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Meanwhile On The Old Planes of Colonizers Past
If you don't
follow the Colonizer series, move along! There's nothing for you to see here!
For everyone else: Hello there!
This is of course derain2, champion of the third
season of Colonizers!
The highly anticipated (at least by me) All Star
Season of colonizers will soon be upon us. As a warm up for that event, and a
resource for players and spectators, I am going to summarize the events of
Season Three Colonizers of Krystel here in this thread from the point of view
of my faction, House Elta. I will then present a couple of posts about what
transpired shortly after my factions victory complete with new cards depicting
the fate of my beloved characters. If any other champions want to do something
similar, I would be delighted, and you are welcome to post your factions
histories and exploits here to be admired and used as resource by the viewers
and your fellow champions.
Lastly I will also type up a post dramatizing
Ex-Fairy Queen Aelfdane and Tavern Keeper Jeremy's confrontation with The
Ultimate Eye. I was pretty stretched out during the tournament and it never sat
well with me that I didn't give that moment the justice it deserves.
Quick note before I begin the summary. By its
very nature I will be forced to leave out dramatic events and excellent story
points, as I will mostly be limiting this to information that provides context
for my current faction and its leadership. Any event that didn’t affect the
finale makeup of my faction won’t be shown here. If you would like to see this
story unfold in all it's glory I highly encourage you to check out the season for yourself! It is chock full of talented cardsmiths and beautiful cards and
wonderful writing.
Comments
Long ago the founder of House Elta bound a powerful dark god that was devouring the world.
Just before the dark god was vanquished he laid a powerful curse on his binder and her bloodline, allowing them to attain power whenever they inflicted suffering. Be it on themselves or upon others, for both pleased the dark god.
A thousand years later, House Elta is a respected noble family that uses their bloodmagic only to sacrifice parts of themselves to help the general good. Those who deviate from their oaths are harshly punished. In order to keep better account of their descendants and their powers, House Elta’s titles descend down the female line, while the males of the family are encouraged to enter the priesthood and undertake scholarly pursuits.
In the mist of an endless war of succession Lady Elta lead three thousand refugees from their home plain to a remote isle in the plane of Krystel.
They quickly discovered they shared the isle with a mischievous fairy race. In order to soothe their neighbors mischievous ways and build trust between the two races, Tavern Keeper Jeremy and Queen Aelfdane organized a series of games and festivals the two civilizations continue to practice to this day.
As House Elta continued to expand they ran afoul of powerful leviathans, which sunk their ships and threatened their trade.
Lady Elta’s niece and heir, Dame Almer discovered a ritual that allowed her to make contact with these sentient creatures. She discovered they were psychic, and could communicate thoughts and memories with each other, and with the right ritual, humans could join this psychic network. They negotiated a peace.
However, when House Elta resumed contact with the outside world they discovered that a powerful vampire and his thralls had vanquished their allies. Lady Kren is sent to the mainland to combat these forces and evacuate as many refugees as possible.
Lady Kren is Lady Elta’s sister and Dame Almer’s mother. She belongs to an order that forbids her from removing her armor or from accepting hereditary titles, which is why the line of succession skips her, and her daughter is the presumptive heir.
During this time House Elta also forms alliances with The Conclave of Striders, a faction of peace loving sentient elk, and with the Flamebearers of Dusk, a vigilant nation that resides side by side with spirits of light.
Meanwhile the Leviathan Dame Almer made contact with warns her that great and terrible monster is rising from the bottom of the ocean, a beast with an insatiable hunger. In order to combat this threat, House Elta creates a new monastery tradition known as The Order of the Vast, headed by Vorek.
It is comprised of members who have enacted a ritual to gain permanent contact with the leviathans (hereon known as “The Vast”) and with each other. Their sense of individualism is diminished, but they are capable of communicating thoughts and memories to each other with ease.
Member of this order enact a ritual linking their minds to the beasts, and the beast realizes if he should consume them he shall feel their pain. Instead the beast turns his attention to a civilization across the globe, and then recedes back to the ocean.
However linking minds with this beast has a profound effect on Norvin, one of the orders most gifted members.
After saving their civilization the Order of the Vast becomes hugely popular, and Vorek uses his newfound popularity to increase his membership, and enact a very ambitious plan.
Apparently the Vast once flew across the skies as easily as they swam in the water. But when the northern lights receded, they lost this ability. Vorek takes members of his orders to a remote northern mountain deep within the Northern Lights so the Vast can tap into it’s magic and fly again.
He leaves Norvin behind to manage the local members of the order, and represent their interests to House Elta’s leadership. In a brief conversation Dame Almer reveals that although she is capable of communing with the Vast and members of it’s Order, she prefers her privacy and remaining an individual.
Shortly after restoring the Vast’s ability to fly a contingent of refugees and pioneers depart on ships carried by the vast to settle Krystel’s southern isles. They are led by Dame Ellor, who is accompanied by her brother, Healer Gulvan.
When they arrive they discover a race of half crazed insect creatures (known as the Hive), and an incredible husk buried deep in their warrens. Healer Gulvan determined that these creatures were once a sentient hivemind, but their hivehome, the living structure that united their minds, was destroyed.
Using blood magic Healer Gulvan modified scute bugs to feed on psychic energy, dulling their psychic pain and returning a sanity and sentience to the Hive, although they still lacked a hivehome and therefore still had no psychic connection to each other.
Soon after this, House Elta is shocked by the sudden death of Lady Elta, who enacted one blood ritual to many and died. Dame Almer inherited her role and proclaimed herself to be Queen Elta. It should be noted that with Queen Elta’s ascension, Dame Ellor is the new heir apparent.
Shortly after her coronation, Queen Elta received word that Queen Aelfdane was assassinated in a fairy coup, and there new leader launched a series of attacks on their border. The Conclave of Striders intervenes, and a brief armistice is declared while the two factions determine if peace can exist between them.
Lady Kren, who opposes this armistice is dispatched by her daughter to the mainland, where she is to assist with mopping up vampiric forces defeated by the Flamebearers of Dusk. Unfortunetly she is ambushed by an elite vampiric fighting force and is unmasked.
It is revealed that member of Lady Krens order undergo a ritual to grant them great strength at the cost of grotesque scarring. This scarring is the reason members of her order must be armored at all times, and why she can’t accept the very public role of queen.
This is all changed however, when Lady Kren is turned into a vampire, and her vampiric regeneration heals her scars and removes her compassion.
Shortly afterwards peace talks with the faries fall through, and Lady Kren returns to the isle and leads Elta forces to victory. Her body concealing armor protects her from the suns light, and no one around her suspects her new condition.
Kren plans on supplanting her daughter and claiming the throne for herself, but before she does so, she must first destroy the Flamebearers of Dusk, whose whole civilization is based on light, tireless pursuit of the truth, and defeating creatures of the night.
Lady Kren was already a very potent blood magician. Combined with her new vampiric abilities to manipulate blood and her willingness to sacrifice kin and others for power, and she became the most powerful blood mage in the history of her family. She used this power to resurrect wronged ghosts and spirits across the lands of the Flamebearers, as their leader went mad. Soon after the civilization collapsed under this reign of terror.
Meanwhile House Elta’s southern colonization efforts lead by Dame Ellor reach the heart of the mainland, where they discover two ancient and incredible artifacts.
Healer Gulvan examines the artifacts and believes he can use them turn himself into the Hive’s new Hivehome allowing the insect civilization to share thoughts again, if that is what they choose. In order to pull this off however, he needs the aid of the world’s foremost expert in psychic communion, Norvin.
Norvin operates the Sprocket of Unity to make contact with as many members of the Hive species minds as he can manage, while Healer Gulvan uses the Dial of Autonomy to build up his mind so he can handle permanent contact with thousands of minds.
Once they both do this, the plan was for Norvin to hand contact with the thousands of minds over to Gulvan, and then Gulvan cements this contact in, making it permanent.
Sadly, this ritual goes horribly wrong, as activating these grand machines cause them to interface with a third machine thousands of miles away.
The Interface of Authority is located in the Houses of Nihoja territory. Overwhelmed by the Interface of Authority and still susceptible to the influences of the beasts hunger, Norvin starts ravenously examining and devouring the minds of Nihoja citizens, unaware of the damage he’s inflicting. This process strips away the free will of many of Nihoja’s people, and reduces them to machine men and women.
Meanwhile back on Home Island, Tavern Keeper Jeremy has been having very active dreams. After discovering an amulet revealed to him within a dream he makes contact with Aelfdane, who made arrangements that in the event of her death, she would become Jeremy’s dream.
She tells Jeremy that she allowed her subordinates to assassinate her and the ensuing war so she could draw the Conclave of Striders out and lower their guard. Now that they were spread thin she could steal their most precious treasure.
It turns out the Conclave of Striders were not naturally sentient, and owe their intelligence and a good part of their nature to an artifact known as the Ultimate Eye. Jeremy is game for an adventure, so the pair of them set off to the Strider’s isle under the cover of a cultural exchange.
After overcoming the Striders magical defenses, Aelfdane and Jeremy found themselves face to face with the Ultimate Eye.
This concludes the recap. The next post will depict Aelfdane and Jeremy's confrontation with the Ultimate Eye. An encounter I didn't have time to write at the time.
A thin mist mingled with the moonlight and the falling leaves as Jeremy paced his way towards the Ultimate Eye.
“This thing is massive, we’ll never be able to move it.” Even as Jeremy complained he couldn’t keep the awe from his voice. It surface was polished smooth, but was riddled with tiny cracks and crevices. As he stared at it Jeremy could feel the eye drawing him in. This thing was <i>old</i>.
Aelfdane once again manifested in his mind’s eye, and Jeremy snapped out of it. “We don’t need to move it,” she said. “I just need to use it. Open the bag.”
Jeremy slung the bag of his shoulder and opened the hidden pocket, revealing…
“Petals from the lotus of dreams. I, and thousands of my brethren have been banished to the dreaming, where we are a little more than thought. The eye is the prefect tool for turning thought into reality. With these petals I will connect the eye to the dreaming world and use it too -
I AM NO TOOL.
The force of the thought nearly bowled Jeremy over. It originated in his mind, but it wasn’t his own.
“They eye!” Aelfdane exclaimed, “It’s-“
YOU HAVE VIOLATED OUR TREATY AND OUR TERRIROTY. YOU MUST BE RERWITTEN.
This time Jeremy was knocked over by the force of the eye. He writhed on the ground. The thoughts of the eye were so strong, he couldn’t form any of his own.
But The Ultimate Eye wasn’t the only entity within Jeremy mind. With a flourish Aelfdane consumed the powers of the lotus, and brought the full force of her will to bare. “You will not subjugate me or my servant. I am the Queen of Fae and Dreams. Of Chaos, and Pandemonium. I am the storm that turns the waves against the stone. A fossil like you has no power over me.” Aelfdane did not speak alone. She spoke with a thousand different voices. The voices of her slain brethren she hopped to return, the voices of children’s dreams and nightmares. The voices of things that never were, and the voices of things that could never be. And for a moment, Jeremy was certain Aelfdane had succeeded in dominating The Eye’s will.
But The Ultimate Eye was old. Older than the land it stood on, older than the sea from which the land sprung. Older than the plane itself. Much older. YOU ARE NOTHING MORE THAN A DISTRACTION. A FLEETING THOUGHT EASILY DISMESSED. I WILL RID THIS WORLD OF YOU AND YOUR CHAOS. I WILL BRING PEACE AND ORDER TO THE LAND YOU JEPRODIZE.
Jeremy found room for his thoughts as The Ultimate Eye shifted it’s attention to Aelfdane, and began stripping her from his mind. With sinking dread he realized Aelfdane couldn’t win. Nevertheless she pressed on. “Peace is just another word for death, fossil. You aren’t saving the land or its people. You are destroying it.”
Aelfdane was thrown back against a tree as The Ultimate Eye pressed into her mind, and cracked into the world she held within.
SO THIS IS THE DREAMING REALM. WHERE NOTHING LASTS, AND NOTHING IS ACCOMPLISHED. I CAN FEEL THE WASTED THOUGHTS CHURNING THROUGH THIS PLACE. ONCE I DESTROY THIS REALM-
“No! You can’t…” Aelfdane no longer spoke with the voice of dreams. Only one voice spoke, one begging for her world to be saved.
THIS PLACE IS FOUL. IT SETS BROTHER AGAINST SISTER, MOTHER AGAINST SON. ONCE THIS PLACE IS GONE WE WILL TRULY HAVE ORDER. WE WILL TRULY HAVE PEACE.
“You don’t understand,” Jeremy cried. How could it? It’s life was nothing like creatures of flesh and blood. “Without dreams, there is no meaning.”
Jeremy convulsed as The Ultimate Eye bore it’s thoughts back into Jeremy’s brain. YOU WILL LEARN TO FIND MEANING IN WHAT IS, AND WHAT YOU ARE. NO LONGER WILL YOUR SPECIES BE TORN BETWEEN TWO WORLDS. I WILL MAKE YOU WHOLE.
As The Eye tore through Jeremy’s mind, he could see Aelfdane beginning to dissolve, and the dreaming world with her.
Jeremy cobbled as much of his wits together as he could, then said, “before you destroy The Dreaming, you should partake of it.”
WHAT? For the first time, The Eye seemed perplexed.
“Dream. As we mortals do. Learn to understand them.”
I DO NOT DREAM. I AM EVER VIGILANT.
“Of course,” Jeremy said, “You are a stone. You couldn’t dream before. But can you now? Now that your mind is in the dreaming realm?
I DO NOT WASTE MY TIME ON FRIVALITIES. THESE DREAMS ARE BENEATH ME.
“No one should destroy what they don’t understand,” Jeremy said.
The Eye seemed to hesitate . IT COULD CHANGE ME.
“Anyone who fears knowledge has no right to lead,” Jeremy said. “Dream, then if you are satisfied that dreams have no value, destroy them as you will.”
And so The Eye did something it had never done in its millennia of existence. It touched the dreaming world, and relinquished it’s conscious thought for a time.
What it dreamed of we can scarcely begin to imagine or understand. A mind so old tends to be difficult to change, but if there was one thing The Eye prided itself with (If pride could even be ascribed to such an entity) it was The Eye’s ability to learn. It learned when the Striders turned The Eye off the path of violence. And that day it learned as the dreams turned The Eye off the path of control and domination.
After Norvin and Gulvan unleashed that atrocity against House Nihoja the pair were taken into custody. But of course this did little to appease the house, which pledged total war against House Elta.
House Nihoja controlled a mighty, well disciplined, well-motivated fighting force, but sadly they simply did not have the numbers necessary to topple House Elta.
Lady Kren personally lead Elta forces on the battlefield, killed Arai, and slaughtered the bulk of his forces. Lady Kren then lead her forces into Nihoja territory, and extracted a peace treaty from them. House Nihoja would become a client tributary nation to House Elta. In exchange House Elta was obligated to work tirelessly to reverse the metal plague. Another term of the treaty: Queen Almer must abdicate the throne. House Nihoja could never bow to the queen that presided over their mutilation.
Lady Kren returns to the capital and presents this offer to Queen Almer. She never wanted to rule, and is persuaded by her mother to step down. Lady Kren assumes leadership until Dame Ellor can return to the capital and be coronated.
In the meantime Lady Kren has converted every member of her order to vampirism. They are all expected to remain in armor the rest of their life, so they are well protected from the sun. She starts turning other members of her family, laying the groundwork for her coup.
When Dame Ellor returns, Lady Kren arrests her, claiming Ellor conspired with her brother and Norvin to maim House Nihoja. Lady Kren also arrests her own daughter, “until it can be determined if the former queen acted deliberately to undermine the bodies and minds of House Nihoja.”
This rightfully alarms a large number of Kren’s family. And the order of the Vast Conspire to break Dame Ellor out of prison. In retaliation, Lady Kren butchers the entire order, an act so brutal and unprecedented, that it meets no resistance. Slaying all the members of the order ends the leviathan’s ties to the northern lights, and they come crashing to the ground, killing most of them. Lady Kren claims that since Norvin is a member of the order and he shares memories and thoughts with other members, they are all equally guilty of Norvin’s crimes.
With most of her political enemies dead or arrested Lady Kren openly proclaims herself queen and is crowned.