idar was the Hero\Leader of the Armies of Light in the Age of Despair. He was seduced by Chakrasul (from what I gather, she disguised herself, he had no idea) and when he realized what happened, he went mad and flung himself into the Volcano. Chakrasul decided to not let him die, thus the torture, and eventually Mebrene, the spirit of fire, found him and found him worthy and thus Rahn was born when she made him her vessel. I know that Her temple was his old fortress, but I've never heard he committed suicide.

Tina

Second to last page of the lore book the legend of Tiyen Indoran.

By evening, all the inhabitants of the castle lay dead as Idar had found
them. His gruesome job done, he stood upon the balcony of his quarters
and laughed, laughed endlessly. Those who watched from their hiding
places upon the walls of the castle later said that his face looked like
that of a man driven to the point where pleasure turns into excruciating
pain. His lady appeared by his side, her beauty untouched and unmarred
by the passage of time. None know what words she spoke to him. Those who
waited, silently, upon the walls of the castle only saw a glimmer in the
evening sun as their lord threw himself from the balcony of the castle
that was once his domain.

And on the last page.

For the valorous Idar could not have fallen to a mere mortal woman.

I don't know, there is no mention of the volcano, when I read that story, I always pictured a man totally insane who jumped off the top of his castle, which would be suicide. And even if he was, the origin of Rahn says it was a hero from across the ocean that was tricked and captured, not an insane king from right here.

The madness of Lord Idar grew each day, consuming him, robbing him of
his will.

Daskalos

From what I understood Idar was from across the sea, had fallen in love and conquered all these other things, then came here to conquer Sapience and ran into the Indoron. Chak had seen him growing in power across the way, so to speak (of note... was Idar fro Albedos?!) and had tricked him to avoid Tiyen falling, or some such. Honestly, that entire time for lore was a mess, we're going back 4 producers at this point back to the original.

Ishin

Flinging yourself into a volcano is pretty suicidal. Just saying.

Damariel

Based on current lore, it is far more plausible that Idar was not Albedi, but a Beryl Sea islander; although not as yet revealed to the players in any great depth, there are a number of islands along the southeastern end of Sapience, including Slaver's Isle, a number of Nazetu pirate coves, and other relatively isolated populations. Some of these may very well be the descendants of Idar's people.

Angwe

Tina

Right, so Idar was Rahn's vessel, and sometime after he jumped off the top of his castle, Chak found him again, and locked him up in the volcano and tortured him?

Daskalos

I was more under the impression he jumped into the volcano on his own to end it once he realized what he had done, but Chakrasul wouldn't let him die and so he lied there, tortured, until Mebrene found him. Maybe the Castle is really high and he jumped reallllly far from the top of it into the volcano?

Tina

Well, he was some kind of super man. One leap to get over a tall building. One leap to get across a continent. That's like practically the same thing.

Bakhtuh

Couldn't this just be an instance of conflicting mythologies? So you have:
1) The Light version where Idar is a noble, enduring soul who flung himself into a volcano after years of being tortured by Chakrasul. Chak decides he shouldn't die an easy, noble death but Idar's spirit is pure enough to merit his ascension to Rahn.

2) The Other version where Idar just goes mad and throws himself off a tower. That is it. Weak man who could not endure the potential of the True Suffering that would have broken the shackles of goodness that he had bound himself with, etc.

Considering the nature of Aetolian history and the current Age, it stands to reason that different societies across Sapience are going to twist histories and create convenient myths out of them. So both versions of Idar are true, except only to their respective factions.

Xavin

In this case, though, we know for a fact he was in the volcano. He was the shell that Mebrene took to create Rahn.