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| | #redirect [[The Rise of the New Singularity]] |
| '''[[Isparians On Dereth: -15 P.Y. to 10 P.Y.|Previous: Isparians On Dereth: -15 P.Y. to 10 P.Y.]]'''<br>'''[[The Rise of the New Singularity - Monthly Summary|Next Arc: The Rise of the New Singularity]]'''<br>'''[[Story Arcs|All Story Arcs]]'''</div></center>
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| ==== [[Now In This Hush]] - Snowreap, 12 P.Y. (Jan '01) ====
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| Like the snows of winter, a hush fell across Dereth.
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| The Hopslayer banished to the Darkness, the Shadows also retreated from the face of the island. Even the powerful generals of the Shadow armies had removed to undisclosed locations. Isin Dule had retreated with his followers, while news of Ler Rhan was nonexistent. Adventurers that dared to return to the lair of Bael'Zharon found only Ferah holding vigil over her lord's remains. Those that fought the general found that Ilservian's remains still remained potent though. Bathing the Sword of Lost Light in the Hopeslayer's blood imbued the weapon with additional power.
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| But, not only those who dared the Sepluchur of Bael'Zharon found new ways to improve their weapons over the course of the month. The bandit MacNiall grew interested in acquiring the eyes of the Mosswarts' Idols. He sent those who would bring him these artifacts to his cousin MacDougal in the north for a reward. The bandit hilt given to adventurers by MacDugal proved to be an innovation popular with swordsmen and dagger fighters alike. The well balanced hilts allowed those skilled with blades to perform double and even triple strikes with ease.
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| It was not just those who used the blade that grew more powerful though. Rumors of a strange presence near Mount Esper was passed on by the Zharalim. The thing lay within a menhir ring and emanated visions of bloodshed to those who dared to approach it; it seemed to be the very essence of strife. Magicians of the school of the arm were attracted by its power and those that paid tribute to it were rewarded with magicks more powerful than any wielded by any Isparian before.
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| While these boons seemed to signal a hope in a new found security for the Isparian refugees on Dereth, observers of Dereth's less hospitable inhabitants noticed a number of unsettling occurences. The Tumeroks seemed to withdraw from the Direlands, while the Lugians pushed more heavily into the area. Likewise, the powerful undead who had once held a strong position in western Dereth were now weakened by heavy losses during the campaign against the Hopeslayer and also seemed to withdraw back towards the swamps. But, again, somewhat disturbingly, the Virindi seemed to fill the void left by the other creatures of Dereth. At one time these creatures primarily occupied the Obsidian Plains or their own underground installations. Now scouting parties of Virindi guarded by their powerful Tusker Guards and Slaves roamed widely across the landscape. A new Virindi installation even appeared within the A'mun Desert itself. The Isparians could only wonder at what these new neighbors' future goals and plans might be.
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| ==== [[Lonely in the World]] - Coldeve, 12 P.Y. (Feb '01) ====
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| As heat seeped back into the earth snowlines receded. Patches of slush still dotted the landscape, but hints of green returned to most of the land. All was not well, however.
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| The enigmatic Shadows began to walk Dereth openly, harassing adventurers and making travel through remote areas a dangerous proposition. In addition, floating Crystal Fragments appeared. While originally thought to be pieces of the Gelidites' Great Work, the vast number of Fragments that soon swarmed across Dereth seemed to imply another origin.
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| Fortunately, the most learned mages of the land had taken to heart the dire prognostications of the recovered Gelidite scriptures. The Archmages Celdiseth, Fadsahil al-Tashbi, Nuhmudira, and Shoyanen Kenchu developed Master Mage Robes of fine quality, while they allowed their Apprentice Mage Robes to be sold by the local mages of various towns.
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| Non-mages were not left without fashionable attire, however, as the traditional warrior garb of Ispar began to appear in Dereth. Celdon, Amullian, and Koujia Armor became visible signs of a warrior's prowess.
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| ==== [[Spring's Sorrows]] - Wintersebb, 12 P.Y. (Mar '01) ====
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| The final snows of winter melted and coinciding with this event came a number of changes to the fauna of Dereth. Clever crafters took advantage of the shedding of winter pelts and scales from Dereth's wildlife to craft new clothing and armor. Other crafters found that the use of ursuin teeth could create a new piercing mace.
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| Not all of the changes to the creatures of Dereth were so positive from the Isparian perspective though. Adventurers roaming the northern edge of the A'mun deserts discovered that many monuogas had recently taken to the art of spellcasting and stronger and faster types of mu-miyah were also reported. More frightening though were new creations of the Virindi. Bodiless dolls and twisted undead marionettes were sighted gliding across the sands, more evidence of the Virindi intrusion in the region.
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| Discovery of a text written during the final months of the recent Shadow Wars also brought many adventurers to the A'mun. Of particular interest to those trained in the arts of locksmithing, this text was written by a locksmith hired by the Dericost undead to work on a locking mechanism for a devices called mnemosynes. These mnemosynes had been designed by the Dericost to contain their memories and experiences out of a concern for the loss of their culture in the wake of their most recent conflict with the Hopeslayer. Adventurers found a collection site in the A'mun where locked or unlocked mnemosynes could be traded to the undead and their experience added to their own, enhancing their own skills and abilities with those of the undead. Others, perhaps less comfortable dealing directly with the undead, found several traders in Tufa eager to exchange new magical and mundane equipment for the mnemosynes.
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| Also of interest to locksmiths were the discovery of Virindi caches of weapons and equipment around the Western and Southern Direlands. Manipulating keys found on the corpses of some Virindi, the contents of those caches were confiscated by many Isparian adventurers.
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| While many revelled in this new found treasure, few questioned the purposes of this equipment being cached in the area. Likewise, the appearance of yet another Virindi in the town of Ayan Baqur, a black clad Executor, drew many adventurers seeking to test their mettle against this powerful new foe, while the purposes of this new aggressive figure to the town remained equally unclear.
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| Clarity came with shocking force in the middle of the month. Late one evening a Virindi Observer also appeared in the midst of the thriving settlement, claiming to somehow be holding some "renegade" force of Virindi at bay. When the observer was dispatched, his claims proved true as waves of Virindi attackers descended on the town. Chaos ensued and while the founder and local nobleman of Ayan Baqur, Jaleh al-Thani, was able to flee to safety in the swamps outside town, the location of the other residents of town was unclear. Other Virindi arrived apparantly loyal to the faction represented by the Virindi Observer to replace the many vendors and crafters in the town much as Claude the Virindi had replaced the archmage of that town months before.
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| As this strange struggle unfolded and some adventurers attempted to battle the renegade forces of Virindi, others chose to investigate the disappearance of the townsfolk. Based on a tip from the Virindi replacement of the town drunk Ulgrim, adventurers soon located Jaleh al-Thani and with information from him located a Virindi installation called the Panopitcon. In the Panopticon, the servants and creations of the Virindi swarmed to protect the apparant leader of the attacking renegade forces, a Theoritician called Adirred that spoke of his desire to break through the "structuralism of the Singularity" with this current "experiment."
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| The destruction of Adirred brought with it the defeat of his forces in Ayan Baqur. Adventurers located the townsfolk imprisoned within the Panopticon, but the residents wandered aimlessly about their prison, babbling incoherently and suffering from some loss of self identity. And so, the town of Ayan Baqur remained populated by the Virindi doubles. This victory over one portion of the Virindi collective ringing somewhat hollowly in the face of the losses of the pioneering spirits that had braved the treacherous environment of the Direland to forge what had become one of the Isparians most successful efforts to civilize their new homeland.
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| ==== [[A Reign of Stone]] - Morningthaw, 12 P.Y. (Apr '01) ====
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| The dawn broke in Morningthaw and citizens of Rithwic, Eastham, and Yaraq were shocked to discover that they had new visitors to their towns. It was not that the towns were unused to strangers passing through to buy and sell needed goods, but the nature of these visitors made them more than strangers. Three Lugian representatives had chosen to take up residence in these towns, selling previously unseen magical gems and magical ingredients that could empower totems of the Lugian people.
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| These overtures of friendship led many adventurers to search the lands surrounding the Lugian fortress of Linvak Tukal for some sign of a way inside in an effort to open relations with the previously isolationist Lugians. In a nearby valley, many discovered that a cloaking spell had been dispelled from the enrance to a tunnel leading to the city, suggesting more welcome from these former foes. But the path to Linvak Tukal proved a dangerous one, and it became apparant that the fortress city was under siege by another group of Lugians. Fighting their way inside, adventurers learned within the craggy walls of the fortress of a schism among the Lugian tribes that was the source of the current conflict.
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| Flanked by the last living Hoary Mattekar, the Lord of Linvak Tukal, Kresovus, told of a renegade group of Lugians called the Gotrok, the same group that now held Linvak Tukal in a state of siege. The renegades had stolen three sacred totems, The Cloth of the Arm, the Scepter of the Mind, and the Blade of the Heart, and the Isparians' aid was solicited in winning back these items representing the principles of great importance to the Lugian people: strength, focus, and purity. Many adventurers sought the totems, battling many of the commanders of the Gotrok and claiming the armor of their fallen foes. Those that recovered the totems discovered that, with the ingredients provided by the new Lugian vendors in Rithwic, Eastham, and Yaraq, the totems could be imbued with powerful magic.
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| This schism among the Lugians though acted as a chilling reminder of the recent violent and bizarre overthrow of the Direlands' town of Ayan Baqur, and the schism that that event suggested among the Virindi. Indeed, the same Virindi renegades that had begun the assault of Ayan Baqur seemed to have their own interests in the developments at Linvak Tukal. A consulate was discovered near the Lugian fortress staffed by a renegade Virindi Envoy sent to negotiate with the Gotrok. His instructions, coming from a mysterious being called the Speaker for the New Directive, were to aid the Gotrok in breaching the walls of the Lugian fortress and to arrange for further supplies of chorizite to be sent the renegade Virindi forces, knowing that the Gotrok currently controlled the Lugian chorizite mines.
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| Adventurers that breached the consulate's walls and faced Cazamal the Envoy also located Virindi spell scrolls and a mysterious Obsidian Shard. Uncertain what to do with these items, many found their way to Zaikhal and the strange translator Diyas al-Yat, the most likely candidate for any expertise on these items of the Virindi as any living Isparian. The translator's reaction to the scrolls was strange. Contact with the scrolls caused the translator great confusion and many swore that a purple glow backlit the translator's eyes as he scanned the words of power. Nevertheless, he was able to pass on the knowledge contained in the scrolls to war and life mages, yielding new Virindi spells: a Dark Flame, an Unnatural Persistence, and an increased capacity for Arcane Restoration.
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| Translation of the Obsidian Shard, yielded an odd note from a Virindi called Aerbax who, in addition to speaking against the unity of the Virindi collective mind, the Singularity, also invited the note's recepient to visit him in his laboratory where he had recently created the Dolls now so prevelant in the northern A'mun. This clue led many to scour the sands of the A'mun for the laboratory. It was discovered near Tufa, and adventurers courageous enough to enter soon found themselves battling bodiless Dolls and hideous undead Marionettes as they wound their way through the laboratory to Aerbax's Haven. The Virindi renegade was nowhere to be found, but his apprentice was found and slain in the depths of the Haven. An Orb of Clarity and a Scrawled Note were the only prizes carried out by the adventurers. The first confirmed Aerbax's opposition to the Singularity and an as yet unheard of entity called the Quiddity and hinted at the philosophies that underlie the actions of the renegade forces. The second contained an eerie tale of a Dericost scribe that had borne witnessed to and later became a victim of Virindi experimentation. The intelligence gained from these raids on Aerbax's Laboratory, while confirming many speculations concerning the Virindi's present internal conflicts, served cheifly though to support a growing sense that this conflict, already played out in microcosm in Ayan Baqur, would clearly be one that the Isparian's could not help becoming involved in.
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| But, not all was so dire in this month of spring. Those less inclined towards violence and treachery found other ways to satiate their own baser desires through a form of vice new to the island. Recognizing an abudance of pyreals being brought in by adventurers bearing loot from the battlefield, three intrepid entrepreneurs, Monty, Arshid, and Gan-Zo, saw an opportunity to drain that excess cash from the unwitting. Thier Dens of Iniquity offered high, medium, and low stakes gambling and even a chance to try your luck at the giant golden chests that served as the centerpiece for these casinos. Despite some changes in casino policy, the casinos remained a popular alternative for entertainment on an island much starved for guilty indulgence.
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| ==== [[The Changing of the Ways ]] - Solclaim, 12 P.Y. (May '01) ====
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| A blissfully quiet month for many Isparians, Solclaim saw many changes for the Isparians' experience of Dereth. Technological advances in fletching allowed archers to more easily store bundles of arrows for hunting excursions and advances in metal working made many pieces of armor more durable against the elements. Many also found that inexplicably they could more readily deduce the location of their corpses after death and that pyreals were no longer as weighty as they once had been. Finally, the island's casino owners, having given away a bit too much loot to eager gamblers, universally agreed to change the availability of some of their most valued prizes.
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| The Explorer's Society also introduced some changes of their own. The Society, through brief tests, began awarding titles to adventurers skilled in particular professions and modes of combat. These titles were quickly adopted by most Isparian communities as they made identifying the skills of strangers considerably easier and thus the ability to organize hunting and questing parties or locating needed services exceedingly more efficient.
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| Others, less interested in advertising a specific skill they excelled at, found that by aiding a local rabbit farmer named Larry, they could assume the mantle of a Bunny Master. Such a title provoking whatever awe or amusement or outrage such an appellation might instill.
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| While others revelled in the adulation that their new titles might produce or enjoyed the fruits of the other changes in the Isparian experience, one intrepid Isparian cook and his wife attempted a new venture near the Direlands. The Northern Direlands, long dominated economically by the Aluvian Fort Tethana, had long remained an otherwise untamed wilderness. The cook, Danby, erected a small outpost near the Northern Direlands landbridge offering a few goods and services to the largely uninhabited region.
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| But, adventurers visiting the outpost heard odd tales from its occupants concerning the establishment of this new marketplace. Danby and others mentioned the invaluable aid of a man in a mask in getting the outpost going. Many speculated on the man's identity, concerned that perhaps the man who was no longer a man, Sir Candeth Martine, may have his hands in yet another Isparian enterprise, and more importantly why this Virindi-trained assassin might be interested in such a project at all.
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| ==== [[Chains of Command]] - Seedsow, 12 P.Y. (Jun '01) ====
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| In the early hours of Seedsow, the discovery of a new clan of Drudges under the controil of the Virindi led to the emancipation of the citizens of Ayan Baqur. Some of the younger adventurers among the Isparians discovered these Black Claw Clan Drudges lurking both in the northen and southern mountains of Osteth. The Drudges were found to be quite skilled at portal magic and cast portals to two seperate installations occupied by leaders of the clan. Adventurers rested two halves of a strange, but powerful magical focus called a Quiddity Orb from these leaders of the Black Claw Clan. Combining these halves produced the usable focus - a focus better suited, perhaps, to a veteran mage.
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| Rumors of a new Virindi Staging Complex on the southern land bridge leading into the Direlands brought more veteran adventurers to rally and begin raids on this installation. A Virindi Majordomo would not allow further access to this installation though, unless those who sought entry could produce a Quiddity Orb. Adventurers who did so bypassed this guardian and proceeded to the depths of the complex where they dispatched its leader.
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| A note discovered amongst the remains of the Staging Ground Complex Leader revealed that the citizens of Ayan Baqur had been transported from their prison in the Panopticon to a complex better suited to their "re-education." These Inculcation Cells were commanded by a Virindi calling himself Lacandrillar and whose interest lay in further experimentation on these human subjects.
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| The Cells were located near the center of the Obsidian Plains. The destruction of Lacandrillar led to the liberation of the citizens of Ayan Baqur who returned to their own town to renew life as it had been before, but led to further information concerning the Virindi renegades' plot to manifest a New Singularity on Auberean.
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| As sages attempted to determine what this manifestation might mean for the Isparian people, much of the remainder of the month was again spent by many on changing various parts of the social and economic lives of Dereth's inhabitants.
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| One such change came much to the chagrin of many consumers though. A merchants' consortium formed to regulate sales rates throughout Dereth, claiming that this standardized system would contribute to greater efficiency and maximize the profits of all merchants on the island.
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| In addition to this economic restructuring, alleigances also found a way of contributing to the greater efficiency of their own organization by appointing a speaker within each alleigances to pass on messages from the highest echelons of command to all of its members.
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| Finally, a number of new opportunities arose for adventurers to improve their own lot either financially or fashionably. Casinos now offered a new game of chance in the form of a gigantic wheel for gamblers to try thier luck with, and Gillian the Hunter's release of an updated Book of Seasons led many adventurers to try their luck at procuring new crafted armor and other equipment from the seasonally changing fauna of Dereth. In particular, the hard shells and pearls of the Niffis were put to use by crafters to create new and highly resilient forms of armor.
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| One final incident of some interest perhaps to adventurers was the promise of a new guide to Dereth and its environs through two members of the Exploration Society known only as A.D. and F.P. The coming work, A Portal-Jumpers Guide to Dereth, promised an extensive guidebook covering all of the wonders of Dereth. Its purveyors though were strangely missing, leaving only a few towels in their wake and a single bit of advice to those travelling the "mostly harmless" environs of Dereth: "Don't Panic."
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| ==== [[Lost In The New Horizon]] - Leafdawning, 12 P.Y. (Jul '00) ====
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| In the month of Leafdawning, the Virindi's animosity with humanity became much clearer. Random raids were launched against Isparian towns and outposts. Those surviving the raids claimed trophies that they were able to craft through a small collective of Virindi Crafters into powerful new weapons.
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| The reason underlying these raids though became horrifically clear in short order. A new edict was discovered, written on behalf of the Quiddity itself, on the corpses of powerful, new Virindi Inquisitors that alludeded to a death warrant issued by the Quiddity againt all Isparians. The Quiddity had finally grown weary of the renegades that had threatened the collective's unity and issued a sentance of death against any that may have caused the "taint" within the Virindi's social structure. Isparians were, to the Quiddity, undoubtedly a source of this taint of individuality.
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| Despite this impending threat, many Isparian adventurers pressed their own assaults against the Virindi's forces. Many found entry to the fountain of planar energy at the center of the Obsidian Plain, the supposed ingress point for the Virindi from their home dimension into this one, and assaulted this bore of the Singularity. Within the twisted labrynth filled with the altered images and symbols of Isparian Culture so strangely familiar to the ose exploring its depths, they found a being called the Guardian of the Singularity. His destruction brought about a strange change in its destroyer, allowing access to portals to an island previously controlled by Bael'Zharon.
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| This island, the Singularity Caul, had been the same location in which Bael'Zharon had trained his Dark Masters the year before, but now its landmarks and edifices were defaced by the images of the Virindi who now controlled the isle. Adventurers faced a host of new foes, including the Quiddity's Inquistors as well as powerful new Hollow Minions, Tuskers, and Augmented Tumeroks.
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| As adventurers futilely sought to unlock the Caul's secrets, amidst the chaos on the mainland, a number of new advances were made by the guilds established in Osteth. The Bestower's Guild continued its mission of aiding adventurers in identifying one another's needs and talents through new titles and even head gear that helped designate the most skilled craftsman in the land. On the heels of the discovery of the Essence of Verdancy in the Direlands, which round out the discovery of new spells for mages skilled in the arts of healing and renewal, came a new text penned by Torvold the archmage of the Explorer's Society that would aid the island's newly arriving mages in learning the arts of magic possible on the world of Auberean. Finally, many adventurers found that the... unusual habit of investigating every biological function of Dereth's fauna, including the dung of the shreth, might have some benefit. Those who found seeds within the excrement of shreth found their efforts rewarded in the Swamp Gardens where the seeds might be put to some good use in growing plants thought to be out of season. These new plants produced dyes unavailable during the summers on the island as well as some colors thought previously to be impossible to produce from the flora of Dereth.
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| While adventurers sought out these new found benefits, many of Dereth's less seasoned adventurers discovered a series of animate Rifts near the center of Osteth, specifically near the Aluvian town of Rithwic. Again, the destruction of these creatures led to unusual changes in their destroyers and the ability to pass through a strange Stable Rift located near the Aluvian hamlet. The rift led to yet another of the strangely familiar corridors of a Virindi installation. Within the walls, a series of cells lay, echoing the eerie vestiges of their former occupants. Adventurers strong enough to make their way through the installation discovered the purpose of this rift as they confronted a warden, a Virindi called Dirrich whose own loyalties and duties in administrating this other dimensional prison appeared to have been torn between the Directive of the Quiddity and the promises of Aerbax and the other Virindi renegades.
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| To these adventurers' detriment, Dirrich's destruction led to an escalation of the Virindi's presence on the island as more powerful Directors and their servants the Marionettes and Augmented Drudges appeared on the Obsidian Plain as well as those loyal still to the Quiddity, the deadly enforcers called the Executors.
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| This increasing Virindi presence was only a prelude to Virindi expansion in the Direlands during Leafdawning though. Some adventurers still seeking the secrets of the Singularity Caul found themselves witness to a meeting between an apparant Diplomat of the renegade forces called Lythusser and a representative of the loyalists, the Ephor of Unity. This meeting, whatever its purpose, was brought short through the intervention of Isparian forces who in destroying both entities may have broken a possible negotiations between the two forces, but also discovered more insights into the renegade forces thoughts and plans for Dereth while at the same time incurring their wrath. Near the end of the month, yet another representative of the renegade forces, Althoucault, Speaker of the New Directive, was also slain near Wai Jhou, and, again, as this Virindi was in its death throes, it promised retribution against the humans for their actions against the renegades.
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| At the present though, the Caul still maintains its secret purposes and the only hints at what such purposes might be may lay in the dying exhaltations of one of the dying renegades, a Virindi Director, whose final groanings may hint at the generative potential of the island for the New Singularity: "The Singularity Caul, human, will be the birthplace of our new order... and the source of your coming destruction!"
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| ==== [[To Raise a Banner of Flame]] - Leafdawning, 11 P.Y. (Jul '00) ====
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| ==== [[Taste of Twilight]] - Verdantine, 11 P.Y. (Aug '00) ====
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| ==== [[Twilight's Gleaming]] - Thistledown, 11 P.Y. (Sep '00) ====
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| ==== [[Hollow Victory]] - Harvestgain, 11 P.Y. (Oct '00) ====
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| ==== [[Should the Stars Fall]] - Leafcull, 11 P.Y. (Nov '00) ====
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| ==== [[The Child of Daralet]] - Frostfell, 11 P.Y. (Dec '00) ====
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