Edge of Twilight Wiki - User contributions [en]

Monsters

2026-04-14T14:44:28Z

Eotadmin: /* Intelligent monsters */

[[Category:faction]]
[[Category:cosmology]]
Soulless beings that hunt humankind at the behest of their creator [[Versa]].

[[Eve]] theorizes that monsters hunt humans because they yearn a soul of their own; a prize that they can never obtain, for the human soul is divine.

According to [[Void]], they are [[Novrand]]'s autonomous defense system left behind by [[Versa|humanity's creator]], which is trying to purge the [[Ardia|cosmic parasite]] from the world. However, the system is failing at its task, for Ardia's pull on the souls of humanity is too strong.

== Monsters vs. beasts ==
Although some beasts are similar to monsters in the sense that they hunt humans, they are entirely different from monsters due to some key differences:

* Monsters don't need to breathe, eat, drink or sleep to survive
** Monsters that eat humans do so entirely out of secondary reasons such as malice or instinct
* Monsters don't attack each other
** They act as if they are all "on the same team", even if the monsters are of very different types
* Monsters cannot sexually reproduce
** However, some monsters can split and clone themselves
* Monsters have no reproductive organs unless they are shapeshifters
** Shapeshifters' reproductive organs are mere imitations that lack real function
* Monsters don't need eyesight to hunt
** It is believed that they track human souls via magical means and that this tracking ability has some monster-dependent maximum range
* Monsters have magical abilities

== Intelligent monsters ==
There exists a rare group of intelligent monsters who rise above their base urge to kill humans on sight. Examples include vampires and [[Shapeshifter|shapeshifters]]. Some of these monsters are so intelligent that they are even able to blend into human society for years at a time. However, their end goal is the same as all other monsters; they simply perform their gruesome tasks over a longer time period and larger scale.

=== Cooperation with cults ===
As they share the same goal, intelligent monsters can and do work with Versa cults. Due to their divine nature, intelligent monsters typically immediately become an object of secondary worship in the cult.

=== Captive intelligent monsters ===
It is rare to encounter an intelligent monster, and even rarer still to capture them alive, as they are known to choose death over risking revealing information about their plans in magical interrogation.

However, there are persistent rumours that [[Neuhäuser University]] has intelligent monsters in containment. The university officially denies this.

== Relation to angels ==
According to myths, monsters consider [[Angel|angels]] their natural enemies and are repulsed by them.

Shapeshifter

2026-04-14T14:43:32Z

Eotadmin: Created page with "The term shapeshifter can refer to both humans and monsters with the magical ability to shapeshift."

The term shapeshifter can refer to both humans and monsters with the magical ability to shapeshift.

Monsters

2026-04-14T14:36:19Z

Eotadmin: /* Intelligent monsters */

[[Category:faction]]
[[Category:cosmology]]
Soulless beings that hunt humankind at the behest of their creator [[Versa]].

[[Eve]] theorizes that monsters hunt humans because they yearn a soul of their own; a prize that they can never obtain, for the human soul is divine.

According to [[Void]], they are [[Novrand]]'s autonomous defense system left behind by [[Versa|humanity's creator]], which is trying to purge the [[Ardia|cosmic parasite]] from the world. However, the system is failing at its task, for Ardia's pull on the souls of humanity is too strong.

== Monsters vs. beasts ==
Although some beasts are similar to monsters in the sense that they hunt humans, they are entirely different from monsters due to some key differences:

* Monsters don't need to breathe, eat, drink or sleep to survive
** Monsters that eat humans do so entirely out of secondary reasons such as malice or instinct
* Monsters don't attack each other
** They act as if they are all "on the same team", even if the monsters are of very different types
* Monsters cannot sexually reproduce
** However, some monsters can split and clone themselves
* Monsters have no reproductive organs unless they are shapeshifters
** Shapeshifters' reproductive organs are mere imitations that lack real function
* Monsters don't need eyesight to hunt
** It is believed that they track human souls via magical means and that this tracking ability has some monster-dependent maximum range
* Monsters have magical abilities

== Intelligent monsters ==
There exists a rare group of intelligent monsters who rise above their base urge to kill humans on sight. Examples include vampires and changelings (monster shapeshifters). Some of these monsters are so intelligent that they are even able to blend into human society for years at a time. However, their end goal is the same as all other monsters; they simply perform their gruesome tasks over a longer time period and larger scale.

=== Cooperation with cults ===
As they share the same goal, intelligent monsters can and do work with Versa cults. Due to their divine nature, intelligent monsters typically immediately become an object of secondary worship in the cult.

=== Captive intelligent monsters ===
It is rare to encounter an intelligent monster, and even rarer still to capture them alive, as they are known to choose death over risking revealing information about their plans in magical interrogation.

However, there are persistent rumours that [[Neuhäuser University]] has intelligent monsters in containment. The university officially denies this.

== Relation to angels ==
According to myths, monsters consider [[Angel|angels]] their natural enemies and are repulsed by them.

Ardia

2026-04-14T14:28:44Z

Eotadmin:

[[Category:god]]
[[File:Church_of_Ardia_symbol.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Symbol of the [[Church of Ardia]].]]The Father of Humanity who protects His creations from [[Versa]] and her [[monsters]]. The god of the [[church of Ardia]].

Sealed Versa to the [[Moon]] during the [[Banishing War]]. Has given up His physical manifestation in order to focus all of His power to maintain the seal on Versa.

Has mythical servants called [[Angel|angels]], but there are no reliable records of anyone having witnessed them since the Banishing War.

== Previous iterations / An ==
[[File:Statue_of_An.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Statue of "An" found in the tomb of Elesh.]]
There is some evidence that there is another version, or iteration, of Ardia.

While being escorted out of the [[tomb of Elesh]] by queen [[Rem-Leneth]], the party encounters a [[Statue of An|strange statue]] with a symbol that resembles the globally recognized symbol of Ardia, but with the "wings" missing.

[[An]], the goddess of the Cenith wildlings resembles Ardia in function, but not in form.The wildlings consider Ardia a false god.

== Void's explanation ==
According to [[Void]], Ardia is a cosmic parasite that feeds off of humanity's knowledge by cursing them into an eternal cycle of death and reincarnation. Without Ardia's meddling, humanity would eventually become gods.

== Soul rescue ==
According to [[Micah Sellic]], Ardia spends divine power to prevent voidtouched souls from being devoured by Versa upon death, causing them to later reincarnate on [[Novrand]]. This process is called [[Soul Rescue|soul rescue]].
[[Category:Cosmology]]

Eversley Institute

2026-04-14T14:25:37Z

Eotadmin:

The most prestigious university in [[Chevell]], situated in the capital [[Calladia]].

Eversley has a long-standing rivalry with [[Neuhäuser University]].

Eversley sees itself as the superior university because of how difficult it's to get in, and how their scientific innovations over 200 years have improved the lives of Chevell citizens
[[Category:Location]]
[[Category:Faction]]

Neuhäuser University

2026-04-14T14:24:31Z

Eotadmin: Created page with "Full name: ''Neuhäuser University of Metaphysics'' A university built on an island off the north coast of Chevell, near the city of Sturmhafen. There's a long-standing rivalry between Neuhäuser University and Eversley Institute. Neuhäuser students and faculty see themselves as the superior university because they attract only those who fully dedicate themselves to seeking of knowledge. Only them have the force of will to move to the middle of nowhere an..."

Full name: ''Neuhäuser University of Metaphysics''

A university built on an island off the north coast of [[Chevell]], near the city of [[Sturmhafen]].

There's a long-standing rivalry between Neuhäuser University and [[Eversley Institute]].

Neuhäuser students and faculty see themselves as the superior university because they attract only those who fully dedicate themselves to seeking of knowledge. Only them have the force of will to move to the middle of nowhere and risk their well-being in groundbreaking experiments seeking to unravel "the greatest mysteries of the universe".
[[Category:Faction]]
[[Category:Location]]

Monsters

2026-04-14T14:21:24Z

Eotadmin:

[[Category:faction]]
[[Category:cosmology]]
Soulless beings that hunt humankind at the behest of their creator [[Versa]].

[[Eve]] theorizes that monsters hunt humans because they yearn a soul of their own; a prize that they can never obtain, for the human soul is divine.

According to [[Void]], they are [[Novrand]]'s autonomous defense system left behind by [[Versa|humanity's creator]], which is trying to purge the [[Ardia|cosmic parasite]] from the world. However, the system is failing at its task, for Ardia's pull on the souls of humanity is too strong.

== Monsters vs. beasts ==
Although some beasts are similar to monsters in the sense that they hunt humans, they are entirely different from monsters due to some key differences:

* Monsters don't need to breathe, eat, drink or sleep to survive
** Monsters that eat humans do so entirely out of secondary reasons such as malice or instinct
* Monsters don't attack each other
** They act as if they are all "on the same team", even if the monsters are of very different types
* Monsters cannot sexually reproduce
** However, some monsters can split and clone themselves
* Monsters have no reproductive organs unless they are shapeshifters
** Shapeshifters' reproductive organs are mere imitations that lack real function
* Monsters don't need eyesight to hunt
** It is believed that they track human souls via magical means and that this tracking ability has some monster-dependent maximum range
* Monsters have magical abilities

== Intelligent monsters ==
There exists a rare group of intelligent monsters who rise above their base urge to kill humans on sight. Examples include vampires and changelings (monster shapeshifters). Some of these monsters are so intelligent that they are even able to blend into human society for years at a time. However, their end goal is the same as all monsters: to bring destruction upon humanity. They simply perform their gruesome tasks over a longer time period and larger scale.

=== Cooperation with cults ===
As they share the same goal, intelligent monsters can and do work with Versa cults. Due to their divine nature, intelligent monsters typically immediately become an object of secondary worship in the cult.

=== Captive intelligent monsters ===
It is rare to encounter an intelligent monster, and even rarer still to capture them alive, as they are known to choose death over risking revealing information about their plans in magical interrogation.

However, there are persistent rumours that [[Neuhäuser University]] has intelligent monsters in containment. The university officially denies this.

== Relation to angels ==
According to myths, monsters consider [[Angel|angels]] their natural enemies and are repulsed by them.

Monsters

2026-04-14T13:35:57Z

Eotadmin:

Angel

2026-04-14T13:34:05Z

Eotadmin:

Mythical winged humanoid creatures and servants of [[Ardia]] mentioned in some ancient religious records. There are no reliable records of them appearing since the [[Banishing War]].

According to the myths, [[monsters]] consider them natural enemies and are repulsed by them.

=== In Cenith wildling mythology ===
[[Cenith wildlings]] call them ''Anchels'' (lit. ''servant of [[An]] / servant of God''). They do not recognize any god named Ardia, despite the similarities to their own goddess.
[[Category:Historical]]
[[Category:Cosmology]]
[[Category:Faction]]

Chapter 2

2026-04-14T13:31:55Z

Eotadmin: /* Uninvited visitors */

== In the [[Tomb of Elesh]] ==
Party awakens in an underground chamber with a large floating orb made of stone in the middle. [[Eve]] is nowhere to be seen.

They discuss what happened and why [[Faylin]] betrayed the party. Faylin explains that she was not in control; instead, she was possessed by the soul of her [[Charna Lacrimosa|mother]], whose soul is somehow trapped within her body.

Party investigates the immediate surroundings to see if they can find a way out. The large double stone doors facing the orb do not budge, but have a strange reaction to [[Walter Therowich|Walter]].

The party investigates the rest of the area and finds no exit. Instead they find evidence of the place being the [[Tomb of Elesh]], a burial ground for the royal family of [[Cen]] and a sacrosanct location.

As they finish investigating the area, they hear heavy footsteps approaching from somewhere above. They hide and listen as [[Ziggy|something massive]] enters the room and has some interaction with the stone orb.

They hear the voice of a [[Rem-Leneth|young girl]] who walks over to the graves of her parents and speaks to them. [[Hasae]] is able to understand their language and informs the party that the girl is the current ruler of Cen.

As the girl and her golem are about to leave, the party reveals themselves to queen [[Rem-Leneth]]. They convince her that they are not a threat and that they were teleported to the tomb against their will.

During their exchange, Rem-Leneth's golem points at Walter, but the meaning of the gesture is unclear to everyone else.

The queen demands the party to follow her and her golem out of the tomb and to the capital city of [[Cen'Ith]], where they can discuss what happened. The party complies and follows her.

On the way to the exit, the party sees a strange [[An|statue]] of a knight with a shield showing an [[Complete|incomplete]] symbol of [[Ardia]].

== Journey to Cen'Ith ==
As the party exits, they meet the queen's retinue of 50 Cenith royal guards and her advisor [[Vol-Zorya]]. The queen orders her advisor and part of her retinue to escort the party to the capital.

Everyone travels almost wordlessly through the jungle for hours until they reach a large body of water that opens into an enormous lake. The royal guards summon a giant turtle from the depths of the water to ferry everyone except the queen and her golem to Cen'Ith. The queen stays on her golem, which is capable of walking on water.

== At Cen'Ith ==
The party arrives to the capital late in the evening. They are split from the queen and most of the royal guards, who continue on to the royal palace on top of a giant hill. The party is escorted by Vol-Zorya and the remaining guards not to the royal palace, but a lavish guest house sharing the same hill as the palace.

On the way to the guest house, the party sees a white and gold airship moored near the royal park. There is [[Micah Sellic|a person watching the party]] over the railing of the main deck of the airship.

Before the party enters the guest house, Vol-Zorya reminds them that causing any damage to royal property is high treason and, when the party is summoned to have an audience with the queen, lying to the queen is grounds for death penalty.

Another noble-looking woman runs over towards the party, but they are stopped by Vol-Zorya, who seems to know them.

=== At guest house ===
The party bathes in the open-air bath behind the house and relax after their long ordeal that started after they were imprisoned aboard [[SS Chosen]]. Walter relaxes on a couch by reading a book.

They make tentative plans about how they will proceed after they are let go by the queen.

Everyone goes to bed and falls asleep.

=== Shared dream ===
[[File:Strange_dream_symbol.jpg|162x162px|thumb|Strange symbol found in the papers in the shared dream.]]The party finds themselves in a strange dream with everyone from the party present. [[Saki]] is overjoyed when she realizes that she can hear the voices of the party.

After briefly investigating the surroundings, a tall person clad in a dark cloak materializes in the room. They are revealed to be [[Charna Lacrimosa]], the mother of Faylin, who claims they were also pulled into the shared dream.

Charna makes the party an offer of truce: as long as the party makes no attempt to compromise the [[Void|Grandmaster]]'s plans, she will aid the party if Faylin loses control of her body. However, if the party goes against them, she will turn on them and kill them, starting with Saki. She then dissolves away, leaving Faylin in state of distress.

The party starts hearing footsteps approaching the door from the outside. When this happens, the papers on the floor begin to display a strange symbol. As the door opens, the party wakes up.

=== Next morning ===
The living room of the guest house is filled with Cenith servants who are playing experimental modern Cenith music (it sounds terrible). The person is charge of the servants introduces himself as [[Che-Kuyuki]]. He claims that [[Vol-Zorya]] said that the party's wish was to be woken up my modern music (it wasn't). When offered the chance, the party picks the traditional Cenith breakfast over the modern, experimental one.

When the party is woken up, he orders some of the musicians to leave and some of them to begin cleaning the apartment and prepare breakfast. While the party awaits their breakfast, Che-Kuyuki collects the party's basic information in preparation for the audience with the queen.
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Name
!Country of origin
!Occupation
!Voidtouched?
!Magical items
!Closest relatives
|-
|Ricky
|Chevell
|Unemployed
|✔️
| -
|Theresia, Frederic
|-
|Walter Therowich
|Chevell
|Travelling medical doctor
|
| -
| -
|-
|Arista Halseth
|Jotunheim
|Fisher
|
|Seashell
|Haley Halseth, Walter Halseth
|-
|Dr Faylin Lacrimosa
|Chevell
|Assistant Director of the Department of Containment and Study of Voidbeasts and Shapeshifters in Neuhäuser University of Metaphysics
|✔️
| -
|Lady Aurora Freyr
Dr Vaylen Vask
|-
|Saki
|Eigo
|Housekeeper
|✔️
| -
| -
|-
|Xiong Li
|Xinguang
|
|
| -
|Yang Li
|-
|Hasae Selawn
|Heretic Mountains
(answered in Cenith)
|Travelling doctoral student from Eversley Institute
|✔️
| -
|Eve Voloshyna
|}
The party has breakfast, after which the old servant informs the party of the protocol they need to follow for the audience. Importantly, casting any magic without prior approval will be handled with extreme prejudice by the royal guards.

Che-Kuyuyki leaves with the other servants to deliver the documents to someone, saying that he will return in a few hours with differently colored cloaks that the party needs to wear in the royal palace.

After a few more hours of waiting, the party is escorted by Vol-Zorya through the Royal Park towards the Royal Palace. For some reason, Faylin asks Vol-Zorya what date it is. Vol-Zorya's answer reveals to the party that 6 months have passed without them realizing it.

=== Waiting for the audience to begin ===
Party is escorted by Vol-Zorya to a waiting room. They meet [[Meti-Saori]], the president of the entirely state-owned Cenith golem industry, and her adoptive daughter [[Debbie]], despite Vol-Zorya urging the party not to talk with anyone. Meti-Saori engages in a "deduction game" with Debbie, trying to get as much information as possible out of the party by just the way they look. Meti-Saori jokingly (?) concludes that the party must be elite adventurers that arrived to Cen'Ith via airship. Debbie looks starstruck after hearing this, as she seems to be big fan of books recounting the tales of adventurers.

[[Thaz-Malat]], [[Micah Sellic]] and his two bodyguards walk across the waiting room. Sellic recognizes Ricky as Reinhardt, the amnesiac hero who saved the city of Caelumnis, and invites him to a dinner aboard his airship before being verbally driven off by Vol-Zorya.

[[Kal-Rezan]], [[Faris Anwar]] and his two bodyguards walk across the waiting room. One of the bodyguards looks suspiciously like [[Shtah Al-Washaq|Shtah]], but acts as they don't recognize the party, despite Faylin trying to get his attention. The other bodyguard ([[Jahat]]) stops in his tracks, then approaches Arista to study her at uncomfortably close range. He growls and returns to his master. Anwar speaks to his bodyguard who replies in hand signals. The three of them stare at Arista for a few uncomfortable moments, but then continue along their way.

Royal seneschal [[Rez-Khar]] eventually arrives to inform the party that they have been summoned for the audience.

=== Audience ===
Rez-Khar gives a ceremonial opening speech, announcing those present in the throne room.

Kal-Rezan and Thaz-Malat then proceed to ask the party a series of questions about how they ended up in Lux Sanctus. This leads to further questions about how the party escaped from Jinhou that was under monster invasion, how they got inside the Walled Garden, whether they know jarl Grunvald or not, and what they know about the cult that they know was behind the monster invasion. But thus far it seems like they are just confirming what they know already.

The interrogation then moves to what happened in [[Caelumnis]]. Thaz-Malat already knows about the barrier and that it was broken. Party reveals that the barrier was broken due to their ex-party member Shtah Al-Washaq acting on his own and killing saint [[Lucia]]. However, the party survived to tell the tale because [[Joachim]], the leader of the [[Saint's Guard]], resurrected the saint, who then reapplied the barrier. The party says they don't know where Shtah currently is.

Before Kal-Rezan has the chance to move on to asking what happened underground, queen Rem-Leneth stops the interrogation to make a request of Walter; to touch the forehead of her golem Ziggy with his left hand. Walter complies and when he makes contact with the golem, the symbol of Elesh appears at the back of his hand. Everyone sees arcane patterns forming and dissolving around the golem, before the golem curls into a ball and "shuts down". All advisors look disturbed at the sight, but don't voice their concern.

After the queen settles down, she orders Vil-Seilen and Kal-Rezan to her side and the three discuss among each other for several minutes in total silence. Kal-Rezan then orders the interrogation finished for today. He says that the party now has the permission to follow Vil-Seilen to meet with the mysterious person and that Micah Sellic will be informed that Ricky cannot attend to the dinner tonight.

=== On the way to the healer ===
Party is escorted out of the throne room. As Vil-Seilen returns to them, Vol-Zorya informs the party that they should not participate in her cousin's experiments, as Vil-Seilen has a tendency of landing herself in trouble. However, the party agrees to follow Vil-Seilen. Vol-Zorya insists on following them to their destination.

They travel through Cen'Ith to the [[Cen'Ith Prison Island|prison island]] on the river.

=== Prison Island ===
On the prison island visitor reception office, Vil-Seilen is informed that the authority to move the prisoner ("Subject S") has been transferred to someone else, and as such, in order to meet with them, Vil-Seilen and the party need to go meet them at their cell in the high-security ward.

Vol-Zorya rages at Vil-Seilen upon hearing this and tells the party that the high-security ward is the most dangerous place in the city, as it's filled to the brim with the worst individuals in the entire nation. Vil-Seilen defends by saying that it's the perfect place to hide someone special they don't want to lose.

Vol-Zorya is ready to escort the party back to their guest house, but Vil-Seilen successfully persuades the party to go through with the experiment. She says that the party and the prisoner are the only people in the world with certain "condition" and this experiment might be the last puzzle piece she needs to understand it.

Upon descending into the underground high-security ward, Hasae is met with a flood of negative emotions emanating from the ward. With the help of Vil-Seilen's persuasion and the party members holding his hands, he is able to overcome his fear of the place enough to proceed forward.

In the high-security ward, the inmates are elated at the sight of Vil-Seilen, calling her "Devil-Seilen" and "Doctor Devil". During their walk through the ward, the party witnesses several deeply deranged individuals, reinforcing the sense that they have just descended into a world of madness only kept in check by the iron bars and magical collars.

Vil-Seilen finally stops in front of one of the cells on a corridor that looks separated from the others. The prodigal healer and prisoner is revealed to be [[She'Medah]].

==== Meeting She'Medah ====
Faylin shows animosity towards She'Medah and accuses him of killing his friend. She'Medah says that he can't remember anything of the past 6 months and wishes to know what happened. The party asks him to tell them what he does remember.

She'Medahs tells the party that as he was treating those wounded in the monster attack, he realized that his patients along with himself and Zophiel had begun to regenerate lost flesh as if they had been treated by powerful healing magic. With his mind filled with questions and unable to focus on treating the wounded, he went behind into the garden behind the keep to pray for guidance from [[Ardia]]. The last thing he remembers about Caelumnis is being approached in the garden by [[Void|Roland]].

She'Medah then woke up in the forbidden region of Cen surrounded by guards, with no memory of the past 6 months.

Instead of being executed on the spot, the guards recognized him as a Luxan envoy by his clothes and brought him to the prison, where he met Vil-Seilen.

Vil-Seilen says that She'Medah appeared one week before the party did. The party and She'Medah are the only people in recorded history who've been able to teleport into the area. She is currently investigating this phenomenon, and the meeting between all those people is the experiment that's currently taking place.

Vil-Seilen tells the party that she tested She'Medah's abilities by having him heal some poor kids that had lost limbs. She'Medah healed all of them. She'Medah does not seem too happy about using voidtouched magic to heal.

She'Medah remembers having telekinetic powers as a street urchin, but does not have them anymore. Vil-Seilen confirms this.

She'Medah is still in prison, because he remains guilty of trespassing in the forbidden region. Instead of being executed, he will be exiled to Lux Sanctus. Someone from Micah Sellic retinue is supposed to arrive and take him to Sellic's airship.

Hasae uses magic to show him what he did in the underground ruins. She'Medah apologizes to the party and tells them that the person wasn't him.

She'Medah says that he would not follow Farah or Roland, as he is not with them anymore, having dropped out of a training program for [[Saint's Guard]] members. She'Medah seems to have animosity towards Farah, and doesn't trust Roland, who never shows his face.

Faylin attempts to share her emotions with She'Medah to show exactly what he did to his friend, but Xiong Li stops her, worried that She'Medah might learn that the soul of [[Charna Lacrimosa|Faylin's cultist mother]] is trapped inside her.

She'Medah tells the party that according to what the Luxans are teaching, those who are cured by the saint can never become voidtouched again. However, this impossibility seems to have now happened in She'Medah's case.

He believes there are only two explanations: either the holy saint chosen by Ardia Himself is not powerful enough to save a person from the voidtouched curse, or that he never was voidtouched until the monster attack on the castle.

He says that Zophiel started having headaches after meeting Ricky on the ship. It seemed like she had two different pasts fighting for dominance over her mind.

She'Medah gets emotional and tells the party that taking everything into account, he is now worried that he may have been implanted with false memories. He may have never even met with the saint, meaning that the moment that forever changed the person he is, may be manufactured.

Faylin seems to have found the power to let go of her anger and forgive She'Medah. Vil-Seilen seems happy with how her experiment turned out.

==== Chaos erupts ====
As everyone says their goodbyes, the magical lights suddenly go out and the inmates begin to laugh, shout and scream. Shortly after they hear rumbling and the sound of rocks falling. Parts of the high-security ward have begun to cave in.

Arista and Faylin see Farah (?) appear inside She'Medah's cell, who immediately attacks him.

Arista looks around and informs the party that some inmates are now out of their cells and wandering the hallways in total darkness, along with monstrous zombified inmates. Horrible screams and sounds of fighting echo in the hallways all around them.

Vil-Seilen lights the area with her amulet to witness the final moments of She'Medah. With the cell door still locked, the party is unable to save the man. Farah executes She'Medah inside his cell and then disappears into the shadows.

With the entire high-security ward descending into chaos and collapsing, the party readies themselves to fight their way out.

==== Back outside ====
Party succeeds in fighting their way out together with a surviving inmate ([[Heartbane]]). Vil-Seilen stealthily hands over her light-giving amulet to Arista before leading the party outside. Vil-Seilen accounces the survivors to the guards outside. Some of the lightly armored guards look exhausted.

Heartbane looks like she's not ready to give away her newfound freedom, but Walter physically persuades her not to start any trouble.

Vil-Seilen takes the party to Vol-Zorya who slaps her cousin and without saying a word to her, proceeds to escort the party back to the guest house.

On the other side of the bridge, the party sees Meti-Saori, Debbie, their bodyguards, Micah Sellic and his bodyguards. Some of Meti-Saori's bodyguards look exhausted. Debbie is crying into the lap of her adoptive mother, but springs up to greet the party. While Meti-Saori's not allowed to speak with the party yet, she asks Vol-Zorya to inform her cousin to let her know the next time she finds a miracle healer from the jungle, as she's not too fond of sitting in a wheelchair.

Micah Sellic, after patiently waiting for his turn, then approaches Vol-Zorya and asks why the prisoner was disturbed despite his request, and how this person with Luxan envoy documents and uniform managed to perish inside a high-security ward. Vol-Zorya promises to Sellic find out how the misunderstanding happened. Sellic then repeats his offer to Ricky to have dinner aboard his airship, this time extending the invitation to the entire party.

If the party were to accept this invitation, Sellic requests that they avoid the topic of war, but also implies that Xinguang is using chemical weapons on their own soil.

On the way back to the guest house, Vol-Zorya purchases a 4-day-old Chevellan newspaper from a street urchin boy that she knows (Harit). Vol-Zorya gives the newspaper to the party.

=== At the guest house ===
Party tells Vol-Zorya what happened and mention that a Luxan person was the one who assassinated She'Medah. Vol-Zorya asks the party to give this information to the other advisors tomorrow. She then leaves.

Arista reveals that she was given an amulet by Vil-Seilen. They study the amulet and find that it's enchanted to emit light when touched and given a mental command.

In the middle of the night, Xiong Li and Walter wake up to the sound of a faint explosion coming from the north. Ricky wakes up soon after. The three head outside to witness smoke coming from the same direction, on a lower tier of buildings. Xiong Li persuades the royal guards to reveal that the explosion and fire are coming from one of Vil-Seilen's laboratories.

Unable to leave from the guest house, the three head off back to sleep.

=== Next morning ===
Party discusses the explosion and has breakfast.

Around noon, Vol-Zorya arrives to collect them, but she looks disturbed by something. She tells the party that there was an explosion at Vil-Seilen's laboratory and the woman is now missing. Party reveals that Vil-Seilen handed over an amulet to Arista, but the amulet provides no clues as to what happened to Vil-Seilen.

Vol-Zorya regrets that her final act towards her cousin was to hurt her. She takes the amulet, as the party is not supposed to bring it to the palace, and tells the party that she's going to have it checked just in case.

Vol-Zorya mentions that Faylin has received a sealed letter without markings, but she cannot hand it over before the party is given their freedom.

=== At the royal palace ===
Vol-Zorya takes to the waiting room, where they are called by Rez-Khar about one hour later. The queen's golem and naturally Vil-Seilen are both absent.

The party is interrogated by Kal-Rezan about what happened in the underground ruins beneath Caelumnis, but the questions are mostly aimed at Ricky.

Ricky successfully navigates through the minefield of questions, satisfying the curiousity of the advisors, without revealing dangerous information, namely:

* That some party members are carrying shards of Versa within them
* That the soul of Faylin's mother, a cultist leader, is trapped inside her daughter
* Any mention of Void and their cult
* Farah (or someone looking like them) murdering She'Medah inside his cell

Kal-Rezan then announces that they are happy with the answers given to them and they have no reason to doubt that the party entered the forbidden region without. He tells the queen that the advisors are finished with the questioning. The queen ends the proceedings with a hand gesture and the party is escorted to a waiting room by Vol-Zorya.

Kal-Rezan approaches the party inside the waiting room and tells them that while their story is filled with holes, they don't want all the information they have going into official records.

=== Freedom ===
Kal-Rezan tells the party that they don't want the information about them being teleported to the forbidden region to escape the palace walls. He wants the party to commit to memory the following story:

* The party was staying in [[Calladia]] (how they arrived there is the party's own business), where they were approached by staff members of Cenith embassy and asked to do paid security consultancy to the royal advisors in Cen'Ith
* The party took a train from Calladia to [[Moxha]], from where they took a riverboat ([[Venashan]]), which took the party up the river to Cen'Ith in 3 days
* They arrived to Cen'Ith 4 days ago

He then hands the party the following items:

* Paid tickets for their return journey
* 2 100 gold as consultancy fee
* A silver ring with emblem of Cen

Kal-Rezan says that the ring is a "secret handshake". If it's shown to a royal guard, they will know to arrange a meeting with Kal-Rezan, who is usually a difficult man to get in touch with.

Hasae asks Kal-Rezan to use his contact network to locate his missing thesis supervisor Eve Voloshyna. Kal-Rezan agrees and asks Hasae to ask about the progress after a few weeks.

Kal-Rezan warns the party that if they accept Sellic's dinner invitation and board his airship, they will be under Luxan jurisdiction, as the airship is legally considered to be a floating embassy. If something goes wrong, the party will be entirely on their own. Vol-Zorya says that the dinner is an obvious trap and advises the party not to go there.

Kal-Rezan wishes the party safe travels and leaves. Vol-Zorya hands over the sealed letter to Faylin and leaves to investigate her cousin's disappearance.

=== Shopping ===
Party heads off to the guest house to read Faylin's letter. Xiong Li takes the ring given by Kal-Rezan and places it in a separate room for the duration of reading the letter. The letter appears to be a request written by Shtah to meet him at Dakha in 10 days. They decide to go and meet Shtah together, but also to accompany Ricky to the dinner with Sellic.

Party goes to do some quick shopping before the dinner.

=== Dinner aboard the Viator ===
Party is greeted at the ramp leading to the Viator by Sellic and the ship's captain [[Amelia Regilla]], who wanted to be present to personally shake hands with "Mr. Reinhardt". One of the nuns present who smells of tobacco says that there's an uninvited guest and that she smells a "rat that goes by the name Rezan", after which Sellic demands that the item (ring) given by Rezan be placed in a leaden box for the duration of the dinner. Sellic then escorts the party to the dining cabin.

The dining cabin of the Viator is extravagant with its tables filled with luxurious foods. Sellic says he's prepared most of it himself, having long since been disappointed with the warrior nuns' cooking and thus choosing to learn the culinary arts over the last 40 years.

Sellic makes some small talk but quickly turns his attention towards Ricky (whom he continues to call Reinhardt) and his disappearance from Caelumnis. Ricky asks why Sellic calls him Reinhardt, after which Sellic reveals that he's taken a great interest in him, and has managed to uncover some things about his past.

==== Reinhardt's past ====
Sellic tells Ricky that he's the scion of the noble von Albrecht family and that his full name is [[Reinhardt von Albrecht]]. He's the only known survivor of a tragic fire that claimed the lives of the other von Albrecht family members during a family gathering at their manor near [[Calladia]] 9 months ago.

Sellic says that he hasn't managed to figure out why Ricky traveled to [[Eigo]] of all places, so soon after the tragedy.

==== Disappearance from Caelumnis ====
Sellic says that after Ricky and Farah emerged from the underground ruins with a mysterious artifact, they used its power to awaken the comatose saint, after which all three banished the fog surrounding Caelumnis, prompting a celebratory feast. Ricky, however, mysteriously disappeared during his own celebration. When asked about it by Sellic, Ricky claims that he left because he was weary of constant praise.

Sellic asks Ricky about how he ended up in Caelumnis with his current party, but Ricky keeps his answers vague. Sellic is gathering that Ricky and the party were hired by the Cenith leaders to do some kind of job for them.

==== Cultists pursuing Ricky ====
Sellic claims that he's also uncovered that a Versa cult is pursuing Ricky in order to capture him and use him for their own ends, by taking advantage of his amnesia. He implies that Ricky's current party may be aligned with this cult, or at the very least, not have Ricky's best interest in mind.

==== Saint's request ====
Sellic says that Saint Lucia has instructed all Luxan diplomats to look for Ricky and invite him to return to Lux Sanctus so that he could meet her at the Luxan capital, [[Sanctorum]]. The saint believes that Ricky is destined to embark upon a holy quest to save the world.

Walter asks what would happen if Ricky were to decline the offer. Sellic replies that her holiness would certainly be quite disappointed.

Ricky seems hesitant about this prospect, so Sellic offers to explain what Lux Sanctus is trying to achive. With help of some nuns, he gives a sock puppet [[Saint's revelation|presentation about the divine power balance between the warring gods]], and how Saint Lucia's blessed power of being able to lift the curse of voidtouch plays a crucial role in tipping the scales in Ardia's favor.

==== Ricky agrees to return to Lux Sanctus ====
Sellic asks Ricky if he will agree to travel with him back to Lux Sanctus. Ricky agrees. Sellic is overjoyed and tries to keep all further discussion on topics of small talk.

==== Discussing world politics ====
Faylin brings up politics and raises concerns about the Luxans trying to bring about their stated goal of saving humanity by waging war against [[Al-Azaliyya]]. Sellic defends by saying that Al-Azaliyyan society is entirely built around the concept of unpaid, forced labor of the voidtouched living there. Lux Sanctus is merely trying to give the voidtouched of Al-Azaliyya the freedom to choose their own fate. As it stands, the leaders of Al-Azaliyya will never let their voidtouched leave the country, because by doing so they would be dismantling the foundation upon which their power is built. Sellic says an external force is necessary to bring about change in Al-Azaliyyan society.

Although Xiong Li does not bring about the topic of [[Xinguang]], Sellic implies that Luxans are trying to achieve the same thing in his country.

Sellic admits that death and suffering are concepts inseparable from war, but if war is the price to pay for saving humanity, then Lux Sanctus is in a morally defensible position for starting the two wars.

At this point, Walter and Arista choose to leave the dining room.

==== Maintaining beautiful appearance for the masses ====
Hasae raises concerns about Lux Sanctus putting so much resources on maintaining luxurious appearances, despite Ardia being a pragmatic god.

Sellic defends by saying that to convince the sceptical masses that Lux Sanctus is indeed backed by Ardia's favor, they need to dazzle the public when they travel abroad.

This is also why Sellic himself looks so young; when he was going to be rewarded by the saint for his long years of service to his nation, he asked the saint to restore his youthful form.

Hasae presses more on the topic, implying that employing trickery is a questionable tactic for followers of Ardia. Xiong Li stops Hasae short of making a direct comparison to followers of Versa.

Sellic attempts to turn the attention towards Hasae's region of origin to undermine Hasae's position, but Hasae doesn't admit to originating from the Heretic Mountains. Sellic accuses Hasae of employing trickery himself by avoiding answering his questions.

Hasae thanks Sellic for the dinner and leaves to join with Walter and Arista, leaving Ricky in the dining cabin with Faylin, Xiong Li and Saki.

==== The impossibility of curing all voidtouched ====
Faylin wonders if the Luxan plan to save humanity is ultimately doomed, because they cannot hope to cure every single voidtouched in the world.

Sellic says that Lux Sanctus does not need to cure all the voidtouched. They simply need to save enough of them for Ardia to return and handle the rest.

The task ahead of them is still monumental, but Sellic says that this is no excuse to stop working, for the fate of humanity is at stake.

==== Internal conflict in Lux Sanctus ====
Faylin asks if there's some internal conflict in Lux Sanctus, as evidenced by the saint vying for peace while her nation's invading two neighboring countries.

Sellic explains that [[emperor Aldis]] and the saint have agreed on the ultimate goal: that Lux Sanctus must take upon itself the heavy burden of saving humanity and allow voidtouched around the world to travel to Lux Sanctus to seek redemption.

However, while the saint personally wishes to achieve this state of the world by peaceful means, emperor Aldis has decided that the divine task given to them by Ardia is of such great importance, that fulfilling it warrants the use of military force.

Thus, their disagreement is not over the end goal, but rather regarding the methods with which to reach that goal.

Sellic believes that emperor Aldis has the restraint to not march any further onto foreign soil than necessary.

==== Attempting to leave the Viator ====
Hasae, Walter and Arista suspect that Sellic is up to no good, and decide on a plan on getting Ricky off the airship. Hasae sends a mental message to Faylin to ask her to ask Ricky to go back to the guest house to collect his belongings and say proper goodbyes. Sellic offers to have one of his servants travel to guest house to collect Ricky's belongings in his stead, but Ricky declines.

Ricky, Xiong Li, Faylin and Saki then thank Sellic for the dinner and leave to join with the others outside the dining cabin.

The party heads off downstairs towards the ramp leading outside, but they are stopped by a group of warrior nuns led by [[Leucosia]], who block the way to the exit. All of them have quarterstaffs at their side in a non-threatening manner, but they also seem ready for combat.

Leucosia attempts to get Ricky to write his autograph on their sisterhood's travelogue and generally seems to be stalling for time while Hasae fends off multiple attempts by someone trying to send mental messages to Ricky.

Leucosia finally grabs Ricky by the wrist and tells him that he's in danger. The other nuns take a combat-ready stance.

[[File:Strange_warrior_nun_tattoo.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Strange tattoo on the arm of one of the warrior nuns.]]
Sellic descends the stairs and attempts to defuse the situation, telling the nuns that the saint had given clear instructions about how to treat Ricky. For a moment, Sellic and Leucosia seem to have a quarrel about authority on the ship, until one of Leucosia's nuns shows a strange tattoo to Sellic. Sellic then says he wasn't informed that there were other VIPs onboard, and then angrily returns upstairs.

Leucosia, still holding Ricky by the wrist tries to persuade him not to go with the party, implying that the party will brainwash him, while antagonizing Xiong Li and Faylin. The scene looks like a fight about to break out when [[Amelia Regilla|captain Regilla]] descends the stairs, followed by Sellic. The captain orders the "sisters" to stand down, but they look conflicted. During the confusion, Ricky frees himself of Leucosia.

Leucosia explains to the captain that they are under direct orders to protect Reinhardt from the cult that's trying to brainwash him. The captain demands to know who this authority is. One of Leucosia's nuns shows the captain the same tattoo. The captain is taken aback upon seeing it, but then delivers her ultimatum to Leucosia: if Leucosia attempts to pull rank on the captain, she and her crew won't help the sisterhood get back to Lux Sanctus aboard the Viator. The captain makes it clear that the ship is a civilian transport on a diplomatic mission and that the Viator's crew will not be complicit in kidnapping.

Regilla asks Ricky if he wants to leave the ship. Ricky answers yes, after which the captain tells Leucosia's sisterhood that whoever lays a finger on him or his party is going to swim back home.

Leucosia reluctantly gives up and orders the nuns to stand down, clearing the way for the party to leave. She makes a threatening remark at the party (sans Ricky) as they leave the ship, telling them that they have no idea who they're messing with.

=== Guest house again ===
Party goes back to the guest house to discuss the events at the airship. With help of Hasae's mental magic, Ricky makes preparations for departing with the Luxans without clueing in [[Charna Lacrimosa|Faylin's mother]] (who's constantly witnessing events through Faylin's eyes) as to what his real plan is.

Walter points out an inconsistency about Sellic's presentation about the spiritual war between the two gods; if the monsters are on the side of Versa, they should be targeting voidtouched more than other humans, because this would be more beneficial for Versa. However, when Walter was treating the wounded in [[Caelumnis]] after the monster attack on the castle, there were almost no voidtouched victims.

Party goes back to sleep. During the night, Ricky leaves the guest house briefly to attempt to collect information about Zophiel, but finds none.

=== Next day: preparations for departure ===
The party has breakfast and decides to spend the day preparing for their departure to meet with Shtah (9 days remaining until deadline). They go shopping and split into two groups.

One of the groups (Walter, Arista and Faylin) is stopped by an old woman who lights a candle and prostrates herself in front of Walter, calling him "lord".

Hasae, Xiong Li, Ricky and Saki notice an Al-Azaliyyan man who seems to be running away from two other Al-Azaliyyans, a man and a woman. They follow the man into an alleyway and realize that the running man is voidtouched. The voidtouched man attacks the party and shouts at them, then runs away again. Hasae creates a distraction long enough for the pursuers to lose track of the man. The pursuers have insignia identifying them as members of the [[Shepherds]].

Walter, Arista and Faylin continue their shopping. Faylin buys harmless books and Arista convinces her not to buy anything that might land her into trouble.

The party reunite at the guest house. After lunch, Ricky makes his move, says farewell to the party and heads toward the Viator.

'''''From this point onwards, Ricky is not a member of the active party.'''''

Faylin was not informed about Ricky's decision to leave and isolates herself to one of the rooms. Hasae and Saki arrive to comfort her.

Xiong Li and Hasae go back to the city to hear local news. The biggest topic of the city is the mysterious explosion (Vil-Seilen's lab) in the noble area, one tier of buildings below the royal guest house that the party is staying at. Even though the area has been cordoned off in a 200 m radius, they head to investigate. Xiong Li finds a loose brick that seems to be from the lab. They bring it back to the guest house to be studied.

The brick has lingering magic left over from a teleportation spell. A teleportation spell powerful enough to move a part of a building could only be cast as blood magic or possibly as a "slow teleport" which brought the party from Caelumnis to Cen in 6 months. Faylin looks for lingering emotions left on the brick and is shocked by something, but doesn't reveal the details to the party.

=== Next day: Departure towards Dakha ===
8 days remaining until deadline for the meeting with Shtah.

The party wakes up early and heads off to the western outskirts of Cen'Ith to look for a suitable caravan. They decide to take a Masakenvel [[golem palake]] caravan, the scientifically safest and most stylish way to travel to [[Ma'Rukh]] (or so the crew claims) and haggle the price down from 10 g / person to 8 g / person.

== Journey to Ma'Rukh ==
The caravan begins the 4-day journey towards Ma'Rukh. The first day of the journey is uneventful. The crew of the caravan set up camp for the night in a specialized camping site.

=== Second day in the golem palake caravan ===
7 days remaining until deadline for the meeting with Shtah.

On the 2nd day, everyone hears 3 instances of screaming coming from the jungle. They ignore the screams as instructed. Hasae informs the party that there are semi-intelligent monsters that mimic the sounds of humans in distress to lure them into the jungle.

After arriving to the 2nd night's camping site, the Masakenvel crew set up camp for the night.

==== Uninvited visitors ====
During the night, the party wake up to the sound of an explosion coming from nearby, followed by screaming. They peek outside and see that the crew are panicking. Everyone except Faylin heads outside to investigate.

They see that one of the palake golems has been destroyed, and that the camping site has been surrounded by a small army [[Cenith wildlings|wildling]] warriors with glowing tattoos or warpaint. Their leader, a man in skull mask, is standing in front of the camp with 8 civilian hostages held at knifepoint by other wildling warriors. He demands [[Mun-Masa]], the manager of the golem palake to bring a man named Therovich to him, or they will execute hostages for every minute that passes.

Walter reveals himself to the man in skull mask. The man in skull mask calls Walter "[[Eleftherios]]" and mocks him for thinking that he could return to Cen "to defile this holy land" without the wildlings noticing.

Walter asks what the wildlings want from him. The man in skull mask answers: ''"You will come with us to the holy city. You will face our goddess, [[An]]. She will decide your fate."''

The party don't seem to want to let Walter go alone with the wildlings. Walter successfully convinces the wildlings to take the rest of the (willing) party with them as captives.
[[File:Khasais_anchel_armor.png|200px|thumb|right|Khasai's [[anchel]] armor.]]
The wildlings leave the camp together with Walter and the tied-up captive party. They go downhill from the camping site and see a massive bipedal creature ("robot") emerge from the depths of the jungle. The man in skull mask proclaims: ''"My prince. We have him."''

A hatch behind the robot opens and a young man in his late teens emerges from it. He introduces himself as prince [[Khasai]], the son of king [[Elika]], and tells Walter that he's mission is to take him to the [[Remus|holy city]], where he will face judgement for the atrocities that he's committed. He also tells the rest of the party, whom he considers Walter's slaves, that they may be spared if they don't harbor the same darkness in their hearts as their lord. Their state of their hearts will be judged by priestesses in the holy city.

Unable to mount sufficient resistance against the wildlings, Walter and the party comply. Wildlings blindfold the party sans Walter and tie them together and begin escorting them towards the south. Meanwhile, Walter is carried like a torch by the prince in his robot.

Saki freaks out at first after the wildlings rob her of her sight, almost prompting the wildlings to knock her unconscious, but Hasae calms Saki and defuses the situation. He keeps her company with help of mental messages.

The wildling convoy continues south for hours, to get away from the dynasty tribe territory, before they stop to rest.

=== First day in wildling captivity ===
6 days remaining until deadline for the meeting with Shtah.

The wildlings keep the party fed with fruit juice and march them towards the south.

On the way, Walter listens in to the conversations of the wildlings and manages to piece together some information.

* Khasai has two rivals, prince [[Lufua]] and princess [[Katinga]]
* Khasai's robot is called ''anchel armor'' by the wildlings

=== Second day in wildling captivity ===
5 days remaining until deadline for the meeting with Shtah.

Skull mask sends as messenger hawk towards south.

In the early morning, the wildling convoy arrives at a vista overlooking the wildlings' holy city. The city contains dozens of impossibly tall structures with floors that look tall enough for human habitation. Just one of these buildings could house thousands of people, if their basic necessities were met.

Party's blindfolds are removed and skull mask introduces the city as [[Remus]], the last city they will ever visit, for no outsider who enters is ever allowed to leave. Hasae questions this statement, mentioning Eve by her full name, but the skull mask doesn't seem to recognize the name and suggests that Hasae may have been lied to.

The wildling convoy waits for hours for the messenger hawk to arrive, signaling that the wildlings are allowed to enter the city, and also revealing that Khasai and his captives are waited at the festive hall.

==== Meeting with the king ====
The party is escorted to the center of the city and into a tall building. Khasai emerges from his robot and tells the party to behave themselves, for they will be in the presence of the king. They ascend over 30 floors on stairs and arrive to the hall with several important-looking people present:

* King Elika
* Dawn priestess [[Bodika]]
* Darkmoon priestess [[Katinga]]
* Khasai's mother
* [[Lueta]], a young man about the same age as Khasai
* A tall young man with long hair who looks like Lueta's older brother ([[Lufua]])
* A young woman ([[Kalala]])

As soon as Khasai enters the festive hall, his mother rushes to him to hug him, relieved that he's safe. Khasai returns the hug, embarrassed.

Lueta confronts Khasai by trying to undermine his accomplishment, implying that he couldn't have captured this "broken man" (Walter) without his two-foot thick anchel armor. His outburst is quickly shut down by the young man who looks like his older brother, who calmly states that Lueta is embarrassing them.

King Elika allows all of this to play out, possibly even enjoying this display of rivalry. He then speaks and officially welcomes Khasai back home. He orders the two priestesses to investigate if the man (Walter) is really Eleftherios.

Khasai's retainers force Walter to kneel and Khasai removes his mask. Most of the people are at least somewhat shocked, except for the young unnamed woman and Lueta's brother (?).

The two masked priestesses sit down in front of Walter and breathe in deep of sweet-smelling incense. Both of them then "dance" around Walter like puppets manipulated by invisible strings, looking at him from all angles.

The priestesses stop their dance and look at each other, then turn towards the king.

Dawn priestess Bodika confirms to the king that the man is Zerramon. Darkmoon priestess Katinga states that this man is Eleftherios, their old enemy. The crowd in the festive hall cheers.

Elika tells Walter that he has been brought here to face punishment for attempting to conquer Cen by force a thousand years ago and corrupting their magic. He asks Walter what he will say in his defense. Walter says that the wildlings have the wrong person, and asks what he can do to right his supposed wrongs.

Elika asks the priestesses what they advise to do with Walter. Bodika takes out a serpentine sacrificial dagger and states that he must be immediately sacrificed to An. Katinga challenges Bodika's judgment and says that Walter needs to be prepared as a sacrifice by proper rituals, or his soul will return to torment the wildlings again. Elika declares that Walter will be sacrificed at dawn after Katinga is finished with her rituals.

==== In the wildling prison ====
The party and Walter are escorted away from the city center into a small building that leads into a wide underground tunnel which serves as the wildling prison.

Khasai leaves and darkmoon priestess Katinga catches up with the convoy. Walter is separated from the party and escorted into a cell at the deepest part of the prison. Khasai's retainers want to place the rest of the party into an anti-magic cell, but Faylin and Hasae persuade them to let them stay outside. Faylin and Hasae are chained to the wall with 3 guards constantly keeping watch over them.

Hasae keeps contact with Walter through mental messages, confirming that he's alive. Walter has been stripped of his clothes entirely. Katinga is in the cell with a dozen wildling guards and she's painting symbols of An all over his body with golden paint.

When Arista enters the anti-magic cell, her seashell amulet feels oddly warm.

After a few hours, a half-elven man ([[Mickael]]) is brought into the prison and thrown into the same cell as most of the party. The man introduces himself as Mickael. He was on his way to Dakha to look for monster-slaying work, but when the wildlings took the party captive, his curiousity made him follow the wildlings, until he too was captured and brought to the prison.

Saki asks if Mickael is a knight (akin to the monster-slaying samurai of her own nation), but Mickael says that he's simply a mercenary. Saki also asks if Mickael was following the party, but Mickael insists that he was simply curious .

A group of guards arrives in front of the cell carrying a small rock. They rotate the rock in front of the party's cell and suddenly burst out laughing, giving each other high fives. They then return towards the entrance of the prison. Some members of the party recognize this rock as the Xiong Li-shaped rock that Ricky found in the underground ruins beneath Caelumnis. How it found its way here is unknown.

After some time, Khasai arrives with half a dozen member of his retinue, and a young girl. She shares the white hair color of Khasai, but unlike every other wildling the party has met, her eyes are purple.

Khasai brings the somber purple-eyed girl ([[Khakona]]) to see Walter. It turns out that Khasai has hunted down Walter to save his little sister from being sacrificed. The wildlings believe that sacrificing either Eleftherios or the purple-eyed child is going to fix their magic, which was somehow "broken" by Eleftherios a 1000 years ago.

Khakona, however, has already accepted her fate and believes that her brother has hunted down an innocent man who has done nothing wrong, implying that the priestesses have made a mistake in identifying Eleftherios. Khasai, disappointed by her sister's reaction, takes her back home. On their way back, Hasae mentally contacts Khakona to gain her sympathy. Already sympathetic to the party, Khakona says that she will talk with her father, who's the only one who can stop "this madness".

Katinga finishes the ritual on Walter and leaves. On her way back, she questions Hasae and Faylin about their tattoos, with Hasae translating. Hasae tells her about a deity called [[Moonmaiden]], whom Katinga theorizes is the same goddess as An. Katinga finds Faylin's tattoos heretical, but since Faylin's claiming to not be responsible for them, she doesn't push further. Katinga is unfazed by Faylin's forehead tattoo of the symbol of Versa, as if she doesn't recognize this symbol at all.

Finally, Katinga asks Mickael what he's doing here, again with Hasae translating. She is not satisfied with Mickael's vague answers, and says that he also will have to pass the trial of faith, because An will find the truth. Katinga then leaves.

Some time after Katinga has left, everyone except Walter is served slightly spoiled food and water. The food or water turns out to be poisoned, and shortly after, the guards and the party pass out. With the last of her fading consciousness, Arista sees a young woman ([[Kalala]]) walk down the prison hallway towards them.

===== Waking up =====
When the party wakes up, they see Walter with the young woman who (in Cenith) hurries everyone to flee the prison.

On the way to the exit, the party discovers that their equipment has disappeared. They proceed to the exit.

===== Meet Lufua =====
Prince [[Lufua]] is waiting for the party outside, forming a secure semi-circle with his armed retainers. He tells Walter that the two of them can help each other; Lufua can stop Khasai from hunting Walter down if Walter helps Lufua obtain divine knowledge slumbering in the mountains. Without weapons with which to mount a resistance against Lufua, Walter agrees to make a deal with him, despite Kalala's pleas to the contrary. The party along with Kalala are escorted to the mountains.

==== Underground facility ====
The party is taken to the entrance of a tunnel that leads into the mountain. [[Lueta]], who's there keeping watch, joins with them. Everyone proceeds into the tunnel.

After some 10 minutes of walking through the long tunnel with surprisingly smooth ground, the party arrive at the nexus of an underground facility, with heavily reinforced metallic walls. Lufua escorts the party through a series of tunnels to a large room with a man kneeling in the middle ([[Nzadi]]).

The man's brother steps into view and introduces himself (Mumengi). Mumengi explains that his brother has given his entire body to be able to converse with the anchel. He has given part of his body to be able to understand his "transcended" brother.

Hasae asks Mumengi about the angel attack in Caelumnis. While unfamiliar with other nations, Mumengi tells him that those people must have committed great sins to incur the wrath of An. He says that the same thing happened in their own region a long time ago. However, they are not worried about the tragedy repeating, because they are not looking to usurp their god.

Mumengi receives a revelation from the anchel and informs Lufua that the "trial" must be undertaken without delay. For Lufua to receive the divine knowledge he seeks, three machines must be repaired, two of them being in a dangerous toxic gas-filled tunnel and those two having to be repaired at the same time.

Some days ago, Lufua lost his best engineseers in the tunnels despite them. This time, Lufua is going in himself with 3 bodyguards to escort him, and asks Walter and the party to go with them.

With little time for debate, Walter agrees. After a crash course on how the machines are supposed to function, Lufua takes the party to another part of the facility where they get special equipment (hazmat suits) that allows them to survive in the hazardous environment.

===== Maintenance tunnel =====
The party, minus Xiong Li, Saki, descend into the tunnel via a ladder. They split from Lufua's group as planned and go looking for the machine. After some time, they find the machine and Walter begins doing repairs. The rest of the party is then attacked by strange winged creatures.

After defeating the winged creatures, they disintegrate into golden particles which dissolve into the air. Walter finishes the repairs on the machine, but unlike most machines, this one makes no noise.

Shortly after, the entire tunnel trembles and bits of the ceiling and walls begin to crumble, so the party runs towards the way they came from. Lufua meets up with them at the ladder, with one of his bodyguards missing. Everyone ascends the ladder.

===== Back in the facility =====
All of the facility's crew seem to have been shaken, and are on edge. Lufua receives a message from his younger brother through a strange device. He tells the party that 13 flaming pillars emerged from the mountains, which has roused the entire city from slumber. Khasai and Bodika are both on the way to investigate, and they have little time. Lufua urges Walter to return to Nzadi with him, so they can repair the final machine. Hasae and Xiong Li head towards the entrance of the facility.

At the room where they saw the anchel priest, Lufua finds Nzadi dead in a red puddle, having coughed up a lethal amount of blood. Mumengi is distraught and tells Lufua that the anchel is no longer speaking to them. Lufua, enraged, smashes Nzadi's head against the floor repeatedly while calling the anchel "deceiver". Mumengi loses his mind at the sight and can do nothing but scream.

Lufua orders his servants to open up an unmaintained emergency exit, which may take the party outside to the mountains. He tells Walter that he wants him to live and says that he will prepare something to delay Khasai. Walter heads into the emergency tunnel while Arista runs to fetch Xiong Li and Hasae.

On the way back to the rest of the party, Xiong Li, Hasae and Arista find both anchel priests dead. Lufua is calmly standing in the middle of the room and looking up towards the ceiling. Hasae gets angry and calls Lufua a murderer and says that he will not be a worthy king. Lufua stops his bodyguards from responding to the offense and tells Hasae that he did what had to be done. Xiong Li and Arista, not wanting the situation to escalate, drag Hasae to the emergency exit tunnel where they meet with the others.

===== Emergency exit tunnel =====
The party walks through the dilapidated tunnel, but the air smells stale. They are unsure if the tunnel is going to lead out. Xiong Li wonders if Lufua is planning to betray the party to Khasai, because then reincarnated Zerramon and his competitor would both be at the same location.

Before the party has a chance to turn back, they hear the sound of metallic screeching, as Khasai's anchel armor, barely fitting through the tunnel is now in pursuit of the party, all but confirming that Lufua indeed betrayed the party. Hasae, with mental messages, attempts to convince Khasai to let go of his plan to kill Walter and talk with them, but priestess Bodika, following behind Khasai, urges the prince not to listen to a word from Zerramon's servants.

With only one way to go, the party rushes towards the supposed exit but finds it blocked by a cave-in. Through a great feat of cooperation and strength, they manage to clear the cave-in in a matter of minutes, allowing them to escape to the other side where the air smells fresh. They proceed towards the exit of the tunnel, but hear an explosion behind them. Khasai has cleared the obstacle as well, which prompts the party to pick up speed.

==== Mountain path ====
They find themselves out in the mountains in a thunder storm. With only one viable natural path before them, they continue their way away from the wildling territory, when Khasai (with Bodika behind him) comes into view behind them.

Khasai proclaims that he is going to execute Walter and that he has no quarrel with the rest of the party. Bodika urges the prince to kill Walter again, but not crush him, saying that only a priestess of An can destroy his heart.

Walter asks Kalala to leave his side, but Kalala is fearless next to reincarnated Zerramon, saying that they will face the danger together.

Without the tunnel to limit his speed, Khasai begins to sprint towards Walter. Walter puts a hand on Kalala and points his palm towards Khasai. Kalala screams: "No... no!" when Walter's hands begin to glow in golden light. A pillar of light bursts out of Walter's palm. The light penetrates Khasai's anchel armor without difficulty and completely disintegrates most of it, along with Bodika and her servants. Kalala stands next to Walter, emotionless and with an empty stare.

===== Abandoned shack =====
Party proceeds along the mountain path to seek some form of shelter to discuss what happened. Along the way, they find a seemingly abandoned shack. Inside the shack there are thousands of carefully sculpted stone statues of humans of various ethnicities wearing strange clothes that seem too overdesigned to be normal. Each of the stone statues is a masterpiece with a level of detail that would require months of work. Even stranger, there is no place to prepare food or to sleep. Despite the eerie surroundings, it is late in the evening, so the party set up camp inside the shack. Before they have a chance to discuss recent events, Kalala proclaims with a dispassionate voice that she's hungry. Walter takes Kalala outside the shack with Hasae and Mickael. Walter puts Kalala out of her misery, shooting her in the head. With Hasae's help, they bury the body outside the shack with traditional Cenith burial rites fit for a member of royalty.

After princess Kalala's last rites, the three hear the sound of something flying approaching, which then promptly stops. Out of the three, only Walter sees something observing them briefly, before they fly away, leaving only a light green feather behind. Walter's description of the creature (green-haired, dark green and purple-robed woman with eyes on its green wings) fits that of an angel.

Everyone inside the shack appears to have already come to terms with Kalala's fate. Mickael uses sign language to confirm to Saki that she's been put to rest.

When Arista sees the green feather, she reveals that she's disgusted by the thing. Meanwhile, everyone else sees the feather as almost otherwordly beautiful. Hasae attempts to detect magic on the feather, but there is none. Arista forces herself to touch the feather and immediately goes outside to wash her hand in the rain. Walter keeps the feather.

Arista's strange behaviour seems to imply that she's undergoing a transformation into a monster, despite there not being any apparent driving force behind it. They theorize that Arista's amulet having been disintegrated has something to do with it.

Xiong Li and Arista take the first night watch. Arista tastes something wrong with her rations (they taste bland), but Xiong Li doesn't taste anything off about them. After they go to sleep and wake Mickael and Hasae for the next night watch, Arista can't sleep.

On his night watch, Hasae crafts a necklace for Arista. He gives it to Arista, telling her that it carries Ardia's blessing.

File:Khasais anchel armor.png

2026-04-14T13:31:42Z

Eotadmin:

File:Strange warrior nun tattoo.jpg

2026-04-14T13:29:47Z

Eotadmin: Eotadmin uploaded File:Strange warrior nun tattoo.jpg

Chapter 2

2026-04-14T13:28:46Z

Eotadmin: /* Abandoned shack */

== In the [[Tomb of Elesh]] ==
Party awakens in an underground chamber with a large floating orb made of stone in the middle. [[Eve]] is nowhere to be seen.

They discuss what happened and why [[Faylin]] betrayed the party. Faylin explains that she was not in control; instead, she was possessed by the soul of her [[Charna Lacrimosa|mother]], whose soul is somehow trapped within her body.

Party investigates the immediate surroundings to see if they can find a way out. The large double stone doors facing the orb do not budge, but have a strange reaction to [[Walter Therowich|Walter]].

The party investigates the rest of the area and finds no exit. Instead they find evidence of the place being the [[Tomb of Elesh]], a burial ground for the royal family of [[Cen]] and a sacrosanct location.

As they finish investigating the area, they hear heavy footsteps approaching from somewhere above. They hide and listen as [[Ziggy|something massive]] enters the room and has some interaction with the stone orb.

They hear the voice of a [[Rem-Leneth|young girl]] who walks over to the graves of her parents and speaks to them. [[Hasae]] is able to understand their language and informs the party that the girl is the current ruler of Cen.

As the girl and her golem are about to leave, the party reveals themselves to queen [[Rem-Leneth]]. They convince her that they are not a threat and that they were teleported to the tomb against their will.

During their exchange, Rem-Leneth's golem points at Walter, but the meaning of the gesture is unclear to everyone else.

The queen demands the party to follow her and her golem out of the tomb and to the capital city of [[Cen'Ith]], where they can discuss what happened. The party complies and follows her.

On the way to the exit, the party sees a strange [[An|statue]] of a knight with a shield showing an [[Complete|incomplete]] symbol of [[Ardia]].

== Journey to Cen'Ith ==
As the party exits, they meet the queen's retinue of 50 Cenith royal guards and her advisor [[Vol-Zorya]]. The queen orders her advisor and part of her retinue to escort the party to the capital.

Everyone travels almost wordlessly through the jungle for hours until they reach a large body of water that opens into an enormous lake. The royal guards summon a giant turtle from the depths of the water to ferry everyone except the queen and her golem to Cen'Ith. The queen stays on her golem, which is capable of walking on water.

== At Cen'Ith ==
The party arrives to the capital late in the evening. They are split from the queen and most of the royal guards, who continue on to the royal palace on top of a giant hill. The party is escorted by Vol-Zorya and the remaining guards not to the royal palace, but a lavish guest house sharing the same hill as the palace.

On the way to the guest house, the party sees a white and gold airship moored near the royal park. There is [[Micah Sellic|a person watching the party]] over the railing of the main deck of the airship.

Before the party enters the guest house, Vol-Zorya reminds them that causing any damage to royal property is high treason and, when the party is summoned to have an audience with the queen, lying to the queen is grounds for death penalty.

Another noble-looking woman runs over towards the party, but they are stopped by Vol-Zorya, who seems to know them.

=== At guest house ===
The party bathes in the open-air bath behind the house and relax after their long ordeal that started after they were imprisoned aboard [[SS Chosen]]. Walter relaxes on a couch by reading a book.

They make tentative plans about how they will proceed after they are let go by the queen.

Everyone goes to bed and falls asleep.

=== Shared dream ===
[[File:Strange_dream_symbol.jpg|162x162px|thumb|Strange symbol found in the papers in the shared dream.]]The party finds themselves in a strange dream with everyone from the party present. [[Saki]] is overjoyed when she realizes that she can hear the voices of the party.

After briefly investigating the surroundings, a tall person clad in a dark cloak materializes in the room. They are revealed to be [[Charna Lacrimosa]], the mother of Faylin, who claims they were also pulled into the shared dream.

Charna makes the party an offer of truce: as long as the party makes no attempt to compromise the [[Void|Grandmaster]]'s plans, she will aid the party if Faylin loses control of her body. However, if the party goes against them, she will turn on them and kill them, starting with Saki. She then dissolves away, leaving Faylin in state of distress.

The party starts hearing footsteps approaching the door from the outside. When this happens, the papers on the floor begin to display a strange symbol. As the door opens, the party wakes up.

=== Next morning ===
The living room of the guest house is filled with Cenith servants who are playing experimental modern Cenith music (it sounds terrible). The person is charge of the servants introduces himself as [[Che-Kuyuki]]. He claims that [[Vol-Zorya]] said that the party's wish was to be woken up my modern music (it wasn't). When offered the chance, the party picks the traditional Cenith breakfast over the modern, experimental one.

When the party is woken up, he orders some of the musicians to leave and some of them to begin cleaning the apartment and prepare breakfast. While the party awaits their breakfast, Che-Kuyuki collects the party's basic information in preparation for the audience with the queen.
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Name
!Country of origin
!Occupation
!Voidtouched?
!Magical items
!Closest relatives
|-
|Ricky
|Chevell
|Unemployed
|✔️
| -
|Theresia, Frederic
|-
|Walter Therowich
|Chevell
|Travelling medical doctor
|
| -
| -
|-
|Arista Halseth
|Jotunheim
|Fisher
|
|Seashell
|Haley Halseth, Walter Halseth
|-
|Dr Faylin Lacrimosa
|Chevell
|Assistant Director of the Department of Containment and Study of Voidbeasts and Shapeshifters in Neuhäuser University of Metaphysics
|✔️
| -
|Lady Aurora Freyr
Dr Vaylen Vask
|-
|Saki
|Eigo
|Housekeeper
|✔️
| -
| -
|-
|Xiong Li
|Xinguang
|
|
| -
|Yang Li
|-
|Hasae Selawn
|Heretic Mountains
(answered in Cenith)
|Travelling doctoral student from Eversley Institute
|✔️
| -
|Eve Voloshyna
|}
The party has breakfast, after which the old servant informs the party of the protocol they need to follow for the audience. Importantly, casting any magic without prior approval will be handled with extreme prejudice by the royal guards.

Che-Kuyuyki leaves with the other servants to deliver the documents to someone, saying that he will return in a few hours with differently colored cloaks that the party needs to wear in the royal palace.

After a few more hours of waiting, the party is escorted by Vol-Zorya through the Royal Park towards the Royal Palace. For some reason, Faylin asks Vol-Zorya what date it is. Vol-Zorya's answer reveals to the party that 6 months have passed without them realizing it.

=== Waiting for the audience to begin ===
Party is escorted by Vol-Zorya to a waiting room. They meet [[Meti-Saori]], the president of the entirely state-owned Cenith golem industry, and her adoptive daughter [[Debbie]], despite Vol-Zorya urging the party not to talk with anyone. Meti-Saori engages in a "deduction game" with Debbie, trying to get as much information as possible out of the party by just the way they look. Meti-Saori jokingly (?) concludes that the party must be elite adventurers that arrived to Cen'Ith via airship. Debbie looks starstruck after hearing this, as she seems to be big fan of books recounting the tales of adventurers.

[[Thaz-Malat]], [[Micah Sellic]] and his two bodyguards walk across the waiting room. Sellic recognizes Ricky as Reinhardt, the amnesiac hero who saved the city of Caelumnis, and invites him to a dinner aboard his airship before being verbally driven off by Vol-Zorya.

[[Kal-Rezan]], [[Faris Anwar]] and his two bodyguards walk across the waiting room. One of the bodyguards looks suspiciously like [[Shtah Al-Washaq|Shtah]], but acts as they don't recognize the party, despite Faylin trying to get his attention. The other bodyguard ([[Jahat]]) stops in his tracks, then approaches Arista to study her at uncomfortably close range. He growls and returns to his master. Anwar speaks to his bodyguard who replies in hand signals. The three of them stare at Arista for a few uncomfortable moments, but then continue along their way.

Royal seneschal [[Rez-Khar]] eventually arrives to inform the party that they have been summoned for the audience.

=== Audience ===
Rez-Khar gives a ceremonial opening speech, announcing those present in the throne room.

Kal-Rezan and Thaz-Malat then proceed to ask the party a series of questions about how they ended up in Lux Sanctus. This leads to further questions about how the party escaped from Jinhou that was under monster invasion, how they got inside the Walled Garden, whether they know jarl Grunvald or not, and what they know about the cult that they know was behind the monster invasion. But thus far it seems like they are just confirming what they know already.

The interrogation then moves to what happened in [[Caelumnis]]. Thaz-Malat already knows about the barrier and that it was broken. Party reveals that the barrier was broken due to their ex-party member Shtah Al-Washaq acting on his own and killing saint [[Lucia]]. However, the party survived to tell the tale because [[Joachim]], the leader of the [[Saint's Guard]], resurrected the saint, who then reapplied the barrier. The party says they don't know where Shtah currently is.

Before Kal-Rezan has the chance to move on to asking what happened underground, queen Rem-Leneth stops the interrogation to make a request of Walter; to touch the forehead of her golem Ziggy with his left hand. Walter complies and when he makes contact with the golem, the symbol of Elesh appears at the back of his hand. Everyone sees arcane patterns forming and dissolving around the golem, before the golem curls into a ball and "shuts down". All advisors look disturbed at the sight, but don't voice their concern.

After the queen settles down, she orders Vil-Seilen and Kal-Rezan to her side and the three discuss among each other for several minutes in total silence. Kal-Rezan then orders the interrogation finished for today. He says that the party now has the permission to follow Vil-Seilen to meet with the mysterious person and that Micah Sellic will be informed that Ricky cannot attend to the dinner tonight.

=== On the way to the healer ===
Party is escorted out of the throne room. As Vil-Seilen returns to them, Vol-Zorya informs the party that they should not participate in her cousin's experiments, as Vil-Seilen has a tendency of landing herself in trouble. However, the party agrees to follow Vil-Seilen. Vol-Zorya insists on following them to their destination.

They travel through Cen'Ith to the [[Cen'Ith Prison Island|prison island]] on the river.

=== Prison Island ===
On the prison island visitor reception office, Vil-Seilen is informed that the authority to move the prisoner ("Subject S") has been transferred to someone else, and as such, in order to meet with them, Vil-Seilen and the party need to go meet them at their cell in the high-security ward.

Vol-Zorya rages at Vil-Seilen upon hearing this and tells the party that the high-security ward is the most dangerous place in the city, as it's filled to the brim with the worst individuals in the entire nation. Vil-Seilen defends by saying that it's the perfect place to hide someone special they don't want to lose.

Vol-Zorya is ready to escort the party back to their guest house, but Vil-Seilen successfully persuades the party to go through with the experiment. She says that the party and the prisoner are the only people in the world with certain "condition" and this experiment might be the last puzzle piece she needs to understand it.

Upon descending into the underground high-security ward, Hasae is met with a flood of negative emotions emanating from the ward. With the help of Vil-Seilen's persuasion and the party members holding his hands, he is able to overcome his fear of the place enough to proceed forward.

In the high-security ward, the inmates are elated at the sight of Vil-Seilen, calling her "Devil-Seilen" and "Doctor Devil". During their walk through the ward, the party witnesses several deeply deranged individuals, reinforcing the sense that they have just descended into a world of madness only kept in check by the iron bars and magical collars.

Vil-Seilen finally stops in front of one of the cells on a corridor that looks separated from the others. The prodigal healer and prisoner is revealed to be [[She'Medah]].

==== Meeting She'Medah ====
Faylin shows animosity towards She'Medah and accuses him of killing his friend. She'Medah says that he can't remember anything of the past 6 months and wishes to know what happened. The party asks him to tell them what he does remember.

She'Medahs tells the party that as he was treating those wounded in the monster attack, he realized that his patients along with himself and Zophiel had begun to regenerate lost flesh as if they had been treated by powerful healing magic. With his mind filled with questions and unable to focus on treating the wounded, he went behind into the garden behind the keep to pray for guidance from [[Ardia]]. The last thing he remembers about Caelumnis is being approached in the garden by [[Void|Roland]].

She'Medah then woke up in the forbidden region of Cen surrounded by guards, with no memory of the past 6 months.

Instead of being executed on the spot, the guards recognized him as a Luxan envoy by his clothes and brought him to the prison, where he met Vil-Seilen.

Vil-Seilen says that She'Medah appeared one week before the party did. The party and She'Medah are the only people in recorded history who've been able to teleport into the area. She is currently investigating this phenomenon, and the meeting between all those people is the experiment that's currently taking place.

Vil-Seilen tells the party that she tested She'Medah's abilities by having him heal some poor kids that had lost limbs. She'Medah healed all of them. She'Medah does not seem too happy about using voidtouched magic to heal.

She'Medah remembers having telekinetic powers as a street urchin, but does not have them anymore. Vil-Seilen confirms this.

She'Medah is still in prison, because he remains guilty of trespassing in the forbidden region. Instead of being executed, he will be exiled to Lux Sanctus. Someone from Micah Sellic retinue is supposed to arrive and take him to Sellic's airship.

Hasae uses magic to show him what he did in the underground ruins. She'Medah apologizes to the party and tells them that the person wasn't him.

She'Medah says that he would not follow Farah or Roland, as he is not with them anymore, having dropped out of a training program for [[Saint's Guard]] members. She'Medah seems to have animosity towards Farah, and doesn't trust Roland, who never shows his face.

Faylin attempts to share her emotions with She'Medah to show exactly what he did to his friend, but Xiong Li stops her, worried that She'Medah might learn that the soul of [[Charna Lacrimosa|Faylin's cultist mother]] is trapped inside her.

She'Medah tells the party that according to what the Luxans are teaching, those who are cured by the saint can never become voidtouched again. However, this impossibility seems to have now happened in She'Medah's case.

He believes there are only two explanations: either the holy saint chosen by Ardia Himself is not powerful enough to save a person from the voidtouched curse, or that he never was voidtouched until the monster attack on the castle.

He says that Zophiel started having headaches after meeting Ricky on the ship. It seemed like she had two different pasts fighting for dominance over her mind.

She'Medah gets emotional and tells the party that taking everything into account, he is now worried that he may have been implanted with false memories. He may have never even met with the saint, meaning that the moment that forever changed the person he is, may be manufactured.

Faylin seems to have found the power to let go of her anger and forgive She'Medah. Vil-Seilen seems happy with how her experiment turned out.

==== Chaos erupts ====
As everyone says their goodbyes, the magical lights suddenly go out and the inmates begin to laugh, shout and scream. Shortly after they hear rumbling and the sound of rocks falling. Parts of the high-security ward have begun to cave in.

Arista and Faylin see Farah (?) appear inside She'Medah's cell, who immediately attacks him.

Arista looks around and informs the party that some inmates are now out of their cells and wandering the hallways in total darkness, along with monstrous zombified inmates. Horrible screams and sounds of fighting echo in the hallways all around them.

Vil-Seilen lights the area with her amulet to witness the final moments of She'Medah. With the cell door still locked, the party is unable to save the man. Farah executes She'Medah inside his cell and then disappears into the shadows.

With the entire high-security ward descending into chaos and collapsing, the party readies themselves to fight their way out.

==== Back outside ====
Party succeeds in fighting their way out together with a surviving inmate ([[Heartbane]]). Vil-Seilen stealthily hands over her light-giving amulet to Arista before leading the party outside. Vil-Seilen accounces the survivors to the guards outside. Some of the lightly armored guards look exhausted.

Heartbane looks like she's not ready to give away her newfound freedom, but Walter physically persuades her not to start any trouble.

Vil-Seilen takes the party to Vol-Zorya who slaps her cousin and without saying a word to her, proceeds to escort the party back to the guest house.

On the other side of the bridge, the party sees Meti-Saori, Debbie, their bodyguards, Micah Sellic and his bodyguards. Some of Meti-Saori's bodyguards look exhausted. Debbie is crying into the lap of her adoptive mother, but springs up to greet the party. While Meti-Saori's not allowed to speak with the party yet, she asks Vol-Zorya to inform her cousin to let her know the next time she finds a miracle healer from the jungle, as she's not too fond of sitting in a wheelchair.

Micah Sellic, after patiently waiting for his turn, then approaches Vol-Zorya and asks why the prisoner was disturbed despite his request, and how this person with Luxan envoy documents and uniform managed to perish inside a high-security ward. Vol-Zorya promises to Sellic find out how the misunderstanding happened. Sellic then repeats his offer to Ricky to have dinner aboard his airship, this time extending the invitation to the entire party.

If the party were to accept this invitation, Sellic requests that they avoid the topic of war, but also implies that Xinguang is using chemical weapons on their own soil.

On the way back to the guest house, Vol-Zorya purchases a 4-day-old Chevellan newspaper from a street urchin boy that she knows (Harit). Vol-Zorya gives the newspaper to the party.

=== At the guest house ===
Party tells Vol-Zorya what happened and mention that a Luxan person was the one who assassinated She'Medah. Vol-Zorya asks the party to give this information to the other advisors tomorrow. She then leaves.

Arista reveals that she was given an amulet by Vil-Seilen. They study the amulet and find that it's enchanted to emit light when touched and given a mental command.

In the middle of the night, Xiong Li and Walter wake up to the sound of a faint explosion coming from the north. Ricky wakes up soon after. The three head outside to witness smoke coming from the same direction, on a lower tier of buildings. Xiong Li persuades the royal guards to reveal that the explosion and fire are coming from one of Vil-Seilen's laboratories.

Unable to leave from the guest house, the three head off back to sleep.

=== Next morning ===
Party discusses the explosion and has breakfast.

Around noon, Vol-Zorya arrives to collect them, but she looks disturbed by something. She tells the party that there was an explosion at Vil-Seilen's laboratory and the woman is now missing. Party reveals that Vil-Seilen handed over an amulet to Arista, but the amulet provides no clues as to what happened to Vil-Seilen.

Vol-Zorya regrets that her final act towards her cousin was to hurt her. She takes the amulet, as the party is not supposed to bring it to the palace, and tells the party that she's going to have it checked just in case.

Vol-Zorya mentions that Faylin has received a sealed letter without markings, but she cannot hand it over before the party is given their freedom.

=== At the royal palace ===
Vol-Zorya takes to the waiting room, where they are called by Rez-Khar about one hour later. The queen's golem and naturally Vil-Seilen are both absent.

The party is interrogated by Kal-Rezan about what happened in the underground ruins beneath Caelumnis, but the questions are mostly aimed at Ricky.

Ricky successfully navigates through the minefield of questions, satisfying the curiousity of the advisors, without revealing dangerous information, namely:

* That some party members are carrying shards of Versa within them
* That the soul of Faylin's mother, a cultist leader, is trapped inside her daughter
* Any mention of Void and their cult
* Farah (or someone looking like them) murdering She'Medah inside his cell

Kal-Rezan then announces that they are happy with the answers given to them and they have no reason to doubt that the party entered the forbidden region without. He tells the queen that the advisors are finished with the questioning. The queen ends the proceedings with a hand gesture and the party is escorted to a waiting room by Vol-Zorya.

Kal-Rezan approaches the party inside the waiting room and tells them that while their story is filled with holes, they don't want all the information they have going into official records.

=== Freedom ===
Kal-Rezan tells the party that they don't want the information about them being teleported to the forbidden region to escape the palace walls. He wants the party to commit to memory the following story:

* The party was staying in [[Calladia]] (how they arrived there is the party's own business), where they were approached by staff members of Cenith embassy and asked to do paid security consultancy to the royal advisors in Cen'Ith
* The party took a train from Calladia to [[Moxha]], from where they took a riverboat ([[Venashan]]), which took the party up the river to Cen'Ith in 3 days
* They arrived to Cen'Ith 4 days ago

He then hands the party the following items:

* Paid tickets for their return journey
* 2 100 gold as consultancy fee
* A silver ring with emblem of Cen

Kal-Rezan says that the ring is a "secret handshake". If it's shown to a royal guard, they will know to arrange a meeting with Kal-Rezan, who is usually a difficult man to get in touch with.

Hasae asks Kal-Rezan to use his contact network to locate his missing thesis supervisor Eve Voloshyna. Kal-Rezan agrees and asks Hasae to ask about the progress after a few weeks.

Kal-Rezan warns the party that if they accept Sellic's dinner invitation and board his airship, they will be under Luxan jurisdiction, as the airship is legally considered to be a floating embassy. If something goes wrong, the party will be entirely on their own. Vol-Zorya says that the dinner is an obvious trap and advises the party not to go there.

Kal-Rezan wishes the party safe travels and leaves. Vol-Zorya hands over the sealed letter to Faylin and leaves to investigate her cousin's disappearance.

=== Shopping ===
Party heads off to the guest house to read Faylin's letter. Xiong Li takes the ring given by Kal-Rezan and places it in a separate room for the duration of reading the letter. The letter appears to be a request written by Shtah to meet him at Dakha in 10 days. They decide to go and meet Shtah together, but also to accompany Ricky to the dinner with Sellic.

Party goes to do some quick shopping before the dinner.

=== Dinner aboard the Viator ===
Party is greeted at the ramp leading to the Viator by Sellic and the ship's captain [[Amelia Regilla]], who wanted to be present to personally shake hands with "Mr. Reinhardt". One of the nuns present who smells of tobacco says that there's an uninvited guest and that she smells a "rat that goes by the name Rezan", after which Sellic demands that the item (ring) given by Rezan be placed in a leaden box for the duration of the dinner. Sellic then escorts the party to the dining cabin.

The dining cabin of the Viator is extravagant with its tables filled with luxurious foods. Sellic says he's prepared most of it himself, having long since been disappointed with the warrior nuns' cooking and thus choosing to learn the culinary arts over the last 40 years.

Sellic makes some small talk but quickly turns his attention towards Ricky (whom he continues to call Reinhardt) and his disappearance from Caelumnis. Ricky asks why Sellic calls him Reinhardt, after which Sellic reveals that he's taken a great interest in him, and has managed to uncover some things about his past.

==== Reinhardt's past ====
Sellic tells Ricky that he's the scion of the noble von Albrecht family and that his full name is [[Reinhardt von Albrecht]]. He's the only known survivor of a tragic fire that claimed the lives of the other von Albrecht family members during a family gathering at their manor near [[Calladia]] 9 months ago.

Sellic says that he hasn't managed to figure out why Ricky traveled to [[Eigo]] of all places, so soon after the tragedy.

==== Disappearance from Caelumnis ====
Sellic says that after Ricky and Farah emerged from the underground ruins with a mysterious artifact, they used its power to awaken the comatose saint, after which all three banished the fog surrounding Caelumnis, prompting a celebratory feast. Ricky, however, mysteriously disappeared during his own celebration. When asked about it by Sellic, Ricky claims that he left because he was weary of constant praise.

Sellic asks Ricky about how he ended up in Caelumnis with his current party, but Ricky keeps his answers vague. Sellic is gathering that Ricky and the party were hired by the Cenith leaders to do some kind of job for them.

==== Cultists pursuing Ricky ====
Sellic claims that he's also uncovered that a Versa cult is pursuing Ricky in order to capture him and use him for their own ends, by taking advantage of his amnesia. He implies that Ricky's current party may be aligned with this cult, or at the very least, not have Ricky's best interest in mind.

==== Saint's request ====
Sellic says that Saint Lucia has instructed all Luxan diplomats to look for Ricky and invite him to return to Lux Sanctus so that he could meet her at the Luxan capital, [[Sanctorum]]. The saint believes that Ricky is destined to embark upon a holy quest to save the world.

Walter asks what would happen if Ricky were to decline the offer. Sellic replies that her holiness would certainly be quite disappointed.

Ricky seems hesitant about this prospect, so Sellic offers to explain what Lux Sanctus is trying to achive. With help of some nuns, he gives a sock puppet [[Saint's revelation|presentation about the divine power balance between the warring gods]], and how Saint Lucia's blessed power of being able to lift the curse of voidtouch plays a crucial role in tipping the scales in Ardia's favor.

==== Ricky agrees to return to Lux Sanctus ====
Sellic asks Ricky if he will agree to travel with him back to Lux Sanctus. Ricky agrees. Sellic is overjoyed and tries to keep all further discussion on topics of small talk.

==== Discussing world politics ====
Faylin brings up politics and raises concerns about the Luxans trying to bring about their stated goal of saving humanity by waging war against [[Al-Azaliyya]]. Sellic defends by saying that Al-Azaliyyan society is entirely built around the concept of unpaid, forced labor of the voidtouched living there. Lux Sanctus is merely trying to give the voidtouched of Al-Azaliyya the freedom to choose their own fate. As it stands, the leaders of Al-Azaliyya will never let their voidtouched leave the country, because by doing so they would be dismantling the foundation upon which their power is built. Sellic says an external force is necessary to bring about change in Al-Azaliyyan society.

Although Xiong Li does not bring about the topic of [[Xinguang]], Sellic implies that Luxans are trying to achieve the same thing in his country.

Sellic admits that death and suffering are concepts inseparable from war, but if war is the price to pay for saving humanity, then Lux Sanctus is in a morally defensible position for starting the two wars.

At this point, Walter and Arista choose to leave the dining room.

==== Maintaining beautiful appearance for the masses ====
Hasae raises concerns about Lux Sanctus putting so much resources on maintaining luxurious appearances, despite Ardia being a pragmatic god.

Sellic defends by saying that to convince the sceptical masses that Lux Sanctus is indeed backed by Ardia's favor, they need to dazzle the public when they travel abroad.

This is also why Sellic himself looks so young; when he was going to be rewarded by the saint for his long years of service to his nation, he asked the saint to restore his youthful form.

Hasae presses more on the topic, implying that employing trickery is a questionable tactic for followers of Ardia. Xiong Li stops Hasae short of making a direct comparison to followers of Versa.

Sellic attempts to turn the attention towards Hasae's region of origin to undermine Hasae's position, but Hasae doesn't admit to originating from the Heretic Mountains. Sellic accuses Hasae of employing trickery himself by avoiding answering his questions.

Hasae thanks Sellic for the dinner and leaves to join with Walter and Arista, leaving Ricky in the dining cabin with Faylin, Xiong Li and Saki.

==== The impossibility of curing all voidtouched ====
Faylin wonders if the Luxan plan to save humanity is ultimately doomed, because they cannot hope to cure every single voidtouched in the world.

Sellic says that Lux Sanctus does not need to cure all the voidtouched. They simply need to save enough of them for Ardia to return and handle the rest.

The task ahead of them is still monumental, but Sellic says that this is no excuse to stop working, for the fate of humanity is at stake.

==== Internal conflict in Lux Sanctus ====
Faylin asks if there's some internal conflict in Lux Sanctus, as evidenced by the saint vying for peace while her nation's invading two neighboring countries.

Sellic explains that [[emperor Aldis]] and the saint have agreed on the ultimate goal: that Lux Sanctus must take upon itself the heavy burden of saving humanity and allow voidtouched around the world to travel to Lux Sanctus to seek redemption.

However, while the saint personally wishes to achieve this state of the world by peaceful means, emperor Aldis has decided that the divine task given to them by Ardia is of such great importance, that fulfilling it warrants the use of military force.

Thus, their disagreement is not over the end goal, but rather regarding the methods with which to reach that goal.

Sellic believes that emperor Aldis has the restraint to not march any further onto foreign soil than necessary.

==== Attempting to leave the Viator ====
Hasae, Walter and Arista suspect that Sellic is up to no good, and decide on a plan on getting Ricky off the airship. Hasae sends a mental message to Faylin to ask her to ask Ricky to go back to the guest house to collect his belongings and say proper goodbyes. Sellic offers to have one of his servants travel to guest house to collect Ricky's belongings in his stead, but Ricky declines.

Ricky, Xiong Li, Faylin and Saki then thank Sellic for the dinner and leave to join with the others outside the dining cabin.

The party heads off downstairs towards the ramp leading outside, but they are stopped by a group of warrior nuns led by [[Leucosia]], who block the way to the exit. All of them have quarterstaffs at their side in a non-threatening manner, but they also seem ready for combat.

Leucosia attempts to get Ricky to write his autograph on their sisterhood's travelogue and generally seems to be stalling for time while Hasae fends off multiple attempts by someone trying to send mental messages to Ricky.

Leucosia finally grabs Ricky by the wrist and tells him that he's in danger. The other nuns take a combat-ready stance.

[[File:Strange_warrior_nun_tattoo.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Strange tattoo on the arm of one of the warrior nuns.]]
Sellic descends the stairs and attempts to defuse the situation, telling the nuns that the saint had given clear instructions about how to treat Ricky. For a moment, Sellic and Leucosia seem to have a quarrel about authority on the ship, until one of Leucosia's nuns shows a strange tattoo to Sellic. Sellic then says he wasn't informed that there were other VIPs onboard, and then angrily returns upstairs.

Leucosia, still holding Ricky by the wrist tries to persuade him not to go with the party, implying that the party will brainwash him, while antagonizing Xiong Li and Faylin. The scene looks like a fight about to break out when [[Amelia Regilla|captain Regilla]] descends the stairs, followed by Sellic. The captain orders the "sisters" to stand down, but they look conflicted. During the confusion, Ricky frees himself of Leucosia.

Leucosia explains to the captain that they are under direct orders to protect Reinhardt from the cult that's trying to brainwash him. The captain demands to know who this authority is. One of Leucosia's nuns shows the captain the same tattoo. The captain is taken aback upon seeing it, but then delivers her ultimatum to Leucosia: if Leucosia attempts to pull rank on the captain, she and her crew won't help the sisterhood get back to Lux Sanctus aboard the Viator. The captain makes it clear that the ship is a civilian transport on a diplomatic mission and that the Viator's crew will not be complicit in kidnapping.

Regilla asks Ricky if he wants to leave the ship. Ricky answers yes, after which the captain tells Leucosia's sisterhood that whoever lays a finger on him or his party is going to swim back home.

Leucosia reluctantly gives up and orders the nuns to stand down, clearing the way for the party to leave. She makes a threatening remark at the party (sans Ricky) as they leave the ship, telling them that they have no idea who they're messing with.

=== Guest house again ===
Party goes back to the guest house to discuss the events at the airship. With help of Hasae's mental magic, Ricky makes preparations for departing with the Luxans without clueing in [[Charna Lacrimosa|Faylin's mother]] (who's constantly witnessing events through Faylin's eyes) as to what his real plan is.

Walter points out an inconsistency about Sellic's presentation about the spiritual war between the two gods; if the monsters are on the side of Versa, they should be targeting voidtouched more than other humans, because this would be more beneficial for Versa. However, when Walter was treating the wounded in [[Caelumnis]] after the monster attack on the castle, there were almost no voidtouched victims.

Party goes back to sleep. During the night, Ricky leaves the guest house briefly to attempt to collect information about Zophiel, but finds none.

=== Next day: preparations for departure ===
The party has breakfast and decides to spend the day preparing for their departure to meet with Shtah (9 days remaining until deadline). They go shopping and split into two groups.

One of the groups (Walter, Arista and Faylin) is stopped by an old woman who lights a candle and prostrates herself in front of Walter, calling him "lord".

Hasae, Xiong Li, Ricky and Saki notice an Al-Azaliyyan man who seems to be running away from two other Al-Azaliyyans, a man and a woman. They follow the man into an alleyway and realize that the running man is voidtouched. The voidtouched man attacks the party and shouts at them, then runs away again. Hasae creates a distraction long enough for the pursuers to lose track of the man. The pursuers have insignia identifying them as members of the [[Shepherds]].

Walter, Arista and Faylin continue their shopping. Faylin buys harmless books and Arista convinces her not to buy anything that might land her into trouble.

The party reunite at the guest house. After lunch, Ricky makes his move, says farewell to the party and heads toward the Viator.

'''''From this point onwards, Ricky is not a member of the active party.'''''

Faylin was not informed about Ricky's decision to leave and isolates herself to one of the rooms. Hasae and Saki arrive to comfort her.

Xiong Li and Hasae go back to the city to hear local news. The biggest topic of the city is the mysterious explosion (Vil-Seilen's lab) in the noble area, one tier of buildings below the royal guest house that the party is staying at. Even though the area has been cordoned off in a 200 m radius, they head to investigate. Xiong Li finds a loose brick that seems to be from the lab. They bring it back to the guest house to be studied.

The brick has lingering magic left over from a teleportation spell. A teleportation spell powerful enough to move a part of a building could only be cast as blood magic or possibly as a "slow teleport" which brought the party from Caelumnis to Cen in 6 months. Faylin looks for lingering emotions left on the brick and is shocked by something, but doesn't reveal the details to the party.

=== Next day: Departure towards Dakha ===
8 days remaining until deadline for the meeting with Shtah.

The party wakes up early and heads off to the western outskirts of Cen'Ith to look for a suitable caravan. They decide to take a Masakenvel [[golem palake]] caravan, the scientifically safest and most stylish way to travel to [[Ma'Rukh]] (or so the crew claims) and haggle the price down from 10 g / person to 8 g / person.

== Journey to Ma'Rukh ==
The caravan begins the 4-day journey towards Ma'Rukh. The first day of the journey is uneventful. The crew of the caravan set up camp for the night in a specialized camping site.

=== Second day in the golem palake caravan ===
7 days remaining until deadline for the meeting with Shtah.

On the 2nd day, everyone hears 3 instances of screaming coming from the jungle. They ignore the screams as instructed. Hasae informs the party that there are semi-intelligent monsters that mimic the sounds of humans in distress to lure them into the jungle.

After arriving to the 2nd night's camping site, the Masakenvel crew set up camp for the night.

==== Uninvited visitors ====
During the night, the party wake up to the sound of an explosion coming from nearby, followed by screaming. They peek outside and see that the crew are panicking. Everyone except Faylin heads outside to investigate.

They see that one of the palake golems has been destroyed, and that the camping site has been surrounded by a small army [[Cenith wildlings|wildling]] warriors with glowing tattoos or warpaint. Their leader, a man in skull mask, is standing in front of the camp with 8 civilian hostages held at knifepoint by other wildling warriors. He demands [[Mun-Masa]], the manager of the golem palake to bring a man named Therovich to him, or they will execute hostages for every minute that passes.

Walter reveals himself to the man in skull mask. The man in skull mask calls Walter "[[Eleftherios]]" and mocks him for thinking that he could return to Cen "to defile this holy land" without the wildlings noticing.

Walter asks what the wildlings want from him. The man in skull mask answers: ''"You will come with us to the holy city. You will face our goddess, [[An]]. She will decide your fate."''

The party don't seem to want to let Walter go alone with the wildlings. Walter successfully convinces the wildlings to take the rest of the (willing) party with them as captives.
[[File:Large_metallic_bipedal_creature.png|200px|thumb|right|Khasai's [[anchel]] armor.]]
The wildlings leave the camp together with Walter and the tied-up captive party. They go downhill from the camping site and see a massive bipedal creature ("robot") emerge from the depths of the jungle. The man in skull mask proclaims: ''"My prince. We have him."''

A hatch behind the robot opens and a young man in his late teens emerges from it. He introduces himself as prince [[Khasai]], the son of king [[Elika]], and tells Walter that he's mission is to take him to the [[Remus|holy city]], where he will face judgement for the atrocities that he's committed. He also tells the rest of the party, whom he considers Walter's slaves, that they may be spared if they don't harbor the same darkness in their hearts as their lord. Their state of their hearts will be judged by priestesses in the holy city.

Unable to mount sufficient resistance against the wildlings, Walter and the party comply. Wildlings blindfold the party sans Walter and tie them together and begin escorting them towards the south. Meanwhile, Walter is carried like a torch by the prince in his robot.

Saki freaks out at first after the wildlings rob her of her sight, almost prompting the wildlings to knock her unconscious, but Hasae calms Saki and defuses the situation. He keeps her company with help of mental messages.

The wildling convoy continues south for hours, to get away from the dynasty tribe territory, before they stop to rest.

=== First day in wildling captivity ===
6 days remaining until deadline for the meeting with Shtah.

The wildlings keep the party fed with fruit juice and march them towards the south.

On the way, Walter listens in to the conversations of the wildlings and manages to piece together some information.

* Khasai has two rivals, prince [[Lufua]] and princess [[Katinga]]
* Khasai's robot is called ''anchel armor'' by the wildlings

=== Second day in wildling captivity ===
5 days remaining until deadline for the meeting with Shtah.

Skull mask sends as messenger hawk towards south.

In the early morning, the wildling convoy arrives at a vista overlooking the wildlings' holy city. The city contains dozens of impossibly tall structures with floors that look tall enough for human habitation. Just one of these buildings could house thousands of people, if their basic necessities were met.

Party's blindfolds are removed and skull mask introduces the city as [[Remus]], the last city they will ever visit, for no outsider who enters is ever allowed to leave. Hasae questions this statement, mentioning Eve by her full name, but the skull mask doesn't seem to recognize the name and suggests that Hasae may have been lied to.

The wildling convoy waits for hours for the messenger hawk to arrive, signaling that the wildlings are allowed to enter the city, and also revealing that Khasai and his captives are waited at the festive hall.

==== Meeting with the king ====
The party is escorted to the center of the city and into a tall building. Khasai emerges from his robot and tells the party to behave themselves, for they will be in the presence of the king. They ascend over 30 floors on stairs and arrive to the hall with several important-looking people present:

* King Elika
* Dawn priestess [[Bodika]]
* Darkmoon priestess [[Katinga]]
* Khasai's mother
* [[Lueta]], a young man about the same age as Khasai
* A tall young man with long hair who looks like Lueta's older brother ([[Lufua]])
* A young woman ([[Kalala]])

As soon as Khasai enters the festive hall, his mother rushes to him to hug him, relieved that he's safe. Khasai returns the hug, embarrassed.

Lueta confronts Khasai by trying to undermine his accomplishment, implying that he couldn't have captured this "broken man" (Walter) without his two-foot thick anchel armor. His outburst is quickly shut down by the young man who looks like his older brother, who calmly states that Lueta is embarrassing them.

King Elika allows all of this to play out, possibly even enjoying this display of rivalry. He then speaks and officially welcomes Khasai back home. He orders the two priestesses to investigate if the man (Walter) is really Eleftherios.

Khasai's retainers force Walter to kneel and Khasai removes his mask. Most of the people are at least somewhat shocked, except for the young unnamed woman and Lueta's brother (?).

The two masked priestesses sit down in front of Walter and breathe in deep of sweet-smelling incense. Both of them then "dance" around Walter like puppets manipulated by invisible strings, looking at him from all angles.

The priestesses stop their dance and look at each other, then turn towards the king.

Dawn priestess Bodika confirms to the king that the man is Zerramon. Darkmoon priestess Katinga states that this man is Eleftherios, their old enemy. The crowd in the festive hall cheers.

Elika tells Walter that he has been brought here to face punishment for attempting to conquer Cen by force a thousand years ago and corrupting their magic. He asks Walter what he will say in his defense. Walter says that the wildlings have the wrong person, and asks what he can do to right his supposed wrongs.

Elika asks the priestesses what they advise to do with Walter. Bodika takes out a serpentine sacrificial dagger and states that he must be immediately sacrificed to An. Katinga challenges Bodika's judgment and says that Walter needs to be prepared as a sacrifice by proper rituals, or his soul will return to torment the wildlings again. Elika declares that Walter will be sacrificed at dawn after Katinga is finished with her rituals.

==== In the wildling prison ====
The party and Walter are escorted away from the city center into a small building that leads into a wide underground tunnel which serves as the wildling prison.

Khasai leaves and darkmoon priestess Katinga catches up with the convoy. Walter is separated from the party and escorted into a cell at the deepest part of the prison. Khasai's retainers want to place the rest of the party into an anti-magic cell, but Faylin and Hasae persuade them to let them stay outside. Faylin and Hasae are chained to the wall with 3 guards constantly keeping watch over them.

Hasae keeps contact with Walter through mental messages, confirming that he's alive. Walter has been stripped of his clothes entirely. Katinga is in the cell with a dozen wildling guards and she's painting symbols of An all over his body with golden paint.

When Arista enters the anti-magic cell, her seashell amulet feels oddly warm.

After a few hours, a half-elven man ([[Mickael]]) is brought into the prison and thrown into the same cell as most of the party. The man introduces himself as Mickael. He was on his way to Dakha to look for monster-slaying work, but when the wildlings took the party captive, his curiousity made him follow the wildlings, until he too was captured and brought to the prison.

Saki asks if Mickael is a knight (akin to the monster-slaying samurai of her own nation), but Mickael says that he's simply a mercenary. Saki also asks if Mickael was following the party, but Mickael insists that he was simply curious .

A group of guards arrives in front of the cell carrying a small rock. They rotate the rock in front of the party's cell and suddenly burst out laughing, giving each other high fives. They then return towards the entrance of the prison. Some members of the party recognize this rock as the Xiong Li-shaped rock that Ricky found in the underground ruins beneath Caelumnis. How it found its way here is unknown.

After some time, Khasai arrives with half a dozen member of his retinue, and a young girl. She shares the white hair color of Khasai, but unlike every other wildling the party has met, her eyes are purple.

Khasai brings the somber purple-eyed girl ([[Khakona]]) to see Walter. It turns out that Khasai has hunted down Walter to save his little sister from being sacrificed. The wildlings believe that sacrificing either Eleftherios or the purple-eyed child is going to fix their magic, which was somehow "broken" by Eleftherios a 1000 years ago.

Khakona, however, has already accepted her fate and believes that her brother has hunted down an innocent man who has done nothing wrong, implying that the priestesses have made a mistake in identifying Eleftherios. Khasai, disappointed by her sister's reaction, takes her back home. On their way back, Hasae mentally contacts Khakona to gain her sympathy. Already sympathetic to the party, Khakona says that she will talk with her father, who's the only one who can stop "this madness".

Katinga finishes the ritual on Walter and leaves. On her way back, she questions Hasae and Faylin about their tattoos, with Hasae translating. Hasae tells her about a deity called [[Moonmaiden]], whom Katinga theorizes is the same goddess as An. Katinga finds Faylin's tattoos heretical, but since Faylin's claiming to not be responsible for them, she doesn't push further. Katinga is unfazed by Faylin's forehead tattoo of the symbol of Versa, as if she doesn't recognize this symbol at all.

Finally, Katinga asks Mickael what he's doing here, again with Hasae translating. She is not satisfied with Mickael's vague answers, and says that he also will have to pass the trial of faith, because An will find the truth. Katinga then leaves.

Some time after Katinga has left, everyone except Walter is served slightly spoiled food and water. The food or water turns out to be poisoned, and shortly after, the guards and the party pass out. With the last of her fading consciousness, Arista sees a young woman ([[Kalala]]) walk down the prison hallway towards them.

===== Waking up =====
When the party wakes up, they see Walter with the young woman who (in Cenith) hurries everyone to flee the prison.

On the way to the exit, the party discovers that their equipment has disappeared. They proceed to the exit.

===== Meet Lufua =====
Prince [[Lufua]] is waiting for the party outside, forming a secure semi-circle with his armed retainers. He tells Walter that the two of them can help each other; Lufua can stop Khasai from hunting Walter down if Walter helps Lufua obtain divine knowledge slumbering in the mountains. Without weapons with which to mount a resistance against Lufua, Walter agrees to make a deal with him, despite Kalala's pleas to the contrary. The party along with Kalala are escorted to the mountains.

==== Underground facility ====
The party is taken to the entrance of a tunnel that leads into the mountain. [[Lueta]], who's there keeping watch, joins with them. Everyone proceeds into the tunnel.

After some 10 minutes of walking through the long tunnel with surprisingly smooth ground, the party arrive at the nexus of an underground facility, with heavily reinforced metallic walls. Lufua escorts the party through a series of tunnels to a large room with a man kneeling in the middle ([[Nzadi]]).

The man's brother steps into view and introduces himself (Mumengi). Mumengi explains that his brother has given his entire body to be able to converse with the anchel. He has given part of his body to be able to understand his "transcended" brother.

Hasae asks Mumengi about the angel attack in Caelumnis. While unfamiliar with other nations, Mumengi tells him that those people must have committed great sins to incur the wrath of An. He says that the same thing happened in their own region a long time ago. However, they are not worried about the tragedy repeating, because they are not looking to usurp their god.

Mumengi receives a revelation from the anchel and informs Lufua that the "trial" must be undertaken without delay. For Lufua to receive the divine knowledge he seeks, three machines must be repaired, two of them being in a dangerous toxic gas-filled tunnel and those two having to be repaired at the same time.

Some days ago, Lufua lost his best engineseers in the tunnels despite them. This time, Lufua is going in himself with 3 bodyguards to escort him, and asks Walter and the party to go with them.

With little time for debate, Walter agrees. After a crash course on how the machines are supposed to function, Lufua takes the party to another part of the facility where they get special equipment (hazmat suits) that allows them to survive in the hazardous environment.

===== Maintenance tunnel =====
The party, minus Xiong Li, Saki, descend into the tunnel via a ladder. They split from Lufua's group as planned and go looking for the machine. After some time, they find the machine and Walter begins doing repairs. The rest of the party is then attacked by strange winged creatures.

After defeating the winged creatures, they disintegrate into golden particles which dissolve into the air. Walter finishes the repairs on the machine, but unlike most machines, this one makes no noise.

Shortly after, the entire tunnel trembles and bits of the ceiling and walls begin to crumble, so the party runs towards the way they came from. Lufua meets up with them at the ladder, with one of his bodyguards missing. Everyone ascends the ladder.

===== Back in the facility =====
All of the facility's crew seem to have been shaken, and are on edge. Lufua receives a message from his younger brother through a strange device. He tells the party that 13 flaming pillars emerged from the mountains, which has roused the entire city from slumber. Khasai and Bodika are both on the way to investigate, and they have little time. Lufua urges Walter to return to Nzadi with him, so they can repair the final machine. Hasae and Xiong Li head towards the entrance of the facility.

At the room where they saw the anchel priest, Lufua finds Nzadi dead in a red puddle, having coughed up a lethal amount of blood. Mumengi is distraught and tells Lufua that the anchel is no longer speaking to them. Lufua, enraged, smashes Nzadi's head against the floor repeatedly while calling the anchel "deceiver". Mumengi loses his mind at the sight and can do nothing but scream.

Lufua orders his servants to open up an unmaintained emergency exit, which may take the party outside to the mountains. He tells Walter that he wants him to live and says that he will prepare something to delay Khasai. Walter heads into the emergency tunnel while Arista runs to fetch Xiong Li and Hasae.

On the way back to the rest of the party, Xiong Li, Hasae and Arista find both anchel priests dead. Lufua is calmly standing in the middle of the room and looking up towards the ceiling. Hasae gets angry and calls Lufua a murderer and says that he will not be a worthy king. Lufua stops his bodyguards from responding to the offense and tells Hasae that he did what had to be done. Xiong Li and Arista, not wanting the situation to escalate, drag Hasae to the emergency exit tunnel where they meet with the others.

===== Emergency exit tunnel =====
The party walks through the dilapidated tunnel, but the air smells stale. They are unsure if the tunnel is going to lead out. Xiong Li wonders if Lufua is planning to betray the party to Khasai, because then reincarnated Zerramon and his competitor would both be at the same location.

Before the party has a chance to turn back, they hear the sound of metallic screeching, as Khasai's anchel armor, barely fitting through the tunnel is now in pursuit of the party, all but confirming that Lufua indeed betrayed the party. Hasae, with mental messages, attempts to convince Khasai to let go of his plan to kill Walter and talk with them, but priestess Bodika, following behind Khasai, urges the prince not to listen to a word from Zerramon's servants.

With only one way to go, the party rushes towards the supposed exit but finds it blocked by a cave-in. Through a great feat of cooperation and strength, they manage to clear the cave-in in a matter of minutes, allowing them to escape to the other side where the air smells fresh. They proceed towards the exit of the tunnel, but hear an explosion behind them. Khasai has cleared the obstacle as well, which prompts the party to pick up speed.

==== Mountain path ====
They find themselves out in the mountains in a thunder storm. With only one viable natural path before them, they continue their way away from the wildling territory, when Khasai (with Bodika behind him) comes into view behind them.

Khasai proclaims that he is going to execute Walter and that he has no quarrel with the rest of the party. Bodika urges the prince to kill Walter again, but not crush him, saying that only a priestess of An can destroy his heart.

Walter asks Kalala to leave his side, but Kalala is fearless next to reincarnated Zerramon, saying that they will face the danger together.

Without the tunnel to limit his speed, Khasai begins to sprint towards Walter. Walter puts a hand on Kalala and points his palm towards Khasai. Kalala screams: "No... no!" when Walter's hands begin to glow in golden light. A pillar of light bursts out of Walter's palm. The light penetrates Khasai's anchel armor without difficulty and completely disintegrates most of it, along with Bodika and her servants. Kalala stands next to Walter, emotionless and with an empty stare.

===== Abandoned shack =====
Party proceeds along the mountain path to seek some form of shelter to discuss what happened. Along the way, they find a seemingly abandoned shack. Inside the shack there are thousands of carefully sculpted stone statues of humans of various ethnicities wearing strange clothes that seem too overdesigned to be normal. Each of the stone statues is a masterpiece with a level of detail that would require months of work. Even stranger, there is no place to prepare food or to sleep. Despite the eerie surroundings, it is late in the evening, so the party set up camp inside the shack. Before they have a chance to discuss recent events, Kalala proclaims with a dispassionate voice that she's hungry. Walter takes Kalala outside the shack with Hasae and Mickael. Walter puts Kalala out of her misery, shooting her in the head. With Hasae's help, they bury the body outside the shack with traditional Cenith burial rites fit for a member of royalty.

After princess Kalala's last rites, the three hear the sound of something flying approaching, which then promptly stops. Out of the three, only Walter sees something observing them briefly, before they fly away, leaving only a light green feather behind. Walter's description of the creature (green-haired, dark green and purple-robed woman with eyes on its green wings) fits that of an angel.

Everyone inside the shack appears to have already come to terms with Kalala's fate. Mickael uses sign language to confirm to Saki that she's been put to rest.

When Arista sees the green feather, she reveals that she's disgusted by the thing. Meanwhile, everyone else sees the feather as almost otherwordly beautiful. Hasae attempts to detect magic on the feather, but there is none. Arista forces herself to touch the feather and immediately goes outside to wash her hand in the rain. Walter keeps the feather.

Arista's strange behaviour seems to imply that she's undergoing a transformation into a monster, despite there not being any apparent driving force behind it. They theorize that Arista's amulet having been disintegrated has something to do with it.

Xiong Li and Arista take the first night watch. Arista tastes something wrong with her rations (they taste bland), but Xiong Li doesn't taste anything off about them. After they go to sleep and wake Mickael and Hasae for the next night watch, Arista can't sleep.

On his night watch, Hasae crafts a necklace for Arista. He gives it to Arista, telling her that it carries Ardia's blessing.

Versa

2026-04-07T14:42:45Z

Eotadmin:

[[Category:god]]
[[File:Symbol of Versa.png|right|thumb|200x200px|A cultist symbol for Versa.]]
The Mother of Monsters and enemy of humankind. Opposes [[Ardia]].

Summons [[Monsters|monsters]] to kill humans. The exact reason for this is unknown, and many theories exist.

During the [[Banishing War]], She summoned the [[Calamity|calamities]], but they were all slain by legendary heroes. Versa herself was banished to the [[Moon]].

== Existence disputed ==
Curiously, [[Cenith wildlings]] don't seem to recognize the name Versa, and recognize [[An]] as the only god in existence.
== Void's explanation ==
According to [[Void]], She created humankind and is merely trying to save Her children from enslavement by a [[Ardia|cosmic parasite]]. She was shattered into pieces ([[Calamity|calamities]]) during the [[Banishing War]] by warriors empowered by Ardia's "unholy blessing".

== New Ardianist explanation ==
According to [[Micah Sellic]], a promoter of [[New Ardianism]], Versa [[Voidtouched|curses]] humans with the goal of devouring their souls upon death. However, Ardia prevents this from happening via a process called [[Soul Rescue|soul rescue]].
[[Category:Cosmology]]

Versa

2026-04-07T14:42:20Z

Eotadmin:

[[Category:god]]
[[File:Symbol of Versa.png|right|thumb|200x200px|A cultist symbol for Versa.]]
The Mother of Monsters and enemy of humankind. Opposes [[Ardia]].

Summons [[Monsters|monsters]] to kill humans. The exact reason for this is unknown, and many theories exist.

During the [[Banishing War]], She summoned the [[Calamity|calamities]], but they were all slain by legendary heroes. Versa herself was banished to the [[Moon]].

Curiously, [[Cenith wildlings]] don't seem to recognize the name Versa, and recognize [[An]] as the only god in existence.
== Void's explanation ==
According to [[Void]], She created humankind and is merely trying to save Her children from enslavement by a [[Ardia|cosmic parasite]]. She was shattered into pieces ([[Calamity|calamities]]) during the [[Banishing War]] by warriors empowered by Ardia's "unholy blessing".

== New Ardianist explanation ==
According to [[Micah Sellic]], a promoter of [[New Ardianism]], Versa [[Voidtouched|curses]] humans with the goal of devouring their souls upon death. However, Ardia prevents this from happening via a process called [[Soul Rescue|soul rescue]].
[[Category:Cosmology]]

Remus

2026-04-07T14:40:38Z

Eotadmin:

[[File:Remus.jpg|200px|thumb|right|The strange landscape of Remus.]]
aka. ''Holy City''.

Capital city of the [[Cenith wildlings]].

There are strange, impossibly tall structures scattered around the city in close formation. They seem to have been built for human habitation.
[[Category:City]]
[[Category:Location]]
[[Category:Historical]]

She’Medah

2026-04-07T14:38:14Z

Eotadmin:

[[Category:NPC]]
[[Category:human]]

{{Infobox character
| name = {{PAGENAME}}
| image = SheMedah.png
| species = Human
| gender = Male
| occupation = Cleric Envoy Preacher
| affiliation = [[Lux Sanctus]] [[Envoys]]
| first_appearance = [[Prologue]]
}}
[[File:SheMedah_masked.png|200px|thumb|left|She'Medah with golden mask.]]

''"There are some truly horrible magics in this world; ones that can change who you are."''

Deceased

Originates from [[Cen]]. Travels with [[Zophiel]] to convert people to [[New Ardianism]].

Wears ornate white gloves to hide his missing fingers and acts calm and serene.

Lost his fingers when he was an orphan street urchin in Cen and used his telekinetic voidtouched powers to steal and cause trouble. He was saved from the path of a criminal after being taken in by a traveling priest from [[Lux Sanctus]].

This traveling priest took him to Lux Sanctus, where he was cured of his voidtouched curse by [[Lucia|Saint Lucia]].

=== Aboard SS Chosen ===
On-board the passenger ship [[SS Chosen]] when the party crashlands on it after escaping [[Jinhou]].

Junior sailor apprentice aboard SS Chosen, according to Zophiel.

Helps Zophiel when she is struck by a strong headache after talking with [[Ricky]].

Doesn’t want to take part in all of Zophiel’s antics, but he seems to have no choice but to follow her.

Believes that the party may in fact be innocent and that the court will find out the truth of the matter. After escorting the crew and [[Eve]] to the castle, he runs back to aid the party in the fight against the fog beasts.

=== In Caelumnis ===
Something freaks him out about the arrival of the [[Saint's Guard|knights]] and he hides behind [[Shtah]].

Goes missing shortly after the party arrives to the castle.

Reappears in the aftermath of the monster invasion, treating the wounded. He lost half of his face to some kind of acid. Goes missing again before the evening. Despite Zophiel recruiting Ricky to try to find him together, the two fail to locate him.

Reappears together with [[Void]] and [[Farah]] when [[Faylin]] is separated from the party and knocks her out by Void’s orders.

Reappears from a golden seal portal after the party defeats [[Homo Novus Rex]] in the ruins, wearing a golden mask and armed with a golden scythe.

Void refuses to reveal anything about him and tells the party that this is the last time they see him.

Attacks [[Walter]] at Void’s behest, but his weapon shatters upon contact.

[[File:SheMedah_imprisoned.png|200px|thumb|left|She'Medah imprisoned in the high-security ward.]]

=== In Cen ===
Party meets him again when [[Vil-Seilen]] leads the party to one of the cells in the high-security ward of the [[Cen'Ith Prison Island|Cen'Ith prison island]].

After the monster attack on the castle, he developed powerful voidtouched healing abilities and is now able to regenerate the limbs of those he heals. This should be impossible, as those who are cured by the saint can never become voidtouched again.

Is worried that he may have been implanted with false memories, and he may have never actually met the saint, meaning that the moment that changed the person he is forever may be manufactured.

Dropped out of a training program for [[Saint's Guard]] members. Seems to have some kind of animosity towards Farah, and doesn't trust Roland, who doesn't show his face.

Hasae shows him what he did in the underground ruins. She'Medah apologizes to the party and tells them that the person wasn't him.

When the magical lights in the high security ward go out, Farah (?) appears inside his cell and attacks him. Unable to get out, he is slain by Farah.

Zophiel

2026-04-07T14:37:46Z

Eotadmin:

[[Category:NPC]]
[[Category:human]]

{{Infobox character
| name = {{PAGENAME}}
| image = Zophiel.jpg
| species = Human
| gender = Female
| occupation = Cleric Envoy Preacher
| affiliation = [[Lux Sanctus]] [[Envoys]]
| first_appearance = [[Prologue]]
}}

''"We only need to understand to punch them in the face!"''

- Zophiel to [[Eve]] about understanding monsters

Originates from [[Chevell]]. Travels with her colleague [[She’Medah]] to convert people to [[New Ardianism]].

Wears an eyepatch and has several burnmarks on her face, but has a cheerful outlook.

Burnmarks are from her childhood when her voidtouched power manifested at an orphanage (she set her bed on fire while asleep).

Adopted by a traveling priest from Lux Sanctus.

Cured of her voidtouched curse by Saint [[Lucia]].

Somewhat talented artist.

=== Aboard SS Chosen ===
On-board the passenger ship [[SS Chosen]] when the party crashlands on it.

Has taken an interest in [[Ricky]] that’s bordering on obsession. She thinks she knows him, but can’t remember from where.

Sailor apprentice aboard SS Chosen, according to herself.

When Ricky asks her if she was bullied, she seems to be struck by a strong headache and retreats Is now certain that Ricky and her are from the same orphanage, but she can’t remember him being there.

When the party is arrested and kept captive on the cargo deck, she interrogates Ricky about the details of him remembering her being bullied. According to her, what Ricky remembers (that she was bullied outside the orphanage while having an eyepatch) is impossible, because she got the eyepatch when her voidtouched power awakened *within* the orphanage and she was never let out of the orphanage until the day she was adopted.

From [[Brookhaven Orphanage]].

Seems to believe in Ricky to be a victim of the party’s manipulation, because nobody from Brookhaven Orphanage would ever willingly join with cultists.

=== In Caelumnis ===
After escorting the crew and [[Eve]] to the castle, she runs back to aid the party (or maybe just Ricky) in the fight against the fog beasts.

Recognizes [[Joachim]] when he arrives to aid the party against the fog beasts. She believed Joachim were in [[Sanctorum]], the capital of Lux Sanctus.

Loses [[She’Medah]] some time after arriving at the castle. Is actively looking for him, because they have a report to write.

Wants to be buddy-buddy with the party after they were declared chosen ones by the saint.

May have romantic feelings for Ricky.

Recommends that Ricky play his cards right so that he can join her order and get his voidtouched curse lifted by the saint.

Has not visited Caelumnis before.

Hands an unidentified potion to Ricky before the party meets with the saint.

Helps defend the castle against a monster invasion and loses the lower half of her right arm in the process.

Her right arm begins to regrow and she asks [[Walter]]’s opinion on how long it would take for it to reform fully.

Looks for She’Medah outside in the castle garden during the rainy night after the monster attack.

Meets with Ricky in the garden. Ricky apologizes to her for not stopping Shtah. Zophiel is shocked and has a crisis of faith, unsure if there is a god and if that god is good, would they let something like this happen.

Admits that she’s obsessed about Ricky, because she can feel that the two of them are connected on some deep level. According to her, Ricky’s memory has been tampered with by someone who wants to use him for wicked ends.

She forces Ricky to promise to meet with the saint to try to recover his memory and discover what exactly connects them. When Ricky hesitates, Zophiel assures Ricky that one should never fear becoming [[Complete|complete]].

Zophiel thinks that the saint is pure love and the closest thing to god she knows. She wants Ricky to join her order, so that they can fix the world together and ensure something like this never happens again.

After Ricky makes the promise, the two of them share a hug in the rain surrounded by corpses, but Zophiel is so overcome by emotion that she still thinks it’s the best moment of her life.

With Ricky’s assistance, she continues to look for She’Medah, who “keeps disappearing”. They don’t find him, which makes Zophiel think that he’s hiding on purpose. The two give up on the search and return to the keep, because Ricky needs to rest for tomorrow.

File:Zophiel.jpg

2026-04-07T14:36:53Z

Eotadmin: Eotadmin uploaded File:Zophiel.jpg

File:Ziggy.png

2026-04-07T14:36:11Z

Eotadmin: Eotadmin uploaded File:Ziggy.png

File:Zahra.png

2026-04-07T14:33:01Z

Eotadmin: Eotadmin uploaded File:Zahra.png

File:Masa Yuuki.png

2026-04-07T14:32:04Z

Eotadmin: Eotadmin uploaded File:Masa Yuuki.png

File:Yahav ben Tov.png

2026-04-07T14:31:24Z

Eotadmin: Eotadmin uploaded File:Yahav ben Tov.png

Xiong Li

2026-04-07T14:30:44Z

Eotadmin:

[[Category:PC]]
[[Category:kitsune]]
{{Infobox character
| name = {{PAGENAME}}
| image = Xiong_Li.jpg
| species = Kitsune
| gender = Male
| occupation = -
| affiliation = -
| first_appearance = [[Prologue]]
}}
Who am I?

File:Xiong Li.jpg

2026-04-07T14:30:24Z

Eotadmin:

Xinguang

2026-04-07T14:22:41Z

Eotadmin:

[[Category:nation]]
Note: ''Xinguang'' is a proper noun that refers to the nation, while ''Xinguan'' is a nationality / adjective

One of the main nations of [[Novrand]].

=== History ===

==== Ancient history (pre-Banishing War) ====

===== Warring tribes =====
Xinguang has been settled by ancient tribes for hundreds of years before the [[Banishing War]].

These tribes were small and primitive (most of them less than 200 in population) and fought against each other over land and resources when they were not fighting off monsters.

Without a strong unified resistance against them, the threat of monsters kept growing, until it became too big to ignore.

===== Unification by Ardia =====
Some 50 years before the Banishing War, [[Ardia]] manifested Himself in one of the largest tribes, the Xiao, taking the form of a blessed sword-wielding warrior.

This physical manifestation of Ardia taught the Xiao tribe the ways of advanced warfare and marched across the land to unite it under one banner.

Any opposition to Ardia and the Xiao tribe was quickly extinguished thanks to Ardia’s inhuman displays of martial prowess. According to the legend, Ardia was capable of felling a hundred veteran warriors with one swing of his sword, without killing a single one of them. Such miracles were proof of Ardia’s divine nature and as a result, the great unification of Xinguang was almost bloodless.

Soon Ardia had united the tribes of ancient Xinguang, a never-before-seen wave of monsters began to wash over Xinguang, which heralded the start of the Banishing War.

==== Old history (Banishing War to 100 years ago) ====

===== Banishing War =====
When the Banishing War began, Ardia vanished from the physical world to do battle with [[Versa]] on the spiritual realm, leaving the defense of the region to the united people.

The war against the monsters was brutal and lasted for years. This was because humanity’s war effort was actively sabotaged by a lieutenant of Versa called '''''Sha Zhe''''', or in common tongue, [[Shadow Weaver]].

Shadow Weaver’s true form was never revealed, if it even had one, for this calamity operated by taking over the minds of its victims. While possessing the minds of military commanders, Shadow Weaver forced the army of ancient Xinguan to continuously commit strategic mistakes.

It took many months for the ancient Xinguans to even understand the threat that they were facing from within. Even when the existence of Shadow Weaver was finally discovered, it took over the mind of its current host’s executioner, allowing it to continue wreaking havoc without the people realizing that the threat was still active.

However, humans gradually grew wise to Shadow Weaver’s trickery while Shadow Weaver grew more and more reckless. The calamity was finally defeated by [[Bai Cheng]], a leader of a scouting unit, who drank a vial of slow poison moments before ambushing and killing an entire platoon of her countrymen in a narrow pass. Bai Cheng’s testament containing an explanation of her actions was later discovered next to her corpse.

By sacrificing the platoon along with herself, Bai Cheng finally rid the ancient Xinguans of the calamity’s influence. This moment was a turning point in the war and it rallied people to victory over the monsters, who were scattered and driven away. The ancient Xinguans had won their own Banishing War.

===== Warring Nations and the Founding of Xinguang =====
The united nation stood only for less than 100 years after the Banishing War. The sudden disappearance of Ardia, along with the absence of a strong external threat, began to slowly unravel the nation from within.

Xinguang fractured into five smaller warring nations in a “war of succession”: ''Kongyuan'', ''Mengshan'', ''Laohe'', ''Xuangfeng'' and ''Hanli''.

After 200 years of warfare between the five nations, the nation of Xuangfeng emerged victorious and reunited the nation under its banner, although not without considerable bloodshed. The leader of Xuangfeng, '''Xun Xiuying''', became the ruler of the unified nation, the First Emperor. After a hard-won victory over his rivals, the emperor was certain of his divine favor and renamed the nation '''Xinguang''' (''New Dawn'') in honor of Ardia and renamed himself '''Xun Tianming''' (''Mandate of Heaven of the Xun'').

===== Golden Age =====
300 years after the end of the Banishing War, the nation of Xinguang had finally found lasting stability under the First Emperor Xun Tianming.

The emperor surrounded himself with loyal advisors from multiple walks of life and with their help, began to steer the nation towards prosperity through societal reform, research and innovation.

For the next 600 years, Xinguang experienced rapid growth due to breakthroughs in medicine and agriculture. Most historians agree that during the first 300 years of this period, Xinguang was the envy of the entire world.

==== Recent history (100 years ago to now) ====

===== Growing pains =====
Xinguan innovations in key areas made the country the most populous one in the world by far, but this growing population, along with access to modern technology such as the printing press, presented the nation with new challenges.

Over the last 100 years, the rulers of Xinguang foresaw that with such a large population, dangerous and secessionist ideas can find fertile ground, if they are not pre-emptively weeded out.

Afraid of the Xinguan people slowly beginning to fracture into ideologically separate groups, the leaders of Xinguang opted to take drastic measures to keep the nation unified. While good-intentioned, over dozens of years these unification policies have slowly warped into tools of tyranny: control of news, censorship, and purges of minor religions and cultures.

===== Current day =====
The current ruler of Xinguang, empress [[Xun Zhen]] was the only child of the previous emperor '''Xun Xia'''. Xun Zhen’s mother '''Jiang My''' died during childbirth and when Xun Zhen was 10, the emperor developed a rare illness which, within a year, first took away his ability to move, then the ability to speak, and finally the ability to breathe.

Xun Zhen was taught by dozens of realm-renowned advisors in the ways of statecraft, the lessons of which she took seriously. Xun Zhen displayed all the signs of becoming the enlightened and just ruler that Xinguang desperately needed, but then a great tragedy struck.

Certain activist groups in Xinguan had longed for freedom from ever-creeping state control for years before Xun Zhen was even born, and they saw all autocrats, including the new empress, as a potential threat that they needed to remove while they still had the chance.

At age 20, Xun Zhen lost both her 2-year-old son '''Xun Wen''' and her 23-year-old husband '''Wen Cai''' in a failed coup attempt spearheaded by [[voidtouched]] assassins that snuck into the royal palace. These assassins were later found to have Versa cultist tattoos on them. During the final moments of the attack, as Xun Zhen was holding her dying husband in her arms, her life was saved by her old mentor and the mother Xun Zhen never had. This woman, '''Mao He''', a priestess of Ardia, threw herself in front of a poisoned dagger meant for Xun Zhen. It is rumoured that during her final moments, the priestess whispered something to Xun Zhen, but no official records support this.

From this point on, Xinguan state censorship and news control begins to really take over. There are two stories existing side by side: the official truth as given by the state and the commonly accepted truth (one that's seldom voiced) believed by most common people who are not fervently pro-state.
{| class="wikitable"
|'''Official story'''
|'''Commonly accepted truth'''
|-
|The empress’s survival of the assassination attempt was proof of her divine favor and a sign from Ardia that she was meant to achieve great deeds.
|The trauma of the event drove the empress into paranoid madness fanned by religious fervor.
|-
|It was Ardia’s plan that Xun Zhen would deliver the nation of Xinguang from the threat of cultists and all aspects of Versa, including the curse of voidtouch.
|Xun Zhen’s paranoia initially targeted Versa cults, but as the years went by, the anti-cultist institutions she set in place spun out of control and became the very monsters they were hunting. They began to persecute ordinary voidtouched citizens.
|-
|Xun Zhen hears the voice of Ardia, guiding her to steer the great nation of Xinguang into prosperity.
|Xun Zhen hears voices telling her to purge the voidtouched from Xinguang, but these are merely the product of her own broken mind.
|-
|Some voidtouched are unwitting servants of Versa. They are walking time bombs just waiting to go off at the worst possible time.

By keeping potentially dangerous voidtouched separated from the public, the ordinary citizens of Xinguang will be able to live long and prosperous lives in service to Ardia.
|The institutions set in place by the empress are so out of control that they consider every voidtouched person a threat to the nation.
|-
|The voidtouched are never arrested without heavy reason, and all of them receive a fair trial.
|All voidtouched are actively being hunted by the state. They receive a sham trial (if they receive one at all) and often die in “accidents” during imprisonment.

The authorities are so corrupt that they would order the arrest of even non-voidtouched citizens, if they can personally benefit from doing so.
|-
|Voidtouched cults have made multiple attempts at the empress’s life over the years, but her divine favor protects her from all harm.
|There are constant assassination attempts, but they all keep failing due to Xun Zhen surrounding herself with an army of bodyguards and body doubles.

These failed assassination attempts have only served to make the empress even more paranoid.
|-
|Under the enlightened rule of empress Xun Zhen, Xinguang has entered a new golden age and is once again the beacon of light that guides mankind to greatness.
|The empress’s madness and the corrupt sycophants that she has raised to power are tearing the country apart. These people are willing to do anything to maintain their lives of luxury and privilege, even if it means purging their fellow citizens.
|-
|The nation of Xinguang has never before been this united in purpose.
|It’s only a matter of time before Xinguang enters a bloody civil war.
|}

=== Culture ===

==== Objects of worship ====

===== Ardia =====
[[Ardia]] is worshipped as the creator god of mankind and as the manifested divine warrior that united the ancient tribes of Xinguang against the monsters before the [[Banishing War]].

Statues of Ardia are found all over Xinguang. In fact, not having a prominent status or symbol of Ardia in a household is considered suspicious.

===== Bai Cheng the Martyr =====
[[Bai Cheng]] is worshipped as the slayer of [[Shadow Weaver]] and the savior of ancient Xinguang during the Banishing War.

Several statues of her exist in around Xinguang, including a major one near the entrance to the imperial palace.

===== Empress Xun Zhen =====
[[Xun Zhen]] is worshipped as the current enlightened ruler of Xinguang that enjoys Ardia’s divine favor.

As a result of this favor, she cannot commit mistakes of any kind. Her every act, even if it would seem nonsensical at first, is guaranteed to benefit the nation of Xinguang in the long term.

Statues of the empress exist in all major cities and having a painting or picture of the empress in all buildings is, while not legally required, basically mandatory to avoid suspicion.

==== Taboos ====

===== Seditious language =====
Any criticism aimed at the objects of worship or state institutions is extremely dangerous, and will get an individual reported to the authorities, often followed by a sudden disappearance.

===== Voidtouched =====
The [[voidtouched]] in Xinguang do everything they can to hide their powers so that they are not discovered by the state. Any and all voidtouched, when discovered, are quickly arrested under flimsy accusations, and they are rarely seen again, as they are very prone to having accidents during their imprisonment.

People avoid talking about voidtouched as much as possible to avoid attracting unwanted attention, even if someone suspected of being a voidtouched is taken into custody by the authorities right in front of them. The people remaining immediately start behaving as if that person never existed.

===== Non-Ardianist religions =====
The Church of Ardia is one of the major pillars of unity of Xinguang and as a result, owning any items that are associated with other religions or items that are even remotely heretical in the eyes of the Church is highly dangerous.

It’s well-known that the state has long been engaging in a massive campaign of purging other non-Ardianist religions from Xinguang. The last remaining bastions of religious resistance are in the northern mountains. The people of the mountains who are attempting to cling to their own religion are branded by the state as either dangerous heretics or Versa cultists.

===== War propaganda =====
According to Xinguan war propaganda…

* [[Lux Sanctus]] is controlled by a Versa cult that’s attempting to take over Xinguang in order to doom the world
* [[Lucia]] is merely a pretty figurehead meant to conceal the true dark intentions of this cult
* the Xinguan army has been completely demolishing the Luxan army at every engagement and is just about to kick out the Luxans from their country for good

Most citizens know that the official propaganda is not to be believed, but almost everyone acts as if it’s the unvarnished truth. Not fully buying into Xinguan war propaganda is a sure way of getting arrested under suspicion of being a Luxan spy.

=== Philosophy ===

==== For Greater Good ====
“Sacrifice of innocent lives is justified in the name of greater good”.

This philosophy, which manifested in the deeds of Bai Cheng, may have saved the nation of Xinguang 1000 years ago, but in the current day, it’s used to justify oppression of the citizens.

Another form of this philosophy is: “If the hand rebels against the body, cut it off. It is better to live crippled in unity than to have two hands and perish in discord”.

==== Watch Your Neighbor ====
“Dangerous cultists can be everywhere, even right next door. It is your duty as citizen to watch your neighbors and report suspicious activity to the officials”

In the last 100 years, Xinguang has gradually turned into a heavily controlled low-trust society, where not only the state spies on its citizens, but even ordinary citizens spy on each other constantly in order to profit from someone else’s downfall and to keep themselves in good graces of the authorities.

The state handsomely rewards individuals who report suspected cultists to the authorities, which has led to an absurd situation where citizens are incentivized to turn on each other.

'''''Example''''': ''A shopkeeper who wants to get rid of their competitor plants heretical items in the competitor’s warehouse and reports them to the authorities under suspicion of smuggling items for cultists. When the competitor is taken away, the original shopkeeper buys their store at a great discount. The police receive a cut from participating in this scheme. As a result, a completely innocent person is sent to jail and robbed of their wealth.''

With the way the scheme is set up, it is starting to become a rational choice to “backstab your fellow citizen first, before they do it to you”. People who’ve known each other for a dozen years and are all smiles when they meet can immediately turn on each other when the right opportunity presents itself.

=== Symbology ===

==== Lotus flower ====
The lotus is a highly symbolic flower in Xinguan culture, as it is a beautiful flower that blooms on the surface of muddy waters. The lotus flower symbolizes rising above challenges, while emerging beautiful and untainted.

It also ties into the philosophy of For Greater Good. The muddy water represents sacrifice and the bloom represents unity.

File:Strange dream symbol.jpg

2026-04-07T14:21:01Z

Eotadmin: Eotadmin uploaded File:Strange dream symbol.jpg

Walter Therowich

2026-04-07T14:20:13Z

Eotadmin:

[[Category:PC]]
{{Infobox character
| name = {{PAGENAME}}
| image = Walter_unmasked.jpg
| species = ?
| gender = Male
| occupation = ?
| affiliation = -
| first_appearance = [[Prologue]]
}}
Who am I?

File:Walter unmasked.jpg

2026-04-07T14:19:54Z

Eotadmin:

File:Vol-Zorya.jpeg

2026-04-07T14:17:04Z

Eotadmin: Eotadmin uploaded File:Vol-Zorya.jpeg

Voidtouched

2026-04-07T14:16:32Z

Eotadmin:

Humans that have come into contact with [[Versa]] and as a result, are suffering from the curse of voidtouch.

This curse allows one to cast [[magic]], but also ultimately leads them to [[Frenzy|frenzy]]. According to [[Void]], this cursed magic is a corrupted version of [[true magic]].
[[Category:Cosmology]]

Void

2026-04-07T14:15:18Z

Eotadmin:

[[Category:NPC]]

{{Infobox character
| name = {{PAGENAME}}
| image = Roland.jpg
| species =-
| gender = Male (?)
| occupation = Cult leader (?)
Bodyguard of [[Lucia]]
| affiliation = [[Versa]]
[[Saint's Guard]]
| first_appearance = [[Chapter 1]]
}}

''"You who bear the traces of God, hearken the true history of this world."''

A knight that stays by [[Lucia]]’s side during her speech in the [[Caelumnis]] castle courtyard. He looks and acts like a bodyguard.

Meets with the party in the castle’s strategy room.

He is mute and communicates with simple sign language (this turns out to be false).

According to [[Joachim]], he’s an expert at stealth and removing individual targets before a fight even begins.

During the monster invasion, he protects both saint Lucia and Joachim, and doesn’t leave their side.

Follows saint Lucia and Joachim as they are carried off to the master bedroom Stands guard next to sleeping Lucia when the party meets with Farah the next morning.

Appears from a golden seal portal together with [[Farah]] and [[She’Medah]] when [[Faylin]] is separated from the party and “talking” with the fire monster. He uses some strange magic to destroy the fire monster with white flame. Magic that Faylin cannot counter with her own ice magic. He says that a monster with free will is an abomination and then orders Farah and She’Medah to knock Faylin out.

When Faylin wakes up, she finds that she’s no longer in control of her body. Rather, her body is now controlled by her mother [[Charna]], high priestess of a [[Reclamation Society|cult from Chevell]]. Charna calls Void “grandmaster” and agrees to do his bidding: to convince the party to join his cause when he later appears before them. If the party refuses, Charna is supposed help Void kill the party while ensuring that he gets the killing strike.

Appears from a golden seal portal after the party defeats [[Homo Novus Rex]].

Tells the party [[History of the world according to Void|their version of the history of the world]].

After realizing something about the party and Walter, he orders his servants Farah, She’Medah, and Faylin (?) to unleash their full power to destroy him. When he tries to use some unknown magic against the party, the magic interacts with [[Walter]] in a strange way and everything goes dark.

File:Roland.jpg

2026-04-07T14:14:57Z

Eotadmin:

Visharah the Corruptor

2026-04-07T14:11:46Z

Eotadmin:

[[Category:historical]]
[[Category:NPC]]
[[Category:calamity]]
[[File:Visharah_by_Zophiel.png|200px|thumb|right|[[Zophiel]]'s rendition of Visharah.]]
The [[Calamity|calamity]] that threatened the nation of [[Al-Azaliyya]]. Defeated by legendary hero [[Zahra]].

=== Abilities ===
Visharah was a 6-meter tall monstrosity with 10 arms (a marilith monster), all of which wielded massive weapons. The calamity was unmatched in melee combat and easily parried all projectiles.

Her blood was a deadly poison that would kill an adult human within seconds.

She wielded the magic of life and unlife and her “life aura” constantly regenerated any wounds she might take.

She used her life magic to raise her victims as undead that turned on their former allies.

=== March across Al-Azaliyya ===
Visharah marched across half of Al-Azaliyya with her army of undead, destroying all the towns she came across (due to her fearsome reputation that preceded her, the towns were abandoned well before she arrived).

Despair set in the hearts of the people of Al-Azaliyya, as she seemed completely unstoppable. Moreover, all failed attempts at attacking her lead to her undead army growing in size, so running away was preferable to fighting and inevitably losing.

=== Defeat ===
Eventually word reached the town of Uyarmah that Visharah was about to reach them, but the local farmer girl Zahra came up with a clever plan that lead to Visharah's demise.

When Visharah and her undead horde reached [[Uyarmah]], the town militia shot hundreds of arrows holding small satchels of seeds at Visharah and her army. The calamity parried the arrows with ease, but her life aura caused the seeds to sprout immediately around her.

Within moments, Visharah and her army were entangled in the plants and vines that were growing wildly out of control around them. Visharah tried desperately to cut off the vines and branches, but the townspeople kept firing arrows at her. Even with her 10 arms she was not able to keep up with the growth of the plants and she became trapped.

Once Visharah was restrained, the townspeople set the “forest of plants” on fire, burning Visharah alive, along with her undead horde.

However, as the flames destroyed her body, they also released the poison inside her. The unlucky ones that ran away too slow perished, including Zahra herself.

File:Visharah by Zophiel.png

2026-04-07T14:11:35Z

Eotadmin: Eotadmin uploaded File:Visharah by Zophiel.png

Vil-Seilen

2026-04-07T14:11:05Z

Eotadmin:

[[Category:NPC]]
[[Category:Human]]
{{Infobox character
| name = {{PAGENAME}}
| image = Vil-Seilen.jpg
| species = Human
| gender = Female
| occupation = Royal advisor
| affiliation = Royal family, [[Cen]]
| first_appearance = Chapter 2
}}
''"Would you be willing to share this information with me later? So that I have all the variables."''

Magically talented and scientifically-minded royal advisor who arrives to the guest house when the party is waiting for the audience with the queen to begin.

Cousin of [[Vol-Zorya]].

She delivers a message that she received in a dream to [[Ricky]]: "''Golden wings would fly you to the Sun, but the Sun would burn you. To make the right choice in the future, you must understand the past. Your memory is a lock, and the key is buried in the smoldering ruins of your childhood. Return and claim it.''"

She studies [[Arista]]'s amulet and is greatly upset by something she finds. She allows Arista entry to the royal palace on two conditions: Arista must not take the amulet off and she must not draw attention to it.

Arista tries to get more information out of Vil-Seilen, but she responds that she cannot, and even if she did, the answer would only bring her pain.

She offers Arista to stay in her laboratory after the audience so that she can study Arista and her amulet further. However, her research could take months.

She asks the party to come with her after the audience with the queen to meet a [[She'Medah|very powerful Cenith voidtouched healer]], so that she may confirm some kind of connection.

After the party is interrogated in the audience chamber, despite protests from her cousin, she persuades the party to follow her to meet with the healer.

According to Vol-Zorya, Vil-Seilen has a miraculous ability to land herself in trouble, and that mishaps seem to constantly happen around her.

This claim is proven at least partially true, for as soon as the party arrives on the [[Cen'Ith Prison Island|prison island]], Vil-Seilen finds that she has lost the authority to move the prisoner to someone else, meaning that the party needs to go and meet with them inside their cell in the high-security ward.

After pleading with the party and convincing them that ill will befall upon them thanks to the guards and her own magic, she re-persuades the party to follow through with her experiment. She says that the party has some kind of condition, and she has been researching this condition even before the party arrived on Cen. The only other person with this condition is this mysterious healer in the high-security ward, and the result of this meeting might reveal the final piece of the puzzle.

The inmates of the high-security ward call her "Devil-Seilen" or "Doctor Devil" while making crude remarks and suggestions to her. Vil-Seilen is unfazed by it all, looking like she has visited this place several times before.

When the healer is revealed to be [[She’Medah|She'Medah]], she lets the party discuss with him freely as she takes notes.

Vil-Seilen tells the party that she was informed about a Cenith man wearing Luxan envoy clothes appearing inside the forbidden region, which immediately caught her interest. Vil-Seilen met with She'Medah in the prison and tested his healing abilities by bringing some poor kids who had lost their limbs for the man to heal.

Vil-Seilen has lost the authority to move She'Medah anywhere from his current cell to [[Micah Sellic]], who is now supposed to collect She'Medah in order to carry out his exile to [[Lux Sanctus]].

[[Hasae Selawn|Hasae]] and [[Faylin Lacrimosa|Faylin]] persuade her to let them cast magic in order to jog She'Medah's incomplete memory. She allows this on both occasions, but [[Xiong Li]] stops Faylin from using her magic.

When the high-security ward is suddenly enveloped in darkness and everything begins to descend into chaos, she activates her medallion to light the surrounding area. She witnesses She'Medah's final moments as he is executed by [[Farah]] (?) inside his cell.

She summons magical weapons for Arista and Ricky and tells the party that they need to flee the ward immediately.

After party escapes the collapsing high-security ward, Vil-Seilen stays behind to "clean up the mess".

Goes missing the following night after an explosion occurs at her laboratory. There are indications of part of the lab being teleported away using [[blood magic]].

File:Vil-Seilen.jpg

2026-04-07T14:08:45Z

Eotadmin: Eotadmin uploaded File:Vil-Seilen.jpg

Viator

2026-04-07T14:08:24Z

Eotadmin:

Viator

2026-04-07T14:07:21Z

Eotadmin:

File:Viator.png

2026-04-07T14:06:44Z

Eotadmin: Eotadmin uploaded File:Viator.png

New Ardianism

2026-04-07T14:05:51Z

Eotadmin:

The new religion promoted by [[Lux Sanctus]].
== Core beliefs ==
At the core of this religion is the belief that [[Ardia]] will return to His children if the [[Voidtouched|curse of voidtouch]] is cleansed from the world, and that upon Ardia's return humanity will be able to destroy [[Versa]] once and for all.

For more information, see [[Saint's revelation]].
== Spiritual leader ==
The central figure of this religion is [[Lucia|Saint Lucia]], a living deity capable of removing the curse from; a feat that was previously considered impossible.
== Envoys ==
See [[Envoys]].
[[Category:Faction]]

Versa

2026-04-07T14:02:56Z

Eotadmin:

[[Category:god]]
[[File:Symbol of Versa.png|right|thumb|200x200px|A cultist symbol for Versa.]]
The Mother of Monsters and enemy of humankind. Opposes [[Ardia]].

Summons [[Monsters|monsters]] to kill humans. The exact reason for this is unknown, and many theories exist.

During the [[Banishing War]], She summoned the [[Calamity|calamities]], but they were all slain by legendary heroes. Versa herself was banished to the [[Moon]].
== Void's explanation ==
According to [[Void]], She created humankind and is merely trying to save Her children from enslavement by a [[Ardia|cosmic parasite]]. She was shattered into pieces ([[Calamity|calamities]]) during the [[Banishing War]] by warriors empowered by Ardia's "unholy blessing".

== New Ardianist explanation ==
According to [[Micah Sellic]], a promoter of [[New Ardianism]], Versa [[Voidtouched|curses]] humans with the goal of devouring their souls upon death. However, Ardia prevents this from happening via a process called [[Soul Rescue|soul rescue]].
[[Category:Cosmology]]

Versa

2026-04-07T14:02:07Z

Eotadmin:

[[Category:god]]
[[File:Symbol of Versa.png|right|thumb|200x200px|A cultist symbol for Versa.]]
The Mother of Monsters and enemy of humankind. Opposes [[Ardia]].

Summons [[Monsters|monsters]] to kill humans. The exact reason for this is unknown, and many theories exist.

During the [[Banishing War]], She summoned the [[Calamity|calamities]], but they were all slain by legendary heroes. Versa herself was banished to the [[Moon]].
== Void's explanation ==
According to [[Void]], She created humankind and is merely trying to save Her children from enslavement by a [[Ardia|cosmic parasite]]. She was shattered into pieces ([[Calamity|calamities]]) during the [[Banishing War]] by warriors empowered by Ardia's "unholy blessing".

== New Ardianist explanation ==
According to Micah Sellic, Versa [[Voidtouched|curses]] humans with the goal of devouring their souls upon death. However, Ardia prevents this from happening via a process called [[Soul Rescue|soul rescue]].
[[Category:Cosmology]]

An

2026-04-07T13:56:46Z

Eotadmin:

The protector goddess of the [[Cenith wildlings]].

Despite the many similarities to [[Ardia]], the followers of An consider Ardia a false god worshipped by "heathens".

Unlike Ardia, who opposes [[Versa]], An does not have an opposing deity.

Priests of An ([[Mumengi]]) imply that humanity has invoked Her wrath in ancient past by trying to usurp Her.

See also: [[Statue of An]]
[[Category:God]]
[[Category:Cosmology]]

Ardia

2026-04-07T13:56:24Z

Eotadmin:

[[Category:god]]
[[File:Church_of_Ardia_symbol.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Symbol of the [[Church of Ardia]].]]The Father of Humanity who protects His creations from [[Versa]] and her [[monsters]]. The god of the [[church of Ardia]].

Sealed Versa to the [[Moon]] during the [[Banishing War]]. Has given up His physical manifestation in order to focus all of His power to maintain the seal on Versa.

== Previous iterations / An ==
[[File:Statue_of_An.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Statue of "An" found in the tomb of Elesh.]]
There is some evidence that there is another version, or iteration, of Ardia.

While being escorted out of the [[tomb of Elesh]] by queen [[Rem-Leneth]], the party encounters a [[Statue of An|strange statue]] with a symbol that resembles the globally recognized symbol of Ardia, but with the "wings" missing.

[[An]], the goddess of the Cenith wildlings resembles Ardia in function, but not in form.The wildlings consider Ardia a false god.

== Void's explanation ==
According to [[Void]], Ardia is a cosmic parasite that feeds off of humanity's knowledge by cursing them into an eternal cycle of death and reincarnation. Without Ardia's meddling, humanity would eventually become gods.

== Soul rescue ==
According to [[Micah Sellic]], Ardia spends divine power to prevent voidtouched souls from being devoured by Versa upon death, causing them to later reincarnate on [[Novrand]]. This process is called [[Soul Rescue|soul rescue]].
[[Category:Cosmology]]

Ardia

2026-04-07T13:50:56Z

Eotadmin:

[[Category:god]]
[[File:Church_of_Ardia_symbol.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Symbol of the [[Church of Ardia]].]]The Father of Humanity who protects His creations from [[Versa]] and her [[monsters]]. The god of the [[church of Ardia]].

Sealed Versa to the [[Moon]] during the [[Banishing War]]. Has given up His physical manifestation in order to focus all of His power to maintain the seal on Versa.

== Previous iterations ==
[[File:Statue_of_An.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Statue of "An" found in the tomb of Elesh.]]
There is some evidence that there is another version, or iteration, of Ardia.

While being escorted out of the [[tomb of Elesh]] by queen [[Rem-Leneth]], the party encounters a [[Statue of An|strange statue]] with a symbol that resembles the globally recognized symbol of Ardia, but with the "wings" missing.

== Void's explanation ==
According to [[Void]], Ardia is a cosmic parasite that feeds off of humanity's knowledge by cursing them into an eternal cycle of death and reincarnation. Without Ardia's meddling, humanity would eventually become gods.

== Soul rescue ==
According to [[Micah Sellic]], Ardia spends divine power to prevent voidtouched souls from being devoured by Versa upon death, causing them to later reincarnate on [[Novrand]]. This process is called [[Soul Rescue|soul rescue]].
[[Category:Cosmology]]

Ardia

2026-04-07T13:50:25Z

Eotadmin:

[[Category:god]]
[[File:Church_of_Ardia_symbol.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Symbol of the [[Church of Ardia]].]]The Father of Humanity who protects His creations from [[Versa]] and her [[monsters]]. The god of the [[church of Ardia]].

Sealed Versa to the [[Moon]] during the [[Banishing War]]. Has given up His physical manifestation in order to focus all of His power to maintain the seal on Versa.

== Previous iterations ==
[[File:Statue_of_An.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Statue of "An" found in the tomb of Elesh.]]
There is some evidence that there is another version, or iteration, of Ardia.

While being escorted out of the [[tomb of Elesh]] by queen [[Rem-Leneth]], the party encounters a [[Statue of An|strange statue]] with a symbol that resembles the globally recognized symbol of Ardia, but with the "wings" missing.

== Void's explanation ==
According to [[Void]], Ardia is a cosmic parasite that feeds off of humanity's knowledge by cursing them into an eternal cycle of death and reincarnation. Without Ardia's meddling, humanity would eventually become gods.

== Soul rescue ==
According to [[Micah Sellic]], Ardia spends divine power to prevent voidtouched souls from being devoured by Versa upon death, causing them to later reincarnate on [[Novrand]]. This process is called [[Soul rescue]].
[[Category:Cosmology]]

Ardia

2026-04-07T13:47:13Z

Eotadmin:

Versa

2026-04-07T13:46:54Z

Eotadmin:

Versa

2026-04-07T13:46:37Z

Eotadmin: